Thesis (M.L. Arch.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1992. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-70). Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan. / Photocopy.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan. / Photocopy.

Theses (M.A.)--Marshall University, 2006. / Title from document title page. Includes abstract. Document formatted into pages: contains iii, 73 p. Bibliography: p. 63-64.

No description available.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1992.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Michigan, 1992.

The primary purpose of the present investigation was to capitalise on recent advances in peer support and self-concept research to rigorously test the impact of different types of peer support interventions on multiple dimensions of self-concept and peer support by employing a construct validityapproach to the study of intervention effects. More specifically, the research aimed to: (1) conduct a meta-analysis to synthesise and critically analyse the current research literature, to elucidate the impact of academically–orientated peer tutoring interventions on tutees’ academic outcomes and self-concepts; (2) identify psychometrically sound self-concept and social support instruments for use with evaluating secondary school peer support interventions; and (3) test the impact of researcher-devised academically-orientated and socially-orientated peer support interventions administered to Australian and Chinese students on specific facets of self-concept and perceived peer support. The findings have important implications that peer support interventions have the potential to make a significant contribution to schools’ efforts to orchestrate positive academic and social outcomes in multiple domains of self-concept and peer support. The results also support the usefulness of employing a construct validity approach to the study of intervention effects and the self-concept theory and research on which this is based. They advance our understanding of the factor structure of self-concept for Chinese and Australian secondary students; the differential positive impact of academically-orientated and socially-orientated peer support interventions on self-concept; and provide strong empirical evidence to identify features of peer support intervention design that will produce optimal effectiveness and therefore serve to inform theory, research, and practice. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

This study attempted to investigate the relationship between inferred identification and two types of reading comprehension, molar and specific, at the third grade level. Subjects for this study were selected from six schools located in four midwestern urban centers. The 121 Negro and Caucasian children who participated in the study attended schools designated as Title I schools.Pre-tests were administered in the Fall of 1970 to determine intellectual level and pre-molar reading comprehension. Three administrations of the Modified Semantic Differential for Elementary Children were given to determine identification level as well as three administrations of the Specific Story Comprehension Test to assess specific story comprehension. Post-test administration of molar reading comprehension test was conducted in February, 1971. Reading materials consisted of three stories selected from multi-ethnic texts which were in use in each of the schools.Two covariates, pre-molar reading comprehension scores and scores from the Lorge-Thorndike Intelligence Test, and two dependent variables, post-molar reading comprehension scores and averaged specific reading comprehension scores, served as a basis for statistical analysis. Testing of nine hypotheses resulted in data which formed the basis for two analysis of variance tables for each dependent variable; F values were obtained for the following sources of variation: (1) race, (2) sex, (3) identification, (4) race/sex, (5) race/identification, (6) sex/identification, and (7) race/sex/identification. The dependent variable, molar reading comprehension, produced only one F value which was significant at the .05 level of significance; this value was found for the source-race/identification. A multiple comparison technique was applied to determine which race and which level of identification were significantly related to molar comprehension and results suggested that both Negro and Caucasian children operating at the high and moderate identification levels were doing so at significant levels (eleven comparisons were significant at the .01 level of significance; two comparisons were significant at the .05 level of significance). Comparisons which involved Negro and Caucasian children identifying at the moderate level with Negro and Caucasian children identifying at a low level were not significant. Analysis of data from the second dependent variable, specific reading comprehension, failed to produce any significant F values.The finding in this study that children who identified at high and moderate identification levels achieved significantly higher molar reading comprehension scores than low-identifying children of both races seemed to offer some justification for recent efforts to include diverse ethnic characters in elementary reading texts. A more thoughtful examination of this relationship however, may indicate the possible presence of a third and as yet unknown factor which acted in conjunction with the identification process and to which the gain witnessed in molar reading comprehension may be attributed. The original impetus for this study, the implied suggestion of several authorities that disadvantaged children need specific stories with which they can identify before effective reading can occur, appeared to be answered by data found on the second dependent variable, specific reading comprehension. The finding that there were no significant differences for parts of the nine hypotheses relating to specific reading comprehension would seem to suggest that inclusion of diverse ethnic story-characters in elementary reading texts because disadvantaged children can more easily identify with them and subsequently aid their reading comprehension may not be justified by the analysis of data obtained in this study.These results may indicate that the well-meaning attempts to foster reading comprehension of disadvantaged American children during the mid-1960's by including diverse ethnic characters in materials with which they learn to read may be a somewhat simplistic solution to a highly complex problem. Further, it appeared that identification may be only one component of what might be called an affective-gestalt and that application of these affective components into elementary reading texts required greater sophistication and research insights than we now possess.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1982. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 93-102).