published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Science in Information Technology in Education

The purpose of this study was to analyze students' specific ITP-related social skills goals, student self-reported social skills, and the relationship between teacher and employer ratings of vocational students social skills and problem behaviors. This study examined (48) vocational students, (24) general education vocational students and (24) special education vocational students in grades nine through twelve. The students' vocational teachers and employers also participated in the study. This represented (144) individual assessment of social skills and problem behaviors utilizing the Social Skills Rating System -Student version (SSRS-S) and the Social Skills Rating System Teachers -version (SSRS-T). The findings indicated no specific social skill goals were deliminated in the students' ITP's. However, the findings did indicate the general education vocational students rated themselves higher, on average, on the empathy subscale than did the special education students. The analysis of data comparing standardized social skill scores, social skill subscale scores, standardized problem behavior scores, and standardized problem behavior subscale scores between teachers and employers for general and special education vocational students indicated employers rated special education students higher on the cooperation subscale only. No other differences were found.

Historically, vocational subjects have been a part of the Australian school curricula for 200 years. In early school curriculum the vocational aspect was considered to be related to the acquisition of manual skills such as domestic science or woodwork, rather than careers. From the 1950s to mid 1980s, vocational education, focused specifically on career and job training, was the responsibility of the technical colleges, which had been established to develop these skills. The concept of high schools targeting identified skills for the future work force, and hence becoming involved in the vocational skill development of youth, developed in the mid 1980s in Australia. Industry influence on governments to make educational decisions based on economic initiatives has increased over this time.Major growth has occurred in Vocational Education and Training (VET) in schools, with student participation rates in vocational education trebling in the past six (6) years (House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education and Training, 2004). This increase is predicted to continue as VET qualifications and the process of accreditation is improved and becomes increasingly user-friendly (Polesel, 2004). The focus on vocational education and industry needs is recognised as an economic necessity for Australia. Schools and teachers, however, need to balance the demands of industry and government with the holistic educational needs of the youth they are entrusted to teach.The school curriculum currently offers a broad range of subject choices that provide for diverse student needs. However the rapid growth of vocational education in schools has impeded effective reflective practices of current vocational programs. Vocational education is experiencing a boom due to the increasing popularity of vocational subjects. The planning and implementation of the diverse subject offerings at school level is often a response to immediate needs rather than in-depth analysis and evaluation. For this reason, it is timely for a critical analysis of the current Hospitality programs in schools to ensure currency and relevancy of content and implementation.The project was localised to one school to enable an extensive and thorough analysis of the Hospitality program. Marymount College is a co-educational Catholic College of approximately 1050 students. Located in the Gold Coast suburb of Burleigh, Marymount College offers a wide range of VET subjects ranging across the five (5) industry areas of Information Technology, Business, Marine Science, Industrial Skills and Hospitality & Tourism.The aim of the analysis will be to suggest what measures need to be implemented in the programs at Marymount College, Gold Coast, Burleigh, Australia, to ensure best practice in Hospitality vocational education. These measures can be constructively applied to other Queensland schools currently delivering vocational education and Hospitality, or to those schools considering introducing subjects associated with Hospitality.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 85-99). Also available on the Internet.

While much is known about the achievement of high ability students, much less research has focused on their lower ability peers. In addition, although academic self-concept, locus of control and learning approaches have been demonstrated to be important personal variables that influence learning outcomes, less effort has been made to integrate these variables simultaneously to understand the complexity of low-achievement. The present research aimed to not only identify key causes of the low-achievement of academically disadvantaged students, but also provide appropriate and productive enhancement approaches to foster low-achieving students’ school success by conducting a pioneering longitudinal experimental study particularly in mainland China. The participants were low-achieving junior secondary students who had recently enrolled in Secondary Vocational Education (SVE) in mainland China (total N = 724). It was found that compared with normal- and high-achieving students in mainstream secondary education, students in SVE were characterized with less achieving motives, less internal-oriented control beliefs and particularly lower academic self-concepts. In addition, the academic self-concept of SVE students was found to be the most significant predictor of their academic achievement (p＜ .001) compared with achieving approach (p＜ .05) and locus of control (p＞ .05). These findings, in light of the 3P learning model, revealed the likely major role of academic self-concept in affecting academic achievement among adolescent students in SVE. In particular, Study 2, a comparative study, confirmed that vocational students had the lowest English self-concept of the groups studied. Hence, the focus of Study 3 (a longitudinal intervention) was on English self-concept. By incorporating recent advances in Western feedback enhancement approaches and the construct-validity approach to fully explore the intervention effects, Study 3 demonstrated that the researcher-administered treatments (performance feedback and combined feedback) in natural classroom settings successfully enhanced participants’ English self-concept, the targeted facet. Importantly, both the competence and affect components within the English self-concept of targeted students also gained statistically significant improvements from the two feedback treatments, compared with those of students who received no particular treatment. An interesting finding was that the two feedback treatments appeared similarly significant in changing the competence component of English self-concept. However, the internally-focused performance feedback was less effective in changing the affect component of English self-concept compared with the combined feedback. Non-significant transfer effects were found on untargeted facets of academic self-concept among participants receiving only the performance feedback. A slightly significant transfer effect was found on Chinese self-concept (one control facet) among participants receiving the combined feedback, indicating the power of the combined feedback to influence a facet that is closely related to the targeted facet. The present findings provided important cross-cultural empirical evidence to support sound within-network validity of the feedback intervention in a vocational setting. Impressively, the English achievements of students in both experimental classes also gained statistically significant improvements. Based on key research designs of the present intervention, future implications of the two feedback treatments to cultivate positive academic self-beliefs and enhance learning among vocational and non-vocational secondary school students are discussed. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Thesis (M.P.H.M. (Primary Health Care Management))--Mahidol University, 2007. / LICL has E-Thesis 0024 ; please contact computer services.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 92-97).

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 92-97). Also available in print.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Washington, 2005. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 117-126).