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The purpose of this study is to explore how the Arabic novel can and does challenge the conventional characterization of what constitutes constructive Middle East historiography. The thesis draws on a case study of undergraduate history course syllabi in order to highlight a number of crucial issues related to Arabic literature and the production of modern Middle East history. My analysis of the syllabi concludes that in general, Arabic novels in translation are part of a varied group of resources selected by a professor in order to complement the "official" histories provided by textbooks and government documents. The novel is deemed helpful because it often describes the "ordinary" or daily life of people. Also, the novel is presented as the contribution of an "indigenous voice" to the historical narrative.

The ethnographic study reported in this dissertation examines the articulation process of six informants, three undergraduate and three graduate students, as they made the transition from an intensive English program into mainstream university courses at a medium-sized Midwestern university.The research attempted to determine what needs students had as they made this transition, looking at several factors, including variables in the background of informants, differences in the experiences between undergraduate and graduate students, variables in the environment encountered, actions on the part of informants that helped or hindered in making the transition, actions on the part of instructors that helped or hindered in making the transition, and finally, areas in which the intensive English program could make improvements.The primary means of data gathering for this study was through informant interviews, all of which were tape-recorded, with pertinent sections later being transcribed. The questions asked during these interviews ranged from relatively closed-ended questions from prepared interview schedules to more open-ended, individualized questions based on previous responses. Interviews were first conducted while informants were still studying at the Intensive English Program. Subsequent interviews were held at three to four week intervals during the semester in which informants first began their mainstream university courses. / Department of English

The employment of International Teaching Assistants in U.S. universities has caused concern with regards to the communicative competence of nonnative speaker TAs in undergraduate classrooms. Researchers such as Rounds (1985), Bryd (1986), Constantino (1986), Tyler (1990), Shaw (1994), and Hoekje and Williams (1994), among others have suggested that more research is needed on the performance of nonnative speaker TAs in specific disciplines.This study is an-attempt to describe the discourse skills of nonnative speaker TAs in Computer Science. The speech event of twelve nonnative speaker TAs was observed and video and audiotaped in teaching lecture and laboratory (programming session) classes. Three native speaker TAs of the same profession were also studied as a comparison group. A profile of each of the TAs was made based on field notes, interviews and student evaluations, to determine TA typologies along Bailey's (1982,1984) classification. The profiles also contributed to grouping the TAs into more skillful and less skillful TAs.The classroom observations were analyzed to determine whether NNSTAs encountered difficulty speaking comprehensibly and explaining the computer science concepts clearly. The other questions investigated included: the apparent degree and ease of student comprehension of the teachers; the amount of student participation allowed and encouraged; the degree of interaction in the classes; and the amount of rapport between the NNSTAs and their students.The rhetorical analysis of the discourse structure of the computer science classrooms revealed two genres. Descriptive discourse was predominant in the lecture sessions and procedural discourse was predominant in the programming sessions. Linguists have shown that there are interesting connections between discourse type and the interlocutor's choice of particular syntactic structures. The investigations in this study showed that the successful NNSTAs complied with these connections and the less successful NNSTAs did not. The discourse problems of nonnative speaker TAs stemmed mainly from their inability to use various cohesive ties and deictic markers appropriately.Finally, the study showed that despite pronunciation and grammatical deficiencies, NNSTAs' success in their classes was determined by their speech acts. The moreinteractive TAs who employed various illocutionary acts to transact disciplinary information were the more skillful TAs. / Department of English

This is what experts are saying: African American students need a "dynamic curriculum" in order to gain the competitive edge over their peers (Marshall, 1992). Top educators and industry executives at the 1993 Annual CHRIE Conference stated that "hospitality schools need to overhaul their curricula if they are to be more relevant in today’s market place" (Walkup, 1993). The purpose of the research project was to obtain information on how the curricula of HPBCUs with hospitality administration programs compared to ACPHA standards. The study sought information from those institutions of higher education and made comparisons based on ACPHA standards and expert reviewers. The study was aimed primarily at identifying the strengths and weaknesses of the HPBCUs’ curricula using the ACPHA standards as the foundation. A total of 11 HPBCUS were evaluated by 18 ACPHA reviewers. The reviewers compared the HPBCUs’ curricula to ACPHA standards using a Likert-type scale (4=Superior, 3=Satisfactory, 2=Unsatisfactory, 1=Poor). Each HPBCU curriculum was evaluated by two reviewers. Forty percent of the institutions received an approval rating for accreditation and 40% were deferred accreditation. The remaining 20% were denied the accreditation status. All accrediting decisions reflected curriculum only. It was recommended that the 11 HPBCUs follow ACPHA standards to ensure the quality of education being offered. It was also recommended that the HPBCUs’ curricula be revised to reflect areas of hospitality administration deemed necessary by ACPHA. / Master of Science

This study is an historical-philosophical analysis of art education in elementary, secondary, and normal schools in the United States from 1883 to 1910 as revealed through the Journal of Proceedings and Addresses of the National Education Association. Its purposes are to define and describe the role, practices, and status of art education as related to or influenced by selected philosophies, psychologies, theories of learning, and research, along with other prevalent factors such as the scientific, industrial movements, and mores of the period. Art education was found in an admitted state of infancy as the period began. 1883 marked its initial separation from the Manual Training Department and first recognition as an entity. This study of its status traces growth and improvement to a point of tentative public acceptance, and re-attachment of the Art Department to the Manual Training Department as an equal partner. Evidence presented seemed to indicate that progress had been made by art education in several important ways. School administrators had recognized that art did have a legitimate role in education, and a national organization had been formed to act as a forum. A uniform course of study had been presented, and current research in mental development had been considered. The scope of art instruction had been broadened to better serve educational and practical needs. Facilities had been improved, and there was a growing number of trained teachers and supervisors.

This research is an in-depth study of an environment-based education (EBE) professional development program titled "Creeks and Kids" that models how to employ thematic instruction about watersheds using the environment of a school and its community as a context to integrate teaching and learning about water across core subject areas. This case study investigates the EBE characteristics of the Creeks and Kids Workshop and explores how they adhere to the National Research Council's Standards for Professional Development for Teachers of Science. A mixed-methods analysis gathered qualitative data about the overall experience of teacher-participants during the Creeks and Kids Workshop and employed quantitative measures to identify evidence of success related to teachers' gains in knowledge, affect, confidence and intent to act to implement water-focused EBE curriculum in their classrooms. The findings of the study build upon existing research about what teachers need to implement EBE and their beliefs regarding what professional development should provide in relation to those needs. Qualitative results revealed that teachers need an EBE professional development program to include: 1) practical ways to integrate environmental education into their existing curricula and school settings; and, 2) direct experience with activities and field studies that are interdisciplinary, hands-on and inquiry-driven. Teacher-participants identified these characteristics as vital for them to effect a change in teaching practice and build their confidence to engage their students in EBE when they return to the classroom. Quantitative results revealed statistically significant gains across knowledge, affect, confidence and intent to act variables using the t-test statistic to compare means of participants' responses from the pre- to post-workshop questionnaires. The results of this study have broader implications for future educational research on: 1) the ways in which EBE professional development programs can support teachers to gain the knowledge, skills and confidence to implement interdisciplinary teaching for student learning about the environment; 2) the methods teachers use to employ EBE teaching strategies in the classroom; and, 3) how EBE helps teachers across disciplines collaborate with one another to implement practical and effective ways to improve students' critical thinking skills and knowledge across multiple subjects.

The purpose of our study is to analyze a British parent education program called "The First Years of Life" and compare it with some programs and educational services of similar content in America. We hope to ascertain whether "The First Years of Life," as presented by the Open University, affords a better means of providing information than some programs now existent in the United States offering prenatal and parent education.

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