abstract: The purpose of this study was to determine if social capital for parents in a low-income urban school would develop through structured or unstructured parent-teacher meetings. The parent-teacher meetings were developed to provide opportunities for parents and teachers to meet to build relationships and develop trust through teaching and learning how to support reading fluency and reading comprehension strategies. In order to build relationships between parents and teachers both parties need to trust one another. Trust is the foundation of relationships but before parties can trust one another, opportunities to form relationships need to be provided. In the case of parents and teachers, the study suggests that the parent-teacher meetings might be a starting point to provide opportunities to form trusting relationships. As parents and teachers work collaboratively to support the academic needs of the children, parents will increase their social capital and learn how to navigate the school system. The findings of the parent-teacher meetings showed that the perceptions of parents and teachers varied. The findings of the study did not display any noticeable differences in responses between the structured and unstructured group of participants. Parents appreciated meeting with teachers to learn how to support student learning at home and believed teachers were influential in the educational experience of their children. Teachers believed: parents want to support student learning at home, but lack academic skills; parents are the influential in the educational experience of the students; and parents are hesitant to ask school staff for help. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ed.D. Educational Administration and Supervision 2013

Class of 2012 Abstract / Specific Aims: The objective of this study is to first assess whether student pharmacist interns feel they can gauge patient health literacy levels with confidence, second to assess which methods are used most commonly in practice by student pharmacists to assess patient health literacy, and third to determine what techniques student pharmacist interns most often employ to communicate more effectively to patients with low health literacy. Methods: The questionnaire consisted of questions about demographics, and knowledge/experiential based questions. Key questions were: How well do you feel you are able to assess patient health literacy? How often do you use the following techniques to assess patient health literacy? (Observe contextual clues, Observe patient word pronunciation, Observe patient willingness to talk, Assess by demographics) When counseling low health literacy patients, how often do you use the following communication techniques? (Speak slowly, Give extra written material, Repeat information, Ask patient to repeat information, Ask if patient understands English, Avoid complicated medical terms). The answers to these questions are measured on a likert scale. Data from the questionnaire was analyzed using one sample t tests and paired t tests. Main Results: Regarding the first primary objective, on a scale of 1 to 5, with confidence measured 3 or greater and no confidence measured 2 or less, student intern pharmacists are statistically significantly confident in their ability to gauge patient health literacy (p< 0.001). There is no statistically significant difference in confidence in ability to gauge patient health literacy between males and females. The method student pharmacist interns used for assessing patient health literacy with the highest average use was observing patient willingness to talk (3.65 +/- 1.01) followed by observing patient word pronunciation (3.57 +/- 0.97), assessing patient demographics (race, age, ability to pay, culture, gender) (3.23 +/- 1.16) and observing contextual clues (patients identify pills by color, asks to be read to, etc) (3.04 +/- 1.04). There was no statistically significant difference between observing patient willingness to talk versus observing patient word pronunciation (p=0.55). There is a statistically significant difference between observing patient willingness to talk versus assessing patient demographics (p=0.011). The technique for improving communication with patients with low health literacy with the highest average use was avoiding complicated medical terms (3.97 +/- 0.95) followed by speaking slowly (3.91 +/- 0.89), repeating information (3.85 +/- 0.73), giving extra written material (3.02 +/- 1.36), asking patients if they understand English (2.85 +/- 1.21) and asking patients to repeat information. (2.39 +/- 1.02). There is a statistically significant difference between avoiding complicated medical terms and giving out extra written material (p<0.001) and speaking slowly and giving out extra written material (p<0.001). Conclusions: We conclude that students pharmacists working as interns are quite confident in their ability to assess patient health literacy, that observing patient willingness to talk is be the most commonly used method to assess patient health literacy, and that avoiding complicated medical terms is be the most commonly used technique student pharmacist interns use to communicate more effectively with patients who have low health literacy.

The purpose of this study was to detect Turkish pre-service elementary school teachers' perceptions of giftedness and factors affecting their referral decisions through eleven profiles (scenarios) originally created by five experts in the field of gifted education and semi-structured interview questions created for this study. The original profiles were translated from English to Turkish and adapted to be more relevant to Turkish culture. These profiles were named as Student Profiles Survey in this study. The profiles were varied based on characteristics embedded in each profile and I was able to create eight versions (pile) of the Student Profiles Survey. Profiles in each version (pile) of Student Profiles Survey differed from each other based on the characteristics embedded in each profile. Participants of the study were Turkish pre-service elementary school teachers who were attending two colleges of Education at Gaziantep University, namely Gaziantep College of Education and Nizip College of Education. A total of 204 Turkish pre-service elementary school teachers participated in the study and filled out the different versions of Student Profiles Survey. Approximately 25 pre-service teachers filled out each version of Student Profiles Survey. In addition, 16 of the pre-service teachers were asked for a follow-up interview. The convergent parallel mixed-methods design was used to shed light on the research questions. The findings from quantitative and qualitative analyses were combined to support each other and to better investigate Turkish pre-service elementary school teachers' perceptions of giftedness and factors affecting their referral decisions. The results of this study indicated that Profile 11 was the most appropriate and Profile 4 was the least appropriate profile for Turkish pre-service elementary school teachers' perceptions of giftedness. Turkish pre-service elementary school teachers explained their reasons for including the students in the profiles to gifted education programs mostly based on the personal, academic, and social characteristics of the students embedded in the profiles but they did not often referred students' characteristics when they were explaining their reasons for exclusion. Rather than explaining their reasons based on characteristics of the students, Turkish pre-service teachers increased their expectations and created excuses to underestimate the potentials of the students in the profiles when they were asked to explain their reasons for exclusion. The results of factorial ANOVAs indicated that Turkish pre-service elementary school teachers' referral decisions were influenced by the following factors: Students’ and pre-service teachers’ gender, students' ability areas, personality traits of the students, words describing the student, and students' length of passion.

Class of 2012 Abstract / Specific Aims: The goal of this project was to assess perceptions of medication reconciliation from medical professionals who perform them. Specific areas of interest included the perceived: amount of time spent on medication reconciliation; process complexity; and effectiveness of the current process. Opinions concerning the use of alternative processes were also solicited. Methods: This prospective qualitative study involved four focus group sessions at one tertiary referral teaching hospital in Tucson, Arizona. Nurses involved in admissions medication reconciliation in the emergency department were invited to participate, and their perceptions were categorized and summarized. Main Results: Participants reported a range of times to complete the medication reconciliation from zero to greater than 20 minutes. According to the participants, the time spent on each patient depended on patients’ medication knowledge and the complexity of their regimens. Participants wanted the medication list entry screen to be easier to use, and they also suggested patients’ medication lists from previous visits and from outpatient clinics associated with the medical center be easily accessible. Participants felt that emergency triage may not be the most ideal time in which to perform medication reconciliation, and they expressed concerns about accuracy of these medication lists. While some were interested in the possibility of using a patient medication database and expected that it would improve accuracy and save time, others were less open to a perceived additional step. Concusions: Participants provided suggestions for changes in the current medication reconciliation process that they feel could improve patient satisfaction and increase efficiency.

In order to prepare students to be globally competitive, teachers must equip them with the knowledge and skills to be successful in the 21st century. To this aim, school spending on e-books and e-readers is at an all-time high, but evidence indicates teachers are not fully integrating them into the reading classroom. This qualitative study was grounded in sociocultural theory and explored veteran primary teachers’ knowledge of and persistent attitudes about using e-books in reading instruction. Within a collaborative inquiry group, five teachers explored the way to best use e-books in their primary reading classrooms. Through the cyclical process of planning, observing, acting, and reflecting, the teachers explored e-books during the meetings and then took them into the classroom to use with their students. Data sources included semi-structured interviews, participant observation notes, transcribed audio recordings, and reflective journals. Thematic and directed content analyses were used on the data, and findings of both analyses were presented in a pleated text that framed analytical texts with researcher notes. Findings demonstrated that there was an emotionality to reading books in traditional and electronic format, but by experimenting with the e-books in the supportive, dialogic context of the collaborative inquiry meeting, teachers changed both their knowledge of and persistent attitudes about electronic books. Important implications were noted for professional development coordinators, administrators, and policy-makers.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / The literature on the manner in which gender influences the participation and performance of girls and boys in science and science education indicates that the disparity between the genders, in favour of boys, persists. This has negatively affected the participation rates of women in tertiary science education and the science workplace. Gender inequality, an outcome of socio-cultural relations, is regarded as being at the root of this disparity. Science is regarded as a male domain; a feminist analysis has viewed the position of women in science as emanating from a history of the oppression of women in male-dominated society. Through socialisation and cultural practices, society encourages the development of binaristic, gendered norms and roles: a fertile environment for the perpetuation of the gender role stereotypes portraying boys as more science-orientated than girls. Schools are regarded as prime sites for the perpetuation of gender inequalities. The sociocultural perceptions that educators and learners alike bring into science classrooms influence their thinking about gender in science and science education. The interactive social milieu of the classroom is viewed as the crucible where attitudes to, beliefs in and perceptions of the role of gender in science are shaped. In addition, the media functions as a socio-cultural agent, both in its popular form and as a source of resource material for science teaching. The masculine image of science and scientists it persistently promotes influences girls’ and boys’ attitudes to, beliefs in and perceptions of science and science education. The study examines gender and the perceptions of science and science education of boy and girl learners in the General Education and Training (GET) phase of education i.e. Grades 7 to 9. The research methodology comprised both quantitative and qualitative methods. The quantitative study entailed conducting a survey of six hundred Grades 7, 8 and 9 boy and girl learners in an English medium school. A small sample of 26 learners was randomly selected from each of the Grades 7, 8 and 9 for semi-structured, in-depth, individual interviews. Age, grade and gender were the selection criteria. All participant schools are situated in an educational district in Mitchells Plain, Cape Town, South Africa: the majority of residents in the suburb are from the lower middle class and were classified Coloured according to the Apartheid racial classification. The educators administering the qualitative, semi-structured, in-depth interviews were also drawn from this group. The findings confirmed that gender role stereotypes persist in science and science education. Girls are drawn to affective science pursuits whereas boys are firmly rooted to stereotypical perceptions of the masculine image of science and science careers. It is apparent that girls are challenging sex-role stereotypes in science and agitating for gender equity in science education and science careers.

The success of the South African policy to reduce carbon emissions and incorporate solar energy production into the national energy mix is partly dependent on the ability to persuade householders to become more energy efficient, and to encourage installation of domestic solar systems. Solar power is an innovation in South Africa and the current policy of stimulating the market with subsidies for solar water heaters is not resulting in widespread adoption. The high upfront costs have been a barrier in the past but as more suppliers offer financing options, there has been a gradual increase in purchasing but not at the rate required to save the 578 MW of electricity over the next few years. This research report takes the form of a survey of two consumer groups (“early adopters” and “early majority” adopters in South Africa, with the aim of: • Investigating consumer attitudes towards characteristics of solar systems, • Utilising the diffusion of Innovations theory to understand the attributes which affect the consumer decision making process, and • Isolating the characteristics that are preventing a pragmatic “early majority” from adopting the technology. The results show that overall, while the “early majority” demonstrate a positive perception of the environmental characteristics of solar power, its financial, operational and aesthetic characteristics are limiting adoption. Differences existing between the two groups show support for the concept of the ‘chasm’ between adopter categories identified by Moore. The study concludes that if consumers cannot identify the relative advantage of solar power over their current source of power supplied readily and cheaply through the national grid, it is unlikely that wide-scale adoption will follow. Copyright / Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS) / unrestricted

Although extensive academic research (Czellar, 2004; Nandan, 2004; Keller&Hoeffer, 2003; Aaker, 2004; Kaputa, 2006; Griffen, 2002) has explored consumer perceptions, little research has assessed the impact of brand identity strategies on consumer perceptions, which was the purpose of this dissertation. Kotler and Keller (2006:275) assert the importance of understanding how the brand is perceived by consumers and what impact a brand identity strategy has on consumer perceptions. These perceptions can be described as a brand image which refers to a brand’s subjective or perceived attributes in relation to other brands. This perceived image of the brand does not belong to the product but is the property of the consumer’s mental perceptions and in some instances can differ widely from a brand’s true physical characteristics. By determining the consumer perceptions of a brand, this dissertation investigated the impact of a brand identity strategy on consumer perceptions. The research problem then exists in the possibility of differences between the perceptions of the brand, namely the brand image (reality) and the desired identity that the company sets out to establish. The literature review demonstrated that it is not only the brand identity strategy (which the organisation creates), but also the consumer’s perceived image of the product (the state of the consumer’s mental perceptions), that has impact on the way the brand is perceived. The closer the perceived image of the brand is to the organisation’s aspired brand identity, the less the differences and more successful the brand identity strategy. These differences constituted the research problem. The primary research objective was to determine the impact of the brand identity strategy of a consumer product on consumer perceptions. The following secondary research objectives were identified: • to determine what desired perceptions the company wanted to establish with its current brand identity strategy, • to assess whether differences existed between the brand image, (the perceptions in the minds of the consumers), and the brand identity strategy (the way the brand managers want the consumers to think and feel about the brand). Taking the purpose of the study and the objectives into account, a qualitative research was conducted, which was exploratory in nature. Text data analysis was the method used to analyse the content and context of the data collected by means of an open-ended questionnaire. The data was collected in two phases. In the initial part of the study, focus groups were conducted among members of the target market to gain an initial understanding of consumer perceptions of the brand. The focus groups assisted the author in developing questions that were used in the open-ended questionnaire in the second phase. In this way, relevant and meaningful data was retrieved ensuring that the research objectives were met. A comparison study was conducted by means of the focus groups to assess whether the responses were of similar nature compared with the responses derived from the questionnaire. It was concluded that a brand identity strategy facilitates the shaping of a mental image by consumers and thereby leveraging it to gain a competitive advantage. According to Dempsey (2004:32), it begins with understanding what the brand means to the consumers (brand image) and what the brand sets out to convey (brand identity) to the consumer. Many organisations know how they want to be viewed and what mental space they want to capture, but find it challenging to maintain a consistent brand identity at all brand contact points. The differences between the brand identity strategy and the consumer perceptions clearly revealed a significant impact of the brand identity strategy on consumer perceptions. Therefore, it can be concluded that the brand identity strategy impacts on consumer perceptions for the specific brand in the study with some brand identity elements having a stronger influence on forming perception than others. Once there was an understanding of how the brand is perceived by target consumers and how the brand is planned to be perceived in the future, the author identified the possible differences that needed to be bridged between the two and offered recommendations and key shifts required to move from the current perceptions to the ideal brand identity. / Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Marketing Management / MCom / Unrestricted

This research project explored how mothers experiencing depression after childbirth perceived their mental illness. Illness perceptions were assessed across the dimensions outlined within the Self-Regulatory Model (SRM, Leventhal, Nerenz & Steele, 1984) via the use of the Revised Illness Perceptions Questionnaire (IPQ-R, Moss-Morris, Weinman, Petrie, Horne, Cameron & Buick, 2002). The psychometric properties of the IPQ-R within this clinical sample and relationships between illness perceptions, depression severity and maternal bonding were assessed. A literature review of the use of the IPQ and IPQ-R within mental health identified that these measures with modifications (in particular to the causal and identity subscales) were largely reliable and valid measures of assessing illness perceptions in mental health. The illness dimensions outlined within the SRM were largely endorsed within the clinical populations sampled, offering support of the applicability of the SRM within mental health. Mental illnesses were consistently viewed as chronic with serious negative consequences. Perceptions regarding mental illness consequences, chronicity and controllability were associated with coping strategies and help-seeking. Treatment adherence and attitudes towards taking medication were associated with illness controllability beliefs. The IPQ-R modified for depression after childbirth was shown to be a reliable measure for assessing illness perceptions within this clinical sample and was shown to be reliable over a four-week time period.Mothers experiencing depression after childbirth perceived their depression as having a moderate number of symptoms, a high number of negative consequences and responded to their depression with a number of emotions. Mothers perceived having a coherent understanding of their difficulties, believing that depression was amenable to treatment and personal control and that depression was cyclical in nature. Commonly reported symptoms experienced attributed to depression included depressed mood, difficulties concentrating, loss of interest/pleasure in activities, fatigue/loss of energy and sleep difficulties. Frequently endorsed causes of depression included stress or worry, hormonal changes, own emotional state, family problems, mental attitude and own behaviour. Interestingly, no significant difference was found between illness perceptions of mothers who previously experienced psychological problems and mothers who had not.Mothers who perceived having many symptoms and a high emotional response to depression were more likely to report higher depression severity. Whereas mothers who believed they had control over their depression were more likely to report lower depression severity. Illness identity and consequence beliefs were associated with maternal bonding difficulties. The project's findings were presented with reference to previous literature with implications for theory and clinical practice explored. Difficulties and limitations of the research and its related theory were discussed in addition to reflections upon the research project. Possible improvements to the research procedure and areas for future research were also identified.

Understanding the demographic profile and previous knowledge base of students enrolled in the introduction to animal science course is critical for developing curriculum to enhance student learning. During the fall 2019 semester, students (n=414 of 519) enrolled in the introduction to animal science course at three universities in the Midwest region were evaluated with the objectives of identifying demographic variables and their relation to pre-course and post-course animal agriculture and livestock perceptions. The findings showed that 68% of respondents were female, 58% were animal science majors, and 55% were from hometowns with less than 20,000 people in the population. Forty-eight percent and 36% indicated to have previous agriculture exposure and involvement through FFA and 4-H, while 43% and 55% had no previous involvement in FFA and 4-H, respectively. Companion animals (e.g. dogs and cats) and beef cattle were nearly 50% of students’ species of interest. Additionally, 34% of students felt they had extensive knowledge of companion animals, while 19% indicated they had extensive knowledge in beef cattle and 17% in equine. Students indicated to have the least amount of knowledge in sheep and exotic animals. In addition to species, students indicated their degree of previous knowledge in animal science disciplines. Students (20%) perceived to have extensive knowledge in welfare and well-being but lacked in breeding and genetics. Majority of students recognized animal agriculture as an important industry in their state and were supportive of the growth and expansion of the livestock industry. When asked to respond to statements pertaining to livestock operations, students (49%) strongly agree the use of captive bolt to stun beef and dairy cattle prior to slaughter is acceptable and it is save for livestock producers to perform castration using banding or surgical procedures. Overall, there were pre-course findings that were statistically significant among the demographic profiles of students and their perceptions of livestock operations in the United States, but few post-course findings demonstrated statistical significance. This research suggests the importance of developing curriculum that meets the desires and needs of current students enrolled in an introduction to animal science course.