Digital Commons Network^™

Someone Shot The Rainbow: Emergent Writing Patterns Of Securely And Insecurely Attached, Inner-City First Graders, Cindy Matthews

Doctoral Dissertations

The mother or primary caretaker of an infant establishes a communicative bond which has long-term implications for the child as a symbolizer and learner. John Bowlby's theory of attachment claims the mother is the secure base from which an infant, and later the child, can explore and master her environment, develop a sense of autonomy, and relate to peers. Attachment theory sheds light on the process and products of inner-city, first-grade children's written symbolization, yielding many patterns cogent to the study of emergent literacy.

Fifty-nine first graders participated in a study involving projective measures of attachment and language ability and …

A Study Of The Reading And Writing Experiences Of Four Laotian Refugee Adolescents From One Family In An American Secondary School, Danling Fu

Doctoral Dissertations

This study describes and interprets the reading and writing experiences of four recently arrived Laotian refugee adolescents from one family in an American secondary school. Through four extensive case studies, the study compares and contrasts how these individuals read and write on their own initiative and are taught to read and write at school, and what happens when the school agenda matches and mismatches their learning patterns. This study reveals how school structure re-enforces the marginalization of the ethnic minority students in their school life by ignoring what they know and who they are. With a focus on four minority …

A Comparison Of Methods For Analyzing Intraindividual Change In Student Epistemological Orientation During The Transition To College, Trey Michael Buchanan

Doctoral Dissertations

The ability to measure the development of epistemological beliefs of 235 college students during their first-semester in college was investigated by comparing the results obtained using five different methodological approaches to measuring change. These approaches included the use of the two-wave difference score, the residual change score, the cross-time correlation matrix, repeated measures analysis of variance, and individual growth modeling. A cubic individual growth model was found to be superior to other methods in describing intraindividual differences in dualistic epistemological orientation during the transition to college. An investigation of the existence of systematic interindividual differences in growth as a function …

An Ecological Perspective Of Writing: Teachers, Peers, And Authors As Resources In A Response-Based Classroom, Margaret L. Murray

Doctoral Dissertations

The present study examines the ways in which the available resources of books, classmates, and teacher affect three fourth-grade students' writing development within the same classroom. The study's unique contribution is its holistic description of how all three resources contribute collectively to the ongoing writing of these individuals over the better part of their school year. The study describes the ways in which the children's writing and their notions of good writing are being formed in the dialectical processes of interaction with these resources. Further, the study describes the global traits of their particular classroom's culture--its extant written forms and …

Beliefs, Autonomy, And Mathematical Knowledge, Judy Ann Rector

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the apparent effects of students' beliefs about mathematics and autonomy on their learning of mathematics. The study utilized a multiple-case study design with analysis by and across cases. The cases represented six high school students enrolled in either Algebra II or Algebra II/Trigonometry. Data was collected in three phases: (a) classroom observations and assessment of the teacher's perception of her role in the learning process, (b) an assessment of students' beliefs about mathematics and autonomy, and (c) an assessment of students' newly formed mathematical constructs on functions.

The beliefs' assessment included observing …

A Celebration Of Tradition Or Of Self? An Ethnographic Study Of Teachers' Comments On Student Writing In America And In China, Xiao-Ming Li

Doctoral Dissertations

The study builds a dialogue between teachers of writing in China and America on what "good writing" is, for the purpose of revealing the fact that "good writing" resides not just with student texts, but with the teachers who read and judge student papers.

Writing comments on student papers is a time-honored and widely accepted practice in writing classrooms in most countries. Teachers offer text-specific advice to each student and communicate to the student writer, among other things, the criteria of good writing. A close look at the teacher's comments, therefore, reveals the criteria with which teachers measure student papers. …

More Than Print: The Home And School Literacies Of Three Fourth-Graders, Margaret M. Voss

Doctoral Dissertations

Through ethnographic case studies of three fourth-grade children, this study investigates the relationships between children's home and school literacies. The data were collected through participant-observation in the children's homes and at school; interviews of children, parents, and teacher; and analysis of children's products and processes (such as written work and hand-made crafts).

The study defines a literacy as a meaning-making system which can be used functionally, communicatively, reflectively, flexibly, and pleasurably. Schools typically focus on print literacy and do not always recognize or value the range of literacies children bring with them from home. This research shows children using not …