Digital Commons Network^™

Emotional Responses To Environmental Messages: Implications For Future Environmentally Responsible Behavioral Intentions, Jeffrey L. Perrin

Doctoral Dissertations

The present study analyzed the role of environmental message characteristics (message modality and message valence) and emotional arousal (positive and negative) in predicting environmentally responsible behavioral intentions. Using an experimental protocol designed to induce emotions in the laboratory, I measured specific emotional responses to gains-framed and losses-framed video and text-only environmental messages, and investigated the relation between intensity of emotional responses to environmental messages and environmentally responsible behavioral intentions. The sample consisted of 161 college students (116 women, 45 men). A hierarchical linear multiple regression was computed to assess the contributions of background variables (environmental knowledge, environmental beliefs, and outdoor …

Knowing More Than They Can Tell: An Assessment Of Genre Awareness Among Students In Writing Intensive Zoology And Civil Engineering Courses, Joleen Kidwell Hanson

Doctoral Dissertations

Developing genre awareness as a means of "learning how to learn" in new writing situations is a goal of four recently proposed writing pedagogies that recognize the context-dependent nature of standards for "good writing" (Devitt, Reiff, and Bawarshi (2004); Beaufort (2007); Johns (2008); Downs and Wardle (2007)). Yet other scholars argue that useful genre knowledge cannot be taught explicitly in the classroom, but must be acquired tacitly through participation in a workplace or other discourse community (Dias et al. (1999); Freedman (1994); Smit (2004)).

This qualitative study investigates the range of variability and potential sources of genre awareness among undergraduates …

Understanding Sla Through Peer Interactions In A Chinese Classroom: A Sociocultural Perspective, Lei Wu

Doctoral Dissertations

Second language learning and development is a complex process that is situated in sociocultural settings. Classrooms provide such daily life settings in which language acquisition occurs via social interactions among peers and the instructor as well as other mediated means. The purpose of this research study was to examine the roles of peer interaction in a Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) classroom and how different types of peer interaction affect learners' second language development in a classroom setting, and what roles peer interactions played in such a setting. Based on the sociocultural theory, the study explored the opportunities for …

Arresting Beauty, Framing Evidence: An Inquiry Into Photography And The Teaching Of Writing, Kuhio Walters

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines the uses and conceptualizations of photography in college Composition. Composition has long been conflicted over the relation between form and content---and since the 1970s, between aesthetics and politics. Today, this disciplinary tension manifests in how the visual is brought into pedagogy: either it is approached aesthetically, as something to beautify a text, or politically, as a source of cultural critique. The field's uses of photography have been positioned within this aesthetics/politics binary, but to understand the medium as only one or the other is to miss its full practical and theoretical potential.

Theoretically, photography is powerful and …

A Qualitative Study Of How Writing Is Used In Catholic Secondary Schools To Foster Students' Metacognitive Skill Development, Bonnie Jean Davis

Doctoral Dissertations

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Seeking Refuge In Urban America : Refugee Students In An International Public High School In California, Nabila Massoumi

Doctoral Dissertations

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The Relationship Of Reading Methods And Learning Styles To Taiwanese 12th Grade Male Students' Reading Comprehension In English, Yachi Teng

Doctoral Dissertations

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Gender Dynamics In Peer Interaction And Their Influence On Second Language Learning In The English-As-A-Second Language Classroom, Xiulian Zhu

Doctoral Dissertations

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Latino Students' Experiences In Comprehensive And Continuation High Schools, Maria Rosa Navarro

Doctoral Dissertations

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African American Males' Perceptions Of Factors That Contribute To High School Completion, Samantha Marilyn Rainer

Doctoral Dissertations

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The Lao Language-- Our Own World To Fall Back On" : Lao American Students' Critical Reflections On Heritage Language Maintenance And Loss, Khonepheth Lily Liemthongsamout

Doctoral Dissertations

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Unkept Promises : A Critical Analysis Of Hope Disclosed In Narratives Of African American Male Youth Living In Group Homes, Shadrach Linscomb

Doctoral Dissertations

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Leadership And The Other : Ethical Action Through Meaning In Work, Rebecca L. Cisek

Doctoral Dissertations

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"So There We Were--" : The Stories Told By Chief Petty Officers In The United States Navy, Explored Through A Complexity Lens, Patricia Joanne Reily

Doctoral Dissertations

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Surviving The Arctic : Narrative Identity Of Foreign Women In Norway, Tamar Davis Larsen

Doctoral Dissertations

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Tradition And Change In Urban China : A Critical Hermeneutic Inquiry Of Language, Culture And Identity In Shanghai, Amy E. Pierovich

Doctoral Dissertations

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Voices From The Forest : Leadership Revealed Through Care, Shared Understanding, And Imagination, Don Kraft

Doctoral Dissertations

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In Search Of Music Equity In An Urban Middle School, John Calloway

Doctoral Dissertations

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The Organization In Front Of The Text : A Critical Hermeneutic Inquiry In Employee Policy Appropriation, Marisa B. Michaels

Doctoral Dissertations

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Effects Of Dichotic Auditory Training On Children With Central Auditory Processing Disorder, Kiley Edwards Stephenson

Doctoral Dissertations

(Central) auditory processing disorder (CAPD) is a condition in which individuals with normal hearing present with difficulties often associated with hearing loss. While there are currently many tests available for the CAPD assessment, there are very few therapies for the remediation of a CAPD. A new therapy program, called Dichotic Auditory Training (DAT), aimed at improving the performance of those individuals with CAPD, was the focus of this study. Eight children between the ages of seven and twelve went through the four week training. The Staggered Spondaic Word (SSW) test, the SCAN-C/A, and a test designed after the DAT …

Efficacy Of Central Auditory Processing Case History Form Used At The Louisiana Tech University Speech And Hearing Center, Michelle L. Smith

Doctoral Dissertations

Central auditory processing disorder (CAPD) is a deficiency in processing of auditory information. Due to this deficiency, a variety of behaviors can be seen including listening difficulties in background noise, difficulties following oral instruction, and difficulties discriminating and identifying speech sounds. These behaviors result in inattention and academic difficulties. With these characteristics being present in other disorders such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, language/learning deficits, and high functioning autism (i.e., Asperger's syndrome) diagnosis of CAPD becomes complicated.

The Louisiana Tech University Speech and Hearing Center uses a CAPD case history for a child that was adopted from Robert Keith in 2003. …

Where The Inchoate Seeks Form: Autobiographical Curriculum Inquiry In Women's Rowing, Jennie Anne Marshall

Doctoral Dissertations

In 1976, four years after the Title IX act was passed by the Federal Government, a group of female rowers at Yale University attempted to reveal the university's discriminatory practices toward their team. On March 3, 1976, team captain, Chris Ernst, secured an appointment with the assistant athletic director Joni Barnett. Members of the Yale Women's Crew filed silently into the athletic director's office wearing sweats that said "Yale Women's Crew," then stripped to the waist, revealing the words "Title IX" written on their bare chests and backs. Chris Ernst read a 300-word statement (New York Times, 3/4/76) while a …

How Spanish -Speaking Parents Understand Kindergarten And Support Their Children's Education Within The Context Of A School, Phyllis Barton Schlichter

Doctoral Dissertations

The intention of this study was to examine the experiences of nine Spanish-speaking families in a public kindergarten setting during the 2005-2006 school year to understand how individual agency of parents, access to a community's practices and events, and the resulting interrelationship, shape parent understanding of and participation in school practices and events and ultimately impact student achievement outcomes. In a nation that is becoming increasingly diverse, the Hispanic population is the largest minority group in the country. There are more than two million English-language learners in the U.S. K-3 classrooms with Spanish accounting for almost 80% of the non-English …

Teaching Toward Understanding: Feminist Rhetorical Theories And Pedagogies In The College Composition Classroom, Alison A. Knoblauch

Doctoral Dissertations

While recognizing the value of traditional argument, many teacher-scholars have begun to challenge the primacy of antagonistic debate in college classrooms. In "Teaching Toward Understanding: Feminist Rhetorical Theories and Pedagogies in the College Composition Classroom," I maintain that the inclusion of invitational rhetoric, embodied rhetoric, and rhetorical listening as classroom content, coupled with the translation of these theories into pedagogical practice, can both challenge and expand current approaches to the teaching of writing and rhetoric. Furthermore, by offering alternatives to antagonistic debate, these rhetorical theories encourage productive and ethical forms of discourse, promoting more successful cross-cultural communication both in the …

Biologically Inspired Composite Image Sensor For Deep Field Target Tracking, Pavlo Melnyk

Doctoral Dissertations

The use of nonuniform image sensors in mobile based computer vision applications can be an effective solution when computational burden is problematic. Nonuniform image sensors are still in their infancy and as such have not been fully investigated for their unique qualities nor have they been extensively applied in practice. In this dissertation a system has been developed that can perform vision tasks in both the far field and the near field. In order to accomplish this, a new and novel image sensor system has been developed. Inspired by the biological aspects of the visual systems found in both falcons …

The Effect Of Component Recognition On Flexibility And Speech Recognition Performance In A Spoken Question Answering System, Mike Dalton

Doctoral Dissertations

A spoken question answering system that recognizes questions as full sentences performs well when users ask one of the questions defined. A system that recognizes component words and finds an equivalent defined question might be more flexible, but is likely to have decreased speech recognition performance, leading to a loss in overall system success. The research described in this document compares the advantage in flexibility to the loss in recognition performance when using component recognition.

Questions posed by participants were processed by a system of each type. As expected, the component system made frequent recognition errors while detecting words (word …

A Content Analysis Of The Two State-Approved Kindergarten And First Grade Reading Programs In California, Elizabeth Anne Presley

Doctoral Dissertations

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Student Perspectives On The Benefits Of Cooperative Learning Skills Taught In Fifth Grade Classrooms In The Archdiocese Of San Francisco And The Impact Of Bullying Behaviors Schoolwide, Julie Alexander

Doctoral Dissertations

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Instructional Strategies And Teacher-Student Interaction In The Classrooms Of A Chinese Immersion School, Tsueylin Tracy Wang

Doctoral Dissertations

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Experiences And Perspectives Of African American Students And Their Parents In A Two-Way Spanish Immersion Program, Michele Anberg-Espinosa

Doctoral Dissertations

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