This program evaluation is a study of the effectiveness of a core reading program, Journeys, by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (HMH), on the early literacy skills and oral reading fluency (ORF) of kindergarten through second grade students in a rural elementary school. The scores of the students in the experimental group were compared to scores of students across the country represented by the AIMSweb 2012 national norms, serving as the control group. Additionally, an assessment of intervention ...
Christina Smith.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Staszkiewicz, Mark Committee members: Lynanne Black; Joseph Kovaleski; Timothy Runge.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2013.
English

Neuropsychological impairments related to explicit memory, working memory, and executive functioning (response inhibition, cognitive flexibility, attention) have been established within the literature as a consequence of exposure to chronic stress or trauma. Increased symptoms of depression, anxiety, perceived stress, posttraumatic stress, and psychosis have also been noted as a function of the cumulative effect of stress and trauma. The current study evaluated the effects of both potentially...
Leslie R Smith Varner.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Meil, William Committee members: Pearl Berman; David LaPorte.
Psy.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2014.
English

This study involved the use of archival TESA program evaluation data from 129 middle school teachers who taught at public middle schools in Indianapolis, Indiana during the 2007-2008 school year. Teachers were asked to identify five high achieving students and five low achieving students in their classroom. Teachers then completed a survey about each of these ten students. This study examines the relationship between teacher expectations measured by their identification of students as hi...
Lisa M Kohut.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Staszkiewicz, Mark J.; Kovaleski, Joseph F. Committee members: Lynanne Black; Roger Briscoe.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2014.
English

The use of virtual world technology for language instruction is a recent development in education. The goal of this study was to provide a functioning 3D environment for German language students to experience as avatars. The student's impressions, attitudes, and perceptions of this learning activity would be recorded and analyzed to see if this might be a fruitful way to study elements of the German language in the future. This study examined the use of a virtual world language activity ...
David L Parrott.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Muchtar, Nurhaya Committee members: Mary Beth Leidman; Zachary Stiegler.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2014.
English

The development of social competence for children is critical to their ability to navigate social decision making processes; however, children with complex disabilities have many difficulties in developing social competence. In an educational environment, the optimal setting for a child to develop social competence is within the inclusive classroom. Despite this, children with complex disabilities are often excluded from regular education settings. In addition, there has been limited research...
Amy Kristen Matz.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Black, Lynanne Committee members: Stephen Bagnato; Becky Knickelbein; Mark Staszkiewicz.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2013.
English

This research explores the current state of online writing centers by analyzing the contributions of scholars, tutors, and students to the pedagogical practices of online peer tutoring. The study examines three areas of online peer synchronous tutoring from students' perspectives: a) students' experiences, b) students' revision processes, and c) sound practices for online tutoring. The findings emphasize the importance of including students in conversations about online tutoring practices to ...
Lindsay Ann Sabatino.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Rafoth, Bennett A. Committee members: Sharon Deckert; Michael Williamson.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2014.
English

This study examines the interplay of theory and practice in writing center work. It uses a pragmatic framework to better understand how three key writing center figures-Harvey Kail, Muriel Harris, and Jeanne Simpson-approach theory and practice. The study specifically examined 34 publications, 152 WCenter listserv postings, and 51 pages of interview transcripts. Identifying ways for the writing center community to engage theory and practice addresses the tension between writing center theo...
Thomas Paul Truesdell.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Rafoth, Bennett A. Committee members: Virginia Perdue; Michael Williamson.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2014.
English

Historically, courses offered at institutions of higher education took place within the confines of brick and mortar classrooms. Over time, opportunities to enroll in distance education courses through higher educational institutions have been available in many different formats; however, the most recent is online instruction and online learning. Online instruction requires a different type of preparation than traditional face-to-face instruction. It requires varied instructional, technologic...
Lisa Michele LoBasso.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Bieger, George; Lare, Douglas Committee members: David Rheinheimer; Keith Vanic.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2013.
English

The purpose of this study was to see if students made gains in reading achievement in the area of reading comprehension by having used a computerized reading instructional program entitled "READ 180®." The researcher included a qualitative component to gather teacher and parent perceptions of the use of this program. The theoretical framework used for this study was Lev Vygotsky's Zone of Proximal Development. Specifically, this study examined two elementary schools' fifth-grade students w...
Deborah L Piper.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Paquette, Kelli R. Committee members: Anne Creany; Sue Rieg.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2013.
English

The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) has been used as a measure of decision-making among many clinical populations. However, not much is known about IGT performance in individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and diagnoses of psychological distress. Additionally, evidence on convergent and divergent validity with other measures is lacking in the literature. Archival neuropsychological evaluation data from 74 outpatients at an academic medical hospital were collected. This study investigated conv...
Heather Tropiano.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: LaPorte, David J. Committee members: Michael Franzen; William Meil; Margaret Reardon; Donald Robertson.
Psy.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2014.
English

Because creative writing studies is a developing discipline and research shows that many creative writing faculty are underrepresented in scholarship, this dissertation study aims to explore current pedagogical approaches in American undergraduate creative writing classrooms. To achieve this goal, the researcher collected nearly 70 course syllabi, along with survey data to situate the syllabi, and conducted discourse analyses on the data utilizing NVivo software. As part of the analysis, the ...
Tamara A Girardi.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Bizzaro, Patrick Committee members: Resa Crane Bizzaro; Dianne Donnelly; Bryna Siegel Finer.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2014.
English

The purpose of this cross-sectional descriptive research study was to explore leadership development of professionals in the field of radiography that starts at the level of the student radiographer. Specifically, this study was aimed at understanding radiography students' perceptions of the transformational leadership behaviors of individuals who hold leadership positions relative to the radiography educational process, and how these leader role models related to students' perceptions of lea...
Renee C Bloom.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Mabry, J. Beth Committee members: John Anderson; Julia Bill; Valerie Gunter.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2014.
English

This qualitative research study aimed to critically examine developmental reading textbook and educational policy discourse situated in the California Community College System in order to uncover implicit assumptions about literacy, textbooks, college reading instruction, the instructor's role, and the role of developmental students. A theoretical framework combining Norman Fairclough's (2001) three-stage method of Critical Discourse Analysis with sociocultural theory and critical pedagogy wa...
Jennifer M Rodden.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Rafoth, Bennett A. Committee members: Sharon Deckert; Lilia Savova.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2014.
English

This dissertation examines the ideological power of informal social groups in the Victorian novel. It fills a gap in scholarship on the period, created by the considerable which focuses on official institutions and relationships. Informal ties have gone largely undiscussed in terms of their ideological activity. This project demonstrates how these relationships perpetuate and apply dominant ideologies. It examines three types of relationship. First, it looks at close emotional ties and how...
Brett Robert Wallen.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Orchard, Christopher Committee members: Christopher Kuipers; Kenneth Sherwood.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2014.
English

The purpose of this mixed methods dissertation was to comparatively explore the impact of the film industry in three Rust Belt cities. In doing so, this study creates a regional composite of the film industry as an engine of economic development in the Rust Belt. Additionally, it assesses the effect of state sponsored film production incentives on regional economies. Qualitative analysis of interviews with regional film commissioners was synthesized with Geographic Information Systems ana...
R. James Wertz.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Leidman, Mary Beth Committee members: Nurhaya Muchtar; Jeff Ritchey.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2013.
English

This explanatory mixed-method study explored the dropout phenomenon from an ecological perspective identifying the school organizational (academics, activities, structure) and social relationship (teachers, peers) factors that most significantly influence students' decisions to leave school prior to graduation at a rural high school in south central Pennsylvania. The quantitative phase of the study utilized a 40 question, forced choice survey to isolate the school organizational and social...
Andrea J Farina.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Smeaton, Patricia; Machado, Crystal Committee members: Douglas Lare; Faith Waters.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2013.
English

The purpose of this study was to analyze the perspectives of the three groups most directly affected by cyberbullying: (1) the students involved in incidents, (2) their parents/guardians, and (3) educators such as teachers, school administrators, counselors, social workers, and school psychologists. There have been ineffective or nonexistent cyberbullying prevention and intervention strategies used by all three groups, partly due to their different perspectives on this issue, education needs,...
Shannon Phillips-Shyrock.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Jalongo, Mary R. Committee members: Beatrice Fennimore; Timothy Runge.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2014.
English

This pretest-posttest experiment explored the effects of genre on cognitive destination image, affective destination image, place familiarity, and visitation interest with regard to a single destination placed within multiple movies in order to contribute to the growing field of film tourism. The experiment consisted of four genre treatment groups-action, comedy, drama, and horror-and a control group. Participants completed a post-survey both immediately after the experiment and two weeks aft...
Catherine A Rudowsky.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Wilson, B. Gail Committee members: Nurhaya Muchtar; Mark Piwinsky; Theresa Wajda.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2013.
English

Some of the critical discourse concerning American identity and ethnic identity has tended to be represented as an inherent contradiction. Such contradiction has been articulated in terms of a hyphenated identity, which is a negative representation that is both assimilist and separatist. Unlike this approach, this dissertation focuses on showing the positive role played by ethnic American individuals who successfully negotiate their ethnic, American, and personal identities and that the uneas...
Sameer Mohammad Eid Al-Shraah.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Yang, Lingyan Committee members: Christopher Orchard; Thomas Slater.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2014.
English

In this first comprehensive study of Deirdre Madden's novels, I examine her work through a variety of critical lenses, and position Madden within the contexts of Irish fiction and women's fiction. I consider Madden's significance as an Irish writer who situates herself among various traditions and themes: nature and place writing, mother-daughter relationships, the Irish "Troubles," expatriate experiences, art and the artist, and children's literature. Feminism provides the groundwork for man...
Carly J Dunn.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Cahalan, James M. Committee members: Christopher Kuipers; Lingyan Yang.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2014.
English

Learning disabilities are the most prevalent disability reported in higher education, including nursing education. Yet, despite cognitive abilities for educational success, students with learning disabilities have a reportedly lower graduation rate than their non-disabled peers. Factors related to this phenomenon remain vastly unknown. With the current nursing shortage and predicted need for future nurses to meet societal demand, the importance of gaining understanding is imperative. Nursing ...
Darlene A Ardary.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Poorman, Susan G. Committee members: Michele Crytzer; Joyce Shanty.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2014.
English

This study investigates the impact of being the only composition scholar on writing program administrators' work, relationships, and identities. The study data illuminates the experiences of a segment of the writing program administration population that is currently underrepresented: writing program administrators who are also the only composition scholars at their institutions. Twenty-two current or previous only-composition-scholar writing program administrators were surveyed to establish ...
Robin Gallaher.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Williamson, Michael M. Committee members: Bennett Rafoth; Susan Welsh.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2014.
English