The concepts of workplace social interactions and team effectiveness have garnered a great deal of attention in organizational literature. However, these two concepts are seldom integrated for examination within the offshore technology groups. Drawing from the theory of workplace social exchange, this empirical study was initiated to investigate…

In the first chapter, I measure the impact of student loan debt on young, college-educated workers' decisions regarding labor supply and enrollment in graduate school. I exploit variation in student loan debt driven by the formulas that determine Federal Student Aid in order to identify these effects. Instrumental variable estimates indicate…

The work of occupational (OT), physical (PT), and recreational therapists (RT), as well as speech- language pathologists (SLP), is interrelated and requires effective teamwork and collaboration to optimize patient outcomes and satisfaction. Literature shows that health care professionals are ill prepared to work in an interprofessional manner due…

Lange (1988) has defined "articulation" as "the interrelationship and continuity of contents, curriculum, instruction, and evaluation with programs which focus on the progress of student in learning to both comprehend and communicate in a second language" (p. 16-17). It is the continuity of one course to the next without…

Demographic changes within the US are bringing significant changes in the cultural make-up of the classrooms in our schools. Results from national and state assessments indicate a growing achievement gap between the science scores of white students and students from minority communities. This gap indicates a disconnect somewhere in the science…

Increasing Black and Latino college students' engagement is a primary concern of critical educators who seek to advance their students' critical literacy skills. There is a growing amount of these students who appear unable to successfully perform literate acts inside the academic space. However, these same students have rich literate…

This dissertation explores the incorporation of Facebook into everyday live activities and practices of a group of young Turkish-American women affiliated with a faith-based movement, known as the "Hizmet" (volunteer's service) movement. In particular, I examine the emergent communicative practices and performances of these young…

The Instant Word Notebook study was a program evaluation completed by two educators who saw a need for an instructional tool to teach and assess Instant Words. In order to address reading deficits of students in first and second grades, teachers were expected to teach Instant Words. Unfortunately, teachers did not have a systematic process to…

Prominent theorists assert that engaging in sociodramatic play is an essential activity for the development of self-regulation. This study proposed the use of sociodramatic play as an intervention tool for building self-regulation in kindergartners. In this study, two sociodramatic play intervention paradigms were compared to a control group. In…

Many HIV prevention professionals have documented only moderate effectiveness of the Mpowerment Project, an HIV behavior intervention prevention program for minorities. Researchers have concluded that program success depends on effectiveness of peer leader management, yet little is known regarding the experiences of those peer leaders.…

The purpose of the qualitative phenomenological research study was to describe and explain the experiences of African Americans who terminated mental health treatment services after their initial sessions. The goal of the study was to expand the available knowledge by scientifically illuminating the lived experiences of African Americans who used…

This study is a first year principal's quest to transform the culture of Midwest Middle School (MMS). The study covers the 2009-2010 school year. The data from the 2008-2009 school year provided the baseline data for this study. Alarming results of a state survey regarding the culture of the medium sized suburban middle school caused concern.…

The purpose of this study was threefold: Examine middle school teachers' familiarity with, interest in, conceptual knowledge of and performance on light; Examine their ability to identify misconceptions on light and their suggested pedagogical ideas to address the identified misconceptions; and Establish the relationship between the middle…

Effectively addressing the unique developmental and academic needs of adolescents is a challenge that educators have been grappling with since the mid-1960's when school systems began to convert junior high schools into middle schools. While educators have recognized the need to create developmentally responsive schools that help children to…

This project examines the intersectionalities of international females in engineering graduate programs of the United States, using frameworks of sustainability and liminality theory. According to Dutta and Kisselburgh (2011) international females in graduate engineering constitute the "minorities of minorities," not only in terms of…