Matching Items (20)
Filtering by
- Genre: Doctoral Dissertation
Description
This dissertation is a qualitative study based on the experiences of five high schoolers and five college-aged students who grew up in Erie, Pennsylvania, and participated in theatrical productions within their schools, churches, the Erie Playhouse Youtheatre, and other community theatres. The author begins with an introduction of the theatrical scene in Erie and explains the options available to these youth during the times they performed, so the reader will have a better understanding of the background of these young people. The author then explores the current literature dealing with youth participants in a youth theatre setting. In his research, he notes that there were few scholarly books or articles that directly dealt with youth who participate in youth theatre. Most of the books dealt with youth who are part of theatrical programs in school settings, and few researchers utilized the youth's voice as part of the process. The author interviewed ten participants about their theatrical experiences asking them about aspects such as: positive and negative experiences, why they performed, and what they learned from doing theatre. After transcribing the interviews, the author analyzed the participants' responses for values, attitudes, and beliefs about theatre. From this analysis, the author found six themes emerged focusing on: fun, friendship, family, personal growth, commitment to productions, and negative experiences in the theatrical process. Throughout the document, the author utilized the youths' voices and kept their words and thoughts as the basis for all findings constructed and discussed.
ContributorsKosnik, Craig (Author) / Saldana, Johnny (Thesis advisor) / Etheridge Woodson, Stephani (Committee member) / Anderson, Lisa (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Recent advances in geo-visualization technologies, such as Google Earth, have the potential to enhance spatial thinking. Google Earth is especially suited to teaching landforms and geomorphological processes in traditional, online, or hybrid college classroom settings. The excitement for the technology as a learning tool, however, must be tempered by the need to develop sound and supportive pedagogies. A fundamental gap in the geoscience education literature exists because learning experiences with Google Earth, from the perspective of the student, are not completely understood. This dissertation analyzes three case studies in college introductory physical geography (Chapters 2 and 4) and teacher education (Chapter 3) courses at Arizona State University where students completed an online (Chapter 2 and 3) laboratory that used Google Earth as the main tool for landform identification and interpretation, and a hardcopy laboratory and in-field exercise (Chapter 4) that compared Google Earth oblique with traditional stereopair air photo and planimetric perspectives. Gauging student performance in these tasks, along with their formative and summative opinions for `what it was like to learn this way', provide information as part of a feedback loop to develop and improve instructional scaffolding and best practices so that the focus remains on the content-to-be-learned and not the tool. These case studies show that, in general, prior use of Google Earth is usually not a limiting factor; multiple perspectives and supplemental visualizations of landforms with Google Earth's may enhance the learning experience; the hands-on nature of structured Google Earth exploration in these labs are virtual field trips that increase enjoyment and fit within a learner-centered curriculum; scaffolding landform-learning exercises for aspiring elementary school teachers linked to children's literature assists the development of content knowledge for teaching physical geography and spatial thinking; and, finally, despite a virtual globe's high-quality visualizations and promising potential for learning, there is still a role for stereopair images in the geomorphology classroom.
ContributorsPalmer, Ronald Evan (Author) / Dorn, Ronald I. (Thesis advisor) / Harris, Lauren M (Committee member) / Cerveny, Niccole V (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Academic achievement among Asians has been widely recognized in the literature, but the costs of this success may be tied to significant mental health consequences. Three samples of undergraduate students in India were recruited from cities such as Chennai, Kerala, and Delhi totaling 608 (303 male, 301 females). Both online and in class recruitment occurred.
There were three main purposes of this study: 1) to construct a quantitative measure of parental pressure, 2) to evaluate whether self-esteem was a potential buffer of the negative impacts of parental pressure and academic stress, and 3) to understand better the factors impacting suicidality among adolescents in India by testing a path model of possible predictors suggested by the literature. Prevalence data of suicidal ideation and attempt history were also collected. Reporting on their experience over the past six months, 14.5% (n = 82) of the participants endorsed suicidal ideation and 12.3% (n = 69) of the participants admitted to having deliberately attempted to hurt or kill themselves.
Five constructs were explored in this study: parental pressure, academic stress, depression, suicidality, and self-esteem. The Parental Pressure for Success Scale, designed for this study, was used to measure parental pressure. The Educational Stress Scale-Adolescents was used to measure academic stress. The Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression scale was used to measure depressive symptomology. Two items from the Youth Self-Report Checklist were used as a measure of suicidality in the past six months. The Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale was used to measure global self-esteem.
Preliminary support for the reliability and validity of the Parental Pressure for Success Scale was found. While self-esteem was not a significant moderator in this study, it was a predictor of both stress and depression. Results of the path analysis indicated that parental pressure predicted academic stress, stress predicted depression, and depression predicted suicidality. Parental pressure indirectly predicted suicidality through academic stress and depression. Results were discussed in the context of cultural influences on study findings such as the central role of parents in the family unit, the impact of cultural valuing of education, collectivistic society, and the Hindu concept of dharma, or duty.
There were three main purposes of this study: 1) to construct a quantitative measure of parental pressure, 2) to evaluate whether self-esteem was a potential buffer of the negative impacts of parental pressure and academic stress, and 3) to understand better the factors impacting suicidality among adolescents in India by testing a path model of possible predictors suggested by the literature. Prevalence data of suicidal ideation and attempt history were also collected. Reporting on their experience over the past six months, 14.5% (n = 82) of the participants endorsed suicidal ideation and 12.3% (n = 69) of the participants admitted to having deliberately attempted to hurt or kill themselves.
Five constructs were explored in this study: parental pressure, academic stress, depression, suicidality, and self-esteem. The Parental Pressure for Success Scale, designed for this study, was used to measure parental pressure. The Educational Stress Scale-Adolescents was used to measure academic stress. The Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression scale was used to measure depressive symptomology. Two items from the Youth Self-Report Checklist were used as a measure of suicidality in the past six months. The Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale was used to measure global self-esteem.
Preliminary support for the reliability and validity of the Parental Pressure for Success Scale was found. While self-esteem was not a significant moderator in this study, it was a predictor of both stress and depression. Results of the path analysis indicated that parental pressure predicted academic stress, stress predicted depression, and depression predicted suicidality. Parental pressure indirectly predicted suicidality through academic stress and depression. Results were discussed in the context of cultural influences on study findings such as the central role of parents in the family unit, the impact of cultural valuing of education, collectivistic society, and the Hindu concept of dharma, or duty.
ContributorsSarma, Arti (Author) / Robinson-Kurpius, Sharon (Thesis advisor) / Kinnier, Richard (Committee member) / Homer, Judith (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Research on psychological help seeking has continued to grow as the field of psychology has expanded. Much of the research is often variable driven and assumes this construct is a global construct. The current study used the Theory of Planned Behavior to provide a theory based approach to understanding psychological help seeking intention. Also, the theory was tested for three common presenting concerns: Anxiety or Depression, Career Choice Concerns, and Alcohol or Substance Use. Two samples of over 400 university students completed surveys for all three concerns. Results produced invariance across path loadings for the concerns being compared. When thinking about seeking psychological help, university students do not appear to consider the type of concern but do rely on attitude, stigma, and how much control and efficacy they have to address their problems on their own. Mean differences emerged for some variables in the model, but no meaningful mean differences were noted for gender. Overall, the variables used in the decision making process do not appear to consider concern when seeking help, but the beliefs about seeking help differ some. These results extend the Theory of Planned Behavior to consider the importance of an individual's ability to address their problem on their own. When considering psychological help seeking, college students have similar attitudes and beliefs about their ability to access mental health resources, their beliefs about stigma, ability to address their problems on their own, and their intention to seek help vary more by concern. The specific concerns being addressed does not appear to impact the weight each variable is given in the decision making process; attitude, stigma, and ability to solve the problem on their own appear to be the variables given greatest consideration.
ContributorsHess, Timothy Robert (Author) / Tracey, Terence J. G. (Thesis advisor) / Claiborn, Charles (Committee member) / Sheu, Hung-Bin (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
This action research dissertation study was undertaken to establish the foundation of a comprehensive evaluation component for the Turn-It-Around (TIA) workshop intervention program at Arizona State University (ASU), and was delivered in the form of a program development consultation. The study's intent was to enhance the ASU Counseling Service's departmental capacity to evaluate one of its important clinical services. The outcomes of this study included multiple assessments of TIA's evaluability and the fidelity of its implementation to its program design. The study products include a well-articulated program theory comprised of program goals, learning objectives, a detailed description of program activities, a logic model, and theoretical construct checklist documents articulating the behavioral science theory underlying the TIA intervention. In addition, instruments tailored to the Turn-It-Around intervention that are suitable for assessing program outcomes were developed and are implementation ready. TIA's clinical stakeholders were interviewed following the generation and delivery of the products and instruments mentioned above to determine whether they found the study's processes and products to be worthwhile and useful. In general, the clinicians reported that they were very satisfied with the benefits and outcomes of the program development consultation. As an action research dissertation, this study generated useful and usable collateral materials in the form of reports, documents, and models. These products are now at the disposal of TIA's institutional stakeholders for use in day-to-day business activities such as training new facilitators and liaisons, and giving presentations that describe the usefulness of TIA as an intervention. Beyond the documents generated to form a program evaluation infrastructure for Turn-It-Around, the processes involved in crafting the documents served to engage relevant stakeholders in a cycle of action research that enriched and solidified their understandings of TIA and furnished them with insight into their counterparts' thinking about the intervention and its potential to benefit the college students they are responsible for helping. Consistent with the intent of action research, the processes involved in accomplishing the objectives of this study surfaced new topics and questions that will be useful in subsequent cycles of program improvement.
ContributorsLacey, Sheila (Author) / Lacey, Sheila D (Thesis advisor) / Clark, Christopher (Committee member) / Kelley, Michael (Committee member) / Krasnow, Aaron (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
This study described the multimodal communication patterns of college students and their parents, and examined how face-to-face and mediated communication frequencies relate to parental idealization and relational quality. Undergraduate students (N = 678) completed an online survey that assessed indicators of idealization (idealistic distortion and positive affect thinking), relational quality (relational/communication satisfaction, and relational closeness), and the frequency of face-to-face and mediated parental communication. Results indicated that average college students communicate with their primary parent 23 times per week, mostly via phone calls, text messaging, and face-to-face interaction. The frequency of mediated communication was positively related to both indicators of idealization and both indicators of relational quality. Moreover, idealization partially mediated the relationship between mediated communication frequency and relational quality. The frequency of face-to-face communication was inversely related to positive affect thinking. Indirect effects were also detected, such that face-to-face communication was negatively related to both indicators of relational quality as a function of positive affect thinking. Finally, this study examined whether students experience different levels of parental idealization and relational quality depending on whether their parent is geographically close or geographically distant, and whether they reside with their parent. Results indicated that students who live geographically distant from their parent experienced greater levels of idealization and relational quality than did student who live geographically close to yet separate from their parent, who reported greater levels of idealization and relational quality than students who live with their parent. These results were interpreted using concepts from interpersonal, family, and computer-mediated communication. Limitations and directions for future research were discussed.
ContributorsBryant, Erin M (Author) / Ramirez Jr., Artemio (Thesis advisor) / Floyd, Kory (Committee member) / Valiente, Carlos (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Training student employees in Educational Outreach and Student Services (EOSS) at Arizona State University's West campus is important to maintaining a knowledgeable and productive workforce. This dissertation describes the results of an action research study in which social media tools were utilized as a delivery mechanism for training student employees on three ASU initiatives: the New American University, Sun Devil Pride and Social Entrepreneurship. The social media tools included YouTube and Vimeo, user-generated video sites, Facebook, and a Google Sites website. Five student employees in EOSS at the West campus were identified and recruited for a six-week study. The students participated in online pre- and post-surveys, blogging via Facebook, a focus group, and case study assessment. Data collected through blogs, audio recordings, and field notes provided insight on the positive benefits of using social media to train student employees and participants' understanding and personal connection to the three initiatives. Analysis of the data identified three themes: peer-to-peer relationships, connectedness to both internal and external community, and competency capital. Though these themes were apparent, the researcher found that participants' identities as Arizona State University students were affected more than their student employee identities.
ContributorsSmith, Sharon D., 1955- (Author) / Clark, Christopher M. (Thesis advisor) / Cook, Kevin T (Committee member) / Kelley, Michael F. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
This qualitative research study explores the experiences of two foreign-born Asian students in a U.S. higher education institution. The data collected includes written responses to interview questions as well as guided questions from the participants, personal vignettes and reflections written by the participants along with data from informal interviews with each participant. Data was analyzed to address issues related to Asian identity, Discourse and cultural capital. The research approach used in this study was narrative analysis. Data collected through interview and guided questions were analyzed to determine themes participant vignettes and reflections were based on. The main purpose in using narrative analysis is to capture lived experiences of participants through their lenses, from their perspectives, and in their own words and voices. The analysis of data surfaced themes related to identity and discourse as well as cultural models. From these themes emerged issues related to identity struggles, disparity in discourse as well as negative self-perception. The main conclusion drawn from this research is the lack of clarity present for foreign-born Asian students to navigate their way through U.S higher education expectations and Discourses. The research uncovers the lack of support at the institutional level and proposes more collaboration between institutions, faculty and students in order to establish a more supportive learning environment.
ContributorsNuruddin, Shirin (Author) / Arias, Beatriz M (Thesis advisor) / Christine, Carol (Committee member) / Hudelson, Sarah (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
The landscape of higher education is constantly evolving. Similar to a wave that washes ashore and transforms the shoreline, the same is occurring with higher education and its "shoreline". With the influx of technology and social media on college and university campuses, higher education institutions have had to grapple with whether or not to implement the technology (e.g. mobile devices) and the social mediums (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, YouTube) that accompany these technologies into the academic and social college experiences of the tech-savvy students enrolling in higher education institutions. Higher education's new shoreline is largely being produced by the new paradigms of technology and social media adopted by the Net Generation college student. The forces of the evolving nature of technology are having an enormous impact on higher education practitioners. The prolific transcendence of Smartphones, tablets, and social mediums and the expansion of broadband (e.g. Wi-Fi) are changing student expectations of how higher education practitioners engage, communicate, and connect with the Net Generation college student. The assumption that many higher education practitioners have of social media is that social media primarily consists of Facebook and Twitter. Arguably Facebook and Twitter comprise the primary social avenues students traverse when communicating with friends and family but additionally, these sites can also be utilized for academic and social purposes advantageous to colleges and universities in enhancing the college student experience. The purpose of this study is to understand and describe how the Net Generation college student uses social media in their academic and social college experiences. Through the use of a descriptive analysis, this action research study described how the Net Generation college student uses social media in their academic and social college student experiences.
ContributorsSesterhenn, Shannon Marie (Author) / Ewing, Kris M. (Thesis advisor) / Rodrigue Mcintyre, Lisa (Committee member) / Niemczyk, Mary (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Sexual assault at colleges and universities in the United States is a significant health and human rights issue that impacts somewhere between one-in-four and one-in-five students. Despite the alarmingly high burden, overall rates of disclosing to crisis, health, and victim services, and reporting to schools and law enforcement remain low. In order to buffer students from associated short- and long-term harm, and help them reestablish safety and pursue justice, empirically-supported, innovative, and trauma-informed secondary prevention strategies are needed. To address this pressing issue, the current study used a trauma-informed, feminist community research approach to develop and design a prototype of an internet-based decision aid specifically tailored to assist students at Arizona State University who experience sexual assault with making informed choices about reporting and seeking care, advocacy, and support on and off campus. Results from preliminary alpha testing of the tool showed that: 1. It is feasible to adapt decision aids for use with the target population, and 2. While aspects of the tool can be improved during the next phases of redrafting and redesign, members of the target population find it to be acceptable, comprehensible, and usable.
ContributorsVillegas-Gold, Michelle (Author) / Hurtado, Ana Magdalena (Thesis advisor) / Gaughan, Monica (Thesis advisor) / Durfee, Alesha (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018