The aim of this study was to quantitatively measure refutation text's power for conceptual change while qualitatively discovering students' preference of refutation or expository text structures. This study also sought to examine if religious interest levels predict conceptual change. Participants for this study were 9th, 10th-, 11th-, and 12th-grade seminary students from the private religious educational system of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). The study was conducted in two sessions. Session 1 involved pretesting, interventions, and posttesting. Session 2 involved delayed posttesting and participant interviews. Results were predominately measured quantitatively with some qualitative interview analysis added to enrich the study. This research study provides insight into the refutation text effects in LDS religious education. Results of the study showed significant differences in conceptual change between participants reading refutation texts and those reading expository texts. In every case, the refutation text group performed higher on posttests than did the expository group. Results also showed participant preference toward refutation text structures. Furthermore, the study found significant correlations that verify topic interest as a possible predictor of conceptual change. Insights are valuable in aiding curriculum developers in implementing effective ways to teach doctrinal principles by utilizing refutation text interventions. The advantages of this research study add to educational research and identify areas for improvement and exploration in further research. This study of refutation text effects in religious education also broadens researchers' understanding of refutation text's power for conceptual change in subjects outside of K-12 science. Results of this study are of interest to researchers, teachers, curriculum writers, and LDS seminary teachers and administrators.

ABSTRACT THE USE OF IMAGINATION FOR EXPOSITORY HERMENEUTICS AND HOMILETICS Barnabas Youn Soo Kim, Ph.D. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2014 Chair: Dr. Robert A. Vogel The purpose of this dissertation is to discover the value of imagination for expository preaching. The thesis of this dissertation is that a rightly developed evangelical theory and use of imagination will improve the practice of expository hermeneutics and homiletics. In the introductory chapter, the challenging nature of imagination is examined. Despite its subjective challenging nature, imagination is an important subject for expository preaching. Imagination is necessary in order to improve both hermeneutics and homiletics. The second chapter provides an overview of expository preaching. Essential elements of expository preaching, author-centered hermeneutics and audience-focused homiletics, are discussed to form the backdrop against which imagination is to be examined. Second, the concept of imagination is introduced and explained. Chapter 3 demonstrates how the New Homiletic methodology deals with imagination in preaching. After a brief introduction to the basic philosophy of the New Homiletic, the work of two new homileticians, Paul Scott Wilson and Thomas H. Troeger, is discussed. They are important, because they were one of the first to devote an entire work to imagination and preaching. This chapter concludes with a critical evaluation of their methods in light of evangelical expository preaching. Chapter 4 presents suggestions for the use of imagination in expository hermeneutics. In particular, the role of imagination in specific steps of the exegetical process is explained. Furthermore, boundaries are discussed that ensure imagination is used in way that is faithful to the biblical text and the author's intention. Chapter 5 suggests how imagination can be used in homiletics. Committed to a hermeneutic that is faithful to the text and the author's intention, preachers can find in imagination a rich resource to convey God's truth to people.

In an age where there seems to be a loss of confidence on the transforming power of gospel preaching this study addresses the following hypothesis: “The transforming power of gospel preaching to an audience influenced by post modernism”. The following methodology was used in this study: -- A Literature study -- Practical-theological method A Theological Model for Preaching God has spoken, it is written and preach the word are identified as three essential theological foundations for preaching. Expository preaching is explored as a model that understands the seriousness of the task of accurately and relevantly proclaiming the revealed Word of God. Expository preaching is not a matter of style at all. In fact, the determinative step that decides whether a sermon is going to be expository or not takes place before a single word has been actually written or spoken. First and foremost, the adjective ‘expository’ describes the method by which the preacher decides what to say, not how to say it. The key principles of expository preaching are then discussed. The Postmodern Audience People from all walks of life are exposed, at least to some extent, to the trends and influences of their particular day. Those present in Church services week by week are not exempt from these new ideas, trends and pressures. The intention here is to understand the person influenced by postmodernity. Ten distinct features of postmodernism are explored to understand the impact that they may have on a postmodern influenced congregation. In addition to the distinctive features of postmodernism some of the common features of people from all cultures is explored. Engaging the Postmodern Audience Preaching the gospel may involve confrontation but there are ways to confront and effectively challenge both postmodern beliefs and biblical unbelief. Methods of effective engagement like building relationships, tuning into the secular world and a more apologetic approach are discussed. In addition to this, various practices of effective communicators like a dialogical approach, inductive preaching, storytelling, the use of media and humour are explored. The study recognizes the essential work of the Holy Spirit and an unavoidable focus of Jesus Christ in preaching. An Adjusted Theory for Praxis The thesis tested the transforming power of gospel preaching to an audience influenced by post modernism and confirmed the usefulness of preaching. In the light of the literature study and empirical research conducted at the Central Baptist Church Pretoria, some adjustments in preaching praxis and ministry needs to be prioritised: One, Make more use of the inductive rather than deductive approach in preaching, particularly in the area of evangelism but not exclusively, thereby consciously developing clearer dialogue with the listeners participating in the process reaching conclusions together. Two, In as much as there must be concentrated effort and hard work in the area of methodology and technique the preacher must perpetually cultivate a greater dependence on God the Holy Spirit who ultimately is the Sacred Communicator. / Dissertation (MA (Theology))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Practical Theology / unrestricted

State standards require kindergarten students to produce expository writing, but little research has been done regarding their abilities in this area. This study describes expository writing samples of 47 typically developing (TD) kindergarteners and 43 kindergarteners with developmental language disorder (DLD). The Expository Language Measures (ELM) Flow Chart and the Systematic Analysis of Language Transcripts (SALT) software were used to detail the language complexity and text structure features the children in the sample produced. When comparing TD and DLD children's expository written samples, no significant differences in the language and text structure measures were found. It is important to continue acquiring data regarding young children's abilities to produce expository written language. Identifying norms and areas of weakness promotes the creation of more specific and effective teaching and intervention methods.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a combined narrative and expository language intervention on third graders' oral language. The participants included 96 third-grade students from two schools in the Mountain West region of the United States. In a quasi-experimental design, all third-grade students in one school (n = 46) were assigned to a treatment condition and all third-grade students in another school in the same school district (n = 50) were assigned to a control condition. Both treatment and control groups received large group oral narrative language intervention led by classroom teachers. The treatment group received additional large group expository language intervention led by the investigators. At posttest, students' narrative retells were analyzed for story grammar and language complexity. Primary and generalized expository outcomes were also analyzed for text structure and language complexity at posttest. Performances of the treatment and control groups were compared using ANCOVA across all measures. The results indicated that the control group and the treatment group did not have statistically significantly different narrative outcomes. However, the treatment group did make statistically significant improvements in expository text structure and some features of expository language complexity across both the primary and generalized expository measures when compared to the control group. This early efficacy study demonstrated the effects of a combined narrative and expository language intervention on expository language of third-grade students over and above narrative language intervention alone. It is possible that a dual focus on narrative and expository oral language instruction will not only impact students' oral language, but also reading comprehension and writing. Future research with a stronger experimental design should investigate the effect of narrative and expository oral language instruction on such distal outcomes.

The primary aim of this study is to attempt to provide a means of restoring evangelical preaching in Xhosa churches. I will attempt to answer the question, How can the evangelical preaching be restored in Xhosa churches in the Western Cape? From personal observation, it is clear that in contemporary Xhosa evangelicalism, preaching is totally misunderstood. To put more bluntly, there are no clear criteria from biblical theology for preaching in Xhosa churches. Indeed so much is happening in the name of preaching that offers no substance whatsoever. In the first two chapter’s of this study, the focus is on the problem that the Xhosa church is experiencing and how preaching is understood and practiced in this community. Chapter three examines the causes of the problem and how to deal with those causes. On a practical note, it is shown that sermon analyses are inevitable for further consideration of the problem. Moreover, the chapter examines various attempts that have been made in response to the problem. In Chapter four, an investigation of the views of biblical theology on the subject of preaching is carried out. The chapter dwells into what the Bible offers on the subject of preaching and this is meant to serve as a foundation for the restoration of evangelical preaching in Xhosa churches. In the light of Chapter four, Chapter five argues for expository preaching as a possible means of responding to the crisis which the Xhosa church is experiencing. At the same time chapter five seek to state the case for expository preaching. Finally, Chapter Six provides the most effective material for Xhosa preachers in the process of exploring and constructing expository sermons. / Dissertation (MA(Theol))--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Practical Theology / unrestricted

The aim of this study was to quantitatively measure refutation text's power for conceptual change while qualitatively discovering students' preference of refutation or expository text structures. This study also sought to examine if religious interest levels predict conceptual change. Participants for this study were 9th, 10th-, 11th-, and 12th-grade seminary students from the private religious educational system of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS). The study was conducted in two sessions. Session 1 involved pretesting, interventions, and posttesting. Session 2 involved delayed posttesting and participant interviews. Results were predominately measured quantitatively with some qualitative interview analysis added to enrich the study. This research study provides insight into the refutation text effects in LDS religious education. Results of the study showed significant differences in conceptual change between participants reading refutation texts and those reading expository texts. In every case, the refutation text group performed higher on posttests than did the expository group. Results also showed participant preference toward refutation text structures. Furthermore, the study found significant correlations that verify topic interest as a possible predictor of conceptual change. Insights are valuable in aiding curriculum developers in implementing effective ways to teach doctrinal principles by utilizing refutation text interventions. The advantages of this research study add to educational research and identify areas for improvement and exploration in further research. This study of refutation text effects in religious education also broadens researchers' understanding of refutation text's power for conceptual change in subjects outside of K-12 science. Results of this study are of interest to researchers, teachers, curriculum writers, and LDS seminary teachers and administrators.

The purpose of this study was to refine a rating procedure used to assess intermediate elementary school students' ability to orally retell what they had read from two expository passages. Oral retellings from 28 fourth grade students were tape-recorded and rated on two different occasions by each of 4 raters. A four-facet (passage, day of test administration, rater, and rating occasion) generalizability study was conducted using a partially nested design. The six largest sources of variability identified in the G-study included (a) students, (b) the student-by-day interaction, (c) the interaction of passage with rater (nested within student and day), (d) the student-by-day-by-occasion interaction, (e) the passage-by-raters (nested within students and day)-by-occasion interaction, and (f) the residual. A D-study was conducted to predict the values of the error variances and generalizability indices for both relative and absolute decisions. The results show how the error variance and the generalizability coefficients vary as a function of the number of passages, days of test administration, raters, and rating occasions. The results of the D study indicate that adding an extra reading day would produce a greater increase in reliability than asking the students to read more passages, or using more raters or more rating occasions. To achieve the greatest gain in generalizability, teachers should have students read at least two passages on at least two separate days and have their retelling rated by at least two raters and then compute a mean rating for each student averaged across the various passages, testing days, and raters.

Third grade general education teachers, particularly in Florida, will teach English learners (ELs) in their classroom who must participate in their English Language Arts writing classes at roughly the same pace as native English speakers in order to perform grade-level, standards-based writing tasks. For this reason, general education teachers must be equipped with helpful, research-based resources to support the ELs to become equally successful in writing instruction as their native-speaking peers. This thesis explored the use of sentence frames for improving the English skills of ELs as they start to understand and use the syntax of Standard English. As a result, this thesis created a teacher-friendly resource, the Sentence Frame Toolkit for Third Grade, containing sentence frame templates and sample student work for third grade teachers to use as a resource when teaching expository writing in English Language Arts to Spanish-speaking ELs. The sentence frames in the toolkit are aligned to Florida’s third grade expository writing standards from Cluster I. By using the sentence frames in the toolkit as support, ELs will be able to turn thoughts into words, produce the second language at their pace, and continue to improve as skilled writers.

The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of oral narrative intervention delivered in a multi-tiered system of support format on proximal narrative retell outcomes, and more distal personal story generation and expository language outcomes of preschool and kindergarten students. Participants included 241 preschool and kindergarten students. Students were divided into 3 different groups (treatment, alternate treatment, and no-treatment control). The treatment group received Story Champs Tier 1 oral narrative language intervention from their classroom teacher twice a week for 15-20 minutes over 14 weeks. A sub-sample of students from the Story Champs group who did not meet a narrative retell criterion after 1 month of large group instruction were assigned to receive additional, Story Champs Tier 2 small group intervention. Tier 2 narrative intervention consisted of two 20-minute small group narrative intervention sessions each week for 14 weeks. The students assigned to the alternate treatment group participated in Tier 1 shared storybook reading intervention with their classroom teacher twice a week for 15-20 minutes over 14 weeks. Students in the no-treatment control group participated in classroom activities that were in place at the outset of the school year. Narrative retell and personal story language samples were elicited and scored using the CUBED Narrative Language Measures (NLM) subtest, and an expository language sample was elicited and scored using a researcher-generated protocol. Students in the Story Champs group had significantly higher posttest narrative retell scores with large effect sizes compared to the shared storybook and no-treatment control groups. Students in the Story Champs and shared storybook reading groups performed to a similar degree in their ability to generate a personal story at posttest. Expository retell posttest results were not significantly different between all of the different conditions. This study contributes to previous research suggesting that brief multi-tiered oral narrative language intervention can improve the receptive and expressive academic language of young children, as measured using narrative retelling. This study provides evidence that multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS) for language can be successfully delivered by teachers and speech-language pathologists working in the schools. It is also evident that both oral narrative language intervention and shared storybook interventions can improve personal story generations. However, the narrative-based interventions applied in this study did not appear to significantly impact expository language.