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The employment of International Teaching Assistants in U.S. universities has caused concern with regards to the communicative competence of nonnative speaker TAs in undergraduate classrooms. Researchers such as Rounds (1985), Bryd (1986), Constantino (1986), Tyler (1990), Shaw (1994), and Hoekje and Williams (1994), among others have suggested that more research is needed on the performance of nonnative speaker TAs in specific disciplines.This study is an-attempt to describe the discourse skills of nonnative speaker TAs in Computer Science. The speech event of twelve nonnative speaker TAs was observed and video and audiotaped in teaching lecture and laboratory (programming session) classes. Three native speaker TAs of the same profession were also studied as a comparison group. A profile of each of the TAs was made based on field notes, interviews and student evaluations, to determine TA typologies along Bailey's (1982,1984) classification. The profiles also contributed to grouping the TAs into more skillful and less skillful TAs.The classroom observations were analyzed to determine whether NNSTAs encountered difficulty speaking comprehensibly and explaining the computer science concepts clearly. The other questions investigated included: the apparent degree and ease of student comprehension of the teachers; the amount of student participation allowed and encouraged; the degree of interaction in the classes; and the amount of rapport between the NNSTAs and their students.The rhetorical analysis of the discourse structure of the computer science classrooms revealed two genres. Descriptive discourse was predominant in the lecture sessions and procedural discourse was predominant in the programming sessions. Linguists have shown that there are interesting connections between discourse type and the interlocutor's choice of particular syntactic structures. The investigations in this study showed that the successful NNSTAs complied with these connections and the less successful NNSTAs did not. The discourse problems of nonnative speaker TAs stemmed mainly from their inability to use various cohesive ties and deictic markers appropriately.Finally, the study showed that despite pronunciation and grammatical deficiencies, NNSTAs' success in their classes was determined by their speech acts. The moreinteractive TAs who employed various illocutionary acts to transact disciplinary information were the more skillful TAs. / Department of English

The purpose of this study was to examine the leadership characteristics of respiratory care program directors and determine the relationship between the director's leadership style, effectiveness, faculty satisfaction, extra effort, and program outcomes. Differences between the directors' perceived leadership style and faculties' perception of the directors' leadership style were also examined. Directors' leadership styles were measured by the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ). Director, faculty and program information was measured with a researcher-designed questionnaire. CoARC accredited program directors (n=321) and their full and part-time faculty (n=172) received an e-mail and a web link to obtain demographic information. All participants received an e-mail from Mind Garden, Inc. with a web link to complete the MLQ. Regression analysis and t tests were used to analyze the data. The results found a significant relationship between faculty satisfaction, extra effort, and perceived director effectiveness and each of the predictors transformational, transactional, and passive/avoidant leadership behaviors. There was no relationship between program director leadership style and program outcomes. This study found no difference between the directors' and the faculty's perception of the directors' transformational and transactional leadership behaviors. However, there was a significant difference between the directors' and the faculties' perception of the directors' passive/avoidant behavior. / by Nancy L. Weissman. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2008. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2008. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Groups of students or employees working together to solve problems, gain conceptual understanding, or create new approaches are expected to yield results significantly better than when working individually. Classroom collaboration leads to increased learning and retention, improved interpersonal skills, and enhanced appreciation for and commitment to the educational process. With the increased discussion of its benefits, there is more emphasis on including collaboration in the classroom. The challenge for today's faculty and students is to learn what their roles and expectations are in the successful collaborative environment. The purpose of this study was to design a curriculum for instructors in techniques for creating collaborative environments. In addition to reviewing the current literature to learn about collaborative environments in the college classroom, instructors were interviewed to learn about their experiences and successes with collaborative learning. Information from the literature review and the faculty interviews were used to propose the curriculum. Principles of collaborative learning evident through the literature and the interviews are that it requires trust, development of relationships, conversation, incorporating differences, the teacher as learner, and students be responsible for their own learning. The instructor must be able to create that environment by teaching social and collaborative skills, being willing to self-disclose, assessing where students are and by taking care of technical tasks such as preplanning, assigning students to groups, designing collaborative activities and evaluating results of the collaborative process, the group's product and the individual's contribution. Caffarella's (1994) interactive model for program development provided the structure for the development of the curriculum. Through the application of the model, curriculum ideas were explored and narrowed into the development of the program objectives. Transfer of learning activities incorporated into the curriculum are reliant upon intense practice of collaborative skills throughout the course. The learning is experiential.

The purpose of this qualitative study was to describe and report the relationship between teaching and research as experienced by twelve faculty members at a medium sized, doctoral granting, state assisted university in the Midwest. Research review revealed that the relationship between research and teaching in higher education was supportive, conflicting, or neutral (Marsh & Hattie, 1996).Twelve faculty members from five different departments at Teachers College participated in this study. Evidence was gathered using semi-structured interviews. Analysis of evidence revealed several findings.Faculty members in this study described activities needed to produce publishable research, which included participating in professional meetings (conferences, workshops, and seminars), contributing to professional associations, reading publications, and writing activities. Faculty members engaged in research projects, and worked with students on their dissertations and research papers. Many of faculty members' research ideas came from their reading and their participation in learning activities needed to produce quality teaching.In this study, faculty members reported that research and teaching were intertwined activities that produced two different products. Faculty members reported that some of the activities in both teaching and research were similar and overlapping. They found ways to make progress in both activities at the same time. The activities used to produce quality teaching were influenced by the demands of producing publishable research and vice versa.For faculty members, many of their activities as scholars produced both research and teaching. While teaching was identified as the highest form of scholarship, research was considered also an important form of scholarship. Scholarship includes discovery of new knowledge, looking for connections, and building bridges between theory and practice. Teaching is scholarship applied. / Department of Educational Leadership