Student characteristics and self-concept of secondary career and technical education students in a north central Texas region (open access)

Student characteristics and self-concept of secondary career and technical education students in a north central Texas region

Self-concept, discussed as a scholarly topic since the time of Socrates and Plato, is an important theoretical construct in education because self-concept is considered to be a desirable trait and a facilitator of positive future behavior. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the characteristics of students enrolled in career and technical education (CTE) programs and students' self-concept scores as measured by specific subscales from the Self-Description Questionnaire (SDQ). A total of 196 male and 89 female secondary students (Grades 9-12) enrolled in arts, audio/video technology and communications cluster courses in North Central Texas school districts participated in the study. Student characteristic variables of interest were age, gender, CTE program enrollment, and participation in CTE. The self-concept subscales analyzed were General, Academic, Verbal, Math, and Problem Solving. A canonical correlation analysis was conducted using the four student characteristic variables as predictors of the five self-concept variables to evaluate the multivariate shared relationship between the two variable sets. The full model across all functions explained about 23% of the variance between the variable sets. Function 1 explained 15% of the shared variance and Function 2 explained 7% of the variance that remained. This study detected a relationship …
Date: May 2010
Creator: Cox, Nancy Lynne
System: The UNT Digital Library
Faculty Members' Readiness for E-learning in the College of Basic Education in Kuwait (open access)

Faculty Members' Readiness for E-learning in the College of Basic Education in Kuwait

E-learning exposes students and instructors to different learning models such as constructivism rather than the traditional learning. E-learning as a part of today's technology has proven that it is appropriate for most students' mentalities and is a mind tool which promotes different learning models, such as problem solving strategy, collaborative learning, and critical thinking. The Public Authority for Applied Education and Training (PAAET) in Kuwait consists of more than 10 academic colleges with a total number of 120 faculty members. The College of Basic Education (CBE) is one of them. The implementation of e-learning at the College of Basic Education requires that all the learning community members, instructors and students, understand that an e-learning course is like a learning community with the privilege of sharing knowledge, opinions, experiences related to class subject, and productive outcomes that are beneficial to this learning community. This study indentified the statistically significant differences in demographic characteristics of e-learning adopters and non-adopters among faculty members at CBE, examining faculty members' attitudes and skills toward e-learning readiness. The study will explore perceived barriers that face e-learning at CBE. Applying the Rogers diffusion of innovation theory, the influence of 4 factors was examined regarding faculty readiness for …
Date: August 2010
Creator: Alajmi, Mohammed
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Study of Student's Perceptions of Blended Learning Environments at a State-Supported Postsecondary Institution (open access)

A Study of Student's Perceptions of Blended Learning Environments at a State-Supported Postsecondary Institution

The purpose of this study was to conduct exploratory research regarding students' perceptions of blended learning environments at a state supported postsecondary institution. Specifically investigated were students' overall perceptions of blended learning environments, the reasons they chose to take a blended course, and whether generational differences existed in students' affected perceptions. An electronic survey was distributed to students enrolled in blended learning courses at the end of the spring 2009 term.
Date: May 2010
Creator: Shaw, Joanna G.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Making the Connection: How Mentors Choose Protégés in Academic Mentoring Relationships (open access)

Making the Connection: How Mentors Choose Protégés in Academic Mentoring Relationships

Among other things, mentoring research is concerned with how mentors go about the process of choosing who they should mentor. Even when mentoring relationships are assigned, mentors need to feel that the efforts they are putting forth are worth the time and energy. What protégé attributes best attract the attention of a mentor? What mentor attributes make some protégés more attractive to them than others? This study looks at 3 explanations for mentor-protégé attraction, shedding light on the mental processes that influence why some protégés find it easy to get mentors and why some have a much tougher time finding the right person to mentor them. Practical and theoretical implications of this study are included.
Date: May 2010
Creator: Robertson, Tip M. A.
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Experimental Study on Situated and Dynamic Learning Assessment (SDLA) Environment (open access)

An Experimental Study on Situated and Dynamic Learning Assessment (SDLA) Environment

The current supplementary web based English learning in Taiwan provides online learning resources and gives assessments at the end of each lesson to evaluate learners' online learning results. Based on the testing results, instructors may adjust their in-class instructional method to focus on the students' weaknesses. For the average classroom size of 40 students with one instructor, it is extremely difficult to provide individual learning content for each learner's needs because each student has his or her own weaknesses. This study conducted the situated environment with Vygotsky's dynamic assessment theory to test learner's learning achievements and satisfactions as compared to the current web learning environment. The study finds that when both groups of Taiwanese students used Internet based learning, those that utilized the situated and dynamic learning assessment environment showed a statistically significant higher achievement score than those using only the current online learning environment (p < .01). In addition, learners in the SDLA environment had statistically significant higher satisfaction scores than those in the current web learning environment.
Date: May 2010
Creator: Lee, Zeng-Han
System: The UNT Digital Library