Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Akron, 1995. / eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 112-117).

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Akron, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 112-117).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Mississippi State University. Department of Instructional Systems and Workforce Development. / Title from title screen. Includes bibliographical references.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:36:46Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 VeruskaAVG_DISSERT.pdf: 674818 bytes, checksum: f8444f7fc6d8282f4b7541fba52319a4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-04-27 / Enter the University and remain in it is a challenge for all students who leave high school and enter this level. The aspiration for a graduation occur by several factors, which have decisive impact on the personal lives of individuals who acquire training in higher education, both as regards the professional capacities as economic opportunity. There are several possible trajectories to get into a college. Students can be classified by their success or failure in performance due to multiple intervening factors that interact among themselves. The purpose of this work is to identify and characterize the factors that reveal trends of success and failure in academic performance of UFRN students. From this general goal, broke out the following specific objectives: to analyze the problems of expanding access to and restructuring of higher education in Brazil and UFRN; explicit definitions of success and failure in higher education; identify national trends and international help to determine the success and failure of students in UFRN. Therefore, we conducted an extensive literature review on the subject and analyzed secondary data from official national, regional and local statistical sources on the subject. In the delimitation of the data, the research population refers to students who entered the UFRN through the vestibular, in the years 2000 to 2010, and who attended at least one (1) semester. In the light of the analysis, the theoretical framework interpretation and the investigative data, it was possible to identify the major factors that affect the categories of success and failure in this university, which highlight the following: the policies adopted by UFRN have provided access mechanisms and student assistance policies, trying to supply the needs of students for them to have a good academic performance, or success in their courses; in addition, the chosen focus of analysis showed that, within the same area, there is not significant difference in the performance of students coming from less favored social and educational contexts, which does not occur when analyzing the success rates between students from different areas of knowledge. The trajectory of interpretative analysis of the results presented in this paper enables to raise points of discussion in various forums and higher councils in order to increase the academic indices of its students. It also enables to promote strategies of guidance and student support for that he persists in his choice / Ingressar na Universidade e permanecer nela ? um desafio para todos os estudantes que deixam o ensino m?dio e entram nesse n?vel de ensino. Os anseios por uma gradua??o se d?o por v?rios fatores, que apresentam repercuss?es decisivas na vida pessoal dos indiv?duos que adquirem a forma??o em n?vel superior, tanto no que concerne ?s capacidades profissionais quanto ?s oportunidades econ?micas. V?rias s?o as trajet?rias poss?veis ao entrar em um curso superior. Os estudantes podem ser classificados pelo seu desempenho de sucesso ou insucesso devido a v?rios fatores intervenientes que interagem entre si. O prop?sito deste trabalho ? identificar e caracterizar os fatores que revelam tend?ncias de sucesso no desempenho acad?mico dos estudantes da UFRN. A partir desse objetivo geral, desencadearam-se os seguintes objetivos espec?ficos: analisar as problem?ticas da expans?o, do acesso e da reestrutura??o da educa??o superior no Brasil e na UFRN; explicitar as defini??es de sucesso e insucesso no ?mbito do ensino superior; identificar tend?ncias nacionais e internacionais que contribuem para determinar o sucesso dos alunos na UFRN. Para tanto, foi realizada uma vasta revis?o bibliogr?fica sobre o tema e foram analisados dados secund?rios de fontes estat?sticas oficiais nacionais, regionais e locais sobre o assunto. Na delimita??o dos dados, a popula??o pesquisada ? referente aos alunos que ingressaram na UFRN por meio do vestibular, nos anos de 2000 a 2010, e que cursaram no m?nimo 1 (um) semestre letivo. ? luz das an?lises, da interpreta??o do referencial te?rico e dos dados resultantes da investiga??o, foi poss?vel identificar as principais tend?ncias de sucesso que influenciam a universidade estudada, as quais se destacam a seguir: as pol?ticas adotadas pela UFRN t?m proporcionado mecanismos de acesso e pol?ticas de assist?ncia estudantil, tentando suprir as necessidades dos alunos para que eles tenham um bom desempenho acad?mico, ou seja, de sucesso em seus cursos; al?m disso, o foco de an?lise escolhido evidenciou que, dentro de uma mesma ?rea, n?o h? significativa diferen?a quanto ao desempenho dos alunos advindos de contextos sociais e escolares menos favorecidos, o que n?o ocorre quando se analisam os ?ndices de sucesso entre alunos de diferentes ?reas do conhecimento. A trajet?ria de an?lise interpretativa dos resultados apresentada neste documento possibilita levantar pontos de discuss?o em diversas inst?ncias e conselhos superiores com fins de melhorar os ?ndices acad?micos de seu alunado. Possibilita tamb?m promover estrat?gias de orienta??o e de apoio ao aluno para que ele persista na sua escolha

This study examined university academics?? valence for teaching and research, and the relationships between the valence and self-efficacy for teaching and research, with an Australian and a Chinese sample. In addition, the study also investigated modelling of research activity and Chinese university academics?? attributions, experience of western research activities, and ingroup and outgroup relationships between models and observers. Design and conduct of the research was guided by a theoretical framework. Several hypotheses were generated and tested, and research questions were answered. Quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews were used in this study. The quantitative analysis comprised exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression analysis, and content analysis was used for free responses in the surveys and the interview data from the sample of Chinese academics. Within the context of the research, the results suggested that valence for academic work may be related to university academics?? cultural orientation and their self-efficacy for academic work. The study also suggested that observing modelling by others may have been related to the Chinese university academics?? self-efficacy for research. Effects of modelling and the Chinese academics?? attributions for models?? success in research appeared to be moderated by ingroup and outgroup relationships between the models and observers. Moreover, overseas experience was found to be the most important external attribution for Chinese models?? success in research.

This study examined university academics?? valence for teaching and research, and the relationships between the valence and self-efficacy for teaching and research, with an Australian and a Chinese sample. In addition, the study also investigated modelling of research activity and Chinese university academics?? attributions, experience of western research activities, and ingroup and outgroup relationships between models and observers. Design and conduct of the research was guided by a theoretical framework. Several hypotheses were generated and tested, and research questions were answered. Quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews were used in this study. The quantitative analysis comprised exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression analysis, and content analysis was used for free responses in the surveys and the interview data from the sample of Chinese academics. Within the context of the research, the results suggested that valence for academic work may be related to university academics?? cultural orientation and their self-efficacy for academic work. The study also suggested that observing modelling by others may have been related to the Chinese university academics?? self-efficacy for research. Effects of modelling and the Chinese academics?? attributions for models?? success in research appeared to be moderated by ingroup and outgroup relationships between the models and observers. Moreover, overseas experience was found to be the most important external attribution for Chinese models?? success in research.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Illinois State University, 1999. / Title from title page screen, viewed July 31, 2006. Dissertation Committee: George Padavil (chair), Ramesh B. Chaudhari, William J. Pearch, Victor J. Boschini. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 105-110) and abstract. Also available in print.

This research focuses on the extent to which the Rhodes University Academic Skills Programme (ASP), now known as the Academic Development Programme, is able to act as an agent of progressive change within Rhodes University. In so doing it concentrates on the potential of the strategy of integrated academic development for dealing with the academic needs of university students within the context of South Africa as a society in transition. The candidate considers the inability of structuralist educational theory to account for the potential of human agency at the site of formal education. It is shown that structuralist theories provide deterministic and pessimistic accounts of the role of institutions of formal education. In support of this contention this study explores the history of ASP at Rhodes University, demonstrating that significant change in student academic development has already taken place. ASP has contributed to change within the said University through challenging traditional notions of academic development. This thesis suggests that the non-structuralist critical theory of Jurgen Habermas provides a more holistic account of ASP than do structuralist theories of formal education. Through the incorporation of Habermas's theory of communicative action a process of critical integration is explored, showing that a strategy of integrated academic development has the potential to involve all those who have an interest in university education through a process of rational discourse. This potential is strengthened by the fact that many students and staff have expressed an awareness of the need for an integrated academic development strategy. This thesis subsequently explores the possibility of there being a process of democratic and rational discourse which could lead to a progressive integration programme in the Rhodes University Department of Sociology and Industrial Sociology. This thesis stresses the contested nature of the integration process within departments. It is indicated that Habermas's critical theory is able to account for the changes which have taken place in the past and which are presently under way. It is argued that it not possible to predict future outcomes, but that if ASP pursues a process of rational discourse, it will indeed be able to stimulate a critical integrative approach to academic development in the Rhodes University Department of Sociology and Industrial Sociology.

This study set out to explore the ways in which non-STEM academics, working within UK universities that had positioned themselves publicly as ‘entrepreneurial’ institutions, interpret and negotiate the related concepts of the entrepreneurial academic and university. The entrepreneurial university concept has become a ubiquitous theme in higher education and policy literatures in recent decades, having been described variously as an ‘idea for its time’ (Shattock, 2010) and the ‘end-point of the evolution of the idea of the university’ (Barnett, 2010, p.i). This research set out to interrogate some of the key ways in which this institutional form, and the corresponding concept of the entrepreneurial academic, have been discursively constructed by advocates in the UK and beyond. Further to this, the study aimed to collect narratives of experience from non-STEM academics employed by self-described ‘entrepreneurial’ universities, both to enquire into how they interpreted the ‘entrepreneurial paradigm’, and to invite them to report on how they felt that their university’s assumption of an enterprise mission had, or had not, influenced its organisational ‘culture’ and their subjectively experienced academic work-lives. The researcher’s interest in the relationship between enterprise discourse and the organisational ‘culture’ of universities stemmed from the apparent consensus within the scholarly and policy literature about the need for universities to develop an integrated ‘entrepreneurial culture’ (Clark, 1998, p.7)(Gibb, 2006b, p.2)(Rae, Gee and Moon, 2009) by pursuing a policy of ‘organisational culture change’, with culture here denoting ‘the realm of ideas, beliefs, and asserted values’ (Kwiek, 2008, p.115) which inhere within institutions. To this end, a series of semi-structured, interpretive interviews were carried out with participants from a range of non-STEM disciplines, working in a variety of university types in the UK. The researcher then employed a discourse-analytic method to delineate some of the ‘discursive repertoires’ that participants used to account for their professional practices, and report on their experiences in - and understandings of - the entrepreneurial university. What emerged from this analysis was a complex picture of ‘enterprise discourse’ within the contemporary university setting, as well as a general tendency amongst participants to adopt a position of ontological scepticism where the issue of ‘university culture’ was concerned. Further to this, it was determined that the ‘inclusive’ interpretation of entrepreneurialism typically employed by advocates for the paradigm had not generally been taken up by participants, for whom it was, for the most part, a phenomenon associated variously with ‘managerialism’, ‘market values’, ‘the business agenda’, ‘income generation’, ‘money making’, and the figure of the ‘individual, lone, romantic, heroic capitalist’. Additionally, where subjects were conversant in broader, more ‘social’ conceptions of academic entrepreneurialism, they typically reported that it was rarely articulated in the internal communications of their respective universities.

Many students when they arrive at university do not possess the “cultural capital” (Bourdieu 1977) which is favoured by the institution. The purpose of the English Language for Academic Purposes (ELAP) course and the drafting-responding process is to help students to begin to acquire the “cultural capital” required to succeed at university. The research reported on in this thesis examined the drafting-responding process as it is used to develop students’ writing in the ELAP course at Rhodes University. The process involved students submitting drafts of their essays on which they received constructive and formative feedback from their ELAP tutor. This feedback was then used to revise their essays before a final version was submitted for assessment. The research took the form of a case study with an essentially interpretive orientation. I examined the drafts (with the tutor’s comments) and final versions of seven students’ ELAP essays. Additional data was obtained by interviewing the students and the tutor. Underpinning my beliefs regarding the role of writing in learning as well as my orientation to research is an understanding of knowledge and learning as being socially constructed. All writing is embedded in and dependent on, not only the immediate social circumstances, but also the broader social and cultural context. In analysing and discussing the data in this research I used Halliday’s (1985) definition of context, in which he draws a broad distinction between the immediate context of situation and the broader context of culture The research findings showed that the drafting-responding process can help students with the process of developing the academic literacy they need in order to write essays within specific situational contexts, in this case, the context of the ELAP course. In addition, at a broader level, it can help students to begin the process of being initiated into the culture of the university as a whole.