In this mixed methods study, I investigated the practice of literacy differentiation in its organizational context. First, to identify social and organizational variables that reliably predicted the outcome of literacy differentiation, I fitted data from a cluster randomized field trial (with 164 fourth and fifth grade teachers in 31 schools) to a sequence of multilevel growth models. Quantitative results indicated that teachers differentiated their literacy instruction to a higher extent when they reported valuing the professional development and when they attended more consultative support sessions. Further, when principals reported valuing the professional development in differentiated instruction, teachers in their schools increased their literacy differentiation at a higher rate. Second, to understand how literacy differentiation was supported in school contexts, I purposively identified, recruited, and interviewed teachers (n=15) and principals (n=3) at three schools that showed positive growth in literacy differentiation. Qualitative results indicated that literacy differentiation was supported in multiple ways. Across settings, differentiation was a long-term focus and actively supported by local, district, and external brokers. In addition to providing teachers with common planning time to share resources and narratives, principals recruited teachers based on their beliefs about differentiation, evaluated teachers during periods of the day when teachers would be differentiating, and strategically networked teachers so that they could observe other educators enacting differentiated lessons. Potential implications for research and policy are discussed.

In recent years, the field of mathematics education has advocated for an expanded view of what it means to know mathematics and participate in mathematics as a practice. Here, I present three papers that describe my investigations of how students participate in the important mathematical practice of defining. The first paper consists of a review of research about how K-16 students participated in establishing and refining mathematical definitions. Analysis of the forms of activity revealed by this research led to the construction of a synthetic framework to more closely describe the practice of defining, which I termed Aspects of Definitional Practice. These aspects included asking definitional questions, constructing and/or evaluating examples, and constructing definitional explanations or arguments. In the second paper, the Aspects framework served as a lens for investigating how defining was initially established in one middle school classroom. The analysis focused on how defining was realized in interactions among students and between the teacher and students. The third paper describes how students participation in Aspects of Definitional Practice developed over time, and how change in participation influenced the development of mathematical knowledge. Collectively, the three papers provide: (a) an analytic and theoretical framework for examining the mathematical practice of defining as it might be constituted in classrooms; (b) an analysis of the initial establishment of this form of practice as instantiated in interaction among students and their teacher; and (c) an investigation of how knowledge, practice and the interactions that contribute to their co-constitution develop and change over time.

This dissertation presents the results of a meta-analysis of the effectiveness of peer-mediated learning for English Language Learners(ELLs). The sample included 44 independent studies reporting five distinct outcome types, and analyses included main effects analysis, heterogeneity analysis, analysis of publication bias, and moderator analysis. Results indicate that peer-mediated learning is effective for ELLs across every outcome type analyzed, with estimates for most outcomes proving robust to potential distortions from cluster-randomization, outliers, and publication bias. Few moderators proved significant at the α=.05 level; nonetheless, study quality and post hoc adjustments for pre-test differences were significant for a number of outcome types indicating that study quality variables proved the largest moderators of effectiveness estimates. However, qualitative analyses indicate that effect sizes varied across a number of theoretically important moderators, including: segregated settings, interventions using students native languages, students age, language learning setting, and language and cultural backgrounds of the students.

This critical ethnography focused on improving the teaching and learning of chemistry in a diverse, urban, tenth-grade classroom in high-achieving magnet high school serving students of differing cultural, social, and historical backgrounds. Participants included all 26 students in the class, a university researcher (Sarah-Kate LaVan) and me as a teacher-researcher. Conducted within the methodological and theoretical frameworks of critical ethnography, this research employed collaborative research, autobiographical reflection, the sociology of emotions, and cogenerative dialogues as tools by which to examine the influence of structure and the social and historical contexts of lived experiences on teacher and student practices in the context of the science learning that took place in our classroom. The methods employed in this ethnography were designed to catalyze social transformation by identifying contradictions within structures and then finding ways to alter these structures to expand the agency of all those involved. Specifically I asked the following questions: 1) How do practices and schemas gained by being within school structures afford the structures of the classroom field? 2) How can the structures of the classroom be transformed to allow students and teachers greater exchange of capital (social, cultural, and symbolic)? 3) How does the exchange of capital afford agency for the participants? 4) How can participants' actions transform the structures associated with school and the classroom to break cycles of reproduction? Using multiple data resources such as field notes, videotape, interviews and artifacts, our research team was able to elicit and support findings at micro-, meso-, and macroscopic levels to answer these questions. / This research provides evidence of the ways in which structure shapes and is shaped by the practices and beliefs of students and teachers in different fields and how those, in turn, structure fields and afford agency for both the individual and the collective. The major findings of the study reveal that students and teachers need to participate in structured conversations that explicitly define and negotiate roles and rules for successful classroom interactions. One way to accomplish this is via participation in overlapping fields of cogenerative dialogue, a feature of our research methodology that emerged as salient during our research. This study offers administrators, teachers, and students a means by which to evaluate the ways in which structures shape the learning environment. Coupled with cogenerative dialogue, participants are provided a pathway for expanding agency in the classroom and in the school.

The purpose of this study was to determine what choices directors of selected teaching and learning centres in universities made with respect to the design of the homepages of their centre Websites. This was a study to explore how selected directors approach the use and design of their sites, a study to specifically examine what design elements these directors consider in conceptualizing the homepage. The themes of visibility, engagement, and sustainability were used as a framework for the study.<p> The study used the case study research methodology, examining the perspectives of four directors who were responsible for managing the teaching and learning centres in their respective universities. The study was an opportunity to explore how directors conceptualized the design of the homepages of their centre Websites and what design elements were used.<p> It was clear that the directors regarded the scholarship of teaching and learning in their own specific ways and that each particular view guided choices regarding homepage design. The directors interviewed regarded the homepage as an important and powerful communication tool and each dedicated resources to its development and ongoing scrutiny.<p> Directors recognized the variety of user needs they faced and they admitted that the homepage design choices they made was a balancing of constituent needs, institutional priorities, and their professional stance within the scholarship of teaching and learning field. Directors were keen on building internal and external communities. Directors continually asked themselves the question, What is the user looking for? Directors spoke of the increasing use they made of technology in the choices regarding the use and design of the homepage. They recognized that building momentum and advocacy within the scholarship of teaching and learning using the homepage was a difficult task.<p> Directors demonstrated a heightened level of commitment to the scholarship of teaching and learning and to the development and enhancement of teaching practice. They were aware that they made decisions about the tone of the homepage through their management of the use and demand of homepage space. They were continually challenged to stay abreast of the evolving scholarship of the teaching and learning landscape and their style of decision-making was flexible.<p> Directors play many roles in the administration and management of teaching and learning centres (Cook & Sorcinelli, 2005; Wright, 1999). As a result of this study and the use of the case study method, it is apparent, in the examination of the four cases, that the design of the homepage evolved from the director role as design researcher (Laurel, 2003). Directors epitomized the type of self-reflection that characterizes scholarship generally (Kreber, 2007); these directors were reflective practitioners and researchers in the design of their homepages.<p> Directors identified the need for increased interactivity on the site and the prominence they believed the site will have in the role of desktop professional training and development of faculty. Examining the implications for future homepage design as the critical mass of scholars in teaching and learning moves through the professional education ranks within and among universities would be an intriguing research topic.

The purpose of this study is to uncover the principles that inform a teacher’s dialogic behaviour, and shape her feelings, and to understand the implications of these principles for multiple aspects of pedagogic practice. I investigate the principles that underpin an emotional practice for two teachers, Julia and Lydia, and their Year 10 science lower band learners. Towards this goal, I approach the theory and empirical data in this study in ways that create opportunities for researching teachers’ emotions that other approaches do not: I examine patterns, commonality and relationships across conditions and over time to reveal within-person differences, and differences between persons, for Julia and Lydia’s emotional practice. In addition, I outline discursive models of analysis that open up the space for investigating the role of teachers’ emotions in ways that other conceptual and methodological frameworks do not: I expand models of analysis to different descriptive and classificatory systems to maintain the integrity of the object. I bring together multiple theoretical perspectives to build a multilevel theory that provides comprehensive insight into teachers’ emotions. I also specify the nature of interactions between levels, for the multilevel theory, to enable cross-validation and cumulative evidence building. The research findings for this study coincide with and expand upon the findings for previous studies on teachers’ emotions. Julia’s emotions interact with her science teaching in powerful ways and realize an emotional practice of strong feelings, and ‘grand’ narratives. In contrast, Lydia’s emotions interact with her science teaching in ways that promote solidarity and realize an emotional practice of graded feelings, and multiple narratives. I extend upon the language of description in this study to take into account the teachers’ meaning-making relevant to their appraisal processes and emotions. The potential for research into teachers’ emotions is expanded in this study through the synthesis of different descriptive and classificatory systems, and categories. In addition, the research findings provide insight into the relative costs and benefits of different models of emotion for multiple levels of pedagogic practice.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--Regis University, Denver, Colo., 2007. / Title from PDF title page (viewed on Oct. 30, 2007). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M. Ed)--University of Hong Kong, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 134-139).

Thesis (M.Ed)--University of Hong Kong, 1992. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 134-139). Also available in print.

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