Digital Commons Network^™

The Effects Of Repeated Reading And Goal Setting On Student Reading Fluency, Joann T. Ford

Masters Theses

This study investigated the effect of repeated reading and goal setting on students' oral reading fluency (ORF). Third grade students (n=24) were randomly assigned to one of three groups: repeated reading and goal setting, repeated reading, and no-treatment control group. Treatment groups met for six weeks, four times per week for 20 minutes. A paired repeated reading procedure was used and weekly progress monitoring occurred using third grade DIBELS ORF progress monitoring probes. Repeated reading and goal setting group set weekly goals, graphed fluency data, and received feedback. All groups made gains in reading fluency. Although no significant effects were …

Mental Telepathy And Social Fields: A Within Session Decline Effect, Timothy K. Bunfill

Masters Theses

The current study involves the exploration of several variables relating to the facilitation of mental telepathy from a social field perspective. Groups of participants ranging from 8 to 35 attempted to telepathically send information regarding one of four target locations to a receiver who was selected at random from the group. During each of ten sessions, an average of nine receivers completed 16 trials apiece over a period of two hours. It was hypothesized that since all participants had a previous experience with a telepathy task, they would score above chance initially and that as sessions progressed fatigue or boredom …

Reading Instruction Software Vs. Peer Tutoring For Improving Oral Reading Fluency, Morgan Carlyle

Masters Theses

Research suggests that computer-based instruction program is as effective as peer tutoring in increasing students' oral reading fluency rates. However, few experimental studies have compared these two reading interventions. The present study compared the effect of a computer-based reading instruction program, Reader Rabbit I Can Read with Phonics, with peer tutoring. Second grade students were randomly assigned to computer tutoring, peer tutoring, or control groups; and they read the same reading material for twenty minutes, two times a week for six weeks. Participants in the computer group used a segment of the reading software instruction program, Reader Rabbit I can …

Barriers And Facilitators To Health Seeking Behavior Of Individuals With Social Phobia, Kendra M. Holder Kennedy

Masters Theses

This study explored both the facilitators and barriers to treatment of individuals who have difficulties with anxiety in social situations. These barriers and facilitators to treatment were examined with respect to the participants' level of anxiety and their stage of change. Eleven participants, ten females and one male, completed the study. A screening procedure established that each participant was likely experiencing social phobia. These participants were then interviewed using a semi-structured interview. One of the main goals of the study was to develop an interview and coding procedures that provided reliable data. This goal was accomplished; the procedures used in …

Effects Of Response Card Use On Student Participation And Academic Achievement In An Elementary Classroom, Christina J. Diel

Masters Theses

This study compared the effectiveness of hand raising with the use of response cards in a sixth-grade general education classroom during whole-group social studies instruction. Dependent variables included the frequency of active student responding during instruction and student performance on both weekly quizzes and maintenance tests. Participants included 14 sixth-grade general education students (6 boys and 8 girls), ranging in ages from 11 to 12. An ABAB design was utilized to evaluate the effectiveness of the experimental condition. Participants were exposed to the hand raising condition during weeks 1 and 3 and the response card condition during weeks 2 and …

Predicting State Standardized Achievement Test Scores Using Curriculum Based Measurement In Third Grade, Lindsey Mitts

Masters Theses

With No Child Left Behind placing strong penalties on schools not making adequate yearly progress, many schools are searching for ways to predict student performance on state standardized achievement tests. The current study provides evidence as to the predictive nature of oral reading fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension data taken from a basal reading series, as well as student reading levels from an informal reading inventory, on Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT) performance. Multiple regression analyses showed these measures to account for slightly more than one-half of the overall predicted variance in ISAT Reading performance. Furthermore, t-tests showed that a significant …

An Investigation Of The Dynamic Indicators Of Basic Early Literacy Skills (Dibels) And The Illinois Snapshot Of Early Literacy (Isel), Cara Williams

Masters Theses

This longitudinal study was conducted to compare and investigate the predictive power of DIBELS and ISEL measures. Data were collected to determine if ISEL and DIBELS measures similarly identify students as being at-risk. The predictive value of DIBELS and ISEL scores were evaluated in relation to third grade Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) scores and Illinois Standards of Achievement Test (ISAT) scores. Participants included 63 students from one grade level at a Chicago suburban school. Test scores from kindergarten through third grade were obtained for these students. Results indicate that the risk identification of students was significantly different between ISEL …

The Relationship Between Number Of Sports Played And Risky Sexual Behavior In High School Girls, Jennifer Martin

Masters Theses

Little is known about how the extent of athletic participation relates to sexual conduct for adolescent girls. The present study investigated how the number of sports played by female athletes in high school predicted their reports of risky sexual behavior. Participants included 2,304 female high school students from 9th grade through 12th grade from a Midwestern state. The students attended 27 high schools in seven counties and were recruited from a health prevention program called I Sing the Body Electric. As part of this program, students completed a confidential questionnaire that evaluated a number of health related issues. Two questions …

Factors That Hinder And Facilitate Help-Seeking Behaviors In Individuals With Social Anxiety, Hyland L. Smith

Masters Theses

This project focused on the development of a semi-structured interview for use in the exploration of factors that hinder or facilitate help-seeking behaviors of individuals with social anxiety. By participating in a qualitative semi-structured interview 10 participants identified factors that facilitated seeking professional help and barriers that prevented seeking professional help. Participants were grouped into two groups based on five stages of behavioral change proposed by Prochaska et al. (1983; 1991; 1992; 1999). The two groups were compared on the number of self-reported facilitator and barrier statements they made as well as their self-reported number of severity statements made. Participants …

The Experiences Of African American Males On A Predominantly White Campus, Dannie Earl Moore Ii

Masters Theses

The purposes of this qualitative study were to evaluate teacher/student relationships between African American male college students and white male professors to ascertain to perceptions of college among African American males on a predominantly white campus. To be considered for participation, each student met the following criteria: (1) in their final year of college, (2) had at least one white male instructor, and (3) African American male. Characteristics such as age, academic degree program, extracurricular involvement, and prior enrollment at another institution were not considered among the selection criteria to protect confidentiality. Results from the present study include the perceptions …

Coping Strategy Use And Resilience Among Children Reporting Victimization, Julie K. Gepner

Masters Theses

Prior studies have established the negative implications of peer victimization; additional literature has focused on how children cope with the negative effects of peer bullying. However, no current research has examined the specific coping strategies, which may result in resiliency to the negative effects of peer victimization. The present study examined victimization, coping strategies, and resilience in a sample of 143 third through sixth grade students. The results indicated that the coping strategy of seeking social support was associated with resiliency among victims of aggression. In contrast, coping using externalizing behavior was associated with significantly lower levels of resiliency. The …

Boundary-Crossers: Observation, Chance, And Change In The Fiction Of Thomas Hardy, D. Levi Woolen-Danner

Masters Theses

Thomas Hardy creates in his fiction a world that demands love lead to failure. His hero and heroine are tragic nearly without exception, as if desire were not just a burden, but a catalyst for disaster. Perhaps this is due to the period in which Hardy was living, and his need to reconcile his memories of an idyllic past with the dramatic social and econonomic changes contemporary to his period of novel-writing. Perhaps he is trying to discover a new model of living-one that will not be trapped by human desires. He has created a figure, one I refer to …

American Books Of The Dead: Mourning And Denial In The Fiction Of Don Delillo And Cormac Mccarthy, Allan E. Crandell

Masters Theses

The novels of Don DeLillo and Cormac McCarthy are heavily pervaded by themes of mortality and its denial. DeLillo's White Noise (1985), with its emblematic centerpiece of an "Airborne Toxic Event," was succeeded by the slim depiction of mourning deferred, The Body Artist (2001). Likewise, Cormac McCarthy's epic Appalachian novel, Suttree (1979), is ridden with images of death and strangled mourning, a work followed by Blood Meridian or the Evening Redness in the West (1985), a historiographic depiction of unrelenting, culturally repressed bloodshed. This thesis maintains that DeLillo and McCarthy warn us in these novels about the American way of …

Relational Aggression In Adolescent Girls: Developing Self-Esteem For The Target Girl, Lisa Suzanne Gulch

Masters Theses

Relational aggression (RA) is rampant in our schools, especially in middle schools across America. The name-calling, rumors, exclusion, eye-rolling, and whispers work to undermine relationships between and amongst girls. Because RA is covert in nature, the behavior goes mostly unnoticed by the adults in these girl’s lives. Society conditions girls, from a very young age, to respond to aggressive behaviors by not being aggressive back; girls are supposed to be nice. The target of relational aggression is especially hurt by this behavior. She generally suffers from low self esteem and poor social skills, and when put up against a clique, …

The Effectiveness Of Aquatic Therapy With Persons Who Have Experienced A Cerebral Vascular Accident, Heather L. Tweedie

Masters Theses

This study examined the effectiveness of using aquatic therapy (AT) as a technique in the treatment of cerebral vascular accidents (CVA). The unique properties of the aquatic environment were manipulated to determine change in range of motion, muscle tone, balance, functional ambulation, and psychological functioning particularly social relationship and positive and negative feelings.

A single subject design was conducted using two subjects that participated in a twelve week aquatic therapy program. Aquatic therapy showed to be effective in treating common symptoms of a CVA. More research needs to be completed to ensure the effectiveness of aquatic therapy in congruency with …

Potential Effects Of Aggressive Videogames On Young Adult’S Behavior And Physiology, Kent David Smallwood

Masters Theses

Each year, interactive technology becomes more and more advanced, offering more lifelike environments, immersive experiences, and realistic situations. Additionally, the videogame industry has over doubled in size in less than ten years, now rivaling the box office industry. However, technological advances have quickly outpaced our understanding of the effects of certain types of adult content on the game player. To date, the majority of the research on the topic was conducted before the games themselves were technologically advanced enough to draw meaningful conclusions; the few studies conducted in the last few years, while offering promising methodological advancements from previous work, …

"Far, Fast, And Fashionable": American Women Swimmers And Their Swimwear In 1920s And 1930s Sport And Consumer Culture, Elizabeth A. Zanoni

Masters Theses

This thesis examines American aquatic stars of public acclaim as displayers of clothing, and how their changing swimwear shaped the debate over physical culture, femininity, modesty, and gender roles in sport and consumer culture during the 1920s and 1930s. Performing in shortened, functional athletic attire, leading swimmers and divers conveyed cultural messages about athleticism and femininity through their athletic accomplishments and their multiple representations of the female body clothed in swimming attire. It also considers how these female aquatic luminaries, in a sphere traditionally defined as male, shaped American culture by providing a public platform from which the entire sporting …

The Effects Of Feedback On Hourly Pay And Individual Monetary Incentives, Douglas A. Johnson

Masters Theses

The effects of performance feedback when individuals received fixed or individual incentive pay were examined. A 2 X 2 factorial design was used with approximately 30 college students in each group. Participants attended six experimental sessions. They entered the cash value of simulated bank checks presented on a computer screen. Monetary incentives increased the number of correctly completed checks (p = .000); however feedback had no effect (p = .825). Time spent working and rate of performance correlated strongly with the number of checks completed correctly, suggesting that both influenced the checks completed correctly. The results suggest that incentives increase …

The Journey Of A Social Movement: A Glimpse Into Hizb 'Allah And Its Integration Into The Lebanese Landscape, Lisa L. Peters

Masters Theses

Historically, research in Social Movement Theories has been limited to only certain aspects of a social movement, whether it was the impetus of the movement, explaining the reasons for its mobilization, how they recruit members and money, how social movements are able to function as an organization, or why groups suffer demise after flourishing for a period of time. This research attempts to build a framework of a particular social movement, Hizb'allah, a Shi'a Islamic movement based in Lebanon. This framework is built by extracting various elements from several social movement theories to explain and illustrate this movement's life course …

Gambling On A Simulated Slot Machine Under Conditions Of Repeated Play, Andrew Ellis Brandt

Masters Theses

Three experiments using a parametric, single-subject design investigated gambling behavior in eight adult humans on a slot-machine simulation. Participants were staked with credits exchangeable for money prior to each session. Experiment 1 a was a systematic replication of Weatherly and Brandt (2004), which investigated the effects of percentage payback (the amount of money gained as a proportion of the amount of money bet) on gambling. Percentage payback was varied from 50% to 110% across conditions. Consistent with Weatherly and Brandt, gambling did not vary systematically across percentage-payback conditions. Experiment 1 b replicated Experiment 1 a but also included forced-exposure sessions …

Behavioral Skills Training For Parents Of Children With Autism: Teaching Implementation Of The Natural Language Paradigm, Jill N. Gillett

Masters Theses

The effects of the use of behavioral skills training to teach parents of children with autism to implement the Natural Language Paradigm (NLP) were examined. Data were collected on parent implementation and child behavior. Results indicated that parents of children with autism were able to learn to implement the NLP procedures and continued to implement the procedures accurately throughout the study. Child data indicated that parent-implemented NLP resulted in improvements in child play. These improvements consisted of a decrease in intervals with no toy engagement, a decrease in intervals in which inappropriate play occurred, and an increase in intervals in …

Third Wave Feminist Identity, Sarah Brightman

Masters Theses

The research I am proposing is to gain a better understanding of current, individual feminist identity and the impact of that identity, more broadly, on current feminism. There is controversy in the current literature about the existence of a third wave of feminism and I believe this research will contribute to this discussion by exploring various individual experiences with feminism and how feminist identity fits into individuals lives. Gaining an understanding of young feminist identity and the individual meaning of feminism might help define the characteristics of this whole new generation of feminists in their own terms. Much progress and …

Not Knowing What You're Missing: Autoethnographical Explorations And Reflections Of The Potential Effects Of Fatherlessness, Melodi A. Everett

Masters Theses

This study explored the potential effects of fatherlessness through the book, Whatever Happened to Daddy's Little Girl, by Jonetta Rose Barras (2000). While examining the text, the author used an autoethnographical method to reflect on her own experiences in relation to the text. This autoethnography examined the potential effects of fatherlessness on women to help understand why they communicate and interact interpersonally in specific ways that may help or hinder them in their adult romantic relationships. Through dialectical theory, specific dialectical tensions were identified to be experienced in father-daughter as well as adult romantic relationships. The tensions that were …

Online Contingency Management Of Writing Productivity, Matthew L. Porritt

Masters Theses

Ten participants from an online community participated in an online writing productivity management program. Social reinforcement and conditioned reinforcers were delivered by the researcher contingent upon meeting self-set writing goals on a weekly basis. Graphic feedback was delivered to participants through a web page, and social reinforcers through email contact. Writing goals increased throughout the program. In all cases, the program increased writing productivity across phases of treatment or goal increases. Results are discussed in terms of rule-governed behavior and the effects of short term goals in context of long term goals.

Applications Of Integrated Data Viewer – Idv In An Introductory Meteorology Class For Non-Science Majors, Ricardo C. Nogueira

Masters Theses

Computer products developed to visualize and integrate meteorological products with real-time data can create a virtual reality of the atmosphere. These advanced technologies help educators to improve teaching techniques in the classroom for science and non-science majors and increase the students' interest in learning as well. One of these products, the Integrated Data Viewer (IDV), was recently developed by University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) project, Unidata, to visualize and integrate geoscience data. This study compares students' performance in the laboratory sessions using IDV-based and MANUAL-based exercises. Comparison of lab scores with exam scores of questions on the same topic …

The Learning Styles Of Health And Physical Education Students Using The Capsol Style Of Learning Assessment, Erin D. Palpant

Masters Theses

Students in a classroom all receive the information the same way, however, those students most likely learn and process information quite differently. Therefore the format in which it is received can make a large impact on the effectiveness of the instruction. The purpose of this study was to determine the learning styles of health and physical education students using the CAPSOL Styles of Learning Assessment. One hundred ten undergraduate PE students in the college of Health, Physical Education and Recreation (HPER) from Western Michigan University participated in this study during February 2005.

Frequencies and percentages were figured for the students …

Safer Schools: Promoting Safe Play On School Playground Equipment, Kimberly Elaine Seckinger

Masters Theses

Each year, over 200,000 people receive emergency room care for injuries sustained on recreational equipment, and a vast majority of these injuries involve children under the age of 15 who have been hurt on school playground equipment. To date, a single empirical study has been conducted applying behavioral technology to decrease children's risky behavior on playground equipment (Heck, Collins, & Peterson, 2001 ), and showed reductions in risk-taking behavior when programmed consequences were in place. The purposes of the current investigation were to replicate and extend previous research though a component analysis of an injury prevention package designed to decrease …

Influence Of Social Group And Health/Exercise Program On Obesity Related Outcome Measures Among Obese Adolescents, Debra Braley

Masters Theses

The purpose of this exploratory study was to determine the influence of a health/exercise program and social group on fat mass, weight, circumference measurements and body image among obese adolescents. Eighteen adolescents, ages 12-15 years were randomly assigned into 3 groups of 6. The parent/youth group (PYG) had 3 female and 3 male Caucasian participants. The peer group (PG) consisted of 2 females and 1 male Caucasians and 3 African-American females. The control group (CG) had 4 females and 1 male Caucasians and 1 African-American female. Body composition, weight, circumference measurements, and self-report questionnaires (Multidimensional Body-Self Relations Questionnaire, MBSRQ) were …

An Assessment Of An Education Package Intervention Targeting The Appropriate Reporting Of Suspected Child Abuse, Clinton K. Wirtz

Masters Theses

The proper reporting of suspected child abuse and neglect continues to be a concern despite laws requiring professionals working with children to report any suspicion of child abuse or neglect to Children's Protective Services (CPS). This study assesses the efficacy of an education intervention versus the Michigan Child Protection Law (CPL) using 29 undergraduate child psychology students. Videotaped scenarios of simulated child interviews were used in a pretest/posttest between-groups design. Child physical abuse was the focus of the study. The results of the student participants' decisions regarding the videotaped scenarios were compared to the results of 10 CPS employees having …

Bone Density Testing As An Early Detection Devise For Anorexia Nervosa And Osteoporosis In Pre-Adolescent And Adolescent Girls, Kelle L. Brooks

Masters Theses

Osteoporosis has become one of the leading health problems for postmenopausal women in the United States, however, it has been shown that preadolescent and adolescent girls with anorexia nervosa are at an unusually high risk for early on-set osteoporosis and bone fractures.

Bone density testing has already proving itself as an accurate form of detection in post-menopausal women and the elderly and is widely used at medical institutions, clinics, and pharmacies throughout the United States as an inexpensive, non-invasive, and accurate technique for detecting low bone mass.

This research aims to examine anorexia nervosa and its long-term effects on the …