Exposing the Roots of Low Self-Efficacy for Math: A Multi-Case Study of Students in an Urban Middle School

This multi-case study of historically low-performing 7th grade students in a math class at an urban middle school employed a theoretical framework based upon Bandura’s Social Cognitive Theory to discover the causes of low self-efficacy for math. The study utilized a cross-case analysis of four students who demonstrated varying degrees of self-efficacy. To serve students similarly situated, Christian teachers need to know what these students are experiencing and an understanding of the causes of low self-efficacy can inform their professional practice. Christian teacher educators can also benefit from understanding the context into which teachers of such students will serve so as to aptly prepare them for effective practice

I Am/Was the Walrus

For most of his adult life, John Lennon fought to define himself against his public identity as "Beatle-:John." That image, crafted by the Beatles' manager Brian Epstein and the pop music industry became a burden to all four of the Beatles during the group's seven years of international stardom. In place of the rough leather-clad rock and roll band that played rambling one hour sets in the Hamburg Kaiserkeller and the Liverpool Cavern Club during 1960-61, Epstein forged a more commercially viable group of four well (and uniformly) dressed young men whose stage act was reduced to twenty minute carefully scripted sets. Over the course of the next few years, all four of the Beatles assumed clean-cut, safe personae in accordance with the necessities of marketing the group to a broad, middle-class audience. Willing though he and the others were to take part in the group's public transfonnation, Lennon later claimed to have felt uncomfortable all along with selling out the Beatles' rock and roll roots: "What we generated was fantastic when we played straight rock, and there was nobody to touch us in Britain. But as soon as we made it, the edges were knocked off. Brian Epstein put us in suits and all that, and we made it very, very big. We sold out" (Wenner 2000:20)

Master of Arts

thesisThroughout the course of World War I, the Irish regiments that fought on the front lines were staffed only with volunteers. Though Britain had extended conscription within the United Kingdom and to its other colonies, Ireland was exempt from drafting soldiers for the war effort. Though the idea of conscripting the Irish had been discussed on multiple occasions within the House of Commons, the motion was always rejected due to the volatile relationship between the two countries. Besides, nearly 200,000 Irishmen volunteered throughout the course of the war. By 1918, things had changed dramatically. The British and Allied forces had lost ground to the advancing Germans, heavy casualties were sustained on both sides, and the British were finding it increasingly difficult to find manpower. In April of 1918 the idea of Irish conscription was revisited, this time with overwhelming support in the House of Commons, and the motion passed with a staggering majority. In addition, Prime Minister David Lloyd George included a provision in the bill to make Irish Home Rule conditional on conscription. The Irish Conscription Crisis defined the next couple of months in Ireland. The Irish Conscription Crisis featured widespread protests, strikes, and increased feelings of alienation from Britain. This thesis focuses on the Conscription Crisis of 1918 as a window into the complex relationship between Britain, Ireland, and the different political factions within Ireland that were polarized by extension of conscription to Ireland. First, the thesis examines the historical spatial separation of Ulster and the southern counties, the creation of difference, and the development of national consciousness in the south. Secondly, the thesis explores the years leading up to the Conscription Crisis and examines the tactics used by the British to recruit the Irish for the war effort and the notion of volunteerism within Irish regiments. Finally, the thesis demonstrates that the protests surrounding the Conscription Crisis in both the southern counties and in Ulster were not merely demonstrations against the forcible taking of men for the war effort. In fact, the protests were themselves manifestations of nationalism and antinationalism in a country that was on the eve of revolution

Using Conceptual Change Texts to Address Misconceptions in the Middle School Science Classroom

Abstract The aim of this study is to create conceptual change texts for use in the middle school Earth Science curriculum. This project was informed by the current research on student misconceptions, the conceptual change model, and conceptual change texts. A review of the literature demonstrated that student misconceptions are prevalent in most science classrooms and that the conceptual change model is the most effective model for addressing misconceptions. The research also found that conceptual change texts are an excellent application of the conceptual change model and can be used in any science classroom. The project associated with this study produced seven conceptual change texts that cover seven different middle school Earth Science topics

Multi-spatial-mode effects in squeezed-light-enhanced interferometric gravitational wave detectors

Proposed near-future upgrades of the current advanced interferometric gravitational wave detectors include the usage of frequency dependent squeezed light to reduce the current sensitivity-limiting quantum noise. We quantify and describe the degradation effects that spatial mode-mismatches between optical resonators have on the squeezed field. These mode-mismatches can to first order be described by scattering of light into second-order Gaussian modes. As a demonstration of principle, we also show that squeezing the second-order Hermite-Gaussian modes $\mathrm{HG}_{02}$ and $\mathrm{HG}_{20}$, in addition to the fundamental mode, has the potential to increase the robustness to spatial mode-mismatches. This scheme, however, requires independently optimized squeeze angles for each squeezed spatial mode, which would be challenging to realise in practise.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figure