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This manuscript incorporates recent proposals for enhancing the learning of mathematics by developing authentic statistics instruction and assessment for eighth grade students based on a cognitive apprenticeship approach. The goal of instruction was for small groups to create statistics projects that addressed a meaningful research question. To ensure that criteria for assessing such performance were understood, groups were assigned to two treatments--library of exemplars and text--which differed in the degree to which criteria were explicit. The effectiveness of elaborating on criteria through examples (i.e., library) or text (i.e., text) for enhancing learning was examined. Both treatments demonstrated significant performance gains from pretest to posttest. However, students' understanding of representative sampling was significantly better as a result of receiving the library treatment than the text treatment. Making criteria more elaborate through examples of performance can thus enhance students' understanding of more abstract statistical concepts such as sampling.

One of the most striking facts disclosed in national reports is the large number of students who avoid mathematics courses, especially electives. The problem has become a serious public concern because it bears social and individual consequences: (a) a technologically advanced society demands a mathematically literate workforce, yet a large number of students drop out of mathematics; (b) inadequate preparation in mathematics seriously limits future educational and occupational opportunities of individuals. Although research on school and teacher effects has revealed the effects of school structure and policies and teaching practices on mathematics achievement, researchers have paid little attention to the course of students' academic careers. Even the few existing studies are compromised by serious methodological flaws. Researchers, thus, have not been able to provide policymakers with reliable answers to their basic concerns about mathematics participation. This study tackles these problems, employing the six-wave data from the Longitudinal Study of American Youth (LSAY). The primary purposes of this study are (a) to estimate the probability of students' dropping out of mathematics, conditional on psychological and sociological variables, including sex, socioeconomic status (SES), prior mathematics achievement, prior attitude toward mathematics, prior mathematics anxiety, and prior self-esteem, over a five-year period from grade 8 to 12, (b) to identify conditions that affect the probability, and (c) to determine whether there are critical transition points, and if so, whether certain factors have stronger effects at these points. Survival analysis is used to overcome the difficulties conventional statistical techniques have in modeling probability Analyses of mathematics participation indicate that (a) students are most likely to drop out of mathematics in grade 12; (b) males are more likely than females to participate in mathematics in grade 12; (c) the effect of SES decreases over grades; (d) prior attitude toward mathematics is as important as prior mathematics achievement, and their effects are almost constant over grades; (e) the longitudinal effect of prior mathematics achievement or prior attitude toward mathematics depends on students' sex and SES. Analyses of participation in advanced mathematics show that (a) students are most likely to drop out of advanced mathematics in grade 12; (b) males are more likely than females to participate in advanced mathematics in grade 12, and sex differences are similar across different levels of SES; (c) there is a male advantage in participation in advanced mathematics even when there is a male disadvantage in SES; (d) SES plays a critical role in the early grades, and socioeconomic differences are similar across different levels of mathematics achievement or attitude toward mathematics; (e) prior attitude toward mathematics has the strongest effect in the later grades, whereas the effect of prior mathematics achievement decreases over grades; (f) the effect of prior mathematics achievement varies across different levels of attitude toward mathematics, and vice versa; (g) the longitudinal effect of prior mathematics achievement or prior attitude toward mathematics depends on students' sex and their initial mathematics achievement and attitude toward mathematics.

The purpose of this thesis is to develop, implement, and evaluate a program to incorporate anthropology into precollegiate education at the local level. While the focus of this project is on secondary education, I hope that it will serve as a model for individuals interesting in incorporating anthropology at all levels.I have structured my thesis in four parts. In part one I discuss the background of attempts to incorporate anthropology into precollegiate curriculums on both the local and national level. Part two of the thesis focuses on analyzing data gathered through interviews with local educators in an attempt to formulate an effective intervention strategy. In part three I discuss and implement my intervention program. Part four of this thesis focuses on the evaluation of the intervention. In the conclusion, I revisit these issues and address some final thoughts about the project (including suggestions for future projects along these lines). / Department of Anthropology

The problem in this study was to analyze teacher preparation, objectives, organizational designs, instructional methods and practices, and teaching materials for high school courses registered by school officials as Humanities with the Office of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction for twenty Indiana public high schools in the fall of 1971-1972.The study consisted of three phases. First, a review of related literature emphasized actual classroom practices within the last decade. Second, a questionnaire, criticized by a panel of educators, was revised by the writer and sent to thirty-two public high schools offering Humanities. Twenty valid returns were used.Third, of the twenty high schools, the writer visited five, observing and interviewing students and professional personnel involved in Humanities. The impressionistic approach was the chief feature of the third phase. Data and opinions were gathered by the use of an eleven-page instrument for interviewing the principal, department head, guidance counselor, librarian, Humanities teacher and Humanities students, and for observing a Humanities class. In addition, the impressions of the writer were recorded to characterize descriptive details and dialogue "personalizing" the Humanities course of each of the five schools. The resulting five folios, or case studies, presented five distinct Humanities courses and the people and places which affected them.In the findings, more women than men taught Humanities. Although the men averaged four years more teaching experience, the women had an average of .7 years more experience in teaching Humanities. Most of the teachers had both undergraduate and graduate majors in language arts. All had received their bachelor's degrees and over one-half, their master's degrees in Indiana colleges and universities.Most teachers had no undergraduate or graduate hours in college humanities courses which combined two or more allied areas in a single course (literature, art, music, etc.). None had undergraduate methods courses, student teaching, or school work-shop experience in humanities. Approximately one-fourth of the teachers had been John Hay Fellows. Fewer than one-half indicated they belonged to professional organizations which espouse the humanities.Regarding Humanities course objectives, more than one-half of the teachers selected first the transmission of the classical heritage, then the European, and American. Most teachers indicated that their courses encouraged independent thinking, intellectual and aesthetic judgment, but a majority of teachers rejected as a course objective, the creation of an art form.Regarding organizational design of the course, most teachers chose the multi-media approach first, the great themes approach second, and the culture-epoch, third.The most frequently used class practice was the issuance of course grades, followed by Socratic questioning and teacher-student planning. About one-half of the teachers engaged in team teaching. Over one-half sometimes assigned library-research papers. Nearly one-fourth of the teachers with their classes visited museums, then art galleries, and last architectural sites.For teaching materials, nearly all teachers used filmstrips, slides, films, records, tapes and paperback books.Titles of study units were broadly thematic (Love, Death, Happiness, etc.), and centered first on the individual and second on his relationship to society.

This study was designed to address the need for learning opportunities that enable adolescents to become producers and critics of statistics. The producer/critic model (Palinscar & Brown, 1984) was adapted to the context of statistical investigation where questions are formulated and data are subsequently collected, analyzed, and represented to address this question (Graham, 1987). In the producer phase learners design, conduct, and present a group investigation to peers. In the critic phase, groups evaluate investigations produced by unknown peers which are presented in a computer-based learning environment, Critiquing Statistics (CS). The critic phase served as the intervention and was expected to yield three positive outcomes: (1) sophisticated statistical reasoning; (2) a strong understanding of statistical investigation; and (3) a close alignment of evaluations between learners and experts due to successful internalization of criteria. However, the effects of the intervention were also expected to be mediated by the types of questions investigated and the nature of group collaborations. These outcomes were assessed by comparing groups that participated in the critic phase (intervention) with those that did not (control). Investigations produced and evaluated from the first to the second producer phase provided the basis for this comparison. Six groups of three students participated in the study. The descriptive analyses yielded mixed results. As expected, the types of questions investigated and the nature of group collaborations interacted with reasoning and understanding. These two factors accounted for the quantity and quality of reasoning that were higher initially in the control than in the intervention. How groups defined the task based on their questions explained the larger amount of understanding initially found in the intervention compared to the control. However, the intervention's effect was to enhance the quality of understanding on more aspects

Graduation date: 1934

2 v. : ill. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Education, 1969