ABSTRACT Service-learning is a pedagogy that challenges students to create important connections between curricular content and their community. Experts in the field of early childhood education enthusiastically support learning opportunities and activities that underscore meaningful student involvement; purposeful collaboration; experiential learning; and socially constructed knowledge. Although service-learning provides a means by which to address these constructivist goals, there exists little research on the practice with preschool aged children. This qualitative case study investigates the practice of service-learning in the preschool classroom, how it can be implemented, how young children respond to it, and whether or not it adequately addresses the learning and developmental needs of this age group. The study chronicles the story of nineteen Voluntary Pre-Kindergarten students and their teacher as they experienced the practice of service-learning for the first time. Data was collected and analyzed over a ten week period in the fall of 2011. The data suggests that service-learning provides a valuable means to address the learning and developmental needs of preschool aged children. Additionally, it was discovered that the children in this study received the greatest benefit from service activities that provided high levels of community involvement and a great deal of exposure to the physical aspects of the projects. Moreover, the data provided evidence to support the notion that preschool aged children require frequent and intentional scaffolding from more competent others in order to make meaningful connections between curricular goals and service projects. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Teacher Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2012. / June 29, 2012. / Preschool, Service-Learning / Includes bibliographical references. / Diana Rice, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Vickie Lake, Professor Co-Directing Dissertation; Robert A. Schwartz, University Representative; Ithel Jones, Committee Member; Angie Davis, Committee Member.

This study examined students' movement in and out of special education and predictors for later special education placement. The sample (N = 556) came from a response to intervention (RTI) study, specifically, a cluster-randomized control field trial that undertook the development and study of a hybrid Tier 1 (classroom instruction) and Tier 2 (specific differentiated small group interventions) model in kindergarten during the 2007-2008 school year. On average, from kindergarten to third grade about 13% of the sample was classified for special education services. However, the students accounted for in that 13% varied greatly from year to year as many students exited special education while others entered it. The most movement out of special education occurred in the earlier grades. Specifically, 80% of the students in special education from kindergarten had been declassified from special education by the end of first grade, whereas only 0% and 2% exited special education from first to second grade and second to third grade respectively. Further, the students who exited special education were replaced by a significantly lower group of students from general education. Students with speech impairments, language impairments, specific learning disabilities, and developmental delays accounted for most of the declassification from special education. To determine students' responsiveness to instruction beyond placement in special education, a standard score of 90 on reading subtests of the Woodcock-Johnson Achievement Test-III was used as a cut point. In general, students who remained in or entered into special education had greater percentages of scores below 90, while students who remained in general education or exited special education had smaller percentages of scores below 90. Overall, the entire sample scored better on code-focused subtests (i.e., letter word identification and word attack) than on meaning-focused subtests (i.e., picture vocabulary and passage comprehension). Finally, logistic regressions run with Hierarchical Linear Modeling software revealed that no school- or classroom-level variables from the fall of kindergarten were significantly predictive of later placement in special education. Although treatment condition, which was assigned at the school level, was not predictive of later special education, children's performance during the fall of kindergarten on measures of letter naming fluency, picture vocabulary and cognitive processing speed were predictive of later special education placement. Also, being male significantly increased a student's odds of being in special education at the end of first grade, but not at any of the other grades. Further, although being African American never significantly predicted later special education placement, chi-square tests revealed that African Americans were significantly more likely to be placed in special education in first grade, but at no other grades. Recommendations for future research involving special education classification and declassification within RTI studies included using detailed child demographics, programmatic characteristics, well-described instructional practices, and longitudinal information. Implications for practice included: district reporting that demonstrates the movement both in and out of special education; policy requiring states to include separate special education classifications for students with speech impairments and language impairments; early literacy instruction that involves letter naming fluency; intensive vocabulary instruction during the reading acquisition years; and comprehension and meaning-focused interventions beginning by third grade. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Teacher Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring, Semester, 2012. / December 8, 2011. / response to intervention, special education classification, special education declassification, special education stability / Includes bibliographical references. / Stephanie Dent Al Otaiba, Professor Directing Dissertation; Carol Connor, University Representative; Jeanne Wanzek, Committee Member; Young-Suk Kim, Committee Member.

This research addressed the early reading instruction of students with cognitive impairments included in general education kindergarten classrooms. Research from 2002 to 2011 on early reading instruction for students with mental retardation were reviewed and current trends in measurement, typical instruction, intervention, and achievement were discussed. Seven limitations in the research base were identified, suggesting a large gap between policy, research, and practice. Extant data from a larger study on individualizing kindergarten Tier 1 literacy instruction was used to answer questions related to the reading growth and achievement of students with cognitive impairments compared to their typical peers. Hierarchical Linear Modeling was used to evaluate reading growth and achievement as a function of the differential influences of initial skills and Tier 1 Instruction. Results suggested that students with cognitive impairments in this study performed higher than students with mental retardation in previous studies, but poorer than their typical peers. However, when initial skills were accounted for, there were no significant differences between groups. There was relatively strong evidence that teachers individualized kindergarten Tier 1 instruction. Further, there were indications that typical students and students with cognitive impairments had differential response to certain types of instruction. While this study was able to address some of the gaps identified in the literature review, there continue to be significant knowledge and practice gaps that warrant further research with this population in this setting. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Teacher Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Spring Semester, 2012. / December 6, 2011. / Inclusion, Intellectual Disabilities, Kindergarten, Reading Growth, Reading Instruction, Response to Instruction / Includes bibliographical references. / Stephanie Dent Al Otaiba, Professor Directing Dissertation; Christopher Schatschneider, University Representative; Carol McDonald Connor, Committee Member; Barbara Foorman, Committee Member.

The purpose of this study is to explore instructional personnel participants' views on modeling instructional patterns from the reading frameworks used in their elementary classrooms during mathematics instruction and investigate how a mathematical literacy measure could be determined. By using this pedagogical approach, mathematics will be taught as a langugae development in the elementary grades instead of as five separate compartmentalized strands. The relationship between reading and mathematics will be explained using the qualitative data obtained from the participants and ideas will be presented that could develop an opportunity for professional development which focuses mathematics lesson planning on differentiation based on students' needs. If we could incorporate professional development early in the area of elementary level mathematics instruction that infuses current reading frameworks planning and direction, we may be able to intensify the quality of instruction per student and better prepare the students with the foundation they need to be successful in later mathematics courses. / A Thesis submitted to the School of Teacher Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Mathematics Education. / Summer Semester, 2011. / June 28, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references. / Elizabeth Jakubowski, Professor Directing Thesis; Marion Fesmire, Committee Member; Diana Rice, Committee Member; Kenneth Shaw, Committee Member.

The current prevalence of childhood obesity is becoming a critical social problem and cannot be solved effectively by any single solution. An underlying problem of interventions trying to prevent childhood obesity neglects children's own understanding of food, an important determinant for healthy eating habits. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the influences of age, family socio-economic status (SES), and parents' food knowledge on preschool, kindergarten, and second-grade children's conceptual understanding of food. Fifty-two American parent-child dyads, 17 preschoolers, 17 kindergarteners, and 18 second graders, with different SES family backgrounds participated in this study. Parents completed a self-administrated survey at home and their children were interviewed by a researcher assistant at their school sites. Quantitative results suggested significant age influences on children's conceptual understanding of food. Significant differences were found in total food knowledge between preschool children and children in second grade. Significant differences were also found in food-body and food-fat knowledge between children from preschool and second grade, and between children from kindergarten and second grade. SES family background had no significant impact on children's conceptual understanding of food. No clear correlation was found for food knowledge between children and their parents. Qualitative results indicated children are aware of whether foods are healthy or not healthy, fruit and vegetable. They conceptualize the meals and snacks using portion size and associated food examples. Variations in children's conceptual understanding of food suggested that a nutrition education curriculum for young children should be age specific. / A Dissertation submitted to the College of Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2013. / June 24, 2013. / age-related understanding of food, children's cognitive development, children's understanding of food, socio-economic status (SES) related food concepts / Includes bibliographical references. / Ithel Jones, Professor Directing Dissertation; Robert A. Schwartz, University Representative; Diana Rice, Committee Member; Thomas Ratliffe, Committee Member.

This study evaluates the impact of a 4 day out-of-school environmental educational assess the impacts of this program, 293 students completed pre and post drawings of their understanding of the plants, animals and processes of the longleaf pine ecosystem, as well as the Children's Environmental Perceptions Survey. Of these participants, 41 students were selected for post- attendance interviews to further understand the impact of the experience on the students as well as validate the interpretations of drawings. Analysis of drawings indicates that participation in the program had an impact on students; specifically with respect to awareness, knowledge and understanding of, and interest in, the longleaf pine ecosystem, while analysis of survey responses indicated no shifts in engagement or interest. As a result, there was no correlation between changes in pre/post drawings and changes in the pre/post survey responses. Possible reasons for the differing results are provided. Although no direct cause and effect relationship was identified, the results indicate of the longleaf pine ecosystem after attending the extended environmental education program, The data collected demonstrate that drawings, when accompanied by a suitable scoring rubric are an efficient and effective method to gauge student learning of an informal science experience such as the one in this research. In addition, the classification of the drawings into discrete mental model categories representing varying degrees of sophistication demonstrated that the program was successful in shifting students mental models from those that were classified as naïve to those that were more closely representative of conceptual models held by scientists. Remarkably, this shift was accomplished without being and explicit goal or component of the educational program. Given that other sources have identified that young people have limited knowledge or understanding about the environment, this research illuminates the continuing need for environmental education and the research that evaluates the impacts of such programs. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Teacher Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2013. / June 7, 2013. / drawings, environmental education, impact, informal, longleaf pine, mental models / Includes bibliographical references. / Alejandro Gallard, Professor Directing Dissertation; Carlos Bolanos, University Representative; Lawrence Scharmann, Committee Member; Lisa Scherff, Committee Member.

A multiple baseline design across three types of wh- questions was used to examine the effects of an intervention package in teaching wh- question answering skills to an adolescent with ASD. The intervention package consisted of a combination of (1) an iPad-based augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) application, Proloquo2Go; (2) a least-to-most prompting hierarchy; (3) interval reinforcement; (4) cue cards; and (5) question related visuals. The results of this study showed that using the intervention package is an effective way to teach wh- question answering skills to an adolescent with autism. / A Thesis submitted to the College of Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Summer Semester, 2013. / June 26, 2013. / AAC, Autism / Includes bibliographical references. / Mary Frances Hanline, Professor Directing Thesis; Bruce Menchetti, Committee Member; Lindsay Dennis, Committee Member.

This qualitative case study examined the prospective mathematics teachers' conception of mathematics, proof, and mathematical definitions. Moreover, it also investigated their proof writing approaches, using mathematical definitions and validation assessment practice. Participants of the study were four prospective mathematics teachers in a large southern research university who had taken a proof transition course as well as Linear Algebra. Four semi-structured interviews were conducted to collect data. The first interview protocol was designed to determine participants' conception of mathematics, proof, and mathematical definitions. The other three were task-based interviews that were designed to investigate participants' use of mathematical definitions in simple exercises, proof production, and proof validation in three different content areas: Geometry, Set Theory, and Linear Algebra. Ernest's (1989) framework was used to identify the mathematical beliefs of participants, while Raman's (2002) framework guided the analysis of students' proof production and validity assessment practices. Results of the two cases were presented in this study. They were chosen based on their conception of mathematics: one held an instrumentalist view of mathematics and the other held a Platonist perspective of mathematics. The study intended to create a clear picture of the practices of students with different perspectives of mathematics. The results of the study suggested that students' mathematical beliefs might inform their proof production approaches. It was found that the student with an instrumentalist view tended to use heuristic approaches; on the other hand, the student with a Platonist perspective was inclined to use a procedural approach in proof production. Moreover, the study addressed that students' conception of proof was framed within the justification, verification, and occasionally the explanation role of proof. This limited conception of proof constructed their criteria to assess the validity of a given proof. Another finding of the study was that students tend to bypass the concept definitions as long as they can reach a conclusion with their concept images. Lastly, students' experiences within a mathematical context were distinctive in their comfort to make comments and develop connections between mathematical concepts to make logical deductions. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Teacher Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Summer Semester, 2009. / June 18, 2009. / Proof, Mathematical Definitions, Prospective Mathematics Teachers, Mathematics Education / Includes bibliographical references. / Elizabeth Jakubowski, Professor Directing Dissertation; Alec Kercheval, Outside Committee Member; Leslie Aspinwall, Committee Member; Kathleen Clark, Committee Member.

This thesis explores how well the curriculum Great Explorations in Math and Science Space Science Curriculum Sequence (GEMS SSCS) for 3rd through 5th graders helps mainstream and nonmainstream students develop an informed level of understanding of scientific inquiry and examines whether the curriculum teaches students in an equitable manner. Considering that the population of schools is becoming increasingly more diverse and at the same time there is a large achievement gap between mainstream and nonmainstream students (Muller et al., 2001; O'Sullivan et al., 2003) it is essential to determine if existing curricula such as the GEMS SSCS can help close the achievement gap. Not all students are developing scientific literacy which is the knowledge, skills, and habits of mind needed to succeed in society (AAAS, 1989). To achieve scientific literacy students should understand that scientists review literature, ask questions, answer questions, make predictions, plan investigations, make observations, compare results, create explanations, interpret data, debate, and use tools (NRC, 2000), all of which are components of scientific inquiry. In this study the GEMS SSCS for 3rd through 5th graders was used to teach 4th and 5th grade students about space science. To assess students' understanding of scientific inquiry students were given the Views of Scientific Inquiry-Elementary assessment (VOSI-E) (Schwartz, Lederman, & Lederman, 2008) once before the space science unit, once immediately after the unit, and once 5 months ± 2 weeks after the unit. For each assessment students were categorized as having a naïve or transitional/informed understanding of scientific inquiry. To analyze the data first a series of χ2 tests were run to identify significant relationships between the various student demographics and student knowledge of scientific inquiry as assessed by the VOSI-E assessment. Second, a two proportion confidence interval was computed to compare the proportions of students with a transitional/informed understanding of scientific inquiry with respect to demographics. Finally, a logistic regression was run to model the probability of students being transitional/informed using language proficiency, socioeconomic status, and ethnicity as predictors. The use of the GEMS SSCS with 4th and 5th grade students varied in how it affected mainstream and nonmainstream students. In some cases the curriculum helped close the achievement gap and even helped advance nonmainstream students beyond their mainstream peers. In other cases the curriculum created an achievement gap in favor of mainstream students. Such results could be expected because the GEMS SSCS embodies many important aspects of a reform-based curriculum – it is student-centered, inquiry based, provides students with opportunities to advance literacy, and considers student background knowledge – but lacks some of the basic tenets of instructional congruence including consideration of student language, values, worldviews, and cultures (Lee & Fradd, 1998). As it stands, the GEMS SSCS is designed in a manner that has the potential to be a useful tool in teaching all students about scientific inquiry. However, the findings of this study indicated that the curriculum may not be consistently equitable or produce equitable results until it considers the important tenets of instructional congruence. / A Thesis submitted to the School of Teacher Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science. / Summer Semester, 2010. / June 30, 2010. / Science Education, Elementary Education, Curriculum, Equity, Diversity, Mainstream, Instructional Congruence / Includes bibliographical references. / Sherry A. Southerland, Professor Directing Thesis; Victor Sampson, Committee Member; Alejandro Gallard, Committee Member.

This study examined the impact of different types of text on student achievement in elementary school science. Gender was also examined to see if the type of text passage read had any differential effect on boys' and girls' achievement. This study was a pretest/posttest/retention test design. Eighty-four fourth grade students from a public charter elementary school in South Florida were randomly assigned a passage from a physical science textbook, a physical science nonfiction trade book, a physical science fiction trade book, a biological science textbook or a biological science nonfiction trade book. Results in the physical science content area revealed that students in the textbook passage group had higher posttest and retention test results than students in the nonfiction and fiction trade book passage groups. There was no difference on the posttest results of students in the biological science textbook and nonfiction trade book passage groups. Students in the biological science textbook passage group had higher retention results than students in the biological science nonfiction passage group. Gender results in the physical science content area revealed that boys had a higher retention score than girls in the fiction trade book passage group. There were no gender achievement differences as a result of the text passage read in the biological science content area. It was concluded that no definitive answer as to the efficacy of textbooks versus trade books was possible based upon results of the study. Recommendations for future research include examining the effects of different types of texts in conjunction with other authentic teaching methods. / A Dissertation submitted to the School of Teacher Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester, 2008. / October 16, 2008. / Elementary Education, Reading, Science / Includes bibliographical references. / Diana Rice, Professor Directing Dissertation; Shouping Hu, Outside Committee Member; Ithel Jones, Committee Member; Angie Davis, Committee Member.