Matching Items (408)
ContributorsWard, Geoffrey Harris (Performer) / ASU Library. Music Library (Publisher)
Created2018-03-18
Description
In a conscious effort to combat the low enrollment of women in construction management, a program was created to retain women through a mentorship program - Advancing Women in Construction. A qualitative analysis, facilitated through a grounded theory approach, sought to understand if the program was indeed successful, and what value did the students derive from the programs and participating in the mentoring process.
ContributorsEicher, Matthew (Author) / Wilkinson, Christine Kajikawa (Thesis advisor) / Calleroz-White, Mistalene (Committee member) / Gibson, Jr., G. Edward (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
Mentor teachers have a significant impact on pre-service teachers. Unfortunately, mentors are often underprepared for their role, and thus, the potential learning from a student teaching experience is not maximized. Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College at Arizona State University provides training to mentors who host pre-service teachers during their student teaching experience. Training is delivered in two formats: online prior to the start of the semester and face-to-face each month throughout the semester. This action research study looked at how training contributes to mentor understanding and actions in supporting teacher candidates and how mentor support impacts teacher candidate performance. The study included two mentor/teacher candidate dyads and one university site coordinator. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from a variety of sources including observations of mentor trainings, teacher candidate lessons, and coaching conversations. Additional data sources included semi-structured interviews with mentors, teacher candidates, and the site coordinator. Analysis of data found that training may contribute to mentor understanding, but other factors matter too. The data also indicated that current training is insufficient at producing all desired mentor behaviors. With respect to the ways that mentors support teacher candidates, this study found that mentors play a multifaceted role, provide ongoing feedback, and employ various strategies during coaching conversations. This study found mentors help teacher candidates see their performance through the eyes of an experienced educator. Modeling and coaching helped teacher candidates improve. This study also suggests a positive, professional relationship between mentor/mentee and certain teacher candidate characteristics such as openness to feedback facilitate learning from a mentor.
ContributorsBorden, Ryen (Author) / Carlson, David (Thesis advisor) / Barnard, Wendy (Committee member) / Rojas, Michelle (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2014
Description
This research is a reversal of the traditional concept of the student-teaching research experiment. Instead of studying the clear and stated goal of an apprenticeship, that of a pupil learning from the tutelage of a master, the focus here is on what a mentor-teacher learns from a student-teacher. During the act of teaching a novice, what can a mentor-teacher learn about her own practice, while demonstrating it to a pre-service teacher? Using the conceptual framework of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards' Architecture of Accomplished Teaching, and using it within a framework centered around cognitive coaching and reciprocal mentoring, this action research study implemented an intervention that called for series of five cognitive coaching cycles between a mentor- and student-teacher designed to foster dialogue and reflection between them. The ultimate aim of this case study was to help determine what a mentor-teacher learned about her own practice as a result of mentoring a student-teacher. Qualitative data were collected over sixteen weeks in a charter high school. Five findings were identified created after the data were analyzed using a grounded theory approach, and four conclusions were drawn about the intervention's role in the mentor-teacher's reciprocal learning.
ContributorsMcCloy, Daniel (Author) / Beardsley, Audrey (Thesis advisor) / Serafini, Frank (Committee member) / Roen, Duane (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
The purpose of this mixed-methods study was to understand the key constructs and processes underlying the mentoring relationships between doctoral students and their mentors. First, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses were used to evaluate the measurement structure underlying the 34-item Ideal Mentor Scale (IMS; Rose, 2003), followed by an examination of factorial invariance and differences in latent means between graduate students differing by gender, age, and Master's vs. Doctoral status. The IMS was administered to 1,187 graduate students from various departments across the university at Arizona State University (ASU); this sample was split into two independent samples. Exploratory factory analysis on Sample 1 (N = 607) suggested a new four-factor mentoring model consisting of Affective Advocacy, Academic Guidance, Scholarly Example, and Personal Relationship. Subsequent confirmatory factor analysis on Sample 2 (N = 580) found that this four-factor solution was superior to the fit of a previously hypothesized three-factor model including Integrity, Guidance, and Relationship factors (Rose, 2003). Latent mean differences were evaluated for the four-factor model using structured means modeling. Results showed that females placed more value on factors relating to Affective Advocacy, Academic Guidance, and Scholarly Example, and less value on Personal Relationship than males. Students 30 and older placed less value on Scholarly Example and Personal Relationship than students under 30. There were no significant differences in means for graduate students pursuing a Master's versus a Doctoral degree. iii Further study qualitatively examined mentoring relationships between doctoral students and their faculty mentor using the Questionnaire on Supervisor Doctoral Student Interaction (QSDI) coupled with semi-structured interviews. Graduate support staff were interviewed to gather data on program characteristics and to provide additional context. Data were analyzed using Erickson's Modified Analytical Inductive method (Erickson, 1986). Findings showed that the doctoral students valued guidance, advocacy and constructive, timely feedback but realized the need to practice self-reliance to complete. Peer mentoring was important. Most of the participants valued a mentor's advocacy and longed to co-publish with their advisor. All students valued intellectual freedom, but wished for more direction to facilitate timelier completion of the degree. Development of the scholarly identity received little or no overt attention.
ContributorsGarrett, Pamela S (Author) / Smith, Mary Lee (Thesis advisor) / Potts, Shelly A. (Thesis advisor) / Thompson, Marilyn S. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Employee turnover is a pervasive issue across industries and at all levels of an organization. Lost productivity, hiring, interviewing, training and increased workloads are costs associated with turnover. As an undergraduate admissions professional charged with the enrollment of new freshmen students, I am constantly assessing the health of my team and working to minimize turnover in admission counselor positions. I implemented a six-week mentoring program in my office to increase second-year employee satisfaction, motivation, development and retention at the Arizona State University Undergraduate Admissions Office. Post intervention data were collected through the use of focus groups and self reflection questionnaires. Results show that mentoring is a mutually beneficial experience for mentees and mentors. Mentees reported benefits from the personalized dissemination of information and institutional knowledge by their mentors. Mentors reported that being in a mentoring relationship made them feel their opinions and experiences were valued. Mentoring can be an inexpensive professional development program designed to assist entry-level employees. While attrition cannot be totally eliminated from a workplace setting the study participants reported that the mentoring program made them feel valued even while acknowledging that there are limited opportunities for advancement within the office.
ContributorsPizzo, Melissa (Author) / Clark, Christopher (Thesis advisor) / Calleroz White, Mistalene (Committee member) / Wilkinson, Christine Kajikawa (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
The purpose of the research conducted and presented in this thesis is to explore mentoring programs for ASL/English Interpreters, with a focus on the question "Is a Peer Mentoring Program a successful approach to mentoring working and novice interpreter?" The method of qualitative data collection was done via questionnaires and interviews with past participants of a Peer Mentoring Program and questionnaires to identified persons who have experience creating and running mentoring programs. The results of the data collection show that a Peer Mentoring Program is a successful approach to mentoring working and novice interpreters. This research provides valued information in regard to the experience of persons in a Peer Mentoring Program as well as successful aspects of such a mentoring approach.
ContributorsBolduc, Dawn J (Author) / Margolis, Eric (Thesis advisor) / Appleton, Nicholas (Committee member) / Cokely, Dennis (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
The purpose of this study was to answer the question, "What are the experiences of students who have completed the Achievement Academy program?" In collecting data to answer this question, a series of clarifying questions also emerged: "What are the cultural, academic, and personal costs and benefits associated with being a part of Achievement Academy?"; "How have students defined or redefined their cultural, social, academic, and personal identities because of Achievement Academy?"; and "In what ways have the students used their surroundings and experiences to overcome preconceived notions of either what they were capable of or general expectations of those around them?" While there have been studies undertaken to examine students' experiences in both public school and private school academic programs, there is currently no research on the unique academic program and partnership of Achievement Academy with both public and private schools. This study provides direct insight from a participant focus group and individual participant interviews of students that attended Achievement Academy. A phenomenology research methodology was used to collect the data and Critical Race Theory (CRT) was used as the lens through which the data from the focus group and interviews were analyzed. This analysis resulted in three distinct findings in the research data: peers, program environment, and the presence of a mentor or positive role model are the major influencing factors for their success both in Achievement Academy and afterwards. First, the Achievement Academy students' peers in the program had a strong positive influence on how they viewed and defined themselves. These interactions allowed some students an opportunity to re-evaluate and recreate their identities and allowed validation of identity for others. Second, the Achievement Academy program, and more specifically its stated mission and practices, also provided a strong positive influence on their success. Third, the presence of a mentor or role model was instrumental to their success. The program's emphasis on empowerment and enrichment also created opportunities for students to stretch themselves academically, socially, and culturally.
ContributorsCalleroz White, James (Author) / Brayboy, Bryan (Thesis advisor) / Neck, Christopher (Committee member) / Boyle, Charlotte (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Social learning theory has enjoyed decades of supportive research and has been applied to a wide range of criminal and deviant behavior. Still eluding criminological theorists, however, is a meaningful understanding of the causal processes underlying social learning. This lack of knowledge is due in part to a relative reluctance to examine value transmission as a process in the contexts of mentorship, role modeling, and social learning. With this empirical gap in mind, the present study seeks to isolate and classify meaningful themes in mentorship through loosely structured interviews with young men on the periphery of the criminal processing system. The purposive sample is drawn from youth in a Southwestern state, living in a state-funded, privately run group home for children of unfit, incarcerated, or deported/undocumented parents. The youth included in the study have recently passed the age of eighteen, and have elected to stay in the group home on a voluntary basis pending the completion of a High School diploma. Further, both the subjects and the researcher participate in a program which imparts mentorship through art projects, free expression, and ongoing, semi-structured exposure to prosocial adults. This study therefore provides a unique opportunity to explore qualitatively social learning concepts through the eyes of troubled youth, and to generate new lines of theory to facilitate the empirical testing of social learning as a process. Implications for future research are discussed.
ContributorsCesar, Gabriel T Gilberto (Author) / Pratt, Travis C. (Thesis advisor) / Wright, Kevin A. (Committee member) / Ready, Justin T. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
Pierce College at Joint Base Lewis – McChord (PCJBLM) is a community college extension campus that is challenged with complying with multiple policies while serving a transient student population amid budget constraints. Through multiple cycles of research, entry-level student services staff expressed concern about their professional development and their ability to contribute meaningfully to initiatives around student success. Student services staff were also concerned with their connection to colleagues and leaders within the unit. Research shows that leaders may need to be more flexible and creative in staff development to appreciate the diverse values and talents of their teams. Research also identifies professional development as essential to solidifying student affairs as a profession and meeting the demands of today’s educational environment.
Through multiple cycles of research, peer-to-peer mentoring was identified as the innovation to address the problem of practice at PCJBLM. The program was evaluated as part of an action research study. The theoretical perspectives guiding of the study were wicked problems, theory of structural empowerment, theory of psychological empowerment, and social learning theory and communities of practice. Peer-to-peer mentoring was evaluated over eight-weeks. Participants were selected via purposeful sampling. Key artifacts produced by participants were reflective journals and an individual development plan (IDP). Multiple qualitative data sources were used to triangulate the results. The quantitative instrument, Conditions of Work Empowerment Questionnaire – II (CWEQ-II), was administered to support learning about the participants’ feelings and perceptions about empowerment. The pre- and post-test (CWEQ-II) measures were used in conjunction with the qualitative sources. Credibility and rigor were addressed through triangulation, prolonged engagement, and member checking.
Results indicate more investigation is needed to address the identified wicked problem. Peer-to-peer mentoring supported a broadened view of the problem practice. The peer-to-peer mentoring program was structurally empowering while not completely psychologically empowering. The participants’ conflicts related to psychological empowerment were identified and will support continued learning in this area. Additionally, through multiple cycles of qualitative analysis, the values of this unit were identified. These values were essential to the developing community of practice. Continued research in empowerment and wicked problems is needed to support the future growth of the community of practice.
Through multiple cycles of research, peer-to-peer mentoring was identified as the innovation to address the problem of practice at PCJBLM. The program was evaluated as part of an action research study. The theoretical perspectives guiding of the study were wicked problems, theory of structural empowerment, theory of psychological empowerment, and social learning theory and communities of practice. Peer-to-peer mentoring was evaluated over eight-weeks. Participants were selected via purposeful sampling. Key artifacts produced by participants were reflective journals and an individual development plan (IDP). Multiple qualitative data sources were used to triangulate the results. The quantitative instrument, Conditions of Work Empowerment Questionnaire – II (CWEQ-II), was administered to support learning about the participants’ feelings and perceptions about empowerment. The pre- and post-test (CWEQ-II) measures were used in conjunction with the qualitative sources. Credibility and rigor were addressed through triangulation, prolonged engagement, and member checking.
Results indicate more investigation is needed to address the identified wicked problem. Peer-to-peer mentoring supported a broadened view of the problem practice. The peer-to-peer mentoring program was structurally empowering while not completely psychologically empowering. The participants’ conflicts related to psychological empowerment were identified and will support continued learning in this area. Additionally, through multiple cycles of qualitative analysis, the values of this unit were identified. These values were essential to the developing community of practice. Continued research in empowerment and wicked problems is needed to support the future growth of the community of practice.
ContributorsLett, James D (Author) / Dorn, Sherman J (Thesis advisor) / Dippold, Lindsey K (Committee member) / Gerhardt, Paul (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018