The major purpose of this study was to determine whether exercise could help alleviate stress when performed on a regular basis. The subjects of the study were 30 University of Arizona students between the ages of 18 and 35. The study was conducted in a Pre-Post Control Group design. Regular exercise consisted of an individual routine worked out with a trainer. The exercise program was designed to raise the heart rate 50-70% of capacity for a duration of 20 consecutive minutes a minimum of three times a week for three weeks. The data consisted of four measures, the Beck Anxiety Inventory, a self-rating of stress, a stress inventory, and blood pressure. The results of this study showed that, while subjects perceived a reduction of stress, there were no significant changes in levels of stress as measured by the pre-post instruments. While previous studies have shown exercise to have important health benefits, the conclusion of the present study suggested that, although the experimental group showed a significant change in perception of stress, the other instruments revealed no significant change.

This study investigated the educational attitudes of Hispanic and Anglo students. It was hypothesized that attitudes concerning the value of an education are comprised of abstract and concrete attitudes and that concrete educational attitudes are the best predictor of grade point averages. A specially designed Educational Attitude Scale was used to measure students' concrete and abstract educational attitudes. The results of the study indicated the following: Principal component analysis of the Hispanic students' EAS responses suggests that educational attitudes are comprised of two underlying factors (concrete and abstract). Hispanic and Anglo students significantly differed in regards to concrete educational attitudes. Both Hispanic and Anglo students did not differ in their abstract educational attitudes. Concrete educational attitudes demonstrated to be the strongest predictor of academic performance. Finally, male and female Hispanic students did not differ significantly in educational attitudes. The implications for Hispanic student achievement were discussed.

Two hundred and twenty-three Taiwanese college and high school students (124 boys and 109 girls, aged 16-18 yrs) were administered the Chinese version of the Offer Self-Image Questionnaire for Adolescents (OSIQ) and Family Background Survey. The self-image questionnaire and social economic status (SES) survey data were used to investigate different gender and social class levels in the self-image of Taiwanese adolescents. Social class was determined by means of the Hollingshead "Two Factor Index of Social Position". Results showed that girls displayed poorer self-image than boys in many areas. Student's social class background had no apparent influence on self-image. Also there were no interaction effects of gender and social class in the self-image of Taiwanese adolescents.

<p> The purpose of this study was to examine the reflective essays of first-year, first-generation college students for evidence of self-directed learning at the conclusion of their first semester at the university. A phenomenological qualitative method was employed and a content analysis rating rubric used to identify and code evidence related to four themes: Self Awareness, Decoding and Pattern Fit, Autonomy/Responsibility, and Academic Success. </p><p> The study findings indicated that first-year, first-generation college students have the capacity to take ownership of their learning in ways exemplified by self-directed learners. Participants demonstrated deep reflection and metacognition and their essays revealed unexpected student vulnerability as they voiced fears and hopes with a nearly innocent transparency and candor. Study findings also emphasized the importance of a support system that includes coursework designed to facilitate understanding of individual learner characteristics, emphasize strategies to maximize learner efforts that lead to successful outcomes, and empower students to become more self-directed. This study also expands the field of adult education by providing evidence that learner control is a key component of self-direction and is positively correlated to academic success. Ample evidence related to metacognition, self-regulation, and learner control was identified in the essay data.</p>

An experience can influence performance on subsequent tasks whether they require conscious recollection (e.g., the judgment of whether something has been previously encountered) or not (e.g., completing word puzzles). What kind of study activities influence performance on nonrecollective memory tests? A proposed resolution to this issue is the task-demand principle, which states that performance on a task is determined by the degree to which the demands of the task match the demands of the original experience. According to the principle, tasks can be categorized along a continuum ranging from data-driven tasks, which require thought about the physical aspects of an item, through conceptually-driven tasks, which require thought about the meaning of an item. Although findings with several types of test have been cited in support of the task-demand principle, the present focus is on two tests that have figured prominently: Perceptual identification, a data-driven task that involves rapid identification of visually degraded words, and word stem completion, a largely data-driven task that involves completing word stems (e.g., WIN for WINDOW) with the first word that comes to mind. The experiments investigated two effects germane to the task-demand principle: (a) the effect of altering, between study and test, the context in which an item is presented and (b) the effect of conceptually-driven study tasks. Contrary to the task-demand principle, context effects were obtained with perceptual identification and word stem completion after subjects engaged in conceptually-driven tasks: Performance was better when the study context was preserved for both perceptual identification and stem completion. Moreover, such context effects for perceptual identification were sensitive to the difficulty of a conceptually-driven task. Finally, perceptual identification performance benefited from a conceptually-driven study task even in the absence of any context manipulations while remaining virtually unaffected by a concurrent data-driven manipulation of typography. These findings limit the generality of the task-demand principle as an account of nonrecollective memory.

No description available.

This study, employing sequential explanatory mixed methods research design, examined: 1) the academic self-concept, academic motivation, and academic achievement of Indian immigrant adolescents in Canada in comparison to their peers in India; 2) the mediational role of academic motivation in the association between academic self-concept and academic achievement among Indian immigrant adolescents and Indian adolescents; and 3) the perspectives, beliefs, and recommendations of Indian immigrant adolescents and Indian adolescents in regard to classroom environments/instructional practices affecting their academic engagement and achievement. Surveys were administered among secondary students in Canada (N = 355) and India (N = 363) to assess their academic self-concepts, academic motivation, and academic achievement. Eight focus group interviews were conducted, four each in Canada and India, to glean the perceptions and views of Indian immigrant and Indian adolescents. Descriptive discriminant analysis (DDA) revealed that the Indian immigrant adolescents in Canada did not differ markedly from their counterparts in India. When non-standardized GPA scores were used, English and overall school GPAs and verbal self-concept were associated with group separation in DDA. When standardized GPA scores were used, however, verbal self-concept alone was associated with group separation in DDA. Mediation analyses indicated the mediational role of intrinsic motivation in the association between academic self-concept and academic achievement among Indian immigrant and Indian adolescents. Extrinsic motivation as well mediated the relations between academic self-concept and academic achievement for the Indian immigrant adolescents in Canada. Focus group discussions suggested that the Indian immigrant and Indian adolescents were primarily extrinsically motivated toward school and academics. Further, both the Indian immigrant and Indian adolescents perceived their classroom teachers as controlling rather than autonomy-supportive. Implications of the findings for educational practice and future research are discussed. / Thesis (Ph.D, Education) -- Queen's University, 2011-09-22 14:23:37.559

The use of animated demonstrations to teach computer software procedures is becoming more common, but previous research has been ambivalent about their value. This study compared animated demonstrations and text instructions to determine if animation is indeed a useful form of instruction. Thirty-three users were trained and tested on 7 HyperCard$\sp\circler$ tasks during three sessions to assess acquisition, retention, and transfer of procedural skills. During training, users either watched and listened to an animated demonstration, read written text, or had a choice of either. They were then tested on identical, similar, and different HyperCard tasks. Whereas the animation group was slower than the text group during training, their performance steadily improved with the subsequent tests such that they were faster and more accurate one week later. These results suggest that animation may be an effective method of training, if long-term retention of skills is the ultimate goal.

No description available.

<p> Parents play an essential role in furthering the development of their children with special needs. They are being trained to be co-therapists for their own children. The goal is to improve the ways they interact with their children in order to create improvements in their children's everyday functioning. If the proper teaching strategies are consistently applied, a learner can significantly improve his/her performance of various life skills, including communication, self-care, social skills, along with other skill sets. Because adults' learning processes differ substantially from children's, it will be critical to utilize the "coaching" method that employs a Model-Lead-Test (MLT) approach to effectively train parents of children with autism. The primary purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of model-lead-test coaching on parents' use of prompting, fading, and reinforcement with their children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The secondary purpose is to assess whether there are improvements in the children's talker, participator, and problem solver repertoires associated with their parents' use of these behavior change processes. </p><p> Using a multiple baseline across behavior design for each parent-child dyad, data are collected on parents' proper use of reinforcement, prompting, and fading as well as their children's talker, participator, and problem solver repertoire development. Research phases include baseline, parent training I (Oral Lecture), parent training II (Model-Lead-Test), and maintenance. </p><p> The resulting data from this study indicate that the Model-Lead-Test approach to parent implementation of core ABA strategies has a greater impact than merely using an Oral Lecture Discussion approach to parent training. To summarize, the data from all three participants showed an increase in the proper implementation of reinforcement, prompting and fading procedures especially through MLT training. The child participants also showed an increase in their talker, participator and problem solver repertoires. And finally, interpretation of the data is presented along with possible future guidelines for research. </p>