This study was undertaken in an attempt to determine the degree to which second year Mathematics education students consider critical thinking dispositions and attitudes to be important and to develop a curriculum-based mediational approach based on the data, to encourage the critical thinking dispositions and attitudes that appeared to be in need of encouragement. A literature study was undertaken to determine the positive critical thinking dispositions and attitudes students should possess. In addition it was also determined which teaching learning approaches will benefit the development of critical thinking dispositions and attitudes the most. The advantages as well as the processes and components that should form part of the mediational approach for the development of critical thinking dispositions were examined. A two-phase, sequential, explanatory mixed method study was subsequently undertaken with second-year Mathematics students at a South African university. The quantitative study made use of a self-developed questionnaire to determine the degree to which students consider critical thinking dispositions and attitudes important. Data emanating from the questionnaires were analysed and questions that had to be answered in narrative format were set for each student according to their own responses on the questionnaire. Narratives formed part of the qualitative component of the study in which students had to indicate factors that influence their critical thinking dispositions and attitudes, what could be done to improve the apparent unimportant critical thinking dispositions and attitudes and whether they regard the critical thinking dispositions and attitudes as important. Narratives were analysed and the results were used to explain the quantitative data. Results revealed that second year Mathematics education students do not consider critical thinking dispositions and attitudes, in particular inquisitiveness but also judiciousness, open-mindedness, systematicity, truth-seeking, analyticity and confidence in critical thinking to be very important and therefore these critical thinking dispositions and attitudes appeared to require encouragement. A curriculum-based mediational approach based on a section in the existing Mathematics module for second year education students was developed in order to encourage critical thinking dispositions in Mathematics. The study concluded with recommendations to encourage critical thinking dispositions and attitudes as well as proposals for future studies. / PhD, Education, North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2012

Cette thèse prend pour objet les effets du passage par les Instituts d’études politiques de province sur les trajectoires de leurs étudiants. En articulant méthodes historique, statistique et ethnographique, elle analyse le travail de cette école sur les dispositions et stratégies de mobilité de ceux qui y candidatent, y étudient et en sortent diplômés. Elle montre qu’au terme d’un déplacement historique dans l’espace de l’enseignement supérieur, les IEP attirent de très bons élèves, proches d’une« troisième culture » scolaire d’État, dont l’origine sociale se situe surtout dans les classes supérieures, notamment dans leur fraction intellectuelle. La recherche montre par ailleurs comment l’action éducative des IEP s’appuie sur des ressources et dispositions constituées en amont ou en parallèle de la scolarité à l’IEP pour distribuer les étudiants dans des positions hiérarchisées au sein de l’école, puis dans les espaces professionnels constitutifs des classes supérieures. / This research focuses on a network of second rank elite colleges – the “Instituts d’études politiques” (IEP) – that have grown throughout the second half of the 20th century in cities throughout France. They now appeal principally to a large population of upper-class students who are disproportionately from the intellectual fraction, and are mostly feminine. This appeal is due to the school’s curriculum that is highly selective and offers an alternative to sciences and humanities, which have traditionally comprised the educational choices of the French upper-classes. In articulating socio-historical, statistical and ethnographic approaches, this dissertation explores how the IEP’s curriculum differentiates candidates and students according to their dispositions and, over time, contributes to the stratification of the upper classes.

CESI école d’ingénieurs a mis en place l’Apprentissage Actif Par Projets dans sa formation d’ingénieurs en alternance en 2015. Le cursus à l’école a été conçu pour être professionnalisant, via la réalisation de projets pluridisciplinaires en groupes. Le travail de recherche questionne les médiations et obstacles vécus par les apprenants dans la construction de leurs identités professionnelles dans ce dispositif. Nous avançons deux hypothèses principales pour étudier la question : l’A2P2 devrait influer sur le développement identitaire des apprenants, mais les leviers repérés ne sauraient être uniformes, les interactions dispositif-dispositions jouant sur leur vécu. La méthodologie a consisté à recueillir des données à visée compréhensive sur les 3 ans du cycle ingénieur. Une méthode de recueil mixte a été employée : une approche qualitative, par échantillonnage (31 apprenants), couplée à un recueil de données quantitatives sur la cohorte (587 apprenants), pour en extraire des « profils » de construction. Cette approche, centrée sur le discours des apprenants, a été complémentée par une triangulation méthodologique (recueil de données auprès de tuteurs, résultats d’évaluations).Les résultats confirment la présence d’indicateurs de construction imputables au dispositif à l’école, via la répétition de schémas d’action efficaces. Ils font aussi émerger des profils de construction identitaire, à savoir différentes dynamiques étayées par des ressources et leviers spécifiques, en fonction des buts fixés par les apprenants à la formation. Les résultats ont permis de noter les appuis différenciés en entreprise et en centre, pour accompagner les professionnalités émergentes. / CESI school of engineering has implemented a PBL curriculum called A2P2 in its combined work and study engineering degree program since 2015. This curriculum revolves around cross-disciplinary projects carried out in small groups and was designed to professionalize students. This research work endeavours to question the challenges and assets of this learning environment as regards the professional identity construction of the future engineers. We first assumed that the program should positively affect their professional identity construction, but also advanced the hypothesis that its impact should differ from one student to another as students’ individual dispositions interact with the learning environment and thus affect their experiences. The research process involved gathering comprehensive data throughout the 3-year engineering program. A dual data collection approach was developed – a sampling, qualitative study (31 students) as well as quantitative data collection from the cohort (587 students), to infer development “profiles”. This student-centred methodology was supported by data triangulation, via external data collected from the tutors, from evaluation results.The data collected supports the theory of the school curriculum contributing to students’ identity development, through the iteration of efficient patterns of actions. They bring out several development profiles –professional identity dynamics, bolstered through specific resources and levers of development, depending on students’ set out goals for the training. The results point out that school and companies provide different levers to support students’ professional becoming.

This study was undertaken in an attempt to determine the degree to which second year Mathematics education students consider critical thinking dispositions and attitudes to be important and to develop a curriculum-based mediational approach based on the data, to encourage the critical thinking dispositions and attitudes that appeared to be in need of encouragement. A literature study was undertaken to determine the positive critical thinking dispositions and attitudes students should possess. In addition it was also determined which teaching learning approaches will benefit the development of critical thinking dispositions and attitudes the most. The advantages as well as the processes and components that should form part of the mediational approach for the development of critical thinking dispositions were examined. A two-phase, sequential, explanatory mixed method study was subsequently undertaken with second-year Mathematics students at a South African university. The quantitative study made use of a self-developed questionnaire to determine the degree to which students consider critical thinking dispositions and attitudes important. Data emanating from the questionnaires were analysed and questions that had to be answered in narrative format were set for each student according to their own responses on the questionnaire. Narratives formed part of the qualitative component of the study in which students had to indicate factors that influence their critical thinking dispositions and attitudes, what could be done to improve the apparent unimportant critical thinking dispositions and attitudes and whether they regard the critical thinking dispositions and attitudes as important. Narratives were analysed and the results were used to explain the quantitative data. Results revealed that second year Mathematics education students do not consider critical thinking dispositions and attitudes, in particular inquisitiveness but also judiciousness, open-mindedness, systematicity, truth-seeking, analyticity and confidence in critical thinking to be very important and therefore these critical thinking dispositions and attitudes appeared to require encouragement. A curriculum-based mediational approach based on a section in the existing Mathematics module for second year education students was developed in order to encourage critical thinking dispositions in Mathematics. The study concluded with recommendations to encourage critical thinking dispositions and attitudes as well as proposals for future studies. / PhD, Education, North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2012

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Children show large individual differences in numerical skills, even before they begin formal education. These early differences have significant and long-lasting effects, with numerical knowledge before school predicting mathematical achievement throughout the primary and secondary school years. Currently, little is known about the dispositional factors influencing children's numerical development. Why do some children engage with and succeed in mathematics from an early age, whilst others avoid mathematics and struggle to acquire even basic symbolic number skills? This thesis examines the role of two dispositional factors: First, spontaneous focusing on numerosity (SFON), a recently developed construct which refers to an individual's tendency to focus on the numerical aspects of their environment; and second, mathematics anxiety (MA), a phenomenon long recognised by educators and researchers but one which is relatively unexplored in young children. These factors are found to have independent effects on children's numerical skills, thus the empirical work is presented in two separate parts. The SFON studies start by addressing methodological issues. It is shown that the current measures used to assess children's SFON vary in their psychometric properties and subsequently a new and reliable picture-based task is introduced. Next, the studies turn to theoretical questions, investigating the causes, consequences and mechanisms of SFON. The findings give rise to three main conclusions. First, children's SFON shows little influence from parental SFON and home numeracy factors. Second, high SFON children show a symbolic number advantage. Third, the relationship between SFON and arithmetic can be explained, in part, by individual differences in children's ability to map between nonsymbolic and symbolic representations of number. The MA studies focus primarily on gender issues. The results reveal no significant differences between boys' and girls' overall levels of MA; however, there are gender differences in the correlates of MA. Specifically, boys' (but not girls') MA is related to parents' MA. Moreover, the relationship between MA and mathematical outcomes is stronger for boys than it is for girls. Possible causal explanations for these gender differences are explored in two ways: First, by examining the reliability of the scales used to assess MA in boys and girls. Second, by investigating the relationship between girls' (and boys') mathematics anxiety and their societal math-gender stereotypes. The findings from both sets of studies draw a link between children's emerging dispositions towards mathematics and their early numerical skills. Future research needs to examine how these dispositional factors interact with other (cognitive and non-cognitive) predictors of mathematics achievement.

The research presented here shows the reflections of some International Baccalaureate (IB) Middle Years Programme (MYP) and Diploma students of a bilingual school on the attributes of the IB Learner Profile and the extent to which these can contribute to students being internationally minded. I approach the research after reviewing the concept of the self and using pragmatic methodology The research consisted of a questionnaire and semi-structured interview aimed at eliciting from the students their opinion about the extent to which they had equal command of the different attributes and, if they had differing abilities, if they were seeking to improve their command of the attribute(s) and who they though could help them do so. I was also interested in knowing if the students believed that the attributes of the IB Learner Profile helped them to be internationally minded, as suggested by the International Baccalaureate. The results suggest that most of the students believe that they have differing degrees of command of the attributes and that it is necessary for them to develop the ones that they feel less proficient in. They tend to believe that the attributes are developed partly at school, but also by their parents, themselves and others. They tend to believe that they are similar in terms of character to students that study at schools that do not offer the IB, but academically they are somewhat different. That said, they also tend to believe that the attributes of the IB Learner Profile help them to be internationally minded, particularly those of ‘open-minded’ and ‘communicator’, which coincide with the theoretical position of Castro et al (2013) and Singh and Qi (2013). While the school seems to play a significant part in developing the attributes, students seem to believe that they themselves, and parents, also have a key role to play.

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships between wellness, spirituality, and personal dispositions of practicing professional counselors. A sequential, mixed-methods case study design was utilized to achieve this purpose. Thirty professional counselors completed three assessment instruments measuring wellness, spirituality, and personal dispositions. Five of these counselors also participated in the qualitative portion of the study. This included the review of photographs of their offices and copies of their résumés and professional disclosure statements as well as participation in a telephone interview. Following the use of Pearson Product Correlations to analyze relationships in the data from the assessment instruments, two positive relationships were found. Spirituality was positively correlated with the disposition of rule-consciousness. A positive relationship was found between wellness and emotional stability. In addition, three negative relationships were found. The dispositions of apprehension, perfectionism, and tension were all negatively correlated with wellness. No significant relationship was found between wellness and spirituality. These data were used to develop the interview protocol for the qualitative portion of the study. The constant comparative method was used to analyze the qualitative data. Five themes were developed within the second iteration of analysis: commitment to the philosophies of the profession, a foundation of ethics, coordination, social networks, and personal fulfillment. These resulted in the development of the third iteration of the professional counselor as an integrated whole. These enhanced the findings of the quantitative portion of the study by providing a description of how the relationships found in the quantitative data impact and present in the work of professional counselors. This was the first known study to utilize a mixed-methods design to explore wellness, spirituality, and personal dispositions in professional counselors. Future studies should continue to explore the relationships among these factors and how they impact professional practice. These should include the use of a larger sample size as well as the identification of specific behaviors utilized by professional counselors to promote the development of wellness and positive personal dispositions.

The purpose of the current research was to examine the effects of a sequence of classroom activities that integrated mathematics content with music elements aimed at providing teachers an alternative approach for teaching mathematics. Two classes of third grade students (n=56) from an elementary school in Southern California participated in the research. A random assignment pretest-posttest control group design was used to examine students' changes in mathematics content achievement and the disposition between the two groups. The students in the music group received music-mathematics integrated lessons. A quasi-experiment time series design with multiple pretests, mid-tests and posttests was utilized for investigating the effects of music-mathematics integrated lessons on students' mathematics process ability levels. The results demonstrated that the intervention of a series of music-mathematics integrated lessons had positive effects on the music group students. The findings showed that the music group students had statistically significantly higher scores on mathematics achievement, and mathematics dispositions after the intervention. Moreover, the music group students also showed statistically significant improvement on scores in the mathematics process abilities from pretests to posttests. The study results suggested that music, with its unique features, can be used as a resource for students to make these connections and also as a way for students to represent mathematics in alternative ways. The findings suggest that teachers should take advantage of the opportunities that music offers to help all students learn mathematics in challenging and enjoyable ways developing students' mathematics achievement, mathematical process ability, and mathematics dispositions.

ABSTRACT In loosely structured narrative interviews, individuals discussed their personal religious life stories in the context of their lives, from childhood to the present. They ended up creating coherent narratives that encompassed much more than their religious traditions. The coherency of their stories was through the use of dispositions. Dispositions are the common themes, people, or other narrative schema which the narrator used consistently throughout the story, and are identified by narrative elements that repeat and anchor the narrative. Dispositions found in interviews for the Religious Life Stories Project by the GSU Religious Studies Department include familial, outlier, socioeconomic, contributive, influential, obedient, somatic, and traveler. Analysis of the dipositions in the context of these narratives illuminates the variety of ways traditional religion manifests in individuals’ lives. Furthermore, dispositions provide a theoretical basis for studying individual religion comparatively across doctrinal religious traditions.