Specialist in Education, Miami University, 2013, Educational Psychology

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between mathematics fluency and mathematics anxiety in female elementary students. It was hypothesized that a mathematics fluency intervention (FASTT Math) would help students increase mathematics automaticity, and therefore decrease mathematics anxiety. Fourth grade female students' levels of mathematics anxiety were measured using the Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale - Elementary (Suinn, Taylor, & Edwards, 1988). Students either received the FASTT Math intervention or typical classroom instruction. At the conclusion of the intervention, the subjects were reassessed using the MARS-E. Results indicated that students who completed the FASTT Math intervention did increase their automaticity, but did not experience significantly decreased levels of mathematics anxiety. This study supported the hypothesis that although female students typically perform at a similar level as their male peers in mathematics, they perceive their abilities as being significantly lower.

Committee: Raymond Witte PhD (Committee Chair); Susan Mosley-Howard PhD (Committee Member); Sally Lloyd PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Educational Psychology; Educational Technology; Gender; Gender Studies; Mathematics Education

Doctor of Philosophy, University of Akron, 2015, Elementary Education-Literacy

ABSTRACT The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between oral reading fluency and reading comprehension through the lens of developing readers in an actual classroom setting. In order to provide targeted fluency instruction, the study implemented the Fluency Development Lesson (FDL), a widely recognized and research-based instructional framework for fluency development, to analyze its impact on the reading comprehension of students in a second grade classroom. The study was conducted in a suburban school district located in a Midwestern state. Twenty-two students between seven and nine years old took part in the study by participating in the FDL daily from September through January. The participant sample employed was a purposeful, nonprobability sample. The researcher was the classroom teacher. The data were collected and analyzed using the 3-Minute Reading Assessment: Word Recognition, Fluency and Comprehension to generate the following scores: (a) word recognition accuracy; (b) automaticity in reading fluency; (c) multidimensional fluency skills including expression and volume, phrasing and intonation, smoothness, and pace; and (d) retelling comprehension. The organization of data for this quasi-expeimental study determined the statistical significance of change and the existence of a correlation between oral reading fluency and comprehension among the second grade students using the analysis of repeated measures and the Pearson's r statistical test. Findings from the data suggested that with regular use of the FDL, significant statistical improvements were seen in retelling comprehension, words read correctly per minute, expression and volume, phrasing and intonation, smoothness, and pace in reading. In this study, the FDL proved to be an effective way of improving students' reading performance in fluency and comprehension skills. In conclusion, using the FDL in the classroom has the potential to provide positive outcomes for student readi (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Lisa Lenhart Dr. (Advisor); Xin Liang Dr. (Committee Member); Brandi Noll Dr. (Committee Member); Alfred Daviso Dr. (Committee Member); Ronald Otterstetter Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Curriculum Development; Education; Literacy; Reading Instruction

Doctor of Education (Educational Leadership), Youngstown State University, 2013, Department of Teacher Education and Leadership Studies

Within the walls of our schools lies the future of our society. The contributions and achievements of the next generations will determine the course of our country and the world. The responsibility for preparing and educating this population falls on our school systems and the teachers within them. The demands and expectations placed on our educational systems are ever-changing. One of the most significant of these changes has been an increase in the level of accountability for the achievement and growth of every student. Teachers in the primary grades, working with our youngest students, are the first to see the disparity of skills and readiness they demonstrate. Charged with developing not only academic skills, but also social, emotional and interpersonal skills, this first experience to structured education lays a critical foundation. Kindergarten is the time during which students begin to develop their knowledge base, as well as their perception of themselves as learners. Reading readiness and the acquisition of its component skills, form the scaffold upon which all later skills will be layered. Dr. Seuss said, “The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn the more places you'll go” (Seuss, 1990). While it is clear that literacy skills are critical elements of early instruction, it is not clear in what format or with which approach, these skills are most appropriately taught. Additionally challenging in the instructional process is keeping students motivated and engaged in the learning process. Effective means by which to achieve these outcomes are also not universally accepted. Teacher education organizations, as well as researchers in the field identify the use of technology as a tool for thinking, decision-making and learning (Couse & Chen, 2010). This study looks to examine the impact of the use of iPad 2 literacy based applications on the acquisition of emergent literacy skills in the areas of phonemic aw (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Karen Larwin Ph.D. (Advisor); Robert Beebe Ph.D. (Committee Member); Amy Camardese Ph.D. (Committee Member); Gail Saunders-Smith Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Early Childhood Education; Literacy; Technology

Master of Arts, Wittenberg University, 2022, Education

Mathematical fluency is important to students' foundational math development. Based on Ohio's state math standards, students should be fluent with their multiplication facts by third grade. However, many fifth grade students are entering the classroom not meeting those standards. For many years, educators relied on procedural strategies to teach and assess numerical fluency. In recent years the theoretical approach to teaching shifted from procedural to a more conceptual method. This shift moves from rote memorization and timed-tests to more meaningful activities such as fluency games, rich problems, and number talks. The theoretical foundation for this study is constructivism and the interventions provided students opportunities to communicate and construct their own thinking. This action research reports the effect that providing multiple strategies for solving problems had on fifth-grade students' numerical fluency. A multi-methods design was used which included a Multiplication Fluency Assessment, a Beliefs Questionnaire, and student interviews. Overall students reported that they did not enjoy using models or find them beneficial, however many used models in their work. Students did show growth in their computational accuracy as well as in the strategies they used to solve problems.

Committee: Michael Daiga (Advisor); Melanie Moss-Lenz (Committee Member); Hilllary Libnoch (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Elementary Education; Mathematics Education

Master of Science (MS), Bowling Green State University, 2019, Communication Disorders

The aim of the present study was to investigate the changes in articulatory-acoustic behavior associated with fluency adaptation in speakers with Parkinson Disease (PD). Prior studies suggest that a reduction in stuttering moments over successive repetitions of the same speech material (i.e., fluency adaptation) is accompanied by increases in speech rate, decreases in word and vowel durations, and decreases in the extent of consonant-vowel transitions, all of which are indicative of changes in articulatory and co-articulatory behavior (i.e., Max & Caruso, 1998). For the current study, speech samples from participants with PD who exhibited fluency adaptation and fluent older adult controls were analyzed. Vowel space metrics of selected peripheral, nonperipheral, and diphthong vowels were calculated to determine the extent of articulatory-acoustic changes from Reading 1 and 5 of the Rainbow passage. Results suggest that speakers with PD exhibited a reduction in vowel space area that was accompanied by an increase in articulation rate. No systematic changes in the intra-vocalic formant metrics were observed between Reading 1 and 5. However, expected differences between the vowel categories were observed. Differences vowel space metrics between speakers with PD and controls may potentially suggest that speakers with PD exhibit a decreased range of motion, as formant space reflects movement of the vocal tract.

Committee: Jason Whitfield Ph.D. (Advisor); Ronald Scherer Ph.D. (Committee Member); Adam Fullenkamp Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Acoustics; Speech Therapy

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

Master of Arts in Psychology, Cleveland State University, 2017, College of Sciences and Health Professions

Numerous studies have attempted to validate nonverbal fluency tests but none have examined construct validity, particularly the correlation of measures and self-reported executive functioning deficits. The current study examined this issue by correlating the results of the Five-Point Test (5PT) and the Delis Kaplan Executive Functioning System (D-KEFS) Design Fluency Test with the Barkley Deficits in Executive Functioning Scale – Short Form (BDEFS-SF) in 306 English speaking adults. Participants were volunteers from undergraduate classes and those serving jury duty in a large urban city. The mean age was 36.89 ± 18.08 with an average of 14.65 ± 2.85 years of education. The majority was female (70.3%), Caucasian (76.0%), and had a primary language of English (97.7%). Results were unable to confirm the previous literature showing adequate test-retest reliability across all scores for the 5PT and for the D-KEFS Design Fluency Test as only rotation of the 5PT (rs=.84) as having good reliability. In analyzing the scales of the BDEFS-SF, the study found only a few inconsistent meaningful correlations between the summary and strategy scores of the 5PT and scales of the BDEFS-SF. When controlling for age and education, repetitions for the 5PT and the DKEFS Design Fluency Test correlated significantly with most of the scores on the BDEFS-SF, supporting repetitions on nonverbal fluency tasks as measures of executive dysfunction. A mediation analysis was significant such that education mediated the relationship between age and number of unique designs on the 5PT, b = .086, 95% BCa CI [.035, .138], as well as for the relationship between age and strategies used on the 5PT, b = .069, 95% BCa CI [.014, .122]. In general, small insignificant correlations were found between the summary scores of the two nonverbal fluency measures and the self-report measure of executive functioning, further suggesting the link between self-report of such deficits and actual deficits is tenuous at b (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Amir Poreh Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Boaz Kahana Psy.D. (Committee Member); Christopher France Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychological Tests; Psychology

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2006, Education : School Psychology

This investigation examined the efficacy of assisted self-graphing for improving early literacy skills within an urban public school that employed a response-to-intervention model. Self-graphing supplemented the classwide kindergarten reading instruction and an empirically-based small group literacy intervention. Effects were studied through a multiple baseline across participants design (N = 3). The efficacy and social validity of self-graphing also were analyzed. The study demonstrated that kindergarteners are capable of self-graphing with adult assistance. However, on 43% of occasions, children chose not to self-graph. Furthermore, while there is some evidence that the self-graphing intervention produced increases in students' phoneme segmentation fluency (the primary dependent measure), findings were not strong overall and did not show effectiveness for the secondary dependent measure, nonsense word fluency, used to assess generalization of self-graphing skills. Sample selection may have attenuated findings in that students acquired some targeted skills prior to the onset of self-graphing. Recommendations for future use of self-graphing were suggested.

Committee: Dr. David Barnett (Advisor) Subjects:

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2024, Communication

Communication scholars and practitioners are often concerned about delivering necessary information to the public. One problem facing these objectives is that humans have a limited amount of resources to process information at a given time. Consequently, in order for messages to be effective, it imperative that messages receive sufficient attention. There are different conceptualizations of these limited resources. Dominant theorization in communication, the limited capacity model for motivated mediated message processing (LC4MP), asserts that resources are drawn from one unidimensional pool, whereas theory in cognitive psychology, the load theory of attention and cognitive control (LTACC), asserts that resources are drawn from two, separable pools: cognitive load (CL) and perceptual load (PL). Importantly, from the two-pool perspective, CL and PL have been shown to have distinct, opposite effects on attention. Therefore, the primary goal of this dissertation was to separately manipulate CL and PL and test their effects as proposed by LTACC. Participants (N = 142) completed a two-part 2(CL: low v. high) x3(PL: low v. moderate v. high) laboratory experiment where they read a persuasive health message (Part 1) and completed a headline selection task (Part 2). For the persuasive message, the negative relationship between CL and attention was supported by recognition and STRT data, whereas the inverted U-shaped relationship for perceptual load was supported only by STRT data. Extending these relationships from attention to selection and persuasion was less consistent. Selection appeared to be driven more by fluency than attention, and the impacts of CL and PL on persuasion was mediated by valence, rather than fluency or elaboration. Theoretical implications and next steps are discussed.

Committee: Hillary Shulman (Advisor); Teresa Lynch (Committee Member); Zheng Wang (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication

Doctor of Education , University of Dayton, 2024, Educational Administration

This dissertation examines the effectiveness of blogging to improve student writing fluency and writing self-efficacy in ninth-grade English courses at Mount St. Mary Academy. Utilizing a case study approach with convergent mixed methods, a paired samples t-test found no statistically significant changes in pre- and post-assessments of general and writing self-efficacy over an eight-week period. A bivariate correlation revealed a moderately positive linear and statistically significant relationship between SESAW (pre- and post-assessment) and WCVALUER scores—indicating a strong association between initial self-efficacy and writing fluency development. Furthermore, specific blogging activities, such as reflective pieces following a communal class retreat, showed significant correlations with the SESAW and WCVALUER. The qualitative analysis revealed both positive and negative perceptions of writing among students, highlighting areas of stress and anxiety alongside opportunities for engagement and growth. Implications for practice include program refinements and tailored interventions to meet student needs, supported by ongoing faculty development programs. Future research could explore unique correlations observed in this study, particularly relating to communal experiences like the class retreat. While this study adds to the understanding of blogging as a tool for enhancing student writing outcomes, continued research and refinement of instructional practices are essential for maximizing its effectiveness in educational contexts.

Committee: Kevin Kelly (Committee Chair); Karen Kuralt (Committee Member); Meredith Wronowski (Committee Member) Subjects: Communication; Composition; Curricula; Curriculum Development; Education; Educational Software; Educational Technology; Educational Theory; Elementary Education; Language Arts; Literacy; Neurosciences; Secondary Education; Teaching

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2023, Educational Studies

The field of online language education is experiencing rapid growth, emphasizing the need to understand factors that influence students' communication behaviors in online learning environments. This research study examines the relationships between need satisfaction, willingness to communicate (WTC), quantity of communication(i.e., frequency of communication), and quality of communication (i.e., language performance) in asynchronous and synchronous learning modes. Using Experience Sampling Methodology, data was collected from high school students enrolled in an online language course. Weekly surveys were used to capture participants' situational need satisfaction, WTC, and quantity of communication. Quality of communication was assessed through weekly writing assignments and synchronous speaking performance. Findings from multiple group path analyses revealed that students' need satisfaction for competence, and relatedness were significantly related to their WTC in both asynchronous and synchronous learning modes. The study identified differences in relationship patterns in asynchronous and synchronous learning modes, highlighting the influence of specific contextual factors on communication behaviors. Additionally, the study employed cross-lagged analyses to explore the temporal effects between need satisfaction and WTC, and between WTC and communication behaviors. The findings revealed the associations between students' prior learning experiences, students' perceptions, and subsequent engagements over time. The study explored the specificity of relationships within and across learning modes and content units, providing insights into contextual factors that are associated with students' communication behaviors. By examining the differences in relationships across various modes and considering temporal dynamics within specific contexts, this research enhances our understanding of factors contributing to supportive online environments and positive communication (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Kui Xie (Advisor); Minjung Kim (Committee Member); David Stein (Committee Member) Subjects: Education

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Ohio University, 2022, Curriculum and Instruction (Education)

This dissertation explored the systemic factors influencing learners' technology outcomes in a teacher preparation program, specifically addressing technology fluency and the ability to integrate technology into instruction. Using a combination of grounded theory and qualitative program evaluation, this study identified the scope, contexts, and systems of influence and control that have an impact on technology skills development for teacher candidates. Using backward design, this study mapped the learning experiences of teacher candidates, identifying key contributors of technology skills development within the program. Using this analysis, a conceptual framework outlining the flow of systemic influences was created, and a data collection tool was developed to quantify the technology fluency and disposition of program faculty. These tools can be used to identify and evaluate a teacher preparation program's technology outcomes, and evaluate the technology abilities of program staff. Through qualitative interviews, this tool was used to identify the overall temperament toward technology within the program and identify areas in which improvements could be made. Recommendations were made for the specific program in the final chapter.

Committee: Frans Doppen (Committee Chair); Sara Helfrich (Committee Member); Sara Hartman (Committee Member); Greg Kessler (Committee Member) Subjects: Adult Education; Curricula; Curriculum Development; Education; Education Policy; Educational Evaluation; Educational Leadership; Educational Software; Educational Technology; Elementary Education; Higher Education Administration; Information Technology; Instructional Design; Organization Theory; Organizational Behavior; Pedagogy; Preschool Education; Reading Instruction; School Administration; Secondary Education; Special Education; Teacher Education; Teaching; Technology

Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Education, Cleveland State University, 2022, College of Education and Human Services

The importance of integrating culture into foreign language teaching and learning has been acknowledged in the U.S. by the National Standards in Foreign Language Education Project and foreign language professionals. However, it remains challenging for Chinese-as-a-Foreign-Language (CFL) teachers to embrace this concept thoroughly and implement it effectively in their CFL classes. The study explores six CFL teachers' perceptions and experiences towards culture and language integration into their CFL curricula and instruction in American high schools. This study aims to describe the overall landscape of culture-language integration in the CFL discipline in American high schools by revealing the essential knowledge of CFL curriculum and pedagogy; the difficulties in developing a culture-language integrated curriculum; the processes CFL teachers use to respond to the difficulties; and the experiences, relationships, structures, and/or resources shaping CFL teachers' practices of integrating culture into CFL curriculum and instruction. The researcher adopted the hermeneutic phenomenological approach to probe the research questions and utilized questionnaires and in-depth interviews to collect data. The data analysis revealed a gap between recognizing the significance of integrating culture in CFL courses and implementing this integration in the CFL curricula and instruction among the participants. The participants appealed for support in academic knowledge of cultural teaching, and for social and cultural capital to fulfill culture-language integration in the CFL classes in American high schools. The findings underscore pedagogies and techniques the participants used to integrate culture into CFL curriculum and course instruction, including cultural comparison, contextualization, and project-based methods. Compared with the academic factors which impact the Chinese teachers' integration of culture into the CFL curricula and instruction, the research found that structur (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Lih-Ching Chen Wang (Advisor); Anne Galletta (Committee Co-Chair); Abed el-Rahman Tayyara (Committee Member); Elena Andrei (Committee Member); Katherine Clonan-Roy (Committee Member) Subjects: Cultural Anthropology; Curricula; Education; Educational Sociology; Instructional Design; Pedagogy

PhD, University of Cincinnati, 2021, Medicine: Neuroscience/Medical Science Scholars Interdisciplinary

Reading is an evolutionarily new human invention that is an indicator of academic success for children in school. The Simple View of Reading (SVR) model suggests that reading comprehension depends on decoding and linguistic comprehension abilities. Further exploration of this model shows that cognitive abilities or executive functions (EFs) including working memory, planning behavior, and inhibition to name a few are also relevant for reading comprehension. Ten to 15% of school-age children are diagnosed with reading difficulties (RD) or dyslexia based on deficits in components of the SVR model by 3rd grade. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data has shown that children with RD have decreased activation in temporoparietal circuitry important for phonological processing, occipitotemporal circuitry involved in visual word recognition, and increased activation in frontal regions due to the cognitive demand of reading. Although RD commonly occurs due to endogenous-genetic reasons, children can also suffer from reading challenges due to exogenous/environmental reasons such as inadequate stimulation in the home reading environment or lack of resources. Environmental variables such as maternal reading fluency and educational attainment are associated with behavioral and neurobiological outcomes for reading acquisition. Therefore, the over-reaching goal of the current study was to examine the relations between maternal variables (i.e., reading fluency and education) and the behavioral and neurobiological correlates of reading in pre-readers and school-age children using task-based and resting-state fMRI data. Using this approach, we hope to expand the SVR model by adding an exogenous component to it, focusing on maternal education and reading fluency. We conducted three studies aiming to 1) determine the relationship between maternal reading fluency and the functional connectivity between the language network and regions related to cognitive control and visual pr (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Jennifer Vannest Ph.D. (Committee Chair); Mark Difrancesco Ph.D. (Committee Member); Tzipi Horowitz-kraus Ph.D. (Committee Member); John Hutton (Committee Member); Jeffrey Tenney (Committee Member) Subjects: Neurology

Doctor of Education (Educational Leadership), Youngstown State University, 2021, Department of Teacher Education and Leadership Studies

This study examines the factors that contribute to a student`s career readiness during the secondary years. The study attempts to identify the skills employers most value, the skills employers identify as the most difficult to find in prospective employees, and the experiences that employers believe high school students should engage in frequently to develop these workplace skills. Exploratory factor analysis is utilized to examine the quantitative results of the study. The results indicate social emotional literacy is needed most often in jobs for employees to successfully perform job-related tasks. The results suggest that digital literacy skills, while not as highly valued by employees, are found less frequently in newly hired employees. The research examines the frequency in which employers believe high school students should participate in various instructional activities. The research results indicate that employers believe high school students should most frequently participate in activities that help develop their mathematics and technology skills.

Committee: Karen Larwin PhD (Committee Chair); Carrie Jackson EdD (Committee Member); Patrick Spearman PhD (Committee Member); Sherri Harper Woods DM (Committee Member) Subjects: Education

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2020, Computer Science and Engineering

Thanks to advancements in deep learning, we can efficiently train Nerual Generation models on massive conversational datasets on the web to learn open-domain dialogue agents, without relying on hand-written rules or manual annotation. However, neural conversation models tend to generate safe, generic responses for most inputs, for example ”I don't know”. This limits their usability in downstream applications. We identify the main reason for this bland-responses problem is maximum likelihood-based decoding objective. We propose a simple yet effective approach for incorporating side information in the form of distributional constraints over the generated responses. Specifically, we introduce two new constraints, based on syntax and topics model (Griffiths et al., 2005) and semantic similarity (Arora et al., 2016), that help generate more content rich and diverse responses. We evaluate our approach against a variety of competitive baselines, using both automatic metrics and human judgments, showing that our proposed approach generates highly diverse responses without sacrificing plausibility. Question-Answering (QA) is one of the most important aspect of human learning. Research in Natural Language Processing (NLP) is garnering huge interest in reading comprehension (RC) based QA with a special focus in the conversational QA (ConvQA). One notable limitation of recent ConvQA datasets is that the answers are typically short text-spans extracted from the RC passage, instead of natural language generation (NLG) based highquality conversational responses. To mitigate this issue, we propose to fine-tune Sequenceto-Sequence (SEQ2SEQ) dialog models to generate fluent grammatical answer responses while maintaining correctness. From a technical perspective, we use data augmentation to generate training data for an end-to-end system. Specifically, we develop Syntactic Transformations (STs) to produce question-specific candidate answer responses and rank them using a BERT-ba (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Alan Ritter (Advisor); Wei Xu (Committee Member) Subjects: Computer Science

PHD, Kent State University, 2020, College of Education, Health and Human Services / School of Teaching, Learning and Curriculum Studies

MCTEER, JANIS S., PH.D., August 2020 Education, Health, and Human Services A MIXED-METHODS STUDY OF WHOLE-CLASS REPEATED READING AS A FLUENCY INSTRUCTIONAL METHOD FOR ALL STUDENTS (170 pp.) Co- Directors of Dissertation: William P. Bintz, Ph.D. Gumiko Monobe, Ph.D. The purpose of this study was to examine changes in the fluent reading of 33 second grade students attending a charter school in the southwestern area of the United States. Students read poems, a song, and a readers' theater as classes multiple times employing a fluency instructional method called whole-class repeated reading (WCRR). They read texts using different voices, clapping patterns, and pointers while preparing for a parent performance at the conclusion of the study. Using a convergent parallel mixed-methods study design, quantitative and qualitative data were both gathered to strengthen study findings. Students were assessed using 3-Minute Reading Assessments to reveal any changes in student fluency which may have occurred during the study. Observations and video recordings of students participating in WCRR were made by the researcher and participating teachers (Teacher 1 and Teacher 2). Data were then used to provide an understanding of students' fluency at the end of the study and to ascertain any support to assessment findings through observational data. Students in Teacher 2's class had significant findings in all areas of the assessment, while Teacher 1's students' findings were significant in one assessment area. Assessment findings disclose students in both classes, on average, increased the number of words they could recognize automatically.

Committee: William Bintz Ph.D. (Committee Co-Chair); Gumiko Monobe Ph.D. (Committee Co-Chair); Lisa Borgerding Ph.D. (Committee Member); Natasha Levinson Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Education; Elementary Education; Gifted Education; Literacy; Reading Instruction; Teacher Education; Teaching

MAE, Otterbein University, 2019, Education

In order to complete higher level math tasks, fluency of multiplication and division is crucial. Based on state standards, third grade students are expected to become fluent with multiplication and division facts from 0-100 by the end of the year. Throughout history many educators have relied on timed tests to teach and assess math fact fluency. Best practices for helping students become fluent with math facts is now highly debated. The purpose of this teacher action research study was to evaluate the effectiveness of using math fact games and visual math cards as means of distributed practice in order to achieve fluency with multiplication and division facts among a group of forty-seven, third-grade students in a suburban school district in Central Ohio. A mixed-method design was framed within a cycle of inquiry used in teacher action research, including a pre-assessment, student interviews, and summative assessments for data collection. The focus of the study was to implement research-based instructional strategies for boosting fluency of math facts, then assessing, student fluency. Data from the Post-Assessment, verbal assessment, rating scales, and interviews showed that students did in fact learn to multiply and divide when taught these strategies. Students reported that learning strategies were crucial, math games were helpful as well as enjoyable, and timed tests would cause anxiety. Moreover, the assessment used in this study was a more valid measure of what fluency in mathematics really encompasses. Regardless of the sequence in which the two strategies were introduced, all students demonstrated growth in strategy usage and efficiency over the two-week period.

Committee: Susan Constable Ph.D. (Advisor); Jeff Smith Ph.D. (Committee Member); Diane Ross Ph.D. (Committee Member) Subjects: Educational Theory; Mathematics Education

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), Bowling Green State University, 2019, Psychology/Experimental

The present study aimed to reconcile two hypothetical mechanisms driving JOL delay effects. The first hypothesis is the monitoring-dual-memories (MDM) hypothesis proposed by Dunlosky and Nelson (1992), which states that increased accuracy of delayed judgments of learning (JOLs) occurs because delayed JOLs activate the same memory storage system as the memory task itself (i.e., long-term memory). The second hypothesis is the accessibility model proposed by Koriat (1993) which states that delayed JOLs are more accurate because they increase retrieval fluency by reinforcing memory activation. Fluency research (e.g., Ball, Klein, & Brewer, 2014; Mueller, Dunlosky, Tauber, & Rhodes, 2014; Reber & Greifeneder, 2017) has not previously applied the accessibility model, but the model may explain fluency's effects on metacognitive illusions, such that increased processing leads to increased encoding fluency creating a false sense of knowing. This dissertation presents two experiments and a combined analysis in which I investigated the effects of fluency and JOL delay on the size of metacognitive illusions measured in ways that replicated previous research and in ways that are novel in learning research. Through an interaction between JOL timing and fluency, the MDM hypothesis explains the retrieval side of the memory process whereas the accessibility model explains the encoding side of the memory process. The remainder of the findings generally supported the MDM hypothesis. The present results also established a new avenue for investigating metacognitive illusions and call into question the findings of previous research. Specifically, participants' prediction of their future memory performance may not be as poor as previously thought. Implications for these findings and future directions are discussed.

Committee: Richard Anderson Dr. (Advisor); Lynn Darby Dr. (Other); Dale Klopfer Dr. (Committee Member); Laura Leventhal Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology

Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2019, Social Sciences (Arts and Sciences)

Schizotypy refers to a cluster of personality traits including unusual perceptual experiences, ideas of reference, suspiciousness, magical thinking, constricted affect, no close friends, social anxiety, eccentric behavior, and odd/disorganized speech. One core deficit observed in individuals with schizotypy is social impairment; however, the underlying mechanisms of social impairment are not well understood. Neurocognitive performance may provide an avenue for understanding social impairment in schizotypy. Empirical evidence suggests a relationship between neurocognitive variables such as language and functional outcomes, including social impairment, across schizophrenia spectrum populations. Schizotypal personality characteristics are also related to performance on language tasks and to social functioning. Some literature suggests that in samples of individuals with schizophrenia, neurocognition is indirectly related to functional outcomes through clinical symptoms. Across the schizophrenia spectrum, cognitive deficits precede the development of clinical symptoms and social impairment. As such, there is reason to believe that in schizotypy samples, cognitive functioning may also be indirectly related to social functioning through schizotypal personality traits; however, to our knowledge, this relationship has not yet been explored. The present thesis utilized archival data to examine the relationships among language performance, schizotypal personality characteristics, and social function in an undergraduate sample. Results indicated the high schizotypy group performed poorer on some tasks of language, reported greater social impairment, and were objectively rated as exhibiting more socially aberrant behaviors than was the low schizotypy group. In the high group only, schizotypal personality traits were negatively related to performance on some language tasks, and to self-reported social functioning. In the high group only, support for an indirect relationship betw (open full item for complete abstract)

Committee: Julie Suhr PhD (Committee Chair); Nicholas Allan PhD (Committee Member); Timothy Anderson PhD (Committee Member) Subjects: Psychology