The research‘s purpose was to examine how exemplary community college study abroad programs assisted student participants in acquiring global competence. Three research questions were explored: 1.What issues need to be anticipated when planning a study abroad program for community college students in order to effectively incorporate opportunities for students to...
Spending time in a German speaking country may aid in vocabulary acquisition and production. This study hypothesized a concrete link between written language use and experiences abroad. Intermediate German students’ vocabulary uses in impromptu essays were evaluated by counting the number of total word, unique words, and content words. This...
The purpose of this study was to determine if there was
a significant difference in the amount of technical subject
matter learned during a fixed period of instruction by
students working with a computer expert system and students
working with human experts from a technical field.
All students participating in...
This study examined the reading-writing relationship for
99 exclusively international students, and used narrative,
and timed and untimed expository writing samples. The reading
comprehension test was the Degrees of Reading Power (DRP), a
test appropriate for use with English as a second language
(ESL) learners.
Results of the study indicated...
A recent and steady increase in student participation in study-abroad programs
has caused international educators and student affairs professionals to reevaluate the
current study-abroad paradigm and redesign and implement new curricula better suited
to meet the changing needs of international education. Recent emphasis has been
placed on understanding outcomes of...
This thesis explores the challenges and triumphs experienced by three students who spent the summer abroad on international internships. Through their individual stories and journals, they shared how they questioned their own values, their nationality, and the value of formal education. They also experienced changing relationships and new career aspirations...
The purpose of this quantitative study was to identify factors that contribute to students' levels of global citizenship. Factors considered in this research include (a) race/ethnicity, (b) gender, (c), year in school, (d) age, (e), length of time abroad, (f) host family experience, (g), community service abroad, (h) more than...
No research to date has involved ESL students as researchers in investigations of community language practices. This study examined the research processes of 23 international college students in an advanced ESL course. The students worked on an original curriculum, the Language Research Project, through which they performed ethnographic and discourse...
Although community colleges have emphasized service-learning programs for traditional students, by in large, non-traditional students from post-secondary remedial programs have not been involved. This lack of reaching post-secondary remedial programs may be of particular interest to college personnel who may not be aware of the need to include service activities...
This thesis explores how and why the concept of disability is included in, or excluded from, the curricula of graduate programs that specialize in international exchange and/or study abroad. Five graduate programs in the United States participated in this study. Data was collected from program websites and through interviews with...
English Language Learners (ELLs) represent a culturally and linguistically diverse population in US schools. ELLs enter kindergarten with a range of academic and self-regulation skills, but can face multiple challenges navigating the school context (Zwiers, 2013). Previous research documents that low-income ELLs lagged behind in academic achievement, self-regulation, and English...
This study had four objectives, the major one being the identification of minimum competencies for volunteer English as a second language teachers in four settings: the Community College, the University, the Elementary/ Secondary School, and the Volunteer Organization. A second objective was to identify the common competencies required by professional...
This study was an ethnographic case study of a
Vietnamese unaccompanied minor in a post secondary setting.
There were two guiding questions for the study: (1) How
does the subject perceive language as it relates to
educational experience? (2) What kinds of observable
personality, cognitive, or affective factors have
contributed...
Five student-researchers and the author engaged in
a continually-evolving, student-driven qualitative
research study. Despite significant disadvantages,
including navigating a. foreign culture without speaking
the language, these invulnerable learners succeeded.
Ultimately of greatest interest to the six were an
analysis of their collective knowledge and experiences,
and their individual transformation over...
The purpose of this study was to determine whether Alexander Astin's
Theory of Student Involvement could be applied to an academic experience in an
overseas setting. Using data collected from the program evaluations of 79 students
who had participated in the Oregon University System exchange program in Lyon,
France during...
The major purpose of this study was to explore changes in language proficiency and self-concept of Japanese college students participating in an intensive English language program at Tokyo International University of America (TIUA). Another purpose of the study was to determine if there was a relationship between change in English...
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) has been sponsoring workshops for undergraduate engineering professors since 1984. The workshops were designed to educate engineering professors about the importance of addressing health and safety issues in their undergraduate engineering curricula. This study was designed to evaluate the effectiveness of...
This thesis explores the administrative issues that factor into the teaching of writing online. I explore these issues by situating the Conference on College Composition and Communication Position Statement of Principles and Example Effective Best Practices for Online Writing Instruction at the center of this project by both examining and...
Implementation fidelity (dosage, adherence, quality of delivery, responsiveness, program differentiation) is the degree to which a program was carried out to its original intent. The following three studies examined the implementation fidelity of a school-based health promotion social and character development (SACD) program. The, Positive Action (PA) program was a...
This paper presents an evaluation of the cable loading
support capacity of red alder, Alnus rubra Bong., Sitka
spruce, Picea sitchensis (Bong.) Carr, and western hemlock,
Tsuga heterophylla (Raf.) Sarg., tail trees. Capacity is
measured in terms of combined stress resulting from
compression and bending, rather than the traditional methods...
Evaluation of teaching is used to examine and improve teaching quality in higher education. The literature consists of best teaching evaluation practices that have been developed, yet there is little research that has been conducted which investigates teaching evaluation practices in engineering programs. This thesis represents two manuscripts that explore...
The primary purpose of this study was for three select
groups to critically appraise the Personal Hygiene for
Foodservice Workers sound/slide system. These three groups
(Media Specialists, Content Experts and the Learners) were
identified in a literature search as being those individuals
most directly responsible for evaluating the worth of...
The primary question to be answered as a result of the
research was: Do native English-speaking undergraduate
students learn CD-ROM database search skills more
effectively through the use of conventional instruction
method or by training confined to a written manual self-instructional
method? Thirty-seven Oregon State
University students were randomly assigned...
Online learning has grown exponentially within higher education in the past decade, especially at community colleges. As online course offerings expand community colleges need to assess student learning in order to ensure quality learning experiences for students and for accreditation purposes. The purpose of this study was to compare the...
This research examines the discourses that impact the teachers of ELL teachers within their instructional practices, their school environment, and a wider educational system. Interviews, observations, and focus groups of twelve teachers at two elementary schools in the Pacific Northwest provide the data for this grounded theory approach that uncovers...
This interpretive research sought to understand how eight Hispanic students who
mastered English as a Second Language (ESL) matriculated at a rural community college,
and what motivating factors encouraged or encumbered their academic persistence and
success. Particularly the study focused on student backgrounds, motivations, and
persistence factors influencing their success....
The objective of this project is to demonstrate the feasibility fiber-reinforced turbine components through a design and manufacturing study. The motivation for using composites is to reduce weight and simplify manufacturing especially at high production volumes. In addition, natural fiber composites are implemented for applicable components to reduce environmental impact....
At the university level, introductory science courses usually have high student to teacher ratios which increases the challenge to meaningfully connect with students. Various curricula have been developed in physics education to actively engage students in learning through social interactions with peers and instructors in class. This learning environment demands...
Curricular models and teaching techniques that support college students as the primary authors of their writing-across-the-curriculum experiences remain largely unexplored. This thesis addresses that research gap by investigating the use of a start-of-term writing self-assessment and goal-setting questionnaire (STQ) for upper-division undergraduates taking writing-intensive (WI) college courses in their majors....
This study examined a web-based undergraduate course structured around social learning theories through the lens of social construction as a theoretical framework and a case study research method. The purpose of the study was to investigate students' learning experiences from a cognitively guided research framework. Instructional strategies practiced in the...
Two studies investigated the characteristics of high-risk Hispanic parents with young children who were enrolled in a primary prevention home visitation program targeting first birth families. In the first study, more and less acculturated high-risk Hispanic families were compared to high-risk non-Hispanic White families on differences in demographic characteristics, risk...
Given the current state of our oceans, the Pew Oceans Commission (1993) has strongly recommended that increased efforts be made towards ocean literacy. Informal education and outreach programs like the Whale Watching Spoken Here program are important contributors to life-long learning. However, there is little research looking at how these...
Since 2005, the United States has experienced a significant influx of international students from Saudi Arabia, particularly women (Bollang, 2006). The American educational structure is something Saudi women have never experienced due to the vast differences between both cultures in all facets. There is very little to no research conducted...
School districts across the nation are engaged in an ongoing attempt to bring about
change. Educational researchers strive to initiate change in the classroom with students as
well as the teachers of these students.
The evaluation of a change effort is a key element in any implementation model; as
the...
In 2004, the Transition Mathematics Project (TMP), funded by the state of Washington and The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, was established to create projects to help high school students gain the necessary skills to become college and work-ready. Aligned to TMP's College Readiness Mathematics Standards, a fourth-year capstone mathematics...
This is an evaluation report for the installation of the Magic Planet exhibit at the Hatfield Marine Science Center. The report is on file with NOAA and is Oregon Sea Grant Publication ORESU-S 10-04.
What students need most from instructors’ written response on their texts is commentary that evokes a sense of exchange. Teachers often believe that their job is to point out the deficits in a student’s paper and help eliminate those deficits. While this is a part of the function of response,...
Few parenting curricula exist that are culturally-appropriate to the Mexican-immigrant population served by many programs. The Even Start family literacy program has four integrated components, making it more difficult to find appropriate curricula for the families they serve. During Winter 2006, discussion groups were conducted with participants in two Even...
As the Tekbots program expands into senior and graduate level classes at Oregon State University, so does the need arise for more complex learning platforms. These complex hardware platforms cannot be adequately tested in a manufacturing environment as we have done previously. Also, due to their complexity, these platforms require...
In this thesis, Elizabeth Summer Wimberly details the profile of generation 1.5 students as a group of students who can need extra support in higher education. Generation 1.5 students stand distinct from both international students and native, monolingual students. As such, placing generation 1.5 students in either a mainstream or...
For adult learners to succeed in their educational endeavors, adult educators and event planners must meet their needs and goals (Storksdieck, Ellenbogen, & Heimlich, 2005). The learning environment affects how adults learn and what outcomes they achieve (e.g., Hamilton & Tee, 2010; Knowles, 1990; Lim, Morris, & Kupritz, 2007; Young,...
In cross-cultural studies, respondents from specific cultures may have different product preferences and scale usage. Combining data from different cultures will result in departures from the basic assumptions of analysis of variance (ANOVA) and loss of power in testing capability of finding product and culture differences. However, the result of...
This thesis examines the convergence of neoliberal rhetoric across popular media, academic, and institutional discourses, and draws connections between contemporary women's travel literature and common scripts in study abroad promotion. Finding such narratives to be freighted with ethnocentric constructs and tacit endorsements of market-based globalization, I critique the mainstreaming of...
The purpose of this dissertation is to investigate Oregon public high school history teacher perspectives concerning standards-based reform initiatives springing from the No Child Left Behind legislation. The central question addressed in this study is: At what level has Standards-Based Education reform initiatives impacted Oregon high school history instruction and...
With the rapid development of new computer mediated technologies, instructors have more options of the modalities of responding to student writing. Whereas traditionally, responses have been written by hand, technological developments allow responses to take very different forms. Some of these technologies, such as word processing, mimic the text-on-page techniques...