The purpose of this action research was to improve reading comprehension and student engagement in a hybrid learning environment as measured by performance on reading comprehension assessments and student self-reporting surveys. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I conducted classes for the 2020-2021 school year in a hybrid model. In my ninth grade…

This mildly academic tome consists mainly of a full length play that reports the findings of the case study research. The play is surrounded by some academic gobbledygook that should best be ignored. The play explores an older nontraditional student's foray into the academic world of a combined Masters of Education and Teacher Education program.…

This study traces the controversy over the classification of children according to their ability from its origins in the development of the mental testing movement after 1916. The campaign to organize the schools largely on the basis of standardized tests of intelligence drew substantial support after 1920 from the development of research bureaus…

This dissertation combines linguistics, sociology, aesthetics, and psychology to explore the philosophical and pedagogical assumptions which currently provide the framework for answering the question, "What is English?" The theories of Piaget, Langer, Mead, and Berger and Luckmann are used to define two essential terms: presentational and…

This thesis proposes a philosophical foundation for literary instruction, based on several theories and philosophies of language and literature and on studies of student response to literature. Burke submits that literary art and common language uses find their origins in man's unique proclivity for creating symbols. Church agrees, arguing that…

The purpose of this document is to focus on the problem of the appropriate and efficient evaluation of innovative, nontraditional institutions of higher education. The applicability of the traditional standards of an academic self-study to the Walden experience is described and assessed. Information was gathered on the Walden alumni, the…

This doctoral dissertation examines the concept of a general education over the past 30 years and presents a rationale for introducing the study of cultural heritage through a study of world literature in the English class. Chapter 1 argues that the study of world literature is an important part of the general education curriculum in a…

In this study, a program for teaching poetry writing in secondary schools is derived from Kenneth Koch's and Theodore Roethke's ideas, and from Erik Erikson's model of adolescent human processes. A review of related literature defines three major approaches to the teaching of poetry writing: models, activities, and models and activities combined.…

This dissertation examines the philosophies of Matthew Arnold and William Wordsworth in the attempt to provide a historical basis for a humanistic approach to the teaching of English. Arnold focused on the intellect, considering reading to be a criticism of life, while Wordsworth was concerned with feeling--emotions stimulated by experience and…

The purpose of this doctoral dissertation is to examine extensively the general development of the Illinois junior college. Primary sources available at the University of Chicago, the State Historical Library and the State Archives in Springfield, and university libraries around the state, heretofore unused, are brought together in one general…

Reconstructionism is an extension and elaboration of the progressivist philosophy of education developed by John Dewey and his intellectual associates. Thomas Brameld also views reconstructionism as the beginning of a new philosphy of education, and this dissertation develops an approach to teaching literature that functions with Brameld's views.…

Applying the principles of American Pragmatism to college composition offers a solution to the general problems of program design, syllabi development, instructional effectiveness, and student behavior modification. American Pragmatism involves the classic problems of meaning and knowledge. These problems stem from the linguistic possibility of…

This field study report recounts an action research project undertaken by an elementary school teacher to reflect on her practice as a teacher. After a review of the literature on using reflection for personal and professional growth, the ethnographic methodology employed in the study is discussed. The teacher action-researcher took 117 pages of…

An analytical scheme is developed in this study from selected theoretical perspectives on the nature of science and the concept of teaching. The divergent interpretations of science of several science philosophers are examined and used to develop five dimensions of the analytical scheme. Selected philosophical analyses of the concept of teaching…

This report presents a discussion of the educational philosophy of community college instructors and provides results of a study of full-time faculty members at Elizabethtown Kentucky Community College (EKCC) conducted to compare the philosophy and values of community college faculty and the implications of the differences among faculty for…