<p> This study was guided by Deci and Ryan&rsquo;s (2015) self-determination theory, which focuses on meeting three specific psychological needs: autonomy, relatedness, and competence. The literature review for this study included topics relating to alternative education such as educational reform, school improvement, school climate, student discipline, intervention strategies, at-risk students, and the achievement gap. This study involved determining the effectiveness of alternative schools through a mixed-methods examination of graduation rates, school climate, student motivation, and academic rigor in high schools from the southwest Missouri region. Graduation rate data were compared from school districts without alternative schools and those with alternative schools utilizing a t-test. The mean of the graduation rates of districts with alternative schools was significantly higher than districts without alternative schools. Quantitative data collection continued via a survey designed to measure the degree to which high school principals report an improved school climate upon implementation of an alternative school. These data demonstrated an improved school climate within the traditional school due to the implementation of an alternative school. Qualitative data collection consisted of interviewing subject-area high school teachers and alternative school teachers from randomly selected school districts in southwest Missouri. These interviews were designed and conducted by the researcher to gather teacher perceptions of the degree of student motivation and academic rigor evident among alternative school students within their respective school districts. These data demonstrated increased student motivation with mixed results pertaining to academic rigor in alternative schools.</p><p>

<p> This study investigated the relationship between caring and trust within the undergraduate classroom using two valid instruments and an original open-ended survey. The participants were from a mid-western university that included international students. Fifty undergraduate students volunteered to participate in the study. No undergraduate students were excluded from participating in the study, based on diversity. Evidence of a correlation between caring and trust was found using the Caring Professional Scale developed by Swanson (1991) and the Modified Instructional Perspectives Inventory adapted for students (MIPI-S) developed by Henschke (1989). The Cronbach alpha for the CPS was 0.74 to 0.97 and for the MIPI-S, it was 0.81 to 0.85 for factor two 'teacher trust of learners.' Both instruments were scored on a five-point Likert scale. The CPS was originally designed for consumers to rate a variety of healthcare providers on their practice relationship style during a research grant with the National Institute of Health and National Institute of Nursing Research. The MIPI-S was comprised of seven factors that measured engagement between faculty and students. Originally administered at the Chicago City Colleges and the Saint Louis Community Colleges, the MIPI instruments' reliability was established in three other doctoral dissertations as well. A Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was conducted, resulting in a moderate to strong positive correlation between caring and trust. A comparison of instrument items was also conducted utilizing a <i>z</i>-test (0.95) and <i> t</i>-test (0.24); each test scored below critical value indicating no interchangeability between instruments. This evidence seemed to support measurement of the two separate items of interest: caring and trust. As the benefit of higher education continued to be scrutinized by society, test scores and grades were perhaps a less reliable means of measurement for student satisfaction and retention. Therefore, the learning experience may become the new measurement for student satisfaction and retention.</p><p>

<p> As technology prices continue to decline, access to devices has become less of a barrier, and public schools are able to implement one-to-one initiatives easier (Ruggiero &amp; Mong, 2015; U.S. Department of Education [USDOE], 2016; Zheng, Warschauer, Lin, &amp; Chang, 2016). It has become vital to support teachers in the area of professional development, but oftentimes these programs have failed to prepare teachers for technology integration (Hunter, 2015; USDOE, 2016). The purpose of this study was to identify key aspects of professional development teachers and administrators have found to be of the utmost value when implementing a one-to-one initiative to further the development of future professional development programs. An online survey was sent to school districts known to have been implementing a one-to-one initiative for a minimum of three years. The population included five public school districts in the southwest Missouri area, and the sample was comprised of 16 administrators and 33 high school teachers. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze quantitative data and to provide a statistical summary of the survey findings. A Mann-Whitney <i>U</i> Test was performed to analyze nonparametric values. This causal-comparative study revealed areas of professional development proven to be the most important when considering a technology initiative as well as differences in perspectives, visions, and values found amongst administrators and teachers. The findings of this study further revealed the importance of creating professional development programs to meet the needs of teachers in accordance to their individual levels of knowledge, thus requiring a differentiated approach to future professional development practices.</p><p>

<p> <b>Purpose.</b> The purpose of this qualitative study was to identify and describe the attributes of public charter schools considered important for the selection of a charter school as perceived by the parents of charter school students. A second purpose of this study was to identify the sources parents used to inform their decision to enroll their child in a charter school. </p><p> <b>Methodology.</b> This qualitative study was accomplished by interviewing parents of public charter school students in three districts within San Bernardino County. The interview consisted of nine open-ended questions and each interview was recorded to ensure accuracy of the responses. The results of the interview were analyzed and organized into a narrative form. The population for the study included parents of public charter school students. </p><p> <b>Findings.</b> The participants noted smaller class sizes, higher educational quality, and a more nurturing environment as the main reasons for selecting a public charter school. Their answers also indicated the variety of programs available to them at charter schools influenced their decision to enroll their children. Participants noted talking with friends and family as a major source of gathering information about schools. Using some form of the internet was also instrumental for parents when obtaining information about a given school. </p><p> <b>Conclusions.</b> The results of this study supported the conclusion that parent perceptions of schools and the education they offer may be more influential than the school&rsquo;s performance on state assessments. Results indicated many other factors influenced a parent&rsquo;s selection of a school. A positive environment, which cultivated learning, and a variety of educational opportunities were crucial attributes for many parents. </p><p> <b>Recommendations.</b> The researcher recommended the study be replicated in a different region of California to see if the results remain the same. Additionally, a study should be conducted to see how many and why parents removed their children from public charter schools and returned them to traditional public schools.</p><p>

<p> This study examined the facilitators and barriers to the implementation of an innovative, whole-school reform model, Expeditionary Learning, within the context of the high-stakes accountability policy environment. Twenty-four teachers and four principals were interviewed across four schools, two of which were high poverty and two of which were low poverty. All schools were K-8 charter schools and located either within the urban core or in an inner-ring suburb. Educators across schools reported agreement with the tenets of Expeditionary Learning and a desire to implement the program fully. They preferred this learning model that focuses on student choice, inquiry, and experiential education over more traditional learning models. Respondents pointed to the pressure and time constraints caused by high-stakes standardized tests as barriers to their full implementation of Expeditionary Learning. They also saw the standardized tests as largely misaligned with the model. Educators in high-poverty schools reported more anxiety around the tests and their students&rsquo; performance. Respondents across schools agreed that Expeditionary Learning was a team effort that required significant time and effort to implement with fidelity. Educators at high-poverty schools reported teacher retention and hiring policies as major barriers to implementing Expeditionary Learning, largely because collaborative teams of teachers were unable to coalesce. Other factors affecting implementation of the program included curricular standards that focused on breadth and not depth, a lack of resources, and parent and community support. Overall, the study found that district and state policies served primarily as a constraint to implementation of Expeditionary Learning, and high-poverty schools were more negatively affected by external policies than were low-poverty schools. The ability to function as an Expeditionary Learning school was ultimately based on how well internal practices were able to work with or counteract external policies.</p><p>

M.Phil. / The purpose of this study was to investigate a problem that people experience increasingly nowadays, namely to experience life balance, from a Personal and Professional Leadership perspective. Attention was given to the concept "life balance" by describing and explaining the term, as well as to the various life dimensions in which man functions. The possible contribution of Personal and Professional Leadership in the establishment and maintenance of life balance was also analysed and described. In this study on the establishment and maintenance of life balance, the research strategy used was descriptive, i.e. a generalising motive was used. The primary research methods used in the study included word analysis, concept analysis and a literature study. A word and concept analysis of the word "life balance" was undertaken, while a literature study was conducted to investigate current data documented on the subject of life balance. The various life dimensions in which man operates, as well as the potential contribution of Personal and Professional Leadership in the establishment and maintenance of life balance, were described. The most important findings of the study are as follows: • People are tired of their hectic lives and long for a balanced, harmonious life. • People often feel torn between the obligations of a job, family, friends, the community and their own personal needs. • People strive towards balance. This implies a higher quality of life- a life in which they have more time for themselves and their relationships, as well as more time to invest in their emotional, physical and spiritual well-being. vii • Man functions within different life dimensions, which can mainly be categorised in the physical, social, spiritual, intellectual, emotional and financial dimensions. • Personal Leadership requires the individual to accept responsibility for his own life and the choices he makes, to know who he is, where he stands with himself, where he wants to be and how to get there. • The realisation of a balanced life requires of the individual some "selfawareness" - he should be aware of any indication of imbalance in any of his life dimensions, of what he sees as a balanced life and how he can accomplish such a life. • In order to establish and maintain life balance in all the different life dimensions in which a person functions, it is essential that the person should know exactly who he is, where he stands with himself, what he wants to do most, where he wants to be in his life and how to get there. • Steps that the individual can take to maintain better balance within all his life dimensions, include, amongst others, a process of value clarification, a personal mission statement, adhering to a set of objectives for specific life dimensions and continuous evaluation of his progress. From the study, it can be concluded that Personal and Professional Leadership can definitely contribute to the establishment and maintenance of life balance. Not only does the individual have a choice, but also a definite responsibility towards himself to experience real balance in life.

The aim of the study was to evaluate the nature of organisational culture and the most effective response scale for assessing organisational culture. The study also aimed to establish which response scale format would yield the best metric characteristics for use in organisational culture instruments. The range of response scale in the study were four, five and six-point scale. / Prof. Gert Roodt

M.Ed. (Curriculum Studies) / The aim of this dissertation is focused on the composition of funded guideliness for effective teacher evaluation. A literature study is undertaken in this dissertation to gain background on the problematic nature of teacher evaluation. Emphasis is placed on: * the essential aspects of teacher evaluation * the negative symptoms of teacher evaluation * the difficulties (bottle-neck) in teacher evaluation, and * the characteristics of unsuccessful teacher evaluation. The aim of this research is not to focus on the global aspects of teacher evaluation, but to focus on the problematic nature that surrounds teacher evaluation. The literature study is of great importance for this study, because it creates the basis for the empirical study. The empirical study focuses on the meaningfulness of evaluation for the teacher as currently implemented in the school, and also to identify the difficulties in the evaluation practice. Both aspects are integrated in the guidelines for teacher evaluation, contribute to a positive attitude and teacher evaluation.

D.Phil. (Personal and Professional Leadership) / According to recent studies it is indicated that 84% of American companies are in the process of at least one change initiative and that 46% indicated that they were busy with three or more change initiatives. This tendency is a worldwide phenomenon. For organisations to survive and grow in this setting, their rate of learning has to be equal or greater than the rate of change in their environment. Within this context the need for relevant leadership becomes imperative. Empirical evidence would suggest that there is a strong link between leadership competencies and leadership performance. With this in mind a large mining company in South Africa took the root of identifying specific competencies that they would like to see developed in their leaders. The specific company gave direction with outcomes that had to be obtained:  to position the leaders that they could practice their leadership role effectively to meet immediate and future challenges; and  to do specific leadership training investment for the empowering of leadership in attaining greater organizational success. Taking the current research and organisational need into consideration the researcher set out in developing a model that group these competencies in five mainstream domains, Personal mastery and well being, fulfilling my functional role effectively, Achieving with people, Actualizing a sustainable and desirable future and Navigating the organisational landscape successfully. It is against this backdrop that the Professional Leadership Development Model took shape. The study is set up in different phases that will play out in the following manner:

M.Tech. / Recognition of prior learning (RPL) is a new and untested policy that has become a reality in higher education in South Africa. RPL is seen as an appropriate approach towards offering equity and redress of past imbalances in education and training system and introduces a new perspective on learning – a challenge between the traditional approaches to teaching and learning and learning through experience. In most of the institutions there is an urgent need for assessment methods to implement RPL. Little research on assessment methods and approaches to RPL has been published in South Africa, or on the experiences of RPL candidates and lecturers who have participated in RPL programmes in higher education. Most institutions have little experience in implementing RPL or in recognising life and work experience as a formal “qualification” for credits or admission. The literature on RPL stresses that, although most of the institutions have an RPL policy, there is still a need for individual academic departments to design their own assessment models. The aim and purpose of this study was to investigate various assessment strategies, methods and instruments for the RPL process for the National Diploma in Fashion at the Vaal University of Technology (VUT). This study will benefit individual students in future, as well as the Department of VAD and the VUT who would be prepared for the implementation of RPL when students do apply. A qualitative research method was used which was based on data collection and analysis of key official documents, application information and an interview in order to identify different assessment strategies, methods and instruments for RPL assessment. During the semi-structured interview which was tape-recorded, pre-set open-ended questions were used to verify data already generated from the application information which confirmed the reliability of this study. The research design was a case study and, although this research involved only one case study, the researcher felt that the identified assessment strategy, methods and instruments could be used where conditions are similar. The participant was selected through purposive sampling on the grounds of extensive, proven experiential learning and also because he was willing to take part in the study. The learning outcomes for the different streams in the National Diploma in Fashion were used as themes. A module-match assessment strategy was proposed for RPL assessment for individual modules and clustering for the qualification as a whole or a substantial part of it. Assessment methods and instruments were identified aimed at collecting sufficient evidence and comply with the assessment criteria in general. The authenticity and trustworthiness of the results were confirmed through the involvement of a real candidate and the valuable contributions from his experience in the field of Fashion. The conclusion is that the study has achieved its aim by designing a strategy, methods and assessment instruments for RPL in Fashion. Recommendations have been made with regard to the design process and the need for further research.