<p>This study is about police students’ and professional police officers’ experienced competence in mental preparation training. The aim with the study is to compare how police students’ in the beginning and in the end of the Basic Training Programme for Police Officers perceive their competence in mental preparation training and how a selection of these students perceive their competence after one respectively two and a half year as police officers. The aim is also to compare the formal competence required of students who have passed the Basic Training Programme for Police Officers with the competence students actually think they have, and the formal competence required within the police profession with the competence police officers with differently long time as professionals experience that they have. Moreover the study includes a comparison between the formal and experienced competence in the Basic Training Programme for Police Officers and in the police profession. The empirical data of the study is based on a web questionnaire to the different groups of students and follow-up interviews with a selection of these students. The results show that the students’ perceived competence increases during the Basic Training Programme and that the experienced competence at the end of the programme to a relatively large extent corresponds to the formal competence of the programme. The difference between the formal competence required in the police profession and the police officers’ experienced competence is relatively small. The police officers’ experience though is that their competence in mental preparation training is not requested in the profession to any larger extent.</p><p> </p><p><strong>Key words:</strong> Police, competence, mental preparation training.</p>

Because of its political and philosophical launching ground (Arredondo & Perez, 2006), cultural competence did not begin as an empirical research program, and as a result, there remains disagreement about how to define and measure cultural competence. Although the application of cultural competence remains unclear to some psychologists (Fuertes et al., 2006), it is now common knowledge that the therapeutic alliance is a statistically and clinically significant contributor to effective therapy. This pilot study merges two prominent bodies of literature, cultural competence and therapeutic alliance, with the underlying assumption that a culturally competent counselor will be able to provide effective service through the therapeutic relationship (Pope-Davis et al., 2002). This pilot study was designed to provide information about the relationship between therapists' self-reports and their observed behaviors regarding cultural competence (CC), examine how therapists' CC facilitates the formation of working alliances, and examine the role of CC in predicting parent-child discrepancy in alliance. Participants were family therapists and family members involved in a multi-site clinical trial study (Parent Study) evaluating Brief Strategic Family Therapy (BSFT™; Szapocznik, Hervis, & Schwartz, 2003). A total of 14 therapists from 8 community treatment programs from across the country were included in the rating portion of the study. The Parent Study included African American and Hispanic families with adolescents ages 12-17, mostly referred from the juvenile justice system. Scores from Roysircar's Multicultural Counseling Inventory (MCI; 1994) and Cultural Diversity Observer Rating Scale (CDORS; 2005) were compared. Observed therapeutic alliance was evaluated using the Vanderbilt Therapeutic Alliance Scale-Revised. The associations were evaluated with 3 multilevel univariate linear models using HLM software. Since 6 of 14 therapists (43%) completed the MCI, the pilot study was completed without self-reported competence as a predictor of therapeutic alliance (only CDORS was used). The results of this study failed to provide support for the hypothesized relationships between cultural competence and therapeutic alliance. These results are discussed in light of the methodological limitations of this study and suggestions are made to improve future investigations in this area.

There has been a growing discussion in the fields of education and psychology about the relationship between social skill proficiency and academic excellence. However, the presence of extracurricular involvement as promoting both academic and social development has not been thoroughly explored. The most recent literature syntheses and meta-analyses on extracurricular activity participation were conducted in the 1980??s. An updated review and quantitative look at the participation literature is due. The purpose of this study is to integrate participation studies from the 1990s and give summative information as to the impact of extracurricular activity participation on various educational and psycho-social characteristics. Of the 164 identified studies, 41 were included in these meta-analyses. The current analyses produced 6 different activity categories: general extracurricular activity, sports, work and vocational activities, performing arts, pro-social activities, and community-based activities. The current meta-analyses suggest student outcomes were significantly related to general extracurricular activity and pro-social activity participation. General activities and pro-social activities had the most impact on academic achievement, while performing arts and pro-social activities?? participants reported the largest effect on identity and self esteem related outcomes. Sports and related activities (i.e. Cheerleading) were not as strongly linked to academic achievement indicators as anticipated and student workers had more negative outcomes than any other activity participants. In conclusion, the best outcomes for children and adolescents are brought about through well-built, developmentally appropriate structured activities. Moreover, the academic and social profits of extracurricular activities that have been examined in this study can be used to inform program planning and implementation.

The purpose of the study is to examine music’s place and function in the pedagogical activities at two music preschools. I address the following questions. • Which factors have influenced the development of a music profile at these preschools? • How do the preschool teachers relate to music in their profession? • What is thought important in the preschools’ musical activities? • How do singing and other musical activities stimulate multilingual children’s language and social participation? The study is an ethnographic study interpreted in a hermeneutic tradition, informed by a socio-cultural theory. Fieldwork was conducted over a period of two years. The principal methods used are interviews with preschool teachers and observations of preschool children and teachers in action. The study’s findings highlight that preschool principals have great impact on the didactic choices made: they have supported all the preschool teachers in developing the musical competence to teach music in a preschool setting. This has been crucial for the development of these music preschools. The study also shows that various musical activities widen the children’s aspiration and confidence about participation. Communication with sound and motion is a form of expression that is open to all, even in times when children’s spoken language is not sufficient. At these preschools music therefore has a function of stimulating the Swedish language development. Music also creates a sense of community at these preschools. Musical activities give the children examples of how to act in various situations. Musical activities also transcend boundaries. Listening to different types of music is part of the preschools’ own culture. Finally, music has an aesthetic function that provides musical experiences. However, this function is not particularly obvious in the preschool teachers’ discussion of the didactics of the musical activities. It is more important to express the fact that the music-making itself is key. Such an argumentation will manifest the place of music at these preschools, and perhaps will also support the development of the music practice as such. The study shows that it takes time for many preschool teachers to be confident in teaching music, and since the national curriculum says that music should be a part of the preschool agenda, it is important that music should become a standard subject in the preschool teacher education programme.

Ontology development is a systematic technique to represent the existing and new knowledge about a specific domain by using some models to present the system in which conceptualization is involved. This thesis presents the use of ontologies to formally represent ontology-based competence model for potential users of quality registry report in a healthcare organization. The model describes the professional and occupational interests and needs of the users through structuring and describing their skills and qualifications. There are individual competences model having two main parts: general competence and occupational competence. The model is implemented in an ontology editor. Although our competence model gives the general view about all medical areas in a hospital, from implementation point of view, we have considered only Cardiology area in detail. The potential users of quality registry are medical staff, county council staff and Pharmaceutical staff. In this report we have also used different classifications of education, occupational fields and diseases. A user can get information about the patient and specific disease with treatment tips by using various organizational resources: i.e. quality registries, electronic medical reports, and online journals. Our model also provides a support of information filtering which filters the information according to the need and the competencies of the users.

No description available.

Abstract Acquiring communicative competence and the ability to communicate in writing are essential goals for second language learners and of the highest importance to achieving educational success.  Opportunities to express ideas in writing are essential for students’ language development. Learners therefore need to be encouraged to take the risk of making errors in order to be able to express ideas, thoughts and knowledge with enthusiasm. This thesis defines and investigates some important factors contributing to the development of communicative competence and performance in the context of Second Language Acquisition (SLA) research and Communicative Language Teaching (CLT).  The main aim of the study is to focus on how Swedish learners make use of their first language (L1) as a cognitive and strategic source in their written English communication.  Cross-linguistic influence, or transfer errors, from Swedish in the written English of high school students are taken from samples of writing from the Uppsala Learner English Corpus (ULEC).  The study evaluates the potential of transfer from the L1 to either facilitate or inhibit the communicative purpose, i.e., ‘getting the message across’. The most serious errors in the data were found to result in confusing, inappropriate or incomprehensible structures.  Finally, the study draws attention to some aspects of communicative language teaching and learning that teachers should be aware of in the development and assessment of students’ communicative ability in written performance. The study found that negative language transfer was found to affect communication to various degrees of seriousness but could at times also be considered a useful and necessary strategy for getting a message across.  Transfer errors were often idiosyncratic and were most frequent among males between 16-17 years-old enrolled in vocational programmes.  Prepositional transfer errors were the most common, however; incorrectly used lexical items, in particular, false friends and other vocabulary substitutions, as well as literal translations of phrases and idiomatic expressions potentially resulted in the most serious errors.  Word order errors also interfered substantially with the message in many cases.  On the other hand, grammatical transfer errors such as incorrect us of articles, pluralisation and verb tense generally did not change the meaning to any greater extent.  In fact, transfer errors can be communicative as long as the message gets across.

Abstract In retrospect, Taiwanese manufacturers have outstanding abilities in production which attracted Western international branding companies to give their orders to Taiwan firms. However, with the emerging countries¡¦ arising made a huge impact toward Taiwan OEM industry. This research is aimed at exploring on the gap analysis and strategies of filling the gap on OEM firms trying to transforming to OBM, and together with exploring on the strategic human resource planning during transforming. This research is mainly through data analysis, case study Company¡¦s interview and the comparison with Benchmark Company to achieve the research purposes. This research selects design industry, and moreover, the case study A company is undergoing this OEM to OBM process, in addition to explore the competencies and together with strategic human resource planning dimensions, and as well as the difficulties they were facing. And then, this research used a benchmark firm, Franz, which is also in design industry to make comparison and to learn from Franz through a dynamic competency view. The main contribution of this study is to explore the issue of competency gap while OEM transformed into OBM firms, and used dynamic competency view to suggest the case studied A company to consider different developing stages while making human resource plan. As for those Taiwanese design and fashion companies who also pursue transforming, this research will bring them great benefits.

Abstract With the trend of globalization and the pricing competition caused by China¡¦s manufacturing business, the quality of products is not the only issue that companies are facing now. There are some external as well as internal challenges that companies must face. External challenges include the competitive trend caused by the dynamic environmental movements and the operation pressure caused by facing competitors; internal operation issues concern the integration of the value chain and the continuous improvements in innovative managing skills. The case of research is the largest company professionally specialized in manufacturing drain cleaners in Taiwan. The company¡¦s sales are entirely dedicated to exporting to the international market; and OEM and ODM are its main type of business. Since drain cleaners are categorized as part of the hand tools industry, we must study the trends and activities in such industry. The business opportunities in the hand tools industry mainly depend on consumer¡¦s demand, providing different services to different individual buyers, and the opportunities derived from the rise of the home improvement market. Therefore, in the hand tools market, drain cleaner manufacturers should take into consideration that products which suit the new generation¡¦s need better and are with high economic values are more likely to satisfy the consumer needs. For the main thesis of this paper, we will be looking at discussions about the innovative and competitive strategies from literatures related, and the research will be based on J. Barney¡¦s resource base theory. Through the individual case analysis and roots study in grounded theory, I hope to achieve the following research purposes in this paper: 1. To analyze the operating state and the competitive advantages in the drain cleaner market in hand tools industry in Taiwan. 2. How the company in case study responds to the external challenges and which competitive advantages and strategies the company should take when facing such challenges. The conclusions to the company competitiveness in the case study based on relevant researches are as follows: 1. Regarding the case company¡¦s competitiveness against foreign markets, cost competitiveness is not recommended as the main business strategy, but rather to develop and strengthen the high-price, high quality markets as the recommended strategy. 2. Facing the competitions that the rise of the Asian market and the emergence of the Chinese consumer market brought, I suggest that the company in the case study, with its regional economic advantage, should consider a strategic alliance with European or American buyers or strategically to consider a joint venture with them. 3. Regarding providing useful information about the competitive market for the company, cost accounting standard procedures and other statistics related forms are strongly recommended to be established within the company in the case study, in order to provide critical information for managing department. 4. With the coming of the era of internationalization, the company in the case study should design an international personnel training system as well as a strategic human resource department to face the related incoming issues that internationalization may bring. Keyword¡Gstrategy, core competence, dynamic competition, internationalization

In the environment of globalisation, international purchasing is the strategy most commonly adopted by enterprises to obtain or maintain competitive advantages. The region encompassing Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mainland China is a global manufacturing centre, providing a variety of price-competitive products to entice multinational enterprises to purchase from this area. The international purchasing office (IPO) is the intermediary of international purchasing, which connects international clients with regional suppliers to establish win-win strategic partnerships, improving competitive advantages for both parties and maximizing the value of the supply chain. International merchandisers directly contact clients and suppliers, playing the roles of buyer and sales people simultaneously, which is the essence of providing excellent service and creating value in IPO. This study investigates small-sized IPOs. The objectives of this study are to conduct an exploratory survey of the necessary competencies of current international merchandisers and provide concrete classifications and basic behavioral descriptions thereof. This study interviewed current international merchandisers in case IPOs in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Mainland China through behavioral event interviews. The subjects provided critical cases and described their behavior, thoughts, and how the cases were handled. The interviews were recorded and transcribed. This study coded, analysed, and identified the competencies according to the transcripts, and referenced the five types competence characteristics given by Spencer and Spencer to classify the competencies. This study concludes that among the five competencies of international merchandisers, the competencies of motives, traits, and self-concept at the base of the iceberg model are the fundamentals of good work performance. The five competencies are motives, traits, self-concept, knowledge, and skill. The motives include achievement orientation and incentives; traits include customer service orientation, a positive and active disposition, and great adaptability; the self-concepts are self-affirmation and optimism; knowledge includes product development, pricing, compliance, market trends, and international transportation; and the skills are influence, relationship building, analysing and thinking, information seeking, negotiation skills, and language competence. The conclusions of this study propose suggestions for managers of small-sized IPOs, personnel in human resource management, and international merchandisers, in the hope of providing a reference concerning management measures or career development for these parties.