Master of Science / Department of Mathematics / Andrew G. Bennett / In recent years motivation research has emerged as an area of interest within educational research. Increasing student achievement is not the only aspect of education being studied. Improving the quality of the learning experience and investigating how this improvement affects student achievement is an area of growing interest. Additional investigations also consider what aspects of instruction and teaching affect the quality of the learning experience. Many mathematical organizations have voiced a concern that post-secondary mathematics courses should adapt curriculum and instruction based on results of this research. The current study is an investigation into the effectiveness of suggestions made by these organizations, as well as the effect instructional adaptations have on student attitude and achievement.

The improvement of secondary-level students’ attitude to science is encouraged in the New Zealand curriculum document. It is also noteworthy that employers in scientific institutions and commercial organisations place great value on group or teamwork. However, it is apparent that some teachers have reservations about cooperative group work, particularly problems with classroom management. There has been significant research done on cooperative learning and student attitudes, but investigations about the use of cooperative group work to improve the science-related attitudes of our younger secondary school students are rare. This thesis focuses on the effect of cooperative group work and assessment on the attitudes of 312 science students in four rural secondary schools in New Zealand. The cooperative groups were established using a simplified protocol which was non intrusive on curriculum delivery to help ensure wide acceptance by secondary science teachers. The students’ attitudes were assessed quantitatively using the Test of Science Related Attitudes (TOSRA) while qualitative results were obtained through teacher and student interviews along with researcher observations.. The data were collected before and after three terms of cooperative learning in a variety of activities including practical classes, fieldwork, and written assignments and class tests. This part of the study revealed that group work and group assessment enhanced students’ attitudes to science, with both the teachers and students seeing real value in such activities, especially the formative group testing opportunities. The study also confirmed the reliability and validity of the TOSRA in New Zealand schools for the first time. / The TOSRA was also used to make comparisons of the science-related attitudes of several subgroups within the study population. Such comparisons included the effects of gender, grade level and band along with consideration of the roles of the teacher and classroom environment on student attitudes. Finally, a teacher friendly set of guidelines for the implementation of cooperative group work and assessment in the classroom has been prepared as result of this ongoing research.

Individuals' feelings, beliefs and attitudes toward people with disabilities have an influence on their willingness to engage in the social relationship with people with disabilities such as forming friendship at the workplace or romantic relationship with people with disabilities. This study explored the attitudes of students toward people with disabilities and their attitudes in the social context of dating, marriage, and work. The study is a cross-sectional survey design. The sample in this study was drawn using convenient sampling. The survey was administered to 575 undergraduate and graduate students at Southern Illinois University Carbondale (SIUC). The researcher examined the influence of students' gender, their previous contact with people with disabilities, cultural factor, and disability status on the general attitudes and students' attitudes toward people with disabilities in various social contexts. The study also assessed the relationship between students' attitudes toward people with disabilities and attitudes toward people with disabilities in various social contexts. Two scales were used to assess students' attitudes in this study which include the Scale of Attitudes toward Disabled Persons (SADP-R) and Disability Social Relations Generalized Disability Scale (DSRGDS). The first instrument measured students' general disability attitude and the second instrument measured students' attitude in the social domain of dating, marriage, and work. In terms of general disability attitude, female students expressed more positive attitudes than male students. International students were found to have more positive attitudes than American students. Students who had previous contact with people with disabilities and students who indicated having a disability had more favorable attitudes toward people with disabilities in general. Based on the multiple regression analysis results, gender, cultural factor (citizenship), disability status, and prior contact (intensity of the relationship) were found to be significant predictors of students' general attitudes toward persons with disability at SIUC. Results of the study provided information about the attitudes of students in various social contexts. Female students had more favorable attitudes toward people with disabilities than male students in the context of dating, marriage, and work. Results showed international students had more favorable attitudes in various social contexts than American students. Those who have indicated having previous contact with people with disabilities and having a disability were likely to have more positive attitudes in the social context than those with no prior contact and without a disability. Hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to determine predictors that significantly affect the attitudes of SIUC students in various social contexts. The results revealed that gender, citizenship, disability status, prior contact with people with disabilities (intensity of the relationship with people with disabilities), and their self-reported general disability attitudes (the SADP-R scores) were predictors that significantly improved the ability to predict the DSRGDS scores. Correlation analyses result indicated a significant relationship between SIUC students' attitudes toward people with disabilities in general and attitudes in various social contexts. Understanding the relative importance of disability attitude in various social contexts will add to the existing body of research and literature specific to disability attitude in rehabilitation counseling and may assist in the development of appropriate training to improve disability awareness and education.

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The relationships between building condition and student achievement, student behavior, and student attitude were investigated by reviewing research. A synthesis of research studies from 1998 through 2008 was completed. A matrix was replicated from Lemasters’ 1997 study that identified the researchers used in each study. The matrix presented each author and the areas each author researched. The first task was to determine if a substantial amount of research was available from the time period between 1998 through 2008. Current research through journals, research reports, briefs, and theses and dissertations supported this. The main research question examined if current relationships existed between building conditions and student achievement, student behavior, and student attitude by synthesizing several studies from 1998 through 2008. The results of the studies within this time period presented many new phenomena and also either substantiated or refuted findings in the previous syntheses conducted by Weinstein (1979), McGuffey (1982), and Lemasters (1997). Over one hundred pieces of literature were reviewed that supported a preponderance of evidence, which broadened the field of focus to include certain variables that affect student achievement, student behavior, and student attitude. There were 54 studies to be synthesized and included some independent variables presented in Lemasters’ study, as well as the variables of lighting, acoustics, school age, density, climate conditions, design features, teachers, attendance, attitudes, miscellaneous studies, and building conditions. There were 35 dissertations reviewed that involved the dependent and independent variables mentioned above. Student academics, student perceptions and attitudes, and behavioral statistics were analyzed within each study. Each analysis of studies included the author of the study, the title of the document, the purpose of the study, the sample population used in the study, the statistical methodology used, the independent and dependent variables identified, and the findings and conclusions. The studies were formatted in a matrix and identified the number of studies in which the dependent variables of student achievement, student attitude, and student behavior. The majority of all 54 studies involving building conditions and independent variables, from 1998 through 2008, had a direct influence on student achievement, student behavior, and student attitude. Newer, well maintained, schools had a positive influence on the dependent variables, while older, less cared for, and non-modernized schools had an adverse relationship to student achievement, student behavior, and student attitude. The results of the previous three syntheses in 1979, 1982, and 1997, along with the results of the findings in this study supported and indicated that building condition was directly related to student achievement, student behavior, and student attitude. / Ph. D.

Historically, school aged students from diverse backgrounds have experienced detrimental effects as a result of school psychologists who fail to consider cultural differences when providing services. The demographics of students in K- 12 schools have increasingly become more diverse which only exacerbates the need for multiculturally competent school psychologists. Research has identified graduate programs as an area to intervene and ensure future school psychologists are receiving training necessary for developing multicultural competence. Within the literature, graduate student attitude towards multiculturalism and program climate have been identified as barriers to developing multicultural competence in graduate students. Therefore, the purpose of the following study was to investigate how these two variables impact school psychology students perceived levels of multicultural competence. Participants (n= 111) included school psychology graduate students from NASP- approved programs. Participants completed the School Psychology Multicultural Competency Scale (SPMCS), Multicultural Environmental Inventory- Revised (MEI-R), and the Munroe Multicultural Attitude Scale Questionnaire (MASQUE) which was used to examine perceived levels of multicultural competence, program climate, and graduate student attitude towards multiculturalism, respectively. Results indicated a significant relationship between program climate, graduate student attitude toward multiculturalism, and perceived levels of multicultural competence. Graduate students who reported positive program climate and positive attitudes towards multiculturalism also reported higher perceived levels of multicultural competence. These findings have implications for school psychology graduate programs as it relates to graduate student training, faculty training, program evaluation, and recruitment and retention of faculty and students.

Previous studies by professionals in education have investigated the elements that are typical of the successful online student. Studies of the elements required for academic success online from the students' point of view, however, are infrequent. This study investigated student perceptions of those elements necessary for success in online study; whether students believed differences exist between those elements necessary for success in online study and those necessary for success in traditional classes; and what factors students identify as barriers to successful completion of online courses. A comparison was made of the viewpoints of students who had and who had not previously completed an online course. The student-identified elements were contrasted to those elements identified by professionals appearing in the literature. This study used a variety of methods. A two-part process of inventory questionnaires and interviews gathered data from twenty volunteers, half with and half without successful online experience. A thematic analysis of the data revealed that time management skills, self-discipline, the ability to work independently, motivation, commitment and adequate technology and equipment were the elements that students believed contributed to success in online study. Those elements were believed to be more important for success online than for success in traditional classes. Two elements were identified by 100% of the students with online experience as critical for success: the ability to work independently and time management skills. Three students (30%) without online experience indicated the ability to work independently was necessary and seven (70%) stated that time management skills were necessary. Characteristics of successful students gleaned from the literature produced by professionals in education gave both similar and dissimilar portraits. Barriers to successful online study identified by students were the loss of interaction with instructors and classmates, a lack of time management skills, and problems with e-mailed questions. It is the conclusion of this research that greater consideration should be granted by educational professionals to student perceptions of the elements necessary to successfully complete online studies.

The major purposes of this study were to provide validation data for the Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI) with a large Australian sample and examine the relationship of teacher-student interpersonal behaviour with student sex, cultural background and student outcomes. The sample from lower secondary science classrooms in Australia consisted of 3,215 students in 158 classes in 43 schools in two Australian states, namely Tasmania and Western Australia. The sample was chosen carefully so as to be representative, though only co-educational classes were used in order to permit an unconfounded test of sex differences. Students and teachers completed a questionnaire which included the QT1, an attitude to class scale based on the Test of Science Related Attitudes (TOSRA), a cognitive achievement measure based on items from the Test of Enquiry Skills (TOES) and a five-item cultural background survey. The study follows the current trend in the field of classroom environment research of combining qualitative and quantitative methods. The qualitative component of the study involved about 100 interviews. This study is unique in that it provides a very large database of teacher-student interaction data in science classrooms and provides new insights into the relationships between teacher-student interpersonal behaviour with student sex, cultural background and student outcomes. The study found that there were associations between teacher student interpersonal behaviour and student sex and that there were differences in the way that students from different cultural backgrounds perceived their learning environments. Student achievement and student attitude to class were also found to be positively associated with teacher-student interpersonal behaviour. As a practical outcome of this study, the 48-item QT1 has been shown to be useful to Australian lower secondary science ++ / teachers as an initiator of self reflection on teaching practice.

This thesis describes a one-year study of 120 fifth grade students whose teachers participated in a program entitled Project SMILE (Science and Mathematics Integrated with Literary Experiences). The purpose of the study was to investigate the extent to which the classroom implementation of Project SMILE positively influenced the classroom environment and student attitudes toward reading, writing and mathematics. This was accomplished by, first, facilitating a series of five professional development workshops with the teachers and, subsequently, asking these teachers to use the strategies with their students. Because Project CRISS (CReating Independence through Student-owned Strategies), the foundation of SMILE, had already proven to be successful nationwide for secondary students, this study focused on elementary (K-5) school students and their teachers. My evaluation of this unique program, that integrates children's literature and mathematics, focused on student attitudes and the nature of the classroom learning environment. My research represents one of the relatively few studies that have employed learning environment dimensions with students in the elementary school mathematics classroom as criteria of effectiveness in the evaluation of educational innovations. The My Class Inventory (MCI) and an adaptation of the 1988 NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) Attitude Survey were administered to a sample of 120 Grade 5 students as measures of students' perceptions of the classroom learning environment and their attitudes. Qualitative data were composed of student and teacher interviews, classroom observations and work samples. Methodologically, my study supports previous research that successfully combined qualitative and quantitative methods of data collection. / The learning environment and attitude scales exhibited satisfactory internal consistency reliability and discriminant validity; additionally, the actual form of most learning environment scales was capable of differentiating between the perceptions of students in different classrooms. The implementation of SMILE was found to have a positive impact on the students and classes of the teachers who participated in the inservice program. In particular, students' attitudes to mathematics and reading improved, and there was congruence between students' actual and preferred classroom environment on the scales of satisfaction and difficulty. Therefore, others can implement SMILE with confidence. As well, prior research was replicated in that students' satisfaction was greater in classrooms with a more positive learning environment, especially in terms of student cohesiveness.

The purpose of this action research study was to observe the influence of teaching mathematical problem solving strategies on students’ attitudes in middle school. The goal was to teach five problem solving strategies: Drawing Pictures, Making a Chart or Table, Looking for a Pattern, Working Backwards, and Guess and Check, and have students reflect upon the process. I believed that my students would use these problem solving strategies as supportive tools for solving mathematical word problems. A relationship from the Mathematics Attitudes survey scores on students’ attitudes towards problem solving in mathematics was found. Students took the Mathematics Attitudes survey before and after the study was conducted. In-class observations of the students applying problem solving strategies and students’ response journals were made. Students had small group interviews after the research study was conducted. Therefore, I concluded that with the relationship between the Mathematics Attitudes survey scores and journal responses that teaching the problem solving strategies to middle school students was an influential tool for improving students’ mathematics attitude.