Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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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 EXPLORATORY STUDY OF THE ASSISTIVE TECHNOLOGY KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS, AND NEEDS AMONG SPECIAL EDUCATION TEACHERS AND RELATED SERVICE PERSONNEL(2011) Marsters, Aaron Edward; Burke, Philip J; Special Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Federal legislation, professional standards, and school district initiatives mandate or support the consideration and application of assistive technology (AT) devices and services for students with disabilities. It is not known if practitioners in the field have the knowledge and skills required to successfully implement AT and AT services as intended. This was an exploratory study to describe and compare the level of AT knowledge among special education professionals and related service providers, identify AT training needs, and determine staff perceptions of the availability and effectiveness of AT technical assistance and support within a school system that serves a large number of parents serving in the military. The study was implemented with descriptive and inferential statistical techniques employed through a self-administered web-based questionnaire. Of the 87 professionals randomly selected, 42 participated. Special education professionals indicated a lack of essential skills and knowledge on selected AT knowledge and skill measures and current AT practices do not meet established AT quality indicators. Each professional had AT knowledge specific to their profession, but the quality and depth of the AT knowledge was similarly limited. The findings question the current effectiveness of existing AT training, policy, and supports across professional disciplines. Results suggested this is in part due to a lack of operational device knowledge and skills compounded by uncertainty of district AT procedures and policy for low and high assistive technology. Timely technical support and professional access to AT Lending Libraries were identified as interventions currently working. The results support a growing body of research in the field of AT regarding the lack of knowledge and skills of special education and related service providers. These results have implications for pre-service AT preparation programs, in-service trainings, and district policy and infrastructure support.Item AN EXAMINATION OF THE LEVEL OF LEADERSHIP KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS OF SCHOOL DISTRICT SPECIAL EDUCATION COORDINATORS(2011) Gurley, Susan A; Burke, Philip J; Special Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this study was to examine the level of leadership knowledge and skills of district special education coordinators in a school system that serves a large number of parents serving in the military. Using the Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) six professional standards, special education administrators ranked how essential the CEC identified knowledge and skills are to their everyday performance on the job. CEC Standards for leadership knowledge and skills were ranked as to how essential they were to day-to-day needs on the job in support of students with disabilities. This study also explored the relationship among teachers, administrators, and special education coordinators on what they identify as essential to their day-to-day job performance. All respondents provided a self-assessment of their perceived level of knowledge and skills by completing an on-line web-based survey yielding a return rate of 81.5%. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected for this study. After investigating the perceived ratings and the ranking of essential levels of the CEC standards, it was found that coordinators viewed all six standards as essential and ranked their highest level of competency as Program Development and Organization. Coordinators ranked themselves as least knowledgeable in terms of Evaluation. Coordinators identified Program Development and Organization as the most essential skill to day-to-day performance and viewed Research and Inquiry as the least essential skill to daily performance. There was no significant difference among the coordinators on their perceived level of competency across the geographic regions of the system. The degree to which the ratings of essential skills matched among the coordinators, teachers, and administrators revealed both coordinators and teachers viewed Program Development as more essential to day-to-day job performance whereas administrators indicated Leadership and Policy and Program Development were the two most essential standards for serving students with disabilities in the school. The standard reported as least essential to the day-to-day performance of serving students with disabilities was Evaluation.Item Survey of Maryland Dentists' Knowledge, Opinions and Practices About Oral Cancer Prevention and Early Detection(2010) Maybury, Catherine A.; Green, Kerry; Public and Community Health; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)To reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with oral cancer, dentists must have oral cancer prevention and early detection knowledge and skills, and they must perform routine screening examinations. Maryland dentists were surveyed to assess their knowledge, opinions and screening practices relating to oral cancer prevention and early detection. Thirty-eight percent of dentists had a high level of knowledge of oral cancer risk factors, thirty-nine percent had a high level of knowledge of oral cancer diagnostic procedures, and thirty-eight percent received a high score for provision of oral cancer examinations. Dentists who strongly agreed or agreed that their oral cancer knowledge is current were more likely to receive a high score for knowledge of oral cancer diagnostic procedures and knowledge of risk factors and diagnostic procedures combined. Deficiencies exist in dentists' knowledge and practices relating to oral cancer. Actions are needed in education, policy and research to address these deficiencies.Item Spirituality in the Laboratory: Negotiating the politics of knowledge in the psychedelic sciences(2010) Corbin, Michelle Dawn; Kestnbaum, Meyer; Sociology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)In this study I argue that psychedelic substances served as a doorway through which spirituality entered the scientific laboratory to an unprecedented degree given their traditionally demarcated relationship by making spirituality more amenable to scientific paradigms and accessible to scientific methodologies. I conduct a feminist discourse analysis of the politics of knowledge enacted in this unique intersection of spirituality and science in the psychedelic sciences. I draw on feminist theories of science and knowledge which conceptualize science as a dominant knowledge constituted through and productive of the intersecting and historically hierarchical systems of power of race, class, gender and nation. Using discourse analysis techniques, I analyze a documentary archive I created through a theoretically driven sampling of the psychedelic sciences of spirituality from the 1930's to the present. In Chapter 2, I analyze how spirituality was brought forward and negotiated in these sciences. I argue that psychedelic scientists utilized a range of what I call tactics of legitimation to justify the scientific study of these peculiar substances and the spirituality with which they are associated vis-à-vis dominant scientific knowledges and I analyze the attendant epistemological costs of this assimilation. In Chapter 3, I analyze the efforts to integrate psychedelic substances and the spiritual experiences they induce into western therapeutic assumptions and practices. I argue that their efforts to scientifically determine the mysticality of mystical experiences and their pursuits of scientific liturgical authority over the administration of psychedelic sacraments resulted in the emergence of a would-be psychiatric clerical authority. In Chapter 4, I analyze the efforts to integrate and develop indigenous spiritual psychedelic knowledges and practices across each step of a bioprospecting model from plant identification to the determination of mechanisms of action and finally to drug development studies. I argue that in each step indigenous spiritual knowledges were assimilated into dominant scientific assumptions and practices reifying western scientific authority over indigenous knowledges and practices and reinforcing historically hierarchical colonial relationships despite the `good intentions' of these psychedelic scientists. In the final chapter of this study I discuss future sociological and feminist projects analyzing these peculiar psychedelic sciences and spiritual substances.Item Teacher In-service Training for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD): Influence on Knowledge about ADHD, Use of Classroom Behavior Management Techniques, and Teacher Stress(2006-08-24) Jones, Heather; Chronis, Andrea M.; Psychology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Children with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) evidence many problems in the classroom, including difficulty staying seated and trouble with organizational tasks. Such behaviors cause impairment for the child in their academic functioning and place a burden upon their teachers. Despite the large evidence base for classroom behavioral interventions, teachers often lack specific training on and accurate knowledge about ADHD. Teacher in-service training is routinely utilized to inform school professionals about a number of special topics. However, the efficacy of such training for ADHD has not been established. The present study examined the efficacy of brief in-service training in improving teacher knowledge about ADHD, use of behavior management techniques, and levels of stress related to teaching a child with ADHD. Six schools in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area participated. Teachers at these schools were randomly assigned to receive in-service training immediately or to a waitlist control group that received in-service training one month later. Teacher ratings of ADHD knowledge, use of behavior modification techniques, and stress were measured pre in-service intervention and 1 month post in-service intervention. Behavioral observations of behavior modification strategies were gathered on a random subset of teachers from each school at each time point. Mixed model analyses of variance were used to examine the effects of the intervention on ADHD knowledge, use of behavior modification techniques, and teacher stress. A Treatment Group X Time interaction was found for teacher-reported ADHD knowledge, such that the immediate in-service group reported significantly increased knowledge from pre to post in-service intervention while the waitlist control group did not. Teacher use of reported behavior modification techniques appeared to change for special education teachers only. Stress did not change as a result of the intervention. Observational data did not correlate highly with teacher self-report data. Limitations of this study include the use of a newly- developed measure of ADHD knowledge that requires psychometric testing and the lack of observations of child behavior. Future studies should examine ways to better measure and promote actual behavior change among teachers of children with ADHD.Item Beyond a Relational Understanding of Fractions: Elements of Instruction that Contribute to Preservice Teachers' Knowledge and Motivation(2006-04-26) Jones, Kristie Kaye; Alexander, Patricia A.; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study was undertaken in order to better understand preservice elementary teachers' knowledge of and motivations toward fractions before and after taking a course designed to promote relational understanding, as well as what teaching practices might be related to student outcomes. Students in five sections of the course were given a fraction assessment and a motivation questionnaire at the beginning and end of the semester, and observations were made of the nine days when fractions were taught. Students' knowledge of basic concepts improved, as did their computational skill and ability to solve word problems. However, their tendency to use inefficient algorithms did not change. Error patterns at the beginning of the semester revealed misconceptions about fractions, but errors at the end of the semester were largely reflective of low skill. Value and self-concept of ability increased while anxiety decreased, but these changes differed somewhat by instructor. In particular, having students explain their thinking instead of listen to lecture tended to have increased benefits for anxiety.