Digital Commons Network^™

Interkulturelle Kompetenz Im Fremdsprachenunterricht In Österreich: Ein Adaptierungsversuch Einer Schulbucheinheit Anhand Des Rfcdc Des Council Of Europe, Caroline Jäger

Master's Theses

Die Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit den Fragen, welches Modell von interkultureller Kompetenz für den Fremdsprachenunterricht in Österreich geeignet ist und wie eine praktische Implementierung des selbigen in Form eines Adaptierungsversuches einer Schulbucheinheit aussehen könnte.

Neben einer Vorstellung des Reference Framework for Democratic Culture (RFCDC) des Council of Europe werden seine Parallelen mit dem Lehrplan der Neuen Mittelschule in Österereich herausgearbeitet. Im Zuge einer Analyse der vorhandenen Kompetenzen des RFCDC an einem Kapitel des Schulbuchs More! 4 wird dessen Konzept praktisch greifbar. Die Ergebnisse werden anschließend kritisch reflektiert; in weiterer Folge werden Ideen und Anregungen zu einer potentiellen, vertieften Anwendung der …

Understanding Macro-Scale Patterns In Urban Tree Canopy And Inequity Across Socio-Cultural And Biophysical Regions, Elliott Volin

Master's Theses

Urban forests provide a variety of ecosystem services that influence environmental and social welfare within developed areas. Prior studies have evaluated the effects of inequitable distribution of urban tree canopy (UTC) on ecological and social benefits, leading to inequalities within individual cities. However, it is not well established how such relationships vary among urban areas in different biophysical and socio-cultural regions. The objective of our study was to identify regional and continental trends in the relationships of UTC with socioeconomic/ demographic factors and characteristics of urban regions (e.g., development patterns, timing). To address our objective, we utilized iTree Landscape and …

Tall Tales Of Danger And Security: How A Critical Human Security Approach Can Address Major Contradictions Revealed Through A Critical Narrative Analysis Of Dominant U.S. Security Strategies, Stephen Schneider

Master's Theses

Over many generations, humans have developed many perspectives and practices regarding the best ways to recognize and address what they perceive to be dangerous. Stories are used to help shape and narrate perceptions about the world, and they serve to pass on vital information that impacts how a society responds to threats and vulnerabilities. These narratives of danger and security are subjective to the experiences and political intentions of society, and therefore in many ways are partial and biased in their assessments and policies. This results in flawed security practices that may actually exacerbate threats or create new insecurities. What …

Triple Bottom Line As A Method To Increase Business Value And Foster Positive Social And Environmental Change, Jayleene West

Master's Theses

The Triple Bottom Line (TBL) business model has transformed the business world by changing the way businesses operate. By focusing on the people and the environment, businesses have grown to see substantial profit and avoid risks along the way. Companies are using the TBL to build their brand and customer loyalty by enhancing the environment and society. This paper analyzes four companies that are leaders in their industry and are founded on the TBL; Seventh Generation, New Belgium Brewing, Patagonia, and Ben & Jerry’s. Recommendations have been made by performing a literature review on the advantages and disadvantages of the …

On Education And Family: Testimonios Of Latina Immigrant Daughters, Monica Chavez

Master's Theses

Latina college students must balance the needs of family while navigating pursuit of a college degree. Using testimonio, I explore how family and self-identity influenced the educational journeys of four Latinas who attended and graduated college in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. Utilizing the frameworks of mestiza consciousness and subject formation, I uncover the ways their status as first-generation college student, second-generation immigrant daughter, and Latina manifested expectations (from family and self) and feelings of apprehension and loneliness that came to define their college experience. Through the process of testimonio and critical selfreflection, solidarity can be established and the process …

The Integration Of Syrian Refugees In Turkey Via Education, Aysenur Hacioglu

Master's Theses

The Syrian conflict, which was initiated as a pro-democratic movement against Bashar Assad’s government, has displaced millions of people both internally and externally. Since the beginning of the conflict, 6.6 million people are internally displaced, while 5.6 million people seek refuge in other countries. Many Syrians scattered to neighboring countries, principally Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq, and Egypt. Turkey, who shares the longest borderline with Syria, hosts 63 percent of the total number of Syrian refugees, currently at more than 3.5 million (UNHCR, 2018b). However, Turkey as the country with the highest number of refugees in the world does not legally …

The Best Interests Of The Child Or The State? The Rights Of The Child In Non-Lpr Cancellation Of Removal, Lizzie Bird

Master's Theses

This thesis argues that the United States is failing to fulfill its obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) in its adjudication of the hardship standard in non-LPR cancellation of removal. It is well-documented that the current interpretation of the “exceptional and extremely unusual hardship” standard results in the separation of families and de facto deportation of children, many of whom are U.S. citizens. This thesis contends that this practice is not only unjust, but also unlawful.

First, it argues that the CRC in general and Article 3 (the “best interests” principle) in particular have risen …

An Exploratory Study Of Acculturation Experiences Of Graduate Student Immigrants At The University Of San Francisco, Courtney Lamar

Master's Theses

This study explores the shared challenges during the acculturation process of graduate student immigrants pursuing higher education in the United States. 13 graduate student immigrants at the University of San Francisco discuss their experiences of cultural adjustment into U.S. culture. Through qualitative interviews and thematic analysis, this study seeks to understand the acculturation experiences of graduate student immigrants in the San Francisco Bay Area of the United States. This analysis is based on the individual-level experience examining attitudes and acculturation strategies in the dominant society. Analysis, possibly policy implication for institutions of higher education, and possible directions for future research …

Understanding The Attitude In Israel Towards The Application Of The Right Of Return For Palestinian Refugees, Wafaa Abuzayda

Master's Theses

The Palestinian refugee crisis is considered one of the oldest, largest, and most complicated refugee issues in the world. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians have been displaced as a result of the 1948 and 1967 wars between Israel and the Arab states. Before fleeing their homes, Palestinians were persecuted and intimidated by the Israeli army in 1947 and 1948, causing people to flee to different neighboring geographical areas such as the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria. The UNRWA, a UN-associated entity, was established and began operations on May 1, 1950 to support relief efforts benefiting the estimated …

Afterschool Educators' Teaching Practices Through Tinkering: Nurturing Student Collaboration, Engagement, And Development Of Self-Confidence, Lianna Kali

Master's Theses

Since the early 2000s constructionist pedagogy has become an increasingly popular trend in both formal and informal science, technology, engineering, art, and math (STEAM) learning environments to support transformative educational outcomes through the making of personally meaningful objects and artifacts. But with this rise in popularity comes a challenge for educators: understanding what are the teaching practices that are most effective in a maker-centered learning environment to support student learning. Through an ethnographic case study of the teaching practices in a tinkering afterschool program, this study examines the core pedagogical facilitation moves of tinkering educators and investigates how those moves …

Now Hiring: Exploring Deportee Transnational Identities And Socio-Economic Reintegration In Baja California, Mexico’S Call Center Industry, Brenda Vargas

Master's Theses

The anti-immigrant rhetoric in the U.S. intensified deportation, including that of Mexican and Salvadorian migrants with some having served in the U.S. military. Despite weak social connections and explicit/structural barriers in Mexico, many deportees make the decision to stay in Mexico. The focus of this thesis is male deportees belonging to the “1.5 generation,” aged late 20’s-early 60’s, who, after spending their childhood and adulthood in the U.S., have undergone deportation and are faced with social and economic reintegration in the northern border area of Baja California, Mexico. Through 15 in-depth semi-structured interviews, I explore transnational identity negotiations that impact …

Progressing Flight: A Transformative And Somatically-Informed Performance Practice For The Aerial Dance Student Practitioner, Rosalinda Rojas

Master's Theses

Somatic based methods is an emerging area of interest within the subject area of dance study and more recent in aerial movement practice. Somatic movement experiences have inherent, distinctive and transformative characteristics to deepen understanding and knowledge of the concept of soma. This thesis investigates how somatic based exercises might influence physical strength, endurance, body awareness and sensitivity in an original research design. The study incorporates Progressing Ballet Technique or traditional based aerial circus methods with an aim to answer three essential questions. How might the use of somatic based or traditional aerial movement methods improve students’ muscular strength and …

Cultivating And Fostering Creativity, Communication, Collaboration And Critical Thinking Through The Choreographic Dance Making Process: A Dance Curriculum For Urban Elementary Students, Kristen Sylvia Mercer

Master's Theses

The purpose of this research was to determine how the four skills of creativity, critical thinking, communication and collaboration are defined and how dance making and choreography might be taught to urban elementary students in a way that also teaches each of these four skills. The thesis attempted to answer the four research questions by reviewing existing literature and qualitatively mining and analyzing the data in order to discover techniques and ideas that could be used to design the desired curriculum. The researcher used a similar process to understand how dance making might best be taught to elementary school children, …

Teaching Musical Theatre Skills In The Performance-Based Classroom: James And The Giant Peach, Kelsey Alys Meiklejohn

Master's Theses

The popularity of musical theatre in America is driving more students to seek out performance opportunities while theatre classrooms are facing dwindling attendance rates. The goal of this thesis is to determine whether it is possible to employ the mounting of a full-scale musical production of James and the Giant Peach in a classroom setting to motivate student growth in acting, singing, and dance due to the product-oriented environment. The complex material in the script and score of James and the Giant Peach was adequately challenging to necessitate and promote significant student growth as musical theatre performers. Through working on …

The Boys Next Door: Progressing Disability Awareness And Representation Through Inclusive Production Practices, Shelby Lewis

Master's Theses

The Boys Next Door was a progressive and popular piece of theatre when first produced in 1986 and remains a ripe tool for spreading disability consciousness if mounted with research and respect. Playwright, Tom Griffin, chronicles a series of amusing and meaningful events in the lives of four men with varying levels of cognitive impairments told through the lens of Jack Palmer, their able-bodied supervisor. The goal of this thesis production was to illuminate the opportunities, challenges, and considerations required to produce this play with a message that is progressive to the goals of the disability community rather than detrimental. …

Amplifying The Prediction Of Team Performance Through Swarm Intelligence And Machine Learning, Erick Michael Harris

Master's Theses

Modern companies are increasingly relying on groups of individuals to reach organizational goals and objectives, however many organizations struggle to cultivate optimal teams that can maximize performance. Fortunately, existing research has established that group personality composition (GPC), across five dimensions of personality, is a promising indicator of team effectiveness. Additionally, recent advances in technology have enabled groups of humans to form real-time, closed-loop systems that are modeled after natural swarms, like flocks of birds and colonies of bees. These Artificial Swarm Intelligences (ASI) have been shown to amplify performance in a wide range of tasks, from forecasting financial markets to …

Postpartum Depression In The News Media, Lauren Michelle Mcdonald

Master's Theses

The current study analyzed the relationship between gender constructs and the construction of illness in the news media. Drawing on Entman’s (1993) framing analysis, the present study assessed if postpartum depression was constructed in the news media differently for men and women. Using LexisNexis, 153 news media articles were collected from major United States news sources between 1994-2016 using keywords such as, postpartum depression and paternal depression. The content analysis indicated that the definition of postpartum depression, the cause of the illness, the moral evaluations and the prescribed treatments were related to gender constructs. Overall, these findings enhance our understanding …

Posttraumatic Stress And Hazardous Alcohol Use In College Students: The Moderating Role Of Alcohol Protective Behavioral Strategies, Hallie R. Jordan

Master's Theses

The present study evaluated the moderating role of alcohol protective behavioral strategy subtypes (Al-PBS; Serious Harm Reduction [SHR], Manner of Drinking [MOD], Stopping/Limiting Drinking [SLD]) and gender on the relationships between traumatic stress symptoms and both hazardous drinking and alcohol-related negative consequences. Participants were 915 traditional age (18 to 25 years old) college students from nine universities in the United States who reported drinking in the past. All participants reported their gender and completed measures of traumatic stress symptoms, Al-PBS use, hazardous drinking, and alcohol-related negative consequences through an online survey. Experiencing greater traumatic stress symptoms was associated with both …

Epic Adolescence: Contemporary Adolescence In Philip Pullman’S His Dark Materials, Chloe Felterman

Master's Theses

To find the truth of a societal construct or phenomena, it can help to look at the world of fiction and fantasy. Though this idea may seem ironic or counter-intuitive, one will find that fictional literature can reveal the working order of its respective society. Philip Pullman’s epic fantasy trilogy, His Dark Materials, uses and manipulates the traditional constructs of the genre to reflect and re-imagine the concepts of adolescence of the late-20^th and early-21^st centuries. Eleven-year-old protagonist Lyra Belacqua and subsequently her cohort, Will Perry, reveal the complications and difficulties modern American and British adolescents experience as …

Increasing Teachers' Use Of Behavior Specific Praise Via A Smart Watch, Kristi White

Master's Theses

This study evaluated the effects of a teacher prompting procedure to increase teacher behavior specific praise using a Smart Watch. Participants included three Head Start general education teachers. An ABAB design across participants was used to examine the effects of Smart Watch-based prompts on teachers’ praise rate. The study consisted of four phases: a) baseline, b) teacher praise training and intervention, c) withdrawal from intervention, and d) intervention reinstated. Implementation of the intervention resulted in increases of average behavior specific praise rates and general praise rates for all three participants. Although, averages fail to reach criterion set by the researcher …

The Influence Of Socioeconomic Status And Subjective Social Status On The Career Development Of College Students, Dylan Richard

Master's Theses

Social class is often examined across social science disciplines and contains two distinct parts: socioeconomic status (SES) and subjective social status (SSS). Researchers have established that college students from various SES backgrounds experience college differently, however little research has examined how universities and those that work with college students can help aid the career development of students given their SES. Career development is a broad area of research; therefore, the current study examines a number of career development variables that are key in understanding college students’ career development, such as career adaptability, career decision-making difficulty, work values, and vocational interests. …

Parental Attachment And Adult Attachment: The Moderating Role Of Dispositional Forgiveness And Gratitude, Christian Ammons

Master's Theses

Secure parental attachment, characterized by trust, care, and autonomy granting, is associated with improved psychological functioning and adjustment to college and is often associated with adult attachment relationships. Similarly, adult attachment, a characteristic of adult relationships, has been associated with improved college adjustment. Individual differences such as dispositional forgiveness and gratitude are often associated with secure adult attachment but have not been examined in relation to parent child attachment. The current study examined dispositional forgiveness and gratitude as moderators of the relationship between parental attachment and adult attachment. A sample of 185 college students participated and as expected, parental attachment …

Pathways Of Psychopathic Traits To Aggression Through Affective Correlates, Olivia C. Preston

Master's Theses

This thesis project examines the roles of empathy facets and emotion dysregulation in the relationship between psychopathic personality traits and aggression within an undergraduate sample. The project addresses three gaps in research – how psychopathic personality traits relate to empathy facets from a recently developed measure of empathy (Affective and Cognitive Measure of Empathy [ACME]; Vachon & Lynam, 2016); how psychopathic traits indirectly affect aggression functions (i.e., reactive, proactive) through empathy facets; and how emotion regulation contributes to these relations, above and beyond empathy. The sample was comprised of 368 university students. Findings indicated that largely all psychopathic traits were …

Psychopathic Personality Traits As A Moderator Of The Relationship Between Social Intelligence And Relational Aggression, Savannah Merold

Master's Theses

Social intelligence has been identified as one of many predictors of relational aggression. It is likely that a certain level of social intelligence may be necessary for relationally aggressive behaviors to be effective (e.g., some ability to understand human behavior is necessary to effectively harm others through the manipulation of status, social relationships, or sense of belonging). And yet, social intelligence is unlikely to be sufficient to produce relationally aggressive behavior. Merely because someone has the requisite levels of social intelligence to use relational aggression does not mean that he or she will be motivated to do so. There is …

Political Beliefs, Region Of Residence, And Openness To Firearm Means Safety Measures To Prevent Suicide, Sarah E. Butterworth

Master's Theses

Firearms account for approximately half of all suicides in the US and are highly lethal, widely available, and popular; thus, firearms are an ideal candidate for targeted means safety interventions. However, despite their value as a suicide prevention tool, firearm means safety strategies are not widely utilized, possibly due to factors which impede openness to their use. This study examined the relationship between region, political beliefs, and openness to firearm means safety in a sample of 300 American firearm owners. Overall, firearm owners were more willing to engage in means safety for others than for themselves and to store firearms …

Using Personality Traits To Predict Pectoral Fin Contact Initiation Role In Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops Truncatus), Riley Paige Macgregor

Master's Theses

Contact with the pectoral fin facilitates formation and maintenance of social relationships between dolphins (Dudzinski & Ribic, 2017). Additionally, several studies have shown that bottlenose dolphins have distinct personalities that are consistent across time and situation (e.g., Highfill & Kuczaj, 2007; Kuczaj, Highfill, & Byerly, 2012), and it has been suggested that these individual differences (i.e., personality) may influence tactile behavior exchanges. The current study therefore aimed to determine if bottlenose dolphin personality traits predict whether and how dolphins initiate contact as a rubber or rubbee during pectoral fin contact exchanges, and to identify whether the effects of personality traits …

Vulnerable Narcissism, Self-Criticism, And Self-Injurious Behavior: Emotion Regulation As A Moderator, Philip Stoner

Master's Theses

College students of traditional age have an elevated risk of self-injury (McManus et al., 2015). Self-injurious behavior (SIB) often indicates increased mental health concerns and elevated suicide risk (Whitlock, Eckenrode & Silverman, 2006). Self-criticism represents a non-physical form of self-injury (Baetens, et al., 2015), which is also associated with psychological distress and suicidal behavior. Thus, it is important to understand the risk factors associated with SIB and self-criticism. Vulnerable narcissism has been linked to self-injury (Dawood et al., 2017); however, there is little consensus about the nature of this relationship. Moreover, vulnerable narcissism has been associated with impaired emotion regulation …

The Effect Of Changing Appraisals Of Current Life Success On Memories Of Love Towards Parents, Mario Herrera

Master's Theses

As we experience successes and failures in life, do we bias our memories of childhood? Cognitive appraisal theory would predict that emotions are elicited based on the current appraisal of an event or person. There is some research that these current appraisals can also distort memories of emotions surrounding an event. No past research has investigated whether current appraisal of life success would affect important autobiographical memories. Here, we examine the effects on childhood memory of love felt towards parents. Due to current appraisal theory, we expected memory of love towards parents would be prone to distortion and bias. We …

Determinants Of Team Resilience; The Role Of A Reset Process Across Conditions, Jeffrey Hanrahan

Master's Theses

No abstract provided.

Development And Cost-Effectiveness Of A Malnutrition Screening Program In A Skilled Nursing Setting, Emily Salas-Groves

Master's Theses

Malnutrition increases the cost of healthcare and is commonly unrecognized and untreated. These facts are especially true for healthcare settings that provide care to the elderly. Research emphasizes the need for malnutrition prevention in extended care facilities such as skilled nursing facilities (SNFs) so that patients receive timely and appropriate intervention(s).

The purpose of this study was to retroactively screen SNF patients using four alternative malnutrition screening tools and to compare results to those from the facility screening tool. A second purpose was to estimate differences in potential Medicare reimbursement based on the number of patients identified at risk for …