Teachers should have access to new and innovative tools in order to engage and motivate their students in the classroom. This is especially important as many students view school as an antiquated and dull environment â which they must seemingly suffer through to advance. School need not be a dreaded environment. The use of music as a tool for learning can be employed by any teacher to create an engaging and exciting atmosphere where students actively participate and learn to value their classroom experience. Through this study, a product and process was developed that is now available for any 8th grade science teacher interested in using music to enhance their content. In this study 8th grade students (n=41) in a public school classroom actively interacted with modern songs created to enhance the teaching of chemistry. Data were collected and analyzed in order to determine the effects that the music treatment had on student achievement and motivation, compared to a control group (n=35). Current literature provides a foundation for the benefits for music listening and training, but academic research in the area of using music as a tool for teaching content was noticeably absent. This study identifies a new area of research called âMusic-based Teachingâ which results in increases in motivation for 8th grade students learning chemistry. The unintended results of the study are additionally significant as the teacher conducting the treatment experienced newfound enthusiasm, passion, and excitement for her profession.

This study examined the effects of mentoring on standardized achievement for African American males in the elementary and middle grades. Mentoring has been deemed effective regarding social development and various academic indicators, but scant empirical data is available regarding the effects of mentoring on standardized testing. Thus, standardized test data of African American males participating in a district-wide mentoring program were examined over a three-year period. Results show that mentoring has smaller effects on standardized testing, while other factors continue to have substantial impact on student results. Recommendations for improving the academic success of African American males through mentoring and other school-based approaches are provided.

This research effort investigates relationships among factors that typically impact student performance in computer skills. The study utilizes a causal-comparative (ex post facto) research design to examine the effects of several variables on the computer skills of low performing eighth grade students. Students from two county school systems were selected for inclusion in comparison groups. The relative contribution of literacy training, reading comprehension, race, and family income will be considered using multiple regression analysis. The results will be examined for the difference in effect sizes and/or existence of interactions between variables. The findings will be summarized at the conclusion of the study, along with possible implications for future research and instructional planning.

To better understand issues of congruity between the North Carolina Association of Educators (NCAE) and its teacher membership, this study surveyed a sample of NCAEâs membership about issues related to curriculum and instruction. The research reported here utilized a model (exchange theory) that makes a distinction between voluntary membership organizations and non-voluntary membership organizations. The survey sampled 263 NCAE teacher members. Descriptive statistics, ANOVAs, and content analysis addressed three specific questions about congruity of positions taken by NCAE on curriculum and instruction issues and the beliefs of NCAE members. Results suggest NCAE members hold views very congruent with NCAE leadership. The importance of making distinctions between teacher views in non-bargaining states is a major implication of the findings.

<p>ABSTRACTMASON, CHERYL LARAY. An Analysis of Patterns of Computer Mediated Communication Within the Social Studies Student Teaching Experience. (Under the direction of Dr. Peter H. Martorella.) The purpose of this research has been to examine the computer mediated communication (CMC) among a cohort of middle school social studies student teachers and their university supervisors. CMC was facilitated by desktop videoconferencing and web-based groupware. Desktop videoconference sessions were held weekly using CU-SeeMe software, while, web-based groupware messages were posted voluntarily with NetForum software. The two modes of CMC provided the student teachers the opportunities for professional collaboration from their field placement. A qualitative design was used to identify patterns of discourse and to describe the participants? uses of technology. As a result of the participants? active participation in an online learning community, opportunities for peer collaboration and reflection were enhanced. Data from online conversations, interviews, and observations suggested that the intervention of CMC in the student teaching experience allowed the participants to engage in self-directed professional dialogue. The findings suggest that the participants translated the use of technology from the personal context to the classroom context. As a result of this, they acquired perceptions of themselves as technology users.Desktop videoconferencing as a mode of CMC provided more immediate and satisfactory feedback for the participants than the web-based groupware.<P>

<p>ABSTRACTJACKSON, ALECIA YOUNGBLOOD. Peer Response Groups Using Electronic and Traditional Communications: A Portraiture of a Class. (Under the direction of Dr. Carol A. Pope.) This participatory action research project was a qualitative inquiry into the contextual variables that influence peer response groups using electronic and traditional communications. The research participants, students of the teacher/researcher, were twenty-two university freshmen enrolled in two sections of a reading and writing course required for students with low verbal SAT scores. Students wrote five autobiographical stories in the narrative genre. For the first two writings, students paired with the same peer from their class for the face-to-face conferences. For the third writing assignment, students had both in-class conferences with the same peer in addition to an e-mail conference with a peer from the other class. Students used e-mail only to communicate with both partners about writing assignments four and five. Data collection took place throughout the fifteen weeks of the semester and consisted of participant observations, document analysis of students' reaction journals, document analysis of students? first and second drafts of writing (with peer comments), and individual interviews. Findings are presented as a portraiture of the collective classes and a portraiture of a peer response triad. The main theme that emerged from the findings is "acts of negotiation and balance." In general, students depended on the established social relationships with their in-class partners when making revision decisions. Students acknowledged that e-mail exchanges about writing were convenient and widened their audience, but they did not work to establish a relationship with their e-mail partners. Most students valued the complementary aspects of using the two different modes of communication for feedback about their writing. However, preference for mode of communication was secondary to their peers' possessing qualities of honesty, trustworthiness, and sensitivity. How peers achieved this rapport within their relationships was idiosynchratic to each response group. This study concluded that individual student attitudes, values, and expectations influence and are influenced by multiple contextual variables in the writing classroom (i.e., physical context, social context, mode of communication, the peer response group, and time). A model of reciprocity is proposed to illuminate the complex dynamics within peer response groups. Future research on peer response groups should include more systematic inquiry into contextual forces that contribute to the success or collapse of peer response groups. Teachers should work to understand the inevitable interchanges between individual students and class context in order to assist their students as they grow and develop as readers and writers in peer response groups. <P>

<p>The purpose of this quasi-experimental research was to examine a new approach to information delivery and communication within Teacher Education courses. Advanced technologies in the Internet, Listserv, E-mail, NetForum and electronic forms were integrated, and the learning was guided by the clinical analysis/reflection and structured self-evaluation in a differentiated environment to promote individual development in both cognition and ethics.A cluster sample of sixty-eight pre-service teachers enrolled in the Introduction to Teaching Humanities and Social Sciences course in the Spring of 1999 at the North Carolina State University. Both pretest and posttest were conducted using Defining Issues Test by James Rest for the evaluation of moral growth of the students and Computing Concerns Questionnaire by Jean Martin for the concerns of the students in computing. The qualitative conclusion reached by the researcher suggested students have improved in both quantity and quality of their work more than previous semesters. The quantitative data showed a trend of decrease in students' concerns with regard to computing through Technology-Assisted-Reflection. Despite the statistically insignificant result, study indicated moral development of our pre-service teachers at the Stage 4 of moral development, which is within the norm of the national standard for undergraduate students. <P>

This study examined the responses of two 11-year-old African-American girls to two folktales: one with a passive female protagonist and one with an active female protagonist. The goal of the study was to add to the small body of previous research on childrens responses to folktales by exploring the opinions of African-American girls, who had been thus far overlooked, and to illuminate areas for future research. Data were collected through a series of four interviews with each girl and analyzed using qualitative research methodologies. Some of the data reflected previous findings from studies of Caucasian girls responses to folktales. The data echoed the finding that children are active makers of meaning (Trousdale, 1987) in responding to folktales. Both girls in this study related the stories to their own lives by inserting modifications into the original tales. The data also suggested that the girls were drawn to active, helping female characters but held mixed feelings about emulating such active characters, reflecting a 1995 study (Trousdale). The study challenges the assumption that children necessarily identify with the protagonists in fairy tales. In both types of tales the girls seemed to make qualified identifications with the main characters. The study also suggests that girls readiness to identify with active female characters may depend on their prior experience with such characters. Moreover, the study found that both girls were reluctant to describe the characters in terms of specific physical traits. Further research was called for to determine whether such responses are typical of children from ethnic groups who do not often see themselves represented in literature.

How does author relate to audience? This overarching question guided a case study focused on author Rick Norman and his novel Fielders Choice. Specific questions were (1) What was, and is, this authors conception of his audience for the book? (2) How do members of the audiencespecifically five high school studentsrespond to the novel? (3) How do the audiences responses relate to the authors stated intentions? Data came from the following sources: interviews with the author, the student readers, and the editor of the book; students written responses to the book and the authors written reactions to those responses; an interactive dialogue between the author and the students; records and documents provided by the author; and reviews of the book. Data analysis employed Glaser and Strausss (1967) comparative method and Spradleys (1979) developmental research sequence. Findings include the following: (1) This author saw his audience, which he portrayed as multi-faceted and dynamic, through the lens of self. He attributed to his audience his own characteristics when he originally planned and wrote the book and also when he talked about it ten years later. Self was at the center of his generic audience as well as his defined audience. (2) The audience of readers in this study varied in the extent to which they connected with the author. Most of them did, however, speculate about his intentions relative to the content as well as to text features. (3) Author intention and audience response did not always match. When mismatches were revealed in written and oral exchanges, subsequent dialogue between author and audience was directed to mutual understanding. The author wanted to learn what there was in his writing that led the readers to unintended meanings, and the readers wanted to learn why the author wrote as he did. This study, focused on author-audience relationship, fits into a growing body of work examining connections between reading and writing. Its uniqueness lies in its dual focus on both author intention and audience response and in the opportunities provided for author and audience to meet to discuss intentions and responses.

Dyslexic students struggle to read and write at a level commensurate with their intellectual ability. This study examines the impact of remedial instruction on reading and writing progress of six fourth grade students chosen from three different schools within one school district. These six students, all males, had been previously identified as having characteristics of dyslexia as defined by the protocol in their school district. The remedial instruction for these students was provided in a pullout setting by one itinerant teacher. The instruction was administered in two forty-minute sessions over a period of thirteen weeks. Project Read Written Expression was the program used for this instruction. Every effort was made to maintain as much consistency in the remedial instruction of these students as was possible. There were, however, variables which could not be eliminated. The students' classroom teachers had varying degrees of training and experience in administering instruction based upon a multisensory structured language program. The actual physical setting provided for the instruction varied from school to school, affecting the consistency of instructional time. The willingness and desire to participate, as well as the degree to which each student was supported and encouraged by his teacher and parents, was inconsistent. Reading progress (skill in decoding and comprehension) was assessed via pre- and post-testing using the Gray Oral Reading Test-4 (GORT-4). Progress in written language skills was assessed via pre- and post-testing using the Test of Written Language-3 (TOWL-3). Writing samples were collected at each lesson. Testing revealed that some students made progress in reading comprehension. Subtests of the TOWL-3 also indicated some progress in writing skills.