ABSTRACT STANDARDS-BASED INSTRUCTION: A CASE STUDY OF A COLLEGE ALGEBRA TEACHER by Anthonia Ekwuocha The lecture method has dominated undergraduate mathematics education (Bergsten, 2007). The lecture method promotes passive learning instead of active learning among students, thus contributing to attrition in undergraduate mathematics. Standards-based instruction has been found to be effective in reducing students’ attrition in undergraduate mathematics (Ellington, 2005). College algebra is gatekeeper for higher undergraduate mathematics courses (Thiel, Peterman & Brown, 2008). Research indicates that if college algebra is taught with standards-based teaching strategies, it will help reduce students’ attrition and encourage more students to take higher level mathematics courses (Burmeister, Kenney, & Nice, 1996). Standards-based instructional strategies include but are not limited to real life applications, cooperative learning, proper use of technology, implementation of writing, multiple approaches, connection with other experiences, and experiential teaching (American Mathematical Association of Two-Year Colleges (AMATYC), 2006). Despite all effort to improve undergraduate mathematics instruction, there are still limited empirical studies on standards-based instruction in college algebra. Research in undergraduate mathematics education is a new field of study (Brown & Murphy, 2000). Research reported that overall students’ attrition in college algebra could be as high as 41% in a community college (Owens, 2003). This high attrition rate in college algebra may impact students’ continuation in higher mathematics courses and their interest in the field of mathematics. As a result more research efforts must be focused on ways to improve college algebra instruction. Thus, the purpose of this study was to explore the teaching practices of a college algebra teacher who adopts standards-based techniques in his classroom. The research questions that guided the study were: What teaching practices are used in the mathematics classroom of a college algebra teacher? How are the teaching practices of the teacher aligned with the characteristics of standards-based instruction? The participant of the study was a college algebra teacher who was identified as a standards-based teacher. The teaching practices of the teacher were analyzed and presented using a qualitative single case study method. Data were collected from interviews with the teacher, classroom observations, and artifacts. The research project was drawn from the frameworks of culturally relevant pedagogy theory, symbolic interaction theory, experiential teaching theory, and standards-based instruction. Analysis of the data showed that the teaching practices of the participant were mathematical communication, proper use of technology in instruction and assessment, building mathematical connections, multiple representations, motivating students to learn mathematics, and repetition of key terms. The teaching practices aligned with the characteristics of standards-based instruction. Findings from the study suggest that standards-based instruction strategies should be used in undergraduate mathematics education, especially in teaching college algebra to alleviate some of the problems. Moreover, university administrators at college level should organize workshops and professional development about standards-based instruction strategies for their teachers.

Bakgrund: Enligt patientsäkerhetslagen 2010:659 ska vårdgivare årligen skriva en patientsäkerhetsberättelse. Granskning av 76 patientsäkerhetsberättelser i Stockholms läns landsting (SLL) visade bristande kunskap om hur den skrivs och bristfällig förståelse för patientsäkerhet, främst bland mindre vårdgivare. Hälso- och sjukvårdsadministratörer kunde inte besvara vårdgivarnas frågor om patientsäkerhetsberättelsen, varför ett förbättringsprojekt initierades för att skapa stödmaterial samt nyttiggöra patientsäkerhetsberättelsen.   Syfte: Att belysa hur ett statligt styrinitiativ hanterades i praktiken i SLL och vilka erfarenheter som kunde knytas till praktikprojektet i hälso-och sjukvårdsadministrationen, hos vårdgivare och i interaktionen dem emellan samt om insatserna bidrog till ökad förståelse för patientsäkerhet.   Metod: Studien var en deskriptiv fallstudie. Datainsamlingen bestod av intervjuer med vårdgivare och hälso-och sjukvårdsadministratörer och dokumentanalys. Analyserna var kvalitativ och kvantitativ innehållsanalys.   Resultat: I uppföljning av vårdgivare nyttiggjordes patientsäkerhetsberättelsen med stöd av mall och manual. Interaktionen mellan vårdgivare och hälso- och sjukvårdsadministratör gick från kontroll till dialog. Lärande, och i viss mån förståelse för patientsäkerhet, ökade.   Slutsats: Genom att vara proaktiv och bereda stöd för vårdgivare att fullfölja sitt åtagande avseende patientsäkerhetsberättelse kunde flera vårdgivare bli varse sitt ansvar och skyldigheter. Förbättringsprojektet genomfördes med stöd av förbättringskunskap och hög delaktighet, ett arbetssätt som rekommenderas. Fortsatt forskning av styrningens effekter föreslås. / Background: Caregivers shall according to the patient safety act 2010:659 annually write a patient safety declaration. Review of 76 patient safety declarations in Stockholm County Council (SCC), Sweden, showed a lack of knowledge about how to write and inadequate understanding of patient safety, particularly among smaller caregivers. Healthcare administrators could not answer caregivers’ questions on the patient safety declaration, why an improvement project was initiated to create support and to make the patient safety declaration useful.       Aim: To illustrate how a state steering initiative was handled in practice in the SCC and the experiences associated with the improvement project in health care administration, among caregivers and the interaction between them, and whether the efforts contributed to increased understanding of patient safety.     Method: The study was a descriptive case study. The data collection was interviews of caregivers and healthcare administrators and document analysis. The analysies performed were qualitative and quantitative content analysis.     Results: The patient safety declaration was made useful in the follow up process of caregivers with support of a template and a manual. The interaction between caregivers and healthcare administrators went from monitoring to dialogue. Learning increased and also understanding of patient safety to some degree.   Conclusion: By being proactive and prepare support for caregivers to fulfill their commitment on patient safety declarations, several caregivers became aware of their responsibilities and obligations. The improvement project was accomplished with improvement knowledge and high level of participation, an approach that is recommended. Further research on the steering effects is suggested.

Regional politics is changing; it is transforming from being mainly a responsibility of the central state to a concern that is more for the regional or local governments. At the same time, there are signs of a transformation of the political system in general. The development indicates a decreasing hierarchy as the power of the state is challenged and the political agents are increasing in number. This indicates that the political agents are changing but there are also indications that the political forms are transforming. The politics is increasingly characterised by project and process politics, networks, cooperation and partnerships. This transformation is generally described as the transformation “from government to governance”. New governance is one of the most frequently discussed issues in contemporary political science literature, and this has led to a wide variety of conceptualizations. Considering the changing regional politics and general changes as the political forms and agents, this thesis studies who governs the regional politics and how regional politics is governed.The purpose of this thesis is to provide empirical contributions in order to increase the understanding of changes in regional politics at the local level. This is done by dividing governance modes into typologies. Four political processes at the local level in the municipality of Åre between the years 1973-2007 are analyzed. The thesis is based on qualitative semi-structured elite interviews. The informants have been selected by snowball sampling. The interviews have also been complemented by documentary studies. The documents that have been studied are the protocols from the municipal assembly from 1973, when the municipality was created, to􀂒􀂟2007. The documents also consist of the parish archives (sockenkrönikor) governmental reports and official documents of the local and state-level government. The material has been analyzed by using process tracing.The main results of the study are that there have been changes in the regional politics at the local level in relation to the political agents and the forms of politics. The 1970s were characterized by strong state power and hierarchy. The political processes have increasingly been characterized by the typology of the new governance. The study has shown that in practice the regional politics in Åre is characterized by both traditional governance and new governance at the same time there has not been a paradigmatic shift. The elements of new governance are increasing but there are still significant signs of the traditional bureaucratic system such as hierarchy and ordered rule. As the signs of new governance increase, the political entrepreneurs play a bigger role in the processes being analyzed. The study also shows that the critique of traditional forms of governance relating to participation and influence has not become irrelevant as the signs of new governance increases.

The world is changing and the business context is no exception. One of the clearest tendencies is a tougher business climate with harder competition due to increased international trade and the expansion of the e-business. At the same time the customers are becoming more sophisticated and demanding. The last decades have also meant that tougher and more frequent demands are being aimed at the businesses from a wider variety of stakeholders; demands regarding how environmental issues, social responsibilities and business ethics should be dealt with. All of the above have driven companies towards implementation of different management systems to be able to cope with the demands as well as to ensure that these issues are being dealt with in an efficient and effective manner. The result is that there might be quite a few management systems that have to be handled, usually a time consuming and bureaucratic task. Theory in the field suggests that an integration of the different management systems is logical and profitable as well as beneficial in many other aspects. Some of the benefits that could be gained due to the holistic approach that the integrated management system (IMS) provides are an alignment of goals and strategies as well as elimination of duplications and sub-optimizations. The IMS will also provide an opportunity for companies to strive towards sustainable development in a balanced manner. Despite this not many companies have intentionally sought to integrate their management systems. Researchers within the field note that there is a lack of empirical data to support the theories regarding how companies act when integrating their management systems, knowledge that might provide insights why integration and IMSs is not more widespread.Hence it is interesting as well as theoretical motivated to further study this area, especially as IMSs might be an aid on the companies’ journey towards sustainable development, a highly important issue. This qualitative multiple case study aims to contribute with knowledge regarding how Swedish companies have handled the issue of IMS, more specific, what driving forces, opportunities and hindrances they have experienced associated with IMS. This, as the knowledge about Swedish firms is limited. The research questions are answered through interviews with managers responsible for the management systems. The findings suggest that companies with more than one management system integrates them to some degree, however not always intentionally, and that it might be a lack of clear motives, driving forces and stakeholder demands that limits further or full integration. The outcome is that integration primarily becomes a coordination of existing management systems with purpose to reduce bureaucracy and redundancies. / Företagsklimatet har de senaste årtiondena genomgått stora förändringar, de tydligaste tendenserna är hur konkurrensen blivit hårdare på grund av utökad internationell och elektronisk handel, samtidigt som kunderna blivit mer kräsna och krävande. Parallellt med detta har vi sett hur allt fler och kraftfullare krav från olika intressenter riktas mot företagen; krav på hur miljö, socialt ansvarstagande och affärsetik bör hanteras. Detta har medfört att företagen implementerat olika ledningssystem för att effektivt hantera dessa frågor. Teorin föreslår att en integrering av ledningssystemen är både logisk och lönsam såväl som i övrigt fördelaktig. Detta då ett integrerat ledningssystem har fördelen av att kunna hantera samtliga frågor på ett holistiskt sätt, bland annat kan uppkomster av dubbelarbete, suboptimeringar och konflikter mellan olika strategier och mål undvikas. Dessutom erbjuder det integrerade ledningssystemet möjligheten att på ett balanserat och effektivt sätt närma sig hållbar utveckling. Trots detta är det relativt få organisationer som medvetet har sökt integrera sina olika ledningssystem för att bättre kunna hantera olika intressenters krav och önskemål. Författare inom området påtalar att det saknas empiriskt stöd för teori kring hur organisationer praktiskt gör när de integrerar, något som annars skulle kunna erbjuda förklaringar till varför integrering inte sker i större utsträckning.Det är alltså såväl intressant som teoretisk motiverat att undersöka detta, speciellt då integrerade ledningssystem kan vara ett hjälpmedel i företagens strävan mot hållbar utveckling. Denna kvalitativa studie syftar således till att bidra med kunskap kring hur svenska företag hanterar frågan om integrerade ledningssystem; vilka drivkrafter, möjligheter och hinder de upplever inom området. Detta då kunskapen om hur svenska företag agerar kring dessa frågor är begränsad. Frågorna besvaras genom tre fallstudier, där intervjuer med ansvariga för ledningssystemen har genomförts. Resultaten indikerar att företag, dock kanske inte alltid medvetet, integrerar sina ledningssystem till en viss grad men att en avsaknad av tydliga motiv, intressentkrav och drivkrafter förklarar varför ytterligare, eller full integrering, ej sker. Detta medför att integrering i första hand innebär att en samordning av befintliga ledningssystem sker i syfte att reducera byråkrati och dubbelarbete.

Organizational memory is said to be one of the essential factors of organizational learning, particularly in a part that is concerned with knowledge flowing from an organization to its employees. Often viewed as a system of knowledge repositories, organizational memory is argued to be important in various contexts. The purpose of this study is to explore an impact of the organizational memory in two such contexts, namely in a situation of presence of new employees and organization involved in innovation activity. The importance of organizational memory for the new employees can be explained by the fact that it is through facing it they socialize in the organization. Organizational memory also influences innovative behaviour of employees. This researched is performed in a form of a case study; where the object of study finds itself in a combined context – new employees of R&D department learn from different organizational memory systems. The data for this case study were collected through qualitative interviewing of both the newcomers and their supervisor. The results show that new employees face a range of memory systems, and this range does not depend on the innovativeness of the work they are involved in. It was found possible to look separately into the systems and methods the newcomers accessed them. The most important access methods in this case turned out to be personal communication and IT-enabled means, however a number of other methods were also found relevant for the case. Focusing on how this knowledge can support innovative behaviour of the new employees, this study has found several ways in which both incremental and radical innovations can be enhanced. The memory systems have been found to affect innovative behaviour of the newcomers by demonstrating expectance of this behaviour, by providing “old” knowledge, as well as hints where one can possibly find “old” and “new” knowledge. In general, the findings suggest that looking into memory systems separately from the ways to access them might give valuable insights for rethinking how properties of the memory systems have been defined so far.

Events have been recognized as one of three contributors to destinations. Event tourism has become a new tourism alternative in recent years. This research examines the relationships between the marketing and organizing of a recurring hallmark sport event and the marketing of a tourism destination hosting the event in terms of how their marketing strategies can be coordinated for multiple benefits. The specific purposes of this paper are: (1) to look at the destination marketing and the event marketing strategies during and after a recurring hallmark sport event by the destination marketers and the event organizing committee, (2) to examine the stakeholders relationships in destination marketing and sport event marketing for multiple benefits, and (3) to develop an incorporated destination marketing model in sport events that is relevant to China. The results of the research reveal both applicability and incongruence between the two contexts in terms of the organization structure, stakeholders and their relationships, and strategic integrated planning procedures. In addition, the finding of this research supports the view that coordination of event marketing and destination marketing could generate more benefits for both event and destination organizations. However, there currently is no significant integration, especially in the planning procedures in the case of Xiamen. The researcher - by referring to the literature and the situations in Xiamen - thus proposes three strategies for considerations in future integration, and formulates a tentative integrated planning model in the context of China.

Good governance is of paramount importance to the survival and success of parks in achieving the dual mandate of conservation and recreation. However, there exists a lack of research on governance regarding the implications of outsourcing visitor services to private companies. The case study research explored the perceived implications of British Columbia’s Provincial Parks’ outsourcing model on the nine UNDP criteria for good governance. Interviews were conducted with six government employees, three private contractors, and six members of conservation and recreation non-governmental organizations. The findings revealed distinct variations in satisfaction with governance principles based on stakeholder group. The participants were all deeply passionate for parks yet felt powerless to influence the direction and management of BC Parks due to the high level of political control which prioritized the focus placed on each governance principle. Future parks governance research must also investigate the relationship between politicians and public administrators.

The purpose of this study was to explain and describe the differences in a principals and four teachers perceptions and understandings of instructional leadership and supervision. In the literature review of Blasé and Blasé, Glanz, McEwan, Andrews and Soders, Quinn, and Hallinger and Heck, to name a few, I examined two focal areas: instructional leadership and supervision. The first area I examined was reasons for the lack of principal instructional leadership. I described the historical context, purpose, function, and personal qualities required for instructional leadership. Then, I discussed the negative and positive impacts that the implementation of instructional leadership may have on teachers. The second area I explored was the concept of supervision and, based on instructional supervision literature, I examined two core concepts that emerged: staff development and reflection. My conceptual framework for instructional leadership was based primarily on the works of Blasé and Blasé and Glanz and was centred on supervision, staff development, and reflection.<p> For the case study I used questionnaires and interviews conducted with the principal from Colourful School, along with two teachers from the primary grades and two teachers from the elementary grades. I collected data from the questionnaires and interviews of the principal and the four teachers I analyzed, and aggregated to examine the respondents differences in perceptions on instructional leadership and supervision.<p> Regarding the theme of instructional leadership, the findings revealed a few differences between the principals and teachers perceptions. Concerning the theme of supervision, differences emerged about the purpose of supervision. There was no consensus on the portion of time a principal should spend on instructional leadership; none of the teachers chose the same portion of time as the principal did. Another difference was with the definition of instructional leadership. Teachers focused on personal characteristics to define an instructional leader, whereas the principal emphasized enhancing instruction. A third difference on instructional leadership centred on the impact of the instructional leader on a school; the principal focused on establishing school culture, whereas the teachers emphasized the support teachers must provide the principal. With respect to the theme of supervision, the difference concerned the purpose of supervision. The teachers perceived supervision as being primarily evaluative, while the principals perception was that purpose of supervision was for teacher growth and recognition.<p> The implications of these findings emphasized the need for school educators to engage in clear communication and on-going dialogue about the responsibilities of the principal. Also, clarification is needed on the purpose and process of supervision. Finally, the policies and procedures needed to be put in place to provide the necessary professional development to enhance both principals and teachers skills and abilities to do their jobs more effectively.

This thesis, which consists of three self-contained essays, examines, both theoretically and empirically, some of the economic and identity strategies and mechanisms that federated co-operatives, in particular, and strategic alliances, in general, can use to achieve co-operation and coordination. To accomplish this objective, the thesis uses a combination of industrial organization and game theory concepts from economics, insights from social and cognitive psychology, and evidence from in-depth interviews with decision-makers in the Co-operative Retailing System (CRS) - an association of 264 independent Western Canadian retail co-operatives and their wholesaler, Federated Co-operatives Ltd. (FCL).<p> Essay One combines a case study of the CRS with an examination, in a game-theoretic framework, of the co-operation and coordination problems arising among firms in alliances and the potential solutions to these problems suggested in the economics and business strategy literatures. One of the contributions of this essay is to provide examples of the mechanisms that can be used to implement these theoretical solutions in a business setting - i.e., the essay identifies practical ways for alliances to alter partner firms' payoffs, to provide private rewards, to monitor behaviour, to establish long term goals among partners, to build high group identification within the alliance, and to focus partners' expectations on the efficient outcomes. Another contribution of this essay is to identify some of the second-order co-operation problems that arise in strategic alliances - e.g., lack of incentives by alliance partners to contribute resources that are necessary to develop alliance management mechanisms - and to offer examples of the strategies that can be used to deal with these problems.<p> Essay Two draws upon social identity theory and develops an economic model of behaviour to show how the core firm in a strategic network can promote effective co-operation among network members by inducing them to identify with the network. In addition, the essay offers empirical evidence from the CRS that identity has successfully been used, together with economic mechanisms, to foster co-operation among member retails, and provides examples of the most important mechanisms that FCL, as the core firm in the CRS, has used to manage the identity of the retails. More generally, by incorporating the psychology (and sociology) of identity into an economic model of behaviour, Essay Two contributes to an emerging view that non-economic (behavioural) factors are complementary to the economic ones in the management of strategic partnerships.<p> Essay Three considers the collective action problems that arise in co-operatives when it comes to financing growth and identifies the conditions under which retained patronage can be an effective way for co-operatives to raise growth capital. The essay develops a game-theoretic model to examine the trade-off between the share of patronage refunds a co-operative wholesaler pays to member retails in cash and the share of patronage refunds it retains and invests, so as to provide retails with enough short-run benefits to encourage them to patronize their organization, while still retaining resources to invest in long-term growth. Analytical results show that when there are increasing returns in patronizing the co-operative wholesaler, retails' decisions to patronize their organization are complementary strategies and, as a result, multiple equilibria are possible. Some of these equilibria are ones with high patronage and high investment, while others are characterized by low patronage and low investment. Retails' expectations about the actions of their counterparts are critical in determining the prevailing equilibrium. The analysis also shows that the existence of the horizon problem further constraints the ability of the wholesaler to raise growth capital. Taken together, these results suggest that the retention of patronage refunds can be an effective way for the co-operative wholesaler to raise growth capital, provided it acts to focus retails' expectations on the 'good' equilibrium and to mitigate the horizon problem.<p> By examining the strategies and mechanisms that the CRS has used to achieve co-operation and coordination, and in so doing illustrating the mechanisms that firms can use to manage partner opportunism and prevent coordination failure, the thesis contributes to the alliance management literature. Firms today are increasingly forming strategic alliances with suppliers, buyers, and even competitors in order to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. However, despite their increasing popularity and value-creation potential, alliances more often fail than succeed, with alliance failure often attributed to opportunistic (non-co-operative) behaviour by one or more of the partners and to coordination failure. As a result, it is important to identify strategies and mechanisms that alliance partners can use to achieve co-operation and coordination, and thus realize the benefits from their association.<p> The thesis also contributes to the co-operative literature by shedding light on the age-old debate on whether federated co-operatives need to be centralized to ensure efficiency. In particular, the thesis shows that federated co-operatives can be efficient, provided they address the co-operation and coordination problems that arise among their members, and provides examples of the mechanisms that federated co-operatives can use to achieve co-operation and coordination. In addition, the thesis offers the first analytical treatment of how the horizon problem influences investment decisions in co-operatives.

Nowadays global companies view the world as a single entity, sourcing materials fromanywhere and performing operations to create the optimal supply chain for their products.This leads to an increasing complexity which is driving supply management to becomea core capability of businesses. As supply chains are inherently vulnerable to disturbances,supply management will have to play a key role in the field of risk analysisand risk management. An increased awareness of sources of disturbances is essential tocreate significant improvements in the handling and prevention of disturbances.The purpose of this thesis is to identify and classify sources of disturbance which canhave a negative influence on a company’s supply management. This is achieved by theinvestigation of theories available in literature, as well as identifying and analyzing thedisturbances in the supply management of an international manufacturing company.Additionally, the theories on disturbance management are reviewed to create a foundationfor managerial implications.The company studied is Husqvarna, which currently is in a situation with several disturbancesin its supply management. The performed case study aims at both, describingthese phenomena, as well as testing of the theories. The chosen qualitative approachmakes it possible to gain in-depth knowledge and investigate different aspects ofsources of disturbances in this case study. The interviews performed are standardizedopen ended questionnaires in order to get in-depth knowledge of the situation.The empirical findings are then analyzed in regard to the purpose of the thesis. The goalof this analysis is to compare the sources of disturbances of the classification schemecreated in the literature review to the respondents’ answers from the interviews. Moreover,inputs and opinions from the respondents on how to manage disturbances are connectedwith the theories provided in the literature review within this field.Various sources of disturbance with a negative influence on the supply management ofcompanies are identified. It was also possible to compare the classification schemewhich was created based on the theoretical findings with the finding of the case study ofHusqvarna. Consequently a holistic overview of potential and actual sources of disturbancein supply management has been created. Furthermore, it is possible to contribute tothe body of knowledge on how to manage disturbances in supply management. Theprovided insights highlight implications that can help companies to successfully managedisturbances and hence improve their performance.