Thesis (EdD)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2010. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Elisabeth Swanson. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 328-337).

<p> The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of motivation in the persistence of adults enrolled in online higher education. Since the 1990&rsquo;s, online courses and programs have proliferated across higher education, with adults (ages 25 and over) currently making up the largest portion of online enrollments. Online courses, however, suffer from a higher rate of student attrition than their hybrid and face-to-face counterparts. Although it is difficult to attribute the high rate of attrition in online education to any one factor, research has identified a lack of motivation as a primary cause of student dropout. Likewise, studies have shown that when motivation is present, learners are more likely to persist in their coursework. In order to develop a deeper understanding of this issue, a phenomenological approach was chosen as the most appropriate method for this study. </p><p> Participants for this study were at least 25 years of age and were enrolled in an online class at a large public university in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. In adhering to the phenomenological method, open-ended, in-depth interviews were used to investigate how adult learners experience motivation in online higher education. Transcendental phenomenological analysis was then used to determine the essence of this experience. During the first stage of this process, twelve distinct themes emerged from the data, including Relevance and Applicability, Communication, Flexibility, and Instructor Presence. During the next stage, three additional structural themes were identified: Relation to Self, Relationship with Others, and Time. During the final stage of analysis, the essence of this experience was revealed as the participants&rsquo; Goal Commitment and their Need for Guidance. </p><p> Key findings from this study include the confirmation of motivation as a critical component in the persistence of adult online learners. In addition, a number of factors were identified as key facilitators and barriers to persistence in adults learning online. In developing an in-depth understanding of the link between motivation and persistence in this particular sample of learners, the results of this study may potentially contribute to addressing the overall larger problem of high rates of attrition in online higher education. </p><p>

This thesis explores participation in adult learning and focuses upon three key areas of interest: reasons for participation, the challenges of participation, and the enabling factors relating to participation. The purpose of the research is to expand understanding in order to enhance and improve learning support practice, through a study of a university based, professionally accredited, part-time, Master's Degree programme in Human Resource Management, which serves as the research setting. The study of participation in adult learning is a well-trodden path, beginning with the seminal work of Cyril Houle in the early 1960s. Since then, researchers have continuously sought to prove, disprove or adapt existing typologies. Research has focused on generating groups of single identified factors, motivational indicators and specific challenges influencing participation in adult learning. Specific models and frameworks related to the enablement of participation are identified as being missing from the participation literature, with reference to enablers existing only within the disparate literature relating to adult learning and its broader contexts and influences. A review of the key literature reveals a lack of a single open framework that considers the reasons for, the challenges to, and the enablers of participation across defined contextual dimensions, for the purposes of understanding the nature of participation. This research presents an original conceptual framework matrix, developed from this existing literature, intended to fill this gap. The matrix affords two key opportunities. Firstly, as a theoretical device by which to organise and review current literature in the field and secondly, as a means to identify, explore and present the dominant factors relating to participation in adult learning. To achieve this the matrix identifies the three key areas of interest: i) the reasons participants have for joining the learning activity; ii) the challenges they have faced in doing so, and finally; iii) the elements and influences that enable them to successfully participate in the learning activity. These areas are reviewed further across four dimensions of the participants' life world, that of the psychological, the professional, the practical and the personal. Utilising a critical realist ontology and a post-positivist epistemology the conceptual framework matrix is used to structure the research design. The study adopts a linear, mixed methods approach to collecting data using types of thematic analysis (quantitative and qualitative), achieved through the use of an online questionnaire and one-to-one interviews with the target population. Viewed through the lens of the conceptual framework matrix, findings from within the research setting demonstrate that participants chose to engage with the learning activity as a result of a wide range of influencing factors. Reasons for participation were dominated by two of the dimensions, professional and psychological. Challenges to participation were found to be dominated by psychological factors, alongside issues of a restrictive learning environment and difficulties in achieving work life balance. The dominant enablers were people, deriving from all aspects of the participants' life-world. To aid successful participation in the learning activity under investigation two key recommendations are made to the programme managers and facilitators: i) the facilitation and encouragement of communities of practice and, ii) the development of links between the programme provider and employers. Further to this, this study suggests that, following further research to establish transferability and usability, the matrix has the potential to contribute to wider practice as an open, exploratory framework to be applied to a variety of different learning activities as a means of identifying areas of improvement or change.

The Young Apprenticeship (YA) programme is the latest in a long line of vocational qualifications to exist fleetingly within the English education system. Introduced in 2004, the YA programme offered Key Stage 4 students the opportunity to combine academic and vocational study within specific industrial sectors. Evaluative studies of a quantitative nature evidence a positive response, both in terms of perceived usefulness and actual success (90% completion rate of the Sport YA, (SkillsActive, 2009)) from students, providers and employers. Never attaining more than pilot status, the programme was closed to new entrants in 2011 following recommendations made by the Wolf Report, condemning it to the role of yet another vocational education ‘experiment’. Little is known about how the students experience a programme that occupies a significant proportion of their Key Stage 4 timetable. Outside of their immediate institutional context, the YA students are a hidden population. This study seeks to examine and give voice to the experiences of the individuals who have participated in the programme, within their institutional context. Through a qualitative research methodology, it is proposed that observed changes in individual disposition during participation in the YA programme allow it to be considered as a ‘lived experience’ for the participants. It is argued that Situated Learning theory and the Community of Practice concept are useful analytical tools through which to make sense of the learning processes in which the YA students engage.

In 2006 The Children’s Workforce Development Council introduced the Early Years Professional (EYP) as a new a graduate level leader of practice and change agent. The EYP was tasked with improving quality in early childhood education and care (ECEC) in England, particularly in the private voluntary and independent (PVI) sector. Professional status was a new phenomenon in this sector and a narrative approach was taken in this study to explore, the experiences and perspectives of four experienced practitioners as they undertook a programme of training and education to become EYPs. Narrative in this study has informed the collection, interpretation and presentation of the data. The first layer of analysis presents the data as monologues which privilege the voices of the participants before the data is deconstructed for two subsequent layers of analysis. The second layer of analysis draws on the work of Bourdieu to explain how feminine stereotypes of care have shaped the participants’ experiences of professionalisation. This thesis argues that professionalisation does not entirely overcome primary conditioning but can increase access to cultural and economic capital and help the workforce resist exploitation. The data are considered in relation to contemporary debates, particularly those concerning performativity and the professional mandate. It is argued that performativity can threaten practice that is built on an ethic of care, leading to ontological insecurity. This thesis posits that the ontological insecurity, associated with EYPS, tends to be transitory and is outweighed by the value, status and access to resources that being a professional brings to the participants. It also argues that the professional mandate is found to be, at best, fragile and, at worst, rejected by significant stakeholders, thus threatening professionalisation of the sector. The final layer of analysis draws on the multiframe model of Bolman and Deal which offers insight into how organisational structures and practices shape participants’ experiences of becoming an EYP and their ability to lead practice, and bring about change. The findings suggest that the role of the professional in ECEC challenges traditional hierarchical organisational structures and the professional is often ill prepared for leadership. Drawing on this multiframe analysis the study synthesises an adapted Change Curve Model with the multiframe model to generate an integrated model of leadership which the practice leader can draw upon to identify the stages of change, and the actions which can be employed at each stage. This model extends knowledge of leadership in ECEC and underpins practice leadership in a sector which is increasingly framed by the raising standards policy context and increased accountability.

This study is an attempt to explore and explain tensions and anomalies associated with the role of Drama in Further Education. An initial intuitive framework suggests that there may be a natural antithesis between the expressive ideology of Drama and the instrumental ideology of Further Education. The frameworks proposed for the exploration include cultural reproduction theory, whilst Drama is perceived as carrying the dilemmas and contradictions of its marginal status. A two-by-two dichotomy is proposed which combines an analysis of Further Education milieu as potentially 'transparent' or 'opaque', and the role of Drama as potentially 'instrumental' or 'expressive'. The study moves accumulatively through three case studies. The first is an historical case assessing the extent, through two representative contrasting periods, to which the problems of Drama in Further Education can be said to reflect wider tensions and ambiguities pertaining to the role of Drama in culture at large. The second case study examines whether the legacy of Further Education is one of historical uncertainty and confusion, and whether Drama has responded in a consistent way to the cross-fire of ideas, interests and rhetorics of justification that it has found itself caught in. The third case study is an in-depth ethnography portrayal of the vicissitudes of Drama in a single institution, Sutton Coldfield College of Further Education, placed against a preliminary city-wide perspective concerning Further Education provision in Birmingham. As a contribution to theory, the thesis seeks tentative generalizations from multi-site and cross-time case studies in several areas, including cultural reproduction theory, modified to take account of sub-cultural tensions, and the moral behaviour and practical gambles associated with marginal subject areas in hostile milieu. It also takes an interactionist perspective on the ploys and strategies by which participants in the contested areas manage the problems of their potentially deviant identities, an account in which the collaborators and fifth columnists have their places. A final consideration is the extent to which the forces of social control in the colleges operate by hegemonic consent or by coercion in seeking to curb and contain Dramatic activity.

M.Tech. (Radiography) / Knowledge and skills are related to time and become obsolete if no effort is made to update them on an ongoing basis. Continuous Professional Development (CPD) is, therefore, the effort of committed professional practitioners to maintain and broaden the knowledge and skills related to their profession, following completion of formal training. The legal obligation of healthcare professional practitioners is to provide a high standard of care and act in the best interest of patients. To achieve this, radiographers must maintain and strive to improve their professional knowledge and competence. The main aim of this study was thus to assess the diagnostic radiographers‟ CPD participation in Kenya. The study was empirical in nature and therefore relied heavily on perceptions, experiences and observations. Mail questionnaires were sent to 250 radiographers working in Kenya during the time of the study. Self- addressed and stamped envelopes accompanied the questionnaires for ease of reply. Data analysis was done using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 14.0 and the results were presented in frequency and percentage tables. Cross tabulations were employed to demonstrate and test relationships between variables. Results revealed that a large number (69%) of diagnostic radiographers in Kenya are not participating in CPD due to various barriers. The study, therefore, recommended that CPD for radiographers should be declared compulsory and penalties are introduced for non-adherence to CPD requirements. This could encourage radiographers to keep up to date with modern techniques. The SORK should provide a legal framework for CPD and legitimize the organization and implementation of CPD structures...

The main aim of this study was to explore student nurses and lecturers’ perceptions of directed study time (DST) within an undergraduate nursing curriculum. Previous research pertaining to the phenomenon has predominantly focused on how students approached learning, and the pedagogical preferences of lecturers and students. A wealth of quantitative literature demonstrates attempts to measure students’ preparation for self directed learning (SDL). Whilst a substantial amount of research has identified that students are unprepared to study independently and direct their own learning; no research has explored the underlying reasons behind this, nor has any research explored the perceptions of DST within undergraduate nursing curricula. A hermeneutic phenomenological approach was used to understand and interpret the participants’ perceptions of DST. The research was undertaken in two phases. In Phase One three focus group interviews were undertaken with student nurses on an undergraduate adult branch nursing course at an English university. In Phase Two, individual semi-structured interviews were carried out with nurse academics from the same university. Template Analysis was used to analyse the data and to determine key themes. Significant findings revealed that both groups perceived DST to be owned by student nurses, who controlled DST. The identities of the groups was not reflective of their roles and resulted in a lack of belonging to the university; this led to limited levels of engagement by both parties with academic activities. Many student nurses did not engage with SDL during DST and the majority of lecturers did not value academia. The culture was influenced by the ‘hidden curriculum’ within which nurse lecturers lacked authority and relied on traditional pedagogical methods to regain a sense of control. The participants also described how some students’ mentors did not value academia and did not always recognise the importance of linking theory to practice. The implications of this research study emphasise the need for a multi-faceted approach to promote the value and importance of academia within the nursing profession.

This is an ethnographic study of a sample of Hindu students in a Further Education college. The students are all following a course leading to the Certificate of Pre- Vocational Education. The data consists of transcripts of informal interviews and of classroom teaching situations; and is analysed from the perspective of an interpretive paradigm. The purpose of the study is to reveal the methods used by the students in reaching an understanding of their own social world. The study seeks to construct a series of world views which reflect the ways in which the students perceive their own sense of reality. The research attempts to explore the views of students on several areas including religion and culture, their feelings about the education system, and their aspirations for employment and a career. Generally speaking, research studies in the sociology of education tend to focus on the schools sector, and it is the intention of this research to redress the balance somewhat in the direction of Further Education. Moreover, studies in multicultural education often describe their samples in non-specific ways such as "Asian students" or "ethnic minorities", and place little emphasis upon the social influences of specific religion and culture. By investigating a particular religious group it is hoped to encourage more studies which place an emphasis upon the importance of religion in defining the social life of Asian people. The study of this sample of Hindu students suggests that there exists a specifically Hindu perception of the world, and that the maintenance of this is of importance to the students. The students appeared to have a profound desire to succeed in the educational system, and to apply that success to particular vocational contexts. An apparently strong motivation to achieve something of value in life was sustained in part by a sense of parental support and interest. The students did not appear to be preoccupied with the racism which they encountered in society. It was also noted that the female students tended to reject firmly the traditional Hindu gender roles. Generally there was a tendency for these young people to develop considerably greater proficiency in spoken rather than written English. The thesis concludes with a reflexive account which seeks to describe the particular perspectives and approaches of the author in arriving at an understanding of the data.

The aim of this study was to investigate the perceptions held by health care professionals, of multi -disciplinary education. In addition, possible areas for the development of a multi-disciplinary approach were identified. The research focused on the views of nurses, physiotherapists, radiographers, speech therapists and occupational therapists. The study adopted a case study methodology, incorporating a mixed-method approach in terms of data collection. A questionnaire was used to review the perceptions of multi-disciplinary education amongst health care professionals, and interviews were then conducted with a sample of the respondents to explore their views further. From the outset, the research process assumed a multi-disciplinary perspective. During the study it became clear that organisational and professional factors were important influences on how health care professionals perceived multidisciplinary education. The research appeared to indicate that the idea of "multidisciplinary education" is a problematic concept and that multi-disciplinary education is acceptable, where it is appropriate. Most of the professions involved recognised the benefits of the process, but were anxious to protect the integrity of each individual profession, in the long term. Moreover, they maintained that the medical profession needs to be included in the process. The organisational findings were, primarily, that multi-disciplinary education might benefit from a cross-agency approach. Perhaps significantly, it was suggested that multi-disciplinary education should be introduced at the pre-registration stage. It was apparent that teamwork does not always occur in practice and that this was an area that could be a focus for multidisciplinary education. The research concluded that there should be joint ownership of any multi-disciplinary education programme across professions and organisations.