Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Educational Leadership / Jeffrey Zacharakis / This modified qualitative study focused on observations of learning procedures and performance outcomes of two theatrical learning environments (TLE), using a select set of phenomenological observation and recording procedures to ensure minimization of researcher bias. Observational results were compared to previously published observations of a large lecture hall learning environment at a Midwestern university. Observational results were also compared to a select set of learning theories to determine similarities in observed learning procedures to those theories. This study reveals differences in methods of acquisition of knowledge and skills in a TLE and the acquisition of same in the lecture hall environment. In the large lecture hall descriptions, the individual learner’s preset learning measurement options of ABCDF or Pass/Fail, individual option of choice to be present but non-interactive within the learning environment, individual option of choice of when to learn material and in what manner (for instance, cramming for a final), option of choice of attention level when physically present in the learning environment, and other options all affect the individual learner’s achievement level while minimally impacting the learning and achievement options of other members of the lecture class. This contrasts with a TLE, where failure is not a pre-listed option, maximization of learning and skills development is a constant goal individually and severally, interactivity with other learning environment members is mandated, material must be progressively learned and mastered by all members at essentially the same rate of progress, attention level must remain high, and there may well be multiple ‘final exams’ wherein virtually 100% of text materials must be transmitted verbatim in a meaningful way to a third party (an audience) through skills learned. Comparisons of learning theories reveal this process to be most closely allied with, but still significantly different from, collaborative learning theory.

Academic dishonesty within postsecondary institutions is a significant issue. As such, academic dishonesty has been the subject of more than 100 studies over the last 30 years. Yet, the data provided by previous research have done little to curb the academic dishonesty problem. The purpose of the study was to describe the meaning of academic dishonesty as perceived by the nursing students at an Ontario university. Using the method of hermeneutic phenomenology, 11 students were interviewed to determine their perceptions regarding academic dishonesty within the nursing program. The interview data provided rich details of how and why students were cheating as well as descriptions of their lifeworlds. These data were reduced to determine the commonalities, themes and the overall essence of the phenomenon. This study suggested that situational factors found within their learning culture played a significant role in both why and how students in this nursing program were committing acts of academic dishonesty. The lifeworlds of the participating students had been described as being very stressful. Caring was interwoven into their learning. As such, for these students some acts of academic dishonesty were not considered cheating, but sharing. Most of the cheating was accomplished through the use of technology. They tried to manipulate, or control, their environment to ensure they could communicate and share with each other. As is found in many collectivist cultures, the students in this program demonstrated high levels of loyalty to each other, particularly within their academic groups. Cheating to benefit the individual was frowned upon, but cheating to assist others in the program was considered normal. As such, the meaning of academic dishonesty as part of the lifeworlds of these nursing students was: caring, sharing, coping and control.

Policymakers expect international educational assessments to report credible national and international changes in student achievement over time. However, international assessment projects face great methodological challenges to creating comparable scores across jurisdictions and time points, fundamentally because jurisdictions vary in many aspects of curriculum and curriculum change as well as in the patterns of students’ test-taking behaviour. Using data from the Second IEA Mathematics Study (SIMS), the study reported in this dissertation addresses the potential impact of the different equating methodologies used in current international assessments on the accurate estimates of change in jurisdiction achievement over time. The results of the study demonstrate that the different equating methodologies implemented through the Item Response Theory (IRT) models currently used in international assessments may be of limited use in estimating change in jurisdiction achievement over time. This is because the international assessment data violate the IRT model assumptions, in particular the unidimensionality assumption. In addition, the estimation of jurisdiction results based on a common international scale may potentially distort the results of those jurisdictions that have levels of student achievement that are much lower or higher than most other participating jurisdictions. The findings of this study have important implications for researchers as well as policy makers.

Through three sets of simulations, this dissertation evaluates the effectiveness of alternative approaches to causal inference that make use of propensity scores. In the setting of single-level data, the first study examines the relative performance of (a) three variable selection methods for propensity score models (i.e., including all the treatment predictors, including all the outcome predictors, or including confounders), and (b) three adjustment methods in outcome models (i.e., adjusting for the propensity score only, adjusting for the propensity score in combination with the prognostic score, and adjusting for the propensity score in combination with strong outcome-predictive covariates). The second study tests the robustness of the alternative approaches under a range of model misspecifications, including omitted covariates, omitted nonlinear terms, and omitted interaction terms in a propensity score model, a prognostic score model, or an outcome model. The third study extends the evaluation to multilevel data by additionally examining another dimension unique to multilevel data. The study compares random intercept and slopes models, random intercept models, and single-level models for the propensity score and prognostic score estimations. The impact of omitting cluster-level covariates is also examined under each type of model specification. Evaluation criteria include bias, precision, mean squared error, remaining sample size after stratification, and confidence interval coverage percentage. The main findings are: (1) in general, adjustment methods in outcome models have more important consequences than variable selection for propensity score models for bias reduction, precision, and MSE; (2) the robustness against model misspecifications under alternative approaches depends on the type of misspecifications; (3) multilevel propensity score models show advantages over their single-level counterparts especially when combined with prognostic score adjustment; (4) omitting cluster-level information is not highly consequential once the multilevel structure has been accounted for by using multilevel outcome models.

Through three sets of simulations, this dissertation evaluates the effectiveness of alternative approaches to causal inference that make use of propensity scores. In the setting of single-level data, the first study examines the relative performance of (a) three variable selection methods for propensity score models (i.e., including all the treatment predictors, including all the outcome predictors, or including confounders), and (b) three adjustment methods in outcome models (i.e., adjusting for the propensity score only, adjusting for the propensity score in combination with the prognostic score, and adjusting for the propensity score in combination with strong outcome-predictive covariates). The second study tests the robustness of the alternative approaches under a range of model misspecifications, including omitted covariates, omitted nonlinear terms, and omitted interaction terms in a propensity score model, a prognostic score model, or an outcome model. The third study extends the evaluation to multilevel data by additionally examining another dimension unique to multilevel data. The study compares random intercept and slopes models, random intercept models, and single-level models for the propensity score and prognostic score estimations. The impact of omitting cluster-level covariates is also examined under each type of model specification. Evaluation criteria include bias, precision, mean squared error, remaining sample size after stratification, and confidence interval coverage percentage. The main findings are: (1) in general, adjustment methods in outcome models have more important consequences than variable selection for propensity score models for bias reduction, precision, and MSE; (2) the robustness against model misspecifications under alternative approaches depends on the type of misspecifications; (3) multilevel propensity score models show advantages over their single-level counterparts especially when combined with prognostic score adjustment; (4) omitting cluster-level information is not highly consequential once the multilevel structure has been accounted for by using multilevel outcome models.

Academic dishonesty within postsecondary institutions is a significant issue. As such, academic dishonesty has been the subject of more than 100 studies over the last 30 years. Yet, the data provided by previous research have done little to curb the academic dishonesty problem. The purpose of the study was to describe the meaning of academic dishonesty as perceived by the nursing students at an Ontario university. Using the method of hermeneutic phenomenology, 11 students were interviewed to determine their perceptions regarding academic dishonesty within the nursing program. The interview data provided rich details of how and why students were cheating as well as descriptions of their lifeworlds. These data were reduced to determine the commonalities, themes and the overall essence of the phenomenon. This study suggested that situational factors found within their learning culture played a significant role in both why and how students in this nursing program were committing acts of academic dishonesty. The lifeworlds of the participating students had been described as being very stressful. Caring was interwoven into their learning. As such, for these students some acts of academic dishonesty were not considered cheating, but sharing. Most of the cheating was accomplished through the use of technology. They tried to manipulate, or control, their environment to ensure they could communicate and share with each other. As is found in many collectivist cultures, the students in this program demonstrated high levels of loyalty to each other, particularly within their academic groups. Cheating to benefit the individual was frowned upon, but cheating to assist others in the program was considered normal. As such, the meaning of academic dishonesty as part of the lifeworlds of these nursing students was: caring, sharing, coping and control.

Policymakers expect international educational assessments to report credible national and international changes in student achievement over time. However, international assessment projects face great methodological challenges to creating comparable scores across jurisdictions and time points, fundamentally because jurisdictions vary in many aspects of curriculum and curriculum change as well as in the patterns of students’ test-taking behaviour. Using data from the Second IEA Mathematics Study (SIMS), the study reported in this dissertation addresses the potential impact of the different equating methodologies used in current international assessments on the accurate estimates of change in jurisdiction achievement over time. The results of the study demonstrate that the different equating methodologies implemented through the Item Response Theory (IRT) models currently used in international assessments may be of limited use in estimating change in jurisdiction achievement over time. This is because the international assessment data violate the IRT model assumptions, in particular the unidimensionality assumption. In addition, the estimation of jurisdiction results based on a common international scale may potentially distort the results of those jurisdictions that have levels of student achievement that are much lower or higher than most other participating jurisdictions. The findings of this study have important implications for researchers as well as policy makers.

Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction / F. Todd Goodson / This study investigates visual representation of three perspectives: the context of school, the pedagogy, and the teacher-student relationships when viewing photographs taken during the first half of the 20th Century of American Schools. Grounded in the understanding of visual culture, this image-based study utilized photographs as a rich source of data. The photographs collected for this study were taken between 1900 -1959 in American schools and were categorized by the Library of Congress as still images of classrooms in the United States. The Library of Congress collection was utilized to provide reliable categorized and documented images of schooling. The collection included 1,812 photographs archived in the Library of Congress Prints and Photographs collections specifically labeled as Classrooms United States; the non-digitized Frances Benjamin Johnston Photograph Collection of United States Indian School; and, Look Magazine Teacher Issue Charlotte Brooks negatives collection. A three-layered analysis utilized an initial layer of analysis placing each of the photographs into four predetermined categories: Time Period (1900-1950’s), Urban-Rural, Wealth-Poverty, Active-Passive environment. The placement of each photograph into the above continua provided evidence of the balance of visual elements within the data collection. Seven themes emerged through an open-coding process within the second layer of analysis when each photograph was coded using a specific perspective: context, pedagogy, and teacher-student relationship. As themes were extracted, a third layer of analysis utilized a semiotic approach to identifying over 20 cultural icons representational of schooling within the photograph. Implications for further research are provided.

This thesis research is a narrative inquiry into the cross-generational schooling experiences of six former and current students during a period of momentous social, economic, cultural and political change in China’s modern history, 1949 to the present. It focuses on students’ experience in curricular situations and how they construct and reconstruct curricular meanings. Through this work, I intend to foster a deeper understanding of knowledge, attitudes, beliefs and values about schooling revealed from students’ school experiences. According to Dewey (1938), Schwab (1978), Connelly and Clandinin (1988), curriculum does not only refer to the content in textbooks, but includes people, things, and processes of a learning environment. I used Schwab’s (1978) four commonplaces of curriculum, student, subject matter, teacher and milieu, to explore students’ curricular experiences in relation to the general field of curriculum studies as framed by Dewey, Schwab, Connelly and Clandinin. “These [four] commonplaces combine in different ways, becoming more or less prominent, and more or less salient, in teaching and learning situations” (Conle, 2003, p. 6). Schwab’s (1978) four commonplaces of curriculum provided an avenue for exploring the curricular meanings my and my participants make of our schooling. My participants are my parents, my nephew, an old (male) friend from school, a young female and myself. Since we all share a Chinese upbringing, our school stories were told and explored within China’s social, economic and political contexts. Telling and retelling my and my participants’ schooling experiences and making meaning and significance from them help to convey what has been happening in our curricular situations. Our cross-generational student experiences bring a set of perspectives to explore what it means to be educated in China. By constructing and reconstructing the meaning of our schooling experiences, this study provides space for students’ school stories to be reflectively heard and examined (Olson & Craig, 2005; Richie & Wilson, 2000)in the recent change in China’s educational reforms that seek to promote quality education and engage students’ independent and critical thinking.

This qualitative research project is a narrative inquiry into the lives of four bereaved siblings; one is myself. The purpose of the project was to explore our mutual experiences of loss, look for patterns, and create a forum for continuing our stories in a new way. Identified as a disenfranchised loss (Wray, 2003) adult siblings are often seen as the least impacted family member when a sibling dies. After such a death, the concern is first directed toward the grieving spouse and children and then the deceased’s parents. Adult siblings are often expected to be a source of strength and support for others. Through in-depth interviews and story telling, three participants shared their reflections of, first, living with and, then, living without beloved siblings. Their stories of loss and love are captured both with words and visually through photographs. My stories are woven throughout the text as I reflect upon my grief journey and ongoing search for meaning. Findings of this research offer a glimpse into the profound depth of this loss and some of the unique challenges faced by bereaved adult siblings. All participants experienced strained dynamics within families of origin as members grieved the loss differently. Elderly parents, in particular, were hesitant to speak of their deceased child, setting a tone of silence within the family. To help “protect” parents from further grief, participants gradually stopped talking about deceased siblings in their presence. Relationships with surviving siblings were also strained as roles were reformed. For the three women participants, passing years did not lessen the emptiness of the loss. The pain was rekindled with each passing family milestone. All of us were changed by this experience. Sharing stories with an interested listener created another avenue for meaning making and a new way to honour and memorialize our lost siblings. Each of us moved to new understandings about ourselves and our relationships with our deceased siblings, naming the experience as transformative on many levels. Hopefully this study will serve as support for other grieving adult siblings and contribute to furthering research in grief and bereavement.