Basic writers often require different courses than traditional Freshman Composition 1 students to succeed in college. Ball State University's basic writing program offers a two-semester sequence that provides students with additional time and attention, thereby addressing these students' special needs. The program encourages students to see themselves as academic writers and as part of the academic community.This study examined the degree of presence of academic voice in students' writing as measured at four intervals during the program's initial year. A 2 x 4 analysis of variance measured change in academic voice for female and male students, using the Academic Voice Checksheet. In addition, students' levels of confidence was measured using the Daly-Miller Writing Apprehension Test (W.A.T.) and correlated to the presence of academic voice using the Pearson product-moment correlation. Findings are presented in an analysis of the study group as a whole and in an analysis of six individual students' work. Those students' profiles were examined for overall academic voice, discrete features of academic voice, the W.A.T. overall scores, and specific questions dealing with student confidence.The analysis revealed that a change in the degree of presence of academic voice occured during the two-semester sequence. However, male and female students were seen to have the same basic profile, thereby suggesting no difference according to sex of student, challenging current gender theory. A comparison of the initial measurement and the final measurement indicated a positive change in a majority of academic voice scores.A correlation between the academic voice score and a decrease in students' writing apprehension was found in the final measurements. Five percent of students' W.A.T. score may be explained by the academic voice measurement. In the study group, 65 percent of the students showed a decrease in W.A.T. scores between the two measurements, indicating a positive lessening of writing apprehension.This study suggests that the basic writing sequence at Ball State University is providing an environment that facilitates students' use of academic voice and lessens their writing apprehension. Both factors enhance students' opportunities for academic success. / Department of English

College basic writers are often misunderstood. Much of the literature available on these writers depicts them as a large homogeneous group. Ignored is the diversity that exists within this population. According to George Jensen and John DiTiberio, personality type as measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is a neglected factor in most composition research that aids in ascertaining and appreciating the diversity and strengths of basic writers.Case study methodology was used to investigate whether a relationship existed between the personality types of thirty-four basic writers at Ball State University and the writing strategies they used. Triangulation of data provided a thick description of the students. Scores from pre- and post-good writing questionnaires and process instruments (process logs and self-evaluations), student journals, student writing, participant-observers fieldnotes, and the teacher-researcher's journal enriched and supplemented the MBTI results.Findings are presented in a group portrait and four case studies. The group portrait demonstrates that 1) most of the students were not highly apprehensive about writing; 2) they were a diverse group with fifteen of the sixteen MBTI personality types represented; and 3) they displayed a wide variety of writing strategies.The four case study subjects represent four of the sixteen MBTI personality types (ISTJ, ISFP, ESTJ, ENTP) each with a different dominant function. These students demonstrated that they were diverse in their attitudes about writing, degree of writing apprehension, their personality types, and their use of writing strategies. The case study subjects often used strategies that supported their personality preferences, were able to tap into previously unused strategies that coincided with those preferred preferences, or incorporated unpreferred processes into their composing strategies. While personality type apparently played a major role in the students' writing strategies, previous experiences, past writing instruction, successes and failures, and attitudes about "English" also affected them. / Department of English

This mixed model study informed by a multi-modal approach investigated the relationship between reading aloud and the student revision process. Participants for this study were undergraduate juniors and seniors enrolled in any one of four sections of English 393 (Writing Competency Course) at Ball State University during the summer semester of 2003. These students had previously failed the Writing Competency Exam at Ball State; therefore, they had to complete English 393 successfully to fulfill Ball State's writing competency requirement and, ultimately, to graduate. Specifically, this study examined what types of surface and global features that these English 393 students noticed when reading their initial essay drafts aloud to themselves and what global revisions they made, if any, based upon these initial observations. Methods used were audio recordings, observation logs, multiple copies of student drafts, pre- and postattitudinal surveys, read-aloud surveys, post-revision surveys, introductory and concluding instructor surveys, additional instructor surveys, and reviews of composition/rhetoric textbooks.Results of this study indicated that students enrolled in English 393 courses at Ball State University during the summer of 2003 predominantly noticed surface features in their essays as a result of reading their initial drafts aloud to themselves. Therefore, using this read-aloud method did not prompt the large majority of these junior- and senior-level English 393 students to make global revisions in their drafts. They predominantly made surface-level revisions, indicative of the types of revisions that freshman college writers make. While one student from the population did make global revisions as a result of using the read-aloud method, the researcher attributed this anomaly to the student's probable oral learning style and/or the student's previous experience using the read-aloud method. / Department of English

Within recent years there have been numerous scholarly discussions describing the tendency to erect various binaries between the fields of composition and creative writing. In order to investigate some of these binaries, I used an ethnographic methodology and the Engestrom model of activity systems to examine one first-year composition and one introductory creative writing classroom. Doing so, I came to understand how several factors, such as mediated artifacts, rules, and division of labor affected how the instructors taught writing, how these factors affected the writing process of students, and what was produced in the classroom. Ultimately, the methodological lens of ethnography, where the perspective of instructors and students was at the forefront of inquiry, integrated with an exploration into the structure of activities, allowed me to interrogate previous non-empirical, lore-based scholarship. / Department of English

The literature on the Ph.D. and on the preparation of college teachers reveals a century-long criticism of the Ph.D. as preparation for college teaching. Elements both within and without the profession of’ English have called for more attention to be paid to preparation for college teaching. The profession itself is undecided as to what preparation for the college teaching of English should involve. Thus, the problem dealt with in this study is the following: What do college teachers of English need to know and be able to do as teachers? The goal of this study is to answer the question and to use the resulting information as the basis for a course on Teaching College English.When developing a course or a program of professional training, there are, basically, two sources of information to draw from: (1) what people do when performing the task or job you wish to prepare others to do, and (2) what experts in the area call for. Since no single information source is adequate by itself, both are drawn from. Thus, a job analysis was done to determine what college teachers of English teaching predominantly lower division English, actually do as teachers. Likewise, a content analysis of the books and articles on teaching college English was done to course on Teaching College English.The purpose of the job analysis was two-fold: (1) to construct a comprehensive list of the tasks performed by college teachers of English in their capacities as instructors, and (2) to determine which of these tasks the prospective college teacher of English can best learn to do with the assistance of preservice training.Fifteen faculty members and fifteen doctoral students at two Indiana Institutions were queried regarding the frequency, difficulty, importance, and desirability for training of twenty-nine tasks. Scores assigned to answers permitted ranking the tasks from highest to lowest.The purpose of the content analysis was (1) to identify what those who write about the preparation of college teachers of English believe they need to know and be able to do as teachers, (2) to classify beliefs, and (3) to rank them in order of the frequency of their appearance.Assertions dealing with what is done for, during, and because of instructional contact were recorded, grouped under twenty-one headings. The groups were then ranked according to the number of assertions in them. The data from both the job analysis and the content determine what is most often recommended for inclusion in a analysis was used as the basis for a course on Teaching College English which was developed using an instructional systems approach.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether students who were subjected to a teaching-learning pattern consisting of practices that evidenced self-determination and to a learning environment consisting of attitudes that governed their actions in dealing with each other and the practices employed would be able to develop compositions of their own that met cooperatively developed criteria for organization and clarity.

A valid, reliable survey instrument was created to be used by public relations student-run firms and other applied public relations courses to gauge client satisfaction. A series of focus groups and pilot tests were conducted to ascertain themes, refine questions, and then to refine the entire instrument. Six constructs to be measured, including strategies used by the students, project management, communication tools, professional demeanor, communication skills, and overall effectiveness, emerged as themes needing to be assessed. The final instrument included 40 scale questions, six follow-up questions (one for each set of scale questions), and four open-ended questions. As an outputs evaluation within General Systems Theory, this evaluative tool provides a feedback loop that did not exist prior for public relations applied courses and student-run firms. This survey, when used by public relations educators, will provide a standardized tool from which discussions can ensue and pedagogy may advance. / Department of Educational Studies

The fundamental objective of this research was to investigate the usefulness and appropriateness of computer simulation to improve the acquisition of necessary skills used in genetic analysis. Interactive computer simulations were developed and tested for their effectiveness in achieving the desired goal. These simulations were tested for six months before full implementation. The final testing took place over a nine-month period and involved a total of sixty-five beginning genetics students from five different classes. The students in the classes were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups.A pre/posttest, based upon behavioral objectives specifically written for the simulations, was administered. A two-way analysis of variance was used with the independent factors of treatment and sex. The dependent variable was the posttest. A second two-way analysisof variance was used with the same independent factors, but the dependent variable was the final numerical course score.The analysis showed no significant differences between the groups tested. However, a secondary analysis of the groups involved in the Summer of 1980 showed that the mean posttest score of the experimental group was significantly higher than that of the control group. Note .that the Summer class was taught in five weeks, whereas the other classes were taught over an eleven-week period.Tie results of this study indicate that (1) simulations were as effective as, but not significantly more effective than, the "live" laboratory experiments in improving student skills in genetic analysis, and (2) simulations can be used very effectively as a backup system in case "live" experiments cannot be performed. Finally, this study suggests that further research should be conducted on the effectiveness of computer simulations with students who are taking courses that axe compressed into short time spans.

A Computer Assisted Learning (CAL) approach was developed to enhance course material for an undergraduate Hydrology and Water Management course, through the use of multimedia courseware. The courseware can be installed under 32bit versions of Windows' operating systems. CD-ROM's were used as the courseware distribution media. A LAN version, which uses NetBEUI protocol to access Windows' workgroups, has also been activated. / Course material was first digitized and then placed in a Windows' Graphic User Interface (GUI) using Microsoft Visual Basic versions 4--5. Multimedia files, including images, sound, and movies were then added to enhance visualization. Students can navigate through the courseware in a non-linear fashion akin to multimedia hyperlink technology. The courseware contains all of the conventional course material in text format with multimedia additions so that students can follow class material on computers. Simulation and prediction tools were also added in order to aid students in problem visualization and solving. / The course instructor can update material by uploading material through an ActiveX web site. The courseware is then automatically updated when an active TCP/IP connection is detected on the client side using a similar ActiveX control. / Program performance is optimized through the use of a high-speed CD-ROM drive and at least 32 megabytes of RAM. The network version performs substantially slower than its CD-ROM equivalent since a Network bandwidth bottleneck occurs.

Diagnostic cognitive assessment (DCA) was explored using Bayesian networks and evidence-centred design (ECD) in a statistics learning domain (ANOVA). The assessment environment simulates problem solving activities that occurred in a web-based statistics learning environment. The assessment model is composed of assessment constructs, and evidence models. Assessment constructs correspond to components of knowledge and procedural skill in a cognitive domain model and are represented as explanatory variables in the assessment model. Explanatory variables represent specific aspects of student's performance of assessment problems. Bayesian networks are used to connect the explanatory variables to the evidence variables. These links enable the network to propagate evidential information to explanatory model variables in the assessment model. The purpose of DCA is to infer cognitive components of knowledge and skill that have been mastered by a student. These inferences are realized probabilistically using the Bayesian network to estimate the likelihood that a student has mastered specific components of knowledge or skill based on observations of features of the student's performance of an assessment task. / The objective of this study was to develop a Bayesian assessment model that implements DCA in a specific domain of statistics, and evaluate it in relation to its potential to achieve the objectives of DCA. This study applied a method for model development to the ANOVA score model domain to attain the objectives of the study. The results documented: (a) the process of model development in a specific domain; (b) the properties of the Bayesian assessment model; (c) the performance of the network in tracing students' progress towards mastery by using the model to successfully update the posterior probabilities; (d) the use of estimates of log odds ratios of likelihood of mastery as a measure of "progress toward mastery;" (e) the robustness of diagnostic inferences based on the network; and (f) the use of the Bayesian assessment model for diagnostic assessment with a sample of 20 students who completed the assessment tasks. The results indicated that the Bayesian assessment network provided valid diagnostic information about specific cognitive components, and was able to track development towards achieving mastery of learning goals.