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This thesis used a questionnaire to survey the qualifications of teachers and the types of journalism programs found at the secondary level in schools in the Greater Louisville High School Press Association. The responses from three Indiana schools and three Kentucky schools were reported. The thesis identified: the number of years the adviser had been responsible for the newspaper; the additional subject areas and responsibilities of the adviser; the qualifications of the adviser for teaching and advising the newspaper including workshops, degrees, and/or professional work. The thesis identified the duration of journalism courses and whether the publications class was part of the school day or extra duty, and the credit earned by the student. State requirements for teaching journalism in Indiana and Kentucky were compared and the newspapers from each school were rated according to the Kentucky High School Press Association's Newspaper Rating Sheet. This rating device measured general appearance, news coverage, writing quality, and special pages. The publications were then compared overall and in each category.

The competences of project managers are a vital role in projects success. An exten-sive literature survey was conducted to determine the constitution of an adequate knowledge base for would-be project managers. A detailed literature study was conducted. The literature review discussed how to assess project management competencies. Technical skills and social cultural skills were identified from the literature review. A comprehensive list of criteria was used to generate the critical success factors.Based on the critical success factors that were obtained from the literature in the content for the knowledge base was constructed. This research then started to address what constitutes certification requirements. Certification programs were identified globally for the study. This study identified what the certification programs offered. This research started by proposing a knowledge base and using the “grounded theory approach” used content analysis to compare the proposed knowledge base with project management certification programs. The study concluded with recommendations on the gaps that exist in project man-agement certification programs.

The challenges of school accountability call for new models of school leadership. Teacher leaders are needed to create, implement, and sustain reform efforts. This study investigated whether a specific model of professional development, National Board Certification (NBC), can create sustained change aimed at improved school leadership. The research question which guided this study was: Does the National Board Certification professional development model contribute to school leadership in Louisiana? The state of Louisiana currently has approximately 1,000 teachers with National Board Certification (NBPTS, 2006f). These NBC teachers and approximately 3,000 non-NBC teachers received the online School Leadership Survey, which included survey items taken from a previous study of NBC teachers by Sykes, et al. (2006). A total of 449 NBC teachers and 911 non-NBC teachers responded. The survey included 32 checklist items which explored teacher leadership activities and perceptions in five main areas: types of leadership activities, sense of responsibility to the profession, influence in school-wide policy development, career satisfaction, and future commitment to the teaching profession. A quantitative research design was applied. The research followed an ex post facto, cross-sectional survey model in an attempt to identify a relationship between the independent variable, National Board Certification, and the dependent variable, school leadership, by comparing the leadership activities of NBC and non-NBC teachers. Univariate analysis was used to examine and report the results of the School Leadership Survey. Additionally, the data were used to calculate independent t-tests, factor analysis, chi square tests, and regression analysis.The results of this study revealed that, overall, National Board Certification teachers are leaders in their schools and beyond. When compared to their non-NBC peers, NBC teachers were more likely to be involved in leadership activities at the school, district, and state level. Further, the NBC teachers reported a greater sense of responsibility to the profession, greater career satisfaction, and a deeper commitment to stay in the teaching profession than non-NBC teachers. Using a distributed leadership conceptual framework as a lens to guide the interpretation, the data collected gave evidence that the benefits of National Board Certification are far greater than previously suspected.

The main topics for this diploma thesis are turism and rambling in Germany. Germany is the only country in Europe, where a system of rambling trails certification was developed. It consists of a system of criterias, which were created in a long term demand research of ramblers. After introducing this system on the market, it turned out to be a very efficient way how to encourage local turism and an outstanding tool, how to upgrade the tourist infrastrucure for ramblers. The theoretical introduction focuses on analysis of hiking market and desription of the key players on this field. In the practical part is introduced Rheinsteig, a 320 km long certified rambling trail. On this example is shown its effect on regions in its surroundings.

Foster home placement has been gradually decreasing and this study focused on foster parents’ support system and the reasons leading to decertification. Specifically, this study aimed to find out how foster parents felt about the foster agency and other child protective services agencies. This study targeted the foster care system within an agency located in Riverside, California. The research method used in the study was post positivism, which was a paradigm that allowed flexibility within the study, using qualitative data-gathering methods such as face-to-face interviews in the foster homes. Nine foster parents participated in the study. The results of the study showed that foster parents in the study were satisfied with the agency, but wanted more praise from the social workers and agency. The study also found that the majority of the participants had difficulties with county social workers and therapists. A recommendation for the agency is to bridge the communication gap among other child protective services agencies, agency social workers, and foster parents and continuously put forth efforts to inform the foster parents of foster care changes. Another recommendation is that the agency hold foster parent appreciation events to demonstrate to the foster parents how much they are valued and appreciated.

This research examines consumer preferences for certification of select credence attributes by different certifying agents. Over two separate study periods, groups of Edmonton consumers participated in sessions comprised of three components a real choice experiment, a stated preference exercise and a survey designed to elicit willingness to pay for select credence attributes of eggs, certification of those attributes and establish attitudes and beliefs that may affect preferences. Results indicate that consumer shopping habits, overall trust levels and certain demographic characteristics influence the preference for an attribute as well as the preference for certification of that attribute. Survey respondents prefer certified to uncertified eggs and government is the preferred certifier. Pasteurized eggs gained the most from certification. Furthermore, an assessment of respondent knowledge about current certification practices indicates that certification schemes be accompanied by an adequate education campaign.

The purpose of this study was to review the empirical research evidence on the effect of teacher certification on student achievement. An exploratory meta-analysis was conducted on studies that examined the effect of fully certified and less-than-fully certified teachers on student achievement. The meta-analysis focused on the areas of mathematics, science and reading and explored trends across areas of achievement, school level and research design. The study was directed towards (a) a synthesis of findings, and (b) recommendations for future research and policy decisions.The meta-analysis population consisted of five individual studies that generated twenty-seven effect size estimates. Three studies utilized either an individual level or class level of analysis and yielded twelve mean difference effect size estimates. Two studies utilized either a school or state level of analysis and yielded fifteen correlational effect size estimates. The majority of findings in mathematics favor the positive effect of fully certified teachers. In science, the findings pointed towards equivalent levels of student achievement for fully certified and less-than fully certified teachers. All the findings associated with reading favored the positive effect of fully certified teachers. It appears that certification may be more crucial to student achievement in reading and mathematics than in science. Across school levels, the overall trend suggests that full certification may be more crucial to student achievement in elementary school than middle or high school. Across levels of analysis and research design, studies that utilize an aggregate level of analysis yield a greater number of positive study outcomes than designs conducted at the individual or class level. A key finding is that given the specifications of the meta-analysis, direct evidence of the relationship between certification and student achievement is limited to five peer-reviewed, published studies. Additional findings illuminated several issues that are vital to improving the quantity and quality of research on teacher certification. Eight specific recommendations were directed towards academic researchers who plan to study the topic. Four recommendations are directed towards policy-makers at the state and federal level who are involved in setting standards and planning legislation for educator preparation.

Purpose of the research<p>This paper presents an analysis of, and recommendations for, the training and accreditation of healthcare workers in Canada<p>The significant cost of education and healthcare, as well as the current and ongoing national shortage of healthcare professionals, warrants a critical look at the educational training requirements of healthcare workers in Canada. This topic includes reviewing the historical background of training for a variety of healthcare professionals in Western cultures, the common philosophy of education trends for these workers, and the future directions for various professions, focusing specifically on Medical Radiation Technologists in Canada.<p>Methods used <p>The methodology applied to this research is that of critical analysis, utilizing the following critical skills as proposed by philosopher Bertrand Russell: (i) the ability to form an opinion for oneself (tasks of recognizing, listening and questioning), (ii) the ability to find an impartial solution (dealing with biases and detachment for beliefs, judging on merit of issues), and (iii) the ability to identify and question assumptions (emphasis on judgment, critical reflection and constructive rather than destructive doubt)(Hare, 2001, pp8-9). Recommendations regarding pre-service and continuing educational training for Medical Radiation Technologists in Canada will be proposed.<p>Tied to any investigation of healthcare workers is a critical assessment of the healthcare system, as the needs of the community that is served by these professionals must be identified and successfully met. The literature review includes national statistics and summaries of health and lifestyle trends, as well as the trends for the education and training of healthcare workers.<p>Results obtained/Significance of findings<p>Reflective, critical assessment of the training and future trends of healthcare workers reveals that healthcare has undergone two major changes in focus: (1) healthcare as a business and (2) the holistic interdisciplinary trend of patient care.<p>After investigating the trends of health care professionals training, and even though the arguments for degree as entry-to-practice are very strong on many levels, I dont feel that I can conclude that the degree is the only option. If diploma training can adequately provide the basic theory and skills needed, additional skills and training, when required for a particular task, should be, and currently are, made available to the individual.

The challenges faced by the Brazilian forest industry dealing with the natural forests and plantations have provided favourable ground for the establishment of forest certification. This study presents the first investigation of the two certification systems (FSC and Cerflor) in Brazil from the private sector perspective. Through an exploratory factor analysis (EFA), market, learning, and signaling were validated as governance mechanisms of forest certification in Brazil. The results from the importance and performance analysis (IPA) indicated that companies did not see any return in terms of a better price for certified products; however, they demonstrated high satisfaction with the performances of non-economic benefits. Descriptive statistics revealed external pressures influencing companies to pursue forest certification and overall accomplishments of certification from economic, social and ecological points of view. Finally, suggestions for future research and conclusions are made in order to provide information for the industry, certification systems, and the Brazilian government.