Digital Commons Network^™

Emotional Distress In Older Adults With Cancer : A Multilevel Longitudinal Study., Tara J. Schapmire

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) were used to examine factors that influence emotional distress in older adults with cancer, arid to learn whether these distress trajectories are different from older adults without cancer. The model investigated the influence of life course factors, internal, external and health-related resources on distress over eight years among a nationally representative sample of older adults ages 50-91. Methods: This longitudinal panel study tested a multilevel random intercept multinomial ordered categorical model with a two-nested-Ievel structure using empirical Bayes Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) estimation. The model examined individual differences in distress over …

Complexities Of Culture : Understanding The Identity Of Female Veterans Transitioning From Military To College., Natesha L. Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Through an exploration of identity and enculturation experiences, this narrative inquiry dissertation investigated how female veteran students make meaning of their experiences and renegotiate their understandings of identity after transitioning from the military into the higher education environment. Eighteen female veteran students participated in data collection efforts, which included two interviews, discussion of military artifacts, and journaling. Five of the eighteen individual narratives are presented at length in the study to illustrate the diversity found amongst the study population. Findings for the five were synthesized into individual narratives and poetic representations of identity. Emerging across the stories of the eighteen …

P.A.I.N.T. : A Case Study In Engaging The Community Through Public Art., Katherine Jo Sowada

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Public art encompasses countless forms, serves many purposes and is constantly evolving. Engaging the community is one way public art has developed new forms and purposes. Involving the community allows residents to contribute to the creative process of an artwork and assume ownership of a project. This thesis explores the role of public art in engaging the community through the examination of the public art program Producing Art In Neighborhoods Together (P.A.I.N.T.) administered by Center For Neighborhoods, a nonprofit organization in Louisville, Kentucky. By analyzing feedback from involved artists and neighborhoods, this thesis examines the impact the P.A.I.N.T. Program has …

Utility Of A Goodness-Of-Fit Index For The Graded Response Model With Small Sample Sizes : A Monte Carlo Investigation., Christina Ruth Studts 1971-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Item response theory (IRT) is expanding to diverse research settings, without accompanying access to easily implemented model fit methods. One simple model fit approach involves x2/df ratios. However, its utility is not known across several conditions salient to recent applied IRT research. A Monte Carlo simulation was implemented to investigate the effects of several factors (sample size, adjustment condition, type of misfit, and proportion of misfitting items) on x2/df ratios in the context of the Graded Response Model. Results suggested that: (a) adjusted x2/df ratios were appropriate for the largest sample size condition (N=10000), but were extremely inflated for small …

Consumer Culture, Material Desires, And Images Of Women In American Novels And Art At The Turn Of The 20th Century., Janna S. Tajibaeva

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines American consumer culture and its influences on images of women created in art and literature at the turn of the twentieth century. It is divided into four substantive parts and uses the methods and theoretical approaches from four separate disciplines: social history, social theory, literature and art. The study offers a cultural discourse of the period by analyzing the novels of Edith Wharton The House of Mirth, and The Custom of the Country, and Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie, and also looking into the paintings of American Impressionists and Realists. It interprets the fictional and visual portrayals of …

Mathematics Achievement : The Impact Of America's Choice In Kentucky's Schools., Sonia James Upton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined student achievement scores in Kentucky elementary schools to determine the relationship between implementing the America's Choice comprehensive school reform model and student achievement in mathematics. Six research questions guide this study; For the seven America's Choice schools for third grade mathematics: (1) To what degree do the America's choice schools differ from the statewide mean for math achievement at the beginning of the program, (2) To what extent is the year of implementation related to math achievement, (3) To what extent are differences between schools related to math achievement, (4) To what extent is the beginning year …

Assessing Teacher Attitude Toward The Inclusion Of Students With Autism., Stephanie Elaine Wilkerson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research study was to examine the relationship between the attitudes of public school teachers and the inclusion of students with autism in the general education classroom highlighting individual teacher characteristics that correlated with agreement or disagreement with inclusion. Participants included regular and special education teachers currently teaching in a South Central Kentucky educational cooperative. Data were collected from the purposive population using a demographic questionnaire and a modified version of the Teacher Attitudes Toward Inclusion Scale (TATIS, Cullen, Gregory, & Noto, 2010). Teacher attitude toward inclusion of students with autism as measured by the modified TATIS …

New Teacher Development In An Urban District : A Mixed-Method Study Of A New Teacher Induction Institute As Professional Development., Vicki Johnson-Leuze

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Experts attribute the teacher shortage to an increase in population while others cite the retirement of a critical mass of baby boomers who came into teaching in the mid to late twentieth century. Other experts argue that the teaching shortage is due to attrition of teachers new to the field. Job dissatisfaction, disillusionment, poor working conditions, low pay and lack of respect are cited in research as reasons for an exodus from teaching. Numerous reasons have contributed to teachers leaving the field in alarming numbers, resulting in not enough pre-service teachers in supply to fill the current demand for teaching. …

The Kmea And Its String Program : Teaching Techniques Of String Teachers., Lyndsay Blair Joseph 1984-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify the teaching techniques of current string teachers within the Kentucky Music Education Association. Participants (N=31) completed a 17-question survey that focused on teaching techniques they use while teaching string orchestra. The participants included elementary, middle, and high school public string teachers in the Commonwealth of Kentucky. Results collected from the survey included demographic information about the teachers including the grade levels taught, number of years of teaching experience, the amount of time spent teaching per week, the participants primary instrument, and whether or not they gave private lessons. The survey questions also …

Advising Style Perceptions And Preferences Of Students And Advisors., Gladys Patricia Brown Jordan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The best style of advising to offer students has been questioned over and over. The literature review revealed uncertainty related to national surveys of advisors and students and encouraged smaller institutional reviews. The Academic Advising Inventory (Winston and Sandor, 1984b), was administered to a proportionate to size random sample of advisors (faculty and professional) and then to the advisees of the advisors who responded to the survey. Variables of interest for advisors included age, gender, type (faculty or professional), and college. Variables of interest for students included gender, ethnicity, age, classification, generational status, and GPA. A standard multiple regression, one-way …

"The Greatest Evil That Can Befall Us" : Unionism In Antebellum Era Kentucky, 1849-1861., Curtis Lushawn Parmley 1975-

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

During the secession winter of 1860-61 the Commonwealth of Kentucky found itself caught in the middle of the great sectional controversy. With the Union's fate hanging in the balance Kentucky figured as a prominent player in the outcome of that conflict. While the Commonwealth of Kentucky featured strong social and cultural ties to the South, its economic ties ran to both sections. Further, a majority of the people of the Commonwealth of Kentucky shared a nationalist perspective rooted in the old line Whig political ideology that they had a constitutional right to hold property in persons which contributed to their …

Job Embeddedness Theory : Can It Help Explain Employee Retention?., Jeffery A. Young

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Job embeddedness theory, as introduced by Mitchell, Holtom, Lee, Sablynski, and Erez (2001), offers a method of discovering why people stay in an organization. By analyzing the construct's three dimensions (links, fit, and sacrifice) within community and workplace contexts, an overall level of embeddedness was determined and then used to examine retention among Extension agents (N = 454) in the Kansas and Kentucky Extension Services systems. An Internet-based survey was used to gather background data and responses to various scales (embeddedness, job satisfaction, organization commitment, engagement, intent to stay, and discretionary effort). Research questions were examined through the use of …

A Spatial Age-Structured Model Of Perennial Plants With A Seed Bank., Kimberly Ilene Meyer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

We formulate an integro-difference model to predict the growth and spatial spread of a perennial plant population with an age-structured seed bank. We allow the seeds in the bank to be of any age, producing an infinite system of equations. The production of new seed can be density-dependent and so the function describing this growth is allowed to be non-monotone. The functions describing the seed bank are linear. We develop properties about the non-spatial model, including the existence of a positive steady-state and conditions under which solutions converge to this steady-state. We also show that when the origin is unstable, …

From Automobiles To Alternatives: Applying Attitude Theory And Information Technologies To Increase Shuttle Use At Rocky Mountain National Park, Kourtney Kristen Collum

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines potential strategies for increasing voluntary shuttle use at Rocky Mountain National Park (ROMO) and the gateway community of Estes Park, Colorado. The first chapter of this two-part study evaluates the impact of a pilot intelligent transportation system (ITS) on visitor awareness and use of shuttles during the summer of 2011. Two forms of ITS, dynamic message signs (DMS) and highway advisory radio (HAR), were evaluated. Specifically, the ITS was meant to influence day-visitors to park at a new park-and-ride lot just east of Estes Park where they could then board a connector shuttle and transfer to any …

Family Satisfaction With Early Intervention Services As It Relates To Family Functioning, Donna Elizabeth Nelson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the perceived impact and satisfaction levels of early intervention services of families living in the Appalachian region of northeast Tennessee. Families living in Hawkins and Johnson counties in the northeast region of Tennessee whose children with disabilities had recently exited an early intervention program participated in the study. The primary sources of data collection were personal interviews based on the Beach Center Family Quality of Life (FQOL) Scale (Beach Center on Disability, 2003), the Family Functioning Style Scale (FFSS) (Deal, Trivette, & Dunst, 1998), and member checks.

The FQOL contains 5 subscales: Family Interaction, Parenting, Physical or …

The Budget Gap : Gender Discrimination In The U.S. Federal Budget Process, 1962-2011., Kevin Fahey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The persistent private sector wage gap between men and women is one of the more intractable deficiencies of modem American society. It may be symptomatic of male privilege, a theory that outlines pervasive, ubiquitous discrimination that favors men from birth until death. However, egalitarian wage laws passed by Congress rigidly enforce equal pay for equal work at the highest echelons of public service, including Congress, the Cabinet, and the presidency. Is male privilege likely to manifest despite such legislation? If we assume that members of the Cabinet are lobbyists or representatives of their agencies, with Congress as the constituent, pervasive …

The Unruly Woman In Prime Time Animated Sitcoms., Sarah Pennington

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Utilizing the criteria for unruly women established by Kathleen Rowe, this work engages with current television scholarship on animated sitcoms in order to come to an understanding of how unruliness as a category of behavior and embodiment is expanded in prime time animated sitcoms. In looking at the ways in which unruliness functions in animated series, examples from The Simpsons, King of the Hill, South Park, Daria, and Home Movies are examined. It is through this analysis that I prove that not only do the mother characters from all of these series embody unruliness, but through their prominence in their …

Educator Responses To Technology Influences In A 1:1 Laptop Middle School, David C. Boardman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Across the globe, students learn with digital texts, classrooms connect through the world-wide web, and elementary students apprentice in highly technical skills such as moviemaking or animation. As education embarks on the second decade of the 21st century, technology is becoming more sought after than ever before as countries prepare their youth for the future. But educational technology initiatives could easily leave learning stagnant and waste millions of public dollars if not designed and implemented in ways to create transformative learning experiences to prepare youth for today's highly collaborative digital world. This study investigates how teachers view various influences encouraging …

Cops, Cameras And Accountability: User-Generated Online Video And Public Space Police-Civilian Interactions, Douglas Alan Kelly

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Video captured by increasingly ubiquitous civilian cameras and communicated to a mass audience over the Internet is capable of bypassing police jurisdictional influence over traditional mass media and may be affecting police-civilian interactions in American public space as the initial cusp of a paradigm shift. Historically, the ability to visually record activities in public space was reserved to those with the resources and the motivation to devote to the task. Police and traditional mass media wielded power through cameras, power often not available to the public. Today, police often find their cameras outnumbered by those under autonomous citizen control. An …

Preparing The Leadership Team To Equip The Church Body For Ministry At The Connecticut Valley Church Of Christ, Samuel J. Garner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis reports on a project to guide the leadership team to prepare the church body for ministry at the Connecticut Valley Church of Christ. This intervention involved the leadership team in a series of one-hour sessions in the fall of 2011 that brought together different sources for theological reflection, such as lectio divina, prayer, theology of equipping from Ephesians 4, contextual engagement with the congregation, and the participants’ own experience of leadership. The sessions’ purpose was to generate discussion and practices among the sources so that the leadership team could become more effective in its congregational role to guide …

K-12 Principals' Perceptions Of Their Technology Leadership Preparedness, Wendy Burns Metcalf

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Adopting technology in the K-12 classroom has moved from adapting lessons that highlight a technology to pervasive use of interactive and handheld devices. This instruction-technology connection creates high expectations to engage today's learners and transform education to support 21st century skills. School leaders have the complex task of incorporating technologies to enhance teaching and learning. The 2009 NETS-A standards were used to define the dimensions of leader preparedness for a technology-rich environment. The research design used a quasi-experimental quantitative study to identify leaders' perceptions of technology leadership preparedness and to determine the impact of one program, the Quality-Plus Leader Academy …

The Relationship Between Teacher Empowerment And Student Achievement, Valerie Denise Squire-Kelly

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to determine the relationship between teacher empowerment and student achievement. Participants in this study were administered the School Participant Empowerment Scale (SPES); this scale measures teacher empowerment on six dimensions: decision making; professional growth; status; self-efficacy; autonomy; and impact (Martin Crossland, & Johnson, 2001). The participants' mean score of the 2010-2011 Criterion Referenced Competency Test scores (CRCT) were used as a measure of student achievement. The SPES were distributed to teachers in five middle schools in one school district in Georgia. The response rate for this study was 85.2 percent. A Pearson Correlation was …

Leveling The Playing Field: Curriculum Studies And Fast Pitch Softball, Melinda M. Roberts

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Women in sport challenge our cultural assumptions about gender and sexuality. Athletics has been viewed as a male domain, with its emphasis on strength, agility, competition, intellect, and aggression. To play sports, women are pressured to maintain and emphasize their femininity without appearing overly aggressive or possessing masculine traits associated with sport, particularly in the team sport of softball. This research examines the expectations a patriarchal society places on young women who play sports competitively and how such expectations with regards to femininity in both behavior and appearance influence a young female athlete's identity formation. Through the lenses of gender …

The Stares To Achievement: African American Youth Resist Risk And Rhetoric To Achieve Academic Success, Ch́E Yvette Wyatt

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

For African American students, academic achievement is often discussed in terms of student deficits and cultural deficiencies. Citing high dropout rates and the achievement gap, focus is often centered on understanding African American achievement in terms of school failures. As such, African American students are, at times, recognized negatively in terms of their academic abilities. Moving away from this deficit perspective of understanding African American students and their school achievement, this study examines the standpoint of six African American students who, despite possessing characteristics that complicated their school experiences, achieved success. Interrupting common discourse and recognizing these students as holders …

A Description Of Accommodations, Modifications, And Forms Of Assessments In Middle Schools That Made Adequate Yearly Progress In An Urban County During 2010, Quinton Joel Morris

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Students with disabilities (SWD) have frequently been one of the subgroups not to make adequate yearly progress (AYP) in middle schools. If one subgroup does not meet the required objectives for meeting Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), the entire school does not meet AYP. The purpose of this study was to identify accommodations, modifications, and forms of assessments that inclusion teachers find useful in middle schools that made adequately yearly progress. The researcher conducted a quantitative study. This study was a descriptive study using survey data. A total of 78 inclusion teachers participated in the study. The data indicated that inclusion …

Leadership That Fosters A Culture Of High Achievement Of African American Students, Alexis Q. Smith

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the sequential, explanatory, mixed methods study was to examine leadership behaviors in the traditional theme schools and their relationship to the culture of high student achievement of African American students. The sample included teachers and principals working in five elementary traditional theme schools with predominately African American populations in one urban school district in the Southeastern United States. The quantitative component of the study was driven by the teacher survey using the Principal Instructional Management Rating Scale (PIMRS) published by Hallinger. The qualitative portion of the study consisted of interviews with each school principal. The teachers' perceptions …

Identifying Best Practices For Student Success In Developmental Education In Georgia, Rodney B. Carr

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Two-year colleges have long enrolled students who are academically underprepared. A key component of the mission of the two-year college is open-access. This overarching mission drives more than 60% of enrollment in developmental education. The national successful completion rate of required developmental education coursework is less than 60%. This study identifies institutions within the University System of Georgia with more than 60% of total student enrollment in developmental education and with an overall successful completion rate of more than 60% as well as the practices that guide these developmental education programs. Two highly effective institutions (HEI) were identified and evaluated …

Elementary Teacher Decisions And Effects Of Years Of Experience, Debra Deann Collins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A wide range of decisions must be made in schools every day. Many of these decisions are made by administrators; however, teachers can and should be involved in decision-making at the school level. Teachers are professionals and should be provided the autonomy to make decisions that they believe are in the best interest of their students, schools, and profession. This research study surveyed certified elementary teachers to determine which types of decisions they desired to participate in making and to determine if years of teaching experience impacted teachers' willingness to participate in certain types of decisions. This study provides elementary …

Stakeholder's Perceptions Of Supplemental Online Learning For Credit Recovery, Theresa Jeanne Pettyjohn

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

District decision-makers and school leaders are faced with the challenge of evaluating various options to support at-risk students who are in danger of not graduating with their peers. Supplemental online learning is considered an innovative means of assisting students with credit recovery. Virtual schools and commercial curriculum providers have enumerated the benefits of online learning; however, the majority of the research has been conducted on post-secondary learners. Therefore, the purpose of this qualitative study was to understand stakeholders' perceptions of the benefits and challenges of high school supplemental online learning for credit recovery. This qualitative study employed a single case …

The Effect Of Classroom Structure And Practice On Transition To Middle School, Eric Paul Schexnaildre

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The passage from elementary school to middle school, along with physical, social, and emotional changes associated with adolescence, often results in personal and social, organizational, and academic declines. The classroom structure of elementary school varies between a team teaching setting and a self-contained setting, and each instructional environment has the potential to impact all areas of development for each student. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between fifth grade classroom setting (team teaching vs. self-contained) and sixth grade student behavior. The gender and the socio-economic status of transitioning students also served as variables of the study. …