Thesis PlanA (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M Arch)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2009. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Maire O'Neill. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 110-113).

Many universities currently support the expansion of credit-based experiential learning opportunities for undergraduate students. Libraries can support this institutional objective by offering high quality, for-credit internships. Targeting undergraduates rather than library school graduate students means that internships can be offered to students in a wide array of disciplines in universities across the country. While it is still not the norm for library faculty to teach their own courses, librarians can work within their institutional structures to make this happen. This innovative approach to internship design is beneficial for librarianship (which lacks feeder undergraduate programs), for students interested in careers in librarianship, and for institutions interested in increasing opportunities for experiential learning. This poster session will provide viewers with information to stimulate ideas and a game plan to shepherd those ideas from incubation to realization by using a project at the University of Saskatchewan as an example. / This is a poster presentation for the OLA Super Conference (Toronto, ON), January 28, 2016

This work is located in the unique context of the newly democratised South Africa of 1997 and comprises two phases reflecting its beginning as a Masters project and Its development into a doctoral study. It seeks to answer the research question: Can we improve the learning opportunities for South African Management Studies students from African cultures and restrictive economic and schooling backgrounds, by providing them with a curriculum that promoted free thought? The purpose of the first phase of this work was to evaluate an experience-based curriculum that was learner-centred. It aimed to meet the needs of the 'whole student' and to give the students opportunity to think freely and to achieve their potential. The evaluation, incorporating qualitative and quantitative data, formed the basis of a single case study: it explored the course's effectiveness in providing learning conditions that could promote students' personal, academic and intellectual growth from their first year of study. The purpose of the second phase was to problematise the case study, reflecting on it in the light of subsequent experience and research. This involved an exploration of the value of experience-based learning; the likelihood of the conclusions' replication, particularly within the faculty; the prospects for wider application of the case studied. The thesis argues that experiential learning helped this group of students perform better academically than their compatriots whose learning experience was limited to a traditional university approach, suggesting that the conditions under which teaching and learning occur affect the outcome. The concept of problem-based learning was found to provide an inadequate theoretical framework since its Western cultural underpinnings are foreign to the African culture and did not provide opportunities for 'whole student' independent thought. Since this thesis is based on a unique case study the conclusions cannot be generalisable although they are considerably strengthened in the light of students continuing to perform better over the next five years. Unless universities themselves change their approach to teaching and learning, however, it is suggested that it would be difficult to replicate these findings more broadly.

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No description available.

Empathy is the ability of a person to understand what another is experiencing from the receiver's perspective and the ability to communicate that understanding to the receiver. In nursing, empathy is believed to be a necessary component to the nurse-patient relationship. Evidence shows a decline in empathy specifically noted over time in nursing students who are preparing to graduate and enter the workforce. The practice focused question for this project asked whether an experiential learning toolkit for development of nursing empathy can improve sophomore nursing student empathy as measured via the Jefferson Scale of Empathy. This project was guided by evidence that demonstrated a continued need to measure the effect of activities aimed at fostering empathy in nursing students. The design for this project was a one group pre and post evaluation of a current healthcare program experiential learning toolkit. The project utilized a toolkit learning activity including case study and discussion in an undergraduate academic setting to assess whether empathy can be fostered in nursing students. Empathy levels were measured pre and post intervention utilizing the Jefferson Scale of Empathy. Analysis demonstrated a 3% increase in overall Jefferson score post intervention indicating an increase in empathic tendency. Of the 20 items on the scale, most scores increased pre to post survey. The findings are suggestive that experiential learning may be a viable strategy to increase empathy in nursing students. This project holds significant value for social change with the potential to identify effective methods to develop student nurses' expression of empathy.

The purpose of this study was to explore whether creativity can be nurtured in an experiential learning environment at the college level. The study investigated how well process-based creativity models and construct-based creativity models reflected creative behavior in an experiential and team-based learning environment. The research design included field observations, focus group interviews, student questionnaires, and portfolio assessments. Study participants were selected students from Texas A&M University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Findings indicated that both process-based and construct-based creativity models are good indicators of creative behavior. Torrance’s creativity dimensions that emerged among students included problem awareness, ability to produce and consider many alternatives, ability to put ideas into context, ability to use humor, kinesthetic responsiveness, and ability to break through boundaries. Treffinger’s creativity dimensions included sensitivity to problems, tolerance of congruity, fluency, good research and management skills, cognition, memory, analysis, application, openness to experience, confidence, independence in inquiry, willingness to respond, and readiness for transformations. Dacey’s constructs included sensitivity to problems, divergent thinking, convergent thinking, openness, independence of judgment, self guidance, and playfulness. Jackson and Messick’s constructs included analysis, intuition, openness, and reflection. Study findings also indicated that all steps of the Osborn and Parnes processbased creativity model were fully utilized in the experiential and team-based learning environment. As part of the effort to seek models of teaching and learning that encourage students to be more creative while solving complex problems in the world of agriculture, findings of this study can be used to determine how creativity can be fostered through experiential and team-based learning.

This study has emerged from concerns expressed by science students, educators, and researchers, and from my own teaching experience, that writing in school science often remains disconnected from students' experience, and rarely stimulates further learning. The purpose of this study is to explore the potential of open, expressive writing tasks to illustrate students' understanding of the phenomena of floating and sinking. A specially selected series of seven explorations in physical properties of matter provide a rich context for Grade Eight students and I, their teacher, to experience and explore this topic. The interconnections between lab explorations and writing in school science, and the interactions in a classroom fostering science inquiry, are central to this study. A classroom-based story is unraveled from an enactivist perspective. My analysis of students' writing tasks and reflections on learning illuminates possibilities for encouraging personal connections and embodied writing in science class. Students' insights into learning about science and about themselves through expressive ways of writing shape this story.

Thesis (M.S.)--Indiana University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 71-79). Also available online (PDF file) by a subscription to the set or by purchasing the individual file.