Advanced laboratory techniques for Microbial and Molecular Biology at the graduate level are presented in this thesis. The procedures for the laboratory experiments are set forth in detail. This laboratory is conducted as two parts, each by a different professor. Part 1 covers the experiments conducted by Dr G.A.O. Donovan. These experiments include an introduction, staining procedures, biochemical reactions, mutagenesis experiment, essays,. preparation and analysis of plasmid DNA and various other topics. Part 2 covers the experiments conducted by Dr. Daniel Kunz and includes various topics like media preparation, phenotyping strains, conjugative transfer of plasmids, SDS-PAGE, induction and measurement of enzyme and transposon mutagenesis

Art therapy training programmes around the world feature a unique type of course based on dynamic art-work experience and conducted in the context of a core student group. The course is usually called an 'experiential group course'. There is world-wide practical recognition in the professional art therapy literature of the need for dynamic experiential artwork-based courses in art therapy training. What is new is that Israeli lecturers have extended this 'experiential group course' into what I term 'a topic-led dynamic experiential artwork-based course'. The nature of this course in Israel and how it is deployed, planned and conducted is the subject of this thesis. The data for this dissertation were collected from in-depth and wide-ranging interviews with three groups of persons: (a) 11 of Israel's 40 lecturers lecturing on Master's degree and Masters-level plastic art therapy training programmes. All have taught in the teaching mode under investigation here for many years and I looked on them as partners with me on a journey of discovery into the essential nature of this teaching mode in Israel; (b) 15 working art therapists who graduated from Israeli training programmes 3-15 years before participating in this research and who had been working as art therapists since then. They provided a reflexive analysis of what it was like to take a topic-led dynamic experiential artwork-based course. (c) three directors of art therapy training programmes (one current, two former). provided me the background to the theoretical development of art therapy training in Israel. In addition, as an insider researcher, a senior art therapist who has herself designed and taught topic-led dynamic art-based experiential mode courses for many years, I have used my own experience and example from my practice to illustrate and corroborate the points made by my interviewees. The interviews indicated that over the forty years the dynamic experiential teaching mode has been deployed in Israeli art therapy training its use has been extended to the design and teaching of a wide range of theoretical topics and that this extension occurred at approximately the same time on all Israel's recognised art therapy training programmes. From the point of view of the theory of art therapy training this thesis argues that the professional literature displays a significant gap. Many scholars have stressed the vital contribution made by dynamic experiential artwork-based courses to future practitioners' training but no researcher has yet clarified when and for what purpose certain theoretical courses are taught in this mode, how such courses are designed and conducted, and how they produce on students the effects the students say they do—what so many students term their 'magic'. And yet the lecturers who make use of this teaching mode declare it to be indispensable to the transmission of art therapy's concepts, language and methods to the next generation of art therapists. The object of this doctoral research, then, is to explore and expose the nature of topic-led dynamic experiential artwork-based courses in Israel and their particular contribution to Israeli art therapy training. (The research does not aim to investigate what theory of art therapy these lecturers represent nor what body of psychological and other theory they transmit to their students). Given a constructivist epistemology, a phenomenological research paradigm is deployed to investigate how dynamic experiential artwork-based courses achieve their aims. Interview data are analysed by the inductive Socratic analysis method and by theoretical reading, taking a heuristic approach. The key contribution of this thesis to knowledge about art therapy training methods in Israel, is that it unlocks and conceptualizes the transformation of these topic-led dynamic experiential artwork-based courses which the thesis also demonstrates to be transformative for their students. A central argument is that, to achieve these transformative insights lecturers integrate three content elements — theoretical material, artwork-based experiential workshops, and the emotional materials evoked from the students by and during the workshops. They adapt and adjust their workshops and the art materials offered the students to the needs of the theoretical topic they wish to teach. And they make dynamic use of the responses of individual students and the student group to the art materials and the artworks produced from them for the purpose of conveying/ instilling this theoretical topic. The five elements of lecturer, individual students, core group, art materials/ artworks and the learning space created by the lecturer interact uniquely within a dynamic relationship in response to the course topic in what I term in this thesis a 'pentagonal potential space'. It is the integration of the five constituent elements of this relationship and the interrelationships between them that make the courses 'transformative'. In a nutshell, these courses (a) take students on an inner emotional journey which allows the self to adjust to a dynamic therapeutic perception of the course topic; (b) enable students to investigate the given topic to great depths of experiential and intellectual insight and be changed by this insight; and (c) generate in both individual students and the student group emotional processes relating to the topic, which shape their therapeutic development with respect to that topic. These three effects together generate in the student a meaningful and critical development of their therapeutic self as art therapist, a development which so many of them call 'magical'.

Objective. To determine the perceptions of junior pharmacy faculty members with US doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) degrees regarding their exposure to residency, fellowship, and graduate school training options in pharmacy school. Perceptions of exposure to career options and research were also sought. Methods. A mixed-mode survey instrument was developed and sent to assistant professors at US colleges and schools of pharmacy. Results. Usable responses were received from 735 pharmacy faculty members. Faculty members perceived decreased exposure to and awareness of fellowship and graduate education training as compared to residency training. Awareness of and exposure to academic careers and research-related fields was low from a faculty recruitment perspective. Conclusions. Ensuring adequate exposure of pharmacy students to career paths and postgraduate training opportunities could increase the number of PharmD graduates who choose academic careers or other pharmacy careers resulting from postgraduate training.

Objectives. To develop and validate an instrument to assess subjective ratings of the perceived value of various postgraduate training paths followed using expectancy-value as a theoretical framework; and to explore differences in value beliefs across type of postgraduate training pursued and type of pharmacy training completed prior to postgraduate training. Methods. A survey instrument was developed to sample 4 theoretical domains of subjective task value: intrinsic value, attainment value, utility value, and perceived cost. Retrospective self-report methodology was employed to examine respondents’ (N=1,148) subjective task value beliefs specific to their highest level of postgraduate training completed. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analytic techniques were used to evaluate and validate value belief constructs. Results. Intrinsic, attainment, utility, cost, and financial value constructs resulted from exploratory factor analysis. Cross-validation resulted in a 26-item instrument that demonstrated good model fit. Differences in value beliefs were noted across type of postgraduate training pursued and pharmacy training characteristics. Conclusions. The Postgraduate Training Value Instrument demonstrated evidence of reliability and construct validity. The survey instrument can be used to assess value beliefs regarding multiple postgraduate training options in pharmacy and potentially inform targeted recruiting of individuals to those paths best matching their own value beliefs.

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In My Gothic Dissertation, I perform an intertextual analysis of Gothic fiction and modern-day graduate education in the humanities. First, looking particularly at the Female Gothic, I argue that the genre contains overlooked educational themes. I read the student-teacher relationships in Ann Radcliffe’s The Mysteries of Udolpho (1794), Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818, 1831), and Charlotte Brontë’s Villette (1853) as critiques of the insidious relationship between knowledge and power. Part literary critic and part literary journalist, I weave through these readings reports of real-life ‘horror stories’ of graduate school, arguing that the power imbalance between Ph.D. advisors and their students can be unexpectedly ‘Gothic’ as well. Drawing on research from the science of learning—developmental psychology, sociology, and pedagogical theory—I advocate for more a student-centered pedagogy in humanities Ph.D. training. Following in the footsteps of A.D. Carson and Nick Sousanis, I have produced My Gothic Dissertation in a nontraditional format—the podcast. Mixing voice, music, and sound, I dramatize scenes from the novels and incorporate analysis through my narration. The real-life “Grad School Gothic” stories are drawn from personal interviews. Much of the science of learning is drawn from personal interviews with researchers as well, though some material comes from recorded presentations that have been posted to public, online venues such as YouTube. The creative/journalistic style of reporting is heavily influenced by programs such as This American Life, Invisibilia, and Serial, with the dual aims of engaging a broad audience and expanding our modes of scholarly communication beyond the page.

Enrollment by African American students in U.S. colleges and universities has increased since 2009, but graduation and retention remains low for this group. Within the African American community, education is considered a central aspect of social empowerment; however, the effect of discrimination, bias, and stereotyping are key when considering achievement indices within a cultural framework. The coping mechanisms that African Americans have developed to combat discrimination, bias, and stereotype threat may contribute to poor performance in college. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between racial socialization and African American students' academic motivation, academic self-efficacy, and likelihood of attending graduate school. Drawing from self-determination theory, it was hypothesized that the variables have a positive relationship. A quantitative survey design was used. One hundred-three African American undergraduate students were recruited via convenience sampling to participate in an online survey. Results from a multiple regression analyses indicated no significant relationship between the variables. The findings from this study are not consistent with previous findings that indicate racial socialization has an impact on African Americans' academic performance and motivations, implying the need for future research to include multiple variables that might impact outcomes such as family functioning, access to educational resources, or peer association. Greater numbers of African Americans enrolled in undergraduate programs may, in turn, increase the pool of participants eligible to attend graduate programs. Future research can help parents, researchers, and practitioners better understand the diverse and unique needs of African American youths.

Graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) play a prominent role in chemistry laboratory instruction at research based universities. They teach almost all undergraduate chemistry laboratory courses. However, their role in laboratory instruction has often been overlooked in educational research. Interest in chemistry GTAs has been placed on training and their perceived expectations, but less attention has been paid to their experiences or their potential benefits from teaching. This work was designed to investigate GTAs' experiences in and benefits from laboratory instructional environments. This dissertation includes three related studies on GTAs' experiences teaching in general chemistry laboratories. Qualitative methods were used for each study. First, phenomenological analysis was used to explore GTAs' experiences in an expository laboratory program. Post-teaching interviews were the primary data source. GTAs experiences were described in three dimensions: doing, knowing, and transferring. Gains available to GTAs revolved around general teaching skills. However, no gains specifically related to scientific development were found in this laboratory format. Case-study methods were used to explore and illustrate ways GTAs develop a GTA self-image - the way they see themselves as instructors. Two general chemistry laboratory programs that represent two very different instructional frameworks were chosen for the context of this study. The first program used a cooperative project-based approach. The second program used weekly, verification-type activities. End of the semester interviews were collected and served as the primary data source. A follow-up case study of a new cohort of GTAs in the cooperative problem-based laboratory was undertaken to investigate changes in GTAs' self-images over the course of one semester. Pre-semester and post-semester interviews served as the primary data source. Findings suggest that GTAs' construction of their self-image is shaped through the interaction of 1) prior experiences, 2) training, 3) beliefs about the nature of knowledge, 4) beliefs about the nature of laboratory work, and 5) involvement in the laboratory setting. Further GTAs' self-images are malleable and susceptible to change through their laboratory teaching experiences. Overall, this dissertation contributes to chemistry education by providing a model useful for exploring GTAs' development of a self-image in laboratory teaching. This work may assist laboratory instructors and coordinators in reconsidering, when applicable, GTA training and support. This work also holds considerable implications for how teaching experiences are conceptualized as part of the chemistry graduate education experience. Findings suggest that appropriate teaching experiences may contribute towards better preparing graduate students for their journey in becoming scientists.

The purpose of this study was to analyze and interpret specific aspects and characteristics of classroom discourse of an elementary mathematics classroom. To examine the classroom discourse, a fifth grade mathematics classroom was observed during sixteen weeks, and twenty lessons in total. The analysis was based on two main categories: (1) Student Learning and (2) Teacher Moves. Student Learning further divided into two sub-categories as content and learning. Additionally, Teacher Moves also divided into content knowledge and pedagogy and creating learning environment sub-categories. Results of this study showed that despite the many efforts in mathematics education in Turkey and the accepted importance of student-centered classrooms / still in some elementary classrooms teacher-centered instruction continue to be dominating. Moreover, the teacher questions generally seemed to have short answer and low-level characteristics that require students to recall mathematical rules and procedures rather than high-level questions that require students to recall mathematics rules and procedures rather than high-level questions that require students think deeper and draw inferences on mathematical content. Although, the results did not meet the assumptions of discursive classroom at all / based on the results, it could be said that in classroom practices, mathematics teachers try to make connections between mathematical content and other disciplines where they tried to give examples from real-world situations and also encourage students in that way / as pointed out in new mathematics curriculum.

This study focuses on exploring the current (2009-2010) state of the English Language Teacher Education (ELTE) Program in Yemen. The current state of the program was investigated through exploring the beliefs of teacher educators, teacher candidates, and administrators. Additionally, available education policy documents were critically examined. A pilot study pointed to the need for interviews with various stakeholders of language teacher education. Multiple semi-structured interviews were designed and conducted. Three teacher educators and four recent graduates were interviewed. Three administrators in the Ministry of Higher Studies and Scientific Research were interviewed. Furthermore, two bureaucrats in the Ministry of Education together with two administrators in an Education Sector were interviewed. All interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed. An extensive reading of the transcriptions led to the identification of major patterns. Several themes were found. These themes highlight various aspects of the ELTE program in Yemen. The findings showed that the ELTE program had neither clear-cut standards nor educational philosophy, and suffered from distinctive administrative and academic problems. The findings, furthermore, revealed that the education policy-makers paid little attention to the program improvement and the application of the strategies they had planned. Finally, despite the problems encountered, all participants agreed on the critical need for the ELTE program at Yemeni universities.