Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Educational models'

Intervention assistance models of special education service delivery are an alternative to traditional refer-test-place models. They are designed to promote problem solving and problem ownership among teachess regarding to difficult-to-teach students, and to reduce unnecessary special education referrals and placements. This study investigated teachers' perceptions of problem ownership as measured by their responses to vignettes which depicted students exhibiting academic and/or behavioral difficulties. The methods and results of the pilot study for this study are also presented. Participants in the present study included teachers from both intervention assistance and traditional model schools. Generalizability theory was used to estimate variance components at the model and the individual levels. Results indicated that no variance in teachers' perceptions of problem ownership was accounted for by different service delivery models. A substantial portion of variance was related to differences among individual teachers. However, the largest source of variance was the vignette-by-teacher interaction. Special education referral and placement practices were also investigated. Referral and placement rates across intervention assistance schools were compared with rates across traditional schools. Both referral and placement rates were significantly lower across intervention assistance than across traditional model schools. The proportion of placements to referrals was also compared between models. Results provided no evidence to indicate that the proportion of placements to referrals differs between the two models. Findings are summarized and discussed, and their implications for future practice and research are examined.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, School of Education, 2007.
Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Nov. 17, 2008). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-12, Section: A, page: 4491. Advisers: Thomas Schwen; Frank Lester.

This study is a hermeneutic phenomenology focused on a virtual high school in Central Louisiana. Because virtual education is growing quickly, and student performance in virtual high schools is inconsistent, the study seeks to provide a conceptual model from which to design virtual school curricula and develop virtual school teaches. The proposed model is grounded in three theoretical frameworks and validated through the experience of virtual school teachers. The theoretical frameworks informing the study are the Community of Inquiry model, Sense of Community theory, and the Theory of Transactional Distance. The research participants’ experiences are used to validate the proposed conceptual model for virtual high school course development. The result is a conceptual model that can be used by virtual high school course designers to guide the development of virtual school curricula.

The study can also be used to guide the development of strategies for delivering online courses and conducting professional development in a virtual learning environment. The study makes four major findings. The study finds virtual high school students vary in their motivation and autonomy. The study finds the teacher-student relationship to more individualized in the virtual school than in the traditional school. The study finds that virtual high school students do not perceive value in virtual learning communities. Finally, the study finds that virtual school teachers experience with technology is positive, but their students often experience trouble with technology. The study uses these findings to suggest a conceptual model from which to develop virtual high school curricula and teach virtual high school classes.

Catholic education is at a crossroads in the United States, as rising tuition costs present significant challenges to many families’ financial resources. At the very least, affording a Catholic education calls for a reprioritization of expenses. However, in many cases, high tuition costs leave parents with no recourse but to remove their children from Catholic schools. As costs and tuition climb, only those with significant financial resources will be able to attend Catholic schools. Hence, maintaining the foundational mission of Catholic education, namely to provide access to education for the poor and oppressed, threatens to become impossible due to the inadequate revenue from tuition-dependant financial models used by Catholic school administrations. Thus, Catholic schools need a critical rethinking of their financial model in order to make Catholic education accessible to all. In order to address the financial crisis in Catholic education, it is first important to understand the various forces that influence the funding of Catholic schools. This study addresses this need by asking the question: “What are the current financial models of Catholic education?” Based on a review of the current literature, and including data from a survey of current Catholic diocesan superintendents, this study defines the current financial models used in contemporary Catholic schools in the U.S. by asking the following questions: What are the parameters or conditions of the model? Who are the beneficiaries of the model? What is the social goal or purpose of the model? What is the strength of the model? What are the weaknesses of the model? Through a summary of the survey findings, recommendations begin to emerge that are presented in the following three categories: (a) a need for a purposeful, strategic, comprehensive intentionality in the application of the various financial models available, (b) a need to reframe the leadership model for financing Catholic schools, and (c) a need to review and update the current decentralized model in Catholic education.

Leadership coaching is a process for principals who seek to become transformational leaders within their field. Leadership coaching involves high levels of reflective practices and additional tools for leaders to utilize to enhance their effective leadership practices. The purpose of this study was to identify coaching models that would be critical in guiding principals to become transformational leaders. The study identified three coaching models for principals to share their beliefs about coaching and effective leadership practices. The coaching models supported the concept of helping effective leaders reach their next level of competence with clarified thinking or meaningful action to achieve ongoing goals. This was a qualitative phenomenography research study. The researcher conducted interviews with 15 K-8 principals by sharing scenarios of leaders receiving support from three different coaching models. The coaching models utilized were transforming coaching, cognitive coaching and peer coaching. The following questions were addressed:

RQ1. What do principals see as effective principal coaching practices?

RQ2. How do principals view coaching to improve their leadership practices?

RQ3. How do principals define leadership coaching and effective leadership strategies?

An analysis of the qualitative data revealed the following recommendations. It is recommended school districts provide principals coaching support to become transformational leaders by utilizing effective coaching models. It is recommended school districts support a coaching model providing dedicated time to principals by including job embedded professional development on effective leadership practices. It is recommended a new leadership model be developed and utilized to support principals’ growth in leadership skills. This new model might be titled the Blended Leadership model and it would include an external coach who would develop action plans and action steps with leaders to move an initiative forward in the organization. The other component of the Blended Leadership Model would be to incorporate a peer coach as internal support with structured time for principals to meet in each other’s schools to walk through classrooms, and ask open ended questions to clarify principals’ thinking, and problem solve. The peer coach component of the Blended Model would promote collegiality, trust and positive culture.

The current approach to assessing the educational quality applicable to assessing objects and processes formed and realized in producing spheres is widely spread. However, as education is a much more complicated anthropological, social and cultural object in comparison to that of production, the above mentioned approach is least effective. In education both \"strong\" and \"weak\" models are used. There do not exist measurement instruments for accurate assessing mild results. Self control, expert assessing method and portfolio are being put forward.

Adaptive Educational Systems (AES) will become increasingly important in teaching and learning environments over the next decade, as students demand more personalised experiences. These systems reveal, hide, modify and recommend content that is most appropriate for the current user. To do this they rely on an accurate model of the student, their knowledge, experience and goals. With a growing variety of developers of these systems there are more situations where an experienced student will approach a new adaptive system, and it will not have any user model data with which to adapt; this is known as the cold-start problem. An answer to this is shared user modelling, where data about the student is communicated between adaptive applications. This task becomes more complicated when the applications measure the user in very different ways and therefore have different models to represent the user. This thesis proposes the design of an intermediary user model system that uses authored rules to map between the user model attributes used by different applications to measure the user. A prototype implementation of this theoretical framework is presented here, called the Interactionally-Diverse Intermediary User Modelling System, or IDIUMS. Two evaluations of IDIUMS were performed: a simulation and a user trial. The simulation demonstrated that the rule mapping functions as expected, producing user models that are still representative of the user, in relation to all other user models. The user trial showed that use of IDIUMS did not result in the adaptive applications presenting content at a more appropriate level, as perceived by the user. In determining why the user trial did not demonstrate appropriate adaptations, a review of evaluation methodologies in the AES community was undertaken. This showed that the method implemented for the user trial was in the second most common category of sources of evaluation data, behind expert-measured evaluations like pre-post test.

A standard analysis of prostate cancer biochemical failure data is done by conducting two approaches in which risk factors or covariates are measured. Cox regression and discrete-time survival models were compared under different attributes: sample size, time periods, and parameters in the model. The person-period data was reconstructed when examining the same data in discrete-time survival model. Twenty-four numerical examples covering a variety of sample sizes, time periods, and number of parameters displayed the closeness of Cox regression and discrete-time survival methods in situations typical of the cancer study.

Community colleges across the nation are under increasing pressure to find ways to improve the rate of which students, placed in remediation, complete college-level coursework. The attrition of students placed into the lowest levels of developmental mathematics has been a challenge for many colleges to overcome. Research has well recorded the lack of progress of students placed three to four levels below a transfer-level course. Yet, few studies have compared the outcome of similar students in accelerated programs designed to shorten the pathways through remediation. This study focused on students placed in the lowest levels of remediation at two colleges offering consecutive sequences of course-redesign and compression models of acceleration. Using multivariate analyses, the comparative effect on completion rates of students accelerated through two different developmental math acceleration programs from two different colleges within a four year period (2013–2017) were examined. Moreover, this study used student background characteristics, math placement and math acceleration model to predict developmental and college level math course completion using logistic regression analysis.

The results of this study suggest students placed in developmental mathematics who are in an accelerated pathway have decreased time to complete remediation and a transfer-level math course. Findings indicate course-redesign acceleration model yielded more statistically significant improvements in transfer-level math and developmental math completion rates for first-generation students, as well as students placed in both low-level and mid-level remediation. The compression model of acceleration showed significant improvement in completion rates for students placed in mid-level remediation yet results were mixed for students placed in low-level remediation. Students in consecutive acceleration courses were most likely to complete a transfer-level math course, and historically underrepresented minority students were more likely to complete remediation, under certain circumstances, in the compression acceleration model.

These findings inform the college administrators on the potential of sequential accelerated programs. The implications of these results contribute to redesigning academic programs and support current developmental policy reforms. Community colleges are encouraged to consider the recommendations in this study, such as integrating course redesign in California Assembly Bill 705 and California Community College Guided Pathways, to help non-traditional students who are most often placed into the lowest levels of remediation.

Historically, the doctoral dissertation has had two purposes: to train young scholars in proper research methodology, and to contribute original findings to research. However, some feel that the traditional dissertation format falls short of these goals for two reasons. First, the majority of dissertations never get published in academic journals, and dissertations are unlikely to get cited in academic articles. Second, many students in doctoral programs see little authenticity in traditional dissertations because the writing style and process differ from that of academic articles. In response to these concerns, many Instructional Technology programs have implemented alternative dissertation formats. This study used survey data to investigate the benefits, challenges, perceptions and current practices of alternative dissertation formats in Instructional Technology. Online surveys were sent to 74 students, 61 alumni, and 38 faculty of Instructional Technology programs in 2010, and 78 students, 43 alumni, and 12 department representatives in 2014. Data were analyzed using qualitative and quantitative methods. Surveys found that alumni who completed alternative dissertation formats received more citations for their dissertations than those who completed traditional dissertations, showing that alternative dissertations increase the likelihood of impact. Additionally, respondents reported that alternative dissertation formats facilitate authenticity and collaboration, and prepare students for a career in academia. However, some participants perceived alternative dissertations as less rigorous than traditional dissertations, with ambiguous requirements and expectations of quality. More research is needed in order to understand current practices for alternative dissertation formats in Instructional Technology.

Previous research has indicated that school psychologists have greater job satisfaction when they engage in more intervention and consultation activities and fewer assessment activities. The use of response to intervention (RTI) as a way to identify specific learning disabilities is a recent development in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act that involves more intervention activities for school psychologists and provides earlier interventions for students. The way that RTI is implemented may affect job satisfaction of school psychologists. Grounded in the theory of work adjustment, this study used a causal comparative design to examine if there is a significant difference between 2 models of RTI and job satisfaction of school psychologists in a southwestern US state. Survey data were collected using the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire from a convenience sample of school psychologists using a prescriptive model (leading to decisions of eligibility) of RTI (n = 26) and those using a flexible model (interventions and assessments to determine eligibility) of RTI (n = 26). ANOVA was conducted to determine if there were significant differences in school psychologists' job satisfaction, by group (flexible RTI vs. prescriptive RTI), years of experience (less than 6 years vs. 6 years or more), age (less than 40 years vs. 40 years and older), and gender (male vs. female). Results revealed similar levels of job satisfaction for school psychologists using both flexible and prescriptive models of RTI. Findings are important because they provide information about establishing and maintaining job satisfaction of school psychologists. This study may influence social change by assisting school districts in making decisions about RTI that directly impact educational outcomes for students.

The traditional, full-time MBA program environment has become increasingly tumultuous. The many pressures facing business schools, from declining interest of applicants to the burgeoning number of schools and degree formats, have led many to predict that the model cannot continue as is and is ripe for change. Many believe consolidation in the business school marketplace is inevitable and survival is not guaranteed.

Business schools instruct students that, in today’s competitive environment, companies must be able to adapt and quickly respond to changes in the business environment. However, business schools do not seem to have practiced what they preached. Although most business schools would say that they are continuously improving the degree, they likely would agree that most of the changes have been incremental and that the traditional MBA program has remained largely unchanged since its inception. The primary purpose of this study is to explore how the full-time MBA program might be transformed by seeing how four highly ranked business schools would view innovations developed by two leading business schools and whether reengineering the educational model also transforms the business model.

There is a strongly held belief that the traditional two-year, in-person MBA will continue to be relevant but may be sustained only by the top-20 schools. The hundreds of other business schools will be forced to adapt, but the degree and urgency to which they do may vary based on their perception of the school’s standing and their willingness to challenge existing beliefs around their brand image, pride of creation, and entrenched incentives.

Change and adopting innovation do not guarantee success. Likewise, doing nothing does not guarantee failure. Change, however, is inevitable and might happen quicker than business schools anticipate because of market forces. Business schools that have the most to lose already have begun experimenting with innovation outside their reputation-based full-time program. Should the expertise built and lessons learned from this experimentation be incorporated into their full-time programs, the established schools may witness a new pecking order.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Environmental issues are complex and understanding them involves integration of different areas of knowledge, feedback and time delays, however strategies to cope with complexity are not often used or taught in environmental education. The aim of this thesis is to examine the benefit of three such strategies for environmental education: multiple external representations, learning from models, and collaborative learning. The socio-environmental system modelled was visitor impact in a national park in Australia. Students in Year 9 and 10 from two schools were given a text description (Text group) and either a system dynamics model (SDM group), an agent-based model (ABM group), or both models (SDM & ABM group). This experimental design allowed learning outcomes (environmental and system dynamics knowledge, and understanding of the socio-environmental system) and use of the model(s) (in terms of the proportion of time spent on each screen, activities, and strategies) to be compared in each learning environment (individual and collaborative). Multiple external representations were the most successful strategy in the individual learning environment in terms of increases in environmental knowledge. However, students given only the system dynamics model had greater understanding of the system, and students given only the agent-based model increased environmental knowledge easily identified in the animated representation. Prior knowledge, patterns of use, strategies for changing variables and the representational affordances of the models explained some of these differences. In particular, prior knowledge was an important indicator of how students coordinated use of the models in the SDM & ABM group. Learning with a system dynamics model was the most successful strategy for students in the collaborative learning environment. Differences between the learning environments were detected in all groups with respect to both learning outcomes and use of the models due to prior knowledge, interrogation of the models, and the learning environments themselves. These experiments have provided evidence that strategies for understanding complex systems provide viable methods of communicating complex ideas to school-aged students with varying levels of prior knowledge. In particular, multiple external representations provided students with flexibility in how they learned; models allowed students to experiment with a system otherwise not allowed; and a collaborative learning environment facilitated students’ interpretation of a system dynamics model.

The purpose of this study was to determine if retention of first-year college students was influenced by specific variables and programs at one Midwest community college. The study was focused on responses from the Community College Survey of Student Engagement (CCSSE) (Center for Community College Student Engagement, 2013) and peer mentoring program data. Data and retention were measured using Wald chi-square tests and t-tests, respectively. The CCSSE benchmarks were Academic Challenge, Active and Collaborative Learning, Student Effort, Student-Faculty Interactions, and Support for Learners. Benchmarks were analyzed using student variables age, gender, working for pay, student loans, and race/ethnicity. Benchmarks titled Student Effort and Support for Learners had a significant impact on retention. The relevance of this finding became clear through analyzing specific student variables to determine their impact on each specific benchmark. Also investigated were the retention rates of first-time students who participated in the college’s peer mentoring program and first-time students who did not participate in the college’s peer mentoring program. Following analysis of the data, there was a statistical difference in the retention rates of first-year, peer-mentored students and non-peer mentored, first-year students. The peer mentoring program was also studied by analyzing the effects peer mentoring had on students who were on academic probation. No statistically significant difference was found in retention rates of students who remained on academic probation and their peers who had moved off probation. Data for all aspects of peer mentoring suggested program consistency positively affects retention rates of first-year students.

Accountability measures, by way of standardized curriculum and assessments, have played a large part in the attempt to ensure that students from all backgrounds receive equal access to quality education. However, the inherent disadvantage of a standardized system is the implied assumption that all students come in with the same knowledge, learn at the same pace, and learn the same way. In the wake of an increasingly diverse K-12 population, educational researchers, learning theorists, and practitioners agree that the concept of the average student is, in fact, a myth. Students come to school with different needs, norms, interests, cultural behavior, knowledge, motivations, and skill sets. In order for education to properly address the issue of equity, the issue of learner variance must first be attended to.

In 2010, the U.S. Department of Education released its educational plan encouraging teachers to address student variance through more inclusive learning environments. The report highlighted Blended Learning (BL) and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) as promising practices in enabling, motivating, and inspiring all students to achieve regardless of background, language, or disability. Research suggests that the combination of these two approaches could lead to transformative teaching practices that dramatically impact student learning. However, the efficacy of such a model has yet to be tested.

This study tested the efficacy of a Blended Universal Design for Learning (BUDL) model in improving student outcomes. An experimental design was used to explore the impact of a two-week BUDL intervention in an accelerated 7 ^th grade math class. The effect on student achievement, engagement, and perception was measured. Both quantitative and qualitative data were collected. Though results from the study were statistically insignificant, possible positive associations between a BUDL intervention and student achievement, engagement, and perception emerged. Considerations for clinical significance, suggestions for improvement on the BUDL model, and implications for future research are discussed.

The purpose of this quantitative study was to provide insight to the perspectives of leaders and individuals in authority within the Archdiocese of Los Angeles system of Catholic parochial schools regarding current models of governance, levels of authority, and decision-making processes. There is a lack of clearly-defined levels of decision-making authority from the bishops to the Archdiocesan Department of Catholic Schools down to the individual schools. The pastors, principals, and Department of Catholic Schools personnel shared their perspectives of current governance structures and elements of three emerging alternative governance models. Data were analyzed through a factor analysis of the survey items to explore the strength of the three categories of the governance models represented by the three groups of questions. Next, the descriptive statistics of the specific questions relating to each of the three governance models and community voice were compiled. A Cronbach’s alpha was calculated for each group of questions to measure internal consistency. In order to explore relationships between perceptions among the three independent variable groups (pastors, principals, and Department of Catholic Schools personnel), a Chisquare analysis was run for each of the questions on an ordinal scale. The study showed significant differences in participant responses between the three groups surveyed. However, there was agreement that community voice must be incorporated into governance, but only in a consultative manner. There was also agreement that a strong governing presence at the central office would be beneficial.

In 2011, Oregon was one of many states in the U.S. consolidating their education governance around an early learning, K-12, and postsecondary hub. This study uses legislator-voting data to investigate the relationship between this consolidated model and endogenous policy formulation processes. This study employs a separable temporal exponential random graph model (STERGM) to investigate how an education governance shift toward consolidated authority relates to bipartisan outcomes for education-related bills over time. Oregon legislator voting networks were analyzed for cohesion, centrality, and community detection measures, as well as by legislator attributes (e.g. gender, party, and title) to test the association they had on the likelihood of forming ties with other legislators. Finally, to study the relationship of bipartisanship with legislators’ likelihood to vote commonly, I added the legislators’ political party attributes within dyads to analyze the association that having different political parties had on legislators’ common votes. The results highlight evidence of legislator networks that were very dense at each time point included in the study, with a high likelihood of forming ties. However, when Oregon shifted to centralized education governance model their legislator networks became more distributed and cohesive when compared to other years included in the longitudinal study. It is possible that such a shift prompted collaboration among legislators resulting in mutuality that increased the likelihood for underrepresented groups of legislators (e.g. females and republicans) to vote commonly with their colleagues. Aligned with previous research, this study found that centralized governing bodies reinforced by political legislation provided collaborative initiatives for the legislative community. Attending to bipartisan voting patterns dynamically through a governance shift is a valuable investigation that will provide nuanced inferences about education governance and policymaking for states making similar consolidated governance shifts in the future.

The future of nursing education and the education of the next generation of professional nurses must be empowered through the expertise of qualified nurse educators and administrators in nursing programs across the country. Organizational leaders in higher education organizations must incorporate structural empowerment strategies to address the future nurse leaders in the midst of an extreme deficiency of qualified nurse faculty members to lead nursing education and the lack of effective structural empowerment models required within the context of nursing education programs. Changes in nursing education and the academic environment have the impending challenge of safeguarding and developing future nurse leaders for the upcoming nursing profession. The problem addressed in this study was the perspective of nursing educators concerning structural empowerment programs to enhance leadership skills was unknown. The purpose of this qualitative multiple case study was to address the lack of structural empowerment strategies in many nursing programs from the perspective of nursing faculty and administrators regarding what constitutes full structural empowerment. The unit of analysis was nursing programs in state funded academic organizations of higher education. The participants of the study included full-time nursing faculty members and nurse administrators in two nursing programs located in the Mountain West region of the United States. Semi-structured interviews of nurse faculty and nurse administrators were conducted to gather data about their perceptions of structural empowerment strategies that exist in these academic organizations and how these strategies constrain or enhance their leadership practices. The data collected were analyzed into themes and patterns. The findings revealed 12 themes pertaining to the achievement of structural empowerment. Nursing faculty members and administrators have access to empowerment through different processes and structures within the organization. Nurse faculty perceived a desire for greater autonomy with accountability in the classroom and more inclusion in decision making. Nurse administrators suggested constant review of policies and that the organizational structure was a powerful tool in influencing leadership potential. Further research is needed to expand the sample population, provide quantitative evidence on the impact of structural empowerment strategies on faculty motivation, and obtain the views of students on how these strategies impact learning.

In this dissertation, several approaches I have taken to build upon the student learning model are described. There are two focuses of this dissertation. The first focus is on improving the accuracy with which future student knowledge and performance can be predicted by individualizing the model to each student. The second focus is to predict how different educational content and tutorial strategies will influence student learning. The two focuses are complimentary but are approached from slightly different directions. I have found that Bayesian Networks, based on belief propagation, are strong at achieving the goals of both focuses. In prediction, they excel at capturing the temporal nature of data produced where student knowledge is changing over time. This concept of state change over time is very difficult to capture with classical machine learning approaches. Interpretability is also hard to come by with classical machine learning approaches; however, it is one of the strengths of Bayesian models and aids in studying the direct influence of various factors on learning. The domain in which these models are being studied is the domain of computer tutoring systems, software which uses artificial intelligence to enhance computer based tutorial instruction. These systems are growing in relevance. At their best they have been shown to achieve the same educational gain as one on one human interaction. Computer tutors have also received the attention of White House, which mentioned an tutoring platform called ASSISTments in its National Educational Technology Plan. With the fast paced adoption of these data driven systems it is important to learn how to improve the educational effectiveness of these systems by making sense of the data that is being generated from them. The studies in this proposal use data from these educational systems which primarily teach topics of Geometry and Algebra but can be applied to any domain with clearly defined sub-skills and dichotomous student response data. One of the intended impacts of this work is for these knowledge modeling contributions to facilitate the move towards computer adaptive learning in much the same way that Item Response Theory models facilitated the move towards computer adaptive testing.

The primary purpose of this study is to compare the six models (cross-sectional, two-wave, and multiwave, with and without controls) and determine which of the models most appropriately estimates school effects. For a fair and adequate evaluation of school effects, this study considers the following requirements of an appropriate analytical model. First, a model should have controls for students' background characteristics. Without controlling for the initial differences of students, one may not analyze the between-school differences appropriately, as students are not randomly assigned to schools. Second, a model should explicitly address individual change and growth rather than status, because students' learning and growth is the primary goal of schooling. In other words, studies should be longitudinal rather than cross-sectional. Most researches, however, have employed cross-sectional models because empirical methods of measuring change have been considered inappropriate and invalid. This study argues that the discussions about measuring change have been unjustifiably restricted to the two-wave model. It supports the idea of a more recent longitudinal approach to the measurement of change. That is, one can estimate the individual growth more accurately using multiwave data. Third, a model should accommodate the hierarchical characteristics of school data because schooling is a multilevel process. This study employs an Hierarchical Linear Model (HLM) as a basic methodological tool to analyze the data. The subjects of the study were 648 elementary students in 26 schools. The scores on three subtests of Canadian Tests of Basic Skills (CTBS) were collected for this grade cohort across three years (grades 5, 6 and 7). The between-school differences were analyzed using the six models previously mentioned. Students' general cognitive ability (CCAT) and gender were employed as the controls for background characteristics. Schools differed significantly in their average levels of academic achievement at grade 7 across the three subtests of CTBS. Schools also differed significantly in their average rates of growth in mathematics and reading between grades 5 and 7. One interesting finding was that the bias of the unadjusted model against adjusted model for the multiwave design was not as large as that for the cross-sectional design. Because the multiwave model deals with student growth explicitly and growth can be reliably estimated for some subject areas, even without controls for student intake, this study concluded that the multiwave models are a better design to estimate school effects. This study also discusses some practical implications and makes suggestions for further studies of school effects.
Education, Faculty of
Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of
Graduate

The purpose of this study was examine a construct, relationship perceptions of the protégé by comparing t score means of the mentoring relationship and other proximal relationships-mother, father, peers, and teachers. The study targeted (a) Black adolescent males, (b) ages 12 to 17 years old, (c) enrolled in grades seven through 11 in school, and (d) involved a community-based mentoring program in suburban Washington, DC, which includes parts of Maryland. A nonintervention cross-sectional quantitative study design was used to examine the construct of perceived relationships of the protégé by comparing t score means from data collected using the Clinical Assessment of Interpersonal Relationships (a context-dependent, Likert-type, scale composed of five relationship scales of 35 items each). Three research questions guiding the study were: How does the protégé rate the mentoring relationship compared with either parental relationship? How does the protégé rate the mentoring relationship compared with the peers’ relationship? and How does the protégé rate the mentoring relationship compared with the teachers’ relationship? The sample consisted of 13 Black adolescent males (n = 13). The mentoring relationship received significantly higher ratings than the proximal relationships with the exception of the father relationship. Adolescents 12 to 15 years old rated the mentoring relationship higher than the proximal relationships but shifted higher ratings to the parental relationship during ages 16 to17 years old. It was recommended that mentors be instructed regarding (a) role relationships, (b) proper boundaries, (c) collaborating with protégé in planning the mentoring experience, and (d) the importance of mutual respect.

The virtual 3D world of Second Life continues to grow as an educational platform for higher education. Instructional designers and faculty designers by assignment in this multi-case study described the constructivist instructional strategies, design models, and processes, utilized to create constructivist collaborative-learning environments in Second Life. A gap was identified in the literature surrounding the use of constructivist design and the effects on various alternative-learning environments, such as Second Life. Ten participants from higher education were purposively chosen to participate in the study. All of the 10 participants met the criteria that included five years experience in instructional design and two years experience designing in Second Life. Five participants were instructional designers and the other five were faculty designers by assignment. Data were collected from four sources that included in-depth semi-structured participant interviews, an observational protocol guide, and documents. The same observation protocol guide was used to examine Second Life sites while the participants were present. The study identified the instructional design models, processes, strategies, advantages, and challenges for instructional design in Second Life. Included in the findings is an instructional design model for use in virtual worlds such as Second Life. .

In this mixed methods study, the researcher analyzed three school years of third through fifth-grade students’ reading scores on the NWEA MAP reading test to determine possible differences in students’ reading growth relative to the instructional delivery model used to provide Corrective Reading as supplemental reading intervention. Students received Corrective Reading intervention with the classroom teacher, the after-school teacher (both large groups), or in small-groups with the Title I Reading Teacher.

Five elementary school principals and 15 teachers answered interview questions related to experiences with Corrective Reading, perceptions of student academic and behavioral outcomes, and perceptions of the three instructional delivery models. Teachers and principals agreed Corrective Reading improved students’ academic and behavioral outcomes. Classroom and after-school teachers believed students demonstrated greater reading growth in small groups. Title I Reading Teachers agreed, but desired the ability to show academic gains with a larger number of students.

The researcher conducted an Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) test on reading growth scores from the three groups. The p-value of 0.0026 indicated a significant difference among the means, so the researcher rejected the null hypothesis. Students in all the reading intervention groups showed some reading growth. However, both the Tukey and Scheffe post hoc analyses revealed the mean of the Title I Reading Teacher group was significantly higher than the mean of the after-school group. As a result of the findings, the researcher recommends educational leaders staff buildings with reading intervention specialists to provide small-group intervention to struggling readers.

As societies embrace notions of sustainability, there is an increasing interest in how to best educate students about these concepts. The field of sustainability education (SE) is an approach that has been developed to address this concern. SE frameworks seek to integrate into curricular contents and formats within campus learning environments, in order to systematically improve upon approaches and services developed to support student learning and development. My research offers insight into the relationships between the philosophical principles and praxes of sustainability education, with the aim to inform educators on how best to prepare students to address complex sustainability issues. I used three cases of University of Vermont courses and programs to explore theoretical and practical factors related to sustainability education and food systems, as follows: 1) a comparative analysis of Education for Sustainability (EfS) together with Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Education, 2) an integration of High Impact Educational Practices (HIEP) with the field of agroecology education, and 3) an in-depth program analysis that examined the role of HIEP in engaged learning alongside the EfS framework. I drew from two action research (AR) traditions that determine particular research methodologies for applied social research settings. The first is a systems approach to organizational learning, and the second is teacher research for curricular and program development. I also engaged in utilization-focused evaluation (UFE) with program stakeholders. Research methods included applied social and mixed methods associated with program evaluation. Three main research implications include: a) Agroecology education in experiential, immersion environments can serve as a primary vehicle for sustainability education; b) sequencing of food systems and sustainability curricula can lead to transformative learning; and c) AR and UFE can serve as tools for program development alongside sustainability education frameworks.

Applied Linguistics
Ed.D.
The primary purposes of this study were to identify motivational typologies of growth and stability and identify people who have crossed a boundary in terms of levels of hope and time perspective. This study draws upon two fields, philosophy and psychology. The philosophical framework traces its roots back to American pragmatism and Alfred North Whitehead’s Process Philosophy. The second set of theories proposed for investigation came from the relatively recent empirical endeavor known as positive psychology. Specifically, I tested the construct validity and predictive utility of hope and time perspective as predictors of academic time management and academic outcomes in a Japanese sample. The participants were 467 students attending one of the largest private universities in Japan. Several instruments were used to measure the relationship between hope and time perspective as independent variables and self-reported academic outcomes. The instruments were the Hope Disposition Survey, the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory, self-reported TOEIC and GPA scores, and the Vocabulary Size Test. The research design was a quantitative and qualitative mixed-methods research plan. Two relatively recent constructs from the area of positive psychology research known as hope theory (a goal-oriented construct) and the Zimbardo Time Perspective Inventory were utilized for empirical investigation. The use of a mixed-method research design allowed this study to add to our knowledge of the roles of hope and time management in goal directed behavior. The analytical tools included the Rasch model, confirmatory factor analyses (CFA), structural equation modeling (SEM), and latent growth curve modeling (LGM). The qualitative analysis was a phenomenological investigation (similar to a case study) into the relationship between affect, cognition, and motivation utilizing a Process Philosophy framework. Results of the Rasch and CFA indicated that hope and time perspective were viable constructs for this sample. The hope SEM results indicated that hope had a positive relationship with academic outcomes as hypothesized. The time perspective SEM indicated that future time perspective had a positive relationship and that present-hedonism had a negative relationship with academic behavior as hypothesized. LGM results indicated that study time management had a non-linear relationship with the academic calendar. Both sets of results must be considered with caution due to a design flaw in the data collection instruments and high levels of attrition for the LGMs. Finally, the interview results indicated that students in the sample were extrinsically motivated by situational variables such as professor signals of how to, how much, when to, and what to study and that transitions from secondary to tertiary level studies were difficult for students with low levels of hope. The results were interpreted to suggest that levels of student engagement in the sample were at a less than desirable level when compared to OECD or North American university expectations. However, results were considered to be generally supportive of hope and time perspective theory.
Temple University--Theses

Hardware description languages (HDLs) such as VHDL have made it possible for circuit and board designs to be done without resorting to paper, allowing computers to manage the design database and automate the translation between various representations of the system. Although VHDL modeling can provide a bonanza of benefits, VHDL models must be used effectively to reduce overall development costs. Air Force acquisition specialist for such agencies as the U.S. Air Force must be able to manage the development of VHDL models to ensure that the models delivered meet both their immediate and their future needs. In this research study, effort has been made to explain the many facets and advantages of VHDL and the use of VHDL in various stages of the acquisition process. The RASSP design concepts, such as top-down design, reuse and the model year concepts and integrated design environment, are introduced. Different abstraction levels from written specification to gate level in the design process are explained. Design techniques, such as modular design, reuse and sharing of designs, multiple abstraction level simulation and mixed data type simulation, and design trade-offs, are illustrated. The Sobel edge detection system is used as our case study to illustrate multiple abstraction levels and their use in the acquisition process. The methodology of developing an easy access, low-cost and effective VHDL education and guidance materials for Air Force acquisition and maintenance specialists is explained. The primary focus of this thesis is to develop a World Wide Web (WWW) based educational module for the acquisition process.
Master of Science

The exponential growth of the World Wide Web (WWW) on the Internet and accompanying WWW browsers has promoted opportunities for new methods of teaching and learning. Teaching does not simply involve presenting textual information over the Internet along with a few hyperlinks, but requires effective user engagement with the teaching module. This is the main challenge in website design. The objective of this thesis is the development of an effective training module made available over the Internet so as to train acquisition and maintenance personnel on how they can use VHDL to design and maintain digital systems. The educational modules provide extensive information on VHDL modeling and testing styles and standards at various abstraction levels. The Sobel edge detector model was chosen as an example to explain the various concepts of modeling and testing. This model was chosen since it was thought to be simple enough for any student to understand, yet complex enough to explain most of the VHDL concepts of modeling and testing. The course material on test bench development at various levels of abstraction, reuse of test bench models, use of configurations for simulation of mixed abstraction and mixed data type models, testing techniques and WAVES was developed as a part of the current thesis. Finally a complete section on website design has been included which explains the design strategy adopted for developing the website and the various key issues involved in presenting teaching modules over the Internet.
Master of Science

SILVA, Denize de Melo. Avaliação da gestão em escolas da rede pública municipal de Fortaleza-CE. 2016. 133f. – Dissertação (Mestrado) – Universidade Federal do Ceará, Programa de Pós-graduação em Educação Brasileira, Fortaleza (CE), 2016.
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This study aims to evaluate the management engaged in the municipal public schools of Fortaleza based on Public Management Model and Bureaucratization. The theoretical constructs that support institutional assessment will be source for the extraction of subsidies that promote a study on the practice of school management as well as improvement strategies adopted by schools in this type of system. The research is constituted of applied nature seated in qualitative and quantitative approaches, exploratory nature as the general objective and developed according to the proposal of Bruyne, Herman and Schoutheete (1977) one quadripolar methodological space. In center epistemological observed the necessary discussion grounded in philosophical assumptions that underlie the subject under review. We used to articulate the discussion of sedimentary basis of school management, the perspective of comprehensive sociology evidenced by Max Weber. However, the theoretical pole shows the construction of the concepts inherent to the functions of educational management and the organization of school space as an agent in promoting the learning of those involved in this process. It was adopted in morphological center an overview of educational evaluation models in order to understand the constructs that support the educational management. Was structured in that center the discussion about the Model of Public Management and Bureaucratization and sedimentation possibilities for a systematic management based on excellence. In order to aid this construction it was added to such study of propositions through the contributions of the structural-systemic model proposed by Lima (2008) to perform the mapping of structures present in management research process adopted in the municipal schools of Fortaleza, Ceará, based on Public Management Model and Bureaucratization criteria. On the technical center include the provisions related to the accuracy and the techniques used to investigate the object in question. The research locus constitutes a universe composed of six municipal public schools of Fortaleza-CE and the screening was based on the School Development Index Alpha (0-10) corresponding to the period 2012 to 2014. The comparative analysis from the corresponding Weber’s comprehensive sociology the specifics of the work of the manager and the practices developed in school. Data collection was performed by field research consisting of two steps. The first step corresponds to the questionnaire closed with 24 indicators linked to the functions of educational management and its correlation with the criteria of Public Management Model and Bureaucratization for the analysis: strategy and plans, processes and people destined to the core manager. The second stage includes the observation and contextualization of the variables analyzed through semi-structured application form with eight open assertions designed to 12 teachers and 12 students of the institutions surveyed. Analysis of data into quantitative aspect was carried out with the support of Statistical Package for Social Sciences, version 21.0 for Windows. However, the qualitative analysis was supported in Atlas.ti 7 software for understanding speech from the teachers’ and students’ speech seeking to add essential aspects of the understanding of the work in schools. It is intended to articulate the knowledge acquired through theoretical base on the evaluation, together with its use to improve the management from the municipal public schools of Fortaleza.
O presente trabalho visou avaliar a gestão empreendida em escolas da rede pública municipal de Fortaleza, Ceará, com base no Modelo de Gestão Pública e Desburocratização. Os constructos teóricos que embasam a avaliação institucional foram fonte para a extração de subsídios que fomentassem um estudo acerca da prática da gestão escolar, bem como de estratégias de aprimoramento adotadas pelas escolas nessa construção. A pesquisa, de natureza aplicada assentada nas abordagens qualitativa e quantitativa, de cunho exploratório quanto ao objetivo geral, desenvolvida segundo a proposta de Bruyne, Herman e Schoutheete (1977), constituiu-se de um espaço metodológico quadripolar: epistemológico, teórico, morfológico e técnico. No polo epistemológico, observou-se a discussão necessária embasada nos pressupostos filosóficos que permeiam o objeto em análise. Para articular a discussão atinente às bases sedimentares da gestão escolar, utilizou-se a óptica da sociologia compreensiva evidenciada por Max Weber. No polo teórico, evidenciou-se a construção dos conceitos inerentes às funções da gestão educacional e à própria organização do espaço escolar como agente na promoção das aprendizagens dos envolvidos nesse processo. No polo morfológico, adotou-se uma síntese dos modelos de avaliação educacional com o intuito de compreender os constructos que embasam a gestão educacional. No referido polo, estruturaram-se a discussão sobre o Modelo de Gestão Pública e Desburocratização e as possibilidades de sedimentação para uma gestão sistematizada com base na excelência. Objetivando auxiliar essa construção, tais proposições de estudo foram complementadas pelas contribuições do modelo de avaliação estrutural-sistêmica proposto por Lima (2008), a fim de realizar o mapeamento das estruturas presentes no processo de investigação da gestão adotada nas escolas da rede municipal de Fortaleza com base nos critérios do Modelo de Gestão Pública e Desburocratização. No polo técnico, por fim, contemplaram-se as disposições vinculadas ao rigor e às técnicas adotadas para a investigação do objeto em análise. O lócus da pesquisa constituiu-se de um universo formado por seis escolas da rede pública municipal de Fortaleza, sendo a triagem realizada com base no Índice de Desempenho Escolar Alfa (0-10) correspondente ao período de 2012 a 2014. A análise foi de natureza comparativa, a partir da sociologia compreensiva de Weber, correspondente às especificidades do trabalho desenvolvido pelo gestor e às práticas desenvolvidas na escola. A coleta dos dados foi realizada por meio da pesquisa de campo, composta por duas etapas. A primeira etapa abrangeu a aplicação de questionário fechado com 24 indicadores atrelados às funções da gestão educacional e sua correlação com os critérios do Modelo de Gestão Pública e Desburocratização estabelecidos para a análise: estratégia e planos, processos e pessoas destinadas ao núcleo gestor. A segunda etapa compreendeu a observação e contextualização das variáveis analisadas por meio da aplicação de roteiro com oito assertivas abertas destinadas aos 12 docentes e aos 12 discentes das instituições pesquisadas. A análise de dados, quanto ao seu aspecto quantitativo, foi realizada com o apoio do software Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, em sua versão 21.0 para Windows. A análise qualitativa, por seu turno, foi amparada no software Atlas.ti 7 (Computer Assisted Qualitive Data Analysis Software) para compreensão dos discursos provenientes da fala de professores e alunos, buscando agregar aspectos indispensáveis relativos à compreensão acerca do trabalho desenvolvido nas escolas. Pretendeu-se a articulação entre os conhecimentos adquiridos por intermédio da base teórica referente à avaliação, aliados à sua utilização para a melhoria na gestão das escolas provenientes da rede pública municipal de Fortaleza.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 1999.
Title from title page screen, viewed July 24, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Kenneth H. Strand, Jeffrey B. Hecht (co-chairs), Paul J. Baker, William C. Rau. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 136-148) and abstract. Also available in print.

Most institutions of higher education utilize First Year Experience (FYE) coursework to facilitate college adjustment and student retention. FYE courses are designed to support the college transition by introducing freshman to campus resources that can help them achieve their educational and career goals; however, there is much variation in instructional design across college campuses depending on students' needs and institutional goals. This dissertation examined the differences in student outcomes based on enrollment in either academic content-specific or broad introductory FYE coursework. The first study used a qualitative method to examine resilient Honors students' perceptions of how their introductory FYE course impacted their college transition at the end of their first semester. The second study utilized several quantitative models to longitudinally assess the difference between FYE course enrollment and students' cumulative GPAs, retention, and perceptions during their junior year of college. Thematic analysis of questionnaire responses revealed that the resilient Honors students believed their broad introductory FYE course supported their social and academic transition to college by relieving stress that is commonly associated with the beginning of higher education. The quantitative study found that students who were enrolled in academic content-specific FYE courses had higher grades, retention, and scored higher on college success strategies and first-year satisfaction factor scores, compared to students who were enrolled in the broad introductory FYE courses. These findings were discussed in relation to the current literature on college adjustment, followed by a discussion of the implications for academic units, limitations of the study, and future directions for research in this area.

Thesis (DTech (Architectural Technology))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2016.
This research explores design-build projects in architectural education. The design-build studio is an alternative to the conventional theory-oriented studio. In design-build projects students both design and build real buildings. Internationally, design-build projects have increased rapidly in architectural programmes over the past decade. Literature suggests that design-build projects are relevant for architectural education, but that there is a definite need for more theoretical and critical exploration. Design-build projects in the context of this study are defined as socially responsive, inhabitable, full-scale investigations. The value of this pedagogical construct for educators, students, architectural practice and society in general was an underpinning theme guiding this exploration. Design-build projects are located on the boundary between theory and practice. This research provides a view into my journey across this boundary, immersing myself in both the theoretical and practical. Principles of the designbuild process and design research mapped the research path. The research process commenced with the initiation of and active participation in a number of design-build constructions. Through critical reflection on the construction experiences and the literature, specific pedagogical and practice implications were explored. Cultural historical activity theory provided me with a sense of theoretical direction in this journey. Collaboration as a pedagogical tool and the possibility of exposing students to alternative practice possibilities were foregrounded as being uniquely situated within the design-build project. The value of this research is the contribution it makes to the current international call for a clearer understanding of the pedagogical and practice merit of design-build projects.

The purpose of this qualitative exploratory multi-site case study was to explore how principals perceived the influence of role models in the development of ethical leadership behaviors in principals in a school district in Maryland and to elaborate on teachers and staff description of the ethical leadership behaviors modeled by principals. Research directed the need to know how principals perceived the influence of role models in the development of ethical leadership behaviors in principals, as well as teachers and staff description of the ethical leadership behaviors modeled by principals. The sample consisted of four principals and seventeen teachers from four Title 1 middle schools in a school district in Maryland. The data collection instruments used were the in-depth interview on principals and teachers; open-ended questionnaire, and focus group discussions with teachers. The qualitative exploratory multi-site case study was used to explore the research questions, and the data were analyzed, and coded using the MAXQDA software into themes and sub-themes. The findings from this study confirmed that principals’ ethical leadership behaviors were acquired from childhood through adulthood and career life. Ethical leadership behaviors modeled by principals included behaviors like supportiveness, integrity, honesty, fairness, respectfulness, utilizing rewards, open communication, accountability, trustworthiness, cooperativeness, committed to high professional standards, motivational, and modeling expectations. The findings showed some variations in the principals’ demonstration of ethical leadership behaviors as some of the principals were considered to be more ethical than others.

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Tese (Doutoramento)
IPEN/T
Instituto de Pesquisas Energeticas e Nucleares - IPEN/CNEN-SP

School district leaders use strategic planning as a tool for leading their complex education systems. They may be mandated to prepare a strategic plan or they may elect to use the strategic planning process to adapt, focus, and align their education system to improve student achievement. The challenge comes in the confusion around what constitutes an effective strategic planning model. Using models from other sectors such as business are often unsuccessful when they are modified to deal with the diversity of stakeholders, multi-discipline systems, and complexity unique to school district systems. The purpose of this study was to research the practice of using strategic planning in 269 U. S. school districts. A survey using a nine-step strategic planning model as a conceptual framework was designed to determine the use, nonuse, and prevalence of the steps. A content analysis of 78 school district strategic plan documents and the semi-structured interviews of six district superintendents provided qualitative data and narrative to the analysis. The analysis of the data from this mixed methods approach provided insights into strategic planning models in use in school districts and a perspective of their effectiveness from the point-of-view of the superintendent.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Kent State University, 2010.
Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Apr. 28, 2010). Advisor: C. Andre Christie-Mizell. Keywords: Education; Race/Ethnicity; Status Attainment; Social Reproduction; Educational Careers; School Effects; Social Psychology; Multi-Level Models. Includes bibliographical references (p. 125-144).

This thesis aimed to explore the affect of combining two models of learning styles (VARK, and Honey and Mumford) in terms of students‘ learning gains and satisfaction. VARK focuses on how the students perceive learning, while Honey and Mumford examines how an individual would like to learn. A web-based educational system was built to test the combination of the two models of learning styles. A study to examine the feasibility of the system was carried out on 129 participants to explore whether the system presented tutorials according to their individual learning styles. A second study to investigate learning gains and user satisfaction was carried out on 149 participants. Satisfaction was divided into three main concepts: usability, preference and perception of learning. Learning gains were tested by giving participants a pre-test, a post-test and a confirmatory test. Participants were divided into four groups and had the lesson presented according to one learning style of either the VARK or Honey & Mumford model, both of the participants‘ learning styles or with no personal customization. The results found that participants who used the two models of learning styles showed higher learning gains and had higher levels of satisfaction across all three factors; compared to those using only one or no learning style. Furthermore, those using only one learning style showed higher learning gains and had higher levels of satisfaction than those with no learning style. The application of these findings would be of benefit to educational institutions‘ decision makers, educators, students and e-learning designers. Adaptation is a key feature of the system of research. It is intended for future work; preliminary research has shown that the users profile and learning item will change over time. This important finding is worth exploring in future research.

A model can be built to represent aspects of the world establishing at the same time a world on its own. It might be considered in terms of its relation to the world or as an artefact having an identity related to the nature and kind of the modelling tool used to make it. The present research focuses on models being built by a computer-based modelling tool called WorldMaker (WM), which allows models to be built in terms of objects and the actions they perform. It is intended to be accessible to younger pupils. Therefore, children from the last years of primary and the first years of secondary education (aged 10-14) participated in the research. The research was carried out in three stages. The preliminary study aimed to explore children’s ability to use WM, as well as possibilities for the kinds of tasks that might be used with it. The first main study focused on rules, which define actions in WM, and their meaning for children. It mainly investigated children’s understanding, use and thinking about models in the form of WM rules. The second main study looked into children’s ability to think of situations in terms of structures as well as their understanding about the relation between models and reality. Its primary concern was to find out if children think about situations presented as stories or computer models in the ‘modelling’ way required by WM, that is, in terms of objects and the actions they perform. In the research tasks the children were called on to approach the modelling process by creating or exploring a model, as well as by describing and explaining the formal behaviour of a model or interpreting the meaning of it. It was found that the children were able to use WM as a modelling tool; they could represent actions in the form of a WM rule and they were able to think of situations in terms of objects and actions. Besides, the relation between models and reality is an issue when young children are involved with the modelling process.