Digital Commons Network^™

From Remediation To Acceleration: Recruiting, Retaining, And Graduating Future Culturally And Linguistically Diverse (Cld) Educators, Socorro Herrera, Amanda Morales, Melissa Holmes, Dawn Herrera Terry

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

This ethnographic case study explores one mid-western state university’s response to the challenge of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD), especially Latino/a, student recruitment and retention. BESITOS (Bilingual/ Bicultural Education Students Interacting To Obtain Success) is an integrated teacher preparation program implemented at a predominantly White university that seeks to both increase Latino/a students’ initial access to higher education and provide institutional support to facilitate a high rate of graduation. The researchers consider key elements of the BESITOS program model as they relate to and support the sociocultural, linguistic, academic, and cognitive dimensions of the CLD student biography. For each dimension, …

The Fear Of Art And The Art Of Fear, Stephanie A Baer

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Prospective teachers often walk into my course, Arts in the Elementary Classroom, carrying a guarded consciousness that constrains unencumbered artistic exploration. My responsibility as their instructor is to question mantras that reflect insecurity in process and make pedagogical use of their fears. Through studying the nature of these fears throughout the course, I find growing awareness of how students’ fears can lead to more embodied understandings of what it means to learn and teach with the arts, recovering a more complex process of reflection and a holistic understanding of what it means to be an artist and teacher.

Examining Students’ Experiences As A Foundation For Multicultural Curriculum Development, Candace Schlein, Elaine Chan

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

CANADA IS BECOMING increasingly diverse through immigration and the birth of children into immigrant families (Statistics Canada, 2007a, 2007b, 2007c, 2008). This cultural pluralism is also reflected in school communities. Thus, there is a related growing requisite for issues of educational quality to be defined according to notions pertaining to multicultural education in order for educators to identify and to develop innovative ways of meeting the needs of diverse classroom populations. Moreover, there is a progressive need for pre–service and in–service educators to learn about effective ways of working with English Language Learners (ELLs) to support their rapid integration into …

Recent Publications

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

No abstract provided.

On 'Shock:' The Artistic Imagination Of Benjamin And Brecht, Mara Polgovsky Ezcurra

Contemporary Aesthetics (Journal Archive)

“Shock” is perhaps the central concept of modernist aesthetics and Walter Benjamin its best known theorist. It has been well documented that Benjamin’s long-lasting friendship with Bertolt Brecht and the latter’s dramatic theory had a profound influence on his thinking about this notion. Brecht's techniques of interruption and juxtaposition in the practice of epic theater were in close relationship with Benjamin’s use of montage as a mechanism to “liberate” meaning. Despite Theodor Adorno’s and Gershom Scholem’s attempt to situate Benjamin’s thought in a different aesthetic tradition, Brecht’s understanding of Verfremdung (estrangement) and Benjamin’s idea of “shock” are often deemed identical. …

Multi-Battle Contests: An Experimental Study, Shakun D. Mago, Roman M. Sheremeta

ESI Working Papers

This study examines behavior of subjects in simultaneous and sequential multi-battle contests. In simultaneous contests, subjects make positive bids in each battle 80% of the time and bids fall within the predicted boundaries. However, 35% of the time subjects make positive bids in only two, instead of all three, battles and they significantly overuse moderately high bids. In sequential contests, theory predicts sizable bids in the first battle and no bids in the subsequent battles. Contrary to this prediction, subjects significantly underbid in the first battle and overbid in subsequent battles. Consequently, instead of always ending in the second battle, …

Descriptions Of Childhood Trauma, Effects Of The Trauma, And How Adults Moved Through The Trauma To Normalized Behavior, Alice Katherine Schaaf

Dissertations

Problem. People who are not able to overcome the effects of childhood trauma often waste their human potential on substance abuse and illegal and illicit lifestyles; they end up in prison, uneducated, or develop self-destructive behavior. They often struggle with poor learning and social skills and are not able to be successful in life. However, some individuals do succeed. This study interviewed eight individuals who suffered childhood trauma and developed ways of overcoming that trauma to live prosperous, productive, and, in many regards, full lives.

Method. This qualitative study used interviews to explore how adults traumatized as children described childhood …

The Perceptions Of General Education Teachers About The Over-Representation Of Black Students In Special Education, David Roland Grice

Dissertations

Statement of the Problem: There is an over-representation of Black students in special education. Black students are typically referred for special education consideration by the end of the fourth grade. One effort to reduce the large number of referrals in Connecticut was Courageous Conversations About Race. Courageous Conversations About Race is designed to address what educators, families, and other community groups can do to improve teaching and learning across racial lines. It served as a strategy for educators to confront and deinstitutionalize racism. Courageous Conversations About Race is an effective means to address the issues of race in schools/districts where …

Distortion, Disparity, And Dubious Data: The Impact Of Accountability On Instructional Practice, Curtis Jack Barnes

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study examined the impact that state and federal accountability systems have had on instructional practice in two large Texas school districts by comparing the performance of students at these schools on individual items from the 2011 Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) and relating performance to item difficulty and the schools' accountability risk as determined by prior accountability performance. To make this comparison, schools were placed into accountability risk groups based on past performance on the No Child Left Behind Act's (NCLB) Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) accountability instrument. The researcher then calculated the mean differences between average performance …

Ethnicity And Gender As Predictors Of Physical Activity And Social Cognitive Determinants, Amber Luana Bridges-Arzaga

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine ethnicity and gender as predictors of physical activity (PA) and the Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) constructs related to physical activity among college students. Specifically, the study examined differences in PA between Hispanic college students and their non-Hispanic White counterparts. The study also examined differences between Hispanic and non-Hispanic White participants in SCT constructs regarding PA, such as social support, self-efficacy, outcome expectancies, and self-regulation. Additionally, the study assessed differences between male and female college students in relation to PA and SCT constructs. Finally, the study explored meditational effects of SCT constructs on …

Implicit Attitudes Of Ethnicity And Language: Evaluative And Associative Priming, Eva Margarita De La Riva Lopez

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Most members of minority groups belong to both an ethnic and a linguistic minority. The interplay between these two related yet independent constructs has not been explored. For this reason, this study examined language attitudes following the theoretical model of social categorization by using implicit measures. This study also investigated the implicit association between language and ethnicity. In this manner, the relationship that exists between attitudes towards minority groups and attitudes towards minority languages can be disentangled. A simultaneous study of implicit attitudes of ethnicity and language, and the association between ethnicity and language, may elucidate possible mechanisms involved in …

Frases Que Se Escriben En La Nevera, Daniel Rios Lopera

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Rinocerontes que comen galletas de soda y niños que le recortan los ojos de las fotos de sus vecinos. Un payaso triste que no puede dejar de sonreí­r y un doblador de voces que ha perdido su propia voz. Un niño al que su hermano fantasma le dibuja pecas azules noche tras noche y un señor que habla con un loro en francés.

Una historia jamás contada. Un relato que jamás usted ha leí­do.

Implicit And Explicit Memory Performance In Bilinguals: Implications For Transfer-Appropriate Processing And Vocabulary Learning, Elva Natalia Strobach

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Two experiments examined whether translation and sentence context improved memory performance in explicit and implicit memory. For explicit memory, an effect of translation was found such that translation led to better item recognition than read aloud encoding. Sentence context did not benefit recognition memory performance. For implicit memory, neither translation nor sentence context led to priming in a word-stem completion paradigm. The results are discussed in terms of the transfer-appropriate processing framework.

The Ed.D In Educational Leadership And Administration: The Students' And Alumni's Experiences, Edith B. Vera

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The doctoral experience unfolds many complexities and challenges for students, faculty, and institutions that contribute toward degree completion. The purpose of this study is to investigate the students' and alumni's experiences afforded by the Ed.D. in Educational Leadership and Administration at the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP). The integration of quantitative and qualitative data, through surveys and interviews, contributes to the understanding of student and alumni experiences. A total of 56 Ed.D. students (cohorts 10-16) and 43 alumni (cohorts 1-12) participated in the surveys for this study; of those surveyed, 15 students and 12 alumni were interviewed. This …

God And Integrity: A Case Study Of Walter C. Kaiser Jr. And Norman L. Geisler, Augustin Tchamba

Dissertations

The God of the Bible is sometimes portrayed as using and condoning deceit to achieve His purpose, especially when human life is at stake. Two evangelical scholars, Walter C. Kaiser Jr. and Norman L. Geisler, with a shared theological heritage, differ in their interpretation of Exod 1:15-21 and Josh 2:1-7 that addresses the ethical issue of lying to save life.

This dissertation not only refutes the claim that God uses and condones the use of deceit to achieve His purpose, but also clarifies biblical argument for His integrity. The study provides answers to a number of questions. First, what causes …

The Meaning And Function Of System In Theology, Timothy Watson

Dissertations

Topic. Due to the nature of the discipline, the importance of our understanding of the meaning of the term "system" in systematic theology cannot be gainsaid. Unfortunately, however, there seems to be little discussion or critique to how this term is being used and its meaning is often taken for granted, even though it seems to mean different things to different authors.

Purpose. To address this ambiguity, this study takes a close look at the etymological development of this word in its various linguistic forms as it has been used in theology through history. Then, based on this etymological analysis, …

The Markan "Divorce" Pericope: An Exegesis, Carlos C. Camarena

Dissertations

Purpose

The purpose of this dissertation is an attempt to make a contextual assessment of Jesus' teaching on "divorce" according to Mark in order to define its basic thrust within a Gentile community (in relation to Matthew's Jewish community) and to ellucidate a clearer picture of what the NT Jesus may have taught on the subject.

Method

This study is divided into six major chapters and an appendix. Chapter 1 gives a bird's-eye view into some of the modem scholarship regarding the "divorce" sayings in both Gospels. Chapter 2 focuses its attention on the locale of the Gentile audience of …

Charting The Science Of Public Affairs, Rogelio N. Tagarino

Journal of Public Affairs and Development

The necessary body of knowledge and methodology for the comprehensive appreciation and understanding of public affairs for policy decision-making have remained elusive. This paper clarifies the concept of public affairs as an area for building a body of knowledge into a distinct academic science and a valuable discipline for governance. It includes brief reviews of relevant literature on public affairs; a theoretical model of public affairs as a community system; an analytical framework for the science of public affairs; and some concluding insights for building a body of knowledge of a public affairs system.

The Poverty Puzzle: The Surprising Difference Between Wealthy And Poor Students For Self-Efficacy And Academic Achievement, Diomaris E. Jurecska, Kelly B.T. Chang, Mary A. Peterson, Chloe E. Lee-Zorn, Joav Merrick, Elizabeth Sequeira

Faculty Publications - Psychology Department

This study explored the relationship between intellectual ability, socioeconomic status (SES), academic achievement and self-efficacy in a cross-cultural sample. Data from 90 students (63 students from Central America and 27 from the US) showed that regardless of culture or IQ, students from low SES families had signifi cantly lower grade point averages than students from medium- or high-SES families. Unexpectedly, data showed that regardless of culture or IQ, students from high-SES families had the lowest self-efficacy, but the highest academic performance. Results suggest that self-efficacy is likely to be related to expectations and selfperception beyond IQ or culture.

Is Conformity A Mediating Variable On Increased Risk-Taking Behavior Across Years Of Membership In The Greek System?, Chloe Lee-Zorn, William C. Buhrow, Brett Vicario

Faculty Publications - Psychology Department

In the college subculture of Greek Life, members adhere to specific rules and norms in order to remain accepted, which could be indicative of conformity. This notion raises the question: what is the role of conformity on the risk taking behaviors of alcohol usage and sexual promiscuity as well as on the academic performance across years of membership? The article examines conformity in 31 fraternity members, cross-sectionally, using a compressed longitudinal design and hypothesizes members develop lower levels of conformity after initiation, making them less susceptible to risk taking behaviors such as binge drinking, sexual promiscuity and decreased academic performance. …

An Evaluation Of The Cvlt-Ii Substitution On The Wms-Iv Amongst A Mixed Clinical And Nonclinical Population, Jessica Holster, Christine Corsun-Ascher, Traci Olivier, Charles Golden

Archives of Assessment Psychology

The Wechsler Memory Scale (WMS) is one of the most commonly used psychological measures in clinical practice and research. The newly revised fourth edition (WMS-IV) has recently been published, and introduced a novel substitution rule in which scores from the California Verbal Learning Test, Second Edition (CVLTII) may replace WMS-IV subtest scores for Verbal Paired Associates (VPA) I and II subtests for the ease of administration. Yet, the validity of this substitution remains unclear. The purpose of the paper was to determine if the replacement of CVLT-II scores for WMS-IV scores affects WMS-IV index scores, thus affecting subsequent analyses and …

Physical Restraints In Residential Facilities: Staff Members’ Perspectives, Mary Beth Ledoux

Antioch University Dissertations & Theses

The use of physical restraints among children and adolescents in residential facilities is a controversial and emotional topic, especially since children are four times more likely than adults to be restrained in a residential setting. In this study, staff members who have restrained children and adolescents in a residential facility completed a 20-question online survey. The intent of the study was to get a clearer picture of residential workers’ thoughts, feelings, and perceptions toward restraints as well as their views on how effective they deem their restraint training to be. The information gathered from their answers can be helpful for …

A Serpentinite-Hosted Ecosystem In The Southern Mariana Forearc, Yashuiko Ohara, Mark K. Reagan, Katsunori Fujikura, Hiromi Watanabe, Katsuyoshi Michibayahi, Teruaki Ishii, Robert J. Stern, Ignacio Pujana, Fernando Martinez, Guillaume Girard, Julia Ribeiro, Maryjo Brounce, Naoaki Komori, Masashi Kino

Graduate School of Oceanography Faculty Publications

Several varieties of seafloor hydrothermal vents with widely varying fluid compositions and temperatures and vent communities occur in different tectonic settings. The discovery of the Lost City hydrothermal field in the Mid-Atlantic Ridge has stimulated interest in the role of serpentinization of peridotite in generating H₂- and CH₄-rich fluids and associated carbonate chimneys, as well as in the biological communities supported in highly reduced, alkaline environments. Abundant vesicomyid clam communities associated with a serpentinite-hosted hydrothermal vent system in the southern Mariana forearc were discovered during a DSV Shinkai 6500 dive in September 2010. We named this …

Multi-Physics Modeling Of Induction-Based Additive Manufacturing Of Metals, Danny W. Muse

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The shift towards 3D printing of functional products has provided a glimpse of the future in terms of manufacturing technologies and the creation of volumetrically complex structures made possible only through these technologies. 3D printing has emerged from the culmination of several technologies covering multiple industries and a myriad of materials. Unlike subtractive technologies such as mills, lathes and CNC machines, where material is removed from a bulk slab or billet to produce a desired part, 3D printing uses an additive layered approach to deposit material based on cross sections of the desired part. Both approaches produce parts based on …

News Coverage Of The Sergio Hernández Case In Newspapers Of The Border Region, Rodrigo Giovan Barragan

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This study analyzes the news coverage of two newspapers from the border region between the United States and México (El Paso Times) from El Paso, Texas; and (El Diario de Juárez) from Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, about the case of Sergio Hernández, a 15 year old Mexican teenager who was shot and killed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent in the boundary zone between both countries on June 7, 2010. Using a textual analysis of the stories published about this case in these newspapers, the research seeks to identify news frames and competing meanings of community and identity embedded in the …

Sustainable Riparian Restoration - The Utilization Of Sewage Effluent To Construct Wetlands Along The Rio Grande: A String Of Pearls Approach To Replenishment, Michael Earl Landis

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

The Rio Grande, from Elephant Butte Dam to El Paso, has been transformed from a free-flowing wild river into a highly engineered irrigation system. The Rio Grande Project, authorized by Congress in 1905, mandated the Bureau of Reclamation to store and deliver water exclusively to farmers. The river, maintained by the International Boundary and Water Commission, has been straightened and channelized between levees. The laws and policies governing the use of the waters of the Rio Grande are prohibitive to ecological restoration. Prior Appropriation doctrine allows for the exclusive use of these waters.

One sustainable tactic for replenishing the denuded …

Opening Remarks (2012 Intercultural Human Rights Law Review Annual Symposium), Douglas E. Ray

Intercultural Human Rights Law Review

Dean Douglas E. Ray's opening remarks for the 2012 Intercultural Human Rights Law Review Annual Symposium.

Back To Freedom: From Surviving To Thriving - A Panel Discussion, Ana I. Vallejo, Simone Celestin, Sabrina Salomon

Intercultural Human Rights Law Review

Panel discussion by Ana Isabel Vallejo, Esq., Ms. Simone Celestin, and Sabrina Salomon, Esq., entitled "Back to Freedom: From Surviving to Thriving".

Double Jeopardy In The Inter-American System Of Human Rights: Balancing The Right And The Remedy, Lisl Brunner

Intercultural Human Rights Law Review

On December 11, 2009, the Guatemalan Supreme Court ordered the re-opening of four cases involving murders committed toward the end of the country's civil war. The concise sentences were nearly identical in their summary determinations to vacate all earlier sentences - some of which were acquittals of the accused - and to resume criminal proceedings "against all those that might be responsible" for the crimes. The Guatemalan Supreme Court acknowledged that it was complying with judgments of the Inter- American Court of Human Rights (IACtHR), which had determined the international responsibility of Guatemala for failing to investigate the killings with …

Modeling Power Consumption Of High Performance Computer Clusters, Mario Caire

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation describes a utilization-based power modeling approach that makes use of the /proc file system and is applied to estimating power load and energy consumption of high performance computer clusters. A full cluster power model is specified that meets the following conditions: 1) provides accurate energy estimates; 2) consists of a minimal number of variables; and 3) the selected variables provide a sufficient degree of explanation of the primary OS level contributors to power consumption. The cluster power model is based on analysis at the system or compute-node level, where various models are developed and evaluated. All models described …