Theses and Dissertations from UMD
Permanent URI for this communityhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2
New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item An Analysis of the Elements of the Professional Learning Communities Institute and Its Relationship to the Sources of Collective Efficacy(2009) Marks, Susan Faye; Parham, Carol S.; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Educating students to meet high accountability standards and even more importantly preparing students to be competitive in a complex and demanding world requires schools to become high functioning organizations. This mixed-method study examined the relationship between professional learning communities and the collective efficacy in 10 elementary schools that participated in the Professional Learning Communities Institute (PLCI) in a large suburban school district outside Washington, DC. The implementation of the PLCI allowed the researcher to analyze these relationships in schools receiving structured and deliberate professional development in becoming professional learning communities as well as the effect this experience had on the beliefs of the group about their ability to make a difference for their students. The researcher analyzed survey and interview data through the lens of the characteristics of professional learning communities as outlined by Hord (1997) and the sources of efficacy as defined by Bandura (1997). The findings from this study revealed a significant relationship between the five dimensions of professional learning communities and collective efficacy. The characteristics of professional learning communities of shared leadership, shared vision, collective learning, supportive conditions, and shared personal practice work in a school organization to strengthen the collective efficacy of staff. The professional development that the schools received in becoming professional learning communities promoted collective efficacy. Although the 10 schools demonstrated strong collective efficacy, in general, there were some differences between schools. This study found that some variables influenced the perceived collective efficacy in the schools surveyed. There was a moderate inverse significant relationship between poverty level and collective efficacy. Low-poverty schools had higher collective efficacy than high-poverty schools. The length of time that teachers were in their current school was mildly related to the collective efficacy in that school. There was a negative mild relationship between the teachers' number of years of experience and the poverty level of the school.Item MAKING SENSE OF BROKEN WINDOWS: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERCEPTIONS OF DISORDER, FEAR OF CRIME, COLLECTIVE EFFICACY AND PERCEPTIONS OF CRIME(2009) Hinkle, Joshua Conard; Weisburd, David; Criminology and Criminal Justice; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The broken windows thesis has had a profound impact on policing strategies around the world. The thesis suggests that police can most effectively fight crime by focusing their efforts on targeting disorder--minor crimes and nuisance behaviors such as loitering, public drinking and vandalism, as well as dilapidated physical conditions in a community. The strategy was most prominently used in New York City in the 1990s, and has been often credited for the crime drop observed in the city over that decade. Despite the widespread influence of the broken windows thesis, there has been relatively little rigorous empirical research which has sought to test the validity of its theoretical propositions. This dissertation aimed to address this shortcoming by using structural equation modeling to test the relationships between perceived disorder, fear of crime, collective efficacy and perceptions of crime suggested by the broken windows thesis using survey data collected during a randomized, experimental evaluation of broken windows policing in three cities in California. The results are supportive of the broken windows thesis, but also raise some challenges. Perceptions of disorder were found to increase fear of crime, reduce collective efficacy and lead to crime as suggested. However, fear of crime was not significantly related to collective efficacy as suggested, and the direct effect of perceived social disorder on perceptions of crime was the strongest effect in every model. Nevertheless, the findings do suggest that a reduction of disorder in a community may have positive effects in the form of reducing fear and promoting collective efficacy, and suggest the limitations of studies which only test for direct effects of disorder on crime and/or do not examine the variables at the perceptual level. Future research needs to further examine the broken windows thesis, ideally involving a prospective longitudinal study of crime at place.