The problem under consideration in this study is a description of teacher preparation for elementary school health instruction. The dissertation is organized into six chapters, which are as follows: Introduction, Review of Related Literature, Procedures for Collection and Treatment of Data, Input from Texas Teachers, Competency-Based Health Education, and Summary and Recommendations. The following recommendations are made: (1) the program should be implement into the undergraduate tacher preparation program; (2) revision should be made based upon data collected during implementation; (3) research to produce objective questions for pretesting and posttesting purposes in each of the competency areas would be beneficial; and, (4) the Dearborn College Health Knowledge Test should be administered to those students who complete the program, and a comparison of scores made.

Current literature calls for more culturally responsive pedagogy and multicultural education to connect with what students know, do, and believe outside of school and to utilize this to foster their academic achievement. This study investigated elementary teachers' perceptions of culturally responsive pedagogy and multicultural education in an urban school with a predominantly large minoritized student population (African American and Hispanic students). The study focused on four elementary teachers' perceptions of implementing culturally responsive pedagogy and multicultural education principles into their classroom and how this contributed to teacher-student interactions and student academic achievement. An integrated framework consisting of constructs from the literature on culturally responsive pedagogy and multicultural education guided the study. A thematic analysis of data (interviews, focus group interview, classroom observations, artifacts) revealed four teacher perceptions of culturally responsive pedagogy and multicultural education: Practicing culturally responsive pedagogy and multicultural education: (1) enables teachers and students to embrace diversity; (2) focuses teachers and students on the past and the present social injustices and provides social justice identity development among students; (3) builds empathy among teachers and students; and (4) promotes teachers to reflect on prejudice reduction. Implications: This study showed that constructs from culturally responsive pedagogy and multicultural education are context-specific and curriculum-specific. To the teachers in this study the dynamics of practicing culturally responsive pedagogy and multicultural education are inherent within the school and community contexts and in the curriculum.

To meet the affective and cognitive needs of adolescents and to choose appropriate teaching strategies it is necessary for teachers to be able to diagnose these needs. This feasibility study investigates the Developmental Assessment Paradigm (DA) as a tool to enable teachers to diagnose their students' cognitive and affective levels. The paradigm is based on the model of Developmental Assessment created by Ivey (1986) and researched by Rigazio-DiGilio (1989), Bradford Ivey (1990) and Gonclaves (1988). Ivey's research demonstrated that counselors could learn to use DA effectively. A Pilot Study (Brodhead, 1988) found that it was possible, using DA, to identify different levels of cognitive and affective development within the dialogue of a sample of high school classrooms. This feasibility study evolved from these previous studies. The dissertation discusses the need for the diagnosis of developmental levels, it introduces developmental assessment as a diagnostic tool and describes the results of the pilot study and the design and results of the feasibility study. The review of the literature in Chapter II supports both the need for teachers to be able to diagnose their students' developmental levels and the potential of this diagnostic ability to enable teachers to choose effective and appropriate teaching techniques. To this end, the review develops a working definition of "effective schools" and "effective teachers", and examines paradigms that identify and define interpersonal skills. A small group of teachers participated in two training sessions, one week apart. Data from pre- and post-tests showed significant improvement in the participants' ability to recognize DA levels in sample statements of high school students' dialogue. On their evaluation forms, the participants expressed their belief in the value of DA as a diagnostic technique and suggested strategies for implementation in their classrooms. Discussion during the sessions indicated they were able to identify DA levels using transcribed dialogue from their own classrooms. The results of this study indicated that these teachers were able to significantly improve their ability to recognize levels of DA in samples of students' dialogue and in dialogue from their own classrooms. Further study with a larger sample was recommended.

This dissertation reports a study of the social interactions of kindergarten children as they engaged in peer writing activities during free choice periods. The theoretical proposition framing the study is that children may use writing in peer groups to advance their social agendas. These agendas may or may not be those of the teacher or the school. The purposes of the study were: (a) to investigate the nature of students' agendas with respect to both their writing and their social relationships, and (b) to analyze the ways in which writing in this single classroom was connected to children's social and personal identities. Over a full school year, sixty-five hours of videotape were collected with a primary focus on writing activities. Microanalysis of students' discourse processes, using systematic discourse analysis and conversational coding techniques, provided the primary data that supported the findings. A focused study was carried out of the story-construction patterns of one group of girls. These girls created stories in which the characters were fictionalizations of themselves and each other. Through their peer interactions in the process of constructing the stories, the girls negotiated their real-life roles and positions of status, their ownership of both their writing and their personas, and their relationships with each other. Both their writing and their social relationships were transformed in the process. Current practice in teaching elementary writing, based on educators' agendas, supports social interaction as a medium for improved cognition and higher quality written products. The results of this study show that when writing in peer groups is viewed from the students' point of view, some children use school writing to serve their needs for both affiliation and individual agency by negotiating identity issues within the writing process. Such findings contradict the theory that young children are essentially egocentric, suggesting rather that their social competence is as developed when they enter school as their communicative competence. To be complete, a theory of school writing must take into consideration the students' agendas as well as those of educators.

M. S.

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