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The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of the principal's leadership behaviors on teacher self-efficacy and its effect on the success of the students of Chinese rural schools in the College Entrance Exam. This study used a mixed-methods design. A total of 100 teachers and 15 principal subjects responded to surveys that collected data about their demographic characteristics, their sense of teacher self-efficacy, and self-rated principal leadership. In addition, a qualitative sample of 15 teachers is selected from each rural school for in-depth interviews. Data from the survey were analyzed using descriptive statistics, analysis of variance, and multiple regression equation estimates. Teachers' interviews were analyzed in order to explain the results of the survey. This study revealed that principals in rural Chinese schools exhibit a combination of transformational and transactional leadership styles, with a greater emphasis on transformational leadership in the context of rural Chinese K-12 schools. Results from the multiple regression analysis indicated that a principal's transformational leadership behaviors have s statistically significant effect on teacher efficacy. The result of this study suggested that among the variables examined, principals' inspirational motivation and individual consideration have the greatest influence on predicting teacher efficacy in student engagement. Furthermore, idealized influence emerges as the most important variable for predicting teacher efficacy in classroom management, while idealized influence and inspirational motivation are the most significant variables for predicting teacher efficacy in instructional strategies. The analysis of qualitative data revealed a positive impact of the transformational leadership style exhibited by principals on teacher efficacy. The transformational leadership of principals has both direct and indirect effects on student success, mediated through teacher efficacy. Moreover, principals and teachers in rural Chinese K-12 schools encounter various challenges and barriers that hinder student success. These finding have important implications for the future professional development of teachers and principals, highlighting the need of targeted interventions and support in order to overcome these challenges and enhance student success. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Higher education institutions (HEIs) in the context of neoliberal globalization currently face fierce competition and enormous financial burdens. To address financial distress and generate revenue, more and more HEIs embrace market-like strategies to attract international students, extending academic capitalism to global higher education. For years, China has been a lucrative market for global HEIs, sending a flood of students into international education programs. Although past studies proved that Chinese international students failed to feel satisfied with their overseas education experiences, studying abroad is still a choice for millions of Chinese students. To understand the root reasons, the researcher reviewed the past literature and conducted a meta-synthesis study to elucidate why academic capitalism prevailed among Chinese students. To conduct this study, the researcher investigated what motivated Chinese students to study abroad, how Chinese students interacted with HEIs' marketized activities, whether students gained positive or negative experiences, and what factors led to Chinese students' negative experiences. This meta-study finally generated a theory by synthesizing the findings of 18 selected articles that inspected Chinese international students' decision-making process and analyzed this process via the lens of academic capitalism. This synthesized theory displayed that Confucianism, marketization, and consumerism were three prominently interrelated themes that stimulated the prosperity of academic capitalism among Chinese international students. Findings may guide Chinese students, HEIs, and the government to revisit their practices in higher education to effect positive changes in future years. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

This dissertation study focuses on a current and controversial phenomenon in Chinese universities and colleges--student working during academic semesters. The massification of Chinese higher education since the year of 1999 raises the level of competition in the job market of college graduates. More and more undergraduate students participate in work while enrolled, with a hope that the working experience could help them perform better in the job market. However, working during academic semesters might be harmful to students' educational achievement since it may occupy their time and energy for studying. In addition, it may not be able to provide students with valuable practical trainings, as many term-time jobs are low-skill and labor-intensive jobs. Therefore there is an increasingly passionate debate among educational policy makers on whether higher education institutions should encourage students to work during term time. The current Chinese literature consists of mostly sub-national descriptive studies with weak research design that provide little in-depth investigation on this issue. This dissertation is the first empirical study of the impact of term-time working on students' academic performance and early post-college labor market outcomes in Chinese four-year universities and colleges, using much more detailed national data and more advanced methods. The study employs a sequential explanatory mixed-method research design, involving both quantitative and qualitative methods. In the quantitative analysis, two quasi-experimental strategies including Instrumental Variable and Propensity Score Matching are used to identify the causal impact of term-time working on college outcomes. The data was collected by Tsinghua University in 2011 with a nationally representative sample of 49 institutions and 6,977 graduating students. A qualitative analysis is conducted to explore students' perceptions about the gains and losses from term-time working, in order to explain the quantitative findings. The qualitative data was collected from interviews with 18 working college students in 2 higher education institutions of different types. Overall, the study finds that working during term time has become a prevalent activity among undergraduate students in four-year universities and colleges in China. The quantitative analysis reveals that term-time working decreases students' academic performance, but increases the probability of being offered a job before graduation, though does not influence the starting salary for those who are offered a job. Such impacts vary for term-time work-study jobs, part-time jobs, and internships. Students in non-elite institutions are more vulnerable to the influence of working than those in elite institutions. The qualitative analysis reveals that students' term-time working behavior is primarily motivated by their financial need and eagerness of gaining social and practical experience, but is constrained by time availability. Term-time working influences students' academic performance through the impact on time allocation and management, and the impact on students' attitude and commitment towards studying. Students may gain valuable practical knowledge and skills and positive work attitudes in working, which contributes to their employability and competitiveness in the labor market. They may also be able to form clearer career goals through working in college. Students' motivation and job characteristics may influence their gains and losses from working. These findings have significant implications for educational policies regarding term-time working in Chinese four-year universities and colleges. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

Piecewise latent class growth analysis (LCGA) was used to examine growth patterns in reading comprehension and passage reading fluency on easyCBM, a popular formative assessment system. Unlike conventional growth modeling, LCGA takes into account the heterogeneity of growth and may provide reliable predictions for later development. Because current methods for classifying students are still questionable, this modeling technique could be a viable alternative classification method to identifying students at risk for reading difficulty. Results from this study suggested heterogeneity in reading development. The latent classes and growth trajectories from the LCGA models were found to align closely with easyCBM's risk rating system. However, results from one school district did not fully generalize across another. The implications for future research on examining growth in reading are discussed. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The purpose of this study was to investigate in detail the processes involved when the promotion of metaconceptual evaluation facilitates fifth grade students' construction, evaluation, and revision of their explanations for magnetic phenomena. Although much recent research emphasized the importance of student modeling and model construction, the topic of magnetism is typically taught as either simply observing magnetic phenomena or as introducing abstract knowledge, without asking students to construct their own models to account for magnetic phenomena. Also, as suggested by educational research, metacognition is important in such model construction. However, little research explores the detailed processes of how metacognition promotes model construction. In this study, a video-taped, multi-session teaching experiment was conducted with a small number of fifth grade students in order to study in detail the interactions between students' metacognition and their development of explanatory models to account for magnetic phenomena. In this teaching experiment, two small groups received full scaffolding, and two small groups received partial scaffolding. Students in both the fully and partially scaffolded groups were asked to make their own predictions and explanations before observing magnetic phenomena, as well as to make individual explanations and modifications after their observations. Then, they were asked to elaborate on their individual ideas and to discuss them with others in order to select or develop the best group consensus model. In later activities, they were required to compare their current group model with their previous group models. In addition, fully scaffolded groups were explicitly asked to reflect on the metaconceptual modeling criteria of visualization and explanatory power. Multiple sources of data were collected, including transcripts of pre- and post-instructional interviews and activities, as well as the journals and papers students used to record and discuss their ideas. In order to explore how students' metacognitive processes regulate their cognitive processes, these data were analyzed according to three main aspects: sophistication and coherence of explanations, conceptual resources used, and metaconceptual evaluation. Through reflection on their explanations using these metaconceptual modeling criteria, most students in the fully scaffolded groups gradually developed, evaluated, and revised their explanations to coherent and sophisticated microscopic explanatory models, similar to a simplified version of the scientific domain model of magnetism. They were able to activate, apply, and reorganize appropriate conceptual resources from the observational level to the microscopic level. By contrast, students in the partially scaffolded groups, who relied only on self-generated model-evaluation criteria, lumped together different ideas from different activities, without revising their original ideas toward more coherent and sophisticated explanatory models, so their explanations ended up fragmented and disconnected. They were unable to apply appropriate conceptual resources from the observational level to further hypothesized and unobservable levels. Reflection on the metaconceptual modeling criteria helped the fully scaffolded students to inspect, activate, apply, and reorganize their conceptual resources in order to construct explanatory models with better visualization and greater explanatory power. The results of this research provide instructional implications from a content perspective, a constructivist perspective, and a modeling perspective, on diminishing the gap between how scientists practice science and how science is taught. The present study brings insights into areas of modeling, conceptual resources, and metacognition, and offers recommendations for theory, methodology, and pedagogy. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]

The ability to introduce targeted modifications into genomes and engineer model organisms holds enormous promise for biomedical and technological applications, and has driven the development of tools such as zinc finger nucleases (ZFNs) and transcription activator-like effector nucleases (TALENs). To facilitate genome engineering in mammalian cells, we have engineered the CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats)-Cas9 programmable nuclease systems from Streptococcus pyogenes SF370 (SpCas9) and S. thermophilus LMD-9 (St1Cas9) for mouse and human cell gene editing through heterologous expression of the minimal protein and RNA components. We have demonstrated that Cas9 nucleases can be guided by several short RNAs (sgRNAs) to introduce double stranded breaks (DSB) in the mammalian genome and induce efficient, multiplexed gene modification through non-homologous end-joining-mediated indels or homology-directed repair. Furthermore, we have engineered SpCas9 into a nicking enzyme (SpCas9n) to facilitate recombination while minimizing mutagenic DNA repair processes, and show that SpCas9n can be guided by pairs of appropriately offset sgRNAs to induce DSBs with high efficiency and specificity. In collaboration with Drs. Osamu Nureki and Hiroshi Nishimasu at the University of Tokyo, we further report the crystal structure of SpCas9 in complex with the sgRNA and target DNA, and elucidate the structure-function relationship of the ribonucleoprotein complex. Finally, through a metagenomic screen of orthologs, we have identified an additional small Cas9 from Staphylococcus aureus subsp. aureus (SaCas9) that cleaves mammalian endogenous DNA with high efficiency. SaCas9 can be packaged into adeno-associated virus for effective gene modification in vivo. Together, these technologies open up exciting possibilities for applications across basic science, biotechnology, and medicine.