Digital Commons Network^™

Ict Trends In Education, Gerald K. White

Digital learning research

The use of information and communications technology (ICT) in education is a relatively new phenomenon. Educators, researchers and thinkers have taken up the challenges of using ICT since the 1980s with varied success. The advent of the internet and the World Wide Web has pressured new productivity and service demands as well as expectations on these endeavours although research to guide best practice remains scant and elusive. This discussion about the trends occurring in ICT in education and research begins with a brief history. The brief history of ICT raises a number of issues that provide options for thinking about …

Investigation Of The Association Between Attendance In Preschool Programs And Achievement Of Elementary School Students In Greeneville, Tennessee., Anita Marie Conner

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine if a difference in achievement test scores exists between students who attended preschool and those who did not as measured by standardized achievement test scores of students in the 3rd and 4th grades. The variables of grade level and gender were also considered. The population consisted of students who attended 4th and 5th grades during the 2007-2008 school year in the Greeneville City Schools. Data gathered were from Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program achievement test scores obtained from the 2006-2007 school year. Analysis of variance was used to identify any relationship between variables. …

The Relationship Between Learning Styles And Student Performance On The Palmetto Achievement Challenge Test In A Low Performing, Low Socioeconomic-Status School, Joseph Lassale Williams

Dissertations

The intention of this research was to bring light to the current state mandated testing, and possible solutions in assisting educators to address the issues of students not meeting the standards. In more general terms, this study is looking to prove to what extent a student's learning style has on their performance on the Palmetto Achievement Challenge Test (PACT). This study analyzed four of the twenty-six learning preference areas identified by the Learning Style Instrument (LSI) of middle school students in a traditional public middle school in seventh grade. The four areas that were looked at were kinesthetic, tactile, auditory, …

The Effect Of The Middle School Concept On Student Achievement In Coastal Mississippi Middle Level Schools, Mary Lee Davis

Dissertations

In this study, the researcher examined the effect of the implementation of the middle school concept on student achievement in coastal Mississippi middle level schools with a grade configuration of 6-8. The study was conducted in the fall semester of the 2006-2007 school year; archival data were collected from the Mississippi Department of Education's Web site. There were 15 schools identified as housing grades 6-8; of those 15, participants included 12 coastal Mississippi middle level schools. There was a total of 9 schools identified as implementing the middle school concept, and 6 schools were identified as not implementing the concept; …

Support Systems, Isolation, And Intended Persistence In Doctoral Education, Casey Nicole Cockrell

Dissertations

This study investigated the effects of formal academic support systems and stage of doctoral study on persistence, satisfaction, and knowledge of resources, expectations, and customs in doctoral education. Part-time and full-time doctoral students (N=141) enrolled in four public institutions in a southeastern state during the spring and summer semesters of 2007 were surveyed.

An online questionnaire, adapted from the 1999 Survey on Doctoral Education (Golde & Dore, 2001), was used to survey participants. Exploratory factor analysis and reliability analysis were performed to define the variables. A MANOVA was performed to determine if any differences existed between formal academic support system …

Comparing Parent Ratings Of Referred Preschoolers On The Child Behavior Checklist And Behavior Assessment System For Children - Second Edition, Jennifer L. Bour

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

It is essential for school psychologists assessing children to use instruments that are reliable and valid. The focus of the current study is to determine whether or not the parent preschool versions of two popular behavior rating instruments, the Behavior Assessment System for Children – Second Edition (BASC-2; Reynolds & Kamphaus, 2004) and Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL; Achenbach & Rescorla, 2000), are consistent measures of similarly-named behavioral constructs in preschool-aged children. Parents of 95 preschoolers referred to a nonprofit child evaluation clinic because of behavioral or developmental concerns completed both the BASC-2 and CBCL during an initial evaluation session.

The …

Predicting Student Performance In Web-Based Distance Education Courses Based On Survey Instruments Measuring Individual Traits And Technical Skills, Michael Clyde Hall

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Two common web-based surveys, "Is Online Learning Right for Me?' and "\Vb.at Technical Skills Do l Need~", were combined into a single survey instrument and given to 228 on-campus and 83 distance education students. The students were enrolled in four different classes (business, computer infonnation services, criminal justice, and early childhood development) on three different regional campuses of a mid-western community college. :Multiple regression equations were developed with the survey scores and the type of class to determine the extent to which the survey scores predicted final semester grade percentages. Although distance education students scored significantly higher on the survey …

Towards A Model Of Critical Ethics To Inform The Research Process In Postgraduate Research, Aidan Kenny

Articles

The ethics narrative has become embedded in the contemporary research process, as evident in the emergence of Ethical Committees in faculty and both public and private organisations. Ethics have been codified, made visible and accessible as text artefacts in the forms of (both voluntary and regulatory) codes, statements, conventions, guidelines, principles, procedures, practices. In this short paper I explore this codification of ethics from the period post WWII, detailing some of the milestone text artefacts.

Analysis Of Students' Misconceptions Of Research Methods In Relations To Thinking Style, Tonya Tavares

Senior Honors Projects

This study explores college students’ misconceptions about scientific research methods and their predisposition for rational-analytic thinking or experiential-intuitive thinking. The measures used in assessing misconceptions and thinking style were a seven-item version of Students’ Conceptions of Research Methods Inventory (SCoRI), specifically the misconceptions of research methods subscale (Meyer et al.(2005), and Epstein’s Rational-Experiential Inventory (REI) Scale (1996), respectively. The REI Scale consists of two subscales adapted from the Need for Cognition scale (NFC, J. T. Cacioppo & R. E. Petty, 1982) and Epstein’s Faith in Intuition (FI) scale, each with five questions; REI-NFC measures rational-analytic thinking, while the REI-FI measures …

An Analysis Of The Career Maturity Levels Of Intellectually Gifted Adolescents, Yolanda Yvette Baker Cobb

Dissertations

This research project was conducted to analyze the career maturity level scores of intellectually gifted middle school students. The Career Maturity Inventory-Revised (Crites & Savickas, 1995) was used to compare the career-choice readiness of the intellectually gifted students to their typical middle school-age peers, as well as to the 9th through 12th graders in the norm sample. In addition, a comparison of the career maturity levels of intellectually gifted male and female 6th and 7th graders was also conducted. It was also hypothesized that the intellectually gifted students' career maturity score would increase as the students' grade level increased T-tests …

If Our Students Fail, We Fail, If They Succeed We Succeed: Case Studies Of Boston Schools Where Latino Students Succeed, Eileen De Los Reyes, David Nieto, Virginia Diez

Gastón Institute Publications

This report focuses on the findings of five case studies of Boston schools whose Latino students are succeeding academically. The purpose of the study is to identify the characteristics of schools where Latino students succeed so that it can serve as a guide to educators as they plan for programs directed at these students as well as to parents as they choose educational settings for their children.

If Our Students Fail, We Fail. If They Succeed We Succeed reports on case studies of the Manassah E. Bradley Elementary, the Hugh R. O’Donnell Elementary, the Donald McKay K-8 School, Fenway High …

The Impact Of Personality Type On Undergraduate College Student Success At Oklahoma State University, Pamela I. Ehlers

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this descriptive/causal-comparative study was to determine if relationships existed between individual personality types as determined by the Do What You Are (DWYA) on-line personality inventory and gender, ethnicity, area of academic study, entering and exiting grade point averages (GPA), and time to degree completion of undergraduate students at the case study institution.

Data were collected over a six year period by the institution's career development center. The student respondents were undergraduates and were self-selected to take the inventory. The sample included 2, 533 undergraduate students surveyed between 2003 and 2007.

Statistical analysis utilized scores on the four …

Koinonia, Rick Zomer, David Johnstone, Tim Elmore, Gene C. Fant Jr., Edee Schulze, Connie Sjoberg, Mike Broberg, David A. Kennedy, Nicole Hoefle, Michael Santarosa, Stephanie Santarosa, Jason M. Morris, Heidi Johnston

Koinonia

Spotlight Features
Has Facebook Jumped the Shark?, Rick Zomer

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly of Virtual Community, David Johnstone

Screenagers: How Technology is Changing the Way we Interact with Students, Tim Elmore

'In Loco Parentis' Revisited, Gene C. Fant Jr.

ACSD News: From Location to Interest: ACSD Considers Move from Regional to Collaboratives Model, Edee Schulze, Connie Sjoberg, Mike Broberg, David A. Kennedy, Nicole Hoefle

Thinking Theologically
Keeping Faith: Serving Students or the Kingdom, Michael and Stephanie Santarosa

Book Reviews
Encouraging Authenticity and Spirituality in Higher Education, reviewed by Jason M. Morris

My Freshman Year, Heidi Johnston

Features …

Educational Games Increase Learning Effectiveness: A Case Study, Shonda R. Hoyt

All Graduate Projects

Educators of all age groups-whether they be elementary, secondary, or postsecondary- have long recognized and known that there is a strong connection between student engagement in the learning process and student success. Given the environment in which we teach in today, with its growing diversity, larger class sizes, increased focus on high-stakes testing, and ever- expanding poverty levels, it is essential that teachers incorporate new teaching techniques into their classrooms as a tool for better engaging students in their own learning. To that end, this paper reviews the purported benefits of educational games in the classroom setting as a tool …

The Learning Profiles Of Hostos Community College Students, Christine Mangino

Touchstone

One hundred sixty-six students took the Productivity Environmental Preference Survey (PEPS) and were included in the analyses of learning styles preferences. The following is a description of the Dunn and Dunn Model and our students’ learning styles.

A Study Of Teacher Leadership And Its Relationship With School Climate In American Public Schools: Findings From Sass 2003-2004, Donghai Xie

Dissertations

This study made inquiry into teacher leadership and its relationship with school climate in American public schools by using the data from SASS 2003-04 by National Center for Education Statistics. The study was focused on the statistical assessment of public school teachers' perceptions of teacher leadership in the areas of school operation and classroom operation. Another aspect to be inquired was teachers' perceptions of school climate in the dimensions of school leadership and teacher collaboration.

The results of descriptive analyses in the study indicated that the majority of public school teachers did not consider they had much influence over the …

The Impact Of Service Learning On Moral Development And Moral Orientation, Matthew L. Bernacki Phd, Elizabeth A. Jaeger

Educational Psychology, Leadership, and Higher Education Faculty Research

Research on Service-learning's (SL) impact on students' moral development has been "mixed." In this study, 46 students in SL and non-SL sections of comparable courses offered at a northeastern Catholic university completed the Defining Issues Test, the Moral Justification Scale, and the SL Outcome Scale at the beginning and end of a semester. Although scores on moral development and orientation did not change significantly, SL students reported becoming more compassionate and more sensitive, having a greater understanding of and ability to solve social problems, and possessing a greater efficacy to make the world better. While a single-semester exposure to SL …

A Program Evaluation Of Supplemental Instruction For Developmental Mathematics At A Community College In Virginia, Marilyn Lawson Peacock

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

With the current emphasis on accountability and the importance of math skills in our present economy, the success of developmental mathematics students at community colleges is critical. How to improve the success of these developmental students has become the impetus for many educational initiatives. One educational innovation in tutoring, called supplemental instruction, has been successfully applied to high-risk courses which are defined to have a failure rate in excess of 30%. Mid-Atlantic Community College, in its Title III grant which seeks to improve the success of developmental students, selected supplemental instruction as its initiative. This program evaluation investigated the effects …

Evaluating Experiential Leader Development: A Programmatic Of The Effectiveness Of Us Air Force Squadron Officer School Curricula, Jeffrey G. Holland

Theses and Dissertations

Leader development programs often employ experiential learning exercises. The impact of such exercises is not clear. This research investigated experiential leader development using a quasi-experimental design to analyze the differences in two consecutive US Air Force Squadron Officer School (SOS) in-residence classes. The curriculum was altered between classes by the addition of the Combat Leadership Exercise (CLX), an experiential war-gaming activity. Experiential programs regularly use mean differences between pretest and posttest measurements to represent program impact. However, research shows that participants may change the way they evaluate themselves between test administrations due to their experiences in the programs, a phenomenon …

Assessing Student Knowledge, Background And Perceptions In The International Civic And Citizenship Study, Wolfram Schulz, Falk Brese

Civics and Citizenship Assessment

It is over the ten years since IEA last investigated civic education, and in that time new challenges have emerged in educating young people for their roles as citizens in the 21st century. These challenges have stimulated renewed reflection on the meanings of citizenship and the roles of and approaches to civic and citizenship education. In many countries there is a growing interest in using evidence to improve policy and practice in civic and citizenship education. ICCS is the third international IEA study in this area and it is explicitly linked through common questions to the IEA Civic Education Study …

Scoring Multiple Choice Items: A Comparison Of Irt And Classical Polytomous And Dichotomous Methods, Christine E. Demars

Department of Graduate Psychology - Faculty Scholarship

Four methods of scoring multiple-choice items were compared: Dichotomous classical (number-correct), polytomous classical (classical optimal scaling – COS), dichotomous IRT (3 parameter logistic – 3PL), and polytomous IRT (nominal response – NR). Data were generated to follow either a nominal response model or a non-parametric model, based on empirical data. The polytomous models, which weighted the distractors differentially, yielded small increases in reliability compared to their dichotomous counterparts. The polytomous IRT estimates were less biased than the dichotomous IRT estimates for lower scores. The classical polytomous scores were as reliable, sometimes more reliable, than the IRT polytomous scores. This was …

Analysis Of A Pilot Implementation Of Problem Based Learning Strategy For A Logistics Undergraduate Education Programme, Margaret Farrell

Conference Papers

Research findings suggest that a supply chain manager's job is complex and multidimensional, requiring both general management and logistics/supply chain specific knowledge, competencies and skills. The challenge for logistics educators is to design and develop curricula, teaching and assessment methodologies that can support wide-ranging and integrative learning objectives, which include team, people, project management and technological skills. Problem based learning (PBL) draws heavily on andragogical principles, requiring the student to be self directed and responsible for their own learning as they seek to solve a ‘real life’ problem, within a group. The paper presents the analysis of the teachers experience …

Motivating Students: Identifying And Motivating Reluctant Learners To Reach Their Academic Potential, Kim Yeager

All Graduate Projects

Motivation plays an important role in determining how well a child will perform in school (Philips & Lindsay, 2006). Regardless of how intelligent or capable a student may be if the student is not motivated to do well then their academic performance will be less than it could have been with some motivation. Teachers need to understand why some students are motivated to try hard in school and why some students are not. This understanding will lead teachers to understand why their students are not reaching their academic potential. The purpose of this project was to design a guide that …

Inside Unlv, Cate Weeks, Grace Russell, David Ashley, Shane Bevell, Angela Sablan

Inside UNLV

No abstract provided.

Staff Perceptions Of Structure, Process, And School Readiness Outcomes In Private South Florida Child Care Centers, Deborah Mazzeo

Graduate Student Dissertations, Theses, Capstones, and Portfolios

The quality of child care centers and school readiness outcomes continue to be important topics in the State of Florida since policymakers, school districts, and child care centers, in August 2005, began to implement the Voluntary Prekindergarten Program. The problem area of child care is whether various characteristics of child care center programs result in different outcomes for children's development.

Qualities of child care centers can be attributed to structure and process variables. A theoretical framework that is grounded in Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory is discussed. The structure-process-outcome model of quality and Spady's outcome-based education model were combined to explain the …

A Study Into The Assessment And Reporting Of Employability Skills Of Senior Secondary Students, Gabrielle Matters, David D. Curtis

Assessment and Reporting

In order to investigate the most effective ways of assessing and reporting on the employability skills of senior secondary students, the Commonwealth Department of Education, Science and Training (DEST) commissioned this report. The main activity was to evaluate options for assessing and reporting on eight employability skills against five criteria—validity, reliability, objectivity, feasibility, and usability—and to recommend a preferred approach. This work was undertaken by the Australian Council for Educational Research (ACER) in the period July 2007 to January 2008, during which time the (new) Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR) became responsible for the initiative. The starting …

Item Banking With Rasch Measurement: An Example For Primary Mathematics In Thailand, Chaowprapha Chuesathuchon, Russell F. Waugh

EDU-COM International Conference

This study was conducted in Thailand to create a Mathematics item bank and a Computerized Adaptive Test (CAT) for the students to ‗interrogate‘ the bank. First, 290 multiple-choice test items on mathematical equations were created for an item bank. They consisted of nine aspects: (1) identifying an equation; (2) identifying the true equation; (3) identifying equations with an unknown; (4) finding the value of an unknown that satisfies the equation; (5) identifying a method to solve an equation; (6) finding the solutions to equations; (7) finding a solution to an equation related to a given condition; (8) selecting an equation …

A Strategic Planning Of Thailand Vocational Education Management, Malai Gerawatanakaset

EDU-COM International Conference

Purpose – To identify the relevant factors that have significant influences on the vocational education system of Thailand and to propose an approach for future development and/or improvement of the system‘s strategic plan. Design/methodology/approach – To identify and study the major factors that have significant influences on the development of strategic plan, three rounds of surveys using Delphi Technique on 17 individuals comprising students, teachers, administrators, and professionals and 9 well-known experts in the field of vocational education of Thailand were conducted. The approach for strategic plan development was obtained by conducting a group discussion for the 9 experts using …

Mugc Summer Enrichment Program And Reading Achievement: Program Evaluation, Melissa A. Varian

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

This purpose of this study is to determine if participation in the Marshall University Summer Enrichment Program enhances children’s reading skills and to determine if a gender difference was evident in reading achievement scores. DIBELS was used to determine reading achievement scores at the beginning, middle, and end of program. The data obtained were compared using a General Linear Model-Within Subjects Factors through ANOVA to determine the mean of benchmark 1 and 3 as well as the significance level of the reading scores. The findings of this study indicated no differences in Oral Reading Fluency in total scores or in …

A Tight Balancing Act : Leadership Challenges For University Heads, Michelle Anderson, Geoff Scott, Hamish Coates

Higher education research

This paper draws on the responses of 134 Heads of School and Heads of Department who were part of a larger study of 513 Australian higher education leaders. Heads of School / Department are at the centre of complex relational interfaces comprising faculty, students, central administration, and external entities and support agencies. While such experiences are not necessarily unique to Heads, the analysis suggests that they do perhaps experience these challenges in more intense and explicit ways than many other managers, as they have to ‘manage’ both up and down. Many of the Heads perceived taking on this position was …