Digital Commons Network^™

The Teacher’S Role In Increasing Student Engagement In High School Social Studies Courses, Quarnitra L. Price

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative case study explored (a) how teaching practices of high school teachers influence student engagement levels and performance in social studies classes, (b) how teachers might deliver more student relatable social studies content, (c) how teachers might help students relate to and become more engaged with important social studies concepts, and (d) how teachers can motivate students to become well-informed and fully engaged citizens. This study also examined existing barriers that prevent students from learning or engaging in social studies coursework.

Research findings suggest teachers play essential roles in how students perceive social studies content and respond to lessons …

The Experiences Of Minority Female Leaders In Educational Leadership: A Generic Qualitative Study, Gale Denise Beasley

Theses and Dissertations

Due to the underrepresentation of female minority leaders in the field of educational leadership, the scientific literature lacked evidence in understanding the experiences of those who, despite adversity, successfully secured administrative roles. The experiences of minority women who pursued and secured principal and/or assistant principalship appointments were examined using a generic qualitative approach.

The analysis of the data presented the challenges, barriers, and constraints that minority women were confronted with during the development and establishment of their careers as educational leaders. As a result of the complex intersectionality of race and gender, these leaders found themselves as the subjects of …

Altered Speech: A Case-Study Of Identity-Driven Speech In A Dissociative Identity Disorder System, Sarah Domin

Scripps Senior Theses

The field of sociolinguistics has long been interested in how speech differs across groups. These studies have been focused on how demographic factors like class, race, and geographical region alter speech patterns. However, more recently, the agency of individuals to use language as a tool to construct a certain identity or persona has been highlighted (e.g., Podesva 2007; Eckert 1989; Eckert 2008). These studies are limited due to the nature of their methods, relying on either one individual with a limited scope of characteristics or on a larger group of people with many different variables at play other than identity. …

Lifting The Veil: Hijbabi Fashion On Social Media, Erika Holshoe

Open Access Master's Theses

As visual representatives of Islam, diasporic Muslim women in the U.S. and U.K. are at the forefront of changing the perception of Islam and the rise of modest fashion. The aim of this study is to analyze how female Muslim social media influencers living in non-Muslim majority areas use fashionable apparel on social media to negotiate cultural and religious demands in conjunction with exploration of personal identities. Social media posts from Instagram were coded using grounded theory. The findings were analyzed using Netnographic methods and Social Representation Theory (SRT) as the main theoretical framework. This study found that Muslim social …

Rhetorical Leadership In Organizational Conflict And Change: Case Studies Of Antiracist Preaching, Steven Tramel Gaines

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

This study investigates how leaders call for change while also caring for their organizations. The theoretical framework comes from the interdisciplinary study of a type of religious communication called prophetic rhetoric, developed by scholars of communication, English, and homiletics. That framework is used here in the analyses of speeches and public letters by leaders who challenge ideologies and practices shaped by and contributing to racial injustice. More specifically, this dissertation studies how audiences white fragility leads to constrained prophetic rhetoric that is a communication strategy inviting change without destroying organizations or being expelled from them. From analyses of such rhetoric …

Women's Experiences With Leadership Development In An Outdoor-Based Experiential Training Program, Maria Del Socorro Hubbard

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Outdoor-based experiential training (OBET) programs are a popular option for leadership development. However, few qualitative studies have explored the structural and textural factors within these programs that contribute to the leadership development of businesswomen who participate in them. This qualitative phenomenological study used a constructivist epistemology to explore the experiences of a sample of women who, during 2018 and 2019, participated in a five-day OBET program for leadership development sponsored by their employer. Gender schema theory served as a theoretical framework to consider the research questions: 1) How do women experience leadership development in an OBET program? 2) What experiences …

Humans And Nonhumans Becoming Political: Memphis Women's March Assemblages, Margaret Ann King

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

In this post-qualitative feminist study, object-interviews with women who participated in the Memphis Womens March (MWM) and nonhuman objects were used to explore the interconnections of the MWM and the women and the nonhuman objects, and the relational knowledge generated by the interconnections between humans (e.g., the women who marched, other marchers) and nonhumans (e.g., posters, banners, t-shirts, pink pussyhats, and/or photographs). This study is significant in two ways. First, this post-qualitative feminist study attends to the interconnections of the MWM and the women and the signs. Second, this study will contribute to current post-qualitative work by utilizing object-interviews to …

Examining Beliefs About The Use Of Culturally Responsive Teaching Practices When Planning Literacy Instruction, Latwayla L. Knowlton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine the relationships between beliefs about the use of culturally responsive teaching practices when planning literacy instruction, reading course enrollment, and demographic factors among undergraduate K-6 elementary teacher candidates. Specifically, the study participants are K-6 elementary undergraduate teacher candidates attending a small, rural university within the Mid-south. The researcher sought to understand factors that may affect teacher candidates beliefs about the use of culturally responsive teaching practices as they begin making specific pedagogical adjustments to the classroom when planning literacy instruction. Data for this study was collected using a structured survey in …

Endogenous And Social Factors Influencing Infant Vocalizations As Fitness Signals, Helen L. Long

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

This dissertation evaluated the role of social and endogenous prelinguistic vocalizations as fitness signals in human development. It consists of three studies. The first investigated the reliability of listener judgments of the degree of infant vocal imitativeness in parent-infant vocal turn pairs as a measure of the saliency of potential vocal fitness signals. Participating listeners demonstrated moderate to high intra- and inter-rater agreement, suggesting vocal imitation has the potential to be used as a signal of fitness to caregivers in early development. The work also showed that vocal imitation in infancy is rare. The second study quantified the extent to …

How Preschool Teachers Use Book Sharing Strategies To Build Academic Language Skills, Lorraine Ann Meiners-Lovel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

AbstractMeiners-Lovel, Lorraine A. PhD. The University of Memphis. Preschool Teachers Use of Book Sharing Strategies to Build Academic Language Skills. May, 2020. Emily Thrush, PhD. ArrayIt is essential to understand the role of preschool teachers in the linguistic preparation of young children for kindergarten and elementary school. This understanding becomes even more important as more American preschoolers attend group care and public universal pre-kindergarten becomes more common. Children must master the variety of language known as the academic register, academic language, or school language in order to be academically successful. Preschool teachers need to understand the features of academic language …

Ecolinguistically Informed Critical Discourse Analysis Of Political Speech On Climate Change Policies In The United States Of America, Othman Khalid Al Shboul

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

This study uses a mixed-methods approach to explore how climate change is conceptualized in the politics of the United States from the perspective of Ecolinguistics and Critical Discourse Analysis. I analyzed all the statements and letters issued by the governors and mayors who opposed the American president, Donald Trump, when he announced that he would withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement that 195 countries around the world signed. The qualitative analysis employs Critical Metaphor Analysis to investigate politicians metaphorical choices made to influence public opinion and influence policies about climate change in the U.S. These types of metaphors …

Multivariate Modeling Of Cognitive Performance And Categorical Perception From Neuroimaging Data, Rakib Al-Fahad

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

State-of-the-art cognitive-neuroscience mainly uses hypothesis-driven statistical testing to characterize and model neural disorders and diseases. While such techniques have proven to be powerful in understanding diseases and disorders, they are inadequate in explaining causal relationships as well as individuality and variations. In this study, we proposed multivariate data-driven approaches for predictive modeling of cognitive events and disorders. We developed network descriptions of both structural and functional connectivities that are critical in multivariate modeling of cognitive performance (i.e., fluency, attention, and working memory) and categorical perceptions (i.e., emotion, speech perception). We also performed dynamic network analysis on brain connectivity measures to …

Investigating Teachers Perspectives Toward Integrating Culture Into Learning And Teaching English As A Foreign Language, Monera Almohawes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

This study investigated teachers perspectives toward integrating culture into language teaching in Saudi Arabia. In particular, the research sought to investigate the reported perceptions and attitudes of English teachers in Saudi Arabia toward cultures role in learning and teaching English as a foreign language (EFL). The study also examined the relationship between teachers opinions and their practices, what teachers understand by integrating culture into an EFL context, and the materials and strategies that teachers use in their classrooms related to culture and challenges that they might face. Data were gathered from full-time teachers, and a mixed-methods approach was employed to …

Chasing Equity: Analyzing The Impact Of Education Reform Policies On Black Students In Urban Schools, Rhonda Anthony

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

This dissertation is a three-article exploration of the concept of educational equity and how it impacts Black students in urban schools. Through the framework of Social Construction Theory, the concept of equity is explored through a series of discourse and document analyses. The first article uses a corpus methodology to analyze the Race to the Top (RTTT) applications of the 12 states that won the competitive grant that encouraged massive education reform law and policies alongside submitted ESSA plans of these same states to identify strategies used to combat barriers to success for urban, Black students. The second article uses …

Self-Reactive Influences On Simulation Anxiety In Graduate Occupational Therapy Students, Kendal Lee Booker

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

This pragmatic multiple case, single site research explored the sources and manifestations of simulation anxiety in Master of Occupational Therapy (MOT) students at a health sciences institution in the Southeastern United States. The study involved five, second-year MOT students who reported experiencing very much simulation anxiety following their first year within their occupational therapy program. Self-reactive influences of challenge, feedback, and self-efficacy were examined. The challenge levels of simulations, the provision of feedback, and the levels of self-efficacy were perceived as acceptable. Sources of simulation anxiety were identified; internal sources included having high personal expectations and external sources involved experiencing …

Identifying A Customer Centered Approach For Urban Planning: Defining A Framework And Evaluating Potential In A Livability Context, Golnaz Sarram

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

In transportation planning, public engagement is an essential requirement forinformed decision-making. This is especially true for assessing abstract concepts such aslivability, where it is challenging to define objective measures and to obtain input that canbe used to gauge performance of communities. This dissertation focuses on advancing adata-driven decision-making approach for the transportation planning domain in thecontext of livability. First, a conceptual model for a customer-centric framework fortransportation planning is designed integrating insight from multiple disciplines (chapter1), then a data-mining approach to extracting features important for defining customersatisfaction in a livability context is described (chapter 2), and finally an appraisal of …

Algorithmic Methods For Large-Scale Genomic And Metagenomic Data Analysis, Quang Tran

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

DNA sequencing technologies have advanced into the realm of big data due to frequent and rapid developments in biologic medicine. This has caused a surge in the necessity of efficient and highly scalable algorithms.This dissertation focuses on central work in read-to-reference alignments, resequencing studies, and metagenomics that were designed with these principles as the guiding reason for their construction.First, consider the computing intensive task of read-to-reference alignments, where the difficulty of aligning reads to a genome is directly related their complexity. We investigated three different formulations of sequence complexity as viable tools for measuring genome complexity along with how they …

Collaborative Writing In An Online Synchronous Mode: Comparing L2 Learners Interactions, Texts, And Co-Authoring Experiences In Pairs And Groups, Emil Fermin Ubaldo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

The writing-to-learn the language (WLL) dimension in L2 writing argues for the language learning potential of written language production (cf. Manchn, 2011). This perspective has been supported by empirical research demonstrating that collaborative writing in peer groups can be an effective way to help language learners build both linguistic knowledge and writing skills (Storch, 2013; Swain, 2001). These studies generally investigated dyads collaborating in face-to-face environments. Limited research suggests, however, that the benefits of collaborative writing may be greater in small groups (e.g., Fernndez Dobao, 2012). Despite growing imperative for the use of technology in collaborative writing (Li & Storch, …

Writing Instruction For Students With Learning Disabilities: Examining Teacher Practice, Preparedness, And Self-Efficacy, Alycia M. Taylor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

ABSTRACT Writing is critical for high school students academic, social, and professional success. However, developing writing skills is a challenging process, particularly for students with learning disabilities (LDs). To produce high quality writing, substantial support from teachers is needed. Yet, many teachers are uninformed of how to assist students with LDs. Grounded in social cognitive and socio-cultural theories, the aim of this quantitative study was to expand the fields of writing instruction and LDs by comparing data from general and special education teachers. This study was designed to survey this population about their writing instruction, including the use of evidence-based …

The Built Environment: An Autoethnography Of Black Masculinity And Physical Space Through The Use Of Poetic And Photographic Inquiry, Derwin Sisnett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

In this critical race theory (CRT) autoethnographic arts-based study, I used autoethnographic arts-based methods (i.e. poetry and photography) to examine my experiences growing up as a Black male in an urban city in the Northeast in order to examine how I navigated between the physical spaces of school and neighborhood and how that shaped my understanding of Black masculinity, including the dominant narratives of underachievement, tough neighborhoods, and the proclivity to violence associated with it. I aimed to answer the following research questions: 1) How did the physical spaces of school and neighborhood contribute to my systemic oppression and my …

Daring To Be Herself: Womanist Rhetorical Theory And Black Womens Presidential Campaign Announcement Speeches, Dianna N. Watkins

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

ABSTRACT Watkins, Dianna N. The University of Memphis. May, 2020. Daring to be Herself: Womanist Rhetorical Theory and Black Womens Presidential Campaign Announcement SpeechesMajor Professor: Andre E. Johnson, Ph.D.Black womens theoretical production has neither been consistently celebrated nor canonized within the academy; therefore, the primary focus of this dissertation is to establish a definition for womanist rhetorical theory in order to acknowledge Black womens voice as carrier of theory and persuasive prowess (Collins, 1998). Theorizing through rhetorician Kimberly Johnsons (2015) womanist rhetorical criticism, I build from Alice Walkers (1983) definition of womanism and ethicist Stacey Floyd-Thomas womanist tenets. These tenets …

Front Matter

The Bridge

No abstract provided.

Language Shift And Maintenance Among Danish Immigrants In The Us, Karoline Kühl

The Bridge

The destination of most participants in the mass emigration from Denmark around the turn of the twentieth century was North America. In total about 400,000 to 450,000 Danes immigrated to the United States between 1820 and 2000, the majority between 1880 and 1920 (Grøngaard Jeppesen 2005, 265ff., 323). Danish immigration to the United States was, generally speaking, a story of socioeconomic success due to rapid assimilation based on both sociodemographic factors and attitudes. Between 1870 and 1940, when most Danish immigrants settled in the United States, the group included, to a larger degree than most other European groups, young, unmarried …

The Potential Benefits Of Japanese Mmorpgs For Japanese Learning Motivation, Shuting Xu

Scripps Senior Theses

Foreign language anxiety (FLA) has been found to have a negative impact on the motivation to learn foreign languages in many previous research studies. However, recent studies have found that massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) in particular provided an environment that positively impacted English as a second language (ESL) acquisition. However, there is a lack of study on the Japanese language and Japanese MMORPGs. Therefore, the current study aims to look at Japanese FLA and integrative motivation in a Japanese MMORPG learning environment as compared to a Japanese classroom learning environment with a sample of 132 English native speakers …

Retrieval-Induced Forgetting In Autism Spectrum: Combining Narrative Experience With Clinical Research To Explore Stress-Induced, Transitory Retrograde Amnesia, Elizabeth Willsmore-Finkle

Scripps Senior Theses

Currently, psychological research explores autism, a blanket term for a range of neurobiological and developmental differences, through a clinical, as opposed to an experiential, lens. Autism has only existed as formal diagnosis under that name since 1943 (Kanner); however, the advocacy of activists such as Temple Grandin, a slaughterhouse systems designer best known for documenting her life with autism in a series of autobiographic accounts, has begun to legitimize the incorporation of emic experiences of autism within clinical research. Researcher Dermot Bowler and colleagues (2011) have conducted extensive reviews of memory distinctions in autism, finding differences of varying degrees across …

Professional Development For Mathematics Teacher Education Faculty: Need And Design, Billy Jackson, Shandy Hauk, Jenq Jong Tsay, Alma Ramirez

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

The purpose of this report is to share a conceptual model useful in the design of professional learning about teaching for university mathematics faculty. The model is illustrated by examples from a particular design effort: the development of an online shortcourse for faculty new to teaching mathematics courses for prospective primary school teachers. How novice mathematics teacher educators grow as instructors is an emerging area of research and development in the United States. At the same time, it is well established that effective instructional design of any course, including a course for faculty, requires breadth first: understanding and anticipating the …

"Ode To Confidence": Poetry Groups For Dysarthria In Multiple Sclerosis, Rebecca Balchin, Deborah Hersh, Jamaica Grantis, Maddie Godfrey

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Purpose: Approximately 40–50% of people with multiple sclerosis (MS) have dysarthria impacting confidence in communication. This study explored how people with MS experienced a novel therapeutic approach combining dysarthria therapy with poetry in a group format. Method: Participants were recruited through MSWA (formerly known as the Multiple Sclerosis Society of Western Australia), a leading service provider for people living with all neurological conditions in Western Australia. They attended eight weekly sessions led by a speech pathologist and a professional poet. The study was co-designed and qualitative, using observational field notes recorded during sessions and semi-structured in-depth interviews with participants after …

Global Variability Of The Human Igg Glycome, Jerko Stambuk, Natali Nakic, Frano Vuckovic, Maja Pucic-Bakovic, Genadij Razdorov, Irena Trbojevic-Akmacic, Mislav Novokmet, Toma Keser, Marija Vilaj, Tamara Stambuk, Ivan Gudelj, Mirna Simurina, Manshu Song, Hao Wang, Marijana Pericic Salihovic, Harry Campbell, Igor Rudan, Ivana Kolcic, Leigh Anne Eller, Paul Mckeigue, Merlin L. Robb, Jonas Halfvarson, Metin Kurtoglu, Vito Annese, Tatjana Skaric-Juric, Mariam Molokhia, Ozren Polasek, Caroline Hayward, Hannah Kibuuka, Kujtim Thaqi, Dragan Primorac, Christian Geieger, Sorachai Nitayaphan, Tim Spector, Youxin Wang, Therese Tillin, Nish Chaturvedi, James F. Wilson, Moses Schanfield, Maxim Filipenko, Wei Wang, Gordan Lauc

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Immunoglobulin G (IgG) is the most abundant serum antibody which structural characteristics and effector functions are modulated through the attachment of various sugar moieties called glycans. Composition of the IgG N-glycome changes with age of an individual and in different diseases. Variability of IgG glycosylation within a population is well studied and is known to be affected by both genetic and environmental factors. However, global inter-population differences in IgG glycosylation have never been properly addressed. Here we present population-specific N-glycosylation patterns of IgG, analyzed in 5 different populations totaling 10,482 IgG glycomes, and of IgG’s fragment crystallizable region (Fc), analyzed …

Release: A Protocol For A Systematic Review Based, Individual Participant Data, Meta- And Network Meta-Analysis, Of Complex Speech-Language Therapy Interventions For Stroke-Related Aphasia, Marian C. Brady, Myzoon Ali, Kathryn Vandenberg, Linda J. Williams, Louise R. Williams, Masahiro Abo, Frank Becker, Audrey Bowen, Caitlin Brandenburg, Caterina Breitenstein, Stefanie Bruehl, David A. Copland, Tamara B. Cranfill, Marie Di Pietro-Bachmann, Pamela Enderby, Joanne Fillingham, Federica Lucia Galli, Marialuisa Gandolfi, Bertrand Glize, Erin Godecke, Neil Hawkins, Katerina Hilari, Jacqueline Hinckley, Simon Horton, David Howard, Petra Jaecks, Elizabeth Jefferies, Luis M. T. Jesus, Maria Kambanaros, Eun Kyoung Kang, Eman M. Khedr, Anthony Pak-Hin Kong, Tarja Kukkonen, Marina Laganaro, Matthew A. Lambon Ralph, Ann Charlotte Laska, Béatrice Leemann, Alexander P. Leff, Roxele R. Lima, Antje Lorenz, Brian Macwhinney, Rebecca Shisler Marshall, Flavia Mattioli, Ilknur Mavis, Marcus Meinzer, Reza Nilipour, Enrique Noé, Nam-Jong Paik, Rebecca Palmer, Ilias Papathanasiou, Brigida F. Patricio, Isabel Pavão Martins, Cathy Price, Tatjana Prizl Jakovac, Elizabeth Rochon, Miranda L. Rose, Charlotte Rosso, Ilona Rubi-Fessen, Marina B. Ruiter, Claerwen Snell, Benjamin Stahl, Jerzy P. Szaflarski, Shirley A. Thomas, Mieke Van De Sandt-Koenderman, Ineke Van Der Meulen, Evy Visch-Brink, Linda Worrall, Heather Harris Wright

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Background: Speech and language therapy (SLT) benefits people with aphasia following stroke. Group level summary statistics from randomised controlled trials hinder exploration of highly complex SLT interventions and a clinically relevant heterogeneous population. Creating a database of individual participant data (IPD) for people with aphasia aims to allow exploration of individual and therapy-related predictors of recovery and prognosis. Aim: To explore the contribution that individual participant characteristics (including stroke and aphasia profiles) and SLT intervention components make to language recovery following stroke. Methods and procedures: We will identify eligible IPD datasets (including randomised controlled trials, non-randomised comparison studies, observational studies …

A Sensorimotor Control Framework For Understanding Emotional Communication And Regulation, Justin H.G. Williams, Charlotte F. Huggins, Barbra Zupan, Megan Willis, Tamsyn E. Van Rheenen, Wataru Sato, Romina Palermo, Catherine Ortner, Martin Krippl, Mariska Kret, Joanne M. Dickson, Chiang-Shan R. Li, Leroy Lowe

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

Our research team was asked to consider the relationship of the neuroscience of sensorimotor control to the language of emotions and feelings. Actions are the principal means for the communication of emotions and feelings in both humans and other animals, and the allostatic mechanisms controlling action also apply to the regulation of emotional states by the self and others. We consider how motor control of hierarchically organised, feedback-based, goal-directed action has evolved in humans, within a context of consciousness, appraisal and cultural learning, to serve emotions and feelings. In our linguistic analysis, we found that many emotion and feelings words …