Curriculum and Instruction Commons^™

Conduct Disorder: Is It Treatable?, Renata Smith

Master of Education Program Theses

Behavior problems are a growing problem in classrooms around the United States. One of the most common types of behavior disorders is Conduct Disorder. Is this a treatable disorder? Many treatment options are available. Only three will be discussed in this paper: Service Learning, Behavior Modification and Cognitive Behavior Therapy. Service Learning, Behavior Modification, and Cognitive Behavior Therapy have been shown to be effective in treating conduct disorders in residential settings but there are no follow-up studies to determine whether these treatments had long-term effects on the behavior once the students left the facility.

Analysis Of A Mathematics Outcomes Assessment Program, Susan Ann Newman-Bourne

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the study was to analyze longitudinal student data collected from the mathematics component of a general education outcomes assessment program from spring semester 1999 through spring semester 2003. The study determined whether or not newly declared Business Administration and Accounting program majors' mathematics placement scores in Numerical Skills and Elementary Algebra on a standardized pre-college assessment instrument predicted their mathematics outcomes assessment examination score on an intermediate algebra course outcomes assessment examination. The study also investigated whether the students' mathematics pre-college assessment scores predicted their mathematics outcomes assessment examination score in the Business Administration and Accounting programs' …

The Effects Of The Use Of Dynamic Geometry Software On Student Achievement And Interest, Heidi B. Hansen

Mathematics Graduate Theses

This study examines the current research that exists on the effects that the use of dynamic geometry software has on student achievement and interest level in mathematics. Additional questions examined are whether using dynamic geometry software has a greater impact on high or low achievers, and what current methods of implementation are suggested by the research. A review of the relevant literature indicates that the use of dynamic geometry software does have a positive effect on student achievement, particularly achievement in areas of high-level thinking. Insufficient research has been done on the effect that the use of dynamic geometry software …

Electronic Literacy: Teaching Literary Reading Through The Digital Medium, Robert Adams Rozema

Dissertations

Over the last decade, digital technology has become an increasingly important part of education. In the discipline of English language arts, digital technology has been enlisted to teach writing, as the word processor and more recently, the World Wide Web, have provided new tools and new publishing opportunities for student writers. The presence of digital technology is less pronounced, however, in literature instruction in secondary schools. In both theoretical and practical discussions of digital technology and literature, the two mediums have been conceived as radically different. This dissertation argues that the digital medium, and more specifically the World Wide Web, …

Agenda: Davinci Institute. July 8, 2004, The Davinci Institute

Minutes and Agendas

Agenda of the meeting of The DaVinci Institute on July 8, 2004 at the Presbyterian Health Conference Center.

Developing Scientific Talent In Students With Special Needs: An Alternative Model For Identification, Curriculum, And Assessment, Carolyn R. Cooper, Susan M. Baum, Terry W. Neu

Education Faculty Publications

Can students with learning and attention difficulties in school actually be talented scientists in disguise? This article presents a model that was highly successful in identifying and developing scientific talent in these special students. The factors that contributed to the success of the model were the following: The emphasis was on helping students become creative producers. The model also featured a strong mentoring component that included role-modeling and problem solving within specific scientific domains and provided students with authentic, discovery-based, experiential, advanced level subject matter of the domain. Finally, the alternate means of assessing student achievement focused on a student’s …

Rui Barbosa And The Argument For Teaching The Natural Sciences In The Brazilian Primary School Of The Xix Century, Karl M. Lorenz

Education Faculty Publications

The paper discusses the ideas of Rui Barbosa on the importance of teaching science in the primary schools of nineteenth-century Brazil. Barbosa was one of the great parliamentarians of his time and one of Brazil’s most vocal advocates of educational reform in the nineteenth century. In 1882, Barbosa was directed to provide a written assessment of the1878 educational reform of Minister Leonçio de Carvalho. In the document that resulted, Barbosa states his rationale for why and how the natural sciences should be taught in the primary school. This paper relates Barbosa’s ideas on science teaching and argues that he was …

An Educational Night Out, Suzanne Lynn-Clark Sprecher

Graduate Research Papers

When educators, families, and communities work together, schools get better. As a result, students get the high quality education that they need to lead productive lives. Thirty years of research confirms that family development is a powerful influence on children's achievement in school (Eagle, 1989: Henderson & Berla, 1994: U.S. Department of Education; Ziegler, 1987). When families are involved in their children's education, children earn higher grades and receive higher scores on tests, attend school more regularly, complete more homework, demonstrate more positive attitudes and behaviors, graduate from high school at higher rates and are more likely to enroll in …

Can Professional Development Programs Help Close The Achievement Gap?, C. Jayne Brahler

Health and Sport Science Faculty Publications

This paper explores the question of whether it is possible to design professional development programs for teachers that can significantly improve student test results and reduce the achievement gap for students.

The Dayton (Ohio) Foundation and the Montgomery County (Ohio) Educational Service Center, sponsors of The Miami Valley Teacher/Leadership Academy, answer this question with a resounding yes. Recent results indicate that the academy's two-year program, designed to provide professional development to help improve student test scores, not only succeeded in significantly improving the student proficiency mean score, but also considerably reduced the achievement gap for participating students.

This paper includes …

Agenda: Davinci Institute Strategic Planning. June 24, 2004, Melissa Vincent

Minutes and Agendas

Agenda of meeting to discuss the History, Success Stories, Crossroads, and Vision of The DaVinci Institute.

Global Law Teaching, Catherine Valcke

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Law School Enters The Matrix: Teaching Critical Legal Studies, Jerry L. Anderson

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Thinking Like A Deal Lawyer, Tina L. Stark

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

State Civil Procedure Plea, William R. Slomanson

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

Globalizing Property: Incorporating Comparative And International Law Into First-Year Property Classes, M C. Mirow

Journal of Legal Education

No abstract provided.

What Kinds Of Adolescent Leaders Are Hiding In Newbery Books?, Carol Jasperse Lautenbach

Dissertations

Though adolescent leadership is worth developing, often it is not addressed effectively in the general middle school curriculum. This study addresses adolescent leadership by describing and discussing eight major leadership categories and 38 subcategories found in seventeen representative Newbery Award-winning books. The sample was chosen using a multiple-step process and contained fictional stories with adolescent protagonists in realistic situations. Content analysis was used to quantify and analyze the leadership themes; a code book was used to organize data. Occurrence of each sub-category was ranked for prevalence within each book. These rankings form the basis for the analysis of findings which …

Bobbitt's Window: Understanding Turning Points In Reflective Curriculum History And Unmuffling Reflective Voice In Adult Learning: Doubt And Identity, J. Warren Scheideman

College of Education Theses and Dissertations

Franklin Bobbitt (1875–1956), the author of The Curriculum (1918) is known as the proponent of utilitarian curriculum and the “factory metaphor” of education. Herbert Kliebard (1986), however, identifies doubts about student tasking that enter into Bobbitt's perspective in 1926. John Wesley Null (1999) tracks these doubts in Bobbitt's career and publications into the 1940's. Null then asks, given that Bobbitt's doubts are now recognized: What difference is made by knowing Bobbitt had doubts about tasked curriculum, and looked at life experience as educational outcome? This is the question my dissertation attempts to answer by using hermeneutic metaphor and historical consciousness …

Course Revitalization As A Change Driver Throughout Undergraduate Business Curriculum, Elke M. Leeds, Radwan Ali

Faculty Articles

This paper describes the revitalization of Business Information Systems and Communication, a high enrollment, prerequisite course for all undergraduate business students in the Coles College of Business. An overview of the course components is presented and original structure described. The rationale for change, technologies leveraged and measures of success are presented. The change drivers are identified and their impact on undergraduate curriculum delineated. Lessons learned and future implications are discussed.

Strategies And Policies For Literacy, Helen Abadzi

Curriculum and Instruction Faculty Publications - Archive

Despite the existence of about one billion illiterates in the world, adult literacy programs make up 1–5 percent of government or donor budgets, and they remain severely underfunded in comparison to primary education. They have had a long and disappointing history of high dropout and low achievement. Overall, many of the 1970s campaigns had efficiency rates of about 12.5 percent, with few participants acquiring stable literacy skills. The 1990s brought new strategies that included empowering NGOs and focusing on existing groups and on management improvement for governments and cooperating organizations. The numbers of participants increased, while dropout and course completion …

Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Simulation-Based Instruction About Water Resources In Las Vegas, Stephanie Fincher

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study compared the effectiveness of simulation-based instruction to traditional teacher-directed instruction about water resource management in Las Vegas. Subjects, undergraduate students recruited from Psychology and Environmental Studies departments, participated in one of two treatments. All participants were given a pretest prior to instruction, a post-test immediately following instruction, and a retention-test 4 weeks after instruction. Evaluation instruments provided overall scores, gauged student learning in topic areas and different question difficulty-levels as well as attitudes toward the environment and water management. The treatments differed only in how students interacted with the system after receiving background information on Las Vegas valley’s …

Rethinking The Undergraduate Curriculum: It Takes A Village, Christina Maslach, Patricia A. Iannuzzi

Library Faculty Presentations

The Berkeley Campus Culture:

- Research and graduate program pre-eminence
- Strong faculty governance
- Highly entrepreneurial culture
- Autonomous academic departments, schools, and colleges
- Decentralized “silos”

Berkeley Library Culture:

- Library pre-eminence
- Collections-centered
- Value of subject specialization
- Library silo

Shifting Library Culture:

- Traditional Model
- New Model

The Effect Of Direct Instruction Reading Remediation For Fourth Graders, Jonathan Collins

Theses & Honors Papers

This study was to determine if below average readers in a reading remediation class receiving Direct Instruction reading would make larger gains in reading than average to above average readers who received whole language based reading instruction. These were 69 students in the study. Students were assigned to cohorts based on test performance on the Development Reading Assessment (DRA) and administrative recommendations. Instruction was provided for 5 months for the experimental group (n=36) using Scientific Research Associates Corrective Reading (a Direct Instruction reading program). The control group (n=11) received 5 months of reading instruction in a locally designed whole language …

Attitudes Towards Educational Innovations In Christian High Schools In Northwest Iowa And Southeast South Dakota, Kimberly A. Hengeveld

Master of Education Program Theses

This study examines the attitudes of Christian high school educators in Northwest Iowa and Southwest South Dakota toward educational innovation and change in secondary education. Faculty and administration rated ten innovations or practices for their value to Christian school secondary systems, their perceptions about which factors and individuals are influential in the decision-making process about affecting change in the secondary school system, and their personal response to change in the classroom. The results indicate that these educators believe that change is important, but they are less supportive of change that might disrupt the way that schools are currently organized. Respondents …

A Study Of The Effects Of The Theory Of Multiple Intelligences On The Beliefs And Attitudes Of Pre-Service Teachers About Mathematics And The Teaching Of Mathematics, Marylin T. Leinenbach

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the effects of the Multiple Intelligence Theory on the beliefs and attitudes of pre-service teachers about mathematics and mathematics pedagogy. It identifies the influence of MI Theory on the beliefs and attitudes of pre-service teachers about teaching mathematics and how past performance in the study of mathematics influences beliefs and attitudes about teaching mathematics. The National Council of Teachers (NCTM) has called for changes in the preservice preparation of mathematics teachers. One of the main components of its Standards on Teaching ( 1991) is providing the pre-service teacher with opportunities to examine and revise their beliefs about …

Neuroscience: Its Relevance To Art Therapy And Art Therapy Education, Patrick Oates

EVMS School of Health Professions Theses & Dissertations

The development of contemporary neuroscience techniques has provided professionals in mental health fields with insight into the human brain and its functions. Literature searches revealed that there is very little research being conducted or existing literature that discusses the physiological response in the brain to the art therapy process. A more comprehensive understanding of the brain’s response to making art could enhance art therapists’ capacity to provide the most suitable treatment to meet the clients’ needs. This study was designed to explore the significance of neuroscience in art therapy, and art therapy education.

A questionnaire was emailed to 49 program …

Using Disciplinary Literacies To Enhance Adolescents’ Engineering Design Activity, Amy Wilson-Lopez, Emma Smith, Daniel L. Householder

Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications

This comparative case study describes the literacy practices of two groups of adolescents as they sought to solve authentic problems through engineering design processes. Three types of data were collected as the groups addressed these problems: video- and audio-recordings of their conversations; adolescent-generated products; and pre- and post-challenge interviews. The authors used existing coding schemes of engineering design activity to identify when the adolescents enacted different stages of engineering design, as well as a modified form of constant comparative analysis to identify the literacy practices that corresponded with each stage. The analysis indicates that applications of literacy practices at each …

E – Journals: Reflections And Communication Improve Learning Outcomes, Teresa G. Banker

Faculty Articles

This report describes how journaling and email were used to
benefit both the teacher and her students on a college campus in Georgia.
The report outlines how decisions were made about the content of the
journals, submission deadline considerations, and concerns about the e –
journal process. Benefits to the teacher/professor are enumerated and
discussed as are benefits to the students. E-journaling has been a
successful experiment, which, seemingly, has improved the education
process for these students and others as well.

Methods Of Teaching The Holocaust To Secondary Students As Implemented By Tennessee Recipients Of The Belz-Lipman Holocaust Educator Of The Year Awards., Julie Patterson Mitchell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Teaching the Holocaust is a challenging task. Not only do educators have a responsibility to impart the historical information surrounding these events, but issues of humanity are also an important part of the lessons. As of 2001, Holocaust education has been mandated by at least 6 states in the United States. At least 11 others, including Tennessee, have task forces or commissions responsible for promoting Holocaust education and providing professional development opportunities and materials for teaching such units. It is conceivable that additional states will enact legislation requiring Holocaust studies.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore methods …

The Effect Of Funnix Math On Pre-Kindergarten Student's Achievement In Mathematics, Michelle E. Andreoli

Theses & Honors Papers

It is imperative that mathematics education in the United States be effective and comprehensive in nature. Mathematical skills are a necessary component to functional and independent living. Much debate has aroused over which instructional methodologies to adopt, but the research clearly supports the use of explicit instruction. Direct Instruction is an expository approach to learning, which encompasses critical design principles that enable it to be sequential and thorough. Funnix Math is the newest program, which utilizes this methodology. The present study investigates the efficacy of Funnix Math on the pre-kindergarten population. The results of this study contradict previous research on …

Nurturing The Development Of Teacher Change Agents Within A Teacher Education Program, Barbara Ruben

Dissertations and Theses

The American education system has two daunting challenges. First, citizens need to be able to function in an interdependent world. Second, public schools' demographics have changed dramatically. Schools are failing to reach many students, particularly children of color and poverty. Schools must change to meet the needs of 21^st century students. Without teachers' openness to change, effective educational reform win fail. Schools of education must prepare the next generation of teachers to be change agents who will implement school reform to meet the significantly different requirements of 21^st century students.

This study examined how one graduate teacher education …