This descriptive study investigates what happens when an English Language Arts teacher implements multimodal instruction in his senior-level World Literature course. The study is grounded in theories of transmediation and New Literacy Studies and examines the following research questions: 1.) What does multimodal instruction enable students to do and how does it shape and support students engagement and interpretation with literary texts? 2.) What are the cognitive affordances of students participation in multimodal tasks? The research site was a private all male high school a few miles outside a medium-sized city in the Northeast. One twelfth-grade World Literature classroom was observed for a nine-week period as students read two literary texts and composed three multimodal representations in response to each text. Data included field notes, videotaped classroom sessions, student-produced multimodal representations, student reaction forms, students rationales for representation and debriefing sessions with the teacher. Findings of the study reveal there are multiple cognitive and learning strategies that take effect as a result of multimodal instruction and that this type of instruction can be a valuable method for teaching literary interpretation.

This study investigates the role of digital cognitive technologies in supporting students mathematical thinking while engaging with instructional tasks. Specifically, the study sought to better understand how the use of technology is related to the cognitive demand of tasks. Data were collected in four secondary mathematics classrooms via classroom observations, collection of student work, and post-lesson teacher interviews. Opportunities for high level thinking by students were evaluated using the Mathematical Tasks Framework (Stein, Smith, Henningsen, & Silver, 2009). Technology use was evaluated with respect to whether it served to amplify students thinking by making students work more efficient or accurate without changing the nature of the task, or whether it was used to reorganize students thinking by supporting a shift to something different or beyond what the technology was doing for them (Pea, 1985). Results indicate that the mere inclusion of technology in a task was not related to the cognitive demand during any of the three phases of implementation, as technology was used in both high and low level tasks. However, results suggested an association between the level of cognitive demand of a task and the way that technology was used. In general, when technology was used as an amplifier, it was not related to the thinking requirements of the task, while the use of technology as a reorganizer was central to the thinking requirements of the task. The decline of tasks set up at high level often corresponded to technology being used as an amplifier and reorganizer during set up, but as only an amplifier during implementation. Overall, the role of technology in the decline or maintenance of high level thinking during implementation seems to depend more on teachers classroom practice than any particular issues related to the use of technology. How prepared students were to engage in high level thinking tasks in general, how teachers anticipated students needs while using technology to engage with the task, and how teachers responded to student questions and difficulties were influential factors in the maintenance or decline of these tasks.

This descriptive study investigates the ways that students in an Ancient History class make meaning of past events by relating them to their present lives and experiences. The study is grounded in theories of historical thinking, particularly focusing on the concepts of presentism and its usefulness for examining classroom teaching. The following two research questions guided the study: 1) How do students make connections between the past and present? 2) When given the opportunity in writing and discussion, in what ways are students engaging with distant events in the past? The research site was a middle school in a medium-sized city located in the Midwest. Data was collected in the Fall of 2010 over the course of eight weeks during two units of study (Ancient Civilizations Review and Ancient Greece). The following data sources were collected: five audio-recorded classroom discussions and other instruction, twelve interviews with students and student assignments and journal entries. The analysis revealed two categories of the students thinking about the relevance of past events: (1) conflating the past with the present and the challenge of presentism, and (2) translating and adapting the past to the present. The data showed that some students viewed history from a presentist perspective that did not distinguish sufficiently between time periods. However, many students also applied lessons from the past to their own lives by associating historical ideas and themes to their individual experiences, which was especially evident in the discussions. Students tended to make sense of history by assigning meaning to the concepts they were studying in a personal manner and by finding similarities between the past and present.

Children with special school healthcare needs (CSSHN) are entering early education environments with increasing frequency. Advances in medical technology and interest in providing early education in least restrictive environments are cited as the reasons for the phenomenon. Most often, full-time nurses are not available in such settings to care for the needs of children with medical complexities. And yet, case law dictates that the delivery of nursing services is indeed the responsibility of the local education agency and, furthermore, that such nursing services do not need to be related to a special education program in order to be provided (Diaz, 2000). This case law, coupled with a current overall shortage of school nurses, results in a certain conundrum for early educators (Barrett, 2000). Literature is reviewed about the attitudes of teachers and other personnel, the delegation of nursing duties to unlicensed assistive personnel (UAP), and the needs of school entities and staff members in serving this population of children. Taken together, the studies indicate that the body of knowledge is growing about how to best serve children with such needs and that further study is needed to keep pace with medical advances that enable increasing numbers of children to access least restrictive environments. Via this research, policies and procedures were gathered from early intervention service providers across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania revealing the extent to which agencies have formalized planning for supports and services to CSSHN. The text from the policies and procedures was coded and analyzed to reveal the elements of service delivery to Children with Special School Health Needs (CSSHN) receiving early childhood special education (ECSE). The study concludes with a suggested framework for practice in serving CSSHN.

Thesis (M.A.)--West Virginia University, 1999. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains v, 36 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 26-30).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, May, 2007. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, Aug., 2007. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2004. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 66-69). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Illinois State University, 1970. / Title from title page screen, viewed Sept. 2, 2004. Dissertation Committee: Elmer A. Lemke, Clayton F. Thomas (co-chairs), Francis R. Brown. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-81) and abstract. Also available in print.