Digital Commons Network^™

Developing An Instrument For Determining Teacher Beliefs Or Orientations Of Secondary School Spanish Language Teachers, Lori Virginia Cox

Theses and Dissertations

This study was designed to further the development of an instrument for use in investigating the ideas or beliefs that Spanish language teachers possess about the teaching of a foreign language. It was also the intent of the study to survey Spanish language teachers and use their responses as an aid in the development of the instrument. A questionnaire detailing possible teacher behaviors was sent out to 220 Spanish language secondary school teachers in the state of Utah. Three teacher orientations emerged and were significantly related to gender and years of teaching experience. Seven questions from the questionnaire emerged as …

Implementing A Study Skills Program In Secondary School: What Needs To Be Done?, Margaret R. Ritson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this exploratory investigation was to ascertain if a study-skills program implemented during a study hall in a Southern New Jersey high school might improve the study skills of students who voluntarily participate. At the outset of the study, students were surveyed in order to gauge their perceptions of their own academic study skills. The same survey was administered at the conclusion of the study in order to determine if study-skills growth and improvement had occurred. Information derived from the survey was used to assess the overall effectiveness of the study-skills program. The survey consisted of twenty-five questions …

The Effects Of An Integrated Whole Language And Phonics-Based Instructional Spelling Program On Student Spelling Ability And Self-Concept, Kimberly B. Biberman

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to create an integrated phonics and whole language approach to teaching spelling to regular education and resource students. The sample included thirty-nine fourth grade students, which were split into an experimental and a control group. Students in the experimental group completed a spelling pretest and ten weeks of instruction implemented by the researchers. The students in the control group also completed a pretest and completed spelling instruction as followed by the required fourth grade curriculum.

After the study was completed, both groups completed a spelling posttest as well as a self-concept scale in relation …

Second Language Acquisition: A Study Of A Constructivist Approach To Teaching Versus A Varied Approach, And Its Effectiveness In A First-Year Spanish Class At The Secondary Level, Christina Di Mento Ferus

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a Constructivist approach to teaching, or a varied approach is most effective in teaching a first-year Spanish class at the secondary level. The sample for this study consisted of 40 high school students enrolled in a Spanish I course. All students were given a pretest at the beginning of the second marking period. The test was developed by the researcher, and covered all the concepts that were to be taught throughout that marking period. One class was instructed using a Constructivist approach to teaching, while the other class received a varied …

An Assessment Of The Effectiveness Of The Pow Plus Tree And Cops Writing Strategies, Deborah A. Mclaughlin

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine the effectiveness of using the Self-Regulated Strategy Development (SRSD) approach to teach Plan, Organize your notes, and Write (POW) plus Topic Sentence, Reasons, Explain your reasons, and Ending (TREE) to write a well-written opinion essay. Also, the SRSD approach will be used to teach Capitalization, Organization, Punctuation, and Spelling (COPS), an editing strategy. Harris, Graham, and Mason (2002) note that writing is a highly complex, demanding process. The purpose of writing is to communicate a message. Writers need a strategy or plan to communicate ideas clearly. To be successful and productive …

The Emotional Intelligence Of Award-Winning Fitness Industry Professionals, Terry Eckmann

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate if award-winning fitness professionals with careers as fitness instructors, personal trainers, and program directors demonstrate higher emotional intelligence than non-award winning fitness professionals as measured by the Emotional Competency Inventory (ECI). The study also compared self and others’ assessment scores as well as differences among women and men and individuals of various ages.

Thirty award winners (23 women and 7 men) and 77 non-award winners (60 women and 17 men) participated in this study. The sample ranged from 23 to 70 years of age. MANOVA was used to analyze the data and …

African American Female Professors' Experiences In An Historically Black College And University Organizational Culture, Nadine Edgerson

Theses and Dissertations

Academic culture has been described as the social or normative glue that holds organizations together and guides and shapes behavior. The majority of the research that has been conducted on this subject relates to predominantly White institutions and their predominant White male faculties. The purpose of this study was to provide an in-depth account of the workplace perceptions and experiences of seven tenure-track African American female faculty members at an historically Black college and university (HBCU).

This study was qualitative research in which subject data were obtained through a series of three consecutive interviews per study participant then coded and …

Nasp Standards And Rowan School Psychology Graduates: Does Knowledge Transfer To On-The-Job Skills?, Kristine E. Dipalo

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether Rowan University is preparing their school psychology graduates to deliver school psychology services according to professional standards set forth by NASP. This study examined the relationship between interns' self evaluations and supervisors' ratings on a measure of job performance. The information gathered was further correlated with job satisfaction. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data from the questionnaires. The results from this study indicate that there is a correlation between self-ratings and supervisors' ratings of job performance. This does not correlate with job satisfaction. The graduates of the school psychology …

Changing School Culture: A Primary Literacy Initiative, All Hands On Deck, Veronica Boone-Gbesi

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to implement the balanced literacy approach to reading instruction for two-hundred sixteen kindergarten through third graders, as a means of increasing student achievement, focusing instruction school wide, and creating a collaborative instructional culture. Data to evaluate the study took the forms of teacher surveys and reflective essays, screening and progress monitoring assessments and standardized test results. Teacher surveys and reflections were collected and analyzed for consistent patterns, professional development needs, and/or areas of growth. The teacher responses were used to direct professional development workshops, and as a diagnostic tool to ascertain the need for …

Evaluating The Implementation Of The Avid Program At Pemberton Township High School, Danielle T. Strother

Theses and Dissertations

Pemberton Township High School started AVID for the 2003-2004 school year. The AVID program is designed to prepare students for a college bound curriculum. The purpose of this study was to describe and evaluate the implementation of the AVID program at Pemberton Township High School. The population of the study consisted of the entire ninth grade class of 21 AVID students from Pemberton Township High School. The data was collected through the use of a six question, Likert-type survey and algebra first and second marking period grades. The survey was used to rate the AVID students' satisfaction of the five …

The Perception And Production Of Portuguese Mid-Vowels By Native Speakers Of American English, Richard Ryan Kendall

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the difficulties that beginning and advanced American learners of Portuguese have correctly perceiving and producing the Portuguese mid-vowels {o} and {e}. The beginning learners were enrolled in their second semester of Portuguese and had rudimentary knowledge of Portuguese. The advanced learners had all lived in Brazil for nearly two years and were enrolled in a more advanced Portuguese course.

To test for production, informants were asked to read a group of sentences that contained one hundred occurrences of the Portuguese mid-vowels. Each production occurrence was evaluated as being correct or incorrect by linguistically trained native Brazilians. To …

The Pueblitos Of Palluche Canyon: An Examination Of The Ethnic Affiliation Of The Pueblito Inhabitants And Results Of Archaeological Survey At La 9073, La 10732 And La 86895, New Mexico, Leslie-Lynne Sinkey

Theses and Dissertations

The small, above-ground masonry structures of northwestern New Mexico called "pueblitos" first came to the attention of anthropologists in over a century ago. In 1920, the noted archaeologist A.V. Kidder hypothesized that these masonry structures might have been built by Puebloan refugees fleeing Spanish reprisals in the wake of the Spanish reconquest of New Mexico after the Pueblo Revolt, and he proposed that this hypothesis be tested. Over the next several decades, however, the hypothesis remained untested, but it became both accepted as established fact and the basis for most anthropological, archaeological, and historical reconstructions of Navajo history and cultural …

An Experimental Investigation Of Productivity Stratification And Knowledge Transfer In An Electronically Mediated Environment, Jachin Sakamoto

Theses and Dissertations

The idea of anywhere and anytime learning is enticing from a military standpoint, given the high deployment rates in the current operational environment. Electronic-based learning is seen as an answer to this requirement. Currently there are many variations in electronic-based instructional media, and little has been done to determine which format or combination of formats is most conducive to facilitating knowledge transfer and learning. The research project explores, through the use of an experiment, three primary constructs of media richness, content flexibility, and forced engagement, in their relation to effectiveness or productivity in facilitating learning in the experimental participants. The …

Automated Agent Ontology Creation For Distributed Databases, Austin A. Bartolo

Theses and Dissertations

In distributed database environments, the combination of resources from multiple sources requiring different interfaces is a universal problem. The current solution requires an expert to generate an ontology, or mapping, which contains all interconnections between the various fields in the databases. This research proposes the application of software agents in automating the ontology creation for distributed database environments with minimal communication. The automatic creation of a domain ontology alleviates the need for experts to manually map one database to other databases in the environment. Using several combined comparison methods, these agents communicate and negotiate similarities between information sources and retain …

Intelligent Query Answering Through Rule Learning And Generalization, James M. Carsten

Theses and Dissertations

The Department of Defense (DoD) relies heavily on information systems to complete a myriad of tasks, from day-to-day personnel actions to mission critical imagery retrieval, intelligence analysis, and mission planning. The astronomical growth in size and performance of data storage systems leads to problems in processing the amount of data returned on any given query. Typical relational database systems return a set of unordered records. This approach is acceptable in small information systems, but in large systems, such as military image retrieval systems with more than 1 million records, it requires considerable time (often hours to days) to sort through …

Superintendents In Arkansas: An Examination Of Expectations And School Effectiveness Research, Tracy Selby Tucker

Theses and Dissertations

This phenomenological study examined the expectations that six superintendents within the state of Arkansas held for building level administrators in effective elementary schools. Expectations were compared to the seven correlates of effective schools. Findings indicated that superintendents had at least one expectation related to each correlate. The major finding was for building level administrators to be strong instructional leaders. Other expectations included: (a) focusing on student learning, (b) knowing and living the expectations of the district and school, (c) being aware of things in the school building and on the campus, (d) communicating with staff and parents, (e) analyzing data, …

I'Ve Done My Job : Elderly North Dakotans Talk About Right Living, John J. Weber

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Queering George Farquhar's The Recruiting Officers, John Tollef Thompson

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Diphenhydramine On Central Auditory Processing In University Of North Dakota Students, January L. Stevenson

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Phonological Processing Proficiency In Bilingual And Monolingual Children, Jill Mitchler

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Time Of Day On Reading Vs. Listening In Children, Shyla Leigh Muse

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Ojibway Women In Transition : The Influence Of The Church On The Traditional Roles Of Objibway Women And Its Effects On Ojibway Society, Anastasia Bowe

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Curves Community : An Analysis Of Women's Communication And Interaction At A Fitness Center, Ivy L. Arnesen

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

A Comparative Study Of Ruling Queens In The Age Of Absolutism, Peter D. Bohlman

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Representing And Negotiating Dakotaness In Susan Power, Aneliya Dimitrova

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Appropriate And Inappropriate Context On Proverb Interpretation, Jason W. Douglas

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Saudi Women's Society : Perceptions Of Saudi Arabian Women Living In The Upper Midwest, Philline M. Deraney

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

An Investigation Of Auditory Processing Skills In Birth Siblings, Pamela L. Lamon

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Aesthetic Representation Of Traditional Chinese Painting In Two Fifth-Generation Chinese Films, Yuliyana Gencheva

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Code Switching In Spanish-English Bilingual Preschoolers : A Comparison Between Children With Normal And Disordered Language, Meagan L. Kimmel

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.