The dilemma of student motivation at regional university sites needs to be examined to expose peculiarities in regional areas that impact on the future sustainability of tertiary education programs in those areas. The focus of this phenomenographic study was the persistence and performance of 11 first year university students. Interviews with…

The present study is a multi-phased, mixed methodological investigation of teacher interest. In Phase 1, 12th grade students nominated and quantitatively evaluated teachers who were perceived as helping them learn and become interested in a high school core subject. Exploratory factor analysis revealed that student perceptions of teacher interest…

This paper reports and analyses data from a longitudinal qualitative research study which is investigating the changing teaching self-concept of university lecturers who combine online and face-to-face teaching. The first phase of this collective case study research has focused on the experiences of five 'early adopter' university lecturers during…

Informal workplace trainers help employees learn what they need to know and do in order to get their job done. Little is known about the actions of informal workplace trainers, who may be colleagues or supervisors. This study provides an empirical basis for actions undertaken by informal workplace trainers. A total of 350 Australian enterprises…

Basic concepts and procedures of qualitative analysis are discussed, especially as they relate to the study of the features, processes, and effects of friendships. The contributions of the previous chapters are presented according to theory and research on friendship as a developmental process.

In order to respond to the growing academic diversity in classrooms, teachers must recognize that their students have different needs and commit to differentiating instruction accordingly; however, the relationship between teachers' willingness and ability to differentiate instruction and principals' attitudes toward differentiation is unknown. In…

There is increasing agreement among those who study classrooms that learning is likely to be most effective when students are actively involved in the dialogic coconstruction of meaning about topics that are of significance to them. This article reports the results of an extended collaborative action research project in which teachers attempted to…

The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand discourse types (i.e., factual, prudential, and justificatory) of in-service teachers in the graduate program in literacy education when they engaged in Computer Mediated Discussion (CMD). This study also sought to uncover the kind of support that CMD provided, and to identify their attitudes…

This qualitative study explores how male students from different racial backgrounds experience racial diversity within racially diverse or homogeneous friendship groups. Based on an inductive analysis of purposive interviews, the author found that diverse friendships among men may result from both an attitude of intentionality with regard to…

This article focuses on a qualitative teacher research project with a fourth-semester university Spanish class that emphasized inquiry-based learning. One of the primary objectives of the class was to increase learner autonomy through self-selected inquiries, self-directed learning activities, and curricular negotiation. Multiple data sources were…

This article is based on a qualitative study carried out in Lira District, northern Uganda, to assess the situation of orphans cared for in extended families. The objective of the article is to bring attention to the varying vulnerability of different categories of orphans. The methods employed in data collection included ethnographic fieldwork,…

The purpose of this study was to compare the parenting styles of custodial, coresident, and nonresident grandmothers and their perceptions of satisfaction, success, and teaching with their grandparent caregiving role. The 124 subjects were custodial grandmothers (n = 79), coresident grandmothers (n = 21), and nonresident grandmothers (n = 23).…

The importance of connections with peers to student development and retention has been highlighted in Astin's (1984) "Theory of Student Involvement" and Tinto's (1993) "Theory of Student Departure," which are two of the most widely referenced and validated models in student affairs literature. However, recent research has questioned the…

This study investigated college student perceptions of leadership and beliefs that both empower students towards and constrain students from involvement in leadership. Interviews were conducted with student leaders (students who held leadership positions) and disengaged students (students who had not held leadership positions). The student…

Needs analysts have understood how needs change during a course [e.g. Richterich, R., & Chancerel, J. (1978). "Identifying the needs of adults learning a foreign language." Oxford: Pergamon]. They have also considered how learning needs should influence the way course content is delivered [Robinson, P. (1991). "ESP today: a…