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Item The Influence of Bibliotherapy on Gender-Role Attitudes of Gifted Female Adolescents Enrolled in a Magnet Program for the Gifted(The University of Alabama, 1998) Weber, Diane R.By age eight, she was the state champion in gymnastics in her age group. In school she was ahead of her classmates (both girls and boys) and was at the top of her class in ballet and piano. She blossomed into a beautiful, talented, popular, and bouncy cheerleader by the seventh grade. She dreamed of going to a highly selective college and then off to New York as a psychiatrist or dance therapist. Two long years later, she was passing her classes with low C's, if pushed, and talked of perhaps going to the community college. She graduated from high school, dropped out of community college, moved to her own apartment and waited tables at an Italian restaurant. What happened to the dreams of the energetic, gifted girl of junior high? Adolescence has been blamed for squeezing emerging butterflies back into their cocoons for a few more years before they finally take flight, and it seems that gifted adolescents, especially girls, tend to feel this squeeze of adolescence more intensely than their nongifted peers. In recent years, the question has plagued many researchers: Are there any interventions that can tame the influences of these social stressors on adolescent females (Alfeld -Liro et al., 1997; Anderson & Tollefson, 1991; Bowman & Nickerson, 1976; Burnett et al., 1995; Colangelo, K. et al., 1997; Colangelo, N., 1997; Fehrenbach, 1993; Ford, 1997; Hanson, 1995; Hebert, 1991; Hollinger, 1983; Kerr, 1995; Madill et al., 1997; Matteson, 1991; Strip et al., 1991; Newton, 1995; Pardeck, 1991; Schlichter & Burke, 1994' ; Silverman, 1991; VanTassel-Baska, 1997).Item A Design for a Prototype Day-Care Center for Use in Arab Republic of Egypt Using the Minimum Standards of Day-Care Centers in the United States of America(The University of Alabama, 1983) Farid, Maha MohamedIn the last few decades, the number of employed women in the Arab Republic of Egypt has increased rapidly. The women's liberation movement at the beginning of the twentieth century gave women the right to remove the veil, the symbol of traditions which had prevented them from being in touch with society and from being educated by attending universities. Today, large numbers of Egyptian women are employed in order to support their families or attend universities to fulfill their own needs. They strive to be financially productive and to achieve personal goals. This situation created the critical need for women to have suitable and safe places to keep their children during work or school hours. As the need for child care grew, the understanding of the importance of the quality of child care increased. Most families who chose to enroll their children in child-care centers realized the importance of the quality of the center, but few centers of high quality were available.Item Development of a Prototype Curriculum in Interior Design Baccalaureate Program for Training Design Professionals in Nigeria(The University of Alabama, 1981) Awoyemi, BosunDue to the fact that interior design is a complex profession based on a wide range of subject-matter areas, a professional in the field is expected to have learned a great deal about most of these areas during his or her training. Because of this complexity and lack of definition of scope, much has been said about the training of interior designers during their academic preparation. Past curriculum studies and surveys have been based on both subjective and objective opinions of individuals and groups in terms of the composition and structure of an interior design program. Rarely has any been undertaken to address the issue of curriculum in terms of the profession and the impact of its services on the society. Moreover, in contrast to numerous surveys and research studies of interior design devoted to curriculum matters, rarely have any been undertaken in a comprehensive international perspective. This direction seems necessary considering today's scope of interior design professional practice which has taken many American interior design companies and individuals to work in countries outside the United States.Item An Evaluation of Student Placement Procedures for Eighth-Grade Algebra(The University of Alabama, 1995) Rogers, Carrie. A.The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) has recommended a number of changes in the mathematics curriculum content for middle school students in grades 5-8. Included in the summary of changes is increased attention to the development of an understanding of variables, expressions, and equations in an informal investigation of algebra. According to the recommendation, this informal study should be available to all students (NCTM, 1989). Although the recommendation emphasizes an informal study of algebra some students in the middle grades will engage in a formal study, despite the fact that it is begun and completed more often in 9lh grade than at any other time (Usiskin, 1987).Item Monumental Buildings Constructed in Tuscaloosa, Alabama between 1887 and 1925: A Survey of Building Materials Used in the Designs of the Exterior and Interior Surfaces(The University of Alabama, 1984) Rainey, StellaThe Alabama Territory was admitted into the Union in 1819, to become the twenty-first state. In 1820 the State Assembly organized the State Bank of Alabama and provided funds for the construction of its building in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. During the next hundred years, hundreds of other banks were chartered. They were grouped into eight categories: Territorial, Muggins, Free Charter, Savings, State Bank of Alabama, private, U.S. National, and State (Fitts, 1891). The building materials used in these banking houses, both structural and decorative, reflected various styles that responded to changes in national style trends, traditional use of building materials, new uses of building materials as created by the Industrial Revolution, and by the perceptions of architects toward the appearance of bank buildings.Item Implementing the NCTM Standards in a Traditional Classroom(The University of Alabama, 1995) Nation, Myrna H.For more than a quarter of this century, change in mathematics education has been proposed in the United States. According to Hatfield and Price (1992), change fell short in the 1950s and 1960s because reforms were typically headed by college mathematicians and were directed toward improving textbooks. This top-down reform failed to reach the students it desired to assist. It was concluded by the Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences, National Advisory Committee on Mathematical Education, that the "new math" was never implemented in the classroom even though it was detailed in various textbooks. Evans (1993) reiterated that the realities of implementation were largely neglected by those who tried to compel change by mandate, forgetting that change must be accomplished by people. People most affected by this restructuring were teachers, many of whom were resistant to change. SAT scores in mathematics fell from 498 in I960 to 473 in 1975 (Bennett, 1994). The National Advisory Committee on Mathematics Education (1975) reported criticism of the new methods as being too formal and placing too much stress on mathematical terms. The public called for an end to these innovative math programs and a return to teacher lecturing and student computation in the elementary grades (Daane, 1992).Item Effects of Student Self-Monitoring Behavior on Classroom Management in a First-Grade Classroom(University of Alabama Libraries, 2004) Owen, SarahOff-task behavior interferes with classroom management and student learning. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of student self monitoring behavior on their on task behavior in the learning environment, while increasing academic productivity and accuracy with first-grade students.Item Assessing the Impact of Inclusive Education(The University of Alabama, 1995) Freeman, Leroy E.Beginning in the fall of 1992, the author and two other teachers (representing two third-grade regular education classes and one third grade MR class of children with measured IQs of less than 70) began to meet regularly to discuss how the MR students could better be mainstreamed in the two regular education classes. Problems had been noticed over several years that seemed to weaken the effort to mainstream. With the instructional emphasis moving toward a more integrated day, it was felt the MR students missed a large portion of instruction vital to the hour they were included in the regular education classroom. Regular education students were often resentful of the MR students coming into the classroom, especially as the MR students began to present bizarre behavior or discipline problems to compensate for their lack of ease with being in a different classroom with different expectations. Frequently the most detailed lessons proved too difficult for MR students or not challenging enough for regular education students, meaning valuable learning time was lost for both groups. By the end of each school year, the mainstreaming was done less frequently and with less success. Children in both classes were soundly threatened about behavior and attitudes, with actual learning taking a beleagured third place. In the individual classes, students were taking more of an "us versus them" attitude about each other. MR students (and even their teacher) tended to be singled out as less than adequate, with the resulting student behavior becoming more bizarre and difficult to manage as the school year wore on.Item Integrating the Visual Arts into the Writing Process(The University of Alabama, 1995) Cowan, Kay W.The major purpose of the study was to examine the effects of integrating visual arts and writing instruction at the intermediate level. The effects of the integrated instruction on writing achievement and on the number of unassigned writing samples was analyzed. The subjects were forty-six fifth grade students from a public school in northwest Georgia. They were administered The Young Georgia Authors' Rating Scale as a pretest to determine their competency in writing. They were treated for seven months with integrated writing/visual arts instruction. At the end of the seven month period, they were administered The Young Georgia Authors' Rating Scale as a posttest to determine the progress they had made in writing during the time of the treatment. The pre- and post test scores were analyzed for statistical significance using a test for correlated means set at the 0.05 level of confidence. The results of the test strongly support the hypotheses of the study. There was a significant difference between the pre- and post test scores of students whose writing instruction had been integrated with visual art instruction. Other significant findings of the study were: the total number of writing samples increased during the period of the treatment by 41%; there was a very strong positive correlation between the total number of samples entered in the writing portfolio during the period of the treatment and the posttest writing score; the greatest increase in number of writing samples came in poetry; and there was a strong positive correlation between number of poems written and a high posttest score on the writing test. The findings of this study support the use of an integrated visual arts/writing curriculum.Item The Effects of Recorded Books on Reading Comprehension in Sixth-Grade Classrooms(University of Alabama Libraries, 2004) Wallace, Beth GibbsThe improvement of reading comprehension in the sixth- grade classroom is of great importance to teachers. There is a need to examine ways in which to improve reading comprehension and actively engage all students in their learning. The purpose of this study was to determine if listening to a book as it was read increased reading comprehension. The participants in the study were students in the teacher-researcher's sixth-grade classes. Data were collected from a posttest utilizing the Accelerated Reader comprehension assessment. The researcher also interviewed 20% of the students who were part of the experimental group in this study. The results of the study showed no significant increase in comprehension scores, although the student interviews revealed that the students liked to use the recording and thought that it helped them read.Item Writing for Science Literacy: The Effects of Journal Writing on Student Achievement in Science in Grade 6(University of Alabama Libraries, 2004) Fowler, MelisaForty-four sixth-grade students participated in a four-week research study. The students were divided into two groups. One group engaged in science instruction utilizing journals, and the other group used no journals. Data were collected through student pre- and posttests, questionnaires, and interviews. Teacher grades were also examined. While the pre-test, posttest, and teacher grades produced findings of little significance, the questionnaires and interviews indicated positive student perceptions of journal writing as an instructional method.Item The Effects of Using Manipulatives in Teaching Mathematical Problem Solving(The University of Alabama, 2003) Slaughter, KellieThis study examined how manipulatives effected student achievement in mathematical problem solving while improving student attitude. Eight third grade students of a Title I school participated in the study. These students received fourteen twenty-minute instructional sessions followed by a probe. The use of manipulatives served as the intervention. Students were only allowed to use manipulatives in the last seven sessions. Data was collected from the first seven sessions and compared to the last seven sessions. Students were also given a pre and post survey to gain insight into the attitudes of the students. The results showed a gain in achievement for all eight students. The pre survey showed a less than positive attitude toward solving mathematical word problems. The post survey showed a more neutral opinion about mathematical problem solving.Item The Role of Games and Activities in Spelling Instruction(The University of Alabama, 1995) Booth, Suzanne L.; Ridgway, Kaye W.Perhaps one of the most frequently asked questions in the elementary classroom today is "Teacher, how do I spell...?" Every occasion that calls for writing requires spelling skills. Few people go through life without the need to spell - even if it is only our names. Without the power of spelling words correctly, individuals feel inadequate in communicating with others. "Spelling is neither the most important nor the least important aspect in writing; it is a crucial ingredient" (Graham and Miller, 1979, p. 4). Few people will argue with the point that correct spelling improves written communication and often serves as a status symbol in today's society. "Accurate spelling is highly valued by society. This is understandable, as conventional spelling does facilitate written communication. If children are denied an opportunity to learn conventional spelling, they could be greatly disadvantaged" (Snowball and Bolton, 1993, p. 2). If we are to help tomorrow's spellers become good communicators, we must begin with today's students.Item Effectiveness of Readers Theatre and Art as Instructional Strategies to Enhance Reading Comprehension(University of Alabama Libraries, 2003) Hosier, Julie WinchesterThis study examined the effectiveness of Readers Theatre and Art as instructional strategies to enhance reading comprehension. The purpose of this study is to examine the results of adding drama into the reading curriculum versus another activity such as an artistic activity. Readers Theater was developed as a convenient and effective means to present literary works in dramatic form. There is no memorization involved. Students have the literature in front of them the entire time. Art activities such as water coloring and tracing, similar to those used by the author of Ming lo Moves the Mountain, were used in the control method. Twenty fourth grade students were randomly assigned to one of the three groups; two Readers Theatre experimental groups of seven students each and one Art control group consisting of six subjects. Students participated in daily, 60 minute, small-group training sessions over a period of three weeks. A comprehension recall checklist of events of Ming Lo Moves the Mountain was used on each subject at the end of each week. Recall points were calculated and compared by teacher during the duration of the study. Students also wrote reflective narratives about experience in assigned groups. After data analysis, the findings suggest that the Readers Theatre groups' comprehension of Ming Lo Moves the Mountain was higher than that of the Art group. Over the course of the study, all students' recall improved. Qualitative data found in the students' writings suggest that the majority of students enjoyed either activity.Item Altering Students' Alternative Conseptions Through Inquiry(University of Alabama Libraries, 2003) Robb, RebaThe purpose of this study was to investigate children's understandings of the concepts of energy in the form of electricity following inquiry-based instruction with the use of conceptual strategies. The questions directing this investigation were: 1) What is the nature of student's alternative conceptions about electrical energy prior to inquiry-based instruction with the use of conceptual strategies? 2) What is the nature of student's alternative conceptions about electrical energy following inquiry-based instruction with the use of conceptual strategies? This study was conducted in a sixth grade class at a middle school located in a small suburban city. This was the first year that the teacher researcher had taught science and the curriculum was somewhat new. As a teacher, this research was beneficial in order to improve the researcher's teaching methods as well as to encourage her students to become better learners. In this study a situation was created to provoke conceptual change in accordance with the framework of research concerning students' alternative conceptions on energy. The students' alternative conceptions had previously been identified by means of an interview administered by the classroom teacher. The class teacher selected the three members of the sample group because they were representative of the classroom population. Students' levels of understanding were scored using a rubric. All students' individual levels of understanding moved towards a more scientific conception of a simple circuit, electric currents, and determining how a flashlight worked.Item The Use of Graphic Organizers in Fifth Grade Social Studies Instruction(University of Alabama Libraries, 1997) Brown, Loretta G.Elementary social studies teachers are faced with the task of ensuring that each student get as much information and gain as much knowledge as possible from the instruction that is provided. A common observation among classroom teachers and reading researchers is that students in the middle school frequently have difficulty understanding and remembering what they have read in content area textbooks. Since these textbooks become increasingly more important as students advance through school, it is imperative that middle grade students learn how to read and study content area material (Berkowitz, 1986). This is one of the most difficult reading tasks for students (Holley & Dansereau, 1984), so teachers must search for ways in which to make this reading easier, more enjoyable, and more understandable. One means of accomplishing this is through the use of graphic organizers. This study will examine the effects of one graphic organizer strategy, semantic mapping, on fifth-grade students during a social studies unit.Item What Happens When You Give A Sixth-Grader A Calculator?(University of Alabama Libraries, 2003) Childress, Sharon M.Students in public schools in the southeast are performing in last place for math in grades 8 and 12, according to the report card of the National Center for Education Statistics. The subjects for this study came from a K-8 school in a small rural community located in the southeastern United States. Seventy-nine percent of the students in the school receive free or reduced lunches. The study involved one mathematics class of24 sixth-grade students. There were 8 females and 16 males in the class. This study took place in the third 9-week grading period. Three sources of data were used in the study: a) interviews with nine children, three each from groups of high, middle and low students, b) data from a teacher insight journal which contained a record of students' comments and activities and the teacher's own reflections about the intervention, c) and children's responses to tests given prior to and after the intervention. Texas Instrument TI-10 calculators were used in the study. Two forms of the pretest were designed for the study, which contained 28 items on a criterion referenced test. A classroom mathematics expert located at the same school checked the tests for validity. The types of problems on the tests were: rounding to different place values, estimating, finding the product or quotient, divisibility of numbers, equivalent fractions, improper fractions, mixed numbers, perimeter, area, and word problems. To answer the first question of the study, Will sixth-grade students be able to use calculators to solve problems more proficiently? a paired samples t-test was conducted to evaluate whether there was a significant increase in the post-test scores after the intervention. The results indicated the mean of the post-test (M=l6.17) was significantly greater than the mean of the pre-test (M=I0.46), at the confidence level of p < .05. To answer the second question, What insights will a teacher, inexperienced in the use of calculators, acquire when she introduces calculators into the mathematics classroom? interviews with students and a teacher's reflective journal was used. The journal revealed that students stayed on-task a majority of the time while they were using calculators. Independently, students made discoveries into various ways to use a calculator, as well as different ways to solve problems. Student initiated cooperative learning was observed on a regular basis. The students showed pride in their work by wanting to complete or correct their work before turning it in. Positive statements indicated that students' ability to do math was increasing. The interviews with nine students revealed that all of them have had some prior experience with calculators, whether at home, school, or both. All of the students indicated that they thought calculators were good to have in math class. Although the debate still rages as to whether we should or should not use calculators in the classroom, the reality of the society in which we live should not be forgotten. Today's society is a technological one and students should become adept at using computers and other forms of technology, including calculators, to access knowledge and perform numerous basic skills.Item Part I, Solution Route to Advanced Ceramics ; Part II, A Study of the Photodissociation of Phosphine(University of Alabama Libraries, 1990) Stephens, Keith MaxwellI. Solution Routes to Advanced Ceramics: The solution-based synthesis of ceramic powders is one method of controlling and improving their properties. Examples of two different classes of advanced ceramics, the bismuth-based family of high-temperature (high-Tc) superconductors and the ceramic matrix composite (CMC) "TiAlON", have been prepared using solution-based routes. The resulting materials were characterized using four-probe (ac) resistance versus temperature, x-ray powder diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, and surface area analysis. The solution-synthetic method for the high-Tc superconductors is based on well defined, soluble, stable and readily available metallorganic precursors. The materials prepared by this method exhibited higher densities and showed slight improvements in electrical properties when compared to those obtained from conventional solid-state methods. The "TiAION" composite prepared from the solution synthesis presented here was found to have greater surface area, which is indicative of smaller particle size, than the corresponding samples obtained from solid-state processing techniques. Such improvements in the characteristics of ceramic materials are an expected consequence of solution preparation and were the goal of this research. II. A Study of the Photodissociation of Phosphine: The photochemistry of phosphine (PH3) is of interest for a variety of reasons, including the presence of the molecule in the atmosphere of Jupiter and Saturn and potential applications in the growth of semiconductors via metallorganic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The ground electronic state PH2 resulting from the photodissociation of phosphine was studied by laser induced fluorescence (LIF) spectroscopy. Results of this work indicate that little or no PH2 is created in this state as a direct result of photodissociation, but instead is formed by secondary processes. Possible sources include chemical reactions and relaxation from excited vibrational and electronic states. The kinetics of secondary processes were studied by collecting LIF signal as a function of delay time between creation and detection of the fragment.Item A Literature-Based Versus a Textbook-Only Approach in History: Comparing Achievement and Attitude(University of Alabama Libraries, 2002) Willis, Nancy T.This study was conducted to compare the effectiveness of using a themed, literature-based/textbook approach versus a traditional, textbook-only approach on content acquisition growth and attitude in elementary history. Two groups of 23 students each participated in a four-week, fourth grade Civil War unit. Group One, known as the experimental group, was taught using a themed, literature-based/textbook approach, while Group Two, known as the control group, had a traditional, textbook instruction. It was found that both groups achieved significantly during the study, while the themed, literature-based group achieved at a higher level than did the control group. Post-study attitude survey scores indicated that neither group had a significant difference in attitude.Item The Effect of Student Repeated Reading and Retell on the Story Comprehension of First Graders(University of Alabama Libraries, 2003) Hite, NevaIn order to raise the reading comprehension scores on the Stanford Achievement Test to the fifty-second percentile at the school in this study, alternative instructional methods are needed. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of student repeated reading and repeated retell on story comprehension of first graders. The 10 students selected participated in a three-phase study using repeated reading and retell. Data consisted of audio taped retells collected after the first and third reading of two different books. Comprehension scores and the inclusion of story components were based on the number of idea units retold. In the second phase the components of story and the retell process were discussed before, during, and after repeated reading. The teacher modeled and students practiced retell. The results of this study suggest that repeated reading and retell increased comprehension but not to the degree as after retell intervention. When comparing the inclusion of story components the results reflected retell intervention increases comprehension. However, not all students seemed to benefit from intervention. The results implied that individual gains in comprehension were not related to reading level. When comparing leveled groups, students in the average group seemed to benefit more.