Rater training (RT) improves the reliability of assessment tools, but has not been well studied for technical skills. This study assessed whether RT improved the psychometric properties of surgical skill assessments. Surgeons (N=47) were randomized to RT or non-training groups. The RT group underwent frame-of-reference training. Participants assessed trainees performing a suturing and knot-tying task using four assessment tools. Inter-rater reliability, initial and delayed rater agreement, and construct validity were assessed between groups. There was no significant effect of RT on the assessment tools’ reliability and validity. Reliability and validity were most robust for the global rating scale. Although there were trends towards improved reliability and validity with RT, confidence intervals were wide and overlapping. Reliability remained below the minimum desired level of 0.8 required for high-stakes testing. Although RT may represent a way to improve reliability, further study is needed to determine effective training methods. / February 2017

The purpose of this study is to examine the experiences and preferences of preschool teachers in Mathematics, and analyze how they apply their visualization of Mathematics in preschool. The study aims to examine how the teachers' own perceptions form their mathematical subjectivity and mathematical skills. Data collection was done through interviews. Six preschool teachers from two different preschools participated in the survey. The teachers spoke about their own mathematical experiences in school and talked about their experiences in working with preschool children. The results show that the participants have a positive attitude towards preschool mathematics. It also shows how their mathematical subjectivity changed over time due to increased knowledge and experiences that they create through working with children. Before the curriculum was introduced in 1998, the preschool teachers' understanding of mathematics comprise only of children learning to count. With the new curriculum, the preschool teachers were able to have the opportunity to develop their understanding about preschool mathematics. The participants in this study did. All six preschool teachers in this study showed that they have a mathematical awareness with a varying degree in competence development depending on the individual's interests, commitment and experiences.

Annually, nearly 7 million women and 5.5 million men experience some form of intimate partner violence, which has serious health impacts. IPV has also been shown to limit the impact of early childhood home visiting interventions. Given the positive impacts of home visiting, reducing IPV in that setting could alleviate the negative impacts of IPV and improve mother and child outcomes as well. The analysis performed are from data from a randomized trial of an intimate partner violence intervention that was embedded into the Nurse Family Partnership, an evidence-based home visiting program. The intervention focused on identifying IPV, and for women without severe IPV, improving relationship skills including communication patterns and conflict resolution. The goal of this analysis is to examine how changes in partner and history of IPV moderate the relationship skills outcomes. This study aims to fill the gap in knowledge regarding the relationship between a home visiting intervention and relationship skill outcomes in women enrolled in the home visiting program, the Nurse Family Partnership. The purpose of the study is to discover whether the relationship skills differ in participants with stable vs. unstable partnerships and with those who experienced IPV before the start of the study. Women were randomized to NFP as usual (n=105) or NFP+, which included NFP plus the IPV intervention (n=133). Participants were surveyed at baseline, and at one and two-year follow-up with 81% retention over 2 years. Standardized assessment tools assessed relationship quality, communication, problem solving, partner support, relationship decision making, and psychological maltreatment. Marginal modeling was conducted to examine whether the intervention accounted for any change in relationship variables and whether the impact is moderated by history of IPV and changes in partnership. Multilevel modeling of the outcome variables showed some main effects of time such that conflict resolution improves for the intervention group (p<0.05). There is one clinically significant three-way interaction showing reduced relationship danger in the intervention for women with a history of IPV (p<0.06). There were no significant interactions for the partnership change moderator.

Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction Programs / Frederick Burrack / Phillip Payne / The purpose of this study was to discover whether differences exist in rhythm pattern achievement of the three rhythm systems Takadimi, 1 e & a, and 1 ta te ta in introductory level aural skills classrooms. Participants (N = 27) were first-level aural skills students in three Midwest colleges. Data were collected by implementing a demographics questionnaire to obtain a descriptive profile of the participants, Gordon’s (1989) Advanced Measures of Music Audiation (AMMA) test to obtain the music aptitude level of the participants, and a researcher-designed pretest and posttest. A significant difference was unable to be determined of rhythm pattern achievement between the three systems. However, results revealed improvement of rhythm reading between the pretest and posttest for all rhythm systems. A significant difference was unable to be determined in achievement between students with low and high aptitude following instruction in a particular rhythm system. The improvements in rhythm reading suggest that progress and achievement can be independent of using any of the three rhythm systems, but further investigation with a larger sample is recommended.

With the expansion of higher education in recent decades, exclusive academic qualifications have become the prominent way in which the status hierarchy of education is preserved. Much of the previous research explaining social class differences in educational attainment have focused on cognitive ability but largely overlooked the importance of non-cognitive skills for enrolling in more prestigious educational fields. Using unique longitudinal data, the focus of this thesis is on childhood non-cognitive skills to explore their role for understanding the association between social class of origin and selection into prestigious university education in Sweden. The results confirm class differences in attending prestige education, but also show that non-cognitive skills cannot explain much of the variation in educational attainment between or within classes. More research is needed in order to fully understand the large class gap in prestigious academic outcomes in Sweden.

The master thesis presented deals with the  question of whether superiors in the engineering field in Germany should undergo managerial training to be better-suited managers than superiors without such training. This thesis looks into this question through a survey of a homogenous group of engineering professionals working in Germany. The survey strives to gain information from the engineering professionals regarding their opinions and experience as managers with and/or without managerial training and their capacity to fulfill their managerial duties. This problem resonates widely in the engineering world, yet it seems that not enough action is being taken towards educating personnel in elevated positions throughout a company’s hierarchy.

This thesis explores learning and formation of cognitive and non-cognitive skills within formal and non-formal environments, as well as the impact of migration on fertility behaviour in three separate empirical studies. In two of the papers (Chapters 2 and 4) I utilise a 13 year individual-level panel data-set from rural Tanzania, while the third one (Chapter 3) is based on cross-sectional data that I collected in urban Bombay slums in 2007. I consider skill acquisition and learning in a number of spheres. First, I adopt the conventional notion of school-based learning and examine the role of income shocks in evolution of schooling inequalities, in rural Tanzania. I find evidence of shock-induced permanent changes in the schooling of those affected by the shocks in later childhood (age 7-13), 10-13 years later. Further, I find suggestive evidence that the household short-term labour response may to be one of the mechanisms for these long-term effects. Next, I broaden the definition of learning to include acquisition of non-cognitive skills. Although there is growing recognition of the importance of these, there is no evidence, within a developing country context, on effectiveness of interventions targeting them. The second paper is an evaluation of a long-term non-formal schooling intervention in Bombay slums, which works on raising non-cognitive skills, including self-esteem, a sense of agency, and aspirations of children. It shows that, like cognitive skills, non-cognitive skills can be effectively raised through sustained intervention, offering evidence of substantial positive programme effects. The final paper turns to examining the impact of migration among young women on fertility behaviour. Econometric panel data methods are combined with an instrumenting strategy to offer evidence of a causal positive impact of migration on the age at which women start having children, which is shown to be likely to have permanent effects on total fertility. The findings are most consistent with the presence of temporary post migration disruption effects.

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to develop an instrument to determine the study skills of college freshmen.

The problem of this study was to test the effects of teaching selected study skills and reading, writing, and listening skills as a specific course of study for ninth grade students. To study this problem, the performance of students enrolled in a study skills and reading, writing, and listening skills course was compared to that of a comparable group of ninth graders, electing the course but not permitted to take it, on the basis of performance as measured by mean gain on alternate forms of the Spitzer Study Skills Test and on the Sequential Test of Educational Progress--Reading-Writing-Listening.