Digital Commons Network^™

The Drawing Effect: Evaluating Drawing Method And Strategic Implementation On Recall Accuracy, Jacob M. Namias

Dissertations

Drawing images of to-be-remembered word’s reference often improves memory for the word relative to a control in which the word is written or read silently, a pattern dubbed the drawing effect. Drawing effects have been recorded in a variety of contexts and are generally more beneficial than other deep/elaborative encoding tasks. My dissertation compared recall for words that are drawn by copying a given image versus generating a drawn image without copying, and in study contexts in which the proportion of drawn items is disproportionally skewed. Experiment 1 gauged whether drawing effects differ relative to writing when participants draw an …

Examining The Moderating Role Of Work Modality On Employees’ Engagement And Perceptions Of Inclusion, Eric Shapiro

Dissertations

In the evolving landscape of work, organizations increasingly adopt diverse modalities, including on-site, remote, and hybrid arrangements. This quantitative correlational study examines the relationship between work modalities, employee engagement, and perceived inclusion, with a focus on the moderating role of work modalities. Recognizing employee engagement as a key driver of organizational performance and perceived inclusion as essential for well-being and innovation, survey data were collected from 402 employees across multiple industries. Results revealed a strong, positive correlation between perceived inclusion and employee engagement (r = 0.789, p < .001). Work modality significantly moderated this relationship, with hybrid workers experiencing a weaker inclusion-engagement link, while remote workers showed no significant moderation effect. Additionally, on-site workers demonstrated a robust inclusion-engagement relationship. Hybrid workers reported higher perceived inclusion scores, though engagement levels remained consistent across modalities. These findings underscore the need for tailored inclusion strategies to optimize employee experiences and enhance organizational effectiveness. This study provides actionable insights for fostering inclusive workplace cultures and improving employee well-being in modality-diverse environments.

Examining Non-Academic Staff's Perceived Value Of Professional Development On Job Satisfaction And Anticipated Turnover In Higher Education, Elnora Lewis

Dissertations

One of the most important assets in an organization is its employees (Chong & Lee, 2017). Developing staff employees is critical in the university setting (Gornitzka & Larsen, 2004), in addition to satisfying and retaining them (Grohnert et al., 2021). Given today's volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world, staff development is more vital than ever in the workplace (Gibson, 2020). Higher education institutions should be concerned about employee's professional development (Gerken et al., 2016), not only academic staff but also non-academic staff. Additionally, organizations should ensure employees are satisfied by offering learning and development opportunities, which can contribute to …

Self-Perceived Employability And Employer Expectations Of Community College Students' Skill Gap In Industry 4.0, Cherri Wells

Dissertations

Industry 4.0, the fourth industrial revolution, is reshaping job competencies and careers through technological integration, impacting global competitiveness, information security, and skill requirements (Jackson & Tomlinson, 2020). This shift has heightened job uncertainties, competition, and the role of institutional policymakers in aligning higher education with labor market demands (Kornelakis & Petrakaki, 2020; Tan et al., 2023 Tomlinson, 2012). However, inconsistencies persist between employer expectations and graduates’ skills, making employability, a graduate’s ability to secure and sustain employment, more crucial than ever (Fugate et al., 2004; Otache & Edopkolor, 2022).

This study aims to conduct a sequential explanatory mixed-method study by …

The Examination Of Teacher Mentorship Design For Mentees, Cagla Cobek

Dissertations

Teacher stress has been documented as a problem for today’s educators. Improving teachers’ well-being through mentorship programs is promising in the literature. Therefore, this study examined a daily check-in mentorship program for teachers experiencing moderate stress. The researchers examined the changes in mentees’ daily stress levels, perceived stress, sense of self-efficacy, and use of proactive classroom management strategies. Mentees and mentors were also asked to complete ratings of the social validity of the mentorship program. Three mentees and mentor dyads working in an elementary and middle school in a Southeastern school district in the USA participated. A nonconcurrent Multiple Baseline …

Here Be Dragons: The Barriers Of Korean American Female Leaders In Secondary Schools, Joyce A. Kim

Dissertations

In K-12 public schools, there is a shortage of Korean American women in school leadership roles at the secondary level. This phenomenological study explores the contributing factors to this lack of representation, how institutions can recruit and retain Korean American female leaders, and how school systems can better support them. This study examines the leadership experiences of eight Korean American women. It utilizes the socio-political contexts of Korean patriarchy, the Model Minority Myth, and mentorship to help frame the problem of existing barriers. This study explores the following questions: What factors hinder Korean American women in school leadership? What structural …

Shades Of Families: Exploring Intersectionalities Of Cross-Cultural Parenting Experiences In The U.S., Shu-Han Huang

Dissertations

As multiracial and multicultural families continue to grow across the United States, parents must navigate evolving cultural identities, systemic inequities, and increasing social and emotional pressures. These realities underscore the need for parenting resources that are both culturally responsive and emotionally supportive. This transcendental phenomenological study explored the lived experiences of 11 cross-cultural parents raising children in the U.S., with a focus on how intersecting identities and systemic forces shape parenting practices.

Guided by Critical Multiracial Theory and Intersectionality Theory, this study investigated parenting at the personal, familial, societal, and structural levels. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews and analyzed …

Analyzing The Impact Of Motivational Interviewing In A School Counseling Setting With Academically At-Risk High School Students, Brian Linhart

Dissertations

This study investigates the impact of motivational interviewing (MI) on the academic performance and motivation of academically at-risk high school students over an eight-week period. The primary research questions examine whether there is a statistically significant impact of using MI in a school counseling setting on academic performance and internal motivations. Data collection methods included academic performance, the Self-Reported Academic Beliefs, Behavior, and Self-Efficacy questionnaire, and the MI Pre and Post Meeting Questionnaire to assess students’ motivation and engagement. The study employs a quantitative approach using Friedman’s rank sum test and a paired t-test with a Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test, to …

Nurturing Students: A Qualitative Case Study Analyzing The Perceived Impact Of Tiered Mental Health Support For Elementary Students, Mallori Victoria Sage

Dissertations

In this qualitative case study, I explored the perceived impact of providing tiered mental health support to elementary students. I developed Randall Elementary Nurtures, or The Nurture Program, a flexible yet structured initiative grounded in a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) model to provide intentional and scaffolded mental health support for elementary students. The purpose of this instrumental case study was to examine The Nurture Programs' perceived impact from the viewpoint of the program stakeholders, including students, parents, teachers, administration, the school counselor, and the school’s MTSS team. To understand the program’s impact during the pilot program years of 2022-2023 …

A Study Of The Choral Music Of Selected Asian Women Composers: Chen-Yi (China), Makito Kinoshita (Japan), And Hyo-Won Woo (Korea), Yanlu Li

Dissertations

Over the thousands of years of musical development, countless composers have contributed to its evolution. However, women composers have generally remained less recognized and celebrated than male composers. Some of the most remarkable female composers, including Clara Schumann and Fanny Mendelssohn, are frequently remembered in the context of their relationships with their more famous male counterparts, such as their husbands and brothers. This tendency has, unfortunately, overshadowed their unique artistic contributions and minimized their independent legacies in the musical canon. With the beginning of the women's movement in Europe and the U.S. during the 1960s, more and more female composers …

College Students With Intellectual And Developmental Disabilities: A Phenomenological Study Of Inclusive Post-Secondary Education Experiences, Laura K. Anderson

Dissertations

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand the college experiences of students with intellectual and/or developmental disability (IDD) who are attending an inclusive post-secondary education (IPSE) program in the United States. Inclusive post-secondary education program numbers have been increasing since 2008, when the Higher Education Opportunity Act passed and authorized federal student aid to students in IPSE programs. Most research on IPSE programs to date has been on their structure and employment outcomes, with scant research on what students experience during their time in an IPSE program.

Participants were 12 third or fourth year IPSE students with IDD …

Hispanic/Latinx Faculty Members’ Experiences Within Academia, Sarah Muñoz

Dissertations

This dissertation research was written and pursued to explore the experience of Hispanic/Latinx faculty within academia. A phenomenological, qualitative methodology was utilized to explore this phenomenon. The researcher used listservs, Facebook groups, and snowball sampling to recruit participants. Potential participants completed a prescreening questionnaire and were then contacted to participate in the interview portion of the study. Ten individuals thoroughly described their experiences holding a Hispanic/Latinx faculty identity within academia. The following six themes emerged from data analysis of the interviews: a) Impacts of the Lack of Representation of Diverse Faculty, b) Challenging Experiences of Hispanic/Latinx Faculty, c) Positive Experiences …

Perceptions Of Undergraduate Nurse Faculty Regarding Social Emotional Learning Within Nursing Academia, Nicole Claire York

Dissertations

The growing nursing shortage is a critical issue for healthcare systems worldwide. The demand for nurses and an urgent need for workforce stability require nursing students to be equipped with both knowledge and social and emotional skills for resiliency and coping before graduation. The social and emotional learning (SEL) framework provides specific competencies that emphasize the development of skills such as self-awareness, self-management, responsible decision-making, social awareness, and relationship skills. Incorporating SEL that emphasizes these skills into nursing education might provide the necessary tools not only for sustainability in the discipline, but academic and overall social-emotional competence.

The purpose of …

Understanding The Cybersecurity Knowledge And Cybercrime Experiences Of Older Adults Using A Learning Game, Richard Conrad West

Dissertations

The purpose of this case study was two-fold. First, it was intended to evaluate the effectiveness of teaching internet safety to older adults through a fun, internet-based learning game. Second, it was carried out to understand the experience of internet fraud on older adults so that fraud prevention techniques can be refined and tailored to the online threats they face. Five adults over 60 who were previously online fraud victims participated in this study, which was carried out over three phases.

First, participants played a learning game that assessed their understanding of key cybersecurity topics, provided lessons explaining the risks, …

Franz Schubert’S Composition Process Seen Through His Autograph Manuscripts, With A Focus On The “Arpeggione” Sonata, Ahmad Kandari

Dissertations

This scholarly inquiry provides an in-depth analysis of Franz Schubert’s distinctive approach to music composition, offering a nuanced understanding that emerges from a detailed examination of his manuscripts. By placing a special emphasis on the autographic evidence left behind by Schubert, this study contrasts his intuitive and rapid compositional style with the more methodical processes of his contemporaries, such as Ludwig van Beethoven.

Schubert’s manuscripts show a composer who often worked directly from mental concepts to full musical expressions with minimal reliance on detailed sketches or iterative revisions. This approach is starkly different from Beethoven’s, whose extant sketches display a …

Evaluating The Indirect Effect Of Microaffirmations On Intersecting Marginalized Identities And School Sense Of Belonging Among School Psychology Graduate Students, April Pratt

Dissertations

There is a discrepancy between the proportion of school psychologists identified as racially, ethnically, or linguistically diverse (REL) in the United States and the proportion of REL students they serve (Blake et al., 2016; Proctor & Owens, 2019). Current data estimates over 80% of school psychologists identify as white (Goforth et al., 2021), whereas more than 50% of U.S. public school students have non-white racial/ethnic identities (Irwin et al., 2024). In addition to increased recruitment of REL students to school psychology graduate programs, trainers in these programs must implement effective strategies to ensure retention. One method is to increase students’ …

A New Approach: Supporting Traditional Jazz Pedagogy Through Neuroscience, Christopher John Navarrete

Dissertations

Jazz musicians face a considerable learning curve in their performance endeavors. Numerous factors must be taken into account, including performance anxiety, memorization, active listening, ear training, mastery of musical techniques, and improvisation. Through the effective preparation of these skills, musicians tend to achieve success; however, this success fundamentally relies on the practice habits of the jazz musician.

A common approach in jazz pedagogy emphasizes the development of musical techniques such as scales and chords, modulating across various harmonic progressions. I will define this as a “traditional approach” used in jazz pedagogy. This method has been widely embraced by jazz musicians …

Reversing The Panopticon: Perspectives Of Previously Incarcerated Adults In Community College, Megan Friesen

Dissertations

The purpose of this critical case study was to better understand the experiences of previously incarcerated adults in a community college. This research was informed by critical criminology (Brown, 2009), especially the societal eye of the panopticon (Foucault, 1975/1977). Furthermore, I expanded on this with Paulo Freire’s (2005) work on oppression and education. This research was also informed by the existing literature on community college students in three areas: those who have been incarcerated, those in on-campus addiction recovery support, and those employed in work-study positions. Through semi-structured interviews, photo-elicitation interviews, and a review of the material data, four previously …

Lived Experiences Of Reintegration For Afghanistan Veterans Who Were Army Combat Medics, Matthew Argento

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the lived experiences, strengths, and challenges of reintegrating into civilian life for GWOT Army veterans who were medics. Three veterans completed in-depth interviews about their reintegration experiences. Results were organized into domains, core ideas, and categories. This study added to the existing literature on both combat medics and military transitions and suggests new areas of future research on combat medics and their transitions post-military.

Participants expressed feeling nervous about their reintegration, primarily due to their familiarity with the structured military lifestyle, anxiety regarding how much or little their family would need them, …

Effects Of Financial Literacy Education Intervention On Loan Borrowing And Debt Management Of Undergraduate Students In The Southeastern U.S.: An Experimental Investigation, Clement Yeboah

Dissertations

This mixed methods experimental pretest-posttest between-groups effect study examined the causal effects of financial literacy education on loan borrowing and debt management behaviors of undergraduate students in the southeast of the United States. Loan borrowing and debt management behaviors of undergraduate students are understudied. Therefore, this study aimed to fill the gap in the literature about experimental investigations of financial education interventions for university students and provided evidence-based recommendations for improving financial literacy programs in higher education. The study is theoretically grounded on the lens of Behavioral Economics, Planned Behavior, and Social Cognitive. This explanatory sequential mixed method study employed …

The Shifting Landscape Of Harm: Investigating The Phenomenon Of Concept Creep In Harm Perception, Jefferson Sherwood

Dissertations

Concept creep, the gradual semantic expansion of harm-related concepts (Haslam et al., 2020), is a phenomenon garnering increasing attention in the field of psychology and is examined in the context of shifting perceptions of what is considered harmful. While what is considered harmful has shifted throughout generations, why these shifts happen and what motivates society to accept these broadening definitions has yet to be explained. Up to this point individual differences such as activism, risk, empathy, stressful life events, and dark triad personality have yet to be investigated as potential contributors to the expansion of harm-related concepts. Thus, this group …

Unlocking Potential: How Disengagement And Reengagement Shape Performance And Well-Being, Asha Bradley

Dissertations

Task persistence can become problematic when individuals continue to perform challenging tasks unlikely to yield success. Instead, it may lead to frustration, burnout, and negative psychological outcomes. Recognizing when to disengage from these goals is essential for reallocating resources toward more attainable objectives by shifting focus to a new task rather than persisting on the same one. Ultimately, this promotes emotional well-being and resilience. No previous studies have experimentally examined the combined processes of disengagement and reengagement. This study investigates the temporal and causal effects of disengagement and subsequent reengagement with an alternative task, making it the first to experimentally …

Clinical Nurse Civility And Professional Identity Formation In Nursing Students, Janet Elaine Weeda

Dissertations

Professional identity (PI) formation is an essential objective for nursing education. In 2010, Benner et al. published a landmark document titled Educating Nurses: A Call for Radical Transformation, which included a transition from teaching roles and developing professionalism to professional identity formation. In 2018, a ‘Thank Tank’ meeting occurred at the University of Kansas to explore professional identity in nursing, which developed into the International Society for Professional Identity in Nursing (ISPIN; Brewington & Godfrey, 2020). The American Association of Colleges of Nursing’s (AACN, 2021) The Essentials included a core competency that called for the “formation and cultivation of a …

The Effects Of Nursing Faculty Approachability On Student Engagement In The Clinical Setting, Kristin Lambert

Dissertations

Despite the emphasis on practice readiness in nursing education, new graduate nurses are still experiencing an education-practice gap with a lack of soft skills such as critical thinking, communication, time management, and collaboration within a team when they enter practice (Mirza et al., 2019). Nursing clinical faculty are in a prime position to decrease this gap and should strive to be approachable to foster a safe learning environment where students feel comfortable engaging in the practice of soft skills. While nursing faculty approachability and student engagement are both desirable in nursing education, no studies had previously been done connecting the …

Secondary Traumatic Stress And Post-Traumatic Growth: The Moderating Effects Of Cognitive Flexibility And Compassion Satisfaction On School Personnel, Breanna King

Dissertations

Many students enrolled in the K-12 school system in the United States have experienced at least one traumatic event. School personnel working with students who have experienced trauma are at risk of developing secondary traumatic stress (STS), with symptoms mirroring those of post-traumatic stress disorder. Among educators, STS has been correlated with negative mental health outcomes and intent to leave the profession, further exacerbating educator turnover and shortages across the country. However, some individuals experience positive life changes following indirect trauma exposure, known as post-traumatic growth (PTG). The nature of the relationship between STS and PTG is inconsistent in the …

The Effects Of Retrieval Practice On Knowledge Acquisition And Durable Learning In Undergraduate Nursing Students, Jessica Everritt Gay

Dissertations

Recent reports of unpreparedness and failure to rescue incidents among new graduate nurses are concerning for nurse educators and health care. New graduates must retrieve and apply learned knowledge to make sound clinical decisions, emphasizing the need for durable learning and knowledge acquisition. Durable learning, which involves understanding and recalling learned information days, weeks, or months later is crucial for clinical judgment. Nurse educators should facilitate durable learning through effective, evidence-based learning techniques such as retrieval practice (RP), which has shown promise in health professions education but is underutilized in nursing education.

This study explored the impact of RP on …

Is There A Relationship Between Motivation And Nursing Student Engagement? A Quantitative, Cross-Sectional, Correlational Study, Angela Coes

Dissertations

Nursing education is concerned with helping to alleviate the nursing shortage in the United States; this can be done by graduating safe competent novice nurses. Motivation and engagement levels in nursing students have been tied to better academic outcomes including graduation rates, transition to practice, and first time National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses pass rates. There was a gap in prelicensure nursing education research in the United States concerning the relationship among motivation, engagement, and possible influential variables.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between motivation and academic engagement among prelicensure nursing students in …

Learning The Musical Elements From An Early Age Through The Use Of Traditional Folk And Popular Tunes In The Mother Tongue And A Compendium Of Music Resources In Spanish For General Music Classes, Román Orlando Carranza Zapata

Dissertations

This document intends to fulfill three primary purposes. One is to explore the principal characteristics of early music education methods regarding teaching and learning music from an early age through the mother tongue, also known as their native language. These methods may suggest other strategies such as: playing and singing children's games, singing traditional folk tunes, improvisation, dancing, or playing instruments for the general music classroom. The second purpose is to provide music educators with a compilation of various music resources written in Spanish, such as pedagogical books, workbooks, and online interactive musical platforms that can be used in the …

El Salvador’S Cultural Memory And María De Baratta’S Piano Music: Kushkatan, Nahualismo, And The Representation Of Indigeneity, Alejandro Jose Arroyo Alberto

Dissertations

Following independence from the Viceroyalty of New Spain between 1821 and 1823, the United Provinces of Central America entered a period of cultural redefinition, as emerging national frameworks sought to integrate diverse ethnic and historical legacies. After a century, in early twentieth-century El Salvador, a revival of Kushkatan—a pre-Hispanic Indigenous territory within present-day El Salvador—gained symbolic traction among intellectual elites during a politically volatile era marked by social upheaval and cultural realignment. Within this historical context, Cuzcatlán Típico (1951) by María de Baratta, published by the Ministry of Culture, stands as the first ethnomusicological study dedicated to Indigenous music in …

Ethnic Studies For Secondary Schooling: Collaborative Curricular Insights From A Working Collective, Kelly León

Dissertations

The rapid expansion of policy-mandated ethnic studies (ES) in U.S. schools suggests the need to reconceptualize the field of ES for the school curriculum. This exploratory case study sought to contribute to a better understanding of the ways in which secondary ES curricula can be negotiated and made by teachers and their collaborators, illuminating its future possibilities in public schools. The research explored how teachers, academics, and ES graduate students collaborated in a Collective to use and relate various knowledge resources, including local oral histories, to develop community-focused ES curricular guidance. Little is known about the type of knowledge work …