This study compared the creative-writing processes of native English speakers (NES) composing for a real audience in two conditions: one group composing in their native language (NL) and the other group composing in French as a foreign language (FFL). Both groups wrote children's fiction and were aware that children in the community would read their stories. Participants were observed while composing and interviewed about their writing background, composing behaviors, and the texts produce...
Laura L Stiles.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Hurlbert, Claude M. Committee members: Lilia Savova; Michael Williamson.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2007.
English

Composition has long recognized a rift between good classroom pedagogy for the instruction of writing and the institutional necessity of summatively assessing writing for a grade. While the former is student-centered, process-oriented, often collaborative, and increasingly constructionist in its approach, the latter is typically authoritarian and positivistic. Several pedagogies, such as contract grading and portfolio assessment, have emerged to address the rift between the two practices. ...
Steven J Pearlman.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Pagnucci, Gian S. Committee members: Bennett Rafoth; Michael Williamson.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2007.
English

The International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (IB MYP) is a highly competitive and rigorous review process of a middle school curriculum that, if successful, results in the school's acceptance in an international form of accreditation. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the factors influencing teachers' motivation and their perceptions towards change in initiating and implementing a new program called the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (IB M...
Wayne N Walters.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Yan, Wenfan Committee members: Monte Tidwell.
Ed.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2007.
English

Research on early brain development and early childhood demonstrates that the experiences children have and the attachments they form early in life have a long-lasting impact on their later development and learning. The link between high quality early childhood experiences and positive child outcomes is well documented. Quality child care is comprised of the combination of classroom environment and caregiver interaction. While there are measurement tools that adequately assess the environment...
Barbara Carl.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Anderson, John A. Committee members: Richard Fiene; Alex Heckert.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2007.
English

The study aims to compare and contrast the usage and understanding of English and Arabic metaphors. My research attempts to reveal how similar and different Arab secondary learners of English respond when asked to answer or interpret metaphors in both their native and acquired languages. Furthermore, in this dissertation, I also attempted to address the impact of culture in metaphorical thinking. The study made use of a holistic approach, utilizing textual analysis, conversation meetings, ...
Fahad H Al Jumah.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Fontaine, Jeannine M.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2007.
English

Parental involvement and home cognitive stimulation have been advocated as strong indictors to the academic achievement of a child. A growing body of literature indicates that parental education, parenting pattern and socio-economic status of the family have an influence on the academic achievement of a child. The purpose of this study was to examine the parenting practices in families of different income and ethnicities, and their impact on the math and reading achievement of young childr...
Nurun N Begum.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Yan, Wenfan Committee members: George Bieger; Larry Vold.
Ed.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2007.
English

The present study aimed to compare the effects of semantic and thematic clustering on learning English vocabulary by Saudi students. It investigated whether thematic grouping or the use of meaningful context facilitates vocabulary learning. It was also conducted to shed light on how the use of context might be combined with clustering in order to facilitate learning. The study consisted of two parts. In the first part, the quantitative stage, 160 participants studied four lists of English ...
Sameer S Al-Jabri.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Fontaine, Jeannine M.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2005.
English

Recent studies have suggested that there is correlation between professional development and student achievement (Pritchard & Marshall, 2002; Showers & Joyce, 1996). The specific models for professional development are being evaluated for their effectiveness, as the educational community seeks effective reforms for improving student achievement. The purpose of this study was to delve into the assumptions related to the effectiveness of professional development opportunities and its correlatio...
Marilyn L. Freeman Carter.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Yan, Wenfan Committee members: Anne Creany; Monte Tidwell.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2007.
English

This qualitative case study was implemented to describe, interpret, and document preservice EFL teachers' learning processes through collaborative journaling and gained awareness for all participants (including myself as a participant-observer). Four preservice EFL teachers in Japan (two males and two females) participated in the study. At the time of the investigation, they were all undergraduate students studying in an EFL teacher education program at a Japanese university. To investigate t...
Toshinobu Nagamine.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Gebhard, Jerry G.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2007.
English

This qualitative case study aims to explore the effects of family influence on children's second language acquisition (SLA) by investigating Korean parents' perspectives on early English education and their strategies for the children's second language literacy building, both in Korea and in the U.S. The data collection depended primarily on interviews and observation. For the triangulation of this data collection, children's artifacts were also analyzed. I applied triangulation to the develo...
Hak-Sun Han.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Fontaine, Jeannine M. Committee members: Miriam Chaiken; Jerry Gebhard.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2007.
English

This interview study looks at the learning, life, and experiences of 15 professional Korean English interpreter/translators, exploring influences on their career choice, their education and upbringing, and their perspectives on their careers now. The following research questions guided the study: (1) What kind of background experiences led to these interpreter/translators' interest in the field? (2) What kinds of language and cultural learning experiences have they had? (3) What experiences d...
Jon H Bahk-Halberg.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Gebhard, Jerry G. Committee members: Jeannine Fontaine; Gian Pagnucci.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2007.
English

Newspaper publisher Samuel Bowles set out on a trip in the early summer of 1865 to see and write about the United States of America. A leading figure in journalism and in political discourses before and after the Civil War, Bowles shared his experiences in a series of thirty-two letters, addressed to the readers of his influential Massachusetts newspaper, the Springfield Republican. The letters were subsequently compiled into a book, Across the Continent: A Summer's Journey to the Rocky Moun...
Katrina J Quinn.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Dandurand, Karen Committee members: James Cahalan; Ronald Shafer.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2007.
English

During the 1960s, 1970s, and early 1980s, the significant rise in divorce and separation in the United States has caught the attention of scholars, particularly because it coincided with increasing women's labor participation in the workplace. In spite of considerable research on the subject, the research findings on the impact of economic resources on marital dissolution have shown mixed results. One important characteristic of economic resources is the fluctuation in the relative contributi...
Santiago Sanz.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Nowak, Thomas.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2007.
English

Parent education programs have been found to be effective interventions for lower-socioeconomic families. (Baydar, Reid, & Webster-Stratton, 2002). Although research has reliably reported that any parent training is better than no parent training (Helm & Kozloff, 1986), the effectiveness of group parent education programs which emphasize relational improvement is largely unknown. The present study attempted to address this question by comparing archival data collected between the years 1999 a...
Darla Meredith Clayton.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Husenits, Kimberley J. Committee members: Donald Robertson; Cora Sherburne.
Psy.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2007.
English

This ethnographic study examines peer response sessions among writers in a first-year residence hall. It explores how students practice extracurricular peer response and investigates the ways in which extracurricular peer response differs from traditional classroom peer response. Because capturing peer response sessions occurring in a residence hall presents unique problems of access, the study's research design includes the use of trained student recorders-first-year students residing in ...
Nicole Kraemer Munday.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Rafoth, Bennett A. Committee members: Nancy Hayward; Michael Williamson.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2007.
English

The recent focus on Response to Intervention (RTI) has heightened the need for information regarding characteristics of prereferral intervention teams (PITs) that lead to successful outcomes. Though many researchers have theorized about important features of PITs, few studies have examined the factors that lead to high-functioning teams. Elementary principals in Pennsylvania (N = 440) were surveyed regarding prereferral intervention practices. Schools that continued to employ instructional...
Lori Neal Fernald.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Levinson, Edward Committee members: William Barker; Victoria Damiani; Joseph Kovaleski.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2007.
English

This dissertation examines the Doc Ford series of mystery novels written by Randy Wayne White (1950-) along with his four volumes of essays. White's literary output is largely unexplored; he is the subject of only one significant critical study, Maurice O'Sullivan's "Ecological Noir," a chapter in Crime Fiction and the Sunshine State (1997), a collection of essays about mystery writers who set their fiction in the state of Florida. With his graceful prose, intricate plots, skillful integrati...
John K Hicks.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Cahalan, James M. Committee members: Ronald Shafer; Kenneth Sherwood.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2007.
English

While literacy educators in the field of composition studies have traditionally approached the issue of writing assessment from a classroom perspective that emphasized assessment's role in the processes of teaching and learning, recent trends in American public policy have made data gathered from educational assessment the basis for arguments of education policy reform. In particular, during the past 15 years, a loose affiliation of advocacy groups known as the P-16 movement has sought to use...
John Steeves Dunn Jr.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Williamson, Michael M. Committee members: Brian Huot; Jean Nienkamp.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2007.
English

This dissertation was a collective creative literacy research study of a rural community in the Western part of the Venezuelan Andes. First, this study aimed at portraying the meanings attached to some forms of "vernacular literacy" (Barton and Hamilton, 1998) embedded in people's everyday lives in the community of St. Isidro and in the learning of St. Isidro children in a nearby school. Second, a literacy workshop project was developed for a group of sixth graders to fuse both community and ...
Gerardo A Contreras E..
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Pagnucci, Gian S. Committee members: Lynne Alvine; Maurice Kilwein-Guevara.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2007.
English

In my dissertation, I explore the issues of sexual politics in the works of three Chinese American women writers, Sui Sin Far, Maxine Hong Kingston, and Amy Tan. I demonstrate how these writers reconstruct Chinese American women's self-consciousness through their demand for freedom from the sexual oppressions of patriarchy of both American and Chinese cultures and their resistance against racial domination and their demand for power both as females and as Asian American women. I also explor...
Jianhui Wang.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Yang, Lingyan Committee members: Karen Dandurand; Ron Emerick.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2007.
English

The purpose of this study was to compare usage levels of CompassLearning Odyssey mathematics and language arts software among fifth grade students in order to determine the relationship between usage and achievement. While educational software designed by various companies is a regular part of daily instruction in most public schools across the United States, there remains a need for research-based evidence of the efficacy of specific programs. This study used a quantitative design to compare...
Judy Theresa Gill DiLeo.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Bieger, George R.
Ed.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2007.
English

The increasing demand for special education services has been identified as a major contributor to the rising cost of education, and frequently students are erroneously identified as requiring special education services when their needs could be adequately addressed in the regular education classroom. The prereferral intervention process has been proposed as an alternative to the traditional refer-test-place process of identifying special education students because struggling students receiv...
Joanne Rubino Laverty.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Kovaleski, Joseph F. Committee members: William Barker; Edward Levinson; Paul Lowery.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2007.
English

Studies have shown that there is a direct link between a teacher's attitude towards self-efficacy and effectiveness. Further studies have refined this idea of how expressions of computer self-efficacy impacts upon attitudes regarding the use of technology in the classroom and by inference, the effectiveness of such technology. The purpose of this mixed method design study was to examine the impact that such attitudes can have upon faculty teaching at institutions of higher education as they r...
Larry S Tinnerman.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Bieger, George Committee members: James Hooks; James Lenze; Kelli Paquette.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2007.
English

This teacher research study documents the attempts of a college writing teacher to use response-oriented, student-centered pedagogy as a means of providing practical learning experiences for his students while simultaneously providing a practical professional development opportunity for himself. In pursuit of this goal, the teacher promoted a dialogue with the students that sought to engender their sense of engagement in the class while simultaneously encouraging their criticism and analysis ...
Wesley Foster Boozer.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Williamson, Michael M.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2007.
English