This sequential explanatory mixed methods study explores elementary mathematics teachers' perceptions regarding their mathematical self-efficacy, how teachers describe their perceptions about their prior mathematical learning experiences and their impact on their instructional practice in the elementary mathematics classroom. In support of this purpose, it is essential also to examine school leaders' role in developing elementary teachers' mathematics self-efficacy. The quantitative data was collected using the Mathematics Teaching and Mathematics Self-Efficacy Scale (MTMSE) online survey. A total of 60 elementary teachers in Grades 3, 4, and 5 were analyzed by descriptive statistics and correlations. A focus group of 6 elementary teachers was conducted, and analysis was explored to provide a more in-depth understanding of the quantitative results about teachers' prior experiences, beliefs, attitudes, and confidence levels around elementary mathematics. The last part of qualitative data collection and analysis was from eight individual campus administrator interviews. These interviews explored how support by campus administrators can increase elementary mathematics teachers' self-efficacy. From the teacher focus group and administrator individual interviews, it is clear that with experience and the correct level of support, teachers' levels of self-efficacy are increased. Experience and available support were shown to positively impact the self-efficacy of elementary mathematics teachers, according to the findings. The data indicated that as elementary mathematics teachers accumulate experience and utilize collaborative support to expand their knowledge of mathematical concepts and ideas, they experience a gradual surge in self-confidence and a heightened sense of assurance when instructing mathematics to their students.

In academia, research on feedback has been helpful and has enhanced awareness of students' and professors' perceptions, thereby promoting effective strategies for giving feedback to students. According to Boud (2015) and others, feedback is a significant component of the teaching and learning process. Quality teaching and evaluative processes give learners an advantage in becoming exceptional nurses. The current study aimed to research the perceptions of pre-licensure first- and second-year nursing students and their professors regarding clinical skills performance assessment feedback. A quantitative, cross-sectional, non-experimental design was utilized in this study. Convenience sampling was conducted with 163 nursing students either enrolled in the program's first year or second year of nursing education and those who completed the online survey entitled Students' Perceptions of Professor Feedback survey. In addition, nine professors who taught and assessed clinical skills in the first and second year of the nursing curriculum completed the Professors' Perceptions of Feedback survey. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression. Based on the findings, it was reasonable to conclude that students generally felt that professor feedback was an effective teaching and evaluative strategy in nursing education. Specific content areas, such as the quality of the information given during feedback and the emotional impact of feedback, had a meaningful, significant effect on students' confidence levels. / Doctor of Philosophy / In academia, research on feedback has been helpful and has enhanced the awareness of students' and professors' perceptions, promoting effective strategies for giving feedback to students. According to Boud (2015) and others, feedback is a significant component of the teaching and learning process. Quality teaching and evaluative processes give learners an advantage in becoming exceptional nurses. The current study aimed to research the perceptions of pre-licensure first- and second-year nursing students and their professors regarding clinical skills performance assessment feedback. A quantitative, cross-sectional, non-experimental design was utilized in this study. Convenience sampling was conducted with 163 nursing students either enrolled in the program's first year or second year of nursing education and those who completed the online survey entitled Students' Perceptions of Professor Feedback survey. In addition, nine professors who taught and assessed clinical skills in the first and second year of the nursing curriculum completed the Professors' Perceptions of Feedback survey. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression. Based on the findings, it was reasonable to conclude that students generally felt that professor feedback was an effective teaching and evaluative strategy in nursing education but there are opportunities to improve strategies used in nursing education. Specific content areas, such as the quality of the information given during feedback and the emotional impact of feedback, had a meaningful, significant effect on students' confidence levels involving clinical skills performance assessment.

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Bakgrund: Befolkningen blir allt äldre och ökad ålder medför funktionsnedsättningar som minskad muskelmassa och balans. Det påverkar gången negativt, men genom att träna funktionellt eller träna upp muskelstyrkan och balansen kan äldres gångförmåga förbättras. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur äldres gångförmåga, self-efficacy och eventuell oro inför att gå påverkas av två olika åttaveckors interventioner med träning inom kommunal verksamhet, samt hur följsamhet till träning påverkas av self-efficacy och eventuell oro. Metod: Studiedesignen är en experimentell design i form av pretest-posttest control group som är en form av RCT. Nitton deltagare ≥65 år rekryterades via konsekutivt urval. Testresultat från TUG, självvald gånghastighet och skattningar på oro och self-efficacy inför att gå samlades in. Resultat: Ingen signifikant skillnad (p>0,05) förekom mellan eller inom grupperna med avseende på testvariablerna. Korrelationsanalyserna visade på ingen, låga och moderata korrelationer, både positiva och negativa men inga signifikanta korrelationer observerades. Slutsats: Resultatet i studien kan inte generaliseras till en större population, men kan vara till grund för ytterligare studier med ett större stickprov som randomiseras utifrån populationen. Ytterligare studier krävs med syfte att undersöka om enbart gångträning är effektivt för att utveckla gångförmågan. / Background:  Since the population is aging the decrease in muscle function and balance impairments leads to increased disable. Which has a negative impact on walking ability, though through functional training, by training muscle strength and balance can enhance walking ability in elderly. Aim: The purpose of the study is to investigate how elderly people walking ability, self-efficacy and any anxiety about going, influenced by two different eight-week interventions within municipal operations, and how adherence to exercise is influenced by self-efficacy and anxiety. Method: The study design is an experimental variant of the pretest-posttest control group design. Nineteen participants’ ≥65 years recruited consecutively through selection. Test results from TUG, self-selected walking speed, and estimates on anxiety and self-efficacy before going was collected. Result: No significant difference (p>0, 05) occurred between or within groups for the test variables. The correlation analysis showed none, low, moderate correlation, both positive and negative but no significant correlations was observed. Conclusion: The results of the study can’t be generalized to a larger population, but can be the basis for further studies with a larger sample to be randomized on the basis of population.  More studies are needed to investigate if only walking exercise is effective for developing the walking ability.

Child language brokers frequently translate in adult-level situations. Research has suggested that through translating, brokers may develop advanced language, cognitive, and social skills (De Ment, Buriel, and Villanueva, 2005; McQuillan and Tse, 1995), and these may lead to greater academic achievement and self-efficacy (Buriel, Perez, De Ment, Chavez,and Moran, 1998). Additionally, language brokers have been found to increase in biculturalism as they translate for people of different cultures (Acoach and Webb, 2004; Buriel et al., 1998). Brokers might experience reduced acculturative stress, for which biculturalism has been found to be a protective factor (Bacallao and Smokowski, 2005). Despite its possible benefits, brokering has been associated with negative emotions and behavioral problems for some children (Chao, 2006; Weisskirch and Alva, 2002). The mixed results of language brokering studies may partially be related to the age of participants, with translating appearing to be a more positive experience for older adolescents (Orellana and Reynolds, 2008). The purpose of this study was to test relations among language brokering, academic achievement, academic self-efficacy, social self-efficacy, and acculturative stress. I proposed and tested if language brokering was associated with more positive outcomes. In addition, I tested if older brokers had more positive outcomes than younger brokers. Participants included 207 Latino middle school students, aged 10 to 14 years, who completed self-report surveys. Measures included a background demographics questionnaire and scales for language brokering, academic self-efficacy, social self-efficacy, and acculturative stress. Achievement was measured with grades from school records. Results were non-significant for the relation of language brokering with achievement and social self-efficacy when controlling for other predictor variables. In contrast to expectations, translating for more people was associated with decreased academic self-efficacy and greater acculturative stress. Further analysis revealed that language brokering for parents and grandparents was associated with greater acculturative stress, while translating for other people was not. Although translating was associated with more acculturative stress, and older children reported less acculturative stress, age was not found to moderate the relation of language brokering and acculturative stress. Limitations, implications, and suggestions for future directions in language brokering research and clinical work are presented. / text

In this two-part dissertation, the sources of self-efficacy were investigated for elementary and middle school students in mathematics classrooms. In the first study, the Sources of Middle School Mathematics Scale (Usher & Pajares, 2009) was validated with a younger sample. Participants included 367 fourth- through sixth-grade students; these participants completed two surveys investigating their beliefs regarding their capabilities to perform successfully in mathematics. This study included an examination of the psychometric properties and a confirmatory factor analysis of the Sources of Middle School Mathematics Self-Efficacy Scale, and an investigation into the relative power of mastery experience, vicarious experience, social persuasions, and physiological state to predict self-efficacy. This scale demonstrates adequate reliability and validity to be used successfully with younger students. The goal of the second study was to examine social persuasions in greater detail by focusing on the feedback teachers provide to their students during mathematics instruction. The Teacher Feedback Scale (Burnett, 2002) and several self-efficacy measures were administered at two time points to a subset (N = 290) of the fourth- through sixth-grade students from Study 1. The reliability and validity of the Teacher Feedback Scale was explored, as well as the relative power of positive, negative, ability, and effort feedback to predict self-efficacy. Negative feedback was the strongest predictor of student mathematics self-efficacy; positive and ability feedback were also significant predictors. Effort feedback was not a significant predictor of self-efficacy. This dissertation makes a relevant contribution to the fields of educational and school psychology by providing additional evidence for the validity of these scales and by exploring teacher feedback through the lens of social cognitive theory. Results from this study can also be used to help mathematics teachers interact with their students in ways that will bolster self-efficacy.

Background: Adherence to recommendations for physical activity is low in patients with heart failure (HF). It is essential to explore to what extent and why patients with HF are physically active. Self-efficacy and motivation for physical activity are important in becoming more physically active, but the role of self-efficacy in the relationship between motivation and physical activity in patients with HF is unknown. Alternative approaches to motivate and increase self-efficacy to exercise are needed. One of these alternatives might be using exergames (games to improve physical exercise). Therefore, it is important to obtain more knowledge on the potential of exergaming to increase physical activity. The overall aim was to describe the physical activity in patients with HF, with special focus on motivations and self-efficacy in physical activity, and to describe the potential of exergaming to improve exercise capacity. Methods: Study I (n = 154) and II (n = 101) in this thesis had a cross-sectional survey design. Study III (n = 32) was a 12-week pilot intervention study, including an exergame platform at home, with a pretest-posttest design. Study IV (n = 14) described the experiences of exergaming in patients who participated in the intervention group of a randomized controlled study in which they had access to an exergame platform at home. Results: In total, 34% of the patients with HF had a low level of physical activity, 46% had a moderate level, 23% reported a high level. Higher education, higher selfefficacy, and higher motivation were significantly associated with a higher amount of physical activity. Barriers to exercise were reported to be difficult to overcome and psychological motivations were the most important motivations to be physically active. Women had significantly higher total motivation to be physically active. Self-efficacy mediated the relationship between exercise motivation and physical activity; motivation leads to a higher self-efficacy towards physical activity. More than half of the patients significantly increased their exercise capacity after 12 weeks of using an exergame platform at home. Lower NYHA-class and shorter time since diagnosis were factors significantly related to the increase in exercise capacity. The mean time spent exergaming was 28 minutes per day. Having grandchildren and being male were related to more time spent exergaming. The analysis of the qualitative data resulted in three categories describing patients’ experience of exergaming: (i) making exergaming work, (ii) added value of exergaming, (iii) no appeal of exergaming. Conclusion: One-third of the patients with HF had a low level of physical activity in their daily life. Level of education, exercise self-efficacy, and motivation were important factors to take into account when advising patients with HF about physical activity. In addition to a high level of motivation to be physically active, it is important that patients with HF have a high degree of exercise self-efficacy. Exergaming has the potential to increase exercise capacity in patients with HF. The results also showed that this technology might be suitable for some patients while others may prefer other kinds of physical activity. / Achtergrond: Het aantal patiënten met hartfalen (HF) dat zich kan houden aan de aanbevolen lichamelijke activiteit is over het algemeen klein. Het is essentieel om te onderzoeken in hoeverre en waarom patiënten met HF lichamelijk actief zijn. Het hebben van self-efficacy (een persoonlijke overtuiging dat hij/zij capabel is om te doen wat nodig is om een taak te volbrengen op een bepaald kwaliteitsniveau) en motivatie voor lichamelijke activiteit is belangrijk om meer lichamelijk actief te worden. Het is echter niet duidelijk wat de rol van self-efficacy is in relatie tot motivatie en lichamelijke activiteit bij patiënten met HF. Alternatieve benaderingen zijn nodig om patiënten te motiveren lichamelijk actiever te zijn en de self-efficacy te verhogen. Een van de mogelijke alternatieven om patiënten met HF te helpen lichamelijk actiever te zijn is de inzet van exergames: computerspellen om fysieke activiteit te bevorderen. Er is tot nu toe geen onderzoek is gedaan naar de inzet van exergaming bij patiënten met hartfalen en de mogelijkheden van exergaming om patiënten te stimuleren tot meer lichamelijke activiteit. Het doel van dit proefschrift is het beschrijven van de lichamelijke activiteit van patiënten met HF met extra aandacht voor de motivatie en self-efficacy ten opzichte van lichamelijke activiteit. Een tweede doel is om inzicht te krijgen in de mogelijkheid om exergaming te gebruiken om de lichamelijke activiteit van patiënten met HF te verhogen. Methode: In dit proefschrift worden gegevens van 4 studies beschreven (studie I-IV). Studie I (n = 154) en II (n = 101) hebben een crosssectioneel survey design. Studie III (n = 32) is een 12 weken durende pilot-interventie studie met een pretest-posttest design waarbij patiënten 12 weken lang een exergame platform thuis konden gebruiken. Studie IV (n = 14) beschrijft de ervaringen van patiënten die deelnamen aan de interventiegroep van een gerandomiseerde studie waarin zij een exergame platform thuis kregen. Resultaten: In totaal hebben 34% van alle patiënten met hartfalen een laag niveau van lichamelijke activiteit, 46% had een matig niveau, en 23% een hoog niveau. Een hoger opleidingsniveau, self-efficacy en motivatie significant werd geassocieerd met een hogere hoeveelheid lichamelijke activiteit. Het bleek dat barrières voor fysieke activiteit moeilijk te overbruggen waren. Met betrekking tot motivatie, bleek dat psychologische motivatie de belangrijkste drijfveer was om fysiek actief te zijn. Verder bleek dat vrouwen een significant hogere motivatie voor fysieke activiteit hebben dan mannen. Een ander belangrijk resultaat was dat self-efficacy de relatie tussen motivatie en lichamelijke activiteit beïnvloedt; motivatie leidt tot een hogere self-efficacy wat leidt tot hogere fysieke activiteit. Met betrekking tot de resultaten van exergaming bleek dat de inspanningscapaciteit van meer dan de helft van de patiënten aanzienlijk was toegenomen na 12 weken gebruik gemaakt te hebben van een exergame platform thuis. Patiënten met een lager NYHA-klasse en een kortere tijd na de diagnose verhogen significant meer hun inspanningscapaciteit. Ook bleek dat het hebben van een partner en kleinkinderen gerelateerd is aan meer tijd besteden aan exergaming. De analyse van de ervaringen van patiënten in de kwalitatieve studie resulteerde in drie categorieën: (i) zorgen dat exergaming werkt, (ii) toegevoegde waarde van exergaming, (iii) geen aantrekking tot exergaming. Conclusie: Een derde van de patiënten met HF heeft een laag niveau van lichamelijke activiteit in hun dagelijks leven. Opleidingsniveau, self-efficacy en motivatie zijn belangrijke factoren om rekening mee te houden bij het geven van advies aan patiënten met HF betreffende fysieke activiteit. Naast een hoge motivatie tot bewegen is het belangrijk dat patiënten met HF een hoog niveau van self-efficacy hebben om fysiek actief te zijn. Exergaming heeft potentie om inspanningscapaciteit bij patiënten met HF te verhogen. Uit de resultaten blijkt ook dat deze techniek geschikt is voor een deel van de patiënten, terwijl een deel van de patiënten wellicht liever andere vormen van lichamelijke activiteit beoefenen.

Though professional development interventions are widespread in higher education, administrators often do not formally assess their effectiveness, particularly in relation to teacher self-efficacy. The purposes of this study were to determine if any statistically significant difference existed between the self-efficacy scores of adjunct faculty participants in a community college’s professional development program and nonparticipants and to identify the variables with a statistically significant relationship with self-efficacy. A modified version of the Teachers’ Sense of Efficacy Scale (TSES) was administered to 21 adjunct faculty participants in Lone Star College’s Adjunct Certification Program (ACP) and 312 adjunct faculty not currently participating in the program. A demographic questionnaire development by the researcher was also administered. Independent variables of the demographic questionnaire included gender, ethnicity, age, K-12 teaching experience, highest degree earned, subject taught, years of college teaching experience, and number of courses taught each semester. Paired t-test results indicated statistically significant differences in Efficacy in Instructional Strategies for adjunct participants in the ACP program. No significant differences were found for Efficacy in Student Engagement and Efficacy in Classroom Management. Multiple regression analyses indicated that gender has a statistically significant relationship to Efficacy Instructional Strategies. A statistically significant relationship was found for race for Efficacy in Classroom Management. Finally, analysis also indicated a positive relationship between race and gender for Efficacy in Student Engagement. No other statistically significant relationships were found across the other demographic variables. Findings of this study revealed that the ACP increased teacher self-efficacy across two of the three dimensions of the TSES indicating that the professional development intervention had a positive effect on the efficacy of its participants. The present study contributes to the research on teacher self-efficacy, adjunct faculty and professional development interventions.

SYFTE: Syftet var att undersöka kvinnors erfarenheter av amning under barnets fyra första månader när de deltagit i amningsförberedande kurs under graviditeten.  BAKGRUND: Amning ger hälsovinster för barnet genom att minska risker att drabbas av olika sjukdomar. För att lyckas med amning önskar kvinnorna stöd från omgivningen samtidigt som egna copingstrategierna har avgörande betydelse. Tidigare studier belyser utvecklingsbehov av amningsutbildningar. DESIGN: Retrospektiv tvärsnittsstudie där svaren på öppna frågor bearbetats med hjälp av kvalitativ innehållsanalys METOD: Trehundratre kvinnor svarade på amningshjälpens enkätundersökning september, 2012- mars, 2014. Alla kvinnor hade deltagit i amningskurs som erbjudits på 32 orter i Sverige. Data analyserade med kvalitativ innehållsanalys med induktiv ansats. RESULTAT: Resultatet presenteras som två teman och fyra subteman med tillhörande kategorier. Första temat ”stärkt självkänsla när amning fungerar, trots amningsproblem som behöver hanteras” med subteman ”Känna stolthet över fungerande amning” och ”lösa övergående amningsproblem” beskrev kvinnornas erfarenheter av fungerande amningar. Andra temat ”Förlorad självkänsla när amning är en ständig kamp” med subteman ”Kämpa med amning trots amningsproblem som fortsätter, vilket leder till avveckling” och ”Uppleva krossade förväntningar” som visade kvinnornas erfarenheter av misslyckade amningar. KONKLUSION: Flertalet kvinnor var hjälpa av att ha deltagit i en amningsförberedande kurs under graviditeten. Återkommande amningsproblem sänker kvinnans självbild och upplevelse av misslyckande. Barnsjuksköterskor som arbetar på barnavårdscentralerna har en viktig betydelse för kvinnor som behöver extra stöd med sin amning. Resurser bör satsas för att personal på barnavårdscentralerna ska ha uppdaterad amningskunskap och god förmåga att stödja vid amningsproblem.   NYCKELORD: Amning, Amningsutbildning, Self-efficacy, Barnsjuksköterska, Stöd, Barnavårdscentralen / BACKGROUND: Breastfeeding provides health benefits for children. In order tosucceed with breastfeeding, women need support from family and healthcareprofessionals, but their own coping strategies are crucial. Earlier studies highlight theneed for further development of breastfeeding education.DESIGN: A retrospective cross-sectional study with qualitative approach using openquestions to process the answers.METHOD: Between September 2012 and March 2014, 303 women responded toAmningshjälpen’s survey. All women had participated in breastfeeding education.The data was analysed with qualitative content analysis with an inductive approach.RESULTS: The result is presented as two themes and four subthemes withassociated categories. The first theme, “Strengthened self-esteem when breastfeedingworks, despite problems during breastfeeding”, with subthemes “Feeling pride fromsucceeding with breastfeeding” and “Solving breastfeeding problems”, described theexperiences of women who succeeded with breastfeeding. The second theme, “Lostself-esteem when breastfeeding is a constant struggle” with subthemes “Strugglingwith breastfeeding, leading to decommissioning” and “Experiencing crushedexpectations” described the experiences of women who were unsuccessful withbreastfeeding.CONCLUSION: Participating in the breastfeeding education helped many women.Recurrent breastfeeding problems lower the woman’s self-esteem. Nurses have animportant role in supporting women who breastfeed. Resources should be put intomaking sure that pediatric nurses’ education in breastfeeding is up to date, and thatthey have the ability to support women with breastfeeding problems

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Special Education, Counseling and Student Affairs / Christy Craft / The purpose of this phenomenological study was to provide insight into Liberal Arts and Sciences (LAS) graduates’ reflections on their cooperative education (co-op) experiences and resulting career self-efficacy. Wichita State University houses a cooperative education program, the only one of its kind in the state of Kansas. This program helps students in all academic disciplines find work experiences related to their major for which they can earn academic credit, and sometimes even get paid. Engineering and business students typically identify immediate benefits of participating in cooperative education; however, LAS administrators, faculty, and students have been slower to accept and include this experience in their academic programs. The two research questions that guided this study were: (a) How do former LAS students describe their co-op experience? and (b) What did these students gain, with regard to career self-efficacy, through their co-op experience? Because LAS students may not learn skills specifically related to a career due to the general nature of an LAS degree program, the current study focuses more on the graduates’ reflections of their own experiences within co-op as well as the skills that were developed. Data analysis revealed the following nine themes: (a) resume-building and interview preparation were essential skills learned to aid in their co-op search; (b) the ability to “try out” various settings and areas of interest was experienced; (c) participants’ initial anxiety was gradually replaced with greater comfort and confidence; (d) participants were able to learn from positive as well as negative characteristics of their co-workers; (e) positive feedback, support, and networking opportunities were received from co-workers and clients; (f) interviewing confidence as well as increased resume-building skills were useful in obtaining a full-time job; (g) an increased sense of professionalism was gained, along with job-specific skills, and communication skills; (h) positive attitudes were experienced, along with a perceived ability to handle success and challenges in a new job; and (i) participants gained leadership and supervisory skills, enabling them to take on responsibility in their current full-time work after receiving their degree. It was determined that participating in cooperative education is beneficial to students and that the graduates still consider it an integral part of their college experience. The students also shared that they were able to use the skills and knowledge learned from their co-op in the job search as well as in their current full-time job. Therefore, it is determined that the study supports the idea that career self-efficacy is in fact developed by recent LAS graduates while participating in co-op.