The purpose of this study was to provide a full description of five levels of curriculum integration at the middle school level, grounded in practice and described by practitioners through a multiple case study approach. This study focused on these research questions: (1) How does curriculum integration at each reference point on a synthesized continuum occur according to selected middle school interdisciplinary teams of teachers? (2) What is the nature of the interactions of an interdisciplinary middle school team of teachers at each level on the synthesized continuum? (3) How do interdisciplinary teams of middle school teachers progress from one stage of curriculum integration to another? (4) What are the barriers and facilitating factors to curriculum integration encountered by middle school interdisciplinary teams of teachers? / The conceptual framework for this study was based on a synthesized continuum of curriculum integration derived from Faunce and Bossing's (1958), Vars' (1987), Jacob's (1989) and Fogarty's (1991) continuums or models of curriculum integration. The five levels on the revised synthesized continuum included: Departmentalized, Reinforcement, Complementary, Webbed, and Integrated Learning. / The methodological approach was naturalistic inquiry with qualitative data collection and analysis strategies. One middle school interdisciplinary team at each of the five levels of curriculum integration on the synthesized continuum was purposefully selected to participate. Sources for data collection included documents, interviews, observation, and artifacts. The constructivist paradigm was the framework through which the data was collected and analyzed. The data analysis was conducted using content analysis and analytic induction. / In addition to telling each team's story of curriculum integration and refining a rough definition of each level, common themes from the five teams emerged. Common themes such as "torch bearers" are crucial to curriculum integration occurring, the amount of "curriculum conversations" which occurs improves the productive outcomes of common team planning time, and maintaining the composition of working teams longer than a year increases the occurrence of curriculum integration were the results. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-07, Section: A, page: 2230. / Major Professor: Judith L. Irvin. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of types of instructional control and the levels of self-regulatory skills at two grade levels on achievement and completion time of instruction. A secondary purpose of this study was to explore student en route data under learner control according to student levels of self-regulatory skills or grade. / A total of ninety-six seventh and ninth grade students participated in the study. Students were randomly assigned to treatment groups. In the learner control group, students were given control over content selection, sequence, amount of practice, amount of review, completion of time, and pace. Students in the program control group were not given control over the instruction except in completion time and pace. All students were given a paper and pencil posttest immediately after completing the instruction and ten days later. / Students with high self-regulatory skills performed better on both tests than those with low self-regulatory skills. However, general results for achievement do not yield a strong effect favoring either program control or learner control. For the completion time of instruction, results indicated that there are no differences between types of instructional control, according to the students levels of self-regulatory skills. A developmental aspect of self-regulatory skills were found by interactions and analysis of en route data. Implications for the further study are also discussed. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-09, Section: A, page: 3094. / Major Professor: Robert M. Morgan. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the influence of locus of control and field-dependence-independence of hearing-impaired Freshman college learners on achievement while learning rule using skills in either a discovery or an expository instructional method. An aptitude treatment interaction was hypothesized in which learners who were internal in their control orientation in academic situations and/or field independent in their approach to a problem solving task would learn better by a discovery instructional method rather than by an expository instructional method. The converse was expected to be true for those learners who were external in their control orientation and/or field dependent in their approach to problem solving tasks. / Two measures of locus of control (one referred to academic situations, one referred to general expectancies of control) and one measure of field-dependence-independence were administered to 210 learners at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, Rochester Institute of Technology, Rochester, New York. The learners were grouped on the basis of their personality test scores and then randomly assigned to either the discovery or expository instructional method. The learners received instruction on rule-using tasks in metric conversion. The posttest was the dependent variable. / Regression analysis was used to analyze the data. No aptitude treatment interaction was found. Math ability, reading ability, field-dependence-independence were significant predictors of achievement. Locus of control and method were not significant main effects. Average posttest performance of field independent learners was significantly higher than that of field intermediate learners in both methods. In the expository method, the average performance of field dependent learners was significantly higher than that of field intermediate learners. / No relationship was found between the two locus of control scales, or between each of the locus of control scales and the Group Embedded Figures Test. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-10, Section: A, page: 3206. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.

The effectiveness and cost of two alternate models of formative evaluation for printed instructional materials was investigated. Ten instructional designers were divided into two groups: one group of five designers formatively evaluated and revised a printed module of instruction using student data as a basis for making the revisions; the other group of five designers used instructional editing guidelines incorporating the attributes of effective instruction, to make the revisions. Instructional effectiveness was based upon: (a) student performance on the module posttest, and (b) a content analysis of the modules. The data revealed no significant difference in student performance between the two formative evaluation models. However, it cost significantly more to develop the modules in which student data was used. The content analysis also revealed differences between the ten modules in terms of the attributes listed in the instructional editing guidelines. The modules revised by the designers who used the instructional editing guidelines incorporated more of the attributes of effective instruction than the modules revised by the designers who used student data. However, the modules revised on the basis of student data more consistently matched instructional content and posttest items. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-09, Section: A, page: 2873. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1982.

The purpose of this study was to determine the attitudes of Florida business education teachers toward perceived barriers to implementing the Florida developed competency-based business education curriculum and to identify characteristics of those business education teachers most likely to receive and adopt curriculum innovation. / A five-part survey instrument was mailed to a proportional random sample of 325 Florida business teachers in secondary schools, vocational-technical centers, and community colleges. A co-relational descriptive design was used for the study to investigate attitudes of the teachers toward change and barriers to implementing the competency-based business education curriculum. / One-way Analysis of Variance was used to determine differences in teachers' attitudes toward barriers to implementing competency-based curriculum and change. Results of these analyses indicated that vocational-technical center teachers saw fewer barriers to competency-based business education curriculum implementation while secondary teachers saw the greatest number of barriers. Those barriers to competency-based business education curriculum implemetation most often identified were lack of time and clerical assistance. Vocational-technical center business teachers were found to be more receptive to change while secondary business teachers were found to be least receptive. / Stepwise multiple regression analysis indicated that the most predictive demographic variables for perceived barriers were the type of school, the amount of inservice, related work experience, and working in the vocational geographic region (IV) of the state. The more inservice the teacher had received, the fewer barriers were perceived. This was also true for specific classifications of barriers for the amount of related work experience and geographic region. Amount of inservice, type of school, and the number of students were the most predictive of teachers' attitudes toward change. / A correlation between the disposition toward change and barriers showed the strongest relationship to exist between barriers and individualization of instruction/behavioral objectives and team teaching/differentiated staffing. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-07, Section: A, page: 2031. / Thesis (Educat.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

Investigation was made to (1) accumulate researcher visual, auditory, and kinesthetic left and right hemispheric reading behaviors and to (2) determine if modality-specific brain dominance patterns were related to reading achievement. From previous research similar numbers of left and right hemispheric reading behaviors were accumulated implying the importance of each hemisphere to reading. When 346 right handed, seven and eight year old children's reading achievement was compared using ANOVA statistical design to eight varied modality-specific hemispheric dominance patterns, the following resulted: (1) neither children with predominantly left nor right hemispheric dominance patterns were significantly greater in achievement, (2) children with crossed dominance patterns were weaker in achievement than children with unilateral dominance of either hemisphere, and (3) children, comprising 8.7% of the sample who were right handed with heavy left handed latency and who were more right ear dominant, had significantly lower reading achievement at the 0.21 level using F-Test measures than any other hemispheric pattern. Typically, though statistically no longer as significant, these pupils were also visually dominant with their left eye creating a double crossed dominance with their left eye creating a double crossed dominance between left eye and right hand and right ear and left handed latency. / The value of this study lies in demonstrating that the left hemisphere is no more important in both reading functions and achievement than the right hemisphere, both appear similarly involved in reading behaviors and achievement. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-03, Section: A, page: 0654. / Thesis (Educat.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

This naturalistic study considered some relationships between the motivational variables expectancy of success and perceived value, instructional philosophy, and skills and knowledge achievement for 309 prison inmates who participated in a social skills course taught by college instructors. The research evolved out of both expectancy-value theory which considers that people must value a goal and expect success in order to expend effort in pursuit of the goal, and a general lack of consideration of motivation in instructional design models and theory. / Students with higher expectancy and value scores were expected to achieve more; the value variable was expected to account for more of the observed variability in achievement than the expectancy variable; knowledge and skills achievement were expected to depend on motivation in higher and lower ability groups; for higher ability persons, achievement subscores were not expected to depend differentially on motivation; the skills score was expected to depend more on motivation for lower ability persons than for higher ability persons; the difference between knowledge and skills scores was expected to depend on motivation for lower ability persons; and higher ability students were expected to achieve more with independence-oriented instructors while lower ability students were expected to achieve more with conformity-oriented instructors. / The data supported the hypotheses that both expectancy and value variables are positively related to achievement, especially with lower ability students, and that for higher ability students, knowledge and skills subscores did not differ significantly. Contrary to the prediction, achievement depended more on expectancy than value. Neither the hypotheses involving differences between the motivation variables and higher and lower ability students on the knowedge and skills test, nor the hypothesis concerning instructional philosophy and higher and lower ability subjects were supported by the data. Motivational theory is considered to be of utilitarian value for inclusion in instructional design models. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-09, Section: A, page: 2671. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

Despite massive expenditures in research and development, quality instructional products often have less than optimal impact upon student achievement. Many educators have concluded that traditional modes of product dissemination into schools contribute substantially to this problem. Traditional dissemination practices display a retail orientation, failing to consider the difficulty experienced by school practitioners in making decisions about product adoption. / Recognition of the limited decision making capability in schools resulted in the development of the Linkage Model of Dissemination. Linkage trains school faculties to employ a systematic, problem-solving approach to making decisions about product adoption. The model encourages widespread teacher participation in decision making, coordinated by change agents known as linkers. / This study investigated participatory decision making and systematic problem solving, within the Linkage Model, and their relationship to product acceptance. Data were collected from faculty members in elementary schools participating in the Florida Linkage System. The following major findings emerged from investigation of five research questions: (1) The correlation between teacher participation in decision making and acceptance of an instructional product was relatively low. (2) The extent of teacher participation in decision making was moderately related to the leadership style of the principal. The principal's leadership style bore no significant relationship to product acceptance. (3) The implementation of systematic problem solving displayed a moderate correlation with acceptance of an instructional product. (4) School practitioners (facilitators) trained in systematic problem solving perceived the following: (a) Systematic problem solving was useful and practical. (b) Linkers were most helpful with the tasks of problem identification and planning for implementation. (c) Linkers were second in helpfulness within and across all problem-solving tasks, exceeded by school-based curriculum coordinators. District personnel and external consultants, due to lack of proximity to schools, were less helpful. This perception was in accordance with the design of the Florida Linkage System. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 44-11, Section: A, page: 3260. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

In their taxonomy of educational outcomes and objectives, Gagne and Briggs (1979) suggest consideration of five domains of learning outcomes when designing instruction: information, intellectual skills, cognitive strategies, attitudes, and motor skills. Briggs and Wager (1981) provide a summary matrix of how learning in each domain may support learning in the other domains, but there is little research to furnish principles for sequencing instruction among the different domains. / The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of varying sequences of instruction for a specified unit of a methods course in elementary school physical education on pre-service teachers' performance on a posttest of information and intellectual skills and their attitudes and behavioral intentions regarding children's physical education. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-07, Section: A, page: 2444. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1986.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects that presentation of ideas by video picture and by sound track in a documentary had on the learning and retention of those ideas by elderly people. An existing documentary on the Xinguana, an Aborigines tribe in South America, was used in the study. A procedure whereby ideas presented in the video were recorded and then written as a script was developed for use in the study. Individual ideas in the script of the audio and the script of the video were identified through a propositional analysis. The two resulting propositional analyses were then compared to identify ideas which were presented either iconically, linguistically, or in combination. / The six resulting domains of presentation (2 levels x 3 sources) were then sampled to obtain the ideas which would be tested on a cued-recall test. A volunteer group of senior citizens at a Senior Citizen Center were shown the documentary and then asked to answer the questions on the cued-recall test and a demographic questionnaire. / Retention for each source and level domain ranged from a low of 41% to a high of 65%. Overall retention was 49%. A significant interaction was found between the source of presentation and the level of the idea being presented. Retention of main ideas presented in the video and audio modes in combination was substantially higher than those presented only iconically or only linguistically. Only small differences were found in retention of subordinate ideas from the various sources. / Significant positive correlations were found between grade level completed and five of the six domains. Also significant negative correlations were found between age and three of the six domains. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 47-03, Section: A, page: 0780. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1986.