<p> In today&rsquo;s global world, higher educational institutions and businesses are increasingly making use of virtual world learning environments to foster collaborative opportunities for adult students and employees across geographic boundaries, space, and time. Often, however, organizations place the responsibility for learning new skill sets on their adult learners. As a consequence, educators and employers alike argue this new, more complex virtual environment can create a steep learning curve for novice adult learners, causing frustration at the increased time it takes for novices to acquire necessary skills and confidence within the environment. This paper documents the ongoing creation and design of a new adult learner-focused, self-paced, structured skills-based curriculum and virtual world learning environment with situated, virtual world activities for novice adult learners. The primary focus of this project is to move the adult learner from novice to a more experienced user of virtual world environments. </p>

<p>The purpose of this study was to determine if the implementation of a standards-based grading system has an effect on classroom instruction. In particular, how does the implementation of a standards-based grading system impact the teaching methods, curriculum, differentiation, and formative assessments being used in classrooms? The researcher identified five schools in the Southern Illinois area that have adopted the standards-based grading system and chose eleven teachers to participate in this study through purposeful convenience sampling. This study used a phenomenological qualitative approach. There were two methods used in order to collect data including face to face interviews and document analysis. The findings of this study are significant to any district who is considering changing their grading system from a traditional grading system to a standards-based grading system. Through six major themes that emerged, this study shows that by switching to a standards-based grading system multiple parts of the classroom are impacted including the teaching methods, content, differentiation, and formative assessments. The six major themes included: teaching methods have been modified to better adjust to the standards-based grading system and include a larger variety of approaches, teaching methods are more of a response to student need than a pre-planned approach to teaching, the curriculum and content being taught in the classroom have better alignment to the standards, teachers have a greater awareness of both the curriculum and standards that are being taught at their grade level, as well as at other grade level, teachers have a better understanding of the individual needs of students and have used differentiation to meet these unique needs, and the use of formative assessments have increased in order to adjust for more fluid groupings being used in the classroom.

<p>Scholars have focused the majority of differentiated instruction research on the effect that differentiation has on student achievement, but have overlooked whether or not the delivery method makes a difference on student achievement. Research questions: Is there a significant difference in Language Arts fluency total mean scores between first grade students who received software computerized differentiated instruction and first grade students who received differentiated instruction provided by the teacher without software? Is there a significant difference in Language Arts in comprehension total mean scores between first grade students who received software computerized differentiated instruction and first grade students who received differentiated instruction provided by the teacher without software? Archival records (128) were examined from a (BOY) and (MOY) mClass Dibels Next and mClass Dibels TRC assessments. There was a statistically significant difference between the students who utilized the Lexia program when compared to their counterparts that received traditional instruction for growth focusing on fluency and it was determined through an independent samples t-test. There was not a statistically significant difference between the students who utilized the Lexia program when compared to their counterparts that receive traditional instruction for growth focusing on comprehension. The results of the inferential tests determined that the students that received their differentiation from the software program had significantly higher growth results than their counterparts that received the differentiation from their classroom teachers in the area of fluency. For the area of comprehension, there was not a significant difference between the two groups.

<p> This study examined two questions related to the effectiveness of project-based learning (PBL) instruction. First, is PBL more effective than a textbook-based instructional model, and second what are teacher perceptions related to PBL methodology? Student growth scores in the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) assessment for reading and math, as measured within one school year, fall to spring, for students in PBL and non-PBL classes were compared. A teacher survey was conducted to measure teacher perceptions of PBL and textbook-based instructional program strengths and weaknesses. Additional data on effective instructional strategies can provide further direction for educators to continue the full implementation of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) that call for students to gain a deeper understanding and knowledge of grade level standards. The study was located in a large urban school district in Northern California. The overall findings of this study were that the MAP assessment data reflected higher annual growth scores for reading and math in six of the eight grade levels studied. Teacher survey participant responses reflected consistent support for a textbook-based instructional program over a PBL instructional program, due in large part to the additional time teachers spent in preparing for PBL lessons.</p><p>

The Senior Management Service in the South African public service was established as a leadership tier made up by development-oriented individuals who are able to make government’s vision of a better life for all a reality. The purpose of this research study is to explore and interpret how public service leadership is understood, communicated and legitimated in design and in practice. The study aims to gain deeper and critical understanding of issues from individuals’ perspectives, and is premised on the view that language has not been given sufficient attention in public service curriculum design and leadership development programmes. Yet, language and discourse express and constitute the values and beliefs underpinning structures and practices of communication, learning, and work. Participant samples are drawn from curriculum designers who guide the development of public service education, training and development interventions; and managers who have participated in the Executive Development Programme (EDP) of the National School of Government. This qualitative study applies Norman Fairclough’s critical discourse analysis, with interest in the intended curriculum and the lived, and the local and distributed contexts of social practices of public service leadership. The study highlights some of the linguistic turns in the discipline of Public Administration, and the interdisciplinary intersections in the d/Discourses of public service. Taken-for-granted worldviews are noted in how leadership is construed and the context in which it is practised, with implications for curriculum and policy critique. The study makes recommendations about ways in which subordinate and dominant worldviews may be reappraised, while also building bridges across the multiple worlds of situational practitioner knowledge and language, and those of scientific theory and methodology. Moreover, the study brings a critical discourse perspective to the languages and texts through which leadership development endeavours may be recontextualised, legitimated or deligitimated to accomplish particular purposes in the public service. Key words: public service, public administration, leadership development, intended. curriculum, lived curriculum, critical discourse analysis / Thesis (PhD) University of Pretoria, 2017. / Humanities Education / PhD / Unrestricted

<p> In the city selected for this study, only 29% of inner-city students scored proficiently on standardized tests, whereas 71% of their peers at nearby suburban and affluent schools achieved the proficiency level. To address the gap, the local district implemented ability grouping in one charter school. The purpose of this ex post facto quasi-experimental study was to examine the effect of ability grouping among inner-city students in mathematics as an instructional intervention for improving student achievement. Ability grouping theory as an instructional strategy was used as the theoretical framework for this study. The criterion measure of mathematics improvement was provided by the test results from the Northwest Evaluation Association&rsquo;s Measure of Academic Progress (NWEA-MAP), a computer-adaptive assessment of mathematics. Using population data for 2012&ndash;2014 inner-city 8th graders who took the pretest and posttest NWEA-MAP (<i>N</i> = 234), two 1-way analyses of variances were used to test for mean differences in the NWEA-MAP improvement scores between ability-grouped (<i>n</i> = 115) and non-ability-grouped (<i>n</i> = 115) students, then specifically between students who were grouped as high ability (<i>n</i> = 55) and low ability (<i> n</i> = 55). The ability-grouped students had significantly higher improvement scores than did the nongrouped students. For those students who were ability grouped, no statistically significant difference existed in improvement between the high and low ability groups. A position paper was developed recommending student grouping to improve academic performance of inner-city school students. Positive social change will occur as the achievement gap is closed for students who attend inner-city schools.</p>

<p> The study investigated the use of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG) in English and Business classrooms in Higher Education from the context of learners&rsquo; performance outcomes, as well as stakeholders&rsquo; (learners, administrators, and faculty) perceptions pertaining to their experiences when using an MMOG based curriculum. The findings strongly suggest that MMOGs helped enhance learner performances in statistically significant ways, and provided valuable insights into elements of interest and concerns of stakeholders about MMOG usage in classrooms. Based on these insights, I designed a practitioners&rsquo; guide to assist future scholars interested in this curricular approach. This guide provides innovative tips on show how faculty, administrators and institutions may imbibe this cutting-edge technology in easy and affordable ways within classrooms, while dealing with several concerns such stakeholders may have regarding the use of such games. Given the rise in popularity of game based technology and the existing literature on the value of game based education, coupled with a paucity of studies examining applicability and implementation issues in the context of using MMOGs, I hope that this submission will be a valuable contribution to the literature.</p><p>

<p> Motivation and engagement helps students succeed in school. When students are apathetic and not invested in their lessons, they may experience severe academic problems. Character education is the explicit instruction of positive values and has been found to improve student motivation and engagement. A type of character education is humane education. The purpose of humane education is to integrate animal-related curricula to foster compassion in children&rsquo;s relationships with both animals and people. In this qualitative phenomenological case study, research was conducted to examine the problem of not knowing what aspects of humane education most contributed to student motivation and engagement. The purpose of this study was to explore teacher perceptions regarding how humane education, specifically animal well-being, influenced student motivation and engagement. Eight humane education teachers with a minimum of two years&rsquo; experience teaching humane education were individually interviewed to better understand the most effective ways to use this curriculum to positively impact student motivation and engagement. Semi-structured interviews occurred in person and via telephone. Participants included four teachers from New Jersey, three from New York, and one educator from California. Respondents had both primary and secondary teaching experience in both public and private schools. All participants perceived humane education as being particularly motivating and engaging for their students as opposed to other curricula, and attributed student interest is enhanced because of children&rsquo;s connection to animals. Six particular themes became apparent from the participants&rsquo; perceptions of humane education as being most impactful on positive student motivation and engagement in their learning. These themes involved: 1) teaching techniques, 2) safe topics and species, 3) food and farm animals 4) student and teacher connection, 4) age, gender, and culture of student, 5) administrator, colleague, and parent reaction, and 6) with companion and farm animals being perceived as engendering the most student motivation and engagement. Recommendations for future research include using student participants in a pretest-posttest design to determine if humane education helped them learn more effectively and conducting a quantitative examination of student performance as related to specific components of humane education. The results of this case study could inform educators when choosing effective curriculum and classroom materials for the purposes of assisting student motivation and engagement. The results could also be implemented in the ways educators integrate animals across school disciplines and how teachers could effectively incorporate humane education to motivate and engage their students.</p><p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to design a grammar curriculum that could help college age students in basic writing classes to identify and correct grammatical errors in their own writing. After reviewing literature in best practices in grammar instruction as well as other kinds of instructional best practices, the grammar curriculum, <i>Effective MUGs</i> (MUGs stands for mechanics, usage, and grammar), takes advantage of these best practices including sentence combining, sentence revision, sentence creation, grammar in context, strategies instruction, and Bring Your Own Device (BYOD). The study was designed to measure how effective the grammar curriculum was (by examining student writing in essays as well as grammar exercises), how students used tools in the curriculum (by examining results from cognition labs), and how students and instructors perceived the curriculum (through interviews). The data on student grammatical error from this study must be viewed with reservations because of the lack of statistical significance. The most significant findings were qualitative and offered insight into the strengths of the Effective MUGs curriculum as well as which aspects that need revision. Both students and instructors thought that the gradual release of strategies instruction was one of the most effective tools and they both enjoyed using BYOD in conjunction with Google Docs. Students were most challenged by subject-verb identification and feeling confident about use of unfamiliar sentence elements; instructor interviews confirmed these student challenges. The data from the study will prompt revision to the curriculum as well as enhanced professional development.</p><p>

The decline of the requisite linguistic skills of law students around the world has been documented comprehensively through legal scholarship. While ameliorating initiatives attempt to remedy law school education, the curriculization of English for academic legal purposes (EALP) has been neglected, resulting in the absence of a principled curricular framework for developing EALP syllabi. The proliferation of legal English communication across the circles of world English has accentuated the deterioration of students’ linguistic skills and exacerbated the educational challenges confronting law schools. These premises were influenced and validated by the researcher’s experiences as student and teacher of law and language. Three research questions address the rationale and guide the research: (1) Which curricular principles can be deduced from theoretical linguistics, second language (L2) pedagogy, and legal education to constitute a framework for EALP? (2) Which legal linguistic skills clusters can be identified from a typology of EALP-type textbooks? (3) As research outcome, how can the literature review and textbook analysis be synthesized into a cohesive curricular framework for EALP that can be applied across the circles of world English? The cyclical research strategy that underpinned this qualitative study relied on a social constructionist worldview, case study methodology, and qualitative content analysis method. The literature review probed theoretical linguistics, L2 pedagogy, and legal education as tributary disciplines of EALP. Insights gleaned from the literature review informed the qualitative content analysis of a purposive sample of EALP-type textbooks (N = 44). The textbooks were coded to create a typology and to determine the clusters of linguistic skills introduced during law school and across the circles of world English. The literature review led to the formulation of theoretically informed, curricular principles from the three disciplines that underpin EALP. The qualitative content analysis resulted in the creation of a typology of textbooks that exhibits clusters of linguistic skills that are scaffolded throughout law school. While academic communication skills were accentuated, legal linguistic skills incorporate additional clusters of thinking, research, and pedagogic skills. Together these skills constitute the skill of “thinking like a lawyer.” A synthesis of the theoretical principles and skills clusters provides a holistic curricular framework for EALP that is sensitive to the local diversity within the circles of world English. The curricular framework for EALP draws legal English from the periphery to the center of law school education by accentuating the legal linguistic skills needed both in academia and in legal practice. The main limitations of the study are the challenges posed by the inclusion of original EALP syllabi and the manual coding of the textbook sample. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2015. / Humanities Education / Unrestricted