AN ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION OF RYAN J. THORNSBERRY, for the Doctor of Philosophy degree in ENGLISH, presented on December 27, 2013, at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. TITLE: COMPOSITION, PEDAGOGY, AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF EFFECTIVE STUDENT-TEACHERS: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF TRAINING PROGRAMS FOR TEACHING ASSISTANTS IN ENGLISH DEPARTMENTS MAJOR PROFESSOR: DR. LISA J. MCCLURE The history of teaching assistant training has followed a tenuous road of development. For English departments, the primary role for teaching assistants has always been staffing sections of the basic composition sequence. Because inexperienced teachers are teaching inexperienced students, a fundamental concern was, and still is, what is the best way to prepare teaching assistants? This study explores this complexity by investigating the popular trends and approaches utilized by current TA training programs. This qualitative study surveyed 195 English departments from various Division I colleges and universities and focused on three basic questions: 1) What types of training programs do English Departments offer TA? 2) During their tenure as TAs, what efforts are used to enhance their teacher training? 3) How do institutions determine the effectiveness of their training programs? In an effort to identify TA training elements, the data gathered consisted of a program's schedule and duration, supervision, materials (physical as well as technological), required courses, TA opportunities (professional and teaching), assessment tools, and training for International Teaching Assistants. From a small sampling, this study reported findings collected from a 10-item Teaching Assistant Training Survey and an 8-item Demographic Questionnaire. The findings highlighted several training program issues such as time, duration, conductors, materials, courses, and assessment tools as key components of TA training. The findings suggested that even though most teaching assistant training programs contained some similarities, most training programs continue to evolve. Future research into the basic questions, what, how, why, and when of TA training, still need to be conducted in order to provide more detailed conclusions.

This study investigated the effects of a short-term in-service training program for rehabilitation practitioners. Specifically, cognitive, attitudinal, and behavioral changes were measured. Also examined with respect to the observed changes were the effects of age, sex, education and other variables. Significant information gain was made by the participants of the training program in comparison with the control group. When the program participants reported their attitudes, no significant difference was found between them and the control group. Judging from the supervisors' ratings, the participants of the program seemed to benefit significantly in terms of information gained, attitudes changed, and placement behaviors exhibited. There was a significant positive correlation between the age of an individual and his or her positive attitude change. The higher the level of education of an individual, the more positive the attitude change that occurred, and the less the amount of dogmatism that was measured. Persons who had been trained in the nonhelping professions showed more positive attitude change than those who had been trained in the helping professions. The questionnaire, answered anonymously by the trainees, indicated that virtually all of them found the training program very worthwhile. When the trainees rated their own perceived change after the training program (on a scale of "none," "slight," "moderate," "much," or "great") the group averaged "moderate" or more change in information, attitude, and behavior, and "much" change in motivation. It was concluded that the training program was effective in advancing the academic achievement of the participants. Judging from the supervisors' ratings, participants benefited significantly in terms of professional growth. The participants were supportive to the training program and expressed the belief that it was of value.

In rural areas, the lack of psychologists available makes it difficult for patients to receive the care they need. The lack of psychologists available perpetuates the stigma that it is not “normal” to go to a psychologist. Also, working in rural areas is difficult for psychologists because there is a need for special training and instruction and there is not enough funding for training in rural psychology. This study aims to describe the current educational practices of graduate counseling and clinical psychology programs and post graduate internship and fellowship programs in preparing professionals to serve rural populations. Surveys created to assess rural professional training programs were sent to internship/fellowship programs and graduate programs in the United States identified as having a rural focus. Surveys were completed by 33 doctoral programs (21% response rate) and 61 internship/fellowship programs (19% response rate). Then, the responses from both types of programs were compared and contrasted. The three main barriers to educating psychologists to serve rural populations as indicated by the internship/fellowship programs are lack of interest of students working in rural areas, lack of employment opportunities in rural areas, and lack of third party reimbursement for counseling services provided. For the doctoral programs, the top three barriers are lack of qualified supervisors, accreditation requirements not allowing students enough electives to take a course related to rural mental health, and a tie between lack of employment opportunities and distance of university from rural areas. Results were also analyzed for the educational approaches to educating rural psychologists and the steps being taken to address the barriers to educating rural psychologists. The main action taken to overcome barriers by fellowship programs is providing didactic experiences related to providing behavioral health services for rural populations 55% and for graduate programs 53.8% chose integrating content related to providing behavioral health services to rural populations in required courses. Also, recommendations were made for enhancing rural training, improving internship and fellowship experiences, and addressing policy issues for graduate and post graduate programs. Both the graduate programs and fellowship programs agree that students are not as interested in going to rural areas. This could be because lack of funding in rural areas, lack of employment opportunities, and lack of third- party reimbursement for services provided by the graduate student or intern. Rural training should include educating students about rural areas by allowing students to take courses in rural psychology, placing students in rural areas, greater funding for training psychologists in rural areas, possible tele-health training to make working with rural patients easier if the location is distant from university or internship, ways for students to have an internship available after graduate school and a job after the internship, and teaching students ways to reduce the stigma of psychology in rural areas. Integrating psychology into primary care would help rural patients not worry as much about the stigma associated with seeing a psychologist and seeing a psychologist would not require an extra co-pay.

In this phenomenological investigation, a qualitative approach to research methodology is utilized to explore the resiliency experiences of Black, Indigenous, people of color counselors in training (N = 12) at historically or predominantly White institutions. The participants represent multiple regions of the United States, spanning from the northeastern United States to the Pacific Northwest. Five themes were uncovered as a result of the interviews: (1) strategies for resiliency; (2) experiences with discrimination and oppression; (3) experiences of allyship and affirmation; (4) awareness of intersections and identity; and (5) call to action. I offer suggestions for ways to increase BIPOC student resiliency as well as increase student retention within counselor education programs and recommendations for creating nurturing and equitable classrooms to provide safety for marginalized students within counselor education programs.

The problem was to determine the significance of various relationships between job-performance ratings and selected factors associated with the college curricula of junior executive trainees. Job-performance ratings were made by personnel directors and immediate supervisors of college graduates enrolled as participants in junior executive training programs in department stores in Texas.

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (the KSA) has a rapidly growing and diversifying economy that has made significant progress in manufacturing, construction, and agriculture. However, the KSA remains a difficult place for the practice of human resources management (HRM) because of, among other factors, a large non-native workforce and a majority of family-owned firms. These complicating factors mean that, in Saudi firms, HRM practices are adopted in a gradual manner and specifically, training programs are conducted with a view to develop talents and improve worker performance. The study explored the current state of HRM practices in KSA, perception on the training programs conducted and training effectiveness captured as ‘Intent to participate’. The study primarily used qualitative as well as quantitative data collected from family-owned business firms. It helps to gain a deeper understanding of how perceptions on training programs vary across different organisations and demography of the trainees that include age, qualification and experience. A framework predicting intent to participate by the perception on training programs was developed based on the review of extant literature. In order to capture the differences in the perception on training programs across different organisations, age, qualification and experience, Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was used. Results show that perception differed across organisations, age, qualification and experience. In order to predict intent to participate by perception on training programs, multiple regression analysis was used. Results show that perception on identification of training needs, clarity of objectives, training design, behavioural modification and performance improvement predict intent to participate. The researcher also explored perception on training programs in family-owned business firms by conducting an interview with 33 HR managers using a semi-structured interview schedule. The HR managers belong to those companies where the employees hail from. The schedule was developed and standardised using content validity and reliability. The study also gained insights into various areas of training required by the employees in order to achieve their business results. It further provides inputs in terms of HR concerns and suggested HR Interventions to make the management training function better aligned and integrated. The study concludes with a set of recommendations for firms on implementing management training effectively. Ultimately, the study proposes a model of training for family-owned businesses in the KSA.

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to determine which of two methods of teaching interpersonal relationship skills to student nurses was the most effective. The two methods compared were the traditional "established" method and a programmed group teaching method, the Basic Interpersonal Relations program. Subjects were 45 sophomore associated degree nursing students in their psychiatric rotation. Subjects were administered as pretests and posttests the Leory Interpersonal Checklist (ICL) and the Fundamental Interpersonal Relations Orientation-Behavior (FIRO-B). Four groups were formed. Two groups (I and IV) were taught in the "established" way and in two groups (II and III), the basic Interpersonal Relations program was taught. The results showed that there was no significant difference in the amount of change in pre-post scores of any of the groups. This would indicate neither teaching method was superior to the other.

This study explores the effectiveness of the out-country training programs, undertaken by the Ministry of Education personnel in Bhutan, between the period 1999 and 2003. The particular emphasis is on the Transfer of Learning. The transfer literature shows that there are several factors affecting the transfer process (Baldwin & Ford, 1988; Cheng & Ho, 2001). They range from trainees� personal characteristics through training design to organisational support. The transfer process is also said to differ according to the types of organisations, types of training, and duration of training (Holton et al., 2003). While some factors can be influenced by the organisation, some may be beyond the control of the organisation. Therefore, transfer evaluation should focus on those parts of the transfer system that the organisation can influence (Noe, 2000). Baldwin and Ford�s (1988) theoretical framework was adapted to help answer the research questions. This framework is based on the concept that the transfer of learning is governed by several pre-conditions viz. pre-training motivation, training design and work environment factors. These three pre-conditions consist of several factors, and have been placed under three stages of the training process: pre-training, training and post-training. Through the perspectives of trainees and their supervisors, this research can look back into all the three stages of the transfer system and identify what parts of the transfer system need intervention (Holton et al., 2003). Both quantitative data and qualitative data have been used. Quantitative data were collected using a trainee survey questionnaire, and the qualitative data were gathered using trainee in-depth personal interview and supervisor structured interview. Quantitative data were analysed using descriptive normative figures, means, percentages, tables and graphs. The Software Product for Social Studies (SPSS) has been used to generate the descriptive figures, means and percentages. On the other hand, dominant themes of the qualitative data have been extracted and grouped in rank order. The training process was split into three main stages, pre-training, training and post-training, in order to assess the effectiveness of the whole training process through self-reported data. The questions were geared towards ascertaining the trainees� motivational level prior to training, quality of training and work environment factors that have affected the process of transfer. Overall, the trainees participated in their training with a good level of pre-training motivation. However, trainees� attitude towards their training changed once they experienced the training. For example, the level of perceived ability to transfer learning to workplaces by the trainees in the academic category reduced after they experienced the training. Perceived utility of the training differed between job utility and career utility. While trainees in all the categories foresaw job utility of their training to be positive, a few trainees in the technical category did not foresee career utility of their training. There are several direct and indirect factors that affected the transfer process. The direct factors include excessive workload, inadequate requisite materials and mismatch of jobs and skills after training. On the other hand, the indirect factors range from lack of clearly laid training objectives to lack of monitoring and evaluation after training. The lack of these main elements in HR system limited opportunities for trainees and their supervisors to ensure transfer of learning acquired from training. On the whole, the out-country training programs were effective. However, there is a great scope for optimising the benefits of out-country training programs and enhancing the rate of transfer. The Ministry of Education needs to streamline and strengthen its HRD system, particularly in terms of clearly identifying training objectives and pursuing monitoring and evaluation after the training.

The presence of aboriginal people in Saskatchewan has led to several government and private sector initiatives aimed at facilitating the participation of aboriginal people in modern industrial society. A case study was performed on Cameco Corporation, the largest mining company in Northern Saskatchewan, to find out if and how government and private sector initiatives to increase the participation of aboriginal people in the northern mining industry are working. Emphasis was put on defining the status of aboriginal employees within Cameco's mining workforce with respect to job training, promotion, job position, wage rate, and job satisfaction. A simple quantitative evaluation of survey responses was used to establish the position of Cameco's aboriginal/northern employees among their non-aboriginal co-workers and among the typical population residing in the northern part of the province.<p>In 1994, 42.3% of Cameco's employees at the mine sites were of aboriginal ancestry. Based on Cameco's 1994 employee survey, it was found that relative to the typical person residing in the North, Cameco northern/aboriginal employees had a higher level of schooling, more full time work activity, and a higher employment income. Relative to their colleagues, aboriginal Cameco workers were younger, less educated, fewer years employed and more representative in low skill level/low paying jobs. Aboriginal people were provided with more job training, received more promotions, and had a slightly lower overall job satisfaction.<p>Based on these findings, OLS and Logit multiple regression analyses were performed to identify how much of the difference between aboriginal and non-aboriginal Cameco workers, regarding employment related issues, could actually be explained by aboriginal ethnicity. Results showed that, when compared to their colleagues, aboriginal people were more likely to be promoted and to receive job training. However, aboriginal people were less likely to be employed in high level job positions and to earn a high wage rate. Many results are positive indicators of successful government and private sector initiatives to improve aboriginal peoples' employability by extensive human resource development programs in accordance with recent Surface Lease Agreements. Nevertheless, as shown by this example from the mining industry, the achievement of equal opportunities and of a fully equalized job distribution between aboriginal and non-aboriginal employees will be a long-term process.