Thesis (Ph.D.)--Case Western Reserve University, 2009 / Title from PDF (viewed on 30 July 2009) Department of Organizational Behavior Includes abstract Includes bibliographical references Available online via the OhioLINK ETD Center

<p>This dissertation research used an embedded qualitative case study research design to investigate a single educator’s actions in teaching Black youth engineering and computing in a culturally appropriate and accessible manner. Historically, the engineering discipline has preserved and upheld Eurocentric standards for how learners should think and practice, perpetuating the marginalization of racially and ethnically diverse learners, such as Black American children. Such standards have excluded and pushed out diverse learners, and it is not uncommon for Black youth seeking entry into precollege engineering pathways to make trade-offs that require them to compromise their culture, linguistic practices, literacy practices, histories, and authentic selves in order to succeed. Given the educational debt that persists in K-12 education for Black American learners, approaches that are meaningful, engaging, and culturally oriented should align with teaching engineering and computing alongside Black Americans' historical and current racial inequities, injustices, and disenfranchisement. The research problem addressed in this dissertation study is the significance and influence of the culturally centered and community servant facilitator who teaches with relevance to the development of the whole Black child's mind, body, and soul while developing their knowledge in engineering and computing.</p><p>This project was founded on an asset-focused culturally relevant pedagogy to reveal how a Black STEM educator’s teaching supported the STEM learning of Black youth at an intentionally designed informal summer camp— Hit Maker Summer Camp (Hit Makers). Hit Makers was purposefully designed by a collaborative group of educators, directors, researchers, and artists at the intersection of engineering, computing, hip-hop culture, dance, and Makerspace culture for 28 Black youth learners who resided in a mid-sized Midwestern city. This study investigated the teaching practices enacted by the STEM educator that led the Black youth learners to become more academically, socio-politically, and culturally engaged in STEM. The facilitator’s beliefs, role, ethos, and influence were investigated using a data corpus that included a single narrative interview, in-field observations by the researcher, facts gathered from ongoing conversations (2019 - 2022), and video and audio recordings of the facilitator while teaching.</p><p>A qualitative embedded case study design was employed for this research. Data collection occurred continuously from July 2019 to February 2022, utilizing a range of methods including in-situ field observations, video and audio recordings, and a formal online interview. The findings of this study underscore the influence of Black STEM educators' beliefs and previous instructional approaches on their teaching practices within the context of Hit Makers Summer Camp. Notably, the enacted teaching practices demonstrated a significant alignment with the tenets of culturally relevant pedagogy, particularly in the domains of academic success and cultural competence. Although the alignment with sociopolitical consciousness within the pedagogical framework was less pronounced, it is evident that the educator’s teaching philosophies were deeply entrenched in their own sociopolitical awareness. The study's findings empower educators in precollege engineering education to transcend traditional teaching paradigms by unraveling the interplay between pedagogical philosophies and culturally resonant practices, offering a tangible blueprint for fostering deeper connections with students, promoting diversity, and dismantling barriers to empower historically underrepresented Black students to excel in STEM.</p>

Historically, research on Aboriginal education issues has ignored the needs of Aboriginal people and disempowered the Aboriginal community. This thesis seeks to offer a corrective to that trend. <p> The intent of the thesis research was to establish a process for conducting educational research with one Aboriginal community - the Dakota People of Wahpeton which would enable this community to have a legitimate voice and control over future research that will be conducted on their behalf. A methodology called community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) was utilized because it provided the means for community input and direction. Through the use of CBPR, collaborative relationships were established with 20 Dakota People of Wahpeton, who were identified as the research participants. The interview was used as the primary research method. <p> The thesis discusses how the conflict between two cultural world views - the Aboriginal view of the Dakota, Nakota, and Lakota People, generally referred to as "Sioux", and the contemporary Western view - was resolved within the process of implementing the Community-Based Participatory Research methodology. This resolution of differences was accomplished by bridging, then mirroring, the methodologies and ways of gaining knowledge unique to these two respective cultural world views. Additionally, theoretical and practical suggestions are offered so that the thesis might serve as a model for Dakota-Nakota-Lakota Community-Based Participatory Research in the future. <p> In keeping with Community-Based Participatory Research, the voice of the people will be emphasized in this thesis, through extensive use of quotes. Furthermore, the voice of the researcher will be clearly identified so that he may be held accountable for his input.

Historically, research on Aboriginal education issues has ignored the needs of Aboriginal people and disempowered the Aboriginal community. This thesis seeks to offer a corrective to that trend. <p> The intent of the thesis research was to establish a process for conducting educational research with one Aboriginal community - the Dakota People of Wahpeton which would enable this community to have a legitimate voice and control over future research that will be conducted on their behalf. A methodology called community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) was utilized because it provided the means for community input and direction. Through the use of CBPR, collaborative relationships were established with 20 Dakota People of Wahpeton, who were identified as the research participants. The interview was used as the primary research method. <p> The thesis discusses how the conflict between two cultural world views - the Aboriginal view of the Dakota, Nakota, and Lakota People, generally referred to as "Sioux", and the contemporary Western view - was resolved within the process of implementing the Community-Based Participatory Research methodology. This resolution of differences was accomplished by bridging, then mirroring, the methodologies and ways of gaining knowledge unique to these two respective cultural world views. Additionally, theoretical and practical suggestions are offered so that the thesis might serve as a model for Dakota-Nakota-Lakota Community-Based Participatory Research in the future. <p> In keeping with Community-Based Participatory Research, the voice of the people will be emphasized in this thesis, through extensive use of quotes. Furthermore, the voice of the researcher will be clearly identified so that he may be held accountable for his input.

Historically, research on Aboriginal education issues has ignored the needs of Aboriginal people and disempowered the Aboriginal community. This thesis seeks to offer a corrective to that trend. The intent of the thesis research was to establish a process for conducting educational research with one Aboriginal community - the Dakota People of Wahpeton which would enable this community to have a legitimate voice and control over future research that will be conducted on their behalf. A methodology called community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) was utilized because it provided the means for community input and direction. Through the use of CBPR, collaborative relationships were established with 20 Dakota People of Wahpeton, who were identified as the research participants. The interview was used as the primary research method. The thesis discusses how the conflict between two cultural world views - the Aboriginal view of the Dakota, Nakota, and Lakota People, generally referred to as "Sioux", and the contemporary Western view - was resolved within the process of implementing the Community-Based Participatory Research methodology. This resolution of differences was accomplished by bridging, then mirroring, the methodologies and ways of gaining knowledge unique to these two respective cultural world views. Additionally, theoretical and practical suggestions are offered so that the thesis might serve as a model for Dakota-Nakota-Lakota Community-Based Participatory Research in the future. In keeping with Community-Based Participatory Research, the voice of the people will be emphasized in this thesis, through extensive use of quotes. Furthermore, the voice of the researcher will be clearly identified so that he may be held accountable for his input.

The use of research evidence to improve the practices of teachers is considered one of the ways of improving the educational outcomes for children. This study was focussed on determining how an online approach could be used to increase knowledge mobilisation in education, by giving teachers better access to research knowledge that they could use to support and develop their practices. This study had two aims. The first aim was to investigate what research knowledge and research practices teachers were using and what value they ascribed to those practices; the second was to explore teachers' views and opinions of a new online approach to the presentation of research knowledge. This was a mixed method study using questionnaires, interviews and focus groups to gather a range of both qualitative and quantitative data. The findings of this study show that practitioners value research practices more than they are able to participate in them, and that there is a consistent valuepractice gap across the range of research practices. Exploratory factor analysis revealed five underlying factors; engagement with research, engagement with the research community, promotes professional discussion of research, promotes teacher knowledge generation, and promotes wider engagement of the school with research and the research community. These factors showed that teachers and their schools want to engage both with research knowledge and with the wider research community so that the use of research knowledge can be enhanced in education. The findings also show that practitioners were receptive to the use of an online approach to the delivery of research knowledge and the piloted approach was accessible and intuitive. Practitioners exhibited interest in using the approach in a range of collaborative interactions with colleagues. Overall this study revealed that online approaches to knowledge mobilisation have potential but that teachers need to be supported in their engagement with research and the wider research community. This thesis is a contribution to the knowledge of how online approaches can be developed and deployed to enhance knowledge mobilisation towards teaching being an evidence informed profession. Equally school leaders and policy-makers need to create environments that are supportive of teachers' use of research, if they want teachers to use research knowledge to inform their practices.

There are several conditions for applying equal weights as an alternative to least squares weights. Psychometric parallelism, one of the conditions, has been suggested as a necessary and sufficient condition for equal-weights aggregation. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of psychometric parallelism among predictors on the efficiency of equal weights and least squares weights. Target correlation matrices with 10,000 cases were simulated so that the matrices had varying degrees of psychometric parallelism. Five hundred samples with six ratios of observation to predictor = 5/1, 10/1, 20/1, 30/1, 40/1, and 50/1 were drawn from each population. The efficiency is interpreted as the accuracy and the predictive power estimated by the weighting methods. The accuracy is defined by the deviation between the population R² and the sample R² . The predictive power is referred to as the population cross-validated R² and the population mean square error of prediction. The findings indicate there is no statistically significant relationship between the level of psychometric parallelism and the accuracy of least squares weights. In contrast, the correlation between the level of psychometric parallelism and the accuracy of equal weights is significantly negative. Under different conditions, the minimum p value of χ² for testing psychometric parallelism among predictors is also different in order to prove equal weights more powerful than least squares weights. The higher the number of predictors is, the higher the minimum p value. The higher the ratio of observation to predictor is, the higher the minimum p value. The higher the magnitude of intercorrelations among predictors is, the lower the minimum p value. This study demonstrates that the most frequently used levels of significance, 0.05 and 0.01, are no longer the only p values for testing the null hypotheses of psychometric parallelism among predictors when replacing least squares weights with equal weights.

Educators and educational researchers constantly strive to find effective instructional methods that meet the needs of struggling students. There is a well-established relationship between self-regulated learning and academic achievement. Therefore, a great deal of research has been conducted examining the effectiveness of interventions designed to develop self-regulated learning sub-processes including goal setting, help-seeking behavior, self-monitoring, and causal attributions. One particular sub-process that has gained significant attention is self-motivation beliefs, which includes goal orientation. Developing a growth mindset, or the belief that that intelligence is malleable, has been found to increase student learning. Intelligent tutoring systems have also been incorporated into K-12 education to help differentiate instruction and improve learning outcomes. There have been several empirical studies that have attempted to develop help-seeking behavior and growth mindset with interventions delivered by intelligent tutoring systems. Initially, the goal of this dissertation was to increase student learning by developing self-regulated learning through the use of an intelligent tutoring system. Preliminary attempts failed to modify student beliefs and behavior. As a result, a series of additional randomized controlled trials were conducted. This dissertation is a compilation of those studies, which attempted to leverage ASSISTments, an intelligent tutoring system, to improve student learning in mathematics. Each randomized controlled trial introduced an intervention, based on prior work, designed to address at least one aspect of self-regulated learning and measure the effect on learning. Most of the studies were unsuccessful in producing significant changes in either self-regulation or learning, failing to support the findings of prior research. Survey results suggest that students are reluctant to engage in certain self-regulated learning behaviors, like self-recording, because of the frustration caused when answering a question incorrectly. Based on the findings from these studies, recommendations for potential interventions and future research are discussed.

Nesta pesquisa, realizou-se um estudo das trajetórias escolares e profissionais de pesquisadores em educação e das condições de produção dos trabalhos tomados como estudos em sala de aulas. Por meio de entrevistas com foco nas histórias de vida escolar de dez (10) pesquisadores, entre eles, seis (6) pesquisadores da Faculdade de Educação da Universidade de São Paulo (FE-USP) e quatro (4) da Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC-SP), optou-se por pesquisadores que defenderam teses ou dissertações cujo lócus de investigação recaia sobre a sala de aula das séries inicias na década de 1989-99. Este recorte pesquisadores que defendera pesquisas sobre a sala de aula obedeceu, de certo modo, ao princípio de continuar pesquisado o mesmo objeto de estudo do mestrado, principalmente no que tange as questões que não foram possíveis de serem tratadas naquele momento como: a destinação dada às pesquisas, seu impacto na sala de aula e no próprio campo pedagógico e, sobretudo, as condições em que essas pesquisas foram produzidas. Tendo como referencial teórico os trabalhos de autores como Jean Paul Sartre, Pierre Bourdieu, Roland Barthes, Paul Thompson, António Nóvoa, Franco Ferrarotti, Bernard Charlot, Jose Mario Azanha, entre outros, buscou-se levantar aspectos do campo pedagógico e do campo científico por um viés até então intocado: as condições de produção da pesquisa educacional do ponto de vista do próprio pesquisador. Observou-se neste estudo que a pesquisa e o ensino podem ser campos dialeticamente complementares, já que ambos fazem parte do processo de construção do conhecimento, pois se a atividade de ensino carece de pesquisa, boa parte da pesquisa em educação baseia-se na experiência educativa. Com isso, a articulação pesquisa e ensino inserida em projetos de parcerias entre Escolas Básicas e Universidades possibilitam a troca de saberes entre as duas dimensões. Do mesmo modo, entende-se que um trabalho de reorganização do campo de pesquisa educacional com o objetivo de pouco a pouco construir uma identidade nesse campo, seja capaz de conduzir a educação a tornar-se uma área de produção de conhecimentos de fato mais autônoma, sem, contudo, abandonar as dimensões práticas e políticas sobre as quais diferentes ciências humanas e sociais produzem conhecimentos. Certamente os efeitos desse movimento incidirão sobre as práticas escolares, contribuindo para aperfeiçoá-las. / This search accomplish a study of the scholar and professional way of educational researchers as well the conditions in which classroom studies has been produced, though life history interviews of ten (10) researches, among then, six (6) form the Faculdade de Educação da Universidade de São Paulo (FE-USP) and four (4) from the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de f São Paulo. We selected researchers who has defended a thesis or dissertations between 1989 and 1999 and for whom the investigation place was the classroom of the initial grades. This frame researchers who has defended searches about the classroom has obeyed, in a certain way, the purpose to continue researching the same object of my Mastership, specially, concerning questions which could not be handled on that moment, such as the searches destinations, its impact on the classroom so as on the pedagogic field and, above all, the conditions in which theses searches has been produced. Having as a theoretical reference the work of authors as such Jean Paul Sartre, Pierre Bourdieu, Roland Barthes, Paul Thompson, António Nóvoa, Franco Ferrarotti, Bernard Charlot, Jose Mario Azanha, among others, we sought bring up aspects on the pedagogic and scientific field through a path which has been released untouched: the conditions of the production of educational search by the researchers own point of view. We have observed on this study that research and teaching can be dialectical complementary fields, since both are part of the knowledge construction process, therefore, if teaching requires search, a good part of the searches are based on the teaching experience. Herewith the research and teaching articulation introduced in Elementary School and University partnership projects enable the exchange of knowledge between theses two dimension. As well as, an educational field reorganization with the purpose of construct little by little an identity on this field which is capable to conduce the education to become a knowledge area really more independent, without, however, abandon the practice and politic dimension about different human and social science produce knowledge. Surely this movement effects will fall upon the school practices, cooperating for its improvement.

Natural research behaviours may present in children younger than eight years but tend to be overlooked by professional researchers, with the result that young children are rarely recognised as agents in enquiry concerning matters affecting them. This exclusion amounts to social injustice as it underestimates children’s capabilities and denies them particular rights. The thesis proposes that young children engage in research activity congruent with professional adult researchers’ behaviours, as part of their daily lives. Furthermore, the inequity caused by excluding children from recognition as researchers may be addressed if professional researchers were to find ways to recognise and value the children’s contributions as researchers. The empirical study that is the focus for the thesis secured a taxonomy of research behaviours from professional adult researchers which was then applied to naturalistic observations conducted with - and by - children aged 4-8 years in their settings and homes. A ‘jigsaw’ methodology was adopted, featuring constructivist grounded theory and critical ethnography, among other methodologies. Throughout, the project was committed to participatory, emancipatory and inductive principles, though challenges were encountered along the way. Alongside observations, multiple other methods and analysis were employed in the co-construction of data with children and their practitioners in three English early childhood settings and children and their parents in five homes. Professional adult researchers also contributed to primary and meta-data. Results indicated that problem solving, exploring, conceptualising and basing decisions on evidence were regarded by professional researchers as the ‘most important’ research behaviours. Children engaged in these behaviours of their own volition, alongside other research behaviours. Their activities included exploring materials to create novel artefacts in art work, rolling in giant cylinders, cooking and ordering objects systematically. While undertaking these activities, children often revealed higher order cognitive processes such as trial and error elimination, causality, analogy and a posteriori conceptualisation. The study produced a ‘plausible account’ suggesting that children aged 4-8 years do engage in research activity naturalistically as part of their daily lives and that this activity is congruent with professional adult researchers’ behaviours.