This study investigates whether gender has an effect on students' attitudes toward, and their uses of, technology. Data were collected from 59 sixth grade students to examine their attitudes toward and uses of technology by means of The Computer Survey (TCS), computer logs, interviews, classroom observations, field notes, and student work. One of the major findings of the study was that gender differences in attitudes, perceptions, and uses of computers were not found to be significant. The...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Grade 6, Females, Males, Gender Differences, Student Attitudes, Computer Attitudes,...
This paper reports the results of two interventions involving the integrated study of mathematics and technology practice to girls in Years 6 and 7. The focus of the study was to look at factors that contributed to girls' disengagement with mathematics study and seek pedagogical solutions for this. The key mathematics concepts embedded in the two interventions were proportional reasoning and ratio. A design based research methodology was adopted. The study started with the assumption that by...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Research Methodology, Intervention, Females, Mathematics Education, Mathematical...
The goals of this project were to 1) assess obesity status and body satisfaction among African American college students, and 2) to compare differences in these variables between students at a predominantly white university (PWU) and a historically black college and university (HBCU). Four hundred and two undergraduate females completed a self-administered survey (199 HBCU and 203 PWU). The mean BMI for all respondents was 25.24 plus or minus 5.56. There was no significant difference between...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Housing, Females, Wellness, Obesity, Black Colleges, African American Students, Data...
Indoor tanning continues to grow in popularity even though empirical investigations denounce the behavior. Various reports have illustrated the detrimental health effects of ultraviolet (UV) exposure including increased risk for skin cancer. According to some physicians, the risk may be especially high for adolescents whose skin cells are dividing and changing rapidly. Persistent use of tanning facilities has become especially apparent within adolescent female populations. The purpose of this...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Investigations, Risk, Cancer, Etiology, Adolescents, Females, Health Behavior,...
Some women have various misconceptions about technology careers. Some of them think that one has to be a geek in order to become a computer scientist. When the Women in Computing Group at Indiana University (WIC@IU) was looking for ideas on how to increase the number of women in computing majors at IU, the authors realized that women were turning away from technology careers before they arrived at college. The authors realized that the solution in convincing women to pursue technology careers...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Womens Education, Careers, Majors (Students), Females, Computer Science,...
The quantity, frequency, and variability of alcohol and other substance use is described in a random sample of 1,436 enrolled members of four tribes from the northern United States. Overall, males begin regular drinking at an earlier age than do females (17 vs. 18.1 years), and more males drink alcohol than females (70.7% to 60.4%). There are some very heavy drinkers who drink daily in these populations, but most drinkers are binge drinkers. On any typical day abstinence from alcohol is the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Substance Abuse, Females, Incidence, American Indians, Drinking, Epidemiology, Males,...
This study examined the trend of identification and achievement patterns of performance task-identified students over a span of 6 years (2000-2005), in comparison to profiles of students who were identified exclusively through traditional ability and achievement tests. The study findings suggested that the performance-based protocols were consistent across time in locating a higher percentage of low-income and minority students, as well as female students for gifted programs; a higher...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Gifted, Academic Achievement, Identification, Achievement Tests, Program...
A preliminary review of substance abuse treatment admission data from 2001-2005 was conducted to explore the use of methamphetamine among American Indians in treatment programs funded by Los Angeles County. Comparisons were made between primary methamphetamine users and users whose primary drug was a substance other than methamphetamine. In that period, the number of American Indians reporting methamphetamine as their primary drug in Los Angeles County significantly increased, particularly...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Substance Abuse, Counties, American Indians, Comparative Analysis, Females, Drug...
Heart disease is the leading cause of illness, disability, and death among women in Canada. Myocardial infarction (MI) accounts for almost half of these deaths yearly. The purpose of this study was to understand younger women's experience of recovery from MI. A purposive sample consisting of six younger women diagnosed with MI participated in an eight-week guided autobiographical (GA) group intervention where they engaged in weekly reflection, writing, and group dialogue. The experience of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Intervention, Heart Disorders, Females, Young Adults, Emotional...
Two well-cited studies (Garner, Garfinkel, Schwartz & Thompson, 1980; Wiseman, Gray, Mosimann, & Ahrens, 1992) examined the changing body shape of Playboy centrefolds from 1959 to 1988 and noted that their body weights were significantly lower than those of the average female. The current study updates and examines changes in body measurements and weight across four decades using a multivariate one-way Analysis of Variance. Chisquare analysis of the models' expected weight and actual...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Females, Counseling, Body Weight, Body Composition, Standards, Multivariate Analysis,...
The internationalization of higher education has led to changing roles for academics, including opportunities to participate in international projects. The extent to which academics feel prepared to enter this arena has received little attention. This study examines women academics' perceptions of barriers to, facilitators of, and career benefits of pursuing international projects. Thirteen women academics participated in semi-structured interviews that illuminated six core themes: the benefits...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Females, World Views, International Programs, Women Faculty, Global Approach, Teacher...
Disordered eating among American adolescent females represents a significant health issue in our current cultural climate. Disordered eating receives insufficient attention, however, due to the public's unfamiliarity with symptoms and consequences, absence of treatment options, and unreliable instrumentation to detect disordered eating. Disordered eating differs from an eating disorder. While the term "eating disorder" denotes a clinically diagnosable disease, the term...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Intervention, Females, Incidence, Prevention, Eating Disorders, Suicide, Drinking,...
This paper explores key gender differences in motivation from a quantitative perspective and presents findings from a qualitative study into boys' perceptions of motivating teachers and motivating pedagogy. Data collected from 3773 high school students suggest that girls score significantly higher than boys in their belief in the value of school, learning focus, planning, study management, and persistence while boys rate significantly higher in self-sabotage/self-handicapping. However, girls...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Student Motivation, Program Development, Academic Failure, Gender Differences, Males,...
Any girl who watches TV or listens to the radio is bombarded not only with negative stereotypes of females, but also with the message that the most important qualities to possess are physical and aesthetic. From where, then, are girls supposed to derive positive role models? The author began asking herself this question two years ago as an eighth grader at Tenafly Middle School in Tenafly, New Jersey, when she participated in R.O.G.A.T.E., or Resources Offered for Gifted and Talented Education....
Topics: ERIC Archive, Role Models, Sex Stereotypes, Females, Adolescents, Fiction, Mass Media, Student...
According to research, students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds have lower rates of high school graduation and university attendance. There is little research regarding interventions to address these issues. The current study compared the effects of two programs designed to increase academic motivation. Forty-seven high school female athletes from culturally and linguistically diverse and economically disadvantaged backgrounds participated in the study. The programs were...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Physical Education, Student Attitudes, Economically Disadvantaged, Student...
Cohorts are commonly formed in Indigenous undergraduate and graduate education programs. In this article, I have examined the notion of coalition building in the context of First Nations graduate cohorts. I interviewed women from a range of cohort experiences, asking--Is intra-group and inter-group coalition building a priority within cohorts? From these interviews, I conclude that cohorts ought to be sites for intra-group coalition work among First Nations students, and that the cohort...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Graduate Study, Canada Natives, Indigenous Populations, Cooperation, Interviews,...
This article describes a model for group art therapy using an art-based and relational-aesthetic approach. The group was developed to address the complicated issues presented when working with survivors of abuse who are court-mandated to attend counseling. The concept of "gender entrapment" (Richie, 1996) is offered to explain the survivors' circumstances. The author explores the benefits of utilizing the relational context, clinical training in art psychotherapy with special...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Art Therapy, Victims of Crime, Females, Violence, Group Counseling, Counseling...
The objective of this study was to describe the predictors of substance use relapse of American Indian (AI) women up to one year following substance abuse treatment. Relapse is defined as any use of alcohol or drugs in the past 30 days at the follow-up points. Data were collected from AI women in a 45-day residential substance abuse treatment program. Predictors include distal (in time) proximal (recent), and intrapersonal factors. Results indicated that intrapersonal factors showed the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Substance Abuse, Females, Self Efficacy, American Indians, Recidivism, Predictor...
In its 1995 definition of social studies, the National Council for the Social Studies (NC SS) explicitly identifies "citizenship for the common good" as the purpose of social studies education. The roots of this perspective can be traced to early twentieth-century educators. In their introduction to the seminal "1916 Report of the Committee on Social Studies" the authors of the report declared that the "social studies of the American high school should have for their...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Citizenship, Females, Historians, Social Studies, Democratic Values, Historical...
Recently, the author heard a white male talk show host on the radio discussing the "awful" plight of Latinas because their families don't expect them to achieve and don't have goals for their girls to go to do well in school and go to college. He believed that all Latino families wanted their girls to start families and be good mothers, aspiring to nothing else. Thus, as a Latina, the author shares a story of love, courage, growth and understanding to let others understand what their...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Females, Hispanic Americans, Expectation, Cultural Influences, Social Influences,...
This study explored the nature and performance of masculinity portrayed in popular young adult novels featuring female protagonists. Although all had their limitations, the novels offered more complex renderings of gendered identity in the lives of female and male adolescent characters, addressed the effects of enforced traditional masculinity, and productively, if only momentarily, disrupted the connection between sex and gender in ways that allow for engagement with alternative notions of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Adolescent Literature, Females, Young Adults, Sexual Identity, Novels, Masculinity,...
In this article, we report on grade-one children's preferences for narrative and/or information books, and their perceptions of what boys and girls like to read. Data include responses on two book preference tasks by 40 children in four schools. Children chose books and explained the reasons for their choices. One task was a closed, force-choice task, the other, an open-ended task. Boys and girls had similar interests, either preferring stories or liking information books and stories to the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Females, Reading Material Selection, Literature Appreciation, Grade 1, Males, Reader...
Using data from the reading component of the Ontario Secondary School Literacy Test (N = 113,050), the effects of gender and curricular track for nine sub-scores of reading achievement were investigated. Only students indicating that they did not receive additional programming support were included in the analysis. Gender accounted for less than one per cent of variance in reading achievement. Gender differences for each curricular track were in the close-to-zero and small range. The results...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Females, Reading Achievement, Foreign Countries, Gender Differences, Males,...
The article uses sociolinguistic and ethnographic methods and Black feminist theory to explore the classroom interactions of Pam and Natonya, two Black young females, during one event in a required high school British literature classroom. The event is presented as a telling case to explore gendered and racial complexities facing young Black female students in a British literature class, dominated by literature written from a Eurocentric perspective, primarily by White males. The telling case...
Topics: ERIC Archive, English Literature, Feminism, Females, Ethnography, Gender Issues, Social Bias,...
The author discusses his book "Homeschool: An American History," and offers four primary impetuses for the current status of homeschooling as a political movement. First, he writes, social and political changes of the second half of the twentieth century partnered radical leftists who wanted nothing to do with conventional America and conventional Americans who wanted nothing to do with a country that in their view had sold out to the radical left. Countercultural sensibilities on the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Home Schooling, Privacy, Social Change, Political Attitudes, Suburbs, Christianity,...
Home-based peer tutoring was used to teach math skills to 4 girls with deficits in mathematics and histories of abuse or neglect. Girls living in the same home formed tutoring dyads, and each participant served as both the peer tutor and the tutee during the course of the study. At the initiation of the tutoring intervention, an expert tutor provided multiple 3-min tutoring sessions to the designated peer tutor on three or four mathematics skills. The peer tutor concurrently provided 3-min...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Females, High Risk Students, Tutors, Mathematics Skills, Peer Teaching, Mathematics...
An ABA'B design was used to evaluate the effects of choice on task engagement for 3 adults who had been diagnosed with traumatic brain injury. A yoked-control condition, in which tasks that were selected by each participant were assigned subsequently to that participant by a trainer, was implemented to help distinguish between the effects of task preference and choice. The results for all 3 participants indicated that permitting individuals to choose from a list of tasks increased on-task...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Neurological Impairments, Injuries, Brain, Time on Task, Adults, Participation,...
This study describes the improvement in 20 sixth grades students' reasoning abilities in the context of structured or semi-structured inquiries conducted during an after-school science club. The findings shed light on the improvement in student reasoning and on the specific areas of student difficulties. Overall reasoning skills showed more or less continuous improvement; whereas, the warrants changed in a non-linear pattern--like waves--with crests of improvement and troughs of setbacks. The...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Concept Formation, Elementary School Students, Grade 6, Thinking Skills, After School...
Literacy is a process which dispels and promotes rational thinking and moulds human beings into becoming responsible citizens. The absence of literacy directly and indirectly retards the development of individuals, society, community and the country. For the success of any program, people should be motivated by providing necessary congenial environments, socio-economic conditions and committed efforts on the part of implementing bodies. In spite of the number of efforts made by central and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Womens Education, Student Development, Females, Access to...
This paper explains my choice of narrative inquiry as a methodological approach in my recently completed PhD study. My research investigated learning experiences of mature women learners in VET. Notions of learning as negotiated lived experience called for a methodological approach that privileged the learner's perspective and opened space in which alternative notions of learning might emerge. From interviews with twelve mature women, I explain how I use stories of learning to understand how...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Females, Ethics, Womens Education, Interviews, Vocational Education, Adults, Personal...
This qualitative case study illustrates and compares the metacognitive strategies that a grade-3 female student used while reading narrative and informational texts. Data were collected from interviews, observations, and videotaping of the participant's narrative and informational text oral reading sessions and examined using thematic analysis. Findings showed that she used markedly different metacognitive strategies for each genre, resulting in comprehension difficulties while reading the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Reading Comprehension, Oral Reading, Metacognition, Case Studies, Qualitative...
This Ugandan-based study examined how visual modes of communication provide insights into girls' perceptions of literacy, and open broader dialogues on literacy, women, and development. Twenty-nine primary school girls used drawing and 15 secondary school girls used photography to depict local literacy practices in relation to their own lives and experiences. The images they captured provide a window on the interface between local and global literacy practices, and the "freedoms"...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Photography, Females, Visual Perception, Rural Areas, Foreign Countries,...
Many young women become disillusioned with physical education in their high-school years. Mounting evidence suggests that this disillusionment starts in early adolescence. This article discusses the experiences of female students in coeducational, middle-school, physical education classes. Focus group interviews, individual interviews, and questionnaires were used to collect data. The following themes emerged: personal competence, a moving body is a healthy body, choice and variety for a...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Physical Education, Early Adolescents, Sex Fairness, Student Motivation, Females,...
Higher levels of girls and women's participation in targeted areas are widely apparent, particularly in affluent and middle-class sites. Here, we report on research with young middle and upper middle-class high school girls successfully enrolled in non-traditional advanced placement (AP) courses in mathematics, science, and computer programming in a suburban school district in Midwestern USA. Focus group interviews with 45 of the highest achieving students in this affluent suburb revealed...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Advanced Placement, Females, Focus Groups, Sex Fairness, Womens Education, Self...
Findings in this article indicate that training programs use a key pedagogical and ideological discourse of "teachers make a difference" to motivate female early childhood education students to enter and stay in the field. However, research in the area of workforce retention maintains that many graduates are not willing to enter and stay in a workforce characterized as economically, socially, and politically marginalized, and part of a secondary labour market. This article, which...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Early Childhood Education, Labor Market, Motivation, Preschool Teachers, Females,...
This qualitative study explores the experiences of women administrators in high-poverty community schools, investigating four women's perspectives on work demands and the impact on their families. Their work demands are related to the characteristics of impoverished communities, whereas their work resources are based on intrinsic rewards and social justice. Family demands and resources are related to the developmental stages of families, and therefore vary among the women interviewed. The...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Community Schools, Poverty, Females, Social Justice, Developmental Stages, Women...
Our study investigated patterns of female participation as secondary principals that have varied across contexts and changed slowly. Researchers interviewed decision makers from a purposive sample of 10 urban and rural school districts in Ontario, Nova Scotia, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia, gathering data from structured telephone interviews, policy documents, and statistical information. The needs of a system took precedence over those of individuals. Many participants denied that gender...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Rural Schools, Females, Leadership Styles, Foreign Countries, Gender Differences,...
This article describes a snapshot ethnography conducted in Uganda with the Agabagaya Women's Group. The purpose of the study was to explore how women share knowledge among themselves to support their communities. Using post-development theory and Freire's critical theory as a lens, I argue that although international development is often focused on women's education, imposed development initiatives may actually hinder women's ability to share meaningful knowledge. I conclude with a discussion...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Critical Theory, Females, Ethnography, Womens Education, Foreign Countries, Social...
Although all modalities of therapy work equally well, some models are better suited to work with specific populations. This article outlines a rationale for a counselling model used for female college students in the United Arab Emirates where the concept of counselling is not well known, and where the social and cultural organizations demand a more flexible and informal approach to helping. Two cases are presented using a systemic and solution-focused approach that accommodates culture,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Arabs, Gender Differences, Females, College Students, Case Studies, Models,...
In this article the author examines the historical significance of the cultural aspect of race on African American females' leadership values and styles that encourage caring in schools. The author focuses her study by asking: What aspects of their (African American female leaders) cultural backgrounds as Africans and as African Americans contribute to their perceptions and enactments of leadership? In particular, the author examines African American female leadership using the frameworks of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, African Americans, Race, Leadership Qualities, Slavery, Leadership, Females,...
Kathryn Edin and Joanna Reed review recent research on social and economic barriers to marriage among the poor and discuss the efficacy of efforts by federal and state policymakers to promote marriage among poor unmarried couples, especially those with children, in light of these findings. Social barriers include marital aspirations and expectations, norms about childbearing, financial standards for marriage, the quality of relationships, an aversion to divorce, and children by other partners....
Topics: ERIC Archive, Divorce, Females, Economically Disadvantaged, Prerequisites, Marriage, Parents,...
During the past century the U.S. family system has seen vast changes--in marriage and divorce rates, cohabitation, childbearing, sexual behavior, and women's work outside the home. Andrew Cherlin reviews these historic changes, noting that marriage remains the most common living arrangement for raising children, but that children, especially poor and minority children, are increasingly likely to grow up in single-parent families and to experience family instability. Cherlin describes the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Divorce, Marriage, Incidence, Marital Status, Parents, Attitude Change, Poverty,...
Hurricane Katrina caused immense upheaval and disrupted many lives. Among those affected were pregnant women. A public service announcement, website content, and a fact sheet were developed to inform pregnant women about the issues that could potentially affect their health and that of their babies. The aim of these products was to provide health messages that captured the attention of the intended audience amid the challenging environment of an emergency situation. Message dissemination...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Health Education, Females, Audiences, Pregnancy, Public Service, Natural Disasters,...
Background: About 40% of White American women over age 50 experience osteoporosis-related fracture of the hip, spine, or wrist during their lives. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine the level of osteoporosis knowledge and beliefs among young women. Methods: University women (n=302) completed a self-administered osteoporosis risk factor questionnaire. Statistical analysis included descriptive statistics, chi-square analysis, analysis of variance, and the paired samples t-test....
Topics: ERIC Archive, Health Education, Females, Heart Disorders, Cancer, Risk, Statistical Analysis,...
Background: Despite findings that support physical activity (PA) as an effective means of improving health and quality of life, PA levels among girls tend to decline with age. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to assess changes pertaining to PA commitment following a curriculum-based running program designed for 3rd-to-5th-grade girls. Methods: Participants (n=196) were given paper-and-pencil surveys containing an adaptation of the "Feelings about Physical Activity Scale" in...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Intervention, Health Education, Physical Activities, Females, Public Health, Quality...
Background: Although quantitative assessment of male condom use errors and problems has received increased research attention, few studies have qualitatively examined this sexual health behavior. Purpose: This study examined problems of male condom use as experienced by college men and women at a large, public Midwestern university. Methods: Single-sex focus groups were conducted, two involving men (n=9, n=9) and two involving women (n=7, n=13). Eight research questions guided the discussion....
Topics: ERIC Archive, Health Education, Females, Focus Groups, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Health...
Background: Latinos experience disproportionate negative health status and health care access. Expanding understanding of factors impacting Latino immigrant health is imperative. Purpose: This study identified health-seeking behaviors among Latinas in a large Midwestern city with rapid immigrant population growth. Health-seeking behaviors like frequency of care, type of health care provider (HCP) sought, and reasons for seeking care were explored. Barriers to health care access and their...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Health Services, Hispanic Americans, Females, Adults, Access to Health Care,...
Background: Following the occurrence of natural or man-made disaster, relief worker priorities include providing water, food, shelter, and immunizations for displaced persons. Like these essential initiatives, reproductive health education and services must also be incorporated into recovery efforts. Purpose: This study examined reproductive health care indicators, including the key areas of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted infection (STI) transmission, family planning and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Refugees, Sex Education, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS), Sexually...
Background: Mexican American women have the highest leisure-time physical inactivity prevalence of any ethnic minority group. Purpose: This study examined a sample of Mexican American females living near the U.S.-Mexico border to determine whether the variables of age, health status, educational level, marital status, and acculturation distinguished between those who are physically active and those who are physically inactive. Methods: Participants included 379 women ranging in age from 22 to...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Marital Status, Health Education, Physical Activities, Females, Mexican Americans,...
The purpose of this study was to examine a synergistic application of three different technologies to improve the keyboarding accuracy of an individual with significant motor disorders. Three keyboarding technologies were layered to measure the power of each technology independently and collectively. The results show a significant increase in typing accuracy using the technologies in an integrated manner. Implications and suggestions for future research are put forth. (Contains 1 table and 2...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Physical Disabilities, Females, College Students, Keyboarding (Data Entry), Assistive...