Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

No Prejudice Here: Racism, Resistance, And The Struggle For Equality In Denver, 1947-1994, Summer Marie Cherland

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study chronicles a story of civil rights that has been left untold until now. Recent scholarship contributing to the history of the "long civil rights movement" has reframed our understanding of civil rights beyond the years of the late 1950s and early 1960s. In addition, it has also demonstrated that civil rights activity occurred in regions other than the South. However, most work on the long civil rights movement demonstrates that activism among blacks began much earlier than the Brown v. Board Supreme Court case and instead, was a part of a longer freedom struggle that, in many ways, …

Impact Of A Grade Contract Model In A College Composition Course: A Multiple Case Study, Nayelee Villanueva

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Due to the complex nature of assessment in critical pedagogy practices, continued research is necessary in order to investigate the constantly evolving nature of education and the way we come to know how people learn. To research assessment in the critical classroom requires both instructor and students. This qualitative multiple case study investigated impacts of a grading contract as a form of assessment on student writing in a Basic Writing composition course. This study examined the impacts of a grade contract on students' writing, motivation for writing, revision practices, authorship and expectations of a Basic Writing composition course. Through a …

Validation Of A Personality Scale: A Factor Analytic Approach, Leslie Forbush

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Researchers and clinicians alike make use of various assessment instruments to investigate variables of interest. These instruments include affective assessments, which require individuals to make judgments about themselves. To make these judgments individuals reflect upon their attitudes, interests, values, and personality traits and choose the corresponding response option that they feel best represents their current status with regards to the variable of interest for each question. The optimal number of response options to be included in such affective measurement scales has been greatly debated over the past several decades (Cox, 1980; Foddy, 1993; Jacoby & Matell, 1971; Jones & Loe, …

Digital Behavior Intervention Plans: Effects On General Education Teacher Fidelity Of Implementation, Christopher G. Holcomb

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Students with disabilities often have behavior that interferes with classroom learning. Serious problem behaviors are identified as the most significant factor interfering with learning in the classroom. Unfortunately, chronic behaviors often lead to a student dropping out of school. Current research typically focuses on areas of intervention for these students with little attention towards teacher fidelity of implementation of these interventions. Because of this, student's behavior intervention plans may not show effectiveness (e.g., progress monitoring, data driven decisions). It is important that researchers begin to explore systematic improvements in fidelity of implementation of behavior intervention plan components for general education …

"Held Harmless:" Higher Education Funding And The 77th Session Of The Nevada Legislature, David F. Damore

Lincy Institute Reports and Briefs

The debate over higher education funding took center stage throughout the 77th session of the Nevada Legislature. Much of what transpired during 2013, however, was shaped by the work of the 2011–2012 SB374 Interim Committee to Study the Funding of Higher Education (SB374 Study Committee hereafter).

Effects Of Internalizing Behaviors On Processing Speed And Academic Fluency, Kristen Bjork

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study explored the relationships between internalizing behavior problems, processing speed and academic fluency. Internalizing behaviors are behaviors typically associated with depression and anxiety, such as withdrawal, somatization, and excessive worry. This study focused on the impact of these behaviors on an individual's ability to efficiently process information, as well as perform simple academic tasks quickly. The following measures were used: WISC-IV Coding and Symbol Search scores as a measure of processing speed, WJ-III Tests of Achievement Math Fluency and Reading Fluency scores as measures of academic fluency, and BASC-2 Parent Rating Scale scores for internalizing behaviors. Data gathered from …

Implicit Theories Of Intelligence And Learning A Novel Mathematics Task, Nathan Oehme Rudig

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The social-cognitive model of motivation states that students adopt a theory of the nature of intelligence that guides their goals in academia and their responses to academic setbacks. Students who believe intelligence is an unchanging entity within them are more likely to adopt goals to display high ability, hide low ability, and respond helplessly to failed schoolwork. Conversely, a student who believes intelligence is a measure of effort and persistence will be motivated to gather knowledge and acquire new skills. The current study investigated the role theories of intelligence play in the field of mathematics understanding. In two experiments, participants …

Reducing Court-Related Stress Through Court Education: Examining Child Witnesses, Attorneys And Parents, Brittnie Turquoise Watkins

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Court education presents a useful approach to addressing children's stress, anxiety or fear related to testifying. The current study uses a pretest-posttest design to evaluate whether Kids' Court School (KCS), a court education program in Clark County, Nevada, reduces court-related stress in child witnesses. In addition, attorneys' and parents' concerns related to various elements of the child's impending testimony, are evaluated. The measure used to assess stress was the Court-Related Stress Scale (CRSS), a 10-item Likert scale adapted from the Stressfulness of Life Scale. In addition, open-ended questions were posed at the time of posttest. The CRSS was administered to …

Considering Sport Participation As A Source For Physical Activity Among Adolescents, Jennifer Pharr, Nancy L. Lough

Environmental & Occupational Health Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND:

Studies have shown participation in sport is lower among girls than boys, decreases as students matriculate through high school, is lowest among Black and Hispanic girls and has a positive relationship with SES. With sport recognized as a contributor to physical activity and health in adolescents, consideration of diminishing rates of participation appears warranted. The purpose of this study was to identify patterns related to differences in self-reported sport participation between genders, ethnic groups, grades and SES.

METHODS:

This study was a cross-sectional, secondary analysis of data collected for a sport interest survey. All students in grades 8-11 attending …

Developing An Action Learning Community Advocacy/Leadership Training Program For Community Health Workers And Their Agencies To Reduce Health Disparities In Arizona Border Communities, Kenneth A. Schachter Md, Mba, Maia Ingram Mph, Laurel Jacobs Drph, Mph, Hannah Hafter Mph, Jill Guernsey De Zapien Ba, Scott Carvajal Phd, Mph

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Community health workers (CHWs) make unique and important contributions to society. They serve as patient advocates, educators, and navigators in our health care system and a growing body of research indicates that they play an important role in the effective delivery of prevention and treatment services in underserved communities. CHWs also serve as informal community leaders and advocates for organizational and community change, providing valuable insiders' insights about health promotion and the interrelatedness of individuals, their community, its institutions, and the surrounding environment. Accion Para La Salud or Action for Health (Accion) is a CDC-funded community based participatory research (CBPR) …

Curriculum Mapping At Unlv Libraries: Strategic Integration Of Library Instruction, Nancy E. Fawley

Lied Library Open House for the 2014 American Library Association Conference

Curriculum mapping is a strategy to integrate information literacy into the undergraduate curriculum by identifying key courses within the disciplines for targeted, library instruction.

Librarians identify high impact, beginning, middle and end-level courses within their disciplines. These may or may not be courses they currently work with.

Information competencies are introduced at a beginning level, then reinforced (mid-level) and enhanced (end) throughout a student’s academic career in an intentionally scaffolded manner. Assessment strategies are included the map, as well.

Librarians use curriculum maps to inform decisions on courses and content taught so instruction efforts are not duplicated.

Assessment Of First-Year Composition Students' Information Literacy Skills, Erin E. Rinto

Lied Library Open House for the 2014 American Library Association Conference

One of the ways we have been assessing the information literacy skills of our first year students is through developing and applying rubrics to a sample of annotated bibliography projects from the required English Composition course at UNLV. The annotated bibliography assignment consists of a paper proposal and the annotations for 5 sources the student plans on using in their final research paper. The "source evaluation rubric" was applied to each individual annotation (totaling 1358 annotations) and the rubric examined the extent to which students were using the evaluative criteria of currency, relevance, and authority when selecting and evaluating an …

Bridging The Skills Gap: Enhancing The Student Employee Experience, Rosan Mitola, Amanda Melilli, Amy Jo Hunsaker

Lied Library Open House for the 2014 American Library Association Conference

Academic libraries have a unique opportunity to contribute to the success of their student employees by teaching and developing skill sets necessary for students to be successful throughout their academic careers. A co-curricular workshop program was developed and implemented to prepare student employees for the real world challenges they will face during their academic careers as well as after graduation.

Through participation in a series of one-hour workshops, students acquire skills that aid them in accomplishing academic, personal and professional goals. This workshop series also provides opportunities for the library to engage in the development of their employees in a …

Welcome To The University Libraries Poster Session!, Erin E. Rinto, Melissa Bowles-Terry, Rachelle Weigel, Nancy E. Fawley, Rosan Mitola, Amanda Melilli, Amy Jo Hunsaker, Jennifer L. Fabbi

Lied Library Open House for the 2014 American Library Association Conference

Over the past eight years, the UNLV Libraries have led and contributed to campus initiatives to revise the undergraduate curriculum and student learning outcomes at UNLV. Through formal and informal leadership roles, librarians helped to create the University Undergraduate Learning Outcomes (UULOs) in the areas of Intellectual Breadth and Lifelong Learning, Communication, Inquiry and Critical Thinking, Global/Multicultural Knowledge and Awareness, and Citizenship and Ethics and a revised model for general education.

In Fall 2011, the Faculty Senate approved a vertical pathway of key courses, which serve to integrate and assess the UULOs from a student’s first year of college through …

Unlv Libraries: Partners In Student Learning, Melissa Bowles-Terry

Lied Library Open House for the 2014 American Library Association Conference

The University Libraries play a central educational role at UNLV. Librarians offer workshops for faculty on assignment design and research on student learning. The workshops emphasize learning outcomes, active learning, and assessment of student learning. Institutes leverage UNLV Librarians’ expertise with facilitation and information literacy learning outcomes.

Learning Outcomes for Faculty Institutes:

• To understand how research-based learning approaches support student success.
• To articulate goals and learning outcomes for research assignments in order to communicate expectations to students and form the basis for assessment of student work.
• To investigate research-based learning activities that integrate library and information resources.
• To discover technology …

Hiv And Sti Risk For Young Blacks In High Prevalence Areas: Implications For Health Equity In Communities Hosting Historically Black Colleges And Universities (Hbcus), Tanya Telfair Leblanc, Madeline Y. Sutton, Peter Thomas, Wayne A. Duffus

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Background

Every year, thousands of young, black, high school graduates who are seeking higher education, attend one of the 105 historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) located primarily in the south and east. The objective of the research was to examine the geographic proximity of HBCUs to areas of high HIV and STI disease burden among college age people to assess infectivity of potential sex partners in the areas surrounding HBCUs.

Methods

We examined the 14 states reporting the greatest HIV diagnoses burden among persons age 20-24 years old and STI burden among persons age 15 to 24 years old …

The Case For A New College Governance Structure In Nevada: Integrating Higher Education With Economic Development, Magdalena Martinez, David F. Damore, Robert Lang

Lincy Institute Reports and Briefs

As Katz and Bradley (2013) document, the confluence of partisan politics and budget cuts have left the federal government and to a lesser extent, state governments impotent to address the countless economic and education challenges facing the United States. Out of necessity, metros and regions are taking the lead in collaborating, innovating, and governing in Post-Recession America. Instead of waiting for federal or state governments to impose prescriptive, one-size fits all “solutions,” localities are seizing opportunities to strengthen their economies by working with stakeholders to develop policies tailored to their unique and complicated needs.

Understanding Nevada's Higher Education Governance For Two-Year Colleges: Challenges And Solutions, Magdalena Martinez

Lincy Institute Reports and Briefs

State governance of colleges and universities is an indicator of the state’s relationship with key stakeholders, such as business leaders, elected officials, policy makers, and local residents. Accordingly, a state’s college governance structure shapes two-year public colleges’ institutional priorities and how these vital institutions respond to local workforce needs. Around the country, an important function of two-year colleges is to provide training and skills for regional workforces that align to local business and industry needs. This brief examines the origins of two-year colleges and compares Nevada’s college outcomes with those of similar states through.

The Formation Of Situation Models In Multimedia, Kris Gunawan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

When people read traditional text-based stories, they construct mental representations of the described state of affairs, called situation models, to connect various details of events (e.g., time, space, entity) in memory (Zwaan & Radvansky, 1998). According to the cognitive theory of multimedia learning (Mayer, 2005; 2011), stories presented as pictures and text generate independent channels of mental representations that can work hand-in-hand or separately to acquire and remember the materials presented. This dissertation consisted of two experiments that were used to further explore how the two modalities affect what is being mentally represented in memory. In Experiment 1, participants were …

Cognitive Differences Between High And Low Responders Of A Tier Ii Reading Intervention, Jillian Cohen

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study evaluated a population of young students with potential reading disabilities who participated in a large western school district's Reading Skills Development project from October 2012 to May 2013. The following questions were addressed: Are there cognitive differences between students who respond well to an intense Tier II reading intervention and those who make little progress? If so, which cognitive skills best discriminate between high and low responders? De-identified data was collected from 171 struggling readers in 1st through 3rd grade who participated in the Reading Skills project. After controlling for English proficiency level, high and low responders were …

Effectiveness Of A Poverty Simulation In Second Life®: Changing Nursing Student Attitudes Toward Poor People, Nancy Menzel, Laura Helen Willson, Jessica Doolen

Nursing Faculty Publications

Social justice is a fundamental value of the nursing profession, challenging educators to instill this professional value when caring for the poor. This randomized controlled trial examined whether an interactive virtual poverty simulation created in Second Life^® would improve nursing students’ empathy with and attributions for people living in poverty, compared to a self-study module. We created a multi-user virtual environment populated with families and individual avatars that represented the demographics contributing to poverty and vulnerability. Participants (N = 51 baccalaureate nursing students) were randomly assigned to either Intervention or Control groups and completed the modified Attitudes toward …

Connections Newsletter Winter 2014, University Of Nevada, Las Vegas

Connections Newsletter

Table of Contents

• An Online Homecoming for UNLV Students: University Libraries Digitizes the Rebel Yell
• From the Dean
• UNLV Libraries Leads the Way on Preserving Nevada’s History with NEH Grant
• Students Taste the Power of Intellectual Freedom at the Banned Books Buffet
• K-12 Institute: Bringing UNLV and CCSD Educators Together
• A Treasure Trove for UNLV Grad Students Working in Special Collections During Summer
• Staff Spotlight: Michelle Light
• Project to Capture the History of the Jewish Community in Southern Nevada Begins

The Impact Of Academic Exchange Between China And The U.S., 1979-2010, Kaitlin Peck

Psi Sigma Siren

The relationship between China and the United States has been complex and often tense. In the second half of the twentieth century, both countries experienced ups and downs in their diplomatic, cultural, and political relationship. An important part of this relationship included the strains of the student exchange program. Because of the tension between the U.S. and China, these educational exchanges ended in 1950 and did not resume until the United States officially recognized the Peoples Republic of China in 1979. After this point, education exchange between China and United States grew and expanded. To understand this growth, many aspects …

Thinking Like A Scientist: A Thematic Analysis Of Students' Experiences At The Sacnas Research Conference, Rosa Perez, Rachael D. Robnett

McNair Poster Presentations

The underrepresentation of minority students in STEM fields is a concern in today’s society. Research suggests that identity plays a major role in students’ ultimate success within these fields. Using identity theory as a theoretical framework, this study explores the ways in which identity affects the academic careers of underrepresented students in STEM. The participants of this study consisted of undergraduates from various colleges and universities around the United States that attended the SACNAS 2010 research conference. Thematic analysis was used to identify four overarching themes from a set of narrative responses collected after the event. The identified themes include …

The Peculiar Case Of Nevada's Higher Education Governance, Robert E. Lang

Brookings Scholar Lecture Series

No abstract provided.

Engagement Of Academic Libraries And Information Science Schools In Creating Curriculum For Sustainability: An Exploratory Study, Maria A. Jankowska, Bonnie J. Smith, Marianne A. Buehler

Library Faculty Publications

In 2010, the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education released, “Sustainability curriculum in higher education: A call to action,” encouraging infusion of sustainability topics into universities' teaching and research. Since then, academic programs and research related to social, economic, and environmental sustainability have enriched university curricula. An exploratory study was conducted to determine the position and engagements of academic libraries and information science schools in their contributions to scholarly sustainability activities and curricular initiatives. This article presents the results of the study which reveals a number of engagements by library professionals in the areas of sustainability, such …