This thesis is a single case study of the introduction and evaluation of new resources and new technologies in higher education; in which e-Proof was chosen as a single case. E-proofs are a multimedia representation of proofs, were created by Alcock (2009), and aimed to help undergraduates to read proofs for better proof comprehension. My thesis aimed to investigate whether the impact of reading such technology-based resource, e-Proofs, on undergraduates proof comprehension was better compared to reading written textbook proofs and if so, then why (or why not). To evaluate the effectiveness of e-Proofs, I used both qualitative and quantitative methods. First I measured undergraduates satisfaction, which is a most common research practice in evaluation studies, by using self-reporting methods such as web-based survey and interviews. A web-based survey and focus-group interviews showed that undergraduates liked to have e-Proofs and they believed that e-Proofs had positive impact on their proof comprehension. However, their positive views on e-Proofs did not evidence the educational impact of e-Proofs. I conducted an interview with Alcock for better understanding of her intentions of creating e-Proof and her expectations from it. Next, I conducted the first experiment which compared the impact of reading an e-Proof with a written textbook proof on undergraduates proof comprehension. Their comprehension was measured with an open-ended comprehension test twice immediately after reading the proof and after two weeks. I found that the immediate impact of reading an e-Proof and a textbook proof were essentially the same, however the long term impact of reading an e-Proof was worse than reading a textbook proof (for both high and low achieving undergraduates). This leads to the second experiment in which I investigated how undergraduates read e-Proofs and textbook proofs. In the second experiment, participants eye-movements were recorded while read- ing proofs, to explore their reading comprehension processes. This eye-tracking experiment showed that undergraduates had a sense of understanding of how to read a proof without any additional help. Rather, additional help allowed them to take a back seat and to devote less cognitive effort than they would otherwise. Moreover, e-Proofs altered undergraduates reading behaviours in a way which can harm learning. In sum, this thesis contributes knowledge into the area of reading and compre- hending proofs at undergraduate level and presents a methodology for evaluation studies of new pedagogical tools.

<strong>Background. </strong> Post-secondary institutions account for more smokers than any other occupational setting in Canada (Hammond, 2005). Unfortunately, little is known about tobacco use among this distinct population of students. The purpose of this study was to identify the prevalence of smoking and patterns of cigarette use among undergraduates at the University of Waterloo. The current study also sought to investigate the role of school connectedness in predicting students? smoking behaviours, and to explore the relation of student smoking status as determined by a behavoural measure and self-reported smoking status. <br /><br /> <strong>Methods. </strong> A secondary analysis of data collected using the University of Waterloo Tobacco Use Survey (2004) was employed for this research. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequencies, means, and percentages), non-parametric statistics (chi-square and Cohen?s kappa), principle components factor analysis and logistic regression in order to serve the exploratory purposes of the study. <br /><br /> <strong>Results. </strong> Overall, 17. 55% of the respondents reported current cigarette use (3. 37% daily; 14. 18% non-daily). Although most (85. 5%) students? self-perceptions remained as ?nonsmokers who never smoke? from university entrance to the study date, a greater proportion of students made a negative change in their self-perceived smoking status over this time period than a positive change (10. 13% vs. 4. 38%, respectively). Among students who perceived themselves as ?nonsmokers who never smoke? or ?ex-smokers? at university entrance, being more academically engaged predicted making a negative change in ones? self-perceived smoking status (OR= 1. 924, CI₉₅= 1. 064-3. 480). Finally, the proportion of non-daily smokers differed between the two measures of smoking status. Many students classified as ?occasional smokers? using the behavioural measure actually perceived themselves as ?nonsmokers who smoke sometimes?. <br /><br /> <strong>Discussion. </strong> The results of this study provide valuable new insights into smoking among Canadian university students. Students who are more academically engaged may be at risk of initiating smoking, perhaps as a means of stress reduction. Furthermore, the adult measure of occasional smoking typically used in tobacco research may be insufficient to inform tobacco control efforts for this population as it results in different proportions of non-daily smokers when compared against students? self-perceived smoking status. The findings of this exploratory research await replication with larger samples and different measures. Implications of the results for practice and further research are discussed. <br /><br /> <strong>Conclusions. </strong> This strategy of assessing connectedness to school shows promise in predicting post-secondary students? cigarette smoking behaviours. The results also provide support for continued investigation into the best ways to measure and assess current cigarette use in this unique population.

The purpose of this study was to create and gain consensus of an essential curriculum for teaching score study in the undergraduate instrumental conducting class. Questions to be answered by this study were what methods, materials, and evaluations should be used to teach score study to undergraduate instrumental conducting students? Resolving the questions required the collection of information on the methods, materials, and evaluations used in teaching score preparation in the undergraduate instrumental conducting class and the opinions of conductors and teachers of conducting about those methods, materials, and evaluations.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the relationship between Western and Thai music objectives in the undergraduate music programs of selected Thai universities and colleges. The data were collected from two sources: (1) an investigation of university music catalogs and syllabi for potential conflict areas in Western and Thai music objectives, and (2) questionnaire responses from university music teachers regarding their opinions about those potential conflict areas found from reviewing catalogs and syllabi. The dissertation is organized into six chapters: the introduction in Chapter I; the synthesis of related literature and background information regarding music study in higher education in Thailand in Chapter II; the design of the study in Chapter III; the comparisons of required music programs of six Thai universities in Chapter IV; the analysis of questionnaire data in Chapter V; and the summary, conclusions, discussions, and recommendations in Chapter VI. It was found that Western and Thai music objectives tended to be seen as supporting each other in the areas of music theory, orchestration, form and analysis, music history, counterpoint, composition, and the practice of pitched and unpitched musical instruments. Sight reading practices in Western music were found to support the rote method utilized in the study of Thai music. Western and Thai singing methods tended to be seen as conflicting somewhat with each other. The Western diatonic scale system tended to be seen as conflicting somewhat with the Thai musical scale system. The establishment of a course in the sight-reading of Thai music was recommended in Thai universities.

Thesis advisor: Karen Arnold / The purpose of this study was to determine the impact of a business ethics course on the cognitive moral reasoning of freshmen business students. The sample consisted of 268 college students enrolled in a required business ethics course. The students took Rest's Defining Issues Test - Version 2 (DIT2) as a pre-test and then post-test (upon completing the course). Descriptive analyses, t-tests, ANOVA, and multiple regression were employed to compare the pre-test and post-test scores of the students and to determine the relationship, if any, between the variables of gender, class size, instructor, class time of day, SAT scores, and students' GPAs; and the dependent variable of moral reasoning (N2) scores. Descriptive analyses showed that taking this kind of a course made a difference for virtually everyone. While women had higher pre-test scores, post-test scores, and overall gains in moral reasoning than men, men also had gains across the board. Gains were also found across all instructors, in both small and medium class sizes and regardless of what time the class occurred. Further, compared to the national sample of college students, the study sample was at the level of college seniors. Results of ANOVA testing showed that the gains in moral reasoning scores were statistically significant ones. However, the moral reasoning gains of students enrolled in the smaller sections (n = 19) were not statistically significantly different than students enrolled in medium sized (n = 27) sections of the same course. Finally, the independent variable of class time had the most statistically significant relationship with gains in moral reasoning scores. The findings of this study suggest several practices for institutions of higher education. First, certain curricular conditions should be considered by institutions with ethics courses. The content should be explicit and pedagogical strategies should include role-taking, the discussion of moral dilemmas, reflection, active learning, and cognitive disequilibrium. Second, increasing class sizes by eight students can help to maintain moral growth while still being financially efficient. Third, these findings may inform administrators when planning class times (the earlier, the better). / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2011. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Administration and Higher Education.

Current literature confirms that self-efficacy, academic self-concept, and participation in undergraduate research influence the academic performance and aspirations of students. However, a gap in the literature remains as research has yet to explore whether students who have participated in research have a higher sense of research self-efficacy and academic self-concept than students who have not participated in these activities. In addition, it is unknown whether undergraduate researchers pursuing STEM degrees differ from students pursuing non-STEM degrees, nor if they vary by gender. The purpose of this study was to investigate the research self-efficacy and academic self-concept of undergraduate researchers, compare these beliefs to nonresearchers, and to examine how these measures differ by gender and field of study (i.e. STEM and non-STEM fields) among undergraduate researchers. Additionally, this research identified various factors that predict research self-efficacy and academic selfconcept. This quantitative study was conducted at a public university located in the Southeast region of the United States. Using survey methods participants’ background information, academic self-concept, and research self-efficacy was collected. Participants were students who had participated in undergraduate research as well as students who had not participated in research activities. Both groups completed the same survey. This study gained insight into the research self-efficacy, academic self-concept, field of study, and gender differences among undergraduate researchers and how they compare to non-researchers. Research findings may assist colleges, universities, and offices that promote undergraduate research in recruiting students to participate in research activities. Findings also contribute to literature supporting undergraduate research as an element that contributes to student success in undergraduate education. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2017. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

Frequently, educational approaches are considered as a dichotomy – liberal versus professional. However, perpetuating this dichotomy may not best serve students or the workforce. We are at the forefront of an educational movement and it is critical that we think intentionally about who we are training our students to be and how do we best do it. Baccalaureate public health education is occurring in a range of locations including community colleges, traditional liberal arts schools, and schools of public health. Faculty and staff have a diverse range of training and experience in educational frameworks, In addition, this educational movement is occurring at a time when the disciplinary boundaries of public health are expanding and becoming less defined.

The purpose of this study was to examine assignment writing as a phenomenon of academic writing. This was done through exploring the experiential accounts of members of a university writing community. Their accounts described the community's perceptions and experiences of literacy practices needed to write assignments, of how students developed these practices, and, of what constituted success in the writing. A multi-method, embedded, case-study approach was used. Quantitative data were derived from first-year, second-year, and fourth-year respondents' perceptions and experiences related to assignment writing. A cross-sectional comparison of groups showed consistent year-level effects. Fourth-year students were more confident as writers than first-year and second-year students, and had less difficulty with declarative and procedural aspects of writing assignments. These findings were replicated in a repeated-measures study using a sub-group of first-year and fourth-year students. However, when students contextualised their responses by nominating a subject and referring to their completion of its written assignment, first-year students reported less difficulty with the declarative aspects while fourth-year students were more positive in the procedural aspects. Year-level effects were found for what they reported as helpful in acquiring declarative and procedural knowledge of writing. First-year students reported a wider range of sources as helpful than fourth-year students did, with two exceptions. More of the latter had found information gained in consultations helpful in understanding an assignment question. Additionally more had found friends helpful. Second-year students generally were more positive than first-year and fourth-year students about the usefulness of information in helping them understand an assignment question and in writing it in an academic genre. Knowing how to write predicted success more strongly and consistently than any other factor. Qualitative data informed findings from the quantitative analyses by providing experiential accounts about students' perceptions of themselves as assignment writers, their experiences when writing assignments, and how these experiences developed literacy practices that contributed to success. Additionally, qualitative data were collected from lecturers who convened first-year subjects and those who convened fourth-year subjects. The qualitative data indicated students' strong reference to experiences of writing and of seeking help. Both had shaped their self-perceptions as writers and these had changed over time. First-year students believed that knowing what lecturers wanted in writing assignments was an important factor in success. They described their efforts to access this information and to give lecturers what they thought was wanted. Fourth-year students recognised the same factor, but were more self-reliant in approaching an assignment task. The change to greater internal control appeared to be an outcome of encountering inconsistent and confusing information from external sources over their four years of writing assignments. For their part, lecturers of first-year students said that successful students knew what to write and how to write it. However, lecturers of fourth-year students believed knowing what to write should be subsumed by knowing how to write, and concentrated on the procedural aspect. They believed a coherent assignment resulted when students conceptualised subject matter in ways that enabled them to write academically. Findings in this study extend recent reconceptualisations of literacy as 'literacies' and socio-cultural, socio-cognitive theories about literacy as social practice. They demonstrate limitations of an apprenticeship model for acculturation and suggest a more agentic role for novice members in accounting for learning outcomes as students develop as assignment writers. The experiential accounts reported by members of the academic writing community described their shared and idiosyncratic perceptions of literacy practices and relations of these practices with success in assignment writing. Their descriptions enhance our understanding of the complexity and consequences of these experiences. They also account for why calls for the community to be more visible and explicit in sharing communal expectations of what is privileged and valued in academic assignment writing generally may not be a solution. Based on findings here, this is not a solution. Expectations need to be co-constructed within the community, among students, and lecturers within the context of the writing task. An outcome of understandings reported here is the development of a model from which factors, conditions and critical events that situate learning within a rhetorical conundrum may be described and predicted. This model offers a framework for members of a writing community to explicate individual experiences and expectations in ways that help everyone make sense of those critical events that contribute to a rhetorical conundrum and shape encultured knowledge.

This thesis presents a study of students' ways of experiencing information literacy when researching an essay in a first year university course. The aims of the study were to contribute to an understanding and awareness of information literacy from the students' experience, and to inform curriculum design for information literacy education. The study involved semi-structured interviews with 20 undergraduate students enrolled in a first year environmental studies course at the Australian National University in 2002. A phenomenographic approach was used as the methodological and theoretical basis for the study. This research was modelled on Limberg's (1998) study of Year 12 students researching an assignment. It is positioned between Limberg's study and Bruce's (1997) study of higher educators' conceptions of information literacy. The experience of information literacy included the interrelationship between the essay, information and learning. The way in which students experienced a focus on learning, focus on the essay task, use of information in the course, use of information in the essay, use of contrasting perspectives and development of argument formed the qualitative differences in experience. Students experienced information literacy when researching an essay as: looking for evidence to backup an existing argument; using background information to develop an argument; and applying learning to help solve environmental problems. A further outcome of the study is that information literacy is framed as a learning approach. These outcomes may have significance for students, teachers, librarians, academic skills advisors, academic developers, policy makers and administrators in higher education.

This study investigated whether a predictive tool developed by authors in the United States (Konvalina, Stephens and Wileman) could be used with University students in Australia (in particular the Australian Capital Territory) to predict their success in first year University computing courses. It also investigated the effect of demographic and past academic factors in conjunction with, and instead of the predictive test. The study examined differences in performance between male/female students, English as a Second Language (ESL)/non-ESL students and full-time/part-time students. It also examined the effect of all the above factors on the continuing success of students in the course. While significant differences in first-time performance were found between ESL and non- ESL students, no differences were found between the other pairings. No differences were found between any of the groups in the continuing success in the course. The KSW Test, while being an indicator of first year success, was not a strong enough model to be able to be used as a predictive tool. The demographic and previous academic data from students recently at High School, in particular, the Tertiary Entrance Score, level of mathematics studied, and previous computing study, were found to be more useful as an indicator of success in fust year, explaining 53% of the variation in h a 1 unit score. In addition, 67% of the variation in continuing success in their course was also explained by the Tertiary Entrance Score, ASAT verbal and ASAT quantitative scores.