International students in U.S. academic settings are facing barriers in the path of their academic accomplishments. In higher educational institutions, students work very closely with their academic advisors to solve a definite problem. Dependence on the academic advisor is much more when the advisee is international. Keeping these points in mind, one of the factors that might impact academic environment for an international student is the bonding that they share with their advisor. This research study determines the factors that encourage or discourage the relationship between the advisor and international advisee. More specifically, what factors, cultural or cognitive are more salient in defining the advising relationship, and how are coping behaviors being employed and by whom when differences between the working pair exists? Full-time international graduate students having at least one year of graduate school experience in U.S. academic settings and faculty advisors who had experience in advising international graduate students participated in this study. A total of 20 international students participated. All the participants completed the Kirton Adaption-Innovation Inventory (KAI) as a measure of problem-solving style. Of the 20 that completed the inventory, 14 participants from 10 different countries agreed to participate in a semi-structure interview. Additionally, five faculty advisors completed the KAI inventory and three faculty advisors participated in an interview. Findings of the study are: 1) a link exists between participants' problem-solving styles and their expectations for the advising relationship; 2) cultural difference outside academia had no impact on academic progress of international students; 3) acculturation into American academic culture seemed essential for academic success of international students in U.S academic settings; 4) international students wanted their home country culture to be acknowledged in a multicultural settings; 5) success of advising relationship seemed to be dependent upon how much the advisor and the advisee exhibited coping behavior; 6) acknowledging the differences and accepting a person in a holistic manner as a separate identity worked best in a multicultural settings; and 7) developing a human connect between the advisor and advisee seemed to be vital for a successful and academically productive advising relationship. / Master of Science in Life Sciences

Abstract To Cope with the aggressive competition and under the encouragement of the government, several domestic financial institutions have combined as financial holding companies in recent years. Through the function of cross selling, they expect the maximized synergy could be created; however, banking industry plays an important role here. Financial goods sold via banks could be easily imitated by others, thus, the capability of innovation is the key to victory. Past researches show lack of attention on the relationship between organizational innovative climate and individual innovative behavior, furthermore, most researches about organizational innovation were taking technology industry as examples. Thus, this research tries to proceed an empirical study of domestic banking industry and find out the effect of organizational innovative climate on individual innovative behavior. Besides, it comprehends the exploration of the mediating effect of the perceived self-efficacy and the moderating effect of problem solving styles. After statistical analyses, the results are summarized as the following. 1. Different personal backgrounds perform differently in the perception of organizational innovative climate, individual innovative behavior, perceived self-efficacy, and problem solving style 2. Organizational support and the autonomy during work have positive effects on the implementation of innovative ideas. Organizational support, autonomy in work, and team work also have positive effects on the generation of innovative ideas. 3. Intuitive problem solving style has positive effect on individual innovative behavior. 4. Systematic problem solving style has no effect on individual innovative behavior. 5. The autonomy during work has positive effect on perceived self-efficacy. 6. Perceived self-efficacy has positive effect on individual innovative behavior. 7. The intuitive problem solving style has moderating effect among the relationship between the autonomy during work and the generation of innovative ideas. 8. Perceived self-efficacy has mediating effect among the relationship between the autonomy during work and individual innovative behavior.

Cognitive ability has been identified as a factor which is associated with accounting expertise, yet little is known about its effects on accounting task performance. The widely-accepted model of accounting performance proposed by Libby and Luft (1993) predicts that cognitive ability influences accounting performance directly and indirectly by affecting task-specific knowledge. Empirical inconsistencies found in these relationships are largely unexplored in the accounting literature, and so a complete understanding of the ability~performance relation remains elusive. The psychology literature suggests that cognitive style, as well as cognitive ability, contributes to the cognitive processes that underlie accounting performance. Research has shown that cognitive style can affect accounting performance, particularly under conditions of cognitive misfit (Chan 1996). Cognitive misfit occurs when an accountant's cognitive style interacts with incongruent demands of the accounting task. Theory suggests the condition of cognitive misfit may explain empirical inconsistencies found in prior ability~performance research. The existing accounting literature has not investigated how cognitive misfit impacts the ability~performance relationship in accounting tasks. The current study explores how the condition of cognitive misfit affects direct and indirect relationships between cognitive ability and accounting performance proposed in the Libby and Luft (1993) performance model. The new knowledge generated in this research will benefit the accounting profession in its quest to identify the determinants of expert performance.

This study was descriptive, correlative and explanatory. It summarized the problem solving and learning styles of students enrolled in the spring 2008 Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Agricultural Technology program, identified relationships between problem solving and learning styles, and used problem solving and learning styles to explain students' end of course grades. Ninety-three students and six faculty members elected to participate in the study. There were differences between degree options in terms of orientation to change. Second year students were likely to be internal processors. There were not significant differences among the population in ways of deciding. However, Agricultural Technology teachers were more task oriented problem solvers, while their students were people oriented. Teachers were more field independent than the students. There were no relationships between problem solving and learning style. There was a high degree of association between student ways of deciding and manner of processing. Student and teacher problem solving and learning styles were used to explain 11% of the variance in students' end of course grades for the six teachers in the study. Student orientation to change, student manner of processing, teacher manner of processing and teacher ways of deciding scores produced a model that significantly explained end of course grades. Suggestions for further research included identifying other career areas with stylistic trends and further identifying the impact cognitive effect has on student behavior. / Master of Science

This mixed-methods study investigated the relationship between self-concept and problem-solving style and how these two constructs compared and contrasted in regards to a participant's perception of his or her problem-solving ability. The 86 study participants were high-achieving rising 11th and 12th grade students attending a summer enrichment program for agriculture. This study used a concurrent triangulation mixed methods design. The quantitative aspect of the study employed two instruments, SDQ III to test perceived self-concept and the VIEW to determine the perceived problem-solving style. Concurrent with this data collection, 13 open-ended interviews were conducted to explored the description of the problem-solving process during a problem-solving event. The reason for collection of both quantitative and qualitative data was to bring together the strengths of both forms of research in order to merge the data to make comparisons and further the understanding of problem-solving ability of high-achieving youth. The study discovered that self-concept and problem-solving style have a weak relationship for many of the constructs and a negative relationship between two of constructs. The qualitative component revealed that high-achieving youth had clear definitions of problem-solving, a rich and descriptive heuristic approach, a clear understanding of which resources provided key information, and a strong depiction of themselves as problem-solver. An emergent concept from the research was the participants' perceptions of the team-based structure and how the inclusion of multiple ability levels versus high ability levels affected the participants' perceptions of solving a problem in a team situation. The mixing component of the study depicted the influence of self-concept on the problem-solving style. This study was an initial exploration of the relationship between self-concept and problem-solving and compared the current results with previous research. It extended and connected the previous research areas of self-concept and problem-solving style. As an initial study, it led to recommendations for further research across education as well as additional exploration of the emergent relationships identified. Finally, the study denoted the importance of mixed-methods research due to the interconnectivity between self-concept and problem-solving style and the participant descriptions of themselves as problem-solvers. / Ph. D.

Many vital components of clinical practice including placement of candidate with clinical faculty remain unaddressed in current research. Missing from formal mentoring research is recognition of the best-quality way to pair mentors and protégés in order for both parties to receive the most benefits from the relationship. Mentoring has been shown to be foundational to the retention of career and technical education teachers making mentoring especially critical. The candidate population for the study included students enrolled in clinical practice during the spring of 2009 in agricultural education certification programs at 14 different universities. Findings using a matched pairs t-tests were conducted to reach the heart of the study, the dyadic mentoring relationships between candidate and clinical faculty. Cognitive effect, an indicator of problem solving style was not found to be a significant factor in the study. However, cognitive affect, an indicator of interpersonal orientation found many significant differences. Significance was found at the 0.05 level in the areas of candidate expressed inclusion and clinical faculty wanted inclusion (t=5.27), candidate expressed total and clinical faculty wanted total (t=3.88), candidate wanted control and clinical faculty expressed control (t=-2.97). Significance was also found at the 0.01 level of significance for candidate wanted total and clinical faculty expressed total (t=-2.37). In the area of behavior a matched pairs t-test determined perceived psychosocial support (t=-2.86) and perceived total support (t=-2.32) to be significant. Mentoring and clinical practice are extremely dynamic constructs as many different influences are present from personal preferences to the way people naturally and holistically function. When universities identify clinical faculty, attention should be paid to the matching of dyads in order to emulate an informal mentoring experience to the greatest extent possible. Although mentoring is extremely complex, the research indicates promise for agreement and promise for continued research to benefit not only individuals, but our entire profession. / Master of Science in Life Sciences