Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1993. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-87). Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Johns Hopkins University, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 288-306).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 250-259).

This thesis examines how students, aged 13-15, with a mother tongue other than Swedish, experience learning English in school. This is important since there is an increasing number of bilinguals and multilinguals learning English in schools in Sweden and around the world. Several concepts are presented and discussed that have been argued to pose barriers to bilingual and multilingual language learning. Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with ten students, aged between 13 and 15. The empirical material shows that bilingual and multilingual students usually refer to Swedish, even when their mother-tongue may be a better reference for learning English. This is because teachers commonly refer to Swedish grammar rules in attempting to clarify English grammar rules and the textbooks used to support the learning process are in Swedish. This may pose problems for the learning process, particularly for students who are not proficient in Swedish. The study also highlights the importance of diagnosing bilingual students' L1 and L2 on a regular basis to see when the optimum time is to be exposed to English language learning rather than the current approach of immersing them in English learning without considering the other language learning processes the student may be engaged in. The study also found that students commonly perceived their English to be proficient even though they had poor grades. One possible reason for this is that they manage well in their day-to-day engagement with computer games, films and social media while formal English learning, including aspects such as grammar and writing, require a different type of application. Finally, the thesis describes how important high metalinguistic awareness is for language learning and it is suggested that additional research focuses on how this conceptual understanding can be translated in practitioner tools useful for teachers. Schools need to create an environment that values and supports multilingual students’ language competence and an early national diagnostic test would help to support those conditions.

This research is in two phases. The aim of phase one was to explore the school experiences of learners identified as having literacy barriers to learning. Learners were in Year 8 (age 12-13) at the start of the research and Year 9 (age 13-14) by its conclusion. A case study design and the participatory method of ‘photovoice’ was used to elicit and foreground students’ views and experiences. To date there has been little research in this field using participatory methods. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. Findings suggest that the student photographers’ (N=4) were keen to share both their positive and negative experiences of school and in particular the importance they placed on relationships with peers and key staff. The aim of phase two was to use students’ photos, which were developed into individual ‘experience boards’, as a tool to facilitate staff reflections on practice. Three discussion groups (N=7) were held and data were analysed using thematic analysis. Findings were viewed and discussed using the framework of Maslow’s (1943) hierarchy of needs. Staff showed a high level of empathy and a desire to interpret and reflect on the photos. The constructs of feeling safe and secure were significant themes across all discussion groups. Furthermore, the lack of photos explicitly about learning challenged staff beliefs about student experiences and enabled them to acknowledge the importance the student photographers placed on these constructs. The use of photovoice stimulated reflection and is likely to have aided staff to better understand student experiences. There are implications for educational psychology practice in relation to taking a more holistic view of understanding and supporting learners with literacy difficulties and also the use of ‘photovoice’ to elicit and foreground student views and experiences as part of consultation or at a more systemic level.

Previous research has found that there are considerable benefits women experience after having spent time in the outdoors, and it is important that women are given the opportunity to discover them (McDermott, 2004). The purpose of the current research was to investigate if and how benefits and changes occur in women after participation in a women-specific outdoor recreation experience. Both quantitative and qualitative data collection techniques were used to answer the four research questions. Data was collected from 40 women at the 2011 Women in the Outdoors Illinois State Event. It was found that benefits and changes occurred following the event, and new insight into how and why changes occurred was also exposed. Finally, discussion and implications are made about the future of outdoor programming for women, considering consumptive sports as outdoor recreational activities, the possibilities of intergenerational programming, and future research ideas and recommendations.

The disproportionate amount of mentally ill offenders in the United States’ prison system and the lack of correctional treatment they receive have been an under-addressed problems for decades. This goal of this study was to examine the various individual and institutional barriers that hinder mentally ill offenders from accessing and participating in mental health treatment services. These barriers are analyzed using an expectancy theory framework. Specifically, the factors are fit into the Valence – Instrumentality – Expectancy model in an attempt to predict the impact that these barriers have on the number of mental health contact hours the offender engages in. Data for this analysis was obtained from 165 offenders with mental illness incarcerated in the Illinois Department of Corrections. Results indicate that offenders who experience fewer individual barriers (stigma and skepticism) and institutional barriers (quality of provider) are more likely to engage in more mental health services hours. Further, expectancy variables were expected to have the strongest impact on service engagement, but this hypothesis was not supported. Instead, valence variables had the strongest impact. But, the expectancy theory model with all components included is significant and useful to examine correctional mental health treatment utilization. This study is the first to apply expectancy theory to correctional mental health, and illuminates areas of policy improvements in this area.

A novel approach is developed to describe the dynamics of proteins, the coarse-grained Langevin Equation for Protein Dynamics (LE4PD). The approach describes proteins as fundamentally semiflexible objects collapsed into the free energy well representing the folded state. This is a multi-scale approach, where structural correlations are used as input to an effectively linear description, which can be solved in diffusive modes. The mode solution to this Langevin equation naturally separates into global modes describing the fully anisotropic tumbling of the macromolecule as a whole, and internal modes which describe local fluctuations about the folded structure. A protein in solution populates a structural ensemble of metastable configurations around the global fold, and we propose a simulation-free coarse-grained approach which utilizes knowledge of the important metastable folded states of the protein to predict the protein dynamics. The accuracy of the LE4PD is verified by analyzing the predicted dynamics across a set of seven different proteins for which both relaxation data and NMR solution structures are available. Using experimental NMR conformers as the input structural ensembles, LE4PD predicts quantitatively accurate results, with correlation coefficient $\rho=.93$ to NMR backbone relaxation measurements for the seven proteins. The NMR solution structure derived ensemble and predicted dynamical relaxation is compared with molecular dynamics simulation-derived structural ensembles and LE4PD predictions, and are consistent in the timescale of the simulations. The use of the experimental NMR conformers frees the approach from computationally demanding simulations. The biological function of proteins is encoded in their structure and expressed through the mediation of their dynamics. We present here a study of how local fluctuation relates to binding and function. This study indicates how local fluctuations are likely to initiate biologically relevant pathways as they cooperatively enhance the dynamics in specific spatial regions of the protein. The picture that emerges is a dynamically heterogenous protein where biologically active regions provide energetically-comparable conformational states that can be trapped by a reacting partner. The slowest, most collective motion localizes directly to highly conserved regions involved in binding partner recognition and active-site regulation. We analyze this possible relation between dynamics and binding mechanism as we calculate the dynamics of monomeric and dimerized HIV protease, free Insulin Growth Factor II Receptor (IGF2R) domain 11 and its IGF2R:IGF2 complex. The long-time dynamics of proteins is controlled by an activated regime where the dynamics of the large amplitude diffusive modes becomes dominated by the presence of energy barriers. We explicitly study the atomistic simulation-derived free energy landscape projected from the diffusive modes of the linear Langevin description of the protein, and obtain a general scaling between the fluctuation lengthscale and complexity. This hierarchical property of the free energy landscape of proteins is shown to be general across a set of six different single-domain monomeric proteins. As a consequence microscopic timescales of sub-angstrom sized fluctuations rapidly propagate out to folding timescales at the nanometer lengthscale of globular single-domain proteins. This glassy activated regime extending from the nanosecond timescale we propose to be set by cooperative rearrangements of the protein-water and protein-protein hydrogen-bonding network. This results in metastable protein configurations with large changes in the protein-solvent hydrogen-bonding network coupled to subtle changes in the protein-protein hydrogen-bonding network. The Langevin formalism predictions are shown to agree with molecular dynamic simulations from the picosecond out to the millisecond timescale.

Magister Educationis (Adult Learning and Global Change) - MEd(AL) / Adult learners’ perception of factors that are internal to their perceived control of their lives can be challenging to overcome when making a decision to participate in learning. There are complex relationships between psychological, and social barriers to participation in adult learning. Psychosocial barriers can deter adults’ participation in learning programmes. Understanding the nature of such barriers can enable policymakers, educators and adult learners create strategies to reduce such barriers in order to increase adults’ participation in adult learning. This study investigated the research question: What are adult learners’ perceptions of psycho-social factors that undermine participation in adult education and learning? The psycho-social interaction model adopted as a conceptual framework allowed the study to contextualise and analyse the effects of socio-economic status on the adult learner’s decision and readiness to participate. The model provided the broad segments of the adult learners’ pre-adulthood and adulthood learning years and through a thematic analysis attempted to analyse psychosocial factors that emerged as barriers to participatory behaviour in learning. An interview guide was used during a semi-structured interview. The study investigated a group of adult learners attending a non-formal learning programme in Central Johannesburg, South Africa. The selection of participants included 6 males and 4 females between 21 years to 49 years of age. The study findings showed that the adult learners’ perceptions of family support as well as the learning environment support are key enabling factors, which assist the adult learner to develop learning capabilities. Negative experiences with prior schooling was also described as a psychosocial barrier to participation. Age was a socio-economic variable that influenced the type of stimuli participants identified as a psycho-social factor which influenced their decision to take up further learning. Adult learners felt confident to successfully complete their current and future studies however perceived their learning press as a motivating factor that impacted their decision to participate. Findings also suggested that experiences of adult learners are unique to their specific context and educational planning can integrate ways to address enhancement of learning experiences for a diverse learner audience in non-formal learning programmes. The study concluded that while adult learners acquire social competencies through accessing nonformal programmes, further learning support is necessary to overcome the social and psychological complexities needed to develop basic academic learning capabilities.