The purpose of this study was to examine Oregon State University students' self-reported knowledge, attitudes, and behavior about recycling. Students living in on-campus and off-campus organized living groups were mailed a four-page survey with questions about their recycling activities, their attitudes about recycling, their opinions of the effectiveness of the campus recycling program, and their demographic information. The study population included all students living in OSU's residence halls, cooperatives, and fraternity and sorority houses. Three hundred fifteen surveys were mailed, and 237 were returned, for an overall response rate of 75%. The results showed that: 1) Based on the criteria used to distinguish between recyclers and non-recyclers, 95% of the sample were recyclers, with women reporting recycling behavior at a higher level than men. 2) There were no significant differences in attitudes about recycling between recyclers and non-recyclers. Recyclers, however, are more likely than non-recyclers to make purchases based on their concern for the environment. 3) Most OSU students who recycle spend less than 30 minutes per month recycling, and it appears to be a well-established pattern in their lives. More than 50% of the students recycle on a daily or a weekly basis. 4) OSU students recycle all materials except plastics at high rates, ranging from 76% for glass to 87% for paper. Plastics were recycled by 64% of the students who recycle. 5) Students recycle at residences and in classrooms and offices on the OSU campus, and report the least recycling activity at the Memorial Union. OSU students mainly use the curbside collection service for off-campus recycling. 6) OSU students receive information about recycling from a wide variety of sources, including school, home, and the media. One recommendation based on this study is that Campus Recycling provide education about materials re-processing and about the importance of purchasing products with recycled content to close the three-sided recycling loop, as well as to introduce the concept of source reduction. Another recommendation is that organized housing groups name a recycling coordinator who will educate and motivate the residents of the housing group to recycle. Eighty-one percent of the respondents reported television as a source of information about recycling. Additional research is needed to identify the time slots and programs watched by students if this media will be used for future educational interventions about recycling. Finally, because this survey dealt only with recycling of non-hazardous materials, additional research is needed to gather information on disposal of hazardous materials like batteries, automobile fluids, and household paint and cleaners. / Graduation date: 1997

Graduation date: 1994

This study investigated the opinions of bicyclists/pedestrians regarding how safe from a bicycle traffic injury they felt while on campus. Most earlier studies had been concerned with the taxonomy of bicycle/pedestrian accidents. Because of the paucity of research on attitudes of bicyclists and pedestrians, this research was undertaken. The survey instrument was developed in accordance with recommendations from the Oregon State University Survey & Research Center. It consisted of 19 Likert type, degree of variation statements, and ten biographical questions. The sample consisted of 214 students registered for the winter term of 1986 at Oregon State University. Participants completed the Traffic Safety Attitude Survey and then were placed in the following categories: male, female, bicyclists, and pedestrians. The Survey instrument was designed to test four null hypotheses and to define other broadly held opinions regarding traffic safety on campus. Hypotheses One through Three tested interaction between bicyclists/pedestrians. The fourth hypothesis tested the difference between male bicyclists and male pedestrians and female bicyclists and female pedestrians. The Chi Square Test and a two-way analysis of variance were employed to test the hypotheses. Two significant findings emerged from hypothesis testing: 1) bicyclists and pedestrians differed on the opinion that as much as possible is being done to provide campus bicycle traffic safety, and 2) pedestrians endorsed stricter adherence to bicycle traffic regulations than bicyclists. There was no difference between bicyclists and pedestrians regarding feelings of safety from a bicycle traffic-related injury. Finally, gender had no effect on perceptions of campus bicycle traffic safety. Analysis of the results of this research provided the following conclusions: 1. Male bicyclists felt the least at risk of injury from a bicycle traffic-related injury on campus. 2. Female pedestrians felt the most risk of injury from a bicycle traffic accident on campus. 3. Female bicyclists, female pedestrians, and male pedestrians shared similar opinions regarding risk of exposure to a bicycle traffic accident on campus. 4. Approximately 30% of all subjects felt there is a problem with interaction between bicyclists and pedestrians on the OSU campus. 5. Approximately 46% of the pedestrians and 25% of the bicyclists felt risk of sustaining a bicycle traffic-related injury on campus. 6. Approximately 38% of the pedestrians and 25% of the bicyclists support some form of bicycle traffic restriction. 7. Pedestrians endorse stricter adherance to bicycle traffic regulations that bicyclists do. 8: Pedestrians felt less is being done to ensure bicycle traffic safety on campus than bicyclists did. / Graduation date: 1986

In this research, our participants were asked five questions: Do gay and lesbian people fit into Chinese society? Are Chinese university students open and tolerant on gay and lesbian issues? How do these students perceive their gay and lesbian peers? How do their beliefs affect their attitudes toward their gay and lesbian peers? Is their university a safe and welcoming place for gay and lesbian students? To answer these questions, a qualitative methodology was employed involving six one-on-one interviews and two focus group interviews. <p>The participants did not believe that gay and lesbian people fit into Chinese society; however, the students themselves are becoming more open and tolerant on gay and lesbian issues in recent years because of the influence of technological innovation, media, and Western culture. <p>The findings suggest a degree of acceptance of gays and lesbians though the participants simultaneously distanced themselves from their homosexual peers. They perceived the university to be a safe place for gay and lesbian students in the sense that nobody would hurt them, but they did not see the university as a welcoming place. <p>To better understand the students perspectives, the transcripts were analyzed within a Chinese cultural and social context. Offering a realistic picture of heterosexual students perspectives might encourage them to reduce discrimination against their gay and lesbian peers, and to create a better learning environment for both heterosexual and homosexual students.

There is no abstract available for this dissertation.

The paradigm of multiple modernities proposes that alternative modernities have formed across the globe as a result of social change. This paradigm stands in contrast to evolutionary and modernization theories, as well as theories of globalizing modernity, which argue that all societies are moving in the similar direction and that Western modernity is universalizing. Focusing on two specific trends, which are the closure of the political sphere for students and young people in general versus the growing role of women in the political sphere, it is suggested in this case study that Namibia is one of the societies that is characterized by distinctive social change. Particular attention is paid to the interrelationships between customs, invented traditions and the modern Western condition drawing on quantitative and qualitative data on Namibian university students and an extensive literature review to demonstrate that Namibia has an alternative type of the modern.

This thesis is based on a field study conducted in Ghana's capital Accra between September and November 2010 where data, in the form of inter alia interviews with Ghanaian university students, was collected. The underlying aim for the study is to gain a deeper understanding for the many times troublesome nation-building process in the African context. The thesis' objective then is to gain a deeper understanding of a part of the "successful" Ghanaian nation-building process and the national identification in Ghana via the concept of national self-images: the affective and cognitive views of the own nation and people. The Ghanaian national identification is explored via the concept which here is divided into two wide dimensions (the Temporal and Relational - primarily based on the works by Bo Petersson and Noel Kaplowitz) and the data is then organised and analysed according to these. The national self-images are further divided into positive respective negative images with presumably disitnct influences on national and political stability. The result from this study is is that the interviewed university students hold predominantely positive images of their own nation, people and polity which may indicate a continued support for the nation-building process. Howeer also osome negative images exist which could hold the potential threat of weakening the support and trust for the national project among the students.

In this research, our participants were asked five questions: Do gay and lesbian people fit into Chinese society? Are Chinese university students open and tolerant on gay and lesbian issues? How do these students perceive their gay and lesbian peers? How do their beliefs affect their attitudes toward their gay and lesbian peers? Is their university a safe and welcoming place for gay and lesbian students? To answer these questions, a qualitative methodology was employed involving six one-on-one interviews and two focus group interviews. <p>The participants did not believe that gay and lesbian people fit into Chinese society; however, the students themselves are becoming more open and tolerant on gay and lesbian issues in recent years because of the influence of technological innovation, media, and Western culture. <p>The findings suggest a degree of acceptance of gays and lesbians though the participants simultaneously distanced themselves from their homosexual peers. They perceived the university to be a safe place for gay and lesbian students in the sense that nobody would hurt them, but they did not see the university as a welcoming place. <p>To better understand the students perspectives, the transcripts were analyzed within a Chinese cultural and social context. Offering a realistic picture of heterosexual students perspectives might encourage them to reduce discrimination against their gay and lesbian peers, and to create a better learning environment for both heterosexual and homosexual students.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1930. / Vita. Published also as Teachers college. Columbia university. Contributions to education, no. 437. Bibliography: p. 62-66.

Math difficulties (MD) are nearly as common as difficulties with reading. Despite this, MDs have received much less attention from researchers and we have yet to define a core cognitive process for MD. Knowledge about a core cognitive process would assist with early identification and remediation of MDs. Working memory has been identified as one cognitive process that is strongly associated with math difficulties. Most research examining the association between working memory and math calculation skills has been predicated on Baddeley and Hitch’s (1974) multicomponent model of working memory. Results of studies are inconclusive with respect to which component of Baddeley and Hitch’s model is most associated with math calculation skills. The wide variety of tasks that have been used to measure the components of Baddeley and Hitch’s model may be one reason for the lack of consistent findings. In the Introduction, common tasks used to measure the components of Baddeley and Hitch’s model are described and discussed. The Automated Working Memory Assessment Battery (AWMA) is suggested as a measure that adequately assesses all components of Baddeley and Hitch’s model. The AWMA was used in two studies examining the role of the components of working memory in math calculation skill in elementary-school (Study 1) and university (Study 2) students. Participants in Study 1were 94 (42 female) elementary-school children (M age = 9 years 1 month; Range 6 years 0 months – 11 years 8 months). Participants in Study 2 were 42 university students (M age 20 years 9 months; Range 18 years 6 months to 22 years 11 months). In both studies, the visuospatial sketchpad (short-term visuospatial memory) emerged as the component of working memory that explained the most variance in math calculation scores. In elementary-school children, phonological processing was also important. Evidence points to a developmental path emphasizing both verbal and visuospatial skills in math calculation skills of younger children and a more specific role for visuospatial memory in adults (university students). Explicit instruction using visuospatial strategies in the teaching of math calculation skills will be important at all ages.