University of Southern Mississippi
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Teaching Students Who Have Been Identified with Autism in the Private Piano Teaching Studio: An Application of General Music Resources and Interviews with Specialists in the Field
No full textThis dissertation is a practical resource for private piano teachers seeking to gain a better understanding of teaching students with autism. Resources used in general music instruction of students with autism were consulted, and relevant information was adapted for the private piano setting. Additionally, resources that are tailored to private piano teaching of students with an identified disability were consulted.
Interviews with three individuals who have experience working with individuals with autism were conducted, and methods and strategies that they found to be most successful were ascertained. One of the interviewees was Dr. Derek Polischuk, Professor of Piano and Director of Piano Pedagogy at Michigan State University, who serves on the National Conference on Keyboard Pedagogy’s Committee for Teaching Students with Special Needs. I also interviewed Danuta Highet, the parent of an adult with autism who co-authored the book, Autism: Advancing on the Spectrum: from Inclusion in School to Participation in Life: Lessons Learned from Life. The third interviewee, Kevin Bosworth, is an instructional assistant in the Fairfax County Public School District of Virginia, who interacts with individuals with identified disabilities, including autism.
Additional accommodations and strategies were gleaned from attending “Celebrating the Spectrum: A Festival of Music and Life” at Michigan State, and then applied to the private teaching of three student participants with autism. Each lesson, upon consent, was recorded and qualitative data was collected.
This dissertation includes five chapters. Chapter I includes a review of literature and accommodations, and Chapter II provides a detailed account of the methodology used. Information gained from my observation at the Festival can be found in Chapter III, along with content from the three interviews. Chapter IV includes detailed data on a wide variety of accommodations and strategies that were utilized and their effectiveness or ineffectiveness during the lessons with the three student participants. Chapter V provides a summary of the results from the lessons, and advice for private piano teachers who teach students with autism. The appendices include interview questions, transcriptions of the interviews, and a variety of resources utilized with the student participants
College Tutors\u27 and Secondary School Teachers\u27 Knowledge and Perceptions of Technology Integration in Teaching and Learning
No full textTechnology integration in education has been practiced for some decades in developing countries. Despite the growing access to technology in terms of infrastructure and tools in teacher colleges and secondary schools in Tanzania, there is limited research on how teachers use such resources to facilitate teaching and learning. This study used a mixed-methods research approach and a cross-sectional survey design to examine college tutors’ and secondary school teachers’ knowledge and perceptions of technology integration in teaching and learning in Tanzania. Adopting the technology acceptance model, the study assessed perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, and actual use of technology. Furthermore, the study assessed the influence of knowledge of technology integration, age, and teaching experience. Data were collected using questionnaires and interviews from 213 heterogeneous respondents. Descriptive statistics and Structural Equation Modelling techniques were used to analyze quantitative data, and thematic analysis was used for qualitative data. The results indicate that the respondents had moderate knowledge and perception levels of technology integration, significantly impacting their actual integration of technology in teaching and learning. However, their perceptions were not significant predictors of the actual use of technology. The study recommends that raising the level of technology integration requires capacity building through pre-service and in-service training
Radical Right Populism: Factors Within European Nations
No full textRadical right populist parties have recently obtained levels of power throughout the European Parliament and their respective countries. Due to the changing political landscape in Europe, concerns of social cohesion and economic factors have come to the forefront of political conversations to understand why people may be voting for radical right populist parties. This thesis utilizes panel regression models with random effects to test common social cohesion factors and perspectives of immigration effects on radical right populist parties’ electoral percentages in the European Parliament from 2009, 2014, 2019, and 2024. These social cohesion factors are views of immigration by ethnic difference and economic disadvantages, nationalism, religiosity, anti-democratic sentiment, and anti-EU sentiments. Economic metrics are also included in the regressions to test the first hypothesis on whether or not social cohesion or economic factors are attributing to the radical right populist parties’ vote shares. The second hypothesis considers if ethnic-based discrimination or economic-based discrimination are correlated to the parties’ vote shares. Lastly, the third hypothesis considered if immigration numbers themselves are an attributing factor. Results show that negative perspectives of immigrants are highly correlated to rising radical right populist parties’ electoral percentages with negative economic viewpoints about immigrants being more correlated than economic metrics and other social cohesion factors. Considerations for future research and limitations are explored
Use of Light Traps to Assess the Taxonomy and Seasonality of Early Life stages of Fishes Recruiting to Upper Matagorda Bay in Texas
No full textDetecting the ingress of larval and early juvenile fishes into estuaries is crucial for understanding the early life stages and population dynamics of species—specific recruitment seasonality. However, monitoring these early life stages presents challenges due to their small size, seasonal variability, spatial patchiness, and their use of structurally complex habitats. Although plankton nets have been widely used to sample larval fishes, light traps have been found to have more flexibility, durability, and cost—effective. This study aimed to assess the effectiveness of light traps for sampling larval and early juvenile fishes in a Texas estuary. The objectives of this study were to determine 1) the efficiency and selectivity of light traps, and 2) the seasonal differences in taxa and diversity observed in light traps. Light traps were deployed in shallow, shoreline habitats in the upper reaches of Matagorda Bay, TX. A total of 24 families were observed with the top family, Clupeidae, making up 50.3% of the total number of individuals caught. Spring had significantly higher catch—per—unit—effort, family richness, and family diversity than the other seasons. Length frequency distribution ranged from 3−58 SL mm. Light traps allowed for the sampling of shallow complex habitats while capturing size ranges that are underrepresented in fisheries monitoring programs that utilize trawls and seines
Evaluating the Effects of Social Ostracism on Attentional Control and Episodic Memory
No full textThis study examined the relationships between social pain, attentional control, and episodic memory. Fifty-five University of Southern Mississippi undergraduates (Mage = 19.78 years; Range = 17-29) wrote responses to one of three prompts designed to elicit feelings of social pain, physical pain, or no pain (i.e., control). Participants then completed a battery of attentional control (AC) and episodic memory (EM) tasks consisting of the Stroop squared, Flanker squared, Simon squared, and dual-list recall tasks. Participants also completed a series of questionnaires including Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) to assess any change in affect caused by the writing prompts and the Big Five personality inventory. Inconsistent with predictions, no differences were found across the three writing prompts indicating that reflections of both social or physical pain had no effect on AC or EM, and the PANAS also yielded no differences between the three groups. Correlations between the Big Five factors yielded typical relationships between neuroticism, agreeableness, and conscientiousness and openness, and openness and agreeableness were correlated with some of the AC tasks. Collectively however, writing about past painful experiences does not seem to affect cognition as assessed by the AC and EM tasks, though the sample sizes across the three groups lacked sufficient power to detect small or medium effects
Lateral Violence Awareness in Nursing Students at the University of Southern Mississippi
No full textThe purpose of this honors thesis was to obtain descriptive data about how nursing students at the University of Southern Mississippi School of Professional Nursing Practice perceive lateral violence in their clinical rotations and educational environments. This Honors thesis is significant to nursing because although lateral violence is a well-researched topic among scholars of nursing practice, there is little gathered data regarding lateral violence among nursing students, specifically at the University of Southern Mississippi. Nursing students are a vital population to examine because nursing students are often first exposed to lateral violence within a clinical setting, leading to early internalization of this persistent problem. The research design used quantitative methodology, and the approach was a descriptive survey, with the survey being developed by the researcher. The survey inquired about students’ experiences and perceptions of lateral violence within a clinical setting and contained 12 questions. Forty-four students responded to the survey, and participants reported the highest reported horizontal violence behaviors directed by fellow nursing students included: unreasonable criticism (47.7%), purposeful disinterest (29.5%), and hurtful remarks (25%). The highest reported horizontal violence behaviors that were directed by clinical nursing instructors included: unreasonable criticism (45.5%), hurtful remarks (31.8%), and purposefully not helping (20.5%). Over half of the participants (54.5%) stated that the events were not reported. 54.5% of participants were willing to answer questions about horizontal events revealing that 91.7% of participants did not report the event and 8.3% felt that the event was not resolved appropriately. 25% of the participants were negatively affected by the event while only 33.3% of participants felt that there was an appropriate resolution to the event. Only 4 (16.7%) of participants received information on nurse bullying while in nursing school