Digital Commons Network^™

Health Promotion Behaviors Among African American Women, Sandra E. Douchand Brown

Open Access Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to examine and describe the relationships among health status, marital status, income level, education level, age, and body mass index (BMI) with the added influence of spirituality on the health promotion behaviors of African American women, living in South Florida. The sample consisted of 137 women, 18 to 64 years of age, who were born in the United States and whose parents were born in the United States. Each participant completed a demographic questionnaire, the Health-Promoting Lifestyle Profile II (HPLP II), the Short Form-36 Health survey (SF-36), and the Spiritual Well-Being Scale (SWBS). Descriptive …

Penn State: Symbol And Myth, Gary G. Desantis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will focus on the popular culture iconography of the Pennsylvania State University: the Nittany Lion-as a symbol and apolitical mascot; Happy Valley, the geographic area in which the university is located, as a kind of sacred place and utopia in the Keystone State; football-its hallowed shrines, legendary coaches, and heroic players; regional foods and delicacies-from the unique offerings of the area's diners to the University Creamery (where patrons yearly consume more than 750,000 ice cream cones); and Lion Shrine and the adjacent Nittany Lion Inn-where the faithful have made pilgrimages since the early-twentieth century. The sum of these …

Comparing The Use Of Tangible And Graphical Programming Languages For Informal Science Education, Michael S. Horn, Erin T. Solovey, R. Jordan Crouser, Robert J.K. Jacob

Computer Science: Faculty Publications

Much of the work done in the field of tangible interaction has focused on creating tools for learning; however, in many cases, little evidence has been provided that tangible interfaces offer educational benefits compared to more conventional interaction techniques. In this paper, we present a study comparing the use of a tangible and a graphical interface as part of an interactive computer programming and robotics exhibit that we designed for the Boston Museum of Science. In this study, we have collected observations of 260 museum visitors and conducted interviews with 13 family groups. Our results show that visitors found the …

What Should We Be Doing To Reduce Or End Campus Violence?, Jason A. Laker

Faculty Publications

Over the last several years, there have been a number of high-profile incidents of violence on college and university campuses. These have precipitated discussions and new initiatives on campuses and within our professional organizations intended to prevent and respond to violence.

The Design Of A Blended Approach For Teaching The Tpck Framework In A Technology Integrated Course, Andrea Velasquez

Theses and Dissertations

This report describes the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of a web-based unit that was designed to enable blended learning in a course for pre-service teachers learning about technology integration. The unit aims to teach students about the TPCK (Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge) framework and how to incorporate it in their teaching designs to make their instruction more effective. The report describes the process of design and development using the rapid prototyping technique. The evaluation section describes the results of the implementation of the design. Finally, the conclusion provides a critique of the project's strengths and weaknesses.

A Quasi-Experimental Study On Students' Perceptions And Intended Use Of Digital Recording Technology In A College Technology Classroom, Zenia Bahorski

Master's Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

This quasi-experimental study employed a modified Technology Acceptance Model approach in conjunction with a Perceived Classroom Interaction Model. The study investigated the impact of digital audio recording of college classroom lectures on students' perceptions of interaction levels, usefulness, and use of the digital media.

The study surveyed six introductory computer science and technology classes. Previous computer knowledge was not assumed. The results found no significant differences of students' perceptions of interaction levels in traditional classroom lectures. However, gender was found to have a significant effect on speaking in class when a recorder was present. No significant differences were found when …

The Hom-School, Malik Benjamin

Open Access Theses

During the second half of the 20th century, there was an epic deterioration of the urban fabric of the typical American neighborhood. Starting with the fleeing of city dwellers into the outskirts of suburbia in the 1950s and the exodus of commercial institutions in the 1970s, neighborhood sprawl hit its stride with the elimination of the neighborhood school in the 1980s. With this community-defining component being replaced by giant, remote educational facilities, the American neighborhood was finally a shell of its former self. If the neighborhood represents the cell, then the home represents the nucleus. In 2003, 1.1 million children …

Unraveled Fall 2009, Southern Adventist University

Unraveled - School of Education and Psychology Newsletter

The Fall 2009 issue of Unraveled contains articles on the retirement of Dr. Alberto dos Santos, Southern's academic journal, the outdoor leadership program, and cultural connections.

Students Schooling Students: Gaining Professional Benefits While Helping Urban High School Students Achieve Success, Susan P. Leviton, Justin A. Browne

Faculty Scholarship

This article looks at the educational plight of urban low income children and explores the opportunities for success that small urban high schools provide. It then distills commonalities among successful small schools to demonstrate three central points: 1) that small is essential but not sufficient; 2) that small schools offer an opportunity for urban school districts to help improve educational opportunities for disadvantaged students by providing a fertile environment where individualized instruction, more class time, better-trained teachers, and a curriculum that prepares students psychologically and emotionally, as well as intellectually can help them overcome the adverse effects of poverty; and …

A Preliminary Comparison Of Student Outcomes Between Distanceeducation Modalities And Traditional Campus-Basededucation, Andreas M. Kummerow

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A comparison of student outcomes between a distanceEducation and campus-based is presented. Although there is dynamic growth in distanceEducation, there is little to no data available on learning outcomes aimed specifically at licensed practical nursing/licensed vocational nursing (LPN/LVN) students working toward baccalaureate degrees and registered nursing (RN) licensure. Learning outcomes were evaluated using results from a commercially developed content mastery test taken by students having completed a sophomore level mental health course. Admission criteria required students enrolled in the distanceEducation program to have a current LPN/LVN license while the students used for comparison in a classroom setting did not have …

Embracing Diversities In Elementary Schools : Stepping Outside The Classroom, Tera Yoder

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Teachers are currently challenged on how to include all students in one common and safe learning environment. Students don't come in cookie cutter patterns, but vary between cultures, genders, classes, race and ability. While children don't learn the same; a positive, common environment and learning atmosphere can contribute to learning of all children. Research shows that children that have difficulty in a traditional classroom setting can feel more comfortable in a less intense environment, like that outdoors. Many students with linguistic or physical barriers learn better actively doing rather than lectures, which gives great opportunity for science experimentations. These factors …

Identity & Learning : A Zine Project, Dorrie Coman

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Current educational practices and policies erode and ignore student's racial, cultural, socioeconomic, and gender identities forcing students to leave their unique characteristics at the classroom door in order to become socially acceptable. This erosion has many negative implications for students, including lack of motivation and interest in learning, failing, and dropping out. In the project, students created Zines, self-published self-distributed texts that include a variety of formats, mediums, and topics, with the goal of exploring and expressing their identity while meeting content standards. The objectives were to use what students bring into the classroom to motivate them to learn, to …

The Challenge Of Educating In A Highly-Connected And Multitasking World, Daniel A. Brazeau, Gayle A. Brazeau

Pharmaceutical Sciences Faculty Publications

Today’s students are more connected and more integrated with their world than any past generation and information is readily available today from a multitude of sources. To what extent have these advances improved our students’ ability to become learned pharmacy professionals who are informed not only of the current world and its events but the profession itself?

Creating A Warm And Inclusive Classroom Environment: Planning For All Children To Feel Welcome, Jessica L. Bucholz Ed.D., Julie L. Sheffler

Electronic Journal for Inclusive Education

The type of classroom environment that a teacher creates and encourages can either increase or decrease a student's ability to learn and feel comfortable as a member of the class. The classroom environment should do as much to foster cooperation and acceptance as the teaching methods that the teacher uses. This article describes a number of methods to help teachers plan for and create a classroom that welcomes and supports all children.

Media Literacy Education, Elizabeth Etherington Wood

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study offers an analysis of media literacy practices and techniques used at local public middle and high schools in Colorado. Media literacy is an emerging field in education that blends literacy skills such as critical analysis and evaluation with an inquiry-based questioning process that encourages students to process information using cognitive, moral, aesthetic and emotional dimensions. This inquiry-based process is not a new educational approach; it has been used to critically evaluate literature for centuries. However, media literacy scholars argue that applying inquiry-based approaches can enhance learning across all grades and content levels by applying new methodologies.

The literature …

"Education Will Be Our Mother": An Exploration Of Resilience Mechanisms Relating To The Educational Persistence Of Sudanese Refugees, Lucinda S. Spaulding

Faculty Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the cultural and contextual resilience mechanisms operating in the lives of Sudanese refugees living in Virginia. A convenience and snowball sampling of 10 Sudanese refugees (1 female, 9 male) living in Virginia were selected to participate in this study. Through interviews, I gathered and documented participant narratives. For the purpose of triangulation, I collected demographic information and data about the level of traumatic events experienced and the impact of these events using quantitative instruments. I analyzed the data using grounded theory methodology in order to explore the meaning attributed to past events …

An Examination Of Communities Of Practice On Leadership Capacity And Organizational Functioning: A Case Study, Mary J. Meduna

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

While reformation of the U.S. public school system has been at the forefront of public discourse since the 1980s, the system continues to fall short of the expectations of employers, communities, and parents. The responsibility for a successful school tends to fall on the shoulders of the building principal (Cotton, 2003). Research in the field ofEducational leadership has isolated specific principal responsibilities that impact student achievement (Cotton; Edmunds, 1979; Hallinger & Heck, 1998; Leithwood, Louis, Anderson, & Wahlstrom, 2004; Leithwood & Riehl, 2003; Marzano, Waters, & McNulty, 2005). The assumption is that if principals would apply these responsibilities, student achievement …

The Impact Of Home Computers On 12th Grade Students' Achievement In The Computer Science Curriculum In Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Mohammed A. Aljuwaiber

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Technology has improved manyEducational issues. This is a very exciting time for technology andEducation. The primary purpose of this study was aimed at understanding the impact of home computer use on academic achievement in the computer curriculum of the 12th grade students in Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In particular, the study attempted to determine if the use of home computers would be an effective manner for increasing students' academic achievement. The participants of the study were 240 male and female students as a random sample from 12th grade from eight random high schools in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. An achievement …

Novel Word Learning Of Children With Hearing Impairment And Children With Typical Hearing, Matthew R. Clark

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Children with hearing impairment may be at risk for reading difficulty due, in part, to delayed vocabulary development. However, advances in amplification technology, most notably cochlear implant technology, make it possible for children with profound hearing loss to acquire oral language. This study asked if novel word learning differed between children with typical hearing and those with severe to profound hearing loss who either wore hearing aids or had cochlear implants. Children learned nonsense words as names for Beanie Babies during a play scenario and were later asked to identify and name each Beanie Baby using its correct nonsense word …

Superintendent Communication Patterns In Northeastern Indiana, David Earl Clendening

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the qualitative study was to examine the communication patterns of superintendents in Northeastern Indiana. The demand for accountability, transparency, and student achievement calls for today's superintendent to increase communication strategies and support the needs of the varied stakeholders. Today's public school leaders are required to define the stakeholder groups and seek opportunities to communicate and share information about what is happening within the district. Three questions guided the discovery of the communication patterns of these superintendents: How do public school superintendents in Northeast Indiana communicate with their school stakeholders? What do public school superintendents in Northeast Indiana …

The Case For Participatory Education, Stephen Thornton-Taylor

ETD Archive

Participatory learning or "Participatory Education" as a formal declaration of either ideology or praxis has yet to be written and I would certainly not attempt to write one in the current educational capacity I now find myself in however I have found myself in the unique position of actually being first to something and so have decided to enjoin the relatively scant sketches of, as far as the great blade of written history is concerned, cutting edge economic philosophy with the over-personal, absolutely singular experience of a student-teacher in Cleveland, Ohio. The principles of Participatory Education are adapted from the …

Four Star School Awards: Key Factors That Predict High Performance Among Indiana School Corporations, Lawrence H. Veracco

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to analyze the Four Star status of Indiana school corporations in order to determine if certain variables currently existing among school corporations could be predictive of Four Star status. Differences in Four Star status were examined with respect to school corporation size, school corporation average teacher salary, and school corporation allocation of total budget to student instructional expenditures. The independent variables in this study were school corporation size, school corporation average teacher salary, and student instructional expenditures as defined by the Indiana State Board ofEducation. The dependent variable in this study was the Four …

Moving Heaven And Earth: Administrative Search And Selection Processes And The Experience Of An African American Woman Senior Administrator, Kim R. Barnett-Johnson

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this case/phenomenological study was to examine a collegiate administrative search and selection process and the experience of an African American woman who was selected to the position of chancellor. A case concerning the search process of a regional campus of Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana was identified and chosen. In-depth interviews were conducted with three participants in the search and selection process. Each individual played a significant and separate role during various phases of the search and selection process. Results indicated that there were four key themes to emerge from the investigation: diversity issues; the search …

Relationship Between Student Achievement And Use Of Power Videos Digital Educational Videos, Rick Sorrells

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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Dominican High Schools: Personal, Professional, And Institutional Transitions And Fidelity To The Dominican Charism, Deborah A. Egan

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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"It's Just Part Of What We Do": Adolescent Interactions With Multimodal Texts Across Social Spaces, Anita S. Charles

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation explores how adolescents are interacting with text across shifting social spaces, and how they learn to be literate across a range of social, academic, print, and digital contexts. The intent of the study is to help articulate the boundedness and fluidity of multiple discourses, and to better clarify how teens maneuver across these boundaries successfully. My research approach incorporates ethnographic methodology with a framework of critical sociocultural theory, drawing heavily upon Gee's (2005) work in discourse analysis.

New technologies have broken down bounded spaces and dichotomous views of what it means to be literate, creating interrelationships among literacies …

A Study Of The Factors Contributing To Long -Term Relationships Between School Boards And Superintendents, Kent A. Dekoninck

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the research study was to identify those factors contributing to long-term-relationships between school boards and superintendents. The primary focus of the study was about how conflict is resolved between superintendents and school boards. There were school districts where superintendents have chosen to and were allowed to lead for a long period of time. What factors led to this long term relationship? Other districts can use this information to help their school boards form a philosophy to sustain long-term relationships with the primaryEducational leader in the school community. School boards, communities, and superintendents can look at these factors …

Effects Of Delayed And Immediate Feedback In The Computer -Based Testing Environment, Luis Lopez

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Students in a first year introductory chemistry course in a secondary school were subjected to a series of computer-based exams to determine if timing of feedback could improve retention of content on a final exam and if motivation toward science learning had an interaction on student abilities to construct meaningful learning under each of the conditions. The computer-based tests that provided immediate feedback, delayed feedback or end of test feedback did not improve retention on a performance test given after a series of 5 exams under each of the conditions. In addition, the level of motivation also had no affect …

A Comparison Of The Achievement Test Performance Of Children Who Attended Montessori Schools And Those Who Attended Non-Montessori Schools In Taiwan, Hsin-Hui Peng

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

There are two purposes of the current study. First was to examine whether or not children in the elementary school in Taiwan who had received Montessori early childhoodEducation obtain significantly higher scores on tests of language arts, math, and social studies than children who attended non-Montessori pre-elementary programs. Second one was to examine whether or not the number years of MontessoriEducation has a positive impact on the students' scores when they are in elementary grades. According to Chattin-McNichols (1992b), children from MontessoriEducation program are doing better in some respects than other programs. Some studies have found that in the United …

Review Of Existing Australian And International Cyber-Safety Research, Julian J. Dooley, Donna Cross, Lydia Hearn, Robyn Treyvaud

Research outputs pre 2011

Information and communication technologies have permeated almost all areas of society and become an important component of daily functioning for most Australians. This is particularly true for Internet and mobile phone technology. The majority of Australian households (67% in 2007 – 2008) have access to the Internet and over 11 million Australians use the Internet as an integral part of their personal, social and occupational activities. By mid-2008, there were over 22 million active mobile phones being used in Australia, which equates to more than one phone for every citizen. There are many benefits associated with Internet and mobile phone …