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A teacher resource packet was created that teachers can use at the third through sixth grade levels to effectively implement the use of primary sources into their existing curriculum to promote greater historical understanding, imagination, emapthy and critical thinking. This project is intended to change teacher behaviors of teaching using an archival view of history to one that applies critical thinking and promotes in-depth student understanding of historical events.

The purposes of the study were threefold: (1) to assess whether the math program of a small, midwestern elementary school was meeting the district's established cognitive mathematics objectives, (2) to make recommendations for improvement of the existing mathematics program and (3) to provide a basis for the cognitive components of elementary mathematics program evaluation suitable for adoption by school corporations of a similar size.The study was designed to determine the following: Does the existing mathematics program currently conducted by a small, midwestern elementary school meet the stated program learning objectives as measured by the Metropolitan Achievement Test, and the program's criterion-referenced tests?The review of literature considered pertinent for the study was reviewed and categorized as-follows: (1) history and overview of achievement assessments, (2) evaluation of mathematics achievement, (3) mathematics teaching today, and (4) mathematics program recommendations. The population for the study was defined as those students in kindergarten through grade six in a small, midwestern elementary school enrolling 506 students who had been administered the Metropolitan Achievement Test, during the week of April 28, 1985.The assessment of the achievement of the cognitive mathematics objectives was dependent upon results of the mathematics subtest scores of the Metropolitan Achievement Test, Form JS, Survey Battery and the criterion-referenced tests of the U-SAIL Mathematics Program. Data obtained from the tests were analyzed, summarized and presented in a narrative report.Based upon the results of the study using the MAT the following conclusions have been drawn:1. At all grade levels, the mathematics program learning objectives as measured by the MAT are generally met, however, the proportion of the curriculum measured is not adequate for assessing achievement of the district's established mathematics cognitive objectives.2. The Metropolitan Achievement Test does not measure enough objectives to adequately assess achievement of the program's mathematics cognitive objectives.Based upon the results of the study using the U-SAIL criterion-referenced tests, the following conclusions have been drawn:1. At kindergarten, first and second grade levels, the objectives are adequately met. The program is effective.2. At third, fourth, fifth and sixth grade levels, the objectives are being inadequately met. The program is ineffective.

The purpose of this study was to determine if a teacher's knowledge of a sixth grade student's prior academic performance affects the teacher's grading of the student's work on math papers. This study attempted to isolate the singular characteristic of a teacher's prior knowledge of a student's academic performance as a possible source for grading discrepancies.Four math papers were developed following the guidelines from the Indiana Statewide Test of Educational Progress (ISTEP) in mathematics for sixth grade. Four selected report cards representing high academic performance and four representing low academic performance were attached to the four student papers along with the appropriate answer keys. One-third of the instruments had high academic performance attachments, one-third had low academic performance attachments, and one-third had no academic performance attachments. The instruments were randomly assigned to experienced teachers for grading.The analysis of the data indicated that the mean number grades for high academic performance papers when compared to the control group differed significantly at the .05 level of confidence. The mean of the letter and number grade scores assigned to low academic performance papers compared to the control group did not differ significantly.Based on the findings of this study, conclusions were drawn. Among the conclusions reported were:1. Teachers' grades on the same math papers were remarkably varied.2. Number grades assigned to the same math papers differed significantly for high academic performance.3. The range for letter and number grades for each paper was extremely broad over all independent variables.4. The scoring discrepancies for letter and number grades created a question regarding grading validity.

It was the purpose of this investigation to examine the effects of sex, race, intelligence, and socioeconomic status upon the reading and arithmetic achievement test scores of sixth grade pupils in one school district. This was accomplished by combining these factors to establish 32 pupil performance categories. Norms, based upon these 32 categories, were established for both the level of performance at the end of sixth grade and gain in performance based upon the increment in reading and arithmetic between fifth and sixth grades.

The “Questioning-Exploration-Experience” (QEE), a teaching and learning method underpinned by constructivist theory, was developed by Cheng and further refined by Cheng and Chan in 2001. This thesis documents and evaluates the effectiveness of five- to six-year-old children’s learning when a teacher used this method to promote children’s understanding of the concept of (air) motion. The evaluation was conducted in a preschool operated by a tertiary institution in Hong Kong, and a teacher who was experienced in using the QEE method and her 14 students participated in the study. They were observed for six days over a period of one month when children were working on a task of making a wind bell. Under the QEE method, the children began the inquiry process by posing questions about constructing the wind bell. They then formulated hypotheses, tested them through exploration, and refined their questions repeatedly. The children reflected on their learning experiences in order to generate new questions. Teacher questioning was also a critical aspect of this process. The children and teacher spent a total of 323 minutes on the task and the sessions were videotaped. There was a total of 2,927 utterances in 863 conversational turns, and these were analyzed to examine the relationship between the levels of teacher questioning and the children’s responses to reflect the levels of children thinking. There were five of these levels identified. The first three are considered to involve lower-order thinking: level 1 ("yes/no"); level 2 ("what"); and level 3 (“elaborate") questions and responses. The next two can be considered as higher-order thinking: level 4 (“logical”) and level 5 ("critical") questions and responses. The results indicated that the teacher dominated the interactions and spoke 43% of the time, while children spoke for the remaining time (57%). Of the 139 minutes during which the teacher talked, she spent 97 minutes (70% of the time) posing 887 questions: level 1 was used the most often accounting for 41% of the interactions, followed by level 5 (17%), level 2 (16%), level 3 (14%), and level 4 (12%). The total time for which the children spoke was 184 minutes with 1653 responses. Children gave level 3 responses (28%) most frequently, followed by levels 2 (27%), 1 (26%), 5 (12%), and 4 (7 %), respectively. The relationship between the teacher’s questions and children’s responses was analyzed. An exact correspondence between the level of teacher thinking and children’s responses occurred 46% of the time (398 turns). Simply put, when the teacher asked a question requiring a “what” response, the child typically gave “what” information. Within the 398 turns, 41% of this direct correspondence occurred at level 1, followed by 20% at level 2, 17% at level 5, 13% at level 3, and 9% at level 4. The greatest number of correspondences occurred with questions that required “yes/no” responses, and the least with “logical” questions. In the QEE inquiry process, the teacher’s questioning had a strong influence on the children’s scientific thinking and played a critical role in promoting children’s knowledge construction. The teacher used questioning to define an area of inquiry, specify a problem to be solved, lead children to test hypotheses, evaluate their results and determine their understanding at various points during the process. Questioning, by both the teacher and the children, was critical in promoting the children’s scientific understanding. The impact of QEE in fostering conceptual change in knowledge construction was traced along three paths. The first path in the questioning defined the central question of inquiry. The second path, exploration, was concerned with identifying the information needed to solve the problem. The third path, experience, involved restructuring the concepts of the central question to apply the new understanding in a new situation. Findings also suggest that children’s knowledge construction is signified by the achievement of four elements: identification of a central question for inquiry, evaluation of the question about learning, provision of ways in which to answer the question, and critical reasoning. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Education

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This study explores teachers' views and experiences with native language education and instruction in Taiwan. These teachers are involved in Taiwan's current native language program and also experienced the Mandarin Movement which started several decades ago. Children were usually not allowed to extensively speak their indigenous languages at school throughout that period. Data for this qualitative study was collected from multiple, in-depth, semi-structured and unstructured interviews with 10 Hakka teachers involved in Hakka language instruction in elementary schools in Taiwan. The research findings indicate that teachers need to put great emphasis on motivating students to learn their mother tongue, that the native language program reinforces the value of Hakka culture and Hakka identity, and that parents and schools also play influential roles in maintaining and revitalizing Taiwan's native languages. In addition, this research shows that the Mandarin Movement demonstrated the elementary school's important role in the cultivation of students' language use habits and perceptions toward the various Taiwanese languages. The study also presents suggestions for continuing to implement successful native language learning for elementary school students in Taiwan.

Specific to the recommendation of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (1980) to identify and analyze problem solving strategies and the settings in which the development of these strategies could be optimized, this study is a compilation of three case studies which describe what elementary school children say and do when solving verbal mathematics problems in small groups. Persuant to this goal, three four-member groups were selected and asked to reach a consensus within each group on the solution to a variety of routine and non-routine problems. In this relatively unstructured setting, transcriptions of verbal interactions, written records of all computations, and observer notes were compiled for each group. The resulting identification and description of the problem solving behaviors which occurred were analyzed in terms of two broad interactive functions by which children seek to understand verbal problems: the construction of mental representations or physical displays of the problems and the evaluations of these constructions. Representations, in this perspective, are constructed at two levels: a contextual level at which the problem situation is linguistically interpreted and a structural level at which a statement of a problem underlying mathematical structure is defined. Evaluations also occur which allow group members to monitor their understanding and direct the course of the problem solving effort. The findings indicate that intermediate aged children when solving problems in small groups display general patterns of behavior. These patterns of behavior include: the manner in which the groups approach and effectively isolate the contextual elements of a verbal problem, the propensity of groups to change the mode in which a problem is represented by utilizing manipulatives, diagrams, tables and other physical displays, and the manner in which groups monitor the course of problem solving and reach consensuses on solution proposals. Within this general pattern, however, specific subject and task variables characterize individual groups, affecting both the group interaction and the incidence of specific problem solving behaviors. These findings suggest practical classroom applications for group problem solving formats in the elementary school classroom. Additional research, however, must provide the link between group problem solving and individual performance.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education