Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Nature Relatedness: Investigating Differences Among Rural, Suburban, And Urban Populations In Connection To Nature Scores, Elizabeth K. Skinner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The study examined the Nature Relatedness scores of people from rural, suburban, and urban populations to investigate differences among these populations. Survey participants also reported on whether or not they were currently raising children under the age of 18 in their home, how many outdoor activities they participated in as children and currently as adults, and their hours of screen time per day. These variables were examined to measure their impact on Nature Relatedness scores. Results showed significant differences in the Nature Relatedness scores of people from rural and urban, and urban and suburban populations. This study found that people …

Megachurches And Economic Development: Pastoral Interpretations Of Internal And External Expectations On Church Behavior, Ashley E. English

The Journal of Faith, Education, and Community

What sorts of economic development activities do megachurches engage in, and what rationale do leaders give for this behavior? This study provides theoretical guidance for answering this research question through an investigation of megachurches’ extra-role behaviors (ERB) in economic development activities. ERB is a “behavior that attempts to benefit the organization and that goes beyond existing role expectations” (Organ, Podsakoff & MacKenzie, 2006, p. 33). This field study includes an online survey completed by 42 megachurch senior or executive pastors in the Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown Metropolitan Statistical Areas and 23 follow-up telephone interviews. The researcher used these data …

Preservice Teachers Knowledge Of Adolescent Suicide, Annette N. Johnson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Teacher preparation programs have a responsibility to prepare future teachers to teach

and mentor students through their academic years. With the rise of suicide in school age children, responsibility has fallen to teachers to better recognize and understand students who may be suicidal. This study sought to answer the question: to what degree does teaching certification, teaching experience, and suicide awareness embedded coursework predict preservice teachers’ knowledge of suicide awareness and prevention? Data from the Adolescent Suicide Behavior Questionnaire and a demographic survey which asked about participants’ preservice training was sent to universities and colleges in Texas with an undergraduate …

Exposing Preservice Teachers To Emergent Bilinguals, Deborah J. Williams Ed.D., Jim Ewing

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

This study followed a case study design and employed qualitative methods to explore monolingual preservice teachers’ (PSTs) attitudes toward learning to teach emergent bilinguals (EBs) in a dual language school. We sought to support and observe PSTs as they applied strategies learned in methodology courses to students in the field. Three overarching themes emerged from PSTs’ videotaped focus group interviews, weekly reflections, and field notes. Responses that supported Theme 1 suggested PSTs desired to teach EBs for a variety of reasons and Theme 2 supporting responses showed that PSTs confidence levels increased as they interacted with EBs. Responses that supported …

Professional Ethics, Decision-Making, And Interdisciplinary Collaboration: An Exploration Of Teacher Preparation Programs And Practice, Brittany Mccreary

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The first purpose of this research was to explore the prevalence, methods of instruction, and perceived value of professional ethics, ethical decision-making, and interdisciplinary collaboration in teacher preparation programs throughout the U.S. These factors were addressed using the Ethics Training and Curriculum Survey (ETCS). Participants for the ETCS included teacher educators (n = 977) from CAEP accredited preparation programs. Survey results suggest that professional ethics is widely addressed throughout CAEP accredited programs, but that instruction in ethical decision-making varies considerably. To connect these findings with practice, a second purpose of this study was to explore how educators make ethical …

A Qualitative Case Study Of Student Persistence In A Bachelor Of Science In Forestry Program, Maxwell Holmes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Educational leaders in forestry have been challenged to increase and diversify the pipeline of ‘society ready’ foresters. To meet these challenges, leaders must shift their focus to student retention. By understanding the factors that influence student engagement and persistence, these leaders will be better positioned to support students in forestry programs, thus positively impacting retention. This qualitative case study investigated student persistence of second-year forestry students in an undergraduate forestry program. The study was guided by Social Cognitive Theory and Social Capital Theory and explored the malleable psychosocial mechanisms of self-efficacy, sense of belonging, emotion, and well-being proposed by Kahu …

Ethnic-Racial Socialization In Early Childhood: The Implications Of Color-Consciousness And Colorblindness For Prejudice Development, Flora Farago, Kimberly Leah Davidson, Christy M. Byrd

Faculty Publications

This chapter outlines how early childhood teachers can bring children into conversations surrounding race and racism by drawing on literature on how parents of color discuss these topics. Although educators’ practices surrounding race and racism remain largely unexplored, decades of developmental psychological research indicate that parents of color engage in ethnic-racial socialization practices that are beneficial for children (Hughes et al., 2006). The established dimensions of parental ethnic-racial socialization include (1) cultural socialization, or teaching children about their ethnic heritage and instilling ethnic pride; (2) preparation for bias, or teaching children about racism and preparing them to face discrimination; (3) …

Outdoor Education’S Relationship To Adolescent Behavior And Academic Performance In Two East Texas Middle Schools, Trenton Stiefel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Historically, a key part of a child’s development was their exposure to and relationship with the world outdoors – nature. The current movement to promote the inclusion of environmental and outdoor education into curricular and extracurricular activities stems from the mounting evidence that experiences in the outdoors may improve a child’s behavior and mood, as well as improve their academic performance. This mixed-methods study hoped to discover whether or not, on average, children improve their academic performance and/or their individual behavior in school when provided with outdoor education learning experiences. The mindset used in outdoor education research may have to …

Teacher’S Attitudes And Willingness To Refer Sexual Minority Students To Special Education, Diane' Forney

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Research shows that cultural minority students are over-represented in special education services based on teacher bias and attitudes towards these cultural minority students. A cultural minority that has not been as widely researched is the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning (LGBTQ). The purpose of this study is to determine if teacher’s bias and attitude towards LGBTQ students interferes with their ability to make special education referrals for sexual minority students (Hebl, 2000), who are students identified as LGBTQ. For the purpose of this study, a variety of teachers were asked to complete, two qualifying questions, a detailed demographic questionnaire, …

Exploration In The Association Of Authoritative Parenting And Adolescent’S Success In A Junior College Honors Program, Kassandra Mariel Soledad

Undergraduate Research Conference

The presented study examines authoritative parenting and its associations with an adolescent's success. There is a significant gap in the knowledge in regard to the impact of parental tough love on adolescents. It is important to determine the answer to the problem because it could help fill the significant gap in the knowledge. This research will help determine if an authoritative parenting style is effective in making an adolescent successful. It can help a parent decide how to or not to raise their children. The evidence found in this study can also be used to help inform parents of the …

Leveraging Visual Literacy To Engage And Orient First-Year College Students In The Library, Melissa Clark

Librarian and Staff Presentations

Too often incoming students leave library orientation sessions feeling overwhelmed and overstressed, which results in the library becoming one more intimidating obstacle to them. However, this does not need to be the case. Visual literacy and visual culture can be leveraged to engage students and improve library orientation sessions.

Pedagogical Techniques That Provide Educational Value To Social Work Students Through Bereavement Academics And Empathetic Advancements, Sandra Renea Williamson-Ashe

Journal of Human Services: Training, Research, and Practice

The lack of empathy in college students has been documented and empathy levels are reported to have declined over recent years. College student bereavement has not been well-researched (Balk, 2008) but the lack of declining college student empathy has documentation in psychological expressions (Balk, 2008). This article addresses social work students engaged in an academic bereavement assignment that incorporates student centered instruction (SCI) and “teaching through relationships.” Using an untimely social work students’ death, students utilize research, reflection, cooperative small group learning, and applied theory, to compose a writing assignment. Intentionally introducing the “sorrowful empty chair” in the bereavement assignment …

An Exploratory Investigation Of A Flipped Classroom Model In Human Services Education, Nicola A. Meade, Narketta M. Sparkman-Key Phd

Journal of Human Services: Training, Research, and Practice

Human services education has unique needs due to the practical elements that are a part of preparing students for the field. One aspect is for students to graduate with a firm capacity to enact the skill detailed by the National Organization of Human Services (NOHS, n.d.). A blending of on-campus and on-line components has been found to encourage higher order thinking and offer experiential learning (Rehfuss, Kirk-Jenkins, & Milliken, 2015). The flipped classroom pedagogical model offers one potential way for educators to create an environment that facilitates the learning needed and recommended. This study altered a class to the flipped …

How Hugging Mom Teaches Me The Meaning Of Love And Perhaps Beyond, Ethan Trinh

The Journal of Faith, Education, and Community

Hugging mom is unconventional in a traditional Vietnamese family. I write this piece to articulate my thoughts to describe different ways to look at the meanings of hugging. During my writing process, I use a walking meditation as a Buddhist practice to calm my mind so that I can see my true self and a clearer picture of different layers of the act of hugging. I believe hegemonic gender roles and patriarchy happen everywhere in the world, not particularly in Vietnam. I do not plan to devalue my home country’s cultural values in this paper. This is not the purpose …

Understanding The Relationship Between Gender And Self-Efficacy In Northeast Texas Public Schools, Abbie Strunc Ph.D., Kimberly Murray Ph.D.

Journal of Human Services: Training, Research, and Practice

Using a sample of 147 K-12 teachers in Northeast Texas, the authors examine the importance of gender for teachers, and if gender impacts his or her own feelings of self-efficacy, while controlling for demographic variables. Findings enhance scholars’ understanding of how men and women view themselves and their perceptions of their own self-efficacy in education. This research also merges the literature in education and sociology, providing an example of how interdisciplinary research can improve our understandings of social problems found within educational institutions.

Student Led Area Measurement Assessments Using Virtual Globes And Pictometry Web-Based Interface Within An Undergraduate Spatial Science Curriculum, David Kulhavy, I-Kuai Hung, Daniel Unger, Yanli Zhang

Faculty Publications

The use of Virtual Globes and Pictometry continues to expand and develop in undergraduate spatial science education. Spatial science undergraduates measured the area of 30 rectangles on the earth’s surface and compared them to Pictometry hyperspectral imagery measurements within a web-based interface and the Google Earth interface compared to ArcGIS Explorer, Map Developers and ArcMap using the ArcMap 10.5.2 interface. An analysis of variance of the absolute mean area errors (p-value of 0.009271) concluded the accuracy of the five area measurements were statistically different at the 95% confidence interval. A Tukey pair-wise test found that the Pictometry and Google Earth …