Typescript (photocopy). / Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

This study is an investigation of the relationship between assessment, teaching and learning from the perspective of undergraduate students. It consisted of three stages which were developmental in nature with each stage informing the next and providing overall focus and direction. Students participating had completed at least five semesters of their undergraduate porogram.Findings from the literature, the interviews and the survey confirmed the central role the assessment process plays in shaping student learning. Ways feedback was used to inform learning as well as the types of assessment strategies employed emerged as key factors associated with students' motivations to learn. Nine practice related recommendations are made and four issues requiring further research are identified / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

<p>This study explored the learning experiences of black working class women in the context of the National Skills Development Strategy. The research focused firstly, on how the National Skills Development Strategy facilitated women's learning and secondly, what has helped and hindered their learning and how their learning experiences related to the literature on women's learning.</p>

University of Macau / Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities / Department of English

The aim of this thesis is to investigate how students in higher education use talking books. This has been inves-tigated through qualitative interviews with nine students. The intention has been to find out how they use talk-ing books and why they have chosen to do it in the way they have, looking specifically on whether there are strategies shared by most of the interviewees. As a theoretical basis of the thesis I have chosen a study, described by Sigrid Hongset, where dyslectic pu-pils tried using printed text and text on tape, as well as both simultaneously. George Kingsley Zipfs “Principle of least effort” will act as a supplemental theory. The interviews show that the students use talking books in different ways. Most read them via a computer, either using a program specifically made for talking book reading or a general purpose audio program. Some used portable players, such as mp3-players. None of them used a talking book player at the time and only a few used several of the special functions that the digital DAISY format offers. All the interviewees used printed books alongside the talking books. Some used them concurrently, while others did not. One thing they had in common was that they had, mostly purposefully, made strategies for how to study with the talking books, but these strategies were vastly different between them. It was obvious that different factors were important regarding their choices of technique. They were working towards as hassle free a use as possible. In this aspect there was a noticeable clash between different kinds of effort. The need not to carry around cumbersome equipment might for example be greater than the need to have all the functions of the DAISY format available. Several of them did not have full knowledge of the functions available in the DAISY format, but they did not appear to view that as a problem. Meanwhile there was a certain amount of frustration aimed towards insuf-ficiencies inherit in the talking book format.

Thesis (M.R.E.)--B.Y.U. Dept. of Graduate Religious Instruction. / Electronic thesis. Also available in print ed.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2003. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 97-105). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

The development of social competence is a fundamental aspect of children’s adjustment and functioning (Hussong et al. 2005). Children with severe social impairments are at risk for academic and mental health difficulties, and they often require a higher degree of family support beyond childhood compared with nondisabled populations (Green et al., 2000; Tanguay, 2001). Little is known about how severe social competency deficits in children influence the family environment and how the family environment typical of this population influences the school adjustment of these children. The purpose of the study was to 1) examine differences in mothers’ perceptions of family climate among children with social competency disorders (SCD), children with Verbal Learning Disabilities (VLD), and typically developing children (TYP); 2) determine whether social competency moderated the effect of the Systems Maintenance domain of the family environment on a teacher rated school outcome. Participants were 60 children, ages 8 to 14, and their mothers selected from the University of Texas at Austin Assessment of Social Competency in Children with Developmental Disorders Research Project. Data were received from a family climate questionnaire completed by mothers, a behavioral questionnaire completed by teachers, and a social competence measure administered to children. Results found that mothers of children with VLD and SCD viewed their families similarly to mothers of typically developing children and that mothers rated their families within the normal range across almost all aspects of the family environment. The single exception to this was that mothers of children with VLD perceived their family climates to be more openly expressive than mothers of children in the SCD and TYP groups, and that mothers of children in the TYP group perceived their family as more organized compared with the clinical groups. The hypothesis that social competence moderated the effect of the Systems Maintenance domain of the family environment on child study skills was not supported by the data. Lack of differences across groups with respect to almost all aspects of the family climate suggests that mothers in the clinical groups perceived strengths and assets in the family climate similarly to mothers of typically developing children. / text

An appreciation of the extent of one's own knowledge is known as metaknowledge and it has been argued that students' ability to distinguish between what they know, and what they do not, is an important influence on academic success. However, previous research suggests a general tendency for individuals to display overconfidence in their knowledge, by overestimating how much they know. This study assessed the ability of learners studying business in higher education to appreciate the extent of their own knowledge and investigated the association between this capability and academic achievement. It therefore contributes towards answering broader questions regarding how well individuals are able to assess their own capabilities and what the implications of this are. Quantitative methodology was employed and multiple-choice tests used to investigate how accurately students were able to assess the extent of their knowledge of issues addressed in their study programmes. Analysis of over 12,500 judgements provided by 508 respondents revealed a general tendency for overconfidence and indicated that this was greater for males, older participants and particularly, for Chinese students. Consequently, interventions designed to moderate overconfidence may be particularly valuable for these sub-groups. In terms of its potential implications for learning, the research indicated that better metaknowledge was positively associated with higher levels of academic performance, particularly for those in their first year studying at the university. Consequently, while metacognitive skills, such as accurate self-monitoring, are typically poorly addressed in business schools, the findings from this study suggest that initiatives to improve self monitoring accuracy may be effective in enhancing student learning. Additionally, such interventions have other potential benefits for learners, since metacognitive monitoring skills may also usefully inform lifestyle decisions, as well as improving the chances of success in business and may therefore be particularly beneficial for business students.

This work constructs a bridge across the "knowing-doing gap" of international staff exchange: the gap between strategy formulation and its execution within the constraints of a post-1992 university business school in the UK. It goes beyond the common, well-intentioned and yet vague statements involving the "encouragement" of international staff exchange to propose a model of execution through strategic entrepreneurship. The promotion of international staff mobility is a founding principle of the "Bologna Process", designed to create a converged system of higher education across Europe. Many UK "new" (ie post-1992) universities are engaged in the development of internationalisation strategies which include staff exchange. Meanwhile, the failure to execute strategy is increasingly acknowledged as a major problem in organisational performance. Using a first-, second and third-person Insider Action Research (AR) approach, the author initiated, planned, organised and implemented an international staff exchange between universities in the UK and France. Data generated were subjected to a double process of analysis in order to construct the new model. A policy of "subjectivity with transparency" and transcontextual credibility throughout enables the reader to judge transferability. Duality is the nature of this "bridge" and the simplistic transplant of the expatriation policies of commercial organisations is avoided. Concepts from the theoretical literature in three domains - strategic management and entrepreneurship in higher education, internationalisation of higher education and strategy execution through strategic entrepreneurship - are combined with the research analysis to propose that "strategic entrepreneurs" can execute the riskier elements of an internationalisation strategy, such as staff exchange. Members of the creative class, strategic entrepreneurs are attracted and motivated by the foundation of a diverse environment and entrepreneurial culture promoted by a university's values-driven, holistic approach to internationalisation. Their autonomous strategic behaviour must be facilitated by an execution-focussed organisational architecture. In a university, the overall approach to staff exchange should combine central and local (school-based) functions and resource both to develop strategic initiatives and to exploit tactical opportunities. This work broadens AR from education into strategic management, specifically linking the areas of strategic execution and strategic entrepreneurship.