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A Qualitative Study Examining The Learning Orientations Of Adult Doctoral Students In A College Of Education Using Houle’S Typology As A Framework, Kristeen Tiffanee Bulluck

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Houle conducted one of the first studies about adult learner participation. In 1961, Houle wrote The Inquiring Mind, which describes three distinct learning types: goal-oriented, activity-oriented, and learning-oriented learning. For more than fifty years, The Inquiring Mind has been read, referenced, and reviewed. Several scholars during the 1970s, 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s have added dimensions to Houle’s typology including: Sheffield (1964); Burgess (1971); Boshier (1971); Houle (1983); Gordon (1993); and Brockett and Donaghy (2011). What is missing in the current research is that no one has synthesized all of the literature and directly asked learners of today if the …

Estimating The Impact Of A Select Criteria Pollutant (Pm2.5) On Childhood Asthma In Florida, Shabnam Mehra

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Asthma has been reported in children as a leading chronic illness in the US and around the world. It is also the third leading cause of hospitalization among children under the age of 15, and is also one of the most common causes of school absenteeism. Children are at higher risk of asthma attacks and they pose a higher burden on health care system. Nearly 20.6% of middle and high school children in Florida have been told they have asthma, this prevalence has grown over 3% from 2006 to 2012. Changes in air pollutant levels are often related to health …

An Evaluation Of The Pointe Program To Guide Dance Instructors To Use Behavioral Coaching Procedures With Their Dance Students, Mallory J. Quinn

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study evaluated the POINTE Program, a manualized behavioral intervention designed for use by dance instructors to improve student dance performance using behavioral coaching procedures. This study consisted of three phases. Phase 1 was a formative evaluation of the POINTE Program, which assessed the technical adequacy of the manual. Feedback from 3 experts in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and 4 dance instructors were used to improve the manual content in this phase. Overall, the experts and instructors viewed the POINTE Program as providing accurate information on the basic ABA backgrounds and suggesting behavioral coaching procedures appropriate for use in a …

Promoting Happiness In Elementary Schoolchildren: Evaluation Of A Multitarget, Multicomponent Classwide Positive Psychology Intervention, Brittany Valle Hearon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Youth psychological well-being has become increasingly acknowledged as not merely the absence of psychological distress, but the presence of positive indicators of optimal functioning. Students with complete mental health (i.e., low psychopathology and high well-being) demonstrate the best academic, social, and physical health outcomes. As such, there remains a need to address children’s well-being through a holistic approach emphasizing the prevention of mental health problems and promotion of flourishing. Positive psychology interventions (PPIs) have emerged as a promising method of enhancing students’ complete mental health. Previous investigations support the utility of multitarget PPIs with middle school students and single-target PPIs …

Learner-Directed Vs. Instructor-Provided Curriculum Among Undergraduate Students, Christopher D. Martinez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There has been little or no research on the use of a Learning Object in the field of religious studies. The purpose of this research study was to assess undergraduate student knowledge gain outcomes between instructor-provided and learner-directed methods, which is the independent variable, using asynchronous, online, narrated PowerPoint presentations compared to undergraduate student knowledge gain using an online learning-objects unit, in a college-level world religions survey course at St. Petersburg College. This study assessed undergraduate student knowledge gain outcomes between instructor-provided and learner-directed methods among 90 college undergraduate students and determined whether there was a significant difference in the …

Physical, Verbal, Relational And Cyber-Bullying And Victimization: Examining The Social And Emotional Adjustment Of Participants, Melanie Mcvean

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Cyber-bullying has been gaining in popularity as online technology use has greatly expanded in the past decade. There has been quite a bit of research on traditional forms of bullying, which has demonstrated links to various demographic and psychosocial factors. Participation in cyber-bullying and victimization has been linked to some characteristics that are different from other types of bullying. There has been some discussion in the literature regarding whether cyber-bullying is significantly different from other forms of bullying. The literature has also noted the need for more studies utilizing peer-report data. This study utilized peer-report bullying data to examine self-reported …

Receptor-Associated Protein (Rap) Models In Vivo Reelin Haploinsufficiency: Implications In Schizophrenia, Jamileh Ahmed

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The “two-hit” schizophrenia hypothesis suggests genetic and environmental abnormalities interrupt early CNS function. This increases vulnerability of a “second hit” and schizophrenia onset. Chronic stress and decreased Reelin signaling are reportedly associated with schizophrenia. Heterozygous Reeler Mice (HRM) show a 50% reduction in Reelin and display major schizophrenia phenotypes. Receptor-Associated Protein (RAP) blocks ligand-association to Reelin receptor Apolipoprotein E receptor 2 (ApoER2). In this study, we sought to replicate major heterozygous reeler mouse (HRM) phenotypes using in vivo RAP studies to establish an experimental in vitro model. Using an in vitro model, we investigated the effects of chronic stress and …

Traveling Women And Consuming Place In Eighteenth-Century Travel Letters And Journals, Cassie Patricia Childs

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Traveling Women and Consuming Place in Eighteenth-Century Travel Letters and Journals considers how various women-authored travel narratives of the long eighteenth century employ food in the construction of place and identity. Chronologically charting the letters and journals of Delarivier Manley, Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Janet Schaw, and Frances Burney, I argue that the “critical food moments” described in their letters and journals demonstrate material, cultural, and social implications about consumption. My interdisciplinary project is located at the intersection of three seemingly divergent topics: food studies, human geography, and women-authored travel narratives. Approaching “place” as a way of being-in-the-world, my project …

The Relationship Between Trait Emotional Intelligence And L2 Motivation, Jelena Vuksanovic

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Motivation is considered an important factor in initiating and sustaining the second language (L2) process. Since learning an L2 can be seen as a lengthy process, one that needs sustained motivation over a long period of time, learners need to be able to successfully deal with their and others’ emotions in order to generate and sustain their motivation for learning. The role of learners’ emotions and trait emotional self-efficacy, or trait emotional intelligence (EI), in L2 motivation and language learning has been a relatively unexplored area. To fill this gap, the current study posed three research questions that addressed the …

“The Nations Of The Field And Wood”: The Uncertain Ontology Of Animals In Eighteenth-Century British Literature, J. Kevin Jordan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes the relationship between important intellectual discourses of the late-seventeenth and early-eighteenth centuries and the ontological status of non-human animals. The Enlightenment marks a distinct change in the ways in which humans gather knowledge and interact with the world, a change that forms the foundation for modern relationships between human and non-human animals. Through a theoretical framework that draws from animal studies and ecofeminism, I analyze the ways in which the status of non-human animals is shaped by the intersection of multiple anthropocentric concerns. In doing so, this dissertation probes the foundation of what defines the animal apart …

The Effect Of Expanded Audit Report Disclosures On Users’ Confidence In The Audit And The Financial Statements, Peter Kipp

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

I investigate how nonprofessional investors’ confidence in the financial statements and the audit report is influenced by the firm specific details of a critical audit matter (CAM) disclosure in conjunction with the description of the audit procedures engaged to address the CAM in the audit report. Using participants recruited from Amazon Mechanical Turk as a proxy for nonprofessional investors in a 2x2 +1 (control) between-participants experiment manipulating CAM disclosure detail (Detailed/Generic) and the description of the audit procedures engaged to address the CAM (Detail/Generic) I find that greater detail in the description of the CAM results in higher confidence in …

Active Suffering: An Examination Of Spinoza's Approach To Tristita, Kathleen Ketring Schenk

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Humans' capacity to attain knowledge is central to Spinoza's philosophy because, in part, knowing things enables humans to deal properly with their affects. But it is not just any sort of knowledge that humans should attain. There are different types of knowledge, but only two of them–rational and intuitive knowledge–enable humans who attain them to know things clearly. Because rational knowledge attends to universals whereas intuitive knowledge attends to particulars, intuitive knowledge is better than rational knowledge at enabling humans to deal with their affects. Most scholars recognize both the importance of knowledge to humans' dealing with their affects and …

Exploring Student Learning In Post-Secondary General Chemistry: Novel Tools For Measuring Linked Concepts And Study Habits, Li Ye

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation presents novel tools to help instructors measure students linking of content knowledge and the actions students perform for studying in the context of post-secondary General Chemistry.

The first tool described in this work is Creative Exercises (CEs), an open-ended assessment that has the potential to promote students making connections across the content covered in General Chemistry. Students are given a simple prompt that describes a chemistry situation, and asked to write as many statements as they can that are correct, distinct and relevant to the prompt and the course content. The written responses to CEs from both in-class …

"There Is No Planet B": Frame Disputes Within The Environmental Movement Over Geoengineering, David Russell Zeller Jr.

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines frame disputes within the environmental movement over geoengineering proposals. Among other core framing tasks, social movement organizations must evaluate solutions and strategies for the social problems they seek to address. These framings are frequently disputed by those within the movement. Recent controversies regarding a set of climate intervention proposals commonly known as geoengineering offer the opportunity to document the ongoing construction of competing visions of environmental sustainability. The nascent quality of these proposals generate dissonant framings—episodes where organizations within the environmental movement exhibit disagreement about one or more core framing tasks—a situation Goffman referred to as a …

Robustness Of The Within- And Between-Series Estimators To Non-Normal Multiple-Baseline Studies: A Monte Carlo Study, Seang-Hwane Joo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In single-case research, multiple-baseline (MB) design is the most widely used design in practical settings. It provides the opportunity to estimate the treatment effect based on not only within-series comparisons of treatment phase to baseline phase observations, but also time-specific between-series comparisons of observations from those that have started treatment to those that are still in the baseline. In MB studies, the average treatment effect and the variation of these effects across multiple participants can be estimated using various statistical modeling methods. Recently, two types of statistical modeling methods were proposed for analyzing MB studies: a) within-series model and b) …

Re-Envisioning Music Teacher Education: A Comparison Of Two Undergraduate Music Education Programs In The U.S., Jonathan Ross Kladder

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The coursework requirements for an undergraduate music education degree in the U.S. have remained relatively unchanged since its inception in the early twentieth-century. In light of the changing milieu of the twenty-first century music learner, some scholars and researchers have suggested redesigning particular components of the music education degree. A few universities in the U.S. have reacted by implementing changes to their undergraduate music education curricula. Preliminary data and reviews of literature revealed that limited investigations into these programs existed. The purpose of this research was to investigate two established music education degree programs in the U.S. where the faculty …

Parent Involvement Factors From The Perspectives Of Academically Successful Black Male College Students, Vernon Leo Stanley Smith

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

During the past two decades, concerns about Black males’ academic achievement have been a major theme in the literature devoted to education and social sciences. Despite over two decades of studies focused specifically on Black males and their academic underachievement, the achievement gap persists. According to the National Center for Educational Statistic (2006), African-American males were reported as being disproportionally negatively represented in regards to academic achievement. Some researchers suggested Black children’s underachievement might be due to the lack of parental involvement. Other studies have highlighted statements of Black males who indicated parental involvement factors that contributed to their academic …

Partial Mediation And Moderation Effects Of Class Peer Norms On The Relations Of Teacher Support With Student Aggression And Academic Engagement During Early Adolescence, Huanhuan Wang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the mediation and moderation effects of classroom peer norms (CPN) on the associations of teacher support with student engagement and aggression during sixth grade (first year of middle school). Current literature suggests that early adolescence is a critical developmental period with many changes occurring, including a peak in aggression, decreased academic engagement, increased peer influence, and decreased teacher support. Despite these challenging changes, teachers often serve as a powerful yet “invisible hand” (Farmer, Lines, & Hamm, 2011) that can influence student behaviors directly or indirectly via CPN. However, these two routes of …

Extending The Model With Internal Restrictions On Item Difficulty (Mirid) To Study Differential Item Functioning, Yong "Isaac" Li

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Differential item functioning (DIF) is a psychometric issue routinely considered in educational and psychological assessment. However, it has not been studied in the context of a recently developed componential statistical model, the model with internal restrictions on item difficulty (MIRID; Butter, De Boeck, & Verhelst, 1998). Because the MIRID requires test questions measuring either single or multiple cognitive processes, it creates a complex environment for which traditional DIF methods may be inappropriate. This dissertation sought to extend the MIRID framework to detect DIF at the item-group level and the individual-item level. Such a model-based approach can increase the interpretability of …

An Exploration Of Self-Compassion And Wellness Behaviors Among Practicing School Counselors, Anjanette Todd

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

According to the American School Counseling Association (ASCA, 2010), school counselors are charged with meeting the academic, social/emotional and career needs of all students (2010). In addition, school counselors serve as the front line in dealing with trauma and crisis in their schools. Those counselors who understand the importance of their own wellness and practice healthy lifestyle behaviors are better equipped to meet these demands.

Unfortunately, not all school counselors are practicing what they advocate for their students relative to promoting wellness in their own lives (O'Halloran & Linton, 2000). This lack of congruence, where school counselors are not modeling …

Perception Of School Staff Regarding The Effectiveness Of A Youth Mental Health Program In Schools, Hiba Chehaib Chehaib

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There is an ongoing debate about how to serve the number of students that are affected by mental health problems. Some schools have moved toward implementing whole school programs. The purpose of these programs is to teach adults who directly interact with school age children, such as parents, family members, caregivers, teachers, school staff, and caring citizens how to respond to an adolescent that is facing a crisis or a mental health challenge. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the perceived effectiveness of such a program. The goals of this study are to (a) determine the short-term outcomes …

Severe Maternal Morbidity In Florida: Risk Factors And Determinants Of The Increasing Rate, Lindsay Shively Womack

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Severe maternal morbidity generally refers to the most severe complications of pregnancy and includes: hemorrhage, embolism, acute renal failure, stroke, acute myocardial infarction, and other complications. These complications affect more than 50,000 women in the United States every year, with rates significantly increasing from 1998 to 2011. In an effort to reduce these increasing complication rates, clinicians and researchers have emphasized the need to identify potential modifiable risk factors for severe maternal morbidity, and the need to study the relationships between these risk factors and severe maternal morbidity. The overall goal of this study is to improve the understanding of …

Physical Therapy Utilization And Length Of Stay Among Patients With Low Back Pain In Florida Hospitals, Kyle A. Watterson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this work was identify key factors associated with inpatient physical therapy utilization and length of stay for patients with low back pain (LBP) in Florida hospitals.

Rationale: Little is known about factors associated with inpatient physical therapy or length of hospitalization for patients with LBP. This group of works identified the key factors associated with inpatient physical therapy and long lengths of hospitalization for this patient population. Since physical therapy and reduced length of stay are known cost-reducers, identifying key factors may represent significant cost savings to the health care system.

Methods: Several mixed method procedures …

Many Hands Make Light Work: Crowdsourced Ratings Of Medical Student Osce Performance, Mark Grichanik

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Clinical skills are often measured using objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs) in healthcare professions education programs. As with assessment centers, it is challenging to provide learners with effective feedback due to burdensome human capital demands. The aim of this dissertation was to evaluate the viability of using a crowdsourced system to gather OSCE ratings and feedback. Aggregating evaluations of student performance from a crowd of patient proxies has the potential to mitigate biases associated with single-rater evaluations, allow the patient a voice as the consumer of physician behavior, improve reliability, reduce costs, improve feedback latency, and help learners develop a …

Advisor Perspectives On The Relationship Between Professional Values And The Practice Of Academic Advising, John Pharo Morgan Iii

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Professional academic advisors play an important role in higher education—especially at large, research institutions where their use is more prevalent. This study explored professional advisor perspectives about the impact of the NACADA Statement of Core Values (SCV) on the practice of academic advising. This study explores advisor perceptions about the impact of the SCV on advising practice.

An in-depth, qualitative interview conducted via e-mail was used to discover advisor perceptions about the SCV in relation to advising practice. The interviews addressed advisor perceptions about the impact of the SCV in regard to (a) academic advising in general, (b) their own …

Speaking Of The Self: Theorizing The Dialogical Dimensions Of Ethical Agency, Bradley S. Warfield

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation attempts to fill, in part, three lacunae in contemporary philosophical scholarship: first, the failure to identify the two distinct types of dialogism—psychological and interpersonal—that have been operative in discussions of the dialogical self; second, the lack of acknowledgement of the six most prominent features of interpersonal dialogism; and third, the unwillingness to recognize that interpersonal dialogism is a crucial feature of human ethical agency and identity.

In Chapter One, I explain why dialogism has been relatively neglected—and certainly underappreciated—in contemporary Western philosophy. In Chapter Two, I offer a picture of Mikhail Bakhtin’s conception of dialogism. I explain why …

Effect Of Electronic Cigarette Messages On Young-Adult Behavioral Dispositions Towards Use, Idan Ariel

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Over the last decade, electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) have emerged as novel and popular nicotine delivery devices. Although many smokers use e-cigarettes, evidence suggests these products are also growing in popularity among young adult non-smokers. It is therefore important to examine factors that may contribute to onset of electronic cigarette use among young adult non-smokers. Critics and supporters of electronic cigarettes have been disseminating anti and pro e-cigarette messages (respectively) and it is currently unclear what effect, if any, these messages exert on young adult non-smokers. Critics of electronic cigarettes advocate caution towards these products, while supporters of electronic cigarettes argue …

The Dynamics Of The L2 Motivational Self System Among Saudi Study Abroad Students, Fahad Alharbi

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Adult second language acquisition takes time over an extended period of time during which the L2 motivation of learners goes through periods of ups and downs. Dörnyei, MacIntyre and Henry (2015) recognized the inherently dynamic nature of L2 motivation and called for adopting the Complex Dynamic System Theory (CDST) when studying this phenomenon. While using a CDST perspective, this mixed method study drew on Dörnyei’s (2009b) model of the Motivational Self System to examine the L2 motivation of 86 Saudi study-abroad students. Also, the construct of the Anti-ought to Self (Thompson, 2015) and aspects of the Appraisal Theory (Schumann, 2001) …

Exploring Teacher Assessment Literacy Through The Process Of Training Teachers To Write Assessment Items, Heather Peltier Wright

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the process and impact of assessment training content and delivery mode on the quality of assessment items developed by the teachers in a two-year assessment development project. Teacher characteristics were examined as potential moderating factors. Four types of delivery mode were employed in the project: synchronous online, asynchronous online, in-person workshop, and blended (a combination of online and in-person training). The quality of assessment items developed by participating teachers was measured via: 1) item acceptance rate, 2) number of item reviews (as an indicator of how many times accepted items were rejected …

Exploring The Test Of Covariate Moderation Effect And The Impact Of Model Misspecification In Multilevel Mimic Models, Chunhua Cao

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In multilevel MIMIC models, covariates at the between level and at the within level can be modeled simultaneously. Covariates interaction effect occurs when the effect of one covariate on the latent factor varies depending on the level of the other covariate. The two covariates can be both at the between level, both at the within level, and one at the between level and the other one at the within level. And they can create between level covariates interaction, within level covariates interaction, and cross level covariates interaction. Study One purports to examine the performance of multilevel MIMIC models in estimating …