UMD Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/3
New submissions to the thesis/dissertation collections are added automatically as they are received from the Graduate School. Currently, the Graduate School deposits all theses and dissertations from a given semester after the official graduation date. This means that there may be up to a 4 month delay in the appearance of a given thesis/dissertation in DRUM.
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
Browse
7 results
Search Results
Item Re-imagining secondary education: Voices from South African academic and vocational secondary education programs(2014) Balwanz, David; Klees, Steven; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Global discourse on secondary education and vocational skills development offers a narrative which emphasizes increased use of standardized testing; a focus on science, technology, business knowledge, and vocational skills development; and identifies expansion of access to secondary and tertiary education as a solution to poverty, inequality, and unemployment. In South Africa, academic and vocational secondary education is largely shaped by this discourse, which is grounded in the assumptions of human capital theory and privileges the perpetuation of an elite model of secondary education. Apartheid-era practices of racial segregation and racial capitalism, while legally dismantled, still have a significant influence on the political economy of modern day South Africa. This influence includes the distribution of power, resources, and opportunities articulated through South Africa's public education system. This study draws on critical social theory and political economy to understand existing constructions of academic and vocational secondary education in South Africa, including how these constructions dialectically relate education to work and society. The purpose of this study is to allow grassroots voices, teachers and learners at two schools in marginalized communities in South Africa, to "talk back to discourse" about the purpose of secondary education. How do learners and teachers define purpose? Many see secondary school as a place for students to learn about themselves and education as a means to realizing their dreams, even if their dreams are only, as yet, partially formed. This study offers a humanistic counter-narrative to the dominant discourse by sharing the dreams and holistic development interests of learners and the hopes and frustrations of teachers as they learn and work within an inhumane and narrow construction of education, work, and society.Item Measures of Writing Skills as Predictors of High Stakes Assessments for Secondary Students(2008-01-24) Jones, Karen Anne; Rosenfield, Sylvia; Counseling and Personnel Services; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study examined the potential utility of written expression scoring measures, developed in the curriculum-based measurement research, to monitor student progress and predict performance on a high stakes state mandated assessment for high school students. In response to a teacher generated prompt, 10th-grade students completed 3 brief constructed response (BCR) and 2 extended constructed response (ECR) writing samples throughout the academic year. Writing samples were scored for total words written (TWW), words spelled correctly (WSC), correct writing sequences (CWS), correct minus incorrect writing sequences (CMIWS), percentage of words spelled correctly (%WSC), percentage of correct writing sequences (%CWS), production dependent index, and production independent index. The average time to score a BCR for TWW, WSC, CWS, and CMIWS was over 7 minutes, and the average time to score an ECR was over 16 minutes. Alternate form reliability correlation coefficients between scoring measures were only in the weak to moderate range. Results revealed that girls wrote more words, spelled more words correctly, produced more correct writing sequences, and produced more correct minus incorrect writing sequences. Across writing samples, statistically significant but small increases were found on scoring measures. Results of multiple regression and logistic regression analyses failed to provide a model that accurately predicted student outcomes.Item A Case Study of the Development of Environmental Action Projects from the Framework of Participatory Action Research within Two Middle School Classrooms(2007-11-26) Charmatz, Kim; McGinnis, J. Randy; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this study was to understand student and teacher empowerment through a socially critical environmental education perspective. The main research question guiding this study was: How do participants make sense of a learning experience in which students design and carry out an environmental action project in their community? This study used participatory action research and critical theory as practical and theoretical frameworks. These frameworks were relevant as this study sought to examine social change, power, and relationships through participants' experiences. The context of this study was within one seventh and one eighth grade classroom participating in environmental projects. The study was conducted in spring 2005 with an additional follow-up data collection period during spring 2006. The school was located in a densely populated metropolitan suburb. Fifty-three students, a teacher researcher, and three science teachers participated. Data sources were written surveys, scores on Middle School Environmental Literacy Survey Instrument (MSELI), observations, interviews, and student work. This study used a mixed methodological approach. Quantitative data analysis involved dependent samples t-test scores on the MSELI before and after the completion of the projects. Qualitative data were analyzed using an inductive analysis approach. This study has implications for educators interested in democratic education. Environmental action projects provide a context for students and teachers to learn interdisciplinary content knowledge, develop personal beliefs, and learn ways to take action in their communities. This pedagogy has the potential to increase cooperation, communication, and tensions within school communities. Students' participation in the development of environmental action projects may lead to feelings of empowerment or being able to make a difference in their community, as an individual or member of a group. Future research is needed to discern why participants experience this type of educational experience differently, for example, how does the type of environmental action project influence individual and group empowerment?Item THE EFFECTS OF A CONTEXTUALIZED INSTRUCTIONAL PACKAGE ON THE AREA AND PERIMETER PERFORMANCE OF SECONDARY STUDENTS WITH EMOTIONAL AND BEHAVIORAL DISABILITIES(2007-07-30) Mulcahy, Candace A; Leone, Peter E; Maccini, Paula; Special Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The current study examined the effects of an instructional package on the mathematics performance of secondary students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) when applied to grade-appropriate area and perimeter objectives. The instructional package included the following empirically-supported approaches: (a) contextualized instruction; (b) use of manipulatives; (c) use of a cue card; and (d) self-monitoring techniques for behavior and academic performance. The intervention also incorporated pre-requisite skills and was delivered through a set of scripted lessons that employed explicit instruction balanced with constructivist-based activities. The multiple-probe design was implemented across two participants, then replicated across two more participants (Tawney & Gast, 1984). The participants were four middle school students with EBD in a suburban Maryland public school. Results of the study demonstrated that participants were able to improve mathematics accuracy on area and perimeter objectives. Three participants were also, to a limited extent, able to maintain performance over time and transfer performance to more complex mathematics tasks. Two participants were able to transfer performance to tasks of similar context to those practiced in the intervention. The study suggests that, when provided explicit and sustained instruction on pre-requisite math objectives and grade-appropriate mathematics objectives, students with EBD may be successful with non-computational mathematics.Item Use of private supplementary instruction (private tutoring) by U.S. high school students: Its use and academic consequences(2007-04-25) Nishio, Masako; Croninger, Robert; Education Policy, and Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The purpose of this study is to examine a rapidly growing educational phenomenon in the United States: private supplementary instruction (private tutoring). This instruction is offered out-of-school time, focused on academic subjects, and provided mostly for a fee. Its primary goal is to help students prepare for college entrance examinations (advancement), or address difficulties in academic subjects (remedial). Using the concept of human capital as the primary theoretical framework, the study examines possible reasons for the use of private supplementary instruction and possible benefits that accrue to individuals from its use. The study examines if families with higher levels of educational aspirations or less academic satisfaction with their schools are more likely to use private supplementary instruction. It also considers whether students who use supplementary instruction have higher gains in mathematics achievement or higher likelihood of college acceptance. Data for this study come from the National Education Longitudinal Study and includes approximately 7,600 students who attended high school between 1990 and 1992. Students and parents were asked about the use of private supplementary instruction when students were 12th graders. Follow-up surveys in 1994 indicated students' post-secondary enrollment status two years later. Analyses of the use and effects of private supplementary instruction are calculated using OLS and logistic regressions. The research findings indicate that families with higher levels of educational aspirations are more likely to use advancement supplementary instruction, and doing so improves students' chance of college acceptance. Advancement instruction may also improve the academic performance of students, particularly students from high-income families. Use of remedial instruction, however, does not seem to improve academic performance or the likelihood of college acceptance for most students, though Asian Americans and African Americans may be exceptions. Family income also appears to play a role in both the use and effects of private supplementary instruction. Although human capital theory helps to explain specific aspects of private supplementary instruction, especially aspects associated with the use of advancement instruction, the study also demonstrates that issues related to use and effects of private supplementary instruction require additional theories to account for social and cultural factors.Item Investigating Teachers' Experiences with the History of Logarithms: A Collection of Five Case Studies(2006-03-17) Clark, Kathleen Michelle; Graeber, Anna O; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This study investigated five secondary mathematics teachers' efforts to study and use the history of a specific topic. A professional development experience, constructed to reflect the features of effective professional development identified by Garet, Porter, Desimone, Birman, and Yoon (2001) and Smith (2001), was designed to engage teachers in the study of the historical development of logarithms. Modifications of activities found in the Exponentials and Logarithms module (Anderson, Berg, Sebrell, & Smith, 2004), as well as various print and electronic resources, were used during the professional development. Two primary research questions guided the study. First, the study addressed how teachers with different background knowledge and experiences responded to the professional development. Second, the study investigated how teachers' background variables and experience with the professional development influenced the teachers' personal mathematical knowledge and instructional practice. Exploratory case study methodology was used to describe the experiences of five participants; four teaching in a public high school and one teaching in a private day school. Data sources used in the case study included teacher background, attitudes, and content knowledge instruments; participant observation during all professional development sessions and classroom instruction (during a unit on logarithms); and semi-structured interviews. The study found that engagement during the professional development sessions was stronger on the part of participants who reported high participation in previous professional learning activities and who were able to consider alternatives for dealing with the barriers to incorporating the history of logarithms. Similarly, the extent to which participants incorporated the history of logarithms during their instruction was directly related to the extent of their engagement during the professional development. Lastly, the two teachers with the strongest professional development engagement and implementation of the history of logarithms exhibited the most improvement in content knowledge. The study conveyed important information for what Barbin (2000) indicated is essential for qualitatively analyzing "the changes that can occur when history has a place in the teaching of mathematics" (p. 66).Item READING COMPREHENSION COMPONENT PROCESSES IN EARLY ADOLESCENCE(2005-04-07) Cromley, Jennifer Grace; Azevedo, Roger; Human Development; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)A significant proportion of American high school students struggle with reading comprehension. Several different models might help identify the components that have the largest effect on comprehension. The current dissertation study replicates a comparison of the Construction-Integration (CI), Verbal Efficiency (VE), and Inferential Mediation (IM) models of reading comprehension, the latter model based on an extensive literature review. It then tests the fit of four variations on the IM model. Ninth-grade students ranging from 1st to 99th percentile on comprehension completed measures of background knowledge, inferencing, strategies, vocabulary, word reading and comprehension. Researcher-developed measures of background knowledge, inferencing and strategies (based on Cromley & Azevedo, 2004a) showed good reliability with this sample. A subset of the students also completed a think-aloud protocol while reading a passage from an American history textbook. These protocols were transcribed and coded using a coding scheme adapted from Azevedo, Guthrie, and Seibert (2004). As in a preliminary study, the IM model had a much better fit to the data than did the CI or VE models. The original IM Model had the best fit, explaining 66% of the variance in comprehension. All predictors made a significant contribution to comprehension, with vocabulary, background knowledge, and strategies having significant indirect effects. Vocabulary and background knowledge made the greatest total contribution to comprehension. There were large, significant differences between low- and high-comprehending participants on all of the predictor variables, except for word reading accuracy, where there were small but significant differences. The coded think-aloud protocols were largely consistent with the correlations underlying the model. Spearman rank correlations among the codes provide convergent evidence for eleven of the correlations underlying the model. The think-aloud protocols also provided convergent evidence for the validity of the paper-and-pencil measures. The current study validates and refines a new model of reading comprehension. Results suggest that both the direct and indirect effects of the components are important for comprehension. Results also suggest that vocabulary and background knowledge might first be targeted for interventions with 9th grade students who struggle with reading comprehension. Implications for future research are also discussed.