The purpose of this research project was to explore the experiences of mature women students in juggling the multiplicity of roles they faced during the adulthood stage of life. The lack of literature, particularly on the African woman’s experiences of being a student while also dealing with the roles of being a mother, wife and employee, inspired this research. I explored the women’s experiences using a qualitative approach and semi-structured individual interviews, and did a thematic analysis of the textual data. The average age of the women who participated in this project was 36.8, and except for two of the 10 interviewees, all women were enrolled for a postgraduate studies. The majority of women enrolled for further studies because they wanted to increase their opportunities in the work environment, while one woman did so because of a career change. The stories of the ten mature women students that I interviewed revealed five major themes. In describing their experiences of juggling multiple roles, the mature women students mentioned that they studied while also maintaining a job because of the financial obligations and the lifestyle of their age group. They experienced role strain from the many roles that required an equal share of their time, but managed to cope because they had personal goals to achieve and would not relinquish those. Both congruent and incongruent experiences emerged between work and study, particularly when they could not attribute equal time to work and study. Although they were encouraged and supported by their partners and children, and sometimes also their families and the community, they still had to deal with the lack of support from the institutions where they were enrolled. Extreme tiredness and guilt because of conflicting role demands were found to be most common among all ten women. For the most part the women had to deal with an increase in their role responsibilities and experienced different emotions regarding the influence of studying on family life. By managing their time well they were able to cope and had thus far been successful in balancing their different roles. Above all the mature women student were able to cope with the multiplicity of roles because they had determination, were focused and committed, and wanted to achieve success in their educational goals. Perseverance and dedication to their goals emerged as mature women students’ most powerful tool for coping with multiple roles. / Dissertation (MA (Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2008. / Psychology / unrestricted

El presente trabajo se desarrolla en una empresa perteneciente al sector minero, una refinería de zinc ubicada en la ciudad de Lima. Se enfoca en el área de Logística teniendo como problemática el bajo cumplimiento de los despachos de pedidos de venta a tiempo (78% situación inicial). Este problema está relacionado al aumento de los tiempos en el proceso de despacho debido a tiempos improductivos por un deficiente layout del almacén, falta de orden y movimientos innecesarios de los equipos. Se establece como metodología de desarrollo el uso de las herramientas 5s, distribución de planta y estudio del trabajo. Luego de la implementación, se tienen como resultados el incremento de 49 puntos en el radar de 5s, el tiempo de despacho disminuyó en 0.4 horas/vagón y 0.43 horas/camión; asimismo se disminuyó en 465 metros de distancia entre las zonas del almacén. Estas mejoras generaron un ahorro total de 38,032 dólares en el año demostrando que la implementación de estas herramientas aumentó la productividad en los despachos de producto final y la satisfacción de los clientes por el cumplimiento de los pedidos dentro de los plazos establecidos. / The present project is developed in a company belonging to the mining sector, a zinc refinery located in the city of Lima. It focuses on the Logistics area, having a problem of the low fulfillment of sales order dispatches on time (78% initial situation). This problem is related to the increase in the dispatch time due to unproductive times, which are causes by deficient warehouse layout, lack of order and unnecessary equipment movements. The use of 5s tools, plant distribution and work study are established as a development methodology. After the implementation, the results are an increase of 49 points in the 5s radar, the dispatch time decrease in 0.4 hours/carriage and in 0.43 hours/truck. Likewise, the distance between the warehouse areas was decreased by 465 meters. These improvements generated a total savings of $38,032 in a year, demonstrating that the implementation of these tools increased productivity in final product dispatches and customer satisfaction with order fulfillment within the established deadlines. / Trabajo de Suficiencia Profesional

Bakgrund: Psykolog är ett dokumenterat bristyrke i de flesta svenska regioner, trots att antalet utexaminerade ökat. Samtidigt finns intention att lämna yrket för en knapp femtedel av psykologer tre år efter examen. Tankar på att lämna yrket är den tydligaste prediktorn för att lämna yrket. Forskning har visat att en rad faktorer påverkar tankar på att lämna yrket. Syfte: (1) Undersöka faktorer som relateras till processen att lämna yrket hos psykologer, samt hur dessa relateras till varandra. (2) Undersöka vad de som lämnat yrket ser som bidragande till sitt beslut. Metod: Kvantitativ enkätdata som insamlats från nyexaminerade psykologer (n = 603) analyserades med korrelations- samt regressionsanalys, med tankar på att lämna yrket som beroende variabel. Kvalitativ enkätdata (n = 35) analyserades med innehållsanalys. Resultat: Regressionsanalys visade att övergång mellan studier och arbete, arbetstillfredsställelse samt arbetstempo påverkade tankar på att lämna. Även stressymptom tillförde viss förklaringsgrad. Bilden som växte fram i den kvalitativa analysen var att beslutet att lämna var komplicerat med blandade känslor. Främst arbetsmiljö, emotionell påverkan och engagemang för yrket angavs bidragande till beslutet att lämna. Anledningar att stanna kretsade i stället kring trygghet, kärnan i yrket samt belåtenhet. Slutsats: En fungerande övergång mellan studier och arbetsliv med tillräckligt mellanmänskligt stöd hade relevans för tankar på att lämna, så väl som andra arbetsmiljöfaktorer. / Background: Psychologist is an in-demand job in most Swedish regions, despite an increase in graduates. Simultaneously, three years after graduating a scant fifth of psychologists had intentions to leave the profession. Thoughts of leaving the profession is the clearest predictor of actually leaving. Research has shown a multitude of factors to be affecting thoughts of leaving the profession. Aim: (1) Examine factors related to the process of leaving the profession, as well as how these factors can be related to each other. (2) Examine what those who have already left the profession view as contributory to their decision. Method: Quantitative survey data that was collected from psychologists up to three years post-graduation (n = 603) was analyzed using correlation- and regression analysis, using thoughts of leaving the profession as the dependent variable. The qualitative survey data (n = 35) was analyzed using content analysis. Results: The regression analysis showed that work-study transition, work satisfaction and work tempo affected thoughts of leaving the profession. Symptoms of stress also added some explained variance. The picture that emerged from qualitative analysis was that the decision to leave was complicated with mixed emotions. Mainly work environment, emotional impact and engagement for the profession were contributing factors regarding the decision to leave. Reasons to stay in the profession referenced security, core of the profession as well as contentment. Conclusion: An adequate work-study transition, with sufficient interpersonal support was of relevance to thinking about leaving, as well as additional aspects of work environment.

This study was designed to determine the employment opportunities in the steel fabrication industry of the Greater Fort Worth Metropolitan Area, and to ascertain what skills and knowledge were required of the prospective employee and which of these skills were being taught in the Industrial Arts metalworking laboratories. The Machine Metalworking I & II curriculum was established and related to information gained through a questionnaire sent to participating steel fabrication firms. The study was used to determine present and anticipated employment opportunities in the steel fabrication industry and aid in evaluating the curriculum of Machine Metalworking I & II as it relates to the employment requirements of the steel fabrication industry.

Cette thèse s’inscrit dans le système complexe de la formation par alternance des adultes avec une initiation à l’autoévaluation. Quels sont les éléments qui participeraient aux changements initiés par la loi de Refondation pour pallier les inégalités scolaires constatées ? Notre objet d’étude se situe hors de l’école en REP, avec un dispositif d’accompagnement à la scolarité qui prend en charge des enfants de 7 ans en difficulté scolaire : le CELEM (Club Lecture Ecriture Mathématiques). Bien que des études s’intéressent à l’impact de différents facteurs sur la réussite des enfants, les recherches qui permettent la validation des modèles d’évaluation formatrice sont rares. Nous proposons une initiation à l’autorégulation lors de la formation des intervenants des clubs afin de favoriser le développement cognitif et l’autonomie des adultes et par la suite des enfants. Notre méthodologie a pour objectif de tester une relation causale entre la formation des intervenants et la progression des enfants pour des disciplines scolaires et dans le comportement. Notre méthode est quasi expérimentale, comparative, prospective en quasi double aveugle. Deux groupes d’intervenants ont été constitués par randomisation. Les cartes associatives réalisées ont permis de suivre l’évolution des représentations que les intervenants se font de leur mission. Les résultats obtenus sont positifs et ont été corroborés par les résultats des enfants. On a constaté des modifications statistiquement significatives qui permettent d’affirmer que l’initiation à l’autorégulation des intervenants a entraîné des modifications de leurs représentations et l’amélioration des résultats des enfants. / This thesis falls within the complex system of the work/study training program of adults with an introduction to self-regulation. Which elements would participate to the changes initiated by the law of Reorganization to compensate the existing educational inequalities? Our subject is set outside school in the high-priority education network, within a plan of educational support for seven-year-olds with learning difficulties : the Reading Writing Mathematics Club. Though several studies take interest in the impact of various factors on the children’s success, little research has been done to validate the models of formative evaluation. We propose to improve the training of the Club’s staff members with an introduction to self-regulation, to stimulate the cognitive development and independence of both adults and children. Our methodology aimed to test a cause and effect relation between the staff's training and the children’s progress in both school subjects and behaviour. Our method was almost experimental, comparative, prospective, practically double blinded. Two staff groups were randomly formed. We observed how the representations they had of their own mission evolved, before and after their training; the obtained results were corroborated by the children’s results. We observed statistically significant differences which allow us to affirm that the training in self-regulation of the staff members changed their representations and led to better results for the children

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This thesis is about agricultural extension education. The context is agricultural extension in South Africa. It addresses the following questions: To what extent does current agricultural extension education in South Africa adequately reflect the current and changing educational and developmental imperatives? To what extent does it adequately equip extension officers and other agricultural development practitioners to deliver relevant support to farmers and farming communities? In short, how relevant is the training received by South African Agricultural Extension practitioners? The South African government has made significant changes in the policy environment governing agriculture. While the majority of the policy changes fall outside the scope of this research, it can be safely argued, as noted in the current Strategy for South African Agriculture, that the changes are fundamental. The changes redirect agriculture to the majority population which has hitherto been marginalised and generally denied meaningful access to the agricultural sector of the South African economy. To implement these changes, the agricultural sector will need appropriate skills – skills which, it is submitted – are largely lacking within the agricultural extension service and, more relevantly to this study, in Agricultural Extension curricula. In addition to the foregoing, assumptions about farmers and their roles in technology and information creation and consumption, assumptions about the roles of tertiary institutions in the triad of teaching, extension and research and indeed about the triad itself need to be challenged. A system of education which has its origins in the 1800s (before even the industrial revolution, much less the digital revolution) needs, per force, to be interrogated regularly to ensure that it delivers according to the demands of the exigencies of the time. Similarly, assumptions about the aim of development and in particular agricultural development have been questioned in many parts of the world. And yet it is submitted that in South Africa, the basic extension methodologies have not changed in any fundamental way; rather they have adopted some of the outer trappings of new approaches, without assessing the fundamentals of the core extension approach. It is believed that extension is in need of a serious review and that it is timely to do so. Recent research in Africa and elsewhere in the world indicates that extension needs be reconstructed on a different set of operational objectives led by a different vision. The extension strategy herein presented is built around a vision which places the focus on the farmer (and other land users) in the context not of technology, but of creating prosperity. The vision implies that the purpose of agricultural extension is to facilitate the establishment of self-reliant farmers who are contributing to widespread prosperity. The dual outcomes of self-reliant farmers and widespread prosperity are meant to be realised through a new set of =rules of engagement‘. Prosperity is derived out of farmers working together, sharing information, and learning together. Self-reliant farmers are an outcome of a learning partnership between farmers and extension practitioners. This study was conducted in a series of stages. The first thrust examined the nature of Agricultural Extension and the assumptions on which it is predicated. The result of this interrogation was to propose a new concept for Agricultural Extension – Agriflection – which is a learning-based concept aimed at improving the sustainability of the livelihoods of farmers through iterative development processes fostered through a learning agenda that is facilitated by an appropriately trained Agricultural Extension practitioner. To realise such a vision, it is essential that the mission of the extension service be recast to reflect the dynamics of the implications of the vision. The key elements of the mission are, therefore, client-responsiveness and partnerships. The power to realise the vision rests in three critical aspects. First is the capacity of the extension service to engage with its clients as genuine partners in a shared learning agenda. The second is the capacity of the extension service to engage with the many other agencies and organisations which supply goods and services to farmers and land users. The third is ensuring that engagements with farmers support sustainable development, that is, that production of food, fibre and fuel is socially just, economically sustainable and environmentally sustainable. This new vision and mission lay the foundation for a fundamental shift in the way agricultural extension is positioned, resourced, implemented and evaluated. The strategic goals, principles and values presented in this strategy are built on this foundation, and they, in turn, create the framework for constructing the operational plans of the extension service as well as for management and measurement of the service. The second thrust of the study was to filter the Agriflection concept through South African educational and agricultural policy. Given that the agricultural frontier is subject to change in focus and priorities, it was reasoned that the training and education of would-be extension practitioners needs to be able to respond to changes in methods and in the field. The National Government has adopted the outcomes-based model as the general structure for curriculum development. Further sustainable development/livelihoods has been adopted as the general framework for development. Outcomes-based education and sustainable development/livelihoods provide a framework for studying and developing curricula. A tool that enables curriculum analysis and development which allows for adjustment to changing imperatives while maintaining integrity in terms of education and development, would be valuable for tertiary institutions training extension officers. The result of this second thrust was the development of curriculum markers that encapsulated what non-technical knowledge and skills (i.e. Agricultural Extension knowledge and skills) were needed to be able to deliver on the imperatives of the transformation agenda of current agricultural policy. Thirty-four markers were identified. The third thrust of the study was to create a credible method to evaluate Agricultural Extension curricula and to capture and analyse data. A detailed review of methods and approaches was made resulting in fashioning the Theory-led Instructional-Design Curriculum Evaluation (TICE) method. One of the primary facets of this six-process method is questioning of the assumptions on which the discipline of Agricultural Extension is based. Such a questioning would lead to a new theory to govern the evaluation of curriculum. Ancillary to the TICE method were the methods of data collection and analysis. The study consolidated these in presence and efficacy factors. These factors measured the presence of the 34 markers in Agricultural Extension curricula and the extent to which they were addressed, if present. The fourth thrust of the study was the detailed evaluation of curricula of qualifications most commonly held by public sector Agricultural Extension practitioners. The study examined the curricula of agricultural diplomas, of three- and four-year agricultural degrees and of one-year postgraduate qualifications offered by Colleges of Agriculture and selected Universities and Universities of Technology. The fifth thrust was to conduct corroborative investigations in the public sector. This was done by surveying Agricultural Extension practitioners asking them to evaluate the extent to which they believed they have knowledge and/or skill represented by the 34 curricula markers. In addition, a brief analysis was made of Agricultural Extension practitioner job descriptions used in the public sector. This was done to determine what knowledge and skills were expected of Agricultural Extension practitioners and comparing this to the 34 markers. The study revealed that there is very limited Agricultural Extension training offered in the curricula of qualifications held by the majority of public sector Agricultural Extension practitioners. Further, using the 34 markers as the touchstone, it was determined that the current curricula do not adequately equip public sector Agricultural Extension practitioners to deliver on the agenda of current South African agricultural policy. Without extensive revision of curricula in terms of both the quantity and content of extension training, the South African public sector Agricultural Extension service will not be able to realise the intended transformation of agriculture. Its key operatives will not have the knowledge and skills needed to do so. This is a unique study. No study of its kind has ever been conducted in South Africa. Numerous studies have been conducted into the training needs of Agricultural Extension practitioners. None have gone to the extent of questioning the assumptions on which Agricultural Extension is based. None have made a critical examination of curricula in the light of current educational and agricultural policy. This study found that there is an urgent need for serious attention to be given the purpose, scope, outcomes of Agricultural Extension higher education in South Africa to ensure that it can contribute to the positive and sustainable transformation of agriculture. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2008.

The Department of Social Work at UNISA places the emphasis on developmental social work and trains students according to the Person Centred Approach which emphasises the uniqueness of each client. The question thus arises if this Department is indeed working with their students in a person-centred way, and if students think the Department lives out a person-centred philosophy. Exploring the personal contexts of students would give the Department of Social Work the oppor-tunity to try and find a fit between the personal contexts of students and the national requirements of training. From a population of 114 fourth level students in Social Work at UNISA, a self-selected sample of 79% emerged. Focus is placed on the students' perceptions of following five areas: (1) the self, (2) family life and family of origin, (3) living and study conditions, (4) UNISA and social work training, (5) social work as future career. / Social Work / M.A. Social Science (Mental Health)

The Department of Social Work at UNISA places the emphasis on developmental social work and trains students according to the Person Centred Approach which emphasises the uniqueness of each client. The question thus arises if this Department is indeed working with their students in a person-centred way, and if students think the Department lives out a person-centred philosophy. Exploring the personal contexts of students would give the Department of Social Work the oppor-tunity to try and find a fit between the personal contexts of students and the national requirements of training. From a population of 114 fourth level students in Social Work at UNISA, a self-selected sample of 79% emerged. Focus is placed on the students' perceptions of following five areas: (1) the self, (2) family life and family of origin, (3) living and study conditions, (4) UNISA and social work training, (5) social work as future career. / Social Work / M.A. Social Science (Mental Health)