Thesis (M.P.H.)--University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, School of Public Health, 2008. / Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 46-05, page: 2666. Advisers: Thomas P. Giordano; Sheryl A. McCurdy. Includes bibliographical references.

The research was motivated by social workers’ need to develop additional resources to address the problems of adolescents in disadvantaged communities. The main goal was to explore mentors as a potential resource. More specifically whether sports coaches could be considered natural mentors in terms of the social support they provided to their adolescent players. The types of social support the literature ascribed to mentors were used to analyze the experiences of a sample of 10coaches and 63 adolescents drawn from six schools. The data was gathered through individual interviews with coaches and single focus groups with the adolescents. The findings suggested sports coaches were competent to provide guidance on certain moral, social and educational topics in a group mentoring situation as well as one on one mentoring to individual cases as part of a multi disciplinary team. / Social Work / M. A. (Social Sciences (Mental Health))

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:40:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DissRPR.pdf: 3588763 bytes, checksum: daebd9080ed3be2da13d4812d3343cb8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-02-16 / Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais / This work of research analyzes the contributions and difficulties of a formative process in computer science for the continued formation and professional development of experienced teachers who act as mentors in a Program of Mentoria on-line, linked to the teachers´ doorway in Federal University of Carlos (UFSCar). The methodological dynamics adopted consisted of a research-intervention of collaborative and constructive nature; for involving a double role, it demarcates the necessity to characterize the two moments of the inquiry: the intervention and the research, even if be shown correlated. The intervention had for objectives to promote pedagogical, technical and theoretical knowledge and the use of the TIC's offering the mentors a common repertoire of knowledge on computer science in the education; to introduce the narratives as instrument of reflection about the collective development and individual professional learning; to assist the mentors in their difficulties with the TIC's and to find strategies to solve them; to help them to reflect it about ' what ', ' how ' and ' why ' they made and what they thought besides being sensible to the affective demands which appeared in process. The research had as objective to analyze the processes of learning and professional development involved in the construction of the base of knowledge on computer science in the education, under the perspective of the mentors. Ten experienced teachers with diverse formative and professional trajectories recognized in the area of the education and for the local community as good professionals participated of the research. The instruments of collections of data were: questionnaire, reflexives notes of the mentors and fieldworks produced by the researcher, filmings and on-line interactions. The analysis of the data indicated that the format of the constructed intervention, collaborating and collectively between mentors and researcher, and developed presencially with continuity in the distance evidenced some contributions and difficulties of the undertaken formative process. It still showed that experienced professional, with knowledge, differentiated formation and professional trajectories can interact and share experiences and knowledge that go incorporating procedurally in the search of solutions for real problems integrating the TIC's in their processes of learning and professional development. However, it was necessary to assist the mentors in context of work, value their deriving knowledge and practical of the professional experience and to promote the joint of knowledge with the TIC's, with theories that helped them to encounter, to reflect, and to purify their experiences and subsequently write about them. It was established between researcher/mentors and mentors/mentors a relational base that enabled the construction of a procedural work saw of ' double hand ´ in which the mentors always acted as co-responsible for the elaboration, development and implementation of the formative process. / O objetivo da presente investigação foi analisar as contribuições e dificuldades de um processo formativo em informática para a formação continuada e desenvolvimento profissional de professoras experientes para atuarem em um Programa de Mentoria on-line voltado para professoras iniciantes das séries iniciais do ensino fundamental, vinculado ao Portal dos Professores da Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCar). Para a sua realização desenvolveu-se uma pesquisa-intervenção de natureza construtivo-colaborativa de formação continuada com base em literatura sobre aprendizagem e desenvolvimento profissional da docência. Mais especificamente foram tomados como referência TANCREDI, REALI e MIZUKAMI, 2005; FERREIRA, 2005; MIZUKAMI, 2004a, 2004b; MIZUKAMI et al, 2002; GARCIA, 2002, 2001, 1999, 1998; CAVALCANTI, 1999; COLE e KNOWLES, 1996, 1993. A intervenção teve por objetivos promover conhecimentos técnicos, teóricos e pedagógicos sobre a informática na educação construindo com as mentoras um repertório coletivo de conhecimentos; introduzir as narrativas como instrumento de reflexão sobre a aprendizagem e desenvolvimento profissional, individual e coletivo; auxiliar as mentoras em suas dificuldades com as TIC´s e encontrar estratégias para solucioná-las; ajudá-las a refletir sobre o que , como e porque faziam e o que pensavam; além de auxiliá-las na demandas afetivas surgidas em processo. A pesquisa teve como objetivo analisar os processos de aprendizagem e desenvolvimento profissional envolvido na construção da base de conhecimentos sobre informática na educação, sob a perspectiva das mentoras. Participaram da pesquisa dez professoras experientes com trajetórias formativas e profissionais diversas na área da educação e reconhecidas pela comunidade local como boas profissionais. Os instrumentos de coleta de dados foram: questionário, diários reflexivos das mentoras, diários de campo produzidos pela pesquisadora, filmagens e interações on-line. O desenvolvimento da intervenção que foi construída, coletiva e colaborativamente entre mentoras e pesquisadora, e desenvolvida presencialmente e a distância evidenciou os seguintes resultados. As professoras mentoras, profissionais experientes, com conhecimentos, formação e trajetórias profissionais diferenciadas interagiram e compartilharam experiências e conhecimentos que foram incorporadas processualmente na busca de soluções para problemas relativos ao desenvolvimento das atividades de mentoria integrando a informática em seus processos de aprendizagem e desenvolvimento profissional. Tendo em vista a necessidade de as mentoras refletir e depurar as experiências e posteriormente escrever sobre elas, analisandoas, foi preciso assessorá-las e promover a articulação de seus conhecimentos profissionais com a informática e com referências teóricas sobre aprendizagem e desenvolvimento profissional da docência. No processo foi estabelecida entre pesquisadora/mentoras e mentoras/mentoras uma base relacional que possibilitou a construção de um trabalho processual via de mão dupla no qual as mentoras atuaram sempre como co-responsáveis pela elaboração, desenvolvimento e implementação do processo formativo.

Background: previous studies have revealed that newly hired nurses experience stress and anxiety when entering a new clinical setting. Failure to support and prepare these nurses may affect their ability to deliver the required level of nursing care. Preceptorship is a time limited, organised clinical instructional programme, which promotes staff development, improves nursing education, reduces nursing shortages, promotes staff retention and decreases staff turnover. Little evidence expounds about how newly hired nurses perceive preceptorship. The impact of preceptorship on the clinical nursing care of newly hired experienced nurses has not been investigated or verified globally neither has it been investigated from a Saudi context. Aims and Objectives: the study aimed to explore the nature of preceptorship and its impact on clinical nursing care as perceived by the nurses who had taken part in a preceptorship programme in Saudi Arabia. The study elicited the participants' understanding and expectations of the preceptorship programme in an attempt to identify those factors that may be directly related to the success or failure of the programme. Furthermore, it aimed to examine the role of preceptorship in developing the clinical practice of newly hired experienced nurses. Methodology: a qualitative design based on the principles of naturalistic inquiry underpinned this study. Thirty national and international nurses of five different grades across wards in one Saudi hospital were first purposively and subsequently convenience sampled to take part in the study. Most participants were of international origin, possessing various levels of experience and education. Preceptees were younger and less experienced than other programme stakeholders. Data were generated using tape-recorded semi-structured individual and focus groups interviews. This action was also supported by a review of the hospital's preceptorship policy documents. All the interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed concurrently using thematic analysis based on a constant comparative method. Findings and discussion: Six themes were derived from the interview data to generate an account of participants' experiences. Social learning theory was used as an explanatory framework for understanding the study's findings. Thus, preceptorship was seen as an important supportive, learning process, although inconsistencies were highlighted related to the participants' understanding and expectations of the programme. The duration of preceptorship was also contested with some needing longer than allocated. Hence, confusion arose regarding when preceptorship should begin and end due to ambiguities within the preceptorship policy documentation. Furthermore, participants perceived preceptorship had a mixed impact on clinical nursing care depending on preceptee/preceptor preparation and workload. Surprisingly recruitment was found to have the biggest impact on the success or failure of the preceptorship programme an unexpected and new finding highlighted by this study. Conclusion: preceptorship is important for the integration of newly hired experienced nurses into their new roles. The meaning of preceptorship as applied to each hospital needs to be defined and articulated clearly and concisely. In order to meet the objectives of preceptorship, policy documentation needs to be clearer, and recruitment processes need to be reviewed in order to match both preceptee experience and qualifications with organisational requirements.

No description available.

This qualitative study centered on perceptions of the quality and effectiveness of online-educated principal interns from the viewpoint of principal mentors. Six current principals who have served as mentors to both online and traditionally educated principal interns were asked to name characteristics of successful interns, to discuss to what degree those characteristics have been observed in online-educated principal interns and to share their perceptions of the quality and effectiveness of online-educated interns. The individual interview responses were analyzed and interpreted using thematic analysis. Three overarching themes emerged through data analysis: (1) the importance of certain characteristics in predicting internship success; (2) the impact of program delivery method on principal intern effectiveness; and (3) the influence of perception and bias in hiring decisions. This study may provide a better understanding of the characteristics of successful interns to universities and colleges offering principal preparation programs, which may result in a better understanding of the elements of successful interns and productive internship experiences.

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This phenomenological study examined the perceived influences that male graduates from Title I high schools attribute to their success. During the last 30 years the poverty gap has not narrowed and in some cases it has increased. This study hoped to provide evidence of supports needed by looking at males who overcame generational poverty. This study included qualitative data collection from interviews of 15 male participants. Nine themes emerged in the findings of perceived influences by these participants. The nine themes identified where 1) Success has two components; internal and external, 2) School personnel and programs guided success, 3) Change in mindset, 4) Changes in family structure and circumstances, 5) Lack of family financial resources, 6) Parents prioritizing success in school, 7) Being part of an athletic team/peer group, 8) Lack of experience affected college success and understanding, and 9) Credit difficulties from childhood for their success. The analysis of data collected supported the developed themes. Recommendations were made for further study and practice.

No description available.