Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Performance Assessment For Quality Teaching: Three Critical Variables For Measuring And Improving Teaching And Learning, Kathleen L. Gallagher Phd

Dissertations

While outstanding teachers are any school system's most important investment, assessing the quality of instructional practice has proven to be an ongoing challenge for the profession. Despite assertions that effective teachers are the single most important school-related factor responsible for increased learning, no teacher's employment is dependent on their performance in the classroom or the quality of instruction that they provide. This problem has fueled a growing mistrust in school districts nationwide, specifically in the area of teacher evaluation. One possible explanation is that the profession lacks the scaled level of expertise needed to evaluate instruction consistently and in a …

Exploring The Paradoxical Role And Experience Of Fallback In Developmental Theory, Valerie Townsend Livesay Phd

Dissertations

Constructive-development and stage development theory, which posits that individuals move through different stages or action logics throughout life, has been the foundation for several models of human transformation. The literature on the leading stage theories indicates that research has focused on exploring stages and their behavioral correlates, but little work has been done on how individuals move between stages. Stage theory has primarily been conceived of as a linear and unidirectional transition from one stage to the next, which encompasses earlier stages, however emerging research has revealed that stage transition may be more fluid and bi-directional than originally thought and …

Data-Driven Decision Making: Teachers' Use Of Data In The Classroom, Tammy Wu Moriarty Phd

Dissertations

Data-driven decision making has become an important educational issue in the United States, primarily because of federal and state emphasis on school accountability and achievement. Data use has been highlighted as a key factor in monitoring student progress and informing decision making at various levels of the education system. Federal and state policies require educators to use data to inform decision making and the assumption is that educators already know how to analyze, interpret, and use data to make informed decisions. The purpose of this study was to gain a better understanding of classroom teachers' engagement in data-driven decision making …

Cultivating Compassion In Undergraduate College Students: Rhetoric Or Reality?, Michael Lovette-Colyer Phd

Dissertations

While American colleges and universities are unparalleled in their ability to produce disciplinary-based knowledge through research and scholarship, their ability to encourage students to use the information and methods about which they are learning to create positive social change has lagged. Aware of the magnitude of today's global issues and dissatisfied with the current disparity between the world's reality and university curricula, scholars have begun to re-imagine the role of higher education in forming the leaders who will face our most pressing problems. Founded to provide education integrated with the formation of values, a significant number of Catholic colleges and …

Work/Life Boundary Management In An Integrative Environment: A Study Of Residence Life Professionals Who Live At Their Place Of Work, Pressley Robinson Rankin Iv Phd

Dissertations

How individuals manage work/life boundaries when they live at the place they work, as opposed to working from home, is a gap in both work/life literature and in higher education literature. An obvious example from higher education is the resident life professional that lives in the residential facility that she or he oversees. Living in a residential facility creates challenges to boundary creation. The job requirements; pressures from students and staff; supervisor expectations, both spoken and unspoken; and the physical location of their home within the building creates a highly boundary integrative environment making the establishment of boundaries difficult. The …

Leadership For Innovation In The Memories Business: A Mixed Methods Study Of A Hospitality And Tourism Marketplace, Lori J. Sipe Phd

Dissertations

In the past 35 years, substantial research has been conducted examining innovation in the business environment. Despite the vast quantity of innovation studies, a large percentage of the contributions are focused on product innovation outputs in manufacturing, while innovation theory in the services industry is still struggling to emerge. The hospitality and tourism industry is one of the largest service industries in the world. In this industry context, innovation is less about producing new things and more about delivering unique experiences to create lasting memories. The purpose of this study was to extend the work already done regarding innovation in …

Cognitive Conceptualizations And Schemata As Predictors Of Distress In Female Rape Victims, Tiffany Maria Artime

Dissertations

Rape is strikingly prevalent among undergraduate women, and victims show significant variability in their reactions to sexual victimization. The aim of this longitudinal study was to examine two cognitive processing factors that have been theorized to impact a woman’s levels of distress after being raped. One cognitive factor, rape conceptualization, broadly refers to the way a woman comes to understand and interpret the event as identified by her attributions of blame and perceptions of severity, wantedness, and consent. Schemata—or global, enduring beliefs about the self and world—represent the other cognitive factor examined in this study. Participants included 189 undergraduate women …

How Schools Are Meeting State Legal Mandates To Provide Online Education, Mark Edward Deschaine

Dissertations

This study explores how public schools in Michigan are meeting the mandate to provide online learning opportunities as a condition of graduation. Michigan became the first state in the nation to mandate online learning opportunities as a condition for graduation with the passage of the Michigan Merit Curriculum. Although the mandate for compliance has been in effect since the 2010-2011 school year, there has been no systemic exploration as to how the mandate is affecting students, teachers, schools and systems.

This quantitative study surveyed administrators from all public traditional and charter high school programs across the state of Michigan. Using …

Trauma And Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder In Therapeutic Day School Students: Prevalence In This Population And Effective Treatment Programs, Monica Roberts

Dissertations

This survey-based, comparative study investigated the percentage of students at a suburban Chicago therapeutic day school who meet criteria for clinically significant levels of PTSD as compared to students in a general education setting. The directional hypothesis was that students placed at therapeutic day schools have a higher prevalence of PTSD than a general population of students. The method used was a survey assessment called the Child PTSD Symptom Scale (CPSS) given to 16 students at a suburban Chicago therapeutic day school. These CPSS scores were analyzed and statistically compared to CPSS scores of an already published study with students …

Using Behavior-Analytic Techniques To Benefit An African Non-Governmental Organization: Improving And Expanding Services, Amy L. Durgin

Dissertations

The combination of a slowly recovering global economy, increased corporate competition, and higher standards from donors with respect to governance and accountably have posed significant challenges for nonprofit organizations around the world. In order to survive, these organizations must adapt their operational models and find new strategies for delivering on strategic goals, improving operational efficiency, and differentiating their services. The purpose of the present project was to employ behavioral techniques to improve operational efficiency and to develop opportunities for organizational growth by expanding the range of services provided by a nongovernmental organization (NGO) in East Africa that uses scent-detection rats …

Increasing Following Headway In A Driving Simulator And Transfer To Real World Driving, Michelle Arnold

Dissertations

The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effects of a package intervention including prompts, goal setting, feedback, education and behavioral self-monitoring to increase following headway (decrease tailgating) of four young university student drivers in a simulated driving environment. Another purpose of the present study was to determine if the effects of the package intervention would maintain in the simulator and transfer to real world driving by installing a black box video camera in the participants’ vehicle. During intervention drivers were prompted to increase following headway and were provided a specific target for following headway. The participants were …

Counselor Educator Knowledge, Experience, Attitudes And Beliefs Toward Complementary And Alternative Medicine, Jennifer Mills Langeland

Dissertations

Following growing public interest and widespread use, many health professions have begun to explore the attitudes toward, knowledge of and experience with complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) of the various stakeholders within their professions. This foundational information has enabled disciplines such as medicine, nursing, psychology, and marriage and family therapy to take a closer look at how students, patients, clients, and faculty think about and utilize CAM and its relevance to their professions. Surveying the practices and attitudes of stakeholders has been an important starting point for professions undertaking the task of integrating these practices into training programs.

This study …

Exploring The Experiences Of Counselor Educators Recognized For Their Excellence In Teaching, Allison E. Buller

Dissertations

Teaching is a deeply held value for counselor educators. Nonetheless, counselor education programs have historically provided only minimal attention to preparing doctoral students to actually teach. Furthermore, little of the research in the field of counselor education addresses the way counselor educators are prepared to teach. Using qualitative methods, this author engaged counselor educators identified as excellent teachers in an examination of meaningful experiences that contributed to their development as faculty in counselor education. By exploring experiences that prepared them to teach, excellent teachers provided the next generation of faculty members with rich descriptive strategies for teacher preparation in counselor …

"This Is Not Just My Story; It's Part Of Who I Am": A Symbolic Interactionist Perspective Of Battered Women's Identity Negotiations, Jessica Edel Harrelson

Dissertations

Over the past several decades, domestic violence has increasingly received more attention from both academic and local communities. Despite this attention, it persists as a significant social problem, suggesting that a full understanding of battering is still lacking. This dissertation examines women’s lived experiences with battering, what effect abuse has on how they come to define and interact with themselves, and subsequent negotiations of identity that occur within their relationships. To accomplish this, I conducted multiple in-depth qualitative interviews with fourteen women that were being served by a domestic violence agency in a rural part of the Midwest.

Within a …

Perceived Macrolevel Social Pressure Regarding Racial Identification And The Biracial Experience, John Thomas Nanney

Dissertations

Contemporary multiracial theory posits that racial identifications are a product of perceptions of the macrolevel social environment in which they are embedded (Renn, 2003; Rockquemore, Brunsma, & Delgado 2009; Rockquemore, Laszloffy, & Noveske, 2006; Root, 1996; Root, 2003). This conceptualization of the multiracial experience suggests that research attention should begin examining the specific macrolevel factors that influence the process of biracial identification (Rockquemore et al., 2009). To date, however, relatively little empirical research has done so. The present study sought to examine the extent to which perceived macrolevel social pressure regarding racial identification impacts the multiracial experience. Structural equation modeling …

Policing And Social Influence: Procedural Justice And Compliance Dynamics In The Work Of Garda Juvenile Liaison Officers, Eoin Morrison

Dissertations

This study investigates the role of social influence, in the context of the professional relations between Garda Juvenile Liaison Officers (JLOs), and the young people they work with. Of specific importance is the concept of procedural justice, and its relation to perceptions of legitimacy and compliance dynamics. The aim of the research was to investigate whether the particular interaction patterns, enabled in the context of the JLOs professional role, could be found to have a positive impact upon young people’s levels of compliance with legal authority, in and of themselves. In order to examine this element of lived experience, five …

Booklet Of Selected Theses From The Ma In Criminology, Ma In Law, Ma In Child, Family And Community Studies, And The International Masters In Early Childhood Education, 2010-2012, Matt Bowden, Carmel Gallagher, Kevin Lalor

Dissertations

This booklet highlights and celebrates the research work of graduates from taught Masters programmes in the School of Social Sciences and Law:

• the MA in Criminology

• the MA in Law

• the MA in Child, Family and Community Studies

• the International Masters in Early Childhood Education, co-delivered with Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences (Norway) and the University of Malta (Malta).

The MA in Criminology and the MA in Law commenced in 2006 and the MA in Child, Family and Community Studies commenced in 2007. Each has quickly become established in its field as a …

Narratives Of The Leadership Development Of Adults Who Served As Summer Camp Staff In The Mennonite Setting : A Multiple Case Study, Jason Harrison

Dissertations

Problem. Leaders today need a new set of knowledge and skills to be effective in collaborative environments. The focus of this study was to investigate how collaborative environments can contribute to leadership development. The purpose of this study was to describe how the collaborative environment of summer camp helped shape emerging adults as leaders. The summer camp setting is inherently collaborative and, therefore, can inform and develop leaders for future collaborative settings. The research question in focus for this study was, How do adults who served at a summer camp as emerging adults describe the experiences that helped shape them …

The Relationship Between Parental And Adolescent Religiosity Factors And Adolescent Sexual Risk-Taking Among Older Adolescents In The Anglophone/Latin Caribbean, Karen Christoffel Flowers

Dissertations

Problem: Sexually active youth across the Anglophone/Latin Caribbean have been identified as among the most-at-risk for HIV infection. Studies conducted in the United States have identified parental and religiosity factors associated with adolescent sexual risk-taking, but these relationships remain largely unexplored in the Caribbean region.

Method: This cross-sectional study, based on survey data generated by the Seventh-day Adventist Caribbean Youth Survey, investigated the relationship between parental and adolescent religiosity factors and sexual at-risk behaviors reported by adolescents ages 16-18 years attending Seventh-day Adventist Church-operated secondary schools across the region. Pearson correlations and multiple regression analyses were used to assess the …

Ethnicity, Assimilation And Transnationalism: A Comparative Study Of Eastern European Migration To The United States (1940-2012), Cezara Olga Crisan

Dissertations

Cezara Olga Crisan

Loyola University Chicago

ETHNICITY, ASSIMILATION AND TRANSNATIONALISM:

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF EASTERN EUROPEAN MIGRATION

TO THE UNITED STATES (1940-2012)

Transnationalism is a relatively new pattern of migration; the process by which transnationalism has supplanted assimilation has been the subject of this study, and it has been done by comparing the immigration experience of Eastern Europeans, before and after the demise of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe.

The study employed a qualitative methodology with a total of sixty one respondents divided in two groups from Eastern Europe - a "pre-communist wave" and a "post-communist wave" - who …

Second-Class Families: The Challenges And Strategies Of Mixed-Status Immigrant Families, Diana Maritza Guelespe

Dissertations

The most recent peak in migration has involved large numbers of undocumented people and much of the sociological scholarship on immigration explores their lives as individuals and how they stay connected to their family across borders, but there is little research about the new phenomenon of mixed-status immigrant families-- families with at least one unauthorized immigrant and one U.S. citizen--or how their families face the looming risk of separation. The purpose of this dissertation is to describe the experiences and challenges these families confront. Why has there been a rise in mixed-status immigrant families? How does the relative permanence of …

¿Déjalo Descansar? The Parental Bereavement Experience Of Mexican Migrant Mothers, Illeana Gomez

Dissertations

"Déjalo descansar, no le llores" - "Let them rest, don't cry for them" is an expression Mexican mothers often hear after the death of a child. While accepted as a culturally polite means of expressing condolence, the phrase nonetheless can have a detrimental effect on the parental bereavement experience of these mothers. Through the use of focus groups, 22 Mexican migrant mothers were interviewed to better understand the role that imperatives such as "Déjalo descansar" and other prescribed beliefs, rituals, and customs play in their bereavement experience. From the five focus groups conducted in this qualitative study, participants reported that …

Preserving The Bond: Child Welfare Professionals' Perspectives On The Opportunities And Challenges Of Parent-Child Visitation, Lina M. Munoz

Dissertations

The foster care system was designed to be a temporary placement for children when their parents are unable or unwilling to provide proper care and supervision. A permanency plan must be established for all children in care, stating clear goals for a permanent living arrangement to facilitate the child's reunification with his/her family. The current Illinois Child Welfare Practice Model promotes a family-centered, trauma-informed, and strength-based practice approach when providing child welfare services to families in foster care with the caseworker serving as the primary vehicle for facilitating change.

This study explored how this child welfare practice model is reflected …

The Civilian And The War On Terror: Do Norms Shape Strategy?, Sherri Replogle

Dissertations

Despite a growing research agenda centered on issues of civilian immunity, it remains unclear what effect norms protecting civilians have on state behavior, especially democracies. This study asks when and how the civilian immunity norm (CIN) matters, specifically examining how it alters short term strategic choices and even long term doctrines.

Employing a constructivist approach to examine shifting attitudes toward civilians within the military during the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, this study argues that democracies will choose strategic outcomes that strengthen compliance with the CIN when they see the constraining normative environment as a key part of the strategic environment. …

A Qualitative Study Of Stakeholder Perceptions In Early Childhood Intervention Partnership, Ruth Schumacher

Dissertations

The first three years of life are a period where significant growth occurs in all areas of development to prepare infants and toddlers for further learning. Early experiences and relationships impact that early cognitive development. As the literature suggests, the greatest opportunity to break the cycle of poverty and decrease the achievement gap is to intervene early with at risk young children and families. In order to promote resiliency, it is imperative that children have at least one adult who is a consistent and reliable figure in their lives. Early childhood intervention programs serve to empower parents to meet that …

Cheerleaders And Performers: Mental Health Courts In A Midwestern State, Monte Staton

Dissertations

"Cheerleaders and Performers: Mental Health Courts in a Midwestern State" by Monte D. Staton

This dissertation presents a statewide study focusing on a recently developed technique for dealing with persons with mental illness in the criminal justice system: mental health court (MHC). This study of nine MHC programs utilized surveys, interviews, and ethnographic observations to examine the work activities and understandings of the criminal justice and mental health professionals who administer and operate the programs in a Midwestern state. Data were analyzed by combining Goffman's dramaturgical analysis with Dorothy E. Smith's institutional ethnography. Findings reveal that MHC professionals engage in …

Organizational Constraints And Supports For Psychosocial Care Of Ethiopian Children At Risk: The Case Of Services In Addis Ababa, Daniel Hailu

Dissertations

The dissertation describes from an institutional perspective psychosocial support services being provided to orphans and vulnerable children (OVC) in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa. Despite the presence of sufficient but fragmented legal, policy and strategic framework, Ethiopia's social protection landscape has suffered from a historic dearth of interventions that address psychosocial risks and vulnerabilities. Over the past decade and half, however, psychosocial support services to OVC have been slowly defused into the Ethiopian society as elements of programming for care and support to the population. Consequently, there currently exists diversity in the types of psychosocial risks and vulnerabilities that interventions prioritize …

Psychotherapist Understanding Of Genital Self-Mutilation Amongst Male To Female Transsexuals, Michael Robert Kenney

Dissertations

Self-mutilation of the genitals is a complex phenomenon that can provoke strong countertransference reactions amongst mental health clinician. Transsexuals who engage in self-inflicted mutilation of the genitals face a potentially increased risk of alienation from healthcare providers due to marginalization and lack of understanding by treating clinicians. Frequently, assumptions are made regarding the motivation for the behavior that fails to take into account the complex interplay between contributing psychological, social, and environmental forces.

This qualitative study explored the experience of four psychotherapists who had encountered the behavior in their work with transsexual clients in order to gain a more accurate …

Relations Among Endogenous Attention, Executive Functioning, And Global Assessment Measures In Toddlers And Preschoolers Born Full-Term And Preterm, Nancy Wyss

Dissertations

Infants born prematurely now represent about 12% of all live births in the United States and are at risk for numerous developmental issues. For example, children born preterm are at an increased risk (2-3 times greater) for later attentional problems. With the high rate of attentional issues in later childhood, it is crucial to assess young children born preterm with a valid measure. Currently, global assessments are commonly utilized in neonatal follow-up programs as a broad-based assessment of children born preterm. However, they are often poor predictors of later functioning. There are many different components of attention, and experimental tasks …

Social And Emotional Learning: An Argument For Religious Pluralism, Debra Mayconich Baron

Dissertations

The purpose of this project is to argue that in order for social and emotional learning (SEL) goals to achieve their intended outcomes for students and society, religious pluralism must be reflected in student instruction. SEL involves the use of evidence-based practices to provide opportunities to develop competencies related to self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making which are intended to enable students to demonstrate morally appropriate actions and ethical decisions, which I am calling "right behavior."

It is my argument that one's understanding of right behavior embodies both implicit and explicit moral beliefs based on one's …