Digital Commons Network^™

Sending Mixed Signals: Feature Extraction For Gendered Emotional Speech Classification And Modeling, David Mcculloch Pfeffer

Senior Independent Study Theses

This study seeks to analyze waveforms of gendered, emotional human speech to extract acoustic features from the RAVDESS emotional speech dataset. After a phase of preprocessing using min-max normalization, qualitative and quantitative signal analysis is performed on the samples in which maximum amplitude, average amplitude, and summed amplitude features are extracted. We find that the summed amplitude feature is the most informationally-rich and compelling of the features extracted, and move forward with its use in the classification phase. We deploy two clustering algorithms to perform classification on the speech samples: k-means and agglomerative clustering. The results of the clustering show …

Developing A Web-Based Application For Finding Meeting Places, Aedan D. Pettit

Senior Independent Study Theses

Midway: Meeting Place Finder is a web application which allows users to supply three or more locations and provides them with a place to meet that minimizes their total driving time. Using techniques from graph theory, an algorithm is developed in order to make this service possible. Then, using Python, this algorithm is implemented into the backend of the web application along with a simple, user-friendly interface. This application has exciting potential to be continually expanded and improved in the future beyond this initial version.

Pedagogía Política: Un Análisis De La Enseñanza De La Dictadura De Pinochet Y Los Derechos Humanos En Chile, Emily Elizabeth Xiubei Beuter

Senior Independent Study Theses

As Chileans continue to struggle with reconciling with their past in post-dictatorial Chile, this same struggle plays out in the classroom with the teaching of the dictatorship and human rights. While there is a vast corpus on memory historiography and pedagogy literature, researchers have overlooked the role of teaching in memory formation and the perspectives of those actively forming student memory. This study analyzes how various spheres of education on the dictatorship and human rights reflect larger societal tensions and are themselves spheres of contested memory. Further, I argue for complexity as there are numerous educational spheres who are in …

Talking About Eu: The Impact Of Leaders' Discourse On Public Support For The European Union, Marco Roccato

Senior Independent Study Theses

This study asks how do changes in national political leaders’ (NPLs) discourse about the European Union affect public support for the EU? To develop an answer to this question, the research is situated in the tradition of discourse analysis, as it is better suited to understand the nuances in the discourse being presented to the population. In the literature reviewed for this project, EU-related discourse is presented as holding particular power in affecting people’s perceptions of European issues due to the historical low engagement and knowledge levels. The lack of a shared European public sphere and international conversations on topics …

The Planar Rook Algebra, Henry Potts-Rubin

Senior Independent Study Theses

No abstract provided.

Delete Your Account: A Methodological Investigation Of Leadership Trait Analysis And Its Ability To Utilize Twitter As Spontaneous Material, Jimmy Hinton

Senior Independent Study Theses

Given the important roles political leaders occupy within the international arena, it is vital that we understand the way they behave. In order to better understand a political leader, it is imperative that we analyze their personality traits. This study investigates the methodological applicability of Leadership Trait Analysis by asking the following research question: Is an analysis of social media an effective way to measure the Leadership Trait Analysis personality traits of international leaders? In order to answer this question, the study utilizes Leadership Trait Analysis to analyze the personality traits portrayed within the traditional spontaneous media (interviews/press conferences) for …

You Think You Do, But You Don’T: An Investigation Of Fandom And Nostalgic Media Through An Analysis Of World Of Warcraft Classic, David Andrew Schulz

Senior Independent Study Theses

The purpose of this study was to analyze the fan culture of the video game, World of Warcraft, to analyze the motivations, reactions, and reasons of play, to examine World of Warcraft: Classic as a form of nostalgic media, and to study its fandom through an ethnographic lens. This study utilized a fusion of the following methodologies: cyberethnography, ethnography, and visual ethnography. The author recorded gameplay footage of World of Warcraft, and World of Warcraft Classic. After this, an ethnography was conducted at the 2019 Blizzcon convention, in which observation shots and interviews took place. This footage was edited …

How Minority Candidates' Intersectional Identities Affect Their Use Of Race And Gender Issue Ownership Campaign Strategies, Mary ("Emma") M. Cotter

Senior Independent Study Theses

This Independent Study explores the ways in which a candidate’s intersectional identity affects their use of gender and race issue ownership techniques in their political campaigns. While prior research has studied the campaign strategies of (white) female candidates and black (male) candidates, it has not studied the effects of possessing multiple minority identities on the campaign strategies employed by black female candidates. Scholars have found that female candidates benefit from embracing gender issue ownership in their campaigns, while black candidates benefit from rejecting race issue ownership in their campaigns. I theorize that black female candidates’ intersectional identities preclude them from …

Paleoecology Of Bivalves In The Carmel Formation (Middle Jurassic, Bajocian) Of Utah, Evan L. Shadbolt

Senior Independent Study Theses

The Carmel Formation of the Middle Jurassic has many mysteries. One of these enigmas is its bivalves. The formation contains the famous oyster balls called ostreoliths. Despite bivalves making up 80 percent of the fossils found in the Carmel Formation, it is not understood how the bivalves lived in this community. The formation is located in southwestern and central Utah. It was deposited when an epicontinental seaway covered most of Utah. The paleoclimate of Utah was hot and dry, which meant that the environment was evaporite heavy. This also meant that the seawater at the southernmost extent of the seaway …

Modeling Community Resource Management: An Agent-Based Approach, Maya M. Lapp

Senior Independent Study Theses

As the human population continues increasing rapidly and climate change accelerates, resource depletion is becoming an international problem. Community-based natural resource management (CBNRM) has been suggested as a method to conserve resources while simultaneously empowering traditionally marginalized communities. Because classical equation-based modeling methods fail to capture the complexity of CBNRM, Agent-Based Modeling (ABM) has emerged as a primary method of modeling these systems. In this investigation, we conduct a sensitivity analysis and thorough evaluation of an existing ABM of community forest management. We then modify the original model by providing a new enforcement mechanism that improves the validity of both …

Understanding Behavioral And Emotional Responses To Frames Used By Animal Rights Organizations In The United States And France, Alysa Tarrant

Senior Independent Study Theses

The purpose of this study was to examine how varying demographics among French and American populations responded to three types of frames used by animal rights organizations: ethical, environmental, and health related. A two by three experimental design in which participants saw two images corresponding to one of the three frames was distributed. The survey measured each respondent’s political opinions, emotional response, and behavioral response through self-designed scales. The study finds that culture and political ideologies play a significant role in influencing frame response, such that the French respondents were more emotionally and behaviorally influenced than Americans, and that liberals …

#Kancelkulture: An Analysis Of Cancel Culture And Social Media Activism Through The Lens Of Minority College Students, Korri E. Palmer

Senior Independent Study Theses

I am investigating how minority students of color find cancel culture (boycotting a brand or celebrity) to be a beneficial or harmful form of social media activism. I situate social media as a networked public and discuss how consumer activism meets social media activism, specifically on Twitter, to create cancel culture. My study includes results from a combination of a focus group and individual interviews that discuss topics of social media use, participation in cancel culture and activism involvement. This study provides a definition of cancel culture through the perspectives of generation Z social media users and discusses the duality …

Spaced Training In The 5csrtt Proves Beneficial In Early Levels, Rebecca Renee Warren

Senior Independent Study Theses

ADHD is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by inattentiveness, impulsivity, and hyperactivity. Due to these characterizations, children with ADHD typically exhibit lower academic performance which has been improved by spacing out academic training. Yet no study has performed spacing in an ADHD population. Spaced training involves studying over short periods for multiple days rather than multiple hours in one day, or massed training. Using a rat model of ADHD, known as the SHR strain, the present study assessed how spacing training from 90-trials a day to 45-trials a day in the 5CSRTT would improve performance abilities. Additionally, the impact of spaced …

Laughing Matters: Late-Night Political Comedy Television & Individual-Level Affective Polarization, Nicholas R. Shereikis

Senior Independent Study Theses

This study considers the effects of consuming late-night political humor on audience members’ individual-level affective political polarization. Existing literature suggests that many late-night comedy television programs already influence viewers’ political engagement, including voting likelihood and political talk likelihood. Programming like The Daily Show (TDS) employs satiric critique within broader parodic framework to engage audience members’ political identities. These identities are incredibly emotional and, combined with comedic capacity to provoke anger, exert significant influence over individual behavioral tendencies. Subsequently, it makes sense to consider the affectively polarizing capacity of these shows— measured both by favorability, or ingroup confidence, and social distance, …

Arguing Over America's Best Idea: Examining The Congressional Partisan Divide With Regards To Public Lands Policy, Anna Medema

Senior Independent Study Theses

This Independent Study investigates the effect of political party on Congressional roll-call votes on public lands policies and how this effect changes over time. Many scholars have documented the role that political party plays in influencing roll-call voting behavior, but this study fills a gap with regards to public lands policy specifically. I argue that, over time, political party has become more predictive of whether or not a member of Congress will vote in favor of public lands policies. The results of my study show that, beginning around the 1990s, Senators began to divide along party lines on public lands …

Paleoenvironments Containing Coryphodon In The Fort Union And Willwood Formations Spanning The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (Petm), Bighorn Basin, Wyoming, Emily N. Randall

Senior Independent Study Theses

Preliminary data point toward a new hypothesis in which Coryphodon lived in wetter habitats before the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), but was able to adapt to drier habitats in order to survive post-PETM. Early Paleogene nonmarine strata are extensively exposed in the Bighorn Basin of northwestern Wyoming. The Fort Union and Willwood Formations represent alluvial deposition within a Laramide Basin formed from the Paleocene through early Eocene. Therefore, the basin is an ideal place to study the local effects of the PETM, a rapid global warming event that occurred about 55.5 million years ago at the Paleocene–Eocene boundary. During this …

The Defense Cannot Rest: The Impact Of Funding For Indigent Defense Services On Incarceration Rates, Itala M. Colby

Senior Independent Study Theses

Since the landmark decision of Gideon vs Wainwright in the Supreme Court in 1963, free legal counsel for indigent clients has been required for every state in the United States. However, the reality looks very different than this ideal with indigent defense services across the country being under-resourced, under-funded and forgotten by many other than those that require their services. This is happening in conjunction with the explosion of incarceration rates throughout the United States. This study aims to explain the relationship between the levels of funding provided for indigent defense services and the rates of incarceration. Using a multi-variate …

Fish Out Of Water: Investigating The ‘Readiness’ And Proficiency Of Beginning Drama Teachers In Western Australian Secondary Schools, Christina C. Gray, Kirsten Lambert, Sarah Jefferson

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers (AITSL, 2011) stipulate that graduating teachers need to be classroom-ready and able to perform at a ‘graduate standard’. However, recent research indicates that nearly 50% of beginning teachers lack readiness, are overwhelmed with stress, and will leave the profession within five years. This paper seeks to elucidate this disconcerting reality by providing a nuanced focus on the experiences of beginning drama teachers. Findings indicate that while participants in this study began feeling confident and ready for teaching drama; they were largely unprepared for the unwritten requirements of the profession – namely, coping with systems, …

Investigating Probability Concepts Of Secondary Pre-Service Teachers In A Game Context, Hem Chand Dayal, Sashi Sharma

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

There is a rich literature on students’ and teachers’ intuitions and misconceptions about probability. However, less attention has been paid to the development of pre-service teachers’ probabilistic thinking in teacher education. Based on this, the second author developed a lesson sequence for teaching probability. In particular, it demonstrates how a game context can be used to explore the relationship between experimental and theoretical probabilities in a collaborative learning setting. The lesson sequence integrates concepts and processes related to probability and is grounded in socio-cultural theory. We trialed the sequence with secondary pre-service teachers. This paper focuses on their understanding …

Initial Education Of Philosophy Teachers In Colombia: Association Between New Public Policy Requirements And National Standardized Tests, Alejandro Farieta-Barrera

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This paper evaluates the association between new public policy requirements for B.Ed. programs in Colombia —1) demand high-quality accreditation, 2) restrict distance modality, 3) restrict multidisciplinary programs, and 4) increase academic credits in education courses and pedagogical practices— and the outcomes of 1387 B.Ed. in Philosophy students in the National Saber Pro test 2016-2018, in ‘Education’ component. The methodology was multilevel linear regression; the residential region is the level variable, and were included other control variables (gender, age, ethnic minority, socioeconomic index, etc.). The results show that outcomes are associated with pedagogical practices and with non-multidisciplinary programs, supporting new regulations. …

“I Actually Felt More Confident”: An Online Resource For Enhancing Pre-Service Teacher Resilience During Professional Experience, Caroline F. Mansfield, Susan Beltman, Noelene L. Weatherby-Fell

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

One responsibility of teacher education is to provide opportunities for pre-service teachers to build skills and strategies to develop confidence for overcoming challenges and build their professional resilience, yet how students learn these skills is not clearly understood. This study examines how engaging with online modules influenced participants’ efficacy and resilience during their final professional experience practicum. Interviews with 13 Australian pre-service teachers revealed that the module content and design reactivated existing knowledge, taught new emotional regulation and coping strategies, encouraged self-awareness and reflection, and built confidence. While further research is needed, participants used their new found knowledge during their …

Reflections On Journaling: An Initiative To Support Pre-Service Mathematics And Science Teachers, Lisa O'Keeffe, Kathryn Paige

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In this article the authors present two different ways in which journaling has been utilised with final year pre-service teacher students (PSTs) in their primary/middle science and mathematics pathway course. Pedagogical practices that model effective teaching and learning in a tertiary setting are an integral component of this course. As teacher educators exploring ways to develop our practices, we introduced journaling as a teaching and learning tool. The first results section of this article focuses on the journaling experiences of PSTs, including the different ways they chose to engage with journaling and factors contributing to their engagement or disengagement. The …

Pre-Service Teachers’ Mobilising Health Literacy In Sun Safety Education, Donna Barwood, Andrew C. Jones, Eibhlish O'Hara

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

School-based educational programs are identified as an effective means to increase awareness and promote sun protective behaviours in young people. Regardless, the adolescent age group are difficult to influence, somewhat resistant to sun protection and esteem tanned skin. The ability of Pre-Service Teachers (PSTs) to develop sun safety education for adolescents was tested at a teacher education institution in Western Australia. More particularly, to create understandings of their ability to mobilise health literacy in sun safety education. Thirty PSTs studying secondary education developed three consecutive lesson plans for use with adolescent students of Year 7. The three lesson plans comprised …

Preservice Teachers As Document Detectives, Lorna Quinnell, Radha Iyer, Bronwyn Ewing

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Literacy today relies on a readers’ ability to analyse text critically. This case study investigated preservice teachers’ critical analysis of media text containing visuals and representations. In particular, the analysis focused on mathematical factors that impact on readers’ interpretation of diverse visuals.

Data was gathered from the 23 preservice teachers, enrolled in the Graduate Diploma program at one Australian university. They participated in a series of mathematics learning sessions focused on the critical analysis of a selection of media items.

The paper argues that the ability to critically analyse graphs and visuals relies on mathematical knowledge and that the ability …

Being And Belonging: Student-Teachers’ Contextual Engagement In Schools, Enda Donlon, Elaine Mcdonald, Sabrina Fitzsimons, Pj Sexton

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

While School Placement is long established as a central component of Initial Teacher Education programmes, there is an increasing awareness that these placement experiences should go beyond the practical activities most directly associated with teaching. This paper considers how engagement in a school placement period with a focus on non-teaching activities contributes to the professional and personal development of student-teachers, and to their sense of ‘belonging’ while on placement. Drawing primarily on the analysis of data obtained from online logs maintained by student-teachers during this predominantly non-teaching placement, it establishes the activities that they engaged in, and their reflections and …

Voices On Data Literacy And Initial Teacher Education: Pre-Service Teachers’ Reflections And Recommendations, Shannon Kennedy-Clark, Vilma Galstaun, Peter Reimann, Taylor Martyn, Kiatin Williamson, Jessica Weight

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The purpose of study was gain insight into pre-service teachers’ experiences in using classroom data to make learning and teaching decisions. The qualitative study is based on the reflections and recommendations of three pre-service teachers’ that participated in a data-driven decision-making intervention whilst on an immersive 10-week professional learning experience. This study is underpinned by an action research framework. There are many understandings of action research, here the approach is understood to be a systematic investigation into one’s own practice with the aim of improving teaching and learning. From the thematic analysis of the reflections, several recommendations were put forward …

Examining Teacher Agency Among Teacher Educators: An Action Research In Vietnam, Tung Ngoc Vu

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Teacher agency is an important topic in educational research, but its theoretical observations have not filtered down into practical Vietnamese teaching contexts. The action research project described here showcases a training-based intervention for teacher educators in various disciplines at eight universities in Vietnam. The intervention aimed to develop teaching skills and increase knowledge for teacher educators by helping them explore their students’ learning needs and facilitate their professional development. This study occurred within the context of changing Vietnamese political, cultural, economic, and social ways of being. Eight Vietnamese teacher educators of different cultural backgrounds, and working across a variety of …

Responding To Policies That Involve Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Students And Content: An International Pre-Service Teacher's Experience, Roxana Aguilar Alonso

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Using auto-ethnography, I write my story as Mexican international student in the role of pre-service teacher in Australia. I focus on exploring my socio-political status and its relationship to assuming a position to respond to education policies about working with students from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds, and teaching Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content. I argue that assuming a position to respond to these policies as international pre-service teacher is overlapped with a multi-layered process in which epistemological deliberation occur as a consequence of being in a state of constant position shifting. Anzaldúa’s Coyolxauqui imperative and Martin’s Relatedness …

“In Lantite, No One Can Hear You Scream!” Student Voices Of High-Stakes Testing In Teacher Education., Alison L. Hilton, Rebecca Saunders, Caroline Mansfield

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

This article investigates pre-service teachers’ experiences of undertaking LANTITE, a high-stakes literacy and numeracy test for initial teacher education students. In this mixed methods study, 189 initial teacher education students from 28 Australian universities participated in an online questionnaire, with 27 students going on to take part in semi-structured telephone interviews. Indicative findings give voice to those most impacted by the implementation of LANTITE in 2017, revealing student concerns about the processing and return of results, and test anxiety. This study provides a unique insight into the experiences of completing this high-stakes test.

Teachers And Research Practices: Perspectives From English Language Educators In A Philippine University, Veronico N. Tarrayo, Philippe Jose S. Hernandez, Judith Ma. Angelica S. Claustro

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Given the paucity of studies regarding research practices of teachers, particularly English language teaching (ELT) practitioners in the ASEAN region and in the Philippines, this study explores the research practices of English language teachers in the Philippines. Using purposive-convenience sampling, a total of 49 teachers of English from a Philippine university were asked to answer a survey. To validate the data, pertinent public university documents were examined, and interviews with the university research heads were conducted. Findings suggest that the teachers were cognizant of the link between teaching and their own and their schools’ research practices. This research also reports …