This study examined the influence of a professional development project on the process of change experienced by four veteran physical education teachers. This study was part of a larger study that included all of the physical educators within an entire school district. The information shared here is from a sub-group of teachers who taught primary-age students. The professional development project was content-based, situated in classroom practice, sustained over time, focused on the design and implementation of standards-based content and assessment into physical education classroom practice. A qualitative methodology was used to investigate the process of change experienced by these teachers before, during, and after participating in this project. Findings were based on project conversations, interviews, multiple classroom observations, questionnaires, and document analysis of materials produced during the project and in the classrooms of these four veteran physical education teachers throughout the three-year span of the project. It was found that the participants changed their thoughts and practices regarding content, instruction, and assessment in an interconnected non-linear manner. Changes include: student learning became a predominant instructional goal; standards were viewed as a planning tool; and assessment for and of student learning became important. Perceptions of self as professional changed from feelings of marginalization to being an important and valued member of their schools. Four major conclusions were drawn from the findings about the features of the professional development project. These are: (a) teaching is an isolated enterprise, and the social context of this project supported change; (b) learning to teach as a situated endeavor and by situating the project in the context of classroom physical education supports change; (c) adequate resources to maintain a sustained focus during implementation of practices supported change; (d) incompatibility of teacher knowledge and beliefs with the intentions of the professional development personnel inhibited change. / Ph. D.

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to examine the nature of professional development of principals of schools in the rural Appalachian region of Virginia. The researcher interviewed 13 principals from public elementary, middle, and high schools regarding their professional development experiences. Principals were asked to describe their past and current professional development experiences, identify barriers to accessing professional development, and provide their opinion regarding the importance of professional development that focuses specifically on leading a school in rural Appalachia. Principals reported participation in many different types of professional development. Principals' responses were analyzed to determine the extent to which professional development was on-going, job-embedded, and connected to school improvement goals. Results indicated principals' professional development experiences were seldom on-going, often job-embedded, and somewhat connected to school or district improvement goals. Principals reported the demands of the job, lack of professional development opportunities provided by their school district, lack of knowledge of professional development available outside their district, and being geographically isolated as barriers to their professional learning. The results led to identification of areas for further research. These areas include (a) the role and influence of school division leadership on principals' professional development (b) the importance and impact of incorporating networking and other opportunities for collaboration into the design of principals' professional development, (c) the impact of designing professional development that is on-going, job-embedded, and connected to school improvement goals on initial learning and continued leadership behaviors of principals, (d) the issues relating to the use and non-use of distance technologies for principals' professional development, and (e) the efficacy of professional development designed for teachers in meeting the needs of principals or the ability of principals to translate the content of teachers professional development to knowledge and skills needed by instructional leaders. The researcher also suggested the need for additional research to compare and contrast the professional development experiences of this study's participants with other principals in rural Appalachia as well as principals from suburban and urban school districts. / Ph. D.

This thesis evaluates the Skyline drama program. The first chapter presents an overview of the program; Chapters II and III describe the core and the advanced curriculum, respectively; and Chapter IV examines the first year of operation and evaluates the entire project.

D.Phil.

The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of Career Information System (CIS) on high school students’ vocational skills self-efficacy, outcome expectations, work hope, career planning, career decision-making difficulties and postsecondary plans. CIS is an internet-based computer system of occupational and educational information designed to help users become more knowledgeable about the labor market and education system, as well as provide career planning support. Students from two high schools participated in the study. Participants at School A were first-year students who completed the Interest Profiler module of CIS. Participants at School B were first-year students who completed the Interest Profiler, IDEAS, SKILLS, Reality Check, and Work Importance Locator modules of CIS. First-year students who did not participate in the CIS intervention served as the control group in both schools. Participants in both schools who utilized the CIS intervention demonstrated a number of significant differences compared to control group participants at posttest. School A treatment participants' vocational outcome expectations and work hope were higher and career decision-making difficulties (i.e. inconsistent information and lack of information) were lower compared to control participants. School A treatment group participants were also more likely to indicate postsecondary educational plans of specialized training, 2-year community college, or 4-year college, instead of no education plans, compared to control group participants. School B treatment participants' vocational skills self-efficacy was significantly higher than control participants at posttest. Treatment group participants at both schools demonstrated more changes in their occupational interests compared to control group participants at posttest. The effects of CIS did not vary as a function of race/ethnicity or socioeconomic status in regards to any of the career outcome variables in either school. Implications for the use of CIS among first-year high school students will be discussed and suggestions for future research will be provided.

Thesis (MBA.) -- University of Limpopo, 2015 / The contribution of an MBA degree on career mobility in South Africa is of importance and exhibits strong interest from academics, business and public space. Many people believe that an MBA can help for any managerial position especially in cooperate business set up in terms of upward career mobility and skills acquisition. This study wanted to find out if indeed qualifying with an MBA degree helps graduates to move upward, get better salaries and benefits and feel more skilled.This study was conducted using graduates from the Turfloop Graduate School of Leadership, University of Limpopo, who graduated between 2007 and 2011. A total of 44 participants responded. The results mainly indicated that the MBA qualification does help in helping graduates feel better capacitated and ready for managerial positions. The qualification also helps with higher positions and/or salaries. However, for candidates to realise those better positions they mostly need to move to other organisations or even other provinces.The study recommends that another study focused on more universities that offer MBA in South Africa be carried out to compare the career advancement of graduates from all these universities. Another one that focuses on the reasons why career progression is not mostly realised in organisations within which candidates worked prior to getting an MBA degree is also recommended.

No description available.

This study is an interpretive investigation of the life-career histories of 53 women in engineering; and a case study of one woman's account of present-lived career and her quest for identity in engineering over an eight year period (1992-1999). This study had two broad aims. First, it aimed to give voice to women's stories derived from their own reflective accounts, and to compare and contrast their perspectives with feminist writers' reviews of non-traditional girls' and women's career experiences, and with the organisational career story of itself. Second, it aimed to evaluate the adequacy of my convergence of a socialist feminist "unified systems" theory of social relations (Jaggar, 1983, 1989; Jaggar & Rothenberg, 1984, 1993) with Super's segmental life-span, lifespace theory (Super, 1980, 1990, 1994) to explain women's career and personality development. Further to this theoretical convergence, I elaborated on Super's original models and evaluated their usefulness for my gender analysis of career from four perspectives. I conceptualised "career" as both "subjective" and "organisational" (Dale, 1972; Hughes, 1937) and, using Benhabib's (1986b) terminology, created four perspectives by further differentiating career into either "generalised other" or "concrete other" (see Figure 1.1). Drawing on the findings of my exploration of the women's careers, I extended the range of Jaggar's/Super's explanatory theories of career and personality development (Figure 2.2) in an elaboration of Supers archway model (Figure 8.1). I found that my combined Jaggar/Super career archway and spider web model (Figure 2.3) represented the life-space tensions in each individual woman's career decision-making in engineering. / The life-career rainbow was a valuable subsidiary model (Figure 2.4) in highlighting the complexities of gender as an overarching socio-cultural factor for theoretical and conceptual analyses of career and its effect on salient role relationships and personality development at each life-stage. My convergence career ladder represented the organisational career statuses and the successive development of the subjective career and identity through the completion of developmental tasks (Figure 2.6). My case study Cecilia, in common with other participants, I found to be an accomplished "feminine ambivalent" (Douvan & Adelson, 1966) and "paver of the way" (Josselson, 1987), yet she (like several others) floundered in the milieux of engineering. Her story indicates the continued need for engineering educators: to acknowledge the significance of women's subjective constructs of career to effect transformative change by promoting equity and excellence; to recognise ways in which the subjective and the organisational constructs of career can complement one another; and to implement changes which facilitate such complementarity. This study fills a space in the research literature on non-traditional girls' and women's career development. It also has potential to assist those who wish to gain a better understanding of the career pathways of women in engineering.

This thesis explored careers within Australian tourism with the aim of developing a model of influences on career development in the tourism industry. As tourism is still an emerging profession, careers have yet to be clearly defined and career paths are not easily identifiable. In addition, there is evidence to suggest that the industry is prone to high turnover, low retention rates, is often viewed as a low skilled industry and has difficulty attracting employees with a view to serious career development. While some research into careers into hotel management is available, in depth career studies in the tourism industry have yet to emerge. This thesis addresses this gap in the literature and provides industry stakeholders with information to assist in human resource management and policy development. The researcher drew finding from an electronic survey that was designed from information collected from an exploratory study conducted by the researcher, from literature available on both career development and research on the tourism industry, and from earlier research projects. This electronic survey was designed to collect primarily qualitative data and was disseminated to the Australian tourism industry. Results from this study suggest that careers in the tourism industry are influenced by a variety of mentoring relationships. Both formal education and on-the-job training was found to be increasingly important for those wanting to advance in the industry and remaining mobile between jobs, between organisations, within industries and geographically was advantageous. A motivation to work in tourism and a "passion" for the industry was found to be a strong influence on career development in the current study. This study should add to our understanding of careers in Australian tourism and, more specifically to our understanding of the role of formal education and on-the-job training in career development and the perceived value of such training. The current study reinforces previous knowledge of high levels of mobility within the tourism industry and suggests the need to change job, organisation, industry or geographical location is influential on career development in Australian tourism. In addition, the results suggest that although structured mentorship programs are currently unavailable to many in the tourism industry, mentorship in the form of informal and networking relationships assists career development. While this thesis has contributed to our understanding of career development in the tourism industry, because of inevitable limitations with the sample obtain for this study, it would be useful to replicate this survey with other sectors of the tourism, to explore influences on careers in tourism in other countries, to investigate gender issues in the industry and to further explore the influences of education, mobility and mentorship.