Digital Commons Network^™

Shifting Perspectives: A Travelling, Interactive Installation Educating Youth, Mary Branon

Bachelor of Architecture Theses - 5th Year

If I were to ask a group of people to explain what countries make up the Middle East, they likely wouldn’t be able to list more than a few. Despite the internet, technology, and social media being within reach, it is still common to see generalizations about groups of people, their origins, and the boundaries of those origins. This leads me to wonder why. Is this an issue within our educational system? Is this due to lack of accessible information? Or maybe information isn’t presented in a way that is easily understood and digested? An abundance of information remains just …

Communication As Change: Marshall Mcluhan And A Transformation Model Of Communication, Lane Grafton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The work synthesizes Marshall McLuhan’s transformation model of communication with a trivium-based educational model and challenges the modern-day position of unreflective mediated communication. McLuhan’s transformation model demonstrates that communication is more than the transfer of content; rather, it is a transformation of perception. This work broadens the analysis and suggests that figure and ground relationships are integral to seeing the whole of media transformations. Through figure and ground relationships, communication unfolds as a study of perceptual change. The work explores perceptual change within the context of McLuhan’s conversion to the Catholic Church and underscores the importance of a unified mind …

Game-Based Learning In Science: Can Video Games Simplify Organic Chemistry?, Rachel Israel

Senior Honors Theses

Organic chemistry has been taught in the same way for decades, and students still have difficulty understanding and comprehending the subject material. Perhaps it is time to change the methods by which this subject is taught. Video games have been successfully used in education to create learning environments that increase student motivation and engagement as well as challenge students and promote collaboration. It is difficult for students to maintain a growth mindset in organic chemistry within the classroom. However across different genres, video games create a unique environment where an individual is encouraged to try again when they fail. This …

Evolution And Impact Of English Language Policy In Taiwan, Kaitlin Ashleigh Rigby

Honors Theses

This thesis takes a look at how English language policy (ELP) in Taiwan has changed over time and how it has affected the education system. This thesis also investigates the different attitudes directed toward ELP, some areas of concern, and problems that have occurred as a result of Taiwan’s approach toward ELP. Understanding why Taiwan supports the English language as much as it does while also considering its approach to implementing policy will provide insight on how Taiwan believes that ELP is a necessary part of globalization.

Service-Learning: A Translation Of Documents Into Spanish On Behalf Of Learning For All, Aidan Posey

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Learning for ALL (LFA) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit based in Omaha, NE. LFA offers resources to adults in the community by offering a variety of classes in literacy, English language, and Adult Basic Education. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, much of the learning at LFA has transitioned to the online learning portal, Burlington English. However, the fact that Burlington English is presented and written in English poses a large barrier to the accessibility of online learning material. Current LFA management utilizes Google Translate to try and translate the steps to log into this platform and while a valuable tool, Google …

Impact Of Communicative Activities On Improving Students’ Speaking Skills In English As Second Language, Ozlem Guler

International Graduate Program for Educators Master's Projects

This research is conducted to see the impact of communicative activities in students speaking skills in English as second language. And it is reached to a conclusion that communicative activities cause longer student speaking time in class. Moreover, the students mostly state that they learn better through communicative activities. Using language as a tool for communication rather than an aspect to learn will serve better. Language isn’t learnt but acquired such as the mother tongue. That’s why it should be done naturally just like a baby making baby steps to start uttering first words.

Expectedly, singing a memorized song is …

Pedagogy Or Andragogy?: Which Teaching Method Produces Successful Esl Tutoring That Involves Musical Activities?, Julia Cormack

Theses/Capstones/Creative Projects

Considering the connections between music and language, as well as Chi et al.’s (2001) theory, this thesis introduces an original case study investigation: which teaching method, pedagogy or andragogy, will be most effective in one-on-one ESL tutoring sessions that use music as source material? The term pedagogy often describes the art and science of teaching. However, its Greek roots refer to the method of the teacher leading the classroom. Meanwhile, andragogy describes a teaching method where the teacher engages with the students in the learning and leading; Greek for “leader of man,” andragogy most often refers to teaching adults. To …

Engaged Pedagogy And Teacher Discourse: A Critical Examination Of Public Education In Mississippi, Kelsi Ford

Honors Theses

This thesis explores Mississippi K-12 public education in terms of inequality and critical pedagogy with a focus on historical factors, state testing, and personal accounts of current teachers. The research is based on ten in-depth interviews with current schoolteachers regarding their perspectives on education and personal experiences and draws from previous scholarship, notably bell hook’s concept of engaged pedagogy. Critical pedagogy offers a model for transformative education for resisting social inequity and promoting democracy and citizenship, but teacher interviews suggest that the structure and culture of classrooms are contradictory to adopting critical pedagogy. Specifically, the research finds that both standardized …

Creativity Through Arts: Expanding Creativity For A New Fluency In Imaginative Thinking, Tanya M. Knudsen

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

The Torrance Incubation Model beckons creativity into education. That was in 1961. Like the subconscious automatic and multidimensional act of breathing, and formulating language, creativity is within us, materializing on a Mobius Loop structure continually moving in and out of incubation, creation, and the shaping of outcome. Creativity is unique in that is both a verb and noun adding weight and value to its illusive form and potential. Creativity Through Arts expands the Torrance Incubation Model of Creative Teaching and Learning in an expressed combination of creativity and arts to immerse creativity into curricula, cracking a new code for finding …

Equal Education For All?: Equity Issues Impacting Physical Education And Physical Activity During Covid-19 Pandemic, Gianna Pinotti

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focus of this Capstone Project is on improving the equity issues affecting students' physical education and physical activity during COVID-19. Existing and newly developed equity issues have impacted students’ ability to connect with their remote physical education (P.E.), leading to decreased levels of physical activity. This is an important issue for students because their health and well-being are being negatively impacted by issues out of their control. An evidence-based argument is offered that students who engage in physical education are more likely to maintain healthier lifestyles that can lead to improved cognitive abilities and academic success. Considerations of the …

Si Se Puede: Continuous Barrier In Latino Education, Juan Daniel Sierra

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The focus of this Capstone Project is on the continuous barriers in Latino Education. This is important because we are still seeing the same issues of inequities, lower academic attainment, and achievement gaps growing. Although these issues have been brought up and discussed, so little has been done to resolve them. By continuing to address these issues, it allows us to keep generating the conversation on what more we can do for Latino students in the United States. It allows us as a community to see the bigger picture and be able to formulate new plans that will close achievement …

Battling Two Pandemics: The Intersection Of Covid-19 And Systemic Racism In San Antonio Schools, Diana Guadalupe Long

Sociology and Anthropology Honors Theses

In this thesis, I investigate educators’ experiences and observations of structural inequities during the switch to online teaching and learning amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Through interviews with ten educators in the city of San Antonio, Texas, I analyzed the COVID-19 pandemic through an equity lens, specifically highlighting the ways in which it is transforming access to education for underserved students. Through this study, I find that the digital divide is still a salient issue in society, and that students of color and/or from low socioeconomic backgrounds are pushed out of schools by external structural forces that further marginalize their community. …

Examining Construction And Reproduction Of The Educational Opportunity Gap: The Nation’S School Board Members Respond, Hallet Demouy

Honors Theses

This thesis explores opportunity gaps, often related to achievement gaps, in education via the analysis of school board members’ responses regarding challenges that face future education, students, and the public school system. The perceptions of these school board members serve to address the sources, prevalence, and effects of inequities that exist in widening (perpetuating) this gap between students. After discussing and elaborating upon the perceived challenges and barriers located in the institution of education, school board member responses will again be used to present potential ways and opportunities through which the achievement gaps, relating to the success rates and testing …

Intellectual Access And Spirituality: The Twin Urgencies Of Responsible American Education, Matthew Schmitz

Educational Studies Honors Papers

America is increasingly, and perhaps overwhelmingly, becoming a society characterized by political divisiveness. At its most extreme form, Hannah Arendt argues such a division can make us vulnerable to a loneliness that destroys our confidence and leaves us dependent on ideologies. A renewed sense of spirituality and intellect are prime candidates for helping us develop a healthy relationship with ourselves that can help counteract this loneliness. Not only that, but fully accessing our intellectual and spiritual sides can give us the confidence to tackle democratic republican citizenship the way Thomas Jefferson envisioned it. Here, Jacques Rancière helps us to construct …

Amanda Baldwin's Master's Portfolio, Amanda Baldwin

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

This is the final portfolio for my Master's of Arts in the field of English. It includes an analytical narrative along with four projects that I feel best illustrate my knowledge, skills, and growth. These four pieces are entitled "Putting a Feminist Twist on Classic Literature," "Teaching Antigone in the Modern Classroom," “Feminism and Racial Studies in Sue Monk Kidd’s The Secret Life of Bees,” and “Literacy Narrative Analysis.”

Wimmin In The Mass Media, Terry Nygren, Mary Jo Deegan

Zea E-Books Collection

Introduction to the 40th Anniversary Edition: Wimmin in the Mass Media and Centennial College, Looking Backwards • Mary Jo Deegan

WIMMIN IN THE MASS MEDIA: Articles Collected at the Centennial Education Program, Fall 1980

Introduction: Wimmin and the Mass Media — Construction of the Self • Mary Jo Deegan and Terry Nygren

Examining the Top Ten, or Why Those Songs Make the Charts • Jane Pemberton

Images of Women in Rock Music: Analysis of B-52’s and Black Rose• Sheila M. Krueger

Women in Sitcoms: “I Love Lucy”• Nancy Grant-Colson

Horatio Alger is Alive and Well and Masquerading as a Feminist, …

Poetry Beyond The Page: A Case For Spoken Word Poetry In Florida's Secondary Classrooms, Sarah Matherly

Senior Honors Theses

Florida’s B.E.S.T. Standards, Florida’s most recent K-12 educational standards to promote literacy, lack the rising art of Spoken Word Poetry. However, Florida’s Department of Education should integrate Spoken Word into Florida’s Secondary curriculum. Spoken Word Poetry, by its definition, holds researched benefits that align with the B.E.S.T. Standard’s poetry recommendations and literacy-centered goals. In light of such benefits, Florida’s Department of Education should consider various Spoken Word poets and poems to include in Florida’s Secondary Curriculum, as well as explore the resources and integration methods included in this thesis for both teachers and students.

National Identity Attachment And Its Variables, Tri Windari

Journal of International Women's Studies

National identity and nationalism have continued to influence economic, social, and political behavior despite their fluidity in a globalized and modernized world. Drawing on Benedict Anderson’s concept of “imagined communities” and the Social Identity Theory by Henri Tajfel and John Turner, national identity as a part of social identity is dynamic and plastic. It is relatively influenced by external and internal factors of individuals, including time and space. This fluid trait makes national identity difficult to explain and measure. This study utilizes a qualitative method based on secondary sources to analyze national identity attachment variables that affect it by focusing …

Ashley Gurule Oral History Interview April 2021, Marisa Gurule

Oral Histories HIST300, Spring 2021

This interview was with Ashley Gurule who is an elementary ESL teacher in North Carolina. This interview covers the topic of the current education system, and its struggles and victories over the past two years.

Preparing Pk-8 Teachers To Engage In Discussions Regarding Race, Mckenzie Hallstrom

Leadership Education Capstones

The purpose of this study is to discover what PK-8 teachers need to be prepared to engage in discussions regarding race with their students and to explore specific strategies to support teachers. Historically, Black students have been disadvantaged by the educational system and their voices silenced by pervasive racism. Using Critical Race Theory in education, this qualitative study will discuss barriers and strategies to engaging in race-discussions. This study will also discuss leadership implications for better supporting PK-8 teachers to be able to engage in race-discussions with their students. Ultimately, this study argues that PK-8 teachers are unprepared to engage …

Healthcare Altruism And Dysconscious Healthism In The Delivery Of Integrated Healthcare Services To Individuals Who Are Deaf, Hard Of Hearing, And Deafblind, Jaime A.B. Wilson, Michael John Gournaris

JADARA

Healthcare altruism and dysconscious healthism are terms proposed to recognize the barriers to healthcare access faced by not only individuals with hearing loss but also all minority populations. The implications of an integrated healthcare model to provide services to individuals who are d/Deaf, hard of hearing, or DeafBlind (D/HH/DB) are explored. Unique insights are then offered regarding existing barriers to healthcare access and the next steps.

Hazardous Weather Communication En Español: Challenges, Current Resources, And Future Practices, Joseph E. Trujillo-Falcón, Orlando Bermúdez, Krizia Negrón-Hernández, John Lipski, Elizabeth Leitman, Kodi Berry

National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration: Technical Reports and Related Materials

According to recent Census data, the Hispanic or Latino population represents nearly 1 in 5 Americans today, where 71.1% of these individuals speak Spanish at home. Despite increased efforts among the weather enterprise, establishing effective risk communication strategies for Spanish-speaking populations has been an uphill battle. No frameworks exist for translating weather information into the Spanish language, nor are there collective solutions that address this problem within the weather world. The objective of this article is threefold. First, the current translation issue in Spanish is highlighted. Through research conducted at the NOAA/NWS Storm Prediction Center, situations are revealed where regional …

Not The African Copyright Pirate Is Perverse, But The Situation In Which (S)He Lives-Textbooks For Education, Extraterritorial Human Rights Obligations, And Constitutionalization "From Below" In Ip Law, Klaus Beiter

Joint PIJIP/TLS Research Paper Series

Printed textbooks remain crucial for education, particularly in developing countries. However, in many of these countries, textbooks are unavailable, too expensive, or not accessible in learners’ native tongues. Digital content, for many reasons, does not prove a wondrous solution. Cheaply (translating and) reproducing textbooks would be a strategy. However, reprography is highly regulated under copyright law. Copyright also adds to the cost of textbooks. The availability, accessibility, and acceptability of learning materials constitute essential elements of the right to education under international human rights law.

Intellectual property (IP) law has so far refrained from endorsing the concept of extraterritorial state …

Investigating The Prevailing Worldviews Of American Public Education: A Brief Analysis And History, Chester Walker

Senior Honors Theses

This thesis investigates whether the philosophies and worldviews underlying U.S. public education contradict or purposefully undermine Biblical Christianity. It provides readers with an understanding of the Biblical Christian worldview to enable them to analyze and contrast prominent worldviews of public education. Pragmatism and Marxism run rampant in public education today. Both strongly oppose fundamental tenets of the Biblical Christian worldview. To determine any purposeful anti-Christian agenda, the author examines the men behind the worldviews. Christianity maintains that ideas and practices in education originate from deeply-held, personal beliefs, which are passed on to students. Education is a means of discipleship to …

Teaching Lexical Stress: Effective Practice In A Mandarin Ell Context, Ethan Oliver

Senior Honors Theses

Current trends in teaching pronunciation to ELLs (English Language Learners) point towards a "top-down" approach. This refers to putting emphasis on the overarching prosodic features of English rather than the proper pronunciation of consonants and vowels. One of the most integral prosodic features in English is stress. Both lexical stress (stressed syllables within a word) and sentence stress (stressed words within a sentence) play an important role in the prosodic pronunciation of English. However, some languages, such as Mandarin, lack stress in their prosodic systems, instead employing features such as tonality. These languages both have overlap in their fundamental prosodic …

Exploring Neurocognitive Processes That Underlie Reading Performance In Children: A Foundational Study, Ayan Mitra

Theses and Dissertations

With advancement in brain research, neuroscience researchers have collectively informed our understanding of reading-related processes. Despite an extensive body of literature, many educators are not aware of specific neuroimaging findings related to phonological processing and word reading. Therefore, the study builds on this body of research by exploring the connection between the brain and reading scores. Quantitative EEG and standardized academic achievement analyses were performed on 60 school-aged children. Intrahemispheric coherence analysis at rest were conducted across the sample of participants and several coherence networks were extracted and compared to standardized reading achievement scores. Specifically, networks that included Brodmann area …

Instructional Experiences: A Case Study Of Perceptions Of High School American Sign Language Teachers Who Are Hearing, Rhonda S. Leslie

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A significant gap has been identified in research-based findings and classroom instructional practices of hearing ASL teachers in high schools in the U.S. (Rosen, 2015). Research has shown the absence of standardized ASL instructional guidelines, rules, and procedures has created a significant gap in teaching and learning practices at the high school level, and research-based findings about the most suitable pedagogical approaches that should be used in ASL induction and immersion programs. This study aims to understand hearing teachers’ perceptions of their ASL instructional practices and choices, using a qualitative research approach and a case study design. Based on a …

Becoming Psychologists: Barriers And Bridges Encountered By Deaf And Hard Of Hearing Students In Education And Training Settings, Deborah Schooler, Lori A. Day, Sheila Maynard, Ryanne Rosier, Ashley Pabon, Cara A. Miller, Kathryn Wagner

JADARA

Culturally competent mental health providers are needed to serve deaf and hard of hearing populations. This study used a mixed-methods approach to investigate deaf and hard of hearing students’ experiences of bias, affirmation, and program climate at a bilingual (ASL/written English) university. Results emphasized the importance of access to signed classroom communication and mentoring opportunities with deaf faculty. Participants also described extensive peer conflict, often centering on D/deaf identities, language use, and/or race. Participants also reported experiencing discrimination when seeking internships and externships and wished to see faculty actively engaged in resisting biases experienced during their training.

Principles Of Improving Sociolinguistic Competence Among Students Of Philological Universities, Sevara Ziyaeva

Philology Matters

Developing sociolinguistic competence of philology students focuses on training and actualization of a certain set of components of sociolinguistic competence - the sociolinguistic paradigm that imposes a specific form on the individual speech behavior depending on the given social environment and the prevailing social and communicative context. The training system for the improvement of sociolinguistic competence of students should be based on didactic and methodological principles, enriched with special sociolinguistic content, which is the basis for the improvement of knowledge, skills, and abilities of students to build their speech behavior based on the speech profile of the interlocutor, taking into …

The Current State Of Communicative-Speech Culture And Competence Of Future Teachers, Hamid Sodikov

Mental Enlightenment Scientific-Methodological Journal

The study of the current state of communicative-speech culture and competence of future teachers is an invaluable sign of the existing language of each nation - the identity of this nation. In this sense, the communicative-speech culture implies changes in the motivational sphere, the psyche of the teacher, which leads to the reconstruction of the whole structure of activity. Therefore, it is necessary to form the professional competence of the teacher, but this alone is not enough. It is the training of the future teacher, along with changes in communicative competence and motivational structure of the person, should be aimed …