This pilot study evaluated the influence of an advocacy training workshop sponsored by an Eta Sigma Gamma chapter affiliated with a large university in the Midwest. The theory of planned behavior (TPB) was utilized as a framework for assessing participants' intentions to participate in advocacy. Participants completed pre- and post-test surveys to assess intent to advocate. Multiple linear regression was executed to determine the extent to which participants' attitudes, subjective norms, and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Workshops, Norms, Multiple Regression Analysis, Health Education, Behavior Theories,...
This exploratory study investigated the perceptions of technology and academic decision-makers about open source benefits and risks versus commercial software applications. The study also explored reactions to a concept for outsourcing campus-wide deployment and maintenance of open source. Data collected from telephone interviews were analyzed, emergent themes identified, and a model of differentiators of open source versus commercial software was created, which was then used to evaluate...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Research Opportunities, Educational Technology, Risk, Computer Software, Decision...
This paper reports on an exploratory, longitudinal study that analyzes and interprets the evolution of teachers' beliefs regarding learning, teaching, and technology, and their instructional practices, in the context of integrating technology-based information-rich tasks in six 4th-6th grade classrooms. The study used multiple research tools, interviews, questionnaires and observations, focusing on both teachers' beliefs and classroom practices. The findings reveal that following multi-year...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teaching Methods, Research Tools, Classrooms, Teacher Attitudes, Interviews,...
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 case study investigated the job responsibilities of district-level instructional technology specialists that related to curriculum work and the perceptions the specialists had concerning their job responsibilities and their relationship to curriculum work. Data were collected through document analysis, shadowing, interviews, and a focus group. A framework of curriculum themes and categories was created, which was then used to define instructional technology work. Instructional technology...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Focus Groups, Educational Technology, Specialists, Case Studies, School Districts,...
The objective of the study was to examine the effectiveness of an intervention based on attribution retraining with regards to student misconduct and coercive teacher behavior. An intervention would lead to a sustained decrease in misbehavior and coercive discipline without using any external control systems. In this case study, a male, veteran Grade 8 teacher and his students were involved in a long-lasting conflict characterized by an increase of disruptive student conduct and the teacher's...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Grade 8, Intervention, Retraining, Discipline Problems, Behavior Problems, Behavior...
Six secondary students with mild mental impairment took part in a multiple case study exploratory research project, involving full day observations, document reviews, and interviews to examine their classroom interactions. Data collection focused on the students' interactions with peers and adults in general education and special education settings. The data and discussion raises questions regarding inclusive education. The majority of students had more overall interactions with peers in their...
Topics: ERIC Archive, General Education, Special Education, Inclusive Schools, Student Placement, Secondary...
This five month qualitative study explored, over time and across literacy events, the ways in which a second grade teacher, Ms. Wilson, and her students built a shared frame of reference, or shared mental context, for viewing reading. Data sources included: field notes, video and audiotaped records, artifacts, and teacher and student interviews. Analysis was informed by Mercer's (2000) notions of context and continuity and considered the ways in which students and teacher drew upon contextual...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Discourse Analysis, Teaching Methods, Interviews, Classroom Techniques, Student...
This two-phase study integrated quantitative and qualitative research methods to investigate the relationship between success outcomes of two-year college students with disabilities and self-determination, and how students with higher and lesser degrees of self-determination understand and describe the outcomes of their post-secondary experience. The "ARC Self-Determination Scale" (Wehmeyer & Kelchner, 1995) and the "Demographic and Outcomes Survey" (researcher...
Topics: ERIC Archive, College Students, Disabilities, Research Methodology, Qualitative Research, Self...
The racial, ethnic, linguistic, and economic diversity within urban areas necessitates the creation of scholastic environments that are responsive to the varying academic and social needs of the student population. This qualitative study investigates ways in which teacher and administrator behavior and the school environment contribute to the successes or frustrations of minority students in AP and IB courses. Classroom observations and interviews with 9 administrators, 4 counselors, 43...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Advanced Placement Programs, Educational Environment, Teacher Behavior, Administrator...
In this article, we have examined how historical events shape the research process, even when research is carefully planned and rigorously executed. Through an examination of our experiences conducting international data collection during a three-year SSHRC funded period in which the War on Terrorism and the War in Iraq began, we suggest that social context affects all aspects of every research project, from planning, to funding, to data collection, analysis, and dissemination. History,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Attitudes, Second Language Learning, Influences, Reliability, Social Science...
This paper reports on a study that compared the practice of corporal punishment in ten basic schools in the Greater Accra District in Ghana. Five of the ten schools were designated as inclusive project schools (IPS) and the other five as non-inclusive project schools (NIS). The primary purpose was to find out if the inclusive project schools were more effective in eradicating corporal punishment from their schools than were the non-project schools. One hundred teachers responded to a six-item...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Measures (Individuals), Inclusive Schools, Punishment, Discipline,...
Group work is a widely used learning approach in higher education where it is seen as encouraging the development of collaborative skills and attitudes while producing an assessable product. Group assignments can, however, create dilemmas and tensions for both staff and students. Students often seek academic intervention in the form of support and dispute arbitration; and the types of interventions employed to deal with issues arising during and after group work, and the effectiveness of the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Intervention, Assignments, Cooperative Learning, Higher Education,...
Teacher quality has become a national policy concern in the US, especially in mathematics. This study provides insights into the conceptualisation of high quality mathematics teaching from the perspective of approximately 750 students in grades nine through twelve. Results from Rasch analysis yield information about the quality of the "Mathematics Quality Survey" constructed for this study and the hierarchy of items representing varying levels of quality as perceived by the students....
Topics: ERIC Archive, Mathematics Instruction, Teacher Effectiveness, Rating Scales, Student Attitudes,...
The purpose of this article is to describe a middle school mathematics teacher's model of his students' responses to algebraic tasks involving equivalent expressions and the distributive property. The teacher engaged in two model-eliciting activities designed for teachers by creating a library of his students' work and an accompanying "Ways of Thinking"[WOT] sheet (Doerr & Lesh, 2003). These activities were designed to help reveal the teachers' models of students' algebraic...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Mathematics Teachers, Algebra, Mathematical Formulas, Mathematical Models,...
Two hundred and thirty-one students in six Grade 9 classes in two government secondary schools located near Chiang Mai, Thailand, attempted to solve the same 18 quadratic equations before and after participating in 11 lessons on quadratic equations. Data from the students' written responses to the equations, together with data in the form of transcripts of 36 interviews with 18 interviewees (a high performer, a medium performer, and a low performer from each of the six classes), were analysed....
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Equations (Mathematics), Grade 9, Algebra, Mathematics...
In this article the development of two teachers as they make the transition from pre-service teachers to experienced teachers is examined. While these teachers participated in the same mathematics methods course and similar collaborative environments in their practicum experiences, their mathematics classroom instructional practices revealed stark differences by the time they were experienced teachers. In an effort to investigate these differences, the teachers' beliefs were explored in...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teaching Methods, Methods Courses, Intellectual Development, Mathematics Education,...
This article reports on a study on the implementation of an evidence-based guideline for the referral for rehabilitation of adults who are visually impaired in the Netherlands. The purpose of the study was to find out if there are potential barriers to the implementation of the Nederlands Oogheelkundig Gezelschap (NOG) (2004) evidence-based guideline on referral. It was conducted during the annual conference of the NOG in Maastricht, the Netherlands, in March 2005, with thirteen...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Motivation, Guidelines, Referral, Visual Impairments, Graduate...
This paper reports on an empirical study of how structure, culture, and message content affected communications between principals and teachers in one Swedish school. The study revealed that communication within this school merely transmitted the information necessary for conducting daily work, which resulted in predictable behaviors, rather than stimulating learning and encouraging challenging dialogue about significant pedagogical and school improvement issues. (Contains 2 tables.)
Topics: ERIC Archive, Principals, Student Attitudes, Foreign Countries, Teachers, Educational Change,...
Although small in scope, this study attempted to analyze the impacts of primary sources and field trip experiences on multicultural education through first-hand narrative interviews, one year after the experience. In particular, it assessed the recollections of students who participated in a one-half-day field trip to George Washington Carver National Monument, a site devoted to a multicultural message. In an attempt to learn as much as possible related to long-term memories of multicultural...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Multicultural Education, Field Trips, Primary Sources, Interviews, Recall...
South Africa, a country with the highest incidence of rape and child rape in the world, has the fifth highest prevalence of HIV in the world, with 1.1 million AIDS orphans. The UNAIDS Global Report reveals 370,000 AIDS-related deaths in South Africa in 2003. Given the numbers of people infected and dying, South Africa is regarded as having the most severe HIV epidemic in the world. This pandemic is estimated to be several years away from peaking in terms of the numbers of projected AIDS-related...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Incidence, Rape, Sexually Transmitted Diseases, Interviews,...
In this article, the authors explore the effects of Virginia's high stakes history tests on beginning teachers' "notions of historical thinking," and briefly consider the literature on historical thinking, high-stakes testing, and beginning teachers. Data sources for this study included interviews, observations, and classroom documents of seven beginning high school history teachers who work in the high-stakes testing environment of Virginia. The interviews and observations revealed...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Testing, High Stakes Tests, Critical Thinking, Beginning Teachers, History...
A solid understanding of equivalent fractions is considered a steppingstone towards a better understanding of operations with fractions. In this article, 55 rural Australian students' conceptions of equivalent fractions are presented. Data collected included students' responses to a short written test and follow-up interviews with three students from each year. This exploratory study found most participating Years 4, 6 and 8 students were familiar with geometric area models, particularly...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Geometric Concepts, Mathematics, Mathematics Instruction, Foreign Countries, Rural...
This article presents an interview with Frank Pajares, an internationally recognized scholar in the field of motivation and self-efficacy. During the interview, Pajares talked about William James, what he learned from reading "The Little Prince," his self-efficacy beliefs, and his famous speech wherein he spoke of God, the Devil, and solving the mystery of human development. He also discusses his current book projects.
Topics: ERIC Archive, Self Efficacy, Religion, Interviews, Profiles, World Views, Phenomenology, Discourse...
Research has shown that extensive reading offers a wide range of learning benefits to second language (L2) learners. However, most studies on L2 extensive reading are conducted collectively on groups of learners and do not provide a detailed picture of individual experience. Moreover, there are few studies conducted on the reading experiences of early L2 learners. This paper presents a longitudinal case study on the reading strategies and motivation of 2 Japanese middle school students...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Reading Motivation, Reading Instruction, Longitudinal Studies, Case Studies, Middle...
In the current study, momentary time sampling (MTS) and partial-interval recording (PIR) were compared to continuous-duration recording of stereotypy and to the frequency of self-injury during a treatment analysis to determine whether the recording method affected data interpretation. Five previously conducted treatment analysis data sets were analyzed by creating separate graphic displays for each measurement method (duration or frequency, MTS, and PIR). An expert panel interview and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Sampling, Intervals, Research Methodology, Data Interpretation, Comparative Analysis,...
This study looks into issues pertaining to the policy of including native English-speaking teachers (NESTs) in elementary schools in Taiwan, i.e., NEST programs, from the perspective of the teachers involved. Through data gathered from interviews and classroom observations, this qualitative study examines the necessity of NEST programs and reveals the challenges facing NESTs and local English teachers as they negotiate the process of working together. It shows that while a NEST program is not a...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Second Language Instruction, Native Speakers, Elementary Schools,...
The primary purpose of this exploratory study is to identify variations in the ways in which individual teachers in different educational contexts interpret their curriculum and plan their lessons and in particular to explore the possibility that cultural differences as identified by Hofstede (1991) may be a contributing factor to understanding how teachers understand their work. "Educational reform" has become a catchphrase in the Anglo-American world, including the United States,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Geography, Cultural Differences, Cultural Traits, Curriculum...
The study describes levels of thinking in regard to the design of statistical studies. Clinical interviews were conducted with 15 students who were enrolled in high school or were recent high school graduates, and who represented a range of mathematical backgrounds. During the clinical interview sessions students were asked how they would go about designing studies to answer several different quantifiable questions. Several levels of sophistication were identified in their responses, and are...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Statistical Studies, High School Graduates, High School Students, Design Preferences,...
American Indians residing on-reservation were interviewed regarding their substance use and treatment utilization. One-third had a current substance abuse problem. Predictors included gender, tribe, age, employment status, household income, and educational attainment. Almost two-thirds of those with substance abuse problems had received no treatment within the past year. A combination of formal and informal treatment was the most common approach. Treatment utilization was predicted by gender,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Income, Employment Level, Health Insurance, American Indians, Educational Attainment,...
Despite increasing prevalence of asthma among American Indians and/or Alaska Natives, little is known about their use of traditional healing in its management. A convenience sample of 24 Navajo families with asthmatic members (n=35) was interviewed between June 1997 and September 1998. While 46% of families had previously used traditional healing, only 29% sought traditional healing for asthma. Use of traditional healing was unrelated to use of biomedical therapies, hospitalizations, or...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Therapy, Diseases, Cultural Context, Biomedicine, Alaska Natives, American Indians,...
This study explores the following question: How do teacher candidates reflect on their learning about issues of diversity? As a novice teacher educator teaching a foundations course that foregrounds issues of diversity, power, and opportunity in schools and other social institutions, the author of this study set out to analyze how the students from her course who are pursuing teacher certification reflect upon their learning about diversity after completing this course. In this paper, she...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Preservice Teacher Education, Teacher Educators, Teacher Certification, Preservice...
This article summarizes an interview-based investigation of Puerto Rican circular migrant students (CMSs) between Puerto Rico and the Northeastern United States. The goals of the study were (1) to identify the perceptions of Puerto Rican CMSs related to the reasons for migration (M) and circular migration (CM), and (2) to identify their perceptions of how CM affects their social and academic lives. The study was binational in scope, involving CMSs from Puerto Rico as well as from the...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Migrants, Migration, Puerto Ricans, Interviews, Middle School Students, Elementary...
This paper describes a school/university graduate induction program that has provided support to beginning teachers since 1994. A 10-year follow-up study of program graduates was recently conducted to examine these questions: (a) How many graduates are still in the education profession? (b) How many have remained in the classroom? and (c) What are their retrospective perceptions of the induction program on their initial teaching experiences? Quantitative and qualitative data were collected....
Topics: ERIC Archive, Graduate Surveys, Professional Development Schools, Beginning Teacher Induction,...
An in-depth examination of an elementary beginning teacher's successes and struggles was conducted to provide insight into the demands placed upon her from teacher responsibilities, her school, the students in her classroom and their parents, as well as the pressures from personal goals and setbacks. Monthly open-ended interviews and a questionnaire distributed three times during the academic year provided insight into the successes and struggles she was experiencing and the types of knowledge,...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teacher Responsibility, Teacher Effectiveness, Beginning Teachers, Elementary School...
Career and technical education represents an important and understudied educational option for high school students. This qualitative study utilized data from one exemplary career and technical education (CTE) center to address the question of how talented and general education students' part-time CTE experiences differed from their traditional high school experiences. The secondary students in this study simultaneously attended both the CTE center and a traditional high school. Through...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Vocational Education, Educational Experience, Student Attitudes, High School...
There is a lack of knowledge regarding the value and impact of career development services, particularly in Canada. The goals of this research were to better understand career development services' evaluation practices and the value of these practices from the perspectives of Canadian agencies, practitioners, policy makers, and employers. Data were collected using a survey, focus groups, and telephone interviews. Differences were found between the type and size of career service providers...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Career Counseling, Evaluation Methods, Career Development,...
This article presents the findings of in-depth interviews with school counsellors in Nova Scotia on issues related to confidentiality and informed consent. Of the 224 school counsellors in the province, 43 counsellors, representing all school boards, agreed to a 45-minute semi-structured telephone interview focusing on their current practices and their views on optimal practices related to confidentiality and informed consent. Analysis of interviews identified five categories of issues and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Confidentiality, Ethics, Foreign Countries, School Counselors, Interviews, School...
Using a reflective case-study methodology, I conducted an innovative method in my inclusive/special education course, informed by the Communities of Practice literature and interprofessional collaboration. The student participants, in groups, accomplished an assignment designed to support a learner with a disability/exceptionality by including in their plans relevant professionals and community stakeholders. Data consisted of tape-recorded focus group interviews and group planning meetings, as...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Education Courses, Cooperation, Special Education, Focus Groups, Interprofessional...
In drawing on selected interviews with adolescent boys from both Australia and North America, we present an analysis of boys' own capacities for interrogating gender normalisation in their school lives. We set this analysis against a critique of the public media debates about boys' education, which continue to be fuelled by a moral panic about the status of boys as the new disadvantaged. Our aim is to raise questions about boys' existing capacities for problematizing social relations of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Masculinity, Males, Adolescents, Interviews, Educational...
Using interviews, focus groups, and observations, I examined teacher candidates' experiences with their mentoring teachers over two student teaching periods. Using Feiman-Nemser and Rosaen's (1997) mentorship model of guiding teacher learning, I investigated the relational, conceptual, and contextual aspects of the student teaching experience. Results suggest that opportunities to question teaching practices as well as co-planning and co-teaching with associates supported the development of...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teaching Experience, Teaching Methods, Mentors, Justice, Focus Groups, Constructivism...
The intersection of multiple identities (e.g., racialization, gender, class) strongly determines an individual's social location. In-depth interviews with 42 racially minoritized academics in Canadian universities allowed U.S. to begin to grasp the challenges faced by those who must negotiate the different spaces in an academy that is predominately white, Eurocentric and male. Using an anti-racist framework, we found that the level of inclusion that racially minoritized academics in our study...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Foreign Countries, Universities, Mentors, College Faculty, Minority Group Teachers,...
Canadian governments and various stakeholder groups are advocating greater interprofessional collaboration amongst health care providers as a fundamental strategy for enhancing coordination and quality of care in the health care system. Interprofessional education for collaborative patient-centred practice (IECPCP) is an educational process by which students/learners (or workers) from different health professions learn together to improve collaboration. The educational system is believed to be...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Educational Change, Cooperation, Social Work, Professional Education, Occupational...
Results of a Canada-wide and a Quebec based study of students with a variety of disabilities in Canadian postsecondary education are presented. Study 1 involved 156 professionals. They represent 80% of the population of professionals who provide on-campus disability support services. Results indicate that (1) 8% of postsecondary institutions reported not having any students with disabilities, (2) overall, 2% of students are registered to receive disability related services from their...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Disabilities, College Students, Postsecondary Education, Distance Education,...
The notion of quality in undergraduate mathematics lectures is examined by using theoretical notions and research results from the literature and empirical data from a case study on lecturing on limits of functions. A systemic triangular model is found to catch critical quality aspects of a mathematics lecture, consisting of mathematical exposition, teacher immediacy, and general quality criteria for mathematics teaching. Mathematical exposition involves the dynamic interplay of mathematical...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Mathematics Instruction, Educational Quality, Lecture Method, Undergraduate Students,...
The role of the principal as it relates to the education of gifted and talented children in programs and schools has been discussed in a variety of articles related to desired skills, competencies, or characteristics. Yet, the research is neither extensive nor recent, especially pertaining to the role of the elementary administrator of schools for gifted learners. This article presents two different views on the role of the elementary school administrator shared by two principals of private and...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Academically Gifted, Parent Role, Principals, Administrator Role, Elementary Schools,...
In this article, we focus on the role and actions of individual school leaders in initiating and governing the process of reculturing. First, we elaborate on the core elements of the process of reculturing, referring to a complex learning process of finding a new balance between cognitions and emotions both individually and collectively. We then review the literature for issues related to school leaders' roles and actions during reculturing. We argue that the role of leadership power largely...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Teacher Role, Educational Innovation, Instructional Leadership, Teaching Methods,...
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,...
Across the United States the state education agency (SEA) is a "sleeping giant" with untapped potential to build instructional capacity in the nation's 110,000 public schools. The SEA is positioned to build the system-wide synergy requisite to achieve the unprecedented school-level student outcomes mandated by the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. In this article, the authors illustrate this system-wide potential of the SEA by using the case of Kentucky, based on interviews with its...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Federal Legislation, Educational Change, State Departments of Education, Politics of...
The literature on educational marketing to date has been concerned with the ways by which schools market and promote themselves in the community, their strategies to maintain and enhance their image, and the factors affecting parents and children and the processes they undergo when choosing their junior high and high school. Yet, there remains a paucity of research on principals' patterns of involvement in the marketing and image-building of their schools, and on the potential impact of these...
Topics: ERIC Archive, Principals, Role, Student Recruitment, Public Relations, Marketing, Competition,...