University of Technology, Sydney. Faculty of Education. / This thesis seeks to broaden our understanding of how students combine and use information to make a judgement about a subject in which they may be interested. A review and assessment of previous studies is presented, including a discussion of Brunswik's single lens model. A simple idiographic analysis focusing on a person's behaviour across a large number of situations is presented. The emphasis is on the repeated sampling of a person across many situations. The situations in this study contain profiles or collections of information that involve educational descriptions. The profile is in the form of some ratings (or a set of cues) that describe a subject. The findings support earlier studies, which reported individual variation in perceptions of interest and differences in the ability to make accurate judgement of interest. The purpose of this study was to (1) investigate how students use available information to make a judgement in a matter of educational interest; (2) how they perceive the world when it is organised in a particular way; and (3) how students construct their own reality and combine information to judge their own reality. The research question was: Does increasing the correlation between the items of information impact upon the nature of judgements made by people in terms of: (a) the correlation between each item of information and judgement or (b) the multiple correlation between all items and judgement? In the past, interest was regarded as an undifferentiated motivational factor to learning and achievement, thus limiting the scope of the study of interest. This study, however, focuses on how students take into account the relationship between different factors when determining their level of interest in a subject they may be interested in studying. In this context, the ability of students to handle information effectively may positively affect the quality of their judgements in regard to their interest in the subject they are considering studying. The research comprised four separate studies. Participants were university students from three different universities, the University of Technology Sydney, the University of Lagos and Obafemi Awolowo University Ile-Ife. Six different cues were used. Participants were given a booklet comprising 75 judgement profiles. These profiles contained six different cues or informational details. Participants were asked, How interested would you be in taking a subject that has been described in this way?" Participants were also asked to study the cues in the profile and judge their own interest on a scale of 0 (no interest) to 9 (high interest) based on the information described in the profile. Profiles (N=15) were repeated to determine the reliability or consistency of judgement for each participant. Both multiple correlations and cue utilities based on Brunswik's single lens model were computed. In each study, the four most reliable students based on test-retest reliability, were chosen for further analysis. The cues varied in intercorrelation from 0.0, 0.2, 0.5 and 0.8. Generally the results showed that participants were different in terms of their judgments and also varied in their perceptions of the situation. There was a plethora of idiosyncratic responses to the various profiles and cues. This individual variation was consistent even across the four content areas. Overall, the results of the four studies were not substantially different from each other. It shows that policy capturing involves not only attaining some useful measure of cue importance through the procedure of multiple regression but also gaining some knowledge of how cue values are functionally related to judgements. The primary interest is on nonlinear relationships which are additive in nature and addressed the issue of the cue-judgement relationships. The overall depiction showed that multiple correlation and multicollinearity varied from one case study to another. However, the overall results tended to confirm the importance of individual variation in perceptions relating to judgement of interest in a subject as earlier and widely reported in the interest literature. More importantly this study continues to highlight the large individual difference in human judgement and perception of the world in determining whether educational interest or some other factor that may influence the ways in which components of the educational world are intercorrelated. These findings tended to support earlier reports that individuals differ in their ways of making a judgement (Parkin 1993, Armelius & Armelius 1976). Indeed, the result of the study confirmed previous reports on the significant differences that exist in individual perceptions of interest. Taken together, the results of this study support the view that judgement analysis may function as a very important aid to individual student learning and performance on the judgment task. Significantly, the outcome of these four studies, show how students have combined and used information to make a judgement in a subject including how they have constructed their own world of reality.

Thesis (M.Soc.Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title from title page (viewed Apr. 19, 2007) Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Texas A&M University, 2005. / "Major Subject: Educational Psychology" Title from author supplied metadata (automated record created on Feb. 23, 2007.) Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Clark university, 1897. / Cover title. Reprinted from the Pedagogical seminary, vol. V, no. 1. Also available in digital form on the Internet Archive Web site.

Individual differences among adults have generally been conceptualized in terms of personality theory and traits and attributed more to life experiences and conditioning than innate dispositions. In contrast, to the more limited extent that individual differences among young children (birth to kindergarten) have been recognized and studied, they have generally been conceptualized in terms of temperament theory and traits, attributed to innate biological programming than to experience. Recent developments in the field of personality theory begin to blur this distinction, suggesting that individual differences even in young children can be productively studied from the standpoint of personality traits. Specifically, the Five Factor Model of personality has exhibited applicability across a wide range of age groups, cultures, and even species. The purpose of the present study was to compare and contrast measure of temperament and personality a sample of preschool children. Temperament traits were assessed with a traditional measure, and a new preschool rating instrument was used to assess personality traits from the Five Factor framework. Data were gathered from 103 preschool children. Preschool teachers answered questions about individual children’s characteristics. Strong significant correlations were found between the temperament trait Emotionality and the personality trait Neuroticism and between the temperament trait Sociability and the personality trait Extraversion. The temperament trait of Activity was also correlated with the personality trait of Extraversion. The overall pattern of correlation data suggest that individual differences in preschool children can be adequately described using the Five Factor Model, and that this framework may effectively subsume traditional theories of temperament.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Texas A&M University, 2005. / "Major Subject: Educational Psychology" Title from author supplied metadata (automated record created on Sep. 15, 2006.) Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Texas A&M University, 2005. / "Major Subject: Educational Psychology" Title from author supplied metadata (automated record created on Sep. 15, 2006.) Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Texas A&M University, 2005. / "Major Subject: Educational Psychology" Title from author supplied metadata (automated record created on Sep. 15, 2006.) Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references.

The term learning disabilities inherently suggests an inability to perform adequately certain academic tasks, and children who have been identified as having a learning disability may struggle with feelings of inadequacy. Perceived academic inadequacies may be related to a lowered concept of self and social stigmatization by peers. In addition, children with learning disabilities may have beliefs about spelling and reading, and learning in general, that engender a negative self-concept. Although extensive research has been conducted with regard to the issues of self-concept and learning disabilities, results have been inconsistent. Further, the interrelationships that may exist among learning disabilities, self-concept, and general spelling, reading, and epistemological beliefs have yet to be established. The current study investigated the interrelationships among written language ability, selfconcept, general spelling beliefs, reading beliefs, and epistemological beliefs. Fifty-six sixthgraders, 21 with learning disabilities and 35 with typical development, were administered a series of tasks that assessed spelling performance, word-level reading performance, self-concept, spelling beliefs, reading beliefs, and epistemological beliefs. Results of the analyses indicated that students with learning disabilities received spelling, word-level reading, and academic selfconcept scores that were significantly lower than their typically developing peers. Reading and epistemological beliefs were found to account for a portion of the variance between the ability groups. The significance of these results, including implications for instructional and intervention practices, are discussed. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Wichita State University, College of Health Professions, Dept. of Communication Sciences and Disorders. / "July 2006."

<p> This study intends to determine to what extent, if at all, the practices used in one urban school district in Southern California servicing high populations of socioeconomically disadvantaged students have on the academic achievement of students who are considered homeless under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. A quantitative analysis of the academic performance of homeless students in both English Language Arts and Mathematics on the California Standards Test was used. In addition, a survey was used to capture the perceptions of existing practices in schools. Interviews were conducted to gain the perceptions of site principals and district administrators to learn what they believe are the existing practices contributing to the academic performance of their homeless student population. </p><p> The following areas provided background and understanding of the academic needs of homeless students: (a) history of federal legislation (b) federal and state funding and national effort to end the cycle of homelessness (c) accountability for academic achievement (d) successful academic practices as well as the best practices to support the social-emotional needs of homeless students, and, (e) the perceptions of educators and administrators who work with students in homeless situations. Based on the research, the important factors to consider are the needed socialization and relationship-building component that provides homeless students with stability and a connection with the school as well as the teacher and staff awareness and sensitivity needed when working with homeless students. </p><p> The results demonstrated three significant areas to consider when educating homeless students; having an awareness of homeless students, accountability and monitoring of homeless students, and the social-emotional organizational practices in place to support these learners. </p><p> Recommendations included district level professional development focused on the special needs of homeless students as well as providing school principals with academic data on their homeless student population. Secondly, identifying homeless students in a web based data system for teacher review. Thirdly, site based professional development for both certificated and classified staff to provide strategies in working with student who face homelessness. Finally, to develop a district wide counseling partnership with outside consultants or city resources to allow for more on-site counseling services.</p>