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.

No description available.

The field of organizational learning (OL) has been characterized by a wide diversity of opinions, definitions, and conceptualizations. After the publish of Senge's ¡mThe fifth discipline¡Gthe art and practice of the learning organization¡n, OL becomes a biblical important management topic after 1990s. In Taiwan, many business enterprises have been continuously accumulated OL management practices for near 20 years. However, the researches about how to build learning organization or OL were inadequate and insufficient empirical studies are made. This paper is an exploratory research employs mainly the ¡§case study¡¨ method to study the OL activities and processes in a Taiwanese company (C Company), an OL pioneer of practice, which has been continuously establishing OL for over 10 years without stop even facing the financial crisis. In C¡¦s case, 2-stage OL transformations are demonstrated with different learning strategy, value, structures, mental models, and results/consequences The major findings of this study are summarized as following: 1.The C company leader¡¦s personal experience is the key influence factor to C¡¦s OL. 2.The reform in the OL evolution of C company shows as practical example/model how organization can adapt and unlearn from single-loop learning to double-loop learning then deutero-learning eventually.

Thus study was designed to explore how children learn about a scientific-reasoning strategy while engaged in parent-child activity, and specifically to answer two research questions: 1) Can children learn and transfer a scientific reasoning strategy when provided training situated within parent-child activity? and 2) How do parents support young childrens learning and transfer of a scientific reasoning strategy? Thirty parent-child dyads with younger (5- to 6-years-old) and older (7- to 8-years-old) children were recruited to engage in shared scientific-reasoning activities in which they were provided training in the Control of Variables Strategy (CVS): a strategy for designing unconfounded experiments and interpreting the experimental outcome. Families were provided opportunities to apply and transfer their learning of the strategy while exploring materials in two domains in two sessions spaced one month apart. When provided training situated within parent-child activity, 5- to 8-year-old children demonstrated that they could learn to use CVS. Although both older and younger children were able to learn the strategy, age-related differences were detected in childrens transfer abilities. While older children continued to improve in their use of CVS at the second session, younger childrens performance decreased. In answer to Research Question 2, this study illuminated ways that parents and young children engage in scientific activity and build on subsequent related activity. To support childrens engagement, parents varied their support in the design and execution of experiments and they engaged in conversations that supported planning and evaluating activity. Parents reminded children of the strategy and redirected activity to support the generation and evaluation of interpretable evidence. We observed that parents sometimes explicitly reminded children of prior shared activity; these parents were more likely to have children who later became the most reliable users of CVS. Further research is needed, however, to establish causal links between specific types of parent support and patterns of parent-child activity and resultant child learning and transfer.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of short vowels in reading Arabic for skilled Arab adult readers. Previous studies claimed that the presence of short vowels (and diacritics) has a facilitative role in the reading of Arabic. That is, adding short vowels to the consonants facilitates the reading comprehension and reading accuracy of both children and skilled adult Arab readers. Further, those studies claimed that the absence of short vowels (and diacritics) and context makes reading Arabic impossible. But these studies did not manipulate the short vowels and diacritics to the degree that would isolate the short vowels effect. Nor did they take into account the level of reading involved: text, sentence, and word. That is, on a text level, assessing the role of short vowels should take into account the text level in terms of word frequency; on a sentence level, the structure of the sentence- garden-path versus non-garden-path-; and finally, on a word level the type of word, homographic versus nonhomographic. Thus, the study described in the following pages was designed with three tasks to assess the role of short vowels in relation to each level: the text frequency, the garden-path structure, and the homography aspect of the word. In general, the results showed that the presence or absence of short vowels and diacritics in combination do not affect the reading process, comprehension, and accuracy of skilled adult Arab readers. However, only in a word-naming task, the absence of short vowels and context prevented the skilled adult Arab reader from choosing the right form of the heterophonic homographic word. Further, according to the findings, at the absence of short vowels and diacritics in combination, the role of context in Arabic is still limited to the heterophonic homographic words. In sum, the results demonstrated that the only variable that affects the reading process of Adult Arab skilled readers is the word frequency. Justification for such effects and recommendations for pedagogical purposes and future research are suggested.

At the conclusion of a three-year grant cycle (2003-2006), educators and administrators as well as the general public in the state of Texas are questioning whether or not service-learning is indeed a powerful means of preparing students to become more caring and responsible parents and citizens. This study was designed to measure teachers’ perceived effectiveness of service-learning. The Texas Center for Service- Learning provided a list of districts participating in the K-12 School-Community Partnership Grant Project and contact information for district grant coordinators. Coordinators in participating districts were then contacted by phone and e-mail to submit names and contact information for teachers participating in the service-learning program. Teachers whose districts are located in central and southeast Texas were interviewed during the spring 2006 on their campuses, and teachers from more remote parts of Texas were interviewed in Austin during the Summer 2006 Institute. The sample that was used in this study includes six elementary, four middle, and two high school teachers who have been involved in the development and implementation of service-learning programs in their districts. In addition to targeting teachers at the elementary and middle school level, both male and female service-learning teachers were interviewed as well as teachers who also assumed the role as campus and/or district service-learning coordinator. Data collected from the service-learning teachers interviewed was analyzed to generate a composite picture of teachers’ perceptions and attitudes toward servicelearning. Once interviews were completed, data were transcribed, coded for audit trail purposes, printed onto separate sheets, and those sheets that apparently related to the same content were categorized into provisional categories. Five important salient themes emerged as conclusions of the study. The first conclusion relates to service-learning work and competing priorities. The second conclusion illustrates service-learning as having a higher purpose for the teachers who have chosen to become involved in it. The third conclusion was reached by examining the role of grant funding. The fourth conclusion was drawn from situations where teachers and communities are promoting a culture of service, and the fifth and final conclusion stresses the importance of teacher leadership in the success of servicelearning programs.

A technology-enhanced course has many components that contribute to student satisfaction. Although technology plays a role in the delivery of instruction, the focus of this study was to identify student satisfaction with several Components: modes of discussion, modes of research, types of learning activities, modes of submitting assignments, modes of testing, and format of course materials. Additionally, the study described relationships between the learning styles and self-reported measures of student satisfaction for the 19 students in the study. Results from this study indicated that participants were more satisfied with chat room discussions, web-based research, web-based testing, and online availability of course materials and grades than with techniques used in traditional classrooms. Based upon these results, a teacher who is concerned about student satisfaction in technology-enhanced courses should be aware that these teaching techniques were more satisfying to students in a technology-enhanced astronomy course. It would be useful to do more study of the characteristics of technology-enhanced courses that affect student satisfaction and related outcomes.

The purpose of this exploratory study was to determine which dimensions of teacher preparation contribute to creating effective reading specialists. These dimensions include educational factors, such as certification (Darling-Hammond, 1999), educational experience which points to teacher quality (Ferguson, 1991) and demographic factors such as age, type of teacher preparation programfour year, five year, or Master of Arts in Teaching. Participants were the reading specialist candidates during the 2002-2003 school year at a metropolitan university. This study used reading specialist candidates Grade Point Average, Praxis test scores, teaching experience, class performance rating, and performance rating in the field to examine what background, characteristics, and instruction contribute to the preparation of effective reading specialists. Analyses of data showed that teaching experience, age of candidate, and Praxis certification tests correlated with the outcome measures of coursework, performance rating, and Praxis reading specialist scores. Interviews of reading specialist candidates provided in-depth understanding of how candidates viewed the program. Results of the study contribute to a better understanding of the individual dimensions of the reading specialist candidate. This understanding, in turn, provides further information for the improvement and evaluation of the program, and adds to research about the preparation of reading specialists.

The purpose of this study was to examine the predictive strength and decision-making utility of the Dynamic Indicators of Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS). Specifically, the study examined whether DIBELS benchmarks correctly differentiated among students who were at-risk for reading failure and those who were not as measured by end-of-third-grade achievement on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA) in Reading First schools. More broadly, this study addressed the effectiveness of DIBELS for early identification of children considered to be at-risk for reading failure using the author-recommended benchmarks. Additionally, data were analyzed to determine whether first grade cut-points were appropriately sensitive and specific in relation to long-term predictions (end of third grade) of special education status. When comparing within-year achievement trends, results indicated that DIBELS was generally predictive of first through third grade students Fall to Spring achievement. However, some students did demonstrate erratic achievement. Receiver Operating Characteristic (ROC) analyses revealed that the author-recommended cut-points for the Fall subtests resulted in concerning numbers of false negative and false positive predictions of reading achievement. In fact, the cut-points for the phoneme segmentation fluency (PSF) subtest were found to have a statistically inappropriate balance of sensitivity and specificity. Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM) analyses of students long-term achievement showed that the DIBELS measures administered early in first grade were generally not predictive of third grade reading achievement for students in these Reading First schools. In fact, first grade results explained only 18% of the variability in students third grade reading scores on the PSSA. Finally, logistic regression results suggest that students socio-economic status and race were more accurate predictors of end-of-third grade special education status than their first grade reading achievement on the DIBELS. The overall limited predictive value of DIBELS on students long-term reading achievement raises important concerns about over-reliance on DIBELS in an early intervention framework like Pennsylvanias Reading First initiative and in school-wide educational decision making systems such as Response-to-Intervention (RTI).