Developmental studies by pediatricians and surveys of adoptive parents of children that have been adopted to the United States from foreign countries indicate that many of these children are experiencing substantial difficulties with the acquisition of their new language. Language difficulties may compromise the adopted childs abilities to understand, negotiate, and adjust to a new family and environment (Jenista, 1993). Reports range from 100% of the children having difficulties (Willig, 1995) to 34% (Groza,1995), with the majority of researchers reporting incidences in the 30-50% range (Johnson et al. 1996; Hough, 1996). These figures are in-line with research from countries such as Norway (Dalen, 2001a; Saetersdal & Dalen, 1987), Denmark (Rorbech, 1997) and Holland (Hoksbergen, 1997). To date, no studies directly assessing the language skills, long-term outcomes, or the types of language difficulties experienced by these children after experiencing an abrupt language switch have been completed. This study evaluated the language skills of a group of 44 school-aged, post-institutionalized Eastern European adoptees (EEA-PI) to determine the extent, and the types, of problems present in the areas of semantics, morphology, syntax, pragmatics, and reading, and explored the factors of institutionalization that might predict language development. Results showed that as a group, EEA-PI children, in comparison to the normative data on the standardized and spontaneous speech measures, performed lower than age expectations on all of the measures, with the exception of measures of listening (receptive language). The disparity within the groups performance was notable. Though institutional factors of time in institution, age of adoption, and time in U.S. did not correlate with measures of receptive and expressive language, they were significant for reading and nonword repetition scores. This research furthers our professional knowledge regarding long-term language outcomes and the selection of appropriate diagnostic measures for these children and other children experiencing early neglect in our country.

While most researchers acknowledge that error correction (EC) is most effective in meaningful contexts, few studies have addressed collaborative EC or longitudinal language development during oral conversations especially conversations where new knowledge is continually integrated. By observing how the tutor helped two college-age beginning students of Chinese learn three inter-related and chronologically-offset target grammatical structures (TG) during nine weeks of hourly one-on-one tutorial sessions, the study investigated: (a) the types of assistance the tutor provided in spoken conversation; (b) changes in this assistance within and across sessions; and (c) how errors towards TG were eliminated. Analysis of protocols (transcripts marked up with visual cues), learners' questionnaires, and graphs revealed that: (a) the tutor provided two types of contingent assistance: regulation in participation (RinP), and EC on emergent errors; (b) EC was effective and its explicitness depended only on the learner's Zone of Proximal Development same finding for RinP; (c) during the goals-oriented activity, language, serving both social (active and accurate meaning-exchange) and cognitive (tutor's EC and RinP, and learners' meta-comments) functions, was responsible for learners' transformation from other-regulation to self-regulation language serving a cognitive function on an inter-personal level gradually became intra-personal; (d) RinP was instrumental in transferring not only the responsibility for participation (elaboration, initiation, and elicitation of TG) but also, through EC consequent to elicitation of TG, the responsibility for grammar-accuracy; and, (e) TG lacking an English counterpart required not only learners' cognitive understanding of the TG form but also where (which contexts) to use it here, RinP efficiently co-constructed contexts for elicitation of TG and its differentiation, through EC. In line with Vygostkian principles, the tutor's collaborative RinP improved learners' participation while the collaborative EC improved the learners' grammar accuracy within that improving participation. Implications include: (a) grammar accuracy is not an end-product but depended on not only task-difficulty and subject-matter but also degree to which similar TG were differentiated; and, (b) all errors, salient and not, must be corrected from the beginning ignoring errors deemed unimportant was myopic.

Geometry and measurement represent topics of great significance in mathematics; however, efforts to teach this content in the middle grades have been formulaic, with students memorizing formulas and definitions without conceptual understanding. Moreover, students and teachers demonstrate gaps and misconceptions in their knowledge of geometry and measurement, particularly with respect to relationships between measurable quantities of geometric figures and proof. This study investigated changes in knowledge needed for teaching geometry and measurement through engagement in a practice-based course for preservice and practicing teachers. Pre- and post-course measures showed significant teacher growth along all three aspects of knowledge needed for teaching. Teachers grew in their ability to attack non-routine problems relating dimension, perimeter, and area and dimension, surface area, and volume; and in their use of multiple solution methods, multiple representations, and production of mathematically sophisticated solutions. Teachers also grew in content knowledge for teaching, becoming more representationally fluent and increasingly able to modify tasks to target key geometry ideas and about the affordances of different formulas for area and volume, and in knowledge of proof, including identification of the key aspects of the definition of proof, the role of proof in the classroom, and creation of proofs and proof-like arguments. Teachers grew in knowledge of mathematics for student learning as conceptualized by the five practices for productive use of student thinking: anticipating student solutions to a mathematical task, the use of high-level questions to assess and advance student thinking, selecting and sequencing student work to share, and connecting that work in ways that targeted the big mathematical ideas. Teachers also grew in their identification of routines, an example of practices that support teaching. Qualitative analysis of the course tied these results to opportunities to learn in the course. The results suggest that teachers can grow in their knowledge of content and pedagogy through practice-based teacher education experiences. The results suggest a value for focusing methods courses on particular slices of mathematical content. The design principles articulated in the analysis predicted teacher learning, and generalize to the design of teacher education experiences that enhance knowledge needed for teaching mathematics.

DEVELOPING SECONDARY MATHEMATICS TEACHERS KNOWLEDGE OF AND CAPACITY TO IMPLEMENT INSTRUCTIONAL TASKS WITH HIGH LEVEL COGNITIVE DEMANDS Melissa D. Boston, EdD University of Pittsburgh, 2006 This study analyzed mathematics teachers selection and implementation of instructional tasks in their own classrooms before, during, and after their participation in a professional development workshop focused on the cognitive demands of mathematical tasks. Eighteen secondary mathematics teachers participated in a six-session professional development workshop under the auspices of the Enhancing Secondary Mathematics Teacher Preparation (ESP) Project throughout the 2004-2005 school year. Data collected from the ESP workshop included written artifacts created during the professional development sessions and videotapes of each session. Data collected from teachers included a pre/post measure of teachers knowledge of the cognitive demands of mathematical tasks, collections of tasks and student work from teachers classrooms, lesson observations, and interviews. Ten secondary mathematics teachers who did not participate in the ESP workshop served as the contrast group, completed the pre/post measure, and participated in one lesson observation. Analysis of the data indicated that the ESP workshop provided learning experiences for teachers that transformed their previous knowledge and instructional practices. ESP teachers enhanced their knowledge of the cognitive demands of mathematical tasks; specifically, they improved their ability to identify and describe the characteristics of tasks that influence students opportunities for learning. Following their participation in ESP, teachers were more frequently selecting high-level tasks as the main instructional tasks in their own classrooms. ESP teachers also improved their ability to maintain high-level cognitive demands during implementation. Student work implementation significantly improved from Fall to Spring, and comparisons of the implementation of high-level student work tasks indicated that high-level demands were less likely to decline in Spring than in Fall. Lesson observations did not yield statistically significant results from Fall to Spring; however, significant differences existed between ESP teachers and the contrast group in task selection and implementation during lesson observations. ESP teachers also outperformed the contrast group on the post-measure of the knowledge of cognitive demands of mathematical tasks. None of the significant differences were influenced by the use of a reform vs. traditional curricula in teachers classrooms. Teachers who exhibited greater improvements more frequent contributions and more comments on issues of implementation than teachers who exhibited less improvement.

According to the Pew Internet and American Life Project (2002), The Internet Goes to College, all college students began using a computer between the ages of 16-18 and 85% of those college students owned their own computer and had gone online. The Internet had become a staple of college students educational experiencea functional tool (p. 2). In the Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Studies at the University of Pittsburgh, Cyber Orientation was implemented to provide transfer students the option of participating in an academic orientation using a web-based program rather than attending an on-campus program. Transfer students were chosen for the pilot because they already had experienced college and possessed a cognitive structure to assimilate the information. Most transfer students admitted to Arts and Sciences have already completed 48 credits or two years of college experience. The assumption was made that transfer students either own computers or have access to computers at their current institutions. The participants of Cyber Orientation were self-selected. The primary purpose of this study was to evaluate Cyber Orientation, the website and process, to determine whether the students and academic advisors have been satisfied with this option and to make recommendations for improvement. The study used responses from a mandatory survey completed by student participants and information gathered from advisors in an informal discussion. The significance of this study was to determine whether a web-based academic orientation program could be implemented successfully to better serve the students and the institution. As the Arts and Sciences Advising Center prides itself in the service it provides to all students, and especially in the human contact, which is at the core of its mission, successful implementation of this web-based program is an innovative approach to a traditional process. Information regarding web-based academic orientation also contributes to the body of literature in the field of academic advising and exemplifies the integration of technology while upholding traditional processes and maintaining the student at the center of the focus.

This study examined the responses of two 11-year-old African-American girls to two folktales: one with a passive female protagonist and one with an active female protagonist. The goal of the study was to add to the small body of previous research on childrens responses to folktales by exploring the opinions of African-American girls, who had been thus far overlooked, and to illuminate areas for future research. Data were collected through a series of four interviews with each girl and analyzed using qualitative research methodologies. Some of the data reflected previous findings from studies of Caucasian girls responses to folktales. The data echoed the finding that children are active makers of meaning (Trousdale, 1987) in responding to folktales. Both girls in this study related the stories to their own lives by inserting modifications into the original tales. The data also suggested that the girls were drawn to active, helping female characters but held mixed feelings about emulating such active characters, reflecting a 1995 study (Trousdale). The study challenges the assumption that children necessarily identify with the protagonists in fairy tales. In both types of tales the girls seemed to make qualified identifications with the main characters. The study also suggests that girls readiness to identify with active female characters may depend on their prior experience with such characters. Moreover, the study found that both girls were reluctant to describe the characters in terms of specific physical traits. Further research was called for to determine whether such responses are typical of children from ethnic groups who do not often see themselves represented in literature.

How does author relate to audience? This overarching question guided a case study focused on author Rick Norman and his novel Fielders Choice. Specific questions were (1) What was, and is, this authors conception of his audience for the book? (2) How do members of the audiencespecifically five high school studentsrespond to the novel? (3) How do the audiences responses relate to the authors stated intentions? Data came from the following sources: interviews with the author, the student readers, and the editor of the book; students written responses to the book and the authors written reactions to those responses; an interactive dialogue between the author and the students; records and documents provided by the author; and reviews of the book. Data analysis employed Glaser and Strausss (1967) comparative method and Spradleys (1979) developmental research sequence. Findings include the following: (1) This author saw his audience, which he portrayed as multi-faceted and dynamic, through the lens of self. He attributed to his audience his own characteristics when he originally planned and wrote the book and also when he talked about it ten years later. Self was at the center of his generic audience as well as his defined audience. (2) The audience of readers in this study varied in the extent to which they connected with the author. Most of them did, however, speculate about his intentions relative to the content as well as to text features. (3) Author intention and audience response did not always match. When mismatches were revealed in written and oral exchanges, subsequent dialogue between author and audience was directed to mutual understanding. The author wanted to learn what there was in his writing that led the readers to unintended meanings, and the readers wanted to learn why the author wrote as he did. This study, focused on author-audience relationship, fits into a growing body of work examining connections between reading and writing. Its uniqueness lies in its dual focus on both author intention and audience response and in the opportunities provided for author and audience to meet to discuss intentions and responses.

Dyslexic students struggle to read and write at a level commensurate with their intellectual ability. This study examines the impact of remedial instruction on reading and writing progress of six fourth grade students chosen from three different schools within one school district. These six students, all males, had been previously identified as having characteristics of dyslexia as defined by the protocol in their school district. The remedial instruction for these students was provided in a pullout setting by one itinerant teacher. The instruction was administered in two forty-minute sessions over a period of thirteen weeks. Project Read Written Expression was the program used for this instruction. Every effort was made to maintain as much consistency in the remedial instruction of these students as was possible. There were, however, variables which could not be eliminated. The students' classroom teachers had varying degrees of training and experience in administering instruction based upon a multisensory structured language program. The actual physical setting provided for the instruction varied from school to school, affecting the consistency of instructional time. The willingness and desire to participate, as well as the degree to which each student was supported and encouraged by his teacher and parents, was inconsistent. Reading progress (skill in decoding and comprehension) was assessed via pre- and post-testing using the Gray Oral Reading Test-4 (GORT-4). Progress in written language skills was assessed via pre- and post-testing using the Test of Written Language-3 (TOWL-3). Writing samples were collected at each lesson. Testing revealed that some students made progress in reading comprehension. Subtests of the TOWL-3 also indicated some progress in writing skills.

The current severe teacher shortage in the United States is exacerbated by the numbers of new teachers leaving the profession after only a year in the classroom. What do new teachers expect? How does the reality of their experience match up to their expectations? The purpose of this nine-month qualitative study was to look closely into the expectations and experiences of a small number of beginning teachers. The study focused on four young women's relations with their administrators, other teachers, and their students. The first-year teachers participating in the study included three elementary and one junior high teacher,all of whom taught in a southern Louisiana parish,where the Acadian culture persists and where their families had roots. Data came from observations and written documents as well as from interviews with the teachers; their administrators; other teachers at their schools, including their district-assigned mentors; their students; and members of the communities in which they taught. All four wanted to be "good" teachers and defined "good" in terms of relations with other people - students, colleagues, and administrators. However, they had different ideas about what represented quality in these relationships: degree of reliance on administrators, the nature of the connections they established with their peers, and rapport with their students. The actual social relations that the teachers experienced in the school contexts differed from what saw as ideal, particularly with respect to the students and other teachers. This conflict was compounded by a required assessment each had to pass in order to become a state-certified teacher as well as by a high-stakes assessment of their students' achievement, both of which provided additional definitions of what it meant to be a "good" teacher. Also, the study showed that, in some cases, being a good teacher seemed to conflict with being a good wife or good family member or good friend because of the numbers of hours devoted to preparing lessons each day.

This dissertation reconceives curriculum through an historical approach that employs Ludwig Wittgensteins later philosophy. Curriculum is more than the knowledge taught in school. Curriculum, as I a theorist conceives it, is concerned with the broader intellectual and ideological ways a society thinks about education. Hence, the current school curriculums focus on specific learning outcomes offers a limited view of the knowledge fashioned by a society, thereby offering an intellectual and social history that is highly selective. Wittgensteins concept of language-games offers curricularists a way to re-include some of these stories. The concept of curriculum emerges at the end of the Renaissance from Peter Ramuss refinement of the art of dialectic into a pedagogical method of logic. The modern curriculum field arose at the end of the nineteenth century as educators sought to further refine the remnants of scholasticisms pedagogical practices by employing social efficiency and scientific management to more effectively organize American education. Social efficiency and scientific management became the underlying premises of Ralph Tylers (1949) rationalization of the school curriculum. During the nineteen seventies, curriculum theorists began disrupting Tylers rational foundations by reconceptualizing curriculum using philosophies and theories developed outside of education to alter the language used to describe education. I use Wittgensteins later philosophy to further disrupt the school curriculums rational underpinnings. Wittgenstein maintains that knowing does not require some internal or external authority, thereby rejecting the empirical and logical foundations of knowledge that underlie Western education. Using a Wittgenstein approach suggests that education is an indirect activity of teaching students the use of words. Wittgenstein suggests that educating students indirectly more closely resemble the kinds of playful activities in which children engage in their ordinary lives. He suggests that learning is a synoptic presentation that connects concepts that emerge from our everyday use of language in new and interesting ways. By asking students to see the resemblances among concepts synoptically, rather than logically, education cannot be reduced to the acquisition of a set of facts, ordered in a sequence of steps. As such, a Wittgensteinian approach reconceives curriculum as an act of language-play.