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- Creator:
- Frenzel, Lena Viktoria
- Description:
- The master thesis “Media Richness and Message Complexity as Influencers of Social Media Engagement” seeks to identify the relationship between message complexity, media richness, and its effect on social media engagement. the literature review in this field revealed a recent trend that earlier studies tended to reject the media richness theory, whereas the recent studies, which applied the theory to social media, overwhelmingly confirmed the media richness theory. to further investigate this phenomenon, the media richness theory by Daft and Lengel (1986) will be used to derive potential predictors of social media engagement. a quantitative content analyses will be performed by exporting posts from a Facebook business page and running a multiple linear regression analysis to identify predictors of social media reach. the Facebook business page used for this study is a social media influencer brand called Linz Stanley, which has over 20,000 Facebook followers and successfully established itself in the cosplay market by publishing photos of handcrafted costumes and attendances of cosplay conferences on her social media profiles.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Communications
- Creator:
- Bracamontes, Brent Ignacio
- Description:
- This dissertation used qualitative, interpretive methods to explore African American and Latino/a community college students’ use of autoethnographic writing to express experiences of marginalization and sense of belonging on their college campus. Using postmodernism and critical race theory as theoretical frameworks, I investigated how students had experienced marginalization and a sense of belonging on their community college campus, as well as the reported epistemological (meaning-making) functions of the autoethnographic writing process. Participants in the study were introduced to the major constructs (marginalization, sense of belonging, and autoethnography), wrote autoethnographic essays about their experiences, and completed phenomenological interviews about the writing process. Participants reported feelings of marginalization based on factors such as their age, perceptions of academic under-preparedness, lack of familiarity with college structures and processes, perceived social identity, linguistic insecurities, and out-of-school experiences. Participants reported a sense of belonging as stemming from personal networks, programs, and mentors, and identified the epistemological functions of the writing process, including elements such as creating new avenues for expression, developing ideas and strengthening recollection, grappling with cognitions and emotions, sharing experiences, creating solutions to problems, and personalizing the constructs of marginalization and belonging.
- Resource Type:
- Dissertation
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Educational Leadership
- Creator:
- Benedicto, Samantha
- Description:
- Restricted and repetitive behaviors (RRBs) are a core symptom of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The most common RRBs are hand flapping, finger tapping, body swaying, or out-of-context waving. RRBs disrupt attachment between parent and child. The purpose of the current study was to create a rating scale that measures RRBs during observation of parent-child interactions to allow researchers to objectively score RRBs to yield ratings with higher reliability and validity than current measurements. The Repetitive Behavior Scale-Observation (RBS-O) was created to assess 30 RRBs. Participants were 26 ASD children, who interacted in the lab with their mothers in a problem-solving task. Researchers rated children’s RRBs. Analyses of the RBS-O revealed the difficulty of witnessing these RRBs during a short time period, particularly in a laboratory setting. Only 33% of items on the original measure were observed and scored. I removed items that were not scored, as well as those with no variability in scoring. Items with low item whole correlations were also removed, leaving a final sixitem measure. Inter-rater reliability was high and concurrent validity with an existing measure of parent-reported observable behaviors was high as well. Limitations, however, include the low number of behaviors observed and short testing period.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Psychology
- Creator:
- Williams, Sigrid
- Description:
- Economic conditions require a workforce of lifelong learners. Regional Occupational Programs (ROP) provide career technical education that engage every student in high-quality, rigorous and relevant education to help students become career and college ready. the purpose of this mixed methods study was to gather both quantitative and qualitative data to explore the extent to which students perceived that 21st century skills were being taught in their educational programs and their experiences in learning the necessary skills to become career and college ready after taking an ROP class. This study’s key findings included that, as a result of their ROP classes, students believed that they (a) are knowledgeable about their college and/or career plans, (b) understand the necessity of learning critical thinking skills to succeed in the workforce and post-secondary education, (c) have learned to independently study to seek answers about their career choices, (d) have learned the necessary skills to get a job, and (e) are prepared to be successful in the workforce and college. They also believe that ROP classes need to be offered in the high school in order for students to become career and college ready.
- Resource Type:
- Dissertation
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Educational Leadership
- Creator:
- Castaneda, Marlon
- Description:
- Intergroup bias was evaluated using moral dilemmas in which killing one person was necessary to save five others. The five people had demographic characteristics that placed them in varying degrees of proximity to the decision-maker: atheists, elderly, strangers, cousins, siblings, and children. A total of 253 university students rated both how right and how wrong killing the target was to save the at-risk groups. Theoretically, ratings of right captured the benefits of saving the five people, while ratings of wrong emphasized the costs of killing the target. Averaged across all scenarios, ratings of right increased from strangers to children; ratings of wrong decreased but to a lesser extent. Moral identity and religiosity were also measured to see if intergroup bias varied with these personality factors. Moral identity had no correlation with the ratings. However, religiosity correlated with the ratings and suggested a deontological bias in which participants applied a moral rule that prohibits killing regardless of any perceived benefits. For all proximity levels, religious groups’ ratings of right were lower, and their ratings of wrong were higher, compared to the non-religious group, illustrating an aversion to killing the target regardless of the at-risk group. However, the religious groups and the non-religious group showed a similar increase in ratings of right towards genetically related, at-risk groups. Therefore, intergroup bias was still present in conjunction with the religious deontological bias.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Psychology
- Creator:
- Carlson, Rosie M.
- Description:
- This comparative case study analyzed two styles of coaching, team and individual, and the perceived impact each style has on instructional practices. This study was conducted in two elementary schools that are part of the same charter organization in California. The study identified the challenges and benefits of each style through interviews with the teachers, observations of the coaching sessions, and follow-up questionnaires. Some of the benefits reported were time for collaboration, feedback on instructional practices, and opportunities for self-reflection. Some of the challenges were that relationships and personalities of people who were not working well together made collaboration more difficult and less effective. Overall, the data showed that there were more benefits than challenges in both styles of coaching and this was triangulated between all three forms of data collection. When rating the impact of coaching on instructional practices, participants reported a direct link between coaching and their instructional practices. Individual coaching earned an average rating of 3.5 out of 5 and team coaching averaged a 4.8 out of 5 rating when participants were asked how coaching impacted their instructional practices. As stated so well by one participant, which was echoed by all, “Coaching is necessary to improve your practice. Because when it doesn’t happen nothing changes in your classroom.”
- Resource Type:
- Dissertation
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Educational Leadership
- Creator:
- Eiland, Thomas T.
- Description:
- Seating arrangements in college English Literature courses can have an impact on the learning experience for the student. Students who had completed at least one college-level English literature course at a community college were asked about their experiences in four seating arrangements: traditional rows of seats, Socratic circle/seminar style, clusters/small table groups, and computer lab. Based on student responses to their experiences in transfer-level college English literature analysis courses, the results indicated that students by and large have had a very limited experience in terms of variety of seating arrangements, not only within a given classroom, but from course to course. Indeed, many students reported having experienced only a single type of seating arrangement in English courses. Furthermore, students were well aware of the triangular zone of interaction that is created at the front and center of a traditional rows classroom, as well as the zones of exclusion that also exist in that arrangement. Students indicated that the Socratic/seminar and the cluster/small table groups arrangements were most conducive to class-wide interaction, as well as small group interaction. Students asked for more interaction with the professor and between students, and they reported that in-class participation results in more overall engagement and that collaborative seating environments resulted in better grades.
- Resource Type:
- Dissertation
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Educational Leadership
468. Faculty Perceptions of Academic Accommodation Provision to Students with Invisible Disabilities
- Creator:
- Bahraini, Kaveh C.
- Description:
- This study investigated the lived experiences of community college faculty within the California Community College system. It adds to existing literature that aims to understand the factors that influence faculty perceptions of academic accommodations to students who have invisible disabilities. Using phenomenological methods, 10 faculty members from two California community colleges were interviewed to explore their perceptions and attitudes in providing academic accommodations, and their view of their responsibilities, challenges, rewards, and relevant training. the findings of this study provide insight on how community college faculty respond to the provision of academic accommodations and gives voice to their experiences by raising awareness about ways in which faculty training may be developed to validate their needs. as a result, the educational experiences and outcomes for students with invisible disabilities can be improved.
- Resource Type:
- Dissertation
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of Educational Leadership
- Creator:
- Mccormack, Chris
- Description:
- In 1919, the indigenous people of Southern California, to provide a united front in their struggle to secure rights and protect tribal sovereignty, formed the Pan-Indian Mission Indian Federation. the roots of the problems they faced—the federal government’s allotment policy, paternalistic officials, and population decline—can be traced back to a public that viewed First Peoples through a prism of stereotypes. Government officials and settlers chiseled this prism out of inaccurate histories that promoted the belief of culturally inferiority, and provided the justification needed to murder, implement assimilation programs, and trample on rights. Federationists fought against non-Indian attacks on their sovereignty by writing histories that challenged people’s stereotypes. their histories focused on their ancestors’ contributions to the region before and after European arrival, resistance to colonialism, and cultural perseverance. Furthermore, their memories of the past became manifested in the organization’s governing structure. Members, by maintaining aspects of their traditional governments found a way to protect their sovereignty in the face of foreign aggression. and in the process of using history as a weapon to fight oppression and maintain their traditions, they highlighted the intellectual historians’ responsibility to create factual accounts of the past. the historical revisionism that occurred in Southern California spread to other parts of the nation and became an effective tool of resistance still in use to this day.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of History
- Creator:
- Franklin, Matthew
- Description:
- The 1970 Postal Strike, beyond being the largest wildcat strike in U.S. history, served as an important milestone in the decline of the American labor movement in the second half of the twentieth century. the events of the strike, the rank-and-file’s reasons behind the demonstration, and their leadership’s response revealed the major flaws and problems that kept unions from maintaining their power after the 1960s: members’ feelings of disrespect from union leaders, said leaders’ unwillingness to adapt to the changing times, and a president and congress that focused less on mutual cooperation and more on “trimming the fat” of government spending. Although postal employees succeeded in gaining pay raises and numerous benefits, the lack of meaningful reform and union democratization failed to correct many of the major issues that caused the strike in the first place. the decades following the postal strike show a series of events that confirm 1970 as the start of a national trend toward a more austere political and economic atmosphere—and a sign that American labor as a single entity could not adapt to this change. This failure to adapt allowed anti-union elements within the government to turn public opinion against organized labor and further speed its decline.
- Resource Type:
- Masters Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- Fullerton
- Department:
- Department of History