This thesis aims to analyze the conventions of Character Design, and how one may innovate without losing visual communication. Focus is put on discussing stereotypical patterns as an inescapable but potentially harmful aspect of human behavior. The type of character being examined is the Mentor Archetype, as known in the Hero’s Journey, but also used throughout narrative in all its forms. A number of mentor characters from film, animation and video games are examined in order discern what common elements there are to the various depictions of mentors found throughout both historic and popular culture, and a small number of pictures displayed to prove points. The terms archetype, stereotype, cliché and sign are looked at, and their role in the area of Character Design examined, with support from literature and articles. The social, societal, psychological and philosophical ramifications of these terms and how they relate to Character Design and the audience are discussed with further support from literature and articles. Conclusions are drawn of the importance of innovation and the harmful nature of stereotypes, and new kinds of further research are suggested.

The purpose of this study was to explore the concept of mentoring amongst administrative women in higher education from an appreciative perspective. In 1985, Kathy Kram published her book on mentoring entitled, Mentoring at Work. This seminal work provided an initial body of knowledge that helped scholars conceptualize mentoring and encouraged a proliferation of research, in what was then an emerging topic for academic inquiry. However, twenty years after Kram advanced her understandings of mentoring, Chandler and Kram (2005) reported that [t]o date, multiple definitions of a mentor have been advanced, but researchers in the field have not unconditionally accepted any specific one (p. 5).<p> Mentoring has suffered from a lack of definitional and conceptual clarity. This lack of clarity has hampered research efforts and rendered research vulnerable to criticism. This lack of clarity has also made implementation of mentoring programs difficult with respect to whom or what exactly is providing the benefit.<p> This study explored the concept of mentoring through focus groups with administrative women in higher education. The study was conducted within a qualitative paradigm, adapting elements from the work on grounded theory by Corbin and Strauss (2008). Focus groups were used to gather the data, with the questions based on the appreciative inquiry method. The worldview underlying the methodological orientation and study design is best described as constructionist. A constructionist worldview assumes that knowledge is constructed as persons explain or try to make sense of their experiences in the context of conversing with others.<p> I anticipated the findings of this study would be significant to mentoring research in three ways. In the study, I addressed the lack of definitional and conceptual clarity of mentoring that have presented academic and practical challenges; I employed a methodological orientation and study design that focused on understanding the participants recollected experiences of relationships that have worked; and the population of interest (administrative women in higher education) was one that had been understudied in mentoring research.<p> In addition to my academic interest in mentoring I was intrigued by the myth behind mentoring. References to the mythical figure, Mentor, in Homers Odyssey abound and yet two important points about Mentor have gone largely unnoticed. First Mentor was actually a woman. Mentor was Athena. That Mentor embodied both male and female characteristics may be interpreted to suggest that features of both sexes are necessary to mentoring. The second point is that Mentor was only one of the disguises Athena wore in order to provide advice and guidance to Odysseus, Penelope, and Telemachus. The second point may be interpreted to suggest that it takes more than one kind of person or relationship to provide the full range of support that an individual requires over the course of their career. It was my hope that this study would help reconcile the myth of Mentor with the reality of mentoring.

Den här uppsatsen är en kvalitativ studie om mentorer i lärarutbildningens uppfattningar av mentorsuppdraget. Sjutton intervjuer har genomförts, skrivits ut, analyserats, redovisats i beskrivningskategorier och slutligen samordnats utifrån fenomenografisk metod. Syftet för studien är att genom analyser av mentorers uppfattningar av sitt uppdrag ge ökad förståelse kring mentorsuppdraget och dess betydelse i lärarutbildningen. Studiens resultat är de tre beskrivningskategorierna betydelse genom eget lärande, betydelse genom länkat lärande och villkor för lärande. Mentor bidrar i detta sammanhang som länk till lärande och möjliggör utveckling och lärande mellan institutioner och aktörer. Det länkade lärandet är en förutsättning för det egna lärandet och villkor för lärande. Mentors fasta koppling både till utbildning och skola eller förskola bidrar till att skapa en enhetlig utbildning för den studerande. För att kunna nå detta mål krävs specifik mentorskompetens där förmågan att skapa nätverk är central.

The Relationships between Belief Change and its Influential Factors for Student Teachers in Junior High Schools Yuan-yu Chu Abstract The main purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between belief change and its influential factors for student teachers in junior high schools. The participants included 163 student teachers and 163 corresponding mentors in public junior high schools of South Taiwan. The employed instruments were Teacher Belief Appraisal, Professional Growth Scale for Junior High School Teachers, Intrapersonal Intelligence Appraisal, and The Questionnaire of Perceiving Teaching Environment. The employed analysis methods were descriptive statistics, Hotelling¡¦s T2, multivariate analysis of variance, repeat measure analysis, discriminant analysis, multivariate analysis of covariance, and multiple stepwise regression. The findings of this study revealed that (a) the student teachers¡¦ beliefs were toward open orientation on the whole, but their degree of openness varied in the four aspects of teacher beliefs; (b) gender did not have significant effects on the student teachers¡¦ beliefs at the beginning of their practice teaching; (c) teacher preparation systems, teaching areas, size of schools had significant effects on the student teachers¡¦ beliefs at the beginning of their practice teaching; (d) overall speaking, the student teachers¡¦ beliefs were quite stable through their practice teaching period; (e) the mentors¡¦ beliefs had positive effects on their student teachers¡¦ belief change; (f) the student teachers¡¦ professional growth motivation and teaching environment had positive effects on their beliefs at the beginning of practice teaching; (g) the student teachers¡¦ professional growth motivation and their mentors¡¦ beliefs had positive effects on their beliefs at the end of practice teaching. Finally, some suggestions were proposed for teacher preparation institutions, schools of practice teaching, student teachers, and future studies.

The purpose of this qualitative research was to better understand the multilingual and multimodal composition resources appropriated by students during a study of Latino children’s picturebooks within a predominantly Latino, third grade classroom. A conceptual framework guided by socio-cultural perspectives, a social semiotic theory of communication, and Composition 2.0 studies was employed to investigate the ways in which students remixed multilingual and multimodal composition resources and manifested identities in texts. This research was guided by both design-based and case study methods and drew upon constant-comparative, discourse, and visual discourse analytic methods to examine the data. Analysis was also located in the literature on identity and texts so as to better understand the socio-cultural histories and identities attached to the children's picturebooks. Data collection was focused on both the multilingual and multimodal resources students appropriated to compose and the ways students orchestrated those resources during the classroom picturebook study. Analysis was structured by two interrelated strands. The first strand explores more broadly the composition resources in use during the classroom picturebook study, and the second analyzes explicitly the ways two focal students remixed composition resources within their picturebook productions and sedimented identities in texts. Three findings generated from the two related strands of analysis provided insights into the potential of a picturebook study as a viable multilingual and multimodal composition curriculum. First, in the context of the teacher and researcher co-designed curriculum and instruction, students appropriated literary, illustrated, material, and picturebook form resources from Latino children’s picturebooks in diverse ways. Second, in the act of picturebook making, students invoked other socio-cultural texts as mentors and remixed composition resources from diverse sources to craft their own picturebooks. Finally, students manifested aspects of their identities within the material worlds and languages reflected within their picturebooks. Together, these findings situate picturebook study and picturebook making as creative and intellectual acts for students. Moreover, this study features Latino children’s picturebooks as culturally responsive mentor texts. Several pedagogical implications related to composition instruction for young writers and diverse population are also discussed. / text

As National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I student-athletes arrive on college campuses, many often struggle in transitioning to the rigors of college academics and social life. To aid in this transition from high school to college, Division I athletic departments often utilize peer-mentor study hall programs, where incoming student-athletes work with non-athlete undergraduate and graduate master students to develop academic, study, and time management skills necessary for college success. The purpose of this study was to evaluate how the thoughts and feelings about the purpose and outcome of study hall differed across the expert/novice spectrum. How do student-athletes, peer mentors, and academic support staff perceive the purpose of study hall? What is the expected outcome of study hall? These questions will be explored and the varying array of results presented in a discussion that will illuminate the differences between expert and novice perceptions regarding study hall.

The final work of master degree analyzes consultancy competence and work strategy of a mentor. Most often, the mentor’s work is confined to evaluation and control, and one of the main functions of his/her work – the function of consultancy – is not performed well enough. Regarding the need of junior pedagogues’ and trainee students’ to be consulted and aiming that both junior pedagogues and trainee students gain relevant elements of pedagogical work in educational institutions, it is very important to analyze the peculiarities of consultancy content and process of a mentor. The following defensive propositions have been raised: The consultancy process of a mentor corresponds with the process requirements, however, there are many problems connected with planning a suitable environment for consulting, making a contact with a nursling, modeling the content of consulting and feedback and evaluation of a mentor’s consultancy. The research data showed the lack of mentors’ experience in consulting and thus proved the defensive propositions.

The importance of the topic. The main thing in teacher‘s preparation reform is a competence of learning how to learn. While doing his work in pre-school institution mentor expands practical competence‘s regulation, which stimulate to help young teachers. In different education press there is not enough information about pre-school institution leader‘s mentoring as activity. There was researched a problem, if leader‘s activity has any details of mentoring and how does leader help young teacher while using his mentoring activity. There is no clear opinion of pre-school institutions leaders and teachers about mentoring as a form of help to young teacher and mentoring perfect opportunities in pre-school institution. Hypothesis: because of that, that there is no caring system young teacher in pre-school institution, the leaders of institutions make a part of mentor’s functions and because of that gets necessary competences. The object of research: pre-school institution leader’s activity. The aim of research: to research pre-school institution leader’s mentoring activity details. Tasks: to estimate leader’s as mentor’s activities ways: the style and roles of learning; to research what social, personal and competence’s facilities are essential; to treat leader’s and teacher’s opinion about mentoring, to provide leader’s mentoring opportunities. The methods of tje research: Theoretical: the analysis and conclusions of scientific literature. Empirical: the questionnaire for... [to full text]

Tidigare forskning har visat att nyexaminerade lärare upplever svårigheter under första tiden i yrket. Som konsekvens av detta ska alla nyexaminerade lärare sedan 2011 genomgå en intro-duktionsperiod, där en erfaren lärare är mentor för en ny lärare. Än har ingen forskning hunnit studera detta, vilket motiverar vår studie. Vi undersökte nyexaminerade lärares upplevelser av mentorskapet som stöd och huruvida den obligatoriska introduktionsperioden påverkar upplevelsen. Vi genomförde intervjuer och utifrån en kvalitativ analys har vi kommit fram till att mentorskapet utformas olika beroende på relationen till mentorn och arbetslaget, synen på mentorskapet och kunskap om syftet av introduktionsperioden. Mentorskapets stöd upplevs positivt, men reflekterande samtal sker sällan under den första turbulenta tiden. Vår slutsats är att det fokuseras på personliga behov men ett fungerande mentorskapet bör utformas efter lärarens situation och med fokus på professionell utveckling. I följd av detta är det nödvändigt att kartlägga vem som ska ansvara för reflektion, vilket rekommenderas för en professionell utveckling. Vidare forskning kan handla om mentorskapets utformning som till exempel längd och närhet.

Teachers need to re-create their role to suit new situations and relationship in Lithuania; teacher educators – create approaches and methods allowing teachers make a transition. Teacher competencies in this context come into the centre of reform. After renovation of the primary education concept, primary education program, primary school teacher’s education standards, certification provisions according to European Community agreements on the free professional movement, qualification recognition the need to research ant to help primary school teachers to acquire and develop the professional competence has emerged. Survey shows that young and inexperienced people while joining the organization of pedagogical process usually suffer stress and face variety of problems. Consequently students- practicians and teachers who are working for the first year are in need of a mentor i.e. experienced patron, able to take the role of the patron, helper, counselor, assessor and a friend. However we are in need of profound research to be able to analyze the competence of the teacher-mentor or patron. The mentors or primary education teachers’ problem is ones expression of competence functionality and assessing. In Lithuania this problem is not enough examined neither in theoretical neither in practical aspects. The mentors competence and qualities are not assigned. In Lithuania up to this day mentor was reputed as the guide for practical studies, or patron of the student practician. The... [to full text]