Crisis Counseling and Intervention in Rural Schools in South Africa

The aim of this article is to explore the experiences of teachers on crisis counseling and intervention in rural schools in South Africa. Apart from a literature review on crisis counseling, intervention and prevention in schools, the article reports on a study in which empirical investigation based on quantitative research paradigm was used to collect data from rural school teachers. The literature findings revealed that crisis counseling and intervention is a critical component of school practice in many schools in South Africa. The study further on revealed that empirical findings elicited that education and training received by teachers are largely based on teaching and learning aspects and school management tasks only and no particular attention to crisis counseling, intervention and prevention is evident, yet teachers are expected to function as schoolbased crisis counselors and interveners in times of crises. The study is concluded by the submission that it is essential for teachers to be trained in crisis counseling and intervention.

Introduction
Since 1994, the enormous expectations imposed on teachers have prompted a significant change in the nature and scale of their accountability. This accountability stretches to all corners of the school, ranging from teaching and learning activities to crisis counseling, intervention, and prevention. It should, however, be noted that education and training received by teachers are largely based on teaching and learning aspects and school management tasks only and no particular attention to crisis counseling and intervention is evident, yet teachers are expected to function as school-based crisis counselors.
The concept of crisis counseling, interventions and preventions is novel to many teachers and this lack of preparation makes the task of crisis counseling, interventions and preventions foreign and uncomfortable to most of them. There is ample evidence that schools are not immune to violence. A series of shootings in classrooms, in trains and in the buses transporting learners to schools, the high death rate due to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, political violence and other traumatic events during the past few years have underscored one of the chief responsibilities faced by school teachers. Escalating crime, including violent crime against both learners and teachers in many rural schools is on record.
With the upsurge of these acts, the demand for crisis counseling, intervention and prevention services in rural schools has increased significantly. Such systematic pressures need to be matched by enhanced support mechanisms in the form of in-service education and training (INSET) programmes for the teachers. INSET, therefore, will not only equip teachers with the tools they require for effective crisis counseling, intervention and prevention obligations, but will also promote their status as school-based crisis counselors.

Conceptualising crisis intervention
What is crisis intervention? Hendricks and McKean (1995) assert that crisis intervention has been with us the first time one individual in crisis was helped by another. Roberts (1990) states that crisis intervention refers to a therapist entering into the life of the individual to lessen the impact of crisis in order to help mobilise resources for those directly affected. Hendricks and McKean (1995) give the nod to this definition as they confirm that crisis intervention is the timely and effective involvement in the people's lives when stress is too great for them to manage through their usual coping mechanisms. This assertion is also assented by Greenstone and Leviton (2002), as they describe crisis intervention as the act of interrupting the downward spiral skillfully and as quickly as possible and, in so doing, of returning the individual to a pre-crisis level of coping. Myer (2001) identifies three distinct elements involved in the definition of crisis intervention: • Time-Limit Dimension: crisis limit is time limited, with the time span of not more than six weeks. This call for the interveners to set up appointments with a victim long enough to ensure his physical and psychological safety. Meetings should be designed to help the victim regaining a sense of psychological equilibrium and selfprotection. • Single -Issue Dimension: the treatment should address a specific issue and try to assist the victim resolve only that concern. This means that the crisis intervention process must be focused on setting and maintaining factual goals. Interveners must concentrate on immediate needs and deal with symptoms that are related to the crisis only. • Treatment -Dimension: treatment must concentrate on the client's returning to a pre-crisis level of functioning.
The interveners must use their energy on what must be done to initiate the process of resolving the crisis. Roberts (1990) astutely pointed out that crisis intervention is a technique intended to lessen immediate pressures and to restore clients to a level of adjustment. The fundamental goal of helping an individual who is undergoing a crisis is to intervene in such a way as to restore him to his previous level of functioning (Sandoval 2002, France 1990, Hendricks and McKean 1995, Greenstone and Leviton 2002. These definitions of crisis intervention seem to be valid and useful to interveners as they all emphasise that the focus in crisis intervention is on helping the person in crisis to handle and lessen the impact of the crisis event on his life. Kanel (2003) argues that no one discipline or school of thought can claim crisis theory as its own, for crisis theory has been derived from a variety of sources such as psychoanalytic, existential, humanistic, cognitive-behavioral and general systems theories. In the same spirit, James and Gilliland (2003) are of the opinion that no single theory or discipline contains every view of human crises or all the models or systems of crisis intervention.
Following hereunder, is a presentation of a brief overview of selected theories relevant to crisis intervention.

Psycho-Analytic Theory
This theory is based on the assumption that psychic energy is finite and only a limited exists for individuals. This assumption, according to Kanel (2003) helps to explain the disequilibrium that occurs when a person's usual coping skills fail and his psychological energy is reduced. According to James and Gilliland (2003), this theory is based on the view that the disequilibrium that goes with a person's crisis can be apprehended through gaining access to the individual's unconscious thoughts and past experiences.

Existential Theory
The assumption in this theory is that anxiety is a regular part of existence and can help self-development. Kanel (2003) submits that anxiety is a motivator for risk and development, for without anxieties caused by new life situations, people will never develop. This assumption means that all people will suffer in life at one time or another. This theory relates to the victim's acceptance of personal responsibility and realizing that many problems are self-made. In that instance, the victim is empowered with choices that urge him to accept the responsibility for his choices.

Humanistic Theory
This theory stresses the importance of relying on the victims to realise their potential in the context of a therapeutic relationship. The focus is on reflective and empathetic techniques. Corsisni and Wedding (1989) in Kanel (2003) contend that these techniques assist the victims to acknowledge and freely express their emotions.

Basic Crisis Theory
This theory, according to James and Gilliland (2003), focuses on the understanding of behavior in clients whose grief crises were precipitated by loss. The emphasis is on the immediate resolution of grief after loss. Victims are helped to recognize and correct temporary affective behavioral and cognitive distortions brought about by traumatic events. The resolution of a crisis may lead to a positive outcome and decrease negative behavior. As mentioned previously, there are many theories about crisis and crisis intervention, not all of which can be accommodated in this article.

Motivation of the Study
A cross-section of the field of crisis management reveals that very little research has been conducted on the views of rural teachers on crisis intervention in schools. The relative unavailability of literature on this research problem is itself an indication that research has to be done in order to provide more insight and improved approaches on this issue. Crisis intervention is a skillful intrusion into a personal crisis to defuse a potentially disastrous situation before physical or emotional destruction occurs (Greenstone and Leviton 2002). It makes sense that such a delicate exercise needs a welltrained teacher in crisis intervention, who, in times of need makes quick, accurate, and critical decisions about the victim and mobilises needed resources.
Various factors strengthen the role of teachers in crisis intervention the schools. These factors foster the ability of teachers to evaluate information and press their own interpretation and conceptions, improve the quality of crisis intervention in schools, rationalise the crisis intervention functions and understand the legal implications of crisis intervention.
The researcher, having worked in rural schools as a principal and currently as a university senior lecturer, visiting these schools to lend support to the university student teachers, perceives that rural teachers have difficult experience in crisis intervention in schools and the support from the Department of Education is not evident. The unsatisfactory state of crisis intervention in rural schools in South Africa begs an important question: why, after almost twenty years since the establishment of a democratic education system, weaknesses and shortcomings in crisis intervention in schools continue to persist.
It makes sense that such a delicate exercise needs a well-trained teacher in crisis intervention, who, in times of need makes quick, accurate, and critical decisions about the victim and mobilizes needed resources.
The school system requires that teachers play a vital role in crisis intervention in schools. The demand for crisis intervention services in schools has increased significantly. It is ironic that teachers with no proper training in crisis intervention are expected to deal with the learners in crisis and have to act as crisis interveners.
The following research problem was identified: What are the experiences of teachers in crisis intervention in rural schools in South Africa?

Research Methodology
To address the research problem, both literature study and empirical investigation based on quantitative research design were undertaken. The researcher consulted literature which is relevant to the topic. This was done to provide a critical synthesis of what has already been written on the topic.

Quantitative Research Paradigm
A survey to gather questionnaire-based data in a real-life setting was used in the study. The research design included the delimitation of the field of survey, the selection of respondents (size of the sample and sampling procedures), the research instruments, namely the questionnaires, a pilot study, the administration of the questionnaires, and the processing of data

Population and Sampling
The researcher used the simple random sampling method to select two hundred teachers from KwaZulu Natal Midlands Cluster's two districts, namely Sisonke and Ugu. This method was favoured for its simplicity, unbiased nature, and its closeness to fulfilling the major assumption of probability, namely that each element in the population stands an equal chance of being selected (Kumar 2014). For ethical reasons, permission to conduct research in schools was sought from the relevant district offices.

Instrumentation
The questionnaire was used as research instrument. This quantitative methodology was chosen in the light of the purpose of the study, the kind of information that was required and the available resources. As McMillan, Schumacher (2006) and Kumar (2010) maintain that questionnaires permit anonymity, preclude possible interviewer biases and permit a respondent sufficient time to consider answers before actually answering. Data provided by questionnaires can be more easily analysed and interpreted than the data obtained from verbal responses and lastly, questionnaires can elicit information that cannot be obtained in other methods. The researcher believed that this kind of survey would lead to some truths about the role of learner leadership in rural secondary schools and it would provide information on whether certain generalisations presented in the literature were also true for this population.

Format of the Questionnaire
The questionnaire was divided into four sections, with each section focusing on the aims of the study. Section 1 consisted of questions, which focus on the biographic and general information. This section provided the researcher with an understanding and knowledge of the respondents. Section 2 had closed questions focusing on their experience on crisis intervention in their schools. The respondents were asked to rate their responses according to the following scale: Yes, No and Unsure. Section 3 consisted of open-ended questions, wherein respondents were asked to write down the problems they encounter in crisis intervention in their schools. Sections 4 consisted also of open-ended questions, wherein teachers had to suggest ways that can improve their performance in crisis intervention in their schools.

Administration of the Questionnaires
The researcher conducted a pilot study in six schools in Ugu and Sisonke districts. The schools were part of the general population from which the sample was drawn, but not part of the sample itself. No inherent weaknesses were discovered in the questionnaires and the data solicited confirmed the questionnaires' validity and reliability, consequently there was no need to modify the questionnaires.
In the actual study, the teachers were requested to complete their questionnaires which were later posted to the researcher, using the self addressed envelope supplied with the questionnaire.
The first sample population responses were 130 (65%) respondents. After the follow-ups, 23 respondents returned the completed questionnaires to make total of 143 responses (72%). That represented a satisfying response.

Data Processing
After all the questionnaires had been received, the important task was then to reduce the mass of data obtained to a format suitable for analysis. The respondents' responses were coded and frequency distributions were generated.

General and Biographical profile of the Respondents
When the item of rural teachers' academic qualification was analysed, it was realised that all the respondents had fully completed the information regarding general and biographical data. In Table 1, a total population of 143 (n=143) responded. Table 1 revealed that a high proportion of rural school principals (65%) had good academic qualifications. This shows that the education level of the teacher population in rural schools is improving. This high qualification rate can help in empowering teachers with crisis intervention skills. In Table 2, teachers were required to indicate their experiences in crisis intervention in their schools. They were asked to rate their responses according to the following scale: Yes, No and Unsure. The concept of crisis intervention is novel to many rural teachers. Table 2 revealed that a majority of the respondents (90%) indicated that the concept of crisis intervention is novel to many rural teachers. This implies that most schools do not really use teachers as crisis interveners. This is based on the fact that education and training received by most rural teachers are largely based on teaching and learning aspects only and no particular attention to crisis interventions and preventions is evident, yet teachers are expected to function as school-based crisis interveners in times of crises.

Teachers 'experiences in crisis intervention in rural schools
Crisis intervention is uncomfortable to most rural teachers. Table 2 further on revealed that a high proportion of respondents (90%) indicated that crisis intervention is uncomfortable to most rural teachers. Teachers are supposed to play a pivotal role in crisis intervention in schools. It has been previously indicated that the concept of crisis intervention is novel to many teachers. This lack of preparation makes the task of crisis intervention foreign and uncomfortable to most of them. Escalating crime, including violent crime against both learners and teachers in many schools is on record. With the upsurge of these acts, the demand for crisis intervention services in schools has increased significantly. Such systematic pressures need to be matched by enhanced support mechanisms in the form of in-service education and training (INSET) programmes for rural teachers.
Teachers show empathy, warmth and sincerity to learners in crisis. It seems that most teachers (86%) in this survey were congruent that teachers show empathy, warmth and sincerity to learners in crisis. Showing empathy, warmth and sincerity to learners in crisis does not translate into crisis intervention action plans, training rural teachers in crisis intervention will equip them with the tools they require for effective crisis intervention obligations, Teachers assess crisis situations and the learners in crises. Table 2 further on revealed that a high proportion of the respondents (82%) indicated that teachers do not assess crisis situations and the learners in crises. Assessing the crisis situations is a crisis intervention skill which crisis interveners have to acquire and possess. This is confirmed by Hendricks and McKean (1995) who astutely point out that teachers as crisis interveners need to have good communication skills, conflict management skills and confrontation management skills so as to effectively assess crisis situations and the learners in crises.
Teachers ensure the safety of the victim learner by minimising the physical and psychological dangers that may affect him. Once again, Table 2 revealed that a majority of the respondents (70%) indicated that teachers do not ensure the safety of the victim learner by minimising the physical and psychological dangers that may affect him. Ensuring the safety of the victim learner by minimising the physical and psychological dangers that may affect him is a basic crisis intervention skill required of crisis interveners, which most teachers do not have. James and Gilliland (2003) pinpoint six steps in basic crisis intervention skills. These steps are designed to operate as an integrated problem solving process.
Step 1 = Defining the problem: defining and understanding the problem from the client's viewpoint.
Step 2 = Ensuring the safety of the client: the intervener has to keep the client safe and try to minimize the physical and psychological dangers that may affect the client.
Step 3 = Support Provision: the client must be informed that the intervener is there to support him and cares a lot about him.
Step 4= Exploring alternatives: the intervener assists the client to acknowledge that many alternatives exist and that some are better than others.
Step 5 = Execution of plans: this step involves designing action plans that will provide the client with an opportunity to restore his emotional equilibrium.
Step 6= Getting appropriate commitment: this step involves the intervener obtaining the commitment from the client before terminating the crisis intervention session. Teachers begin with interviewing the victim learner to counseling him. Table 2 further on revealed that more than half of the respondents (60%) indicated that teachers do not begin with interviewing the victim learner to counseling him. This aspect is very important in the crisis intervention process. It is part of the good communication skills which must be possessed by crisis interveners. Crow (1977) in Hendricks and McKean (1995,) pointed out that crisis intervention requires a special kind of communication. Proficiency in communication skills is indispensable in crisis intervention, beginning with interviewing the victim to counseling him. For this reason, the crisis intervener needs to integrate effective communication skills with relevant intervention techniques. Poor communication between the intervener and the client can hinder the process of crisis intervention. Communication involves not only speaking, but also good listening. The communication skills of the intervener should reach the level of excellence, as he needs to understand clients' messages and must possess skills and abilities which, inter alia, include identifying and understanding the levels of listening, identifying barriers to listening, promoting communication and providing feedback.
Teachers have approaches that schools have can employ to discourage and counteract acts of school violence. In conclusion, Table 2 revealed that a high proportion of the respondents (90%) indicated that teachers do not have approaches that schools can employ to discourage and counteract acts of school violence. Although it is not always possible to prevent some acts of violence, it is nevertheless important for schools to explore and address school violence. These days acts of school violence are increasing at an alarming rate. While the rise in school violence can be attributed to violent learners, there are also instances where individuals who are not part of the school community commit acts of violence on school premises. In instances where learners themselves are involved, the element of bullying is prevalent. Although no known intervention plan can guarantee a prevention of such tragedies, nevertheless the school should have approaches that the teachers can employ to discourage and counteract acts of school violence. There are strategies that schools can use to prevent various forms of crises from occurring. Sandoval (2002) outlines these strategies as: Educational workshops which consist of intensive training on topics that generate feelings and emotions. They are aimed at preventing and stopping mental problems that can occur in future. The content of these programs assists the children to reveal their feelings about what is happening in the social environment of the classroom and tries to liberate them from anxiety that may develop from crises that may emanate in the classroom. Anticipatory guidance which involves introducing a learner intellectually to events that might happen in future and assist him to prepare realisable coping strategies. This type of guidance assists learners to adjust to novel settings and informs them on what can be anticipated, both emotionally and mentally. Screening programmes which involve establishing procedures to recognise learners that are vulnerable to dangerous situations and to give them specially needed help at the right moment. Screening programmes involve issuing questionnaires to learners to establish precisely who is at high risk of not coping. Consultation: In this instance, services of expert psychologists are enlisted to interact with teachers to assist them in dealing more effectively with the learners in crisis. These experts provide the teachers with best crisis intervention strategies that they can employ when dealing with learners in crisis.
Research: Sandoval (2002) submits that doing research is not often considered as a preventive activity, but if the crisis interveners gain more knowledge about the phenomenon through research, they will be in a better position to predict and control that phenomenon.

Problems encountered by rural teachers when attempting to effect crisis intervention in their schools
This section was an open-ended question, where teachers were required to mention the problems they encounter when trying to effect crisis intervention in their schools. In analysing the responses, the problems were ranked in the order of frequency as follows: • The teachers do not have techniques, strategies, and skills needed to help the learners in crisis (95%).
• Schools are increasingly becoming places where traumatic events occur and the problem of crisis intervention in schools does not avail itself to simple solutions (86%).
• Crisis is omnipresent in communities riddled with crime, violence, the HIV/AIDS pandemic, rape and sexual assault, death and illness, substance abuse and so forth. Consequently, stress experienced by learners from these communities increases, thus leading the learners to increased emotional distress (75%). • The communities expect the provision of crisis intervention services in schools (58%).

Teachers' suggestions on improving crisis intervention in their schools
In another open-ended question, teachers were required to make suggestions on what can be done to improve crisis intervention in their schools. In analysing the responses, the suggestions were ranked in the order of frequency as follows: • Teachers involved in crisis intervention need special training. They cannot rely only on common sense and instinct (96%). • Teachers trained in crisis intervention can do much to reduce learners' stress and to facilitate coping efforts (82%). • Crisis intervention is one issue that requires the sustained involvement and commitment of all social structures with an interest in education, such as the churches, law-enforcement agencies, parents, the private sector and learners themselves (70%). • Rationalise the crisis intervention functions (56%).

Concluding Remarks
This study explored the experiences of rural teachers in crisis intervention in schools. Although all the participants were supportive of crisis intervention in schools, their experiences also illuminate challenges associated with crisis intervention. One of the great challenges is lack of training of teachers in crisis intervention skills and strategies as they are expected to be crisis interveners at all costs. In conclusion, it needs to be mentioned that the victims of crises face serious problems. Effective crisis intervention education is an important component in addressing these problems. If crisis intervention were incorporated into the teacher-education curriculum, teachers would be better prepared to assume their roles as crisis interveners in schools.
On the strength of the above-mentioned conclusion, the following is recommended: • The Creation of Safer Schools: The crisis of violence and death in schools calls for the creation of safer schools. According to Goldstein and Kodluboy (1998) in James and Gilliland (2003), school safety is not only a matter of physical well being, but also a case of psychological well being. It should be noted that violence in schools comes from various angles such as bullying, gangs and violent learners. School safety must therefore be approached from both immediate and long-term perspectives and must always incorporate intervention strategies. All social structures with an interest in schools must make the prevention of school violence a priority. It is therefore recommended that experts in other areas such as social welfare, law enforcement, mental health services and psychologists must assist the schools in developing a comprehensive guide to school safety. Such a guide should recommend appropriate intervention strategies for all learners, including learners that are considered to be at risk. • Controlling school access to outsiders: It is important that all schools be fenced and have monitored gates.
The services of security guards or school cops should be enlisted to check on all people entering the school. In some instances, metal detectors can be used to screen for weapons. • Establishing training programmes for teachers to function as school -based crisis interveners: Schools should establish training programmes for teachers involved in crisis intervention. These programmes will provide a means of ensuring that teachers receive extensive training in all aspects of emotional first aid and crisis intervention. The trained teachers will need to adequately demonstrate their knowledge and ability in crisis intervention. Trained teachers, at least in basic crisis intervention skills, will be in a position to explore the feelings and emotions of the affected learners.


s2fieldsofstudy: Education Psychology

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The Sway of Gender and Anxiety on Perception of Personal Space

The study investigated anxiety and gender as correlates of undergraduates’ perception of personal space. The study aimed at examining the relationship between anxiety and undergraduates’ perception of personal space and also assessed gender differences in undergraduates’ perception of personal space. The study employed a descriptive survey research design. It study adopted a multi-stage sampling technique in the process of the selection and the collection of data. These sampling techniques include: the stratified sampling method and the simple random sampling. A total of 232 respondents were used for this research work; all randomly selected from the various faculties and departments of full-time undergraduate students of University of Lagos. A standardized questionnaire was used to measure respondent’s level of anxiety and perception of personal space. Two hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance, using T-test and Pearson product moment correlation coefficient. The result of the first hypothesis shows a significant relationship between anxiety and undergraduates’ perception of personal space [r-cal=(0.432), r-tab=(0.139), P-val>(0.05)]. The result of the second hypothesis shows that there is a significant gender difference in undergraduates perception of personal space [t-cal=(11.492), ttab=(1.645), P-val>(0.05)]. While male (n=106) have a mean score of 1.471 and a standard deviations of 0.733, the corresponding mean score of female (n=126) is 1.936 with a standard deviations of 0.961. The study concluded that, anxiety and gender are significantly correlated with undergraduates’ perception of personal space.

Background to the Study
Personal space refers to a person's perceived self-boundaries. The boundaries are invisible and enclose a space which has been likened to a bubble. According to [1], each individual's boundaries are relatively stable, but they fluctuate for different types of interactions. An invasion of personal space occurs when those not entitled to entrance or use nevertheless cross the boundaries and interrupt, halt, takeover or change the social meaning of the territory. In American culture, a person is likely to experience discomfort if another person moves closer than 30 to 36 inches, except in intimate relations [1]. Personal space is an approximate area surrounding an individual in which other people should not physically violate in order for them to feel comfortable and secure. The amount of personal space required for any given person is subjective. For example, one who is accustomed to busy city life, especially riding on crowded subways, is more tolerant of others impeding on their personal space than someone who may live in a more rural area. In fact one who is used to having their personal space respected may become extremely anxious and claustrophobic when placed in a situation where personal space is a luxury.
According to scientists, personal space involves not only the invisible bubble around the body, but all the senses. People may feel their space is being violated when they experience an unwelcome sound, scent or stare: the woman on the bus squawking into her cell phone, the co-worker in the adjacent cubicle dabbing on cologne, or the man in the sandwich shop leering at you over his panini. But whether people have become more protective of their personal space is difficult to say. Studies show people tend to adapt, even in cities, which are likely to grow ever more crowded based on population projections [1], even put numbers to the unspoken rules. He defined the invisible zones around us and attributed a range of distance to each one: intimate distance (6 to 18 inches); personal distance (18 inches to 4 feet); social distance (4 to 12 feet); and public distance (about 12 feet or more). But personal space is not merely a game of numbers. Preferences differ from culture to culture. Scholars have found that Americans, conquerors of the wild frontier, generally prefer more personal space than people in Mediterranean and Latin American cultures, and more than men in Arab countries. For the majority of people who find some amount of personal space necessary for their security, an unexpected violation can be very disconcerting. For example, if you were standing in an airport that was relatively vacant and a person that you did not know came up and stood in very close proximity to your body, you would probably feel extremely alarmed. This violation of personal space and the discomfort that it causes works to keep you safe from potential threats such as those who might wish to harm you.
There are common exceptions to one's need for personal space especially when the exceptions are anticipated. Crowded events such as concerts, fairs, and sports arenas normally don't leave room for ample personal space. But event goers normally don't mind suspending their space requirements in exchange for the fun they provide. Another reason to quell one's need for personal space is in romantic relationships. In these cases the lack of personal space is usually expected as well as desired. Similarly family members often welcome hugs and affection in exchange for their personal space. These close and personal situations are often built on high levels of trust which is critical due to the physical and emotional vulnerabilities that a lack of space creates. But the issue of trust as it is related to personal space works both ways which is why experts believe that intimacy in relationships helps them to grow stronger over time.
For optimal performance of students, there must be a reasonable level of anxiety. One of the major factors that determine anxiety is the maintenance of a respectable and convenient personal space. But due to the neglect of academic sector, particularly, tertiary institutions, undergraduates have to receive lectures in crowded lecture rooms. The extent to which this is tolerated could be determined by the gender and anxiety level of the undergraduates. Anxiety could increase the need for personal space in that, undergraduates who are very anxious will not be ready to share a space with others; whereas, those with low anxiety level may not show concern about this. Also, female undergraduates may not feel good with the idea of having to sit close to a male in a lecture room. This can potentially reduce how comfortable these undergraduates would feel, and this in the long run would have an adverse effect on their academic performance because they are preoccupied with the defense of their personal space.
Many factors have been found to influence personal space perception, some of which are; age, gender, culture, personality, anxiety, abnormal behaviour, situation and cooperation, status, expectation and social perception [2]. Males interacting with other males require the largest interpersonal distance, followed by females interacting with other females, and finally males interacting with females. However, it depends on the situation, or the relationship, or the age group and so on as well. Some evidence suggests that personal space gets bigger as we grow older [3]. Children tend to be quite happy to be physically close to each other, something which changes as awareness of adult sexuality develops. In addition the gender difference does tend to also appear at this time [1]. Identified the importance of cultural variation. He suggested that while all cultures use personal space to communicate, and tend to conform to the different categories, the size of the space within the categories varies across cultures. Hall also identified the essential issue in inter-cultural difference as the tendency to interpret invasions of personal space as an indication of aggression.
The cooperation versus competition effects on personal space interact with orientation. Generally, people in cooperation will select a smaller interpersonal distance unless the competition requires interpersonal contact [4]. The general finding for status focuses on differences in status and it appears that the greater the difference in status between individuals, the larger the interpersonal distance used. There doesn't seem to be any evidence regarding personal space between same status individuals at different levels. Our anticipation of the type of person we are going to meet in a situation also influences our choice of interpersonal distance. When we anticipate meeting a warm and friendly person we tend to choose smaller distances [5]. We are also less likely to offer help to someone if our personal space has been invaded , however if we perceive the persons need to be great the negative effect of the invasion may be offset.
Gender has been specifically chosen as a factor in this study because of the controversies surrounding its influence on personal space perception. Many researchers have argued that males demand more personal space than female while others have posit that females demand more. According to Gifford [6], male requires much more personal space than female in general, this include both physical and psychological space. Cassidy [7] believes that there are much more physical touching for female than male, when Major [8] stated that women derive greater pleasure from being touched than do men. It is widely believed that each individual has certain "body buffer zone" or areas of his or her physical body, which if intruded upon will produce anxiety. In the same manner, different individuals have different anxiety levels which in turn could influence their demand or need for personal space. That is, low anxiety level could influence the perception of personal space just as high level of anxiety could do the same.
The integrity of personal space and privacy is protected by territoriality. No wonders, undergraduates demarcate their spaces in their respective hall of residence with different kinds of curtains and cloths. This is done to protect and keep reasonable boundaries between their space and that of others; this is done with the primary goal of maintaining privacy. Territoriality is the use of boundary markers to maintain one's privacy; this is evident in the use of rugs and carpets in different bed spaces in the undergraduate's halls of residence, and also in them giving specific period of visiting among others. Territoriality is known to confer dominance and to maintain social order. Individuals feel more comfortable when they have their own space without other people infiltrating into their space.

Statement of the problem
Generally, failure to maintain appropriate personal space results in psychological discomfort for the person who feels their space has been invaded. When someone invades our personal space we become aroused (e.g., nervous, excited) and we use this information to decide what to do. We need personal space to avoid being inundated with too much information (e.g., smells, facial details). It is known that anxiety can result in a delay in the onset and a decrease in the duration of urination. Once an unsuspecting participant was using a urinal, a confederate would either position himself at the adjacent urinal (close) or at the urinal further away (moderate distance). In a control condition, participants were undisturbed. The time to onset and the duration of the participants' urination were discreetly observed and timed. Predictably, when the confederate was adjacent, the participants' average time to onset of urination was increased and their average duration of urination was decreased. This finding appears to confirm the suggestion that unwanted invasion of personal space increases anxiety. This, however, is not inevitable but appears to depend on the cognitive appraisal made by the person whose space has been invaded. When there is an obvious legitimate reason for the invasion, such as the press of a crowded train, then there appear to be no ill effects.
The university admits/enrols more students than the available resources can satisfy. This poses a number of problems and severe demands on the students. Some students are able to cross these hurdles because of their gender and personality, while others find themselves less well equipped to cope with such concerns. This leads us to the second problem area which involves the differences in the demand for personal space as a result of gender and anxiety. In essence, gender and anxiety may influence the demand for personal space among undergraduates. It is these variances that lie at the heart of the problem areas proposed for this study. If a link can be established between gender and personal space as well as anxiety and personal space, then it might be possible to look toward increasing privacy among different genders and undergraduates with different levels of anxiety. From the above analysis, this study examine the relationship between anxiety and undergraduates' perception of personal space and also assess gender differences in undergraduates' perception of personal space.

Research Design
The study employs a descriptive survey research design to determine the relationship between the independent and dependent variable. The objective of the study design is to provide a quantitative or numeric description of some fractions of the population (the sample) by asking relevant questions that address some unknown aspect of the population.

Study population
The population from which this study was carried out consists of full-time undergraduate students of the University of Lagos. The University of Lagos-popularly known as Unilag-is a federal university with a main campus located at Akoka, Yaba, and a college of medicine located at Idi-Araba, all in Lagos, Lagos state, southern Nigeria. The university has full-time undergraduate student strength of over 25,000 individuals. The university has a college of medicine, nine (9) faculties and an institute of distance learning.

Sample size and sampling procedure
The study adopted a multi-stage sampling technique in the process of the selection and the collection of data. These sampling techniques include: the stratified sampling method and the simple random sampling. The stratified sampling method was used to divide members of the population into homogeneous subgroups (faculties). Using the stratified sampling the university was stratified into ten (15) stratas along faculties as follows: Faculty of Arts, Faculty of Business Administration, Faculty of Clinical Sciences, Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Education, Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Faculty of Law, Faculty of Pharmacy, Faculty of Sciences, and Faculty of Social Sciences etc. The simple random sampling technique was then used to draw samples from each strata, thereby giving each undergraduate in each faculty an equal probability of being selected from the strata. The sampling procedure took cognizance of factors such as undergraduate's age, gender, and academic level.
A total of 250 respondents were used for this research work; all randomly selected using stratified and simple random sampling method, from the various faculties and departments of full-time undergraduate students of University of Lagos. Two hundred and fifty (250) represents one percent (1%) of the total population; twenty five thousand (www.unilag.edu.ng)

Research Procedure
The research instruments were administered to the respondents who were full-time undergraduates of University of Lagos. The researcher ensured that the questionnaires were collected immediately the respondents fill them. Explanations were made to guide the respondents in providing answer to each item. The respondents were constantly reminded that their response will be treated with utmost confidentiality.
In order to have adequate representation of each department, the researcher painstakingly adhere to the simple random sampling method after the sampling units have been determined using quota sampling technique. On the whole, a total number of 250 questionnaires were distributed out of which 243 were returned. Out of these, 232 were found to be duly completed and useful for analysis. 7 questionnaires were not returned, while 11 were either not filled or not completed and thus rejected. Altogether, a response rate of 93% was recorded.

Hypothesis testing
Hypothesis one: There is no significant relationship between anxiety and undergraduates' perception of personal space. Table 2 Showing correlation analysis of relationship between anxiety and undergraduates' perception of personal space. To test the hypothesis, data collected on anxiety and personal space were subjected to Pearson Correlation coefficient analysis. Table 2 Table 2: Pearson Correlation Analysis on the relationship between anxiety and undergraduates' personal space Table 2 above table showed Pearson correlation analysis of the relationship between anxiety and undergraduates' perception of personal space [r -cal =(0.432), r -tab =(0.139), P -val >(0.05) ] which is not significant at P 0.05 level (2 tailed). Since the r-calculated is greater than the r-tabulated we then reject null hypothesis and accept the alternative hypothesis. Thus, there is significant relationship between anxiety and undergraduates' perception of personal space.
Hypothesis two: This hypothesis states that there is no significant gender difference in undergraduates' perception of personal space.
To test this hypothesis data collected on gender and undergraduates' perception of personal space were subjected to t-test analysis. Table 3 presents the summary of the result.  Table 3: T-test analysis showing Gender differences in undergraduates' perception of personal space Table 3 above shows the T-test analysis of gender differences of undergraduates' perception of personal space. The mean and standard deviation for the group, i.e male and female on perception of personal space shows the mean effect on female is greater than the mean on male on perception personal space. For instance, while male (n=106) have a mean score of 1.471 and a standard deviations of 0.733, the corresponding mean score of female (n= 126) is 1.936 with a standard deviations of 0.961. These result were subjected to t-test analysis which yielded [t -cal =(11.492), t -tab =(1.645), P -val >(0.05) ] which is significant at P 0.05 level (2 tailed). Since the t-calculated is greater than the ttabulated we therefore, reject the null hypothesis and accept the alternative hypothesis that there is a significant gender difference in undergraduates' perception of personal space.

Discussion of Findings
The primary focus of the present study is to contribute to knowledge in the area of understanding anxiety and gender as correlates of undergraduates' perception of personal space. With regard to the hypotheses formulated to guide this study, the first hypothesis, which states that there is no significant relationship between anxiety and undergraduates' perception of personal space revealed that there is a significant positive relationship between anxiety and undergraduates' perception of personal space; this implies that undergraduates with high level of anxiety have a high perception of personal space while those that are less anxious have low perception of personal space. This finding is consistent with [9], who found that there is a significant relationship between anxiety and perception of personal space. The findings also support McBride, King and James [10] who found physiological evidence of anxiety at close distances in a laboratory. Subjects who looked at experimenter's eyes at 1, 3, and 9 ft showed lower GSR at 9 ft, indicating arousal at close proximity [12]. also found that during interviews in a laboratory setting at seated distances of 2, 6, and 10 ft subjects with high level of anxiety exhibited less eye contact at 2 ft than at greater distances. Those interacting at what may have been an uncomfortably close distance of 2 ft may have compensated for the close proximity by low level of anxiety. Similar results were obtained in other studies, partial support has been reported in two other studies.
The result of the second hypothesis which states that there is no significant gender difference in undergraduates' perception of personal space also revealed that there is a significant gender difference in undergraduates' perception of personal space. i.e, a female undergraduate tends to exhibit high level of perception of personal space than her male counterpart as shown from the study. This implies that, a female undergraduate will reacts more negatively when her personal space is being invaded than a male would. This result is consistent with the findings of that there is a significant gender difference in perception of personal space. In study, the experimenter entered an individual's personal space while he or she was sitting alone at a table studying. The result showed that females felt more negatively about the experimenter sitting adjacent to them and the males felt more negatively about the experimenter sitting across from them. The evidence gathered from study also supports the findings of this study. He showed that there is a significant relationship between males and females in their perception of personal space. While sitting alone at a table, males where more inclined to value and protect the space directly on front of them whereas females were more inclined to protect the space next to them. Balgooyen et al. also found out that females are more likely to perceive threat due to invasions of personal space when the setting is not crowded.
include both physical and psychological space. This is because a male is more willing to give up his personal space to a female than to another male. By implication, males have a high perception of personal space than females who can give up their personal space to any male they have a close relationship with and also to other females.

Summary of the Study
This study investigated anxiety and gender as correlates of undergraduates' perception of personal space. This study was presented in five chapters. The introductory chapter (chapter one) presents background to the study, the statement of problem, objectives and significance of the study. The review of empirical literature in chapter two covers concepts of personal space, anxiety, and gender; as well as theoretical framework and review of empirical studies.
The methodology and technique of gathering and processing the data for study were reported in chapter three. Relevant data were collected using questionnaire survey technique. The research questionnaire consists of three major parts. The first part consists of the demographic information about the respondents, the second part examined anxiety level, while the third part assessed the perception of personal space Quantitative data were analyzed using T-test, Pearson correlation coefficient. The fourth chapter presents the analysis result of data while discussion and summary, conclusion and recommendation were the focus of chapter five. The two hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The results showed that; There is a significant relationship between anxiety and personal space perception among undergraduates.
There is a significant gender difference in perception of personal space among undergraduates.

Conclusion
The integrity of personal space and privacy is protected by territoriality. No wonders, undergraduates demarcate their spaces in their respective hall of residence with different kinds of curtains and cloths. This is done to protect and keep reasonable boundaries between their space and that of others; this is done with the primary goal of maintaining privacy. Going by the findings of this research work, it can be easily inferred that the gender and anxiety level of an individual has a lot to do with his/her perception of personal space. From the analysis above, this study therefore conclude that, anxiety and gender are significantly correlated with undergraduates' perception of personal space.

Implications of the study
The findings of this study have very relevant and important implication on students' interactions in school. An important influence on behaviour is the impact of other students, and in particular our interaction with other students. The findings of this study contributes to the existing body of knowledge on how an undergraduate's anxiety level affects how he/she perceives personal space and also how gender differences affect an undergraduate's perception of personal space. Every individual has their personal space; friends and classmates are not exceptional. There are times that classmates can play and chat closely in the hall of residence; however, this is hindered under the condition that does not step over the line of others personal space. Different people shave their specific way to define their own personal space, and these could also be affected by many factors; in which anxiety and gender is no exception.
With all the above concerns, data from this research will certainly help undergraduates learn how to build a better relationship with their hall mates concerning how to communicate with them beyond their personal space; this can prevent them from frightening others away. The findings of this study will also serve as a data for various private and federal universities interested in improving the physical, social, and psychological well-being of their undergraduates/students. It will also help researchers to understand more about the male and female definition of personal space.


Gender Comparisons of Physical Fitness Indexes in Inner Mongolia Medical Students in China

Introduction: The aim of present study was to investigate gender differences in physical fitness indexes in regard to BMI (body mass index) levels among Inner Mongolia medical students in China. Methods: Data on participant characteristics came from basic information contained in the school database. Physical fitness indexes including BMI, vital capacity index, sidestep test, and standing long jump, were conducted. Results: Female students had a higher rate of normal weight than those of males. The obesity rate of males was 5 times higher compared to females. Compared with male students, female students had a higher pass rate in vital capacity index, sidestep and standing long jump. Females were higher 17% than males in the pass rate of the sidestep test. Males performed better than females in the standing long jump. In both the malnutrition and normal weight group, the pass rate of the 3 physical fitness indexes for both male and female students was higher than obese group. The not pass rate was higher than pass rate both male and female students in the vital capacity index in the obese group. Discussion: Males had a poor physical fitness level compared with females. Male students may be more likely to spend more time using computers and it will cut down the time of participating in physical activities. So, in our university, more attention should pay on physical education, especially for males.

Introduction
Enhancement of the quality of human life is driven by many things, including searching for cures to diseases, modifying human performance over a human being's lifespan, and the generation of new knowledge (William, 2000). The survival of our ancestors was in part determined by physical fitness (O'keefe, Vogel, Lavie, & Cordain, 2010), and today health-related physical fitness is defined as fitness related to some aspect of health. It is also regarded as a major marker of health status at any age. It comprises 4 main domains including strength and endurance of skeletal muscles, joint flexibility, body composition, and cardio respiratory endurance (Haskell, & Kiernan, 2000). However, the measurement of physical fitness is influenced by many factors. For example, total body fat, habitual physical activity, and socioeconomic status have been independently correlated to physical fitness (Jiménez et al., 2010). In the category of total body fat, obesity is of most concern, and is measured in proxy fashion in large cross-sectional surveys by elevated body mass index (BMI) (Jonathan, IVan, & Jan, 2011).
In today's world where the ''infomercial'' is dominant, and everything works fast, scientists working in the area of sports and exercise have a responsibility to provide the world with factual data and to move the field forward (William, 2000) and several epidemiological studies have measured fitness levels using different methodologies to understand the secular trends and their relation to health (Marques-Vidal, Marcelino, Ravasco, Oliveira, & Paccaud, 2010;Nielsen, & Andersen, 2003;Sassen, Kok, Schaalma, Kiers, & Vanhees, 2010). However, maintaining an appropriate level of health-related physical and reducing the risk of disease and injury fitness requires that individuals participate in physical activity (Gulati et al., 2003). Physical education (PE) at all levels has a vital role in establishing positive lifestyle behaviors and particularly in improving fitness in children and adolescents (Sandor et al., 2010). In regard to the latter, school-based PE interventions, including modified PE classes, generally with more classroom time and more moderate-to-vigorous PA (Physical activity) are key (Kahn et al., 2002). Therefore, based on our previous study (Bian et al., 2012), and including gender as an important factor, our aim was to further explore the gender differences of physical fitness tests among medical students in Inner Mongolia, China.

Experimental Approach to the Problem
This investigation was based on a cross-sectional survey that included physical fitness tests for medical students in Inner Mongolia. All students participated in 4 tests, which used the same strength and conditioning apparatus.
The tests included BMI, vital capacity index, sidestep test, and standing long jump.

Subjects
The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Inner Mongolia. In this study we chose students from the Inner Mongolia Medical University, who participated in physical fitness tests. They are the students who were enrolled in 2008, 2009, and 2010 respectively.

Procedures
Students performed four physical fitness tests in a gymnasium. Test steps were as follows: Measurement of height and weight used HHTC/ST model apparatus (Beijing Huaxia Huihai Technology Limited Company). Students stood on a base plate barefooted and while wearing light clothes pressed a button and the height and weight showed on the screen. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated as weight (kg)/height 2 (m). The BMI was classified into five levels: obese (50 points), overweight (60 points), appropriate weight (100 points), underweight (60 points) and malnutrition (50 points) from the range of standard height and weight using the College Student Physical Health Standard. In order to distinguish the same scores (points) weight groups, we defined obese as 50 + , overweight as 60 + , underweight as 60 -, malnutrition as 50for both male and female. Physiology was tested using the vital capacity index. The measurement of vital capacity used the XF495-KDL model apparatus (Beijing Baiwan Electronic Technological Apparatus Center). Students put their mouth into the blowpipe and stood before the apparatus to hold the handle properly. Then students pressed the button, took a deep breath, and completely exhaled. The apparatus calculated the maximal breathing capacity automatically. The vital capacity index is calculated as: Vital capacity (ml)/weight index (kg).

Table1. College student physical fitness standards in China
Lower limb muscle strength and endurance was tested using the sidestep test (TDK-2 intelligent apparatus, Ningbo Jingbei Tiandikuan Electronic Product Manufacturer). Male students used a 40 cm-high footstep and female students a 35 cm-high footstep to do the up-and-down movement. Students performed up-and-down movements for about 3 minutes (90 repetitions of up-and-down movements) in rhythm to music. Afterward, students sat down and then placed a clip on the middle finger. Pulse rate showed on the screen after the test. Pulse measurement times were taken at 3 times: 1 minute to 1 minute 30 seconds; 2 minutes to 2 minutes 30 seconds; and 3 minutes 30 seconds after the movements. The sidestep test index is equal to duration of up-and-down movements (s)*100/2*(sum of pulse measurement 3 times).
Lower limb explosive strength was tested using the standing long jump measured in meters (81/CVS-1E model apparatus, Beijing Zhongxi Yuanda Technological Company). Students separated their legs naturally, pressed the button, then jumped from their standing point; the result was displayed on the screen.
All physical fitness measurements were classified according to the College Student Physical Health Standard (College student physical health standard, 2008) established by Ministry of Education of China and the General Administration of Sport of China (for classification of vital capacity index, sidestep test index, and standing long jump were classified, see Table 1; Arabic number order is from high to low level with lower numbers better.
In order to learn more about the results of the physical fitness test we investigated time spent by students playing on the computer.

Statistical Analyses
Wilcoxon tests (Z) were used to analyze the differences between male and females for 3 BMI groups: 3 scores of 60 + (overweight), 100 (appropriate weight), 60 -(underweight) consolidated from 5 BMI scores. Chi square test were used to compare differences between male and females in vital capacity index, sidestep test, and standing long jump at 2 levels. SPSS (SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL, v.13 was used to carry out statistical analysis with a significance level of p < 0.05.

Results
A total of 6797 students participated in this study of which 1954 were male and 4833 were female, of whom 89.3% were normal weight. Pass rates for vital capacity index, sidestep index, and standing long jump were 81.5%, 92.0%, and 80.7%, respectively. Of students using a computer every day was 41.6% were male and 14.0% female; 18.1% of males used a computer 3 hours or more per day compared to 9.8% for females.
Significant gender differences were observed in physical fitness tests (Table 2). Female students had a higher prevalence of normal weight compared to males while the obesity prevalence for males was 5 times higher compared to females. In addition, compared to male students, females had a higher pass rate in vital capacity index, sidestep, and standing long jump.
The gender ratio for BMI showed a rising linear trend from the third level to fifth level with the gender ratio for obesity (fifth level) being the highest (Figure 1). Males were similar to females in vital capacity index but had a higher poor rate in the sidestep test and were twice as good in the standing long jump.

Figure1. Gender ratio of physical fitness test in Inner Mongolia Medical University
Males categorized with malnutrition were similar to the same group of females in vital capacity index and standing long jump (Table 3) but females were 17% higher compared to males in the pass rate of the sidestep test. Normal weight males were similar to the same females in the 3 physical fitness indexes. In contrast, in obese group, the not pass rate of vital capacity index was higher than the pass rate for both male and female students. The pass rate of the 3 physical fitness tests in the malnutrition and normal weight group was higher than those in the obese group for both males and females students. Males were similar to females in vital capacity index in the 3 BMI groups (Figure 2). Malnutrition males were about 4 times higher than the same group of females at level 4 of the sidestep test. Normal weight males were nearly twice as high compare to females at the excellent (first level) of standing long jump.

Discussion
Creating a better understanding of human strength and conditioning and advancing practices based upon scientific fact is an important step forward and our challenge was to investigate gender differences in physical fitness and relate those differences to BMI levels.
Our current study shows that males perform worse than females in lower limb muscle strength and endurance. In general, women are capable of longer endurance times compared to men for contractions performed at low to moderate intensities (Hunter & Enoka, 2001). For example, the endurance time of women was longer than that of men when performing an isometric contraction at 20% of maximum with the knee extensor muscles but not at 50 or 80% of maximum (Semmler, Kutzscher, & Enoka, 1999). However, many studies have demonstrated that males have higher strength values than females (Lamarche, Gammage, & Gabriel, 2011;Pangrazi, & Corbin, 1990). Moreover, for maximum voluntary contraction (MVC), males have significantly higher strength than women (Lamarche, Gammage, & Gabriel, 2011). Other studies have shown that boys perform better than girls in explosive strength, endurance of muscles, and speed and that females have lower levels of physical activity and team sports (Kynna, 2011). While in most cases gender-related factors allow males to build more strength than females this may be not always true, and in regard to endurance females may excel more than males. In our study, females participate in more endurance exercises than males in Inner Mongolia.
Males performed better than females in standing long jump. This means that males were better than females in lower limb explosive strength, similar to previous studies (Shang, 2010). The conventional explanation is that compared with girls, boys are more physical active (Nicola, Stuart, & Gareth, 2010) and that boys have greater muscle mass, bone density (Monyeki, Kemper, & Makgae, 2008), and therefore, this trend should continue into young adulthood.
Our current study revealed that both male and female obese students performed worse in physical fitness tests, as observed in other studies in which being overweight or obese first decreased physical exercise capability and then reduced health-related physical fitness (Kovács, Fajcsák, Gábor, & Martos, 2009). Moreover, adolescents at the lowest level of physical fitness are more likely to have high BMI, and a higher number of cardiovascular disease risk factors (Jekal et al., 2009). In our previous study, while we noted that male and female students in the obese category also had a poor physical health status (Bian, 2012) not all obese or overweight subjects are physically unfit. For example, in 2 studies, overweight boys had high physical fitness scores (Monyeki, Neetens, Moss, & Twisk, 2012), and no significant correlation between BMI and fitness test was found in girls (Kwok-Kei et al., 2010).
The findings of our study show that being overweight or obese was more common among male than female students and normal weight was more prevalent among females compared to males in the studied population. In our previous study, the prevalence of obesity was 19.7% in males 4.0% in females (Bian et al., 2012) with many other studies supporting our findings (Najat, Alice, Abbass, & Sandra, 2008;Arngrimsson, Richardsson, Jonsson, & Olafsdottir, 2012).
School curricula, such as sports-meeting and health education lessons, as well as sedentary habits and/or incorrect eating behavior were found to be associated with weight status (Li, Michael, & Hong, 2011;Enza, Patrizia, Gabriele, & Giuseppe, 2009). At our university, male students are more likely to spend more time playing on the computer. Spending more time on the computer is likely to reduce time for taking part in physical activities. This is part of a larger problem in which young adolescents seem to be spending more time watching TV, playing video games, or using personal computers in lieu of participating in physical activity (Thomas, 1999). The lesson, therefore, from an educational viewpoint, is that we need to strengthen physical education curricula, especially for males.

Conclusion
Males had a poor physical fitness level compared with females' among Inner Mongolia medical students in China. Obesity impacted on physical fitness indexes. We should pay more attention to physical fitness of males, especially for obese students.


Rhetorical Analysis Tasks to Develop Audience Awareness in Thesis Writing

Abstract A series of online workshops was held to investigate the contributions of rhetorical analysis tasks on ten postgraduate student writers’ sense of audience in thesis writing. During the rhetorical analysis tasks, the students’ thesis drafts were analyzed by their supervisors before and after participating in the workshops. In addition, the students were interviewed at the end to gain insights of their understanding of audience. The findings suggested that adopting rhetorical analysis tasks may improve learners’ sense of audience. The findings also showed that the participants seemed to possess better rhetorical knowledge about appropriate genre, content, stance and style.

Introduction
Audience awareness is a skill that postgraduate students need for writing effective theses. It refers to the ability of a writer to answer audience needs and maintain the flow of communication with readers through words (Wong, 2005). Kroll (1984) introduced rhetorical, informational, and social perspective as the three major views of text audience. He explains that while the first two oversimplify the relation between writer, writing, and reader, the social perspective gives a clearer picture of the parties involved in an act of written communication. It is through the social lens, that novice writers understand how to satisfy their readers, what may lead to conflict, and how to anticipate audience reaction. For instance, being able to shape audience understanding and experience through a text causes satisfaction in readers, while writing something that makes sense to the writer himself but not necessarily to his readers leads to conflicts. Kroll (1984) concludes that we need to maintain a balanced consideration to audience as an important element of communication.
Developing the skill of audience awareness among student writers necessitates practice (Midgette, Haria, & MacArthur, 2008). Practice is beneficial, because it develops constant awareness of interpersonal function of language while writing (Alamargot, Caporossi, Chesnet, & Ros, 2011;Nystrand, Greene, & Wiemelt, 1993). Interpersonal function of language or interpersonal positioning, according to Holliday (1985) is a macro-function of language, which positions writers in terms of their relationship with the readers of their texts. In order to initiate practice, learners need to be engaged in doing appropriate tasks. Task according to Bygate, Skehan, and Swain (2001: 12) is "a focused, well-defined activity, relatable to learner choice or to learning processes, which requires learners to use language, with emphasis on meaning, to attain an objective".
Tasks in language classrooms have been used for various purposes (cf. Batstone, 2012). Rhetorical analysis is a type of task that facilitates learning through discovery (Parks, 2000;Rainey, 1990). Lee and Swales (2006) introduced students to corpus approach to language with the aim of helping them to take responsibility of their own learning. They found that such opportunities guide the students in advanced language classes to discover the function of language used by a writer other than their writing teachers. They concluded that using corpora in writing classes boosts learners' confidence and empower them to learn independently by checking linguistic issues in corpora and not grammar and reference books. They mentioned that such activities help the learners of academic writing to find disciplinary exemplifications from the texts that have been written for specific contexts and disciplines. Therefore, rhetorical analysis can develop awareness of how and in what ways writers write (Nesi, 2012). In this research, rhetorical analysis tasks were used to lead learners to understand the ways in which good writers engage their audience interest/attention and persuade them to consider their messages and why bad writers fail to do so. The objective of this study was to understand whether rhetorical analysis tasks can foster audience awareness in writing specifically in thesis writing.

Literature Review
This study is grounded in analysis of composition and rhetorical models in academic texts from Civil Engineering discipline. As discussed earlier, as graduate students need to learn specialized texts, rhetorical analysis seems suitable to prepare them for this goal. According to Swales (1990), genre includes a communicative situation in which the involved parties try to serve and/or fulfill particular communication purposes. In such a situation the target discourse members understand and recognize the communicative purpose. Based on this explanation, in an academic text the relationship between "what is written" and "the context that it is written for" has a significant role. Researchers, who take this view, usually analyze a large number of texts for a specific genre. In this process they look at different parts of a genre to extract the specific moves and sub-moves of these segments (Swales, ibid). Then, they use their findings to develop the ability for producing genre-specific writing skills among English for Academic Purposes (EAP) learners. Related teaching models generally take a constructionist perspective and offer learners writing guides for specific disciplines (cf. Swales & Feaks, 2004). Through these approaches learners understand that texts are not the same in all disciplines and they need to be equipped with the rhetorical cultures and linguistic codes of disciplines.
Although the aim of these approaches is to use text analysis to develop students' awareness toward conventions and discourses, they have attracted a lot of criticism. This is mostly because of their prescriptive and form-focused nature (Hyland, 2009). Genre-approaches have expanded the concept of context by emphasizing learning in the discipline to develop students' critical awareness, but they fail to consider the relationship that writers should establish with their readers. In other words, writers are supposed to answer their readers' expectations. If student writers are spoon-fed with ready-made writing frameworks, they may not build up the confidence to explore their readers' needs and creatively express themselves to address them. The questions here are: If learners are guided to explore the rhetorical structures of discipline-related texts themselves and teachers do not take the risk of presenting static and fixed rhetorical forms, does engaging learners to such activities help them to understand readers' positions and expectations? And do identifying particular characteristics of texts help them to develop a sense of audience? To answer such questions we developed genre-based rhetorical analysis tasks for student use and investigated trace of development and/or improvement of audience awareness in consequent drafts.

Methodology
The method used to answer the raised questions involved pre and post analysis of the L2 learners' thesis drafts by their thesis supervisors which was reported through reflections, and 10 sets of in-depth interviews with the L2 learners' after a series of online workshops. The learners' drafts were analyzed to investigate changes that students made to their drafts to engage with their readers. The in-depth interviews were used to investigate whether and how the student writers of the study developed and implemented their sense of audience.
We selected our student participants purposefully based on their English proficiency, level of study, and their supervisors' willingness to participate in the study. Ultimately, we selected 10 PhD students in Civil Engineering and invited their supervisors to participate in the study. We focused on one discipline as we wished to maintain homogeneity. The participants were from five leading universities in Malaysia. Five of the supervisors were males and the other five were females. The students were all males. We obtained informed consent from our participants and insured them that their confidentiality is protected by using pseudonyms in our report. All the student participants of the study were international students from the Middle East with IELTS overall band score of 6.5. The students had already submitted the first draft of their PhD theses to their supervisors for feedback.
Discussion sessions held with each supervisor and the recent thesis draft of each student was analyzed. In Malaysia, it is expected that a PhD thesis includes a chapter of introduction, a chapter of literature review, a chapter of research methodology, one or more chapters of findings and discussion, and a conclusion chapter. In 8 out of 10 cases that we analyzed for this research the drafts included a validity chapter, placed before the conclusion chapter. The sessions were audio-recorded and later the supervisors' reflections on the drafts were transcribed. The information from analyzing the drafts was written down on recording sheets during the analyzing process and double-checked with the supervisors. For data analysis, each field note was reviewed thoroughly and each transcript was read carefully. The aim was to identify writers' sense of audience and their awareness of the interpersonal function of language.
After this initial process, the student participants of the study were invited to take part in a series of online workshops on Civil Engineering thesis part-genres. At the beginning, the student writers were sent an email containing i) a well-written thesis and ii) an unsatisfactory thesis as samples. These samples were validated beforehand by three Civil Engineering professors for the purpose of this study. The online workshops held based on mutual agreement on time. The participants were asked to install Skype application software on their computers and add each other and the researchers to build a discussion channel. The participants were asked to familiarize themselves with chapters of the two sample theses sent earlier. In each workshop, initially the researchers provided some information about the function of some part-genres of the chapter under analysis. Then the participants were asked to put themselves in a critical reader place and do some tasks. The tasks required the participants to reflect on the rhetorical moves and functions of part-genres and discuss the expectation of a potential reader when reading a particular section of a thesis. The researchers of the study led the sessions by asking questions related to appropriateness of introductions and thesis statements, discourse moves, citation, cohesion, coherence, paraphrasing, and presentation of research niche and gap of literature (Bitchener and Turner, 2011). For the purpose of this study a total of six workshops were conducted. Each session took between 60 to 90 minutes, depending on the discussions involved. At the end of each workshop, the students were asked to revise the related draft chapters at home. After the last revision they were asked to send their manuscripts to their supervisors.
After this step, each student was interviewed for 20 to 30 minutes. The interviews with the students were based on two sets of questions. The first set of questions asked the student writers to describe their general experiences of revising their drafts after doing the given tasks. The second set of questions asked about their perception of their audience awareness while they were revising their drafts. Data analysis on the data gained from this stage involved extracting the function of tasks, their usefulness, and possible development of sense of audience.
Finally, the researchers arranged appointments with each supervisor to meet them personally again and investigate the supervisors' perception of the revised version of the participants' drafts. Just like the first set of discussion meetings, sessions were audio-recorded to elicit supervisors' reflections from the transcripts. The findings from the analyses were jotted down immediately on recording sheets and checked with the supervisors at the end of the meeting. The data from this stage were compared to the data gained from the initial meetings.

Findings
The findings of this study have been organized into two sections. The first section reports the student writers' reflections on the two sample theses, their own awareness of audience while writing, and the efficacy of the tasks. The second section reports the pre and post analysis on the students' draft theses in the forms of reflections of the supervisors on their supervisees' audience awareness with supporting evidences from the students' texts.

Student writers' reflections on sample theses and responses to the interviews
The findings from the interview sessions show that the students had noticed a great difference between the chapter introductions of the two sample theses. Particularly, they observed that the thesis statement and topic sentences in most cases were completely different. The adjectives that the interviewees used to describe the good sample were: "clear", "holistic", and "well-written", while the adjectives that they used to describe the bad sample were "disconnected", "unfocused", "weak" and "ineffective". Most of the interviewees claimed that a good thesis statement inform the readers the central focus of the following paragraphs, they draw readers in, motivate them to follow the discussion in the following paragraphs, and help the readers to determine the aim of the writer. On the contrary, Jason, one of the student writers, mentioned that: "In the second sample [the bad sample], I, as a reader, was quite lost when starting a new chapter or section. I found myself searching the lines to find a central focus of what I was reading. Sometimes it was boring and annoying, because I wasn't able to figure out why I need to read all these sentences." The second frequent issue that the participants of the study pointed to was the connection between the sentences in one paragraph, the connection between the paragraphs, and the connection between the sections. The responses to interviews reported that the students agreed that the obvious strong trait of the good sample was presenting information in clear, well-structured, and connected sentences in each paragraph. Moreover, the paragraphs were linked relevantly in such a way that readers could easily follow the discussions. However, the bad sample included unrelated arguments. The conjunction words in the beginning of the paragraphs were not used appropriately. In addition, there were many ambiguous sentences that confused the participants as readers of the texts.
Attribution and citation were the other mentioned issue. All of the interviewees mentioned that there were occasions while reading the bad sample that they asked themselves why the writer did not cite anybody after some statements and cited many after obvious statements. They stated that some claims needed citation to assure the reader that the statements and the basis of the arguments were strong and supported. Comparing this issue in the two samples, Nick said: "The writer of the first sample [the good sample] mentioned much previous research after important claims, and less after the statements with general ideas. He or She clearly showed her/his own conclusions, inferences, and point of view by using the phrases like 'the researcher', 'this or current study'. However, the writer of the other sample cited studies excessively in some places, and no citation at all in other places, which was awkward. By awkward I mean, [pause] ok [pause]. I mean, the statement was there but I wasn't able to understand how it is true. In some places, there were arguments and criticism, but I wasn't able to figure out who made that criticism. There were no clues there." Regarding the research gap and research niche the participants declared that different sections of the good sample together were leading the reader to understand the gap of knowledge in such a way that the reader was convinced that the gap was significant enough to be filled. Two of the participants used the phrase "pieces of a puzzle" to describe the sections of introduction and literature review chapters that make gap and niche of the study. Quite the contrary, the interviewees described the sections of the bad sample as "space fillers", which were not connected or informative. The majority of the interviewees mentioned that they could not make sense of the relationship between the arguments and the discussions and the research gap or niche presented. David said that: "To me a research is like a maze that the researcher or the person who has written the report takes my hand [reader's hand] and guides me through the tunnels to find the treasure. This treasure is research gap which is worth spending time to be bridged." When the student participants of the study were asked about their perception of their ability to consider their readers while writing, all of them believed that writing a smooth, easy-to-follow, and convincing thesis is daunting. The majority of them acknowledged that they were aware of their audience, but they felt lack of confidence and ability to put what they wanted to say in words. Ted in this regard said that: "I felt frightened when I was revising my thesis draft after the workshops I attended. That was because the text was lengthy, there was a lot of information and I wasn't sure how to make the ideas connected. How to control my readers' understanding or how to make them understand what I was trying to say. Frankly, there were times that I wanted to throw my draft away and start writing up the whole thing again. But honestly I didn't have that much time. This current manuscript took 9 months to be written. I needed these workshops way too earlier than this." The questions that asked about the efficacy of the tasks gained the most interesting answers. This is because the student writers get to "play the role of examiners or supervisors". All of the interviewees mentioned the fact that they had done such activities before in workshops and academic writing classes, but they never used them as selfstudy techniques. For Jeff, such tasks were ambiguous before and he could not figure out what exactly he was looking for and what he was supposed to learn. Dave said that: "It was valuable to be informed about what to look at and what to do with the findings and later on use the findings to revise my manuscripts". The interviewees evaluated the tasks as interesting and interactive. They enjoyed discovering and sharing their opinions. Being critical readers, or in one of the interviewees words "playing the role of a supervisor or examiner" was pleasant for them. In this regards Tony said: "I like learning through discovery, that's why I decided to be an engineer researcher. I enjoyed the workshop activities because they made me compare, think, and find. They made me put myself in the position of a reader who reads a thesis in his/her course, but it is not necessarily related to his/her area of interest. I found it hard to be motivated to read and understand a thesis which is not written properly. And not only it is boring, it is confusing and causes a lot of misunderstanding."

Supervisors' reflection (pre and post analysis on student drafts)
This section reports the reflections of the supervisors on primary drafts and also the revised version of the manuscripts. The information is organized based on the reflections received in the first meetings with the supervisors, followed by their related reflection on the revised drafts.
Our findings of the initial meetings with the supervisors held before the workshops showed that the students' major problem in thesis writing was related to understanding the readers' expectation of different part-genres. In this regards seven out of the 10 supervisors we had discussion with said that the major difficulty of postgraduate students in writing their reports relates to misunderstanding what the different sections of a thesis required of them. Dr Hisham in this regards said: " In terms of cohesion and coherence, the supervisors evaluated the chapters of the manuscripts differently. Overall, the most coherent and cohesive chapters were methodology and finding chapters and the least coherent and cohesive chapters were introduction and literature review chapters. Particularly, supervisors used adjectives like "up-to-the-point" and "well-described" for methodology and finding chapters, and "redundant", "convoluted", "unfocused", "disconnected", "confusing" for introduction and literature review chapters. Supervisors believed that whenever students write reports of "what to do" and "how to do" they actually write properly, but when they are writing "why to do" they face difficulty. Specifically, Dr Zaeem said: "I found that postgraduates' major problem is relating their own texts to other writers' texts. I'm saying this because I get confused when I'm reading students' background of the study, literature review, and discussion chapters. These are the chapters that require the new researcher to show changes over time, and similarities and differences at any specific time. Therefore, the researcher has to connect prior research and studies to find rationale and support for new research niche, gap, and finding. This requires the writer to make particular linguistic choices while writing to inform and convince the readers. Otherwise, they leave their readers confused." The second set of meetings with the supervisors resulted in gaining significant findings related to the efficacy of the tasks. Generally, all supervisors observed and reported improvements particularly in introduction chapter. They said that in the background section students did better in showing the improvements and findings over time. In discussion chapter they found that students added more points of similarities and differences between their own findings and previous researchers. Moreover, they mentioned attribution and citation reduced significantly in literature review chapter and in most section students had added relevant studies and explained the relation of the discussed studies with their own study. According to Dr Rahim: "This helped me [a potential reader] to understand why a study is chosen to be discussed".
The supervisors also reported that in the revised drafts the use of connectors significantly improved the flow of writing. Particularly, they mentioned obvious increase in using contrast connectors (e.g. however, nevertheless, while), and result connectors (e.g. therefore, hence, consequently, accordingly, subsequently) in the revised drafts of the students, which shows students' content awareness. The supervisors also pointed out more usage of attitude maker words (e.g. interestingly, surprisingly) in discussion chapter and aims of the study section in chapter one. These words, as explained by supervisors, present the voice and attitude of writers towards issues, phenomena, and gaps of knowledge that may trigger the curiosity of the readers. Moreover, the supervisors said that the usages of phrases such as, "the researcher admitted that", "the researcher suggested that", 'this study" showed readers' voice and stance and that they took the responsibility of their statements, claims, and findings.
Regarding the content of part-genres, the supervisors mentioned the same problems with slight improvements in background, aims of the study, discussion, and contribution sections. They predicted that improvements in the discussions in literature review chapter contributed to these sections particularly by reducing the repeated and redundant sentences and fulfilling the function of those sections.

Discussion
An initial step toward helping postgraduate students in academic writing in disciplines is understanding student writers' needs. Student writers need to develop awareness that writing is a social practice. To develop this awareness, writing should be perceived as a written monologue, which audience expect it to be interesting, logical, coherent, and convincing. We found that facilitating students' critical and analytical text reviews improves their audience awareness skills. In this regards, rhetorical analysis tasks grounded in disciplinary context are specifically helpful for student writers of academic and disciplinary English. The findings of this study support the suggestion of Thrush (1993) that raising awareness, supplying suitable resources, and providing opportunities for practice facilitate quality writings. This study also confirms Paré (2000) and Wingberg, Geest, Lehman, and Nduna (2010) proposition that teaching technical writing must be in the context.

Conclusion
The aim of this study was to investigate the extent to which rhetorical analysis tasks develop audience awareness in graduate students' writing. The effectiveness of the tasks was determined by comparing their drafts before and after doing the tasks. The analysis of students' drafts by their supervisors revealed improvement in audience awareness. As mentioned by student participants of the study, the tasks were not completely new to them and they had done similar tasks before in academic writing courses and workshops they previously attended. Nevertheless, students evaluate the tasks as effective, because these tasks helped them direct their attention to their readers. We found learners may not get the rationales behind doing tasks or forget some aspects of academic writing after a while. Therefore, reinforcing and engaging novice writers in ongoing writing activities under guidance may benefit them. Moreover, we suggest that the tasks that focus on analyzing specific sections of sample theses may grow their understanding of the requirements of each section of a thesis. Profound understanding of the function and requirements of different sections of a thesis help students to maintain cohesive and coherent texts.
Despite these benefits, this study was not without limitations. Firstly, we used a case study design in order to investigate the efficacy of the tasks and using qualitative study means focusing on a few individuals that restricts the generalizability of the findings. Moreover, the study was done in a short timeframe, so the results of the study could not show the long-term effects of the tasks on participants' audience awareness. Interested researchers are encouraged to run longitudinal research to get better understandings of the effects of rhetorical analysis tasks on student writers' writing skills. Ultimately, in spite of the mentioned limitations, we concluded that rhetorical tasks can develop audience awareness among learners.