Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction Programs / Jacqueline Spears / The purpose of this study is to explore the classroom configurations and technologies used to mediate instruction to female students in gender-separated classrooms at Qassim University and Alfaisal University in Saudi Arabia. The study describes the methods used, evaluates and compares the effectiveness of the approaches, and describes the issues and challenges that female students and their male professors face in gender-separated classrooms. The study was conducted using a sequential exploratory mixed-methods design and contains two phases, a qualitative phase and a quantitative phase. Two theoretical frameworks, Community of Inquiry and Technology Acceptance model, were used to guide the data collection in the qualitative component of the study. The results of the qualitative component were then used to develop a survey instrument that was used to collect data from a larger sample of the population. The qualitative phase focused on identifying the approaches used to mediate instruction to female students and explored the experiences of female students and male professors in gender-separated classrooms. A multiple case study design was used for collecting and analyzing the qualitative data. It included observations of five gender-separated classrooms that are equipped with different technologies and classroom configurations in Qassim and Alfaisal universities, focus groups made up of female students, and interviews with the male professors who taught those classes. Based on the themes and findings from the qualitative study, a survey instrument was developed and distributed to a sample of female students and male faculty members who teach female classrooms at Qassim University. The quantitative data enabled the researcher to report findings reflective of a larger and more diverse sample of female students and male professors at Qassim University. In conclusion, the qualitative phase of this study identified five different classroom configurations used in gender-separated classrooms: VCR, CCTV, and VC at Qassim University and Double deck and Partition at Alfaisal University. VCR was found to be the least effective classroom configuration due to the numerous technical problems associated with its use and limited instructional capabilities. CCTV was found to have fewer technical problems but also had limited instructional capabilities. VC also had fewer technical problems and advanced instructional capabilities, making it the most effective classroom configuration observed at Qassim University. At Alfaisal University, Partition classrooms appeared to be the most effective due to the enhanced educational experience provided by face-to-face instruction in the small sized classrooms. Double deck classrooms were found to be less effective. Students reported feeling isolated and disconnected in the classroom.

In early 2020, many businesses (including gyms) were instructed to shut down for an unspecified period of time as a response to the SARS-CoV-2 virus (Casagrande et al., 2020, p.1; Erskine, M., 2020, para.1; O’Brien, 2020, Gyms and Health Centers section, para.1-16). As a result, many people experienced a change in how much they exercised and the quality and quantity of their sleep (Antunes et al., 2020, pp.3,5; Bigalke et al., 2020, p.7; Cellini et al., 2021, pp.113- 115, 117; Constandt et al., 2020, p.4; Pérez-Carbonell et al., 2020, pp.164, 166; Puccinelli et al., 2021, p.6). There was also an increase in the levels of negative mental states, such as anxiety and depression in various populations (Daly et al., 2020, pp.2-5). This study primarily explored changes in exercise and sleep (quality and quantity) as a result of the pandemic in a highly athletic adult population of rowers and triathletes. The data collected from the study also touched upon the changes in the mental states of the participants. A survey was sent across Canada to rowing and triathlon clubs from SurveyMonkey that had both qualitative and quantitative questions to examine these areas of contention. A majority of participants indicated that their sleep quality had worsened as a result the COVID-19 pandemic. However, there wasn’t enough evidence to indicate that the pandemic affected the length of their sleep. The athletic performance of the athletes, as measured by self-report, decreased during the pandemic in an overwhelming number of participants. Finally, although there were many indications of worsened mental health states (such as reports of increased anxiety), there wasn’t a validated questionnaire used to measure changes in mental health concerns in the population related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some mental health concerns that were shared by the participants indicated other causes than only the pandemic. Future research should include more objective measures of sleep duration and anxiety and depression scores to better clarify those hypotheses. / Graduate

Text in English / Global and South African business challenges necessitate an increased focus on the need for effective leadership. The leaders of South African public listed organisations need to investigate new business solutions to enhance and sustain organisational effectiveness. Public listed South African organisations on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) were selected as the organisation type for this study. This study was motivated by the need for public listed South African organisations to explore organisational leadership as a means to assist in differentiating their organisations from competitors, thereby enhancing organisational competitiveness. The primary research objective of this study was to investigate and establish an organisational leadership brand concept model for public listed South African organisations. The discussion of the literature covered the global and South African business context, the concepts of the nature of organisational leadership, brand and organisational leadership brand, and emminated in an exploratory conceptualisation of organisational leadership brand for public listed South African organisations. The pragmatic paradigm was used as the foundation of this study. The study adopted an exploratory, sequential mixed methods research approach, combining a qualitative emphasis and supportive quantitative research approach to conduct the exploratory research. The qualitative findings proposed the concepts: the nature of organisational leadership and organisational leadership brand, including stakeholders and these concepts served as the basis for designing the quantitative survey questionnaire. The quantitative results indicated reliable questionnaire items, and based on the exploratory statistical analysis of the multivariate linear regression equation, described the organisational leadership brand (OLB) concept exploratory model with the best fit. An integration of the qualitative findings and quantitative results provided the empirical support to achieve the primary research objective. The OLB concept model integrates the concepts of organisational leadership and organisational leadership brand. The study contributed across the methodological, theoretical and practical domains as follows: the nature of organisational leadership for South African public listed organisations was conceptualised; the elements comprising the concept of OLB for public listed South African organisations was described; the OLB concept model for public listed South African organisations describes the development of organisational leadership brand equity through four levels of organisational leadership brand equity development; and the OLB concept model for public listed South African organisations may assist by providing guidance for the senior leadership of organisations in establishing organisational leadership brand equity. Furthermore, the study’s research approach provides support for the use of a mixed methods research approach in the study of organisational leadership within the pragmatic context of business organisations / Industrial & Organisational Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Consulting Psychology)

Global and South African business challenges necessitate an increased focus on the need for effective leadership. The leaders of South African public listed organisations need to investigate new business solutions to enhance and sustain organisational effectiveness. Public listed South African organisations on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) were selected as the organisation type for this study. This study was motivated by the need for public listed South African organisations to explore organisational leadership as a means to assist in differentiating their organisations from competitors, thereby enhancing organisational competitiveness. The primary research objective of this study was to investigate and establish an organisational leadership brand concept model for public listed South African organisations. The discussion of the literature covered the global and South African business context, the concepts of the nature of organisational leadership, brand and organisational leadership brand, and emminated in an exploratory conceptualisation of organisational leadership brand for public listed South African organisations. The pragmatic paradigm was used as the foundation of this study. The study adopted an exploratory, sequential mixed methods research approach, combining a qualitative emphasis and supportive quantitative research approach to conduct the exploratory research. The qualitative findings proposed the concepts: the nature of organisational leadership and organisational leadership brand, including stakeholders and these concepts served as the basis for designing the quantitative survey questionnaire. The quantitative results indicated reliable questionnaire items, and based on the exploratory statistical analysis of the multivariate linear regression equation, described the organisational leadership brand (OLB) concept exploratory model with the best fit. An integration of the qualitative findings and quantitative results provided the empirical support to achieve the primary research objective. The OLB concept model integrates the concepts of organisational leadership and organisational leadership brand. The study contributed across the methodological, theoretical and practical domains as follows: the nature of organisational leadership for South African public listed organisations was conceptualised; the elements comprising the concept of OLB for public listed South African organisations was described; the OLB concept model for public listed South African organisations describes the development of organisational leadership brand equity through four levels of organisational leadership brand equity development; and the OLB concept model for public listed South African organisations may assist by providing guidance for the senior leadership of organisations in establishing organisational leadership brand equity. Furthermore, the study’s research approach provides support for the use of a mixed methods research approach in the study of organisational leadership within the pragmatic context of business organisations / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / D. Litt. et Phil. (Consulting Psychology)