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.

A growing number of interior design stakeholders believe that increased levels of research will lead to the legitimization of the profession, an expanded and specialized body of knowledge, professional recognition, disciplinary status, and sustainability of the profession. Despite the potential importance of research in the profession, few strategies exist for how research can have a more effective role within interior design. The main purposes of this study were to provide a strategy for incorporating research into interior design, and provide educators with information about how interior design programs could utilize the strategy. The qualitative study was based on a triangulated research design that included: (a) semi-structured telephone interviews with 29 participants (11 from educational institutions, 14 from professional practice, and 5 from professional organizations); (b) the collection of documents from all study participants; and (c) a case study, conducted over a five day period, within a professional practice firm in the United States. The study findings provide insight into the perceptions held by educators, practitioners, and members of professional organizations about research, and research in interior design specifically. These perceptions, combined with other information, led to the Theoretical Framework for Research in Interior Design. Consisting of three distinct, but interconnected, cultures: (a) design, (b) research, and (c) knowledge management, the Framework explains who, what, when, where, why, how, and with what consequences research is conducted, translated, used, and disseminated in interior design. The implications of the Framework for post-secondary interior design education programs suggest that first-professional undergraduate programs could focus on interior design, first-professional masters programs could focus on knowledge management, and post-professional masters and Ph.D. programs could focus on research. This arrangement would provide each level of post-secondary education and each program type with a specific focus, and would provide the discipline with a range of graduates capable of taking on a variety of roles within professional firms, educational institutions, professional organizations, industry, or government. Overall, the Framework provides a strategy for ensuring that the interior design profession retains its design identity, and expands and capitalizes on its research identity. At the same time, the Framework introduces a new identity that can bring designers and researchers together in more productive and beneficial ways. / February 2005

Este estudio se circunscribe en el área de Pedagogía Comparada. Se trata de un estudio comparado de reformas curriculares de educación secundaria entre los países occidentales y Bulgaria. Como reza el titulo, la primera parte del estudio ofrece una panorámica de tendencias globales en materia de políticas curriculares de secundaria que se están produciendo en todo el mundo. Se presenta la situación general de revisión, reorganización y reestructuración de los contenidos de las enseñanzas secundarias ilustrando ejemplos de países más representativos.La segunda parte de la investigación se enfoca en el caso particular de Bulgaria. En concreto, se analiza el proceso de la reforma curricular en este país poscomunista fijándose en las tres áreas siguientes: 1. Los contenidos de enseñanza y su organización. Se presume que una reforma curricular cambiará por un lado los contenidos de enseñanza (incrementando su relevancia, incluyendo nuevos elementos, eliminando tópicos arcaicos, etc.) y por otro lado, revisará la organización de los contenidos (creando amplias áreas curriculares, mejorando la interconexión entre asignaturas individuales, etc.), así como el tiempo específico asignado a cada materia del currículo. 2. Las competencias que necesita el profesorado para poder aplicar el nuevo currículo. Se supone que los maestros deberán adquirir competencias de enseñanza apropiadas y conocimientos específicos de su materia de especialización para poder trabajar con éxito los nuevos contenidos con sus estudiantes. Las nuevas competencias necesarias nos permitieron ver hasta qué punto se hizo un cambio esencial en el contenido educativo y su práctica de enseñanza. Esto a su vez, nos permitió estimar los efectos de la reforma curricular sobre el proceso educativo global en el país. 3. La opinión y el comportamiento de los diferentes estamentos y actores involucrados en el proceso educativo. Los diferentes estamentos y la sociedad civil siempre manifiestan una determinada posición respecto de la reforma curricular, la cual nos ha permitido establecer el grado de su satisfacción con los cambios implícitos de la reforma, su implicación y compromiso con la implantación de la reforma y, en definitiva, el éxito potencial de dicha reforma. El análisis de estas tres áreas servio para obtener conclusiones sobre las siguientes preguntas de investigación:1. Si la reforma se estaba efectivamente llevando a cabo y en qué medida.2. Si esta reforma responde a las expectativas y necesidades de la sociedad Búlgara y muy especialmente de los actores concernidos. 3. Si la reforma curricular en Bulgaria llevará a un mayor grado de convergencia con los sistemas educativos de los países de la OCDE. 4. Si la reforma educativa no sólo incide en la adquisición de saberes o competencias, sino en la formación ética y ciudadana de los estudiantes.5. Si existen obstáculos y problemas en el proceso de implantación de la reforma que podrían incluso condicionar de modo negativo el planteamiento de futuras reformas en el sector. Para la recogida de datos acerca las áreas arriba mencionadas hemos realizado 96 entrevistas en Sofía entre 2003 y 2007 y hemos distribuido 201 cuestionarios por toda Bulgaria. Nuestra selección de informantes se hizo en función de tres grandes categorías:- la sociedad civil incluyendo representantes de organizaciones no gubernamentales, asociaciones de padres y estudiantes de escuelas secundarias y de la Universidad; - los educadores incluyendo los maestros de escuelas secundarias, los profesores universitarios y los formadores de maestros; - los administradores y gestores incluyendo los responsables de la política educativa, los directores de las escuelas secundarias, los inspectores, y los dirigentes de las centrales sindicales de profesorado. Las conclusiones de la investigación llevada a cabo, pueden ser de utilidad tanto para aportar información sobre el actual proceso de reformas de Bulgaria, como para orientar otros futuros procesos que se puedan dar en el resto de los países Balcánicos en transición y del Este de Europa. Palabras clave: Política de curriculum, Bulgaria, Educación secundaria / The present study belongs in the areas of Comparative Pedagogy. It is a comparative study of secondary education curriculum reforms between the occidental countries and Bulgaria. As the title suggests, the first part of the study offers a panorama of global trends of secondary curriculum reforms. It presents common trends on renewing, reorganizing and restructuring secondary education content, illustrating examples of representative countries.The second part of the study focuses on the case of Bulgaria. In concrete, it analyzes the process of curriculum reform in this post-communism country, focusing on the three following areas: 1. The educational content and its organization. It is expected that a foreseen curriculum reform will change on the one hand, the content delivered to students (by increasing its relevance, including new elements, eliminating outdated topics, etc.) and on the other, will alternate the organization of the content (by creating broader curriculum areas, improving the linkage among individual subjects), as well as the specific time allocated to each curriculum subject. 2. The competences required for the teachers to apply the new curriculum. It is expected that teachers will need to posses adequate teaching competences and specific subject knowledge to be able to work successfully with their students the new educational content. The emerging specific competences required allowed us to see up to what extend there has been an essential change in the educational content and its teaching/learning practice. This in its turn permitted us to evaluate the effects of the curriculum reform on the global educational process in the country. 3. The attitude and the opinion of the different stakeholders and actors involved in the educational process. The different stakeholders and the civil society take a certain position on the curriculum reform, which allowed us to measure the degree of their satisfaction with the implicit changes of the reform and the potential success of this reform.The analysis of these three areas allowed us to draw conclusions on and reply to the questions of our investigation concerning:1. whether the curriculum reform was being actually implemented and up to what extend;2. if this reform responds to the expectations and needs of the Bulgarian society and particularly of the actors concerned; 3. if the curriculum reform in Bulgaria leads to a greater degree of alignment and convergence with the educational systems in the OECD countries; 4. if the educational reform not only facilitates the acquisition of knowledge and competences, but also the ethic and citizenship formation of students;5. if in the implementation process of the curriculum reform exist obstacles and problems which could condition in a negative way the implementation of future reforms in the sector. For the collection of the data on the areas mentioned above we carried out 96 interviews in Sofia between 2003 and 2007, and we administered 201 questionnaires across Bulgaria. The selection of the informants was based on three main categories:a) the social category comprising representatives from non-governmental organizations, parents' associations, and students from secondary education and higher education; b) the category of educators including teachers in secondary education schools, professors in higher education (universities) and trainers in in-service training for teachers; and c) the category of administrative staff comprising Ministry officials responsible for educational policy development, secondary school directors, unions' directors and inspectors from the regional inspectorates.The conclusions of this investigation may be useful both for bringing information on the current process of reforms in Bulgaria as well as for guiding other future processes that take place in the rest of the transitional Balkan countries and East Europe. Key words: Curriculum policy, Bulgaria, Secondary education

The purpose of this qualitative action research study was to explore content area teachers’ understanding of literacy, the strategies they use in working with content materials to support their students’ learning of content, and how collaboration with a literacy expert informs literacy instruction. In my work with content area teachers, they have expressed the need for support as they try new literacy strategies when engaging students in content material. Literacy skills are a part of all content areas. Therefore, literacy scholars need an ongoing understanding of how content teachers define and perceive literacy in their content area in order to provide this support. Framed within a sociocultural lens (Vygotsky, 1978), this action research study (Schmuck, 2006) examined how high school content area teachers engaged students in reading content material as they implemented literacy strategies to support students’ access to content. Guiding this study were the following questions: (a) How do content area teachers define and perceive literacy and specifically define literacy in their content area? (b) How do teachers use literacy strategies they learn in professional development sessions? (c) Is there a benefit when a literacy specialist and a content area teacher collaborate to design literacy instruction? Participants in this study included three content area teachers: a math teacher, a business teacher, and English teacher. Data collection occurred throughout the spring term 2012 in the school where the participants work. Data sources included semi-structured interviews, observations, discussions generated from collaborative planning sessions with the researcher, informal debriefings with participants, and a researcher journal. Themes abstracted from the data were (a) teachers’ definitions of literacy did not change over the course of the study, (b) their disposition toward use of strategies did change over the course of the study, and (c) collaborative, embedded professional development between the content area teacher and literacy specialist was an important factor in changing disposition. This action research study emphasizes a need for literacy specialists in schools and embedded, ongoing professional development, and informs literacy specialists how content area teachers can be supported as they engage students in reading content material.

This case study examines how upper secondary schools in a municipality in the northern parts of Sweden structure their special pedagogy with students who have ADHD and dyslexia, students’ and parents’ experiences of this, and what regulates the schools management in this particular aspect. The results show that all the schools have special pedagogues and other support staff employed, though in varied extent. Furthermore, the resources are distributed differently from school to school. The focus, however, is always around communication between the concerned parties. Unfortunately, their good efforts to reach all students have not been successful. Not every special needs student have received the support they are entitled to. Students, as well as parents, have pointed out the shortages that they have experienced in communication, support and information about what rights they have, both as special needs students and as just students in a Swedish upper secondary school. Many of our informants have pointed out the teachers’ ignorance as one reason for the disappointment regarding the support from the schools.

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.

As accountability for public schools continues to increase, educators are continually seeking the best practices in order to assure successful academic achievement, particularly in mathematics. This study focused on the popular reform movement of establishing professional learning communities (PLCs) within the schools, and combined it with a frame of reference from the math teaching context. The purpose of this study was to gain the perceptions of principals and math teachers in successful 5A high schools about the role of the professional learning communities in their schools. For several decades, educators have been trained and continue to be trained on the effective use of professional learning communities in all levels of education. Utilizing a PLC concept requires additional efforts by the school leadership and the teachers. By gaining insight into the perceptions of those in the field, the researcher was able to find common themes, analyze them, and develop recommendations for practice and further research. This qualitative research focused on reviews of literature beginning with early reform movements of forty years ago, which spawned the PLC movement to practitioners and researchers today. Participants were selected from highs schools with a Recognized or higher rating by the Texas Education Agency, and that were also acknowledged for their high performance in mathematics. Three large Texas high schools were chosen, and interviews conducted with twelve participants, three principals and nine teachers. The perspective was narrowed to the field of mathematics because this subject continues to be challenging for so many students as reflected on Texas state scores. After analysis of interviews with the three principals and nine math teachers, five common themes emerged from the data. Structure/time, leadership, collaboration, effective components of the PLC, and professional development were analyzed in the findings. It was evident that these educators saw value in the process of working within a professional learning community and advocate the continuation and development of such a work structure within their schools. The perceptions of these participants validated the research found in the literature supporting PLC's as an appropriate school reform strategy.

Master's thesis. / Format: PDF. Bibl.