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Factors Related To Academic Gains For Adult Learners In A Correctionaleducation Program, Maria Deanne Sells

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Education programs within the Indiana Department of Correction are evaluated on the number of student to teacher contact hours provided, the number of students enrolled and the number of students promoted or graduated from each program. Since each facility develops its own program design forEducation, it is important for each program to evaluate the effectiveness of the program design based on the individual program goals and objectives. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among program placement, motivational time factors (i.e., age, length of sentence, time served, earliest possible release date, and time cut eligibility) and academic …

Analysis Of Space Employee Risk Acceptance, Aliya Bostubayeva

Theses

In the summer of 2002, eighty-one students, faculty and staff of RIT took a survey that was aimed at determining the possible employees expectations about the risk compensation if hired to work in space. Every mission in space entails a certain degree of health damage; the length of stay is directly related with more risk involved. The survey results help understand rough estimations of risk acceptance of the future space labor force (cosmonauts and astronauts not included). Three sets of questions described the consequences of space missions (short, month-long and long), where the extent of health damage is directly dependent …

Moving Forward While Remaining Rooted: A Case Study Of The Ebytown Food Co-Operative In Waterloo, Ontario (Perspectives And Findings From A Member Turned Researcher), Maria Hatzipantelis

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Retail food co-operatives provide a unique opportunity for community psychologists to work with democratically-controlled organisations that purport to offer each member control over the food she or he consumes on a daily basis. In this case study of the Ebytown Food Co-operative in Waterloo, Ontario, I document the activities of the co-op as it functions on a practical level, based both on my experiences as a researcher and an active member of the co-op. My thesis process was guided by the belief that research should be useful to the people with whom one works, and therefore, I followed a participatory …

Computer Implementation In Education: Hearing The Educator's Voice, Julie Lynn Mueller

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Computer technology is pervasive in education systems around the world. Although computers are now available in almost every school, that presence has not guaranteed the use of computers as part of the instructional repertoire of educators. This thesis is an investigation of the factors that affect implementation of computers from the perspective of educators across a school board. Fifty-four randomly selected educators (37 elementary and 17 secondary) completed a written survey assessing computer access and use, predictors of integration, prevalence of barriers and supports, and, recommendations from the educators themselves. Results indicated that computers are indeed available and that educators …

'Why Should We Learn About Crime?': Exploring The Perceptions And Fear Of Crime Among Recent Immigrants In Waterloo Region (Ontario), Jennifer Robena Bernier

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The purpose of this research project was to achieve a greater understanding of the perceptions and fear of crime among recent immigrants in Waterloo Region, including how recent immigrants define crime, the types of activities that recent immigrants considered to be criminal in both Canada and their countries of origin, and how perceptions of crime are similar and different among the various countries that the participants represented. Furthermore, in this study I hoped to identify the types of crime(s) that recent immigrants in Waterloo Region fear and the factors that may be important in explaining fear of crime among recent …

The State Of Our Union: Appraisals Of Romantic Relationships, Stephen Allan Michael Gallant

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

How do romantic partners determine if they are happy in their current relationship? What standards do they use when appraising their romantic relationship? The present thesis examines people’s preferences among various comparison standards (social comparisons, temporal past comparisons, temporal future comparisons and previous relationship comparisons) for relationship appraisal, the direction in which people prefer to make various relationship comparisons and the reported and actual impact of these comparison standards on relationship appraisals. The present research also examines the hypothesis that certain relationship beliefs and characteristics (controllability and satisfaction) affect how one interprets these comparison standards. In study 1, 140 undergraduate …

French And English Word Reading And Word Decoding Performance In Bilingual Children: How Are Phonological Processing Skills Related?, Catherine Adèle Lafrance

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The French (L1) and English (L2) reading development of bilingual children in French schools was examined using measures of oral language proficiency, letter-name and letter-sound knowledge, phonological processing (phonological awareness, naming speed and working memory), and word decoding over an eight month period. At Time 1 (Senior Kindergarten), a series of multiple regressions indicated that, when controlling for oral language proficiency, letter name knowledge and non-verbal reasoning, L1 phonological awareness was the only consistent and unique predictor of French and English word reading and word decoding performance. At Time 2 (Grade 1), French and English phonological awareness were consistent and …

Effect Of Conditioned Taste Avoidance Learning On Elevated Plus Maze Performance As A Measure Of Potentiated Fear, Shadna Rama

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

The terms conditioned taste aversion and conditioned taste avoidance are often used interchangeably in the literature; however considerable evidence indicates that they may represent independent processes. Recent studies have demonstrated that conditioned taste aversion is mediated by conditioned sickness; however the mechanism(s) responsible for the establishment and expression of conditioned taste avoidance remains unknown. An early theory suggests that a taste that has been previously paired with a drug produces avoidance of that taste because it elicits some novel change in physiological state which signals danger to the rat. The emotional state produced may be one of conditioned fear. The …

Motivated Prediction Of Future Feelings: The Effects Of Mood And Mood Focus On Affective Forecasts, Vassili Spyropoulos

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

People often predict they will experience more positive or more negative emotional reactions to upcoming pleasant and unpleasant events respectively, than they actually do. Although researchers have identified several cognitive processes underlying this bias in affective forecasting, the present research examined the role of motivational factors. We proposed that people sometimes generate relatively positive affective forecasts to fixture positive events (or less negative affective forecasts to future negative events) as a mood regulation strategy. That is, they may attempt to cope with threatening negative feelings by anticipating pleasant emotions in the future. More specific hypotheses were derived from recent research …

Teaching, Practice, And Research: An Integrative Approach Benefiting Students And Faculty, Jacqueline Fawcett, Cynthia Aber, Marianne E. Weiss

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

A project showing the integration of teaching, practice, and research is described. The project involved using information gathered as part of baccalaureate nursing students' assessments of women's perceptions of and responses to cesarean birth to extend a program of nursing research. Benefits to student learning and faculty research programs are identified. The project serves as a prototype for the teaching, practice, and research activities of all students and faculty in nursing and other professional disciplines.

Privatize Or Self-Operate: Decision-Making In Campus Services Management, Jeffrey Shelton Pittman

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

In the past colleges operated as communities in which teaching and almost every other aspect of campus life were managed by a campus entity. This is particularly true in the area of campus support services. In recent years, there has been a significant shift in the way campus services are provided. Increasingly, college and university administrators evaluate the benefits and potential problems of privatizing or outsourcing various service units. Currently, such services as bookstores, food preparation/service operations, and physical plant departments have been the primary services chosen for privatization.

This study examines the decision-making process governing the choice between privatization …

Using The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (Idea) To Reduce Discipline Referrals, Daniel Shakespeare

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

This report describes a program to reduce disciplinary referrals of special education students at Andalusia High School (AHS) in Andalusia, Alabama. With a total student population of 557 students in Grades 9-12, the office received 878 disciplinary referrals in 1998-1999. Of this number, 244 referrals were for 32 special education students who averaged 13 referrals each. All 32 special education students had at least 2 disciplinary referrals (with a range from a high of 17 to a low of 2).

Possible causes of the problem were identified. First, the role of the regular education teacher in working with special education …

An Assessment Of Vocal Conservation/Hygiene And Vocal Exercise Treatment Programs For Middle School Teachers With Voice Problems, Jennifer H. Vinson

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

Nationally, over 38% of teachers are diagnosed with vocal disorders due to heavy demands placed on their vocal mechanisms with resulting abnormal laryngeal biomechanics and repeated exposure to upper respiratory infections and other airborne irritants (Smith, Kirchner, Taylor, Hoffman, & Lemke, 1998). The incidence of vocal disorders among teachers in the north Alabama area appears to be higher than the national average of 38% according to local otorhinolaryngologists interviewed and preliminary data collected from middle school teachers in the Madison County School System in Huntsville, Alabama. Preliminary data indicated a 44% voice-disordered teacher population within the targeted middle school teaching …

The Principal's Role In Promoting Success For Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Students: A Participatory Research Study, Maria Norma Martinez

Doctoral Dissertations

We need to understand more fully what facilitates success in schools with diverse populations. Through participatory research, the voices of school principals who are responsive to the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students were recorded and analyzed to provide insights on the practices that promote the school success of culturally and linguistically diverse students. Using a dialogic retrospective, the participants had the opportunity to engage, individually and collectively, in reflection and dialogue to identify common themes that emerged in their important work as school leaders and as advocates for diverse students.

Intercultural Communication Between Caucasian Unitedstatesians And Salvadorians: Implications For Team Dynamics, Gabriela Couch Melano

Doctoral Dissertations

With the advent of an increasingly interdependent world, organizations and businesses around the globe either purposefully seek or have no other option than to integrate work teams with members from ethnically and culturally diverse backgrounds. This is true in government, the corporate world, education, and the social service fields and community development endeavors, among others. However, multicultural teams most frequently experience frustrations and, at times, significant impasses in their performance. This phenomenon is directly related to differences in values and beliefs towards work, as well as to habits and expectations regarding teamwork (Bennett and Stewart, 1991; Cox, 1994; Donnellon, 1996; …

An Examination Of Personality As A Predictor Of Guard Behavior In A Virtual Environment, Jean M. Catanzaro

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Military personnel need access to realistic training tools that can provide a safe environment in which to acquire skills that will generalize to real world tasks. A virtual environment (VE) is one such tool. The focus of the present study was to evaluate a VE as a training tool for military guards. The first goal was to examine the potential of VE technology to provide effective training for standing watch at a military checkpoint. The second goal was to study a set of personality traits that might predict performance. Participants completed the NEO Personality Inventory and were trained to perform …

Development Of An Aggregation Methodology For Risk Analysis In Aerospace Conceptual Vehicle Design, Trina Marsh Chytka

Engineering Management & Systems Engineering Theses & Dissertations

The growing complexity of technical systems has emphasized a need to gather as much information as possible regarding specific systems of interest in order to make robust, sound decisions about their design and deployment. Acquiring as much data as possible requires the use of empirical statistics, historical information and expert opinion. In much of the aerospace conceptual design environment, the lack of historical information and infeasibility of gathering empirical data relegates the data collection to expert opinion.

The conceptual design of a space vehicle requires input from several disciplines (weights and sizing, operations, trajectory, etc.). In this multidisciplinary environment, the …

Examining The Equivalence Of Rater Groups In 360-Degree Feedback For Use In Leadership Development, Amy Fitzgibbons

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This study assessed the seldom-considered aspect of measurement equivalence across the three most common rater groups in 360-degree feedback systems. The graded response model for polytomous items was used to assess differential functioning of items and tests and applied to an archival data set of 664 ratees to determine the equivalence of peer, subordinate, and supervisor ratings of four leadership competencies. The results indicate that the leadership competencies were invariant across the three rater groups. The results and conclusions produced are discussed with practical implications in mind.

Proactive Personality And The Big Five As Predictors Of Motivation To Learn, Jonathan E. Turner

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

In an environment of changing psychological contracts, corporate downsizing, and increases in alternative self-paced training delivery channels, motivation to learn is believed to represent a key variable in employee self-development that distinguishes employees who will thrive from those who will not. Predicting this variable, then, becomes an important step in managing workforce development and helping employees help themselves. Therefore, the efficacy of relevant personality characteristics as predictors of motivation to learn was investigated. Proactive personality and the Big Five factors of personality were hypothesized to be predictive of motivation to learn. These personality variables are relevant because they have been …

The Contribution Of Enactments To Structural Family Therapy: A Process Study, Stephanie Fellenberg

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

In an era where the effectiveness of many forms of psychotherapy has been thoroughly examined, the focus of many researchers has shifted from investigating outcome to exploring therapeutic processes. Process studies serve to identify the active ingredients of therapy—that is, those interventions that bring about in-session changes. This process study examines the relationship between the use of enactments, a structural family therapy intervention, and in-session change as observed over the course of the session. Change was measured by the amount of change that occurred in the core problem dynamic, that is, the most prominent pattern of dysfunctional family …

The Role Of Alexithymia In Ethnic Groups On Eating-Related Attitudes And Behaviors, Lisa M. Newman

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Alexithymia, a term referring to deficits in ability to describe and differentiate emotions, has been studied in a variety of Caucasian medical and psychiatric populations, including patients with eating disorders. Research suggests that alexithymia is more prevalent among the Caucasian eating disordered population than the general population. However, there is little research on the prevalence of alexithymia or its relationship to problematic eating-related attitudes and behaviors in African Americans. This study investigated and compared the occurrence of alexithymia and its effects on eating-related attitudes and behaviors in Caucasian and African American college women using the Toronto Alexithymia Scale-20 and the …

The Internal Worlds Of First Generation Community College Students : Students' Critical Reflections On The Role Of Resilience In Their Academic Success, Shaun Rowley

Doctoral Dissertations

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Restorative Cautioning, Theories Of Reintegration, And The Influence Of Japanese Notions Of Shame, Benjamin J. Goold

All Faculty Publications

This article explains some of the central notions of restorative justice, drawing particular attention to the influence of Japanese notions of shame and community on cautioning practices in Britain and elsewhere.

Excuse And Justification In The Law Of Fair Use: Transaction Costs Have Always Been Only Part Of The Story, Wendy J. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

In American copyright law, the doctrine of "fair use" has long been problematic. Every plausible litmus test that might simplify the "fair use" inquiry has proven inadequate, and copyright commentators have long sought an algorithm or heuristic to lend predictability and conceptual coherence to the doctrine. Twenty years ago, I published in this Journal an article entitled Fair Use as Market Failure, which suggested that the key to understanding the protean terms of "fair use" could best be found in the notion of market failure. That 1982 article has been often misapplied, by both courts and commentators. I am …

The Effect Of Incorporating Interactive Concept Maps On Non-Major Adult Students’ Attitudes And Motivation Toward A Web-Supported Biology Course, Efrain J. Venezuela

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

This study aimed to investigate the effect of incorporating interactive concept maps, as an instructional strategy for teaching complex biological concepts, on non-major adult students’ attitudes and motivation toward a Web-supported biology course. The author hypothesized that the incorporation of interactive concept maps would have an affect on non-major adult students' attitudes and motivation toward a Web-supported biology course. Consequently, this study attempted to answer the following question: How would the incorporation of interactive concept maps influence non-major adult students' attitudes and motivation toward a Web-supported biology course?

This study was conducted with non-major adult students enrolled in upper-level, Websupported …

Improvement In Early Childhood Education Strategies, Margaret Sylvia Mcdonald Collins

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

The applied dissertation was designed to improve early childhood education strategies in Hardee County 4-year-old preschool programs. By comparing 2 preschool 4-year-old groups (N = 48), this study addressed the need to increase a child’s readiness for school. The purpose of this study was to determine if teachers who utilized the Florida Department of Education developed Expectations for School Readiness Checklist ratings results to develop individual instructional strategy plans would improve the effectiveness of teachers in preparing children for kindergarten (formal schooling).

The 2 school groups were nonequivalent but held similar characteristics and demographics. The study was a blind study …

Saturday School: An Alternative To Suspension Program To Reduce Suspensions And Student Violence, Todd S. Meiklejohn

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

During the 2001-2002 school year, Homestead Senior High School suspended 417 students on 772 occasions. Thus, 13.5% of the student body was suspended from school for disciplinary reasons. More significantly, 32.4% of all outdoor suspensions were a result of violence. To further compound the problem, there was no feasible course of action to deal appropriately with student conflict or violence.

An assessment of the problem revealed various causes. Specifically, the school’s out-of-school suspension rate was amongst the highest in the district; male students were suspended 3 times more than their female counterparts; and Homestead Senior High School students committed double …

The Design Of A Professional Development Program To Train Reading Teachers To Coach Content Area Teachers, Cara Richardson

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

This applied dissertation was designed to investigate and provide middle school content-area teachers with ongoing support in an effort to foster reading across the curriculum. Mathematics, science, social studies, and language arts teachers participated in a mandatory content area literacy training where they were provided with research-based reading strategies to implement into their classrooms. The requirement to implement these new strategies into their daily instruction seemed overwhelming, which led to reluctance and frustration among many of the teachers.

The development methodology was used to develop the product utilizing a formative and a summative committee. The formative committee gathered data that …

Implementation Of An Elementary In-School Suspension Program And Its Effects On School Climate, Carla K. Hall

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

This applied dissertation was focused on involving the staff at Goodyear Elementary School in fostering an orderly environment for student learning by implementing an In-School Suspension (ISS) program. This was an ethnographic study and provided a descriptive approach of the school’s culture and organizational structure. The applied dissertation included several initiatives in the implementation of the ISS program, which were a School Climate Inventory (SCI), organizational strategies, leadership structure, professional development, and student interviews.

Results of the applied dissertation indicated that the implementation of the ISS program had a positive impact on the school’s climate. The staff was involved in …

Improving Character Education In Preschool Programs Through Improved Program Policies, And Through The Training Of Teachers And University Student Teachers, Cheryl N. Priest

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

This applied dissertation was designed to provide training, coursework, resources, children’s materials, and program policies that would improve the development of character within preschool children enrolled in a university laboratory preschool setting. Many of the young children enrolled in this school were not exhibiting the skills often associated with character development. A number of these children were not working with others to solve social problems, did not verbalize feelings or expressed feelings in unacceptable ways, and did not identify classmates as friends. Classroom teachers also found that some children were unwilling to help others and that they were doing nothing …