College students have to learn predominantly from texts. While learning is very much dependent on the ability to read, understand, and remember texts, many college students have not learned the skills and strategies that enhance learning from texts. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships among learning strategies and grade point average (GPA) on subjects' ability to learn from text. / Type of strategy was the independent variable, with coding, elaborating, and outlining comprising the three levels. The coding strategy used top-level structure in texts to help learners understand and organize information in long-term memory. Elaborating required learners to reconstruct text concepts into realistic, familiar examples. Outlining subjects developed hierarchical structures that represented the relationships between major concepts in the text. The moderator variable was subjects' grade point average (GPA), classified as either high, medium, or low. The dependent measures for this study were total, factual and conceptual knowledge, measured by two multiple choice tests. Time spent using the strategy was the control variable. / The specific hypotheses investigated were (i) subjects in the elaborating condition would perform higher than coding subjects, who in turn would outperform subjects in the outlining condition, and (ii) elaborating and coding, but not outlining, would increase scores of conceptual knowledge learning more than factual knowledge learning. / Study subjects included approximately 150 undergraduate students from three sections of a required Educational Psychology course. Data were analyzed using the analysis of variance (ANOVA) method. Results did not confirm study predictions. Significance for main effect for grade point average (GPA) was detected but no interaction effects were noted. Subjects who coded and elaborated performed better overall, particularly on conceptual items. As predicted, outlining facilitated performance on factual items. Differences did not reach statistical significance. Reasons for strategy failure are presented, including low student motivation, insufficient training, strategy difficulty, and weak instructor support. Implications for teaching and instructional design are presented. Suggestions are made for future research in the learning strategy domain. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-11, Section: A, page: 4329. / Major Professor: Bruce Tuckman. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

Several assessment studies document African-American children's achievement in mathematics learning at various grade levels. However, little research exists which systematically examines the role of visual imagery in mathematics learning within this population. This study examined how African-American fifth-graders used visual-imagery in constructing geometric tiling patterns and (indirect) area measurement concepts. It was conducted within the constructivist theoretical framework and made explicit basic processes of knowledge acquisition. / This investigation consisted of clinical interviews of eight African-American fifth-grade students, exhibiting high or low spatial-thinking ability according to the Space Thinking (FLAGS) Test. Each participant engaged in three imagery-building tasks designed to facilitate mathematical thinking and develop spatial reasoning in the content area. All interviews were videotaped; they provided data for use in the development of a cognitive model of the participants' spatial and related mathematical constructions. / Major themes which emerged from the data refer to the participants' Construction of Visual Units, Acknowledgement of Tiling Patterns, and Interpretation Levels of Size and Measurement. Careful analysis of the themes revealed important answers to the major research questions. High-spatial thinkers, particularly, made more use of dynamic imagery to recall repeating aspects of geometric tiling patterns. Low-spatial thinkers' images were more concrete and static. High-spatial learners used cognitive reorganization to formulate equivalences of area measures of plane regions. High- and low-spatial learners interpreted "size" on diverse levels--ranging from a concrete level to an intuition level. / Research themes and answers supported the development of abstract constructs comprising a model of the African-American fifth-graders' constructed activity (i.e., their mental actions and operations). Major components of the model along with some associated elements include: Nonverbal/Verbal Cues--motor activity, verbal discourse; Anticipatory Images--using images dynamically, forming dynamic images, mental transformations; Reflective Abstraction--mental restructuring, reversibility of thought; and Cognitive reorganization--chunking, decomposing/recombining images. The model suggests instructional and curricular implications to educators whose goal is to enhance children's mathematics learning. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-02, Section: A, page: 0454. / Major Professor: Janice L. Flake. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1991.

This investigation consists of two experiments. The first experiment attempted to generalize the findings of a study by Kirschenbaum, Tomarken and Humphrey (1985) who found that positive mood facilitates performance on a mathematics task. The goal was to determine whether Kirschenbaum et al.'s (1985) finding could be obtained with (1) a less cognitive mood induction procedure (MIP), (2) a different academic task, and (3) difficult rather than easy items. Sixty female undergraduates service as subjects. Subjects were first administered one of four MIPs: positive self-statements, neutral self-statements, positive video (comedy) and neutral video (weather report). Mood was successfully induced according to subjects' self-report on mood questionnaires administered before and after the MIP. After the completion of the MIP, subjects were given a novel passage to read and took a multiple-choice test on that passage. Results showed no evidence for the hypothesis that positive mood facilitates performance. Therefore, a replication was conducted in order to determine whether the lact of significant findings was due to the changes made in Kirschenbaum et al.'s (1985) procedures or because Kirschenbaum et al.'s (1985) results were due to chance. Twenty female undergraduates were administered either positive or neutral self-statements (MIP). The MIP was successful according to subjects' self-report on mood questionnaires. After the completion of the MIP, subjects were administered a difficult mathematics task. Kirschenbaum et al.'s (1985) findings failed to be replicated. In sum, there was no evidence to suggest that positive mood facilitates performance. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-06, Section: B, page: 2383. / Major Professor: Barbara G. Licht. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1988.

<p> Every year millions of students drop out of school. Research indicates that student engagement is a major indicator of whether a student will or will not complete high school (Jackson, 2015). A student&rsquo;s decision to drop out is not an instantaneous event, but one that occurs because of a developmental process of withdrawal (Finn, 1989). Student engagement is a student&rsquo;s feelings of connectedness, belongingness, and valuing of school, developed early in a student&rsquo;s academic career (Voelkl, 1997). Increased student engagement offers students a chance to increase their achievement in school. One measure of student engagement is increased participation in school (Finn, 1989). Staff members who take the time to build relationships foster a greater sense of connectedness to the school for the student. A greater sense of connectedness may increase the levels of participation in the school thus resulting in greater achievement. The current study found that the engagement levels of at-risk middle school students in grades six through eight with and without disabilities increased after a staff-led mentoring program. The current study used the Identification with School Questionnaire (Voelkl, 1996) to measure student engagement. In addition, the current study analyzed the staff-mentor perceptions of the mentoring program and found that the staff-mentors valued the relationships with the students, that they wanted to meet periodically to collaborate on ways to better reach the students, and that most of the staff contacted parents as a natural part of the mentoring process. </p><p>

Training day care teachers to utilize effective behavior management procedures with their preschool children is an area which has received little investigation. The most common form of training day care teachers behavior management techniques, the didactic workshop, was compared with an intensive workshop and class training intervention. The intensive intervention included experimenter modeling, visual prompts, reinforcement, goal setting and feedback in a workshop and class setting. A director monitoring and feedback component was also investigated to determine its effectiveness in maintaining teacher behavior changes. / The effects of the teacher training interventions were assessed on two day care teachers and three children from each of the teachers' classes in a multiple baseline design study. Two of the children from each class were identified through teacher ratings as behavior problems, while the third child from each class was a "good" child. Teacher approval and disapproval rates and on-task behavior of the children were assessed. / Results indicated that a didactic workshop was ineffective in changing the teachers' approval and disapproval rates, supporting results of previous studies investigating didactic workshops. The intensive workshop and class training intervention substantially increased approval rates and decreased disapproval rates for both teachers. This finding supported the results of other teacher training studies which investigated the use of the different components of the intensive intervention. Partial support was found for the effectiveness of the director monitoring and feedback condition as a maintenance component. Due to difficulties in implementation of the director monitoring and feedback condition, it is unclear what exactly produced maintenance of positive teacher changes. / Correspondingly large, positive behavior changes in child behavior as a result of positive behavior changes in the teachers were not found in this study, contrary to the findings of other teacher training studies. Possible methodological problems concerning the observation system, the interaction between increased approval rates and decreased disapproval rates on child behavior, and individual child and environmental variables may have influenced the outcome of the child results. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 48-07, Section: B, page: 2121. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1987.

Several research studies have shown that an increase (or no change) was found in the predicted (and positive) direction with participants with disabilities that exercised a choice (Dattilo and Rusch, 1985; Parsons, Reid, and Reynolds, 1990; Kogel, Dyer, and Bell, 1987; and Dyer, Dunlap, and Wintenberg, 1990). This study sought to extend the research in this area and determine if a functional relationship exists between independent variables (peer choice and the order selection of a computer spelling activity) and dependent variables (targeted social skill behaviors and spelling performance). A single subject alternating treatment design (ATD) (Barlow & Hayes, 1979) was employed in this study. This design is useful when comparing two or more treatments. In this study a baseline condition and three treatment conditions were employed. The results of this study do not substantiate a functional relationship between choice of peers and/or choice of activity order on selected targeted social behaviors on spelling performance for adolescents with severe behavior problems. Future research in this area should consider assessing the importance of certain choices to the students, and insuring that the student perceives the choices as meaningful choices. In addition, the role in which the developmental level of the student plays in making choices, wanting choices, and understanding choices warrants further study. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-08, Section: A, page: 3083. / Major Professor: Mary Frances Hanline. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

Using college students as test subjects, this study sought to determine the results/effects of matching teaching styles with individual learning style preference. / Test subjects for the study included 49 undergraduates enrolled in two co-educational, beginning tennis classes at Waycross College, a two-year unit of the University System of Georgia. Teaching styles used for the study were Teacher-Directed Instruction and Individualized Instruction. The Individualized Instruction style was broken into three groups using either the Auditory Preference, Visual Preference, or Tactile Preference mode of instruction as defined by Dunn, Dunn and Price Productivity Environmental Preference Survey (PEPS). The twenty-two (22) students enrolled in Class 1 were randomly assigned to the Teacher Directed Instruction group. The PEPS was then administered to the twenty-seven (27) students enrolled in Class 2. Based on the results of the PEPS, the students in Class 2 were assigned to either the Auditory, Visual or Tactile Preference group. All test subjects were given a pretest using two standardized tennis tests--the Hewitt's Revision of the Dyer Backboard Test and the Hewitt's Tennis Achievement Test. The pretest evaluated each student for service placement, forehand and backhand drives and backboard test. Throughout the quarter, the mode of instruction received by each group differed while the subject matter covered remained the same. The investigator used the traditional, direct teaching mode for the Teacher-Directed Group. Demonstrations, discussions and verbal explanations were used by the investigator to teach this group. These students were also allotted practice time to enhance their skill development. Each student in the Individualized Instruction group received either a Auditory, Visual, or Tactile Preference self-study packet based on their percentile rank as scored by their placement on the PEPS. Using the logical sequence of learning experiences--basic tennis, appropriate sport behavior, game rules, game strategies, and / practice drills--the Auditory Preference Group made extensive use of audio cassettes recordings. The Visual Preference Group made used of loop films, videotapes, (no sound) charts, diagrams, and written descriptions of tennis skills and drill to facilitates learning. / The Tactile Preference Group used their access to peer helpers/partners for hands on assistance. Each student in each PEPS group worked at his/her own pace to progress from the simple to the complex tennis skill. At the end of the ten (10) week instructional unit, a posttest, using the same battery of psychomotor achievement test his used for the pretest, was administered to all students. Four (4) research questions were formulated for this study. An analysis of covariance was conducted using the pretest as the covariate across all groups. Analysis of the data revealed that both groups improved, from pretest to posttest, significantly at the.05 level. The only skills test with any significance of differential effects was the backhand drive test at the.05 level of confidence. The data of the learning preference groups--Auditory, Tactile and Visual--suggested that the treatment, when effective for all three groups, did not effect any group distinctively. / The investigator concluded that instructional strategies developed, designed and implemented in accordance to student learning preference can serve as a means of improving psychomotor performance. All methods were effective in the teaching and learning of tennis skills. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-04, Section: A, page: 1286. / Major Professor: Beverly J. Yerg. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

The purpose of the study was to investigate how theories-in-action develop in collaboration with open-ended learning environments (OELEs). The study examined the processes, intentions, and actions used by learners to build and/or evolve theories-in-action while using an OELE. OELEs provide technological resources for concretely manipulating and exploring concepts. The study qualitatively examined how the organization of learner actions within the system gave rise to new understanding that regulated the development of a theory-in-action. / Four seventh-grade students were drawn from a general science class and were studied as separate cases. The OELE was the ErgoMotion level III interactive videodisc (mechanical physics), which combines computer-generated graphics, computer simulations, video and print-based materials. The primary techniques for collecting data included think-aloud protocols, observations, and interviews. / The design of the study was naturalistic and descriptive. The analysis took a micro- and macro-approach to understanding the interplay between goal-oriented action and the changing modes of representation that underlie them. The results indicated that learners perceived information from the system, derived interpretations to explain observations, and used system features to test an interpretation. They refined interpretations, using an implicit or intuitive theory-in-action as the basis for further evaluation. Learners also, however, were prone to perceiving information subjectively and forming inaccurate interpretations. As intentions shifted from goals to means, learners collected data that could be used to confirm or refute their theory. / The study indicated that learners began building and formalizing theories-in-action. They did not, however, use data from the system to evaluate the limitations of their personally-derived theories; instead, they assimilated new data into an existing theory, ignored inconsistent data, or derived an independent theory to explain the contradictory evidence. This study indicated the development of powerful theories-in-action that were used to interpret system events and were highly resistant to change. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-07, Section: A, page: 2648. / Major Professor: Michael J. Hannafin. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

Self-concept is believed to play a significant role in the learning process. Since the learning process for children with learning disabilities is fraught with difficulty, there is concern that self-concept for these children is at risk. / This research makes a contribution to the larger body of literature dealing with the self-concept of male children with learning disabilities. There appears to be a substantial body of literature which suggests that self-concept can be explained and predicted by several variables, specifically, comparison group used when evaluating the self, perceived social support, intellectual level, amount of remedial services provided, perceived success in nonacademic and academic domains, and importance of those domains to the individual. Whereas others have looked at differences between learning disabled and normally achieving students, this study focuses within the learning disabled population. The three areas of perceived competence which were investigated were global self-worth, scholastic competence, and social acceptance. / In order to investigate the different factors involved in children's self-concept, several self-report measures were employed. These included a scale measuring perceived competence in the different domains (plus global self-concept), a scale reflecting the importance given to each of the domains, a scale tapping the extent to which children feel valued and supported by significant others, and an inventory which assessed the social group used when competence ratings were made. Additionally, time in special classroom placement and intellectual level was collected from student records. The sample was composed of 80 male students, aged eight to 12, drawn from the third through the fifth grades from a county school district. Stepwise Multiple Regressions were employed in order to determine the factors which were most predictive of the dependent variables. Several factors were found to significantly predict the global self-worth, scholastic competence, and social acceptance of these children with learning disabilities. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-08, Section: A, page: 3057. / Major Professor: F. Donald Kelly. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

Permaculture is a design system for the creation of ecologically sustainable human settlements, and plays an important role in the conceptualisation of a sustainable future. Permaculture is located in the New Environmental Paradigm (NEP) that understanding systems ecologically. Permaculture is learned mainly through participation in permaculture design certificate (PDC) courses. The impetus for the thesis is anecdotal reports from participants in PDC courses that they experienced a sense of personal empowerment through learning about permaculture. The purpose of this research is to examine this claim by being a participant-observer with a group of participants in two PDC courses, and by following the engagement with permaculture of six PDC course participants over a period of two and a half years. / The first PDC course acted as a pilot study and pointed to empowerment as a significant outcome in participants' experience of learning permaculture. A focussed literature review provided a number of useful frameworks in which to understand empowerment through learning, as well as assisting in the development of data collection procedures and analysis for the substantive study. Since empowerment is a process that unfolds over time, the substantive study consisted of two phases. First was a situated study that was the examination of the second PDC course. Data collection for this involved a range of procedures based on methodology drawn from a phenomenological interpretive framework Second was a longitudinal study that followed the journeys of selected participants from the PDC course before, during and over a period of two and a half years after the course had finished. Here, data collection involved semi-structured interviews. / The study concludes that empowerment as defined in the study does emerge through learning permaculture in a PDC course but to different degrees for different participants. Significant elements in the empowerment process appear to be the needs and aspirations of the participants, the quality of the learning environment, the pedagogies employed, and the ability to engage in ongoing permaculture praxis at the conclusion of the course. The thesis ends by discussing the generalisability of the conclusions for education in schools, and concludes that while school systems and permaculture design courses differ in important ways, some findings are generalisable and enactable in schools. In addition, the NEP provides useful ways in which to view learning.