Teachers at an urban high school in the Southeast have failed to see an increase in classroom achievement or standardized test scores despite efforts to increase passing rates. If achievement rates do not increase, school restructuring will occur. While the site has implemented programs to reduce academic failure, data exists that external barriers may be affecting student achievement. Guided by Bandura's (1986) theory of metacognitive beliefs and self-efficacy as the conceptual framework, this qualitative case study explored teachers' perceptions about the root causes of poor student achievement. This study examines how to identify those causes to help students improve academically, while providing teacher recommendations to reducing the effects of those causes in order to improve student success. Five teachers were selected from the math and science content areas to participate in 1-on-1 interviews to identify external barriers to student success. Thematic coding and member checks allowed for data triangulation to analyze the findings. Seven themes emerged to increase student success by helping close the achievement gap through fostering support between teachers and the families of all students involved: socioeconomic status, ability of goal setting, having encouragement and motivation, seeing another environment, lacking parental support, building relationships with parents, and stress of taking state tests. Developing resources that will help students to overcome issues outside of the school day that leads to increased student academic achievement and graduation rates creates social change.

ABSTRACT As Gentilucci and Muto (2007) proposed, Principals need to find strategies and tactics to have direct, positive effects on Students. Little research has been done which takes the key stakeholder perspective, the Student, into account. Students’ perspectives may be critical as they are the focus educational services delivered, and may have insights into how they might best be served. The primary focus of this exploratory research was to examine Students’ perspectives on effective Principal leadership behavior. This subjectivist research paradigm, or “insider perspective” (Gentilucci, 2004; Gentilucci & Muto, 2007) was important in determining the effectiveness of Principal leadership. The secondary purpose of the study was to examine perceptions from Educators’ and Students’ perspectives; and, thirdly, to determine the congruence between these perspectives. This mixed-methods research work involved completion of the Vanderbilt Assessment of Educational Leadership (VAL-ED), by 31 Educators at four schools to collect Educators’ ratings of their Principal’s effective Principal leadership behaviors. Twenty Grade 5 Students participated in one-on-one interviews, to provide Students’ perspectives, which were analyzed through a phenomenological approach. Key findings which emerged: uncovering Educators’ and Students’ perspectives of the effective leadership behavior of the participating principals; the lack of congruence between Educators’ and Students’ perspectives; and four themes revealed through an analysis of Students’ interview data were found in contemporary models of effective Principal leadership behaviors. Student voices identified leadership behaviors which improve student achievement.

This study’s purpose is to shed some light on providers perspective of Hispanics with mental health issues experience, explore providers experience, Hispanics reason for terminating treatment and review providers recommendation to maintain Hispanic individuals and families in treatment. Other studies have established that Hispanics disproportionately underutilize mental health services in comparison to other population. Assuming Hispanics continue to grow and maintain the majority minority in the region of focus in Southern California where the study was conducted, then the finding in this study may serve to improve both Hispanics access to services and agencies and providers improving services to this population. Furthermore, the study can be utilized by other interns, social worker and professionals alike as a form of an in-service on Hispanics perspective of mental health and how to overcome some of the barriers when servicing this population. This qualitative study used individual interviews as a resource to shed some light on themes from the perspective of a variety of mental health providers. Individual interviews were audio recorded via a digital recorder then transcribed to a Word file. A variety of themes on the subject matter emerged from participants responses.

There is an increased risk in college aged students to engage in problematic substance use. The culture and perceived college experience endorse substance use, whether it is through alcohol, marijuana, or other related drugs. Students are susceptible to these behaviors that can later turn into addictions. Literature supports that this population benefits from the availability of on-campus support groups and services related to substance use. This study provides insight into the perceived effectiveness of campus-based services that are directed to assisting students with substance use. More specifically, this study explored the views of staff members that deliver these services in order to gain insight about how students benefit from accessing these resources. The data was gathered by conducting face-to-face interviews in which responses were audio recorded on an electronic device and later transcribed into transcripts. The transcripts were analyzed and coded for themes and concepts that surfaced throughout the participants’ responses. The results obtained demonstrate significant aspects of how services can impact the student’s struggles with substance use. Ultimately, this research builds on the need for this population to have campus-based services accessible and the importance of integrating social work practice to further assist them.

Research on perspective taking generally points to positive outcomes, but a small and growing body of literature highlights conditions where perspective taking can instead lead to undesirable outcomes. The goal of this dissertation study is to test a model of how taking the perspective of someone who struggles to control food consumption may negatively influence prejudice and discrimination toward heavy people. My model predicts that taking the perspective of someone who is effortfully trying not to eat, which requires the use of self-regulatory processes, vicariously depletes the perspective-taker’s own self-regulatory capacity. Whether that depletion leads to greater expressions of prejudice and discrimination toward heavy people depends on whether the person has high or low levels of implicit prejudice toward heavy people, and how internally or externally motivated the person is to control weight prejudice. Study participants were randomly assigned to read one of three first-person diary entries about a person in a social context where food was present. The degree to which the food described in the diary entry was appetizing, and whether the person was hungry and tempted to eat the food was manipulated. Half of the participants were instructed before reading the diary entry to take the perspective of the person in the story, while the other half were instructed to simply read the diary entry. Self-regulatory capacity was measured and tested as a mediator between perspective taking and both prejudice and discrimination. Effort and individual differences in implicit attitudes about weight and motivation to control weight prejudice were measured and tested as moderators in the model. Results did not support the primary study model hypotheses.

Perception and mental imagery are often thought of as processes that generate internal representations, but proponents of perceptual activity theory say they are better thought of as guided exploratory activities. The omission of internal representations in the perceptual activity account has led some to see it as computationally implausible. This thesis clarifies perceptual activity theory from a computational perspective, and tests its viability using a computer model called PABLO. The computer model operates in the Letter Spirit domain, which is a framework for creating stylistic variations on the lowercase letters of the Roman alphabet. PABLO is unlike other computer models of perception and mental imagery because it does not use data-structures to represent percepts and mental images. Mental contents are instead modelled in terms of the exploratory activity in which perceptual activity theory says they consist. PABLO also models the flexibility of imagery, and simulates how it can be harnessed and exploited by the system to generate a creative product. PABLO is a first attempt at an implementation of perceptual activity theory, but the results suggest that the theory is computationally viable, and that it has advantages over other theories of mental imagery in the context of creativity.

Trinity Christian School is a Christian parent controlled school which was established in 1980 with eleven students and one teacher. The current enrolment of the school is some six hundred and forty students. In 1991 the Trinity Christian School Vision Statement was written. This 'Vision Statement' gives an outline of the direction Trinity Christian School should be heading. It also gives a brief outline of the purpose for the school's existence. At the present time Trinity Christian School is beginning to expand into a school of some seven hundred and eighty students and is also undergoing a process of whole school review. It is therefore a significant time in which to study how the Trinity Christian School Vision Statement is being implemented within the school, particularly, within the Secondary section of the school. The focus of this study is to observe what if any, a selection of secondary teachers at Trinity Christian School are including in the classroom which would reflect the Trinity Christian School Vision Statement. In particular, to look for the inclusion of a Christian perspective as is defined in the Vision statement'. To undertake this study a naturalistic inquiry methodology was selected in which a range of field study techniques were adopted, especially from the field of ethnography. A range of data was collected from the following sources: curriculum statements; the Christian perspectives outline; teaching programs; lesson observations; teacher interviews; student interviews; student workbooks; and teaching resources. From the data collected for this study there is much evidence to demonstrate the teachers' inclusion of the Christian perspective in the classroom at Trinity Christian School. The manner in which this is included varies between cases, much as the teaching style of each individual teacher varies. Teachers' Inclusion Of The Christian Perspective In The Classroom How the Christian perspective is included also varies according to the subject and the unit being taught. For instance, to include a Christian perspective in the teaching of the Theories of Creation and Evolution' in Science is of course going to be far easier than in the teaching of 'Products and Factors' in Mathematics. A key implication for Trinity Christian School, is that the consistency of the documentation could be improved. If this was done, then a greater inclusion of the Christian perspective in the classroom could be provided to challenge the students more than at present. This could be achieved if the Christian perspective were incorporated in many more aspects of the classroom than was observed in this study. In this way the students would have modelled to them the Christian way to live in many more of the situations which arise in the classroom.

This project explores systematic strategies for establishing a definitive mode of representation in drawing. These strategies are considered in the context of the subjectivities and contingencies of perceptual experience, the mediation of that experience and inherent limitations in representational language. The aim is to explore the possibilities of constructing two-dimensional artworks which serve to define or investigate perceptual processes, perspective devices and spatial relationships.

<p>Abstract</p><p>My purpose with this composition was to investigate how the pupils at the nine-year compulsory school year eight describe the subject sport and health in school. The results from the interviews were compared with some of existing ideas and theories that are used in work for health of today. The studies that earlier has been done in the subject have in the most cases had focus from an adult perspective, with a view to look at the subject sport and health. I choose to examine what possible experienced health factors from a perspective of pupils, witch are important for the pupils to reach physical between the subject, what did they learn about health at the lessons and how they define the conception of health</p><p>In my qualitative study I used interview to investigate the pupils describe of the subject sport and health in school. The choice of method was inductive in purpose to develop ideas and hypothesis in the subject. My study showed that the pupils experienced that they reached health effects through the subject in form of feeling well. They described how important the subject is for their health in school.</p><p>The study also showed that the conception of health was complex and difficult to define for the pupils. My conclusion is that the subject sport and health gives many pupils experiences of own health effects, but needs to be developed for in order to engage even the physical inactive pupils and in that way be able to reach the aim of the course plan. Besides the conception of health needs to be define more clearly in the documents to reach a concordant in teaching and to make possible the learning and knowledge-development in the subject.</p>

<p><p>Studiens syfte var att utifrån tidigare forskning (Hallén, 2007, 2008) undersöka konsekvenser av att känna empati. Genom en faktoriell inomgruppsdesign (2x2) besvarade 51 frisörer en enkät om hur de påverkas på kort och lång sikt av att känna empati med sina kunder. Resultaten visade att empati med någon som mår dåligt upplevdes leda till betydligt mer negativa effekter än empati med någon som mår bra, på både kort och lång sikt. Vidare upplevdes effekterna som mer intensiva på kort sikt än på lång, oavsett om individen man empatiserat med mått dåligt eller bra. En tänkbar förklaring till skillnaden över tid är att de emotioner vi specifikt erfar genom andra avtar på samma sätt såsom minnen av egna emotioner gör generellt.</p></p>