Successful veterinary practice requires a unique combination of medical competence and other professional skills that include empathy, communication skills, business and management skills. Results of two recent national studies have indicated that many veterinarians possess the medical knowledge, but not the ancillary skills, that can determine their economic success. Furthermore, growth in non-practice veterinary careers and changes in food animal production medicine have accentuated the need for veterinarians with exceptional teamwork, management and leadership skills. These nontechnical competencies pose a challenge to veterinary educators, who have traditionally focused on transfer of biomedical knowledge and have had limited involvement in these policy issues. In this study, veterinary faculty from five veterinary colleges were surveyed regarding the importance of nontechnical skills for veterinary graduates, where nontechnical skills should be taught, and their own role and level of preparation in cultivating such skills. Faculty respondents uniformly agreed that nontechnical competencies are important for veterinary graduates and should be cultivated across the spectrum of preveterinary, veterinary and postgraduate education. The support is greatest for critical thinking and intrapersonal competencies and less for management and business competencies. Basic science, nonveterinarian and junior faculty tend to more strongly appreciate the importance of nontechnical skills. Large animal faculty and midcareer faculty exhibit a more reserved level of support. Women faculty are more likely to support the development of nontechnical competencies across the continuum of education. Junior faculty, though supportive of the importance of such skills, are less likely than other faculty to view veterinary clinical education as a primary time for their development. Junior faculty are also less likely to perceive a personal role in the cultivation of nontechnical competencies in veterinary students. Faculty members’ view of the role and composition of preveterinary and preclinical veterinary education, and their perceptions of personal ability in the cultivation of nontechnical competencies, may be unique to an institution. Institutional and professional leaders should tailor faculty development and curricular discussions with these disciplinary and career stage differences in mind. Educational leaders should also work toward building integrated methods of training veterinary students in business, management, coaching and leadership skills.

The purpose of this study was to describe the phenomenon of learning among high school educators engaged in an on-line learning community studying the application of reader response theory across the curriculum following a two-day professional development (PD) workshop. The theoretical framework both for the design and content of the workshop and for the design of the study was social constructivism. The specific research question to be answered with respect to the participant, Ariel, was, "what is the teacher's experience in an on-line learning community?" For this phenomenological case study, the methods for data collection included two semi-structured interviews and a series of on-line communications with the teacher. Interview and email transcripts were parsed into meaning units, followed by theme analysis uncovered by a "detailed reading approach" (van Manen, 1990, p. 3). Three themes were threaded together to provide an impression of the teacher's experience, lending itself to description. Following a hermeneutic process, I used these themes to weave an image of the teacher's experience, and then consulted my own experiences, research and theoretical literature, and a work of young-adult literature as sources for interpretation (van Manen, 1990). I worked to ensure trustworthiness through bracketing, prolonged engagement, triangulation of multiple data sources, member checking, peer debriefing, and thick description to support transferability. Analysis of Ariel's experience led to a description of her as a teacher committed to professional growth, influenced by her analysis of opportunity, motivation to learn, and her response to conditions that supported her growth: time for talk, time for practice, freedom of choice, and appropriate challenge. Reflection on her experience in light of my experiences and the literature on adult learning and development led to two conclusions. First, there are critical actions that foster teacher development and learning. And second, individuals who influence continuing education for teachers have a responsibility to act through an ethic of care. Implications of this research for designers of PD are that they need to keep in mind that teachers have specific needs that must be met by their learning environment, including flexibility, activities designed for adult learning and development, sustained engagement, support for collaborative learning, and obvious benefit to students. Recommendations for research growing out of the present study include exploring the relationships among student learning and teacher participation in professional development of this type, further investigations in the possibilities of online learning communities, including teachers as co-researchers in such projects, and in-depth discourse analysis of the transcripts and online communications to explore issues of power and hegemony.

The purpose of this study was to explore the mathematics learning practices in the lives of students in a specialized residential high school in the Southeastern region of the United States. In particular, the study explores how mathematics classroom micro-culture shapes and is shaped by students‘ developing identities as mathematics learners, and what mathematics learning means to them. These purposes were achieved through the lens of the theoretical framework of identity in practice (Wenger, 1998), multiple framework (Martin, 2000), and the interpretive scheme (Cobb, Gresalfi, & Hodge, 2009). Mixed research methods were used to conduct the study. Surveys, semi-structured interviews, observations, documentation and classroom artifacts provided appropriate data sources for information collected between January and March 2009. Twenty-five junior students were invited to complete the survey at the beginning of the study. Then, six participants included three Calculus I students and three Calculus II students were selected purposely for the in-depth, one-on-one interview study. The findings suggested the relationship between the mathematics classroom environments and students‘ developing relationships with mathematics. Participants expressed positively of their experiences in their classes. The nature of instructional practices contributes to students‘ positive views of mathematics and what it means to do and be successful in mathematics. Further, data indicated that rich residential academic community, together with teachers, and peers, enhance students‘ success in mathematics education. The results of this study can be used to improve practices for creating specialized residential learning environments necessary to the needs and unique challenges of talented and gifted students, as well as to develop strong mathematical identities, both of which contribute significantly to academic persistence and achievement in mathematics.

This dissertation addresses the topic of educational reform in the United States, concentrating on the intersection of reform initiatives and issues of social difference and discrimination. It involves four interrelated phases. The first involves a historical survey of educational reform. The second is a tex.tual analysis of two contemporary reform measures (namely magnet schools and professional development schools). Third is a discussion of critical multiculturalism as a viable tool for critiquing both magnet school and professional development school initiatives. The fourth phase is an ethnography of a local school that operates simultaneously as a magnet school and a professional development school. Social difference and discrimination in general and more specifically social class and class discrimination and race and racism in particular forms the common thread that runs through all phases of the study. A survey of historical educational reform initiatives designed to improve the quality of education and address social problems is presented. Some of the events leading to the creation of the common school and its goals are described in order to ear-mark the educational reform efforts that led to the formation of the present public schools in the United States of America. Race and social class issues have been perennial concerns of reformists and the historical survey highlights reform initiatives as efforts at social engineering designed to alleviate problems related to difference and discrimination. Busing, the 1960s initiative involving transporting children from predominantly white neighborhoods to predominantly black neighborhoods and vice versa was the earliest attempt at racial integration of schools and the provision of quality education to all American children. However, white resistance to busing and resulting racial tensions led to the eventual abandonment of this initiative and the emergence of more readily accepted contemporary measures such as "magnet" school programs. Magnet programs are a strategy for both school improvement and desegregation and they have a distinctive program of study that is intended to attract a voluntary cross section of students from various racial groups. The second phase of the study provides a textual analysis of contemporary educational reforms such as magnet school programs as well as professional development school programs (PDSs) that focus on educational improvement through teacher training, research and collaboration between local public schools and universities. A textual analysis of the literature on the evolution, purposes and pros and cons of magnet and PDS programs is presented as well as a discussion of how they might be improved. This leads to the third phase of the study - the use of critical multiculturalism to re-examine the pros and cons of magnet and PDS programs. Critical multiculturalism with its unique approach to issues of social difference (gender, class, social class and predominantly, race issues) makes it an ideal analytical tool for re-examining the pros and cons of magnet and PDS programs. Clearly these two contemporary initiatives engender educational improvements. However, by utilizing the lens of critical multiculturalism, problems related to social difference and discrimination which remain understated or invisible in these programs' literature, also become apparent. To explore the operation of these two programs in a real life situation, I undertook an ethnographic research of Downtown Elementary School (DES- a pseudonym) that simultaneously operates a PDS and a magnet school program. I spent approximately two years at DES collecting data through participant observation, interviewing and documentary information. The findings indicate that there are some advantages and disadvantages of these programs individually and the simultaneous operation of both at the same school. DES and its unique situation, highlights the pros and cons of educational reforms such as magnet schools and PDSs programs. That they are capable of leading to innovative and improved attempts at dealing with school, community and teacher, research, and teacher training issues is further underscored. For example, the DES experience illustrates that among others, these two reform initiatives (especially in the case of the PDSs) do contribute to the collaborative efforts of different groups of people that lead to the formation of pedagogical communities, the professional development of teachers and pre-serVice education as well as the advancement of research on school improvement. Additionally, when people from diverse backgrounds have to interact in educational reform initiatives such as the magnet program, there may be a conflict of interest that requires adjustments that may thwart the ideal aims of the program. The conclusion is a contextual analysis of PDS and magnet programs as contemporary educational reform initiatives in a long history of educational reform. A critical multicultural analysis reveals that PDS and magnet school initiatives do, ironically, contribute to problems of discrimination. However, the pros outweigh the cons: they contribute to racial integration of education and do ameliorate inequity in education as a whole and they are a highly effective means of faculty development and the general improvement of educational standards. In this sense, they represent considerable advancements toward the general and historical goals of educational reform in the United States.

This research study reviewed available literature on financial models for online degree programs. The review focused on theories adapted from business methodology and applied to online education. The primary theories used to develop the financial model were associated with Activity Based Costing (ABC). Data were collected from the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) Regents‟ Online Degree Program (RODP) and from the eCommunity Schools reports from the state of Ohio.

The purposes of this study were to document and describe the presence of anxiety in an incoming class of associate degree nursing students and to determine the effects of a stress management program on anxiety reduction and promotion of success in the first semester of a nursing program.The population was 122 first year nursing students at Chattanooga State Technical Community College in Fall 1990. Treatment (n = 58) and control (n = 64) groups were assigned based on a common schedule of nursing classes. During the semester, the treatment group voluntarily attended weekly one hour stress management/anxiety reduction sessions. The program, modeled after stress inoculation training described by Meichen baum (1985), was presented by the researcher. Students in the designated treatment group who attended at least six out of eight sessions comprised the experimental group (n = 20) . At the beginning of the semester, all students completed the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) and provided demographic and descriptive information: age, race, gender, marital status, number of children, NLN Preadmission Test score, semester credit hour load, and hours of employment. Following the final course examination, all students were asked to complete the STAI posttest. Student who voluntarily withdrew prior to the end of the semester completed an exit interview with the researcher and the STAI.The overall results of this study did not support the relationship between anxiety, an anxiety reduction intervention strategy, and attrition. Finding 1. Mean state and trait anxiety of female nursing students were statistically different (state p =.05 and trait p =.00) from female students in the normative STAI population. Male nursing students showed a significant difference (p=.04) in trait anxiety. Finding 2. Scholastic aptitude, as measured by the NLN Preadmission Test, was the only variable to demonstrate a significant relationship with anxiety level at the .05 level of significance. There' was a -.187 correlation between NLN Preadmission Test score and state anxiety. Finding 3. In determining the effectiveness of the stress management program, independent t-tests showed that the stress management program did not result in a significant difference in state. (p = .35) or trait (p = .62) anxiety. Finding 4. According to independent t-tests for difference, mean final nursing course grade for control (79.8) and experimental (82.7) groups were not significant at the .05 level of significance (p = .07). Regarding attrition, there was no attrition in the experimental group, while eight out of 64 students (12.5percent) in the control group either withdrew or failed. The Z-score for this difference was significant at the .05 level. Finding 5. When comparing pre- and posttest state and trait anxiety levels for nursing course completers and noncompleters, the results of independent t-tests demonstrated no significant differences at the .05 level. Finding 6. Independent t-tests for differences between the completers and noncompleters with respect to age, NLN Preadmission Test score, semester credit hours, and hours of employment also were not significant at the .05 level. The stress management intervention did not decrease the anxiety level experienced by students enrolled in an associate degree nursing program. However, attrition for students who received the intervention was significantlydifferent from the control group. It was concluded, therefore, that an intervention strategy could make a difference in the eventual success of students in the first nursing course. The resulting difference in attrition, however, could not be attributed to a significant reduction in anxiety. It was further concluded that anxiety did not prove to be a significant variable. Reduction in anxiety was not evident, nor did a significant difference in anxiety level occur as a result of the stress management program. Therefore, students at risk of noncompletion could not be identified based on anxiety level.

The purpose of this study was to investigate factors influencing pre-service teachers‘ selfefficacy regarding technology integration during their studies in a teacher education program. The study examined self-efficacy, motivations, attitudes, intentions, as well as the personality traits of pre-service teachers who attended teaching methodologies courses in a Post- Baccalaureate program at a public university in the southeastern part of the United States. These pre-service teachers interned in elementary and secondary public schools around the area of Knoxville, Tennessee while they took coursework to pursue their Master‘s degree in education. Participants were 151 students enrolled in the Post-Baccalaureate program. Data were collected by means of a user-reported self-assessment approach. The instruments consisted of a survey designed for the present study to measure interns‘ self-efficacy, motivations, attitudes, and intensions towards technology integration, and personality traits. Bivariate correlation analysis revealed that interns‘ actual usage of technology integration during their internships was significantly correlated with their intention, motivation, attitudes, three sources of self-efficacy (Enactive Mastery Experiences, Vicarious Experiences, and Persuasion), and one personality trait-- Conscientiousness. Hierarchical regression showed that intention and vicarious experiences had direct relationships with interns‘ technology integration, and that Conscientiousness had an indirect relationship with the usage of technology integration via intention and vicarious experiences. Implications and ideas for future research were also discussed.

The Test of Dyslexia-Rapid Assessment Profile (TOD-RAP), designed as a group-administered instrument for the purpose of identifying persons at-risk for reading difficulties, was administered to 357 primary/secondary and collegiate summer school students in a southeastern state, along with the Reading Fluency subtest of the Woodcock-Johnson III Tests of Achievement (WJ-III), the Spelling and Reading portions of the Wide Range Achievement Test 3 (WRAT-3), and Test of Silent Word Reading Fluency (TOSWRF). Internal consistency coefficients of TOD-RAP subtests ranged from .79 to .96 and test-retest coefficients ranged from .70 to .94, indicating adequate reliability. Multivariate analyses of variance (MANOVA) yielded significant differences between non at-risk and at-risk students at the primary/secondary and collegiate level (F = 2.45, p < .05; F = 8.44, p < .001, respectively). Based on post hoc pairwise comparisons, non at-risk primary/secondary students, as compared to primary/secondary at-risk students, performed significantly better on three of the six TOD-RAP subtests. The non at-risk college group, as compared to at-risk college students, earned significantly higher scores on four of the five TOD-RAP subtests. These results suggest that TOD-RAP subtests may provide a valid means for identifying students at-risk for reading difficulties. Based on multiple regression analyses for the primary/secondary age group, TOD-RAP subtests significantly predicted all four operationalizations of reading achievement (WJ-III Reading Fluency, WRAT-3 Reading, WRAT-3 Spelling, and TOSWRF scores). Of the three TOD-RAP subtests, Spelling appeared as the most consistent predictor, accounting for unique variance for all four operationalizations of the criterion measure. Four of the five TOD-RAP subtests significantly predicted WJ-III Reading Fluency scores at the college level. These analyses provide evidence for the predictive utility of the TOD-RAP at both the collegiate and primary/secondary level. Although promising, further research must be conducted before this instrument can be used to identify students at-risk for reading difficulties.

The purpose of this study was to explore the use of weblogs as discussion boards (WeBo) in a secondary English department. Five classes of students enrolled in English in the fall of 2006 and their three teachers were organized into four groups. Groups 1 and 2 were made up of two sections of advanced placement English, twelfth and eleventh grades. Group 3 consisted of two lower level sections of 11 Regular English, and Group 4 consisted of one section of tenth grade College Prep. All of the group–members’ assignments were posted on the WeBo by their teachers. Participation by all teachers and students was voluntary. Using a qualitative methodology, the primary data were collected from students’ posts, which were then used to develop a survey for further data collection. These two data sources were used to guide the interview of a purposeful sample of participants. Once all data were collected, an analysis of the entire data-set was conducted. Analysis revealed that students found the WeBo beneficial in expanding the boundaries of time and space associated with the traditional classroom by allowing them to access course material and communicate with their peers and teachers from home. Seventy % of participants indicated they used the WeBo for a number of course related activities: checking assignments, asking and answering questions, interacting, collaborating, reflecting, and venting about course work. This finding indicates the importance of teacher involvement in the use of WeBos in the classroom. However, only a small percentage of all students (34%) voluntarily used the WeBo. In other words, 66% of the students did not receive the course-related benefits provided by the WeBo. This finding demonstrates the lack of equity created by the implementation of the WeBo. Barriers included the usual culprits: a lack of access and technical problems. But surprisingly, analysis of the data showed the main impediment to students’ adoption of the WeBo was their preference for using other means of communicating about course work with peers (cell phones, MySpace, instant messaging). This finding merits further research to explore how these means of communication can be utilized to enhance instruction.

The purpose of this design study was to examine how two teachers revise their instructional methods in response to student outcomes and how students learn strategies of writing through classroom discourse in the context of interactive writing. The study was designed to explore the role of teacher and student in socially situated writing environments and reveal how conversation affects student learning and instructional decision-making. Throughout the study I was an active participant observer continually modifying the intervention with the input of the classroom teachers. This study was based on the theoret ical model of reading as a meaning-construction process described by Ruddell and Unrau (2004). According to this model, the reader, or in this case the writer, the text, and the teacher negotiate meaning within the social setting of the classroom. Two first grade classrooms served as the bounded units of analysis for this case study with an emphasis on formative experiment. Data collected included classroom observations and transcripts, transcripts of afterschool planning and reflecting meetings, transcripts of teacher and student interviews, teacher reflection logs, written artifacts, and student assessments. Data analysis was based on Wells‟ (1999) progressive discourse analysis. Progressive discourse refers to the process of building knowledge through conversation. Dialogue is a tool used to gain new knowledge and modify existing knowledge. The two participating teachers in this study were able to revise their instructional methods based on the individual needs of their students to varying degrees. The students in the more successful teacher‟s classroom had more significant academic gains in reading and writing by the end of the intervention. The findings from this study suggest that it is important to understand the prior beliefs of teachers, their knowledge of the reciprocal relationship between reading and writing, and their preferred avenues of reflection when attempting to implement an interactive writing intervention. For student learning outcomes it may be important to consider the need for explicit literacy instruction, interactive dialogic moves, student engagement, and the opportunity for students to take on the role of teacher to their peers