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- Genre: Masters Thesis
- Creators: Arizona State University
- Creators: Huang, Dijiang
Description
The purpose of this study was to examine compulsory schooling in the United States and its potential to provide an inconsistent avenue to employment for students from neighborhoods of differing socioeconomic status. Specifically, this study asked why do students from privileged neighborhoods typically end up in positions of ownership and management while those from impoverished urban or rural neighborhoods end up in working-class positions or involved in cycles of incarceration and poverty? This research involved the use of qualitative methods, including participant observation and interview, as well as photography, to take a look at a reputable private day school in the southwest. Data was collected over the span of eight weeks and was then analyzed and compared with preexisting data on the schooling experience of students from impoverished urban and rural neighborhoods, particularly data focused on juvenile detention centers. Results showed that compulsory schooling differs in ways that contribute to the preexisting hierarchical class structure. The research suggests that schooling can be detrimental to the future quality of life for students in impoverished neighborhoods, which questions a compulsory school system that exists within the current hierarchical class system.
ContributorsTheodoropoulos, Eftyhia (Author) / Margolis, Eric (Thesis advisor) / Nakagawa, Kathryn (Committee member) / Appleton, Nicholas (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Concern regarding the quality of traffic data exists among engineers and planners tasked with obtaining and using the data for various transportation applications. While data quality issues are often understood by analysts doing the hands on work, rarely are the quality characteristics of the data effectively communicated beyond the analyst. This research is an exercise in measuring and reporting data quality. The assessment was conducted to support the performance measurement program at the Maricopa Association of Governments in Phoenix, Arizona, and investigates the traffic data from 228 continuous monitoring freeway sensors in the metropolitan region. Results of the assessment provide an example of describing the quality of the traffic data with each of six data quality measures suggested in the literature, which are accuracy, completeness, validity, timeliness, coverage and accessibility. An important contribution is made in the use of data quality visualization tools. These visualization tools are used in evaluating the validity of the traffic data beyond pass/fail criteria commonly used. More significantly, they serve to educate an intuitive sense or understanding of the underlying characteristics of the data considered valid. Recommendations from the experience gained in this assessment include that data quality visualization tools be developed and used in the processing and quality control of traffic data, and that these visualization tools, along with other information on the quality control effort, be stored as metadata with the processed data.
ContributorsSamuelson, Jothan P (Author) / Pendyala, Ram M. (Thesis advisor) / Ahn, Soyoung (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Conceptual change has been a large part of science education research for several decades due to the fact that it allows teachers to think about what students' preconceptions are and how to change these to the correct scientific conceptions. To have students change their preconceptions teachers need to allow students to confront what they think they know in the presence of the phenomena. Students then collect and analyze evidence pertaining to the phenomena. The goal in the end is for students to reorganize their concepts and change or correct their preconceptions, so that they hold more accurate scientific conceptions. The purpose of this study was to investigate how students' conceptions of the Earth's surface, specifically weathering and erosion, change using the conceptual change framework to guide the instructional decisions. The subjects of the study were a class of 25 seventh grade students. This class received a three-week unit on weathering and erosion that was structured using the conceptual change framework set by Posner, Strike, Hewson, and Gertzog (1982). This framework starts by looking at students' misconceptions, then uses scientific data that students collect to confront their misconceptions. The changes in students' conceptions were measured by a pre concept sketch and post concept sketch. The results of this study showed that the conceptual change framework can modify students' preconceptions of weathering and erosion to correct scientific conceptions. There was statistical significant difference between students' pre concept sketches and post concept sketches scores. After examining the concept sketches, differences were found in how students' concepts had changed from pre to post concept sketch. Further research needs to be done with conceptual change and the geosciences to see if conceptual change is an effective method to use to teach students about the geosciences.
ContributorsTillman, Ashley (Author) / Luft, Julie (Thesis advisor) / Middleton, James (Committee member) / Semken, Steven (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Muslim radicalism is recognized as one of the greatest security threats for the United States and the rest of the world. Use of force to eliminate specific radical entities is ineffective in containing radicalism as a whole. There is a need to understand the origin, ideologies and behavior of Radical and Counter-Radical organizations and how they shape up over a period of time. Recognizing and supporting counter-radical organizations is one of the most important steps towards impeding radical organizations. A lot of research has already been done to categorize and recognize organizations, to understand their behavior, their interactions with other organizations, their target demographics and the area of influence. We have a huge amount of information which is a result of the research done over these topics. This thesis provides a powerful and interactive way to navigate through all this information, using a Visualization Dashboard. The dashboard makes it easier for Social Scientists, Policy Analysts, Military and other personnel to visualize an organization's propensity towards violence and radicalism. It also tracks the peaking religious, political and socio-economic markers, their target demographics and locations. A powerful search interface with parametric search helps in narrowing down to specific scenarios and view the corresponding information related to the organizations. This tool helps to identify moderate Counter-Radical organizations and also has the potential of predicting the orientation of various organizations based on the current information.
ContributorsNair, Shreejay (Author) / Davulcu, Hasan (Thesis advisor) / Dasgpta, Partha (Committee member) / Sen, Arunabha (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Educators and therapists must unify and formulate new strategies to address the academic and social needs of a newly emerging at risk demographic, "the forgotten middle." Currently, a paradigm shift within educative music therapy, human development study, and educational psychology, suggests that curriculums need to integrate alternative methods into their framework, change the definition of at-risk, and recognize math aptitude and social competency as predictors of a student's ability to gain upward mobility and self-sufficiency. Musical interaction, although considered a secondary measure within educational forums, is a viable means to address the socio-emotional and academic needs of students. In order to substantiate the need for educators to integrate educative music therapy and social competency programs into standard curriculums, the researcher conducted a study using 23 students from a beginning high school guitar class and 4 students from a high school after-school program. These students participated in a ten-week study involving educative music therapy, social competency, and math aptitude. Participants completed the math fluency and math calculations sections of the Wechsler's Individual Achievement Test version 3, along with a questionnaire examining the participants' beliefs about the influence of music on math aptitude and social competency. Although the pre- and post-test results show no statistically significant difference between educative music therapy and math aptitude, the results from the questionnaires administered suggest that students perceive that social competency and musical interaction augment academic and social performance.
ContributorsHeiskell, James D (Author) / Crowe, Barbara J. (Thesis advisor) / Rio, Robin (Committee member) / McBeath, Michael (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2010
Description
This study investigated the effect of two different preparation methods on hitting performance in a high&ndashfidelity; baseball batting simulation. Novice and expert players participated in one of three conditions: observation (viewing a video of the goal action), visualization (hearing a script of the goal action), or a no&ndashpreparation; control group. Each participant completed three different hitting tasks: pull hit, opposite&ndashfield; hit, and sacrifice fly. Experts had more successful hits, overall, than novices. The number of successful hits was significantly higher for both the observation and visualization conditions than for the control. In most cases, performance was best in the observation condition. Experts demonstrated greater effects from the mental preparation techniques compared to novices. However, these effects were mediated by task difficulty. The difference between experts and novices, as well as the difference between the observation and visualization conditions was greater for the more difficult hitting task (opposite&ndashfield; hitting) than for the easier hitting task (sacrifice fly). These effects of mental preparation were associated with significant changes in batting kinematics (e.g., changes in point of bat/ball contact and swing direction). The results indicate that mental preparation can improve directional hitting ability in baseball with the optimal preparation methods depending on skill&ndashlevel; and task difficulty.
ContributorsNeuman, Brooke Leigh Anne (Author) / Gray, Rob (Thesis advisor) / Branaghan, Russell (Committee member) / Becker, Vaughn (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2010
Description
This thesis investigates the role of activity visualization tools in increasing group awareness at the workspace. Today, electronic calendaring tools are widely used in the workplace. The primary function is to enable each person maintain a work schedule. They also are used to schedule meetings and share work details when appropriate. However, a key limitation of current tools is that they do not enable people in the workplace to understand the activity of the group as a whole. A tool that increases group awareness would promote reflection; it would enable thoughtful engagement with one's co-workers. I have developed two tools: the first tool enables the worker to examine detailed task information of one's own tasks, within the context of his/her peers' anonymized task data. The second tool is a public display to promote group reflection. I have used an iterative design methodology to refine the tools. I developed ActivityStream desktop tool that enables users to examine the detailed information of their own activities and the aggregate information of other peers' activities. ActivityStream uses a client-server architecture. The server collected activity data from each user by parsing RSS feeds associated with their preferred online calendaring and task management tool, on a daily basis. The client software displays personalized aggregate data and user specific tasks, including task types. The client display visualizes the activity data at multiple time scales. The activity data for each user is represented though discrete blocks; interacting with the block will reveal task details. The activity of the rest of the group is anonymized and aggregated. ActivityStream visualizes the aggregated data via Bezier curves. I developed ActivityStream public display that shows a group people's activity levels change over time to promote group reflection. In particular, the public display shows the anonymized task activity data, over the course of one year. The public display visualizes data for each user using a Bezier curve. The display shows data from all users simultaneously. This representation enables users to reflect on the relationships across the group members, over the course of one year. The survey results revealed that users are more aware of their peers' activities in the workspace.
ContributorsZhang, Lu (Author) / Sundaram, Hari (Thesis advisor) / Qian, Gang (Thesis advisor) / Kelliher, Aisling (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2010
Description
Individual and group accountability is an important part of productive group work. However, classroom evaluation of teamwork often relies on top-down assessment of group product by the teacher. Other methods include averaging group grades, group discussions, evaluative essays and random selection and application of one member's grade to the entire team. In contrast, the Teamwork Skills Inventory (TSI) developed by Strom and Strom provides assessment of individual conduct and contributions as observed by peers. The instrument also affords students with the opportunity to judge their own performance. Team members are responsible for their own behavior and skill development but are not held accountable for the actions taken by others. The TSI provides criteria for productive teamwork skills and behaviors. Students know in advance the criteria by which they and their teammates will judge each other's behavior skills. In turn, students have the opportunity to practice self-evaluation as they apply the same criteria to assess their own conduct. Self-evaluation compared with peer-evaluation provides support for confidence in behavioral strengths and can guide goal setting in areas where skills are weak and need adjustment. The TSI gives teachers an insider's view of group dynamics: the obstacles and benefits groups may encounter. Since team members have the vantage point of close interaction with peers they are more likely to know how individuals affect the thinking of others in a group. This frees teachers from the difficult task of judging group dynamics. TSI results can guide teachers in developing lessons that address the needs of individuals and groups. Data derived from the TSI can help schools provide for the needs of subgroups, such as special education and gifted classes. It can also help schools detect in-service needs for faculty and provide schools with a method of community accountability for use with cooperative learning methods and social skill achievement.
ContributorsBrown, Denise (Author) / Strom, Robert D. (Thesis advisor) / Stamm, Jill (Committee member) / Strom, Paris S. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2010
Description
Over 7 million students in the US choosing virtual education as they pursue their degree (U.S. Department of Education, 2021). With almost 10,000 business degrees offered online (GetEducated, 2021) digital classes now have to deliver meaningful learning experiences to prepare leaders for inherently relational challenges. This study examines how well online undergraduate students learned and connected in a 7.5-week leadership development course that used a peer coaching model. In this course design, two peer coaches met each week to process and provide feedback on the coursework. Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) suggests that learning is an individual transformation that occurs as learners move through four dialectically opposed learning modes: concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization, and active experimentation (Kolb & Kolb, 2017). Learners make meaning of their experience (like conversations or coursework) by thinking about them and developing a mental model that influences their actions which changes the way they view new experiences. In this study, I illustrate how peer coaching supports this transformative process and can help learners expand their thinking not just academically, but personally and professionally too. Moreover, peer coaches emphasize diversity by acknowledging and leveraging markedly different mental models to enhance students’ depth of learning and relating.
I used a convergent mixed-methods design in which qualitative and quantitative data were collected in parallel, analyzed separately and then merged. The reason for collecting both quantitative and qualitative data is to develop a better understanding of the effects of learning preference and affect because each type of data will provide different pieces of evidence regarding those effects. The quantitative data was collected using Qualtrics from self-report surveys using primarily Likert scales to measure learning outcomes, learning preferences, and affect as a part of class exercises. The qualitative data was collected from students’ open-ended reflection assignments about the benefits of differences in their peer coaches. The multiple regressions did not show that learning preference contrasts significantly predicted learning outcomes nor relationships. In contrast, positive affect did predict learning outcomes. The thematic analysis offered clues as to how positive affect improves both learning outcomes and the quality of the peer coaching relationship.
ContributorsReed, Rachel M (Author) / Trinh, Mai P (Thesis advisor) / Foulger, Teresa (Committee member) / Scholar, Brent (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2021
Description
First-generation and low-income high school students have historicallyexperienced disadvantages to enrolling in post-secondary education. While there are many programs that assist first-generation and low-income high school students in enrolling and achieving post-secondary education, it is unclear if these programs create equitable opportunities for their target populations. This study explores the realities of the people, and policies in practice at an Upward Bound program to understand if the program creates opportunities for first-generation and low-income students in the program, or if the realities of the people and policies in practice in the program create opportunity gaps thus impacting first-generation and low-income students in the program. The study was conducted through the opportunity gap explanatory framework which provided a framework to understand the educational practices that construct opportunity gaps. The perspective of two administrators and three educators from one rural Upward Bound program was captured. Ethnographic interviews were conducted to collect data and thematic analysis was used to analyze and describe the opportunities and opportunity gaps that existed within the program. The data suggest that both opportunities and opportunity gaps co-exist within one rural Upward Bound program.
ContributorsWasem, Leslie Evonne (Author) / Kirsch, Robert (Thesis advisor) / Wallace, Lillian (Thesis advisor) / Veach, Paula (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022