ahhhhhhhhhhhh

my thesis advisor pretty much chose my topic for me....

Here's an abstract for a dissertation I found online:

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions and practices of children, their parents, and their teachers with regards to bullying at the grade school level. Eight children were interviewed; three that were identified by their teachers as victims, two identified as bullies and three identified as regular peers. Three parents, each taken from the victim, bully, peer groups were also interviewed, as was four teachers taken from the fifth and sixth grade, within the English and French language stream program. The subjects were interviewed using a semi-structured qualitative interview format.

Victim children were generally perceived negatively by the bullies, their peers and by some teachers. The school used in this study did not adopt a formal bullying program and teachers received no bullying training. Parents of victims and bullies were seen to have had similar childhood experiences. Victims felt they did not receive enough support by their teachers.

Another:

Considerable progress has been made in educational television. Evidence of this progress is shown by the accomplishments of the various stations. WTTW of Chicago has telecasted a two year junior college course. WKNO has presented a program from Memphis, Tennessee which teaches reading to illiterates.

WQED of Pittsburgh has taught reading, arithmetic and French to elementary school children. In addition, WQED has enabled adults to complete their high school education at home.

Finance has been and will continue to be a problem for educational television. The following ways are suggested for combating the problem: viewer memberships in the station, contributions from business and industry (Pittsburgh Plate Glass Co. did much to ease the financial burden for WQED); foundation grants (notably the Ford Foundation); the sale of telecourses and books and the sale of kinescopes to outside groups.

Although limited research has been done, it would seem that television can do as good a job in teaching as the classroom and in some cases a better one. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Another:

Maps are one of the most useful teaching aids used in schools. Many teachers do not seem to take full advantage of maps, either because they don't realize how helpful they can be, or because they do not know enough about maps in general. This paper tries to tell something about the skills needed to use maps effectively and then to make some suggestions about how to develop and teach these skills and how to use maps in school.

The value and usefulness of maps is discussed briefly. A map is a kind of shorthand record of geographic information which would require pages to describe in words and still not do it as well as a map could show it. Although maps are a primary tool in the teaching of geography, they belong to all educational subjects equally, such as geology, history, etc. Maps can show many kinds of information, such as locations of places, rivers and other geographical features, sizes of areas, weather, products, population, etc. About ninety percent of geographical information can be shown on maps.

Another:

The most effective program for the gifted child should combine a good general education with various special provisions for their special needs. There must be provision for the gifted student's needs for common education, social development and recreational activities as well as for their distinctive needs for intellectual stimulation and growth and the acquisition of the skills and information that enable them to achieve most productivity in later education and life work. A true enrichment program can best fill these requirements.

In an enrichment program, the work should be related to that for the class as a whole but should include some activities of a more advanced level. Most of the work should be planned in groups so that the gifted child is helped to develop leadership and the ability to work with others. Special helps should be given when there is evidence of subject disability, lack of needed skills, physical awkwardness or personality problems. The classroom must be stimulating and have a wealth of valuable work material and creative media. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

I like this one:

This study explored the math attitudes of gifted students in grades three, four, five, and six participating in an accelerated math program with a focus on gifted girls in the elementary grades. Eight of the nine domains of the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitudes Scale (MAS) were used to survey the math attitudes of 267 gifted boys and girls, in grades three through six. The domains explored the math attitudes of students within the following areas; attitude towards success, mother's attitude, father's attitude, anxiety, motivation, usefulness, teacher's attitude, and confidence. This study includes research involving gifted education; math attitudes, and educational applications of Bandura's social learning theory.

Survey responses were used to compile descriptive and inferential statistics. Using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) and a predetermined alpha level of .05, a multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) compared the groups within the domain clusters. Data analysis yielded two significant main effects in anxiety (.002) and motivation (.008). Anxiety emerged as the most significant finding of the study. Girls revealed more negative math attitudes compared to the boys at all grade levels. Interaction in motivation between fourth and sixth grade and fifth and sixth grade were significant at the .05 level.

The results of this study may be used as a vehicle or catalyst for the implementation of a school or district wide training program for teachers of gifted students. These results could be used to spawn discussions with guidance counselors and others investigating the emotional and academic implications of accelerated math programs.

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Posted by BMD'sPeanut

Man, you're good!

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LOL I didn't write them, I just copied them.

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Posted by Jackie&Justin

WOW!!!!

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I copied those from a dissertation abstract site I have access to for my doctoral program, but most were just master's theses. You can even said you found it, but want to replicate the study to verify the findings (this is allowed even at the doctoral level, because you can usually only conclude about the specific group you studied--so someone else can replicate with a different group, in a different geographic area, etc., to make sure the findings can be applied to a greater population).