Within the field of deaf education, a commonly held belief is that the incidence of acts of aggression will decrease as the hearing impaired child's competence in language increases. To examine this relationship, a longitudinal study using file reviews was conducted with a sample of bilaterally deaf males aged 4 to 14 from a residential school. Frequency counts of aggression and scores on the Reading subtest of the Stanford Achievement Test-Hearing Impaired were examined for the school years beginning in 1986, 1987, 1988 by means of a Time Series Analysis. This analysis showed a significant trend in the direction of establishing a correlation between lower levels of aggression and increases in language competence.

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<p> This quantitative research conducted in Southern California validated Lake and Billingsley&rsquo;s (2000) Grounded Theory regarding factors causing conflicts in special education. This study found that discrepant views of a child or child&rsquo;s needs, knowledge, service delivery, constraints, valuation, reciprocal power, communication, and trust, were associated with the perception of conflicts. Generally, the bivariate correlation coefficients indicated that all the predictors were statistically significant except use of power. The regression model evidenced significant association of knowledge, services, valuation, and trust. The comparison of the models for three subgroups of 194 Participants indicated that for parents, service delivery and valuation were significant factors of conflicts. For administrators and service providers, trust was a significant factor of conflicts. There was sufficient evidence to conclude that service delivery, valuation, and trust were associated with conflicts after the partial out of the other constructs. </p>

<p> This dissertation examines the gap in college enrollment between Asian Americans and Latino Americans regarding the effects of family and school factors, classifying them into the six ethnic/generational status groups (Asian American first generation, Asian American second generation, Asian American third generation and plus, Latino American first generation, Latino American second generation, and Latino American third generation and plus). Through logistic regression analysis of the ELS: 2002 data, national longitudinal sample of 10^th graders, the study findings indicate that except for 10^th grade achievement, family plays a more important role in predicting overall college attendance (both 2-year and 4-year colleges), including SES, gender, parental and students&rsquo; expectations, 3^rd generation, and high school type. On the contrary, school plays a more important role in predicting 4-year college attendance, including 10^th grade achievement, academic excellence, participation in extracurricular activities, and English proficiency. Asian Americans are more likely to enroll in overall colleges as well as 4-year colleges, and the generation difference is not found. In contrast, Latino Americans are less likely to enroll in overall colleges as well as 4-year colleges, and there are noticeable generation differences; the low college enrollment rates are largely driven by non-immigrant Latinos. Recommendations for policy makers are provided.</p>

<p> This action research exploratory study sought to learn how to better develop my practice by using grounded theory. It explored the apparent cognitive transformational experience of nine participants over a period of four weeks after the implementation of an intervention called Mindfulness into Action. The informal intervention was used with the Kichwa community in the Amazon rainforest and three additional formal interventions were conducted in the United States, Ecuador, and Norway over six years, in each case supported by higher education institutions. Using grounded theory methodology, the researcher found that participants were in the initial &ldquo;reactive&rdquo; state in Phase 1, experiencing conflict, resistance, stress, and victim identity. These characteristics were unknown to participants who were just reacting to everyday life experiences. In Phase 2, participants became aware of their behaviors, but could not stop non-beneficial behaviors. In Phase 3, they could observe their unknown behaviors and then change their sabotaging behaviors. Other salient characteristics from Phase 3 were happiness, being at peace with themselves, tolerance, and effectiveness. </p><p> There is a tendency to believe that change does not come easily, especially for adults, because our mental models rule our lives (subconsciously). However, participants were all adults from distinct walks of life who observed their unknown assumptions and reported change in their lives and in perceptions of their world. Furthermore, this intervention helped participants manage <i> dissonance</i> in their lives and produce changes specific and relevant to each individual, i.e., adults in the Kichwa community changed their assumptions and got rid of the mining company without violence. Moreover, the students who conducted research in the Amazon rainforest changed their research approach from top-down (doing research on people) to human development co-creation (doing research with people). Lastly, students in the academic institutions changed their way of interacting with their environment and others, and most importantly observed and changed behaviors that were sabotaging their efforts to succeed in life. They overcame their assumption of &ldquo;knowing&rdquo; and became more open to others&rsquo; perspectives. Each change was specific to the individual, resulting in the betterment of their lives.</p>

<p> This thesis draws from developments in Jungian thought, somatic and mindfulness-based therapeutic modalities, and interpersonal neurobiology to examine the cultural layer of the unconscious and the complexes that operate therein in their relevance to clinical work. Using hermeneutic and heuristic methodologies, it argues for the development of awareness in the clinician of culturally rooted complexes as they manifest in the clinical moment, and the importance of recognizing, accepting, and working with the defenses around these complexes. The importance of therapeutic work from a somatic and mindfulness-oriented approach is discussed, drawing from the theory and practice of Hakomi and the Re-Creation of the Self Model of Human Systems, as grounded in interpersonal neurobiology and complementary to aspects of Jungian theory.</p>

<p> Response Interruption and Redirection (RIRD) has been demonstrated to be an effective treatment for stereotypic behavior exhibited by persons with autism spectrum disorder. The present study investigates the applicability of this intervention in the context of the classroom setting. Specifically, it investigates whether or not the intervention is as effective when it is used with a subject in the process of completing complex tasks. This research also investigates collateral effects of reduced stereotypic behavior on productivity and efficiency of task completion. While stereotypy was reduced and productivity increased across three experimental conditions, there were mixed results as to the relationship between RIRD and overall efficiency of task completion. </p>

<p> Employee volunteering and service learning programs both enable large numbers of individuals to work together to address some of the most challenging problems in our world today. A large volume of academic research exists on service learning and much less academic research has been done on employee volunteering; there is very little research that connects these two fields. Student volunteers report developing skills in areas such as problem solving and decision making, the same skills employees require to be successful on their jobs. This inquiry combines lessons from volunteer narratives, input from volunteer professionals, and existing volunteer and service learning theories to create recommendations for improving employee volunteer experiences. </p><p> Narrative method was chosen for this study to capture the lived experiences of the two types of volunteers and their impact on the nonprofits they serve. Three case studies were created from narrative interviews with selected student and employee volunteers, and triangulated by interviews with nonprofit staff. Knowledge gained was crafted into case level and then cross case recommendations. Once developed, these recommendations were validated through a process of progressive analysis. The ultimate objective is to increase participation and improve outcomes for employee volunteers. When employee volunteering is well designed and well managed, the experiences can be beneficial to volunteers, their companies, and their communities.</p>

<p> When considering closing the achievement gap, full-day kindergarten (FDK) is a viable contender. The implementation of specific teacher strategies enhances the FDK experience and elicits gains among the students. The literature clearly articulates a strong correlation between poverty and poor achievement and supports the notion that the relationship between the teacher and student is a positive factor in closing the achievement gap. However, the research is insufficient when it comes to digging deep into teacher perceptions regarding the importance of the relationship that exists between the teacher and the student. The foundation for which this study is built stems from John Bowlby&rsquo;s attachment theory and emphasizes the importance of the relationship between the child and adult. This study provides profound insight into the perceptions of FDK teachers and the strategies, or concepts they believe have the greatest influence on student achievement among students of poverty. The qualitative phenomenological study revealed intimate and personal thoughts of nine FDK teachers discovered through the coding and analysis of 18 semi-structured interview transcripts. Substantial findings exposed four themes with great clarity and obvious patterns. The themes in order of the greatest number of responses to the least, are: classroom atmosphere, instructional strategies, student management, and the relationship between the teacher and the student. </p>

<p> The current study is a replication and extension of Wilson and Ryan (2013), the goal of which study was to reduce the size of the 34-item Professor-Student Rapport Scale via principal components analysis. In light of several shortcomings of their methods, including use of an inadequate sample size, we sought to determine whether or not the two factors were replicable. An exploratory factor analysis conducted using an adequately large sample (>300) failed to replicate the factor structure previously found. Instead, we describe the emergence of two new factors: &ldquo;Professor Cares about Students&rdquo; and &ldquo;Professor Creates an Engaging and Constructive Atmosphere.&rdquo; The new factor-structure exhibited adequate model fit in a confirmatory factor analysis (<i>N</i> > 300) and significantly predicted five of the six student and course outcomes examined through multiple linear regressions (<i>N</i> >= 109 for all regression analyses). Importantly, in addition to methodological improvements, our results appear to have produced two factors &ndash; &ldquo;Professor Cares about Students&rdquo; and &ldquo;Professor Creates an Engaging and Constructive Atmosphere&rdquo; &ndash; that better capture the broader construct of professor-student rapport than did the previously identified factors. Implications of our findings for instructors wishing to establish rapport with their students are discussed, as are directions for future studies and remaining problems for the scale not addressed by the current research (namely, a need for discriminant validity). </p>