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Resident Assistant Use Of Student Development Theory And Its Relation To Supervisor Knowledge And Use, David Michael Schmid

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Resident assistants perform various functions and serve students in many aspects during their time in university residence halls, with one of their central responsibilities being to encourage student development. This study examined the use of student development by resident assistants and its relation to supervisor knowledge and use of student development theory.

Informal conversational interviews were conducted with three Residence Life Coordinators at the University of Northern Iowa and three Hall Directors at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. Between two and five of the resident assistants supervised by these individuals were also interviewed.

Results indicate that while resident assistants may …

Master Students' Perception Of Informal Faculty Mentoring : An Explorative Investigation, Nangai Yang

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Originated from Mentor, a wise counselor to Ulysses and then teacher and protector to Ulysses' son Telemachus in Homer's Odyssey, the word mentoring now means teacher, advisor, sponsor and role model (Jacobi, 1991). The mentoring literature now characterizes this type of mentoring as informal or traditional mentoring that has been found to be very beneficial to doctoral students (Heinrich, 1995; Holland, 1995; Lyons, Scroggins & Rule, 1990; Schlosser, Knox, Moskovitz, & Hill, 2003). The purpose of this study was to investigate informal faculty mentoring at the master's degree level, namely the extent to which informal faculty mentoring activities were …

Our Voices: A Descriptive Account Of African American Parental Involvement In An Urban Elementary School, Charletta D. Sudduth

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Parent involvement may have implications for student achievement (Epstein, 1986; Hoover-Dempsey, Bassler, & Brisse, 1987; Lopez, Scribner, & Mahitivanichcha, 2001). Today African-American parents are frequently criticized for not being involved enough in their students' education (Dearing, Kreider, Simpkins, & Weiss, 2006). African-American parent involvement can be limited due to a lack of time, monetary resources, or transportation; past negative experiences with school; a non-welcoming school environment; or a different definition of parent involvement (Epstein, 2001, Hamre & Pianta, 2001; Hill, Castellino, Lansford, Dodge, Bates, et al., 2004; Hughes & Kwok, 2007). Missing from the research of both Hoover Dempsey and …

Digging Deeper: Enriching Transition To Adult Life Outcome Research Through Life-Histories, Jennifer Johnson

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Post-secondary outcomes for students with and without disabilities have been documented in transition research for over three decades. However, despite efforts to improve outcomes by the field of transition, former students with disabilities outcomes have remain lower than their non-disabled peers. Historically, the data, which has been collected mostly by means of survey research, has focused on what has happened to students since they exited school. Despite valiant efforts to improve adult outcomes, what has remained unclear, is why post-school outcomes have not improved in the areas of employment, post-secondary education, independent living, personal/social relationships, and community involvement.

Missing from …

The Value Of Leisure In Coping With Natural Disaster: A Case Study In The Aftermath Of Hurricane Katrina, Germaine Jackson

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries have witnessed more than their share of cataclysmic events, both natural and human-made. Most notable is Hurricane Katrina, a category 5 storm that ravaged the coasts of Louisiana and Mississippi. The infamous history of Hurricane Katrina's devastation stems from a couple of factors. First, the death toll reached what, for Americans, was a shockingly high figure of 1,577 people. Second, and more socially and politically relevant, was the federal government's mismanagement of the crisis.

The purpose of this study was to examine the role of leisure services available to adolescents following the traumatic …

Pre-Service General Education Teachers' Attitudes On The Education Of English Language Learners, Rachel Margaret Zidon

Honors Program Theses

Although increasing numbers of English Language Learners (ELLs) are joining native English speaking peers in general education classrooms, little research has been conducted to investigate general education teachers' preparation to work with ELLs in a classroom setting or their attitudes toward teaching ELLs. This research surveyed 260 pre-service general education teachers at a mid-sized university in the Midwest to explore their perceptions in the following areas: (1) their level of training and perceived preparedness to work with ELLs, (2) accommodations they would make for ELLs, (3) their expectations for ELLs, and (4) their attitudes toward including ELLs in general education …

Variables Affecting Crime Rate, Jaime Zeigler

Honors Program Theses

The Federal Bureau of Investigation releases data about crime statistics. They publish the raw data and provide factors that influence the crime rate. They provide the general public with a few variables that they deemed most influential, but do not provide the statistical analysis to support. After performing a statistical analysis, I support or disprove their claims. Another way to question the validity of regression is comparing the current regression to a previous regression performed two years ago by myself with the same variables from the same source. An additional aspect that this paper explores the history of factors affecting …

Development Of An After-School Wellness Club To Promote Physical Activity And Healthy Lifestyle, Eric M. Lamberg, Raymond F. Mckenna

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Childhood overweight and obesity is a serious national health problem that can lead to overweight and obesity in adulthood. Many programs have been developed to “treat” children already classified as overweight or obese. However, they represent reactionary strategies to a preventable problem. This paper describes the development of a school-based program to promote physical activity and healthy lifestyle to all students regardless of weight. Results from the initial pilot are presented, and barriers and methods to overcome these barriers are discussed. Methods: Move your Feet! is an elementary-school-based after-school club that promotes physical activity and healthy lifestyle. Attendance was recorded, …

Incorporating Evidence In Clinical Education; Barriers And Opportunities In Allied Health, Clare Delany, Andrea Bailocerkowski

Internet Journal of Allied Health Sciences and Practice

Clinical education is a key component of health professional education. Clinical educators, like clinicians, are increasingly expected to access and apply evidence from clinical education theories to inform their teaching methods and approaches. Purpose: This study evaluated personal and organizational factors that influenced the ability to access and apply clinical education research evidence into clinical teaching in a group of allied health practitioners at one large metropolitan hospital in Melbourne, Australia. Method: A Cross-sectional survey based on a previously published survey of clinical physiotherapists was custom-designed to examine the factors that influence evidence based practices (EBP) of a range of …

Did Board Configuration Matter? The Case Of Us Subprime Lenders, Maureen I. Muller-Kahle, Krista B. Lewellyn

Management Faculty Publications

Research Question/Issue: The origins of the global financial crisis have been attributed to the combination of a housing price bubble and innovative financial instruments, as well as the lack of restraint by corporate executives and boards to engage in excessive risk-taking. The rise in subprime lending between 1997 and 2005 played a crucial role in inflating the housing price bubble. We take a unique dataset of US financial institutions heavily engaged in subprime lending and ask the following research question: Did board configuration play a role in determining whether a financial institution specialized in subprime lending?

Research Findings/Insights: We use …

Increasing Teacher Diversity: Contributions Of A College Of Education Recruitment And Retention Program, Kate Elise Schmuck

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

There are very few minority teachers in pk-12 schools today even though research indicates that minority teachers are beneficial in classrooms. Teacher education programs are working to bring more teachers of color into the field, but few minority recruitment and retention programs have been evaluated. Most of these evaluations have been qualitative studies of the students in the programs, examining current and recommended practices to recruit and retain minority students into teacher education programs. This research was a qualitative study interviewing graduates of a minority teacher recruitment and retention program. It sought to answer the question: how does the recruitment …

Functional Behavior Assessment: Procedures, Components, And Personnel, Hannah Louise Robson

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Challenging behaviors at school inte1fere with a student's ability to effectively learn. In these situations behavioral assessments are frequently conducted and current practice adamantly supports the use of functional behavioral assessments (FBA) in addressing challenging behaviors among students. This study examines the assessment methods and personnel most frequently included in the FBA process in a Midwestern regional education agency through the review of completed assessments in a one year period. The results of this study suggest that record reviews and observations are utilized in the majority of the cases as part of the assessment process, along with an interview and …

The Efficacy Of An Intuitive Eating Education Program In A School Nutrition Education Curriculum, Nicole Healy

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Childhood and adolescent obesity and eating disorders are increasing at an alarming rate in the United States and they occur at younger ages than previously observed. To combat childhood and adolescent obesity, many school nutrition education programs offer obesity prevention programs. Some of these programs consist of restrictive eating plans for obesity prevention, yet their efficacy has been questioned because an unintended consequence is that they may actually increase eating disorder behaviors. An alternative to programs that focus on restrictive eating is the Intuitive eating approach, which is based on the premise that an adherence to physiological cues in determining …

Social Gerontology- Integrative And Territorial Aspects: A Citation Analysis Of Subject Scatter And Database Coverage, Elaine M. Lasda Bergman

University Libraries Faculty Scholarship

To determine the mix of resources used in social gerontology research, a citation analysis was conducted. A representative sample of citations was selected from three prominent gerontology journals and information was added to determine subject scatter and database coverage for the cited materials. Results indicate that a significant portion of gerontology research, even from a social science perspective, relies roughly equally on medical resources as it does social science resources. Furthermore, there is a small but defined core of literature constituting scholarly “territory” unique to gerontology. Analysis of database indexing indicated that broad, interdisciplinary databases provide more comprehensive coverage of …

User Experiments Of A Social, Faceted Multimedia Classification System, Liuliu Fu, Kurt Maly, Elizabeth Rasnick, Harris Wu, Mohammad Zubair

Computer Science Faculty Publications

Internet document sharing systems such as Flickr store billions of user-contributed images. Many collections on the Web contain large numbers of multimedia objects such as images. While such systems are designed to encourage user contributions and sharing, they are not well-organized collections on any given subject and are not easy to browse for specific subject matters. We have built a system that systematically organizes a large multimedia collection into an evolving faceted classification. This paper discusses the evaluation of such a system through a number of usage studies in a university setting.

Adapting To Change: An Exploration Of Students' Transition Experiences In A Senior College In Western Australia, Linda Rogerson

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This research sought to explore the experiences of students during their transition to a senior college. The senior college was established in response to the amendments to education policy in Western Australia that made it compulsory for students to remain in full-time education, training or employment until the age of 17 years (Department of Education and Training, 2008). Senior colleges were established to teach Years 11 and 12 exclusively, to promote a school environment that suited the maturity of senior students. Students attending senior colleges experience an additional transition during their senior school years and, as previous research has shown, …

A Study Of Resilience In West Australian Small Business Owners, Philip Roggio

Theses : Honours

Research suggests a relationship exists between the resilience of the Small Business Owner (SBO) and the resilience of their business, however the nature of this relationship is unclear. The current study investigated whether the internal resources of the SBO were significant in predicting the resilience of their business. A sample of 108 SBOs in the Perth metropolitan area completed an online questionnaire which measured aspects of individual and business resilience. A series of multiple regression analyses were used to test three hypotheses. The results from all three analyses consistently revealed that the internal resources of the SBO were the most …

School To Post-School Transition Programs For Young Adults With Intellectual Disabilities: A Systematic Review, And; The Meaning Of Well-Being From The Perspective Of Young Adults With Down Syndrome, Melissa Scott

Theses : Honours

OBJECTIVE: To review the effectiveness of school to post-school transition programs for young adults with intellectual disability and their impact on community participation, friendships and quality of life. METHODS: Electronic searches of six databases and manual searches of reference lists were conducted to obtain evidence of programs supporting the transition of young adults with intellectual disability from school to post-school. Transition programs or services and postsecondary education programs targeted at increasing participation and peer interaction were included. Two reviewers undertook data extraction and quality assessment. A systematic review was possible. RESULTS: All eight articles reviewed, with a total of 573 …

The Impact Of Online Social Participation On Social Capital And Mental Health Outcomes Of Young Adults: A Systematic Review & Participation And Quality Of Life Of Young Adults Living In Western Australia: Research Report, Robyn Earl

Theses : Honours

Introduction: The widespread acceptance and availability of the Internet and subsequent advent of social networking sites, is believed, in part, to be responsible for the reduction of face-to-face interaction, particularly among young adults. This has lead to suggestions that while virtual participation may enhance our ability to communicate with others; it may in fact come at the detriment of wellbeing. Depression is one of the leading causes of mental illness for young people, with social isolation and exclusion being identified as key risk factors for depression among this group. The aim of this review was to systematically review available research …

Blood Donor Motivation: A Phenomenological Study Of Young Male Donors, Aleeza Morris

Theses : Honours

The demand for blood products in Australia is projected to increase substantially in coming years. Yet population growth and population ageing will present challenges to blood donor recruitment and hence threaten the availability of adequate blood supplies for the future. Improving the retention of blood donors offers an opportunity to leverage this availability of blood products, and a focus on young men can be particularly beneficial because men become the biggest cohort of donors later in life. This research was conducted in collaboration with the Australian Red Cross Blood Service. It applied a descriptive phenomenological methodology to explore the factors …

Physical Activity: Its Implication On Attention Span And Quality Of Life In Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Wei Zhong Beron Tan

Theses : Honours

The current study was designed to partially extend previous research (Nicholson, Kehle, Bray, & Heest, 2011; Rosenthal-Malek & Mitchell, 1997) by examining the effects of physical activity on the 1) attention span and 2) health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) children in Singapore. Male participants (N = 12) aged 2-6 years, diagnosed with ASD were randomly assigned to either a physical activity (experimental) or non-physical activity group (control). In the physical activity group, participants were administered 8 tri-cycling sessions; together, both groups of participants were measured for their attention span, and their parents completed the HRQoL …

A Review Of The Relationships Between Mindfulness, Stress, Coping Styles And Substance Use Among University Students, Chris Thomas

Theses : Honours

Adaptive coping and self-regulation are critical for students' academic and professional development. Mindfulness meditation and mindfulness based programs present a promising option for those wishing to reduce stress and anxiety levels, improve self-regulation and coping strategies and or reduce the need for substance use. This paper sought to review the literature concerning the relationship mindfulness has with stress, coping styles and substance use in student populations. Proposed models and mechanisms of mindfulness are initially considered and reperceiving is identified as a prime mechanism through which mindfulness operates. Studies concerning stress reduction in student populations through mindfulness based programs are considered …

Sport Tourism: An Exploration Of The Motivations And Tourism Experiences Of Australian Football League Interstate Sport Tourists Travelling To Western Australia, Grace Rinaldi

Theses : Honours

Sport tourism is a growing sector within both the tourism and sport industries. The majority of research into sport tourism has focussed on definitions, the benefits and impacts associated with hosting a sport event and exploring who these sport tourists are. The motivations behind these sport tourists have been considered, however the associated tourism experience tourists have while at a destination has not been widely explored. There is also a lack of research into the motivations and tourists activities of fans who travel interstate to support a team in a professional national sport league like the Australian Football League (AFL). …

The Synergy Of Visual Projections And Contemporary Dance, Hannah Molly Timbrell

Theses : Honours

Projections are becoming an increasingly common part of contemporary dance performance, however, I believe that choreographers do not always integrate the media to form a dependent synergy. My research addresses the principal question: What are the factors that indicate that there is a critical relationship (synergy) between projection, including art work, moving images or light and the dancer in a contemporary dance performance? A brief history explains the background and development of lighting technology, through to film and more recently motion capture technology. Through sources of pre-existing literature and my interpretation of video excerpts of contemporary dance, I explore various …

Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Carers' Perceptions Of The Cultural Appropriateness Of Carer Support Services: An Exploratory Study, Andrea Creado

Theses : Honours

Research on service utilisation by primary family carers has highlighted that carers from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds face specific barriers in accessing services, such as lack of culturally appropriate services, communication issues, prejudice, feelings of failure and misunderstanding of mental illness. However, little is known about how to best overcome these factors from the carers' perspective. The aim of this study was to investigate the perceptions CALD carers had of the cultural appropriateness of carers' support services available in Perth. Ten primary family carers from CALD backgrounds participated in a semi-structured interview to explore their perceptions of existing …

An Exploratory Study To Develop A Geotourism Typology Model Based On The Experience And The Importance Of Geotourism In The Decision To Visit A Destination, Hasoly P. Hurtado

Theses : Honours

This study develops a typology model for geotourism to address the existing gap in the literature regarding who is participating in geotourism. As geotourism is a new concept, the literature is not only lacking in this area, but there is also a conflict of definitions available from scholars and organisations. This study defines geotourism in accordance to the definition of Newsome and Dowling (2010). It also aims to reduce the gap in literature by providing a starting point to the development of future geotourism typology models through the adaptation of McKercher's Cultural Tourism Typology Model (2002). Participants eligible for this …

Art And Consciousness In Light Of Maharishi Vedic Science, Natalie Brown

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This research examines the field of art and consciousness in light of Maharishi Vedic Science. Maharishi Vedic Science is a complete science of consciousness and its expressions, based on ancient Vedic knowledge, as elucidated by His Holiness Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, the foremost scholar in the field of consciousness. The research explores the practical application of Maharishi‘s technologies of consciousness― the Transcendental Meditation program and TM-Sidhi program, and simultaneously the theoretical understanding of consciousness through the study of Maharishi Vedic Science. The research examines this knowledge by considering two questions- Question 1―What is the benefit of the practical technologies and theoretical …

The Impact Of Assessment On Repeat Deliberate Self-Harm, Kellie Jones

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Deliberate self-harm is a pervasive issue that is the topic of worldwide clinical and research focus. Among the extensive research findings two salient issues emerge that provide the foundation for this study. The first is that a deliberate self-harm attempt is a significant risk factor for future attempts. The second is that a comprehensive assessment of a person presenting with an incident of deliberate self-harm can reduce further deliberate self-harming behaviour. A limitation of existing research is that no study has clearly identified the nature of assessments that impact on the likelihood of future self-harm attempts. The initial aim of …

Scald Burn Admissions To Princess Margaret Hospital In 1998 And 2008: A Comparative Analysis, Lisa Martin

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

Scald is the most common form of burn in young children, accounting for over 50% of all paediatric burn admissions in Western Australia (WA). Interventions implemented over the past few years focussed on prevention, first aid, and improved services postinjury (Department of Health Western Australia, 2009). The population of children in WA is rising and an epidemiological study was undertaken to assess changes in the profile of scald injury among WA children and to assess priorities for future action. Data were collected from all acute inpatient admissions presenting with scald injury for 1998 and 2008. These data were compared with …

Speaking In Thai, Dreaming In Isan: Popular Thai Television And Emerging Identities Of Lao Isan Youth Living In Northeast Thailand, Catherine Hesse-Swain

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This is an ethnographic study of how Lao Isan youth living in the northeastern provincial capital Khon Kaen and nearby town Mahasarakham experience Thainess or khwampenthai in its most popular form – television. People who inhabit the northeast of Thailand interchangeably label themselves and are labelled by others as Isan, Thai Isan, Lao Isan, Thai or Lao, depending on the ethnic, political, social or familial nuances of any given situation. I use the term Lao Isan to refer specifically to Isan people of Lao origin or ethnicity. Lao Isan are subject to complex and often competing notions of Isanness, Laoness …