College students often enter college academically unprepared, as evidenced by low high school cumulative GPAs or poor SAT scores. In response to this problem, administrators at a 4-year university in the Mid-Atlantic region of the Unites States implemented an intensive, semester-long program to introduce and acclimate conditionally admitted students to the rigors of collegiate life. The purpose of this study was to understand how to assist students in moving from Year 1 to full admission and beyond. In accordance with Bandura's reciprocal causation of social cognitive theory model, the research questions centered on conditionally admitted students' descriptions of their experiences with intensive, semester-long program participation. The qualitative case study used data collected from 10 semistructured interviews with conditional admission program student participants. Data analysis consisted of initial coding, axial coding, and iterative recategorization to identify the key findings. Among the findings were that the study site lacked strong faculty-student engagement and that students had mixed feelings regarding the seminar course being helpful. However, they found the university environment conducive to learning, leading them to stay. A white paper provided potential solutions to administrators, including increased faculty-student engagement and more meaningful required seminars for first-year conditionally admitted students. This study and the subsequent project may create positive social change by expanding degree achievement for underprepared, conditionally admitted college students, which thus increases opportunities for upward social mobility.

The main objective of the Cedar High School (C.H.S.) Study was to develop a curriculum that would be useful to the social studies educator interested in teaching critical thinking skills to high school students. The model for teaching critical thinking that was followed during the C.H.S. study included three requirements. The first was to identify those critical thinking skills that would be useful to students during discussion of controversial issues. The second requirement of the critical thinking model was to teach these context specific critical thinking skills to students. This requirement was met by using a variety of materials, including a demonstration video tape that provided a written and verbal description of each of the critical thinking skills taught in the C.H.S. study followed by a demonstration of the skill. The third requirement of the model was that students who have been taught the critical thinking skills be given the opportunity to use the skills in realistic situations. This requirement was met by having students meet in small groups to discuss controversial issues using the critical thinking skills which had been taught to them via the demonstration video tape. An important part of the study was to record students on video tape during their discussions and then to have students view the video tapes and perform a self-evaluation as to how often they had used each of the previously identified critical thinking skills. This self-evaluation was performed using a Seminar Discussion Check List (S.D.C.L.) prepared as part of the C.H.S. study. The S.D.C.L. identified each of the critical thinking categories, and gave a verbal description of the skill, as well as providing an example of the skill in a conversational setting. Students from a social issues and an American history class at C.H.S. were randomly assigned to three treatment classifications. The classifications included video, audio, and non-media groups. The video and audio groups were recorded on video or audio tape for later self-evaluation by students using the S.D.C.L. the non-media group, which was designated the control group, was not recorded but carried out its self-evaluation from memory. The effectiveness of the video tape procedures was assessed with a posttest-only control group design, using analysis of covariance as the statistical technique with students' overall grade point average (G.P.A.) as the covariate for the first series of posttest given in November, 1972, and with G.P.A. and November posttest scores as additional covariates for a second posttest given in December, 1972. The second series of posttest were given to assess any variability in the critical thinking retention rates among students in the three treatment classifications. The dependent variables were the Social Issues Analysis Test No. 1, (SIAT No. 1) and the Watson-Glaser Critical Thinking Appraisal (W.G.C.T.A.). The S.D.C.L. was also used as a dependent variable. Inasmuch as it was impossible to get individual scores from the audio tapes of student discussions, an analysis of variance using group means on the S.D.C.L. was performed. The hypotheses were that students in the experimental video discussion groups in the social issues and American history classes would have higher November and December posttest mean critical thinking scores on all three dependent variables than would students in the audio and non-media discussion groups. The null hypothesis, however, was accepted for each hypothesis. It was recommended that social studies educators continued to investigate the effectiveness of the three-step model for teaching the critical thinking process. It was also recommended that additional research be conducted to assess the relative effectiveness of video and audio tape feedback as part of the minicourse model for teaching. A final recommendation was that additional research be conducted concerning the effectiveness of an observational system such as the S.D.C.L. as an instrument for self-evaluation and as a device for collecting research data.

Research and literature on teaching adults primarily discusses longer courses within the sphere of formal education, that is formal tertiary education and non-formal education (typically work-place or work-related learning). While both these fields provide a rich source of general information, it is difficult to find research texts that specifically deal with teaching adults in a seminar environment, that is, a planned, one-off learning event ranging in length from three hours to two days. While some research has focused on Thai culture in general and the nature of Thai university teaching in particular, very little has been published concerning the teaching of Thai adults, whether in a formal setting such as a university or college, or in a non-formal, work-place or work-related setting. This research reflects an effort to compensate for this pronounced lack of research in teaching adults in a short course environment and the paucity of research on teaching Thai adults. Using a case-study method, fifteen Western or Western-educated Thai trainers in the Thai short-course market were interviewed to determine the characteristics of an effective short-course trainer instructing courses in English. Based on a semi-structured interview format, with questions framed from the literature review, eight key characteristics were determined that reflect the qualities of an effective trainer in the Thai market. Centered on the vital role played by trainers' knowledge of the participants and their culture, the characteristics identified by the research highlight the need to foreground key aspects of participant culture when planning and presenting a short course in the Thai business community. While content expertise and teaching skills remain important, the key to effectiveness lies in acquiring and skillfully applying a knowledge of participants that goes beyond needs analysis to include a generic knowledge of the social norms that identify Thais as a cultural group throughout the training process. The eight characteristics are discussed in detail, and while some aspects of these are consistent with the conventional wisdom discussed in the literature review, most arose from the analyses of comments provided by the interviewees. This discussion leads into a number of recommendations for new trainers in this market and concludes with insights into further areas of study that could prove useful in Thai and other cultures, and for educators involved in short- or long-course events.

This study explores the application of the dialogue seminar method within a doctoral programme KTH Advanced Programme in Reflective Practice of the research area of Skill and technology at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm. In order to understand distinctive features of the dialogue seminar method the study starts with a survey of how the method and its spirit were affected by the history of ideas related to the research area, of which many were generated within the intellectual milieu gathered around the Dialogue seminar of the Royal Dramatic Theatre in Stockholm and cultural journal Dialoger. The dialogue seminar method stands for a well thought out idea about what the link between skills, literature, philosophy, history of ideas, art and science is made up of. This idea is expressed in the way the dialogue is conducted; various topics are explored through associations, digressions and deviations form the subject. This indirect approach to reflection is called analogical thinking in contrast to the thinking based on deduction or induction. Analogical thinking prevails in judgement and action. It is also of great significance in e.g. development projects, in arts, all sorts of problem-solving, and those phases of research that call for inventiveness and imagination. The Dialogue Seminar’s Research Milieu brings up new questions about the possibilities of pursuing scientific or methodological reflection by means of analogical thinking and about the status of classical humanistic readings within the post graduate education. / QC 20100629

The present thesis explores talk in institutional settings, with a particular focus on how institutionality and institutional norms are constructed and reproduced in interaction. A central aim is to enhance our understanding of how institutional agendas are talked into being. In line with the ethno­methodological approach, norms are viewed as accomplished in everyday interaction, whereas institutionality represents dimensions of talk where participants demonstrably orient to particular contextual constraints. Five studies were conducted using Conversation Analysis (CA), focusing on how institutional constraints impact sequential trajectories and shape different opportunities for participants. The data consists of two corpora of video recordings: group tutorials at a Swedish university (UTs), and performance appraisal interviews in an organ­ization (PAIs). The thesis pays particular attention to the interactional management of knowledge, entitlement and stance, and analytic foci include how speakers manage epistemic claims and rights at a certain point in interaction, and how they accomplish social positioning. The UT studies examine the negotiation of rights to speak for others in a group (Study I), and how diver­ging understandings of the institutional activity-at-hand can be negotiated on the basis of students’ advice-seeking questions (Study II). In Study III, orientations to institutional and sociocultural norms are investigated in the PAIs, where managers and employees treat negative stances on stress as problematic. The relationship between theory and institutional practice in the use of question templates in PAIs is also examined, through an analysis of the delivery and receipt of a particular question in different interviews (Study IV). Focusing on different adaptations of a preset item, this analysis shows how the same question sets up for a variety of subsequent actions. Finally, deployment of the verb känna (‘feel’) in managing epistemic access and primacy is examined (Study V). It is argued that ‘feel’ allows for a reduction of accountability when making epistemic claims. The studies highlight the relationship between linguistic formats and social actions and illustrate how institutional agendas have consequences for participant conduct. Attention to the details of actions in institutional interaction can thus shed light on social and linguistic underpinnings of the enactment of institutional norms.

Socratic seminars have long been practiced internationally by educators and philosophers as a supplement to classroom teaching and coaching. However, the rationales and effects of this methodology including how these effects are achieved have not been thoroughly investigated or systematically analyzed. The first section of this study is a theoretical review of literature, investi-gating the pedagogical rationales for using a Socratic methodology. The second section is an analysis of sixteen seminars conducted over three years with children from five to sixteen years old. The students’ body language and group interaction were analyzed closely through a phenomenological approach. The analysis focused on how the seminar culture was taught and learned and whether the intended methodology made a difference. The literature review reveals that the various Socratic traditions describe a set of methodological steps to attain similar objectives. By using these steps, intellectual and dialogical habits of mind are expected to be internalized. The seminar analysis shows that the skilled participants shifted their interaction towards an “inquiring” dialogue over time, and that the distribution of rhetorical power changed to a more cooperative communication. The students’ learning proceeded through a series of stages, partly different from the anticipated ideal. The facilitator’s ability to handle rule breaking, and to create a safe environment for intellectual exploration, was significant. The findings show that intricate “silent” moves like gestures and glances helped maintain a productive and egalitarian seminar culture. The participants developed their thinking skills over time, evolving from relativism to critical examination.

This dissertation discusses the transfer of practical knowledge as seen in the practises of conservatory teachers at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. It is based on material from three series of dialogue seminars conducted with teachers and students. The aim of the dialogue seminar is to bring a practitioner’s personal style of relating to a profession into a form which makes it possible for the practitioner and others to reflect upon. Using the participants’ texts and the seminar protocols as a starting point the dissertation develops some of the themes which emerged. It is divided into three parts: The first discusses conservatory teachers’ relationship to language. Examples include the teachers’ use of indirect ways to »work around« a problem rather than addressing it directly, the use of metaphors and figures of speech, and the fields of disagreement that surround certain central concepts. These disagreements exist within a »thought-style« shared by practitioners of a profession. The second part develops some of the paradoxes inevitably encountered in practical music making and musical education. Examples include planning-spontaniety, simplicity-complexity, reflection-action, clarity-truth, breadth-depth. It is argued that the way in which practitioners’ handle and relate to such »paradoxical fields« constitute an essential part of mature professional skills. The third part discusses the nature of practical knowledge, especially its relationship to the rules that can be established to help transmit such knowledge. The wittgensteinian image of basic rules, which are followed in a way that can not be described in rules, is contrasted by an image in which the learner gains access to patterns of action which are handled on the basis of the percieved meaning of the actions. / QC 20100923

Abstract Because the government¡¦s control over the publishing industry of English teaching has loosened, foreign companies start to set up agencies in Taiwan. In addition, due to more attention on English education by the public in recent years, the potential market of the publishing industry becomes larger; publishing companies try to share the benefit of the huge market, so the competitions in the industry also become extremely drastic. The foreign publishing company has kept higher market share until the chain of cram school raised and the native advantages plus tricks used by the local publishing companies. Thus, the foreign publishing companies now face a big challenge of ¡§live or die¡¨. The structure of the thesis is focused on the marketing mix of Oxford University Press (Taiwan Branch). The outset is the motivation, and a questionnaire is designed to investigate the six dimensions of marketing mix including seminar, product, price, promotion, place and loyalty. The interview was also carried out to complement and intensify the empirical analysis. The result is used to build the constructive marketing strategy for Oxford University Press (Taiwan Branch) to offer the reference of the company¡¦s business strategy. The results came from the research are: 1.For the most participators, their motivation of participation is increasing their teaching experiences. 2.Participators are highly satisfied with the teacher training seminar and all the factors are over 70%. 3.If participators have high satisfaction with entirely teacher training seminar, they are willing to continue to participate in the seminar, and will recommend the seminar to other people. 4.Participating in the teacher training seminar and buying teaching products have high correlation. 5.Participators are unsatisfied with promotion activities, but the satisfaction with product, price and place are over 65% Keyword: marketing mix, publishing industry of English teaching, loyalty, satisfaction, teacher training seminar.

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Die Glücksgöttin Fortuna in Rom ist wohl eine der bekanntesten Gottheiten, die menschliche Geschicke leiten sollen. Andere Schlagwörter in diesem Zusammenhang sind Zufall, Pech, Schicksal, Glückssträhne etc. Geht man davon aus, dass Menschen zu diesen Konstrukten greifen, weil sie die Geschehnisse in der Welt und die ihnen zugrunde liegenden Ursache-Wirkung-Beziehungen nicht verstehen, so ist eine Klärung des Kausalitätsprinzips nötig. Bisher ist es nicht gelungen, Kausalgesetze in der Geschichte zu ermitteln. Nichtsdestotrotz existiert eine Vielzahl von Ansätzen zur Untersuchung ursächlicher Beziehungen. Einige ausgewählte Konzepte werden in dieser Arbeit anhand von Fallbeispielen vorgestellt.