Education Commons^™

School Resource Officers' Reports Of Training And Perceptions Of High School Students With Disabilities, Kandace T. Jones

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this explanatory sequential, mixed methods research study was to identify the perceptions of school resource officers (SROs) regarding high school students with disabilities and their preparedness to work with this population, as a result of their SRO training. This study involved a national quantitative survey of SROs working in public high schools, followed by one-on-one interviews from the same sample to allow for a deeper analysis of the survey results and develop a theory on how training impacts SRO preparedness and their perceptions of high school students with disabilities. The resulting theory ascertained that the presence of …

Changes In Healthy Eating And Physical Activity Behaviors Of Adult Participants In Create Better Health's Education (Snap-Ed) Program, Kami Bullock

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of delivery method on the nutrition, food resource management (FRM), and physical activity behavior of participants enrolled in either Create Better Health’s in-person or online courses. The pre-survey and post-survey included data on nutrition, FRM, and physical activity behaviors. The researcher analyzed preexisting data from 138 SNAP-eligible adults who participated in Create Better Health’s online and in-person courses.

Results showed similar improvements in most of the nutrition and physical activity behaviors among those who took the CBH courses online or in-person. The online course showed statistically higher scores for four …

Collaborative Practices Of Rural Inclusive Postsecondary Education Program (Ipse) Directors, Elizabeth Susanne Goode Dimond

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Inclusive postsecondary education programs (IPSE) for students with intellectual disabilities (ID) are relatively new, having their formal beginning in the Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA; P.L. 110-315) of 2008. These programs vary greatly and are found in urban, suburban, and rural areas of the United States. Those programs in rural areas face unique barriers and have unique strengths that affect how they collaborate and with whom they collaborate. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study is to describe the collaborative practices of rural IPSE program directors. This study gathered the lived experiences of rural IPSE program directors collaborating with agencies …

Predictors Of Special Education Inequity In Rural Rocky Mountain West Schools, Jac'lyn Bera

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Current research focusing on disproportionality and equity in schools focuses on the urban environment, resulting in a significant gap in our understanding of the challenges of rural schools. For rural, racially and ethnically minoritized (R/EM) students who have disabilities, this research is largely unavailable or minimal, and negatively affects our understanding of rural needs, barriers, and successes for this historically underserved population. There is even less research focused specifically on rural students in the Rocky Mountain West (RMW) region of the United States. Understanding these factors serves as a critical area of research, and is the focus of this study. …

Pragmatics In Game Activities, Humor, And Technology In Second Language Learning, Zachary Brandon Brown

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

This portfolio compiles work the author explored and developed during the Master of Second Language Teaching (MSLT) program at Utah State University (USU). It encompasses a range of experiences from teaching abroad and at USU, insights from the observation of other classrooms, and reflections from studies in the MSLT program.

Three distinct sections comprise the portfolio: teaching perspectives, research perspectives, and an annotated bibliography. The teaching perspectives detail beliefs regarding games, computer technology, humor, and pragmatics and how they influence second language learning based on the author’s personal experiences. The research perspectives and annotated bibliography elaborate further on those topics …

Maternal Education And Changes In Parenting Beliefs, Values, And Practices, Becca E. Richards

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Mothers’ education level has been an important predictor of life outcomes across many different areas. Higher education in mothers has been associated with outcomes such as higher reading levels and decreased chances grade repetition for their child. Due to gaps in the research, this study emphasizes the importance of mothers’ beliefs about parenting, the practices they use, the amount of closeness they have with their child, and how they change when mothers return to school. This study used new mothers and their newborn children across time to understand whether mothers’ beliefs, practices, and values change when mothers return to school. …

Early Sibling Play Interactions As A Source Of Developmental Support For Toddlers: Observation Of Young Children's Developmental Support During Play With Toddler Siblings, Tasha L. Olson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The sibling relationship is a unique and important context for infant and early child development. Despite the important role of siblings and the unique aspects of the sibling relationship, sibling interactions are largely overlooked by scholars as a resource of potential developmental support. Identifying and fostering developmentally supportive interaction (DSI) behaviors in sibling relationships may expand available supports for children’s early development and may also support family well-being.

This study used a sample of 15 child-toddler sibling pairs to identify DSI behaviors in interactions between young children and their toddler-aged siblings, determine if and how well DSI behaviors could be …