In response to the continued pressure placed on American public schools to increase academic achievement, some schools have begun to reorganize instructional environments in an effort to improve student outcomes. The current study examined one such elementary school that implemented a departmentalized model of instruction in fourth and fifth-grade classrooms in an effort to improve student learning. This longitudinal, cross-sectional study followed a sample of students and teachers over a two-year period in an attempt to ascertain how departmentalizing in the elementary school affected student and teacher perceptions and academic achievement among students in third, fourth, fifth, and sixth-grade. Student perceptions of their school, teachers, peers, and academic performance were measured using surveys and standardized achievement test scores were collected. Teacher attitudes toward departmentalization were also measured using surveys. A factor analysis of student survey results with Varimax rotation resulted in ten factors that revealed a consistent pattern of change in student perceptions when correlated. A consistent relationship between students' academic achievement and perceptions at each grade level was not found. Results suggested that students who began switching classes in elementary school had positive perceptions of their teachers and of themselves as social beings in school. Perceptions of their academic abilities, however, separated from their perceptions of their teachers over time. In contrast, students with one teacher in self-contained classrooms had positive perceptions of their teachers. These students' perceptions of their academic abilities and perceptions of themselves as social beings in school were connected to their perceived teacher-student relationships. Elementary teachers expressed concern over meeting their students' emotional needs, but otherwise reported positive attitudes toward their abilities to teach and meet their students' academic needs in a departmentalized setting. Teachers at the elementary school and the middle school felt that students who switched classes in elementary school were more prepared when they got to middle school and adjusted more quickly than students who came from self-contained elementary classrooms.

AN ABSTRACT OF THE THESIS OF KAREN B. BONTRAGER, for the Master of Arts degree in ENGLISH, presented on June 18, 2009, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: PERCEPTIONS OF WRITING PROCESS: A STUDY OF FIRST-YEAR COMPOSITION STUDENTS MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Lisa J. McClure The purpose of this exploratory study was to ascertain the perceptions of the composing process held by English 101 students at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale. Questionnaires were distributed to students in twenty sections of English 101 in the first few weeks and the last few weeks of the fall semester of 2007. The questionnaires invited students to reflect and report on their writing processes. Results of the study indicate that students' perceptions of the writing process are colored by the Current Traditional paradigm: students place a high value on the final product and understand writing as a linear process. There is also evidence that students' perceptions of their revising habits may differ from their actual practices.

For teachers, being able to provide feedback that learners can act upon is paramount for making learning how to write possible. A questionnaire was sent out to students in Swedish Upper Secondary School. The intent was to identify how students perceive feedback, as well as how they react and interpret the feedback they receive on written texts. The results are then used in a discussion that aims to draw attention to the potential implications that feedback may have on students’ motivation to write. In this study, Nicol and Macfarlane-Dick’s seven principles for feedback serve as a measurement for what constitutes good feedback. The results suggest that when a certain form of feedback is not commonly used by teachers or is used differently by different teachers, then the feedback becomes difficult to interpret for students. The respondents consider themselves regular recipients of feedback but struggle with interpreting feedback when there are variations in teachers’ practices in applying feedback.

Racial disparities in educational achievement have been a persistent phenomenon in the United States. This inequity has been described as educational "opportunity gaps", "education debts", and "achievement gaps". Education debt refers to the year after year amassed racial and ethnic achievement gaps that result in a debt for most minoritized groups in comparison to White and Asian students. Despite the repeated significance of focusing on education inequalities concerning race and ethnicity, there is a paucity of research that examines the interrelatedness of school climate and academic achievement specifically with respect to racial and ethnic differences. The ecology of human development framework provides a complex lens to better understand the students' experiences in the environment of the school. For this quantitative, correlational, cross-sectional study descriptive statistics and structural equation modeling (SEM) were applied to answer the research questions about the extent that high school students' perceptions of school climate predicted their self-reported grades, whether they differed as a function of students' race and ethnicity, and whether the magnitude between race/ethnicity groups was substantial. Overall, evidence was found for the unceasing and persisting education debt for minoritized groups regarding their grades, but also in connection to the influence of school aspects on their academic achievement. For Black and American Indian/Alaska Native students the results indicated an intensification of the education debt through the considerably lower impact of school climate characteristics on grades than for White and Asian. For Mixed, Latin@, and Other the debt appeared to be unchanging due to similarly small impacts as for White and Asian, yet, not lessening due to their lower grades.

Social media has been used as an instructional tool for authentic learning in order to enable adaptability through experimentation and action rather than passive listening and regurgitation. The problem addressed in this study is that it is not known how English composition students’ perceptions of authentic learning are impacted by the use of online social media as instructional tools. Authentic learning is characterized by multiple elements, including collaboration, reflection, and communication. The purpose of this quantitative study was to determine the perceptions of undergraduate 1st year freshmen composition students using social media as instructional tools, across 9 elements of authentic learning. Bandura’s social cognitive theory and Siemens’ theory of connectivism guided this research study:. Research questions were used to examine the relationship that exist across undergraduate freshman composition students' perceptions using social media (i.e., Facebook and Twitter) as instructional tools of the 9 elements of authentic learning. A previously validated survey instrument aligned to Herrington and Oliver’s authentic learning framework was used to collect data from 50 students and then analyzed using a Pearson product correlation. Data showed multiple statistical significances and revealed that students perceived that social media provided them opportunities to collaborate, reflect, and articulate authentically when it was used as an instructional tool. The results from this study may contribute to social change by providing insight into whether or not universities should support faculty who want to use social media as an authentic learning strategy with college students.

Aspiring professional accountants need to develop certain competencies comprising both technical knowledge and professional skills (also referred to as generic skills), during their initial professional development (IPD). However, despite interventions to develop these competencies, there is still a gap between employers' expectations and graduates' competencies. It has been argued that Emotional Intelligence (EQ) may be the missing link in the IPD of professional accountants. It has been suggested that instructors should adopt specific non-traditional pedagogical approaches to develop professional skills and EQ. The effectiveness of these approaches may, however, be compromised by the diversity in the classroom. Instructors should take cognisance of the demographic differences of the individuals within the student group and the impact of these differences on the development of professional skills and EQ, when selecting the pedagogical approaches. Instructors should also take cognisance of the interaction between demographic variables within the demographic groups. This dissertation explored demographic differences in students' perceptions of the professional skills developed at the end of their IPD. Statistically significant differences were noted between different demographic groups of students on whether they have developed professional skills. This dissertation further explored the differences in EQ between demographic groups of students. Statistically significant differences were not only noted in EQ between these demographic groups of students but also within these demographic groups. Although this dissertation considers South African students, the results may be of interest to other multicultural and multilingual environments, particularly environments that have a history of socio-economic inequity and racial injustice. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Accounting / MCom / Unrestricted

Many different parties are involved in trying to promote student success: faculty, student affairs professionals, parents, mentors, and students themselves. All may speak of their endeavors to work toward the goal of "student success", but if success is defined differently by each party, then each pursues a different goal. With this in mind, this study was designed for three purposes. First, the researcher sought to define student success based on the perspectives of student and faculty populations within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech. Second, the researcher sought to identify the barriers to student success. Finally, the researcher sought to identify strategies that would foster student success. Qualitative methods were employed to conduct this research within the population of undergraduate students and faculty within the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Virginia Tech. Eight focus groups were conducted in the spring of 1997 with a total of 27 students participating and two focus groups were conducted the following spring with 7 faculty participating. Questionnaires and the transcripts of the focus groups were analyzed for this study. Findings showed that faculty and students have somewhat dissimilar perspectives on student success. Faculty participants were more interested in the academic elements of being successful, while students placed more weight on what they felt were personal indicators of success, such as happiness. In terms of the barriers to student success that were discussed, students were much more likely to discuss barriers that were outside of their control, such as the classroom environment. Faculty, on the other hand, concentrated on the personal characteristics of students, feeling that students ultimately had personal responsibility for their own success. Based on the questionnaires, the groups were fairly well balanced and represented a fairly wide range of collegiate experiences. Faculty and students have demonstrated through this study that they are quite valuable as a resource to consult when conducting needs assessments or developing student interventions. Many of the solutions that were suggested, interestingly, dealt not with the creation of new programs but with improving communication within the university to ensure the awareness of programs that already exist. Participants also felt that orientation activities for new students should be extended well into their first semester at the university. From a research perspective, this study provided a great deal of insight into the ways that faculty and student perspectives are both similar and different. It would be interesting to see whether perspectives are similar across colleges within the university, or even similar between universities with similar characteristics. In trying to determine the nature of the collegiate experience, few would deny that no groups are more intimately involved in that experience than the faculty and students. Ultimately, then, the answers concerning the nature of student success must lie with them. / Master of Science

Introduction: This study assessed student perceptions, preparation, and result use strategies of the Pharmacy Curriculum Outcomes Assessment (PCOA). Secondarily, it studied the effect of schools/colleges of pharmacy (S/COP) PCOA management on student perceptions. Methods: A 52-item electronic questionnaire assessed PCOA preparation of final year students, review/use of results, remediation participation, self-reported motivation, and perceptions of the exam's ability to measure PCOA blueprint areas and North American Pharmacy Licensure Examination (NAPLEX)/advanced pharmacy practice experience (APPE) readiness. Programs were given a questionnaire to determine their PCOA practices. Results: The student survey was completed by 341 students (40% response rate). Students prepared very little for the PCOA and few reported participation in PCOA-based remediation (6%). Students perceived the PCOA to measure the four domains moderately well, although administrative sciences were significantly lower. Students reported less confidence in the exam's ability to measure APPE/NAPLEX-readiness. Although few used the PCOA to guide their NAPLEX preparation (18%), they were more likely to do so than for APPEs (4%). Students reported a higher perceived increase in motivation if PCOA results were connected to APPE placement, remediation, and progression as opposed to prizes, rewards, or other recognitions. Conclusion: This is the first multi-institutional study to review student perceptions about the PCOA. These data can be used along with other PCOA data to help schools develop incentive, remediation, and examination administration procedures depending on the programs desired use for the PCOA exam.

Even before COVID-19, literacy graduate coursework was increasingly offered online, replacing the traditional campus-based courses This study investigated how graduate literacy students perceive coursework in an online learning environment. This understanding is important because (a) student perceptions regarding online learning are critical to motivation and learning; and (b) faculty designing courses need to consider student voice in course development. This survey research queried literacy master’s degree candidates their perceptions prior to and after taking online classes, their confidence levels using technology, and about the technological tools that have impacted their learning. Results indicated initial perceptions of online learning changed positively after engagement in coursework, but course design influenced collaboration and engagement. Statistical significance was found in changes in initial perceptions of online learning to a more positive overall feelings toward online learning. The results of this study raise important considerations for implementing online coursework for literacy graduate students.

The purpose of this study is to compare the ways high school instrumental teachers and high school vocal teachers teach musicianship skills. The study also compares secondary music teachers' perceptions of the effectiveness of their teaching of musicianship skills with college students' perceptions of how effectively they were taught these skills. I examined how instructional time, teaching methodology, and availability of small-group and private lessons factor into (1) teacher perception of student understanding of musicianship, and; (2) college students' perception of remembered musicianship education experienced while in high school. I distributed a survey designed to examine the pedagogy of specific musicianship skills. This survey was sent to 75 vocal teachers and 75 instrumental teachers who teach ensemble music classes (band, orchestra, and choir) in urban and suburban areas in Pennsylvania. A similar measure designed to examine college students' remembered perception of the effectiveness of their high school musicianship education was sent to 150 vocal college music majors and 150 instrumental college music majors in Pennsylvania and Delaware. The survey was designed for students and instructors to rate musicianship training using a five point Likert-type scale and a six point Likert-type scale. The skills assessed included: reading notation from treble and bass clefs; sight-reading and sight-singing; recognizing and interpreting music symbols; identifying key signatures and time signatures; working independently on a musical task; and recognizing and performing dynamics, articulations, and common tempo markings. Data were analyzed using a Chi-square test to determine what, if any, significant results negating the null hypothesis are present. / Music Education