Thesis (M.A.)--Rowan University, 2005. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 1990. / Title from title page screen, viewed November 9, 2005. Dissertation Committee: Patricia H. Klass (chair), Joseph A. Braun, Ronald L. Laymon, Mary Ann Lynn, Patricia O'Connell, Sally B. Pancrazio. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 129-137) and abstract. Also available in print.

First Year Composition (FYC) is one of the most important courses for any incoming college student. This course (often designated as English 101) provides students the rhetorical tools to fully engage in critical thinking and writing on the college level. One of the most common methods of organizing FYC is to use a topic as the center of all the reading and writing prompts. The use of outside subject matter to teach FYC is a common practice that is rarely interrogated for its effectiveness. However, the Hairston debate in the early 1990s opened up a public discussion of how FYC should be taught. I am arguing that this debate was never fully resolved. Instead of using this historical moment in our field to discuss how topics impact FYC instruction, the use of topics has continued to be normalized during the last twenty years with little attention given to interrogating what actually happens in a FYC course that focuses on a topic. This dissertation study examines what happens when a controversial theme like race is used as the primary organizing principle of both a day and night FYC course in a metro-St Louis area community college. Using discourse analysis, I analyze student writing to determine how the students' writing is impacting by the subject matter of the course.

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Master of Science / Counseling and Student Developement / Christy D. Craft / Students have many opportunities to familiarize themselves with their college after committing to a school. Institutions offer summer orientation and enrollment sessions, and many also offer extended orientation sessions that may include spending time in the residence halls or outdoor camps and activities. Upon arrival to campus, first year students are given a great deal of information about campus resources, culture and traditions. They may also have welcome week activities, first year seminar classes, learning communities, specialized housing accommodations,and a wealth of other opportunities to connect to the university. The purpose of this report is to explore both the unique challenges facing first year students and the varying support structures in place for them. To explore this topic, the unique needs facing first-year, residential students as it relates to student development and transition theories will be outlined. Focusing on institutional concerns, persistence will also be explored as a theoretical framework. Finally, to make this report relevant to Kansas State University, the first year programming efforts at twelve institutions will be synthesized and analyzed as a foundation for comparison. A proposal for potential programs at K-State will be presented.

M.Ed. (Didactics) / The beginning teacher doesn't start his teaching career as an educational expert. Although he is professionally qualified, his professional training doesn't fully equip him with all the required attributes necessary for an error-free start to his teaching career. The objective of this study is to scientifically acquire, by way of a literature study, information concerning individual shortcomings and lack of expertise attributable to the beginning teacher in practice. Attention has been given to the problems experienced by the beginning teacher when starting his teaching career in practice. His initial experience of the educational environment, as well as his development as person, educator, teacher and his position in the educational management situation are discussed. Due to the fact that he as an adult student exposes himself to an informal study situation to improve his teaching abilities, attention has been given to the specific qualities and problems the beginning teacher will be exposed to. The study also emphasised the importance of the support by more experienced teachers to the beginning teacher...

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Duquesne University, 2009. / Title from document title page. Abstract included in electronic submission form. Includes bibliographical references (p. 144-152) and index.

This dissertation intervenes in a long-simmering debate about whether literature belongs in composition classes. Using a combination of empirical and textual methods, my scholarship proceeds inductively from analyzing artifacts of teaching, providing a better sense of what is happening in writing classrooms rather than simply speculating about it. In doing so, I revisit arguments made against using literature in composition and argue that the 21st century English department provides a different context within which literature and composition co-exist. One of the charges leveled against using literature to teach writing is that it is a "humanist" practice and therefore elitist. I trace the genealogy of this term and demonstrate the wide range of meanings this term has carried within the last century alone, arguing that those who raise the alarm against humanism need to clarify what they mean. Taking off from the humanistic concern with style, I analyze composition anthologies to see how the questions following the literary selections deal with stylistic concerns. By and large, I find that the literary selections reinforce the themes of the primarily nonfiction chapters, but are not presented as prose from which students can derive stylistic lesson. I then turn to analyzing syllabi, testing the accusation that those coming from literature backgrounds will teach literature in their composition classes at the expense of working on student writing. I find that literature specialists do not necessarily spend an excessive number of class days on literature, but do spend more class days on readings generally, with fewer days devoted to student writing than rhetoric specialists. Finally, I argue that the validity of student evaluations of teaching needs to be assessed by composition scholars because concerns specific to our courses--the small sizes, the frequent feedback teachers give students, the difficulty of assessing student work, and the fact that ours is a female dominated field--mean that research conducted by educational psychologists may not apply to composition. My research reinforces the idea that our course readings, assignments, pedagogy, and assessment methods should align purposively with each other. / text