The purpose of this study was to develop, implement and evaluate a self-evaluation instrument that students would be able to use to assess their metacognitive awareness of volleyball skill and knowledge. The Self Evaluation in Volleyball Questionnaire (SEV) was designed to include a series of self-evaluation items within the five areas identified in a knowledge-based approach to skill acquisition; namely: procedural, declarative, affective, metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive skill. / The reliability, face and content validity of the SEV were found to be very acceptable. The scores on the SEV show that the questionnaire was easily understood by the students, but the students found certain sections were more difficult to answer. Students were categorized by their teacher into top, middle and bottom skill groups. Analysis of variance procedures showed that there were significant differences in SEV scores due to skill level, which demonstrated the value and the sensitivity of the SEV in differentiating such skill levels. Even though this was a descriptive study, it was also shown that the instructional programme did have a positive effect on the students' SEV scores.

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This study is a narrative self-study that reflects on the relationship between knowledge of assessment practice and theory and factors that lead to a change in practice. There are a variety of ways to use assessment as a teacher in school settings, and this paper explores how the researcher-subject developed and changed assessment practices to inform her teaching, to assist her students in attaining mastery of curricular outcomes, and to report student achievement to parents and school administrators. While tackling this complex topic, one discovers there is not one best way to assess student learning. Deciding to learn more about assessment demonstrating a willingness to try new assessment methods, to grow from successes and failures, and to look introspectively and critically current assessment practices, the result can be a more valid assessment of what a student knows and can do, and a more informed understanding of good teaching and assessment practices.

In this study, the association between physical activity participation and self-efficacy for physical activity was measured in adolescent males. Also, the possibility that self-efficacy levels differed between school sport participants and non-school sport participants was explored. The results of the Spearman’s p test showed a moderate positive, and significant correlation between PAQ-A and SEPAQ scores, r(113) = .571, p < .01. The regression analysis showed that PAQ-A score significantly predicted SEPAQ scores, b = 10.95, t(113) = 6.63, p < .001. However, school sport participation did not significantly predict SEPAQ scores, b = 0.99, t(113) = 0.97, p > .05. Also, PAQ-A score and school sport participation explained a significant proportion of variance in SEPAQ scores, R^2= 0.33, F (2, 112) = 27.11, p < .001. Implications for male participation in physical activity are discussed.

Dynamics of the second language learner’s identity interests researchers in the field of applied linguistics who explore the ways in which self-identification is constituted by language. Application of psychoanalytic theories in Second Language Acquisition (SLA) is assumed to provide an additional perspective on how the processes of identity formation relate to the varied contexts of language learning. The learner of the second language has to shape her relation to the L2 interactive contexts constantly comparing them with those of L1 and primary culture on one hand, and negotiating the concepts attached to the target language and culture on the other. The sense of the perceived self that accounts for how the learner feels connected to the target linguistic and cultural environment may be the key component of such processes. The formation of ego, a concept borrowed from psychoanalytic theory, as the component of both conscious and unconscious experience of the self, is believed to be formed through the symbolic realms of language. Since the bulk of psychoanalytic and language theories link ego formation to the first language development, it seems worth exploring the role of ego development in second language acquisition. The purpose of this phenomenological study is to describe the lived experiences of second language learners related to self-identification situated in cross-symbolical relationship between L1 and L2.

People usually have favorable evaluations when incoming information matches with their self view, which has been evidenced in cross-cultural research on advertisement appeals. However, the current paper demonstrates a counterintuitive finding in a retailing context. Results show that when an interdependent self-construal is made salient situationally, individually focused persuasion attempts (i.e. uniqueness) have a more positive impact on consumers’ trustworthiness toward the salesclerk and need for uniqueness than interpersonally focused persuasion attempts (i.e. connectedness). However, when an independent self-construal is activated situationally, persuasion attempts used by a salesclerk have no influence on consumers’ perceptions of trustworthiness toward the salesclerk and need for uniqueness. Five studies are presented that test these propositions and investigate their underlying processes. Study 1 conducted in Canada supported the hypothesized effects. Study 2 provided evidence for the robustness of the effect observed in Study 1 by conducting a similar experiment in China. Study 3, a field study, further supported the propositions when measuring self-construal as an individual difference. Study 4 provided support for the proposed underlying mechanism. That is, the observed effect in Study 1, 2 & 3 is due to persuasion knowledge through deliberate processing. Study 5 extended this result by recruiting participants from four different countries (France, Canada, China, and Israel).

Self-esteem involves a variety of cognitive processes that help people perceive, interpret, and process social information. A central component of people's self-esteem is their sense of belonging and feelings of acceptance. It follows that people react strongly to social rejection and that being attuned to signs of real or potential social rejection can serve a self-protection function. However, being overly attuned and sensitive to social rejection can have a paradoxical effect, whereby aberrant attentional processes can contribute to the perpetuation of the vicious cycle of low self-esteem. The goal of the research presented in this dissertation was twofold: to investigate whether people with low self-esteem are more vigilant for rejection information, and to investigate whether a rejection-inhibiting attentional training task that reduces their vigilance for rejection can help buffer against social and performance threats. I hypothesized that people with low self-esteem are more vigilant for rejection information than for acceptance information. I also hypothesized that training people, particularly those with low self-esteem, to inhibit and disengage from rejection promotes effective regulation of emotions and has positive psychological, behavioural, and physiological effects. Results from the first study show that people with low self-esteem have a greater attentional bias for rejection than for acceptance information. Across 7 other studies, participants with low self-esteem trained to inhibit rejection with a specially designed attentional training task showed a lower rejection bias for rejection information, less feelings of rejection after overt rejection, and less ineffective persistence. Regardless of level of self-esteem, participants trained to inhibit rejection showed less interfering thoughts about rejection while working on a task, higher state self-esteem after having been rejected and experiencing failure, less stress about their final exam, increases in self-esteem and decreases in perceived stress after a stressful work week, lower levels of cortisol, and increases in sales performance. Following a vicious cycle framework of low self-esteem and social stress, these results show that attentional bias training can circumvent the experience of social stress and possibly break the vicious cycle of low self-esteem.

This study describes the research conducted into my teaching practice as an Environmental Educator. The study employs a self-study methodology and systematically examines evidence gathered on my practice in teaching a Grade 11 Current Environmental Topics in Science course. A reflective journal kept during the teaching of the course was retrospectively and systematically examined, with the support of a critical friend, for what informed my teaching of the subject. I used written accounts of my students’ learning to identify evidence of learning and understand how my teaching influenced learning. Using Urie Bronfenbrenner’s model of human development as a means of analysis, I was able gauge what personal and environmental factors were influencing the teaching and learning process. Using Derek Hodson’s levels of sophistication alongside Elliot Eisner’s orientations to curriculum, it was found that there were many layers informing my planning and delivery of curriculum.

Self-assembling materials have gained attention in the field of nanotechnology due to their potential to be used as building blocks for fabricating complex nanoscale devices. The biological world is abundant with examples of functional self-assembling biomolecules. Proteins are one such example, found in a variety of geometries and shapes. This research is focussed on the use of ring-shaped self-assembling proteins, called Lsm proteins, as componentary for applications in bionanotechnology. Lsm proteins were used because of their spontaneous association into stable rings, tolerance to mutations, and affinity to RNA. This thesis primarily focussed on the thermophilic Lsmα (from Methanobacterium. thermoautotrophicum) that assembles as heptameric rings. The oligomeric state of the heptameric protein, and hence the diameter of its central cavity, was manipulated by judiciously altering appropriate residues at the subunit interface. Lsmα presented a complex set of interactions at the interface. Out of the mutations introduced, R65P yielded a protein for which SEC and SAXS data were consistent with a hexameric state. Moreover, key residues, L70 and I71, were identified that contribute to the stability of the toroid structure. Covalent linking of rings provided nanotubular structures. To achieve this, the surface of the Lsmα ring scaffold was modified with Cys residues. This approach led to the formation of novel Lsmα nanotubes approximately 20 nm in length. Importantly, the assembly could be controlled by changing the redox conditions. As an alternative method to manipulate the supramolecular assembly, His6-tags were attached at the termini of the Lsmα sequence. The higher-order organisation of the constructs was influenced by the position of the His6-tag. The N-terminally attached His6-tag version of Lsmα showed a metal-dependent assembly into cage-like structures, approximately 9 nm across. This organisation was highly stable, reproducible, and reversible in nature. The results presented in this thesis aid the understanding of generating complex nanostructures via in vitro self-assembly. The Lsmα rings were assembled into higher-order architectures at the quaternary level by employing protein engineering strategies. Future work is necessary to functionalise these supramolecular structures; however, this study confirms the potential role of Lsmα proteins as a molecular building block in bionanotechnology.

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