JEWLScholar @MTSU

JEWLScholar@MTSU is the digital repository for Middle Tennessee State University. JEWLScholar@MTSU contains scholarly and research material from MTSU faculty, staff and students.

It's easy for Middle Tennessee State University faculty, staff and students to submit their material to JEWLScholar@MTSU.

To submit your material click the submit button Author submission

Collections in JEWLScholar@MTSU

Select a collections to browse its content.

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4

Recent Submissions

  • Thumbnail Image
    Item type:Item,
    Making Sense of Sensemaking: Understanding How Instructional Strategies Support Middle School Students’ Engagement in the Sensemaking Process
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2026) Klukowski, Lori; Klukowski, Lori; Jones, R. Seth; Bleiler-Baxter, Sarah; Gardner, Grant; Kaplan, Jennifer; Lischka, Alyson
    Studying student sensemaking has become an important lens through which to understand high-quality instruction. When students engage in the sensemaking process, they use observations and their prior knowledge to identify gaps or inconsistencies in their understanding, and then they collectively develop and test explanations to resolve this gap (Odden & Russ, 2018, 2019). In this dissertation, I addressed two understudied areas about the sensemaking process: how teachers’ instructional strategies support different steps in the sensemaking process and how the sensemaking process guides students to integrate disciplinary knowledge, everyday experiences, and their observations during integrated STEM activities. Specifically, I sought to understand how instructional strategies, e.g., teachers’ discourse moves and carefully designed instructional tasks, supported students’ engagement in the sensemaking process during data investigations, a type of integrated STEM activity. This dissertation is organized as three separate manuscripts. In my first study, I empirically investigated how the discourse moves of experienced middle school mathematics and science teachers initiated, sustained, and stopped different steps of the sensemaking process. I found teachers initiated the sensemaking process by highlighting something puzzling for students or by asking students to imagine a different scenario. The dynamic process of sensemaking, however, was not linear in the classroom discourse, but rather teachers and students entered, exited, and then returned to it. My findings from this study suggest that supporting the process of student sensemaking is a complex teaching practice and one fruitful area of research would be to study how to support teachers and students to transition through the steps of the sensemaking process. In my second manuscript, a conceptual paper, I argued that there are potential problems with using current frameworks for designing integrated STEM activities, and that a sensemaking lens is necessary for designing, teaching, and studying integrated STEM activities. I described my new conceptual framework for integrated STEM, the Sensemaking Integrated STEM framework. It focuses on student thinking by specifically addressing how students generate knowledge resources during integrated STEM activities across instructional time and how students connect their knowledge resources as they make sense of integrated STEM problems. My third manuscript is a design-based research study in which I used my new Sensemaking Integrated STEM framework to design a sixth-grade weather data investigation. I then empirically investigated how students responded to the instructional activities I designed to support students’ sensemaking about variability in their local weather. I found students responded to the designed opportunities for sensemaking by brainstorming ideas and building upon other students’ contributions. Looking at students’ sensemaking explanations across the investigation, students integrated variability in temperature data with their ideas of weather phenomena and their everyday experiences. These findings suggest that the Sensemaking Integrative STEM framework is a productive lens for designing science data investigations to support students to connect their observations of variability in data with the phenomena that produced it. The findings from across these three manuscripts provide insights into how teachers’ discourse moves and the instructional tasks teachers use can support students’ engagement in the sensemaking process. They show how the process of student sensemaking, with its discrete and observable steps, provides a lens through which to study effective instructional strategies.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item type:Item,
    “Love Will Hurt You, but Limerence Will Destroy You”: The Etymology of Limerence & Its Digital Discourse
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2026) Sistoso, Cassie Joy; Sistoso, Cassie Joy; Davis, Rachel E; Oldham, C Rebecca; Orak, Ugur; Pettit, Jennifer
    The term “limerence” has experienced a resurgence in modern social vocabulary since the early 2020s, long after its coining in 1979 by psychologist Dorothy Tennov, who aimed to distinguish an obsessive, uncertain conception of love (limerence) from authentic, healthy love. While it now is used to define an unhealthy and harmful time period/uncontrollable experience of obsession, it originally circulated among scholarly communities as a mental disorder or illness that could be utilized in psychological and sociological analyses of traits characterized in disorders such as obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), erotomania, autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and others. In 2026, the social media platform TikTok’s psychology and self-help community space has co-opted the rise of interest in this term. Licensed clinicians and random users alike are using the tag #limerence to warn against or commiserate with others who have experienced its intensity. With this new rise in interest and attachment to the term, this thesis aims to identify the connecting and contrasting factors between its current usage and association with scholarly inquiry into its inception and utilization, and aims to understand why its resurgent hazy definition has captured the attention in current online culture. Online TikTok videos were extracted from application programming interface (API) software and then analyzed recurring themes, which were then coded into categories to identify video type/theme. Users on TikTok agree and disagree in ways familiar to scholarly research but prioritize some definitions over others. My findings suggest that while TikTok focuses on the experience and stages of limerent attachment, literature primarily focuses on connection to neural/mental diagnoses. TikTok also almost exclusively focuses on the intersection of sexuality and neurodiversity rather than other marginalizations such as socioeconomic status or gender.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item type:Item,
    Gay Thoughts on Gay Spots: An Examination of Inclusivity and Navigation in the Absence of Lesbian-Centered Venues
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2026) Hall, Mackenzie; Hall, Mackenzie; MacLean, Vicky; Davis, Rachel; Chevrette, Sage
    LGBTQ+ social spaces have historically served as sites of community, safety, and identity formation. However, the decline of lesbian-centered venues across the United States has raised important questions about inclusivity within contemporary queer spaces. This study explores how lesbians, queer women, and non-binary individuals experience and navigate LGBTQ+ spaces in the absence or lack of lesbian-centered environments. Using a qualitative phenomenological approach, this research draws on focus group data to examine participants lived experiences of belonging, exclusion, and community-building. Three focus groups of 4-6 participants (N=15) were conducted over a two-week period. Findings reveal that while LGBTQ+ spaces are often sought out for safety and connection, they frequently remain structured around cisgender gay male norms, resulting in persistent marginalization for queer women and non-binary individuals. Participants described navigating these environments through strategies of adaptation, withdrawal, and community formation, often turning to informal networks such as friend groups and private gatherings. Additionally, participants emphasized the limitations of nightlife-centered spaces, citing barriers related to alcohol, accessibility, and sensory environment. Across discussions, participants articulated a strong desire for more inclusive, intentional, and non-alcohol-centered queer spaces that prioritize connection, safety, and community. This study contributes to sociological understandings of LGBTQ+ spatial dynamics by highlighting how power, gender, and identity shape experiences within queer spaces. By centering the voices of lesbians, queer women, and non-binary individuals, this research challenges assumptions of inclusivity within LGBTQ+ environments and underscores the need for more equal and diverse community spaces.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item type:Item,
    Assessing the Effects of Pairing on Social Preferences in Rats
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2026) Feild, Jordan; Feild, Jordan; Galizio, Ann; Hinnenkamp, Jay; Ujcich Ward, Kimberly
    Pairing in ABA therapy for children with ASD involves therapists engaging with children through imitation, preferred stimuli, non-contingent reinforcement, and minimizing demands to enhance compliance and session engagement. While various studies have explored pairing techniques, the mechanisms behind its effectiveness remain unclear. Proposed theories include conditioned reinforcement and aversive deconditioning, but limited research confirms which mechanisms are most influential. This translational experiment aimed to examine pairing in a lab setting with rats. In the first procedure, primary rats participated in preference assessments for food and toys, with peanut halves, Cheerios, banana chips, crawl tubes, and hiding trunks being the most preferred items. The second procedure involved a social olfactory choice task where rats selected between two other rats' scents. The less preferred rat became the pairing partner, while the more preferred rat remained a stranger. The final procedure introduced pairing sessions with the primary rat, their partner rat, and preferred items. Preliminary results show significant individual differences; some rats preferred their partner, one favored the stranger rat, and the others were indifferent. For instance, R1 showed consistent responding for their partner rat on multiple days; R2 initially showed consistent responding for their partner rat on multiple days but then dropped off toward the end; R3 showed consistent responding for their stranger rat on multiple days; and R4, R5, and R6 showed indifference. These findings suggest that traditional pairing methodologies may not sufficiently condition a partner rat as a reinforcing stimulus. This highlights the need for further research to understand the dynamics of rat pairing and the factors influencing preferences, indicating that mere exposure to a partner may not create a strong bond.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Item type:Item,
    Exploring Relationships between Coping Styles, Alexithymia, and Cardiovascular Emotional Dampening
    (Middle Tennessee State University, 2026) Hall, Hailey R; Hall, Hailey R; Loveless, James; Ujcich Ward, Kimberly; Fahey, Margaret
    The current study explored potential relationships between three coping styles (problem- focused coping, emotion-approach coping, and emotion-avoidant coping) and two psychological constructs dubbed alexithymia and cardiovascular emotional dampening. Resting blood pressure was collected from twenty-five healthy, normotensive adult college students along with surveys administered to measure alexithymia and levels of usage of the three coping styles. Results showed there was one significant negative correlation between problem-focused coping and alexithymia symptoms, possibly indicating an inverse relationship between alexithymia and problem-focused coping. No other significant correlations related to the hypotheses were found. However, this study was underpowered due to the small sample size, and the results should be considered with the likelihood of a false discovery in mind. Implications of the study are discussed as well as limitations and directions for future research.