Other Education Commons^™

Making A Place For People At A Wildlife Corridor On Chicago's South Side, Alexis Winter

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

What role do environmental conservation projects play in the transformation of American cities? How do these projects affect city residents? In this study, I ask these questions at the Burnham Wildlife Corridor, where the Chicago Park District worked with institutional and community-based partner organizations to engage city residents in the creation of a lakefront wildlife habitat and public nature area. Through ethnographic interviews and participant observation I explored how actors at various levels understand this changing landscape and their roles in shaping it. I situate the Burnham Wildlife Corridor project in the broader context of a state-level plan, the Millennium …

Faculty Perceptions Of Online Student Disruptive Behavior, Kenneth J. Posner

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Limited research and literature address online student disruptive behavior and the effectiveness of conflict management strategies to address these inappropriate behaviors. Through expanded offerings of online education, higher education institutions need to prepare strategically and intentionally for increased instances of online student disruptive behavior. This research study developed and administered an online survey to obtain quantitative and qualitative data. Utilizing the Qualtrics Research Suite and the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for quantitative data analysis and MAXQDA for coding the qualitative data this research study examined five research questions identifying online student disruptive behaviors, observed frequencies, and effective …

Blue-Collar Scholars: Bridging Academic And Working-Class Worlds, Nathan Lee Hodges

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation explores one white working-class family’s hopes, fears, illusions, and tensions related to social mobility. I tell stories from my experiences as a first-generation college student, including: ethnographic fieldwork; interviews with my family, community members, and former teachers; and narratives from other working-class academics to provide an in-depth, evocative, and relational look at mobility. I explore the roots of vulnerability in my family and how I was socialized into understanding belonging and worthiness in particular ways, and how this socialization influences my feelings of belonging and worthiness in the academy. The goal of this research is bridging – past …

Urban English Language Arts Teachers’ Stories Of Technology Use: A Narrative Inquiry, Bridget Abbas

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Technology use in high-minority, low-income middle school ELA classrooms is defined by traditional instructional practices (Applebee & Langer, 2013; Attewell, 2001; Boser, 2013; Cuban, 2001; Lankshear & Knobel, 2008), barriers to access (O’Dwyer et al., 2005; Purcell et al., 2013; Warschauer & Matuchniak, 2010), and inequalities in use (Banister & Reinhart, 2011; Beers, 2004; Gorski, 2009; Makinen, 2006; Powell, 2007; Reinhart et al., 2011; Dijk, 2003, 2006; Warschauer et al., 2004). This characterization, or grand narrative, of technology use is echoed and challenged by this narrative inquiry. Here the stories of two ELA teachers frequently using technology in instruction and …

Development And Validation Of A Remote Sensing Model To Identify Anthropogenic Boreholes That Provide Dry Season, Refuge Habitat For Anopheles Vector Mosquitoes In Sub-Saharan Africa, James Pkemoi Kukat

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A lack of surveillance systems is an impediment to public health intervention for perennial vector-borne disease transmission in northern tropical savanna region of Kenya. The population in this area are mostly poor nomadic pastoralists with little acquired functional immunity to Plasmodium falciparum, due to infrequent challenges with the parasite. A common characteristic in tropical savanna climatic zone is the availability of riverbeds that have anthropogenic boreholes that provide malaria vector mosquitoes, such as Anopheles gambiae s.l and Anopheles funestus, with aquatic refuge habitats for proliferation and endemic transmission to proximity human households during the dry-season. Unfortunately, currently there …

Predictors Of Adult Community College Students' Intent To Transfer From The Community College With The Associate In Science, Associate In Applied Science, Or Associate In Arts Degree To A Public University In Florida, Anthony Gemart Hill

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the predictors and pre-transfer navigation experiences of community college students enrolled in Associate of Arts (AA), Associate in Science (AS), or Associate in Applied Science (AAS) degrees with transfer intent to Florida’s public universities. The population included adult students aged 26 and above enrolled in Florida state/community college AA, AS, or AAS programs. One hundred and seventy-five students from two community colleges participated in this study with a response rate of 10%. The valid data set included 101 respondents, AA (n =17), AS (n =76), AAS (n =4), other …

The Effects Of Technical And Imagery-Based Instruction On Aspiring Performing Artists’ Acquisition Of Learning Newly Composed Pieces And Improvisation And On Listeners’ Perceived Expressivity, José Valentino Ruiz-Resto

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the union of technical and imagery-based instruction (hereinafter, T-I instruction) in two phases. Phase one: The researcher (1) explored T-I instruction’s influences on aspiring performing artists’ acquisition of learning and performing newly composed pieces and improvisation, and; (2) observed aspiring performing artists’ feelings of learning with T-I instruction versus technical instruction. Phase two: The researcher investigated (1) listeners’ perceived expressivity of aspiring performing artists’ performances that were either influenced by T-I instruction or technical instruction; (2) listeners’ perceived expressivity of aspiring performing artists’ performances of newly composed pieces versus improvisations; (3) whether …

From Misdiagnosis To Prognosis: Autoethnographic Layered Accounts Of Life With Mastocytosis, Gianina Shamarr Hayes

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study was an autoethnography authored in the form of layered accounts. It was based on my journey toward a correct diagnosis with the rare, orphan disease known as mastocytosis. The purpose of the study was to utilize my experiences to investigate mastocytosis from the perspective of an individual diagnosed with the disease. Furthermore, I investigated what ways and how much adult education philosophies and principles (e.g., humanistic, behaviorist, and adults’ involvement in learning) may have been salient in my being correctly diagnosed to examine not only the disparities, but also the similarities in the way each physician I encountered …

Exploring The Relationship Between Severity Of Illness And Human Milk Volume In Very Low Birth Weight And Extremely Low Birth Weight Infants Over Six Weeks, Shannon Leigh Morse

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Very low birth weight and extremely low birth weight neonates have tremendous risk of mortality. This is a grave concern; however, survival alone is not the goal of neonatal intensive care. Survival, along with a reduction or elimination of life long morbidity is the aim of neonatal intensive care.

Human milk is known as the best nutrition for babies and a growing body of evidence supports that human milk is critical in helping these fragile neonates mitigate the overwhelming risks they face. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between neonatal severity of illness and human …

Spiritual Frameworks In Pediatric Palliative Care: Understanding Parental Decision-Making, Lindy Grief Davidson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Parents of seriously ill children are charged with making complicated medical decisions, and many of those decisions are made during their children’s hospitalizations. As medical staff seek to support parents, it is important for them to understand what resources parents are drawing upon for decision-making. This project explored parental decision-making by examining the following research questions: RQ1: What resources do parents draw upon to make medical decisions for their seriously ill children? RQ2: How do parents enact their spiritual or religious frameworks in clinical settings when faced with medical decisions for their seriously ill children? Methods of research included ethnographic …

Developing Ethical Leadership: An Analysis Of Business Ethics Education In National Liberal Arts Colleges In The United States, James Stewart Welch

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study was designed to survey and compare current undergraduate business ethics curricular strategies and preferences among national liberal arts colleges in the United States. There are 180 national liberal arts colleges as classified by the U.S. News and World Report Rankings with a significant percentage of these liberal arts colleges offering economics and/or business administration majors. The primary purpose of the study was to examine the survey responses of business school administrators (and/or professors) who work with undergraduate business education in national liberal arts colleges regarding undergraduate business ethics education.

The three research questions address curriculum approaches for undergraduate …

Our Counter-Life Herstories: The Experiences Of African American Women Faculty In U.S. Computing Education, Shetay Nicole Ashford

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this life history qualitative study was to explore the Counter-Life Herstories of African American women faculty in U.S. Computing Education. Counter-Life Herstories are derived from Counterstories, life histories, and herstories as powerful social justice tools to uncover hidden truths about marginalized groups’ experiences. Through the collection of timelines, counter-life story interviews, and reflective journal writings, I co-constructed and interpreted the Counter-Life Herstories of five participants using an integrative conceptual framework that included critical race theory and Black feminist thought as interpretive frameworks, and Afrocentric feminist epistemology to govern my knowledge validation process. As an emerging African American …

International Teaching Assistants In The Us University Classroom: A Mixed-Methods Study Of Individual Differences And L2 Pragmatic Competence, Erhan Aslan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

International teaching assistants (ITAs) are considered advanced English users with relatively high standardized language proficiency test scores. However, they may experience difficulties during their interactions with undergraduate students. Some of these difficulties may arise from affective factors such as ambiguity, stress, and adjustment and can impact language use. From an individual differences perspective, a second language user with high communication anxiety may have difficulty comprehending or producing appropriate pragmalinguistic forms. Using a mixed-methods approach, this study examined the underlying factors in ITAs communication anxiety and willingness to communicate in the US classroom and how these factors explained their pragmatic competence, …

The Effect Of Exercise Order On Body Fat Loss During Concurrent Training, Tonya Lee Davis-Miller

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

While the benefits of both cardiovascular exercise and resistance training have been well documented, there is a lack of evidence for the order of exercise that is most effective when both are done in the same day. This study was designed to look at two groups of participants performing both resistance (R) and cardiovascular (C) training in the same day to determine if their order, resistance before cardiovascular (R-C) or cardiovascular before resistance (C-R), matter with regard to changes in body composition, maximal strength, and maximal aerobic capacity. The participants were 17 women between the ages of 30 and 55 …

Utilizing Immediate Feedback In Piano Pedagogy, Michael Szabo

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Piano pedagogy is the study of the teaching of piano performance. Several effective methods have been developed since the early 1700's, but lack empirically supported techniques. Immediate feedback procedures have been shown to be effective with skill acquisition in various capacities within the literature. While some innovative techniques are being developed which utilize technologies such as video and sensor-based feedback, the true impact of these interventions has not been empirically validated. There is also a paucity of research in the behavioral literature evaluating the efficacy of immediate feedback procedures in acquisition of music performance. The current study evaluated the effectiveness …

The Relationship Between Learning Styles And The Choice Of Learning Environment For Hospitality And Tourism Undergraduate Students, Gunce Malan-Rush

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between learning styles and the choice of learning environment for Hospitality and Tourism undergraduate students. An anonymous two-part survey was sent to the instructors of Introduction to Hospitality and Tourism Management courses (both online and face-to-face) in four schools in the state of Florida. The survey was designed to gather information related to the following three research questions related to MBTI profiles for undergraduate students in attempt to identify differences between students enrolled in online classes and those in face-to-face classes. In order to determine the probability of predicting course …

Motivation Of Adult, Auditioned Community Choirs: Implications Toward Lifelong Learning, David James Redman

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Knowledge of motivation factors can assist conductors and music educators at all levels in planning and implementation of musical goals. The purpose of this study was to identify motivational factors to join the choir and maintain membership in the choir as well as the role of stress/anxiety in maintaining choral membership. In addition, the role of musicianship was evaluated in terms of music aptitude and vocal ability. Participants (N=135) from four adult, auditioned community choirs participated in this study. Data was collected using Advanced Measures of Music Audiation, Singing Coach, measure of vocal ability and a questionnaire relating to topics …

The Ecological Succession Of Mosquitoes Inhabiting Waste Tires In A Subtropical Swamp And Upland Forest In Central West Florida, Emily Thuong Nguyen Dinh

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Literature has not yet seen a contribution involving the description of successional patterns of mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) inhabiting discarded automobile tires in sylvan areas nor an investigation into the macro- and micro-environmental factors that may influence the seasonal shifts in species composition and abundance in that respective habitat. Waste tires in undeveloped forests are a hazard to human and animal health because they can support a population of vector mosquitoes. Locating productive waste tire mosquito habitats is problematic in wooded areas but is crucial for diminishing pathogen transfer in areas where humans have regular access to forests because of possible …

Funeral Service Employers' Perceptions Of Body Art And Hireability, Tanya E. Scotece

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to determine whether there were biases among funeral home and cemetery professionals with regards to hiring mortuary science graduates with tattoos.

An anonymous survey including a photograph of either a male or female with various degrees of visible body art, ranging from none to extreme, was sent to 1484 members of the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association. The primary methodology used to determine whether biases existed regarding visible body art were a semantic differential and a hireability scale. The survey was designed to gather information related to the following three research questions:

1. …

Developing Differentiated Reading Instruction Online For Gifted Third Graders: A Design Experiment, Beth E. Jordan

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The high stakes on standardized testing in the United States of America’s education system pressures teachers to ensure every child meets minimum standards. Teachers report this pressure motivates them to focus the majority of their time on struggling students. Combined with lack of training and resources, intellectually gifted students may remain under-challenged in a regular elementary classroom. To address the problem, the researcher continued the development of an online instructional environment, which teachers may use to extend and enrich the regular language arts curriculum for intellectually gifted students. The researcher conducted a formative design experiment “to create a viable theory-driven …

Preference Of Chinese Undergraduate Music Majors For Chinese Xi-Qu And Western Opera, Hong Chen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purposes of this study were to explore the preference of the Chinese undergraduate music majors (N = 27) for Chinese Xi-Qu and Western opera audiovisual examples, the reasons for preference, influence of familiarity on preference, and the relationship between preference ratings and the emotions as detected by FaceReader. The mixed research method, convergent parallel design, was used to explore this topic in depth. As Xi-Qu and opera integrate multiple art forms, eight audiovisual examples (Xi-Qu, n = 4, opera, n = 4) were selected as the stimuli to show the characteristics of the two genres. The participants watched …

Pragmatic Competence In Efl Context: Suggestions In University Office Hour Discourse, Hatime Ciftci

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Office hour interactions at universities are one type of communicative activity in which international instructors and their Turkish EFL students are involved as a form of academic or institutional discourse (Drew & Heritage, 1992). In such real world communication, both parties employ several linguistic strategies and attend to various interactional goals to address the academic concerns at hand (Chiang, 2011; Chiang & Mi, 2008; Limberg, 2007; 2010; Reindhart, 2010; Skyrme, 2010). Embracing a discourse analytic approach, this study investigated the primary functions and topics of office hour interactions; discourse organization of office hour interactions with regard to the features of …

The Efficacy Of Child Parent Relationship Therapy When Conducted In An Online Format On Levels Of Parental Acceptance, Brenna Michele Hicks

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Children’s mental health is a topic of concern, not only in the escalating number of children who meet diagnostic criteria for disorders, but also for the practitioners desiring to treat them effectively. Parental involvement in treatment results in more favorable outcomes with longer treatment gains observed, thus reducing mental health issues.

An additional factor in children’s mental health is the effect of levels of parental acceptance toward the child. Parental acceptance is a positive outcome that has been observed in previous studies conducted with Child-Parent Relationship Therapy (CPRT).

There are many reported barriers to seeking treatment for mental health issues, …

Gatekeepers For Gifted Social Studies: Case Studies Of Middle School Teachers, Teresa Michelle Bergstrom

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This is a multiple case study of the ways middle grades social studies teachers, as curricular-instructional gatekeepers, may make decisions to provide their gifted students with purposeful differentiated instruction. More specifically, this study explores what teachers believe they should do to instruct gifted students, in what ways teachers prepare and adapt curriculum and instruction for gifted students, and how instruction for gifted learners can take place in a middle school social studies classroom. Through semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and supportive visual evidence, six middle grades (6-8) social studies teachers disclosed in what ways they differentiate their middle grades social studies …

The Common Core State Standards: Its Reported Effects On The Instructional Decision Making Of Middle School Social Studies Teachers, Tracy Tilotta

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for social studies are based on critical thinking and literacy skills. These new mandates are expected to lead to curricular and instructional changes within social studies classes. This qualitative study explored how the CCSS might have impacted the curricular and instructional decision-making of middle school social studies teachers and ultimately how the CCSS might affect a teacher’s gatekeeping role. As the CCSS initiative is fairly new, there is little research on the instructional practices being used to support the needs of teachers implementing these new standards in their classrooms as well as the processes, …

A Case Study Of Four Female Electrician Technicians In A Male-Dominated Occupation, Maniphone S. Dickerson

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to understand the reasons the four female participants decided to pursue electrician technician training, their perspectives of the apprenticeship program, their perceptions of successful employment in a male-dominated occupation, and differences in treatment based on their gender. The exploratory questions that guided the study were: what led the females to make the decision for applying to the electrician technician apprenticeship; what was the nature of the education and training experiences of the participants in the electrician technician apprenticeship program, what were the participants’ perceptions of being successful in advancement within the workforce as a …

Identifying Standards Of Quality In Christian Online Theological Education, Ryan Baltrip

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Changes in computer and communication technology have sparked an educational revolution. For over 20 years, higher education, as a whole, has been adapting to the changing educational landscape. Christian theological education, which is not immune to changing educational realities, has also been adapting to decentralized educational tendencies and experiencing rapid growth in distance and online learning. Christian theological education appears to be a decade or so behind higher education in its contemporary adaptation to online learning,. Questions that higher education began asking over a decade ago about online learning are now part of the contemporary conversation within Christian online theological …

Technology Literacy Skills Needed In Further Education And/Or Work: A Delphi Study Of High School Graduates’ Perspectives, Christina Louise Smith

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Technology and the importance of computers in education have been recognized since the educational reform movement of the 1980’s. Change that acknowledged a need for high school students to: understand the computer as an information, computation, and communication device; use computers for personal and work-related purposes; and understand the world of computers, electronics, and related technologies (A Nation at Risk, 1983, p. 26). The study, A Nation at Risk recognized our nation’s lack of computer technology skills and since, the standards in education have changed to design curriculum and integrate technology to better prepare high school students with necessary ready …

Job Satisfaction Of Adjunct Faculty Who Teach Standardized Online Courses, Claudia A. Ruiz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The present study investigated the job satisfaction of 205 adjunct faculty teaching standardized online courses at a private university in the United States. The extent of the relationship between demographic, motivator, and hygiene factors associated with adjunct faculty job satisfaction were identified. Results from this study indicate that adjunct faculty value work recognition, technical and instructional technology support, and take pride in their teaching. Important faculty satisfaction predictors based on analyses of hierarchical regression models were motivator factors recognition, achievement, and work itself, and hygiene factors policy and administration and salary.

An Evaluation Of An Electronic Student Response System In Improving Class-Wide Behavior, Ashley Horne

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A student response system is a technology that allows an entire classroom of students to respond to questions and receive immediate feedback from teachers during instruction. However, little research has examined the use of student response systems to support student behavior in elementary schools. This study focused on using an electronic student response system to improve class-wide behavior in two general elementary school classrooms. An ABAB and ABA reversal designs embedded within a multiple baseline design across classrooms was employed to evaluate the outcome of the intervention. Although limited, the results indicated that the classroom teachers implemented the electronic student …