Digital Commons Network^™

Using Machine Learning To Predict Student Outcomes, Saba Fatima

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

Predicting students’ performance to identify which students are at risk of receiving aD/Fail/Withdraw (DFW) grade and ensuring their timely graduation is not just desirable but also necessary in most educational entities. In the US, not only is the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) major becoming less popular among students, the graduation rate of STEM students is steadily declining. The lack of STEM graduates in the US is a serious problem that will place this country at a disadvantage as a competitor in international technological advancement. In order to secure its status as a technological leader internationally, the US institutions …

Fraternal New Member Processes: An Alumni Perspective, C J. Gibson

Masters Theses

Hazing has always been an issue in fraternities and sororities. Even though there has been a push to reduce the amount of hazing through research and trainings, it continues to cause harm to the community. The purpose of this study is to gain incite from fraternity alums toward understanding the use of hazing activities while orienting fraternity men to the organization. This study examined the issue from the individuals experience, to their role in inducting new members, and now as alums to gain insight in to why chapters continue to that cycle. Results showed that individuals in groups social construct …

Predictors Of Attitudes About Autism Spectrum Disorder (Asd), Claire Sullivan

Masters Theses

Students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are far less likely to enroll in secondary education than neurotypical students and students with disabilities (White et al., 2016). There is little research on the factors contributing to the reluctance of young adults on the autism spectrum to seek higher education. This study aims to answer two research questions. The first research question aims to determine if there is a predominance of negative attitudes towards ASD amongst present undergraduate college students. The second research question explores whether this could be a determining factor in a college determination for students with ASD. This current …

"Killers Who Preach": Horror And The "Victorian" Culture Text In The Modern American Musical, Amy Erickson

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This dissertation examines American Broadway musicals adapted from Victorian horror and mystery novels, investigating the ways in which the musical adaptations represent and critique modern American social problems and traditional American values and ideology. Specifically, it analyzes Stephen Sondheim’s 1979 musical Sweeney Todd the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, a Musical Thriller, adapted from the anonymously published Victorian penny serial The String of Pearls; Rupert Holmes’s 1985 musical The Mystery of Edwin Drood, adapted from Charles Dickens’s unfinished 1870 novel of the same name; Frank Wildhorn’s 1997 musical Jekyll & Hyde, adapted from Robert Louis Stephenson’s 1886 novella The Strange …

Understanding Maternity Care Providers’ Use Of Data In Southern Tanzania, Regine Unkels, Fadhlun Alwy Al-Beity, Zamoyoni Julius, Elibariki Mkumbo, Andrea B. Pembe, Claudia Hanson, Helle Molsted-Alvesson

Obstetrics and Gynaecology, East Africa

Introduction: Health information management system data is collected for national planning and evaluation but is rarely used for healthcare improvements at subnational or facility-level in low-and-middle-income countries. Research suggests that perceived data quality and lack of feedback are contributing factors. We aimed to understand maternity care providers’ perceptions of data and how they use it, with a view to co-design interventions to improve data quality and use.

Methods: We based our research on constructivist grounded theory. We conducted 14 in-depth interviews, two focus group discussions with maternity care providers and 48 hours of observations in maternity wards to understand …

Theater Studies In Creative Drama - A Journey Of Transformation, Alyne S. Montenegro

High Impact Practices Student Showcase Fall 2023

The Theater Studies in Creative Drama project at UCF aimed to explore and implement Drama-Based Instruction (DBI) in education, with a specific focus on creating a lesson plan for children in hospitals. The project began by delving into the significance of play in childhood and its connection to theater. Through interdisciplinary collaboration with UCF nursing students, the team crafted a dynamic lesson plan, incorporating theatrical elements to enhance the educational experience for young patients. The To-Go Package, designed for children unable to attend in person, extended the impact of the project. The key activities involved reflection on personal experiences, connecting …

Professional Communication During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Corrie Eggimann

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

In the early spring of 2020, the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019)1 pandemic spread across the planet, causing a scale of infection and fatalities that was unprecedented in modern times, and that was not well predicted by scientists, public health officials and government entities. Despite travel bans and quarantine requirements popping up across the globe, COVID-19 infections continued to spread. As of February 2023, more than 6.8 million people have died from COVID-19 (World Health Organization, 2023). In an effort to slow the spread of COVID-19 and the growing number of deaths, schools and businesses began closing down throughout the world …

Creating The Role Of Richard Iii For Richard Iii, Travis Grey Robertson

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This document is a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the Master of Fine Arts degree in Acting. It is a detailed account of author Grey Robertson’s artistic process in creating the role of Richard III in Minnesota State University, Mankato’s Fall 2022 production of Richard III. This thesis follows the actor’s process through pre-production analysis, an historical and critical perspective, journals detailing the rehearsal and performance process, a post-production analysis, and process development. Appendices and works cited follow the process development.

Languishing Without A Human Touch: Directing In The Next Room Or The Vibrator Play, Sarah Belfrage Honerman

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This document is a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the Masters of Fine Arts degree in Theatre Arts at Minnesota State University, Mankato. It is a detailed account of Sarah Belfrage Honerman’s directorial process for In The Next Room or the vibrator play by Sarah Ruhl. The play was produced in the Andreas Theatre and ran from September 21 to 24, 2022. The thesis outlines the director’s artistic process from pre-production through the performance in five chapters that include a early production analysis, an historical and critical perspective, a rehearsal and performance journal, a post-production analysis, and a process …

Production Stage Management For A Christmas Carol, Jenna Atherton

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of a Master of Fine Arts degree in Theatre Arts: Production and Stage Management at Minnesota State University, Mankato. This thesis contains a detailed account of Jenna M. Atherton’s stage management process and research for A Christmas Carol. The thesis gives a chronological overview of the manager’s process in four chapters; a pre-production analysis, a historical and critical perspective, a journal detailing the process, and a post-production analysis. The fifth and final chapter provides the process development of the manager's career before and during her time in graduate school. Appendices feature technical paperwork, …

The Creation Of Choreography For Disney's High School Musical, John Greer

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

This document is a thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the Master of Fine Arts degree in musical theatre. It is a detailed account of author John Greer’s artistic process of creating the choreography for Disney’s High School Musical as a part of Minnesota State University, Mankato’s mainstage theatre season in the fall of 2022. The thesis chronicles the choreographer’s artistic process from pre-production through performance in five chapters: a preproduction analysis, an historical and critical perspective, a rehearsal journal, a post-production analysis and a process development analysis. Appendices and works cited are included.

Bulletin 2023-2024, Seattle University School Of Law

Viewbooks

No abstract provided.

Preceding Footsteps In Revolution: The History Of The Southern Negro Youth Congress, Donnae' Hampton

All ETDs from UAB

This thesis is a comprehensive history of the Southern Negro Youth Congress including the social circumstances that led to its formation, the work and people of the organization, and its impact and influence on future civil rights organizations and Black leftist movements of the late 1960s. The Southern Black communist organization was formed in 1937 and officially disbanded in 1949. SNYC committed itself to unionizing, educating, registering people to vote, and exposing racial horrors in the South for Black southerners. In 1939, SNYC moved its headquarters to Birmingham, Alabama. The segregated city of Birmingham in 1939 was the industrial center …

How College Professors Perceive The Managements Of Deliberate Acts Of Classroom Incivility Among Students, Sara Bengsch

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite the negative consequences of incivility, there is a lack of research on how professors handle intentional student-to-student incivility. To address this gap, this study used qualitative, interpretative phenomenological research design to explore the experiences of 14 professors who have been teaching for five or more years at the university level in Dodge and Fond du Lac Counties in southeastern Wisconsin. The lens of facework and politeness theory was utilized. The data collected were analyzed using NVivo software, which identified five themes based on patterns within the interviews: intervention strategies, motivations, policies, participant worldview, and skills. These themes provided valuable …

Examining School Funding Inequity And Impact On African American High School Dropouts, Michelle Janette Williams

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Causal factors such as peer pressure and socioeconomic status have been linked to African Americans dropping out of high school. Little research has been done to examine the impact school funding inequity has on African Americans dropping out of a high school. In response, this quantitative research study examined the association between school funding and when an African American dropped out of high school. The results can be used to make an argument for increased funding in high-poverty schools. The theoretical framework that underpinned this research study was equity theory. The quantitative research study explored the association between funding and …

Gender Dynamics In The Management Care Of Internally Displaced Persons: The Boko Haram Insurgency, Evelyn Kikelomo Ikuenobe Otaigbe

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Boko Haram asymmetric insurgency and warfare have decimated the Northeastern region of Nigeria and its neighboring environs of Chad, Niger, and Benin. The purpose of this study was to explore the peculiar socioethnic and cultural challenges encountered by female victims of Boko Haram terrorism at internally displaced persons camps in Abuja, Nigeria, including challenges in functioning, relocating, and acclimating back into society. A phenomenological approach was applied to understand participants’ lived experiences. Data collection occurred through interviews and observation. Data analysis involved the synthesis of narratives, and generation of themes. Among the emergent themes were poor feeding; lack of …

Gender Dynamics In The Management Care Of Internally Displaced Persons: The Boko Haram Insurgency, Evelyn Kikelomo Ikuenobe Otaigbe

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The Boko Haram asymmetric insurgency and warfare have decimated the Northeastern region of Nigeria and its neighboring environs of Chad, Niger, and Benin. The purpose of this study was to explore the peculiar socioethnic and cultural challenges encountered by female victims of Boko Haram terrorism at internally displaced persons camps in Abuja, Nigeria, including challenges in functioning, relocating, and acclimating back into society. A phenomenological approach was applied to understand participants’ lived experiences. Data collection occurred through interviews and observation. Data analysis involved the synthesis of narratives, and generation of themes. Among the emergent themes were poor feeding; lack of …

Elementary Teachers’ Perceptions Of Instructional Strategies For Reading, Erin Sponaugle

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The problem investigated in this study was decreasing annual reading proficiency among students in intermediate elementary grades (Grades 3-5). Deficiencies in reading proficiency can negatively impact overall student achievement. The purpose of this study was to investigate intermediate elementary teachers’ perceptions of their instructional strategies to improve students’ reading proficiency and potentially increase Generalized Summative Assessment scores. The conceptual framework was Vygotsky’s zone of proximal development theory. The key research questions were about elementary reading teachers’ perceptions of effective instructional practices used to increase students’ reading proficiency and elementary reading teachers’ perceptions about teachers’ instructional strengths and challenges associated with …

The High School In The Middle Of Everywhere: Nebraska’S Lincoln High, Edmund T. Hamann, Janet M. Eckerson, Mark Larson

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

In 2002, world-renowned author Mary Pipher published a book about her home city, Lincoln Nebraska, playfully titled “The Middle of Everywhere” a tongue-in-cheek rejoinder to the idea that Nebraska is ‘the middle of nowhere.’ But word play aside, her title was empirically apt, as her volume documented how immigration and refugee resettlement were demographically transforming Nebraska’s capital city. As in other cities, resettlement was concentrated in some areas of Lincoln, placing differential burdens on different parts of the community’s institutional infrastructure. Of interest to readers of this volume, Lincoln’s refugees and immigrants were concentrated in the city’s oldest high school. …

Volume 32, Number 4, Winter 2023-24, Office Of Communications, Illinois Wesleyan University

Illinois Wesleyan University Magazine, 2018-present

VOLUME 32 | NUMBER 4 | Winter 2023-24

ON OUR COVER:

Bryan McCannon '98 and Amber Kujath '97 have returned to IWU to lead the Schools of Business and Economics and of Nursing and Health Sciences.

14 Pilgrims of Science Scott Collins '02 and Kosha (Baxi) Carstens '02 have dreamed of going to the Galapagos Islands since they were children growing up together in Ottawa, Illinois. This summer, they finally went with Scott's class of high school biology students.

18 Returning Leaders Two IWU alumni, Amber Kujath '97 and Bryan McCannon '98, have returned to campus as experts in their …

Past And Progress: Producing History At Chicago's 1933-34 World's Fair, Cate Liabraaten

Dissertations

During the country’s worst economic crisis, the Great Depression, Chicago hosted an event that presented a vision for the future. The 1933-34 Century of Progress Exposition was Chicago’s second world’s fair, important for revitalizing the local economy as well as encouraging optimism for a better future. While the fair’s theme officially focused on scientific and technological progress and was intended to be forward-looking, several exhibits dwelt on the past.

Study of these historic-themed exhibits reveals that by featuring Abraham Lincoln, Fort Dearborn, Jean Baptiste Point Du Sable, and a replica colonial village, Americans looked to their shared past to make …

Graduate Catalog 2023-2024, Southwestern Oklahoma State University

Graduate Catalogs

No abstract provided.

The Jewish Dancing Body: Body Image In Jewish Folk Dance, Alexa Berkowitz

Master's Theses

Throughout my life as a dancer, I often wondered if body image issues were purely found in Western concert dance (such as ballet and modern dance) and if folk dance instilled a sense of ownership over one’s body. It was apparent to me that being asked to stare at yourself in the mirror for hours on end in a ballet class, or any other dance style, forced you to see every tiny defect in your body. For me personally, this caused a lot of body dysmorphia and body image issues that I carry to this day. While some folk dance …

The Criticality Of Teacher Educator Wellbeing: Reflecting Through Arts-Based Methods, Kristina Turner, Georgina M. Barton Dr, Susanne Garvis, Ellen Larsen

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Teacher educators face many challenges related to workload and government-mandated reforms in Initial Teacher Education programs. Evidence suggests that COVID-19 has exacerbated these challenges as universities must become more cost-effective and improve research outcomes and impact, often resulting in heavier workloads. While these challenges may be faced in other disciplines, teacher educator wellbeing, stress and burnout is an under-researched field, and little is known about if and how teacher educators maintain their wellbeing during times of uncertainty. This collaborative autoethnographic study applied an arts-based research method to explore the wellbeing challenges faced by four Australian teacher educators through the lens …

The Impact Of Theatre Pedagogy On Student Teachers’ Development Of Beliefs About Good Teaching And Their Pedagogical Ethos: An Exploratory Case Study, Angela Hadjipanteli

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The development of student teachers’ beliefs about good teaching needs to be integral to their education programmes. This study attempts to scrutinise the contribution of a theatre education course to the conceptualisation of a group of eight student primary teachers’ notion of good teaching and a teacher’s ethos. The findings reveal that, within the coursework, student teachers’ learning experiences are interwoven with the ethics of the beautiful, the ethics of the dialogue and the ethics of the will. This nexus of learning experiences enabled them to identify three internal goods of good teaching: the awakening of learners’ positive emotions; …

"The War Factor" In The History Of The Late Protestantism In Ukrainian Lands Via The Policy Of The Russian Autocracy, Roman Sitarchuk

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

The article explores the impact of war on the movements of late Protestantism on the territory of Ukraine. The study is based on the three largest Protestant denominations in Ukraine: Baptists, Pentecostals, and Adventists. Due to the refusal of the Protestants to do military service and fight with weapons, the Russian autocracy suppressed and created difficult conditions for believers of the Protestant denominations on the territory of Ukraine. Before the First World War, the refusal of Protestants to engage gave the state an argument for why the Protestants were not reliable members of society. This study uses as a basis …

Phenoesthetics And The Arcimboldo Connection: Bridging Art, Science, And Aesthetics In Clinical Practice, Robert W. Lindner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations 2020 - Present

Amid the rapid advancements in clinical aesthetics, there lies an intricate gap between the artistic and sensory experience of facial aesthetics and the technical approach of medical sciences. As the field of clinical aesthetics veers further into the realm of the ideal, tensions arise between patient expectations and the practitioner's delivery. Central to this issue is the growing reliance on technology, which often overlooks the immediate sensory experience crucial for aesthetic satisfaction. Drawing inspiration from the arts and humanities, this dissertation introduces "Phenoesthetics" as an epistemological bridge, harmonizing the seemingly disparate domains of sensory experience and scientific analysis. By using …

Supporting The Learning Of Women Middle Eastern Students Studying Engineering In Europe, Shannon M. Chance, B. Williams, Ines Direito

Research Outputs: 2025-Present

No abstract provided.

Landmark Briefs, Ellen Platt

Historical and Topical Legal Documents

No abstract provided.

Identities Of Women In Indian Art And History, Nalini Rao

Monsoon: South Asian Studies Association Journal

The stereotypical image of Indian women portrayed in the art of stone sculpture is often interpreted as images of beauty that are sensuous, religious as well depict social life. There are historical reasons for depicting her as such. This paper inquires into the changing depiction and social forces that influenced feminine imagery. This paper examines the portrayal of beauty through idealization of female body which has evolved over the centuries in India. It also aims to understand their changing status and explores issues of feminine identity, status, and empowerment largely in ancient and medieval India. It also provides a brief …