Digital Commons Network^™

A Descriptive Study Of The Achievement Gap In A Florida County, Harriet Davis-Waller

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to describe and explain the perspectives of five participants representing the school district and community regarding the achievement gap between Black and White students. This study attempted to answer two major questions:

1. What are the components of their perspectives and how they are formed?

2. What beliefs support or hinder that perspective? In this study social conflict theory was used as the theoretical framework for this study, harnessing the concept of resiliency as a new paradigm shift looking at Black students and community not as "deficient" or "deficits" but implementing their unique cultural …

An Examination Of The Influence Of Band Director Teaching Style And Personality On Ratings At Concert And Marching Band Events, Timothy J. Groulx

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This descriptive correlational study examined the relationship between high school band directors' teaching style and personality and their ratings in marching and concert band festivals using the Five-Factor Model of personality and Gumm's Music Teaching Style Inventory. The sample (N=176) consisted of 46% of all high school band directors in Florida. Criterion variables included marching and concert festival ratings, state concert band ratings, Florida Marching Band Coalition marching competition scores, frequency of attendance of these last two events, and the balance between marching and concert band. Predictor variables included thirty personality facets and eight teaching styles. Four demographic …

Proportionality In Middle-School Mathematics Textbooks, Gwendolyn Joy Johnson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Some scholars have criticized the treatment of proportionality in middle-school textbooks, but these criticisms seem to be based on informal knowledge of the content of textbooks rather than on a detailed curriculum analysis. Thus, a curriculum analysis related to proportionality was needed.

To investigate the treatment of proportionality in current middle-school textbooks, nine such books were analyzed. Sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade textbooks from three series were used: ConnectedMathematics2 (CMP), Glencoe's Math Connects, and the University of Chicago School Mathematics Project (UCSMP). Lessons with a focus on proportionality were selected from four content areas: algebra, data analysis/probability, geometry/measurement, and rational …

Preservice Elementary Teachers‟ Pedagogical Content Knowledge Related To Area And Perimeter: A Teacher Development Experiment Investigating Anchored Instruction With Web-Based Microworlds, Matthew S. Kellogg

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Practical concepts, such as area and perimeter, have an important part in today's school mathematics curricula. Research indicates that students and preservice teachers (PSTs) struggle with and harbor misconceptions regarding these topics. Researchers suggest that alternative instructional methods be investigated that enhance PSTs' conceptual understanding and encourage deeper student thinking. To address this need, this study examined and described what and how PSTs learn as they engage in anchored instruction involving web-based microworlds designed for exploring area and perimeter. Its focus was to examine the influences of a modified teacher development experiment (TDE) upon 12 elementary PSTs' content knowledge (CK) …

Sound Production And Behavior Of Red Grouper (Epinephelus Morio) On The West Florida Shelf, Misty D. Montie

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Red grouper (Epinephelus morio) are long-lived, commercially important, soniferous fish belonging to the family Epinephelidae. Found throughout the western North Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico, they are protogynous hermaphrodites, and peak spawning occurs from March through May. Unlike many grouper species, red grouper do not form large spawning aggregations; rather, they form small polygynous groups, and remain in relatively close proximity to rocky depressions excavated in the sandy bottom by males. This excavation activity creates structure and habitat for a wide variety of species, and as a result, red grouper are a keystone species on the West Florida Shelf. While …

Evaluating Knowledge And Attitudes Of Undergraduate Nursing Students Regarding Pain Management, Jessica Latchman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Unmanaged pain is a widespread problem that many cancer patients face on a daily basis. Cancer pain, which can either be caused by complications due to the disease process itself or from treatment measures used, has devastating effects on the quality of life for these patients and their caregivers. This study examined the knowledge and attitudes of undergraduate students regarding pain management.

The sample in this study consisted of 41 undergraduate students at the University of South Florida College of Nursing. The students sampled were predominantly white, (n=30), female (n=37), seniors (n=41) taking Leadership and Management in Nursing. After volunteering …

Evaluation Of The Flicker Effect As A Generative Strategy In Enhancing Computerbased Instruction (Cbi) Of Visual Recognition And Classification, Ping Luo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Few studies address the question of the technology-based instructional methods of visual patterns, so the overarching purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of three treatments on pattern recognition. Specifically, with a pretest-posttest control group experimental study, the effectiveness of three instructional strategies, a flicker treatment, a no-flicker treatment, and a comparison treatment, (groups respectively analyzing sequential displays of two similar images with and without a blank screen in between and simultaneous displays of two images), was compared based on recognition (memory) and classification (transfer) test scores. The group differences in learning effectiveness and efficiency were also measured …

Dust, Ash, And The Sublime: Tracing Kant's Aesthetics In Cormac Mccarthy's The Crossing And The Road, Ben Gerdts

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

My thesis entails an examination into the presence of the sublime in two novels by Cormac McCarthy: his postmodern western The Crossing and his apocalyptic work The Road. I draw on Kant's aesthetic theory of the sublime, specifically focusing on the Dynamical and Mathematical sublime in relation to the settings of these two narratives. For the sake of brevity, I limit my study to nature's and religion's relation to the sublime in these works. Areas of particular interest to me include: a) How/why the characters of each novel appear unaffected by or even resigned to the lack of control …

Elevating Communication, Thao Thanh Nguyen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The products of vehicular transportation have led the modern traveler into a crisis of place. The modern journey that is held within ceaseless flux, confine movement to edges facilitating prompt passage yet negating active participation. These edges govern movement, highlighting points of destination while simultaneously obscuring our journey in between travels. The limited participation and extended observation of one's place within the concurring boundaries renders the senses dormant, causing passivity and reluctance to participate or communicate with the city. These lines of movement, demanding our attention toward beginning and end but omitting the middle, transforms the city, home, and place …

Who Owns Disability? An Investigation Into The Politics Of Representation, Shelby Forbes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this thesis, I show how a community of professionals providing equine therapy to individuals with disabilities discursively make sense of their enterprise. A market metaphor illustrates how disability is constructed as the capital sustaining the livelihood of their industry. Disability is a problem-centered concept. It is generally conceptualized according to a medical model which locates disability within the individual, as opposed to understanding it in a sociological sense which accounts for structural, cultural, and communicative factors. Therapy, on the other hand, is problem-determined-it needs to explicitly determine a problem to be treated in order to sustain itself as an …

Sports Fans’ Media Usage At A Kansas City Chiefs’ Fan Club, Robert J. Huebert

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The media play a major role in every part of American society by distributing content that has value to individuals, and a National Football League (NFL) sports fan club is no different. This study examines how members of a Kansas City Chiefs' fan club use media to stay connected to their team and socialize with fellow members. Social identification theory explains that when an individual comes together with one or more individuals with like-minded interests, they form social bonds. Their shared interests allow them to disseminate Chiefs' information through content gathered from media usage. To understand how the Chiefs' fans …

The Effects Of Physical Distinctiveness And Word Commonness On Brain Waves And Subsequent Memory: An Erp Study, Siri-Maria Kamp

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Words that deviate in their physical characteristics from their surrounding lead to enhanced recall memory, a pattern known as the Von Restorff effect. Furthermore, common (high frequency; HF) words are more likely to be recalled than uncommon (low frequency; LF) words when they occur in pure lists, while this pattern is reversed in mixed lists of both HF and LF words. This study investigated whether the Von Restorff effect and the reversal of word frequency effects in mixed lists, which may both be explained by enhanced perceived distinctiveness, are associated with common underlying brain processes. Event-related potentials (ERPs) …

Factors Affecting The Process Of Clinical Decision-Making In Pediatric Pain Management By Emergency Department Nurses, Teresa A. Russo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to describe the cognitive processes/knowledge sources used by Emergency Department (ED) nurses in decision-making activities regarding triage and pediatric pain assessment and management. Deficiencies persist in ED pediatric pain assessment, and management methods or approaches that might help resolve these deficiencies have not been identified previously. Methodology triangulation with sequential use of qualitative- quantitative methods provided a rich description of knowledge sources and cognitive processes used by ED nurses relative to pediatric pain assessment decisions. Based on qualitative results, a set of vignettes was developed to assess ED nurses. Data analysis using …

Headline Hawai`I: Racial Aloha In Kama`Aina News, Cory J. Weaver

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The front page of Hawai`i's largest-circulated newspaper - The Honolulu Star-Bulletin - was reviewed for a three-month period: March 1, 2008 - June 1, 2008, to examine representations of race in a media market where Caucasian individuals are the minority. Analysis of the newspaper seeks to present a greater understanding of ethnic portrayals in island news and examines ethical implications that have/can arise from adopting journalistic values typical of "white news" or mainstream reporting practices in areas where the mainstream is, in fact, the minority.

Evaluation Assessment Of Metropolitan Ministries “Uplift U™” Program And Preliminary Analysis Of Collected Data, Robert D. Bowers

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Using the methodology and criteria put forth by the Juvenile Justice Evaluation Center (part of the Justice Research and Statistics Association, Washington D.C.), an assessment for evaluation of the Metropolitan Ministries "Uplift U^TM" Program was conducted using review of data previously collected by Metropolitan Ministries, examination of documents provided by the organization, participant observation, and interviews with Metropolitan Ministry staff. This assessment reveals that there are significant problems in several areas that must be addressed before their program can be formally evaluated; including data collection and organization, outcomes measures, client selection standards, and how the program is portrayed …

Perceiving Architecture: An Experiential Design Approach, Ashley Verbanic

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Perception of the physical environment is largely dependent on a range of criteria which are not always readily identifiable. Such a difficulty to identify how a person perceives an environment creates a situation in which architects and designers can easily neglect this idea of the individual user and their experience.

Through the design of a preschool, this thesis focuses largely on understanding how children and other users perceive and interact with their environments. The design process employed synthesizes user based research and analysis of environmental cues such as light, sound, and smells and their effect on how we interpret a …

The Psychometric Validation Of The Physical Body Experiences Questionnaire, Jessie E. Menzel

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Embodiment is defined as a state in which one experiences one's body as an essential and loved aspect of one's lived experiences, a potential protective factor against body image and eating disturbance. While qualitative studies have been conducted to examine the nature of embodiment, a quantitative measure has not yet been created. The Physical Body Experiences Questionnaire was rationally derived as a measure of embodiment based on focus groups, literature reviews, and expert review. These qualitative methods resulted in a 32-item scale measured on a 7-point Likert scale. Based on the results of a pilot study conducted with 670 female …

Empowered For Practice: The Relationship Among Perceived Autonomy Support, Competence, And Task Persistence Of Undergraduate Applied Music Students, Julie F. Troum

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among undergraduate applied music students' perceptions of autonomy support, competence, and task persistence. One assumption of self-determination theory was that competence would increase when social environment supported self-organization. A motivational-cognitive framework designed to promote sustained motivation in undergraduate applied music students was proposed.

Three self-report scales administered in the form of a web survey were completed by undergraduate applied music students (N = 366) at six Florida universities. The scales were designed to measure perceived autonomy support, perceived competence, and perceived persistence in practice in the applied music studio setting. …

Mubarak’S Machine: The Durability Of The Authoritarian Regime In Egypt, Andrea M. Perkins

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Egyptian authoritarian regime is a mammoth machine created and headed by President Hosni Mubarak as an instrument for the exercise of his own power. His ability to influence every facet of the character of Egypt lies in his previous career experience, the involvement in politics of his immediate family, his commitment to unpopular but lucrative foreign policies, and the bureaucratic obstacle course he created for opposition entities to navigate.

Through persistent efforts to prepare himself for national leadership prior to gaining power, then to consolidate his power in the institutions of Egypt, Mubarak has built a state organization with …

Exploratory Analysis Of Maintenance In Behavioral Parent Training, Claudia Villari

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A two-part study explored the maintenance effect of Behavioral Parent Training (BPT) featuring multi-component treatments by examining one year follow-up data from a larger study. Participants were ten parents of children (ages 3-5) with developmental disabilities and severe problem behaviors. Parents were also identified as having high levels of pessimism. BPT featuring multi-component treatments was provided in two conditions: Positive Behavior Support (PBS) and Positive Family Intervention (PFI). PBS included a standardized protocol to teach parents how to conduct a functional assessment, develop and implement a multi-component treatment, which includes the following strategies: prevention, teaching replacement skills, and managing consequences. …

Articulating Social Change In Puerto Rico: Environmental Education As A Model For Youth Socio-Political Development And Community-Led School Reform, Federico Cintrón-Moscoso

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Recent attempts at developing an environmental education agenda in public schools emphasize the need to foster greater public awareness about environmental rights, issues, and solutions, while producing citizens with the knowledge and skills needed to address the ecological challenges of contemporary society. However, some scholars have argued that the attempt to integrate environmental principles into the school curricula has created a conflict between the politically-oriented goals of environmental education and the more passive practices of uncritical assimilation and reproduction found in many schools today (Stevenson 2007). Moreover, although there is a need for public schools to take on the challenge …

Predicting Early Adolescents’ Academic Achievement And In-School Behavior With A Dual-Factor Model Of Mental Health, Amanda L. Thalji

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A dual-factor model of mental health includes indicators of wellness (i.e., subjective well-being) and psychopathology (i.e., internalizing and externalizing behavior problems) in defining psychological wellness. The present empirical investigation examined the utility of SWB and psychopathology examined separately and together (as in a dual-factor model of mental health) in predicting students' subsequent academic achievement and in-school behavior. Specifically, it determined if SWB, psychopathology, and membership in a specific mental health group yielded by the dual-factor model (i.e., complete mental health, vulnerable, symptomatic but content, or troubled) at Time 1 was related to achievement (i.e., GPA, FCAT-math, FCAT-reading, absences, office disciplinary …

Effects Of Ingesting Fat Free And Low Fat Chocolate Milk After Resistance Training On Exercise Performance, Breanna Myers

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Collegiate athletes are always looking for ways to improve their performance. Resistance training has been incorporated into most collegiate athletic programs for this very reason. In order to improve strength, lean body mass, and exercise performance, resistance exercise and timely protein ingestion must be followed. Incorporating protein ingestion into a resistance training routine has been shown to improve net protein balance. Milk protein is gaining popularity as an ergogenic aid. There has been growing interest in the potential use of bovine milk (cow’s milk) as an exercise beverage, especially during recovery from resistance training and endurance sports. No studies have …

A Philosophical Inquiry On The Valuation And Selection Of Musical Materials For Culturally Diverse Learners In Global Environments, Jonathan Bassett

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The selection of musical materials for use in the classroom is problematic. Since music educators have limited time with students, the inclusion of musical materials necessitates the perceived exclusion of other musical materials. This perception is due in part to the increasing diversity of students represented in the classroom, the cultural labeling of musical materials, the influence of multiculturalism on music education, and the influence of the Western aesthetic in music education. Since diverse groups can and do propose socially perceived valuations of these materials as critical for the inclusion of specific musical materials for use in the classroom, this …

Re-Composition: Considering The Intersections Of Composition And Creative Writing Theories And Pedagogies, Danita Berg

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Maintaining composition studies and creative writing as discrete disciplines may not be in the best interests of either field. But so long as the majority of scholars and practitioners of either field remain largely uninformed about one another, it is unlikely that any progress toward conjoining the two fields will occur. Various important and constructive efforts have been made for more than thirty years to establish a scholarly, interdisciplinary community that dedicates itself to examining points of intersection between composition and creative writing. Initially, such efforts appear to attract the attention from the broader communities of each discipline. Before long, …

Development And Testing Of A New C-Based Algorithm To Control A 9-Degree-Offreedom Wheelchair-Mounted-Robotic-Arm System, Ana Catalina Torres Rocco

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A Wheelchair-Mounted Robotic Arm (WMRA) was designed to aid people with limited or no upper-limb usage to accomplish activities of daily living (ADLs). The primary objective of this research was to enhance the performance of the WMRA by improving the communication protocols and functions between the hardware and software used for its control.

Previously, the control algorithm of the robotic arm was tested in simulation and in the physical arm. These implementations required a combination of Matlab and C++ language and introduced some software instability under Windows operating system. To improve the performance of the WMRA, the programs for hardware …

The Effects Of Learning-Styles Information On The Achievement Of Community College Developmental Math Students, Kevin A. Hoeffner

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Four out of five Americans will require some postsecondary education. Therefore, a majority of population will return to a community college for retraining and personal growth (McCabe, 2003). Since the turn of this century, many studies have been conducted to examine the success and challenges of the relatively new community college system. One of the most significant challenges is the large percentage of the U.S. population requiring remedial coursework. Fifty-five percent of students entering Florida's postsecondary system require remediation. Of this large remedial population, only 51% will complete their preparatory classes. Students who do complete classes take an average of …

Faculty Perspectives On Doctoral Student Mentoring: The Mentor‘S Odyssey, Carol A. Burg

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, mentoring has emerged as a research domain, however, the preponderance of mentoring research has been situated first, in the business or organizational settings and second, in the K-12 educational setting, focusing on protégé experiences, using quantitative survey instruments to collect data. Thus, mentoring research literature includes a paucity of formal studies in the arena of graduate education.

Situated in the higher education setting, this study investigated the perspectives of faculty-mentors who provided mentoring to doctoral students who completed the doctoral degree, employing the qualitative research methodology known as phenomenology, as an orthogonal but complimentary epistemology to previous …

Lived Experience: Near-Fatal Adolescent Suicide Attempt, Phyllis Ann Dougherty

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Adolescent suicide has become a national health crisis. Suicide now ranks as a leading cause of adolescent death in the U.S. In response to this, the National Strategy for Suicide Prevention (2001b) recommended the promotion and support of research into suicide and prevention, particularly high-risk groups such as adolescents. However, due to concerns for safety and liability, there have been few studies of highly suicidal individuals, specifically adolescents. Leading suicidologists have agreed that studying the qualities of the near-fatal suicide attempt can most resemble the completed suicide.

This case study explored the phenomenon of the near-fatal suicide attempt through the …

Perceptions Of Career And Psychosocial Functions Between Mentor And Protégé Teachers, Allison A. Vanderbilt

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify the career and psychosocial functions that mentor teachers and their protégé teachers believed occurred during the 2008-2009 mentoring relationship.

This comparative survey study was conducted in a suburban middle-sized Florida school district. The target population for this study involved one group of matched mentor teachers and protégé teachers. Two survey instruments were used during this study, Mentoring Functions Scale for the Mentor and the Mentoring Functions Scale for the Protégé modified by Wilson (2006). This instrument was selected because it measures the career and psychosocial functions of the mentoring process. The survey …