Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 1970. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 158-161). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center.

Thesis (M. Nurs.)--University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 118-126).

Thesis (M. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 116-119).

Thesis (M.S.W.)--University of Hong Kong, 1988.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 1989.

Thesis (D. Ed. Min.)--Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2002. / Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 117-120).

This study examines the design, processes and instructional effects of principle-based, student-directed reflective assessments on students’ conceptual understanding and collaborative inquiry in a computer-supported knowledge building environment. Premised on socio-constructivism, knowledge building and classroom learning theories, this study (1) designs a knowledge building environment, informed by knowledge building principles and reflective assessments, and evaluates its effects on students’ conceptual understanding, approaches to learning, and conceptions of collaboration; (2) investigates the role of engagement in Knowledge Forum on students’ conceptual understanding; (3) examines the role of portfolio assessment and other reflective assessment strategies in facilitating deep learning and knowledge building; and (4) characterizes the socio-cognitive dynamics of collaborative knowledge building. Participants of the study were 60 first-year Chinese tertiary students enrolled in a Sino-British joint educational program at a university in Shanghai, China. In a quasi-experimental design, one group of students experienced a knowledge building environment which was informed by knowledge building principles and highlighted concurrent, transformative assessment (reflective assessment strategies). The other group was exposed to a technology-based environment without the mediation of knowledge building principles. Multiple source of data were employed, including surveys, domain tests, academic performance assessments, Knowledge Forum engagement indices, e-portfolio notes, online inquiry threads, student classroom reflective presentations, and end-of-program interviews. Major findings include (1) students in the principle-based environment outperformed their peers in terms of conceptual understanding and deep approaches to learning; (2) student online participation and community connectedness increased over time, and contributed to students’ conceptual understanding over and above their prior domain knowledge; (3) qualitative e-portfolio analyses identified different kinds of student reflection strategies that were correlated with academic performance; (4) analysis of online inquiry threads showed students’ different levels of engagement with four knowledge building principles and suggested knowledge building might be manifested by meta-discourse; (5) Student reflective presentation and interview study further addressed the role of epistemic reflection and collective assessments in scaffolding collaborative knowledge building. This study addresses the problem of aligning social-constructivist theories of learning and assessment. Assessment takes on a new meaning of both assessing and scaffolding group learning and knowledge building. This study may advance current literature on how socio-cognitive principles and social-constructivist assessment can be designed and aligned with learning, collaboration and instruction to promote conceptual understanding and knowledge building. This study also has pedagogical implications for how computer-supported knowledge building inquiry can be designed in the context of 21st century Chinese tertiary classrooms. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This study aimed to develop a holistic understanding of knowledge-building discourse supported by Knowledge Forum among primary-and secondary-school students in Hong Kong. It is argued that prior studies of knowledge building did not adequately address the important question of how ideas are progressively improved because these studies employed cognitively oriented approaches that discarded the sequential, structural, and situational information about the process of group interactions. To better understand this question, the author applied methods from qualitative traditions to the study of knowledge-building discourse. The study was part of a five-year professional development project, “Developing a teacher community for classroom innovation through knowledge building”. The author and other project members collaboratively analyzed more than hundreds of Knowledge Forum views to gain an initial understanding of productive group interactions. The selection of data set for the study utilized purposive sampling. The author evaluated the online discourses of several dozens of classes, with the criteria of productive group interactions. Three classes from different schools were selected: Grade 5 Science, Grade 10 Liberal Studies, and Grade 10 Visual Art. These classes offered diverse examples to enhance the transferability of the findings. The data set comprised 764 Knowledge Forum messages, which were examined in great detail by a four-stage qualitative method. The first stage was a thematic analysis at the thread level to pre-process the online discourses for the subsequent analyses. The second stage was a qualitative coding at the action level to characterize the discourse components of the threads. The coding utilized 7 main codes that were adapted from van Aalst (2009): community, information, question, idea, linking, agency, and meta-discourse. This coding scheme formed a foundation of the data analysis, and this study extended the scheme in two ways. First, it gave the main codes a more theoretically solid foundation by conducting a literature review to further conceptualize or re-conceptualize the main codes. Second, it went beyond conducting the qualitative coding to seek for general patterns of interactions in the third-stage analysis. The third stage was a narrative analysis at the episode level to identify discourse patterns. Eleven patterns were identified to demonstrate productive and unproductive group interactions. The findings from the three stages of analysis were then interpreted to provide a comprehensive profile of the class discourses in the final-stage analysis. The relationship between the discourse profiles and idea improvement was explained. Finally, a validity check was conducted and the findings suggested that the discourse patterns could be used as a heuristic device to provide a basis for understanding other discourses. The implications of this study are threefold. Methodologically, the study has identified eleven discourse patterns that can be conceived as an extensive classification scheme allowing researchers to understand different types of group interaction in asynchronous online discussion forums. Theoretically, the discourse patterns contribute to the literature concerning the process of computer-mediated group interactions. Pedagogically, it is hoped that the discourse patterns can be used as conceptual tools for scaffolding students toward productive group interaction and can be used in teacher professional development. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Organizations routinely rely on work groups for creative solutions to the problems they face. This is because solving difficult problems is often assumed to require the talents and knowledge of multiple people working together. However, much research has shown over the years that groups frequently experience dysfunction when trying to collaborate and generate creative solutions. Organizational researchers have theorized that analogical reasoning may play an important role in promoting collective creativity, but these claims are for the most part untested in the literature. In this dissertation, I attempt to answer two questions. First, does analogical reasoning provide some functional benefits for groups solving creative problems? Second, does analogical reasoning give rise to synergistic effects when creative groups collaborate during ideation and problem-solving? I assessed these questions using a laboratory study designed to find the effects of analogical reasoning in interacting and non-interacting groups, and to test for potential synergistic effects of analogical reasoning as a group-level strategy for generating creative problem solutions. Findings of the study suggest that analogical reasoning may provide some benefits for creative group outputs, and it may also create synergistic effects for creative groups. / text

Increasing numbers of individuals are simultaneously members of two or more social categories. To investigate the effects of single- versus dual-identity status on children's group views and intergroup attitudes, elementary-school-age children (N = 91) attending a summer school program were assigned to novel color groups that included single-identity ("blue" and "red") and dual-identity ("bicolored," or half red and half blue) members. The degree to which dual-identity status was verified by the authority members was also manipulated: teachers in some classrooms were instructed to label and make use of three social groups ("blues," "reds," "bicolors") to organize their classrooms, whereas teachers in other classrooms were instructed to label and make use of only the two "mono-colored" groups ("blues" and "reds"). After several weeks in their classrooms, children's (a) views of group membership (i.e., importance, satisfaction, perceived similarity, group preference), (b) intergroup attitudes (i.e., traits ratings, group evaluations, peer preferences), and (c) categorization complexity (i.e., tendency to sort individuals along multiple dimensions simultaneously) were assessed. Results varied across measures but, in general, indicated that dual-identity status affected children's views of their ingroup. Specifically, dual-identity children in classrooms in which their status was not verified were more likely to (a) perceive themselves as similar to other ingroup members (i.e., bicolored children), (b) want to keep their shirt color, and (c) assume that a new student would want their shirt color more than their single-identity peers. They also showed higher levels of ingroup bias in their competency ratings of groups than their single-identity peers, and demonstrated greater cognitive flexibility when thinking about social categories than their single-identity peers. Overall, these results suggest that dual-identity children experience identity issues differently than their single-identity peers and that additional theories are needed to address the complexities of social membership and bias among children with dual memberships. / text