Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1981. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 134-135). Also available in print.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2004. / Supervisor: Lowell J. Bethel. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

<p> Effective internal controls to protect government information technology (IT) investments are essential as annual deficits exceed $700 billion dollars, government shutdowns, and sequestrations are threatened. The purpose of this qualitative historical single-case study was to explore, analyze, and describe feedback collected by the United States Government Accountability Office as IT governance and control requirements were rationalized. Prior to publishing an updated Standard for Internal Control in the Federal Government, the federal register requested participants respond to a series of questions directed toward the 2013 Draft Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government. Four major themes emerged from within the 43 correspondents: (a) challenges exist with financial constraints and control documentation requirements, (b) the central oversight body must ensure that federal, state, county, departments, and agencies have shared understanding and objectives, (c) federal regulatory reform includes requirements identifying internal controls for both the Federal Government 2014 General Accountability Offices Standards and the 2013 Committee of Sponsoring Organization Standards, and (d) the implications of adapting a Standards for Internal Control publication to align with the Federal Government rather than adopting the publication. An efficient and effective approach to identify, integrate, and balance regulatory guidelines, stakeholders' concerns, and technical requirements for government leadership, contractors, and non-federal entity recommendations is proposed for assessment and development. This technique could provide government leadership a method to assess factors affecting or influencing proposed and/or existing regulatory control. Additionally, a conceptual historical narrative construct and a crosswalk between COSO and Federal Standards for Internal Control are included.</p>

<p> This qualitative study uses children&rsquo;s writing to explore the divide between a conception of Science as a humanistic discipline reliant on creativity, ingenuity and out of the box thinking and a persistent public perception of science and scientists as rigid and methodical. Artifacts reviewed were 506 scripts written during 2014 and 2016 by 5th graders participating in an out-of classroom, mentor supported, free-choice 10-week arts and literacy initiative. 47% (237) of these scripts were found to contain content relating to Science, Scientists, Science Education and the Nature of Science. These 237 scripts were coded for themes; characteristics of named scientist characters were tracked and analyzed. Findings included NOS understandings being expressed by representation of Science and Engineering Practices; Ingenuity being primarily linked to Engineering tasks; common portrayals of science as magical or scientists as villains; and a persistence in negative stereotypes of scientists, including a lack of gender equity amongst the named scientist characters. Findings suggest that representations of scientists in popular culture highly influence the portrayals of scientists constructed by the students. Recommendations to teachers include encouraging explicit consideration of big-picture NOS concepts such as ethics during elementary school and encouraging the replacement of documentary or educational shows with more engaging fictional media.</p><p>

This research studied changes in ten middle school students' scientific conceptions during interaction with a computer microworld designed adaptively for exploring phases of the moon. Following direct observations of lunar phenomena, five students participated in the development of the computer microworld. The researcher implemented software design requests from the students based on their real world and microworld experience. Five different students used the final revised microworld and provided additional feedback. All sessions were transcribed and analyzed. Evidence from this case study suggests that this constructionist activity was a good catalyst for inducing conceptual change in learners—especially the five who had considerable ownership in the software development. Implications for classroom teaching strategies and suggestions for future research are offered.

This study is concerned with the attitudes and perceptions of the current elementary school library media centers in Taiwan, Republic of China. Elementary school students, principals, library staff, and prospective elementary school teachers in teacher colleges were interviewed and surveyed. Dissatisfaction about the physical layout, the collections, the user/circulation service, and the personnel of elementary school libraries was reported by the four targeted groups. Responses to this investigator's field studies and surveys were compared with the recommendations suggested in the Chinese standards of practice: Elementary School Facilities Standards (Ministry of Education, Taiwan, 1981), and the most updated American standards: Information Power: Guidelines for School Library Media Programs (AASL, 1988). Literature that studied cases in Taiwan, Canada, Great Britain, and the United States was reviewed to provide reference and support for this study. The results of the study indicate that, in most cases, elementary classroom teachers in Taiwan are assigned the responsibility for library operation, in addition to their major teaching responsibility, despite the fact that few had any library training prior to this assignment. The finding suggests that Taiwan has not yet concluded that the library and librarians are an important adjunct of the learning process. That prospective teachers should receive adequate library training in their preparation program, as other surveys had suggested, was also affirmed by this study. Library training for prospective teachers can help them not only to possess the necessary background to help their future students but also to help themselves, as prospective teachers, become better (and more capable) library users. The study recommends the revision, updating, and reinforcement of the Chinese elementary school library standards. Programs should be established to train and certify people who are interested in working at elementary school libraries. A technical service center should be established so that direct contacts with users by library staff can be their primary concern.

This dissertation will document the development of a computerized audio-visual system that uses interactive instructional modules to inform and educate United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) employees in the fuzzy areas of work force diversity (i.e., soft areas that offer multiple views and options in dealing with a situation). For example, in text, video and auditory modes, the system presents several alternative techniques for dealing with a variety of stereotypes that are generated in the work environment. The user learns a range of techniques that may be applied successfully. This includes the established as well as the more innovative approaches, such as establishing an agency-wide calendar that marks off all religious holidays or the development of discussion groups. The system's operation will be observed in terms of three design features: (1) flexibility to select auditory and/or visual interface, (2) flexibility to select topics and techniques, and (3) appropriateness of the technology for the subject matter. Also, users will be interviewed a few weeks after interacting with the system to assess the degree to which the users' initial requests for instruction (i.e., choices to access particular topics) were satisfied.

To address 21st century environmental and economic issues, the practice of agricultural science has become more interdisciplinary, collaborative, and reliant on wider community connections. These changes have fueled demands to improve public agricultural literacy and strengthen the agricultural science workforce, increasing expectations for high-quality undergraduate teaching and public scholarship by agricultural science faculty. Unfortunately, faculty often lack professional preparation for this aspect of their work (Bagdonis and Dodd, 2010; Blickenstaff, Wolf, Falk, and Foltz, 2015). In other STEM fields, K-12 outreach by graduate students has gained popularity as a way to improve scientists' skills and outlook toward public scholarship. This thesis explored learning and professional identity development for participants in a K-12 outreach program for graduate students in the College of Agricultural Sciences at Virginia Tech. The theoretical framework of Kolb's (1984) experiential learning cycle and Lave and Wenger's (1991) situated learning theory were employed to explore these processes. Findings revealed that the Graduate Extension Scholars saw themselves as educators and public scholars both before and after participating in the program. Motivations for participation were related to identified gaps in their professional preparation. Participants believed that their knowledge, skill, and professional identity around teaching and public scholarship had been strengthened by their participation in the program. The program's constructivist experiential theoretical framework, community of practice, and extensive support structures were identified by participants as contributors to these outcomes. This study informs program evaluation and has broader implications for preparing future agricultural science faculty. / Master of Science in Life Sciences

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 338-353).

There have been many claims as to the benefits of personal digital assistants (PDA) as tools in education, but little objective data concerning device usage patterns. The aim of this project was to overcome this deficiency by objectively investigating the use of mobile devices in teaching and learning, specifically in the process of formative assessment. A bespoke PDA application was written, which recorded in detail when PDA applications were being used and overcame a number of technical barriers in securing this information for later analysis. This data, along with information on student access to the University Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and final student examination results, formed the main objective datasets recovered in the project. Novel data analysis tools and methodologies were developed to mine the extensive, heterogeneous datasets obtained, and efficiently characterise how students used PDA applications. Finally, data analysis was performed on four cohorts of students: i) fourteen joint honours students in electronics and software engineering, where researchers learned that even for technologically adept students, simple issues (such as failure to replace batteries and resultant data loss) could significantly restrict useful research outputs; ii) five summer school students using quiz applications and question sets, where the first significant evidence of the educational benefits of using mobile devices was obtained; iii) students who failed to interact in any way with what they saw as obsolete devices, emphasising the importance of keeping student PDAs current with modern technology; iv) a full scale trial involving a 1st year cohort of BTechEd students, where the lessons learned in phases 1-3 were applied. In the trials, technical and human-computer interface barriers to securing useful data were encountered and overcome, and guidelines for future good practice, of significant use to practitioners in the research area, determined. Patterns and modes of their PDA use - considering a range of factors including overall duration of use, use as a function of time of day or time of week, and the complexity of use (e.g. frequency of application switching within a usage session) - were obtained and correlated with exam results and access to the University VLE. A number of usage characteristics of successful and unsuccessful learners were extracted from this data. In addition to these results, novel student behaviour was observed, with volunteer students actively avoiding returning data despite stated interest in the project, lowered technical barriers, significant inducements, and guarantees of data anonymity. We suggest a number of social factors, including on the nature of peer group formation in student cohorts and the socially disruptive nature of new technology, as contributing to this effect and identify the area as worthy of future investigation.