The aim of orientation programs at tertiary academic institutions is to introduce newcomers to the attitudinal and behavioral standards of their new academic and social situation, and these programs usually have a formal and an informal component. Formal orientation is officially developed and monitored by the university. Informal orientation is associated with socially orientated initiation or hazing activities administered by senior students in the seclusion of hostels and are often not monitored by the university, resulting in human rights violations such as racial discrimination, physical abuse and psychological bullying. Because both components of orientation take place during the same time frame and in the same broader context, orientation programs as a whole have been receiving negative attention and criticism in the media. Research has, however, also uncovered many positive elements in orientation programs - in both the formal and informal components. Literature suggests that universities put in place a high quality formal and informal orientation program to ensure the well–being of first–year students. Well–being is regarded as the subjective appraisals that people make about the quality of their lives based on their experiences, relationships, feelings and overall functioning in life. Two approaches towards subjective well–being are identified: the first is the hedonic approach, focusing on emotional well–being (EWB) and is equated to positive feelings, subjective happiness and satisfaction with life; the second is the eudaimonic approach, focusing on psychological well–being (PWB) and social well–being (SWB) which not only conceptualizes well–being in terms of meaning and purpose, but also as positive functioning in life on personal and social levels. The aim of this study was to determine the shifts in well–being of first–year students during an orientation program (with both the formal and informal components included) at a tertiary institution and to explore the experiences associated with these shifts. A sequential mixed method research design was used where quantitative and qualitative research approaches were combined to provide an in–depth understanding of the phenomenon. A convenience sample of first–year hostel residing students (mean age=19 years) was used for the quantitative study. Students completed the Mental Health Continuum Short Form (MHC–SF) and the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS) before (n=102), during (n=371) and after (n=358) the orientation program. Twenty–one demographically representative first–year hostel residing students (mean age=18.5 years) were purposive selected to participate in the qualitative study consisting of a focus group discussion and semi–structured in–depth individual interviews which took place after the programs’ completion. The quantitative results indicated that first–year students’ well–being remained unchanged before, during and after orientation in all facets except in SWB. First–year students’ SWB increased practically significantly over the course of the orientation program. The qualitative findings suggested that first–year students’ well–being fluctuated from high before the orientation program to low during the program’s initial phase to high again after the program’s completion. Experiences associated with SWB were perceived to be the central experience associated with an increase in well–being. Recommendations are made regarding the promotion of the social and personal well–being of first–year students during an orientation program. / Thesis (M.A. (Clinical Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

For many years, the assessment practices of band directors in North America have come under scrutiny. As funding for public education shrinks, the call for greater accountability in schools has focused attention on the assessment procedures of all teachers. This is especially true for arts teachers, including band directors, due to the public’s perception of highly subjective assessment practices in arts-based courses. This sequential, explanatory mixed method study sought to investigate the current assessment practices of high school band directors in British Columbia, including the purposes and uses of classroom assessment methods, and potential implications for teacher education with respect to the use of classroom assessment. The study also sought to discover any underlying assumptions, beliefs, and attitudes of band directors in designing and implementing those assessment procedures. Using a stratified random sample of band directors from 12 districts across four regions of British Columbia, this sequential, explanatory mixed methods study allowed a dialectical research structure that connected the empirical evidence of the quantitative survey instrument with the qualitative interview that drew upon the subjects’ personal beliefs. This study found that band directors do assess their students and hold strong beliefs that assessment is fundamental to the teaching/learning process. Despite this, they often use structures in their assessment practice that account for non-achievement, behavioural factors (i.e., effort, attendance, attitude, and participation) rather than musical outcomes. It also became apparent that band directors lacked sufficient pedagogical content knowledge in the early stages of their career that supports broad-based assessment within a comprehensive musicianship context. Why? Band directors noted that their pre-service education in assessment was deficient. Therefore, in addition to other recommendations, this study suggests a tripartite model for undergraduate music education that is more inclusive of assessment instruction and procedures. In other words, music teacher education programs should balance educatorship, musicianship, and assessorship. / Graduate / 0522 / 0727 / mkeddy@uvic.ca

Significant research has investigated Jack Gibb’s model of defensive and supportive communication, but little has explored the influence of the type of talk -- defensive or supportive -- on perceptions of communication climate and the role that verbal aggressiveness may play in influencing both the types of talk and these perceptions. This thesis explored the relationship between defensive and supportive talk, verbal aggressiveness and communication climate using a mixed-method approach. Specifically, the Verbal Aggressiveness Scale was used to group participants for a dyadic problem solving exercise which generated conversational data that was analyzed qualitatively. Then, the Communication Climate Inventory was used to measure participants’ perceptions of the communication climate that emerged in their problem-solving dyad. The findings highlight factors that may influence the perception of communication climate. Examples of supportive talk that builds positive communication climates and limits the effects of verbal aggressiveness and examples of defensive talk that leads to negative communication climates are provided. This research demonstrates that language has an influence on communication climate through the words that shape the complex ways people perceive and understand each other and, interestingly, that the negative impact of defensive communication overrides the positive impact of supportive communication on the emergent communication climate.

Teacher commitment is one of the key elements in education and is arguably becoming an increasingly important factor. The work teachers engage in on a daily basis is complex and demanding and requires a level of personal engagement and commitment. With the escalating demands and new challenges inherent in the current educational climate, what it means to be a committed teacher is also changing. It has become imperative to gain further insight into teacher commitment due to its close association with concepts such as quality of teaching, teacher adaptability, teacher attendance, teacher burnout, teacher retention, organisational "health" of the school, and student attitudes and learning outcomes. This multi-method study examined the phenomenon of teacher commitment as it is perceived by the teachers themselves. The research used a multi-method enquiry approach that employed two rarely connected qualitative methods of phenomenography and case study. It combined the two methods in an effort to extrapolate and enhance the results from one method (phenomenography) with the results from another method (case study). The combined methodology was considered to be appropriate to investigate the complex phenomenon of teacher commitment, specifically the multi-dimensional nature of teacher commitment, which is an area that had not previously been fully explored. In the phenomenographic investigation of this study, 30 experienced classroom teachers were interviewed. Participants worked in schools that represent the diverse education settings and contexts of Queensland. Geographically the range included teachers from suburban (Brisbane), regional (Rockhampton) and remote (Longreach) settings. Schools that participated in the research included special schools, primary schools, high schools and schools of distance education. This interview data were analysed to identify categories of description and develop a conceptual "map" of teacher commitment. The school site of Willowbark State School, a small inner city school was then investigated as a case study. The case study elaborated on the phenomenographic categories of teacher commitment identified by this study. Case study data were collected from a range of sources that included the school website, school documents, anecdotal evidence collected from observations and informal discussions and formal interviews with five educators with extended teaching experience. One of the significant outcomes of the study was an informed conceptualised Model of Contemporary Teacher Commitment that illustrates the relationship between the key categories of description and as such demonstrates the "collective mind" of the teachers in the study. The study identified six categories of description of teacher commitment. These categories included teacher commitment as a passion, investment of "extra" time, a focus on the students, maintaining professional knowledge, engagement with the school community and transmitting knowledge and values. These categories are integrated into the model by the use of two summarising dimensions, a "personal dimension" and a professional "enactment dimension." Another key finding that emerges from the study was the centrality of passion within teacher commitment. This finding challenges the position that teacher commitment can be discussed merely in terms of external factors such as students and subject areas. What the findings of this study do indicate is that a passionate connection to teaching is fundamental to any discussion about teacher commitment and this has implications for school and system leaders.

The presented dissertation reports the findings of an exploratory study that mapped the perceptions of stakeholders on the changing nature of the organisational culture, in terms of the corporatisation of higher education, in a single faculty from a large Australian university. The study used a mixed-method, case study approach and it tested the usefulness of an organisational culture measuring instrument based on the Competing Values Framework (Quinn & McGrath, 1985; Quinn & Rohrbaugh, 1981, 1983). The presented work argues that the institution of higher education can be viewed as being rudimentarily comprised of having two symbiotic cultural parts - a collegial and a mercantile part and that these parts form the corporation that is an institution of higher education. The generated hypothesis is that when the values of these two competing cultures are in a particular configuration of influence with each other, a university has its best opportunity to effectively attend to its core functions. The research found that the relationship between the collegial and the mercantile parts in the study site's culture had shifted in favour of a mercantile culture and further research is needed to determine if that means the organisation is operating at an optimal effectiveness.

A mixed methods approach was applied to investigate horse health and performance in Pony Club horses. The qualitative phase (in-depth interviews) explored owners’ perceptions of horse health and performance, whilst the quantitative phase (prospective longitudinal study) identified key health and performance problems with associated risk factors in a cohort of Pony Club horses. Quantitative analytical methods included descriptive, logistic regression and negative binomial regression analyses. Data quality and therefore internal and external validity were improved by preceding the longitudinal study with the qualitative phase. Horse health was not a well defined concept among participants, preventive health care was rarely practiced and other routine health care were administered on an ad hoc basis. Owners of Pony Club horses were concerned about their horses’ welfare, but resorted to non-veterinary sources for advice on horse health. Farriers, chiropractors and equine dentists performed the majority of health care. This observed absence of veterinary involvement in preventive and routine health care matched owners’ perceptions of veterinarians as disease experts whom they consulted for emergencies or as a last resort. Coupled with the apparent absence of pre-purchase examinations these findings raise serious concerns about the veterinary impact on the health of Pony Club horses. It was concluded that opportunities exist to improve the veterinary involvement with Pony Clubs and facilitate the extension of appropriate horse health type information. The health of Pony Club horses was found to be suboptimal with musculoskeletal and dermatological problems the most common diseases identified. High prevalences of lameness and sore backs were observed, but owner sensitivity of their detection was extremely low. Several of the horse-level risk factors identified, including height and breed for lameness, and height breed and gender for sore backs, were only alterable at the time of purchase. This suggests that owners may be at risk of purchasing horses with existing disease conditions, particularly in the absence of a veterinary examination. Other risk factors for sore backs, including housing, exercise, and body condition score could be reasoned on biomechanical grounds. An important outcome of this study was the following definition of a healthy horse: one free from pain and mentally and physically fit to participate regularly in the full range of required activities. An inextricable link between horse performance, exercise and behaviour was revealed during in-depth interviews. Initial intentions of using misbehaviour as a surrogate measure of poor performance were discarded resulting in an investigation of poor performance associated with misbehaviour, but not poor performance attributable to factors other than misbehaviour. Horses were generally exercised infrequently during each month, and this varied with season, with individual sessions lasting less than one hour. In terms of horse fitness these infrequent riding days suggest lack of strategy towards improving horse and rider skills and fitness. Another key outcome was a universally applicable definition of horse performance for Pony Club horses: good performance is considered to have occurred when the horse meets rider expectations. This is the first time that incidence of misbehaviour and associated risk factors have been described in a population of horses. Misbehaviour was more common during schooling and competing relative to pleasure riding, and more than half of the misbehaviour events were considered dangerous. Horse height, breed, and rider age were identified as risk factors for horse misbehaviour with tall Pony breeds ridden by teenagers the most likely to misbehave. The results highlighted the need to consider non-veterinary stakeholders, such as riders and Pony Club instructors, in programs to reduce misbehaviour in Pony Club horses. The study horses were kept predominantly at pasture in paddocks. The pastures these horses grazed represented an underused nutritional resource. Dietary supplements were commonly fed and often in excess. Involving agronomists to improve these horse pastures and employing simple monitoring tools such as body condition scoring more effectively will reduce reliance on expensive supplemental feeds as well as reduce the risk of obesity related disorders. Furthermore, pasture improvement coupled with strategic pasture rotation of horses and other livestock offers prospects for internal parasite control through less reliance on anthelmintics. The incidence of colic was very low in study horses, possibly due to the predominantly pasture-based diet and lifestyle of study horses. However, this same diet may have contributed to the high frequency of laminitis. Laminitis affected 24% of horses for part or all of the study, with 85 % of affected horses suffering recurring lameness and / or laminitis. Purchase of horses with chronic laminitis must be carefully considered due to this high frequency of recurrence. These findings suggest that more regular veterinary contact with Pony Club horses is desirable and would provide opportunities for owners to obtain veterinary advice on preventive health care. This veterinary contact could commence with a pre-purchase examination, and continue with comprehensive annual health checks. To achieve this, Pony Club veterinarians may have to become pro-active in marketing services beyond the treatment of disease to this sector of the equine industry.

Research into second language strategies has started as a result of the shift of focus, from teachers and teaching to learners and learning which has taken place in the field of education over the last few decades. Strategies used by good language learners have been revealed, strategies used by successful and less successful language learners have been compared, and factors influencing the use of learning strategies have also been investigated. As an attempt to contribute to gaining more insights into language learning strategy, this research aims to investigate the writing strategies used by successful and less successful English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners and the relationship between strategy use and the learners’ success. A multi-method approach combining both qualitative and quantitative approaches was used to answer the research questions. This approach was achieved by means of method triangulation which consisted of structured questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, and learning diaries. Nine female adult native Vietnamese students, who were in their second year of a four-year Bachelor program at Hanoi University in Vietnam, participated in the study. Questionnaires were administered at the beginning of the data collection phase. Guidelines for diary writing were then provided to the participants. Semi-structured interviews which served as the primary method of data collection were finally conducted with each of the participants. Findings from the study showed that the successful writers not only used strategies more frequently but also used more metacognitive, memory, compensation, and cognitive strategies than the less successful writers. The study also found some strategies which were most and least frequently used by both the successful and less successful writers.

Research into second language strategies has started as a result of the shift of focus, from teachers and teaching to learners and learning which has taken place in the field of education over the last few decades. Strategies used by good language learners have been revealed, strategies used by successful and less successful language learners have been compared, and factors influencing the use of learning strategies have also been investigated. As an attempt to contribute to gaining more insights into language learning strategy, this research aims to investigate the writing strategies used by successful and less successful English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners and the relationship between strategy use and the learners’ success. A multi-method approach combining both qualitative and quantitative approaches was used to answer the research questions. This approach was achieved by means of method triangulation which consisted of structured questionnaires, semi-structured interviews, and learning diaries. Nine female adult native Vietnamese students, who were in their second year of a four-year Bachelor program at Hanoi University in Vietnam, participated in the study. Questionnaires were administered at the beginning of the data collection phase. Guidelines for diary writing were then provided to the participants. Semi-structured interviews which served as the primary method of data collection were finally conducted with each of the participants. Findings from the study showed that the successful writers not only used strategies more frequently but also used more metacognitive, memory, compensation, and cognitive strategies than the less successful writers. The study also found some strategies which were most and least frequently used by both the successful and less successful writers.

Bemanningsbranschen är en relativt ny bransch på den svenska arbetsmarknaden med en brokig historia. Forskning om sociala nätverk är väl studerat och även om det finns forskning om sociala nätverk i bemanningsbranschen så saknas delar om bland annat interna anställningsprocesser. Av den anledningen har den här studien en explorativ karaktär. Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka hur sociala nätverk bidrar i anställningsprocessen för anställda i bemanningsbranschen. För att undersöka detta används en blandad metod som bygger på ett datamaterial som är insamlad genom en enkätundersökning samt fyra kvalitativa intervjuer. Populationen består av anställda på bemanningsföretag i Stockholmsområdet. För enkätundersökningen användes ett snöbollsurval och informanterna till intervjuerna valdes utifrån ett strategiskturval efter kön och yrkesroll. Uppsatsens teoretiska utgångspunkt består av begreppen sociala nätverk och socialt kapital för att skapa gemensamma frågeställningar och teman för både enkäten och intervjuerna. Utifrån uppsatsens tre frågeställningar har tre teman skapats. Första temat handlar om i vilken utsträckning sociala kontakter bidrar i anställningsprocessen. Uppsatsens resultat ligger i linje med tidigare forskning; denna enkätundersökning visar att mer än 50 % av respondenterna har använt sig av sociala kontakter för att få sin senaste anställning. Hur sociala kontakter använts beskrivs utifrån det andra temat strategi. Resultatet visar att ett stort antal strategier använts i arbetssökningsprocessen, allt ifrån de rätta kunskaper om tjänsten som söks till att få direkt anställning. Det sista temat behandlar typer av relationer som bidrar till anställning. Undersökningen visar att relationer med bekanta bidrar flest av gångerna. Det medför att de kategoriserade relationerna vänner och familj inte bidrar till en anställning i lika stor utsträckning. Resultatet följer därmed teorin om styrkan av svaga länkar. Den induktiva resultatdelen av uppsatsen visar att anställda inom bemanningsbranschen värnar och tar hand om sina sociala kontakter, det är ett sätt för de anställda att vårda sitt sociala kapital.

Embodiment is the experience of one's own body. It is often studied using the Rubber Hand Illusion (RHI). This illusion varies the consistency between visual, tactile and proprioceptive signals to elicit a change to embodiment. Changes to embodiment are typically measured using a single sensory outcome measure of proprioceptive drift, which is interpreted as a proxy measure of embodiment. This approach obscures the unique contribution of other modalities such as vision and touch. The work presented in this thesis uses a mixed method approach to investigate the unique contribution of visual, tactile and proprioceptive modalities within the multisensory process of embodiment. In study one, a qualitative analysis showed that when visual-tactile discrepancies were present in the RHI, participants described both body ownership and body extension type changes to embodiment, and changes to tactile perception. In study two, psychophysical measurements of the RHI showed changes to visual, tactile and proprioceptive aspects of embodiment, suggesting that embodiment in the RHI could be measured using multiple sensory outcomes. Studies three and four assessed the utility of measuring multiple sensory outcomes of the RHI, by exploring changes to embodiment following internal and external forms of body perception training. Study three showed that brief body scan meditation, as a form of internal body perception training, reduced the longevity of the visual sensory outcome of the RHI and that this reduction was negatively correlated with improvements in interoceptive sensitivity. Study four showed that learning about the body through anatomical dissection training, as a form of external body perception training, reduced the longevity of the visual sensory outcome measure and decreased interoceptive sensitivity, but only in medical students who were high in trait personal distress. Collectively, these findings suggest that aspects of the multisensory processes of embodiment can become specialised and identify some unique contributions of individual sensory modalities to embodiment. The proprioceptive sensory outcome appears to be stable over time but the visual sensory outcome is a longer-term change to embodiment, which is susceptible to interference from body perception training. In study five, confirmatory factor analysis was used to assess the psychometric properties of an embodiment change questionnaire measuring body ownership, body extension and perceived causality in the RHI. Factor scores from the questionnaire were correlated with visual and proprioceptive outcome measures of the RHI and measures of trait empathy. The results suggested factor scores had better convergent validity than the standard illusion score used in previous research. This work has improved subjective and perceptual measures of the RHI and specified ways that individual sensory modalities provide a unique contribution to embodiment. The methods developed have further applications for studying the multisensory process of embodiment and investigating embodiment in a number of clinical groups.