This study, one of four cohort studies, was designed to determine the relationship between student performance and leadership practices as perceived by principals and selected site-based decision making committee members of middle schools in the Region 5 Education Service Center area of Texas. Using the Leadership Practices Inventory developed by Kouzes and Posner, the study compared the perceptions of middle school principals and selected observers regarding leadership practices. These leadership ratings were compared to student achievement for each campus in the study. In addition, the study examined if selected demographic variables impact the perception of leaders and observers in regard to leadership. For schools in this particular study, there was no direct correlation between perceived leadership practices of the principals and student achievement as measured by the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (TAKS) tests. This was true of total LPI scores and also of each individual practice measured by the LPI. The data revealed that principals in the study rated themselves higher as a group than their observers rated them on the LPI. This trend was consistent for the total instrument and for each leadership practice. There were also similarities, however, between the two groups. The practice Model the Way had the highest mean for both groups, while Inspire a Shared Vision and Enable Others to Act were rated lower by both groups of respondents. A researcher-developed questionnaire was used to gather demographic information about each respondent. Years of experience, age group, gender, and ethnicity were all studied to determine if they had any effect on responses. The results indicate that there were some differences when principals and observers were studied separately, but these differences were minimized when the two groups were combined. Of particular interest was the fact that younger principals and less experienced principals rated themselves more conservatively than their older and more experienced colleagues. Younger observers and less experienced observers, however, had a propensity to rate their leader high when compared to older observers and more experienced observers. Neither ethnicity nor gender had an impact on leader ratings.

In order to close the achievement gaps between traditionally underserved groups and their peers, institutions of higher education must make developmental education a priority by implementing college-wide strategies inside and outside the classroom to help underprepared students succeed. Since community colleges offer educational opportunities to anyone seeking to further their education, and hence serve the majority of underprepared college students, it is difficult to overstate the importance of assessing and strengthening the quality of educational practices for developmental students at these institutions. Assessing the extent to which underprepared college students are actively engaged in meaningful educational experiences, and the relationship between engagement and student outcomes, will help college leaders and policymakers implement research proven engagement strategies to help a population of students that has been historically underserved attain academic success and reap the societal and economic benefits of higher education. Relationships between engagement and three critical outcomes for underprepared college students were investigated: developmental sequence completion, subsequent college-level course performance, and attainment. Similar to studies conducted on the four-year sector, the present study found similar effects of engagement on developmental students attending community colleges. While generally having a positive effect on outcomes, engagement has been proven to have compensatory effects for students which have been typically underserved including minority, nontraditional age, and first-generation students. The present study found that the impact of engagement varies according to student characteristics and level of developmental course need and subject area. Further, the study suggests that certain types of engagement can have greater influence on students which characteristically are least likely to earn a college degree. / text

Abstract When traditional lecture methods prove ineffective, some professors turn to alternative teaching styles. In particular, a flipped or inverted classroom, where students watch conceptual videos before coming to class and use class time for application and fine tuning of these concepts has become popular in recent years. However, little consensus exists on the efficacy of these strategies. The purpose of this study is to determine whether a flipped classroom structure implemented in a medical school course successfully improved student performance. To do so, I analyzed exam data from the University of Nebraska Medical Center before and after implementation of the alternate method in a course, and compared to another class taken in the same semester that did not undergo any change in teaching style. In addition, I investigated differences among particular student academic and demographic groups that may benefit from learning in an inverted classroom environment. My findings suggest that the flipped classroom strategy is advantageous to student learning and can significantly increase the performance of particular divisions of students such as those with lower-than-average MCAT scores and students who performed highly in their first year of medical school.

nÃo hà / A eficiÃncia, a eficÃcia escolar e os fatores que as determinam sÃo pautas de debates entre especialistas e se constituem como elementos desafiadores para o desenvolvimento de modelos avaliativos que possibilitem estimar a contribuiÃÃo da atividade docente com base no desempenho de alunos. Desse modo, a tese intitulada: As contribuiÃÃes da aÃÃo docente para os indicadores de desempenho dos alunos nos anos iniciais do Ensino Fundamental, no municÃpio de Jaguaruana-CE avaliou a influÃncia da aÃÃo docente, em seu contexto de atuaÃÃo, sobre o desempenho discente mediante a percepÃÃo do professor em comparaÃÃo com os indicadores em LÃngua Portuguesa e MatemÃtica do Ensino Fundamental em escolas pÃblicas municipais de Jaguaruana- CE. A pesquisa foi realizada com os alunos do 2 ao 5 ano do Ensino Fundamental e seus respectivos professores, numa abordagem quantiqualitativa apoiada na pesquisa do tipo documental e de campo em que a discussÃo esteve fundamentada nas contribuiÃÃes de Stufflebeam (1971), tendo como referÃncia o modelo CIPP - Contexto, Insumos, Processos e Produto e os documentos oficiais que regimentam as diretrizes de formaÃÃo de professores (BRASIL, 2002, 2015), (INEP, 2014). Para estimar a contribuiÃÃo do professor com base no desempenho de alunos, recorreu-se ao uso de questionÃrio destinado aos docentes com a finalidade de avaliar o contexto, os insumos e o processo em que o ensino acontece, bem como observou-se o produto obtido pelo desempenho dos alunos obtido nos exames de diagnÃstico inicial (PAIC, 2015) e final em LÃngua Portuguesa e MatemÃtica. A validade de conteÃdo dos instrumentos foi determinada pelos coeficientes de precisÃo, erro padrÃo da medida e verificaÃÃo do efeito de halo, assim como o comportamento da distribuiÃÃo dos escores nos testes em LÃngua Portuguesa e MatemÃtica. Corroborando com o estudo ainda, evidenciou-se a distribuiÃÃo das variÃveis contidas no questionÃrio aplicado aos docentes por meio da estatÃstica descritiva e verificouse as relaÃÃes significativas entre as variÃveis de ambos instrumentos aplicados, para a realizaÃÃo da tÃcnica da RegressÃo Linear MÃltipla. O estudo indicou que as contribuiÃÃes do professor para o desempenho dos alunos em LÃngua Portuguesa e MatemÃtica podem ser explicadas pela assiduidade do aluno, as prÃticas pedagÃgicas em que o aluno interage, experimentando diferentes aÃÃes como coleta de informaÃÃes, recorte, manipulaÃÃo, exploraÃÃo de conteÃdos para resolver problemas, bem como quanto for menor a necessidade de aperfeiÃoamento profissional sobre Metodologias de avaliaÃÃo do aluno e de formaÃÃo especÃfica para trabalhar com estudantes com deficiÃncia ou necessidades especiais. Em matemÃtica acrescentou-se, ainda, a participaÃÃo do professor em cursos e metodologias de 9 ensino em sua Ãrea de atuaÃÃo, bem como se sugere um modelo analÃtico que incorpora as variÃveis do perfil do professor, de seu contexto de atuaÃÃo e do desempenho dos alunos para investigar as contribuiÃÃes do docente no desempenho discente.

Este trabalho trata sobre InferÃncia de Componentes Principais no desempenho discente dos alunos do primeiro ano de um curso de FÃsica na modalidade semipresencial da Universidade Federal do Cearà (UFC), em parceria com a Universidade Aberta do Brasil (UAB). No Ãmbito do contexto da avaliaÃÃo da aprendizagem sÃo vÃrios os fatores que contribuem para a formaÃÃo do discente. Dentre esses fatores, pode-se destacar a influÃncia do docente, do ambiente escolar, do assunto, da modalidade de avaliaÃÃo, dentre outros. Em geral, existem dificuldades para obtenÃÃo de medidas fiÃveis quanto à influÃncia de cada fator na aprendizagem do aluno; decorrentes, em parte, do fato de que os fatores sÃo avaliados de forma independente, atravÃs de testes especÃficos. Essas dificuldades tornam-se mais evidentes para um Ambiente Virtual de Ensino, que envolve avaliaÃÃes em atividades diversas, individuais e coletivas, como chats, fÃruns e portfÃlios. Assim, o objetivo deste trabalho à aplicar a tÃcnica da estatÃstica multivariada (AnÃlise de Componentes Principais) em notas obtidas pelos alunos em um Ambiente Virtual de Ensino SOLAR a fim de verificar os padrÃes das relaÃÃes entre as disciplinas cursadas no primeiro ano do curso. Pretende-se com isso, demonstrar que as notas dos alunos, em disciplinas que possuem uma conexÃo intrÃnseca de conteÃdos, tÃm uma correlaÃÃo muito forte entre si; pois os assuntos de algumas ciÃncias dependem de conhecimentos prÃvios. A partir daÃ, espera-se que haja, por parte do aluno, a sua autonomia quanto ao ensino e a aprendizagem, acarretando assim um melhor desempenho final. Tudo isso mensurado pelo mÃtodo da AnÃlise de Componentes Principais (ACP), considerando um conjunto de notas obtidas por alunos no curso de graduaÃÃo semipresencial em FÃsica, em seis disciplinas. AlÃm de um referencial teÃrico no tocante a AvaliaÃÃo Educacional em conformidade com as ideias de Scriven, dentre outros teÃricos e tambÃm uma abordagem teÃrica da Aprendizagem Significativa de David Ausubel. / This paper deals with Inference Principal Components in student performance of students in the first year of a physics course in blended mode of the Federal University of Cearà (UFC), in partnership with the Open University of Brazil (UAB). As part of the learning assessment context are several factors that contribute to the formation of the student. Among these factors, we can highlight the influence of the teacher, the school environment, the topic, the type of assessment, among others. In general, there are difficulties in obtaining reliable measures regarding the influence of each factor on student learning; arising in part from the fact that the factors are evaluated independently, through specific tests. These difficulties become more apparent to a Virtual Environment Education, which involves assessments in various activities, individual and collective, as chats, forums and portfolios. The objective of this work is to apply multivariate statistical technique (Principal Component Analysis) in grades obtained by students in a Teaching Virtual Environment SOLAR to check the patterns of relations between the subjects studied in the first year of the course. It is intended with this, show that students' grades in subjects that have an intrinsic connection of content, they have a very strong correlation with each other; because the subjects of some sciences depend on prior knowledge. From there, it is expected that there is, by the student, their autonomy for teaching and learning, thus leading to a better final performance. All this measured by the method of Principal Component Analysis (PCA),considering a set of marks obtained by students in the course of blended Degree in Physics in six subjects. In addition to a theoretical framework regarding the Educational Assessment in accordance with the ideas Scriven, among other authors and also a theoretical approach of David Ausubel Meaningful Learning.

nÃo hà / A preocupaÃÃo cada vez mais presente nos debates de gestores das instituiÃÃes de educaÃÃo superior, com respeito ao ingresso e manutenÃÃo de estudantes, forÃa a uma busca pelos motivos que estÃo associados Ãs elevadas taxas de evasÃo, no sentido de se obter um melhor aproveitamento dos recursos, bem como evitar as perdas sociais advindas com a saÃda de um estudante sem concluir o curso. Este trabalho mostra o resultado de uma pesquisa documental sobre a evasÃo discente na Universidade Federal do CearÃ, nos cursos sediados em Fortaleza, com Ãnfase nas reprovaÃÃes em disciplinas entre os anos de 2000 e 2008, focando principalmente nos perÃodos iniciais, quando, segundo alguns pesquisadores, à mais expressiva a quantidade de abandonos de curso no ensino superior. Objetiva-se, com isso, verificar a existÃncia de uma relaÃÃo direta entre esse fato e a desistÃncia de alunos de uma instituiÃÃo ou de um curso. Para tanto, foram realizados levantamentos de desempenho dos estudantes, com relaÃÃo aos seguintes fatores: taxa de conclusÃo, perÃodos de ocorrÃncia de disciplinas-problema, Ãndice de Rendimento AcadÃmico(IRA), porcentagem de integralizaÃÃo e de aprovaÃÃo. Ao final, fez-se um cruzamento entre cursos com maiores taxas de abandono, e aqueles com maiores taxas de reprovaÃÃo em disciplina. Os resultados encontrados permitiram visualizar, mesmo que superficialmente, haja vista a grande quantidade de cursos e as peculiaridades de cada um, que em algumas Ãreas que ofertam disciplinas, como a de ciÃncias exatas, hà uma grande quantidade de reprovaÃÃes e uma associaÃÃo com Ãndice de conclusÃo baixo, enquanto outras, como ciÃncias humanas, nÃo seguem um padrÃo, pois tanto hà cursos com grande nÃmero de reprovaÃÃes e pouco abandono, como hà outros com poucas reprovaÃÃes e abandono considerÃvel. / This research deals with the results over the student dropout at the Federal University of Ceara, Brasil, during the period from 2000 to 2007, focusing mainly in the early period when it is significant the numbers of retirements course in higher education. Furthermore was verified the existence or not of a relation between this fact and the withdrawal of students by the institution or by the course. Data about the student performance, such as to Graduate rate, periods of disciplines problem, Academic Performance Index (IRA), percentage of approval; besides this were done a comparison with the courses which presented higher dropout rates and those with higher rates of fails in disciplines. The results shown that in the Science Exact Area, there are a lot of failures and an association with low graduation rate, meanwhile Courses from the Human Area, there is no correlation with the results found in Science Exact Area. In conclusion there are no standards for students behavior, once both courses presented a great index of failures and not dropout, and there are a few others courses with considerable repetition and dropout.

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2017-06-23T14:40:11Z No. of bitstreams: 1 mariaelietelacerdalucchesi.pdf: 1692951 bytes, checksum: 7103f4cfc7ab21e77b60f5723628cdc8 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2017-08-07T20:14:53Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 mariaelietelacerdalucchesi.pdf: 1692951 bytes, checksum: 7103f4cfc7ab21e77b60f5723628cdc8 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-08-07T20:14:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 mariaelietelacerdalucchesi.pdf: 1692951 bytes, checksum: 7103f4cfc7ab21e77b60f5723628cdc8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-08-11 / O desempenho insuficiente de uma escola municipal de Educação Infantil e Ensino Fundamental da periferia da cidade de Limeira, com 500 alunos, aproximadamente, é o centro de análise desta dissertação. O objetivo deste trabalho é, portanto, identificar as causas desse baixo desempenho e propor intervenções que levem à melhoria dos resultados. A justificativa, para tanto, se deve ao fato de que a escola tem apresentado baixo desempenho nos indicadores nacionais e estaduais nos últimos anos, o que tem acarretado à unidade escolar o pior IDEB do município. Situada em uma região periférica da cidade, a comunidade atendida pela unidade escolar apresenta situação socioeconômica desfavorável e alta vulnerabilidade social. As crianças advindas dessa realidade não têm o mesmo capital cultural das famílias de classe média e alta. Diante do contexto em que se encontra a escola, se fez necessário pesquisar os índices por ela alcançados desde que começou a participar das avaliações externas, que mostram a evolução dos resultados. Além disso, foram entrevistados integrantes do corpo docente, pais de alunos, coordenador pedagógico e vice-diretor a fim de buscar dados referentes às causas atribuídas a esse insucesso e às dificuldades para a melhoria do desempenho dos alunos. A análise dos dados fundamentou-se em Patto (1999) e Peregrino (2010) no que se refere à constituição dos fatores extraescolares e em Charlot (2000, 2005) que trata do sucesso escolar na perspectiva da relação com o saber. Além disso, foram utilizadas as pesquisas de Soares (2007, 2009) no que tange ao efeito escola e ao papel da gestão frente ao desempenho discente. Nesse sentido, um Plano de Ação Educacional pretende fazer da unidade escolar uma instituição voltada para a aprendizagem, tornando concretas as características das escolas eficazes por meio da promoção de linhas de ações direcionadas à própria gestão, aos docentes, aos discentes e aos pais dos alunos. / The insufficient performance of a Municipal Preschool and Primary Education school at the suburb of Limeira, São Paulo, with around five hundred students, is this thesis main analysis. Therefore, this dissertation objective is to identify the low performance causes and propose an intervention to conduct to better results. The justification to study it is the fact that the school has shown a low performance in the national and state indicators in the last years, what has resulted to the Scholar Unit the worst Basic Education Development Index (IDEB) of county. Situated in a suburban region in the city, the considered community shows an adverse social and economic situation and of high vulnerability. The children arising from this reality don't have the same cultural capital of upper middle class. In the current context in which the school is located, it was necessary to research the education indicators achieved by it since it start to participated in external evaluations, that show evolution of results. Beyond this, the faculty members, student parents, pedagogical coordinator and the deputy director were interviewed, to search data about the causes attributed to this failure and the appointed difficulties in order to improve the students’ performance. The analysis of dates is based in Patto (1999) and Peregrino (2010) at what refers to constitution of the extraschoolar factors and in Charlot (2000, 2005) that treats of the academic success in the perspective of the relationship with knowledge. In addition, Soares’s researchs (2007, 2009) were used regarding the effect of school and the role of school management against student performance. In this sense, an Educational Action Plan have intending to make the scholar unit an institution focused in learning and concretizing the effective schools characteristics through the promotion of lines of actions directed to the own school manager, to teachers, students and their parents.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Secondary Education / Diane McGrath / The primary purpose of this study was to determine if a semi-automated reasoning tool that provides a set of searchable cases would improve a student’s understanding of the more difficult concepts in an object-oriented programming course. Also investigated were the relationships between the dependent variable student performance with independent variables of motivation, background knowledge, and student attitudes towards the semi-automated reasoning tool. Subjects for the study were randomly assigned from two sections of an introductory object-oriented programming course at an NCAA, Division II university in the Midwest region of the United States. Posttests were used to measure the effects of the semi-automated reasoning tool on learner competency. Background knowledge was collected through student transcripts. Motivation and student attitudes data were collected from surveys. All data were collected during the Spring 2005 semester. Data were analyzed at the p < .05 level of significance using a Wilcoxon Signed Ranks test, mixed-design ANOVA, Mann-Whitney U test, Spearman rho correlations, and thematic analysis as well as other statistical techniques. Results of the study indicated a significant difference between the group who used the semi-automated reasoning tool on complex questions and the group who did not. No significant difference was indicated between the groups on simple questions. A strong positive correlation was indicated between background knowledge and the total test scores for both content areas tested. Results of the correlational analysis between motivation and learner competencies indicated that the type of motivation, be it intrinsic or extrinsic, plays a minimal role in how students performed in this online course. Finally, students overwhelmingly felt that the semi-automated reasoning tool was an effective instructional-support tool. Results of this study suggested recommendations for practice as well as for further research. Recommendations for practice include the need for effective use of course management systems, supporting complex content through examples, using performance on background coursework when considering an online course covering complex topics, providing a case-based instructional aid for complex topics, and minimizing the economic costs in using a case-based instructional aid. Recommendations for future research include more research on relationships between background coursework and online courses, effects of a case-based instructional aid on face-to-face courses, development of overarching examples containing content from multiple computer science courses, improvements to the CBJava framework, and extending the framework to other disciplines.

The purpose of this quantitative study was to investigate educator factors that have an impact on student achievement and overall school performance as indicated in the American College Test (ACT) scores from the district and the individual schools. Educators from a moderate-sized public school district participated in an anonymous online survey. According to the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) Report Card, the district ACT composite is a 20.1 (TDOE, 2018e). Two of the district’s schools’ results are higher than the district composite, while the other five are consistent with or below the district composite. Participants of this study shared their number of years of experience, amount of professional development, and education level obtained, as well as their perceptions of these factors. All data were collected through an online survey distributed to 9th-12th teachers by email from school principals. The analysis of data was based on the responses of 67 teachers from this school district. For this study, non-experimental quantitative research was used with a comparative and correlational design. As indicated in the findings of this study, teacher experience, teacher professional development hours, teacher education level, and teachers’ perceptions of these factors did not play a significant role on student performance on nationally standardized tests, specifically the ACT.

abstract: The typical engineering curriculum has become less effective in training construction professionals because of the evolving construction industry needs. The latest National Science Foundation and the National Academies report indicate that industry-valued skills are changing. The Associated General Contractors of America recently stated that contractors expect growth in all sectors; however, companies are worried about the supply of skilled professionals. Workforce development has been of a growing interest in the construction industry, and this study approaches it by conducting an exploratory analysis applied to students that have completed a mandatory internship as part of their construction program at Arizona State University, in the School of Sustainable Engineering and the Built Environment. Data is collected from surveys, including grades by a direct evaluator from the company reflecting each student’s performance based on recent Student Learning Objectives. Preliminary correlations are computed between scores received on the 15 metrics in the survey and the final industry suggested grade. Based on the factors identified as highest predictors: ingenuity and creativity, punctuality and attendance, and initiative; a prognostic model of student performance in the construction industry is generated. With regard to graduate employability, student performance in the industry and human predispositions are also tested in order to evaluate their contribution to the generated model. The study finally identifies threats to validity and opportunities presented in a dynamic learning environment presented by internships. Results indicate that measuring student performance during internships in the construction industry creates challenges for the evaluator from the host company. Scoring definitions are introduced to standardize the evaluators’ grading based on observations of student behavior. 12 questions covering more Student Learning Objectives identified by the industry are added to the survey, potentially improving the reliability of the predictive model. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Construction Management 2019