No description available.

This study investigated the interactional moves of Japanese English as a Foreign Language (EFL) learners and, in particular, how differently they modify their oral output depending on their interlocutor---either a peer or a native speaker (NS). By employing retrospective stimulated recall methodology, this study also explored the participants' feelings and perceptions which arguably determined their interaction patterns during a communicative task. / Participants were eight Japanese first-year university students and four NSs of English. Conversations of eight learner-NS dyads and four learner-learner dyads (six hours in total) were audiotaped, transcribed, and then statistically analyzed. Learners were interviewed two days after the task completion. / Results revealed that learners interacted in significantly different ways depending on whom they interacted with. Specifically, their interlocutor (peer or NS) proved to be a more influential variable than the type of feedback (i.e., elicitation or reformulation) they received. Qualitative analysis of the interview data provides comprehensive explanations for the findings.

No description available.

No description available.

Universities in South Africa as yet do not provide multilingual education. For many students this means they have to use their second or additional language for the Discourse of the academic world. This dissertation investigates one Honours / Masters module offered by a lecturer in the theology department. It describes, in the form of a case study, how the lecturer uses the oracy skills (listening and speaking) to scaffold the students into the appropriate use of Academic Discourse. This lecturer uses the practicality of fieldwork, the intensity of emotional work and the flexibility of the spoken discourse to guide students into the reflexivity and criticality of the Academic Discourse. The data is discussed in terms of discourse analysis, genre theory and academic literacy, together with current understanding of feedback during process writing. My focus is on oral feedback. The results of this study indicate that the lecturer, and the students who took his module, felt satisfied that a greater depth of theological and linguistic criticality and reflexivity had been reached. The focus of this dissertation was on the students' uptake of the oral feedback given by the lecturer. It was the process that was explored rather than the final written product. Further research could investigate how much the students' writing improves as a result of intervention such as this. The lecturer's pedagogy maximised the language skills used in the Preacher (hortatory) Discourse that have something in common with the skills required in Academic (expository) Discourse. This dissertation concludes that these skills should be maintained while also developing the other skills required for Academic Discourse. These skills include the ability to be detached and uninvolved. However, if this detachment is to be achieved, the student needs first to be fully involved in the process so that transformation and appropriation can take place. This comes about through critical reflection - the hallmark of Academic Discourse. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2007.

This research programme employed a combination of qualitative and quantitative methodologies to address the question of the effects of cooperative learning on kindergarten children's perspective-taking ability and prosocial behaviour. / In an observational study, the kindergarten classes of two teachers who had the reputation for using small-group cooperative activities with their students were observed for one month at the beginning of the school year. Very few cooperative activities were employed during the observation period, making it impossible to determine the effects of engaging in such activities. An analysis of the qualitative observations elucidated techniques that these teachers used to create a smoothly functioning class. / A quasi-experimental study was conducted involving kindergarten students working for six weeks in either an individualistic or cooperative programme. Both qualitative and quantitative observations indicate that students who engaged in cooperative learning activities displayed a higher number of instances of prosocial behaviour than those in the individualistic programme. The results revealed that participation in the cooperative programme positively correlated with increases in affective perspective taking.

There has been a considerable amount of research on the diffusion of innovations, beginning with the rural sociologist. The rural sociologist's work was followed by extensive research in the field of education, but the focus of the studies was generally on the school as an adopting unit rather than on the individual teacher. This study was designed to attempt to identify those teacher characteristics and other factors which are significantly related to the acceptance or rejection of innovation in history instruction.Three techniques were selected and designated innovational approaches in history instruction: (1) use of role playing, (2) use of simulation games, and (3) use of the conceptual method. This study was designed to provide information relative to the use of the three designated factors of innovation and their relationship to selected teacher characteristics. The teacher characteristics studied were teacher age, cosmopolitism, years of teaching experience, college degree held, and level of teacher dogmatism as measured by Rokeach's Dogmatism Scale. One additional factor was studied which was the relationship of school size to the acceptance or rejection of the three designated types of innovation.

In Images of Leadership (1991), Bolman and Deal identified four “frames” that school administrators use when making decisions: structural, symbolic, human resource and political. They discovered that the latter two frames, which focus on relationships, partnerships, and communication, were most frequently identified as predicting a school administrator’s success “as both leader and manager”(12). Strikingly, Bolman and Deal found that little emphasis and professional time are afforded to help school administrators learn about these critical frames. While there is ample logistical advice about language use, there is scant research that examines it from a theatrical perspective. The purpose of this autoethnographic study was to examine my literate life as a school administrator through the use of multimodal interaction analysis (Norris, 2004) and dramaturgical metaphors (Goffman, 1959). The study attempted to address the following research questions: (1.) How does my role as a school administrator dramaturgically define the roles I inhabit as I engage in everyday literacy practices in school? and (2.) How do I use language –both verbal and nonverbal language --to negotiate those roles with my various audiences, specifically with teachers and staff, other leaders, students and parents? The participant was myself –in my former role as an assistant principal at a suburban elementary school. Data collection and analysis began in May 2012 and concluded at the end of August 2012. Data for the study was collected through a journal based on questions using dramaturgical terms and a collection of the author’s/participant’s videotaped “performances” with various audiences. The dramaturgical journal was analyzed through Critical Discourse Analysis and deductive coding, while the videotapes were analyzed using Multimodal Interaction Analysis. Poetry was also used throughout the study to include the author’s voice, to recontextualize the experience, and to challenge the traditional prose form. The study revealed the intersection of language and leadership in the life of a school administrator. It also showed how multimodal interaction analysis and dramaturgical metaphors can help educational leaders understand their own literate lives through new lenses and how they can grow from that understanding.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationship between the expressed attitudes of surrogate parents toward family life and child-rearing practices and the dominative and socially integrative behaviors of the surrogate parents as they interacted with preschool children.The population of this study consisted of fifteen (15) randomly selected undergraduate students enrolled in the class, "Methods and Materials in the Kindergarten," EDEL 440g, spring quarter, 1975. The population hereafter is identified as the "participants." The Elementary Education Department of Teachers College, Ball State University, Muncie, Indiana, for several years has maintained a classroom for three-, four-, and five-year old children as a laboratory for child study, The participants, in conjunction with the kindergarten education class, interacted with preschool aged children on a regular basis in the classroom maintained for that purpose, ''The Living Learning Laboratory for Young Children," and hereafter identified as the LLL. All students enrolled in the kindergarten education class (50) were administered the Parent Attitude Research Instrument (PARI), and 15 were randomly selected to be members of the data p.opulation.The PARI consisted of 23 attitudinal scales and was selected to measure the expressed attitudes of the participants in three major areas: Authoritarian-Control; Hostility-Rejection; and Democratic Practices. Participants recorded their responses to 115 items on a Likert type instrument with each item having four categories of agreement-disagreement. Separate answer sheets were computer scored by assigning scores fourthrough-one. This process yielded a numerical score for each participant in three attitudinal areas.The Behavior Observation Blank, developed and utilized by H. H. Anderson in a series of longitudinal studies, was selected to measure the participants' dominative and socially integrative behaviors. Trained observers functioning in excess of a 70% level of agreement and working in pairs analyzed and recorded the dominative and integrative behavior of each of the 15 participants. Participants were observed in 20-minute nonconsecutive periods. The first 100 recorded behaviors of each participant were placed in dominative and integrative behavior categories, each behavior totaled separately, and then the integrative subtotal was divided by the dominative subtotal. The subsequent answer was identified as the I/D ratio.The Pearson product moment coefficient of correlation was computed to test the relationship between each of the three attitudes and the I/D ratio. The relationship between each attitude and the I/D ratio was riot statistically significant at the .05 level off confidence and the null hypotheses were accepted.It would appear from the results of this study that the expressed attitudes of the data population toward family life and child-rearing practices did not correlate at a level of statistical significance with the observed dominative and socially integrative behaviors. Therefore, on the basis of the findings of this study, it would not be possible to predict the behavior of the data population on the basis of PARI scores.In this study all I/D ratios in all cases exceeded 1.0 with a mean I/D ratio of 2.47. The latter figure can be translated into behavioral terms: for each dominative behavior there were approximately two-and-a-half integrative behaviors. The figure, 2.47, stands in contrast to previous studies in which the dominative behaviors exceeded integrative behaviors. To summarize, the PARI was not effective in this study in predicting the dominative and integrative behavior, and the null hypotheses were accepted.Previous attempts to develop an attitude measure that will predict the classroom behavior of teachers have been unsuccessful. Perhaps the time has arrived for educators to rethink the problem and develop pre-service teacher preparation programs that combine participatory and theoretical experiences with children accompanied by supervisory comments at a level relevant to the recipient.

The purpose of this study was to establish and describe the validity and reliability of an instrument based on a model of teaching behaviors conceived as magnetic lines of force.Content validity was established by reviewing the literature and identifying possible teaching behaviors which researchers felt contributed to increased pupil learning. These behaviors were presented to a panel of judges from faculty in the Teachers College, Ball State University, to ascertain behaviors which they felt increase the likelihood pupils would increase comprehension in reading. After the panel had made their suggestions, the list of behaviors was revised and used with two middle school classes at the Burris Laboratory School. Pupils were asked to identify the behaviors which they felt were associated with their increased learning. A final list of twenty items became the revised instrument for use in the study.A group of practicing teachers critiqued the list of twenty behaviors. This group was directed to identify how strongly they agreed with the placement of each of the behaviors under one of the four scales postulated.Construct validity was established by discussing the research supporting each of the scales, subscales and behaviors listed in the instrument.Each of the twenty items was judged as valid by a minimum of 70 percent of the selected panel members and the twenty items included was recognized as a valid example of the constructs identified with the exception of those items assumed to reflect firmness.It was possible to relate each of the twenty items in the instrument to research studies accepted by editors and authors in the field despite inherent weaknesses in definitions, experimental designs, and theoretical orientation. In this sense, the instrument has acceptable construct validity.The instrument was then used to gather data on a group of teacher trainees assigned to a laboratory school at Ball State University. After each teacher trainee had taught a short unit, the pupils taught filled out the instrument which had been devised.Reliability measures consisted of computing coefficient alpha for various major scales and subscales of the instrument. Computations were run by the Ball State University Center using the reliability program from the SPSS Statistical Package for the Social Sciences DEC system –10.The coefficient alpha reliability indexes of .90 for the total scale, .86 for the cognitive scale, and .78 for the affective scale were judged acceptable for use in additional research studies in the field. The coefficient alpha reliability index of .82 for the clarity subscale, .81 for the flexibility subscale, and .78 for the warmth subscale were also judged acceptable for use in additional reliability index of .68 for the firmness subscale suggest questionable reliability for all but the most general research purposes.Recommendations were formulated to encourage further development of the model and refinement of the instrument (particularly the "firmness" subscale).