Fordham University: DigitalResearch@Fordham
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Competition and Its Relationship to Student Performance and Wellness
No full textThe intensity of teenage anxiety, depression, and at-risk behavior among suburban youth of high socio-economic status is epidemic. More empirical research mapping the relationship between academic “competition,” often magnified at affluent schools, student performance; and student wellness is needed. This study explores the relationship between competition, as a potentially positive and negative force, in a student’s psyche. It examines students’ academic performance and mental health/wellness; it measures the potentially mediating effects of performance approach and avoidance mindsets. The Opposing Processes Model of Inconsistent Mediation, and the competition/performance and competition/wellness relationships, expressed as linear regressions, constitute the conceptual frameworks. Findings reveal that trait competitiveness modestly predicts student performance for grade point average but not for standardized tests; environmentally perceived competition modestly predicts performance for standardized tests but not for grade point average. Findings also reveal that student perceptions of environmental competition, along with performance avoidance mindsets, significantly predict student depression and anxiety. Performance Approach mindsets modestly but negatively predict depression and anxiety. In most of the relational pathways studied, no inconsistent mediation effects emerged, but the Opposing Processes Model of Inconsistent Mediation was validated in the environmentally perceived competition-anxiety pathway. These findings should be considered by school leaders when designing instructional strategies and climate norms. Recommendations include using student conceptions of competition as a data point for school data teams, designing pedagogical and ecological responses to both leverage and mitigate competition’s multiple effects, and training faculty on interventions targeting the types of mindsets likely to trigger student depression or anxiety
Breaking Point: The Ironic Evolution of Psychiatry in World War II - APPENDIX B
No full textThis book informs the public for the first time about the impact of American psychiatry on soldiers during World War II.
Breaking Point is the first in-depth history of American psychiatry in World War II. Drawn from unpublished primary documents, oral histories, and the author’s personal interviews and correspondence over years with key psychiatric and military policymakers, it begins with Franklin Roosevelt’s endorsement of a universal Selective Service psychiatric examination followed by Army and Navy pre- and post-induction examinations. Ultimately, 2.5 million men and women were rejected or discharged from military service on neuropsychiatric grounds. Never before or since has the United States engaged in such a program.
In designing Selective Service Medical Circular No. 1, psychiatrist Harry Stack Sullivan assumed psychiatrists could predict who might break down or falter in military service or even in civilian life thereafter. While many American and European psychiatrists questioned this belief, and huge numbers of American psychiatric casualties soon raised questions about screening’s validity, psychiatric and military leaders persisted in 1942 and 1943 in endorsing ever tougher screening and little else. Soon, families complained of fathers and teens being drafted instead of being identified as psychiatric 4Fs, and Blacks and Native Americans, among others, complained of bias. A frustrated General George S. Patton famously slapped two “malingering” neuropsychiatric patients in Sicily (a sentiment shared by Marshall and Eisenhower, though they favored a tamer style). Yet psychiatric rejections, evacuations, and discharges mounted.
While psychiatrist Roy Grinker and a few others treated soldiers close to the front in Tunisia in early 1943, this was the exception. But as demand for manpower soared and psychiatrists finally went to the field and saw that combat itself, not “predisposition,” precipitated breakdown, leading military psychiatrists switched their emphasis from screening to prevention and treatment. But this switch was too little too late and slowed by a year-long series of Inspector General investigations even while numbers of psychiatric casualties soared.
Ironically, despite and even partly because of psychiatrists’ wartime performance, plus the emotional toll of war, postwar America soon witnessed a dramatic growth in numbers, popularity, and influence of the profession, culminating in the National Mental Health Act (1946). But veterans with “PTSD,” not recognized until 1980, were largely neglected
A Grounded Theory Examination of Racial Identity Experiences of Multiracial Latinx Adults
No full textThis qualitative dissertation study clarifies the content of racial identity development for multiracial Latinx adults who shared their lived experiences, as well as the underlying relationships that governed the relative influence of differing elements on each participant’s racial identity. There were four research questions: 1) How do adult multiracial Latinx individuals currently perceive themselves and their racial identity within wider societal contexts? 2) What are the lived experiences of individuals with mixed-Latinx backgrounds that have influenced their racial identity and its salience? 3) How has their racial identification changed throughout their life? 4) What do these individuals perceive as the relationship between racial identity, physical appearance, and other salient intersecting identities? Ten multiracial adults (aged 25 – 65) with partial Latinx heritage participated in semi-structured, in-depth interviews. Consistent with grounded theory, data was simultaneously collected, coded and analyzed until saturation was achieved. The results suggested that for these multiracial Latinx individuals their racial identity development process was nonlinear, heavily context dependent, and continuously evolving across the lifespan. Their racial identity was influenced by family members’ explicit and implicit communications about race and ethnicity. Physical appearance, other salient identities, and available peer groups also affected the individual’s relationship to their racial identity. Respondents attributed both challenges and social benefits to their multiracial heritage. These findings may be used to help practitioners provide more effective psychological and educational services to multiracial Latinx individuals. The study captures their experiences of being multiracial during a time of renewed conversation around race and helps to illustrate the social construction of race
Gender Inequality and Economic Decline: A Comparative Analysis of Gender Roles and its Impact on Economic Development in Egypt and Iran
No full textThis thesis will demonstrate that increasing female labor force participation in Iran and Egypt will facilitate overall economic growth, reduce poverty rates, and increase family investment in education and health. There are three critical factors that I will examine that are significantly deterring female participation in the labor force in these two countries specifically: sociocultural values, legal barriers, and economic policies. By refusing to mobilize the increasing potential female labor force, Iran and Egypt are hindering the nation’s social and economic development
Watering the Grassroots: The Importance of a Comprehensive Approach to Conflict in the Sahel
No full textThe withdrawal of French troops from Mali in August 2021 has revealed massive structural problems with crisis intervention and conflict mitigation in Africa. The purpose of this research is to reveal how foreign intervention in the Sahel has failed to stabilize the region in the face of mounting political, socioeconomic, and environmental crises. This paper examines Mali and France, two countries that are centered in crisis in the Sahel, and how the politics of intervention have resulted in the current situation. While the crisis in the Sahel does not yet have a clear result, this project seeks to contextualize current conflict in past and present manifestations of violence to better assess the ways in which foreign intervention is or is not successful
Collaborative Learning to Increase General Education Teacher Self-Efficacy in Supporting Multilingual Learners
No full textThis study addresses a problem of practice in a suburban school district in the Northeast United States. Data showed that students identified as Multilingual Language Learners or English Language Learners (MLLs or ELLs) were more likely to be referred to special education than their English-speaking peers. Research suggests that boosting teacher efficacy in supporting MLLs and ELLs in a general education environment can reduce their disproportionate representation in special education. After engaging in a root cause analysis, a Professional Learning Community (PLC) for teachers in early elementary grades engaged in data inquiry and an Improvement Science Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle. Data was collected to analyze teacher reactions to the intervention, changes in teacher behavior, and changes in student learning. Preliminary results suggest that this intervention was positively received by teachers and increased teacher-reported efficacy for teaching MLLs and ELLs
Developmental Differences in Children’s Problem-Solving Approaches During Educational Digital Game Play
No full textThis study investigated fourth-seventh graders’ approaches to learning a digital game designed to teach the basics of coding. This goal was chosen as STEM games are increasingly incorporated in school settings. However, little is known about how students approach their learning of educational games, particularly among students in mid- to late elementary school age. As part of this investigation, students were asked to adopt different goals for their learning while playing: a metacognitive goal whereby they were to think about what they learned while playing, an affective goal whereby they were to think about how they felt while playing, or no goal (Blumberg, 2000). All participants were instructed to think-aloud for 10 consecutive minutes as they played and to then recount what they learned and remembered about their game play. These comments were then coded for their reference to types of comments that included reference to their cognitive processes, the game, affect, goals, and background knowledge. Findings showed that older participants made more references to cognitive comments than their younger counterparts during game play and debriefing. Developmental differences were not found for cognitive comments by condition during game play, however, participants in the metacognitive condition made greater references to cognitive comments during debriefing than other conditions. As expected, developmental differences were found as sixth and seventh graders significantly outperformed fourth and fifth graders. Surprisingly, participants in the control condition performed significantly better than participants in other conditions. Collectively, these findings elucidate how middle childhood age and early adolescents may approach their game-based learning. Greater examination of these approaches is warranted to best capitalize on students’ inclinations for learning digital games introduced into the classroom
The ‘Surplus’ of Siem Reap: A Comparative Study of Cambodia’s Urban Recyclers
No full textThe modern influx of consumer goods and waste from Western, capitalistic economies to Southeast Asian countries has amassed unprecedented amounts of solid waste. With no pre-existing, formal recycling infrastructure, managing recyclables fell to the informal sector. Driven to informal work by slow job growth, limitations to educational attainment, no pre-existing capital, disability, landlessness, or gender norms, a surplus of urban recyclers have emerged to uphold a waste commodity chain that returns value to discarded material while cleaning up urban environments. Despite providing an invaluable service, these waste pickers, buyers, and depot workers are rarely treated with respect by their communities or academia. This has limited reformative action, such that researchers at the School for Field Studies decided to continue a survey-based study to map the precarious environmental and socio-economic position of Siem Reap, Cambodia’s urban recyclers. Chapter 1 first outlines and compares results from said 2022 and 2023 survey cycles, alongside their implications for relevant ecosystem services. Said conclusions are then used to support surplus labor and survivalist livelihood theories in chapter 2 that mirror the population’s environmentally unjust, economic reality. Chapter 3 continues to contextualize by exploring how the history of Western production and international waste management has created a setting that facilitates the vulnerability of urban recyclers today, many of which are women also facing a disproportionate domestic burden that is thoroughly addressed in chapter 4. Only then, with an established understanding informed by urban recyclers themselves, does chapter 5 assess whether formalizing the informal sector is a viable solution, how such an undertaking should occur, and who should bear the responsibility
Leadership Practices to Support Teaching Mathematical Word Problems to Students With Disabilities
No full textStudents with disabilities often encounter challenges when solving mathematical word problems. This case study used an Improvement Science approach in a 15-week Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle where leadership approaches and collaborative structures were utilized to support teachers as they implemented problem-solving and goal-setting strategy to help students with disabilities solve mathematical word problems. A two-part theory of action was used in the study. First, if teachers implement effective reading, writing, and problem-solving strategies in the classroom, there will be an increase in the number of students with disabilities solving word problems completely and accurately. Second, if the administration supports and develops teachers in using reading, writing, explicit teaching of math vocabulary, problem-solving, and goal-setting strategies, then teachers will begin implementing problem-solving and goal-setting strategy consistently in the classroom. The outcome was positive as there was evidence of increased collaboration between teachers and administrators. Teachers’ practices improved and students with disabilities implemented the problem-solving and goal-setting strategy to improve their accuracy and completion rates in solving mathematical word problems
Improving Reading Outcomes for Students With Disabilities Using a Multi-Tier Professional Development Intervention
No full textStudents with Disabilities (SWD) are underperforming in reading when compared to their neurotypical peers. Although reading research has made significant progress over the past 30 years, including recent developments regarding the science of reading, the findings from the extensive body of research are not consistently grounding instructional decisions. Research clearly emphasizes the need to use evidence-based practices to improve reading outcomes for SWDs. However, secondary level special education teachers lack training in implementing such practices. Research indicates that professional development (PD) as part of any educational reform efforts must be grounded in the understanding that change begins with the learning of educational professionals and that only through increasing adult learning will we ultimately increase student learning. This mixed methods study relied on elements of improvement science to gain a deeper understanding and investigate if a multi-tier professional development (PD) intervention would increase teacher collaboration, teacher knowledge, teacher practice, and improve reading outcomes for SWDs. The three primary drivers were: (a) develop Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound (SMART) goal writing and progress monitoring, (b) increase opportunities for teacher collaboration and (c) strengthening knowledge and practice in quality teaching. The three PDSA (Plan, Do, Study, Act) cycles implemented as part of the intervention included (a) Restructured Department Meetings, (b) Lunch & Learns, and (C) Reading Pilot PLC. Multiple data points were collected including surveys, exit tickets, Kiva Protocol, student data, IEP analysis, and teacher interviews. Findings indicate increased collaboration among teachers, increased teacher knowledge regarding reading, SMART goal writing and progress monitoring as well as statistically significant reading growth for SWD