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Virginia Woolf And The Persistent Question Of Class: The Protean Nature Of Class And Self, Mary C. Madden

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

From the beginning of her career, Virginia Woolf moves beyond the perspective of her inherited class position to challenge a damaging class system. She increasingly recognizes the extent of her own complicity in the creation and maintenance of class structures supporting patriarchy, war, and British imperialism. Highlighting ambiguities inherent in the very category of class, she acknowledges the limiting "boxes" of language itself in attempts to rethink class. For Woolf, class is not monolithic but internally differentiated by gender and race. Examining Woolf's early work in relation to class theory shows that throughout her career Woolf interrogates the imbrication of …

Audience Interpretations Of The Representation Of Women In Music Videos By Women Artists, Libby Mckenna

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examined how young women audiences may make sense of music videos and how they relate music video messages to their own femininity. Studies of the representation of women in music videos mostly have focused on critiquing content, rather than audience interpretations. This study, using focus groups, looked at how young women interpret music videos featuring women artists and showed that young women perceive sexist and/or stereotypical depictions presented in the videos. During six focus groups, three music videos were reviewed by 49 college students, mostly consisting of young women in their early 20s. The researcher found themes emerging …

An Examination Of The Interaction Between Exemplary Teachers And Struggling Writers, Betty Ruth Sylvester

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the interactions between teachers of writing and struggling writers. There were two main research questions: (1) What is the nature of the interaction between exemplary teachers of writing and struggling writers? (2) What arethe responses of struggling writers to exemplary teachers' scaffolding? To answer these questions, qualitative analysis was conducted on data. Two struggling writers were selected for the study based on their responses to the Writers Self-Perception Scale,writing samples, and teacher recommendation. Data collection included observation in two separate fourth grade classrooms during the writing block for 30 days. Data sources included audio-recording of writing instruction …

Community Of Practice As Community Of Learners: How Foreign Language Teachers Understand Professional And Language Identities, Ruth Ban

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study seeks to understand the transmogrification of four Mexican foreign language teachers as they participate in a teaching exchange in American schools throughout the United States. Previous research into development of competent membership in given communities of practice points to the need for mutual engagement with other community members, an understanding of the community activity, and a shared repertoire among community members. Framed within an activity theory perspective, the present study examined how the teachers's socio-historical background, cultural tools and artifacts, along with other pedagogical activities, community rules, and division of labor mediated the teachers' understanding of their professional …

Rsvp: An Investigation Of The Effects Of Remote Shared Visual Presence On Team Process And Performance In Urban Search & Rescue Teams, Jennifer L. Burke

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This field study presents mobile rescue robots as a way of augmenting communication in distributed teams through a remote shared visual presence (RSVP) consisting of the robot's view. It examines the effects of RSVP on team mental models, team processes, and team performance in collocated and distributed Urban Search & Rescue (US&R) technical search teams, and tests two models of team performance.

Participants (n=50) were US&R task force personnel drawn from high-fidelity training exercises held in California (2004) and New Jersey (2005). Data were collected from the 25 dyadic teams as they performed a 2 x 2 repeated measures search …

Implementing School-Wide Positive Behavior Support: Exploring The Influence Of Socio-Cultural, Academic, Behavioral, And Implementation Process Variables, Rachel Mara Cohen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study evaluated the influence of academic, behavioral, and sociocultural variables on the implementation of Schoolwide Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS), a system intended to improve discipline in school buildings. The number of schools that are implementing SWPBS has been increasing dramatically over the years as school violence continues to rise and solutions are needed to improve school climate. This study examined the relationship between three categories of variables and the level of implementation of SWPBS in three multiple regression analyses. The categories were school demographic variables (i.e., ethnicity, socio-economic status, teacher: student ratio, percentage of teachers who are out-of-field), severity …

The Effects Of Community-Based Service-Learning On Preservice Elementary Teachers’ Self-Efficacy Beliefs About Equitable Science Teaching And Learning, Neporcha T. Cone

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The National Science Education Standards (NRC, 1996) and Science for all Americans (AAAS, 1989) explicitly state that all students regardless of their age, cultural or ethnic backgrounds, gender, abilities, aspirations, or interest in science should have access to equitable educational resources in science. These equitable resources also include access to efficacious teachers of all students. However, the Standards fail to explicate what practices, if any, lead to the development of these teachers. The primary purpose of this study was to identify teacher education practices that positively influenced preservice elementary teachers' self-efficacy beliefs about equitable science teaching and learning. More specifically, …

Asymptotes And Metaphors: Teaching Feminist Theory, Michael Eugene Gipson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As we move through our daily lives, the cogency of the world shifts and changes. Many constructs exist to explain and account for how we view and interact with our environment. Education is where our understandings become formalized and are challenged. To this end, a plethora of pedagogical tools are made available to aid educators in illuminating the world(s) around and within each student. However, there is always room for new ways of presenting information, concepts, and ideas. I put forth the mathematical trope of asymptotes as a new pedagogical tool. Asymptotes, as metaphor, work as a pedagogical tool for …

Are Respiratory Behaviors Affected In Individuals With Adductor Spasmodic Dysphonia?, Katie Biedess

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Adductor spasmodic dysphonia (ADSD) is a focal dystonia that is characterized by voice breaks due to involuntary contractions of the adductor muscles of the vocal folds. These spasms can interfere with the coordination and balance of the respiratory and phonatory systems interfering with normal voice production. Disruptions in normal respiratory behaviors are well documented in inviduals with laryngeal disorders, including ADSD. Previous research regarding respiratory processes in ADSD has focused on airflow and pressure; however, there are many other parameters that have not been considered and may shed new light on the respiratory behaviors of individuals with ADSD. Therefore, the …

Arts In New Directions The Development And Application Of A Construct That Uses The Arts To Promote Transformation And Self-Actualization In Health Care And Education/Therapy, Alexxis Avalon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Artistic methods to evoke relaxation, spark creativity, and change self-perceptions are already being used by therapists, educators, and scientists. Interdisciplinary collaborations among researchers are developing to create new paradigms that incorporate the use of arts to empower individuals. By describing various connections between the arts and participants, researchers are looking at the expressive arts (including dance, music, drama, poetry, and visual arts) for transformation and self-actualization.The problem is that no construct is available to describe the transformation, "the conscious move from one deep structure of knowledge to another" (Wilber, 2004), that occurs when using the arts in health care and …

The Effects Of Multimedia Annotations On L2 Vocabulary Immediate Recall And Reading Comprehension: A Comparative Study Of Text-Picture And Audio-Picture Annotations Under Incidental And Intentional Learning Conditions, Zhaohui Chen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation investigated the effects of multimedia annotation on L2 vocabulary learning and reading comprehension. The overarching objective of this study was to compare the effects of text-picture annotation and audio-picture annotation on L2 vocabulary immediate recall and reading comprehension. This study also sought to examine the different effects under incidental and intentional learning conditions. The participants were 78 intermediate adult ESL learners from three universities in northwest U.S. The participants read an Internet-based English text. Twenty target words, annotated in either text-picture or audio-picture, were embedded in the reading text. The participants accessed the annotations by clicking on the …

The Influence Of Performance Background On Instrumentalists’ Ability To Discriminate And Label Cornet And Trumpet Timbre, Gary Compton

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study was an examination of timbre discrimination and labeling, with specific consideration of the soprano-brass timbres of cornets and trumpets. This study sought to determine whether instrumentalists differed in their ability to label and discriminate cornet and trumpet timbres, and whether these abilities were influenced by the instrumentalists' performing instrument and years of playing experience. Wind, brass and percussion players (n=100) from existing instrumental groups in the Tampa Bay area participated in the study. These groups were collegiate trumpet majors from a large public university school of music, a collegiate wind ensemble from a private university, and a brass …

Behavioral And Auditory Evoked Potential (Aep) Hearing Measurements In Odontocete Cetaceans, Mandy Lee Hill Cook

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) and other odontocete cetaceans rely on sound for communication, navigation, and foraging. Therefore, hearing is one of their primary sensory modalities. Both natural and anthropogenic noise in the marine environment could mask the ability of free-ranging dolphins to detect sounds, and chronic noise exposure could cause permanent hearing losses. In addition, several mass strandings of odontocete cetaceans, especially beaked whales, have been correlated with military exercises involving mid-frequency sonar, highlighting unknowns regarding hearing sensitivity in these animals.Auditory evoked potential (AEP) methods are attractive over traditional behavioral methods for measuring the hearing of marine mammals because they …

Fuzzy Logic In Process Control: A New Fuzzy Logic Controller And An Improved Fuzzy-Internal Model Controller, Yohn E. Garcã­A Z.

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Two fuzzy controllers are presented. A fuzzy controller with intermediate variable designed for cascade control purposes is presented as the FCIV controller. An intermediate variable and a new set of fuzzy logic rules are added to a conventional Fuzzy Logic Controller (FLC) to build the Fuzzy Controller with Intermediate Variable (FCIV). The new controller was tested in the control of a nonlinear chemical process, and its performance was compared to several other controllers. The FCIV shows the best control performance regarding stability and robustness. The new controller also has an acceptable performance when noise is added to the sensor signal. …

Calling All Learners: An Explanatory Integrative Research Study Of Efl Learner-Learner Corrective Feedback Patterns Within On-Line Synchronous Environments, Annmarie Gorenc Zoran

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This mixed methods research study centers on learner-learner interactions; thus, contributing to the on-going investigation within negotiation and interaction, computer-mediated-communication and its role in second language learning. The specific aim was to investigate corrective feedback types, incidences, and the relationship between error and feedback type among peers within online synchronous environments in EFL classes in Slovenia, Europe. Interactional characteristics of corrective feedback with learners having a documented special need (SN) also were explored using qualitative analyses. The study encompassed 208 students that were randomly placed into 104 dyads within intact classes of Grades 7, 8, 10, and 11. There were …

The Signature Poetics Of Sharon Olds And John Cage, Walter E. Lewallen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation studies and applies the signature theory of Jacques Derrida to two American poets, Sharon Olds and John Cage. I begin by looking at the two texts by Derrida that most closely apply signature theory to poetics: Glas and Signsponge. Along the way, I narrow the scope of Derrida's writing somewhat by focusing on psychoanalytic aspects that relate to Jacques Lacan's ideas and to the concept of the superego. From this work I isolate some protocols for reading, which are then used to study Olds and Cage, two poets who have clearly developed their own signature styles. Here are …

Examining The Characteristics Of Teachers In A Master Of Arts In Teaching (Mat) Program In Varying Exceptionalities: Responding To The “Highly Qualified” Teacher Mandate, Erica Djuan Mccray

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (2002) mandated that every teacher be highly qualified by the close of the 2005-2006 school year. However, the means by which newly certified teachers are prepared has been questioned. In addition to understanding how teachers enter the field, researchers have indicated a vested interest in examining who comes into the field. More specifically, the characteristics and experiences of pre-service and in-service special educators are of great interest (McKlesky & Ross, 2003; Rosenberg & Sindelar, 2001). The present study examined the characteristics of six teachers in the final internship phase of a Master …

The Ethics Of The Spirit In Galatians: Considering Paul’S Paranesis In The Interpretation Of His Theology, Steven Douglas Meigs

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The faith versus works dichotomy that has been a foundation of Protestant Christianity for centuries is derived in large part from a flawed understanding of Paul's theology in the epistles to the Galatians and Romans. In the wake of WWII, scholars began reexamining Pauline theological constructs and proposing new ways of understanding Paul's arguments regarding faith and works. James D. G. Dunn dubbed this dialogue the "new perspective." This paper will contribute to one particular aspect of new perspective dialogue: understanding the relation of the paranetic material in the final two chapters of Galatians to Paul's theological arguments in the …

Pediatric Healthcare Providers’ Screening Practices: Impact Of Training On Early Identification Of Autism, Aja M. Meyer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the effectiveness of the Autism System of Care (ASC) trainings by measuring change in pediatric healthcare providers' method of identifying young children at-risk for autism spectrum disorders. The majority of participants were pediatricians working in either hospitals or clinics who voluntarily participated in the training. A pretest-posttest nonequivalent-groups design was used in this study. Pre- and post-test questionnaires were used to measure change in participants' screening practices. Due to a small number of participants, most findings from the study were not statistically significant. The small number of healthcare providers who participated in the ASC training was a …

Multicultural Education And Cultural Competence In The High Accountability Era: A Study Of Teacher Perception, Jennifer Morley

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

As America's public schools become more diverse, the achievement gap between white students and students of color persists. These gaps are even more apparent in urban areas that serve large numbers of poor students of color. Because the population of aspiring teachers is increasingly white and middle class, theorists and teacher trainers often recommend multicultural education as a solution to working successfully in these schools. Multicultural education theorists claim that their suggestions for K-12 practitioners have not been infused into classrooms and schools, and so maintain that additional training opportunities should be provided for teachers. Although there is ample literature …

Vocal And Instrumental Musicians: Electrophysiologic And Psychoacoustic Analysis Of Pitch Discrimination And Production, Dee Adams Nikjeh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Neurological evidence indicates that instrumental musicians experience changes in the auditory system following skill acquisition and sensory training; yet, little is known about auditory neural plasticity in formally trained vocal musicians. Furthermore, auditory pitch discrimination and laryngeal control are recognized as essential skills for vocal musicians; however, the relationship between physiological variables, perceptual abilities, and vocal production is unclear. Electrophysiologic and psychoacoustic measures were used to examine pitch production accuracy as well as pre-attentive and active pitch discrimination between nonmusicians and two classes of musicians. Participants included 40 formally trained musicians (19 vocalists/21 instrumentalists) and 21 nonmusician controls. All were …

The Acquisition Of Spanish Through Videoconferencing And Video-Based Lessons By Individual Fifth Graders, Annette L. Norwood

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to provide an in-depth examination of the language learning experiences of four fifth-grade students learning Spanish through videoconferencing and video-based lessons. This interpretive qualitative study involved intensive data collection over a period of 7 months through participant observation, audio and video recording of classes with subsequent transcription, and interviews of the students and their teachers. The following points of focus guided this research: (a) What instances of interaction and output are observed in the different instructional settings?; (b) Are patterns of change observed in learners' language production during the period under study?; (c) What …

Breast Cancer: Relationship Between Acculturation And Barriers To Breast Cancer Screening In Southwest Florida Latinas, Patricia Patino

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Despite multiple campaigns by the American Cancer Society, reports indicate that Latinas living in the United States who contract breast cancer are more likely than Anglos to die. These findings correlate with low participation in breast cancer screenings among Latinas. The objective of this study was to identify key obstacles that influence Latinas' low participation in breast cancer screenings, based on their health beliefs, knowledge of screenings, acculturation, and socio-economic factors.The study was a face-to-face informal interview, combined with a survey questionnaire conducted at churches, social clubs and/or at the participants' homes in a southwest Florida urban community. The sample …

How To Hear The Unspoken: Engaging Cross-Cultural Communication Through The Latin American Testimonial Narrative, Elena Flores Ruiz-Aho

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project seeks to address issues in cultural politics brought on by difficulties in cross-cultural communication, particularly as these problems manifest themselves in twentieth century Latin American testimonial narratives. By developing a critical line of questioning drawn from Gayatri Spivak's influential article "Can the Subaltern Speak," one aim herein is to analyze and describe the ways in which the narrative, Me Llamo Rigoberta Menchú Me Nació la Conciencia, translated into English as I, Rigoberta Menchú: An Indian Woman in Guatemala, exemplifies the incommensurable nature of cross-cultural discursive attempts. This is done through a twofold method: one, by placing heavy emphasis …

Using Fuzzy Logic To Enhance Control Performance Of Sliding Mode Control And Dynamic Matrix Control, Edinzo J. Iglesias Sanchez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Two application applications of Fuzzy Logic to improve the performance of two controllers are presented. The first application takes a Sliding Mode Controller designed for chemical process to reject disturbances. A fuzzy element is added to the sliding surface to improve the controller performance when set point change affects the control loop; especially for process showing highly nonlinear behavior. This fuzzy element, , is calculated by means of a set of fuzzy rules designed based on expert knowledge and experience. The addition of improved the controller response because accelerate or smooth the controller as the control loop requires. The Fuzzy …

Preservice Teachers’ Responses To An Interactive Constructivist Model For Web-Based Learning, Cherry O. Steffen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

College and university teacher education programs are not, and should not be, exempt from the growing demand for distance education opportunities. Science teacher education is no exception to this growing demand. While there are some distance-learning courses and even complete programs for teacher education, the majority of these are offered as continuing education or post-graduate education opportunities. The number of programs offered specifically in science teacher education (either undergraduate or post-graduate) is extremely limited. Those distance-learning classes that are available for teacher education rarely reflect the instruction expected from teachers by the National Science Education Standards when they enter the …

Icon, Representation And Virtuality In Reading The Graphic Narrative, David Steiling

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

"Icon," "representation," and "virtuality," are key elements to consider when reading multi-modal narratives, including graphic narratives. By considering in detail how these elements are realized in various examples, the author shows how the study of the comics can lay groundwork for critical reading across the technological continuum of storytelling.The author looks at how icon, representation, and virtuality interact in a reading of William Hogarth's A Harlot's Progress. He then examines each term in more detail through readings of a variety of graphic narratives including Max Ernst's, Une Semaine de Bonte, Winsor McCay's Little Nemo in Slumberland, Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of …

"Mingling Incantations": Hart Crane's Neo-Symbolist Poetics, Christopher A. Tidwell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The largest impediment to appreciating Hart Crane as a symbolist modern American poet derives from the fragmentary critical attention paid to his borrowings from and familiarity with French Symbolists like Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud, and Stéphane Mallarmé. Almost equally important, the early career of T. S. Eliot exerted a profound impact on Crane's poetic development and indeed served as the primary introduction to many nineteenth-century French poets for Crane and many other American poets of his generation. This dissertation initially examines contemporary critical definitions of the symbolist method and explores the extent to which Hart Crane's familiarity with the French …

“Trust Yourself To God:” Friar Francisco Pareja And The Franciscans In Florida, 1595-1702, Albert William Vogt

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Friar Francisco Pareja represented the pinnacle of the achievement for the Franciscans in Florida during the Spanish colonial period. But who were the Franciscans? Why were they, and Friar Pareja in particular, so successful as missionaries? The bulk of the writing done thus far on the mission system in Florida has concentrated on retelling the lost story of the native peoples who once inhabited the land. The impact of the missions and the Spanish colony weighed heavily on native cultures and the Franciscans role in this has been discussed. However, little has been said about the religious order itself, and …

Seeking Story: Finding The Modern Day Folktale In The Daily News, Brandice Palmer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explores the local news story for evidence of the folktale tradition. It examines a range of local news stories for their folktale functions. The study compares the cultural and psychological function of the news story to that of the folktale and compares the functional definition of folklore to that of journalism. The study also explores the idea of a classifiable sphere of formal character, motif and plot functions that may be explored within the news story and folktale texts. This study builds on the premise that the study of folklore should be at the center of a consideration …