Denna studie ämnade att undersöka hur studie- och yrkesvägledare informerar och vägleder elever på högskoleförberedande gymnasieprogram inför val av eftergymnasiala studier på högskola/universitet och yrkeshögskola. Studien bottnade i en teoretisk ansats som tar sin grund i Careershipteorin, med särskild tyngdpunkt i handlingshorisont. Sammanlagt har åtta studie- och yrkesvägledare verksamma på högskoleförberedande gymnasieprogram i olika delar av Sverige intervjuats i denna kvalitativa studie. De empiriska data som insamlats genom dessa intervjuer har analyserats genom en abduktiv kodning. Studiens resultat visade på att såväl information som vägledning anges kunna bedrivas på ett flertal olika sätt, alla med olika påverkan på eleverna och deras handlingshorisonter inför val av framtida studier på högskola/universitet och yrkeshögskola. / This study intended to investigate how study and career counselors inform and guide students in college preparatory programmes in upper secondary school before choosing post-secondary studies at colleges/universities and higher vocational education. The study was based on a theoretical approach that is based on the Careership theory, with special emphasis on horizons for action. A total of eight study and career counselors active in college preparatory programmes in various parts of Sweden have been interviewed in this qualitative study. The empirical data collected through these interviews have been analyzed through abductive coding. The results of the study showed that both information and guidance are stated to be conducted in a number of different ways, all with different effects on students and their horizons for action before choosing future studies at colleges/universities and higher vocational education.

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The major purpose of this study was to investigate whether the level of engagement, as measured by the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) correlates with veterans’ academic success as measured by cumulative Grade Point Average (GPA). Participants were senior college students, at a four-year urban public university who completed the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE). The design compared two years that the survey was administered, 2011 and 2013. The NSSE was also used to examine differences in perception among veterans, nontraditional and traditional students. Based on the quantitative analysis it was determined that the more engaged veterans are the better their GPA. While there was no statistical significance, there were positive correlations for veterans between GPA and their relationships with students, faculty, and administrative personnel in the 2011 sample; the 2013 sample showed a negative correlation. The analysis also determined that perceptions in quality of interaction with faculty, advisors, and administration changed from 2011 to 2013. Additionally, perceptions of veterans showed they felt the campus was supportive in 2011, however did not feel the same in 2013. The results of this quantitative study provide higher education institutions and researchers additional insight into which areas of their university services need attention in order to assist in the academic success of student veterans. / Educational Leadership

There has been little research on the government relations function within the post-secondary education sector in Ontario. This study explores this topic by reviewing the literature and collecting data from key informants in the college, university and government sector, and those who can speak about the sector associations. The study describes how the leaders of colleges and universities in Ontario perceive and conduct government relations, both as individual institutions and as a sector, and analyzes trends and potential implications. The study utilizes a pluralist model of interest group behaviour and applied the hollow-core theory to the policy community and the findings provide compelling evidence that this theory is a useful theoretical framework for understanding the nature of this policy community. This study also provides valuable insight into the hollow-core theory of pluralism. The leadership of individual colleges and universities shares a similar understanding of government relations and engage a similar approach. Individual colleges and universities work independently to lobby for capital funding and work together through their respective associations to lobby for system-wide funding and reforms. Although the presidents of individual institutions continue to lead the government relations function, the trend in the post-secondary education sector in Ontario is to invest additional resources and time in these activities. This study is the first of its kind in Ontario and makes an important contribution to our understanding of the way leaders in the post-secondary education sector in Ontario perceive and conduct government relations. Implications of the findings are considered and recommendations are made for further research.

La chimie est un sujet difficile étant donné ses concepts nombreux et souvent peu intuitifs. Mais au-delà de ces difficultés d’ordre épistémologique, l’apprentissage de la chimie peut être en péril lorsqu’il s’appuie sur des fondations instables, mêlées de conceptions alternatives. Les conceptions alternatives sont les représentations internes, tacites, des étudiants, qui sont en désaccord avec la théorie scientifiquement acceptée. Leur présence dans leur esprit peut nuire à la compréhension conceptuelle, et elle peut mener les étudiants à expliquer le comportement de la matière incorrectement et à faire des prédictions inexactes en chimie. Les conceptions alternatives sont réputées répandues et difficiles à repérer dans un cadre traditionnel d’enseignement. De nombreuses conceptions alternatives en chimie ont été mises en lumière par différents groupes de chercheurs internationaux, sans toutefois qu’une telle opération n’ait jamais été réalisée avec des étudiants collégiaux québécois. Le système d’éducation postsecondaire québécois représentant un contexte unique, une étude des difficultés particulières de ces étudiants était nécessaire pour tracer un portrait juste de la situation. De plus, des chercheurs proposent aujourd’hui de ne pas faire uniquement l’inventaire des conceptions, mais de s’attarder aussi à étudier comment, par quel processus, elles mènent à de mauvaises prédictions ou explications. En effet, ils soutiennent que les catalogues de conceptions ne peuvent pas être facilement utilisés par les enseignants, ce qui devrait pourtant être la raison pour les mettre en lumière : qu’elles soient prises en compte dans l’enseignement. Toutefois, aucune typologie satisfaisante des raisonnements et des conceptions alternatives en chimie, qui serait appuyée sur des résultats expérimentaux, n’existe actuellement dans les écrits de recherche. Plusieurs chercheurs en didactique de la chimie suggèrent qu’une telle typologie est nécessaire et devrait rendre explicites les modes de raisonnement qui mettent en jeu ces conceptions alternatives. L’explicitation du raisonnement employé par les étudiants serait ainsi la voie permettant de repérer la conception alternative sur laquelle ce raisonnement s’appuie. Le raisonnement est le passage des idées tacites aux réponses manifestes. Ce ne sont pas toutes les mauvaises réponses en chimie qui proviennent de conceptions alternatives : certaines proviennent d’un manque de connaissances, d’autres d’un agencement incorrect de concepts pourtant corrects. Comme toutes les sortes de mauvaises réponses d’étudiants sont problématiques lors de l’enseignement, il est pertinent de toutes les considérer. Ainsi, ces préoccupations ont inspiré la question de recherche suivante : Quelles conceptions alternatives et quels processus de raisonnement mènent les étudiants à faire de mauvaises prédictions en chimie ou à donner de mauvaises explications du comportement de la matière? C’est pour fournir une réponse à cette question que cette recherche doctorale a été menée. Au total, 2413 étudiants ont participé à la recherche, qui était divisée en trois phases : la phase préliminaire, la phase pilote et la phase principale. Des entrevues cliniques ont été menées à la phase préliminaire, pour explorer les conceptions alternatives des étudiants en chimie. Lors de la phase pilote, des questionnaires à choix multiples avec justification ouverte des réponses ont été utilisés pour délimiter le sujet, notamment à propos des notions de chimie les plus pertinentes sur lesquelles concentrer la recherche et pour mettre en lumière les façons de raisonner des étudiants à propos de ces notions. La phase principale, quant à elle, a utilisé le questionnaire à deux paliers à choix multiples « Molécules, polarité et phénomènes » (MPP) développé spécifiquement pour cette recherche. Ce questionnaire a été distribué aux étudiants via une adaptation de la plateforme Web ConSOL, développée durant la recherche par le groupe de recherche dont fait partie la chercheuse principale. Les résultats montrent que les étudiants de sciences de la nature ont de nombreuses conceptions alternatives et autres difficultés conceptuelles, certaines étant très répandues parmi leur population. En particulier, une forte proportion d’étudiants croient que l’évaporation d’un composé entraîne le bris des liaisons covalentes de ses molécules (61,1 %), que tout regroupement d’atomes est une molécule (78,9 %) et que les atomes ont des propriétés macroscopiques pareilles à celles de l’élément qu’ils constituent (66,0 %). D’un autre côté, ce ne sont pas toutes les mauvaises réponses au MPP qui montrent des conceptions alternatives. Certaines d’entre elles s’expliquent plutôt par une carence dans les connaissances antérieures (par exemple, lorsque les étudiants montrent une méconnaissance d’éléments chimiques communs, à 21,8 %) ou par un raisonnement logique incomplet (lorsqu’ils croient que le seul fait de posséder des liaisons polaires rend nécessairement une molécule polaire, ce qu’on observe chez 24,1 % d’entre eux). Les conceptions alternatives et les raisonnements qui mènent à des réponses incorrectes s’observent chez les étudiants de première année et chez ceux de deuxième année du programme de sciences, dans certains cas avec une fréquence diminuant entre les deux années, et dans d’autres, à la même fréquence chez les deux sous-populations. Ces résultats permettent de mitiger l’affirmation, généralement reconnue dans les écrits de recherche, selon laquelle les conceptions alternatives sont résistantes à l’enseignement traditionnel : selon les résultats de la présente recherche, certaines d’entre elles semblent en effet se résoudre à travers un tel contexte d’enseignement. Il demeure que plusieurs conceptions alternatives, carences dans les connaissances antérieures de base et erreurs de raisonnement ont été mises en lumière par cette recherche. Ces problèmes dans l’apprentissage mènent les étudiants collégiaux à faire des prédictions incorrectes du comportement de la matière, ou à expliquer ce comportement de façon incorrecte. Au regard de ces résultats, une réflexion sur l’enseignement de la chimie au niveau collégial, qui pourrait faire une plus grande place à la réflexion conceptuelle et à l’utilisation du raisonnement pour la prédiction et l’explication des phénomènes étudiés, serait pertinente à tenir. / The difficulties found in learning Chemistry are mostly ascribed to the fact that it comprises many complex and counter-intuitive concepts. But beyond these epistemological challenges, learning chemistry can be in jeopardy when it relies on learners’ unstable foundations mixed with alternative conceptions. Alternative conceptions are tacit internal representations that students hold in disagreement with scientifically accepted theories. The presence of alternative conceptions in students’ minds might harm their conceptual understanding leading them to wrongly explain the behaviour of matter and to make incorrect predictions in chemistry. Alternative conceptions are recognised as widespread and difficult to identify in a traditional educational setting. Many alternative conceptions in chemistry have been identified by different groups of researchers in international settings, but such an operation has never been carried out with Quebec college students. As Quebec’s post-secondary education system represents a unique context, a study of the particular difficulties of students in this system was necessary to draw an accurate picture of the situation. Furthermore, researchers presently suggest not only to list such alternative conceptions, but also to explore by what processes they lead to wrong predictions or explanations. Researchers indeed argue that mere lists of alternative conceptions cannot be easily used by teachers, who should be the target audience for these results if they are to take into account alternative conceptions in their teaching. However, no satisfactory typology of reasoning processes and alternative conceptions in chemistry exists today in the research literature. Several researchers in chemistry education suggest that such a typology is needed and should render explicit the reasoning processes involving these alternative conceptions. Explicitation of the reasoning used by the students while performing a task in chemistry would be the way to identify the alternative conception on which this reasoning is based. Reasoning is viewed as the process that proceeds from implicit ideas to explicit answers. Not all wrong answers in chemistry come from alternative conceptions: some come from a lack of knowledge, other from logical errors. Since all types of wrong answers from students are problematic during teaching, it is relevant to consider them all. Thus, these concerns have inspired the following research question: What alternative conceptions and modes of reasoning lead students to make poor predictions in chemistry or to give wrong explanations of the behavior of matter? This doctoral research was conducted to provide an answer to this question. In total, 2,413 students enrolled in Science programmes in Québec’s college (postsecondary pre-university) system were involved in this research, which was divided into three phases: preliminary phase, pilot phase and main phase. Clinical interviews were conducted in the preliminary phase to explore chemistry students’ alternative conceptions. During the pilot phase, multiple-choice questions with open-ended justification were used to delimit the chemistry topics to be studied and to highlight ways of reasoning that students use. The main phase, for its part, used the two-tier “Molecules, Polarity and Phenomena” questionnaire (MPP) developed specifically for this research. The questionnaire was distributed to students via an adaptation of the Consol Web platform, developed by the research group of the principal investigator of this doctoral study. The results show that Science students hold several alternative designs, some of which are quite widespread among the population. In particular, a high proportion of students believe that evaporation causes the breaking of covalent bonds of the molecules (61.1 %), that all atom groups are molecules (78.9 %) and that atoms have similar macroscopic properties as the element (66.0 %). On the other hand, not all bad answers in the MPP show alternative conceptions. Some of them are rather explained by a deficiency in prior knowledge (for example, when students show a lack of knowledge of common chemical elements, 21.8 %) or an incomplete logical reasoning (when they believe the mere possession of polar bonds necessarily makes a molecule polar, which is observed in 24.1% of them). Alternative conceptions and reasoning that lead to incorrect answers are found among first-year and second-year students in the Science program, in some cases with decreasing frequency between the two years, and in others, at the same frequency in both subpopulations. These results mitigate the statement generally found in the research literature, that alternative conceptions are resistant to traditional teaching: according to the results of this research, some of them seem to actually be resolved through such a teaching context. The fact remains, however, that several alternative conceptions, deficiencies in basic prior knowledge and reasoning errors have been highlighted by this research. These learning problems lead college students to make incorrect predictions about the behaviour of matter, or to explain this behaviour incorrectly. In view of these results, a reflection on the teaching of chemistry at the college level, placing a greater emphasis on conceptual thinking and the use of reasoning for the prediction and explanation of the studied phenomena, should be considered.

With the increasing use of social media by students, researchers, administrative staff, and faculty in post-secondary education (PSE), a number of institutions have developed guideline and policy documents to set standards for social media use. Social media platforms and applications have the potential to increase communication channels, support learning, enhance research, and encourage community engagement at PSE institutions. As social media implementation and administration has developed in PSE, there has been minimal assessment of the substance of social media guideline and policy documents. The first objective of this research study was to examine an accessible, online database (corpus) comprised of 24, 243 atomic social media guideline and policy text documents from 250 PSE institutions representing 10 countries to identify central attributes. To determine text meaning from topic extraction, a rotated latent semantic analysis (rLSA) method was applied. The second objective of this investigation was to determine if the distribution of topics analyze in the corpus differ by PSE institution geographic location. To analyze the diverging topics, the researcher utilized an iterative consensus-building algorithm.Through the maximum term frequencies, LSA determined a rotated 36-factor solution that identified common attributes and topics shared among the 24,243 social media guideline and policy atomic documents. This initial finding produced a list of 36 universal topics discussed in social media guidelines and policies across all 250 PSE institutions from 10 countries. Continually, the applied chi-squared tests, that measured expected and observed document term counts, identified distribution differences of content related factors between US and Non-US PSE institutions. This analysis offered a concrete analysis for unstructured text data on the topic of social media guidance. This resulted in a comprehensive list of recommendations for developing social media guidelines and policies, and a database of social media guideline and policy documents for the PSE sector and other related organizations. Additionally, this research stimulated important theoretical development for how organizations socially construct a semantic structure within a community of practice. By assessing the community of practice, comprised of PSE 250 institutions that direct social media use, a corpus of documents provided unstructured data to evaluate the community. The spontaneous participation and reification process of the social media guideline and policy document corpus reaffirmed that a corpus-creating community of practice can instinctively form a knowledge-sharing organization that provides meaning, values, and identity. These findings should stimulate further research contributions, and provides practitioners and scholars with tools to measure, understand, and assess semantic space for other artifacts developed within a community of practice in other industries, organizations, or distributed associations.

ABSTRACT: Purpose: To describe a research-based global curriculum in speech-language pathology and audiology that is part of a funded cross-linguistic consortium among 2 U.S. and 2 Brazilian universities. Method: The need for a global curriculum in speechlanguage pathology and audiology is outlined, and different funding sources are identified to support development of a global curriculum. The U.S. Department of Education’s Fund for the Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE), in conjunction with the Brazilian Ministry of Education (Fundacao Coordenacao de Aperfeicoamento de Pessoal de Nivel Superior; CAPES), funded the establishment of a shared research curriculum project, “Consortium for Promoting Cross-Linguistic Understanding of Communication Disabilities in Children” for East Tennessee State University and the University of Northern Iowa and 2 Brazilian universities (Universidade Federal de Santa Maria and Universidade de São Paulo-Baurú). Results: The goals and objectives of the research-based global curriculum are summarized, and a description of an Internet-based course, “Different Languages, One World,” is provided Conclusion: Partnerships such as the FIPSE–CAPES consortium provide a foundation for training future generations of globally and research-prepared practitioners in speechlanguage pathology and audiology.

Although higher education typically strengthens people with disabilities' chances to be in a competitive job market as a viable leverage to break away from poverty (Council of Canadians with Disabilities, 2014), the contemporary marketization of higher education within the era of neoliberalism has made degrees and diplomas increasingly unaffordable. The federal government responded to this predicament by increasing the Canada Social Transfer (CST) to offer up-front targeted funding to students with disabilities in 2008 (Kirby, 2011). However, virtually no literature has acknowledged whether financial grants meaningfully provide student with disabilities with an equitable opportunity to engage in post-secondary education (PSE). Using a critical discourse analysis (CDA) on government online materials that address federal and provincial disability grants for post-secondary students with disabilities in Alberta and Ontario, this thesis reveals how the neoliberal rhetoric of personal responsibility colonizes government disability grants and leaves students with "more responsibility" and "less control" over their finances in an already disabling world. / October 2015

ABSTRACT Using a qualitative methodology, I conducted this study to identify the barriers to women’s post-secondary education in Bangladesh and to investigate the possible strategies to remove those barriers, from the perspectives of three Bangladeshi women who received post-secondary education in Bangladesh and who are currently living in Canada. To explore participants’ perceptions, I used open-ended structured interviews. I then analyzed data using the conceptual framework of subsystems within an open systems theory. The study revealed that the barriers Bangladeshi women encounter when pursuing a post-secondary education are vast and complex. The findings from this study indicated that Bangladeshi women face barriers from multi-level social subsystems such as family, financial, educational, socio-cultural, political, and governmental subsystems. Six broad themes of major barriers emerged from participants’ reports: (a) financial constraints; (b) socio-cultural practices and attitudes; (c) male domination; (d) inadequate education facilities; (e) student politics and unstable political situations; and (f) corrupt government and inconsistent implementation of law and punishment. Within these six themes, the study identified various factors that hamper women’s post-secondary education in Bangladesh. The participants suggested strategies that may help those who make and implement policy find ways to minimize barriers to women’s post-secondary education in Bangladesh and beyond. The results showed that since the barriers are multifaceted, positive collaboration between the various levels of social subsystems in Bangladesh can reduce the difficulties and may profoundly change the overall Bangladeshi attitude towards women and their education. The family or the government systems alone are not enough to remove the deeply-rooted barriers to Bangladeshi women’s higher learning. Future research might explore the perceptions of a larger sample of Bangladeshi women who are in Bangladesh but could not obtain post-secondary education. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2008-09-28 14:18:40.578

Neoliberal ideologies have been adopted through most of the developed world. In North America, they dominate and provide the backdrop for the way decisions are made, organisations are governed, and policies are considered and implemented. Universities have not been exempt from the pressures of neoliberalism and increasingly are becoming what is being referred to as ‘corporatised’. Using a multi-institutional ethnographic case study, drawing on elements of institutional ethnography and using discourse analysis and interviews, this research focused on these topics with four research intensive universities in British Columbia: UBC, UNBC, UVic and SFU. This research sought to answer the question: In what ways is corporatisation visible in the practices and discourses related to university research in British Columbia, and, in turn, what impacts are being felt? The findings from the research indicated that there is, as might be expected, strong support for post-secondary education. The rhetoric in the documents from the universities and governments shows a ‘grand vision’ for education as the cornerstone of a successful society. The findings confirm that universities are viewed internally and externally as important and that, in turn, research and discovery is paramount. However, what the research also showed was that there are differing views among those in power regarding how that vision plays out. Those differences can be summarized as: citizen preparation versus job training; social innovation versus commercial innovation; targeted research (both in the type of research carried out and to what ends); and the level of autonomy of the university. These tensions can be considered through the theoretical frameworks that guided the research: commodification (i.e., of education and research); resource dependence theory; and institutional theory. Universities are increasingly being corporatised and this is visible in: increased oversight and control by governments with regard to the direction of the university, both from an educational and research perspective; an emphasis on the fiscal bottom line; increased accountability requirements (in complexity and frequency) related to funding for educational programs and research; increased demands for, and focus on, demonstrable impacts and quantifiable measures from research; a reduced amount of collegial governance; increased bureaucracy; and pressures to adopt business models, practices, and processes from the private sector. / Graduate