M.Ed. / In general terms education focuses on the acquisition of knowledge and the development of skills and attitudes. In Technology Education these principles correlate with the aims of the technological process. Within the constructivist instructional approach the technological process provides the possibility for dormant thoughts to come to the fore, and provides the opportunity to the learners to be creative. Typing instruction, in contrast, is traditionally directed at the development of psychomotor skills and reproductive thinking. The cross curricular nature of Technology Education makes it possible for the integration of certain aspects of other subjects (learning areas), and in this context a theme of the Typing syllabus according to the technological process was presented to a group of Typing learners. This project was developed within the qualitative paradigm, and with the aid of a spontaneous sketch and a semi-structured focus group interview the perceptions of the learners, in respect of their learning experiences were investigated. Learners reported positively on their learning experiences and the co-operative learning opportunities. It was concluded that they felt more empowered and took bold but responsible decisions. This could indicate possible development of thinking skills by the learners. From this study it appeared that education should promote meaningful learning that empowers the learners to be independent and responsible in taking decisions. Purposeful learning opportunities must be created for learners to enhance thinking skills. Learners should be actively involved in the construction of knowledge and the Technology Education platform provides an ideal opportunity for this.

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Control is a central issue in any text: does the author's intention or the reader's interpretation better explain the resulting meaning of the text? This question has long been the subject of debate among textual theorists; this essay proposes a middle ground, namely that the author and the reader engage in a collaborative effort to make meaning in a text.

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The purpose of this study was to examine cognitive complexity, extremity, and the relationship between social repertory grids and life events repertory grids (LERG) in people who report a history of trauma. Effects of type of trauma on complexity and extremity scores of each type of grid were examined. Prior research into repertory grids and trauma has used only one type of grid, predominantly social grids or LERGs. Therefore, a natural, progressive step in the grid research involved investigating how individuals integrate social and life event constructs. It was hypothesized, and results show, that there is a positive correlation between complexity scores and extremity scores of social grids and LERGs. However it was not found that there was a negative correlation between trauma history and complexity scores, and that trauma acts as a moderator for cognitive complexity. Instead, it appears that the social facet of experience is key to understanding perception of traumatic experiences. Additionally, number of traumas experienced might affect social construct elaboration.

The problem of this study was to determine the effectiveness of student-centered teaching in producing significant changes in certain critical thinking abilities among selected freshmen students at North Texas State College.

This thesis determines the growth of scientific thinking and civic attitudes attained by students in the Grandfalls Royalty High School in West Texas.

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In the field of counseling the thinking-feeling-acting (T-F-A) trichotomy provides several advantages over conventional approaches to select counseling methods. Hutchins developed the TFA system and a corresponding instrument, the Hutchins Behavior Inventory (HBI), to assess a client’s thinking-feeling-acting orientation. Factors influencing the cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains of human functioning have been identified, but past research often led to conflicting or unsatisfying results. Some researchers claim that there are significant cognitive, affective, and psychomotor gender differences, whereas others describe the effects of gender as nonexistent. The influences of socioeconomic status on an individual’s level of thinking, feeling, and acting have rarely been studied, and, by and large, the question of whether or not human functioning is situation specific has been theoretically addressed rather than empirically researched. In this study path analysis and the LISREL methodology were used to investigate to what extent thinking-feeling-acting orientations are dependent on gender, socioeconomic status, and the situational context. The Hutchins Behavior Inventory was used to assess the TFA orientations of 172 resident counselors at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. The effects of gender and socioeconomic status on thinking, feeling, and acting were minimal, whereas relatively strong influences of situational context on thinking and acting were found. These results provided some evidence that the TFA system does not discriminate on the basis of sociodemographic factors but that counseling professionals should give careful consideration to the specific situation under which behavior is assessed. In addition, arguments were presented showing that HBI scores are not all of an ipsative nature and thus are suitable for statistical analyses. Further evidence was provided that the HBI is a reliable instrument consistently measuring thinking-feeling-acting orientations. / Ph. D. / incomplete_metadata

This study investigated the use of writing-to-learn strategies in freshman associate degree nursing classes at Wytheville Community College, Wytheville, Virginia. It sought to determine if the use of writing-to-Iearn strategies would affect the students' achievement in the course and their critical thinking skills. The design of the study was experimental. Two groups of freshman nursing students were randomly selected and randomly assigned to either an experiment group or a control group. The experiment group used the writing-to-learn strategies. The achievement in the course was measured using teacher-developed tests. Critical thinking skills were measured using the <u>Cornell Critical Thinking Test. Level Z</u>. The study found that the students in the experiment group achieved higher aggregate semester scores than those in the control group. The difference in mean aggregate semester scores for the two groups was statistically significant. The results of the critical thinking post-test indicated the mean scores of both groups declined, but not significantly. The mean score of the experiment group was higher, but again not significantly. It was concluded that the use of writing-to-Iearn strategies is an effective means of improving community college nursing students' achievement The results of the critical thinking portion of the study were inconclusive. / Ed. D.