ASU Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This collection includes most of the ASU Theses and Dissertations from 2011 to present. ASU Theses and Dissertations are available in downloadable PDF format; however, a small percentage of items are under embargo. Information about the dissertations/theses includes degree information, committee members, an abstract, supporting data or media.
In addition to the electronic theses found in the ASU Digital Repository, ASU Theses and Dissertations can be found in the ASU Library Catalog.
Dissertations and Theses granted by Arizona State University are archived and made available through a joint effort of the ASU Graduate College and the ASU Libraries. For more information or questions about this collection contact or visit the Digital Repository ETD Library Guide or contact the ASU Graduate College at gradformat@asu.edu.
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- Genre: Art--Study and teaching (Elementary)--Taiwan.
- Genre: Music--Arizona--20th century--History and criticism.
- Genre: Music--History and criticism--Web-based instruction--Arizona--Case studies.
Description
This study examines the experiences of participants enrolled in an online community college jazz history course. I surveyed the participants before the course began and observed them in the online space through the duration of the course. Six students also participated in interviews during and after the course. Coded data from the interviews, surveys, and recorded discussion posts and journal entries provided evidence about the nature of interaction and engagement in learning in an online environment. I looked for evidence either supporting or detracting from a democratic online learning environment, concentrating on the categories of student engagement, freedom of expression, and accessibility. The data suggested that the participants' behaviors in and abilities to navigate the online class were influenced by their pre-existing native media habits. Participants' reasons for enrolling in the online course, which included convenience and schedule flexibility, informed their actions and behaviors in the class. Analysis revealed that perceived positive student engagement did not contribute to a democratic learning environment but rather to an easy, convenient experience in the online class. Finally, the data indicated that participants' behaviors in their future lives would not be affected by the online class in that their learning experiences were not potent enough to alter or inform their behavior in society. As online classes gain popularity, the ability of these classes to provide meaningful learning experiences must be questioned. Students in this online jazz history class presented, at times, a façade of participation and community building but demonstrated a lack of sincerity and interest in the course. The learning environment supported accessibility and freedom of expression to an extent, but students' engagement with their peers was limited. Overall, this study found a need for more research into the quality of online classes as learning platforms that support democracy, student-to-student interaction, and community building.
ContributorsHunter, Robert W. (Author) / Stauffer, Sandra L (Thesis advisor) / Tobias, Evan (Thesis advisor) / Bush, Jeffrey (Committee member) / Kocour, Michael (Committee member) / Pilafian, Sam (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
This study aimed to understand, compare and describe details about U.S children and Taiwanese children's visual image reading. The researcher interviewed thirty children ages 8 to 10 in the state of Arizona and Taiwan. The researcher employed quantitative and qualitative methods to analyze the data. The analysis using these two methods provided different ways of comprehending the data. The results showed that the two groups of children's image reading did not have statistically significant differences in most categories; but there were demonstrable trends and viewpoints employed when both groups of children explained the details of the images. First, the children expressed what they saw in the images in six ways. The U.S. children were more able to describe contexts with self-experiences/opinions and/or associations than the Taiwanese children. Second, when interpreting the meanings, the Taiwanese children understood the concepts of the images better than the U.S. group. The U.S. children were more critical and expressed self-opinions/associations more. Third, when asked preferences, the U.S. children paid more attention to identify their favorites and express feeling the images brought to them. The Taiwanese children cared more about style and form. Fourth, when judging the images, the U.S. children emphasized the artist's devotion to creating while Taiwanese children considered the form, composition, colors, structure, design, and composition. The results also indicated that the children decided their preferences and their judgments of artworks might be based on multiple viewpoints instead of a single one, especially for the Taiwanese children. Some cultural differences between the two groups of children and their image readings were presented, such as, cultural differences made children have different learned symbolism.
ContributorsChiou, Yu-ting (Author) / Young, Bernard (Thesis advisor) / Margolis, Eric (Committee member) / Stokrocki, Mary (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
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.
ContributorsDe Fazio, James M (Author) / Haefer, John R (Thesis advisor) / Solis, Theodore (Committee member) / Saucier, Catherine (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2010