Digital Commons Network^™

Pedagogical Reasoning Of Pre-Service Teachers: Juggling Priorities And Managing Resources, Jennifer Lynn Rasmussen

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this study was to examine the cognitive and motivational factors related to the development of self-regulated teaching. These factors were defined by Shulman (1986; 2006) as theoretical, practical and moral knowledge for pedagogical reasoning. This study occurred in a clinical, instructional setting specifically designed to provide pre-service teachers with the environmental factors necessary to support the development of self-regulated instructional decision making. These factors included specific modeling of teacher thinking, regular formative feedback, instructional autonomy and strategic reflection. An instructional sequence based on Schunk and Zimmerman’s (1998; 2007) Model of the Development of Self-Regulatory Skill was applied …

An Investigation Of Adversity In Christian Living And Proposal For Discipleship Response, Christopher Payne

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

With numerous ministries teaching a cultural gospel comprised of prosperity and pleasure, people have the impression that a saving faith limits personal hardships. Jesus taught his disciples the truth about hardship and how to struggle well and the Church is called to do likewise. This thesis will present five key biblical truths to equip Christians for growing their faith through personal struggle. Moreover, the project will give leaders a guide for discipling hurting church members. The author will research current and historical discipleship materials and models, examine current teachings on faith and struggle, explore relevant biblical teachings, and survey fifty …

Professional Learning Communities: The American Experience And Its Implications For Ghana And Other International School Systems, George Prince Atta

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to develop better understanding of professional learning communities (PLCs) and how they have evolved over the years as a comprehensive school reform to improve teachers’ knowledge, skills, and instructional practice as well as students’ achievement during accountability periods. It also explored whether learning communities had democratic principles as their foundations. The study revealed how learning communities had evolved historically, conceptually, and theoretically. It also revealed that with commitment on the part of principals and teachers, and principals distributing leadership, PLCs were very effective in enhancing the knowledge and instructional strategies of teachers, and improving …

Refining Transformation Rules For Converting Uml Operations To Z Schema, Tamaike Brown

Theses and Dissertations

The UML (Unified Modeling Language) has its origin in mainstream software engineering and is often used informally by software designers. One of the limitations of UML is the lack of precision in its semantics, which makes its application to safety critical systems unsuitable. A safety critical system is one in which any loss or misinterpretation of data could lead to injury, loss of human lives and/or property. Safety Critical systems are usually specified by very precisely and frequently required formal verification. With the continuous use of UML in the software industry, there is a need to augment the informality of …

Blizzards In The Upper Midwest, 1980-2013, Lawrence Burkett

Theses and Dissertations

Blizzards are severe snowstorms characterized by high winds and enough snow in the air to significantly reduce visibility near the surface. In the conterminous United States, published scientific literature indicates blizzards as common in the Dakotas and Minnesota. In this study, blizzard frequency by year, month, and county was recorded from 1980-2013 in eastern North Dakota and northern Minnesota. Additionally, blizzard duration and area impacted were estimated including trends in blizzard frequency. Ninety-three blizzards impacted the Upper Midwest in 34 years studied with an average of 2-3 blizzards per year, with a linear increase in blizzards with respect to time. …

Non-Reified Space: Henry James's Critique Of Capitalism Through Abstractness And Ambiguity, Elizabeth Aileen Barnum

Theses and Dissertations

Despite Henry James’s reputation as a novelist of upper class manners, many critics have argued that his work also contains well-grounded criticism of capitalism and consumer culture. An even larger number of writers have analyzed James’s idiosyncratic style, characterized by ambiguity and abstractness. Where these two analytic approaches overlap, the area examined in this dissertation, James makes a deeper critique of capitalism’s redefinition of human purpose and its reification of the human mind and consciousness. James suggests, through his ambiguous and abstract language, that open-ended language which rejects concrete and conceptual meaning can gesture toward a space in which people …

The Relationship Between Religiosity And Health-Promoting Behaviors Of Pregnant Women At Pregnancy Resource Centers, Natalie Ann Cyphers

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: While religiosity (e.g. prayer, attending church) has been reported to be related to health behaviors in pregnant women, whether religiosity was related to health-promoting behaviors in pregnant women at Pregnancy Resource Centers (PRC) had not been previously studied. The purpose of this research study was to explore the relationship between religiosity and health-promoting behaviors of pregnant women at PRC. PRC are Christian community-based centers with a focus on meeting needs of pregnant women.

Methods: Pender’s Health Promotion Model guided this descriptive correlational study. A consecutive sample included pregnant women who knew they were pregnant at least two months, could …

The Effect Of Policy Context On Work And Family Identity In Norway And The United States, Rebecca Folkman Gleditsch

Theses and Dissertations

Scholars are interested in how social policies affect citizens on issues related to work and family. Previous research has made comparisons of work and family in Scandinavia and the United States, emphasizing differences in history, development, and current social policies. However, much of the literature focuses on countries within the European Union, and research on how gender and social policy correlate with work and family identities is particularly scarce in Norway. To examine the effect of social policies on work and family identities, this study analyzes if men and women in Norway and the United States differ in the strength …

Student Perceptions Of Digital Resources And Digital Technology In A Flipped Classroom, Larry S. Guggisberg

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to analyze student perceptions of flipped classroom instruction strategies, and student perceptions of their learning experience using digital resources and digital technology in a flipped classroom. Although perceptions are important, student achievement is a common tool used by policy-makers and judged by the general public as a means to evaluate and achieve continuous improvement in K-12 public education.

This case study may be a beneficial illustration for school administrator practitioners to consider prior to implementation or utilization of flipped classroom instructional strategies. The study provides a review of a high school that first implemented …

Student Teachers' Beliefs In Practice: Impact Of Teacher Education Preparation On Reading Curriculum, Assessment, And Instruction, Brittany Dawn Hagen

Theses and Dissertations

Reading education programs are responsible for developing effective teachers equipped with the foundational knowledge and instructional approaches to deliver a comprehensive and balanced literacy curriculum. The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of teacher education reading programs on student teachers’ ability to understand and implement reading curriculum, assessment, and instruction, and to understand the extent to which students are transferring professional knowledge in practical ways. Participants of this explanatory sequential mixed methods study included 19 elementary spring student teachers from three Midwestern states. Quantitative data was collected through a survey sent to over 200 student teachers. Seven …

Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis Of Graduate Students' Experiences Of Plagiarism By Their Professors, Kimberly Dawn (Hanson) Becker

Theses and Dissertations

This phenomenological study expands the inquiry on perceived academic misconduct by investigating the experiences of graduate students who have reported a professor’s misattribution of their work. The participants include five graduate students who formally reported a violation of academic integrity because they believed a faculty member had misattributed their work. During the incident, the faculty and students both participated in an academic setting in one or more of the following types of relationships: committee chair–advisee, committee member–student, classroom professor–graduate student, and research supervisor–graduate assistant. Two central research questions frame this study: How do graduate students who have reported that their …

Voices From The Frontier: Stories Of Nurse Practitioners Working In Remote Areas, Lynn Marie Jakobs

Theses and Dissertations

Frontier communities are the most sparsely populated and geographically remote areas in the United States. Residents of these communities often lack access to healthcare resources of any kind. Nurse Practitioners (NPs) are more likely than physicians to practice in these areas and provide a vital link in the frontier healthcare safety net.

This narrative inquiry into the practice experiences of frontier NPs informs the discipline of nursing regarding the significant contribution frontier NP practice makes to the delivery of frontier healthcare. This inquiry creates a repository of stories upon which nurse leaders, health care policy makers, and nurse educators interested …

Digital Games For 21st Century Learning: Teacher Librarians' Beliefs And Practices, Amanda Hovious

Theses and Dissertations

Digital games as tools for learning in K–12 have been a topic of intense discussion over the last 15 years. One area of focus has been on the integration of commercial off-the-shelf games in lesson plans. A predictive factor for the adoption and integration of digital games is the attitudes or readiness of teachers. Yet, while many studies have examined this with teachers themselves, teacher librarians (TLs) have largely been ignored, despite the key role they play in education and technology adoption in schools. This study attempted to determine TLs’ beliefs and practices about digital games as 21st century learning …

Teacher Performance Assessments: Exploring Student Perspectives Of The Edtpa, Teri Jo Langlie

Theses and Dissertations

At least 34 states require teacher candidates to complete a comprehensive teacher performance assessment (edTPA) during their student teaching experience. Teacher candidates are assigned the edTPA during this critical time in their preparation. One state--Minnesota--uses the edTPA portfolio exclusively for teacher preparation program approval. Teacher candidates in Minnesota thus devote considerable effort, during a critical time in their teacher preparation program, in the completion of an assessment where the results do not affect their ability to obtain a teaching license. This study explored the impact of the edTPA's timing and perception of personal benefit on the level of effort teacher …

Perspectives On The Qualities, Knowledge, And Skills Of Effective Emotional/Behavioral Disorders Teachers, Joseph Leggio

Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the perceptions of six teachers of students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) in one school district. In individual interviews, the teachers shared their perceptions of the qualities, knowledge, and skills necessary for EBD teachers to be effective. Five of the teachers gathered for a focus group to discuss the findings from the analysis of the interview data.

An analysis of the data yielded three themes. First, effective EBD teachers develop unconditional teacher-student relationships. No matter how many setbacks a student with EBD may experience, the effective EBD teacher relentlessly affirms his or her belief in the …

The Efficacy Of Teaching Academic Vocabulary To Kindergarteners In An Explicit, Literacy Based Method, Hannah Mae Loesch

Theses and Dissertations

Vocabulary test scores from the ZOT, a researcher designed assessment, were obtained from kindergarten students (n=36) involved in a vocabulary intervention pilot study. The purpose of the current study was to (a) investigate if kindergarten students can learn academic vocabulary through a whole classroom approach to intervention during a brief story book reading session, (b) compare academic vocabulary learning between two methodological approaches and (c) compare the differences in learning of specific academic words. Comparison of mean ZOT results suggested (a) participants who did not receive special services through an Individual Education Plan (IEP) learned academic vocabulary (d = 1.76; …

The Plagues Of Colonialism: Representations Of Suffering In The Colonial And Postcolonial Francophone Algerian Novel From 1950-1966, Benjamin Jack Sparks

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The indigenous Francophone Algerian novel dates from the early 1950s and since then has been a political manifestation of uneasiness. The anticolonial undertones of this literature demonstrate the sufferings and harsh realities of life under an oppressive colonial regime; meanwhile the postcolonial novel continues the representation of this suffering through the residual effects of colonialism and the impact of the bloody decolonization war. This dissertation contributes to the discourse regarding suffering as a result of French colonial oppression in light of François Hollande’s official recognition of the trauma of colonialism and the acceptance of the events from 1954-1962 as a …

Listservs, Learning Communities, And Baby Steps: North Dakotan Rural Educators And The Implementation Of The Common Core State Standards, Emmanuel Mensah

Theses and Dissertations

The Common Core State Standards mark the latest state-led efforts to standardize K-12 education in the United States. The initiative aims at providing a clear and consistent framework to inspire students to develop strong foundational knowledge and deep conceptual understanding, skills considered critical for shaping students’ college and career readiness and successes. Given the continuing importance of educators’ role in translating the new content standards into achievable goals, it was useful for stakeholders to understand how educators in rural districts in the state of North Dakota were developing the local capacity to navigate the changes.

This qualitative study used a …

La Grad Act’S Effects On Developmental Faculty: A Case Study, Patricia Kuhlman Van Brunt

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Over the past 50 years, state legislatures have placed mandates on higher education institutions to lower attrition, thereby increasing student retention and completion. This study investigated and sought to understand the relationship between the Louisiana Granting Resources and Autonomy for Diplomas Act, or the LA GRAD Act (2010), and developmental education. More specifically, it focused on the perceptions of the mandate held by developmental education faculty who are employed at a public, urban Louisiana community college. This study utilized the four-framework approach by Bolman and Deal (2013) to decipher how developmental classrooms, academic departments, and a higher education institution as …

Secondary Social Studies Teachers’ Perceptions Of Special Education, Kelli Ann Odden

Theses and Dissertations

Through educational reform and federal mandates, general and special education teachers’ responsibilities are designed to intersect. Focusing on secondary social studies teachers, the purpose of this qualitative study was to understand the teachers’ perceptions of special education and how this influences the implementation of special education services in the classroom. From data collected through interviews and analyzed through Moustakas’ phenomenological design, two textural themes emerged (expertise and communication) in addition to three structural themes (placement, Individual Education Plan (IEP)-Reader’s Digest Version, and time). Findings indicate that social studies teachers appreciated the role of special education, but their perception was focused …

Designing Fiction-Based Close Reading Experiences For The High School English Language Arts Classroom, Aubrey Jean Mcnary

Theses and Dissertations

The Common Core State Standards are forcing educational professional to develop high-level literacy skills and habits in a student population that is indisputable diverse and generally ill prepared for the demands of the secondary classroom. The practice of close reading is a means of literacy instruction that continually pushes students back into the text to answer text-dependent questions of varying, yet higher, levels of thinking. A variety of lesson plans and text-dependent questions were generated for three pivotal novels to demonstrate close reading as a means of achieving CCSS-level reading and thinking in the general secondary ELA classroom.

Recall Of Novel Words In Adolescents Following A Brief Mindfulness Exercise, Anna Lauren Schimmelpfennig

Theses and Dissertations

Mindfulness has been associated with various benefits, including enhanced attention, improved recall, and increased emotional well-being. Previous research has suggested that a brief mindfulness exercise can enhance recall of novel words in female college students. Participants in the current study were 82 students (41 female, M = 14.6, SD = 1.2) from a rural, Midwestern secondary school. Participants were randomly assigned to listen to a 20-minute body scan exercise or a control lecture before learning English-Swahili word pairs. Results revealed no significant effect of group on immediate or delayed recall of word pairs. Additionally, there was no significant effect of …

Nonword Repetition And Sentence Repetition In Preschool Children: A Comparison Of Speech And Language Screening Measures, Rachel Therrien

Theses and Dissertations

Nonword repetition tasks and sentence repetition tasks have been shown to accurately differentiate children with speech and/or language disorders from their typically developing peers (Dollaghan & Campbell, 1998; Archibald & Gathercole, 2006). Additionally, they provide information on semantic, syntactical, and phonological processing as well as memory and acoustic perceptual skills (Vance, Stackhouse, & Wells, 2005). Despite their utility as a screening measure, their use in clinical practice has been minimal. Instead, practicing speech-language pathologists often choose to use publisher-provided screening measures or their own developed measures, rather than using research-based screening methods that have recognized differential diagnosis ability (Nash, Leavett, …

A Heat Transfer Study Of Sio2 Colloid Flow In The Thermal Entry Region Of Mini Circular And Square Tubes, Sarbottam Pant

Theses and Dissertations

Flow and heat transfer behavior of silicon dioxide (SiO2) nanofluid (9.58% by volume) was studied in three sizes of hydraulic diameters and two cross-sectional shapes. Altogether six test sections were used. The outer dimensions of these test sections were 1/8”, 3/32”, and 1/16”; and shapes were circular and square with respective hydraulic diameters of 0.097”, 0.066”, and 0.035” (2.46 mm, 1.67 mm and 0.88 mm). Rheological study of the fluid showed the SiO2 nanofluid to be a dilatant non-Newtonian fluid. The friction factor of SiO2 nanofluid was compared with the friction factor of water over a range of Reynolds number. …

An Analysis Of The Factors Influencing Self-Rated Health In East Asia, William Charles Stangler

Theses and Dissertations

An accurate assessment of a population’s health is a valuable tool for a nation in terms of planning and policy making. In this paper, I use cross-sectional data from the 2010 East Asian Social Survey to create a model for self-rated health. In this paper I pay particular attention to how factors that affect psychological well-being influence one’s self-rated physical health. These factors include measures of religion, trusting other people, and refraining from visiting a doctor. What I find is that among the respondents of the East Asian Social Survey, non-religious people are 11% more likely to have a high …

Powwow As Spaces Of Public: Circulated Meanings Of A Native Practice For Non-Natives, Joshua Eugene Young

Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the status of the relationship between Natives and non-Natives utilizing powwow as the representative anecdote of the intercultural space of interaction between these two groups. Where most scholars ask how Native Americans use powwow to reclaim Native identity, I shift the focus to non-Natives, whose relationship to powwow has gone largely unexamined. I argue that powwow serves as a public space for staging diversity for non-Natives, a fact that has wide-ranging implications for Natives, too. Utilizing rhetorical theories of ritual communication and publicity as a way to interrogate this relationship, I argue that the publics attending to …

How Shared Experiences Impact Teachers Who Remain In American Indian Elementary Schools More Than Five Years, Rae Marie Wilkie-Villebrun

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study examined shared experiences of teachers who remain at American Indian schools teaching for five years or more in an attempt to help administrators understand what factors impact a teacher’s decision to stay. Teachers, regardless of their race or gender, who have worked at an American Indian school for five years or longer, were interviewed. The teachers were recruited to participate in this study through their superintendent/principals and personal contacts. The theoretical framework used to guide this study was a social support model studied by LaRocco, House, and French in 1980. They examined the effect of perceived social …

Examining Openness To Pedagogical Change Among Secondary Mathematics Teachers: Developing And Testing A Structural Model, Cathy J. Williams

Theses and Dissertations

Widespread adoption of the Common Core State Standards for Mathematics (NGA & CCSSO, 2010) and other career and college readiness standards have prompted changes in the pedagogical practices of secondary mathematics teachers in the United States. The purpose of this study was to examine factors contributing to a math teacher’s willingness to alter pedagogical approaches. Key to the research was development of an instrument for measuring openness to change. The survey tool was created based on constructs drawn from the literature and was emailed to secondary mathematics teachers in the United States

(N = 571). The instrument consisted of 65 …

Junior Level Baccalaureate Nursing Students' Lived Experiences With Test Anxiety: Can Music Serve As A Means To Reduce Test Anxiety And Increase Self-Efficacy?, Keeley Clark Harmon

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Test anxiety is a pervasive problem in education programs. Nursing education is not an exception as approximately 30% of nursing students are impacted by varying levels of test anxiety that can affect their ability to succeed. This mixed methods study utilizes concepts from Bandura’s Social Learning Theory, the Cognitive-Attentional (Interference) Model, and the Georgi Lozanov method to explore the lived experiences of junior level baccalaureate nursing students with test anxiety. The 39 participants in the quantitative portion of the study were randomly assigned to one of two groups. The experimental group (n=18) listened to a nine minute and 27 second …

A Tale Of Two Cultures: A Qualitative Narrative Of Nigerian Immigrant Parenting In The United States, Chinwe Onwujuba

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Current demographic estimates indicate that the foreign-born population makes up about 13% (40 million) of the total U.S. population. This number consists of immigrants from all over the world, with a larger majority originating from Latin America and Asia. Research in the area of immigrant adaptation is robust and compelling; however, it is replete with studies on immigrants from the cultural regions identified above, and not as much on other regions with relatively less numerical representation, specifically Africa. From this region, Nigerian individuals and families make up a larger portion of this immigrant group. This study employs a qualitative research …