|
1997 Dissertation Abstracts: Part 20
| ||||||||||||||
|
|
ORDER NO: ABA98-08610 THE NATURE OF STAFF AND STUDENT INTERACTION AS A FUNCTION OF SOCIAL AND ACADEMIC INTEGRATION IN A SMALL COLLEGE (SOCIAL INTEGRATION) Author: HANNA, SARA ELIZABETH Degree: PH.D. Year: 1997 Corporate Source/Institution: UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND COLLEGE PARK (0117) Chair: STEVEN SELDEN Source: VOLUME 58/09-A OF DISSERTATION ABSTRACTS INTERNATIONAL. PAGE 3437. 323 PAGES Descriptors: EDUCATION, HIGHER; EDUCATION, SOCIOLOGY OF
Tinto (1975) theorized that college students' social and academic integration into college life and the resulting impact on goal and institutional commitment are critical factors in predicting college persistence. Tinto operationalized social integration as students' peer group and faculty/administrative interactions. However, the staff, those not responsible for instruction, advising, or counseling students, are a constant presence in the college and interact regularly with students. Student/staff interaction may make an important contribution to the students' total experiences and help to sustain students through to graduation. This exploratory study examined the nature of student/staff interaction in a small college, specifically if this interaction happened, how it affected students, and what meaning it had to students and staff. Case study analysis was used, including student and staff interviews, and Pascarella and Terenzini's Institutional Integration Scales. Six items were added to the IIS to assess social and academic effects of student/staff interaction, and general descriptive items examined commonalities among students who interacted with staff. From student interviews, the nature of student/staff interaction emerged as thematic categories. Students reported receiving advice and support from the staff, getting personal and academic help from the staff, sharing and learning between students and staff, and enjoying each other's company. IIS scores revealed that students were socially and academically well-integrated. Student interview themes were nested in integration language. Students reported they felt accepted, valued and recognized by the staff. They felt safe and believed staff members were concerned and willing to help them. Some students discussed age and gender as factors in connecting with staff. Race was not indicated as negatively affecting staff interaction. Based on the quantitative analysis, no clear predictive variables identified students who were more likely to be high staff interactors. The study indicated that student/staff interaction had meaning and operated positively on students' college integration. If some students are retained by interacting with staff, initiatives should be developed to examine how staff might be recognized for contributing to retention and how willing staff might be incorporated into college retention efforts.
ORDER NO: ABA98-08603
Despite the pivotal role of the director in theatrical production, the role of American colleges and universities to provide training in directing, and the popularity of courses in directing, the education of directors in the United States has been largely ignored by scholars. This study aims to fill this gap by providing an analysis of directing pedagogy in American Colleges and universities from the 1920s to 1990. The method of the study is based in part on previous research by Clifford Hamar, whose dissertation on the entrance of theatre into the college curriculum reveals the earliest institutions to offer courses in directing in the college curriculum between 1899 and 1921. Although Hamar based his study primarily on college catalogs, this study includes three additional types of evidence: textbooks on directing, conference programs (following the methodology established by Patti P. Gillespie and Kenneth M. Cameron), and interviews with instructors of directing. A comparison of the data suggests that patterns of change are most obvious from the late 1950s into the 1980s, paralleling the growth of theatre programs in both size and number. Oddly, conference programs lagged behind both textbooks and the curriculum in terms of introducing innovative material, thereby raising questions about the path of communication within the field of director education. In addition, interviewees revealed that a lack of communication among teachers of directing created uncertainty about the teaching methods and curriculum employed by others. The combination of data from textbooks, conference programs, college catalogs, and personal interviews supports a new framework for viewing the history of directing pedagogy. This model proposes five major approaches to teaching directing: as Process (both Technical and Artistic), as Problem, as Mastery, as Specialization, and as Idiosyncratic. The study concludes with related subjects that deserve further investigation, including a need for national statistics on theatre education which would update the Directory of American College Theatre of the 1960s and 1970s.
ORDER NO: ABA98-08563
Faculties, deans, and trustees of theological schools affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA) were surveyed to determine current faculty practice; the practice preferred by faculty, deans, and trustees; the fit between current and preferred practice; and faculty practice and faculty preference difference according to categorical variables such as gender, race, and rank. Seven variables defined faculty practice: workweek in hours, instruction, scholarship, service, advising, governance, and other. Scholarship was subdivided into three categories adapting Ernest Boyer's multi-dimensional definition of scholarship: orginitive, applied, and teaching. Fit was defined in two ways: statistical fit and practical fit. The reported workweek was comparable to that reported by faculties at other types of universities and colleges. The time theological faculties reported spending on teaching exceeded only that of research university faculty. The theological faculties reported spending more time on scholarship than liberal arts college and comprehensive university faculties, but less than doctoral and research faculties. Theological faculties reported spending significantly more time on service than faculty at other types of institutions. While statistical differences were found between current practice and the preferences of deans and trustees, practical differences were negligible. A statistical and practical difference was found between the preferences of faculty and deans for governance activities and between faculty and trustee preferences for the categories of instruction and scholarship. Considered by categorical variables, preferred practice of faculty varied most by faculty teaching discipline. Implications of the findings for planning and assessment in theological schools were discussed.
ORDER NO: ABA98-08524
The purpose of this study was to determine the effect on student achievement (i.e., comprehension and retention of declarative knowledge) that resulted from teaching process simulation using manual methods as compared to computer-based methods, specifically ProModel 2.0. The methodology used in this study was based on a quasi-experimental pretest/posttest research design. The sample for this study consisted of 32 students enrolled in IT 442--Industrial Production for the Spring Semester 1996 at Purdue University. Students were divided into experimental and control groups according to which lab section they attended. Each group had 16 subjects. Because this sample size was small, statistical power calculations were used to verify sample size adequacy. The treatment for this study was an instructional unit on process simulation. The control treatment used manual simulation methods, the experimental treatment focused on computer-based simulation using ProModel. A pretest was administered to all students at the beginning of the study to assess whether the groups were equivalent in their prior knowledge of simulation. After both groups completed the instructional unit, a posttest was administered. All statistical analyses were carried out at the 0.10 level of significance. The t-test used to compare pretest/posttest improvement scores was statistically significant in favor of ProModel (p-value = 0.05). This result, along with additional quantitative and qualitative evidence presented in this document, lead the researcher to conclude that ProModel was a more effective teaching /learning tool than the manual method. However, this study did not definitely conclude which method was better. Such an answer depends largely on the instructor's ability to balance available resources. The main advantage of the manual method was that it required less time from both the instructor and students. The main disadvantage was that manual simulation is not widely used in industry. Simulation packages such as ProModel are common in industry. Students also acquire a valuable skill that could give them a competitive advantage upon entering the job market.
ORDER NO: ABA98-08440
College composition classes are positioned, for many students, between school literacy and the multiple adult literacies of postsecondary education, workplaces, civic discourse, intellectual life, community projects, consumerism, and personal and family realms. Given the narrow focus of literacy instruction in most elementary and secondary schools, it is important that college composition classes introduce students to the more sophisticated ways of understanding and using literacy that they will need in order to function effectively in various adult domains. If students are placed in basic writing classes, then the need for sophisticated approaches to literacy is even greater. It has often been said of basic writers that their conceptions of writers and writing are limited--and yet their introduction to college coursework in English often consists of writing and correcting sentences in workbooks, or perhaps writing decontextualized short essays representing the modes of discourse. Thus the question motivating this dissertation is, "How can basic writers be helped to enter the multiple and complex realms in which adults use literacy?" I explore this question from several angles, considering the implications of social construction and literacy theory as well as selected literature from developmental psychology that has helped me to understand that the environments for basic writing--personal, institutional, and cultural--profoundly affect how basic writers approach their writing assignments. Finally, I offer contextual-developmental principles on which to base the design of basic writing curricula.
ORDER NO: ABA98-08265
The purpose of this study was to examine the teaching techniques, methods of instruction and evaluation procedures used by a successful basic skills college English teacher. Procedures used in the research followed the basic format of an ethnographic study. The researcher obtained data through nonparticipant observation for one semester. Audio tapes, interviews, field notes, and discussion groups provided material for developing this research. The findings of the research that illustrate teacher effectiveness can be grouped into three areas: the student, the teacher, and teaching methods. College basic writing instructors are perceived effective mainly based on the academic growth of the student. The student must be able to demonstrate an acceptable level of composition skills. The personal role between teacher and student helped to illustrate to the student that he/she had the ability to understand the process for improvement. This type of student does not possess an intellectual deficit but a problem in the thinking process. The teacher needs to allow this student to know that quality of work is the major goal which can be achieved only through long-term practice and effort. The instructor studied in this research used three major teaching methods to promote student success. The students were taught a small amount of content which they applied in their work. The level of difficulty built from the least to most complicated. This method of instruction allowed the student to transfer learned to applied knowledge. This was accomplished by using peer editing, correction sheets, and portfolios. Evaluation standards were used consistently. Implications developed from this study were that similar teaching strategies may be used at various levels of instruction and that for students to learn to write, they must be given continuous instruction and evaluation feedback regarding a variety of writing formats. The data developed from this study reinforce the research literature for this area. Research from this study suggests that an intense hands-on experience for students helps to increase writing skills.
ORDER NO: ABA98-08259
The purpose of the study was to access the perceptions of 2-year college distance education administrators toward the major components and individual item statements of the Miller and Husmann Holistic Model for Distance Education. The major components identified by Miller and Husmann were learner involvement, course and program administration, course delivery, instructional quality, and the culture of teaching and learning. Considerations of the statements of the components were collected by a survey instrument using the 5-point Likert scale to access the degree of consideration. The survey was disseminated to 100 2-year college distance education administrators who were institutional or individual members of the Instructional Telecommunications Council of the American Association of Community Colleges. The survey was disseminated by e-mail communication. A response rate of 37% was attained after three requests for participation. Respondents generally agreed with all the components of the model indicated by a cumulative mean rating above 4.0 for 2 each component. Respondents rated 82% of the individual statements at or above the mean score of 4.0. To a lesser extent respondents agreed with 18% of the individual item statements indicated by no mean score being less than 3.40. The Miller and Husmann Holistic Model for Distance Education was considered viable by the 2-year college distance education administrators. Components of the model were viewed as being applicable to 2-year college distance education programs.
ORDER NO: ABA98-08173
The purposes of this study are to expand the discourse on women's ways of knowing and to improve the quality of college teaching. In particular, this study highlights how women college students struggle with voice and silence, self and other, public and private, as they strive to meet both the social expectations of teachers and the cultural demands of family and religion. By qualitatively and biographically describing one woman college student's ways of knowing the author attempts to understand and represent how women college students make sense of: their ways of knowing, the influences of social and cultural factors on their ways of knowing, and their developing sense of self (i.e., how students relate what is happening to their ways of knowing to their sense of self). Primary data consists of in-depth interviews of college students and teachers, classroom observations, and ongoing personal reflection journals collected over a one and one-half year period at a private university in Bangladesh. One woman's story is the primary focus of the study and is told in particularistic detail. While this study was conducted in Dhaka, Bangladesh, this is not a study of Bangladesh, Bengali culture, or the Muslim religion as practiced in Bangladesh. Situating the research in Bangladesh, however, provides us with new perspectives and insights about women's ways of knowing. The implicitly comparative nature of this study contributes to knowledge about the ways in which various social and cultural contexts shape women college students' ways of knowing in both Bangladesh and the United States. Contrary to the existing literature on college students' ways of knowing, which suggests that ways of knowing are stagelike and developmentally sequenced, this study indicates that women college students simultaneously possess and demonstrate multiple ways of knowing which are dynamic and situational. This finding has important implications for educational practice and research.
ORDER NO: ABA98-08150
This case study and history of a twenty-five-year-old writing center attempts to realize three goals: (1) to respond to the call by writing center researchers for contributions to a body of case studies, (2) to uncover and examine underlying theories and assumptions that influenced the founding and development of one writing center within specific historical and discipline-wide contexts, and (3) to analyze the resultant narrative of events and developments, theories and assumptions for their impact on this center's sense of identity. What emerges is a detailed portrait of a writing center whose similarities to, as well as differences from other centers may provide useful points of comparison and inspire other researchers to offer similarly detailed case studies of their own writing centers. The University of Michigan-Flint Writing Center has several distinguishing characteristics. The laboratory itself was intended to replace the traditional basic writing course. It was atypical for its time in having started not as a skills-and-drills experience, but as a student-centered, process-oriented laboratory designed to put into practice the pedagogical theories of Robert Zoellner. This center was among the earliest to use undergraduate peer tutors, portfolio-based writing instruction, and holistic evaluation. Its tutor training program was unusually rigorous and well-informed, and peer tutors were given the responsibility of grading their fellow undergraduates. One feature of note that is uncovered in this study is the impact of marginalization on a writing center's development. Established as a response to educational problems caused by social and political upheaval, operating initially at a time when composition studies was a new field and writing center theory was practically nonexistent, UM-Flint Writing Center personnel found themselves situated on the margins of their discipline, their department, and their institution. The way the peer tutors in particular perceived themselves had necessarily to undergo a change in order for the Center to adapt to a wider mission within its institutional context.
ORDER NO: ABA98-07689
The present study examined the effects of unlimited time on the ability of college students with learning disabilities (LD) and without learning disabilities (NLD) to complete the comprehension subtest of the Nelson-Denny Reading Test (NDRT), which under standard instructions is timed. Time effects were examined with relationship to question type (literal vs. implicit), total number correct, and reading time. The subjects were 12 NLD and 10 LD college, all attending the University of North Dakota. Computerized versions of the NDRT, Forms G and H recorded subjects' reading rates, response times to questions, and question answers. The two tests were randomized with respect to form and testing time. Percentile ranks for raw test scores of the NDRT comprehension subtest were obtained from a table presented in the test manual. Major findings included a significant difference between LD, who have lower percentile ranks, and NLD students on the timed test, regardless of order of presentation. This significant difference was also found between LD and NLD students if the untimed test was presented second. However, there was no significant difference in percentile ranks of LD and NLD students if the untimed test was administered first. Students with LD significantly improved their scores on the first presentation of the untimed test, while NLD students' scores remained stable across all presentations of the test. Additionally, reading rates for students with LD are significantly longer than the NLD students in all testing conditions and response times to questions indicate that the students with LD take proportionately longer than their NLD peers to answer implicit questions versus literal questions. The group differences for number correct was usually larger for the implicit questions than for literal questions. This indicated that students with LD do have more difficulty answering implicit questions correctly than NLD students.
ORDER NO: ABA98-07688
The purpose of this study was to investigate the experiences of student teachers with learning disabilities to ascertain if they felt an effect of that disability on their teaching performance. Three student teachers with documented learning disabilities were studied for the duration of a one-semester teaching assignment. The participants, one male and two females, were from different state universities within a two-state region. A profile of each participant was developed from the data and included: descriptive background information; experiences through elementary and secondary school years, college years, and student teaching ; and their future plans. Qualitative research methodology was used in this study. The data was collected through recorded oral narratives given by the participants through numerous interviews and reflective "talking diaries" and interviews with cooperating teachers and directors of student teaching. Seven themes emerged as a result of the study. The three student teachers (a) perceived a stigma attached to their label of learning disabilities and were not willing to disclose that disability to their cooperating teachers, (b) believed that their learning disabilities affected their feelings of confidence and self-worth and used extracurriculars to bolster their confidence, (c) exercised extreme caution when describing any links between their learning disabilities and their teaching performance, (d) experienced considerable anxiety at the beginning and end of their teaching assignments, (e) expressed empathy and compassion for their students who demonstrated difficulty in learning, (f) exhibited high self-expectation and aspiration by pursuing rigorous programs at both undergraduate and graduate levels, and (g) acknowledged the importance of their supportive families (with one or more parents as public school teachers). The study revealed a need for further research in the areas of instructor accountability in accommodating students with learning disabilities, teacher preparation program policy regarding education students with learning disabilities, and the need for longitudinal studies involving student teachers with learning disabilities.
ORDER NO: ABA98-07614
This study grows out of an interest in thirty years of mathematics reform with a focus on the attitudes that accompany reforms. From the "New Math" of the 1960s through the "Back-to-Basics" movement in the 1970s, negative attitudes have played a role in reform failures and are one of the legacies of these reforms. The essence of the current reform has been captured in this goal of California's Mathematics Framework for California Public Schools: Kindergarten Through Grade Twelve: "Mathematically powerful students... exhibit positive attitudes towards mathematics... ". While this goal should be assessed, the assessments promoted by the state are not attempting to measure the attitudes of students toward mathematics, merely performance. One school chose to assess attitudes while implementing a reform curriculum of three years of integrated mathematics and phasing out the traditional college preparatory curriculum. This reform started in the fall of 1994 by having the incoming students split into two groups: one assigned to the traditional curriculum beginning with Algebra 1 and the other assigned to the beginning of the reform curriculum, Integrated Mathematics 1. This study examined the attitudes of each of these two groups of students toward mathematics after two years in their respective curriculums using questionnaires with Likert, six-point scales. After two years, there were no significant changes in the attitudes of the students in the traditional program. These students continued to hold the view that mathematics is arithmetic and problems are primarily solved by rules. While there was a significant pattern of lower item means with the reform cohort from 1994, there were few significant changes in the attitudes. However, these students expressed the view that mathematics permeates many fields, graphing calculators helped them understand concepts, and they were unsure of their preparation for continued study of mathematics. These students' teachers expressed feelings of anxiety to produce a reform curriculum daily, giving the impression that their teaching was very unsettled during this period of implementation. The results indicated that the first phases of reform were hindered by the logistics of translating reform into practice.
ORDER NO: ABA98-07424
This study was designed to examine students' perceptions of distance education and to compare their perceptions based on age, gender, educational level, instructional site, number of distance education courses taken, academic major, being full-time or part-time student, and content taught. In the quantitative section, data collected from 210 Ohio University undergraduate and graduate students taking Higher Education Microwave Services (HEMS) courses based on a five point, 39-item Likert scale questionnaire was collected and studied. In the qualitative section, data were collected from 23 students who joined interview sessions and additional information was recorded from the observations of 64 additional classes. The chi-square test results revealed that there was no relationship between students' perceptions and gender (alpha 0.05). Students' attitudes toward age, college classification, involved HEMS courses were found to be strongly related with their perceptions about two-way interactive television classes. Weaker relationships were found between sites, major, and status and students' perceptions. The results of interviews related that most of the students agreed that the most ineffective part of their interactive television class involved technical problems, many of which were audio problems. All observation data about courses satisfaction supported the results of the interviews and the findings from quantitative data. The level of student satisfaction in the class was not high. More than 50% of the observational data indicated that students did not agree that they learned as much in the interactive television class as they would in a regular class. Suggestions for future research include investigations regarding teachers' perception, comparison students' perception and their grades, a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis, content taught.
ORDER NO: ABA98-07187
The corpus of rhetoric and composition studies has recently revealed a profession in search of a philosophy, a profession confused over its mission, dedicated to teaching but lacking a pedagogical approach compatible with its recent research. While a social philosophy of writing which emphasizes context has recently gained ascendancy, the profession wrestles with ways to implement that philosophy in the classroom, remaining sentimentally attached to its old but grand process approach. Moreover, while the profession has often succeeded in sustaining the spirit of its students, it has not always given them the writing skills that would enfranchise them as adults. In place during classical antiquity and the Renaissance was a pedagogy that responded to a contextualist philosophy and that prepared students for the composing they would do in adult life: imitatio. Originally used to teach public speaking, imitatio also taught writing. Imitatio was a deductive, immersive, and explicit pedagogy that emphasized three broad methods of instruction : reading models, learning precepts, and doing composing and imitation exercises. It taught content and community values as well as writing, viewing these things as incapable of being used or learned separately. The teacher, ideally a model of learning and behavior, served as the community's agent. This contextualist pedagogy fits the axiology mirrored in most of the research on writing in discourse-specific communities of the workplace. After a description of imitatio using primary sources from the two earlier eras, the dissertation shows that modern research and reputable classroom practice today recommend many of the components of that pedagogy. The sources on earlier imitatio were Erasmus, Quintilian, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Vives, Thomas Wilson, and Rainolde, to name a few. The final chapter tells how imitatio was tested in two discourse-specific college courses, technical writing and social work methods. A writing teacher taught the technical writing course, and the social work methods course was team taught by a writing instructor and a social work instructor. As it did during the two earlier eras, imitatio teaches how the writing of a field reflects its epistemic assumptions, and it thereby enfranchises its students.
ORDER NO: ABANQ-21656
This work consists of a hermeneutic inquiry into the author's experience of contemplating, entering, and completing postgraduate work in Sociology of Education at the University of Alberta. Using autobiographical writing, participant observation, and action research as methodologies, a middle-aged Japanese Canadian woman from a working class family in Southern Alberta chronicles her experience of negotiating the many challenges and obstacles to completing a doctoral degree within the confines of a traditional marriage, with maternal obligations to three children, in a city some 350 miles away. The journey is seen as a spiritual experience, likened to a Native American vision quest--the beginning of a life long search for knowledge and wisdom--in which a "personal revelatory experience" is sought. Her story is presented as a woman's story, from the standpoint of a woman of color, an identity which was once very foreign to her, having been raised with few ties to ethnic groupings, and with the cultural admonition to assimilate into White society. Incorporating critical theory, postmodernism, hermeneutic inquiry, and phenomenological writing into her lived reality, she explores her many subjectivities as they relate to gender, race/ethnicity, class, pedagogy, belonging, and spirituality. She draws on her postgraduate experiences with both course work and colleagues, and dialogues with and learns from, new significant others--colleagues, professors, advisors. She describes the initiation and work of an academic women's writing group, the experience of teaching at the post secondary level at the college and university in Lethbridge, and attempts to reconcile traditional Western religious experiences with those of Eastern religion in her background. Through postgraduate studies, she comes to realize the importance of global education issues and her place in them: that they are not only political and educational issues, but personal issues which must be incorporated into one's life if one is to be a responsible member of the global village who promotes peace.
ORDER NO: ABANQ-21616
This inquiry thus probed into perceptions about science and its applications towards social change and how these are placed in a broader perspective to capture sociocultural and ecological sustainability. Makerere University and an indigenous rural community of Osukuru were used as the setting for the study as they are the acclaimed targets of Ugandan development policies and programs which seek to move the country out of primitivity and backwardness and into a modernized society. A qualitative methodology involving focus group discussions, interviews and a workshop was employed in exploring perceptions, beliefs, assumptions and insights about science and its role in development and environmental conservation, of indigenous perspectives of development, and ecological well-being, and how these are shaped by various worldviews. With little known about how indigenous knowledge and worldviews could work in concert with modern science and technology in the African setting, the study initiated dialogue among scientists government officials, and rural elders towards appropriate harmonization of modern science and technology with local needs and knowledge ways in that promise ecological sustainability and cultural balance. The data indicated that science in Uganda is predominantly regarded as an exploration of natural phenomena and as a body of facts to be memorized or discovered by students within the defined process skills of scientific inquiry, irrespective of context. The nature of the market economy, its application of science and subsequent impacts on society and the environment were not seen as the responsibility of scientists, science research, or discourse. Rather, they were seen as "problems" for the politicians, industrialists and international or corporate organizations. There were no indications of planning, teaching nor research in science and technology education that explored the linkages and issues related to the interactions of economy, society, environmental degradation and the role of education, or related policy implications for science and technology education. The science curricula at the university and school setting are predominantly academic, descriptive, knowledge-based as in grammar-school traditions in the industrialized nations. Apparent was the delegitimation of indigenous knowledge and values in science and science education, enhanced by an academic ethic which seeks identification with educational institutions and peers in the North than with the rural masses. Ties between the local elite and their counterparts in the North also impact on representativeness and responsiveness of policies to majority needs and environmental care. To illuminate the ways in which science and technology at the university and school system should be culturally informed, the study recommends a framework of science and science education which could foster closer alliances with indigenous knowledge, the needs of the majorities, including women, and sensitivity to ecological balance. Such a socially and ecologically responsive science could play a crucial role of combating social injustice, and develop critical scientific and political awareness essential for the redirection of the scientific and technological discourse along more socially just and ecologically sustainable lines. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
ORDER NO: ABA98-07333
It is theorized that individuals' actions in response to given situations are based on their general value preferences. However, eating practices have commonly been viewed as a phenomenon unrelated to general values. In schools the expected outcome of nutrition instruction has been at the cognitive domain, assuming nutrition knowledge will change attitudes and eating behavior. To date nutrition education research studies have not supported this assumption. The purpose of this study is to validate a Nutrition Inventory (NI) for measuring nutrition value preferences of high school and college students. The NI is based on Eduard Spranger's theoretical framework of values: Theoretical, Political, Economical, Religious, Social, Aesthetic, and is patterned after the Allport-Vernon-Lindsey Study of Values (SOV). Data was obtained from three selected samples, 843 high school students, 349 college students and 242 high school students engaged in experimental and conventional teaching methods. Nine research hypotheses were formulated concerning the relationship of the NI to the SOV, sex, grade, college major, to the NI and SOV, health and home economics instruction, mother's education, and experimental and conventional teaching methods to the NI. Data was analyzed employing coefficient alpha, canonical correlations, factor analysis, and multiple analysis of variance (MANOVA). Findings show high school and college females are more aware than males of nutritional issues In high school grade effects several of NI subscales but these effects dissipate in college. College students score low on Ethnocultural and high on the Political subscale of the NI and low on Political subscale of the SOV. Health instruction had no effect. Students who study home economics scored highest on Theoretical and Economical subscales of the NI. For high school students, the more educated their mother was the less they were effected by ethnocultural influences and these effects dissipated in college. No significant differences were found between experimental and conventional treatment groups. Validity and reliability of the NI were statistically demonstrated by robust coefficient alphas, canonical correlations and factor analyses. MANOVA of various group responses to the NI revealed significant statistical differences and certain similarities from various group responses to general values.
ORDER NO: ABA98-06869
The objective of this research was to conduct the first national survey of brief psychotherapy training among 165 APA-approved clinical psychology graduate and 370 internship programs from the perspective of training directors and brief therapy instructors and supervisors. The research method involved the distribution of two questionnaires designed specifically for training directors and brief therapy educators. The response rate of 87% for graduate programs and 78% for internship programs was achieved with a first and second mailing, as well as a telephone follow-up interview. The results of the study indicated that the prevalence of brief therapy training among graduate programs was 59%, while the prevalence was 96% for internships. Among graduate and internship programs, the predominant theoretical orientations were cognitive-behavioral and psychodynamic. The results of the educator survey indicate that the majority of educators had an average of 2 to 5 years brief therapy teaching experience. The predominant theoretical orientation for brief therapy training in both graduate and internship programs was cognitive-behavioral, followed by a psychodynamic orientation. For both graduate and internship programs, student interest in brief therapy training appeared to be strong. The topics of practice issues and managed care were addressed during brief therapy training by nearly one-half of graduate and internship programs. Among the most difficult training issues cited by the brief therapy educators in graduate and internship programs were: setting limited goals, shifting paradigms, adhering to focus, attitudinal bias towards long-term therapy, and patient selection. In conclusion, the prevalence of brief therapy training appears to be significantly greater for clinical internships when compared to graduate programs. Despite the trend towards empirically validated treatments, educational manuals are utilized less frequently to teach brief therapy than alternative methods such as audio-video taping and role-play. Future research is recommended to further explore the role of theoretical orientation as it relates to the difficult training issues cited by the brief therapy instructors and supervisors. Finally, it will be important to identify how well brief therapy training meets the future practice goals of clinical psychologists in a managed care environment.
ORDER NO: ABA98-04301
The purpose of the current study was to test the Cognitive Interference Theory. Proponents of this theory suggest that elevated levels of evaluation anxiety result in increased task-irrelevant self-statements which then interfere with cognitive performance. Specifically, it is theorized that aspects of the working memory system, particularly the central executive and phonological loop, are particularly susceptible to interference. In order to evaluate this theory, 88 college undergraduates were randomly separated into two groups. One group received anxiety-inducing instructions while the other group received supportive instructions. Following the instructions, participants were administered four neuropsychological tasks that corresponded to the different components of working memory. Self-report and cardiovascular measures of evaluation anxiety, and a measure of task-irrelevant self-statements were obtained during and after performance. Comparisons of the two groups revealed that participants receiving anxiety-inducing instructions reported significantly more evaluation anxiety, experienced significantly higher cardiovascular reactivity, and reported significantly more task-irrelevant self-statements relative to participants who received supportive instructions. With regard to cognitive performance, significant group differences were noted for the Digit Span Test and the Stroop Color-Word Test with participants in the anxiety condition obtaining lower scores on these measures. In addition, it was found that task-irrelevant self-statements mediated the relationship between evaluation anxiety and performance on the Stroop Color-Word Test. Implications for future research and clinical assessment are discussed.
ORDER NO: ABA98-07499
As educators rethink the role of assessment in restructuring and school improvement efforts, an emphasis on the use of authentic, non-traditional assessment practices is advocated with the assumption that this will result in better teaching and learning and in enhanced student achievement. There is little empirical evidence to support this assumption. This study explores the relationships between the evaluative culture of the classroom, teacher efficacy and student efficacy--two factors that influence student achievement. The first stage in conducting this research was to operationally define the construct of evaluative culture in terms of the testing and assessment beliefs and practices of classroom teachers. Second, the Evaluative Culture Questionnaire (ECQ), which resulted the ECQ-Testing Scale of 23 items and the ECQ-Assessment Scale of 29 items, was developed as a valid, reliable measure of evaluative culture. Third, the ECQ was used in a correlational study to explore the relationships between evaluative culture, teacher efficacy, and student efficacy. This study provides evidence that relationships do exist between the evaluative culture, teacher efficacy, and teacher demographic variables. Results of the study supported the following: (1) teachers who have stronger teacher efficacy tend to align their classroom assessment practices more with the assessment culture; (2) evaluative culture scores vary as a function of grouping practices, gender, ethnicity, degree earned, professional development workshops, university course work, and the number of years of teaching experience; (3) teacher efficacy scores vary as a function ethnicity, university course work, and years of teaching experience; (4) evaluative culture and teacher efficacy varied significantly as a function of grade and school; (5) teacher efficacy scores varied as a function of district; and, (6) teacher efficacy can be predicted by factors which include the teacher's evaluative culture scores. This study provides a valid, reliable instrument, the ECQ, to measure evaluative culture. It presents empirical evidence to support restructuring efforts that advocate changing the evaluative culture of the classroom to be more aligned with an assessment culture. Further, this study provides evidence which suggests that the interaction of district, school, and teacher is critical for successful assessment reform.
ORDER NO: ABA98-07495
The purpose of this research study was to determine if the Advanced Placement program as it is recognized by the universities in the Florida State University System (SUS) truly serves as an acceleration mechanism for those students who enter an SUS institution with passing AP scores. Despite mandates which attempt to control uniformity of policy, each public university in Florida determines which courses will be exempted and the number of credits they will grant for passing Advanced Placement courses. This is a descriptive study in which the AP policies of each of the SUS institutions were compared. Additionally, the college attendance and graduation data on members of a cohort of 593 Broward County high school graduates of the class of June, 1992 were compared. Approximately 28% of the cohort members entered university with passing Advanced Placement scores. The rate of early and on time graduation was significantly dependent on the Advanced Placement standing of the students in the cohort. Given the financial and human cost involved, it is recommended that all state universities bring their Advanced Placement policies into line with each other and implement a uniform Advanced Placement policy. It is also recommended that a follow-up study be conducted with a new cohort bound under the current 120 credit limitation for graduation.
ORDER NO: ABA98-07244
Research has shown that planning to suppress a thought results in that thought occurring more often. The purpose of this study is to apply thought suppression theories to physical activity. The effect of four conditions of thought suppression on performance of a balance skill were investigated. Forty males and 40 females, ages 18 to 29, were recruited from College of Health classes at the University of Utah. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four groups: (a) the suppression group, (b) the suppression-distraction group, (c) the distraction group, or (d) the control group. Participants performed the Stork Stand Balance Test. The participants then performed another balance task which required them to traverse the 1-1/2-in edge of a 14-ft 2-in $\times$ 6-in board four times. Each participant was allowed to practice this task once before Time 1 testing. Each group was given different instructions regarding their thoughts during their performance of this task. The suppression group was told to try not to think about falling. The suppression-distraction group was told to do the same and was given a neutral thought to replace the thought of falling. The distraction group was told that if they thought of falling, to think of that neutral thought. The control group was told to think of anything with no restrictions. Participants recorded their thoughts of falling using a hand-held golf counter. Following completion of Time 1 performances, participants completed a Treatment Validation Questionnaire (TVQ). Prior to the Time 2 performance of this balance task, all groups were told to think of anything. Posttest measures for Time 2 included the TVQ, the Intrusive Thoughts Questionnaire (ITQ), the General Thoughts Inventory (GTI), and a brief questionnaire regarding relevant experiences. Participants were then debriefed. Results of a 4 (treatment) x 2 (gender) x 2 (period) ANOVA yielded no differences between groups on performance measures and most thought measures. However, a main effect for treatment and a treatment by period by gender interaction effect were found to be significant for the percentage of time spent thinking about falling measure.
ORDER NO: ABA98-07188
This study was concerned with understanding how learning occurs and knowledge is organized and processed by professors in various academic disciplines in higher education. The study focused on university professors in four different academic content areas to examine the preferred approaches to learning within and between disciplines. Although the university structure and the development of the college disciplines have been studied, there has been very little research done on the impact of the academic discipline on learning and teaching in higher education. Knowledge of the consequences of the disciplines on learning would be helpful information for the total educational community. The sample for this study was purposive. Twelve university professors were selected from four different disciplines for this research. The design chosen for this inquiry was a naturalistic study using qualitative study methods. The criteria for selection of the professors were teaching experience in one of the four academic disciplines; peer recognition from within the academy for professional expertise, insight, and interest in their own learning and the learning of their students; depth and breadth of their professional experiences to contribute to the data of interest; and interest in the project. The four college disciplines selected for the study were physics (hard science), history (humanities), music (arts), and business management (applied science). Extensive, informal interviews with the professors were used as a means of collecting data for this study. The findings showed differences in the learning strategies and knowledge organization skills used by the professors in the four disciplines. Factors of measurability, interpretation, and application shape the distinctive foundation for these academic disciplines. It was concluded that university professors can benefit from self-awareness of preferred learning strategies and from the awareness of discipline specific learning differences across the campus. Teaching practice for college professors can also be positively influenced by the knowledge of discipline specific learning strategies. The data of this study can also impact discipline specific learning for university students.
ORDER NO: ABA98-07158
One of the strengths of music-related software and videos is their ability to be used as partners in the music education system. The purpose of this study is to explore and examine music software and music videos for college beginning class piano students. A total of fifteen software programs and five videos are selected and reviewed. The software programs selected for the present study are grouped into four categories: (1) keyboard, (2) ear training, (3) rhythm, and (4) music theory. The videos selected are of two types: (1) videos that develop basic piano skills and (2) videos that develop technical skill necessary for playing the instrument. The goal used as the criterion for the present study is that students will acquire the fundamentals of music--pitch reading skill, rhythm reading skill, intervals, meters, key signatures, and scales. Other criteria are also evaluated: presentation techniques, visual effect, student and machine interaction, teaching strategies, use of special function keys, overall style and organization, subject matter accuracy, technical/mechanical function, and supporting documentation. All materials used in the study are confined to those which are instructional in content, and are suitable for use with college beginning class piano students. Results of the programs evaluated indicate that it is more appropriate to compare the software programs and videos with regard to their music components rather than as full programs. The musical components evaluated are (1) fingerings and scales, (2) intervals, (3) keyboard and staff reading, (4) key signatures, (5) rhythm reading, and (6) technical aspects. Recommendations exist concerning these musical components.
ORDER NO: ABA98-07023
To keep pace with advances in applied statistics and to maintain literate consumers of quantitative analyses, statistics educators stress the need for change in the classroom (Cobb, 1992; Garfield, 1993, 1995; Moore, 1991a; Snee, 1993; Steinhorst and Keeler, 1995). These authors stress a more concept oriented undergraduate introductory statistics course which emphasizes true understanding over mechanical skills. Drawing on recent educational research, this dissertation attempts to realize this vision by developing tools and pedagogy to assist statistics instructors. This dissertation describes statistical facets, pieces of statistical understanding that are building blocks of knowledge, and discusses DIANA, a World-Wide Web tool for diagnosing facets. Further, I show how facets may be incorporated into course design through the development of benchmark lessons based on the principles of collaborative learning (diSessa and Minstrell, 1995; Cohen, 1994; Reynolds et al., 1995; Bruer, 1993; von Glasersfeld, 1991) and activity based courses (Jones, 1991; Yackel, Cobb and Wood, 1991). To support benchmark lessons and collaborative learning in large classes I describe Virtual Benchmark Instruction, benchmark lessons which take place on a structured hypertext bulletin board using the technology of the World-Wide Web. Finally, I present randomized experiments which suggest that these educational developments are effective in a university introductory statistics course.
ORDER NO: ABA98-07011
This dissertation reports on an investigation of student understanding in introductory mechanics. The topics include two-dimensional kinematics, the impulse-momentum and work-energy theorems, momentum conservation in two-body systems, relative motion, and simultaneity. The investigation, which extended over more than four years, involved primarily students enrolled in introductory calculus-based physics, but also students studying physics at more advanced levels. Conceptual and reasoning difficulties were identified through individual demonstration interviews and descriptive studies that were conducted throughout the period of instruction. The findings were used to guide the design and modification of a tutorial curriculum to address specific student difficulties. Ongoing research provided a continuous assessment of the effect on student learning.
ORDER NO: ABA98-06879
This study identified the brain hemisphericity, personality types, temperaments, and language learning strategies used by 429 students at The University of Alabama. The relationships among the above characteristics as well as gender, academic majors, and culture--as determined by Hofstede's individualism/collectivism and tolerance of ambiguity--were also investigated. The instruments used in this research were: Hemispheric Mode Indicator developed by Bernice McCarthy, Keirsey Temperament Sorter developed by David Keirsey, and Strategy Inventory of Language Learning developed by Rebecca Oxford. The study compared the brain hemispheric dominance, personality types, temperaments and language learning strategies between males and females. There were significant gender differences. Males leaned more toward left-brain hemisphericity than females. There were significantly more females than males identified as feeling-oriented, while there were significantly more males than females identified as thinking-oriented. Females used significantly more cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies than males. In general, females used more learning strategies than males, though not statistically significant. The majority of the participants who were identified as right-brain dominants were intuitive, feeling, and perceiving-oriented. They preferred to use affective and social learning strategies. Students identified as extroverts preferred to use social learning strategies. Most of the participants who were identified as left-brain dominants were sensing, thinking, and judging-oriented. They preferred to use cognitive and metacognitive learning strategies. Cultural individualism was associated with right-brain hemisphericity, while cultural collectivism was linked to left-brain hemisphericity. Also, right-brain hemisphericity was connected to high tolerance of ambiguity, while left-brain hemisphericity was associated with low tolerance of ambiguity. There was a relationship between brain hemisphericity and academic majors. Students majoring in business, science, and engineering fields tended to be left-brain dominants, while students majoring in arts, literature, education, nursing law, and communication fields tended to be right-brain dominants. The results of this study suggest that educators should enhance their understanding of students' individual learning differences. Incorporation of the learning style concept into both pre-service and in-service teacher education training programs will help teachers to identify their strengths and limitations, assess the students' learning styles, and develop instructional activities that recognize these differences in the classroom.
ORDER NO: ABA98-06818
This study is a comparative case study of what three college calculus teachers did in their classrooms and what their students understood about the concept of derivatives. The teachers were solicited on the basis of peer, supervisor and student recommendations as being good teachers; several volunteer student subjects were selected from each class. Using a naturalistic participant-observer paradigm, the data were collected primarily via extensive classroom observations and in-depth interviews with the teachers and students. Examination of written work, such as student exams, was employed for additional confirmation of hypotheses generated in the field. This study contributes to the bodies of knowledge on pedagogy, effective teaching, classroom dynamics, student understanding and teacher beliefs. The results should be of interest to teachers, teacher educators, mathematics text authors and people interested in how students learn and think about mathematics at the collegiate level. The study of these three classrooms reveals that there is a variety of effective teaching models for undergraduate calculus classrooms. There were, however, important commonalties among these models, the examination of which leads to some characterization of effective teaching practices. These teachers kept the focus on what their students were learning, rather than on covering material. In three different ways, these teachers each gave their students the opportunity to interact with the mathematics before the lesson ended. All three teachers displayed a willingness to grow and learn as teachers. Calculus students do not always learn what their teachers think they have taught. The students in this study displayed a variety of mistaken ideas about the concept of derivative and about other mathematical topics. For example, many students had trouble distinguishing between properties of the function and properties of the derivative. Some students believed that the derivative at a point was a line, rather than the numerical value associated with the slope of a line. Students and teachers disagreed about the correct definition of the derivative, with students attributing little importance to the idea of limits.
ORDER NO: ABA98-06815
The results of the change in Calculus instruction at the University of Arizona in 1991, 1992, and 1993 were examined using three complementary methods. A survey of students (45) who took calculus during this period was administered, and analyzed for attitudinal differences between those who took traditional and those who took reform calculus. There were no statistically significant differences in reported attitude. Volunteers (14) were solicited from those who had been freshmen during the change to participate in interviews. These interviews included students taught by each method, and were analyzed by using concept maps to determine if there is a difference in retained knowledge. Although consortium (reform) students showed slightly improved retention, the differences were not statistically significant. University computerized grade records were used to determine if there was a difference between students who took consortium calculus and those who took the traditional course. Both retention and grades in subsequent calculus-dependent mathematics, science, and engineering courses were examined. A pattern of comparisons emerged which showed that consortium students somewhat outperformed traditional students. The patterns were indicative of better teaching and cannot be directly attributed to the materials. There is good evidence that the consortium students were not at a disadvantage in subsequent course work. This research should be of interest to teachers of calculus, and those involved in calculus reform. The techniques and computer programs for analysis of large data sets for performance differences in subsequent (dependent) course work can be useful for comparing different instructors, procedures, or materials in large institutions.
ORDER NO: ABA98-06755
This dissertation examines the faculty evaluation systems within the institutions of higher education today; with particular regard to how student ratings of instruction data are utilized, and by whom. Specifically, the knowledge, skills and attitudes of users of student ratings of instruction data and the effects of training on those who utilize such data. In this quasi-experimental study, a revised form of the "Using Student Ratings Data" questionnaire (Franklin & Theall, 1989) was used. The questionnaire, in its current form, consists of 70 items embedded in three subscales: knowledge, attitudes and skills; including seven demographic items. The questionnaire was designed to elicit what student ratings users knew about student ratings, their attitudes toward student ratings, and moreover, how their knowledge and attitudes affected their perceived skills in use. The revised form of the questionnaire was administered, pre and post, to participating faculty and administrators of institutes of higher learning from throughout the Continental United States and Puerto Rico. The participants were attendees at a workshop aimed at the development of a comprehensive faculty evaluation system. Obtained subscale reliability estimates of the questionnaire were moderate to high (.60-.81). Moreover, group differences were significant in both the knowledge and attitudinal subscales, suggesting that both the participant's knowledge and attitudes were positively affected by the training.
ORDER NO: ABA98-06718
In an effort to improve the science education P-12 students receive, to increase the facility that teachers and parents have in their educational uses of the Internet, and to improve the technological methods that preservice teachers use to facilitate genuine inquiry in schools, the Washington State University Virtual Professional Development School (vPDS) hosted the world's first Internet-based science fair, the 1995 Washington State University Virtual Science and Mathematics Fair (vSMF or Fair). The vSMF was studied in order to understand the influences of the Internet on the many facets of education. The development and use of ethnotechnography, a systematic use of technologically enhanced remote fieldwork, yielded insights into the complex interaction between P-12 students, P-12 teachers, preservice teachers, teacher preparation university faculty, university administrators, the technology, the science instruction, restructuring efforts and online issues and elements of leadership. Studying this interaction between technology and learners uncovered evidence that Internet may drastically modify practices in P-12 classrooms, teacher preparation programs, and the administration of universities. The specific implications of the Internet introduction to schools include dropping barriers of distance separating markets of students; dropping barriers between public schools, home schools and Schools, Colleges and Departments of Education (SCDEs); and pending programmatic shifts based on the ease of interaction between Internet participants. Herein, is evidence and argument supporting the notion that the deep culture and climate of America's largest economic endeavor will change dramatically as the Internet quickly becomes a major social reconstructive force in education and in our society.
ORDER NO: ABA98-06674
This study examined high school principals' assessment of their university programs in preparing them for the job responsibilities as managers and instructional leaders in the public schools of South Carolina. In addition, using an adapted version of Cleckley's (1987) instrument designed to ascertain elementary principals' perceptions of their preparation program, an investigation was conducted to determine: (a) the effect that principals' professional experiences and educational levels (degree earned) had on their assessment of the usefulness and importance of university preparation courses included in their certification program, (b) the usefulness and importance of their university preparation courses for the development of a certification program, and (c) the usefulness of selected topics and subjects in developing a certification program in the future. Groups were compared by professional experience and educational levels. The findings of this study suggested that: (a) principals' professional experiences and educational levels did not influence the assessment of their university preparation programs, (b) principals felt that their preparation programs were overall useful and adequate in preparing them for the principalship, and (c) principals recognized the need to have additional courses incorporated into their university preparation programs.
ORDER NO: ABA98-06641
This study sought to determine if there was a significant difference in selected student characteristics on the programming section of a standardized computer literacy test, when the languages used were HyperTalk and BASIC. The subjects were 105 students in six sections of the CSCD 120 computer literacy class. Forty-nine students were in the sections using HyperTalk and fifty-six were in the sections using BASIC. The sample consisted of forty-four males and sixty-one females. Seventy-three percent were age 25 or under. Eighty percent of the students had a female instructor and twenty percent had a male instructor. A quasi-experimental pretest/post test design was used. It involved part three of the Standardized Test of Computer Literacy, and the Computer Anxiety Index (both developed at Iowa State University.) Data was processed through an analysis of variance (ANOVA) statistical test. There was no significant difference at the 0.05 level in either achievement or attitude on a standardized computer literacy test, when the language used to teach the programming concepts was BASIC, nor when the language used was HyperTalk. There was no significant interaction at the 0.05 level between gender of the student and language used to teach the programming concepts, between the age of the student and the language used to teach the programming concepts, nor between the gender of the instructors and the language used to teach the programming subjects. There was an interaction at the 0.044 level in achievement between the gender of the instructors and the language used to teach the programming concepts. No correlation was found between attitude and achievement. In this study the computer language used to teach programming concepts in a computer literacy course did not have a significant difference on the achievement or attitude of the students. The trend of males doing better than females in achievement and attitude of computer literacy appears to be fading, with both genders becoming equal. The significant interaction in achievement when the students had a female instructor could have been influenced by the fact that the females had more teaching experience.
ORDER NO: ABA98-06634
Research demonstrates that most adult Japanese learners of English are frustrated with listening discrimination and pronunciation. The problem of this study was to determine if a teaching model that directly identifies katakana as a barrier and is based on a balanced approach using both articulatory and communicative techniques would result in significantly improved English pronunciation discrimination among adult high-intermediate and advanced Japanese ESL students studying on the campus of Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston, Idaho. A quasi-experimental, one-way analysis of variance, pretest-post test design was used to determine relationships between the control group of 12 students who only received pretests and post tests, and experimental Group 1 made up of 13 students who received the balanced approach with katakana-barrier emphasis, and experimental Group 2 made up of 13 students who received the balanced approach without katakana-barrier emphasis. The instrument used to determine improvement in listening discrimination was Brown's Consonant Discrimination test made up of a pretest and a post test. Both experimental models were made up of 7 lessons each targeting katakana-related problems: /r/, /l/; /f/, /wh/; /b/, /v/; /s/, /sh/; /z/, /th/; /s/, /th/; and /j/, /zh/. Results showed significant improvement in listening discrimination skills in groups 1 and 2 as compared to the control group. Unexpectedly, Group 2 showed significantly higher improvement than did Group 1. Several reasons were suggested by the author that might have accounted for the difference. The author concluded that a model that balances articulatory phonetic instruction with communicative application and treats katakana as a barrier to the acquisition of correct English pronunciation and pronunciation discrimination skills is effective in significantly improving the short-term pronunciation discrimination skills in adult Japanese high-intermediate and advanced level ESL students, and that the inclusion of katakana barrier instruction is not necessary to produce these or better results. Results in this study support both articulatory setting and communicative theory in pronunciation and discrimination training--especially as the two approaches are used together. The study ends with several recommendations for further related research.
ORDER NO: ABA98-06620
The purpose of this ethnography was to capture the culture of a pre-service field-based teacher education program called Praxis. The first intent of this macro-ethnographic descriptive investigation was to provide a wide-angled view into the patterns of behaviors and emotions that holistically define the nature of the culture in its entirety. The second intent was to provide a more in-depth view into each of the primary social roles that are played within this community. These roles included: the elementary school student, the elementary school classroom/partner teacher, the university teaching intern, and the university field-based teacher educator (i.e., professor). Due to the great number of elementary students within this site (approximately 500), a broad "landscape view" of these children's total experience was developed. The three adult groups were studied more closely; "cultural portraits" were developed on each of their specific roles. The primary data collection devices that were utilized with the children of study included a collection of their writing and artwork that described their experiences within this culture. These were generated via a Language Arts teaching lesson that was conducted by the researcher. The researcher also acted as a participant-observer of this group. The primary data collection instruments that were utilized for the adults of this study included: in-depth interviews, participant observation, and journal writing. A secondary set of data collection methods was used across the two groups; these included: black and white photography, proxemics, and document/artifact review. The primary data was analyzed for cultural patterns utilizing the ethnographic coding procedures outlined by Spradley (1980) and the Hyper Qual II data sorting software. The patterns which appeared within the adults' journals were cross-validated by three experts. The photography was sorted for patterns via the procedures outlined by Collier and Collier (1986). These patterns were also cross-validated by three experts. The students' art work was analyzed for patterns by the researcher. These patterns were cross-validated by a second expert, a children's art analyst. The study resulted in the finding of a "culture of transformation," whereby all of the players continuously impact one another. These impacts were found to have created personal and professional transformations within many of the players. They were found to occur across three primary domains: cognitive, affective, and systemic. The cultural players exhibited three primary explicit behaviors: teaching, supporting, and communicating. Their primary implicit (affective) responses included: learning, feelings of validation, and the development of a sense of belonging within a social system. The children of this culture were found to experience a very diverse style of teaching and learning. Their interactions with their Praxis teachers were found to have had strong emotional impacts upon them as well. This was demonstrated by long-term memories, personal stories, and a high degree of role modeling. These children also learn how adult partnerships actually function within a social system. The adults' data resulted in three very unique roles. Each of these three distinct roles was found to have been impacted very strongly across all three of the domains; both intrapersonal and interpersonal impacts upon these individuals were discovered. This culture's themes included a great amount of human interactions, adult collaboration, role modeling, problem solving, diversity, and a tolerance of others. Problems arose primarily between the adult players across their systemic domain. | ||||||||||||
