Preference assessments are an evidence-based procedures used to identify potential reinforcers for persons with developmental disabilities. There is a need to develop effective and efficient procedures to teach students and staff to conduct preference assessments, but only a small number of studies have been conducted and only two have used self-instructional materials. A recent study by Ramon et al. (2012) found that a self-instructional manual was more effective than a method description extracted from published articles for teaching university students to conduct multiple-stimulus without replacement preference assessments for persons with developmental disabilities. The present study extended this research by (a) adapting the self-instructional manual from Ramon et al. for online delivery, (b) adding video modeling as a teaching component, and (c) delivering the training package using a modified computer-aided personalized system of instruction (CAPSI, Pear and Kinsner, 1988). The training package was evaluated using a multiple-baseline design across three university students, replicated across three more students; and a multiple-baseline design across a pair of staff members, replicated a across a second pair. During the baseline phase, participants studied a two-page written description of the assessment procedure adapted from published studies. During the self-instructional manual phase, participants completed all of the following online: studied the self-instructional manual presented in eight units, viewed video demonstrations of the procedure, and completed review exercises scored by the computer program to demonstrate mastery of each study unit. Performance accuracy of each participant was scored using a standard behaviour checklist during a simulated preference assessment conducted following each phase. Clear and immediate improvement in performance accuracy was observed in all participants immediately following the self-instructional training package. Overall, students improved from a mean of 35% correct in baseline to a mean of 94% correct following CAPSI and staff improved from a mean of 23% correct in baseline to a mean of 87% correct following CAPSI. During retention and generalization assessments conducted from 7 to 17 days following self-instructional training, five of the six students and one of the four staff members performed at or above 85% correct (the mastery criterion). The findings showed that online delivery of the self-instructional manual plus video modeling has tremendous potential for providing an effective method for teaching a preference assessment procedure without face-to-face instruction.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between a direct group experience, a vicarious group experience, and a control group experience and measures of self-actualization (I scale of the Personal Orientation Inventory) and self-congruence (DOM differences and LOV differences on the Interpersonal Check List).Prior to the group experiences, the sample of 75 subjects was divided into three groups of 25 graduate and undergraduate students per group. On the night of the group experience, 66 of these subjects participated in the study. The direct group (13 females and 7 males) participated in a primarily nonverbal personal growth group microlab lasting for one and one-half hours. The vicarious group (11 females and 10 males) viewed the direct group via closed-circuit television. The control group (10 males and 15 females) spent an equivalent amount of time viewingthree films assumed to be unrelated to moving toward self-actualization and increasing self-congruence.The Interpersonal Check List and the Personal Orientation Inventory were administered to the subjects at the conclusion of the group experiences. The subjects responded to the ICL in two different manners. First, each subject responded to the ICL by indicating which adjectives and/or phrases were applicable to S as he saw himself (real self). Next, each subject responded to the ICL by indicating which adjectives and/or phrases were applicable to S as he would like to be ideally (ideal self).The instruments were scored and three scales (DOM differences of the ICL, LOV differences of the ICL, the I scale of the POI) were subjected to a multivariate analysis of variance. The F value which was obtained (.7670) was not statistically significant at the .05 level. Therefore, the major null hypothesis--There will be no statistically significant difference between mean vectors for the direct group, the vicarious group, and the control group on the I scale of the POI, the DOM differences of the ICL, and the LOV differences of the ICL--was not rejected. As the analysis failed to yield results leading to the rejection of the major null hypothesis, the sub-hypotheses were not investigated and were therefore not rejected.Analysis of the intercorrelations between the I scale of the POI, the DOM differences of the ICL, and the LOV differences of the ICL yielded no statistically significant correlations. Since the three scales used within this study provided essentially uncorrelated, independent measures of self-actualization and self-congruence, using these three scales within one study seems to be statistically sound.Further analysis of the data indicated that there were no statistically significant differences in selfactualization and self-congruence between the direct group, the vicarious group, and the control group as measured by the DOM differences on the ICL, LOV differences on the ICL, and the I scale of the POI. Therefore, a personal growth group microlab leader could expect to achieve no statistically significant change in his group participants based on self-actualization and self-congruence as measured by the instruments and scales used in this study. If leaders continue to present personal growth group microlabs, there is a need to re-examine the goals of such an experience and re-evaluate the microlab in terms of the new redefined goals.

Large Scale Assessments (LSAs) of student achievement in education serve a variety of purposes, such as comparing educational programs, providing accountability measures, and assessing achievement on a broad range of curriculum standards. In addition to measuring content-related processes such as mathematics or reading, LSAs also focus on thinking-related skills such as lower level thinking (e.g., understanding concepts) and problem solving. The purpose of the current study was to deconstruct and clarify the mechanisms that make up an LSA, including thinking skills and assessment perspectives, from a validation approach based on the work by Messick (1995) and Kane (1990). Therefore, when examining the design and student data of two LSAs in reading, (a) what common thinking skills are assessed? and (b) what are the LSAs’ underlying assessment perspectives? Content analyses were carried out on two LSAs that purported to assess thinking skills in reading: the Pan-Canadian Assessment Program (PCAP) and the Educational Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO). As the two LSAs evaluated reading, the link between reading and thinking was also addressed. Conceptual models were developed and used to examine the assessment framework, test booklets, and scoring guide of the two assessments. In addition, a nonlinear factor analysis was conducted on the EQAO item-level data from the test booklets to examine the dimensionality of the LSA. The most prominent thinking skill referenced after qualitatively analyzing the assessment frameworks, test booklets, and scoring guides was critical thinking, while results from the quantitative analysis revealed that two factors best represented the item-level EQAO data. Overall, the tools provided in the current study can help inform both researchers and practitioners about the interaction between the assessment approach and related thinking skills.

Public participation is an important aspect of Environmental Assessment (EA) processes where the public can have an influence on decisions about development affecting them or their surrounding environment. A case study was conducted on the Wuskwatim Generating Station and Transmission Line Project EA process in order to identify barriers to participation faced by Aboriginal publics. Nine general barrier types were identified including: resource deficiencies, accessibility, information deficiencies, communication barriers, inadequate consultation, timing and scheduling constraints, lack of trust, lack of understanding, and coercion and control of dissent. The findings indicate most barriers faced by Aboriginal publics were procedural in nature and may be addressed through improvements in the design and implementation of participatory processes. A number of interrelationships were noted among barrier types suggesting that barriers to participation cannot be addressed in an isolated manner. Recommendations to improve future EA process and areas requiring further research are also discussed.

Currently no ideal method for the assessment of dietary intake of individuals or groups exists. All diet assessment methods have their limitations; much debate exists as to which method is best. The goal is to design an assessment tool that is comprehensive in that it reflects dietary variety but that is not too burdensome for participants. The FCM integrates an interview tool with a computerized program that quantifies food and nutrients in real time. The present study was undertaken to determine if the FCM is appropriate to use with community living older adults. This exploratory study used a mixed method approach to determine differences in recall between the FCM and three 24 HRs. Quantitative findings show significant differences between the methods in reports of energy, zinc, and calcium intakes and consumption of “other” foods. Qualitative findings show that the abstract thinking required to complete the FCM may be difficult for this population.

The thesis investigates the effects that the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE) has on the Higher Education sector. The alternative view presented by the thesis is that more knowledge can be created by concentrating on the different constituents of the RAE and their specific interactions with particular areas of the Higher Education sector. The RAE constituents are interpreted as drivers that influence and impact, in dissimilar fashions, on different activities of Higher Education Institutions (HEI). This micro analysis of the RAE enables the investigation to isolate the single effects of the RAE drivers therefore creating a bottom-up analysis of the overall impact of the RAE. The analysis of the impact that the drivers have on HEIs’ activities focuses on the perception that individuals within the system have of the consequences of the RAE. The focus on perceptions derives from personal observation of the lack of consensus on the consequences that different drivers have on different areas. The use of perceptions as the mean to assess the impact of the RAE enables the investigation to create a picture of the consequences of the RAE that addresses behavioural change. A multi-dimensional crystal view approach is used to accommodate both the micro analysis and the perception assessment. The multi-dimensional crystal view, a research contribution in its own right, is based on the principle that a micro analysis of a complex system can be achieved by decomposing the system into a number of dimensions. Insight is draw when the interactions between some of the dimensions are investigated. In the specific case of the RAE the dimension are: the RAE drivers, HEIs’ activities and points of observation (dimension that captures perceptions). Knowledge and insight can be acquired when the interactions between the dimensions are aggregated at successive higher levels. The supporting tool for the multidimensional crystal view approach is a matrix that facilitates the analytical process. The aggregation of the dimensions comes from combining textual statements from the points of observation (perceptions) on the effects that the drivers of the RAE have on the activities of HEIs. The highest level is a textual statement that synthesises all lower level statements.

The measurement of industries' environmental performance is evolving as society strives towards the ideal of sustainability. Environmental performance indicators within different industries are being developed in order that industry can measure and evaluate performance and report on their level of environmental protection to different stakeholders. Although there are many studies of environmental performance measures, they have tended to focus on those that apply to manufacturing or 'dirtier' industries. This is mainly because environmental legislation, a major driver of environmental programmes in companies, has targeted these industries. Recent legislation on packaging has focused, for the first time, on environmental impacts that are pertinent to all industry sectors alike. This has given rise to an industry-wide set of environmental performance measures for packaging and packaging waste. This 'producer responsibility' legislation has marked the turning point as more legislation is formulated at the European and national level to holistically tackle the environmental impacts of product life-cycles. Current research has concentrated on the development of performance measures for a service-orientated business that is subject to legislation concerning packaging waste, using ICL (International Computers Limited) plc. as a case study example. Particular attention has been given, in this research, to the identification of EPIs and their integration into an ISO 14Q01 certifiable environmental management system for the purposes of demonstrating continuous improvement. A risk assessment methodology is applied to demonstrate the effects of business constraints in the decision-making process regarding environmental programmes. The impacts of the UK Producer Responsibility Obligations (Packaging Waste) Regulations 1997 on the organisation and the necessary steps that the-company has had to take in order to comply with the legislation have been examined. From this study a compliance methodology has been developed and it has been demonstrated how an organisation can achieve compliance and conserve valuable resources for improving its environmental performance. Finally, a survey has been carried out in order to assess the impacts of the UK Packaging Regulations on the environmental performance of industry. From this study a model has been developed for the application of EPIs to guide policy makers in the formulation of environmental legislation and the implications for future producer responsibility legislation.

No description available.

No description available.

Risk assessment and risk management now underpin environmental protection in the UK. Risk assessment provides for a structured and systematic analysis of a problem, and is an objective tool to inform risk management decisions. In particular, risk assessment can assist in the prioritisation of management activities to direct resources more effectively to significant risks. However, the application of risk assessment remains ad hoc and often focused on quantified approaches. The problem of how to integrate the results of a risk assessment into decisionmaking processes remains. The objective of this research was to assess whether a knowledgebased approach could be usefully applied to risk management decisions associated with the protection of groundwater. The use of a knowledge-based system offers considerable potential to support regulatory decision-making relating to environmental risks. Such systems utilise expert knowledge to solve specific problems as an expert would but without requiring specialist or skilled users. This research describes the development of a prototype decision-support system to assist non-specialist regulatory personnel, in the prioritisation of risks and management activities relating to groundwater threats from hydrocarbon point-sources. The research focused on the knowledge acquisition process using semi-structured interviews, concept sorting and risk rating to identify the type of information required by the expert in their decision-making processes and also to distinguish any differences of approach between experts and 'non-experts'. A conceptual model was developed that represented expert decision-making and problem solving. This model was used to develop the prototype decision-support system which was subsequently evaluated by experts and users, resulting in system refinements. A positive response to the usability and utility of the system was received from both expert and user groups, suggesting a knowledge-based approach can be usefully applied to risk management decisions associated with the protection of groundwater.