The present study begins to establish the psychometric properties of a student-completed behavioral measure in relation to an established teacher-completed measure, and evaluates the strength of the relationship between these two measures and high school students' problematic behaviors. First, a self-behavior rating (SBR) was compared to the established teacher-completed direct behavior rating (DBR) to assess the level of inter-rater reliability with regard to academic engagement, passive...
Erica J Kaurudar.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Runge, Timothy J. Committee members: Joseph Kovaleski; Debra Springer; Mark Staszkiewicz.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2014.
English

This quantitative study investigates cyber-plagiarism among undergraduate college students, particularly the prevalence and motives for copying and pasting unattributed sources on written assignments within the theoretically rich and broader context of self-efficacy theory. Four-hundred-thirty-seven students from three universities completed an online survey designed to examine the relationship between cyber-plagiarism and measures of self-efficacy. A Pearson Correlation revealed no empir...
T. Simeon Ananou.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Bieger, George R. Committee members: Cathy Kaufman; David Piper.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2014.
English

This quantitative study examined the variables of alcohol expectancy and academic self-efficacy to determine if such elements influence student academic achievement. This study rests on the theoretical framework of Social Learning Theory that identifies the concept of individual experiences as shaping and determining future behavior believed to impact student academic success. All enrolled (N=2,609) first year students at a large Mid-Atlantic university were invited to participate in the stu...
Theresa Messina Horner.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Rotigel, Jennifer Committee members: George Bieger; Kelli Jo Kerry-Moran.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2014.
English

The theoretical framework of discourse of renewal places a communicative emphasis on moving an organization forward following crisis by stressing provisional, prospective, optimistic and leader-based communication to stakeholders as a means for encouraging organizational sense making, learning and viewing the crisis as an opportunity for growth. However, discourse of renewal theorists Ulmer, Seeger and Sellnow contend that the use of renewal discourse following crisis is dependent on four key...
Karen Kay Barone.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Wilson, B. Gail Committee members: Nurhaya Muchtar; Zachary Stiegler.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2014.
English

This dissertation offers a critical study of the stages of Arab American identity expressed through the concept of exile and hybridity seen at work in the Arab American literary tradition before 9/11 and after. I am using both postcolonial and feminist theoretical approaches in my research. As postcolonial survivors and mostly women, Arab American authors wrote about being marginalized and alienated in the American culture. They also examined the indelible influence that living in the America...
Muhammad Ali Muhammad El-Sagheer Suliman.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Yang, Lingyan Committee members: Christopher Kuipers; Christopher Orchard.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2014.
English

ADHD is a prevalent childhood psychiatric disorder encountered by many school psychologists in the school setting. Extensive research has been conducted related to the identification of ADHD using a multitude of assessments methods, including behavior rating scales and direct measures of executive function. This study examined the utility of the BRIEF and the D-KEFS, which are two executive function batteries developed for use with children. The sample consisted of 33 participants aged 11 ...
Mindy L Emch.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Black, Lynanne Committee members: Becky Knickelbein; Christoph Maier; Courtney McLaughlin.
Ed.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2013.
English

This dissertation provides a comprehensive definition of forgiveness and presents a theory of reading forgiveness as it applies the proposed theory to early modern drama. Forgiveness, as I define it, is a relationship of two singularities; a victim and guilty party, in which the decision of granting forgiveness becomes an exclusive right of the victim or the person offended. I theorize that we can separate out this relationship into either secular or religious categorizations based on the mot...
Salim Eflih Awwad Al-Ibia.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Orchard, Christopher R. Committee members: Thomas Slater; Michael Williamson.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2013.
English

Cognitive poetics is a nascent interdisciplinary movement that bridges cognitive science and literary theory to demonstrate how harmonizing ideas from both the sciences and the humanities can help scholars develop more comprehensive theories about how we think through and with language. In this cognitive poetic study I examine parallels between literary representations of consciousness in twentieth-century fiction and contemporary cognitive science. Specifically, I examine the prevalence of "...
Francis Carmen Altomare.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Cahalan, James M. Committee members: Kenneth Sherwood; Adrian Wisnicki.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2013.
English

This study of selected works by Appalachian writers Ron Rash and Fred Chappell creates a chronological narrative that focuses on the relationship between the Othering of Appalachian peoples and the ensuing exploitation of natural resources in southern Appalachia throughout the twentieth century. In this dissertation I argue that through these works, Rash and Chappell identify, address, and resist efforts to both colonize and exploit Appalachian residents and the natural resources that enrich...
Elisabeth C Aiken.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Cahalan, James M. Committee members: Patrick Bizzaro; Todd Thompson.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2014.
English

In the 1990's there was a movement by high schools to change from a traditional scheduling format to a block scheduling format (Canady & Rettig, 1995) in an effort to improve student achievement. Reports such as A Nation at Risk and Prisoners of Time indicated time was an important factor (NCEE, 1983; NCTL, 1994). While the concept of school schedules that reduce the load of teachers and students, allow for depth of instruction, and enable teachers to utilize varying instructional strategies...
William Anthony Parks.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Matras, Mary Ann; Rotigel, Jennifer Committee members: Patricia Smeaton.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2013.
English

The purpose of this sequential mixed methods study was to gather three types of information the writing center staff at Mountain View University (pseudonym) in Taipei, Taiwan needs in order to select the best anthologies of paragraphs and essays for purchase as self-access materials. These are (a) what anthologies are available on the Taiwan Market, (b) whether these materials are suitable for the reading levels of the students who visit the center as indicated by the Lexile Readability Formu...
John R Baker.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Fontaine, Jeannine M. Committee members: Mary Jalongo; Lisya Seloni.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2013.
English

This pedagogical study explored the usage of graphic novels among three, college English instructors at various institutions in the state of Pennsylvania. All three participants were faculty members of their respective institutions and were interviewed, had their classes observed by the researcher, and had content analysis conducted on all original documents produced and distributed by the instructor. The pedagogical study, which was a modified cross-case analysis, looked to explore (1) how ...
Alex Scott Romagnoli.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Pagnucci, Gian S. Committee members: Sharon Deckert; Gloria Park.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2013.
English

Over thirty years of extant literature exists regarding reading instruction, yet consensus in the field continues to diverge in the area of reading intervention. Despite the establishment of research-based programs in all five areas of reading (phonemic awareness, alphabetic principle, fluency, vocabulary, and comprehension), educators continue to implement interventions that do not have an established research base. This study sought to examine the effectiveness of two different reading in...
Marissa S Reed.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Black, Lynanne Committee members: Mary Lou Conroy; Becky Knickelbein; Mark Staszkiewicz.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2013.
English

Despite the rapid growth of online learning and student enrollment at for-profit colleges, previous research has found that employers are wary of job applicants with credentials earned from these sources. This study compared the attitudes of health care recruiters toward four different RN-to-BSN degree options based on the method of instruction (classroom, online) and the type of college (traditional, for-profit). A sample of 116 health care recruiters from across the United States completed...
James W Kinneer.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Piwinsky, Mark Committee members: Theresa Calderone; Mary Beth Leidman.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2013.
English

The year 2014 marked the deadline for school districts across the country to comply with the No Child Left Behind legislation. Yet, achievement gaps between Whites and Blacks, present during the year of implementation of the legislation, are still present today. While many interventions and school reforms have been launched since 2001, theoretical frameworks for closing racial achievement gaps have been lacking. This mixed-methods investigation of the Three-Student Project within professio...
Epryl L King.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Rieg, Sue A. Committee members: Kelli Paquette; Monte Tidwell.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2014.
English

In this study I argued the necessity of including African American writers into Southern literature to enhance our understanding of white identity in 20th-century literature. Though my project is the expansion of the prevalent trend in Southern literary studies, it shows important, new reasons for the necessity. By examining whiteness in twentieth-century Southern literature, using critical whiteness theories, and insisting on the inclusion of white-life fiction, I demonstrate the imperative ...
Mi Ok Sa.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Watson, Veronica Committee members: Mike Sell; Todd Thompson.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2014.
English

Teachers are expected to improve their planning, instruction, and assessment as they progress through their career. An important component to teachers knowing what to modify in their teaching style is being able to solicit meaningful feedback from students. This mixed-methods study was conducted to provide teachers with a quantitative method to collect data about their teaching using the Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES). Phase 1 allowed students to provide anonymous feedb...
Jarrett Michael Chapman.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Twiest, Mark G. Committee members: George Bieger; Valeri Helterbran.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2014.
English

This mixed methods dissertation was designed to determine the extent to which the design of spiritual formation into the curriculum is intentional, applied and assessed. While qualitative interviews were designed to develop a practical knowledge base of college faculty and staff engaged in online learning with respect to intent and administrative oversight of spiritual formation in online courses, a quantitative analysis of a sample of online courses was conducted to crosscheck the attitudes ...
Michael Jeffrey Freeman.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Tidwell, Monte Committee members: George Bieger; Valeri Helterbran.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2014.
English

This dissertation examines three women writers' interventions in nineteenth-century America's discourses of justice, particularly their contributions to and critiques of the prominent and yet in many ways inappropriate and repressive iconography of Lady Justice that perpetuated conceptions of justice as a static, subordinated, and impassive ideal rather than a dynamic, democratic, creative, and compassionate process. Catharine Maria Sedgwick, Harriet Ann Jacobs, and Lydia Maria Child interve...
Melissa J Lingle-Martin.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Downing, David B. Committee members: Todd Thompson; Veronica Watson.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2013.
English

Our physical and virtual environments have traditionally been regarded as separate, yet with the proliferation of mobile devices, these environments have merged. Students have already begun integrating mobile devices into virtually every aspect of their lives, thereby changing the ecological system in which they communicate. This study asserts that we should consider how writers and their compositions are influenced by the devices (including smartphones and tablets) they use as they write wit...
Jessica Michelle Schreyer.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Pagnucci, Gian S. Committee members: Steven Krause; Bennett Rafoth.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2014.
English

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of learning strategies in a gaming environment. A sample of 207 students was recruited from an undergraduate business college in the fall of 2013 at the Indiana University of Pennsylvania. A pilot study tested the effectiveness of the instrument and an item analysis tested the efficacy of the questions. The study was a 1x1 post-test design with one independent variable, learning strategies in a gaming environment with two levels Audio ...
Rajendra Kumar Murthy.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Almeida, Luis C. Committee members: Mark Piwinsky; Jay Start.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2014.
English

This research explored the emotions experienced by second and third grade children struggling with learning to read. The study employed grounded theory methodology to study the issue from three primary stakeholders: students, parents, and teachers. Anecdotal observations, along with interviews of children, parents, and teachers were analyzed using NVivo 10 (QSR, 2010) software. The analysis yielded two themes, anxiety and avoidance. The research resulted with two emergent theories. The fi...
Rae Ann Hirsh.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Jalongo, Mary R. Committee members: DeAnna Laverick; Kelli Paquette.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2014.
English

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of real-life and dramatized media violence on undergraduate students' attitudes. An a priori power analysis determined the sample size of this 1x1 posttest only control group experiment based on a Cohen's d of 0.8 and a large effect size in order to appropriately extrapolate beyond the participants to the wider population. The control document was a one page excerpt from the novel The Chocolate Wars while the 15 treatment scenes were se...
Matthew S Kohler.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Start, Jay Committee members: Luis Almeida; Mark Piwinsky.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2013.
English