Undergraduate Theses

Permanent URI for this collection

https://hdl.handle.net/10587/94

Browse

Browsing Undergraduate Theses by Title

Now showing 1 - 10 of 13
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Actually Autistic at School: Giving Voice to #ActuallyAutistic Perspectives on School Inclusion
    (Mount Saint Vincent University, 2024-04) Lawy, Natalie
    Autistic students are at risk for poor outcomes at school (Adams, 2022; Ashburner et al., 2010; McDougal et al., 2020; Munkhaugen et al., 2019; Totsika et al., 2020), and teachers in Nova Scotia feel they lack the training and tools to adequately support autistic students in their classrooms (Corkum et al., 2014). Autistic students feel the same way, identifying school staff’s poor understanding of autism as a significant barrier to their inclusion and participation (Ducarre, 2023). Very little data has been collected directly from autistic students in Canada about their school experiences and no data has been collected in Nova Scotia to date. The present study, conducted by an autistic researcher, uses semi-structured interviews incorporating novel interview methodology to support inclusion and accessibility for autistic participants. Reflexive thematic analysis is used to identify how autistic students describe their experience of inclusion at school. Key findings signal the significance of interpersonal relationships, the role of personal interests in relationships and academic success, and identification of specific communication gaps between teachers and autistic students. Recommendations for further research include the creation of a professional development workshop for educators to promote improved communication between educators and autistic students. The communication gaps identified in the present study present specific, high-impact targets for teacher training to effect meaningful change in our schools.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    An Evaluation of the Paths Curriculum in the Context of Theories of Social-Emotional Development
    (Mount Saint Vincent University, 2019-10) Foley, Bláthnaid
    Experiencing trauma, particularly within the primary caregiving environment can have a negative effect on the development of social-emotional skills, particularly self-regulation in children. School success is dependent upon social-emotional skills making it important for schools to have programs that teach social-emotional skills. PATHS is a social-emotional learning program widely used in schools in Nova Scotia. The study examined whether PATHS is a good curriculum to use in schools with children who have experienced trauma using a framework based on research about social-emotional learning and the developmental needs of traumatized children identified by the Attachment Regulation Competency (ARC) model. In general, the PATHS curriculum introduces social-emotional skills in a manner that could be beneficial for all students, but additional supports would likely be needed to address the individual areas of competency and difficulty and build the necessary skills of children who have experienced trauma. Recommendations are about implementing PATHS in a real school environment.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Evidence Based Best Practices in the Teaching of Written Expression: Implications for the Atlantic Provinces Educational Outcomes
    (Mount Saint Vincent University, 2013) Roberts, Crystal D.
    This thesis examined evidence-based best practices in the teaching of written expression in two phases. The first phase, linked evidence-based research on writing instruction directly to Atlantic Canada Curriculum outcomes (Grades 4-6) in writing. In the second phase, the Teaching in Action document (Nova Scotia Department of Education, 2007) was analyzed to determine the nature of evidence for the components of effective instruction as explained by the Learning Oriented Teaching (LOT) model (Cate, Snell, Mann, & Vermunt, 2004). Effective components in instruction include the development of basic writing skills, metacognitive skills, motivation and the gradual release of responsibility from teacher to student. This thesis can benefit Nova Scotia teachers as it can serve as a clear and simple reference that links empirically supported teaching practices to curriculum outcomes. It also provides recommendations to enrich outcomes within the English language arts curriculum.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Linking recommendations from psycho-educational reports to curriculum outcomes for the Atlantic Provinces: Examining evidence-based practices in reading instruction.
    (Mount Saint Vincent University, 2008-08) Kara K., MacLeod-MacDougall
    This thesis examined evidence-based practices in instruction for students struggling to acquire reading skills. These practices were then used to formulate recommendations which relate to the Atlantic Canada English language arts curriculum outcomes. The two main purposes for this thesis were to better inform school psychologists and teachers about evidence-based practices in reading instruction for students who struggle with reading; and to relate psycho-educational recommendations to the curriculum outcomes provided in the Atlantic Canada English Language Arts Curriculum, both in the Elementary K-3 (e.g., New Brunswick Department of Education Curriculum Development Branch, 1998) and Grades 4-6 (e.g., Nova Scotia Department of Education and Culture, 1998) documents.
  • No Thumbnail Available
    Item
    “Live and Let Learn” Student Perceptions of Educational Stratification: An Arts-informed, Narrative Inquiry
    (Mount Saint Vincent University, 2024-07) Greenough, Jacqueline A.
    This inquiry offers adult students an opportunity to story their childhood experiences within urban public schools in Atlantic Canada (Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) to seek a greater understanding of how student identities are shaped through participation in public education. An ontology of critical pedagogy and an epistemology of anti-oppressive/strengths-based discourse is used to co-construct researcher and participant accounts of school story. Creativity and depth of conversation is invited through usage of arts-informed, narrative methodologies to inform person-centred dialogue; with collage making serving as the introductory method to open researcher and participant exchange. Space is given to enable the participant articulation of their story pictorially, thus unconventionally. The purpose of this inquiry is to glean insight into the personal impact of school-based oppression (named in this study as educational stratification) from the perspective of the student participant. This study likewise serves to facilitate and demonstrate anti-oppressive possibilities to research, learning, and relating in spheres of research, pedagogy, and beyond. Most importantly, student voice is invited to inform and possibly reform education practices.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Ménilmontant to Montplaisir: A Study of Michel Chevalier and Saint-Simonism
    (Mount Saint Vincent University, 2014-04-03) Ménard, Elton; Benzaquen, Adriana
    Excerpt From Introduction: "That the capitalist system functions badly is not a new phenomenon. In 1867, Karl Marx wrote in the Preface to the first German edition of Capital that “Perseus wore a magic cap that the monsters he hunted down might not see him. We draw the magic cap down over our eyes and ears as a make-believe that there are no monsters.” Michel Chevalier (1806-1879) made a career out of hunting down monsters. Both authors no doubt disagreed on who and what these were, however.3 This thesis is a study of Chevalier the Saint-Simonian, and the ideology born from the works of Saint-Simon (1760-1825) known as Saint-Simonism. Understood within the context of mounting criticism concerning the ideas and real consequences inherent to industrial systems of production, a general theme exists throughout the paper, and this is the idea that the capitalist system functions badly, that industry is disorganised. Discussion of Saint-Simonism gravitates around this notion, with a particular emphasis on the treatment of capital and social welfare as understood in the works of Chevalier. So two threads run through this thesis. The first and most obvious is the discussion of his thoughts. The second, very much interwoven with the former, is the interrogation of his involvement with the Saint-Simonian movement. The point is to consider him as part of a social intellectual network that existed in the nineteenth century. The focus of this paper spans from 1806 to 1879 and is purposefully kept broad to match his perspective. I hope that this approach is useful to gain an appreciation of the various concepts born out of the long nineteenth century that influenced his thoughts on European society and the globe, before attempting more in depth analyses of specific periods of Chevalier's career; and to advance an alternate view regarding the length and breadth of Saint-Simonism. My intention is to argue that Chevalier was a Saint-Simonian all his life; that it is problematic to confine his involvement with the Saint-Simonian movement (and thus its impact) to the dates 1825 to 1832; and that Saint-Simonism is more aptly characterised as an ideology spanning the lives of Saint-Simon and Chevalier the Saint-Simonian".
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Mental Time Travel: Is Experience Everything?
    (2013-04-08) Talisman, Emad
    According to research on mental time travel, differences between episodic memory and episodic future thought are due to temporal direction (i.e., past vs. future). Recently, it has been suggested that it is familiarity with memories and associated details that may affect such differences. Following the recombination methodology of Addis, Pan, Vu, Laiser, and Schacter (2009), participants (N=27) were asked to recall episodic memories, and to imagine episodic events in the past, present, or future using memory details ranked for level of familiarity collected prior to the experiment. Data on both self-­‐report (e.g., vividness, effortfulness) and objective (e.g., level of detail, coherence) characteristics of the remembered and imagined events were collected. It was predicted that familiarity with memories and associated details, not temporal direction, would account for the differences between episodic memory and future thought. Results did not support this hypothesis, but demonstrated that the variation between episodic memory and episodic future thought is due to the relationship between remembering and imagination. Suggestions are made to (a) change conceptualization of episodic future thought such that the focus is on the process of imagining and not on mental projection into the future, and (b) replicate the current design with a false memory condition to validate and expand upon the findings.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    The Power of Erotic Capital in the Courts of Charles II and Louis XIV
    (Mount Saint Vincent University, 2016) Ferguson, Abbey
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item
    Shrines, Witches, and Explanations on Trial: The witchcraft cases of the Nae We shrine in Accra, Ghana
    (Mount Saint Vincent University, 2014) Martin, Flair; Roberts, Jonathan