Thesis (Ed.D.)--Indiana University, 2005. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 66-09, Section: A, page: 3226. Chair: Edward P. St. John. Title from dissertation home page (viewed Oct. 10, 2006).

Thesis (M.Ed.)-Universiry of Pretoria, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references. Available on the Internet via the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-07, Section: A, page: 2482. Adviser: Stanley O. Ikenberry. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 242-254) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, School of Education, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-04, Section: A, page: 1240. Adviser: Nancy V. Chism. "Title from dissertation home page (viewed June 19, 2007)."

Introduction : South Africa is currently engaged in wide-ranging consultations to formulate a new policy on education in line with the major structural changes currently taking place at the national level. The process has focused mainly on the previous government’s discriminatory policies, which were a cornerstone of apartheid. This research is not concerned so much with policy restructuring as with current pedagogical problems, which are a direct result of policy. During contact with students in different faculties at Technikon Free State over a period of nearly two to three years, made it clear that students experienced major learning problems especially in their first year. The research by Selaledi (1996: p8) seems to reflect one common origin which could be summed up as under-preparedness which, will leads to a high failure and drop-out rate among students. The higher education system is also beginning to respond to the changed social order as reflected, for example, in the changing demographic profile of students’ enrolment. However, the overall effectiveness and efficiency of the system is in doubt, as evidenced by a range of systematic problems (NPHE, 2001:p7-8). These include the overall quantity and quality of graduate research output. The contribution of the study will address aspects of the high failure rate as it has been outlined as a problem in the national plan for higher education. Large numbers of students who attend tertiary institutions are not able to deliver the academic standard of work expected from them. This often results in high failure in other subjects (Esterhuizen, 1995:p15). Technikon Free State declared certain subjects at risk and Accounting Education was included in the list. The high failure rate at tertiary institutions could be ascribed to the difference between the expectations of the lecturers and those of the students (NPHE, 2001:p7-9). Learners who take Accounting at high school spend five years doing the subject. This should give learners a solid grounding for future advanced studies in Accounting. However, according to Fridman (1987:p7-8) this, is not the case, as high school Accounting does not influence the result of first year Accounting. This study proposes to investigate the factors that influence the results of Accounting Education I at Technikon Free State. The study will also determine whether Grade 12 Accounting plays an important role in Accounting Education I results. The research findings may contribute towards a better understanding of the factors that influence academic performance in this field.

L'Université d'Ottawa est l'une des rares universités canadiennes qui admettent en première année de leurs programmes d'études de premier cycle les candidats québécois du secondaire V n'ayant poursuivi aucun programme d'études collégiales. La poursuite de ce dernier demeure une exigence d'admission obligatoire aux universités québécoises. Les élèves québécois du secondaire V sont plus enclins que leurs condisciples des autres provinces canadiennes à opter pour les études collégiales plutôt que pour les études universitaires comme finalité de leur parcours scolaire (Thiessen et Looker, 2004). Cette recherche qualitative vise à identifier et à décrire les motivations de six étudiants québécois âgés d'au moins 17 ans à poursuivre, directement du secondaire V, leurs études à l'Université d'Ottawa à la session d'hiver 2008. Les motivations évoquées par les participants sont d'ordres institutionnel, personnel et interpersonnel. Cette recherche fait également état de leur expérience de passage à l'université. Mots-clés: motivation scolaire, études postsecondaires, Université d'Ottawa, secondaire V, parcours atypique, développement vocationnel, persévérance scolaire.

New waves of change are upon American colleges and universities. Among other things, shifts in student demographics, federal higher education policy changes, and the continuing rise of new education providers are putting pressure on institutions to adapt in order to ensure their effectiveness and, in some cases, survival. The imperative to adapt to change is not new for American colleges and universities. Since the founding of the colonial colleges, the nation’s institutions have refashioned themselves over time in response to a dynamic environment—often with great success. Less obvious, however, is how institutions’ internal actors perceive their role in managing change. Most notably, little research is available to shed light on whether and how trustees—an institution’s only legal fiduciaries—view their responsibility for preserving and adapting elements of an institution’s mission and identity in response to a shifting reality. This dissertation aims to extend what we know about trustees’ responsibilities, including their responsibility for managing change. To meet this objective, I draw upon interview data that I collected from a sample of private college trustee board chairs (n=25). The conversations were loosely guided by three questions: 1) What are trustees’ perceptions of “good” trusteeship? 2) When does change to an institution’s mission or identity become the focus of trustees’ attention? 3) How do trustees make sense of decisions to preserve or adapt important aspects of an institution’s mission or identity? My findings suggest that trustees’ perception of their responsibilities, including responsibility for managing change, generally align with historical definitions of trusteeship. I also identify three occasion types—Structural, Board, and Environmental—during which identity or mission change become a focus of trustees’ discussions. Finally, I present an array of explanations and rationales that surface during our conversations about trustees’ decisions to preserve or adapt an aspect of an institution’s mission or identity. / Higher Education

If we were to believe all the rhetoric around massive open online courses (MOOCs) just a few years ago, we were witnessing the revolution in higher education. David Brooks of the New York Times described the arrival of MOOCs as a “tsunami” (2012). Though much of the excitement has died down, the number of MOOCs continues to grow, as does the debate about their purpose and their effect. Notably absent from this discussion is the voice of the arts in the academy. This dissertation explores the decisions of fine arts faculty as to whether or not to engage with massive open online courses (MOOCs). It examines the personal, pedagogical and political factors that influence their thinking about MOOCs. These include faculty opinions on technology in American culture, higher education, and in their own lives; the issue of time in their lives for this new work; their conceptions of arts learning and of MOOCs; and the institutional motivations that affect their choices. This study comes at a critical time, as the rapid growth and dramatic presence of MOOCs have sparked much discussion about their place in academia. They have also given rise to conversations about pedagogy, student access to education, and the role of technology in teaching and learning. Faculty who teach the fine arts – a group that already has a tradition of being marginalized within the academy – have been absent from these discussions. It is important to identify why this might be the case, since this absence may have major implications for the future of the fine arts on college campuses. Through semi-structured interviews with 16 faculty members from four colleges and universities, this study investigates how fine arts faculty are making meaning of their place in this new pedagogical landscape and what their choices might mean for the future of their discipline.

During the last 40 years, institutions of higher education in the United States have dramatically increased their reliance on part-time faculty. Today, fully half of all faculty members hold part-time appointments. How, if at all, has the rise of part-time faculty affected the quality of higher education? This qualitative case study explores variation in the relationship between part-time faculty and quality at “Cardinal State University,” a large, public institution. Through semi-structured interviews with 20 academic department chairs, the study examines how these chairs make sense of the relationship between part-time faculty and quality, given their experience supervising part-time faculty in their departments. This study also analyzes institutional and departmental documents to understand how chairs’ perspectives on the relationship between part-time faculty and quality interact with their unique departmental contexts and the broader institutional context of Cardinal State. This study finds that the relationship between part-time faculty and quality varies across Cardinal State’s departments, and identifies three department-level variables that account for this variation: departments’ levels of reliance on part-time faculty, academic disciplines, and levels of responsibility to Cardinal State’s general education curriculum. These department-level variables matter because they influence chairs’ quality control practices, including their practices for hiring part-time faculty, for evaluating their performance, and for making decisions about whether to renew their contracts. Chairs leading arts and sciences departments with high levels of reliance on part-time faculty and high levels of responsibility to the general education curriculum described a constellation of challenges that interfere with their ability to implement quality control practices effectively. The patterns described by this study may be specific to Cardinal State, but its broader conclusion—that the relationship between part-time faculty and quality is mediated by important contextual factors—warrants further research.

Abstract Not Available.