Thesis (M.A.)--University of Delaware, 2007. / Principal faculty advisor: Ann K. Wagner, Winterthur Program in Early American Culture. Includes bibliographical references.

Background: Growing numbers of patients with cancer are surviving following treatment with pelvic radiotherapy. Eighty per cent will experience acute gastrointestinal (GI) toxicity during treatment and 50% will subsequently have a change in their bowel habit which will affect their quality of life. The main project in this thesis aims to determine whether delivery of a gastrointestinal bundle of care will decrease GI acute toxicity and late effects of pelvic chemoradiotherapy. Additional work in the thesis evaluated the newer technique of Volumetric Modulated Arc Therapy (VMAT) which delivers decreased dose to the organs at risk on planning scans. We aimed to determine outcomes of this technique in terms of patient-reported acute toxicity and late effects. There is no internationally accepted patient reported outcome measure to capture this toxicity data and this issue was addressed using Rasch analysis in a third project. Methods: A randomised controlled trial was performed. Patients who were scheduled to undergo potentially curative chemoradiotherapy for cervix and bladder cancers were recruited and randomised. The treatment group received dietetic input and if they developed lower GI symptoms they underwent investigations and treatment for bile acid malabsorption, small bowel bacterial overgrowth and lactose intolerance. The control group received standard care. Patients who were to undergo VMAT to treat gynaecological malignancy completed patient-reported outcomes at baseline, end of treatment and one year. The rates of patient-reported toxicity were compared with those of a historical cohort and were correlated with the volume of small bowel which was irradiated. Thirdly the technique of Rasch analysis was used to evaluate the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events derived patient reported outcome to measure pelvic toxicity of gynaecological cancer treatments. Results: It was feasible and acceptable to deliver a GI care bundle to patients undergoing chemotherapy and pelvic radiotherapy. All patients' data were available for analysis for the primary outcome and 29 patients' data were available at the 1 year time point. GI toxicity at 6 weeks was predicted by the trial group, suggesting that the intervention benefited the patients in terms of GI toxicity at 6 weeks. It is not yet clear whether this benefit is maintained at the 1 year time point. The frequencies of acute and late GI toxicity reported by patients undergoing VMAT were similar to that of a historical cohort who received conformal therapy. There was not a strong association between the volume of small bowel which was irradiated and the toxicity which was reported suggesting that other factors are involved in the development of toxicity. Rasch analysis of the pelvic symptom questionnaire demonstrated the main issue to be response dependency. When this was accounted for by grouping items into sub-tests the questionnaire could be made to be unidimensional and showed high reliability in a symptomatic population. Conclusion: GI intervention holds promise as a measure to reduce the acute toxicity and late effects of pelvic radiotherapy. Although newer radiotherapy techniques appear to decrease the dose delivered to the small bowel this does not translate to a reduction in patient-reported toxicity. The measurement of toxicity is complex and patient-reported outcome measures should be developed with techniques such as Rasch analysis to ensure meaningful data is available to guide further developments to reduce GI toxicity secondary to pelvic radiotherapy.

Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-01T22:32:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 tese_9959_Dissertação final Ernani Vassoler Rodrigues - PPGEnFis.pdf: 62915546 bytes, checksum: 1714468f967a8604bf76956a294b8916 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-06-03 / Neste trabalho, relatamos a elaboração, aplicação e avaliação de um produto educacional para um grupo de alunos (N=28) da 3ª série do ensino médio de uma escola da rede privada de ensino, na cidade de Vitória, Espírito Santo, bem como a avaliação do ganho dos alunos na aprendizagem dos conceitos propostos e da viabilidade do produto educacional. As atividades do produto contemplam conceitos básicos em Acústica e propõem a utilização de smartphones, placa controladora Arduino e a construção de instrumentos musicais e transdutores rudimentares. O trabalho é orientado na perspectiva de DiSessa e colaboradores para a a teoria da Mudança Conceitual. DiSessa sugere que conceitos mudam por uma constante revisão, adequação ou rejeição de elementos no todo do sistema do conhecimento. A coordenação desses fragmentos permite a construção de uma rede de inferências que é utilizada para prever ou explicar fenômenos físicos. Os processos de avaliação utilizados foram: análise das habilidades via modelo de Rasch e do senso de autoeficácia em testes objetivos; mapas mentais; atividades com redes de associações; entrevista grupo focal. Os resultados indicam ocorrência de uma evolução (no sentido de mudança) dos conceitos pelo ganho de habilidade dos estudantes no teste objetivo, pelo aumento no indício de autoeficácia dos alunos ao responder as demandas desses testes, pela apropriação de termos inerentes à linguagem científica e pela mudança na topologia e nas frequências das conexões cientificamente aceitas nas redes de associações. Os relatos dos alunos indicaram que as atividades propostas se mostraram um produto educacional viável, com destaque para os aspectos de curiosidade e interesse das atividades, mesmo diante de algumas dificuldades apresentadas.

Linear logistic models with relaxed assumptions (LLRA) as introduced by Fischer (1974) are a flexible tool for the measurement of change for dichotomous or polytomous responses. As opposed to the Rasch model, assumptions on dimensionality of items, their mutual dependencies and the distribution of the latent trait in the population of subjects are relaxed. Conditional maximum likelihood estimation allows for inference about treatment, covariate or trend effect parameters without taking the subjects' latent trait values into account. In this paper we will show how LLRAs based on the LLTM, LRSM and LPCM can be used to answer various questions about the measurement of change and how they can be fitted in R using the eRm package. A number of small didactic examples is provided that can easily be used as templates for real data sets. All datafiles used in this paper are available from http://eRm.R-Forge.R-project.org/.

Class of 2013 Abstract / Specific Aims: To assess the effect of a pharmacist-led education group on psychiatric patient-reported attitudes, knowledge, and confidence in self-managing medications. The reliability and validity of the questionnaire given to patients who attended a pharmacist-led medication education group was also evaluated. Methods: A retrospective pre-post questionnaire was distributed patients and collected variables collected including patient self-reported medication knowledge and attitudes, demographics, previous psychiatric hospitalizations, length of group attended, and outpatient pharmacist relationships. Knowledge and attitude items were measured on a 4-point Likert-type scale with response options ranging from “agree” to “disagree.” Rasch analysis was conducted to ensure all items measured the same construct and the probability of the person responding to an item was not dependent on other assessment items. Rasch measurement includes several diagnostic indices that allow item-specific and person-specific examinations of data reliability and measurement fit. In addition, the Rasch technique makes it possible to evaluate the contribution of each person’s measures on each item. A z-test was used to evaluate for instrument content gaps and a dependent t-test was performed to measure for statistical differences before and after the intervention. Main Results: Sixty patients responded to the Medication Attitude and Knowledge Questionnaire over a 16-week period. Gaps identified were not statistically significant (p=0.1064 and 0.5305) indicating that content validity is comprehensive. On a group level, no significant differences were identified in patient answers before and after the intervention (p=0.2162, p=0.8292). When each patient was analyzed separately, only one patient out of 60 showed a significant difference in answers after the intervention. Results also demonstrated that after attending a group, 100% of patients indicated they intended to adhere to their medication regimen post-discharge. Conclusion: This evaluation was unique because patient attitudes were explored before and after medication education group attendance. Medication Attitude and Knowledge items were valid and reliable.

Magister Educationis - MEd / In this study I explored grade 9 learners’ perceptions after the implementation of “intentional teaching”. The research question is: “What are the perceptions of grade 9 learners of the teaching they experience in mathematics?” Conceptually the study is situated in “learners’ perceptions” of teaching with “intentional teaching” as the context. The design used was a survey where learners had to complete a questionnaire, adapted from the Students Evaluating Accomplished Teaching-Mathematics (SEAT-M) instrument. Learners from two grade 9 classes, taught by me, participated. Rasch analysis was used to analyse the data. It was found that learners ranked “the teacher’s ability to encourage them to place a high value on mathematics” the highest. “The teacher’s ability to challenge learners to think through and solve problems, either by themselves or together as a group” was ranked the lowest. It is recommended that all role-players and teachers develop skills of authentic pedagogical dialogue to promote dynamic learning in mathematics classrooms. http://

The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument to measure the views of educational researchers across the dimensions that comprise research paradigms. The development of the instrument, entitled the Research Paradigm Inventory (RPI), was conducted in the hope of providing a mechanism for future research that will enable the examination of prospective links between the ontological, epistemological and methodological orientations of researchers and graduate students who will serve as future inquirers in the field of education. During its development and validation, various aspects of the RPI were examined in accordance with the validity framework outlined by Samuel Messick (1989). According to Messick (1989), the validity of measure interpretation and corresponding action can be examined in terms of content, substantive, structural, generalizability, external and consequential forms of evidence. During this study, the content aspect of validity was addressed through the creation of instrument specifications and the development of items that were mapped to those specifications. In addition, the content aspect of validity was addressed by selecting items that were reviewed by experts, pilot tested, field tested and exhibited high technical quality. The substantive aspect of validity was addressed through an analysis of item rating scale functioning, person fit, item difficulty hierarchies and relationships among instrument scale measures. The structural aspect of validity was addressed through a confirmation of the instrument's dimensionality. The generalizability aspect of validity was addressed through an analysis of person reliability, the precision of item/person parameter estimates and item calibration invariance. The development activities and analyses described above resulted in the creation of six subscales measuring: (1) Realism in Research, (2) Research Objectivism, (3) Quantitative Methodology, (4) Relativism in Research, (5) Research Interpretivism and (6) Qualitative Methodology. Given the evidence collected, these scales appear to provide reasonably reliable and defensible estimates of individuals' attitudes toward various research practices and beliefs, and should be appropriate for future research studies exploring educational research paradigms. / Ph. D.

Zugl.: Karlsruhe, Univ., Diss., 2007

Thesis advisor: Larry H. Ludlow / In the field of teacher education, it is well documented that the most influential part is the clinical component, often referred to as student teaching or the practicum experience (Cochran-Smith, 1991; Darling-Hammond, 2014; Evertson, 1990). During the practicum, there exists a triad of three individuals: a university supervisor, a K-12 classroom teacher (often referred to as the cooperating teacher), and the teacher candidate. While much research has been conducted on teacher candidates and the cooperating teacher role, there has been a lack of research on the role of the university supervisor. The lack of measurement instruments to assess the quality of the university supervisor puts teacher education programs at a disadvantage, both from a programmatic improvement standpoint, as well as meeting accreditation requirements. This dissertation provides an answer to this issue, creating a new instrument that assesses the quality of the university supervisor, from the perspective of teacher candidates. This instrument is constructed under the Rasch-Guttman Scenario (RGS) framework, as most clearly defined by Ludlow, Baez-Cruz, et al. (2020). The RGS framework derives its influence from the works of George Rasch (1960/80) as well as Louis Guttman’s facet theory (Guttman 1954; Guttman 1957). The result is a new scale, entitled the University Supervisor Quality (USQ) scale, consisting of nine scenario items. All nine items include four facets that comprise the construct of university supervisor quality: resourcefulness, constructive feedback, mentorship, and collaboration. The results of this dissertation suggest that the utilization of the RGS framework is successful for developing a scale about university supervisor quality. In addition, the use of cognitive interviews provide valuable insight into the development of scales using the RGS framework. This scale has the potential for use in teacher education programs for evaluating the quality of their supervisors, and to utilize as evidence for accreditation purposes. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement and Evaluation.

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