Misunderstanding refers to an erroneous interpretation of the meaning of an utterance – a failure to understand. The instructional context relies almost exclusively on oral communication. The instructional message can be hampered, no less by the teacher as prime interlocutor whose utterances may result in misunderstandings. To answer the question: "To what extent are misunderstandings the result of English second language speakers' oral proficiency?" misunderstandings were identified in the instructional settings of 26 pre-service teachers who used English as the medium of instruction. This qualitative research drew from ethnographic and case study designs. Speech Act Theory and theories on misunderstandings and instructional communication underpinned the study. Data collection was based on video recordings of the student teachers’ authentic lesson presentations during their internship. Misunderstandings were identified and described in terms of their occurrence, nature, frequency and consequence, e.g. whether they were the result of grammatical clumsiness, cross-cultural transfer problems, or lean vocabulary. These students were not mother tongue speakers of English and the International English Language Testing Score was used to rate their oral proficiency in this language. Focus group interviews were conducted with the student teachers to gauge their awareness of and response to the occurrence of misunderstandings. They also completed a questionnaire in order to establish their awareness of misunderstandings. This small-scale survey also served to provide clarification of information gathered from the interviews. Several iterations of data combing were executed and coding and categorising were done concurrently within each data set. Findings corroborated the initial proposition that misunderstandings in the instructional context occur as a result of poor oral proficiency and inadequate speech act realization patterns. Underdeveloped communication skills included verbosity, unclear enunciation, non-standard pronunciation and inadequate rate of speech. However, what had not been anticipated was that the oral proficiency and speech act realization patterns of the student teachers were considerably weaker than had been expected. Furthermore, methodological factors and inadequate instructional skills similarly compounded the classroom communication. Participants displayed difficulty in formulating effective questions, explaining new concepts, giving instructions and designing well-structured lessons. Their inadequate content knowledge caused erroneous explanations, and poorly structured delivery resulted in instructional dissonance. The overarching theme of failure emerged, namely, inadequate pragmatic competence, underdeveloped content knowledge and scant methodological skills. Recommendations for policy and practice serve to highlight the importance of teachers’ proficiency in the medium of instruction. Coupled with a sound knowledge of the subject field and the prerequisite of well-developed methodological skills, the student teacher will be equipped to teach effectively. Several research topics relating to classroom communication, such as pre-service teacher development courses and cross-cultural and cross-linguistic competence, have been suggested for further exploration. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Humanities Education / unrestricted

The dissertation reports on two studies. The purpose of Study I was to develop and evaluate a measure of cognitive competence (the Critical Problem Solving Skills Scale – Qualitative Extension) using Relational Data Analysis (RDA) with a multi-ethnic, adolescent sample. My study builds on previous work that has been conducted to provide evidence for the reliability and validity of the RDA framework in evaluating youth development programs (Kurtines et al., 2008). Inter-coder percent agreement among the TOC and TCC coders for each of the category levels was moderate to high, with a range of .76 to .94. The Fleiss’ kappa across all category levels was from substantial agreement to almost perfect agreement, with a range of .72 to .91. The correlation between the TOC and the TCC demonstrated medium to high correlation, with a range of r(40)=.68, p Study II reports an investigation of a positive youth development program using an Outcome Mediation Cascade (OMC) evaluation model, an integrated model for evaluating the empirical intersection between intervention and developmental processes. The Changing Lives Program (CLP) is a community supported positive youth development intervention implemented in a practice setting as a selective/indicated program for multi-ethnic, multi-problem at risk youth in urban alternative high schools in the Miami Dade County Public Schools (M-DCPS). The 259 participants for this study were drawn from the CLP’s archival data file. The study used a structural equation modeling approach to construct and evaluate the hypothesized model. Findings indicated that the hypothesized model fit the data (χ2 (7) = 5.651, p = .83; RMSEA = .00; CFI = 1.00; WRMR = .319). My study built on previous research using the OMC evaluation model (Eichas, 2010), and the findings are consistent with the hypothesis that in addition to having effects on targeted positive outcomes, PYD interventions are likely to have progressive cascading effects on untargeted problem outcomes that operate through effects on positive outcomes.

Based on a retrospective survey of science and engineering (S&E) PhDs from a UK research-based university with 7-10 years job histories and the design-based non-parametric analysing methods, this thesis drew on theories on careers, organisational knowledge and learning and labour markets to explore the interrelationship between knowledge flow and careers of science and engineering PhDs. The results showed that employment outside the conventional technical occupations is the main destination for the survey respondents. This labour market segment is not only successful at retaining its members, but is also the destination of the other career types. Furthermore, S&E PhDs in the conventional technical occupations draw quite a lot of knowledge from S&E doctoral training in their jobs, even from the subject-specific dimension of it. By contrast, members in employment outside the conventional technical occupations are less likely to perceive knowledge and skills from doctoral training to be useful in their jobs, and when they do, the emphasis is more on general analytical skills and problem solving capabilities.The results also revealed the distinctive labour market features of different S&E PhD labour market segments: the sharp contrast of the core and peripheral workers in academic/public research, the highly hybrid labour market form in employment outside the conventional technical occupations and the relatively more structured labour market features in technical positions in private sector manufacturing. Regardless of the differences, nonetheless, as a whole, organisational life is still a prominent feature of the S&E PhD labour markets. Furthermore, the extent to which fluid job mobility contributes to S&E PhDs' individual knowledge flow depends on the types of knowledge under discussion. The emerging occupations associated with the knowledge economy are characterised by high inter-organisational mobility and by an emphasis of sector-specific and general knowledge. However, even for sector-specific and general knowledge, we have demonstrated that to a certain extent, these types of knowledge and skills are sticky to organisations. Hence, S&E PhD experts and knowledge workers' careers and individual knowledge flow are not really boundaryless but moderately localised within organisations.

Magister Curationis - MCur / In our constantly changing healthcare system and with large numbers of staff shortages in hospitals, newly qualified professional nurses are expected to be competent and work unsupervised in leadership capacities soon after they have completed their nursing programs. The study was aimed at determining the perceptions of professional nurses of newly qualified professional nurses' competency as well as factors that influence competency. A quantitative approach using a descriptive survey design was employed, using 34 experienced professional nurses working in selected private hospitals in the Western Cape. Data was collected by means of a peer evaluation questionnaire, namely the Competency Inventory for Registered nurses. Data was analyzed, using IBM SPSS 19 with the assistance of a statistician. The results of the 55-item Competency Inventory for Registered Nurses indicate that newly qualified nurses were perceived as highly competent in clinical care, leadership, interpersonal relation, legal/ethical and professional development. Newly qualified nurses were perceived as low in competency in teaching/coaching, critical thinking and research aptitude. All the factors identified using literature, were perceived as having an influence on competency. Recommendations were made to the institutions to assist newly qualified nurses in competence development.

No description available.

Over the past five decades, scholars of intercultural communication have attempted to define, describe, and otherwise operationalize the concept of competency in an intercultural interaction. This study constructed a comprehensive theory of intercultural communication competence (ICC) grounded in the extant literature and the practical or everyday understanding of the concept. Using classroom data that was validated by a metasynthesis of existing qualitative or ethnographic studies describing ICC, the academic definitions and lay descriptions were each explored and then compared to find points of convergence and points of divergence. The comparative analysis provided the foundation for the development of tenets: ICC is an outcome; ICC is externally perceived and measured; and ICC is bound by the cultural context in which it takes place, conditions regarding interaction goals and power roles of the interactants, and culture specific elements for the holistic ICC theory proposed by this study. An examination of the implications of the newly constructed ICC theory and its future application and implications were explored.

This mixed methods case study sought to understand cultural competency in the students of a service-learning based course, “Citizenship and Social Activism (HDFS 310),” taught at North Dakota State University in Fargo, North Dakota. Cultural competency refers to how people interact with those who are of different cultural groups. For the purposes of this study, cultural competency was also defined by four components: attitudes, knowledge, awareness, and skills. Using a pre- and post-test survey, the participants showed statistically significant changes in the levels of self-reported cultural competency in the overall scores and in the subsection scores that correspond to the four components. Survey data was complemented by qualitative data collected by coding participants’ reflective journals. The qualitative data provided situation-specific information about what levels of cultural competency participants were demonstrating; additionally, the journals provided information about how participants define, perceive, and struggle with the concept of cultural competency.

This study is about police students’ and professional police officers’ experienced competence in mental preparation training. The aim with the study is to compare how police students’ in the beginning and in the end of the Basic Training Programme for Police Officers perceive their competence in mental preparation training and how a selection of these students perceive their competence after one respectively two and a half year as police officers. The aim is also to compare the formal competence required of students who have passed the Basic Training Programme for Police Officers with the competence students actually think they have, and the formal competence required within the police profession with the competence police officers with differently long time as professionals experience that they have. Moreover the study includes a comparison between the formal and experienced competence in the Basic Training Programme for Police Officers and in the police profession. The empirical data of the study is based on a web questionnaire to the different groups of students and follow-up interviews with a selection of these students. The results show that the students’ perceived competence increases during the Basic Training Programme and that the experienced competence at the end of the programme to a relatively large extent corresponds to the formal competence of the programme. The difference between the formal competence required in the police profession and the police officers’ experienced competence is relatively small. The police officers’ experience though is that their competence in mental preparation training is not requested in the profession to any larger extent.   Key words: Police, competence, mental preparation training.

With an increasing number of married mothers who participated in paid work roles, fathers with full-time employed spouses now are expected to assume the role of caregiver and have higher frequency of engagement in parenting practices. This study of 235 university students from dual-earner and single-earner families investigated their retrospective perceptions of both mothers' and fathers' frequency of engagement in overall and specific parenting behaviors. These perceptions were measured by the Parent Behavior Frequency Questionnaire-Revised Scale, which includes seven parenting characteristics and related behaviors. Paired samples t-tests suggested that married mothers, whether fully employed outside the home or not, engaged more frequently, than their full-time employed spouses, in parenting characteristics related to bonding, education, general welfare and protection, responsivity, and sensitivity. However, mothers' employment status had little influence upon the frequency at which either parent engaged in any of the seven parenting characteristics and related behaviors. University students who perceived that both parents were more frequently engaged in specific parenting behaviors related to education, responsivity and sensitivity rated themselves higher on interpersonal competence, as measured by the Interpersonal Competence Questionnaire-Revised Scale. Students who perceived that both parents were less frequently engaged in negative parenting behaviors rated themselves higher on competence in conflict management. In addition, family earner status had no significant impact on university students' levels of interpersonal competence. Although there was no significant gender difference in the levels of total interpersonal competence, male students reported higher levels of interpersonal competence in the domains of asserting influence and conflict management than their female counterparts. These findings revealed that like parents from single-earner families, parents from dual-earner families also demonstrated a significant discrepancy in the frequency of engagement in parenting practices. Mothers still invested considerably more time with their children than do fathers. Therefore, there may be a need to develop parent education programs for fathers so that they have opportunities to shape paternal identity and parental self-efficacy. Also, it is necessary to develop friendly family- employment policies and enhance social support networks that enable both full-time employed mothers and fathers to achieve a satisfactory balance between family and work.

No description available.