In 2 studies, I sought to determine the relation between peer attention and the behavioral developmental cusp for learning by observation. In Experiment I, I selected 21 preschool-aged participants with and without developmental disabilities and screened the participants for a) peer attention; b) observational performance; c) observational learning of new operants; and d) observational learning of reinforcers. The results demonstrated that each of the participants all fit into 1 of 4 groups, based on the presence of peer attention and the 3 types of observational learning. I implemented the peer-yoked contingency gameboard intervention for the 14 participants who did not demonstrate one or more types of observational learning. The results of Experiment I demonstrated that only the participants with peer attention in repertoire acquired all three types of observational learning as a function of the peer-yoked contingency gameboard observational intervention. Serendipitous findings yielded a possible correlation between the different types of observational learning. In Experiment II, I conducted repeated probes to determine if all three types of observational learning would emerge for participants with peer attention. All 6 of the participants in Experiment II acquired all three types of observational learning, as a function of the repeated probes. Observational learning developmental trajectory findings are discussed.

Social psychologists have long been interested in understanding behavior as a function of both individuals and the social structures in which they are embedded. However, since the cognitive revolution of the 1960s, processes internal to individuals have received greater attention than structural influences. This dissertation examines how networks may shape important real-world outcomes beyond intrapsychic phenomena across three studies in varied contexts. In doing so, this work suggests that the networks to which people belong—whether networks of social ties or networks of information—provide both affordances and constraints that affect behavior and outcomes. Chapter I provides a brief introduction to social network analysis as a set of theoretical, methodological, and analytical tools. Chapter II examines the gender gap in negotiation performance. Findings suggest that disparities between male and female MBA students in class social network positions predict this gap more strongly than intrapsychic mechanisms more commonly studied, such as apprehension about negotiating and stereotype threat. Chapter III examines how students’ social networks promote persistence over time in a high-stress science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) setting. This chapter pulls social network analysis into an experimental context by examining the effects of a randomly assigned social psychological intervention on students’ social networks and subsequent persistence in the biosciences. Chapter IV approaches networks from a different angle, examining how online news media are organized into network structures that may contribute to selective exposure to homogenous information. Finally, Chapter V discusses implications of these three studies. Specifically, I discuss implications for education research, intervention science, and the growing area of social network psychology.

There have been numerous twin-based studies in the past that control for the unobservable variables in the analyses. However, these past studies have often yielded contradictory results with no consensus on some important issues and no definite conclusions. The objective of the present study is an attempt to explain some of the differences in the past studies, and to re-examine some issues on returns to education, the importance of genetic and environmental factors, and the significance of measurement errors. / This study applies four twin-based models to three available US twin data. The empirical results in this study show that (1) while some differences in existing studies are caused by different data used, other differences are due to different models used; (2) the "true" returns to schooling are mostly less than the "overall" returns to schooling, indicating a positive omitted variable bias; (3) the omitted variables are a significant portion, viz. approximately 40%, of the "overall" returns to schooling; (4) these omitted variables, when divided into the genetic and environmental factors, generally indicate that environmental factors have a stronger effect than genetic factors; (5) models with two schooling variables are more prone to measurement error, biasing the estimates more significantly; (6) the measurement error problem in the schooling variable biases the estimates and the magnitude of the bias depends on the data used; and (7) results for males and females are different. / Yung Chor-Wing Linda. / "May 2000." / Adviser: Junsen Zhang. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 61-08, Section: A, page: 3293. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 202-205). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest dissertations and theses, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / School code: 1307.

Guided by the emerging interest in gender of siblings as one important sociological component in American family studies, the major objective of this study was to examine the effect of sex composition of siblings on women's levels of educational attainment in the Japanese setting. The present study hypothesized that the presence of brothers poses women a greater obstacle to a high level of educational attainment than the presence of sisters. For the purpose of gaining more depth in understanding Japanese women's education, this study also investigated other factors which differentiate the patterns of educational attainment between men and women. Two major methods were employed for the exploration. First, in order to examine the effect of sibling gender, this study analyzed quantitative data obtained from a sample of 518 young women. Second, face-to-face interviews were conducted with 15 mothers and 15 young women individually. In the interviews, in addition to several issues surrounding women's education, the mothers were asked their experiences about their children's education whereas the young women were asked their own educational experiences. The quantitative results identified gender of siblings as one important family characteristic in explaining women's levels of educational attainment. While providing some support for the quantitative findings, the qualitative data revealed the importance of other factors including parental attitudes toward gender role ideology and the notion of an appropriate marriage age. Implications of the findings for future research are discussed. / Graduation date: 1996

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This thesis is a series of meditations, stories and poetry focusing on living in classrooms with children, and on the meaning and place of education and schools in our lives. This writing is the emergent result of a commitment to the seeking of a generous language to understand and describe the work of teachers in schools, to the hope for human(e) and compassionate spaces for children to spend their days, to living with openness and creativity, to the having of challenging and wonderful conversations about life with children, and to the freedom to raise questions about the ways children and teachers (might) live together in schools. This writing is a story emerging at the point of intersection between what we might learn from children if we listen to them and remember them, and reflections on readings in ethics, education and literature.

My thesis centers on a critical analysis of the concept of the "educated person" in Kieran Egan's theory of educational development. Egan presupposes that the erudite human being in western societies is ideally a sophisticated ironic thinker, that is, a person who possesses the fullest range of sense making capacities known to our culture; and furthermore, a person who tactfully and innovatively applies these capacities in everyday life. / My thesis attempts a "thick" description of Egan's notion of ironic understanding in light of the writings of Martin Buber on dialogue, Hannah Arendt on human thinking, Hans Georg Gadamer on the serious playfulness of the interpretative act, Richard Rorty on private irony and liberal democracy, and finally, Michael Oakeshott on the educational conversation. It suggests that these theoretical notions of the fully human life may be practically realized in the educated ironist characterized by Egan in his various writings.

Thesis (MEd (Education))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2018. / This is a qualitative study that explores social cohesion in terms of how it is understood by, teacher educators and pre-service teachers, and how it is incorporated, taught, and experienced in an initial teacher education (ITE) programme that is located within one university in the Western Cape, South Africa. It uses semi-structured interviews, observations, and a focus group interview to understand how teacher educators think about and teach social cohesion. Moreover, it focuses on how fourth year pre-service teachers experience the programme in relation to debates on social cohesion. Findings suggest that teacher educators’ understandings and pre-service teachers’ backgrounds influence their experiences of an ITE programme. It further suggests that pre-service teachers do develop attitudes and pedagogies for social cohesion, all be it unevenly so. This study contributes to better understandings of social cohesion as a priority of South African government, and how it is experienced by pre-service teachers in an ITE programme. In so doing, it contributes to how social cohesion may be realised in post-apartheid South Africa.

This thesis is a series of meditations, stories and poetry focusing on living in classrooms with children, and on the meaning and place of education and schools in our lives. This writing is the emergent result of a commitment to the seeking of a generous language to understand and describe the work of teachers in schools, to the hope for human(e) and compassionate spaces for children to spend their days, to living with openness and creativity, to the having of challenging and wonderful conversations about life with children, and to the freedom to raise questions about the ways children and teachers (might) live together in schools. This writing is a story emerging at the point of intersection between what we might learn from children if we listen to them and remember them, and reflections on readings in ethics, education and literature. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate

The problem of this research is to analyze the philosophy of the activity movement in the United States from a sociological point of view. Specifically, the purpose of the study is to discover whether or not the activity movement grew out of the social conditions of the times and was designed to meet the staggering problems of social development and reconstruction in America.