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The ever-increasing popularity of digital media and connectivity to the World Wide Web permeates every day culture to the extent that the use of modern technologies also influences the teaching of foreign languages. In connection with the desire to implement sound pedagogical practices that align with Standards of teaching foreign languages, teachers are turning to modern technologies to incorporate into their teaching repertoire. Not only do teachers attempt to integrate the four language skills and culture into their teaching, but they are now urged to incorporate technology into their curriculum. The smart classroom offers the greatest potential for instructors to integrate technology into their curriculum, since this resource is already available across college campuses. This qualitative multiple case study explored the conceptualization and reconceptualization four lower division instructors of Spanish made as they attempted to integrate the resources their smart classrooms had to offer. Secondly, this research project also highlighted the challenges instructors faced while integrating technology into their curriculum. Lastly, this study underscored the advantages instructors believed might derive from integrating technology into their classrooms. Data for this study was collected from four main data sources. Five observations were conducted during the fall of 2005. Three semi-structured interviews were conducted with each of the participants at the beginning, middle, and end of the semester. Email reflections were requested from the instructors every two to three weeks during data collection. The course syllabus, lesson plans, and class activity handouts comprised the documents data base. Findings profiled the changes instructors made over the course of the semester in terms of their conceptualizations and re-conceptualizations of the technology offered by smart classrooms. The challenges instructors faced suggest that instructors need to take advantage of more professional development opportunities, as well as enter into dialogue with their peers and other instructors. The advantages highlighted the depth and breadth of the foreign language learning experience, as well as the affordances the accessibility and availability of information stored on the Internet can hold for instructors. This study concludes with pedagogical implications and recommendations for directions of future research. / text

Although there is a paucity of research on the subject of police ethics training, there remains insufficient study about the modes used to teach police ethics. In an effort to institutionalize ethics among police officers, an established framework for teaching police ethics is a critical component of a successful training program. Specifically, this study sought to understand what constitutes viable modes of teaching police ethics to officers in the higher education law enforcement profession. The research question for this study asked the following: what are the preferred modes of instruction used to teach police ethics in the higher education law enforcement profession? A literature review revealed several modes of instruction used to provide police ethics training without consensus as to which one is preferred: case study, lectures, role-playing, texts/publications, and videos. This study examined the modes used to teach police ethics from several perspectives: administrators -- police chiefs/law enforcement academy directors; facilitators -- university police department field-training instructors/law enforcement academy instructors; and consumers -- police officers. Basic qualitative research design and data gathering methods were chosen for this study. An examination and analysis of a Likert survey, interviews and documents relating to teaching police ethics were conducted. The intention of the survey was to elicit perspectives of quality and substance specific to the modes used to teach police ethics and to develop questions for the interview process; thereby, enhancing the integrity and purpose of the study. The quantitative data were descriptive, not inferential; therefore, they were used as explanatory -- merely reporting the occurrences to the qualitative findings. The data revealed that the police academy and department in-service adult learning environments are in need of improvement regarding teaching practices, and that the relationship between instructor and consumer (officer) does not endear itself to an engaging classroom experience or optimal level of learning. The data also indicated that administrators and consumers preferred the case study mode to teach police ethics, while the facilitators preferred lecture. Implications of this study included identifying principles of adult learning that will improve the facilitator's ability to teach police ethics. Moreover, the research revealed that understanding the preferred modes used to teach police ethics is an important aspect of the adult learning process. Specifically, the case study mode for teaching police ethics provided an ethical framework to prepare officers for real world situations and enhanced the opportunity to nurture career development paths. Therefore, the information and insights gained from this study provide a useful baseline of data from which to develop future model ethics-training programs in the higher education law enforcement profession.

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to examine the connections between identities and literacies for a group of students entering the university while highlighting their adolescent literacy experiences as urban-schooled Latino/as. This yearlong qualitative research study utilized case study research methods (Merriam, 1998; Stake, 1994, 1995), along with the constant comparative method (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Lincoln & Guba, 1984), and the critical analytical tools of Fairclough's (1995) levels of discourse, and Curriculum Spaces Research Theory (Cary, 2006). Data collection included focus group interviews, along with individual interviews, digitally recorded and transcribed in their entirety, as well as occasional observations, participants' class syllabi, written work, and personal online communication with the researcher. A theory of identities in practice (Holland, Skinner, Lachicotte, and Cain, 1998) coupled with a broad definition of literacies (Gee, 2000-2001; New London Group, 1996; Street, 1995, 2003) were utilized as frameworks for viewing the university as a figured world where literacies serve as mediating tools for the negotiation of identities (Holland, et al., 1998; Holquist, 1990; Vygotsky, 1962). At the same time, a discussion of discourses (Cary, 2006; Foucault, 1977; Usher & Edwards, 1994) and academic literacies (Zamel & Spack, 1998) offered a window into a discussion of power within institutions. Findings suggest that these students experienced a continuous redefinition of self, due in large part to exposure to White, middle to upper class students who were not a part of their urban school experience. Additionally, as students learned to participate in the academic community of the university, they noted a growing disconnect with family and friends, even though their education was taking place less than six miles from where they attended high school. Learning these new literacies, both academic and otherwise, appeared to cause participants to reevaluate their former identities and their positions in and around various figured worlds. These case studies offer insight into the literacy experiences of Latino/a students in both secondary and post-secondary schools. This research encourages identity work as a means of exploring the individuality of experience of students who are traditionally under-served in our nation's secondary and postsecondary institutions. / text

Using a sequential, explanatory mixed methods design, this dissertation study compared students who persist in the biology major (persisters) with students who leave the biology major (switchers) in terms of how their pre-college experiences, college biology experiences, and biology performance figured into their choice of biology and their persistence in or departure from the biology major. This study combined 1) quantitative comparisons of biology persisters and switchers via a questionnaire developed for the study and survival analysis of a larger population of biology freshmen with 2) qualitative comparison of biology switchers and persisters via semi-structured life story interviews and homogenous focus groups. 319 students (207 persisters and 112 switchers) participated in the questionnaire and 36 students (20 persisters and 16 switchers) participated in life story and focus group interviews. All participants were undergraduates who entered The University of Texas at Austin as biology freshmen in the fall semesters of 2000 through 2004. Findings of this study suggest: 1) Regardless of eventual major, biology students enter college with generally the same suite of experiences, sources of personal encouragement, and reasons for choosing the biology major; 2) Despite the fact that they have also had poor experiences in the major, biology persisters do not actively decide to stay in the biology major; they simply do not leave; 3) Based upon survival analysis, biology students are most at-risk of leaving the biology major during the first two years of college and if they are African-American or Latino, women, or seeking a Bachelor of Arts degree (rather than a Bachelor of Science); 4) Biology switchers do not leave biology due to preference for other disciplines; they leave due to difficulties or dissatisfaction with aspects of the biology major, including their courses, faculty, and peers; 5) Biology performance has a differential effect on persistence in the biology major, depending on how well students perform in comparison to other courses or other students. / text

M. Tech. Entrepreneurship Tshwane University of Technology / Investigates the relationship between entrepreneurship education and University of Botswana students' intentions towards entrepreneurship. The study also investigates how University of Botswana can expose its students entrepreneurship-related courses at some stage of their study.