Digital Commons Network^™

Promoting Mathematical Understanding Through Open-Ended Tasks; Experiences Of An Eighth-Grade Gifted Geometry Class, Carol H. Taylor

Middle-Secondary Education and Instructional Technology Dissertations

Promoting Mathematical Understanding Through Open-Ended Tasks; Experiences of an Eighth-Grade Gifted Geometry Class by Carol H. Taylor Gifted students of mathematics served through acceleration often lack the opportunities to engage in challenging, complex investigations involving higher-level thinking. This purpose of this study was to examine the ways mathematically gifted students think about and do mathematics creatively as indicators of deep understanding through collaborative work on four open-ended tasks with high-level cognitive demand. The study focused on the mathematical thinking involved in students’ construction of mathematical understanding through the social interaction of group problem solving. This case study used ethnographic methodology …

The Effects Of Cross-Age Mentoring In An Online Collaborative Environment, Gail Lorraine Johnson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This mixed method research was designed to examine the effects of cross-age mentoring in an inter-institutional online learning community. The research questions focused on the impact of mentoring on high school students’ confidence in their information seeking skills, perceptions of their information seeking standards, and the application of these standards to an information seeking task. Also of interest was the dialogic interaction between the students at the two sites, the impact of the facilitator on the process, and the university students’ perceptions about their experience. The participants included 26 students (mentees) enrolled in an American history class at a rural …

The Effects Of Peer Teaching On Undergraduate Music Majors' Achievement And Attitude Toward Sight-Reading In The Group Piano Setting, Nancy Elizabeth Baker

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purposes of this study were: (1) to investigate the effects of peer teaching on students’ achievement in sight-reading at the piano, and (2) to determine whether peer teaching positively affected students’ attitude toward sight-reading at the piano. Participants were undergraduate music majors (N = 85) enrolled in the second or fourth semester of a four-semester group piano sequence. Participants completed a pretest and a posttest that consisted of a video-taped sight-reading performance and an attitudinal questionnaire. Control and experimental groups comprised the treatment groups for each level. Group Piano IV and Group Piano II participants in the experimental group …

Design And Implementation Of Online Learning Environments, Kaveh Jajouei-Moghaddam

Digitized Theses

This thesis describes a systematic approach in the design and implementation of online learning environments. This approach incorporates the principles of human learning as well as the best practices in software engineering. This thesis implements a conceptual model for the design, and it describes how software elements can be developed to comply with the model. In the context of this research two online environments are developed and analyzed. The end product of this approach is a robust and reusable software architecture, a framework for design, and an effective and engaging model suited to online learning environments.

Design And Implementation Of Online Learning Environments, Kaveh Jajouei-Moghaddam

Digitized Theses

This thesis describes a systematic approach in the design and implementation of online learning environments. This approach incorporates the principles of human learning as well as the best practices in software engineering. This thesis implements a conceptual model for the design, and it describes how software elements can be developed to comply with the model. In the context of this research two online environments are developed and analyzed. The end product of this approach is a robust and reusable software architecture, a framework for design, and an effective and engaging model suited to online learning environments.

Creating A Sense Of Community In The Classroom Environment: An Investigation Into Collaborative Learning Among Grade 12 Students, Omadat Persaud

Digitized Theses

Although collaborative group-work has become an integral part of the learning process,

students often demonstrate and express their unwillingness to participate. This study utilized an action research design to explore the reasons for such responses by examining how a small group of grade 12 students experience collaborative learning. Participants established guidelines for the collaborative learning process, researched and constructed information on global issues, and negotiated possible solutions for such issues. They simultaneously volunteered their reflections through confidential interviews and a questionnaire on their experiences in collaborative learning throughout their schooling. While acknowledging the numerous benefits they had with collaborative learning, …

Creating A Sense Of Community In The Classroom Environment: An Investigation Into Collaborative Learning Among Grade 12 Students, Omadat Persaud

Digitized Theses

Although collaborative group-work has become an integral part of the learning process, students often demonstrate and express their unwillingness to participate. This study utilized an action research design to explore the reasons for such responses by examining how a small group of grade 12 students experience collaborative learning. Participants established guidelines for the collaborative learning process, researched and constructed information on global issues, and negotiated possible solutions for such issues. They simultaneously volunteered their reflections through confidential interviews and a questionnaire on their experiences in collaborative learning throughout their schooling. While acknowledging the numerous benefits they had with collaborative learning, …

Design And Implementation Of Online Learning Environments, Kaveh Jajouei-Moghaddam

Digitized Theses

This thesis describes a systematic approach in the design and implementation of online learning environments. This approach incorporates the principles of human learning as well as the best practices in software engineering. This thesis implements a conceptual model for the design, and it describes how software elements can be developed to comply with the model. In the context of this research two online environments are developed and analyzed. The end product of this approach is a robust and reusable software architecture, a framework for design, and an effective and engaging model suited to online learning environments.