Thong, Yan Yee. / Thesis (Ed.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2013. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 217-222). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts also in Chinese.

The passage of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act in 1975 gave the public schools a clear responsibility to appropriately educate students with disabilities. This responsibility emerged from a combination of philosophy, law, policy, and procedures oriented towards the "normalization" of services to persons with disabilities. These services have developed as a general responsibility of the whole system and not as a separate component of the educational enterprise. In order to meet federal mandates, the complementary disciplines of general and special education leadership have had to integrate or link, in order to address the responsibility for the delivery of services to students with disabilities. In doing so, general education administrators have become responsible for the education and success of all students, including those students with disabilities. Yet, many of these administrators have not been prepared or trained to serve special population groups, so their task of educating all students becomes more complex. A literature synthesis suggested 12 components that all educational administrators should be trained in to serve students with disabilities: (a) relationship building and communication; (b) leadership and vision; (c) budget and capital; (d) laws and policies; (e) curriculum and instruction; (f) personnel; (g) evaluation of data, programs, students, and teachers; (h) collaboration and consultation; (i) special education programming; (j) organization; (k) professional development; and (l) advocacy. To determine if such training is occurring in elite institutions, 293 professors at University Council for Educational Administration member institutions completed an online survey. Results indicated that relationship building and communication as well as leadership and vision were being taught at the highest percentages. The components of budget and capital, advocacy, and special education programming were incorporated the least. Interestingly, the results showed that the component being required learning in the institution's program or the professor believing the component to be essential for future administrators had little impact on whether it was taught. The major factors in professors regularly teaching a component was their expertise in the area and whether it was part of their research agenda. / text

This study was a correlational investigation of the effect of student demographic characteristics, prior academic performance, college academic performance, and college status on general education achievement at a rural community college in Tennessee. The criterion variable in this study was student performance on the Academic Profile examination, a nationally normed standardized test published by the Educational Testing Service that is designed to measure academic skills in general education subject areas. The population for this study included students at Walters State Community College located in Morristown, Tennessee, who had completed or were nearing completion of a minimum of 60 semester hours required for an associate degree and who had applied for graduation during the academic year 2003. All students in this study sat for the Academic Profile examination as a final requirement for graduation and their scores were posted in the college's student information system. Other data extracted from the student information system and used in this study include race, age, gender, evidence of financial need, zip code of permanent residence, type of degree earned, ACT composite score, placement test requirement, undergraduate grade point average, general education credit hours, grades earned in general education courses, evidence of college preparatory course participation, transfer status, and the dates of first and last terms graded. Variables were analyzed using descriptive techniques appropriate to the level of measurement of each variable including t-tests, analysis of variance (ANOVA), Pearson's r, and stepwise multiple regression. The statistical analyses indicated that race, age, ACT composite score, placement test requirement, undergraduate and general education GPA, college preparatory course participation, and length of time between first and last semesters had a relationship to student performance on the Academic Profile examination. The ACT composite score was the strongest predictor of student performance on the examination. Although this study addressed only a small number of variables affecting achievement in general education, it contributes to the literature by identifying interesting relationships among student variables that could be explored. The study also indicates that standardized tests that measure student general education achievement may not be the best assessment measures for public community colleges with open admission policies.

Many students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) display problem behaviors that are maintained by teacher attention. Although noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) can be effective in reducing attention maintained problem behavior, it can be difficult for general education teachers, who have many other students in their classrooms, to implement NCR interventions when teacher attention is the maintaining reinforcer. In this study, we evaluated the effect of an NCR intervention in which peers delivered social attention to two students with ASD in Grades 3-6 whose problem behavior was shown to be maintained by teacher attention. The results of the study demonstrated that the Peer NCR intervention resulted in a clinically significant decrease in problem behavior and that it can be effectively implemented in a general education classroom environment.

Preparing for Rural Ministry| A Qualitative Analysis of Curriculum used in Theological Education to Prepare Clergy for Ministry in a Rural Context

<p> A toxic organization is characterized by a narrow focus on bottom line profits and malicious or abusive behaviors go unnoticed or undisciplined (Kusy &amp; Holloway, 2009; Macklem, 2005). It produces a toxic work environment where employees suffer emotional pain generated from damaging behaviors (Samuel, 2010). While some degree of toxicity is unavoidable, the unrelieved intensity of pressures over a prolonged period of time tends to wear people down (Bacal, 2000; Samuel, 2010). </p><p> Much of the academic and popular literature addressing organizational toxicity focuses on bullying and dysfunctional behavior. This research shows that harmful behaviors are symptomatic of more complex systemic problems. The purpose of this study was to uncover the organizational antecedents of toxicity using Bolman and Deal's (2008) Four-Frame Model of holistic analysis addressing the role that structure, human resources management, political systems, and organizational culture in creating or perpetuating organizational toxicity. </p><p> The study was guided by 4 research questions: 1. What role, if any, does the Structural Frame play in creating or perpetuating organizational toxicity? 2. What role, if any, does the Human Resources Frame play in creating or perpetuating organizational toxicity? 3. What role, if any, does the Political Frame play in creating or perpetuating organizational toxicity? 4. What role, if any, does the Cultural Frame play in creating or perpetuating organizational toxicity? </p><p> The researcher used a phenomenological methodology and purposeful sampling strategy. Fifteen working professionals were interviewed to share stories of their experiences working in a toxic organization. Data extracted from the stories were synthesized through a holistic framework to identify the systemic sources of toxicity. The results revealed dysfunctions with organizational hierarchies, strategies, goals, policies, rules, standards, technology; failures in human resources management and political power sources; and the impact of leadership, values, and norms on organizational culture. These dysfunctions culminate in a toxic work environment. </p><p> This study was intended to provide leaders, students, and victims of toxicity with information for early and accurate identification of organizational toxicity. It concludes with suggestions for understanding the organizational antecedents of toxicity and provides a strategy for managing within, and emotional release from, the toxic work environment.</p>

The purpose of education is to help students to prepare for solving problems. The traditional teaching methods, however, let teachers ignore this part and make students learn by rote without applying the knowledge in lives. Problem-Based Learning (PBL) is different from the traditional teaching method. The course is centered on the students who decide what to learn themselves. By using group discussions, it initiates students¡¦ motivations to seek for knowledge actively, and improves their learning efficiency. This study was focused on the ¡§Family and Human Relations: Guided Reading of Classic Plays¡¨ provided by the Center for General Education of National Sun Yat-sen University in the second semester of 2008 academic year. It uses the students who took this class as examples to investigate which curriculum action is the most effective way to initiate their learning spirits, and what are the benefits for them in the PBL teaching method. The study will also raise some suggestions to improve the curriculum. In order to accomplish these purposes, the researcher applied the action research in this study and served as a teaching assistant to help the course design as well as to observe the students¡¦ behaviors. The study also adopted questionnaire survey, focus group interview, and students¡¦ learning portfolio to collect data. The research found: 1. the students in Taiwan consider that PBL can improve their self-learning sprits and promote multi-thinking characteristics; 2. the best way to utilize PBL teaching method and increase students¡¦ learning motivations is ¡§collecting and reading extracurricular materials,¡¨ and the most efficient ways to achieve this curriculum goals are ¡§problem discussion,¡¨ ¡§role playing,¡¨ ¡§characters¡¦ defense,¡¨ and ¡§extracurricular reading¡¨; 3. ¡§Family and Human Relations: Guided Reading of Classic Plays¡¨ is suitable for different genders and colleges¡¦ students together to form a diversified environment, which can promote the students¡¦ learning effectiveness and encourage their social abilities; 4. this curriculum can cultivate students¡¦ abilities of multi¡Vthinking, interpersonal intelligence, and solving problems. This course conforms to the principles of Taiwan¡¦s general education that emphasize to foster students¡¦ core competencies, and to breed their humanistic spirits and holistic care personalities.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, Dept. of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, 2009. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Feb. 8, 2010). Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-05, Section: A, page: 1597. Advisers: Barry Bull; Luise McCarty.

This study explores the role and meaning of general education in Chinese higher education in the face of ongoing social changes in China, using Fudan University (FU) as a case study. General education has been heatedly discussed and greatly promoted in Chinese higher education since the last decade of the 20th century. Since existing theories and conceptions of general education mainly focus on Western, especially American, higher education, there has been little exploration of the meaning and role of general education in China, which has very different sociopolitical and cultural traditions from those of many Western nations, especially in the context of economic globalization. Therefore, an exploration of the meaning and role of general education in Chinese higher education could help to provide either challenges or supplements to existing theories and conceptions of general education. This study adopted the qualitative case study with FU as the case to explore the research problem. It used three data collection methods – document collection and review, interviews and observation – to gain an in-depth understanding of the development and tasks of general education at FU during periods of social transformation of China from 1905 to 2004, and during the latest reforms to general education at FU, between 2005 and 2012. Data collected from historical documents identified that general education at FU had mainly assumed two persistent tasks during periods of social transformation of China between 1905 and 2004. The first task was to facilitate the transmission of core cultural values, as defined mainly by the leaders of the state in different periods, to help the state to preserve its national identity. The second task was to equip students with knowledge, capacities and values, mainly Western in origin, to facilitate the state’s economic modernization. Further analysis of documentary, interview and observation data also identified continuities in and changes to the sociopolitical/cultural and economic tasks of general education at FU between 2005 and 2012; specifically, that general education still transmitted state-promoted core cultural values and still equipped students with a wider range of knowledge and capacities, but the contents of those values and the nature of those knowledge and capacities had changed due to the further development of China’s market economy and the effects of economic globalization. Based on these findings, this study proposed a concept to understand the meaning and role of general education at FU in the context of ongoing social changes in China. This thesis argues that, at FU, general education can be interpreted as a curricular instrument for nation-building that helps China promote its sociopolitical/cultural and economic tasks by facilitating (a) the inheritance of selected Chinese and non-Chinese cultural values, and (b) the equipment of students with a broader range of knowledge and capacities to cope with China’s changing economy. This study identified that, to facilitate China’s nation building ambitions, general education transmitted to students (a) Chinese and non-Chinese (particularly Western) cultural values, and (b) both traditional cultural values and contemporary cultural values prescribed by different national leaders (and/or scholars) in different historical periods. Further, this study identified two tensions in general education for nation-building: (a) the tension between traditional and contemporary Chinese cultures, and (b) the tension between selected Chinese and non-Chinese cultures. This study shows the ebb and flow of traditional Chinese cultural values in the sociopolitical/cultural task of general education, and how it has been shaped by China’s nation building since the early 20th century under the economic and military challenges of foreign nations. The concept of general education proposed by this study helps to explain the persistence of the economic and the sociopolitical/cultural task of general education at FU during the periods of social changes of China from 1905 to 2012. The study also identified that the economic task of general education mandated the import of elements of Western culture and values and therefore created tension with the Chinese cultural values transmitted in general education’s sociopolitical/cultural task. The concept of general education proposed by this study has implications for existed theories and conceptions of general education (mainly Western in context) which do not show (a) the coexistence of and the tensions between traditional and contemporary national cultures in the tasks of general education, and (b) the coexistence of and tensions between the economic and sociopolitical/cultural tasks of general education. Further research is suggested into the complex relationships among and tensions between different cultures as general education facilitates nation-building. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

School is the most important organization in the process of creating educational community, because there is a place where citizens of this community are raised. Schools computerization gets most attention. Analyzing existing intranet based learning systems and creating system, witch is designed for general education schools to improve their students ant teachers work, are object of postgraduate studies work. This system allow schools to corporate, share information, studying plans and information. Created system can be used in all general education schools. This system can be reused in schools which has special purpose. System is designed for virtual learning and communications between students and teachers, for sharing and using educational information, for analyzing marking and learning results, creating summaries. Teachers can: • create studying plans; • deliver theoretical educational information; • create tests; • mark students work at lessons and tests. Students can: • use educational information, which teacher offer them; • communicate with other students and teachers; • take tests; • check for their marks. System can be useful for parents of students. Trey can check their child marks from their home.