Singapore educational context contains some of the most provocative and ideological features in a mature education system – school choice, selectivity and tracking. The facts that schools follow the same curriculum, students take standardized examination and teachers have similar pre-service training makes Singapore a suitable case to study peer effects. The policy to give an option to a small group of students, who missed the cutoff for an academically more demanding, to decide their educational track allows me to study the impact of peer quality. Specifically, students at the margin of the cutoffs have a choice to study with better peers at an accelerated learning pace at the expense of a low rank order in class i.e. ‘Second in Rome’ effect or study with weaker peers at a slower learning pace and longer duration but enjoy a high rank order in class i.e. ‘First in Village’ effect. In both settings, students are exposed to the same curriculum albeit at a difference pace with the ‘Second in Rome’ completing the curriculum in 4 years while the ‘First in Village’ group complete theirs in 5 years. I applied the regression discontinuity strategy to compare the performance of students at the margin of the thresholds.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2009. / Title from title screen (site viewed October 15, 2009). PDF text: xi, 168 p. : col. ill. ; 1 Mb. UMI publication number: AAT 3369393. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche formats.

Tse Po Ting. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 171-180). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Metadiscourse as Interactions in Academic Writing --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1.1 --- Interactions between writer and reader --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1.2 --- "Relations between metadiscourse, interactions and social contexts" --- p.3 / Chapter 1.2 --- Overview of the Present Study --- p.4 / Chapter 1.2.1 --- Research questions --- p.4 / Chapter 1.2.2. --- General research approaches --- p.5 / Chapter 1.3 --- Significance of the Study --- p.6 / Chapter 1.4 --- Organization of the Thesis --- p.7 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Metadiscourse as Social Interactions --- p.11 / Chapter 2.1 --- Conceptions of Metadiscourse --- p.11 / Chapter 2.2 --- Approaches to Metadiscourse --- p.14 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Identification of metadiscourse --- p.14 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- Classifications of metadiscourse --- p.15 / Chapter 2.3 --- Recent Development of Metadiscourse Theory --- p.21 / Chapter 2.3.1 --- The distinction between propositional content and metadiscourse --- p.22 / Chapter 2.3.2 --- The interpersonal nature of metadiscourse --- p.23 / Chapter 2.3.3 --- The distinction between internal and external relations --- p.24 / Chapter 2.3.4 --- Summary --- p.27 / Chapter 2.4 --- A Revised Model of Metadiscourse --- p.27 / Chapter 2.5 --- Major Investigations on Metadiscourse --- p.29 / Chapter 2.6 --- Chapter Summary --- p.33 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- The Genre of Academic Book Reviews --- p.35 / Chapter 3.1 --- Book Reviewing in Academia --- p.35 / Chapter 3.2 --- Book Review as a Site for Disciplinary Engagement --- p.38 / Chapter 3.3 --- Studies on Academic Book Reviews --- p.40 / Chapter 3.4 --- Chapter Summary --- p.45 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Gender in Social Interactions --- p.46 / Chapter 4.1 --- The Distinction between Sex and Gender --- p.46 / Chapter 4.2 --- Language and the Social Construction of Gender --- p.48 / Chapter 4.3 --- Gender in Verbal Interactions --- p.50 / Chapter 4.3.1 --- General findings of gender-preferential differences --- p.50 / Chapter 4.3.2 --- Interpretation of gender-preferential differences --- p.51 / Chapter 4.4 --- Gender in the Academic Context --- p.53 / Chapter 4.4.1 --- Major investigations on gender in academic writing --- p.54 / Chapter 4.4.2 --- Implications of the findings --- p.56 / Chapter 4.5 --- Chapter Summary --- p.57 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- Formulation of Research Questions --- p.58 / Chapter 5.1 --- Summary and Implications of Previous Studies --- p.58 / Chapter 5.2 --- Research Questions --- p.60 / Chapter Chapter 6 --- Theoretical & Methodological Considerations --- p.62 / Chapter 6.1 --- A Corpus-based Approach --- p.62 / Chapter 6.2 --- Data Collection & Organization --- p.64 / Chapter 6.2.1 --- Selection of Disciplines --- p.65 / Chapter 6.2.2 --- Collection of Textual Data for Corpus Compilation --- p.66 / Chapter 6.2.2.1 --- Selection of book reviews --- p.66 / Chapter 6.2.2.2 --- Collection and organization of texts --- p.68 / Chapter 6.2.3 --- Collection of Interview Data --- p.70 / Chapter 6.3 --- Textual Analysis --- p.72 / Chapter 6.3.1 --- Framework of Metadiscourse --- p.72 / Chapter 6.3.2 --- Procedures of Investigations --- p.77 / Chapter 6.3.2.1 --- Concordancing --- p.77 / Chapter 6.3.2.2 --- Test for inter-coder reliability --- p.78 / Chapter 6.4 --- Organization and Interpretation of Data --- p.79 / Chapter 6.5 --- Pilot Study & Preliminary Critiques of Approach --- p.80 / Chapter 6.5.1 --- Materials for Pilot Study --- p.80 / Chapter 6.5.2 --- Evaluation and Revisions Made --- p.81 / Chapter 6.5.3 --- Other Decisions Made --- p.85 / Chapter 6.6 --- Chapter Summary --- p.86 / Chapter Chapter 7 --- Findings & Discussions --- p.87 / Chapter 7.1 --- An Overview of Metadiscourse in Academic Book Reviews --- p.87 / Chapter 7.2 --- The Use of Metadiscourse across Disciplines --- p.92 / Chapter 7.2.1 --- Proportion of Interactional and Interactive Forms --- p.93 / Chapter 7.2.2 --- Distribution of Sub-categories of Metadiscourse across Disciplines --- p.96 / Chapter 7.2.2.1 --- Interactive metadiscourse --- p.96 / Chapter 7.2.2.2 --- Interactional metadiscourse --- p.101 / Chapter 7.3 --- Gender in the Use of Academic Metadiscourse --- p.112 / Chapter 7.3.1 --- An Overview of Gender in the Use of Academic Metadiscourse --- p.112 / Chapter 7.3.2 --- Gender in the Use of Metadiscourse in Individual Disciplines --- p.117 / Chapter 7.3.2.1 --- Philosophy --- p.120 / Chapter 7.3.2.2 --- Sociology --- p.124 / Chapter 7.3.2.3 --- Biology --- p.128 / Chapter 7.4 --- Chapter Summary --- p.132 / Chapter Chapter 8 --- Conclusions --- p.134 / Chapter 8.1 --- A Brief Review of the Study --- p.134 / Chapter 8.2 --- Possible Answers to the Research Questions --- p.137 / Chapter 8.3 --- Implications of the Present Findings --- p.147 / Chapter 8.4 --- Limitations and Suggestions for Future Research --- p.149 / Chapter 8.5 --- Concluding Remarks --- p.153 / Appendices --- p.154 / References --- p.171

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1987. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 111-117). Also available in print.

No abstract available. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Durban-Westville, 1977.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Division of the Social Sciences, June 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2010. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 287-307).

This study investigates the misuse of prescription stimulants among undergraduates for a variety of different purposes, including: academic, other instrumental, and recreational. This research is important as existing literature as well as national level surveillance data indicates a substantial increase in this type of prescription drug misuse, especially among young adults aged 18-25. Drawing from several theoretical frameworks, this research focuses on how academic strain, social norms, and gender influence prescription stimulant misuse among undergraduates. Roughly 900 quantitative surveys were collected that specifically address undergraduate prescription stimulant misuse. The results indicate that college students are at an increased likelihood of misusing prescription stimulants if they experienced academic impediments and/or grade strain during the past academic year. Additionally, the findings show that undergraduates who have accepting attitudes of prescription stimulant misuse and who have peers that misuse prescription stimulants are also at an increased likelihood of misusing prescription stimulants. Furthermore, males were at an increased likelihood of prescription stimulant misuse for academic purposes if they had experienced grade strain during the past academic year in comparison to their female counterparts. Female undergraduates, on the other hand, were four times more likely than male undergraduates to obtain prescription stimulants from their close friends for free.

Adolescents with Sluggish Cognitive Tempo (SCT) show symptoms of slowness, mental confusion, excessive daydreaming, low motivation, and drowsiness/sleepiness. Although many symptoms of SCT reflect internalizing states, no study has evaluated the utility of self-report of SCT in an ADHD sample. Further, it remains unclear whether SCT is best conceptualized as a unidimensional or multidimensional construct. In a sample of 262 adolescents comprehensively diagnosed with ADHD, the present study evaluated the dimensionality of a SCT scale and compared CFA and bifactor model fits for parent- and self-report versions. Analyses revealed the three-factor bifactor model to be the best fitting model. In addition, SCT factors predicted social and academic impairment and internalizing symptoms. Therefore, SCT as a multidimensional construct appears to have clinical utility in predicting impairment. Also, multiple reporters should be used, as they predicted different areas of functioning and were not invariant, suggesting that each rater adds unique information.