Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, November, 2006. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (D. Ed.)--Ball State University, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Nov. 11, 2009). Includes bibliographical references (p. 165-184).

<p> A convenience sample of 211 university research administrators working in research related organizations and universities in the United States and 18 years or older participated in the online survey. The research study explored a quantitative correlational study to examine the relationship among university research administrators&rsquo; perception of workplace incivility (e.g. hostility, privacy invasion, exclusionary behavior, and gossiping) and the relationship to their levels of employee engagement (e.g. psychological meaningfulness, psychological safety and psychological availability). The self-report survey was distributed through Survey Monkey with the weblink approved to be placed in the Society of Research Administrators, the SRA Catalyst newsletter for university research administrator, to access that were members of the organization and reside in the United States. The testing resulted in the acceptance of five null hypotheses and rejection of eight null hypotheses. University research administrators have similar perceptions of incivility among research related organizations and universities in the United States. Workplace incivility and employee engagement was tested their relationships and found that as hostility increases psychological safety and psychological availability decreases. Privacy invasion significantly decreases employee&rsquo;s psychological meaningfulness and psychological safety in the workplace. As the effect of effects of exclusionary behavior and gossiping increases employee&rsquo;s psychological safety and psychological availability in the workplace decreases. University research administrators&rsquo; perception of incivility provide insight into workplace behaviors and employee engagement.</p><p>

<p> The effects of the Constituency Development Fund (CDF) and the Free Secondary Education Policy (FSEP) on access to secondary school education in Kenya&rsquo;s Yatta sub-county have not been adequately explored in available public policy literature. Hence, this qualitative multiple-case study was designed to understand the effects of the 2 policies on both enrollment and dropout among secondary school age children in Yatta. The study was conducted in 1 mixed-boarding secondary school and 1 secondary day school in Yatta. The study was built on an adapted Huisman and Smits&rsquo; theoretical model on dropout among students in developing countries. The data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with 14 purposefully selected participants: 2 principals, 2 deputy principals, and 10 parents whose children had benefited from the CDF bursary scheme. Interview data were inductively coded and then subjected to Braun and Clarke&rsquo;s thematic analysis procedure, which aided in identification, analysis, and reporting of patterns (themes) in the data. Results showed that the CDF had contributed significantly to the improvement of enrollment with the establishment of new day schools that are more affordable, hence making secondary school education less costly and thus more available to low income families. The study&rsquo;s findings also showed that student dropout had declined with both the CDF and FSEP. The positive social change implications of this study are that it provides evidence for advocacy among policy makers for increased allocation of resources to the education sector through the CDF and FSEP. Increased allocations will contribute to Kenya&rsquo;s progress toward universal access to secondary education.</p><p>

During the 1960s, the University of Salvador (UES) was a normally functioning university, graduating thousands of professionals to feed El Salvador's rapidly-growing economy. By the end of 1980s the school had become a battleground. Almost every day student protests took place. Army troops surrounded the school on several occasions. Within the University itself rival groups struggled for control. How and why did this happen? The purpose of this study is to investigate how the University of El Salvador struggled to accomplish its educational mission in midst of the political and economic crisis that overwhelmed El Salvador during the last three decades. Essentially, I am concerned with the unwritten history of the UES. To accomplish this, I am relying to large extent on primary sources. These include interviews with members from the inside and outside the university community, including those living outside the country; periodicals available in El Salvador; and Salvadoran newspapers available on microfilm here in the U.S. The situation of the UES is a complex one that needs to be analyzed from a number of different perspectives. My study will help us to better understand the pressures that face a university under critical conditions. Its findings will help us to comprehend not only the situation of the UES but also that of other universities in Latin America.

Ever since national legislation has become involved in the testing of our students, the face of social studies education in elementary school classrooms has changed drastically. With the passage of Goals 2000 in 1993, social studies instruction in elementary school classrooms has seen a steep decline in the time allotted. Also, the attitude of administrators and teachers in elementary schools has taken away the importance of social studies in the classroom. While social studies has seen a big change in the amount of time dedicated to instruction in the past 20 years, there is still hope for the important topics that are taught in elementary social studies classes. The results of 69 preservice elementary teachers who responded to my survey regarding time allotted to social studies education revealed that more than half had only observed social studies in the elementary classroom even once. In my research, I have concluded that teachers have been making up for time lost in social studies by adding it to the other core subjects taught throughout the day.

No description available.

<p>The emergence of social media technologies (SMT) as important features of life in the twenty-first century has aroused the curiosity of teachers and scholars in higher education and given rise to numerous experiments using SMT as tools of instruction in college and university classrooms. A body of research has emerged from those experiments which suggests that SMT may be useful in promoting student learning and improving academic outcomes. However, as of yet the evidence from that research is scant and inconclusive. The study described here was designed to contribute to that body of research by investigating whether or not requiring students to use a microblog&mdash;Twitter in this case&mdash;in a community college history course would help students display higher levels of attainment of content-based course learning outcomes on traditional types of assessments. Student activity on Twitter and performance on traditional types of assessments were quantitatively tracked and evaluated according to a number of specialized rubrics, the results of which were integrated into a series of hierarchical regression analyses. Qualitative data was also collected in the form of open-ended questionnaires in order to provide insight into how students perceived of and used Twitter as an instructional tool. Data obtained through both methodologies were integrated into the final analysis. The results of this study suggest that microblogs can be an effective platform for teaching and learning when the instructor is experienced in the use of the medium, deliberate in how it is used, and highly engaged during use. </p>

<p> Institutions of higher education are replete with programs designed to position incoming undergraduate students to successfully persist toward a degree and to do and be well along the way. This longitudinal field study of incoming students&rsquo; transitional year focused on outcomes associated with two common types of program: bridge programs and living-learning programs. Bridge programs are intended to boost achievement and persistence of structurally disadvantaged (e.g., low-income) students to close the gap between them and their more advantaged peers, usually with some combination of financial and academic support. Living-learning programs are intended to generally promote achievement and persistence through the intentional formation of communities in which groups of students live together in wings of residence halls and engage in curricular and/or cocurricular activities together. Social-psychological interventions have been inspired by critiques that such programs inadequately support students who are at a structural disadvantage. Specifically, critiques have argued that financial and academic support are insufficient, that students also need psychological support. To strongly test that claim, I replicated one of these interventions within a bridge program and examined whether it affected students&rsquo; wellness and success at the end of their transitional year, over and above the bridge program itself. I also examined whether living-learning programs contributed to students&rsquo; wellness and success over and above living in conventional residence halls, and whether either of those two types of residential groups differed from students living off-campus. </p><p> Results from the intervention did not fit the theoretical framework on which it was based, the same framework contextualized in the bridge program, or an alternative framework on which other similar interventions are based. Results regarding residential groups suggest that living-learning communities did not augment wellness or success, at least at the particular institution under study. Rather, living on campus generally is associated with a greater sense of social-belonging, higher life satisfaction, more extracurricular activity, and taking advantage of campus resources. Practical advice and recommendations for administrators and researchers are outlined in the Discussion.</p>

Mental health services are under continuous pressure to develop multidisciplinary service models in response to government policy. Mental health professionals, however, continue to be trained in isolation with little preparation for working within a multidisciplinary environment. This thesis explored the development of professional identification amongst nine students in their first year of qualifying training. It focussed on their understanding of their role and the roles of other mental health professionals, specifically nursing, social work and occupational therapy. It also focused on the impact of interprofessional education (IPE) and work-based placements. The research undertaken in this thesis was framed by a social constructionist approach and utilised semi-structured interview data collection methods, discourse analysis and the analysis of course syllabii to explore student experiences. The findings indicate that there may be benefits that can be achieved through IPE regarding enabling students to understand their professional roles within the broader context of health and social care. IPE can offer a means of preparing social work, nursing and OT students for the multidisciplinary team environments that they will be required to work within should they choose to work in mental health services. This thesis suggests that the impact of placement experiences within the first year of study on identity and knowledge of own roles and those of other professions, whether in MDTs or uni-disciplinary teams is significant. These findings indicate that consideration should be given by education providers to the weight and significance of the first practice based experiences, as a potent learning and development experience that can shape professional identity and understanding.