This study focused on elementary-aged children’s preferences for and perceptions about narrative and expository text. Preference refers to the children’s choice of reading material for themselves, what they prefer to read. Perception refers to the children’s beliefs about what their same-aged peers would like to read. The current study examined these preferences and perceptions about narrative and expository text through the lens of two distinct frameworks – social constructivism and engaged reading. The current study was a systematic replication and extension of a qualitative study conducted by Chapman, Filipenko, McTavish, and Shapiro (2007). It replicated the original study by conducting it with first grade students, and extended the original study by including fourth grade students. Equal numbers of children in the study were represented at three reading achievement levels (above, on, and below grade level). Two individually administered book preference (Open and Closed) tasks and interviews were administered and analyzed to determine elementary-aged children’s genre preferences and perceptions about narrative and expository text. Qualitative research methods were used to glean an understanding of primary and intermediate students’ preferences and perceptions. The findings suggest that first and fourth grade boys preferred expository text while first and fourth grade girls demonstrated an equal preference for both narrative and expository genres for themselves. At both grade levels, both boys and girls held the perception that boys like expository text and girls like narrative text. There were no differences in terms of preferences or perceptions of both genres among children of different reading achievement levels. There were gender and grade level differences in the number of reasons provided for their book choices with girls providing more reasons than boys and fourth graders providing more reasons than first graders. However, there were not marked differences in the reasons they provided for their choices. Findings are discussed in light of implications for instruction, assessment, and future research.

While our schools across the United States evidently are witnessing an influx of students from diverse backgrounds, the need to address the issue of diversity among public school teachers is critical for inclusive and equitable schools. The purpose of this study was to explore and analyze Texas secondary agricultural education teachers' attitudes toward diversity inclusion in Texas secondary agricultural education programs. Using a web-based questionnaire, the researcher employed a nonproportional stratified random sampling technique, and 232 secondary agricultural education teachers participated in the study. Descriptive statistics were used for reporting the demographic and personal characteristics of respondents. Mean scores were used to assess teachers' perceptions of the benefits of diversity inclusion, perceptions of the barriers of diversity inclusion, and perceptions of proposed solutions to increase diversity inclusion in Texas secondary agricultural education programs. The sample consisted of 170 males and 45 females. The ethnic distribution of the sample was 90.5% White/European American, 6.2% Hispanic/Latino American, 1.9% Native American, 0.9% African American, and 0.5% Asian American. Respondents agreed that secondary agricultural education programs can benefit students of color and students with disabilities. Respondents also agreed that some of the barriers that prevent diversity inclusion in agricultural education include the lack of information about agricultural education, negative parental attitudes about agricultural education, and not being accepted by peers. Respondents indicated that the following is needed for all students to achieve in school: (a) educators, parents, and policymakers must develop strategies to address the different learning styles of all students; (b) agricultural educators should encourage and strive to increase students? of color membership in FFA; (c) teachers should become familiar with students of color represented in their classrooms in order to promote an atmosphere of acceptance and cooperation; and (d) agricultural educators should increase recruitment efforts to promote diversity inclusion must occur. The study also indicated that statistically significant differences in means scores existed based upon certain personal characteristics in regards to the Benefits, Barriers, and Solutions scales.

Mobbning kan leda till långvariga psykosociala, psykiatriska och psykosomatiska problem och sker vanligtvis under skoltid. Tidigare studier har visat att elever och lärare kan bedöma mobbning olika beroende på mobbningsform. Hur individen bedömer situationer är beroende av en mängd kognitiva processer och synen på vad som är mobbning bidrar till om man ingriper eller inte. En surveyundersökning genomfördes på 268 högstadieelever och 70 lärare. En enkät beskrivande olika mobbningssituationer utformades i syftet att se om det fanns skillnader i dessa gruppers bedömning av olika former av mobbning. Resultatet visade att lärare, särskilt äldre lärare, bedömde samtliga mobbningsformer mer som mobbning än eleverna. Eleverna bedömde fysisk mobbning mer som mobbning än övriga mobbningsformer. Mobbningssituationer innehållande flera aktiva angripare sågs mer som mobbning än situationer med en aktiv angripare. Kognitiva processer vilar på individens kunskap, föreställningar, förväntningar och mål, något som kan bidra till elevers och lärares olika bedömning av mobbning.

Over the years criminal prosecutions regarding HIV transmission have increased in Canada. There is ongoing debate within the academic and legal community regarding whether reactive, criminal justice measures or preventative, harm reduction measures are best suited to address HIV transmission. Using an on-line survey and multiple logistical regression analyses on six vignettes on 316 undergraduate students from mostly 18-26 years of age, this research assessed student attitudes towards the criminal law as a response to HIV transmission against demographic, experiential and attitudinal predictors. The findings indicated that the majority of participants were in favour of the criminalization of HIV transmission. The policy implications that come from this study imply that there is a need to educate young people about HIV related issues and the harm criminal justice responses cause to HIV prevention efforts. / UOIT

Mentoring has been proposed as a human resource strategy to encourage recruitment and retention of nurses in Canada. However, very little research exists related to mentoring in nursing. The purpose of this study was to describe the mentoring perceptions of acute care, clinical registered nurses based on their years of nursing practice, age, gender, and education level. A descriptive correlational design was performed on an analysis of a subset of the pre-workshop data gathered as part of the research of Ferguson, Myrick, and Yonge (2006). The conceptual framework used to structure the research questions was Benners Novice to Expert model (Benner, 1984; Benner, Tanner, & Chesla, 1996). The main research question related to the relationship between nursing experience level and mentoring perceptions. More specifically, what is the relationship between age, years of nursing practice, education level, gender, and mentoring perceptions including perceived costs and benefits to mentoring, willingness to mentor, mentoring functions of coworkers, and satisfaction with current mentoring relationships? This research established that age, years of nursing practice on the current unit, and education level had some impact on mentoring perceptions. Older nurses believed that the mentor played a greater psychosocial function in the mentorship than did younger nurses. Nurses with fewer years of practice on their current unit perceived fewer costs to mentoring, were more satisfied with their mentor, and were more willing to mentor. Previous experience as a protégé positively impacted mentoring perceptions. Nurses with prior mentoring experience were more willing to mentor. There were no significant differences between nurses with diplomas or degrees as their basic or highest level of education in nursing and mentoring perceptions. Nurses with a baccalaureate degree in another discipline perceived more benefits to mentoring than their diploma-prepared colleagues. No significant differences were noted when comparing gender with mentoring perceptions. The results of this study will provide healthcare organizations with a deeper understanding of mentoring perceptions and mentorships. From the knowledge acquired by this study, organizations can better encourage and endorse formal and informal mentoring in acute care environments. Retention and recruitment of registered nurses can be facilitated through support for mentoring.

Historically, children with disabilities have been perceived as sources of stress, and disability has been portrayed in Western society as a tragedy to be avoided. This study used Appreciative Inquiry methodology and an integrated conceptual framework combining the Dynamic Ecological Systems Model, Cognitive Adaptation Theory, and components of the Affirmative Model of Disability. Qualitative interviews were conducted with ten children and sixteen parents to gain insight into their perceptions of the positive effects that a child with a disability has on the family. Findings suggest that children with disabilities can have some of the same positive effects on, and make some of the same contributions to, their families as any other child. They can also have unique positive effects and make unique contributions potentially unparalleled by their non-disabled peers. These findings may have implications for how disability is perceived by medical professionals, parents raising children with disabilities, and the public. / May 2009

This thesis focuses on perceptions of butch privilege in the undergraduate student body at Georgia State University. Butch privilege is similar to traditional definitions of privilege, whether male, white or heterosexual. I define it as the unearned and unacknowledged privilege experienced by a butch lesbian (perceived or self-identified) due to her occupation of masculinity. In order to investigate this topic, an exploratory quantitative analysis of how perceptions of masculinity and status are associated with butch privilege was conducted. A survey consisting of questions regarding participants’ perceptions of how differential privileges are extended to masculine and feminine looking women were presented to undergraduate students during introductory sociology classes. I found that the privileges traditionally reserved for white males in society are perceived to be extended to white butch lesbians due to their occupation of masculinity.

Despite the critical role teachers play in the management and reduction of bullying in schools (Craig, Henderson, & Murphy, 2000; Frey, Jones, Hirschstein, & Edstrom, 2011; Nicolaides, Toda, & Smith, 2002), minimal research has been conducted examining teachers’ responses to these negative behaviors (Bauman & Hurley, 2005; Marshall, Varjas, Meyers, Graybill, & Skoczylas, 2009; Sairanen & Pfeffer, 2011; Yoon & Kerber, 2003). Moreover, a critical topic lacking in the literature is the identification of potential barriers (e.g., difficulty identifying bullying, lack of time to address these behaviors) inhibiting teachers from successful intervention. The purpose of this exploratory study was to assess teachers’ perceived barriers to effective bullying intervention, as well as to examine potential relationships between how teachers reported responding to bullying and perceived barriers to successful intervention. Individual in-depth qualitative interviews with 30 fourth through eighth grade teachers were used to determine teachers’ responses and perceived barriers to bullying interventions. Inductive and deductive approaches to data analysis (LeCompte & Schensul, 1999; Nastasi & Schensul, 2005; Varjas, Nastasi, Moore, & Jayasena, 2005) were used to explore teachers’ self-reported barriers. Teachers described the presence of numerous barriers that challenged their ability to consistently and effectively respond to bullying. Qualitative results indicated that these barriers occurred on multiple levels and included the following four major themes: student-, teacher-, school- and sociocultural-based barriers. Further, quantitative analyses were used to investigate potential relationships between teachers’ self-reported responses to bullying and perceived barriers. No systematic relationships were evident. That is, teachers reported responding to bullying similarly regardless of their perceived barriers to effective intervention. Implications for improving and informing anti-bullying efforts aimed at eliminating these barriers and increasing the likelihood of teacher intervention are discussed. Future research ideas also are suggested.

Retail shelves acts as extrinsic cues which influence consumers’ perceptions and facilitates them in their purchase dilemma. This study is about determining any possible association between vertical shelf levels and consumers’ perception of values. The assumption that consumers perceive a product at higher place as of higher value (quality) was analyzed by means of primary data and further explained by cue utilization theory. The research attempts to quantify values (extrinsic cue effect) by means of prices of the products. Here, both shelf levels and price are considered as extrinsic cues. In other words, this research analyzed the influence of one extrinsic cue on the other and thus how this affects consumer perception of the product’s value. For this purpose, a primary research was conducted involving consumer group of Swedish people (N=90) and price data was collected for three products placing at different shelf levels. Results from the questionnaire were analyzed by means of one way ANOVA test. The results disapproved hypothesis that was tested yet showed a positive trend for one the value product e.g., coffee. On the basis of result, it can be deduced that further research with different experimental techniques could be applied on the same subject matter to bring more accurate results.

Mentoring has been proposed as a human resource strategy to encourage recruitment and retention of nurses in Canada. However, very little research exists related to mentoring in nursing. The purpose of this study was to describe the mentoring perceptions of acute care, clinical registered nurses based on their years of nursing practice, age, gender, and education level. A descriptive correlational design was performed on an analysis of a subset of the pre-workshop data gathered as part of the research of Ferguson, Myrick, and Yonge (2006). The conceptual framework used to structure the research questions was Benners Novice to Expert model (Benner, 1984; Benner, Tanner, & Chesla, 1996). The main research question related to the relationship between nursing experience level and mentoring perceptions. More specifically, what is the relationship between age, years of nursing practice, education level, gender, and mentoring perceptions including perceived costs and benefits to mentoring, willingness to mentor, mentoring functions of coworkers, and satisfaction with current mentoring relationships? This research established that age, years of nursing practice on the current unit, and education level had some impact on mentoring perceptions. Older nurses believed that the mentor played a greater psychosocial function in the mentorship than did younger nurses. Nurses with fewer years of practice on their current unit perceived fewer costs to mentoring, were more satisfied with their mentor, and were more willing to mentor. Previous experience as a protégé positively impacted mentoring perceptions. Nurses with prior mentoring experience were more willing to mentor. There were no significant differences between nurses with diplomas or degrees as their basic or highest level of education in nursing and mentoring perceptions. Nurses with a baccalaureate degree in another discipline perceived more benefits to mentoring than their diploma-prepared colleagues. No significant differences were noted when comparing gender with mentoring perceptions. The results of this study will provide healthcare organizations with a deeper understanding of mentoring perceptions and mentorships. From the knowledge acquired by this study, organizations can better encourage and endorse formal and informal mentoring in acute care environments. Retention and recruitment of registered nurses can be facilitated through support for mentoring.