This exploratory research used a mixed-methods design to compare the effectiveness of a telepresence-enabled cognitive apprenticeship model of teacher professional development (TEAM-PD) to that of a traditional workshop model by examining outcomes in teacher pedagogy and student achievement. Measures of the lll degree to which teachers in both groups enacted mathematics pedagogy provided mixed results. Both groups demonstrated similar patterns of behavior and cognition, indicating modest levels of pedagogy implementation. Although the experimental group demonstrated higher levels of enactment of the mathematics pedagogy, the comparison group demonstrated a faster rate of growth. Student outcome data were clear: students of teachers in the experimental group scored substantially higher on a test of relevant mathematics content than students of teachers in the comparison group. Collectively the results suggest that TEAM-PD has potential to be an effective model of teacher professional development.

The dual problem space model of writing (Scardamalia, Bereiter and Steinbach, 1984) shows how writers develop their knowledge and understanding of the world by reflecting on problems of substance and problems of presentation in planning a composition. Reflective thought is attributed to a two-way communication between a content problem space and a rhetorical problem space. The content space involves the development of ideas, while the rhetorical space is concerned with achieving various purposes in composition. This thesis reports an instructional experiment comparing alternative approaches to teaching the self-regulatory strategies required for the two-way process of reflection. The experiment compared the dialogue approach of current practice, which relies on the teacher to provide the linking operations between the two problem spaces, with two experimental approaches which promote development of self-regulatory strategies of reflection, so that students are able to sustain such a two-way process independently. The experimental approaches are described as a guided discovery approach proposed by Evans (1991) and an approach described as cognitive apprenticeship developed by Scardamalia, Bereiter and Steinbach (1984). Three instructional programs were prepared by the author to represent the three alternative approaches examined in the present study. The control program utilised the dialogue approach of current practice in which the dialectical process is carried on between teacher and student. The two experimental programs focused on promoting processes of self-questioning rather than questioning by an external agent such as a teacher. The guided discovery program consisted of activities which prompted self-questioning processes. The cognitive apprenticeship program employed scaffolding in the form of procedural facilitation cues to stimulate the self-questioning process. A pre-test and post-test control group design was used involving three groups, two experimental (guided discovery and cognitive apprenticeship) and one control (dialogue), with instructional method as the independent variable and rated reflectiveness of writing as the dependent variable. Instruction was concentrated on teaching the two-way problem formulating and problem solving strategies of the reflective process for opinion essays and factual exposition essays. The experiment compared the effectiveness of programs by measuring changes in overall reflectiveness of writing. Significant improvements were obtained for the experimental teaching methods withrespect to opinion essays. This research provided some support for the hypothesis that instruction which fosters self-regulation of the planning process through processes of reflection results in more reflective writing than instruction in which such regulation is prompted by the teacher.

<p>This study examines medieval edification in all of its rich senses: moral improvement, the building up of community, and the construction of a city or edifice. Drawing from medieval literature, religious writing and architectural sources, my dissertation investigates virtue formation and explores what kinds of communities nourish or hinder those virtues. The Christian virtue of love stands at the center of my project. Drawing from the work of Alasdair MacIntyre, I show that medieval Christians learn the craft of love in a lifelong process into which they are initiated as apprentices to those who teach the craft in the Church. For parishioners in late medieval England, apprenticeship in the craft of love entails participation in sacramental practice, particularly in the sacrament of penance.</p> <p>Chapter one considers <italic>Jacob's Well </italic>, a fifteenth-century penitential manual written by an anonymous author that uses architectural allegory to describes the penitential process. I argue that the author, a self-proclaimed "man of craft," apprentices the reader into sacramental practice. The author is both an exemplar to the reader and apprenticed to Christ. In chapter two, I explore the role of the narrative exempla in <italic>Jacob's Well</italic>. The exempla often resist the paradigm set forth in the allegory of the well. My chapter shows that learning to read these stories trains the reader to recognize forgiveness and sin in others and then to use this recognition to evaluate one's own story. Chapter three considers William Langland's richly complex fourteenth-century poem, <italic>Piers Plowman</italic>. The horrible failures of the sacrament of penance in this poem cause the Church to crumble. The allegorical Wille is left within this Church with the enjoinder to "learn the craft of love." For Wille to learn the craft of love means more than learning to forgive and to be forgiven - it means learning to be charitable. For Langland, a charitable Church is yet to be practiced, yet to be constructed. My last chapter examines <italic>Pearl</italic>, a late fourteenth-century apocalyptic allegory written by an anonymous poet. The poem opens with a jeweler lamenting the loss of his pearl in a garden. As the poem progresses it becomes clear that the jeweler is a father who mourns the death of his infant daughter. In a dream vision, his daughter appears to him as a Pearl Maiden, one of the 144,000 virgins from the Book of Revelations. In an inversion of the usual parent-child relationship, the Pearl Maiden teaches the jeweler to recognize that their interlocking narratives stem from the same Christian tradition, although his particular narrative is one of penitential practice and hers is one of grace. The Pearl poet's architectural allegory focuses on the completed City of New Jerusalem rather than on the upbuilding or crumbling of the Church.</p> / Dissertation

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Concordia Theological Seminary, Ft. Wayne, IN, 2001. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 537-546) and indexes.

This thesis is an exploratory investigation of how apprenticeship instructors in two of Ontario's colleges perceive and have experienced professional development over the duration of their careers and the role their employer-colleges, played in that professional development. As the primary agents for skills and knowledge transfer, the instructors of apprenticeship training provide a key role in preparing competent, skilled-trade workers for a complex and changing work environment. This research is relevant at this time because of the many changes to the Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology since their inception in the mid-nineteen- sixties. The original mission of the colleges, to deliver occupation preparation programs has evolved to a much-expanded mandate to include degree granting. Other changes include a much more diverse student population with diverse needs, backgrounds and values. Have the apprenticeship instructors received the requisite training and development to deal with changes in technology, student needs, teaching and learning strategies and the evolving complexities of the college environment? This study contributes to the literature of professional development in the apprenticeship professoriate by examining the perceptions, attitudes and behaviours concerning professional development. The findings reveal that there are issues of physical location, discourse and methods of instruction, unique to apprenticeship training, which have a profound impact on the apprenticeship instructors' disposition and participation in professional development. Data were attained from a series of in-depth interviews, which revealed that the apprenticeship instructors are a dedicated and motivated group of educators who are committed to providing the highest quality of education to their students. However, the professional development offered or supported by the college-employers attracts very little, if any, participation by the apprenticeship professoriate. The findings indicate that changes to facilitate the active participation in professional development, creating a more inclusive environment between the apprenticeship instructors and other faculty members and restructuring the professional development programs to include review and evaluation of every faculty member's needs would create a more comprehensive and continuing enhancement of instructors' capabilities and student learning outcomes.

This thesis is an exploratory investigation of how apprenticeship instructors in two of Ontario's colleges perceive and have experienced professional development over the duration of their careers and the role their employer-colleges, played in that professional development. As the primary agents for skills and knowledge transfer, the instructors of apprenticeship training provide a key role in preparing competent, skilled-trade workers for a complex and changing work environment. This research is relevant at this time because of the many changes to the Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology since their inception in the mid-nineteen- sixties. The original mission of the colleges, to deliver occupation preparation programs has evolved to a much-expanded mandate to include degree granting. Other changes include a much more diverse student population with diverse needs, backgrounds and values. Have the apprenticeship instructors received the requisite training and development to deal with changes in technology, student needs, teaching and learning strategies and the evolving complexities of the college environment? This study contributes to the literature of professional development in the apprenticeship professoriate by examining the perceptions, attitudes and behaviours concerning professional development. The findings reveal that there are issues of physical location, discourse and methods of instruction, unique to apprenticeship training, which have a profound impact on the apprenticeship instructors' disposition and participation in professional development. Data were attained from a series of in-depth interviews, which revealed that the apprenticeship instructors are a dedicated and motivated group of educators who are committed to providing the highest quality of education to their students. However, the professional development offered or supported by the college-employers attracts very little, if any, participation by the apprenticeship professoriate. The findings indicate that changes to facilitate the active participation in professional development, creating a more inclusive environment between the apprenticeship instructors and other faculty members and restructuring the professional development programs to include review and evaluation of every faculty member's needs would create a more comprehensive and continuing enhancement of instructors' capabilities and student learning outcomes.

Thesis (D. Miss.)--Western Seminary, Portland, OR, 2007. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 182-191).

Thesis--Wisconsin. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 287-291).

Thesis (D. Miss.)--Western Seminary, Portland, OR, 2007. / Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 182-191).

AN ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION OF Gayla Stoner, for the Doctor of Philosophy in Education degree, presented on May 16, 2015, at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. TITLE: INSTRUCTORS' PERCEPTIONS OF ONLINE INSTRUCTION WITHIN REGISTERED APPRENTICESHIP PROGRAMS MAJOR PROFESSOR: Dr. Barbara Hagler This qualitative study explored the perceptions of instructor use of online instruction within Registered Apprenticeship Programs (RAPs). The study concentrated on experienced instructors within a RAP that is part of a long-term, well-established trade union located in a major metropolitan area in the Midwestern United States. This study was informed by the methodology of a constructivist case study, which included the following methods: document review, expert panel, and in-depth interviews. Swan, Garrison, and Richardson's (2009) process-oriented model of the Community of Inquiry (CoI) with a constructivist approach served as the conceptual framework to inform this study. The purpose of this study was to contribute to the body of knowledge of online instruction within RAPs. The focus of this research study described (a) how RAP instructors perceive online instruction, (b) how their perceptions might impact the learning experiences of adult learners, and (c) how the perception of online learning may be improved among such instructors. The Office of Apprenticeship, which is within U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) Employment and Training Administration (ETA), recently revised regulations that now encourage the integration of technology-enhanced training into RAPs. Specifically, on October 29, 2008, the ETA, through its Office of Apprenticeship, exercised its statutory authority under the National Apprenticeship Act of 1937 and promulgated the first revision in more than 30 years to its longstanding regulatory rubric governing RAPs (Code of Federal Regulations, Title 29, Part 29) (Labor, 2008). These revisions, published in Title 29, Part 29 of the Code of Federal Regulations (29 CFR Part 29), embrace the use of "electronic media," including "interactive distance learning," as permissible instructional vehicles for the technical training of RAP-enrolled apprentices (Labor, 2008). As a result of the revision of 29 CFR Part 29, RAPs now have the option to augment their formal training programs with non-traditional instructional modalities for the benefit of both apprentice-sponsoring employers and enrolled apprentices. Interviewee quotes are used throughout the study to illustrate the range of interviewee opinion and to support conclusions. These findings may enable the instructor to provide quality instruction by demonstrating the elements of presence described in the CoI process-oriented model. In addition, my findings indicated there is evidence of a CoI process-oriented model that helps facilitate quality online learning within this specific RAP. I also discovered that RAP instructors recognize and encourage the benefits of online instruction for the apprentice, which includes (a) increased training opportunities and (b) the ability to maintain adult lifestyles. Additionally, instructors serve as mentors for the apprentice by providing guidance and opportunities in regard to achieving their educational goals. Also, I found that perceptions of online learning will continue to improve through the ongoing support provided by the RAP. Support includes technology-based workshops and pedagogical-based professional development opportunities. Finally, RAP instructors must continue to be educated on the advantages online instruction can bring to the self-directed apprentice. Primary conclusions from the study are the revelation of a strong community establishment within this specific RAP. This community of learners support the apprentice's ability to contribute positively to the workforce through the attainment of educational goals. In addition, RAP instructors take ownership of the responsibility to provide flexible educational offerings to the apprentice. These offerings include the delivery of quality courses that result in the benefits gained through online instruction. Also, instructor support of resources must continue to remain a priority for the RAP. Finally, I concluded that the self-directed apprentice has similar attributes as the ideal online learner. Flowing from the study's conclusions are several recommendations for this specific RAP, as well as the Employment and Training Administration. My recommendations include the suggestions for online lifelong learning and professional development course offerings, as well as the comparison of the learning outcomes of apprentices based on delivery modes. I recommended assessments and evaluations or online program evaluation in RAPs. Also, I recommended instructor creation of a mechanism for evaluating the quality of online instruction within RAPs. I recommended that RAPs continue to consider additional paths for sustainable funding. Additionally, I recommended that RAP instructors should receive more knowledge and application training in regard to the utilization of the process-oriented model theoretical framework of the Community of Inquiry. Finally, I recommended the creation of a national advisory sub-committee to serve the Federal Advisory Committee on Apprenticeship. The sub-committee would be charged with the purpose of understanding and disseminating educational and technological instruction to enhance RAPs.