Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 31-11, Section: A, page: 5751. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1970.

The overall purpose of this study was to identify the continuing education perceived needs of electrical and electronics engineers in Mexico. The data base and findings of this study will be used in the National Polytechnical Institute as the primary basis for designing and implementing programs of continuing education for the engineers in the petroleum and electrical generation industries in Mexico during the period 1983-1986. / This study, a descriptive needs assessment was conducted in two phases. The first phase was devoted to the development of the instrument for the needs assessment using a Delphi technique. The second phase consisted of a survey of a stratified random sample of engineers. The specific research questions for this study were: (a) What knowledge, skills, and/or attitudes are required for proficient professional performance? (the desired state of affairs); (b) To what extent do electrical and electronics engineers possess the knowledge, skills, and/or attitudes identified in (a) above? (the present state of affairs); (c) To what extent are there discrepancies between the knowledge, skills, and/or attitudes required for proficient professional performance and those actually possessed by practicing electrical and electronics engineers? (educational need) / The findings of the study provided priorities for use in planning for the continuing education of electrical and electronics engineers in Mexico. Priorities for specific needs were identified in four general areas: (1) technical skills and theoretical knowledge, (2) ability to continue one's education, (3) supervising and managerial skills, and (4) professional and societal issues and values. Recommendations were developed for use by curriculum planners and others who have responsibilities for designing continuing engineering education programs. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 43-12, Section: A, page: 3783. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1983.

The purpose of this study was to find what proportion of main and subordinate ideas aging adults remembered after casually viewing a television documentary. This study investigated the proportion of main ideas and subordinate ideas recalled immediately and one week later and the change between immediate and delayed retention. This study also examined the relationships between the aging adult's individual characteristics and the immediate and delayed retention of main and subordinate ideas. / Fifty-five aging adults between fifty-two and eighty-nine years of age were participants. Eighty percent were females, and twenty percent were males; their previous educational attainment level was above average. / Participants viewed a commercially-prepared television documentary in a casual setting. A propositional analysis scheme of the program's narration was used to designate main and subordinate ideas. Cued-recall tests were developed and contained 5 items measuring main ideas and 5 items measuring subordinate ideas. Immediately after the program was viewed, participants were given the first cued-recall test. A week later, participants took a different cued-recall test. / Results indicate that there is a statistically significant difference between the immediate recall of main ideas and the immediate recall of subordinate ideas. There is also a statistical difference between the delayed recall of main ideas and the delayed recall of subordinate ideas. Although more main ideas and subordinate ideas are recalled immediately than one week later, the results of this research show no statistical difference between immediate and delayed retention. / When Stepwise Regression was used to analyze the importance of the independent variables age, socioeconomic status, meaningfulness of content and material, attitude towards television and previous education, only education was statistically significant. This variable explained 28% of the immediate main idea retention and 19% of the immediate subordinate idea retention. Previous education explained 20% of the main ideas and 18% of the subordinate ideas recalled one week after viewing the documentary. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 45-09, Section: A, page: 2730. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1984.

When the 1937 census in Thailand revealed that approximately 70 per cent of the country's population was illiterate, the government took immediate steps to raise the literacy level. Among these were the establishment of the Division of Adult Education under the auspices of the Ministry of Education and the enactment of the compulsory law in 1940, thereby giving birth to the Functional Literacy and Family Life Planning (FLFLP) program. Subsequent factors such as World War II and the instability of the economy forced the repeal of the law and placed less emphasis upon literacy. / With the recovery of the economy, the FLFLP program was reactivated, and experiments in adult education were conducted. At first the thrust of the program was to campaign for literacy, making the skills of reading, writing and arithmetic important. Following these experiments, the FLFLP program was extended to include problem solving, family planning, and other means to improve living conditions. / The basic purpose of this study was to describe and to analyze a single case and pilot study of the FLFLP program as it was actually carried out in a rural area of Thailand. A second purpose was to ascertain reasons for participation or non-participation in the program. A third purpose was to develop a research plan that could be used in additional studies of the FLFLP program in other villages. / Using Rogers' adoption process as a guide for observations, interviews, participation and analysis, the researcher determined those factors motivating villagers to participate in, not to participate in, or to drop out from the FLFLP program in the research village. / The most often repeated reasons for participation in the program were to learn literacy skills, to gain practical knowledge and skills that would improve their living conditions, to help them communicate with outsiders. Fatigue, illness and geographic distance were the reasons that both non-participants and drop-outs gave. / At the conclusion of the study, the researcher had gathered data through interviews and observation to indicate that the FLFLP program in one Thai village had fulfilled only one of its objectives; specifically, the improvement of the villagers' literacy skills. The two objectives which were not achieved by the FLFLP program were: (1) To help the learner to become "Khit-phen"--someone who is capable of engaging in a critical thought process. (2) To improve the living conditions of the learners. / In the course or the development of the program it appeared that the villagers acquired new knowledge and skills but nevertheless had difficulty in applying these in their daily lives. / As a consequence of the data collected in his pilot study, the researcher made a number of recommendations which, if implemented, might increase the likelihood of the success of the FLFLP activities in the villages of Thailand. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-03, Section: A, page: 0893. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1980.

The generic problem addressed in this study is the low level of clarity and commonality in the use of descriptive concepts in the discipline of adult education. Since this problem was seen to be, at least in part, a function of the lack of a suitable model for the identification and characterization of descriptive concepts in the discipline, the initial development of such a model was adopted as the specific purpose of the study. / Although, historically, the standard approach to the problem has been the development of classification systems of adult education events or components of events, conceptual analyses of taxonomic models and procedures, and of selected classification systems in the discipline, revealed that both theoretically and empirically the development of such classification systems was an inappropriate means to solution of the problem. Rather it was evident that a generally applicable descriptive framework would preferably be based on the use of variable descriptive concepts. / A multidimensional descriptive paradigm was developed through an iterative and cyclical formal modeling procedure, using as its data base those descriptive concepts which are current in the discipline: deriving its basic components and their interrelational functions from the elements which were indicated by the literature of the discipline, and identifying and clarifying variable descriptive concepts through this framework, with the application of deductive and conceptual analysis. The published materials that were used in the development and testing of the model encompassed definitional perceptions of the field, normative philosophical orientations towards it, and descriptions of adult education events and research pertaining to them. / The model that was developed--termed the configurational model--is based upon the perception of adult education events as arbitrary, continually variable, multidimensional systems of interdependent interrelationships. The model encompasses two configurations: one identifying the precision of definition of the elements (such as the learner and the content) in the event, and the other identifying the relationships between and among the elements. Within the model, variability is defined by specific functions which identify differences within elements of an event, or between and among elements. The descriptive dimensions identified by the functions are perceived as being qualitatively distinct, but expressive of quantitative variability within each dimension. An appropriate symbolic system was developed for the cryptic expression of these dimensional qualities. / The testing of the model revealed a large number of descriptive dimensions in the discipline, many of which were highly complex interrelationships. There was, however, a high degree of commonality among the dimensions identified from the different bodies of literature tested. Although a small number of the concepts analyzed were too vaguely presented to permit their interpretation through the model, the majority could be expressed in the constructs of the model, but in alternative ways, since the descriptive precision of the model constructs was shown to be generally greater than that normally used in the discipline. / From the results of the testing of the model, it was concluded that a dimensional descriptive paradigm is indeed applicable and appropriate to the description of variability in the field, and that the configurational model may well serve as a suitable system of this type. However, as it presently is developed, the configurational model offers too great a diversity of descriptive concepts for many practical purposes; its suitability as a general descriptive framework for the discipline probably being conditional upon the future development of another configuration to encompass the variable magnitude of its other components, and on the generation of explanatory theoretical systems which are based on its constructs. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-04, Section: A, page: 1342. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1980.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 40-10, Section: A, page: 5285. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1979.

Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 40-10, Section: A, page: 5286. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1979.

The problem that was addressed in this study was the curriculum planner's lack of knowledge of actual educational tasks performed by family planning practitioners. There was a need to specifically identify family planning educational tasks to determine the basis for developing training programs for family planning educational practitioners. / The overall purpose of the study was to investigate the educational job tasks being performed by a select group of family planning practitioners in Florida and to explore how the results of the study would be applicable in other parts of the world. More specifically the objectives of the study were: (1) to determine the nature of the educational tasks being performed by non-physician family planning practitioners, the extent to which these tasks were performed, their perceived importance and where competence to perform these tasks was acquired; and (2) to determine the extent to which selected background factors influenced the nature and extent to which educational tasks were performed, the perceived importance of these tasks and where competence to perform these tasks was acquired. / Questionnaires were mailed to a sample of 108 subjects. Subjects included 54 Nurse Practitioners and 54 other non-physician family planning staff who performed clinical and educational activities of family planning. Data were collected on background variables and task inventory ratings. In the task inventory portion of the questionnaire, 50 educational job tasks were listed and for each task, respondents were asked to answer three questions: (1) How often do you perform this task, (2) How important is this task to successful job performance, and (3) Where did you learn to perform this task? / Percentages, average scores, means of average scores and rank order were the descriptive statistics used in the analysis of data. Chi-square was used to test the first twelve hypotheses which investigated the association between three measures of task performance and four background variables. To test the last two hypotheses, the Spearman Rank Order Correlation Coefficient was computed to determine whether a significant relationship existed between frequency of task performance and importance of task performance. / Findings of the study indicated that out of 50 tasks, 25 (50%) were performed by 70% or more of the respondents, were frequently performed (with average frequency scores (GREATERTHEQ) 2.21) and were perceived by respondents to be important to successful job performance (with average importance scores (GREATERTHEQ) 2.74). These were identified as core educational tasks which would form the basis for developing training programs for family planning educational practitioners. / On-the-job training was the predominant source of competence to perform 29 (58%) of the tasks while competence to perform 20 (40%) of the tasks was predominantly acquired from formal training. / The largest proportion (47.3%) of the respondents acquired competence to perform task predominantly on the job. A substantial proportion (41.9%) acquired competence to perform task from formal training while 10.8% of the respondents acquired competence to perform task from "other training." Nurse Practitioners acquired competence to perform task predominantly from formal training. For Nurse Supervisors, Clinic Nurses, Public Health Nurses and "Other Staff," the predominant source of competence to perform task was on-the-job training. / Statistical results of the study indicated that there was an association (1) between frequency of task performance and job title, (2) between predominant source of competence to perform task and job title, and (3) between predominant source of competence to perform task and licenses held. A significant relationship (p < .05) was found to exist between frequency of task performance and importance of task performance. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 41-10, Section: A, page: 4254. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1980.

Participatory research is the subject of much discussion, and many reported applications from over the globe reveal the need for more percision in defining functions and attributes. This case study, on balance with the literature, determined the construction of the paradigm at the end of this dissertation. / After an intensive search of the literature the investigator concluded that a need existed for a functional, more precise paradigm. Definition, descriptive accounts and ideologically based claims are interesting to both academics and practitioners, yet the literature, as it is, does not help one perform operations essential to participatory research. Even the question, "What difference exists between community development and participatory research?" is not answered clearly by advocates of this approach. / When John Lowe was Director, Adult Education Section, Literacy, Adult Education and Rural Development Division, UNESCO, he said, "Adult education should realize that much valuable research may be confined to fact-finding and assessing the merits of minor programs. Thus any attempt to test new theories or to classify knowledge and experience deserves to be acknowledged as a contribution to research." / This is a small study of a small project on a small island. / The method of the study was to construct an analog model of participatory research from the descriptions, explanations and claims revealed in the literature. The model was employed to plan, implement and observe activities of a community development nature on the island of Virgin Gorda, British West Indies. A systematic record of the observations made over a period of ten weeks allowed the investigator to construct an alternative, yet similar model. When the two models were compared, a modified system paradigm resulted. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 42-01, Section: A, page: 0056. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1981.

This study was a comparative analysis of adult education activities in three Asian countries--Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, and Japan. The three countries were selected on the basis of their progress through the three stages of demographic transition. / In order to describe the background against which the adult education activities occurred, national conditions in each country were described by selected elements adapted from Background Notes of the U.S. Department of State and the Factbook of the U.S. Government Printing Office; the development of each country was analyzed with indicators developed by Harbison and his associates. / Existing and typical adult education programs in each country were described and compared in terms of the appropriate demographic transition stage of each country--traditional, transitional and advanced. / This comparison covered such areas as subjects, opportunities, methods and techniques, institutions, and organizations of adult education. / Based on the results of the comparison, recommendations were made for shaping adult education activities to aid in assisting the national development of each society. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 42-01, Section: A, page: 0056. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1981.