Thesis (Ph.D.)--Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, 1989. / Adviser: Paul H. Arntson. Includes bibliographical references.

The problem addressed in this exploratory research study was whether any correlational relationship existed between a selection of personality and demographic variables (considered as aspects of the self-concept construct) and selected subjective and objective measurements of verbal behavior. The purpose of the study was to achieve a better understanding of the dynamic monitoring process of the self-concept and the possible relationship that may exist between it and certain quantifiable verbal behaviors. The conclusion of this study is that the self-concept construct does appear to be an influencing factor upon verbal behavior. It is considered that individuals are consistently interacting with their social environment to obtain feedback in order to test the self's perceptions of the social environment and its relationship to its environment.

abstract: Small-group literacy instruction is frequently used in schools in order to engage students in discussions around texts. Instructional settings vary and produce a range of results. They are complex social spaces in which students position one another and themselves as they enact different identities. These identities are associated with sets of literacy practices. This paper describes the results of a study examining the ways in which 3rd and 4th grade students and their teachers positioned themselves and one another in three different small-group literacy settings and the literacy practices that they used as they performed their identities. Using a multimodal discourse analysis (Kress, 2012) and D/discourse analysis (Gee, 2005, 2011), the form and function of language and gestures were used to look at the kinds of identities that the participants enacted and the literacy practices that the students engaged in the different settings. The results of the analysis suggested that the identities that the participants performed were related to the context in which interactions around texts took place. The identities themselves were connected to the use certain literacy practices. The literacy practices used by the participants were also related to the classroom context. The findings suggest that it is important for teachers to consider the figured worlds active in small-group settings, the identities performed within those worlds, and the literacy practices in which students engage. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Curriculum and Instruction 2015

For this thesis, I developed a curriculum for high school art students using centers for small group instruction that helped them develop skills and knowledge in creating art. The type of small group instruction that I implemented is centered based and includes a teacher facilitated component, an interactive activity, and a project done in a small group at their desks. The groups were broken down in levels of ability, skill, and the extra time needed for students to complete their work. By developing this type of curriculum for the Visual Art 1 course, the goal of small group instruction in the art classroom is to support student understanding of the artistic process through successful experiences.

Existem 82 Faculdades de Nutrição no Estado de São Paulo. Dessas, a sua totalidade possui a disciplina Bioquímica na grade curricular, apontando sua importância para os cursos de Nutrição. Entretanto, levantamentos preliminares com alunos do curso de Nutrição da USP apontaram desinteresse destes para com as disciplinas de Bioquímica. Os motivos mais citados foram a desvinculação da Bioquímica com a área de atuação/interesse do nutricionista, o método aplicado e a distância entre professor e aluno. A presente pesquisa concentrou-se em resolver os problemas levantados, alterando o currículo e propondo um método, diferente dos até então aplicados em cursos de Bioquímica para a Nutrição, baseado no ensino colaborativo derivado da teoria de Vygotsky. Constatou-se ausência de critérios dos alunos que permitissem diferenciar informações científicas das advindas do senso comum, veiculadas pela Internet ou revistas de grande circulação. Como o desenvolvimento desta capacidade crítica é exatamente um dos objetivos mais reiteradamente propostos para a formação de profissionais, decidiu-se iniciar os alunos na literatura científica e posteriormente na atividade científica. Para tanto, foi estabelecida a atividade propedêutica ao trabalho científico. Esse trabalho procurou: 1- Vincular precocemente as disciplinas com a área de atuação profissional, enfatizando a importância da Bioquímica para a Nutrição. 2-Promover o desenvolvimento da capacidade crítica, por meio de discussões e trabalho em equipe. 3- Buscar o aprendizado significativo. 4- Familiarizar os alunos com o modelo de método científico presente em artigos científicos e com a forma estabelecida de fazer ciência na universidade. 5- Mostrar a importância da formação científica. 6-Desenvolver a atitude científica. 7- Desenvolver habilidades de redação científica, espírito crítico e busca e seleção de informações, bem como a apresentação e avaliação de trabalhos. As disciplinas foram elaboradas para que fossem aplicadas no formato de grupos de discussão, com participação ativa dos alunos nas aulas. O desempenho dos alunos nas disciplinas do curso de Bioquímica e nas atividades paralelas foi muito expressivo com médias muito superiores à nota de aprovação. Todos os dados permitem afirmar que as disciplinas envolvidas no projeto foram bem avaliadas pelos alunos que a cursaram. Essas avaliações, associadas ao desempenho dos alunos nas avaliações somativas, permite concluir que o método aplicado no curso de Bioquímica da turma da Nutrição revela algumas qualidades educacionais / There are 82 Nutrition Colleges in São Paulo state. All of them have the subject Biochemistry included in their curriculum, which demonstrates its importance for the Nutrition course. However, preliminary research with the students of University of São Paulo\'s Nutrition course showed lack of interest from them regarding Biochemistry. The reasons most commonly stated were the lack of a link between Biochemistry and the areas of interest/work of the nutritionist, the teaching method and the distant relationship between professors and students. The present research focused on solving the issues raised, modifying the curriculum and proposing a method which differs from the ones used in Biochemistry courses applied to Nutrition, based on the collaborative teaching derived from Vigotsky\'s theory. It was reported that students lack criteria to differ scientific information from those based on common sense, those found on the internet or on magazines of wide circulation. Since the development of this analytical ability is precisely one of the most reiterated goals in the formation of the professional, it was decided to initiate students into the scientific literature and afterwards into the scientific practice. In order to do so it was established the introductory activity to scientific work. This project has attempted to: 1- Precociously link the subject to the area of work, emphasizing the importance of Biochemistry to Nutrition. 2- Promote the development of analytical skills, through discussions and group work. 3- Seek meaningful learning. 4-Make the students familiar to the model of scientific method presented in scientific articles and the established way to make Science at university level. 5- Show the importance of scientific formation. 6-Develop the scientific attitude. 7- Develop skills on scientific writing, critical spirit and searching and selecting information, as well as presenting and assessing projects. The subjects were elaborated to be applied in the format of discussion groups, with the active participation of the students in class. The performance of the students in the subject of Biochemistry and in the parallel activities was significantly better, presenting marks way above the average. Based on the available data it can be affirmed that the subjects involved in the project were well-evaluated by the students who took the course. These evaluations, associated to the students\' performance on the summary evaluations, lead to the conclusion that the method applied on the Biochemistry course of the Nutrition class reveals some educational qualities.

No description available.

abstract: Chi and Wylie’s (2014) Interactive Constructive Active Passive Framework (ICAP) was used as the foundation of a teacher led intervention using small group instruction with manipulatives during mathematics instruction to provide developmentally appropriate instruction to kindergarten students in a rigorous academic program. This action research mixed-methods study was conducted in a full-day self-contained kindergarten classroom to ascertain the effects of this mathematics instruction method on students’ levels of engagement and attitudes. Over the course of six months, twenty mathematics lessons were recorded to gather data for the study. Quantitative data included measuring time-on-task, teacher behaviors ICAP level, student behaviors ICAP level, as well as a Student Attitude Survey that was conducted at the conclusion of the study. The Student Attitude Survey was presented in a modified Likert Scale format due to the age and reading ability of the participants. Qualitative data was gathered in the form of lesson transcripts. Twenty-two students and one classroom teacher participated in the study. Students ranged in age from five to six years old, and eleven participants (50%) were male. The results of the study showed that the use of small group hands-on instruction in mathematics had a positive effect on student engagement based on students’ time-on-task during the activity, as well as positive student attitudes toward mathematics as indicated on the Student Attitude Survey. Lesson transcripts and both teacher and student ICAP rubrics provided further support for the innovation. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Leadership and Innovation 2019

The present study utilizes the relational turbulence model (RTM) to illuminate stepparent experiences of relational uncertainty and partner interference within the context of the stepparent-biological parent marriage. In-depth, semi-structured interviews with 6 stepparents revealed four primary themes pertaining to how stepparents experienced relational uncertainty: (a) enactment of parenting, (b) competing expectations, (c) shifts in attitude and behavior by spouse, and (d) differences between marriage partners. Interference from partners was experienced by stepparents in relation to the enactment of parenting and the maintaining of the marriage as an intimate relationship.

Research around the implementations of human-like interactions during conversations with embodied conversational agents is currently at the forefront of Human-Computer Interaction as a field of science. In particular, conveying politeness through verbal and nonverbal behaviors is a significant challenge when modeling life-like virtual agents, as it underlies the conventional set of unspoken rules that govern human communication. In order to assess measures of perceived persuasiveness and politeness in human-agent interaction, in this study we compare six different politeness strategies - namely Baseline, Indirect, Asking, Proposing, Commanding and Pointing - to identify which combinations of verbal and nonverbal behaviors best persuade humans in joining a virtual conversational group while immersed in Virtual Reality (VR). 45 people were asked to walk towards the group with a specific scenario in mind, and answered questions on the perceived politeness of the agents inviting them. Results show that direct strategies are more persuasive than indirect ones, and the more imposing ones among them are perceived as more offensive, less friendly and inhibiting the interactant’s freedom of action. Additionally, strategies are less effective when participants feel more immersed in VR. We conclude that those giving the counterpart a higher freedom of action are most effective in conveying politeness, while those involving no behavior at all are least effective. / Forskning kring hur samtalsagenter kan förses med mer mänskliga beteenden under konversationer befinner sig i den vetenskapliga framkanten nar det galler människa-datorinteraktion. Det galler särskilt avseende att förmedla artighet genom verbala och icke-verbala beteenden hos realistiska virtuella agenter eftersom det finns en uppsättning bakomliggande oskrivna regler som styr mänsklig kommunikation. For att kunna utreda den upplevda förmågan att övertyga och att vara artig i människa-agentinteraktion sa har i denna studie sex olika strategier for artighet utvärderats, nämligen: Startläge, Indirekt, Frågande, Föreslående, Befallande och Utpekande. Ambitionen ar att kunna identifiera vilka kombinationer av verbala och icke-verbala beteenden som på basta satt övertygar människor att ansluta till en samtalande grupp i Virtual Reality (VR). 45 personer ombads att gå fram till en grupp med en särskild avsikt och därefter besvara frågor om den uppfattade artigheten nar de virtuella agenterna inviterade dem. Resultaten visar att direkta strategier uppfattas som mer övertygande an indirekta och de framfusiga som mer förolämpande, mindre vanliga och att de begränsar den interagerandes handlingsfrihet. Utöver detta sa ar alla strategier mindre effektiva i direkt förhållande till hur immersiv upplevelsen i VR ar. Vi kan sammanfattningsvis saga att de strategier som ger den interagerande större frihetsgrader ar mer effektiva att förmedla artighet, medan de som ar betydligt mer subtila ar minst effektiva.

Despite increasing popularity and interest in contemporary a cappella, little research exists involving this genre of music making. In this study, I investigated how SIX, a professional contemporary a cappella group, utilizes a primary practice of aural arranging to create original, a cappella cover arrangements entirely by ear. From one initial question and use of classic grounded theory analysis, three questions emerged: what did SIX do, how did SIX carry out what they do, and what characterizes how SIX carries out what they do? The substantive theory of aural arranging and the substantive and formal theories of fluid leadership emerged from the data. The theory of aural arranging posits that SIX creates original cover arrangements by ear through the use of interactive activities initiated by application of task and social-emotional leadership. This substantive theory addresses the questions: what does SIX do and how does SIX carry out what they do? The theory of fluid leadership posits that SIX uses a form of horizontal leadership governed by five principles; 1) no single, primary leader, 2) leading in areas of strength, 3) accurate awareness of strengths, 4) a practice of unassuming leadership, and 5) the maintenance of a healthy relational climate. These substantive and formal theories address the question, what characterizes how SIX carries out what they do? Aural arranging and fluid leadership emerged from an environment of complex challenges wherein SIX established environments of safety and empowerment, promoting the sharing and utilization of musical and leadership thinking and knowing toward creation of an aural arrangement. Although the findings from this research are not generalizable given the single case study methodology, the theory of aural arranging presents a viable structure for creation of aural arrangements in other contemporary a cappella groups, and fluid leadership illustrates potential as a leadership model within small musical ensembles both within and beyond the formal music education classroom. The principles of fluid leadership may potentially be useful in dissimilar small groups traversing many disciplines. This study expands and enhances the current knowledge base related to contemporary a cappella, aural arranging, and leadership within small ensembles and groups.