The association of faculty's teaching philosophy and teaching behaviour, and critical thinking and self- direction in learning

The intent in this study was to investigate in what ways teachers· beliefs about education and teaching are expressed in the specific teaching behaviours they employ, and whether teaching behaviours, as perceived by their students, are correlated with students· critical thinking and self-directed learning. To this end the relationships studied were: among faCUlty members· philosophy of teaching, locus of control orientation, psychological type, and observed teaching behaviour; and among students· psychological type, perceptions of teaching behaviour, self-directed learning readiness, and critical thinking. The overall purpose of the study was to investigate whether the implicit goals of higher education, critical thinking and self-direction, were actually accounted for in the university classroom. The research was set within the context of path-goal theory, adapted from the leadership literature. Within this framework, Mezirow·s work on transformative learning, including the influences of Habermas· writings, was integrated to develop a theoretical perspective upon which to base the research methodology. Both qualitative and quantitative methodologies were incorporated. Four faCUlty and a total of 142 students participated in the study. Philosophy of teaching was described through faCUlty interviews and completion of a repertory grid. Faculty completed a descriptive locus of control scale, and a psychological type test. Observations of their teaching behaviour were conducted. Students completed a Teaching Behaviour Assessment Scale, the Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scale, a psychological type test, and the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal. A small sample of students were interviewed. Follow-up discussions with faculty were used to validate the interview, observation, teaching behaviour, and repertory grid data. Results indicated that some discrepancies existed between faculty's espoused philosophy of teaching and their observed teaching behaviour. Instructors' teaching behaviour, however, was a function of their personal theory of practice. Relationships were found between perceived teaching behaviour and students· self-directed learning and critical thinking, but these varied across situations, as would be predicted from path-goal theory. Psychological type of students and instructor also accounted for some of the variability in the relationships studied. Student psychological type could be shown as a partial predictor of self-directed learning readiness. The results were discussed in terms of theory development and implications for further research and practice.

Books on the border land : a Mennonite woman's memoir of reading and remembering the sacred

This arts-based thesis, written from my perspective as a Manitoba Mennonite woman and English Language Arts educator, is a memoir of books and reading. As a voracious reader, I am dismayed by the general perception of literacy in public schools as being a set of measureable tasks, and I have found that reading, in particular, has become divorced from its traditional link to life-giving and sacred things. In this thesis, I used life writing to share some of my reading history to illustrate, in part, the degree to which books may enrich our lives by helping us understand the past, present, and future - but only if we allow them to do so.

Handwriting Intervention: Impact on the Reading and Writing Abilities of High School Students

Handwriting is a functional task that is used to communicate thoughts using a written code. Research findings have indicated that handwriting is related to learning to read and learning to write. The purposes of this research project were to determine if a handwriting intervention would increase abilities in reading and writing skills, in graphomotor and visual-motor integration skills, and improve the participants’ self-perceptions and self-descriptions pertaining to handwriting enjoyment, competence, and effort. A single-subject research design was implemented with four struggling high school students who each received 10.5 to 15.5 hours of cursive handwriting intervention using the ez Write program. In summary, the findings indicated that the students showed significant improvements in aspects of reading and writing; that they improved significantly in their cursive writing abilities; and that their self-perceptions concerning their handwriting experience and competence improved. The contribution of handwriting to academic achievement and vocational success can no longer be neglected.

An after-school literacy program : investigating the experiences of students with literacy difficulties, their volunteer tutors, and the tutors' transition into the teaching profession

This research responds to a pervasive call for our educational institutions to provide students with literacy skills, and teachers with the instructional supports necessary to facilitate this skill acquisition. Questions were posed to gain information concerning the efficacy ofteaching literacy strategies to students with learning difficulties, the impact of this training on their volunteer tutors, and the influence of this experience on these tutors' ensuing instructional practice as teacher candidates in a preservice education program. Study #1 compared a nontreatment group of students with literacy difficulties who participated in the program and found that program participants were superior at reading letter patterns and at comprehending the elements of story grammar. Concurrently, the second study explored the experiences of 19 volunteer tutors and uncovered that they acquired instructional skills as they established a knowledge base in teaching reading and writing, and they affirmed personal goals to become future teachers. Study #3 tracked 6 volunteer tutors into their pre-service year and identified their constructions, and beliefs about literacy instruction. These teacher candidates discussed how they had intended to teach reading and writing strategies based on their position that effective teaching ofthese skills in the primary grades is integral to academic success. The teacher candidates emphasized the need to build rapport with students, and the need to exercise flexibility in lesson plan delivery while including activities to meet emotional and developmental requirements of students. The teacher candidates entered their pre-service education with an initial cognition set based on the limited teaching context of tutoring. This foundational ii perception represented their prior knowledge of literacy instruction, a perception that appeared untenable once they were immersed in a regular instructional setting. This disparity provoked some of the teacher candidates to denounce their teacher mentors for not consistently employing literacy strategies and individualized instruction. This critical perspective could have been a demonstration of cognitive dissonance. In the end, when the teacher candidates began to look toward the future and how they would manage the demands of an inclusive classroom, they recognized the differences in the contexts. With an appreciation for the need for balance between prior and present knowledge, the teacher candidates remained committed to implementing their tutoring strategies in future teaching positions. This document highlights the need for teacher candidates with instructional experience prior to teacher education, to engage in cognitive negotiations to assimilate newly acquired pedagogies into existing pedagogies.

Exploring the use of effective learning strategies to increase students' reading comprehension and test taking skills /

This study examined the effects of providing students with explicit instruction in how to use a repertoire of reading comprehension strategies and test taking skills when reading and responding to three types of questions (direct, inferential, critical). Specifically, the study examined whether providing students with a "model" of how to read and respond to the text and to the comprehension questions improved their reading comprehension relative to providing them with implicit instruction on reading comprehension strategies and test taking skills. Students' reading comprehension and test taking performance scores were compared as a function of instructional condition. Students from 2 grade 8 classes participated in this study. The reading component of the Canadian Achievement Tests, Third Edition (CAT/3) was used to identify students' level of reading comprehension prior to the formal instructional sessions. Students received either explicit instruction, which involved modelling, or implicit instruction, which consisted of review and discussion of the strategies to be used. Comprehension was measured through the administration of formative tests after each instructional session. The formative tests consisted of reading comprehension questions pertaining to a specific form of text (narrative, informational, graphic). In addition, students completed 3 summative tests and a delayed comprehension test which consisted of the alternative version of the CAT/3 standardized reading assessment. These data served as a posttest measure to determine whether students had shown an improvement in their reading comprehension skills as a result of the program delivery. There were significant differences in students' Canadian Achievement Test performance scores prior to the onset of the study. Students in the implicit group attained significantly higher comprehension scores than did students in the explicit group. The results from the program sessions indicated no significant differences in reading comprehension between the implicit and explicit conditions, with the exception of the 6th session involving the reading and interpreting of graphic text. Students in the explicit group performed significantly better when reading and interpreting graphic text than those in the implicit group. No significant differences were evident between the two study conditions across the three summative tests. Upon completion of the study, the results from the Canadian Achievement Test indicated no significant differences in performance between the two study conditions. The findings from this study reveal the effectiveness of providing students with explicit strategy instruction when reading and responding to various forms of text. Modelling the appropriate reading comprehension strategies and test taking skills enabled students to apply the same thought processes to their own independent work. This form of instruction enabled students in the explicit group to improve in their abilities to comprehend and respond to text and therefore should be incorporated as an effective form of classroom teaching.

A comparison of two computer-assisted remedial reading programs for adolescent unskilled readers : component reading skills and repeated reading

This study compared the relative effectiveness of two computerized remedial reading programs in improving the reading word recognition, rate, and comprehension of adolescent readers demonstrating significant and longstanding reading difficulties. One of the programs involved was Autoskill Component Reading Subskills Program, which provides instruction in isolated letters, syllables, and words, to a point of rapid automatic responding. This program also incorporates reading disability subtypes in its approach. The second program, Read It Again. Sam, delivers a repeated reading strategy. The study also examined the feasibility of using peer tutors in association with these two programs. Grade 9 students at a secondary vocational school who satisfied specific criteria with respect to cognitive and reading ability participated. Eighteen students were randomly assigned to three matched groups, based on prior screening on a battery of reading achievement tests. Two I I groups received training with one of the computer programs; the third group acted as a control and received the remedial reading program offered within the regular classroom. The groups met daily with a trained tutor for approximately 35 minutes, and were required to accumulate twenty hours of instruction. At the conclusion of the program, the pretest battery was repeated. No significant differences were found in the treatment effects of the two computer groups. Each of the two treatment groups was able to effect significantly improved reading word recognition and rate, relative to the control group. Comprehension gains were modest. The treatment groups demonstrated a significant gain, relative to the control group, on one of the three comprehension measures; only trends toward a gain were noted on the remaining two measures. The tutoring partnership appeared to be a viable alternative for the teacher seeking to provide individualized computerized remedial programs for adolescent unskilled readers. Both programs took advantage of computer technology in providing individualized drill and practice, instant feedback, and ongoing recordkeeping. With limited cautions, each of these programs was considered effective and practical for use with adolescent unskilled readers.

The generation effect and word learning: a test of the effect of the language experience approach versus the text approach in the acquisition of new reading vocabulary

A class of twenty-two grade one children was tested to determine their reading levels using the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Achievement Test. Based on these results and teacher input the students were paired according to reading ability. The students ages ranged from six years four months to seven years four months at the commencement of the study. Eleven children were assigned to the language experience group and their partners became the text group. Each member of the language experience group generated a list of eight to be learned words. The treatment consisted of exposing the student to a given word three times per session for ten sessions, over a period of five days. The dependent variables consisted of word identification speed, word identification accuracy, and word recognition accuracy. Each member of the text group followed the same procedure using his/her partner's list of words. Upon completion of this training, the entire process was repeated with members of the text group from the first part becoming members of the language experience group and vice versa. The results suggest that generally speaking language experience words are identified faster than text words but that there is no difference in the rate at which these words are learned. Language experience words may be identified faster because the auditory-semantic information is more readily available in them than in text words. The rate of learning in both types of words, however, may be dictated by the orthography of the to be learned word.

Field effectiveness of stimulus equivalence for teaching reading skills to children with autism

Stimulus equivalence involves teaching two conditional discriminations that share one stimulus in common and testing all possible conditional discriminations not taught (Saunders & Green, 1999). Despite considerable research in the laboratory, applied studies of stimulus equivalence have been limited (Vause, Martin, Marion, & Sakko, 2005). This study investigated the field-effectiveness of stimulus equivalence in teaching reading skills to children with Autism. Participants were four children with Autism receiving centre-based intensive behavioural intervention (lBI) treatment. Three of the participants, who already matched pictures to their dictated names, demonstrated six to eight more emergent performances after being taught only to match written words to the same names. One participant struggled with the demands of the study and his participation was discontinued. Results suggest that stimulus equivalence provided an effective and efficient teaching strategy for three of the four participants in this study.

Perceptions of some teachers about the similarities and/or differences in teaching online versus in a classroom environment /

The introduction of computer and communications technology, and particularly the internet, into education has opened up some new possibilities for teaching and learning. Courses designed and delivered in an online environment offer the possibility of highly interactive and individually focussed teaching and learning experiences. However, online courses also present new challenges for both teachers and students. A qualitative study was conducted to explore teachers' perceptions about the similarities and differences in teaching in the online and face-to-face (F2F) environments. Focus group discussions were held with 5 teachers; 2 teachers were interviewed in depth. The participants, 3 female and 2 male, were full-time teachers from a large College of Applied Arts & Technology in southern Ontario. Each of them had over 10 years of F2F teaching experience and each had been involved in the development and teaching of at least one online course. i - -; The study focussed on how teaching in the online environment compares with teaching in the F2F environment, what roles teachers and students adopt in each setting, what learning communities mean online and F2F and how they are developed, and how institutional policies, procedures, and infrastructure affect teaching and learning F2F and online. This study was emic in nature, that is the teachers' words determine the themes identified throughout the study. The factors identified as affecting teaching in an online environment included teacher issues such as course design, motivation to teach online, teaching style, role, characteristics or skills, and strategies. Student issues as perceived by the teachers included learning styles, role, and characteristics or skills. As well, technology issues such as a reliable infrastructure, clear role and responsibilities for maintaining the infrastructure, support, and multimedia capability affected teaching online. Finally, administrative policies and procedures, including teacher selection and training, registration and scheduling procedures, intellectual property and workload policies, and the development and communication of a comprehensive strategic plan were found to impact on teaching online. The teachers shared some of the benefits they perceived about teaching online as well as some of the challenges they had faced and challenges they perceived students had faced online. Overall, the teachers feh that there were more similarities than differences in teaching between the two environments, with the main differences being the change from F2F verbal interactions involving body language to online written interactions without body language cues, and the fundamental reliance on technology in the online environment. These findings support previous research in online teaching and learning, and add teachers' perspectives on the factors that stay the same and the factors that change when moving from a F2F environment to an online environment.

A classroom-based investigation of reciprocal teaching at the grade seven level

This study assessed the effectiveness of a reciprocal teaching program as a method of teaching reading comprehension, using narrative text material in a t.ypical grade seven classroom. In order to determine the effectiveness of the reciprocal teaching program, this method was compared to two other reading instruction approaches that, unlike rcciprocal teaching, did not include social interaction components. Two intact grade scven classes, and a grade seven teacher, participated in this study. Students were appropriately assigned to three treatment groups by reading achievement level as determined from a norm-referenced test. Training proceeded for a five week intervention period during regularly scheduled English periods. Throughout the program curriculum-based tests were administered. These tests were designed to assess comprehension in two distinct ways; namely, character analysis components as they relate to narrative text, and strategy use components as they contribute to student understanding of narrative and expository text. Pre, post, and maintenance tests were administered to measure overall training effects. Moreover, during intervention, training probes were administered in the last period of each week to evaluate treatment group performance. AU curriculum-based tests were coded and comparisons of pre, post, maintenance tests and training probes were presented in graph form. Results showed that the reciprocal group achieved some improvement in reading comprehension scores in the strategy use component of the tests. No improvements were observed for the character analysis components of the curriculum-based tests and the norm-referenced tests. At pre and post intervention, interviews requiring students to respond to questions that addressed metacomprehension awareness of study strategies were administered. The intelviews were coded and comparisons were made between the two intelVicws. No significant improvements were observed regarding student awareness of ten identified study strategies . This study indicated that reciprocal teaching is a viable approach that can be utilized to help students acquire more effective comprehension strategies. However, the maximum utility of the technique when administered to a population of grade seven students performing at average to above average levels of reading achievement has yet to be determined. In order to explore this issue, the refinement of training materials and curriculum-based measurements need to be explored. As well, this study revealed that reciprocal teaching placed heavier demands on the classroom teacher when compared to other reading instruction methods. This may suggest that innovative and intensive teacher training techniques are required before it is feasible to use this method in the classroom.

The effects of computer assisted interactive fiction on the development of reading comprehension in grade five students

This study was undertaken in order to determine the effects of playing computer based text adventure games on the reading comprehension gains of students. Forty-five grade five students from one elementary school were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups, and were tested with regard to ability, achievement and reading skills. An experimental treatment, consisting of playing computer based interactive fiction games of the student's choice for fifteen minutes each day over an eight-week period, was administered. A comparison treatment engaged the control group in sustained silent reading of materials of the student's choice for an equal period of time. Following the experimental period all students were post-tested with an alternate form of the pre-test in reading skills, and gain scores were analysed. It was found that there were no significant differences in the gain scores of the experimental and control groups for overall reading comprehenSion, but the experimental group showed greater gains than the control group in the structural analysis reading sub-skill. Extreme variance in the data made generalization very difficult, but the findings indicated a potential for computer based interactive fiction as a useful tool for developing reading sl

Motivational differences in science course enrolment shown by males and females in grades 9 through OAC

A sample of 1,345 students enrolled in advanced-level science courses from Grades 9 through OAe was surveyed in order to gain perspective into the existence of motivational differences attributing to science course enrolment by gender. Records of enrolment were examined in order to detect patterns and trends. A questionnaire was devised and piloted. It measured five motivational variables - demographics, science and science-related experiences, science ability and attitudes, impressions about women in science, and importance of science and science-related skills. The students also provided some impressions about the image of scientists. Results of the questionnaire were analyzed for frequency of responses and for significant gender differences using the chi-square. Differences were found to exist in the areas of science anxiety as it relates to testing and oral participation; in motivation generated by the performance of extra-curricular science and science-related activities, and by the classroom environment; in impressions of women in science; in the importance of science skills, and in the area of teacher influence. The study also showed a differential enrolment of females, with an emphasis on biology and chemistry. The males were enrolled in courses of physics and chemistry. The findings lead to numerous suggested strategies and programs for encouraging the participation of females in science education and careers.

The impact of a digital children's literature program on primary students' reading motivation

This qualitative study stemmed from a concern of the perceived decline in students' reading motivation after the early years of schooling, which has been attributed to the disconnect between the media students are accustomed to using outside the classroom and the media they predominantly use within the classroom. This research documented the effectiveness of a digital children's literature program and a postreading multimedia program on eight grade 1 students' reading motivation, word recognition, and comprehension abilities. Eight students were given ten 25-minute sessions with the software program over 15 weeks. Preprogram, interim-program, and postprogram qualitative data were collected from students, teachers, and parents through questionnaires, interviews, standardized reading assessment tools, classroom observations, field notes, and student behaviour observation checklists. Findings are summarized into 3 themes. The motivational aspects and constructivist styles of instruction in the digital reading programs may have contributed to 5 student participants' increased participation in online storybook reading at home. Qualitative data revealed that the digital children's literature program and multimedia postreading activities seemed to have a positive influence on the majority of grade 1 student participants' reading motivation, word recognition, and listening comprehension skills. These findings suggest the promise of multimedia and Internet-based reading software programs in supporting students with reading andlor behavioural difficulties. In keeping with current educational initiatives and efforts, increased use of media literacy practices in the grade 1 curriculum is suggested.

Teaching persons with intellectual disabilities and limited receptive and expressive communication how to recognize and assert their human rights

Persons with intellectual disabilities (ID) are far more likely to be abused than the general population, but there is little research on teaching people with ID about their rights. The goal of this study was to teach four participants with ID and limited communication abilities about their human rights by training them on specific rights topics. The training program included icebreaker activities, instruction on rights concepts, watching and answering questions about videotaped scenarios of rights restrictions, watching and answering questions about role pl ay scenarios of rights restrictions, and responding to brief, low risk in situ rights restrictions imposed by the researchers. Participant performance did not improve significantly or consistently from baseline to training on the questions asked about the videotaped or the role play scenarios, but two of three participants demonstrated defmite improvements in responding to in situ rights restrictions.