Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Instructional Systems and Technology and Religious Studies, 2006. / "Title from dissertation home page (viewed July 12, 2007)." Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-10, Section: A, page: 3695. Adviser: Charles M. Reigeluth.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-07, Section: A, page: 2499. Adviser: Karen Ferneding. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 192-203) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-07, Section: A, page: 2373. Adviser: Norman K. Denzin. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 156-174) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-07, Section: A, page: 2562. Adviser: Gail E. Hawisher. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 256-299) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-11, Section: A, page: 4147. Adviser: Scott D. Johnson. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 95-104) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Instructional Systems Technology, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-04, Section: A, page: 1301. Adviser: Thomas M. Schwen. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed May 14, 2007)."

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Instructional Systems Technology, School of Education, 2006. / "Title from dissertation home page (viewed June 26, 2007)." Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-06, Section: A, page: 2125. Adviser: Thomas M. Schwen.

A l'ère de la société du savoir, l'éducation est un vecteur de la croissance économique. Or, les systèmes éducatifs des pays du sud sont caducs et participent à la consécration de la fracture Nord-Sud (UNESCO, 2005). Leur vetuste ne permet pas à l'Afrique de faire face aux défis contemporains. Le présent travail se propose d'étudier les apports de l'université virtuelle au dépassement des écarts Nord-Sud en matière d'enseignement. Notre recherche s'inscrit ainsi dans une logique ou le savoir se constitue en un nouveau capital pour accéder à la modernité. Celle-ci, dans sa forme contemporaine, basée sur l'économie du savoir, permet d'assurer le développement (Ascher, 2000). Pour mener notre étude, nous avons choisi l'université virtuelle africaine (UVA) comme un cas représentatif des efforts déployés pour contrer les effets de la fracture Nord-Sud. La démarche, s'appuyant sur les fondements de l'économie du savoir, permettra d'analyser les retombées des nouvelles applications technologiques dans une zone géographique dépendante de l'aide internationale et incapable de s'arrimer à la modernité et d'assurer son propre développement.

The goal of this dissertation is to broaden our understanding of interactive teaching strategies, in the context of the introductory physics classroom at the undergraduate level. The dissertation is divided into four main projects, each of which investigates a specific aspect of teaching physics interactively. All four projects look towards improving the effectiveness of interactive teaching by understanding how pre-course student characteristics affect the way students learn interactively. We first discuss lecture demonstrations in the context of an interactive classroom using Peer Instruction. We study the role of predictions in conceptual learning. We examine how students' predictions affect what they report having seen during a demonstration. We also examine how student predictions affect what they recall as the outcome of the demonstration at the end of the semester. We then analyze student response patterns to conceptual questions posed during Peer Instruction. We look at the relationship between a student's tendency to switch their answer and pre-course student characteristics like science self-efficacy. Next we elucidate response timing to conceptual questions posed over the course of the semester, in two introductory physics classes taught using Peer Instruction. We look at the relationship between student response times and student characteristics like pre-course physics knowledge, science self-efficacy and gender. We study response times as a way of gaining insight into students thinking in Peer Instruction environments as well as to improve the implementation of Peer Instruction. Finally, we present work on the role of NB, an online collaborative textbook annotation tool, in a flipped, project based, physics class. We analyze the relationship between students' level of online engagement and traditional learning metrics to understand the effectiveness of NB in the context of flipped classrooms. We also report the results of experiments conducted to explore ways to steer discussion forums to produce high-quality learning interactions.

Students' struggles with algebra are well documented. Prior to the introduction of functions, mathematics is typically focused on applying a set of arithmetic operations to compute an answer. The introduction of functions, however, marks the point at which mathematics begins to focus on building up abstractions as a way to solve complex problems. A common refrain about word problems is that “the equations are easy to solve - the hard part is setting them up!” A student of algebra is asked to identify functional relationships in the world around them - to set up the equations that describe a system- and to reason about these relationships. Functions, in essence, mark the shift from computing answers to solving problems. Researchers have called for this shift to accompany a change in pedagogy, and have looked to computer programming and game design as a means to combine mathematical rigor with creative inquiry. Many studies have explored the impact of teaching students to program, with the goal of having them transfer what they have learned back into traditional mathematics. While some of these studies have shown positive outcomes for concepts like geometry and fractions, transfer between programming and algebra has remained elusive. The literature identifies a number of conditions that must be met to facilitate transfer, including careful attention to content, software, and pedagogy. This dissertation is a feasibility study of Bootstrap, a curricular intervention based on best practices from the transfer and math-education literature. Bootstrap teaches students to build a video game by applying algebraic concepts and a problem solving technique in the programming domain, with the goal of transferring what they learn back into traditional algebra tasks. The study employed a mixed-methods analysis of six Bootstrap classes taught by math and computer science teachers, pairing pre- and post-tests with classroom observations and teacher interviews. Despite the use of a CS-derived problem solving technique, a programming language and a series of programming challenges, students were able to transfer what they learned into traditional algebra tasks and math teachers were found to be more successful at facilitating this transfer than their CS counterparts. / Education Policy, Leadership, and Instructional Practice