Education Commons^™

Self-Reported Personal Problems Of Adventist Academy Students, Ellen Marsh Crosby

Dissertations

Problem. Adolescence is a time fraught with many challenges. There are no current studies prior to this one for Adventist academy students concerning the whole range of their personal problems.

Method. A survey of students in 14 Adventist academies was conducted in the regular classroom setting using the Personal Problems Checklist for Adolescents (PPC-A). The data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Data were tested with one-way, two-way, and, three-way ANOVA and correlation coefficients to determine differences between males and females, age groups 13/14 to 18/19, and in three different settings of day, boarding, and self-supporting Adventist …

Teachers' And Students' Perceptions Of Seventh- And Eighth-Grade Science Education In A Selected Seventh-Day Adventist Union Conference, Marcel Andre Sargeant

Dissertations

Problem. Science education has long been a great concern in the United States, where less than one-third of the students perform at or above the proficient level. The purpose of this study was to investigate the status of the science program in a selected Union Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist school system. Specifically, this study investigated the perceptions of teachers and students regarding the extent to which the science program meets the criteria of the National Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching for the 21st century and to what extent these criteria are related to academic performance as indicated by …

Perceptions Of Problem-Based Learning And Attitudes Towards Its Adoption Among K-12 Teachers In Seventh-Day Adventist Schools In Florida, Eileen A. Pilliner

Dissertations

Problem

One of the founders of Seventh-day Adventist education, Ellen G. White, advocated learning through, practical experiences and critical thinking. In 1997, the Seventh-day Adventist Church recommended problem-based learning (PBL) as a preferred teaching practice for its North American K-12 schools. However, Brantley and Ruiz observed that many Seventh-day Adventist educators feel inadequate to use this method of instruction. Little information exists anywhere concerning teachers’ awareness and perceptions o f problem-based learning (PBL) or factors related to its use. This study examined the relationship between PBL, philosophy of teaching, preferences for PBL teaching components, and perceived barriers to PBL adoption …

Learning And Study Strategies As They Relate To Success In An Open-Entry/Open-Exit College Developmental Reading Course, Ginna A. Wenger

Dissertations

This study examines whether student interviews, students' responses on the Learning and Study Styles Inventory (LASSI), or both, could be useful for sorting students who are likely to succeed from those students who are less likely to succeed in an open-entry/open-exit college reading skills course at a small, rural Michigan community college.

The study combined qualitative data in the form of student interviews and quantitative data that consisted of LASSI scores from 41 students. The qualitative part of the study employed a constant comparative method to analyze data from five semi-structured interviews.The quantitative part of the study computed Pearson r …

A Study Of The Reported Long-Term Attitudinal And Behavioral Effects Of An Eighth-Grade Environmental Education Project And The Development Of An Innovation Configuration To Promote Environmental Education, Jean Lomino

Dissertations

Problem. Increasing scientific evidence reveals that this planet is in serious environmental jeopardy. Since 1977, when an international group of K-12 educators met in the USSR and established goals for teaching environmental education worldwide, many schools have endeavored to fulfill these goals through the use of various curricula and teaching strategies. Although some progress has been made, most K-12 public schools have not done enough to meet the demands of environmental problems. In 1996, my co-teacher and I designed and implemented an environmental project, called Mission Environment, that we hoped would help our students develop long-term positive environmental attitudes …

Predominant Nursing Students' Learning Profile And Nursing Faculty Teaching Styles As Related To Final Course Grade In A Baccalaureate Nursing Program In Puerto Rico, Lourdes Méndez Cruz

Dissertations

Problem. The purpose o f this study was to investigate the relationship between students’ predominant learning profile, faculty teaching preferences, and the final course grade in a 4-year nursing program at a private Christian university in Puerto Rico.

Method. A non-experimental descriptive research design was used for this study. The Learning Profile Indicator was administered to all nursing students («=138) while the Teaching Style Inventory was given to all faculty («=9). Demographic sheets were also given to both students and faculty Students’ final course grades were obtained from the faculty. Descriptive (frequency, means and standard deviations) and inferential statistics …

Changing Mathematical Discourse: A Case Study Of A Secondary Mathematics Teacher, Mary Lynn Breyfogle

Dissertations

No abstract provided.

Learning To Construct Proofs In A First Course On Mathematical Proof, Peter R. Atwood

Dissertations

This study examined the conceptions o f proof that undergraduate students have upon entry to a transition course on mathematical proof how they develop skill in planning and reporting proofs, obstacles encountered, and effects of instruction on their performance in solidifying schema in proof-planning and proof-reporting.

The subjects were sophomores and juniors (n=16) in a transition course at a large midwestern university. The course was taught by one o f the co-authors o f the text, "Mathematical Proofs" (Chartrand, Polimeni, and Zhang, 1999, in press). Assessment of learning to construct proofs was through quizzes and a final exam developed by …

The Effects Of Educational Development Plans Motivation To Learn, And Attitudes And Behaviors Toward Learning Among Eighth Graders, Mary Alice Schultz-Krajenta

Dissertations

Educational Development Plans (EDP) have been utilized by school students to structure their curricular programs to meet their high school educational outcomes and to align their curriculum with their desired adult roles. The focus of this study was to examine the effects of EDPs on motivation, attitudes and behaviors towards learning.

A total of 342 eighth-grade students participated in this research which utilized a quantitative and a qualitative approach. The quantitative study used existing data obtained from a small Midwest school district. There were 151 students in the treatment group and 191 students in the control group. Scores from the …

The Effectiveness Of Cooperative Learning Teams Using The Bcubetm Process, C. Vincent Anderson

Dissertations

Problem. Cooperative learning is attempted by placing students in group learning situations in which they receive assignments without a structured group or team-formation process. This study evaluated the effectiveness of the BcubeTM process with college students as a method of bringing together individuals of varied backgrounds to form cooperative- learning teams. In addition, the affect of the BcubeTM process on a particular learning outcome was also examined.

Method. Sixty-three Andrews University students (undergraduate and graduate) were divided into treatment and control groups. After a pretest was administered, the treatment group was given the BcubeTM process which is a method o …

Effective Middle School Teachers : Becoming "Real", Rhoda C. Sommers

Dissertations

Problem. This study looks at four effective middle school teachers' stories in order to understand the experiences and beliefs which impact their choice to use developmentally responsive classroom practices. There is general agreement in the literature concerning characteristics of effective middle school teachers, but little has been done to understand what influences these teachers to teach the way they do.

Method. A qualitative case study design was used for this study. Two male and two female middle school teachers were observed and interviewed during the course of 1 school year. Each teacher's life experiences, classroom practices, and beliefs are …

The Relationship Of Reading Recovery Teachers' Efficacy To Length Of Service And School System Support, M. Louise Moon

Dissertations

Existing research results directly relate teachers’ efficacy to student outcomes and to continuing staff development and school context; however, little work has been done to investigate these relationships for Reading Recovery teachers. Reading Recovery (RR) is an early intervention program designed to assist first grade children who are having difficulty learning to read and write. This program requires ongoing staff development and an implementation plan designed to provide appropriate school context; therefore, survey data were collected from Reading Recovery teachers to study relationships between teacher efficacy and (a) their length of service in Reading Recovery and (b) support for RR …

Preparation For The Gre, Corina Groeger

Dissertations

The present research consisted of two empirical studies and a literature review. The first study was a systematic replication of the studies by Miller, Goodyear-Orwart, and Malott (1996) and Vunovich and Malott (1997). Fourteen undergraduate students and one graduate student participated in four intensive, extensive, structured Graduate Record Examination (GRE) preparation courses that met for seven weeks and lasted between 99 and 140 hours. The courses offered a monetary reward for students who met a minimum of 92% for attendance and participation during the course. The results of this study showed statistically significant mean improvements of 145 points for the …

Educational Administrators And Computer Usage: Leadership Styles And Computer Attitudes In Small Secondary Schools In North America, Daniel Hong Lim

Dissertations

Problem. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationships between the computer attitudes of educational administrators and teachers, the leadership styles of educational administrators, and computer usage in secondary schools.

Method. The design of this study used the questionnaire survey to collect data investigating relationships between educational administrators' attitudes toward computers, their leadership styles, and computer use in schools. The sample of the study was derived from educational administrators and teachers from 58 Seventh-day Adventist senior academies (i.e., high schools) found in the United States and Canada. Two instruments were selected for this study. The Computer Attitude Scale …

Volunteers As Tutors And Trainers Of Tutors : A Qualitative Study, Mark B. Thogmartin

Dissertations

Problem. The Seventh-day Adventist church/North American Division initiated a Tutoring and Mentoring project in response to President Clinton’s America Reads literacy campaign. This study documents the efforts of the church and the first cohort of trainees as they sought to establish tutoring projects in their home locales.

Method. The author of this study was involved as a co-trainer and a participant-observer during the initial 1-week training session held at the North American Division Headquarters. This training was intended to equip the participants to become tutors of children and trainers of tutors in a primary-level tutoring project. During the …

Integrated Thematic Instruction : A Descriptive Case Study Of Students' Attitudes Toward School And Learning, Ginger Heinrich O'Neal

Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to describe the operational form of the innovation— Integrated Thematic Instruction within the context of its implementation. An embedded single case study design was used to carry out this gualitative study, with Integrated Thematic Instruction (ITI) as the unit of the case study. The questions that guided the study were: What does ITI look like when implemented by the teacher? What are the contextual elements of implementation of this program? What variations are found in the implementation of this innovation by different teachers? A review of related literature revealed the historical, philosophical, and theoretical …

The Effect Of Remedial Education Programs On Academic Achievement And Persistence At The Two-Year Community College, Lyn Ann Batzer

Dissertations

Community colleges are open door institutions that serve students who may lack the basic skills necessary to succeed in college. The number of academically underprepared students attending community colleges has been increasing over the years. Thus, there is a corresponding need for effective remedial programs to prepare the academically underprepared students for college-level work.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of remedial education. More specifically, the study was designed to measure the performance of academically underprepared students who complete required remediation compared to academically underprepared students who do not complete remediation.

The study tested two hypotheses: …

The Relationship Between Course Outcomes And The Factors Of Retention As Determined By Webb’S Model Of Student Persistence, Jan K. Fields

Dissertations

This study looked at the differences in various factors of college retention for students who successfully completed all courses in a particular semester as compared to students who did not successfully complete at least one course during that same semester. The college retention factors were taken from Webb's (1988) Model of Student Retention and were assessed through the use of student records and two survey instruments developed by Noel/Levitz (Schreiner & Juillerat, 1994; Stratil, 1988).

The study was conducted at Muskegon Community College during the 1995 Fall Semester using four groups of students: (1) students enrolled in high success vocational …

Teacher Thinking And The Change Process: A Qualitative Study Of Experienced Teachers Learning And Implementing New Models Of Teaching, Susan J. Karrer

Dissertations

The responsibility for improvement and change in schools ultimately depends on what teachers do and think. This study investigated the personal side of change by following the thinking of experienced teachers as they are learning and implementing new models of teaching. During a 4-week summer training institute, the thinking of them 36 participants was explored through daily reflective journals, interviews, and observations. Four categories of thought emerged during the analysis of the data: (1) encountering the learning environment, (2) navigating the social milieu, (3) managing the personal, and (4) anticipating the future.

Following the training institute, three teachers agreed to …

Instructional Practices And Attitudes Of Teachers In One- And Two-Room Schools In The Seventh-Day Adventist School System In North America, Judith Leist Anderson

Dissertations

Problem. This study examines the instructional practices, perceptions, and attitudes of multi-grade teachers in one- and two-room schools in the Seventh-day Adventist educational system.

Method. The researcher developed a survey and mailed it to a randomly selected stratified sample of 500 teachers in one- and two-room schools in the Seventh-day Adventist educational system in the United States and Canada. Two hundred eighty surveys were returned; 276 were used in the data analysis. Descriptive statistics give a demographic picture of these teachers--the practices used, their perceived levels of expertise, methods of grouping students for instruction, and their assessment of multi-grade students' …

The Teachers' And Principals' Perceptions Of The Impact Of Operation Physics On The Teaching Of Elementary Science In Michigan Schools, Brenda Prater Earhart

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of Michigan Operation Physics (MOP) on the teaching and learning of basic physics concepts in the elementary classroom as perceived by both the teachers and principals of those teachers. In addition, the study sought to identify the teachers' and principals' perceptions of the principal's role in promoting science at the elementary level.

The method used for this study was survey research. Questionnaires were mailed to Michigan Operation Physics participants, non- Michigan Operation Physics participants, and the principals of those teachers in southwestern Michigan.

Findings of this study were that teachers' …

Profiles Of Promise: Students With Learning Difference Prepare For Optimal Foreign Language Learning, Ludmilla Coven

Dissertations

Many secondary school counselors discourage students with diagnosed native language deficits from foreign language studies. They hold the unsubstantiated belief that these studies would jeopardize their hard-earned gains in native language learning. Research disproves that position, and some writers advocate foreign language study to improve language learning and enhance cognitive strategies. Improvement occurs more readily when the instructor has the expertise to choose from a repertoire of teaching styles the one most compatible with the learning style of the student. With the full inclusion promised by the regular education initiative becoming a reality, this study explores research, design, and team-teaching …

Relationships Among Selected Internal/External Variables Affecting Decision Making In The Roles/Functions Of Research University Provosts, Haldane F. Davies

Dissertations

Problem

In the business and corporate world, there exists a unique collection of proven decision-making tools, techniques, and management ideas. There is, however, no clear definition and empirical analysis relative to the nature of the relationships among internal/external variables as they influence decision-making in the research university provosts' roles and functions. It was the purpose of this study to investigate the effects of selected variables on provost decision-making within their many functions.

Method

The survey research method was used to study the relationships among selected variables affecting decision-making in the functions of research university provosts. An instrument was designed and …

The Effect Of A Transition Class (Developmental Kindergarten) On Academic Parity, Douglas S. Mccall

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether or not those students who had participated in a developmental kindergarten program. Young Fives, had attained academic parity with their age mates who had not participated in the program.

The target population of this study was 245 students who were kindergarten age in 1988 and attended school in a rural school district in southwestern Michigan. The accessible population was 141 of the original 245 students.

The total battery grade equivalent test scores achieved on the California Achievement Test by the 141 students were analyzed using an analysis of variance (ANOVA) and …

The Impact Of Test Sophistication On Tenth Grade Students’ Michigan Educational Assessment Program (Meap) Scores, Iris Williams

Dissertations

The primary purpose of this study was to determine whether test sophistication training would result in more tenth grade students achieving performance levels on the Michigan Educational Assessment Program (MEAP) subtests in mathematics and reading which would entitle them to receive the state endorsed diploma.

Two groups of English II students (grade 10) from the same school participated in the study. One group received test sophistication instruction, and the other received no treatment. During the test sophistication training, students were instructed using the Ace That Test Preparation for Success Student Guide (Yarosz & Yarosz, 1991a) which was based on the …

Descriptive Case Studies Of Training, Research And Development In Computers And Related Instructional Technologies For Teachers At Three Ncate Universities, Anne L. Chandler

Dissertations

Topic. The initial focus of this study was the computer and related instructional technology training of preservice teachers. Two areas related to the study, (1) graduate-level instruction in computers and related instructional technologies and (2) research and development in the area of computers in instruction, were also surveyed, with the intent of exploring their relationship to the training of preservice teachers and their influence on instruction in general.

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to describe training, research, and development in computers and related instructional technologies at three NCATE universities which were identified as doing a good job of …

The Student, The Teacher, And The Text : An Ethnography Of The Literary Acculturation Process In Three Undergraduate Literature Classrooms, Matthew Justice Quartey

Dissertations

In this study I describe the context and environment in which students in three undergraduate literature classrooms in a mid-western parochial university "acquired a sense of literature," as well as the role played by their teachers in the process. As qualitative research, the study seeks to provide additional insight and understanding of the process of acquiring literary competence. While participant observation and interview were the principal methods used in gathering data, the data also included the use of documents. I examined course syllabi, students' journals, students' written work, and school documents. I also observed each of the three classes at …

A Comparative Study Of The Effects Of Learning Style Prescriptions And/Or Modality-Based Instruction On The Spelling Achievement Of Fifth-Grade Students, Nancy D'Isa Turner

Dissertations

Problem

Learning style has been studied extensively across the United States since the early 1970s. Much research has involved Rita and Kenneth Dunns' model and associated Learning Style Inventory. In 1991, Robert Zenhausern developed the Homework Disc software program which correlates with the Dunns' work and yields learning style prescriptions for students. The use of these study strategies at the elementary level has not been broadly examined. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of prescriptions on spelling achievement of fifth-grade students.

Method

A total of 65 students (33 males, 32 females) in three intact groups participated in this study. The …

The Influence Of Junior First Grade On Academic Ability And Self-Concept Of Academic Ability, Mary Ann Boettger

Dissertations

The educational practice of retaining students in junior first grade for a year between kindergarten and first grade was the focus of this study.

Four groups of 1983-1984 students were compared in 1990-1991: (1) those recommended for first and placed in first grade (F-F), (2) those recommended for junior first and placed in junior first grade (JF-JF), (3) those recommended for junior first and placed in first grade (JF-F), and (4) those borderline between junior first and kindergarten, but placed in first grade (B-F).

The groups were compared on gender, birth month, retention, absences, and lunch status, as well as …

The Relationship Between School Readiness Placement And Student Achievement, Jayne Mohr

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between school readiness placement and student achievement. A descriptive comparison in first grade of the three student groups placed in kindergarten (K, n = 194), developmental kindergarten (DK, n = 58) or waived to kindergarten (WK, n = 25) was completed.

Math and reading scores on the Iowa Test of Basic Skills (ITBS) were analyzed through an analysis of variance and Tukey/Kramer post hoc analysis. The relationship between level of education of the mother (LEM) and total reading and math ITBS scores was measured with a Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient. …