Digital Commons Network^™

Implementing Best Practices When Modifying An Early Childhood Curriculum To Facilitate Inclusion Of Children With Disabilities, Cordalia D. Sullivan

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify current best practices when modifying an early childhood curriculum to facilitate inclusion of children with disabilities. A questionnaire consisting of twenty items pertaining to the benefits and barriers to an inclusive preschool program was distributed to thirty-four educators who service preschoolers with disabilities directly or indirectly. Those surveyed strongly agreed that including young children with disabilities in typical preschool program is a viable model of service delivery. They stated that benefits outnumber the barriers in an inclusive program, that such programs can benefit children with and without disabilities, and staff training is …

A Case Study In Augmentative And Alternative Communication: Usage By An Eight Year Old Male With Developmental Apraxia Of Speech, Marie E. Maine

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of using a sophisticated electronic voice output augmentative communication device with an eight-year-old male who has been diagnosed with Developmental Apraxia of Speech. The design of this research was a case study. Data collection measured the subject's academic, language, and social status before and after implementation of the augmentative communication device. Measures included standardized and criterion-referenced tests, adaptive behavior rating scales, structured observations, anecdotal data, interviews, and review of school records. Findings indicated the subject was able to participate in several assessments during the post-treatment condition that could not be …

A Study Of The Amount Of Training That Pre-Service And In-Service Special Education Teachers Receive In The Teaching Of Reading, Virginia Egbert

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if special education teachers at the pre-service and in-service levels have received and are receiving enough training to proficiently teach reading to their students, This study attempted to reveal the level of knowledge and training that special education personnel possess in the area of teaching reading. Data was gathered through a questionnaire, and then the responses for all of the participants were analyzed and presented in graphs. The responses were classified as those from in-service teachers or pre-service teachers in order to compare the data between the two groups.

The findings for …

The Effect Of Music In Education On Self-Esteem And Academic Achievement In Students With Special Needs, Tony E. Surrency

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine and support the premise that participation in a school instrumental music program can affect a student's self-esteem and academic achievement. I will review existing literature, applicable studies, and articles to support my proposal. The sample size is composed of ten students with special needs, nine are classified learning disabled and one is classified learning disabled with autism. The measurement instrument will be a survey questionnaire. Participants will be teachers in my district. Study results indicate that most Regular Education and Special Education teachers measured agree that music education can and does affect …

The Potential For Support Of Gardner's Theory Of The Naturalist Intelligence In Selected Elementary School Library Media Centers, Traci L. Haines

Theses and Dissertations

The concept of teaching to the ability of the child is complex. Each child absorbs, analyzes and processes information differently. Howard Gardner developed a series of eight intelligences describing the variety of ways in which children learn. This study focused on the Naturalist Intelligence, an ability to recognize and discriminate different concepts in nature. A naturalist learner has strong observational skills and is good at sorting and classifying (Checkley, 1997). This evaluation compares randomly selected samples of the collections of two elementary school library media centers in order to determine whether the books in the 500s support Gardner's Theory of …

An Interrater Reliability Study Of The Psychological Processing Checklist, Sophia Lusinski

Theses and Dissertations

This research was undertaken to conduct an interrater reliability study of the Psychological Processing Checklist, which proposes to assess in children deficits in cognitive processes.

A sample of 30 Hispanic students, male and female, ages ranging from 6 to 10, enrolled in a Bilingual Program in a district of a city in Southern New Jersey was randomly selected to participate.

Two different teachers rated each individual: one bilingual and/or ESL, the other a mainstream regular classroom teacher. Both used the Psychological Processing Checklist to rate each student.

Hidden Markov Models For Visual Speech Synthesis In Limited Data, Harold A. Arb

Theses and Dissertations

This work presents a new approach for estimating control points (facial locations that control movement) to allow the artificial generation of video with apparent mouth movement (visual speech) time-synced with recorded audio. First, Hidden Markov Models (HMMs) are estimated for each visual speech category (viseme) present in stored video data, where a category is defined as the mouth movement corresponding to a given sound and where the visemes are further categorized as trisemes (a viseme in the context of previous and following visemes). Next, a decision tree is used to cluster and relate states in the HMMs that are similar …

Sibling Effects In The Adjustment Of Children Exposed To Domestic Violence, Nicole L. Mccann

Theses and Dissertations

Many studies discuss how the emotional trauma experienced by children of divorcing parents is buffered by the presence of siblings. The present study examines whether there is a similar buffering sibling effect for child witnesses to domestic violence if there is an older sibling present in the household. This study examined the differences between first born children including only children and younger siblings who have witnessed domestic violence. The Trauma Symptom Checklist and the Child Behavior Checklist were administered to 102 children aged 3-11 whose parent received shelter or outreach counseling at a New Jersey battered women's shelter. Demographic information …

A Flexible Framework For Collaborative Visualization Applications Using Java Spaces, Sean C. Butler

Theses and Dissertations

The complexity of modern tasks is rising along with the level of technology. Two techniques commonly used to deal with complexity are collaboration and information visualization. Recently, computer networks have arisen as a powerful means of collaboration, and many new technologies are being developed to better utilize them. Among the newer, more promising of these technologies is Sun Microsystems' JavaSpaces ™, a high-level network programming API. This thesis describes a tool for developing collaborative visualization software using JavaSpaces-an application framework and accompanying toolkit. In addition to a detailed description of the framework, the thesis also describes an application implemented using …

The Extent Of Awareness Of Tesol's Esl Standards For Pre-K-12 Students In Intensive English Programs In The United States, Alan D. Lytle

Theses and Dissertations

With the publication of TESOL's ESL Standards for Pre-K-12 Students in 1997, there was established a format by which to standardize English language learner progress with defined goals, standards, descriptors, and sample progress indicators. School districts throughout the United States began redesigning their curricula to address English Language Learners' needs by using the Standards. However, Intensive English Programs (IEPs) do not have a set of standards that includes their populations. This dissertation was designed to investigate the level of awareness of the Standards in IEPs in the United States, focusing specifically on establishing the extent to which TESOL's ESL Standards …

The Isaiah Passages In The Book Of Mormon: A Non-Aligned Text, Carol F. Ellertson

Theses and Dissertations

Since the advent of the Dead Sea Scrolls, four biblical textual scholars have emerged at the forefront of the dialogue concerning textual evolution. They are: Frank Moore Cross, Emanuel Tov, Shemaryahu Talmon and Eugene Ulrich. Though there is some overlap in their hypotheses, each scholar has put forth a framework of biblical textual development in light of these new discoveries.

If a new biblical text were discovered today, how would each scholar approach it? This thesis evaluates each scholars' views and concludes that Emanuel Tov's criteria for judging a newly discovered text is the most thorough and explanatory. Tov's views …

The Comprehensibility Of Plain Language And Non Plain Language Minnesota Civil Jury Instructions, Kathryn J. Apostal

Theses and Dissertations

A substantial volume of research (e.g., Charrow & Charrow, 1979; Elwork, Sales & Alfini, 1977, 1982) suggests that jurors do not understand the often-convoluted language of standard jury instructions. Some states have recently simplified their instructions, but others continue to debate whether change is beneficial. This study was designed to investigate whether "plain language" jury instructions lead to improved comprehension. College students listened to either new, plain language Minnesota jury instructions or older Minnesota jury instructions addressing the same topics. Participants then took a written comprehension test covering legal rules contained in the instructions. Participants also completed a Nelson-Denny vocabulary …

Factors Related To Persistence In The Study Of French At The College Level, Caroline E. Kirkpatrick

Theses and Dissertations

The current study was conducted to address the problem of declining enrollments in French classes. The purpose was to identify those factors that are responsible for student persistence in the study of French beyond the level required to obtain a general degree from the University. Research questions included the following topics: 1) students’ perception of their motivation for language learning, 2) the relationship of certain activities, the classroom climate, the role of the teacher, and the use of technology, to their motivation for language learning, 3) reasons students give for not continuing with their foreign language studies, and 4) factors …

Alcohol And Speech Perception, Charlene D. Cyr

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Participant Reference In Narrative Discourse: A Comparison Of Three Methodologies, Stephen A. Clark

Theses and Dissertations

In recent years several linguists have developed quantitative methods for analyzing and describing how speakers of languages refer to activated participants in narrative discourse. One of the first of these was Talmy Givon, whose method (referred to by some as the Recency/Distance method) measured three factors in participant reference: referential distance, potential interference, and persistence. A few years later, Russell Tomlin proposed an alternative model, which he labeled the Episode/Paragraph method. He felt that Givon's method fails to account for the fact that the thematic paragraphs or "episodes" found in narrative texts largely determine the amount of coding material used. …

The Academic Achievement And Psychological Functioning Of College Students With A Family History Of Alcoholism, Rachel M. Dodd

Theses and Dissertations

Fifty adult children of alcoholics (ACAs) and 50 non-ACAs in an undergraduate college student sample were compared on standardized measures of emotional functioning, alcohol consumption, academic achievement, and cognitive ability. A 2 (parental alcoholism status) X 2 (gender) multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) was performed on each of the four categories of dependent variables. The MANOVAs were followed by univariate analyses of variance (ANOVAs) to determine which variables contributed to the multivariate effect.

With respect to emotional functioning, differences between ACAs and non-ACAs were found for males but not females. Male ACAs reported significantly more current anxiety and long-standing anxiety …

An Interview Study Of Educational Success Among American Indian Doctoral Recipients, Linda L. Neuerburg

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to better understand the successful educational experiences among Native American doctoral recipients and why they succeeded where so many others have failed to reach that level of education. The participants' individual experiences were recorded during the in-depth interviews. Their own voices have indicated their path to success.

Qualitative research methods were used in the study including interviews, participant observation, and follow-up telephone interviews. Data were analyzed for themes and results were discussed in reference to the literature. Recommendations for parents, teachers, school administrators, mentors, faculty, and college administrators were provided.

The study allowed the …

Parents' Perceptions Of Their Involvement In Selected North Dakota Public Schools, Patricia Groven

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Writing In A Psychology Classroom: Learning And Adopting The Apa Epistemology., Suellen Shaw

Theses and Dissertations

Each discipline has unique conventions and discourse, which new writers in that area must learn to gain entry and credibility in that discipline. Learning of a new discourse is not automatic. This dissertation explores how undergraduate students in two psychology classes have achieved that learning. In doing so it considers the following questions: “What strategies do students use to learn to write in psychology?” “How do students discern what an instructor's definitions of good writing are?” “How does that instructor convey the discourse and expectations to the students?” “What skills and knowledge are transferable from previous classes?” “What from previous …

Time Of Day Effects On The Performance On The Screening Test Of Auditory Processing, Christine Anne Mackenzie

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if any significant relationships existed between time of day and central auditory processing using a screening test of central auditory performance. The study specifically addressed the following research questions: 1. Is there a difference in the scores of morning and evening type individuals on the Filtered Word subtest, the. Auditory Figure-Ground subtest, or the Competing Words subtest of the SCAN? 2. Is there a difference between morning and evening test time for differing types of individuals on the Filtered Word subtest, the Auditory Figure-Ground subvest, or the Competing Words subtest of the …

The Effects Of Reinforcement Activities On Reading Comprehension In A Third Grade Classroom, Jessica A.C. Tobin

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of reinforcement activities on the reading comprehension of third grade students. It was hypothesized that students who completed a hands-on art activity after hearing a story would score significantly higher on a reading comprehension test than those who finished a worksheet activity. Both the students who completed a hands-on art activity and those who did a worksheet activity would score significantly higher on a reading comprehension test than those who received no reinforcement activity after hearing a story. All 23 students in the third grade classroom were given all three …

The Effects Of Acute Alcohol Intoxication On The Cognitive Performance Of Adult Children Of Alcoholics And Controls., Stephanie Marie Fuller

Theses and Dissertations

A decreased sensitivity to the effects of alcohol has been consistently demonstrated in adult children of alcoholics (ACAs) and has been hypothesized as a predictor of future risk of alcoholism. The present study investigated whether family history of alcoholism would influence response to alcohol on a number of cognitive tasks. ACAs and controls were administered either a dose of alcohol in the form of 1.25 ml/kg body weight of absolute ethanol or placebo and subjected to the FAS test of word fluency, the Sternberg memory scanning task, a reaction time task, a test of prose memory, the WAIS-R Digit Span …

Program Accommodations Made By New Jersey Elementary School Librarians To Meet The Needs Of Exceptional Readers, Beverly S. Siti

Theses and Dissertations

As teacher and educational partner, the elementary school library media specialist must accommodate the diverse abilities and interests of students in all stages and degrees of literacy development. In order to examine if and how school librarians in New Jersey meet the needs of students who read either above or below grade level expectations, a survey was designed to measure key attributes of a library program that successfully accommodates all readers: the librarian's background knowledge of the reading process, his/her collaboration with others who have knowledge of students' strengths and needs, the accessibility of appropriate materials to students within the …

An Evaluation Of The Efficacy Of A Phonological Awareness Program For Learning Disabled Resource Students Of Average Intelligence, Edna H. Garrison

Theses and Dissertations

This study was designed to analyze the efficacy of a phonological awareness program on a group of learning disabled resource students of average intelligence. The participating group, consisting of five second and two third grade students, underwent phonemic awareness training sessions for six months, once daily for 15 minutes. The subjects were trained in the "Phonological Awareness Program"(1995). They were asked to complete pre and post tests using the Phonological Awareness Test (1997).

Average gains in the area of rhyming, segmentation, isolation, deletion, substitution, blending, graphemes, and decoding were calculated, totaled and analyzed. Results indicated that formal phonemic awareness training …

The Effect Of Educational Placement On Self-Concept, Karin Dech Pescatore

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine self-concept of students from different placement settings. Academic, social, and general self-concepts were considered. Subjects were chosen from four placement settings: regular education classroom, basic skills instruction (BSI), resource room instruction, and self-contained special education classroom. A sample size of forty-eight students from grades five and six was used. Data was collected through the use of a self-concept scale as well as several student interviews. Data was recorded and analyzed on a computer using the StatView program. Mean scores and standard deviations were compared to determine differences in self-concept scores among the …

Family Support Of Emergent Literacy In Students With Moderate And Severe Cognitive Delays, Dianna M. Higgins

Theses and Dissertations

This study sought to explore family support of emergent literacy of students with moderate and severe cognitive delays. The research question addressed was "Does family support of emergent literacy differ on the basis of the severity of the student's cognitive delay?" Data were gathered by means of a parent survey of home literacy experiences.

Research showed that students with moderate cognitive delays participated in more emergent literacy activities and exhibited higher level responses to emergent literacy activities than students with severe cognitive delays, and the parents of moderately delayed students perceived more academically oriented benefits to home literacy activities. Results …

Gender Differences In Mathematics Anxiety And Achievement: Grades 4-8, Juliet H. Mcginley

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate gender differences in mathematics anxiety as it is related to mathematics achievement. It was expected that there would not be a gender difference in mathematics achievement, but that there would be a gender difference in math anxiety. Specifically, it was expected that females would have a higher math anxiety than males, and that this difference would magnify in the higher grades. The participants were 250 students in grades 4-8 from a Catholic elementary school in a middle-class suburb in Southern New Jersey. Prior to their mathematics midterm examination, the participants completed the …

The Relationship Between The Congruence Of Vocational Interests And College Major And Self-Concept, Amina C. Husain

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether or not there is a relationship between the congruence (agreement) of an individual's vocational interests and academic major and the level of self-concept. This study reports on the level of self-concept and the degree of congruence between the selection of an academic major and their personality type or profile using the Self Directed Search (Holland, 1994). The level of self-concept was determined by using the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale (Fitts, 1965). The congruence score was obtained by utilizing was the Zener-Schnuelle Congruence Index (Robbins, Harvey, & Kandefer 1978). Sixty college freshmen and …

Phonological Awareness Of Stress And Syllable, Joshua N. Long

Theses and Dissertations

For a number of years, researches have studied children's intuitive knowledge of sounds and syllables because of contributions of these linguistic units to language learning, and more specifically literacy. Children learn to interpret streams of speech through the development of segmentation skills. This study investigated the abilites of preschool and school age children through measurement of their performance on two-syllable, three-syllable, and four-syllable pseudo-word forms with varying stress patterns. The present study examined the participants' ability to identify targeted syllables and targeted stressed elements. That is, in one group (syllable group), participants were required to identify the location of a …

Business Alumni And Business Faculty Perceptions Of Graduates' Finance Capabilities: A Study Of Selected Small Private Colleges In The Upper Midwest, Dennis I. Bolen

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine what within the introduction to finance curriculum has prepared undergraduate business major alumni to succeed at their degreegranting institutions and later to meet the demands of the business world. This included the importance of topical coverage and skills, as perceived by both undergraduate business major alumni and corresponding school finance instructors. Specifically, the preparation afforded by the introduction to finance course was assessed within business departments of selected Upper Midwest institutions of higher learning. Findings of the study were compared to organizational pronouncements of the Finance Management Association International, and the American …