Kam, Chun Seng. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 27-33). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Acknowledgements --- p.2 / Abstract --- p.3 / 摘要 --- p.4 / Table of Contents --- p.5 / List of Tables --- p.6 / List of Figures --- p.7 / Chapter Chapter One: --- Introduction --- p.8 / Brief introduction to Past Literature on Asian Self-Enhancement --- p.8 / Two Conflicting Views on Asian Self-Enhancement --- p.9 / Self-Enhancement with Temporal Appraisal --- p.11 / Aims and Overview of the Studies --- p.12 / Chapter Chapter Two: --- An Empirical Study --- p.14 / Method --- p.14 / Results --- p.15 / Chapter Chapter Three: --- General Discussion --- p.22 / Summary and Importance of the Current Findings --- p.22 / Why Didn't Participants Self-Enhance for their Close Others? --- p.23 / Do Different Operationalizations of Self-Enhancment Yield Different Findings? --- p.23 / Future Directions and Conclusion --- p.25 / Footnotes --- p.26 / References --- p.27

An examination of sociology student satisfaction levels is performed and an attempt is made to explain variations in degree program satisfaction. A comparison is made between current student and alumni regarding the coursework and experiences they feel should be offered in the undergraduate degree program in sociology at Portland State University (PSU). The study population consists of all PSU students who have obtained an undergraduate degree in sociology since the program's inception and all students currently attending PSU and majoring in sociology. The typical respondent is female (the ratio of females to males being higher for current students than for alumni) and is 39 years old. Close to half of the respondents have at least one parent with a college degree. Most current students work while attending school. Current students earn less than alumni (they are also more likely to work part-time). Around half of the alumni respondents stop their educational career with their undergraduate degree. The majority of those who continued beyond the undergraduate level do so in a field outside of sociology. Alumni are predominantly employed in white collar jobs involving computers and writing -- skills they rank as important attributes of a good department. The majority of current students are full-time seniors who transferred from another institution, and chose to attend college to gain personal knowledge and to prepare for employment. When asked about their goals, the majority of current students intend to find employment in the six months after graduation. Current students are more satisfied with the degree program than alumni respondents. Age is not related to a stronger vocational orientation. The level of financial hardship incurred by alumni to attend college is positively correlated with a vocational orientation. This was not the case for current students who show no relationship between the two variables. Degree program satisfaction is positively correlated with job satisfaction, but the relationship is weak. The more vocationally oriented students and alumni are more satisfied with the degree program. Finally, the more useful the student feels sociology is in their present job, the more satisfied they are with the program.

Mental Health Courts (MHCs) are a diversion program for mentally ill offenders in lieu of incarceration. The Substance Abuse and Mental Services Administration (SAMHSA) developed these specialized court programs in the 1990’s to assist mentally ill offenders in overcoming barriers to treatment. While new laws have begun to change the way mentally ill offenders are viewed from a law enforcement standpoint, social workers’ attitudes and beliefs about these programs have not been studied. This quantitative study’s purpose was to examine Master of Social Work (MSW) Graduate students’ attitudes and beliefs of mentally ill offenders and MHCs. Social work student participants completed an online questionnaire developed by the researchers using Qualtrics software. We analyzed the data using descriptive and inferential statistics, including a t-test. Our hypothesis that attitudes and beliefs of social work students varied based on the student’s year in the MSW program was not supported by the data. These findings suggest that students’ attitudes and beliefs about MHCs remain consistent throughout their graduate social work training. Although, our findings do not generalize to all social work students or to social workers in the field, these findings suggest students’ exposure to this topic during their MSW program may be limited and may warrant further investigation. We discuss these findings and their implications for social work curriculum and practice.

The present study investigated the perceptions and attitudes of two groups each of ESL teachers and students in the United States regarding World Englishes (WE) pronunciations before and after watching a video on WE accents. Data gathered via online surveys were analyzed using a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods. The results show that the perceptions of the teachers in the study ranged from somewhat negative to mildly positive, both pre- and post-video, which is consistent with Brown's (1993) findings that teachers' perceptions changed little if at all after being briefly exposed to WE stimuli. The education of the teachers in this study did not seem to influence their responses, either. Both groups of teachers responded almost identically even though the Midwest (MW) teachers' education ranged from no TESOL training to MA TESOL and all the teachers in the Northwest (NW) had MA TESOL degrees. These teachers' exposure to WE topics also varied greatly from teacher to teacher. Although the results of the study could not establish a correlation between lack of WE exposure and lack of WE classroom implementation, the teacher responses were, again, consistent with the literature in that the advantages of WE implementation are often appreciated only after extensive training on the matter. Student results were slightly more encouraging than their teachers', as students were generally more enthusiastic about WE before and after stimuli. A majority of students surveyed expressed they would like their teachers to incorporate more WE materials into their lessons and, after watching the video, all but one student indicated they would take an Accents of the World class as they considered it "important to learn about the ways people in other parts of the world speak English."

There is a critical need for college students to receive an education that fosters global learning in preparation for life in an increasingly interdependent and interconnected world. Universities recognize this need and endeavor to provide a range of programs that target global knowledge and skills, and meet the needs of traditional and non-traditional students. Domestic foreign language immersion programs can contribute to student global learning and development by providing students with an opportunity to participate in a rich global learning experience in the U.S. While some researchers have investigated impacts of domestic foreign language immersion on language proficiency, few studies of other kinds of global learning outcomes are available, and research is needed to gain an understanding of program impacts and make improvements. The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which participation in a domestic foreign language immersion program was perceived to influence global learning and development. The study used a mixed-methods design that incorporated as a key instrument a retrospective survey of former participants in a university-level domestic foreign language immersion program. Perspectives from short-term study abroad, foreign languages, transformative learning, and global citizenship informed the research. The study found that participants in a domestic foreign language immersion program perceived influence in all three domains of global development. The degree of perceived influence was similar in the three domains except in the area of social responsibility, which received a significantly lower rating. Finally, student characteristics, including age, language level, prior international or other intercultural experience, and on/off-campus residence were not associated with perceived program influence. A qualitative analysis helped explain these findings.

As the cost for health care delivery increases, so does the demand for access to care. However, individuals in a rural community often do not have access to the care they need. Shortages of rural health care professionals are an ever-increasing problem. The Affordable Care Act of 2010 sought to increase health care access by focusing on team-based care delivery. Thus, the need to educate health care students in the fundamentals of team-based practice has led to an increased emphasis on Interprofessional Education (IPE). While past research focused on urban IPE, a literature gap exists for the effects of a rural team-based educational experience on practice location decisions. This study examined how rural IPE influenced health profession students' perspectives of what it means to be a member of a rural health care team and explored what factors go into making decisions of where to live and provide care. Motivational Theory provided the framework for a mixed methods approach with data from student reflective journaling and a post-experience Q sort. Analysis yielded important understandings about the impact of rural IPE. Accordingly, having a rural IPE experience provided positive motivation for returning after graduation. Further, the time spent in rural IPE generated understandings of what it means to live and provide care to a rural community. One important new discovery gained is the clinical setting is not where most IPE took place. As a result, social interactions with fellow students and community members achieved the goals of rural IPE. Despite these influential findings, noted barriers to genuine rural IPE persisted. In the end, students, educators, and rural health care professionals need to be aware of the multiple factors that guide decisions of where to live and provide care.

Gender inequalities perpetuated by educational and occupational segregation may be exacerbated in part by socialization processes that occur in the years leading up to when high school students typically begin considering postsecondary options. Students’ feelings of self-efficacy in certain subjects can be an important factor that informs their decisions to pursue coursework and programs. This study used stereotype theory to understand how students' perceptions of their 9th grade math teacher's fairness affected their 11th grade math efficacy and how this relationship was moderated by the gender of the student and their math teacher. Using the High School Longitudinal Study of 2009, linear regression models predicting students’ math efficacy in 2012 indicated that students have higher levels of math efficacy when they perceive their math teachers as more fair, though this relationship was explained away by controls. An additional interaction term between student gender and math teacher gender revealed that girls’ efficacy is more strongly affected by perceptions of their male math teachers than perceptions of their female math teachers. This finding may be explained by the persistence of stereotypes around math that assume male superiority in the subject, which leads students to see their male math teachers as true authorities in math as opposed to their female math teachers.

This study examined the impact of an inquiry based Next Generation Science Standard aligned science unit on elementary students' understanding and application of the eight Science and Engineering Practices and their relation in building student problem solving skills. The study involved 44 second grade students and three participating classroom teachers. The treatment consisted of a school district developed Second Grade Earth Science unit: What is happening to our playground? that was taught at the beginning of the school year. Quantitative results from a Likert type scale pre and post survey and from student content knowledge assessments showed growth in student belief of their own abilities in the science classroom. Qualitative data gathered from student observations and interviews performed at the conclusion of the Earth Science unit further show gains in student understanding and attitudes. This study adds to the existing literature on the importance of standard aligned, inquiry based science curriculum that provides time for students to engage in science practices.

The urgent need for reform of USA and global food systems is evident in the pervasiveness of both food waste and food insecurity. Such an inefficient system strains the environmental, social, and economic systems on which it relies. Although policy and infrastructure changes are essential, consumers can play a significant role by decreasing their food waste, given that consumer waste represents 60% of the waste along the food cycle in developed countries. Incorporation of food literacy and food waste education in school curricula may provide a meaningful entry point for promoting food waste reduction skills. This dissertation presents context on the suitability of food systems for science and climate change education. Practical implementation of this concept is then explored through a survey of 495 students at Portland State University that presents the reported knowledge, attitudes, emotions, and beliefs related to food waste. The underlying factors that influence student food waste behavior and intent to change such behavior are likewise explored. I also provide a description and assessment of a food waste diversion program, No Scrap Left Behind, that was developed and piloted at PSU. I found that knowledge, attitudes, emotions, beliefs, and reported food-related behaviors were generally positive. Students were also interested in taking action and perceived that their food-related actions could make a difference. Intent to change food waste behaviors was influenced by: 1) sustainability actions, 2) food waste diversion actions, 3) attitudes about composting, 4) composting, 5) reported household food waste, 6) material reuse attitudes. Reported food waste diversion behaviors were related to: 1) intent to reduce food waste, 2) knowledge and attitudes towards composting, and 3) attitudes about reuse. The measures of reported knowledge, attitudes, emotions, beliefs, and behaviors were not significantly influenced by No Scrap Left Behind programming, but actual measured food waste was decreased by one-fourth both over an academic year and within an academic term of programming. This indicates that students are amenable to food waste behavior change when given the encouragement and infrastructure to make that change. Further research may consider opportunities for food waste education beyond the cafeteria setting, particularly as an entry into more complex discussions around environmental, social, and economic systems and concepts.

Figures from the 2010 Census indicate that there are 50.5 million Latinos (16% of the total population) living in the United States (US) today. From 2000 to 2010, the Latino population experienced a very rapid growth rate of 43%, which accounted for over half the total population growth. More and more Latino students are entering our public schools and face the reality that 62 years after the Brown V. Board of Education ruling to integrate schools and equalize educational opportunities, schools are more racially and economically segregated and more unequal than they were more than half a century ago. As a group, Latinos continue to struggle academically and there is a large academic achievement gap between Latino students and White students. Using the lens of Latino Critical race theory, this narrative study was an attempt to understand the educational experience of five Latino students in a two-way immersion program within a racialized public education system in which negative stereotypes, such as lack of intellectual abilities, could create a threatening environment hindering their academic success. This narrative inquiry study sought to understand how, if at all, Latino students in a fifth grade two-way immersion program experienced anxiety about the ways they believe to be perceived in the classroom and school settings by their teachers and other classmates. Finding of this study confirmed the relative success of two-way immersion programs educating Latino students and highlighted the urgent need to conduct more research in bilingual settings trying to understand the role stereotype threat might play in the educational experience of Latino students. The fact that Latino students were still lagging behind their native English-speaking counterparts in the TWI program is a reality that must be researched further to understand the lived experiences of Latino students in bilingual programs.