Doctor of Philosophy

dissertationAs computer assisted instruction (CAI) becomes increasingly sophisticated, its appeal as a viable method of literacy intervention with young children continues despite limited evidence of effectiveness. The present study sought to assess the impact of one such CAI program, Imagine Learning English (ILE), on both the receptive vocabulary and early literacy skills of 284 kindergarten students, including English language learners using a 2 x 2 cross-over research design over a period of a full school year. In each semester, students received either the ILE treatment or "other" treatment (integrated core curriculum including science, social studies, art, music, physical education). Specifically, the study sought to answer two questions: (a) How do the literacy skills of kindergarten students, including English language learners and monolingual children, who receive instruction using ILE compare with the literacy skills of kindergarten students who receive "other" classroom instruction; (b) how do the vocabulary skills of the same kindergarten students who receive instruction using ILE compare with the vocabulary skills of those who receive "other" classroom instruction? Results of the t-tests from this within-subjects design showed no treatment differences on outcome measures (PPVT-4 for receptive vocabulary and DIBELS Next for early literacy) between students when they participated in the ILE program and when they participated in "other" classroom activities, regardless of amount of time spent on this CAI program. These same results held true for English language learners for whom the program was originally designed. A strong period effect, however, was detected, with the treatment administered during period 1 (i.e., either ILE or "other" instruction) having a more positive effect on student language and literacy learning than the treatment that was administered during period 2. Possible explanations for this significant period effect are provided as well as cautions for the ongoing use of CAI programs such as ILE in early literacy education. Finally, recommendations for future research are set forth

Effective Programs in Elementary Mathematics: A Meta-Analysis

This article reviews research on the achievement outcomes of elementary mathematics programs. 87 rigorous experimental studies evaluated 66 programs in grades K-5. Programs were organized in 6 categories. Particularly positive outcomes were found for tutoring programs (ES=+0.20, k=22). Positive outcomes were also seen in studies focused on professional development for classroom organization and management (e.g., cooperative learning) (ES=+0.19, k=7). Professional development approaches focused on helping teachers gain in understanding of mathematics content and pedagogy had little impact on student achievement. Professional development intended to help in the adoption of new curricula had a small but significant impact for traditional (non-digital) curricula (ES=+0.12, k=7), but not for digital curricula. Traditional and digital curricula with limited professional development, as well as benchmark assessment programs, found few positive effects

The Use of ICT for the Assessment of Key Competences

This report assesses current trends in the area of ICT for learning and assessment in view of their value for supporting the assessment of Key Competences. Based on an extensive review of the literature, it provides an overview of current ICT-enabled assessment practices, with a particular focus on more recent developments that support the holistic assessment of Key Competences for Lifelong Learning in Europe. The report presents a number of relevant cases, discusses the potential of emerging technologies, and addresses innovation and policy issues for eAssessment. It considers both summative and formative assessment and considers how ICT can lever the potential of more innovative assessment formats, such as peer-assessment and portfolio assessment and how more recent technological developments, such as Learning Analytics, could, in the future, foster assessment for learning. Reflecting on the use of the different ICT tools and services for each of the eight different Key Competences for Lifelong Learning it derives policy options for further exploiting the potential of ICT for competence-based assessment.JRC.J.3-Information Societ

How Teachers May Influence the Impact of Computer Adaptive Instruction: A Mixed-Methods Analysis of Implementing Lexia Core5 in Second-Grade Classrooms

School districts across the country have been adopting computer adaptive instructional programs as early reading interventions. It is imperative to learn whether CAI has an effect on student reading gains and what other factors may influence its effect. This mixed methods study employed an explanatory sequential design to first evaluate the reading gains of 2nd grade students. An independent samples t test showed that 2nd grade students in 2017 who participated in the Lexia Core5 reading intervention program for at least 30 hours had significantly higher gains than their peers in the 2014, 2015, and 2016 school years. A multiple regression analysis was then used to identify what other factors may have influenced student reading gains. These factors included teacher-level factors including teacher evaluation score, teacher years of experience, and the mean percentile gain of each teacher’s class, student-at risk factors, class-level factors including class size and program implementation level, and program-level factors including hours of participation and number of levels completed. Only the teacher\u27s mean percentile gain and hours of participation were found to be statistically significant. In the qualitative phase of the study, extreme case sampling was used to identify teachers who had exceptionally high gains on the Star Reading assessment. These teachers were interviewed to learn whether they shared common beliefs or practices. An action-coding analysis of the interviews showed that teachers shared the following practices: (a) using Lexia Core 5 to differentiate reading intervention, (b) publicly celebrating students’ achievement in the program, (c) collaborating as grade-level teams to provide more intensive interventions when necessary, and (d) frequently monitoring students’ progress using the reports in the Lexia Core5 program

Transformational Leadership: An Urban Leaders\u27 Autoethnography

My story of lived experiences is told through a transformational leadership lens whereby the leader is charged with identifying the need for change, creating the vision to guide the change through inspiration and executing the change in tandem with committed members of the group. An autoethnography is a style of autobiographical writing that explores an individual\u27s unique life experiences in a natural setting. The researchers\u27 lived experiences are scholarly and justifiable interpretations supported by multiple sources of evidence and artifacts

Early Years and Key Stage 1 Mathematics Teaching: Evidence Review

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Measuring the success of \u3ci\u3eClassWorks\u3c/i\u3e computer instruction

The purpose of this research was to test the effectiveness of the computer program, ClassWorks Gold (CW) in improving student reading and writing scores. ClassWorks Gold is a computer program that merges parts of 150 commercially available language arts program with a built-in assessment and internal e-mail system. Garfield Elementary School in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, received a grant from the Iowa Department of Education for the purchase and implementation of CW as a supplement to regular language arts classroom instruction. The grant required action research for an assessment. This paper focuses on the effectiveness of CW with two third grade classes in one school year. All third grade students were given the same computer ClassWorks pretest. Students began at level one and continued through the automated test until they missed three questions. The score was recorded and students began at the last level theysuccessfully passed. Students then spent 45 minutes twice a week for 28 weeks interacting with the ClassWorks software. ClassWorks individualized instruction in a variety of language arts concepts. A concept was presented, defined, and examples given. Students then completed a series of lessons and given a quiz. Passage of the quiz at 80% allowed students to move on to the next concept. A score of less than 80% placed the student in remediation with further examples and lessons followed by another quiz. The computer program recorded the time students spent on each sub-section of the unit and any quiz scores. Teachers, however, had to record the scores for the projects. These scores were recorded in C/assWorks assessment program. The same placement test administered as a pretest was given as a posttest to determine academic progress. In October students were also given the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills. The same test was administered again in May to assess academic growth. This is a norm-referenced test. While these two tests do not evaluate in the same manner, the results of both were used to compare the overall academic progress of the students in the area of language arts. A comparison of growth between the pre and posttests was done to determine the effectiveness of the CW program. Hypothesis 1 predicted that this group of students would make six months academic growth over the established baseline of previous Garfield third graders who were taught with traditional methods of instruction as evidenced by both the !TBS andClassWorks Gold GLE evaluation. Findings showed hypothesis 1 was nil. Students using ClassWorks made three months growth over one previous class and ten months growth over another previous class above the baseline average on ITBS Tests. However, spring data were lacking from a third year for comparison. There is not sufficient data for a concrete comparison. No baseline average was available for ClassWorks since this was the initial implementation. Hypothesis 2: Student academic progress would have a significant positive correlation to time on task. Students who spend more time in ClassWorks will show greater academic growth than those that spent less time on task. There will be an uneven amount of growth when comparing student to student; since the population is made up of delayed, average, and proficient students. Time on task was monitored by the internal assessment management system (AMS) within ClassWorks. Findings show hypothesis 2was accepted. Those students who did not make improvement on ClassWorks appeared to rush through the tests, made many guesses, or used the Don \u27t Know option many times. Those students who spent more time on task did do better on the tests. Hypothesis 3: Weekly teacher evaluation of student progress is directly related to student achievement. Therefore, those teachers who weekly monitor the quizzes and projects within the ClassWorks system, and enhance or remediate the language arts concepts with direct classroom instruction will have students who show greater academic growth. Findings for hypothesis 3 were inconclusive. Students who were identified by ClassWorks as needing remediation in specific skills were not given remediation of those specifically identified skills. Remediation was done as it related to the district language arts curriculum. Hypothesis three can neither be accepted nor rejected. In this study the lack of alignment between the ClassWorks skills in need of remediation and the district language arts curriculum skills actually taught and remediated in the classroom makes it impossible to determine how effective the role ofthe teacher was in this computer-aided instruction. CAI instruction is generally too costly and time consuming to be used merely as a skill building tool. Remediation is a critical piece in which the teacher must take an active role. Teachers need time to plan if they are delving deeply into this integration; or the software program needs to be aligned with thecurriculum before it is purchased. Students became bored with the program as evidenced by verbal comments, an increase in the number of Don \u27t Know test responses, the shortened time students spent working on assessments, and the lack of quality in student projects. ClassWorks provides a different kind of test data than Iowa Test of Basic Skills. ClassWorks is not a standardized normed test. Without further research it is impossible to tell if the ClassWorks program was responsible for the increased in ITBS scores. Clearly, there is room for more study. There are opponents and proponents of CAI instruction in the classroom and as many strategies for effective presentation there are supporters or naysayers. Certainly higher-order thinking skills and multi-media methods must be involved to keep CAI out of the ancient educational realm of skill and drill

Technological advances, human performance, and the operation of nuclear facilities

2017 Spring.Includes bibliographical references.Many unfortunate and unintended adverse industrial incidents occur across the United States each year, and the nuclear industry is no exception. Depending on their severity, these incidents can be problematic for people, the facilities, and surrounding environments. Human error is a contributing factor in many such incidents. This dissertation first explored the hypothesis that technological changes that affect how operators interact within the systems of the nuclear facilities exacerbate the cost of incidents caused by human error. I conducted a review of nuclear incidents in the United States from 1955 through 2010 that reached Level 3 (serious incident) or higher on the International Nuclear Events Scale (INES). The cost of each incident at facilities that had recently undergone technological changes affecting plant operators' jobs was compared to the cost of events at facilities that had not undergone changes. A t-test determined a statistically significant difference between the two groups, confirming the hypothesis. Next, I conducted a follow-on study to determine the impact of the incorporation of new technologies into nuclear facilities. The data indicated that spending more money on upgrades increased the facility's capacity as well as the number of incidents reported, but the incident severity was minor. Finally, I discuss the impact of human error on plant operations and the impact of evolving technology on the 21st-century operator, proposing a methodology to overcome these challenges by applying the systems engineering process

Computer-Assisted Instruction in an Urban School Setting: Fifth-Grade Teachers’ Perceptions and Students' Attitudes Toward Science

The purpose of this dissertation study was to investigate a specific computer-assisted instructional software, Study Hall 101, in fifth-grade science. The study was conducted on an urban, elementary school campus in a northeastern school district in Texas. A mixed-methods approach was utilized in an attempt to understand two teachers’ perceptions about its use in fifth-grade science and evaluate its impact on fifth-grade students’ attitudes toward science. The first inquiry employed a qualitative research design in an attempt to understand teachers’ perceptions towards the use of Study Hall 101. Data collection methods used in this study included interviews, focus groups, and electronic-mail (e-mail) responses to open-ended sentence stems. Four favorable themes emerged from teachers’ responses: (1) students' attitudes toward science, (2) students’ participation in science class discussions, (3) content individualization, and (4) students’ engagement. Teachers’ frustrations also emerged into themes: (1) time constraints, (2) technology glitches, and (3) specific design elements. The second inquiry employed a quantitative research design in an attempt to investigate the impact of Study Hall 101 on seventy fifth-grade students’ attitudes toward science after an eight-week period. The Modified Attitudes Toward Science Inventory (mATSI) was used for data collection and was administered to students on two occasions, before and after treatment. Results indicated no statistically significant change in fifth-grade students’ overall attitudes toward science as a result of its use; however, two statistically significant findings did occur when data were analyzed across attribute variables of gender, ethnicity, and economic status, as well as specific domains within the mATSI. First, the use of Study Hall 101 was associated with males’ and females’ attitudes in opposite ways in regard to one domain of the mATSI: self-concept toward science. Second, students in the control group experienced a decline in another attitude domain of the mATSI: desire to do science. The results of this study contribute to the field of K-12 education as we search for effective educational tools to reach diverse student populations. This study concludes that teachers’ perceptions of this software are favorable and that its use in fifth-grade science should be considered as a tool to engage students in their own learning process