http://hdl.handle.net/2374.OX/4072 2013-06-19T22:52:08Z http://hdl.handle.net/2374.OX/4215 Why Johnny Isn't Ready for Kindergarten: A Study of Phonological Awareness Methodology in Pre-Kindergarten Programs in the Mid-Ohio Valley Region of Appalachia Backus, Carolyn S. Phonological awareness is one of the areas of early literacy that is a good predictor of later success in reading. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a representative group of pre-kindergarten classrooms in the Mid-Ohio Valley region of Appalachia. The researcher looked at the methods used by teachers to explicitly and implicitly teach phonological awareness in their classrooms. A Likert scale survey was administered to investigate methodology used by teachers to expose students to these skills in the classroom. Teachers answered questions that focused on their use of strategies to develop early literacy skills such as phoneme and grapheme recognition, segmentation, blending, rhyming, and syllabication. The results suggest that the pre-kindergarten programs currently in operation are inadequate in their teaching of early literacy phonological skills. Results further indicate that teachers are teaching with old reading readiness paradigms rather than research-based early literacy exposure paradigms. 2008-07-07T16:08:07Z http://hdl.handle.net/2374.OX/4216 The College Student Athlete and Alcohol: A Study of the Student Athlete Use and Abuse of Alcohol Consumption Pedersen, Erik J. The alcohol use and abuse of college athletes is a rapidly growing concern in colleges and universities across the country. The purpose of this study was to research and evaluate a group of college student athletes at a small liberal arts college in southeastern Ohio. The researcher obtained statistical information from the student athletes at Marietta College by giving them a fifteen question survey. The researcher conducted his research the 2nd semester of 2007. The student athletes were asked to participate by completing both a confidential and anonymous survey. The survey asked questions in direct relationship to alcohol consumption and patterns of use. The statistical information was obtained with permission from the Director of Athletics and the respected coaches from the varsity teams at Marietta College. This study was designed to investigate the drinking habits of student athletes at a division 3 liberal arts college. Statistical tests were run through the data analysis program SPSS. The frequency tests indicated that Marietta College student athletes do consume alcohol; however the statistics were not as alarmingly high as other studies that have been conducted at other colleges and universities. 2008-07-07T16:08:07Z http://hdl.handle.net/2374.OX/4217 The Impact of a School-Wide Token Economy on Behavior, Attendance, and Academics At Morgan High School Porter, Scott Michael Token economy systems are used in many different situations throughout the world. Primarily these systems seem to be used the most in educational settings. The use of “tokens” also varies with the situation of the social setting. There has been extensive research about token economies in elementary and special needs classrooms. However, not much research has been conducted to determine if token economy systems are effective in a high school setting. This researcher used quantitative data in an attempt to support the idea that token economy systems are indeed effective on a school-wide level in a high school setting. 2008-07-07T16:08:07Z http://hdl.handle.net/2374.OX/4212 The Effects of Preacademic Experiences on Kindergarten Readiness Haught, Aundrea E. The purpose of this study was to determine if children who attended preschool are better prepared for kindergarten as measured by their performance on the Dial-R Test of Kindergarten Readiness. Participants included 37 kindergarten students. One school in rural Washington County, Ohio was selected in a cluster sample of schools in a rural district in Washington County. A paired sample T-test was conducted on the mean scores on the Dial-R Test of Kindergarten Readiness to determine if a significant difference exists between the groups. Implications for public policy regarding preschool attendance were discussed. This study concluded that children who attended preschool at least 3 times per week performed better on the DIAL-R Test of Kindergarten Readiness than children who did not attend. 2008-07-07T16:08:06Z