Library: Education

In middle schools today, teachers meet many challenges. Students come to school with a wide variety of experiences and economic backgrounds. They come with varying needs and abilities. Middle school is a time of many changes for students. One of the many goals of middle school is to meet the needs of the students in academics as well as the social, physical and emotional needs. The research question addressed in this dissertation was: What are the effects of instructional technology on motivation, attitudes and behavior of at-risk learners in the middle school general music classr...

Karl Mannheim, and Karl Marx suggested that there is a relationship between economic and political institutions and that behaviors and attitudes are influenced by this. Viewing this postulate as a conception which posits the economic mode of production as the locus of causality for culture, this examination of capitalism as culture, investigates how education and its pedagogical techniques, as a means of "enculturation," reflects the capitalist economic mode of production. Building on the theoretical notions in the Sociology of knowledge and Structuralism, this hermeneutical analysis discus...

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of clarifying students' misperceptions regarding their peers' consumption of alcohol and feelings of comfort in drinking situations. Quantitative and qualitative approaches were used to determine if providing students with information would impact on their perceptions. A posttest-only control-group experimental design was employed to investigate the efficacy of clarifying students' misperceptions. The experimental group was provided with information gleaned from the literature regarding students' misperceptions. Participants were administe...

Both public and private schools in the Philippines are using information technology (IT) as a tool to improve teaching and learning. While both government and private sector initiatives indicate national commitment to IT in education, there is little up-to-date information on how extensively the Philippines are using computers and for what purposes. The researcher s goals were to determine the extent to which Metro Manila public and private schools used IT and to determine how these results compar...

A careful examination of the evolutions of Curriculum as Political Text and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1973 disclosed certain contributory facets to teacher disillusionment in an inclusive high school environment. A diminishing sense of professional self-efficacy, self-empowerment, and optimism stemmed primarily from the political machinations of a hidden curriculum and a misapplication of an inclusive classroom practice.The process used to arrive at these conclusions was heuristic research, wherein outward perceptions and realties assumed meaning vis-a-vis inward refle...

The major research questions for this study were: (a) What forms do teacher interview portfolios take? (b) What meaning do school principals make of these portfolios? (c) How, if at all, are teacher portfolios being used by principals in deciding whom to hire?This was a case study using qualitative research procedures. The study was situated in the hiring policies and practices of Central City School District from 1995 to 1999. Semi-structured interviews of 18 k-12 principals and 4 key informants were primary means of data gathering. Document analyses supplemented interview data.Interview p...

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between freshmen's use of microcomputers and their social and intellectual development in a university environment. A review of related literature describes the theoretical foundation of this research and identifies questionnaire items for measuring the critical variables of microcomputer use and student development. To conduct the study, data obtained from 400 freshman students prior to entering Utah State University (USU) in the fall of 1996 were compared to data collected from the same students during Spring Quarter of 1997. C...

The purpose of this book was to describe the variables that contributed to the establishment of a charter school in an urban Arizona and rural California school district, noting the similarities and dissimilarities and disclosing the factors used to justify implementation of the Montessori theory of education. The secondary purpose of this book was to describe the guidelines for maintaining a charter school, the evaluation methods and factors used in the school’s unique experience with staff development. The two schools experienced many similarities when the same variables were applied to bot...

Chemistry is a human endeavor that relies on basic human qualities like creativity, insights, reasoning, and skills. It depends on habits of the mind: skepticism, tolerance of ambiguity, openness to new ideas, intellectual honesty, curiosity, and communication. Young female students begin studying chemistry curiosity; however, when unconvinced, they become skeptical. Researches focused on gender studies have indicated that attitudes toward science education differ between males and females. A declining interest in chemistry and the under representation of females in the chemical science was fo...

While "e-learning" has proliferated in our society, the problem exists that many corporations are delving into e-learning without fully understanding end users’ self-reported computer competence or attitudes toward e-learning or computers in general, which could ultimately impact the success of e-learning at an organization. Studies have been done to examine these phenomena, but the vast majority center around the academic environment, and many are deemed archaic due to advances in technology. To examine this problem, this research study’s goal was to develop a valid and reliable instrument th...