The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between academic intrinsic motivation and positive teacher verbal feedback, negative teacher verbal feedback, and student aptitude for academic work. The research questions evolved from the Cognitive Evaluation Theory of Edward Deci (Deci & Ryan, 1985) in which intrinsic motivation develops out of a sense of competence and self-determination. In that teacher verbal feedback to students provide messages about academic competence, it was hypothesized that positive verbal feedback would enhance intrinsic motivation and negative verbal feedback would be detrimental to intrinsic motivation.;The subjects for the study were 368 fourth and fifth grade students. Student academic intrinsic motivation was measured by a questionnaire developed by Harter (1981). Aptitude was assessed with the Cognitive Abilities Test (Thorndike & Hagen, 1985). Negative and positive teacher verbal feedback reactions were determined by classroom observers who coded all teacher verbal feedback reactions to the students in accordance with the observation system developed by Brophy and Good (1969). Through factor analysis the positive feedback factor and the negative feedback factor were formed from the verbal feedback categories loading with those factors.;Results revealed that both aptitude and positive verbal feedback correlate positively with academic intrinsic motivation. Aptitude for school work, positive verbal feedback, and grade level contributed about 8% of the total variance of intrinsic motivation. Negative verbal feedback did not contribute to the prediction of the level of intrinsic motivation. Due to the low level of variance attributed to these factors, conclusions which could be drawn are limited. However, it was suggested that in addition to studying factors influencing the sense of competency, classroom factors which would contribute to a sense of autonomy need to be included in future studies.

No description available.

Parents and caregivers across the nation are seeking ways to restructure education and provide new opportunities for their children. Among the alternative educational options, home schooling seems to be at the forefront. The research pertaining to home schooling is growing; however, there are still areas that need considerable attention. The purpose of this study was to investigate selected aspects of home schooling, also known as Competent Private Instruction (CPI) in Iowa, mainly the choice of curriculum and factors associated with that choice. The current study examined (a) the demographic characteristics of the selected population, (b) the type of curriculum used by home schooling families, (c) demographic characteristics associated with the type of curriculum chosen, (d) the adoption of a faith-based curriculum, and (e) the demographic characteristics associated with the adoption of a faith-based curriculum. Primary data were obtained for 4 of 12 area educational agencies (AEAs) in Iowa for the school years 2003-2004 and 2004-2005 from information provided on Form A, which was required by the Iowa Department of Education to be completed by home school families. These data were grouped into regions for easier comparisons. Results of the data analysis indicated that the demographic characteristics of the selected population were similar to those reported in national studies. Parents primarily chose a prepackaged curriculum for both reading and math instruction, and the majority of the curriculum in all areas was largely faith based. In addition, the region of Eastern Iowa was significantly more faith based than the Western or Central region. No significant interactions were found between age, gender, or days of instruction and the type of curriculum or the adoption of a faith-based curriculum.

The number of students taking American Sign Language (ASL) at the post-secondary level continues to increase as more Deaf-related graduate programs and employment settings require fluent ASL skills. Western Oregon University (WOU) is one of the few existing programs in the United States that offers four years of ASL instruction; however, as a rural university it has limited access to a Deaf community. The problem of practice is that students often have little exposure to rich language models who are fluent in ASL, which impacts their legitimate peripheral participation (LPP) in the local Deaf communities of practice (CoPs) and reduces apprenticeship opportunities that might be beneficial for their language acquisition experiences. While research suggests that direct engagement with language models has a significant impact on language acquisition and fluency in general, there is scant literature in the field of ASL that addresses this connection. My dissertation research addressed this gap in the literature. To address my problem of practice, I used a qualitative research design with both descriptive and comparative research questions to complete three case studies. Using semi-structured interviews, this study explored participants' attitudes and beliefs about their experience in local Deaf CoPs. The three participants in my study were Western Oregon University students enrolled in ASL 8 course. Data analyses included inductive analysis of qualitative data, a within case analysis, and a cross-case analysis. Findings showed that participants were interested in moving past LPP in local Deaf CoPs, and were interested in identifying apprenticeship opportunities because they realized the importance of engaging with native language models.

Low achievement in reading is a concern in a suburban school in the southeastern part of Florida. In an attempt to combat this issue, the school's administration has focused on teaching disciplinary literacy in content area classes, specifically social studies. In addition, the state standards also require that social studies teachers meet the Reading for History/Social Studies standards. Despite the effort put forth by the administration, there has yet to be an assessment of the social studies teachers' knowledge of the Reading for History/Social Studies standards or the instructional practices used to meet these standards. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore social studies teachers' knowledge of the Reading for History/Social Studies standards and the instructional practices utilized to meet the demands of these standards. Shulman's theory of pedagogical content knowledge framed this study, as it explores the need for teachers to be knowledgeable in both content and pedagogy. A purposeful sample of 10 social studies teachers participated in an interview and an instructional observation and submitted documents for review. Data were analyzed using hand coding for themes. The study results showed that teachers had concerns for the pacing of their course, their knowledge/preparation, and professional development opportunities. Based on the data, a 3 half-day professional development program was created to target social studies teachers' understanding of the Reading for History/Social Studies Florida Standards and their knowledge of disciplinary literacy instruction. This program may contribute to positive social change in helping social studies teachers effectively implement disciplinary literacy instruction, thus increasing student achievement in reading.

An administration of a private school located in the south reported the problem of a lack of curriculum fidelity to a new phonics program, which created a need to identify barriers preventing full curriculum implementation. Using the concerns-based adoption model (CBAM) as the conceptual framework, this qualitative case study identified concerns and barriers teachers report when implementing a new curriculum and used the. Data were collected from 10 participants (8 teachers and 2 administrators) through a questionnaire, interviews, and observations. Participants were interviewed to identify any barriers experienced with curriculum fidelity of a new phonics program. Teachers were observed to determine which components of the curriculum were present in or omitted from their lessons. Participants completed a questionnaire to determine their levels of concern when asked to implement a new curriculum. Results indicated that teachers required additional information before the expected implementations occur and an understanding of demands on their personal time. Common themes showed a desire for professional development (PD), peer-collaboration, and access to curriculum resources, which served as the basis for the project. The resulting project integrated PD to address concerns connected to reoccurring themes. Implications for social change include change at a systematic level by providing administrators with data to support teachers during curriculum changes and substantiation for the benefits of understanding concerns prior to a change for improving curriculum fidelity.

This study tests Ogbu and Simons' Cultural-Ecological Theory of School Performance using data from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study of 2001 (PIRLS), a large-scale international survey and reading assessment involving fourth grade students from 35 countries, including the United States. This theory argues that Black immigrant students outperform their non-immigrant counterparts, academically, and that achievement differences are attributed to stronger educational commitment in Black immigrant families. Four hypotheses are formulated to test this theory: Black immigrant students have (a) more receptive attitudes toward reading; (b) a more positive reading self-concept; and (c) a higher level of reading literacy. Furthermore, (d) the relationship of immigrant status to reading perceptions and literacy persists after including selected predictors. These hypotheses are tested separately for girls and boys, while also examining immigrant students' generational status (i.e., foreign-born or second-generation). PIRLS data from a subset of Black students (N=525) in the larger U.S. sample of 3,763 are analyzed to test the hypotheses, using analysis of variance, correlation and multiple regression techniques. Findings reveal that hypotheses a and b are not confirmed (contradicting the Cultural-Ecological Theory) and c and d are partially supported (lending partial support to the theory). Specifically, immigrant and non-immigrant students did not differ in attitudes toward reading or reading self-concept; second generation immigrant boys outperformed both non-immigrant and foreign-born immigrant boys in reading literacy, but no differences were found among girls; and, while being second-generation immigrant had a relatively stronger relationship to reading literacy for boys, among girls, selected socio-cultural predictors, number of books in the home and length of U.S. residence, had relatively stronger relationship to reading self concept than did immigrant status. This study, therefore, indicates that future research employing the Cultural-Ecological Theory should: (a) take gender and generational status into account (b) identify additional socio-cultural predictors of Black children's academic perceptions and performance; and (c) continue to build on this body of evidence-based knowledge to better inform educational policy and school personnel in addressing needs of all children.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of cross-age peer writing response groups on the writing and reading achievement of third and fourth grade students. Students' attitudes about writing and their perceptions of themselves as writers were also measured at the end of the study. One hundred and twenty-two third and fourth grade students enrolled in a public school in a middle-class, mulit-cultural neighborhood participated in the study. Four existing classes of students were randomly assigned to either the experimental condition (EC) or the control condition (CC). Both groups were pretested and posttested for writing and reading achievement. The intervention, cross-age peer writing groups, met for eleven weeks. Three hypotheses were examined in this study: (a) writing improvement score, (b) reading comprehension improvement score, and (c) students' attitudes toward writing and their perception of themselves as writers based on the five scales measured on the Writer Self-Perception Scale. ANOVAs were done on the pretests and posttests for writing and the Stanford Achievement Test reading comprehension subtest scores for the year of the study and the previous year. ANOVAs were also done for the five areas of the Writer Self-Perception Scale. Cross-tabulations were also used to compare improvement level verses treatment group, and grade level. Analysis of the data revealed that there was no evidence that the tutoring (EC) groups made more progress than the non-tutoring (CC) groups in writing and reading. There was evidence of growth in writing, especially by the fourth graders. Most importantly, the fourth grade tutors, the experimental group, had the most positive feelings about writing and themselves as writers.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 39-11, Section: A, page: 6507. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1978.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 39-11, Section: A, page: 6512. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1978.