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Newer communication technologies (CTs) will always vie with more mature technologies for the attention of time-constrained legislators. As continual advances in CT make new methods of communication available to legislators, it is important to understand how newly introduced CTs influence novel and changing legislator behaviors. The mixed-method research presented in

Newer communication technologies (CTs) will always vie with more mature technologies for the attention of time-constrained legislators. As continual advances in CT make new methods of communication available to legislators, it is important to understand how newly introduced CTs influence novel and changing legislator behaviors. The mixed-method research presented in this study provides deep insights into the relationships between legislators and the CTs they use. This study offers many contributions, among them: it effectively bridges a gap between existing Internet Enabled CT (IECT) behavioral studies on non-legislators by expanding them to include legislator behavior; it expands existing narrowly focused research into the use of CT by legislators by including both IECT and mature CTs such as face-to-face meetings and telephone; it provides a fresh perspective on the factors that make CTs important to legislators, and it uncovers legislator behaviors that are both useful, and potentially harmful, to the process of democracy in the United States. In addition, this study confirms and extends existing research in areas such as minority party constituent communication frequency, and extends the topic of legislator CT behavior into some unanticipated areas such as constituent selective behaviors and the use of text messaging during floor debates which effectively enable lobbyists and paid consultants to participate real-time in floor debates in the Arizona House and Senate.

ContributorsWest, Joe, 1959- (Author) / Corley, Elizabeth A (Thesis advisor) / Johnston, Erik W., 1977- (Committee member) / Svara, James H. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
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Background – Among influential education reports, there is clear consensus that an expansive range of intrapersonal (e.g. self-regulation) and interpersonal competencies (e.g. empathy) highly influence educational and career success. Research on teaching and learning these competencies is limited in engineering education.

Purpose/Hypothesis – This dissertation study explores the impacts of

Background – Among influential education reports, there is clear consensus that an expansive range of intrapersonal (e.g. self-regulation) and interpersonal competencies (e.g. empathy) highly influence educational and career success. Research on teaching and learning these competencies is limited in engineering education.

Purpose/Hypothesis – This dissertation study explores the impacts of a mindfulness training program on first-year engineering students and aims to understand potential impacts on the development of intrapersonal and interpersonal competencies.

Design/Method – A four-session mindfulness-based training program was designed, developed, and facilitated to cultivate intrapersonal and interpersonal competencies. This study employed a multiphase mixed method design in which quantitative and qualitative data was collected from a total of 35 different students through a post survey (n=31), 3-month follow-up survey (n=29), and interviews (n=18). t-tests were used to evaluate the statistical significance of the program and a rigorous thematic analysis process was utilized to help explain the quantitative data.

Results – The results suggest that the majority of students became more mindful, which led to improved intrapersonal competencies (i.e. self-management, critical-thinking, focus, resilience, and well-being) and interpersonal competencies (i.e. empathy, communication, teamwork, and leadership).

Discussion / Conclusions – The study provides compelling evidence that mindfulness training can support the development of intrapersonal and interpersonal skills among engineering students, which can support their overall academic experience, as well as personal and professional development. Future design and development work will be needed to evaluate the integration and scalability potential of mindfulness training within engineering programs.
ContributorsHuerta, Mark Vincent (Author) / McKenna, Anna (Thesis advisor) / Pipe, Teri (Committee member) / Carberry, Adam (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2019
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Description
A defining feature of many United States (U.S.) doctoral engineering programs is their large proportion of international students. Despite the large student body and the significant impacts that they bring to the U.S. education and economy, a scarcity of research on engineering doctoral students has taken into consideration the existence

A defining feature of many United States (U.S.) doctoral engineering programs is their large proportion of international students. Despite the large student body and the significant impacts that they bring to the U.S. education and economy, a scarcity of research on engineering doctoral students has taken into consideration the existence of international students and the consequential diversity in citizenship among all students. This study was designed to bridge the research gap to improve the understanding of sense of belonging from the perspective of international engineering doctoral students.

A multi-phase mixed methods research approach was taken for this study. The qualitative strand focused on international engineering doctoral students’ sense of belonging and its constructs. Semi-structured interview data were collected from eight international students enrolled at engineering doctoral programs at four different institutions. Thematic analysis and further literature review produced a conceptual structure of sense of belonging among international engineering doctoral students: authentic-self, problem behavior, academic self-efficacy, academic belonging, sociocultural belonging, and perceived institutional support.

The quantitative strand of this study broadened the study’s population to all engineering doctoral students, including domestic students, and conducted comparative analyses between international and domestic student groups. An instrument to measure the Engineering Doctoral Students’ Quality of Interaction (EDQI instrument) was developed while considering the multicultural nature of interactions and the discipline-specific characteristics of engineering doctoral programs. Survey data were collected from 653 engineering doctoral students (383 domestic and 270 international) at 36 R1 institutions across the U.S. Exploratory Factor Analysis results confirmed the construct validity and reliability of the data collected from the instrument and indicated the factor structures for the students’ perceived quality interactions among domestic and international student groups. A set of separate regression analyses results indicated the significance of having meaningful interactions to students’ sense of belonging and identified the groups of people who make significant impacts on students’ sense of belonging for each subgroup. The emergent findings provide an understanding of the similarities and differences in the contributors of sense of belonging between international and domestic students, which can be used to develop tailored support structures for specific student groups.
ContributorsLee, Eunsil (Author) / Bekki, Jennifer (Thesis advisor) / Carberry, Adam (Thesis advisor) / Kellam, Nadia (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020