The integration of an instructional good idea in undergraduate classes through the natural and evolutionary process of instruction renovation was the focus of this study. More specifically, the question What personal, contextual, and innovation-related forces act on the integration of active learning into the traditional signature pedagogies of university tenured faculty? was addressed in an extensive research agenda spanning seven years. In the mixed methods study central to this research portfolio, self-nominating faculty who were proponents of active learning at the University of Saskatchewan shared their stories and perceptions about integrating active learning in their undergraduate classes through written data, surveys, questionnaires, focus group meetings, and individual interviews. The study revealed that the integration of active learning, and the development of unique personal signature pedagogies, took place naturally in a benignly neutral environment, when desire met with combinations of perceived needs and timely, resonating active learning solutions. Rather than change, instructional methods were gently renovated as participants experimented with solutions to address student learning needs. Active learning was fit together with personal and professional beliefs about student capabilities and effective instruction, and college signature pedagogies.<p> Participants indicated that supportive faculty development, student enthusiasm and engagement, policy that neither encouraged nor discouraged active learning, and the benefits of active learning were driving forces. Restraining forces included unsupportive or negative students and peers, a lack of alignment between stated organizational values and enacted values regarding rewards, and time. Active learning was thought to be effective, but was also perceived to be complex, difficult to try and assess, and too dissimilar from other instructional methods to integrate easily.<p> Findings from the central study and experiences associated larger doctoral research agenda activities suggest that faculty development could be expanded to provide coaching and suggest instructional methods which are clearly linked with signature pedagogies and instructional problems, and that small manageable ways in which active learning can be easily and comfortably integrated in undergraduate classes are showcased. In addition, students could be encouraged to interact with faculty as often as possible, that student stories of engaging instructional activities be prominently profiled, and that stated organizational values be clearly aligned with enacted values and the formal reward structure.<p> Future studies might focus on the effects of planting highly-regarded teaching enthusiasts, the relationship between student and faculty enthusiasm and engagement, the effects of external rewards on the inclusion of active learning, the role of collegial support in the integration of active learning, and the process of integrating other good ideas. Research might also be conducted on removing identified barriers and increasing driving forces identified in this study. An extension and elaboration of this study might create communities of practice on campus and encourage positive conversations about teaching as well as reveal additional driving and restraining forces that act on the integration of good ideas in undergraduate classes.

The purpose of this study was to explore the concept of mentoring amongst administrative women in higher education from an appreciative perspective. In 1985, Kathy Kram published her book on mentoring entitled, Mentoring at Work. This seminal work provided an initial body of knowledge that helped scholars conceptualize mentoring and encouraged a proliferation of research, in what was then an emerging topic for academic inquiry. However, twenty years after Kram advanced her understandings of mentoring, Chandler and Kram (2005) reported that [t]o date, multiple definitions of a mentor have been advanced, but researchers in the field have not unconditionally accepted any specific one (p. 5).<p> Mentoring has suffered from a lack of definitional and conceptual clarity. This lack of clarity has hampered research efforts and rendered research vulnerable to criticism. This lack of clarity has also made implementation of mentoring programs difficult with respect to whom or what exactly is providing the benefit.<p> This study explored the concept of mentoring through focus groups with administrative women in higher education. The study was conducted within a qualitative paradigm, adapting elements from the work on grounded theory by Corbin and Strauss (2008). Focus groups were used to gather the data, with the questions based on the appreciative inquiry method. The worldview underlying the methodological orientation and study design is best described as constructionist. A constructionist worldview assumes that knowledge is constructed as persons explain or try to make sense of their experiences in the context of conversing with others.<p> I anticipated the findings of this study would be significant to mentoring research in three ways. In the study, I addressed the lack of definitional and conceptual clarity of mentoring that have presented academic and practical challenges; I employed a methodological orientation and study design that focused on understanding the participants recollected experiences of relationships that have worked; and the population of interest (administrative women in higher education) was one that had been understudied in mentoring research.<p> In addition to my academic interest in mentoring I was intrigued by the myth behind mentoring. References to the mythical figure, Mentor, in Homers Odyssey abound and yet two important points about Mentor have gone largely unnoticed. First Mentor was actually a woman. Mentor was Athena. That Mentor embodied both male and female characteristics may be interpreted to suggest that features of both sexes are necessary to mentoring. The second point is that Mentor was only one of the disguises Athena wore in order to provide advice and guidance to Odysseus, Penelope, and Telemachus. The second point may be interpreted to suggest that it takes more than one kind of person or relationship to provide the full range of support that an individual requires over the course of their career. It was my hope that this study would help reconcile the myth of Mentor with the reality of mentoring.

In the Canadian North, capacity building through post-secondary education is a key policy strategy of territorial and federal governments. However, government support for the University of the Arctic (UArctic), a viable policy instrument that makes an important contribution to the capacity building efforts of the territories, has been inconsistent. This thesis will investigate whether devolution has impacted capacity building through post-secondary education, by using UArctic as a case study.

A classic but unresolved debate regarding the American stratification system is the precise nature of the underlying causal processes by which education is associated with socioeconomic attainment. One traditional view of education is the technical-functional or human capital approach which posits that education augments productive capacities by imparting valuable analytic and cognitive abilities, technical competences, and significant social or communication skills. A contrasting view is the signaling approach, which downplays the intrinsic significance of schooling, and instead emphasizes the role of educational credentials in certifying, legitimating, and rationing employment in higher-paying jobs. As the labor market becomes increasingly polarized with the decline of unions and the downsizing of the traditional manufacturing sector, educational attainment is becoming increasingly significant for socioeconomic attainment, and this classic debate is thus becoming even more relevant to understanding inequality in contemporary America. To shed new light on this issue, this analysis investigates the 2003 National Survey of College Graduates, which includes data on workers’ assessments of the extent to which their educational background is utilized in their jobs and work activities. The results of this analysis indicate that individuals whose degrees are highly relevant to their current occupation have significantly higher salaries than individuals whose degrees are less relevant, controlling for the level of degree. These findings provide evidence for human capital arguments by showing that education which augments productive capacities has greater rates of return than education that simply provides one with higher levels of credentials. / text

Basic interpretive qualitative research design (Merriam, 2002) was used to explore the experiences and events that Aboriginal students reported during the transition from a rural to an urban setting and attend post-secondary school. Three participants, who were both Aboriginal and successful in completion of their first year of post-secondary education, were interviewed. Data was analyzed and five common themes emerged that contributed to their success. These were academic, family and community, culture, financial and social. These findings are discussed in relation to the current research in the area of Aboriginal education, including the First Nations and Métis Lifelong Learning Models. As well, recommendations and implication for future practice are included.

The issues and challenges for post-secondary education in Belize are many and have been exacerbated by the democratization of higher education in this young, small, developing, Caribbean nation. Improving access to tertiary education is understood as essential to the development of nations throughout the world and increasing access to higher education is an important element in regional development and integration. Despite significant growth in the tertiary education population, the Caribbean region continues to lag behind the developed world in post-secondary enrollment and Belize's enrollment of the 18-24 year old cohort is among the lowest in the region. As the tertiary system in the Caribbean has been democratized and the enrollment numbers have increased, developmental education programs have been introduced to protect the quality of college credit courses and to ensure that students are academically prepared for success at the tertiary level. This research was designed to assess the effectiveness of developmental education offered in the junior colleges of Belize and to examine student and faculty perceptions of developmental education programs in Belize. St. John's College Junior College (SJCJC), located in Belize City, and its Summer Development Program (SDP) provided the case study for this research. Since SJCJC's summer bridge program has been replicated at other junior colleges in Belize, this research contributed to understanding a national approach to developmental education. The investigator used a mixed methods approach relying on quantitative and qualitative methodologies. The research questions were: What percentage of students who enrolled in SJCJC's SDP passed the next level gateway course in the subject for which they required remediation? How does this compare with the success rate of students not enrolled in SDP courses? What percentage of students who took one or more courses in the SDP graduated within two years? How does this compare with the graduation rate of students that had not enrolled in SDP courses? What are SDP students' perceptions of the program? What are SDP faculty members' perceptions of the program? How do these perceptions relate to the effectiveness of the program as determined by research questions #1 and #2? / text

A sample of 98 student-athletes at one southern Arizona high school completed a survey that examined their personal characteristics, athletic goals, knowledge about the college recruiting process, and the role of the school counselor in that process. Results revealed that the majority of student-athletes were not well informed about the college going process. However, there was a significant increase in recruiting knowledge of students who definitely want to participate or possibly want to participate in college athletics between 9th and 11th grade and between 9th and 12th grade. The majority of participants felt "slightly comfortable" or "very comfortable" coming to their school counselor to discuss this information. However, they would feel more comfortable if the counselor were knowledgeable about college athletics. Results show that high school counselors need to be better prepared to assist student-athletes with the college going process.

This thesis brings to the forefront of the existing literature the importance of analyzing transitional dynamics among different levels of schooling and to the labor market. I perform empirical analyses using confidential longitudinal survey data from Statistics Canada; employing program evaluation techniques, and regression modelling. The first chapter is joint work with Louis Christofides, Michael Hoy and Thanasis Stengos. We explore the forces that shape the development of aspirations and the achievement of grades during high school and the role that these aspirations, grades, and other variables play in educational outcomes such as going to university and graduating. We find that parental expectations and peer effects have a significant impact on educational outcomes through grades, aspirations, and their interconnectedness. Apart from this indirect path, parents and peers also influence educational outcomes directly. Policy measures that operate on parental influences may modify educational outcomes in desired directions. The second chapter estimates the wage returns to university quality. I distinguish between two distinct measures of university quality. The first is a survey-based university reputation ranking, and the second is a new ranking, which I construct from several university characteristics in order to objectively reflect the university quality. The findings indicate that the wage returns of having a Bachelor’s degree from a highly ranked university are 10.3% for women, and 13.4% for men. The returns are higher when comparing the wages in the top and bottom tails of the ranking distribution and gender differences are identified. The third chapter is a large-scale study on how students form and revise expectations. This affects their decision to drop out and/or change field of study once they have accessed post-secondary education. I find evidence that students change expectations and educational pathways as they are exposed to unexpected new information. This informs them about the quality of match between their own ability and the program that they are enrolled. Using non-parametric methods I show that this relationship is not linear.

In this qualitative study the experience of a young woman with an intellectual disability (ID) auditing a university course was explored from multiple perspectives. This young woman audited a curriculum course in a one-year, after-degree Teacher Education program at an Ontario university. The purpose of this study was to explore the meaning of this experience for the student, her classmates, and her curriculum course instructor. Data were collected at the University from observations of the curriculum course and from interviews with the participants. As well, observations were made at a community-based program that prepares adults with ID to take part in inclusive post-secondary education (IPSE) to provide a description of the preparation of these adults for university experiences. The focal participant attended this program for four months prior to auditing the University course. Data from interviews with the classmates and the course instructor elicited both positive and negative responses concerning their experiences in the inclusive class. Positive responses include seeing inclusion in practice and coming to know the focal participant on a personal level. Negative responses concern whether or not a curriculum class was the right fit for the focal participant. Interview data from the focal participant show that she overwhelmingly enjoyed her experience auditing the Education course. She saw the interaction with same-age peers as a chance to socialize with these peers and as an opportunity to learn about being independent. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2010-08-20 15:53:32.108

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