Digital Commons Network^™

Citizenship Education: The Perceptions Of Social Studies Omani Student Teachers, Saif N. Almaamari, Ian Menter

Journal of Educational and Psychological Studies

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of Omani student-teachers of social studies major about citizenship and citizenship education. Interviews were used to achieve this purpose. Ten students participated in the study: 5 females and 5 males. Data were analyzed qualitatively using analytic induction and interpretive analytic framework. Qualitative results show a wide range of interesting views on citizenship that highlighted the influence of the social, cultural and political context in shaping the meaning of citizenship and citizenship education. The results from interviews can be classified into five categories: (a) Citizenship is a multi-faceted concept; (b) Citizenship …

Teacher Evaluation In Oman: Policy, Implementation, And Challenges, Hamed H. Al-Yahmadi

Journal of Educational and Psychological Studies

Teacher evaluation is a significant means for ensuring accountability and promoting teacher professional development. However, the road to good implementation of teacher evaluation system rarely goes without challenges and constraints. The fourteen interviewees who participated in this study faced several constraints in implementing teacher evaluation in the Sultanate of Oman. Some of these obstacles were: Lack of incentives; inadequate evaluators’ training; heavy burden of administrative duties with less empowerment; lack of teachers and evaluators’ commitment towards teacher evaluation system. These organizational and technical factors inhibit the performance of teachers and evaluators alike. The study recommends that teachers and evaluators must …

Constructing A Scale Of Attitudes Toward School Science Using The General Graded Unfolding Model, Taghreed Hijazi, Zaid Bani Ata

Journal of Educational and Psychological Studies

The present study aimed at constructing an attitude scale toward school science using the generalized graded unfolding model (GGUM). A 47-item scale (24 positive, 23 negative) with 4-point response format was used to measure attitudes toward science among 9th (n=424) and 10th (n=420) grade students in 38 sections distributed randomly over 22 schools in Irbid district. Respondents selected one of four options to represent their level of agreement with each item. The findings support the hypothesis that the data form a single unidimensional unfolding model. Furthermore, the findings showed that the GGUM didn’t fit the data of 7 items, leaving …

Social Networks Sites: Usage And Effects, Ahmed Y. Abdelraheem

Journal of Educational and Psychological Studies

The aim of this paper is to explore the students’ use of social networks sites (SNSs) and its effects on students’ achievement. A questionnaire using a Liker type scale was distributed to a sample of 120 undergraduate students who participated in the study. The results show that students use SNSs for social matters more than for academic purposes. In this regard, there is no significant difference in the use of social network sites between female and male students. Students with smart mobile phones use SNSs more than those with normal mobiles. Facebook was the most used site. There is no …

The Research Skills Of Graduate Students In The Master Degree Of Education At Kuwait University, Wafaa S. Al-Yaseen

Journal of Educational and Psychological Studies

The aim of this study was to identify theresearch skills of graduate studentsin the College of Education at Kuwait University.The study sample comprised of 68 graduate students. For the purpose of the study, the researcher developed a questionnaire that consisted of 48 items covering two domains: required research skills, and research difficulties. The validity of the questionnaire was checked by agroup of professors in the College of Education. Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficientwas found to be adequate. Results revealed that MA students have certain needs which should be fulfilled to be able to conduct research properly. In addition, they encounter certain …

Community Leadership: A New Academic Major, Claire Yeuh-Ti Chen, Graham R. Cochran, Scott D. Scheer, Robert D. Birkenholz, Jeff King, Jerry Thomas

Journal of Extension

Complexity and rapid change prompt the need for institutions of higher education to reexamine curricula and programs to ensure they are preparing graduates for 21st century career opportunities. At Ohio State University, conversion from quarters to semesters provided the impetus to revisit the undergraduate curriculum and create a new Community Leadership major. The new major was designed to prepare students for future Extension outreach and other leader roles to influence positive change in communities through learning partnerships. Development of the undergraduate major and its implications for Extension and leadership workforce preparation are described.

Neurovascular Unit Dysfunction With Blood-Brain Barrier Hyperpermeability Contributes To Major Depressive Disorder: A Review Of Clinical And Experimental Evidence, Souhel Najjar, Daniel M. Pearlman, Orrin Devinsky, Amanda Najjar, David Zagzag

Dartmouth Scholarship

About one-third of people with major depressive disorder (MDD) fail at least two antidepressant drug trials at 1 year. Together with clinical and experimental evidence indicating that the pathophysiology of MDD is multifactorial, this observation underscores the importance of elucidating mechanisms beyond monoaminergic dysregulation that can contribute to the genesis and persistence of MDD. Oxidative stress and neuroinflammation are mechanistically linked to the presence of neurovascular dysfunction with blood-brain barrier (BBB) hyperpermeability in selected neurological disorders, such as stroke, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, traumatic brain injury, and Alzheimer’s disease. In contrast to other major psychiatric disorders, MDD is frequently comorbid with …

The Broadsheet- Issue 4, Merrimack College

The Broadsheet

Merrimack College's English Department newsletter.

This issue features:

• Senior Seminar Editorial
• Why Literature Matters
• Writers House Coffee House
• Seamus Heaney Memorial
• Upcoming Events
• Student Profile: Jackie Bagley
• New Courses 2014

Face Recognition In The Wild., Mostafa A. Farag

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research in face recognition deals with problems related to Age, Pose, Illumination and Expression (A-PIE), and seeks approaches that are invariant to these factors. Video images add a temporal aspect to the image acquisition process. Another degree of complexity, above and beyond A-PIE recognition, occurs when multiple pieces of information are known about people, which may be distorted, partially occluded, or disguised, and when the imaging conditions are totally unorthodox! A-PIE recognition in these circumstances becomes really “wild” and therefore, Face Recognition in the Wild has emerged as a field of research in the past few years. Its main purpose …

Biz Of Acq--Pda, Ebooks, Print Books Usage And Expenditures: Knowledge Ecosystem Remix, Antje Mays, Michelle Flinchbaugh

Against the Grain

No abstract provided.

Is First, They Killed My Father A Cambodian Testimonio?, John Maddox

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In his article "Is First, They Killed My Father a Cambodian testimonio" John T. Maddox discusses aspects of the testimonial. Dialoguing with leading Latin Americanists, Maddox argues that Cambodian writer Loung Ung's First, They Killed My Father (2000) challenges this uniqueness and opens studies on the testimonio to new possibilities for intellectual reflection and political activism. In Maddox's view, the continued use of the term testimonio would serve as a reference to this long-standing tradition of writing and thinking about political violence in Latin America. After a discussion of the debate of the definition and function of testimonio and …

Commercial Publisher Ebook Platforms, Cris Ferguson

Against the Grain

No abstract provided.

Gendered Hate Speech And Political Discourse In Recent U.S. Elections And In Postsocialist Hungary, Louise O. Vasvári

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Gendered Hate Speech and Political Discourse in Recent U.S. Elections and in Postsocialist Hungary" Louise O. Vasvári illustrates gendered political discourse in the U.S. through a case study of the 2008 presidential campaign. While the campaign turned into a plebiscite on gender and sexual politics with Hillary Clinton and other female political figures depicted in the most traditionally misogynist terms, Barack Obama has in some leftist circles been seen as an empathetic figure who transcends both race and gender, although from the political right he has been attacked with racist and feminizing stereotyped invectives. In turn, in …

About Cultural Production: A Book Review Article Of New Work By Crowther And Grigorian, Baldwin, And Rigaud-Drayton, Kathleen Waller

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

No abstract provided.

Parallel Women Characters And Femininity In Durrell's And Kazantzakis's Work, Helena González-Vaquerizo

CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture

In her article "Parallel Women Characters and Femininity in Durrell's and Kazantzakis's Work" Helena González-Vaquerizo discusses Nikos Kazantzakis's and Lawrence Durrell's fiction with regard their narration of women protagonists. Further, considering both writers' role in a modernist literature and issues of gender identity, González-Vaquerizo examines the special relationship women have with nature. For both writers, the female and the feminine seem to be the pagan descendant of a powerful goddess and women's carnality is seen as key to man's spiritual experience. González-Vaquerizo posits that a comparative approach to Durrell and Kazantzakis both with regard to their biographies and their novels …

Ordinary Effort, John Mcmahon

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

The thesis is primarily concerned with how the search for knowledge is driven by a quest for certainty, resulting in a compulsion to fix knowledge in explicit rules and procedures. Rather than producing a satisfactory sense of stability, this produces comedy and tragedy as human endeavors play out against a backdrop of arbitrary structure.

Three videos explore this problem through the lens of professional sport, where the quest for certainty is evaluated against the application of rules, against rules governing the action of the body, and against the attempt to circumvent the rules. Theoretical background is provided by examining the …

Children's Recognition Of Pride: An Experimental Approach, Darren Jason Garcia

Theses and Dissertations

Pride is elicited when a child takes credit for an achievement or exceeds a socially valued standard or expectation. Evidence suggests that pride has a distinct nonverbal expression that is recognized by adults across cultures (Tracy & Robins, 2004). Research examining when children recognize pride has yielded age discrepancies between studies that use forced-choice response formats and those that use spontaneous-response formats. Differences in children's ability to use and comprehend language may account for some of these differences. The purpose of this thesis was to examine the age at which children reliably recognize pride, while minimizing the need for children …

Adolescent Self-Disclosure And Father Involvement Transactions Across Early To Midadolescence, Stephanie Blickfeldt

Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the transactional relationship between father involvement and adolescent self-disclosure from early to midadolescence. Four hundred and ninety-six adolescents reported on their general self-disclosure to fathers, and mothers reported on father involvement behaviors and maternal involvement behaviors at ages 11, 13, and 15. Results from a longitudinal cross-lagged model indicated a unidirectional relationship from father involvement to child self-disclosure in both early and midadolescence, and a transactional relationship from adolescent self-disclosure to father involvement in early adolescence. A multiple group analysis by gender revealed that both unidirectional and transactional relationships were significant for boys only. Future research efforts …

An Investigation Of The Asit Problem-Solving Method On Middle School Technology Education Student's Ability To Produce Creative Solutions, Jared Aaron Merrill

Theses and Dissertations

This study compared two groups of students being instructed in various methods of problem solving over a two-week period. The control group was instructed using the standard Career and Technology Education (CTE) Introduction curriculum on using brainstorming to solve problems. The treatment group was instructed using a structured problem solving method developed to help focus problem solving on finding a solution that satisfies the conditions. Students were selected from 7th grade students at a suburban middle school in Utah. The independent variable in this study was the type of problem solving instruction received. The dependent variables of interest were the …

Reading And Listening To Music Increase Resting Energy Expenditure During Indirect Calorimetry In Healthy Adults , Blaire Snell

Theses and Dissertations

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics has developed an evidence analysis library (EAL) for Nutrition and Dietetics professionals. The EAL is updated by members through workgroups consisting of experts in their fields, most often in response to unanswered questions. One such question is: what kinds of activities can be done during the rest period of an indirect calorimetry test in a healthy population? The objective of our study was to determine if listening to self-selected relaxing music or reading on an electronic device or a magazine effects resting energy expenditure (REE) as measured by an indirect calorimetry test in a …

What Is Meant By Argumentative Competence? An Integrative Review Of Methods Of Analysis And Assessment In Education, Chrysi Rapanta, Merce Garcia-Mila, Sandra Gilabert

All Works

The need to enhance argument skills through education has become increasingly evident during the past 20 years. This need has resulted in an ongoing discussion that focuses on students' and teachers' argumentation and its support. However, apart from the extended competence-based discourse, no clear and homogeneous definition exists for argumentative competence and its constituent skills. To respond to this deficiency, we conducted an integrative literature review focusing on the methods of argument analysis and assessment that have been proposed thus far in the field of education. Specifically, we constructed an interpretative framework to organize the information contained in 97 reviewed …

Evaluation Of The Relationship Between Nutrition Knowledge And Disordered Eating Risk In Female Collegiate Athletes, Amy L. Miracle

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Involvement in collegiate sports among female athletes is at an all-time high with approximately 198,000 currently participating, (National Collegiate Athletic Association, 2012). With this increase in female participation in collegiate sports, the pressures of sport participation and academics lead some women to engage in harmful eating behaviors. These harmful eating behaviors may lead to the development of disordered eating (C. Johnson, Powers, & Dick, 1999; Quatromoni, 2008; Reel, SooHoo, Petrie, Greenleaf, & Carter, 2010; Reinking & Alexander, 2005). Many factors have been identified as contributing to the development of disordered eating but nutrition knowledge or lack thereof, has yet to …

Comparative Direct Democracy: A Study Of Institutions And Individuals, Donald D. Mirjanian

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Do institutions matter? This dissertation examines the role of institutions in the context of comparative direct democracy. Through an institutionalist framework, this study considers how the context in which the mechanism of direct democracy is first introduced has an impact on later usage, and how individuals operate when constrained by those very institutions. In particular, I examine the cases of Italy, France, Uruguay, and Venezuela and find that the inclusion of direct democracy mechanisms (most commonly, the referendum device) is more likely to occur when previously excluded "out-groups" participate in constitutional formation. In addition, I find that institutional design is …

Media Bias Through Facial Expressions On Local Las Vegas Television News Programs: A Visual Content Analysis, Jessica Zimmerman

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Trust in news media has been considered an important base for social order and cohesion in society and is a crucial variable for evaluating news media. Media credibility has been questioned by the audience for some time and the audience's trust in the media has been slowly diminishing over the years. When a news broadcaster communicates a story on local television news, it is possible for his own opinions to leak through nonverbal communication, specifically facial expressions. This thesis explores the six local Las Vegas television news stations' anchors and reporters to visually analyze whether facial characteristics reveal media bias …

4-Health: A Programmatic Evaluation Of A Parent-Based Childhood Obesity Prevention Program, Carrie Benke, Sandra Bailey, Galen Eldridge, Wesley Lynch

Journal of Youth Development

The 4-Health Project promotes healthy lifestyles for rural families with an overall goal of reducing or preventing childhood obesity. 4-Health is an integrated research and educational outreach program delivered by agents located in Montana State University Extension offices throughout the state. The collaborative project was developed to provide healthy living programs focusing on the areas of parenting and family communication, body image, food and nutrition, and physical activity to rural parents of 8-12 year old children participating in Montana’s 4-H Youth Development programs. Evaluation outcomes of the 4-Health Educational (experimental) program and the Healthy Living Information (control) program both showed …

Acupuncture For Sleep Disturbances In Veterans With Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, Heather C. King Phd

Dissertations

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) has emerged as a significant problem among Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) veterans. Disturbed sleep is one of the most frequently reported symptoms among OEF/OIF veterans with PTSD. PTSD itself is impairing, but the burden of this disorder is likely heightened when accompanied by sleep disturbances. Sleep disturbances have been associated with a 75-90% increased risk of co-morbid conditions, increased levels of depression and anxiety, daytime sleepiness and fatigue, reduced psychomotor performance, diminished work productivity, and decreased quality of life. These consequences of disturbed sleep emphasize the critical need for additional evidence based therapies …

Stressors And Coping Behaviors Of Female Peer Leaders Participating In College Club Sports, Leigh A. Bryant

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

Peer leadership positions on collegiate club sport teams can be valuable opportunities for students to develop leadership skills, maintain healthy habits, create friendships, and foster organizational and personal connections across the university setting. Nevertheless, involvement in club sports can create stress over and above the many stressors that college students may encounter during their undergraduate experience. This study focused on exploring female leaders' perceived stressors inside and outside of the sport setting, and the ways in which they coped with them. Participants ( N = 7) were interviewed based on nominations from their respective teammates. Interviews were conducted using a …

Creating Female Space: The Feminine Sublime In The Awakening And The House Of Mirth, Emily F. Faison

Selected Honors Theses

This thesis examines the Edna Pontellier and Lily Bart, the respective protagonists of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening and Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth, integrating the theoretical concept of the sublime, particularly engaging Barbara Freemans’s idea of a feminine sublime, as discussed in her book, The Feminine Sublime: Gender and Excess in Women’s Fiction. In three chapters, the thesis provides an overview and brief history of the theory of the sublime, contextualizing Freeman’s argument, and measures the success of both Edna’s and Lily’s attempts to engage the sublime as they each struggle to find their place as women …

A Call To Love: Campus Climate Concerning Individuals With Same-Sex Attraction, Kristan M. (Legg) Whelan

Selected Honors Theses

This study investigates the impact of campus climate concerning students with same-sex attraction at Southeastern University. The current study surveyed Southeastern undergraduate and graduate students in regards to the perceived attitudes on campus toward students with same-sex attraction (SSA). The major concern was to identify the majority attitude of administrators, faculty, staff, and students pertaining to the treatment of this sexual minority on campus by these particular groups and in major areas of the campus, such as the classroom, athletics, and chapel. This study also allotted the latter half of the survey to an anonymous questionnaire for students who identify …

Environmental Beliefs And Concern About Animal Welfare: Exploring The Connections, Catherine A. Faver

The Journal of Sociology & Social Welfare

An online survey examined environmental beliefs and concern about animal welfare among 105 social work students in the U.S.- Mexico border region. Environmental beliefs were measured using items from the revised New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) Scale (Dunlap, Van Liere, Mertig, & Jones, 2000). Higher concern about animal welfare was significantly related to three dimensions of the revised NEP Scale: (1) belief in the fragility of nature's balance, (2) belief in the possibility ofan ecological crisis, and (3) rejection of the notion that humans have a right to dominate nature (anti-anthropocentrism). The findings suggest that by making explicit connections between the …