There has been a long history of studying library users and their information seeking behaviors and activities. Researchers developed models to better understand these information seeking behaviors and activities of users. Most of these models were developed before the onset of the Internet. This research project studied faculty members' use of and their information seeking behaviors and activities on the Internet at Angelo State University, a Master's I institution. Using both a quantitative and qualitative methodology, differences were found between tenured and tenure-track faculty members on the perceived value of the Internet to meet their research and classroom information needs. Similar differences were also found among faculty members in the broad discipline areas of the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Tenure-track faculty members reported a higher average Internet use per week than tenured faculty members. Based on in-depth, semi-structured interviews with seven tenured and seven tenure-track faculty members, an Internet Information Seeking Activities Model was developed to describe the information seeking activities on the Internet by faculty members at Angelo State University. The model consisted of four basic stages of activities: "Gathering," "Validating," "Linking" with a sub-stage of "Re-validating," and "Monitoring." There were two parallel stages included in the model. …

The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of Intensive Filial Therapy in: (a) improving the self-concept of child witnesses of domestic violence; (b) reducing internalizing behavior problems, such as withdrawal, somatic complaints, anxiety and depression, of child witnesses of domestic violence; (c) reducing externalizing behavior problems, such as aggression and delinquency, of child witnesses of domestic violence; (d) reducing overall behavior problems of child witnesses of domestic violence; and (e) increasing communication of empathy between mothers and child witnesses of domestic violence. A second objective of this study was to compare the effectiveness of Intensive Filial Therapy with Intensive Individual Play Therapy and Intensive Sibling Group Play Therapy with child witnesses of domestic violence. The experimental group consisted of 11 child witnesses of domestic violence whose mothers received 12 Intensive Filial Therapy training sessions within a three week period and had 12 mother-child play sessions. The Intensive Individual Play Therapy comparison group, consisting of 11 child witnesses, and the non-treatment control group, consisting of 11 child witnesses, were utilized from the Kot (1995) study. The Intensive Sibling Group Play Therapy comparison group was utilized from the Tyndall-Lind (1999) study. Children in all studies completed the Joseph Preschool …

The Wide Range Assessment of Memory and Learning (WRAML) is a relatively new instrument used in the assessment of memory in children. The purpose of this study was to examine the validity of the WRAML by comparing the performance of children on both the WRAML and the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Cognitive Ability- Revised (WJTCA-R). Subjects for the study were children in treatment for a brain tumor at a regional children's medical center. Fifty children participated in the study ranging from ages 6 to 17. A multiple regression analysis was conducted to determine which of four selected clusters from the WJTCA-R would have the highest correlation with the Verbal Memory Index (VERI) from the WRAML. The Short-Term Memory (GSM) cluster had the highest correlation ( r = .82) as predicted. A Pearson's product-moment correlational analysis was conducted between the Visual Processing (GV) cluster from the WJTCA-R and the Visual Memory Index (VISI) from the WRAML. GV was found to have a high positive correlation ( r = .63) with VISI. A similar analysis was conducted between the Long-Term Retrieval (GLR) cluster from the WJTCA-R and the Learning Index (LRNI) from the WRAML. GLR was found to have a high positive correlation …

The problem of this study was the identification of effective and efficient means of providing quality staff development for reading instruction within a school-district setting. The study investigated the comparative effectiveness of two staff development delivery systems measured by 1) a cognitive test of a school district's reading program and 2) an affective measure of teacher attitudes toward staff development. The sample was drawn from the teacher population of a large urban school district. The 46 subjects were elementary school teachers in grades K-5 randomly divided into two groups: Group A (videotape with a trained on-site facilitator) and Group B (face-to-face live presenter). Participants in the study received training using "The Fort Worth Reading Program," a staff development program designed by the researcher. In addition to the presentation of content information, which is the central component, the program features small group discussions, off-line activities, and question and answer periods. Both groups received the same treatment with the following exception. A central component to the Group A training was the presentation of content information in a videotape format. Group B did not view the videotape, but received the same information via live presenter. Two instruments developed by the researcher were used …

The purpose of this study was to determine if leadership training, given to informal leaders, had a positive effect on manufacturing productivity. The leadership attributes of informal leaders were assessed using the Leader Attributes Inventory (LAI). Furthermore, the performance of informal leaders was measured using the Leader Effectiveness Index (LEI). Non-management employees from various departments in a manufacturing facility were placed in one of four experimental groups. A Solomon four-group experimental design was employed. A one-group pretest-posttest design was used to control threats to internal validity. The one-way analysis of variance procedure (ANOVA) was used to determine if there were statistically significant increases in manufacturing productivity of informal leaders. Findings suggested that training increased the manufacturing productivity of informal leaders. The increased productivity indicated that leadership training could help manufacturing facilities increase their productivity without capital expenditures. Findings did not indicate a statistically significant difference in leadership attributes. Findings also suggested there were no significant differences in the manufacturing productivity between employees with high leader attributes and low leader attributes. Based on this study, leadership training, given to non-management employees, may yield gains in manufacturing productivity.

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between sixth grade students' academic achievement levels in math and their perceptions of school climate. Student characteristics of socioeconomic status and gender were used to identify groups for the purpose of data analysis. Data was gathered using the five independent variables of the My Class Inventory (satisfaction, friction, competitiveness, difficulty, and cohesiveness) and the dependent variable of the Stanford Achievement Total Math scores. The results of the data collection were tested using a Pearson product-moment analysis and a backward multiple regression analysis. A univariate analysis of variance was also used to compare the five independent variables of the My Class Inventory as well as to compare socioeconomic status and gender with the Stanford Achievement Total Math scores. The schools selected for this study were from a city in Texas with a population of approximately 100,000. The sample consisted of 262 sixth grade mathematics students. The findings of this study are as follows: (a) The Pearson product-moment correlation analysis revealed little, if any, correlation for any of the five subscale predictor variables; (b) the multiple regression analysis revealed that all five classroom climate indicators combined together could explain only 10.5% of …

The purpose of this study was to identify and analyze sales people's perceptions of performance appraisal criteria in a telecommunications corporation. The study was prompted by the perceived disillusionment of the sales people with the current performance appraisal criteria. The perceptions of 67 sales people were assessed using a questionnaire developed by the researcher. One-way analysis of variance procedures (ANOVA) were used to determine if there were statistically significant differences in premise and telemarketing sales people's perceptions of performance appraisal criteria. Findings indicated that there were no statistically significant difference in premise and telemarketing sales people's perceptions of the 38 performance appraisal criteria statements. Findings did not indicate a statistically significant difference in premise and telemarketing sales people's perceptions of the performance criteria statements, the attitude or satisfaction statements, and the peripheral issue statements. Based on this study, the sales people appear to have clear perceptions of the performance appraisal criteria.

This study modeled changes in pre-service teacher efficacy in mathematics and science over the course of the final year of teacher preparation using latent transition analysis (LTA), a longitudinal form of analysis that builds on two modeling traditions (latent class analysis (LCA) and auto-regressive modeling). Data were collected using the STEBI-B, MTEBI-r, and the ABNTMS instruments. The findings suggest that LTA is a viable technique for use in teacher efficacy research. Teacher efficacy is modeled as a construct with two dimensions: personal teaching efficacy (PTE) and outcome expectancy (OE). Findings suggest that the mathematics and science teaching efficacy (PTE) of pre-service teachers is a multi-class phenomena. The analyses revealed a four-class model of PTE at the beginning and end of the final year of teacher training. Results indicate that when pre-service teachers transition between classes, they tend to move from a lower efficacy class into a higher efficacy class. In addition, the findings suggest that time-varying variables (attitudes and beliefs) and time-invariant variables (previous coursework, previous experiences, and teacher perceptions) are statistically significant predictors of efficacy class membership. Further, analyses suggest that the measures used to assess outcome expectancy are not suitable for LCA and LTA procedures.

Using a case study approach, this investigation focused on the deliberations and decision-making processes involved in the development of a physical science curriculum to be delivered by interactive videodiscs. The mediating factors that influenced the developmental processes included the participants and their perceptions, their decisions and factors influencing their decisions. The Curriculum and Instruction Advisory Committee of the Texas Learning Technology Group was selected as the subject of this study which used qualitative data collection methods. Data collection included participant observation of curriculum meetings followed by structured interviews of the participants. Document analyses were triangulated with the observations and interviews to ascertain influences on decision-making processes. Developmental processes indicated the emergence of staff and committee procedures. Procedures were influenced by school district and personal philosophies, teacher and student needs, and constraining factors such as state Developmental processes indicated the emergence of staff and committee procedures. Procedures were influenced by school district and personal philosophies, teacher and student needs, and constraining factors such as state mandates. Other influencing factors included research, tradition, and politics. Core curriculum was to be delivered by interactive videodiscs and include remediation and enrichment loops along with laboratory simulations. Participants stressed that students perform traditional laboratory experiments …

Stress is being linked increasingly to physiological, psychological, sociological, and educational problems. However, scant attention has been given to stress in recent reading research. This study investigated referral and evaluation statements and diagnostic data from parents, teachers, reading specialists, and counselors regarding signs of stress and potential stressors as factors in the reading difficulties of seventy-seven primary schoolchildren referred for evaluation at the pupil Appraisal Center (PAC) at North Texas State University between 1977 and 1984. Qualitative methods, specifically situational analysis, were employed to obtain a holistic view of each subject's reading difficulties. The researcher collected data from documented files at PAC. Data analysis via a categorical coding system produced thirty-nine stress related categories, organized under broad headings of family and school environment, readiness for reading/ learning, general stress reactions, and responses to stress when reading/learning becomes a problem.

This study examines the effect of class discussion as a pre-writing activity on actual writing performance. The experiment was conducted with all the Level 3 and Level 4 students enrolled in the Intensive English Language Institute of North Texas State University in the Spring, 1986 semester. Cochrans C test was performed to test significant differences between groups at the beginning of this test. Multivariate analysis of variance tests were used to determine the treatment effect between and within groups, and a matched t-test was also utilized to analyze the difference within tests. Pearson product moment correlation coefficient was calculated to determine the relationship between the discussion activity score and the actual writing score. Analysis of covariance tests were used to determine which variance of discussion activities had greater effect on the actual writing score.

This study concerns the perceptions of African educators concerning the role of higher education in Africa. The study investigates African educators' awareness, understanding, opinions, and reactions to the role of higher education as defined by the Tananarive Conference on the development of higher education in Africa. The data were collected through personal interviews with 80 educators affiliated with the universities of the English—speaking countries in Middle Africa. The findings of the study reveal that (a) the Tananarive recommendations are still realistic and relevant to the African situation; (b) African educators agree that universities in Africa must contribute to the definition and development of African economic, social, and cultural goals; (c) African universities are judged mainly by how successfully their objectives and achievements improve society; (d) the critical problems confronting the African universities are finance, colonial origin, attachment to metropolitan models and standards, training of staff in overseas institutions, brain drain, and government interference; and (e) mutual trust and understanding of role-expectation between African governments and universities is required for universities to fulfill their developmental role in African societies.

The problem this descriptive study dealt with was the fear (computerphobia) administrators, teachers, and noneducators have concerning the acceptance of microcomputers in the educational setting. The MAXHELP Project is an Air University sponsored program to assist the local schools in scientific and technological education. The 12 hour MAXHELP Microcomputer Orientation Course has graduated over 500 educators from seven Alabama school districts. This study used the Stages of Concern Questionnaire (SoCQ). This instrument was developed at the Inter-Institutional Program for the Reasearch and Development Center for Teacher Education, The University of Texas at Austin, by Hall, George and Rutherford. The SoCQ was mailed to a random sample of 300 MAXHELP graduates. A total of 212 responses were used in the study. This report concludes that the administrator and teacher groups are moving through the stages of concern when compared with the typical "non-user." Teachers show greater concerns relating to Management and administrators have greater concerns on Consequence, Collaboration, and Refocusing. Administrators are not users of microcomputers in the classroom, but are very concerned about how to facilitate the spread of microcomputers throughout the school curriculum. In general, the data indicate more similarity of teaching concerns by age, years teaching experience, and …

This dissertation sought to determine the effects of a buddy system on a student's self-concept, academic achievement, attrition rate, and congruence levels. The buddy system treatment randomly paired two students for the purposes of sharing ideas, working on assignments, getting to know each other, and supporting one another. The study included three randomly selected sections of pre-college level, developmental writing classes from the Brookhaven College of the Dallas County Community College District. Three other classes served as the control group, and one instructor taught all six sections of the course. Three instruments were used as measures of change: the Tennessee Self-Concept Scale (TSCS), designed by William H. Fitts, measured self-concept levels; the Personality and Educational Environment Scale (PEES), created by Roger Boshier, measured congruence levels; and a written paragraph measured achievement levels in English. Attrition percentages were based on the number of students enrolled during the second week of class who were not present during the sixteenth week of class. To test for significance, an analysis of covariance procedure was used on the TSCS, PEES, and written paragraph results, and a test for the difference between proportions for independent groups was used on the attrition percentages. The class sections were …

The purpose of this study was to investigate symptoms of childhood depression as factors in elementary school age children's reading difficulties. Subjects for study included children who evidenced symptoms of depression from among those referred to the Pupil Appraisal Center (PAC) at North Texas State University for reading difficulties between October, 1983, and April, 1985. The Weinberg Affective Scale (WAS), a screening device for childhood depression, was used to identify the subjects for this study. Using document analysis as the research approach, the researcher examined, recorded, and categorized referral and evaluation statements made by parents, teachers, counselors, and reading specialists the subjects1 PAC files that described symptoms of childhood depression. Also analyzed were diagnostic test data from the evaluation reports of PAC counselors and reading specialists.

This study was conceived as an attempt to determine .and analyze factors deterring participation in continuing professional education among social workers in environments where continuing education for relicensure is mandatory and voluntary. The specific research design implemented to complete this study was the ex-post facto descriptive design. The sample included 106 social workers randomly selected in the state of Texas where continuing education is mandatory and 94 social workers in the state of Louisiana where continuing education is voluntary. The instrument used was the Deterrent to Participation Scale developed by Scanlan (1983) and a demographic inventory. Scanlan (1983) earlier identified six factors deterring participation in continuing professional education: Disengagement, Lack of Quality, Family Constraints, Cost, Lack of Benefit, and Work Constraints. The study concluded that social workers in both states considered work constraint as a major factor deterring participation in continuing professional education. Also the factors of cost and lack of quality were also considered as crucial barriers in their efforts to participate in continuing professional education. The Wilks' multivariate test of significance of the means and univariate F tests at alpha level p < .05 revealed differences in the combined mean scores of social workers in both states when …

The purpose of this study was to compare student scores on geographic skills in the experimental group with student scores on geographic skills in the control group after adjustment was made in teaching methods and learning materials for verbal and spatial ability for students in the experimental group. Hypotheses tested at the .05 level were as follows. 1. Females would score higher than males on a criterion measure of verbal ability. 2. Males would score higher than females on a criterion measure of spatial ability. 3. Experimental/verbal students would score higher on a geography skills posttest. 4. Experimental/spatial students would score higher on a geography skills posttest. 5. The experimental group would score higher than the control group on a geography skills posttest. The sample was 150 high school United States History students in a medium-sized North Texas school district. Analysis of covariance was used to analyze results of the study of six classes after fifteen days of instruction in physical geography concepts. Experimental classes received geographic instruction directed to verbal and spatial abilities; control group classes received traditional geographic instruction which utilized textbook, lecture, and whole-group instruction. Three high schools participated in the study. Conclusions were that males and …

The purpose of this study was to compare the peer relationships of highly gifted and highly gifted-highly creative primary students in a gifted classroom of a public school. The study was conducted using thirty-one highly gifted first, second, and third graders who had scores of 140 or better on the WISC-R, WPPSI, or Otis-Lennon. At the beginning of the school year, the Creativity Assessment Packet was administered to the class. The top 20 percent scorers in the class (termed gifted-creative) and those who scored in the bottom 20 percent of the class (termed gifted) on the CAP were targeted for observation. In addition, a sociogram was administered to each student individually for the purpose of determining each child's social status. A bivariate correlation coefficient was employed to express the degree of any relationship between creativity scores and rankings on the class sociogram. Observational anecdotes were used in the discussion of the sociometric results. The following findings resulted from the study. The gifted-creative students, as a group, ranked higher on a class sociogram on measures of friendship and choice of academic work partners than did the gifted group. On sociometric measures of choice of creative work partners, there was no significant …

The purpose of this exploratory study was to compare various attributes of never-married single men and women to married men and women. The Taylor-Johnson Temperament Analysis, the Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation-Behavior (FIRO-B) Scale, and the Personal Skills Map were completed by 138 never-married singles and 139 married volunteers, both male and female. Volunteers were predominantly Caucasian, Protestant, active in their churches, and college educated. Ages ranged from 30 to 39 years. Married volunteers were married only once for five years or more. A step-wise discriminant analysis was run on each of the three instruments to determine which variables were significant across groupings. Summary conclusions were made showing that never-married men and women were more socially energetic but less expressive and responsive than were married men and women. Single men, as compared to married men, were also more passive and saw themselves in a less favorable light. Single women, when compared to married women, were also more dominant. Single women, when compared to single men, were more relaxed and more assertive, but more critical and punitive. An implication for counselors is that never-married single people may need help with relating at a deeper level of vulnerability and personableness. Single men may …

The purpose of this investigation was to examine the change in pulmonary ventilation (V_E), ventilatory equivalent of oxygen (VE_O_2) and lactic acid (LA) in relation to oxygen uptake (V_O_2) as predictors of the lactate threshold (LT). Eight healthy male (21.9 ± 3.0 years) subjects conducted three incremental-load tests. In each test the initial work rate consisted of 4 minutes of unloaded pedaling ("0" load) followed by incremental-load work of 360 Kgm • min^-1 at 60 rpm for trial I and trial II, while during trial III the work rate consisted of 540 Kgm • min^-1 of incremental-load work at 90 rpm. Work load was increased every third minute until the subject reached voluntary exhaustion. Blood samples from a forearm vein were collected during trial II (60 rpm) and trial III (90 rpm) and analyzed for lactic acid. In our subjects the measured (x̄ ± SD) lowest VE_O_2 for O_2 in relation to V_O_2 for trial I of 22.9 ± 1.9 occurred at a V_O_2 of 1.27 ± 0.8 L • min^-1. For trial II the VE_O_2 of 22.4 ± 1.3 occurred at a V_O_2 of 1.30 ± 0.09 L • min^-1, while for trial III a VE_O_2 of 24.4 ± …

In a three stage investigation the relationship between personality type and the use of learning as a coping device during the life transitions of adults was studied. Based on the assumption that a paper and pencil device could be constructed to achieve the same or nearly the same results that have been achieved through interviews with adult learners, the first two stages of this investigation involved the construction and validation of an instrument, the Adult Development Learning Inventory (ADLI), to measure the use of learning during life transitions of adults. The inventory has five subsections: a demographic profile, Life Events, Coping Strategies, Learning Activities, and Adulthood Tasks. Content validity of the ADLI was established through both the theory based in adult learning and developmental psychology and the panel of experts. Construct validation tools included principal component factor analysis and the Kruskal-Wallis ANOVA with age as the variable of discrimination. The instrument was capable of differentiating among age groups' perception of the tasks in the adult life cycle. For internal consistency, reliability estimates ranged from .83 to .94 for the subsections of the ADLI. Stage III of the investigation explored the relationship between the ADLI and personality as measured by the …

The purposes of this study were to analyze (1) the changes over time in the state anxiety level of children in a computer-assisted program of reading instruction and in classroom reading instruction, (2) the changes in state anxiety patterns as related to gender, achievement level, and ethnicity, and (3) the difference in anxiety levels of the students while in computer-assisted reading instruction and classroom reading instruction.

The focus of this study was to determine the unique contribution of I.Q., gender, instructional organization, time on the computer, classroom instructional time, ethnicity and total instructional time to the predictability of achievement gain in a computer-assisted instructional setting in reading. The sample consisted of 2,000 students in grades three and five from a large suburban school district in the Dallas - Fort Worth area. The students were given the Iowa Test of Basic Skills to determine reading achievement gains and the Cognitive Abilities Test to determine I.Q. levels. The study was conducted over a five month period during the 1984 - 1985 school year. Using multiple regression, the data were analyzed.

The problem of this study was to determine the differences in experimentwise and comparisonwise Type I error rate among six multiple comparison procedures when applied to twenty-eight combinations of normally distributed data. These were the Least Significant Difference, the Fisher-protected Least Significant Difference, the Student Newman-Keuls Test, the Duncan Multiple Range Test, the Tukey Honestly Significant Difference, and the Scheffe Significant Difference. The Spjøtvoll-Stoline and Tukey—Kramer HSD modifications were used for unequal n conditions. A Monte Carlo simulation was used for twenty-eight combinations of k and n. The scores were normally distributed (µ=100; σ=10). Specified multiple comparison procedures were applied under two conditions: (a) all experiments and (b) experiments in which the F-ratio was significant (0.05). Error counts were maintained over 1000 repetitions. The FLSD held experimentwise Type I error rate to nominal alpha for the complete null hypothesis. The FLSD was more sensitive to sample mean differences than the HSD while protecting against experimentwise error. The unprotected LSD was the only procedure to yield comparisonwise Type I error rate at nominal alpha. The SNK and MRT error rates fell between the FLSD and HSD rates. The SSD error rate was the most conservative. Use of the harmonic mean of …