Theses and Dissertations from UMD
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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 give thesis/dissertation in DRUM
More information is available at Theses and Dissertations at University of Maryland Libraries.
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Item Role of Caring in Three Physical Education Teachers' Classroom Environments(2011) Bae, Mihae; Ennis, Catherine D; Kinesiology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Even the most caring teachers need to feel appreciated by their students. Noddings proposed a circle of care in which teachers develop a caring classroom environment and initiate care for students. A positive response from the student is required in order to close the circle of care. Although researchers have described the characteristics of caring teachers, there is little research to examine the diverse ways that students reciprocate. The purpose of the current ethnographic research was to examine the class environments that physical education teachers created for their students. The research question that guided this study was: "What was the place of caring in three physical teachers' class environments." To address the question, I conducted an ethnographic, multi-site, case study involving sixth-grade classes from three different middle schools in a suburban school district. In each school I observed one teacher teach two classes. I used qualitative research to collect class observations and teacher and student interview data, focusing on the identification of interpersonal interactions between teachers and students. At the conclusion of the observation period, the three physical education teachers administered a 15 min. written questionnaire to all the students in their two classes. I also conducted one-on-one interviews with 28 students. After the student interviews, I conducted semi-structured interviews with each teacher. I analyzed data inductively and deductively using open, axial, and selective coding and adopted specific strategies to enhance the trustworthiness and transferability of these findings. Results suggested that the three physical education teachers created and maintained effective classroom environments and held expectations for students associated with learning. However, each teacher's approach to teaching was unique and produced characteristic influences on student learning. The class environments maintained by the teachers led to a wide range of student responses. The students' satisfaction with the classroom environments seemed to be influenced by their interpretation of relationships with their teachers. One physical education teacher in this study facilitated a variety of interpersonal interactions with students assisting each other in building skills and performing. This environment provided for interpersonal exchanges and relationships, closing the circle of care.Item EXAMINING THE RELATION BETWEEN STUDENT EXPECTANCY-VALUE MOTIVATION, ACHIEVEMENT IN MIDDLE-SCHOOL PHYSICAL EDUCATION, AND AFTER-SCHOOL PHYSICAL ACTIVITY PARTICIPATION(2009) Zhu, Xihe; Chen, Ang; Kinesiology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)The expectancy-value theory (Eccles et al., 1983) explains that student motivation is primarily determined by one's expectancy-beliefs, task values, and perception of the task, and that these factors directly influence student achievements and behavior choices. Based on the expectancy-value theory, the purpose of this study sought to unravel the relation among middle-school students' expectancy-value motivation, achievement in physical education, and after-school physical activity participation. Participants consisted of 854 sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students in 13 schools from a large metropolitan school district. Students' expectancy-value motivation was measured using the expectancy-value questionnaire; achievements in physical education was measuring using pre-posttest on psychomotor skill (including badminton striking and basketball dribbling skills) and fitness knowledge; after-school physical activity participation data were collected using three-day Physical Activity Recall. Data were analyzed both quantitatively using inferential statistics and structural equation modeling, and qualitatively using open coding approach. The results of the study suggested that middle-school students' expectancy beliefs and task values were relatively high (~4 on a 5-point scale) and their psychomotor skill (i.e., badminton striking skill) and fitness knowledge significantly improved in physical education over the academic year. Further analyses using structural equation modeling revealed that students' expectancy beliefs significantly predicted their psychomotor achievement, which in turn predicted their after-school physical activity participation. The model explained about 14.6% of variance in psychomotor achievement and 3.3% in students' after-school physical activity participation. Cost is a critical component in the expectancy-value theory. All three dimensions of cost conceptualized by Eccles et al. (1983) were identified in the data. Students' cost conceptions were found associated with task values, not with expectancy beliefs and achievements. Despite the cost, most of the students expressed high willingness to attend physical education for motivational purposes and health benefits from physical activities. The findings of this study imply that students tend to have high expectancy-value motivation in physical education. The motivation is likely to have small but significant predication of psychomotor skill improvement; which, in turn, related with after-school physical activity participation.