Education Commons^™

The Motivation Of The Successful African-American Adolescent Male, Lavonne M. Spires

Graduate Research Papers

This review of the literature looks at the motivating factors for the academic success and failure for the African American adolescent male. The questions which are addressed in this review are: 1. Are there multiple levels of self-esteem? 2. Is there a correlation between ·self-esteem and motivation for academic achievement? 3. What effect does the school and its environment have on academic success? 4. What impact does the African American family have on the success of young adolescent males? Suggestions based on the findings are that as middle schools restructure they will need to focus on the academic and social …

Phonemic Awareness Activities For First-Grade Students: A Descriptive Project, Karen Solomon

Graduate Research Papers

This project examined the use of three practices as means of developing graphophonic awareness in first-grade students. The three practices were: journal writing, in which students used invented spelling in their writing (Goodman, 1989}; phonics charts in which students listed and located words with specific phonemic elements (Routman, 1991}; and Making Words an activity in which students manipulated letters to form various words (Cunningham & Cunningham, 1992}. These practices were taught through the context of whole-word relationships and meaningful experiences. The specific phonemic elements targeted were the th, .s.b., and w digraphs, blends with s., 1, and r, and the …

Spelling: A Consideration Of One School's Curriculum, Robert W. Follmuth

Graduate Research Papers

Spelling is" the foundation of reading and the greatest ornament of writing," according to Noah Webster in 1783 (Venezky, 1980, p. 26). The interest of scholars and educators in spelling has risen and fallen over the years, but the public perception of its importance has remained strikingly constant. Americans sometimes perceive spelling to be the very soul and fiber of education and even society. According to Templeton (1992), spelling has been the bedrock of literacy, the barometer of intelligence, the measure of our school's successes.

Guidelines For Implementing An Effective Part-Time Title I Reading Program, Claudia Beecher

Graduate Research Papers

Since 1965, when Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) was enacted, federal aid has been provided to enable extra instruction in reading, writing, and mathematics to disadvantaged children. Throughout the past three decades, the laws governing Title I/Chapter 1 programs have been amended several times to improve the quality of this service.

Essential Components Of Middle School Advisory Programs, Daniel F. Guinan

Graduate Research Papers

This review investigates the essential aspects of middle school advisory programs. Advisory is an innovative approach to counseling that involves teachers as advisors to groups of 12 to 15 students. Groups meet at some time within the school day to explore a variety of affective issues involving young adolescents. Advisors are also expected to be advocates for the students in their groups. The review examines several important components of the advisory program, and explains why these issues should be carefully considered when implementing such a program. The aspects investigated are: needs of young adolescents, grouping arrangements, scheduling considerations, attitudes of …

The Effects Of Prenatal Cocaine Exposure On Learning, Denise R. Kennedy

Graduate Research Papers

This study reviews the literature concerning the effects of prenatal exposure to cocaine on learning. The following questions were addressed: (I) What are the characteristics and problems of children prenatally exposed to cocaine? (2) How can schools prepare for and assess cocaine-exposed children? (3) What is a proper learning environment for cocaine-exposed children? (4) How can intervention and prevention be considered in prenatal cocaine-exposed children? There is an increase in cocaine usage and the number of infants born prenatally exposed to cocaine. The literature reviewed examines characteristics of prenatal cocaine-exposed babies and toddlers. These children are in classroom settings and …

Reflectivity Of Preservice Teachers' Perceptions And Practices In A Novice Instructional Environment, Jeanne Delk Montenier

Graduate Research Papers

This study examined reflective language that preservice teachers engaged in as they structured discourse about their tutorial experiences. Four subjects responded to pre- and postinterviews and a repeated conference questioning frame. Key reflective language from their responses resulted in three broad categories of reflection: Self-Discovery, Instructional Assessment, and Flexibility. Stages of reflective judgment were assigned to each subject at the beginning and at the end of the study, culminating in an overall stage of reflective judgment for each subject. Results reinforced the validity of Korthagen and Wubbels (1991) study on what reflective teachers say and do. The greatest growth was …

The Effect Of Lower Case Letter Forms On Beginning Reading And Writing: An Action Research, Beverly A. Johnson

Graduate Research Papers

This paper reviews the literature on letter naming and conducts an action research to determine the value of focusing instruction on lower case letters for kindergarten students. The traditional practice of teaching letter names to kindergarten students involved teaching both letter forms, upper and lower case, concurrently or upper case first. The following questions are addressed: I. What letters can children identify, by name, at the beginning of kindergarten? 2. Will the recognition of lower case letters transfer to upper case letters naturally or is specific instruction required? 3. Which lower case letters are the easiest to learn, and which …

Practices And Procedures In The Identification Of Gifted African-American Secondary Students, Mary A. Roach

Graduate Research Papers

The identification of gifted African-American students is a critical issue in the field of education for the gifted. It raises a number of questions regarding equity issues with respect to identification of culturally diverse populations as well as to the types of service to be provided to these students. 1 Researchers and writers have offered many reasons for the under representation of minority students in gifted programs. However, field practitioners want answers, and they want to know what to do. This writer is a field practitioner in a large urban high school with an interest in the low ratio of …

Process Of Educational Innovation: A Micropolitical Study Of The Implementation Of A Team Teaching Model, Bruce Steven Frana

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This is a two-year case study, conducted in a large school district (over 10,000 students), of an attempt to introduce interdisciplinary team teaching at the high school level. The purpose of this study was to examine what teachers do and think as they engage in the process of implementing educational reform. I believed initially that the success or failure of educational reform depended largely on the actual teachers involved in implementing that reform. Once I was in the setting, however, it was clear that administrators must be included because reform depends on much more than what teachers do and think. …

Perceived Importance Of Iso 9000 Factors As Indicators Of Quality In Industrial Technology Related Programs At Four-Year State Regional Universities, Floyd L. Olson

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Industry has often used a quality standard known as ISO 9000. No evidence has been located demonstrating the applicability of an industrial quality model to a singular academic department. The problem of this study was to determine if the guidelines for ISO 9004-2 could have been considered appropriate for Industrial Technology related programs and how they could have been used to indicate quality within such programs.

The purpose of this study was to seek knowledge relating the importance of ISO 9004-2 guidelines to audit and/or improve the quality management of Industrial Technology related departments at 4-year state regional universities. This …

Factor Analysis Of The Wais-R And Selected Indices Of The Wms-R, Kathy S. Hayward

Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

This study replicates a study conducted by Harmon, Clausen, and Scott (1993) in which these researchers attempted to define the number of factors present in the cognitive factor structure of adults in a vocational rehabilitation setting. The Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale-Revised (WAIS-R) and the Verbal Memory and Visual Memory Indices of the Wechsler Memory Scale-Revised (WMS-R) were the instruments used to define the factors in the Harmon et al. (1993) study as well as the current study. A larger sample size was utilized in the present study and went on to define the cognitive factor structure of these individuals by …