Humane education (HE) is a specialized niche in higher education and adult learning. HE provides a curricular framework positioning environmental ethics, animal protection, human rights, media literacy, culture, and change processes as the nexus for understanding and inspiring social change. Research-derived experiences illuminating how educators conceptualize and implement HE in U.S. schools are absent from the scholarly literature. Facing this gap, practitioners and administrators of HE programs cannot access nor apply research-derived practices to inform instruction. To address this gap, a conceptual framework was advanced weaving together HE teaching experience, Freirean philosophy, hyphenated selves, reflection-in-action, transformative learning, and transformative education to explore and understand what it means to be a practitioner teaching through the lens of HE in U.S. primary, secondary, and post secondary classrooms. A qualitative, multi case study was designed wherein purposeful and maximum variation sampling resulted in the recruitment of 9 practitioners working in Kindergarten to post secondary contexts. Eight practitioners were alumni of HE programming, and 1 practitioner engaged self-study of HE pedagogy. Each bounded system included the HE practitioner, his or her classroom context, and local school community. Interviews, document review, within-case analysis, and cross-case analysis resulted in key themes illuminating the need to design a comprehensive system of field-based learning and ongoing professional support to benefit HE practitioners. A policy recommendation is provided to shape programming, policy development, and resource allocation to improve and sustain HE as a field of study and professional practice.

Variety of training models are used in large retail organizations in South Carolina. Large retail organizations have leaders educating their employees using multiple methods of training without regard as to how adults learn. Leadership of large retail organizations in South Carolina may be investing in training materials, concepts, and facilitation methods that may not have substantive impact on known performance metrics. Knowles' theory of andragogy has been at the forefront of adult education theory as it has led many researchers to explore new methods for adults to learn effectively. A quasi-experimental study was designed to determine if an andragogy based training models have influenced performance of employees measured by existing performance indicators. The data were collected from a t sample of 715 employees before and after an andragogy style training was administered. The data analysis, using paired t-test. showed significant variance in all three dependent variable metrics. Sales and credit card percent to goal metrics showed negative variance and item locate metric showed a positive variance thus providing quantifiable data from andragogy-style training. This study addressed the gap in the literature regarding the effectiveness of training adults using adult-learner methods and has the potential to contribute to positive social change by affecting the culture of how employers in large retail organizations are training their employees. Management for large retail organizations could find a higher return on investment the training as well as increased morale; while increasing retailer profits and potentially increasing career advancement opportunities and merit increases.

Coteaching is a teaching strategy that requires 2-teachers to collaborate in developing a course syllabus, selecting materials, and assessing students' work. The research problem, addressed in this study, was an appeal to educate the diverse adult population whose needs could not be addressed through traditional instructions at Rex College. Because of a high number of enrolled adult students, coteaching at Rex College was used to improve student success for academically underprepared students in a Set for Success program. The purpose of this study was to examine the coteaching strategies used at Rex College so that teaching guides and/or professional training development workshops could be implemented to provide consistency in the program. The conceptual framework of this study was based on the constructivist theory that knowledge is constructed and internalized by an individual in a social setting. The research question for the qualitative study was designed to focus on the experiences of the faculty members at Rex College. A purposeful sampling method was used, and 15 participants, who provided first-hand information, were selected for interviews and field observations. The interview data was analyzed by creating a matrix grid to code key words or phrases from each participant's responses and linked to the interview questions. The findings were interpreted and used as themes for the narrative. The results indicated the effectiveness in teacher collaboration and planning as compared to traditional classroom approach. A positive social change may result as (a) students demonstrate success in completing studies and develop job skills; (b) instructors find collegiality in their relationship and develop new teaching skills; and (c) attrition is decreased at Rex College.

After Norton Peirce's (1995, Norton, 2000) groundbreaking work in conceptualizing identity as "multiple, changing, and contradictory," many researchers have explored language learners' identities. However, few studies of identity have been conducted within the "overlooked and understudied" (Mathews-Aydinli, 2008) context of adult community ESL (English as a Second Language), and even fewer studies have focused on LESLLA (low-educated second language and literacy acquisition) learners in mainstream community ESL programs. This thesis, based on a case study of an adult LESLLA learner in a community ESL class, analyzes how this student's identity, the social context of her life, and the classroom space shaped her investment in participating in the ESL class. Ethnographic interviews revealed that the participant's investment in language learning was linked to her identity in multiple and contradictory ways: while the participant eventually left the ESL program, her self-identification as 'no preparada' (uneducated) and therefore 'burra' (stupid) seemed to be a motivating challenge, not an insurmountable obstacle, and her sense of investment in language learning remained strong even though her in-class participation was limited. The results have pedagogical as well as theoretical implications: there is clearly value in engaging learners' lives in the classroom as well as including learners' voices in research to have a clearer recognition of how learners see themselves and their "possible selves" (Dornyei, 2009) to be able to understand the complex factors that underlie their investments in language learning.

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Paperboard is accessible for everyone, such as packaging for provisions or beauty products. Paperboard consists of several layers of pulp and has different types of qualities depending on the material’s area of use. Within the paperboard production, the process behavior is analyzed to find solutions to decrease the product variations in order to reach the desired product results. Process analyses are continuously made to improve paperboard production and avoid defects in the paperboard product. The company Holmen has recently implemented a new process analysis tool on trial, named Wedge, at the paperboard mill in Workington, UK, which is a software tool that can be used for analyzing the paperboard process. Holmen’s vision was to develop training material for the software tool that could be used by the employees for educational purposes.The purpose of this project degree was to develop training material of the process analysis tool, i.e. the software Wedge, for novice learners. Initially, the purpose was to examine and identify the employees’ learning within the software tool at the mill in Workington. Based on that, training material was developed that could be used for self-directed learning material.The study was conducted through qualitative methods, which included a group interview with development engineers and a one-to-one interview with the training manager at the Workington mill. Additionally, observations of training opportunities and an evaluation questionnaire of the training material were used in this study. Based on these results, a thematic analysis was conducted where identified themes have been interpreted from aspects of cognitive learning and adult learning.The result is based on the qualitative survey and the analysis of the interviews and questionnaire responses indicates that the training material is suitable and pedagogical for novice learners. The development engineers mean, among other things, that computer-based training should contain ‘step-by-step’ examples of work-related situations and the training must be organized such that new information will not be overwhelming and unintelligible. It is also important that new knowledge or information can be acquired both visually and by text-based instructions, to be able to provide the learners with various kinds of teaching aids since there are different approaches to learn new knowledge. Therefore, the training material based on e-learning has been designed as a first lesson of how to use and navigate in the process analysis tool. The developed training material entails four interactive videos with incremental learning of how the process analysis tool can be used in the paper industry. / Materialet kartong är något alla har till hands, som exempelvis förpackningar för proviant eller skönhetsprodukter. Kartong består av flera lager av pappersmassa och har olika typer av kvalitéer beroende på materialets användningsområde. Inom produktionen görs analyser av kartongprocessens beteende för att hitta lösningar som minskar produktvariationerna och på så sätt uppnå önskade slutresultat. Processanalyser görs kontinuerligt för att förbättra kartongproduktion och därmed undvika produktdefekter. Företaget Holmen har implementerat ett nytt processanalysverktyg, så kallat Wedge, på deras kartongbruk i Workington, UK, vilket är en programvara som kan användas för att kunna göra analyser av kartongprocess. Holmen önskade att ett utbildningsmaterial för programvaran skulle utvecklas och kunna användas i utbildningssyfte för produktionsarbetarna.Syftet med detta examensarbete var att utveckla ett utbildningsmaterial för nybörjare av processanalysverktyget Wedge. Grunden till detta låg i att undersöka och identifiera de anställdas lärande utifrån programvarans utbildning på kartongbruket i Workington. Baserat på detta utvecklades ett utbildningsmaterial som kan användas som ett självstuderande lärandemedel.Undersökningen har utförts av kvalitativa metodval som innefattar en gruppintervju med utvecklingsingenjörer och en intervju med utbildningsansvarig på kartongbruket i Workington, samt observationer av utbildningstillfällen och enkäter för utvärdering av utbildningsmaterialet. Baserat på detta har en tematisk analys genomförts där identifierade teman har tolkats utifrån ett kognitivt lärandeperspektiv och vuxnas lärande.Resultatet baseras på den kvalitativa undersökningen och analys av intervjuerna och enkäterna visar på att utbildningsmaterialet är passande och ligger på en bra pedagogisk nivå för nybörjare. Utvecklingsingenjörerna önskar bland annat att en datorbaserad utbildning ska innehålla förberedda ’steg-för-steg’-exempel utifrån verklighetsbaserade problem samt att utbildning måste organiseras sådan att ny information inte blir överväldigande och svårförståelig. Det är även viktigt att ny kunskap och information kan fås både visuellt och textbaserat, och att en blandning mellan olika läromedel finns eftersom personer har olika strategier för att lära sig ny kunskap. Utifrån detta har ett utbildningsmaterial, baserat på e-lärande, utvecklats och skapats med ändamålet att fungera som en första lektion av hur en kan använda och navigera i processanalysverktyget. Det utbildningsmaterial som har utvecklats innefattar fyra interaktiva videos som är uppbyggda för stegvis inlärning om hur processanalysverktyget kan användas i pappersindustrin.

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