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.
Browse
23 results
Search Results
Item SUPPORTING EQUITABLE CLIMATE CHANGE DECISIONS IN A RURAL COMMUNITY THROUGH EXPANDED NOTIONS OF CLIMATE DATA: USING CRITICAL DATA PERSPECTIVES AND PRACTICES TO SUPPORT CLIMATE LEARNING WHILE CO-DESIGNING AN ONLINE, MAP-BASED, EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE(2024) Killen, Heather Ann; Clegg, Tamara; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Climate change threats are ever increasing, forcing communities to ask: what do they value and how are they going to protect it? Community-based climate education should play a central role in supporting equitable local decisions regarding local responses to climate challenges. However, there is little research about how to best support communities, especially rural communities that may be skeptical of climate change, to see how climate change is affecting their landscapes. In my dissertation I explore a community-based effort to build a map representing a valued local landscape feature and how this effort can act to convene knowledge about local landscape and climate, ratify that knowledge through inclusion onto a map, and ultimately inform community decision making. Guided by the perspectives and practices of critical data science and storylistening I frame my research around data and story. Prior work has considered the role of climate data within environmental education and story within community scholarship, but there is still a need to explore expanded notions of data within community learning and the role of community-held stories in local decision making. My dissertation focuses on how local, personally held landscape and climate data might complement and extend local, institutionally held data and how map building might support data-rich storytelling and listening. Working within a conservative-leaning, rural community and using the ArcGIS StoryMap web application, I engaged six community members over six design sessions to collaboratively design an online, public map of a creek and associated nature trail at the center of their town. I find that participants engaged in six key map-building design processes as they interacted with their local landscape in new ways. I also find that participants used the knowledge they brought into the design space to collaboratively expand, challenge, and occasionally transform their shared understanding. Together these processes allowed local, often generationally held, climate and landscape knowledge to become community-held understanding that could be included as data within the map. Using this analysis, I present my Evidentiary Landscape Learning (ELL) framework, placing my insights into a community-based learning context. The ELL framework demonstrates a pathway for engaging community members to understand how local and beyond-local socio-cultural values and systems are physically embodied in their local landscapes.Item FEELING PREPARED TO TEACH: RETHINKING THEORY THROUGH EXPERIENCED MATHEMATICS TEACHERS’ PERSPECTIVES(2023) Viviani, William; Brantlinger, Andrew; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Researchers study teachers’ feelings of preparedness to teach for various purposes; it can serve as an indicator of the effectiveness of initial teacher preparation and is often equated to teacher self-efficacy. Despite being an object of study for several decades, the theory on teachers’ feelings of preparedness to teach is under-developed and the field lacks a shared understanding of what it should entail. This dissertation includes three stand-alone studies that highlight and address some gaps and assumptions in the literature on teachers’ feelings of preparedness to teach. The first article draws on interviews with ten experienced mathematics teachers to examine their descriptions of preparedness and build toward a definition of feelings of preparedness. These descriptions suggest two layers of preparedness: a static/provisioning layer and a dynamic/ambitious layer. The second article uses episodic interviews with six of the ten experienced teachers to investigate their feelings of (un)preparedness when they abruptly transitioned to online teaching. It shows that the online context, and not necessarily web-based technology, was the likely culprit for teachers feeling unprepared for online teaching. The third article builds a theoretical framework based on a review of 39 quantitative studies in the literature on teachers’ feelings of preparedness to teach. This framework is mapped visually with three columns, constructs that are theorized to predict feelings of preparedness, the preparedness constructs themselves, and constructs that feelings of preparedness may predict. These three studies come together to propose a reconceptualization of survey instruments and quantitative analysis for this topic. The static and dynamic layers of preparedness may help differentiate between the work and expectations of new teachers and experienced teachers and may have implications for both preparation programs and researchers. Contextual changes or disruptions, described in the second paper, can impact even experienced teachers, which may elevate the importance of school contexts in future analyses of teachers’ feelings of preparedness. The framework maps out where the field has been and proposes update considerations to survey items specific to teachers’ feelings of preparedness to teach.Item LEADERSHIP IN PROJECTS WITH NEW TECHNOLOGY AND UNCERTAINTY(2021) Moschler, Jr., Joseph W.; Baecher, Gregory B.; Civil Engineering; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Project management continues to evolve as types of projects increase, advancement of technologies available, as well as tools for project management grow in sophistication. A successful project is defined as being completed on schedule, on budget, and delivering the requirements as specified by the customer. Projects with new technologies or with technologies requiring maturation add another dimension and challenge for the project manager. Four factors are identified as integral to project success; leadership, requirements definition, technology usage and maturity, and vision and clear objectives. Three historical projects involving new technologies are evaluated within the context of the four factors: the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird aircraft, the Hoover Dam project, and Project Apollo. The projects are qualitatively ranked as successful based on the cost, schedule, and delivering requirements criteria. The three projects were successful. Each project ranked strongly in the four factors and remain consistent indicators of potential project success.Item Rethinking analogical reasoning: The power of stimuli and task framework in understanding biomedical science, technological advancements, and social interactions(2021) Catanzarite, Nicole Crystal; Bolger, Donald J; Dunbar, Kevin N; Neuroscience and Cognitive Science; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Analogical reasoning is a critical learning process, as it is thought to form the basis of the construction of knowledge and problem solving in novel contexts. To better understand how to leverage this strategy, knowledge of the cognitive mechanisms that underlie reasoning, as well as factors that modulate reasoning, is needed. Such knowledge can springboard the development of communication, presentation, and testing strategies that facilitate accurate comprehension of information. While the benefits of analogical reasoning are clear, researchers continue to debate whether humans are predisposed to reason on a surface level or on a deeper, analogical level. Since analogy can be employed in a variety of contexts, we sought to determine whether the successful engagement of analogy is context-dependent. To understand reasoning in social interactions, we investigated the types of relations individuals identified in situations involving negotiation, conflict, and resolution. These types of situations, described by short, fable-like stories, are a hallmark of classical analogical reasoning research paradigms. To expose applications of reasoning in science and technology (S&T), we explored how different strategies can be used to identify relations between the mechanisms of drug delivery and the defense capabilities of military-operated unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). We found that numerous factors can selectively modulate reasoning and that reasoning strategy is situation-dependent. We also found that the way that individuals are probed or tested with targeted questions drives the way in which analogical reasoning is deployed. Consequently, analogical reasoning can be used to facilitate comprehension of technical concepts if asked to retrieve at a deeper conceptual level. Based on these findings, we argue that reasoning is a flexible and strategic process, rather than a fixed ability. As such, this suggests that analogical reasoning can be used to more effectively communicate and present scientific and technical information. Further, the strategic use of analogical reasoning has assessment, training, and strategic messaging applications in countless contexts, such as those within education, vocational training, healthcare, media, and even legal settings.Item Soft Circuitry: Methods for Queer and Trans Feminist Maker Movements(2017) Rogers, Melissa Susan; King, Katie; Women's Studies; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Fiber craft practices such as knitting, crochet, quilting, embroidery, and weaving have been used as experimental, hands-on methods for queer and trans feminist knowledge production, especially since the 1970s and 80s when feminist art movements in the United States were thriving. “Soft Circuitry: Methods for Queer and Trans Feminist Maker Cultures” tracks do-it-yourself (DIY) knowledge through contemporary feminist art praxis and high-tech maker movements, demonstrating how overlapping communities of practice use the language and techniques of craft in order to make sense of their worlds. Queer and trans fiber artists use craft in order to create historiographical interventions in the mechanisms of canonization, thereby reimagining what artistic and educational institutions might look like. At the same time, the commercialized maker movement purportedly seeks to democratize technology while transforming education, manufacturing, and war through “making”: a hybrid of art, craft, and machine-assisted fabrication, encompassing a vast array of construction techniques. Combining feminized skills such as sewing with new digital technologies for physical computing, wearable electronic textiles, and soft circuitry, maker education seeks to attract girls and women to Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields, incorporating them into the official narrative that the U.S. is a “Nation of Makers.” This nationalist narrative simultaneously excludes others from its narrow definitions of creativity, entrepreneurship, and innovation. I argue that the theories, methods, and conceptual tools that have been prototyped and iterated by generations of queer and trans feminists can be used to refigure the maker movement, which has a longstanding, yet devalued, relationship with craft. By attending to intergenerational feminist dialogues about craft and identity, recent art activist projects that queer digital technologies in order to create safer worlds for trans people of color, and my own fiber craft practice, I demonstrate that present-day maker cultures are active sites of transformation and feminist intervention. Borrowed from maker movements, the language of soft circuitry suggests useful metaphors for doing speculative feminist materialism. Feminist craft praxis functions as a soft circuit: a technological pathway or schematic for feeling our way toward newly habitable worlds and ways of being.Item THE EFFECTS OF INTERACTIVE WHITEBOARD INSTRUCTION ON EARLY NUMERACY SKILLS OF STUDENTS WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDERS(2017) Maajeeny, Fayez; Kohl, Frances L; Special Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this research was to examine the effects of interactive whiteboard instruction on early numeracy skills of students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Four students diagnosed with ASD between the ages of five to seven years old participated. They were taught early numeracy skills, specifically one-to-one correspondence and representation of numbers, using an interactive whiteboard (IAW) and discrete trial training (DTT). A multiple probe design across subjects was used to determine the effectiveness of the IAW instruction. It was predicted that students with ASD would acquire, maintain, and generalize the early numeracy skills taught using the IAW. Results revealed the IAW with DTT was effective for teaching early numeracy skills to students with ASD. The introduction of the intervention resulted in all participants meeting the established criteria. All students generalized the target early numeracy skills to a different setting and with different materials and the results were maintained over time. The findings of the study support the effectiveness of the IAW, coupled with DTT, to teach early numeracy skills to students with ASD. This study met the evidence standards for single case design addressed by What Works Clearinghouse. Implications for practice include the consideration of using the IAW to teach a variety of academic skills as well as developing interactive lessons based on each student’s needs. Future research should focus on generalization of skills gained using IAW instruction.Item Faucets and Fertilizers: Interpreting Technological Change in Rural Oaxaca, Mexico, 1946-1988(2015) Walker, Joshua Charles; Vaughan, Mary Kay; History; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Faucets and Fertilizers: Interpreting Technological Change in Rural Oaxaca, Mexico, 1946-1988 argues that peasant farmers in Oaxaca were key actors who helped to oversee the technological modernization of their villages in the twentieth century. From the 1940s to the 1980s, federal and state development programs sought to introduce new tools like chemical fertilizers, water faucets, roads, and mechanical corn grinders to villages in the countryside. These programs were often unevenly distributed and poorly designed, forcing peasants to rely on old skills and customs in order to acquire and use the technologies they wanted. As peasants learned about the benefits of the technologies, they also learned to use them to challenge the power of family patriarchs, village elders, and federal leaders. Far from being the passive victims of modernization described in the historiography of rural Mexico, Oaxacan peasants participated in technological change and used new tools in an attempt to overcome problems with low crop production and restricted mobility.Item Getting the Word Out: A Study of Assistance Information Made Available to Low-Income People through County Websites(2014) Wilson, Susan Copeland; Jaeger, Paul T.; History/Library & Information Systems; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Electronic government (e-government) is vetted as a mechanism to deliver government information and services to the public with efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and greater democratization. The impacts to low-income people can be significant but the topic remains largely unexplored by research. This new study establishes a research agenda to examine the social impacts (rather than the technology focus) of that space wherein assistance information is deployed digitally and a low-income person seeks and retrieves it. This dissertation examines how information about Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program ("food stamps), and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families ("welfare") are delivered electronically. Case studies of three Maryland counties 1) examine information to understand what is made available on-line, 2) examine the state and county statutes, strategies, and policies issued on-line to understand expectations, requirements, and implementation decisions, and 3) compare implementations and alignment with statutory mandates. The research identified commonalities and gaps between the mandates and implementation. In particular, state statutes support delivering services and information digitally across multiple platforms. This is being implemented for some county services but notably, not for assistance services for low-income people. This obviates opportunities to reduce the stigma, effort, and costs in applying for services and for realizing greater efficiency in assistance delivery by Departments of Social Services. This gap perpetuates low-income people as a "separate but unequal" class, making this a question of civil rights, and issues of income and full-realized citizenship. This exploratory research provides a new lens through which to expand current information theory models such as information poverty, small worlds, and digital inclusion. It can help identify mechanisms to address. This research can help policymakers to address the intersection of technology; changes in demographics, technology access, and literacy; income; citizenship; biases designed into automation; and organization efficiency. Finally, it can help inform a practical framework with which counties can determine how closely program information and delivery meet public needs and evaluate the impacts of e-government.Item ACCESSIBILITY IN CONTEXT: UNDERSTANDING THE TRULY MOBILE EXPERIENCE OF USERS WITH MOTOR IMPAIRMENTS(2014) Naftali, Maia; Findlater, Leah; History/Library & Information Systems; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Touchscreen smartphones are becoming broadly adopted by the US population. Ensuring that these devices are accessible for people with disabilities is critical for equal access. For people with motor impairments, the vast majority of studies on touchscreen mobile accessibility have taken place in the laboratory. These studies show that while touchscreen input offers advantages, such as requiring less strength than physical buttons, it also presents accessibility challenges, such as the difficulty of tapping on small targets or making multitouch gestures. However, because of the focus on controlled lab settings, past work does not provide an understanding of contextual factors that impact smartphone use in everyday life, and the activities these devices enable for people with motor impairments. To investigate these issues, this thesis research includes two studies, first, an in-person study with four participants with motor impairments that included diary entries and an observational session, and, secondarily, an online survey with nine respondents. Using case study analysis for the in-person participants, we found that mobile devices have the potential to help motor-impaired users reduce the physical effort required for everyday tasks (e.g., turning on a TV, checking transit accessibility in advance), that challenges in touchscreen input still exist, and that the impact of situational impairments to this population can be impeding. The online survey results confirm these findings, for example, highlighting the difficulty of text input, particularly when users are out and mobile rather than at home. Based on these findings, future research should focus on the enhancement of current touchscreen input, exploring the potential of wearable devices for mobile accessibility, and designing more applications and services to improve access to physical world.Item Technology in their hands: Students' voices from a Nook summer reading program for non-proficient fifth-grade students(2013) Mitchell, Chrystine Cooper; Turner, Jennifer D; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Researchers have documented a "summer reading setback" where a demonstrated achievement gap between proficient and struggling readers expands during the summer months (Allington & McGill-Franzen, 2003). Educators need to devise a plan to foster diverse independent reading (Byrnes, 2000) by providing students access to texts of interest (Ivey & Broaddus, 2001; Hughes-Hassell & Rodge, 2007) and researchers suggest when given opportunities to read e-books, students read more (Fasimpaur, 2004). This study was designed to reveal students' perceptions of a Nook summer reading program granting the students access to a wide variety of eBooks, paying particular attention to the non-proficient fifth-grade students' reported summer reading behaviors and the influences for students' summer reading. Using a qualitative exploratory approach, I studied 20 students who participated in a summer independent reading program using Nook digital readers. I was able to analyze and interpret the student voices regarding their summer reading experiences using an online book log, student questionnaires, focus group interviews, and through two individual student case studies. I analyzed and interpreted the data through an interpretive mosaic focused on four overarching themes and the intersection of those themes which included: the reader, access to text, social relationships and Nook digital readers. I found important implications that were generated from the students' reported reading behaviors and perceptions: 1) Social reading relationships were cultivated through the experience, 2) Access to a variety of texts shaped the kinds of reading students engaged in, and 3) Nook digital readers helped to foster students' reported positive summer reading behaviors. This study serves as a foundation to consider how and in what ways technology shapes students' literacy experiences as we forge ahead in this technological saturated society.
- «
- 1 (current)
- 2
- 3
- »