Writing skills are important for social and civic participation, educational achievement and employment (European Commission, 2012). However, a third to a half of Scottish students did not attain required writing standards at upper elementary and lower high school grades in 2014 (Scottish Government, 2015). Similarly, many students do not obtain the required skills in the USA (Graham et al., 2014). This study aimed to improve the writing skills of mainstream upper elementary and lower high school students. It took place in a largely rural Local Authority in Southern Scotland which was mid-range on measures of deprivation. The literature was reviewed on effective writing interventions for school-aged mainstream students. The interventions with the largest impacts around the target grades were: CIRC (Durukan, 2011); Collaborative Dialogic Learning (Alfassi, 2009); CSRI (Torrance et al., 2007); Jigsaw (Sahin, 2011); individual IT access in lessons (Snyder, 1993); individual IT access at home and school (Lowther et al., 2003); peer assistance with revision (Boscoli et al.,2004); process and product goals (Schunk et al., 1993); SRSD (Brunstein et al., 2011); summarisation (Chang et al., 2002); visualisation/imagery instruction (Jampole et al., 1994). An online survey of teachers’ current practices and beliefs about the teaching of writing was administered. The response rate was 23% (N=345) of the 1490 Local Authority-employed teachers in the region. Notable findings were: the respondents’ most frequently used practice was grammar instruction, an ineffective intervention (Graham et al., 2012; Graham et al., 2007). Many were using some evidence-based practices but not at optimum frequencies, and some were never using some of them. About 40% of respondents felt students had insufficient IT to support their writing and most would use IT more frequently if they had more up-to-date equipment, better internet access and extra training. Under half of elementary and high school respondents with English degrees felt Initial Teacher Education was adequate preparation to teach writing, while only 29% of high school respondents without English degrees felt adequately prepared to teach writing. Most viewed In Service Education more favourably but substantial numbers of respondents still felt inadequately prepared, particularly high school teachers without English degrees. All the high school respondents with English degrees and 91% of elementary respondents felt they were effective teachers of writing, but only 48% of high school respondents without English degrees felt they were effective at teaching writing. An evidence-based intervention was developed, the six-week Write Away programme, which included writing strategy instruction, self-regulation strategies and peer revision. It shared many features with CSRI (Torrance et al., 2007) and SRSD (Harris et al., 2009). Distinctive differences included that it incorporated Boscolo et al.'s (2004) model of peer revision rather than the think alouds used in CSRI, pupils did not create their own self-regulatory statements, pupils did not collaborate during drafting, pupils needed not spend long planning provided they revised their work, the finished essays would be displayed and peer revision continued following the teaching phase. This study was quasi-experimental and used both quantitative and qualitative methods. Participation was offered to large elementary schools which had two P6 (grade 5) pupil-only classes to allow for control and intervention classes. Two schools volunteered. Which pupils were in which condition depended on which teachers delivered the interventions. The control classes in both schools followed an on-going parallel intervention – the Big Writing programme (Wilson, 2012). Both schools were in towns and had similar pupil numbers (Eastfield=390, Westfield =361). The percentage entitled to Free School Meals in P4 to P7 at Eastfield was 11.8%, at Westfield it was 9.9%. The average age of the pupils was 10 years 7 months and numbers of male and female participants were broadly the same. Participation was also offered to all the region’s high schools. Only one responded with the requisite conditions for participation. This school (roll= 544) was in the largest town in the region. The percentage entitled to Free School Meals was 13.8%. The average age of the S2 (grade 8) students was 13 years 6 months and there was a preponderance of female participants. The online survey had shown that intervening with non-English specialists might be beneficial. This was compared with delivery by, or in combination with, English teachers. Social Studies was chosen because of its writing demands. A control and three different intervention conditions were used: English teacher only; Social Studies teacher only; English teacher and Social Studies teacher. Which students were in which condition depended on which teachers delivered the interventions. This was determined by the school, either by self-selection or randomly. Measures at both elementary and high school were the same. Teacher and student questionnaires were administered pre and post-test. Participant students were given written tasks pre and post-test. The length of the written tasks and plans were recorded. The written tasks were assessed by the researcher using a rubric developed by the researcher. There was a post-test focus group of intervention teachers at each level. Implementation fidelity was assessed through teacher logs and lesson observations by the researcher. Descriptive statistics were produced for the pupil/student questionnaires, task and plan word lengths and the written task scores for different elements and overall writing quality. Responses to open questions were categorized into themes and tabulated where possible. The teachers’ responses in the focus groups were collated into themes. Intervention and control writing scores pre and post-test and task and plan word length were analysed using Student’s t-tests. Student questionnaire post-test responses from the different conditions were compared with a theoretical distribution of equal values using the Chi-square test. Effect sizes were calculated for mean pupil/student questionnaire responses, task and plan mean word lengths and written task scores. High school student questionnaire responses at post-test were analysed using the Mann-Whitney test because the students were unlikely to be normally distributed. The Write Away programme led to large positive effect sizes for writing quality at P6 (ES: Eastfield= 2.89, N=25; Westfield = 2.70, N=19) and S2 (ES: Social Studies intervention = 1.37, N= 17; Social Studies and English intervention= 1.20, N=20; English intervention = 0.87, N=21). Effect sizes at P6 were double those of the most successful condition at S2. The Social Studies teacher and elementary intervention teachers felt the intervention improved writing quality and intended to do it again. However, the English specialists did not feel it made an impact and did not like it. The intervention successfully included peer revision of each other’s texts (Boscolo et al., 2004) at both elementary and high school levels in a programme of strategy instruction and self-regulation which resulted in large writing quality improvements. The study showed that high school Non-English specialists could deliver interventions with large effects on writing quality. The Social Studies teacher delivered the intervention with the greatest fidelity, improved writing quality the most and reported an increase in understanding of the subject, especially for more able students. The survey showed a need for In Service and this intervention could be used at upper elementary level and with high school non-English specialists in the appropriate genres. This applies to the UK and USA. Implications for practice, policy and future research are further discussed. This was the first study to investigate writing strategy instruction and self-regulation as part of an evidence-based intervention in Scotland.

This mixed method study sought to explore the perceptions of key stakeholders in education, on the role and contribution of ICT in Scottish secondary schools towards generic skills development among pupils for post school transitions. The timing of this study coincided with a period characterised by contextual pressures globally, marked with technology changes, youth unemployment and curriculum reviews. A review of literature was conducted systematically to evaluate the explicit permeation of ICT in Scottish schools. A sequential mixed method design was adopted for the two phased study commencing with a convenience sampling technique for the first phase, involving 1364 upper secondary school pupils from all eight schools, 64 teachers and the 17 employers in one local Council in Scotland. A purposive sampling technique was applied to select two sample schools for the second phase, based on best use and practices of ICT. Questionnaires were administered online and in person at the first phase, followed by a semi structured interview at the second phase. SPSS was used for descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and one way Anova, while Nvivo 10 software was used for thematic analysis from the interview transcript. The study offers a framework for personalisation starting with identification of pupils’ ability and ICT skill level at inception classes, followed by a personalised learning design incorporating pupils’ interest, ability and post school destination. The study also proposes separate roles for teachers and policy makers in order to maintain teachers’ autonomy, as policy makers’ interference has been identified to have an impact on teachers’ professionalism, effectiveness and confidence necessary for imparting generic skills in pupils. A series of recommendations are provided for future research, including a longitudinal evaluation of generic skills acquired from individual school subjects through the upper school years to post school destination, to ascertain effective transfer and sustainability of generic skills.

L’objectif de cette thèse consiste à contribuer à l’analyse de l’impact des Technologies del’Information (TI) sur les performances des salariés sur le marché du travail. Notre travail évalue lesimpacts de l’acquisition des compétences numériques (e-compétences) sur les performances dessalariés afin de définir les stratégies les plus adéquates à mettre en oeuvre par les décideurs publics etle management des entreprises. Pour ce faire, notre approche a consisté à identifier deux modalitéscomplémentaires d’acquisition des e-compétences requises sur le marché du travail : d’une part, lesformations sur le lieu du travail (lifelong learning) que nous qualifierons de stratégies à court termed’acquisition de e-compétences, et d’autre part, les formations durant la période d’apprentissagescolaire et notamment universitaire que nous qualifierons de stratégies à long terme. Dès lors, deuxinvestigations complémentaires ont été élaborées respectant ce découpage. La première a contribué àfournir des résultats originaux concernant les stratégies à court terme. Nous avons démontré dans lecontexte français et européen les apports des e-compétences dans l’amélioration de la performancecontextuelle des salariés. La seconde investigation, relative aux stratégies à long terme, a mis l'accentsur les modalités d’acquisition des e-compétences par les étudiants en France et leurs apportsadditionnels en termes de performances académiques.Nos résultats mettent donc en évidence l’importance d’instaurer unsystème éducatif basé sur un apprentissage collaboratif et participatif où la connaissance est coconstruiteavec l’étudiant et non pas uniquement délivrée par l’enseignant. / This thesis is devoted to analyzing the impact of Information Technologies (IT) on workers’performance in the labor market. It aims to measure the impacts of e-skills’ acquisition on workers’performance in order to discover the most suitable strategies to adopt by policy-makers and firms’management. In order to do this, the approach consists of two complementary layers of e-skills’acquisition needed in the labor market: On one hand, lifelong learning in the workplace qualified asshort-term strategies of e-skills’ acquisition. On the other hand, trainings acquired during schoollearning and mainly at university qualified as long-term strategies. Consequently, two complementaryinvestigations have been elaborated. The first one has contributed to provide original results regardingshort-term strategies. In the French and European context, the contributions of e-skills to animprovement in workers’ contextual performance have been shown. The second investigation, whichconcerns long-term strategies, focused on how students acquire e-skills in France and theircontribution to academic performance.Four chapters are the backbone of this work.The first chapter concerns the impact of IT use on workers’ contextual performance in Europe.Results show the positive impact of such use on workers’ contextual performance. Without e-skillsindicators, this use is confused with the ability to use IT.Recognizing the limitations of this approach, despite its wide coverage, a deeper analysis isprovided in the second chapter. The second chapter focuses on the role of e-skills on workers’contextual performance in the French context. On one hand, results show a positive effect of e-skills’level on workers’ contextual performance. On the other hand, they show differentiated impacts whenlooking into each component of contextual performance separately. These results do not challenge therole of e-skills in improving workers’ performance and particularly their contextual ones, but theystress the need to focus on the strategies to acquire and maintain the e-skills’ level needed for efficientuse of IT.The last two chapters are devoted to defining the strategies that facilitate e-skills’ acquisition.The third chapter allows the short-term strategies acquired within the firm to be identified.Results of this chapter show the positive impact of IT use and trainings on workers’ e-skills. Thus,short-term strategies focus on the need of IT access at work and at home, encouraging professionaland personal IT use, providing IT training for workers and encouraging them to try collaborative workin different tasks.The fourth chapter focuses on the long-term strategies of e-skills’ acquisition acquired atuniversity. The chapter reveals the primordial role of students’ involvement, the diversity of learningmethods and collaborative work on students’ (future workers) e-skills. Our results highlight theimportance of establishing an educational system based on collaborative learning where theknowledge is built with students and not just delivered by the teacher.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / This study investigated scholarly communication guidance as a core service by the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana, academic library to doctoral students, research and scholarly communication needs and skills of doctoral students and effective dissemination of research findings by doctoral students for national development. The study also explored the adoption of a research portal as part of the academic library website for scholarly communication guidance to doctoral students. A case study research design with KNUST as research site, with a mixed method approach was used. Semi-structured interviews, questionnaires, documentary analysis and a bibliometric survey of an institutional repository were employed as data gathering tools. A scholarly communication guidance model based on Costa’s proposed adaption of Garvey and Griffin’s models of scholarly communication, Wilson’s information behaviour model and Bjôrk’s scholarly communication lifecycle model was developed to frame the study.

Thesis. 1978. M.S.--Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Architecture. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND ROTCH. / Bibliography: leaf 35. / M.S.

Orientadora: Sandra Regina Gimeniz-Paschoal / Banca: Raul Aragão Martins / Banca: Alessandra Turini Bolsoni Silva / Banca: Ronilson de Souza Luiz / Banca: Sandra Leal Calais / Resumo: Acidentes de trânsito têm elevada ocorrência entre jovens, mas podem ser prevenidos com educação para o trânsito, preconizada para o ensino superior. Estudos que investigam variáveis associadas a esses acidentes podem favorecer a inserção curricular da temática, especialmente em cursos das áreas de humanas e de saúde. Este estudo descritivo compara e investiga a relação entre habilidades sociais, comportamento no trânsito e bebida alcoólica em universitárias, diferenciadas por tipo de faculdade, características de curso, envolvimento em acidentes de trânsito e variáveis sociodemográficas. Aplicaram-se, em sala de aula, três questionários (Questionário do Comportamento do Motorista-QCM, Questionário de Avaliação de Habilidades Sociais - Comportamentos e Contextos para Universitários - QHC-Universitários e Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test - AUDIT) em 472 universitárias dos cursos de Fonoaudiologia e de Pedagogia em duas faculdades, uma pública e outra particular. Verificaram-se: médias significativamente maiores de comportamentos de erros (17,00), lapsos (21,20) e violações (22,39) entre universitárias que faziam uso de álcool em relação às que não faziam (16,02/19,24/19,66); médias maiores em habilidades sociais em usuárias de álcool (2,24) em relação às não usuárias (1,70) quanto ao "falar em público", em alunas matriculadas na faculdade pública (49,23) e estudantes de Pedagogia (48,67); médias significativamente maiores quanto ao uso de álcool, entre alunas da Fonoaudiologia (4,99) em relação à Pedagogia (2,59); correlação positiva do uso de bebida alcoólica com o comportamento do motorista (p≤0,000) e com as habilidades sociais relacionadas ao falar em público (p≤0,027). Concluiu-se que as graduandas da faculdade pública e do curso de Fonoaudiologia ... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Traffic accidents have a high incidence among young people, but can be prevented with traffic education, advocated for higher education. Studies that investigate variables associated with these accidents can promote curricular inclusion of the subject, especially in courses in the humanities and health. This descriptive study compares and investigates the relationship between social skills, behavior in traffic and alcohol in university, differentiated by type of college, course characteristics, involvement in traffic accidents and sociodemographic variables. Were applied in the classroom, three questionnaires (Questionnaire Driver-QCM Behavior Questionnaire Assessment of Social Skills - behaviors and contexts for University - QHC-University and Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test - AUDIT) in 472 university students of the courses Speech Therapy and Pedagogy in two colleges, one public and other private. There were: superior means of error behaviors (17,00), lapses (21.20) and rape (22.39) among university that drank alcohol compared with those who did not (16.02 / 19, 24 / 19,66); highest average in social skills in alcohol users (2.24) compared to non-users (1.70) as the "public speaking" in students enrolled in community college (49.23) and pedagogy students (48, 67); superior means as the use of alcohol among students of Speech Therapy (4.99) in relation to Education (2.59); positive correlation between the use of alcohol with driver behavior (p≤0,000) and social skills related to public speaking (p≤0,027). It was concluded that the graduation students of the community college and the course of speech therapy are more alcohol and have more risky behavior in traffic. The survey results can be considered as indicators to enlarge the possibilities of self-protection and prevention of traffic accidents in the study population ... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

by Cecilia Tsang Wai Ping. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Argumentive writing is not an easy skill to master. Students from middle school through college demonstrate weaknesses. In particular they fail to take a dialogic perspective, emphasizing their own position without considering addressing alternatives. Research has shown that engaging in dialog with peers is effective in enhancing students’ argumentive thinking and writing. The present study examines whether college students (n=30) show similar benefits when asked to engage individually in a dialogic argumentive writing task. They were asked to construct a dialog between two people holding opposing positions on an issue. Students in a comparison group (n=30) were asked to write an essay on the same issue. Subsequently students in both groups were asked to write a brief TV script conveying their view. Differences in students’ argumentive skills produced in the dialogs and essays were examined. Results showed that the dialog group more frequently included opponent-directed statements (sum of Critical single evaluation, Compare, Integrate other, and Integrate own/other) and integrative statements (sum of Integrate own, Integrate other, and Integrate own/other) in their writing, compared to the essay group. Differences in students’ writing of their TV scripts were also examined. On this assessment, the effect of the dialog largely disappeared, with students in both the essay and dialog groups focusing largely on their own position. Students’ level of epistemological understanding was also examined – that is, whether they regarded knowledge claims as largely facts (absolutist level), opinions (multiplist level), or judgments subject to scrutiny in a framework of alternatives and evidence (evaluativist level). Level of epistemological understanding was assessed immediately after the writing task to determine if constructing a dialog influenced students to take on a more evaluativist perspective in which the need for comparison of multiple perspectives is recognized. Students who had constructed a dialog were more often assessed to be at the multiplist or evaluativist levels of epistemological understanding (and never at the absolutist level), compared to students who had written an essay rather than constructed a dialog. Although the benefit of the dialogic writing task largely did not generalize to the more self-focused TV script writing task, these findings indicate that promoting a dialogic perspective, even without engaging in dialog with an actual person, can be beneficial in supporting argumentive thinking and writing and mature epistemological understanding.

Background: Previous studies that have examined functional status in relation to vascular events have focused on the short term after events and have measured functional status a limited number of times. The trajectories of functional status before and after vascular events are not well characterized, and the factors influencing these trajectories are not well known. Methods: A comprehensive, structured, narrative review was performed on the topic of trajectories of disability and cognition surrounding vascular events. Then using 2 large population-based epidemiologic cohorts, the Northern Manhattan Study (NOMAS) and the Cardiovascular Health Study (CHS), trajectories of functional status were examined. In Analysis A, in NOMAS, the effect of inflammatory biomarkers (interleukin-6 [IL6], tumor necrosis factor receptor-1 [TNFR1], C-reactive protein [CRP], and lipoprotein-associated phospholipase-A2 [LpPLA2]) on the intercept and slope of functional status was determined over a median of 13 years, measured with yearly assessments by the Barthel index. In Analysis B, in NOMAS, a similar modeling strategy was used to examine whether subclinical ischemic disease on brain MRIs, measured by subclinical brain infarct (SBI) and white matter hyperintensity volume (WMHV), was associated with functional trajectories. In Analysis C, in CHS, participants had yearly assessments of disability with a combined activities of daily living (ADL) and instrumental ADL scale. The slope of change in disability was compared before and after vascular events (stroke and myocardial infarction [MI]). Results: In Analysis A, CRP (-0.41 BI points per 1 SD increase, 95% CI -0.82 to 0.002) and LpPLA2 (-0.40, 95% CI -0.75 to -0.04) were associated with baseline BI but not change over time. TNFR1 was associated with baseline BI (-0.93, 95% CI -1.59 to -0.26) and change over time (-0.36 BI points per year, 95% CI -0.69 to -0.03). In Analysis B, functional change was -0.85 BI points per year (95%CI -1.01 to -0.69); among those with SBI there were -0.88 additional points annually (-1.44 to -0.32). In WMHV models, annual functional change was -1.04 points (-1.2 to -0.88), with -0.74 additional points annually per SD WMHV increase (-0.99 to -0.49). In Analysis C, stroke (0.88, 95% CI 0.57-1.20, p<0.0001) was associated with a greater acute increase in disability than MI (0.20, 0.06-0.35, p=0.006). The annual increase in disability before stroke (0.06 points per year, 0.002-0.12, p=0.04) more than tripled after stroke (0.15 additional points per year, 0.004-0.30, p=0.04). The annual increase in disability before MI (0.04 points per year, 0.004-0.08, p=0.03) did not change significantly after MI (0.02 additional points per year, -0.07-0.11, p=0.7). Conclusions: In these large population-based studies with repeated measures of functional status and disability over long-term follow-up, several trajectories were found. In Analysis A, TNFR1 predicted worse overall functional status as well as accelerated decline over time. In Analysis B, both SBI and WMHV were associated with accelerated decline. In Analysis C, there was a steeper decline in function after stroke but not MI. These findings help to elucidate the course and potential etiologies of long-term functional decline related to vascular events, and they suggest directions for future research in this area.

Traditionally, classroom testing is utilized and viewed as a way to measure students’ knowledge of material. However, research has shown that test taking also enhances long-term learning and retention of material, a phenomenon known as the testing effect. Across settings, research has found that compared to rereading or repeated reviewing, repeated testing leads to poorer performance on immediate tests, but stronger long-term learning of material on delayed tests. These results have been produced with various materials, such as prose passages, word-pair associates, and educational materials such as textbook chapters. However, the testing effect has not been examined in relation to student-generated materials, such as lecture notes. Lecture notetaking is widely embraced in postsecondary education. Both taking and reviewing notes have significant benefits on students’ academic and test performance. However, it is a complex cognitive task, which often results in students taking poor or incomplete notes and thus, limiting the benefits of notetaking and note review. There are many interventions to support students in taking better notes, but there is limited research on the effectiveness of the types of strategies used to review notes. This dissertation examined the effects of different note reviewing strategies on test performance: repeated review, self-testing, and rewriting. In two experiments, 69 and 117 undergraduate students watched a recorded lecture while taking notes. Students then studied the notes through the use of repeated review (reread), self-testing (repeated recall), or rewriting before taking either an immediate or delayed final multiple-choice test on the materials. The independent variables included study method (repeated review/reread vs. self-testing/repeated recall vs. rewriting) and time of test (immediate vs. delayed). The delayed variables included total test score, memory item performance, and inference item performance. Due to attrition in participants in Study 1, only study method was analyzed. Results of these studies did not find a testing effect. There was only a significant main effect of study method on the total test and inference items in Study 1, in which the repeated review group performed significantly better on the immediate test than the self-testing and the rewriting groups. There was no significant main effect of study method for Study 2. Instead, there was a significant main effect of time across the three dependent variables. Students performed significantly better on the immediate test than the delayed test. There was no significant study method x time of test interaction. These studies also examined whether quality and quantity of students’ notes had an effect on test performance. Three covariates were examined: note themes, number of propositions, and number of main ideas. In Study 1, number of propositions and number of main ideas were significantly related to all dependent variables. In Study 2, the results were mixed. Number of propositions and main ideas were significantly related to total test performance and memory items, but not inference items. However, for number of main ideas, there was a trend that approached conventional significance for inference items. Results also examined the effects of the notes taken during the study trials on test performance. In Study 1, the number of propositions recalled by students in the self-testing group was predictive of performance only on the total test score. The number of main ideas and propositions generated by students in the rewriting group were not significantly related to test performance. Results were similarly mixed in Study 2. Number of propositions and main ideas recalled by students in the self-testing group were not significantly related to test performance. In contrast, number of main ideas included in students’ notes in the rewriting group was related to performance on memory items and the total test items. Future research should continue to explore the testing effect in conjunction with note taking.