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Articles 301 - 330 of 571
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The Power Of Context, Teacher Preparation, Standards, And Dispositions On The Student-Teaching Experience, Xuchys Perez
The Power Of Context, Teacher Preparation, Standards, And Dispositions On The Student-Teaching Experience, Xuchys Perez
Open Access Dissertations
Despite the reform efforts and progress of teacher education programs to better equip teachers to teach in urban settings, research continues to report a pressing need for high quality teachers who understand the need for culturally responsive teaching. Faced with the tremendous structural forces working against historically underserved students, scholars and researchers expect teacher education to address inequalities through the promotion of multicultural education coursework and student-teaching placements in urban settings where student-teachers can gain experience with culturally diverse students. This qualitative study used interviews and observations to trace study four participants’ perceptions about their student-teaching experience as it unfolded …
Moral Knowledge Without Justification? A Critical Discussion Of Intuitionist Moral Epistemology, Philipp Schwind
Moral Knowledge Without Justification? A Critical Discussion Of Intuitionist Moral Epistemology, Philipp Schwind
Open Access Dissertations
In this dissertation I discuss the epistemology of ethical intuitionism, in particular the claim that mature moral agents possess self-evident moral knowledge. Traditional intuitionists such as W.D. Ross have claimed that by reflection, we can acquire knowledge of our basic moral duties such as the duty of veracity or benevolence. Recent defenders of intuitionism such as Robert Audi have further developed this theory and argued that adequate understanding can be sufficient for moral knowledge. I criticize this view and argue that such accounts fail to make a convincing case for a foundationalist moral epistemology. Instead, I propose to separate the …
Understanding Teachers' Interpretation Of Progress Monitoring Data For English Learners Within Response To Intervention, Ana Maria Menda
Understanding Teachers' Interpretation Of Progress Monitoring Data For English Learners Within Response To Intervention, Ana Maria Menda
Open Access Dissertations
Latinos hold the highest dropout rate in the United States and have been found to be disproportionately represented in the categories of learning disability (LD) and speech and language impairment (SLI) in special education. With the introduction of response to intervention (RTI), a potentially beneficial framework for English learners (EL), the role of the EL teacher takes on an additional component. ELs’ teachers must be able to filter the data collected during the progress monitoring (PM) cycle through the lens of language development in order to make adequate intervention decisions for ELs. The aim of this study was to understand …
On The Allelic Architecture Of Multiple Sclerosis In Sardinia, Athena Hadjixenofontos
On The Allelic Architecture Of Multiple Sclerosis In Sardinia, Athena Hadjixenofontos
Open Access Dissertations
Multiple Sclerosis (MS) is a demyelinating disease of the central nervous system with autoimmune etiology. It affects approximately 2.3 million people worldwide, but prevalence is distributed unequally with countries closer to the equator manifesting a lower prevalence of MS. The Italian island of Sardinia is an exception, with prevalence rates that are among the highest in the world. Sardinia is inhabited by a unique, isolated population that was founded approximately 10,000 years ago. The reasons for this enrichment of MS cases in Sardinia are unknown. Like most complex diseases, MS has both genetic and environmental components of susceptibility. To date, …
Violence And History In South Asian Partition Literature, Devi Prasad Sharma Gautam
Violence And History In South Asian Partition Literature, Devi Prasad Sharma Gautam
Open Access Dissertations
In this dissertation I examine literary texts of Saadat Hasan Manto, Khushwant Singh, Chaman Nahal, Bhisham Sahni, Bapsi Sidhwa, and Amitav Ghosh in order to explore the historical sense of South Asian Partition writing that exhibits less and less the pain of diaspora, and opens up more and more to a cosmopolitan mode of living. I argue that in a first phase of response to Partition, writers concentrated on the depiction of overwhelming violence; in the next phase, they gave space to reconstruction as well as loss; and in the third phase, represented here by Ghosh, they have concentrated on …
Multiple Perspectives On Parent Involvement For Middle School Students Receiving Special Education Services, Erin Blatz
Multiple Perspectives On Parent Involvement For Middle School Students Receiving Special Education Services, Erin Blatz
Open Access Dissertations
Parent involvement is recognized as an important factor in the education of students receiving special education services. Research indicates that parents of students with disabilities often experience barriers to their participation in their children’s education, and that the efforts put forth by school personnel to engage these parents may be insufficient. Using data collected as part of a larger study of parents’ and professionals’ perceptions related to schools’ engagement efforts, this study compared the perspectives of 25 parents and 26 professionals from five middle schools located in four school districts in a large southeastern state. The analysis of data aggregated …
Shape-Shifting Creole Identities: Representations Of Creole Figures In Nineteenth-Century Anglophone Transatlantic Literature, Claudia Amadori
Shape-Shifting Creole Identities: Representations Of Creole Figures In Nineteenth-Century Anglophone Transatlantic Literature, Claudia Amadori
Open Access Dissertations
This study of nineteenth-century American, British, and Caribbean texts examines the historical and geographical shifts in literary depictions of West Indian Creoles, who were the offspring of colonizers and/or slaves in the Americas, and focuses on the relationship between literature and Creole identity formation. The presence of Creoles in literature demonstrates, on the one hand, the development of a Creole consciousness in texts by West Indian authors written from a Creole point of view. On the other hand, literary Creoles in British and post-Independence American novels attest to the importance of the West Indies within the Atlantic world, although Creoles …
High School Teachers' Perceptions Of Data Driven Decision Making Within A Response To Intervention Framework, Benikia Kressler
High School Teachers' Perceptions Of Data Driven Decision Making Within A Response To Intervention Framework, Benikia Kressler
Open Access Dissertations
A general education initiative supported by IDEA (2004), Response to Intervention (RtI) holds promise for improving the academic achievement of at-risk students through evidence-based instruction and data driven decision making (DDDM). However, most of the research on RtI has been conducted within elementary settings. Thus, this study examined high school teachers’ perceptions of DDDM for improving academic performance of at-risk high school youth within an RtI framework. Using qualitative methods consisting of interviews and field observations of six high school teachers implementing RtI in two Title 1 high schools, constant comparison methods of data were conducted. From this data, three …
Learning Through Inquiry: Examining The Relationship Between Child-Generated Questions, Teacher Practices, And School Readiness In Head Start Classrooms, Irena Nayfeld
Open Access Dissertations
Research consistently shows that children from low-income environments tend to lag behind their peers in school readiness, language-development, and problem-solving skills. A number of studies have indicated that inquiry, or asking questions, is a domain-general learning tool that can help improve outcomes in all areas of academic readiness. Research conducted in middle-income samples shows that by the time children enter preschool, they often generate questions that seek to explain phenomena or extend understanding, and that those children who ask more questions have better academic outcomes. This work, however, has not been replicated with children from low-income families. Using multilevel modeling, …
Investigating The Effects Of A Multicomponent Intervention On The Mathematical Word Problem-Solving Skills Of Third Graders Identified As Ld, At-Risk. And/Or Esol, Sheri Kingsdorf
Open Access Dissertations
In third grade, with the introduction of high-stakes testing, the focus on math word-problems becomes prominent. However, intervention research on solving word problems has concentrated on the higher grades. While some of these strategies are valuable, developmental and curricular modifications are needed for third graders. In research where this has been recognized, teacher-mediated explicit instruction with multiple exemplars, teaching students to use visual representations, and the incorporation of self-strategies, have proven effective. However, for these practices to reach their full potential, their content must be relevant and provide for growth to more mature mathematical concepts. Based on these conclusions, additional …
Literature Of Return: Back To Africa, Belonging, And Modernity, David Borman
Literature Of Return: Back To Africa, Belonging, And Modernity, David Borman
Open Access Dissertations
This dissertation claims that narratives of return to Africa act as powerful tools for rethinking the contemporary neoliberal moment and the terms upon which African-based affiliations are formed. “The African diaspora” has been a powerful governing principle for explaining the cultural connections among people of African descent around the globe. But the narratives of return in this dissertation speak to the limits of a diaspora concept, which often frames the African continent as a place of cultural origins and templates that exists firmly in the past. I read fiction and life writing from Africa, North America, and Great Britain alongside …
Alternative Ireland: Modernism And Urban Space In Twentieth-Century Irish Literature, Kurt Patrick Voss-Hoynes
Alternative Ireland: Modernism And Urban Space In Twentieth-Century Irish Literature, Kurt Patrick Voss-Hoynes
Open Access Dissertations
Twentieth-century urban literature of Dublin and Belfast presents Ireland’s alternative modernity as one that is ecumenical, heterogeneous, unique, and autonomous. In “Alternative Ireland: Modernism and Urban Space in Twentieth-Century Irish Literature,” I look to modernism, rather than postmodernism, as the aesthetic mode by which twentieth-century Irish novelists sought to re-think contemporary Ireland’s relationship to history and imagine a modern Ireland alternative to either imperial or provincial modernity. I argue that an alternative Irish modernity articulates a mass culture that not only rejects the mythological past but also recognizes cultural, social, and political possibilities that have been silenced in a traditional …
Living In Limb/O: Reading Dismemberment And Orphanhood In Contemporary Spanish Caribbean Literature, Sara Jill Gusky
Living In Limb/O: Reading Dismemberment And Orphanhood In Contemporary Spanish Caribbean Literature, Sara Jill Gusky
Open Access Dissertations
Seeking alternative metaphors for understanding the Caribbean experience as it is illustrated in contemporary Spanish Caribbean novels, this dissertation explores broken bodyscapes in order to approach the organizing metaphor of dismemberment. I establish a metaphorical connection between the body with missing limbs and the family tree with missing limbs in order to map the space of limb/o in which both allegorical and literal orphans are depicted in the following novels: La casa de la laguna (1997) by Rosario Ferré, Nuestra señora de la noche (2006) and Sirena Selena vestida de pena (2000) by Mayra Santos-Febres, El reino de este mundo …
Queer Transnationality: Narrative, Theatre, And Performance Across Temporal, Spatial, And Social Geographies, Alexandra Gonzenbach Perkins
Queer Transnationality: Narrative, Theatre, And Performance Across Temporal, Spatial, And Social Geographies, Alexandra Gonzenbach Perkins
Open Access Dissertations
This study investigates the ways narrative, theatre, and performance art negotiate identities across Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, the United States, and larger global contexts. I research how physical, social, and temporal spaces transform enactments and receptions of text and performance. Particularly, I investigate the effects of transnationality in works that represent queer subjectivities. I intervene in Queer Studies, expanding the notion of queer beyond sexuality to include nationality, race, and class. While identity politics emerges around fixed categories of identity, I argue that representations of subjectivity in transnational networks of production dissociate politicized identification from the rigid geographic …
Improvisation Within The Beginning Band Curriculum: Creating A Comprehensive Improvisational Resource For The Middle School Music Educator, Christopher R. Gagne
Improvisation Within The Beginning Band Curriculum: Creating A Comprehensive Improvisational Resource For The Middle School Music Educator, Christopher R. Gagne
Open Access Dissertations
Previously conducted research has contributed to a prevalent view that the study of improvisation is an integral component to a holistic music education. The MENC embraced this view of the importance of improvisational studies in 1994 when it established improvisation instruction as a core standard of music education. However, a multitude of surveys observing music educator practices conducted in the wake of this declaration by the MENC revealed improvisation as a classroom activity lagging behind the other core standards in terms of student practice and teacher emphasis. Findings from these surveys also suggest that many educators lack a requisite background …
Teachers' Educational Beliefs And Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Students Within Response To Intervention, Anabel Espinosa
Teachers' Educational Beliefs And Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Students Within Response To Intervention, Anabel Espinosa
Open Access Dissertations
The purpose of this dissertation study was to examine teachers’ sense of efficacy and epistemological beliefs using a mixed methods research design. Part 1 used linear regression to analyze participant (n=115) responses to the Multicultural Efficacy Scale (MES). This study determined practicing teachers’ multicultural efficacy using the Multicultural Efficacy Scale (MES) and its relationship to demographic (gender and race/ethnicity) and teaching (degree level and certifications) variables. Study results for Part 1 revealed a significant relationship between teachers’ race and their experiences with diversity and as well as their experiences with diversity and degree level. In addition participants reported average levels …
The Unencumbered Body: Imagining Liberty And Sovereignty In Pre- And Post- Revolutionary Literatures Of The Americas, Elizabeth Kelly
The Unencumbered Body: Imagining Liberty And Sovereignty In Pre- And Post- Revolutionary Literatures Of The Americas, Elizabeth Kelly
Open Access Dissertations
In the following work, I argue that writers in pre- and post-revolutionary Haiti and the United States conceived of liberty and resistance to sovereign power through disembodied figures that complicate the relationship between the physical body and the psyche, including sleepwalkers, spirits, and zombies. As a comparative analysis of lesser-known Haitian texts and canonical U.S. works, my project uncovers clear, multidirectional influences between the locales. First, I consider the meanings inscribed on tortured bodies in revolutionary Saint Domingue. I trace two important themes in Toussaint Louverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines’ writings; Louverture uses metaphors of family and disease to sort out …
Metabolic Changes Associated With Acquired Cisplatin Resistance, Elizabeth J. Sullivan
Metabolic Changes Associated With Acquired Cisplatin Resistance, Elizabeth J. Sullivan
Open Access Dissertations
Although cisplatin is the drug of choice in treating a variety of different cancers, acquired resistance appears to be a common and serious drawback to its effectiveness in the clinic. Using three pairs of cisplatin-sensitive and resistant cancer cell lines, we have found significantly altered hexokinase (HK) I and II levels in cisplatin-resistant cancer cell lines. Based on our interest in utilizing glucose analogs to probe tumor metabolism, we investigated the role of HKI and HKII in cisplatin-resistant lung and ovarian cancer cell lines and asked whether these resistant cell lines could be targeted with sugar analogs under both normoxic …
A First Grade Teacher’S Implementation Of The Multicultural Read Aloud Lesson In Voices Reading: How Active Participatory Structure And Personal Relevance Are Used To Mediate Text Engagement, Kristen B. Doorn
Open Access Dissertations
This study focuses on the implementation of a multicultural, instructional read aloud lesson by a first grade teacher using the Voices Reading literacy curriculum during a six-week summer academic program for students at risk for academic failure who lived in a primarily black, low income, urban community in the southeastern region of the United States. The study examined how the teacher promoted an active participatory structure during the read aloud lesson and how this aspect of her teaching was guided by the curriculum and program context. The study used a case study approach to qualitative research (Creswell, 2006) and thematic …
The Frontiers Of Environmental Education: Understanding The Role Of Community-Based Organizations In The Socio-Ecological Learning Of Urban Youth, Katie L. Crosley
The Frontiers Of Environmental Education: Understanding The Role Of Community-Based Organizations In The Socio-Ecological Learning Of Urban Youth, Katie L. Crosley
Open Access Dissertations
Contemporary environmental education in the U.S. seeks to help learners understand, negotiate, and advance solutions for complex socio-ecological issues. However, there has been growing evidence over the past 30 years that environmental education is not achieving this goal. Further, environmental education research has highlighted gaps in knowledge, theory, and methodology that have made understanding how environmental education impacts learners and learning in a variety of contexts difficult to grasp. To address these gaps, I engaged in an interdisciplinary mixed-method case-study, guided by civic ecology (Tidball & Krasny, 2010), of community-based organizations implementing environmental education programs for youth in Miami, FL. …
Enacting Bilingualism: A Case Study Of Dual Language Bilingual Education Preschool Teachers' Coordinated Practices During Large Group Shared Book Readings, Ryan W. Pontier
Open Access Dissertations
This study examined the ways in which a pair of Spanish/English dual language bilingual education preschool teachers—one teacher who was designated as the model of Spanish and the other teacher the model of English—enacted their bilingualism as they worked cohesively and simultaneously to work toward common instructional goals. Dual language bilingual education is an instructional model wherein bilingualism is promoted among all students regardless of their level of bilingual proficiency, and in which students are instructed a significant amount of the day in a language other than English (García, 2013). Methodologically, I drew on classroom video data, field notes, and …
An Elusive Escape: "Feminine" Genres In Latin American Women's Fiction, Mary Catherine Bartsh
An Elusive Escape: "Feminine" Genres In Latin American Women's Fiction, Mary Catherine Bartsh
Open Access Dissertations
This dissertation analyzes Latin American contemporary female authors’ fictional use of normatively “feminine genres” (i.e., letters and diaries) in the structure of the novel. I illustrate that certain authors re-strategize these forms in order to execute their own interpretation of the novel. Examples of this reconstituting of feminine genres are an artist’s novel, a crônica manifesto, a complex parody of the romance novel and a creative prose journal. The intention is not to relegate these modes of writing to a minor status, but expose their multidimensional literary function and feminist strategies in Latin American women’s fiction. My theoretical intervention posits …
The Temporal Dependency Hypothesis: Previous Look Durations Predict Next Look Durations, Whitney I. Mattson
The Temporal Dependency Hypothesis: Previous Look Durations Predict Next Look Durations, Whitney I. Mattson
Open Access Dissertations
Studies of cognitive, perceptual, and socio-emotional development in infancy have made extensive use of looking time as an outcome measure. These procedures typically rely on assessing infant looking; investigators have primarily focused on mean looking times for groups of infants. This practice, however, obscures information about the individual looks of individual infants. This project addressed this gap by testing the temporal dependency hypothesis: The duration of an infant’s successive looks at a target are positively predicted by the duration of the infant’s previous looks at that target. Temporal dependency was found in the Face-to-Face/Still-Face procedure at 6 months (n = …
Community-Based Philosophy And Service-Learning: A Case Study At Barry University, Christian A. Schlaerth
Community-Based Philosophy And Service-Learning: A Case Study At Barry University, Christian A. Schlaerth
Open Access Dissertations
Service-learning, as a pedagogical technique, presents unique learning opportunities for students, where they get to use their skills and knowledge from courses to help improve communities that have particular needs. Barry University has recently begun to expand it program across the school, reaching into disciplines that are not often associated with service-learning. Barry is also a school that presents itself as aware of inequality, with the goal of helping to diminish it. However, there is a clear lack of philosophical direction behind the application of service-learning. This research seeks to ascertain the extent to which community-based philosophy is being employed …
Purpose-Relativity And Ontology, Nurbay Irmak
Purpose-Relativity And Ontology, Nurbay Irmak
Open Access Dissertations
Serious ontology is the view that metaphysical debates about existence are deep, theoretical, quasi-scientific debates about the nature and constituents of reality. Serious ontology has been the dominant metaontology for the last few decades, but recently it has come under attack. Eli Hirsch’s Quantifier Variantism is one of the most compelling criticisms of serious ontology. According to Hirsch many ontological debates are merely verbal because the alleged rivals in these debates can each agree that the other side is saying something true given the meanings of the existential quantifier in their own language, and none of those quantifier meanings is …
A Performance Guide To Select A Cappella Works Of Jean Sibelius Including Translations And Phonetic Transcriptions Of Finnish Texts, John Guarente
A Performance Guide To Select A Cappella Works Of Jean Sibelius Including Translations And Phonetic Transcriptions Of Finnish Texts, John Guarente
Open Access Dissertations
This essay is a performance guide to select a cappella choral works of Jean Sibelius that is geared towards choral musicians whose primary language is English. The introduction begins with an overview of Sibelius's early career as a composer and the socio-political climate in which he lived. This provides context for the discussion of Sibelius's Finnish language a cappella choral repertoire. The performance guide itself first gives a thorough explanation of Finnish choral diction. Rather than enumerate every single Finnish choral work by Sibelius, the author has narrowed the scope of the essay to a select group of pieces based …
The Impact Of A Curricular And Professional Development Intervention On Elementary Science Teachers’ Perceptions Of High-Stakes Testing And Accountability, Georgina O. Lindskoog
The Impact Of A Curricular And Professional Development Intervention On Elementary Science Teachers’ Perceptions Of High-Stakes Testing And Accountability, Georgina O. Lindskoog
Open Access Dissertations
High-stakes testing and accountability (HSTA) is a topic largely debated because of the effects it can have on student learning. Teachers’ perceptions help determine teaching practices, ultimately teaching practices impact student learning, and unintended consequences of HSTA have been found to result in teaching practices that do not maximize meaningful student learning. The purpose of this study was to examine elementary science teachers’ perceptions of HSTA prior to an intervention and if participation in the intervention changed their perceptions. In addition, teacher professional variables (i.e., years of teaching and number of science courses taken) and school contextual factors (i.e., percent …
Argument, Rhetoric, And Transcendence: “The Adherence Of Minds” Within The Discourse Of Spirituality, Gavin Forrest Hurley
Argument, Rhetoric, And Transcendence: “The Adherence Of Minds” Within The Discourse Of Spirituality, Gavin Forrest Hurley
Open Access Dissertations
My study, “Argument, Rhetoric, and Transcendence: The ‘Adherence of Minds’ within a Discourse of Spirituality,” addresses the questions: What persuades Americans to adhere to contemporary discourses of spirituality? What persuades audiences to adhere to the experiential truths found with this discourse? Furthermore, how exactly do contemporary writers of spirituality adhere audiences to reasonable understanding and pursuit of a union with a higher power? Using Chaim Perelman and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca’s The New Rhetoric as a framework, I analyze how the persuasive machinery of current Catholic and Anglican spirituality texts guides readers to experience and understand a subjective union with an ineffable …
Situated Intercultural Communication: Domestic And International Student Interaction, Emily Spitzman
Situated Intercultural Communication: Domestic And International Student Interaction, Emily Spitzman
Open Access Dissertations
As higher education continues to internationalize, more institutions are making it an educational priority to increase intercultural competence among all students. Despite this goal, institutions regularly place students in intercultural programs without facilitating training and reflection on intercultural learning, with the expectation that students will learn from contact alone. There is a need for investigation into situated intercultural communication, for the limited studies that do examine interactions between international and domestic students do not look at the interactions themselves, do not situate the interactions in a specific context, and often examine only the students‘ international/domestic statuses or countries of origin …
Opting-In Online: Participants’ Perceptions Of Knowledge Construction In Public Forum Communities, Jennifer C. Lee
Opting-In Online: Participants’ Perceptions Of Knowledge Construction In Public Forum Communities, Jennifer C. Lee
Open Access Dissertations
This project examines knowledge making and sharing amid special interest forums, specifically, online forums for herp (reptile and amphibian) hobbyists. In doing so, it addresses a gap in rhetoricians’ understanding of publicness: its effect on writing and people’s perceptions thereof. Few studies measure public writing unless its telos is change or activism. Additionally, despite increased rhetorical scholarship focusing on new media, much current research on forums situates them in classroom-based learning and collaboration, neglecting online forums that are open to public access. This project is a naturalistic inquiry using qualitative methods to explore collaborative public writing that occurs in discourse …