Digital Commons Network^™

The Impact Of Professional Development Of Effective Teachers In Low Performing Schools, Brian Gibson

Dissertations

Abstract

Professional development is a substantial contributing factor to the success or lack of success in low-performing schools. Specific student-focused professional development can be used to increase academic achievement, school culture, and the level of effective teaching. A lack of attention to school-specific professional development can contribute to low student achievement, diminished school culture, and reduced teacher efficiency. In Florida, public schools have implemented the “4 Professional Development Standards” (Planning, Learning, Implementation, and Evaluation) to act as a tool to identify best practices in schools and classrooms as well as to determine what professional development is needed to improve instructional …

A Meta-Synthesis Of The American And The European Standards For The Accreditation Of Counseling Training Programs, Natalia Zapolsky

Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore how the European Standards for the accreditation of counseling training programs compare to CACREP standards and to each other. The differences and commonalities between standards have been defined through a meta-synthesis of integrated findings from a large body of inter-related qualitative studies and reinterpretation of the synthesized data.

This qualitative meta-synthesis research was intended to contribute to the process of counseling globalization by exploring the unique cultural features and aspects of the European and the U.S. accrediting systems for counseling training programs. This research revealed 1) the commonly recognized areas that …

An Examination Of Social Support And The Academic Performance Of Saudi Arabian Students In The United States, Yaser Abdulrahman Alghamdi

Dissertations

Saudi Arabia is among the top 10 countries from which students have enrolled in U.S. universities. The scarcity of research about Saudi students in the USA was the inspiration for this study. Previous researchers have examined Saudi students’ challenges and adjustment issues in the USA, but the topic of social support and academic performance remained lacking. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between perceived social support (PSS) and academic performance among Saudi international students in USA. This study was a cross-sectional quantitative survey design with a sample of 384 Saudi students enrolled in USA universities and …

واقع النحو العربي في ضوء محاولات تجديده في العصر الحديث, مأمون سليمان محمد الغنام

Dissertations

الشكوى من صعوبةِ قواعدِ اللغة العربية قديمة وحديثة، ولكنَّها زادت في العصر الحديث، على نحوٍ يجعلُ من مادة النَّحو مادةً عسيرةَ الفهم صعبةَ التحصيل؛ ولهذا سعت كثيرٌ من محاولات تجديد النَّحو إلى تذليلِ صعوباتِه وتجاوزِ عقباته قديماً وحديثاً، ولكنَّ هذه المحاولات كثُرت في العصرِ الحديث كثرةً مبالغا فيها، وتنوعت مناهجها بين داعٍ إلى إعادةِ تقديمِ قواعد النَّحو بأساليبَ حديثة، مع ضرورةِ التخفُّفِ من القواعدِ غيرِ المستخدمِ ة بالحذف والاختصا ر، وبين محاولات دعت إلى تغييرِ منهجِ النحوِ نفسه، واستبدال مناهج لغوية حديثة به، و بين محاولاتٍ دعتْ إلى هدمِ النَّحو العرب ي، واتخاذ اللهجاتِ بديلاً عنه في شتى شوؤن الحياة. …

الثقافة الفنية وأثرها في كفاءة الناقد الأدبي: نماذج نقدية منتقاة, رامي علي أحمد أبو عايشة

Dissertations

تعاينُ هذه الأطروحة مجالات الثقافة الفنية الواسعة التي منحت أصحابها مزيدًا من العمق والتصور، والقدرة على تذوق واكتشاف مواطن القوة والضعف في العمل الفني، أملًً في الكشف عن المكنونات العميقة للنصوص الإبداعية بعيدًا عن المباشرة والسطحية. كما تروم هذه الإطروحة الكشف عن إحاطة الناقد الأدبي بالفنون الجميلة ذات الصلة بالأدب في شكلها ومضمونها، وكيف يمكن لهذه الفنون أن تصبح عدّة معرفية وثقافية بيد الناقد تمكّنه من مساءلة الإبداع مساءلة منهجية جادة ذات أسس ومقاييس؟ وذلك من خلًل التدليل بنماذج نقدية منتقاة توصَّل أصحابها إلى آفاق نقدية جديدة في مجال المثاقفة الفنية مع سائر الفنون، الأمر الذي يدعو إلى البحث عن …

Service To American Heroes: Exploring The Experiences Of Veterans Suffering From Ptsd Transitioning From Military Service To Civilian Careers, Samuel Scaife

Dissertations

Purpose. The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore the experiences of post-9/11 veterans suffering from PTSD residing in California who transitioned from military service to civilian careers within the last 3-5 years, through the lens of Schlossberg’s 4S factors of situation, self, social support, and strategies.

Methodology. A qualitative case study was used allowing for in-depth exploration. A multiple case study was selected to explore the lived experiences of PTSD veterans who recently transitioned from military service to civilian careers in San Diego, CA. The primary method of data collection was semi-structured interviews to gather the …

Impact Of Grit And Emotional Intelligence On Longevity Of Expert Principals, Marcia Hamilton

Dissertations

Purpose. The purpose of this mixed methods study was to determine what relationship exists between emotional intelligence (EI) and grit of expert principals with three or more years’ longevity. This study was conducted to deeply understand the relationship between these variables and to discover expert principals’ perceptions of how these personal attributes impacted their longevity.

Methodology. This study followed a sequential explanatory design model whereby quantitative methods were used initially to collect baseline data via electronic surveys followed by qualitative methods, which were used to dig deeper into the results via in-depth, semi-structured interviews.

Findings. The major …

Efforts And Courage Are Not Enough Without Purpose And Direction: A Phenomenological Study On How Mid-Level Administrators Learn And Acquire Leadership Skills In Higher Education, Melissa Brunson

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to identify and describe the lived experiences of mid-level administrators as it relates to leadership development in Private Non-Profit Higher Education in both formal and informal settings.

Methodology: This study was a phenomenological study that identified and described the lived experiences of mid-level administrators as it relates to the leadership development for 18 mid-level administrators in both formal and informal settings in Private Non-Profit higher education.

Findings: Examination of the qualitative data from 18 mid-level administrators who work in Nonprofit Private higher education yielded 10 major findings. The findings were divided into …

Elite Female Long-Distance Runners And The Impact Of Social Media On Their Lives Professionally And Personally, Elizabeth Camy

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore and discover the perceptions of elite female long-distance runners on the benefits and challenges of using social media to build their personal brand throughout their athletic careers.

Methodology: This study was a phenomenological study that identified and described the lived experiences of 10 elite female long-distance runners and the benefits and challenges of using social media to build a personal brand. The sample of elite female long-distance runners were athletes that had qualified for the 2020 USA Olympic Trails in the marathon.

Findings: The study concluded that female athletes identify …

The Impact Support Staff Has On School Climate At Comprehensive High Schools From The Perspective Of Principals, Melissa Bako

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to identify and describe how high school principals perceive the actions of support staff impact school climate in the areas of safety, teaching and learning, interpersonal relationships, and the institutional environment in comprehensive public high schools in Riverside County, California.

Methodology: The researcher identified comprehensive public high schools within the state of California. Of this target population, purposeful sampling was applied to identify participants that were rich with information and that met specific criteria, and 12 principals were identified. The researcher collected and coded data from in-depth interviews; interview protocol directly …

The Lived Experience Of Black American Women Who Were Teen Mothers And Their Pathway To Achieve Master’S Degrees And Higher, Shuante Bingham

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this heuristic phenomenological study is to examine the lived experiences of Black American women who were teen mothers and achieved master’s degrees and higher. Furthermore, this study seeks to describe the economic barriers and support resources that hinder and/or influence educational achievement as perceived by Black American women who were teen mothers.

Methodology: This heuristic phenomenological study shares the personal experiences and commonalities of 16 Black American women who were teen mothers as the support resources perceived as impacting or encouraging their ability to achieve a master’s degree or higher.

Findings: There were four overarching themes …

Barriers To Accepting Special Education By Slavic Parents Of Children With Special Needs In The Sacramento County, Tatyana Kisel

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to investigate the experiences of Slavic parents of children with Special Educational Needs (SEN) and their perceptions of special education. The researcher’s goal was to determine whether parents’ cultural beliefs and customs affected their willingness to participate in the IEP and testing process and what supports and barriers they had along the way.

Methodology: This is a qualitative phenomenological study. In-depth, face-to-face interviews with 15 participants allowed collecting the rich data, which was analyzed using coding and thematic analysis. In particular, the study explored the lived experience of parents with special …

Psychometric Evaluation Of A New Pressure Ulcer Skin Risk Assessment Scale For The Pediatric Burn Patient, Mary D. Gordon

Dissertations

Prevention of pressure ulcers is a primary goal in nursing practice, and achievement implies excellence in clinical care. One component of prevention is to understand the risk for pressure ulcer development. The benefit of knowing risk is to initiate pressure ulcer preventive interventions. Pressure ulcers are a significant problem in the pediatric burn patient population. Unfortunately, no skin risk assessment scale exist that capture the unique risk indices of the burn injury, thus the Pressure Ulcer Skin Risk Assessment Scale (PrUSRAS) was developed. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the validity, reliability and predictability of scores from the …

Evaluation Of Reliability And Validity Of A Community Needs Assessment Instrument For Nursing Homes In The Taiwan Area, Shu-Li Chen

Dissertations

Several studies have been done that identify an insufficient number of nursing homes as a major problem in the Taiwan area. However, no previous studies have investigated exactly what kind of service is needed and would actually be used, nor have any research instruments been designed to measure perception of need or use. Therefore, the purpose of this dissertation research was to establish reliability and validation of a community needs assessment instrument, called Perception Evaluation Tool (PET). A psychometric evaluation study with cross-sectional longitudinal sampling techniques using a mailed questionnaire was conducted. A randomly selected sample of 168 community individuals …

Trying Something New: Understanding The Common Practices Of Reforming Nursing Education, Martha M. Scheckel

Dissertations

What are the common reforming practices of teachers when they reform nursing education? How is cultivating thinking an important reforming practice in nursing education that moves beyond teaching "critical thinking?" Do the Concernful Practices of Schooling Learning Teaching reveal reforming practices that illuminate engendering community as central to creating and sustaining innovation? This interpretive phenomenological and Heideggerian hermeneutical study describes two themes (common practices) of reforming nursing education: Cultivating Thinking and Enacting the Concernful Practices: Making Visible How Innovation Arises. A pattern, Unlearning and Becoming, one of the Concernful Practices, was of central importance in this study. It describes how …

How Perioperative Nurses Define, Attribute Causes Of, And React To Intraoperative Nursing Errors, Robin R. Chard

Dissertations

Errors in nursing practice are a growing concern in healthcare posing a threat to patient safety. Practitioners have been hesitant to come forward and report errors because of negative ramifications in the workplace. Few studies have approached error management through the eyes of the clinician or have studied how nurses cope or change their practice after committing an error. Studies on nursing errors have traditionally used floor/unit nurses as the sample population. This study used an often unseen and highly specialized group known as perioperative or operating room registered nurses. This study was a descriptive, correlational design using a survey …

Factors Influencing End-Of-Life Decisions Regarding The Living Will And Durable Power Of Attorney: An Application Of Roy's Adaptation Model, Weihua Zhang

Dissertations

Modern technology offers extraordinary life-saving opportunities that were not imaginable in old times. However, it also takes us to a new frontier where the challenge of life-saving becomes death-prolonging. More than a decade after the Patient Self-Determination Act which guarantees the individual's legal right to decide the end-of-life care, the utilization of this right has seen no significant increase. The purpose of this quantitative study was to identify the variables that influence the decision-making responses related to Advance Directives (ADs). A path model applying Roy's Adaptation Model was developed for the study. Publicly accessible data collected for the Longitudinal Study …

Structural And Psychological Empowerment Of Community/Public Health Nurses, Linda C. Royer

Dissertations

This descriptive, non-experimental study examines the perceptions Community/Public Health Nurses (C/PHNs) have about the work they do and about their workplace when questioned about organizational factors that potentially lead to a sense of empowerment and commitment.

The Lived Experience Of Non-Degreed Learners From A Time Modified Traditional Baccalaureate In Nursing Program, Stephanie S. Deboor

Dissertations

The purpose of this phenomenological inquiry was to describe, interpret, and gain a deeper understanding of how non-degreed, traditional baccalaureate nursing students experience education in a Time Modified Traditional Program of study.

Cultural Competence And Racist Attitudes Of Direct Patient Care Registered Nurses In A Midwestern State, Linda Kay Hardy

Dissertations

Racism has been implicated as one of the causes of health disparities in non-White population groups in the United States. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe cultural competence and racist attitudes of direct patient care registered nurses (DPC RNs) in a Midwestern state. The researcher hypothesized that racist attitudes impacted cultural competence, compromised the nurse-patient interaction, and potentially led to less than optimal patient outcomes. Critical Social Theory and Leininger's Theory of Culture Care Diversity and Universality served as the framework for this quantitative, descriptive correlational dissertation research. Cultural competence was measured with the Cultural Competence …

Nurses, Philanthropies, And Governments: The Public Mission Of Chilean Nursing 1900-1945, Jeannine M. Uribe

Dissertations

This dissertation examines the role of nurses in Chile during the transformation of the health care system from charitable benevolence to duty of the state. The first secular nurses trained to assist physicians in 1902 and were educated, middle class women. The Constitution of 1925 made public health a state responsibility and created a middle class bureaucracy. A U.S. model of public health nursing started in Chile in 1927. In 1941, the International Health Division of the Rockefeller Foundation was invited to improve public health and to build the public health leadership of physicians and nurses in Chile. A demonstration …

Factors Associated With Peer Violence Among Elementary, Middle And High School Students, Tracy J. Perron

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships among perceived school climate, self-reported psychosomatic symptoms, visits to the school nurse for reported psychosomatic symptoms and reports of bullying behaviors among students' grades 3-12. In the study self-reported bullying behaviors were proposed to predict psychosomatic complaints at the school health office. Negatively perceived school climate was proposed to predict bullying behaviors. Lastly, the combination of bullying and negative school climate were proposed to predict psychosomatic complaints. The final convenience sample of 222 students, ages 8-18 years, was obtained from one elementary school, one middle school and one high school …

Deliberate Practice Using Simulation To Improve Clinical Competency And Confidence, Sharon Lacue

Dissertations

Bridging the gap between classroom learning and nursing practice is an ongoing concern in nursing education. Multiple studies have found that students who are provided the knowledge, skills and modeling behavior, in addition to an expectation of efficacy, have an increase in their confidence of acquired skills and thus an increase in self-confidence and competence. However, patients in acute care settings have increasingly complex medical problems, which often leave nursing students with minimal hands-on care for their assigned patient. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of deliberate practice, using a repeated simulated clinical experience, on student …

The Relationship Among School Playground Design And Conditions And Physical Activity Levels In Children, Ipuna Estavillo Black

Dissertations

Almost 20% of children aged 6 to 11 years are obese in the United States, tripling over the last ten years. The rise in childhood obesity challenges nurses in their efforts to improve community health and sustainability. A decrease in physical activity (PA) levels has been associated with an increase in obesity. Schools have been identified as a primary setting to provide children adequate amounts of daily PA, and nurses working in the area of child health promotion can work with schools to provide opportunities for children to increase PA levels. The playground is one environment where children can increase …

Predictors Of Success On The National Council Licensure Examination For Registered Nurses (Nclex-Rn) In A Traditional Baccalaureate Nursing Program: A Descriptive Study, Ana Stoehr

Dissertations

A major issue for most nursing programs is how to produce graduates who will be successful in the program and on the NCLEX-RN. Providing an optimal undergraduate education is made more difficult by issues such as limited clinical space for students' experiences, and the nursing shortage, which increases the pressure on nursing programs to accept more students and graduate all admitted students. It is imperative that nursing programs accept those applicants who are most likely to graduate, and in a timely manner. This study examined variables that have been suggested as predictors of success on the NCLEX-RN.

Stories, Ethics And The Interpretation Of Meaning: Bearing Witness To Mothers' Stories Of Their Neonatal Intensive Care Unit Experience, Angela C. Blackburn

Dissertations

This study grounded in narrative perspectives was conducted to uncover mothers' experience of having a baby in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU). The purpose of this study was to describe and interpret mothers NICU experiences, and to sensitize health care professionals about the importance of mothers' personal experience stories. The NICU experience began with mothers' birth experience or the incident that led up to her infant requiring care in the NICU and her experience extended beyond the NICU with future concerns about the health and wellbeing of her baby.

The Paradox Of Respect And Risk: Six Lakota Adolescents Speak, Mary J. Isaacson

Dissertations

Adolescence is a time of turbulence as young people stretch parental boundaries, seeking where they fit in society. For many American Indian adolescents this time involves the initiation of dangerous high-risk behaviors. Potential causes posed for this are: loss of identity, loss of cultural values and traditions, lack of positive role modeling and feelings of hopelessness. Survey research has been the predominant method of data collection. Very few studies of Native American youth use storytelling, even though stories are a part of many Indian cultures. The primary purpose of this study was to describe the phenomena of respect and risk …

Contributions Of Three Nursing Leaders To The Development Of Registered Nursing Education In Jamaica, 1946-1986, Hermi Hyacinth Hewitt

Dissertations

The historical research design is used to document the contributions that Misses Ruth Nita Barrow, Gertrude Hildegarde Swaby and Julie Symes made in advancing the status of professional nursing education in Jamaica, between 1946 and 1986. Their roles in the Jamaica General Trained Nurses Association and the General Nursing Council of Jamaica in obtaining registration for nurses' education in Jamaica, reciprocal agreement with England and Wales and professional recognition from the International Council of Nurses are discussed. Since nearly two decades of Barrow, Swaby and Symes' contributions to professional nursing's development occurred while Jamaica was a British colony, the economic, …

Siblings Of Children With Down Syndrome: Voices Heard, Kimberlee A. Sutter

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the meanings of the relationship of school-age siblings of brothers or sisters with Down syndrome in order to gain a greater understanding of the lived experience from the view point of the school-age sibling. Sibling spend more time together than any other family subsystem and siblings actively shape one another's lives and prepare each other for future experiences. With children with Down syndrome living into their 60's, the question regarding the sibling relationship is becoming an important focus due to the possible demands on the sibling to care for the individual with …

Staffing Patterns Before And After Mandated Nurse-To-Patient Ratios In California's Hospitals, Teresa D. Serratt

Dissertations

This study identifies and describes changes in nurse staffing that may have occurred as a result of the enactment of nurse-to-patient ratios and whether these changes were associated with particular hospital characteristics, controlling for market factors and population factors.