A quasi-experiment was performed to study the effects of a 10 week intervention program on the position thinking and self-esteem of elementary school children in Ottawa, Canada. Seventy students, ranging from grades three through six, at a local elementary school participated in the program. Pre- and post-test measures of positive thinking and self-esteem were collected, through the use of newly developed scales and the self-esteem inventory (SEI) of Battle (1981). Qualitative data on stressful events that the children experienced, positive thoughts they had, and negative thoughts they had were collected in logbooks, as well as the children's subjective ratings of stressful events and their emotional feelings to these events. No experimental effects were found on any of the quantitative variables, for a variety of reasons. The stressful events reported were categorised, fitting into previously identified categories of stressful experiences for children, along with ratings of the nature of the stress of these experiences. Categories were developed for the positive and negative thoughts, as no previous work in the area had been found. The strengths and weaknesses of the intervention and the measurement tools were discussed.

Education reforms throughout much of Canada reflect growing awareness of the role parents can play in an effective system. Though the relationship between parent involvement and student achievement is well established, how much time and money parents contribute to their children's education was largely unknown. To determine this for a sample of English-Canadian parents and to learn by comparison with a Japanese sample, 48 English-Canadian parents and 115 Japanese parents of children in grade 5 completed a survey on their contributions of time and money. They were also asked about their perceptions of the roles of home and school, aspirations for their children and motivations for spending their time and money in this way. While no significant differences were found in the total amount of money parents spent, there were many significant differences in how they spent it. Regarding time, English-Canadian parents spent more on almost every measure. Contrary to expectations, these findings raise many questions about previous research and prevailing attitudes regarding Japanese and English-Canadian parent involvement in education.

Conflict resolution skills are becoming an integral part of the Ontario elementary school curriculum. The provincial report card lists "Conflict Resolution" as one of nine Learning Skills. Unfortunately, the curricula typically used to teach conflict resolution skills do not include a means of assessing student competency. This study investigated the feasibility of an assessment instrument based on Selman's INS (interpersonal negotiation strategies) model (Selman, 1980) in a grade three classroom. The assessment instrument is in the form of a rubric. Data collection included: tape-recorded data and observation of students solving actual conflicts, an interview procedure, and a writing activity. The assessment instrument was found to be feasible for classroom use. The most viable form of data collection was the tape-recording of students solving actual conflicts. It is recommended that the rubric be refined by changing it from a chart with discrete cells, into a continuum of INS levels.

The purpose of the study was to evaluate a method of instruction that promotes problem solving skills. Critics of current educational practices say that present methods of instruction are not preparing students for the requirements of the work force. While skilled in textbook procedures, student graduates lack the expertise to solve the ill-defined problems they experience and will continue to experience in a changing economic world. Experts today say that the competitive world centres around problem solving, requiring innovative thinking and technological expertise. Skills needed to solve problems are taught in schools but in isolated "chunks" rather than being co-ordinated or integrated in an explicit problem solving approach. The implicit assumption is that students will use these skills in a problem solving context when needed. The question to be answered is, whether students would be more effective problem solvers if they were taught problem solving skills explicitly and systematically in a teaching environment which focusses on problem solving, rather than in a teaching environment which focusses on content. In a content oriented environment, the assumption is made that students will learn problem solving skills implicitly and use these skills when needed. An adaptation of the framework of Induction proposed by cognitive scientists Holland, Holyoak, Nisbett and Thagard in their text Induction: Processes of Inference, Learning and Discovery (1986), was chosen as a theoretical base for the research. The model was chosen as it identifies three main components of problem solving: collecting information, analysing information and forming conclusions. These components were combined with the three types of knowledge also cited by cognitive scientists; declarative knowledge, knowing what; procedural knowledge, knowing how and conditional knowledge, knowing when and where. The three types of knowledge were used to structure the questions for the data collection which consisted of four interviews over a six month period, daily learning logs and four observations in each classroom. Sixty-four junior grade students from grades 4, 5 and 6 participated in the study. Each grade was taught the same two lesson segments, the first segment was developed for a content oriented environment and the second for a problem solving oriented environment. The objective was to identify student problem solving skills generated by the two teaching environments: one based on the Holland et al. (1986) framework of Induction in which skills, collecting information, analysing information and forming conclusions are integrated and coordinated in an explicit problem solving approach; the other, in which the same skills are developed in isolation with a focus on content. Results showed a shift in knowledge patterns from the content environment to the problem solving environment. After being taught in the problem solving environment, student explanations to declarative and procedural knowledge questions were better structured. In addition, there was a significant increase in their application or conditional knowledge to real life situations. Also, after a four month period, there was little decline in student recall of knowledge from the problem solving environment. In fact, retention increased for some students. The results show that the Holland et al. (1986) framework of Induction can be adapted to produce a simplified, systematic approach for curriculum design. The framework demonstrates that it can integrate the diversity and fragmentation of skills being recommended in curriculum guidelines and resource books.

In a comparative study of successful and unsuccessful readers near the end of first grade, reading achievement tests -were administered to one hundred nine subjects and those scoring in the upper and lower quarters of the ordered standard scores were designated as good and poor readers respectively. A battery of seven tests was administered to the fifty-four subjects thus selected. The battery was composed of two tests of visual perception (visual memory of symbols and reversal of symbols), three verbal coding tests (letters, transposition of consonant trigrams, and phonemes, blends, and phonograms), and two tests of meaningful association (vocabulary listening and sentence listening). It was found that good and poor readers were significantly different (.0001) on the subskills considered simultaneously and beyond the .02 level of significance on each of the seven subskills considered separately. Different patterns of correlation were evidenced with generally significant correlations within the clusters for poor readers but not for good readers. Regression analysis indicated that the verbal coding and meaningful association clusters made significant contributions to the prediction of reading category (successful or unsuccessful). The contribution of the visual perception cluster was also significant when it was entered before the verbal coding cluster. The subskill variables making the greatest contribution to the prediction of reading category were phonemes and vocabulary listening. All subskills with the exception of reversals were significant predictors if they were entered early in the regression analysis. Approximately 85 per cent of the variance in reading achievement as designated by successful or unsuccessful category was accounted for by the subskills tested. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

This study explored the difference in field independent-dependent perception of good readers as compared with poor readers. To accomplish this, it was necessary to try to partial out or eliminate the effects of extraneous but influential variables. An attempt was made to experimentally control the following variables: (i) lack of familiarity with spoken English, (ii) visual defects, (iii) sex, (iv) age, and (v) number of years in school. The extraneous variable statistically controlled was nonreading verbal intelligence. A total of 49 second-grade boys constituted the sample of this study. Of these, 26 comprised the good-reader group and 23 the poor-reader group. They attended eight public elementary schools of Richmond, B.C. Three instruments were employed. These were the Metropolitan Achievement Test, Primary Battery II, Form B, "Reading Stories" subtest, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (Verbal Scale), and the Children's Embedded Figures Test. The statistical techniques applied were one-way analysis of co-variance and multiple regression analysis. The main hypothesis predicted a significantly higher level of field independence among good readers than among poor readers with the effects of nonreading verbal intelligence controlled. The data did not uphold this hypothesis. A sub-hypothesis predicted a significant positive correlation between field independence and reading comprehension, when level of verbal IQ was statistically controlled. The data did not support this hypothesis. The single variable which correlated most highly with reading comprehension was nonreading verbal IQ. In addition, verbal intelligence was a considerably more valid predictor of field dependency than was reading comprehension, which accounted for almost none of the field dependency variance. The negative results and the almost non-existent relationship between reading comprehension and field dependency were discussed in terms of the scoring procedures for the CEFT. It was felt that the standardized procedure possibly invites a good deal of extraneous variance, particularly since it apparently rewards reflective responses and penalizes impulsive responses. An alternate scoring technique was proposed which might reduce the possibility of contamination by the extraneous variable of impulsivity-reflectivity in responding. / Arts, Faculty of / Psychology, Department of / Graduate

In all lessons, teachers communicate ideas orally in their daily contact with children. In this oral presentation teachers set models for children of correct pronunciation, intonation, and rhythm of speech. Listening to these speech patterns is of primary importance to children in developing comprehension in any language arts or communication skills program. Because it places primary emphasis on interpretation, oral reading by the teacher is one approach to reading instruction aimed at developing pupil's listening and reading vocabulary and comprehension. When the teacher reads orally to the children, she can alter her speed, use inflection, emphasis and pause, and create the atmosphere essential to making the lines sound as the author probably intended them to. It is assumed that this kind of reading not only helps to increase pupils’ listening and reading vocabulary, but makes them aware of the types of content juvenile literature can offer them. The major hypotheses of this study were: (1) to determine the effect of a program of oral reading by the teacher on children's silent reading achievement, listening vocabulary; attitude toward reading; (2) to determine the relationships between each of the following factors taken in turn: silent reading achievement; listening vocabulary; attitude toward reading; intelligence; socioeconomic status; (3) to determine the differences if any, in the silent reading achievement, listening vocabulary, and attitude toward reading of boys and girls. Eight grade five teachers, each teaching two reading classes in the Vancouver schools, were utilized in this experimental study. One class taught by each teacher served as the control class and the other the experimental class. In each case both classes got the same reading lessons from their teacher. However, in the experimental group the fifty minute reading lesson was shortened to forty minutes. The teacher read a children's novel for the remaining ten minutes. The program lasted for twelve weeks. As pretests, the Gates MacGinitie Reading Tests Survey D Form M-l, the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test Form A, and the San Diego County Inventory of Reading Attitude were given in the first week of January, 1968. Alternate forms of the Gates MacGinitie Reading Tests Survey D and of the Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test together with the same form of the San Diego County Inventory of Reading Attitude were given as posttests in the last week of March, 1968. Analysis of covariance was used to determine any difference in the treatment. Product-moment correlation coefficients were calculated between the means of the gain scores on each of the dependent variables for both boys and girls in the experimental as well as in the control group. The findings did not show any significant difference in silent reading achievement, listening vocabulary and attitude toward reading between the treatment groups. In the experimental group, the boys seem to have benefited more than the girls in silent reading comprehension. The boys comprehended better than the girls after the treatment. The oral reading by the teacher seems to have nullified the influence of intelligence and socio-economic status of children of low IQ and socio-economic level. Children of these categories in the experimental group made significantly greater gains in silent reading comprehension and total silent reading achievement than children in the same categories in the control group. When socio-economic status was held constant, the relationships in the experimental group between intelligence and gain scores on each of the dependent variables were not significant. All the children in this group seemed to progress regardless of their intelligence. When intelligence was held constant, in the experimental group, the relationships between socio-economic status and gain scores on each of the dependent variables were not significant. However, the negative significant relationships between socio-economic status and gain scores in silent reading speed and accuracy and socio-economic status and total silent reading achievement for the girls of low socio-economic level indicates that these girls improved in these two aspects or reading achievement. Also, the boys as well as the girls of low socio-economic level progressed in their total silent reading achievement. These findings seem to suggest that boys particularly need some kind of reading materials which increase their background of reading vocabulary and comprehension. Also, children of low IQ and socio-economic level seem to need some acquaintance with unfamiliar words, phrases and sentence structures which provide background for their later silent reading. / Education, Faculty of / Graduate

Chapter One students have historically been at risk of failing to achieve at the elementary school level. Computer Assisted Instruction is one intervention which is likely to have a positive effect on the achievement of these children. This study evaluated the impact of the JOSTENS Integrated Learning System (ILS) on the achievement of Chapter One students. The JOSTENS ILS was piloted at four sites within a large urban school system in the Northeast. This special instructional system was utilized with Chapter One students in addition to their regular program and supplemental Chapter One instruction. The basic design of this evaluation followed that of the Quasi-Experimental Model with non-equivalent groups. Test score data from two administrations of the Metropolitan Achievement Test were collected from 800 Chapter One students in grades two through six at the four pilot and four comparison schools. Statistical analysis was carried out, by grade at each school and across schools, to determine the pre-test mean, the post-test mean and the difference mean for each dependent variable; vocabulary, comprehension, computation and problem solving. Questionnaires were developed and distributed to approximately 35 staff members at the pilot schools. These questionnaires were designed to elicit responses which rated the opinions of the respondents on a variety of issues related to Computer Assisted Instruction in general and the JOSTENS ILS in particular. Personal interviews were held with each of the Principals of the pilot schools to determine; the level of each Principal's commitment to CAI at the school level, the Principal's background and training in issues related to CAI and the administrator's opinion and perception of CAI and its potential to improve the educational achievement of students within an elementary school. This study found that students who were exposed to the JOSTENS ILS achieved significantly higher on tests of achievement than did the children who did not receive any computer assisted instruction. It was also found that the school which showed the greatest gain in student achievement was the school in which teachers and administrators expressed the most positive opinion of computer assisted instruction.

This descriptive study examined the current practices used by two hundred and twenty-seven elementary school teachers in 23 demographically different schools across the United States to work with the parents of their students. The examination of the perceptions of selected teachers and parents towards the effectiveness of specific ways that teachers work with parents was an additional objective of this research. Further, parent and teacher recommendations for improving parent and teacher collaboration were considered. It is the responsibility of schools to ensure that all children of all families have the opportunity to obtain a quality education. Unfortunately demographic and social changes have made it increasingly difficult for schools to meet that responsibility effectively. Educators are being forced to examine alterable school and nonschool conditions that will help them meet their responsibilities to create more effective schools. Attention has been turning toward the practices teachers use to encourage a parent's involvement in his or her child's education. The practices teachers use to communicate, inform, and influence parents can have profound effects on a parent's attitudes and actions towards working closely with teachers to help youngsters learn well. To understand the factors that affect parental involvement it is necessary to identify the types of practices teachers currently are using to involve parents in their children's learning, and examine how the parents and teachers perceive those practices. The data seem to support five major findings. First, the data show that written communications, conferences, telephone calls, involving parents at school, open houses, workshops, homework and home visits are categories that account for most of the ways teachers report working with parents. Second, parental involvement practices are more likely to be used in early childhood classrooms. Third, there are differences between teacher leaders and the other teachers in this study. Fourth, teacher leaders reported high levels of personal efficacy. Fifth, teacher leaders and their respective parents share markedly similar perceptions about the practices used by these teachers.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to use grounded theory and case study methodology to identify and describe the ways that an upper elementary school teacher makes students feel known and respected for who they are by creating a relationship-driven classroom community. Analyzing how a teacher uses a relationship-driven classroom community has the potential to improve upon existing classroom community models. Data were collected from a teacher questionnaire, student questionnaire, samples of student work, document collection, two formal interviews with ten students, two formal interviews the teacher, and descriptive field notes from observations. Results indicated creating teacher-student relationships that make students feel known and important has the potential to offset the issues resulting from the disconnect between teachers and students and could lead to greatly improved student achievement. The results also provide new directions in the following areas: (a) teacher-student relationships, i.e., making students feel known and important; (b) creating classroom communities that are formed around teacher-student relationships; and (c) accounting for the mismatch between teachers and students.