The purpose of this study was to describe the behavior of children engaged in two different Peer Work Group (PWG) tasks and to search for patterns of behavior that relate to learning. The study was exploratory in nature and was designed to investigate the processes children use under different PWG task-structure conditions. Two groups of children in a 1st-2nd grade classroom were studied; each group worked for one week on each task and all interaction was videotaped. Detailed information about requests and responses was recorded onto a checklist. Pretests and posttests were administered for each task to assess gains and to search for relationships among tasks, behaviors, and learning. Results include identification of eleven task-related behaviors with differences across tasks in level of engagement for the following: Independent Seatwork, Group Discussion, Time Off-Task, Waiting for Peers, Cooperative Problem Solving, Approaching the Teacher, and Requesting Help. Patterns in the data for request-response behaviors agree with sociolinguistic theory regarding "effective speakers". Significant differences were not found within or between groups and tasks on achievement measures. Implications are drawn regarding the influence of task structure on group process and children's use of requesting behavior for obtaining elaborated responses from peers.

Mathematics curriculum innovation has been launched in Taiwan recently in order to reflect the changing needs of the 21st century. The underlying assumptions of reform are: a learner-centered approach, emphasis on confluent education, and a problem-solving & reasoning approach. Research has revealed that teachers' beliefs can negatively interact with curriculum reform. On the other hand, some studies document that beliefs have little effect on instructional behavior. Therefore, this study attempts to investigate three questions: (1) what are the teachers' beliefs about the teaching and learning of mathematics in Taiwanese elementary schools and in what ways are teachers' beliefs congruent with the ongoing trend of reform; (2) what is the general picture of teachers' mathematical instructional practices in Taiwanese elementary schools and in what ways are these instructional practices congruent with the ongoing trend of reform; and (3) what is the relationship between teachers' beliefs and their instructional practices? Basically, this study combines qualitative and quantitative methods in collecting and analyzing data. That is, teacher interviews and questionnaires were administered in order to understand teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning mathematics while observational checklists and naturalistic field observations were used to portray instructional behavior. The major findings of this study are: (1) Elementary school teachers' beliefs tend to hold with the traditional absorption learning theory and seem incongruent with the undergoing curriculum reform. (2) The instructional practices tend to reflect a traditional teacher-centered classroom and also seem incongruent with the launched reform. (3) Teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning play a vital role in shaping their instructional behavior; the situational constraints merely play a minor role. In light of the above findings, some implications such as teacher education were drawn to broaden teachers' beliefs.

The major focus of this study is to identify the effect of teacher's verbal expression on children's learning during the free-play period. The verbal expression of teachers was identified as a form of the adult's reinforcement of the child's performance during the free-play period. This reinforcement of the primary learnings which are the children's on-going activities, lead to the elaboration of learning into associate and concomitant learnings. Fifty four-year-old children in ten classrooms were selected and observed. The Child Activity Observation Form designed for 40 minute observations and adapted from Day and Weinthaler (1982) was used to collect the data. A videotape of two classrooms was used for training twelve teachers for inter-observer reliability. The researcher and the twelve teachers observed the tapes and recorded observations. The observation results were correlated with each other to identify the percentage of agreement amongst the thirteen observers. The percentage agreement for all variables was calculated for the activities observed. Findings indicate average percentage agreement amongst variables in two activities ranged between 84% and 94%. SPSS/PC+V.3.1--Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (1988) was used to analyze the data. Contingency table analysis was used, which showed the frequency distribution and crosstabulations. The analysis of the results indicate that there was no significant difference between teacher and child on "who initiated activities." The teacher initiated in 61 activities while the child initiated in 53 activities. In looking at the effect of teacher interaction on the child's achievement of elaborated learnings, results revealed significant differences in the roles of the teacher and the frequencies of both associate and concomitant learnings. Results show that teachers were observing in 43 percent of all the activities, directing in 28.9 percent, participating in 17.5 percent and absent in 10.5 percent. There was no observed associate learnings in 61.4 percent of all activities and no observed concomitant learnings in 57.0 percent of all activities.

In Somali secondary schools and in the Somali secondary science teacher education program the science curriculum is organized and taught under difficult conditions. The problem of selecting an effective program has not been adequately addressed. Science is taught directly to students as content knowledge and the way science is taught is the legacy of two educational systems, the colonial and the Koranic. The Somali secondary level schools further lack systematic curriculum development and tradition and experience in science teaching. The researcher in this study investigated through a literature review what, of all the science content that could be taught, is most essential to be taught in Somali secondary schools and in the Somali secondary science teacher education program. As a result of the literature review it was concluded this most essential science content, the "essence of science," is "science as a way of knowing." The researcher further investigated through a survey questionnaire and an in-depth interview authored by the researcher and through a Nature Of Science Scale (NOSS) developed by Kimball (1967) the perceptions of a selected group of Somali ex-science teachers who are now in North America regarding the following issues: (a) The most essential aspect of science that should be part of every secondary school science course; (b) the most essential science content for a secondary science teacher education program in an African country like Somalia; (c) the most important goals for the teaching of science at the secondary school level; (d) the most desirable consequences of science instruction at the secondary school level and in the secondary science teacher education program; and (e) the nature of science. In the study it was concluded that there was a mismatch between these perceptions of the Somali ex-science teachers and what was revealed in the literature review as the essence of science, science as a way of knowing.

This dissertation describes and analyzes how participants in one gender-informed graduate-level seminar socialized each other through joint construction of the learning environment and the learning. The research was conducted in two phases. First an ethnographic approach was used for collecting data over the course of the year in a graduate-level women's history seminar. Using ethnographic methods, I worked out an analysis of the learning environment--in particular the expectations of the professor, the motivations of participants, subject matter, and organization of space and activities. The second phase of the research used sociolinguistic methodology to arrive at an analysis of how the participants co-constructed the learning in a gender-informed collaborative classroom. Reviews of research on gender and graduate-level teaching and learning, constructivist and social constructivist learning theory, and learning processes in gender-informed classrooms formed the theoretical framework for the dissertation. Particularly relevant were studies which examined gender-balancing processes and constructivist perspectives in graduate-level learning. The study contributes to our understanding of how participants in a gender-informed seminar socialized each other and jointly constructed meanings. When the professor provided gender-informed subject matter to men and women who were willing to learn, then men and women became more conscious of the workings of gender in their own lives. In addition, the social context in the classroom became more supportive across gender lines. Through discussions alone, consciousness can be raised, but it is through collaborative work and group dialogue on individual projects that new understandings are integrated and demonstrated in written work and in social behavior.

Considerable research has addressed the problem of poor student achievement in basic accounting courses as evidenced by low grades and high drop out rates. Much of this research focused on (1) changing the environment of instruction from the traditional classroom lecture setting to an individualized setting, or by (2) manipulating the elements of instruction within the lecture setting, for example, test frequency. The results of this research were largely inconclusive. Believing that the way the information is structured in traditional courses and texts contributes to its difficulty of learning, this research focused on a teaching approach which relied on a restructured form of this information to teach basic accounting. A two dimensional model of the whole accounting cycle process was created from the information found in traditional courses and texts. An approach was developed which used this model or "big picture" to teach the accounting cycle material. A test was conducted comparing the Restructured Information (RI) Approach with the Traditional Structure Approach to determine its effect on students' achievement and attitudes. Two groups of community college students were involved in the test, one taught using the (RI) Approach (experimental) and the other taught using the Traditional Structure Approach (control). Achievement was measured by test scores and course grades. Attitudes were compared for the experience of learning, how students felt about the accounting learned, and the value put on learning it. The experimental students scored significantly higher on the test most related to the accounting cycle. The remaining test scores were equivalent between the two groups. The experimental students achieved higher course grades than the control students but not significantly. There were no significant differences between the two groups on the attitudinal questions. Overall, the experimental students were quite positive about the (RI) Approach. Several groups were more positive than others. Students with no previous accounting instruction achieved significantly higher grades and were significantly more positive than students with previous accounting. It appeared this latter group experienced frustration when being required to relearn the accounting cycle material in a different way. Older students were significantly more positive about the (RI) Approach than younger students.

This study was purposed to understand the experiences of a group of undergraduate teaching assistants (UTA) working in a college remedial mathematics program which emphasized constructivist problem solving. Data were collected from four sources: in-depth and post interviews with the UTAs, interviews with the co-working instructors, interviews with two students from each of the UTA's class, and classroom observations. Results were presented in two ways: (a) UTAs' stories were told in individual profiles, detailing their experiences learning math from early school years and their teaching math in the current context; and (b) from the perspective of their four tasks (asking constructivist questions, classroom circulation, homework grading, and working in the Study Center), describing their successes and difficulties. Three important results were surmised from the data. First, UTAs' past experiences with math had a large effect on how they perceived their own math abilities and the way they thought that math should be taught. Second, the use of constructivist approach to teaching and learning was effective in changing UTAs' perceptions of what math was and how it could be learned; however, it also added pressure to these UTAs in their work with their students. Third, because of the contructivist emphasis, UTAs experienced early on impact and task concerns as well as personal concerns. Suggestions for preparing training program's for similar populations were advanced.

In an era of mathematics and science evaluation, concerns have been raised about the underachievement and underrepresentation of minority students in mathematics. Their opportunities to take advanced courses in these areas could be limited by many factors that only members of a minority group get to experience. Many studies have been concerned about comparing ethnic groups' achievement in the area of mathematics. However, there is a need to study those problems affecting each group individually. The purpose of the study was to explore the relationship between Hispanic students' attitude toward mathematics and students' academic achievement, program of study, gender and career interests or goals. Six research questions guided the study. Three survey instruments were utilized to gather the information needed to respond to the six research questions guiding the study. The Mathematics Attitude Inventory (MAI) was used to determine students' attitude toward mathematics of secondary school students in grades 10 to 12. The Metropolitan Achievement Test was used to obtain a measure of students' achievement in mathematics in grade 10. The students' Personal Data Form was used to collect the nominal data necessary. One hundred twenty Hispanic students from regular and bilingual programs participated in the study. Frequency counts and percentages were made. Mean scores and standard deviation were computed for the total attitude toward mathematics for each of six subareas. For the Metropolitan Achievement Test, mean scores and standard deviation were computed. They represented the average percentage of items answered correctly. The Pearson Product-Moment Correlation coefficients subprogram of SPSSX was utilized to analyze the data collected by the instruments. No significant differences were found regarding the six research questions. However, significant differences were found in the areas of students' attitude. Students participating in the bilingual program showed a more positive attitude toward mathematics and also showed less anxiety toward learning mathematics. The value of mathematics did affect students' attitude toward mathematics. The study has raised more questions than it has answered. Other variables must be considered in future studies if we are to help Hispanic students achieve more and participate in mathematics-related careers and activities.

This dissertation is an ethnographic study of talk in peer instructional writing groups. It is concerned with the relationship of talk and various writing process activities to the construction of the community within the group and to the definition of social identity by the members of the peer group. The research question asked was "what norms of language use can be identified in the talk of peer writing groups, and for what purpose are the norms used by the group members?" The study was conducted in an English class at a regional vocational high school over a two and one half year period. The same peer writing group of four adolescent males was observed from tenth grade through twelfth grade. Data in the form of audio tapes, fieldnotes, and student writing was collected and then analyzed using a sociolinguistic based method of conversational coding and analysis. The purpose of the analysis was to identify norms of language use established by the members of the peer writing group, and to evaluate the purpose for which the norms were used. Eighteen norms of language use connected to writing process activities and storytelling in the group were identified. The findings suggest that talk within a peer writing group is being used for more than the accomplishment of the assigned task; the talk connected to the writing process activities is also being used to accomplish the construction of a language community within the group and to define the individual social identities of the peer group members. That the group established norms of language use for directing the talk within their group is significant, and that those norms were based upon aspects of the writing process and storytelling is important in that it indicates the existence of a means through which writing and social identity are connected.

This study provides a description of how 12 first year physical education teachers perceived their workplace, how they believed it affected their first year of work, and how they understood the role of that workplace in shaping their induction into the social and organizational context of the school. All of the participants had some experiences that were similar to those encountered by beginning teachers in every area of public education. They had other experiences, however, that were different from those commonly reported in the literature concerning first year classroom teachers. The evidence suggests that such differences were a consequence of the nature of physical education as a subject, as well as its place in the school curriculum and the social fabric of the workplace. This conclusion is based on the analysis of data derived from two interviews conducted with each participant. The interviews were conducted at the end of the participants' first year of teaching. The profiles of each participant describe the interactions between the participants and their workplaces. There were commonalties that cut across all cases. All participants reported that the following workplace factors operated to shape their first year of teaching: the physical education facilities, the presence or absence of teaching colleagues, the scheduling of physical education classes, the community environment, and the students. In addition, several "unarticulated" (Schein, 1988) factors were identified which represent generic themes of influence in the process of learning to teach physical education in their schools. These included: the status of physical education in the schools, the teachers' sense of efficacy, the testing of values, and the realities of the school as a social institution. The results of this study, when added to the information provided in the literature, suggest that despite modest efforts, many schools provide inadequate support for beginning teachers. First year physical education teachers, like other beginning teachers, still "learn the ropes alone" (Deal & Chatman, 1989). Moreover, the subject matter of physical education presents unique problems in accomplishing the transition to professional teaching.