This thesis is about the teaching imagination. By this term I refer to three things. First, the teaching imagination is how teachers define and practice imagination in their classrooms. Second, it is the imagination that teachers themselves use as they teach. And thirdly, it is the imagination I am taught to identify and enact for doing social science research. / The thesis is based upon participant-observation research conducted in grade four (and some composite grade three/four) classrooms in primary schools in Melbourne, a city in the Australian state of Victoria. The research took me to five schools of different types: independent (or fee-paying); government (or state); Steiner (or Waldorf); special (for low IQ students); and Catholic. These five classrooms provide a range, not a sample: they suggest some ways of doing imagination. I do not claim a necessary link between school type and practices of imagination. In addition I conducted semi-structured interviews with each classroom’s teacher and asked that children do two tasks (to draw and to write about ‘a time you used your imagination’). / From this research I write a thesis in two sections. In the first I work to re-imagine certain concepts central to studies of education and imagination. These include curriculum, classrooms, and ways of theorizing and defining imagination. In this section I develop a key theoretical idea: that the most recent Victorian curriculum is, and social science should be, governed by what I call a logic of realization. Key to this idea is that knowers must always be understood as participants in, not only observers of, the world. / In the second section I write accounts of five case studies, each learning from a different classroom teacher about one way to understand and practice imagination. We meet imagination as creative transformation; imagination as thinking into other perspectives; imagination as representation; imagination as the ability to relate oneself to the people and materials one is surrounded by; and imagination as making connections and separations in thought. In each of these chapters I work to re-enact that imagination in my own writing. Using the concept of the ‘relational teacher’, one who flexibly responds to changing student needs and interests, I suggest that some of these imaginations are more suitable to a logic of realization than others.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2007. / Title from title screen (site viewed Dec. 4, 2007). PDF text: vii, 118 p. : ill. ; 6 Mb. UMI publication number: AAT 3271909. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche formats.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2006. / The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file viewed on (March 1, 2007) Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Rothbaum, Weisz, and Snyder's (1982) dual-process model of control proposed that in addition to attempts to change one's environment (primary control, PC) or psychologically adjust to one's circumstances (secondary control, SC), the higher-order capacity to alternate between these processes in congruence with performance (optimization) served to foster development in achievement settings. The present five-phase longitudinal study conducted over an academic year explored how college students (n = 568) shift between PC and SC over time in response to actual performance feedback, as well as the differential effectiveness of congruent emphasis shifts for development based on the perceived ability to shift in a strategic manner. Dependent measures included academic achievement (course test scores), motivation (achievement orientation, perceived success and value, expectations), emotions (enjoyment, anxiety, boredom), health status (global health, illness symptoms), and overall adjustment (perceived stress, self-esteem, depression). Hypotheses were evaluated using phase-specific and cross-lagged structural equation models assessing moderation effects for perceived congruence ability. Results showed that students shift toward PC after success and toward SC following failure, and suggest an elaborated theoretical model of how PC and SC contribute to beliefs and behaviour involving strategic and congruent emphasis shifts. These findings also demonstrate that some individuals better recognize when this behaviour is most effective for their performance and well-being and strategically make congruent emphasis shifts to improve their subsequent development. In sum, this study highlights the benefits of one's ability to make strategic emphasis shifts between PC and SC in an academic achievement setting, and provides empirical support for this effective yet relatively unexplored facet of Rothbaum et al.'s model. / May 2006

The top-down effects of consumers and bottom-up effects of resource availability are important in determining community structure and ecological processes. I experimentally examined the roles of consumers — both detritivores and predators — and habitat context in affecting nutrient cycling using the detritus-based insect community in bromeliad leaf wells. I also investigated the role of multiple resources in limiting plant productivity using meta analyses. The insect community in bromeliads only increased nitrogen release from leaf detritus in the presence of a predator trophic level. When only detritivores were present, the flow of stable isotope-labeled nitrogen from detritus to bromeliads was statistically indistinguishable from that in bromeliads lacking insects. I suggest that emergence of adult detritivores constitutes a loss of nitrogen from bromeliad ecosystems, and that predation reduces the rate of this nutrient loss. Hence, insects facilitate nutrient uptake by the plant, but only if both predators and detritivores are present. Moreover, predators can affect nutrient cycling by influencing the spatial scale of prey turnover. This mechanism results in a pattern opposite to that predicted by classic trophic cascade theory. Increasing habitat complexity can have implications for nutrient cycling by decreasing the foraging efficiency of both predators and their prey, and by affecting the vulnerability of predators to intraguild predation. Along a natural gradient in bromeliad size, I found that, depending on the relationship between community composition and habitat size, habitat complexity interacts with the changing biotic community to either complement or counteract the impact of predators on nutrient uptake by bromeliads. In contrast to the existing emphasis on single-resource limitation of primary productivity, meta-analyses of a database of 653 studies revealed widespread limitation by multiple resources, and frequent interaction between these resources in restricting plant growth. A framework for analyzing fertilization studies is outlined, with explicit consideration of the possible role of multiple resources. I also review a range of mechanisms responsible for the various forms of resource limitation that are observed in fertilization experiments. These studies emphasize that a wider range of predator and nutrient impacts should be considered, beyond the paradigm of single resource limitation or classic trophic cascades.

The primary focus of this study was to determine the effects of thermal biofeedback training on the reading achievement (comprehension) of underachieving readers in the primary grades. A secondary purpose was to determine whether biofeedback training would alter the locus of control of the subjects involved. The study was based on the integration of research data supporting two related principles: (1) the positive relationships between locus of control and improved academic achievement and (2) the positive relationships between biofeedback and locus of control. Consequently, the theoretical foundation assumed that biofeedback should affect academic achievement.The study was conducted in the four largest elementary schools participating in federally funded Title I reading programs within a midwestern city. Participating Title I students in grades one through three were randomly selected and assigned to the experimental group (biofeedback trained) or to the control group (no treatment). The final sample and subsequent data analyses included 112 students: 52 controls and 60 experimentals. There was an even distribution of sex and race. The subjects were administered the California Achievement Test--Reading, 1977 and the Nowicki-Strickland Personal Reaction Survey as pre- and post-test measures.Biofeedback technicians were trained by a doctorate level person in procedural guidelines for thermal training. Instrumentation included the Cyborg J42 thermal trainer, Biotic Band II, and Physiologic trend indicators. Training occurred 15 minutes per session twice a week for a minimum of 12 weeks. Following biofeedback training, reading instruction proceeded as usual.Results of a correlated t test indicated that primary grade subjects were able to learn the technique of biofeedback training (p<.0001) in a group setting, with a recorded mean difference of 4.58 F. from baseline to peak temperature. Pre-post results of the dependent variable were analyzed using a 2x2x2 multivariate analysis of covariance. The three-way interaction for the treatment, race, and sex comparisons was significant at the .0099 probability level. Subsequent analysis indicated significantly improved reading comprehension for the biofeedback trained black females (p<.Ol) and white males (p<.0001). Also, thermal biofeedback training was found to significantly (p<.0001) affect locus of control toward a more internal direction, in all treatment groups.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, June, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. Release of full electronic text on OhioLINK has been delayed until June 1, 2014. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 280-293)

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, June, 2009. / Release of full electronic text on OhioLINK has been delayed until June 1, 2014. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 280-293)

Thesis (PhD(Educational Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1987.