Education Commons^™

The Effects Of Differential Reinforcement Structures On Computer-Assisted Instructional Learning, Michael J. Jaeger

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The use of computer assisted instruction as a viable educational technology in our nation's schools has presented educators with new dilemmas and decisions. To operate these devices in the manner in which they were intended, computer software or courseware, whose cost often rivals the original cost of the computers themselves, must be purchased before their potential benefit can be realized. The most widely used type of instructional design that is inherent in these programs can be categorized under the operant theory of learning comprising the styles such as tutorial, skills building, and drill and practice. These computer lessons can be …

An Analysis Of Perceptual Differences Between Parents, Teachers, Principals, Superintendents, And School Board Members Relating To Issues Important To Merit Pay Implementation, William J. Hoff

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: Within school districts groups may be identified whose function influences their perceptions about what would occur in the schools relative to issues important to merit pay implementation. The purpose of the study was to identify those differences that exist between groups regarding issues relevant to merit pay implementation. Procedures: Parents, teachers, principals, superintendents, and school board members were drawn from elementary, high school, and unified school districts residing in regions designated by the Association of California School Administrators. A survey instrument was developed in order to elicit group responses about issues related to merit pay. Analyses of variance were …

Black Women Administrators In California Community Colleges: Perceived Influences Of Sex And Race Discrimination And Affirmative Action, Marian C. Shivers

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was four-fold. First, it determined the extent to which Black women were employed full time in the top three levels of community college administration in California. Second, it gathered demographic and attitudinal data about Black women in community college administration in California. Third, it reported the perceptions of Black women currently employed in top-level positions regarding race and sex discrimination as they had personally experiences it and the influences of affirmative action on career advancement. Finally, it reiterated some of the historical trends which influenced the role of Black women in the labor force as …

An Examination Of Sense Of Story In Proficient Bilingual, Partial Bilingual, And Monolingual Children As Evidenced In Stories Told In English, Kathleen Kenfield

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to determine what differences, if any, existed among monolingual (English) children, partial bilingual (English-Spanish) children, and proficient bilingual (English-Spanish) children in the level of sophistication of their sense of story. Sense of story was defined as the degree to which one has internalized the features, conventions, and structures of the story genre. Sense of story was analyzed in three areas: structural complexity (number of words, number of T-units, mean length of T-units, number of characters, number of incidents), story convention usage (use of past tense, formal beginning, formal ending, use of quoted and described …

Policies And Practices Of Senior High School Principals In Achieving An Effective Pluralistic Environment, Leroy Pulliam

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine school effectiveness in three . academic effective schools by comparing the findings of the effective school and multicultural education literatures with staff perceptions and principal interviews. The study employed a mixed methodology, using extensive interviews of principals based on a modified form of the Connecticut Effective School Survey Instrument. The strong and less strong points of school effectiveness were ascertained through statistical analyses of staff perceptions and analyses of the principals' interview comments.

The investigation made several findings. First, there was a clear relationship between school policies and practices which adhered to …

A Comparative Survey Of Chicano And Anglo Community College Students, Jose Luis Hurtado

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Purpose. The purpose of the study was to examine the social and cultural characteristics of successful and unsuccessful Mexican American community college students and compare them to successful and unsuccessful Anglo American community college students. The goal of this study was to collect data on ten independent variables that consistently appeared in the review of literature and were suspected of affecting the success of Chicanos in the California College system. Procedures. The major research question of this study was exploratory in nature in that it looked at possible factors which might affect the success or failure of Chicano students. A …

Faculty Burnout In The California State University System, Edward Earl Seagle Jr.

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Purpose. The purposes of this study were to determine: (a) to what extent does faculty burnout exist within the California State University (CSU) system; (b) the correlation between faculty burnout and various demographic factors; (c) the correlation of the measured variables of burnout as related to self-perceptions; and (d) the dimensions of burnout within the CSU system. Procedures. Full-time faculty from each of the 19 CSU campuses were surveyed. Two questionnaires were used to canvass respondents' feelings of burnout: (a) Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) and (b) Faculty Feeling Survey. The number of responses analyzed was 370. Findings. Comparing the CSU …

Spatial Visualization, Attitudes Toward Mathematics, And Mathematics Achievement Among Chinese-American, Hispanic-American, And Caucasian Seventh And Eighth Grade Students, Wenfu Shieh

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Many studies have shown that spatial visualization and attitudes toward mathematics are positively and significantly correlated to achievement in mathematics. This study attempted to find out whether these relationships remain consistent across various ethnic groups. This study also attempted to ascertain if spatial visualization ability and attitudes toward mathematics vary among ethnic groups, and if these possible variabilities correspond to the different degrees of mathematical achievement. One hundred five 7th and 8th grade Caucasian, Chinese-American, and Hispanic-American students were selected from three of the five middle schools in the Stockton Unified School District to participate in this study. The DAT …

The Academic Achievement Of Chinese-American Fluent English Proficient And Non-Minority Background Intermediate Grade Students (Bilingual, Asian-American), Edmund W. Lee

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

More than a decade has passed since the United States Supreme Court made its historic decision in Lau v. Nichols on January 21, 1974. Ruling in favor of the non-English-speaking Chinese plaintiffs, the Court upheld earlier guidelines established by the office for Civil Rights for school districts with more than five percent national origin-minority group children. In delivering the Court's opinion, Justice Douglas reiterated these words of J. Stanley Pottinger, former director of OCR:

Validity Studies Of The Leiter International Performance Scale For An International Middle School Population, Marvin E. Jones

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

The problem of this study was to investigate the construct and short-term predictive validity of the Leiter International Performance Scale (LIPS) for an international population of middle school students in an overseas school. The 141 subjects were 13, 14, and 15 year old students from many nations who came to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with their parents who were professionals, highly skilled technologists, and foreign embassy employees.

The sample represented 15 nations and was functionally divided into four groups: (Group A) Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States; (Group B) Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden; (Group …

A Comparison Of The Career Assessment Inventory And The Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory In A Minority, High School Drop-Out Sample, David Stanton Halferty

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Problem. The Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory (SCII), an inventory with some validity, was directed at the professionally oriented client. The Career Assessment Inventory (CAI) appeared in 1976 as an inventory normed on the non-professional, blue-collar worker, directed at the non-baccalaureate student. There had been little research on minority, non-college oriented youth. Purpose. The purpose of this study was to compare the predictive and concurrent validity of these two inventories for a drop-out, non-college oriented population. These inventories were compared for predictive validity to short-term occupational outcome, and for concurrent validity to Expressed Interest. Also, the distribution of interests across the six …