Matching Items (3)
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- All Subjects: General Education
- Creators: Powers, Jeanne M.
Description
Thousands of children are being injured every day in bicycling accidents. Interventions, like Safe Routes to School, are currently in place to combat injury rates by providing programs to teach children safe biking behaviors. In order to develop effective behavioral change programs, behavior and the components of which it is composed must be understood. Attitudes, subjective norms, and self-efficacy are important predictors of intention to perform a behavior. The purpose of this study was to ascertain the extent to which attitude, subjective norms, self-efficacy, and bike rodeo participation explain third through eighth graders' intentions to bike safely. These constructs were tested using a survey research design in a purposive sample of fifty-seven third through eighth grade students in Safe Routes to School schools in the Southwest. Students took an online survey in the computer lab at their respective schools supervised by a teacher. The study found attitudes to be comprised of three factors: happy/safe, not afraid, and calm. Overall, the model explained approximately 71% of the variance in children's intentions to bike safely, R2=.749, Adjusted R2=.713, F(7, 49)=20.854, p<.01. The significant predictors were happy/safe attitudes, subjective norms, self-efficacy, and a quadratic self-efficacy term explaining 10% (p=.019), 28% (p<.01), 18% (p<.01), and 15% (p<.01) respectively. The results of the study can be used to create future and improve current bike safety interventions for children.
ContributorsPayton, Kayla G (Author) / Rodriguez, Ariel (Thesis advisor) / Tyrrell, Timothy (Committee member) / Maruyama, Kenichi (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
ABSTRACT With projections indicating that by the year 2025, one of every four K-12 students in the United States will be Latino, addressing the needs of Latino students is an important question for educators. This study approached this question through an analysis of the educational life histories, stories, of successful first generation Mexican-American college graduates to understand some of the factors which helped them succeed in college. I categorized the stories inductively into three themes: 1) stories of students and school, 2) stories of friends, family, and cultural communities, and 3) stories about race and politics. Participants' intellectual self-concept, both positive and negative, was to a great extent influenced by the messages they received from the educational system. Some of the participants took a traditional path from high school through college, while others took very indirect paths. The support that they received from special programs at the university as well as from their webs of support was crucial in their success. In addition, I found that race mattered when the participants transitioned from their majority Latino high schools to the majority white university as the participants told stories of navigating the cultural and racial dynamics of their status as college students. The participants in my study worked hard to achieve their college degrees. "It's hard" was a phrase often repeated by all participants; hard work was also a cultural value passed on by hard working parents and family members. Stories of luck, both good and bad, factored into their educational life histories. Collaborative programs between secondary school and the university were helpful in creating a transitional bridge for the participants as were culturally-based mentoring programs. The participants benefitted from the culturally-based support they received at the university and the cultural and emotional support of their families. The participants' stories highlight the importance of a race-conscious approach to college going; one which begins with race and builds cross-racial coalitions. This approach would benefit Latino students and, ultimately improve the college going experiences of all students.
ContributorsSheffield, Martha Lynn (Author) / Powers, Jeanne M. (Thesis advisor) / Appleton, Nicholas (Committee member) / Fischman, Gustavo (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
This thesis study describes English Language Learner (ELL) participation practices in a summer English language development (ELD) middle school classroom in a public school district in Arizona. The purpose of the study was to document Mexican immigrant and Mexican American English learners' language experiences in a prescriptive ELD program in relation to the social, historical and cultural context. The study utilizes a sociocultural framework and critical language awareness concepts as well as qualitative interpretive inquiry to answer the following research questions: What is the nature of ELL participation during language lessons? That is, what are the common participation practices in the classroom? What social or cultural values or norms are evident in the classroom talk during language lessons? That is, in what ways do participants use language for social purposes? And, what is the cultural model of ELD evident in the classroom language practices? Data collection and analyses consisted of close examination of ELL participation within official language lessons as well as the social uses of language in the classroom. Analysis of classroom discourse practices revealed that ELL participation was heavily controlled within the common Initiation-Response-Evaluation pattern and that the students were limited to repetition and recitation responses. Further, analysis of discourse content demonstrated that classroom participants used language for social purposes in the classroom, most often using regulatory, decontextualized and resistance language. The findings revealed a cultural model of constrained ELD language practices that can be considered a pedagogy of subtractive assimilation.
ContributorsMartinez, Theresa (Author) / Powers, Jeanne M. (Thesis advisor) / Arias, Beatriz (Committee member) / Arzubiaga, Angela (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2010