Education Commons^™

Investigating The Domain Of Geometric Inductive Reasoning Problems: A Structural Equation Modeling Analysis, Kairong Wang

Theses and Dissertations

Matrix inductive reasoning has been a popular research topic due to its claimed relationship with the general factor of intelligence. In this research, four subabilities were identified: working memory, rule induction, rule application, and figure detection. This quantitative study examined the relationship between these four subabilites and students' general ability to solve Matrix Reasoning problems. Using tests developed for this research to measure the identified subabilities, the data were collected from 334 Chinese students aged from 12 to 15. Structural equation modeling method was used to analyze the collected data and to evaluate the hypothesized models. Results from the analysis …

Effects Of Positive Behavior Support Training On Maladaptive Behavior, Parenting Skills, And Parental Support Of Families With Children With Disabilities, Alla Sergeyevna Jones

Theses and Dissertations

Family stress is affected by a child's challenging behavior and by the disruption of family routines as a result of the child's disability. Therefore, families with children with disabilities need professional support as they work with their children to decrease their children's behavior problems and to reduce the level of parental stress. This study examines in-home training in Positive Behavior Support using the model of parent-professional collaboration. Parents of 35 children with disabilities and challenging behaviors participated in this research. All participants were on the state of Utah's Family Support waiting list. Graduate students provided behavioral education to families by …

The Effect Of Sustained Principal Development On The Development And Maintenance Of Collaborative Activities In Schools., Sarah Westerberg

Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the effect of sustained principal development through membership in the BYU Principals Academy on collaborative activities and teamwork in schools. Principals who participated in the BYU Principals Academy received preparation and training to assist in the development and maintenance of professional learning communities in their schools. A 39-item online survey that focused on attitudes and experiences with teamwork and collaboration was disseminated to 12 teachers at each school where the principal was a member of the Principals Academy and where e-mail addresses were available. In addition, a control group of teachers from schools where the principal had …

How Does Video Analysis Impact Teacher Reflection-For-Action?, Geoffrey Albert Wright

Theses and Dissertations

Reflective practice is an integral component of a teacher's classroom success (Zeichner, 1996; Valli, 1997). Reflective practice requires a teacher to step back and consider the implications and effects of teaching practices. Research has shown that formal reflection on teaching can lead to improved understanding and practice of pedagogy, classroom management, and professionalism (Grossman, 2003). Several methods have been used over the years to stimulate reflective practice; many of these methods required teachers to use awkward and time-consuming tools with a minimal impact on teaching performance (Rodgers, 2002). This current study analyzes an innovative video-enhanced reflection process focused on improving …

The Role Of Perceptions Of Female Administrators Regarding The Gender Regimes In Urban Co-Educational Secondary Schools In Uganda, Frances Naluwemba

Theses and Dissertations

Leaders and policy makers in Uganda developed a national strategy of placing female administrators in traditionally male-dominated coeducational secondary schools in the belief that their vision would promote equitable education by changing gender regimes that play in schools. Gender regimes are patterns of gender arrangements that could disadvantage the education of boys or girls (Connell, 2002). The purpose of this study was to discover if female administrators perceived and had developed strategies to change gender regimes in their schools. Participants were 13 female administrators of government-supported coeducational mixed/day secondary schools in Kampala and Wakiso urban districts. Participants ranged in age …

Characterization Of Autism Spectrum Disorders In Children's Picture Books, Charlene Weaver

Theses and Dissertations

Forty-two children's picture books portraying characters with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) were evaluated to determine how symptoms of ASD are being portrayed as well to determine common themes found in these books. Books were evaluated using behavioral checklists created using symptoms found in common ASD diagnostic rating scales for both autism and Asperger Syndrome (AS). Of the 42 books, 35 books had characters with autism and 7 had characters with AS. The most commonly found symptoms were relating to people, verbal communication, and taste, smell and touch responses. Personal characteristics such as gender and race were identified as well as …

Improving Course Assessments Through A Product Assessment Template, Catharine C. Verhaaren

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this project was to develop an instructional packet designed to help instructors create effective product assessment projects for use in assessing students' understanding of course material. The specific audience for this packet was instructors of courses offered at Brigham Young University who rely on product assessment to evaluate students' understanding and skills in any content area. The packet I prepared explains the principles of effective product assessment as they are currently understood by assessment specialists and models how to implement these principles during the creation of a product assessment project. I assembled this packet based on the …

The Scholarship Of Teaching: Contributing Factors To Improved Teaching Performance Among University Faculty Members, Whitney Ransom

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis brings a much-needed focus on the quality and scholarship of teaching as it pertains to educational and faculty development. The main purpose of this paper is to outline what more than 200 faculty members across a wide variety of disciplines have focused on over a three-year period to make significant (a 1.5 standard deviation increase or higher in online student ratings) and sustained improvements in their teaching. The top three factors of improvement include active/practical learning, teacher/student interactions, and clear expectations/learning outcomes. The researcher also discusses how institutions and faculty communities of practice, research, and faculty personality contribute …

Similar But Different: The Complexities Of Students' Mathematical Identities, Diane Skillicorn Hill

Theses and Dissertations

We, as a culture, tend to lump students into broad categories to describe their relationships with mathematics, such as ‘good at math’ or ‘hates math.’ This study focuses on five students each of whom could be considered ‘good at math,’ and shows how the beliefs that make up their mathematical identities are actually significantly different. The study examined eight beliefs that affect a student's motivation to do mathematics: confidence, anxiety, enjoyment of mathematics, skill level, usefulness of mathematics, what mathematics is, what it means to be good at mathematics, and how one learns mathematics. These five students' identities, which seemed …

How Eighth-Grade Students Estimate With Fractions, Audrey Linford Hanks

Theses and Dissertations

This study looked at what components are in student solutions to computational estimation problems involving fractions. Past computational estimation research has focused on strategies used for estimating with whole numbers and decimals while neglecting those used for fractions. An extensive literature review revealed one study specifically directed toward estimating with fractions (Hanson & Hogan, 2000) that researched adult estimation strategies and not children's strategies. Given the lack of research on estimation strategies that children use to estimate with fractions, this study used qualitative research methods to find which estimation components were in 10 eighth-grade students' solutions to estimation problems involving …

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 …

Analysis Of The Psychometric Properties Of Two Different Concept-Map Assessment Tasks, Kenneth James Plummer

Theses and Dissertations

The ability to make sense of a wide array of stimuli presupposes the human tendency to organize information in a meaningful way. Efforts to assess the degree to which students organize information meaningfully have been hampered by several factors including the idiosyncratic way in which individuals represent their knowledge either with words or visually. Concept maps have been used as tools by researchers and educators alike to assist students in understanding the conceptual interrelationships within a subject domain. One concept-map assessment in particular known as the construct-a-map task has shown great promise in facilitating reliable and valid inferences from student …

Using Interactive Diagrams To Teach Graduate Students About Statistical Power, Eric D. Hunter

Theses and Dissertations

This report describes the design, development, implementation, and evaluation of a web-based tutorial designed to teach graduate students about the statistical concept of power. It contains a literature review of techniques used to teach statistics, similar computer-based programs for representing the concept of power, and instructional theories that pertain to web-based tutorials. It describes the process of designing and developing this tutorial in detail. The results section contains a description of the product implementation with three different groups and discusses the qualitative and quantitative findings from each of these implementations. Finally, there is a discussion of the tutorial's strengths and …

Information-Seeking Behaviors Of Practicing Dental Hygienists In Virginia, Joan Marie Pellegrini

Theses and Dissertations

This study explored how currently licensed, active dental hygiene practitioners in the Commonwealth of \firginia, retrieve, validate and process new knowledge in the discipline which provides a basis for clinical decisions on selection of dental hygiene interventions for patients. The research design was a non experimental, correlational design using mail survey methodology. A self-developed questionnaire was mailed to 500 practicing dental hygienists in the Commonwealth of Virginia. The survey contained questions on demographics of the respondent, current methods of retrieving new information in the discipline, and preferences for information retrieval. The completed surveys that were returned yielded a 52.7% response …

Principals Give Voice To The Isllc Standards--An Investigation Of Leadership Job Priorities, Marcia Muse

Theses and Dissertations

Due to the increasing demands on educational administrators it has become essential that leadership priorities be established. This study investigated elementary school principals' job responsibilities and how the school administrator prioritized the many facets of the job. The literature supported the continued escalation of job demands on the school principal. Thus with growing accountability, it is essential that school leaders learn to balance the responsibilities of being the instructional leader and the school manager. A purposeful sample of 25 elementary school principals in central Virginia was used in a qualitative study. Principals from small (0-350), medium (351-750), and large (751-1200) …

A Comparison Of Ordinary Least Squares And Instrumental Variables Regression For High Intensity Disease Management Evaluation, Gerald A. Craver

Theses and Dissertations

Purpose: Disease management (DM) programs are typically evaluated using study designs that are susceptible to selection bias and other internal validity threats because participants are often allowed to self-select into the programs. As a result, DM evaluation results are usually biased because researchers are unable to control for preexisting differences between the DM participants and non-participants. Linden and Adams (2006) offer an instrumental variables (IV) regression procedure as a means of deriving unbiased estimates of DM program effectiveness. However, IV regression relies upon the existence of one or more variables (or instruments) that produce considerable variation in the program participation …

The Design And Implementation Of An Intensive English-As-A-Second-Language Program, Georgina Arguello

Theses and Dissertations

This study was conducted to examine the design and implementation of an intensive English-as-a-Second-Language (ESL) program to help students with limited English proficiency improve their English skills and obtain a passing score on the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL). How the ESL course set high expectations for English-language learners and supported them by linking TOEFL courses with academic content was explored.

The researcher developed and facilitated in her workplace an intensive 6-week ESL program for adult students with an intermediate to intermediate-advanced level of English proficiency and assessed the effectiveness of the program that utilized the immersion …

The Strategy Is At The Station: The Importance Of Connecting Literacy Stations To Reading Strategies In Developing Independent Readers, Angela Grace Williams

Theses and Dissertations

Guided reading groups and independent literacy stations are implemented in many elementary school classrooms... The present study looks at whether student literacy achievement is positively affected when guided reading strategies are connected to and used in independent literacy stations. Participants in this study included four first grade classrooms from an elementary school in the southeastern United States. Observational data were collected for eight weeks during the time in which guided reading and literacy stations were implemented. Literacy achievement was measured with the Developmental Reading Assessment (DRA). Results of a paired-samples t-test showed that one classroom had a statistically significant increase …