published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This study was designed to investigate the relationship between discrete areas of cognitive processing and academic achievement in minority children. There have been many questions about the fairness of current testing practices as they have been applied to students from differing ethnicities. These students are entitled by law to a meaningful, nonbiased assessment of their abilities. The minority children targeted for study were bilingual Hispanic students. Cognitive processing tasks were drawn from established measures of perceptual-motor development, auditory recall, and nonverbal intellectual ability. Academic achievement was measured by two comprehensive tests, one that was English-based and another that was Spanish-based. One hundred fifty-eight students enrolled in eleven third grade classrooms were examined. The subjects participated in group administrations of the Bender Visual-Motor Gestalt Test, Raven's Standard Progressive Matrices, and a bilingual version of the Digit Span subtest from the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised. The Spanish-based achievement test was La Prueba Riverside de Realizacion en Espanol. The English-based achievement test was the Iowa Test of Basic Skills. Data were first analyzed by a stepwise multiple regression procedure to determine which of the experimental measures would predict academic achievement. Results indicated that the strongest predictor of academic achievement were scores from the test of nonverbal intellectual ability, which held true for both achievement tests. Scores in immediate auditory recall in English predicted achievement in certain achievement areas, but only on the Spanish-based test. Scores on the perceptual-motor test also predicted achievement on the Spanish-based test only. Auditory recall in Spanish did not predict achievement in any area on either test. The study concludes with a discussion of the viability of the independent measures as a meaningful, comprehensive test battery to be used with minority children in schools. Implications for future research and administrative planning are discussed.

Five Tucson, Arizona, mothers of adolescent daughters participated in exploratory, descriptive nursing research employing ethnographic interviews during July, 1987, to determine what cultural knowledge informs the behaviors of mothers as they enculturate their daughters regarding Breast Self-Examination (BSE). Five major taxonomies of cultural knowledge emerged: "Caring For Yourself Means Surviving As A Species"; "Being Unsure, Thinking 'Why Bother?'   "; "It Can't Happen To Me"; "If I Don't Know About It, It Isn't There"; and "It's Unnatural To Touch Yourself." Six pairs of conflicting cultural themes both presented BSE as a self-care means to promote human-species survival and simultaneously accounted for women's BSE non-compliance via their uncertainty over BSE techniques, sense of invulnerability to cancer, fear of uncovering disease, and unease with their own bodies. Nursing intervention should reinforce positive cultural knowledge about the female breasts which could be communicated by mothers to their daughters along with procedural knowledge in promoting BSE practice.

The purpose of this study was to identify effective instructional programs for GED tests preparation for students in a large suburban school district. Three different nonrandom, unequal naturally occurring instructional groups at three different locations were examined. One group participated in a traditional instruction program, a second group in a test/retest program, and a third group in a computer-assisted program. The demographics of the district population, the GED population, and the individual study groups were catalogued and analyzed. The demographics of the GED population were similar to the district population but different from the GED passers. Student characteristics did affect GED success. Both quantitative and qualitative data were gathered. Random students in each of the three groups were interviewed about their experiences in GED preparation using a questionnaire. Quantitative data were analyzed using frequencies, means, correlations, and a multiple regression analysis. Since the GED credential is an alternative to the high school diploma, its use as a dropout alternative is important to every school district. The study found that instructional methods had little impact on students' success in receiving the GED credential. The overall success rate of students was low in each group. The student's reading achievement score, GPA, and IQ score were predictors of GED tests success. Little research has been done in the area of GED instruction; perhaps this lack of work is due to the known limited effectiveness of GED preparation. Districts hoping to build effective GED programs should screen students prior to admission to a GED program. High school GED instruction seems to be effective for students likely to be successful in the regular school setting but in need of an immediate credential because of pregnancy or parenting or the need to work full-time or the desire to begin college study. Districts should also design programs to help disenfranchised students in the regular program remain in school.

The problem of the study was to develop an instrument to measure achievement in social studies in the primary grades.

Two procedures for detection of differential item functioning (DIF) for polytomous items were generalized to detection of differential testlet functioning (DTLF). The methods compared were the logistic discriminant function analysis procedure for uniform and non-uniform DTLF (LDFA-U and LDFA-N), and the Mantel score test procedure. Further analysis included comparison of results of DTLF analysis using the Mantel procedure with DIF analysis of individual testlet items using the Mantel-Haenszel (MH) procedure. Over 600 chi-squares were analyzed and compared for rejection of null hypotheses. Samples of 500, 1,000, and 2,000 were drawn by gender subgroups from the NELS:88 data set, which contains demographic and test data from over 25,000 eighth graders. Three types of testlets (totalling 29) from the NELS:88 test were analyzed for DTLF. The first type, the common passage testlet, followed the conventional testlet definition: items grouped together by a common reading passage, figure, or graph. The other two types were based upon common content and common process. as outlined in the NELS test specification.

This study described the way teachers used questions with skilled and less skilled readers during reading instruction. The cognitive level and functions of questions were analyzed based on data collected through direct observation within the natural environment of the classroom. In addition, the patterns of questioning which included wait-time and sequencing of questions were identified and reported. Twenty sixth grade teachers randomly selected from a metropolitan school district were observed while instructing skilled readers and less skilled readers. Data collected during non-participatory observation of reading instruction through audiotape recordings, a low-inference observation instrument, and field notes were analyzed using the chisquare statistic, log-linear analysis, and descriptive statistics. Each question/response/response loop which occurred during the eighty observations was analyzed as to the cognitive level and function of the question, designation and wait-time of the student's response, the appropriateness, type, and length of the student's response, and the content of the teacher's response. Within the limitations of this study, the following conclusions have been formulated. 1. Teachers use different cognitive levels of questions for particular functions as dictated by the specific needs and characteristics of the students in the skill level. 2. Although teachers ask the majority of questions at the cognitive-memory and convergent levels rather than the higher divergent and evaluative levels among both skilled and less skilled readers, the primary function is that of extending. It appears that teachers use questions as a way of encouraging student participation during reading instruction. 3. Among both skilled and less skilled readers, teachers practice a fast pace approach to questioning, waiting an average of one to two seconds for a response. 4. Paths of sequence for question/response/response loops are similar for both skilled and less skilled reading groups. The function of extending typically followed focusing and clarifying, demonstrating the teacher's apparent effort to include as many students as possible during instruction.

The purpose of this thesis is to provide a standardized placement test for students transferring to the North Texas State College School of Music with previous college credit in theory. In order to make available to this school a test which may in part be conducted by a responsible person regardless of musical training, recorded and mimeographed exercises have been introduced in the proposed examination. Through use of the recordings and mimeographed forms the proposed test will be uniform in presentation to every student.

The purposes of this study were to develop an instrument to measure knowledge of leisure opportunities, and determine the reliability of the instrument. Subjects included 292 orthopedically impaired, nine to fourteen year old children. A multiple-choice format is used. The content is based on four domains. These are entertainment, games, sports, and arts and crafts. The domains are subcategorized into who, where, what, when, and cost of activities. The Kuder-Richardson formula 20 showed a reliability coefficient of .81. The Pearson, point biserial correlation was used to determine item-test correlations. Correlations below .20 were revised. Items with a difficulty level of 70 percent and above were also revised. The results indicated that the instrument had been successfully developed.

D.Ed. (Education) / In this research the core syllabuses, departmental syllabuses and the matriculation examination papers were evaluated. For the purpose of evaluation certain criteria were developed based on inherent curriculum design principles, including a situation-analysis. Cognizance was taken of the data obtained in an earlier investigation by the Human Sciences Research Council on the needs.and demands of the work situation. Criteria were developed in the areas of Education, Linguistics and Language Didactics. Linguistic criteria are based on a Pragmatic language perspective, including a Pragmatic component as part of language structure. In order to obtain a clearer criterial focus, the different structure oriented, content based and educational criteria were integrated in a criterial structure. In the application of the criterial structure to the abovementioned curriculum documents, it was found that the language syllabuses do not adequately equip the learner to become adult educated users of the language. The learner is being inadequately equipped for the demands of the various social contexts in which he or she is required to use the language. The essential nature of language according to the dynamic interaction between language use and structure within a given context is negated. A theoretical basis is lacking resulting in the negation of the essentially communicative nature of language and the role of context in the functional use of language. Guidelines, based on the stated criteria, have been put forward with a view to accountable curriculum and syllabus innovation.