1,164 research outputs found
Re-imagining Shakespeare - Twelfth Night (program 3)
No full textThis exhibition represents the cross-discipline collaboration of more than sixty of Drake's students. After studying several of the Bard's plays, students in Sarah Hogan's Reading Shakespeare courses (ENG 058) worked in small groups to direct and perform scenes from "The Merchant of Venice", "Hamlet", and "Twelfth Night". They then collectively drafted a series of short essays on their imagined full-length productions. These modern adaptations, explained in the collaboratively-authored programs, ranged from a "Hamlet" set in the impoverished town of Denmark, South Carolina, to a "Twelfth Night" that explores the gender politics of corporate America. Students in the Graphic Design Two courses (ART 116) taught by Hilary Williams then worked in pairs to create theater posters and program covers that drew on these materials for inspiration and interpretation. All along the way, students have shared ideas, debated visions, and re-imagined Shakespeare.William Shakespeare was no stranger to collaboration. More than a few of his plays were co-authored with fellow dramatists or adapted by others in the process of publication, while performances of his works have always depended on the efforts of actors, investors, and even audiences. Indeed, in his time, Shakespeare was part of a commercial company, the Lord Chamberlain's Men, and later, the King's Men. Bringing his works to both light and life has therefore always required the imaginative labor of many.Drake University English Department, Professor Sarah Hogan, and Drake University Graphic Design Department, Professor Hilary Williams. Funding provided by Drake University Women's Studies. Exhibit hosted by Drake University, Cowles Library
Attitudes Toward Women as Administrators in the Des Moines, Iowa Public Schools
No full text113 leaves. Advisor: Dr. Richard LampshireThe problem. In a profession dominated in numbers by women, few women find their way to the top. There are relatively few women in positions of leadership or administration in education. The purpose of this study was to determine the attitudes of the school related community toward women as administrators in the Des Moines, Iowa public schools.
Procedure. Five segments of the Des Moines community were the population for this study. Sample groups were taken from: (1) students in fourth, eighth, and eleventh grades;
(2) parents of children in these grades; (3) teaching faculty from the schools attended by these students; (4) present administrators in these buildings; (5) personnel from the College of Education, Drake University. Sample groups were given an opinionnaire prepared by the author and consisting of twelve statements which describe tasks, roles or characteristics of administrators. Results were tabulated and the data analyzed. Textual summaries and tables appear in numerical and percentage form for ease of interpretation.
Findings. The study shows that men and women are considered equally able at public relations, at having ambition and a career commitment, at having insight into the needs of people. Women are perceived as working as well under women as under men, as being able to satisfy the community in assuming principalship of a school. Men and women are viewed as being equally able to make decisions and to organize effectively. Males are believed to be better disciplinarians by parents, students and older teachers, not, however, by the majority of the teaching faculty nor by administrators. Women are considered to be more sensitive, taking things more personally than men. Most segments of the study believed that young girls need successful women as models to emulate, and most segments also do not perceive the Des Moines schools as having a particular problem of sex bias or discrimination.
Conclusion. The findings of this study, when viewed as a whole, do not show any consistent negative attitudes toward women as administrators in the Des Moines, Iowa public Schools. On most of the questions asked, men and women were regarded by the subjects as equally able to perform tasks of leedership
A Study Reviewing Motives for Participation and the Postenrollment Transition After Completing A Graduate Degree Program
No full textvi, 58 leaves. Advisor: Thomas S. Westbrook.The Problem: The purpose of this study is to compare the initial leaning objectives to the objectives achieved after completing the degree and to identify the postenrollment transition adults make after completing their degree.
Procedures: The author interviewed twenty graduates of a Training and Development graduate degree program. The author asked each participant about his/her initial learning objectives and the objectives achieved after completing the graduate program. The author also asked each participant about his/her postenrollment transition after completing the graduate program.
Findings: Twenty participants indicated they met their initial learning objectives and many derived unexpected benefits fiom participating in the graduate degree program. Each individual's postenrollment transition varied depending on the his/her personal situation.
Conclusions: Most students meet their initial learning expectations. Upon completing a graduate degree program, some students may derive unexpected benefits. Students experience a wide range of feelings in conjunction with the postenrollment transition associated with graduation.
Recommendations: Research should be conducted that surveys participants prior to the learning experience and again after the learning experience has been completed to compare the initial learning objectives to the derived benefits. Likewise, during the postenrollment transition period, the researcher should contact the subject to track the transition over time. Finally, additional research is needed to determine if various demographic variables impact the student's postenrollment transition
Marriage Counseling : Definitions and Correlates of Success and Failure
No full text60 leaves. Advisor: Lawrence FanningThe problem. The author sought to analytically describe definitions of success and failure in marriage counseling held by those in the private
practice of marriage counseling. Additionally, the author attempted to have practitioners identify client characteristics they believed to be associated with success and failure in marriage counseling.
Procedure. Twenty-seven randomly selected private -practice marriage counselors were interviewed by the author. The data obtained from the interviews were supplemented with data obtained from journals and monographs.
Findings. Two discrete definitions of success and failure were held by the marriage counselors who were interviewed. One definition focused on whether or not the presenting and/or
subsequently delineated marital problems are ameliorated. The other definition focused on whether or not the clients are able to release or acquire certain interpersonal and intrapersonal attributes and skills, Among the correlates of
success and failure in the counseling experience identified by the practitioners were clarity and individuation of self, empathy, acceptance of
social and psychological differences between self and marital partner, education, intelligence,
support systems, third-party involvement, psychopathologies, level of pain and motivation, narcissism, value systems, and degree of marital homogeneity.
Conclusions. There is among professional marriage counselors significant agreement on definitions of success and failure in the marital counseling experience. Likewise, there is significant agreement concerning the correlates of success
and failure.
Recommendations. Research should be conducted among those who have experienced marital counseling to determine how clients define success and failure and to determine the degree to which
client and practitioner definitions are congruent.
Attempts should be made to determine what client
characteristics are, in fact, correlated with client-perceived success and failure in the counseling experience
Smile More: A Subcultural Analysis of the Anchor/Consultant Relationship in Local Television News Operations
No full textiii, 209 leaves. Advisor: Michael CheneyThe problem: Few television stations in the United States remain untouched by the influence of news consultants. To become a news anchor for a local television station, a journalist is likely to
receive specialized training from these consultants. The author will analyze the relationship between anchors and consultants
within the framework of an occupational subculture to better understand that relationship,
Procedure: The author uses qualitative research to explore the situation described; specifically, a series of structured interviews with randomly chosen American television news anchors and several representative consultants. Contents of the interviews are analyzed within an occupational subculture paradigm.
Findings: As subcultural outsiders, station consultants can cause irritation and anxiety for news anchors, but the skills they teach are valued by the modern television industry. Some anchors
may be willing to compromise traditional news culture values to survive in their careers, but this compromise may be offset by new perceptions of their social responsibility.
Conclusion: While the skills taught by a consultant may be valued within the television news subculture, his or her role as an outsider
can contribute negatively to the subculture. The hypothesis drawn from qualitative analysis is as follows: If journalistic norms constitute a strong subculture, then those who receive coaching from within the subculture will report a more positive
experience than those who are coached by consultants.
Recommendations: Quantitative research can now be pursued to test the preceding hypothesis
The Effects of a Social Concept Unit on the Developing of Positive Concepts of Self, Among First Grade Students at Colfax, Iowa
No full text63 leaves. Advisor: Carol BurdenThe problem. The problem of this study was to
ascertain to what extent instruction of a social-concept unit would change a child's self-image; and if a change was evident, was it of a positive nature.
Procedure. Two self-contained classrooms of first grade students in Colfax, Iowa, were chosen as the population for this study. The author was the instructor for the experimental group and the regularly employed classroom
teacher was the instructor for the control group. The two samplings were pre-tested before the unit's instruction began. At the conclusion of the project, the same students
were post-tested.
Findings. The results of this study showed that
there was no significant difference in self-concept measures between the control and experimental groups. Based upon this research, the author must conclude that the conscious teaching of a social-concept unit did not change the children's self-concept any more than the usual activities of another classroom teacher who did not employ a specific curriculum.
Recommendations. While the results of this study did not show a significant positive change in self-concept development when the groups were considered as a whole,
individuals did make sizeable gains. The evidence of this research indicate that a change in self-concept can take place. (The direction of the mean difference in each case
was in favor of the experimental group.) Therefore, there is a need for further studies to investigate who makes what kind of gains under what kind of conditions. The author
recognizes the need for a more applicable form of self-concept appraisal and recommends the continued search and development of a more refined measuring device
Jack of All Trades vs Master of Some: Searching Ideal Knowledge Portfolio for Tech Start-Ups
No full text17 pagesSenior leadership is indisputably central to firm performance. Numerous studies have delved into various attributes of firm leadership as predictors of performance, primarily focusing on educational background and prior tenure in other organizations. Surprisingly, the role of technical skills within firm leaders remains an under-researched area. Given that these leaders often serve as chief decision-makers in technology-centric firms, managing numerous engineers, their technical skills likely play a crucial role in ensuring seamless operations and fostering productive teams. This study addresses this gap by examining the influence of leaders' technical skills, specifically evaluating the diversity of these skills, and their depth and breadth within each technical domain on firm performance. Using data from Angel.co and LinkedIn, we constructed technical profiles for 100 firms based on the technical skills of their founders. Our analysis focused on the relationship between the Euclidean distance of technical profiles, their breadth and depth, and firm performance was measured in terms of the capital raised. Our findings suggest that the diversity and depth of technical profiles affect firm performance. We further discuss the broader implications of our results for both research and practical application
This Isn’t Your Parent’s TV Show…Oh Wait, It Is
No full textPeer-Reviewed Journal Article. 11 pagesPopular conception holds that Millennials and Gen Z’ers do not like old stuff. Whether it be old
games, books, technology, movies, or TV shows, the prevailing thought is that the younger
generation prefers newer things. While this view may be perpetuated online and in popular
press, it may also be less than accurate as data actually shows younger generations preferring
older content. Utilizing Uses and Gratifications Theory, this research tests this assumption by
tracking favorite TV shows of Millennials and Gen Z’ers over a seven-year period. Results show
that these individuals actually prefer non-current TV shows and that the level of “noncurrentness” of their preference is growing over time
An Analysis of the Fiction of Charles W. Chesnutt
No full text115 leavesSummary of Author: Charles W. Chesnutt (1858-1932) is a black short story author and novelist whose two volumes of short stories and three novels of purpose depict racial tensions present in the South during the
post-Reconstruction era. He addressed a culture
dominated by the myth of white superiority and black inferiority.
Chesnutt's purpose in his fiction is to present a perspective of racial tensions and social issues confronting Southern whites and blacks that differed from the perspective presented by writers of the plantation tradition fiction.
Rationale: Since black authors from 1853 to the 1890s basically reflected the themes of plantation tradition fiction and thus ignored social and political issues facing blacks in the 1890s, this analysis of Chesnutt's
fiction is made to determine whether he did present a differing perspective of slavery and of white-black issues in the South.
Procedure: This study is based on the reading and analysis of primary sources--The Conjure Woman, The Wife of his Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line, The House Behind the Cedars, The Marrow of Tradition, and
The Colonel's Dream--as well as his letters collected by Helen, his daughter. Material from the Charles Chesnutt Collection was also incorporated into this study.
Secondary sources include articles by Chesnutt's contemporaries as well as articles and books by later scholars.
Findinqs: Charles Chesnutt is the first black American author to ask his publishers for the freedom to treat social and racial issues from a black's perspective: issues such as racial intermarriage, the franchise, and convict labor practices. He also explored the ramifications of "passing" into white society and other problems confronting people of mixed-race in the South and in the North. He pleaded for a quickening of conscience and
for moral renewal in the hearts of Southern whites.
Conclusions: Chesnutt projects a sense of optimism for racial acceptance in The House Behind the Cedars and to a lesser degree in The Marrow of Tradition. However, his third novel, The Colonel's Dream reflects his
frustration concerning the absence of meaningful change in the South in 1905. Negative responses by white supremacy groups and apathy on the part of Northern whites are two factors which led to his decline as an
early twentieth-century novelist
Iowa High Schools: Meeting the Challenges of Educating Limited English Proficient Students
No full textiii, 132 leaves. Advisor: Kathy Fejes.The recent influx of immigrants and refugees in Iowa has caused an increase in the population of Limited English Proficient (LEP) students in the schools of Iowa. The condition of education of Iowa secondary LEP students in mainstream classrooms has not been studied extensively. Valid and reliable tools for studying the education of LEP students have not been developed.
In this study, the author developed a survey tool that measures how much mainstream teachers perceive themselves to be following the best practices as suggested by research in the areas of school policies and organization, curriculum issues, and instructional techniques.
The survey was sent to nine high schools in five school districts in Iowa. One hundred twenty-two teachers responded to the survey.
The results of the survey indicated that the participating Iowa high school teachers perceive themselves to be making efforts to accommodate LEP students in the area of instruction, whereas some improvement needs to be made in the area of curriculum accommodation. Needed most in Iowa secondary schools are curriculum articulation and collaboration between mainstream and ESL teachers, staff development opportunities for mainstream teachers, and a school system and structure that allows for these practices.
Content validity, parallel form reliability, and construct validity of the research tool were established in this survey. The results indicated that the survey tool is fit to be used for identifying the areas that need improvement in education of LEP students, and should be used in further educational research
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