Digital Commons Network^™

Policies Affecting Post-Traditional Students And Students Facing Economic Instability At The Community College, Joshua Patrick Bowens

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The following dissertation in practice researches policies from the Colorado Community College System (CCCS) that relate to Post-Traditional students and students experiencing economic instability. Using a conceptual framework of Motivational Theory (Maslow, 1943; Harrigan & Lamport-Commons, 2015; Herzberg, 1959) and the Principal-Agent theory (Jensen, & Meckling, 1976), this dissertation focuses on how one community college (CC) within the CCCS system interprets and implements those policies both college and campus wide, as well as departmentally. Although many studies exist pertaining to community college students, literature pertaining to Post-Traditional students in a community college setting has not been fully explored. This will …

Inservice Teachers Perceptions Of Barriers To Information Literacy Instruction In Poverty Environments, Brian Taylor Johnson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

The application of information literacy (IL) skills is essential for K-12 students to succeed academically and in life (Yu et al., 2016). It thus follows that K-12 students need teachers who can teach IL concepts effectively. This is even more true for learners growing up in poverty who already face many barriers to their achievement. Due to a variety of barriers including a lack of understanding of the term IL, limited training and a lack of personal IL capabilities, teachers do not consistently and effectively provide IL instruction for their students (Lee & Lee, 2014; Shannon et al., 2019; Wang, …

Multivariate Analysis For Understanding Cognitive Speech Processing, Md Sultan Mahmud

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Categorical perception (CP) of audio is critical to understand how the human brainperceives speech sounds despite widespread variability in acoustic properties. Most studiesthat examine cognitive speech processing have applied methodological approaches that focuson specific or a set of brain regions. Departing from hypothesis-driven approaches, in thisdissertation, we proposed multivariate data-driven approaches to identify the spatiotemporal(i.e., when in time and where in the brain) and spectral (i.e., frequency-band power levels)characteristics of auditory neural activity that reflects CP for speech (i.e., differentiatesphonetic prototypes from ambiguous speech sounds). We recorded 64-channel EEG aslisteners rapidly classified vowel sounds along an acoustic-phonetic continuum. We usedparameter …

A Comparison Of Error Correction Methods Embedded In The Orton-Gillingham Approach To Spelling, Melissa Lee Miller-Benson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

The present study examined the effects of two error repair procedures on the spelling performance of five students who were rising first through third grades Each participant was diagnosed with a learning disability in reading and spelling. Using an Adapted Alternating Treatments Design, a teacher-led questioning procedure and a student-led visual comparison procedure were implemented in the unbranded Orton-Gillingham instructional model. Teacher-led questioning is the scaffolded model of error repair described in Orton-Gillingham Simultaneous Oral Spelling instruction. Student-led visual comparison is a method which is well documented in the literature as highly effective for students with learning disabilities. The intervention …

Storytelling Health: A Content Analysis Of Narrative Transportation And Identification Cues In Direct-To-Consumer Advertisements, Stephanie Lynn Montgomery

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Using qualitative content analysis, I studied the visual and verbal narratives in DTCAs and analyzed transportation and identification cues that are described in narrative persuasion. My DTCAs were mined from the top ten programs (Neilsen Ratings), during the last three months of originally aired shows of the 2016 and 2018 season. All of the narratives are either a classic drama or vignette and are messages that communicate wellness or a restoration of health. Other results show a distinct difference between the narratives that are communicated visually versus verbally, with the majority of transportation and identification cues contained in the visual …

Investigating Speech Rate Alignment In Individuals With Traumatic Brain Injury, Megan Battles Parsons

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

The alignment of verbal and nonverbal behaviors is important for conversation. Research has shown that interactive behavior alignment is commonly impaired following a traumatic brain injury (TBI), and the ability for an individual with TBI to align their speech rate with their conversational partners can be affected. This non-convergence of speech rates can lead to negative social outcomes, including perceptions of decreased social connectedness and decreased willingness of conversational partners to engage in conversation. Despite these negative outcomes, researchers have yet to discover a therapeutic technique to increase speech rate convergence, and in turn, lead to positive social outcomes during …

The Washback Effect Of Self And Peer Assessment In Second Language Writing, Musbah Abdussayed

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

The influence of tests and assessments on learning and teaching is known as the washback effect. The purpose of this study is to investigate the washback effect of self and peer assessment in Arabic writing as a second language. The study was conducted on high school advanced Arabic learners at an Islamic school in the USA. The study examines the learners attitudes and perceived capability towards self and peer assessment, their perceived importance of using self and peer assessment in revision, and their perceived effectiveness of taking the two assessments together. Moreover, the study seeks to reveal whether self and …

Expert-Generated And Auto-Generated Socratic Tutoring Systems For Code Comprehension, Zeyad Alshaikh

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Programming skills are a vital part of many disciplines but can be challenging to teach and learn. Thus, the programming courses are considered difficult and a major stumbling block. To overcome these challenges, students could benefit from extensive individual support such as tutoring, but there are simply not enough qualified tutors available to meet rising demands.A potential solution is the development of intelligent tutoring systems (ITSs), which offer individualized, one-on-one instruction. Such systems can offer the support to make programming instruction more effective, scalable and reduce existing teachers' workloads.This dissertation demonstrates how conversational ITSs and the Socratic method of teaching …

How Do Classroom Teachers In Urban Charter Schools Enact Humanizing Pedagogy Amid Neoliberal Education Reform? A Case Study From The American South, Michelle R. Armstrong

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Neoliberal education reform perpetuates the dehumanizing belief in individual merit within high-stakes testing environments. As a result, schooling experiences continue to disenfranchise historically marginalized African American children because of the overreliance on narrow standards to deem students proficient in their academic progress or not. Therefore, the purpose of this narrative case study was to examine the humanizing practices that classroom teachers enact within high-stakes testing environments of state and locally authorized urban charter schools in Tennessee that primarily serve African American students. The study found that classroom teachers acknowledge the problematic nature of the high-stakes testing and accountability environments in …

Fugitive Gestures: The Persistence Of Black Meaning And Black Life In An Anti-Black World, Jasmine Wallace

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

My dissertation, Fugitive Gestures: The persistence of Black meaning and Black life in an anti-Black world, develops a phenomenological analysis of contemporary Black lived experience in the US occuring in fugitive spaces--territories independent of white supremacy and anti-Black disciplinary techniques. In contrast to Afropessimists who argue that contemporary Black subjects exists as nonbeing, I demonstrate the presence of contemporary Black meaning and Black being as expressed in Black gestures. First, I develop the concept 'Black archive' to describe how contemporary subjects live with the conceptual awareness of historical anti-Blackness as it unfolds in the present; are symbolically marked by 'hieroglyphics …

Characterizations Of Student, Instructor, And Textbook Discourse Related To Basis And Change Of Basis In Quantum Mechanics, Kaitlyn Stephens Serbin, Megan Wawro, Rebecah Storms

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

Communities develop social languages in which utterances take on culturally specific situated meanings. As physics students interact in their classroom, they can learn the broader physics community’s social language by co-constructing meanings with their instructors. We provide an exposition of a systematic and productive use of idiosyncratic, socially acquired language in two classroom communities that we consider to be subcultures of the broader community of physicists. We perform a discourse analysis on twelve quantum mechanics students, two instructors, and the course text related to statements about basis and change of basis within a spin-½ probability problem. We classify the utterances’ …

Internet-Based Cognitive–Behavioural Therapy For Tinnitus: Secondary Analysis To Examine Predictors Of Outcomes, Hansapani Rodrigo, Eldré W. Beukes, Gerhard Andersson, Vinaya Manchaiah

School of Mathematical & Statistical Sciences Faculty Publications

Objectives The current study examined predictors of outcomes of internet-based cognitive–behavioural therapy (ICBT) for individuals with tinnitus.

Design Secondary analysis of intervention studies.

Setting Internet-based guided tinnitus intervention provided in the UK.

Participants 228 individuals who underwent ICBT.

Interventions ICBT.

Primary and secondary outcome measures The key predictor variables included demographic, tinnitus, hearing-related and treatment-related variables as well as clinical factors (eg, anxiety, depression, insomnia), which can have an impact on the treatment outcome. A 13-point reduction in Tinnitus Functional Index (TFI) scores has been defined as a successful outcome.

Results Of the 228 subjects who were included in the …

The Internet-Extended Mind: The Psychological Ramifications And Philosophical Implications Of Cognitive Offloading, Gloria Choi

Scripps Senior Theses

In this thesis, I explore the internet-extended mind through both philosophical and psychological lenses in order to investigate the questions “To what extent is the mind extended onto the internet and, more generally, outside our bodies?” and “How will an increasingly internet-extended brain change the ways in which humans communicate, remember, and behave?”. First, I introduce the idea of a mind that extends out into the world, instead of lying solely in the brain. Then, I outline existing research that introduces the challenges and implications of an internet-extended mind in an ever-changing internet landscape. Next, I discuss how the internet …

Big Data Distributed Support Vector Machine, Raed Abdulkareem Hasan, Tole Sutikno Tole Sutikno, Mohd Arfian Ismail Mohd Arfian Ismail

Mesopotamian Journal of Big Data

Data mining and machine learning (ML) methods are being used more than ever before in cyber security. The use of machine learning (ML) is one of the potential solutions that may be successful against zero day attacks, starting with the categorization of IP traffic and filtering harmful traffic for intrusion detection. In this field, certain published systematic reviews were taken into consideration. Contemporary systematic reviews may incorporate both older and more recent works in the topic of investigation. All of the papers we looked at were thus recent. Data from 2016 to 2021 were utilized in the study. Both security …

Instructional Coaching For Culturally Responsive Pedagogy, Kelly Shorb

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Growing up with a global perspective and teaching in highly diverse schools has fueled my desire to understand how instructional coaching and Culturally Responsive Pedagogy work together in education. This case study examined the current practices of instructional coaches to understand how they incorporate components of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy. Through observations and interviews of three coaches and a director this study explored the interactions, behaviors and language of coaches as they engaged with teachers to explore and understand prior knowledge, beliefs and current incorporation of CRP with teachers. The literature review provides an in-depth description of each of the components …

Situated Immersive Gaming Environments For Irish Language Learning, Naoise Collins

Doctoral

In this thesis, three cycles of design based research are outlined, implementing a situated immersive virtual reality game for Irish language learning. It was undertaken in order to investigate a potential technological solution to improve the limited number of daily Irish adult speakers in Ireland, 3%. It examines the intersection between game based learning, Irish language learning and virtual reality technology and the methodological approach undertaken follows a design based research paradigm. The research focus is on motivation and anxiety through interaction with a virtual reality game. It offers several contributions to current literature including: The utilisation of the Second …

Widening The Lens On Capital: Conceptualising The University Experiences Of Non-Traditional Women Nurse Students, Lesley Andrew, Ken Robinson, Julie Dare, Leesa Costello

Research outputs 2014 to 2021

This article argues the insufficiency of the traditional application of cultural, social and economic capital in conceptualising the non-traditional student experience. Built on the thematic analysis of 52 in-depth interviews with 28 mature-age women nursing undergraduates with family responsibilities in Australia, an alternative, expanded model of capital is proposed.

The qualitative study, underpinned by Gadamer’s Hermeneutic Philosophy, revealed multiple threats and enablers to progression throughout the degree. Dimensions of capital previously unacknowledged in the nursing literature were necessary to fully conceptualise these rich and complex findings, including important student strengths. These dimensions: aspirational, navigational, resistant, familial and experiential capital, compensated …

Biological Constraints On Neural Network Models Of Cognitive Function, Friedemann Pulvermüller, Rosario Tomasello, Malte R. Henningsen-Schomers, Thomas Wennekers

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics

Neural network models are potential tools for improving our understanding of complex brain functions. To address this goal, these models need to be neurobiologically realistic. However, although neural networks have advanced dramatically in recent years and even achieve human-like performance on complex perceptual and cognitive tasks, their similarity to aspects of brain anatomy and physiology is imperfect. Here, we discuss different types of neural models, including localist, auto-associative, hetero-associative, deep and whole-brain networks, and identify aspects under which their biological plausibility can be improved. These aspects range from the choice of model neurons and of mechanisms of synaptic plasticity and …

A Perceptual Study Of Cross-Language Influence On Vocal Fry Use In Women Exposed To Two Languages, Todd A. Gibson, Connie Summers

Faculty Publications

Cross-linguistic influence has been observed across all domains of language. However, nothing is known about the role of cross-linguistic influence in bilingual speakers’ use of vocal fry. Several recent studies have identified an upsurge in the use of vocal fry among female speakers of American English. We sought to identify cross-linguistic influence in vocal fry use by women living in the US and exposed to both English and Spanish. Participants were categorized as functionally monolingual in English (n = 25), functionally monolingual in Spanish (n =23) and relatively balanced bilingual (n = 10) based on responses to language experience questionnaires. …

Developmental Neurorobotics Models Of Counting And Numerosity Judgment, Leszek Pecyna

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

This thesis presents novel developmental robotics models of number cognition which take into account the embodied basis of this process. The ability to perceive quantity is undoubtedly crucial for both humans and animals. Nowadays, automation is becoming increasingly important in society; it seems that the way, similar to humans, to perceive and process numbers is one of the pressing issues for the future of robotics. This is important in the context of proper interaction between robots and humans which requires machines - at least on some level - to understand complex/abstract words such as number names. This thesis takes into …

From The Special Issue Editors, Pam Bromley, Katrin Girgensohn, Kara Northway, Eliana Schonberg

The Writing Center Journal

No abstract provided.

An Introduction To Transatlantic Writing Center Resources, Pam Bromley, Katrin Girgensohn, Kara Northway, Eliana Schonberg

The Writing Center Journal

No abstract provided.

Writing Centers And Programs: Their Role In Democratization Policies In Higher Education In Argentina, Diana Monica Waigandt, Fabiana Castagno, Sonia Gabriela Lizarriturri, Gabriela Lujan Giammarini, Estela Ines Moyano, Maria Del Carmen Novo

The Writing Center Journal

No abstract provided.

Review: Internationalizing The Writing Center: A Guide For Developing A Multilingual Writing Center, Svetlana Koltovskaia

The Writing Center Journal

No abstract provided.

Review: Exploring European Writing Cultures: Country Reports On Genres, Writing Practices And Languages Used In European Higher Education, Katheen Shine Cain

The Writing Center Journal

No abstract provided.

Writer Types, Writing Strategies: Introducing A Non-English Text, Schreiben Und Denken, To A New Audience, Nadja Sennewald

The Writing Center Journal

No abstract provided.

Emotional Body Language Synthesis For Humanoid Robots, Asimina Marmpena

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

In the next decade, societies will witness a rise in service robots deployed in social environments, such as schools, homes, or shops, where they will operate as assistants, public relation agents, or companions. People are expected to willingly engage and collaborate with these robots to accomplish positive outcomes. To facilitate collaboration, robots need to comply with the behavioural and social norms used by humans in their daily interactions. One such behavioural norm is the expression of emotion through body language. Previous work on emotional body language synthesis for humanoid robots has been mainly focused on hand-coded design methods, often employing …

Dynamic Generation Of Spatial Referring Expressions For Social Robots, Christopher Wallbridge

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

Robots are an increasing part of our daily lives. As robots become more pervasive it is important that we are able to interact with them naturally. The field of Human Robot Interaction (HRI) seeks to improve interactions between human and robot. People spend many years in their childhood learning to communicate the locations of objects naturally to other people. When trying to communicate the location of objects, people generate under-specified statements and then generate further repair if necessary to guide the listener as part of an interactive dialogue. The focus in HRI up until now has been on trying to …

“I Can Do Things Because I Feel Valuable”: Authentic Project Experiences And How They Matter To Instructional Design Students, Jason K. Mcdonald, Amy A. Rogers

Faculty Publications

This paper examines how authentic project experiences matter to instructional design students. We explored this through a single case study of an instructional design student (referred to as Abby) who participated as a member of an educational simulation design team at a university in the western United States. Our data consisted of interviews with Abby that we analyzed to understand how she depicted her participation in this authentic project. In general, Abby found her project involvement to open up both possibilities and constraints. Early in her involvement, when she encountered limitations she did not expect, those constraints showed up as …

The Nature Of Verbs In Sign Languages: A Role And Reference Grammar Account Of Irish Sign Language Verbs, Irene Murtagh

Articles

This paper is concerned with the special nature of sign language verbs, in particular to this research, Irish Sign Language verbs. We use Role and Reference Grammar to provide a definition of the structure of lexical entries that are sufficiently rich and robust in nature to represent Irish Sign Language verbs. Role and Reference Grammar takes language to be a system of communicative social action, and accordingly, analysing the communicative functions of grammatical structures plays a vital role in grammatical description and theory from this perspective. This work is part of research on the development of a linguistically motivated computational …