Over the past several decades, many K-12 classes have moved to use open, inquiry-based approaches to science instruction; research has shown some benefits from these approaches. However, there also exist significant challenges in teaching scientific modeling and inquiry, some based on their nature as metacognitive skills and others based on the general difficulty in providing guided instruction in open-ended exploratory learning contexts. To address these challenges, this dissertation presents a metacognitive tutoring system that teaches students an authentic process of inquiry-driven scientific modeling within an exploratory science learning environment. The design of the metacognitive tutoring system is informed by the literature on the process of scientific modeling and inquiry in both education and science, and it draws from AI theories of metacognition and intelligent tutoring. The tutoring system monitors the performance of teams of students in an open inquiry task in ecology. The system provides feedback on demand about how well the team is doing in investigating and explaining the system, and it also intervenes when errors in the process are observed or when new abilities are demonstrated. To evaluate this system, a controlled experiment was conducted with 237 students in a middle school life science classroom. In one condition, teams of students completed the activity without the tutoring system enabled, while in the other condition teams interacted with the tutoring system during part of their inquiry and modeling process. Evaluations of this experiment have shown that students who interact with the tutoring system improved in their attitudes toward scientific inquiry and careers in science, and that teams that interact with the tutoring system generate better explanations of ecological phenomena.

The overarching purpose of this study was to describe educators’ beliefs about the evaluation of student writing. The inquiry was guided by the following research questions: (a) what are the differences in the ways in which educators approach evaluating student writing? (b) how do educators evaluate the effectiveness of their evaluation methods for judging the quality of students’ writing samples? and (c) what factors impact the evaluation decisions of educators? The following variables were considered: public and private school settings, evaluation methods, and educators’ beliefs about evaluating writing. In order to gain perspective of the current status of the methods utilized by educators in their evaluation of and response to student writing, it is helpful to observe them during the teaching of writing and to talk with them about their process for evaluating samples of student writing. A mixed methods approach was undertaken during this study and included the collection of questionnaire responses, educator interviews, a classroom observation, and the collection of student writing samples. Interesting points in the findings included the noticeable absence of the notions of validity and reliability in the decision-making process of educators, the apparent impact of educators’ self-efficacies on their selection of evaluation methods, and a focus by educators on writing factors perceived as impacting readability. Implications and future directions for research are discussed.

This report investigates the use of authentic readings and videos to teach Portuguese language and culture in the foreign language classroom. It starts with a discussion of the current state of the field about definitions of culture, their pedagogical implications and some approaches to teaching culture in the foreign language classroom. This discussion is followed by a review of recent research supporting the use of authentic videos and films to teach the target language and culture concomitantly, and a thorough description of the Brazilian literary genre of crônica, based upon the works of preeminent Brazilian literary critics and historians. The report ends with a unit design proposal based on the literature reviewed and grounded in second language acquisition theories and research. The proposed innovative approach that incorporates authentic non-scripted videos and literary readings, such as crônicas, provides a strong support to teachers that seek to teach cultural perspectives as well as products and practices in the foreign language classroom. / text

In his early thought (which for our purposes will be considered to be roughly the time period from his first post World War I lecture course in 1919 to the publication of Being and Time in 1927), Heidegger offers a rich description of our practical engagement with the world. The aim of this project is to develop a Heideggerian conception of action from these early, concrete descriptions of the practical dimension of human life. The central feature of this Heideggerian conception of action is that action is understood as involving interdependent aspects of passivity and activity (or receptivity and spontaneity, in a more Kantian formulation). Considered in its entirety, my dissertation provides what I take to be a fruitful interpretation of Heidegger's early thought from the standpoint of his understanding of action. It also provides the provisional basis and framework for the further development of a general conception of human agency that can be extended beyond Heidegger's thought.

With the implementation of Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in over forty states, teachers are putting into practice the CCSS text exemplars of text complexity. Of particular concern for the purpose of this research are the kindergarten and first grade (K-1) read aloud and independent text exemplar lists. While not intended as core reading lists, many schools are using these lists as mandated texts. A fundamental goal of primary school education is to help facilitate readers and one way is through the use of interesting and engaging books to motivate students as readers. At the initial stage of the reading process, selecting quality books for a specific group of students or an individual student constitutes an important aspect in engaging young readers. When a story provides a young reader with a material that encourages connections, their motivation to read increases. Research shows that motivation to read increases if a student identifies with elements of the story such as the characters or the setting. This research takes a close look at the kindergarten and first grade read aloud and independent texts through both a descriptive and a critical analysis to evaluate power dynamics and representations in the texts. The research questions used for this research were: (1) What are the characteristics of the CCSS K-1 text exemplars? and (2) What representations of people of color and women are present in the CCSS K-1 exemplars? The first research question was answered with information gathered from the descriptive analysis. The second question was primarily answered with information gathered from the critical analysis though the descriptive analysis also provided insight. Findings from the analyses provided data when viewed collectively that have implications for teacher educators, classroom teachers, and policy makers.

The purpose of this concurrent mixed methods study was to investigate the impact on high school students' knowledge and attitudes regarding astronomy and beliefs about the nature of science after participating in an extended authentic, inquiry-oriented, research experience studying variable stars using a specifically designed curriculum guide "In the Hunt for Variable Stars." The study gathered quantitative data using a pretest posttest strategy on a modified form of an existing questionnaire called Students Attitudes Toward Astronomy and four student-supplied response content surveys. Qualitative methods included analysis of researcher's field notes, naturalistic observations, formal interviews, and students' artifacts. The methods and results of this study provided important baseline information to measure cognitive and affective changes resulting from an authentic scientific research experience for high school students.Ninety students participated in a targeted instructional sequence and their attitudes and knowledge were compared to 50 students in a comparable science course who were not provided an authentic research experience. The results obtained in this study strongly suggest that participation in research is successful at significantly increasing content knowledge. All four content surveys showed statistically significant increases for students in the intervention group as compared to the students in the non-intervention group. Qualitative results demonstrated that both groups of students initially held naïve ideas about science and astronomy. After participation in the intervention, the most dramatic changes were observed in students' understanding of astronomy content. No substantial change was seen in students' attitudes toward Astronomy and science but there is evidence of some limited impacts on beliefs regarding the nature of science.In combination, the data resulting from this mixed-method study lend considerable weight to claim in contemporary science education reform that students will learn and more scientifically accurate knowledge of astronomy after participating in authentic inquiry experiences.

ABSTRACT STUDENT PERCEPTIONS OF ENGAGEMENT IN SCHOOLS: A DEWEYAN ANALYSIS OF AUTHENTICITY IN HIGH SCHOOL CLASSROOMS by Gloria D. Richards Perry This qualitative study of the nature of engagement in schools explored how students viewed the work assigned to them by their teachers. Using normative and theoretical frameworks, research was conducted to determine whether students found work to be authentic and engaging in the manner that Dewey proposes school work should be. Phenomenological interviews were used with individual participants as well as in a focus group session. Interviews and further questioning probed for information in order to gain a greater understanding of engagement from the student perspective. Furthermore, these methods afforded depth and richness that could further saturate the data. The research questions were: What do students identify as important factors that influence the degree to which they can be engaged in their learning experiences? As described by students, do the values, norms, and requirements that constitute school mirror similar elements of a student’s life outside of school? The analysis of participant responses supported the notion that these learners want their learning experiences to be personal, relevant, meaningful, and active. If they felt they were not getting these experiences, they shut down and/or turned the teacher off in their own head. These particular participants reported numerous examples of data that supported their need to be heard as students in the learning environment. They know what they want as learners and expect their teachers to provide the learning experiences they desire for their improvement. Participants in this study of engagement placed a high degree of emphasis on authentic learning. The data supported the notion that these participants want to have fun as they are learning but of far more importance, the data have shown they want their learning to be meaningful beyond the classroom setting.

This thesis forms a sociological investigation of the ‘hipster’ subculture that has grown in importance in recent years. Using the methodology of semiotic analysis, it examines the trends and themes shown by the images that hipsters post on the microblogging website Tumblr, as well as analysing hipster journalism, texts and companies. This communication is conceptualised with reference to Jean Baudrillard’s theory of hyperreality in order to show that hipsters communicate in a way that distorts the perception of real space and results in the abstraction of the meaning of ideas like “global” and “local”. It also explores the importance of secret knowledge in a community that manages to be both secretive and extremely open, comparing this example with the historical case of the Beat Generation, who hipsters have adopted as their progenitors, and discusses how their influence drives the hipster to view the world as a literary text to be re-read and re-interpreted.

Šiame darbe nagrinėjamas darbuotojų psichologinis atsparumas ir jo ryšys su vadovavimo stiliumi. Psichologinis atsparumas yra gebėjimas, leidžiantis asmeniui net ir nepalankiomis sąlygomis išlaikyti sveiką, kompetentingą asmenybę bei efektyviai spręsti nepalankias, stresines situacijas. Kalbant apie vadovavimo stilius, psichologinis atsparumas neretai siejamas su autentiška lyderyste, kuri apibūdinama atvirumu, altruistiniais veiksmais, elgesio nuoseklumu ir kuri skatina teigiamas psichologines kompetencijas bei kuria pozityvų, etišką, palaikantį klimatą. Pastebėta, kad autentiškas lyderis teigiamai įtakoja darbuotojų psichologinę gerovę, todėl darbuotojų psichologinio atsparumo ir autentiškos lyderystės sąsajų analizė yra labai svarbi. Šio tyrimo tikslas - išanalizuoti darbuotojų psichologinio atsparumo sąsajas su autentiškos lyderystės rodikliais. Tikslui pasiekti taikėme Psichologinio atsparumo skalę, Autentiškos lyderystės klausimyną bei Stresinių situacijų ir vadovo pagalbos vertinimo anketą. Tyrime dalyvavo 111 darbuotojų, kurių amžius nuo 22 metų iki 52 metų. Duomenų analizei taikyta Pearson koreliacija, Stjudento t kriterijus, Chi-kvadrato kriterijus ir tiesinės regresijos modelis. Rezultatai atskleidė, kad vienas penktadalis darbuotojų pasižymi žemu psichologiniu atsparumu, likusieji – aukštu. Paaiškėjo, kad darbuotojų psichologinis atsparumas teigiamai susijęs su vadovo pagalbos dažniu ir pagalbos efektyvumu sprendžiant stresines situacijas: kuo dažniau darbuotojas... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Links between employee psychological resilience and style of leadership are examined in this master’s thesis. Psychological resilience means capability to maintain healthy and competent personality despite negative circumstances and effectively cope with adverse and stressful situations. Speaking about leadership styles, psychological resilience usually is associated with authentic leadership, which involves transparency, altruistic actions, and behavioral consistency. Authentic leader fosters positive psychological capacities and develops positive, ethical and supportive context in organization. Taking into consideration that authentic leader positively influences employee psychological well-being, it is very important to evaluate links between employee psychological resilience and authentic leadership. The aim of this study is to analyze links between employee psychological resilience and authentic leadership. Psychological resilience scale, Authentic leadership questionnaire and Questionnaire, assessing stressful situations and manager support, were used to achieve this goal. 111 employees, aged from 22 to 52, participated in this study. Data analysis was based on T- Test, Pearson correlation, Chi-Square Test and Linear Regression. Results indicated, that one fifth of employees have low level of psychological resilience, others – high level. Employees’ psychological resilience is positively related with the frequency of manager’s help and effectiveness of this help: the... [to full text]

The transformation from an industrial to a knowledge age has brought about a fast-changing world-focus and a competitive economy. The nursing profession, as part of the larger economy, is challenged by this transformation due to globalisation, internationalisation, capitalism within a consumer society, an ageing workforce, staff shortages, international migration and advanced technology. It is argued that these challenges are impacting directly on the nursing profession as a part of the global economy. This impact is intensified due to the ethos of nursing that is evaluated from a profit perspective and does not value the core values of nursing, that of caring and trust. The managerial strategies that are applied in nursing does not sufficiently harness and direct nurses. Focus is placed on nurse leaders as crucial role players in directing the nursing profession in peril. A call was made by followers for a different type of nurse leaders to lead this challenged profession, in an international arena. Social capital, being an abstract and multi-facet concept is presented as a possible framework to assist with the above crisis. Extremely limited literature was found on the utilisation of social capital to develop nurse leadership amongst these challenges. The research question, and later comprehensive aim, was formulated to examine how a theory in Nursing Science for authentic leadership embedded in a social capital framework, can be constructed. Theory construction of a middle-range theory was conducted in three phases. Phase One implied concept identification, descriptions, definitions and analysis. The actual theory construction was achieved in Phase Two, whilst Phase Three detailed the theory evaluation and guidelines for operationalisation. Main and related concepts were identified as agent, recipient, context, procedure, goal and dynamics. Data collection was conducted by means of a comprehensive literature search of all available national and international literature and included theories, textbooks and articles. Data saturation was achieved after no new information surfaced, n=188. The main concepts, authentic leadership (agent) and social capital (procedure) underwent a comprehensive concept analysis. Related concepts, namely the professional nurse (recipient), South African hospitals (context), positive impact on the triple bottom line (goal) and trust (dynamics) underwent a literature analysis. The theory was graphically portrayed and described by means of a model. The theory was submitted to a panel of experts (n=6). The panel was selected following purposive sampling due to specific inclusion criteria for expertise in social capital, and/or leadership and/or theory construction. The evaluation of the theory was conducted according to a specific framework for critical reflection. Guidelines for the operationalisation of the theory were formulated on a macro-, meso- and micro-level. The final step was the evaluation of the research and recommendations were made. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Nursing))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.