Science education becomes more important for future national development globally in high-technology-based society. In reaction to the trend, the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) has conducted achievement tests in science along with mathematics, called TIMSS every four years. In TIMSS 2003, while Korea was a higher-performing country, South Africa was ranked in the lower-performing countries. Korea features homogenous demography, centralized curriculum, and competitive educational zeal while South Africa is characterized by multicultural demography with various languages, and previously segregated schools based on races. The current research, which is a secondary analysis of TIMSS 2003 data, aimed at explaining the differences and similarities by identifying factors most likely to influence science achievement in the two countries. A conceptual research framework was built on the comprehensive literature review which involved mainly school effectiveness research and factors related to science achievement. The conceptual framework consists of multi-levels, viz., student, classroom, school, and context, and three key concepts, namely time on task, opportunity to learn, and quality. Two research questions were formulated to reach the goal of the research and the first question is: To what extent does TIMSS 2003 reflect factors related to effective science education? Data from the student, teacher and school questionnaires were included in conjunction with the achievement data and analysed by means of factor, reliability and correlation analyses. The factors found to influence science achievement in three levels are as follows: at the student level, books at home, attitudes towards science, time on task; at the classroom level, time scheduled for science and teacher interaction; at the school level, school size, community size, and student background. The second research question is: To what extent do the factors derived from the analysis explain the differences in the achievement of Korean and South African students? To answer this question, the current research used multilevel modeling techniques to deconstruct the total variance in achievement into within- and between-classroom/school level. The strongest predictor is attitudes towards science in both countries at the student level. Student background in Korea and safety in school in South Africa is the strongest predictor of science achievement at the classroom/school level. Furthermore, educational resources such as books at home and educational level of father are significant in Korea while language, teacher qualification, physical resources, and educational leadership are significant in South Africa. For Korea, 93% of total variance in science achievement occurred at the student level while only 7% was attributable to the classroom/school level. For South Africa, 41% of the total variance was assigned at the student level and 59% at the class/school level. From this comparative study, it was recommended that development of student-centred teaching practices to address negative attitudes to science in Korea be considered as opposed to basic issues such as improving teachers’ subject knowledge, developing language skills, and fostering a culture of learning to improve science performance in South Africa. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / unrestricted

According to Venezia, Kirst, and Antonio (2003) and Barth’s 2002 Thinking K16 Ticket to Nowhere report, the disconnect between K-12 and postsecondary education was a contributing factor to high attrition rates. Since mathematics emerged as a primary concern for college readiness, Barth (2002) called for improving student transitions from K-12 to postsecondary institutions through the use of state or local data. The purpose of the present study was to analyze mathematics course-taking patterns of secondary students in a local context and to evaluate high school characteristics in order to explore their relationships with Associate degree attainment or continuous enrollment at an urban community college. Also, this study extended a national study conducted by Clifford Adelman (The Toolbox Revisited, 2006) as it specifically focused on community college students that were not included his study. Furthermore, this study used the theoretical framework that human capital, social capital, and cultural capital influence habitus - an individual’s or a group’s learned inclination to behave within the parameters of the imposed prevailing culture and norms. Specifically, the school embedded culture as it relates to tracking worked as a reproduction tool of ultimate benefit for the privileged group (Oakes, 1994). Using multilevel analysis, this ex post facto study examined non-causal relationships between math course-taking patterns and college persistence of public high school graduates who enrolled at the local community college for up to 6 years. One school-level variable (percent of racial/ethnic minorities) and 7 student-level variables (community college math proportion, remedial math attempts, race, gender, first-year credits earned, socioeconomic status, and summer credits earned) emerged as predictors for college persistence. Study results indicated that students who enter higher education at the community college may have had lower opportunities to learn and therefore needed higher levels of remediation, which was shown to detract students from degree completion. Community college leaders are called to partner with local high schools with high percentages of racial/ethnic minorities to design academic programs aimed at improving the academic preparation of high school students in mathematics and promote student engagement during the first year and summers of college.

Title: Multi-level quantitative evaluation of the use of foreigners in Czech football Objectives: The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate how foreign soccer players influence the Czech first league football in seasons from 1993/1994 to 2019/2020, and use multilevel modeling to analyze longitudinal data to find answers to these questions: 1. Do foreign players effect attendance in Czech first soccer league? 2. Do foreigners effect the number of Czech players in the highest soccer league? A secondary goal is to find out if multilevel analysis is a suitable method to evaluate sport migration in a primary sport in a semi-periphery country. Methods: In the master's thesis multilevel analysis with longitudinal data is used to explain dependent variables which were acquired from the Czech first football league between the seasons 1993/94 and 2019/20. Results: The results of this work show that foreign players do not have an effect on attendance because the results were statistically insignificant. The number of foreign players in the Czech league is increasing on average by 0,22 players per year in one club. On the other hand, Czech players were decreasing in all 27 seasons by 0,13 per year per club. The relationship between the dependent variable of Czech players and independent variable of foreign...

European democracies have witnessed the progressive affirmation of populist parties in the last two decades. This thesis draws from the suggestions of the theoretical literature on populism to study why European citizens support populist parties. In doing so, the aim of this thesis is twofold: on the one hand, it applies the ideational approach to populism to investigate support for populism from a comparative perspective; on the other hand, it seeks to understand how demand-side and supply-side factors contribute to explaining the cross-country and temporal heterogeneity in their electoral performances. This thesis focuses on two demand-side factors (i.e., social marginalisation and sociotropic concerns about economy) and two factors of the supply-side (i.e., liberal institutional arrangements and party competition). The results show that, first, populist parties attract significant support from citizens perceiving socially marginalised, especially in wealthy and globalised contexts; whereas sociotropic concerns about economy do not lead to higher support for populism. Second, liberal institutional arrangements increase the anti-institutional appeal of populist parties; whereas party competition on a core element of the far-right populist ideology (nativism) does not affect support for far-right populism to a great extent. This thesis shows that an approach that integrates both demand and supply side perspectives is beneficial to understand the reasons underlying support for populism.

Yes / Recent research on health inequalities moves beyond illustrating the importance of psychosocial factors for health to a more in-depth study of the specific psychosocial pathways involved. Social capital is a concept that captures both a buffer function of the social environment on health, as well as potential negative effects arising from social inequality and exclusion. This systematic review assesses the current evidence, and identifies gaps in knowledge, on the associations and interactions between social capital and socioeconomic inequalities in health. Through this systematic review we identified studies on the interactions between social capital and socioeconomic inequalities in health published before July 2012. The literature search resulted in 618 studies after removal of duplicates, of which 60 studies were eligible for analysis. Self-reported measures of health were most frequently used, together with different bonding, bridging and linking components of social capital. A large majority, 56 studies, confirmed a correlation between social capital and socioeconomic inequalities in health. Twelve studies reported that social capital might buffer negative health effects of low socioeconomic status and five studies concluded that social capital has a stronger positive effect on health for people with a lower socioeconomic status. There is evidence for both a buffer effect and a dependency effect of social capital on socioeconomic inequalities in health, although the studies that assess these interactions are limited in number. More evidence is needed, as identified hypotheses have implications for community action and for action on the structural causes of social inequalities.

No / The aim of this research was to evaluate the effectiveness of a school-based intervention designed to enhance young people's motivations to breastfeed. A cluster randomized controlled trial was conducted involving 50 post-primary schools from across Northern Ireland. However, dropout and exclusion criteria utilized for the current study resulted in an effective sample size of 42 schools. The intervention was delivered in two 35-min classroom sessions targeting those beliefs identified by the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) as significant in predicting motivation to breastfeed. Questionnaires incorporating the key components of the TPB were administered to all intervention and control schools at baseline, 1 and 6 months post-intervention. Multi-level modelling was used to analyse the data. Findings suggest that the intervention was effective in that it increased females' intentions to breastfeed, expanded their knowledge and led to more favourable attitudes and perceptions of subjective norms. Notably, females' knowledge increased more in secondary schools than in grammar schools irrespective of whether they were control or intervention schools. The research has provided evidence to support the use of the TPB in the design and evaluation of an intervention to increase females' intentions to breastfeed.

Les objectifs des entreprises n’ont pas cessé d’évoluer. Traditionnellement, la maximisation du profit a été considérée comme l’objectif ultime de l’activité de toute entreprise. Aujourd’hui, les managers déclinent plusieurs autres objectifs comme le profit à long terme plutôt qu'à court terme, l’image de marque, ou encore le respect de l’environnement (Boiral, 2006). Ainsi, pour identifier les motivations d’engagement des entreprises dans la responsabilité sociale (RSE) nous avons mobilisé, l’ensemble de la revue de littérature sur le sujet, en se basant sur le cadre d’analyse multi-niveaux identifié par Wood (1991). Cette étude nous a permis de mettre en place un modèle de recherche sur trois niveaux qui explique les motivations d’engagement des entreprises dans la RSE. Ce modèle de recherche a été testé sur 94 entreprises qui œuvrent dans le secteur industriel Algérien. Les résultats ont confirmé en partie nos hypothèses. Par conséquent, l’engagement volontaire des entreprises dans la RSE s’explique par : les valeurs idéalistes du chef d’entreprise, la réduction des coûts de production, l’anticipation sur la législation, l’avantage concurrentiel, la subvention de l’état et à la taille de l’entreprise. / The objectives of the compagnies have not stopped evolving. Traditionally profit maximization was considered as the ultimate goal of any business activity. Today, managers declined several alternative objectives such as long term profit rather than short one, brand, or respect for the environment, Boiral (2006). Thus, to identify the corporate commitments motivations into the social responsibility (CSR), we investigated all literature on the subject, based on the analysis of multi- level framework identified by Wood (1991). This study has allowed us to establish a research model on three levels, which explains the motivations of corporate commitments to CSR. This research model has been tested on 94 companies operating in the Algerian industrial sector. The results partly confirmed our hypotheses. Therefore, the compagnies voluntary commitment in CSR is explained by the idealistic values of the entrepreneur, the reduction of production costs, the anticipation of the legislation, competitive advantage, the state subsidy and the company size.

Introdução - O estudo de eventos de saúde deve levar em conta que as características dos indivíduos de uma determinada localidade não constituem simples somatórios das medidas de cada um dos sujeitos e há que se considerar um modelo explicativo baseado em níveis de organização e na estrutura de dependência entre o nível individual e o nível de contexto onde esses sujeitos estão inseridos. Assim, a análise dos nascimentos e da mortalidade neonatal e fetal pode incorporar diferentes variáveis associadas ao contexto onde se expressam considerando a complexidade e as particularidades dessas ocorrências numa população e num espaço tão diverso. Metodologia - Foi realizado estudo transversal dos nascimentos, óbitos neonatais (<28 dias de vida) e óbitos fetais de mães residentes e ocorridos no município de São Paulo. Os endereços de residência materna foram geocodificados e foi calculada a distância entre as residências e o hospital de ocorrência. Além disso, cada indivíduo foi caracterizado com informações socioeconômicas do Censo Demográfico de 2010, segundo área de Ponderação. Os setores censitários de residência foram classificados segundo Índice Paulista de Vulnerabilidade Social IPVS. Os hospitais foram classificados em SUS e não SUS e para os Nascidos Vivos (e óbitos neonatais) também foram classificados segundo referência para atendimento de risco gestacional. Foram obtidos aglomerados de Nascidos Vivos (NV) através da técnica de varredura espacial. Através de análise multinível foi verificado o efeito do contexto socioeconômico na mortalidade neonatal e fetal. Resultados - Verificou-se que os aglomerados tanto SUS como não SUS não são homogêneos entres si, com diferenças em relação à idade das mães, escolaridade, número de consultas pré-natal e prematuridade. A distância média teórica percorrida pelas mães até o hospital foi 51,8% menor nos aglomerados SUS que nos não SUS. A menor distância nos nascimentos SUS indica a regionalização da assistência ao parto no município de São Paulo. Os resultados mostraram que há um aumento da taxa de mortalidade neonatal com o aumento da vulnerabilidade social. Houve um efeito contextual da vulnerabilidade social e observa-se que apenas as variáveis individuais que representam as características da gestação, recém-nascido e assistência pré-natal mostraram-se associadas à mortalidade neonatal. O efeito contextual da vulnerabilidade social nas variáveis individuais que representam as características da gestação, feto e escolaridade materna mostrou-se associadas à mortalidade fetal. Na modelagem multinível não foi observada variabilidade importante da mortalidade fetal entre os níveis. Conclusões - A detecção de aglomerados e sua caracterização socioeconômica das áreas contribuem para o entendimento do padrão de nascimentos e nas intervenções de saúde pública, proporcionando melhoria no atendimento das necessidades de acesso ao pré-natal e parto de forma mais eficiente. Os resultados em relação à mortalidade neonatal e fetal revelam que as desigualdades sociais estão presentes na cadeia causal desses dois desfechos e o que contribui com a compreensão dos fatores de risco para a mortalidade neonatal e fetal, principalmente no que diz respeito à participação da vulnerabilidade social na mortalidade e explicita a distância entre a residência materna e o hospital como um indicador socioeconômico / Introduction - The study of health events should take into account that the characteristics of the individuals of a given locality are not simple sums of the measures of each one of the subjects and it is necessary to consider an explanatory model based on levels of organization and the structure of dependence between the Individual level and the context level where these subjects are inserted. Thus, the analysis of neonatal and fetal births and mortality can incorporate different variables associated to the context considering the complexity and the peculiarities of these occurrences in a population and in such a diverse space. Methodology - A cross-sectional study of births, neonatal deaths (<28 days of life) and fetal deaths of resident mothers occurred in the city of. The maternal residence addresses were geocoded to calculate the distance between the residences and the hospital. In addition, each individual was characterized with socioeconomic information from the Demographic Census of 2010, according to the weighting areas. The census tracts of residence were classified according to Index of Social Vulnerability - IPVS. Hospitals were classified in SUS and non-SUS and for live births (and neonatal deaths) were also classified according to reference for gestational risk care. The clusters of live births (LB) were obtained through the spatial sweep technique. The effect of the socioeconomic context on neonatal and fetal mortality was verified by multilevel analysis. Results - It was verified that the clusters both SUS and non-SUS are not homogeneous between them, with differences in relation to the mothers\' age, schooling, number of prenatal consultations and prematurity. The mean theoretical distance traveled by the mothers to the hospital was 51.8% lower in the SUS clusters than in the non-SUS. The shorter distance in SUS births indicates the regionalization of childbirth care in the city of São Paulo. The results showed that there is an increase in the neonatal mortality rate with increased social vulnerability. There was a contextual effect of social vulnerability and it was observed that only the individual variables that represent the characteristics of gestation, newborn and prenatal care were shown to be associated with neonatal mortality. The contextual effect of social vulnerability on the individual variables that represent the characteristics of gestation, fetus and maternal schooling has been shown to be associated with fetal mortality. In the multilevel modeling whose context was the level of vulnerability of the place of maternal residence, no significant variability of fetal mortality between the levels was observed. Conclusion - The detection of clusters and their socioeconomic characterization of the areas contribute to the understanding of the birth pattern and the public health interventions, providing an improvement in the attendance of prenatal access and delivery needs in a more efficient way. The results in relation to neonatal and fetal mortality reveal that social inequalities are present in the causal chain of these two outcomes and that contributes to the understanding of the risk factors for neonatal and fetal mortality, especially with regard to the participation of social vulnerability In mortality and explicit the distance between the maternal residence and the hospital as a socioeconomic indicator

Desde a década de 1990, a violência contra mulheres vem sendo tomada como um tema da saúde pública, pela sua magnitude e repercussões na saúde dos indivíduos. Apesar do reconhecimento da influência das características da vizinhança na violência por parceiro íntimo (VPI), poucos estudos exploram como o contexto e a inserção da mulher em redes pessoais e sociais afetam a probabilidade individual de sofrer este tipo de violência. Este estudo teve como objetivo investigar a distribuição de VPI contra mulheres e sua relação com desigualdade socioeconômica, violência urbana e capital social no Município de São Paulo. Para tanto, foram utilizados o banco de dados do estudo multipaíses sobre saúde da mulher e violência doméstica contra mulheres da Organização Mundial de Saúde (OMS), informações do censo do Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE) e taxas de homicídios do banco do Programa de Aperfeiçoamento das Informações de Mortalidade (PROAIM). Os dados foram analisados através de técnicas de modelagem multinível. Os achados mostraram que não há variação significativa entre as vizinhanças na ocorrência de VPI. Além disso, indicaram que viver em contextos de privação socioeconômica, altas taxas de homicídio e baixos níveis de capital social não está associado com maior probabilidade individual de sofrer VPI. Entre as variáveis estudadas no nível individual, destacaram-se comportamentos do parceiro e experiência de VPI pelas mães dele e dela como importantes fatores associados à VPI. Os resultados deste estudo apontam para a centralidade do conceito de gênero no estudo da violência e sugerem que, em São Paulo, o contexto tem influência limitada na dinâmica das relações de intimidade. / Since the 1990s, violence against women has been recognized as a public health matter because of its magnitude and health consequences for individuals. Although research acknowledges the influence of neighbourhood factors on intimate partner violence (IPV), few studies investigate how the context and the woman\'s participation in personal and social networks affect her individual probability of experiencing this type of violence. This study aimed to investigate the distribution of IPV against women and its relations with social inequalities, urban violence, and social capital in the City of Sao Paulo. Datasets used included: the WHO multi-country study on women\'s health and domestic violence against women; the IBGE (Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics) census; and homicide rates from PROAIM (Program for the Improvement of Mortality Data). Data was analyzed using multilevel modeling techniques. The findings show that there is no significant variation in IPV between neighbourhoods. The study also found that socioeconomic deprivation, high rates of homicides, and low levels of social capital in a neighbourhood were not associated with a woman\'s individual probability of experiencing IPV. Among the individual-level variables, IPV was associated with partner behaviors and having a mother who experienced IPV. These results reinforce the assumption that gender is a core concept to understanding violence, and suggest that in Sao Paulo, neighbourhood factors have limited influence in the dynamics of intimate relationships.

O meio ambiente se apresenta como um dos desafios da governança global no que se refere às abordagens de Relações Internacionais e Ciência Política. Isso se deve ao fato de que os recursos naturais não se submetem à soberania direta do Estado e/ou das organizações internacionais formais como fonte de autoridade devido à transnacionalidade que o tema enseja. Neste sentido, os diferentes atores das relações internacionais, estatais e não estatais, precisam construir arenas de atuação, criar regulamentações onde os Estados (eventualmente) não estão presentes, e criar instrumentos de enforcement e compliance. No entanto, a centralidade das questões ambientais é colocada em xeque por teorias racionalistas de relações internacionais baseadas na autoridade do Estado e de sua capacidade de enforcement top-down. O meio ambiente é um assunto melhor considerado por arenas transnacionais em um contexto multinível e policêntrico. Neste sentido, a análise em nível local e a capacidade de organização de grupos sociais na constituição dos arranjos institucionais através da ação coletiva para solucionar a possível \"tragédia dos comuns\" tem atraído estudiosos que procuram demonstrar a sua efetividade e, consequentemente, a sua contribuição para a resolução das contendas ambientais globais. Desta forma, o objetivo deste trabalho é demonstrar como a relação entre a governança dos recursos de uso comum em âmbito local vincula-se aos instrumentos de governança global definidos por governos e organizações internacionais formais para o uso da biodiversidade. Inicialmente, realiza-se revisão bibliográfica da literatura de Relações Internacionais e Ciência Política para articular as questões ambientais entre o local e o global para, posteriormente, revelar como a governança ambiental multinível e policêntrica é estabelecida para o caso do uso da biodiversidade em comunidades locais na Amazônia brasileira, como apresentado no trabalho empírico. / The environment is presented as one of the challenges of global governance with regard to the approaches of International Relations and Political Science. This is due to the fact that natural resources are not subjected to the direct sovereignty of the State and/or formal international organizations as a source of authority because of the transnationality that the subject entails. In this sense, the different actors of International Relations, State and non-State, need to build action arenas, create regulations where States (eventually) are not present, and create instruments of enforcement and compliance. However, the centrality of environmental issues is kept in check by rationalist theories of International Relations based on States\' authority and ability to top-down enforcement. The environment is a subject better considered in transnational arenas in a multilevel and polycentric context. In this sense, the analysis at the local level and the organizational ability of social groups in the constitution of institutional arrangements through collective action to address the possible \"tragedy of the commons\" has attracted scholars seeking to demonstrate its effectiveness and, consequently, their contribution for the resolution of global environmental issues. Thus, the aim of this study is to demonstrate how the relationship between the governance of the common-pool resources at the local level is linked to the global governance instruments set by governments and formal international organizations for the use of biodiversity. Initially, a literature review of International Relations and Political Science literature is carried out to articulate environmental issues between the local and the global to reveal how the multilevel and polycentric environmental governance is established in the case of the use of biodiversity in local communities in the Brazilian Amazon, as shown in the empirical work.