The horse industry is a significant contributor to the economy of any area in which it is found. Products and services oriented toward its recreational and competitive aspects are provided by workers in more than 71 categories of equine occupations. The equine industry is undergoing continuous technological change, and there is increasing competition for equine industry jobs; both affect its work force. Graduates of 46 two-year college equine programs are appearing on the job market yearly and many are finding equine industry jobs. However, there was no formal, organized communication about equine curricula among these institutions, and needs-based prioritized curricula did not exist. A current study of equine educators and employers was needed to advise equine curricular planners of the curricular content goals needed to align equine curriculum with equine industry job requirements. The procedural problem of this study was to analyze occupational needs-based curricular objectives for two-year equine curricula. The equine industry occupations were determined and categorized according to the U.S. Department of Labor (1977). Two-year equine curricular content goals were identified from the literature and from existing college equine programs. These goals were made consistent in syntax utilizing Vogler's Performance Instruction System (1991). Course titles according to the U.S. Office of Education's (1981) classification system were used, and college level educational requirements were gleaned from accreditation standards of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (1991). Equine industry employers were polled according to frequency of use and difficulty of execution of the skills in the work place while educators determined the level and type of expertise desirable in their graduates; these data were analyzed according to Vogler (1991). Prioritized lists of content goals by course were determined, as well as curricula for one- and two-year equine educational programs at the college level. / Ed. D.

Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements of the Master of Technology Degree in Library and Information Studies, Durban University of Technology, 2011. / This study investigated the impact of the digital divide on information literacy (IL) training of Extended Curriculum Programme (ECP) students at the Durban University of Technology (DUT). There are students entering the tertiary education environment in South Africa who have never used the Internet or have little or no knowledge of technology. Hence South African higher education institutions have a heterogeneous mix of both digitally advantaged students and digitally disadvantaged students. The objective of this study was to investigate the impact of the digital divide on IL training of ECP students at the DUT and to recommend guidelines for teaching and learning of IL that would accommodate both digitally advantaged and digitally disadvantaged students. The sub-objectives of the study were: to identify in what ways the digital divide impacts on the IL training of ECP students; to identify innovative teaching and learning methods to accommodate the diversity of students in the IL classroom; and to recommend guidelines for teaching and learning of IL in the ECP that accommodates the digital divide among participating students. Hence, the three population sets for the study were: DUT ECP students of 2010, Subject Librarians teaching IL to ECP students and the DUT ECP Coordinator. The study employed a mixed method approach in its research design. Data was collected from ECP students by means of a questionnaire, an interview schedule was used to collect data from Subject Librarians involved in teaching of the IL module to ECP students and lastly, a separate interview schedule was used to collect data from the ECP Coordinator. Qualitative data that was collected from the survey questionnaire was analysed using SPSS (Version 18.0) whilst qualitative data collected from the interviews and from the questionnaires was analysed thematically using content analysis. The findings of this study reveal that the digital divide does impact on IL training in ways such as, slowing down the progress of IL lessons; basic computer skills need to be taught in the IL classroom and that disadvantaged students find it difficult to follow online lessons while advantaged students already have the expertise to access online information. Based on these findings the study recommends that computer literacy training precede IL training; that various creative teaching and learning methods, such as, group work, games, online tutorials and interactive websites be incorporated into IL training to accommodate both digitally advantaged and digitally disadvantaged students in the IL classroom.

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Nowadays, change becomes more and more a continuous basis of the educational systems for their improvement. People increasingly need to tackle and cope with their organisational environments which are complex and dynamic. However, the problem is to know how to move from the status quo to the situation wherein all stakeholders should work both individually and collaboratively as inquirers and learners to investigate and solve problems. My case study is located at the heart of this context. Its purpose was to investigate why and how the process of curriculum change was managed in the National University of Rwanda from 1995. In addition, it aimed to identify how the University community should come together to handle curriculum change as an ongoing feature of improvement, and as a learning organisation. This research was carried out through a triangulation of participant observation, documentary analysis and semi-structured interviews. Throughout my case study, I observed that orientations and needs for changing the curricula in the National University of Rwanda essentially stemmed from the situation inherited from the war, genocide and massacres undergone by the country in 1994. Furthermore, initiating curriculum change came from the top management, while the basic organ to deal with development and its implementation was the Department. I noted also that it is likely the National University of Rwanda focused more on changing curriculum frameworks than changing organisational habits, behaviours, values, skills and beliefs. Although the shift to the new culture is at the centre of a learning organisation, most of the time this aspect is left untouched in practice. As lecturers in a professional organisation such as the National University of Rwanda have the skills and control over their own work, I conclude that they are in a position to play a vital role to manage curriculum change, learn from it, help students and other stakeholders learn from and take part within it. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2001.

This study focused on a topic at the intersection of two contexts, namely curriculum responsiveness and industrial/organisational psychology (IOP). The rationale for this study is based on two considerations. Firstly, a review of the IOP curricula offered at ten prominent South African universities revealed little overlap. This suggests that academic departments are not guided by shared principles when they implement decisions about the content or sequencing of curriculum content. Secondly, the Department of Education urges academics to design curricula that are relevant and responsive to contemporary conditions. These two considerations motivated the investigation of the following research question: What key performance areas (KPAs) do employers specify when they advertise positions suitable for IOP graduates? The investigation had two aims, namely (a) to systematically analyse the KPAs specified in job advertisements and (b) to compile KPA templates that may be used by IOP departments who wish to revise or transform their curricula. The research design of this study has five characteristics, namely that it is: (a) qualitative, (b) naturalistic, (c), descriptive, (d) applied, and (e) strategic. The study employed a purposive sampling strategy that involved the collection of documentary data (job advertisements aimed at recruiting IOP graduates) over a 52-week period (N=1115). The data was content analysed by means of a six-step documentary analysis method. Specific strategies were employed to enhance the validity of the findings. These strategies focused on credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability. Similarly, the ethical standing of the investigation was promoted by addressing four considerations, namely autonomy and respect for dignity, non-maleficence, beneficence, and justice. The data analysis procedure produced comprehensive and detailed qualitative descriptions of (a) 21 occupational categories, (b) 4070 KPA themes and (c) 84 KPA clusters. In addition, the number of occupational categories, KPA themes and KPA clusters were recorded and interpreted. In addition, the data analysis procedure produced comprehensive KPA templates that IOP departments may find useful. The templates reflect the KPAs specified by advertisements aimed at recruiting IOP graduates for a range of occupational categories and were designed to be used as benchmarks against which the economic responsiveness of curricula can be compared.

What is the portfolio and what are its purposes? I must define the portfolio as a summative document bearing the valuable experiences learned in a particular course of study. In this context, portfolio can be viewed as a selective entity that represents the level of learning, in terms of academic/professional growth and development, attained in one's participation in a particular course of study such as this Master one I have been attending. Portfolio can be educationally utilized to reflect and evaluate one's learning. As one goes throughout paging, one locates the level of learning achieved in terms of anticipated knowledge, understanding, and experiences, skills and attitudes or overly learning competencies. The level of development one has gone through in attempts to respond to the expected learning outcomes surface out more easily. And if further learning be conducted, the portfolio must as well shows the ways ahead. With these few words, I have attempted to present the portfolio as a useful tool that represents the level of advancement attained in learning. This portfolio comprises of my educational partaking in Rhodes University's master program (theory and practice, in particular what and how I have gained from that program participation. It may also present what I cold not learn. The arrangement of the portfolio contents assumes a progressive procession, being structured in terms of the assignments taken. There are five pieces of assignments in this research portfolio. The first assignment is a contextual analysis of the Education Theory and Practice (ETP) curriculum of our current teacher education program, namely Basic Education Teachers' Diploma. It looks at the theoretical framework that informs and shapes everyday teaching and learning practices, particularly the degree to which we have been able to implement the theoretical perspectives into operational practices. To this is how our college is equipped with the technologies necessary for possible practices of the curriculum. The other emphasis focuses at the historical backgrounds that necessitated the undertaking of the BETD as an instrument of reforming and transforming the basic education rightly at the independence. The other area is on the question of how the curriculum or program intakers, the entering students, have been prepared to consume the curriculum program. Since the program has been as well designed to address and meet the four major national goals of education for all, another part has been focused on these goals so far as to locate the degree of attainment. The second assignment is about contrasting and comparing the two main held dominant worldwide views of knowledge- namely behaviorism and constructivism. Each branch of knowledge is looked at firstly with particular attentions paid to its own individual versions of knowledge and its development and acquisition. The other focuses examine which base seems to offer better explanations of what knowledge is and how it can best be constructed and acquired in any educational setting. The third assignment is that of literature review. I have chosen action as an area that I would be interested in exploring much further. Action research is what eventually became a part of my research proposal in which I would research on how our college students carry out their action research projects to examine their own classroom makings. It has been therefore important to read what others have written about this field and locate the lessons that can be illuminated on our own curriculum context. The literature review paves the way to the research proposal. The research proposal or a research plan as I would often call it, sets the context, purpose, theoretical position and information gathering methods under which the research process will take place. The research proposal has thus been the navigating compass despite the that realities as the practical journey itself took off some deviation unavoidably came in as necessitated by the underlying research process itself. The research proposal finally accumulates into the sought, the final assignment. A critical view illustrates that this piece is actually another contextual inquiry like the first work only that this is viewing our supposed curriculum outcomes: our students, our products and how they have been equipped to carry out the research. Their research, with its successes and shortcomings, I have concluded, firmly serves to reflect the kind of education delivered from our teacher colleges. The portfolio contents also demonstrate the course orientation: focusing on one's professional field. At end, I see this research portfolio as myself, a mirror that reflects my academic and professional participation in Rhodes University's world and its vision and mission expresses in the theme of where leaders learn. It thus represents the personal, academic and development accomplished throughout this Masters' course. In the other way around, I see it as reflecting what Rhodes can offer as from when the prestigious Augustana College, my American institution, has prepared after its boundaries.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:24:50Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2012-06-25Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:52:50Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 kussuda_sr_me_bauru.pdf: 1640213 bytes, checksum: a561c01b3136f669d2d6b3e7da44a52b (MD5) / A presente pesquisa é parte integrante de um estudo mais amplo, realizado no âmbito do Grupo de Pesquisa em Ensino de Ciências. Algumas das pesquisas realizadas nesse Grupo buscam estudar como vem ocorrendo a formação de professores de Física, a fim de subsidiar, por exemplo, processos de reestruturação curricular e a implantação de novos projetos pedagógicos. Esta pesquisa visa analisar a escolha profissional de egressos do curso de licenciatura em Física da UNESP, campus de Bauru, nas duas últimas décadas. Utilizamos como metodologia para constituição de dados questionários online, aplicados a graduados ingressos nesse curso no período de 1991 a 2008. Dentre a lista de 377 concluintes do Curso de Licenciatura em Física nesse período, foram contatados 273 deles, tendo respondido ao questionário 52 licenciados. Os questionários analisados permitiram verificar que 40 licenciados passaram a atuar no magistério após a conclusão do curso; 7 deles, exclusivamente, no Ensino Superior e 32, em algum momento de sua carreira, na Educação Básica. Os dados mostram trambém que o índice de evasão da docência é significativo: dos 40 licenciados que atuaram no magistério, 13 abandonaram a carreira; 10 destes lecionaram apenas na Educação Básica e 3, exclusivamente no Ensino Superior. Uma das principais conclusões deste estudo é que a falta de professores dessa área na região, e, possivelmente, no país, não está apenas no número reduzido de formados, mas é agravada fortemente pelo êxodo destes para outros campos de atuação, em função basicamente da insatisfação com os salários desse nível de ensino, das condições de trabalho na educação básica e da dificuldade de transpor o conhecimento acumulado na Universidade para a Educação Básica / This research is part of broader study, carried out in the Science Teaching Research Group. Some of the researchers in this group seek to study how happens the initial education of physics teachers in order to subsidize, for example, reestructuring curriculum and implementation of new pedagogical projects. This research aims to analyze the careers' choice of students that finished the Physics Teachers Education Program at UNESP, Bauru Campus, in the last two decades. We used online questionnaires as a methodology to collect data, applied to physics tachers graduated from 1991 to 2008. Among the list of 377 students that completed the Physics Teachers Education degree during this period, we could contact 273m and 52 of them responded the questionnaire. The questionnaires analyzed allowed us to verify that 40 of them worked as physics teachers or professors after graduation; 7 of them exclusively in colleges and 32 of them worked as teachers in basic education sometime in their career. The data also showed that teacher's dropout rate is significant: from 40 of those that have taught, 13 abandoned the career, 10 of them worked only in Basic Education and 3 of them in Higher Education level. One of the main conclusions of this study is that the lack of physics teachers in this region, and possibly in the country, is not just because the small number of physical teachers graduated, but is greatly aggravated by the exodus of these teachers to other fields, mainly because the dissatisfaction essentially with this level of teaching salaries, working conditions in basic education and the difficulty of transposing the knowledge accumulated in the University for Basic Education

D.Ed. / This particular research -focus on the involvement of lecturers at a decentralised multi-campus university in curriculum development. The research design which were followed is of an explorative, descriptive and qualitative nature. In this research several examples of curriculum development which have been unsuccessful, were mentioned. These examples explain shortcomings or inadequacies such as curricula which are content centred, needs of students who have not been considered and several didactic practices which are merely intuitive in nature. One of the greatest problems which may be created by haphazard and incoherent curriculum development is the fact that it eventually may lead to the demoralisation of lecturers and their effective functioning. There are two broad approaches as far as the involvement of lecturers in decision making and curriculum development is concerned, namely , the "top-down" and the "bottom-up" approach. Despite successes, examples of inadequate curriculum development have their roots in one of these two approaches. Therefore it can be deducted that several models for curriculum development had their origin in either or both these approaches. Several curriculum researchers like Van Staden (1991), McAleese (1982) and Pratt (1994), warn however, that curriculum development which works well in one institution might not necessarily influence success in another. Variables such as context and student characteristics can differ from one instance to the next. For this very reason the researchers interest concentrated on the involvement of lecturers in curriculum development in a particular decentralised multi-campus university. THE AIM OF THE STUDY: The aim of this research was to explore the extent of the involvement of students and lecturers in curriculum development, as well as perceptions, feelings and opinions of lecturers with respect to their involvement. Two different ways of data-collection were used: Focus group interviews were conducted with the co-ordinators and individual semi-structured interviews with lecturers. To ensure reliability of the results certain rules were adhered to.

The problem with which this study is concerned is to determine the status of academic program evaluation in Texas' senior colleges and universities. The purpose of the study is to determine current procedures, timelines, participants, and use of results of academic program evaluation in the surveyed institutions. The presidents of the seventy-three senior colleges and universities in Texas were contacted for permission to conduct the study. Fifty-four presidents gave their permission and supplied designated contact individuals, forty-six of whom responded for a 62 per cent response rate. The twentyitem survey instrument, which was designed to fulfill the purpose of the study, was evaluated by experts in the field of academic program evaluation at the senior institutional level. All data are reported by frequency, percentage, and rank ordering because these data indicate frequency of use and degree of importance.

[From Introduction]. The study involved student teachers and teacher educators providing me with information concerning their perception and understanding of the BETD broad curriculum and needlework and clothing syllabus. The above mentioned are the people who are involved in teacher education thus I found it relevant to have their opinions and understanding of the documents. The contextual analysis has engaged me in exploring a possible area of research specialisation for the two years during the course of studies with Rhodes University; this will serve as an introduction to the particular research to be done through the course of my studies. The focus of this report includes the following: • A critical analysis of (BETD) needlework and clothing syllabus in relation to the BETD broad curriculum; • A socio-historic and economic analysis of the context for which the syllabus has been designed; • An analysis of the learners for whom the syllabus is designed. In this case students provided their autobiography; • An analysis ofthe learning environment in which the syllabus operates; the physical structure and resources. Together with the critical analysis of the curriculum a small scale survey intending to find out the following information from the student teachers and teacher educators was conducted. • The extent to which the broad curriculum differs from the previous teacher education on issues related to democracy, quality, access, cultural bias, racial discrimination and classes (level of economic status); • How the needlework and clothing syllabus addresses the needs of student teachers; • Whether the needlework and clothing syllabus has enough content; • The challenges facing teacher education and how they can be addressed; • Whether the needlework and clothing syllabus is learner-centred; • Whether the syllabus is gender oriented or biased. This evaluation framework provides a foundation for later investigation