This study examined the impact of a local history project on students' computer use, skills, attitudes toward computer technology and history learning. The variables of gender, grade level, etc. were also investigated. This one-year project integrated computer technology into history curriculum using primary sources. The participants were 64 students from four Western Massachusetts public schools. The Likert scale pre and post surveys were used to gather quantitative data as a main research method. Class observations and informal interviews were conducted for qualitative data as supplementary information for the research. To analyze the pre-post differences at the item level, approximation to binomial distribution was applied. To analyze the data at the aggregate level, One-way ANOVA, a univariate analysis of variance tests was employed. The data results showed significant differences in students' computer use and computer skills between the pre and post surveys. However, the data didn't show significant differences in students' attitudes towards computer technology and history learning. The reason for this may be due to the fact that the students already had positive attitudes prior to the project. The trend for computer skills indicated that as girls got older their skill level went up, but as boys got older, their skill level went down. The same trend was also reflected in students' attitudes toward computer technology. As for students' attitudes toward history learning, the older students had more positive attitudes than the younger students. The qualitative data also indicate the positive impact of the project on student learning. Most of the students “enjoyed working on the project” and believed “computer technology was useful”. Many students commented that they “learned not only the local history, but also computer technology”, and they “learned much more from researching on the Internet than from the textbook”. However, the biggest challenge for the students in doing this project seemed to be teamwork, and some students had difficulty cooperating with other people in the group.

Reforming science education is a multidimensional and complex undertaking. Of extreme importance is transforming how teachers teach. Answering the equity call of reform initiatives requires focusing on the underlying values and beliefs guiding teacher action and the promotion of inclusive practices (Brickhouse, 2001; Harding, 1994; Eisenhart, Finkel, & Marion, 1995; Mayberry & Rees, 1999; Rodriguez, 1997). Reform efforts within the last decade are being directed at college level science courses. Course and pedagogical transformations are particularly aimed at increasing the numbers of females and persons of color in science and improving the education of preservice teachers. Facilitating transformations toward these goals at the individual and program level is challenging work. This study explores and describes the conditions of the teacher change process toward an inclusive pedagogy. Two science professors affiliated with a reform collaborative were the main participants of the research. The professors, in collaboration with the primary researcher, engaged in assisted action research that lead to the identification and descriptions of their context and practical teaching theories. Among the questions explored were: “How does placing the professor in a position to conduct an assisted action research project help to foster teacher change conditions?” “How do the practical theories guiding the professors' teaching foster or impede inclusionary practice?” “What necessary conditions of the teacher change process toward an inclusive pedagogy emerged from the study?”. Using case study and ethnographic qualitative research strategies for data collection and analysis, this study affords a unique perspective through which to consider why and how science professors change their practice. Data indicated that the assisted action research strategy fostered the conditions of teacher change. In addition, findings revealed that the professors shared a teacher and curriculum centered teaching philosophy and an ethic of care and respect for their students that, in varying ways, both supported and impeded inclusive practice. Teacher change was heavily mediated by departmental contexts. Assertions are made about the necessary conditions of teacher change toward an inclusive pedagogy and implications for further research are explored.

The purpose of this study was to explore teacher beliefs and images of students, learning, and teaching. The study was designed to elicit images and beliefs with the use of teachers' symbolic drawing and subsequent interpretation of their drawings. Twelve first grade teachers with teaching experience ranging from 1½ to 25 years, and from a variety of educational settings (i.e., urban, suburban, traditional public schools, non-traditional public or private schools) participated. Data collection utilized two primary methods of qualitative inquiry: teacher created abstract symbolic drawings and interviewing. The combination of symbolic drawings and interviewing provided an effective means for teachers to access, reflect upon, and express their tacit images and beliefs in a cohesive and holistic manner. The twelve teachers in this study appeared on the surface to have similar images of learning and teaching. Teachers talked about learning as a process that involved images of filtering, connecting, becoming stuck, and disconnecting. One major difference emerged that separated teachers into two distinct groups. The majority of teachers, ten out of twelve, viewed learning as a fact-based associative categorization where students either made connections through associations or replaced old information with new information. Only two teachers talked about learning as theory-based, describing learning as making connection through an assimilatory categorization process or making revisions to personal theories. Teachers who viewed learning as fact based also viewed teaching as fact-based. In general, these teachers used discussion, teacher questions, and a large variety of activities to help students collect new facts and make associative connections. Teachers who viewed learning as theory-based used activities, discussion, and teacher questions to promote conversation and thinking. They expected students to use new facts to build and revise theories with the use of logical reasoning.

This study problematizes the literacy practices in a fourth grade suburban classroom. Drawing on sociocultural and poststructural theories of language and literacy, this study examines the teacher-student interactions and student-student interactions within classroom literacy events. This study argues for the need for progressive pedagogy as it examines how the very practices that are implemented to support student difference also serve to marginalize opportunities for student participation within the dominant discourses that shape the classroom culture. Using Fairclough's three-dimensional model of critical discourse analysis (Fairclough, 1992, 1995), this study examines the interactions through moment-by-moment analysis of critical moments and contrastive cases to gain perspective on how students' literacy identities were constructed in this classroom. The use of critical discourse analysis helped to make visible both the dominant discourses that were operating in the classroom and how they contributed to the shaping of student literacy identities. The use of critical moments as a unit of analysis in this study arose from the tensions that occurred within the analysis of many literacy events, between the teachers and 3 focal students that were considered to be struggling literacy learners within the classroom. The critical moments also highlighted the tensions that occurred between the students and the dominant discourses of educational reform and differentiated instruction as they were enacted through literacy practices and teacher-student interactions. This tension, enacted as resistance, positioned the students as agentic in the construction of their own literacy identities rather than subject to the teacher's construction of them as struggling literacy learners and also made visible how the students contributed to the knowledge of what counted as literacy in this culture. Major themes stood out as the critical moments were cross-viewed, which revealed the issues of authority, agency, choice, competition, and differentiated instruction as major constructs within and across the interactions. This study demonstrates how students' resistance to the discourses disrupted the ideologies, particularly within the discourse of differentiated instruction as students agentically constructed their literacy identities in opposition to what counted as literacy.

This dissertation documents the implementation of new writing curriculum and the development of a Writers' Workshop in a multicultural/urban fourth and fifth grade classroom. It is my personal account of how I as teacher-researcher worked to raise the expectations of my children by creating a positive climate in which to learn and a classroom that haled writing as part of the original curriculum. The study began with a writing party for three hundred, fifty third, fourth and fifth grade students, their parents and family members after which they received writing bags to take home. The Writers' Workshop described in this dissertation is a one-classroom initiative and progression of change. There are seven conclusions that I have drawn through the implementation of the Writers' Workshop in the classroom. First, it is essential that teachers have high expectations for the success of their students. Second, children's writing displayed for everyone to see builds a positive classroom climate for both teacher and students. Classroom climate and management influence students' sense of belonging to the classroom. Third, children need the right tools and materials to help them to be creative. Fourth, children need opportunities to explore many genres, forms and purposes for writing within a writing process model. Fifth, the writers' workshop model defines every child as a writer right now. Children need to know that all writers go through the same steps for creating a good writing piece as they do. They experience the same frustrations when trying to find the right words to phrase a line in a poetry piece or to make a message clear in a writing piece. Sixth, opportunities for cross-curriculum writing are essential to help children expand their writing ideas and topics for writing. Math comic strips helped my students to create word problems pertaining to everyday situations. Seventh, technology is essential in support of writing and publishing. Five computers were available in the classroom for use by the children. Use of the computers and access to the Internet increased the volume of published work by the children as well as their knowledge of how to operate the software.

The majority of urban minority students, particularly Black students, continue to perform below proficiency on standardized state and national testing in all areas that seriously impact economically advanced career options, especially in areas involving science. If education is viewed as a way out of poverty, there is a need to identify pedagogical methodologies that assist Black students in achieving higher levels of success in science, and in school in general. The purpose of this study was to explore White teachers' and Black students' perceptions about the teaching strategies used in their low socioeconomic status (LSES) urban science classrooms, that led to academic success for Black students. Participants included three urban middle school White teachers thought to be the best science teachers in the school, and five randomly selected Black students from each of their classrooms. Methods of inquiry involving tenets of grounded theory were used to examine strategies teachers used to inspire Black students into academic success. Data collection included teacher and student interviews, field notes from classroom observations, group discussions, and questionaires. Data were analyzed using open, axial, and selective coding. The teachers' perceptions indicated that their prior belief systems, effective academic and personal communication, caring and nurturing strategies, using relevant and meaningful hands-on activities in small learner-centered groups, enhanced the learning capabilities of all students in their classrooms, especially the Black students. Black students' perceptions indicated that their academic success was attributable to what teachers personally thought about them, demonstrated that they cared, communicated with them on a personal and academic level, gave affirmative feedback, simplified, and explained content matter. Black students labeled teachers who had these attributes as "nice" teachers. The nurturing and caring behaviors of "nice" teachers caused Black students to feel a sense of community and a sense of belonging in their classrooms. Black students demonstrated that they respected and always "had the back" of these "nice" teachers. Results from this study could play a significant role in teacher retention and in informing best practices for preservice and other teachers who are struggling to meet the needs of LSES urban students.

In recent years there has been increasing attention to the field of family literacy. A number of qualitative and ethnographic studies (Taylor, 1982; Taylor & Dorsey-Gaines, 1988, Paratore, 1999, 2001 Auerbach E. R., 1989, 1995; Rogers, 2002) have documented the importance of the family in the acquisition of literacy within the context of the home. These two case studies of Denise and Shrieffe address the question of whether and how parents who are introduced to reading strategies in a family literacy program use these strategies in their own home when they read with their children. The use of a qualitative paradigm (Teale, 1986) enabled me, as a family literacy teacher-researcher, to document the home teaching by these two parents and to generate broad questions that would help describe these reading interactions. This study suggests several conclusions. First, a reading intervention designed by a family literacy teacher for parents who are enrolled in a family literacy program needs to take into consideration a parent's personal literacy needs as well as any fabricated literacy support strategies a parent displays when interacting with his/her children while reading. Second, parents not only adopted the reading strategies to use as they read with children at home, but also adapted the strategies, changing them to better meet their own child's literacy needs and stage of literacy development. Third, parents transformed themselves from silent observers of their children's literacy learning to active participants in it, reading with their children and offering them reading support. Fourth, school-based literacy instruction transferred from the school to the homes of the families by the family literacy teacher-researcher, added new understandings to the home literacy environments of both families. Lastly, the role of teacher-researcher required me to attempt to understand complex questions about the intersections of reading and families' lives by using rich qualitative methods of analysis. This study contributes to a further understanding of family literacy reading as a way to help shape parent/child literacy interactions and ultimately, the parent and child's literacy learning. This study also has implications for curriculum design in family literacy programs in the United States. That is, to advocate for a family literacy teacher expanding her role to include responsibilities of modeling literacy strategies and skills in the homes of the parents and children as well as introducing children's literature and other learning materials.

Researchers, theoreticians, and teacher educators often treat the strategy of providing students with choices related to their curriculum as a simple one and individual studies generally consider only a few variables. In practice choice provision is a complex strategy that cannot be isolated from the institutional and instructional contexts within which it is utilized and many teachers do not use it well or often. This dissertation describes an analytical action research case study designed to provide a holistic, in-depth examination of the contexts, processes, structures, and outcomes of academic choice provision for a fourth grade teacher, Ann, and her students as they developed their use of this strategy over one school year. In order to address practical problems of choice provision as they arose and to support the teacher in her development of expertise with this strategy, the researcher worked as a supporter, and facilitator for the teacher and structured interactions with her based upon Stringer's (1999) look, think, act cycle for action research. This process was documented through classroom observations, interviews with the teacher and students, and collection of documents. Data were analyzed using Strauss and Corbin's (1998) methods for developing grounded theory. An inter-related set of contextual factors influenced the nature of Ann's work and its outcomes as well as her interpretations of key concepts related to academic choice provision. These factors included (a) time pressures, (b) high stakes testing, (c) required curricula, (d) students' prior knowledge, and (e) teacher support. Ann's development of academic choice was characterized by her efforts to find and enact an optimal balance between student and teacher input into the curriculum within contextual pressures that worked both for and against such a balance. Within this central theme Ann grappled with (a) treating academic choice as peripheral versus integral to the curriculum, (b) focusing on student products versus student learning processes, and (c) nurturing student dependence versus independence. Choice provision was associated with a high degree of student engagement including enjoyment, on task behavior, and increased individual initiative.

This dissertation is based on an interview study of twelve participants who had been students in various sections of College Writing taught by the researcher. This study focuses on participant descriptions of the writing they did in the class and its transformative impact on them. Based on the literature that claims that writing can transform and heal writers, this study seeks to understand how university students make sense of the ways in which writing makes personal and social change possible. I conducted two, ninety-minute individual interviews with each participant. I also collected complete College Writing portfolios from each participant. Data coding and analysis were ongoing and guided by a feminist poststructural perspective. Through recursive analytic induction, I coded transcribed interviews and student texts for references to writing and transformation. I looked for individual and shared stories, metaphors and discourses that participants used to construct their writing experience in College Writing. The identified sections of the data that referenced writing and transformation underwent discourse analysis. To conduct discourse analysis, I coded the data for the social, cultural and institutional discourses students drew on to shape their understanding of writing and transformation. Findings of the study include: (1) Students draw on multiple and complex discourses to define transformative writing. (2) Students identify multiple literacy practices as transformative. (3) Relationships within the classroom play an integral role in writing for transformation. (4) Feminist poststructuralist discourse can offer students the space to write for transformation. (5) Writing for transformation may offer resistance to the silencing of dominant discourses. This study suggests that for these students writing is a sociocultural practice deeply imbedded in their sense of self and their constructs of knowledge and power. This study also suggests that writing in a classroom that creates the space for students to connect their subjective experience and knowledge with academic literacy practices is transformative. This study argues feminist poststructuralist discourse can offer teachers and students subject positions of resistance and agency so students may enter academic discourse communities as speaking subjects and teachers may work toward a more transformative educational practice.

This research is a qualitative study describing the interaction in a two-way video environment. It compares this environment with face-to-face (F2F) and provides descriptive information about instructional activities fostering instructor-student interaction and student-student interaction. The subjects studied were an experienced distance education instructor and his students at host and remote sites. The technical environment included two fully equipped video classrooms on the UMass Video Network, a five interactive system that provides two-way audio and video communication between students and instructor. Data were gathered from analysis of on-site observations, videotaped lessons, student surveys, and instructor interviews. Observation, survey, and interview data are analyzed and reported. The study concludes that this two-way video classroom environment can support interactive learning but not without the instructor's thorough planning, good classroom management skills, and use of a variety of learner-centered activities. It found that effectiveness in the two-way video environment to be very much instructor dependent and describes a thoroughly competent instructor successfully implementing several interactive strategies. It also identifies barriers that would impact interaction in this environment. Host and remote site student perceptions of the quantity and quality of interaction are reported as well as their suggestions for changes. Several other ancillary findings are discussed. Recommendations for possible future studies are offered.