Digital Commons Network^™

Oneida College Lacrosse Players’ Perspectives Of The Sacred Game Of Lacrosse, Thomas Reed

Dissertations

Oneida college lacrosse players have an important perspective on the sacred game of lacrosse that needs to be heard. The Oneida are one of six tribes of the Haudenosaunee, or also known as, the Iroquois. Lacrosse is one of the fastest growing sports in the world and the style played today is most similar to the Haudenosaunee style. Oneidas are traditionally orators and lacrosse players. There is a lack of literature on the Oneida, lacrosse, and education. Oneida college lacrosse players face a problem in attempting to preserve their traditional Indigenous knowledge at their respective university communities, while also seeking …

Ready To Engage? Urban Middle School Teachers’ Responsiveness To Targeted Engagement Interventions On Their Virtual Instructional Practices: An Action Research Study, Svetlana Nikic

Dissertations

Teachers’ effectiveness is associated with their instructional practices and is ultimately linked to students’ learning outcomes. In order to impact teachers’ effectiveness, schools focus substantial effort and resources on professional development led by an assumption that teachers’ classroom practices can be improved through targeted interventions. Even if this premise is correct, little information is available about how much a teacher’s practice may change through interventions, or which aspects of instructional practice are more receptive to improving teacher effectiveness (Garret et al., 2019).

This study took place at an urban middle school and examined teachers’ responsiveness to targeted engagement intervention in …

Economic And Environmental Impacts Of Drone Delivery, Juan Zhang

Dissertations

Motivated by the potentially huge economic and environmental benefits of drone delivery, this dissertation developed mathematical models using the continuous approximation methodology to quantify the cost and emissions savings that drone delivery can provide relative to conventional truck delivery on multi-stop routes for a range of operating characteristics, delivery environments, and carbon intensities of power generation. This research considers two types of drone delivery: drone-only delivery and truck-drone delivery. In drone-only delivery, drones travel out-and-back from a depot to make each delivery. In truck-drone delivery, a truck and drone tandem make deliveries in parallel with the drone being launched and …

A Descriptive Study Of Health-Related Risks And Outcome Differences By Loneliness Status In A Sample Of Older Veterans, Rachael Beard

Dissertations

There is a need to understand the influences and outcomes related to loneliness in veterans living with complex illness. Patients require self-care to manage complications and exacerbations associated with complex illness. Deficits in self-care result in negative health outcomes and drive resource utilization upward. The identification of potential factors related to self-care is important. Loneliness may be one factor that influences patients’ ability and desire to care for themselves. Descriptive correlational design was used to evaluate loneliness both as a predictor and outcome in veterans admitted to the hospital for three complex respiratory illnesses (heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, …

Timing Of Therapeutic Hypothermia & Short-Term Infant Outcomes, Brooke Rakes

Dissertations

Background: Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) can result in devastating long-term neurological morbidity and/or death. Current evidence recommends initiating Therapeutic Hypothermia (TH), as early as possible, however, research specifically describing TH timing in relation to short-term infant outcomes is limited with mixed results.

Purpose: Examine TH timing (TH initiation time & time to target temperature) on short-term outcomes (neonatal seizure; brain injury) of infants >35weeks, with suspected HIE, born at a large urban women’s medical center.

Methodology: Retrospective, cross-sectional, correlational design examining data extracted from electronic health record from November 1, 2012- March 31, 2020. Descriptive and inferential statistics were performed.

Results …

Teacher Retention And Attrition In Missouri: Who Should Solve The Problem? A Three-Tiered Analysis Of Teacher Retention And Attrition In Missouri, Joshua Flores

Dissertations

Abstract

Teacher attrition is an ongoing issue in the United States and more specifically in the state of Missouri. This dissertation, using a three-tiered analytical approach, offers suggestions, recommendations, and strategies, aside from raising salaries or increasing benefits packages, that schools, their districts, and leaders can implement to bolster teacher retention. The findings are based on the practices of successful districts, buildings, and leaders. The first level of research included semi-structured interviews with district level personnel to offer guidance and recommendations that can be implemented at the local school district level. Similarly, the second level of research utilized the same …

An Examination Of Recruitment And Retention Strategies Of High-Performing Public School Districts In Missouri, Zebadiah Thomas Wallace

Dissertations

Teachers are the most-significant controllable factor that leads to student achievement (Hattie & Anderman, 2013). Accordingly, recruiting and retaining high-quality teachers are the most-significant variables for student success that can be controlled by school leaders (Fraynd, 2013). The purpose of this study was to examine teacher recruitment and retention strategies of high-performing public school districts in Missouri. Specifically, this study was designed to compare the perceptions of human resource directors and teachers to identify trends, commonalities, and differences to more fully understand the recruitment and retention of teachers. Participants received an online survey to elicit their perceptions of effective recruitment …

Not Just Another Professional Development Session: Implementing Effective Social Justice Aligned Professional Learning For Educators, Jessica Bitting

Dissertations

In schools today, teachers are part of a learning environment in which they are the teachers of their students, as well as students themselves. There are a plethora of traditional models for professional learning, however, professional learning is often disconnected from the realities of the classroom or lacks the elements necessary to lead to practical application. Being able to implement effective social justice aligned professional development is particularly critical in our current climate in which students of color are marginalized and are not receiving the same educational opportunity as their white peers. Through the use of autoethnography, the author shares …

Exemplary Leaders’ Use Of Power And Influence To Cultivate An Ethical Organizational Climate: Case Studies Of Millennial Leaders In Admissions/Enrollment Management In Private Non-Profit Higher Education, Sasha Crowley

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to identify and describe how exemplary Millennial leaders in admissions/enrollment management use power and influence to create ethical organizational climate and to describe essential tactics Millennial leaders in admissions/enrollment management use to sustain an ethical climate.

Methodology: Qualitative case study methodology was used to provide a detailed description of the perspectives of 11 exemplary Millennial leaders in admissions/enrollment management in private non-profit higher education institutions in California, Oregon, and Washington and their approach to power, influence, leadership, and organizational climate. Case study instruments were developed through the lens of a …

Leadership Strategies Exemplary Unified School District Superintendents Use To Create A Culture Of Inclusiveness, Lynn J Carmen Day

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this explanatory mixed-method study was to identify and describe the leadership strategies unified school district superintendents used to create an organizational culture of inclusiveness through the lens of Kennedy’s five distinctive qualities of leadership.

Methodology: This mixed-methods study identified strategies exemplary public school superintendents used to create an organizational culture of inclusiveness. The study collected quantitative data from 17 superintendents via a survey and qualitative data from six of those superintendents via one-on-one interviews. Respondents were purposely chosen for their esteemed service in the field of education and based on specific criteria, including a recommendation from …

How Exemplary Industrial Production Managers Lead Successfully Through The Turbulence Of The Covid-19 Crisis, Wendi Fast

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to discover and describe behaviors that exemplary industrial production managers in organizations practice to lead their organizations through the turbulent times of COVID -19 using the leadership attributes of personal temperament, concern for the collective interest, resilience, and moral purpose.

Methodology: This qualitative study used a phenomenological research design. Data was collected from 10 interviews of industrial production managers and artifacts collected to discover and describe behaviors that industrial production managers in manufacturing organizations practice to lead their organizations through the turbulent times of the COVID-19 crisis.

Findings: The study revealed 27 …

How Exemplary Industrial Production Managers Lead Successfully Through The Turbulence Of The Covid-19 Crisis, Wendi Fast

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to discover and describe behaviors that exemplary industrial production managers in organizations practice to lead their organizations through the turbulent times of COVID -19 using the leadership attributes of personal temperament, concern for the collective interest, resilience, and moral purpose.

Methodology: This qualitative study used a phenomenological research design. Data was collected from 10 interviews of industrial production managers and artifacts collected to discover and describe behaviors that industrial production managers in manufacturing organizations practice to lead their organizations through the turbulent times of the COVID-19 crisis.

Findings: The study revealed 27 …

How Exemplary Female Superintendents Use Six Sources Of Influence To Achieve Extraordinary Results, Cheryl Sosa

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to identify and explore how exemplary female superintendents who have achieved extraordinary results influence employees through personal motivation, personal ability, social motivation, social ability, structural motivation, and structural ability.

Methodology: This phenomenological study identified and explored how 11 exemplary female superintendents who have achieved extraordinary results influence employees through personal motivation, social motivation, structural motivation, personal ability, social ability, and structural ability to achieve extraordinary results. Respondents were chosen from exemplary female superintendents in three Southern California counties who met the study criteria. Data were collected through interviews, observations, and artifacts. Data …

How Do Exemplary Public School Superintendent Lead During Turbulent Times By Relying On Their Moral Purpose, Concern For The Collective Interest, Personal Temperament, And Resilience, Jason Lea

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to the describe behaviors that exemplary superintendents practice to lead their organizations through turbulent times using the leadership attributes of moral purpose, concern for the collective interest, personal temperament, and resilience.

Methodology: This phenomenological study examined 12 exemplary superintendents in California who have led districts with a student population with at least 1,500 students, who have been in the position for a minimum of 2 years in the same district during a crisis period that occurred within the past 5 years, led their districts during turbulent times. Participants were interviewed on an …

Equity And Ability Grouping: A Study Of Whole-School Practices And Reflections On Vocal Music Education, Daniel Glossenger, Andrew Cowell

Dissertations

This co-authored dissertation is a macro-level case study of a public high school tracking system and a micro-level autoethnography from a music educator about vocal music placement practices. The case study sought to comprehensively describe and analyze the characteristics of a tracking system in all core subjects at a single school, including the extent of differentiation of levels, placement practices, student mobility, teacher tracking, and inclusiveness by race, class, and gender. It also used network analysis software to map more than 75,000 connections among students created by their course-taking; it used this to quantitatively identify student communities, which then were …

Regulation Of Self-Love, Kruti Surti

Dissertations

While the concept of self-love is well-known in today’s society, it remains unknown how self-love can be increased. Increasing self-love may help individuals decrease stress and promote well-being. The current study tested how self-love and pleasantness can be increased and whether anxiety levels and personality traits such as neuroticism and conscientiousness are associated with self-love increase. In this study, participants (N = 108; 86 women, 20 men, 1 gender queer, 1 other (not specified)) completed questionnaires related to self-compassion, self-efficacy, anxiety, and personality. Then, participants completed an online self-love regulation task in which they read prompts that encouraged them …

The Covid-19 Pivot To Online Education And Bsn Graduates’ Readiness To Practice, Abigail Schulte

Dissertations

There is a major nursing shortage worldwide, and amid the COVID-19 pandemic, it is essential to invest in the acceleration of nursing education to meet global needs. Nursing schools had to pivot to online education overnight, and many are unsure how this has impacted students. The purpose of this study is to see if the pivot to online education, prompted by COVID-19, impacted the readiness to practice and grade point averages (GPA) of graduating Bachelor of Nursing students. In this quantitative study, a casual-comparative survey design is used to test for readiness to practice and program modality. A cross-sectional design …

Effective Mindfulness Practices For Reducing Veteran Teacher Perceived Stress, Michael Brouillette

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this mixed methods study was to measure and describe the extent to which mindfulness practices impact veteran teacher perceived stress. In addition, it was the purpose of the study to capture the most effective mindfulness practices of veteran teachers to reduce veteran teacher perceived stress.

Methodology: This study used a mixed methods study research methodology. Data were collected from 15 teachers in the form of answers to the Perceived Stress Scale and interviews to collect their lived experiences. Responses from veteran teachers who have used mindfulness for at least 1 year were analyzed with the objective …

Hiding In Heteronormative Sight: Students' Concealment Of (Nonhetero)Sexual Identity In Public Schools, Kristine Carey

Dissertations

Increased legal protections and visibility in popular media of sexual minority persons can lead some to believe that sexual prejudice is a thing of the past (Kite & Bryant-Lees, 2016). However, national statistics still show sexual minority youth at greater risks for self-harming thoughts and attempts than their heteronormative counterparts (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, & National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, 2019); and indicate schools as particularly hostile environments for these youth as well (Kowsic, Greytak, Zongrone, Clark, & Truong, 2018). The current study looks to fill a gap in the literature by focusing on the experience …

The Use Of Scorecards To Improve Documentation Of Obstetrical Blood Loss, Marilyn Cejka Steinberg

Dissertations

Obstetric hemorrhage is one of the most common causes of maternal morbidity and mortality. The measurement of quantitative blood loss (QBL) at delivery prevents clinicians from failing to recognize hemorrhage in healthy obstetric patients who initially compensate for excessive blood loss. The purpose of this project was to improve the compliance of labor and delivery nurses in a community hospital with consistent QBL measurement. Key theories that formed the basis for the project were Lewin's theory of planned change and homeostasis. The project question addressed was: Is the use of weekly scorecards to provide feedback to nurses with both blinded …

Perceptions Of Graduates From Online Accelerated Pre-Licensure Second-Degree Bachelor Of Science In Nursing Programs On Quality Of Educational Experience And Readiness For Clinical Practice, Virginia L. Jones

Dissertations

There is an increasing use of distance learning methods being utilized for nursing education. Accelerated second-degree Bachelor of Science in nursing (ASDBSN) programs have increased rapidly from 31 in 1990 to 230 in 2013 with 33 more programs in the planning stages according to the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (2013). There are currently three identified online pre-licensure, ASDBSN programs. There are research studies focusing on graduates from this type of nursing programs using the traditional format, which is the face-to-face college experience, but a lack of literature regarding graduates of the online learning format. This qualitative descriptive study …

The Effect Of A Culture Of Safety On Patient Throughput, Laurie Lee Dawn Dillon

Dissertations

There is a national movement to create improvements in patient safety and outcomes due to evolutionary changes in the healthcare. Many health care organizations are using the framework of a culture of safety in order to create a reliable and stable work environment that emphasizes safety and improves patient outcomes. Patient throughput, defined as the active management of the supply of patient beds (rooms for occupation) to the demand of patients to beds and the length of time it takes for this action to occur, has been identified as one of the areas in need of improvement. This study considered …

An Analysis Of Transformational Leadership In Youth Nonprofit Programs, Danielle Priest

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to identify and describe how nonprofit organization youth leaders perceive the importance of transformational leadership qualities in mentoring youth in leadership programs based on Bass and Riggio’s (2006) four transformational leadership qualities.

Methodology: This mixed-methods study examined the experiences of nonprofit organizations’ youth program leaders and examined the presence of transformational leadership qualities in their approach to providing program leadership to youth programs. An explanatory sequential study was utilized as it allowed the researcher to first analyze quantitative data, then follow with collection of qualitative data.

Findings: The findings showed respondents had …

Instantaneous Frequency Estimation And Signal Separation Using Fractional Continuous Wavelet Transform, Abdelbaset R. Zeyani

Dissertations

In the signal processing field, time-frequency representations (TFR's) have intensively been improved to provide effective and powerful tools for reliable signal analysis. One of the most valuable and frequently used tools is Fourier transform (FT) which has been used to study the frequency content of stationary signals in the Fourier domain (FD). However, FT is not sufficient to study the frequency of non-stationary signals. For this particular type of signals to be best analyzed, some transforms such as the short time Fourier transform (STFT) and the continuous wavelet transform (CWT) have been introduced to provide us with a signal representation …

Raising Cross-Cultural Awareness Among The Undergraduates Through Intentional Design In A Culture Course In The Us—An Exploratory Mixed-Methods Experimental Design, Hua Wang

Dissertations

The cultivation of intercultural competence is a growing trend globally, and integration of intercultural competence into coursework was widely acknowledged as a valid strategy to achieve this goal. The purpose of this study is to examine (1) the effects of the intervention of connecting one’s own culture to affect students' cross-cultural awareness development in American colleges; and (2) students’ perceptions of their own cultural‐awareness changes. Data was collected through pre-and post-questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. This study also compared between-group participants’ posttest ratings on a cross-cultural awareness scale, as well as pre- and post-test ratings within each group. The quantitative and …

Competitive Strategy And Firm Performance In Multinational Manufacturing Organizations: A Focus On Strategic Alignment, Kianoosh Ebrahimi

Dissertations

The purpose of this research is to study to examine the impact of strategic alignment and the concept of fit on manufacturing firm performance in order to achieve its strategic objectives. This study also examines the impact of market concentrate, manufacturing competitive dimensions, and corporate link strategies on firm performance. The design for this research is correlational research following a quantitative, deductive approach. Data collected through a survey based on completed questionnaires to measure perspectives of leadership teams about strategic directions discussed in this research. The survey was designed based on the drawn framework from the literature review. A quantitative …

The College Choice Of West African International Students: A Generalization Of The Hossler And Gallagher Model Of Student College Choice, Zeambo Wynger Dahnweih

Dissertations

After decades of research, the question of a universal college choice still abounds. In the United States scholars still advance disparate data on how students make college choice decisions that meet their particular needs. And, whereas research is replete with studies on the college choice of black families, there remains a dearth of studies on Black people of foreign descent, an integral demographic of the overall U.S. higher education enrollment.

This qualitative case study focuses on the college choice plights of West African students who enroll at U.S. public universities. It employs a West African-centric version of the Hossler and …

Performance-Based Evaluations Of Special Education Teachers In A Special Education School Setting, Katie Evans

Dissertations

This study examined the evaluations of special education teachers in a Midwest Public Special Education District which consisted of five separate special education schools. Despite the vast research and literature on evaluations of general education teachers throughout the nation, there was little research on the evaluations of special education teachers within special education buildings. In this study, I asked a) How do teachers perceive the performance-based evaluation measure? b) How do administrators perceive the performance-based evaluation measure? c) How are the performance-based evaluation components determined to be most relevant for teachers in a self-contained special education setting? and d) How …

Administrative Trust As A Contributor To Forensic Coach Burnout And Exit, Benjamin Schultz Pyle

Dissertations

This study sought to determine whether a relationship exists and its extent between intercollegiate forensic coach trust in university administrators and burnout and exit in intercollegiate forensic coaches. Specifically, this study examined the relationship between intercollegiate forensic coach trust in their university administrators with both intercollegiate forensic coach satisfaction and intercollegiate forensic coach burnout in predicting intercollegiate forensic coach exit from forensics.

Fifty-seven intercollegiate forensic educators participated in the research, including 37 directors of forensics. Data analysis revealed significant relationships between intercollegiate forensic coach trust in university administrators, intercollegiate forensic coach satisfaction, intercollegiate forensic coach burnout, and intercollegiate forensic coach …

Mixed Methods Study Of The Relationship Between Students’ Perceptions Of School Climate, Attendance, And Academic Achievement, Danielle Nicole Carter

Dissertations

As previous studies have shown a relationship between school climate, attendance, and academic achievement within public schools nationwide, the current mixed methods study of the relationship between students’ perception of school climate, attendance, and academic achievement sought to explore such relationships within an urban charter high school in the Midwest. The researcher specifically examined student perceptions of teaching and learning, student-teacher relationships, school safety, and overall climate and investigated whether such perceptions were related to attendance rates or grade point average. For this study, approximately 63 participants in grades 9-12 voluntarily completed anonymous, electronic surveys (adapted from Panorama Instrument with …