The purpose of this study was to gain an understanding of teachers’ perceptions on teacher leadership and motivational levels to engage in leadership roles at school. The research study was conducted within a qualitative research paradigm and took the form of a single case study in one secondary school in Newcastle, KwaZulu-Natal. Multi-data collection techniques included semi-structured interviews, a focus group interview, semi-structured and unstructured observations and document analysis. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2008.

The purpose of the study was to examine factors related to identification with organizational goals in two Centres of re-education in Quebec. The personnel of these Centres are semiprofessionals with specialized training related to re-education. In a pretest it was found that identification of educators with the organizational goals was similar in both Centres in spite of a greater number of role conflicts in one Centre. This result was contrary to what could be expected. Therefore the question raised was what additional factors enter into the relationship between the organizational goals and educators. / Factors examined in this study are based on Mintzberg's management roles descriptors, and substitutes for hierarchical leadership identified in the literature. Substitutes for leadership tested fall in three general domains: personal, job, and organizational characteristics. The following questions were examined: do the substitutes for hierarchical leaders differ in the two Centres; is the performance of management roles perceived as different in the two Centres. / Data were obtained from questionnaires submitted to educators and managers in the two Centres. Results show significant differences in identification with the profession, intrinsic feedback from the task itself, perceived organizational formalization, and cohesiveness of the work group. / These findings suggest that the educators in one Centre identified with the goals of the organization primarily through identification with the profession. Educators in the second Centre identified with the goals of the organization primarily through the task itself and the cohesive work group. / These findings suggests that the educators in one Centre identified with the goals of the organization primarily through identification with the profession. Educators in the second Centre identified with the goals of the organization primarily through the task itself and the cohesive work group.

This study explores the nature of teachers' understandings of theoretical orientation to reading and the relationships between theoretical orientations to reading and instructional practice. The participants were eleven Grade Five classroom teachers, seven female and four male, in one particular school board in Southern Ontario. A series of three in-depth, phenomenological interviews were conducted with each teacher-participant. Utilizing the concept of theoretical orientation to reading, understandings of and relationships between, theoretical orientation to reading and instructional practice were identified and described by the teachers in this study, from an 'emic' (insider) perspective. The themes of teachers' knowledge and beliefs, personal experiences, and constructivist approaches to teaching and learning emerged as highly influential in determining the kinds of instructional decisions made by the teacher participants. The data illustrate how teachers with a skills orientation to reading instruction supported a focus on explicit skills instruction within balanced, eclectic approaches to reading instruction. The results provide a multi-voice construction, showing how the teacher participants' knowledge, beliefs, personal and professional experiences were reflected not only in their efforts to articulate understandings of theoretical orientations to reading, but also in the characteristics of relationships between their theoretical orientation to reading and instructional practices. Patterns and themes in the data also indicate the need for improved pre-service teacher education, and relevant in-service professional development, to better meet the needs of contemporary teachers of reading at the junior division level.

The teaching of the gifted has been a core part of education itself sice it was first formalised, however despite these years of experience the academic community are no closer to understanding or recommending best practice to the thousands of teachers who deal with the challenges associated with gifted and talented education on a daily basis. This study hopes to understand teachers attitudes towards these types of children as well as those children who fall into the doubly exceptional category through qualitative semi structured interviews and focus groups. The resuls showed that while participants held positives attitudes to both types of students under study they were largly unsure as to effectively educate these children and felt that proper government and global guidelines as well as teacher training could overcome these issues.

The purpose of this Q study was to learn broadcast news professors' attitudes on the current state of local television news. The researcher also wished to uncover if professors with primarily teaching experience have different attitudes on local television news than professors with primarily professional broadcast experience.Nineteen professors in Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan sorted Q statements regarding the quality of local television news. An analysis of their Q sorts found the participants fell into three categories: the Ultra-Critics, the Moderate-Critics, and the Minimal-Critics.The Ultra-Critics were very critical of local television news and had virtually nothing positive to say about the topic. The Moderate-Critics had some positive thoughts about local television news, but were still very critical. The Minimal-Critics were critical of local television news, but still had many positive thoughts on the industry.The researcher also found that professors with primarily professional broadcast experience were much more critical of the industry than professors with primarily teaching experience. / Department of Journalism

This study attempted to determine what specific course criteria pubic relations educators believed to be most important in an international public relations course. The researcher provided fifty-seven public relations educators with fifty statements covering potential areas an international public relations course could include. The statements covered the areas of business, media, culture, government and miscellaneous. Each public relations educators was asked to sort the statements according to how much he or she agreed or disagreed with them.The QMETHOD program was used to determine two factor groups from the nineteen responses received. The factor groups, Type I and Type II. Type I consisted of twelve public relations educators and Type II consisted of seven public relations educators.Public relations educators in both groups agreed that an international public relations course should teach students to follow global current events and public relations issues, should cover various countries and their cultural taboos, and teach students to identify social trends abroad.The researcher expected public relations educators to support an international public relations course structure which favored the study of a broad range of international public relations at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, and to achieve a consensus on statements relating to cultural sensitivity training. For the most part, the researcher's expectations were met. However, more technical skills issues (i.e., fundamental, pragmatic public relations knowledge needed to execute public relations plans) were raised than expected, and educators' views on the level at which international public relations should be taught differed from what the researcher had anticipated. / Department of Journalism

There is no abstract available for this thesis. / Department of Journalism

Although girls make up a small portion of students identified as having emotional or behavioral disorders (EBD), there has been a steady and significant increase in the number of violent incidences in schools involving girls. Yet few intervention programs are in place to address the unique needs of girls with EBD problems of an aggressive nature. This study examined the effectiveness of Time Away (TA), a conflict resolution program emphasizing social skill training currently being employed at the elementary school level in an Indiana school district. TA involves three phases (Albrecht, 1992): timeout—after several unsuccessful attempts by the teacher to resolve conflicts, the offending student is sent to the TA room and placed in a 10-min timeout ("cool down") period; redirection—the student then participates briefly in an academic ("getting back on track") activity; and conflict resolution—a subsequent debriefing period during which time the student is encouraged to examine the events leading to the problem behavior, the specific unacceptable actions that resulted in removal from the classroom, and the consequences along with possible alternative actions that could avoid such problems in the future.This study compared two school districts, one using TA and another using traditional disciplinary practices. TA referrals and disciplinary referrals were compared for both school districts and variables such as gender, socioeconomic status, and the number of referrals made were analyzed. In addition, teachers using TA were surveyed to determine their perceptions of the effectiveness of the TA program and their possible use of it in the future. Their responses to open-ended survey questions were examined qualitatively by grouping them according to themes that emerged from a content analysis. Results of the referral analysis gave support to its effectiveness for girls: In the school district where TA was implemented, girls received 30% fewer referrals than boys in that district and 28% fewer referrals than either boys or girls in the comparison school district that did not use TA. Possible reasons for these results along with recommendations for improving the TA program are discussed. / Department of Special Education

This study consisted of qualitative interviews with eight recent graduates of doctoral programs in adult education from each of three different universities (a total of twenty-four respondents). The question that was addressed by this study is: "What are the shared beliefs and behaviors of those who have completed doctoral studies in adult education."The respondents to this study gave forceful support to the argument that adult education is a practice-oriented field. Their responses consistently focused around the practical. They were interested in research for the applications that it would give them for their practice. They were interested in teaching methods. They wanted to see fewer administrative and delivery barriers to adult education. They mentioned empowerment and application as purposes of adult education. In general, they viewed adult education as a field of practice that related directly to what they were doing to educate adults and they were really more interested in teaching methodologies and other practical information than in theoretical foundations. This orientation was reinforced by the overwhelming support for Malcolm Knowles as an author who has had a great influence on their development as adult educators. / Department of Educational Leadership

A dramatic upsurge in the number of students with learning disabilities (LD) who attended college has occurred since the 1970s. The granting of accommodations to students with LD and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or both was important for their success in postsecondary education. Key to the provision of these services was the attitude of faculty towards granting the accommodations. This study examined the attitudes of faculty members at community colleges which had specialized programs for students with LD or ADHD towards granting these accommodations. These attitudes were assessed through a questionnaire. The questionnaire assessed three attitudes: willingness to make accommodation confidence that the accommodations will make a difference, and belief that accommodations would threaten the integrity of the course. The questionnaire also divided accommodations into two large groups: instruction accommodations and evaluation and material accommodations. This study also included a qualitative component in that the questionnaire included some open-ended questions and some respondents were interviewed. A total of 1100 questionnaires was sent to faculty throughout selected Illinois and Indiana community colleges of which 285 questionnaires made up the sample population. Sample population consisted of 54% male and 46% female; 51% held the rank of instructor or adjunct professor while 49% held professorial rank; tenured status consisted of 68% and nontenured (32%) while 54% were full-time and 46% part-time faculty. The collapsed years of teaching experience comprised 46% with five years or less, 27% with six to 15 years, and 27% with more than 16 years. A majority of faculty members had previous experience with students with LD (86%) and ADHD (71%), and a majority of the respondents (71%) had a family member or knew an individual with LD. Results of the questionnaire were combined to generate two factors scores: instructional accommodations and evaluation and material accommodations. These scores were analyzed using means and standard deviations or the factor scores. Aside from overall means, individual differences among faculty members were analyzed using two-way and one-way ANOVAs with alpha set at .05. The overall means suggested that the faculty: were willing to make accommodations, had confidence that the accommodations would make a difference, and did not believe that the accommodations would threaten the integrity of the class. Individual differences were found for gender, tenure status, and training. Females were found to accommodate better than males. Subjects with additional training accommodated more positively than those without training. The current findings were interpreted within the framework of how these community colleges could improve faculty attitudes. Institutions should make LD training a main concern in order for faculty to accommodate. / Department of Special Education