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Influences On Teachers' Curricular Choices In Project-Based Science Classrooms, Karen Anne Laba

Doctoral Dissertations

This descriptive research will present two case studies of experienced science teachers using project-based curricula in all or part of their secondary life science/biology courses. The purpose of this study is to reveal the underlying relationships between teachers' conceptions of the nature of science, their understanding of their role as science teachers and their expectations for appropriate and worthwhile student learning, and to describe the influence of these factors on their curricular choices within the project-based framework. Using a modification of Hewson, Kerby and Cook's (1995) Conceptions of Teaching Science protocol as a model, teachers' beliefs and intentions are classified …

Literacies Without Judgment: Composing A (Con)Text For Cultural Healing In Northeast Brazil, Francisco Silva Cavalcante Jr.

Doctoral Dissertations

In this study the researcher describes and interprets the experiences with Projeto (Con)texto, a research group created in Northeast Brazil composed of eleven people with different levels of formal schooling, social classes and ages varying from 14 to 50 years old. The researcher explores the dynamics of the Brazilian relational universe and its impact on people's lives, the multiple forms of letramento (literacies) used by people in a certain cultural context to construe and convey meaning, and the process of strengthening of one's self to deal with cultural conflicts through cultural healing.

The researcher gathered descriptive data during one year …

Perceptions Of New Hampshire Teachers And Supervisors Regarding Teacher Supervision, Pamela L. Clark

Doctoral Dissertations

This study examined the perceptions of New Hampshire teachers and supervisors regarding teacher present and ideal systems for teacher supervision. Teacher supervision was defined as being inclusive of district practices which promote teacher growth and development and those which are used to make evaluative judgments about teachers' performance. The study sample included 73 supervisors and 305 teachers randomly selected from 45 school districts. The sample districts were selected using a stratified random sampling process in which the stratification variables were district wealth as reflected in the district's equalized valuation per pupil and geographic region.

Data were collected through the use …

Issues Of Engendered Entitlement: Who Owns The Classroom? Who Owns Knowledge?, Dorothy Radius Kasik

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation examines the ways in which first year female college students have been prepared by educational systems in our culture to handle knowledge and the acquisition of knowledge during the first year of college experience. It is the contention of the author that women are not actively encouraged in our culture to take ownership of educational concepts in the same way as men. This happens for two reasons, first that because women's methods of interaction in the classroom might differ from men's those methods might not be perceived as acceptable or taken seriously; and second that a woman's discomfort …

In Pursuit Of "A Good Healthy Chat": The Roles Of Organization And Rapport-Building In Effective Middle School Literacy Instruction, Douglas Kingsley Kaufman

Doctoral Dissertations

In this study I explore what classroom conditions a master eighth-grade language arts teacher created in order to become a more effective listener. I defined effective listening as a deep receptivity that leads the listener to create responses that satisfy the other's needs. Responses must help students move their ideas and work progressively forward. Conditions that promote effective listening, then, serve two purposes: they (1) enhance teacher receptivity and (2) help students better articulate their interests, knowledge, and needs.

During the 1996-1997 school year I conducted a qualitative study that drew heavily upon ethnographic methodologies. As a participant-observer I took …

Music And The General Classroom: Literacy In A New Key, F Dan Seger

Doctoral Dissertations

After a personal description of the traditional role of music education and its relationship to the overall curriculum of an American elementary school, this dissertation asks: What do grade 4/5 students do when their classroom and music teachers integrate music more deliberately into classroom life? Set in a classroom in a small New England town, the dissertation describes how a collaboration between a classroom teacher and a music teacher brought the music curriculum into the daily lives of students in a school where scheduled music class occurred only once per week.

Viewing music as a valid means to represent thought …

Reconceptualizing Early Childhood Preservice Teacher Education: A Pedagogy Of Collaborative Inquiry, Mary Jane Moran

Doctoral Dissertations

This study describes changes in thinking and practice among 24 early childhood preservice teachers as they move away from a reliance on traditional interpretations of child-centered curricula and developmentally appropriate practices toward one of collaborative inquiry. Participants enrolled in a 15 week undergraduate teaching methods course were assigned to teaching teams to implement collaborative projects with the same group of three to five year-old children.

Traditionally, early childhood teacher education has been influenced by developmental theory which emphasizes processes of children's learning. And yet, teachers typically learn to teach from a transmission orientation with perspectives provided by experts rather than …

Examining Student Conceptions Of The Nature Of Science From Two Project-Based Classrooms, David M. Moss

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this research was to develop descriptive accounts of precollege students' conceptions of the nature of science from two project-based classrooms, and track those conceptions over the course of an academic year. A model of the nature of science was developed and served as the criterion by which students' beliefs were evaluated. The model distinguishes between two major categories of science, the nature of the scientific enterprise and the nature of scientific knowledge. Five students were selected from each class and interviewed individually for 30-45 minutes each, six times over the year. Data from semi-structured, formal interviewing consisted …

Constructive Texts: Theory, Practice, And The "Self" In Composition, Deborah Lynne Hodgkins

Doctoral Dissertations

The influence of postmodern theory on studies in composition and rhetoric has led to important questions for the teaching of writing: In light of/after postmodernism, what role does/should theory play in classroom practice and how can it best inform pedagogy? In writing and in the world at large, how do we define and where do we locate agency?

I argue that the goal of composition courses should be to help students learn to use discourse to represent the interests of themselves and others and effect change in a postmodern world--to become active citizens by becoming better rhetoricians. In order to …

The Role Of Shame In Writing: How Lived Experience Affects The Writing Process, Carol Kountz

Doctoral Dissertations

Writing fluently without disabling apprehension requires an ability to control ideas despite the occurrence of censoring thoughts or shameful sensations. Such ability is characteristically lacking in apprehensive or blocking writers, who, therefore, have difficulty in composing. To understand the psychological and social factors that impede the writing process, and to give writers and compositionists insight into the features of writing that result in "writer's block," I held conversational interviews with twenty-four people who designate themselves as apprehensive writers about their literacy experiences and writing behavior. Analysis of these interviews shows that these people, in anticipation of a real or inward, …

Differences In Achievement Across Item Types On The Advanced Placement United States History Examination: The Relationship Of Sex, Gender Identity, Cognitive Orientation, And Conception Of The Nature Of Historical Knowledge To Domain-Specific Academic Performance, Fred J. Wetzel

Doctoral Dissertations

This study explored the reasons why males outperform females on the AP US History examination, a three-part, college-level test taken by large numbers of high-achieving grade 11 students each year. Males tend to outperform females on the overall test, and on the multiple-choice section. Females show relatively stronger performance on the examination's document-based question (a section that requires analysis of original historical documents). Performance on the standard-essay part of the test does not consistently favor either sex.

Moving beyond explanations that rely on sex-related generalized differences in ability and interest, the study explored the possibility that performance was dependent on …

The Teaching Portfolio As A Vehicle For Professional Growth, John James Freeman

Doctoral Dissertations

This study considered the utility of the teaching portfolio as a structure which might enhance the professional growth of public school teachers. The study was guided by the question: Does the development of individual teaching portfolios support reflection, self-assessment, and professional development on the part of teachers who develop portfolios? Other issues considered were reasons for developing portfolios, the nature of artifacts included in portfolios, structures which support teachers in the development of their portfolios, changes in classroom practice which may result from portfolio development, plans for future portfolio use, and suggestions which portfolio developers might have for others considering …