Doctor of Ministry , Ashland University, 2023, Doctor of Ministry Program

It was the purpose of this project to discover the characteristics of preaching in constant growth Protestant churches in the United States. The design of the project included the completion of a survey by pastors in growing churches. The results of this project revealed that the most significant characteristics of preaching in constant growth churches were expository preaching that provided specific application steps, afforded an opportunity to respond, and emphasized discipleship.

Committee: Jeff Stevenson Dr. (Advisor) Subjects: Clergy; Religion; Religious Congregations

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2020, Educational Studies

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of a text mapping strategy and student choice of reading passage on the reading comprehension of fourth- and fifth-grade students with Emotional Disturbance. The researcher used an alternating treatments design within a multiple baseline design across participants. Participants were fourth- and fifth-grade students from a large Midwestern urban school district, who were identified with an Emotional Disturbance and who received at least 50% of their education in a special education classroom setting. Three participants' reading comprehension of expository texts were measured through oral retell of passages and researcher-generated quizzes. Visual analysis was used to examine the effects of text mapping with prompt fading. This study supports previous research indicating that text mapping is an effective strategy for improving the reading comprehension of students with disabilities, when presented in combination with a choice in reading passage.

Committee: Laurice Joseph Ph.D (Advisor); Sheila Alber-Morgan Ph.D. (Committee Member); Moira Konrad Ph.D. (Committee Member); Adrian Rodgers Ph.D (Other) Subjects: Behavioral Psychology; Behavioral Sciences; Education; Educational Psychology; Psychology; Reading Instruction

MA, Kent State University, 2019, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of Psychological Sciences

Elaborations that describe, illustrate and explain main ideas are commonly included in textbook chapters, increasing the length of these chapters. The current study investigated if the cost in additional reading time that these elaborations impose is outweighed by benefits to memory for main ideas. Given that elaborations sometimes fail to produce memory benefits, the current study also investigated if the reason is that less time is spent reading main ideas sentences in elaborated versus unelaborated texts. In two experiments, participants read a textbook passage with just the main ideas or with these main ideas and elaborations. In a second session two days later, participants completed tests of their memory for the main ideas. Conceptually replicating previous research, elaborations did not provide a memory benefit commensurate with the time cost they imposed. Results also indicated that the lack of benefit is at least partially attributable to less time spent on main ideas for the elaborated versus unelaborated text. To further investigate why students spent less time on main idea sentences, Experiment 2 provided evidence that this difference may be due to difficulty discriminating main ideas from elaborations while reading. In sum, elaborations in textbooks may impair memory for main ideas due to less time spent on these main ideas despite the large overall time cost imposed; thus elaborated texts can be less effective than unelaborated texts.

Committee: Katherine Rawson Dr. (Advisor); John Dunlosky Dr. (Committee Member); Clarissa Thompson Dr. (Committee Member); Jeffrey Ciesla Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Cognitive Psychology

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2018, Speech Language Pathology

Adolescents with traumatic brain injury (TBI) may exhibit subtle cognitive-communication deficits that are not consistently identified by the formal assessments commonly used to qualify children for special education services. Expository discourse production is rarely used as an assessment tool with students who have TBI, despite its relevance to the curriculum. Research is needed to explore the cognitive-linguistic processes and linguistic features that are required for students to successfully produce exposition. The current study conducted microlinguistic and fluency analyses of verbal summaries produced by five adolescents with traumatic brain injury and five matched peers with typical development (TD). Each participant verbally summarized one narrative and two expository (compare-contrast, cause-effect) discourse lectures that were then transcribed and analyzed for microlinguistic measures, mazing behaviors, and pausing patterns. The group with TBI was significantly less productive than the group with TD during cause-effect and compare-contrast productions. No other microlinguistic differences were identified between groups. The group with TBI produced significantly fewer filled pauses per utterance during cause-effect production. The group with TBI also produced significantly more within-clause pauses per utterance during compare-contrast production. No significant differences were found between groups on any variable analyzed during narrative productions. On average, the group with TD produced more mazes, and the group with TBI produced more pauses of longer lengths. These findings support other studies that suggest that different types of exposition have different production requirements, and that they are distinct from narrative productions. The different patterns of mazing and pausing found between groups help to characterize discourse production by adolescents with TBI and are discussed in terms of decreased language processing abilities. Differences in (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jennifer Lundine (Advisor); Rebecca McCauley (Committee Member) Subjects: Speech Therapy

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2016, Educational Studies

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of embedding and fading self-questioning prompts strategies on the reading comprehension of third graders who are at risk for academic failure due to reading comprehension difficulties. The researcher used a single-subject multiple probe experimental design across participants. Participants were third graders from a large Midwest urban school district, who were at risk of academic failure. Six participants' reading comprehension of science expository text were measured through researcher-generated quizzes and standardized pre and posttests. Visual analysis was used to examine the effects of self-questioning strategies with prompt fading. This study's supports results previous research indicating that explicit instruction of comprehension strategies, such as self-questioning, can improve learners' comprehension skills. Prompt-fading techniques were used with self-questioning strategies to promote participants' autonomy.

Committee: Ralph Gardner III Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Samuel Hodge Ph.D. (Committee Member); Laurice Joseph Ph. D. (Committee Member); Sheila Morgan Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Literacy; Reading Instruction; Special Education; Teacher Education; Teaching

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2016, Speech and Hearing Science

Exposition is an important discourse genre that allows individuals to share facts and information, and its mastery is critical for academic success. Students of all ages must demonstrate proficiency in expository reading, writing, speaking and listening, in different subject areas, and regardless of expository subtype. Yet expository discourse remains an understudied area of language development. These manuscripts present background information about expository discourse development in children and adolescents and suggest reasons that children with language and learning difficulties might have particular difficulty producing and comprehending expository content. Two studies are presented that address foundational research needs. In the first, 50 adolescents with typical development were asked to summarize a cause-effect and compare-contrast expository lecture. Their performance on cognitive and language testing was analyzed as a possible contributing factor to summary quality. In the second study, a small group of adolescents with traumatic brain injury (TBI) participated in these same tasks. Their performance was compared between the two lectures and to the group of adolescents with typical development. Overall results indicate that adolescents may rely on cognitive skills differentially when summarizing different types of exposition. Language scores from a standardized measure of expressive syntax did not contribute to any model. For these studies, adolescents with typical development appeared able to respond to a more cognitively taxing task by increasing the quality of their summaries for the cause-effect lecture. Adolescents with TBI demonstrated the opposite trend, suggesting that they were unable to access the cognitive skills necessary to respond to the expository lecture that was more dependent on those specific abilities. Particularly because the students with TBI demonstrated overall average language scores, these results have important implications for s (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Rebecca McCauley PhD (Advisor); Stacy Harnish PhD (Advisor); Robert Fox PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Language; Language Arts

MEd, University of Cincinnati, 2007, Education : Curriculum and Instruction

I explored what type of texts eight teachers say they regularly use in their language arts and reading classrooms. Of particular interest to me was their use and views on the effectiveness of expository versus narrative text. Using a survey, a ranking activity of instructional tools, and interviews to collect data from eight middle school language arts teachers, their methods and beliefs were examined for trends within and between three diverse schools. A number of teachers reported using expository text rarely. When presented with new materials during the ranking activity, some remarked they would include newspaper articles and graphs if given access. The majority said they believed that expository text was more important to use,although many reported obstacles when using this text with their students. The findings led me to see a cognitive dissonance apparent between what the teachers report they believe, and what they do.

Committee: Holly Johnson (Advisor) Subjects:

MA, University of Cincinnati, 2002, Allied Health Sciences : Communication Sciences and Disorders

This study examined the effects of different presentations of cause-effect expository text for students with language learning disabilities. The method in which comprehension was assessed was through a retelling. Modes of presentation included Oral and Written only, Oral and Written Followed by Graphic Organizer, and Graphic Organizer Followed by Oral and Written. Analysis was quantitative, descriptive and qualitative in nature. Frequency of identification of main idea, cause, effect, and cause-effect pairs were measured. Statistical significance was not found between the various modes of presentation. Additionally, this study examined the nature of expository text that the retelling represented. These included description, sequence, summary and cause-effect. The findings in this study raised many issues that involve comprehension of expository text. Implications are discussed.

Committee: Dr. Jo-Anne Prendeville (Advisor) Subjects: Health Sciences, Speech Pathology

Master of Education (MEd), Bowling Green State University, 2011, Reading

Comprehension is the ultimate goal of reading and affects the understanding of all content areas. Students are successful readers when they are able to pull important information from texts and connect the new information with previously stored schemata. In the science content area, new information is very difficult to acquire because of the difficult concepts and vocabulary. For students to connect previously learned materials with schemata, prior knowledge must be activated. When prior knowledge is activated, students begin to prepare for reading. However, it is equally as important that students have a reading strategy in place when they begin reading science materials. The reading strategy SQ3R is a systematic strategy that can be used to aid students in comprehending expository materials. This research study was conducted with the purpose of determining whether integrating SQ3R into fifth grade students' science reading strategies would improve their overall comprehension. The study also investigated students' preexisting reading strategies and their thoughts on whether they would continue to implement SQ3R into their reading habits. The results of the study indicated that SQ3R significantly improved fifth grade students' overall comprehension scores of expository texts. The study also indicated that 46.9% of the students used in the study had a preexisting reading strategy. The most common preexisting reading strategy was note taking. It was found that 68.7% of the students used in the study would use the reading strategy SQ3R in the future. It is recommended that teachers as well as administrators recognize the importance of reading strategies and educate the students and parents on possible strategies that can be used to improve comprehension.

Committee: Dr. Cindy Hendricks (Committee Chair); Dr. Nancy Fordham (Committee Member); Dr. Mark Earley (Committee Member) Subjects: Reading Instruction