Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin, 1964. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis--Wisconsin. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 315-319).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1972. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1951. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 261).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2006. / Title from title screen (site viewed on Nov. 13, 2006). PDF text: 148 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 4.03Mb. UMI publication number: AAT 3215087. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche format.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2006. / Advisor: Leslie Aspinwall, Florida State University, College of Education, Dept of Middle and Secondary Education. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 15, 2006). Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 173 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Education, March 1997. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--York University, 2005. Graduate Programme in Education. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 117-121). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url%5Fver=Z39.88-2004&res%5Fdat=xri:pqdiss &rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:MR11758

This is a qualitative study of the use of social media as a mediating agent between three teachers in Turkey and their students, whose age range was 12-15. This research was designed to discover how teachers’ communicative acts occur around three iconic social-media tools - YouTube, Google+ and WhatsApp. It also reports students’ understanding of such communicative acts as they influence the teacher/student relationship. Over the last decade, there has been a growing interest among researchers in exploring the use of social media for educational purposes. Studies have investigated learning and teaching recruiting the use of social media, particularly in higher education. To date, however, there is a dearth of studies regarding how teachers approach social media with the aim of fostering their relationship with students in the Middle School age range. Two main research questions were addressed in relation to this gap: a) What repertoires of communication arise following the adoption of social media by teachers of middle school classes? and b) How are perceptions of teacher identity and teacher-student relationships influenced by teachers’ adoption of social media? As encouraged by the interpretivist paradigm on which this study is based, students’ and teachers’ voices were given analytic priority to explore how the participants reflected their understanding of the teacher/student interactions which occur on social media. A qualitative case study approach was adopted and methods of interview, online documentation and observation were employed to generate field data. The inductive thematic content analysis approach (Braun & Clarke, 2006) was applied to this data. The findings suggest that the use of social media as a medium between teachers and middle-school students was valuable for fostering in students a more positive attitude towards their teachers. A sharp distinction was reported by the participants between communication practices within social media and within face-to-face classroom contexts. Social media were favoured for being more informal. The findings indicate that digital social media not only offer a variety of communication channels which foster teacher/student interactions but also restructure these interactions by giving teachers an opportunity to project a different identity, in particular a more flexible and informal one. Each of the three case studies illustrated the variety of ways in which the design of social media can configure distinctive and challenging forms of new communication practice. The findings of this study contribute to our understanding that the teacher/student relationship can be further nurtured within secondary education through the exploratory use of social-media tools such as YouTube, Google+ and WhatsApp. When the necessary motivation and appropriate utilisation exist, an informal usage of social-media tools outside school hours might allow the creation of a warmer classroom atmosphere in which middle-school students might feel a sense of closeness towards their teachers. The findings suggest conducting more qualitative studies which explore teachers’ use of social media with middle-school students in order to better identify the potential challenges and conflicts which teachers and students could face such as the implications of observed hyper-use of these media on the work-life balance of teachers and institutional and societal resistance to this form of teacher-student exchange on social media.

This research study probes students’ understandings of various aspects of probability in a 3-week Probability unit in a Grade 7 classroom. Informing this study are the perspectives of constructivism and sociocultural theory which underpin the contemporary reform in mathematics education as codified in the NCTM standards and orient much of the teaching and learning of mathematics in today’s classrooms. Elements of culturally responsive pedagogy were also adopted within the research design. The study was carried out in an urban school where I collaborated with the teacher and students as co-teacher and researcher. As the population of this school was predominantly Aboriginal, the lessons included discussion of the tradition and significance of Aboriginal games of chance and an activity based on one of these games. Data sources included the responses in the pre- and post-tests, fleidnotes of the lessons, and audiotapes of student interviews. The key findings of the study are that the students had some understanding of formal probability theory with strongly-held persistent alternative thinking, some of which did not fit the informal conceptions of probability noted in the literature such as the outcome approach and the gambler’s fallacy. This has led to the proposal of a Personal Probability model in which the determination of a probability or a probability decision is a weighting of components such as experience, intuition and judgment, some normative thinicing, and personal choice, beliefs and attitudes. Though the alternative understandings were explored in interviews and resolved to some degree, the study finds that the probability understandings of students in this study are still fragile and inconsistent. Students demonstrated marked interest in tasks that combined mathematics, culture and community. This study presents evidence that the current prescribed learning outcomes in the elementary grades are too ambitious and best left to the higher grades. The difficulties in the teaching and learning of the subject induced by the nuances and challenges of the subject as well as the dearth of time that is needed for an adequate treatment further direct that instructional resources at this level be focused on deepening and strengthening the basic ideas. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate