Digital Commons Network^™

The Influence Of Head Teachers’ Predominant Leadership Styles On Students’ Learning In Public Primary Schools In Sianda Zone Kisumu Kenya: A Case Of Kasigu Primary School, Okongo Stephen Lugare

Master of Education

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of the HTs’ predominant leadership styles on students’ learning in public primary schools in Sianda zone of Kisumu West Sub-county, Kisumu County. The study’s research questions were formulated to find out if there was any link between HTs’ predominant leadership styles and the students’ learning. The study adopted a mixed methods design and used interviews for the HT, teachers and parents; questionnaires for both teachers and the HT; focused group discussions (FDG) for the students’ leaders and documents analysis of the major school documents such as Board of Management …

Exploring Mathematics Teachers’ Practices In Supporting Learners With Mathematical Learning Difficulties: (A Case Of A Public Secondary School In Bungoma County-Kenya), Clotilda Nafula Nyongesa

Master of Education

Mathematical Learning Difficulty (MLD) is a common occurrence that affects a number of learners within classrooms. Learners with MLD exhibit profound difficulties in numeracy skills. These difficulties may be in some distinct mathematical domains and the effects spread to other subjects that may require numerical skills. Teachers‟ practices are pertinent in the intervention process from whole class teaching to support strategies targeting individual learners with MLD. This study explored mathematics teachers practices in supporting learners with MLD in a secondary school in Kenya. Research questions developed sought to find out the teachers perceptions about learners with MLD, considerations teachers made …

Exploring Student-Mothers’ Schooling Experiences On Return To Secondary School: A Case Of A Public Secondary School In Mombasa County: Research, Fridah Mukani Njeru

Master of Education

In the spirit of ensuring equity in education, Kenya introduced the re-entry policy on teenage pregnancy of 1994 to ensure girls who drop out of school due to pregnancy continue with schooling. However, there is scant literature on the subject both internationally and nationally. In addition, little is available on the experiences of the teenage girls who take advantage of the policy and re-enter secondary school following delivery. Therefore this study sought to explore schooling experiences of student-mothers after return to secondary school. The study was conducted in two public secondary schools in Mombasa Sub-County. The study employed qualitative case …

The Onomatopoeic Ideophone-Gesture Relationship In Pastaza Quichua, Sarah Ann Hatton

Theses and Dissertations

The relationship between ideophones and gestures has only recently been studied and is not yet completely understood. The topic has been specifically addressed by Kita (1993), Klassen (1998), Dingemanse (2013), Mihas (2013), and Reiter (2013). Yet there has been little focus on onomatopoeic ideophones. Onomatopoeic ideophones have been set aside as different by many previous researchers (Klassen, 1998, pp. 28-31; Kilian-Hatz, 2001, pp. 161-163; Dingemanse, 2011, pp. 131, 165-167; Mihas, 2012, pp. 327-329; Reiter, 2013, pp. 9-10, 308). Being stigmatized as simple, they have been labeled as "sound mimicking words" (McGregor, 2002, p. 341), "non-linguistic sounds" (Güldemann, 2008, p. 283), …

Book Review, Erika M. Baril

The Journal of Special Education Apprenticeship

Uniquely Human: A Different Way of Seeing Autism By Barry M. Prizant with Tom Fields-Meyer (2015) New York: Simon and Schuster, 272 pages ISBN 9781476776231 (Hardcover)

In Memoriam: J. Wallace Coffey 1940 - 2016, Andy Jones

The Migrant - Tennessee Ornithological Society

No abstract provided.

Using Importance-Performance Analysis To Guide Instructional Design Of Experiential Learning Activities, Sheri Anderson, Yu-Chang Hsu, Judy Kinney

Educational Technology Faculty Publications and Presentations

Designing experiential learning activities requires an instructor to think about what they want the students to learn. Using importance-performance analysis can assist with the instructional design of the activities. This exploratory study used importance-performance analysis in an online introduction to criminology course. There is limited research on experiential learning in online courses as well as empirical data to assist with the instructional design of the experiential learning activities. The primary goal of this article is to demonstrate the use of importance- performance analysis to guide the instructional design of experiential learning activities.

Transaction Complexity And The Movement To Fair Value Accounting, Pinky Rusli, Xinlei Zhao, David A. Ziebart

Institute for the Study of Free Enterprise Working Papers

Our global economy has pushed the complexity of business transactions to a new level, as companies now employ sophisticated contracts and financial instruments. However, it is unclear whether accounting standards are able to effectively capture transaction complexity, which has been growing at a rapid pace. In this study, we examine three questions related to transaction complexity: (1) Do accounting standards reflect differences in the complexity of the transactions being recorded? (2) Does the use of mark-to-market (i.e., fair value) accounting reduce the complexity of standards by relying on market valuations to capture transaction complexity? (3) Does the reliance on fair …

Improved Sprint Results With Offshore Indian Teams, Fnu Abdul Hasheem

Dissertations and Theses

Due to the cultural and linguistic differences, different time zones, and complexities of knowledge transfer involved in IT offshoring, offshore-outsourced projects are more prone to failure than in-house and domestically outsourced projects. These inherent risks exacerbate the communication, coordination and collaboration between vendors and clients and thus affect various stages of the offshore outsourced software development (OSD).

Communication is a major factor of success or failure for any software project. In offshore software development OSD, communication is more critical than collocated software development. Frequent communication is not always possible due to challenges like time zone differences, holiday customs etc. where …

Challenges When Using Scrum In Globally Distributed Teams, Sweta Shah

Dissertations and Theses

The interest of companies towards using agile approaches in GSD projects is growing at a rapid pace. On that note, it is extremely vital to consider the challenging factors involved in agile practices such as scrum in GSD projects. However, the remarkable and effective attempts towards precisely identify, synthesize and report the literature on agile practices for GSD projects have always been inadequate (Hossain, AliBabar & Young Paik, 2009).

With the purpose of encouraging research committee to explore and analyze the projects that implements scrum process in globally distributed environment, the thesis paper places great emphasis on challenges involved with …

Blocked By Diplomatic Barriers: Syrian Refugees And The Eu-Turkey Migration Cooperation, Bassant Hassib, Doaa Nounou

Political Science

The recent EU-Turkey deal on irregular migration and refugees raised voices of humanitarian concerns with regards to the protection of the rights of Syrian refugees. Despite the positive efforts of Turkey to accommodate Syrian refugees, it still lacks a proper asylum system and measures that can guarantee their socio-economic integration and protect their rights. So instead of having a proper EU refugee resettlement system, they just offer money and mobility incentives to Turkey to keep the Syrian refugees on its land, while sidelining the deteriorating status of those refugees in Turkey. This paper argues that EU-Turkey cooperation on migration is …

Group Transformation And Identification With Kernel Methods And Big Data Mixed Logistic Regression, Chao Pan

Open Access Dissertations

Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) is a crucial step in the life cycle of data analysis. Exploring data with effective methods would reveal main characteristics of data and provides guidance for model building. The goal of this thesis is to develop effective and efficient methods for data exploration in the regression setting.

First, we propose to use optimal group transformations as a general approach for exploring the relationship between predictor variables X and the response Y. This approach can be considered an automatic procedure to identify the best characteristic of P( Y|X) under which the relationship …

Music And Words: Connecting The Love Of Music With Language, Eileen P. Kennedy, Raymond Torres- Santos

Publications and Research

Children from different cultures have a natural affinity for rhymes, rhythm and music. Imagine if students were able, from the beginning of their education and experiences with academic writing and literacy, to access their unconscious and original selves from which to create their writing. The study of music can help to access this aware, inventive side that can enhance anyone’s writing. As an early childhood writing teacher and a composition teacher, we draw on our experiences with young children with words and music. We examine the relationship between music and words in an effort to bring the primitive drive of …

South Asian Contributions To The International Rehabilitation Literature: An Online Literature Survey Of 10 Years, Sermad Ahmad Mangat, Farooq Azam Rathore, Shahbaz Ali Nasir, Mubasshar Shahid, Hassaan Altaf

Pakistan Journal of Neurological Sciences (PJNS)

Physical medicine and rehabilitation (PM & R) deals with management, rehabilitation and community reintegration persons with disabilities. It is an emerging medical specialty in the South-Asian region (Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Srilanka ,Afghanistan, Bhutan and Maldives,). The region comprises 24% of the world population with a huge burden of disability. The contributions of South Asian authors to the international rehabilitation medicine literature are unknown. The aim of this study was to document the contributions of south Asian authors in the international rehabilitation literature in the last decade.

A Professional Learning Community With An Arabian Twist, Christine Ann Roy

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

This paper discusses how a western approach to a Professional Learning Community (PLC) can be implemented in an eastern setting, without taking out the essence of the culture. It is based on personal observations of how a community functions within a culture. This study seeks to explore the steps to implementing a structured PLC in which the already existing community produces empowered teachers who will be life-long learners. It describes the beginning stages of executing a PLC by enabling ordinary teachers to facilitate professional development meetings at a local, private school in the Kingdom of Bahrain.

Peer Partnerships And Collaboration In The Classroom Setting And Their Effects On Academic Achievement, Rachael L. Foutch

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

In this action research study, the author examined the effect of student generated peer groupings on academic achievement. The study was conducted in the author’s third grade classroom, in a public school district in rural Iowa. A student grouping attitude survey was conducted for a total of 16 third grade students who participated in the study (including ten males and six females), and revealed that most students preferred to self-select their partners / group members in the content areas of science, social studies and math. Observations of three students with diverse levels of academic achievement in the context of five …

Is Project Based Learning A More Effective Way Of Teaching Than Traditional Teaching?, Sara Deitering

Master's Theses & Capstone Projects

It can be difficult to find effective teaching techniques that keeps students engaged and promote higher order thinking skills continuously throughout your content instruction. The purpose of this research was to discover if project base learning is a more effective instruction framework versus our traditional framework of instruction, which involves teachers standing in front of students and providing information through a lecture. Participants included two sections of fourth grade classrooms. The controlled group consisted of 20 students and the experienced groups consisted of 19 students. The controlled group demonstrated a significant amount of student’s engagement throughout the entire unit. In …

Effective Supplier Quality Practices In The Construction Industry, Ashleigh Hegwood

Industrial Engineering Undergraduate Honors Theses

The dynamic and irregular nature of projects in the construction industry causes the complexity of supplier quality management (SQM). The Construction Industry Institute (CII) Research Team (RT) 308 is focused on achieving zero rework through effective supplier quality practices.

This honors thesis is an extension of RT 308’s project work. Its purpose is to look at current supplier evaluation practices within the construction industry, confirm arecommended supplier cutoff rating through data analysis, and determine if outliers in the data set could be normalized. A survey was developed in Qualtrics (an online survey software tool) and sent to CII members for …

Administration Policy Impacts On Counselor Productivity And Overall Job Satisfaction, Bailey Ziemann

Counselor Education Capstones

This literature review discusses the impact administration, agencies and their policies impact the counselor’s productivity and job satisfaction. Often the board of administration is compiled of individuals who are disconnected from the counseling field, yet are the ones creating the policies for the counselors to abide by. Administration creates policies based upon criteria created by the agency, which may not always coincide with the counselor’s job duties. Impacts of such policies are discussed in detail. Additionally, obstacles and barriers are examined. Some of these barriers include insurance requirements, agency requirements, and client obstacles. It is crucial administration, counselors and counselors-in-training …

The Effects Of Anthropogenic Stressors On Mercury Concentrations And Community Composition Of Freshwater Zooplankton, Meredith Powers Jordan

Dissertations and Theses

Methylmercury (MeHg) bioaccumulation in freshwater aquatic systems is impacted by anthropogenic stressors, including climate change and excess nutrients. The goal of this study was to determine how warmer water temperatures and excess nutrients would impact zooplankton communities and phytoplankton concentrations, and in turn increase or decrease MeHg concentrations in freshwater zooplankton. I used a 2x2 factorial design to determine if the interaction of temperature and nutrients would impact plankton metrics and zooplankton MeHg concentrations. Mesocosms were filled with Hg-contaminated water and plankton from Cottage Grove Reservoir, Oregon, a waterbody that has experienced decades of elevated MeHg concentrations and corresponding fish …

Minding Ps And Qs: The Political And Policy Questions Framing Health Care Spending, William M. Sage

Faculty Scholarship

Tracing the evolution of political conversations about health care spending and their relationship to the formation of policy is a valuable exercise. Health care spending is about science and ethics, markets and government, freedom and community. By the late 1980s the unique upward trajectory of post-Medicare U.S. health care spending had been established, recessions and tax cuts were eroding federal and state budgets, and efforts to harness market forces to serve policy goals were accelerating. From the initial writings on “managed competition,” through the failed Clinton health reform effort in the early 1990s, to the passage of the Affordable Care …

The Dis Or Interested Politics Of Discipleship: Some Reflections From The New Testament, Rubén Muñoz-Larrondo

Journal of Adventist Mission Studies

No abstract provided.

Implementation And Performance Evaluation Of Acoustic Denoising Algorithms For Uav, Ahmed Sony Kamal Chowdhury

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) have become popular alternative for wildlife monitoring and border surveillance applications. Elimination of the UAV’s background noise and classifying the target audio signal effectively are still a major challenge. The main goal of this thesis is to remove UAV’s background noise by means of acoustic denoising techniques. Existing denoising algorithms, such as Adaptive Least Mean Square (LMS), Wavelet Denoising, Time-Frequency Block Thresholding, and Wiener Filter, were implemented and their performance evaluated. The denoising algorithms were evaluated for average Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR), Segmental SNR (SSNR), Log Likelihood Ratio (LLR), and Log Spectral Distance (LSD) metrics. …

Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, And The Populist Tradition In Presidential Rhetoric, Sarah Beth Shaw

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Populism is one of the most ambiguous terms in rhetorical scholarship. It can be a political strategy, a genuine reflection of personality, a deep manipulation of core American values, and much more. Political pundits have used it as a descriptive term, and on occasion as an insult. Some have deemed the concept’s flexibility confusing and even counterproductive, which sparked an interest in studying what is meant when analysts and scholars address political speakers as populist. This thesis examines populism in detail, by analyzing the rhetoric of former presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. Two questions drove the research: (1) What …

The Narrative Performances Of Teenage Girls: Participation, Identity, And Authority As The Foundation For Power, Chere M. Smith

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This thesis explores the ways in which teenage girls use narrative performance to negotiate participation, social and gender identity, and individual authority in order to establish ratified and equal statuses of power within their social peer group. Although previous work on narrative discourse has shown that narratives can act as the catalyst for the complex co/construction of identity especially in social situations of talk, little work has been done to focus on the way teenagers, particularly girls, use this discourse to their benefit as they fulfill social and gender goals in social and conversational settings. Furthermore, while multimodal, narrative performance …

Training, Leveraging, And Communicating About Military Spouses As Employees, Deborah A. Bradbard, Nicholas Armstrong, James Beamesderfer

Institute for Veterans and Military Families

This product, a training slide deck designed for hiring managers and human resource professionals, is the third in a series of products that illustrates the unique strengths and challenges that military spouses bring to the workforce while supporting their service member’s military career. This training tool, designed to be used with the other two products in the series, offers a “hands-on” way for those interested in hiring military spouses to gain key insights and ways to train, leverage talent, and communicate when employing military spouses.

Say Hello To My Little Friend Civil Rico: The Third Circuit Green Lights Insurance Shakedown Of Big Pharma With In Re Avandia, Marie Bussey-Garza

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

The Proxy Rules And Restrictions On Shareholder Voting Rights, J. Robert Brown, Jr.

Seton Hall Law Review

No abstract provided.

Optimal Operation Of A Northwest Grid Of Saudi Arabia Including Renewable Resources, Hani Albalawi

All Dissertations

The use of fossil fuel, which has been one of the major sources of energy of the modern world, has led to environmental concerns. One solution to these issues is the application of renewable energy, which can also address the fluctuation in fuel prices. The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) faces a demand of energy expected to exceed 120 GW by 2032.

The government is taking appropriate actions, introducing sustainable renewable energy not only to meet the demand with clean energy sources but also to reduce the Kingdom’s consumption of fuel and gas. KSA, which has a high irradiation rate …

Online Social Networking And International Students' Adjustment, Sumood Makki Almaowashi

All Dissertations

This research explored the phenomenon of social media in international students’ lives. It depicted how international students use social media during their stay in a host university. It asks, “How do international students develop their personal networks in the host country? What social media applications are used by international students during their stay in the U.S.? The study incorporated qualitative methods to interpret the experiences of 12 participants from 9 different countries studying in an American rural school of southern area of the U.S. Participants were interviewed individually for 30-45 minutes. The study findings were divided into 4 themes based …