Digital Commons Network^™

The Curriculum, Instruction, And Assessment Of Dispositions In Preservice Teacher Education, Andrea Marie Baldwin

Dissertations

Problem. In 2000, NCATE included dispositions in its professional standards as a requirement for teacher education units seeking (re)accreditation with its organization. The problem of this investigation was to examine how program directors, faculty, and preservice teacher candidates in three selected preservice teacher education programs in Indiana and Michigan were responding to this NCATE mandate.

Purpose. The purpose was to explore the ways in which and to what extent dispositionswere included in the curriculum, taught, and assessed in programs, both religiously affiliated and public.

Methodology. A mixed-methods approach was used to collect and analyze data. Three levels of participants were …

The Health Of Patient Privacy: The Patient's Perspective On The Hipaa Protected Health Information, Deborah Lange-Kuitse

Dissertations

Problem

As healthcare entities continue to focus on HIPAA compliance, they must enforce policies that require patients to sign and express understanding of the organization’s privacy policies. It appears the patient’s perspective on healthcare privacy has not been considered within the HIPAA privacy ruling. Patients are healthcare consumers, yet little research has been done on assessing the individual consumer’s perspective on what Protected Health Information (PHI) is actually important to protect and from whom it is important to protect it.

Method

A quantitative survey was developed and distributed to the participants of the Carnegie group, an independent insurance firm in …

The Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence And Reading Comprehension In High School Students With Learning Disabilities, Helen C. Bryant

Dissertations

Problem. Research indicates that students who receive an exclusively academic education that does not include emotional intelligence skills may not be prepared for future challenges of the 21st century because traditional intelligence contributes to only 20% of the factors that determine life success. Students with learning disabilities have average or above average cognitive intelligence. However, many do not demonstrate academic and social behaviors that normally would be compatible with average intelligence. Even though their cognitive intelligence has been tested, their emotional intelligence has not been tested. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between emotional intelligence and …

Acknowledged And Perceived Reasons For Non-Attendance At Christian Churches In The Pacifica Community, A Suburb Of San Francisco, California, Peter Edward Burch

Dissertations

Problem. Although formal research on the reasons for non-attendance at Christian churches in America has been conducted, it is not known how these reasons apply to the Pacifica community of California, a suburb of San Francisco. Furthermore, little, if any, research has been conducted to compare the reasons for non-attendance as acknowledged by non-attenders with the reasons as perceived by attenders. The purpose of this study was to examine and compare the reasons for non-attendance in Pacifica.

Method. A survey research method was employed to collect data on the acknowledged and perceived reasons for non-attendance at Christian churches in Pacifica. …

Codependency In Master's-Level Counseling Students, Terri Lynne Pardee

Dissertations

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this study was to examine codependency in master’s-level counseling students, to determine if there was a significant difference between incoming and exiting students, and to investigate codependency as related to age, gender, and religious preference.

Method

The Codependency Assessment Tool was administered to 275 Spring Arbor University master’s-level counseling students to measure codependency in five core areas: Other Focus/Self-Neglect, Low Self-Worth, Hiding Self, Medical Problems, and Family of Origin Issues.

Results

Respondents’ CODAT mean score showed a minimal level of codependency. There were no significant differences between incoming and exiting students on the …

Perceptions Of Public School Teachers Regarding The Effectiveness Of The Career Path System Evaluation Instrument In The Bahamas, Solomon Ward

Dissertations

Problem. The purpose of this study was to measure public school teachers’ perception regarding the effectiveness of their evaluation instrument, the Career Path System, in the Bahamas.

Method. The research population consisted of two categories of public school teachers: (a) level of teachers—elementary and secondary teachers, and (b) status of teachers— evaluated and non-evaluated teachers. The data were analyzed utilizing descriptive statistics, means, and ANOVA.

Results. The results of this study indicate that public school teachers, regardless of the categories elementary or secondary, evaluated or non-evaluated, perceived 44 of 46 performance items of the Career Path System (CPS) …

Predicting Repeated Sexual Behavior Problems Among Youth: A Hierarchically Optimal Classification Tree Analysis, David J. Morgan

Dissertations

This study examined characteristics of youth with sexual behavior problems (N = 251) followed over approximately two years and applied Classification Tree Analysis (CTA) via Optimal Data Analysis (ODA) to produce a hierarchically optimal classification model to predict recurrence of SBP over time. This study was designed to address problems with clinical judgment leading to inaccurate diagnosis and in some cases, incorrect treatment or placement of the youth by ascertaining if an actuarial model designed to optimize classification accuracy might be more helpful in directing diagnosis and treatment for these youth. Results suggest initial event severity influences the potential for …

Transition Activities And Their Effects On Middle School Students, Vicki Sue Vanlaere

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness that transitional activities have on student achievement and attendance when students moved from elementary school to middle school. The data were gathered from two school districts that are demographically similar. Data included average daily attendance rates, Terra Nova Achievement Scores from social studies in grades five, six, and seven, as well as math in grades five, six, and seven. There were 187 students in the Treatment Group and 147 in the Control Group for a total of 334 students. Comparison of means for demographic equivalency of the groups (t-test) and …

Factors Which Impact The Conduct Of Fifth Grade African-American Males, Derricka Bashetta Thomas

Dissertations

This study examines the factors that impact the conduct of fifth grade African- American male students who participated in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten (ECLS-K). The participants in this study are located throughout the United States of America. These students attend private and public schools. The data for this study were provided by the National Center of Education Statistics (NCES), a division of the U.S. Department of Education. The researcher utilized ECLS-K’s Public Use Data File and Electronic Codebook to create an SPSS syntax file in order to measure the factors that impact the conduct of fifth grade African- American …

An Examination Of Perception Toward Merit Pay In A Southern School District, Carol Lynn White Payne

Dissertations

The use of merit pay systems has been a part of educational history for one hundred years. States across the country have utilized different forms o f merit pay systems to increase student achievement. Career ladder merit pay systems may base teacher salary on the attainment of additional degrees, additional responsibilities and an increase in student achievement. School-based performance awards may reward all staff members of a school based on achievement of goals set by the school board. Individual teacher financial awards may be based on administrative evaluations, student achievement, attainment of additional degrees, and participation in professional development sessions. …

A Laptop-Learning Initiative: Relationships With Student Achievement, Technology Proficiency, And Attitude Towards Technology, Kevin Scott Nicholas

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between a laptop learning initiative, student achievement, technology proficiency, and attitude towards technology. The initiative, Project One-on-One, was designed to provide teachers with the ability to teach technology integrated lessons in classrooms with a student-to computer ratio of 1:1. This was accomplished by utilizing two mobile laptop labs that were financed through a national grant competition. The variables that were examined in the study were three years of eighth-grade student achievement scores from the criterion-referenced Louisiana Educational Assessment Program (LEAP) test and the Louisiana Center for Educational Technology’s Technology Proficiency …

Retaining Information Technology Employees In Higher Education, Mary Holmes

Dissertations

The retention of qualified Information Technology (IT) employees is at an all time low within higher education institutions. IT personnel are essential for higher education institutions to effectively integrate technology into their educational programs. These IT employees contribute to their institution's teaching/learning mission, while simultaneously supporting complex and highly visible administrative operations. Yet, all previous research regarding IT employee retention issues had only been conducted within corporate settings.

To examine factors related to IT employees' retention within public higher education, an internet-based study was sent to IT employees in all four-year public universities throughout Michigan. The survey included questions within …

Decision Support Systems In Product Development: A Batesian Network Approach For Injection-Molded Products, Jason S. Trahan

Dissertations

Attribute defects cause a majority of the scrap for many manufacturers injection-molding aesthetic parts, yet these defects receive little attention duringproduct development. Methods for preventing attribute defects have been hampered by the inability to quantify complex cause-effect relationships. However, the qualities of a burgeoning branch of knowledge-based systems, called Bayesian networks, have benefited various fields faced with similar circumstances.Bayesian networks have the capability of presenting causal relationships between variables in a graphical structure and quantitatively explaining their effects throughout that structure. These effects can be characterized by probabilities derived from sources, such as equations, historical data, rules-of-thumb or expert knowledge. …

Determining The Probability Of The Visual Detection Of Sink Marks On Differently Textured Injection Molded Products, Kurt Frederick Hayden

Dissertations

The injection molding segment of the plastics industry has historically exhibited an environment of intense competition. To remain competitive, manufacturers must ensure that molds will produce defect-free parts without multiple design revisions. Designers often use computer simulations to predict design problems before the construction of tooling. These sophisticated software applications will soon have the ability to simulate the final appearance of products. However, the effects of aesthetic defects such as sink marks and splay are often difficult to simulate accurately and effectively.

It is understood that surface textures can conceal minor aesthetic defects. A well-known example is the concealment of …

Patient Handling Safety For Nursing Staff, Don Nielsen

Dissertations

The effectiveness of video scoring and feedback about the scoring of the components of safe patient transfers was observed among eight nursing staff members in a skilled nursing department within an acute care hospital.

An ABCA (and sometimes ABCDA), multiple baseline across individuals design was utilized in the study. The dependent variable under investigation was the percentage of safe lifting components. Following baseline measures, nursing staff participated in an information phase during which they reviewed and discussed components of safe patient transfers. A video scoring phase was introduced, during which, participants viewed and scored a model video of a patienttransfer. …

A Delphi Survey Of Experts’ Opinions Regarding Prevention Of Impairment In Professional Psychology Training, Kin-Ming Chan

Dissertations

This study sought to identify the most important measures that may be implemented in professional psychology training to prevent the future impairment of professionals. An adjunctive research question of this study addressed how these important measures can be successfully implemented. A 2-round Delphi method was conducted. Twenty-eight experts in impairment prevention participated in the first round study, and 20 of them continued to participate in the second round. In the first round, the experts rated the importance of an original list of 38 preventive measures, suggested additional important preventive measures, and provided considerations for successful implementation of their most important …

Counselor Education And Peace Building: Current Status And Future Direction, Jenny Ritha Keller

Dissertations

Counseling professionals are informed and guided in professional development, research and practice by the relevant professional organizations that endorse the field’s professional, ethical, and competency standards. Amidst the contemporary professional proclamations of multicultural- and social justice counseling as professional grounding principles, is also the directive to promote and engage in peace building. Although the notion of peace building appear to be conceptually congruent with the multicultural and social justice counseling competencies; peace building concepts and issues, and research on nonviolence, reconciliation, democratization, and conflict transformation, are as yet unchartered notions in the counselor education literature.

The purpose of this study …

Problem-Based Learning: An Attitudinal Study Of Police Academy Students, Gregory P. Vander Kooi

Dissertations

Policing strategies have gravitated toward a consensus paradigm model, commonly referred to as "community policing." This is a significant paradigm shift, yet most police academies continue to use traditional lecture-based pedagogical methods to train police officers. One possible alternative to passive lecture-based teaching is a more active problem-based learning. Problem-based methodologies consist of presenting ill-structured problems whereby an instructor facilitates and directs the students in active inquiry toward possible solutions for a specific problem.

Examination Of The Impact Of Age, Family Conflict, And Perceived Parental Involvement On Treatment Adherence For Children And Adolescents With Cystic Fibrosis And Diabetes, Blake M. Lancaster

Dissertations

The success of medical interventions for patients with diseases that require consistent adherence to a medical regimen is largely contingent upon the patient’s ability to consistently follow medical recommendations. Medical regimen adherence significantly influences the patient’s health and impacts the health care providers’ ability to treat any disease or medical problem. Adherence levels are particularly low in the pediatric population among young patients with diabetes and cystic fibrosis. Researchers and clinicians hypothesize that levels of adherence are particularly low during adolescence (ages 11-15) because this may be the period in which primary responsibility for daily adherence is transferred from the …

State-Corporate Crime In Kalamazoo Department Of Public Safety: A Case Study Of Deviant Activity Between The Police And Computer Vendors, Steven Edward Reifert

Dissertations

This study focuses on the state corporate crime that occurred when Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety implemented two computer systems that never functioned as promised. Failure of these systems resulted in death, injury, and substantial waste of taxpayer money. A case study method is used to describe and explain how this social harm occurred. An integrated theory of state-corporate crime developed by Kauzlarich and Kramer (1998) is used to examine theintersection of deviance between corporate vendors, the public safety department, and the federal government. More specifically, this study explores this intersection on three levels---the political economic setting before, during, and …

Religion And Semiosphere: From Religious To The Secular And Beyond, Rajka Rush

Dissertations

Religion is a system of structural ideas that involve the natural ability of the mind to engage itself into the process of unlimited semiosis which can be defined as an existential openness of one's consciousness to the universe as a system. This primary religious consciousness becomes limited by language, symbolic, and cultural constraints. The religious semiotic space is a sub-cultural system open to culturally and cross-culturally encoded idioms and concepts. These cultural potentials are interpreted and settled by the religious exegesis expressed in the behavioral patterns of the symbolic actions that reflect a specific worldview of the closed community controlled …

Analyzing The Effects Of Inquiry-Based Instruction On The Learning Of Atmospheric Science Among Pre-Service Teacher Education Students, Robert James Ruhf

Dissertations

This study tested whether or not pre-service teacher education students enrolled in inquiry-based earth science courses gained more thorough knowledge, comprehension, and application proficiencies with regard to atmospheric science concepts included in the Michigan Curriculum Framework for Science Education---the content standards of the Michigan State Board of Education for K-12---than did pre-service teacher education students enrolled in a traditionally-based earth science lecture/laboratory course. Content proficiencies were tested at the beginning of the semester (the pretest) and again at theend of the semester (the posttest). A sample of students participated in post-test interview sessions designed to examine in depth their knowledge, …

Family Functioning And Career Decision-Making Self-Efficacy: A Study Of First Year Malaysian Undergraduate Students, Melati Sumari

Dissertations

The findings of the study show that the relationships between family functioning subscales and career decision-making self-efficacy subscales were between small and moderate. The study also found that each family functioning subscale contributed less than 15% of the variance in career decision-making self-efficacy. The total variance accounted for by the six family functioning subscales was small (32%). Important findings of the analyses of variances include: (a) male students perceived their families as more dysfunctional than female students; (b) Chinese students perceived their families as more dysfunctional than Malay and Indian students; (c) students in science majors perceived their families as …

Determinants And Consequences Of Workers’ Remittances, Carlos Ivan Vargas-Silva

Dissertations

In this dissertation we study the determinants and consequences of workers' remittances. It is important for developing countries to have a clear understanding of the motivations that migrants have to remit money home, in order to increase remittances inflows. It is also important to understand the impact of remittances in the receiving countries in order to develop policies that can maximize the benefits of remittances, while minimizing any possible detrimental effects. In this dissertation we concentrate on the relationship between remittances and macroeconomic variables in the receiving countries. To this end we use both individual and aggregate level data.

In …

Success In The First Year: Impact Of Alternative Advising On Students At A Liberal Arts College, James E. Swanson

Dissertations

Small faith-based liberal arts institutions are increasingly focused on recruitment and retention because it is critical to their existence. Because these institutions are completely enrollment driven, the numbers of students who persist through to their second year of college is a necessary administrative focus. Scholars have found that interactions between students and members of the institution, especially faculty, are critical to student persistence during the first year of College. Research has also demonstrated that academic advising plays an important role in first-year student persistence. A question remains, however, whether students are retained because of time spent with faculty or because …

Best Practices Within Mediation Programs, Warren L. Hills

Dissertations

Mediation Centers have been introduced to college and university campuses in recent years as a cost effective method to deal with a variety of conflict issues. These centers offer a variety of services to students, faculty, and staff including mediation, facilitation, and training. Campus mediation centers that report various levels of success and growth serve as an example for operations to their peer institutions. Yet for a lack of previous research, little information is known about the actual operations of campus mediation centers and the systems and processes they follow.

An internet-based survey was sent to campus mediation centers staff …

Beholding The Beauty Of Self: The Psychological Integration Of The Afrocentric-Self Among African-American Females Socialized In A Eurocentric Aesthetic, Donna Lynn Cook Phd

Dissertations

Self-esteem and body image disturbances prominently figure into many physical and psychological health disorders such as depression, eating disorders, anxiety disorders, and chemical dependency. In Euro-American culture, media images of femininity and physical attractiveness reinforce generally held perceptions of the idealized female beauty as tall, white, slender, and often blond and blue eyed. The physical morphology of African-American women does not genetically "fit" this westernized standard of beauty with implications for their mental health. The socialization of African-American women in a culture that embraces a different ethnic standard of beauty influences their perceptions of how physically attractive they see themselves. …

What Are They Saying: Voices From The Inner City? Lived Experience Of Inner City African American Adolescents With Asthma, Othello Childress Phd

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the lived experience of African-American adolescents with asthma who reside in an inner city community. The research in this area of interest is sparse, yet the morbidity and mortality rates related to asthma within the African-American population are greater than the general population. This study offers the experience of living with asthma from the perspective of the young African-American adolescent. Using phenomenological methodology, the nurse researcher selected 13 African-American adolescents; aged 12 to 15, who reside and attend middle school in the inner city. All of the participants had a confirmed medical …

Defining Health And Health-Related Behaviors Following A Near-Death Experience, Suzanne C. Robertson Phd

Dissertations

While broad categories of health and influences on definitions of health have been identified, the process through which adults define and re-define health has not been researched. The purpose of this study was to investigate the process of defining health and appropriate health-related behaviors following a near-death experience (NDE) as an adult and to articulate a grounded theory of decision-making. Five men and 15 women from the United States and United Kingdom were interviewed and the data were analyzed using the constant comparative method. The basic social process was I Still Had to Go Through the Process of Understanding. Understanding …

The Relationship Between Coping, Anxiety, And Quality Of Life For Taiwanese Post-Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery Patients, Heng-Hsin Tung Phd

Dissertations

Coronary artery bypass grafting surgery (CABG) is a stressful event and requires coping strategies to achieve adaptation. In Taiwan, despite the fact that the incidence of CABG is increasing in both men and women, research on post-CABG adaptation is very limited and no research focuses on outcomes for women. This can lead to problems for health care providers who lack effective interventions to help these patients. The purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between coping, anxiety, and quality of life in Taiwanese post-CABG patients. A cross-sectional correlational design was used; the sample consisted of 50 female and …