Digital Commons Network^™

Creative Differences: Teaching Creativity Across The Disciplines, Elizabeth Marquis, Susan Vajoczki

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

Several authors have suggested that educational institutions have a responsibility to foster creativity in their students. Yet, research has shown that creativity is a variable concept that can mean different things in different fields and contexts (Kaufman & Baer, 2005). As a result, generic pedagogical techniques for developing creativity may not be equally appropriate across domains.

In light of these factors, this pilot study explored (via an electronic survey of instructors) the ways in which creativity is defined and taught across McMaster University’s six faculties. Results suggested areas of both commonality and difference across disciplines in terms of academics’ understandings …

Assessing The Degree Of Integrated Learner-Centered Instruction On Student Outcomes In A Large Non-Major Environmental Science Course, Ruthanne “Rudi” Thompson, Greta Bolin, Alice Coe

International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching & Learning

The decision to employ learner-centered teaching methods, teacher-centered teaching methods, or whether to integrate the two within large lecture halls in higher education continues to be heavily researched and hotly debated. All, in one form or another, have been shown effective at varying levels, throughout a myriad of disciplines and across diverse cultures. Yet there are fewer quantitative studies assessing the effects of implementing varying degrees of integrated learner-centered methods within large classroom environments. To that end, this study compared two sections of an undergraduate non-major environmental science large lecture course. One section received a minimal degree of learner-centered (MLC) …

Frankenfoods: Are We Bioengineering Our Children And What Can Curriculum Do?, Patra Rickman

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

In this dissertation I explore the effect of biotechnology and food production on children’s physical and mental health. What we eat affects our well-being and unknowingly, we have little control of what exactly we are consuming. Children have even less control and feel the effects of additives and chemicals more than adults. Many of the effects of bioengineered foods are unknown at this time. My dissertation will be a theoretical exploration of biotechnology in food using a bioethical critical perspective. I use my personal experience and research to examine the effects of processed and genetically engineered foods on people, especially …

Xrf And The Corrosion Environment At Camp Lawton: A Comprehensive Study Of The Archeological Microenvironment Of A Civil War Prison Camp, Amanda L. Morrow

College of Graduate Studies: Theses & Dissertations

Author's abstract: Handheld X Ray Fluorescence (XRF) technology is a new and emerging method in the field of archeology. This thesis discusses the results of XRF comparative analysis and comparative chemical analysis between a given ferrous metallic artifact's corrosion environment (the surrounding soil matrix) and the subsequent corrosion products formed on the artifact. The hypothesis is that the data will demonstrate a chemical correlation between the two. Iron and chlorine are the two major elements discussed in the study. The artifacts in the sample set have been collected from Camp Lawton (9JS1), a Confederate Prison for Union Soldiers located in …

Faculty Senate Librarian's Report-2012, Georgia Southern University

Faculty Senate: Librarian's Reports

No abstract provided.

Georgia Southern University Fact Book, Georgia Southern University

Georgia Southern Fact Books (1976-2022)

No abstract provided.

Graduate Catalog, Georgia Southern University

Graduate Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Graduate Studies Fact Book

Graduate Studies Fact Books (2006-2017)

No abstract provided.

Why Open Borders, Chandran Kukathas

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

The present contribution offers a defence of open borders. It presents a critique of the idea that the state has a justified claim to regulate themovement of people because they reflect the collective endeavours of the members of the state to pursue a shared project of self-rule or self-determination. Itargues that this view rests on an indefensible understanding of the nature of thestate, which should be viewed less as a collective endeavour than as a productof conflicts among political elites. There is a strong prima facie case for freemovement that suggests there should be a presumption in favour of open …

Bodies For The Gods: Image Worship In Chinese Popular Religion, Margaret Chan

Research Collection School of Social Sciences

No abstract provided.

2012 Fall Commencement, Georgia Southern University

Commencement Programs

No abstract provided.

Botanical Garden News, Georgia Southern University

Garden of the Coastal Plain (Archived)

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Item Saliency And Question Design On Measurement Error In A Self-Administered Survey, Michael J. Stern, Jolene D. Smyth, Jeanette Mendez

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

Recent survey design research has shown that small changes in the structure and visual layout of questions can affect respondents’ answers, but the results are not always consistent across studies. One possible reason for some of the inconsistency may be differences in the item saliency of the questions used in the experiments. In this article, the authors examine how item saliency might influence visual design effects. The authors report the results of three experimental alterations in question format and visual design using data from a 2005 random sample mail survey of 1,315 households. The results suggest that the saliency of …

A Morphometric Assessment Of The Intended Function Of Cached Clovis Points, B. Buchanan, J. D. Kilby, B. B. Huckell, Michael J. O'Brien, M. Collard

History Faculty Publications (Archived)

A number of functions have been proposed for cached Clovis points. The least complicated hypothesis is that they were intended to arm hunting weapons. It has also been argued that they were produced for use in rituals or in connection with costly signaling displays. Lastly, it has been suggested that some cached Clovis points may have been used as saws. Here we report a study in which we morphometrically compared Clovis points from caches with Clovis points recovered from kill and camp sites to test two predictions of the hypothesis that cached Clovis points were intended to arm hunting weapons: …

An Assessment Of The Impact Of Hafting On Paleoindian Point Variability, B. Buchanan, Michael J. O'Brien, J. D. Kilby, B. B. Huckell, M. Collard

History Faculty Publications (Archived)

It has long been argued that the form of North American Paleoindian points was affected by hafting. According to this hypothesis, hafting constrained point bases such that they are less variable than point blades. The results of several studies have been claimed to be consistent with this hypothesis. However, there are reasons to be skeptical of these results. None of the studies employed statistical tests, and all of them focused on points recovered from kill and camp sites, which makes it difficult to be certain that the differences in variability are the result of hafting rather than a consequence of …

Tipping Points Among Social Learners: Tools From Varied Disciplines, R. A. Bentley, Michael J. O'Brien

History Faculty Publications (Archived)

There is a long and rich tradition in the social sciences of using models of collective behavior in animals as jumping-off points for the study of human behavior, including collective human behavior. Here, we come at the problem in a slightly different fashion. We ask whether models of collective human behavior have anything to offer those who study animal behavior. Our brief example of tipping points, a model first developed in the physical sciences and later used in the social sciences, suggests that the analysis of human collective behavior does indeed have considerable to offer.

Cultural Evolutionary Tipping Points In The Storage And Transmission Of Information, R. A. Bentley, Michael J. O'Brien

History Faculty Publications (Archived)

Human culture has evolved through a series of major tipping points in information storage and communication. The first was the appearance of language, which enabled communication between brains and allowed humans to specialize in what they do and to participate in complex mating games. The second was information storage outside the brain, most obviously expressed in the "Upper Paleolithic Revolution" - the sudden proliferation of cave art, personal adornment, and ritual in Europe some 35,000-45,000 years ago. More recently, this storage has taken the form of writing, mass media, and now the Internet, which is arguably overwhelming humans' ability to …

Adult Learners In A Novel Environment Use Prestige-Biased Social Learning, C. Atkisson, Michael J. O'Brien, A. A. Mesoudi

History Faculty Publications (Archived)

Social learning (learning from others) is evolutionarily adaptive under a wide range of conditions and is a long-standing area of interest across the social and biological sciences. One social-learning mechanism derived from cultural evolutionary theory is prestige bias, which allows a learner in a novel environment to quickly and inexpensively gather information as to the potentially best teachers, thus maximizing his or her chances of acquiring adaptive behavior. Learners provide deference to high-status individuals in order to ingratiate themselves with, and gain extended exposure to, that individual. We examined prestige-biased social transmission in a laboratory experiment in which participants designed …

Genes, Culture, And Agriculture: An Example Of Human Niche Construction, Michael J. O'Brien, K. N. Laland

History Faculty Publications (Archived)

Theory and empirical data from a variety of disciplines strongly imply that recent human history involves extensive gene-culture coevolution, much of it as a direct result of human agricultural practices. Here we draw on niche construction theory (NCT) and gene-culture coevolutionary theory (GCT) to propose a broad theoretical framework (NCT-GCT) with which archaeologists and anthropologists can explore coevolutionary dynamics. Humans are enormously potent niche constructors, and understanding how niche construction regulates ecosystem dynamics is central to understanding the impact of human populations on their ecological and developmental environments. We use as primary examples the evolution of dairying by Neolithic groups …

Beveled Projectile Points And Ballistics Technology, C. P. Lipo, R. C. Dunnell, Michael J. O'Brien, V. Harper, J. Dudgeon

History Faculty Publications (Archived)

Explanations for beveled blade edges on projectile points have been debated in North America archaeology since the first systematic description of lithic assemblages in the nineteenth century. Debate has centered around two opposing perspectives. One views beveled edges as features of projectile points that cause them to spin during flight. The other views beveling as a product of edge resharpening that is done unifacially to conserve scarce resources. Here we use a fluid-dynamics model to simulate the effect beveling has on projectiles. Expectations derived from this modeling are evaluated using wind-tunnel experiments. Our findings indicate that beveling produces in-flight rotation …

Undergraduate Catalog, Georgia Southern University

Undergraduate & Graduate Catalogs

No abstract provided.

Risk Of Resource Failure And Toolkit Variation In Small-Scale Farmers And Herders, M. Collard, A. Ruttle, B. Buchanan, Michael J. O'Brien

History Faculty Publications (Archived)

Recent work suggests that global variation in toolkit structure among hunter-gatherers is driven by risk of resource failure such that as risk of resource failure increases, toolkits become more diverse and complex. Here we report a study in which we investigated whether the toolkits of small-scale farmers and herders are influenced by risk of resource failure in the same way. In the study, we applied simple linear and multiple regression analysis to data from 45 small-scale food-producing groups to test the risk hypothesis. Our results were not consistent with the hypothesis; none of the risk variables we examined had a …

Code Vs. Code: Nationalist And Internationalist Images Of The Code Civil In The French Resistance To A European Codification, Ralf Michaels

Faculty Scholarship

French academics reacted to announcements about a possible future European civil code ten years ago in the way in which Americans reacted to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor 1940: first with shock, then with rearmament, finally with attempted counterattacks. Military metaphors abound. Yet the defense of the French Code Civil against a European civil code is tricky: they must defend one Code against another. The images drawn of codes are therefore of particular interest for our understanding both of civil codes and of legal nationalism. Often, two mutually exclusive images are presented at the same time. In cultural terms, …

Sustainability With An Ethical Aim: Lessons From An American Nun In Amazonia, Stephanie Denise Demaree

Doctoral Dissertations

Research Topic

Human imagination, an ethical aim and action are the progenitors for reconciliation between humans and their environment. Two examples of such reconciliation are found in Brazil and are the result of the tireless work of an American Nun, Sister Dorothy Stang and the staff of the Iracambi Atlantic Rainforest Research and Conservation Center. The present inquiry portrays the history, current programs, and the potential for the findings to shape the lives of those committed to work toward creating a balance between human endeavors and sustainable environments.

Theory and Protocol

This research is grounded in critical hermeneutics and follows …

Post-Dollarization Narratives Of Economic Literacy In Ecuador, Luis A. Reynoso

Doctoral Dissertations

Research Topic

This study addresses how the economic narratives of conversation participants in Ecuador after dollarization permeates the concepts of self, and quality of life, binding both into a personal economic story that describes a person's economic narrative towards a definition of economic literacy.

Research Theory and Protocol

Through critical hermeneutic theory formulated by Paul Ricoeur (1992) and the inquiry protocol developed by Ellen Herda (1999), the interpretive categories of narrative identi-ty, text, and imagination were applied to this study.

Research Categories

The narratives describe the stories of the people of Ecuador pursuing daily tasks in their economy. The text …

Presence In Nursing Practice: A Critical Hermeneutic Analysis, Alicia Laurel Bright

Doctoral Dissertations

Research Topic

Presence, although it involves action at times, is a humanitarian quality of relating that is ethically generated and has real-world implications for both patient and nurse. It is an interpersonal process characterized by sensitivity, holism, intimacy, vulnerability, and adaptation to unique circumstances that results in enhanced mental wellbeing for nurses and patients, and improved physical wellbeing for patients. Knowing and being with are foundational to being present.

Theory and Protocol

This research is grounded in critical hermeneutics and follows an interpretive approach to field research and data analysis (Herda 1999). This orientation places the researcher and participants in …

Learning For Cambodian Women: Exploration Through Narrative Identity And Imagination, Alvina Marie Sheeley

Doctoral Dissertations

Research Topic

This study explains different ways of thinking about education that may improve the quality of life for women in Cambodia. The present inquiry portrays the personal histories, narratives and hopes of selected women to uncover possible ways in which government and non-government agencies may transform the lives of Cambodian women through education programs.

Theory and Protocol

This research is grounded in critical hermeneutic theory formulated by Paul Ricoeur (1992) and follows an interpretive approach to field research and data analysis (Herda 1999). This orientation places the researcher and participants in a collaborative relationship that exemplifies the power of …

Intimate Partner Physical Violence Against Women In Saudi Arabian Primary Healthcare Clinics, Halah M. Eldoseri

Health Services Research Dissertations

Intimate partner violence against women (IPPVAW) is a serious public health concern. The Ecological Model provides a model to study several factors associated with IPPVAW. In Saudi Arabia, studies addressing IPPVAW are limited and do not cover the various aspects of the problem. The purpose of this study was to investigate the various factors associated with IPPVAW at the personal, interpersonal, community and societal levels. Methods: 200 ever-married women attending six PHC in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia were recruited via convenient sampling method. Women were interviewed on factors related to IPPVAW using an adapted version of WHO survey for violence against …

Policing Gender, Sexuality And ‘Muslimness’, Anissa Helie

Publications and Research

In her Introduction to the book Sexuality in Muslim Contexts: Restrictions and Resistance (ZED Book, UK), Anissa Helie discusses the notion of "Muslimness" and how such a homogenizing notion, if unchallenged, may serve to justify the policing of sexuality in various Muslim countries and communities.

The book itself looks at emerging trends that affect women’s sexuality, with a particular focus on Asia and the Middle East, and documents both the curtailing of sexual rights occurring in diverse Muslim societies and the strategies designed to counter these developments.

Yet this focus in no way suggests that the policing of gender and …

Citizen Bunker: Archie Bunker As Working-Class Icon., Kathleen Collins

Publications and Research

Archie Bunker, the central character and patriarch of Norman Lear’s “All in the Family,” (1971-1979) has been referred to as an “everyman” and an “angry-man prototype” with “hard had prejudice.” The name Archie Bunker itself has become synonymous with a blue-collar, racially chauvinistic mentality. The title of the show’s pilot and theme song, “Those Were the Days,” emphasized Archie’s dream of a simpler (though idealized) time, a world that he could understand and upon which he could exert some control. In 1970s America, Archie seemed to feel that the world was against him – economically, socially, politically and culturally – …