Thesis (Ed.D.)--University of West Florida, 2003. / Title from title page of source document. Document formatted into pages; contains 258 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis presents an investigation into the effectiveness of faculty-based student learning support and comprises three volumes. Volume 1 provides an overview of the background literature, research methodology, ethical and reliability considerations linked to two projects whose overarching theme is the support and improvement of the student experience. The overview begins with an outline of the aim of this thesis, followed by a synopsis of the literature concerning student support in higher education and the use of technology to support learners. The methodological framework is then discussed and a brief introduction to the projects is provided. The overview concludes with an exploration of the effectiveness of faculty-based student learning support and the presentation of a new blended approach to the organisation, delivery and typology of advising. This seeks to demonstrate the strength of a blended approach and thus makes a contribution to the practice, theory and method of supporting student learning. Volume 2 discusses the Advice Shop project and considers the processes, methods and ethics of this student learning support. A summary of eight interventions is presented together with details of how the project was subsequently rolled out across the University. A consideration of the organisational model and personnel involved in student advising is also offered. The volume concludes with student and staff feedback and a discussion of how the project aims have been achieved. Evidence of the research output and components of practice relating to Project 1 can be found in Volume2 Part 2. Volume 3 presents a discussion of Project 2 - the use of technology to support learners. The project presents two technology-enhanced interventions - an electronic student attendance monitoring scheme, and the development of two online learner support tools using QuestionMark Perception as the delivery software. The methods and ethical considerations used to establish and implement these interventions are present together with feedback from students and staff. The volume concludes with a discussion of how the aims of the project have been achieved. Evidence of the research output and components of practice relating to Project 2 can be found in Volume 3 Part 2.

The unique contribution to knowledge of this research is the study of the development of judgement capacity in apprentice and undergraduate engineering learners in Activity Led Learning (ALL) environments. Four case studies of engineering students investigated the learners' experiences of making judgements in various engineering undergraduate and apprenticeship programmes. A phenomenological research methodology was used to infer the learner's judgements from the learners' dialogues and actions that were observed during the learning activity. The findings of the study indicate that the experience and incidence of the learners' exertion of judgement is dependent upon the construct of the ALL environment to provide a problem space with potential for disjuncture, and the intentionality of the learners. The learners did not solve problems by a linear progression but repeatedly re-activated experiences and knowledge, exercising judgements until the states of disjuncture were satisfied leading to the conclusion of the problem. Heuristic judgements that may result in decision making errors tended to dominate the problem spaces though their incidence did not appear to be influenced by the technical or socio-technical demands of the project problem spaces. This thesis concludes that in ALL environments, projects of sufficient length and complexity similar to realistic professional practice, may enable students to acquire the practice of better judgement through disjuncture and by re-activating learning experiences and importing analogies into new problem spaces. However, to acquire skills and knowledge to improve judgement capacity, requires specific and purposeful interventions within ALL that enable the learner to know when heuristic judgements are reliable or otherwise unreliable, and acquiring reasoning strategies to compensate for the effects. It is proposed that in such interventions the learner learns to record their own judgements as they are exerted and to reflect critically on those judgements and their consequences. It also requires that any ALL project that aims to promote judgement capacity has in place assessment instruments that specifically consider the learner effort in the self-development of judgement.

The study of mathematical anxiety has seen an increased importance in the past few decades in the field of mathematical education. As this topic is of great interest in education research, this thesis investigates the previous contributions made by other researchers via a literature review of mathematical education papers. Furthermore, a literature review of mathematical models of learning is presented. In the hopes of closing the gap between these two streams of research, this thesis conducts a study of mathematical anxiety at the first year university level through a survey and data analysis, and proposes a theoretical model of learning. Throughout the data analysis, the prevalence, effects, and correlates of mathematical anxiety are examined. Using a version of the Mathematical Anxiety Rating Scale refined by Plake \& Parker in 1982, factors such as gender, high school performance, and program choices are shown to be correlated to mathematical anxiety, as is consistent with previous literature. On the other hand, the model of learning offers a theoretical perspective in understanding the relationship between knowledge, effort, and anxiety, and how these variables interact during a learning experience. This model suggests that given an individual's aptitude, drive, and susceptibility for anxiety, that they may reach various levels of knowledge, effort, and anxiety throughout an academic term. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

This thesis examines the ways in which outdoor environmental education can be understood in the context of relational-environmental encounters. The study focuses on residential learning programmes with secondary school students in the UK. The research aims to explore the extent to which current educational practices, structures and pedagogies in two case study locations can be said to occur as continuous lived experiences; invoking relational ontologies. Furthermore, this research examines the environmental encounters of students and considers how these encounters shape and challenge environmental narratives consisting social and cultural norms. Making use of developments within behaviour change theory, ecological ethics and environmental pedagogy, this thesis brings together ways of understanding environmental and sustainability education, notions of relational ways of being, and models for transformative societal change. The research methodology makes use of ethnographic encounters in two case locations comprising residential education centers in South Devon, UK, chosen for their representation of instrumental and emancipatory pedagogies. Participating in fifteen outdoor environmental education programmes over ten months, participant observation, focus groups, interviews and photo elicitation were deployed. In-field and subsequent thematic analysis, using structured coding elicited four central themes: structure, choice, relationships and discomfort. These themes formed the core empirical analysis and enabled an exploration of relational practices occurring across the spectrum of contemporary environmental education. The research therefore provides a narrative of residential experiences in a subjective, emergent and reciprocal environment, whereby both lived and learning experiences provide space for instrumental and emancipatory learning. Consequently, contributions are made to geography and education in four key areas; firstly, the articulation of a pedagogy of discomfort deployed explicitly and implicitly within environmental education; secondly, an advancement of relational connotations of place-making within environmental education as being emergent of agency, structure and the setting itself; thirdly, through the ecotheraputic ‘performance’ of other-than-human material and ecological environments in education discourses; and finally, through an advancement of a blended approach to environmental education, understood from an ecological-ethical, as well as a behavioural-practice perspective.

This Study investigates the effectiveness of a new Instructional Design model for using advanced multimedia in the teaching and learning of photography at university level in Kingdom of Bahrain. A preliminary study revealed that the central problems faced by students are learning key technical aspects of photography coupled with insufficient resources and high student teachers ratio. Advanced multimedia was proposed as an effective tool for teaching and learning photography. A critical review and analysis of existing e-learning resources revealed that such technology might help in teaching and learning, especially subjects that need experience with real instruments like cameras. Through reference to the ASSURE model, Laurillard's conversational model, and insights from Steuer's Classification model, the researcher developed a new instructional design model for using advanced multimedia in photography education [AMPE]. This was field tested in University photography teaching. For the evaluation of the AMPE model a mixed-model design was used, combining quantitative and qualitative methods. In a quantitative evaluation, effectiveness in learning was estimated from the student achievement in a test. A comparison of the opinions of the two groups of students in a specially constructed questionnaire measuring their views of the respective teaching and learning methods was also applied. Finally engagement and enjoyment in learning in the two groups of students were also assessed through questionnaire. The participants‘comments, opinions, and suggestions were obtained through open-ended questions in the questionnaire. The study found that advanced multimedia enhances effectiveness, engagement, and enjoyment in learning photography. The instructional model and associated ―virtual camera‖ seems to be a suitable solution for the lack of real cameras in the classroom environment, and can help in the teaching of difficult technical photographic knowledge in an efficient and practical manner.

A new one-semester tertiary bridging course in chemistry was designed with constructivist concept-learning as a major aim. This aim was monitored by Concept Learning Test Sequences (CLTSs), developed for each of ten fundamental chemical concept-clusters, selected from ten theory-practical work-units of an expressly written book. The concept-clusters were: density, mixture/compound, structure/bonding, base/salt, redox, mole, rate, metal, halogen, hydrocarbon. Each CLTS comprised a pre-instruction item; two-tier multiple-choice item(s); a post-instruction item; each provided data from a class of 21 students of widely different backgrounds. Separate chapters discuss class results and individual results.Concept-learning Improvement Categories that estimated individual improvement in each CLTS were quantified by assigning numerical values. Summation of these numerical values for all ten CLTSs produced individual Concept-learning Improvement Indices (CLIIs). Improvement in concept-learning appears independent of prior academic background. Rankings by CLIIs and by final assessment percentage were strongly correlated. The mean CLII for the class assessed concept-learning improvement (per concept) at Moderate-to-Intermediate.Various probes revealed that factors which influenced learning included: pre-laboratory reports; practical work; learning partnership(s); positive personal qualities; mathematical skills; confidence; visualisation; integration of theoretical and practical studies; bench problem-solving; a relaxed tutorial atmosphere; historical approaches to chemical concepts. Students assessed the course overall as 'good'.

In this study, the students in my Year 8 high school mathematics class and I set out to develop a functional and effective collaborative peer interactive classroom learning environment. This research was informed by the multiple theoretical perspectives of collaborative learning in mathematics education, Vygotskian learning and teaching approaches, and the Constructivist referent for pedagogic practices. Merging these perspectives into a viable foundation for our classroom practices led to the successful development of our collaborative peer interactive classroom learning environment.Working in groups of three or four, the students developed their social norms and utilised a collaborative approach to their learning of mathematics. Groups engaged in discussion, explanation, negotiation, peer teaching, giving help, receiving help and consensus building as part of their daily routine in our classroom. I kept qualitative and quantitative records of our progress as we worked to improve our collaborative peer interactive classroom learning environment during the first six months of the school year. I collected daily fieldnotes, audio and video recordings, observations taken by researcher colleagues, learning environment surveys and a variety of other artefacts. All of this data was analysed daily, weekly and monthly, so producing the monthly narratives upon which we based our determination of the success of this implementation.By adopting a Vygotskian perspective we utilised our peer interactive environment to develop and enhance 'scientific' and 'everyday' concepts through individual and group dynamic, overlapping (multiple) 'zones of proximal development' as well as our classwide 'zone of proximal development'. Our constructivist perspective aided us in focusing on our prior knowledge and experiences, which in turn enhanced the effectiveness of our collaborative ++ / classroom learning environment. We utilised the MCI and CLES learning environment measures to direct our endeavours to further improve our collaborative peer interactive classroom learning environment. The detailed analysis of the data from Months 1, 2 and 3 of this implementation, coupled with highlight analysis of the data from Months 4, 5 and 6, led me to conclude that teachers and their students can develop a functional and effective collaborative peer interactive classroom learning environment based on the multiple theoretical perspectives utilised in this study.This research improved my practice as a teacher and provided a functional and effective collaborative peer interactive classroom learning environment for the students to work in. It informed many of the calls for further research of this type and established that the theoretical concepts, upon which the implementation was founded, were valuable and useful in the practical setting of our collaborative peer interactive classroom. The findings are also valuable for the support which they offer to the latest movements in education, particularly the student-centred, outcomes-based approaches to learning and teaching. These approaches advocate the use of collaborative learning environments, and this study provides strong guidance as to how such environments can be successfully implemented.

This study investigates and describes the development of an instrument named the Electronics Laboratory Environment Inventory (ELEI), which is used to measure students' perceptions of the electronics laboratory class as a learning environment. The sample consisted of 353 of 708 Computer Engineering active students from eight classes in Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta, Indonesia. Bina Nusantara University which has the largest number of computer engineering students in Indonesia. Students' learning outcomes were measured using z-scores in electronics subjects and students' attitudes in laboratory classes were measured by using the Attitude Towards Electronics Questionnaire (ATEQ). Directed by the research questions, numerous statistical analyses were performed. These included item analysis, inter-item correlation analysis, one-way analysis of variance for establishing reliability and validity of the laboratory class environment instruments in the present study; descriptive statistics for investigating the nature of the learning environment in electronics subjects; simple and multiple correlation analyses for investigating associations between laboratory class environment and students' outcomes. In all cases, electronics laboratory classes have played a major role. The scales measured Student Cohesiveness, Open-endedness, Integration, Technology Adequacy, and Laboratory Availability. The results showed that all five scales have a reasonable alpha reliability with low mean correlations. / The study discovered that, generally, students perceived their electronics class learning environments as favourable. It was found that students' perceptions of electronics laboratory class environment were associated with students' learning outcomes. The results of this study make important and unique contributions to students' learning outcomes, suggesting that the instruments are useful for assessing laboratory class environment in the other studies.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Open University. BLDSC no. DX231196.