M.A. (Counselling Psychology) / The "aim of this study was (1) to compare three different procedures of evaluation used with the "Group Assessment of Interpersonal Traits" (GAIT) in terms of reliability, and (2) to assess the strength of the relationships between the different measures of empathy and selfactualization and the quality of interpersonal relationships, to achieve a tentative indication of the validity of the three evaluation procedures. From a survey of the literature it is apparent that very little agreement exists as to the exact meaning of the construct empathy, and that there is need of a valid, reliable and economical measure of empathic ability. Against this background an evaluation procedure based on Barrett-Lennard's (1981) conceptualization of empathy as a cyclical process and Goodman's (1972) GAIT-procedure was developed. Eighty-nine third year psychology students were used as subjects. They were randomly divided into 12 subgroups. Three groupings of four subgroups were exposed to three different GAIT evaluation procedures, which were those of Goodman (972), Van Wyk (978) and one that was developed for the purpose of this study. The "Personal Orientation Inventory" (POI) and the "Personal, Home, Social and Formal Relations Questionnaire" (PHSF) were respectively used as measures of selfactiJalization and interpersonal relationships.

Research in team science suggests strategies for addressing difficulties that groups face when working together. This dissertation examines how student teams work in project based learning (PBL) environments, with the goal of creating strategies and technology to improve collaboration. The challenge of working in such a group is that the members frequently come from different backgrounds and thus have different ideas on how to accomplish a project. In these groups, teamwork and production of successful solutions depends on whether members consider each other’s dissimilar perspectives. However, the lack of a shared history means that members may have difficulty in taking the time to share and build knowledge collectively. The ultimate goal of my research is to design strategies and technology to improve the inner workings of PBL groups so that they will learn from each other and produce successful outcomes in collaborative settings. The field of computer supported collaborative learning has made much progress on designing, implementing, and evaluating environments that support project based learning. However, most existing research concerns students rather than instructors. Therefore, in my initial research, I explore the needs of the instructors in conducting student assessments (studies one, two). These studies identify five different group processes that are of importance from the instructors’ perspective. My subsequent research focuses on one of them, namely the process of knowledge co-construction, which is a process that instructors have significant difficulty in assessing. In order to support the assessment of the knowledge co-construction process, my research has progressed along two axes: (a) identifying conditions that support the knowledge co-construction process and its relationship to learning and knowledge transfer (studies three, four, and five), and (b) automatically monitoring the knowledge co-construction process using natural language processing and machine learning (studies six ~ nine). Studies five and eight look at a specific type of knowledge co-construction process called the idea co-construction process (ICC). ICC is the process of taking up, transforming, or otherwise building on an idea expressed earlier in a conversation. I argue that ICC is essential for groups to function well in terms of knowledge sharing and perspective taking.

ABSTRACT Predicting On-the-Job Teacher Success Based on a Group Assessment Procedure Used for Admission to Teacher Education by LaVaun Gene Faulk, Doctor of Education Utah State University, 2008 Major Professor: Deborah Byrnes, Ph.D. Department: Elementary Education Students who have graduated in Elementary Education at Utah State University, since 1997 when the group assessment interview procedure was adopted, and have been employed as teachers for at least two years were contacted. Students were located with the help of the Utah State Office of Education (USOE) and the Office of Teacher Education, Graduation, and Educator Licensing at USU. Permission to interview each teacher’s supervisor was obtained from each study participant. Principals were contacted and interview dates set. A self-anchoring interview was conducted to provide quantitative data on the success of each teacher. This new data was then used to compare each participant’s success as seen by supervisors to existing data already on record at USU. Specifically, principal interview data were compared to the participant’s student teaching scores, prior academic achievement data (grade point average and American College Test scores), and ratings the teacher received on the group assessment interviews when applying to the elementary education teacher training program at USU. (107 pages)