A year long learning strategy course was designed and embedded in a Year 8 science curriculum. The Science Learning Strategy (SLS) program aimed to improve student ability to apply learning strategies to science, increase student achievement in science and to augment students' feelings of control over their science learning, so that their perceived competence was maximised. Achievement of these aims was monitored by collecting perceptions from students, parents and the teacher/researcher via a range of devices including questionnaires, work samples and interviews. The program overall was regarded as successfully achieving all three aims by 22 of the 24 students. The other two students found that only some aspects of the course were helpful, and felt they had learned little from the program. Thirty three percent of parents attributed positive changes in their daughter's study and learning strategies to participation in the SLS program (the remainder were unsure, or did not know of any changes). In relation to perception of academic performance, 38% of the parents interviewed believed that the SLS had a positive effect on their daughter's achievement in science. Several of these parents reported very positive effects on performance. The remainder were not sure or did not know if there had been any positive effects. No parents mentioned that the SLS program had caused a drop in science performance. The proportion of parents believing their daughters blamed disappointing results on factors they couldn't control dropped from 45% at the start of the year, to 22% by the end of the SLS program. After the intervention, 33% of parents reported that their daughters had come to believe that their science performance was affected by many factors, most of which they could control. / The teacher/researcher observed strong improvement in student ability to apply learning strategies to science as a result of participation in the program. Students were also observed by the teacher/researcher, to have been assisted by the intervention to realise that their science performance was governed not only by their natural ability, but also by factors such as studying behaviour and affective influences. In particular, the program appeared to the teacher/researcher to have helped students realise that they had control over their use of learning strategies, and that this control could influence their science performance. However, the teacher/researcher found that no statistically significant changes in science achievement resulted from student participation in the SLS course. The other objective of the research was to investigate the extent to which learning strategy education was valued and implemented by Western Australian science teachers. The 218 returned surveys revealed that most respondents recognised the need to teach these skills during science lessons. Seventy six percent of respondents considered the delivery of learning strategy instruction in the lower school science classroom to be as important, or more important, than teaching subject processes and content. Sixty seven percent recognised that improving study strategies can improve confidence and/or motivation. / Many teachers, however, had not been able to convert these views into consistent classroom practice. A moderate proportion of teachers reported teaching a variety of learning strategies; 74% of the respondents agreed that learning strategy instruction could improve performance in science. Only one teacher specifically mentioned incorporating the teaching of learning strategies with instruction in science process and content. As a future outcome of this project, the teacher/researcher will encourage other teachers to embed learning strategy instruction within the science curriculum, so that their students come to feel more in control of their learning and can learn more effectively.

Computer Algebra Systems (CAS), a powerful mathematical software currently available on hand held calculators, is becoming increasingly available to assist secondary students learn school mathematics. This study investigates how two teachers taught introductory differential calculus to their Year 11 classes using multiple representations in a CAS-supported curriculim. This thesis aism to explore the impact of the teaching on students' understanding of the concept of derivative. Understanding the concept of derivative was gauged using an innovative Differentiation Competency Framework that was developed to describe understanding of the concept of derivative. It consist of eighteen competencies for formulation and interpretation of derivatives with, and without, translation between different representations. It clarifies the objectives of the curriculim, purpose for using particular CAS activities, and also guided the construction of individual test items on the Differentiation Competency Test that enabled individual and class learning about the concept of derivative to be identified. The framework also helped identify each teacher's privileging characteristics and facilitated analysis of the learning in relation to the teaching. This study found that using multiple representations was important in developing understanding of the concept of derivative but that the graphical and the symbolic representations were the most useful and important to emphasize and link. Analysis of the teaching actions showed that the teachers used CAS in ways that were consistent with their teaching approach and preferred use of representations and that a conceptual teaching method and student-centred style supported understanding of the concept of derivative. Teaching is directly linked to learning and each class developed a different understanding of the concept of derivative that related to the combined effect of their teacher's privileging characteristics: calculus content, teaching approach, and use of CAS. This study shows that if a CAS-supported curriculum is to be successfully implemented, it needs to acquire institutional status including a corresponding change in assessment to legitimize new teaching practices.

This program of research had two related aims: (1) to explore the problem of student attrition in the context of an Australian higher education institution, and (2) to investigate the efficacy of peer-mentoring as a retention strategy. Participants in this program of research were students commencing first-year studies in the School of Applied Psychology across two cohort years: 1996 and 1997. In 1996, a classic pre-test/post-test experimental design was adopted, with students (N = 118) randomly assigned to either a peer-mentoring treatment group or a control group. In 1997, while a classic pre-test/post-test design was also adopted, all students from this year (N = 162) participated in the peer-mentoring program. Thus, it was intended that the 1996 control group would be utilised for comparison with both the 1996 and 1997 treatment groups. Students were surveyed pre- and post-intervention across a number of personal, demographic, and academic achievement (e.g., tertiary entrance rank, and grade point average) variables. Students’ academic integration, social integration, institutional commitment, and goal commitment were measured using the Institutional Integration Scales (adapted from Pascarella and Terenzini, 1980). Students participating in the peer-mentoring program also completed a range of measures in order to evaluate its efficacy. The first part of the research program focused on the measurement and prediction of student retention and academic performance. The results of confirmatory factor analyses indicated that a six first-order factor solution provided the most parsimonious explanation of students’ responses to the Institutional Integration Scales. The six Institutional Integration Scales demonstrated moderate to good levels of reliability, with results being comparable to those achieved in previous studies. The results of structural equations modelling analyses suggested that students’ peer group interactions influenced their interactions with faculty, and both of these factors, along with their faculty concern for student development and teaching, influenced students’ academic and intellectual development, which in turn influenced students’ institutional and goal commitments. These results were taken to indicate the potential value of peer-based processes in aiding students’ institutional and goal commitment and subsequently reducing levels of student attrition. Given that significant differences were found between the 1996 and 1997 cohorts on a number of pre-test measures and other key indicators, investigations regarding significant predictors of students’ re-enrolment into second year and their first year grade point average were conducted separately for the two cohorts. The results of logistic regression analyses indicated that students’ first year grade point average was the only consistent and significant predictor of their re-enrolment into the second year of study across the two cohorts. Multiple regression analyses revealed that students’ tertiary entrance ranks and previous university attendance were consistently significant predictors of their first year grade point average across the two cohorts. Equipped with a better understanding of the factors that affect student attrition and academic performance, as well as the relationship between those factors, the second part of the thesis focused on the efficacy of two formal, group-based peer-mentoring relationships in assisting first year students make a successful transition to university. However, given that significant differences were found between the 1996 and 1997 cohorts on a number of pre-test measures and other key indicators, it was not possible to evaluate the efficacy of the 1997 peer-mentoring program relative to either the 1996 peer-mentoring program or control group. Nevertheless, the 1996 treatment and control condition groups were found to be equivalent on pre-test measures and indices, and thus were able to be compared. Overall, the results of a series of one-way ANOVAs revealed that the 1996 peer-mentoring program was found to have a positive effect on enhancing students’ re-enrolment into second year, persistence intentions, academic performance and self-reported adjustment, which was consistent with the direction of findings in previous studies. However, for a range of reasons, the effect of the 1996 peer-mentoring program on a number of these variables was not strong enough to reach statistical significance. Although there were trends towards significant differences between the 1996 treatment and control groups on a number of variables (i.e., students in the 1996 peer-mentoring program evidenced higher grades in PB11002: Introduction to Cognitive and Biological Psychology; and PB11008: Research Methods and Statistics; as well as higher scores on the Peer Group Interactions scale than students in the control group), the only significant positive difference of the 1996 peer-mentoring program was the improvement of students’ academic performance in one first year subject (i.e., PB11006, Introduction to Research in the Behavioural Sciences). Finally, exploratory factor analyses and reliability analysis of a mentoring functions scale revealed strong support for the presence of one, highly reliable, general mentoring function. Both the 1996 and 1997 program participants’ ratings of the performance of this general mentoring function were significantly and positively correlated with their self-reported academic and intellectual development. In addition, the 1997 program participants’ ratings of the performance of this general mentoring function were significantly and positively correlated to their self-reported peer group interactions, institutional commitments, goal commitments, and persistence intentions.

The focus of this research was Year 12 student leadership in three Catholic schools. Pivotal to the thesis were the leadership experiences and self-perceptions of the schools’ Year 12 students. Two theoretical propositions underscored the study: all Year 12 students are called to some form of leadership within their school; and schools should strive to build a leadership culture inclusive of all Year 12 students. The review of the literature drew attention to three themes which formed the conceptual framework underpinning the research, namely organisational leadership, Christian leadership and its meaning for the Catholic School, and student leadership. In the light of the review it seemed appropriate that the conduct of the study should be predominantly qualitative, interpretive, and planned around collective case study. For each of the three case study schools, data collection took the form of a document search, an interview with a key informant staff member, a Year 12 student survey questionnaire utilising both qualitative and quantitative questions, and two Year 12 student focus group interviews. The “general analytic strategy” (Yin, 1994, p. 30) employed in this research was to follow the theoretical propositions underlying this study which, in turn, reflected a set of seven research questions. Findings from the study indicated that there was a strong belief among senior students from the three schools that every Year 12 student should have the opportunity to participate in leadership. Furthermore, students saw leadership as entailing duty, a sense of service, as well as involvement with younger students. Students also highlighted a range of benefits associated with leadership participation, as well as certain pressures, notably the need to balance study commitments with leadership responsibilities, and the demands of having to be a role model “all the time”.

This research explores how the social backgrounds of a group of students contributed to their intuitive knowledge in probabilistic reasoning, and influenced their processing of the associated mathematics. A group of Year 11 students who came from families for whom the phenomenon of track gambling formed an important part of their cultural background was identified. Another group consisting of students in the same mathematics course (Year 11 Maths in Society) but from families for whom the phenomenon of gambling in any form was totally absent from their social backgrounds was identified. Twenty students were selected from each group. The research employed a qualitative methodology in which a phenomenographic approach was used to investigate the qualitatively different ways in which individuals within the two groups thought about concepts involving probabilistic reasoning, and processed the related mathematical skills and concepts. The cognitive processes involved in the applications of probabilistic and related mathematical concepts in a variety of both gambling and non-gambling situations were studied in order to determine whether this culturally based knowledge could be viewed as a type of ‘ethnomathematics.’ Data were obtained through individual structured interviews which enabled patterns of reasoning to be compared and contrasted. Analyses of these data enabled intuitive mathematical understandings possessed by the gamblers not only to be identified, but also to be linked with their social backgrounds. Also differences between how individuals in the two groups processed probabilistic and associated mathematical knowledge were determined. This research complements and extends existing knowledge and theories related to culturally-based mathematical knowledge. Implications for further research, for classroom teaching, and for curriculum development in the study of probability in senior secondary mathematics classes are discussed.

This study examines the opinions of a randomly selected sample of Year 12 students attending Narrabundah College in 1979. A survey was administered to determine what tasks the students believed important for secondary schools and how well the students considered Narrabundah College achieved these tasks. It has been possible to analyse the relative importance and achievement of the individual tasks because of the ranking procedure involved. Part I of the research instrument was extracted from a survey, commissioned by the Committee of Inquiry into Education and Training, distributed to New South Wales students. This was a component of a comprehensive study of the views of students, teachers and parents conducted by the Community Expectations Group, School of Teacher Education, Canberra College of Advanced Education, 1978. The responses given by the Narrabundah College students are compared with the N.S.W. students' responses and are also compared with the conclusions from other surveys concerning the objectives of secondary education. These comparisons are discussed with reference to the unique characteristics of the secondary colleges which developed from the Report of the Working Committee on College Proposals for the Australian Capital Territory, Secondary Education for Canberra (1973).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 2005. / Title from title page screen, viewed on April 13, 2007. Dissertation Committee: Elizabeth Lugg (chair), Dianne Gardner, Joseph Pacha, John Rugutt. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 151-156) and abstract. Also available in print.

This study examines the extent to which high school students from an affluent, college preparatory high school were able to transfer their knowledge about reading and writing from high school to college. The participants’ perceptions of the transition from high school reading and writing to college reading and writing revealed that they did not perceive college work to be harder, but faster paced. They generally perceived similarities between high school writing and college writing; those similarities were both literal and conceptual. The participants were able to transfer content knowledge and procedural knowledge about reading and writing from high school to college. The participants who were most successful in their knowledge transfer demonstrated transfer enabling dispositions. This study raises questions about the nature of preparation for college. Implications are discussed for high school students and faculty, for college students and faculty, and for those interested in educational reform. / Dr. Bennett A. Rafoth Dr. Kathleen Blake Yancey Dr. Gian S. Pagnucci

The New Evangelism, a term popularized by Paul VI and a primary concern of John Paul II, articulates the Catholic Church's reply to the appeal of the Council Fathers for renewed gospel proclamation in the modern age. Theology observes copious permutations of the New Evangelism, and these competing narratives cover a variety of perspectives. My project explores the question of the New Evangelism's meaning within United States Catholicism amidst its various interpretations by applying Paul Ricoeur's theory of narrative to this multiplicity of configurations. Ricoeur's theory actually anticipated the contemporary situation: as new interpretations challenged sedimentation, multiple reconfigurations of the Church's call to proclaim were the inevitable result, in light of story's power upon human imagination. In the reciprocal dialectic between historical consciousness and personal identity, story informs each and is informed by each--an epistemological circle which allows for multiple reconfigurations when narratives engage imagination. My application of Ricoeur's theory will indicate that theology is not about the New Evangelism so much as it is about New Evangelisms, and that the Church may embrace a breathing room for multiple voices without losing herself to the vacuum of relativism nor to the suffocation of autocracy. / McAnulty College and Graduate School of Liberal Arts; / Theology / PhD; / Dissertation;

The goal of the research project was to assess the effect of a written intervention on the state anxiety of new mathematics teachers. Twenty-eight beginning mathematics teachers in Washington, Oregon, and California were randomly assigned to treatment or control groups. Treatment was a survival guide, Green Broke, carefully designed to meet the needs of beginning mathematics teachers. A Delphi panel determined topics for the guide, beginning with suggestions from the literature. The panel included mathematics teachers in grades 7 to 12 from all three Pacific states, and both urban and rural areas. School administration and college mathematics education were also represented on the panel. A subset of the panel and a writer edited the guide. Trait anxiety of subjects was determined prior to the 1989-90 school year using the trait anxiety portion of Spielberger's State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. The state anxiety inventory was administered at that same time and again three times during the school year. All subjects also completed a teacher report twice during the year regarding their teaching experiences. In addition, the treatment group was asked to complete two questionnaires regarding the effectiveness of Green Broke. Subjects perceived that they were part of two studies, one involving the guide and one involving anxiety inventories. Analysis of covariance for repeated measures was used to assess differences between groups in state anxiety, using trait anxiety as covariate. Level of significance was set at .05. There was no significant main effect, but a significant interaction effect was found. The nearly linear relationship between state and trait anxiety found in the control group disappeared for the group having the guide. Mini case studies, using responses to the teacher reports, were done for seven subjects, including those with very high state anxiety. In addition, a subgroup of the treatment group, for which a linear relationship between state and trait anxiety did exist, was examined for common characteristics. Locus of control was hypothesized to be a variable that would differentiate this group. Other suggestions for further study include use of audio-visual forms of the survival guide, extension to other subject areas, and replication of the study. / Graduation date: 1991