Browsing by Subject "Interaction analysis in education"
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Item A comparison of social skills among second grade children with varying levels of reading achievement(Texas Tech University, 1989-05) Truscott, James WalterTo operate effectively in the social world, a child must learn to recognize, interpret, and respond to social situations. A child's social skills may play an important role in a child's social and academic status. Unfortunately, for many learning disabled children, the social sphere is an area of dismal failure which may be due to poor social perception abilities. Clinical observations and experimental investigations of learning disabled students have suggested that these students experience more difficulty than their non-disabled peers in accurately recognizing and interpreting the meaning and significance of others social behavior. The present study investigated a comparison of social skills among second grade children with varying levels of reading achievement. The study predicted that parents and teachers would perceive underachieving children as possessing less adequate social skills than average or overachieving children. The study further predicted that there would be differences between underachieving, average achieving, and overachieving children in their ability to decode pictures of facial affect. The dependent measures for social skills were subscales selected from the Personality Inventory for Children (PIC). The dependent measure for decoding facial affect was the Pictures of Facial Affect (PFA) test. The independent measures were the child's performance on the Reading Subtest of the California Achievement Test (CAT) and The Cognitive Skills Index (CSI) of the California Achievement Test. An analysis of variance of total score on the PFA and the various subscales of the PIC was utilized to test the hypotheses. The study's findings indicated that there were significant differences between underachievers, average achievers, and overachievers as rated by teachers on PIC subscales. No significant differences were found between underachievers, average achievers, and overachievers in the parents' ratings of their childrens' social skills on PIC subscales. No significant differences were identified in ability to decode facial affect between the three achievement groups, contradicting the study's expectation and the reviewed literature.Item A micropolitical perspective of strategic communication between a principal and teachers in a productive, innovative elementary school(Texas Tech University, 1996-12) Moore, Valerie VoglerThe purpose of this qualitative study was to focus on strategic communication between a principal and teachers in a productive, elementary school. The research questions were: What strategic communication does the principal at Walters Elementary School use when communicating to her teachers? and What strategic communication do teachers at Walters Elementary School use when communicating to their principal? Based on the findings of this study, I have three insights. First, strategic communication is the process through which micropolitical behaviors are implemented. Second, people have purposes behind their actions. Third, people respond to others' behaviors as if they are purposeful. Strategic communication between the teachers and principal in this school were found to fall into three categories. First, strategic communication was used to build or strengthen the relationship between the teachers and principal. This communication centered around ceremonial events, trust, respect, friendship, empathy, and humor. Second, strategic communication empowered teachers. This communication focused on training, money, support, extra work, involvement, and creativity. Third, strategic communication was used to relay expectations. Expectations centered around children, appraisals, the suggestion box, the basket, nonnegotiables, and praise. However, these three broad categories, relationships, empowerment, and expectations, were not mutually exclusive because I observed that people can use strategic communication to attempt to accomplish several goals simultaneously. This was a single-case study, and I recognize that different people may have different methods through which they strategically communicate their messages. This study describes how the principal and teachers at Walters Elementary School strategically communicated.Item An experiment to determine the effect of instructor cognitive and affective verbal interaction on achievement in a public community college(Texas Tech University, 1975-01) Masters, Mitchell MauriceThe interest in the individual development of the student, and the recent decline in academic achievement in Economic Analysis I at South Plains College, Levelland, Texas, was a primary reason for conducting the study. Student achievement data from instructor files in the Department of Business Administration at South Plains College indicated a decline in mean academic achievement scores in Economic Analysis I from 1969 through 1973 (14). The apparent inadequacy of conventional teaching methods in producing greater academic performance suggested a need for investigating alternative teaching strategies (45: 6-12).Item The classroom dynamic : a theory of classroom structure and interaction(2003-05) McCoy, Danny Patrick; Mink, Oscar G.; Northcutt, NorvellThis study compares a “student-centered” class in which the curriculum is characterized by little reliance on technology and a flexible and even improvisational pace and scope, to a technology-integrated course in which the instructor follows a very specific and highly sequenced plan (Instructional Systems Design, or ISD). This study also seeks to demonstrate the capabilities of Interactive Qualitative Analysis (IQA), a systems approach to qualitative research developed by Norvell Northcutt and Danny McCoy. The purpose of this study is to investigate how students understand the two different curriculum approaches. The results of the study indicate a significant difference between the two courses. The results also provide a “mind map” or a system, which seeks to capture the lived reality of the participants. The study identifies a universal system describing the classroom dynamic. The system provides a tool for the diagnoses of problems or predictions of outcomes of classroom interactions.Item Development and Comparison of Two Simulation Techniques for Creating Verbal Interaction in the Classroom(Texas Tech University, 1972-08) Gruner, Cindy GaleNot Available.Item Development and use of an instrument for observing verbal guidance for preschool children(Texas Tech University, 1972-08) Martin, L. PatriciaNot availableItem Examining the relationship between communicator style and immediacy in the college classroom(Texas Tech University, 1999-08) Anderson, Karen A.Numerous factors influence a student's individual learning. It is the responsibility of educators to guide students in the best way possible. Educational research has often focused on three stages of instruction: preoperational, process, and product. Staton-Spicer and Marty-White (1981) clarify that the preoperational stage focuses on teacher characteristics, the process stage assesses the teacher's actual classroom behaviors, and the product stage examines student outcomes. A great deal of emphasis has been placed on the process-product paradigm in instructional and educational research (Sallinen-Kuparinen, 1992). Anderson, Evertson, and Brophy (1979) explain the basic goal of the process-product paradigm is "to defime relationships between what teachers do in the classroom (the process of teaching) and what happens to their students (the product of learning)" (p. 193). Although it is not feasible to account for all of the factors that may influence a student's education, instructors have the ability to impact students through their actions. Specifically, by examining our behaviors both in and out of the classroom, and exploring the influence those behaviors have on students, we are on our way to achieving the goal of guidmg our students in their educational endeavors. If we know what instructor behaviors impact students, then we will be better prepared to connect with them in a meaningful way. Therefore, this study seeks to explore educators' behaviors through examining the relationship between communicator style and immediacy in the college classroom. As the examination of literature on both subjects will illustrate, a great deal of knowledge has been accumulated, but this knowledge has been slow to influence the actual training of instructors. The goal of this study is to further define the relationship between the constructs of communicator style and immediacy in an attempt to establish a training program. Thus, this study is the first step in a long-term plan of developing a training program centered on improving instructors' communicator style through verbal and nonverbal immediacy behavior training.Item Factors affecting school connectedness among agricultural education students: A mixed methods study(2012-05) Witt, Christy; Doerfert, David; Ulmer, Jonathan; Burris, Scott; Lan, WilliamEach year, approximately 1.3 million students fail to graduate from high school. One of the reasons cited for dropping out is a lack of connection to the school environment. One way students can connect to their school is through programs and organizations at their school. While there are a large variety of programs in schools that have the potential to promote school connectedness among its students, the parallels to the school connectedness promotion factors present in the foundational principles of agricultural education evoke further investigation. This purpose of this study was to examine the influence that school connectedness promotion factors (i.e. adult support, peer group, commitment to education, and environment) in agricultural education programs have on students’ sense of school connectedness. This study utilized a two-phase sequential mixed methods design in which the qualitative data helped explain or build upon the initial quantitative results. The quantitative phase revealed approximately 45% of the variance of the school connectedness scale in the sample can be accounted for by the linear combination of promotion factor measures. Even when controlling for the other predictors, adult support (r = .32, p < .05) and commitment to education (r = .24, p < .05) were significantly correlated with school connectedness. At first glance, the themes from the qualitative phase closely aligned to the school connectedness promotion factors discussed in the quantitative phase. However, a few additions and modifications were recommended in future research based on the findings from the qualitative phase.Item The nature of teacher-student interactions during communication intervention for young children with developmental disabilities including severe/multiple developmental disabilities(2008-08) Chen, Ying-Shu, 1963-; O'Reilly, Mark F.; García, Shernaz B.Teachers’ responses as well as the children’s types of disabilities have a great impact on how often and in what ways the children will communicate with the teachers. (Lee, 2001; Wu, 2003). Limited research on teacher-student interactions in special education classroom settings raises a series of questions regarding the teachers’ perspectives, teacher training, children’s communication behaviors and their learning of social communication skills. The purpose of this study was to explore the nature of interactions between teachers and young children with developmental disabilities including severe/multiple developmental disabilities (SMDD) during communication interventions and how both were mutually influenced by such interactions. Specifically, the guiding questions were: (a) How did teachers interact with young children with developmental disabilities during interventions? (b) Why did the teachers choose certain types of responses and strategies/techniques during interventions? and (c) What were the outcomes of the communication interventions for young children with developmental disabilities including SMDD? Using naturalistic inquiry as the research method, and drawing on sociocultural theory, this research constructed a case study of teacher-student interactions during communication intervention in one classroom in south Taiwan. Participants included three special educators and four students with developmental disabilities. Data sources included classroom observations, interviews with teachers, and document analysis. Data were analyzed using the constant-comparative method and discourse analysis. The findings revealed that the three teacher participants made efforts to shape the young children’s learning attitudes and behaviors. Yet, how they responded to the individual child was varied in terms of the young children’s disabilities, their capabilities for communication, and their specific challenging behaviors. The communication interventions resulted in some positive outcomes of the children’s social communication skills. However, the teachers’ lack of knowledge and training of implementing assistive technologies limited their ability to carry out effective communication interventions for the child with SMDD. Further, the teachers’ concerns for the children’s utilization of appropriate social communication manners were influenced greatly by their own their professional training and perspectives which might be influenced by Chinese culture and Confusion’s philosophy. These findings have implications for further research, classroom practice, and teacher education.Item Peer interaction in open concept, modified open concept, and traditional classroom settings: its frequency and character(Texas Tech University, 1976-05) Peak, Betty McCallisterNot availableItem Person-based response: a postmodern alternative to text-based teacher comments(Texas Tech University, 1998-05) Bellah, Michael DeanThis dissertation offers a theory of teacher response that privileges persons over text. It is based on the finding that there are two major trends in current teacher response: one text-based, a legacy of modernism and founded on the principles of New Criticism, which locates meaning in the text, and the other, person-based, founded on postmodem thought, which locates meaning in the writer and the reader. During the last 25 years, composition scholars have unearthed a number of problems with text-based response, including the following: an overemphasis on formal error, the teacher's inability to function as a real reader, a corresponding lack of "humanness" in teacher voice, a lack of clarity, including illegible handwriting and undefined proofreading marks, a failure to gear comments to specific audiences including basic writers and ESL students, a lack of positive reinforcement with some teachers displaying overt hostility toward their student writers, a tendency for teachers to appropriate student writing so that the student's own voice is lost, and comments showing a product-centered rather than process-centered approach to writing, which discounts the role of rhetorical invention. After documenting these deficiencies in teacher response strategies, this study presents a solution in the form of four tenets of person-based response. Phrased in the imperative, they are (1) respond first as a genuine (human) reader; (2) emphasize student successes not errors; (3) empower student writers; don't silence their voices or appropriate their work; and (4) emphasize student process (successful writers in-the-making) not product ("finished" and flawed papers). In a descriptive quantitative analysis involving 303 beginning college composition students, this study goes on to show how all four tenets of person-based response correlate with positive student motivation, a condition which writing apprehension theory says is cmcial for effective writing. In addition, this study analyzes some confounds to person-based response, presents the stories of eight students who react to the methodology, and suggests further study of the theory, especially a project linking the tenets of person-based response empirically to the Daly and Miller Writing Apprehension Scale. Finally, the dissertation emphasizes the need for what Burke calls consubstanciality, the act of really connecting with one's audience, including teachers with students and students with each other.Item Relevance and motivation: student reports of effective teacher strategies(Texas Tech University, 2000-12) Walters, Jamie LynneEvery teacher faces unmotivated students at some point in his or her career. Teachers must effectively communicate to not only ensure student comprehension, but to motivate students to participate in class and want to learn. Scholars report a positive relationship between teacher use of relevance and teacher clarity behaviors, immediacy behaviors, and student motivation. However, scholars fail to provide student reports of what teachers say and do to make information relevant. Researchers need to examine what strategies students perceive as making information relevant and how the use of these strategies influences student motivation. These were the objectives of this study. Data were collected through qualitative methods of open-ended questionnaires and focusgroup interviews. Findings were analyzed inductively to discover recurring themes across student reports.Item Student interaction patterns in electronic conference systems(2001-12) Credle, Gayna Stevens; Resta, Paul E.Item Student perceptions of their biology teacher's interpersonal teaching behaviors and student achievement and affective learning outcomes(Texas Tech University, 1998-08) Smith, Wade ClayThe primary goals of this dissertation were to determine the relationships between interpersonal teaching behaviors and student achievement and affective learning outcomes. The instrument used to collect student perceptions of teacher interpersonal teaching behaviors was the Questionnaire on Teacher Interactions (QTI). The instrument used to assess student affective learning outcomes was the Biology Student Affective Instrument (BSAI) The interpersonal teaching behavior data were collected using students as the observers. 111 students in an urban influenced, rural high school answered the QTI and BSAI in September of 1997 and again in April 1998. At the same time students were pre and post tested using the Biology End of Course Examination (BECE). The QTI has been used primarily in European and Oceanic areas. The instrument was also primarily used in educational stratified environments. This was the first time the BSAI was used to assess student affective leaming outcomes. The BECE is a Texas normed cognitive assessment test and it is used by Texas schools districts as the end of course examination in biology. The interpersonal teaching behaviors model was tested to ascertain if it was predictive of student achievement and affective learning outcomes in a Texan non-stratified educational environment. Findings indicate that the QTI is not an adequate predictor of student achievement in biology. Nor is an adequate predictor of student affective learning outcomes In biology. This study's results were not congruent with the non-USA results, this indicates that the QTI is also a society/culturally sensitive instrument and the instrument needs to be normed to a particular society/culture and its predictive power established before It is used to affect teachers' and students' educational environments.Item Student-to student discussions : the role of the instructor and students in discussions in an inquiry-oriented transition to proof course(2008-05) Nichols, Stephanie Ryan, 1979-; Smith, Jennifer ChristianThis study of student-to-student discussions focuses on a single inquiry-oriented transition to proof course. Mathematical proof is essential to a strong mathematics education but very often students complete their mathematics studies with limited abilities to construct and validate mathematical proofs (c.f. Harel & Sowder, 1998; Knuth, 2002; Almeida, 2000). The role of mathematical proof in education is to provide explanation and understanding. Both the research on mathematical discourse and the standards of the NCTM claim that participation in mathematical discourse provides opportunities for understanding. Although this link has been established, there is very little research on the role of students and the instructor during discussions on student generated proofs at the undergraduate level -- particularly in inquiry-oriented classes. This research analyzes the types of discussions that occurred in an inquiry-oriented undergraduate mathematics course in which proof was the main content. The discussions of interest involved at least two student participants and at least three separate utterances. These discussions fell along a continuum based on the level of student interaction. As a result of this research, the four main discussion types that were present in this course have been described in detail with a focus on the roles of the instructor and the students. The methodology for this research is qualitative in nature and is an exploratory case study. The data used for this research was video tapes of two to three class sessions per week of an Introduction to Number Theory course taught in the fall of 2005.Item Teacher thinking and interconnectedness: teachers' thinking about students' experiences and science concepts during classroom teaching(2004) Upadhyay, Bhaskar Raj; Petrosino, Anthony J. (Anthony Joseph), 1961-Item Teachers’ perceptions of Mexican American students: An autoethnographic journey with five secondary school teachers(2012-05) Almager, Irma; McMillan, Sally; Price, Margaret A.; Simpson, Douglas J.; Valle, FernandoOver fifty percent of students enrolled in K-12 are Hispanic in Texas (Texas Education Agency, 2011). However, while the Hispanic population continues to grow, Mexican American students still fall behind their Anglo counterparts in academics. As the federal and state governments consider funding for public education to support better academic achievement, legislators and others have missed another important challenge; teachers’ perceptions and how they impact the academic success of their Mexican American students. It is imperative that district and campus staff development teacher trainings provide awareness of the significance teachers’ cultural perspectives have on student academic achievement. In addition, teacher educators need to acknowledge pre-service teachers’ cultural backgrounds as they plan teacher education programs to better prepare first year teachers for the diverse classrooms of today. This qualitative autoethnographic study examined the ways in which teachers’ stated perceptions and practices hinder or ameliorate the academic success of adolescent Mexican American students. Additionally, this project examined the ways my own story as a Mexican American student, teacher and administrator revealed the impact that teachers’ perceptions have in constructing classroom environments that are conducive to meeting the academic needs of Mexican American students. Conducting informal interviews and acting as a participant observer within five secondary level teachers’ classrooms, allowed me to adopt the role of an abstract co-participant and the opportunity to answer the following questions: 1. What are five secondary level teachers’ perceptions of what it means to educate Mexican American students? What factors inform their perceptions? 2. In what ways do the participants’ responses act as a springboard for exploring and constructing my own story as a Mexican American student, teacher and principal? 3. In what ways do the five secondary level teachers’ stated perceptions influence, or not, how and what they teach? 4. Finally, what do the perceptions of my own experiences, in relation to my participants, say about what MA students need for success in school? This autoethnographic research study’s analysis involved data interpretation that used the voice of a Mexican American female student, teacher, and principal, to convey the story of how each would experience the school in which the study was performed. Through the eyes and experiences of the researcher, each character tells her own story, using narrative story-telling, performance drama, and journal entry formats.Item The effect of verbal clarity and verbal dramatics in facilitating learning and attention during the college lecture(Texas Tech University, 1997-05) Goff, Sara LynnCommunication is an essential role of a teacher, who is responsible for extending, facilitating, and stimulating knowledge. Communicating with students can become problematic when an instructor must not only deliver information in a lecture, but also work to maintain his or her students' interest. Many scholars consider the attention span of students to be decreasing (Hunter, 1994; Penner, 1984). Although ample research has considered the role of delivery in the classroom, when related to student attention nonverbal delivery is most often emphasized. Considerably less research has been conducted on how a teacher can develop their verbal style of lecture delivery to increase student attention and learning.Item The micropolitics of an elementary classroom(Texas Tech University, 1994-12) Spaulding, Angela McNabbThe purpose of this qualitative study is to examine micropolitical interaction in one elementary classroom. "Micropolitics is the use of formal and informal strategies by individuals and groups to achieve their goals in organizations" (Blase 1991a, p. 11). I use the following three guiding research questions for the study: (1) What micropolitical strategies do the teacher and students use in the elementary classroom?, (2) What goals do the teacher and students have for engaging in micropolitical strategies, and (3) What are the consequences of the micropolitical strategies for the classroom teacher and students? Using grounded theory methods, I conducted simultaneous data collection and analysis to discover what micropolitical strategies the teacher and students used in the classroom. I find the teacher to use two types of micropolitical influence strategies toward students: support strategies and control strategies. Students use two types of micropolitical influence strategies toward their teacher: cooperation strategies and resistance strategies. I find that the teacher and students use micropolitical strategies based on perceived compatibility or incompatibilty between teacher and student goals. I also find teacher use of micropolitical strategies to link to student academic outcomes. Furthermore, I find student use of micropolitical strategies to link to teacher professional satisfaction or dissatisfaction. In addition, I present a substantive theory of the micropolitics of the elementary classroom in the form of 14 theoretical propositions. The micropolitical theory highlights the reciprocal nature of teacher-student micropolitical strategies of influence.Item The relationship of students' preferred interaction styles and teachers' directness of influence on evaluations of teachers(Texas Tech University, 1978-05) Braden, Audrey LeeNot available