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The purpose of this study was to describe graduate courses and programs of professional education at selected institutions which emphasized the preparation of educators to work with Blacks, Indians, and Spanish American (EISA). Information from a survey of college and university graduate catalogs and the review of literature was used to select three institutions for an in-depth study. The institutions selected for study were East Texas State University (ETSU) at Commerce, the University of Texas at Austin (UT/Austin), and the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA). Although only three institutions were selected for in-depth study, there seems to be evidence to support the following conclusions: (1) there seem to be more courses and programs with emphases on preparing educators to work with BISAs when outside funding is available, (2) continuation of courses and programs to prepare educators to work with BISAs seems to be directly influenced by the interest and involvement of individual instructors, (3) the instructors who were the most interested in preparing educators to work with multicultural groups seem to have larger classes, (4) the ethnic background of the instructor also seems to influence the effectiveness of a course, (5) a nonthreatening learning atmosphere seems to influence open discussions of serious cultural issues, and (6) informal interaction of Anglo, Black, and Mexican American educators seems to be an effective and satisfying type of cultural exchange and develooment of a cultural awareness.

The science-major General Chemistry sequence offered at the University of Houston has been investigated with respect to the effectiveness of recent incorporation of various levels of computer technology. As part of this investigation, questionnaire responses, student evaluations and grade averages and distributions from up to the last ten years have been analyzed and compared. Increased use of web-based material is both popular and effective, particularly with respect to providing extra information and supplemental questions. Instructor contact via e-mail is also well-received. Both uses of technology should be encouraged. In contrast, electronic classroom presentation is less popular. While initial use may lead to improved grades and retention, these levels decrease quickly, possibly due to a reduction in instructor spontaneity.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI)

The subject of this study is a curricular model in word processing for post-secondary programs of business education. The study had the following purposes: to survey the present emphasis upon word processing in programs of business education; to survey the current use of word processing in business; to identify the characteristic form of word processing systems; to survey the need for qualified personnel for employment in word processing; to evaluate current educational practices in educating individuals for positions in word processing; and to utilize findings from both business and education to construct a curricular model for post-secondary educational institutions. The data results included the following findings: 1) no separate word processing course was offered by 73.8 percent of the responding post-secondary educational institutions; 2) a word processing program was offered by 2.4 percent of the responding institutions; 3) typing and English were common prerequisites to word processing course; 4) most of the teaching materials used in the courses were vendor products or teacher-constructed; 5) most of the interviewees felt that from three to six months' training on the equipment was necessary for proficiency; 6) in the overall comparison of all education responses to all business responses on the rating sheets, 37.7 percent of the 45 items showed a significant difference.

The purpose of the study was to examine college science professors’ beliefs regarding the use of inquiry in the college science classroom, how these beliefs impacted their instructional choices and how these beliefs were enacted in the classroom. Additional questions were how teachers’ beliefs vary across institution types (community college, private, four year college, and large research institution), and how beliefs vary across disciplines (life sciences and physical sciences). A case study design was required for this study due to the complexity of the topic and different data sources needed to answer the fore stated research questions. These data sources included surveys, interviews, classroom and laboratory observations and written records such as laboratory activities and syllabi. Twelve college professors at three different institutions; large research institution, small, private four year college and community college were interviewed. In addition to interviews, classes and labs were observed, a questionnaire on the five essential features of inquiry was given and samples of labs and syllabi were obtained. A laboratory coordinator was also interviewed as she was responsible for the laboratory section for two of the professors at the research institution. All schools were located in the southeast United States. The perception of inquiry by college science professors has been found to be a barrier to the inclusion of inquiry in college classrooms and was supported in the current study. While the professors described constraints to inquiry such as large class size, lack of time, disinterest of students, and lack of equipment, these limitations were due, in part, to the professors’ incomplete view of inquiry as what researchers do. This view was most pronounced with the professors at the large, research institution. At the research institution, observations in the classroom mirrored the beliefs of inquiry. Lecture was the primary instruction in the science classroom, and the labs were scripted and shown to be “cookbook” with little or no evidence of inquiry noted in the labs iv obtained. There was more evidence of inquiry at the private four-year college and community college than at the large research institution; what was observed in the classroom mirrored what the professors believed about inquiry. There was a difference in the beliefs between institutions with the professors at the research institution holding an incomplete view of inquiry while the professors at the private college and community college included many aspects of the inquiry continuum in their view of inquiry. There were no differences noted between disciplines.

Covariational reasoning is a cognitive activity that attends to two or more varying quantities and how their changes are related to each other. Previous studies indicate that covariational reasoning seems to have levels. Content analysis was used to examine the pedagogy and development of covariational reasoning levels in the sections that conceptually introduce derivatives in four calculus textbooks. One widely used calculus textbook was selected for the study in each of the four categories: U.S. college, U.S. high school, China college, and China high school. Two qualified investigators and I conducted the study. We used a framework of five developmental levels for covariational reasoning. The conceptual analysis of four calculus textbooks found that the U.S. college and the U.S. high school textbooks emphasize the average and instantaneous rate of change. However, both lack development of the direction and magnitude of change. On the other hand, this study's Chinese high school calculus textbook has a greater degree of development in the direction and magnitude of change while having a deficit in the average rate of change. This study's Chinese college calculus textbook does not have any meaningful development regarding covariational reasoning pedagogy. The relational analysis of the concepts previously identified in the conceptual analysis phase revealed that this study's U.S. college calculus textbooks provide abundant examples and exercises to transition between the average and instantaneous rate of change. On the other hand, all other calculus textbooks in this study lack any significant transition among passages that stimulate covariational reasoning. The textbook analysis in this study provides insights into the current focus of calculus textbooks in both the U.S. and China. In addition, the study has implications for learning and teaching calculus at both high school and college, as well as future editions of calculus textbooks. Finally, limitations and recommendations are discussed.

While methods of creative play are still utilized occasionally in elementary education, by the time students reach college there are fewer opportunities for them to play in order to learn creatively in the classroom. Often, they are bored or uninspired by “traditional” composition instruction, where they read essays and then emulate their structure. Students can sometimes struggle to find ways to compose, both academically and creatively. I have seen in my classrooms the efficacy of giving students more flexibility and freedom in their ways of composing. This project proposes that play—the serious “work of childhood” (attributed to Piaget)—is just as essential in the college composition classroom. Giving students ways to access their imaginations, through visual and multimodal composition, making activities, metaphors, and other infusions of creative play pedagogy in the classroom and beyond—are not niche methods of instruction. Rather, I assert that play-learning helps form thirdspaces of play that I term playspaces. Specifically, in this dissertation I inquire through teacher/practitioner research to explore these questions: 1) What are some of the possibilities and limitations of play pedagogy for the composing processes of three first-year college composition students and their instructor? a. How are students using play pedagogy in the learning space? What functions might it serve or not serve? b. How am I implementing my play pedagogy in our classroom? What does play pedagogy mean for me as a teacher? c. How does play pedagogy inform the space and spatial understanding of the composition classroom? This qualitative study examines what happens when play pedagogy is employed in the college writing classroom, using arts-based research (ABR) including narrative inquiry as its main methods. The analysis for my dissertation uses what I’ve termed spatial thematic analysis in the form of longer narrative vignettes to attempt to reconstruct the spaces of play of each of the three students in the study as well as myself as teacher/researcher struggling with play and writing. These vignettes focus on Diana—a student who moved between accepting and rejecting the invitation across a semester paired with my own struggles during the pandemic to write and my use of collage to find a sense of play again, Lito—a student who accepted the invitation throughout the semester and the freedoms that emerged in his composing processes and meta-reflections, and Jenny—a student who digs deeper into one of those freedoms—the concept of deep play—as a potential affordance in the college writing space. From these longer vignettes, I have summarized in the findings the themes that emerged from the study: the invitation to play, the freedoms of play pedagogy including: to work across mediums and modes, to make mistakes and fail, to create and imagine, and to explore the self, including the opportunity to engage in deep play in their composing work, and the importance of spatial understandings of play pedagogy. This study seeks not just to define playspace as a third space of play-learning in the college writing classroom, but also to find the essential components of these spaces to generalize the structure for teachers hoping to use their own playful pedagogies in their classrooms. Keywords: composition, playspace, spaces of play, playful teaching, play pedagogy, pedagogy of play, creative play, play learning, thirdspace, third space, college literacy, visual literacy, multimodal learning

Although the importance of problem solving as an essential component of mathematics learning and doing has consistently been recognized, recent research has only just begun to identify and describe the complex set of variables influencing the endeavor. Therefore, the aim of this study was to empirically investigate the relationships between several of these variables: mathematical expertise (as measured by the advanced nature of the mathematics courses students have taken, and are enrolled in), the cognitive ability known as inhibitory control (the ability to inhibit or suppress an immediate response to a stimulus, and engage in deeper, more reflective thought), and facets of college students’ psychoeducational profile (e.g., academic habits of mind, future orientation, self-limiting beliefs), which provide information about the nature of college students’ learning and development. In this study, one hundred and thirty college students, enrolled in different levels of mathematics courses (from introductory courses to major courses in mathematics) were administered a modified version of the Cognitive Reflection Test (an instrument designed to measure the ability to activate one’s inhibitory control capacities) and a survey instrument designed to measure domain-general and mathematics-specific psychoeducational facets of their academic profile. Information about membership to other subgroups (e.g., gender, academic major, mathematics courses taken in high school) helped to further contextualize the findings. The majority of all participants did not correctly solve any of the problems of the modified version of the Cognitive Reflection Test which required inhibitory control. However, those with a greater level of mathematical expertise (i.e., those taking more advanced mathematical courses) performed significantly better than their peers on these problems and exhibited more desirable responses on the psychoeducational survey instrument. Responses to items of the survey instrument that measured behaviors, habits, and experiences that limit students in their conception of, approach to, and engagement with mathematics indicate the presence of a psychoeducational facet specific to mathematics that cannot be sufficiently explained by domain-general facets also under measure. These limiting characteristics related to mathematics were also significantly related to students’ performance on the modified version of the Cognitive Reflection Test, indicating a potential relationship between such characteristics and problem solving success on inhibitory control tasks. Considering the measures of mathematical expertise utilized in the current study, the social nature of mathematics learning may help explain the development of both inhibitory control ability and limiting beliefs in mathematics. The current study extended the methods utilized in previous research to examine the relationships between inhibitory control and mathematical expertise in college students while also investigating these in relation to particular psychoeducational variables known to influence learning and development of college students. The findings of this small-scale empirical study provide a modest step forward in these areas of research by providing another lens through which to view several phenomena already being extensively investigated by other researchers.