Typescript, etc. / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument for assessing the factors which comprised the academic self-perceptions of a student. The instrument was developed and tested under several conditions. The three steps involved 1) the development of the instrument; 2) a pilot study in which the scores were factor analyzed, to extract items with sufficient loadings for validating; and 3) a validation study of the revised instrument. The instrument was designed as a one hundred item paper and pencil, self-report measurement in which a respondent indicated his response to a question by marking a point on a four-point scale.The reliability determined for the Academic Self-Perception Instrument (ASPI) was computed at the developmental stage. The instrument showed a reliability coefficient of .79 with significance at the .05 level. It was found in this early stage of testing that the ASPI was as valid and as reliable a measure of self-concept of ability as any other instrument. The work to improve the instrument and its reliability could not completely overcome the problems of validity which stemmed from the lack of a universal definition of self-concept as a learner. Although the Academic Self-Perception Instrument suffered from the drawbacks common to all self-concept instruments, the ASPI seemed to be useful when used within its own working definition.To ascertain content validity, the content of the situations was drawn from the literature and some of the subject areas common to both the Metropolitan and Iowa Achievement Tests. The concurrent validity testing yielded a correlation of .78 when correlated with the Brookover Self-Concept of Ability Test and -.17 when correlated with the Maryland Concept as a Learner Scale. It was concluded that the Academic Self-Perception Instrument was as reliable and as valid as the two instruments tested, when used within its own working definition.The four-point scale was designed to record the responses of the student, relative to how he perceived his academic ability and behaviors. The following points were designated on the scale: (0) Never, meaning at no time; (1) Sometimes, meaning now and then; (2) Often, meaning much of the time; and (3) Always, meaning all the time.Two groups of students were selected for the testing. The Pilot group consisted of 262 fifth and sixth graders. The Pilot instrument consisted of twenty-five times per situation and yielded eight subscores and a total score. There were four subtests (the four situations). They were as follows: 1) the child's perceptions of himself and his ability to learn; 2) the child's perceptions of what he believes his parents think of his ability to learn; 3) the child's perceptions of what he believes his peers think of his ability to learn; and 4) the child's perceptions of what he believes his teachers think of his ability to learn.The data were factor analyzed. The items were rotated by the Oblique Bi-quartimin Criterion and fifteen items were extracted. The analyses revealed that there was one basic construct with two intercorrelated factors with an intercorrelation of .447. The basic construct was named Academic Self-Perception and the two factors were designated as 1) those general feelings and behaviors the student had of himself as a learner; and 2) the specific areas of perceptions the student had of himself as a learner.The analyses showed that the two factors remained stable under the four situations and the intercorrelations among the obtained factors were substantial. The items which comprised Factor I were composed of items which described one’s perceptions of his ability to learn in general, while the items which comprised Factor II seemed to hinge on one’s verbal ability.The Validation Testing was composed of 245 different fifth and sixth graders. The sixty item scale (15 items per situation) was administered and factor analyzed. Both the factors again remained stable across all four situations. The data revealed that the two situations which produced the most reliable factors in the child’s perceptions of his academic ability were the child’s perceptions of his teachers and peers.

published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

"Campbellton High School is a small school of some two hundred thirty rural pupils in Jackson County, Florida. It is felt that the faculty is well acquainted with the personal feelings and desires of the student body. The members of the faculty know each student by name, and also know something of his family life, ambitions, economic status, and his favorite foods. Yet, with all this knowledge about the students, it is felt that school children do not always reveal their thoughts and ideas of what they think is right or wrong with their school. Since the school is being run for the benefit of the pupils, it seems desirable that the faculty also have this information in order for it to do the job thoroughly"--Introduction. / Typescript. / "January, 1953." / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science." / Advisor: H. W. Dean, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 102).

M.Ed. (Education) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Ed. / This investigation is part of a group project that was conducted by a research team of the Department of Educational Sciences of the Rand Afrikaans University. The focus of this study is the self-concept development of pupils and the responsibility of teachers in this regard. Aspects of self-concept development are addressed as factors contributing towards the pupils gaining a positive self-concept. Teachers should be aware of the subtle, yet powerful, influence that a positive or a negative self-concept could have on a pupil's development and how this affects the pupil's intellectual, social and personal development. It is the view of the researcher that teachers need to make every effort to assist pupils in developing a positive and healthy self-concept. The methodology used in this study is two-fold: Firstly, it involves literature study on self-concept development. The researcher used this information to support the field of investigation and to make findings based on factual information. Secondly, it involves information derived from questionnaires completed by a number :of teachers in different schools. From the information obtained from the completed questionnaires the researcher was able to ascertain teachers' opinions of their efforts concerning the development of pupils' self-concept. The results of the empirical research indicate that teachers, by making a high input on the various aspects of the development of the pupils' self-concept, consider this as an important responsibility. The following specific findings were made: * The input made by teachers with regard to encouraging pupils to believe in their own abilities was given the highest rating, while their input concerning planning to meet individual needs of learners was on the lower average. There was a significant difference between the ratio male : input and the ratio female : input regarding the encouragment of pupils to believe in their own abilities. Teachers with more than eleven years of teaching experience provide more input in planning to meet the individual needs of the learners. Teachers whose mother tongue is neither English or Afrikaans provide more input in giving positive feedback to pupils. It was noted that teachers' qualifications also play a role in their input concerning positive feedback to pupils. There is a significant relationship between subjects taught and the proportion of input with regard to the various aspects of self-concept development. The study also revealed that teachers are of the opinion that the development of pupils' self-concept is an important aspect of their responsibilities. This is supported by the high proportion of teachers' input in this regard.

Michelle Siu Mui Yik. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1993. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 36-43).

The purpose of the study was to investigate factors that affect students’ perceptions of the use of online peer and self assessment in an online collaborative learning environment, and to explore the impacts of the assessments on the online collaboration of the students. The setting of this study was a university graduate-level online credit course entitled Computer Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL), in which all course activities were conducted collaboratively through online communications and online peer and self assessment was provided at the end of every group project. Data sources included: face-to-face or online video conferencing interviews with 14 participants; participants’ written reflections; their portfolios; messages that each participant posted to their group online discussion board; and peers’ and self comments on the online peer and self assessment. Data were analyzed using Strauss and Corbin’s (1998) grounded theory approach. Results of the data analysis showed that many factors allowed students to have varied perceptions, attitudes, and feelings in conducting the online peer and self assessment. The factors were grouped into three: learning context, individual differences, and online learning community. Learning context encompassed all parts of the CSCL online course strongly related to the peer and self assessment, including course elements, online assessment system, types of assessment feedback, and graduate school environment. Categories under the factor of individual differences included stringency-leniency in ratings, objectivity of ratings, previous assessment experience, purpose of the assessments, and degree of self-confidence in assessing their own contributions to the group activity. Categories related to the online learning community included group composition, engagement of group members, and sense of community. Additionally, the results revealed the impact of the use of peer and self assessment on the group collaboration in terms of understanding others’ perspectives, reflections on themselves, awareness of the assessments, interpersonal skills for collaboration, accountability, participation, personal criteria for the assessments, level of confidence with the assessments, and group collaboration. / text

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of the implementation of criteria-referenced self-assessment in students’ learning in argumentative writing especially for students learning Chinese as a second language (CSL). Participants were 4 year-8 students in an international school in Hong Kong. Follow-up interview was also conducted to investigate students’ perspectives of self-assessment. Findings include the changes of students’ writing performance in argumentative essays based on the comparison of pre-test and post-test in the aspects of the 3 metafunctions of language: ideational, interpersonal and textual defined by M.A.K. Halliday. The result suggests that integrating criteria-referenced self-assessment in CSL writing classes can improve students’ writing performance and enhance their understanding of marking criteria for argumentative essay. 本文透過準實驗性研究的設計，以香港一所國際學校4位8年級學生為研究對象，了解透過量表自評在中文第二語言寫作教學中的實施，是否能夠提升學生在議論文寫作的表現。本文根據系統功能語言學對於語言元功能的分類，分析學生前後測寫作的表現。結果發現，經過一個月的量表自評實驗，學生的寫作表現在語言的概念功能、人際功能以及語篇功能三個方面均產生變化。此外，透過實驗後的跟進訪談發現，量表自評使得學生對於議論文寫作的評估標準有了更清楚的認識，同時也能夠將這樣的認識體現在對於議論文寫作的評斷當中。 / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education