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In the steady-state 1970's institutional reactions to downturns in enrollment and financial growth were theoretically expected to have damaged the humanities in public two-year colleges. But, at the same time, the humanities were expected to respond, counteracting detrimental consequences. A nationwide sample of public two-year colleges, comprising about fourteen percent of the total was selected for study. Three sets of variables were used. Institutional conditions were measured by four financial and enrollment change variables. Humanities conditions were measured by six financial, enrollment, and staffing variables. Humanities responsiveness was measured by constructing an indicator from seventeen variables representing adaptive responses. Descriptive statistics and canonical correlation analysis results were produced to test the research questions. Insititutional conditions changed substantially, revealing markedly reduced instructional and per student expenditures while overall enrollments and expenditures increased dramatically. Three circumstances appeared to explain these discrepant changes. Institutions probably realized economies of scale through enrollment growth. While expenditures did increase dramatically over inflation, inflation contributed to widening the gap between proportional enrollment and income growth. Increased costs may have resulted from the support service demands of the greatly expanded number of students, and from cost increases due to increased organizational complexity. Probably, as a result of these three influences, per student expenditures declined so markedly. Possibly the impact of inflation, increased support service costs, and complexity costs, reduced severely the potential for cost savings through economies of scale and as a result the growth of the 1970's brought financial strain, which would be expected to heighten pressures on the humanities. Humanities conditions, however, appeared suprisingly strong. Enrollments and FTE faculty increases were observed. The enrollment share declined while the FTE faculty proportion remained stable. On institutional comparative measure the humanities full-time to part-time faculty ratio increased while the humanities student to faculty ratio decreased. Thus, compared to changes in conditions outside the humanities, the humanities had enrollment growth coupled with increased full-time faculty that resulted in favorable, from the standpoint of quality, instructional conditions. However, from the standpoint of relative costs, humanities conditions may be unfavorable. The humanities FTE faculty share was stable while they served proportionally fewer students. Also, the relatively increasing proportion of full-time faculty is relatively more costly to support than the relatively decreasing proportion outside the humanities. Finally, the relatively decreasing class size is relatively more costly than the relatively increasing class size outside the humanities. Paradoxically the humanities appeared strong at the same time unfavorable cost comparisons and possibly strained institutional conditions were emerging. This paradox may be explained by the principle that incrementally earned support shares are maintained by strong inertial forces and that humanities courses are an integral, and historically central, part of the two-year college curriculum. Possibly the degree of humanities responsiveness, which appeared low, was partially responsible for the strong showing of the humanities. The hypothesis that institutional reactions to changing financial and enrollment conditions would be clearly damaging to the humanities was not supported. However, given the eroding enrollment share base in the humanities and the relatively increasing costs in the humanities, detrimental consequences may not be too far over the horizon. With the apparently strong inertial forces promoting the maintenance of the humanities and rededicated efforts to respond to the threatening forces, the humanities in public two-year colleges can probably be maintained and enhanced.

Today, education is arguably one of the most important facets used to prepare and train students for the future. Society expects that students will acquire the requisite knowledge and competence in their respective fields to prepare them to successfully navigate the demands of today's competitive markets. This expectation has consequences on teachers at all levels of education across many domains. Teachers have a significant role: to prepare students for the future. Competent teachers spend a great deal of time reflecting on their own practices and beliefs, reviewing their teaching goals and evaluating if students have met these goals effectively. The process of reflection in teaching is vital in the preparation and training of students. / The purpose of this dissertation therefore was to investigate how statistics professors reflect on their practice. The research questions were designed to access what statistics teachers thought about before giving their courses and before giving two of their classes (hypothesis testing, t-tests). Post class evaluation interviews were conducted to determine where professors thought they were effective and whether they considered a need for change based on student understanding. More specifically, the questions asked: 1) What are the main themes in teacher reflection? 2) How is the content of reflection similar or different between statistics teachers? 3) How is the content of teacher reflection defined in statistics? / The design was based on a grounded theory approach whereby data collection consisted solely of interviews conducted throughout the semester: one pre-course interview and two sets of pre-class and post-class interviews. There were 13 participants in total. Participants were either statistics teachers from Quebec Cegeps or university professors. Participants were from the following departments: anthropology, economics, psychology, sociology, education, math, and biology. The analyses dealt with three data sources: pre class reflection, in class reflection, and post class reflection. / Data analysis focused on defining the main themes of teacher reflection that emerged from the data, identifying the content of reflection between and within participants in terms of similarities or differences. The pre course interview revealed five main themes: the course (logistics), the teacher as 'self, teaching approaches (what do they say they do in the classroom?), teaching and learning influences, and evaluation of teaching. / The pre and post class interviews addressed class planning. What did the professors foresee as any issues students might have in understanding hypothesis testing and t-tests? What changes would they make the next time they taught these concepts? Results showed that the focus of professor reflection centered around three main categories: the class, the student, and the teacher. For the main category, class, some professors reviewed lecture notes, added examples that emphasized authentic statistical problems, and others did no preparation. Student related themes addressed issues students had with understanding statistical content, learning associated difficulties, and student affect. The last category, the teacher, looked at self evaluation, their in-class strategies, methods of promoting and gauging student understanding, and decisions made in class and for future classes. Recommendations for future research include examining the role of experience in professor's level of reflection as well as defining the process of decision making and its role in reflection.

The Sami people have struggled for centuries to maintain their culture in spite of pressures against it from colonialism. The formal education systems of Norway and Finland have acted in discord with Sami decision-making since their inception. In response to this lack of decision-making power, there is a dynamic internal process at work; Sami people have begun to take control of their own schooling. / This thesis qualitatively examines the processes of curriculum development and implementation for wood handicraft programs at the Sami colleges in Guovdageaidnu, Norway and in Anar, Finland, and details the most significant educational and political factors involved in the transmission and production of indigenous knowledge associated with Sami handicraft. Factors associated with the teaching of Sami handicraft in the form of increasing commercialization, generalization and mechanization in formal duodji education and the stereotyping of Sami cultural imagery pose potential risks to appropriate transfer of Sami cultural knowledge. This thesis will show that the teaching of Sami handicraft (duodji) is an educational and political tool that helps develop and define modern Sami culture. Accordingly, attempts by the Sami colleges to incorporate greater indigenous knowledge have resulted in the implementation of modern indigenous curriculum that promotes cultural knowledge through the teaching of Sami handicraft.

The growth of medical anthropology as a distinct sub-discipline has opened up many new roles for anthropologists within the medical field, and identified an ever wider range of mutual interests. In this study the anthropologists role as a teacher in the basic medical curriculum is examined in order to determine whether "broad and general relevance" exists between the two fields. / Field data is analyzed from 2 1/2 years active participation teaching at a newly founded medical school in the North Mexican industrial of Monterrey, Nuevo Leon. Information on institutions history and social structures, student values and attitudes toward the professional medical milieu, and responses to specific teaching material is discussed as components of the decision making process which led to role definition. The differences between classroom and field teaching of anthropology were explored in connection with an urban vaccination campaign and an experimental field course in a bi-ethnic rural community of the sierra tarahumara (Chihuahua). The medical school is seen as a reflection of the community and professional context which surrounds it, and the need to make anthropological teaching congruent to its particular needs and circumstances is stressed. / The study concludes that general relevance has not yet been achieved due to the lack of a definable clinical role for the anthropologist, and unresolved conflicts between the biological and anthropological models of man.

<p>Problems of understanding fundamental calculus concepts by students in tertiary education colleges and universities are evidenced by a body of research studies conducted in different parts of the world. The researchers have identified, classified and analysed these problems from historical, epistemological, and learning theory perspectives. History is important because mathematical concepts are a result of the developments of the past. The way knowledge is acquired is an epistemological issue and the major purpose of learning is to acquire knowledge. Hence, these three perspectives qualify to be used as lenses in understanding problems that students encounter in a learning situation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the epistemological obstacles that mathematics students at undergraduate level encounter in coming to understand the limit concept. The role played by language and symbolism in understanding the limit concept was also investigated, because communication in the mathematics classroom takes place by using language and symbols.</p>

This study, which is set in a Faculty of Management Studies at a higher education institution in South Africa, is concerned with facilitating students‟ epistemological access to the discipline of Marketing. It takes the position that each discipline has its own Discourse or 'ways of being' (Gee, 2005), and that this is influenced by the discipline‟s underlying knowledge structure (Maton, 2003). The ability of Marketing lecturers to help students to become effective participants in the Discourse of Marketing rests on an understanding of what legitimate participation in the Discourse of Marketing entails. However, because such understandings are often tacit and contested, inducting students into disciplinary Discourses is made difficult. Thus the first research question that this study seeks to address is: What constitutes epistemological access to the discipline of Marketing? The second question is: How do educational practices in Marketing at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) impact on the achievement of epistemological access to the discipline? Theoretically, the study draws on Maton‟s (2005a) Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) and work undertaken from a New Literacy Studies (NLS) perspective, such as Gee‟s theory of Discourse (2005) and „academic literacies‟ research. LCT allows for an analysis of the underlying principles that structure the discipline of Marketing, thus conceptualising the „rules of the game‟ of the discipline and highlighting what counts as relevant meaning in Marketing. This analysis is therefore pertinent in addressing the first research question. NLS allows for an understanding of how lecturers and students operate in the discipline to construct legitimate meaning by engaging in appropriate practices and communication. Methodologically, the analysis of data also draws on Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). An understanding of the „rules of the game‟ of Marketing, given by the LCT analysis, provides a backdrop against which educational practices in the discipline of Marketing at UKZN are explored. The analysis using CDA gives insight into how students‟ Marketing identities are being built in the discipline of Marketing at UKZN and what the ramifications are for their epistemological access to the discipline, thus addressing the second research question. In combination, these analyses reveal that students‟ Marketing identities are not being specialised in ways that are appropriate to the disciplinary Discourse. Possible reasons for the inconsistency between the type of knower espoused and the type of knower actually produced in the discipline are explored. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Edgewood, 2012.