Via Sapientiae: The Institutional Repository at DePaul University
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The Process of Designing and Revising a High-Quality Digital Math Curriculum For a Large Diverse Urban School District: Recommendations From a Math Designer
Get PDFNortheastern Illinois University: Identifying Characteristics Associated with Low African American Student Retention and Persistence
Get PDFAlthough a recent study found that college student retention and persistence rates are on the rise, there continues to be significant differences between African American and White students at predominately white institutions (PWIs). Institutional factors such as unwelcoming campus climates, racial stereotypes, and faculty relationships have been found to be viable factors as to why the disparities between African American and other students continue to exist. This Case Study explored some of the key issues/factors/questions related to the retention and persistence of African American students at a Midwest PWI. This study found that university resources and financial support, inclusion, comfortability with professors, culturally relevant curricula and campus climate were major factors that impacted African American students’ decision to remain in college. African American students not only want an inclusive and welcoming campus environment but also, they want competent staff and professors and more African American professors in the classroom
Black, Male, Juvenile: A Multi-System Perspective on Hope, Dehumanization, and Redemption in Recidivism & Education
Get PDFAcross the United States millions of juveniles enter the criminal justice system each year. The foundational theories that are being used for this study are Hirschi’s Social learning theory and Shaw & McKay’s theory of Social Disorganization. The intention of this study is to explore the outcome of exposure factors on recidivism among male black juveniles from the perspectives of Juvenile Justice Professionals and Educators within the City of Chicago. Data will be collected from in-depth interviews with 10 minority participant\u27s including Chicago Police Department Officers, Juvenile Detectives, a Cook County Juvenile Judge, Cook County Juvenile Correctional Officers, Educators, and a Juvenile Probation Counselor. This study provides an in-debt investigation into several exposure factors that contribute to juvenile recidivism from professionals who deal and encounter juvenile repeat offenders daily. Through interview’s, light will be shed on the voices and recommendations from each participant. The goal of this study is to find methods and strategies recommended by juvenile professionals and educators that will contribute to the reduction of recidivism among juvenile delinquents and may reduce the number of young adults entering the criminal justice system. Keywords: Juvenile Delinquents, Recidivism, Age, Dependent and neglected children, Social Disorganization Theory, Social Learning Theory, Law Enforcement, Criminal Justice System, Black Juvenile, Chicago Police Department, Exposure/Risk Factors, Mental Illness/PTSD, Diversion progra
Level Up Eco-Friendly Hotel Stay: Guest Power Up and Save Energy with Gamification
Get PDFExecutive Summary
Hotel businesses endeavor to achieve successful green practices for long-lasting business success. The key issue is to promote consumers’ willingness to participate in such practices. Despite increased environmental awareness among today’s consumers, a relatively large percentage of consumers hesitate to actively engage with green practices because they are unwilling to sacrifice their comforts and convenience for their paid experience. This report introduces a gamification approach to hotels’ green practices through an investigation of how game components motivate guests’ energy-saving participation. This report finds that the energy-saving game can improve hotel guests’ willingness to save energy and even revisit the hotel. This paper offers fruitful suggestions on using gamification to encourage guests’ energy-saving and revisit behaviors
Loving without memory: on the concept of salvation from Deleuze\u27s Spinoza to Spinoza\u27s Deleuze
No full textIn this dissertation, I read Gilles Deleuze’s philosophy in light of its debt to that of Benedict de Spinoza to argue that an immanent and non-teleological conception of salvation can be found throughout Deleuze’s later works. I critically examine Deleuze’s reading of Spinoza found in his 1968 study before turning to a constructive reading of his later texts with Guattari. Across these works, I show that what is “saved” in Deleuzian soteriology is not the subject or the person, but an impersonal and memory-less degree of intensity
Critical Civic Engagement of Immigrant-Origin Latinx Youth
Get PDFDuring adolescence, youth gain sociocognitive skills to think abstractly about inequalities which may propel critical civic engagement (CCE, i.e., civically engaged behaviors aimed to transform systems of inequality). Latinx immigrant-origin youth must uniquely decipher their place within U.S. political contexts, considering their hyphenated multi-national identities and potential familial obligations, which may differ drastically from the experiences typically captured in the civic engagement literature that are often based on non-immigrant, White, middle-class American young adults. Additionally, previous research on the Latinx immigrant community has bypassed nuances of their civic engagement by failing to consider within-group differences (e.g., nationality, generational status), or by primarily focusing on civic engagement as an outcome and little on its developmental processes. Further, only a small number of studies have focused on the role of supportive non-parental adults, such as mentors, in facilitating civic engagement, with even less focusing on Latinx youth.
This study employed a qualitative approach, Constructivist Grounded Theory, to explore the CCE of Latinx immigrant-origin youth through the framework of youth sociopolitical development. I examined the following research questions: (1) How do Latinx immigrant-origin youth conceptualize and participate in critical civic engagement? (2) How do mentors shape the critical civic engagement of immigrant-origin Latinx youth? (3) How do adults hinder critical civic engagement? Participants were recruited from U.S. regions with large but varying Latinx populations in collaboration with two large universities and the affiliate offices of a national mentoring organization, which is a resource and advocate for mentoring. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a diverse sample of Latinx immigrant-origin youth (N = 21) between the ages of 18 and 24 years. Interview data were analyzed by three coders. Results revealed that Latinx immigrant-origin youth’s critical civic engagement encompassed actions that raised social consciousness and established collective pressure. Participants’ CCE was positively shaped by natural mentors who modeled community engagement and activism, provided emotional support, equipped youth through instrumental support, provided space for reflection and dialogue, and arranged opportunities for action. Findings also revealed that adults can be an impediment to CCE by discouraging the discussion of social issues or creating a difficult environment for frank conversations, minimizing youth concerns about social issues, and becoming barriers for youth to take action. This study provides an in-depth understanding of the critical civic engagement of this population. Additionally, through a deeper understanding of the role of mentors, future interventions can be developed to better equip, support, and mobilize Latinx immigrant-origin youth in creating structural change for the betterment of their community
The Positive Impact of Exposure to Nature versus Urban-Environment Images on Cognitive Processing: Working Memory and Problem Solving
Get PDFThe benefit of natural environments, compared to urban environments, to cognitive resources such as working memory have been documented and replicated (e.g., Berman et al., 2012; Berman et al., 2008; Berto, 2005). However, existing data do not extend beyond lower-order cognitive resources to higher-order cognitive processes such as problem solving. The goal of this thesis was to address this gap. The experiment tested both the beneficial effect of nature on executive function and problem solving. Using a backward digit-span task to measure working memory, I hypothesized that participants would repeat a higher number of sequences correctly after versus before viewing nature images, but not urban-environment images. Using a grid-pattern task (Adams et al., 2021) to assess problem solving, I hypothesized that participants would be more likely to make subtractive changes after versus before viewing nature compared to urban-environment images. Results did not support the hypotheses. Participants performed significantly better on the grid task after image viewing, regardless of image type. Participants also liked nature images better than urban-environment images, but liking was not correlated with working-memory or problem-solving performance. I finish with a discussion in which I argue that the lack of significant effects for image type suggests future research should only be conducted outside of the lab, and with the speculation that the restorative effect of nature might be attributed more to affective rather than cognitive mechanisms
