Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: A, page: . Adviser: Liora Bresler. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 178-189) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: A, page: . Adviser: Richard C. Anderson. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 84-91) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2009. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: A, page: . Adviser: Michelle Perry. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 186-196) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

The purpose of this study was to investigate how the notion of representation occurs within the context of prospective teachers' thinking about planning for instruction in mathematics. This study was designed to seek out patterns within the types of mathematical representations that preservice teachers use in designing lesson plans. Major goals of this study were to uncover aspects of how prospective teachers' knowledge develops in the area of mathematics instruction, with respect to representation. Specifically, this study sought to (1) determine the types and frequency of mathematical representations used by prospective teachers when designing lesson plans regarding various topics in K--8 mathematics and (2) ascertain any changes that occurred over the course of a semester with respect to the uses of representations as revealed in prospective teachers' lesson plans. The study involved thirty-two elementary education majors enrolled in a 15-week field-based mathematics methods course at a large southwestern university. The findings were reported by representation type, namely, concrete , linguistic, symbolic, semi-concrete, and contextual. From the initial to the final interval, the overall percentages of the: (a) concrete manipulative representation increased; (b) linguistic representation increased; (c) symbolic representation decreased; (d) semi-concrete pictorial and the contextual representations both remained more or less the same. Overall, the linguistic representation was the most used representation; specifically, the informational and/or procedural subcategory of the linguistic representation was used the most, and in contrast, the discourse subcategory of the linguistic representation was used the least. Five cases were developed to illustrate the preservice teachers' thinking individually and as a group with respect to the uses of mathematical representations on given topics in individual lesson plans and group lesson plans. The process of moving from individual planning to group planning indicated some degree of malleability with respect to the uses of mathematical representations. Ten individual cases were analyzed with respect to the initial and final intervals. Seven of the 10 cases showed results in which the preservice teachers' preconceptions regarding the use of mathematical representations evolved. These findings are discussed relative to their implications for research, practice, and teacher education.

This study describes how some members of the Cherokee Tribe of Northeast Alabama, a state recognized community, reacts to the ways in which Native peoples are represented in the social studies curriculum of DeKalb County, Alabama. Tribal members, ages 30--80 were interviewed about their educational experiences, as well as about their perspectives on the current curriculum. Social studies curricula of this school district, as well as elsewhere in the Alabama public school system, portrays Native peoples in a negative manner, and through the interviews and an extensive analysis of the curriculum, specific examples of these negative portrayals are pinpointed. This study specifically looks at the content, language and illustrations of seven state adopted textbooks, resulting in some specific recommendations on how teachers, as well as administrators, could improve the curriculum.

This study explored the multicultural nature of the curriculum in the Department of Culture and Literacy Studies, an interdisciplinary graduate program in education at a major research institution in the Southwest United States. Initiated in response to my own experiences of cultural discontinuity as a student in the department and fueled by reports of similar experiences from other foreign and minority colleagues, the study considered the notion of multiculturalism in academia from several different perspectives. First, it used traditional process/product methodology to quantitatively and qualitatively analyze the content of course syllabi, texts and other resources. Second, it used the phenomenological process of focused life histories to look closely at the extent to which culture and history impact a student's perception and experience of a multicultural curriculum. Third, the study explored Slaughter's (1997) suggested relationship of social movement theory to post-secondary curriculum development by linking the themes emerging from the narrative professional life histories of professors to concepts and practices reflected in their course syllabi. The study sought to situate the multicultural CLS curriculum within the larger social context with which it interacted, and examine its impact from the multiple perspectives of faculty, students, and institutional curricular structures. I established a theoretical framework for this study's examination of multicultural education curriculum with three major dimensions: content, process and orientation. The results of this study provide a basis for understanding the impact of the prior experiences of teachers and students in constructing and responding to curriculum, and may be used to inform departmental policy and classroom practices in university classrooms. The study particularly contributes to curriculum studies by bridging the fields of higher education and multicultural education, by offering a new way of looking at curriculum and curricular practices, and by providing new evaluation criteria that others can use to examine the impact of curriculum and curricular practices on teaching and learning.

This dissertation is a qualitative case study based in teacher research that focuses on the understandings of student and parent participants about school safety in relationship to emergency crises issues. Fourteen seventh-grade Eastern Magnet Middle School students and fourteen of their parents participated in the research. The purpose of the study was to develop findings that would enhance the safety and crisis management techniques of a school in which I taught named Eastern Magnet, based on the understandings of the children and adults in the study. Additional goals of the investigation were to develop findings that could enhance crisis management at additional schools and workplaces, and to carry out a project that would expand the school safety literature base and the field of qualitative case study teacher research. Data were generated from August of 2002 to January of 2003 through interviews, interview notes, surveys, and school and district documents addressing crisis-related issues. The data were primarily analyzed through the constant comparative method. Analytic notes, participant profiles, and data tables and figures were also elements of the analytical process. The findings of this study point to the need for schools to establish procedures to effectively manage crises to maximize the safety of all children and adults within educational institutions. The research highlights aspects of Eastern Magnet's crisis management that were effective and areas that needed improvement, and it demonstrates that all individuals expect schools to promote and ensure safety. Implications are presented for students, parents/guardians, teachers, school administrators, educational policy makers, school safety theorists, and educational researchers. The investigation reveals the significance of children and adults making concerted efforts to uphold safety and to manage crises.

The main purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which student performance in four school subjects (English, math, science, and social studies), student participation in extracurricular activities, student academic aspirations, and the time a student spent on part-time employment predicted student participation in voluntary community service and environmental action, controlling for demographic characteristics of the student as well as some basic characteristics of the school the student attended. The conceptual framework for the study was rooted in several theories, namely Dewey's theory of community, socialization theory, social capital theory, social exchange theory, and Adlerian theory. Based on these theories and a review of related literature, I formulated and tested 10 hypotheses. The data for the study came from NELS:88 dataset. I used logistic and multinomial logit regression models to test the hypotheses using a sample of 4,790 cases. The main findings of this study suggest that: (1) student performance in social studies (measured using average grades, Carnegie units, and centiles) is the most consistent positive predictor of student participation in community service and environmental action in comparison with student performance in English, math and science; (2) student involvement in extracurricular activities is a strong predictor of student engagement in community service and environmental action; (3) the time a student spends on part-time employment is negatively associated with student participation in community service and environmental action; and (4) a student who intends to finish college is more likely to participate in community service and environmental action than one who does not intend to finish college. On the basis of the study findings, I came up with several recommendations for practitioners and researchers involved or interested in community service policy making and implementation, environmental education as a strategy for environmental action, and program planning (environmental studies/environmental education) in higher education.

This study used a standardized teacher observation rubric and procedures to evaluate the performance of 63 new teachers with various preparation backgrounds. Observers rated teachers from seven different school districts on 29 separate criteria of teaching effectiveness. New teachers were assessed on their lesson planning, assessment practices, classroom management, and implementing instruction during interviews and observations. Results show significant differences in the performance of new teachers depending on the model of the teacher education program they attended. Traditional undergraduate program graduates were rated higher than teachers who received their preparation from post-baccalaureate or master's degree certification programs (particularly in the area of classroom management and at the middle school level). Follow-up interviews were conducted with a stratified random sample of 15 of 63 participants. New teachers reported difficulty setting up classroom management procedures at the beginning of the semester especially small group instruction and would have preferred more classroom experiences during their teacher education program. Teachers strongly affirmed the importance of teacher education for their ability own to teach.

The conceptualization of validity has evolved over time, from the reign of criterion validity as a prominent type of validity through the phase of the traditional validity trinity concept that considered construct, content, and criterion validity as different kinds or types of validity. The current view among the measurement community is that there are no distinct forms of validity; instead validity is the extent to which the appropriateness of proposed uses and interpretations can be supported by various kinds of validity evidence. National examinations such as the Junior Certificate Examination in Botswana typically assess content and skills defined by national curricula. The extent to which items in examination papers are relevant to important content and cognitive skills espoused by national curricula is critical to the accuracy, appropriateness, and fairness of examinations results. This study investigated content, substantive, reliability, and internal structure validity evidence of the Junior Certificate Mathematics Examination over a period of three years, 2000, 2001, and 2002. Three alignment models were used to investigate content and cognitive skill validity evidence. A correlational analysis and exploratory factor analysis were used to detect the internal structure of the 2000, 2001, and 2002 Junior Certificate Mathematics examination papers and reliability of the objective tests was assessed through Coefficient alpha. The results showed that the sampling of mathematics content fluctuates from year to year, and does not always reflect content emphases in the Mathematics syllabus. Content of items in all three years' examination papers was judged as sufficiently aligned to content expressed in syllabus objectives the items were intended to measure using a liberal alignment criterion. The results of the study also indicated that the 2000, 2001, and 2002 Paper 1 component of the Mathematics examinations were sufficiently reliable albeit minimally so. Results of the exploratory factor analysis indicated that the Paper 1 component of the Mathematics examination assesses a possibly multidimensional construct. The findings of this study highlight the need for more comprehensive and systemic validity studies that would continue to generate information concerning the validity of examinations in Botswana.