Online learning has seen an explosive growth at the K-12 level, however little research has used an experimental design approach to specifically examine the outcomes of delivery methods. This study examines what effect learning in an immersive learning environment (virtual world) has on student achievement and satisfaction with the lesson. To conduct this experiment, four groups received instruction in their seventh grade science course. This occurred with two groups having live virtual lesso...
Christopher D Carnahan.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Piwinsky, Mark J. Committee members: James Lenze; Jeffrey Ritchey.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2012.
English

This study compares trusting behaviors and attitudes after participants are briefly exposed to physical contact, thermal warmth, or both. The interpersonal action was designed to be similar to a therapeutic setting. A 2 x 2 MANOVA was used to determine differences between experimental groups. Results from the study indicated non-significant differences between participants who received contact or warmth compared to participants in a no-contact or thermal cold group. Compared to previous studi...
Rebecca A Parker.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: LaPorte, David J. Committee members: Derek Hatfield; Donald Robertson.
Psy.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2011.
English

This case study investigated the effects of year-round school on students with learning disabilities at Abraxas High School in Poway, California. Abraxas is an alternative school that operates on a block schedule and year-round calendar. The researcher attempted to answer the question: How does year-round school impact students with learning disabilities? The researcher implemented a mixed methods approach that utilized both quantitative and qualitative components. Data were collected from th...
John Pfeiffer Jr.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Lare, Douglas; Helterbran, Valeri Committee members: Joyce Burgener.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2011.
English

This empirical study examined the perceptions and experiences of nine Thai college student writers' expression of emotions in poetry, narrative, and opinionated writing written in their first (L1) and second (L2) languages: Thai and English. The study focused on the participants' perspectives in order to gain more understanding of the phenomenon of expressing emotions in writing in different languages. The participants were nine Thai college students who attended a public university in Tha...
Pisarn Bee Chamcharatsri.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Hanauer, David I. Committee members: Patrick Bizzaro; Sharon Deckert; Thom Huebner.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2012.
English

The purpose of this research was to determine if the decision tree analytical technique offered improvement in predicting intimate partner violence outcomes. Two dependent variables were used to examine the research question. The first variable represents a dichotomy; reassault versus no reassault. The second variable included five categories; no reassault, controlling behaviors only/ threatening reassault, one-time reassault, and repeat reassault. Logistic regression and decision trees were ...
Steven L Brewer Jr.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Frenzel, Erika Committee members: Jennifer Gossett; Bitna Kim; Jennifer Roberts.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2012.
English

Roland Barthes separated written texts into the readerly and writerly; readerly texts can be simply defined as more traditional novels, whereas writerly texts encourage and require the reader to take a far more active role in the process of making meaning in the text. James Joyce's Ulysses and Finnegans Wake can be thought of as two excellent examples of writerly texts. Both make use of a combination of techniques in order to draw the reader more fully into the novel, engaging the reader in c...
William E Clough.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Cahalan, James M. Committee members: David Downing; Kenneth Sherwood.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2012.
English

Attrition is a major issue facing nearly all institutions of higher learning. The loss of students affects colleges and universities on many levels and can have a negative impact on students. Community colleges often experience greater attrition than other types of institutions and have an increased need to curb the outflow of students. This study sought to identify an accurate, effective predictor of persistence that could have a major impact on the ability of the entire higher education ...
David A Volpe.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Kerry-Moran, Kelli Jo Committee members: Kelli Paquette; Jennifer Rotigel.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2011.
English

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of teacher leadership through the eyes of both teachers and building administrators. As the pressure among public school educators to improve student achievement continues to grow, it is increasingly clear that no one individual can get the job done alone. While schools seek to take on a distributed approach to leadership, incorporating teachers into their leadership practice, there are differing approaches and levels of success with re...
Matthew E Curci.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Kaufman, Cathy Committee members: Valeri Helterbran; Joseph Marcoline.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2012.
English

This study tests collective efficacy theory by expanding the current operationalizations of informal social control and social cohesion and trust, as well as introducing an original technique to measure these constructs. Collective efficacy has been measured in the same manner in the majority of tests currently available, indicating that these constructs are equated to particular behaviors. This dissertation examines the efficiency of these past techniques by accounting for additional behavio...
Joshua Robert Battin.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Lee, Daniel Committee members: Rosemary Gido; Dennis Giever; Shannon Phaneuf.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2012.
English

This dissertation reconsiders the work of three American poets associated with Ethnopoetics in order to resituate their poetry and Ethnopoetics itself. Analyzing the poetry, prose, and translations of Jerome Rothenberg, Clayton Eshleman, and Armand Schwerner, it shows how Ethnopoetics as a movement entails a self-reflexive approach to the primitive which calls Western values and thinking into question by proposing that the "primitive means complex" (Rothenberg, Technicians of the Sacred xxv)...
Jay W Sarver.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Sherwood, Kenneth Committee members: Mike Sell; Todd Thompson.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2012.
English

In The Theatre of the Absurd, Martin Esslin introduces the term "absurdist theatre" and associates the theatre of Edward Albee with this category. Esslin contends that the definitive source for understanding the existence of the absurdist (and, thus, for understanding what absurdist theatre should entail) is Albert Camus's "The Myth of Sisyphus." Yet, Camus's philosophy of the absurd is not wholly encapsulated in this essay, but is to be understood as an evolution that begins with "The Myth o...
Hillary Ione LaMont.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Sell, Mike Committee members: sj Miller; Thomas Slater.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2012.
English

Mentoring relationships can play important roles in students' progress through their degree program and the decisions they make in their future lives. This phenomenological study examines the mentoring relationships of four women in an attempt to find answers to what mentoring actually means and what drives mentoring relationships, how those relationships affect both mentor and mentee in their lives, and the progression from mentee to mentor. It was guided by a critical feminist framework, dr...
Jessica Lindsey Haggerty.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Park, Gloria Committee members: Sharon Deckert; Antonio Vallone.
Psy.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2011.
English

An integral part of teacher preparation programs are field experiences that allow pre-service teachers to make the connection between the theory and practice. This study examined the experiences of pre-service teachers as they participated in the early field experience component of the teacher preparation program at a small suburban college in northeastern Pennsylvania. The overarching goal of this study was to investigate the experiences of the pre-service teachers that participated in both ...
Anthony P Grieco.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Whitehead, Andrew; Millward, Robert Committee members: Douglas Lare.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2011.
English

The purpose of this study was to identify out-of-classroom leadership experiences which undergraduate student leaders attribute to their own leadership development and to then examine the relationship between those experiences and the practice of five leadership behaviors measured in the Student Leadership Practices Inventory (Student LPI) (Kouzes & Posner, 2006). The behavioral practices measured in the Student LPI are grouped into five themes: (a) challenging the process; (b) inspiring a sh...
Jodie A Frey.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Smeaton, Patricia; Rotigel, Jennifer Committee members: Faith Waters.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2011.
English

The present dissertation offers a critical analysis of the nineteenth-century patriarchal oppression of women in selected novels by Elizabeth Gaskell, Charlotte Bronte, Harriet Beecher Stowe, and Elizabeth Stuart Phelps. It also analyzes the intricate correlation of patriarchy and capitalism that achieve their desire of capital accumulation by taking advantage of female oppression. This will be seen in relation to religion, sexual division of labor, and class. In each chapter, I unveil the st...
Abdullah Fawaz Hamed Al-Badarneh.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Orchard, Christopher Committee members: Susan Comfort; Michael Williamson.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2012.
English

This study begins with an analysis of the Gothic genre, a genre of writing that often appears to be little more than a collection of grotesque content haphazardly collected by writers seeking to create purely Gothic texts. However, this study aims to show how understanding and examining the core values of the Gothic-namely subversion, terror, and a resistance to stable definition-are of greater use and importance for reading a Gothic text than merely identifying the Gothic content. My ...
Patrick Thomas McAleer.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Wilson, Cheryl A. Committee members: Mike Sell; Todd Thompson.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2012.
English

Dating all the way back to Plato's Republic, a variety of authors have fictionalized what an ideal community might look like. Thomas More was one of the first authors to write in-depth about an ideal society, addressing everything from local government to religion, dress, the work day, and even leisure time. Lewis Mumford defines utopia as "a world by itself, divided into ideal commonwealths, with all its communities clustered into proud cities, aiming bravely at the good life" (11). The oppo...
Brett Anthony Devido.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Cahalan, James M. Committee members: Christopher Kuipers; Lingyan Yang.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2012.
English

The purpose of this study was to replicate a study that was completed in 1992-1993 and published in 1996 in a textbook, Highly Successful Women Administrators: The Inside Stories of How They Got There by Sandra Lee Gupton and Gloria Appelt Slick. More than 15 years have passed since the results of that study were shared. The intent of this study was to duplicate the original reason for the study, which was to investigate the topic of gender issues in order to learn more about the experienc...
M. Holly Morrison.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Foster, Kathleen; Rieg, Sue A. Committee members: Douglas Lare.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2012.
English

This dissertation provides an ideological critique of neoliberalism through an analysis of literary narratives by four contemporary novelists: Nuruddin Farah, Helena Viramontes, Mohsin Hamid, and Aravind Adiga. I argue that just as the global uprisings, social struggles, and economic crises we experience in the 21st century have shattered conventional "doxa" about political freedom and economic stability, these literary counternarratives aim to intervene in the global hegemonic narratives abo...
Abdullah Mohammad Lafi Al-Dagamseh.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Downing, David B. Committee members: Bret Benjamin; Susan Comfort.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2012.
English

Conrad's time was drastically imperiled by the capitalist/imperialist rivalry that eventuated a geopolitical partitioning of the whole world. Europe's 'peripheral' others, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America, were thereby integrated into the evolving capitalist system and positioned in unbalanced relationships with the center. The centrifugality of capitalist ideology, the economic conditions within the ensuing global system, and the geopolitical peculiarities of the system's peripherie...
Haitham Mahmoud Abdullah Talafha.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Orchard, Christopher R. Committee members: Karen Dandurand; Michael Williamson.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2011.
English

A historical case study from a 6-8 middle school in the coal region of Northeastern Pennsylvania was conducted to examine the extent of teacher collaboration before and after the implementation of the teaming concept as well as the construction of a new middle school. The study was triangulated through the use of multiple data points including five interviews of teachers that were at the school before and after the implementation of teaming and before and after new school construction, twent...
Ronald John Grevera.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Rieg, Sue; Whitehead, Andrew Committee members: Alison Rutter.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2011.
English

Humor is a unique aspect of human behavior. It offers researchers a chance to understand social relationships in the context of a nearly universal experience: the interpersonal connection that occurs as a result of laughter. This is not to say that all humor is positive. As a distinctly human dynamic, humor mirrors the social realities of dominance, oppression, and difference, as well as the social realities of connection, joy, and intimacy. Understanding humor has powerful ramifications for ...
William B Vogler.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Gunter, Valerie Committee members: Robert Heasley; Alex Heckert.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2011.
English

During one semester of an academic year, one physical education teacher taught two similar instructional territorial sport units to an intact seventh grade physical education class using a traditional instructional model called the multi-activity model. The same teacher also taught a different seventh grade intact class one of the same territorial sports for six weeks, but combined two contemporary instructional models (Sport Education model and Teaching Games for Understanding model) into a ...
Kimberly Ann Everhart.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Bieger, George Committee members: Valeri Helterbran; Keri Kulik.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2011.
English

This study investigated middle school teacher perceptions toward, and practices in the implementation of, a comprehensive school reform called the Turning Points 2000. The second purpose of this study was to examine possible factors that influence middle school teachers' attitudes and practices toward implementation of the Turning Points 2000 Recommendations. The third intent was to measure if middle school teachers are using effective instructional methods that are directly related to the ...
Michael J Pendred II.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Marcoline, Joseph F. Committee members: Cathy Kaufman; Robert Millward.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2011.
English