Digital Commons Network^™

Interpersonal (Re)Relating: Investigating The Experience Of Refriending, Paul Edgerton Stafford

Dissertations

This study reveals findings from qualitative research investigating the relational experience of friends reconnecting after a long period of disconnect. Borrowed from the lexicon of social networking terminology, this particular process is conceptualized here as a process of refriending: when two individuals whose interactive behavior and shared lived experiences that once characterized their friendship have reestablished contact and are interacting after an extended period of communication dormancy. A content analysis of 15 participant interviews about their refriending experiences resulted in a typology of 12 thematic categories related to identity, disclosure, motivation, and communication competence. Aspects of relational continuity as well …

Synthetic Task Environments And The Three Body Problem, John M. Flach

Psychology Faculty Publications

The challenge for our panel was to address the opportunities and challenges of synthetic task environments for basic research on human performance in sociotechnical systems. In doing this, the classical three-body problem from physics is used as a metaphor to illustrate the contrast between dyadic and triadic semiotic models of cognitive systems. In the context of this metaphor, synthetic task environments offer a means to bring some of the additional complexities of triadic semiotic systems under experimental control where converging empirical methods can help to titrate through the additional complexity to distill basic theoretical insights that will potentially have practical …

How The Medium Of The Portrayal Of A Historical Event Affects Students' Perception Of The Event, Andrew R. Episcopo

Education Masters

This paper sought to answer how social studies students perceived information through different mediums. This author claimed that students were perceptive to different mediums and their implied relevance, importance and credibility. Through the use of qualitative analysis, the researcher determined the need for teachers to practice multimodality, that students need to be taught to practice historical empathy, and that there are negative repercussions to heavy technology use in class. The implications are that teachers need to be practitioners of multimodality in their instruction, and that students want to maintain physical contact with the medium from which they are learning.

The Impact Of Computer Applications On The Development Of Students' Literacy Skills, Sarah K. Swartout

Education Masters

Technology continues to change and shape literacy instruction. This study asked the question; how do literacy apps increase student engagement and retention of reading comprehension and spelling skills? The study was completed at the campus of Northern Flamingo College (Pseudonym) in Western, NY with two elementary aged participants. Participants completed reading comprehension and spelling activities on paper, also in apps on an iPad. The findings revealed that student engagement and spelling skills did not increase when using an app over paper. Further, the findings showed mixed results in reading scores and engagement. The implications from this study are that further …

Multicultural Literature: The Impact It Has On Today's Students, Michelle Lawson

Education Masters

Multicultural literature is a tool that should be utilized within the classroom in order to help students see themselves and their own family structures reflected within the writings. This study examines the question: how the use of multicultural texts based on family structures influences children’s perceptions of family. Questionnaires, informal observations, discussions, and students written responses were methods utilized to gain an understanding of the students’ personal perceptions of family. The findings showed that the participants had preconceived ideas of family and after reading the texts student’s personal perceptions were impacted. The implications demonstrated that educators must expose students to …

Writing Strategies For Struggling Writers, Christine Keeler

Education Masters

Writing is a vital component of literacy acquisition. The writing process contains various steps that children must understand and execute in order to be successful writers. This study asked: how can writing strategies taught in a small group foster the development of literacy among struggling writers? Research was done in Port, New York (pseudonym) with two students identified as struggling writers. Through a writing attitude survey, informal interviews, and instruction of various writing strategies during opinion writing, there was evidence that factors can change writing attitudes: modeling supports understanding of strategies: and self-monitoring strategies can support writing. These findings call …

Impact Of Home Literacy Environments On Students From Low Socioeconomic Status Backgrounds, Diana Van Vechten

Education Masters

Literacy is socially constructed and is not developed in isolation. This study explores the impact of environmental factors on students from low socioeconomic backgrounds by asking the question: How does a low socioeconomic student’s home literacy environment affect his or her literacy experiences and interests in reading? Data was gathered in a Western, New York school through the use of questionnaires, observations, and literacy assessments. Results of the study revealed that students from low socioeconomic status (SES) homes are behind in their reading levels and are limited in their literacy interests and class participation. With explicit instruction and intensive intervention, …

Bridging The Gap: An Invitational Approach To Confucianism And Daoism, David Munson

Communication and Rhetorical Studies - Theses

The idea of cross or multiculturalism in today's rhetorical scholarship is essential because it allows scholars to apply a critical perspective to traditional modes of rhetorical scholarship. Many contemporary scholars, such as George Kennedy, Xing Lu, Roberta Blinkley and Carol Lipson have recently embraced a cross-cultural rhetorical perspective in their works. At the same time, other scholars have critiqued the traditional canon as too limiting and too reliant on notions of rationality, logic, antagonism and truth. Sonja Foss and Cindy Griffin provide one such critique of the Greco-Roman tradition by approaching the idea of rhetoric through an invitational lens that …

Engaging Literacy Activities A Case Study, Tiffanie Dawn Meridth

All Graduate Projects

The Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) in Washington State has adopted Common Core Standards. The reading curriculum given to teachers most often reflects the appropriate grade level materials, but does not necessarily meet common core standards, engage students in learning, or prepare students to pass the end of year exams. In this study, engaging classroom literacy activities will be developed and aligned with learning targets associated with common core standards for sixth grade students. A variety of materials will be used for activities to include: novel sets, picture books, social studies curriculum, and additional teacher resources. It …

Revisiting The Achievements Of The Ancient Celts : Evidence That The Celtic Civilization Surpassed Contemporary European Civilizations In Its Technical Sophistication And Social Complexity, And Continues To Influence Later Cultures., Adam Dahmer

College of Arts & Sciences Senior Theses

No abstract provided.

French In Madagascar: A Colonial Language After Independence, Christopher Roehrer-Macgregor

Renée Crown University Honors Thesis Projects - All

The French first landed off the south-eastern coast of Madagascar in December of 1648. A little over two and a half centuries later they would land troops, marking the beginning of sixty years of colonization. The groundwork for government and education set during these years continues to the present day, including the use of the French language. In this study I look at the role of the French language in modern-day Madagascar. Using interviews from two major urban centers, I argue that French has a dualistic role, both as an opportunity for self-advancement for a select few, while also as …

Medical Interpretation In Cache Valley Clinics, Blain Chaise Housley, Brandon Kay Shumway

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Interpretation by properly trained employees in a medical setting is an important part of ensuring quality care to Limited English Proficiency (LEP) patients. This study used surveys to assess the effective use of language resources in medical clinics in the Cache Valley area. The survey measured the number of interpreters and bilingual employees and the training that they have received as well as the perceived efforts of each clinic towards certain language service standards. The survey revealed a significant need for improvement and gave insight as to which activities future training efforts should be directed. Improvement in these areas will …

Guerrilla Warfare Theory And Praxis: The Case Of Revolutionary Leader Ernesto 'Che' Guevara, Anna Maria Guadarrama

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Guerrilla warfare is an ancient style of armed conflict that continues to be practiced throughout the world to the present day (Guevara, "A Method" 266, Tzu 168, Taber 149-150), and many countries and peoples have either taken part in guerrilla warfare or have sought to counteract irregular war with counterinsurgency methods, for example the United States (Anderson, Guerrillas xi ; West xiii; Guevara, G. Warfare 18; O'Neill vii-xi). 1 Guerrilla warfare heavily impacts every aspect of society, ranging from the family unit to foreign policy decision-making. Only through properly understanding the motivations, strategies and nature of guerrilla warfare will we …

The First Struggles Of The Capitalistic Peace And Its Detractors: An Analysis Of Greek Trade And Its Effects On Foreign Policy In The Athenian State, Joshua Blume

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

Although, a ubiquitous number of articles has arisen recently debating the validity of the so-called "Capitalist Peace," there has been little exploration of the theory from an ancient historical perspective, primarily due to the lack of trade data between countries or city-states. As the primordial birthplace of trade and democracy, there is perhaps no better example than ancient Greece to shed insight into the possible validity of the capitalist peace theory. Utilizing new research involving trade in ancient Greece, this paper seeks to explore the relative validity of the "Capitalist Peace" in ancient Greece by conducting a qualitative analysis of …

Exploring The Interaction Of Explicit, Genre-Based Instruction With Antecedent Genres And Student Engagement., Jason Charles Dietz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation enters the ongoing discussion regarding whether or not genre can and/or should be explicitly taught in the classroom. It begins with an overview of genre theory, specifically centering on explicit genre instruction and the question of genre context. It uses genre, transfer, student engagement, and creativity scholarship, as well as my own empirical research, to argue that instructors might best enable students to learn genres by linking classroom instruction not the social genre context, but to the individual’s genre context. I sought to evaluate such a pedagogical possibility by examining individual students’ propensity to cross genre boundaries, to …

Collocation Error Correction In Web Queries And Text Documents, Alan T. Varghese

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Collocations are words in English that occur together frequently. Non-native speakers of English tend to confuse certain terms with other similar terms. This causes one of the terms to be substituted with a term that is not commonly used with the other term. “Powerful tea” is an example of such an odd collocation. In this scenario the more commonly used term is “strong tea”.

This paper proposes an approach called CollOrder to detect such odd collocations in written English. CollOrder also provides suggestions to correct the odd collocate. These suggestions are filtered and ranked as top-k suggestions.

We make use …

Database Environmental Change Impact Prediction For Human-Driven Tuning In Real-Time (Decipher), Monish Sharma

Masters Theses & Doctoral Dissertations

Organizations in today’s rapidly evolving digital economy are relying more than ever on their database systems for critical decision-making functions. As a result, speedy and timely availability of the information from these systems is one of key factors crucial to organizational survival. Operating these database systems at high performance levels under highly-integrated, dynamic and complex environments is a knowledge-intensive and an errorprone human-driven task. Although there have been several developments in the area of autonomous performance tuning, such approaches are of limited use because they do not include a holistic view of the problem space and the environment under which …

The Hidden Costs Of Terrorist Watch Lists, Anya Bernstein

Articles

No abstract provided.

"The Sister Was Not A Mister": Gender And Sexuality In The Writings Of Gertrude Stein And Virginia Woolf, Jillian P. Fischer

Lawrence University Honors Projects

This thesis explores the topics of gender and sexuality within Gertrude Stein’s Tender Buttons and Virginia Woolf’s Orlando by analyzing the texts through the lens of early twentieth-century sexologists and twentieth and twenty first century gender theorists. Both works reveal a common critique of the heteronormativity present within early twentieth-century understandings of sexuality and propose alternative spheres of sexuality and gender identity. Stein creates an alternative sphere in which desire is expanded. Beginning with an exploration of consumerist desire, Stein ultimately reveals a utopian vision of lesbian sexuality and the foregrounding of female desire, sexuality, and pleasure. Woolf’s alternative consists …

La Posthibdridez Fronteriza En La Narrativa De Heriberto Yépez, Alberto Ribas-Casasayas

Modern Languages & Literature

No abstract provided.

Undergraduate And Graduate Course Descriptions, 2013 Summer, Wright State University

Course Descriptions

Wright State University undergraduate and graduate course descriptions from Summer 2013.

Language Choice Motivations In A Bribri Community In Costa Rica, Janet Blackwood

Faculty Publications

A growing body of research has been undertaken in a variety of contexts worldwide to explore language preference and use as well as the attitudes and beliefs that may impact the maintenance and revitalization of endangered languages. There has also been considerable examination of the motivations that impact second language learning and the choices speakers make regarding second language learning and use. However this research has rarely extended to exploring the motivations influencing language choices in contexts where one of the languages is an endangered mother‐tongue language. Analyzing a portion of the data gathered from a larger study on language …

Prelinguistic Development And Intervention In Children With Down Syndrome, Whitney Mcdermott

Research Papers

No abstract provided.

A Model Exploration Of Teacher Efficacy, Attitudinal Beliefs, And Caring Behaviors Towards Latino Linguistically Diverse Students, Jennifer Keller Johnson

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Will Implementing A Research Based Dese Approved Early Childhood Program Have An Effect On The School Readiness Of Prekindergarten Students, Stephanie Small

Dissertations

The purpose of this comparative study was to examine the connection between the implementation of a quality early childhood program and the kindergarten readiness of prekindergarten students as measured by the Developmental Indicators for Assessment of Learning-DIAL-3. The researcher analyzed historical data obtained from approximately 40 students in the Study Site School District in the prekindergarten programs at Woodbridge Elementary School for the 2008-2009 and 2009-2010 school years. The researcher developed two research questions: a) What impact does a MODESE approved, research-based early childhood program have on the kindergarten readiness of prekindergarten students in the Study-Site School District as measured …

Integrating Social Emotional Learning Into Secondary Curriculum, Marilyn Janette Lindsay

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

When students are able to cope with, manage and maneuver the social and emotional landscapes of their lives, their ability to learn on all levels improves. Teaching Social / Emotional Learning (SEL), as a component of secondary education, not only increases academic performance, but prepares students to meet the challenges of lifelong learning in a changing global society. Currently, students are so busy passing tests that measure their capacity for logical, analytical and objective reasoning, it leaves little time for developing self-awareness, social awareness, and the ability to cope with ambiguous situations, to adapt, to learn how to learn and …

Framing The 2012 Olympics: A Content Analysis Of International Newspaper Coverage Of Female Athletes, Jessica Giuggioli

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The present content analysis was designed to identify the representation of female athletes in the media during the 2012 London Olympics. Coders analyzed 617 mentions of male and female athletes in order to determine the quantity and quality of coverage during the 2012 Olympics. The research mostly supported previous literature concerning the depiction of female athletes in the media, as the study revealed an imbalance in the quantity and quality of coverage of male and female athletes in newspapers. The frequency of mentions of female athletes was lower than the frequency of mentions of male athletes. Furthermore, female athletes were …

The Effectiveness Of Two Spelling Approaches On Vocabulary Development For Hispanic Learners, Etta Marie Crittenden

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to evaluate two approaches to teaching spelling and vocabulary to second through fourth graders in two different urban school systems to determine if one program revealed greater growth scores on Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) reading components. Research question 1 posited: Does Word Study, a developmental approach to spelling and vocabulary, impact the mastery of specific reading and language arts subtests on the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) for Hispanic English Learners? Five sub-questions assessed whether Hispanic ELs who were taught a developmental approach, using Word Study, achieve better TCAP scores than Hispanic ELs …

Full Issue

International Journal of Interpreter Education

No abstract provided.

Autopoiesis: Scaffolding The Reflective Practitioner Toward Employability, Sarah Bown

International Journal of Interpreter Education

Sign language interpreters confront a diversity of complex situations in their everyday work. To be able to consider and appropriately respond to such situations, interpreters need robust cognitive reflective frameworks to support them. Since 1993, the University of Wolverhampton’s BA (honors) Interpreting British Sign Language/English course has delivered undergraduate training to aspiring sign language interpreters. The end product has been high levels of “appropriate” graduate employability success, in part due to the strong correlation between what employers regard as essential and desirable in an employee, and the attributes demonstrated by the reflective practitioners created by the program. In this article, …