The study was designed to identify the-relationship between job satisfaction levels as perceived by staff nurses and levels of motivation for participation in staff development programs. A second purpose was to examine the relationship between the type of educational preparation, area of nursing practice, number of children under twelve years of age living at home, single parent status, size of hospital and years of service of staff nurses with levels of motivation for participation in staff development programs and with job satisfaction. The motivational theories of Maslow and Herzberg were used as the theoretical basis for the study.The Job Descriptive Index and a questionnaire were distributed to randomly selected staff nurses employed in the seventeen non-federal hospitals of the Eastern Indiana District of Hospital Nursing Service Administrators. Usable instruments were returned by 186 staff nurses for an eighty-two percent response rate. Thirteen null hypotheses were tested, five using the Pearson product-moment (r) correlation and eight using a one-way analysis of variance (F Statistic).The first purpose of the study, to examine the relationship between job satisfaction levels and levels of motivation for participation in staff development programs, revealed that job satisfaction was not found to be correlated significantly with motivation for participation in staff development programs. The small correlation found to exist was negative.The findings relative to the second study purpose, to examine the relationship between single parent status, number of children under twelve years of age living at home, length of employment as a staff nurse, level of educational preparation, size of hospital and area of nursing practice, produced only one significant finding. Single parent status and job satisfaction were found to be positively related at the .05 level of significance.The major conclusion was that job satisfaction was not a motivator for participation in staff development programs in the sample of staff nurses in the study.

Contemplative practices and orders of consciousness| A constructive-developmental approach

Thesis (M.A.)--Eastern Illinois University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 23-25).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Lehigh University, 2002. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 117-131).

Thesis--Pittsburgh. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oklahoma, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 102-113).

Typically, adult educators in Jamaica are part-time employees who are either trained in pedagogy or are employed because of their advanced training or skills in a particular discipline. As adult education in Jamaica and the Caribbean undergoes change, policy focus has concentrated on identifying the discipline with lifelong learning rather than adult literacy. Although the importance of the role of adult educators to the change process is acknowledged, the changes in adult education are not yet focussed on the role of the adult educator and equipping the adult educator to function in this dynamic environment. This study of an adult education institution in Jamaica aims to explore the perceptions of stakeholders, teachers, students and administrators, on how adult education is viewed, the role of part-time faculty in adult education, the quality of teaching they offer and measures to enhance teaching quality in this institution and others like it. I argue that the equipping of adult educators is important for successful adult education, part-time faculty who make up the significant majority of the cohort of adult educators deserve special attention and that Continuing Professional Development is a useful tool that serves the interest of equipping both individual teachers and institutions. Data was collected and analysed by means of a qualitative methodology utilising interviews, focus groups and qualitative questionnaires in two centres of the case institution. The study finds that teachers are crucial to successful adult education. Because of the ambivalence of adult learners and their needs for emotional as well as cognitive support, the onus is on teachers to provide learning environments in which adult learners can make best use of a learning opportunity. Many teachers, however, do not have specialist training for this task. Part-time faculty in the study want professional development although they do not think traditional methods of professional development suit their circumstances. They do have clear ideas of the kind of CPD support that they think will meet their needs. The study suggests guidelines for developing a model of CPD that is suitable for part-time faculty in adult education.

This was a collaborative action research project with three, mixed method evaluation cycles. Its aim was to increase the impact of new learning technologies (NLT) in two Police Forces. The first reconnaissance cycle found a significant absence of uptake for one computer based training system (<1% impact after five years) with only assumptions of ‘technological determinism’ driving the process. A range of individual, work related and cultural factors were illuminated, towards understanding how the Force might become a ‘network’ organisation, where technology fundamentally transforms how work is done (Symon, 2000). Following the qualitative interview study, a quantitative survey was carried out with 164 respondents on the areas of concern for NLT in the Police. Factor analysis of this data reinforced a parsimonious five factor solution, accounting for 55% of the variance and on which to proceed with cycles two and three. In the second cycle, 130 Police Probationers completed a battery of psychometrics to assess individual difference factors associated with successful outcomes in training with NLT. Results showed 27% of the variance on a bespoke NLT learning measure was predicted by computer attitudes. Age, gender, education, motivational and almost all personality measures offered no significant contribution to explaining the data. The bespoke learning criterion was used as a pre-test, post-test and retention measure and showed significant increases in knowledge were gained from NLT: effective and efficient learning was evidenced. Also in the second cycle, a sub-sample of (n=20-34) Probationers participated in two stages of repertory grid interviews rating different elements of Police training methods. From these data an ‘Ideal Probationer Learning Event’ (IPLE) model was proposed. This was stable over time and positioned NLT within a conceptual structure that identified preferred and non-preferred construct poles equating to four dimensions along which Police officers reliably rated any training event. In essence, it highlighted sites of perceived credibility and offered these as levers for creative change. Follow-up work with 120 Probationers using another example of NLT explored how integration of learning from NLT could occur from a learner-centered point of view, using an interpretive concept mapping technique. This illuminated sites of power exchange and the location of ‘ownership’ of learning in Police culture. The IPLE model was used to direct the third cycle which included constructivist and contingency perspectives. It was propsed that by creatively designing an NLT event to increase elements of the preferred constructs discovered in cycle two, integration of an NLT event would enable the transformative properties of NLT as a to manifest themselves. A sample of up to 60 Police Staff used an NLT package alongside a bespoke, collaborative e-learning group. Criterions were developed according to skill breadth, frequency and difficulty and significant increases in learning were not only found, but maintained following completion of NLT when retention was measured. The e-learning group brought some of the credible elements of training to the NLT event, thereby constituting a ‘unique solution’ (Seltzer, 1971). It created peer learning groups, despite geographical separation. Data for each level of Kirkpatrick’s (1959; 1960) ‘best practice’ training evaluation model was collected enabling the conclusion that creative integration is key to a network uptake of NLT.

published_or_final_version / Public Administration / Master / Master of Public Administration

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