Browsing by Subject "Skills"
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Item Directing attention in melodic dictation(Texas Tech University, 2007-05) Paney, Andrew S.; Brumfield, Susan; Hazlett, Allan; Killian, Janice; Marks, Jonathan; Santa, MatthewMusic students are generally required to take classes in aural skills. Many begin university theory classes with little or no aural skills training. Instructors are charged with the task of challenging well-prepared students while providing remediation for others. Researchers have isolated four phases involved in taking dictation: hearing, memory, understanding, and notation. Would directing students through those phases help them score better on a dictation assessment? Subjects were music students in their second, third, or fourth level of aural skills training at the time of the experiment. Two matched groups were formed based on subjects’ scores on a dictation of a recorded melody. Subjects in the control group took a second dictation individually. Subjects in the treatment group also took a second individual dictation, but they received instructions before and after each hearing. These instructions directed their attention to basic musical aspects of the recording and asked them to respond to questions regarding those aspects. Dictations were evaluated based on rhythm, pitch, and overall scores. The top and bottom 25% (based on their matching scores) were also compared. In every comparison the control group scored higher than the treatment group. Comparisons of the whole group in rhythm, pitch, and overall scores showed a significant difference in scores favoring the control group. Results suggest that receiving direction during a dictation was not helpful to music students. This may be a result of a disruption of students' established routines. It may also indicate a lack of mastery of the component basic musicianship skills requisite for successful mastery of dictation.Item Early career experience and optimism spillover(2012-05) Law, Kai Fung; Starks, Laura T; Clement, Michael B; Han, Bing; Kumar, Alok; Sialm, ClemensUsing a long panel on employment history, I exploit a novel setting to examine if sell-side analysts carry over their early career experience into their future professional careers. I find that analysts' early mentorship experience has a long-lasting impact on their professional styles. Analysts are more optimistic if they work with optimistic mentors in their first jobs as junior analysts: they issue more strong buy recommendations and upgrade jumps, and they are also more optimistic in earnings forecasts and price targets. While it is easy to pick up their mentors' styles, I show that it is apparently harder for them to learn their mentors' skills, as indicated by the lack of spillover in forecast accuracy. Only talented superstar mentors can unwind this pattern, passing their skills and reputation to their proteges. The market—especially sophisticated institutional investors—is smart in identifying the apprentices of optimistic mentors as short-run market reactions to their forecast revisions are weaker. Collectively, these results have important implications for financial economists and regulators (on a new source of optimism), for analyst profession (on talent management and portability), and for market participants (on information dissemination and optimism debias).Item Enhancement of faculty skills through mentoring(2012-08) Johnson, Levi; Dwyer, Jerry F.; Williams, Brock; Sherrod, SonyaDespite an extensive literature outlining the beneficial effects of faculty mentorship programs on undergraduate protégés, very little exists evaluating the impact of such activities on the faculty mentors themselves. This study employs grounded theory methods in a qualitative exploration of skills enhancement in faculty mentors involved in externally funded scholarship and mentorship programs for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics majors enrolled at Texas Tech University. The researcher collected data through in-person observations of mentoring sessions, open-ended surveys, and semi-guided interviews with faculty mentors. A relatively small participant pool somewhat restricted the breadth of conclusions; however, the depth and richness of the data collected indicate that participation resulted in varied levels of improvement in both pedagogical and interpersonal skills.Item The Inclusion and Content of an International Agriculture Education Course at the Post Secondary Level: A Delphi Study(2010-07-14) Kingery, ThomasThe purpose of this study was to determine the inclusion and content of an international agricultural education course at the post-secondary level by answering the following research questions: What disciplines of agriculture should be included in an international agricultural education course at the university level?; What competencies (knowledge, skills, and abilities) in international agriculture are needed by students and should be developed in a course in international agricultural education at the university level?; and How should an international agricultural education class be used in multiple degree programs at the university level?. A three round Delphi procedure was used to solicit expert opinions regarding each of the research questions. The results revealed the most significant disciplines as: extension and education, philosophy, policy, models, program planning, public and private systems, & evaluation; role of agriculture in a developing nation?s economy; social, economic, political issues; and cross cultural communication. The competencies that should be developed identified by the panel were: skills working with other cultures; roles of change agents; environmental, developmental, conservation, sustainability, natural resources issues; extension models; understanding non-governmental organizations; knowledge of basic agriculture; ability to listen, plan and evaluate. The panel suggested the use of such a class in a multiple degree program should be a requirement for a minor in international agriculture. The study found that items not included among the panel consensus were items on practical or technical production practices. Further studies should be conducted to determine if the area of expertise of the panelists focused more on extension since they were in fact more familiar with extension techniques than any other areas, their experiences were based more on educational typology than practical and technical systems, or their placement in those professional positions did not allow them to focus on the skills and trades that were already known to flourish in their geographical region. One recommendation is to develop a more diverse panel of experts that cover more global territory to gain further insight into the research questions. A more diverse panel may bring more variation to the results. A deeper search into the background and identity of each panel member may also be necessary to discover the uniqueness of each expert in gaining diversified responses. If a professional in international agricultural education was in a non-native country and answered the instrumentation questions based on their work in that environment, that may be different than answering the questions based on their activity in a native country. Note: This student obtained a joint doctoral degree from Texas A&M University and Texas Tech University.