This study examines how university academics understand and enact knowledge requirements embedded in official teacher education policies. The research probes faculty understandings of what constitutes ‘relevant and appropriate pedagogies’ in teacher education curricula, and the basis of such knowledge selections in the absence of a stable ‘knowledge base’ of teacher education. In teacher education, new national norms and standards are intended to guide curriculum processes in new programmes. However, policies remain open to wide interpretation and assume common understandings among the teacher education community with regard to knowledge, practices and values. This study, conducted in three university-based Faculties of Education, analyses the curriculum motivations, processes and practices of education academics, in an attempt to understand and explain their responses to policy requirements. The conceptual framework of Paul Trowler is employed to examine the Teaching and Learning Regimes (TLRs) at work in academic contexts. By lifting out the discursive repertoires, identities in interaction, tacit assumptions, connotative codes, implicit theories of teaching and learning, power relations, rules of appropriateness and recurrent practices among faculty members, this research demonstrates how knowledge is mediated in and through institutional contexts. Three parallel Faculty portraits elucidate stark differences in approaches to curricula and in curriculum processes, a consequence of the lack of a stable knowledge base and the perceived vagueness of policy directives. Significantly, institutional histories and traditions feature prominently as ‘shapers’ of academic responses to change, factors that, the study argues, government policies have not taken into account. / Thesis (PhD (Education Policy Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2006. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted

Bakgrund: För att vården av patienter med demenssjukdom ska uppnå en god kvalité bör den utgå från personcentrerad vård. I den personcentrerade vården läggs fokus på personen bakom sjukdomen, där sjuksköterskan individanpassar vården efter patientens behov. Enligt lagar och riktlinjer, bör vårdpersonal tillgodose en god vård som är grundad på respekt för självbestämmande, delaktighet samt integritet. Däremot upplever inte alltid patienter och anhöriga att personcentrerad vård tillämpas. Syfte: att beskriva sjuksköterskors erfarenheter av att vårda patienter med demenssjukdom utifrån ett personcentrerat arbetssätt i olika vårdkontext. Metod: kvalitativ, systematisk litteraturstudie med beskrivande syntes enligt Evans. Resultat: det framkom två teman och fem subteman. Första temat blev Relationella utmaningar, följt av subteman: Att se hela patienten, Att skapa relationer och Att individanpassa vården. Det andra temat blev Organisationella utmaningar, följt av subteman: Att förhålla sig till kunskap och Att relatera till arbetsmiljön. Slutsats: sjuksköterskor belyser vikten av att se hela patienten genom att ta del av patientens livsberättelse, skapa relationer, och slutligen att individanpassa vården för att tillgodose personcentrerad vård. De erfor även att arbetsmiljön försvårade tillämpningen av personcentrerad vård.

As the presence of digital game-based learning increases in United States classrooms, understanding their impact on achievement is critical. Digital games for learning offer many potential benefits, including reducing the number of students trapped in a remediation cycle, a contributor to college dropout. Despite the recognized potential of game-based learning, few researchers have explored the relationships between specific patterns of behaviors and types of digital game-based learning environments. The underlying theory for this study was patterns of gamer behaviors may predict in-game behaviors. Archival, third-party data regarding The Lost Function - Episode 1: Sum of the Forgotten Minds by Advanced Training & Learning Technology, LLC was used in this study. Using 4 case groups at the high school and college levels (n=114), self-reported levels of the 3 patterns of gamer behaviors, gender, and age-band were analyzed using multiple regression to determine relationships to time-on-task in a game-based highly interactive virtual environment, designed for mathematics remediation. While the results were inconclusive, this study supported the existing literature regarding gender differences and the lack of mutual exclusivity in behavior typing. Recommendations include additional research in how the statements used in the 3-factor model may be adjusted to allow for a broader population of game players. The social change implication is that further understanding of the relationship between learner traits and digital learning environment may assist educators that employ digital game-based learning a way to better align learners to the most appropriate digital learning environment, thereby increases their chances at success.

While most of the existing research on the topic of workplace incivility has focused upon its consequences on employee and organizational well-being, researchers are recognizing the need for research on predictors, mediators, and moderators of uncivil workplace behavior. The current study contributes to this new wave of workplace incivility research by emphasizing the links among variables not previously explored in incivility research. This nonexperimental correlational study (N = 1027) developed and tested a parallel multiple mediator model of instigated incivility. The model examined the mediation of the emotion regulation strategies – cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression – on the relation of two types of social dominance orientation – intergroup dominance (SDO-D) and intergroup antiegalitarianism (SDO-E) – on the outcome of instigated incivility, and tested the moderating effects of workgroup civility climate on the paths of the proposed model. An Internet-based self-report survey battery was administered to a sample drawn from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk worker population. Hypotheses were tested though structural equation modeling analytic procedures. Findings suggest that intergroup dominance (SDO-D) increases instigated incivility and the relationship is not moderated by workgroup civility climate norms. In contrast, intergroup antiegalitarianism (SDO-E) decreases instigated incivility. Further, this study found that SDO-D had an indirect effect on instigated incivility through the emotion regulation strategy of expressive suppression. Additional findings suggest that the emotion regulation strategy of cognitive reappraisal has the potential to reduce uncivil workplace behavior. Future research was proposed to test the model examined in this study in different cultural settings, with additional mediators and moderators, and longitudinally. The practical findings suggest that HRD practitioners may find emotion regulation and civility trainings useful to reduce the likelihood of uncivil workplace behavior.

The theory of shattered assumptions proposes that experiencing traumatic events can change how people view themselves and the world. Most adults experience a traumatic event during their lifetime, and some subsequently develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, the current conceptualization of trauma (i.e., Criterion A PTSD) may be too narrow to adequately capture the range of potentially traumatizing events that People of Color experience, including racial discrimination and neighborhood disadvantage. This study investigated the association of racial discrimination and neighborhood disadvantage with core beliefs about the world being safe and predictable (i.e., world assumptions) among a sample of Black, Latine, and Asian young adults. Multi-step analyses of covariance tested associations between racial discrimination and neighborhood disadvantage with world assumptions and whether these held in the context of other traumatic exposures. Results indicated that racial discrimination negatively impacted world assumptions among Asian young adults only and this effect remained in the context of trauma. In addition, low neighborhood support negatively impacted world assumptions across all racial groups and neighborhood violence negatively impacted world assumptions among Latine young adults only; however, this effect did not remain in the context of trauma. This study indicates it is worthwhile to consider other adverse events in the conceptualization of trauma, such as racial discrimination and neighborhood disadvantage, that may impact world assumptions and contribute to subsequent post-trauma psychopathology.

This study explored the psychological and sociological motivations of adult female and male obstacle course racers. A qualitative case study approach was used to explore the views, experiences, and motivations of obstacle course racing (OCR) participants. Descriptive statistics and cross tabulation was used to interpret responses to the 297 online questionnaires. A content analysis approach was used to analyze the qualitative data gathered from three focus groups with a total of 20 obstacle course racers. Three theories formed the basis of the study: Self-Determination Theory (SDT), Achievement Goal Theory (AGT), and Social Leaning Theory (SLT). Overall, findings supported previous research regarding motivations to participate in adventure racing and extreme sports. Individuals were guided more by intrinsic motives than extrinsic motives. Important motivations for obstacle course racers included the camaraderie among participants, connecting and socializing with other like-minded people, having fun, and having a physical challenge that allowed them to progress and keep on track with their health goals. Obstacle course racing was perceived as positively impacting participants’ health, mental wellness and their confidence in their physical abilities as well as in other areas of their lives. Findings from this study may inform future interventions to increase participation in OCR or to increase overall physical activity among adults by building on camaraderie, social connection, enjoyment, and self-efficacy.

The aim of this study is to examine and identify the different ways in which secondary and upper secondary school teachers perceive the use of fiction to teach English as well as their beliefs about the outcome or benefits of doing so. Five secondary and upper secondary school teachers in Sweden who teach English as a foreign language were interviewed about how they use fiction to teach English. A phenomenographic cross-case analysis was used to analyse the data. The teachers’responses were categorized and labelled into two main themes, that is, teaching methods and benefits of using fiction to teach English. However, the teachers’ descriptions about the definition and medium of expressing fiction was first established. The data from the theme ‘teaching methods’ were later sorted, categorized, and labelled into six instructional strategies. The teaching strategies included: selecting authentic learning material for students; building knowledge about themes in the fictional works; using classroom discussions to support students' learning; encouraging students to use their previous knowledge and learning experiences to understand the content of the fictional works; using audio-visual aids to enhance students' understanding of themes in the fictional works; and designing tasks that reinforce learning. These strategies were common amongst all five teachers. However, there were some subtle differences in the teaching methods, caused by factors such as the students’ mastery of the English language, the English course(s) the teachers were teaching and the fictional material they were using to teach English. / Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka och identifiera de olika sätt på vilka högstadielärare och gymnasielärare uppfattar användningen av fiktion för att undervisa engelska samt deras uppfattning om fördelarna med att göra det. För att få insikter om detta intervjuades fem lärare som undervisar engelska som främmande språk på högstadiet och gymnasiet i Sverige. En fenomenografisk tvärfallsanalys användes som metod för dataanalys och lärarnas beskrivningar av vad fiktion betyder samt på vilket sätt den kan uttryckas framställdes. Lärarnas svar kategoriserades i två huvudteman och märktes som: undervisningsmetoder och fördelarna att undervisa engelska genom fiktion. Data från temat ’undervisningsmetoder’ sorterades, kategoriserades och delades in i sex undervisningsstrategier. Undervisningsstrategierna innefattar: att välja autentiskt undervisningsmaterial; att bygga upp kunskap om teman i de fiktiva verken; att använda klassrumsdiskussioner för att stödja elevernas lärande; uppmuntra eleverna att använda sina tidigare kunskaper och erfarenheter av lärande; använda audiovisuella hjälpmedel för att förbättra elevernas förståelse av teman i de fiktiva verken; utforma uppgifter som förstärker lärande. Dessa strategier var gemensammabland de fem lärarna. Det fanns dock några små skillnader i undervisningsmetoderna som orsakades av elevernas behärskning av det engelska språket, de engelska kurserna som lärarna undervisade i och de fiktiva materialen som de använde för att undervisa engelska.

This research focuses on the ability to contextualize observed human behaviors in efforts to automate the process of tactical human performance modeling through learning from observations. This effort to contextualize human behavior is aimed at minimizing the role and involvement of the knowledge engineers required in building intelligent Context-based Reasoning (CxBR) agents. More specifically, the goal is to automatically discover the context in which a human actor is situated when performing a mission to facilitate the learning of such CxBR models. This research is derived from the contextualization problem left behind in Fernlund's research on using the Genetic Context Learner (GenCL) to model CxBR agents from observed human performance [Fernlund, 2004]. To accomplish the process of context discovery, this research proposes two contextualization algorithms: Contextualized Fuzzy ART (CFA) and Context Partitioning and Clustering (COPAC). The former is a more naive approach utilizing the well known Fuzzy ART strategy while the latter is a robust algorithm developed on the principles of CxBR. Using Fernlund's original five drivers, the CFA and COPAC algorithms were tested and evaluated on their ability to effectively contextualize each driver's individualized set of behaviors into well-formed and meaningful context bases as well as generating high-fidelity agents through the integration with Fernlund's GenCL algorithm. The resultant set of agents was able to capture and generalized each driver's individualized behaviors.

This study explores the link between the presence of childhood trauma and adult criminal behavior. In this study, four distinct categories of childhood trauma (physical abuse, sexual abuse, psychological abuse, and neglect) were examined. In addition, this study conducts a comparative analysis of the United States crime rate with that of Switzerland and Japan. This study examines and compares the policies utilized in ensuring the protection of child welfare. The ultimate goal is to provide research which may build a foundation that will assist in creating and improving policies which will ensure a child's psychological health.

This study examined variables related to the doctor-patient interaction that can predict college students’ trust in their physicians. Specifically, I examined if five personality variables, ethnicity, and gender were associated with attitudes toward physicians. A second aim of the study was to determine if there was a difference in the level of trust in physicians between pre-medical and non-pre-medical students. Surveys were administered to UCF students containing a series of questions compiled from the Interpersonal Physician Trust Scale, Interpersonal Trust Scale, Illness Attitude Scale, Big Five Inventory, Martin-Larsen Approval Motivation Scale-Short Form, Almost Perfect Scale-Revised and Marlowe-Crowne Social Desirability Scale-Short Form, as well as 13 original questions that I developed. The sample consisted of 211 UCF students. It was hypothesized that lower levels of mistrust of others, symptoms of hypochondria, introversion, need for approval, and perfectionism would correlate significantly with trust in medical doctors. It was also hypothesized that there would be a difference in the level of trust in physicians between pre-medical and non-premedical students. Results indicated that on average, most participants across ethnicity and gender expressed uncertainty about their level of trust in their physicians. Ethnicity was not associated significantly with trust in physician. Gender was also not associated significantly with trust in physician. For Hispanic participants, only introversion predicted trust in physician. For male participants, only hypochondria predicted trust in physician. Finally, pre-medical status was not associated significantly with a difference in physician trust.