Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 89-94).

Thesis (M. Ed.)--York University, 2001. Graduate Programme in Education. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-105). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/yorku/fullcit?pMQ66377.

<p> Internet Memes transverse and sometimes transcend cyberspace on the back of impossibly cute LOLcats speaking mangled English and the snarky remarks of Image Macro characters always on the lookout for someone to undermine. No longer the abstract notion of a cultural gene that Dawkins (2006) introduced in the late 1970s, memes have now become synonymous with a particular brand of vernacular language that internet users engage by posting, sharing and remixing digital content as they communicate jokes, emotions and opinions. </p><p> For the purpose of this research the language of Internet Memes is understood as visual, succinct and capable of inviting active engagement by users who encounter digital content online that exhibits said characteristics. Internet Memes were explored through an Arts-Based Educational Research framework by first identifying the conventions that shape them and then interrogating these conventions during two distinct research phases. <?Pub _newline>In the first phase the researcher, as a doctoral student in art and visual culture education, engaged class readings and assignments by generating digital content that not only responded to the academic topics at hand but did so through forms associated with Internet Memes like Image Macros and Animated GIFs. In the second phase the researcher became a meme literacy facilitator as learners in three different age-groups were led in the reading, writing and remixing of memes during a month-long summer art camp where they were also exposed to other art-making processes such as illustration, acting and sculpture. Each group of learners engaged age-appropriate meme types: 1) the youngest group, 6 and 7 year-olds, wrote Emoji Stories and Separated at Birth memes; 2) the middle group, 8-10 year-olds, worked with Image Macros and Perception memes, 3) while the oldest group, 11-13 year-olds, generated Image Macros and Animated GIFs. </p><p> The digital content emerging from both research phases was collected as data and analyzed through a hybrid of Memetics, Actor-Network Theory, Object Oriented Ontology, Remix Theory and Glitch Studies as the researcher shifted shapes yet again and became a Research Jockey sampling freely from each field of study. A case is made for Internet Memes to be understood as an actor-network where meme collectives, individual cybernauts, software and source material are all actants interrelating and making each other enact collective agencies through shared authorships. Additionally specific educational contexts are identified where the language of Internet Memes can serve to incorporate technology, storytelling, visual thinking and remix practices into art and visual culture education. </p><p> Finally, the document reporting on the research expands on the hermeneutics of Internet Memes and the phenomenological experiences they elicit that are otherwise absent from traditional scholarly prose. Chapter by chapter the dissertation was crafted as a journey from the academic to the whimsical, from the lecture hall to the image board (where Internet Memes were born), from the written word to the remixed image as a visual language that is equal parts form and content that emerges and culminates in a concluding chapter composed almost entirely of popular Internet Meme types. </p><p> An online component can be found at http://memeducation.org/</p>

My purpose for this qualitative study was to investigate teachers' participation in a collaborative staff development program designed to facilitate reflections about literacy related beliefs and practices. It involved three teachers and a researcher in a four-month Reflective Staff Development Program (RSDP). The RSDP inquiry illustrates the shifts that occur in teachers' reflective language and practice. Three case studies were developed, requiring sorting through the teacher participants' literacy-related beliefs and practices in three research phases: (1) Asking the question: What are the teacher-participants' beliefs and practices in relation to their literacy instruction before, during, and after the RSDP? (2) Conducting the fieldwork using a constant comparative analysis within the RSDP. (3) Analyzing and interpreting the data to find answers to the question. During the RSDP, the teacher-participants revealed literacy-related beliefs and practices within four activities: autobiographies, interviews, group reflective sessions, and literacy lessons. These activities are the data sources, which were analyzed and resulted in the creation of a matrix for each teacher. The matrices showed that, throughout the RSDP, the teachers expressed language or behaviors with new perspectives, termed as "moments of realization." The horizontal matrix dimension is a picture of two extreme perspectives in the teacher-participants' beliefs and practices, the skills, and constructivist models. The perpendicular dimension depicts the teachers' discourse as questioning or not questioning. The plots illustrate their shifts in beliefs and practices. Further analysis of the teachers' interactive discourse demonstrated that their group discussions exhibited common characteristics, which contributed to their shifts: (1) The teacher-participants demonstrated moments of realization that included four types of verbal interactions: discussion of a literacy-related belief and/or practice, discomfort about the belief and/or practice, the moment of realization, and discussions justifying the changed perspective. (2) The teacher-participants' RSDP process demonstrated three periods: "introductory," "breakthrough," and "empowerment." (3) The teacher-participants' shifts moved in a non-linear direction after observing the videotaped literacy lessons. The findings suggest that this inquiry contributed to the teacher-participants' consideration of alternative perspectives and implementation of revised reading instructional practices. These results support the idea that school leaders should implement in-services, such as the RSDP, to improve communication to enhance instructional practice.

<p> For the last several years, Americans have fallen behind in the area of mathematics when compared to their peers in industrialized countries around the world. Singapore, on the other hand, was at the top of the world rankings in mathematics in the last four Trends in International Math and Science Study (TIMSS) assessments taken by fourth and eighth graders every four years. This project focused on the impact of the Singapore Math program on two cohorts of students by utilizing their Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) scores from the mathematics subtest. The first cohort, A, was comprised of students who were in third, fourth, and fifth grade during the first years of the implementation of the Singapore Math program in 2007, 2008, 2009, and compared with students in Cohort B who were exposed to the math program since first grade, as intended by the publisher. The students of Cohort B were in third, fourth, and fifth grade in 2010, 2011, and 2012, respectively. Data were also analyzed to see if the program had a correlation with a decrease in gender, ethnic, or socioeconomic (SES) achievement gaps when compared to Cohort B. Three tests were given in order to triangulate the results of the MAP test: difference in means by way of a <i>z</i>-test for a difference in means, a comparison of students scoring proficient and advanced through the utilization of a z-test for difference in proportions, and an <i>F</i>-test for difference in variance in MAP scores. </p><p> Results of the study yielded mixed results. While there was not a significant statistical difference in achievement between Cohort A and B in third, fourth, or fifth grade, there was evidence to support that the subgroups that were included in the study (female students, Black students, and students with Free and Reduced Lunch status) performed commensurately with their peers in Cohort B.</p>

<p> The transition process from elementary school to middle school has created numerous obstacles for all stakeholders. Early adolescents encounter emotional and physiological challenges as their bodies mature (Lester, Waters, &amp; Cross, 2013). These challenges have a major impact on the academic achievement of the students (Musoleno &amp; White, 2010). There is a direct connection between a student&rsquo;s successes in middle school and how well the student will do in high school, making the transition process even more important (Andrews &amp; Bishop, 2012). The purpose of this study was to identify predictors which could aid in easing the transition into middle school in order to improve student achievement. Data from the study were examined to evaluate if variance in curriculum, grading practices, and academic programs from Elementary School A, Elementary School B, and Middle School C had an effect on MAP Grade-Level Assessment performance and middle school readiness. The project also involved analysis of what impact other predictors such as student poverty, teacher-assigned grades, and student attendance had on student achievement during the transition process. This causal-comparative study was conducted to analyze the amount of discrepancy between variables of the study and MAP scores. The qualitative results of this study revealed some extreme differences in the percentages of students who raised MAP achievement levels when entering Middle School C from different elementary schools. This could be caused by the differences in curriculum and educational practices among the three schools. The statistical data revealed the other predictors in the study had an impact on student achievement.</p>

This micro-ethnographic classroom-based case study explores analytic and experiential teaching strategies that lead to engaged student participation and increased learning opportunities in German and French first grade language arts and math classes. The data were collected from two successful public elementary immersion schools in Milwaukee where English-speaking children learn the school curriculum through a second language (German or French) starting from kindergarten. The data in this study were collected in a seven-month time period by using data collection methods such as field notes, audiotaping, videotaping, and interviews. The constant comparative method, based on grounded theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967), and enumerative techniques were used for data analysis. The data have shown that the first grade immersion teachers used analytic and experiential teaching strategies in learning contexts in order to promote oral second language use and content learning in language arts and math classes. Analytic teaching strategies focus on specific features of the target language, such as syntactic structures, pronunciation, and vocabulary, whereas, experiential teaching strategies focused on the use of the target language in a meaningful and contextualized way. This study also suggests that teachers' learning and teaching philosophies are reflected in their actions and behaviors, and analytic and experiential teaching strategies are the reflections of the teachers' belief systems and their instructional practices. The knowledge gained from this study may form a solid background for pre-service and in-service teacher education programs by demonstrating the needs of immersion teachers, and also recognizing the challenges of immersion education.

Miscue analysis and eye movement analysis are used to explore the reading process of first-grade beginning readers as they use pictures and print in a picture book designed for instructional purposes. Eye Movement Miscue Analysis (EMMA) is also used as a tool to gain insights into the reading strategies of the beginning readers in this study. Miscue analysis provides a psycholinguistic analysis of' unexpected oral responses in the oral texts that readers produce. Eye movement analysis provides an analysis of the visual fixations of readers in pictures and the print. Both forms of analysis are used to examine the relationship between the oral and visual aspects of the reading process. This dissertation focuses on first-grade beginning readers' use of pictures and print as they read. Patterns of eye movements relative to picture use, print use and the relationship between the two media are described, analyzed and compared. Results of the analyses are discussed in relation to existing literature within the theoretical framework that informed the study. Major findings include that beginning readers are aware that reading is a complex process of making meaning from print and pictures; they exhibit many of the same reading strategies as older more experienced readers; and they sample pictures in ways that are purposeful and know where to look for useful information. Implications for authors, illustrators, publishers, educators and reading theorists are discussed and areas for further research are delineated.

General education teachers are largely responsible for the education of students with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). This is partially due to the educational movement toward inclusion for students with disabilities, and partially due to the ability of about 50% of students with ADHD to progress normally in school when given classroom accommodations and/or instructional modifications. General educators are teaching students with ADHD, yet limited information about teacher attitudes and knowledge about ADHD exists. This study is an initial exploratory investigation that examined the attitudes and knowledge about ADHD of preservice general education teachers at the elementary and secondary levels. Preservice elementary and secondary teachers completed an instrument designed to assess their attitudes and knowledge regarding ADHD. Two scales were created: one scale for items related to attitudes, and the second scale related to basic knowledge about ADHD. Research questions addressed preservice teachers' overall attitude and knowledge about ADHD, and whether grade level, gender, or perceived experience with ADHD influenced their attitude and/or knowledge about ADHD. Findings demonstrated that preservice teachers were in general agreement with positive attitude statements about ADHD. Differences in attitude ratings by grade level were significant, with elementary preservice teachers in stronger agreement with statements about ADHD than secondary preservice teachers. No significant differences in attitude were evident for gender. There was, however, a significant difference in attitude based on teachers' reported experience with ADHD. Teachers with basic or moderate/extensive experience had significantly more positive attitudes than teachers with no experience. Preservice teachers answered slightly more than half of the 11 knowledge items correctly. Elementary preservice teachers correctly answered more knowledge items about ADHD than secondary preservice teachers. No differences in knowledge were identified based on preservice teachers' gender or experience with ADHD. The findings are discussed in relation to other research on teacher attitudes and knowledge for ADHD. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

In this study I examined my thinking and professional growth through the use of reflective journals. The study documents my understanding and use of reflective journals as a tool for learning and thinking over time. I examined my sixteen reflective journals in an effort to make sense out of what it means to be a teacher. In this study I was guided by the question: What are the ways in which I reflect and think about myself as a teacher and my teaching, as evidenced through my journals. Analysis focused in four areas. The first was on the content of the journals. This included my topics, issues, and questions which I wrote about. A second analysis examined how I used my journals to think and reflect. A third component explored how I reflected on my beliefs and practices. The fourth area identified what supported and interfered with my thinking and reflecting. Through this study I examined my learning process and the ways that I use journals to support my thinking and professional development. My findings inform other teachers to consider reflective practice and supports the use of narrative for research. This study provides implications for teacher educators and professional developers to consider participants' prior knowledge and current beliefs when implementing professional programs. Participants need to be recognized as part of the process when involved in professional development.