Digital Commons Network^™

Moral Identity And Its Relationship To Higher Education Mentoring And Community Service Engagement, Maria O. Rodriguez

Dissertations

Problem

A moral action is a result of the engagement of multiple psychological processes set in motion when an individual faces a moral conflict. Research suggests that an individual's moral reasoning and moral identity strongly influence the psychological processes that precede a moral action. Recent studies have shown that higher education positively influences students' moral reasoning; however, there is a lack of understanding as to the degree to which higher education can influence the moral identity of students.

Method

This study performed a quantitative cross-sectional study to investigate the relationship between independent variables—mentoring experiences and community service engagement—and dependent variables—moral …

Perceptions Of School Garden Programming And Their Communities: A Mixed-Methods Research Study, Briana Lafratte

West Chester University Doctoral Projects

School gardening has been connected to improving student nutritional knowledge (Landry et al., 2021; Leuven et al., 2018), academics (Eugenio-Gozalbo et al., 2020), and pro-environmental attitudes (Zelenika et al., 2018; Chang, 2015). Caring for plants in the garden fosters a positive and caring relationship with plants, allowing students to see themselves as a part of the natural world and promoting environmentally active stances in adulthood (Kalvaitis & Monhardt, 2012; Chawla, 2007). This exploratory sequential mixed methods study explored the scope of how school gardening programs are being utilized across a county in Pennsylvania to promote student community involvement, how food …

(2025) Curriculum Vitae Of Laurance J. Splitter, Laurance J. Splitter

Collected Papers of Laurance J. Splitter

No abstract provided.

Curriculum Vitae Of Matthew Lipman (2025), Matthew Lipman, Maughn Gregory

Scholarship

This curriculum vitae of Matthew Lipman was prepared by Maughn Rollins Gregory over the course of many years, and completed in November 2025.

Creating Worlds: Anarchist Education Within And Against The State, Paul B. Berlet

West Chester University Master’s Theses

This thesis shows how contemporary U.S. schooling reproduces domination and erodes freedom by examining education as a mechanism of social reproduction, disciplinary control, surveillance, and neoliberalization. I draw on Foucault, social reproduction theory, Freire, Vygotsky, and anarchist philosophy while using a critical action research lens to name the structural forces that condition obedience, normalize hierarchy, and individualize responsibility. In response, this thesis asks how anarchist pedagogy functions as an antithesis to these forces. This framework leads me to articulate how anarchist education could emerge through prefigurative community building. Educators are capable of helping to create new worlds both within and …

A Prophetic Priority A Vital Voice, Shauna Seamons

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

Prophets today are inviting women to use their voices and are prioritizing the importance and inclusion of women’s voices and their contributions in the kingdom of God—both those from scripture and history as well as those in our religious education classes. As religious educators we must be aware of this priority, and we have a responsibility to create environments that generate greater gender equality in religious education classrooms. This article will address three obstacles to embracing women’s voices and provide suggested solutions to that end.

Reproductive Health Education In Ghana: Perspectives Of School Health Education Programme (Shep) Coordinators, Population Council, Msi Reproductive Choices, Ghana Education Service, Ghana Health Service

Sexual and Reproductive Health, Rights, and Choices

Schools in Ghana have integrated reproductive health education (RHE) topics into their curricula and School Health Education Programme (SHEP) Coordinators recognize the importance of RHE. However, for RHE to reach its full potential, it needs to be established as a stand-alone subject. This study highlights the challenges and opportunities in delivering in-school RHE, underscoring the interplay between policy frameworks, implementation strategies, and locally accepted approaches.

Twice-Exceptionalism And The Complexity Of Supporting Students Who Are Both Gifted And Disabled, River Johnathon Taylor

Cal Poly Humboldt theses and projects

Drawing on ideas from disabilities studies about compulsory able-bodiedness as well as experiences of disability being fluid and context dependent, this study posits that giftedness, just like disability, is a complex multidimensional form of identity that is both context and temporally dependent. Twice-exceptionalism is defined as an identity in which an individual is gifted in at least one domain of human productivity and manifests at least one disability. Students with unique learning needs (students with disabilities, students with giftedness, and students with twice-exceptionalism) face many complex challenges within Humboldt County, California. Twenty-five educators from Humboldt County working across all grade …

Interview With Byu–Hawaii President John Kauwe Iii, Fred E. Woods

Religious Educator: Perspectives on the Restored Gospel

This interview with President Kauwe traces Kauwe’s path from his time as a student at BYU to his appointment as the eleventh president of BYU–Hawaii. Kauwe shares insights into his Hawaiian heritage, academic and professional accomplishments, and his aspirations for the university. He underscores the vital role of faculty inbuilding students’ confidence, the distinct intercultural setting of BYU–Hawaii, and the centrality of the gospel in education. Reflecting on the rapid progression of his career, Kauwe also speaks about the importance of following divine guidance in our lives. The interview captures his dedication to promoting intercultural harmony and his deep testimony …

Full Ride To College, But At What Cost?: Colonial Subjects At Imperial Educational Institutions In Binti And The Fifth Season, Martha Zornow

English Faculty Publications

A marginalized young person, often of a different physiognomy from those wielding power, sees the 'ivory tower' in her universe as a path to the learning, respect, power, and agency not available to her in her home environs. At their educational institutions, while their Blackness is not the basis for their outsider status, the Othering they experience mirrors that experienced by Black students at predominantly white universities in the real world. Theorizing the Colonial Role of Educational Institutions Following Thomas Macaulay's notorious' Minute on Education'(1835), educational systems have played a vital role in reaffirming the balance of power between the …

Education On The Early Recognition Of Antepartum Sepsis For Labor And Delivery Nurses, Diana Egan

Nursing | Senior Theses

Even though rare in occurrence, sepsis in pregnancy causes high morbidity and mortality rates, most deaths preventable with timely recognition and intervention. With symptoms difficult to identify, adjusted screening tools were created. The literature review highlighted the importance of using approaches such as these tools to improve on maternal outcomes and treatment. The review displayed how nurses in other departments find difficulty defining and identifying sepsis in adults as well as education surrounding interventions in maternal sepsis and obstetrical emergencies improve knowledge deficits. In response, questions emerge about what labor and delivery nurses know about recognizing sepsis in the pregnant …

Optimizing Discharge Education For Patients With Heart Failure, Connie-Rose Pangan

Nursing | Senior Theses

Noncompliance can be a result of a lack of comprehension of discharge instructions and a lack of concise, effective educational resources. Due to this deficit, patients with heart failure are less likely to comply with their discharge protocol and are therefore more likely to be readmitted to the hospital. The aim of the study is to consolidate a teaching method that accommodates one's existing educational barriers, implement follow-up to increase knowledge retention and improve self care, and prevent readmission among HF patients. Two hundred hospitalized, English-speaking patients with heart failure above 65 years old across 20 US Hospitals will be …

State Schooling Policies And Cognitive Performance Trajectories: A Natural Experiment In A National Us Cohort Of Black And White Adults, Min Hee Kim, Sze Yan Liu, Willa D. Brenowitz, Audrey R. Murchland, Thu T. Nguyen, Jennifer J. Manly, Virginia J. Howard, Marilyn D. Thomas, Tanisha Hill-Jarrett, Michael Crowe, Charles F. Murchison, M. Maria Glymour

Department of Public Health Scholarship and Creative Works

Background: Education is strongly associated with cognitive outcomes at older ages, yet the extent to which these associations reflect causal effects remains uncertain due to potential confounding. Methods: Leveraging changes in historical measures of state-level education policies as natural experiments, we estimated the effects of educational attainment on cognitive performance over 10 years in 20,248 non-Hispanic Black and non-Hispanic White participants, aged 45+ in the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Disparities in Stroke cohort (2003-2020) by (1) using state- and year-specific compulsory schooling laws, school-term length, attendance rate, and student-teacher ratio policies to predict educational attainment for US Census microsample …

Fundamental Alteration Limits On Disability Rights: Spread, Specifications, And The Quality Of Education, Adam M. Samaha

Touro Law Review

Fundamental alteration limits are now remarkably prevalent in disability rights law, even if the underpinnings of those limits are not well understood. This article explores the spread, specification, and normative problematics of those limits on disability accommodation and modification claims, with special attention to claims involving education. Often legal sources are vague regarding the content of fundamental alteration limits, but the article suggests that leading options include preservation of a program’s (1) nature, (2) details, (3) purposes, or (4) quality, including training and competition. Although several of these options seem unproductive, directing attention to quality training and fair competition among …

This Is How You Can Be A Cool Adult, Angelica Angelica

ENGS 15.11: Design and Education

“This Is How You Can Be a COOL Adult” is an interactive and self-reflective lesson designed to help high school juniors through college seniors practice being more compassionate, open-minded, optimistic, and laughing-out-loud (humorous) in their everyday lives. By the end of this lesson, students will be able to describe and explore research-based strategies that foster compassion, open-mindedness, optimism, and humor, and create a personalized “COOL Action Plan” with self-reflection logs to track progress. The lesson takes place in an unconventional classroom setting (outdoors) and includes mini-lectures, meditation, collaborative games, creative role-play, personal reflection, and practical methods for applying these qualities …

Untangling The Classification Of Surfaces: An Accessibility-Centered Perspective On Topology, Charlotte N. Richards

Pitzer Senior Theses

Mathematics has clear benefits in education, from preparing students for future careers to teaching them how to problem-solve. While mathematics achievement has been falling in recent decades, students claim that the problem is not the mathematics itself, but the ‘boring’ classroom material that feels removed from real life. More advanced mathematics topics, such as topology, could offer a solution, as their applications lie in countless fields. However, topology has been restricted to upper-level mathematics, disregarding the potential benefits of making this material broadly reachable for a junior high-school audience. In this paper, we analyze five different proofs of the theorem …

Digital Storytelling Across Disciplinary Horizons: A Bibliometric Exploration Through Physics, Mathematics, Chemistry, And Social Sciences, Desmin Davis, Manoj Praveen G, Ashna K

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

This study aims to know the key publication trends and patterns in digital storytelling research and to find the most influential papers, authors, journals, funding sponsors, sources, and countries that contributed to digital storytelling research from 2013 to 2023. This was examined through a systematic bibliometric analysis conducted on 508 documents collected from the Scopus database based on particular inclusion and exclusion criteria. Bibliometric patterns were obtained using the VOS viewer software. The findings indicated that the digital storytelling research field is emerging and shows growing interest in this particular field. The increasing citation trend shows its importance across various …

Backyard Chimeric Microbiomes: K-12 Participatory Science, Abigail Saucier

Honors Theses and Capstones

The US education system has seen a recent push for more secondary school curriculum to include STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) materials and activities. Middle and high school is a pivotal time when academic and personal experiences affect the development of student attitudes towards STEM (Christensen et al., 2015; Moreno et al., 2016). Teachers often utilize hands-on activities to promote student engagement with science curriculum (Brooks & Poles, 2021; Christensen et al., 2015). Hands-on activities improve student learning, but impacts vary by type of activity. When students work towards a known outcome they can feel disconnected from the work …

A Lifestyle Educational Course As An Adjunct To Biologic Administration In Patients With Severe Asthma: A Feasibility Study, Joseph W. Lanario, Drew Davies, Lucy Cartwright, Michael E. Hyland, Matthew Masoli

School of Health Professions

Objective: To assess the feasibility and acceptability of adapting a psychoeducation course (Body Reprogramming) for severe asthma and finding suggestions for improvement. Methods: Severe asthma patients were recruited from a single centre and enrolled in an online group-based course. Each course consisted of four sessions: introduction to BR, stress, exercise, and diet. Participants were asked to complete questionnaires assessing HRQoL, mood, asthma and extra-pulmonary symptoms, pre/post course. Those who attended two or more sessions were invited to provide feedback in interviews. Results: Twenty-eight participants took part in one of the five courses. Thirteen (46 %) attended all four sessions and …

Social Determinants Of Mental Health Outcomes, Ariana Fein

Honors Theses

Mental health disorders, particularly anxiety and depression, are a growing global concern with profound consequences on individuals' well-being and societal functioning. The burden of these disorders is not only psychological but also economic, affecting quality of life. Mental health outcomes are heavily influenced by a range of social determinants, such as financial status, education, and access to healthcare. While extensive research has focused on WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic) countries, there remains a significant gap in understanding how these determinants affect mental health in low-resource settings or non-WEIRD countries. This study aimed to address this gap by exploring the …

“Nice To See You”: Addressing Plant Awareness Disparity With Locally Specific Ecological And Cultural Plant Education, Cecilia Muecke

Pomona Senior Theses

Plants form the basis of life on Earth. However, due to the phenomenon of plant awareness disparity, a self-perpetuating cycle whereby plants are overlooked on an individual and global level ensues. Lack of plant awareness leads to a lessened emphasis on plants in sustainability and conservation as well as biology education, resulting in negative impacts on biodiversity and food security. The severity of plant awareness disparity is dependent on cultural context, and Indigenous and/or traditional societies are less likely to experience plant awareness disparity because of they are typically more connected to plants for their everyday needs. Native plants are …

Why A Healthy Diet Is Important For Women's Health, Halley Doster

Theses and Dissertations

Nutrition plays a critical role in women’s reproductive health, yet many women face barriers to maintaining a balanced diet. This study aimed to examine the relationship between nutritional intake and reproductive health outcomes among women of reproductive age, as well as to assess their knowledge and challenges related to healthy eating. Using a cross-sectional survey design, data were collected from 50 women at a community health center and analyzed using SPSS to generate descriptive statistics and explore patterns through chi-square and regression analyses. Findings revealed that most participants had moderate to low fruit and vegetable intake, and fewer than half …

Incorporation Of Citizen Science In Classrooms To Enrich Learning, Ryan Moellendick

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This paper explores the use of citizen science experiences as a method of enriching content in middle school and high school science classrooms. This article explores my own experiences working with the Dynamic Eclipse Broadcast (DEB) Initiative and the application of available citizen science experiences in the classroom in alignment with Ohio's Learning Standard's for Science.

Understanding The Impact Of Foster Care On Child Development, Catherine Pleska

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project aims to explore the developmental impact of the foster care system on children, focusing on how early trauma and systemic factors influence emotional, social, and cognitive development. Through a systematic literature review, the project will highlight the unique experiences foster children face, examining how early adversity shapes their long-term outcomes. The project will emphasize the importance of trauma-informed care in educational environments, advocating for strategies that create supportive and empathetic classrooms. The objectives include identifying key challenges for foster children and offering recommendations for teachers and school administrators to effectively engage students impacted by trauma. The study also …

Purpose-Driven Curriculum For 9th-12th Grades For Adulthood Careers & Life Gratification, Destiny Krystle Chioma Nnadozie

Theses and Dissertations

A purpose-driven or purpose-based curriculum is not the standard required for high schools in the United States. Students in grades 9th-12th are educated based on a curriculum that covers mathematics, English, science, and social studies (De Roux & Riehl, 2022; Xiao et al., 2018). The unique individual purpose of each student, realized while in high school, is not considered a priority, leaving students to enter their adult careers lacking true career fulfillment due to this misalignment (Baroudi et al., 2017; S. Lyons et al., 2015; H. Wu, 2024).  Using a qualitative systematic review research design, this study aimed to explore …

The Influence Of Fictional Storytelling On The Student Experience In A Gamified Classroom, Arrash Jaffarzadeh

Theses and Dissertations

This exploratory case study evaluated how the use of gamification and game-based learning (GBL) with the added element of storytelling affected engagement and attitudes of children ages 9 to 13 as they participated in quests to complete their learning objectives.  Archived artifacts of a computer technology class in a northern California private school using the Applied Computer Technology Education (ACTE) framework taught to grade 4-8 provided the data for the study.  Each quest was comprised of a fictional story that tied to the lesson. These stories involved the three archetypes of the warrior (herald), healer (ally), and mage (trickster) on …

Lifelong Learning And Perceived Quality Of Life: An Exploratory Study Of Older Adult Learners In Southern California, Guadalupe Salgado-Shower

Theses and Dissertations

This exploratory study examines the impact of lifelong learning programs (LLPs) on the perceived quality of life among older adults (OAs) against a global demographic shift towards an aging population (Narushima et al., 2018). With the number of people aged 60 and above projected to nearly double by 2050, understanding and enhancing the well-being of OAs has become imperative (United Nations, 2019). Lifelong learning (LL), involving the continuous acquisition of knowledge and skills irrespective of age, emerges as a promising avenue for improving cognitive functioning, social engagement, and emotional well-being among OAs (Longworth & Davies, 2017). This exploratory study adopts …

Student Success, Suicide Rates: A Correlational Study Of Pressures On, And Expectations For High School Students In The United States, Matthew Baham

Theses and Dissertations

Suicide among high school students has become a growing health crisis, with mental health issues such as anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation increasing at an alarming rate. The purpose of this quantitative research is to explore the correlation between high school graduation requirements, pressures associated with college applications, and rising suicide rates among high school aged students in grades 9 through 12. With the increase in academic demands, standardized tests, extracurricular activities and a competitive college admissions process, has created an enormously high-pressure environment in high school education. These stressors are shown to have an intense impact on high school …

Lives And Lessons Of Zoo Animals, Nicole Emlen

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

This project was an interdisciplinary museum exhibit that was displayed at the Montana Natural History Center between April 4 and May 12, 2025. It displays my photographs that I took of some of the animals I worked with during my summer 2024 internship at ZooMontana. In this project, I educate the public about three main functions of zoos--rescue, conservation, and education--through the stories and lives of four species. These animals all have unique stories that are important to share to improve public knowledge of why zoos are important and how we can improve relationships between humans and wildlife. Photography is …

Diving Into Watershed Science And Education: Blending Science, Storytelling, And Professional Practice In Northern Michigan, Mara Clare Pellerito

Graduate Student Portfolios, Professional Papers, and Capstone Projects

This portfolio expands understanding of the relationship between watershed education and science through storytelling, lived experiences, and research. In northern Michigan, the invasive Myriophyllum spicatum threatens watershed health by forming dense patches that block sunlight, exclude native plants and wildlife, and retain harmful nutrients later released by herbicide treatment. The Lake Leelanau Lake Association has managed this species with preventative and restorative practices since 2020, and this portfolio examines their results through scientific study and practical experience from the summers of 2024 and 25. It also explores how education serves as a stepping stone from childhood curiosity to a lifetime …