Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Engineering Career Academies: A Comparison Of Middle School Student Academic Performance, Jakub D. Prokop

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

A quasi-experimental study tested an integrated curriculum design in two career academies with engineering themes at the middle school level. Teachers in the engineering career academies, using the National Standards of Practice, implemented cross curricular units to middle school student cohorts. Participant cohorts ranged in sample sizes (n = 79, 155, 237, and 232) during the four years of analysis. Constructivism was used as a framework for the study and supported by integrated curriculum units. This study examined middle school students’ performance in reading and mathematics on state assessments of students in the engineering career academies to students not enrolled …

The Left Behind Generation: Instructional Practices To Increase The Technological Literacy Of Older Adults, Daphne Pace Phillips

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study sought to explore the utilization and perception of best practices by community-based technology training programs when instructing older adults to become technologically literate. The target population included adults age 55 years and older of the Baby Boomer generational cohort who ranged academically from possessing a high school diploma or General Education Diploma (GED) through a college degree and had enrolled in a local technology training program to improve their technological skill level with the goal of obtaining employment and/or to remain functionally independent. This study was conducted at three community technology training centers located in the southeast that …

Eating In America: Easing The Transition For Resettled Refugees Through An Applied Anthropological Intervention, Emily A. Holbrook

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Refugees resettled in the United States are expected to quickly become self-sufficient members of society despite the numerous challenges they face due to adaptation and integration into new systems and ways of life. Issues with dietary and nutritional adaptation persist for resettled refugee communities in the United States and are not prioritized by national, state, or local policy and practice. This research aimed to help mitigate problems with food assistance benefits and healthy eating issues faced by resettled refugees in Hillsborough County through an applied intervention in local English as a Second Language (ESOL) classes. ESOL materials designed to teach …

An Examination Of The Roles Of Classroom Quality And Approaches To Learning On The Early Academic Skills Of Latino Dual Language Learners Enrolled In Head Start, Marcela A. Galicia

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examined the relationship between classroom quality, approaches-to-learning, and early academic skills among 384 Latino dual language learners (DLLs) enrolled in Florida Head Start programs. The children were living in low-income homes where Spanish was the primary language spoken by at least one parent. The study analyzed the extent to which approaches-to-learning behaviors moderate early literacy and numeracy skills in Head Start classrooms of varying quality. During the spring of their prek-4 year, the children were administered the English and Spanish Letter-Word Identification and Applied Problems subtests of the WJ-III (Woodcock, McGrew, & Mather, 2001) and the Batería III …

Examining Efl Learners’ Reading Comprehension: The Impact Of Metacognitive Strategies Discussion And Collaborative Learning Within Multimedia E-Book Dialogic Environments, Abrar H. Alsofyani

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

For most English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners, both reading and comprehension skills are challenging to acquire. EFL students find reading challenging due to their inability to comprehend and interpret text information, which may lead, at times, to demotivation and loss of interest. The current study intends to explore how Saudi EFL learners may better tackle reading comprehension challenges by examining the utilization of metacognitive reading strategies through discussion and extensive collaborative learning activities within a multimedia e-book dialogic environment. Accordingly, the study investigates the impact of teaching metacognitive strategy-based discussion and collaborative learning on students’ application of the …

Efl Student Collaborative Writing In Google Docs: A Multiple Case Study, Quang Nam Pham

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The development of modern technology has presented new opportunities for language instruction. In recent years, technology-mediated collaborative writing has received great attention in research literature. The constraints and affordances of some tools, such as Wikispaces and Google Docs for collaborative writing have been explored. Although wiki-based collaborative writing have been conducted in a variety of contexts, studies in Google Docs-based collaborative writing in English as Foreign Language (EFL) contexts are underrepresented in research literature.

To contribute to research diversity, I conducted a dissertation study in an English for Specific Purposes class at a university in southern Vietnam. Sociocultural Theory and …

The Effects And Students’ Views Of Teachers' Coded Written Corrective Feedback: A Multiple-Case Study Of Online Multiple-Draft Chinese Writing, Jining Han

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

With the rapid development of Web 2.0 in the field of education, which allows users to interact and collaborate with teachers and peers on the web, many researchers have focused on exploring the developments of using Course Manage System (CMS) in service of L2 writing (e.g., Chun, 2011; Warschauer & Grimes, 2007). Simultaneously, participation in learning and teaching Chinese as a foreign (TCFL) has been accelerating. Learning and teaching Chinese writing plays a significant role in the field of world languages education. In the field of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) and Foreign Language Education (FLE), many studies have examined the …

A Comparison Of High-Tech And Low-Tech Response Modalities To Improve Student Performance And Classroom Behavior, Thomas J. Schulz

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study compared the effects of high-tech (e.g., clickers) and low-tech (e.g., response cards) active responding strategies during whole-group English language arts in two first-grade classrooms serving students with and without disabilities. The authors combined an ABAB reversal design with an alternating treatments design to compare the impact of using high-tech (clickers) and low-tech (response cards and hand raising) modalities on academic engagement, accuracy of responding, and disruptive behavior across four teacher-nominated students in two first-grade classrooms. During baseline, the teacher conducted her lesson as planned by having the students raise his/her hand to answer questions. In the intervention phase, …

Online And Self-Directed Learningreadiness Among Hospitality And Tourism College Students And Industry Professionals, Muhittin Cavusoglu

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative study was to compare self-directed learning readiness and online learning readiness between hospitality and tourism college students and industry professionals. The Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale (SDLRS) was used for measuring self-directed learning readiness. After examining the reliability and validity indices of the modified Online Learning Readiness Scale (OLRS), it was used in the context of hospitality and tourism for the measurement of online learning and training readiness. Two different study populations, hospitality and tourism college students and hospitality and tourism industry professionals, were identified for the purpose of this study. Data were obtained via online …