Thesis (M.S. in Management)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 1990. / Thesis Advisor(s): Gorman, Linda ; Crawford, Alice M. "June 1990." Description based on title screen as viewed on 20 October 2009. DTIC Identifier(s): Cost benefit, individualized instruction, opportunity costs. Author(s) subject terms: Instructional systems development, cost-benefit, military training, individualized instruction, cost-effectiveness, opportunity costs. Includes bibliographical references (p. 70-71). Also available in print.

<p> Writing anxiety impedes meta-cognitive writing strategies, which results in a decline in writing skills amongst college freshman composition students. This study examined the effect autograders have on reducing writing anxiety. This paper presented (a) was there significant difference in students&rsquo; writing anxiety based on autograder usage for evaluation, (b) was there significant difference in writing anxiety on the basis gender, and (c) was there significant difference in writing anxiety on the basis of age. The participants were 129 community college undergraduate composition students, 67 male students and 62 female students, of first year English Composition Community College classes 2017. The samples were selected using purposive sampling. The data were collected from the Daly/Miller Writing Apprehensive Test adapted for Survey Monkey as a pretest to determine a baseline writing anxiety scale and as a post-test from an experimental group using an autograder to evaluate the writing and a control group using an instructor to evaluate the writing following an in-class writing. Then, the data were analyzed quantitatively using ANCOVA and ANOVA. The result showed no statistically significant difference on the basis of autograder usage, gender, or age. However, the findings confirmed previous research on community college students and indicated community college students&rsquo; exhibit writing anxiety. In addition the study almost resulted in statistical significance on the basis of gender and age. Closer analysis revealed students&rsquo; writing anxiety decreased with each writing attempt.</p>

<p> Problem-based learning is an especially useful learner-centered instructional approach in which learners collaborate within small groups to solve an authentic ill-structured problem that has no right or wrong answer. However, facilitating and designing problem-based learning can be challenging for instructors as well as instructional designers, especially for learning environments, such as the law enforcement academies, that traditionally have been designed for rote memorization and repetitive skills. The purpose of this basic qualitative research was to interview and explore instructors&rsquo; experiences and the factors instructors believed are essential for facilitating problem-based learning in their learning environment. For this study, participants were selected based on their attendance at the 2014 annual conference or by referrals from those attendees. Eleven participants met the requirements of having completed the 2-week problem-based learning instructor course sponsored by an organization dedicated to the advancement of problem-based learning in police training and had 3&ndash;5 years of facilitating problem-based learning in their learning environment. In this study, semi-structured interviews with law enforcement instructors were used to provide knowledge and insight about the challenges they experienced, such as resistance to change and instructional strategies used to overcome these challenges, as well as key elements of problem-based learning. Additionally, the findings provided instructional designers insight into how to design problem-based learning instruction using effective instructional strategies identified by participants. Moreover, participants provided instructional strategies on how to move from a teacher-centered learning environment focused on lower level skills to a student-centered learning that foster problem-solving and critical thinking skills using real-world situations. A recommendation for further research is to conduct a study on a larger sample to explore facilitators&rsquo; experiences when facilitating problem-based learning. A second recommendation calls for a study to identify ways for educators and training and development professionals to promote the benefits and value of the problem-based learning process to their agency leadership and educational institution administration. A third recommendation is to conduct a study with a targeted audience of instructional designers who have designed and developed training for the law enforcement field and who use a student-centered approach to explore further strategies used to incorporate real-world instructional methods that enhance critical thinking and problem-solving skills.</p>

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Thesis (Ed. D.)--Oregon State University, 2000. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 165-178). Also available via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1981. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 4340456).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Brigham Young University. Dept. of Instructional Psychology and Technology, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 153-161).

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1980. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 104-112).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2005. / Supervisor: Risto Miikkulainen. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

<p> High-ability adolescent African-American females from rural communities face many challenges when attempting to access science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) career pathways. This research study focused on seven high-ability adolescent African-American females from rural communities who attended a public STEM-focused boarding high school in the southern United States. </p><p> This study used ethnographic methodology to examine race, gender, and giftedness together to explain how and why a selected population of seven African-American girls from rural environments who attended a southern, state-sponsored residential math and science high school successfully navigated STEM career trajectories. Despite encountering pervasive gender and racial discrimination, the young African-American women in this study persisted on STEM career trajectories because they were supported by a role model or mentor; accessed prolonged and meaningful exposure to STEM concepts, including attending a STEM-focused boarding school; and demonstrated a blend of resiliency, high self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-efficacy. Although the sample size is small, this research provides encouraging results that show young African-American women can successfully pursue STEM careers despite facing substantial barriers (English, Lambert, &amp; Ialongo, 2016; Ghodsee, 2016). </p><p> This research is significant because high-ability African-American females represent an untapped opportunity to expand STEM employment in America. Expanding the contributions of young African-American women in STEM-related fields would also help safeguard the economic vitality of a robust STEM workforce. </p><p>