published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

Traditional psychological research on resilience has focused on individual traits and abilities and minimized the role of cultural and socio-political contexts in its analyses. In this tapestry, I use a narrative framework to learn about ten Vietnamese refugee youths, who have received university scholarships to attend university, but whose life chances would otherwise be considered, at high risk of failure because of their race, ethnic, and income status. I also interviewed their parents. Their narratives are discussed in the light of historical, cultural and social contexts in which they live and learn. In reporting the students' life stories, I use the concepts of "dance of life " that takes place within a context of shared human stories. The parents' endurance, struggles, and hopes accumulated over generations, become a story of collective resiliency. This story provides the informative thread for a collaborative weaving of the students' "dance of life" in which the children's individual responsibility for their academic (achievements. For the refugees academic resilience is a pervasive individual and collective experience, rooted in the distortions of social relations and the disruptions of community life that are the product of an oppressive society. Resiliency becomes the common "process" of participation open to all individuals, and conjoins deep personal meaning and shared common purpose. Thus, academic achievement is seen by the refugees as an effective instrument of empowerment and liberation for the entire family, community, and the hope for the future The self as narrated by these students orchestrates a dance between and among themselves within a family, a community, and across generations. The students' achievement is motivated by a debt of love and gratitude to those members of the family achievement is motivated by a debt of love and gratitude to those members of the family and the community to which they belong. Students stated that through their own efforts and the "right attitudes" they could reach their goals in school and break down the barriers of discrimination. They reported growing closer and more emotionally dependent on their parents over time. They struggled more with how to have and maintain satisfying peer relationships without becoming independent from their parents. This study opens a door to the discussion of socio-cultural perspectives that may partially explain previously reported outcomes of high achievement among Vietnamese refugee youths, despite their humble origins and their parents' low level of in come and education.

D.Ed. / The objective of this study is to explore and describe the viewpoints of rural black secondary school principals concerning their leadership responsibilities with regard to the prevention of dropout; to develop strategies for secondary school principals with regard to their leadership role in preventing school dropout and to describe guidelines for the implementation of the strategies

Traditional psychological research on resilience has focused on individual traits and abilities and minimized the role of cultural and socio-political contexts in its analyses. In this tapestry, I use a narrative framework to learn about ten Vietnamese refugee youths, who have received university scholarships to attend university, but whose life chances would otherwise be considered, at high risk of failure because of their race, ethnic, and income status. I also interviewed their parents. Their narratives are discussed in the light of historical, cultural and social contexts in which they live and learn. In reporting the students' life stories, I use the concepts of "dance of life " that takes place within a context of shared human stories. The parents' endurance, struggles, and hopes accumulated over generations, become a story of collective resiliency. This story provides the informative thread for a collaborative weaving of the students' "dance of life" in which the children's individual responsibility for their academic (achievements. For the refugees academic resilience is a pervasive individual and collective experience, rooted in the distortions of social relations and the disruptions of community life that are the product of an oppressive society. Resiliency becomes the common "process" of participation open to all individuals, and conjoins deep personal meaning and shared common purpose. Thus, academic achievement is seen by the refugees as an effective instrument of empowerment and liberation for the entire family, community, and the hope for the future The self as narrated by these students orchestrates a dance between and among themselves within a family, a community, and across generations. The students' achievement is motivated by a debt of love and gratitude to those members of the family achievement is motivated by a debt of love and gratitude to those members of the family and the community to which they belong. Students stated that through their own efforts and the "right attitudes" they could reach their goals in school and break down the barriers of discrimination. They reported growing closer and more emotionally dependent on their parents over time. They struggled more with how to have and maintain satisfying peer relationships without becoming independent from their parents. This study opens a door to the discussion of socio-cultural perspectives that may partially explain previously reported outcomes of high achievement among Vietnamese refugee youths, despite their humble origins and their parents' low level of in come and education. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

The expectation of graduating nurses today is to be knowledgeable and responsive to rapidly changing technology in the health care environment. Although federal mandates, Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommendations, and nursing program accreditation initiatives are pushing an "informatics" healthcare agenda by promoting the implementation of electronic health record (EHR) systems by 2014 in all healthcare facilities, very few US nursing schools provide students with access and training in, EHR systems. In addition, nursing faculty may not have a clear understanding of healthcare informatics; the use of information and technology to communicate, manage knowledge, mitigate error, and support decision-making. Nursing education must address faculty issues related to this innovative paradigm in order to keep pace and participate as co-creators of relevant informatics technology curriculum that prepares graduates for real life workforce. Understanding the challenges, concerns, and successes in implementing informatics may help nurse educators as they develop curriculum and teach in this environment. This case study explores and describes, with nursing faculty of a small liberal arts college, faculty knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) as they participate in an action research framed curriculum development program for informatics academic EHR (AEHR) integration. The research question:What is the experience of nursing educators and nursing faculty members involved in the integration of an AEHR project framed in the Learning by Developing model at a small liberal arts college school of nursing? Significant insights as participants in the study influenced nurse educators' ideas regarding collaborative curricular design, meaningful assignments, and the importance of feedback.

The purpose of this research was to test a strategy which uses music-related concepts to teach math. A quasi-experimental study of two high school remedial geometry sections was conducted during a review lesson of ratio, proportion, and cross multiplication. A pretest was given to both groups. Then, Group A received normal textbook instruction while Group B received the treatment, Get the Math in Music, which is an online activity involving proportional reasoning in a music-related context. Afterwards, a posttest was given to both groups. Pretest and posttest scores were used to compare gains in subject knowledge between the groups. Then a second evaluation of the treatment was conducted. Group A received the treatment and took a post-posttest. Score gains for Group A before and after receiving the treatment were compared. After these tests, all participants took a survey to determine if their appreciation of math grew as a result of the treatment. Finally, interviews were conducted to provide better understanding of the results. The research questions of this study were: to what extent does the integration of Get the Math in Music improve students' academic performance in a remedial geometry review of ratio, proportion, and cross multiplication, and to what extent does participation in the Get the Math activity improve students' attitudes towards math? My hypotheses were that students would perform significantly better on a subject knowledge test after receiving the treatment, and that all students would have a more positive attitude towards math after receiving the treatment. Quantitative results did not triangulate to support or refute these hypotheses. Greater improvement from pretest to posttest was statistically correlated with Group B, which was the group first receiving the treatment. But later, between posttest and post-posttest Group A did not show statistically significant greater gains after receiving the treatment. Surveys results showed that students did not necessarily like math any more after the treatment. Interviews revealed that several of these students were apathetic to geometry in particular, if not to math in general. The case of one student's improvement suggested that positive teacher-student relationships are more effective than any particular method to increase academic performance and student engagement. Survey results were consistent with earlier psychological studies claiming teenagers care about music. Additional studies in the future on the merits of using music to teach high school math would be useful. Claims that proportional reasoning is challenging were supported. It would be beneficial to evaluate the treatment in an Algebra or Pre-Algebra setting when students first study proportions.

This action research study investigated the feasibility of a novice teacher using concept maps as assessments in secondary science classes. The subjects in this study were the researcher, a novice pre-service science teacher, and students (n=35) in two classes of mixed-grade Foundations in Physics and Chemistry. This study tracked student and teacher experiences over an instructional unit in astronomy. All students received a 50-minute lesson on concept mapping, one class received three additional concept mapping lessons during the unit, then all students took a unit test with a paired short answer and concept map question. Student surveys were conducted to gather student feedback, and teacher reflective journaling was used to track teacher data. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results indicated that the extra concept mapping lessons did not result in higher scores on the concept maps or the paired short answer responses. The teacher journaling revealed that using concept mapping as an assessment tool was possible for a novice teacher. Advantages and barriers were identified.