Very little has been done to define the process of clinical learning in Malawi and yet anecdotal observations reveal that it is more challenging than classroom teaching and learning. This set the impetus for this hermeneutic phenomenological study, the aim being to gain an understanding of the nature of the clinical learning experience for undergraduate students in Malawi and to examine their clinical experiences against some experiential learning models (Kolb 1984; Jarvis et al 1998). The study setting was Kamuzu College of Nursing (KCN) and the sample was selected purposively and consisted of 30 undergraduate students who were recruited through volunteering. Conversational interviews were conducted to obtain students’ accounts of their clinical learning experience and an eclectic framework guided the phenomenological analysis. The study raises issues which relate to nursing education and nursing practice in Malawi. From an experiential learning perspective, the study reveals that clinical learning for KCN students is largely non-reflective. The study primarily reveals that the clinical learning experience is enormously challenging and stressful due to structural problems prevalent in the clinical learning environment (CLE). In some clinical settings the CLE appears hostile and oppressive due to negative attitudes which some of the clinical staff display towards KCN students. Consequently, students’ accounts depict emotionally charged situations which confront them and this illustrates that clinical learning for KCN students is an experience suffused with emotions. In literature issues on emotions are commonly discussed under emotional labour (Hochschild 1983) and I used the concept as a basis for my pre-understandings and interpreted the students’ accounts of their clinical learning experience against such a conceptual framework. What resonated from their narratives was the depth of the emotion work they engage in. This enabled me to arrive at a new and unique conceptualisation of clinical learning redefined in terms of emotional labour within the perspective of nurse learning in Africa. The findings are a unique contribution to the literature on emotions and provide essential feedback which forms the basis for improving clinical learning in Malawi.

From the point of departure of a literacy perspective the aim of this study is to, examine how preschool teachers form and stage a learning environment that facilitates the language development of preschool children. The focus of our study is to explore how preschool teachers stress the importance of the learning environment when it comes to furthering language development and to examine the literacy events staged by preschool teachers. Our study is based on qualitative interviews with four preschool teachers working in different areas of Stockholm. One of the preschools participate in a language project. The other preschools are without alignment. We have also carried out observations in preschool environments, in order to examine the possibilities for preschool children to develop their language skills. To analyse our results we have used a literacy perspective where literacyevent is a central concept. The result of our study demonstrates that preschool teachers create possibilities for preschool children to become familiar with language in many different ways. Specifically prominent is bookreading, narrative, signs and symbols. The preschool which took part in a language projekt differed from the other as this preschool worked more consciously with books and narrative to support childrens literacy competense. The environment of this preschool also stands out from the other preschools whereby the promotion of language can be observed in all parts of the environment. It was shown both in the placement of the books and in how the preschool teachers talked about the importance of the books. The result of our study shows that all preschool teachers are very conscious of how childrens language can be promoted. However, the results also brings to light that not all teachers are as conscious of this when it comes to how to promote writing in the youngest children in the preschool. The results of our interviews reveal that preschool teachers consciously work in many different ways to promote language development for preschoolers from a literacy perspective. They are, however, not aware of the term literacy in relation to written language.

Student Number : 0317159E - MSc(Nursing) research report - School of Therapeutics - Faculty of Health Sciences / The learning environment and supervision in clinical placement play an important role in nursing education. The purpose of this study was to describe the opinions of student nurses with regard to the clinical learning environment and supervision at Malamulo Hospital, Malawi. A quantitative descriptive design was used. Data were collected from nursing students at Malamulo College of Health Science using the Clinical Learning Environment Scale (CLES) comprising structured questions. The questionnaire was administered to the total population of students (N=84) and the response rate was 87% (n=73). Descriptive statistics were used to analyze data. Relationships between variables were determined by using Fisher’s exact test and the t-test. The findings revealed that the majority of the participants were satisfied with their clinical learning environment and supervision in their latest clinical placement. Particularly, they were satisfied with the relationship that prevailed between students and members of nursing staff, feedback they received from their supervisors, the nursing care given to patients and the quality of learning opportunities. However, it was determined that nurse teachers did not regularly supervise students and also that some students were not clear about the nursing philosophy of their wards. Ward familiarization processes were not well planned as indicated by about a third of the participants. More than one third also indicated that the learning situations were not sufficient and not meaningful. While 73.98 % indicated that they received constructive feedback from their supervisors, about half of the participants indicated that the feedback was not given continuously.The majority (67.76%) of the participants experienced team supervision as opposed to individual supervision. Therefore it is recommended that nurse teachers increase the number of visits to the wards when students are in clinical placement to improve quality of clinical learning. The nursing college may need to have specific clinical instructors who are trained in clinical supervision and who will be available for students in the clinical placements regularly. The ward managers and the nursing staff need to clarify and display their ward nursing philosophy so that both nurses and students can have a common understanding and common goal in the provision of nursing care. It is also recommended that feedback be given to students continuously to enhance learning.

Background: Practical training on hospital wards is a major component of basic nurse training. With this in mind, there were concerns with respect to the ability to provide nursing students with the quality of clinical experience that is required as a result of changes in the Barbados nursing policy to increase the number of students. Aim: The overall aim of this research was to understand student nurses’ clinical placement learning experience at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Barbados, based on their current and desired clinical experiences. Research objectives: (1) to examine the student nurses’ current learning experiences at the hospital; (2) to determine the student nurses’ desired experiences at the hospital; and, (3) to compare and contrast their current clinical experience with their desired experience by integrating the data across the quantitative and qualitative studies. Design: A sequential explanatory mixed methods research. Methods: First study: The Clinical Learning Environment Inventory (CLEI) (current and desired form) and the Clinical Learning Environment, Supervision and Nurse Teacher (CLES+T) questionnaires were distributed to second and third year student nurses (n = 191) at the Barbados Community College. Descriptive and inferential analysis performed. Second study: Qualitative semi-structured interviews (n = 10) among second and third year student nurses analysed thematically. Results: Quantitative survey (First study): ‘Student satisfaction’ (mean 25.74 of 35), ‘Task orientation’ (mean 25.62 of 35), the ‘Leadership style of the ward sister’ (mean 4.02 of 5) and ‘Premises of nursing care on the ward’ (mean 4.01 of 5) greatly informed students’ actual hospital experience. The current and desired hospital experiences were statistically significant different (z = 6.68 to 8.07, p = 0.000). Qualitative interviews (Second study): Four overarching themes were generated: ‘Engaged, proactive and communicative team’; ‘No cohesion among team’; ‘Students – willing to learn and motivated’; and, ‘Consequences – positive and negative’. Overarching findings from both studies: Four major topics describe the student nurses’ experiences: ‘Engagement of the ward nursing team’, ‘The nature of nursing care delivery’, ‘Clinical supervision and teaching of nursing students on the ward’, and ‘Nursing student satisfaction’. Conclusion: The ward sister influences the ward team spirit and students’ clinical learning, negatively or positively. Nurse educators should acknowledge the value of clear, well organised ward activities on students’ learning. Clinical nursing curricula should be based on a blended educational learning perspective.

"The public in general and educational communities are aware of the importance of elementary math education in students' lives, as it establishes a cognitive and motivational foundation to reach higher levels of schooling. However, students usually learn passively in traditional instructivist modes, and tend to get bored and disengaged. In contrast, games can be a useful way to assist education and engage students. This thesis reports on a novel game learning environment for mathematics learning, the Tangrams Race, which attempts to inspire students to learn math, by combining traditional outdoor games and wearable technology in the form of Cyber Watches. The Tangrams Race, a physical game designed for elementary school students to play outdoors, is examined and tested in two studies to show that the game-based learning environment and the technology can enhance learning gains and inspire students interest to learn mathematics."

Educational games intend to make learning more enjoyable, but at the potential cost of compromising learning efficiency. Therefore, instead of creating educational games, we create learning environment with game-like elements: the elements of games that are engaging. Our approach is to assess each game-like element in terms of benefits such as enhancing engagement as well as its costs such as sensory or working memory overload, with a goal of maximizing both engagement and learning. We developed different four versions of a math tutor with different degree of being game-like such as adding narrative and visual feedback. Based on a study with 297 students, we found that students reported more satisfaction with more 'game-like' tutor but we were not able to detect any conclusive difference in learning among the different tutors. We collected student data of various types such as their attitude and enjoyment via surveys, performance within tutor via logging, and learning as measured by a pre/post-test. We created a causal model using software TETRAD and contrast the causal modeling approach to the results we achieve with traditional approaches such as correlation matrix and multiple regression. Relative to traditional approaches, we found that causal modeling did a better job at detecting and representing spurious association, and direct and indirect effects within variables. Causal model, augmented with domain knowledge about likely causal relationships, resulted in much more plausible and interpretable model. We propose a framework for blending exploratory results from causal modeling with randomized controlled studies to validate hypotheses.

This research study explored the impact of space and classroom environments on student engagement and learning. The traditional classroom design is determined mostly by the personality of the teacher, or the theme that they choose to integrate. Traditionally, tables and desks are placed in groups or rows, based on teacher preference, and students are confined to small 2 feet by 3 feet spaces. While teachers thus make their classrooms private to themselves and seldom involve students in crucial decisions about their layout, schools are inherently public places. In this thesis, targeted at elementary school teachers, the teacher/researcher considers the benefits of alternating the learning environment and involving the students in redesigning their classroom space. This research is a reflection based on the implementation of such a change in a fifth-grade classroom.

This study investigates and describes the development of an instrument named the Electronics Laboratory Environment Inventory (ELEI), which is used to measure students' perceptions of the electronics laboratory class as a learning environment. The sample consisted of 353 of 708 Computer Engineering active students from eight classes in Bina Nusantara University, Jakarta, Indonesia. Bina Nusantara University which has the largest number of computer engineering students in Indonesia. Students' learning outcomes were measured using z-scores in electronics subjects and students' attitudes in laboratory classes were measured by using the Attitude Towards Electronics Questionnaire (ATEQ). Directed by the research questions, numerous statistical analyses were performed. These included item analysis, inter-item correlation analysis, one-way analysis of variance for establishing reliability and validity of the laboratory class environment instruments in the present study; descriptive statistics for investigating the nature of the learning environment in electronics subjects; simple and multiple correlation analyses for investigating associations between laboratory class environment and students' outcomes. In all cases, electronics laboratory classes have played a major role. The scales measured Student Cohesiveness, Open-endedness, Integration, Technology Adequacy, and Laboratory Availability. The results showed that all five scales have a reasonable alpha reliability with low mean correlations. / The study discovered that, generally, students perceived their electronics class learning environments as favourable. It was found that students' perceptions of electronics laboratory class environment were associated with students' learning outcomes. The results of this study make important and unique contributions to students' learning outcomes, suggesting that the instruments are useful for assessing laboratory class environment in the other studies.

This thesis is significant in that it is one of the first evaluations of a computer classroom psychosocial learning environment and investigation of associations between learning environment factors and students' attitudes at the tertiary level in Thailand. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were used in this study. Three questionnaires were employed to provide quantitative data: the College and University Classroom Environment Inventory (CUCEI), the Computer Laboratory Environment Inventory (CLEI), and the Attitude towards Computer and Computer Courses (ACCC). The three questionnaires were administered to 905 computer science students in order to investigate their perceptions of their learning environment and associations between this and their attitudinal outcomes. Overall, the results generated from scale internal reliability analysis, mean correlations and ANOVAs suggested that the modified Thai versions of the CUCEI, CLEl, and ACCC are valid and reliable instruments for measuring students' perceptions of computing laboratory learning environments in a Thailand university. The results of an application of the CUCEI and CLEI demonstrated that students had positiveperceptions about their computer classroom learning environment. The qualitative data obtained from student interviews supported the information from questionnaires and provided more detail about the computer classrooms. Measurements of students' attitudes indicated that students enjoyed their classes and thought they were useful. Regarding associations between students' attitudes and perceptions of the computer classroom, most scales of the Thai CUCEI and CLEI, were statistically significantly positively associated with the four scales of the Thai version of the ACCC. Importantly, there were significant negative correlations between scales of the CUCEI, and CLEI with the Anxiety scale.

The major purpose of the study was to examine the relationship between teacherstudent interpersonal behaviour in the middle level of schooling with the students' academic achievement in science as determined by the term grade (typically issued after a six or nine week grading period). The study also provided validation data for the Questionnaire on Teacher Interactions (QTI) survey instrument with a large American sample of students and teachers drawn from randomly selected the State of Ohio schools. The QTI was designed to elicit students' and teachers' perspectives of effective teaching and learning in classrooms. Numerous studies, here and abroad, during the last five years and have caused awareness that students' perceptions of their school experience are a significant influence on how and what students learn in the classroom. Few studies have been conducted on the topic of student perceptions in comparison to their respective teachers' perceptions in science or how this variance might influence student achievement. The focus of the present study was to compare the perceptions of students and their teachers regarding effective teaching and learning, while concurrently noting students' achievement in science. This study presumed that there was a definite disparity between what teachers perceive to be effective teaching and learning in comparison to what students perceive. The intention of the study was to identify some of the factors associated with any disparity. The hypothesis for the study, simply stated, was that student achievement, according to student's accumulative grade, would reflect a variance in perception with that of their science teacher. / Restated, the student's perception of effective teaching and learning could demonstrate to be a strong indicator of academic success or failure, depending upon the extent of difference with their respective teachers'. The research design of the study was based on the survey research method incorporating: 1) student and teacher questionnaires; 2) student and teacher interviews and; 3) students' science achievement, as measured in a teacher-issued grade. A probability sample of 433 middle school students was surveyed using the 48-item short form of the Australian version of the QTI (Wubbels, 1993). This sample comprised 21 middle level science classes, ranging from grade 5 through grade 9. Twelve cooperating science teachers associated with the teaching of science to these students were also surveyed using Questionnaire on Teacher Interaction (QTI). In addition, random interviews were conducted using interview logs with 6 teachers and 6 students selected from a convenience sample of those also responding to the questionnaire. Another major component of the research design was the term grade recorded by the cooperating science teacher, as a means of gauging "student academic achievement". All student and teacher questionnaire data were statistically analysed using Microsoft Excel 2000 and the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) for Windows 1999. The analysis was according to the proper categories in the QTI based on leadership, helpful/friendly, understanding, student responsibility and freedom, uncertain, and dissatisfied, admonishing and strict behaviour established in the QTI. / The use of both qualitative and quantitative data collection methods from a range of data sources provided a means of triangulation to strengthen the validity of the findings, which thus afforded a means of comparing data consistency and cross validation for the purpose of improving the rigour of the research design. As a means of collecting empirical data, schools were randomly chosen (probability sample) from the 20001-2002 Ohio Educational Directory, a directory produced by the Ohio Department of Education. Thirty-three schools were drawn. Between October 20002 and January 2003, each school was sent two letters inviting their participation in the study; one letter was sent to the on-site principal and one to the "head science teacher". Five weeks from the date the original letter was sent out to those not responding. Eventually, twenty-one classes returned their surveys for analysis. The Questionnaire of Teacher Interaction (QTI) was chosen due to its record of validity and its ease of administering. The qualitative data were tallied and recorded. The quantitative data analysis was completed using both manual and computerised methods to address the objectives of this study.