A qualitative study of the impact of an educational intervention on older parents of adults with disabilities engaged in the phenomenon of future-care planning

This phenomenological study describes the impact of an educational intervention on the day-to-day experiences of older parent caregivers of adults with developmental disabilities who were engaged in the process of future-care planning. Qualitative strategies of individual and focus group interviewing were used with a purposive sample of older caregivers. Participants were members of an existing parent support group. Twenty-three caregivers representing 18 families were queried before and after the education program. The disabilities represented were mental retardation, cerebral palsy and autism. Parents whose children live at or away from home were included. The intervention was conducted on five Saturdays over a two month period; the duration of the study was five months. Findings used typical words of the respondents from their individual and focus group interviews to describe feelings, attitudes and experiences in making future-care plans. Data from verbatim transcriptions and researcher's field notes were coded, analyzed, sorted into themes, and subjected to interpretive analysis. Respondents showed a positive change in attitudes and actions after participating in the education program, regardless of their initial stage in care planning. Fears were replaced by hope and determination; hesitation and ineptitude by feelings of competence and confidence; and procrastination and delay by purposeful actions. Other key findings: use of a planning document greatly aided caregivers; barriers to planning were often intrinsic and amenable to education; residential plans were the most difficult aspect of planning; listening to the experiences of other parent caregivers was helpful; and making burial plans for their offspring was one aspect of planning parents wished to do themselves. ^

Advances in Hospitality Education: Courseware, Audiographics, and Cyberspace

Technology will play an increasingly larger role in the education of students within the hospitality curriculum. There are a significant number of emerging educational technologies aimed at changing the delivery of the entire curriculum. The development of technological platforms for multimedia instructional courseware, distance learning through audiographics, and virtual reality simulation are expected to alter and enhance the learning process while extending the boundaries of the traditional hospitality classroom.

Inquiring Minds Want to Know: Inquiry-Based Learning in the General Education and Inclusion Science Classroom

This study sought to apply the concepts of inquiry-based learning by increasing the number of laboratory experiments conducted in two science classes, and to identify the challenges of this instruction for students with special needs. Results showed that the grades achieved through lab write-ups greatly improved grades overall.

The applied computer science of economic analyses: Internet prioritization and Internet pricing, and software engineering and software pricing for the mass market

This research examines evolving issues in applied computer science and applies economic and business analyses as well. There are two main areas. The first is internetwork communications as embodied by the Internet. The goal of the research is to devise an efficient pricing, prioritization, and incentivization plan that could be realistically implemented on the existing infrastructure. Criteria include practical and economic efficiency, and proper incentives for both users and providers. Background information on the evolution and functional operation of the Internet is given, and relevant literature is surveyed and analyzed. Economic analysis is performed on the incentive implications of the current pricing structure and organization. The problems are identified, and minimally disruptive solutions are proposed for all levels of implementation to the lowest level protocol. Practical issues are considered and performance analyses are done. The second area of research is mass market software engineering, and how this differs from classical software engineering. Software life-cycle revenues are analyzed and software pricing and timing implications are derived. A profit maximizing methodology is developed to select or defer the development of software features for inclusion in a given release. An iterative model of the stages of the software development process is developed, taking into account new communications capabilities as well as profitability. ^

The effect of cooperative learning on the attitudes toward science and the achievement of students in a non-science majors' general biology laboratory course at an urban community college

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of cooperative learning strategies on students' attitudes toward science and achievement in BSC 1005L, a non-science majors' general biology laboratory course at an urban community college. Data were gathered on the participants' attitudes toward science and cognitive biology level pre and post treatment in BSC 1005L. Elements of the Learning Together model developed by Johnson and Johnson and the Student Team-Achievement Divisions model created by Slavin were incorporated into the experimental sections of BSC 1005L.^ Four sections of BSC 1005L participated in this study. Participants were enrolled in the 1998 spring (January) term. Students met weekly in a two hour laboratory session. The treatment was administered to the experimental group over a ten week period. A quasi-experimental pretest-posttest control group design was used. Students in the cooperative learning group (n$\sb1$ = 27) were administered the Test of Science-Related Attitudes (TOSRA) and the cognitive biology test at the same time as the control group (n$\sb2$ = 19) (at the beginning and end of the term).^ Statistical analyses confirmed that both groups were equivalent regarding ethnicity, gender, college grade point average and number of absences. Independent sample t-tests performed on pretest mean scores indicated no significant differences in the TOSRA scale two or biology knowledge between the cooperative learning group and the control group. The scores of TOSRA scales: one, three, four, five, six, and seven were significantly lower in the cooperative learning group. Independent sample t-tests of the mean score differences did not show any significant differences in posttest attitudes toward science or biology knowledge between the two groups. Paired t-tests did not indicate any significant differences on the TOSRA or biology knowledge within the cooperative learning group. Paired t-tests did show significant differences within the control group on TOSRA scale two and biology knowledge. ANCOVAs did not indicate any significant differences on the post mean scores of the TOSRA or biology knowledge adjusted by differences in the pretest mean scores. Analysis of the research data did not show any significant correlation between attitudes toward science and biology knowledge. ^

An analysis of the themes of environmental sustainability in the United States curriculum science content standards

This study examined how the themes of environmental sustainability are evident in the national, state and local standards that guide k–12 science curriculum. The study applied the principles of content analysis within the framework of an ecological paradigm. In education, an ecological paradigm focuses on students' use of a holistic lens to view and understand material. The intent of this study was to analyze the seventh grade science content standards at the national, state, and local textbook levels to determine how and the extent to which each of the five themes of environmental sustainability are presented in the language of each text. The themes are: (a) Climate Change Indicators, (b) Biodiversity, (c) Human Population Density, (d) Impact and Presence of Environmental Pollution, (e) Earth as a Closed System. The research study offers practical insight on using a method of content analysis to locate keywords of environmental sustainability in the three texts and determine if the context of each term relates to this ecological paradigm. Using a concordance program, the researcher identified the frequency and context of each vocabulary item associated with these themes. Nine chi squares were run to determine if there were differences in content between the national and state standards and the textbook. Within each level chi squares were also run to determine if there were differences between the appearance of content knowledge and skill words. Results indicate that there is a lack of agreement between levels that is significant p < .01. A discussion of these results in relation to curriculum development and standardized assessments followed. The study found that at the national and state levels, there is a lack of articulation of the goals of environmental sustainability or an ecological paradigm. With respect to the science textbook, a greater number of keywords were present; however, the context of many of these keywords did not align with the discourse of an ecological paradigm. Further, the environmental sustainability themes present in the textbook were limited to the last four chapters of the text. Additional research is recommended to determine whether this situation also exists in other settings.

An innovative approach to teaching structural induction for computer science

Proofs by induction are central to many computer science areas such as data structures, theory of computation, programming languages, program efficiency-time complexity, and program correctness. Proofs by induction can also improve students’ understanding and performance of computer science concepts such as programming languages, algorithm design, and recursion, as well as serve as a medium for teaching them. Even though students are exposed to proofs by induction in many courses of their curricula, they still have difficulties understanding and performing them. This impacts the whole course of their studies, since proofs by induction are omnipresent in computer science. Specifically, students do not gain conceptual understanding of induction early in the curriculum and as a result, they have difficulties applying it to more advanced areas later on in their studies. The goal of my dissertation is twofold: (1) identifying sources of computer science students’ difficulties with proofs by induction, and (2) developing a new approach to teaching proofs by induction by way of an interactive and multimodal electronic book (e-book). For the first goal, I undertook a study to identify possible sources of computer science students’ difficulties with proofs by induction. Its results suggest that there is a close correlation between students’ understanding of inductive definitions and their understanding and performance of proofs by induction. For designing and developing my e-book, I took into consideration the results of my study, as well as the drawbacks of the current methodologies of teaching proofs by induction for computer science. I designed my e-book to be used as a standalone and complete educational environment. I also conducted a study on the effectiveness of my e-book in the classroom. The results of my study suggest that, unlike the current methodologies of teaching proofs by induction for computer science, my e-book helped students overcome many of their difficulties and gain conceptual understanding of proofs induction.

Assessing an automated, information -sharing technology in the post "9 -11" era: Do local law enforcement officers think it meets their needs?

In the wake of the “9-11” terrorists' attacks, the U.S. Government has turned to information technology (IT) to address a lack of information sharing among law enforcement agencies. This research determined if and how information-sharing technology helps law enforcement by examining the differences in perception of the value of IT between law enforcement officers who have access to automated regional information sharing and those who do not. It also examined the effect of potential intervening variables such as user characteristics, training, and experience, on the officers' evaluation of IT. The sample was limited to 588 officers from two sheriff's offices; one of them (the study group) uses information sharing technology, the other (the comparison group) does not. Triangulated methodologies included surveys, interviews, direct observation, and a review of agency records. Data analysis involved the following statistical methods: descriptive statistics, Chi-Square, factor analysis, principal component analysis, Cronbach's Alpha, Mann-Whitney tests, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and Scheffe' post hoc analysis. ^ Results indicated a significant difference between groups: the study group perceived information sharing technology as being a greater factor in solving crime and in increasing officer productivity. The study group was more satisfied with the data available to it. As to the number of arrests made, information sharing technology did not make a difference. Analysis of the potential intervening variables revealed several remarkable results. The presence of a strong performance management imperative (in the comparison sheriff's office) appeared to be a factor in case clearances and arrests, technology notwithstanding. As to the influence of user characteristics, level of education did not influence a user's satisfaction with technology, but user-satisfaction scores differed significantly among years of experience as a law enforcement officer and the amount of computer training, suggesting a significant but weak relationship. ^ Therefore, this study finds that information sharing technology assists law enforcement officers in doing their jobs. It also suggests that other variables such as computer training, experience, and management climate should be accounted for when assessing the impact of information technology. ^

An Innovative Approach to Teaching Structural Induction for Computer Science

Proofs by induction are central to many computer science areas such as data structures, theory of computation, programming languages, program efficiency-time complexity, and program correctness. Proofs by induction can also improve students’ understanding of and performance with computer science concepts such as programming languages, algorithm design, and recursion, as well as serve as a medium for teaching them. Even though students are exposed to proofs by induction in many courses of their curricula, they still have difficulties understanding and performing them. This impacts the whole course of their studies, since proofs by induction are omnipresent in computer science. Specifically, students do not gain conceptual understanding of induction early in the curriculum and as a result, they have difficulties applying it to more advanced areas later on in their studies. The goal of my dissertation is twofold: 1. identifying sources of computer science students’ difficulties with proofs by induction, and 2. developing a new approach to teaching proofs by induction by way of an interactive and multimodal electronic book (e-book). For the first goal, I undertook a study to identify possible sources of computer science students’ difficulties with proofs by induction. Its results suggest that there is a close correlation between students’ understanding of inductive definitions and their understanding and performance of proofs by induction. For designing and developing my e-book, I took into consideration the results of my study, as well as the drawbacks of the current methodologies of teaching proofs by induction for computer science. I designed my e-book to be used as a standalone and complete educational environment. I also conducted a study on the effectiveness of my e-book in the classroom. The results of my study suggest that, unlike the current methodologies of teaching proofs by induction for computer science, my e-book helped students overcome many of their difficulties and gain conceptual understanding of proofs induction.