Study and teaching

The accountability measures implemented by the states as a result of federal government mandates required by the No Child Left Behind Act (2001 [NCLB]) have created the need for states to develop standardized benchmark assessments as part of the compliance requirements set by the federally mandated act. State and local standardized tests have become an everyday part of public school life. A quantitative study was conducted to assess the correlation of students' scores on the reading portion of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) and students' reading percent scale-scores on one Florida county's benchmark reading assessment (CBAT) with students' teacher-assigned grades (TAG) for 10th-grade, English Language Arts courses. The study also assessed the predictive values of the 3 criterion variables and the moderating effects of 6 categorical variables: Race (White, Black, and Hispanic), Socioeconomic status (SES), English Language Learner status (ELL), and Students with Disabilities status (SWD), which contribute to Florida's Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) ranking of school grading policy. The study found that there was a moderate and positive correlation among the 3 criterion variables and that the combination of students' scores on the reading portions of both the CBAT and the FCAT showed a significant predictive value in predicting students' TAG. The study showed an even higher predictive value of the combination of students' scores on the CBAT and students' TAG in predicting students' scores on the FCAT. The study showed there was a moderating effect of the categorical variable Race on the correlation between students' CBAT reading scores and students' TAG; however, Race did not moderate the correlation between students' scores on FCAT and students' TAG.

The purpose of this research was to identify if 1) there is a difference in student achievement between students who use the GeoLeg manipulative tool and students who use a traditional compass, protractor, and ruler on the same geometry unit; 2) there is a difference in student achievement between the genders between those who use the GeoLeg manipulative tool and those students who do not; and 3) there is a relationship between identified learning styles and student achievement on a geometry unit posttest after using the GeoLeg manipulative tool. There were 317 students in the study. The research found that students using the GeoLeg manipulative tool produced significantly better student performance on a posttest in this particular school setting. Although these results cannot be generalized to other school sites, it is plausible that these results could generalize to school sites whose demographics are similar. The research findings revealed that there was no statistically significant difference between male and female students within the treatment group. The significant finding is that the GeoLeg manipulative tool appears to work equally well with both genders. None of the learning styles, as identified by the Honey and Mumford Learning Styles Questionnaire, were correlated with student posttest score achievement on the tested geometry unit. In addition, there was no evidence to suggest that a student's learning style moderates the effectiveness of the use of the GeoLeg manipulative tool. There is no evidence to suggest that the effectiveness of the GeoLeg manipulative tool is any different depending upon the student's gender or learning style. The results of this research provide strong support for the use of the GeoLeg manipulative tool for improving student performance. Further research is needed to confirm these results in similar and different populations.

This study explored the types and uses of informal, on-the-job learning occurring among American Speech-Language-Hearing (ASHA)-certified Speech-Language Pathologists (SLPs) working in medical settings as part of a rehabilitation team. In addressing this purpose, a qualitative, phenomenological approach to research methodology was used. Participants were selected through a process of purposeful sampling, each meeting the criteria of having earned the Certificate of Clinical Competence in Speech-Language Pathology from ASHA and working in a medical setting as part of a rehabilitation team. Twenty-four SLPs from varying demographic profiles took part in one of three online data collection methods. Nine participants completed a computer-mediated interview, 11 participants completed an online journal entry and 4 participants completed a virtual focus group method. All data collection methods were accomplished via internet technologies. Data analysis was performed through a process of thematic analysis and resulted in four significant findings. First, both internal and external forces triggered SLPs to learn informally in the medical workplace. Also, SLPs went through an individually-determined, goal-directed process when learning informally in the medical workplace. SLPs used a combination of collaboration, workplace experience and research to learn informally in the medical workplace. And finally, SLPs employed informal learning activities for the purpose of meeting personal, patient and organizational needs.

System justification theorists have proposed that people will defend one's circumstances, even if they inflict psychological and material costs. This tendency has been found to extend even to outcomes that have not yet been decided, but are perceived as being likely; however, this research has only examined outcomes that will be decided on in the near future. According to Construal Level Theory (CLT), distant future events are represented primarily according to their essential features, while thoughts about temporally near events are more concrete and contextual. We hypothesized that system justification results from the motivational impact of low-level thinking, and so would be expected to occur for near-future, but not distant-future, outcomes. Consistent with our hypothesis, our Main Study found evidence of system justification only when outcomes were to be decided in the near future. Distant future outcomes, in contrast, were viewed as being more undesirable as they became increasingly likely.