Teaching, Learning, Policy & Leadership Theses and Dissertations
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Item PREDICTIVE ACCURACY OF THIRD AND FIFTH GRADERS ON LINGUISTIC AND NON-LINGUISTIC COMPREHENSION MEASURES: THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PERFORMANCE ON GRADUATED PASSAGE QUESTIONS UNDER LISTENING AND READING CONDITIONS AND THE STANDARD PROGRESSIVE MATRICES(1981) Alexander, Patricia; Garner, Ruth; Teaching, Learning, Policy & Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, MD)This study, as an investigation of predictive accuracy, examined the relationship of subjects' performance on a non-linguistic measure of comprehension, the Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices, to their performance on linguistic measures of comprehension, graduated passages and questions from the Barnell-Loft Specific Skills Drawing Conclusions Series. These linguistic passages and questions were presented under silent reading and listening conditions. All third graders and fifth graders at a suburban Maryland parochial school served as the study population from which twenty subjects at each grade level were randomly selected. This sample was comprised of eighteen males and twenty-two females. All subjects received all treatment levels which consisted of four tasks administered in two sessions. Session I included the administration of the Raven's, with the added verbalization of item C-9, and passages and questions presented in a silent reading mode. In Session II all subjects completed passages and questions presented in a listening mode and the Slosson Intelligence Test. The graduated passages and question were contained in Comprehension Inventory I and II which were administered in counterbalanced format. Half of the subjects received Inventory I as the listening task and II as the silent reading task, while half received Inventory I as the silent reading task and II as the listening task. The first question under research in this study was whether there was a relationship between linguistic and non-linguistic predictive accuracy. A multiple correlation technique was used to ascertain the relationship between the Raven's and the listening and silent reading linguistic comprehension measures. A correlation coefficient significantly different from zero was achieved in the comparison of subjects' performance data for these tasks. The second question addressed by this study was whether the relationship between the non-linguistic and the listening linguistic measure of predictive accuracy would be stronger than the relationship between the non-linguistic and the reading linguistic measure of predictive accuracy. Through the use of a partial correlation technique it was determined that the relationship between the Raven's and the listening task was not statistically stronger than the relationship between the Raven's and the silent reading task. Both partial correlations, however, were determined to be significantly different from zero. The third question investigated by this study was whether there was a significant relationship between the Raven's, as a non-linguistic measure of predictive accuracy, and the Slosson, as a linguistic measure of intellig ence. The coefficient produced by the Pearson Product-Moment technique was assessed to be significantly different from zero. Finally, the study sought to ascertain if there were developmental differences in predictive accuracy. At test for related samples produced significant differences for all outcome measures in the direction of the fifth-grade subjects. These findings confirmed the hypothesis that older students would perform the specified tasks at a higher level of predictive accuracy than younger students. Possible explanations of the outcomes of this investigation, and their relationship to research in the areas of language/thought, analogous reasoning, intelligence/cognition, reading/listening and comprehension/prediction were discussed, along with implications for theory, research, classroom and diagnostic practices.Item A Comparison of the Effectiveness of Demonstrations, Verbal Statements, and Hands-on Experiences on Correcting a Misconception of First-Graders Regarding Magnets(1987) Benbow, Ann E.; Lockard, J. David; Teaching, Learning, Policy & Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, MD)The purpose of this study was to compare the relative effectiveness of five instructional interventions which were designed to correct a size-related science misconception in a group of first graders. The particular misconception chosen for the study is the belief that larger magnets are always of greater strength than smaller magnets. These interventions consisted of: a. a demonstration lesson, b. a hands-on lesson, c. a verbal statements lesson, d. a demonstration-plus-verbal statements lesson, and e. a hands-on-plus-verbal statements lesson. At the beginning of each magnet lesson, students were first exposed to evidence contradicting the size-related magnet misconception. This was followed by the introduction of cognitive conflict via the use of a small weak rectangular magnet and a larger strong rectangular magnet to pick up paper clips. Finally, students interacted with two (apparently) identical rectangular magnets of clearly differing strengths. The second major component of each intervention was the use of iron filings and a magnet to "show" lines of force. The purpose of this last activity was to give the students some information about magnets that would assist them in accommodating the events witnessed in the first part of the intervention. Subjects were tested three days before the treatment, one day after treatment to determine change of knowledge effect, then six weeks after treatment as a check for knowledge retention. Six subjects were randomly chosen from each treatment group to be interviewed using a format based upon Novak's Interview-about-Instances (1984) prior to the instruction, and on two occasions (one day, and six weeks) after the instruction. It was hypothesized that a demonstration treatment would result in the highest frequency of students who received a score of 100% on four misconception-related items on the post-test. It was also hypothesized that the demonstration treatment would result in the greatest retention. Analysis of both test scores and interview data indicates that, although there is strong support for the corrective properties of a demonstration which directly confronts the misconception that a necessary direct relation ship exists between magnetic strength and magnet size, a demonstration alone is not more effective than all of the remaining treatments in achieving change of knowledge or retention. Therefore, there is a lack of support for both research hypotheses. Both treatments containing demonstrations, however, were more effective in achieving correction of the size-related misconception than the treatments consisting of a hands-on treatment alone and verbal statements alone.Item The Effects of Instruction in Sentence Combining and Revision on Ninth and Tenth Graders' Explanatory Writing(1989) Horstman, Franklin; Slater, Wayne H.; Teaching, Learning, Policy & Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, MD)In this study, I examined the effects of instruction in sentence combining on three measures of student writing : 1.) syntactic fluency; 2.) overall writing quality; and 3.) sentence -combining ability. Sentence combining is a method of writing instruction in which students rewrite a series of sentences into one syntactically more complex sentence. Two teachers instructed experimental group one (37 students) in sentence combining applied to revision. The same two teachers also instructed experimental group two (37 students) in sentence combining alone. A third teacher instructed the control students (38 students) in the standard ninth-grade English curriculum. To examine syntactic fluency, I analyzed students' writing for words per T-unit, clauses per T-unit, and words per clause. To examine overall writing quality, two trained raters assessed students' writing using forced choice holistic scoring. I also assessed students' sentence-combining ability. On syntactic fluency, the control group demonstrated statistically significant gains for mean number of words per clause. On overall writing quality, the control group also demonstrated statistically significant gains. On sentence-combining ability, both experimental group one and experimental group two demonstrated statistically significant gains. While the results do not support the first two research questions, on sentence-combining ability, the results suggest that ninth-grade writers can be taught sentence combining in a four-week, intensive instructional unit. Additionally, results suggest links between rhetorical and psychological theories and writing. However, the limitations of the results also suggest further sentence-combining research.Item Learning Newton's Second Law Using a Microcomputer Based Laboratory Curriculum(1995) Morse, Robert Alan; Layman, John W.; Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, MD)This study investigated the effect of theory-based Microcomputer Based Laboratory instruction on high school students' understanding of Newton's second law in a high school physics course taught by the teacher-researcher. The study focused on 1) the effect of the theory-based MBL instructional design on student understanding of Newton's second law, 2) on the changes in conceptual understanding that occurred, and 3) on the effect of student learning beliefs on conceptual change. Data sources included pretest and posttest measures of conceptual understanding, audiotape debriefings of students during a seven day unit, and pretest and posttest measures of students' motivational and self-regulated learning beliefs. The design of the instructional unit was based on prior research and theory. It is important to specify the characteristics as well as the content of the knowledge we would like students to construct. Desirable characteristics of physics knowledge are that it be accurate, extendable, integrated with other knowledge, recognized as knowledge, related to experience and experiment, strategic, and available in multiple representations including verbal, graphical, algebraic, pictorial, and story representations. Proponents argue that appropriately designed Microcomputer Based Laboratory instruction can promote construction of such knowledge. The theory-based instructional unit employed real-time computer graphing of force and motion variables in a novel "iconographic" experiment which enabled students to determine the relationship between force and motion variables by simple recognition. The study found that the nature of students' conceptual change was consistent with the mechanisms postulated for MBL instruction, that the short chain of reasoning in the iconographic force and motion experiment allowed students to readily identify and focus on the goals of the experiment rather than be distracted by a profusion of sub-goals, that this instruction is more effective than some traditional instruction and as effective as some other theory-based instruction in Newton's second law, based on Force Concept Inventory (Hestenes, Wells, & Swackhamer, 1992) and Force and Motion Concept test (Thornton, 1992a) scores. The study failed to achieve the goal of relating motivational, cognitive and performance measures using the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (Pintrich & DeGroot, 1990).Item TEACHERS' PEDACOGICAL CONTENT KNOWLEDGE OF RECURSION(1995) Neagoy, Monica M. M.; Fey, James T.; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, MD)"Pedagogical Content Knowledge" (PCK) consists of topic-level knowledge of learners, of learning, and of the most useful forms of representation of ideas, the most powerful analogies, illustrations, examples, explanations, and demonstrations --in a word, the ways of representing and formulating the subject that makes it comprehensible to others" (Shulman, 1986). Recursion is a process that permeates many aspects of the real world-both natural and man-made. In discrete mathernatics, recursion is a powerful idea, a problem solving strategy that enables us to describe or predict future results as a function of past results. The purpose of this study was to explore the nature of high school teachers' PCK of recursion prior to, and as a result of, their participation in a carefully designed summer institute that focused on the important emerging concept of discrete dynamical systems. The study also explored how teachers plan to use this knowledge in teaching recursion. The framework for studying teachers' PCK was one inspired by Shulman's model ( 1987), but modified in its connectedness among components and its dynamics of change. The in-service program that served this study was the 1991 Summer Institute in Mathematics Modeling with Discrete Mathematics, (SIMM) offered at Georgetown University and partially funded by NSF. Forty high school math teachers from Washington metropolitan area schools, who attended the SIMM were the subjects of this research. The instruments that helped assess the nature and growth of teachers' PCK as a result of the SIMM intervention were: A personal data questionnaire, a pretest, and a post-test; follow-up, one-on-one interviews were conducted with a random sample of nine teachers. The test results and interview transcripts were analyzed in terms of teachers' subject matter and pedagogical knowledge (knowledge of teaching and learning) of recursion: For that purpose, this study developed an original model of six categories of knowledge for each domain. Overall, teachers' PCK of recursion, as exhibited by their performance on the totality of the test items, grew as a result of the in-service intervention. The only category in which teachers' knowledge showed no growth was Student Errors.Item THE EFFECTS OF AN EXEMPLARY FOURTH-GRADE TEACHER'S EXPECTATIONS AND A SATISFACTORY FOURTH-GRADE TEACHER'S EXPECTATIONS ON THE READING INSTRUCTION PROVIDED TO HIGHAND LOW-ACHIEVING STUDENTS: AN ETHNOGRAPHIC STUDY(1989) McCallum, Peter Littleton; Hebeler, Jean R.; Teaching, Learning, Policy & Leadership; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, MD)Item An Exploratory Case Study of the Formal and Informal Discipline Policies Used in Selected Elementary School Classrooms(1999) Taylor-Cox, Jennifer; Andrews, J. Edward; Education; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, MD)The broad aim of this study was to examine the dynamics of classroom discipline policy through the use of the micropolitical model of interaction. While this study explored classroom di scipline policies utilizing the micropolitical perspective, it was classroom discipline that was the center of interest in this research. The template that framed and guided the exploration of classroom discipline included enactment, conveyance, realization, and evaluation as the particular phases of policy development. A distinctive feature of this study was the focus on the explicit, stated policies and the more subtle but equally important "dominant patterns of practice" in the classroom. This exploratory case study of the formal and informal discipline policies used in selected elementary school classrooms was a qualitative research endeavor. The data sources included in-depth guided interviews and semi-structured classroom observations, supplemented by informal interviews and pertinent printed material. The methods of data analysis involved categorizing, distilling themes, and arraying chains of evidence. The findings of this case study involved the ways in which teachers and students assert power and control; conflicts are manifest; compromises are used; protection is fundamental; and the classroom context affects, hinders, and constructs social order in the classroom. The views, behaviors, and verbal exchanges of the teachers and students concerning discipline were paramount to the analyses of the discipline policies used in the selected elementary school classrooms. The conclusions of this case study were that the micropolitical model of interaction is a productive, yet unrefined conceptual framework for the study of classroom discipline; discipline policies are teacher-centered, noise-related, and community-focused; the dominant mechanisms for teacher-based control are rewards and punishments; the dominant outcome of conflict and assertions of power is the brokering of policies; compromises are used to reduce conflicts and produce student compliance; intentions and realities pose a paradox; and the influence from parents is an important factor.Item An Investigation of the Effects of Tutoring Preschool Handicapped Children Upon the Self-Concept and Academic Achievement of Fifth and Sixth Grade Elementary School Students(1985) Keener, Nancy D.; Heidelbach, Ruth; Curriculum; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, MD)The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of tutoring preschool-age handicapped students upon the self-concept and academic achivement of upper elementary age students. Forty fifth/sixth grad students were randomly assigned to treatment and control groups. The twenty students in the treatment group served for sixteen weeks as tutors to sixteen preschool handicapped children two to five years of age. This treatment group was divided into two different subtreatment and control groups. This grouping made it possible to study the effect first, of praise upon the tutor's self-concept and/or academic performance and second, the effect of the tutor planning, teaching and evaluating his/her own teaching sessions. The study also examined the effect upon self-concept and academic progress of (1) the number of sessions taught, (2) the initial attitude of the tutor toward his tutee, (3) observable progress made by the tutee, and (4) initial low self-concept and/or low academic performance. The classroom teacher's estimate of the tutor's academic performance and self-concept was compared to the student's estimate of his/her self-concept and his/her academic performance. Gains made following pre and post administrations of The Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale and as reflected by grade point averages provided the basic data for the study. Data was analyzed using a two-tailed t test, Pearson Product Moment Correlations, and multiple linear regression. Results of the analysis indicated that (1) students in the treatment group maintained higher grades than students not involved in tutoring a preschool student, (2) grades of tutors who spent more time with their tutees dropped, (3) lower pre self-concept scores were associated with higher tutor self-concept gain scores, (4) the classroom teacher's prejudgement of the student's self-concept correlated significantly with the tutor's final self-concept score, and (5) a high correlation existed between the teacher's judgement of the tutor's self-concept and his/her judgement of the tutor 's academic ability. Noting the apparent strong influence of the classroom teacher upon a student's concept of himself, we should perhaps closely examine the strong initial correlation between the teacher's view of the child's self-concept and the level of academic performance within which she sees him functioning. Perhaps it would be more reasonable to consider providing students with several components to determine their academic performance. The most influential element with respect to both grades and self-concept appeared to be an attachment factor which occurred as a friendship developed between the tutor and tutee.Item The Effect of Logo (Turtle Graphics) on the Problem Solving Strategies Used by Fourth Grade Children(1984) Bamberger, Honi Joyce; Johnson, Martin L.; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, MD)The major purpose of this study was to determine the effect of learning the programming language Logo on the problem solving strategies used by fourth grade children while they solved mathematical word problems without a computer. A secondary purpose was to investigate whether children who had learned to program with Logo would regard mathematics more favorably as measured by a mathematics attitude survey. This eleven-week study was designed to teach Terrapin Logo (Turtle Graphics) to 15 out of a total of 30 fourth grade children. The study compared the audiotaped and written responses to a four-question problem solving posttest to determine which strategies were used by each group and whether the Logo group applied the strategies that they had been taught during their programming experience when solving non-computer problems. The Logo curriculum, written by the investigator, focused on teaching children the basic commands of the language while stressing the need to plan a procedure before beginning it, breaking a large idea into more manageable parts, guessing and then checking work and finally checking over the finished product. Some group instruction occurred, but individual or paired instruction was emphasized. Guided discovery ensured that strategies were being used and commands correctly applied. The statistical analysis consisted of computing means and standard deviations on individuals' attitude responses and a t-test was performed on these means. Chi-square critical values were computed for the process coding sequence, as well as t values. The following results were obtained from the study: 1. On the attitude measure significant differences were found only between the experimental and control groups on their general attidude toward school. 2. Statistically significant differences occurred on several posttest problems using the strategies of checking and looking back, as well as making an error and then immediately correcting it. The investigator concluded that the strategies of checking and looking back over one's work and correcting an error were transferred by the experimental group when solving noncomputer word problems. Several important factors may have contributed to the lack of significant differences elsewhere. Among them are 1) short duration of the study, 2) confusion over application of computer strategies to mathematical problems, 3) limitations of process coding sequence, and 4) population size.Item An Investigation of Young Children's Dyadic Social Problem-Solving Strategies Using Convergent and Divergent Computer Software Formats(1989) Wilson, Josephine Coleman; Fein, Greta G.; Curriculum and Instruction; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, MD)This study compared the social problem-solving strategies of 24 peer dyads using convergent and divergent computer software formats. Randomly paired same-sex, same-age preschool and kindergarten dyads were videotaped on two separate days using either a convergent or a divergent computer software format. Measures of computer time, social interactions, cooperation strategies, conflict resolution strategies, and the flexible use of these strategies were computed for each computer software format. A series of multivariate analyses of variance with repeated measures on software conditions were performed to examine the contributions of age, software, and their interaction to these measures. Dyads in the divergent condition laughed more and divided responsibility for the task less than did children in the convergent condition. Analyses revealed a significant multivariate software effect for cooperation strategies. Significant multivariate age x software interaction also appeared for cooperation strategies and flexibility. Older children in the convergent condition helped more and showed more flexibility than did younger children; but in the divergent condition, the direction of these differences were reversed. These findings suggest that even in children as young as 4-years-old cooperative strategies are adapted to the problem at hand. Social interactions are differentiated and used selectively for divergent and convergent situations. The implications of these results for early childhood educators and researchers interested in optimizing software use for young children are discussed.