The purpose of this study was to strengthen our understanding of counsellor development by examining changes in trainees' knowledge and thinking during master's training in counselling psychology. Forty-two volunteers (21 practicum and 21 internship students) critiqued a 20-minute segment of a counselling videotape before and after one academic year. / Qualitative analysis of pretest-posttest responses revealed substantial improvement in students' understanding of the counselling process and adjustment to the counsellor role. Greater self-confidence was also conveyed by a significant increase in trainees' use of clinical terminology. However, students' ability to observe and conceptualize the client, to establish therapeutic goals, and their overall counselling effectiveness did not differ over the academic year. Given that changes were related to training emphasis, results call attention to the need for more systematic training in a wider range of cognitive competencies.

This is a study of seconded teachers' experiences as university instructors and faculty advisors in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia. Data were gathered for this study through interviews with 17 seconded teachers (5 first-year seconded teachers, 8 continuing seconded teachers, and 4 teachers who reentered the school system after secondment). The purpose of my study was to understand more clearly the experiences of seconded teachers in the teacher education program through the use of Glaser and Strauss's (1967) grounded theory approach. The results indicated that the seconded teachers in this study moved through stages: seeking the position, preparing for secondment, expressing self doubts and loneliness, adjusting to the tempo and workload, working with adult learners, and looking for support. As university instructors, seconded teachers bring realism to the teacher education program by presenting fundamentals of teaching, by modeling teaching strategies, by connecting theory and practice, and by sharing narratives. Seconded teachers acknowledge with reservations that as evaluators they possess power over student teachers. Regardless of how they might prefer to conceive of their role, in the end, they become evaluators. Seconded teachers displayed various communication styles. Reflection, an aspect of communication, was also identified as important. The themes that have emerged in this study point to 5 general central issues: the contrast between university and school cultures, the strength of reflection on practice, seconded teachers' commitment to classroom teaching, seconded teachers' professional identities, and secondment as professional development. The results of this study suggest that the temporary, short-term nature of secondment, as it now stands, may be a lateral career move rather than a vertical progression. Comments suggest that the Faculty of Education could do a better job of educating seconded teachers about, not only the preservice teacher education program, but specifically the expectations and roles for the seconded participants.

No description available.

The highly competitive environment in which businesses operate today requires a skilful workforce in every organisation in order to remain a successful player in the competitive game of the industry. One of the main problems which occur in the workplace is the lack of training. A large number of employees can appear dissatisfied (Heinemann and Greenberger, 2002) due to being assigned responsibilities without-having the right knowledge and skills in that area. Training is an essential process which should be cautiously designed and implemented within all firms. The overall aim of this dissertation is to assess the importance of training- in work field.For many years now human capital has been regarded as vital for the efficient functioning of an organisation because of its contribution in improving productivity, business performance and economic growth (Schultz, 1961). Therefore it is important to invest in human resources through training (Lucas, 1988) in order to improve the competitive position of the firm, and because of the enhanced quality, innovation, continual increased productivity and in turn improved profitability that can be achieved through this (Taylor and Davies, 2004).Throughout this research the training system in Hilton Hotel will be examined and appropriate recommendations for a more effective training system will be given where appropriate. The overall aim of this study is to assess the importance of training in hospitality industry.

Our fast-paced and seemingly ever-changing world is reflected in the transformations that are occurring in our school systems. Meeting the dynamic needs of all stakeholders in a school building’s ecosystem falls on the shoulders of the school principals. Employing capable leaders in this role is vital yet many countries do not require candidates for the position to have special qualifications. In addition, training programs that do exist have been subject to much criticism. Recently, suggestions for reform have been implemented and this study explored a newly mandated school leader training program to assess its perceived effectiveness. This qualitative research study contributes a missing link to current research into educational leadership training programs world-wide which tends to focus on educational reforms in Canada, the United States and Australia. Twelve Hungarian school principals, or directors as they are termed in their native land, were interviewed for this research and asked to share their personal formal and informal pre-service preparation and training experiences. The directors were also asked to provide their opinions regarding the relative value of different components of their compulsory School Leaders’ Training program. Findings support the theories presented in existing literature regarding effective school leader training programs using methods specifically targeted toward adult learners and add to the call for mandatory school administrator training and preparation.

Luthe has contended that autogenic training "promotes processes of self-regulatory re-adjustment for a variety of disturbed autonomic functions" (Luthe, 1970, p. 125). To test the hypothesis that this re-adjustment would be expressed in a convergence of bilateral differences in autonomic variables during or after autogenic training, 12 subjects were exposed to a modified autogenic training protocol in a within Subjects design which contrasted three periods: pre-relaxation arousal, autogenic relaxation, and post-relaxation arousal. There was no convergence between left and right measures of skin conductance, pulse volume, or skin temperature either during or after autogenic training. There were no left-right differences in the variables measured bilaterally, either across subjects in any period or across periods. Conductance, heart rate, and self-reported arousal were reduced, temperature was increased, and pulse volume was unaffected by the autogenic training. The results supported Lacey's (1967) conception of the autonomic nervous system being a multidimensional set of loosely connected, complexly interacting systems.

Research questions included: how much do company training programs appear to change quality, productivity, or employee involvement; and what changes might increase the effectiveness of quality/productivity training programs? An extensive survey instrument yielded fifteen useable replies from selected companies with participative programs in fourteen industries.Fourteen locations reported improved quality or productivity.Participative programs were often integral parts of quality/productivity programs. Sane locations operated two to five programs simultaneously.Training programs were judged as important contributors to major improvements in quality, productivity, or employee involvement. most locations did not attempt to estimate rate of return on training costs. Reported total training time ranged from 17 to 264 hours per employee. Five locations recommended same amount of training effort for all employees. Testing was seen as essential for skill training.Study recommended: management commitment; "awareness training" needs skill-building; customized programs; corporate resources or consultants to expedite application of new skills; only well-qualified, well-prepared trainer/facilitators; determination of training effectiveness; training program participation rewards. / Department of Educational Leadership

This thesis explored the effects of subject knowledge, therapist knowledge and repeated training trials upon the subjects' ability to raise their finger temperature within a biofeedback paradigm. Significant findings indicate that only in the double blind condition did "learning of the response" occur over the four training sessions. In the other three conditions the groups showed a consistent (though non-significant) increase in their finger temperature over pre-training measures with one exception in training session three. In this trial the single blind group produced a decrease in finger temperature resulting in a significant difference between the four conditions due to the subjects' awareness of the true physiological parameter being conditioned.

Previous research by Quails and Sheehan (1979, 1981b, 1981c) has found an interaction effect between absorptive capacity and relaxation in frontalis EMG biofeedback and no-feedback (instructions only) conditions. High absorption subjects were able to relax more completely under biofeedback conditions while low absorption subjects relaxed more ably under no-feedback conditions. They theorized that this outcome was the product of the attentional demand characteristics of these conditions. That is, attention demanding conditions were believed to interfer with the imaginal thinking of high absorption subjects, thereby disrupting relaxation. Low absorption subjects, however, were believed to utilized attentional demand to compensate for their limited attention deployment capabilities. In contrast, in reinterpreting these findings, Tellegen (1981) maintained that the mechanism underlying these results was not attentional demand, but was mental set (experiential or instrumental set). Both Qualls and Sheehan and Tellegen, nevertheless, agreed that biofeedback does not play an informational role.This study examined the relative contributions of attentional demand, mental set, and the feedback of muscle activity to the relaxation of high absorption subjects. Thirty-one male and female college students were distributed into three conditions: frontalis EMG biofeedback with instrumental set, metronome with experiential set, and nosignal (instructions only) with experiential set. All subjects were given six sessions of relaxation.Results showed no between condition differences in EMG output or imagery production either within or across sessions. The primary significant finding was a within sessions EMG reduction which occurred for all groups. It was concluded that attentional demand, mental set and the physiological information supplied by biofeedback play a limited role in the relaxation of high absorption subjects. The findings relative to the informational role of biofeedback were qualified by the possible operation of a floor effect, since normal subjects were used. Further, the findings relating to attentional demand, when' interpreted in light of Qualls and Sheehan's results, suggested that attentional demand may only be important in the relaxation of high absorption subjects when highly interfering. This followed from the assumption that the attentional demands used in the present study may not have been as interfering as those utilized by Qualls and Sheehan.

There is no abstract available for this dissertation.