One of the most overlooked and complex problems that universities and colleges face nation-wide is how to reduce and eliminate research misconduct. Because of the confidential nature of allegations of research misconduct and the high rate of underreporting, administrators at scholarly institutions struggle with understanding the cause of such behavior. Without a clear picture of the prevalence of misconduct or the barriers to reporting, leaders at institutions of higher learning find themselves at a disadvantage when dealing with these problems. This uncertainty coupled with a growing regulatory emphasis from federal funding agencies, results in a reactionary approach while questionable practices go unchecked. In the early 2000s, federal funding agencies began requiring colleges and universities to provide training in the responsible conduct of research prior to receiving funding. The Responsible Conduct of Research (RCR) training covers research misconduct (falsification of data, fabricating data, and plagiarism) as well as other topics related to research misbehaviors (mentoring, peer review, data management, authorship, etc). This emphasis on training, while well intended, has not had a significant impact on faculty and student knowledge about misconduct. Authentic Leadership Theory is based on Aristotle’s concept of authenticity and has gained attention over the last decade. It is comprised of four main components: Balanced processing, internalized moral perspective, relational transparency, and self-awareness. These types of leaders focus on moral standards and values and that is what guides his or her leadership. This study evaluates the impact authentic leaders have on shaping the ethical attitudes of faculty when they are placed in direct departmental supervisory positions. A survey of faculty from 15 Mississippi colleges and universities was conducted. Results indicate that the self-awareness and relational transparency constructs of authentic leadership influence faculty attitudes towards objective research integrity issues, but the direction of influence conflicts with each of the constructs. Additional variables failed to reach a level of significance suggesting that other variables, not historically associated with organizational leadership and research integrity, are influencing faculty’s ethical perceptions. Additional attention is focused on barriers to effective leadership caused by the compliance focused culture of institutions of higher learning.

Children's literature is crucial in shaping the way young children see and think about themselves in the eyes of society. Although diversity is increasing, a need remains for books that feature Black children as well as accurate portrayals of their lifestyles. According to the Cooperation Children's Book Center (2020), only 400 books out of 3,299 are about Black Americans, while a little over half of that number are actually written by Black authors. Why should children of color have to suffice with reading books that have no connection to their real-world life? Black children should have access to and enjoy quality, award winning books that accurately represent their everyday lifestyles and not merely retell stories from the past. To address these concerns, this thesis examined 16 of the Coretta Scott King (CSK) Award and Honor picturebooks, awarded in 2013-2020, to explore the contents in terms of themes to support young Black American children on their journey of finding meaning and joy in reading. Within the analysis, a total of 16 picturebooks showed that 8 featured Black Americans in struggling contexts highlighting historical events, while 8 focused on the everyday lives and culture of Black Americans. Delving deeper, two trends, artistic expression and self-confidence, were identified. Within the eight books Within the books focusing on everyday Black culture, four themes were agreed upon: 1) Navigating real societal problems within the Black community, 2) Realizing empowerment within ourselves, 3) Valuing relationships with others, and 4) Finding value in everyday activities.

The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the underlying factors involved in introducing authentic literature to the EFL classroom. The purpose has been to establish which factors should be considered in order to facilitate both the discrepancies between more literate pupils and less literate pupils, and the differing experiences and backgrounds of the class as a whole. The research focuses on the introduction of literature within whole group reading sessions, and considers factors such as equal reading levels versus below reading levels, protagonist gender, book titles and the amount of English read outside of the classroom.The dissertation discusses the reliability of readability programs, vocabulary required in order to comprehend second language literature, pupils’ ever increasing contact with English outside of school and pupils’ reactions to texts deemed either equal or below their own literacy level. In a classroom investigation, pupils were presented with texts taken from books judged to be either equal to or below their suggested age group, and asked to comment on their reading experiences. Results showed that texts from both sectors were received favourably, and that factors such as genre, protagonist gender and the book’s title were more decisive factors to a book’s popularity. Indeed, pupils noticed little or no difference in books written for a younger audience. Furthermore, an interview with an English teacher at a compulsory school confirmed that a book’s suggested age range had little or no importance when choosing texts for the classroom, and suggests that vocabulary focus in class can combat any discrepancy in pupil literacy levels.

While the Doctor of Occupational Therapy (OTD) degree is distinctively characterized by clinical leadership (O’Brien et al., 2012; Pierce & Peyton, 1999); there is a limited amount of literature regarding evidence-based, theory driven, outcome-oriented curricular practices that develop leadership skills in Entry-Level Doctor of Occupational Therapy (EL-OTD) students. The occupational therapy (OT) profession would benefit from OT programs taking an empirical approach to implementing leadership development as there is currently a need to understand which approaches produce the most impactful and relevant changes for the profession. This project intends to fill the gap in empirical knowledge through the creation of an authentic leadership curriculum based on learning theories and learning science principles that can be assessed for impact and successful knowledge transfer among EL-OTD students. The proposed initiative involves the infusion of authentic leadership components in a leadership curriculum that will be nested into an EL-OTD curriculum. Specifically, this initiative consists of the inclusion of course learning objectives and course activities focused on the components of authentic leadership theory framework within each course in the OT program’s curriculum. The structured approach to construction and implementation of the leadership curriculum is based on Systems Theory and also relies heavily on Action Learning Theory, Leadership Development Theory, Conger’s Four Approaches to Leadership Development, and Authentic Leadership Theory. The elements of each theory build a conceptual model answering the questions what, when, and how leadership development will occur. The aim of this educational intervention is to increase authentic leadership in students. OT and occupational therapy assistant (OTA) programs are identified stakeholders who may benefit from the program evaluation research findings and evaluation of the students’ leadership skills, as these findings can impact future curriculum development and reporting on programmatic outcomes. The short-term program evaluation objectives include increased EL-OTD students’ self-awareness as leaders, understanding of the meaning of leadership in OT practice, and authentic leadership skills. Evidence supports that leadership development programs are effective at increasing leadership skills. Accordingly, this innovative curriculum draws from elements of multiple theories from various disciplines in order to address the content and methods needed for infusing leadership development within an EL-OTD program. Consequently, the development of and outcomes related to the authentic leadership curriculum have the potential to reach current, applicant, candidate or transitioning OTD programs. / 2022-09-25T00:00:00Z

This study explores the impact of authentic materials on the oral competence of students. In extension, this study is interested in the perspectives and experiences of authentic materials among teachers in French in Swedish secondary school.A solid theoretical framework has been made in the aim at understanding and appreciating the key words of this research, such as oral competence, authenticity, and authentic documents to guarantee a common understanding of these terms which form the basis of this study. In addition, this step allowed to highlight the importance of these criteria in Swedish official educational documents but also to understand how authentic documents help develop students' oral skills.For the purposes of the study a qualitative design was chosen, and data was collected by three semi-structured interviews with three teachers. The results of this study show that two out of three teachers do not particularly consider the criterion of authenticity, and one identified reason was that these teachers simply did not consider this criterion, for lack of time and preferring to use a textbook. However, the teacher who regularly uses authentic materials experiences that it improves the motivation of students and make them more inclined to communicate orally in the target language. Thus, this study points out that few teachers may consider the criterion of authenticity and the use of authentic documents, since out of 3 teachers questioned, only one regularly uses authentic materials. The conclusion is drawn that teachers might be unaware of the many benefits with using authentic materials, which was highlighted during the theoretical research but also in the results of interviews which suggests that the students speak more easily in the target language when the teacher uses authentic materials, preferably in a playful way.

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In the midst of debate over the treatment of culture in foreign language education and the increased exposure to culture in the global economy, the knowledge of other cultures is more significant than ever. In order to improve teaching culture, materials have been examined and revised. The purpose of this exploratory study is to describe how culture is addressed in the fourteen high school EFL reading textbooks in Japan, that were approved by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT) at the time of this study. In previous studies on EFL textbooks in Japan by Kitao (1979, 1988) and Iwata, Ogawa, Wen, Sakamoto, Takarada, Horio, Muto, and Mogi (2001) among others, the findings included the cultural elements categorized by various criteria, defining topics and types of reading texts and illustrations, classifying the student activities regarding culture, the descriptions of societies represented, the unnatural use of the English language that are edited for grammatical correctness, and the lack of elements that are usually present in the natural course of conversations or in the authentic passages. This study of the reading passages and pre- and post-reading activities was guided by several theories and studies: First, the authentic use of a language reflects the writer's culture (Brown, 1987; Byrnes, 1990; Gilmore, 2004; Honeyfield, 1977; Kramsch, 1993; Lamie, 1998; McKay, 1982; Shrum & Glisan, 2005; Swaffar, 1985), and the culture is reflected in the vocabulary (Sapir, 1949). Second, the readers' own cultural knowledge (C1) should be activated in understanding the culture of others (C2), comparing and contrasting C1 and C2 so that the differences and similarities will be more evident (Byrnes, 1990; Kolb, 1984; Kramsch, 1993; National Standards in Foreign Language Education Project [NSFLEP], 2005). The results show 1) that the reading passages were edited mostly by deleting and altering portions of the originals, and thus the culture was not present as in the original passages, and 2) pre-reading and post-reading activities/questions were literal and not designed to foster cultural understanding. / Ed. D.

Listening, the most frequently used form of language skill, plays a significant role in daily communication and educational process. In spite of its importance, listening ability development has received only slight emphasis in language instruction. Nevertheless, U.S. college classrooms, where comprehensive listening serves as a primary channel for learning, require that students function effectively as listeners. It is therefore important for ESL programs to prepare students for successful listening in academic lectures by implementing authentic listening materials in the ESL classes. The fundamental purpose of this study was to examine the influences of aural authentic materials on listening ability in students of English as a second language. The secondary purposes of the study were to identify the learning strategies used by ESL students experiencing authentic listening texts and to determine the influences of authentic materials on ESL students' attitudes towards learning English. ESL students attending the High Intermediate Academic Listening and Vocabulary Development class at a language training center participated in this study. The sources of data for this descriptive study included interviews, questionnaires, and class observation. Analysis of the interviews and the self-evaluation questionnaire revealed that the use of authentic materials in this ESL classroom helped increase students' comfort level and their self-confidence to listen to the target language. Analysis of the class observation and the learning strategy questionnaire revealed that ESL students usually paid attention when someone was speaking English. Students also relied on outside sources such as dictionaries, or other people such as relatives to understand unfamiliar words. Finally, analysis of the class observation and the interview with students revealed that the use of aural authentic materials in ESL classroom had a positive effect on ESL students' motivation to learn the language. Recommendations are offered to ease learners' frustration that resulted from the use of unfamiliar vocabulary and the speed of authentic speech. / Ed. D.