Learning to read has been a critically important topic in scholastic, academic, and governmental discussion for many decades. Literacy, considered to be the backbone of successful nations, has demonstrated an imperative role in the development of citizens who can contribute to the growth and betterment of society. Numerous studies have focused on the typical and struggling student, how language and literacy skills are acquired, and what factors are responsible for difficulties in this process. Far less is known about the nature of highly proficient reading skills and the development thereof. Recent concerns expressed by educational, business, and scientific communities reveal a deficit in highly proficient high school and college graduates, suggesting that US status as a leading world power may be jeopardized if more highly able students do not emerge to compete in the global marketplace. Three perspectives on highly proficient reading from the extant literature are discussed herein: (1) the inherency perspective where highly proficient reading is characterized as an innate trait; (2) the expertise perspective where highly proficient reading is developed over time; and (3) the inherency with a focus on development of skills perspective, where both innate abilities and development and other sources of influence are thought to contribute to highly proficient reading; a bridge between the two. Consequently, this study aims to uncover the nature and development of language and literacy skills and early predictors of highly proficient reading achievement. Utilizing a longitudinal data sample of nearly 1,000 students, developmental trajectories and skill constellations of readers were examined. Latent profile analysis, latent growth curves, and multinomial logistic regression were used to elucidate the nature of skills highly proficient readers possess, their paths to such levels of achievement, and whether preschool status in reading and/or growth across time predicted students' later reading achievement, understanding that the stronger predictor may vary with the constellation of fifth grade literacy skills observed. Results suggest that heterogeneous and homogeneous profiles of language and literacy skills characterize student achievement in elementary school. These constellations of skills are characterized by growth trajectories which vary significantly between profiles, suggesting that both preschool status and growth are unique characteristics of each. Predictions of latent profile membership also varied by predictor as well as by profile membership. Overall, preschool reading skills were associated with greater odds of being highly proficient at fifth grade, followed closely by reading skill growth. Early vocabulary skills and growth were also associated with increased odds of attaining proficient and highly proficient reading skills by fifth grade, as well as distinguishing odds of membership in profiles with heterogeneous constellations of skills (strong decoding and/or reading comprehension and relatively weaker vocabulary) from those characterized by consistently high language and literacy skills. Overall, the perspective of inherency with an emphasis on development of skills seems to best describe the profiles, paths of literacy growth, and predicted achievement associated with highly proficient reading. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Teacher Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2009. / December 8, 2008. / Latent Class Analysis, Latent Profile Analysis, Literacy, Langauge, Profiles, Growth Curve Modeling / Includes bibliographical references. / Carol McDonald Connor, Professor Directing Dissertation; Steven Pfeiffer, Outside Committee Member; Laura Hassler Lang, Committee Member; Young Suk Kim, Committee Member.

This study fulfils one cycle of design research that seeks to build a didactical model for the instruction of prime numbers and related mathematical ideas in accordance with the theoretical principles of Realistic Mathematics Education. Taking the context of online information security as a realistic starting point, the Primes in Context using Technology (PiC-T) instructional sequence was developed that supports learning trajectories connecting a series of fundamental mathematical ideas with the support of technological tools. In a two-week classroom teaching experiment, a PiC-T hypothetical learning trajectory was implemented using a mobile computer station with a class of 17 high-achieving middle school students in their classroom. Data sources include interviews, student-generated artifacts, field notes, video-taped classroom sessions, student online activities, and daily debriefings. Data analysis under the emergent perspective on classroom research led to five themes that ran across the teaching experiment. First, students reported that they were experiencing meaningful mathematics that was useful, connected, and centered around problem solving. Second, students felt that they were well supported by contextual models, technology, and whole class interactions. Third, students felt that they were constantly distracted by a variety of factors in the learning environment, including the problem contexts, the computers, and fellow students. Fourth, students' experience along the PiC-T trajectory was deeply intertwined with their personal beliefs about the use of technology, the context, mathematics, and learning mathematics. Lastly, students' experience was under the constant influence of the social structure of the classroom community. While meaningful mathematics learning remained a recurring theme throughout the data set, other themes coexisted with the emergence of taken-as-shared mathematical conceptions. Mathematically speaking, the teaching experiment led to the initial establishment of four major mathematical practices among the participants. First, factoring was recognized as a complex mathematical procedure beyond routine number manipulations. Second, relatively prime numbers were gradually established as numbers that do not share common factors. Third, modular arithmetic was approached from the perspective of remainders. Fourth, the unit group, which integrates prime numbers, relatively prime numbers, and modular arithmetic, was investigated as a mathematical structure full of puzzling and interesting patterns. Taking this study as a paradigmatic case, future research efforts should explore the value of the PiC-T sequence with other student populations, including preservice and inservice mathematics teachers, and further consider its theoretical implication for instructional design involving other fundamental ideas of mathematics within the theory of Realistic Mathematics Education, especially when technology is an integral part of instruction. Throughout the text, all participants' names are pseudonyms that are intentionally chosen to reflect their ethnic backgrounds. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Teacher Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2008. / June 26, 2008. / Number Theory, Prime Number, Didactical Model, Realistic Mathematics Education, Learning Trajectory, Design Research, Technology / Includes bibliographical references. / Maria L. Fernández, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Kenneth L. Shaw, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Monica K. Hurdal, Outside Committee Member; Leslie N. Aspinwall, Committee Member; J. Michael Spector, Committee Member.

The interest in raising levels of achievement in math and science has led to a focus on investigating the factors that shape achievement in these subjects (Lamb & Fullarton, 2002) as well as understanding how these factors operate across countries (Baker, Fabrega, Galindo, & Mishook, 2004). The current study examined the individual student factors and classroom factors on fourth grade science achievement within and across five countries. Guided by the previous school learning models, the elements of students' science learning were categorized as student-level and classroom-level factors. The student-level factors included gender, self-confidence in science, and home resources. The classroom-level factors included teacher characteristics, instructional variables and classroom composition. Results for the United States and four other countries, Singapore, Japan, Australia, and Scotland were reported. Multilevel effects of student and classroom variables were examined through Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) using the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2003 fourth grade dataset. The outcome variable was the TIMSS 2003 science score. Overall, the results of this study showed that selected student background characteristics were consistently related to elementary science achievement in countries investigated. At the student-level, higher levels of home resources and self-confidence and at the classroom-level, higher levels of class mean home resources yielded higher science scores on the TIMSS 2003. In general, teacher and instructional variables were minimally related to science achievement. There was evidence of positive effects of teacher support in the U.S. and Singapore. The emphasis on science inquiry was positively related to science achievement in Singapore and negatively related in the U.S. and Australia. Experimental studies that investigate the impacts of teacher and instructional factors on elementary science achievement are needed. For all the countries investigated, with the exception of Singapore, the between-class variance was much smaller than the within-class variance. Japan had the smallest variation in science achievement among classrooms which indicates the homogeneity across classrooms in Japan. Increasing awareness and knowledge of gender neutral instructional techniques, providing a non-threatening, rich and supportive environment for both genders in classrooms by elementary teachers are to be encouraged. To improve students' self beliefs about science, it is recommended that teachers model science activities and accommodate students' needs and abilities (Bandura, 1997; Britner & Pajares, 2006). Schools and teachers are recommended to develop a successful home-school partnership for improved student learning and positive attitudes toward science (Eccles & Harold, 1996; Epstein & Salinas, 2004). Furthermore, developing a knowledge base for teachers regarding the influences of classroom and school composition is highlighted (Honig, Kahne, & McLaughlin, 2001; Murrel, 2001). At the classroom- and school-level, policy efforts could focus on the distribution of educational resources (Condron & Roscigno, 2003; Goesling, 2003) to compensate for poor family background. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Teacher Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2008. / October 21, 2008. / Classroom-Level, Timss, Self-Confidence, Home Resources, Teacher Support, Science Inquiry, Classroom Composition, Science Achievement, Student-Level, School Learning Models / Includes bibliographical references. / Diana C. Rice, Professor Directing Dissertation; Robert A. Schwartz, Outside Committee Member; Ithel Jones, Committee Member; Carol Connor, Committee Member.

The purpose of this experimental study was two-fold. The first purpose was to explore the levels of self-efficacy of pre-service teachers regarding their own reading and writing processes and their abilities to be effective literacy leaders. The second purpose was to implement two different interventions in literacy instruction for pre-service teachers: an innovative Reflections Interactive Notebook and a traditional Reader's Response Journal. The differences between outcomes of the two interventions were analyzed. Pre-service teachers from Florida State University (N =65) were randomly assigned from 3 beginning reading methods courses to receive a 6-week intervention utilizing the Reflections Interactive Notebook or Reader's Response Journals. Before intervention began, students were given a pre-test in the form of open-ended and Likert scale questions to determine their beliefs, self-efficacy, and knowledge of the content area of literacy. In addition to descriptive statistics for the open-ended portion of the survey, a Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was used to examine the effects of the two interventions. After determining a significant effect in MANOVA, Wilks's λ= .896, F (3,124)=4.811, p / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Teacher Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2011. / February 17, 2011. / self-efficacy, beliefs, knowledge of content, literacy instruction, pre-service teachers / Includes bibliographical references. / Mary Frances Hanline, Professor Directing Dissertation; Briley Proctor, University Representative; Shelbie Witte, Committee Member; Jeanne A. Wanzek, Committee Member.

Includes bibliographies. / At a time when existing social and educational structures are rightly open to question and debate, the White colleges cannot escape the same scrutiny and evaluation. Such criticism must address not only the morality of separate provision for student teachers of different races, but must also raise questions concerning the preservation of the undergraduate route to the teaching profession and the justification for the teacher education offered at institutions such as the Cape Town Teachers' College (hereafter referred to as the College). This dissertation outlines the steps by which an enquiry which began as a modest attempt to give greater coherence to the components of the teacher education course developed into a deeper search to reconcile educational theory, subject knowledge and professional skills in the Professional Studies programme. Although many necessary and well-received changes were effected, there was a growing consciousness of the eclectic and piecemeal nature of such innovations. While most lecturers were united in their rejection of Christian National Education (CNE) as an underlying philosophy, there was need for an agreed matrix or core of assumptions about the nature and purpose of educational enterprise to give conceptual coherence and meaningful structure to the College task. Such a perspective was required to provide this basis and yet to retain sufficient width to preserve the rich diversity of opinion and outlook which are themselves enriching to an institution.

本研究嘗試採用論述性制度主義框架，分析自 1949 年以降，中國的教師教育制度的形成與轉變。本研究旨在指出，了解社會主義國家如何論釋、理解及應對關於教師和教師訓媡與教育的預期及理解之過程是十分重要的，這些預期及理解通常具體表現為不同國家的教育思想及經驗。本研究提出論述性組合框架，以說明在不同時間，這些預期及理解如何被描述及解釋。這將有助於增進社會學對文化交流與互動之動態的了解，避免墮入制度分析中常見的趨同論及趨異論之間過於簡約化的爭論當中。 / The current study attempts to adopt a discursive institutionalist perspective to examine the formation and transformation of the teacher education institution of China since 1949. It argues that it is important to delineate how the different expectations and understandings about the teachers and their training and education from the different cultural contexts, often manifested as the educational ideas and experiences from different countries, may be interpreted, understood, and responded to by the socialist state. The current study has advanced the framework of discursive configuration to delineate how these expectations and understandings have been specified and justified across time. It contributes to enrich the sociological understanding of the dynamics of cultural interactions and exchanges without falling into the trap of overly simplistic arguments for convergence or divergence common in conventional institutional analysis. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Ho, Ching Wai. / Thesis (Ph.D.) Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2014. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 174-197). / Abstracts also in Chinese.

The purpose of the study was to determine the effect of recommendations from selected educational reports and state mandates on curriculum, standards and policy in teacher education programs. The survey population included deans of teacher education in thirty-five public and private colleges in the states of Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina. The study also determined the attitude of the deans regarding the recommendations from the selected reports and state mandates in the survey states and colleges. The recommendations analyzed in the study were from the reports: A Nation At Risk. The Imperative for Education Reform, High School. A Report on Secondary Education in America, Meeting-the Need for Quality. Action in-the South, Paideia Proposal: An Educational-Manifesto, and A Place Called School. Prospects for the Future.A thirty item questionnaire containing recommendations from the selected reports and state mandates related to states surveyed was developed and utilized. Six research questions were tested statistically by use of percent response, Pearson Product-Moment Correlation,analysis of variance and covariance, and Chi-Square. The .05 level of significance was established as the critical probability level for the significant results. The .01 level was also indicated to further identify levels of significance.Conclusions1. There was a greater tendency for the deans of teacher education to agree with the recommendations that had been implemented and a tendency to disagree with the recommendations that were not implemented.2. The majority of the recommendations that were standard oriented were implemented or proposed for implementation.3. A majority of the recommendations that were policy oriented were not considered for implementation.4. The majority of the deans did not favor recommendations that stressed stringent standards regarding the admittance of students to teacher education programs.5. The majority of the deans did not favor reform in curriculum such as the recommendations related to pedagogy and teaching methods, and were divided between disagree and undecided regarding the merits of a five year teacher education program.6. The type of institution did make a difference when responding to recommendations from the reports. The private colleges favored more of the recommendations that were curricula oriented. The public colleges favored more recommendations that were standard oriented. The majorityof the predominantly black colleges did not favor recommendations that emphasized raising the entrance and exit standards in teacher education.This study found that state mandates had greatest influence on teacher education since the release of the national reform reports of 1983-1984. The national reports were not found to have significant influence on teacher education reform regarding implementation of suggested reform; however, the attitudes of the deans supported such reform effort in teacher education.

Professional development of early childhood teachers is a topic with tangible meaning for children birth through five and their families who are served through early care and education services. This study was conducted to assess the availability and accessibility of formal professional development programs that offer college credit and to identify strengths and weaknesses in faculty dynamics, the provision of curricula, and articulation of credit among institutions of higher education in Florida. The education of early childhood teachers has been identified in previous research as having positive effects on child outcomes, particularly for children who are from low-income families. Research on professional development was necessary to determine if quality educational opportunities are available and accessible for early childhood teachers seeking higher education. Research included examination of formal systems of early childhood education. Faculty representatives from 34 of 38 institutions of higher education in Florida that offer early childhood or child development degrees comprised the sample members for assessment. This was accomplished through replication of research, first conducted by Early and Winton (2001) with a national sample. The purpose of the current research was to provide accurate baseline data about the number of programs in Florida offering early childhood degrees, the characteristics of faculty in those programs and the kinds of coursework and practica experiences provided to students; and to describe the challenges faced by faculty members in meeting the professional development needs of the early childhood workforce. Findings included descriptive information on curricular content and coverage for early childhood or child development programs in Florida, comparisons of 2-year versus 4-year programs, and comparisons to findings in the national sample. Results are presented in terms of the early childhood student and implications for accessibility, availability, and comprehensibility of the early childhood or child development programs within Florida IHEs. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Family and Child Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2004. / November 1, 2004. / Child Development, Early Childhood Education, Professional Development, Teacher Preparation / Includes bibliographical references. / Ann K. Mullis, Professor Directing Dissertation; Sande D. Milton, Outside Committee Member; Ronald L. Mullis, Committee Member; Christine A. Readdick, Committee Member.

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Call number: LD2668 .T4 1939 H51 / Master of Science