This dissertation outlines a program for the theory of phonotactics--the theory of speakers' knowledge of possible and impossible (or likely and unlikely) words--and argues that the alternative view of phonotactics as stochastic, and of phonotactic learning as probabilistic inference, is not capable of accounting for the facts of this domain.…

The purpose of the mixed methods study was to develop and validate the CSIS-360, a 360-degree feedback assessment to measure competencies of school improvement specialists from multiple perspectives. The study consisted of eight practicing school improvement specialists from a variety of settings. The specialists nominated 23 constituents to…

Incivility and bullying in nursing education has become an area of increased interest. Incivility literature has focused primarily on student-to-faculty incivility. Less focus has been placed on faculty-to-student bullying. This study examined the lived experiences of undergraduate nursing students with faculty bullying. Using descriptive…

"Education and conflict" has emerged as a new field of study during the last two decades. However, higher education is still relatively absent from this debate as most of the research has focused on primary and non-formal education. This dissertation is an exploratory qualitative study on the potential role of higher education in…

This study explored the curriculum orientation preferences of K-12 public school teachers who provided instruction in virtual settings (n = 47) in a midwestern state. Curriculum orientations were explored using a mixed-methods design. Quantitative assessments data revealed a pattern of curriculum orientations similar to teachers working in…

The problem investigated in this quasi-experimental study was to educate teachers in how to overcome generational differences that arose when educators of different generations were required to work together in a collaborative professional learning community. Perceptions of work environment and performance, collaboration, and professional learning…

There is a paucity of adult professional education literature, yet there are multiple theories and models from which to extrapolate information regarding learning in this population, including self-regulated learning theory and adult learning models. The first aim of this study was to explore these bodies of literature and provide a compelling…

Using universal design instruction (UDI) as a framework, this study explores the inclusive teaching practices of four award-winning humanities and social sciences faculty at a large urban Research I university located in the northeastern region of the United States. UDI, a framework used to assist teachers in creating proactively inclusive…

The purpose of this research was to investigate the effects of movement instruction on children's singing achievement scores. When controlling for age, four overarching questions and nine sub-questions were asked. First, when controlling for age, how do pitch achievement scores at the outset compare to pitch achievement scores after movement…

A central issue in second language acquisition (SLA) research is the relationship between morphosyntactic and lexical-semantic knowledge among L2 learners. It has been proposed that, L2 language acquisition starts with transfer of L1 semantic and morphosyntactic processing strategies; however, it has been observed that, at lower proficiency…

The universal presence of anatomy in healthcare professions is undeniable. It is a cornerstone to each of the clinical and basic sciences. Therefore, further expansion of current anatomical knowledge and effective methods to teach anatomy is essential. In this work, the relationship of the dorsal scapular artery with the trunks of the brachial…

A number of studies have identified school mobility as one form of school disengagement that is disproportionately harmful for young children enrolled in large urban districts. However, there is substantial variation in these findings, with some studies actually evidencing positive associations between school mobility and academic outcomes (Mehana…

Cancer can be one of the most serious diseases that can result in a costly reduction in the quality of life. Among a number of cancer risk factors, tobacco use has been identified as the leading preventable cause of deaths. Prior research has suggested that cancer information seeking may be a pre-step to adopt health protective behaviors that can…

Problem: Equipping current and future social work practitioners with skills to deliver evidence-based practice (EBP) has remained an elusive prospect since synchronized efforts with field instructors have not been a consistent part of dissemination and implementation efforts. Recognizing the highly influential position of field instructors, this…

In Spanish, the phoneme /s/ has two variants: [z] occurs in the coda when preceding a voiced consonant, and [s] occurs elsewhere. However, recent research has revealed irregular voicing patterns with regards to this phone. This dissertation examines two of these allophonic variations. It first investigates how speech rate and speech formality…