Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Undergraduate Psychology Training And Workplace Needs: Student Perspectives On The Extent To Which Their Education Prepares Them For Their Chosen Career, G Stoyles, P Caputi, M Byrne, T Crowe

Mitchell K Byrne

The current study surveyed 195 first to fourth year psychology students at a regional university in New South Wales about the amount of applied content in undergraduate psychology training and post-graduate opportunities for employment as a psychologist. Eighty-nine percent of students believed that the level of applied psychological training was either nonexistent or inadequate, and therefore did not equip them for finding work as a psychologist. Ninety-six percent of students who wished to become intern psychologists believed that opportunities for working as intern generalist psychologists were either non-existent or insufficient. Concerns around employment and registration opportunities reflected this group’s disillusionment …

Students’ Writing Self-Efficacy, Motivation, And Experience: Predictors In Journalism Education, Matthew Bryan Broaddus

Doctoral Dissertations

The field of journalism has gone through several years of turmoil as new technology, platforms, and economic hardships have swept away traditional journalistic practices and models. Print media continues to hemorrhage jobs and money while media outlets adjust to technology-enhanced reporting. College journalism majors often face changing curriculum and graduate feeling unprepared to be competitive in the journalistic job market. While many things have changed in the field, one pillar of journalism that has not changed is the need for journalists to possess an excellent writing ability, supplemented with the ability to think analytically. The connection between students’ ability to …

The “Green Eating” Project: A Pilot Intervention To Promote Sustainable And Healthy Eating In College Students, Kelleigh E. Eastman

Senior Honors Projects

The “Green Eating” Project: A Pilot Intervention to Promote Sustainable and Healthy Eating in College Students

Kelleigh Eastman

Sponsor: Geoffrey Greene, Nutrition and Dietetics

A topic of interest that is growing in the general population is the idea of being sustainable, or “green”, and there is a rising awareness in sustainable practices involving food and the environment. Some of the “green” eating behaviors identified through my research included eating a plant-based (i.e. vegetarian or semi-vegetarian) diet, eating locally grown foods, eating organically grown foods, and eating foods that are labeled fair-trade. Frequently, these “green” eating behaviors are healthful eating behaviors …

Knowledge And Perceptions Of A Visual Communications Curriculum Unit In Arkansas Secondary Agricultural Classrooms: An Impact Of Experiential Learning, Kristin Mackenzie Pennington

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Currently, a need exists for agricultural education programs to begin introducing new curriculum which will help meet the current and future needs of the agricultural industry. In 2010, the University of Arkansas Agricultural and Extension Education Department received grant funding for the development of curriculum relating directly to visual communications technology and its role in agricultural communications. Curriculum was developed and teachers across the state were asked to participate in implementing the program. The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate the knowledge levels of students prior to being taught agricultural communications curriculum, after the curriculum was taught, and …

Merit Pay In Arkansas: An Evaluation Of The Cobra Pride Incentive Program In The Fountain Lake School District, Nathan Charles Jensen

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Starting in the 2010-11, administrators at the Fountain Lake School District implemented the Cobra Pride Incentive Program (CPIP), a merit pay program designed to financially reward all school employees with year-end bonuses primarily for significant improvements in student achievement. At the conclusion of the 2010-11 school year, over $800,000 in bonuses were distributed to school personnel. Because of the substantial investment in this program, it was important to determine how the CPIP impacted the school counselors, teachers, and students of Fountain Lake, to see if any of the potential benefits of a merit pay program were realized.

The results from …

Individual Resilience, Social Support, And Health Risk Behaviors In Adolescents And Young Adults: Study On Cross-Sectional And Longitudinal Samples, Chuong Hong Nguyen

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Resilience is considered the ability that a person gains positive achievements despite exposure to significantly adverse life conditions. However, a majority of previous research has focused on human developmental tasks or academic achievements. Evidence of resilience on health risk behaviors has not been comprehensively established yet. The purposes of this dissertation were to extend the existing literature about the stability of resilience through time, to examine how the resilience scale concurrently and prospectively predict resilience statuses, and to explore effects of Social support over a long period of lifetime. The dissertation used a secondary database from the public-use version of …

Senior Center Participation In Northwest Arkansas: An Examination Of Future Marketing Strategies, Policy Implications, And Program Needs To Attract The Baby-Boomer Generation, Wanda Faye Turner

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to explore the impact of the Baby Boomer Generation on the future services provided by Senior Centers in Northwest Arkansas, specifically in Benton, Madison, and Washington counties. The study was a mixed methods design utilizing both qualitative and quantitative methods. Three research groups were used: Nine Senior Center Directors, which were interviewed; one focus group composed of four Baby Boomers; and a print survey distributed to ninety-two Baby Boomers. The data revealed that changes are needed in the program and services in Senior Centers to attract the Baby Boomer Generation. Changes will need to …

Navigation And Accessibility For Persons With Disabilities: An Anthropological Study Using Gis On The University Of Arkansas Campus, Deborah Jean Raiees-Dana

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The University of Arkansas was founded in 1871 on the top of a hill overlooking the Ozark Mountains, resulting in a campus that has steep slopes and numerous historical buildings that were not designed with ADA regulations in mind. This makes getting around campus especially difficult for students with limited mobility, and no campus maps exist that include handicapped accessibility features to help navigate the terrain and limited parking options. This study examines this issue using a holistic approach that explores cultural and technological factors to produce a map of the Historic Core District of campus.

Geographical Information Systems enable …

An Investigation Of The Effects Of Writing Instruction In An Ungraded Informal Learning Environment, Samuel Patterson Edd

Dissertations

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to investigate and describe the teaching of writing in an informal setting through the voices of teachers and students. The intent of this study was to describe the roles of teachers and students in this learning environment and specifically to describe the role of writing response groups in this environment. Research in both writing instruction and informal education suggests that writing instruction is a good contextual match to camp-style informal education. Both informal education and writer's workshop-style writing instruction put the individual and their choices at the center of the experience. VI This …

Changing The World From Classrooms To Communities: Designing And Disseminating A Service-Learning Curriculum For Teaching In A Formal Education Setting, Amanda English

Mahurin Honors College Capstone Experience/Thesis Projects

To change the world is a growing desire among many of today’s student populations, portrayed increasingly across the spectrum of media, social trends and career pursuits. While the demand grows among students for community-oriented and socially-responsible opportunities, the offerings in educational institutions must respond to these emerging requests with new and innovative academic programs. This text emphasizes the role of the developing discipline of service-learning in channeling these energies and providing students with deep and meaningful academic experiences. Its content seeks to combat misconceptions of service-learning as simply an extra-curricular activity and provide tangible methods for incorporating its concepts into …

Adult Perceptions Of The Experience Of Being Identified "Talented And Gifted" As Children: A Phenomenological Study, Bradford Summers

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

This is a phenomenological study of adult perceptions of the experience of being identified "talented and gifted" as children. Data were gathered by transcribing the video recordings of adults who were students of the Talented and Gifted (TAG) education program in Fairfield, Ohio during 1978-1983. The phenomenological method was used to discover perceptions of a unique population of adults who shared life experiences during elementary and middle school. Analysis of the data resulted in the identification of four main themes: Growth, Interpersonal, Future, and Thankfulness. Three facilitating and three challenging subthemes were identified under each main theme. These were: Internal …

The Application Of Instructional Design Principles In The Development Of Sportsmanship Education Software And Its Impact On Children’S Acquisition Of Sportsmanlike Attitudes And Behaviors, Michael J. Petersen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Millions of people participate in sporting events as either athletes or spectators, or both. The presence or absence of sportsmanship they experience can affect them in both negative and positive ways. The purpose of this study was to determine whether schoolchildren who use a computer-based sportsmanship education program would learn and exhibit more sportsmanship than those who did not use the software. It was determined that younger children were more affected by the software than the older children were.

Investigating The Impact Of A Mentor Text Inquiry Approach To Narrative Writing Instruction On Attitude, Self-Efficacy, And Writing Processes Of Fourth Grade Students In An Urban Elementary School, Christine Marie Kealoha Kane Edd

Dissertations

Writing in its many forms, is the signature means of communication in the 21st century. Writing is also arguably the most complex and difficult challenge facing all students in school. The purpose of this study was to monitor the narrative writing performance of urban students who received explicit writing instruction using a mentor text inquiry approach. A mentor text is a published piece of writing whose ideas, structure,or written craft can be used to inspire a student to write something original. It is a piece of quality literature text that students can use as an exemplar text to model their …

Marginalized Within The Borderlands: The Undocumented Citizen Students Of The University Of Texas-Pan American, Christian V. Ramirez

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The Rio Grande Valley, geographically located on the southernmost tip of Texas and north of the Mexican State of Tamaulipas, is far removed from the social and cultural centers of both the United States and Mexico. Within this geographically and socially marginalized space lives a group of citizen students who lack legal documentation to reside in the U.S. This ethnographic study will seek to convey the perceptions of undocumented citizen students, their families, and the background assumptions through which they understand their current and future state of social place. The University of Texas-Pan American is home to over 19, 000 …

The Search For Health Information On The Internet: Perceptions Of Patient Medical Communication Competence During The Medical Appointment, Kelli K. Owen

Theses and Dissertations - UTB/UTPA

The Internet is an influential contrivance that has the potential to improve healthcare information dispersion, healthcare delivery and patient outcomes. Specifically, patient preparation prior to the medical appointment, such as seeking information about his/ her health situation on the Internet, has been linked to competent medical communication behaviors. As such, the Internet can potentially be used to introduce educational health materials that will help the patient prepare for the medical appointment. But, it is important to first determine Internet usage rates among the study population and assess patient and physician perceptions of the degree to which access to health information …

The Relationship Between Institutional, Departmental And Program-Specific Variables And The Academic Performance Of Division I Fbs Football Programs, Steven C. Eigenbrot

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study investigated the connection between the academic evaluation of Division I FBS football programs and the various social settings that influenced these student-athletes. These social settings were classified as: institutional, departmental and program-specific. The experience of the student-athlete is thought to be impacted by all three settings, creating applicability for social identity theory, which provides the theoretical framework of the study.

Problem Solving Interventions: Impact On Young Children With Developmental Disabilities, Lindsay Ann Diamond

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Problem-solving skills are imperative to a child's growth and success across multiple environments, including general and special education. Problem solving is comprised of: (a) attention to the critical aspects of a problem, (b) generation of solution(s) to solve the problem, (c) application of a solution(s) to the identified problem, and (d) evaluation of the consequences of the solution. Children with developmental disabilities may experience difficulty with the problem-solving process.

The purpose of this study was to determine an effective method to teach young children with developmental disabilities to problem solve. Specifically, this study compared two types of problem-solving instruction. The …

Beck, Louis Marvin, 1933-1992 (Fa 76), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

Folklife Archives Finding Aids

Finding aid and audio file (Click on "Additional Files" below) for Folklife Archives Project 76. Interview with Ophelia Ellen Johnson Hanna about her family and education growing up as an African American in Warren County, Kentucky. Includes taped interview and index.

Looking For A Diverse Teacher Force, Guy Trainin, William England, Britney Tonniges

Research and Evaluation in Education, Technology, Art, and Design

At some point over the next 10 to 12 years, the nation’s public school student body will have no one clear racial or ethnic majority. But the makeup of the nation’s teacher workforce is not keeping up with these changing demographics. At the national level, students of color make up more than 40 percent of the public school population. In contrast, teachers of color—teachers who are not non-Hispanic white—are only 17 percent of the teaching force. (Boser,2011- Teacher Diversity Matters) This infographic presentes a snapshot of the situation in Nebraska 2012.

Digital Community Voices Committee Initial Agenda, Joseph A. Santiago, Dana F. Neugent

Digital Community Voices Committee

The overarching goal of this committee is to encourage dialogue around diversity education while encouraging a digital media literacy skillset. This committee will serve as a hub for different departments, associations, and individuals representing a wide spectrum of populations within the URI community and will serve to manage the program in a collegial manner. The Digital Community Voices Committee will utilize writing, the production of multimedia content, and educational digital media products (E-books, TV shorts, podcasts, DVDs, and streaming videos) that showcase diversity, inclusion and community of the URI community. The target audience for the program will be the URI …

Does Democracy Explain Gender Differentials In Education?, Arusha V. Cooray

Arusha Cooray

This study shows that despite a strong empirical association between gender differentials in enrolment ratios and democracy, that democracy alone does not explain gender differentials in education in Africa and Asia. The results indicate that income, employment in agriculture, religious heterogeneity and colonialism also help explain the under-representation of girls in education in these regions. Countries in which the duration of suffrage has been longer tend to perform better on average in terms of gender equality in education.

The Hegemony Of English In South African Education, Kelsey E. Figone

Scripps Senior Theses

The South African Constitution recognizes 11 official languages and protects an individual’s right to use their mother-tongue freely. Despite this recognition, the majority of South African schools use English as the language of learning and teaching (LOLT). Learning in English is a struggle for many students who speak indigenous African languages, rather than English, as a mother-tongue, and the educational system is failing its students. This perpetuates inequality between different South African communities in a way that has roots in the divisions of South Africa’s past. An examination of the power of language and South Africa’s experience with colonialism and …

Social Constructions Of Teen Pregnancy: Implications For Policy And Prevention Efforts, Stephanie Jimenez

Scripps Senior Theses

Over the past few decades, teen pregnancy has been framed as one of society’s most pressing ills. It has been understood as a “crisis” by The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and a number of other cultural, religious, and governmental institutions. In this thesis, I analyze three constructions of teen pregnancy: 1) the construction of teen mothers as social “burdens” 2) the construction of teens as “unfit” to be parents 3) the construction of teen mothers as collectively “rational” actors reacting to contexts of structural inequality. While the first and second constructions draw upon the conception of …

The Significance Of A K-12 Diabetes-Based Science Education Program For Tribal Populations: Evaluating Cognitive Learning, Cultural Context, And Attitudinal Components, Carolee D. Francis, Doug Coulson, Bonnie Kalberer, Lemyra Debruyn, William Freeman, Janet Belcourt

Journal of Health Disparities Research and Practice

Preventing and reducing the onset of type 2 diabetes among American Indian/Alaska Native youth requires ground-breaking strategies to affect knowledge, attitudes, and cognitive decision-making skills. In an unparalleled endeavor to address the growing epidemic of type 2 diabetes in tribal communities, a K-12 Diabetes Education in Tribal Schools (DETS) curriculum was created by eight tribal colleges and three federal agencies. This article highlights the results of the implementation phase, the final evaluation step in acquiring and measuring student knowledge and attitude gains through pre-post standardized assessment.

Say What You Mean: Confronting Ambiguity In Language, Truman Ryan Keys

Proceedings of the New York State Communication Association

The GIFTS activity involves the juxtaposition of denotative and connotative meanings of the same word in order to demonstrate how complex decoding the code and assigning the encoder’s intended meaning to a word can be. Students are randomly put into groups. Students are given the word “dog” and each group uses a dictionary to provide its denotation. Then each group has to generate connotations, cultural or slang meanings for the word “dog.” The class discusses the difference between the two types of meaning, and what impact if any this difference has on interpersonal communication. Then each group chooses a word, …

Research Brief: "The Effect Of Veterans Benefits On Education And Earnings", Institute For Veterans And Military Families At Syracuse University

Institute for Veterans and Military Families

This study found that veterans’ benefits which subsidize education make up the largest federal program for student aid, and that veterans’ benefits are estimated to increase future schooling by 1.4 years, meaning annual earnings for these veterans will be 6% higher than they would have been otherwise. In practice, that implies annual earnings approximately 6% higher than would have been expected in the absence of the benefits. In policy, policymakers should note that this study found smaller effects on earnings and education than previous studies have found. Suggestions for future study include comparing the annual earnings premium for veterans’ benefit …

Honduras: Local, Regional And Global Partnerships To Improve Health In Olancho, Lisa Kennedy Sheldon, Hasan Bailey, Carlo Najera, Mary Roy

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Honduran Mission Team-New Hampshire (HMT-NH) in partnership with the Olancho Aid Foundation (OAF), works in the Olancho department to improve the health and education of the Honduran people. The HMT-NH 2012 Healthcare Team included UMass Boston faculty and a nursing student working with American and Honduran doctors and nurses to provide culturally-appropriate healthcare and collect data about the needs of the Honduran people in Olancho.

Community University Project For Literacy (Cupl), Carol Chandler-Rourke

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Community-University Project for Literacy (CUPL) provides an academic structure for undergraduates to work as tutors in community-based learning centers. Students who enroll in CUPL commit to tutoring four hours each week at a community learning program while attending a credit-bearing academic seminar at UMass/Boston offered each semester. That is the Language, Literacy and Community in the Fall semester and ESL Tutor Training Seminar in the Spring semester.

Reviewing The Roots Of Response To Intervention:Is There Enough Research To Support The Promise?, Tammi R. Ridgeway, Debra P. Price, Cynthia G. Simpson, Chad A. Rose

Administrative Issues Journal

In the United States, Response to Intervention (RtI) is used to promote the use of evidence-based instruction in educational institutions, with the goal of supporting general and specialized educators and enabling these professionals to work together in a comprehensive, integrated manner. In doing so, RtI provides a protocol for identifying students with specific academic deficits and who demonstrate the need for individualized forms of instruction. Specifically, professional educators utilize quantitative data accumulated from common student assessment scores, which is thought to reflect a student’s response to instruction in the general classroom, in addition to his or her response to more …

Ready For School, Ready For Life: The Increasing Significance Of Early Childhood Education And School Readiness In Nevada, Sonya D. Horsford

Lincy Institute Reports and Briefs

School readiness continues to be an area of growing concern in education and public policy circles. The notion that “all children should arrive at school ready for the first day” has important implications not only for parents, early childhood educators, and K‐12 schoolteachers, but also policymakers, business owners, and our local and state economies. The purpose of this policy brief is to define school readiness, present the most recent conceptualization of school readiness in the state of Nevada, and consider the challenges inherent in building bridges between the separate and distinct domains of early childhood and K‐12 education. The brief …