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The Characteristics Of Learners Enrolled In Advanced Level Courses In Hebrew, Chinese, And Japanese At Brandeis University, Vardit Ringvald

Educational Studies Dissertations

Researchers, practitioners, and policy makers in the field of foreign language study in higher education in the United States are familiar with the phenomenon of declining numbers among learners in advanced foreign language courses. The studies that have examined this phenomenon such as Graman (1987) and Dupuy (1994) investigated the learners of so-called "easy" and commonly taught languages, such as French, German and Spanish and suggest that the learners' positive learning backgrounds outside the formal language program are the main factors that influence the learners' decision to continue their language study in the advanced level courses. This study offers new …

Dialogue: A Qualitative Study Of A Faculty Development Intervention To Assist Faculty In Exploring The Practitioner Assumptions That Impact Their Role In Higher Education And Medical Education, Donna M. Qualters

Educational Studies Dissertations

The Dialogue study is concerned with understanding how Dialogue could be applied to faculty development. Dialogue is a structured form of group interaction developed as an organizational behavior tool (Isaacs, 1993) which creates space for practitioner assumptions to be probed and insight into practice be achieved. It provides an intervention for faculty at the pre-contemplative stage of change (Prochaska, 1986), who are not motivated to modify their practice. The study focused on self-selected multi-discipline faculty from a four year institution and a public medical school. Participants ranged in experience from one to thirty five years of practice. This study was …

Mathematics, Modeling, And Modular Curriculum In Engineering Retraining Programs, Massoud Moussavi

Educational Studies Dissertations

The present study is an attempt to probe, explore, and provide an appropriate educational method for engineering retraining programs. The central concerns and implications of this study revolve around: who engineers are, how they learn, why they need to learn, and what they have to learn. The existing retraining programs also will be evaluated in order to develop a suitable retraining program for engineers.

Case Study Of Assessment In A High School Classroom: The Impact Of Changes In Assessment On Curriculum, Instruction, Teachers, And Students, Deborah A. A Brady

Educational Studies Dissertations

This study examined the impact of changes in assessment on curriculum, instruction, teachers, and students. The study describes the complex, developmental process by which a particular course, teachers, and a class evolved, articulated goals and standards, and assessed their learning. My co-teacher and I used a variety of assessments: conferences, peer review, reflections, portfolios, group projects, and presentations in addition to traditional tests and quizzes. The methodology was a qualitative study by a teacher/researcher in a high school Humanities class.

The Politics Of Art Education In The Public Schools, Wendy Campbell

Educational Studies Dissertations

In this study, I examine why the subject of art has been marginalized in the public schools and why art continues to be vulnerable to budget cuts and reductions in staff despite the fact that national art education standards are now in place. I also suggest a way to remedy the situation. My analysis concerning why art has been marginalized comes from an integration of insights from three discourses: feminism, postmodernism, and the perspective implied by the literature and practices of the twelve step recovery community. Writers in all three discourses suggest that the world view of the dominant culture …

Three High School Teachers' Conceptions Of The French They Teach, Patrick R. Moran

Educational Studies Dissertations

This study investigates secondary French teachers' conceptions of the French they teach.

Determining The Degrees Of Needed Support For First Time Parents In The Immediate And Early Post Partum Period, Marilyn Grimes Fraktman

Educational Studies Dissertations

This study investigates the needed support for first-time parents in postnatal care.

Media Literacy Education: Personal And Professional Change, Lesley L. Johnson

Educational Studies Dissertations

This study investigates media literacy education and professional change.

The Impact Of Psychological Trauma On Learning And Functioning In Women Wit Learning Disabilities: Looking At Classroom Trauma, Jane Utley Adelizzi

Educational Studies Dissertations

This study investigates women and learning disabilities and the impact of psychological trauma.

Dimensions Of The Paraeducator Experience Facilitating The Inclusion Of Children With Identified Special Education Needs In General Education Classes, Cathryn Griswold Riggs

Educational Studies Dissertations

This study investigates the role of teacher's assistants with special education students in mainstreamed classrooms.

Cooperative Learning: The Teacher's Perspective, Nancy A. Mickunas

Educational Studies Dissertations

This dissertation is an inquiry into what happens when classroom teachers in public schools study and adopt one or more of the cooperative learning models of David and Roger Johnson, Spencer Kagan, and/or Robert Slavin and shift the emphasis of their classrooms from competitive and individualistic to cooperative structures. Method: A representative sample of eighteen kindergarten through twelfth grade public school teachers from the suburbs of Boston were asked to relate their experiences with training and implementation of these cooperative models. The goal of this research was to explore both the common and unique experiences of these teachers and to …

Gender And Leadership: Men And Women's Stories, Barbara A. Karanian

Educational Studies Dissertations

This study investigates gender and leadership.

Teacher Supervision And Reflectivity: A Relational And Interactional Process, Claire M. Stanley

Educational Studies Dissertations

This dissertation examines teacher supervision and reflectivity

Midlife Experience Of Contemporary Women Views Along The Midway, Paula Deangelis Panchuck

Educational Studies Dissertations

Examines the experience of midlife and the expectations of midlife and aging of 22 Caucasian, African American, Latina, Chinese, and Asian-Indian midlife women, ages 40 to 60, who differ in sexual orientation, income, employment, marital and parenting status. Influenced by social and family expectations for women in their early years, most women expected midlife would include husband, home and family. The women describe midlife as positive and fulfilling, disclaim the relevance of "midlife crisis" to their lives and report higher levels of self-confidence, self-reliance and self-understanding. Tempered by an awareness of imperfect circumstances in their lives and compassion for their …

Taking Charge: Second Graders Negotiate Ownership Of Their Expressive Writing, Susan Douglas Fleming

Educational Studies Dissertations

This ethnographic study of a single, second grade, public school classroom explores students' ownership of their writing as they negotiate their dual roles of active writer and compliant student.

Writing process advocates such as Calkins (1987), Graves (1983), and Murray (1968, 1985) stress the need for student writers to assume ownership of their work by writing from personal experience and by making the decisions governing direction of the text. This involvement encourages awareness of self as learner and as person, and stimulates cognitive and identity development. Robert Brooke (1991), in a study of college students, points out that the power …

Imagining Imagination: A Phenomenological Study Of Children's Drawings Of Imagination, Robert M. Callahan

Educational Studies Dissertations

A phenomenological study of imagination employing "archetypal hermeneutics." The theoretical background for the research comes from the disciplines of Archetypal Psychology and Ontological Design. The research focuses on 296 Kindergarten to fifth grade public school children's drawings of imagination within an educational setting and aims at understanding imagination and its educational value. The research demonstrates that images of imagination are purposeful and intelligible when viewed with imagination, and it provides distinctions regarding imagination's nature. Images seen imaginally were regarded as teachers which deepen learning, the artistic process, and living in the world. Conclusions challenge developmental theories of learning based on …