The purpose of this study was to gather, report and analyze the experiences of fourteen counselor-trainees in one university training program, using a variety of research methods over time. Bandura's observational learning paradigm, that individuals learn by imitating models, provided the structure for analyzing samples of audio-taped counseling sessions, as well as interviews and journals collected over a two-year period. Participant observation and content analysis were the principal methods used to gather and analyze data. Frequencies on audio-tapes were determined by external raters. Analysis of the interviews and journals was completed by the author. At acquisition, participants did imitate a model's attending skills demonstration, and other significant modeling influences were related to the theoretical orientations of the models. When experts and participants were compared, experts were using all behavior categories except accepting statements more frequently than participants. At the end of the training program, participants were more active than they were at a baseline observation, a finding consistent with previous longitudinal studies of maintenance of skills. The frequencies for each of the ten behavior categories, however, were variable over trials. This finding may be the result of variations in the behavior of models or of methodological problems in analyzing the data. Trainee statements about training experiences and norms of reference groups, collected from interviews and journal entries, indicate that trainees model trainer values and ideas as well as behaviors. Trainees described a developmental process during training, but conclusions from post-graduation employment experiences were too limited to analyze. The study's recommendations include possible research projects for training programs and guidelines for developing a supportive trainer/trainee relationship.

<p>This research provided insights into the mathematical achievement of a cohort of tertiary mathematics students. The context for the study was an entry level mathematics course, set in an engineering programme at a tertiary institution, the Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT). This study investigated the possibilities of providing a bridge between the assessment of students by means of tests scores and a taxonomy of mathematical objectives, on the one hand, and the critical analysis of student produced texts, on the other hand. This research revealed that even in cases of wrong solutions, participant members' responses were reasonable, meaningful, clear and logical.</p>

The purpose of this study was to identify and analyze perceptional differences among department chairs, faculty, and instructors toward the barrier to using multiple teaching strategies in two-year technical and community college electronics courses. The literature review focused on defining multiple teaching strategies and identifying and discussing four major perceived barriers to implementing them in the electronics classroom: student, resources, classroom environmental, and teacher training/teaching technology. The targeted population consisted of 150 out of 231 electronics teaching technical and community college department chairs, faculty, and instructors throughout the state of Texas. In actuality, the targeted population's breakdown consisted of 36 full-time electronics teaching department chairs, 96 full-time electronics teaching faculty and instructors, and 18 part-time electronics teaching faculty and instructors who were actively involved in the delivery of instruction in their respective schools. Analysis of the data revealed that: (1) there are no significant differences among the perceptions of department chair people, faculty, and instructors toward the four perceived barriers to implementing multiple teaching strategies in a post-secondary electronics program; and (2) there are no significant differences in the perceptions electronics faculty members categorized by years teaching experience toward each of the four perceived barrier categories to implementing multiple teaching strategies in a post-secondary electronics program. However, further research is needed to substantiate what other barriers exist that may have an impact upon utilizing multiple teaching strategies in two-year technical and community college electronics courses.

This problem was a study of the relationship between (a) competency in shorthand accuracy and achievement in shorthand dictation and (b) competency in shorthand accuracy and measured intelligence.

Typescript. / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

D.Ed. / The use IT is increasingly becoming a reality in education in South Africa (SA). Despite this very few historical black universities (HBU's) utilize it in the training of their student teachers. For this reason the use of IT by student teachers in the historical black universities in the Northern Province has been disappointing. This study raises questions for investigation regarding the use of information technology in initial teacher education (ITE) in the Northern Province (South Africa), which ultimately enabled the researcher to generate an approach for the implementation of IT in initial teacher education in Universities in the Northern Province. In order to reach possible solutions for the stated problem and to suggest an approach for the implementation of IT in ITE, a literature study on information technology in initial teacher education was undertaken. An empirical study was also conducted which included: • Interviews with deans of the schools of education (faculties of education) in the two Universities in the Northern Province. • HOD's of the department of Educational Practice (The department of Curriculum Studies and Teachers Education). • Lecturers in the faculties of Education (School of Education) • HED & UED student teachers at these two universities. • Computer Centre Personnel at these two institutions. • Colleges of Makhado and Mokopane were also visited with a view to observe what was happening in terms of IT training and, to interview rectors and lecturers responsible for IT training.

D.Phil. (Mathematics Education) / In tertiary education, a statement like ‘Low graduation rates prevail around the world’ is common knowledge since the 1940s, and therefore one does not need any longer to mention references. The factors that contribute to it though, are innumerable. One of those factors is the ability of a student to solve problems. Problem solving has been accepted as a prerequisite for lifelong learning by many governments and it is enshrined in their educational policies. However, problem solving can be associated with academic performance (mastery of content knowledge being a main contributor) as well as application/transfer of content knowledge. Critical thinking on the other hand is embedded in problem solving, acquisition of knowledge and application. Then an investigation into the relationships between all these constructs is warranted. This research aimed at shedding some or more light into this proverbial problem. Problem solving is equated by some authors to learning. Learning while solving problems and solving problems result in learning. Almost all theorists see problem solving as a process and be one of the products of learning. This research concluded that problem solving is a product of its own as a result of a number of complex cognitive processes. The simple argument is: If a problem solver cannot solve a problem successfully then no product is produced by those cognitive processes. In actual fact, the possibility of the existence of misconceptions could be one of the reasons for the failure of solving the problem. If that is true, then the statement: ‘we should be diagnosing rather than teaching’ could be valid. Furthermore, teaching problem solving as a process gives rise for it to be treated as an ‘algorithm’ by students which they try to memorise without having a conceptual understanding of the problem. However if it is treated as a product the students will be encouraged to think of the various cognitive processes that are necessary to solve the problem. This research concluded that cognitive processes such as critical thinking, acquisition of (mathematical) knowledge and application thereof, can lead to a product which was guided by ‘quality control processes’. Therefore problem solving in this research is not explicitly expressed but implicitly. As a result ‘successful problem solving’, the product, is closely associated with academic achievement.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Science, 2002. / In this thesis I consider how mathematics students in a traditional firstyear Calculus course at a South African university appropriate mathematical objects which are new to them but which are already part of the official mathematics discourse. Although several researchers have explained mathematical object appropriation in process-object terms (for example, Sfard, 1994; Dubinsky, 1991, 1997; Tall, 1991, 1995, 1999), my focus is largely on what happens prior to the object-process stage. In line with Vygotsky (1986), I posit that the appropriation of a new mathematical object by a student takes place in phases and that an examination of these phases gives a language of description for understanding this process. This theory, which I call “appropriation theory”, is an elaboration and application of Vygotsky’s (1986) theory of concept formation to the mathematical domain. I also use Vygotsky’s (1986) notion of the functional use of a word to postulate that the mechanism for moving through these phases, that is, for appropriating the mathematical object, is a functional use of the mathematical sign. Specifically, I argue that the student uses new mathematical signs both as objects with which to communicate (like words are used) and as objects on which to focus and to organise his mathematical ideas (again as words are used) even before he fully comprehends the meaning of these signs. Through this sign usage the mathematical concept evolves for that student so that it eventually has personal meaning (like the meaning of a new word does for a child); furthermore, because the usage is socially regulated, the concept evolves so that its usage is concomitant with its usage in the mathematical community. I further explicate appropriation theory by elaborating a link between the theoretical concept variables and their empirical indicators, illustrating these links with data obtained from seven clinical interviews. In these interviews, seven purposefully chosen students engage in a set of speciallydesigned tasks around the definition of an improper integral. I utilise the empirical indicators to analyse two of these interviews in great detail. These analyses further inform the development of appropriation theory and also demonstrate how the theory illuminates the process of mathematical object appropriation by a particular student.

This thesis examines the status and prospects of the general field of the Humanities in the contemporary university. It begins with an acknowledgement that the Humanities have experienced an intellectual and cultural demotion within modern societies over the past few centuries, as a result of the momentous impact that the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions have had on contemporary life, particularly within modern universities, whose curricula have been dominated by subjects located within the fields of the natural and social sciences, which have a crucial instrumental and functional contribution to make towards the perpetuation and improvement of modern technological society. The thesis provides an historical perspective on the emergence of the humanities, which, in general, enjoyed an intellectual and cultural status from the inception of the European universities in the 12th century through to the advent of the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century. It examines their relative decline as the natural and social sciences gained their ascendancy in university curricula over the centuries since the inception of the Industrial Revolution, and considers justifications for the presence of the humanities in university curricula today. In presenting a vindication of the place of the humanities in the contemporary university, the thesis focuses on their indispensability for a liberal education, which is itself necessitated by the interminable and irreducible epistemological and ethical disputes that characterize the pursuit of knowledge itself. It also claims that since the Scientific and Industrial Revolutions have produced a proliferation of professionals, who constitute the social and economic core of modern society, the universities have a responsibility to complement these professionals’ education in the natural and social sciences with an education in the humanities to ensure that their epistemological and ethical understandings meet the stringent demands of the modern world.

For several reasons, Guilford's psychological theory, "The Structure-of-Intellect" (SI), seems a good candidate for relating to the learning of mathematics. The general purposes of this study were to identify SI factors which would be significantly related to achievement in a junior-college mathematics course for non-science, non-mathematics majors and to determine whether semantic factors would be better predictors than symbolic for students classified as having high verbal ability. The two topics in the mathematics course which were selected for study were (1) numeration in other bases and (2) finite systems. / Typescript. / "August, 1975." / "Submitted to the Area of Instructional Design and Personnel Development, Program of Mathematics Education, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of Doctor of Philosophy." / Advisor: Eugene D. Nichols, Professor Directing Dissertation. / Vita. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 151-153).