Thesis (M.S. Ed.) -- Bank Street College of Education, New York, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references and a webliography (leaves 23-30).

This research described and analyzed teachers’ perceptions of technology as a catalyst for stimulating classroom constructivist practices. The teachers were located at multiple schools in one Florida county. The teachers were selected based on participation in the Education through Dynamic Global Experiences (EDGE) program. This One-to- One program provides one laptop for every classroom teacher and student. The most frequent ideas in the literature fell into three sections. First is the need to integrate technology as part of the curricula and use constructivism as a theoretical framework for technology integration. The second relates to the best practices of incorporating classroom technology driven by constructivist theory and Self-Regulated Learning (SRL). The third describes one county’s EDGE program and related literature. Two focus groups gathered information from teachers with various levels of classroom and EDGE experience regarding perceptions of a One-to-One classroom. Teachers were surveyed regarding perceptions of processes of using technology as a catalyst for constructivist practices, changing teaching and learning, teaching style, and curriculum content delivery. Conclusion: Data collected from teacher surveys and focus groups support the premise that “Elementary teacher’s perceptions of technology as a catalyst for constructivist practices in the classroom” is valid. This conclusion was demonstrated by evaluating teacher perceptions, patterns of experiences, and the emergence of constructivist instructional practices when technology is infused in the curriculum. The major recurring themes supported a constructivist culture that was: collaborative and independent, receptive to individuals and valued their relationships, replete with opportunities for distributed leadership, interconnected with integrated technology, populated with highly engaged and motivated individuals, self-sustaining, safe and nonjudgmental, vision driven, built on authentic assessment and curriculum, and evolving at the speed of technology. Implications follow: 1. Technology can be used as a catalyst for classroom constructivist practices 2. Teachers believe that technology supports increasing standardized test scores. 3. Training in constructivism promotes use of technology by teachers and speeds changing teaching pedagogy into constructivist practices. 4. Teachers’ perceptions are important in changing pedagogy toward constructivism. 5. School administration must support classroom technology and constructivist teaching 6. Students and teachers can collaborate in designing, developing, and implementing their learning experiences and students can actually take control of their learning experiences.

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Federal policies such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and Race to the Top (RTT) stand as examples of how teachers face increasing expectations that their activities be “data-based” or “data-driven.” Meeting these expectations requires assembling and analyzing a wide variety of data about students (e.g., demographics, discipline, locally designed tests, state test results, or longitudinal information). Computer data systems are commonly assumed to facilitate the work of educational data use. Indeed, the availability and computing power of these systems have continued to expand, further increasing the promises that these technologies hold for enhancing teaching and learning. Meaningful and widespread changes to teachers’ practices, however, have typically not occurred on a large-scale or systemic basis. Therefore, in this comparative case study of three school districts I examine the nature of districts’ efforts to improve teachers’ data use via computer data systems. I do so by examining the worldviews of various job roles in each district about data use and computer data systems. An erroneous assumption commonly made by districts was that these technologies are imbued with self-evident and predetermined effects on teacher work. Accordingly, the findings from this study speak to issues of sensemaking in districts. In them, I describe not only how teachers’ perspectives shaped their practices, but also how the alignment of perspectives among district roles influenced the implementation and success of district initiatives around computer data systems. As such, this study has implications for how districts plan, implement, and learn from initiatives around data use. / text

<p> Women have historically been underrepresented in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM fields). The underrepresentation of women in STEM may be attributable to a variety of factors. These may include different choices men and women typically make in response to incentives in STEM education. For example, STEM career paths may be less accommodating to people who are less resilient. Another factor may be that there are relatively few female STEM role models. Perhaps strong gender stereotypes discourage women from pursuing STEM education and STEM jobs. The factors that contribute to success and the barriers that impeded success must be identified before any steps can be taken to improve the educational outcomes for women in STEM disciplines. Consequently, relatively little is known about the role of resilience in academically successful adult women in rural community colleges enrolled in STEM disciplines and the mechanisms that underlie the performance deficits that occur as a result of stereotype threat effect. This mixed method study addressed those knowledge gaps by determining: (1) if high resilience is positively correlated to high grade point average for women enrolled in STEM disciplines in rural community colleges in North Carolina, and (2) if stereotype threat effect is a risk factor for these women. Quantitative data were collected by using "The Resilience Scale" (Wagnild &amp; Young, 1987) and through examination of grade point average of students from Datatel data management software. Qualitative data were collected through semi-structured focus group interviews. Findings from this study indicate high resilience is positively correlated to high grade point average for women enrolled in STEM disciplines in rural community colleges in North Carolina, and stereotype threat effect was a risk factor for low-scoring women (i.e. those women who reported resilience scores less than 121 and grade point averages lower than 2.70) and was not a risk factor for high-scoring women (i.e. those women who reported resilience scores of 147 or higher and grade point averages of 2.70 or higher). Overall, qualitative data analysis revealed both high-scoring and low-scoring women in STEM disciplines were affected by stereotype threat effect. However, low-scoring women were negatively impacted by stereotype threat and high-scoring women were able to use pressures associated with stereotype threat as motivation for success. Based on results from this study four principal factors were found that influence the success of women in STEM disciplines. These factors include elimination of stereotype threat, enhancement of resilience of female students, expansion of female gender representation on community college campuses, and development of positive instructor-student and advisor-student relationships. While this study does not, and cannot, explain why gender differences in STEM exist, it does provide data and insight that will enable more informed policymaking for community college administrators in order to increase success of women in STEM disciplines. The findings provide definitive evidence of a need to encourage and support women in STEM education with a goal of gender parity. </p>

<p> The relatively little amount of time that some college students spend reading their textbooks outside of lectures presents a significant threat to their academic success. One possible solution to this problem is the use of digital games as an alternative to outside-of-class textbook reading, but a review of previous research did not reveal much information on their efficacy when compared to traditional textbooks. Using Astin's theory of student engagement as a framework, the purpose of this quantitative causal-comparative study was to determine whether a significant difference in engagement, as indicated by mental effort and time on task, existed for college students who used a digital game-based textbook versus students who used a traditional print-based textbook. The 54 undergraduate college students in this convenience sample were randomly assigned to one of the two textbook types and completed an activity session at an individual workstation. Time on task was measured with a stopwatch and mental effort with the Mental Effort Scale. The results showed a statistically significant difference in engagement between participants in the digital game-based and traditional print-based textbook groups, Hotelling's <i> T</i>²(2, 52) = 25.11, <i>p </i>&lt; .001, D²=1.86. In the post hoc analyses, the digital game-based group had significantly higher time on task scores than the traditional print-based textbook group (<i>t</i> = 34.61, <i>p</i> &lt; .001). The mental effort difference was not significant, although the mean mental effort score was higher for the digital game-based group. These results provide evidence of a digital game-based textbook's utility, and may inform college educators in their efforts to support a more diverse group of learners.</p>

<p> A successful blended classroom includes the important essentials of both traditional and online education; creating a new approach to instructional learning. With the steadily increasing number of blended classes offered at community colleges, an opportunity exists to inform the purposeful planning of blended classes to best meet students' needs through identifying and comparing both faculty and students' perceived course effectiveness factors and challenges. The specific problem is that faculty and students' perceived factors for possible increased course effectiveness and their perceived challenges for decreased course effectiveness have not been previously identified then compared and contrasted. Filling the gap with this specific perception knowledge allows educators to more purposefully and strategically plan curriculum, thus increase student success. The purpose of this quantitative methodology research study was to examine perceived attitudes of blended learning faculty and students. Secondarily, best practices were identified for developing blended courses that promote quality higher education instruction and learner success as perceived by both the students and the faculty at a large community college in the Southwestern United States. Two web surveys were administered, one for faculty and one for students to gather data through quantitative and open-ended questions. For this purposeful sample study, the participants were 31 faculty members who taught blended classes and 171 students over the age of 18 who attended blended classes at the specific college during the Spring 2014 and Fall 2014 semesters. The quantitative data obtained from each of the surveys was analyzed through descriptive and inferential statistics. Sixteen t test independent two-sample assuming unequal variances found the results were split depending on the course effectiveness factor being addressed. The null hypothesis was rejected for six of the twelve benefit factors (flexibility, time management, instructor access, interactive learning materials, optimized class time, and success measured by withdrawal rates) and one of the four challenge factors (reduced access to instructor). Themes that emerged from the open-ended responses included the focus on flexibility, technology, self-efficacy, and communication. Many of the factors identified, if addressed, could increase the course effectiveness, satisfaction, retention and completion, and ultimately, successful student learning in the blended class modality.</p>

<p> The purpose of this quantitative experimental study was to test the impact of three learning interventions on student learning and satisfaction when the interventions were embedded in the instructional design of case-based, Computer-Assisted Instruction (CAI) modules for learning liver pathology in an in-class, self-study, laboratory exercise during a Year-2 medical school Pathology course. The hypothesis was that inclusion of the learning interventions would enhance student satisfaction in using the CAI and improve subsequent CAI-directed exam performance. Three learning interventions were studied, including the use of microscopic virtual slides instead of only static images, the use of interactive image annotations instead of only still annotations, and the use of guiding questions before presenting new information. Students were randomly assigned to with one of eight CAI learning modules configured to control for each of the three learning interventions. Effectiveness of the CAI for student learning was assessed by student performance on questions included in subsequent CAI-directed exams in a pretest and on posttests immediately after the lab exercise, at two weeks and two months. Student satisfaction and perceived learning was assessed by a student survey. </p><p> Results showed that the learning interventions did not improve subsequent student exam performance, although satisfaction and perceived learning with use of the CAI learning modules was enhanced. Student class rank was evaluated to determine if the learning interventions might have a differential effect based on class rank, but there were no significant differences. Class rank at the time of the lab exercise was itself the strongest predictor of exam performance. </p><p> The findings suggest that the addition of virtual slides, interactive annotations and guiding questions as learning interventions in self-study, case-based CAI for learning liver pathology in a medical class room setting are not likely to increase performance on subsequent MCQ-based exams, but student satisfaction with use of the CAI can be enhanced, which could provide to be an incentive for students to use similar CAI learning modules for future self-directed learning.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Toronto, 2005.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 114-122).