Other Education Commons^™

Efl Student Collaborative Writing In Google Docs: A Multiple Case Study, Quang Nam Pham

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The development of modern technology has presented new opportunities for language instruction. In recent years, technology-mediated collaborative writing has received great attention in research literature. The constraints and affordances of some tools, such as Wikispaces and Google Docs for collaborative writing have been explored. Although wiki-based collaborative writing have been conducted in a variety of contexts, studies in Google Docs-based collaborative writing in English as Foreign Language (EFL) contexts are underrepresented in research literature.

To contribute to research diversity, I conducted a dissertation study in an English for Specific Purposes class at a university in southern Vietnam. Sociocultural Theory and …

The Effects And Students’ Views Of Teachers' Coded Written Corrective Feedback: A Multiple-Case Study Of Online Multiple-Draft Chinese Writing, Jining Han

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the rapid development of Web 2.0 in the field of education, which allows users to interact and collaborate with teachers and peers on the web, many researchers have focused on exploring the developments of using Course Manage System (CMS) in service of L2 writing (e.g., Chun, 2011; Warschauer & Grimes, 2007). Simultaneously, participation in learning and teaching Chinese as a foreign (TCFL) has been accelerating. Learning and teaching Chinese writing plays a significant role in the field of world languages education. In the field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) and Foreign Language Education (FLE), many studies have examined the …

Health Information Barriers, Weight Status, And Health Behaviors Among Cancer Survivors: Exploring The Moderating Effects Of Race And Ethnicity, Jennifer L. Barinas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There is an increasing need for research addressing the health concerns faced in cancer survivorship. Research has indicated that racial and ethnic minority cancer survivors are at increased risk for negative health outcomes, and some findings suggest that health literacy may play a role. Yet, few studies have explored how relations among heath information barriers, weight status, and health behaviors may differ by race and ethnicity in cancer survivors. Objectives: 1) To explore whether health information barriers are associated with weight status, cigarette use, and alcohol use among cancer survivors, 2) To explore the moderating role of race and ethnicity …

Development And Validation Of Advanced Techniques For Treatment Planning And Verification In Megavoltage Radiotherapy, Saeed Ahmed

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this work is primarily to validate the advanced techniques for treatment planning and dosimetric verification for modern megavoltage x-ray radiotherapy. With the advent of modern radiotherapy techniques, there is a great need for assuring quality of the radiation dose distributions generated by the advanced intensity modulated treatments (IMRT/VMAT). This is typically accomplished by the assessment of the treatment plan quality at the planning stage and then verification of the dose distributions through measurements on the phantoms or independent dose calculations prior to the actual delivery of these plans to patients. The major focus of this work is …

Controlled Wetting Using Ultrasonic Vibration, Matthew A. Trapuzzano

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Many industrial processes such as printing and cleaning, as well as products like adhesives, coatings, and biological testing devices, rely on the wetting of liquids on a surfaces. Wetting is commonly controlled through material selection, coatings, and/or surface texture, but these means are sensitive to environmental conditions. Wetting is influenced by variables like surface tension, density, the surface chemistry, local energy barriers like surface roughness, and how the droplet is placed on the surface. Wetting of droplets can also be influenced externally in many ways such as introducing surfactants, applying electrical fields, or by dynamically excitation. Low-frequency, high amplitude vibration …

The Modified Synchronization Modulation Technique Revealed Mechanisms Of Na,K-Atpase, Pengfei Liang

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Na/K pumps are essential for living system and widely expressed in all eukaryotic cell membranes. By actively transporting sodium ions out of and potassium ions into the plasma membrane, Na/K pumps creates both an electrical and a chemical gradient across the plasma membrane, which are crucial for maintaining membrane potential, cell volume, and secondary active transporting of other solutes, etc.

Previously, oscillating electric field with a frequency close to the mean physiological turnover rate was used to synchronize and modulate the Na/K pump molecules. Results showed that the turnover rate of Na/K pumps can be accelerated by folds. However, …

Leadership Advocacy, Ethical Negotiations, And Resignations To High-Stakes Assessment: A Pilgrimage, Jennifer Galbraith Canady

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of my study is to explore the stories of the ethical tensions K-12 educational administrators navigate when implementing high-stakes assessment policy in a culture of measurement during testing season. Some educational leaders, in particular K-12 school and district administrators, struggle with the tensions existing between their own personal belief systems, organizational dilemmas, and the requirements of enacting high-stakes assessment policies. Using narrative inquiry as method, I collected and analyzed four school administrators selected who expressed frustration with enacting high-stakes assessment policies. The participants include a middle principal, a middle school assistant principal, a high school assistant principal, and …

Time On Task Across Skill Sets In Construction Trades Classrooms: Preparation Of Skilled Craft Workers, Zachary D. Riffell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The construction industry is an essential component of the U.S. economy, yet even amid good wages, construction companies are having trouble finding enough individuals who are ready for work in the industry, and they fear they will not be able to do so in the future because training options for potential workers are inadequate. Better training options are needed. Much research has pointed to soft and academic skills as necessary skills for successful workers that are missing from worker preparation programs, but little has been done to establish an actual correlation between these skills and workforce readiness.

In this study, …

A Comparison Of High-Tech And Low-Tech Response Modalities To Improve Student Performance And Classroom Behavior, Thomas J. Schulz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study compared the effects of high-tech (e.g., clickers) and low-tech (e.g., response cards) active responding strategies during whole-group English language arts in two first-grade classrooms serving students with and without disabilities. The authors combined an ABAB reversal design with an alternating treatments design to compare the impact of using high-tech (clickers) and low-tech (response cards and hand raising) modalities on academic engagement, accuracy of responding, and disruptive behavior across four teacher-nominated students in two first-grade classrooms. During baseline, the teacher conducted her lesson as planned by having the students raise his/her hand to answer questions. In the intervention phase, …

Games For Change: High School Students’ Learning Experiences And Motivation To Learn Climate Change Science Through Educational Computer Games, Metin Besalti

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to explore high school students’ perceptions of learning climate change science through educational computer games. Further, it is aimed to investigate what roles educational computer games play in motivating students to learn climate change science. A qualitative case research design is used in this research to better understand and describe how educational computer games influence students’ perceptions of learning the climate change science and what roles these games play in motivating them to learn climate change science in the learning environment. A purposefully selected a high school teacher and her eight students are the …

Locating A New Collegiate Entrepreneurship Program, A Framework For A University Campus, Douglas H. Carter

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

University Entrepreneurship Programs reside is a variety of places within a Campus Community. As a relatively new university, the question arises as to where such a program should reside? Should such a program be relegated to a single college or is there an opportunity for a cross-disciplinary approach to its establishment? With limited resources, it is imperative to make an educated and informed decision so as to be good stewards of limited funding.

A Family Histories Study Of Parents Engaging Issues Of Race And Racism, Omar J. Salaam

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This family histories research study uses life history methods to explore narratives of parents’ lives regarding ways in which they socialize their children and engage school staff around issues of race and racism. The information gathered is from interviews with the two primary participants, two focus groups; one with each primary participant and the adults with whom they are raising their elementary school (Pre-K to Grade-5) children, and follow-up interviews with both primary participants. The first finding in this study is that the family life stories in both families play a direct role in socializing their children, in that the …

Online And Self-Directed Learningreadiness Among Hospitality And Tourism College Students And Industry Professionals, Muhittin Cavusoglu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative study was to compare self-directed learning readiness and online learning readiness between hospitality and tourism college students and industry professionals. The Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale (SDLRS) was used for measuring self-directed learning readiness. After examining the reliability and validity indices of the modified Online Learning Readiness Scale (OLRS), it was used in the context of hospitality and tourism for the measurement of online learning and training readiness. Two different study populations, hospitality and tourism college students and hospitality and tourism industry professionals, were identified for the purpose of this study. Data were obtained via online …

High Expectations And Teacher Implicit Biases In A Culture Of Care, Jacqueline K. Haynes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This graduate project was part of a group project completed by five school and district administrators in Hillsborough County, Florida. The project began because of our passion for teachers who are able to establish a culture of care in their classrooms that support students academically but transform their learning through experiences that enable them to be more highly engaged and productive students, regardless of ethnicity, socioeconomic status, perceived academic abilities, and backgrounds.

My project component looked at research on teacher expectations and their effects on student success. Why does the color of a child's skin tone trigger lower expectations by …

Variations In Experience And Meaning: Accounts Of Leadership Involvement And Identities With Special Education And Disability, Roderick James Jones

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study focused on retired school principals’ involvement in special education. More specifically, it explored various ways former principals conceived of their leadership identity and accounted for their level of involvement in special education and with students identified or identifying as disabled. The following research question guided this study: How do former principals account for their involvement with special education and/or disability? The study’s subquestions were: What are principals’ accounts of being, becoming, and remaining involved with special education and/or with disability?; In what ways do principals attend to special education and/or disability?; and How do principals conceive of …

Exploring The ‘Spaces Between’: Teachers’ Perceptions Of Teacher Leadership Within Professional Networks, Cynthia B. Bauman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The enactment of teacher leadership can be challenged by both policy initiatives and school contexts (Anderson & Cohen, 2015; Hargreaves & Fullan, 2012). However, teachers can have a positive influence on each other and their broader school community by building capacity for leadership, innovation, and student achievement through the relationships, or networks, they develop and maintain (Baker-Doyle, 2015; Hovardas, 2016; Hunzicker, 2012; Moolenaar, Sleegers, & Daly, 2012). This single exploratory case study takes place in a Title I elementary school and uses a combination of Social Network Analysis and content analysis to uncover patterns in teacher professional networks, the context …

Behavioral Thermoregulation And Thermal Mismatches Influence Disease Dynamics In Amphibians, Erin Louise Sauer

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Amphibians are currently the most threatened vertebra taxa on the planet. Hundreds of species are thought to have gone extinct while thousands more have been listed as threatened or endangered over the past few decades. Habitat loss, invasive species, climate change, and disease are all thought to have partially contributed to these declines. Two pathogens in particular, infectious viruses in the genus Ranavirus (simply referred to as ranavirus) and the fungus Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), have been associated with global mass mortality events of amphibians. Virulent pathogens such as these tend to impose strong selective pressures on their hosts driving the …

Heart Rate Variability Analysis As A Means Of Real-Time Hypercapnia Detection, Joseph Dituri

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The motivation for this research is the high prevalence experienced by divers of carbon dioxide (CO₂) issues and concerns throughout their lives. Additionally, CO₂ is naturally occurring, the product of oxidative metabolism, and is undetectable to human senses. Current CO₂ sensor or detection technology is limited to high-cost machines such as arterial blood gas monitors and end tidal CO₂ monitors, or more modern technology relying upon bright lights which measure blood flow. The light technology is notoriously unreliable and does not produce a very effective heart beat allowing a user to detect minimal changes. Heart …

Negotiating My Rainbow: A Self-Study Exploring The Relationship Between Beliefs About Identity And Classroom Practice, Amanda Colborne

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Teachers bring parts of themselves, among them, gender, age, and race into the classroom. In addition to the routine stress of teaching, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people have the added stress of managing the expression of their sexual orientation in the classroom. This study explores the ways in which my own identity as a lesbian influenced my beliefs about teaching, my “pre-active” curricular-instructional decision-making, and my “interactive” curricular-instructional decision-making (Jackson, 1966). A self-study methodology is used to explore these relationships. Data sources include journaling, lesson plan artifacts, student work samples, photographs of my classroom, an observation and critical …

Testing The Validity And Utility Of A Career And Technical Education Programs Of Study Evaluation Instrument, Alisha D. Hyslop

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to build on the research already completed by the Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE) in the development of ACTE’s quality Program of Study Framework and accompanying evaluation instrument to examine the validity of the instrument’s results and its utility when used independently by local educators in a pilot test. The study used a two-phase mixed-methods design. In the first phase, 39 participating programs were evaluated using the instrument, consisting of 102 items organized into 12 elements. Representatives of participating programs, either teachers or administrators, then provided quantitative and qualitative feedback about the …

Une Analyse De La Vertu Dans Trois Tragédies Historiques De Pierre Corneille, Mariela Saad-Delgado

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Theologians, philosophers, moralists, artists, men and women of letters of the seventeenth century were interested in the notion of "virtue" and the place it should occupy in the education of children and in the life of adults. Because of this interest, literary genres of this period, and more specifically plays, provide us with many references of the word "virtue".

This concept is presented as one of the essential characteristics to be found in a hero and a heroine. However, "virtue" is not a constant concept, for its meaning is determined by the socio-political context, the author's philosophy, and the gender …

Evaluating The Efficiency And Correspondence Of Trial-Based And Session-Based Functional Analyses In Controlled Settings, Sarah M. Gonzalez

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Functional analyses (FAs) are used to identify the maintaining contingencies of problem behavior. However, FAs present some limitations. Functional analyses can be time consuming. In this study we evaluated the efficiency and correspondence of a modified trial-based FA versus a session-based FA, in a controlled setting. We conducted both the trial-based and session-based FAs with five subjects that engaged in problem behavior. On average, the trial-based FAs were completed in 32.8% less time than the session-based FAs, and took 40% less meeting and calendar days than the session-based FAs. Based on the analyses of four Board Certified Behavior Analysts (Doctoral), …

Developing Teacher Efficacy In High Poverty Schools, Dawn Stites

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This capstone project was part of a group project completed by three principals in elementary schools in Hillsborough County, Florida. The project began because of our passion to understand effective teachers. Our collective goal was to have more engaged teachers which would create more engaged students resulting in greater student and teacher success.

Our overall group project purpose was to discover the behavior and characteristics an engaged teacher demonstrates and how these behaviors affect the learning environment and the students that are in that environment. The project was guided by the question, how does a culture of engaged teachers develop …

Redefining Supports And Resources For Students And Families In High Poverty Schools, Rick Grayes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This capstone project was part of a team project completed by two school principals in Hillsborough County, Florida. The project began because of our passion for meeting the needs of our students in urban high poverty schools being supported by varying district turnaround initiatives. We looked at our district’s previous and current attempts to increase student success in high poverty schools. We questioned the ways in which supports and resources were provided, and we explored ways through which success in high poverty schools might be increased by redefining the supports and resources provided. Our appreciative exploration of the topic was …

Culturally Relevant Curriculum And Instruction In A Culture Of Care, Johan Von Ancken

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This capstone project was part of a group project completed by five school and district administrators in Hillsborough County, Florida. The project began because of our passion for teachers who are able to establish a culture of care in their classrooms that support students academically but transform their learning through experiences that enable them to be more highly engaged and productive students, regardless of ethnicity, socioeconomic status, perceived academic abilities, and backgrounds.

Our school district has spent significant resources attempting to address the deficiencies that exist within its lower performing schools. A variety of curriculum specialists have addressed challenges these …

Behavioral Interventions And Positive Systems Of Support In A Culture Of Care, Olayinka Alege

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This capstone project was part of a group project completed by five school and district administrators in Hillsborough County, Florida.

The project began because of our passion for teachers who are able to establish a culture of care in their classrooms that support students academically but transform their learning through experiences that enable them to be more highly engaged and productive students, regardless of ethnicity, socioeconomic status, perceived academic abilities, and backgrounds.

My focus in this group project looked at school climate, culture and student behavior in high needs schools. I asked, what steps can be taken by a school …

Building Capacity And Sustainability Through Teachers Leading Teachers, William Woodland Johnson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This capstone project was part of a group project completed by two principals in elementary schools and a principal coach in Hillsborough County, Florida. Each of the team members has a passion for the work of administrator and lead learner in a turnaround school. Through creating a culture of teacher leadership, especially in high poverty schools, we believe students will succeed. We were looking for what a high performing school culture would look like if teachers were leading the work through ongoing inquiry and personalized support.

My individual focus was, in what kinds of work experiences did teachers feel they …

School-Based Health Centers In High Poverty Schools, Felicia Davis

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This capstone project was part of a team project completed by two school principals in Hillsborough County, Florida. The project began because of our passion for meeting the needs of our students in urban high poverty schools being supported by varying district turnaround initiatives. We looked at our district’s previous and current attempts to increase student success in high poverty schools. We questioned the ways in which supports and resources were provided, and we explored ways through which success in high poverty schools might be increased by redefining the supports and resources provided. Our appreciative exploration of the topic was …

Supporting A Culture Where Teachers Are Leading Teachers, Gloria Waite

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This capstone project was part of a group project completed by two principals in elementary schools and a principal coach in Hillsborough County, Florida. Each of the team members has a passion for the work of administrator and lead learner in a turnaround school. Through creating a culture of teacher leadership, especially in high poverty schools, we believe students will succeed. We were looking for what a high performing school culture would look like if teachers were leading the work through ongoing inquiry and personalized support.

My individual focus was, how can district and school leaders support a culture where …

Leader Self-Renewal: Mind, Body, Spirit Connection Inherent In Sustainable Leadership, Lasonja Roberts

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation builds upon stress and burnout research on school leaders by exploring the beliefs and practices regarding well-being and self-renewal of principals identified as successful. This study utilized a 3-fold framework that consisted of mind, body, and spirit, falling under the all-encompassing umbrella of thriving, asserting the three domains work together to support the optimal well-being of the leader. The research questions were as follows: (1) In what ways are principals' well-being and self-renewal supported by principals' personal beliefs and practices, district policies and practices, and educational programs and organizations? (2) To what extent does attentiveness to well-being and …