In the United States, ergonomic losses achieve recognition as the leading non-fatal occupational injury category (OSHA, 2000) and account for 33 percent of all worker injury and illness cases (OSHA, 2016). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the degree to which leading ergonomic safety performance indicators (SPIs) are valued and utilized, identify the perceived difficulties in implementing leading ergonomic SPIs, and examine the role education and job classification have on the use a...
Frederick D Straub.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Janicak, Christopher Committee members: Wanda Minnick; Jan Wachter.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2017.
English

The purpose of this quantitative study was to analyze the perspectives of key stakeholders to determine if the use of broadband sound emitting reversing alarms is perceived to improve safety in the workplace more so than traditional tonal sound emitting reversing alarms. The survey population consisted of steel industry occupational pedestrians, forklift operators, leadership and maintenance employees working at fifty-five locations of one North American steel company that is currently using ...
Richard S Kilpatrick.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Cekada, Tracey Committee members: Christopher Janicak; Wanda Minnick.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2017.
English

The purpose of this study is to interview high school teachers of English Language Arts and special educators who are partners in a co-teaching model. It is important to understand the perceptions of teachers using co-teaching models to learn about the strengths of the program, as well as areas for improvement. In 1975, public education changed with the passing of P.L. 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children's Act triggering the development of inclusive practices to educate stud...
Phillip K Woods.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Millward, Robert Committee members: Roger Briscoe; Joseph Marcoline.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2017.
English

This study examined the predictive relationship of a brief computation measure administered in the fall, winter, and spring of first, second, and third grade with the mathematic portion of a state-mandated academic achievement test administered in the spring of third grade. The relationship between mathematical achievement and resource availability and sex was also explored. Multiple linear regression analysis and Pearson correlations indicate the brief computation measure from the winter ...
Adelle C Campbell.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Runge, Timothy J. Committee members: Joseph Kovaleski; Michelle Ludwig; Courtney McLaughlin.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2017.
English

Non-traditional learners are currently the majority of students in higher education. One segment of this population are millions of adults with some college credits and no degree. Every year, the 400,000 students who leave college join those millions. When adults attempt to return to school, they experience low graduation rates. Despite over half a century of adult learning research, higher education is still not able to meet their needs. Given the significant individual and societal benefits...
Jennifer A Serowick.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Paquette, Kelli R. Committee members: David Piper; Meghan Twiest.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2017.
English

This phenomenological study explores the educational technology experiences of ten Chinese international students at American universities. It describes their technology experiences and the influence on their technology self-efficacy and acculturation to the university culture in America. Seidman's (1998) three-interview approach was employed to collect data from each participant. Four major findings emerged from the interview data. First, there are differences in educational software, suppor...
Ying Jiang.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Paquette, Kelli R. Committee members: DeAnna Laverick; Crystal Machado.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2017.
English

Tragic acts of violence in and around schools across the nation have increased the need to understand bullying behaviors and acts of aggression, as they are often cited as the reason for these heartbreaks. Schools work to prevent these situations from happening and intervene with fairness and discipline when they occur, and as a result, the duties of a school counselor has changed from a primarily academic focus to one which now includes assessing the social and emotional stability of the stu...
Lisa Noel Duval.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Marcoline, Joseph F. Committee members: Kelli Paquette; Meghan Twiest.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2017.
English

Colleges and universities are being increasingly recognized as key contributors to the well-being of the places in which they are located. However, in spite of the promise and potential of place-based engagement, there is little agreement about what place and place-building means or how these concepts can be operationalized in within the context of institutional community engagement (Siemers, Harrison, Clayton, & Stanley, 2015). The central purpose of this study was to explore these topics in...
Jeffrey Stuart Raykes.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Paquette, Kelli R. Committee members: Richard Hoch; Joseph Marcoline.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2017.
English

In this dissertation, the author aims at gaining a better understanding of how taking an Environmental Literature and Writing course affects student writing while exploring how writing students view their own roles within their natural environments following the completion of the described course. Through the collecting and assessing of student writing as well as post-semester open-question interviews, the author seeks to understand how students are affected and influenced by being exposed to...
Yasmin Marie Rioux.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Pagnucci, Gian S. Committee members: Amanda Poole; Curt Porter.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2017.
English

This dissertation examines the use of popular music in the films of Joel and Ethan Coen, more popularly known as the "Coen brothers." To date, the films of the Coens have been analyzed from a wide variety of scholarly approaches, including postmodernism, independent film, genre theory, and cultural studies. However, an extended, in-depth study of popular music in Coen films-a standout yet consistently overlooked feature of their auterism-has yet to conducted, an important gap addressed by thi...
Jesse Ulmer.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Slater, Thomas J. Committee members: Reena Dube; Michael Williamson.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2017.
English

This dissertation examines two of the most salient characteristics of the Anglophone Caribbean writer Michelle Cliff's work: one, her analysis of a hegemonic colonial system and, two, her exploration of possibilities for resistance. Regarding the first, I argue that Cliff's work should be recognized as a significant postcolonial intersectional feminist project that analyzes the traumas of gender and race, especially whiteness, as manifestations of a colonial/gender modern system in the Caribb...
Begona Vilouta Vazquez.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Comfort, Susan M. Committee members: Veronica Watson; Lingyan Yang.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2017.
English

This study used a qualitative interpretive approach to examine perceptions of adult students in their final semester prior to graduation by analyzing what they believe contributed to their persistence to degree completion. Participants were all pursuing undergraduate degrees, were 25 years-of-age or older, and were enrolled in one of three schools within the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education. The research revealed that motivations of employment, family support, and maturity lev...
Philomena M Gill.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Helterbran, Valeri Committee members: Amber Racchini; Mark Twiest.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2017.
English

Preceptorship in nursing education, pairing a student with an experienced nurse in a clinical setting, is a popular method of clinical instruction that may be used throughout the nursing curriculum or as a culminating experience in the last semester of the nursing program. Although many studies have been conducted regarding the preceptor, preceptee, and their relationship, there is limited literature describing the associate degree student's perception of this experience. The purpose of this ...
Pamela J Chapman.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Poorman, Susan G. Committee members: Michele Gerwick; Edith West.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2017.
English

The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to identify and describe what correlations, if any, exist between the composite Phelps Kindergarten Readiness Scale (PKRS) score, the visual-perceptual subtest of the PKRS, and reading achievement by the end of grade one. The quantitative data used in this study were the PKRS scores from 421 students entering kindergarten in the 2013 and 2014 school years and the end of first grade Title I Reading rosters for the same cohort of students. The qualita...
Sarah Bond.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Rieg, Sue A. Committee members: DeAnna Laverick; Susan Sibert.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2017.
English

This dissertation content-analyzed a sample of presidential debate transcripts from 1960-2012, to examine and measure the extent to which policy discussions and candidates' stances during debates reflect the aspirations of posterity. A fundamental American socio-cultural frame asserts that people desire that succeeding generations live better lives than their forebears. Though researchers agree that present day decisions and policies will have perhaps greater consequences on posterity than ev...
Beatrice N Epwene.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Leidman, Mary Beth Committee members: Jay Start; Zachary Stiegler.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2017.
English

This research had three goals. First, it aimed to replicate previous research that has uncovered relationships between existential isolation and psychological and physical health. Second, it examined gender in the context of existential isolation. Finally, it aimed to create a workshop designed to reduce existential isolation, and to evaluate its effectiveness. The research was comprised of three phases. Phase 1 was an online survey. During this phase, participants completed self-report me...
Abby E Costello.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Long, Anson E. Committee members: Laura Knight; Maureen McHugh.
Psy.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2017.
English

My dissertation aims to provide an analysis of how select American and Pakistani writers in their fiction, since the fateful day in September 2001, have taken to investigate and analyze the tragedy within the contemporary and historical backdrop of US's hegemonic and imperial role in world politics. Hence, the impulse is to contextualize the tragedy within the broader framework of history-a history that is largely ignored in the dominant discourses. The narratives, thus written, are resistant...
Rubina Sheikh.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Comfort, Susan Committee members: David Downing; Thomas Slater.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2017.
English

Study abroad is an under-researched domain of language learning. Moreover, most investigations of this phenomenon adopt traditional structuralist approaches, wherein outcomes of study abroad are assessed solely in terms of proficiency gains as measured through conventional exams. The present study builds upon an emerging body of poststructuralist research that foregrounds connections between language study abroad and the reconstruction of learners' identities (e.g., Block, 2007; Kinginger, 20...
Tomoko Oda Nuske.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Hanauer, David I. Committee members: Stuart Chandler; Sharon Deckert.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2017.
English

Decades of population loss have weakened the tax bases of American cities across the Northeast and Midwest. Unable to repair deteriorating infrastructure and provide basic services, local governments have attempted to revitalize their downtowns, which in many cities contain few residents. A robust housing market is key to revitalization efforts because the presence of residents creates demand for shops and restaurants. However, commercial developers have been reluctant to build downtown housi...
Samuel L Frye.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Hildebrandt, Melanie Committee members: Valerie Gunter; J. Mabry.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2017.
English

The purpose of this study was to: examine whether safety criteria commonly applied in general industry for contractor selection is actually valued by steel industry safety professionals; identify if criteria commonly used for the selection of construction contractors, but infrequently observed for general industry contractor safety prequalification, is valued by steel industry safety professionals; and to understand how steel industry safety professionals value the services of third party con...
David Ward Wilbanks.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Janicak, Christopher A. Committee members: Wanda Minnick; Helmut Paschold.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2017.
English

As schools become more increasingly involved in the provision of mental health services, the need for evidence-based therapeutic programs is crucial. This study is an investigation into the school-based implementation of a depression prevention course targeting students at-risk for depression in an urban school setting. Utilizing a convenience sample of adolescents who were randomly assigned to intervention and treatment-as-usual groups, pretest, posttest and progress monitoring measures of d...
Hortense Samantha Mowatt.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: McLaughlin, Courtney L. Committee members: Lynanne Black; Joseph Kovaleski; John McCarthy.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2017.
English

Throughout his career, Jack London composed many significant and influential works of literature, but his contributions to the speculative fiction genre have rarely been addressed in any sort of comprehensive critical manner. London employed his strengths as a socialist and naturalist, as well as his attitudes on the cultural issues of his time, to craft speculative fiction that was often rich with allegorical, dystopian situations in which mankind is required to consider the repercussions, b...
Jason Seals.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Thompson, Todd N. Committee members: David Downing; Thomas Slater.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2017.
English

This study is an examination of the outcomes of practicing autoethnography, specifically in the context of first-year undergraduate, writing-intensive courses. The researcher recounts his initial, inspiring encounter with autoethnography and explores the possibility of its pedagogical application in composition instruction. Autoethnography is a form of qualitative inquiry that combines personal reflection, aesthetic representation, and academic research and analysis to study the self in re...
Justin B Hopkins.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Hanauer, David I. Committee members: Gian Pagnucci; Curt Porter.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2017.
English

This study sought to assess how poll workers are affected by recent electoral reforms at the polling place, including voter identification, early voting, and Election Day registration. A political behavior theory, bureaucratic theory, and stress and coping theory provided a theoretical framework for the study. Quantitative methodology was used to explore secondary data collected by the United States Election Assistance Commission and primary data collected using a questionnaire administered t...
Eric F Bush.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Heckert, Alex Committee members: John Anderson; J. Mabry.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2017.
English