Education Commons^™

What Resources Do School Librarians Use When Developing New Programming: A Qualitative Inquiry, Jennifer Hansen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

For this qualitative analysis, I analyzed observational and interview data from two middle school librarians setting up new active learning programs. I focused my research by analyzing the preliminary data gathered in field notes from observations at the different library sites to determine what programming resources the librarians were using. A secondary consideration was drawn from preliminary evidence, which indicated the librarians turned to many on and offline information resources, including the social curating site Pinterest. After gathering initial data from observations, I gathered additional data from two interviews: the first interview focused on where the librarians find information and …

Counseling Competencies In Audiology: Important Knowledge, Skills, And Attitudes, Alex R. Meibos

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to identify counseling competencies considered important for audiologists to possess to provide effective counseling in practice. To achieve this, researchers and clinicians with expertise in audiologic counseling, were recruited to participate in a three-round consensus survey. These experts were asked to generate and rate a list of counseling competency items they believed were important for audiologists to possess. In the final round of the study, final consensus was met on 64 counseling competency items (16 knowledge, 35 skills, and 13 attitudinal items) deemed important for audiologists to possess. The results of this study revealed …

The Effects Of Explicitly Teaching Summarization Skills On The Reading Comprehension Of Students With Specific Learning Disabilities, Sally A. Brown

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Secondary students who struggle with reading often have deficits in the area of reading comprehension. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of explicit main idea and summarization instruction on reading comprehension of expository text for alternative high school students. The lead researcher explicitly taught participants how to summarize expository passages. Participants were taught to generate a big idea topic of a passage, identify key words and phrases, locate or generate main ideas, and generate an oral summary. The three participants increased their performance on the researcher-developed oral summary measure and the summarization guide after receiving the …

The Integration Of Reading, Writing, Speaking, And Listening Skills In The Middle School Social Studies Classroom, Marianne Bristow Evans

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this feasibility study is to provide evidence of how integrating reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills into eighth-grade social studies instruction facilitates student understanding of content material and ability to write about social studies content. In this within-subjects paired-samples research study, 197 eighth-grade participants received instruction in a social studies content area and in argumentative writing. Data from a criterion-referenced social studies pre and posttest and data from pre and post instruction writing samples were analyzed to evaluate the influence of the integration of literacy tasks in middle school social studies classrooms on content area knowledge acquisition …

Undercurrents: The Life Cycle Of An Outdoor Experiential Learning Program In A Mainstream Public Middle School, Eric Jackson Newell

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This autoethnographic study details the researcher’s experiences as a high school student and as a new teacher—which eventually led to the creation, implementation, and 8-year life cycle of Mount Logan Discovery, a sixth-grade integrated outdoor experiential learning program in a public middle school. Routine field experiences established academic background knowledge, fostered relationships, built confidence, and provided purpose for curriculum standards. Perspectives of parents, students, colleagues, administrators, and donors add detail. This study responds to calls qualitative studies that focus on how outdoor programs are conducted, the descriptions of experiences and perceptions of students and parents, and how participants were changed …

Why Do You Go To University? Outcomes Associated With Student Beliefs About The Purposes Of A University Education, Mitchell C. Colver

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Students enter the realm of higher education with a wide variety of beliefs about the purposes of attending university, which often relate to or reveal their various motivations for pursuing a post-secondary education. Research demonstrates that some student motivations align more fully with intrinsic factors, such as the love of learning or quest for excellence, while other student motivations align with extrinsic factors, such as vocational preparedness and monetary incentives (Vallerand et al., 1989). Using a Bourdieusienne lens, this study sought to place these student motivations in the larger sociocultural context and argue for greater opportunities for democratic equity in …

Promoting Sociodramatic Play Between Children With Autism And Their Typically Developing Peers Using Activity Schedules, Azure J. Pellegrino

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Young children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) demonstrate behavioral deficits and excesses that can adversely affect their play skills. Teaching children with ASD to use activity schedules with embedded scripts have led to increased appropriate game play with other children with autism and typically developing peers; however, there is sparse research on promoting more dynamic social play in children with ASD. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of teaching the use of activity schedules with embedded scripts on the sociodramatic play of preschoolers with ASD with their typically developing peers. We also examined the extent to …

Comparison Of Stimulus Delivery Methods Via An Ipad To Teach The Expressive Labeling Of Action Verbs To Children With Autism, Amy M. Heaps

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Delays in communication are one of the defining characteristics of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Educators have begun using technology to teach students with ASD to label different items. However, more research needs to be conducted with technology (such as iPads and other tablets) to find the most effective teaching procedures. We wanted to find the most effective way to teach children with ASD age-appropriate action verbs, such as drawing and painting. Five preschool-aged students with ASD participated in this study. We taught these participants to label action verbs using pictures and short video clips, to test which method was the …

Historical Analysis Of Leadership Theory In The Church Of Jesus Christ Of Latter-Day Saints And Its Educational System, Kevin D. Whitehead

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

An organization’s leadership theory acts as a collection of primary guiding characteristics which influence its identity and direction. Developing leaders has always been important for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Historically, the Church has promoted leadership ideals for all its members through various aspects of its doctrine and organization. This study provides an analysis of multiple leadership texts produced by the ecclesiastical and educational wings of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The study helps to reveal how Latter-day Saint leadership theory has developed over time. This study considers the unfolding of Latter-day Saint leadership …

Comparison Of Vestibular Contribution During Stair Ascent, Stair Descent, And Treadmill Locomotion, Alexander Kern

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

Stair negotiation accounts for 16% of fall related traumatic spinal cord injuries and the vestibular system plays a crucial role in fall avoidance through its role in maintaining balance during human locomotion, but its role in stair negotiation is unclear. The aim of this study was to compare the vestibular contribution to a) stair negotiation versus locomotion and b) stair ascent to stair descent in healthy young participants. It was hypothesized that, with cadence held constant, vestibular influence would increase during stair negotiation when compared to locomotion. We also expected the vestibular influence to increase during stair descent vs. ascent. …

A Review Of Impact Testing Used For The Diagnosis Of Concussion And The Influence Of Language Of Test Administration, Carley Bishop

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

The Immediate Post-Concussion Assessment and Cognitive Test (ImPACT) battery is a widely used tool for the diagnosis and treatment of concussions. The purpose of this review was to evaluate studies that account for patient language and language of test administration when conducting ImPACT. A total of 36 articles were reviewed. The 36 articles reviewed accounted for English speaking populations and five of the articles accounted for populations representing different languages. Five of the studies were test-retest reliability studies. The results indicated that ImPACT has acceptable test-retest reliability when used in English to monolingual English-speaking participants. However, the results demonstrated ImPACT …

The Successful Foreign Language Classroom: Affect, Empathy, And Engagement, Emily Mower

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

This portfolio is the culmination of the author’s work in the Master of Second Language Teaching program at Utah State University. Throughout this collection the author shares her personal views and experiences from teaching secondary and postsecondary beginning Spanish courses, supporting her claims with existing research. The portfolio consists of three sections: (1) teaching perspectives, (2) research perspectives, and (3) annotated bibliographies.

The objective of this work is to identify hindrances to the progress of foreign language teachers and learners, and best practices to stimulate their success. On the basis that language learning can promote cross-cultural understanding, these findings are …

Stories Behind The Berlin Wall: Lesson Modules, Nicholas Redmon

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

I have grappled with my primary collection just as scholars and popular authors have with bringing these stories together with political histories. My goal is to create a digital map and analysis on specific themes like education and guard duty from the lives lived behind the Wall and their discourse with the government. I would like to explore how the divide impacted lives in 1961, created a GDR Society, and produced a division still felt in Germany today. The target audience of this project is U.S. students in high school and higher education. Students will be able to access timely …

The Relationship Between Narrative Proficiency And Syntactic Complexity Of Spontaneously Generated Stories Elicited From Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder (Asd), Megan Israelsen

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

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine whether a narrative program designed to increase narrative language proficiency was associated with improved syntactic complexity for 5, school-aged children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Method: A multiple-baseline across participants design was employed. Children participated in a narrative intervention for 45 minutes, twice weekly for a period of time ranging from 19 to 33 sessions. Spontaneously generated narratives were collected after every other intervention session and analyzed for narrative and syntactic complexity.

Results: Results indicated that during baseline, three of the student’s spontaneous stories contained syntactically complex utterances that were comparable …

Contexts And Perspectives For Foreign Language Learning And Teaching, Kimberly Paige Fallis

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

This portfolio highlights what the author believes are important facets and implementations of second language teaching and second language learning. This portfolio is grounded in two elements: second language acquisition theory and the author’s first-hand observations as a student in the Master of Second Language Teaching (MSLT) program. The target languages focused in this portfolio are English and French.

This portfolio is divided into three main sections. The first section contains the author’s teaching philosophy statement with focuses on student and teacher roles, tasks in the classroom, and the author’s experiences teaching English. After the teaching philosophy statement, there are …

Development Of A 4th-8th Grade Curriculum For Flying And Programming Mini Drones, Jordan Lynn Bartholomew, Russell Scott Mayo

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

This project was a joint effort by Jordan Bartholomew and Russell Mayo. The project consisted of three parts. Part one was the development of the lesson content led by Jordan Bartholomew. Part two was the production of a multimedia package that included lesson videos, animations and logos for the ROAV copter mini curriculum, led by Russell Mayo. Part three included a journal article to introduce the curriculum co-written by both Jordan and Russ. The curriculum was developed for hands-on experiential learning and includes a computational thinking component. The lesson videos were intended for self-instruction or in a classroom setting. The …

Values, Mushfaking, And Literacy In Disability: Applying James Paul Gee’S Discourse Theory To The Deaf And Mental Health Communities, Adrienne Griffiths

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

The disability community has been a historically marginalized group and continues to be. Many advocates for inclusive language feel uncomfortable around the disability community because they are uncertain how to act and speak. There are two forms of language syntaxes that people primarily use to refer to someone with a disability: People-first language and Identity-first language. People-first language identifies someone first, then refers to their disability, such as “person with autism.” The second framework, Identity-first language, includes referring to someone’s disability first, then by another attribute. In other words, “autistic person.”

Both forms of language syntaxes have many reasons as …

Content Analysis Of Affordances For Social And Emotional Competency Development In Third-Grade Core Reading Programs, Lisa Trottier Brown

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this content analysis study was to identify opportunities embedded in selected reading programs that facilitate the development of social and emotional competencies in the context of literacy instruction. These competencies have been shown to strengthen academic performance and help children learn skills that accelerate success inside and outside of the classroom. The content analysis examined three commonly used third-grade core reading programs to identify content that focuses on social and emotional competencies and instructional processes important in teaching social and emotional skills to children. The study also sought to identify content and instructional processes that might be …

In-Situ Educational Research From Concept To Classroom Implementation: A Multiple Paper Dissertation, David Mark Weiss

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

An educational researcher sought to collaborate with a classroom instructor to introduce problem-based learning as a new teaching intervention. First, a classroom instructor was approached to consider how a problem-based learning instructional approach might fit with their existing curriculum plan. The researcher and the classroom teacher used a discussion framework to decide together how to best design a professional learning course meant to prepare the teacher to use the new techniques in their classroom. The teacher took the professional learning course and subsequently designed his own problem-based learning course. That course was then delivered to undergraduate students in a college …

A Grounded Case Study Of Parental Perceptions Surrounding Formalized Special Education Processes, William Eric Strong

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In this dissertation, I explore, through qualitative means, the perceptions of parents related to discourse (what is said and not said) within formalized and required processes of special education. These processes are federal requirements that parents of children with disabilities or suspected disabilities encounter as their children progress through the school system. The processes purportedly protect the rights of children with disabilities. The goal of the process is to help children with disabilities make academic gains by providing scaffolds that meet their individual needs.

During this process, parents of children with disabilities become empowered or disempowered by discourses focused on …

Utilizing A School-Based Treatment To Address Socially Anxious Elementary School Students, Mckell Nelson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Despite the availability of promising clinic-based programs, youth exhibiting socially anxious behaviors rarely receive the treatment they may need. Those that do get treatment, often do so in the school setting. Thus, the demand for effective interventions to address those needs in the school-setting is growing. The present study investigated the effects of a modified CBT intervention, delivered in the school setting, on positive peer interactions and self-rating social anxiety. Results showed that the treatment package provided an increase in positive peer interactions across all four participants, as well as a decrease in self-rated anxiety behaviors.

A Qualitative Analysis Exploring The Development Of Problematic Sexual Behaviors In Adolescent Males With Developmental Disabilities, Maria J. Watters

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Adolescents with developmental disabilities (DD) experience regular physical and sexual development. Some adolescents with developmental disabilities engage in problematic sexual behaviors (PSB). In order to be able to address the needs of this population in terms of prevention of PSB, and provision of effective treatment after PSB has begun, their experience must be understood and contributing factors identified. It is with this in mind that this study was designed, with the purpose being the exploration of the experiences of adolescents with DD who have engaged in sexually problematic behaviors, including compulsive or addictive patterns of behavior, and to identify the …

Learning Logic: A Mixed Methods Study To Examine The Effects Of Context Ordering On Reasoning About Conditionals, Christina W. Lommatsch

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Logical statements are prevalent in mathematics, the sciences, law, and many areas of everyday life. The most common logical statements are conditionals, which have the form “If H..., then C...,” where “H” is a hypothesis (or condition) to be satisfied and “C” is a conclusion to follow. Reasoning about conditionals is a skill that is only superficially understood by most individuals and depends on four main conditional contexts (e.g., intuitive, abstract, symbolic, or counterintuitive). The purpose of this study was to test a theory about the effects of context ordering on reasoning about conditionals. To test the theory, the researcher …

Facilitators Of Diné (Navajo) Student Access, Enrollment, And Persistence In Postsecondary Education: An Ecological Systems Perspective, Christina Hartman

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Diné (Navajo) students drop out of high school and postsecondary education at higher than average rates. The purpose of this study was to investigate how Diné students currently enrolled in college describe the factors that supported their pursuit of higher education. Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory was used as a framework and to identify and analyze factors that influence access, enrollment, and participation in higher education. The Diné participants in this study were six students enrolled in postsecondary education at the time of this research, recruited from two university campuses in the Southwestern U.S. Each student participated in a semistructured interview …

Relationships Among Preschool Attendance, Type, And Quality And Early Mathematical Literacy, Jennifer E. Throndsen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

As students enter kindergarten, some students are more academically prepared than others. This study looked at the relationships among preschool attendance, preschool type (i.e., public, private, Head Start, and home-based technology providers) and preschool quality and early mathematical literacy skills for diverse students. The study sought to answer three research questions: What is the relationship between preschool attendance and early mathematical literacy? What is the relationship between preschool type and early mathematical literacy? What is the relationship between preschool quality and early mathematical literacy? Within each research question, there was also an investigation to see if there were differing effects …

Experiences Of Instructors Using Ready-To-Teach, Fixed-Content Online Courses, Douglas J. Geilman

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Online instruction is now the prevalent tool for distance learning. Understanding the adaptable role of the instructor in online distance education is pivotal in the work of comprehending its affordances and limitations. Although there are some commonalities between all forms of online teaching, experiences instructors have may vary depending upon the structure of the online course. The ready-to-teach, fixed-content format merited further study because of the degree to which it unbundles or disaggregates traditional instructor responsibilities by removing the work of determining what to teach and how to teach it. This qualitative multiple case study examined the instructional experiences of …