Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1969. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D. in Leadership and Policy Studies)--Vanderbilt University, Dec. 2006. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

<p> This analysis contributes conceptually to the field by investigating how campuses both originate and respond to academic innovation by locating the focus of the study in the center of curricular decision-making and action&mdash;the academic department. </p><p> This study applies an organizational perspective to academic innovation directly by combining three ideas to conceptualize and measure departmental qualities. The research design proposes that (1) academic innovation is the result of a direct behavior taken by an actor&mdash;in this case, departments are collective actors and changes in academic programs require collective decision-making; (2) actor behaviors are often cyclical or routine and changes in behavior can be measured through these routines&mdash;in this case, departments routinely offer courses; (3) innovation requires feasibility in actor knowledge, capability, and skill&mdash;in this case, departments collectively contain faculty capability, course knowledge, and administrative skill. </p><p> The significance of departmental factors in a robust inferential model provides evidence that departments draw on technical knowledge and skills through course development and prior programmatic experience. Although enabling environments contribute, external conditions do not create organizational change. Program innovations occur within a campus, beginning at the department level. This study makes the case that context matters, but that its relative impact is mediated by the core characteristics of the collective actor that makes decisions and takes action.</p>

<p> Public libraries throughout the United States are increasingly using technological platforms to provide information resources to students across socioeconomic environments. Advances in technology have affected the way in which we learn with the advent of online learning, e-learning and shared learning experiences that have become ever present in schools and libraries. How relevant is the public library in the initiatives that are directly related to the much-needed support of science, technology, engineering, arts, and math (STEAM)? This study explores the public library as a free, public space for informal learning and the democratic ideals of success as it relates to science education, achievement, and national innovation. The purpose of this study was to determine the challenges that the public library experiences in the implementation of STEAM programs, strategies, and practices employed by the public library in managing the implementation, and how the public library measures success in the process. The questions explored are an (a) examination of best practices in developing strategies for implementation and the challenges that public libraries face as they relate to the implementation and development of STEAM programs, (b) the challenges that public libraries face as they relate to the implementation and development of informal learning programs focused on STEAM, (c) how public libraries measure success within informal learning programs related to STEAM, and (d) what lessons have been learned in the development of informal learning spaces focused on STEAM in the public library.</p><p>

Despite the expansion of the literature on the implications that different inputs have on the educational outcomes of students, empirical research has so far lacked the full capacity to provide unequivocal findings. Essentially, this deficiency is mainly attributed to two main factors; the lack of reliable data and the lack of full dimensionality in the theoretical model adopted to explain such data (Levaččićć and Vignoles, 2002; Knoeppel, Verstegen, and Rinehart, 2007). This dissertation aims to fill those gaps by first building a unique large dataset that covers all aspects of the educational process and second by adopting an integrated theoretical model and advanced quantitative methodological approaches to analyze it. With the fulfillment of such aim the dissertation manages to fill some of the gaps identified in the Education Economics literature related to the relationships between the cognitive and affective educational outcomes of English adolescents on one hand and three main inputs representing each of the three indentified factors in the theoretical model on the other hand controlling for other possible heterogeneities. Specifically, the thesis examines the effect of school process inputs in Chapter 2, family structure as a key family background input in Chapter 3 and finally religion and religiosity as a key adolescent’s personal input in Chapter 4.

The purpose of this study was to critically examine three different approaches to educational provision in Zimbabwe during the pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial periods. It was the intention of the researcher to then select certain features of the pre-colonial, which is also known as the traditional approach, and adopt them into the present practices in order to improve the later. To this end, two methods were employed, literary works and interviews. The major form of obtaining information here was through literary works. Various documents on the history of education in Zimbabwe during the colonial and post-colonial periods were examined and those relevant to this study were selected. Those of the current practices were also used. It was determined that both in the colonial and postcolonial eras, governments were using education as a tool to realize their political objectives. The concerns over political security led colonial governments to provide and withhold education provision as they saw fit. This was their way of checking and controlling the rate of African advancement. Current efforts in the provision of education by the government are a way of cementing the ruling party's administration of society around its own political ideology. This study has found that in both the colonial and the post-colonial periods, the African children were subjected to very strange experiences in the form of the school curriculum. The type of thinking and activities children did at school was not supported with the experiences that they had at home. The worlds of traditional Shona and thought (home) and that of the West (school) in many cases were found to be diametrically opposite. This study argues that these opposite worlds can be bridged if certain aspects of traditional thought and practice was allowed into schools. This would be done by providing a curriculum at school, which incorporated some of those experiences that are highly valued at home. That would make the students' experiences at home continuous with and complementary to those at school.

While careers are often conceptualized as individual paths through occupations—propelled by internal drive and (for the lucky ones) passion—this research takes a more social and political perspective, understanding careers as coordinated by forces external to people and their immediate local settings. In particular this study uncovers ways that imperatives and activities associated with contemporary regional economic development have uneven consequences for young workers depending on socioeconomic status. For this dissertation I undertook a three-year longitudinal study of a much publicized initiative by top administrators of a state university to entice more college students to remain in that northeast US state to work upon graduation. Using the theoretical framework and methodology of institutional ethnography, a mode of analysis designed to "explore a regime of social policy from the standpoint of those subject to it," (DeVault 2008: 2) this research is anchored in the actual experiences of young students and workers transitioning into careers—potential young professionals. Through extensive observations of the activities of those involved with the initiative, interviews of business leaders, students, and recent graduates, analysis of initiative documents, as well as analysis of related practical and academic texts, I mapped the complexes of career-related social relations around students and workers that have material consequences on their everyday lives. According to the leaders of the university initiative "young professionals"—a category applied rather freely—were the creative, energetic, hard workers needed by the state for economic growth. This research investigated the "work"—paid and unpaid—that goes into performing as a "young professional," and reveals the disjunctures between the idealized images of young professionals and their actual lived experiences. It is much easier for some to perform the work of young professionalism than others, given structural inequities in economic, social, and educational structures. The dissertation concludes with a discussion of the consequences of these findings, including implications for university professors who work to prepare college students for their future careers. Despite the prevalence of young professional discourse in the United States, there is very little careers research specifically focused on young professionals and their careers. This research addresses that gap and also adds a needed contextual, longitudinal perspective to that body of management scholarship.

<p> The AACN has asked academic leaders to align the performance of their organizations to the prescribed standards within the <i>Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice</i> document and has provided indicators of quality suggestions for program enhancement as a means of promoting continuous performance improvement. However, the AACN has not prescribed a strategy that specifies the manner in which colleges should achieve these benchmarked standards, which has created uncertainty among administrators about whether the indicators of quality lead to improvements that are actually indicative of improved performance.</p><p> This dissertation used multiple linear regression research design to determine whether predictive relationships exist between the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN) indicators of quality and the Baldrige core values and concepts of performance improvement within Commission on Collegiate Nursing Education accredited baccalaureate colleges of nursing.</p><p> The purpose of this study was to determine whether the behaviors associated with specific AACN indicators of quality reflect behaviors that the Baldrige core values and concepts have already proven to be successful in achieving continuous performance improvement. The results revealed nine AACN indicators of quality behaviors most likely to enhance performance improvement outcomes within baccalaureate colleges of nursing. They include; (1) Resources are budgeted for research, development, business operations, public relations, marketing, and human resources; (2) Establishing and upholding policies that reflect faculty and leadership development resources; (3) Student experiences include service learning opportunities; (4) Practice partnerships include collaborative practice initiatives; (5) Collecting data and making program changes that focus on the level of graduate satisfaction with their preparation for the profession; (6) Faculty have input into the governance of the college/school; (7) The majority of faculty have a presence in state, regional, national, and international professional activities; (8) Opportunities for baccalaureate graduate's employment with practice partnerships; and (9) Formal mentoring program for clinical preceptors.</p><p> The results underline the fact that continuous performance improvement within baccalaureate colleges of nursing is a deliberate and dynamic analysis-driven endeavor dependent on an organization's ability, willingness, and initiative to continually strive to narrow the chasm between actual and potential performance results.</p>

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2005. / Title from first page of PDF file. Document formatted into pages; contains xi, 169 p.; also includes graphics. Includes bibliographical references (p. 161-169). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Ohio University, June, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 266-279)