The ability to make and record scientific observations is critical in order for students to engage in successful inquiry, and provides a sturdy foundation for children to develop higher order cognitive processes. Nevertheless, observation is taken for granted in the elementary classroom. This study explores how linking school garden experience with the use of science journals can support this skill. Students participated in a month-long unit in which they practiced their observation skills in the garden and recorded those observations in a science journal. Students' observational skills were assessed using pre- and post-assessments, student journals, and student interviews using three criteria: Accuracy, Detail, and Quantitative Data. Statistically significant improvements were found in the categories of Detail and Quantitative Data. Scores did improve in the category of Accuracy, but it was not found to be a statistically significant improvement.

In this multimodal dissertation album, the author utilizes a Hip Hop Research Design framework to explore the youth poetry slam as a site of radical healing that embodies specific Hip Hop aesthetics. The author reflects on his own journey as a poet, musician, and Hip Hop based educator. Part novel, musical album, and collection of poems, this hybrid text employs a multimodal remix poetics. The dissertation extends the current literature on Hip Hop and education by utilizing specific Hip Hop aesthetics and literacies, such as sampling, as a way to critically reimagine Hip Hop pedagogy in K-12 classrooms. The aim of this study is to provide a new methodological framework for doing Hip Hop based research in education while connecting an embodied theory and practice. This innovative methodology is demonstrated through “samples” of personal and educational experiences that are remixed into a narrative exploration of the youth poetry slam as a site where young people practice critical Hip Hop literacies. The retrospective study contains original writing and interviews with four youth poets who participated in local and regional slams while high school students. The data in this study are original music and spoken word compositions created in Ableton Live and Adobe InDesign. This data are derived from poems, interviews, focus groups, field notes, and reflections about the intersections of Hip Hop, spoken word, and critical pedagogy. Finally, through a critical Hip Hop praxis, the author demonstrates how Hip Hop Based Education can be pushed towards a new frontier of activism, healing, and social change. The full multimodal text can be accessed at https://www.brianmooney.com/dissertation

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Call number: LD2668 .T4 1959 J65

A hierarchy of skills in the measurement topic of area was validated on three-hundred and six students between grades six and nine. The hierarchy of skills was based on the rules underlying the individual skills. When a rule for one skill was considered a component of a rule for another skill, then the two skills were hypothesized to be hierarchically ordered. In addition, if a simple rule for a particular skill was replaced by a more complex rule, resulting in a different skill, then these two skills were hypothesized to be hierarchically ordered. The physical representations of the area tasks, as well as the shapes of the area figures were hypothesized as influencing the skill orderings. The use of Latent-class analysis revealed that seven of the nine skill orderings analyzed were hierarchically ordered based on difficulty level and not prerequisiteness. The other two skill orderings indicated equaprobable partial mastery classes. In addition to Latent-class analysis, the incorrect processes used by the students were coded and tabulated. The results revealed that (1) nonstandard shaped area problems were the most difficult for this sample, (2) the most frequent process associated with incorrect responses involved the addition of numbers shown in area problem figures, (3) the second most frequent process involved some form of multiplication, without regard to the area concepts inherent in the task, and (4) students beyond the sixth grade made more errors involving multiplication processes than errors involving addition processes. The study revealed that the use of rules, representations and shapes as the basis for a hierarchy does appear to have merit. In addition, process analysis revealed that students respond in a large variety of ways when they do not know the correct process for area tasks.

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"It is the purpose of this paper to suggest effective methods for teaching modern dance to deaf elementary school children"--Introduction. / Typescript. / "August, 1954." / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science." / Advisor: Christine Foster, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 40-42).

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The purpose of this study was to confirm and extend previous findings on the direct instruction of expository text structure using social studies content for second-grade students. A total of 16 classrooms (N = 258) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: Text Structure (TS) Program, Content-Only (CO) Program, or No Treatment (Control) group. The TS Program consisted of five units, with each unit focusing on one text structure (sequence, compare-contrast, cause-effect, description, and problem-solution) and on one historical community (Native Americans, Colonists, Pioneers, Immigrants, modern urban residents). Students in TS learned strategies for reading and closely analyzing well-structured text: clue words, strategy questions, and graphic organizers. Other activities included trade book reading and summary writing. Students in the CO Program studied the same five historical communities, read the same trade books, closely read the same well-structured texts, and also wrote summaries, but did not explicitly learn about the text structure or its related strategies. Results from two-level hierarchical linear modeling analyses indicated that students in TS significantly outperformed the other two groups in Comprehension Written Summary measures (main idea, structure statements) in both the end-of-unit tests given immediately after each unit and in the posttest given at the very end of the year-long program. Students in TS also significantly outperformed the other two groups in some Comprehension Transfer measures (sentence completion, main idea questions and paragraph structure identification questions). Students in TS also showed some transfer to comprehending authentic text. TS outperformed the control group in structure-related comprehension questions, but did not outperform the CO group, although the overall pattern of results across the three conditions was the same as that of the other measures. Additional analyses showed some potential benefits of the program for students with initially low reading comprehension skills. Results also suggest that text structure lessons can be simultaneously taught within social studies without reducing acquisition of content knowledge, since there were no significant differences between TS and CO on content outcome measures, and both groups outperformed the control group.

In 2 experiments, I tested the effects of a treatment package for teaching 4th graders to edit peers’ written algorithms for solving math problems such that an adult naïve reader could solve the problem. In Experiment 1, the editors were the target participants and the writers were the confederates. Participants were placed in a dyad that consisted of a writer and an editor. The writer and editor repeatedly interacted in writing until the writers produced an algorithm that resulted in adult naïve readers solving the problem. The editor was supplied with a checklist as a prompt for the editing process. Each dyad competed against a second pair of students, using a peer-yoked contingency game board as a motivating operation. Experiment 1 demonstrated that the treatment package increased participants’ accuracy of writing math algorithms, so that a naïve reader could solve the math problems. The target participants acquired the verbally governed responses through peer editing alone, and as a result the participants produced written math algorithms. Experiment 2 measured the behaviors of the editor and writer using a multiple probe design across participants with two groups of 4 writers and 4 editors. The dependent variables were: 1) production of previously mastered math problems, such that a naïve reader could read and solve the math problem without ever seeing the problem, 2) the emergence of explanations of “why” (function) from learning “how” to solve a multi-step math problem, 3) production of novel written math algorithms (i.e., find the perimeter and extended multiplication), and 4) cumulative number of untaught math problems attempted. The independent variable was the same as Experiment 1 except a) the editors did not have access to a checklist and b) the peer-yoked contingency game board was removed. The results demonstrated that all participants produced written math algorithms such that both the writers and editors affected the behavior of naïve readers. I discuss the emergence of explanations of the function (“why”) of math that occurred as a result of being able to explain “how” to solve problems. Moreover, the participants attempted more untaught math problems, demonstrating the resistance to extinction for attempting untaught math problems. Findings suggest that as a function of the intervention, reinforcement for solving math problems was enhanced.