Digital Commons Network^™

Rethinking Teacher Quality: Narrow Versus Broad Conceptions Of Capability, Anthony Costa

Master's Theses

This paper examines the prevailing notion of teacher quality today. While there is wide agreement that teachers are the primary factor in schools determining student achievement, there is disagreement about which attributes constitute a high-quality teacher. Different approaches to improving teaching spring from different conceptualizations of capability. Since teacher quality consists of particular abilities that allow teachers to excel in their work, we need to understand how the abilities of high quality teachers are acquired, maintained and expanded, or, conversely, how these abilities are unrealized, arrested and diminished. The Strategic Management of Human Capital (SMHC) project represents the dominant approach …

Sexual Behavior Problems In Child Welfare: Predictors Of Reliable Change, Anne Kathleen Fuller

Master's Theses

This study examined predictors of changes in children's sexual behaviors across two time points within a sample of youth in the child welfare system. Hypothesized predictors of increases or decreases in children's sexual behaviors included child attributes, positive parenting, exposure to sexuality and violence, maltreatment history and child welfare placement history, and treatment variables. Participants included 145 children with reported sexual behavior problems and their primary caregivers and mental healthcare providers. Children's sexual behaviors were classified as improved, worsened, or unchanged. Optimal Data Analysis (ODA) and multivariate classification tree analysis (CTA) via ODA were used to identify predictors of children's …

A Study Of Functional Recovery And Axonal Plasticity Following Tbi And Anti-Nogo-A Immunotherapy, Jennifer Crystal Biesiadecki

Master's Theses

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality globally and often results in long term disability. Unfortunately, the success of rehabilitation techniques as therapy for TBI is limited, which may be due to the growth restrictive environment of the adult central nervous system (CNS). This environment is thought to result from glial scars, lack of neurotrophic factors, and the presence of an array of growth-inhibitory molecules. One such growth-inhibitory molecule is the protein Nogo-A. Our laboratory has shown that neutralization of Nogo-A with anti-Nogo-A immunotherapy after ischemic stroke results in improvement in functional recovery in the …

Examining The Moderating Role Of Specific Coping Strategies On The Relationship Between Body Image And Eating Disorders In College-Age Women, Alexandra Calvert Kirsch

Master's Theses

A sample of college age women assessed at three time points (Time 1: Baseline, assessed before college, Time 2: End of first semester, Time 3: End of first year of college) completed measures of disordered eating, coping, and body image. Results indicated that neither adaptive (problem-focused coping or social support seeking) nor maladaptive coping styles (active emotional coping or avoidant coping) as measured at Time 1 or Time 2 moderated the significant predictive relationship between body dissatisfaction at Time 1 and disordered eating attitudes at Time 3, when adjusting for disordered eating attitudes and BMI at Time 1. However, significant …

Afghan University Women Graduates Are Not Well-Represented In The Job Market In Afghanistan, Mohammad Kazem Shakib

Master's Theses

Higher education has been one of the prominent sectors in Afghanistan for the past decade. There has been a steady increase in the representation of women within the higher education system in the country. However, the growth of an educated workforce within the job market and the growth of the national economy have not been equal. A high number of university women graduates are jobless, employed in non-relevant professions, or working in part-time jobs like teaching in primary and secondary school.

This paper explores the contribution and representation of university women graduates in the economy of Afghanistan. Through a liberal …

Domestic Violence And The Legal System: A Case Study Of 10 Mexican Women And The Process Of Seeking Legal Recourse, Martha Cecilia Espinosa

Master's Theses

This study explores the experiences of ten Mexican women currently receiving services with Safe Pathways, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing resources to survivors of domestic violence. In this study, I attend to how these women experience and negotiate gender, intimate relationships, and the legal system, and I explore the strategies that they develop to overcome gendered constraints associated with being undocumented and battered. I find that women's experiences with the legal system are shaped by a variety of factors outside of its auspices, including gendered norms and class constraints. Existing literature on Latinas and battered women in the legal …

Chicago Housing: Understanding How Local Organizations Mobilize To Preserve Public And Affordable Housing, Cameron Williams

Master's Theses

Under the Plan for Transformation section 8 voucher use and mixed-income developments have increased in Chicago. Several developments have been demolished and replaced with mixed-income developments that are argued to provide better conditions and opportunities for public housing residents, but empirically have mixed results. Lathrop Homes is a public housing development that has withstood the mass demolitions and efforts to make it mixed-income because of resident and organizer challenges to the Chicago Housing Authority. Resident and organizer input for this study reveals their strong stance against the mixed-income development Lathrop Homes could become. The interests behind opposition might diverge, but …

Embedded Librarianship In Academic Health Sciences Programs: Cases From The Frontline, Elizabeth Retzel Bucciarelli

Faculty Scholarship - University Library

No abstract provided.

Conference Program [2014], Gurc

Georgia Undergraduate Research Conference (Archived)

N/A

Research Of The Sustainability Of U.S. Public Debt And The Influence For Chinese Economy And Finance, Zikun Xu

Senior Honors Theses and Projects

In the summer of 2010, the U.S. debt ceiling dispute attracted the attention of the world, and financial markets were shocked when Standard & Poor's finally cut the United States AAA rating. But with the increase of the debt ceiling as well as the European sovereign debt crisis intensified, the U.S. national debt problem was temporarily covered up. It must be noted, however, that the U.S. national debt has ballooned to the highest level since World War II, the ratio of national debt to GDP has reached to nearly 100%, coupled with the long-term U.S. fiscal deficit and the continuing …

Speaking Of Science: Introducing Notice And Comment Into The Legislative Process, Gregory Dolin

All Faculty Scholarship

Congress enacts, on a nearly continuous basis, a variety of laws that affect scientific research and progress. Some of these laws have an unquestionably positive effect. For instance, Congress's creation of the National Institutes of Health, the National Academy of Sciences, and NASA; its various appropriations to fund ground-breaking research; and a multitude of other laws have incalculably advanced human knowledge, and it is to Congress's great credit that these laws have been and are continuing to be enacted. However, not all laws that affect the progress of sciences are an unalloyed good. Quite the opposite, often the laws aim …

Crime? No, It Wasn't Really Crime': Using Oral History And Memoirs To Teach Crime History, Rosalind Watkiss-Singleton

SOLON Law, Crime and History (previously SOLON Crimes and Misdemeanours: Deviance and the Law in Historical Perspective)

This article suggests that oral interviews, autobiographies and memoirs provide a new perspective on the teaching of crime history. Oral testimony can augment the traditional sources which are generally used for this purpose, giving fresh insights into popular attitudes to criminal activities and behaviour. Through the use of interviews, either student-generated or culled from existing oral history archives, the words and opinions of the perpetrators, victims and the general public will allow students and lecturers to supplement existing evidence in a way which will enhance both their critical understanding of behavioural patterns and developments within society. Student motivation may be …

Putting Undergraduates On Trial: Using The Old Bailey Online As A Teaching And Assessment Tool, David Gray

SOLON Law, Crime and History (previously SOLON Crimes and Misdemeanours: Deviance and the Law in Historical Perspective)

No abstract provided.

Researching The Arcane: The Duchy Of Cornwall And How A Country Lawyer Was Radicalised, John Kirkhope

SOLON Law, Crime and History (previously SOLON Crimes and Misdemeanours: Deviance and the Law in Historical Perspective)

No abstract provided.

Smedley D. Butler And The Militarisation Of The Philadelphia Police, 1924-1925, Ellen Leichtman

SOLON Law, Crime and History (previously SOLON Crimes and Misdemeanours: Deviance and the Law in Historical Perspective)

The importance of the military as a police model in the U.S. had been eliminated, for the most part, from criminal justice and police studies until the 1980s-1990s, even as the professional model was studied extensively. The military, however, had been a strong presence since at least the turn of the last century. As reformers from that time began to fight against machine rule in city after city, they often adopted the military paradigm as their police model, and sought those with military backgrounds to head police departments. The new mayor of Philadelphia chose a Marine Brigadier General, Smedley D. …

Our Free Society Is Worthy Of Better': Caryl Chessman, Capital Punishment, And Cold War Culture, David Ruth

SOLON Law, Crime and History (previously SOLON Crimes and Misdemeanours: Deviance and the Law in Historical Perspective)

Convict author Caryl Chessman was the focus of international attention from 1954 until his 1960 execution at San Quentin. Americans used Chessman to articulate understandings about themselves, their society, and their place in the world. Many used the case to comment on new understandings of behaviour and its modifiability, the apparent post-war rise in juvenile delinquency, and the prospects for individual autonomy in an increasingly conformist society. Cold War concerns profoundly shaped the discourse about Chessman. For some activists, global save-Chessman sentiment pointed to the possibility of transcending bitter international divisions. Execution opponents believed commutation would highlight the progressive social …

Purpose And Design In Organisms And Artifacts: The Search For A Unified Philosophical Theory Of Function, Mark L. Bourgeois

Dissertations

This work examines the concept of function in both biological organisms and designed artifacts. Function is routinely attributed within both kinds of systems, yet it is unclear whether it can mean the same thing within each, and indeed whether function attribution within natural systems is legitimate at all. Function is typically understood to have teleological content; yet in true teleological causation, the end is somehow the cause of its own means. In artifacts the consciously envisioned design of an artifact is taken to be the cause of its parts and their roles. Yet in naturalistic science there is no prior …

Understanding The Impact Of Adolescent Attachment On Academic Success, Cristina Cortesi

Dissertations

In recent years, studies are citing an increase in adolescent mental health diagnoses and symptomotology related to AD/HD, Bipolar Disorder, Depression, Anxiety, and Conduct Disorders. While the associated behaviors may be the result of several variables, recent neurobiological studies combined with Attachment Theory have pointed to a possible link to attachment issues. Because of the developmental stage of adolescents, these behaviors have been observed in both home and school environments. Schools, in general in the United States, have been experiencing significant struggles in terms of lack of adequate educational success which prompted the implementation of legislation commonly known as No …

Science Youth Action Research: Promoting Critical Science Literacy Through Relevance And Agency, Elizabeth Coleman

Dissertations

This three-article dissertation presents complementary perspectives on Science Youth Action Research (Sci-YAR), a K-12 curriculum designed to emphasize relevance and agency to promote youth's science learning. In Sci-YAR, youth conduct action research projects to better understand science-related issues in their lives, schools, or communities, while they simultaneously document, analyze, and reflect upon their own practices as researchers. The first article defines Sci-YAR and argues for its potential to enhance youth's participation as citizens in a democratic society. The second article details findings from a case study of youth engaged in Sci-YAR, describing how the curriculum enabled and constrained youth's identity …

Just Water: A Feminist Catholic Response To The Commodification Of Water, Rachel Noelle Hart Winter

Dissertations

Any Catholic ecological ethic today that does not focus sustained attention to our worldwide water crisis is inadequate, for it fails to engage one of today's core social justice violations and neglects to offer any moral guidance for one of the human family's most pressing challenges. A responsible Catholic approach to water justice that addresses the problems stemming from a commodified view of water must be informed by ecofeminist concerns and by the Catholic social justice tradition of moral reasoning. As populations grow and water sources run dry, access to water has become a pressing ethical issue. Today, nearly one …

Host Entry Factors For Human Coronaviruses, Taylor Heald-Sargent

Dissertations

Coronaviruses infect a diverse range of animals from birds to pigs and cats to humans. Coronaviruses employ RNA-based replicative processes and as such are genetically adaptable to acquire novel host ranges. A coronavirus from one species can jump to another by shifting its entry requirements. As we learned from the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) pandemic, this shift in species can have detrimental consequences. Thus, it is imperative that we understand the virus-host interaction during the entry process.

This dissertation focuses on host entry factors that influence human coronavirus entry. Recently, a new class of proteases, the type II transmembrane …

Teacher Impact On Supporting The Parent-Teacher Partnership During The Middle School Years, Karen R. Love

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions and experiences of middle school teachers in supporting parents as they move from traditional forms of parental involvement and towards engagement to support their children as they move into the middle school years of education. The design of this study was qualitative using in-depth interviews of middle school teachers. Bronfenbrenner's bioecological system theory of human development was the theoretical framework for this study to examine the factors influencing the child's development during the middle school years. Participants demonstrated that their perceptions and experiences did impact how they viewed parental involvement …

Eq, Not Just Iq: The Relationship Between Emotional Intelligence And The Success Of High School Principals Who Have Been Awarded The Illinois Principals Association's High School Principal Of The Year Award, Rowena Mak

Dissertations

As educational reforms become more complex, the role of the principal as a change agent also becomes more challenging and dynamic. To confront the leadership demands of schools, principals require focus, passion, wisdom, courage, and integrity.

An underlying assumption of these traits is the principal's emotional fortitude. Emotional intelligence is as complicated as it is organic, in that its foundation rests on an individual's awareness of himself/herself and how these emotions drive his/her ability to relate with others. With this comes the question, what makes a successful principal? The purpose of this research was to explore the relationship between a …

Life Course Narratives From U.S. Expatriates: Continuity Work, Victoria L. Russo

Dissertations

This qualitative, exploratory research examined the American life course through narrative accounts of twenty, former expatriates. All participants had lived and worked in another country for a minimum of at least one year before returning to the US. In-depth, face-to-face interviews were conducted between April 2011 and June 2012. Interviews were unstructured and lasted between 1-2 hours.

Participants in this study were well-educated, middle class professionals with highly desirable skills. Yet, despite the flexibility that privileged status bestowed, participants maintained normative life course patterns. Families were instrumental in monitoring the life course and distributed sanctions and benefits to family members …

A Summer Reading Enrichment Experience: One District's Effort To Prevent Summer Reading Loss, Angela R. Sopko

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to gain insights into effective literacy practices and key factors that promote reading achievement for elementary age students during summer break. More specifically, the study examined the effectiveness of a summer reading enrichment experience offered to children from low-income families in an effort to prevent summer reading loss. The students involved in this study were considered to have average reading skills.

The particular focus of this study led to the formation of the following question to guide this research: To what extent is a student's reading achievement impacted by extended literacy instruction or enrichment? …

Judge Rakoff V. The Securities And Exchange Commission: Are "Neither Admit Nor Deny" Settlement Agreements In Securities Cases In The Public Interest?, Daniel T. Hubbell

Transactions: The Tennessee Journal of Business Law

“DPAs [(Deferred Prosecution Agreements)] have had a truly transformative effect on particular companies and, more generally, on corporate culture across the globe,” declared Lanny Breuer, the head of the Criminal Division of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) on September 13, 2012.2 Deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) and non-prosecution agreements (NPAs) are settlement agreements between a prosecutor and a defendant in which the prosecutor agrees to either defer or forego prosecution in return for the defendant’s cooperation in an ongoing investigation or prosecution, as well as an agreement to comply with the requirements of the settlement. Rather than forcing prosecutors to …

The Effects Of Racial Identity On African American Youths' Psychosocial Adjustment: A Conceptualization Of The Literature And Meta-Analytic Review, Corinn Elmore

Dissertations

There is a general assumption of the positive effect of racial identity on the psychosocial adjustment of African-American youth. Despite this assertion, research findings for racial identity are unclear. The disparate measures of racial identity were organized into a cohesive framework with eight categories. Using this conceptual framework, a meta-analytic review was conducted on the effects the components of racial identity on African-American adolescents' psychosocial adjustment. There were 58 independent samples from 34 published journal articles and 14 unpublished papers (dissertations) including a total of 14,209 youth included in the study. Results of study highlight the importance of racial pride …

Andragogy In One Community College: A Study Of Students' Attitudes And Perceptions Toward Reading And Writing Following The Completion Of A Concurrent Acquisition One-Semester Developmental English Course, Michele Murphy Froehlich

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore if student attitudes and perceptions changed toward reading and writing after participation in and completion of a one-semester dual-enrollment mandatory developmental non-credit reading and/or writing course combined with a concurrent acquisition general education three-credit-hour English 101 course.

The subjects were nine voluntary participants in the dual-enrollment Accelerated Learning Program 099 and English 101. The classes were offered in a suburban community college close to a large metropolitan city in the Midwest and taught by the same instructor. A mixed methods approach, that is, descriptive-qualitative/ethnographic was used in this study. Descriptive data were …

Journey To The Neighborhood: An Analysis Of Fred Rogers And His Lessons For Educational Leaders, Jeana Lietz

Dissertations

Millions of children worldwide grew up watching Fred Rogers, aka “ Rogers,” as their childhood neighborhood friend on the television show Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood . How was a man able to produce one of the most successful, longest running children’s television programs and stay true to his moral principles? This study examines the life and work of Fred Rogers, and identifies the leadership attributes of Fred Rogers and the implications for educational leaders, through the lens of the five sources of authority described in Moral Leadership: Getting to the Heart of School Improvement by Thomas Sergiovanni (1992).

The central research …

Sorority Women & Eating Pathology: Communities Of Unhealthy Body Standards?, Ashley Marie Rolnik

Dissertations

The present study examines disordered eating, sorority social norms regarding the body and thinness, personal values regarding the body and thinness, body dissatisfaction, thin ideal internalization, fat talk, negative affect, and positive affect among sorority and non-sorority women. The aims of this study are to discern the underlying factor structures of the sorority/group social norms questionnaires and the personal values regarding the body and thinness questionnaire, investigate disordered eating among sorority and non-sorority women over time, and further examine the impact of social norms on sorority women's body and eating attitudes and behaviors. The results of this research illustrated three …