Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2010. / Full text also available online. Scroll down for electronic link.

Thesis PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of North Texas, May, 2008. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--West Virginia University, 2006. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vii, 244 p. : ill. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 212-227).

Higher education institutions (HEIs) around the world and in the developing countries in particular e.g. Libyan HEIs are facing challenges that increase the pressure on them. Some of these challenges are related to the remarkable changes in population growth and fast changes in the development of knowledge and technology. Also, providing adequate resources, maintaining quality, raising funding and strengthening the curriculum are other challenges that need to be faced by those institutions. This research is aimed to investigate issues enabling and affecting the quality of services provided by Libyan public universities using principles of Total Quality Management (TQM) philosophy as a framework: Al-Fateh University (AFU) as a case study. The research is qualitative in nature, employing a case study approach and using indepth semi-structured interviews (from different levels including senior leaders, faculty members, support staff, students, and main employers) as the main data collection tool within the two selected embedded case studies. Those embedded cases are Electric and Electronic Department (EED)-Faculty of Engineering-AFU and Social Service Department (SSD)-Literature Faculty-AFU. Documents are used in addition to interviews in order to fully understand issues enabling and affecting the quality of services provided by the two embedded case studies. Contribution to knowledge is evident by the study, which represents the first attempt to empirically investigate issues enabling and affecting the quality of services provided by Libyan public universities: AFU as a case study through two selected embedded cases EED and SSD. This research provides specific original findings which include the use of Arabic and English language in the same lecture, the concept of students' administration and its consequences, the speciality of leaders biases the understanding of the needs of subordinate staff, suspension of the students' performance regulations affected the quality of education programmes, and a unique situation was found to be the senior and junior staff programme that attempted to improve teaching through knowledge transfer. This research has reduced the gap in knowledge in Libyan HE context in specific and in Arabic HE context in general. Other implications for HEIs are also provided by this research.

The purposes of this study were threefold: (1) to test the assumption that a curriculum study produces change in a school faculty in conservatism-radicalism, in anxiety, in leadership behavior, and in attitude toward the curriculum study; (2) to investigate the relationships between effects of a curriculum study on conservatism-radicalism, anxiety, leadership behavior, attitude toward the curriculum study and age, sex, and years of teaching experience of the teachers; and (3) to create a model from which replications can be made by Texas Education Service Centers.

The problem of this study was to determine the impact of the Regional Education Service Centers on the public school superintendency in Texas and the desired future development of the centers.

The following question and sub-question guide this thesis project: 1) How does a service-learning approach in an arts-based technology course increase pre-service teacher receptivity to teaching technology? 2.) What are some barriers to teaching technology for pre-service teachers? A positive service-learning experience provides good learning models which have the potential to address the barriers to teaching technology for pre-service teachers by influencing their self-efficacy. Included in this thesis is a unit plan which responds to these research questions. There are many barriers to teaching technology for teachers including lack of funds, availability and quality of computer hardware and software, teaching models for using computer technology in instruction, time to learn to use computer technology, and teacher attitude (Rogers, 2000). A service-learning approach in an arts-based technology course could increase pre-service teacher receptivity to teaching technology by addressing these needs, the most important of which is providing pre-service teachers with a model for using computer technology in their instruction. Computer hardware and software availability is a problem which the teacher educator can address through writing a grant for funds, computer hardware and software, introducing the pre-service teachers to free and open source software, and negotiating with the partner school's administration and classroom teachers. Equally important is discussing this process with the pre-service teachers so they may learn from that experience. A positive experience teaching using computer technology has the potential to change pre-service teacher attitude about the ability of a teacher to influence students and their personal ability as a teacher (Wade, 1995; Root & Furco, 2001). Through service-learning, K-12 students and pre-service teachers have the opportunity to teach each other about digital art. It is through these unit plans that a mutual relationship is formed, which enables learning to occur on both ends. Throughout the unit plan, pre-service teachers are given time to reflect on their learning experiences and discuss what they are learning by working with the students. When teaching digital art to pre-service teachers, while it is important to give goals, guidelines and some basic instruction to lay the ground work for future discoveries, pre-service teachers and students alike need the opportunity to find the solutions to their own technical and artistic problems. The curricular ideas and unit plans contained within this thesis may serve as idea-generators for teacher educators interested in enriching their computer technology curriculum for pre-service teachers by incorporating service-learning into their practice. The big ideas were chosen to emphasize the idea of a learning community. Students and pre-service teachers develop a relationship over the course of teaching in which both learn from each other through the pre-service teachers' lessons and how the lessons are interpreted by the students. In effect, these unit plans are a beginning for future projects which integrate service-learning and the digital arts.

As the civic role of higher education attracts renewed critical attention, the idea of engagement has come to the fore. Civic engagement, as espoused in many institutional missions, encompasses a diversity of goals, strategies and activities. Latterly, these have included particular approaches to teaching and learning. This research examines the process of embedding a civic engagement dimension within the higher education curriculum in Ireland. I use the term ‘pedagogy for civic engagement’as a generic term for a range of academic practices –variously referred to as ‘service learning’or ‘community based learning’–which share an explicit civic focus. Academic practice serves as the central focus with attention to pertinent aspects of the prevailing context. Using a multi-site case study conducted in the spirit of naturalistic enquiry, I examine four cases of this curriculum innovation, drawn from the university and institute of technology sectors in Ireland, with unstructured interviews and documents as the main sources of data. I interrogate the underpinning rationale for ‘pedagogy for civic engagement’–as gleaned from the literature, the policy context and the case studies –exploring implicit conceptions in relation to knowledge, curriculum, civil society, community and the purpose of higher education. The study draws its empirical data from those responsible for implementing this pedagogy –the ‘embedders’–and a range of other actors. Interviews were carried out with academic staff, project directors, educational developers, academic managers and leaders. Key actors from the national policy context and from the international field of civic engagement also participated in the study. Four orientations to civic engagement are identified, revealing the multifaceted rationale. I explore the process of operationalising the pedagogy and the factors impacting on academics’capacity and willingness to embed it. While the study does not directly examine the experience of students and community partners their role within the process, as perceived by academic staff and others, is problematised. The implications of the putative unresolved epistemology of this pedagogy are explored in light of how participants conceive of and practice it. Academics’ambivalence about the place of values in higher education emerges as a theme and the issue of agency recurs. I explore how the pedagogy may be conceived of in terms of the teaching, research and service roles of academics and consider how it may be positioned within an institution. Opportunities for alignment are identified at a number of levels from constructive alignment within the curriculum to alignment with national strategic priorities. I explore the unrealised potential of the Irish National Framework of Qualifications –specifically the ‘insight’dimension –as a means of enabling and legitimising the pedagogy, in light of the prominence afforded to the principle of subsidiarity in Irish higher education policy. The localised way in which these practices have been adopted and adapted underlines the significance of context and culture. ‘Pedagogy for civic engagement’as a concept and as a practice challenges a range of assumptions and traditional practices, raising fundamental questions regarding the role and purpose of higher education –and not just in contemporary Ireland.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.