Thesis (Ph. D.) University of Missouri-Columbia, 2006. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on August 2, 2007) Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, School of Education, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-04, Section: A, page: 1216. Adviser: Mary B. McMullen. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed May 14, 2007)."

<p> The quality of educators&rsquo; teaching practices is a crucial aspect of children&rsquo;s learning. This is why researchers, policy makers, teacher educators and educational leaders have focused their efforts on developing methods and programs to support educators&rsquo; teaching practices. Although teachers are the ones who actually apply the contents and skills learned in professional development programs, there is little research that considers their perspectives. The purpose of this study was to explore Latina immigrant early childhood teachers&rsquo; professional identity and perspectives about their professional learning and development (PLD) experiences. Data collection consisted on eight in-depth face-to-face interviews with early childhood educators who work in four multicultural Head Starts, and who self-identified as Latina Spanish-speaker. Data analysis was conducted using open and axial coding techniques. The main findings suggest that Latina immigrant teachers share some values, beliefs and experiences that might play a role in shaping their careers, as well as their identities as teachers and learners. Also, the findings suggest that teachers present a positive attitude towards ongoing professional learning. However, they believe that in order to be effective for their learning, PLD programs should include more active, collaborative and contextualized approaches. Additionally, the findings indicate that teachers perceive that their work environments constrain their possibilities to fully exercise their profession.</p><p>

abstract: ABSTRACT A cultural overview of the so-called "early music movement" in Arizona, specifically the musicians who performed early music in the mid-to-late twentieth century, has never been undertaken. In applying ethnographic methods to Western art music, Kay Kaufman Shelemay suggests, in her 2001 article, "Toward an Ethnomusicology of the Early Music Movement," that a musical anthropology "would seem to hold great potential for the study of `Western music.'" In this paper I analyze and discuss issues related to "early music" in Arizona from roughly 1960 to 2008. In focusing primarily on the musicians themselves, I address issues in three primary areas: 1) the repertory and the so-called "early music revival;" 2) specific types of early music which have been presented in Arizona and the effects of economic factors; and 3) Arizona musicians' attitudes toward the repertory and their motivations for specializing in it. I then analyze Arizona musicians' involvement with both the early music repertory itself and with the community, identifying how musicians were exposed to early music and whether or not those first exposures began a long-lasting involvement with the repertory. In this section I also describe ways in which musicians define early music for themselves as well as analyze more critical areas such as musicians' formation of an "early music identity." I also asked informants to discuss how they see early music as being fundamentally different from other types of "classical" music and how they view their own places in that community of "difference." Finally, I compare musicians' thoughts on the "transformative" effect that some early music can have on performers and listeners and how that effect compares with similar phenomena in other types of Western art music. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Music 2010

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University

The available evidence suggests insomnia is common in individuals who experience psychosis. Poor sleep within this population has been associated with numerous detriments to mental health and well-being. Nevertheless, the majority of work to date has focused on chronic presentations, with few studies investigating the role of insomnia in recently onset psychosis. Understanding and treating psychosis following the first presentation is important to promote recovery and prevent the development of long-term illness. This work therefore aimed to utilise mixed methods to comprehensively investigate insomnia in early psychosis. It is presented in a series of five research papers, supplemented by additional chapters to provide an introduction, additional methodological details and general discussion. Paper one presents a systematic review, which aimed to synthesise the relevant literature with regards to the nature and correlates of insomnia in early psychosis. Paper two utilised qualitative methods aiming to understand the experience of insomnia, its impacts and experiences of help-seeking in early psychosis. Paper three aimed to investigate the nature of insomnia symptoms in first episode psychosis, compared to a healthy control group, using actigraphy and sleep diary measurement over a 14-day period. Paper four aimed to investigate how poor sleep was associated with next-day mental health and functioning, presenting data from an electronic diary study conducted alongside the sleep profiling presented in paper three. Paper five aimed to assess the acceptability of a Brief Behavioural Treatment for Insomnia (BBTI) delivered to a first episode psychosis group. Findings across studies indicated insomnia to have a wide range of detrimental outcomes, indicating the treatment of insomnia may be an important target for relevant mental health services.

<p> Music plays a fundamental role in early childhood education. Research shows that the first of the intelligences developed is the musical intelligence. Educators argue that while this is an intelligence with which all human beings are born, development of this intelligence will depend on the environment and the opportunities that are provided to the child. In today's global society, music has a permanent presence and is significant in everyday lives. It is a basic element in elementary education in many countries; however, few schools in Puerto Rico integrate music in their curriculum. In addition, there is unequal access to music education in schools in Southwest Puerto Rico because the justification for including it in the curricula is questioned. The purpose of this quantitative correlation study using secondary data was to determine if there is a relationship between music integration in Southwest Puerto Rico elementary schools and academic achievement. Secondary data from schools with and without music education were correlated to determine if a relationship existed that would justify the inclusion of music education in all such schools. The findings of this study support the importance of music education for elementary school students. Children acquire more knowledge in reading and writing when music education is integrated into the curriculum. Findings show that the stage of literacy of elementary school students is higher, according to the academic achievement tests of the Department of Education of Puerto Rico, when there is music education integrated in the curricula. In summary, it is concluded that music education is of great importance for improving reading, and hence, improving the development of children.</p><p>

Faint blue stars situated out of the galactic plane have been studied using a variety of techniques. Stromgren photometry has been obtained for a number of these stars and classifications derived from the photometry. An interference filter centred at 3775 A near the Balmer discontinuity has been used in conjunction with the Stromgren filters. Observation of Stromgren standard stars, bright B stars and faint blue stars have been used to study the behaviour of the colours (u-38) and (38-b). Reddening-free parameters [u-38] and [38-b] have been evaluated and [38-b] is found to be linearly related to the Crawford Hβ index for B-type dwarfs, giants and supergiants. This relationship has been used to derive absolute magnitudes and distances for faint apparently normal B stars. [38-b] allows this work to be done at fainter magnitudes than possible with Hβ photometry. A filter pair centred on the HeII λ4686 line has been used to study 0-type stars including 0 subdwarfs. The resulting index is strongly correlated with the equivalent width of the Hell line and has a range of 0ᵐ.13. It is possible to separate sd0, 0 and 0f stars using this index. Although the index is correlated with absolute magnitude for 0 and 0f stars, the detailed behaviour precludes the accurate determination of absolute magnitude for dwarfs and giants. Theoretical indices have been computed from the models of Kudritzki and agree well with the results for stars with high helium abundance. These computations suggest that it is possible to separate sdO and DO stars with this system. The results have also been compared with the work of Auer and Mihalas. 30 A/mm image tube spectra have been used for Ealmer line width measurement and radial velocity determination. The line widths were used to estimate surface gravities for faint blue stars in conjunction with temperatures determined from the Stromgren [u-b] index. The results indicate that 30 A/mm image tube spectra can be used successfully for surface gravity determination. 75 A/mm image tube spectra have been used for spectral classification as a check on the classification provided by Stromgren photometry. The kinematics of certain subdwarfs and main sequence stars at high galactic latitude have been considered. Proper motions have been employed as a check for subluminosity using appropriate absolute magnitudes. Galactic orbits have been computed using the Schmidt model of the galactic force field. Several B-type dwarfs and subdwarfs were found to have been ejected from the galactic plane at high velocity. Thirty percent of the stars previously classified as normal dwarfs were found to be subluminous. The evolutionary implications of these results are discussed.

AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF Anna Kallal, for the Masters of Science degree in Communication Disorders and Sciences presented on March 28, 2016, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: AUTISM AND OUR COMMUNITY: FEEDBACK FROM EARLY INTERVENTION PROVIDERS MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Valerie Boyer Early Intervention (EI) providers often work closely with children who are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or children who have signs and symptoms of ASD. An understanding of the characteristics in children at early ages can lead to an earlier diagnosis of ASD. The current study investigated specific characteristics that EI providers identify prior to making a referral for an ASD evaluation as well as what treatment strategies EI providers report utilizing when working with children who have ASD. Information was gathered for this study by use of a survey. The survey contained two vignettes of children with varying degrees of ASD characteristics. Speech-Language Pathologists (SLP) who work as EI providers responded to a survey. Results showed that respondents were more willing to make referrals for ASD evaluations when a child displayed more severe characteristics. Respondents listed treatment strategies they were likely to employ with children who display similar characteristics of the children in the vignettes. The researcher identified from survey responses that EI providers are more likely to identify social communication characteristics when describing features critical to referral. This study identifies the characteristics important to making earlier referrals for ASD evaluations, as well as what treatment strategies work best when working with children with ASD.

<p> This study was undertaken to explore ways to assist at-risk African American students in phonemic awareness skills using their cultural vernacular. African American, at-risk preschoolers typically lag behind their peers. Teachers typically do not use culturally responsive methods to instruct them. For these reasons, these children struggle with literacy. Research questions were as follows: (1) Do African American at-risk preschoolers&rsquo; phonemic awareness increase after exposure to AAVE instructional strategies? (2) Do African American at-risk preschoolers&rsquo; rhyming and alliteration increase after exposure to AAVE language instructional strategies? and (3) Do African American at-risk preschoolers&rsquo; blending, manipulation, and segmenting increase after exposure to AAVE language instructional strategies? The theoretical framework of this study was African American at-risk preschoolers and all children must be taught in a manner in which they can learn and this would include using their vernacular. The methodology used was a quantitative study involving two groups of 20 randomly sampled preschoolers enrolled in a Head Start Preschool for All program. The study took place for twelve weeks with a control group of 20 and a treatment group of 20. Data analysis included an independent T-test, followed by a paired dependent T-test. Results indicated there were insufficient data to indicate significant differences in phonemic awareness. Recommendations include further research regarding culturally responsive teaching. </p><p>