Evaluating a Doctoral Program in College and University Teaching: A Single Case Study

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This study assessed alumni of the College and University Teaching Program at the University of North Texas and how they perceived the training they received. Three hundred sixty alumni holding a college and university teaching degree were surveyed. One hundred forty-two usable questionnaires were returned. A response rate of 39.4 % was achieved. A survey instrument was used to gather alumni perceptions of learning experiences, academics, and professional benefits as a result of earning a doctorate in the major of college and university teaching at the University of North Texas. Alumni were asked their perceptions on the following: 1) the quality of graduate professional education in college and university teaching degree program, 2) whether they thought the goals and objectives of the program were met, and 3) their recommendations regarding the college and university teaching degree program. It is the overall opinion of the alumni that the quality of the graduate education in college and university teaching degree program was high. The majority of alumni indicated that the program should be reinstated and continued and if the program was still available they would recommend it to others.
Date: August 2006
Creator: Kraus, Janine Stillwell
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
From Lost Cause to Female Empowerment: The Texas Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, 1896-1966 (open access)

From Lost Cause to Female Empowerment: The Texas Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, 1896-1966

The Texas Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy (UDC) organized in 1896 primarily to care for aging veterans and their families. In addition to this original goal, members attempted to reform Texas society by replacing the practices and values of their male peers with morals and behavior that UDC members considered characteristic of the antebellum South, such as self-sacrifice and obedience. Over time, the organization also came to function as a transition vehicle in enlarging and empowering white Texas women's lives. As time passed and more veterans died, the organization turned to constructing monuments to recognize and promote the values they associated with the Old South. In addition to celebrating the veteran, the Daughters created a constant source of charity for wives and widows through a Confederate Woman's Home. As the years went by, the organization turned to educating white children in the “truth of southern history,” a duty they eagerly embraced. The Texas UDC proved effective in meeting its primary goal, caring for aging veterans and their wives. The members' secondary goal, being cultural shapers, ultimately proved elusivenot because the Daughters failed to stress the morals they associated with the Old South but because Texans never embraced …
Date: August 2001
Creator: Stott, Kelly McMichael
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Widening the lens: An interdisciplinary approach to examining the effect of exposure therapy on public speaking state anxiety. (open access)

Widening the lens: An interdisciplinary approach to examining the effect of exposure therapy on public speaking state anxiety.

This study used an interdisciplinary approach to examine an intervention for reducing public speaking state anxiety. A quasi-experiment was conducted to determine if a multiple-exposure treatment technique (TRIPLESPEAK) would help to attenuate public speaking anxiety. The treatment group reported experiencing significantly less state anxiety during their post-test presentation than did the control group. This lead to the conclusion that exposure therapy can be used to help students enrolled in basic communication classes begin to overcome their fear of speaking in front of an audience. Follow-up analysis of the treatment group's reported anxiety levels during all five presentations (pre-test, Treatment Presentation 1, Treatment Presentation 2, Treatment Presentation 3, and post-test) revealed an increase in anxiety from the last treatment presentation to the post-test presentation. In order to explore this issue, Shannon's entropy was utilized to calculate the amount of information in each speaking environment. Anderson's functional ontology construction approach served as a model to explain the role of the environment in shaping speakers' current and future behaviors and reports of anxiety. The exploratory analysis revealed a functional relationship between information and anxiety. In addition, a qualitative study was conducted to determine which environmental stimuli speakers perceived contributed to their anxiety levels. …
Date: August 2007
Creator: Finn, Amber N.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Significance and Impact of Women on the Rise of the Republican Party in Twentieth Century Texas (open access)

The Significance and Impact of Women on the Rise of the Republican Party in Twentieth Century Texas

During the early twentieth century, the Democratic party dominated the conservative political landscape of Texas. Through the 1920s, members of the Republican party focused on patronage and seemed content to maintain the position of minority party. A growing dissatisfaction with the liberal policies of the New Deal during the 1930s created opportunities for state Republicans to woo dissenting Democrats to their side. With a change of leadership within the state GOP after 1950, the Republicans waged serious campaigns for offices for the first time. Republican men exercised their political yearnings through leadership positions. Women, on the other hand, were shut out of the leadership ranks, and, as a consequence, they chose a traditional female strategy. They organized clubs in order to support the new leadership and rising candidates. Against formidable odds, Republican women acted as foot soldiers and worked diligently to attain their objectives. As early as 1920, Texas Republican women began to organize. In 1938 they joined the newly chartered National Federation of Republican Women. In 1955 Texas women organized the Texas Federation of Republican Women (TFRW). Working through the TFRW, the women became the catalysts that broke the Republican party from its state of inertia, and they significantly …
Date: August 2000
Creator: Strickland, Kristi Throne
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Investigation of the Impact of Technology Expenditures on Student Achievement in Texas Districts (open access)

An Investigation of the Impact of Technology Expenditures on Student Achievement in Texas Districts

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between money spent on technology hardware, software, and training on district-wide achievement as measured by Texas standardized achievement tests, the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), and the American College Test (ACT). A series of studies were carried out to develop a model of the relationship between Texas district TAKS, TAAS, ACT, and SAT scores for all subjects and district expenditures on technology hardware, technology software, and technology training. The findings of this study showed that although the mixture of uneven distribution of training, incentives, and equipment in these Texas districts clouds the issue of effective integration as it does for all districts (Anderson & Becker, 1998), and the mean level of per pupil technology expenditure for participating districts is of an amount ($192 per student) deemed unlikely to have substantial impact on student outcomes (Anderson & Becker, 1998), there are strong positive links between levels of expenditure and student achievement on the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills and the American College Test that indicate that establishing guidelines for levels of expenditure, schedules of acquisition of materials and equipment, and timeframes for training and implementation may be vital to the success …
Date: August 2005
Creator: Hancock, Robert
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
James Evetts Haley and the New Deal: Laying the Foundations for the Modern Republican Party in Texas (open access)

James Evetts Haley and the New Deal: Laying the Foundations for the Modern Republican Party in Texas

James Evetts Haley, a West Texas rancher and historian, balked at the liberalism promoted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal. Haley grew concerned about increased federal control over states and believed Roosevelt was leading the country toward bankruptcy. In 1936, Haley, a life-long Democrat, led the Jeffersonian Democrats in Texas, who worked to defeat Roosevelt and supported the Republican candidate, Alf Landon. He continued to lead a small faction of anti-New Deal Texans in various movements through the 1960s. Haley espoused and defended certain conservative principles over the course of his life and the development of these ideas created the philosophical base of the modern Republican Party in Texas.
Date: August 2004
Creator: Sprague, Stacey
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 54, No. 31, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 3, 2000 (open access)

Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 54, No. 31, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 3, 2000

Weekly Jewish newspaper from Fort Worth, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with extensive advertising.
Date: August 3, 2000
Creator: Wisch, J. A. & Wisch, Rene
Object Type: Newspaper
System: The Portal to Texas History

Winchester Warriors: Texas Rangers of Company D, 1874-1901

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The Texas Rangers were institutionally birthed in 1874 with the formation of the Frontier Battalion. They were tasked with interdicting Indian incursions into the frontier settlements and dealing with the lawlessness running rampant throughout Texas. In an effort to put a human face on the Rangers, Bob Alexander tells the story of one of the six companies of the Frontier Battalion, Company D. Readers follow the Rangers of Company D as—over time—it transforms from a unit of adventurous boys into a reasonably well-oiled law enforcement machine staffed by career-oriented lawmen. Beginning with their start as Indian fighters against the Comanches and Kiowas, Alexander explores the history of Company D as they rounded up numerous Texas outlaws and cattle thieves, engaged in border skirmishes along the Rio Grande, and participated in notable episodes such as the fence cutter wars. Winchester Warriors is an evenhanded and impartial assessment of Company D and its colorful cadre of Texas Rangers. Their laudable deeds are explored in detail, but by the same token their shameful misadventures are not whitewashed. These Texas Rangers were simply people, good and bad—and sometimes indifferent. This new study, extensively researched in both primary and secondary sources, will appeal to scholars …
Date: August 15, 2009
Creator: Alexander, Bob
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 54, No. 32, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 10, 2000 (open access)

Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 54, No. 32, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 10, 2000

Weekly Jewish newspaper from Fort Worth, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with extensive advertising.
Date: August 10, 2000
Creator: Wisch, J. A. & Wisch, Rene
Object Type: Newspaper
System: The Portal to Texas History
Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 59, No. 32, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 11, 2005 (open access)

Texas Jewish Post (Fort Worth, Tex.), Vol. 59, No. 32, Ed. 1 Thursday, August 11, 2005

Weekly Jewish newspaper from Fort Worth, Texas that includes local, state and national news along with extensive advertising.
Date: August 11, 2005
Creator: Wisch, Rene
Object Type: Newspaper
System: The Portal to Texas History
Brady Standard-Herald and Heart O' Texas News (Brady, Tex.), Ed. 1 Tuesday, August 12, 2003 (open access)

Brady Standard-Herald and Heart O' Texas News (Brady, Tex.), Ed. 1 Tuesday, August 12, 2003

Semiweekly newspaper from Brady, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.
Date: August 12, 2003
Creator: Stewart, James E.
Object Type: Newspaper
System: The Portal to Texas History
Brady Standard-Herald and Heart O' Texas News (Brady, Tex.), Ed. 1 Friday, August 2, 2002 (open access)

Brady Standard-Herald and Heart O' Texas News (Brady, Tex.), Ed. 1 Friday, August 2, 2002

Semiweekly newspaper from Brady, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.
Date: August 2, 2002
Creator: Stewart, James E.
Object Type: Newspaper
System: The Portal to Texas History
Seminole Sentinel (Seminole, Tex.), Vol. 95, No. 89, Ed. 1 Wednesday, August 21, 2002 (open access)

Seminole Sentinel (Seminole, Tex.), Vol. 95, No. 89, Ed. 1 Wednesday, August 21, 2002

Semi-weekly newspaper from Seminole, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with extensive advertising.
Date: August 21, 2002
Creator: Fisher, David
Object Type: Newspaper
System: The Portal to Texas History
Seminole Sentinel (Seminole, Tex.), Vol. 95, No. 92, Ed. 1 Sunday, August 31, 2003 (open access)

Seminole Sentinel (Seminole, Tex.), Vol. 95, No. 92, Ed. 1 Sunday, August 31, 2003

Semi-weekly newspaper from Seminole, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with extensive advertising.
Date: August 31, 2003
Creator: Fisher, David
Object Type: Newspaper
System: The Portal to Texas History
Seminole Sentinel (Seminole, Tex.), Vol. 95, No. 84, Ed. 1 Sunday, August 4, 2002 (open access)

Seminole Sentinel (Seminole, Tex.), Vol. 95, No. 84, Ed. 1 Sunday, August 4, 2002

Semi-weekly newspaper from Seminole, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with extensive advertising.
Date: August 4, 2002
Creator: Fisher, David
Object Type: Newspaper
System: The Portal to Texas History
Věstník (Temple, Tex.), Vol. 95, No. 34, Ed. 1 Wednesday, August 22, 2007 (open access)

Věstník (Temple, Tex.), Vol. 95, No. 34, Ed. 1 Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Weekly Czech and English language newspaper from Temple, Texas published as the official organ of the Slavonic Benevolent Order of the State of Texas that includes news of interest to members along with advertising.
Date: August 22, 2007
Creator: Zavodny, Melanie
Object Type: Newspaper
System: The Portal to Texas History
Greensheet (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 38, No. 342, Ed. 1 Wednesday, August 22, 2007 (open access)

Greensheet (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 38, No. 342, Ed. 1 Wednesday, August 22, 2007

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.
Date: August 22, 2007
Creator: unknown
Object Type: Newspaper
System: The Portal to Texas History
David Lefkowitz of Dallas: A Rabbi for all Seasons (open access)

David Lefkowitz of Dallas: A Rabbi for all Seasons

This dissertation discusses the impact David Lefkowitz and his ministry had on Dallas during the years of his ministry (1920-1949) at Temple Emanu-El in Dallas Texas, and the years following his death in 1955. The focus is on his involvement in civic activities, although his pastoral activities are also discussed. Sources include interviews with family members, friends and acquaintances, newspaper articles, journals, internet sources, unpublished theses and dissertations about Dallas and related subjects, minutes of the Temple's Board of Directors' meetings, minutes of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, minutes of the Board of Directors' Meetings of the Dallas Jewish Welfare Federation, the Temple Emanu-El Bulletins, and selected sermons, speeches and letters of David Lefkowitz. David Lefkowitz was an important figure in the history of Dallas. He taught, by precept and example, that Jews could participate fully in the civic life of Dallas. Because of his teachings, Jews made a positive difference in the development of Dallas. He has left a lasting impression on Dallas, and through his ministry and hard work, he made Dallas a better place for all its citizens.
Date: August 2000
Creator: Guzman, Jane Bock
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Place to Call Home: A Study of the Self-Segregated Community of Tatums, Oklahoma, 1894-1970 (open access)

A Place to Call Home: A Study of the Self-Segregated Community of Tatums, Oklahoma, 1894-1970

This study examines Tatums, Oklahoma, under the assumption that the historically black towns (HBT) developed as a response to conditions in the South. This community provides a rich example of the apparent anomalies that the environment of self-segregation created. Despite the widespread violence of the Klan, the residents of the HBTs were not the targets of lynching or mob violence. During the years after World War II, Tatums residents enjoyed the greatest prosperity. The final chapter looks at the battle Tatums' residents fought to keep their school from being closed after the state of Oklahoma began to enforce the Brown v. Board of Education decisions in the 1960s. Their solidarity during the desegregation transition remained powerful enough for them to negotiate compromises regarding the fair treatment of their children in a world that was integrating around them.
Date: August 2005
Creator: Ragsdale, Rhonda M.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Success Factors among Early College Entrants (open access)

Success Factors among Early College Entrants

This study explored how various intrapersonal, familial, and life-goal characteristics related to the academic and personal success of first semester early college entrants attending the Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science (TAMS) at the University of North Texas. The study sought to identify which intrapersonal factors and external factors affected grades, behavioral markers, and life satisfaction during the students' first semester at TAMS. Baseline data from TAMS entrance material such as standardized achievement test scores, previous grade point averages (GPA's), advanced courses taken, and other academic activities and awards were collected. Data were also collected from the students prior to their entry to the start of TAMS related to family cohesiveness, motivation, and career goals. Data from parents were gathered prior to the start of TAMS regarding parenting styles, demographics, parents' educational levels, careers, and income levels, as well as the child's homework, extracurricular activities, and other time demands. First semester grades, a measure of life satisfaction since the program began, and behavior reports from staff members were used as outcome/success indicators. These additional data were used to examine the relationship between success and familial/interpersonal/life goal factors.
Date: August 2008
Creator: Hoggan, Barbara
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Risk, Courage, and Women Contemporary Voices in Prose and Poetry

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This unique collection of narratives, essays, and poems includes an original interview with Maya Angelou and pieces by Naomi Shihab Nye, Pat Mora, Rosemary Catacalos, and many others. Each work relates how women have demonstrated courage by taking a risk that has changed their lives. The Introduction explores courage not as a battlefield quality, but as the result of thoughtful choices demonstrating integrity and self-awareness. Each section opens with a description of its organization and the significance of individual pieces. Themes include sustenance for living, faith in the unknown, the courage of choice, the seams of our lives, and crossing borders. The book begins with a conversation with Dr. Maya Angelou, the embodiment of a courageous woman. She urges readers to "Envision" and concludes the book with the wish "Good morning," inviting all to join her in a new day reflecting "The Power of One." Voices of racial and ethnic diversity speak throughout the work, underscoring both difference and unity in the female experience. Including role models for university audiences and powerful reflections of life experiences for older readers, this work serves many purposes: a textbook in Literature or Women's/Gender Studies classes, a focus for book study groups, and a …
Date: August 15, 2007
Creator: Waldron, Karen A.; Labatt, Laura M. & Brazil, Janice H.
Object Type: Book
System: The UNT Digital Library
A study of cultural variability and relational maintenance behaviors for international and domestic proximal and long distance interpersonal relationships. (open access)

A study of cultural variability and relational maintenance behaviors for international and domestic proximal and long distance interpersonal relationships.

This thesis examined 228 college students' reported use of relational maintenance behaviors and strategies and their reported perception of the degree of relational satisfaction and solidarity with the relational partners they chose to identify. The study gathered extensive data with the intention of primarily investigating the validity and reliability of measurement of relational maintenance behaviors across cultures with some attention to correlations between relationship maintenance behaviors, relationship satisfaction, and interpersonal solidarity. The study focused on refining previous measures of relationship maintenance behaviors in order to develop a comprehensive global measure. The study found that a linear combination of factors or relationship maintenance behaviors are related to relational satisfaction and interpersonal solidarity.
Date: August 2002
Creator: Kidenda, Thomas J.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

London, Ankara, and Geneva: Anglo-Turkish Relations, The Establishment of the Turkish Borders, and the League of Nations, 1919-1939

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This dissertation asserts the British primacy in the deliberations of the League of Nations Council between the two world wars of the twentieth century. It maintains that it was British imperial policy rather than any other consideration that ultimately carried the day in these deliberations. Given, as examples of this paramountcy, are the discussions around the finalization of the borders of the new republic of Turkey, which was created following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire at the end of the First World War. These discussions focused on three areas, the Mosul Vilayet or the Turco-Iraqi frontier, the Maritza Delta, or the Turco-Greek frontier, and the Sanjak of Alexandretta or the Turco-Syrian frontier.
Date: August 2002
Creator: Stillwell, Stephen J.
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library

Combating Corruption: A Comparison of National Anti-Corruption Efforts

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The primary goal of this thesis is to provide a comparative analysis of the institutional and organizational mechanisms designed to monitor and control political corruption at the national level. The paper will provide comparisons of these arraignments and control systems across three nations. The thesis will identify differences across countries in terms of organizational and institutional political corruption control mechanisms, and use the CPI index to suggest and identify those control mechanisms that appear to be present in nations with low CPI measurements. Finally, the thesis will conclude with the discussion concerning the future prospects for controlling political corruption in Turkey based on the comparative analysis described above.
Date: August 2003
Creator: Turer, Ahmet
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library