Digital Commons Network^™

Gis Assisted Problem Analysis Of Trail Erosion In Monongahela National Forest, Steven J. Storck

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This research investigates the frequency and patterns of trail erosion on purposefully selected natural surface trails in Monongahela National Forest. Trail erosion is considered a non-self-limiting process which degrades trail beds making them unattractive, difficult to travel on, and has the potential to impact local streams with the introduction of silt. Recreation ecology research delineates factors which influence the rate of erosion on a trail into three broad categories: recreational use, environmental conditions, and managerial actions. This study tests the relationship of variables from each of these categories to the local patterns of erosion. Three sampling strategies are used to …

Community Leadership Motivation: Factors That Influence Individuals Holding Leadership Roles In West Virginia Communities, Kelly Nix

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Community organizations play a vital role in a community's quality of life. Many organizations must count on volunteers to provide core services (Clary, Snyder & Ridge, 1992). Over the years, the volunteer rate has declined in West Virginia (Volunteering in America, 2010). The purpose of this study was to identify the factors that influence individuals holding volunteer leadership roles in communities. The population for the study was 577 members of the West Virginia Regional Planning and Development Council and the West Virginia Economic Development Council. The participants received a mailed survey that included 89 questions. Seventy of the 89 questions …

The Lived Experience: Stories From Those Who Have Encountered Catastrophic Loss From Flood, Margaret R. Rateau

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Natural disasters including flood affect thousands of people all over the world each year. As a direct result, millions of dollars in widespread damage occur in the regions directly impacted by such disasters. Analyzing stories from those who have suffered catastrophic loss from flood may offer a means to better understand what is important to the survivor from their perspective and may assist in the recovery process. The purpose of this research was to examine the lived experience of those who have experienced catastrophic loss from flood. The importance of this research and its impact on nursing knowledge development, research, …

Relationships Among The Personal Fable, Drug Use And Parental Monitoring In Adolescents And Young Adults, Xin Liu

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Relationships among the personal fable, drug use and parental monitoring in adolescents and young adults were tested in this study. Participants were 56 students, with 25 from a small, suburban area in southern Michigan, and 32 from West Virginia University (87.5 % female, 94.6% Caucasian). Participants completed questionnaires about demographics, the personal fable, parental monitoring and drug use in an online survey. Results showed that there was a negative correlation between parental monitoring and youth drug use, but no correlation between the personal fable and drug use. There was some evidence that the personal fable had a moderated effect on …

Identity And Self -Efficacy Development Of Adolescents In An Adult Sponsored Volunteer Program, Amanda Webster

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The purpose of this study was to fill a current gap in the literature on the impacts of adolescents' participation in adult sponsored volunteer programs on identity formation and self-efficacy. Data were collected from 28 adolescents in grades 7-12 enrolled in an 11-week summer adult sponsored volunteer program. Participants completed pre-and posttest measures that included the Identity Style Inventory-Grade 6 (ISI-6G), the fidelity subscale of the Psychosocial Inventory of Ego Strength (PIES), and the General Self-Efficacy Scale. The current study proposed five hypotheses: (1) adolescents who participate in an adult sponsored volunteer program will have higher levels of the informational …

Cross-Cultural Readings Of Intent: Form, Fiction, And Reasonable Expectations, Deborah Waire Post

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Music And Its Effect On Late Auditory Evoked Potentials In Elementary School Aged Children, Lee Helen Weeks

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Attitudes And Perceptions Of Early Childcare Professionals In Community-Based Programs In Regard To Inclusion Of Children With Disabilities, Catherine Parker

Honors Theses

The purpose of the study was to determine why early care and education facilities are not identified as inclusive. This study compared the differences in attitude toward inclusive programming among directors, preschool teachers, and infant/toddler teachers in early care and education facilities. This study addressed two questions in regard to the attitudes and perceptions of early childhood professionals. First, what are the attitudes of early childhood professionals toward advantages and disadvantages of inclusive classrooms and how their attitudes may differ depending on staff position? Second, what are the major obstacles identified by early childhood professionals to inclusive programming and how …

Validation Of The Resilience Competencies Scale (Rcs) For Applications Among American Indian Youth, Melanie Hockenberry

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Historical trauma, poverty, educational inequalities, and discrimination are among the many factors contributing to current problems, such as substance abuse, experienced by some American Indian youth today. Much of the literature on American Indian adolescents has been problem-focused; but it is also important to identify factors that are associated with resilient outcomes, such as personal, social, and ecological factors highlighted in models of resilience. As a step toward conducting such studies, it is necessary to have measures that are valid, reliable, and culturally-applicable for American Indian adolescents. Therefore, a mixed methods study (focus groups; survey) was conducted to examine the …

Exploring Factors Affecting Persistence Of First-Year Student Success At The University Of The District Of Columbia, Twyla L. Jones

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study examined four elements within the university environment that may provide a connection to the success of students' initial year on campus. The four elements are: freshman orientation course; academic advising and interaction with an advisor; involvement in student organizations, clubs, and athletics; and utilization of the university counseling center.;This study was based upon a survey administered during the months of March through May 2010 that examined the four areas of the university environment and the extent to which each student participated in each area. The population was 200 first-year students who had entered the university during the fall …

A Study Of The Relationship Between Participation In Marietta College's Mcdonough Leadership Program And The Leadership Development Of College Students, Dennis Mcnaboe

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

This study assessed whether participation in the McDonough Leadership program had an effect on the leadership development of students at Marietta College. Participants from the freshman classes of 2007-2008 and 2008-2009 and graduating senior classes of 2010-2011 and 2011-2012 took the Kouzes and Posner (2005a) Student Leadership Practices Inventory - Self and the SLPI - Observer. Marietta College provided 26 surveys along with key demographic data, including gender, race, type of McDonough Scholars (International Leadership Studies Major, Leadership Studies Minor, and Certificate of Leadership Studies), and Experiential Learning Opportunity completed (None, Internship, Study Abroad, and Service Project).;Descriptive statistics, t-tests, and …

Dispositions In Teacher Education, Lisa Simpson

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The assessment of educator dispositions has created numerous challenges for teacher education institutions. Many of the issues surrounding dispositions assessment relates to the uncertainty in determining the dispositions that are most important to address in all teacher education programs. Additionally little consideration has been given to the possibility that some dispositions may be more important to some fields of education than to others. This research is an investigation into the importance and efficacy of identified clusters of dispositions, as well as the identification of dispositions important to Health and Physical Education in comparison with those important to all areas of …

Effects Of Delay Order And D-Amphetamine On Delay Discounting In Rats, Shana R. Bailey

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Impulsive choice is defined as choice for a smaller, more immediate reinforcer over a larger, more delayed reinforcer, whereas self-controlled choice is defined as choice for a larger, more delayed reinforcer over a smaller, more immediate reinforcer. Determinants of impulsive and self-controlled choices may be studied by employing delay-discounting procedures. When using a discrete-trials delay-discounting procedure, a difference in delay discounting as a function of order of presentation of delays to larger-reinforcer delivery was reported by one previous study, whereas another study reported no differences. In both studies, subjects had a history of exposure to both ascending and descending order …

Differentiating Faking-Good Parents From Non-Faking Parents On The Child Abuse Potential Inventory, Amanda H. Costello

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Parental fitness evaluations remain common during child abuse investigations, as evidenced by the 19% of victims of maltreatment receiving an evaluation in 2007 in the United States (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2009). A "best practice" approach to parental fitness evaluations consists of using a comprehensive assessment including clinical interviews, risk assessment measures, and behavioral observation (Budd, 2001; 2005). The Child Abuse Potential Inventory (CAP; Milner, 1986) is one risk assessment measure that is often used during evaluations. Unfortunately, abuse risk at pre- and post-treatment as measured by the CAP may be confounded by faking-good responding from the …

Property's Morale, Nestor M. Davidson

Michigan Law Review

A foundational argument long invoked to justify stable property rights is that property law must protect settled expectations. Respect for expectations unites otherwise disparate strands of property theory focused on ex ante incentives, individual identity, and community. It also privileges resistance to legal transitions that transgress reliance interests. When changes in law unsettle expectations, such changes are thought to generate disincentives that Frank Michelman famously labeled "demoralization costs." Although rarely approached in these terms, arguments for legal certainty reflect underlying psychological assumptions about how people contemplate property rights when choosing whether and how to work, invest, create, bolster identity, join …

"The Course Fit Us": Differentiated Instruction In The College Classroom, Mary Volesky Dosch

Theses and Dissertations

Differentiated instruction is a learner-centered philosophy of teaching based on Tomlinson’s research, but stems from a constructivist belief espoused by Dewey, Piaget, and Vygotsky. Through consideration of three diagnostic areas: readiness, interests, and learning profiles, a teacher differentiates how diverse students access the material (content), how students make sense of the material (process), and how students demonstrate their learning (product).

Differentiated instruction has been used successfully at the elementary, middle, and high school levels showing quantitative improvements for diverse students. A limited number of qualitative studies on differentiated instruction exist at the college level, with even fewer quantitative studies.

The …

Implementation Of A First-Year Seminar: Retention And Student Views Of Advising And Engagement At A Small Midwestern University, Kristi Bitz

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore student perceptions of a first-year seminar course as well as academic advising and other student engagement activities before and after the implementation of a first-year seminar course at a small Midwestern university. Retention rates prior to and after the implementation of the first-year seminar course were considered and comparisons of retention rates for students who completed the first-year seminar with students who did not complete the course were analyzed.

Research questions included:

1. What were student perceptions with regard to the first-year seminar course?

2. Was there a difference in advising perceptions …

Single Parenting And Faith: Does It Have An Influence On Their College-Aged Children's Life Outcomes?, Starla Kay Quinn

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Nearly 60 percent of America's children will spend part of their childhood in a single parent family in one form or another. Past research has examined correlations between spirituality and mental as well as physical health. In addition, there is a marginal amount of study regarding the parental influence of faith on child outcomes in two-parent families. A quantitative study utilizing a cross-sectional design was employed. Data analysis was completed employing a series of multiple regressions to ascertain the correlations of the aforementioned constructs. The study revealed that parental religious commitment to faith was significantly correlated with the development of …

Crew Resource Management Training For Nurse Anesthesia Education, John P. Lonneman

Theses and Dissertations

Communication encores have been identified by The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organization (JCAHO) as the leading cause of wrong site operations and other sentinel events (Makary et al., 2006; Neily et al., 2009). Additionally, poor teamwork in the OR results in higher morbidity and mortality (Mazzocco et al., 2009). The aviation industry has used the concepts of Crew Resource Management (CRM) for more than 20 years to reduce accidents caused by human factors (Rivers, Swain & Nixon, 2003). CRM focuses on communication, leadership, decision making and resource management to achieve safe outcomes. CRM has been shown to lower …

Implications Of Fatigue And Sleep Loss On Medical Professionals And Countermeasures To Prevent Fatigue, Tracie J. Christensen

Theses and Dissertations

The number of hours worked per individual has long been limited by the law in many professional industries. Recent increases in the incidence of medical and diagnostic errors related to fatigue has led to an increased interest in health care worker fatigue. For human beings, functioning on a 24-hour basis poses unique physiological challenges. Acknowledging and managing these challenges can promote performance, productivity, and safety in 24-hour operations. Ignoring these factors can lead to decrements in human capability and to the potential for incidents and accidents that can result in tremendous societal and individual costs. Long duty hours, reduced sleep …

Emergence Delirium: Modifying Risk Factors In Pediatric Patients, Sara J. Skatvold

Theses and Dissertations

Emergence Delirium: Modifying risk factors in pediatric patients

Emergence delirium is a known post-operative phenomenon that is more prevalent in the pediatric population, especially preschool children (Chen, Li, Hu, & Wang, 2010). According to Scott and Gold (2006), "Emergence delirium is a clinical condition in which patients are "awake" but experience alterations in disorientation and other mental status changes that range from confusion and lethargy to violent and harmful behavior" (p. 100). The underlying cause of emergence delirium is not fully understood. Knowledge of risk factors that may lead to emergence delirium will assist anesthesia providers in offering an anesthetic …

The Role Of The School Nurse In Advocating For Comprehensive Sex Education In Schools, Heather Weaver

Theses and Dissertations

Despite recent decreases in teen pregnancy rates, teen pregnancy remains a significant public health problem. In the past two decades, funding has been available supporting sex education; however, many of these programs have not been effective in reducing teen pregnancy rates. Research supports the use of comprehensive sex education as effective tools in delaying sexual initiation and preventing teen pregnancy. School nurses are essential in the advocacy of policy change at the federal, state, and local levels. School nurses serve in leadership roles for health policies and programs. This article aims at describing research based advocacy programs that may assist …

Cyberbullying, School Violence, And Youth Suicide, Mark Leopold Bennett Trachtenbroit

Dissertations

The frequency of occurrences of cyberbullying among school aged children and its co-occurrence with school violence and risk factors associated with youth suicide have been quantified in numerous national studies in recent years. However, the degree to which school administrators, school teachers, and school counselors at the middle school and high school levels are aware of these national statistics regarding cyberbullying has not been thoroughly researched. The Secondary School Educator.s Cyberbully Awareness Survey was developed to assess educator awareness of cyberbullying. Secondary school educators in this study were found to have inadequate awareness of the national statistics regarding cyberbullying, underestimating …

A Critical Analysis Of The Effectiveness Of Administrative Rules For Gang-Related Activities In Middle And High Schools, David Thomas Chiprany

Dissertations

The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse reported that 35 percent of middle school students and 45 percent of high school students say that there are students who are affiliated with gangs or who consider themselves to be affiliated with gangs in their schools (Arciaga, Sakamoto, & Jones, 2010). Gangs are increasingly violent and criminally involved and their impact on the school environment negatively influences student performance (National Gang Center, 2010a). As juveniles engage in criminal activity, the justice system has developed a set of laws and consequences in an effort to suppress the behavior. Schools followed the lead …

The Effect Of Teacher Retention On Student Achievement In Third Grade Reading/Language Arts, Kathy Bang Sellers

Dissertations

The United States government has placed emphasis on the placement of highly qualified teachers within each classroom through the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001. This becomes more difficult when teachers become frustrated for various reasons and leave the profession of teaching before gaining the necessary experience to positively impact student achievement.

The purpose of the study was to examine the possible relationship between teacher retention, teachers staying within the teaching profession, and the effect it has on student achievement. The study is based on individual teachers' class summary reports from the 2007-2008, 2008-2009, and 2009-2010 …

The Relationship Between Special Education Teachers' Perceptions Of Principal Leadership Behaviors And The Achievement Of Students With Disabilities, Margaret Elizabeth Constantino

Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to examine special education teacher perceptions of principals’ instructional leadership behaviors and students’ academic achievement on the Georgia Comprehensive Criterion-Referenced Tests. The researcher sought to determine if a relationship between specific instructional leadership practices in the areas of setting direction, influencing others, and redesigning the organization as performed by the principal and as perceived by their teachers is related to the achievement of special education subgroups in English/Language Arts and Mathematics. Special educators from elementary schools, identified by the principals, were surveyed to measure the extent to which they perceived their principal exhibited specific …

The Reported Needs Of A Teacher Mentoring Program, Kimberly Myers Tillman

Dissertations

The following study was conducted in four public school districts in south Mississippi and involved a combination of 167 administrators, mentors, and novice teachers. The purpose of this study was to measure the reported needs of a teacher mentoring program as perceived by novice teachers, mentor teachers, and administrators. An additional purpose of the study was to examine administrators’ perceptions of how alternate route and traditional route teachers differ in their needs of a teacher mentoring program.

Two multivariate of analysis (MANOVA) tests were conducted to measure the differences among novice teachers, mentors, and administrators in their perception of what …

Teachers' Perceptions Toward Required And Self-Directed Professional Learning, Marla Kay Lambert Hutton

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine whether there is a difference in the opinions of elementary, middle, and high school teachers concerning teacher required or self-directed professional learning. Additionally, the study investigated differences in teaching experience, professional development in a series compared to in a single meeting, workshop, or conference, rather than ongoing professional learning, and whether the teachers’ perception for professional learning is similar to their administrators’ perception for teachers’ learning.

Research findings indicated there was a relationship between teachers’ preference for professional learning and their years of teaching experience and their level of teaching (elementary, middle, …

Correlations Among School Belonging And Self-Reported Factors Associated With Students' School Success, Stacey Mechelle Mcguire Lee

Dissertations

This study examined correlations among student sense of school belonging and the classroom learning climate, previous academic achievement, frequency of disciplinary sanctions, and participation in extracurricular activities. During August of the 2011-2012 school year, the Middle School Student Sense of Belonging Questionnaire was completed by a sample of 264 eighth grade students enrolled in three middle schools from three different school districts located in the coastal south. The sample.s mean school belonging score was 3.56 with a standard deviation of 0.81. Findings of this study suggest statistically significant positive correlations exist among student sense of school belonging and the learning …

Leading Schools To Increased Reading Achievement: An Investigation Into Effective Reading Instruction, Patricia Anne Alford

Dissertations

This study investigated the effectiveness of two models of middle school reading instruction as measured by mean scores of middle school students on a state criterion-referenced test. Two cohorts of students were repeatedly compared over a three year period: students who received reading instruction as a core content class (Intervention A) and students who received reading instruction through content-area courses of math, social studies, science, and language arts (Intervention B). The independent variable was the reading program implemented and the dependent variables were the scale scores on the Reading portion of the CRCT test. A mixed model analysis of variance …