University of Southern Mississippi
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5E-Flipped E-Learning: A New Interactive Framework of Speaking Instruction for EFL Learners
Get PDFThis case study aims to investigate the implementation of the 5E-flipped approach combined with an interactive e-learning module (5E-flipped e-learning) as a novel framework for teaching speaking skills. It focuses on how this model creates an e-learning environment that enhances EFL learners’ speaking abilities. A total of 23 law students were selected as participants using a purposive sampling technique with some specific criteria. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews, observation, and documentation techniques and were then thematically analyzed. The findings indicated that the 5E-flipped e-learning provides a new structured framework for improving law students’ speaking skills within a focused and supportive learning environment. The results suggest that implementing the 5E-flipped e-learning approach in speaking instruction is highly recommended, as it significantly enhances learning outcomes and reduces speaking anxiety. This study also offers instructional insights for EFL teachers, students, and syllabus designers. By highlighting the benefits of this instructional approach, the study encourages the adoption of its methods to foster more dynamic learning environments, enhance student participation, and incorporate authentic assessment strategies to learners’ speaking abilities in EFL settings
The impact of medical ethics on healthcare professionals and patient outcomes in resource-poor settings: a focus on ethical challenges and solutions
Get PDFBackground: Developing countries face major challenges to their healthcare system such as resource scarcity and reduced patient autonomy amongst women. The strained healthcare system often leads doctors to compromise ethical protocols and reduce their standard of care.
Aims: To explain why medical ethics are important for healthcare professionals in the context of resource-poor countries.
Findings: Many healthcare professionals lack adequate knowledge of medical ethics in developing countries. In addition, doctors make difficult decisions such as patient prioritization and resource allocation without clear ethical guidance or protocols. Women also face diminished patient autonomy in developing countries, which has been linked to reduced reproductive health outcomes.
Discussion: There are adverse consequences for the lack of ethical guidance in resource-poor environments. For example, doctors repeatedly report witnessing deaths and disabilities amongst patients due to the strained healthcare system. In addition, healthcare professionals face moral distress which hinder job satisfaction. Cultural and religious values also influence the healthcare decisions of patients, which is a major gap in the literature that needs further research attention.
Conclusion: Through the discussion of healthcare challenges in the context of the four main principles of medical ethics, it is clear that medical ethics plays a major role in reducing adverse consequences amongst patients and moral distress amongst healthcare professionals. However, more research should be directed towards ethical protocols which consider cultural and religious values of developing countries
The Clinton Massacre of 1875: Competing Narratives & Reconstruction Memory in a Deep South Town
No full textThis dissertation provides the first modern account of the Clinton Massacre. Located ten miles west of Jackson, Mississippi, Clinton was a center of early slavery and cotton production in the antebellum world. On September 4, 1875, a seismic wave of racial terror was unleashed upon the Black community in and around this small, college town. The violence initially erupted at a large, Republican political rally held on the site and among the ruins of a once prominent cotton plantation destroyed during the Civil War. This site, referred to as Moss Hill by white residents and as Moses Hill by newly-freed Black citizens, became a contested space in the postbellum period. Over the following days, white paramilitary groups connected to the Mississippi Democratic Party murdered as many as fifty Black citizens.
In the aftermath, three different, competing narratives were created. Initially, two accounts were produced—one by the Mississippi Democratic Party and another by a bipartisan, congressional committee. These initial accounts are not only segregated by race and politics, they are bifurcated by truth. However, the Clinton Massacre was not relegated to these two narratives. A third, subtler and distinctly different narrative also persisted. This narrative, found within the local Black community, is highly private and has been protected and guarded out of necessity. Yet, it represents a persistent and resilient counternarrative maintained by those most affected by racial violence.
The struggle to control the historical meaning of the Clinton Massacre is not unique or unusual. It represents the contested nature of a Southern society attempting to both reckon with and avoid a sordid racial past. This dissertation offers a means by which to recognize and dismantle forms of white supremacy venerated as heritage (not history). Because a false narrative became the publicly-sanctioned version, the violence committed in and around Clinton in 1875 did not end. Rather, it mutated into a rippling form of historical trauma meted out via publications of state and local historical societies, textbooks, historical markers, and public memorializations. Ultimately, this dissertation demonstrates the ways in which the past and present continue to insist and impinge upon one another in persistent and pervasive ways
Elizabeth Female Academy: A Historical Case Study Revealing Antebellum Mississippi\u27s Role in Shaping the Southern Belle
No full textHistorians and educational scholars have extensively examined the subject of women\u27s education, resulting in a rich body of literature that traces its evolution over the centuries. Moreover, this body of work encompasses significant movements advocating for women\u27s rights to education and the establishment of colleges specifically for women. Scholars have also analyzed the challenges women encounter in accessing educational opportunities, including societal norms, economic barriers, and institutional discrimination. Notable works highlight the contributions of key figures, such as Mary Wollstonecraft, who advocated for women\u27s education in both historical and contemporary contexts. Overall, this comprehensive scholarship not only documents the advancement of women\u27s education in Mississippi prior to the Civil War but also underscores its vital role in promoting gender equality and empowerment within society.
Despite the extensive scholarly research available, a notable gap remains in the study of Mississippi\u27s influence on women\u27s higher education prior to the Civil War. This historical case study aims to address that gap by focusing on Elizabeth Female Academy, the first women\u27s college in Mississippi, and the evolving roles of elite women in Antebellum Mississippi. While the academy is recognized as one of the early institutions for women, its significant contributions to the educational history of Mississippi—and the South more broadly—have largely been overlooked and undervalued.
This study further examines the shifting responsibilities and social expectations placed on elite women during this transformative period by analyzing archival documents, including newspapers, maps, statutes, and postcards, from the late eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth century. The historical narratives of specific women associated with Elizabeth Female Academy, such as Elizabeth Greenfield Roach and Caroline Matilda Thayer, provide valuable context for understanding nineteenth-century Mississippi and allow readers to reexamine the experiences of these women during that era. While these women were frequently perceived as affluent and seemingly insulated from numerous hardships, their narratives illustrate how the realities of life in the Antebellum South influenced their experiences. Additionally, they highlight the vital role that education played in empowering them to pursue their aspirations
Population Status and Trends of the Ringed Sawback (Graptemys oculifera) in The Pearl River Drainage of Mississippi and Louisiana
No full textThe Ringed Sawback (Graptemys oculifera) is primarily restricted to the Pearl River drainage of Mississippi and Louisiana. It was listed as a federally threatened species under the Endangered Species Act in 1986 largely due to extensive habitat modification and major habitat degradation throughout portions of its confined geographic range. Despite species protections, alterations to the structure and flow of the river have continued to threaten the drainage and likely the species’ recovery. Abundance levels, basking counts, and demographic parameters were measured from 2022-2024 at sites throughout the Pearl River drainage including five long-term monitoring sites. Population density estimates produced by two mark-resight models (Schnabel and NOREMARK) varied, where estimates were highest in the main-stem of the Pearl River below the Ross Barnett Reservoir and were lowest in tributaries and the West Pearl River Navigation Canal. Contrasting with previous capture-based studies, basking sex-ratios were male-biased at most sites. Body condition varied by sex, age-class, and site but was not associated with abundance, suggesting that the factors driving population density differ from those driving individual body condition. Thirty-four-year trend analysis found no significant trend at the drainage wide scale, though trends were detected at the site-specific scale and drainage wide mean density estimates displayed a 26.1% decrease from the earliest surveys. These results suggest that continued monitoring is warranted, and that monitoring efforts should be expanded in space and frequency to generate a more complete understanding of population trends
An Analysis of Wall Vault Burials From Cypress Grove Cemetery, New Orleans
No full textCypress Grove Cemetery in New Orleans, Louisiana was established in 1840 by the Firemen’s Charitable and Benevolent Association. The purpose of this thesis was to present osteobiographies from the remains and mortuary artifacts recovered from two late 19th century wall vault that were being taken down due to their crumbling condition. Through this, further information on the lives of those living at the turn of the century was explored.
Among the two vaults excavated, the remains of eight individuals. The single burial vault contained the remains of an adult male later identified as a volunteer firemen; no items of mortuary context were present. The commingled vault contained the remains of three adults (one male and two females) and four children. One female identified as of African or mixed ancestry showed trauma to the ribs, a shortened tibia, and poor dental health. The other female had a set of partial upper dentures. All of the children died before the age of five, likely from infectious disease since none showed indicators of trauma or pathology.
These findings as well as the associated mortuary artifacts, including coffin hardware and religious items, suggest that the interred individuals likely were part of the middle-class in New Orleans in the late 1800s, except for the one female who was likely a well-loved servant buried with the family. Childhood mortality was high, but those who survived to adulthood showed relatively few pathological indicators and generally lived to middle age