Thinning of Eastern cottonwood in Missouri

The publication is a joint report by the Central States Forest Experiment Station Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Missouri Agriculture Experiment Station--P. [2].Digitized 2007 AES

Differentiating Literacy Instruction for Digital Learners: The Effect of Multimedia Think-Aloud Worked Examples on Adolescent Analytical Reading Comprehension

Learning by example is nothing new to the education landscape. Research into think-aloud protocols, though often used as a form of assessment rather than instruction, provided practical, content-specific literacy strategies for crafting the instructional intervention in this study. Additionally, research into worked examples—from the earliest pen-and-paper studies of algebra and statistics, to more recent multimedia studies of legal reasoning and writing—shaped the conceptual framework for the present study by detailing a series of design principles for effective multimedia worked examples. This study aimed to reimagine the face-to-face, teacher-facilitated think-aloud as a multimedia worked example, which could be leveraged for differentiated, blended instruction to support adolescent readers. The purpose of this study was to investigate how multimedia worked examples that explicitly model the reading habits of successful readers through teacher think-alouds could facilitate effective differentiated analytical reading instruction for high school English language arts students who have access to 1:1 technology. The study tested the worked examples principle on the ill-defined problem of analytical reading comprehension in the naturalistic setting of a high school English language arts classroom using the practitioner model of the think-aloud as guidance. The study considered the effect of multimedia think-aloud worked examples on analytical reading comprehension and mental effort, as well as on the student experience of studying complex passages from literary texts. In this experiment, an explanatory sequential mixed-methodology study, 34 sophomore English students were randomly assigned to either the worked examples treatment condition or the traditional instruction comparison condition. Using a classic treatment-comparison repeat measures pretest-posttest design, students’ analytical reading comprehension and perceived mental effort was assessed. Later, in the qualitative phase of the study, the participant experience was described through interviews and annotations in order to more deeply understand the quantitative data collected. Quantitative data were analyzed using a series of t tests between treatment and comparison groups for each phase of the study, as well as for gain scores from the baseline assessment to each of the intervention phases and to the posttest. Statistically significant differences were found between the treatment and comparison conditions for the analytical reading comprehension dependent variable at the first phase of the intervention and at the delayed posttest. No statistically significant results were found for the mental effort dependent variable. Qualitative data were coded and analyzed for emerging themes and patterns. These data revealed that students in the treatment group included higher quantity and quality annotations on their passages than did students in the comparison condition. Moreover, interviews revealed that students perceived the think-aloud process as distinct from their own analytical reading process, and they expressed that the think-aloud worked example videos increased their attention to detail, depth of analysis, ease of study, level of focus, and willingness to persist in a challenging task

Verbleib von Soziologie-AbsolventInnen der Philipps-Universität Marburg

Soziologie ist an der Philipps-Universität in den 1960er Jahren als akademisches Studienfach entstanden und ab 1972 ausgebaut worden. Neben den beiden Kernbereichen 'Soziologische Theorien' und 'Methoden empirischer Sozialforschung' konnten Studierende Ende der 1990er Jahre zwischen sechs speziellen Soziologien ihre Schwerpunktsetzung wählen. Nach 30 Jahren Soziologie-Studium in Marburg erschien es sinnvoll, Daten und Informationen über den Verbleib der bisherigen Absolventinnen und Absolventen zusammenzutragen. Dieser Aufgabe stellte sich eine Gruppe von Soziologiestudierenden im Grundstudium (2./3. bzw. 3./4. Fachsemester) zusammen mit ihrem Tutor und ihrer Dozentin im Rahmen eines über zwei Semester laufenden Empirischen Praktikums (Oktober 2003 bis Juli 2004). In Anlehnung an Verbleibs- und Studienabbruchs-Studien anderer Hochschulen wurden Fragestellungen für verschiedene Teiluntersuchungen und Erhebungsinstrumente entwickelt, Interviewtechniken trainiert, Daten erhoben und quantitativ bzw. qualitativ ausgewertet sowie der abschließende Forschungsbericht geschrieben. Die Grundgesamtheit wurde (wegen der schwierigen Adressrecherche) auf die Abschlussjahrgänge 1990 bis 2003 beschränkt. Durchgeführt wurden: eine postalische Fragebogenuntersuchung aller erreichbaren AbsolventInnen (realisiert 88 Befragungen); drei berufsbiografische Interviews mit AbsolventInnenen der Jahre 1991-1996-2001; vier perspektivische Leitfadeninterviews (problemzentriert) mit AbsolventInnen des Jahres 2003; zwei Leitfadeninterviews mit einem Abbrecher bzw. einem Studienfachwechsler; Experteninterviews mit potenziellen ArbeitgebervertreterInnen. Für die Analysen wurden je nach Datenstandard statistische Verfahren, qualitative Inhaltsanalyse oder sequenzielle Analyse eingesetzt. Die Befunde ermöglichen Einschätzungen hinsichtlich der damaligen Diplom- und Magisterstudiengänge in Marburg - hinsichtlich Bachelor- und Master-Studiengängen oder für andere Hochschulen müsste eine Studie entsprechend modifiziert werden

William Whitehead : a study of his life, his place in his day, and his works

The purpose of this dissertation is to study the literary career of William Whitehead, a minor eighteenth-century poet and dramatist. Whitehead was for a time closely associated with Garrick as a playwright and reader of plays, and was known to his contemporaries as a successful poet. He was appointed poet laureate in 1785. He was also an author of a few essays, which appeared in contemporary magazines. Not much scholarly work has been done on Whitehead's career. The only two recent studies of any magnitude are a doctoral dissertation by Hans Plattner on Whitehead's two tragedies(1914); and a German monograph by August Bitter on Whitehead's life and works(1933). Bitter's major interest lay in finding the romantic elements in Whitehead's poetry. His work, however, is not up-to-date and has, consequently, omitted valuable material. Cursory discussions of Whitehead's life and works have been included in accounts of the poets laureate. Tobin, in his Eighteenth Century English Literature and its Cultural Background. A Bibliography(1939), lists but five primary sources of Whitehead's works and only four studies, including those by Bitter and Plattner. Another of these studies in Mason's Memoirs of his Whitehead's Life and Writing(1788), the source which has furnished most of the material for those who wrote of Whitehead's life. It is regrettable that Mason, who included a large number of Gray's letters in his Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Mr. Gray(1775), did not include any by Whitehead in the Memoirs of Whitehead. The Harcourt Papers partially supply this deficiency. The present work treats Whitehead's life and his literary activities. It seeks to evaluate Whitehead's literary productions, and, by presenting the evidence from contemporary journals and writers, to indicate his reputation in his own day. In order to furnish a background for detailed study of Whitehead's works, his life is presented chronologically in Chapter One, Chapter Two presents a study and estimate of his poems, other than the odes written during his laureateship, with a consideration of their verse forms, the influence of other posts on them, and appraisal of their permanent worth. The odes are discussed in Chapter Three, chiefly with respect to the ideas contained therein, since the odes themselves are not outstanding as poetry. In Chapter Four Whitehead's meager publication in prose are discussed. In Chapter Five Whitehead's tragedies and one burlesque drmatic sketch are considered, with stress placed upon their reception in their own day, not only in England, but also in America. Chapter Six considers his two lighter dramas, The School for Lovers and A Trip to Scotland. It is hoped that this dissertation may be some help in the greater task of giving a complete picture of eighteenth-century literature.--Introduction