The purpose of this study is to explore experiences of professional growth for mid-career community college faculty. The research question that guided the study is: How do community college faculty members experience professional growth at mid- career? The research design included an interpretive social science methodology and phenomenological method. Nine mid-career community college faculty, identified as being engaged and active in their professional role, participated through in-depth interviews. Profiles of the participants in their own words were presented to reflect on their early career experiences, and themes were presented as they emerged from the data as participants talked about their experiences of professional growth. Themes emerged in the areas of: (1) experiences of professional growth; (2) how faculty made meaning of these experiences; and (3) how faculty experienced support for their growth. Faculty interviewed for this study were active in campus leadership and governance and in pursuing professional development opportunities. They demonstrated a high degree of engagement in student learning and improving instruction. They were thoughtful about their experiences, reflecting on diversity as one of the strengths of their institution and engaging in a self-reflective post-tenure process. They also experienced a high level of support from administrators and colleagues. By voicing the professional growth experiences of highly engaged faculty at an important career stage, this study offers implications for practice for faculty, administrators, and policy makers concerned with faculty, instructional, and organizational development. / Graduation date: 2013

Thesis (DPhil (Teaching and Training Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2003. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (PhD(Education))--University of Pretoria, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis proposes a critical enquiry into the issue of creativity, focussing on teacher education in the English Lifelong Learning (LLL) sector. I examine the role of creativity in this context and link sector research and practice to an alternative, immanent, form of ethics. My thesis has three parts, the first of which identifies and contests current approaches to creativity and redefines it from the perspective of teacher education in LLL. To tackle this complex problem, I draw on recent literature in the field in conjunction with the work of philosopher Gilles Deleuze (1925-1995). I recast the notion of lifelong learning as an event in order to explicitly relate practice, creativity and ethics. Drawing on this analysis, the second part of my argument describes an alternative, “operative” model of creativity and provides examples of its implication in practice. The films and creative practices of acclaimed director Michelangelo Antonioni (1912-2007) are used to exemplify the sort of “shock to thought” which Deleuze equates with certain types of cinema, and which, I suggest, can contribute to creative teaching and learning practices. I bring together Deleuze’s ideas about how creative “stutters” and “interstices” function, providing a set of interlinked parameters with which to think about creative teacher education practices in LLL. Improvisation, chance and error are investigated from the viewpoint of the ethical practices immanent to them. These parameters structure the third part of my thesis, which critically examines the extent to which research and practice in LLL might actually achieve the ambitious goals this implies. Drawing on Deleuze’s positions on moral and ethical behaviour, I develop an ambitious re-statement of ethical practice which aims to better relate to practices of teacher education in LLL and their creative potential.

Continuing education (CE) is intended to promote professional growth and development and enhance one's professional practice. The purpose of this investigation was to determine Certified Athletic Trainers' (ATs) preferred types/formats and related barriers regarding formal (i.e., approved for CE credit) and informal (i.e., not approved for CE credit) CE activities. Furthermore, what is perceived to impact of CE on athletic training practice with regards to improving knowledge, improving clinical skills/abilities, changing attitudes toward patient care, and improving patient care.The population consisted of a geographic stratified random sample of 1,000 ATs. A total of 427 (42.7%) ATs completed the Survey of Formal and Informal Athletic Training Continuing Education Activities (FIATCEA) developed for this investigation and administered electronically. The FIATCEA survey consisted of demographics/characteristic items and Likert scale items (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree) regarding CE participation and perceived impact on practice, preferred types/formats of CE activities, and barriers to CE participation. Cronbach's alpha determined internal consistency for items within each of the three sections at .945, .638, and .860 respectively. Descriptive statistics were computed for all items. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) and dependent t-tests determined differences between AT demographics/characteristics and participation in CE and the perceived impact on practice, preferred type/format of CE, and barriers to CE participation. The alpha level was set at .05.Informal CE activities were completed more than formal CE activities, t(3) _ -114.182,p > .001. Formal CE activities were perceived to enhance knowledge, t(414) _2.559, p = .001, and informal CE activities were perceived to improve clinical skills/abilities, t(409) = -2.754, p = .006, and attitudes toward patient care, t(407) = -3.630,p < .001. The cost of attending CE (M= 4.13, SD = 0.994) and distance required to travel to CE activities (M = 4.15, SD = 0.958) were bathers to CE participation.A majority of respondents completed informal CE, but formal CE activities were preferred. Barriers to CE participation included cost and related travel. Both formal and informal CE activities were perceived to enhance athletic training professional practice. Informal CE activities should be explored and considered for CE credit. / Department of Educational Studies

This research study had two primary purposes. The first purpose was to evaluate the effectiveness of professional development training sessions with early childhood educators by measuring the emergent literacy skills of their students. The second purpose was to begin to establish concurrent validity for a fairly new skills-based instrument with an established norm-referenced instrument.A pretest-posttest design to assess the children's emergent literacy skills was utilized. After the pretest was conducted with the subjects, ages 3-5 years old, their teachers from the experimental group attended professional development sessions to address emergent literacy strategies for their early childhood classrooms. The teachers in the control group did not participate in the professional development sessions. At the conclusion of the intervention period the children's emergent literacy skills were posttested.The pretest and posttest assessments were conducted following best practice guidelines for early childhood education assessments. The early childhood educators who knew the children well completed the skills-based instrument through an observation process with a rating scale. The primary researcher conducted the norm-referenced instrument with each of the children in a one-on-one situation at the child's early childhood center.The scores of the two instruments were analyzed to evaluate the gains of the children, the significance of independent variables, and to examine the relationship between the two instruments. The data showed that the children in the treatment condition did make significant gains over the control group in the area of Readiness skills, but not in other areas assessed. Additionally, the independent variables of subject's gender and teacher's years of experience were significant for few of the subscales of the assessment tools. This study did begin to establish concurrent validity for the Language Arts Objective Sequence (LOS) with the Test of Early Reading Ability-Third edition (TERA-3). The LOS did possess internal consistency and demonstrated a positive correlation with the TERA-3 at the pretest. Further studies to establish concurrent validity with posttests as well as pretests need to be conducted. / Department of Special Education

In the field of postgraduate medical education- there is a need for baseline information on what factors influence physicians in their selection of Continuing Medical Education (CME). Furthermore, there is an ever-growing need to learn how practitioners prefer their CME to he delivered and in what venue it should be offered. CME should represent what is understood about how physicians change behavior.The purpose of this study was to describe what factors influenced members of the Indiana Psychiatric Society in their attendance and selection of a particular Continuing Medical Education event. Using archival data from the 2004 Indiana Psychiatric Needs Assessment Survey. this study examined demographic variables—such as gender and age—and their influences on Continuing Medical Education. Moreover, using descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations. and Chi-square analyses. the research study also focused on the statistical relationships which existed between the nine various factors influencing attendance: price. location. interest in topic. outside attraction. personal invitation, speaker, deficiency of knowledge day of the week. and personal invitation. The 2004 Needs Assessment Survey was completed electronically by 80 members of the Indiana Psychiatric Society over a 60-day period during the summer of 2004.Several conclusions were derived from the major findings. Outside attraction was the most significant factor for participants selecting a CME activity. The mean average for outside attraction was 4.13 out of a possible five. This finding was the most important factor for both gender and age groups. Conversely, interest in topic was found to be the least significant value with an arithmetic mean score of 1.33 out a possible five. Using Pearson correlation analyses, a strong correlation was found to exist between interest in topic and speaker (.662. p<.01). The second strongest correlation was found between interest in knowledge and other colleagues attending. (.430. p<.01). Fifty out of 76 IPS members surveyed preferred (IMF to be delivered in a lecture format in a traditional one-hour format (31 out of 76).In recommendation as to future study, the researcher suggests employing qualitative research technique to better understand what can actually motivate physicians to change clinical behavior. / Department of Educational Studies

To what extent does reflective learning in education meet the needs of learners in a reflexive modern society? The thesis constructs a late-modern case for reflective learning in post-compulsory education. It is argued that reflective learning connects with a key concept in contemporary social theory - that of reflexivity. The arguments are developed through the following key questions. • To what extent does reflective learning in post compulsory education correspond with the needs of learners in late-modernity? • What are the key characteristics of late-modernity? • Can the application of reflective learning by practitioners improve student learning in post-compulsory education? • What are the conclusions for teaching and learning in post-compulsory education that flow from this analysis of social theory and educational practice? Enlightenment and contemporary modernity is explored through a review of literature on social theory and philosophy. The second part of the thesis is concerned with praxis the testing of theory in action. Case studies in action research are used to examine how teachers seek to promote reflective learning in their practice. This exploration of theory and practice is then used to present the overall conclusions and make recommendations for future action. In many ways this thesis revisits the territory and thinking of John Dewey, It seeks to connect educational praxis to the wider social context, but from a late-modern perspective.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of North Texas, Aug., 2007. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Teachers College, Columbia University, 1996. / Typescript; issued also on microfilm. Sponsor: Philip Fey. Dissertation Committee: Kathleen Loughlin. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 312-322).