Thesis (Ph.D.)--Kent State University, 2008. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed Jan. 22, 2010). Advisor: Kenneth Cushner. Keywords: language; communication; cross cultural; teaching and learning; international students. Includes bibliographical references (p. 197-216).

This study attempted to explore the effect of inter- and intra-personal perceptions and practices of graduate students on their academic motivation from a Self Determination Theory perspective. Students in a large research university were surveyed to determine whether there is any association between their sense of learning community, the need for relatedness, and their reasons to be in graduate school. This study provides evidence to support the importance of the fulfillment of the need to belong in learning community. Differences between international and non-international students represented when they were engaged in their coursework as analyzed by using Ryan and Deci’s (2000) Self Determination and Tajfel and Turner’s (1979) Social Identity Theory. / text

published_or_final_version / Humanities and Social Sciences / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Graduate students' teaching contributes to undergraduate education throughout North America (Park, 2004), the United Kingdom (Muzaka, 2009), Australia (Kift, 2003), and New Zealand (Barrington, 2001), particularly in first-year courses. Mandatory and voluntary training programs, courses, workshops, and certificate programs have been implemented centrally (Mintz, 1998) and departmentally (Ronkowski, 1998) to develop graduate students’ knowledge and skills and improve their teaching. Research assessing outcomes of these programs indicates improvements in individuals’ conceptions about teaching (Saroyan, Dagenais, & Zhou, 2009), but limited impact on practice (Buehler & Marcum, 2007). A potential explanation for this discrepancy is that current individual-focused support for graduate students is not sufficient; rather, teaching and teaching development are influenced by local disciplinary and institutional culture (Taylor, 2010; Trowler & Bamber, 2005). Literature on graduate studies completion further indicates the role of informal supports in graduate students’ academic success (e.g., Lovitts, 2004). This mixed-method research sought to widen the traditional research focus regarding support for graduate students’ scholarly teaching by examining: (1) how support is characterized and described in official visioning documents, policies, and websites at a single institution; (2) how graduate students at this institution generally viewed department and institution-wide supports listed on past surveys, and (3) how current graduate students and supportive individuals from the same institution described available and desired supports. Four themes emerged during analysis of the survey and interview data: formal support, informal support, communication/collaboration, and feedback. These themes were sometimes echoed and sometimes absent in the official documents and existing literature on graduate students’ teaching, which primarily focused on formal supports. Throughout this research, support was explored within the contextual reality in which graduate students learned and taught by examining the sources of such support across the social ecological layers of sector, institution, department, courses, faculty members, peers, and the individual. By broadening the conceptualization of support beyond formal programming, a single social ecological layer, a small group of official support providers, or a one-time event, this study expands both the depth and breadth of possibilities for resource planning within institutions, and future research on teaching supports and graduate student experiences. / Thesis (Ph.D, Education) -- Queen's University, 2012-09-26 17:24:15.055

The objective of this research was to determine the factors that influence application of non-parametric analysis technique. The data emanated from research done by postgraduate students over a ten year period (1995-2004) and archived by the project in postgraduate education research (PPER). A survey of three South African universities was conducted. The classification of researches from chosen prominent universities were made by research title, research topic, target population, data collection method, and other diversity titles which were used to map the position of non-parametric analysis. The research amongst the three (3) universities included four hundred and twenty-one (421) sampled researches of which only twenty nine (29) were in Language and Race issues. The first finding indicated that the data of the sampled researches were all analysed using content analysis. Secondly, the findings suggested that there was a relationship between research title and data analysis technique. Lastly, the dominant theme amongst the sampled researches was Language although in many instances when language issues are being researched, race issues are inherently being researched either purposefully or coincidentally. There is a relationship between the history of the institutions and the kinds of research they produce. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2012.

Supervision is seen as an essential and important element in the training of counselors. As trainees receive much of their role definition from their supervisors, an unsatisfactory supervisory relationship where the trainee is experiencing incongruence between his or her beliefs about his or her role in the counseling situation and the messages being received from the supervisor can be seen as a source of stress and frustration. The present study was designed to examine the relationship between role conflict, satisfaction with supervision, and psychological strain.Results indicate there is a significant positive relationship between theoretical congruence and satisfaction with supervision. No significant positive relationships were found, however, between role conflict and psychological strain, or between theoretical congruence and psychological strain. Additionally, no significant negative relationships were found between role conflict and theoretical congruence or between role conflict and satisfaction with supervisionFurthermore, post hoc analysis revealed significant relationships by gender. In males, for example, a significant negative relationship was found between supervisory working alliance and role conflict.In females, a significant positive relationship was found between theoretical congruence and supervisory working alliance. / Department of Counseling Psychology and Guidance Services

The purpose of this study was twofold: (a) to determine whether wellness management students would have higher levels of wellness than students who are not studying wellness, and (b) to determine if the results of the Stages of Change measurement questionnaire would correlate positively with the results of a standardized wellness measurement questionnaire. The first issue was examined by comparing total wellness levels of wellness management graduate students with total wellness levels of nonwellness management graduate students, as measured by the Testwell Wellness Inventory. There was no statistical difference between the two groups. This suggests that wellness students may not be effective models in their chosen field. The second issue was examined by testing whether the Stages of Change measurement questionnaire would correlate positively with the Testwell total wellness score. Study results showed that if students scored high in wellness, they would score in a high Stages of Change category. This suggests that the Stages of Change questionnaire may be used to measure readiness for general lifestyle behavior change. / Fisher Institute for Wellness

The purpose of this study was to determine how international graduate students rate their health and their Sense of Coherence scores using Antonosky's 29- item "Orientation to Life Questionnaire" and to identify associations between international graduate students self-rated health status, Sense of Coherence scores, Sense of Coherence sub-scores, and biometric measures. The study found that international graduate students at Ball State University rate their health as "very good" and report having a high Sense of Coherence score and sub-scores. Additionally, positive associations between international graduate student's self-rated health and Sense of Coherence scores and sub-scores were identified. However, no significant correlations were found between international graduate students' self-rated health and their biometric measures. / Fisher Institute for Wellness and Gerontology

Since Bergevin and McKinley (1966) first wrote about Participation Training as a way to create collaboration among learners, more than 40 years of research has explored, separated, and defined various types of group work and group learning. Themes that emerged in the study were: Participation Training as something missing, Participation Training as resistance, Participation Training as "self' concepts, Participation Training as theater, Participation Training as negotiation, and Participation Training as shared experience. Data collected through interviews with individuals who experienced a 2007 Participation Training Institute reveal the complex, eductive nature of the phenomenon. That is, although the structures employed throughout the training were articulated before the participants actually experienced them, the constructed process, including content, was entirely authored by the particular group of people involved. The structural tools that define the procedure were prescribed; learners came to Participation Training having read about the structure of the training, the roles, and yet every one of the contributors believed there was no structure present at the beginning of the training. The experience of Participation Training did not depend on discussion content; it depended on rehearsal and reflection. In this study, contributors perceived the absence of content as the absence of structure. When none was supplied, they gradually created structure by determining content together, so they were able to take "ownership" of the process as they generated it. This absence of prescribed content was, for these contributors, the essence of Participation Training.Using a variety of theoretical lenses, Participation Training should be explored for its potential towards helping learners – teachers and students – work together through the development of individual skills that support interdependence. Since Participation Training is based on dialogue, discourse analysis might provide a particularly rich window onto the development of various forms of interaction among learners; semiotics could examine the meaning of Participation Training as a face-to-face, rather than technologically mediated, experience. Comparative case studies might reveal productive similarities and differences between Participation Training and other forms of group learning. / Department of Educational Studies