3:00-3:50 p.m. ATTENDING TO SELF-EXPRESSION (Discussion Session) Salon A

Presider: Dennis Zuelke, Jacksonville State University

THE USE OF THE STUDY CIRCLE IN SCHOOL REFORM: BRINGING ALL THE VOICES TO THE TABLE

Jo S. Chesser and Larry McNeal, University of Arkansas at Little Rock

             The Study Circle process provides an experience of successful communication that enables the development of new relationships, bonding between participants, and action toward problem solving. The common ground discovered by community citizens through the Study Circles process permits school leaders to be the channel for the values and visions of the community. The recommendations and concerns expressed in the Study Circles provides information to school board members, superintendent, principal, and teachers and is a link to the decision-making process the school district must have for 21st century educational change and for the development of future citizens.
             A qualitative case study of the Study Circles program on education, Calling the Roll: Study Circles for Better Schools, describes the perceptions of adult and student participants in two of the participating Arkansas communities. The case study compares the themes of the interview transcripts with the findings of the 1998 quantitative database, archival documents, and current literature findings to provide triangulation of the data. Information from the research on the study circle in the early 1990's and developing research studies on youth study circles were also correlated in order to explore and investigate the phenomena of the first statewide study circles on education in America.
             Student input provides adults with a better picture of what the school is like today. When Arkansas students found that the study circle was a safe place to express their opinions and share their ideas, they opened up to the conversations with the adults in their circle. The findings indicated a change in both student and adult perspectives in understanding other individuals. The importance of face-to-face communication in enlisting participants as well as the value of this effective communication approach in developing shared understanding and ideas for action were presented through the experiences of the participants.

AT-RISK MIDDLE STUDENTS SPEAK: A TRIAD TEAM LISTENS

Nancy L. Tarsi and Mary Sue Polleys, Columbus State University, and Michelle Jones, Baker Middle School

             This study explores the development and expression of student voices relating to their experience of exposure to high-level technology at a brand new and well-equipped middle school. Grades six through eight at Baker Middle School began classes in their new facility in January 2000. This research tapped the perspectives of some eighth-grade students who were exposed to technology-rich instruction available in their new school. There is some evidence in the literature that marginalized students benefit from alternative teaching and learning strategies (Gardner, 1993; Zimmerman & Allenbrand, 1965), and that individualized instruction activities are more helpful that traditional classroom instruction (Kazlaukas, 1987).
             In-depth interviews were conducted with nine eighth-grade students from Baker Middle School who were engaged in classroom work in the computer lab in spring 2000. The interviews were transcribed and a hermeneutic analysis conducted (Kvale, 1987) to ferret out themes and patterns in the student narratives. In addition, the data were analyzed using the qualitative software *NUDIST,* which examines the data for themes and patterns quantitatively. The two kinds of data analysis procedures were compared for similarities and differences.
             The initial themes that were derived from the interview questions showed a surprisingly strong voice speaking to the students' experience of differences: (1) the difference between now and then, (2) the difference between having a nice school and having a broken down school, and (3) the difference between having new computers and the latest technology and having old, used textbooks.
A follow-up focus group was scheduled for late summer when all the individual participants were invited to take part in a group discussion of the themes revealed in the individual interviews. That session was thematically analyzed in two ways.

MY PLACE IN TIME: USING DIALOGUE IN THE EXPLORATION OF RECOLLECTION AND IMPLICIT KNOWING VIA STUDENT-DIRECTED TIMELINES

Douglas E. Masini, East Tennessee State University

             The observation of human behavior increasingly suggests that there is a chasm between what you do (leadership, skill, behavior) and what you know (intellect, cognition, aptitude). To examine the gap between what we do and what we know regarding the teaching of children, literature was reviewed on school-life activities that allow children to express knowledge, judgment, goal-setting, decision making, wisdom, and values and was found lacking. Polanyi (1967) said, ". . . people know more than they can tell"; it is inferred that children are filled with implicit and explicit information and utilize it at a younger age than is reflected in existing texts.
             Timelines allow children to express the "separate realities" of their lives. Thirty rising fifth and sixth graders at a rural elementary school used brightly colored washable markers and a 24" x 48" piece of white freezer paper to create a line that began at any time in their past and ended at any time in the future. They were asked to reflect on what had happened to them in their past, what was happening to them today, and what they envisioned would happen to them in their future, and to put it on paper. Personalization and embellishment were encouraged; spontaneous teams and joint efforts were not discouraged. After one hour, each student gave an extemporaneous presentation, followed by praise and applause.
             Students prioritized the relevance of events of their life chronologically, with potent examples of mature life experience emerging from their presentations. Students examined loss, suffering, death, as well as joy and victory in their life; discussed leadership figures and loved ones; and excitedly presented meaningful plans for their future.
             Timelines have no diagnostic value, but serve to establish a dialogue between teachers and students that leads to the emergence of critical literacy.

3:00-3:50 p.m. TESTS (Symposium) Salon B

Organizer: Linda H. Frazer, Kentucky Department of Education

ILLUMINATING THE STANDARD SETTING PROCESS FOR KENTUCKY CATS

Overview of the Standard Setting Process

Linda H. Frazer, Kentucky Department of Education

             In 1999, Kentucky's accountability assessment, the Kentucky Instructional Results Information System (KIRIS), was replaced with the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System (CATS). With this change came the decision to reexamine the performance-level cut scores and to reconsider the performance categories (Novice, Apprentice, Proficient, Distinguished). The six-step standard setting process occurring November 1999 through March 2001 will result in recommendations to the Kentucky Board of Education.

Facilitating the Drafting of New Performance Descriptors by Kentucky Teachers

Rhonda L. Sims, Kentucky Department of Education

             In October and November 1999, approximately 90 Kentucky teachers, representing seven content areas, three grade levels (elementary, middle school, and high school), and special education, convened to draft new generic, content specific, and content/grade-level specific student performance standards. This presentation described the process and shared the newly drafted grade/level content specific standards.

Contrasting Groups Study

Robert Wetter, Kentucky Department of Education

             The Contrasting Groups Study compared classroom teachers' ratings of their students' performance with students' subsequent test scores. The target sample was 50 schools per content area/grade-level assessed with approximately 50 students per school. This presentation described methods used to select a "rectangular" distribution for the target sample to include equal numbers of the four performance levels sought, the methodology for collecting the data, and analyses.

Jaeger-Mills Method

Beverly M. Klecker, Kentucky Department of Education

             Content-specific committees, comprised mainly of teachers, compared the newly- drafted NAPD performance descriptors with a representative set of complete student responses to the 2000 Kentucky Core Content Tests assessment. Recommendations about the descriptors were made based on cut scores identified through this review of student work.

3:00-3:50 p.m. MATH EDUCATION (Discussion Session) Meeting Room 1

Presider: Rod Roth, The University of Alabama

SCIENTIFIC AND MATHEMATICAL THINKING AND PROBLEM SOLVING: WHAT IS IT AND HOW CAN IT BE MEASURED?

Jennifer Good, Glennelle Halpin, and Gerald Halpin, Auburn University

             Educators in mathematics and sciences attempt to teach true understanding of complex concepts, and they often turn to instructional methods that purport to improve students' problem solving skills. Unfortunately, no singly-accepted definition of problem solving exists. Thus, how can these methods be assessed or evaluated when problem solving remains an illusive construct, difficult to define and measure? Once a thorough understanding of mathematical and scientific problem solving has been attained, educators can adopt the most appropriate instructional models for enhancing and evaluating these skills.
             Beginning first with the mathematical theory of understanding presented by Pirie and Kieren (1992), which suggests that understanding mathematics and science requires a thinking-oriented process of change, growth, and development, we systematically explored the literature to find commonalities across different definitions of mathematical understanding and problem solving. Some of the common themes that emerged among these definitions included the complex, recursive, and step-oriented nature of the problem solving process. For instance, most problem solving definitions began with: (1) a gathering of data, (2) a basic understanding of concepts, (3) a questioning, analyzing, and dissecting of data, and (4) an eventual evaluation of multiple alternatives or solutions to single problems.
             Having compared and contrasted the differing definitions of problem solving, the current methods for measuring and evaluating problem solving skills were examined. Included among these methods were rubrics of problem solving based upon some of the earlier described definitions, with a discussion of the advantages and disadvantages of each. The implications of this study were that, if educators in the maths and sciences continue to maintain growth of problem solving skills as a primary objective of instruction, then clear definitions of problem solving must be formulated and accepted, and methods of measuring associated skills must be developed and utilized within the mathematics and science academy.

PREDICTORS OF VISUALIZATION: A STRUCTURAL EQUATION MODEL

Rebecca R. Robichaux, University of Louisiana-Hammond, and A. J. Guarino, Auburn University

             Many students enter postsecondary education lacking visualization skills, which have been linked with success in mathematics, mechanical engineering, architecture, and mathematics education. Few studies, however, have employed structural equation modeling to examine predictors on the development of visualization skills. Predictors in this study were gender, handedness, parents' occupations, family income, musical experiences, childhood spatial experiences, spatial hobbies, and favorite mathematics course. Visualization was measured by The Spatial Visualization Test (Middle Grades Mathematics Project, 1983). One hundred seventeen volunteer undergraduates at a major southeastern university were participants.
             The model was evaluated in two ways. First, departure of the data from the specified model was tested for significance by using a chi-square test (Joreskog and Sorbom, 1989). Second, goodness-of-fit between the data and the specified model was estimated by employing the Comparative Fit Index (CFI) (Bentler, 1990), the Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) (Bentler and Bonett, 1980), and the Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) (Browne and Cudeck, 1993). Although the chi-square test was significant, chi-square (142), p < .05, the model yielded acceptably high goodness of fit indices (.981 and .975) for both the CFI and the TLI, respectively. The RMSEA achieved a value of .056 indicating a close fit of the model in relation to the degrees of freedom.
             Results indicated that musical experience and childhood spatial experiences had direct influences on visualization. Childhood spatial experiences were found to be a mediating variable on gender, family income, and mother and father's occupations on visualization. However, favorite mathematics course and spatial hobbies were not significant predictors. Implications of this study were discussed.

AN INVESTIGATION OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS' MISCONCEPTIONS IN PROBABILITY AND STATISTICS

Rhonda C. Porter, Auburn University

             Current reform efforts in mathematics call for making probability and statistics (stochastics) a fundamental component of the school mathematics curriculum. Research has shown that many factors limit students' understanding of and performance in stochastics. Students' misconceptions are problematic as they result in a lack of conceptual understanding of stochastics.
             The purposes of this study were: (1) to determine if certain defined misconceptions in stochastics are present in students attending one particular high school and, if so, which misconceptions, (2) to determine if social factors (i.e., ethnic background, gender, grade, and family socioeconomic level) affect these students' misconceptions in stochastics, and (3) to determine if academic factors (academic track, on or off mathematics grade level, and taking honors classes) affect these students' misconceptions in stochastics.
             Two hundred high school students were given an assessment that addressed reasoning in stochastics. A total of 12 misconceptions were covered in this study including Anchoring and Adjustment, Availability, Conditionals, Conjunction Fallacy, Correlation implies Causation, Equal Groups to Compare Means, Equiprobability, Law of Small Numbers, Means and Averages, Outcome, Representativeness, and Sample Size. Quantitative measures were employed. Comparing means from students previously given the assessment showed that the misconceptions were present in the high school students. Additionally, multiple regressions and bivariate correlations were performed on each of the 12 misconception scales against the seven independent variables.
             The results showed that gender, the only significant social background variable, and whether students were enrolled in honors mathematics classes were significantly contributing factors of the misconception Availability. Females had a higher misconception in Availability, and students enrolled in honors mathematics classes had a higher misconception in Availability. Students who were identified as not being on mathematics grade level had higher misconceptions in Anchoring and Adjustment, and students who were enrolled in honors mathematics classes had a higher misconception in Equiprobability.

3:00-3:50 p.m. EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP (Discussion Session) Meeting Room 2

Presider: Janice Patterson, The University of Alabama at Birmingham

AN INVESTIGATION OF TEACHERS' PERCEPTIONS OF THEIR PRINCIPALS' DELEGATION AND RELATIONSHIP BEHAVIOR

Otis K. LoVette, University of Louisiana at Monroe

              Are building principals perceived by their teachers as exhibiting behaviors that empower and engender ownership and responsibility on the part of the teaching staff? It is generally recognized in literature and research relating to effective school leaders that teachers who are empowered through the behaviors/actions of their school leaders are more productive in terms of student achievement and also have greater job satisfaction.
             This research investigated the perceptions of teachers relative to two areas identified in a Principal Profile survey as Relationships and Delegation. The survey, which contained 34 items relating to the above two areas, was administered to 76 graduate students in the School Administration program at the University of Louisiana at Monroe who were teaching during the 1999-2000 school year. The teachers came from 11 parishes in north Louisiana and several counties in Arkansas. Teachers also provided demographic data relative to the ages and genders of their principals and the sizes and types (e.g., elementary) of schools. The data were analyzed to determine relationships between each of the demographic categories and the 34 items. Of special interest to the researcher were the ages and sexes of the principals related to their perceived use of the behaviors identified in the survey instrument.
             Teachers' perceptions, which are reality to them and the basis for their own personal actions and responses, indicated a need for building administrators to give more attention to their behaviors relative to Delegation and Relationships.

FIELD INVESTIGATION OF ON-THE-JOB BEHAVIOR OF AN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPAL

Wallapha Ariratana, Khon Kaen University, and Jack Blendinger and Linda T. Jones, Mississippi State University

             This study used structured observation methods to investigate on-the-job behavior of a principal working in a rural elementary school in northeastern Mississippi for 16 consecutive days during the months of November and December. During the observation period, the principal worked 155 hours and put in an average workday of 9.6 hours.
             Relatively few studies observing principals in their daily work environments have been done. The majority of studies investigating the managerial behavior of principals has used questionnaires as the means for collecting data. The shortcoming of the questionnaire approach, however, is that it relies on the respondent's self-reporting of events and may not accurately reflect actual practice. No previously reported study has used structured observation techniques to study on-the-job behavior of an elementary school principal at work for longer than a week.
             Findings revealed that the principal in this study spent the majority of her time "managing by walking about" the buildings and grounds (26.9 hours), handling personnel matters (21.3 hours), performing office-related tasks (20.7 hours), disciplining students (20.7 hours), doing "other" activities (16.6 hours), working with parents (15.0 hours), and addressing curriculum and instruction (13.5 hours). She spent less time for staff development (9.4 hours), business matters (7.2 hours), and shaping school culture (3.5 hours).
             Findings also revealed that the principal spent nearly 25% of her time involved in scheduled and unscheduled meetings and conferences. Because she maintained an open-door policy, the principal had many face-to-face encounters and was often interrupted by teachers, school staff members, and parents while doing office tasks.

JOB SATISFACTION AMONG HIGH SCHOOL ASSISTANT PRINCIPALS

Kuei-Lung Chen, National Changhua University, and Jack Blendinger and Vincent McGrath, Mississippi State University

              This study investigated job satisfaction among high school assistant principals in Mississippi. In particular, the study addressed: (1) the degree of general, intrinsic, and extrinsic job satisfaction, (2) if there were relationships between general, intrinsic, and extrinsic job satisfaction and the length of time worked as an assistant principal, (3) if there were relationships between general, intrinsic, and extrinsic job satisfaction of assistant principals and school size as defined by student enrollment, (4) what high school assistant principals like most and least about their jobs, and (5) what responsibilities high school assistant principals would like added or deleted from their jobs.
             The population investigated consisted of all assistant principals employed in Mississippi high schools. The short-form of the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) was used to collect the majority of the data. Originally designed to measure general, intrinsic, and extrinsic job satisfaction among employees working in business and industrial settings, the instrument was modified for use with assistant principals in school settings by rewording some of the statements to make them more appropriate. Additional, open-ended questions were also added to the instrument.
             Results showed a high degree of general, intrinsic, and extrinsic job satisfaction among the assistant principals. Compensation and workload were the only factors receiving less than a 50% satisfaction rating. No statistically significant relationships were revealed between job satisfaction and two specific variables examined in the study: (1) length of time worked as an assistant principal and (2) school size by student enrollment. However, the findings mildly suggested that the fewer years worked as an assistant principal, the less administrators were satisfied; the more years worked as an assistant principal, the greater the job satisfaction.

3:00-3:50 p.m. ATTITUDES (Display Session) Meeting Room 4

VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY OF THE STATISTICS ANXIETY RATING SCALE

Mustafa Baloglu, Texas A&M University-Commerce

             As the importance of statistics increases, student difficulties related to statistics receive more attention. One of the greatest difficulties is statistical anxiety (or statistics anxiety). There are several instruments that intend to measure statistics anxiety such as the Statistics Anxiety Scale, Statistics Anxiety Inventory, and Statistics Anxiety Rating Scale (STARS). Out of these three instruments, only STARS was originally developed to measure statistics anxiety. Two other instruments were modified from mathematics anxiety scales and are, therefore, theoretically not sound.
             The STARS is a 51-item, five-point Likert-type assessment instrument that measures statistics anxiety by six subscales: Worth of Statistics, Interpretation Anxiety, Test and Class Anxiety, Computational Self-Concept, Fear of Asking for Help, and Fear of Statistics Teachers. There are only limited studies that have investigated psychometric properties of the STARS (i.e., Cruise, Cash, & Bolton, 1985; Onwuegbuzie, 1993). Therefore, this study investigated validity and reliability of the STARS. More specifically, confirmatory factor analysis tested its six-factor structure and internal consistency, and split-half reliability tested its consistency.

LIBRARY ANXIETY: THE ROLE OF STUDY HABITS

Qun G. Jiao, Baruch College, The City University of New York, and Anthony J. Onwuegbuzie, Valdosta State University

             Researchers consistently have reported that many public school students exhibit poor study skills. Inadequate study skills also have been documented among undergraduate students. Recently, deficits in study skills have been found to prevail at the graduate level, too. Because graduate students tend to utilize academic library extensively to study and to undertake library research for class assignments, theses, and dissertations, it is likely that students with poor study habits would be at a disadvantage in this setting. Although not yet empirically tested, inadequate study skills likely is a predictor of library anxiety among graduate students. Indeed, researchers have documented the prevalence and pervasiveness of library anxiety among this population.
             Thus, the purpose of this study was to identify graduate students' predominant study skill strengths and weaknesses. Also examined was the relationship between specific study skills and library anxiety. Participants were 133 graduate students from a number of education disciplines at a university in the southeast. These individuals were administered the Study Habits Inventory (SHI; Jones & Slate, 1992) and the library anxiety scale (Bostick, 1992). Findings revealed that students' responses to 58.8% of the 63 study skill statements presented in the SHI were appropriate. Although this proportion was found to be significantly higher than for undergraduate students in previous studies, these findings suggest that graduate students also could benefit from study skills training. Indeed, study skill weaknesses were identified in the areas of note-taking and reading skills. An all-possible-subsets multiple regression analysis led to the identification of eight specific study behaviors that predicted (F [8, 124] = 13.07, p < .0001) levels of library anxiety. These study habits explained 45.8% (adjusted R2 = 42.3%) of the variance in library anxiety, which, using Cohen's (1988) criteria, represents a large effect size. Implications for library anxiety reduction as a study skills intervention were discussed.

3:00-3:50 p.m. TECHNOLOGY (Training Session) Meeting Room 5

USING THE POWER POINT DRAWING FEATURES TO ENHANCE THE PRESENTATION

Feng Sun and James E. McLean, The University of Alabama at Birmingham

             In the past, presentation visuals included overhead transparencies, paper flip charts, and slides in a slide projector. Producing these visuals was often a complicated and costly process requiring the services of a graphics designer. Now professional-looking visuals can be easily produced on a computer using the presentation software such as Microsoft PowerPoint.
             Educators, business people, and students all give presentations at one time or another. PowerPoint is an effective pedagogical tool that is simple to use. This training session demonstrated how to create presentations with Microsoft PowerPoint 2000 emphasizing its graphic drawing features. This training session covered: (1) how to build a master slide as a template, (2) how to add watermark to the background, (3) how to create the flow chart, (4) how to create a panoramic view in PowerPoint, (5) how to animate individual pie pieces in PowerPoint chart, (6) how to draw and erase during PowerPoint slide shows, (7) how to ungroup and group clip art to create new images in PowerPoint, (8) how to create 3D graphics and WordArt, (9) how to capture the web images and to insert them into the presentation, (10) how to create and customize charts from numerical data, (11) how to animate the text and graphics in the presentation, and (12) some tips and tricks of PowerPoint.
             By the end of this training session participants were able to produce professional presentations and incorporate a wealth of tricks and techniques covered in this session that would allow them to fully exploit this powerful package for a professional-looking presentation. Handouts were provided, and electronic support was available following the meeting via a website designed especially for this purpose.