The purpose of this multiple-case study was to investigate the importance of the use of a support system in which the math text is read to the students through the use of a text to speech engine (audio support system) embedded in a cognitive tutoring system. In addition this study investigated whether the use of an audio support system had any effect on the word problem solving performance of three struggling readers when they were presented with a seven-step process to solve word problems. Pre-assessments were carried out to determine whether the participants had reading difficulties in the areas of decoding, fluency and/or comprehension that may affect their math word problem solving performance. The results indicated that the embedded devices did facilitate the word problem solving skills of these struggling readers. The reading barriers were reduced or removed and the program allowed for individualization. The results also indicated that the participants utilized these embedded devices differently; however, there was not a significant difference comparatively in how these devices were used. Whether the students were successful in learning from this cognitive tutoring system is inconclusive. This program is written in such a way that the students are expected to solve the word problems correctly because the embedded devices made it almost impossible for the students to fail. Although the cognitive tutoring system appears to be an effective approach for providing ongoing practice and individualization, it appears that students would benefit from direct instruction from the classroom teacher who can help the students review their work, identify their own mistakes, make the necessary corrections, and bring about a more thorough understanding of the problem solving process.

Many prior studies conducted in museums have focused primarily on exhibits as the main objects for learning. Less progress has been made in studying signage as another meaning-making tool in museums. The present study was designed to understand the role of signage in family learning by answering the following research questions, How does signage about exhibit content or interaction strategies affect parents and childrens learning and their engagement? and What is the role of parent prior knowledge on parents and childrens learning and their engagement? To address these questions, 45 parent-child dyads with children aged six to seven years were recruited to engage with two exhibits about cars. Fifteen parent-child dyads were assigned to each of three conditions, created by two different types of signage: 1) Content and interaction signage condition, 2) Content signage condition, and 3) No signage condition. In each condition, eight parents with low knowledge in the car domain and seven parents with high knowledge were recruited. Findings showed that parents and children learned and engaged differently across the three signage conditions. Both children and parents in the conditions with signage learned more than children and parents in the no signage condition. By using information from signage, parents in the two signage conditions were able to identify the content of the exhibit more quickly and to shape appropriate educational messages in their conversations with children. Findings also showed that parents with high knowledge were more likely to have the exhibit-focused engagement, which was often oriented to their own interpretation and not always beneficial for childrens learning. However, by showing that parent-child dyads in the content and interaction signage condition were most likely to operate and observe the exhibit appropriately and most likely to describe evidence and make appropriate inferences, this study suggested that the interaction signage can be a way to support parents with high knowledge. This study suggested that signage is not only a tool for communicating about the learning opportunities in the exhibit but it can be also a tool for mediating the usage of the exhibit.

The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of questioning during a read-aloud and questioning after a read-aloud, using science-related informational tradebooks with first-and second-graders. Three thematically-related tradebooks were used, each portraying a scientist involved in authentic investigation. Students in two first/second grade classrooms were engaged in three read-aloud sessions. One group was engaged in discussion of text ideas during reading, while the other group engaged in discussion only at the conclusion of the read-alouds. After-story posttest results revealed minimal differences in scores between groups. However, students in the during-reading group demonstrated statistically significant differences in their pretest/posttest gain scores. This suggests that the cumulative effect of exposing students to multiple texts focusing on the work scientists do did affect students building a robust representation of text ideas. Furthermore, these results suggest that pairing thematically-related texts with discussion during the read-aloud, cuing students to important ideas and encouraging text-to-text connections as they are encountered, was more beneficial than engaging students in similar discussion after reading.

The purpose of this study is to contribute to the existing literature on the foreign language learning of students with LLDs by conducting a comprehensive investigation of the performance of three students in middle school foreign language classes in a suburban school district in southwestern Pennsylvania. More specifically, this study documents (a) student writing over time, (b) student and teacher perceptions, (c) classroom interactions, and (d) the instructional practices that teachers use to accommodate these three middle school students with (LLDs) during whole group class instruction. As previous research has demonstrated a relationship between classroom interactions and student performance in a foreign language, this study also examines how the writing performance of three students with LLDs relates to the classroom interactions and instructional practices that their teachers implement to accommodate students with LLDs. To conduct this study, several data sources were collected and analyzed including student writing assessments over time, student and teacher interviews, and classroom observations. To link these multiple sources of data that were collected, an Activity Theory was applied as an analytical framework. This sociocultural theoretical framework was applied to this study because it provides a method to explain the multiple aspects of a childs environment that contribute to his/her learning. By referring to Activity Theory, relationships between classroom components such as classroom interactions, student and teacher perceptions, mediational tools, and student performance were established and explained. Although this study examines a small group of three students and its specificity prevents generalizing to all students with LLDs who participate in foreign language programs, the findings and implications contribute to a grounded conceptual understanding of students with LLDs and their abilities and challenges in learning a foreign language. By contributing to the conceptual understanding of the foreign language learning of students with LLDs, the findings of this study assist school districts in making decisions regarding enrollment of students with LLDs in foreign language programs, designing curricula and instructional accommodations for students with LLDs, developing professional development for foreign language teachers, and informing the public on the issue of students with LLDs and foreign language learning.

In the current era of educational reform and accountability, co-teaching has emerged as a popular and widely implemented service delivery model for students with special needs. The intent of this inquiry was to examine the roles and responsibilities assumed by the elementary special educator during the practice of co-teaching. Using naturalistic inquiry, 11 pairs of co-teachers in 32 elementary language arts and mathematics classes were observed and the activities of the special educator were documented at 5-minute intervals. Results indicated that the special educator assumed several different roles while co-teaching. These included team teaching, providing individual or small group support, and lead teaching. Overall, the special educator spent the majority of his or her time as the lead instructor of a heterogeneous group of students formed by the special and general educators dividing the class into groups. The special educator then either taught his or her group within the general education classroom or in a separate classroom, frequently the special education classroom. The roles and responsibilities assumed by the special educator also differed by subject matter.

In this study I present data from a six-month qualitative study that examined how three English Language Arts teachers' beliefs about teaching, learning, and their students interacted with specific school, curricular, and educational policies to shape their instructional practice. Data drew from extensive interviews, classroom observations, and teaching artifacts. Data analysis focused on alignments and misalignments between teachers expressed beliefs and their observed teaching practices and on the negotiations that occurred when the teachers were faced with misalignments between their beliefs and the educational contexts in which they worked. Findings from this research study demonstrate that when faced with a tension between their beliefs and school and policy pressures, the three teachers drew upon several different negotiation strategies including isolating themselves from the larger school context or becoming more actively involved in the school context. These negotiation strategies employed were dependent on the level of agency the teacher felt in her particular school context as well as the type of administrative leadership in her school context. However, misalignments between the teachers' beliefs and instructional practices could not be entirely attributed to school or national educational policies, such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB); rather, the teachers' limited critical reflection on their instructional practice and the broad, vague nature of many of the teachers core beliefs about teaching and learning accounted for many of the misalignments found between their beliefs and instructional practices. These findings suggest that teachers need strongly-guided opportunities to develop and critically reflect on both their beliefs and instructional practices and to strategize how to make productive negotiations between these beliefs, practices, and external pressures (such as NCLB) if they are to maintain positive professional relationships and adapt their instructional practices in the face of new policies and "best practices.

The purpose of this study was to quantitatively examine the impact of third-party support service providers on the quality of science information available to deaf students in regular science classrooms. Three different videotapes that were developed by NASA for high school science classrooms were selected for the study, allowing for different concepts and vocabulary to be examined. The focus was on the accuracy of translation as measured by the number of key science words included in the transcripts (captions) or videos (interpreted). Data were collected via transcripts completed by CART (computer assisted real-time captionists) or through videos of sign language interpreters. All participants were required to listen to and translate these NASA educational videos with no prior experience with this information so as not to influence their delivery. CART personnel using captions were found to be significantly more accurate in the delivery of science words as compared to the sign language interpreters in this study.

This study contributes to the existing literature in teacher education on the relationship between what are commonly referred to as beliefs with the theoretical framework of cultural models (DAndrade, 1992; Gee, 1996, 1999, 2004; Holland, 1975, 1999; Holland and Quinn, 1987; Shore, 1996), offering a richer understanding of how beliefs and cultural models impact teaching candidates abilities to learn to teach. More specifically, this study examines how teacher candidates beliefs and cultural models about schooling, teaching, and learning affect their capacity to learn and grow as educators through a teacher education program and how they develop professional identities as they are confronted with concepts and ideas that may not align with their cultural models about teaching. Additionally, this study examines how candidates negotiate the tensions that exist when beliefs and cultural models are confronted or challenged within the contexts of the teacher education program. In conducting this study, attitude and belief inventories were taken across time and context, teaching and course artifacts were analyzed, teaching tapes were evaluated, and university and school site influences unpacked. Together these data strands helped to determine the ways in which cultural models were constructed and revised through a teacher education program. This study triangulated these various data strands to compile a holistic view of the relevance, influence, and significance of the different aspects of a programs components in influencing a candidates beliefs, cultural models, and emergent professional identities. Critical discourse analysis was the theoretical framework used for this study, using cultural models and beliefs as the unit of analysis, allowing for the analysis of competing ideologies regarding teaching and learning and connecting to the issues examined in this study, particularly how identity shifts and is constructed through participation in socially situated communities and practices. CDA provided a framework for exploring how the different experiences and aspects of the program contributed to the development of identity through competing and expanding cultural models. The findings of this study recommend ways teacher education programs can more directly and effectively impact candidate learning to create optimum experiences, necessary to stimulate and use the tensions between beliefs, practices, and contexts.

This descriptive case study examined the nature of talk a literacy coach used during coaching conversations to guide collaborative inquiry to support teachers needs. The study provided a rich description of the type of talk used in the coachs conversations with three kindergarten classroom teachers by analyzing the content of conversation, levels of support provided by the coach to scaffold teacher understanding about instructional practices, and the types of questions posed by the coach to prompt teacher thinking about instructional practices. Analysis of data revealed that the literacy coach was intentional in the approaches she used to differentiate her conversations with teachers. Moreover, the coach exemplified the characteristics that enabled her to hold effective coaching conversations: content knowledge, effective listening abilities, and skillful questioning techniques. Specific factors that influenced the nature of the coaching conversations included the relationships between the coach and teachers, teachers experiences and their knowledge of literacy instruction and assessment, and the teachers willingness to be coached. Analysis showed that both the content and scaffolding support differed in the coaching conversations between the literacy coach and teachers. Furthermore, student data provided the basis for the job-embedded professional development or coaching. It served as the impetus for the conversations held between the coach and teachers.

The current study examined the validation and alignment of the PASA-Science by determining whether the alternate science assessment anchors linked to the regular education science anchors; whether the PASA-Science assessment items are science; whether the PASA-Science assessment items linked to the alternate science eligible content, and what PASA-Science assessment content was considered important by parents and teachers. Special education and science education university faculty determined all but one alternate science assessment anchor linked to the regular science assessment anchors. Special education and science education teachers determined that the PASA-Science assessment items are indeed science and linked to the alternate science eligible content. Finally, parents and teachers indicated the most important science content assessed in the PASA-Science involved safety and independence.