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- Creators: Barrett, The Honors College
Description
Once perceived as an unimportant occurrence in living organisms, cell degeneration was reconfigured as an important biological phenomenon in development, aging, health, and diseases in the twentieth century. This dissertation tells a twentieth-century history of scientific investigations on cell degeneration, including cell death and aging. By describing four central developments in cell degeneration research with the four major chapters, I trace the emergence of the degenerating cell as a scientific object, describe the generations of a variety of concepts, interpretations and usages associated with cell death and aging, and analyze the transforming influences of the rising cell degeneration research. Particularly, the four chapters show how the changing scientific practices about cellular life in embryology, cell culture, aging research, and molecular biology of Caenorhabditis elegans shaped the interpretations about cell degeneration in the twentieth-century as life-shaping, limit-setting, complex, yet regulated. These events created and consolidated important concepts in life sciences such as programmed cell death, the Hayflick limit, apoptosis, and death genes. These cases also transformed the material and epistemic practices about the end of cellular life subsequently and led to the formations of new research communities. The four cases together show the ways cell degeneration became a shared subject between molecular cell biology, developmental biology, gerontology, oncology, and pathology of degenerative diseases. These practices and perspectives created a special kind of interconnectivity between different fields and led to a level of interdisciplinarity within cell degeneration research by the early 1990s.
ContributorsJiang, Lijing (Author) / Maienschein, Jane (Thesis advisor) / Laubichler, Manfred (Thesis advisor) / Hurlbut, James (Committee member) / Creath, Richard (Committee member) / White, Michael (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
In the latter half of the nineteenth century, colleges and universities transformed their thinking of the body as they institutionalized physical education, recreational activities, and especially physical exercise. In this study, I examine the historical discourse on physical exercise and training during this period. I employ the theoretical and methodological practices of Michel Foucault's archeological and genealogical work to write a "history of the present." I challenge the essential narrative of physical fitness on college and university campuses. I also discuss nineteenth century notions of ethics and masculinity as a way of understanding twenty-first century ethics and masculinity. Ultimately, I use the historical discourse to argue that institutionalization of recreation and fitness centers and activities have less to do with health and well-being and more to do with disciplining bodies and controlling individuals.
ContributorsWells, Timothy (Author) / Carlson, David L. (Thesis advisor) / Sandlin, Jennifer (Committee member) / Margolis, Eric (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
The purpose of this mixed methods research study was to assess the impact and influence of a pre-international experience course on Arizona State University (ASU) students before they study or intern abroad. Currently, the study abroad pre-departure orientation for ASU participants consists of online modules and a two-hour face-to-face orientation. In this action research study, the practitioner-researcher re-designed an ASU School of Politics and Global Studies (SPGS), one-credit course that focused exclusively on cross-cultural awareness and sensitivity. A needs assessment was distributed to a sample of 800 returning study abroad participants and was used to influence the study, along with an extensive literature review and two cycles of action research. The dissertation research and study was conducted during the ASU fall 2013 semester. Quantitative data and qualitative data were collected using eight different measures. To better understand the impact of a pre-international experience curriculum for ASU study abroad and international internship participants before they go abroad, this research study investigated the following research questions: (1) What cultural impact does a pre-international experience course have on students who complete the course before studying or interning abroad? (2) What specific cultural competencies are gained by the participants after participating in the pre-international experience course? (3) How has developing the curriculum, teaching the curriculum and implementing the innovation influenced and informed my practice as an international educator and the Assistant Director of the Arizona State Study Abroad Office? The following five assertions were identified within the quantitative and qualitative analysis of the collected data to answer the three research questions: (1) Students are more confident in their abilities to cross cultures after successfully completing taking the new course; (2) Students are more aware of other cultures and their own culture after successfully completing taking the new course; (3) Students gained important knowledge about understanding others' worldviews after successfully completing taking the new course; (4) Students gained general openness toward intercultural learning and to people from cultures different from their own after successfully completing the new course; (5) Developing and implementing a pre-international experience course changed me as a leader, instructor and researcher. Implications for future implementation and research are discussed.
ContributorsHenry, Adam (Author) / Wetzel, Keith (Thesis advisor) / Ewbank, Ann (Committee member) / LePore, Paul (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Teacher learning in the workplace is situated within a complex context involving the individual and multiple aspects of an educational organization. The present action research study uses a socio-constructionist inquiry lens to further research the local and multifaceted nature of professional learning in schools. The goal is to re-conceptualize professional development away from reductionist approaches that assume teacher practice can be isolated, packaged, and directly transferable into the classroom. The present study examines how lesson study can structure interdisciplinary professional learning to address the current gap in the literature regarding professional development of secondary specialty teachers. Five teachers participated in two lesson study cycles for a period of 13-weeks. This study focused on how teachers co-construct pedagogical knowledge and the extent to which they make changes to their practice. Using a sequential mixed methods research design, this study collected qualitative and quantitative data in three phases. In the initial phase, participants completed a demographical survey and shared a digital ethnography of their philosophy of teaching. Phase two consisted of video recordings for two lesson study cycles. Phase three involved a second survey and semi-structured interviews. Classroom observations were conducted during the first and last phase of the study. All qualitative data was analyzed inductively using open and thematic coding. Cross-case analysis was employed at the analysis stage to integrate data tools for the purpose of complementarity. Results suggest lesson study was an effective, job-embedded model that supports active and continuous professional development that is sustained and transferrable to the classroom. The type of disposition reported and displayed by teachers changed positively over time having transformational effects in the depth of relationships among teachers, increasing co-creation of pedagogical knowledge, and increasing reflectiveness. Teachers' level of openness to learning related to higher levels of effective practices implemented during lessons. Further research is needed to examine the ways in which teacher disposition influences professional learning when secondary specialty teachers engage in lesson study.
ContributorsMesa-Lema, Liliana (Author) / Carlson, David L. (Thesis advisor) / Barnard, Wendy (Committee member) / Medrano, Juan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
ABSTRACT Counselors at a public community college who teach a first-year college success course to developmental education students do not have effective opportunities or a systematic method to develop their teaching practice. Moreover, like a majority of community college and university instructors, many counselors do not have formal training in instruction. Since the retention and persistence rates of developmental education students are low when compared to non-developmental education students, and the purpose of the college success course is to increase developmental education student success, it is imperative that instructors of the college success course are well-trained to provide high quality learning experiences. The researcher implemented the Lesson Study (LS) professional learning experience in order to increase the collaboration amongst counselors in their efforts to improve their teaching practice as well as improve the quality of the learning experience for developmental education students, consequently potentially improving their retention and persistence. The researcher facilitated a mixed-method study to explore how instructors made meaning of their teaching practice as well as what changes they made to their instructional practice while engaging in LS. The researcher utilized qualitative means to analyze the following data: (1) instructors' weekly reflective journals, (2) semi-structured interviews with instructors after each cycle of LS, (3) video recordings of LS debrief meetings, and (4) video recordings of LS planning meetings. The researcher utilized quantitative means to analyze the following data: (1) pre/post instructor surveys on self-efficacy, and (2) 1,235 student questionnaires regarding LS lessons and non-LS lessons. Analysis of the qualitative data demonstrated that how counselors made meaning of their LS experience seemed to correlate with positive features attributed to the practice of LS in the research literature such as increased collaboration and in-depth reflection as well as positive changes in instructional practices and an increased focus on learning from practice. In addition, analysis of the qualitative and quantitative data showed that lessons created through LS produced a higher quality learning experience for students than lessons that were not created through LS. Moreover, the analysis of the data showed an increase in instructors' efficacy for teaching.
ContributorsLucas, Miguel (Author) / Carlson, David L. (Thesis advisor) / Barnard, Wendy (Committee member) / Haas, Eric (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Disparities exist among minorities in educational a ttainment. The gap widens when examining access to higher education and persi stence rates among minority males as compared to their white counterparts and minorit y females. The purpose of this action research study was to explore the impact of a recip rocal mentoring model between faculty and minority male students in an effort to examine the effects on student persistence and the students' academic experience. The researcher attempted to examine mentoring relationships, the process of reciprocal mentoring, and the effects on persistence and the students' academic experience f or the purpose of learning about one another's perspectives. This study investigated min ority male persistence within Chandler-Gilbert Community College (CGCC). Persiste nce was defined as a student who enrolled during the fall 2013 academic semester and continued at the same institution or transferred to another two-year or four-year instit ution working on degree completion. The author used a mixed methods design and used Cri tical Race Theory (CRT) as the theoretical framework by which to examine issues pe rtaining to minority male student perspectives and experiences. The results yielded e ight assertions related to minority male retention and persistence.
ContributorsWendt, Jill Lynette (Author) / Carlson, David L. (Thesis advisor) / Barnard, Wendy (Thesis advisor) / Glasper, Rufus (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
Analysis of social networks has the potential to provide insights into wide range of applications. As datasets continue to grow, a key challenge is the lack of a widely applicable algorithmic framework for detection of statistically anomalous networks and network properties. Unlike traditional signal processing, where models of truth or empirical verification and background data exist and are often well defined, these features are commonly lacking in social and other networks. Here, a novel algorithmic framework for statistical signal processing for graphs is presented. The framework is based on the analysis of spectral properties of the residuals matrix. The framework is applied to the detection of innovation patterns in publication networks, leveraging well-studied empirical knowledge from the history of science. Both the framework itself and the application constitute novel contributions, while advancing algorithmic and mathematical techniques for graph-based data and understanding of the patterns of emergence of novel scientific research. Results indicate the efficacy of the approach and highlight a number of fruitful future directions.
ContributorsBliss, Nadya Travinin (Author) / Laubichler, Manfred (Thesis advisor) / Castillo-Chavez, Carlos (Thesis advisor) / Papandreou-Suppappola, Antonia (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Leo Kanner first described autism in his 1943 article in Nervous Child titled "Autistic Disturbances of Affective Contact". Throughout, he describes the eleven children with autism in exacting detail. In the closing paragraphs, the parents of autistic children are described as emotionally cold. Yet, he concludes that the condition as he described it was innate. Since its publication, his observations about parents have been a source of controversy surrounding the original definition of autism.
Thus far, histories about autism have pointed to descriptions of parents of autistic children with the claim that Kanner abstained from assigning them causal significance. Understanding the theoretical context in which Kanner's practice was embedded is essential to sorting out how he could have held such seemingly contrary views simultaneously.
This thesis illustrates that Kanner held an explicitly descriptive frame of reference toward his eleven child patients, their parents, and autism. Adolf Meyer, his mentor at Johns Hopkins, trained him to make detailed life-charts under a clinical framework called psychobiology. By understanding that Kanner was a psychobiologist by training, I revisit the original definition of autism as a category of mental disorder and restate its terms. This history illuminates the theoretical context of autism's discovery and has important implications for the first definition of autism amidst shifting theories of childhood mental disorders and the place of the natural sciences in defining them.
Thus far, histories about autism have pointed to descriptions of parents of autistic children with the claim that Kanner abstained from assigning them causal significance. Understanding the theoretical context in which Kanner's practice was embedded is essential to sorting out how he could have held such seemingly contrary views simultaneously.
This thesis illustrates that Kanner held an explicitly descriptive frame of reference toward his eleven child patients, their parents, and autism. Adolf Meyer, his mentor at Johns Hopkins, trained him to make detailed life-charts under a clinical framework called psychobiology. By understanding that Kanner was a psychobiologist by training, I revisit the original definition of autism as a category of mental disorder and restate its terms. This history illuminates the theoretical context of autism's discovery and has important implications for the first definition of autism amidst shifting theories of childhood mental disorders and the place of the natural sciences in defining them.
ContributorsCohmer, Sean (Author) / Hurlbut, James B (Thesis advisor) / Maienschein, Jane (Committee member) / Laubichler, Manfred (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
The State of Arizona mandates that students with superior intellect or abilities, or identified gifted students, receive appropriate gifted education and services in order to achieve at levels commensurate with their intellect and abilities. Additionally, the State of Arizona adopted the Arizona College and Career Ready Standards (AZCCRS) initiative. This investigation explores if, according to the perceptions of gifted educators, the AZCCRS support a gifted mathematic curriculum and pedagogy at the elementary level which is commensurate with academic abilities, potential, and intellect of these mathematically gifted students, what the relationships are between exemplary gifted curriculum and pedagogy and the AZCCRS, and exactly how the gifted education specialists charged with meeting the academic and intellectual needs and potential of their gifted students interpret, negotiate, and implement the AZCCRS.
This study utilized a qualitative approach and a variety of instruments to gather data, including: profile questionnaires, semi-structured pre-interviews, reflective journals, three group discussion sessions, and semi-structured post interviews. The pre- and post interviews as well as the group discussion sessions were audiotape recorded and transcribed. A three stage coding process was utilized on the questionnaires, interviews, discussion sessions, and journal entries.
The results and findings demonstrated that AZCCRS clearly support exemplary gifted mathematic curriculum and practices at the elementary level, that there are at least nine distinct relationships between the AZCCRS and gifted pedagogy, and that the gifted education specialists interpret, negotiate, and implement the AZCCRS uniquely in at least four distinct ways, in their mathematically gifted pullout classes.
This study utilized a qualitative approach and a variety of instruments to gather data, including: profile questionnaires, semi-structured pre-interviews, reflective journals, three group discussion sessions, and semi-structured post interviews. The pre- and post interviews as well as the group discussion sessions were audiotape recorded and transcribed. A three stage coding process was utilized on the questionnaires, interviews, discussion sessions, and journal entries.
The results and findings demonstrated that AZCCRS clearly support exemplary gifted mathematic curriculum and practices at the elementary level, that there are at least nine distinct relationships between the AZCCRS and gifted pedagogy, and that the gifted education specialists interpret, negotiate, and implement the AZCCRS uniquely in at least four distinct ways, in their mathematically gifted pullout classes.
ContributorsDohm, Dianna (Author) / Carlson, David L. (Thesis advisor) / Barnard, Wendy (Committee member) / Moses, Lindsey (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
During the 1960s, the long-standing idea that traits or behaviors could be
explained by natural selection acting on traits that persisted "for the good of the group" prompted a series of debates about group-level selection and the effectiveness with which natural selection could act at or across multiple levels of biological organization. For some this topic remains contentious, while others consider the debate settled, even while disagreeing about when and how resolution occurred, raising the question: "Why have these debates continued?"
Here I explore the biology, history, and philosophy of the possibility of natural selection operating at levels of biological organization other than the organism by focusing on debates about group-level selection that have occurred since the 1960s. In particular, I use experimental, historical, and synthetic methods to review how the debates have changed, and whether different uses of the same words and concepts can lead to different interpretations of the same experimental data.
I begin with the results of a group-selection experiment I conducted using the parasitoid wasp Nasonia, and discuss how the interpretation depends on how one conceives of and defines a "group." Then I review the history of the group selection controversy and argue that this history is best interpreted as multiple, interrelated debates rather than a single continuous debate. Furthermore, I show how the aspects of these debates that have changed the most are related to theoretical content and empirical data, while disputes related to methods remain largely unchanged. Synthesizing this material, I distinguish four different "approaches" to the study of multilevel selection based on the questions and methods used by researchers, and I use the results of the Nasonia experiment to discuss how each approach can lead to different interpretations of the same experimental data. I argue that this realization can help to explain why debates about group and multilevel selection have persisted for nearly sixty years. Finally, the conclusions of this dissertation apply beyond evolutionary biology by providing an illustration of how key concepts can change over time, and how failing to appreciate this fact can lead to ongoing controversy within a scientific field.
explained by natural selection acting on traits that persisted "for the good of the group" prompted a series of debates about group-level selection and the effectiveness with which natural selection could act at or across multiple levels of biological organization. For some this topic remains contentious, while others consider the debate settled, even while disagreeing about when and how resolution occurred, raising the question: "Why have these debates continued?"
Here I explore the biology, history, and philosophy of the possibility of natural selection operating at levels of biological organization other than the organism by focusing on debates about group-level selection that have occurred since the 1960s. In particular, I use experimental, historical, and synthetic methods to review how the debates have changed, and whether different uses of the same words and concepts can lead to different interpretations of the same experimental data.
I begin with the results of a group-selection experiment I conducted using the parasitoid wasp Nasonia, and discuss how the interpretation depends on how one conceives of and defines a "group." Then I review the history of the group selection controversy and argue that this history is best interpreted as multiple, interrelated debates rather than a single continuous debate. Furthermore, I show how the aspects of these debates that have changed the most are related to theoretical content and empirical data, while disputes related to methods remain largely unchanged. Synthesizing this material, I distinguish four different "approaches" to the study of multilevel selection based on the questions and methods used by researchers, and I use the results of the Nasonia experiment to discuss how each approach can lead to different interpretations of the same experimental data. I argue that this realization can help to explain why debates about group and multilevel selection have persisted for nearly sixty years. Finally, the conclusions of this dissertation apply beyond evolutionary biology by providing an illustration of how key concepts can change over time, and how failing to appreciate this fact can lead to ongoing controversy within a scientific field.
ContributorsDimond, Christopher C (Author) / Collins, James P. (Thesis advisor) / Gadau, Juergen (Committee member) / Laubichler, Manfred (Committee member) / Armendt, Brad (Committee member) / Lynch, John (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014