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Browsing by Author "Morgan, George A., advisor"

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    A survey of graduate social work educators: teaching perspectives and classroom environments
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2012) Danhoff, Kristin Lindsay, author; Morgan, George A., advisor; Buchan, Victoria V., advisor; Seiz, Robert, committee member; Jennings, Louise, committee member
    Social work educators have the challenging task of preparing students to be ethically, morally, and socially responsible professionals. As professionals in the 21st Century, social workers are faced with ever increasing complexity and change. Teaching philosophies are at the foundation of what educators do in the classroom. Research about teaching perspectives in social work education is limited. The purpose of this descriptive, survey study is to better understand the teaching perspectives of graduate social work educators when teaching human rights, social and economic justice (HRSEJ) content and the actions educators reported taking to create their classroom environment. The current study is a quantitative, online survey design. Two separate instruments were combined into one online survey hosted on SurveyGizmo. The two instruments were the Teaching Perspectives Inventory (TPI) and a newly developed Classroom Environment Scale (CES). The 45-item TPI had 5-point Likert scales and the 12 item CES had 7-point Likert scales. Participants in the study were graduate social work educators in CSWE accredited programs who had experience teaching human rights, social and economic justice content (HRSEJ). Fifty graduate faculty responded to the online survey and 48 completed the whole survey. Findings suggest that the majority of these graduate social work educators held teaching perspectives that aligned with the theoretical basis of this study. In this study, the majority of graduate educators held a Developmental perspective (42%) with an additional quarter that held an Apprenticeship (26%) perspective as dominant. Although infrequently dominant, this sample of faculty had a higher mean score for Social Reform than any of the other groups of professionals in the TPI database. When comparing the current social work educators who teach in private vs. public or denominational vs. all other types of institutional auspices, no significant differences were found. Also, this study compared the social work course where the HRSEJ content was covered by the faculty member, and no significant differences were found for individual courses. There was a relationship between the actions related to the classroom environment and the Developmental, Nurturing, Social Reform, and to a lesser extent, Apprenticeship perspective. Faculty in this study also began to define what components they felt were necessary for an environment that would support critical thinking. Educators in this study identified dialogue around the exposure of students to different points of view as crucial in supporting critical thinking in social work education. Just over a half of all respondents also felt that respect, safe climate, and the modeling of openness was key to an environment for critical thinking. In this study, when an educator was more likely to share feelings, they were also more likely to challenge all students to explore their assumptions, use their own feelings to model the importance of questioning habitual ways of thinking, and recognize the risks for students to explore their assumptions. Recommendations for social work education are to take notice of our teaching philosophies and the impact they have on student's experience and learning. To answer critics requires that the profession thoughtfully examine all of the elements of the teaching/learning exchange and to understand how they impact the profession, the student, and educators alike.
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    Emotions and behaviors of Chinese and U.S. preschoolers in two emotionally challenging tasks
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2013) Wang, Jun, author; Barrett, Karen Caplovitz, advisor; Morgan, George A., advisor; Lunkenheimer, Erika S., committee member; Cobb, R. Brian, committee member
    As children develop during early childhood, they are expected to internalize and follow social rules, so as to interact with people and the larger society in emotionally and behaviorally appropriate ways. But societal expectations and corresponding emotional and behavioral responses of individuals are all embedded in the sociocultural context (Markus & Kitayama, 1991; Rothbaum & Rusk, 2011). Americans typically are more emotionally expressive than Chinese even in early childhood (Camras, et al., 2007; Tardif, Wang, & Olson, 2009). Emotional expression disrupts social harmony and is discouraged in Chinese children, but indicates individuality and is more accepted in American children. In more individualistic cultures such as the U.S., which emphasize autonomy and self-agency, one might be expected to direct behaviors outward to actively change the context to be less distressing; in collectivistic cultures like China, one might be more inclined to modify the self to feel or appear less distressed instead (Rothbaum & Rusk, 2011). Still, contextual demands may affect these patterns, particularly if appropriate behavior in the contexts is highly socialized, such that children may anticipate strong negative consequences for misbehavior. In this study, the emotional and behavioral responses of Chinese and American preschoolers were compared in two emotionally challenging situations that are important contexts for socialization--resistance to temptation and "breaking" someone's toy. Thirty-four Chinese (17 females) and 37 American (19 females) 3-3.5 year olds were observed across 5 episodes: 1. Introduction to a temptation toy, 2. Resistance to temptation; 3. Introduction to a clown doll; 4. Solitary play with the clown doll; 5. Period after child "breaks" clown doll (standard violation). Children's emotional and behavioral responses were coded second by second and the data were analyzed with repeated measures MANCOVAs. Emotionally, American children were found to be more expressive of happiness and sadness than Chinese children. Chinese children's anger responses showed a cumulative pattern across contexts. Except for the impact on Chinese children's anger, the contextual changes generated children's emotional responses in the expected direction, in that pleasant contexts generated more positive emotions and fewer negative emotions, whereas challenging contexts generated more negative emotions and fewer positive emotions. Behaviorally, American children were found to display more context-directed distraction behaviors than Chinese children; whereas Chinese children displayed more emotion-focused self-modification behaviors, including focal avoidance and self-soothing. Distraction behaviors of children from both samples varied according to contextual changes: most distraction in resistance to temptation, least distraction during play session, and slight increase in distraction during standard violation. But variation in American children's distraction across contexts was greater than that of the Chinese children. By taking a culture-specific, context-specific, and process-oriented approach, the study found evidence for cross-culture, cross-context, and cross-time variations in American and Chinese young children's emotional and behavioral responses toward social challenges. Results highlight the importance of considering children's culture, the immediate and preceding contexts, and time course since challenging events occurred when interpreting and responding to young children's behavior in order to more effectively promote positive development in those children.
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    Parent expectations of teaching and caring at different kinds of higher education institutions
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2014) Adams, Tyna M., author; Morgan, George A., advisor; Kuk, Linda, committee member; Miller, Lisa A., committee member; Valentine, Deborah P., committee member
    Today's college students arrive at higher education institutions with parents who remain involved well beyond the admissions and financial aid processes. Many of these parents attended college themselves and have strong beliefs about what the college experience is like or should be. Some of these parents will not hesitate to negotiate grades with professors or intervene on behalf of their student when issues arise (Coburn, 2006; Henning, 2007; Wartman & Savage, 2008). Many of today's college students are happy with the amount of parental involvement in their college experience and welcome it (Shoup, Gonyea, & Kuh, 2009). Today's college parent is involved in a myriad of ways with their college student's experience as well as the institution. What remains unclear is what parent expectations are of the college or university and of their involvement in their student's college experience. Understanding parent expectations may help staff and administrators better support and encourage appropriate parental involvement in the student's college experience. This study examined parent expectations of teaching and caring at eleven different institutions, utilizing the Parent Expectations of Collegiate Teaching and Caring (PECTAC) survey created by Wayne Young (2006). The sample included a total of 3,378 participants. The intent of the study was to compare parent expectations regarding the teaching and caring functions of several kinds of institutions, which were grouped by two variables: Sponsorship (public, private non-sectarian, or private religious) and Institution Type (research/PhD or liberal arts). One purpose of the study was to compare expectations of parents who graduated from college with those who did not graduate or attend college. Another purpose of this study was to compare parent expectations of teaching and caring results based on parent gender, parent race/ethnicity, parent education and student classification. The participants in this study were majority female, married, Caucasian, and had a college degree. At least half were first time college parents and were very involved in their student's college choice. Parents continue to play an important role in the relationship between the student, parent, and institution. Their expectations influence how they interact with their student as well as the institution that their student attends. The results of this study suggest that parents have specific expectations of higher education. Mothers, non-college graduates, African American, and Latino parents had higher expectations of overall teaching and caring. Parents of students who attend religious institutions had higher expectations of the overall caring but not the overall teaching functions of the institution. Parents of freshmen students had higher expectations of the overall caring but not the overall teaching of the institution. In general the effect sizes were small to medium but African American parents differed from Caucasian parents with large effect sizes on both the overall caring and teaching functions of the institution. Female parent gender, non-college graduate and non-white race/ethnicity combined to significantly predict parent expectations related to the overall teaching functions of the institution. Parent gender, education, and ethnicity as well as religious institutional sponsorship combined to significantly predict parent expectations of the overall caring functions of the institution, although the effect sizes of the multiple regressions were small. The current study adds to the research conducted on parent expectations and may help administrators and institutions to better understand how parent expectations differ among the various kinds of institutions. Additionally, results of this study may help administrators improve or create services and programs to better serve parents.
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    The relationship of self-regulation and academic achievement in college students with and without attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: a brain-behavior perspective
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2008) Chang, Wen-Pin, author; Morgan, George A., advisor; Davies, Patricia L., advisor
    The main purpose of this dissertation is to investigate the relationships among three constructs: (a) the underlying executive processes of self-regulation, (b) self-regulation behaviors, and (c) academic achievement in college students with and without ADHD.
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    Welfare and child welfare collaboration
    (Colorado State University. Libraries, 2008) Tungate, Susan L., author; Morgan, George A., advisor; Buchan, Victoria, advisor
    Within departments of social services, child welfare and income assistance programs are typically separate administrative units. Coordinating services for dual-system families across these program areas has been encouraged in the wake of welfare reform and its more stringent time frames in combination with child welfare legislation that places time limits on permanency decisions for children placed out of the home. Many of the barriers to self-sufficiency faced by clients involved with Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) are also implicated in difficulties with parenting. Cross-system collaboration between these two programs is challenging, and attributing client outcomes to collaboration is difficult due to the huge number of variables involved and the considerable variety in collaborative structures. What works for whom, how and in what contexts is poorly understood. The purpose of this study was to describe the extent and nature of collaboration between child welfare and TANF programs within Colorado county departments of human/social services. Data were collected from county departments of human/social services directors for all 64 Colorado counties and a purposive sample of 38 administrators responsible for child welfare and Colorado Works programs within the county departments. Protocols for identifying clients with open cases or needs in both programs were described, as well as the extent of services coordination. Collaboration between these services also occurred via specialized programs or teams that blended resources and targeted specific client groups. TANF funding was an important resource for these programs and teams that were often described as oriented toward early intervention and prevention. Supports and barriers to cross-system collaboration included federal and state level influences, agency leadership and culture, staff workload, training and resources. The perceived overlap in needs of clients accessing both programs was sizable; the estimate of clients with cases open in both programs was higher in the smaller, poorer counties. Addressing the cross-system information needs of staff did not often happen in a deliberate, systematic way. State level leadership is likely important to successful collaborative efforts via explication of effective models and policies that support it.