Digital Commons Network^™

Gaps In College Biology Students' Understanding Of Photosynthesis: Implications For Human Constructivist Learning Theory And College Classroom Practice., Phyllis Baudoin Griffard

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The main research question of this study was: What gaps in biochemical understanding are revealed by a range of university introductory biology students as they work through a critically acclaimed multimedia program on photosynthesis, and what are the corresponding implications for elaboration of the Ausubel-Novak-Gowin Learning Theory (ANG, now Human Constructivism)? Twelve students, mixed for ability, gender and ethnicity, were recruited from two sections of "Bio 101." Before and after instruction in photosynthesis, in-depth clinical interviews were conducted during which participants completed a range of cognitive tasks such as sorting, concept mapping, explaining and predicting. Some tasks involved interacting with …

School Desegregation In The New Millennium: The Racial Balance Standard Is An Inadequate Approach To Achieving Equality In Education, Melva Ware

Saint Louis University Public Law Review

No abstract provided.

Affirmative Action In Higher Education: A Legal Analysis Of The Use Of Race As A Factor In College Admissions After Bakke, N. J Pettit

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to examine the legal status of affirmative action in higher education admission policies with regard to the use of race as a factor. This study answered these three questions:;What is the current status of the Regents of the University of California v. Bakke decision as a basis for assessing higher education admission policies? What legal benchmarks have emerged since the Bakke decision which may impact the development of university admission policies? What policies may achieve diversity in higher education admissions without incurring legal risks by using race and ethnicity in the admissions policies?;The significance …

Think Different: A Comparison Of The Critical Thinking Abilities Of Education Majors, Shelly Weeks Channel

UNLV Retrospective Theses & Dissertations

In an increasingly complex society, the need for people to exercise critical thinking effectively is clearly evident. The institution of education recognizes that its responsibility to teach students to think critically is vital in order for them to negotiate decisions humanely and intelligently in an ever-changing world; Hundreds of reports from various committees and researchers along with such insidious incidents as the rise in murderous assaults on children inside school buildings, such as the massacre in Littleton, Colorado, attest to the fact that schools fail to teach students to evaluate social life critically. While educators advocate critical thinking, teacher education …

State-Mandated Site-Based Management: Exploring The Level Of Implementation In Texas High Schools., Elizabeth Annette Kemper

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to explore how Texas high schools responded to a state law which: (a) established that schools must implement site based management (SBM), and (b) outlined specific parameters under which the SBM program was to be constructed. This study was conducted using a four phase methodology that included both quantitative and qualitative techniques with a sample of 19 rural, suburban, and urban high schools. Phase One involved examining district level support and individualization of the SBM program. Phase Two explored school level SBM program structure to determine the consistency between mandated SBM elements and the …

College Students' Understanding Of Stereochemistry: Difficulties In Learning And Critical Junctures., Gary Lester Lyon

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

Because stereochemistry is an important part of both high school and college chemistry curricula, a study of difficulties experienced by students in the learning of stereochemistry was undertaken in a one-semester college organic chemistry course. This study, conducted over the course of two semesters with more than two hundred students, utilized clinical interviews, concept maps, and student journals to identify these difficulties, which were then tabulated and categorized. Although student journals were not a productive source of information, the types of difficulties that emerged from the concept maps were compared and contrasted with those that emerged from the clinical interviews. …

Portraits Of Teachers: The Professional And Personal Characteristics Of Twelve Primary Teachers., Veronica Faye White

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study was to determine the personal and professional characteristics of six teachers who reported high developmentally appropriate beliefs and practices and six teachers who reported low developmentally appropriate beliefs and practices. The sample was identified using teachers' scores on a self-reported survey measure of developmentally appropriate practice based on the 1987 guidelines by NAEYC. Qualitative data were collected through interviews with open-ended questions. By providing an in-depth description as a literary portrait of each teacher, this study provides insight into the beliefs and practical knowledge that inform the teaching practices of 12 primary grade teachers. A …

Effects Of 4 X 4 Block Scheduling On Student Discipline, Faculty Collegiality, And Obstacles To Teaching In Louisiana High Schools., Mary Helen Smith Mccoy

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

During the last decade, the allocation of time emerged as an important reform initiative in secondary schools. For nearly a century, secondary school students attended approximately six to seven classes daily. In the early 1990s, more flexible scheduling configurations were proposed, including block scheduling. One block scheduling format, known as 4 x 4, allows students to attend four classes daily for 90-minute blocks of time. Block scheduling advocates claimed benefits for students, teachers, instructional innovation, and school climate, but provided little empirical base for these claims. The present study examined the effects of 4 x 4 block scheduling on four …

Parental Participation In A Title I Family Literacy Program: Results From A Mixed -Model Study., Karen Boudreaux

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

A family literacy, Title I program was studied to determine the attitudes and beliefs which affect parental participation in a family literacy program. The theoretical framework of cultural capitol assumed that parents who chose to participate in a family literacy program possess different components in their cultural capitol than parents who choose not to participate. There were 3 Hypotheses and 6 Study Questions which guided this parallel mixed model study with dominant (qualitative)-less dominant (quantitative) design. A Title I Family Literacy Program located in a large, urban, public school system was the study site. The sample size consisted of 40 …

An Educational Dilemma: To Touch Or Not To Touch, Ronald G. Jeffries

All Graduate Projects

The purpose of this study was to aid both pre-service and in-service teachers in solving the dilenuna of whether or not to touch students in the classroom environment. The harmful effects and consequences of the use of inappropriate touch by teachers, which tend to cause teachers and administrators to say, "Hands off!", were examined. However, numerous studies were researched which support the use of appropriate touch in teaching children. In addition, educators from fourteen schools in North Central Washington were surveyed to determine the consensus of whether or not teachers today continue to employ touch and for what purposes. The …

Improving Educational Opportunities For Mexican Immigrants : An Educational Manual For High School Educators To Understand, Assist, And Prepare Mexican Immigrants For The Next Millennium, Antonio Moreno

Master's Projects

No abstract provided.

Journal Of Pedagogy, Pluralism And Practice, Volume 1 (4), Fall 1999 (Full Issue), Journal Staff

Journal of Pedagogy, Pluralism, and Practice

The theme of this issue is deconstructing the concept of human rights, legal elements of bilingual education, and the relationship between language development and education

A Critical Analysis Of Gender And The Role Of The Research Assistantship In Development Of Higher Education Faculty., Stephen Charles Scott

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

This research is a mixed model study that explores the relationship between the research assistantship and development as a researcher for individuals serving as professors of higher education in Research I institutions. Also of interest in this research are the ways that research assistantship experiences vary based on gender and other identity characteristics such as rank, age, and race. Critical inquiry is used as the theoretical framework for this study given that it incorporates the use of both quantitative and qualitative means of data collection. A major quantitative finding from this study demonstrates that there were significant differences in the …

The Effects Of Roundhouse Diagram Construction And Use On Meaningful Science Learning In The Middle School Classroom., Robin Eichel Ward

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

This research explored the effects of Roundhouse diagram construction and use on meaningful learning of science concepts in a 6th-grade science classroom. This investigation examined the transformation of students' science concepts as they became more proficient in constructing Roundhouse diagrams, what problems students encountered while constructing Roundhouse diagrams, and how choices of iconic images affected their progress in meaningfully learning science concepts as they constructed a series of Roundhouse diagrams. The process of constructing a Roundhouse diagram involved recognizing the learner's relevant existing concepts, evaluating the central concepts for a science lesson and breaking them down into their component parts, …

Convergent And Divergent Validity Of The Learning Transfer Questionnaire., Annette Irving Bookter

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The Learning Transfer Questionnaire (LTQ) was developed as a comprehensive instrument to identify potential factors in the work environment that influence learning transfer (Holton & Bates, 1996). The purpose of the study was to examine the construct validity of the LTQ by focusing on convergent and divergent validity. Specific objectives included: to identify a set of theoretically-based, psychometrically-valid measures which could be used the examine the convergent and divergent validity; and, utilizing correlation analysis, to examine the associations between the 16 LTQ factors and the identified measures. Scales from seventeen measurement instruments were utilized as comparison measures to correlate with …

Proceedings Of The 24th Annual Conference Of The Western Australian Science Education Association, Mark W. Hacking (Ed.)

Research outputs pre 2011

The Western Australian Science Education Association (WASEA) is an informal group of science educators that meets annually for a conference at one of the Perth universities. The conference is organised by a committee of representatives from the universities and has contributed greatly to collegiality amongst the community of science educators in Perth.

Finding A Voice: Poetry And Performance With First Graders, Lisa Lenz Bianchi

Doctoral Dissertations

This is a qualitative research study of a ten week immersion unit in the reading, writing, and performance of poetry conducted in a first grade classroom in Closter, New Jersey during the winter of 1995. The three girls selected as case studies show the ways in which remarkably different children expand their repertoires of ways with words as speakers, readers, and writers. Danielle, a performative speaker, learns to make her tacit knowledge about performance part of her explicit frames of reference. This shift enables her to serve as a coach for peers who are less adept at crafting performative texts. …

Queering/Querying Identities: The Roles Of Integrity And Belonging In Becoming Ourselves, Cari Ann Elizabeth Moorhead

Doctoral Dissertations

This dissertation presents a picture of the complexities and contradictions in the daily lives of people in the Seacoast area of New Hampshire who identify as, or are identified as, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning and allied people (LGBTQQA). The focus of this study is the "Create Our Destiny" conference, a social change project. Philosophically, I viewed this project through a Postmodern feminist lens, and methodologically I used a grounded theory approach.

This dissertation is divided into three sections. Within section one, I present more detailed descriptions of my philosophical and methodological approaches, a description of the geographical and …

Learning To Read Music Cooperatively In A Choral Setting: A Case Study, Andrew Inzenga

Doctoral Dissertations

Two volunteer cooperative teams of ninth grade girls were studied for six months to discover whether and how they learned to read music. The two teams represented novice students and students who had received private instruction. Study teams represented the population of the freshman Girls Chorus. Teams met regularly during daily chorus rehearsals, with only occasional help from the director. These meetings were analyzed through video tape recordings to observe if students employed traditional teaching and learning strategies to assist each other in learning. It was determined that team members regularly use certain teaching and learning strategies to assist in …

Parental Choice In Secondary Education : Socio-Spatial Dynamics And Motivation, Edward Michael Parsons

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences Theses

This thesis has two main aims. First, to establish whether the strengthening in 1988 of the right of parents to choose a secondary school for their child has led to increased travel to out-of-catchment schools in a case study area. Second, to identify the extent of socio-spatial variation of patterns and trends in choice of school. Secondary school transfer data relating to over 16,000 children for 1991 and 1993 to 1995 was analysed in a Geographical Information System (GIS). One hundred and sixty two parents of children about to transfer to secondary school were interviewed with the objective of revealing …

Public Education In Richmond : A Look At Current And Historical Data With Student Perspectives, Ben Wallerstein

Honors Theses

The objective of this project is therefore three-fold, (1) to analyze the current as well as historical patterns of racial distribution and educational outcomes in the Richmond metropolitan area, (2) to provide current students with this data,and (3) to create an opportunity for dialogue on the data across school, racial and economic boundaries. This project takes an important first step in developing the type of interaction and leadership that will be essential for the success of future regional cooperation in Richmond. At the very least, this report should serve as a base-point to inform future discussions on issues of race, …

African-American Freshmen Student Persistence Factors In Comparison To White Freshmen Student Persistence Factors At Indiana State University, Gwendolyn Lynette Lee-Thomas

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The 1990 national census report revealed that Indiana ranked 47 th in the nation in regard to individuals over the age of 25 with bachelor degrees. Forty-nine percent of the 1995–96 Indiana high school graduates matriculated into Indiana higherEducation institutions—56 percent in-state and out-of-state (Indiana Commission for HigherEducation Report, 1998). However, the African-American student persistence rate is 24 percent, regarding those who attain a bachelor degree within four years compared to 51 percent for all students. However, if extended to six years, the percentage increases to 42.2 percent compared to 57.5 percent for all students. This study determined certain retention …

Better Implementation Of Calculators In The Classroom Through Parental Involvement, Jennifer S. Kemp

Theses : Honours

This study examined the changes in parental attitudes towards calculator use in the classroom during their involvement in calculator activities with students. The study also investigated the effectiveness of involving parents in mathematics activities as a support mechanism for calculator implementation in the school as a whole. A class of year 6 students and their parents were chosen for the study. Parents were first given a questionnaire to evaluate their attitudes towards the use of calculators in schools. Interested parents were consequently invited to participate in one fifty-minute lesson per week for eight weeks. During these lessons, calculators were used …

Factors That Enhance The Effectiveness Of Collaborative Learning In Preschool-Aged Children, Catherine M. Palmer

Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Legal Writing In The New Millennium: Lessons From A Special Teacher And A "Special Classroom", Kenneth F. Ripple

Journal Articles

After receiving the invitation to address this conference, I found my thoughts often returning to my own education in legal writing. As I recall, my legal writing experience in law school was not a very intensive—or positive—one. As was quite typical in that era (almost thirty-three years ago), the program at my law school was not very extensive: we wrote a memorandum of law and a brief under the guidance of a graduate law student.

My real legal writing education took place in the study of the Chief Justice of the United States. For the better part of five years, …

Annual 1999 Academic Affairs Forum: Access To A Quality Education, Ellen N. Junn

Office of the Provost Scholarship

No abstract provided.

The Validity Of Selected Draw -A -Person Test Classifying Criteria Among Homosexual And Non-Homosexual Males, Ornsteiner Joel Von

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to explore the validity of Machover's (1949) interpretation that attention to both the hips and buttocks drawn by male subjects in their first male Draw-A-Person Test (DAP) or the drawing of a female figure first are significant indicators of male homosexuality. The hypothesis was that the frequency of these homosexual indicators among non-instituted homosexuals would be significantly higher (P = <.05) than the male heterosexual group. One hundred homosexual and 100 heterosexual males were selected from groups of volunteers from two universities, one bookstore and a community center in the New York City area. The subjects were administered a DAP test in booklet format and a questionnaire. The drawings were classified for homosexual indicators blindly and independently by three judges who were trained in the use of the Machover interpretation of the DAP. Chi square analyses were calculated for the frequency of hips and buttocks and for the drawing of a female figure first and no significant differences between the self identified homosexual and heterosexual male groups in the expected direction were found. It was concluded that the lack of any significant difference between the scores of the homosexual and heterosexual males in this study casts considerable doubt on the validity of the male homosexual interpretations explored. Speculations were made concerning the widely discrepant results from past studies and this investigation. The majority of the past research had been conducted within institutional settings and there have been cultural changes over the last fifty years in bothPsychology and society's tolerance for the male homosexual. Unlike any previous DAP study, one-hundred urban homosexual and one-hundred heterosexual males were randomly selected. This researcher cautions that the DAP test should be interpreted with other available information, and results based on its independent use are viewed with much skepticism. Implications for future research were discussed.

Preparing New Teachers To Use Technology: A Comparative Study Of Preservice Teacher Education Programs., Patricia Ann Duhon

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this descriptive study was to describe and analyze the technology components in three teacher education programs, and to investigate the technological preparedness of recently graduated first-year elementary (K--5) teachers. The research questions addressed were: (a) How are the teacher education programs at each university in this study preparing students to integrate technology into their classrooms and instruction, and how do the programs compare? (b) How do recently graduated first-year teachers at each university rate their skills in using technology, and how do their ratings compare? (c) How and to what extent do recently graduated first-year teachers at …

Relating Process Philosophy To The Classroom: An Exploration Of Alfred North Whitehead's Educational Vision., Janis Pardue Hill

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

This dissertation is an exploration of the connections between the process philosophy and the educational thinking of Alfred North Whitehead. It develops the theory that Whitehead's philosophy of process is evident in "embryonic" form in his earlier educational writings, as well as The Aims of Education and Other Essays (1929), and that the complexities of process thinking are as intertwined and interconnected with the principles of process educational thought as the actual entity is intertwined and interconnected with the complex relations involved in its concrescence. The ultimate aim is to provide a clear picture of Whitehead's vision of education and …

The Effect Of Accurate/Inaccurate Teacher Instruction, High/Low Teacher Delivery, And On - /Off -Task Student Behavior On Musicians' Evaluation Of Teacher Effectiveness., Melissa Katia Madsen

LSU Historical Dissertations and Theses

The primary purpose of this investigation was to determine the effect of accurate/inaccurate teacher instruction, high/low teacher delivery and on-/off-task student behavior on musicians' evaluations of teaching effectiveness. An additional purpose of this study was to determine whether differences in the musicians' evaluative responses of teacher effectiveness would occur due to differences in their experience level. Subjects (N = 168) were musicians and were grouped accordingly: (1) grades 6--8; (2) grades 9--12; (3) undergraduate; and (4) experienced teacher. The subjects viewed and evaluated a videotape of eight teaching segments for teacher effectiveness. The segments had been simulated by the investigator …