This mixed method study investigated continuing professional education practices of active Presbyterian ministers serving congregations within the United States. In the first phase, a self-developed survey instrument was mailed to a stratified random sample of 1,000 Presbyterian ministers. The survey instrument contained items relating to demographics, educational strategies, and techniques used when participating in continuing professional education. The data from 439 completed surveys was analyzed to determine if any significant relationships existed between gender, career choice and educational strategies and techniques used by Presbyterian ministers. The second phase consisted of telephone interviews with 12 Presbyterian ministers from the overall sample population. The interview consisted of questions relating to overall satisfaction with quality of available education strategies and techniques.Based on the data analysis and telephone interviews completed during this study, 4 conclusions were made. First, Presbyterian ministers are satisfied with the continuing professional education strategies and techniques that are available for their use. Second, there is no difference between gender, career choice and educational strategies and techniques of Presbyterian ministers in this study. Third, concerning continuing education practices, Presbyterian ministers use the methods they were taught in their pre-professional training. Fourth, Presbyterian ministers in this study served as their own educational agents and made decisions about what educational strategies and techniques best suit their needs for continuing professional education.

Abstract THE IMPACT OF ENABLING SCHOOL STRUCTURES ON THE DEGREE OF INTERNAL SCHOOL CHANGE AS MEASURED BY THE IMPLEMENTATION OF PROFESSIONAL LEARNING COMMUNITIES By Joseph D. Tylus, Ph.D. A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2009 Major Director: Dr. William C. Bosher Distinguished Professor, G. Wilder School of Policy Adjunct Professor, VCU School of Education This non-experimental, correlational study looked at the relationship between bureaucratic structures in middle and high schools in bringing about change in individual teacher classroom instructional practices through the centralized directive of membership in a professional learning community. Using a continuum of bureaucratic structure, from enabling to hindering, designed by Hoy and Sweetland (2001), each teacher identified the type of bureaucratic structure they believed they operated within. The teacher participants responded to a questionnaire on how involved they were and to what degree they participated with colleagues in a professional learning community during the current school year. Further, they were asked how membership in a professional learning community influenced, if at all, their instructional practices. A regression analysis showed a statistically significant relationship between enabling bureaucratic structure and a higher degree of teacher personal professional growth. A regression analysis also demonstrated a statistically significant relationship between enabling bureaucratic structure and change in instructional practices in the classroom associated with membership in a professional learning community. However, while the analyses found statistical significance, the actual effect size was low, challenging the level of practical significance of the model. One interaction of interest related to teachers who teach courses where there is a state mandated end-of-course test that impacts the school’s adequate yearly progress (AYP) rating. Teachers in this group reported the highest level of change in their classroom instructional practices through membership in a professional learning community when they perceived a more enabling bureaucratic structure for the school in which they worked. Hopefully these results will help encourage future work that pertains to which bureaucratic structures are most effective in producing change in the classroom through the use of professional learning communities. The dissertation was created using Microsoft Word 2003.

Studies have shown that mentoring is a viable form of professional development.Faced with large numbers of retirements and a projected increase in student enrollment, the issues of recruitment, retention and revitalization of current faculty are at the core of this study. There is little empirical research on the phenomenon of structured or formal mentoring in higher education from the perspective of both the mentee and the mentor.The purpose of this study was to identify, describe, and analyze the perceived benefits that both senior or more experienced faculty mentors and junior or new-to-the institution faculty mentees at a large urban research university received from participating in a structured faculty mentoring program.A nonexperimental, descriptive study was designed to explore these issues. The method used to collect data was a survey questionnaire. Utilizing both descriptive and correlational statistics, the most notable findings revolved around the significance of sharing aspects of institutional culture by older, more experienced faculty members. Independent samples t-tests performed on ten subscales by participant type were significant at the p≤0.05 level. Specifically, mentors gave higher ratings for Scale 3, Institutional Culture and Scale 10, Value of One-to-one Activities. Mentees gave higher ratings for Scale 5, Psychosocial Compatibility elements.The findings also indicated that women gave higher value to the personal, psychosocial aspects of being involved in the structured mentoring program than men. Women gave higher ratings for Scale 5, Psychosocial Compatibility and Scale 8, Psychosocial Compatibility and Activity Elements.Correlations for faculty members years of experience at this institution as well astheir total years of being faculty members in higher education found faculty members at the current institution with greater years experience was positively correlated with Scale 3, Institutional Culture (r = .33). Total faculty years in higher education was also positively correlated with Scale 3, Institutional Culture (r = .40) and Scale 10, Value of One-to-one Activities (r = .27). The findings also suggest areas of emphasis administrators might use in designing and implementing faculty development activities that involve formal mentoring by more experienced faculty in order to obtain the greatest benefit for all participants.

This research study intends to find out about the use of online collaboration tools in supporting knowledge workers for the practice of employee volunteering. Online collaboration tools refer to the web-based technologies such as popular Web 2.0 tools like blogs or wikis and traditional online tools such as instant messenger, discussion forums, online chats and e-mail used by several individuals with the aim of achieving a common goal. The employee volunteering program- called Corporate Service Corps (CSC) - is an employee volunteering program in which the IBM employees tackle the economic and societal issues of the less developed countries they have been sent to while getting involved in project-based learning activities. This study provides an insight into how online engagement enabled the continuation of non-formal workplace learning practices such as volunteering and opened up possibilities for new ways to contribute to the learning process of employees. When it comes to online communities there is a mixture of entanglements, partnerships, negotiations and resistances between these tools and human actors. This research study explores how online communities are created by employee volunteers and also provides an understanding of non-formal learning practices within such fluid settings; important issues for organizations interested in non-formal learning practices of their employees are also raised. Today’s workplace settings are in constant need of recurrent learning processes interwoven with daily tasks on digital spaces. However, these digital spaces are not devoid of any issues and hence suggest the need for employees to be conscious of the emerging issues. The results from the case study are analysed by using participatory design methods in order to contribute to the understanding of the use of technology as both a single and collective experience. This research identified the specific benefits of online collaboration tools, and explored how their usage has been appropriated by employee volunteers for their practice of volunteering and how they influenced the process of their meaning-making. By doing so, it raised an awareness of the digital tools that provide collections of traits through which individuals can get involved in non-formal learning practices by having digital interactions with others.

Doctor of Education / Department of Educational Leadership / Donna Augustine-Shaw / Jessica Holloway / School superintendents have traditionally been removed from the systemic process of learning in a school district and instead of been considered more indirect supporters of student achievement. Now, in the face of changing leadership standards, they are being required to provide leadership that more directly enhances student learning by way of teacher professional development. This case study takes a deeper look into the process of the superintendent’s role in district professional development. This will include a purposeful examination to clearly understand the superintendent’s role in designing, implementing, and monitoring professional development in the school district. The study includes (a) the meaning of professional development; (b) examination of school leadership theories and roles; and (c) analysis of how professional development impacts the classroom design of a district instructional framework for professional development.

Professional ethics in legal practice Key words: ETHICS, ADVOCACY, PROFESSIONAL ETHICS The primary subject of my diploma thesis is professional ethics related to carrying out advocacy in the Czech Republic and institutions related to the ethics of solicitors. The reason for my choice of the aforementioned subject is mainly my experience in a legal office, where I have encountered many positive and negative approaches to carrying out this profession, and also the public's interest in the ethics of advocacy, which is growing concurrently with the rising needs of citizens to use services by legal consultants and representatives. In the first chapter of my work I describe the key terms (ethics, morals, law), definition of which is fundamental for understanding the issue of professional ethics and I also outline the mutual relations between these terms. In the second chapter I briefly present the short but varied history of advocacy in the Czech Republic, which began in the 12th Century. The third chapter focuses on definition of the institute of professional ethics. The first part concerns professional ethics as a set of moral standards valid for a specific profession and the second part defines professional ethics in relation to carrying out advocacy. The third part of the third chapter is called the...

This diploma thesis goes into a problem of the legal interpretation of the term lex artis, which some authors describe as well-known term of unknown content. Generally, this term relates to the activities of doctors and other health care professionals within taking care of patients, and usually we can meet with the ablative lege artis, which is used to denote a professionally correct action. This term is in common usage also in the reference books and case law where the breach of the duty to act lege artis is considered to be a precondition for liability of physician or health care provider for injury to the patient. Certain difficulty of using the term lex artis lies in the fact that the legislation in force does not mention not even define this term and its meaning must therefore be inferred from legislation by interpretation. For the legal definition of lex artis is from 1st April 2012 considered the provision of s. 4 (5) of Act No. 372/2011 Sb., about Health Services and Terms (the Health Services Act), as amended, which defines appropriate professional standard of providing health services and which is from the early beginning criticized by the part of professionals for its alleged conflict with patients' rights guaranteed by the Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine. The aim of this...

Ethical rules of conduct of judges in the Czech Republic This master thesis deals with ethical rules of conduct of judges in the Czech Republic. I chose the topic because in this area there is lack of scientific literature given to the topic of professional ethics in general and even less literature directly addressing the professional ethics of judges. The main objective of this thesis is to provide the most comprehensive picture of the professional ethics of judges in the Czech Republic and the resources on which it puts. The topic is brought to the reader within five chapters. The first chapter introduces the reader to the topic of ethics and its relation with morality and law and brings the view from the perspective of philosophy and legal theory. The second chapter deals with professional ethics and professional ethical codes, presents to the reader what the professional ethical code should be like. The content of the third chapter is in the first place to introduce the reader to the character and personality of the judge, his status in the legal system and, above all, the analysis of the professional ethics of judges. This chapter is the core of the work and in the analysis of various aspects of professional ethics draws on information acquired in the previous chapters. The main basis for this chapter...

M.Ed.

Professional development in education is often a process focused on teachers' limitations. Teachers are rarely offered choices in professional development, nor are they asked to qualify the attributes of their professional development experiences they find most meaningful. This study situates the National Writing Project as a specific professional development program from which to consider teachers' beliefs and perceptions regarding their professional development experiences. The study begins with a broad view of professional development, then directs attention to the Writing Project as a professional development model. Ten teachers participated in individual and focus group interviews for the study. Interview data were collected and analyzed using a qualitative phenomenological approach to discern the features of the Writing Project that teachers value as a professional development experience. Results from this study include five essential elements of the Writing Project experience as reported by participants. Results show that the Writing Project builds teachers' instructional and pedagogical capacity, sponsors teachers' professional voice, breaks down isolationism, connects teachers to the writer within themselves, and attracts leaders while facilitating leadership in its members. The study concludes with a discussion of the implications researchers and educators may draw from the results.