Digital Commons Network^™

Preparing Preservice Teachers To Understand, Adapt, And Apply The Reggio Emilia Philosophy, Nkechy Marie Ezeh

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

This applied dissertation was designed to gain better understanding for the integration of the Reggio Emilia philosophy into the Early Childhood Education Endorsement program at a teacher preparation institution.

The methodology that was used included class discussion, observation, deconstruction of the Reggio Emilia principles, reflective practice, collaboration meetings, interviews, and field trips. The findings confirmed the findings in reviewed literature that the image and role of the preservice teachers should be that of an active apprentice not as an object of instruction.

Generalization of the findings to other teacher preparation programs must be done with caution because of the limitations …

Development Of A Retention Plan For African American Male Students At Midlands Technical College With A Plan For Implementation And Evaluation, Wanda Fernandopulle

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

Procedures for this development study included a review of the literature, establishment of criteria, formative committee review of criteria, summative committee validation of criteria, data collection, statistical analysis of survey and interview results, review of committee feedback, and a distribution of findings and recommendations to committee members.

A development methodology was used to answer 5 research questions: (a) What does the literature reveal about intervention approaches associated with retention for African American male college students? (b) What content should be included in the African American male retention plan as identified by summative and formative committee members? (c) What is the …

Development Of Criteria For Hiring Fourth-Grade Science Instruction Specialists: A Model For Elementary School Administrators, Lenora Y. Johnson

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

The purpose of this applied dissertation was the creation of a developmental model of hiring criteria for 4th-grade science specialists to be used by elementary education leaders in the future. The premise for the model sprang from the author's view that 4th-grade instructors trained in science content and pedagogy would be more likely than generalist classroom teachers to plan and to implement optimally effective 4th-grade science curriculums and delivery methods. The author further believed that specialized 4th-grade science instruction might raise national science achievement test scores at that grade level and might increase student interest in science as a subject …

The Functions Of An Administrative Intern: A New Position Dissertation, De Ann Mccormick Ramey

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

This applied dissertation describes the writer’s first 12 months as the administrative intern at Gulf Shores Middle School (GSMS). The purposes of this dissertation were to (a) determine the procedures, conditions, and atmosphere of the school when the position was accepted; (b) determine which procedures were working effectively and which required overhaul, replacement, or removal; and (c) determine administrative priorities for the following school year.

A point of concern about the new position was that the writer had been a classroom teacher at GSMS for 9 years and had built a strong camaraderie with fellow teachers. The move from peer …

Reading Power At Fews Alternative School: A Program For Improvement, Ennis J. Mccorvey

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

This applied dissertation describes an intervention at Fews Alternative School in Montgomery, Alabama. Data from the QRI (Leslie & Caldwell, 1996) showed that the majority of students at Fews had reading problems, as was projected by this researcher. Ninety-two percent of the students recommended to Fews were determined to have a severe reading deficit. In order for these students to experience any measure of success upon returning to their home school, an intervention to improve their reading needed to be implemented. Of the 122 students referred to Fews, 114 of them were determined to have reading problems. The researcher implemented …

Postsecondary Students’ Perceptions Of The Value Of Learning Communities In Distance Education, Lorraine Miller-Nara

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

This applied dissertation examined and compared the perceptions of participants regarding learning communities in distance education. Specifically, it sought to determine how the development and implementation of distance education programs affected perceptions of the learning community among students in 3 different cultural groups: Micronesia, Russia, and the United States. The study sought to develop a deeper understanding of the elements and processes involved in creating virtual learning communities in distance education. It also sought to consider an even more basic question, namely, how relevant and important are learning communities to distance education?

This research study was survey based. Between May …

Increasing Student Achievement In The Five Strands Of The Mathematics Portion Of The Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test, Pamela B. Murphy

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

The passing and implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 dramatically increased public awareness of accountability in U.S. public schools (S. Charp, 2003). State-mandated testing is now present in nearly 40 of the states. Florida educators have struggled to meet the demands of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT). In 1998, the Florida A+ Accountability program, which assigns grades to elementary, middle, and high schools, was initiated. The standards-based accountability has forced administrators, teachers, and parents to search for practices that will increase student achievement.

This applied dissertation describes the practices put in place in one South …

Development And Validation Of An Off-Campus Master Of Social Work Program, Michelle E. Alvarez

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

The purposes of this project were to design and implement an educational and occupational needs assessment and a review of existing accredited off-campus Master of Social Work (MSW) programs and to design an off-campus MSW program that would meet current and future demand for the program. The research questions for this project addressed what constituted a good needs assessment, whether students would be willing to enroll in a distance education program, how Council on Social Work Education standards applied to this program model, how the program should be staffed, what other resources were needed for this program, what should be …

Blocks For Tots: Constructing A Language Environment Through Play, Cynthia R. Graham

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

This applied dissertation was designed to increase the vocabulary size and frequency of spontaneous child-to-child speech of children 24 to 36 months in a countywide Early Head Start Program. Additionally, this applied dissertation was designed to increase the number of children 24 to 36 months exhibiting age appropriate language skills as assessed by the Early Learning Accomplishment Profile (Early Lap). Research indicates that the context in which children learn and interact influences the frequency with which they use spoken language to communicate with each other.

Children in the experimental group interacted socially while engaged in self-directed constructive play in an …

Measuring Educational Gains And Setting Consequences: Charter Schooling And The No Child Left Behind Policy, Erin Lyttle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The charter school movement and the federal legislation No Child Left Behind (2001) have put a process in motion through which parents and students can opt out of the established public education system. This thesis is an in-depth study of one Pittsburgh charter school within the context of a critique of public education in American history. Empirical data was collected through a triangulated research design, which included interviews, surveys, field observations, and content analysis.

Determining the features of a charter school that make classroom dynamics more or less effective than those in traditional public schools was the original micro-level focus …

The Appropriation Of The Prospect Of Taking Medication For Psychological Complaints: An Empirical-Phenomenological Investigation, Daniel R. Mangine

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this investigation was to describe the lived experience of being confronted with the prospect of taking medications for a psychological complaint, namely a depressive disorder. Descriptions of such experiences were obtained from adult participants and were analyzed qualitatively in order to explicate the themes and meanings that were most significant to forming the experience as such.

The findings of this study were dialogued with literature on medication taking, the doctor-patient relationship, dialogic psychology and the construction of the self, and theories of willing, motivation and identity. This analysis contributes to the current literature by illuminating the lived …

The Vagaries Of Informed Consent, George P. Smith Ii

Scholarly Articles

The purpose of this Article is to probe the foundations and applications of informed consent in a variety of situations and thereby test its validity. The conclusion to be drawn from this analysis is that while the doctrine has yet to become an integral part of the ethos of medicine, it still provides an important mechanism for maintaining a purposeful discourse between physician and patient and, as such, nurturing and preserving their essential partnership of healing and trust.

Teaching Science Through Inquiry In K-5 Classrooms: Analysis Of Change In Practice, Joseph Sciulli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the role professional development takes in fostering change in the pedagogical practices of K-5 classroom teachers, specifically in teaching science through inquiry. Michael Fullan's three elements essential for change: curriculum, instruction, and philosophy, were used as the lens through which to observe and analyze the impact of an intervention for changing teaching practices in K-5 classrooms. The intervention that assisted in creating an environment for change in behaviors was a morphed version of the Exploratorium's Institute for Inquiry, the ASSET Institute for Inquiry, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. During a three year period 208 …

Does The Child Online Protection Act Violate The First Amendment?, Susanna Frederick Fischer

Scholarly Articles

The Supreme Court weighs in for a second time in the more than 5-year-old court battle over whether the Child Online Protection Act drafters have rectified the constitutional defects of the Communications Decency Act, which the Court struck down in 1997 on First Amendment grounds. In an effort to cure the CDA's lack of "narrow tailoring," the drafters of COPA have more narrowly defined the speech that is being regulated and have also narrowed the speakers who are subject to regulation.

Technology And The Internet: The Impending Destruction Of Privacy By Betrayers, Grudgers, Snoops, Spammers, Corporations And The Media, Clifford S. Fishman

Scholarly Articles

This Article reviews how the Internet and related developments-technological, social, and legal-have magnified the threat to privacy posed by private individuals, commercial enterprises, and the media. It offers a brief overview of the current threats to privacy from sources other than the government, and, in particular, the impact of the Internet in creating or magnifying those threats. Part I discusses the threat to privacy in general, examining how the Internet and developments in surveillance technology, in information storage and retrieval, in dissemination of information, sound, and images, and changes to the informal "social contract" that defines general standards have all …

Cross Burning – Hate Speech As Free Speech: A Comment On Virginia V. Black, Roger C. Hartley

Scholarly Articles

This Article concerns the criminalization of cross burning. This act of symbolic expression sometimes communicates hate, inspires fear of impending bodily harm, expresses an ideology and solidarity with others, or encompasses combinations of these. In 1991, Edward Cleary defended a White juvenile, known in court documents as R.A.V., who had burned a cross on the lawn of a Black family. In that litigation, Cleary began his oral argument to the Supreme Court by posing this question: To what degree does abhorrence of cross burning justify banning it? That question still baffles us. Establishing appropriate boundaries for the protection of speech …

Misconduct By Law Professors: Why It Matters, Lisa G. Lerman

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Recruiting And Retaining Faculty Of Color In The Legal Academy: A Longstanding Commitment Of The Association Of American Law Schools, Veryl Victoria Miles

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Introduction To The Symposium On Legal Externships: Learning From Practice, J.P. "Sandy" Ogilvy

Scholarly Articles

No abstract provided.

Recent Trends In Software Engineering Research As Seen Through Its Publications, Terry L. Smith

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study provides some insight into the field of software engineering through analysis of its recent research publications. Data for this study are taken from the ACM's Guide to Computing Literature (GUIDE) They include both the professionally assigned Computing Classification System (CCS) descriptors and the title text of each software engineering publication reviewed by the GUIDE from 1998 through 2001.

The first part of this study provides a snapshot of software engineering by applying co-word analysis techniques to the data. This snapshot indicates recent themes or areas of interest, which, when compared with the results from earlier studies, reveal current …

Preconceived Physician Attitude Toward Computerized Physician Order Entry (Cpoe): Implications For Successful Implementation, John Arthur Hoffstatter

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There has been a societal and legislative push to implement computerized physician order entry (CPOE) systems throughout hospitals nationally in recent years due in large part to the public's awareness of an inordinate number of patient deaths due to medication errors in hospital settings. This mortality, and untold morbidity, became even more unacceptable when published findings suggested the majority of these 100,000 deaths each year could be avoided through the use of CPOE systems.

Yet acceptance has been slow and only a fraction of the hospitals have implemented this technology due to large start up costs, enormous technological requirements, and …

Fathers' Physiological Reactions To Child-Related Stimuli And Observed Fathering Behaviors, Brian D. Hunter

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Child abuse studies have measured physiological reactivity of parents in response to several child- and nonchild-related stimuli. Abusive parents have responded to aversive stimuli, including that which is child-related, with atypical physiological reactivity, suggesting a trait of hyperreactivity. The current study tested the hypothesis that variation in observed parenting behaviors is associated with physiological reactivity to childrelated stimuli. To explore this association, researchers measured fathers' skin conductance level, heart rate and respiration rate in reaction to video segments of a quiet, crying and happy infant, then scored observed father-child interactions for the use of parenting warmth and control across four …

A Test Suite Generator For Struts Based Applications, Gregory M. Jackson

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Testing web-based enterprise applications requires the use of automated testing frameworks. The testing framework's ability to run suites of test cases through development ensures enhancements work as required and have not caused defects in previously developed sub systems. Open source testing frameworks like JUnit and Cactus have addressed the requirements to test web-based enterprise applications, however they do not address the generation of test cases based on direct analysis of the code under test.

This paper presents a tool to generate test cases for web-based enterprise applications. The generator focuses on creating test cases used to test applications built on …

Access To Higher Education In Florida And South Africa: A Comparative Policy Analysis, Marty Z. Khan

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examines issues of access to higher education in Florida and South Africa. On November 9, 1999, the Governor of the State of Florida issued Executive Order 99-281 to establish the One Florida Initiative (OFI), which barred the use of race as a factor in university admissions. In South Africa, the government in February 2001 issued its National Plan for Higher Education (SANPHE). This plan outlined a framework to redress past inequities in the higher education system perpetuated by the former government's apartheid ideology. Senior university leaders in Florida and South Africa were required to implement their respective policy. …

Across The Divide: The Working Lives Of African American Teachers In The Classroom, Kristen Marinus Larsen Iii

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study examined how experienced African American teachers in predominantly African American schools perceived and conceptualized their worklives as classroom teachers, and, how they viewed their personal and professional identities in relationship to their lives as teachers. In depth interviews of 10 experienced African American teachers provided the data for the study, analyzed through the interpretative use of appropriate literature screens. The teachers understood their experience of teacher worklife and their lives as human beings through three distinct dimensions of personal and professional identity: the self, including perceptions of race and gender; the interactive dimension within the educational environment; …

Intrusive Thoughts And Stress During The Evacuation Phase Of A Technological Disaster, Alisa Mastin Aston

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The current study investigates the quantity and quality of intrusive thoughts (IT) experienced during the evacuation following a technological disaster. This study is aimed at evaluating which aspects of IT are related to increased frequency and disturbance of intrusive thoughts, as well as stress and coping outcomes.

Utilizing Arts-Related Activities In Accordance With Multiple Intelligence Theories To Increase Third Grade Gifted And Talented Students’ Interest In Language Arts Instruction, Kevin Kovacs

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

This applied dissertation was designed to investigate the effects of arts-related activities on the interest levels and achievement of third grade gifted students. An important consideration for the improvement of gifted education is the necessity for educators to understand the nature and needs of the gifted learner, including their uneven social and emotional development. In spite of the gifted and talented child’s advanced intellectual development, an asynchronous social and emotional development may sometimes result in lower than expected academic performance. The discrepancy between a high measure of intelligence and low levels of academic achievement may be due to common characteristics …

Kentucky's Perpetual Prisoner Machine: It's About Money, Stephen C. Richards, James Austin, Richard S. Jones

Social and Cultural Sciences Faculty Research and Publications

Kentucky is currently facing a severe budget crisis and is seeking ways to lower its prison and community corrections costs. This article focuses on our study of the prison and parole experience of men and women in Kentucky. What we found is a virtual “perpetual incarceration machine” where prisoners are recycled from prison to parole and back to prison. The following discussion includes: Kentucky's prison population continues to grow, parole failure, methods, description of interview samples, interview data, the structure producing parole failure, and Kentucky's perpetual incarceration mechine. Based on our findings, several promising reforms are recommended that if implemented …