EQUIPPING MINDS: APPLYING A BIBLICALLY BASED CURRICULUM FOR IMPROVING WORKING MEMORY Carol Thompson Brown Ed.D. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2016 Supervisor: Dr. Danny R. Bowen Recent findings in neuroscience confirm the neuroplasticity of the brain. There has been strong interest in applying these discoveries to learners with learning disorders focusing on increasing working memory capacity. The aim of the present study was to explore the effectiveness of cognitive intervention with the Equipping Minds Cognitive Development Curriculum (EMCDC), based on Feuerstein’s theory of structural cognitive modifiability. Feuerstein’s theory states that a learner’s cognitive functioning can be modified through mediated learning. EMCDC is aimed at enhancing processing, working memory, comprehension, and reasoning abilities. Participants were learners with Specific Learning Disorders (SLD) Learners were randomly assigned into one of two groups. The active control group received small group intervention in academic subjects an hour a day five times a week for 7 weeks. The training group received small group intervention in the Equipping Minds Cognitive Development Curriculum an hour a day five times a week for 7 weeks. Both groups were tested on measures of working memory, verbal and nonverbal ability, and academic attainment before training and re-tested on the same measures after training. Analysis of the pre-to post-test scores demonstrated significant (p<0.05) advantage of the training over the active control group on the KBIT-2 in verbal, nonverbal, and IQ composite, as well as far transfer effects in science. This study’s design could be replicated in multiple educational settings with other neurodevelopmental disorders. Key words: Neuroplasticity, cognitive development, Feuerstein, Equipping Minds, mediated learning, working memory, Specific Learning Disorders

Thesis (D.Tech.: Language Practice) - Dept. of Language and Translation, Durban University of Technology, 2007 / An in-depth investigation into the nature of composing was carried out to provide the theoretical basis for a computer mediated learning application, an interactive writing tutor computer program which might be customised by users to fit different educational contexts. The investigation was carried out within a critical realist perspective, from which viewpoint composing can be seen to have an external reality in common with other social phenomena. The intended outcome was to arrive at a description of writing which more closely approximated the reality so as to design more effective learning interactions, in particular, the writing tutor program itself

Cognitive-based narrative intervention for bilingual preschoolers Abstract The aim of this study was to determine how an intervention conducted in Spanish and English influenced macro and micro structure in the oral narratives produced by eight preschool Spanish-speaking English-language-learners (M = 68 months, range 59 to 79 months) during a four-week summer intervention program. Following a single-subject pre-experimental repeated A-B measure design, each subject completed an initial treatment phase in Spanish followed by an English treatment phase. The cognitive-based intervention method focused on the mediated learning of language-independent cognitive strategies such as attention, self-regulation, organization, and problem solving. Analysis at the macrostructure level included story component and episode structure and microstructure level analysis considered lexical diversity and use of grammatical forms in each language. All narrative samples were evaluated to determine the effect of language treatment condition and narrative productivity in both languages. Mediated learning significantly increased participants’ ability to independently produce narrative macrostructure story component and episodic structure on multiple elicitation tasks across both languages. Mixed results were observed at the microstructure level for participants’ demonstration of lexical diversity and grammatical complexity specific to language condition and elicitation task. These findings help us understand which macro and micro structure skills transfer under a cognitive-based intervention conducted in two languages. / text

Thesis (D.Tech.: Language Practice) - Dept. of Language and Translation, Durban University of Technology, 2007 / An in-depth investigation into the nature of composing was carried out to provide the theoretical basis for a computer mediated learning application, an interactive writing tutor computer program which might be customised by users to fit different educational contexts. The investigation was carried out within a critical realist perspective, from which viewpoint composing can be seen to have an external reality in common with other social phenomena. The intended outcome was to arrive at a description of writing which more closely approximated the reality so as to design more effective learning interactions, in particular, the writing tutor program itself

Contemporary higher education makes use of computers and the Internet more than ever before and the extent to which education is delivered via these media is only likely to increase in the future. While computer-mediated communication and education have been studied extensively, relatively little research has examined the potential impact of cultural background (e.g. social class) on students' experiences of different learning media. To address this gap, the current research uses a multi-sample (6 samples; n = 473), quasi-experimental approach to interrogate the relationship between student social class background and learning environment on various educational and individual outcomes. Examining a trichotomous (lower, middle, upper) conceptualization of social class across three distinct learning environments (face-to-face, computer-mediated, and fully-online) I find evidence of effects of student social class, learning environment and their interaction. In general, middle class students vary the least across conditions; lower class students tend to score lower on outcomes overall but with some notable exceptions for shared experience in face-to-face settings and comfort in online settings; and upper class students tend to experience a laboratory-based computer-mediated learning environment most positively. Implications for studying computer-mediated learning and social class are discussed, along with implications for real-world online education.

This applied research in education was undertaken within the context of a school mentoring programme, where my role as a mentor researcher is directed at promoting change in teacher pedagogy consistent with junior-high school educational reforms in Israel. The purpose of this study has been twofold: 1) to confront conflicting issues that exist between the need for change in teacher pedagogy and the resistance felt by many of them toward ‘never ending’ new reforms and: 2). to investigate the impact of the mentoring model (MM) on learning processes that foster teacher empowerment. Assessment of empowerment, as both a process and a product, drew on the teachers' metacognitive development, growing sense of satisfaction and self-efficacy as mediators of their pupils' thinking/learning skills. This study presents a unique approach to teacher empowerment through its theoretical and methodological perspectives. Socio-cultural perspectives serve as an over-arching framework through which various theoretical perspectives for learning and development may be integrated. Action research and discourse analysis were found to be compatible with the researcher’s philosophical approach, whereby educators engage in a collaborative learning process that promotes shared visions and goals. Promoting the characteristics of a learning organisation within the school shed light on ways that can provide teachers with a nurturing environment within the complex dynamics of the school. The detailed account and interpretation of the multi-level reciprocal interactions that occur between teachers, mentor and the school organisation presented in this study is especially significant for understanding multidimensional developmental processes. It illustrates the evolution of inventive methodological tools (such as skills rubrics and discourse analysis techniques), which assume to provide new perspectives for fostering the teachers’ trust in their own judgement when mediating higher order thinking skills. These findings are of particular relevance as contemporary research indicates that teachers often experience difficulties in practicing metacognitive pedagogy.

This is a multiple-article format dissertation that explores methods for measuring student engagement in technology-mediated learning experiences. Student engagement is the committed, focused, and energetic involvement of students in learning. Student engagement is correlated with academic performance, student satisfaction, and persistence in learning, making it a valuable predictor of important learning outcomes. In order to identify which students need help or to evaluate how well an instructional interaction promotes student engagement, we need effective measures of student engagement. These measures should be scalable, cost effective, and minimally disruptive to learning. This dissertation examines different approaches to measure student engagement in technology-mediated learning environments that meet the identified measurement criteria. The first article is an extended literature review that examines how engagement has been measured in technology-mediated learning experiences. The second article is an instrument evaluation of an activity-level self-report measure of student engagement. The third article explores the relationships between learning management system user-activity data (log data) and results of the activity-level self-report measure of student engagement.

With the dynamic development of internet, various protocols and applications had been gradually matured on the network. The network has objective merits such as getting beyond the limits of time and space and change the tradition teaching model. Otherwise, the learning portfolios documented by on-line learning websites help teachers keep track of students¡¦ learning process. With the educational information, teachers would be more able to observe students¡¦ learning in real time and provide students with different decision rules under various time frames for teachers to understand both students¡¦ learning behaviors and process instantaneously. Nevertheless, technology mediated learning (TML) refers to an environment in which the learner interacts with learning materials, peers, and/or instructors that are mediated through advanced information technology. Recently, there have been increasing interests in investigating if TML can yield positive learning outcome. However, the rapid growth of information technology concerning analyzing the learning track is of various analytic approaches and thus is really complicated. The lack of one integrative analysis of all the possible use of the diverse analyzing frameworks prevents teachers from picking one most appropriate analyzing framework for their own teaching. Accordingly, this research compares and contrasts the most prevailing data analyzing technique¡Ðdata mining and the traditional statistical analysis approaches with the hope to allocate matching analyzing tools for various kinds of courses as well as to provide teachers with immediate decision rules as bases for predicting students¡¦ possible learning behaviors.

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While extensive research has been done on technology-mediated learning (TML) in North America, such research is not easily transferable to the Caribbean, as there are notable socio-cultural and economic factors that affect such methods of course delivery. Limited research has been recorded about TML within a Caribbean context. This study employed a qualitative research methodology to gain an understanding of the individual and collective experiences of Jamaican educators who are using technology-mediated learning within the classroom. The methodology employed solicited the participation of one group of educators for this research. The two approaches that were used to collect data were group interviews and one-on-one interviews. The findings revealed that while faculty were keen on leveraging the available technology, there were still faculty, student and institutional challenges that were being encountered, ultimately affecting the effectiveness of the technology used to complement the teaching and learning process. / Adult Education