Educational Psychology / Built from a diverse background of theatre-based education and social change theories, drama-based instruction (DBI) employs active, kinesthetic learning strategies to engage students in classroom activities. Much of DBI is grounded in scaffolding students through a Describe, Analyze, and Relate (DAR) thinking process. DAR requires students to consider information in a systematic way, leading them through the steps of Bloom’s Taxonomy and moving from lower-order to higher-order thinking skills. Examining information at this deeper level is a process similar to the automatic thought-stopping mechanism of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT). As in CBT, rather than making hasty assumptions, students are guided through steps that allow them to analyze details and to examine stimuli thoroughly. Yet the context of DBI is different from many CBT therapeutic settings because DBI is situated in a classroom environment. DAR is delivered as a whole-class intervention with peer interaction occurring throughout the thinking and questioning process. Social perspective-taking involves one individual’s efforts to discern the thoughts and feelings of another individual, a skill that has been linked to more effective problem solving. When teachers offer structured exposure to thought-stopping and perspective-taking processes, students gain practice with social perspective-taking and problem-solving skills. The current study proposed a multiple baseline, single-case design to explore how practice using the Describe, Analyze, Relate (DAR) questioning technique affects students’ capacity to engage in social perspective-taking and social problem-solving. The school in this study participated in a year-long, campus-wide initiative to train teachers in how to use DAR across subjects and grade levels. Two fourth grade teachers, one fifth grade teacher, and one visual arts teacher were identified as demonstrating proficiency in the DAR technique. In each of the three core teachers’ classes, a letter was sent home explaining the project and requesting opt-in from interested parents. From those who responded, students with special education placements were removed, then two students were randomly selected per class. The researcher met individually with the selected participants to conduct repeated measures of the Interpersonal Negotiating Strategies Interview for baseline, intervention, and follow-up phases of the study over the course of the 2012-2013 school year. Additionally, participants’ teachers were asked to complete the Social Skills subscale of the Behavior Assessment System for Children for each phase of data collection. Post-intervention interviews were conducted with the teachers to assess for their perceptions of the DAR strategy and DBI-based pedagogy in general. Visual analysis was used to assess the effectiveness of the treatment on student social perspective-taking and problem-solving. Overall, the quantitative results of the current study did not conclusively link DAR with social perspective-taking and problem-solving. However, the qualitative data from teacher interviews yielded positive feedback related to the utility of DAR questioning on improving higher-order thinking in their students. Further research is necessary to clarify and deepen understanding of this effect. / text

Approved for public release, distribution is unlimited / This thesis details the critical need for deployable combat simulations for training in today's surge force environment. To truly realize deployment of these simulations on Naval vessels and in remote theaters, simulations for training must be wireless. Wireless standards 802.11/a/b/g are presented in detail to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of each. This thesis then investigates the viability of deploying combat simulations for training using wireless devices. To this end, the Joint Semi-Automated Forces (JSAF), combat simulation model and the Virtual Helicopter (VEHELO) training simulation entity are tested in an 802.11a wireless environment against the VEHELO application in a wired environment. 802.11a is proposed as part of an overall solution to deploy combat simulations for training. This is primarily because of its high data rates and ability to co-locate access points without interference. Testing reveals that operating JSAF and Virtual Helicopter via the High Level Architecture (HLA) with User Datagram Protocol (UDP) packets in an 802.11a environment provides ample bandwidth with which to deploy combat simulation for training for the simulations conducted. / Lieutenant, United States Navy

This dissertation examines the question how do ESL teachers perceive the prereferral process for identifying adolescent Latino English language learners with specific learning disabilities? The study fits within the Latino Critical Race Theory framework and employs an interpretive phenomenological qualitative research approach. Participants were six secondary-level ESL teachers from two school districts with small ELL populations. Data consisted of in-depth interviews, researcher notes, and analytical memos. Phenomenological data analysis procedures followed recommendations by Colaizzi (1978) and Smith, Flowers, and Larkin (2009). Data validity measures included second-researcher review and member-checking. Results of the study are presented as descriptions of how participants perceived the prereferral processes for identifying adolescent Latino English language learners with suspected specific learning disabilities. Nine categories emerged from the interviews: (a) Characteristics and behaviors; (b) instructional supports and interventions; (c) progress-monitoring; (d) use of RTI; (e) prereferral outcomes; (f) parental participation; (g) special education department response; (h) identification challenges; and (i) recommendations. Implications of the study findings for policy, research, and educator practice are noted.

I den här studien undersöktes fyra elevers kunskapsutveckling och inställning till ämnet matematik under en period av tre veckors intervention. Syftet var att mäta om en enskild intensivundervisning i matematik inom ordinarie undervisningstid kunde vara gynnsam för elever i svårigheter med taluppfattning. Ytterligare syfte var att se på om intensivundervisningen hade någon effekt på elevernas självskattning kring matematik. Studien är en experimentell fallstudie med multipel baslinje singlecase-design. Resultatet visade att interventionen har varit gynnsam för de ingående eleverna både vad gäller kunskapsutvecklingen och deras inställning och självskattning till ämnet. / This study investigates the knowledge progression of four pupils and their attitude to mathematics during a period of three weeks. The aim is to measure whether pupils with number sense problems could benefit from intensive one-to-one teaching of mathematics, within regular teaching hours. The study also aims to find out if intensive teaching affects the pupils´self-assessment regarding mathematics. An experimental case study, with multiple baseline singlecase design, has been used. The results indicate that the intervention has proved beneficial to the pupils in the study, when it comes to their knowledge progression as well as their attitude and self-assessment.

Students with disabilities (SWD) at an urban high school in Midwestern United States experienced academic, social, and emotional problems. When SWD experience difficulties in high school, they may drop out and face potentially life-long problems. The purpose of this case study was to understand how a Response to Intervention (RTI) tutoring program addressed the academic, social, and emotional needs of students using the RTI model as a conceptual framework. The research questions addressed intervention specialists' perceptions of how use of the RTI model helped them meet SWD needs and what tutoring documents revealed about tutoring practices. Data sources consisted of interviews with 7 purposely selected intervention specialists who worked as special education teachers at the research site for at least 2 years, lesson plans provided by participants, and reviews of 20 student work samples including pre and post assessments. The data were analyzed by coding for emerging ideas related to interventions within the RTI framework and academic and social/emotional issues. The findings revealed that intervention specialists perceived the overarching academic difficulty for SWD was reading deficits, the out-of-class tutoring program was beneficial for SWD academically by using one-on-one and small-group instruction to scaffold success, and RTI was successful socially/emotionally by guiding students to use appropriate classroom behaviors. The results of the documentary data was that the created lessons were academically appropriate for the SWD they taught in the tutoring center. This study can contribute to positive social change by providing guidance to intervention specialists for increasing SWD social and academic success.

The purpose of the present study was to record Cedar Middle School's (CMS) response to intervention implementation journey. It is a qualitative case study that examines one school's efforts to bring school improvements under the response to inventory (RtI) umbrella in order to achieve a more systematic approach to providing high-quality educational services to every student enrolled at CMS. Participants included the 10 members of the school's Student Success Team along with the principal and assistant principal. The recorded journey included: (a) a description of the RtI consensus and infrastructure-building processes, (b) an exploration of the SST perceptions of school-wide intervention efforts both past and present, (c) a review of the school's accomplishments and the barriers to implementation encountered, and (d) the implications for further school improvement efforts and research. Participants submitted to interviews, observations, and focus group meetings. Although the purpose of the study was not to measure program effectiveness, preliminary data are included that report the school's efforts toward systems change was helpful for students and is having a positive effect on student performance in reading comprehension. Participants were also able to share anecdotal evidence of increased student motivation and other behavioral changes that were natural consequences of their efforts. This evidence is reported in the narrative found in Chapters IV and V. Conclusions were based on participant input, recorded measures, and analyses conducted as part of the present study. Cautions were also discussed, including the limitations and delimitations. Finally, implications of the present study were provided for RtI and the field of schoolwide systematic interventions and support.

Math skills are essential to daily life, impacting a person?s ability to function at home, work, and in the community. Although reading has been the focus in recent years, many students struggle in math. The inability to master math calculation and problem solving has contributed to the rising incidence of student failure, referrals for special education evaluations, and dropout rates. Studies have shown that curriculum based measurement (CBM) is a well-established tool for formative assessment, and could potentially be used for other purposes such as a prediction of state standards test scores, however to date there are limited validity studies between mathematics CBM and standard-based assessment. This research examined a brief assessment that reported to be aligned to national curriculum standards in order to predict student performance on state standards-based mathematics curriculum, identify students at-risk of failure, and plan instruction. Evidence was gathered on the System to Enhance Educational Performance Grade 3 Focal Mathematics Assessment Instrument (STEEP3M) as a formative, universal screener. Using a sample of 337 students and 22 instructional staff, four qualities of the STEEP3M were examined: a) internal consistency and criterion related validity (concurrent); b) screening students for a multi-tiered decision-making process; c) utility for instructional planning and intervention recommendations; and d) efficiency of administration, scoring, and reporting results which were the basis of the four research questions for this study. Several optimized solutions were generated from Receiver Operator Curve (ROC) statistical analysis; however none demonstrated that the STEEP3M maximized either sensitivity or specificity. In semi-structured interviews teachers reported that they would consider using the STEEP3M, however only as a part of a decision-making rubric along with other measures. Further, teachers indicated that lessons are developed before the school year starts, more in response to the sequence of the state standards than to students? needs. While the STEEP3M was sufficiently long enough for high-stakes or criterion-referenced decisions, this study found that the test does not provide sufficient diagnostic information for multi-tiered decision-making for intervention or instructional planning. Although practical and efficient to administer, the conclusions of this study show the test does not provide sufficient information on the content domain and does not accurately classify students in need of assistance.

Logical time management is used to synchronize the executions of distributed simulation elements. In existing time management systems, such as High Level Architecture (HLA), logical times of the simulation elements are synchronized. However, in some cases synchronization can unnecessarily decrease the performance of the system. In the proposed HLA based time management mechanism, federates are clustered into logically related groups. The relevance of federates is taken to be a function of proximity which is defined as the distance between them in the virtual space. Thus, each federate cluster is composed of relatively close federates according to calculated distances. When federate clusters are sufficiently far from each other, there is no need to synchronize them, as they do not relate each other. So in PATiM mechanism, inter-cluster logical times are not synchronized when clusters are sufficiently distant. However, if the distant federate clusters get close to each other, they will need to resynchronize their logical times. This temporal partitioning is aimed at reducing network traffic and time management calculations and also increasing the concurrency between federates. The results obtained based on case applications have verified that clustering improves local performance as soon as federates become unrelated.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:03:57Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DissNDHV.pdf: 2131970 bytes, checksum: c7f6510e36c70fc8b4fd05d431744457 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-05-26 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / In Large Scale Collaborative Virtual Environments LSCVEs, extensive synthetic 3D environments are shared among a large number of users that collaborate towards the same objective. As all users in these environments need immediate answer for their actions and these actions must be sent to all participating users, the application success depends not only on a strong graphic processing but also in the capacity of the network to deliver information in time. Data distribution management algorithms in conformity with the High Level Architecture / Run Time Infrastructure (HLA/RTI) pattern for parallel and distributed simulations have been used to reduce latency and to limit and control the data amount exchanged during simulations. The data distribution of LSCVEs is generally made by one of these communication models: client/server or Peer-to-peer. Differently of the client/server where the server can be a bottleneck of the network, in Peer-to-peer solutions the tasks are distributed and consequently applications are scalable, i.e., support a crescent client number. Motivated by these largely studied and commonly used technologies, a fault tolerant and low latency solution was searched, addressing the strict requirements of large scale collaborative virtual environments simulations. This was made in conformity with the HLA pattern, which users, using their own computer connected at Gnutella network, can participate in simulation sessions without the limitations found in kits that support distributed simulations like the RTI-Kit existent. For this reason an architecture was proposed with data distribution management in conformity with the HLA/RTI and that use the Gnutella Peer-to-peer communication model to make available and to share these environments over Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks (MANETs). Towards this propose simulations were made comparing the RTI-Kit developed by Georgia Tech with one speed objects and the RTI-Kit Adapted with varied speed objects in a cluster. The evaluation of the total time of the federation execution, the total number of the multicast messages generated and the total number of messages exchanged by the grid originated graphics that show up considerable increasing in the time and the number of messages exchanged by the grid mainly. In the same way the fault tolerant technique was evaluated. / Em Ambientes Virtuais Colaborativos de Larga Escala (AVCs-LE), ambientes 3D sintéticos extensos são compartilhados entre um número muito grande de usuários que colaboram entre si para atingir um objetivo comum. Nesses ambientes, os usuários precisam ter uma resposta imediata às suas ações, e estas devem ser refletidas nos ambientes de todos os usuários participantes. Assim, o sucesso da aplicação depende não apenas de processamento gráfico poderoso, mas também, da capacidade da rede na entrega das informações a tempo. Algoritmos de gerenciamento de distribuição de dados, em conformidade com o padrão High Level Architecture / Run Time Infrastructure (HLA/RTI) para simulações paralelas e distribuídas, vêm sendo utilizados na redução da latência e como limitantes e controladores do volume de dados trocados durante simulações. A distribuição de dados de AVCs-LE é realizada normalmente por um destes modelos de comunicação: cliente/servidor ou Peer-to-peer. Diferentemente do modelo cliente/servidor no qual a figura do servidor pode caracterizar um gargalo na rede, nas soluções Peer-to-peer as atividades estão distribuídas e conseqüentemente, suas aplicações são escaláveis, ou seja, suportam uma quantidade crescente de usuários. Motivados por essas tecnologias amplamente estudadas e comumente utilizadas, procurou-se criar uma solução tolerante a falhas e de baixa latência, dentro dos requisitos de simulações de ambientes virtuais colaborativos de larga escala. Isso foi feito em conformidade com o padrão HLA, em que usuários, utilizando seu próprio computador conectado a uma rede Gnutella, possam participar de sessões de simulações sem as limitações encontradas em kits de suporte à simulação distribuída, como o Kit RTI existente. Em razão disso, foi proposta uma arquitetura com gerenciamento de distribuição de dados em conformidade com o HLA, padrão comumente utilizado em simulações paralelas e distribuídas e que utiliza o modelo de comunicação Peer-to-peer da rede Gnutella para disponibilização e compartilhamento de tais ambientes, sobre redes móveis Ad-Hoc (Mobile Ad-Hoc Networks - MANETs). Para tanto, realizaram-se simulações comparativas entre o Kit RTI desenvolvido pela Georgia Tech, com objetos de apenas uma velocidade, contra o Kit RTI Adaptado, com objetos de velocidade variada, em um cluster. A avaliação do tempo total de execução da federação, o número total de mensagens multicast geradas e o número total de mensagens trocadas pela grade deu origem a gráficos que mostraram aumentos consideráveis, principalmente, no tempo e no número de mensagens trocadas pela grade. Da mesma forma, foi avaliada a técnica proposta, tolerante a falhas.

It is critical that practitioners and those in training be informed of and strongly committed to the use of evidence-based practices. This study aims to provide valuable instruction and data collection on special education teacher candidate use of the MotivAider, a self-monitoring device for research and improvement of student behavior.