This thesis describes a pretest - posttest study to increase the effectiveness of art journals at the high school level. The targeted population consisted of students in the ninth through twelfth grades in a middle class community, located in central Virginia. The visual art students were involved in the journaling (art workbook, sketchbook) process as a part of their curriculum. Following a pretest students were surveyed and adjustments were made from their input to make the art journals more effective. Often students were not picking up instructional cues introduced through demonstrations and art history integrated into the class structure. The researcher was concerned about the impact of standardized testing and the effect it was having on critical thinking. He hypothesized improved journaling techniques would facilitate the connection between class participation and student art projects.A review of the solution strategy revealed a need to adjust the number of pages required, provide more visual cues for research, and offer alternative two-dimensional design strategies. While these changes were made, the assessment tool was maintained as a consistent standard of measurement. Post intervention data indicated that adjustments to the journaling process significantly improved student's effective involvement and their scores.

The current study was an extension of research reported by Krohn (2010), which showed that daily credit for self-reported participation in designated credit units tended to balance participation across students (i.e., fewer non-participants, more credit-level participants, and fewer dominant participants). The purpose of the current study was to determine if similar results would be achieved by randomly selecting half of the discussion days in designated credit units for participation credit. The study was done in 3 large sections of an undergraduate class (approximately 54 students per class). Students self-recorded their in-class comments each day on specially designed record cards. At the end of each pre-selected unit, instructors randomly selected discussion days and awarded credit based on the number of comments made on the days randomly selected. Three credit points were given for each student’s first comment and two additional points for a second comment. The findings of the current study differed in several ways from those of Krohn’s (2010) comparison study. The differences mainly related to baseline percentages of different levels of participation. Compared to the current study, Krohn’s study had a higher percentage of non-participants, fewer credit-level participants, fewer frequent participants, and more dominant participants. The disparities between the baseline levels of Krohn’s study and the current study made treatment effects more difficult to achieve in the latter study. Nonetheless, there were fewer non-participants and more credit-level and frequent participants during credit units than in non-credit units. Secondarily, a survey was given at the beginning of the course to analyze student beliefs regarding participation. Using the same survey, Krohn (2010) extracted three primary factors: 1) Personal Benefits of Participation, 2) Expectation for Discussion in College Classes, and 3) Personal History and Confidence Regarding Participation. The same three factors were also examined separately and in combination in the current study. Results showed the three-factor model to predict student participation levels better than the total survey. In addition, students were given the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal at the onset of the course. A logistic regression indicated that exam and critical thinking scores, in combination, significantly predicted student participation levels.

This study investigated the impact of several affective, cognitive, and demographic entering characteristics of students and their experiences of the psychosocial, instructional and managerial, physical, and course-related materials aspects of the classroom environment in accounting for three language learning outcomes / class participation, study habits, and English achievement. The subjects of the study (N = 519) were the preparatory class students of various departments of Erciyes University in Kayseri who received a one-year English instruction at Erciyes University School of Foreign Languages (EUSFL) during the academic year 2001-2002. In line with the &ldquo / Input-Context-Outcome&rdquo / research framework of the study, the data were gathered from the students through self-report questionnaires and school records prior to (Input-entering student characteristics variables), during (Context- classroom environment variables), and at the end (Outcome) of the specified instructional period (one-semester), which were subjected to various applications of Multivariate Linear Regression procedures. The findings indicated different patterns of relationships depending on the type of outcome assessed with significant predictors from both input and context classes. In descending order of effect size, the significant predictors of class participation were teacher supportiveness, involvement, satisfaction with course materials, speaking anxiety, self-concept, task orientation and organization, effort, student cohesiveness, physical conditions, overall academic achievement, and previous exposure, which altogether accounted for 74 % of the variance in students&rsquo / levels of class participation. The amount of variance accounted for study habits was 40 %, with involvement, overall academic achievement, self-concept, student residence, and gender emerging as significant predictors. As for the English achievement criterion, overall academic achievement, teacher supportiveness, self-concept, involvement, satisfaction with course materials, previous exposure, and student residence were significant predictors which accounted for 56 % of the overall variance. The findings are discussed in light of relevant theory and empirical research and suggestions are made for pedagogical practices and further research directions.