The purpose of this study was to explore the value teachers give to the process of formative assessment and their experience with the process. This study was conducted at a rural middle school where formative assessment was not effectively used as reflected in state assessment data. The social constructivist framework, which views students as active participants in their own learning, guided this study. Research questions focused on how the teachers participated in and felt about the process of formative assessment. Eleven teachers, all of whom use formative assessment as part of their practice, were purposefully selected for this study. Data sources, including semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, and a questionnaire, provided data about teachers' perceptions of and experiences with the formative assessment process. Data analysis in the form of manual hierarchical coding, including open and axial levels, was performed to identify themes. The key findings were that the formative assessment process was viewed as important, that the effective use of formative assessment varied, depending on whether a skill was being taught or information was being disseminated, and that the refined and deliberate use of the formative assessment process is needed in order to improve student learning. This study and the associated project, a professional learning experience aimed at improving teachers' abilities to use formative assessment, may provide an approach to addressing the individual learning needs of students and, thereby, narrow academic achievement gaps among various subgroups to promote positive social change.

Kyle Marshall Moller

Catheter-associated urinary tract infection is a common clinical condition among hospitalized patients with numerous health and economic implications. With judicious use of indwelling urinary catheters, along with strict adherence to basic infection prevention measures, such as hand hygiene and aseptic technique during catheter insertion, these infections are most often preventable. However, these devices continue to be used inappropriately or unnecessarily, which has led the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and numerous infectious disease professional societies to focus attention on how these infections can be diagnosed, prevented, and managed. Despite these efforts, consensus on how best to identify cases of CAUTI has been elusive. Perhaps the most widely used guidelines for the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of CAUTI are those published in 2010 in the American Journal of Infection Control by Hooton and colleagues. These authors are very clear that CAUTI is a problem if, and only if, it is associated with clinical manifestations; the presence of urinary microorganisms alone is not a clear indication for antimicrobial therapy. Moreover, these authors provide a list of accepted clinical manifestations of CAUTI, which are substantially different from those in previous guidelines. Among others, the manifestations listed include: fever, suprapubic tenderness, flank tenderness, and delirium. However, these are supported by expert opinion only, and neither their diagnostic validity nor their inter-rater reliability have been reported in the literature. The purpose of this study was to examine the diagnostic validity and inter-rater reliability of fever, suprapubic tenderness, flank tenderness, and delirium in hospitalized adult with an indwelling urinary catheter. Briefly, these clinical manifestations were compared against three diagnostic criteria for CAUTI based on microbiologic and molecular methods, and their inter-rater reliability was examined using assessments conducted by three advanced practice nurses. Because significant microbial growth was only present in two urine samples, the diagnostic validity of these manifestations could not be established. However, it was possible to examine the inter-rater reliability of these manifestations. To summarize these findings, the nurse raters were in perfect agreement with the identification of fever, moderate agreement with the identification of delirium, and fair agreement with the identification of suprapubic tenderness and flank tenderness. With the exception of flank tenderness, these findings are statistically significant, and they provide evidence that nurses can consistently identify the presence and absence of fever, suprapubic tenderness, and delirium in hospitalized patients with indwelling urinary catheters. As CAUTI receives more attention from multiple stakeholders, nurses must take an active role in correctly identifying patients with this condition. However, this study had several limitations, and further research is necessary to understand the overall clinical utility and value of these manifestations in terms of patient outcomes and cost.

The Assessment of Risk and Manageability in Intellectually Disabled IndividuaLs who Offend (ARMIDILO) was developed to address the need for assessment tests specifically designed for intellectually disabled (ID) individuals who offend. This is the first study focusing on the application of the ARMIDILO by using comparative current risk assessment tests to evaluate the ARMIDILO as an effective risk assessment tool. In this research 16 ID people who have recorded sexual and or violent behaviour offences were evaluated using the Violent Offender Risk Assessment Scale (VORAS), Static-99 and ARMIDILO risk assessment tests. The ARMIDILO, VORAS and Static-99 assessments were completed using individual history files kept within the Regional Forensic Psychiatric Service. The VORAS and Static-99 were adapted to incorporate reported, but not charged or otherwise litigated offences and convictions. The adapted tests were then compared against the ARMIDILO as a risk assessment tool. Analysis of the ARMIDILO showed strong validity in assessing ID people who offend. The main strength of the ARMIDILO is in identifying the risk needs of the ID person who offends and may be an effective management test when used in assessing individual needs and program implementation. Risk assessment through the ARMIDILO showed similar results to Static-99 but compared only moderately with the VORAS in measuring the risk of re-offending. Future research with a larger population may further validate the reliability of the ARMIDILO as an assessment tool. Adaptation of the current score sheet for use by non-clinical and correctional staff may prove cost effective.

In the economic environment of the information age, the performance of the stock market is considered an important indicator of the health of a nation's economy. Typically, the performance of any stock market is reflected through stock market prices. It would not be over emphasizing to state that, now the stock market is shedding value, it is having a tremendous influence in shaping the overall economies of most developed nations around the globe. Two research questions from the perspective of the Australian stock market have been developed for empirical examination.The questions are: (i) what systematic risk factors are influential for the Australian stock market returns in both the long-and short-runs; and (ii) is the Australian stock market linked to developed stock markets under the influence of globalization? The methodological approaches suitable for empirical analyses have been closely investigated to reveal the precise characteristics of the long-run stock market pricing process.Empirical tests have been performed to ascertain whether the Australian stock market is responsive to the a priori variables, and if so, which ones and to what extent. Cointegration techniques have been applied to help answer both research questions. To answer the second research question, an analysis has been performed that examined six overseas developed stock markets and asked whether the Australian stock market is cointegrated with those markets in the long-run. The results of the first study show that only a few systematic risk factors are responsible for Australian stock market price movements in the long-run while short-run dynamics are in force. The results of the second study confirm that the Australian stock market is being influenced by a small number of overseas markets and it is integrated with those markets under the influence of globalization. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

In the economic environment of the information age, the performance of the stock market is considered an important indicator of the health of a nation's economy. Typically, the performance of any stock market is reflected through stock market prices. It would not be over emphasizing to state that, now the stock market is shedding value, it is having a tremendous influence in shaping the overall economies of most developed nations around the globe. Two research questions from the perspective of the Australian stock market have been developed for empirical examination.The questions are: (i) what systematic risk factors are influential for the Australian stock market returns in both the long-and short-runs; and (ii) is the Australian stock market linked to developed stock markets under the influence of globalization? The methodological approaches suitable for empirical analyses have been closely investigated to reveal the precise characteristics of the long-run stock market pricing process.Empirical tests have been performed to ascertain whether the Australian stock market is responsive to the a priori variables, and if so, which ones and to what extent. Cointegration techniques have been applied to help answer both research questions. To answer the second research question, an analysis has been performed that examined six overseas developed stock markets and asked whether the Australian stock market is cointegrated with those markets in the long-run. The results of the first study show that only a few systematic risk factors are responsible for Australian stock market price movements in the long-run while short-run dynamics are in force. The results of the second study confirm that the Australian stock market is being influenced by a small number of overseas markets and it is integrated with those markets under the influence of globalization. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Nursing in Indonesia is attempting to achieve a higher standard of education to enable nurses to migrate to global areas of nursing shortages. Assessment of nursing practice during undergraduate nursing education in Indonesia requires investigation to assist in achieving a higher standard of education. For assessment to occur, there are several variables reported in the literature that must be included in the process of assessment, that is assessors, students, methods and tools of measurement as well as clinical environment. It is acknowledged that those factors influence the successfulness of the clinical assessment process. The purpose of this descriptive exploratory study utilising a self report clinical instructor and student nurse questionnaire was to investigate the clinical assessment of Indonesian student nurses undertaking the professional stage of the undergraduate nursing course. Specifically, the study investigated how clinical teachers assess student nurses and how students perceive the clinical assessment process. Data were collected from four nursing institutions in Jakarta, Indonesia during July 2006. Quantitative and qualitative data analysis were undertaken to meet the purpose and objectives of the study. Quantitative data analysis utilised frequency tables, cross tabulations and ANOVA. Participants’ responses to open-ended items were analysed using content analysis procedures. The findings of this study have shown that there are many important issues surrounding the assessment of Indonesian student nurses, such as the model of assessment process employed and the characteristics of clinical instructors, students and clinical environment. From this study, it was revealed that the assessment of student nurses employed skilledv based assessment, despite the global trends towards competency-based assessment. Findings from this study also illustrate that nursing education development has been occurring in Indonesia with already half of the clinical instructor participants being educated to master’s level and most student nurse participants held diploma III qualifications prior to their Bachelor of Nursing course, which means that they want to continue their study to a higher level. However, improvement in nursing curriculum which focuses on competency-based curriculum is needed. Improvement in the nursing curriculum will lead to improvements in the nursing profession. That is a higher standards of professionalism for nursing and nurses in Indonesia. Recommendations from the study include promoting changes in curriculum, particularly regarding the assessment process to employ competency-based assessment for student nurses. This study also endorses the use of a standardized assessment in clinical setting. In addition, further research related to replication of the study at a national level and comparison of clinical assessment in other countries should be conducted.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) is a common psychiatric illness characterised by recurrent, intrusive thoughts and repetitive, stereotyped behaviours. There is converging evidence that OCD is associated with a specific cognitive deficit related to organising and manipulating information in working memory. There is also evidence that OCD is associated with certain pre-morbid personality traits. However, further research is needed to elucidate whether these cognitive deficits and personality traits are specific to OCD or are present in other anxiety disorders and/or individuals with sub-clinical levels of obsessive-compulsive (OC) symptoms. In this thesis, 20 OCD patients were compared to 20 patients with panic disorder, 20 subjects with sub-clinical OC symptoms and 20 healthy control subjects on tests of working memory and the Five-Factor Model of personality. To measure different aspects of working memory, participants completed three delayed matching-to-sample (DMS) tasks and two continuous performance working memory tasks (n-back tasks). The DMS tasks assessed the ability to actively maintain different types of information in working memory (irregular objects; geometric objects; spatial locations). The n-back tasks assessed the ability to update and temporally order verbal and spatial stimuli in working memory. The OCD patients were less accurate than the healthy control subjects on the memory trials of the spatial DMS task, the 3- back trials of the spatial n-back task, and the 2-back and 3-back trials of the verbal n-back task. The OCD patients were also less accurate than patients with panic disorder and sub-clinical OC subjects on the verbal 3-back task. The results indicated that OCD patients were impaired on cognitive tasks requiring the maintenance of spatial stimuli and the updating and temporal ordering of verbal and spatial stimuli in working memory. The OCD patients were not impaired on tasks requiring the maintenance of object information in working memory. To measure normal personality traits, subjects completed the Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO PIR). Compared to healthy controls, OCD patients reported being highly emotional and introverted, less open to new experiences, and lacking confidence in their own abilities. The OCD patients were similar to the panic disorder patients on most of the domains and facets of the NEO PI-R, however, they were distinguished by their lower openness to experiencing new activities, and being less diligent and purposeful. Compared to the sub-clinical OC subjects, OCD patients reported being more prone to feelings of depression, more vulnerable to stress, less likely to experience positive emotions, more humble and sincere and less able to carry tasks through to completion. Overall, the thesis provided further evidence that OCD patients are impaired on cognitive tasks requiring the organisation and manipulation of information in working memory. However, it is still unclear whether this deficit arises due to capacity constraints being exceeded in working memory systems, or some other executive dysfunction such as excessive error monitoring. Future research, combining neuropsychological testing with neuroimaging techniques, is required to better understand the neural mechanisms underlying the impaired performance of OCD patients on tests of working memory. The present thesis also found that normal personality traits � as measured by the NEO PI-R � were able to distinguish OCD patients from healthy controls, patients with panic disorder and individuals with sub-clinical levels of OC symptoms. The results have implications for sub-clinical OC research and the clinical management of OCD.

A cornerstone of much educational research in individualised and automated instruction (e.g., computer-based learning) is the assumption that learners be permitted to set the rate at which they work through the material to be learned. Experiments that have compared learning under conditions of self pacing (determined by the learner) and external pacing (determined by the experimenter), using a variety of tasks and populations, often have not supported this assumption. To evaluate the putative advantages of student self pacing in automated instruction, the studies in this thesis compared the effects of self-paced, and externally-paced, programmed instruction on student accuracy, retention efficiency, and satisfaction. Under self-pacing conditions, learners completely controlled the rate of progress through learning materials; that is, although the program paused when learners were required to provide answers, score answers, and proceed to the next item, it continued as soon as the learner pressed any key. External pacing was operationalised by programming a noncontingent 10-s postfeedback delay after every item; that is, learners could not progress to a subsequent item until the delay period was over. All relevant learning material for the current item was present during the delay. In a series of experiments using an alternating conditions design, learners completed approximately 40 sets of a programmed course in behaviour analysis (Holland & Skinner, 1961). A baseline of self-pacing conditions was followed by an experimental phase in which baseline conditions were randomly alternated with one or more experimental conditions. Later experiments also included a return to baseline conditions. In Experiments 1 and 2 externally-imposed delays resulted in greater accuracy than self pacing. This advantage occurred when the delays were accompanied by the study materials, but did not occur for a condition in which delays were presented without the learning material being visible. Hence, it was proposed that noncontingent postfeedback delays are effective because they provide a study opportunity which is otherwise not taken. In addition, imposing delays only slightly increased overall time to completion, and learners rated their satisfaction with external and self pacing similarly. Experiments 3 and 4 replicated the accuracy advantage found for external pacing, and showed also that material learned under these conditions was recalled better in both immediate and 1-month delayed posttests. These experiments also provided information about factors that influence efficiency during completion of materials. One of these factors was a requirement that, at the end of an instructional set, each question answered incorrectly be repeated until it was answered correctly (i.e., review feature). This is part of the standard implementation of programmed materials and had been employed in all conditions. In the earlier studies, externally-paced and self-paced conditions showed little difference in overall time to completion. It was apparent that although the externally-paced condition had an increased task time due to enforced delays, this condition did not take longer overall because more errors were made in self pacing, so more items were reviewed, and the overall time of a session was increased. Therefore, although imposing delays entailed a time cost, this was offset because it reduced the number of errors and time-consuming repeats. Experiment 4 demonstrated that when the review requirement was removed, noncontingent delays caused an increase in overall time to completion. Another factor determining efficiency was workrate during nondelay components of the task. Measures of the time learners spent responding, correcting responses, and continuing to subsequent frames, indicated that delays promoted faster workrates at each of these points. This was interpreted as evidence of a generalised escape motivation that is increased by being delayed and which offsets some of the time lost due to delays. The final two experiments investigated the effects of reviewing incorrect items on student performance because it had been a potential confound in previous experiments. Previously, both self-pacing and external-pacing conditions required subjects to repeat incorrect items until answered correctly. It is possible that because reviewing items increased time on task (like imposed delays), they also led to compensatory changes in workrate, and influenced timing and efficiency measures. Any such influence was not controlled across experimental conditions, however, because self pacing typically resulted in more errors and larger reviews, and any influence of review size on timing measures could not be separated from the effect of delays. It was found that, compared to a no-review condition, reviews reduced efficiency and had little influence on accuracy and retention. Hence, this feature was unlikely to have interacted with the delay variable in previous experiments. In conclusion, the results of the experiments show that self pacing reduced accuracy, retention, and workrates compared to external pacing. These studies indicate that learners often make poor choices about optimum learning conditions. They also show that small changes in the learning environment can result in consistent and substantial changes in learner performance, and that behaviour analysts have an important role to play in the design and implementation of instructional materials.

Thesis (doctoral)--Würzburg, 1904.