Digital Commons Network^™

Weaved Journeys: Life Writings Of Leading And Engagement In Science Education, Tara M. Nkrumah

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study’s purpose was to explore science engagement and in/equity through science educators’ narratives of servant leadership at both the K-12 and higher education levels in the United States. The research question was: How have participants become and led others to become engaged in science? I took an arts-based approach using drawings and autobiographical data to initiate and create metissages focused on becoming engaged in science education. The findings were that: (1) Participants helped marginalized students understand the culture of science through pedagogical strategies that connected self and science; (2) Participants recognized and countered systemic forms of oppression for students …

Neuro-Correlates Of Word Processing Among Four-And-Five-Year-Old Children From Homes Varying In Socio-Economic Status, Wendy Olsen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A large body of research relates families’ socioeconomic status (SES) to child language development (Hoff & Tian, 2005). Results from these studies indicate preschoolers from low SES backgrounds may have underdeveloped linguistic foundations required for future academic success (Sirin, 2005; Lacouri & Tissington, 2011). These differences have been said to create a 30 million word-gap between the language experiences of low and middle to high SES children by the age of 3 years. Thus, children who come from lower SES backgrounds often lack the vocabulary knowledge used in school and in textbooks (Hart & Risley, 1995). One index of SES …

New Gta’S And The Pre-Semester Orientation: The Need For Informed Refinement, Jessica L. Griffith

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In a First Year Composition (FYC) setting, many courses are taught by graduate assistants, regardless of if these instructors are truly qualified to teach. Incoming instructors must balance their roles as students with that of brand-new teachers, with each of them attempting to incorporate their own pedagogical approach. Therefore, it would benefit FYC programs to have a solid training program in place, specifically with the pre-semester orientation, in order to smoothly transition these new instructors.

To clarify, this is not to suggest that many programs are not already strong. It does suggest that programs must adapt to the changing climate …

Contribution Of Sleep Disruption And Physical Inactivity To Fatigue In Survivors Of Allogeneic Hematopoietic Cell Transplant, Ashley M. Nelson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Background: Fatigue is a prominent quality of life concern among cancer patients who have undergone allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). The high percentage of HCT patients reporting fatigue concerns warrants investigation into factors that may contribute to or alleviate fatigue. The present study sought to elucidate relationships among fatigue and behavioral factors including sleep disruption and sedentary activity.

Method: Allogeneic HCT recipients who were one to five years post-transplant were invited to participate in the present study. Participants wore an actigraph assessing sleep efficiency and sedentary behavior for one week, completed daily assessments of fatigue and sleep during the same …

Malicious Manipulation In Service-Oriented Network, Software, And Mobile Systems: Threats And Defenses, Dakun Shen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation includes three approaches we have been designed to tackle threats and challenges in network, software, and mobile security. The first approach demonstrates a new class of content masking attacks against the Adobe PDF standard, causing documents to appear to humans dissimilar to the underlying content extracted by information-based services. The second work protects sensitive data in binaries from being corrupted by cyber attackers. The last work proposes a mechanism which utilizes the unique walking patterns inherent to humans and differentiate our work from other walking behavior studies by using it as first-order authentication and developing matching methods fast …

Examining Efl Learners’ Reading Comprehension: The Impact Of Metacognitive Strategies Discussion And Collaborative Learning Within Multimedia E-Book Dialogic Environments, Abrar H. Alsofyani

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

For most English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners, both reading and comprehension skills are challenging to acquire. EFL students find reading challenging due to their inability to comprehend and interpret text information, which may lead, at times, to demotivation and loss of interest. The current study intends to explore how Saudi EFL learners may better tackle reading comprehension challenges by examining the utilization of metacognitive reading strategies through discussion and extensive collaborative learning activities within a multimedia e-book dialogic environment. Accordingly, the study investigates the impact of teaching metacognitive strategy-based discussion and collaborative learning on students’ application of the …

Efl Student Collaborative Writing In Google Docs: A Multiple Case Study, Quang Nam Pham

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The development of modern technology has presented new opportunities for language instruction. In recent years, technology-mediated collaborative writing has received great attention in research literature. The constraints and affordances of some tools, such as Wikispaces and Google Docs for collaborative writing have been explored. Although wiki-based collaborative writing have been conducted in a variety of contexts, studies in Google Docs-based collaborative writing in English as Foreign Language (EFL) contexts are underrepresented in research literature.

To contribute to research diversity, I conducted a dissertation study in an English for Specific Purposes class at a university in southern Vietnam. Sociocultural Theory and …

Economies Of Salvation In English Anchoritic Texts, 1100-1400, Joshua Edward Britt

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores the different ways medieval authors conceived of anchoritism and solitary life by focusing on three important phases of the movement which are represented by Wulfric of Haselbury, Christina of Markyate, and fourteenth-century mystics. It is grounded in the medieval English anchoritic literature that was produced by religious scholars between the eleventh and fourteenth centuries. Initially, lacking a tradition of their own and a language to articulate the anchoritic experience, medieval hagiographers borrowed the desert imagery from the story of the early fathers who lived in the Syrian and Egyptian deserts, which they viewed as a place of …

The Effects And Students’ Views Of Teachers' Coded Written Corrective Feedback: A Multiple-Case Study Of Online Multiple-Draft Chinese Writing, Jining Han

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the rapid development of Web 2.0 in the field of education, which allows users to interact and collaborate with teachers and peers on the web, many researchers have focused on exploring the developments of using Course Manage System (CMS) in service of L2 writing (e.g., Chun, 2011; Warschauer & Grimes, 2007). Simultaneously, participation in learning and teaching Chinese as a foreign (TCFL) has been accelerating. Learning and teaching Chinese writing plays a significant role in the field of world languages education. In the field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) and Foreign Language Education (FLE), many studies have examined the …

Health Information Barriers, Weight Status, And Health Behaviors Among Cancer Survivors: Exploring The Moderating Effects Of Race And Ethnicity, Jennifer L. Barinas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There is an increasing need for research addressing the health concerns faced in cancer survivorship. Research has indicated that racial and ethnic minority cancer survivors are at increased risk for negative health outcomes, and some findings suggest that health literacy may play a role. Yet, few studies have explored how relations among heath information barriers, weight status, and health behaviors may differ by race and ethnicity in cancer survivors. Objectives: 1) To explore whether health information barriers are associated with weight status, cigarette use, and alcohol use among cancer survivors, 2) To explore the moderating role of race and ethnicity …

Reasoning Of The Highest Leibniz And The Moral Quality Of Reason, Ryan Quandt

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Loving God is our highest perfection for Leibniz. It secures our belief and trust in the Creator, which is integral to the sciences as well as faith. Those who love God have justification for reasoning, that is, they can rationally expect to arrive at truth. This is because love is a receptivity to the perfection all of things; loving God, then, is a disposition and tendency toward the most perfect being, the ens perfectissimum. Individuals who perceive the divine nature “do not merely fear the power of the supreme and all-seeing monarch,” Leibniz writes, “but are assured of his beneficence, …

When Faced With A Democracy: Political Socialization Of First-Generation Ethnic Russian Immigrants In Central And South Florida, Marina Seraphine Mendez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

It is a qualitative study about political socialization of first-generation ethnic Russian immigrants in Central and South Florida. The method used is a constructivist grounded theory with two-level coding. Based on data collected in forty in-depth interviews, I constructed a model of political socialization. It incorporates a starting point (the legal status in the US), triggers (English language proficiency, spousal support, and parenting), political socialization agencies (English as Second Language classes, a spouse, volunteering, the church) and output structures (bureaucratic institutions). Using respondents’ opinions about American vs. Russian political systems and mass media, their political participation, and views about political …

Cognitivism In School Psychologists’ Talk About Cultural Responsiveness: A Critical Discourse Analysis, Sujay Sabnis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Although there is an increase in publications on the topic of cultural responsiveness in school psychology, the research literature does not interrogate the discourse around cultural responsiveness and the modes of practices it enables. Using a preexisting dataset featuring interviews with 15 school psychologists, I analyzed the discursive formations characterizing the talk about cultural responsiveness. Data analysis using the critical discursive psychology framework illuminated the presence of cognitivism in participant talk. Critical discourse analysis drawing on Foucauldian theory of power effects revealed the ways in which cognitivism both enabled and constrained the discursive production of ‘culture’ and ‘cultural responsiveness’. Culture …

Right-Wing, Nationalist Discourses And Counter-Discourses On Twitter During The European Migrant Crisis, Ramona Kreis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines right-wing, nationalist-conservative discourses on Twitter. Specifically, this study explores the features of right-wing discourses and counter-discourses in the context of the European migrant crisis in 2015 and the terrorist attack in Berlin, Germany, in 2016. Informed by critical discourse analysis and multimodal discourse analysis, the analysis focuses on discursive strategies and semiotic and multimodal resources found in tweets that either endorse or challenge anti-refugee stances during the aforementioned time frames. Additionally, this study explores to what extent the platform-specific technological affordances facilitate dialogic interaction between users who express right-wing opinions and users who challenge right-wing discourses.

The …

Lexical Influence In Phoneme Perception With Non-Degraded And Spectrally-Degraded Speech, Jane Bradley Smart

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In speech perception tasks with ambiguous bottom-up information, lexical processes have been shown to influence listener responses, such as in phoneme categorization tasks (Ganong, 1980). Proponents of interactive theories of speech perception and spoken word recognition assert this influence is a top-down feedback mechanism that can affect bottom-up perceptual processes (e.g., McClelland & Elman, 1986). While robust influences on phoneme perception have been reported in multiple studies (Connine & Clifton, 1987; Ganong, 1980; Gow, Segawa, Ahlfors, & Lin, 2008; Pitt & Samuel, 1993; among others), some phonetic contrasts, particularly those that distinguish place of articulation, have been tested in very …

An Evaluation Of The Individualized Behavior Rating Scale Tool (Ibrst) In Inclusive Classroom Settings, Jessica L. Moore

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

One of the greatest challenges facing school staff is problem behavior in the classroom (Public Agenda, 2004). Children who engage in problem behavior in the classroom setting greatly challenge teachers and diminish the ability to learn. This study evaluated the effects of self-monitoring using the Individualized Behavior Rating Scale Tool (IBRST) on problem behavior and on-task behavior in a classroom setting using a multiple-baseline across participants design. This study also evaluated the extent to which students self-rating on the IBRST correlated with direct observation data. Results indicate that self-monitoring using the IBRST was an effective strategy for increasing on-task behavior …

The Textbook Decision: Purchasing Options Affecting Students In The Classroom, Josef Rill

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examined the relationship of student textbook purchasing practices to student success and satisfaction in selected general education undergraduate courses at a Florida public community college. The study utilized secondary data sources, specifically bookstore purchasing data, student records, and student satisfaction survey results. Descriptive statistics and ANOVA were used to determine relationships. Seven specific research questions were answered, and statistically significant results were identified as a result of the data analysis.

The results indicated that there was a relationship between the type of textbook/course material purchased or rented and a student’s final grade in a course. There was also …

How The Heart Became Muscle: From René Descartes To Nicholas Steno, Alex Benjamin Shillito

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation addresses the heartbeat and the systems of natural philosophy that were used to explain it in the 17th century. Thus, I work in two domains of explanation. The first domain is physiology, in which William Harvey correctly ordered the heart’s systolic and diastolic motions, while René Descartes incorrectly reversed them. By looking at Harvey and Descartes’ more complete physiological models I reconsider the controversy that spun out of their divergent accounts. The second domain is the junction of physics and metaphysics, representing the frameworks of natural philosophy behind physiology. I argue that Harvey’s physiology was correct while his …

A New Literacy Coach And Two English Language Arts Teachers Learn Together: A Narrative Inquiry, Christiana C. Succar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Literacy coaching is not new to education. Since the 2001 shift in the United States (U.S.) educational policy towards high-quality teacher training, accountability, and student achievement, literacy or reading coach positions have been a core part of the educational institution (U. S. Department of Education, 2003). However, with undefined coaching roles and inadequate coach training early in the initiative, minimal impact on effective teacher development and instructional shifts towards closing the achievement gap occurred (Dole, 2003; International Reading Association, 2004).

In the past ten years, more understanding of literacy coaches’ roles and responsibilities has occurred with the publication of numerous …

Environmental Legacies Of Pre-Contact And Historic Land Use In Antigua, West Indies, Anthony Richard Tricarico

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Hurricanes Irma and Maria have recently demonstrated once again the susceptibility of contemporary populations across the Caribbean to climate-driven events. For islands such as Antigua in the eastern Caribbean, this vulnerability is partly a legacy of prior land use. As such, the actions of pre-Contact and historic period inhabitants are intertwined with contemporary socio-ecological challenges faced by Antiguans today. This research sought to understand the relationship between land use and land degradation from ca. AD 100 to the present in eastern Antigua utilizing two markers of anthropic activity: soil stability and soil quality. Specifically, this research sought to examine how …

Foreign Language Teaching Assistants' Development: How Do Their Ideal Language Teacher Selves Unfold Over Time?, Jhon Alvaro Cuesta Medina

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Using Dörnyei’s (2005) L2 Motivational Self System (L2MSS) and Kubanyiova’s (2007, 2009) model of ‘possible language teacher selves’ as main theoretical frameworks, this multiple case study explored four language teaching assistants’ developmental patterns with regards to their ideal language teacher selves over a two-year period. It also examined the challenges and limitations that these TAs faced, as well as the institutional support that they received over time. The data sources from this study included semi-structured interviews, class observations, and student artifacts (teaching philosophies, ideal teacher selves and observation reflections). A thematic analysis of these sources revealed how TAs conceptualized their …

Anton Wilhelm Amo's Philosophy And Reception: From The Origins Through The Encyclopédie, Dwight Kenneth Lewis Jr.

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Diversity and the concept of race are, or should be, central concerns both for the history of philosophy and for our current political reality. Within academic philosophy, these concerns are expressed in the growing demand for minority representation within the canon, which is overwhelmingly white and male, especially in early modern philosophy. Furthermore, until now, historians of philosophy have not spent the time necessary to uncover various designations such as “Negro”, “Moor”, “Ethiopian”, etc., in early modern Europe, and from there to understand how these shaped philosophical reflections on human diversity. In my research, I relate Anton Wilhelm Amo (c. …

Effects Of A Spanish Phonological Awareness Intervention On Latino Preschoolers' Dual Language Emergent Literacy Skills, Xigrid T. Soto

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Young children’s emergent literacy skills, particularly phonological awareness (PA) and alphabet knowledge (AK), are two of the strongest predictors of future reading skill. There is limited research evaluating the effectiveness of emergent literacy interventions on the dual language PA and AK skills of at-risk Latino preschoolers who are Dual Language Learners (DLLs). The bulk of existing interventions are conducted only in English. There is preliminary evidence supporting that DLL Latino children benefit from Spanish PA and AK instruction; however, few studies include preschool-aged children.

This study applied a multiple probe design across units of instruction to evaluate the effects of …

Autism And Inclusion In England’S Multi Academy Trust: A Case Study Of A Senior Leadership Team, Danielle Lane

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this study, I explore how the senior leadership team at an Academy Trust in England understands and operationalizes inclusion, particularly for pupils whose learning profile includes autism. England’s policies regarding inclusion appear to focus on the placement of pupils with disabilities in the mainstream provision; however, the Academy Trust, a specialist provision, suggests their school is inclusive. Gaining insight into the senior leadership team’s understandings and operationalization of inclusion will provide further understandings of inclusion in Multi Academy Trusts that are specialist provisions. In this study, I examine the understandings of eight members of a senior leadership team at …

Evaluating Theories Of Bilingual Language Control Using Computational Models, Mark D. Lowry

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Bilingual language control refers to how bilinguals are able to speak exclusively in one language without the unintended language intruding. Two prominent verbal theories of bilingual language control have been proposed by researchers: the inhibitory control model (ICM) and the lexical selection mechanism model (LSM). The ICM posits that domain-general inhibition is employed in order to suppress the unintended language’s activation. The LSM posits that inhibition is not used; rather a lexical selection mechanism targets only the intended language’s words. In order to better test the theories’ hypotheses, I developed computational models to estimate participants’ reaction times when naming in …

Communication As Constitutive Of Organization: Practicing Collaboration In And English Language Program, Ariadne Miranda

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation is about collaboration as an organizational practice that is communicatively constituted. Specifically, I examine how members of a team in an English language program located in a large southeastern university in the United States make sense of what they define as a collaborative work environment and materialize it in their meetings in spoken and written discourse, and in their mention and use of organizational artifacts. Though the study examines the practices of one organizational setting, the insights generated illuminate broader organizational and discourse dynamics and speak to important issues in the discipline of communication such as authority, leadership, …

Leadership Advocacy, Ethical Negotiations, And Resignations To High-Stakes Assessment: A Pilgrimage, Jennifer Galbraith Canady

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of my study is to explore the stories of the ethical tensions K-12 educational administrators navigate when implementing high-stakes assessment policy in a culture of measurement during testing season. Some educational leaders, in particular K-12 school and district administrators, struggle with the tensions existing between their own personal belief systems, organizational dilemmas, and the requirements of enacting high-stakes assessment policies. Using narrative inquiry as method, I collected and analyzed four school administrators selected who expressed frustration with enacting high-stakes assessment policies. The participants include a middle principal, a middle school assistant principal, a high school assistant principal, and …

Estimating Coastal Water Turbidity Using Viirs Nighttime Measurement, Chih-Wei Huang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Coastal water turbidity is a key environmental factor that influences the relative clarity of the water, which therefore reduces sunlight penetration. The comprehensive spatial and temporal coverage of remote sensing allows mapping of water turbidity near the coast. Even in locations where time-consuming and expensive conventional turbidity monitoring programs exist, local technological limitations prevent complete coverage. Traditional optical satellite techniques using the visible band also have limitations in monitoring turbidity due to non-optimal observing conditions such as clouds, sun-glint, and thick aerosols. In this study, in order to complement the daytime satellite measurements, I used the data from Visible Infrared …

Saudi Special Education Preservice Teachers’ Perspective Towards Inclusion, Sarah Binmahfooz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In Saudi Arabia, students with disabilities have historically received education in special and segregated schools. As times progressed, regulations and laws changed the manner in which students with disabilities were served. Regulations order that students with disabilities be educated in the least restrictive environment; however, preservice teachers’ perspectives continue to differ in regard to working with students with disabilities in a general education setting. Research has shown that teachers who portray positive attitudes towards inclusion are more likely to work with students with disabilities in an inclusive classroom (Dev & Hayes, 2015). Today, inclusion has occurred in schools around the …

Respiratory Infections And Risk For Development Of Narcolepsy: Analysis Of The Truven Health Marketscan Database (2008 To 2010) With Additional Assessment Of Incidence And Prevalence, Darren Scheer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Background and Significance: Narcolepsy is a chronic neurological disorder. These patients experience various psychiatric and physical comorbid diseases and mortality at an increased rate compared to the general population. Additionally, patients with narcolepsy experience approximately a doubling of various annual healthcare related facility visits, transactions, and costs comparatively. Narcolepsy with cataplexy is generally believed to be more prevalent than narcolepsy without cataplexy. However, incidence and prevalence estimates of narcolepsy (with or without cataplexy) vary widely with few large epidemiological studies conducted worldwide and none in the U.S evaluating these proportions in both children and adults utilizing a large health care …