Digital Commons Network^™

When Smart Kids Fall Behind: Root Causes And Remediation, Victor T. Logan

Honors Theses

Absenteeism, alongside root causes such as socio-economic status and health indicators, is a primary driving force in young students falling short of academic goals, particularly in elementary and middle school. Determining the root causes of this chronic absence, and the mechanisms by which it hinders student achievement, is necessary to effectively fight back. Which sources of absences are preventable? Which are not? Is it better to construct a system of remediation that broadly addresses the challenges these students face, or to develop multiple smaller systems designed to more specifically target the needs of students based on their particular situation? These …

Coded: Dialect Diversity In The Secondary American Classroom, Madeline Dunn

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the differences between dialects along racial, cultural, and ethnic lines with a specific focus on Black and Latine students inside the public secondary classrooms of America. The focus of the paper is on two linguistic tactics: “code-switching,” a linguistic practice which teaches students to separate their home language from the language they use in formal or professional settings, and “code-meshing,” a linguistic practice to teach students how to mesh together multiple dialects with which a student is familiar. Through the creation of a historical framework and an analysis of existing literature, theory, and pedagogical practices regarding the …

Poetry, Prose, And The Loss Of Verse, Jackson Rowe

Honors Theses

In this essay, I argue that the presence of verse in a text initiates a mutually generative relationship between a text’s sonic and semantic qualities, and that critics’ tendency to praise great prose passages as “poetic” is a result of poetry’s historical connection to verse and the semantic elegance which said verse tends to inspire. I base this argument on Fredrich Nietzsche’s first book, The Birth of Tragedy, and explore, through it, various examples of prosimetrum - that is, works combining poetry and prose.

Pancake Programming: An Interactive Stack-Based Coding Experience In Virtual Reality, William Adams

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Russia's Agenda For Ukraine: An Examination Of Putin's Media Propaganda Narratives, Gillian Grace Littleton

Honors Theses

This thesis explores Russian discourse about Ukraine as reflected in Russian popular media since 2014’s Euromaidan Revolution. The thesis provides an overview of Russia’s historic denial of Ukrainian statehood and it argues: Russian historians and politicians have seen Ukraine as a “little-brother” nation to Russia, with a shared Slavic heritage, and that any attempts by Ukrainians to separate themselves from Russia are Western influence movements. The thesis examines three types of mass media in order to demonstrate the interaction between history, politics and popular culture. Chapter 1 explores the public speeches of key Russian political figures including Vladimir Putin himself, …

The Efficacy Of The Student Communication Repair Inventory And Practical Training Program On Adolescent’S Self-Advocacy Skills In Communication Breakdowns, Karlye Tolbird

Honors Theses

Purpose

Hearing loss can affect several aspects of an adolescent’s life, particularly their self-advocacy skills and ability to communicate their needs in the classroom. Literature shows that adolescents between the ages of 12 and 18 years have a prevalence of hearing loss between 14.9 percent and 19.5 percent (Shargorodsky et al., 2010). Therefore, early identification and intervention of hearing loss are necessary to reduce the adverse effects on the development of cognition, verbal communication skills, and self-advocacy skills (Michael & Zidan, 2018). This research study aimed to determine if the implementation of the SCRIPT program changes the communication repair behavior …

Supporting Teachers With Psychologically Diverse Populations, Morgan Wilkie

Honors Theses

While the issue of mental health management in education settings has been a focus for research for decades now, much of what is missing from these examinations is direct accounts from educators themselves on how they may be better supported as they navigate teaching psychologically diverse populations. In this study, 20 public-school teachers across the Oxford-Lafayette school district were surveyed through the use of semi-structured interviews in order to understand how they may be better equipped to manage psychological disorders in their classrooms. Each participant was asked the same prompt, and after the interviews were administered, their answers were then …

How Are Children's Books Used To Teach France's Core Republican Value Of Equality In Middle School?, Elizabeth Clauss

Honors Theses

The following thesis will evaluate how the French government uses literature in schools to teach the French republican value of equality. The thesis will analyze five works of literature and their authors that are taught in French middle schools. I will analyze how these texts are taught focusing on the theme of equality, and I will look at the lesson plans distributed to schools and their teachers corresponding to each piece of literature.

Education, Media Coverage, And Ballot Roll-Off: Evidence From Three Ballot Measures In Mississippi, Morgan Atkins

Honors Theses

Ballot roll-off is an issue that continues to plague American society, leaving thousands of ballots incomplete every election cycle. In my research, I investigate what influences the likelihood of voters rolling off on three ballot measures in the 2020 Mississippi elections. I hypothesize that educational attainment and newspaper coverage in voters’ counties will have an impact on ballot roll-off. I observe previous research on the influences of ballot roll-off, and I combine the data I collected for voter turnout in Mississippi in 2020 and newspaper coverage of ballot measures from six sources to evaluate the influence of each of these …

Driving Factors Behind Language Use Among Younger Generations In Taiwan: Is The Demise Of Hokkien Inevitable?, Jesse Weaver Paxton

Honors Theses

Globalization and internationalization have undoubtedly led to a decrease in linguistic diversity worldwide. Yet even receiving active governmental support and boasting native speakers in the millions, Taiwanese Hokkien is on the decline. Though researchers have begun to hypothesize why a generational gap exists in local language use within Taiwan, there is little agreement about the possible drivers or causes of the decline. This thesis examines why the use of Taiwanese Hokkien and other local languages has continued to decrease, despite governmental language initiatives and policies created to encourage the use of these languages. Using specific factors that have been identified …

Student Attitudes Towards English Grammar, Evalyn H. Bassett

Honors Theses

The literature on English grammar is mostly on its history, standardization, educational implementations, how ideologies shape its frequency of usage, and how it is perceived by students learning English as a second language. This study seeks to address a gap in the literature that reviews the attitudes of college students towards English grammar as their first language and how these attitudes correlate with any past experience with English grammar up to this point. To gain a better understanding of student’s attitudes towards English grammar, an online mixed-methods survey was distributed to graduate and undergraduate students in all departments of the …

Patients’ Perspective Of Patient-Centered Approach Vs. Biomedical Approach, Lakynn Hillhouse

Honors Theses

Evidence-based practice in audiology may consist of a patient-centered approach or a biomedical approach when offering individuals the results of hearing evaluations. Boisvert et al. (2017) and the Institute for Defense Analysis confirmed that audiologists preferred to select one approach. The question was if an audiology patient is presented with two options of explaining the hearing health issues, which model/approach will be his or her preference?

Participants may have had unconscious biases related to race or gender that could have unknowingly impacted their perception of the videos. The results of this research will facilitate clinical understanding of individual preferences regarding …

Body Image Perceptions Reflected In Social Media: A Guatemalan Instagram Study, Sarah Harris

Honors Theses

Guatemala has faced a long battle with colonialism, civil war, and an ensuing, rapid urbanization. Still today, the country exhibits high levels of malnourishment while also facing an ascending obesity epidemic. This project seeks to explore how the obesity epidemic has changed body image perceptions in the region. Through the use of social media accounts on Instagram, I aim to analyze how Guatemalan influencers use their platform to explore notions of varying body image perceptions in a country where food is culturally significant, malnutrition has plagued many communities, and obesity is growing in prevalence daily. This thesis aims to answer …

Rawls And Vattimo: An Argument For Congeniality Between Political Liberalism And Hermeneutical Nihilism, Tanner Cheek

Honors Theses

In this thesis, I will evaluate the relationship between the liberal political philosophy of John Rawls and the hermeneutical nihilism of the Italian philosopher and politician Gianni Vattimo. I will argue for congeniality as the best characterization of this relationship. In the first chapter, I will briefly describe the political philosophy of Rawls, highlighting those ideas which will be especially relevant to the following chapters. In the second chapter, I will detail the ideas of hermeneutical nihilism as put forth by Gianni Vattimo, consider the areas of intersection of this philosophical view with that of Rawls, and argue for congeniality …

Delineating The Source And Implications Of Social Polarization, Logan Kohan

Honors Theses

The purpose of this research was to examine the causes and consequences that meta-perceptions of polarization in the United States entails. The survey used in this study assessed respondents demographic and political information prior to questions regarding polarization. This study found that the polarization in the United States results from a multitude of variables, including: the intrusion of partisan cues into everyday life, social sorting, polarization’s implicit effect, and differences in moral concern. Moreover, polarization encompasses and variety of ramifications that include disease, amplified interparty animosity, biased policy evaluation, reduced governmental efficiency, intraparty polarization, tribalism, and the quest to achieve …

Protest Music And Survival In The Basque Country During The Franco Regime, Michael J. Dodick Jr

Honors Theses

This thesis is an examination of the origins of the Basque Nationalist movement that originated in the late nineteenth century, the Spanish Civil War that followed, and how a dictatorial regime damaged a minority autonomous region, the Basque Country. Within this scope, a singular, unique musical and artistic collective contributed efforts in preserving and growing Basque culture, a culture that had been refined to place focus on nationalistic ideals, unifying traditions, Euskera, and the nation of Euskadi. Ez Dok Amairu, the focus of this thesis, was a short-lived artistic group that concentrated on producing art, literature, and music (among other …

Pendulums Of Personhood? Exploring The Multitudes Of Immigrant Womanhood In Spanish-Maghrebi Literature, Kaitlyn C. Sisco

Honors Theses

Often considered articulations of in-between-ness and bearers of fraught selfhoods, the work of Spanish-Maghrebi authors has been widely debated in literary fields, with academics arguing that it constitutes a largely homogenous set of texts about the standard immigrant experience. However, by placing these texts in a single category, such arguments end up erasing the immensely varied identities expressed and represented by Spanish-Maghrebi authors. This thesis seeks to address this issue by paying particular attention to how Spanish-Maghrebi authors negotiate different types of immigrant subjectivities in their writing. Specifically, I analyze the works of three contemporary Spanish-Maghrebi writers, Najat El Hachmi, …

A Study Of Public Accounting And Related Economic Concepts, Seth Gerus

Honors Theses

This thesis consists of several case studies relating to different topics within the world of accounting. These cases were completed as assignments within the thesis practicum class taught by Dr. Victoria Dickinson. Each case pertains to a different accounting-related topic, and topics include the fundamentals of accounting as well as recent events in the business world. The thesis also includes a five-week long case competition in which students were put into groups to present Audit, Tax, and Advisory strategies for companies headquartered in the United States. Each of these cases were completed during the course of the Fall 2020 and …

Social Media Agenda Setting Of Environmental Policy Issues In Switzerland, Canaan Vaughan

Honors Theses

This paper seeks to develop methodologies and testing methods for the agenda setting power of Swiss political organizational accounts on Twitter to determine who sets agenda about environmental topics. Previous research has examined social media’s agenda setting power over traditional media but has been unable to draw conclusions on which political organizations set agenda on other organizations. Research has suggested that larger organizations might have an agenda setting role over smaller ones, and organizations perceived as experts may set agenda over others. Twitter data from official organizational accounts was collected, encoded as environmental or not, and then fitted to a …

Prone To Success: The Effects Of Prone On Handwriting Legibility, Magdalene M. Pearl

Honors Theses

This study was conducted to answer the question: “Does writing in prone result in more legible handwriting?” due to the prevalence of the prone position used in occupational therapy as a handwriting intervention and the lack of data supporting it. The study participants included 43 kindergarteners divided into an intervention group and control group based on convenience through classroom enrollment. The intervention or prone group did at least three prone activities a week for three weeks and the control group followed their normal handwriting curriculum. A pre-posttest of each group was performed using the Handwriting Without Tears Screener of Handwriting …

Dos Idiomas: Concise Recommendations For Bilingual Speech Therapy, Erin E. F. Wilson

Honors Theses

Spanish-English dual language learners living in the United States present an incredibly diverse and heterogeneous group. Many members of this community may experience a variety of communication disorders that must be addressed by speech-language pathologists and associated professionals. Currently, these children face many barriers to receiving proper speech and language services and care, including misidentification, miscommunication with caregivers, and inappropriate intervention methods. This thesis project outlines several key differences that clinicians should be aware of in the development of bilingual children and continues to describe key clinical strategies that can be used during identification, intervention, and caregiver involvement. It is …

Research Over Improved Methods Of Affective Text Analysis, Zachary Shipp

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

It's Just Caring: Improving The Museum Experience For Visitors With Autism Through Social Narratives, Reagan R. Stone

Honors Theses

This project explores how museums can improve the visitor experience for visitors with disabilities, more specifically for visitors with autism. In general, museums are environments that have a specific set of rules, guidelines, and built-in social interactions that visitors are expected to understand and follow. These guidelines, as well as the sensory overload that exists within a new environment, can make visiting the museum a stressful, and even negative experience for individuals with autism and their families. A social narrative, a simple written and visual guide that explains characteristics of new environments and various aspects of social situations, is a …

Female Students’ Perception Of Stem Identity At Utrgv, Kristen L. Hallas

Honors Theses

Despite the increase in representation of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) undergraduate programs, they are still underrepresented in the workforce. Recent statistics published by the National Science Foundation show that the rate of females and Hispanic/Latina females earning degrees does not match the rate in which they earn STEM occupations, especially advanced degrees. Moreover, out of early career doctorate holders, women are less likely to hold post-doctoral scholar positions and are more likely to hold an academic, non-tenure track position. In response to these disparities, I sought to identify the strongest motivators driving the ambition of female …

Sentiment Trends In Political Tweets: A Case Study Of Marjorie Taylor Greene, Madeline Enlow

Honors Theses

Political public relations has changed in recent years with new developments in social media, leading to a greater use of digital communication. This thesis focuses on the wording in Twitter posts. This purpose of this case study is to find the potential effect of tweet sentiment on audience engagement when looking specifically at messages from Marjorie Taylor Greene’s professional Twitter account. A sentiment analysis of a sixth-month time span of tweets was created using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) system. The variables assigned for tone were averaged for each day and charted on a graph, showing when they …

Song Lyrics In The Hobbit: What They Tell Us, Thalia Mcinnis-Trussell

Honors Theses

Tolkien is argued by many to be the author of the century, a legend, and the kickstart to the fantasy genre. Despite these claims, there is very little research done about the song lyrics in his works, especially not in The Hobbit. I have analyzed how the song lyrics show the relationship with time and history of each race—dwarves, elves, hobbits, and goblins—and how their values are shown through their lyrics.

Keywords: Tolkien, The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings, Songs, Music, Hobbits, Dwarves, Elves, Goblins, Values

Deficits In Health Literacy And Inadequacies Of Specialized Health Care In The South For Deaf And Hard Of Hearing Patients, Kaleb Kittrell

Honors Theses

Health literacy is a constantly evolving concept that requires similarly evolving adaptation and specialization of health care to increase the quality of life for all. One demographic that is largely ignored when it comes to research in health literacy, specifically in the traditional South, is the d/Deaf and hard of hearing/Hard of Hearing (DHH) population. The purpose of this study is to determine the general health literacy of this specific demographic and compare results with that of other demographics to highlight the anticipated deficit in health literacy levels and emphasize the critical need for specialized care. This prospective, non-experimental, descriptive …

#Blacklivesmatter: Critical Political Implications Of Twitter Discourse In The Wake Of George Floyd, Jillian C. Waterhouse

Honors Theses

As we move forward into a digitalized age of communication, social media becomes increasingly powerful with each passing day. Digital forms of interaction foster an active political discourse and influence the behavior of both the public and government officials. The freedom to deliver public statements at will has been effectively utilized by individuals, local activists, and representatives of the legislative branch to interact in discourse concerning current events, therefore furthering the mobilization of social media to shape the American public policy stage as a whole. As a result of the accessibility of the internet, social media has become the most …

Andy Stewart, Andy M. Stewart, And Exonostalgia: The Draw Of Tartanry And Kailyard School, Sarah Tackitt

Honors Theses

Andy Stewart and Andy M. Stewart are popular Scottish folk and traditional musicians operating at different periods during the development of mass media. Andy Stewart’s career was marked by the introduction of the television into Scotland, and he made his career being compére of the Scottish television show The White Heather Club. After gaining international recognition, viewers and listeners associated his tartanry and stereotypically Scottish humor as representative of his culture and country.

Andy M. Stewart gained international recognition during the folk revival, in which he wrote songs both for his solo career and for the band Silly Wizard …

Falling For Moses: The Role Of Stroop Inhibition And Language Expertise, Isabella Holmgren

Honors Theses

When presented with the question, “How many animals of each kind did Moses take on the Ark?”, people often respond “2”, despite knowing that Noah is the Biblical figure who is said to have taken animals on the ark. This phenomenon where people fail to detect inaccuracies in text has come to be known as the Moses Illusion (Erickson & Mattson, 1981). The current study was designed to investigate Moses illusion rates in a multiple-choice format. Further, participants were assessed on two cognitive constructs: language experience and cognitive inhibition. Results showed robust rates of the Moses illusion using the multiple-choice …