The purpose of this dissertation is to create a psychometric instrument, the Attorney Communication Skills Instrument (ASCI), which measures the communication strengths and weaknesses exhibited by attorneys during their client interviews. / The Inventory is composed of three tests, the ACSI-Climate, ACSI-Listening, and ACSI-Nonverbal, which were assessed in three empirical surveys. The first assessment involved a mail survey to 500 randomly selected members of The Florida Bar Association. The second assessment involved the distribution of 333 copies of each test to attorneys attending the 1993 Florida Bar Association's Annual Convention. The third survey was mailed to 3900 randomly selected members of The America Bar Association's Law Practice Management Section. / The results indicate a highly defensible psychometric inventory. The results evidence a strong set of homogeneous, unidimensional items which appear to reliably and validly measure the communication constructs of establishing a supportive climate, listening, and nonverbal communication skills. The resulting items may now be used to test the presence of certain communication skills and how effectively attorneys use those skills when interviewing and interacting with their clientele. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-04, Section: A, page: 0800. / Major Professor: Marilyn Young. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1994.

The purpose of the current study is to provide evidence of the possible repercussions of different teacher certification pathways on student achievement that can inform policy in order to improve the instruction students receive. In the current context of accountability, and with a teacher's effectiveness often defined by his or her students' test scores, policies should be based on empirical evidence, and not just political or ideological perspectives (Cochran-Smith et al., 2012). I used a hierarchical linear model (HLM) to investigate the relationship between teachers' pathway to certification, experience, and effectiveness for fourth through eighth grade English Language Arts (ELA) and math teachers who received a certification to teach in the state of Florida and taught at only one school in the 2016-17 school year. All data were retrieved from FDOE. The study included 4,967 math teachers and 3,567 ELA teachers. Effectiveness was based on a Value-added model (VAM) score. The ELA and math VAM scores used in this analysis include the same predictor variables as those used by the Florida Department of Education (FDOE). However, this analysis used a one-year aggregate score, while FDOE provides a suggested VAM category based on a three-year aggregate score and standard errors. The one-year aggregate was best suited for the current analysis because it standardizes the amount of years included for beginning and experienced teachers (the three-year aggregate can include anywhere from one to three years of teaching), and it allows teachers who have switched schools within the past three years to be included in the model. The analysis controlled for experience, the percentage of courses taught infield, and the number of general knowledge Florida Teacher Certification Exam (FTCE) and subject specific FTCE tests taken before passing at the teacher level, and school grades at the school level. No significant differences in teacher effectiveness in math were found for the different pathways. In ELA, however, there was a significant interaction between certification pathway and experience. Completers of District Professional Development Certification Programs (PDCP) were found to be more effective in ELA in their first three years of teaching than completers of the traditional Initial Teacher Preparation (ITP) programs or Educator Preparation Institute (EPI) programs. Findings provide evidence that allowing for alternative pathways to certification increases the number of effective teachers entering the workforce. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Educational Psychology and Learning Systems in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester 2018. / October 26, 2018. / certification, education, effectiveness, pathway, preparation, teacher / Includes bibliographical references. / Alysia D. Roehrig, Professor Directing Dissertation; Elizabeth M. Jakubowski, University Representative; Jeannine E. Turner, Committee Member; Qian Zhang, Committee Member.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of an investigator designed sight-reading method (SRM) on the sight-reading skills of college music majors. The SRM concentrated on two factors relating to sight-reading: rhythmic accuracy and scanning. / Freshmen and sophomore instrumental music majors (N = 29) were given a pretest using the Watkins-Farnum Performance Scale (1954) during the first week of Fall Semester 1994. Subjects were divided into two groups, experimental (n = 14, treatment with SRM) and control (n = 15, no treatment). The treatments consisted of weekly fifteen-minute lessons using the SRM for a period of twelve weeks. / A posttest was given following the treatment period. Results of the pretest and posttest were compared in order to answer the following questions: Was there a significant difference in the pretest and posttest scores of the experimental group? Was there a significant difference in the pretest and posttest scores of the control group? Was there a significant difference in the experimental group's score change and the control group's score change? A two-tailed "t" test was utilized to analyze the data. It was concluded that both the experimental group and control group exhibited significant increases in sight-reading scores. However, there was no significant difference between the experimental group's increase and the control group's increase. It was concluded from these findings that the SRM did not produce any more of an increase in sight-reading scores than did the traditional activities of a music major. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-04, Section: A, page: 1283. / Major Professor: James Croft. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

Thirty-eight seven year old children were tested to evaluate the effects of response format and stimulus expectancy (based on subject's label of the test item) on picture and word identification test scores and response latencies. Results of the study indicated that there are significant differences between the picture and word identification tasks. Response latencies were longer and identification scores were lower for the picture identification task. Fifty-nine percent of the test items that were labeled incorrectly were also identified incorrectly. Furthermore, the label given to the test items, by the individual, was found to have a significant effect on the overall test results. Results of this study indicate that the problems encountered when utilizing picture-identification tests stem from the pictures that comprise the test and not the picture test format itself. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 49-12, Section: A, page: 3696. / Major Professor: William H. Haas. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1988.

The purpose of this study is to examine whether individual's difference in A-E style, one of the cognitive style constructs, is a factor influencing how individuals perform on the task of solving insight problems, how individuals apply past experience to solving similar problems, and the extent to how much set effect or fixation that individuals will encounter. The A-E (assimilator-explorer) style suggests that individuals with a tendency to follow rules and search for past experience when solving problems can be labeled as assimilators; while individuals with a tendency to use the trial-and-error method can be labeled as explorers. Subjects were 87 undergraduate students and were classified as either assimilators or explorers according to their scores on the A-E Inventory, an instrument used to measure the A-E style construct. Then three insight problem-solving tests were administrated to all subjects. All the problems used in the three tests share the surface similarities, features which make two problems look like a similar one, but only the problems in the first two tests also share the structural similarities, features which allow two problems to be solved by the same strategies. It was predicted that: (a) the explorers would do better than the assimilators on test 1 because the explorers were more prone to think from different perspectives and thus more likely to come up with correct answers for novel problems; (b) the assimilators would do better than the explorers on test 2 because the assimilators were more capable of applying past experience to similar situations; while the explorers were less capable of doing so; and (c) the explorers would perform better than the assimilator on test 3 because the assimilator were more likely to rely on past experience thus prone to encounter set effects and fixation which degraded problem solving performance. / However, the findings showed that the performance of two groups was comparable and, therefore, none of the three hypotheses were supported. Possible reasons for why the hypotheses were not supported are discussed. Recommendations for future research are also presented. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-08, Section: A, page: 3054. / Major Professor: Walter Wager. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

The purpose of this study was to develop a profile of the student who is most likely to fail one or more CLAST communication subtests two or more times. The study was limited in scope to an examination of the Chipola Junior College students who, through March of 1989, had failed one or more of the CLAST communication subtests two or more times, a total of eighteen students. / Information gathered included (1) demographics of the Chipola Junior College district; (2) the name, sex, race, high school, and high school graduation date for each student who failed one or more CLAST communication subtests two or more times; (3) high school transcript information on each of these students; (4) whether the student was in a writing enhancement program, college preparatory class, or Teacher Advisement Program; and (5) the college transcript information on each student. / The results of the study indicate that the Chipola Junior College student who is most likely to fail one or more CLAST communication subtests two or more times is a white male from a small town or rural high school within the five-county Chipola Junior College district. He took more terminal track than college track courses in high school, was not in a writing enhancement program in high school, did not take college preparatory courses in high school, did not participate in a Teacher Advisement Program in high school, had an overall high school GPA of 2.62, had a high school English GPA of 1.91, had an ACT English Usage Standard Score of 9.63 and had an ACT Composite Standard Score of 9.3. / At Chipola Junior College he took college preparatory writing, but not college preparatory reading. He made a C in English 1101 and a D in English 1102, but he did not take any additional writing courses. His overall Chipola GPA was 2.26, and he failed the reading and essay subtests the first time he took the CLAST. He passed the reading subtest on his second attempt, but not the essay. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 51-07, Section: A, page: 2253. / Major Professor: Dwight L. Burton. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1990.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 36-04, Section: A, page: 2111. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1975.

As primeiras evidências arqueológicas a respeito do povoamento do litoral brasileiro durante a pré-história são a expansão de povos associados a sítios arqueológicos denominados sambaquis. Tais sítios ocorrem na costa brasileira, da Bahia até o Rio Grande do Sul, entre 6500 e 800 anos. Um dos modelos de dispersão inicial desses povos propõe que esta teria ocorrido em dois grandes eixos que se expandiram a partir da divisa entre São Paulo e Paraná. Há cerca de mil anos, ocorre o aparecimento de cerâmica em alguns sítios litorâneos, relacionada a grupos provenientes do interior do país. Modelos baseados na análise da morfologia craniana desses grupos indicam que em Santa Catarina, no seu litoral central, teria ocorrido a interação de dois grupos biológicos distintos antes da chegada da cerâmica, ao passo que no litoral norte de Santa Catarina, a chegada da cerâmica parece coincidir com a chegada de uma nova população. O objetivo da tese é testar as seguintes hipóteses através da análise morfológica craniana: I) os povos dos sambaquis representam, em termos regionais, pelo menos dois grupos com morfologias cranianas distintas, cuja dispersão coincide com dois bolsões regionais, um ao norte e outro ao sul de São Paulo; II) no litoral central de Santa Catarina existiram duas populações pré-cerâmicas com morfologia distinta, e com o aparecimento da cerâmica, ao menos no norte de Santa Catarina, surgiu uma nova morfologia craniana. Os resultados obtidos apontam para uma diferenciação de dois grupos principais, cuja clivagem se dá na região do Paraná. Entretanto, a hipótese de que há dois grupos morfologicamente distintos em Santa Catarina antes da chegada da cerâmica não encontra apoio nos resultados obtidos. Em relação aos grupos ceramistas catarinenses, parece haver uma relativa diferenciação entre estes e as séries sem cerâmica dessa região. / The first archaeological evidence for the prehistoric colonization of the Brazilian coast is the expansion of groups associated with the archaeological sites of “sambaqui" (shellmound). These sites are distributed across the Brazilian coast, from Bahia to Rio Grande do Sul, and date to between 6500 and 800 yBP. An initial dispersion of these groups was proposed from the boundary between São Paulo and Paraná. Pottery is found in some shelmound around 1,000 years ago and is associated to inland groups. Models based on cranial morphology suggest that on the central coast of Santa Catarina, there are two distinct groups before the occurrence of pottery, while on the north coast of Santa Catarina, the advent of pottery seems to coincide with the arrival of a new population. The objective of this study is to test the following hypothesis through cranial metrical and non-metrical analysis: I)the dispersion of shellmound populations in two distinct waves, will be inferred by differences in cranial morphology; II)on the central coast of Santa Catarina two distinct populations were present before the occurrence of pottery, and the arrival of ceramist populations brought a new cranial morphology at least in north Santa Catarina. Our results point to a differentiation of two main groups with a boundary in Paraná region. However, we did not find reasonable evidence for the presence of different cranial morphologies in Santa Catarina before the occurrence of pottery. Nonetheless, the occurrence of pottery coincides with the emergence of two relatively different cranial morphologies in Santa Catarina.

This research study was concerned with how a testwiseness training program impacts on students' test taking behaviors and reading comprehension subtest scores on the Nelson-Denny Reading Test. The testwiseness training used test taking strategies independent of the test constructor (Millman et al., 1965) and a practice test, the Test of Adult Basic Education (TABE). / The study sample was comprised of 104 subjects of diverse backgrounds who were enrolled in a community college educational setting. The testwiseness training program was the independent variable and the dependent variables were the subjects' test taking behaviors and posttest scores on the Nelson-Denny Reading Comprehension and Rate subtest. / The control group was not given any formal test taking instruction. However, they were provided a practice-test experience identical to the experimental group. / Analysis of covariance was used to determine whether the mean scores of the experimental and control groups differed significantly on the posttest and to control for possible differences in the subjects' posttest scores by using the pretest and the Otis-Lennon School Ability Test as covariates. Keeping the alpha level at.05, the analysis of covariance did not demonstrate a statistically significant effect on the posttest scores of the experimental group, F (1,100) = 3.96. / Three methods were used to facilitate the measurement of the subjects' test taking behaviors: time used at the midpoint of the pre- and posttests, identification of guessed responses, and a survey about their test taking activities. / The experimental group demonstrated improvement in each of the fourteen test taking behaviors addressed in the study whereas the control group exhibited improvement on ten of the behaviors. The improvement in the experimental group's test taking behaviors varied from five to 59 percent on the posttest and the control group's ranged from two to 22 percent. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-10, Section: A, page: 3587. / Major Professor: Richard H. Kraft. / Thesis (Ed.D.)--The Florida State University, 1991.

The concern of this study was the inadequacy of present methods for collecting and analyzing sociometric data. The purposes were to develop a flexible system for collecting and analyzing sociometric data which would produce computer-printed reports in such form that the sociometric information could be effectively utilized by both classroom teachers and researchers; to demonstrate that the system was flexible enough to meet a variety of user needs; to demonstrate that the computer program could be installed, with minimum changes, at computer facilities with certain differing characteristics; and to demonstrate that teachers could use the computer-printed reports to gain specific information.