M.Ed. / Academic staff development is seen as a vehicle of empowerment that focuses on assisting individual members of staff to acquire knowledge, understanding and skills needed to teaceffectively. A great number of South African Higher Education institutions have made inroads and advances with regard to academic staff development programmes. However many such programmes are usually general to all staff members including administrators and professionals and do not address the specific needs of academics. Managers often plan these programmes without consulting the envisaged participants or conducting any needs assessment despite the literature on academic staff development emphasising the importance of conducting a proper needs assessment. As a result academic staff members in these institutions still feel left behind when it comes to academic issues affecting them directly, such as an absence of continuous staff development and the development of their research and academic writing skills. Many academics feel that such programmes are irrelevant and boring and do not attend. Based on the above the aim of this study was to explore the needs of academics within the Education Department of Vista University Soweto Campus in order to arrive at an informed understanding of such needs for the purpose of informing future academic staff development programme planning. For the purposes of this study qualitative research was conducted using semi-structured interviews with a purposefully selected sample of eleven academics within the Education Department in order to ascertain their academic staff development needs. Data were analysed using the constant comparative method. The findings of the research reveal that the majority of the academics were dissatisfied about the manner in which academic staff development activities are planned and conducted. Among the factors mentioned, the following feature prominently: the need for continuous staff development; the necessity of conducting a proper needs assessment prior to planning academic staff developmental programmes, the needs of the academics in acquiring the skills for research and academic writing, and the availability of more funding for staff development activities. This report concludes with a number of recommendations for planning with regard to academic staff development programmes.

Studies show that the use of narratives enhances the lecture method of teaching. The model and manual developed in this study focus on the needs of lecturers who require creative guidance in all aspects of creating and using didactic narratives. This study suggests that the subject content of a lecture has a deep structure that can be used to generate the surface structure of a didactic narrative. The model and manual are informed by theories and models from a variety of disciplines that have been adapted for analyzing subject content, transforming subject content structure into a parallel narrative structure, and integrating the narrative into lecture.

The problem of this study was to determine the relationship between preference of experienced secondary teachers to instruct by the Group or Lecture method, their subject field, and selected personality traits.

Submitted in full compliance with the requirements for a Master’s degree in Technology: Dental Technology, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2017. / Post-apartheid restructuring of the South African Higher Education system has brought about significant changes. Institutions of Higher Learning have implemented minor and major changes in their objectives, delivery of knowledge, functions, accreditations and overall outcomes (Du Pre 2006, Reddy 2006, Department of Education 1997). One of the more significant transitions within South Africa’s Higher Education landscape has been the conversion of technikons into universities of technology (UoTs) (Powell & McKenna 2006). This thesis investigates the discourses of academics within a university of technology, exploring their responses to and constructions of institutional shifts. The study has an ontological focus in that it is interested in the ‘being’ of Dental Technology academics. It is interested in the discursive constructions not only of themselves as academics, but also of their work in this changed institutional context. By conducting interviews with the Dental Technology academics lecturing in universities of technology in South Africa, it was the intention to explore these academics’ discourses on institutional shifts. Adopting discourse analysis as the primary method of data analysis enabled the exploration of how academics constructed the notion of academic identity, how they discursively constructed students and knowledge, as well as other core issues related to their work. / M

By reconstructing his lecture activities, I found and discussed the conflicts and debates Li had with other philosophical schools of his times. In so doing, I also discussed the interaction between Li's learning and the philosophical traditions of places where he taught, for example, his difference with the traditions of the Zhu Xi school in Fujian. What emerged is that Li was a strong and unyielding philosopher who was able to give theoretical coherence to his disciples but failed to spread his teachings into established schools of thought. / From the case of Li Cai, this dissertation finds that three elements were common and crucial to the founding of a new philosophical school in middle and late Ming times---a doctrine couched in some terse expressions, expressions deriving from the Great Learning as key terms of the doctrine, and organized lecture activities. The dissertation also argues that it was the fundamental notions of achieving learning by oneself (zide) and transmission of the orthodox Way (daotong) that drove the creation of original arguments and "discussion of learning" activities in the late Ming. Li Cai worked himself to distinction amid this practice of the time by formulating his own doctrine on ethics. His emphasis on "cultivation of the person" is a deliberate counteraction to the "extension of innate knowledge" of Wang Yangming, whose school by Li's time had much indulged in the liberation of the individual to the neglect of social norms. Engaging himself as a teacher, Li Cai also cast himself as a rival to Wang Yangming. He considered his endeavor as an act of transmitting the Way and his doctrine as providing true insights into the teaching of Confucianism. More precisely, he considered his zhixiu doctrine a loyal representation of the teachings of Confucius and his great disciple Zeng Shen. / Li talked about his zhi-xiu doctrine everywhere he went. He advanced this doctrine by means of establishing academies (shuyuan), publishing his own works, organizing discussions and debates, lecturing to large audiences, and engaging in philosophical exchanges through correspondence with his discussants. He engaged himself in activities like these when he was director of a bureau in the minister of War, an assistant surveillance commissioner in Guangdong, and an administrative vice commissioner in charge of military affairs in the southwestern border region of the Ming empire. He lost no enthusiasm in championing his doctrine even when he was an exile in Fujian province for more than ten years. / The study begins with an analysis of the Daxue (Great Learning) , the most important Neo-Confucian classic in late imperial times, which exists in a large number of versions since Northern Song times. I first analyze the most cited versions, identifying especially the differences between Zhu Xi's orthodox version and the so-called Old Text derived from the classic Record of Rites. The latter version gained ascendance from the late fifteenth century when Wang Yangming's school strongly advocated it. / This dissertation studies a well-known, but not yet well studied, statesman and philosopher of the sixteenth century, Li Cai, and his relationship to the building of philosophical schools in the world of Ming Confucianism. It hopes to throw lights on the study of Ming intellectual communities as well as on the general intellectual history of late imperial China. / To distinguish himself from both Zhu Xi and Wang Yangming, Li Cai provided a new version of the Great Learning by rearranging the texts of the Old Text and Zhu Xi's version as well as the text in the Shijing daxue (Stone Classics Great Learning), which is a forgery but acclaimed by many scholars of the time. Li Cai formulated his own philosophical doctrine from this new version and summed it up with the term zhixiu, which stands for the word zhi and the word xiu, respectively, which in turn are abbreviations of the phrases zhi yu zhishan (abiding by the supreme good) and xiushen (cultivation of the person), phrases that denote key notions in the Great Learning. He theorized that zhi refers to the substance and xiu refers to the practice of his doctrine. In actuality, he takes zhi to mean focusing on nourishing the mind and xiu to mean self-examination and watchfulness in the cultivation of the self. / 劉勇. / Adviser: Chu Hung-Lam. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: A, page: 2187. / Thesis (doctoral)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 362-389). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / School code: 1307. / Liu Yong.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2001. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 203-212).

This study focuses on perceptions of a group of Computing lecturers at a large post ’92 Scottish university of the changes that have occurred in the student body. It also considers whether or not the changes have had any impact on the identity and role of the lecturers and whether the lecturers have adapted their practice to accommodate the needs of the diverse student population. An empirical approach was used consisting of semi-structured interviews with a targeted random sample of lecturers. The findings indicate that the impact of the changes which have taken place within higher education have not been uniform and have varied depending on the perceived status of the institution as well as the discipline within the Higher Education (HE) hierarchy. The findings identify a number of areas for consideration by university managers, lecturers and higher education researchers. There appears to be a gap between university policies on widening access and student retention and the implementation of the policies by the lecturers. The findings show that the lecturers are aware of the greater diversity of the student body, but that many of the lecturers share the traditional view of a university student and therefore expect the students to adapt to fit the existing system rather than considering changing their approaches to suit the students. The lecturers in my study have adopted a number of strategies to cope with the constant changes taking place within higher education. However, many of them are unclear as to what is expected of them and unsure about how they should prioritise the numerous demands on their time. This study differs from and complements other work because it focuses on the lecturers’ perceptions of the changes in their role as well as in the student body. The outcome of my study is a better understanding of the perceptions lecturers have of their role and the students that they teach. Although my study is small scale and specific to a particular academic discipline within a large university, the findings should be of value not only to the particular institution in the study, but the wider academic community as well.

Using the Chandra X-ray Observatory, Martini et al. (2006) found that the AGN fraction of galaxy clusters was five times higher than previous optical studies suggested. Using visual observations only, Dressler et al. (1985) estimated the AGN fraction of field galaxies to be 5%, while that of clusters was thought to be 1%. To understand the role that the environment plays in AGN fueling, the author studied a variety of environments, ranging from the field to groups to clusters. Will the AGN fraction of groups also be higher than that of the field? The author demonstrates how the AGN fraction of groups compares to that of clusters. In the following sections, the author describes the mechanics of X-ray astronomy, the group environment, and the characteristics of active galactic nuclei. The author briefly describes the possible mechanisms for AGN fueling.

Finding renewable sources of energy is becoming an increasingly important component of scientific research. Greater competition for existing sources of energy has strained the world’s supply and demand balance and has increased the prices of traditional sources of energy such as oil, coal, and natural gas. The experiment discussed in this paper is designed to identify and build an inexpensive and simple method for creating an effective organic solar cell.

This study examined the language socialization of international students in the graduate school context of a western Canadian university. Focusing on one pervasive speech event, academic presentations (APs), this study explored the role this socioculturally organized activity played in facilitating students' linguistic and sociocultural development, and how it aided them in negotiating their entry into the academic world. The participants in this study included 55 graduate students and nine course instructors. Thirty seven students were native speakers (NSs) of English, while the remaining 18- -the focal participants of this study—were non-native speakers of English (NNSs). The sites were seven graduate courses in six different departments in three different faculties (Faculty of Medicine, Faculty o f Arts, and Faculty o f Applied Science). A qualitative approach was employed, and thus multiple kinds of data were gathered over a four-month period. Data collection methods included: (a) open-ended interviews with participants; (b) tape-recorded observations of APs; (c) researcher's fieldnotes of APs; and (d) collection of written documents (e.g., course outlines). Data were analyzed following Bogdan and Biklen (1992) by identifying major and minor themes while iteratively going over the data. A comparison of APs across disciplines is included, examining aspects such as A P content, sequence, length, and format. As well, an analysis of the qualities promoted in each field and of the multiple purposes APs fulfil is provided and related to the complex socialization (i.e., both linguistic and sociocultural) of international graduate students. Findings of the study suggested that APs are a complex task whose meaning is not fixed, but rather is determined by the interplay of the broad context of the academic world, the micro-context of each community of practice, and ultimately by each individual. With regard to the language socialization 6f NNSs, APs challenged students in both linguistic and sociocultural ways. However, by observing, participating in, and reflecting on APs, students gained increased membership and competence within their academic communities.