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The focus of this study was to provide a comparison of data collected from seventh grade students on food safety knowledge who have been through USDA’s National Integrated Food Safety Initiative program with those seventh grade students who have had no formal school instruction on this topic. Middle school students were specifically targeted because they are more likely to synthesize this information in a way that will lead to the development of new behaviors. The population consisted of seventh grade students at Burchfield, Fairview, Huntsville and Oneida Middle Schools. Burchfield and Huntsville were the two schools used as the comparison group. The following conclusions were based on findings of this study: 1. There were some substantive increases in post-test scores for the treatment group. 2. The treatment group increased in all areas from pre-test to post-test. The areas included: Science Knowledge, Language Arts Knowledge, Math Knowledge, Social Studies Knowledge, Food Handling Skills Knowledge and Food Handling Behaviors Knowledge. 3. The data suggests this interdisciplinary food safety curriculum has made a positive impact on the treatment group. The scores after the program record higher overall than the comparison group scores. 4. The data showed that the treatment group had retained the knowledge, skills and behaviors six weeks after the treatment was administered. 5. Data revealed that the overall mean score for the treatment group pre-test was higher (+7.24) than the post-test score of the comparison group. 6. There was some evidence to suggest that the treatment group had more knowledge than the comparison group before the treatment, except in science, however the gain score afterwards shows the program successful. 7. A comparison of the treatment group and comparison group, revealed an overall increase in the mean score increase of 10.04 points for the treatment group, as an impact of this interdisciplinary food safety program. 8. After going through a one week food safety program, the student’s knowledge, skills and behaviors increased, thus strengthening the evidence that the program had a positive impact on the students.

The way in which humans engage in conversation and social interactions is largely due to their ability to form relationships between a wide variety of stimuli. Two people are able to communicate fluently and effectively because each has the capacity to derive meaning during social interactions. Forming relationships is an effortless process that humans engage in daily, however for those individuals with developmental disabilities, the ability to form relationships between various stimuli based on arbitrary properties does not appear to happen in the natural course of development. The purpose of this study was to assess the ability of children to derive relationships between a set of stimuli following training on Same and Opposite for a subset of the possible relations. Four children participated: 2 typically developing children and 2 age matched children diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome (AS). Two goals of this study were to identify differences in ability to derive across multiple nodal distances, and, if there was consistency in failures at larger nodal distances. Results indicated typically developing children were able to derive relationships at a greater distance and with a quicker rate of acquisition than those diagnosed with AS.

As the evaluation of teachers becomes prominent in the current climate of educational reform, the details of teacher evaluation systems become important. The goal of the research was to gain perspective about a little-studied group key in education reform efforts to improve teacher evaluation--the peer evaluator. Teachers serving as peer evaluators were interviewed to reveal their perceived lived experiences before undertaking the role, benefits and challenges they perceived during the role, and their perception of how the experience will impact their future as educators. Extensive profiles of three peer evaluators were crafted based on in-depth interviews. The themes revealed from phenomenological reduction analysis included Idealism, Non-Collegial Reality, Valued Experience and Residual Optimism. The study found common elements in the backgrounds and interests of the participants, including previous leadership roles and a shared a sense of idealism entering the role. The study also found that participants' perceived expectations of being able to help fellow teachers were not fully met as they progressed in the role. Among the perceived challenges and benefits of being a peer facilitator, the study found that time constraints and dealing with non-receptive teachers were perceived as the most challenging for participants, while they valued seeing a "bigger picture" beyond a single classroom as beneficial. As such, the ability to see the bigger picture, along with being a good time manager and communicating well with teachers were perceived by the participants as being most useful in performing their jobs. Finally, the study found that the participants predominantly found their experiences as peer evaluators to be affirming of their previously held educational perspectives, and that the overall experience would impact their future performance as educators in positive ways.

The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) for social studies are based on critical thinking and literacy skills. These new mandates are expected to lead to curricular and instructional changes within social studies classes. This qualitative study explored how the CCSS might have impacted the curricular and instructional decision-making of middle school social studies teachers and ultimately how the CCSS might affect a teacher’s gatekeeping role. As the CCSS initiative is fairly new, there is little research on the instructional practices being used to support the needs of teachers implementing these new standards in their classrooms as well as the processes, challenges, and successes teachers experience in addressing the CCSS in their classrooms. This study fills the gap of information lodged between a policy mandate and implementation in the classroom by contributing to the literature in the area of social studies education and the types of instruction social studies teachers may use to achieve the goals within the CCSS. Data gleaned from this study demonstrates that the CCSS had an influence on teachers’ instructional and curricular decision-making. CCSS influenced teachers’ decision-making in three domains: teacher beliefs ((individual teacher’s beliefs regarding the CCSS, including his or her personal beliefs regarding the CCSS and self-confidence to teach the skills associated with the CCSS), student assessment (the connection between standardized assessments and the CSSS), and best practices (recommended best practices by CCSS that were already being used in the classroom). As a result, teachers increased the number of the types of instructional strategies that focused on the critical thinking skills advocated by CCSS such as analyzing primary and secondary sources and using evidence from multiple sources to complete a Document Based Question (DBQ). The study also revealed that teachers felt inadequately prepared to fully implement the CCSS in their classrooms due to insufficient teacher education geared to CCSS, resources, and inconsistencies of the focus of the CCSS within participants’ Professional Learning Communities.

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease and nonadherence to medication can lead to new cases, multi-drug resistant TB, or potential death. Additionally, healthcare professionals and individuals with TB’s knowledge of the disease and medication adherence are crucial for successful completion of medication therapy. Patient education is one of the most important aspects of care provided in healthcare settings (CDC, 1994). TB tends to disproportionally affect minority and economically disadvantaged patient populations. The purpose of this mixed method study was to explore the relationship between spirituality, knowledge, and TB medication adherence among African Americans and Haitians. The primary research question was: What is the relationship between spirituality, knowledge and TB medication adherence among African Americans and Haitians? Quantitative data were gathered from 33 questionnaires and analyzed by two ANOVAs and four chi square analyses. The null hypothesis was not rejected; there was not a statistically significant relationship between spirituality and TB medication adherence (p =.208) among the study’s African Americans and Haitians. Qualitative data concerning participants’ knowledge of TB, gathered from 16 individual interviews further informed this analysis. Secondary research questions examined the role of spirituality, knowledge of TB and medication adherence among African Americans and Haitians. Four common themes emerged across both groups to answer the secondary research questions. Interviews revealed the themes: (a) God is in control, (b) stigmatization of TB, (c) lack of knowledge, and (d) fear of death. The theme lack of knowledge about TB was found to contribute to stigmatization of TB patients. However, in this study stigma and lack of knowledge were related to initial denial of symptoms and delayed diagnosis, but not found to be related to TB medication adherence. This study could help adult educators and health educators enhance their educational interventions, develop a better understanding of adult learning, resulting in early diagnosis and treatment ultimately decreasing transmission of TB, drug resistance, and potential death. Educators should be aware that TB patients’ spirituality may be an important part of how they cope with having TB. A larger scale study, conducted at multiple locations should be conducted to extend the findings of this small scale exploratory study. Further studies should be done to better determine what patient, healthcare provider and health care system factors might mediate relationships that may exist between lack of knowledge of TB, stigma and TB medication adherence.

The aim of this qualitative case study was to investigate the process of the enactment of a project-based learning method in an Advanced Placement American Government and Politics course and the effects of contextual factors, the beliefs of the teacher, and environmental factors had on the planning and implementation of PBL-aligned tasks. This study also investigates the experiences and perceptions of students in an Advanced Placement American Government and Politics course that enacted project-based learning. The study was conducted to add to the literature on project-based learning. Research on the steps a teacher takes to enact project-based learning can enhance understanding of the method and provide an increased understanding of implementation. This was a qualitative case study. The research was gathered using narrative inquiry, examination of documents, and observations to investigate teacher enactment of a project-based learning task. Semi-structured video-elicitation interviews, document analysis, and observations were conducted to investigate the experiences and perceptions of students who used project-based learning tasks in an Advanced Placement American Government and Politics class. The research of a teacher enacting project-based learning resulted in the identification of teacher’s beliefs as the foundational element for constructing pedagogy. Through the enactment of project-based learning, three themes emerged: the need for communication, alignment of tasks to key concepts, and flexibility. The perceptions of students in an Advanced Placement American Government and Politics course confirmed the importance of student choice, the value of collaborative and social learning experiences, and the desire to discuss controversial issues.

Within the presiding 2021-2022 school year, approximately fifty-five percent of Western Carolina University’s undergraduate population self-identifies as a first-generation student. Subsequently, a student qualifies as being first-generational when their parent(s) and/or guardian (s) does not complete a four-year college or university degree, resulting in a disproportionate measurement of confidence, adaptability, anxiety, and financial instability with respect to their newfound independence. Accordingly, the following study examines the elements that contribute to the vulnerability of first-generation students housed on college campuses. Evidence has been collected through a combination of formal and informal surveys and interviews with individuals who identify as first generational, as well as residing Emergency Management professionals. Upon analysis, a constructed proposal has been established for Disaster Management educators and students of Western Carolina University’s populace to which the institution’s Emergency and Disaster Management Department will further fabricate and promote.

This dissertation is the formulation of an argument for the incorporation of a liberated federalism perspective as the foundational theoretical construct for the teaching and study of American government and civics at the secondary level. The argument asserts that the history of the nation, in terms of its basic view of government, has developed from a traditional federalist view to a natural rights view. Instruction of government and politics has paralleled that development. The argument further asserts that the current dependence on the natural rights perspective has contributed and helped legitimize, however unintentionally, the excessive levels of individualism, self-absorption, and uncivil behavior that is being experienced in our society today. The argumentation follows the dialectic form presented by Hegel of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis. That is, the thesis argues that the traditional federalist perspective would serve as a viable construct for the teaching of government and civics. In this portion of the argument, the republican model of political reality is presented. The antithesis promotes the natural rights perspective and relies on the political systems model for its theoretical approach. Finally, the synthesis argues that a liberated federalism perspective should be the foundational construct. Here, the argument presents its own model as a theoretical construct that is designed to assist teachers and curriculum materials writers in the development of American government and civics lessons and materials.