Digital Commons Network^™

College Student Adjustment And Health Behaviors, Lisa Anne Hall

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

This study explored the relationship between student adjustment theory and college student health behaviors. Specifically, this research examined first-year freshmen college student physical activity and nutrition behaviors and impact on adjustment to college (N = 37,564). The design for this study was a non-experimental ex post facto examination of archival data provided by the American College Health Association's National College Health Assessment II survey, spanning academic years 2008 through 2009. The main variables in this study included student physical activity and nutrition behaviors. Baker and Siryk's student adjustment theory was used as a theoretical framework to identify survey questions related …

Comparative Validity Of Mmpi-A Scales Scores In African American And Caucasian Male Juvenile Delinquents, Stacy Natasha Wilson

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

This study examined comparative validity of the MMPI-A scale scores of African American and Caucasian male juvenile delinquents utilizing a step down hierarchical regression procedure proposed by Laughtenschlager & Mendoza (1986). The MMPI-A (Butcher et al., 1992) was administered to 281 African American and Caucasian juvenile delinquents while their caretakers filled out the CBCL (Achenbach, 1991; Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001) and DBRS (Barkley & Murphy, 1998), which were used as extra-test measures. Significant overall prediction bias was detected in 15 out of 56 regressions. Statistically significant prediction bias was found for a subset of criterion variables for Clinical Scales 2, …

Applying Graduate Student Perceptions Of Task Engagement To Enhance Learning Conditions, Johnette Caulfield

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

Under what conditions are graduate students most likely to learn? How do we, as teachers, best create those conditions? The answer to these questions was the focus of this study whereby 91 masters’ students identified learning tasks that were most and least engaging. A model utilizing affective, behavioral and cognitive attributes was developed to measure graduate student engagement in learning tasks. Student survey data demonstrated a direct relationship between perceived value of the learning task, perceived effort put forth in achieving the learning task and perceived student engagement in learning. Multiple regression was used to predict engagement; two attributes, value …

Reader's Response: What Is A Sotl?, Kai Griebenow

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

A response to, “SoTL Commons Conference: A Spirit of Inquiry” by Margaret Davis, Kera Watkins, and Deborah Allen, International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Volume 3, Number 2 (July 2009).

Active Learning In Introductory Economics: Do Myeconlab And Aplia Make Any Difference?, Trien T. Nguyen, Angela Trimarchi

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

This paper reports experiment results of teaching large classes of introductory economics with modern learning technology such as MyEconLab or Aplia. This new technology emerges partially in response to the enrollment pressure currently facing many institutions of higher education. Among other things, the technology provides an integrated online teaching and learning environment that allows active learning through student direct participation in the learning process as well as interaction with their instructor, peers, and the outside Internet. Our results showed that, for the classes in the experiment, modern learning technology could make a difference in helping students improve their class mark …

Applying Cognitively Guided Instruction Through Word Problem Probes, James Jackson Ploen

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Professional development programs have the opportunity to engage educators with new knowledge and pedagogical implications. Cognitively Guided Instruction (CGI) is a teacher professional development program focused on elementary mathematics instruction (Carpenter, Fennema, Franke, Levi, & Empson, 1999). The program's foundation is based upon research of how students learn to solve basic addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division word problems. Using children's common solutions strategies, CGI leads to teaching practices that support children in generating their own meaningful problem-solving skills while naturally learning mathematics. The paper reviews the literature on CGI and examines the initial findings of interrater reliability of CG I-based …

Anaerobic Fitness Of A Sample Of Omani Children: Age Group From 9-13 Years, Hisham Moheeb, Mansoor Al-Tauqi, Khalifa Bin Mubarak Al Jadeedi

Journal of Educational and Psychological Studies

This study aimed to identify the anaerobic capacity level of a sample of Omani children. The sample included 197 children between the ages of 9 to 13 years. The Running-based Anaerobic Sprint Test (RAST) was used. The sample was divided into five groups. The first group comprised the nine-year olds (19 children), the second group comprised the ten-year olds (22 children), the third group comprised the eleven-year olds (52 children), the fourth group comprised the 12-year olds (43 children), and the fifth comprised the 13-year olds (61 children). The results showed that the anaerobic capacity level improved during the stages …

Establishing Workload Limitations For Application In Human Systems Integration, Muhammet Servet Gulum

Masters Theses

"As the amount of technology involved in the typical workplace increases and standard operational procedures become increasingly sophisticated the danger of overloading an operator's mental resources is increasing. As much as these technological developments help operators with daily tasks, for example by providing information via monitors and wireless headsets; it also increased the mental workload due to the bombardment of information. Mental workload is commonly associated with information processing tasks, limits. With all the extra information inputs it is difficult to set limits where excessive information becomes dangerous. The workload optimization is critical as it directly affects system performance and …

A Case Study Of The Perceptions Of Stakeholders From A School District In Iowa On The Impact Of No Child Left Behind On The Comprehensive High School, Brian Coppess

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The American comprehensive high school was designed for a diverse society (Wraga, 1998, p. 1 ). The concept originated in the 1920s as a result of a report entitled The Cardinal Principles of Secondary Education (Commission on the Reorganization of Secondary Education [CRSE], 1918). Since the adoption of The Cardinal Principles, the institution of the comprehensive high school has withstood years of continued review and reform efforts. Despite the many attempts to change it, the comprehensive high school has remained a constant of secondary education in America. The nation's most recent educational reform effort-the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB, …

The Impact Of Mathematics Professional Development On Elementary Teachers' Mathematics Content Knowledge For Teaching And Implementation Of Innovative Pedagogical Practices, Vicki Oleson

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This study sought to understand the process of change elementary teachers experienced as they participated in mathematics professional development. This investigation explored the impact of mathematics professional development on teachers' content knowledge for teaching, their ability to implement innovative pedagogical practices, and the relationship between these two components of teacher change. Data collected from a semester-long professional development course involving 20 teachers from rural southwest Iowa was analyzed for this study.

Data was collected from six teachers involved in the professional development course. Data collected during the professional development course included a pre and post test of teachers' content knowledge, …

Leisure And Aging: A Content Analysis Of Leisure Textbooks And Leisure Academic Journal Articles, Leila Rod-Welch

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This study will review literature related to leisure and aging. We live in an aging society. People are expected to live healthier and longer. Therefore, there is a need to analyze how older adults are portrayed in leisure textbooks and academic journal articles which are typically used to educate and train recreation professionals. This study explores whether leisure textbooks published in the United States addressed the topic of aging and, if so, to what extent. In addition, any differences between leisure textbooks and specialty leisure and aging textbooks were analyzed. A content analysis of 54 leisure textbooks from six U.S. …

Synergy Between Biology And Systems Resilience, Ashik Chandra

Masters Theses

"Resilient systems have the ability to endure and successfully recover from disturbances by identifying problems and mobilizing the available resources to cope with the disturbance. Resiliency lets a system recover from disruptions, variations, and a degradation of expected working conditions. Biological systems are resilient. Immune systems are highly adaptive and scalable, with the ability to cope with multiple data sources, fuse information together, makes decisions, have multiple interacting agents, operate in a distributed manner over a multiple scales, and have a memory structure to facilitate learning. Ecosystems are resilient since they have the capacity to absorb disturbance and are able …

Interpretation, Sincerity & "Theory", John Gibson

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Response To Critics, Laurent Stern

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

Home Life: Cultivating A Domestic Aesthetic, Jessica J. Lee

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Home Life is an exploration of environmental aesthetics as it applies to the domestic realm. I consider Kevin Melchionne’s argument that through notions of taste, grace, and performance, everyday domestic chores can become heightened artistic practices. I argue that this does not go far enough in overcoming the traditional view of art as aesthetically superior to popular or everyday artefacts and practices; rather, it encourages the limitations of traditional aesthetics values within the domestic setting. Through examples, including Pauliina Rautio’s study on laundry, I consider the possibility that domestic practices are made up of actions that are not performed with …

Nightwatch, Justin Winkler

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

In this essay I examine the features of night, in particular, urban night. I try to highlight the epistemological divide between day and night, light and darkness. Even as light-based experiencing, acting, and thinking, and their cultural tools colonize urban night, nocturnal elements relate dialectically to our daytime reasoning. I conclude with the question of whether a kind of half-tone thinking contained in a trialectic of light, twilight, and darkness would be capable of appreciating the peculiar qualities of night.

The reveries of the weak light guide into the innermost recesses of the familiar. It looks as if there are …

The Value Of Fictional Worlds (Or Why 'The Lord Of The Rings' Is Worth Reading), James Harold

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Some works of fiction are widely held by critics to have little value, yet these works are not only popular but also widely admired in ways that are not always appreciated. In this paper I make use of Kendall Walton’s account of fictional worlds to argue that fictional worlds can and often do have value, including aesthetic value, that is independent of the works that create them. In the process, I critique Walton’s notion of fictional worlds and offer a defense of the study and appreciation of fictional worlds, as distinguished from the works of fiction with which they are …

Sailing The Seas Of Cheese, Erik Anderson

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

Memphis Elvis is cool; Vegas Elvis is cheesy. How come? To call something cheesy is, ostensibly, to disparage it, and yet cheesy acts are some of the most popular in popular culture today. How is this possible? The concepts of cheese, cheesy, and cheesiness play an important and increasingly ubiquitous role in popular culture today. I offer an analysis of these concepts, distinguishing them from nearby concepts like kitchy and campy. Along the way I draw attention to the important roles of cultural/historical context, background knowledge, and especially artist’s intentions as they are relevant to aesthetic assessments involving cheese and …

Language Exclusionary Behavior And Attitudes Toward Immigrants, Christine L. Bennett

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Immigrants often speak languages that natives do not understand, leading to intentional or inadvertent ostracism, which in turn may increase perceptions of threat. For example, English language participants excluded from a conversation in Spanish report more negative reactions than participants excluded in English (Hitlan, Kelly, & Zarate, 2010). Integrated threat theory (ITT) suggests that there are four threats that lead to prejudice toward outgroups such as immigrants: realistic threat, symbolic threat, intergroup anxiety, and negative stereotypes (Stephan, Ybarra, & Bachman, 1999). The current study expanded upon prior research by ostracizing participants in English, Spanish, or Arabic and then measuring participants' …

Helping Adolescents Forgive: The Use Of Forgiveness Education At An Inpatient Mental Health Facility, Tiffany R. Everding

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Understanding the concept of forgiveness has demonstrated to be a complex process (Walker & Gorsuch, 2004; McCullough & vanOyen Witvliet, 2002). Enright and the Human Development Study Group (1991) developed a process model of forgiveness as a way for people to constructively deal with their anger and improve overall psychological well-being after experiencing a deep hurt. Due to the reported benefits illustrated by forgiveness intervention studies, future research is needed to examine the effectiveness of forgiveness education with adolescents in a clinical setting. The current study implemented a forgiveness education intervention with adolescents at local inpatient mental health facility examining …

Performance-Based Assessment Of School Psychology Interns : Analysis Of Problem-Solving Skills As Demonstrated In Comprehensive Case Examinations, Kimberly Suzanne Hansen

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

School psychologists are integral partners in the facilitation of the problem solving process, especially when the process is embedded within a tiered service delivery system incorporating response to intervention philosophies. Therefore, it is important that new school psychologists entering the field be competent in the skill areas needed to produce positive student outcomes. It is important for school psychology training programs to assess these competencies to improve individual student competencies as well as to improve the training provided by the program in the future. Comprehensive case studies are performance-based assessments that can be utilized to evaluate individuals, as well as …

Baby Boomer And Genx Elementary Principals : Differing Perspectives On Schooling, Lisa M. Fry

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Studies on generational analysis inform us that each generation is shaped by the influences they share during their formative years. The common experiences and historical circumstances experienced during this time influences their generational identity and results in a world view that is unique to that generation. This world view and generational identity impacts their belief system and practices as they emerge as leaders in mid-life.

While the current structures and policies that guide today's educational system were established by the Baby Boomer generation, we could see significant changes as the Baby Boomer behemoth begins to leave the workforce. Around the …

Educational Applications Of Achievement Goal Theory, Michelle Hinzman

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

In the past two decades, achievement goal theory has been found particularly useful in explaining student motivation (Kaplan & Maehr, 2007; Kaplan, Middleton, Urdan, & Midgley, 2002). The purpose of this study was to analyze differences between the achievement goals espoused by middle school and elementary teachers. A mixed-method approach was utilized that required teachers in an urban, eastern Iowa school district to complete a survey regarding their motivational beliefs. Select teachers were then identified based on survey results to be observed and interviewed in an attempt to further analyze instructional practices as they related to student motivation. Results of …

Service Learning : A Vehicle To Reflective Thinking, Janelle Lynn Hawk

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Education reform is a topic that has been around for a long time. With the passage of No Child Left Behind in 2002, states set out to set high standards for students. While setting high standards is a worthwhile goal, the method to reach those high standards has not been mandated. This research study sought to determine if exposing students to a service-learning project would increase reflective thinking, communication, and social interaction skills.

The questions that guided this study were:

1. Does engagement in a service-learning project impact the individual's development of reflective thinking? If so, what is that impact? …

Do Pull-Out Programs Create A Mirage Of Long-Term Results For At-Risk Youth?, Varotta Mi'chele Johnson

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Educators and researchers cannot afford to ignore the achievement gap between at-risk students and their counterparts. The review examines educational practices for this targeted population. Historically, educational experts have supported the belief that teaching in isolated settings is one of the most effective practices for improving student achievement. Smaller class sizes are proposed as reform methods to substantially impact student performance (Odden, 1990). However, class size reduction must be coupled with research-based instructional strategies proven to further academic development. Traditionally, at-risk students receive instruction through pull-out interventions. A pull-out program in this study shall be defined as the removal of …

Middle School Teachers' Implementation Of Differentiated Instruction : The Complexity, Tonya Rae Vitense Keefer

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The needs of students in American schools are increasingly more varied as the school population becomes more diverse. Ensuring that all students receive access to an appropriate education becomes vital to our future. Differentiated instruction has been suggested as one way to provide that access. Differentiated instruction does this by using planning that explicitly addresses students' diverse interests, learning preferences, and abilities. There is plentiful information on what differentiated instruction is and what it looks like in the classroom, but there is little research on the process of teachers implementing differentiated instruction.

Over a seven-month period, this research sought to …

Gifts And The Income Tax—An Enduring Puzzle, Richard Schmalbeck

Law and Contemporary Problems

Schmalbeck explains that there are four policy options for the combined income tax treatment of a donor-donee pair, and that the best choice among the options is not self-evident. He notes that the current income tax treatment of noncharitable gifts originated with the 1913 income tax. The historical record provides no clues as to why Congress opted for that approach in 1913. As frustrating as this may be, it is an example of an important phenomenon in the development of the income tax. A number of crucial structural decisions made in the early days of the income tax, which continue …

Indigenous And Mestizo Mexican Migrant Farmworkers: A Comparative Mental Health Analysis, William Donlan, Junghee Lee

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

Mexican-origin migrant farmworkers using: (a) lifetime prevalence of culture-bound syndromes, (b) self-rated emotional/mental health, (c) depression measured by PHQ-9, (d) stress level. Demographic and psychosocial variables were examined by ethnicity and gender using Chi square and independent t-tests. Logistic and linear regression models were constructed for mental health variables. Indigenous participants reported significantly higher stress compared to mestizos, and indigenous women reported significantly higher stress compared to all groups. Prevalence of culture-bound syndromes and mean PHQ-9 severity score was highest for indigenous females. Mean self-rated emotional/mental health was lowest among indigenous females. Controlling for main effects and other interactions, (a) …

Love And The Law, Children Against Mothers And Fathers: Or, What’S Love Got To Do With It?, Benjamin Shmueli

Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

The Supreme Court And Gender-Neutral Language: Setting The Standard Or Lagging Behind?, Leslie M. Rose

Duke Journal of Gender Law & Policy

No abstract provided.