Specialist in Education, Miami University, 2019, Educational Psychology

Today professions and post-secondary opportunities in the United States in the areas of science, technology, and engineering are continuously growing and requiring students to have complex understandings of mathematical concepts. As the demand for these professions continues to grow, mathematic achievement scores in the U.S. continue to decline. The current study seeks to examine if an alternative to explicit instruction, such as play, through a multiplication fluency game, can improve mathematic motivation and multiplicative fluency. Students in two third grade classrooms were given pre and posttest curriculum-based fluency tests and surveys focused on their attitude toward math to compare results between the treatment and control classrooms. The treatment classroom played a multiplication fluency game for three days a week for four weeks while the control classroom engaged in traditional instruction. Results were examined qualitatively and quantitatively to conclude that the play intervention appears to have no significance when compared to instruction without a fluency game on mathematical fluency scores.

Committee: Sarah Watt (Committee Chair); Doris Bergen (Committee Member); Brooke Spangler-Cropenbaker (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Educational Psychology; Mathematics; Mathematics Education

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2019, Curriculum and Instruction Special Education (Education)

The use of heritage language at home is a highly-debated issue when discussing whether it is a disadvantage or a positive ethnic resource for children's academic achievement. In this dissertation, the author investigated the association between the use of heritage language, parental involvement in numeracy development at home, and children's math achievement from kindergarten through grade 2. The main overarching inquiry is twofold: What is the relationship between children's math achievement and family educational resources (i.e., parental education level, parental belief in the importance of early math development, formal and informal home numeracy activities); How do children benefit from parents who teach them numbers in their heritage language at home? Previous research suggests that the use of heritage language at home enhances parent-child closeness, increases parental engagement in children's learning at home, and thereby, leads to high academic achievement. Based on the theories of family social capital (Coleman, 1988) and theories of segmented assimilation of immigrant families (Portes & Zhou, 1993), Strobel (2016), a German sociologist, examined the mechanism that speaking heritage language at home has a unique positive effect on middle-school students' math achievement, and found no evidence to support this mechanism. Strobel suggested that age and nationality of immigrant children might be critical factors that led his results to contradict those of previous studies. Using the method of extension replication, the author analyzed the U.S. national data of children who started kindergarten in the fall of 2010 and reported using a language other than English at home. The results of the present study are consistent with those in Strobel's study. However, some new findings suggest that regarding children's math achievement, the strength of ethnic resources lies in parents' strong belief in the importance of early math development and the dedication of tim (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Dianne Gut (Committee Chair); Anil Ruhil (Committee Member); Jennifer Ottley (Committee Member); Kessler Greg (Committee Member) Subjects: Early Childhood Education; Education; Mathematics Education

Specialist in Education, Miami University, 2018, School Psychology

A rural elementary school had specific questions about data that had been collected in relation to their kindergarten class. The kindergarten class had significant achievement gaps in mathematics and the school needed help identifying possible reasons behind this. The literature revealed the importance of preschool on early mathematics achievement and the importance it plays in the ability to conceptualize early mathematics. In this study, using standardized kindergarten achievement test score data, statistical analyses were conducted to examine possible differences between students who attended preschool, and those who did not. Additional analysis looked at students of low socioeconomic status who attended preschool and were compared to students of low socioeconomic status who had not attended preschool. Results indicated that there was a significant difference between students who attended preschool and those who did not in the area of early numeracy. There was also a significant difference between students of low socioeconomic who attended preschool when compared to those who had not attended preschool in the spring. These findings were shared with school officials and suggestions as to the importance of early numeracy competencies for kindergarteners were outlined.

Committee: Raymond Witte PhD (Committee Chair); Michael Woodin PhD (Committee Member); Jason Abbitt PhD (Committee Member); Joel Malin PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Early Childhood Education; Education; Educational Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2016, Curriculum and Instruction Mathematics Education (Education)

Financial literacy is an important life skill, yet how are we fostering understanding in our youngest students? Unless schools begin instruction on money concepts and skills at an early age, the majority of the students will not have the needed exposure until much later in their educational career. This study used a mixed methods research approach to explore kindergarten through second grade teachers' perspectives regarding the curriculum and instruction of financial literacy. The study had two main phases. Both phases consisted of a two-step process of data collection and analysis. Phase 1 was qualitative and comprised interviews of teachers who taught in K–Grade 2 at three schools in Ohio. The interviews were coded descriptively, and the author used codeweaving to analyze the data for common themes. From these results, an online survey was created and distributed in Phase 2. Phase 2 was quantitative and involved a survey of a broader sample of K–2 teachers in Ohio. This phase tested the veracity of the Phase 1 results. Phase 2 determined whether generalizations could be made regarding teachers' perceptions of students' prior knowledge and skills, and of students' cognitive readiness to understand financial literacy content. Perceptions from the two phases were triangulated with theory and research relating to child development to explore what, when, and how teachers are teaching money concepts and skills in their classroom. The findings indicate that K–2 teachers see value in teaching financial literacy concepts and skills in their classroom, but they are unsure of the expectations for implementation. In particular, the majority of the participants were unaware of the Jump$tart Coalition for Personal Financial Literacy's National Standards in K–12 Personal Finance Education and demonstrated confusion on state and Common Core standard expectations. During this study, making connections and providing students with genuine experiences were frequently iden (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Gregory Foley (Advisor); Eugene Geist (Committee Member); Koestler Courtney (Committee Member); Machtmes Krisanna (Committee Member) Subjects: Applied Mathematics; Curricula; Early Childhood Education; Education; Educational Theory; Elementary Education; Finance; Literacy; Mathematics; Mathematics Education; Pedagogy; Teacher Education; Teaching

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2014, Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services: School Psychology

The current study examined the effect of a varying-intensity, graphical-feedback procedure on increasing the frequency of naturalistic math instruction in preschool classrooms during non-instructional times (transition, meal, free play). Three teachers received professional development that combined goal setting, intervention design, and information on four math-oriented milieu teaching strategies (incidental teaching, time delay, mand model, and model). Teachers then received a high-intensity feedback package associated with a performance criterion and a low-intensity, continued-support feedback package. All teachers demonstrated an increase in the use of math-oriented milieu teaching strategies and positive attention across intervention conditions. In addition, two of the three teachers evidenced generalization of milieu teaching strategies across contexts and content areas. Results are discussed in terms of limitations, future directions, and implications for practice.

Committee: Julie Morrison Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Renee Oliver Hawkins Ph.D. (Committee Member); Sally Moomaw Ed.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2009, Sociology

When do gender gaps in math and reading skills emerge and why? I examine gender gaps in math and reading from 9 months to 4 years of age with the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Birth Cohort and from kindergarten to 5th grade with the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study—Kindergarten Cohort. With standardized assessments of cognitive skills, I find that girls excel in early math and reading skills in early childhood, before kindergarten begins. Although girls' advantages in reading continue, math advantages appear to reverse upon school entry. I show with item-level assessments that this “reversal of fortunes” pattern is misleading. Girls maintain math advantages in counting, identifying numbers, and shape recognition across childhood. Boys' advantages emerge with the onset of multiplication, division, place values, rate and measurement, and fractions. I find that gender gaps in reading can be largely explained by gender differences in classroom citizenship. For math, gender differences in parental expectations and investments are largely the result of feedback effects rather than parents' gender-stereotypic behavior.

Committee: Douglas Downey (Committee Chair); Rachel Dwyer (Committee Member); Vincent Roscigno (Committee Member) Subjects: Behaviorial Sciences; Developmental Psychology; Economics; Education; Educational Psychology; Educational Sociology; Mathematics; Mathematics Education; Psychology; Social Psychology; Social Research; Social Studies Education; Social Work; Sociology

Doctor of Philosophy, Miami University, 2005, Psychology

The purpose of this study was to extend a theoretical model of parent involvement to African American families and examine its influence on African American children's school success and adjustment as measured by standardized performance and teacher ratings in reading and math, and teacher ratings of externalizing and internalizing problem behaviors. The study also examined the longitudinal effects of parent involvement on growth in student school performance and changes in school adjustment. Specifically, kindergarten parent involvement at school and at home was hypothesized to have a moderating effect on school success and adjustment. Data were obtained from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study for Kindergarteners and included participants in kindergarten, Spring 1st grade, and Spring 3rd grade. The sample consisted of 3,210 African American students in the kindergarten year. Cross-sectional data analyses revealed significant models for parent and school variables predicting kindergarten and third grade externalizing problem behaviors, and first grade internalizing problem behaviors. Contrary to the hypothesis of extending a model of parent involvement, the data analyses did not reveal significant relationships between home and school variables and school success outcomes. Longitudinal analyses also did not indicate a significant moderation effect for kindergarten parent involvement; however, kindergarten parent involvement at school significantly predicted children's growth on standardized performance measures of school success, and changes in teacher ratings of externalizing and internalizing problem behaviors. Overall, the findings suggest positive outcomes of early parent involvement at school in regards to students' standardized performance as well as teacher ratings of school adjustment. Given the findings and lack of support for the theoretical model, measurement issues for assessment of African Americans were discussed along with suggestions for improvem (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Yvette Harris (Advisor) Subjects: