Community colleges serve the most diverse student populations in higher education. They consist of non-traditional, part-time, older, intermittent, and mobile students of different races, ethnic backgrounds, language preferences, physical and mental abilities, and learning style preferences. Students who are academically challenged may have diverse learning characteristics that are not compatible with the more traditional approaches to the delivery of instruction. With this need come new ways of solving the dilemma, such as Computer-aided Instruction (CAI). This case study investigated the use of CAI as a laboratory component of college-level biology in a small, rural community college setting. The intent was to begin to fill a void that seems to exist in the literature regarding the role of the faculty in the development and use of CAI. In particular, the investigator was seeking to understand the practice and its effectiveness, especially in helping the under prepared student. The case study approach was chosen to examine a specific phenomenon within a single institution. Ethnographic techniques, such as interviewing, documentary analysis, life's experiences, and participant observations were used to collect data about the phenomena being studied. Results showed that the faculty was primarily self-motivated and self-taught in their use of CAI as a teaching and learning tool. The importance of faculty leadership and collegiality was evident. Findings showed the faculty confident that expectations of helping students who have difficulties with mathematical concepts have been met and that CAI is becoming the most valuable of learning tools. In a traditional college classroom, or practice, time is the constant (semesters) and competence is the variable. In the CAI laboratory time became the variable and competence the constant. The use of CAI also eliminated hazardous chemicals that were routinely used in the more traditional lab. Outcomes showed that annual savings from operations were realized after the initial capital investment for computer hardware and software were made. / Graduation date: 1998

The purpose of this study was to apply instructional system theory to the process of developing authentic English as a foreign language (ESL) materials for Indonesian pre-departure scholars. The researcher established a theoretical framework for the process through an intensive review of instructional system literature and selected an applied process model for adaptation to developing authentic ESL materials. The Stiehl-Schmall ISD model was adapted and later validated using a modified Delphi process. Seventeen panelists, randomly selected from the area of instructional systems design, ESL, and Indonesian EFL practitioners, were involved in the validation process. Feedback from panelists was analyzed and it was determined that the model was applicable for Indonesian intensive English programs. It was also found that the model, as adapted, was considered practical and useful by EFL practitioners, though many of them were not knowledgeable in instructional systems design. Indonesian EFL practitioners expected the development of the model to substantially improve the quality, effectiveness, efficiency, and relevancy of authentic English used in Indonesian intensive English programs. / Graduation date: 1993

Previous research suggests that little is known about female mentoring relationships, particularly among undergraduate students. The purpose of the present study was to investigate mentoring relationships experienced by female undergraduate merchandising management students. The investigation included the overall prevalence of mentoring experiences, the specific kinds of mentor roles, the prevalent sources of mentoring, and the relationship between class standing and the overall prevalence of mentoring. Survey methodology was used. The sample included females enrolled in the merchandising management program at a western university (n=102). Their ages ranged from 18 to 38 years with a mean and mode age of 21 years. The Student Experiences Questionnaire used for the present study included three sections: (1) the Professional Socialization Scale (PSS) developed by Stenberg (1988) to identify and measure the prevalence of mentoring and specific mentoring roles; (2) a parallel scale designed by the researcher to identify the sources of mentoring; and (3) demographic and exploratory items in order to provide direction for further studies. Statistics used to analyze the data included percentages, means, factor analysis, and ANOVA. The study included five objectives with four hypotheses. It was hypothesized there would be a low level (2.00) of overall mentoring. Contrary to this hypothesis, the mean for overall prevalence was higher than predicted. It was hypothesized that informal and least powerful mentor roles would be the most experienced. A factor analysis was performed on the matrix of intercorrelations among the items on the PSS. It was not possible to test Hypothesis 2 because the factor analysis did not generate mentor roles that could be described according to influence or power. It was only possible to identify factors according to the specific helping actions that took place. The relationship between class standing and overall prevalence of mentoring was tested. Results showed no differences among freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors. There was no formal hypothesis formed regarding mentoring sources. Friends were the mentoring source with the highest frequency. Employers were the second most frequent mentoring source followed by professors, and advisors. The most important findings of the study were: the absence of specific mentor roles previously identified in the literature and friends and employers as the most frequent source of mentoring. Specific helping behaviors were identified from a factor analysis of items on the PSS that loaded highest on the factor analysis. Friends and employers were identified as the most frequent sources of mentoring. / Graduation date: 1992

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of English

Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences identifies linguistic, spatial and logical-mathematical intelligences as necessary for learning in the physical sciences. He has identified nine intelligences which all persons possess to varying degrees, and says that learning is most effective when learners receive information in formats that correspond to their intelligence strengths. This research investigated the importance of the multiple intelligences of students in first-year college chemistry to the learning of chemistry concepts. At three pre-selected intervals during the first-semester course each participant received a tutorial on a chemistry topic, each time in a format corresponding to a different one of the three intelligences, just before the concept was introduced by the class lecturer. At the end of the experiment all subjects had experienced each of the three topics once and each format once, after which they were administered a validated instrument to measure their relative strengths in these three intelligences. The difference between a pre- and post-tutorial quiz administered on each occasion was used as a measure of learning. Most subjects were found to have similar strengths in the three intelligences and to benefit from the tutorials regardless of format. Where a difference in the extent of benefit occurred the difference was related to the chemistry concept. Data which indicate that students' preferences support these findings are also included and recommendations for extending this research to other intelligences are made. / text

This study examined the effect of problem-based instruction (PBI) on undergraduate students and prospective secondary mathematics teachers’ perceptions of mathematical proof and pedagogical views. Quantitatively, the Mathematical Proof Survey (MPS) was developed and used to assess the views of mathematical proof held by undergraduates in lecture-based and PBI mathematics courses. Qualitatively, research interviews examined the way teacher candidates’ experiences as mathematics learners in the courses affected their conceptions of mathematical proof and views of learning and teaching mathematics and proof. Findings from quantitative analysis of MPS data and qualitative analysis of interview data are presented, and results from the comparative analysis are discussed for implications. The results of the study suggest that experiences with proof and instruction in such PBI courses provide opportunities for undergraduates and prospective mathematics teachers to develop more humanistic perspectives of proof and process-oriented pedagogical views than do lecture-based courses. / text

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Education

This thesis presents an in-depth, qualitative study that examines how a group of English teachers’ pedagogical beliefs and various sociocultural and institutional factors affect their integration practices of CALL in a private university in China. An activity theory (AT) perspective is adopted as both the theoretical and analytical framework for the research. AT in essence postulates that human activities shape and are mediated both at the individual and social levels, with the mediational tools and artifacts that link the processes together. Four College English teachers in a private university (two part-time teachers and two full-time teachers) participated in this one-year study. Adopting a qualitative multi-case study approach, data were collected from semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, stimulated recall interviews and related documents and artifacts. A key finding is that the teachers each espoused unique, compatible and incompatible systems of pedagogical belief regarding English teaching and CALL. While commonalities among the teachers’ reported beliefs about English teaching and learning are noticeable, there are significant divergences existing among their beliefs with regard to CALL. In contrast with the divergences in the teachers’ reported beliefs, however, classroom observations reveal a very similar pattern in the teachers’ CALL integration: CALL was applied primarily as a tool of input to support their teacher-centered and linguistic-knowledge-oriented method of instruction. With activity theory as the analytical framework employed for interpreting the mechanisms that link the teachers’ integration of CALL, their cognition and the sociocultural settings, the research findings suggest strong contradictory relationships among the various elements in the teachers’ CALL-integration activity systems. The cross-case analysis (in terms of the identified object and contradictions in the teachers’ activity system in particular) suggests that, regardless of their expressed pedagogical beliefs, the teachers’ practices in CALL were also strongly affected by their situated concerns for learners and for meeting the institutional expectations that they act as “qualified teachers”. In addition, their practices in CALL were also evidently shaped by the institutional part-time and full-time personnel structure, a fact manifested in the teachers’ unsystematic teaching arrangements, their heavy workload and the lack of community communication and professional development. The long-established teaching and learning culture in the Chinese context also had a role to play. In such a context, teachers are considered the major source of knowledge imparted to students, while computers as a distraction from learning. The significance of this study is threefold. First, the findings provide a comprehensive understanding of why and how College English teachers in a private university setting in China integrated CALL in their instruction. The findings suggest the institution needs to direct its efforts in promoting change in teachers’ conceptual and pedagogical beliefs while integrating CALL, and to emphasize alignment among teachers’ belief systems, curriculum design, pedagogy, technology affordances and the learning context. Second, the research findings provide pedagogical and policy implications for CALL integration in higher education in China. In addition, the findings may facilitate the development of teacher preparation and development programs in the area of educational technology in language education in higher learning institutes in China. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

This mixed-methods exploratory study of 34 ESL university teachers in Hong Kong sought to investigate the relationship between teachers’ beliefs about teaching and learning, their epistemological beliefs, and their classroom practice. Generally, findings indicate beliefs are formed though teachers’ past learning experiences, and professional education. Higher sophistication in teacher epistemology positively impacted classroom practice, probably facilitated through regular self-reflection and greater cognitive engagement, with teachers focusing more on student learning, and preparing students for independent study. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education