Several studies have identified positive relationships between strong principal instructional leadership and improved student outcomes. However, few researchers have examined how principals influence the nature of instruction, particularly as it relates to ambitious goals for student learning. I conducted a mixed-methods analysis to investigate relationships between principalsâ understanding of inquiry-oriented mathematics instruction, district context, school context, and the extent to which they implemented strategies that had the potential to support teachersâ development of ambitious instructional practices. In a logistic regression analysis, I found district membership significantly predicted the implementation of improvement strategies rather than principalsâ understanding of inquiry-oriented mathematics instruction. A follow-up qualitative analysis revealed that principals who implemented improvement strategies often sought out other instructional leaders (e.g. district math specialists, school math coach) to both diagnose issues in current math instruction and facilitate learning events (e.g. professional development) to foster improvements in the quality of instruction. Additionally, principals who implemented instructional improvement strategies worked in districts that provided more support for principals as instructional leaders and worked with teachers who had greater instructional expertise. Additional research is needed to understand how principals come to recognize and value instructional leaders with expertise in inquiry-oriented math instruction.

Much of the research on vocabulary development in preschool children has focused on the dimension of breadth, or the number of words known. However, vocabulary depth, or the quality of knowledge for known words, predicts reading comprehension above and beyond the contribution made by breadth. A focus on depth can also better inform instruction by providing more detailed information about childrenâs word-learning. This three-paper dissertation is aimed at clarifying depth as a concept, tracking how it develops and how it can be fostered in preschoolers, and examining how it can be measured. The first paper looks at preschoolersâ depth of learning for words from different form classes, examining the kinds of semantic information that were learned during a book-reading and play intervention. The second paper is a conceptual review of vocabulary measures used with preK-1st grade children. This paper maps these measures on to features of depth, making visible the aspects of word knowledge assessed by each, and also argues for the use and development of measures that tap higher-quality word knowledge. The third paper reports the results of an informational book-reading and play intervention designed to support preschoolersâ depth of word knowledge. This paper examines the impact of the intervention, and also looks at specific features of instruction and interaction that may contribute to depth, such as teaching words in taxonomies and the potential benefit of using target words in responsive interactions. As a set, these papers seek to add to the fieldâs theoretical understanding of depth and to shift the focus in vocabulary interventions and measurement to include a greater attention to quality of word knowledge.

This dissertation examines how teachers learn to implement translingual pedagogy in a language arts classroom. I analyze data from a five-week professional development study in which three middle school teachers learned and enacted an approach to pedagogical translation called TRANSLATE. TRANSLATE is adapted from small group guided reading, and describes specific steps and flexible strategies for guiding students to collaboratively translate short passages from grade level texts to improve reading comprehension. Focusing on teacher reflections on teaching TRANSLATE, I first examine how teachersâ professional vision of translingual pedagogy led to changes in their practice of pedagogical translation. Teachersâ initial orientations on pedagogical translation were highly individualized; conditioned by their normative pedagogical routines, their histories of engagement with particular students, and their participation in other related practices, especially second language learning experiences. As translation routines stabilized, however, teachersâ professional vision of translingual pedagogy began to converge through opportunities provided within the professional development for collaborative discussion of the goals of the practice. Drawing on social practice theory and multimodal discourse analysis procedures, I then examine lesson transcripts and video to investigate how teacher participation in language problem solving events (LPSEs) facilitated studentsâ metalinguistic understanding and teacher learning. This analysis suggests that studentsâ tendency to make explicit metalinguistic connections during collaborative translation is facilitated by bodily and material arrangements that promote shared attention on texts, especially on alternative translation choices. It also describes power struggles that arise when studentsâ focus on communicating essential text information conflicts with teachersâ goal of exploring the meaning of unusual vocabulary. Finally, this study suggests teachersâ participation in LPSEs is more strategic and effective when translation is regarded as a tool to achieve curricular objectives, rather than an end in itself. This study contributes to research and practice in translingual pedagogy by expanding our understanding of how teachers learn to leverage student background knowledge toward pedagogical goals in multilingual classrooms.

As efforts are made in pre-kindergarten settings to design and model high quality programs, there is a growing need to attend to the aspects of the local context that may influence the ways that teachers and staff make sense of visions for their practice. Yet, the professional cultures in which teachers and other educators make sense of their practice are multifaceted and not well understood, particularly in early childhood settings. This exploratory case study examines collaboration and mentorship network structures, the alignment between formal structures and informal networks, and the beliefs among leaders, teachers, and assistants in three pre-kindergarten schools that comprised an initiative to build a model pre-kindergarten program. Social network surveys and self-reported beliefs from 75 educators were used to develop a composite picture of professional culture at each school, complemented by interviews participants. Results indicate distinct cultures at each of the three schools and sparse ties across the three schools. More specifically, variations in the network cohesion and teacher assistant positioning, in the alignment between formal and informal networks, and in autonomy and teacher-assistant trust at the schools were combined into different types of professional culture. Interview statements and examples provide evidence for each type of professional culture. Implications for policymakers and practitioners hoping to develop strong positive professional cultures are included. Future research is needed that uses both quantitative and qualitative methods to generate more comprehensive pictures of professional culture in a variety of schools.

The biology of malaria parasites, Plasmodium spp., may be influenced by the presence of genetically distinct conspecific clones within a single infection, resulting in competition for host resources and transmission, and increased virulence for the vertebrate host. The extent of within host diversity, however, may be limited because overall clonal diversity could be reduced by the transmission biology of Plasmodium and variation in local prevalence. I examined clonal diversity of a natural malaria parasitehost association, P. mexicanum in its hosts, the western fence lizard, Sceloporus occidentalis, and sandflies, Lutzomyia vexator and L. stewarti, at a site in California ("Hopland"). Using microsatellite markers I characterized for the parasite, I examined (i) diversity within and among infections over time and space, (ii) transmission success of clones into both vector and lizard, (iii) the effects of clonal diversity on the parasite's infection dynamics and virulence for the lizard. From 1996 to 2006, clonal diversity varied both temporally and spatially, with slightly more multiclonal infections detected during years of high vs. low parasite prevalence (88% vs. 78% for sites with the highest prevalence at Hopland). Spatially, low prevalence sites (< 1% of lizards infected) had fewer multiclone infections (50%). Thus, even when prevalence drops over time, or at sites with chronically low prevalence, clonal diversity of the parasite remains high. Using natural and induced infections in the lizard, I found that multiclonal infections are no more infectious to vectors than single-clone infections, and almost all clones transfer successfully when the insect takes a blood meal. A competition experiment demonstrated that infections block new genotypes from entering a lizard host. Thus, multiclone infections are likely to be established when vectors feed on a complex infection and transmit those parasite clones to an uninfected lizard. The transmission biology of Plasmodium thus allows for the maintenance of genetic diversity in the parasite population. Finally, I examined the effects of multiclonality on the parasite's infection dynamics and virulence to the lizard host. Induced infections harboring a single or multiple clones had similar overall growth rates and maximal parasitemia, but multiclonal infections had significantly higher investment in gametocytes, suggesting competition for transmission. In addition, variation in parasite growth and density was greater for multiclonal infections, with approximately 1/3 displaying high replication rates and final parasitemia. Virulence measures indicated that weight change and proportion of immature erythrocytes was consistent for infections with 1, 2, 3 or > 3 clones, but the highly diverse infections had greater blood hemoglobin and glucose and more rapid clotting rates. Compared with the noninfected control lizards, highly diverse infections (3+) had higher blood glucose levels but similar hemoglobin levels. I have found that genetic diversity of the malaria parasite Plasmodium mexicanum varies both temporally and spatially, although overall diversity remains high. The transmission dynamics of the parasite maintains high genetic diversity within infections. Additionally, diversity within hosts plays a significant role in variation of infection dynamics and virulence.

Classroom mathematics discussions are difficult for teachers to orchestrate. They require attending to and responding to studentsâ ideas about mathematics in ways that are responsive to their approaches, yet also guiding the group toward more sophisticated mathematical understanding. Deliberate practice is a promising approach to preparing teachers for this work. In this dissertation I focus on a form of deliberate practice called rehearsal that provides teachers an opportunity to role-play these discussions while instructors provide coaching and feedback. I provide a synthesis of literature that illuminates the learning opportunities in rehearsal and situates rehearsal as one component of a larger learning cycle that helps teachers learn how to learn from their own practice. I then offer two empirical analyses that examine the role of rehearsal in changes to the classroom practice of inservice middle school math teachers. These analyses conclude that the content of teachersâ questions are particularly susceptible to change as a result of rehearsal and are propelled through moments of teacher self-correction and conflict with previously-established classroom norms.

During occupational therapy training in South Africa, students are expected to consider cultural differences when working with patients. This study considered the training offered to students in terms of cultural diversity and the perceptions of 47 novice community service occupational therapists about their cultural competence as well as how these perceptions had changed after three years of clinical practice. Results indicate that all six participating universities offer training in cultural diversity although university respondents feel this is affected by time, students’ attitudes and their inability to reflect. Most newly qualified occupational therapists felt the training was adequate, although they reported difficulty in working with patients from other cultures in clinical practice. The perceived cultural competency level of the newly qualified respondents varied with some respondents still needing to develop awareness and knowledge and others already extending themselves in terms of cultural skill, encounters and cultural desire. Some used rules and knowledge to guide their intervention and language was seen as a major barrier to practicing culturally appropriate occupational therapy, Three years later three respondents, who could be considered competent occupational therapists, reported using reflection in practice enabled them to consider culture from their clients’ unique perspective. They felt personal experience, opportunities from classroom experiences, fieldwork exposure and professional development activities should be used to strive toward becoming culturally competent. The importance of having relevant resources available was highlighted. Recommendations for occupational therapy curriculum development in terms of cultural competence in South Africa are therefore suggested.

This thesis presents two novel algorithms for the evolutionary optimisation of agent populations through divergent search of low dimensional phenotypic landscapes. As the eld of Evolutionary Robotics (ER) develops towards more complex domains, which often involve deception and uncertainty, the promotion of phenotypic diversity has become of increasing interest. Divergent exploration of the phenotypic feature space has been shown to avoid convergence towards local optima and to provide diverse sets of solutions to a given objective. Novelty Search (NS) and the more recent Multi-dimensional Archive of Phenotypic Elites (MAP-Elites), are two state of the art algorithms which utilise divergent phenotypic search. In this thesis, the individual merits and weaknesses of these algorithms are built upon in order to further develop the study of divergent phenotypic search within ER. An observation that the diverse range of individuals produced through the optimisation of novelty will likely contain solutions to multiple independent objectives is utilised to develop Multiple Assessment Directed Novelty Search (MADNS). The MADNS algorithm is introduced as an extension to NS for the simultaneous optimisation of multiple independent objectives, and is shown to become more e ective than NS as the size of the state space increases. The central contribution of this thesis is the introduction of a novel algorithm for rapid and thorough divergent search of low dimensional phenotypic landscapes. The Spatial, Hierarchical, Illuminated NeuroEvolution (SHINE) algorithm di ers from previous divergent search algorithms, in that it utilises a tree structure for the maintenance and selection of potential candidates. Unlike previous approaches, SHINE iteratively focusses upon sparsely visited areas of the phenotypic landscape without the computationally expensive distance comparison required by NS; rather, the sparseness of the area within the landscape where a potential solution resides is inferred through its depth within the tree. Experimental results in a range of domains show that SHINE signi cantly outperforms NS and MAP-Elites in both performance and exploration.

This thesis examines various diversity initiatives at the Big Four accounting firms (Deloitte, EY, KPMG, and PwC). It begins by establishing the benefits gender and racial diversity can have for firm performance, providing the motivation for firms to implement diversity initiatives. Additionally, it provides an overview of the current state of gender and racial diversity at the Big Four. It then moves into an analysis of general best and worst practices for diversity initiatives. Finally, it concludes with a discussion of diversity initiatives at the Big Four and how they are measuring up to the best and worst practices. While the Big Four do have areas for improvement in their diversity programs, the majority of their initiatives are consistent with the best diversity practices. As a result, the Big Four accounting firms are effectively committing their resources to diversity initiatives that are successfully increasing workplace diversity.

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