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While residents of Los Angeles County appear to have access to seemingly endless postsecondary opportunities within their proximity, the geography of opportunity for accessible options of higher education leading to bachelor's degrees in the area requires further exploration. This case study explores the spatial contexts and 3-year transfer successes of students attending Sunshine Community College (SCC). Spatial quantitative methods and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software are used to combine Census American Community Survey (ACS) data on educational attainment with student-level data from the institution and the characteristics of surrounding institutions of higher education from IPEDS to explore the relationship between transfer completion and the geography of college opportunity for community college students. An index was calculated to represent the geography of college opportunity (GCO) surrounding each student within their 5-mile spatial contexts and descriptive and inferential analyses run to inform our understanding of the concept of geography of opportunity and its relation to community college transfer. Several variables calculated in the creation of the GCO Index show a statistically significant negative weak relationship with transfer. For instance, students who are surrounded by fewer institutions of higher education have higher 3-year transfer rates and students who have more institutions of higher education in their vicinity have lower transfer rates. The inclusion of for-profit institutions help account for such findings and, as such, recommendations for future research considerations include exercising caution when including for-profit institutions in the analysis of geography of college opportunity. The results of this study will inform ways to better support students in their persistence toward overall educational goals of transfer and degree attainment and to enhance support structures for students from a range of spatial contexts seeking timely and cost-effective completion outcomes. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

In the modern era, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) have revolutionized diverse fields yet a deficiency in geographical education lingers in the U.S. educational system. This dissertation offers a thorough analysis of this gap, focusing on the potential of the GIS as an innovative solution for enriching geographical education. The Geospatial Semester program (GSS) is used as the case of this study, which is a novel educational model, is designed to provide hands-on GIS experience, enhance students' spatial thinking abilities, and improve real-world problem-solving skills. Despite facing challenges, such as complex GIS technicalities, the program maintains a flexible and innovative curriculum to counter these hurdles. This program emphasizes real-world applications and encourages independent learning experiences, thereby augmenting students' understanding of real-world geographical issues. This study delves into the experiences of teachers in the GSS program, highlighting the significant transition from traditional teaching methodologies to a project-based approach. This shift plays a crucial role in fostering active learning and nurturing problem-solving skills among students. Teachers from various disciplines contribute unique insights to the program, underscoring the versatility of GIS in cultivating a deep spatial understanding, improving students' problem-solving skills, and its potential to open doors to future college or career opportunities. The research findings highlight the urgent need and potential advantages of integrating GIS into U.S. high schools. While the GSS program may not be exclusively focused on geography, it serves as a distinctive model for geography education by providing students with the vital geographical skills to navigate the dynamic world of GIS. This paper emphasizes the importance of geography education and the significant role that GIS plays in its enhancement. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Recent trends and education research focused on teacher shortages and why teachers were leaving the profession. Music educators and specifically band directors faced heightened stressors because of their jobs. The many hats a high school band director wore included numerous tasks such as organizing, teaching, and coaching innumerable students in the program, organizing concerts, marching events, and other music rehearsals, and working many of those responsibilities outside of traditional school hours, often leading to stress and burnout. The purpose of the study was to investigate band directors' sources of stress leading to burnout in the State of South Carolina and whether geography made an impact on those stress levels. Research using descriptive quantitative data was useful in understanding the behaviors, attitudes, beliefs, and habits of target participants. The research method was chosen to collect data on the perspectives of the high school band directors, to determine the unique stressors they experience, and if age, tenure, number of additional co-directors, and geographical factors influenced those stressors. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

In this dissertation, "Animate Literacies," I argue that conventional notions of literacy sponsorship (Brandt) fail to account for all the complexities of meaning making and power relations in queer lives, especially in othered places like Appalachia. I conduct queer literacy research in Appalachia in order to expand the scope of literacy sponsorship beyond a traditional focus on human individuals and institutions. By queering literacy methodologies and theories, I suggest that becoming literate involves a vast diversity of non-human agents, ranging from but not limited to the landscape, embodied technologies, mundane objects, and more, as well as the relations among these agents. Through a new materialist lens (Barad; Bennett; Chen), I theorize literacy as an active, participatory force--moving, shifting, flowing, perhaps even alive in its own way. My theory of animate literacies evolves from the literacy stories of five queer Appalachian participants. By bringing together queer (Alexander; Chen; Pritchard), Appalachian (Bradshaw; Donehower & Webb-Sunderhaus; Snyder), and new materialist rhetorics (Barad; Gries), my theory of animate literacies offers a queer, new materialist approach for studying the immediate affects and materiality of literacy practices. In this way, Animate Literacies forges queerly forward in order to make room for the nonhuman world to enter into its study. Complicating our relationship with the environment and all its nonhuman actors--from the food we eat, the local landscapes, to our pets, the trees, even the trash we throw away--a theory of animate literacies brings into relief how literacy is about being-with the world in more meaningful ways. Ultimately, Animate Literacies seeks to present an explanation as to how we survive in the Anthropocene and the inevitable, queer futures ahead. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Educational quality is a way to influence the future of the American economy (Hanushek, 1986). Large-scale assessments are designed to determine quality in education by measuring student achievement. A connection exists between the standards, teachers, and assessments that form a system of accountability within education. State and national accountability policies place value in certain educational fields, thereby preferring some while excluding others. As a result, accountability systems influence the field of social studies in several unanticipated ways. Consequential validity suggests that assessments should include value implications and relevance (Messick, 1989).While assessment research examines the disciplines of mathematics, science, and language arts in a more holistic manner, the few social studies assessments are often divided among the field's various disciplines. The purpose of social studies, and its development of standards, is firmly linked to the current state of disunity within the social studies field. These issues are reflected in teacher preparation policies as well as state assessment policies. Social studies advocates have proven that, in other subjects, teachers and instructional methods are influenced by assessment. Fortunately, the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) provides an opportunity to determine whether the exclusion of social studies within the state/national accountability system is impacting student achievement in social studies.The current systems make social studies uniquely positioned for studying the effects of large-scale assessment upon the field. Uses and interpretations of assessment data by researchers have been limited in social studies because the subject is not incorporated into most accountability policies. State policy governs educational standards, teacher licensure, and the extent of assessments upon students. For this study, the social studies NAEP assessment is divided into three separate tests (U.S. History, Geography, and Civics). By looking at data from the fourth-, eighth-, and twelfth-grade 2010 social studies NAEP tests, this study will investigate some of the unintended consequences of educational assessment culture. I will examine social studies through different lenses and apply the concept of consequential validity to social studies in order to understand the value of social studies within education. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This dissertation examines how Black students and workers engaged in movements for racial justice at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill from 1951 to 2018 challenged the University's dominant cultural landscape of white supremacy -- a landscape in direct conflict with the University's mission to be a public university in service to all citizens of North Carolina. Beginning with the University's legal desegregation, this dissertation tells the history of Black students' and workers' resistance to institutional anti-Blackness, demonstrating how the University consistently sought to exclude Black identities and diminish any movement that challenged its white supremacy. Activated by the knowledge of the University's history as a site of enslavement and as an institution which maintained and fortified white supremacy and segregation across North Carolina, Black students and workers protested the ways in which the University reflects and enacts systemic racial inequities within its institutional and campus landscapes. To oppose institutional anti-Blackness, Black students and workers constructed a counter-history of the University as determined by the legacy of Black freedom striving in Chapel Hill, which operated against the dominant narrative of the University's reputed liberalism. Drawing on an interdisciplinary methodology from oral history and public digital humanities, this dissertation uses a dual critical geography and critical race theory framework to analyze how students and workers have organized to challenge the University's anti-Blackness. This dissertation contends that Black students and workers organized to create, contest, and reclaim specific spaces within the University's campus landscape, directing the institution towards a yet-unrealized future as a place of humanity, dignity, and equity for all campus actors. This dissertation explores several spaces of resistance on the campus -- the South Campus dormitories, Lenoir Hall, Manning Hall, Upendo Lounge, the Black Cultural Center, the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History, the Cheek-Clark Building, Saunders Hall, and the Confederate Monument and Unsung Founders Memorial in McCorkle Place -- to provide a groundwork for conceptualizing ways in which future campus organizers can utilize the legacy of past racial justice movements to orient the University towards reparative justice. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Social studies educators often find that creating relevant lessons that will engage students both intellectually and personally is challenging (National Council for the Social Studies [NCSS], 2013; Yilmaz, 2007). By exploring the lived experiences, educators might better understand the nuances of the period being investigated that can benefit lesson plan development (Woods & Jans-Thomas, 2016; Yilmaz, 2007). Also, relevant lessons engage students through connections that could enhance historical empathy (Perrotta, 2016; Yilmaz, 2007). To support lesson plan development, this phenomenological study identified connections between social studies and power that existed in Fayette County's Freedom Village. Therefore, this study served a twofold purpose: (a) to aid social studies educators in developing relevant lessons and (b) to enhance students' historical empathy. To accomplish the purpose, the following research question was answered: What connections exist between social studies and power that support lesson plan development and enhance historical empathy when examining the Fayette County Freedom Village? The NCSS College, Career, and Civic Life (NCSS C3) Framework and Foucault's (1994) philosophy of power provided the constructs for the conceptual framework. Historical research methods were employed to collect data, while content analysis was utilized to analyze data. The findings revealed that social studies and power connections exist when examining Freedom Village. For example, history, civics, economics, and geography were connected with Foucault's (1994) power strategy, while civics and geography were connected with power relations and freedom. With the findings, educators can develop relevant and engaging lessons associated with the Freedom Village and other historical events. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This dissertation is a qualitative practitioner research study in which I explore how my students and I engage in critical literacy using sociopolitical Articles of the Week (AoWs). Critical literacy is the ability to read, write, and speak about texts in a reflective manner to better understand power, inequality, and injustice that prevails in the world. The two major questions that drove this study were: (1) How are eleventh-grade students' perspectives evident in their discussions and reflective papers? (2) How do my students and I take up the opportunity to pursue a social action project in response to Articles of the Week? The twenty-two research participants for this study were students in one of my three eleventh-grade English classes. While I used AoWs in all three eleventh-grade sections, I conducted my research in only one of these sections. This class differed from the other two sections only in that these students planned and implemented their social action projects in groups in lieu of individual presentations of their research paper in the other two classes. I collected six kinds of data: (1) scanned copies of students' eight reflective papers based on AoWs; (2) transcriptions of eight video-recorded AoW discussions; (3) teacher journal; (4) students' post AoW surveys; (5) scanned copies and/or photographs of students' social action projects; and (6) transcription of a post social-action whole class video recorded discussion. I collected these data in four phases from October 2015 to June 2016. Every week, over eight weeks (October-December), students read an AoW. After, and as homework, they wrote a reflective paper and brought it to class at the end of the week (Friday), when we had a whole-class discussion. After reading eight AoWs, students chose and researched a social action, researching daily for six weeks. This six-week research project resulted in a research paper that satisfied the research requirement of the eleventh-grade English class. Finally, two days per week for five weeks, students implemented their group social action projects on these topics: (a) Gun control laws, (b) Syrian Refugees, and (3) School Start Later. Using the constructivist grounded theory technique (Charmaz, 2000, 2006) and the two methodological frameworks--practitioner research and inquiry as stance (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2009)--as well as the four dimensions of critical literacy (Lewison, Flint & Sluys, 2002) to analyze and interpret my data, the following findings emerged: Findings to research question 1--most students appreciated considering multiple perspectives, both in writing and discussion. Students' discussions demonstrated strong knowledge building in the following areas: incidental knowledge building; knowledge building with immediate effects; knowledge building by geography; and knowledge building as deliberation and debate. Findings to research question 2--social action projects involved two major activities: procedural activities and negotiating power. The procedural activities involved choosing a social action project, researching, and working in groups to implement the social action projects. The power analysis in this study revealed that examining multiple perspectives and including them in social action projects can work positively for students--social networks opened for students who provided a balanced perspective on topics. For students taking a one-sided perspective, social networks shut down. The results of this study have the potential to inform future practitioner researchers and critical pedagogues to develop new ways of building a critically reflective classroom that allows for robust social transformations that could influence educational policies because "teachers' voices do matter." [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Students often fail to develop a sophisticated understanding of scientific topics despite years of formal education designed to help them do so. Through studying how students learn the physical sciences, conceptual change researchers have amassed a large body of evidence that people, rather than being empty vessels who passively accept scientific theories, already possess rich intuitive theories about the world. More recently, researchers have argued that these intuitive theories shape how people understand the social world as well. In this project, we explored these intuitive theories about people and how these intuitive theories differ from how experts in the social sciences think about people. To do this, we used the Delphi method, a method of surveying experts that uses iterative rounds of quantitative judgments and comments. We created seven Delphi panels, each comprised of professors from a specific field of the social sciences (Anthropology, Economics, Geography, History, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology) and asked them to explain the most consequential ways that studying their field changes how one understands and explains the human world. Three of the panels were highly successful, one was moderately successful, and three were largely unsuccessful due to low participation. Findings indicate that social scientists can describe several consequential ways they think about the human world differently from those who have not studied the social sciences. Similarities and differences across fields of the social sciences are discussed, as well as differences within the fields as described by panelists. However, these disagreements within and across fields, and especially disagreements over the correct way to interpret terms, make it difficult to generalize across the social sciences as a whole. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

In response to speculations about the impending obsolescence of higher education's most emblematic sites, I explore how campuses thrive by fostering civically vibrant and not-strictly-curricular forms of writing and rhetoric. I draw from the spatial turn in rhetoric/composition, as well as from scholarship on the field's civic aims, to reframe rhetorical education and college writing as location-based activities tied less exclusively to formal instructional spaces and more dynamically to the campuses within which they emerge. Taking UC Irvine as a case study, I combine ethnographic research with analysis of archival materials to elucidate how three features of campus life--campus planning, campus organizations, and campus publications--encourage students and other inhabitants to participate as writers and rhetors in the ongoing development of the civic geography. After focusing on cocurricular manifestations of rhetorical education and college writing in the first three chapters, I move in the final chapter to consider formal instruction through the lens of this rejuvenated conceptualization of the institutional terrain. Ultimately, by concluding with an analysis of how and why writing and rhetoric instructors draw pedagogical inspiration from their campuses, I hope to position "Campus Life" as a timely and practical intervention into debates about the future of these multifaceted sites. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

In policymaking, social movements, and media, education pathways are presented as the primary solution for low-income Black communities. To examine this dominant belief, this study utilized a critical case study approach to investigate a historic Black suburban neighborhood, Twinsburg Heights, in Northeast Ohio. The study combined Black Studies, Geography, and Education to understand Black residents' experiences in three sites: the neighborhood, K-12 schools, and higher education. Using a multi-generational sample, 46 residents were interviewed about their education and life pathways. Residents' pathways were contextualized in the geographic history of (under)development in the Heights neighborhood based on archival documents, a local documentary, and oral histories. Findings show Black people's education opportunity is produced and their life pathways are structured at the intersection of anti-Blackness, capitalism, and geographic domination. At the same time, Black people practice place-making across the three sites that contest power. The places they form provide alternative models for valuing Black people both as human and outside their education outcomes. Recommendations focus on how education is a tool for racial justice, but not justice itself. Racial justice requires remedies and countermeasures that address racism in sites of schooling and redistribution that disrupts capitalism in wider society. The Heights neighborhood is one case that shows how Black people have imagined and practiced a racial justice that required more than degrees. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The purpose of this study was to ascertain the possible impact of project-based learning on student learning perspective and achievement in a social studies classroom. American schools are in an era of standardized testing based on standards-driven curricula that only teaches basic recall and recognition. School curriculum should be focused on providing students with the skills necessary for them to be successful after high school graduation. Higher-level thinking skills such as critical thinking, collaboration, and self-direction are not easily learned with traditional, essentialist teaching methods. Students can quickly look up facts with ready access to the internet, so they need to be equipped with skills that go beyond memorization. The study was conducted in my AP Human Geography class in a large South Carolina high school. In the study, students became self-directed learners by using project-based learning to prepare for the class final exam and AP Exam administered in May. Students used project-based learning to apply practically the ideas, concepts, and theories required to be successful on both exams. Both qualitative and quantitative data collection occurred through field notes, observations, interviews, surveys, and summative assessments. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

By the end of the nineteenth century, the momentum for the idea of a more practical education better suited to life in a modern, technological world brought the first educational reform movements in the nation. Concurrent reform efforts at the state and national levels influenced both the historical development of Earth science education and the status of the Earth sciences in New York State's secondary schools. Three themes received increasing attention: 1) the nature and college acceptance of the subjects in the secondary courses of study, 2) the time allocation for the subjects, and 3) the emergence and expectation of the incorporation of laboratory and fieldwork. These themes were also prevalent in discussions within the national committees that were meeting at the time. The historical richness of educational reform efforts during the late 1800s and the early 1900s establishes an important foundation upon which the Earth sciences are grounded. To understand the influences that shaped the Earth science syllabus into its present form, and to establish a framework upon which recommendations for future curricular development can be made, an analysis of the origin and evolution of secondary Earth science is warranted. The research presented in this thesis explores the historical framework of the individual core Earth science topics (physical geography, geology, astronomy, and meteorology), beginning in 1865 with the introduction of the intermediate level physical geography Regents examination and ending in 1910 with the loss of astronomy and geology as accepted high school graduation courses. The chronological structure of this study is intended to establish a set of specific historical events that contributed to the present curricular structure of New York State's Earth science course. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This dissertation documents the lives of six science teachers whose multifaceted identities were influenced over time by Hawai'i's unique sociocultural and biogeographical factors. Narrative inquiry was utilized through individual interviews which spanned a five-year period. From "restorying," identity narratives and maps were co-constructed and unique eco-identities emerged from these science teachers' lived experiences. The process of coming to know what an eco-identity looks like and why it matters unfolded through constructivist grounded theory methodology. The common threads, or narrative, characterizing eco-identity development and shaping as situated in sociocultural and biogeographical contexts of Hawai'i were: (a) reflective environmentalism, (b) an evolving science teacher community of practice, (c) bridging knowledge systems, and (d) island biogeography. The grounded theory suggests a dynamic and multifaceted eco-identity situated in Hawai'i that supports teachers with navigating the professional landscape, supporting their calling as science teachers. "Biophilia," Hawai'i sense of place, "'ike Hawai'i," and a mindset of "thinking like an island" revealed eco-identity to be the meaning making processes for teachers negotiating their professional and personal lives. Further study on science teacher eco-identity in Hawai'i is needed to better understand how such an awareness can impact teacher practices, curriculum development, and teacher education programs in science. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This report describes a program designed to enhance social studies skills and knowledge. The target areas for enhancement are geography, economics, history, and core democratic values. The need for strengthening these skills was documented by literature, and surveys. An analysis of probable cause for lack of social studies skills revealed that Constructivist technique may improve students' academic performance and achievement. Social and Cognitive Constructivist learning methods were the main focus of the interventions chosen to help students achieve higher academic achievements. Post-intervention data upheld the premise to what extent that these strategies would serve to raise the students skills and understanding in the area of social studies and community. A qualitative research and action research design will be used in a survey sampling 25 teachers between the ages of 25 and 50 years old throughout the Southeast Michigan, including urban and suburban schools. The following are appended: (1) Questionnaire; (2) Informed Consent Form; and (3) Approval Request Form. [Master's in Special Education, Marygrove College.]

A program was designed to improve the organizational and study skills of high school freshmen attending a remedial world geography class in a suburban area surrounding a large midwestern city. The target population included special education students, students identified as at-risk, and others who had poor placement test scores. Data analysis revealed that many of these students demonstrated significant deficiencies in organizational and study skills. A review of solution strategies suggested that organizational and study skills training is effective when directly connected to content instruction. This program included pre- and post-evaluations of organizational study skills. Survey data reviewed following program implementation of the notebook system showed moderate assistance for the targeted students. In addition, the results demonstrated that students' ability to maintain the organization of their notebooks improved over time. Appended are the two student surveys and corresponding results, the parent survey and results, and a sample notebook table of contents. (Contains 17 references.) (JDM)

This report describes a program designed to enhance social studies skills and knowledge. The target areas for enhancement are geography skills and community understanding. The targeted population is a second grade class in a rural Midwestern setting. The need for strengthening these skills was documented by observation, checklists, surveys, and pre- and post-tests. An analysis of the probable cause for lack of geography skills revealed that students do not have good definitions of geography and community or why they are important. Many thought they liked maps, but did not have a grasp of their purpose. The literature reviewed indicated that young children are not cognitively able to grasp some concepts set forth in geography. A review of the solution strategies proposed by the research found in pertinent literature and combined with an analysis of the problem in the given setting identified several strategies for remediation. Constructivist learning methods, cooperative learning groups, and multiple intelligences were the main focus of the interventions chosen to help the students in this second grade class. Post-intervention data upheld the premise that these strategies would serve to raise the students' skills and understanding in the areas of geography and community. Following the intervention, they not only liked maps, but they also understood and used them well with the knowledge that all people in community situations share the common need to understand and be informed about their world. (Author/LB)

The impact of using integrated metacognitive instruction on high school students' achievement, self-efficacy, and test anxiety was studied. Forty students in 2 advanced geography classes in a large suburban high school participated. The level of metacognitive strategies students used at the beginning of the semester was assessed and compared to that of the end of the semester, and these levels were compared to those of a control group. The Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) was used to measure metacognitive strategy use, self-efficacy for learning, and test anxiety. It was hypothesized that the treatment group would have higher scores on an achievement test, that they would report higher self-efficacy scores, and that they would also report lower test anxiety scores. Treatment effects were in the direction that was hypothesized, but there were no significant differences between the two groups, a result that may be attributed to the small sample size. Significant interactions were found between gender and achievement, metacognitive self-regulation, and test anxiety. Males had higher achievement scores, and females reported higher levels of metacognitive strategy use and higher levels of test anxiety. Attachments include lesson plans, the MSLQ, and forms used to conduct the study. (SLD)

McDougal, Littell and Company has designed the geography program called "Daily Geography" which incorporates geography into the daily social studies curriculum. "Daily Geography" aims to increase students' knowledge and understanding of the physical aspects of geography. A study tested the "Daily Geography" program to determine if it helps students improve their geography test scores. Subjects were 24 fourth-grade students from a school in eastern Tennessee. Along with the test, each student completed an attitude survey about geography. The class served as both the control group and the experimental group. The study took 10 weeks. During the first 5 weeks the class served as the control group, using only their regular social studies program. During the second 5 weeks the class served as the experimental group. At the beginning of week 6, students were given a geography pretest and an attitude survey. Then, "Daily Geography" was used in the classroom, and students were given two geography questions per day and allowed to use any resource. Later the class discussed the answers to each question. During this time, the regular social studies program was used. At the end of the tenth week, students were given a geography posttest and an attitude survey that assessed final knowledge in geography. In the end, no statistical difference with and without the use of "Daily Geography" was found, and attitudes did not change. The use of "Daily Geography" did not increase the students' knowledge and understanding of physical and political concepts in geography over those who do not use this program. (Contains 4 tables of data, a 19-item bibliography, and several appendixes.) (BT)

An action research project developed and implemented a program for increasing global skills and awareness of ethnic diversity in the classroom so that students could better understand others. The targeted population at two midwestern sites consisted of middle school sixth graders and high school learning disabled students in social studies classes. Lack of understanding of multicultural groups is documented through teacher-constructed questionnaires, teacher surveys, and tests. Analysis of probable cause data indicated that students and teachers lacked understanding of ethnic diversity and perspective in the classroom due to inadequate teacher training and school support, low tolerance for each other, lack of social skills, and superficial curriculum materials. A review of solution strategies suggested by knowledgeable others, combined with analysis of the problem setting, resulted in three major areas of intervention: use of cooperative learning, global understanding, and tolerance. Given the many opportunities to develop a better understanding of global issues, students showed an improved respect for cultural differences in their community and the world. They were able to communicate with each other and had a newfound awareness of geography and the application of its five themes. A comparison of the results of a pretest and a posttest showed an increased number of correct responses. Analysis of posttest results indicated a majority of students had a better understanding of human geography. Direct teaching of map skills, tolerance, and current events is strongly recommended. Contains 3 tables of data and 31 references. Five appendixes contain researchers' letter to the teacher, a sample teacher survey, pretest and posttest advisories, and a global awareness questionnaire. (Author/BT)

The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of high school students' perceptions of their Geography course in a Southeast Texas high school. Five focus groups of students were assembled (seventeen students in two groups of four and three groups of three participants) and asked a series of six questions relating to the different curricular aspects of geography. Using phenomenological methods, a reduction of the focus groups responses were made into a final summation of the perceptions of students and their coursework. Findings of the research illustrated that students had various perceptions about geographic coursework. Various perceptions included: learning about unfamiliar places, using geographic tools to find locations, cultural awareness, and degradation of the Earth, adaptation to the Earth, conflict, migration, polluting, and use of geographic terminology. Future implications for practice include the inclusion of emerging spatial technology, GIS autobiographical and curricular emphasis on the six strands of geographic education. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

It is estimated that about 1.8 million undocumented young adults are eligible for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). With DACA, undocumented young adults can work legally in the U.S. with a two-year work authorization subject to renewal and are considered low priority for deportation. In addition, with an external application (advanced parole) and with approval, they can travel outside the United States. The passage of DACA provides a unique opportunity to not only understand the educational and occupational trajectories of undocumented young adults, but to also to discern the impact this policy has on other aspects of their daily lives. This dissertation looks at undocumented young adults' physical mobility pre-and-post DACA and how it relates to their educational trajectories. Because of their immigration status, young undocumented adults had no access to driver's licenses, could not travel out of the country, and could not work legally in the United States prior to DACA. This lack of access limited many aspects of their physical mobility and access to educational opportunities. Physical mobility is a key concept to consider when researching the social and cultural life of undocumented immigrants, because mobility exposes people to new places, opportunities, relationships, and ideas. This study is grounded in "geography of opportunity" and interrogates racist nativism in order to focus on geography, access to opportunities, physical mobility, and how political climates can influence DACAmented young adults' educational opportunities. To answer the research questions, I conducted 20 semi-structured interviews, used survey data and spatial data. Findings include a descriptive analysis of DACA applicants in 2012 and GIS maps that give context to what mobility looked like for undocumented young adults before the implementation of DACA. The interviews revealed that mobility is not just physical but also has a psychological component that is equally important. The psychological aspect that helps dictate physical mobility--what I call "undocumented spatial consciousness"--is both sub-conscious and conscious. I argue that undocumented spatial consciousness is shaped by many factors, including geography, lived experiences, and immigration status, which creates "real" or "perceived" limitations on where, when, and how to be mobile. The findings of this dissertation provide insight into other DACA benefits and offers recommendations on the direction of future research. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

A practicum was designed to interest and motivate students to participate in social studies, an area in which lack of motivation has caused many elementary students to do poorly. An active learning, cooperative, and collaborative approach to social studies was taken with a class of 30 fourth graders. Through cooperative learning, simulated touring, thematic units, technology, and online communication, students became interested in social studies to the point that social studies became their favorite activity during "free time." Online experiences were provided through the National Geographic Society Kids Network project "What Are We Eating?" in which 12 schools located throughout the United States worked cooperatively. Analysis of the data revealed that the goals set forth for the practicum were met. Not only did the students become interested in social studies, but the new attitudes and participation were reflected in improved report card scores. Cooperative grouping and learning were essential elements of the approach. Appendix A lists 15 curriculum resources, and Appendix B gives telephone numbers for state instructional plans. (Contains 5 tables and 49 references.) (Author/SLD)

The practicum reported here was developed to provide a curriculum to improve English skills and a knowledge of American culture in the adult English speaker of other languages (ESOL). A 12-week curriculum was devised to teach grammar and language skills within the context of humorous stories about daily living and by using weekly themes that are meaningful and relevant to adult students' immediate needs. Topics included: exchanging personal information; calendar/time/money/weather; parts of the body; food; clothing; telephone usage; the community; employment; the newspaper; and the United States. Subjects were 19 students regularly attending an adult ESOL class. The effectiveness of the curriculum was evaluated with pre- and post-tests. Results indicated increased achievement levels in both language skills and knowledge of American culture. Appended materials include a curriculum planning letter and questionnaire, list of weekly themes, unit tests, and a student data form used by the teacher. Contains 10 references. (MSE)

This qualitative research study explored the ways in which sociocultural and professional emotional geographies contribute to female high school English teachers' perceptions of the work of teaching, as well as how they shape their professional identities. Data collection methods over a 12-week period included a researcher reflective journal, survey, focus group interviews, and individual interviews. The study sought to understand how female high school English teachers understand the work of teaching and considered their perceptions through lenses of gender and socioeconomic class of both the teacher and the teacher's school of employments. To this end, the findings represented both a broad view of all initial participants (n=37), which allowed analysis according to both gender and socioeconomic class, as well as a more nuanced view based on three case studies, where each teacher represented a working class, middle class, or affluent class school. The findings that emerged from this study provide specific insight into how high school English teachers understand the work of teaching. Teachers' sociocultural and professional geographies are informed by the relationships in which they engage in the course of conducting their work. Teachers across the three schools placed a high value on the importance of relationship building, but the basis for their relationships is also informed by proximities of closeness and distance. Similarly, teachers' professional identities were constructed according to their understanding of these relationships, but not exclusively. They were also affected by the teacher's own sense of personal interest in their subject matter, as well as a personal sense of agency that their work ultimately supported the greater social good. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This ethnography reconceptualizes the paradigm of cultural competence used within the literature on teacher education to describe the multicultural learning of White teacher candidates. Within the cultural competence framework, White learning is problematic, dichotomously defined, and fixed. The binary of competence/incompetence established by this paradigm has recently been questioned within the literature as deficit-based and in conflict with postmodern, critical theories of learning and teaching espoused by multicultural education espouses. This study of the researcher's multicultural education class at a private, religious, four-year undergraduate college on the East Coast of the United States used co-constructed pedagogical practices--including a co-constructed community engagement experience, dialogic critical reflection, student-led inquiry-based seminars, and student-teacher email dialogues--to reconceptualize White multicultural learning as a dynamic process involving both teacher candidates and the teacher educator. As such, this work is co-ethnographic because it analyzed the learning of both the researcher and her students. The study found that antiracist White learning within multiple, co-constructed approaches on a public/private spectrum is related to learners' placeling identities; multicultural learning was a migration and re-negotiation of the histories of White learners' homes and geographies. This re-negotiation--called de-/reterritorialization--occurred within a dialectic of Whiteness as space and Whiteness as places; both universal characteristics and local expressions of Whiteness were important in the learning of this classroom. White placeling de-/reterritorialization was also found to be unique to each learner, thereby reconceptualizing White learners as diverse. In addition, White placeling de-/reterritorialization was incremental and agentic, extending previous studies' findings that White learners are disinterested and resistant within multicultural teacher education classrooms. Within this study, patterns of de-/reterritorialization emerged as particular learning dynamics between the researcher and the teacher candidates; these dynamics included guarding and stagnating, pushing/pulling, and inviting. These patterns, their uniqueness within the encountering of placeling identities' borders, and the attempts at antiracist learning that were made by the White teacher candidates in this classroom offer a reconceptualization of cultural competence that is geographic and complex. Placeling de-/reterritorialization resists the flattening of White identities too often found in the multicultural literature, situates place as the site of antiracist inquiry when working with White learners, and offers a new paradigm for teaching and researching with White teacher candidates. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of rhythm and tonality on an academic memory task by comparing three different treatment conditions: a poem, a rhythmic chant (or rap), and a melodic rhythm (or song). A quasi-experimental experiment was designed and implemented, specifically a pretest-posttest-posttest control-group design. This study took place in the North Texas area in an urban school district on four campuses that were minimally 50 percent economically disadvantaged. The study included 139 second-grade students who gave consent and fully participated in the research study. Data were obtained through pretesting students' knowledge of the countries of the world. Treatment conditions were implemented over a three-week period in 12 sessions. A posttest measured change in the knowledge of the countries. A three-week period of non-treatment followed by a final posttest discerned the effect of retention. Following final posttesting, focus groups with teachers were conducted to uncover any anomalies which may have affected results. Independent variables for this study were ethnicity and treatment type and dependent variables were posttest (memory) and final posttest (retention). Differences between all treatment types were significant. For the posttest, main effects were found for both treatment group (p = 0.001) and ethnicity (p = 0.006). Posttest post hoc testing revealed significance between the melodic rhythm treatment and poetic treatment for memory and retention. Post hoc testing also revealed that Asian students responded significantly better to these treatments than other ethnicities. Discussion of findings highlights that increasing complexity of the treatment correlates to increasing task performance, suggesting that the addition of musical elements to an academic memory task improves memory of the content. A discussion of the performance differences with African American males is discussed indicating possible learning differences. Implications and limitations are discussed and recommendations for future research include extending this study into different age groups, into different economic settings, and over longer periods of time, as well as investigating the effects of musical preference on studies like this one. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

In 1985 the state of Georgia introduced the Quality Core Curriculum (QCC) in accordance with the Quality Basic Education (QBE) Act. These learning standards identified the content knowledge that students were required to learn in each subject area at all grade levels. The QCC was replaced by the Georgia Performance Standards (GPS) to identify the content knowledge to be taught and learned in the state of Georgia, which serve an ethnically diverse student population. In seventh grade Social Studies both of these sets of standards identify content related to the study of the regions and people of Africa and Asia. To date there has been no study investigating the content knowledge in these documents exclusively. The purpose of this contextual analysis study of the QCC and GPS for seventh grade Social Studies was to reveal the essential content in each. By conducting a close reading of the language in both texts the researcher identified the essential themes covered in the standards collectively. These themes were used by the researcher and another rater as codes to analyze each standard found in both documents. The responses for each coder were compared using Cohen's Kappa to determine inter-rater reliability. The researcher analyzed the language in the QCC and GPS based upon the findings of both coders. Then the researcher interpreted the findings of the contextual analysis using Critical Race Theory as a framework in order to understand the potential impact of the language of the standards on African American student learning. Physical Geography, Cultural Geography, History, Economics, and Geography were the five emergent themes that were used to code both sets of standards. Contextual analysis revealed a significant difference in the language used and the amount of content covered in each document. The QCC contained broad language that focused on Geography and History. The GPS used specific language that focused on Economics and Geography. The language of the QCC provides space for connections to diverse students as opposed to the GPS that emphasizes certain content. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

School administrators and educational policy makers have made a substantial effort to address the learning needs of students in Saint Martin, yet the achievement gap between students in Saint Martin and students in metropolitan France still persists. Risk factors such as family structure, socioeconomic status, immigration, and difficulty of integration, are well documented, but the role of proficiency in French on academic achievement has not really been explored. This quantitative, correlational study determined if there was any relationship between proficiency in French and academic achievement for students in Saint Martin. Performance on the history/geography and math standardized tests measured academic achievement. The scores on the French standardized test measured French proficiency. The convenience sample encompassed 222 students who had their national Brevet exam at the end of the academic year 2011-2012 and were in their last grade at two junior high schools in Saint Martin. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted to investigate the relationship between the French scores and the history/geography scores while controlling for relevant covariates (gender, school, number of languages spoken, family annual income, and number of children per household). The hierarchical multiple linear regression model was statistically significant, R[superscript 2] = 0.78, adjusted R[superscript 2] = 0.77, F (6, 215) = 129.9672, p <0.05. A second regression was conducted to investigate the relationship between the French scores and the math scores. The second hierarchical multiple linear regression model was also statistically significant, R[superscript 2] = 0.46, adjusted R[superscript 2] = 0.44, F (6, 215) = 30.5817, p <0.05. This indicated that there was a significant relationship between French proficiency and academic achievement. These results confirmed the findings of many researchers that French is a predictor of academic achievement in the French overseas territories. Increasing the number of hours that students have French classes per week may be recommended in order to increase proficiency in French. Future research may consider the assessment used for evaluating French proficiency, a mixed method approach to gauge teachers' perception, and analyzing data across multiple years. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Although social stratification usually calls to mind the hierarchical ranking of individuals, sociology often broadly considers it the ranking of any social objects. The Treiman Socio-Economic Index (SEI), for example, provides a quantitative assessment of the hierarchical ranking of occupations. This dissertation considers the hierarchical ranking of eight social science disciplines (anthropology, communication, economics, geography, library and information science, political science, psychology, and sociology). The hierarchical ranking of disciplines was operationalized as the degree of asymmetry in cross-discipline citation patterns. Asymmetries in the information flow in the citation data were regarded as indicators of gravitational gradients (making movement in some directions "easier" than others) and the idea that "higher" disciplines exerted greater influence over "lower" disciplines than vice versa was explored. Lower ranking disciplines were expected to cite higher ranking disciplines more than higher ranking disciplines cited lower ranking disciplines. Interdisciplinary citations in journal citation data from 1979-1983 and 2005-2009 showed considerable asymmetries, and ranking of the status of the eight disciplines investigated were derived from those asymmetries. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This dissertation is a linguistic approach to theology informed by the philosophical work of Ludwig Wittgenstein. It is situated in the construction of Puerto Rican identity in the elliptic Puerto Rican geography of the island and the Puerto Rican immigration settlements on the mainland. Its goal is the truthful proclamation of the Gospel to the Puerto Ricans as we come to realize the subaltern situation in which we live. The Puerto Rican location serves as the springboard to both the linguistic and the theological proposals as the research finds a Puerto Rican identity which is open and hybrid amidst essentialist classical articulations. The linguistic proposal is understood as a porous, malleable and open space where friction, overlapping and criss-crossings provoke and promote conversation within and beyond its margins as meaning is in its use. The theological proposal advances a non fideistic and flexible understanding of the nature of doctrine as signposts and theological as notes to the signposts which help people in their daily lives to go on--to live well and faithfully in the alleys and sidewalks of the city of language as theology is in its use. The theological construction finds its culmination as the foundation for a theology of preaching. Preaching is the place where the Word comes to the words of language and where the God who speaks--"Deus loquens"--find us for forgiveness, justification and justice for all. These three domains; identity, theology and preaching, serve as the general methodological subdivisions and the spinal cord of the dissertation. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Teaching evaluation systems are an important part of the total evaluation of faculty in geography departments in the United States. As demands for accountability for teaching effectiveness continue to emerge from many groups, it has become increasingly important for geography departments to develop systems that not only provide teaching effectiveness data to these groups that are aligned with the recommendations for best practices regarding the evaluation of teaching effectiveness from the literature. Using the theoretical framework of the theory of organizational culture, this mixed-method study investigated aspects of the teaching evaluation systems at geography departments in the United States. This research was particularly focused on any geographical or department-level differences among the departments included in the study. The quantitative findings of this research showed that geographical differences are minimal, but there were significant differences among geography departments regarding the value placed on quality teaching by institution and department, as well as the total number of evaluation methods. The qualitative analysis revealed that there had been a substantial lack of consultation of the teaching evaluation literature in developing these systems, resulting in considerable variability among the teaching evaluation systems. The qualitative analysis also showed a significant lack of agreement between faculty and chairpersons regarding numerous aspects of the teaching evaluation systems. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The use of GIS technology for the humanities has opened up new avenues for visually exploring and asking questions of our nation's historical record. The potential to harness new knowledge with tools designed to capture and preserve geographic links to the artifacts of our past is within our grasp. This research explores the common information needs of a community of interest to achieve their goal of reconstructing the spatial circumstance of America's Colonial era and the information barriers they encounter. It envisions a suite of digital tools to help confidently join together the solitary efforts of dissimilar investigators to facilitate sharing, debate and long term preservation of their painstaking research. The study described in this work examined the common information use behaviors of researchers whose goal is to reconstruct the missing geographic picture of British Colonial settlement in America. The scope of the analysis focuses on the work of two investigators who had constructed historic neighborhood maps of North Carolina's early backcountry settlements. Using a domain analytic approach it examines the resources and different tools employed by each investigator in comparison to the cataloged data provided by the North Carolina State Archives' online Manuscript and Archives Reference System (MARS). The results point to numerous barriers to information that could be overcome with the aid of standardized tools and a shared cyberinfrastructure. Envisioned is a suite of applications to enable a collaborative and authoritative reconstruction, over time, of the missing geographic picture of colonial America. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Geotechnical data are one of the most prevalent data types in civil engineering projects. The majority of the civil engineering projects that are in use today are designed using site-specific geotechnical data. The usage of geotechnical data is not limited to construction projects. This data is used in a wide range of applications, including seismic hazard analysis, planning and zoning studies, risk analysis and other infrastructure development projects. Demand for geotechnical data in these types of applications has increased in the past few decades, due to proliferation of geographic information systems (GIS) and a variety of applications that take advantage of GIS and spatial data. Considering the widespread collection and usage of geotechnical data in various disciplines, one might expect that data are readily available for most developed areas. However, unlike other types of spatial data that are available in spatial data infrastructures (SDI), geotechnical data is often managed using traditional and ineffective methods. Consequently, for a lot of projects it is difficult to find and acquire these data. This issue is frequently encountered in civil engineering projects, and more importantly, in large-scale multi-disciplinary studies that need large volumes of geotechnical data. In order to address this problem, the current methods used for management, archiving and distribution of geotechnical data need to be improved upon. The most viable solution is to leverage the existing information technology infrastructure and adopt methods that are already in use for other types of spatial data. These technologies include geography markup language (GML), spatial databases and Web services developed for spatial data exchange. Following this concept, in the subject dissertation development of a spatial data model for geotechnical data is discussed. The discussion includes an overview of the geotechnical data collection, processing and current methods used to archive and exchange data. The proprietary software and data formats that are used for geotechnical data exchange, including the association of geotechnical and geoenvironmental specialists (AGS) data format, are covered in this review. In addition, the current state of information technology for other types of spatial data is evaluated. This background study includes spatial databases, spatial data infrastructures and various standards that are adopted by the industry and regulating agencies for management and dissemination of spatial data. Based on this framework, a data model is proposed for integration of geotechnical data in SDIs. This data model uses the terminology of the AGS geotechnical data exchange format and combines it with a GML-conformant schema. GML is the industry-standard markup language for modeling spatial data for use in SDIs. The developed data model is compared with similar proposals from other research groups. The functionality of the data group is verified using several examples involving visualizing the geotechnical data and using it for analyses such as site response analysis and liquefaction hazard assessment. A case study is presented that demonstrates the potential benefits of these analysis scenarios in real-world studies. Finally, the achievements of the dissertation are summarized and suggestions are made in order to improve the results of the current study. Also, some related research topics are suggested to continue and further expand the concepts presented in this dissertation. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Research on the utility of student evaluations to measure teaching effectiveness of university professors could be the largest body of work conducted on pedagogy in the academe. The literature suggests that student evaluations are valid and reliable measures of effective teaching and student learning. Unfortunately, while there have been many studies on singular or categorical variables that may influence student ratings, there has yet to be research conducted that accurately predicts overall instructor scores thus allowing professors to measurably influence student learning as measured by student evaluation scores. This research sets out to create a multifaceted predictive model so that university teachers can focus their efforts on improving components or characteristics of a course in order to enhance overall ratings. Methods: Six semesters of student evaluation data for a history, geography and political science department (n = 7365) were analyzed using multiple linear regressions. Multiple models were created using overall instructor score, overall course score and a question assessing student knowledge as dependent variables. Results: A single question "The instructor motivated me by his/her enthusiasm to want to learn about the subject" influenced overall instructor, overall course and self assessed learning scores more than any other variable tested. Discussion: University instructors can reasonably predict and therefore accurately improve their overall instructor scores by expressing more enthusiasm for the subject matter being taught. Unfortunately, this research did not clearly define how a student perceives instructor enthusiasm. Additional qualitative research should be conducted to understand how a student determines if a professor is enthusiastic. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Outlier detection is an important data mining task that is focused on the discovery of objects that deviate significantly when compared with a set of observations that are considered typical. Outlier detection can reveal objects that behave anomalously with respect to other observations, and these objects may highlight current or future problems. Previous outlier detection methods have focused primarily on only one non-spatial numerical attribute and have not successfully dealt with multiple dimensions. Many previous methods assume a Gaussian distribution of the data which is probably a major fallacy in determining outliers for spatial-temporal data. Most previous efforts did not provide a statistical confidence measure, but including a confidence measure should improve the detection of outliers. Outlier detection is often complicated by noise in the data, so a good outlier detection methodology should be successful in identifying outliers in noisy data. Global outlier methods calculate a single outlier statistic that summarizes the outliers for the entire geographic area and temporal duration, while local outlier methods calculate a outlier statistic for each feature based on its similarity to its neighbors. Previous methods have not been able to determine outliers as the vector of attributes, location, and time change. The objective of my research is to devise a methodology to address these problems and challenges. The objective of my research is to develop a robust method of diagnosing outliers and to extend it to detecting outliers in spatial-temporal data. A spatial-temporal outlier is an observation whose values are significantly different from those of other spatially and temporally referenced objects in its spatial-temporal neighborhood. Geographic phenomena are difficult to analyze using traditional data mining methods. Determining relationships among phenomena as they move and change over time is not possible by means of human analysis of spatial-temporal data streams. Also, the volume of spatial-temporal data being collected is increasing steadily due to the usage of cameras, sensors, and mobile devices (e.g., cell phones) and is too much data for the human to analyze. My method, unlike many detection methods found in the literature, does not require the user to enter the number of outliers to be found or the percentage of outliers to be found and does not assume any distribution of the data (e.g., Gaussian). My method only requires the input of two parameters: the statistical confidence level and the number of nearest neighbors, and only the statistical confidence level is significant. My method allows for different ways to measure the degree of non-conformity and works for high-dimensional data, noisy data, and data with or without clustering information. The basic outlier detection method was extended to spatial-temporal data by using kernels for the vector of attributes, spatial, and time that provides a capability to focus outlier detection on local neighborhoods, and the user is able to input weights for each of the kernels. Local spatial-temporal outliers are outliers determined within a specific spatial area and time frame which is a subset of the entire spatial area and total temporal duration. Empirical evaluation was conducted on several datasets with very good results achieved. The datasets increased in complexity and dimensionality. The experiments on these datasets using my method produced results with a high True Positive percentage and a low False Positive percentage. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The use of information resources for teaching and learning in an academic environment is undergoing a dramatic transformation. The development of digital technologies and the growth of the Internet have changed the format as well as the dissemination methods of scholarly resources. Digital libraries have been created as part of the transition from print to digital format. The digital transition is also associated with an ease of creation and distribution of visual materials. To better understand students' experiences and literacy practices in this changing information environment, I conducted a qualitative two-case. Two undergraduate lower-level and upper-level geography classes were selected as cases. The study investigated the extent and nature of students' interaction with digital resources, focusing on students' experiences and perceptions of digital resources and on practices related to using information resources in different class contexts. The study assumed an interdisciplinary approach. In interpreting my findings, I drew on the perspectives of several related fields, including digital libraries, literacy studies, and educational technology. Data analysis demonstrated the pervasiveness of digital technology in an academic environment. Most of the resources that students interacted with were in the digital format, although some study participants expressed concerns about the ephemeral nature of digital materials. The analysis of resources' attributes in regard to the mode of representation revealed that visual and textual resources play different roles in knowledge construction. The study findings indicate that digital libraries were underutilized in the observed cases and relate the limited use of digital libraries to predominantly negative perceptions of academic library websites in regard to ease of use. Study participants were either unaware of the digital collections offered by academic libraries or did not distinguish them from other library systems. This study found that literacy in the digital environment is dynamic, is context-dependent, and involves an interaction of multiple literacy types. Linguistic, visual, and information literacies are distinct and represent core competencies in academic learning. With the increasing use of images in instruction, visual literacy is gaining importance, but linguistic literacy remains critical to academic learning. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Volunteered geographic information (VGI) refers to the geographic subset of online user-generated content. Through Geobrowsers and online mapping services, which use geovisualization and Web technologies to share and produce VGI, a global digital commons of geographic information has emerged. A notable example is Wikipedia, an online collaborative encyclopedia where anyone can edit articles, including those about place. Wikipedia's editorial transparency and integration with online mapping services make it well suited for studying VGI production. My dissertation contributes empirical evidence and quantitative methods to an emerging area of study--the efficacy and use of VGI--and I focus on spatial behavior in VGI production, which is largely unknown. In particular, the capacity of a ubiquitous Internet to reduce communication costs has raised questions of whether geographic distance matters in information and economic production. My research tests whether proximity matters in VGI production. That is, do VGI contributors write about nearby places? Moreover, what are suitable research methods to study large-scale VGI system with millions of contributors like Wikipedia? For my study, I collect a corpus of 32 million contributions to 1 million geotagged Wikipedia articles over 7 years (2001-2008). I use data mining and IP geolocation methods on the corpus to select a sample dataset that includes 7.3 million contributions by 2.8 million anonymous contributors to 0.4 million geotagged articles in 21 languages. To measure the proximity effect between articles and contributors, I develop a "signature distance" metric, which is a weighted average of distances between author and article. To model spatial interaction behaviors of contributors, I use a probabilistic invariant gravity model with an exponential distance decay function. My primary findings indicate that anonymous contributors write about nearby places, and that the influence of proximity decays exponentially and varies categorically. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This study examined the effectiveness of two geography courses at improving student spatial thinking skills. Spatial thinking is an important cognitive skill in the sciences and everyday life. A taxonomy of spatial thinking was constructed by Gersmehl (2008) in geography education which included core modes assessed in this study: comparison, region, transition, analogy, pattern, and association. Two additional modes related to space over time, change and movement, were also assessed. The central research question in this study is: What are the effects of a pre-service teacher education earth science content course (Geography 1900) that is conceptually designed and inquiry- based on the spatial thinking of university students compared to the Geography 1020 course that follows a lecture format with an atlas study component? The six sub- questions to this central question were: (1) What spatial thinking modes are embedded in the Geography 1900 course based on the Gersmehl (2008) classification of modes of spatial thinking? (2) What modes of spatial thinking do pre-service elementary education students exhibit prior to instruction in Geography 1900 and 1020? (3) What changes occur in spatial thinking and spatial skills as a result of enrolling in and completing a conceptually based, inquiry course (Geography 1900) that has embedded clearly identifiable spatial tasks based on Gersmehl's classification? (4) What are the effects of Geography 1900 on the modes of spatial thinking that students apply at the completion of the course? (5) What modes of spatial thinking do students transfer from the classroom to the outdoors as they move about campus? (6) Are there differences in spatial thinking between the Geography 1900 population and the Geography 1020 comparison sample of students that received a different course treatment? The research used a mixed methods approach with both quantitative and qualitative information. Statistically significant changes were observed in the use of spatial constructs and concepts by students in each of the course treatments that were compared. Students were also observed to apply spatial modes outside the classroom that represented the spatial thinking within the new context of the university environment as they observed and described the landscape. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The learning study reports on part of a larger project being lead by the author. In this dissertation I explore one goal of this project--to understand effects on student learning outcomes as a function of using different methods for connecting out-of-school experiential learning with formal school-based instruction. There is a long history of assuming that "experience is the best teacher"(e.g. Aristotle, 360 BC; Dewey, 1934; Kolb, 1997; Pliny, AD 77). As a practical geographer I endorsed that assumption throughout my teaching career, paying attention to local topography, physical features, and natural resources in the geographic hinterland. I was particularly interested in understanding the impact of the physical landscape on humankind, and reciprocally, noting humankind's widespread impressions on the natural world. Until I began this research project, I assumed that everyone else paid a similar attention to immediate surroundings. The work that I describe in this dissertation emerges out of a conviction that there are many degrees of truth to the idea that experience is a great teacher. Its effectiveness seems to depend on how one's "experience" is mediated, and how "learning from it" is defined. This motivated me to think about design principles for linking people's experiences to learning. I began to explore, experimentally, how I might enhance people's abilities to notice, represent, and discuss their experiences in order to better learn from them. This study investigated how different ways of connecting outdoor learning experiences to formal schooling impacts students' performance. I studied high-school students in outdoor settings as they engaged in evocative issues of learning pertaining to consequential everyday life encounters. Different kinds of "expert mediation" were introduced and tested as the students engaged in investigative activities around the science of dam removal and habitat restoration. I measured outcomes with the aid of pre- and posttests, progressive self-assessments, and ethnographic observations. Since I argue that the idea of learning from experience is underspecified, I present empirical findings to show that experience per se is not enough. I discuss tools and other artifacts that help learners notice key dimensions of their experiences, and demonstrate how they link these to other aspects of their culture and lives. Findings indicate that a mediated approach does in fact help students outperform participants who only received the experience. A time for telling was also advantageous for students to improve learning and using technology to reduce cognitive load was instrumental in further improving their learning. Future plans are discussed to follow up on these findings and to implement new tests as the dams are removed and the natural habitat is restored. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Geography content in teaching materials is often overlooked, mislabeled as another subject, or generalized as social studies while ignoring the physical aspect of the subject. American educators generally do not recognize the breadth of geography because it is a subject in which they are often not familiar. This study used an interpretive content analysis of a sample of lesson plans from the U.S. National Park Service to measure geography content. The findings show that none of the sampled lessons included either national or state geography standards, although four independent coders and the researcher identified geographic content in 75% of the lesson plans. Categories chosen most frequently and least frequently are discussed and narrative examples that expose the content are given for each. The results show that the National Park Service is one organization that can improve the incorporation of education standards to include geography to accurately label the content of many lesson plans. Additionally, NPS should acknowledge environmental education's natural tie to geography as the interconnection of human and physical systems. An argument is made that educators in the U.S. need a greater understanding of the subject of geography. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This study took place in a high-achieving, suburban middle school and compared learning as a result of nine Grade 8 social studies workshops. Three classes (N=84) were the control group and four classes (N=131) were the treatment. As much as possible, classes were balanced in terms of gender, ethnicity, and proficiency in English. The key question is whether treatment workshops that include music, hands-on geography activities, and cultural studies could result in greater understanding of physical and cultural geography and more positive geography-related attitudes for students in the workshops, as compared to the control group who studied the standard curricula. Quantitative analyses compared baseline and follow-up results on a multiple-choice geography exam and an attitude survey. Four research questions asked if control or treatment workshops led to greater: (1) geographic understanding, measured by the National Council for Geographic Education (NCGE) Intermediate Standards-Based Geography Test; (2) improvement in geography-related attitudes, measured by the Test of Geography-Related Attitudes (ToGRA); (3) success on the NCGE or the ToGRA, when controlling for sub-groups (English learners, gender, low-achieving, ethnicity); and (4) understanding of connections between geography, history, and culture, as measured by qualitative observations, quick-writes, and focus group interviews. Analysis of Questions 1, 2, and 3 suggested statistically significant results. Question 1 analysis was performed on NCGE exam results, including tests for assumption of equal variance, parametric t-tests and the Wilcoxon non-parametric tests. Question 2 analyzed ToGRA results and suggested that treatment workshops resulted in greater improvement in geography-related attitudes. Group comparisons of change scores indicated statistically significant mean differences between control and treatment groups. Question 3 focused on regression results and suggested that the treatment intervention was more successful. For the NCGE follow-up, the effect size was large (0.854) and for the ToGRA, effect sizes were medium. For Question 4, qualitative measures included classroom observations, comparisons of quick-writes by students with similar characteristics, and focus group interviews. Qualitative data supported the quantitative results. An unanticipated outcome was greater writing fluency for treatment group students. This study also considered the possible impact of interest, motivation and affect on student learning. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Building on 18 months of fieldwork in the Bolivian highlands, this dissertation examines how traversing landscapes, through the mediation of spatial practices and spoken words, are embedded in systems of belief. By focusing on "wak'as" (i.e. sacred objects) and on how the inhabitants of the Altiplano relate to the Andean deities known as "wak'as," this dissertation links spatial practices with the larger power structures and historical forces shaping belief in the Bolivian highlands. My fieldwork found conflict and violence on both the interpersonal and the structural. In order to develop this argument I demonstrate how people's lives and communities are embroiled with and affected by "wak'as." Conversations, drawings, maps, transcriptions, and linguistic evidence provide the materials that enable me to understand and document the role that belief plays in observing objects charged with spiritual agency. This material reveals spaces of affect that are linked to the use and appropriation of the Spanish word "creencia" in the Aymara spoken lexicon. In Aymara, the word "creencias" has two fields of meanings. On the one hand "creencia" shares the Spanish sense of superstition as dismissal; on the other hand, "creencia" refers to the force and fear of "wak'as." The relationship to "wak'as" and speaking about them, thus, defines diverse modes of believing in the power of "wak'as" as to either harm or benefit an individual or a community. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Providing an Indian Studies field course in natural science, this dissertation includes: a sourcebook of pertinent reference materials; reservation specific sample lesson plans; natural science roadlogs; a syllabus designed to stress natural science processes and to serve as a unifying factor for field work, lecture, and course discussions. Emphasis is on geographical and ecological concepts, climatic and geological processes, and the natural habitats of North Dakota including discussion of North Dakota vertebrates and early man and his environment, geologic features and history, vegetation and animal life of each of the four North Dakota American Indian reservations. The following processes are identified as being used in the development of the syllabus and sourcebook: research and experimentation in teaching methods; design and implementation of a natural science field course based upon the syllabus; field observations of North Dakota geology and biology; interviews with resource persons on the various syllabus topics; and a study of pertinent literature. Maintaining that American Indians identify strongly with natural science concepts because their cultures have traditionally reflected the inter-relationship between man and nature and man's dependency upon nature, this thesis presents extensive information relative to the Turtle Mountain, Fort Berthold, Devils Lake Sioux, and Standing Rock Sioux Indian reservations. (Author/JC)

In this dissertation the author has surveyed reports of experimental studies comparing discovery-oriented instruction with expository instruction. The studies analyzed focused on retention or transfer and were concerned with five subject matter areas: mathematics, science, language, geography, and vocational education. The author reports that no clear evidence of a single superior method of teaching was indicated, but, rather, that many effective teaching strategies are available. Effective strategies can be based on discovery or expository approaches and are generally usable over a broad range of content fields. Observing that several of the studies reviewed had employed questionable research designs, statistical techniques, or instrumentation, the author provides guidelines for strengthening future research in the area. He also suggests questions and problems which emerge from his study and which might be the subject of future research. (SD)

This thesis discusses learning and teaching in geography at the college level and presents one model of learning which could serve as the basis of an introductory college grography course. The author interprets and alters two learning models previously presented to the geographic community: one model, developed by William D. Pattison, involves learning and the other model, developed by David Harvey, deals with scientific explanation. The activity-oriented model, designed by the author, offers one mode of teaching as an example of an alternative approach to the lecture method or a content-oreinted classroom. The activity--a regional problem involving map use--is described first in an idealized situation and then in actual classroom situations. The author states that all evaluations of the learning activity, the learning model, the students, and the instructor must consider whether the student has been allowed to become the central focus of the learning situation. The conclusion proferred is that the quality of geography education, as well as of people's understanding of themselves, others, and the world, will improve if the student rather than the subject becomes the focus of education. The appendix includes an activity evaluation form and a selected bibliography. (Author/DDB)

This paper justifies the teaching of cartography in secondary schools and expands graphic knowledge by providing a formal graphic language simulation lesson. The cartographer's task, decisions, and methodologies are approximated by the use of this role playing scenario. Students assume the roles of map authors who are contracted to draw up a set of maps depicting the fire damage risk for the properties in a one block area of an industrial city. Using the materials provided--including photographs, census data, hydrant and fire alarm locations, traffic flow charts, and building locations--students familiarize themselves with the data and set about attacking the problem. The end products of their work are maps which are evaluated by the class to see who will be awarded a further contract. The final section examines the simulation for its value as a decision-making exercise, its conveyance of the cartographic system, and as a communication exercise in self-expression. (Author/DE)

The major purpose of this study was to compare self-instructional mastery and nonmastery treatments to determine if there are differences in learning, retention, and time-to-testing of high, middle, and low aptitude students. Twenty grade 7 classes from the Savannah-Chatham County School District served as the experimental population. Students were tested for placement in one of three levels of aptitude; then, classes were randomly assigned to two groups and treatment was randomly assigned to groups. The nonmastery treatment received a student text and a workbook which contained prescribed activities and a single review test for each chapter. The mastery treatment received the same student text; however, the chapters in the workbook contained two review tests. If the criterion level was not attained in the first review test, mastery students were required to correct and relearn material and then take a second review test. A multiple choice test and recall test was administered to measure learning and retention of the content materials. Findings showed that differences in aptitude were not reduced when self-instructional materials were used. An implication of this study is, however, that the lack of teacher monitoring in administering the review tests may have contributed to the poor performance of low aptitude students, since typically low aptitude students require close supervision. (Author/ND)

This study is an assessment of the effect of three criterion mastery levels and aptitude on the achievement, retention, and attitude of seventh grade students using a population geography text. The three criterion levels used were 90 percent, 80 percent, and 70 percent of the correct responses on each of 41 lessons in "Population Growth in the United States and Mexico." Aptitude was measured by a word meaning text. Aptitude was a major independent variable because of the premise that mastery procedures may overcome achievement difficulties of low aptitude students. Contrary to most of the literature on mastery learning, the results indicate that mastery on formative exercises did not contribute to higher levels of achievement on the summative test. The study also failed to show that achievement, retention, or attitude toward the unit differed among the three criterion groups. The study confirmed that previous knowledge, as measured by a word meaning test, was a more potent factor in achievement than were differential criterion levels. (Author/DE)

Geographic illiteracy is prevalent in schools today. The objectives of this practicum were to increase 85 percent of the target group's geographic knowledge by 40 percent and to increase parental involvement with the academic success of the student by 40 percent. Activity sheets were created covering political boundaries, landforms, neighboring nations, and practice/review maps. A student/parent/teacher communication form was developed. It was noted that geographic literacy was increased. Appendices include pre/posttest, student/parent/teacher communication form, student/parent/teacher awareness checklist, activities checklist, and pre/posttest percentage comparison. (Author/DB)