Digital Commons Network^™

Curriculum Design For Student Achievement, Jennifer Brown, Amy Mcdaniel, Michelle Jones

Education Grants Collections

This Grants Collection uses the grant-supported open course Curriculum Design for Student Achievement from Columbus State University:

http://columbusstate.libguides.com/EDAT6226

This Grants Collection for Critical and Contemporary Issues in Education was created under a Round Four ALG Textbook Transformation Grant.

Affordable Learning Georgia Grants Collections are intended to provide faculty with the frameworks to quickly implement or revise the same materials as a Textbook Transformation Grants team, along with the aims and lessons learned from project teams during the implementation process.

Documents are in .pdf format, with a separate .docx (Word) version available for download. Each collection contains the following materials: …

Work-Related Resilience: Deaf Professionals’ Perspectives, Kim B. Kurz, Peter C. Hauser, Jason D. Listman

JADARA

Ten Deaf professionals were interviewed about their perspectives on resilience risk and protective factors that affect career success. Thematic analysis revealed four main risk factors, all related to inequalities: (a) audism and linguistism; (b) networking challenges; (c) working harder than hearing peers; and, (d) promotion limitations. The Deaf community was described as a resilience protective factor that counters the work-related risk factors because it provides: (a) social support; (b) role models; and, (c) “Deaf can” optimism. The results have important implications for vocational rehabilitation, education and counseling programs as they highlight the protective factors Deaf employees need for work-related resilience.

Resettlement Struggles Of Burmese Refugee Students In U.S. High Schools: A Qualitative Study, Madhavi Tandon Dr.

Journal of Southeast Asian American Education and Advancement

This article presents findings from a qualitative study that examined how five Burmese refugee students adjusted and navigated two public school high schools in a Midwestern urban city in the U.S. The purpose of the study was to capture their unique histories and migration stories from which they drew strength as they resettled in the U.S. The present study focused specifically on the barriers faced by them in achieving high school graduation and impediments to higher education. Important findings included lack of navigational capital, linguicism and the intense shame of being a multilingual learner, birth order, and poor health. Other …

Students' Use Of Personal Technology In The Classroom: Analyzing The Perceptions Of The Digital Generation, Debra A. Langan Dr., Nicole D. Schott, Timothy G. Wykes, Justin K. Szeto, Samantha Lynn Kolpin, Carla Lopez, Daniel Smith

Criminology

Faculty frequently express concerns about students’ personal use of information

and communication technologies in today’s university classrooms. As a requirement

of a graduate research methodology course in a university in Ontario,

Canada, the authors conducted qualitative research to gain an in-depth understanding

of students’ perceptions of this issue. Their findings reveal students’

complex considerations about the acceptability of technology use. Their analysis

of the broader contexts of students’ use reveals that despite a technological revolution,

university teaching practices have remained largely the same, resulting in

‘cultural lag’ within the classroom. While faculty are technically ‘in charge’, students

wield power through …

Invisible Children: The Effectiveness Of Non-Governmental Organizations (Ngos) In Primary Education In Central America, Megan Skaggs

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

what extent are non-governmental organizations (NGOs) an effective tool in primary educational development in Central America? To address this concern, this project addressed the results of several months of research in Nicaragua, Guatemala, and at the U.S. NGO headquarters, where interviews with educators, NGO workers, and citizens were conducted regarding the role of NGOs in addressing educational concerns effectively. Interviewees included: Pueblo a Pueblo, Serving Orphans Worldwide, U.S. Agency for International Development, Let Girl’s Learn Program, and varied individuals connected with education or non-profit work in that region. My research analyzed the historical and social structures of Nicaragua and Guatemala, …

University Rankings: Evidence And A Conceptual Framework, Jonathan G.S. Koppell, Jacob Fowles, H. George Frederickson

Publications from President Jonathan G.S. Koppell

University ranking has high public visibility, the ranking business has flourished, and institutions of higher education have not been able to ignore it. This study of university ranking presents general considerations of ranking and institutional responses to it, particularly considering reactions to ranking, ranking as a self-fulfilling prophecy, and ranking as a means of transforming qualities into quantities. The authors present a conceptual framework of university ranking based on three propositions and carry out a descriptive statistical analysis of U.S. and international ranking data to evaluate those propositions. The first proposition of university ranking is that ranking systems are demarcated …

“Mind The Gap”: The Standardization Of Master-Level Education Competencies Among Humanitarian And International Development Professionals, Polina Kadatska

Dissertations

Quality education of international development/humanitarian professionals is of high importance due to increased donor demands for projects’ transparency, accountability, and efficiency. However, there is a lack of standardization of learning outcomes among the educational institutions that train the workforce for the non-profit sector. The purpose of this quantitative survey study was to describe how humanitarian professional alumni think their Master’s program aligned with the Core Humanitarian Competencies Framework (CHCF) and how these competencies assisted them in their current work. Additionally, the study explored what NGO employers think of applicability of the Framework’s competencies in their organizations and the preparedness of …

The Acquisition Of Bare Nominals By Three Populations Of Spanish-English Bilingual Adults, Lauren Elizabeth Miller

Open Access Dissertations

The present study contributes to our understanding of cross-linguistic influence by studying three different groups of Spanish-English speakers’ knowledge of the distribution of definite articles in both of their languages using a battery of tests that require them to draw on different linguistic abilities. These three groups include native English speakers who learned Spanish after adolescence, native Spanish speakers who learned English after adolescence and simultaneous bilinguals who grew up in the United States speaking both English and Spanish from birth. Specifically, this study explores interpretation, production and intuition regarding the acceptability of definite articles in different contexts. Since the …

Farmers' Use Of Mobile Phone Technology For Agricultural Information Services In Lilongwe District, Malawi, Benjamin F. Chisama

Open Access Theses

Mobile phone technology can be a useful tool to provide farmers with relevant and reliable agricultural information for critical farming decisions in developing countries such as Malawi. An increasing number of rural farmers have been faced with information asymmetry challenges due to some pitfalls in the extension systems. In addition, knowledge gaps on farmers’ use of mobile phone technology; their awareness and use of MAIS; and their preferred topics to be delivered using mobile platforms were identified. However, little was known on how farmers were using existing MAIS. This study’s aim was to explore the potential of providing mobile agricultural …

Methods To Facilitate Community Participation In Humanitarian Engineering Projects: Laying The Foundation For A Learning Platform, Andrea Mazzurco

Open Access Dissertations

Humanitarian engineering (HE) is a new interdisciplinary field that is rapidly emerging worldwide. Many not-for-profit organizations such as Engineers Without Borders, Practical Action, and International Development Enterprise have been flourishing with the goal of providing technological solutions to those who need them the most. In engineering programs across the U.S., HE, service-learning, community engagement, and similar programs are gaining popularity because they offer an efficient way to meet ABET accreditation criteria, while also teaching valuable technical and professional skills to engineering students. However, the cultural, social, and political differences among communities and engineers often add degrees of difficulty that cannot …

Decentering The Writing Program Archive: How Composition Instructors Save And Share Their Teaching Materials, Stacy Olivia Nall

Open Access Dissertations

This dissertation decenters the writing program archive through research on instructors’ digital archives. Artifacts of composition instruction are no longer saved to print archives alone; rather, digital technologies expand the locations where artifacts of writing pedagogy can be archived and accessed. The following archival ethnography, focused on a community engagement writing course in the Introductory Composition at Purdue (ICaP) program, finds that many digital archives of composition are hidden to outside researchers or not sustained (which are theorized as either “abandoned” or “pop-up” archives). At the same time, some pedagogical materials are publicly visible by virtue of personal web spaces …

It Is "Broken" And "Accented": Non-Native English-Speaking (Nnes) Graduate Students' Perceptions Toward Nnes Instructors' English, Hyo Jung Keira Park

Open Access Dissertations

This study investigates the perceptions of non-native English-speaking graduate students towards non-native English speaking (NNES) instructors’ accented English. Students (N=161) who were enrolled in an oral English course at Purdue University participated in a survey. Follow-up interviews were conducted with voluntary participants (N=9) to examine the perceptions of NNES graduate students towards NNES instructors in depth. The findings in the survey showed that more than one third of the participants experienced difficulty with their NNES instructors due to their limited intelligibility and restricted command of English. Furthermore, one third of the participants expressed that they would transfer to another section …

L2 Effect On Bilingual Spanish/English Encoding Of Motion Events: Does Manner Salience Transfer?, Heidi E. Parker

Open Access Dissertations

This study explores the potential effect of a second language (L2) on first language (L1) encoding of motion events. The domain of interest is MANNER and the goal is to investigate if the degree of manner salience can be restructured under the effect of a L2. Slobin (2004, 2006) proposes an expansion of Talmy’s (1985, 1991, 2000) binary typology and observes that the degree of manner saliencevaries cross-linguistically. The two languages investigated in this study, Spanish and English, are at divergent points along the cline of manner salience. In addition, Slobin (1996b) suggests dividing MANNER into tier one (T1) …

Emerging Genres, Dangerous Classifications: The Kairos Of Digital Composing Policy, Ellery Sills

Open Access Dissertations

Emerging Genres, Dangerous Classifications: The Kairos of Digital Composing Policy argues that writing policy infrastructure plays a significant (if often invisible) role in affording emerging digital genres in rhetoric and composition. Within the last few decades, the accelerating transformations and instabilities of emerging genres have posed a challenge for contemporary writing programs, which demonstrate a persistent wariness over incorporating digital composing into their mission. In response to this challenge, national educational associations have issued a growing number of policy statements meant to encourage a broader understanding of composing in the classroom. Curiously, relatively little scholarly attention has been paid to …

Developing L2 Reading Fluency: Implementation Of An Assisted Repeated Reading Program With Adult Esl Learners, Matthew C. Allen

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether assisted repeated reading is an effective way for adult second language (L2) learners of English to develop oral and silent reading fluency rates. Reading fluency is an underdeveloped construct in second language studies, both in research and practice. This study first lays out a framework of text difficulty levels and reading rate thresholds for intermediate and advanced L2 readers of English based upon a theoretical framework of automatization of the linguistic elements of reading through structured practice and skill development. This framework was then implemented through a single-case design (SCD), an …

Educational Technology And Innovation Capacity In Arkansas Public Schools, Allie Nicole Taylor

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

We all have high hopes for our educational system. As they stress the need for 21st century learning, governments recognize the importance of innovation and creativity in schools and invest resources to develop learning environments that foster these qualities. This thesis adapts Crosling, Nair, and Vaithilingam’s (2015) model to provide a framework for studying factors that contribute to a creative learning ecosystem (intellectual capital development, 21st century literacies, climate for innovation, and integrity of the system), the quality of the educational system, and the system’s innovation capacity. A survey of 126 Arkansas high school teachers, indicates that two variables, student’s …

Designing Place-Sensitive Professional Development: A Critical Ethnography Of Teaching And Learning Argumentative Writing, Sarah N. Holland

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate the experiences of teachers participating in a two-year professional development program designed by the National Writing Project and funded by a U.S. Department of Education Investing in Innovation (i3) grant. Informed by New Literacy Studies’ ideological model of literacy as a Social practice and rural literacies’ notion of pedagogies of sustainability, this study employs critical ethnography and discourse analysis to analyze the discourse of teachers participating in the College-Ready Writers Program (CRWP) in order to understand how professional development might be adjusted to re-empower teachers. Data sources included field notes, interviews, lesson …

Hispanic Bilingual Learners' Perceptions And Educational Experiences Of Spanish-Speaking In South Texas, Isela B. Stephens

Theses and Dissertations

The present study focuses on a subset of data obtained from a larger interdisciplinary project, Proyecto Posible, which investigates how sociocultural and instructional factors predict positive outcomes among Spanish- and English-speaking Hispanic bilingual learners. As one part of Proyecto Posible, interviewers asked learners to speak in their language of preference about their experiences in school and feelings developed during interactions with others, as bilinguals. This study examines the qualitative component on bilingual learners’ perceptions of their own language proficiency in English and Spanish, perceptions of language use across a broad range of contexts including school, home, and community, …

Social Learning Remixed: Peer-Based Learning And Social Status In An Online Community Of Practice, Christopher Erin Mikkelson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

People have engaged in peer-to-peer learning within communities of practice (CoPs) for centuries. Thanks to web 2.0 technology, people in the 21st century can now learn together and enact Social status even if they have never met face-to-face. Online communities of practice have since formed around a wide variety of activities, one of which is remixing. Remixing is defined as combining or editing existing materials to produce something new, but leaving each part recognizable as a separate entity. Remixing has recently been recognized as form of digital literacy because users must understand each component to make a good remix. Much …

A Gentleman's Burden: Difference And The Development Of British Education At Home And In The Empire During The Nineteenth And Early-Twentieth Centuries, Jeffrey Willis Grooms

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A Gentleman's Burden is a comparative analysis of state-funded primary education in Britain, Ireland, West Africa, and India during the nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries. Starting with early-nineteenth century theories on primary education, this dissertation traces the evolution of state-funded educational ideology alongside Britain's domestic and imperial development. Key innovations in educational ideology are considered alongside the core moments of educational change during this period, specifically the major policies and reforms that shaped British state-funded education at home and abroad. Through this lens, education is shown to be a central component in how British officials and educationists perceived, categorized, and ruled …

Revision And Re-Writing As Adaptation: Using Adaptation Theory To Encourage Student Recognition Of Rhetorical Situations, Alicia Claire Troby

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Many students don’t want to revise their writing, or do so in small, surface-level ways. This has been an issue many composition instructors have faced over the years, and there is a large body of scholarship about revision and the writing process by many in writing studies. From Nancy Sommers, Janet Emig, Donald Murray, and others, to more recent publications “post-process,” composition instructors and writing studies scholars are concerned about revision and the role it plays in students’ learning to write. As a strategy for teaching bigger-level revision, I implemented the use of adaptation theory (reading/watching and doing adaptation) as …

Deconstructing The Diagnosis: Making The Case For A New Discourse On Childhood Cancer, Jessika Carmen Boles

Electronic Theses and Dissertations Archive

Childhood cancer is both a medical ailment and a cultural phenomenon created within dominant discursive notions of childhood/adulthood, health/illness, and life/death binaries. Research to date on the learning and development of children with cancer has primarily focused on quantifying the knowledge they possess about their illness and treatment and recommendations for medical staff based on the child's assumed capabilities and limitations. Little is known about how children with cancer actively negotiate discursive beliefs in this context. Therefore, the purpose of this Foucauldian (1970) post-structural case study research was to deconstruct the ways in which children with cancer learn about their …

Collaboration Through Interdisciplinary Education And Its Impact On Future Health Care Practitioners, Lisa-Marie W. Griffiths, Christopher Yi, Petra Clark-Dufner, Bruce Gould

International Nursing Research Congress (INRC)

Session presented on Friday, July 22, 2016:

With our ever changing and increasingly complex healthcare system, there are indications that health care practice must adapt to provide safe, effective, precise, and cost effective care. This practice must start from the foundation: Interprofessional Practice made applicable through Interprofessional Education (IPE). The University of Connecticut's Urban Services Track (UST) provides the foundation upon which future healthcare professionals are able to provide interprofessional care by instilling collaborative values from a healthcare student's academic infancy. The Urban Service Track is designed to produce a cadre of well qualified health care professionals committed to serving …

Motivation Towards Success: A Qualitative Comparative Case Study Illustrating The Differences In Motivating Factors In Achievement Between Low Ses High Achieving And Low Achieving African American High School Females, Ashanti C. Friels

Theses and Dissertations

For years educators have made attempts to explain the effects of poverty on student achievement. Many have set out to explore methods for better helping students with limited resources succeed academically, thus bridging the achievement gap between these students and their financially stable counterparts. The ultimate combination of poverty and race/ethnicity define major sources of disadvantage in educational outcomes (Maruyama, 2003). Viewing this from a racial standpoint places African American students at the receiving end of low achievement as a result of low socioeconomic status.

The missing thread that could potentially pull this together exists among the population of impoverished …

Who Are They ? A Case Study Of Community Health Worker (Chw) Programs In Primary Health Care, Constance Renee Williams Shepard

Theses and Dissertations

Community health workers (CHW) programs are an important emerging strategy to address the rising cost of health care, the shortage of healthcare staff, and the lack of accessible, affordable and quality health care (Sanders & Lehmann, 2007; WHO, 2010; CDC, 2012). The American Public Health Association (APHA) defines community health worker (CHWs) as frontline public health workers, trusted members of their communities and individuals that have a unique understanding of the people and communities they serve. CHWs develop trusting relationships that enable them to serve as an intermediary between healthcare, social services providers, and community members. By doing so, they …

An Analysis Of Japan’S Immigration Policy On Migrant Workers And Their Families, Malissa B. Eaddy

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

This thesis attempts to provide an analysis of Japan’s immigration policy on migrant workers and their families. I am interested in exploring the interactions between the Japanese government and foreigners during 1960-2014. I have three research questions: (1) What is the Japanese government policy for migrant workers? (2) What is the education status for the children of migrant workers to assimilate into Japanese society? (3) How are migrant workers and families treated by the Japanese government in terms of the human rights and their national rights? I have selected four books as the primary sources for my thesis, and analyzed …

Cultural Competency In The Dental Hygiene Curricula: A Survey, Christina Calleros

Dental Hygiene ETDs

As the population of the nation becomes more diverse, dental hygiene programs must ensure graduates are receiving cultural competency training in entry-level educational programs. The purpose of this study was to establish a baseline for what topics of cultural competency training are or are not being incorporated into dental hygiene schools and to determine if differences exist between topics covered amongst the types of degree-granting institutions. Topics were investigated via survey instrument and data was collected from 76 U.S dental hygiene program directors. Results of this study emphasized the similarities between entry-level dental hygiene programs and illustrated a lack of …

On Multiethnic Schools In Consociational Democracies: A Comparative Analysis Of Brčko District And Bosnia-Herzegovina, Jusuf Šarančić

Lawrence University Honors Projects

The 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement both ended the Bosnian War and created the consociational democracy that exists in Bosnia and Herzegovina to this day. The ethnic autonomy created by the Dayton Agreement has resulted in a frozen conflict between ethnic groups that has manifested itself in the country’s monoethnic education system. This study explores the short-term stability under consociationalism and the long-term stability under a multiethnic education system. Additionally, this study explains the importance of the country’s only multiethnic education system in Brčko District and how it came into existence.

At The Intersection Of Gender And Race: A Qualitative Study Of The Lived Experiences Of African American Female Elementary Principals, Andrea M. Haynes

Student Work

This study examined the “lived experiences” related to race, gender, and the construct of time for five African American female elementary principals. The study specifically explored the intersectionality of race and gender. Through a qualitative phenomenological framework, the study aimed to research the implications of race and gender, at a specific point in time, for African American females in the elementary principalship. A phenomenological research method, that included semi-structured interviews, was employed to capture the essence of the participants’ stories and to fully understand their common experiences. Critical Race theory and Feminism theory were used as an intersecting lens for …

Souls Gone In The Wind? Suspending Belief About Rebirth In Contemporary Artistic Works In The Tibetan World, Françoise Robin

HIMALAYA, the Journal of the Association for Nepal and Himalayan Studies

Belief in rebirth constitutes a core tenet of Tibetan Buddhism and has thus structured social and political power in Tibetan society for centuries through the tulku (reincarnate lama lineage) institution. Still, it appears to be questioned in a selection of recent short stories and films emanating from Tibet, in which the authorial voices point to a lack of certainty about reincarnation, opting for a suspension of belief. After a brief overview of the literary scene in Tibet today, and an analysis of the surveyed works, several hypothesis will be made to account for what may be seen as the beginning …