Malcolm Shepherd Knowles was a key writer and theorist in the field of adult education in the United States. He died in 1997 and left a large legacy of books and journal articles. This thesis traced the development of his thinking over the 46-year period from 1950 to 1995. It examined the 25 works authored, co-authored, edited, reissued and revised by him during that period. The writings were scrutinised using a literature research methodology to expose the theoretical content, and a history of thought lens to identify and account for the development of major ideas. The methodology enabled a gradual unfolding of the history. A broadly-consistent and sequential pattern of thought focusing on the notion of andragogy emerged. The study revealed that after the initial phases of exploratory thinking, Knowles developed a practical-theoretical framework he believed could function as a comprehensive theory of adult learning. As his thinking progressed, his theory developed into a unified framework for human resource development and, later, into a model for the development of self-directed lifelong learners. The study traced the development of Knowles’ thinking through the phases of thought, identified the writings that belonged within each phase and produced a series of diagrammatic representations showing the evolution of his conceptual framework. The production of a history of the development of Knowles’ thought is the major outcome of the study. In addition to plotting the narrative sequence of thought-events, the history helps to explicate the factors and conditions that influenced Knowles’ thinking and to show the interrelationships between ideas. The study should help practitioners in their use and appreciation of Knowles’ works.

Thesis (D.Min.-Ministry Focus Paper)--Fuller Theological Seminary, School of Intercultural Studies, 2005. / This is a "Ministry Focus Paper" even though the approval sheet says "Dissertation." Author's name Rim, Hyŏng-sŏk on page 118. 880-02 Includes bibliographical references (leaves 114-117).

No description available.

No description available.

This research study aims to investigate the significance of the gender of secondary school head teachers in influencing their leadership styles within the context of Pakistan. Pakistan's cultural milieu is characterized by patriarchal undertones that translate into low gender equality, particularly in terms of lower educational attainment and lesser professional opportunities for females as compared to males. Within this setting, this thesis views the relationship between gender and educational leadership through the feminist educational leadership perspective, while the contextual environment is analysed by employing an adaptation of Brofenbrenner's ecological development theory. A mixed-methods research design has been used to answer this study's research questions. The quantitative research method is based on a survey that was administered to a random sample of 350 secondary school head teachers belonging to the public and private sectors within nine districts of the Punjab province in Pakistan. The self-rater Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire was used to determine the self-perceptions of head teachers regarding their leadership styles. In addition, the qualitative research method utilizes semi-structured interviews of a purposive sample of 14 head teachers in order to obtain an in-depth understanding of how the contextual environment is perceived by head teachers and to investigate whether the head teacher's gender is a significant factor in influencing these perceptions within Pakistan's context. The survey generated 264 responses and the findings indicate that on average secondary school head teachers perceive their leadership style as being transformational; particularly private sector female head teachers have the highest mean score for the transformational leadership style, hence suggesting that the gender of secondary school head teachers does play an important role in terms of influencing how they assess their leadership styles in Pakistan's context. Furthermore, the qualitative analysis of the interviews reveals important gender-based differences in terms of how head teachers perceive their contextual environment and how they practice transformational leadership within their schools. This study's findings have implications for theory, practice and policy making in the field of educational leadership, as they emphasize the need for implementing gender-sensitive educational policies that may facilitate both male and female head teachers to perform their roles effectively as school leaders within Pakistan's context.

More than ninety per cent of projects are run by project teams and the stronger the team the more likely the project will succeed. Team building activities are performed to both increase team performance and to enhance the likelihood of project success. For the purpose of this study, information technology (IT) business projects were chosen as IT is a major driving force in business today and there is widespread dissatisfaction with the performance of IT business projects. In analysing the causes of dissatisfaction, increasingly researchers are recognising that technology is a secondary issue behind the human side of project team management. Business projects were chosen because increasingly IT is being used in the business environment to solve problems in the post-industrial era characterised by the service industry, while the manufacturing industry, from which much of the project literature has emerged, reduces. The importance of the project team in developing IT business projects is well recognised and managers are concerned about their ability to transform an ad-hoc collection of people assigned to a particular project into a coherent, integrated project team. In most cases the activities recommended to build a successful IT business project team have been theoretically based, rather than empirically founded. The goal of this research was to investigate the team building activities used on successful projects. To achieve this goal, the research defines the key measures of project success and establishes their relative importance; determines the most important team building activities for project success with experienced project managers; enhances the understanding of implementation of team building activities on successful projects; and provides suggestions on how to increase the likelihood of project success through focusing on team building activities. The research used the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) to develop a hierarchical model linking project success measures with team building activities. Confirmation of the AHP results and additional understanding of team building activities implementation was achieved by interviewing experienced project managers. The research found that customer satisfaction, although seldom used, was significantly more important as a project success measure than the three measures most often used - time, budget and scope. As identified by project managers, the most important team building activities for achieving customer satisfaction are team leadership; ensuring senior management support; staffing the team properly; planning the project with the team and empowering team members; building commitment among team members; developing strong communication channels and developing appropriate organisational interfaces. The research found successful projects focused on relationships in addition to the task focus of many project methodologies. The research findings on team building activities will enable project leaders on IT business projects to develop empowered project teams with stronger affiliations and support throughout the organisation. By empowering project teams to create effective internal and external relationships there will be fewer project failures, increased customer satisfaction and improved achievement of project success.

No description available.