<p> As the political and economic landscape of the United States shifts in coming years, American society&rsquo;s perception of the arts will likely change as well. Arts advocates must be ready to adapt their arguments for arts&rsquo; value to changing societal priorities. This paper summarizes the two leading frameworks for current arts advocacy arguments: extrinsic benefits and intrinsic benefits. The paper then introduces practical benefits, a pragmatic third framework for arts advocacy that focuses on skills gained through the creation of collaborative art that prepare participants for careers in the creative class, as defined by Richard Florida. The paper uses student-run theatre organizations on college campuses as incubators and case studies for these benefits, using original ethnographic research and surveys to develop assessment protocols for these benefits, with the intention of growing their applicability to larger and more varied arts organizations.</p>

<p> Ideally, undergraduates view their elective courses in general education curriculums as having value. Unfortunately, scant research exists on the value of theatre arts appreciation courses. This study addressed that void through hermeneutical exploration of experiences of a purposeful sample of seven students enrolled in theatre arts appreciation courses. Two research questions guided this study: &ldquo;For undergraduate students taking a general education theatre arts appreciation elective, what experience(s) allowed the course to transcend from perfunctory to inspirational?&rdquo; and &ldquo;To what degree did taking a general education theatre arts appreciation elective impact the students&rsquo; perception of their overall higher education experience?&rdquo; Methodologically, hermeneutic phenomenology was used to uncover data through conversational interviews with undergraduates. The works of Nakkula and Ravitch (1998), Seidman (2006), and Van Manen (1990) provided a foundation for data collection and analysis. </p><p> The findings of the study are represented through a one-act play to (re)present educational research that &ldquo;bring[s] the text to life in ways that the reading of it could not&rdquo; (Bagley &amp; Cancienne, 2002, p. 7) and to treat research participants as more than just &ldquo;text to be read or interpreted&rdquo; (Moustakas, 1994, p. 19). Profiles of the seven subjects were created to allow the reader to become more familiar and engaged with the participants. From the words and conversations of those participants, I amalgamated four characters, with a fifth, the facilitator, serving as the researcher&rsquo;s voice. </p><p> The results of this study suggest that students entered passively into their theatre arts appreciation course, engaged with it through discussions with students and the professor, and came out with the trajectory of their life changed. The findings suggest that becoming life-ready is a phenomenon that occurs when seemingly nonengaged or passive students enroll in a course that is broad, detailed, and subjective enough to allow them to transcend their world visions. This qualitative study offers insight into students&rsquo; thinking and feelings and contributes to the overall conversation and assessment of higher education elective courses in performing arts and the unique contributions they offer undergraduates. Based on these findings, conclusions and recommendations are offered.</p>

<p> Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) experience impairment in social cognition, which contributes to a variety of challenges for individuals with ASD, including elevated risks of loneliness, depression and anxiety. For this reason, various interventions have been developed to improve social ability in ASD populations. However, many existing interventions lack strong research support, or are inaccessible to many individuals with ASD due to high financial cost. Therefore, a need exists for affordable, effective psychosocial interventions for ASD that are widely accessible. One potential intervention is improvisational theater training (improv). Improv training for youth and young adults with ASD is already provided at multiple theaters across the US, and the current study collected information on one such program, measuring change in participant ratings of social ability, depression, anxiety, loneliness, and growth mindset as a result of participation. Participants reported a significant reduction in their perceptions of nervousness and being left out after completing the improv theater training, suggesting that improv theater decreases nervousness and feelings of exclusion among individuals with ASD. Participants also reported a significant increase in their perception of lacking companionship, suggesting that improv theater increases participant desire for companionship among individuals with ASD. Reliable Change Index analysis suggests that younger participants, male participants, and participants with greater social impairment were more likely to evidence reliable change as a result of improv theater training. Finally, positive correlations were found between social impairment and ratings of depression and loneliness and negative correlations were found between growth mindset and ratings of depression and loneliness. These findings provide preliminary evidence that suggests improvisational theater may be an effective intervention for reducing anxiety and nervousness among individuals with ASD.</p><p>

The thesis consists of five papers: three deal with the efficiency of higher education institutions (HEI) and two with entrepreneurship among university graduates. The efficiency of HEIs is analyzed at three different levels: units of one university, universities of one country and universities of a group of European countries. Using data envelopment analysis (DEA) the first paper compares technical efficiency among university units at the Royal Institute of Technology (Stockholm). An interesting result is that there seems to be a complementary relationship between efficiency of resource utilization in teaching and in research. The second paper applies stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) to estimate the cost efficiency of Swedish higher education institutions. According to the estimates, half of the Swedish HEIs have an above average efficiency of 85 percent. The efficiency differences are mainly influenced by the source of funding, HEI size, the number of students per faculty as well as faculty and student compositions. The third paper analyses the cost efficiency of universities among a set of public higher education institutions from six European countries by means of stochastic frontier techniques. The results suggest small variation in the mean economic efficiency of higher education institutions from UK, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Switzerland, implying that the efficiency differences are not explained by country effects. Instead the variations in efficiency are related to organizational differences. The two essays on entrepreneurship among university graduates are based on a unique dataset encompassing individual level data on all employees registered in the Swedish labor market. The first paper explores the differences in entrepreneurial choice of graduates from different universities. The main finding from this paper is that the entrepreneurial choice of graduates from internationally ranked Swedish universities systematically differs from others with the difference varying by the area of education. The second paper on entrepreneurship aims at explaining the high interest in entrepreneurship among arts graduates and finds that the need for self-expression is among the main motivations for their high interest in entrepreneurship. / <p>QC 20130107</p>

<p> Organizations spend billions of dollars on information and data security, and most of this expenditure is directed externally; however, there is ample evidence in the literature that employees account for most security breaches. For information security (IS) measures to work, employees need to adopt the organization&rsquo;s information system security measures. To understand employees&rsquo; adoption of security systems in the manufacturing industry in the US, this empirical study tested the extended Technology Acceptance model and Theory of Planned behavior in relation to employees&rsquo; perceptions of the IS measures usefulness, ease of use, and subjective norms and how these perceptions predicted their intention to use the security measures. Additionally, under investigation was whether age and employees&rsquo; perception of managerial support moderated the aforementioned perceptions to affect employees&rsquo; intention to use the security measures. Results of a standard multiple regression and a hierarchical regression indicated that the TAM and the TBP explained variances in the DV; however, contrary to extant literature, employees&rsquo; perceived usefulness of IS measures did not statistically significantly predict their intention to use IS measures. Implications of these findings are discussed, as well as recommendations for future research.</p>

<p> This dissertation reports on a study of two widely used eleventh grade ELA textbooks for the opportunities they provide students to construct knowledge through writing. Data included every writing task in both textbooks (158 tasks) as well as the corresponding texts. Data analysis focused on (a) how cognitive demand, textual grist, and elaborated communication contribute to the rigor of a writing task, (b) how authentic the tasks are to the discipline of ELA, and (c) how writing tasks position students as intellectual authorities. This study contributes a new approach to determine the quality of ELA writing tasks and a detailed assessment of the writing tasks in the most widely used ELA textbooks. The findings from this study showed differences in the quality of ELA writing tasks types (text-based, non text-based, and creative writing), with text-based tasks ranking the highest quality for cognitively demanding work. Findings also showed that textual grist and opportunities for elaboration in addition to cognitive demand are essential factors when determining the overall rigor of text-based writing tasks (i.e., analyzing text-based ELA writing tasks for cognitive demand alone may inflate the rigor of the task). Further findings on writing task quality describe the level of disciplinary authenticity and intellectual authority contained in ELA textbook writing tasks and why these features are important in determining the quality of ELA writing tasks. The findings from this study suggest the importance of using a disciplinary-specific theory of task quality, including a three-part model of rigor, disciplinary authenticity, and intellectual authority, to assess the quality of ELA writing tasks. Additionally, this study provides suggestions for practitioners including how teachers might revise and supplement ELA textbook writing tasks in order to support student writing.</p>

The aim of this study is to bring forward four teachers of Arts-education, their statements and reasoning concerning the condition and meaning of the subject of Arts-education along with their statements in relation to theory and earlier research, give voice and insight in their intentions according to what teaching of Arts-education should contribute to. The basis for the study is brought out of the dilemma that there, in the subject of Artseducation is “crowding of matter” in the nine-year compulsory school, difficulties in selecting the importance of various subjects and different opinions between teachers, due to curriculum being modified in accordance with the development in society. The earlier research that this study relates to shows how teacher’s opinion of different subjects varies. My questions concerning the subject are the following; How do four teachers of Arts-education reason concerning the condition and meaning of the subject of Arts-education? What are the teachers intentions according to what teaching of Arts-education should contribute to? What are the similarities and differences between the statements of the teachers in this study versus the teachers' statements according to previous research? To find answers on my issues and questions I have made interviews with four teachers of Arts-education and have then put their reasoning and statements against theories , which  all concerns the creative process. This study shows that these four teachers all have different opinions in how to educate, but not different opinions about what the results of  the subject should be and contribute to. Common to all four teachers is, out of their statements, more or less, it is possible to interpret discussion around the importance of the role of creativity for Arts-education. Three of the teachers also have a discussion in how they relate to modern society, similarities and differences, but also how they expand on a problematic issue. There are among the four teachers of Arts-education, in their reasoning, many similarities in what teachers according to earlier research, have said they value in the subject of Arts-education along with their intentions of education. There are also differences from earlier studies, and that is the fact that there are subtle distinctions in the discussion within the actual problem area. This could contribute with hypothetical knowledge to future research within the actual problem area. In statements from two of the teachers a new aspect arose, an aspect that has not been seen in earlier research, “way of thinking creative” and its meaning.

<p> This work explores the occurrence of school sponsored rock music ensembles and pedagogy in secondary education within the state of New Jersey. The purpose of this research was three&ndash;fold: 1) to document the occurrence of rock music performance ensembles in New Jersey secondary schools, 2) to highlight the details of a select group representing a sample of these programs, and 3) to contribute to the body of knowledge relating to rock music in the school curriculum. A two part, mixed&ndash;methods research process involved the use of both a quantitative survey instrument and a qualitative interview process. The part one survey was distributed to 720 public secondary schools across the state of New Jersey. Questions were written to seek data regarding school population, budget, types of music programs available to students, regional classifications, and enrollment. Based on survey data, five programs, in which students learn and perform rock music using authentic rock music instrumentation, were selected for part two faculty interviews. These interviews uncovered reasons for the existence of these programs (i.e. teacher and student interest), information about student participation, instrumentation, relationships to the other music programs within the school, intended outcomes, measures of success, and the existence of authentic learning, informal learning practices, and the concept of bi&ndash;musicality.</p>

<p>It?s Something About the Shoes: A Creative Thesis through Practice is an in depth, project-based study that follows the development and implementation of an intercultural and interdisciplinary collaboration. This paper illustrates how the Practice-led Research paradigm, when coupled with the Expressive Arts, can promote empowerment and transformation for all participants including audience members. Artistic practices and rehearsals realized through performance and analyzed through constant participant reflection constitute the research data. It?s Something About the Shoes is composed of a live performance installation that includes multimedia video sculptures, still images, and pre-recorded sound, all designed around the living exchange between a contemporary tap dancer and the indigenous Danza CAAS dancers. The inquiry lies in the dance shoes. What is it about these shoes that allows the dancers to connect and communicate? How can two very different dance genres and ontological cultures exist simultaneously within a space? What does a show about a tap dancer and traditional Sonajera dancers look like; how will the different cultures interact in this space? Will the common thread of percussive dance transcend cultural and language barriers or will the resulting rhythmic dialogue be too oblique for the dancers and audience to follow? In order to understand the foundational context in which this work is created, a Literature Review is provided that: defines Practice-led Research and the methods to be used in this study, acknowledges a brief historical review of tap dancing with particular emphasis placed on Hispanic and Native influences, and a metaphysical examination of the ecological intersection of performance, place and space. The literature is divided up into complete subsections or articles so that readers may access particular areas of interest with ease. Individual subsections of the Literature Review are composed of review, analysis, and application of literature sources complete with separate bibliographies for quick reference. All Reference Lists are also compiled into a complete Works Cited at the end of the thesis document. Methods used to address inquiries and provide structure to the Practice-led model include: Performance Research, Ethnodrama, and Socio-Narratology. Coupled with these ideologies are Organic Inquiry, Emergent Design Theory, and Collaborative Theory, which act as lenses through which the collaborative process and organizational development of the thesis may be viewed clearly and precisely. Together these methods are used to create the content of a performance. Utilizing interviews with co-participants, surveys, constant reflection, and video documentation, these inspirations are organized as a creative thesis. The findings are composed of raw audience data collected through surveys gathered before and after the performances. This, combined with personal reflections of the artist participants illustrate the type of knowing that is revealed through artistic practice and inquiry. The project convener provides the final synthesis and interpretation of data through a reflective narrative.

<p> The rate of playing-related neuromusculoskeletal disorders (PRNDs) in advanced pianists remains consistently high worldwide, often limiting or ending study and playing careers. Injured pianists&mdash;desperate for solutions&mdash;seek out allegedly scientifically-informed approaches to developing injury-preventive technique but none of these approaches have been seriously investigated. This mixed-methods study investigated one interdisciplinary, non-traditional approach (the &ldquo;Method&rdquo;) that had received considerable anecdotal support but had not been studied systematically to ascertain its efficacy in recovering from and preventing recurrence of PRNDs, as well as its effects on technique, musicality, and extra-musical factors. Participants included undergraduate and graduate students, independent piano teachers, college teachers, and professional pianists and organists who had studied the Method for at least two academic semesters between 1990 and 2015. An anonymous survey was administered to 103 pianists and organists aged 22 to 82, with 74 (<i>N</i>=74) pianists responding (71.8%), and 26 pianists and organists were interviewed in-depth. Survey and interview results established that participants perceived the Method as significantly helpful in facilitating recovery from PRNDs. Significance of relationships among codes included correlations of .70 between the code &ldquo;it works&rdquo; and &ldquo;playing without injury,&rdquo; and .66 between &ldquo;it works&rdquo; and &ldquo;playing again.&rdquo; Interviewees also perceived the Method as helpful in preventing recurrence of PRNDs, as shown by the high correlation between the codes &ldquo;will help prevent injuries&rdquo; and &ldquo;learned a lot from studying the Method&rdquo; (.67). A one-sample t-test performed on the survey data also showed a positive perception (p &lt; .001) of the Method in helping recovery from and prevention of recurrence of PRNDs. Additionally, both the survey and interview participants reported improvement of technique and musicality with many also reporting enhancement of their extra-musical lives. A one-sample t-test on the survey data showed these improvements to be significant at a 5% level or better. Research also yielded data on psychological, emotional, and professional challenges to learning the Method, as well as reactions to specific aspects of the Method. It is hoped that the data might serve as a baseline and become a useful model for the investigation of other approaches for teaching injury-preventive piano technique.</p>