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M.B.A. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Thesis advisor: Joseph J. Pedulla / There is no question that teachers play an important role in student learning. In the last decade, researchers have shown evidence pointing to the prominence of teachers compared to other factors that are known to influence student achievement (Wright, Horn, and Sanders, 1997). They have empirically demonstrated that teacher effects are large and persist for up to four years (Kain, 1998; Mendor, Jordan, Gomez, Anderson, and Bembry, 1998; Rivers, 1999). Multiple variables are known to influence teacher quality, including teacher preparation. This dissertation explored the relationship between the teacher education pathway and teaching effectiveness. Although multiple measures of teacher effectiveness exist, this study focused on reformed instructional practices as its measure of teaching effectiveness. In teaching mathematics, in particular, constructivist-based, inquiry-oriented approaches have been shown to be more effective than traditional methods (Abbott and Fouts, 2003; Klein, Hamilton, McCaffrey, Stecher, Robyn, and Burroughs, 2000). Using two groups of novice teachers (N=22) from two preparation pathways, this observational comparative study also investigated the relationship between school composition and teaching practices. There is a large body of literature showing that urban schools serving high proportions of non-white, poor, and low performing students (Darling-Hammond, 1995; Kain and Singleton, 1996; Presley White, and Gong, 2005) tend to have higher percentages of less qualified teachers compared to their suburban counterparts. In light of this, the current study also explored the relationship between school composition and teachers' use of reformed teaching practices. The findings of this investigation indicate that the instructional practices of teachers working in the urban school district where this study was conducted were generally reformed, and did not vary based on the student demographics of the schools in which they taught. In addition, no statistically significant relationship was found between teaching pathway and teachers' instructional practices. Many similarities were found in the instructional practices of teachers from the two preparation pathways. The similarities in the teachers' instructional practices were attributed to the significant congruence in the teacher preparation programs' curriculum, requirement of clinical experience, selectivity, and the programs' explicit social justice missions. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement, and Evaluation.

To produce superior team performances members must be able to work well together to exceed the sum of their parts. Despite an extensive body of research in healthcare, business, military, and aviation, there is limited understanding of what effective teams do in sport. In an attempt to address this gap in the literature the present doctoral thesis - commissioned by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) - sought to uncover, measure, test, and improve the most important factors for team effectiveness in cricket. The thesis contains three empirical studies which address the following research questions: (i) what factors contribute to the effectiveness of cricket teams? (ii) How can team functioning and effectiveness be measured? (iii) Can factors of team functioning accurately predict effective cricket teams, and what is the relative importance of those factors? (iv) Can team functioning and effectiveness be improved in cricket teams? Chapter 1 of the thesis defines some of the key terms associated with the group-based literature, before critically reviewing the organisational and sport psychology literature on team effectiveness and group dynamics, highlighting limitations that need to be addressed. These include a lack of research attention on teamwork or team functioning in sport, the investigation of group-related variables in sport in isolation, an overreliance on deductive approaches to framework development, a lack of appropriate measures, and the exclusive focus upon the development of cohesion within team building interventions in sport. Chapter 2 is an abductive, qualitative investigation involving 21 cricket experts, which explores the factors most important for team effectiveness in cricket. Based on this elite samples' construal, we propose a parsimonious and novel conceptualisation of team effectiveness in cricket (Essential Team Ingredients model; ETI). Chapter 3 contains two studies concerned with the development and validation of the Inventory of Essential Team Ingredients (IETI), designed to measure each sub-component of the ETI model. The first study adopted a new paradigm of measurement design to validate a multi-construct, single-item based inventory. The second study examined the extent to which factors within the ETI model could accurately predict effective teams in a sample of 32 high performing male and female cricket teams. Through the application of novel pattern recognition analyses, results suggested that certain features could accurately predict an effective team in nearly 90% of instances. Chapter 4 presents an intervention study, whereby a team building intervention based on the IETI was designed, delivered and evaluated, providing an indication that team functioning can be improved over a short period, and preliminary evidence for the utility of the IETI. Finally, Chapter 5 concludes the thesis by discussing some of the theoretical, conceptual, and applied implications of the findings, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the research and potential avenues of future research.

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The Intranet Pencil and Paper Checklist (Murgolo-Poore et al., 2002) is a new measure developed to gauge the perceptions of organization members as to the effectiveness of the firms Intranet, from an Internal Marketing and Human Resource perspective. Three dimensions of the construct "Intranet Effectiveness " have been distilled from initial scale development research and testing, they are Operations, Facilitation and Culture.The instrument is now applied to a financial services organization with approximately 3000 staff to test its robustness across all layers of a hierarchy. It performed well, particularly in plumbing the perceptions of management towards their Intranet.Several theoretical perspectives were investigated to understand how OC and Intranet effectiveness may be associated, including Transaction Cost Theory, Communication Theory and Social Identity Theory. With this theoretical underpinning the instrument was administered to discern if an effective Intranet, through its power to communicate and involve multiple stakeholders had any correlation with Organizational Commitment.Intranet effectiveness was found to have a significant correlation, which varied in its effect across user groups. It was suggested as a focus for future research that peripheral groups might have benefited from the Intranet in a way that increased OC amongst those cohorts disproportionately. Should such a theory be borne out by empirical investigation, it has potential application for strategic decision making in Intranet design and management.

Pertussis (whooping cough) remains an important public health problem in Australia. Although mortality and morbidity from pertussis declined dramatically following the introduction of mass vaccination programs in 1953, the level of morbidity remains unacceptably high for a vaccine-preventable disease. Aims and methods The primary aims of this thesis were (i) to ascertain the epidemiology of pertussis in Australia between 1993 and 2000 by analysing and interpreting sources of routinely collected data on pertussis; and (ii) to examine the effectiveness of vaccination against pertussis in a number of ways. Data from three primary national sources (notifications of disease, hospitalisations for pertussis and death certificates) were used to examine the burden from pertussis in Australia over these eight years. Analyses included the age distribution of cases, temporal and geographic trends, comparisons of notification and hospitalisation data, and the impact of differences in the method of diagnosis of notified cases between years and age groups. In addition to analyses at the national level using data from the national databases, further detailed analyses were undertaken at the State level for New South Wales (NSW), the most populous Australian State. Pertussis vaccine coverage was estimated using data from the recently established Australian Childhood Immunisation Register (ACIR); these data were also used to track the transition from whole-cell to acellular pertussis vaccines. The different types of studies used to evaluate vaccine effectiveness were reviewed, and a method suitable for ongoing estimation of vaccine effectiveness in Australia was developed. This was then applied to the NSW data, to determine the effectiveness of pertussis vaccination in this State. Main findings The annual notification rate for pertussis in Australia ranged from 23�59 per 100 000 population over the eight years. Infants had the highest notification and hospitalisation rates in Australia � they accounted for 5percent of notifications, 61percent of hospitalisations and 100percent of deaths. Age-specific notification and hospitalisation rates in children aged less than two years strongly suggested a protective effect of vaccination, with the greatest reduction in rate coinciding with eligibility to receive a second dose of pertussis vaccine at four months of age. Notification rates among 5�9 year olds progressively decreased in successive age cohorts, consistent with an effect of the introduction in 1994 of a pertussis vaccine booster for preschool-aged children. Although adults (persons aged 15 years or more) accounted for half the notifications, they had the lowest notification rate. The highest numbers of pertussis notifications were in 1997, when most jurisdictions experienced an epidemic. Notification and hospitalisation rates varied across the States and Territories and also across smaller geographic regions in NSW. Areas and years with high notification rates tended to also have high hospitalisation rates, suggesting that trends in notifications reflected trends in incidence. The number of infant hospitalisations in NSW between July 1993 and June 1999 exceeded the number of notifications by 32percent, highlighting the extent of under-notification. Overall, and particularly amongst those aged more than 12 months, the majority of cases notified in NSW were based on the results of serological tests. The proportion diagnosed by culture of the organism was greatest in infants; the proportion diagnosed by serological tests increased with age. There was no evidence that the use of serology had increased since 1994 in NSW, hence changes in notification rates after this time are unlikely to be attributable to increased use of serological diagnosis. ACIR records indicated that in December 2000, 92percent of one-year-old children had received three doses of diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis (DTP) vaccine and 90percent of two-year-olds had received four doses. Vaccine coverage varied by jurisdiction. Since 1997, there was an increased use of DTP vaccines containing acellular pertussis components with a corresponding decrease in the use of vaccines containing whole-cell components. In 2000, almost all DTP vaccines administered contained acellular pertussis components. The results of the vaccine effectiveness study showed that pertussis vaccination was highly effective at preventing pertussis in NSW children, as measured by notified cases. Vaccine effectiveness was highest (91percent) in the youngest age group (8�23 months) and lowest (78percent) in the oldest age group (9�13 years). The screening method has not previously been used to estimate pertussis vaccine effectiveness in Australia. Conclusions This thesis demonstrates the value of integrating varied data sources in estimating the disease burden from pertussis. The data presented here show that the disease burden is substantial in all age groups, despite high levels of vaccine coverage in infants and children. This problem of disease control does not appear to be due to lack of vaccine effectiveness, but there is evidence of waning immunity over time. The analyses presented here form a basis for the ongoing monitoring of trends in pertussis epidemiology following the replacement of whole-cell by acellular pertussis vaccines, and will assist consideration of the need for additional booster doses in adolescents and adults.

Organizational commitment and transformational leadership have been found to correlate positively with each other and with organizational effectiveness. However, much of the commitment research has been based on traditional organizations with employment relationships, raising questions as to whether the research can be generalized to voluntary organizations. Research on transformational leadership has occurred across a broad spectrum of organizations and causal links to objective measures of performance have been hypothesized. The purpose of this research was to extend the existing commitment, leadership, and organizational effectiveness research into the context of a voluntary organization, and contribute new knowledge and understanding of these relationships. The nature of a specific voluntary organization, the Corps of Cadets at Texas A&M University, was examined in terms of the relationships among affective commitment to the organization, transformational leadership style, and ultimately organizational effectiveness. A hypothesized causal model was proposed to explain the relationships among these three variables. The Affective Commitment Scale and Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire were found to be valid and reliable in the voluntary organization examined. Consistent with prior research, a significant positive correlation was found between affective commitment and transformational leadership. However, extending this relationship to organizational effectiveness through the hypothesized causal model was not supported.

The intention of this study was to examine parental perceptions in one Canadian and one Ukrainian high school as to what parents view as an effective school and also to compare the views of parents of both countries. A secondary purpose was to ascertain the characteristics that parents view as important for school choice. This study tried to answer the following research questions:<br> 1. What factors do parents of one Canadian and one Ukrainian school define as elements of an effective school?<br> 2. What school characteristics determine parents choice of schools in both countries?<p> Data collection consisted of surveying one hundred parents of Grade 9-10 students in one school in Saskatoon, Canada and one hundred parents in a school in Chernivtsi, Ukraine. Parents were asked to complete a questionnaire which was developed based on the ten characteristics which Renihan and Sackney (2001) identified as elements of effective schools. Parents were also asked to indicate to what extent their choice of school was influenced by the suggested 17 factors, which were identified based on the findings in research literature. Also, they were asked to list three to five important reasons for their choice of school. These findings were analysed and the most frequently mentioned reasons were identified. In this study, both the Canadian and Ukrainian parents agreed that the following characteristics identified in the literature are elements of effective schools, including school vision and purpose, leadership, a positive climate, academic emphasis,professional community, instructional expectations, feedback, parental involvement, student involvement, and physical environment and resources.<p>Additional themes related to school effectiveness were identified by the participating parents, such as promoting/ preparation for postsecondary education and career information. This suggests that parents of students as early as in Grade 9 and 10 are concerned about their childrens future and want their children to be prepared by the school for lifelong learning. The majority of the Ukrainian parents perceived physical environment and resources, including medical services, to be a very important element of effective schools. With respect to the second research question, examination of the data revealed that the majority of both Canadian and Ukrainian parents identified the same factors as highly influencing the choice of school. These factors included opportunities for higher education, child(ren)s happiness, high expectations for learning, academic standards, quality of teaching and reputation. Reputation was the most mentioned reason for school choice by both Canadian and Ukrainian parents. Parents in both schools commonly identified positive atmosphere as a factor in school choice. Canadian parents employed situational and family-related factors, whereas Ukrainian parents based their choice of school on key qualities of the school and preparation for university.

The intention of this study was to examine parental perceptions in one Canadian and one Ukrainian high school as to what parents view as an effective school and also to compare the views of parents of both countries. A secondary purpose was to ascertain the characteristics that parents view as important for school choice. This study tried to answer the following research questions:<br> 1. What factors do parents of one Canadian and one Ukrainian school define as elements of an effective school?<br> 2. What school characteristics determine parents choice of schools in both countries?<p> Data collection consisted of surveying one hundred parents of Grade 9-10 students in one school in Saskatoon, Canada and one hundred parents in a school in Chernivtsi, Ukraine. Parents were asked to complete a questionnaire which was developed based on the ten characteristics which Renihan and Sackney (2001) identified as elements of effective schools. Parents were also asked to indicate to what extent their choice of school was influenced by the suggested 17 factors, which were identified based on the findings in research literature. Also, they were asked to list three to five important reasons for their choice of school. These findings were analysed and the most frequently mentioned reasons were identified. In this study, both the Canadian and Ukrainian parents agreed that the following characteristics identified in the literature are elements of effective schools, including school vision and purpose, leadership, a positive climate, academic emphasis,professional community, instructional expectations, feedback, parental involvement, student involvement, and physical environment and resources.<p>Additional themes related to school effectiveness were identified by the participating parents, such as promoting/ preparation for postsecondary education and career information. This suggests that parents of students as early as in Grade 9 and 10 are concerned about their childrens future and want their children to be prepared by the school for lifelong learning. The majority of the Ukrainian parents perceived physical environment and resources, including medical services, to be a very important element of effective schools. With respect to the second research question, examination of the data revealed that the majority of both Canadian and Ukrainian parents identified the same factors as highly influencing the choice of school. These factors included opportunities for higher education, child(ren)s happiness, high expectations for learning, academic standards, quality of teaching and reputation. Reputation was the most mentioned reason for school choice by both Canadian and Ukrainian parents. Parents in both schools commonly identified positive atmosphere as a factor in school choice. Canadian parents employed situational and family-related factors, whereas Ukrainian parents based their choice of school on key qualities of the school and preparation for university.