Date of Award

2005

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Program/Concentration

Urban Services - Urban Education

Committee Director

Robert Lucking

Committee Member

Maurice R. Berube

Committee Member

Maurice R. Berube

Committee Member

Alfred P. Rovai

Abstract

This study measured the effect that instructional style, duration of class time, and repeated administrations of the Classroom Community Scale (CCS) had on the sense of classroom community of military urban graduate students (N = 263). The Instructional Styles Inventory (ISI) was used to determine instructional style, and the CCS was utilized to measure sense of classroom community. In addition, this research contained qualitative data that were extracted from a random sampling of participants during small focus groups.

Quantitative analysis of the data showed that duration of class time and instructional style had an effect on sense of classroom community. The social/conceptual instructional style (greater use of class discussion and real world examples in teaching) proved to have a more positive effect on sense of classroom community than the conceptual (lecture oriented) instructional style. In addition, it was shown that 5 weeks of class (one class per week for 2 hours) was not as effective as 10 weeks of class (one class per week for 2 hours) for developing a sense of classroom community.

Qualitative analyses of the data showed that students felt that the most important element of the instructional style that contributed to sense of classroom community was that interaction among the students was encouraged. The students made noteworthy comments that the classroom environment set by the instructor was the key contributor to developing a sense of classroom community. However, of significant note was that once a classroom environment that supported interaction among the students was set, the instructor became ancillary and that the most effective learning was generated from student-to-student interaction.

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DOI

10.25777/pv7q-ga68

ISBN

9780542157394

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