Digital Commons Network^™

Teaching Innovative Preventive Strategies To Minority Students With Limited English Proficiency, Joyce Wright-Evans

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

The major purpose of this applied dissertation was to address the issue of minority students with limited English proficiency not meeting the educational standards necessary to graduate from high school within 4years of entry. The relationship of achievement with self-determination is described in this report. The theoretical base for this study centered on the work of R. M. Ryan and E. L. Deci (2000) in the areas of motivation and self-determination, the self-determination theory. Moreover, the social cognitive career theory (R. Lent, S. W. Brown, & G. Hackett, 1996) provided a strong theoretical base in the areas of career and …

Using The Writing Process And Continuous Assessment To Improve Student Compositions, Constance M. Goines

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

This dissertation described an intervention program that was designed to improve the quality of writing in an inner city school in the southwest United States. It was an ethnically and linguistically diverse Title I learning community of about 300. The program targeted 44 second semester 3rd graders who would be first semester 4th graders following the July summer break. Two fourth grade teachers, both with at least four years of experience and extensive writing process training, implemented the program at both grade levels.

The focus was to raise writing scores, as measured by the Texas Assessment of Academic Skills (TAAS) …

Phonemic Awareness And Beginning Literacy Skills In Lower Socioeconomic Native American Kindergarten And First Grade Students, Ellen-Sue Diamant

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

This applied dissertation was conducted on a Native American Indian Reservation in rural, northwest Montana. Ninety-six percent of the student body is Native American and mixed descent. According to tribal and Bureau of Indian Affairs unpublished data files, the reservation has a 95% unemployment rate. This reservation has poverty levels and lack of academic achievement typical of many lower socioeconomic status areas.

According to district records, the mean Iowa Test of Basic Skills (Riverside Publishers, 1998-2000), reading stanine has been less than the 4th stanine for at least the past ten years. Scores in the 5th stanine are considered proficient. …

An Intervention Reading Program To Increase Reading Skills In 18 Months From Cmt Proficient To Grade-Level Performance, Anthony J. Cordone

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

This project addressed the creation of a reading intervention program at Bailey Middle School that improved the reading skills of the students identified by the Connecticut Master Test (CMT) as performing within the proficient level. Over the past 5 years, 60% of the Grade 6 and 49% of Grade 8 students consistently scored within the proficient level. This researcher created a program that, within 18 months, increased the reading skill needs of those students so that they improved or met the Grade 8 CMT goal levels.

This applied dissertation reviewed current programs, staffing requirements and skills, staff development, strategies, and …

Identifying And Analyzing The Learning Styles Of Mba Students In The College Of Business And Management At Cardinal Stritch University To Improve Attrition, Kim M. Herzer

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

The problem identified in this study is the gap that exists between graduating MBA students’ learning styles beginning at Cardinal Stritch University (CSU) and the current instructional strategies and curriculum design utilized by MBA faculty. In order to ascertain MBA students’ learning evidence, learning styles of MBA students must be taken into account. The purposes of this study were to identify and analyze beginning and graduating MBA students’ learning styles and apply that knowledge to enhance learning and teaching in the College of Business and Management (CBM) to improve attrition at CSU.

There were four research questions for this study. …

Teenage Immigrant, Anne Ipsen

The Bridge

The poem by Emma Lazarus on the Statue of Liberty defines the classical model of immigrants fleeing from poverty, oppression, or persecution. They are refugees, forced by intolerable circumstances to move from their homeland. Less stereotypic is the highly skilled or educated individual who makes a positive choice towards better opportunity. These immigrants tend to come as individuals or as a nuclear family and are less likely to live in or identify with an ethnic group. They assimilate more readily, especially if they have some English before arrival, while keeping closer ties with relatives and making more frequent trips to …

Instructional Technology, Motivation, Attitudes And Behaviors: An Investigation Of At-Risk Learners In The Middle School General Music Classroom, Sharon A. Clark

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

In middle schools today, teachers meet many challenges. Students come to school with a wide variety of experiences and economic backgrounds. They come with varying needs and abilities. Middle school is a time of many changes for students. One of the many goals of middle school is to meet the needs of the students in academics as well as the social, physical and emotional needs.

The research question addressed in this dissertation was: What are the effects of instructional technology on motivation, attitudes and behavior of at-risk learners in the middle school general music classroom? The purpose of this study …

Resource Consultation : A Study Of The Relationship Between An Elementary Mathematics Teacher And The Talented And Gifted Coordinator, Janine Kane

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this study was to document the relationship between a fourth grade teacher and the talented and gifted (TAG) coordinator as they provided services to advanced learners in mathematics. The participants' conversations during consultation sessions were transcribed and analyzed. Categories included curriculum and methods, grouping, relationship, barriers, and mentoring. Interviews, questionnaires, and observations of classroom instruction provided supporting data. Little mentoring occurred during the participants' interactions and a pull-out model of service provision was followed. Possible reasons for the continued use of the pull-out model were barriers (e.g., time, space, and class assignment practices), the participants' beliefs, the …

Illinois State: For Alumni Of Illinois State University, Winter 2003-2004, Illinois State University, University Marketing And Communications

State: The Magazine of Illinois State University (1999-present)

Illinois State University alumni magazine

Increasing The Use Of Spatial And Musical Intelligences To Demonstrate Understanding Of Learning In Middle-School Students, Tempest Diane Booth

Abraham S. Fischler College of Education ETD Archive

This applied dissertation was implemented to provide opportunities for nonexceptional middle-school students to demonstrate understanding of learning in the content area using the spatial and musical intelligences. The subject site emphasized more traditional learning strategies thus fewer opportunities existed for students to demonstrate content learning through the music and spatial intelligences.

An after school enrichment study was provided to give students opportunities to demonstrate understanding of learning using the spatial and musical intelligences. An effort was made to minimize traditional practices and place greater emphasis on creative teaching and learning experiences. The eight month study met twice weekly for one …

Retrieval, Action And The Representation Of Distance In Cognitive Maps, Davi Vann Bugmann

School of Psychology Theses

This thesis examines the context effects on retrieval, and the influence of action on the representation of distance in cognitive maps. It is proposed that bias in distance estimation is a function of the contexts of retrieval that trigger the representation of action in memory during evaluation tasks. The proposal is consistent with embodied cognition evidence that suggests that actions are implicitly a part of the representation, and will be naturally extracted as part of the retrieval process. The experimental work presented examines two different contextual cues; the frequency of visitation to landmarks, and the importance of activity performed at …

Automated Rating Of Esl Essays, Deryle W. Lonsdale, Diane Strong-Krause

Faculty Publications

To date, traditional NLP parsers have not been widely successful in TESOLoriented applications, particularly in scoring written compositions. Re-engineering such applications to provide the necessary robustness for handling ungrammatical English has proven a formidable obstacle. We discuss the use of a nontraditional parser for rating compositions that attenuates some of these difficulties. Its dependency-based shallow parsing approach provides significant robustness in the face of language learners’ ungrammatical compositions. This paper discusses how a corpus of L2 essays for English was rated using the parser, and how the automatic evaulations compared to those obtained by manual methods. The types of modifications …

Close Vertical Transcription In Writing Center Training And Research, Magdalena Gilewicz, Terese Thonus

The Writing Center Journal

No abstract provided.

Reassessing The "Proofreading Trap": Esl Tutoring And Writing Instruction, Sharon A. Myers

The Writing Center Journal

No abstract provided.

Searching For Greater Variety In Strategic Thinking, Brendan O'Rourke, Martyn Pitt

Conference papers

This paper proposes a use of the discursive approach to explicate variety in ways of strategic thinking. Such an explication of variety is both useful managerially in increasing awareness of greater discursive resources and also theoretically in critiquing views of strategic thinking as homogenous and organizationally contained. Ways of strategic thinking have been investigated using a variety of approaches including expertise perspectives (Voss, Greene et al. 1983), cognitive mapping (Eden, Jones et al. (1979); Huff (1990) ) and upper echelon theory (Hambrick 1998). More recently the linguistic turn in organizational sciences (Alvesson and Kärreman 2000), and the study of strategy …

Principles Of Metadesign : Processes And Levels Of Co-Creation In The New Design Space, Elisa Giaccardi

School of Engineering, Computing and Mathematics Theses

In the tight of the material and cultural conditions of the present world and within the context of current design theories, this research aims to provide an understanding of Metadesign as emerging design cutture, and to integrate and advance its conceptual framework and principles through a tra nsdisci pli nary dialogue with the aesthetics and practice of Net Art. By rejecting the notion of Metadesign as an established design approach and practice, the creation of an etymological hypothesis based on the meanings of the prefix "-meta" (behind, together, between) becomes possible. Following this historical and cultural path, the research describes …

Book Review Of Philosophy Of Meaning, Knowledge And Value In The Twentieth Century (Routledge History Of Philosophy, Vol. 10) Ed. By John V. Canfield, Routledge, 2003, K.C. O'Rourke

Level 3

No abstract provided.

2003 : Part-Time Programmes, Dublin Institute Of Technology

DIT Publications

Book containing information and full list of part - time courses for 2003 entry.

2003/2004 academic calendar.

Faculty structure and key contacts at DIT.

The Effects Of Music Paired With Story Book Reading On Kindergarten And First Grade Children’S Comprehension Of Narrative Text, Karen Kay Fatka

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of music paired with story book reading on young children's comprehension of narrative text. More specifically, children's abilities to verbally retell stories, answer questions regarding explicit text based story facts, and attention levels were compared when stories were orally read or presented through audio-recorded sung versions of each story. Thirty kindergarten and first grade students who exhibited a speech and/or language impairment, had a history of a speech and/or language impairment, or were at-risk for reading difficulties participated in the study. Subjects were identified through a local university speech and …

An Intelligent Early Warning System For Software Quality Improvement And Project Management, Xiaoqing Frank Liu, Gautam Kane, Monu Bambroo

Computer Science Faculty Research & Creative Works

One of the main reasons behind unfruitful software development projects is that it is often too late to correct the problems by the time they are detected. It clearly indicates the need for early warning about the potential risks. In this paper, we discuss an intelligent software early warning system based on fuzzy logic using an integrated set of software metrics. It helps to assess risks associated with being behind schedule, over budget, and poor quality in software development and maintenance from multiple perspectives. It handles incomplete, inaccurate, and imprecise information, and resolve conflicts in an uncertain environment in its …

Review Of The Coast Of Utopia By Tom Stoppard, David Wohl

College of Visual and Performing Arts Faculty Publications

A Review of The Coast of Utopia by Tom Stoppard, performed by the Royal National Theatre, London, UK, July 2002.

Retrieval, Action And The Representation Of Distance In Cognitive Maps, Davi Vann Bugmann

School of Psychology Theses

This thesis examines the context effects on retrieval, and the influence of action on the representation of distance in cognitive maps. It is proposed that bias in distance estimation is a function of the contexts of retrieval that trigger the representation of action in memory during evaluation tasks. The proposal is consistent with embodied cognition evidence that suggests that actions are implicitly a part of the representation, and will be naturally extracted as part of the retrieval process. The experimental work presented examines two different contextual cues; the frequency of visitation to landmarks, and the importance of activity performed at …

Recent Jewish Immigrants' Communication In Postville, Iowa: A Case Study, Anna I. Levina

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

For this paper the author researched Iowa's immigration history and modern day Postville, a small town that represents a tossed salad of cultural, religious, and linguistic diversities. The author analyzed the current effect of immigration as well as the process of integration and assimilation into the small town through the eyes of its immigrants. The major emphasis is placed on Postville located in northeast Iowa. For 150 years Postville was an all-white, all-Christian farming community of 1,000 souls, most of European ancestry. Today the population of Postville has doubled and of the 2,000 people who reside in Postville almost one …

Ethnographic Descriptions Of English Corners In Shanghai, Gary Jones

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This study explored the phenomenon of English Comers (EC) in Shanghai. These are informal communities formed for the purpose of practising English. In 1978, just after the death of Mao Ze Dong and the fall of the 'gang of four', many eager Chinese people gathered together to practise their oral English in the Shanghai People's Park. Many of these were old men and had been educated in English at missionary schools in Shanghai in the early 20th century. Today we see many successors to such groups in the ECs which meet in different locations throughout the city and which comprise …

Facilitating Second Language Acquisition (Sla) Through Computer-Mediated Communication (Cmc) In An English For Civil Engineering (Ece) Environment, Masputeriah Hamzah

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This study explores the application of computer-mediated communication (CMC) in an English for Civil Engineering (ECE) learning setting. The aim is to examine the interactional opportunities present in the computer-mediated environment for evidence of conditions deemed facilitative of second language acquisition, based on the tenets prescribed by the Interaction Hypothesis. This theory emphasizes the importance of interaction in language learning and the necessity for learners to have access to meaningful and comprehensible input. It is based on the premise that acquisition will occur through interaction where learners arc provided opportunities to negotiate meaning in order to develop mutual understanding. In …

Ellipsis In Science And Technology Textbooks In English: Implications For Thai Students, Sripen Srestasathiern

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This is an analytical study which attempted to investigate Thai students' ability to interpret elliptical sentences and to recover and recognise ellipted elements in a science and technology context in English. Students' awareness, understanding, perceptions, problems and strategies in relation to ellipsis were also examined. The subjects for the study were 60 first year students from King Mongkut's Institute of Technology North Bangkok (KMITNB) who had enrolled in two compulsory English courses in KMITNB, Bangkok, Thailand. The instruments for this study were three 20 item ellipsis tests based on 5 ellipsis types classified by Quirk, et al. (1985). Items of …

Street Photography: An Approach To Strangers: Casual, Close And Personal Encounters, Flavia M. Schuster

Theses : Honours

Street photographers can either camouflage or reveal their identities to the strangers they photograph. By choosing to remain anonymous, photographers often create images in which only their subjects are exposed. By unveiling their identities however, they often create images in which their interaction becomes evident in the resulting images. Casual Encounters looks at the mechanisms employed by photographers that choose to remain anonymous in contrast to the myth of the flâneur. Close Encounters looks at the mechanisms employed between strangers to deal with their daily interactions in urban environments. Personal Encounters serves to explain my own approach to the strangers …

Tauhid And Tasawwuf: Indonesian Sufism In Search Of Unity, Natasha Ryan

Theses : Honours

The Islamic principle of Tauhid (Divine Unity) is foundational to Islam and Tasawwuf, better known to us as Sufism. Within the Indonesian consciousness of Islam, Tauhid can also mirror Indonesia's national motto, Bhinneka Tunggal Ika (Unity in Diversity), its understanding of tolerance reverberating with the purity of Islam. The recent renewal of Sufism in Indonesia may provide a Sufi paradigm shift to help relieve some tension surrounding an emergent Islamist intolerance, thereby smoothing the rising waters of uncertainty flowing alongside the current Islamic resurgence. While it is generally rare for Australians to take an interest in Indonesia's mystical Islamic culture, …

Understanding "Dance Understanding", Curtis Carter

Philosophy Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Un Voyage Vers Une Photographie Feminine: The Gender Politics Of Body And Space, Panizza Ruth Allmark

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

In 1999 I embarked on a photographic journey to various cities around the world. The photographs produced are the results of my critical attention as a woman and a feminist to the issues concerning gender, travel and landscape aesthetics. This dissertation is an analysis of my documentary photographs. I am interested in ways in which my photographs correspond with the French feminist theories of Helene Cixous and Lucy Irigaray on ecriture feminine. Their work on the politics of the body has been influential in my journey towards a photographie feminine. 'Moreover, I also incorporate the feminist work of …