Two overlapping situations in the American educational environment have given fuel for this study: the NAEP reported that 34% of fourth grade students read below grade level and NCLB mandated that all children read on grade level by 2014. First grade students from a Midwestern elementary school participated in an after school reading club that met daily. This reading experience was different from others because these first grade students were grouped by learning style preferences. Meanwhile, many classroom teachers respond to the challenge of differentiating reading instruction based solely on students’ reading ability levels creating a forever “reading below grade level” for struggling readers placed in low reading groups. The primary purpose of this study was to explore reading instruction utilizing learning style preferences of first grade students. An overarching question for this study, “How might reading instruction (nurture) aligned with the child’s learning style preference (nature) impact the child’s reading achievement?” To investigate this question the researcher created a supplemental reading experience after school by grouping children by their learning style preference to differentiate instruction. Utilizing the right kind of quality instruction with the right level of intensity and duration with the right children at the right time created an effective preventive program (Torgesen, 1998). That is differentiated instruction! A pretest and posttest assessment was conducted using running record reading assessments focusing on the total number of errors recorded. This quantitative research design, randomized pretest-posttest control group analyzed the collected data using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results of the one-way ANOVA analysis showed there was no significant difference in the posttests of the learning style treatment and the leveled reading control groups. Further analysis of the data revealed there was a significance comparing the pretest to the posttest within the treatment group and within the control group. This was important and implied grouping children by learning style preference for reading instruction may be an effective form of differentiation for small group reading instruction. / Department of Elementary Education

This study explored the relationships among visual and auditory perception, academic aptitude, sex and achievement in reading, language arts and mathematics. The study also sought to determine if scores on visual and/or auditory perception would contribute additional predictive information about achievement beyond that already known through knowledge of sex and academic aptitude scores.Subjects in this study were the entire first grade population of an East Central Indiana rural and suburban public school corporation. The subjects were in the first grade in the school year 1974-1975.The data collected for each subject came from four sources: (1) the Primary Mental Abilities Test K-1 (PMA), (2) the Motor-Free Visual Perception Test (MVPT), (3) the Goldman-Fristoe-Woodcock Test of Auditory Discrimination (GFW), and (4) the Science Research Associates Achievement Series, Level 1-4, Form E.The data were treated by canonical and multiple regression analysis. Separate canonical correlation coefficients were computed for boys and girls. A canonical R of .725 (p <.O1) between the predictor and criterion variables was computed for boys. The greatest association was between the predictor variable MVPT and language arts and to a lesser extent, mathematics. The PMA was also associated with these criterion variables, but to a lesser degree. Results of the study also indicate that visual perception added significantly to prediction of achievement beyond that which is already known through knowledge of a subject's sex and academic aptitude score. Auditory perception when added as a fourth variable did not make a significant contribution to predictive ability in any of the three criterion measures.Within the possible limitations resulting from a delay in the administration of the perceptual measures the following conclusions are drawn from this study. 1. There is a relationship between a set of scores on visual and auditory perception and academic aptitude and a set of scores on achievement in reading, language arts and mathematics.`2. This relationship is different for boys and girls. Girls outperformed boys on all three measures of achievement. For girls, scores on language arts and, to a lesser degree, mathematics tend to be associated with visual perception and academic aptitude. For boys, scores on reading and language arts tend to be associated with academic aptitude.3. Visual perception accounted for variation in the dependent variables of reading, language arts and mathematics beyond that accounted for through knowledge of the subject's sex and academic aptitude score.4. Visual perception had a stronger relationship to later achievement -for girls than either academic aptitude or auditory perception.5. The academic aptitude measure PMA, correlated higher with achievement for boys than it did for girls.6. Academic aptitude was a stronger predictor of later achievement for boys than either visual or auditory perceptual measures.7. Auditory perception was not significantly related to any of the achievement measures and made no significant contribution to the multiple regression equations.

Research paper (M.A.) -- Cardinal Stritch College -- Milwaukee, 1970. / A research paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Education. Includes bibliographical references (p.35-37).

Thesis (M.Ed.)--Regis University, Denver, Colo., 2008. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on June 6, 2008). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.(Augmentative and Alternative Communication))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2002. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 128-135). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Illinois State University, 1986. / Title from title page screen, viewed July 19, 2005. Dissertation Committee: G. Thomas Baer (chair), John L. Brickell, Taimi M. Ranta, David L. Tucker. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 93-97) and abstract. Also available in print.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Florida State University, 2006. / Advisor: Carolyn L. Piazza, Florida State University, College of Education, Dept. of Childhood Education, Reading, and Disability Services. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed June 14, 2006). Document formatted into pages; contains xii, 205 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.Ed. )--Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, 2004. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 45-06, page: 2761. Typescript. Abstract precedes thesis as 2 preliminary leaves ( iii-iv). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 39-41).