Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 170-177). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Software Engineering has attempted to improve the software development process for over two decades. A primary attempt at this process lies in the arena of measurement. "You can't control what you can't measure" [DEMT82]. This thesis attempts to measure the development of multimedia products. Multimedia languages seem to be the trend of future languages. Problem areas such as Education, Instruction, Training, and Information Systems require that various media allow the achievement of such goals. The first step in this measurement process is the placement of multimedia languages, namely Authorware, in the existing taxonomy of language paradigms. The next step involves the measurement of various distinguishing properties of the language. Finally, the measurement process is selected and evaluated. This evaluation gives insight as to the next step in establishing the goal of control, through measurement, of the multimedia software development process. / Master of Science

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This qualitative study examined how 12 principals view their role as challengers of the propensity for social reproduction in the poor communities in which they work. The primary data sources were interviews with principals who work in rural, suburban, and urban schools that receive Title 1 funding. Review of school documents, community demographics and history, as well as observations were used to study the culture of the school and community that each principal works within. There are high costs to individuals and our society at large in providing substandard education and low levels of economic access. However, the social bifurcation of American society is at its highest level since the turn of the 20th century. Indeed, the Gini Coefficient, which is defined by PovertyNet as the most commonly used measure of fiscal inequality, is the highest it has ever been recorded in America. The Gini Coefficient identifies complete equality with the variable of 0 and complete inequality with the variable 1, currently places America’s level of inequality at a .46 (U.S. Department of Labor, Census Bureau Income). This qualitative study strived to determine how principals in poor communities see their role as challengers of the propensity of social reproduction in their communities. The federal Early Childhood Longitudinal Study (ECLS) summarizes the direct connection between education and success, “National policymakers and the public at large have increasingly recognized that the prosperity of the United States depends on the successful functioning of the American education system” (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2005, p. 21). Although the ECLS notes a clear connection between education and socio-economic success, the study goes on to report more than a million American students, whose families make less than $85,000 a year, start out a the top of their class but “fall off the college track on the way to high school” (as cited in Carnevale, 2007). Social reproduction theorists argue this overrepresentation of low-income students demonstrating low levels of school success is in large part due to a lack of social, political, and educational capital, which results in low-income and minority students being denied complete access to educational resources (Braddock & McPartland, 1987; Wilson, 1987; Bourdieu & Wacquant, 1992). Research has shown principals have an enormous impact on the effectiveness of schools, and ultimately, student outcomes (Grift & Houtveen, 1999; Marzano, Waters, & McNulty, 2005; Gurr, Drysdale, & Mulford, 2006). The impact of the principal can be pervasive throughout a student’s education. This impact includes, but is not limited to, the classroom, the school, as well as the community. Barth (1990) reports principals comprehensively affect their students as well as the community they work within, both inside and outside the school building. As it is clear principals have a significant impact on school, and specifically, student success, it is reasonable to assume they could also impact the likelihood for social reproduction among their students, especially those coming from poor communities. The findings of this study suggest an increased likelihood for principals working in poor communities to engage in challenging social reproduction if they apply a more nuanced understanding and application of the multiple ethical paradigms as well as consistently prioritize the building of positive relationships with stakeholders. The pattern that resulted from the conclusions indicate that principals who engaged in sophisticated ethical problem solving as well as consistent positive relationship building were also more likely to pursue extensive formal education, specifically doctoral degrees in educational administration. / Educational Administration

Yes / Significant trends within contemporary society has led to increasing numbers of the UK population becoming socially excluded (MacInnes et al., 2014). In a politically charged neoliberalistic society, this has led to an ever-diminishing commitment to the welfare state and the undermining of the social justice principles on which it was founded; ultimately leading to a reduction in public services to such a degree that it is no longer possible to meet the ever-increasing needs of the vulnerable (Rouf, 2015). However, it could be argued that the welfare state has, over time, created the ‘welfare dependency trap’ (HMG, 2010) through which individuals and local communities have become disempowered; this continues to be emphasised by the shortage of housing, gaps in educational attainment and worklessness. The sense of injustice that these continuing trends create means that the research previously undertaken, including Acheson (1998), Marmot (2010) and the inquiries discharged (Whitehead, 2014), has begun to paint a bleak picture for those of a low socioeconomic background, particularly in the North of England, whether in work or not.

Yes / In this paper we introduce Morgan’s (1986, 1997) eight metaphors for making sense of entrepreneurs’ motives and their view of ‘reality’. Employing Burrell and Morgan’s (1979, 2003) four paradigms for the analysis of organisational theory, we propose a methodology to capture the ‘longitudinal’ journey of minority ethnic entrepreneurs’ original motives for setting up business; and, current and future perceived image. We use a deductive approach by developing a multiple-choice questionnaire based on eight metaphors. The data is collected from 30 small business owner managers/entrepreneurs based in Bradford, West Yorkshire. Our initial findings show that the assumptions of most of the respondents conform to the “functionalist” paradigm that place emphases on order, objectivity, rationality and tangible view of ‘reality’. Accordingly most of the respondents selected the functionalist metaphors like ‘Brain’, ‘Machine’ and ‘Psychic Prison’. Interestingly, most of the respondents selected and re-selected functionalist paradigm to indicate their past and future aspirations, perhaps due to their need for business stability and to subside any insecurity feelings with regards to their future. However, interestingly many respondents selected “radical Humanist” or “interpretivist” paradigms to map their current situation. These paradigms portray relatively more entrepreneurial and explorative mindset, perhaps mimicking unease with the current situation and a desire by the respondents to introduce some kind of a change in their current business and social settings. We believe that their metaphorical assumptions could determine their decision making, policy and strategy setting, and, actions. In our view our research instrument is appropriate for conducting ‘longitudinal’ studies for eliciting past, current and future assumptions of entrepreneurs.

The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument to measure the views of educational researchers across the dimensions that comprise research paradigms. The development of the instrument, entitled the Research Paradigm Inventory (RPI), was conducted in the hope of providing a mechanism for future research that will enable the examination of prospective links between the ontological, epistemological and methodological orientations of researchers and graduate students who will serve as future inquirers in the field of education. During its development and validation, various aspects of the RPI were examined in accordance with the validity framework outlined by Samuel Messick (1989). According to Messick (1989), the validity of measure interpretation and corresponding action can be examined in terms of content, substantive, structural, generalizability, external and consequential forms of evidence. During this study, the content aspect of validity was addressed through the creation of instrument specifications and the development of items that were mapped to those specifications. In addition, the content aspect of validity was addressed by selecting items that were reviewed by experts, pilot tested, field tested and exhibited high technical quality. The substantive aspect of validity was addressed through an analysis of item rating scale functioning, person fit, item difficulty hierarchies and relationships among instrument scale measures. The structural aspect of validity was addressed through a confirmation of the instrument's dimensionality. The generalizability aspect of validity was addressed through an analysis of person reliability, the precision of item/person parameter estimates and item calibration invariance. The development activities and analyses described above resulted in the creation of six subscales measuring: (1) Realism in Research, (2) Research Objectivism, (3) Quantitative Methodology, (4) Relativism in Research, (5) Research Interpretivism and (6) Qualitative Methodology. Given the evidence collected, these scales appear to provide reasonably reliable and defensible estimates of individuals' attitudes toward various research practices and beliefs, and should be appropriate for future research studies exploring educational research paradigms. / Ph. D.

Significant support for sustainable agriculture practices exists within the land-grant university system nationwide. Despite this fact, many colleges, including the University of Florida, have not evaluated the individual paradigms held by their faculty. An existing Alternative-Conventional Agriculture Paradigm Scale was modified, improved and converted into an electronic instrument that was administered to a random sample of University of Florida Extension Faculty. It is suggested that data collected through this study serves the following purposes: assist the University of Florida’s decision-makers in better understanding the positions held by their Extension agents; allow improvement of educational programming for Extension agents, agricultural professionals, and communities throughout the state; and provide input for improvement of University-wide policy-making and goal-setting. The study consisted of three phases: a) redevelopment and pilot-test of a new ACAP instrument; b) description of University of Florida Extension faculty’s paradigmatic preferences; and c) determination of any existing relationships between personal characteristics and an individual’s paradigm. A pilot study of the new instrument was conducted with participants belonging to known paradigmatic groups who were not part of the final sample. The survey was found to be reliable with a Cronbach’s alpha coefficient of 0.94 in a pilot test of 26 individuals. The survey was found to discriminate effectively between the two known paradigmatic groups (t=4.091, p= .001), making it a useful tool in quantitatively assessing agricultural preferences. Following the pilot study, survey research was conducted with a random sample of 188 Extension agents. The majority of faculty aligned with agricultural paradigmatic groups labeled Moderates and Sustainables. Very few of this population aligned with a Conventional paradigm. Exploratory factor analysis resulted in a preliminary seven-factor solution. Two individual component factors were found to vary based on Extension discipline and gender, which included Size and Scale of Production and Use of Natural Resources, respectively.

This thesis describes research into the role of various factors in novice program comprehension, including the underlying programming paradigm, the representational features of the programming language, and the various types of information which can be derived from the program. The main postulate of the thesis is that there is no unique method for understanding programs, and that program comprehension will be influenced by, among other things, the way in which programs are represented, both semantically and syntactically. This idea has implications for the learning of programming, particularly in terms of how theses concepts should be embodied. The thesis is focused around three empirical studies. The first study, based on th so-called "information types" studies, challenged the idea that program comprehension is an invariant process over languages, and suggested that programming language will have a differential effect on comprehension, as evidenced by the types of information which novices are able to extract from a program. Despite the use of a markedly different language from earliier studies, the results were broadly similar. However, it was suggested that there are other factors additional to programming notation which intervene in the comprehension process, and which cannot be discounted. Furthermore, the study highlighted the need to tie the hypotheses about information extraction more closely to the programming paradigm. The second study introduced a graphical component into the investigation, and looked at the way in which visual representations of programs combine with programming paradigm to influence comprehension. The mis-match conjecture, which suggests that tasks requiring information which is highlighted by a notation will be facilitated relative to tasks where the information must be inferred, was applied to programming paradigm. The study showed that the mis-match effect can be overridden by other factors, most notably subjects' prior experience and the programming culture in which they are taught. The third study combined the methodologies of the first two studies to look at the mis-match conjecture within the wider context of information types. Using graphical representations of the control flow and data flow paradigms, it showed that, despite a bias toward one paradigm based on prior experience and culture, programming paradigm does influence the way in which the program is understood, resulting in improved performance on tasks requiring information which the paradigm is hypothesised to highlight. Furthermore, this effect extends to groups of information which could be said to be theoretically related to the information being highlighted. The thesis also proposes a new and more precise methodology for the analysis of students' accounts of their comprehension of a program, a form a data which is typically derived from the information types studies. It then shows how an analysis of this qualitative data can be used to provide further support for the quantitative results. Finally, the thesis suggests how the core results could be used to develop computer based support environments for novice visual programming, and provides other suggestions for further work.

The purpose of this study was to identify ways Indigenous theoretical perspectives may guide current and future substance abuse prevention programs. As the majority of current theories guiding substance abuse prevention programs in American Indian and Alaska Native communities stem from Western ideologies and lack Indigenous perspectives, there is a paucity of research on theoretical underpinnings for Indigenous perspectives in AI/AN communities and their potential role in substance abuse prevention programming. It is well known that when programs are theoretically connected to the communities in which they are implemented, they are more likely to be accepted, accurately measured, and sustained for longer periods of time. Using a multi-method approach, in-depth qualitative interviews were conducted, followed by a content analysis of interviewee publications, and member check interviews to validate findings. Participants were asked about their perceptions on the role of theory in substance abuse prevention in American Indian and Alaska Native communities; with a focus on what Indigenous perspectives would look like in current and future programming. Results provided evidence of a complex, yet essential, topic area in which additional future studies are necessary. Identification of missing or lacking cultural elements and future recommendations are provided. Implications from the current study show the need for integration of Indigenous perspectives into substance abuse prevention programs for American Indian and Alaska Native communities.