Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Improving Programming Learners’ Experience Through Interactive Computer Tutor Based Moocs, Ruiqi Shen

Dissertations

With the large demand for technology workers all around the world, more people are learning programming. Studies show that human tutoring is the most effective way to learn for novice programmers. However, problems such as the inaccessibility to physical classes, prohibitive costs, and the lack of educators may limit students' opportunities to learn from these resources. Additionally, because programming is a skill requiring continuous practice and immediate feedback, simply listening to lectures may not be sufficient to learn effectively. This increases the inconvenience of learners who use online learning tools such as Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs).

In recent years, …

Using Bst To Increase Interview Skills Among Emerging Adults With Autism Via Telehealth, Johnna L. Dowdy

Theses and Dissertations

he purpose of the current study was to evaluate the use of behavior skills training via telehealth to teach job interview skills to emerging adults with ASD. Additionally, the study examined if following intervention, skills were able to generalize to new interviewers. 2 undergraduate and 1 graduate student with ASD participated in the study, and received intervention for 3 behaviors: (1) appropriately answering questions, (2) asking appropriate questions, and (3) engaging in appropriate body language. The current study used a multiple baseline design across behaviors. Results from the study indicated BST via telehealth was effective in teaching job interviews skills. …

Critical Political Thinking: An Analysis Of Undergraduate Students’ Higher-Order Thinking Skills And Preferred Political Values, Labels, And Leadership Traits, Maya Mingo

Doctoral Dissertations

The current study details the political values of students enrolled in an entry-level, multi-section educational psychology course at a large, southeastern United States university during the fall semester of 2017 (N = 167). Survey data were collected to identify the following: which political values and personality traits undergraduate students give the most priority when making political decisions, whether or not the political labels participants identified as most important to them are consistent with those common to their families, close friends, and childhood geographical regions, the quality of respondents’ self-reported label-value congruence, and the relation between the students’ critical thinking …

An Evaluation Of A School District’S Mental Health Services Program Designed To Ensure A Safe And Positive Learning Environment For All, Jasodra Suba

Dissertations

A key component to academic success is comprehensive mental health services for students. The intended purpose of this evaluation was to study the implementation of strength-based performance standards in one school district’s mental health training for all individuals preparing to work in a school-based environment. The context of my program evaluation was one large public school district in the United States operating in a state that mandates that each public school district implement a mental health services program. As part of this study, I examined the underlying concerns surrounding the large public school district’s implementation of evidence-based Mental Health Assistance …

Exploration Of Strategies Of Teacher Leaders For Responding To Students Experiencing Trauma Framed In Casel's Social And Emotional Learning Theory, Kimberly Dionne Parrott

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative instrumental case study was to explore strategies for supporting students experiencing trauma as perceived by teacher leaders framed in CASEL’s social and emotional learning theory. A descriptive instrumental case study design utilized data from online interviews and voluntarily submitted artifacts of nine middle school teacher leaders to investigate strategies used to support students experiencing trauma. Data were manually coded to determine themes indicating recommend strategies used to support students who have experienced trauma. The overall findings revealed that teacher leaders require professional development focusing on trauma-informed practices to suitably support students who are experiencing trauma. …

How Immigrant English Language Learners Used Internal Fortitude To Utilize Supports And Overcome Obstacles To Graduate From High School, Mark C. Peterson

Dissertations

Immigrants and English Language Learners (ELL) continue to receive attention in the research literature due in part to the continued immigration of families to the U.S. and the continued increasing number of students enrolled in U.S. schools under the ELL designation. The robust influx of immigrant’s school enrollment is reflected in schools across the country as classrooms are transformed from predominantly mono-cultural and mono-lingual environments to multi-cultural and multi-lingual ones. Unfortunately, the national average graduation rate for ELLs is a much lower than native-born students. The economic, social, and mental health ramifications for failing to graduate high school are dramatic; …

The Experience Of Self-Coherence: Self-Coherence As The Hub Of All Needs, April Ursula Fox

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Self-coherence as the hub of all needs is a novel proposition made by Carol Dweck (2017), and not yet further explored. While supporting self-coherence with a comprehensive review of its presence within behavioral sciences, Dweck does not dive deeper into it, and offers an invitation for further research of its workings. In this study I respond to that invitation. I design a continuation to her theory. I also expand her theory to include what I have found to be missing, but essential, additional components that cannot be ignored within the context of self-coherence as a master sensor of needs. Finally, …

Literacy Abilities Of Children And Adolescents With Williams Syndrome., Caroline Greiner De Magalhaes

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation I report findings from two studies of the literacy abilities of children with Williams syndrome (WS), a genetic disorder associated with intellectual disability. I had two overarching goals: 1) evaluate the applicability of theories of reading and spelling acquisition developed based on typically developing children to children with WS; and 2) provide results that would inform the development of targeted assessments and interventions. In Study 1, individual differences in phonological awareness, visual spatial perception, vocabulary, overall intellectual abilities, and reading instruction approach (systematic phonics vs. other approaches) for sixty-nine 6 – 7-year-olds (most of whom were in …

Effectiveness Of An Early Literacy Intervention For Increasing Teen Parents' Child-Directed Speech And Conversational Turns, Deborah H. Christie

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Children’s language ability upon entry to kindergarten is a powerful predictor of reading achievement throughout elementary school; yet disparities in children’s language growth have been detected as early as 18 months of age. These disparities have been linked to the quantity and quality of speech provided to children as they are learning to talk. The current study employed a single-case multiple-baseline across participants experimental design to evaluate the effectiveness of an early literacy intervention to increase teen parents’ child-directed speech and conversational turns. The intervention was delivered one-on-one via videoconferencing by a teen parent peer coach. Participants included teen parents …

The Predictive Influence Of Challenging Behavior On Parent Stress In Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Paige Weir

LSU Master's Theses

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in social communication, restricted interest, and repetitive patterns of behavior. Individuals with ASD also exhibit challenging behaviors that affect parent and caregiver stress directly. However, researchers have not yet examined the predictive influence of specific challenging behaviors on parent stress, particularly in young children (i.e., infants and toddlers) with ASD. Therefore, the current study expands existing literature by a) investigating the influence that challenging behaviors of young children with ASD have on parent stress and b) examining the unique contribution that each behavior (i.e., aggressive/disruptive behavior, stereotypy, and self-injurious …

Efficiency Of Teaching Sight Words In Similar Vs Dissimilar Sets, Jensen Chotto

LSU Master's Theses

Early reading intervention can decrease the likelihood that children who struggle with reading develop long-term reading problems. Due to the prevalence of words that cannot be read phonetically in the English language, sight word instruction is required to supplement phonics instruction. In this study, we compared the effects of creating sets of sight words with the same starting letter (3 words per set, 3 total sets) versus distributing words with the same starting letter across sets when assessing acquisition of the combined set (9 words) in five 4-to-6-year-old children using a combined adapted alternating treatments design and pre-posttest design. All …

Does The Combination Of Spacing And Testing Promote Transfer Beyond Either Strategy Alone?, Zeynep Oyku Uner

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Testing and spacing improve long-term retention and their combination boosts retention further. Despite the combined benefits of spaced testing, it is unclear whether these benefits extend to situations where students learn from lengthy and complex textbooks and need to use concept knowledge in novel ways. To address this issue, in the current study, college students were asked to read from a textbook and review key concepts twice, either back-to-back within the same session or in two sessions spaced two days apart. To review concepts, students either took definition quizzes with feedback (short-answer in Experiment 1, multiple-choice in Experiment 2) or …

Exploring The Impact Of The Achievement Gap On Shame And Resilience In African American College Students, Brittany R. Thomas

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The achievement gap refers to the stark difference that occurs between racial or gender groups, as one group performs significantly higher than the other. An achievement gap has the propensity to produce psychological distress, as well as buffering techniques that are necessary for survival and success. Growing research shows that African American college students experience unique levels of trauma, shame, hardship, macro, and micro-aggressions, suggesting that these students learn to self-preserve as early as 10 years old. This study used a Pearson correlation, Independent T-Test, and a Moderated Multiple Regression to explore the impact of the achievement gap on shame …

The Role Of Emotionally-Supportive Teacher Beliefs And Behavior In Student Aggression, Bridget Garrity Brinckman

Theses and Dissertations

Overt aggression is a pervasive problem in schools. In 2017 alone, the US Department of Education reported over 360,000 aggressive incidents. According to the General Aggression Model, emotion regulation plays a key role in aggression. Teachers play a role in student regulation through their supportive (e.g., expressive-encouragement) and unsupportive (e.g., punitive) responses to students. This study examined the role of the classroom teacher in student aggression. Teacher emotion-focused beliefs about both the reasons for aggression and the effectiveness of emotionally-supportive responses to aggression, were explored. Teacher likelihood of mental health referral for anger and fighting (i.e., an emotion and behavior …

Matching Equation: Teacher Rates Of Praise And Reprimands, Meleah Ackley

Master's Theses

Previous matching equation literature has demonstrated variability in student behaviors matching onto available reinforcement rates. While some studies have found that student on-task behaviors matched contingent teacher attention around half the observations (Martens et al., 1990), other studies have found that first grade students’ on-task behavior matched contingent teacher attention more than half of observations (Shriver & Kramer, 1997). However, no studies in the current literature have used teacher behaviors as the primary dependent variables (i.e., B1 and B2 in the matching equation). The current study sought to extend the Generalized Matching Equation (GME) further into the classroom, given the …

Perceptions Of Resilience-Informed Education In Postsecondary Instructors, Chelsea L. Robertson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many studies have noted the detrimental impact adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) can have on individuals’ developmental trajectories and, as a result, the utilization of trauma-informed practices has been of increasing interest within the field of education. Most research on trauma-informed pedagogy is derived from samples of children in grades K-12, whereas research on trauma-informed teaching practices within higher education is comparatively scarce. The specific aims of the current investigation are two-fold. The first aim is to explore the effect of postsecondary instructors’ disciplinary specialization (i.e., person-thing orientation) on their receptivity to compassionate teaching practices. The second aim is to implement …

Centropoly: The Structure Of Educational Failures In The U.S., Martha Bradley-Dorsey

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

How did a country birthed in individual liberty and voluntary associations create just the opposite in its inflexible, layered, government-controlled public education system? Here, using public choice theory, I explain how near-sighted and unrelated reforms, often based in private motives, gave us what I call the public education centropoly – a hybrid government organization consisting of a set of monopolies layered beneath two additional government levels that especially fails disadvantaged students.

After defending the use of public choice theory (Chapter 1) and summarizing the U.S. public education system formation (Chapter 2), in Chapter 3 I examine the Elementary and Secondary …

Students With Orthopedic Impairments' Perspectives Toward Integrated Physical Education, Katherine E. Holland

Human Movement Sciences & Special Education Theses & Dissertations

Students with disabilities are educated in general physical education classes with their same aged peers more now than ever before (Governmental Accountability Office [GAO], 2010), yet little is known about how those with orthopedic impairments experience these integrated classes. Additionally, while a plethora of strategies are described as promoting ‘inclusion’, very few ‘inclusive’ strategies have been problematized. This dissertation followed a two-study format. The first study explored the lived experiences of students with orthopedic impairments in integrated physical education classes, and the second study examined how students with orthopedic impairments experienced strategies identified in the literature to support ‘inclusion’. An …

Exploring The Incongruence Between Traditional Neo-Managerial Norms, The Science Of Learning, And The Goals Of Social Justice: A Phenomenological Study Of Educators Lived Experiences Inside This Paradox, Donica Ouckama Hadley

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

While some scholars have critiqued the continued dominance of scientific management on how we conceptualize and run schools (Cuban, 1990; Myran & Sutherland, 2019; Tyack & Cuban, 1995), it remains the dominant paradigm, and even with some surface level structural changes, these have had little impact on the undergirding theories that shape the field (Clandinin & Connelly, 1998; Cuban 2012, Tyack & Cuban, 1995). However, what is particularly troubling, is that scientific management as the dominant theory of action is more grounded in principles of efficiency and uniformity than principles of human agency, learning, equity, and social justice, and therefore …

Integrating Empathy Pedagogy With Feminist Thought And Social Justice Praxis, Ashlyn Elizabeth Brown

Institute for the Humanities Theses

This thesis outlines the need for empathy pedagogy in higher education. It will examine how empathy pedagogy can be integrated with feminist thought and social justice praxis. I argue that when we integrate empathy pedagogy with feminist thought and social justice, we are building the capacity for students to understand others’ lives in oppression. Furthermore, an integrated modality of teaching empathy will allow students to foster the traits of empathy within themselves; students are then better able to act as agents of social change by utilizing the traits of empathy to actively listen, self-reflect, and mindfully engage with other lived …

Body Dissatisfaction And Disordered Eating Among College Women’S Social Networks: An Investigation Of Perceived Changes Following A Dissonance-Based Body Image Intervention, Rachel I. Macintyre

Psychology Theses & Dissertations

Body dissatisfaction is associated with numerous health consequences and is pervasive among college women. Effective interventions exist that reduce body dissatisfaction in college women by helping them resist sociocultural pressures to conform to the appearance ideal, such as the Body Project. Yet research is limited on whether social and behavioral processes help participants reduce their engagement in sociocultural appearance-ideal messages and contribute to the intervention’s effectiveness. The primary purpose of the present study was to examine these social and behavioral processes, including the changes in college women’s social networks associated with their participation in the Body Project. Undergraduate and graduate …

Is It Better To Be Tough, Or Is Consistency Key? A Multilevel Analysis Examining The Effects Of School Disciplinary Procedures On Perceptions Of Climate And Safety Among Students And Teachers, Erica Nicole Bower

Sociology & Criminal Justice Theses & Dissertations

Though delinquency and violence have been steadily decreasing in American schools, research suggests that discipline use has not followed that same downward trend. This raises questions to why schools are reliant on certain disciplinary practices if rates of student misbehavior are not increasing. Due to zero tolerance mandates, schools often take a harsh approach to punishment, yet are also inconsistent in the punishment of similar misbehavior among students, which often leaves students feeling frustrated and sometimes, unsafe. How do school disciplinary decisions affect the ways in which school actors, such as students and teachers, perceive their schools’ environments? This broad …

Rethinking Thinking About Thinking: Against A Pedagogical Imperative To Cultivate Metacognitive Skills, Lauren R. Alpert

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In summaries of “best practices” for pedagogy, one typically encounters enthusiastic advocacy for metacognition. Some researchers assert that the body of evidence supplied by decades of education studies indicates a clear pedagogical imperative: that if one wants their students to learn well, one must implement teaching practices that cultivate students’ metacognitive skills.

In this dissertation, I counter that education research does not impose such a mandate upon instructors. We lack sufficient and reliable evidence from studies that use the appropriate research design to validate the efficacy of metacognitive skill-building interventions (not just evaluate their relationship to learning outcomes). I argue …

Black Men’S Perception Of Their Father-Son Relationship, Shaakira E. Jones

Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to investigate the perceptions that Black men have of their relationships with their fathers, specifically, adult sons’ retrospective perceptions of their fathers’/father figures’ involvement and nurturance during childhood, and their current emotional availability. The aim is also to explore whether perceptions of their fathers predict Black men’s current psychological well-being. The following measures are used: (a) a demographic questionnaire, (b) the Nurturant Fathering Scale (NFS, Finley & Schwartz, 2004; Williams & Finley, 1997), (c) the Father Involvement Scale (FIS, Finley & Schwartz, 2004), (d) the Lum Emotional Availability of Parenting Scale (LEAP; Lum & …

Understanding Service Gaps And Support Opportunities In The Treatment Of Childhood Anxiety, Chelsey R. Masson

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Globally, anxiety disorders represent the most prevalent mental health disorders in children and youth (Polanczyk et al., 2015), with an increasing number of individuals perceiving the need for professional help (Georgiades et al., 2019). It is unclear, however, where families are seeking help from, what barriers families are facing, and what services are being provided for effective management of symptoms. Two methods were used to investigate possible treatment support models; a questionnaire identified patterns in parental help-seeking behaviours and outlined perceived barriers to professional help, while a scoping review examined key components of parent/caregiver treatment models. Findings showed that parents …

Exploring Tactile Art-Making With Deafblind Students And Their Families: An Opportunity For Creative Play, Alice Rodgers

Expressive Therapies Capstone Theses

The impact of a deafblind diagnosis on an individual’s mental health and the well-being of the family involved can be profound. However, current research and available literature for the mental health treatment and therapy practices of deafblind persons and their families is limited (Kyzar et al., 2016; “WFDB Global Report 2018,” n.d.). This thesis used the Leeds Family Psychology and Therapy Service principles (Leeds FPTS) and the Expressive Therapies Continuum with established deafblind teaching strategies to facilitate an original arts-based community project entitled: “Things We Like.” This project provided an opportunity for deafblind students (ages three to 22) and their …

The Effects Of Question Difficulty Order On Metacognitive Judgments During An Online Test, Wei-Chieh Fang

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Three experiments were conducted to examine the effects of question difficulty order on people’s judgments of test performance and test experiences. Building on the finding that ordering questions from easy to hard often leads to overconfidence (i.e., a retrospective bias), the study aimed to examine the generality and robustness of this effect by having participants from a diverse population take an online test and then make a post-test judgement of their performance. In addition to using the same ascending and descending order of difficulty as prior research, the study also explored how the U-shaped order (e.g., easy-hard-easy) and report option …

Contextualizing Bipoc High School Students’ Racialized Experiences Under Trump, Christina Ung

Master's Theses

This thesis contextualizes public high school experiences of self-identified students of color during Trump’s presidency. The study features three recent high school graduates from the same campus, and their perspectives on a series of topics related to their racial identity. It was important that this research served as a space for marginalized voices to share their lived experiences, as they are frequently left out of American curriculum. More specifically in this case, the high school is located in a small, rural town where the population is majority white and politically conservative. Through the lens of critical race theory (CRT), data …

Approaches To Narrative Instruction For Second Language Learners, Mathew Peters

MA TESOL Collection

Narratives have reemerged as a dominant form of rhetoric over the last fifty years. This dominant use of narrative discourse has only increased with the rise of social media. Walther Fisher (1987) proposed the narrative paradigm as a unifying theory of human communication. His major claim is that people are inherently storytellers and that people use a narrative rationality and a logic of good reasons to inform their beliefs, values, and actions. This paper utilizes his theories, along with recent findings in neuroscience, to establish an argument for greater inclusion of narratives into second language teaching. Narratives can have a …

Getting Caught-Up In The Process: Does It Really Matter?, Nikole Gregg

Dissertations, 2020-current

Likert items are the most commonly used item-type for measuring attitudes and beliefs. However, responses from Likert items are often plagued with construct-irrelevant variance due to response style behavior. In other words, variability from Likert-item scores can be parsed into: 1) variance pertinent to the construct or trait of interest, and 2) variance irrelevant to the construct or trait of interest. Multidimensional Item Response Theory (MIRT) is an increasingly common modeling approach to parse out information regarding the response style traits and the trait of interest. These MIRT approaches are categorized into threshold-based approaches and response process approaches. An increasingly …