Digital Commons Network^™

Teaching The Carceral Crisis: An Ethical And Pedagogical Imperative, Taja-Nia Y. Henderson

University of Maryland Law Journal of Race, Religion, Gender and Class

"Teaching the Carceral Crisis: An Ethical and Pedagogical Imperative," demonstrates that although mass incarceration and mass conviction has increased in the United States, law school curricula has continued to lack any substantive discussion on these issues. The article highlights the need for law schools to improve their current curricula in order to prevent further stigmatization of criminal offenders and the continued increase of incarceration rates.

Adolescent Girls, Population Council

Momentum

IN THIS ISSUE: Delaying child marriage in sub-Saharan Africa | Girls on the move | Protecting girls from gender-based violence | The effect of teenage pregnancy on girls' schooling | Ishraq: A safe space for girls to learn, play, and grow

Truancy In San Bernardino: What Is It And How Should We Respond, Susan Elizabeth Kennedy

Theses Digitization Project

The focus of this study was to gain an understanding of truancy. Familial factors are frequently blamed for attendance issues, but research shows that the reasons for truancy are oftentimes more complex. The study was conducted using the constructivist paradigm, and key stakeholders were interviewed to discuss their experience with truancy. The study's findings will influence social work practice by providing guidance to create effective truancy programs in San Bernardino. The study site for this research project was the San Bernardino Public Defender's Office. The research project was conducted in the Juvenile Division of the office. The participants were selected …

Analysis Of Stakeholder Expectations Of Effective Indiana High Schools, Doug Miller

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to analyze expectations and perceptions from various groups concerning qualities of effective high schools. This study examined commonalities among groups of people in terms of their relationship to high schools. Stakeholders from Indiana surveyed during this study included: high school parents, high school educators, and state-level lawmakers, both senators and representatives. A total of 329 respondents participated in the study. After an extensive literature review of high school outcomes, characteristics, and purposes, I developed the Quality School Survey to collect the needed data. The instrument gathered data by asking respondents to indicate the …

Global-Mindedness And Intercultural Competence: A Quantitative Study Of Pre-Service Teachers, Qi Cui

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study assessed pre-service teachers levels of global-mindedness and intercultural competence using the Global-Mindedness Scale (GMS) and the Cultural Intelligence Scale (CQS) and investigated the correlation between the two. The study examined whether the individual scale factors such as gender, perceived competence in non-native language or culture, frequency of interaction with people of diverse backgrounds, and teaching experience were good predictors of pre-service teachers global-mindedness and intercultural competence. The survey was conducted through Qualtrics with privacy protection. The Statistical Package of the Social Science (SPSS) was used and multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), multiple regression, and Pearson product-moment correlation tests …

Examination Of Quality Indicators In Public And Private Pre-Kindergarten Classrooms In Indiana, Rhonda M. Peterson

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the current state of pre-kindergarten classrooms in the state of Indiana through the perspectives of public and private pre-kindergarten program directors. Survey results revealed a high concentration of female pre-kindergarten directors within the state of Indiana. Although directors rated their teaching staffs with a high level of earlyEducation background, they themselves felt less confident about their backgrounds in this field. Descriptive data also revealed that private student-teacher ratios are smaller, their instructional days are longer, their programs have been established for longer periods of time, and their directors have had longer tenures …

An Application Of The Theory Of Multiple Intelligence To Improve Academic Performance And Achievement Goals In The Early School Years, Marilyn Victoria Garcia-Mata

Theses Digitization Project

The present research project applied Howard Gardner's MI theory to the social studies curriculum of a third grade classroom. This intervention seeks to increase student's academic grade scores and learning goal orientation in the social studies chapter of Old and New Communities. The participants for this research project were third grade students enrolled at Assumption Catholic School in Los Angeles, California. The sample consisted of 11 third grade children.

A Comparison Study Of The Use Of Paper Versus Digital Textbooks By Undergraduate Students, James W. Johnson

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Todays undergraduate student faces many challenges. The challenges include paying for tuition and textbooks and finding a job upon graduation. These students are tech-savvy and seeking better ways to learn and retain material they learn in their classes. In addition, the textbook market is trying to evolve by serving this tech-generation through offering digital textbooks and other media-rich materials. New digital textbooks coupled with tablet e-readers are being used to help undergraduate students learn and retain information just as well as traditional paper textbooks. Undergraduate students have strong opinions about the use of paper and digital textbooks including the physical …

The Effect Of Socioeconomic Status On Student Perceptions Of Instructional Communication Behaviors, Samuel A. Crecelius

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In spite of desegregation and efforts to provide equitableEducation for all students, minorities and students living in poverty continue to underperform their peers.Education theorists have attributed this achievement gap to a cultural mismatch between students and their teachers and schools. At the same time, instructional communication research has found that cultural differences may influence student perceptions of teacher communication behaviors and that these behaviors have an effect on learning outcomes. Interestingly, while race has received extensive study in the instructional communication literature, little research has examined the role of socioeconomic status on students' perceptions of instructor communication behaviors. The current …

School Factors Related To Reading Achievement In Rural Schools With And Without High Poverty, Seth W. Miller

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This quantitative study identified how rural schools differ on five school-level factors related to student achievement according to their performance on Grade 3 reading. Through use of a MANOVA test, it was shown that principals of high-poverty rural schools that made AYP in Grade 3 reading reported significantly higher levels of guaranteed and viable curriculum than principals of high-poverty rural schools that did not make AYP. There were no significant differences in the presence of the school-level factors in rural schools without high poverty based on the principal reports. Additionally, the study identified which school-level factors predict student achievement in …

The Impact Of First-, Second-, And Third-Grade Teachers On Third-Grade Student Istep+ Scores, Jane A. Bartley

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study used existing third-grade ISTEP+ data from a cohort of Evansville Vanderburgh School Corporation students to evaluate various non-experimental methods for estimating teacher effects on student test scores. The study considered the impact that first-, second-, and third-grade teachers had on student performance as measured by the Indiana standardized test in third grade by looking for recognizable patterns of success based on teacher assignment in a cohort of 350 students. By making the assumption of randomness in assigning students to teachers and controlling for student transience, demographics, and teacher movement, the variances of mean ISTEP+ scores were examined to …

Segregation, Education, And Blurring The Lines Of Division In St. Louis, Aaron N. Taylor

Saint Louis University Public Law Review

No abstract provided.

Needs Of Transitional Age Youth, Evelyn Kelli Ensman

Theses Digitization Project

The purpose of this study was to gain insight into needs of transitional age youth by interviewing experts in this field. The study participants for this research study are the employees that work with the transitional age youth population. The study participants consisted of: Licensed Clinical Social Workers, Masters level Social Workers (MSW), and Marriage and Family Therapists (MFT). The research site for this study was Bilingual Family Counseling Service, INC located in Ontario, California. It is a non-profit behavioral health-care organization that provides a wide range of services to individuals and families. This study used a post positivist methodology. …

They Want To Be Global Citizens: Now What? Implications Of The Ngo Career Arc For Students And Faculty Mentors, Andrew M. Robinson

Human Rights and Human Diversity Faculty Publications

Once faculty have inspired their students to want to become Global Citizens, many of these students will approach them for advice about careers that will enable them to live out their commitment to global justice. This article seeks to inform such discussions by providing students and their faculty mentors with information to help consider whether the NGO sector is a good fit for the student, how to prepare for it, and how to advance within it. It does so by providing a snapshot of the nonprofit/NGO career arc based upon analysis of 220 responses to a survey conducted in 2010 …

Culture In Successful Title I Middle Schools, Bruce C. Lautenschlager

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the culture of successful Indiana public Title I middle schools. This study examined differences in similar schools of poverty achieving adequate yearly progress as defined by No Child Left Behind. The study explored the cultural differences that allow for student success using middle schools with student populations from urban and rural areas. Schools at the middle level showing student success and growth as defined by adequate yearly progress should exhibit a school culture with a high degree of collaboration among the school staff. Schools showing little student growth or no student …

The Impact Of Living In A Mixed-Status Family On K-12 Students, Allison Mass

Honors Capstones

The Impact of Living in a Mixed-Status Family on K-12 Students is important because itexamines a serious issue confronting today’s schools— the experiences and needs of students living in mixed-status families, which are often not considered by educators. The significant number of students in today’s schools who are either undocumented themselves or directly impacted by a parent who is undocumented calls on teachers and administrators, regardless of their personal beliefs on immigration, to learn about the needs of these students, the challenges they face, and what can be done to help them. This is a review of the current literature …

Cyberbullying And How It Impacts Schools, Vida Zoe Choucalas

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

With all of its many benefits to humanity, one of the consequences of the Internet age is a far more pervasive and potentially damaging version of bullying called cyberbullying, which can also be referred to as ebullying, electronic bullying, cyberviolence, digital bullying, electronic harassment, and online harassment. Cyberbullying is being cruel to others by sending or posting harmful material or engaging in other forms of social cruelty using digital technologies. Because most children and young adults are computer literate and have access to a range of digital communication tools, cyberbullying has the potential to have more severe consequences than traditional …

Paradigms For Cybersecurity Education In A Homeland Security Program, Gary C. Kessler, James D. Ramsay

Applied Aviation Sciences - Daytona Beach

Cybersecurity threats to the nation are growing in intensity, frequency, and severity and are a very real threat to the security of the country. Academia has responded to a wide variety of homeland security (HS) threats to the nation by creating formal curricula in the field, although these programs almost exclusively focus on physical threats (e.g., terrorist attacks, and natural and man-made disasters), law and policy and transportation . Although cybersecurity programs are commonly available in U.S. colleges and universities, they are invariably offered as a technical course of study nested within engineering (or other STEM) programs. We observe that …

The Global Sustainability Transition: It Is More Than Changing Light Bulbs, Michael P. Weinstein, R. Eugene Turner, Carles Ibanez

Faculty Publications

Current policies and norms to reconcile human demands for resources with the Earth’s ability to supply them have resulted in practices that mainly treat the symptoms of unsustainability rather than their underlying causes. Moreover, the increase in our knowledge about humankind’s role in ecosystems is not keeping pace with our understanding of the consequences of our actions, resulting in a deepening inability to address sustainability issues. The extreme complexity and intricate workings of the world require the expansion of our mental models in a systems-thinking framework if we are to realize a sustainable place for humans in it. The challenge …

Mentoring For Educational Change An East African Case Study, Tashmin Khamis, Marilyn Chapman

Faculty of Health Sciences, East Africa

In 2012, a partnership was begun between Aga Khan University (AKU) and Academics Without Borders Canada (AWBC). In the initial project, three mentors from AWBC worked with nursing faculty on three East African campuses of AKU with a focus on developing more interactive teaching skills and scholarship. Following this four-month project, two of the mentors continued to work with nursing faculty to develop capacity. The relationship between AKU and AWBC has been formally extended with the initiation of several new projects, all centred on strengthening the student learning experience.

Experience The Future Of Legal Education, Lorne Sossin

Comparative Research in Law & Political Economy

Legal education is becoming more experiential, and this is a good thing. This essay examines both claims, and provides an account both of the origins of the experiential turn in legal education, and its implications. This account is written from a Canadian perspective, and more parochially, from an Osgoode Hall Law School perspective. That said, I believe this analysis is relevant to legal education more broadly, and contributes to the ongoing and vital debate over the future of Law School.

The Cultural Discontinuity Hypothesis: An Appalachian American Perspective In Eastern Kentucky, Timothy W. Conner Ii

Theses and Dissertations--Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology

K.M. Tyler et al. (2008) propose a quantitative method to measure differences between school and home experiences had by students of ethnic minority status and how such differences (cultural discontinuity) may affect psychological factors related to student achievement. Although study of cultural discontinuity has been applied to understanding African American, Asian American, Latino American, and Native American student populations, little attention has been given to the ways in which cultural discontinuity may manifest in the Appalachian American population. This study conceptualizes the socio-cultural conditions that would warrant such an investigation, establishing evidence from ten interview subjects of the presence of …

Public Post-Secondary Experiential Internship: A Qualitative Evaluation Of Wildcat Interest Group’S Student Internship Program At The University Of Kentucky, And Its Benchmark Competitors, Nolan Jackson

Lewis Honors College Capstone Collection

This thesis will identify the early motivation for a program conceived by the Student Government Association at the University of Kentucky to penetrate civic apathy and enhance the politically engaged. This qualitative assessment of “Wildcats in Washington” of the Student Internship Program will detail the conception and implementation of the student-facilitated, student-sponsored experiential internship program reserved for the students of the University of Kentucky.

Additionally, this thesis will measure the uniqueness of the University Student Government’s governmental relations and internship initiative against similar efforts at institutions’ in three measurable populations.

Finally, this thesis will briefly address “Wildcats in Washington’s” current …

The Metalogicon Of John Of Salisbury: Medieval Rhetoric As Educational Praxis, Brian Gilchrist

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation addresses the following question: what are the implications of John of Salisbury's rhetorical theory for his approach to education? The Metalogicon, John's defense of the trivium, represents the primary text analyzed throughout the project. John's medieval rhetorical theory explicated the reciprocal relationship between rhetoric and education. The art of rhetoric acquired educational elements by providing ethical-theoretical frameworks to inform the practices of students and teachers. Experiences from the practices of students and teachers influenced the art of rhetoric. John called for an approach to medieval rhetorical education that could be placed into the service of all people living …

Components Of Family Engagement Programs In Evansville, Indiana, Middle Schools That Impact Parent Participation And Student Success, Elizabeth S. Wells

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The U.S. Department ofEducation requires public schools to include strategies for increasing family involvement in their school improvement plans. However, a major problem exists for middle and high school principals: identifying these best practices. Therefore, school leaders at the middle and high school levels need to know how to increase and maintain interest in family engagement activities, as a means of enhancing student success and complying with federal policy. The purpose of this two-phase, sequential mixed methods study was to explore the parent responses to a district-wide building-level climate and engagement survey and to identify components implemented by successful urban …

Retention As A State Policy Mandate: Iread In Indiana, Velinda F. Stubbs

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The interpretation of Indiana Public Law 109 and subsequent policy adopted by the Indiana Department ofEducation resulted in the Indiana State Board ofEducation mandating circumstances implemented during the 2011-2012 school year regarding grade level retention of Grade 3 students. IREAD-3, a standardized, gateway assessment, was administered to all Grade 3 students to determine eligibility to be promoted to Grade 4. Three quantitative studies analyzed the results from the initial year of assessment data for 1,712 students from one school district in Indiana to determine if there were factors that are predictive of performance on IREAD-3 and to better understand if …

Peer Mediation In Massachusetts Public Middle & High Schools: Perceptions Of Educators, Eve I. Noss

Doctoral Dissertations

While many studies related to school violence and its prevention have focused on the perceptions of elementary students and counselors, there is a dearth of research studies that focus on the perceptions of administrators and teachers. This study examines Massachusetts public middle and high school principals, assistant principals, and teachers (n=135), from 30 schools, perceptions of their peer mediation program's impact on student conflicts. Comparisons between administrators and between levels of schools were conducted to provide a finer grain for the analysis.

Methodology: The method of data collection is a mixed, hybrid methodology of 41 quantitative (closed-end) and quasi-quantitative (open-ended) …

Enhancing Memory Access For Less-Skilled Readers, Emily R. Smith

Doctoral Dissertations

Ericcson and Kintch (1995) suggested that less-skilled readers often have an impoverished representation of text. The results of five experiments demonstrated that the addition of causality enhanced the text representation of less-skilled readers. Experiments 1-3 showed that the addition of causal information enhanced less-skilled readers' ability to detect global inconsistencies. Experiments 4 and 5 showed that the addition of causal information to updating information resulted in less-skilled readers updating to the same extent as skilled readers.

Impressions Of College Intructors: Stability And Change In Student Ratings, Kari L. Dudley

Doctoral Dissertations

Although the topic of stability and change in classroom impressions research is not new, there remain unanswered questions about what impressions are stable, when they are likely to change, and for whom they are likely to change over the course of a semester. My research will begin to answer those questions.

My research took place in four college classroom studies and assessed students' impressions of their instructor's teaching effectiveness and personal qualities 1) after the first day of class, 2) before and following at least one exam, and 3) at the end of the semester. My results supported previous findings …

Examining Social Climate And Youth Social Goals On Extended Wilderness Courses: A Path Toward Improving Participant Experiences, Benjamin J. Mirkin

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examined participants' expectations of the social climate on extended wilderness courses, how students' actually experienced the social climate during their course, and how these expectations, perceptions and the influence of environmental characteristics, impacted their goals for peer interactions. Pre and posttest surveys were used to assess students' expectations and perceptions of their experience and multi level modeling was used to better understand the relationship of social climate to peer interaction. The research was undertaken to improve the practical and theoretical understanding of organizations' and leaders' ability to facilitate a social climate that promotes adaptive forms of social motivation. …