The purpose of this dissertation is to explore vocational upper secondary students’ perceptions of and attitudes to using drama activities as a part of English language education. Data collection for this project was performed during a teaching practice period at a vocational school in the south of Sweden with the exception of interviews that took place afterwards.The participating students perceived the use of drama activities as something positive.Significant factors in the analysis were mainly the effects of role play, the importance of beneficial group dynamics and the influence of the school setting. A key point that emerges from this dissertation is the benefit of varying lessons and working towards reducing students’ anxiety to speak.

M. S.

Historically, vocational education has been sex-typed by program area, following patterns in the work force. Increasing enrollments and employment of females and males in fields traditionally dominated by the opposite sex is one of the goals of vocational educators. In order to do this, vocational educators need to understand the individuals who now choose nontraditional programs and why they make the choices they do. Two questions guided this study: l. How do high school students come to make the decision to enroll in vocational programs nontraditional for their sex? 2. How do these students think about their current training in relation to their future plans? / Master of Arts

Critical thinking is a chief focal point in all areas of education today. Teachers can create an environment that is conducive to critical thinking through behaviors practiced in the classroom. Knowledge and use of these teacher behaviors by teachers are basic for development and enhancement of critical thinking in students. The purpose of this research was to determine the enabling behaviors used by a selected group of Virginia postsecondary vocational educators that stimulate critical thinking in students. The primary subjects for this study were postsecondary vocational technical educators randomly selected from five community colleges in Virginia. A total of 30 instructors were identified. In addition, 328 community college students participated in the study. Selected conclusions drawn from the findings were: 1. The postsecondary vocational technical instructors of the five community colleges selected for this study are not using the enabling behavior of questioning that"best" stimulates critical thinking or modeling the behaviors found in the literature that will enhance a student's ability to think critically. 2. The amount of pedagogical training (course work) taken by the postsecondary vocational technical instructors, of the five community colleges selected for this study, does not seem to influence the instructor's use of enabling behaviors related to critical thinking. 3. The community college students in this study perceived their instructors to be exhibiting behaviors and possessing characteristics that will stimulate critical thinking. Selected recommendations drawn from the findings and conclusions are: 1. Additional research is needed to determine if the findings of this study are typical of vocational technical community college instructors statewide. 2. Research similar to this study needs to be conducted on faculty other than vocational technical instructors of the community colleges to assess their use of enabling behaviors. 3. Community college instructors need to be exposed to instructors in formal course work or in informal workshops that embody and exhibit enabling behaviors, especially questioning and modeling. / Ed. D.

The primary objective of this study was to examine the basis of the assumption that vocational student organizations (VSOs) are teaching devices for affective work competencies (AWC). It addressed as the major question: What is the relationship between participation in Home Economics Related Occupations (HERO) activities and HERO members' perceived AWC? The study also sought to determine if other selected variables (adviser effectiveness, age, work, work experience, occupational area, and sex) existed in explaining AWC. Equally important was the determination of variable combinations that best predicted AWC. Purposive, structural sampling provided 410 HERO members in 18 chapters selected from the five home economics supervisory areas of Virginia: Eleven chapter advisers were identified as more effective and seven were identified as less effective. Data were collected via two self-report instruments: The HERO Participation Inventory (developed by the researcher) and the Work Attitudes Inventory (Brauchle & Petty, 1983). The stepwise model of multiple linear regression analysis (MRA) and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were statistical procedures used to analyze the data. Major conclusions were the following: (1) A positive and significant relationship existed between HERO participation and AWC variable factors of Ambition, Self-Control, Enthusiasm, and Conscientiousness. (2) HERO participation was the best predictor of Ambition, Self-Control, and Enthusiasm, and the fourth best predictor of Conscientiousness. (3) Adviser effectiveness correlated positively and significantly with Ambition, Enthusiasm, and Conscientiousness, and was the second best predictor of Ambition and Enthusiasm. / Ed. D.

SUMMARY According to many Lithuanian teachers, the problem of dropouts is a social, cultural, economic and managerial problem. Unwilling to study juvenile and dropouts usually add to the ranks of unskilled labor force, unemployed individuals and even criminal groups. Analysis of the available literature showed that there have been no consistent researches carried out in connection to the problem of dropouts at vocational schools. The objective of this paper is to identify the reasons of dropping out at vocational school and preventive measures applied in this regard. In order to achieve this objective, the scope of dropouts at Lithuanian vocational schools, experience of EU countries in tackling the problem of dropping out of young individuals aged 18 - 24 from the education system were reviewed in addition to the analysis of preventive potential. The second part of the paper contains research results which reveal the reasons why students susceptible to dropping out do lease schools, what teachers and managers think about the problem of dropping out. Analysis of the opinions of students and teachers demonstrated that the basic reason for dropping out from vocational schools, as pointed out by one third of students at risk and teachers, i.e., nonattendance, is related to: - insufficient subsistence funds, i.e., will to work in Lithuania or abroad; - learning failures accompanying students from comprehensive schools; - selected profession, i.e., having experienced practical... [to full text]

Tyrimo problema, aktualumas ir naujumas. Gana dažnai tenka išgirsti darbdavių priekaištus švietimo organizacijoms, kad pastarosios ruošia netinkamus rinkai specialistus. Nusiskundimų sulaukia tiek aukštosios, tiek ir profesinės mokyklos. Kad pasiekti gerų rezultatų, reikia atnaujinti turimus išteklius, o tam reikia turėti pinigų. Tai – mokyklos vadovo rūpestis. Šiame darbe nagrinėjama profesinių mokyklų vadovavimo kultūra nuolat kintančioje aplinkoje. Atkūrus Lietuvos nepriklausomybę vadovo darbo pobūdis pasikeitė tiek kiekybiškai, tiek kokybiškai, ir taip atsirado naujų tyrimų poreikis. Lietuvos švietimo vadybos teoretikai gilindavosi į mokyklos, kaip organizacijos, mokslinius teorinius valdymo aspektus. Deja, realybėje sunku tiesiogiai pritaikyti bendrąsias vadybos teorijas mokyklai, todėl pastarosios vadovavimo kultūra vis dar lieka tyrimo objektu. Šiame tyrime yra palyginamas vadovo ir jo pavaldinių požiūris į jų švietimo organizacijos vadovavimo kultūrą: koks mokyklos vadovo vadovavimo stilius, kaip jis rūpinimąsi darbo rezultatais ir santykiais su pavaldiniais, kaip jis motyvuoja darbuotojus ir kuria mikroklimatą. Tyrimo tikslas – išnagrinėti vadovavimo kultūros teorinius pagrindus, atskleisti esamą vadovavimo kultūros situaciją profesinėse mokyklose, pateikti pasiūlymus bei rekomendacijas šių organizacijų veiklos gerinimui. Tyrimo uždaviniai: 1. remiantis įvairiomis teorijomis paaiškinti vadovavimo kultūros esmę, ypatumus dabartinėms rinkos ekonomikos sąlygoms; 2... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Research problem, relevance and novelty. You can hear quite often complaining enterpreneurs about bad training of the young specialists for labour market. They are complaining about higher schools and vocational schools, as well. If you need to reach good results you have to renew your resources. However, you have to have enought money for this. And that is the task for the head master of the school. We describe the leadership culture of vocational schools in the constantly changing surroundings in this work. When independence of Lithuania has been rebilted the head master‘s job charcter changed and we got needs for the new researches. It is hard to adapt the general management theory to some school in reality. That is why it is the research on leadership culture at the vocational schools still. The head master‘s point of view about leaderschip culture is compared with the point of view of his staff in this research. Aim of this research – to analyse theoretical basis of leadership culture; to find out the available situation about leadership culture at the vocational schools; to present recomendations about the organizations‘ activities improvement. Research hypotheses: 1. The older head masters make the negative influence to leadership culture; 2. The democratic style of head master‘s leadership does not make any negative influence to leadership culture of vacatinal schools; 3. The vocational schools‘ head masters devote a little money for their profesional competences‘... [to full text]

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 2003. / Title from title page screen, viewed October 19, 2005. Dissertation Committee: Rodney P. Riegle, Kenneth H. Strand (co-chairs), George Padavil, Albert T. Azinger. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 158-165) and abstract. Also available in print.

abstract: Many alternative schools for at-risk students do not offer art classes to their students. Phoenix Job Corps is one of those schools. I conducted a qualitative study about a voluntary summer art course at Phoenix Job Corps, a vocational school for at-risk students. I had thirteen student volunteers, eight of them refugees from other countries. All the participants created a narrative painting about something in their lives. The purpose of this study was to examine this voluntary summer art course and to determine its usefulness as a beneficial tool to the lives of the students. This included looking at participants' narrative paintings to determine common themes or subjects, finding out their opinions on whether or not their school should offer an art course, their willingness to share their stories, determining whether they think it's important for others to see their work, and lastly concluding what artwork they like best and why. I found that the majority of students do want an art class offered at their schools, and all but one participant was more than willing to share their story about their narrative painting. Common themes amongst their paintings were family, a specific memory or event, or their present and future lives. I found similar subject matter in their paintings such as animals, houses or huts, and people. My research also unveiled a large difference in the refugee students' paintings as opposed to the other United States participants. The findings also suggest that participants judged other work based on meaning more so than aesthetics. This study explores, in detail, the narrative art and experiences of a very diverse group of students. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Art 2012