Digital Commons Network^™

Application Of Case Study Methodology In The Context Of Undergraduate Critical Care Nursing Education, James A. Hauschildt

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This study represented an initial effort to investigate how a case study methodology could be used in the context of critical care nursing education. The study hoped to improve students' content specific knowledge of critical care nursing and facilitate critical thinking processes vital to clinical decision making. The study describes the transformation of a critical care-nursing course from a traditional lecture-based approach to a case study approach.

The traditional approach addressed the content through abundant teacher centered lecture, but did not require students to actively engage in discourse or apply critical thinking skills to real nursing problems. The case study …

Social Justice In European Contract Law A Manifesto, Ugo Mattei

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Outcomes Of The American Occupational Therapy Foundation's Curriculum-Mentoring Project, Ingrid Mary Provident

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the outcomes of a year long formal curriculum-mentoring project sponsored by the American Occupational Therapy Foundation. Five occupational therapy faculty groups were selected through a competitive application process and paired with mentors to assist in curriculum change. The experiences of each of the teams were studied using multiple methods of data collection, including semi-structured interviews conducted in person and via telephone, a mailed questionnaire, and bi-monthly electronic journal entries. The process and outcomes of two representative cases are reported in this qualitative, critical case study analysis. A two part content analysis yielded information that addressed each of …

Development, Research And Validation Of Environmental Speciation Methods; And Evaluation By Speciated Isotope Dilution Mass Spectrometry In Mercury And Chromium Speciation Analysis, G. M. Mizanur Rahman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The toxicity of an element depends upon its chemical forms, which also gives vital information for samples and their relevance. A sequential extraction method for mercury speciation in soil and sediments was established based on the mobility and toxicity of different mercury species and was proposed as a draft US EPA Method 3200. In order to finalize the method, an interlaboratory validation study was performed, and the final results verified the applicability of the method. Some of the widely used mercury speciation methods were evaluated during this study and the results were compared with those obtained from EPA draft Method …

The Self-Perceptions Of Adolescents With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, Patricia Bitar

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), which affects 3 -- 6% of school- aged children, is considered one of the most common behavioral disorders of childhood. Of those, up to 70% will continue to have symptoms into adolescence. Adolescence is a critical transitional period on the route to adulthood that has the building of self-identity as its chief developmental task. Adults with positive self-perceptions tend to be more productive members of society. Most of the studies directed at understanding the self-perceptions of those with ADHD have been done with children and those studies have yielded mixed results. There are practically no …

Connections Between Gendered Constructions And Women's Lived Experiences In Light Of Feminist Awareness: An Empirical Hermeneutic Study, Erin Danto

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study explored two women's gendered identities in an effort to elucidate oppressive aspects of patriarchal gender constructions. Gender was conceptualized in feminist post-structural terms, which meant that it was seen as an identity conferred upon women in the service of creating a hierarchical discourse. Since feminist post-structural theories are rarely explored empirically and women's experiences have often been overlooked, both of these issues were explored in the current study.

Participants' awareness of oppression and ability to dialogue with theory was addressed by soliciting women who had taken a gender-focused college course. The methodology was perspectival and co-participatory. The researcher's …

Internet Dwelling, Cyborgs, And The Matrix Of Modernity: An Empirical Inquiry With Critical-Hermeneutic Features, Andrew Felder

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Amidst modernity's expanding electronic social matrix, this cultural-historical inquiry explores the technological construction of human being (e.g., cyborgs) and sociality in the America Online cyberscape. A two-tiered critical-hermeneutic method enables exploration of the broad rationalizing historical narrative and the localized play of virtual discursive practices impacting human meaning construction, selfhood, and social practice. A third and fourth tier of inquiry occasions integration of "psychological" meanings found in research participant experiential descriptions and interviews. This four-tier interplay reveals a bodily ethic enabling participants to modify subjectifying Internet practices toward meaningful social ends. Otherwise, eclipsed interpretive bodily powers contribute to "undecidability" about …

Using Vignettes To Develop Higher-Order Thinking And Academic Achievement In Adult Learners In An Online Environment, Maria Helen Zanoni Kish

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This case study investigated the use of vignettes as a teaching strategy and learning activity of the Generative Learning Model in a hybrid online course. The Generative Learning Model, which consists of five main components: attention, motivation, knowledge, generation, and metacognition (Wittrock, 2000) was incorporated when requiring students to answer teacher-generated vignettes and to generate their own vignettes. As a result of using vignettes within the Generative Learning Model in a hybrid online course, three outcomes were anticipated: 1) enhancement of academic achievement, 2) higher order thinking, and 3) preference of the use of vignettes as compared to other teaching …

A Comparison Of The Perceptions Of The Importance Of Formal Supervision Training Between Formally Trained Counselor Supervisors And Non-Formally Trained Counselor Supervisors, Maura Krushinski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A Comparison of the Perceptions of the Importance of Formal Supervision Training Between Formally Trained Counselor Supervisors and Non-Formally Trained Counselor Supervisors explores differences among and between doctoral student and field site professionals who provide supervision to master's level counselor trainees. All master's level counseling students in the Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) programs participate in a practicum and internship as a requirement for completion of the master's program in counseling. The field experience occurs in a mental health agency or school, and requires the assistance and mentoring of an on-site supervisor. There is a …

Crisp And Fuzzy Signal Detection Theory And Pilot Weather Judgment: Implications For Vfr Flights Into Imc, Joseph T. Coyne

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Weather represents one of the greatest hazards to general aviation (GA), accounting for 15% of the GA accident fatalities. Of the fatal weather accidents 90% are attributed to visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC). The situation assessment hypothesis suggests that pilots may inadvertently enter IMC because they lack the sensitivity needed to distinguish between visual meteorological conditions (VMC) and IMC. An alternative hypothesis is that pilots recognize conditions have deteriorated but are motivated by some other factor, such as pressure from passengers. The present study uses Jensen's Pilot Judgment Model and Signal Detection Theory to explain …

Plato's Villains: The Ethical Implications Of Plato's Portrayal Of Alcibiades And Critias, John Baynard Woods Jr.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Plato presents Socrates as an ethical example and a political warning. Other characters serve other philosophical functions. Alcibiades--the worst man in the democracy--and Critias--the worst in the oligarchy--are the most notorious characters.. This dissertation argues that Plato uses these characters in order to open a diachronic dimension in the synchronic accounts of the dialogues. This dimension turns historical characters into paradigmatic characters and allows the reader to evaluate the accounts people give in terms of the lives that they lead. In order to make a case for philosophy, Plato needs to make it clear that bad accounts have negative ethical …

Assessment Of Differences In The Balanced Emotional Empathy Among Beginning, Practicum And Graduating Students In A Counselor Education Program, Frank Yesko

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study was a quantitative analysis that investigated balanced emotional empathy differences among master's degree counseling students as they progressed through and graduated from a CACREP approved counselor education program.

The data was gathered through the assessment of the balanced emotional empathy levels of (a) students entering the counselor education program, (b) students participating in the practicum field experience aspect of their training and (c) students graduating from the counseling program. The assessment instrument that was utilized in collecting the data is Albert Mehrabian's Balanced Emotional Empathy Scale (BEES).

The results indicate there is no significant difference among beginning, practicum …

The Effects Of Operator Trust, Complacency Potential, And Task Complexity On Monitoring A Highly Reliable Automated System, Nathan R. Bailey

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Technological advances have allowed for widespread implementation of automation in complex systems. However, the increase in quantity and complexity of advanced automated systems has raised a number of potential concerns including degraded monitoring skills. The present investigation consisted of two studies that assessed the impact of system reliability, complacency potential, monitoring complexity, operator trust, and system experience on monitoring performance. In both studies, participants monitored a simulated aviation display for failures while operating a manually controlled flight task. In addition, the second experiment assessed the ability of operators to detect a single automation failure over three experimental sessions. Results indicated …

An Examination Of Standardized Language, Mathematics, And Reading Achievement Testing Results When Compared For Middle School Aged Student Leaders And Non-Student Leaders, Susan Schaming

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The evolution of the middle school concept, according to Forte and Schurr (2003), with its own identity and its subsequent implementation, has proven to be an ideal or preferred model for educating students. Knowles and Brown (2000) assert the importance of middle level teachers' ability to nurture their students' academic, emotional, personal, and social development during the often "chaotic" years of transescence and early adolescence.

This study examined and explored sixty-four randomly selected seventh grade middle school students' earned scores on their annual standardized achievement testing, particularly the Terra Nova II Multiple Assessments subtests in the areas of Language, Mathematics, …

The Rhetorical Dimensions Of Radio Propaganda In Nazi Germany, 1933-1945, Frank Rybicki

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The intrinsic power and subtle influence of broadcasting is not readily recognized by the average consumer of mass media. This circumstance has an abusive potential for those wishing to use the electronic media for ulterior motives. Such was the case between 1933 and 1945 when the Nazis unleashed their manipulative mass media campaign that helped facilitate totalitarian control over the German people. This dissertation is the study of its radio component. Special emphasis is placed on the origins, construction, and subsequent implementation of Nazi broadcast rhetoric heard on domestic and short wave radio during the twelve-year period of the Third …

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 …

The Role Of Teacher Education Experiences In Addressing The Concerns Of Apprentice Teachers, Mary Mcvey

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the role of a teacher education program in helping apprentice teachers to address their teaching concerns. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of program data were used to answer the following questions: What are the concerns of apprentice teachers? Do they differ between public and private school teachers? Do they differ between elementary and middle school teachers? How well did the teacher education program at Franciscan University help teachers to be prepared to address their concerns and does preparedness differ between public and private, and elementary and middle school teachers? What program experiences were perceived as most effective in …

The Influence Of Legal Language Upon Supreme Court Voting In Civil Liberties Cases., Sean Wilson

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Scholars such as Jeffrey Segal and Harold Spaeth contend that U.S. Supreme Court decisions are based primarily upon the ideological beliefs of the justices. However, in this work I show that this conclusion is exaggerated. The aggregation of votes into a summary statistic (the percent liberal rating) and its use by Segal and Spaeth in a regression having only 21 cases creates misleading results. The truth is that political ideology is a fluctuating influence upon the Court. In some areas of civil liberties voting, ideology is a poor explanation of how cases are decided (e.g., core political speech). But in …

Trinetr: An Intrusion Detection Alert Management And Analysis System., Jinqiao Yu

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Intrusion detection system (IDS) is a software system or hardware device deployed to monitor network and host activities including data flows and information accesses etc. to capture suspicious activities. In recent years, IDS has begun to gain wide acceptance as a necessary and worthwhile investment in security. But current IDS products present many flaws including alert flooding, excessive false alerts, isolated alerts, lack of context awareness and security decision support etc. Many of these problems are severely hindering them from being used more efficiently in practice. To make the use of IDS products more efficient and generated alerts more accurate, …

Leadership Development Of Community College Students: Does Participation In The Phi Theta Kappa Leadership Development Studies Course Have An Effect On The Development Of Leadership Behaviors?, Beverly Wilcox

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study assessed whether participation in the Phi Theta Kappa Leadership Development Studies course had an effect on the leadership behaviors of students at four community colleges from urban and rural geographic locations within the tri-state area of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia. The researcher visited the four community colleges and distributed the Kouzes and Posner (1998a) Student Leadership Practices Inventory-Self and a demographic questionnaire to a total population of 92 students. Descriptive statistics, t-tests, and an analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to analyze the data according to the research questions guiding this study. The major findings indicated that …

The Influence Attitude Has On Student Achievement In A Developmental College Algebra Course., Michael T. Wilder

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Faced with unacceptable failure rates in introductory mathematics courses, institutions of higher learning are incorporating methods of placing students into their math courses based upon the students' preexisting math knowledge or skills. West Virginia University is no exception and is currently incorporating a combination of ACT/SAT scores with an internal placement exam to properly place students in the appropriate math course. This method is not working in that failure rates continue to rise in spite of continual increases in placement requirements. Based upon anecdotal evidence by experienced faculty over a ten year period it became clear that factors other than …

Antagonism And Relational Aesthetics, Claire Bishop

Publications and Research

A critique of relational aesthetics, as theorized by Nicolas Bourriaud, and exemplified in the work of Rirkrit Tiravanija and Liam Gillick. Using Laclau and Mouffe's theory of democracy as antagonism, the paper proposes instead a 'relational antagonism' found in certain projects by Santiago Sierra and Thomas Hirschhorn.

Settlement Advocacy, Kay Elkins-Elliott, Frank W. Elliott

Faculty Scholarship

For many years, law schools have based most of their "practical" instruction on the adversary system's last choice: trials and appeals. First year students are taught how to write an appellate brief and how to make an appellant argument. Maybe this is good, since the odds are that any given student will never again write a brief or make such an argument. After the first year of law school, students are swept into trial advocacy courses, mock trial competitions, and appellate advocacy competitions: learning how to influence the minds of jurors and appellate judges. We all know that these activities …

Abstinence-Only Adolescent Education: Ineffective, Unpopular, And Unconstitutional, James Mcgrath

Faculty Scholarship

Abstinence-only and abstinence-only-until-marriage education programs, ostensibly designed to prevent unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted disease ("STD") infection, are a waste of valuable public health resources of both time and money. These ideologically based interventions interfere with serious, effective public health education and must be dismantled. Not only are abstinence-only programs ineffective for their intended purpose, they are dangerous in that they fail to protect our nation's youth against serious and potentially deadly diseases. Furthermore, these programs unconstitutionally violate both the Establishment Clause and the unconstitutional conditions doctrine.

Part I of this Article reviews the history of abstinence-only education funding legislation …

The Quantitative Accomplishments Of Selected Aspects Of The Educational Process 1960-1990 With An Examination Of The Reading Curricula Concepts In Saudi Arabia., Mohammad Alrobaee

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The purpose of this study was to outline some detailed history about some parts of the education process in Saudi Arabia especially about the general, higher, female education with a separate part about the curriculum of reading of education and to learn and spread information about the education development that my country is experiencing. The start of this development and its evolution was very difficult, but it passed through stages up to the current stage. We will see these constant changes proven by figures, statistics, and photographs. The detailing of the specifics related to this inventory is an endeavor to …

Surrogate Mothers Use Of Online Messaging: A Study Of Social Support., Shauna Lively Aurelio

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

People faced with challenging life events, such as pregnancy, need social support for well being. Traditionally, this support has been given via face-to-face contact in communities. It is known that online messaging promotes effective social support among people with disabilities or illnesses, and during life events such as pregnancy and parenting. It has been further suggested that surrogate mothers, women who contract with another person or a couple to bear a child, receive less social support from their families than other mothers. What is not known is how effective online social support is for surrogate mothers and how much they …

A Qualitative Inquiry Into The Responsibilities And Supports Of Paraeducators In Special Education., Annette M. Conti

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The role of the paraeducator in providing services to students with special needs has expanded to become part of a complex system of providing special education services. In order to meet the individualized needs of students with disabilities, educational agencies and school districts have increasingly relied on the services of paraeducators to facilitate the specialized instruction needed for students to participate in the least restrictive environment. Case studies were completed with three special education self-contained classrooms. The special education teachers and paraeducators who worked in these settings participated in this study through observations, interviews, and surveys. The study examined the …

An Empirical Measurement Of Interpersonal Community Engagement: Implications To Youth Communication Behaviors And The Instructional Setting., Michael W. Corrigan

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Past social science research has theorized the importance of community in the development process of youth (Bruner, 1985; Cruz, 1987; Dasen, 1977; Dewey, 1983; Patterson, 1992; Piaget, 1969; Putnam, 2000; Vygotsky, 1978). Many proponents of community believe that youth who are more integrated or engaged within one's community are more socially adapted and less likely to place apathetic attributions towards education. However, recently, few have measured quantitatively the role of one's connection to community and how it relates to the instructional setting. Therefore, this research focused on the development, validation, and the educational utility of a quantitative-based scale created to …

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder In Firefighters: A Proposed Model Of Mediators And Moderators., Kevin S. Del Ben

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The diagnosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has been studied extensively in victim populations (e.g., combat veterans and rape victims); however, very little attention has been given to the responders who come to the aid of these victims, specifically firefighters. Firefighters will respond to both a large number, and a wide variety of potentially stressful situations over the course of their careers. The dangers that firefighters encounter were brought to the attention of the public during the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Currently, there is a lack of research on basic information regarding PTSD in firefighters, such as prevalence …

The Role Of The Holy Spirit In Enabling Believers For Ministry: An Adventist Perspective, Marcos De Benedicto

Doctor of Ministry Projects

No abstract provided.