Browsing by Subject "Sex differences in education -- Case studies"
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Item A single-subject multiple baseline and feminist intertextual deconstruction of gender differences among kindergartners in learning the alphabet using clay and a tactual/kinesthetic multiple intelligence and Montessori pedagogy(Texas Tech University, 2002-05) Centofanti, Joyce MichelinaThis multimethod study involved quantitative procedures to measure to what extent a tactual/kinesthetic art approach using day would help low achieving or developmentally delayed kindergarten students learn the alphabet (a pre-reading skill). Using a single-subject multiple baseline design, I collected data at each session, which ranged from 20 to 25 meetings per child over a period often weeks. Qualitative data collection and analysis revealed differences in participants' reactions to, preferences for, and processes with clay such as expressing their lives, dreams, stories, beliefs, and fears. Analysis of social interactions, student self-initiated practices, and variations of the interventions (i.e., clay play personifying letters, ABC book, songs, associations, images on cards, and artworks) suggested that gender differences occurred more strongly when clothing differentiated gender, and in the types of stories told, but not in the clay processes initiated. I began the study with 18 participants, selected by their teachers, using the criterion that the student could not identify more then 17 alphabet letters. The findings are beised on the 10 remaining students who were not able to name more than 17 letters after five baseline sessions. The baseline sessions consisted of recording students' recognition of lower-case alphabet letters. If a child did not recognize a letter, I implemented the tactual/kmesthetic clay instmction, a multiple intelligences pedagogical approach mfluenced by Montessori methods. The intervention of forming with clay was unplemented at staggered times across groups of letters (three letters at a time) for each participant. The participant's recognition of the distinctive features of a letter demonstrated progress in learning a new letter. An intervention of a tactual/kinesthetic art approach using clay did improve all of the participant's abilities to recognize, learn, and remember letters. The findings support the theory that kinesthetic/tactile perception is a primary channel for early learning. In spite of the apparent importance of kinesthetic methods, multisensory learning, and manipulative materials, few programs that incorporate kinesthetic/tactile pedagogy. Interdisciplinary arts-based teaching addresses the multiple intelligences of individual children and their different learning styles.Item Effects of group composition and gender on college students' computer knowledge and attitude(Texas Tech University, 1993-05) Von Holzen, Roger LIn a world that is becoming increasingly computerized, the phrase "computer literate" is being added to the list of requirements an individual must meet in order to be considered socially and economically functional in our society. The forces at play in the development of a computer literate person are therefore important areas for investigation. In the review of literature for this study, factors such as attitude toward computers, computer aptitude, and usage of computers, were found to play important roles in the development of a person's level of computer literacy. But an additional factor seemed to play the most critical role--the amount of computer experience the person had encountered. What seemed to determine the amount of opportunity that a person had to gain this necessary computer experience was his or her gender and the composition of the learning group of which he or she was a member. It was hypothesized that an individual's gender, the gender composition of his or her learning group, and the size of the learning group would constitute factors strongly influencing the individual's computer knowledge and attitude toward computers. The hypotheses for this study were tested at a regional state university in the Midwest. Five hundred sixty-four subjects participated in this study within 165 cooperative learning groups. The learning groups varied in gender composition and size (dyad or triad). A pretest/posttest design was utilized. Results from the knowledge and attitude assessments were analyzed by the use of analyses of covariance, with the pretest data as the covariates. Results from the study suggest that for college students, the size of the cooperative learning group can have a significant impact on the students' attitude toward computers. The gender of an individual and the gender composition of his or her cooperative learning group are not significant factors influencing the attitude toward computers he or she acquires in a computer literacy course. It was also found, through this study, that the size of a college student's cooperative learning group, his or her gender, and the gender composition of his or her cooperative learning group are not are not significant factors influencing the knowledge he or she acquires in a computer literacy course.