Bullying is one of the most pervasive challenges in schools across the world. This investigation is an evaluation of a school’s attempt to address the large number of incidents of bullying. Materials from the Bully Free Classroom (BFC) by Allan Beane (2009) served as the intervention curriculum for 21, fifth grade students and six teachers. A 14-week (with the exception of school breaks), six lesson intervention was implemented with three groups of students: two groups identified as perpetrators and one group of victims. Teachers received training on bullying knowledge and how to appropriately report bullying-related incidents. Pre and post measures of bullying knowledge, frequency ratings of bullying and prosocial behaviors observed, and discipline referrals for bullying served as the dependent measures for the student participants. Results support the use of the intervention as the mean number of discipline referrals for participants of bully status significantly decreased, student ratings for negative behaviors significantly decreased, student knowledge of bullying significantly increased, and teacher’s ratings of the frequency of bullying decreased while school climate ratings became more positive. Moderate to large effect sizes are interpreted to provide strong support for a recommendation for school-wide adoption of the program. The scope and nature of the intervention plan is discussed in relation to recommended features of bully prevention and intervention programs and recommendations are made for implementation of this intervention.

Tekniska yrken har av tradition valts av män. Även tekniska intressen som exempelvis bilar och motorer förknippas med män. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka 11-åringars uppfattning och inställning till teknik och ifall denna skiljer sig åt mellan pojkar och flickor. 40 elever i 19 grupper om två och två (två grupper om tre) genomförde en könsneutral teknikuppgift. Uppgiften var att utveckla den optimala chipsförpackningen i form och funktion. Grupperna bestod av tre gruppkonstellationer baserade på kön (pojke/pojke; pojke/flicka; flicka/flicka). Datainsamlingen baserades på observationer där samarbets- och koncentrationsförmåga bedömdes enligt bra/varken eller/dålig, och tiden för genomförande mättes. Samtliga deltagare besvarade avslutningsvis en enkät med 18 frågor där förhållandet till ämnet teknik besvarades.   Resultatet visar att 11-åringar har generellt en positiv uppfattning om ämnet teknik då de tycker att teknik bl.a. är spännande och viktigt. I denna ålder är det även många, både flickor och pojkar, som kan tänka sig att ha ett tekniskt yrke som t.ex. ingenjör i framtiden. Av resultaten går även att utläsa vilken könsmaktsordning som omger eleverna i hemmen där majoriteten av flickorna svarat att de kommer att städa och laga mat i hushållet i framtiden medan många av pojkarna svarat att de kommer laga bilen, skotta snö eller sätta upp hyllor. Studien visar även på skillnader mellan flickors och pojkars sätt att arbeta. Grupperna uppvisade liknande slutresultat men det finns signifikanta skillnader i effektiviteten. Den statistiska analysen visar att flickgrupperna var betydligt effektivare än de andra gruppkonstellationerna. / Technical professions are traditionally chosen by men. Technological interests such as cars and engines are also associated with men. The purpose of this study was to study 11-year-old's perception and attitudes towards technology and if there is difference between boys´ and girls´. 40 pupils in 19 groups of two and two (two teams of three) carried out a gender-neutral technology task. The challenge was to develop the optimal crisppackage in form and function. There were three types of groups based on gender (boy/boy; boy/girl; girl/girl). Data collection was based on observations by the author in which teamwork and concentration was graded as good / neither / poor and time of implementation was measured in minutes. All participants finally answered a questionnaire with 18 questions, where the relationship to the subject of technology was explored. The results show that 11-year-olds generally have a good view of technology and they think it is exciting and important. In this age, there are also many, both girls´ and boys´, who are prepared to have a technical profession such as engineering in the future. It is also possible to deduce from the results the gender power structure that surrounds the pupils in their homes. While the majority of the girls´ replied that in the future they will clean and cook in the household, the boys´ replied that they will fix the car, shovel snow or put up shelves. The study also shows the differences between girls´ and boys´ way of working. The groups showed a similar final outcome but there are significant differences in efficiency. The statistical analysis shows that the girls were much more effective than the other group formations.

The purpose of this study was to investigate mistakes made by elementary fifth grade students regarding basic fractional concepts and operations, and difficulties that they encounter. The other purpose was to investigate underlying misconceptions and reasons of those difficulties and mistakes. For this purpose, a mixed-method research combining quantitative and qualitative approach respectively was performed. Data were collected from elementary fifth grade students at the end of the spring semester of 2009-2010. Operation with Fraction Questionnaire (OFQ) was administered to 151 fifth grade students who were chosen from the two public elementary schools in Eskisehir province. By this way, difficulties that elementary fifth grade students encounter and mistakes they make regarding basic fractionalconcepts and operations was analyzed. Afterwards, sixteen of these students participated in a semi-structured interview which was designed to investigate underlying reasons and misconceptions behind those mistakes and difficulties. Results were presented in two phases. In the first phase, common mistakes and difficulties of students were analyzed in detail and representative examples of these errors were introduced. In the second phase, students&#039 / mistakes were grouped under five categories as: algorithmically based mistakes, intuitively based mistakes, mistakes based on formal knowledge on fractions, misunderstanding on problem, and missing information in solution. In this phase, misconceptions and underlying reasons of those mistakes and difficulties which students may encounter while learning fractions were described. Results revealed that there was evidence that fifth grade students made various mistakes regarding fractional concepts and operations in the fifth grade elementary mathematics curriculum and they had many misconceptions regarding fraction concepts and operations.

The purpose of this study was to understand the relationships between multiple intelligences, thinking styles, and critical-thinking abilities of the fifth- and sixth-grade students. Investigation method was employed in the study. 578 fifth- and sixth-grade students in the suburban and urban areas of Tainan and Kaohsiung participated in this study. The employed instruments included Multiple Intelligences Appraisal, Thinking Styles Appraisal for the Primary Students, and the Test of Critical-thinking Skills for Primary and Secondary School Students. The applied analysis methods were Descriptive Statistics, Hotelling¡¦s , Multivariate Analysis of Variance, Canonical Correlation Analysis, and Discriminant Analysis. The main findings of this study were as follows: 1. There were no significant gender differences in critical-thinking abilities. 2.The students¡¦ critical-thinking abilities in urban areas were better than those in suburban areas. 3. The students¡¦ logical-mathematical intelligence and linguistic intelligence were positively correlated with their abilities of making deductions and evaluating arguments. 4. There were no significant differences in critical-thinking abilities for students with different level of executive thinking style. 5. There were significant differences in critical-thinking abilities for students with different level of legislative thinking style. 6. There were significant differences in critical-thinking abilities for students with different level of judicial thinking style. 7. The students¡¦ living areas, logical-mathematical intelligence, linguistic intelligence, and judicial thinking style were positively correlated with their abilities in recognizing assumptions, making deductions, and evaluating arguments. Finally, the researcher proposed some suggestions for the educational organizations, the primary school teachers, and future studies.

No description available.

Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 46-04, page: 2087. Adviser: Deanna M. Hoelscher. Includes bibliographical references.

The research presented in this thesis makes use of theoretical/computational techniques to calculate nonlinear spectroscopic signals and molecular volumes. These techniques have become more practical with advances in computational resources and now are an integral part of research in these areas. Preliminary results allude to the power of these techniques when applied to relevant problems and suggest that much progress can be made in understanding the complex nature of nonlinear spectroscopic signals and molecular volume contributions. The nonlinear spectroscopy work involves writing the quantum mechanical response functions in terms of classical time correlation functions which are amenable to calculation using classical molecular dynamics. The response functions reported in this thesis include the fifth order response function, probed in the fifth order Raman experiment, and the third order response function probed in the two dimensional infrared experiment. The molecular volume calculations make use of modern algorithms used in molecular dynamics simulations to calculate the full thermodynamic volumes of molecules.

The work which follows arose from the examination of three fifth grade social studies textbooks widely adopted and accepted in the State of Texas. Within these history textbooks, seven historical events which occurred during the American Revolution were investigated to determine how primary sources are represented in each selected textbook to support a version of the historical event they accompany. The research question guiding this qualitative study was: How do fifth grade social studies textbooks present primary sources in an American Revolution unit of study. To answer this question, I analyzed the three fifth grade social studies textbooks’ American Revolution unit of study. Historical events common to the textbooks and included in the unit of study were Tax Laws, The Boston Massacre, The Boston Tea Party, Paul Revere’s Ride, Lexington and Concord, The Battle of Bunker Hill, and The Declaration of Independence. Within the textbooks’ American Revolution units of study, the following primary sources were found: quotes, written documents, photographs, cartoons, posters, maps, artifacts, paintings, and sculpture or statuary. The researcher discovered three findings related to the representation of primary sources in the fifth grade social studies textbooks. These include the conundrum of fact, monolithic representation, and verisimilitude. Suggestions for improving school history textbooks and opportunities for future research are included. / text

In considering the increasing interest in the study of a global Middle Ages, there seem to be few individuals, either fictional or actual, that had a more powerful cosmopolitan currency than the figure of Prester John and the legends surrounding his kingdom. As a product of cultural imaginings and questionably recounted historical events, the search for and legitimization of Prester John has commanded consistent interest, both popular and scholarly, almost continuously since first mention of the figure of John in 1145. The now infamous Letter of Prester John, which details the magnificent Christian kingdom lying somewhere in the East, beyond the approaching threat of an ever-expanding Islam, has long catalyzed a hunt, by both adventurers and scholars, to seek the elusive patriarch. The very indeterminacy of the geographic location of Prester John allowed the European imagination to consequently imagine him everywhere precisely because he could neither be confirmed nor denied existence anywhere. This report will explore the ways that a reading of the Prester John legend reveals competing ambitions of enclosure and expansion within twelfth and thirteenth-century Latin Christendom, specifically around the time of the Fifth Crusade. This report will trace the ideational tensions within a presumed Christian Crusading West trying to legitimate itself against the dialectical buttress of what was increasingly professed as its heretical other, Islam. The Fifth Crusade, especially, seemed to hinge on the possibility of the harmonious convergence of Eastern and Western Christian powers, literalizing the sense of Christian enclosure around all of Islam. Prester John’s kingdom thus served two functions: first, to comprise the other half of the Christian enclosure, and secondly, to mark a phenomenological limit point of human experience that domesticated alterity under the banner of a sovereign priest-king. / text

Το περίφημο Ευκλείδειο Αίτημα (5ο αίτημα), όπως διατυπώνεται στα Στοιχεία του Ευκλείδη, απασχόλησε τον μαθηματικό κόσμο για περίπου 2000 χρόνια. Ξεκινώντας λοιπόν από το βιβλίο που αποτέλεσε ορόσημο για τη μαθηματική σκέψη, αναφερόμαστε σε ορισμένες αδυναμίες (κυρίως στο βαθμό αυστηρότητας) που έχουν επισημάνει σε αυτό οι κριτικοί και στεκόμαστε στο εξής γεγονός: Ο Ευκλείδης δεν έδωσε αποδείξεις για ορισμένες ιδέες και δηλώσεις του. Επειδή όμως αυτές οι δηλώσεις ήταν απαραίτητες για τις περαιτέρω μελέτες του τις έθεσε ως αληθινές. Η ιδέα ότι ορισμένες προτάσεις, μέσα στο πλαίσιο μιας θεωρίας, θα πρέπει να λαμβάνονται ως αληθινές χωρίς απόδειξη, είναι πολύ αρχαιότερη του Ευκλείδη. Ήδη ο Αριστοτέλης είχε εκθέσει στα «Αναλυτικά» του, μια θεωρητική επεξεργασία αυτής της αναγκαιότητας. Ο Ευκλείδης ακολουθεί την παγιωμένη αυτή τακτική προτάσσοντας τα πέντε αιτήματά του στο πρώτο βιβλίο των Στοιχείων του. Πολλές προσπάθειες απόδειξης του 5ου αιτήματος έγιναν από σεβαστό αριθμό μαθηματικών. Όμως η εμφάνιση απόδειξης στο πρόβλημα δεν φαινόταν να «επιθυμεί» να έρθει στο φως. Έτσι, και ενώ είχε περάσει ένα αρκετά μεγάλο χρονικό διάστημα, τελικά μέσα από την άρνηση του ίδιου του 5ου αιτήματος ήρθαν στο προσκήνιο οι Μη Ευκλείδειες Γεωμετρίες. Η άρνηση του 5ου αιτήματος οδήγησε στην άποψη πως είναι δυνατή η ύπαρξη μίας Γεωμετρίας ανεξάρτητης από το 5ο αίτημα θέτοντας έτσι τη βάση για την ανάπτυξη μίας νέας λογικά συνεπούς θεωρίας, η οποία έμελε να εκφράζει πιο πιστά αυτό που πράγματι συμβαίνει γενικά στη φύση και όχι σε μια ειδική περιοχή της . Σε πρώτο στάδιο, για να παρουσιάσουμε μία πλήρη ιστορική αναδρομή, χρησιμοποιούμε ως "σημείο εκκίνησης" τα χρόνια που προηγήθηκαν της συγγραφής των Στοιχείων. Μέσω αυτής της αναδρομής στόχος μας είναι να αναδειχθούν τόσο η φύση, όσο και ο σημαντικός ρόλος του Ευκλείδειου αιτήματος στη μαθηματική εξέλιξη. Στην καταγραφή αυτή, είναι δυνατό να συναντήσει κανείς πληροφορίες για το κλίμα που ευνόησε τη συγγραφή των Στοιχείων, ιδιαίτερα χαρακτηριστικά του συγγραφέα τους, αλλά και του ίδιου του έργου, μέσα από μία γενική θεώρηση που στόχο έχει πάντα την βαθύτερη κατανόηση του 5ου αιτήματος. Στη συνέχεια και έχοντας εξετάσει εν συντομία τα ιδιαίτερα αλλά και τα βασικά χαρακτηριστικά των Στοιχείων και του συγγραφέα τους μεταβαίνουμε στο βασικό θέμα της εργασίας. Πρόκειται, αρχικά, για την έκθεση των πέντε αιτημάτων, ενώ ακολουθεί η εκτενής παρουσίαση του 5ου αιτήματος. Βασικό αντικείμενο μελέτης μας σε αυτό το στάδιο είναι οι διαφορετικές διατυπώσεις που χρησιμοποιήθηκαν για να καταγραφεί το ίδιο ακριβώς θέμα, καθώς επίσης και οι ποικίλες προσπάθειες απόδειξής του. Παρουσιάζουμε ορισμένες από τις βασικότερες αποδείξεις του 5ου αιτήματος, τα δυνατά σημεία τους αλλά και τις αδυναμίες/ σφάλματα που επισημάνθηκαν από τους μελετητές. Το δέκατο ένατο αιώνα, οι μαθηματικοί άλλαξαν τακτική και επιχείρησαν να δείξουν ότι το 5ο αίτημα έπεται από τα άλλα τέσσερα: για να το κάνουν αυτό, πήραν τα τέσσερα αξιώματα και την άρνηση του 5ου και προσπάθησαν να εντοπίσουν τυχόν αντιφάσεις. Μόνο που αντί για αντιφάσεις, ανακάλυψαν μια καινούρια, διαφορετική, εσωτερικά συνεπή γεωμετρία. Το βασικότερο βήμα προς την ανακάλυψη των μη Ευκλείδειων γεωμετριών έγινε με την άρνηση του 5ου αιτήματος. Η καινούρια ιδέα που ήρθε στο προσκήνιο πρότεινε ουσιαστικά την αντικατάσταση του 5ου αιτήματος από την άρνησή του. Επομένως, εάν επιχειρούσαμε να καταγράψουμε το περιεχόμενο της εργασίας συνοπτικά θα καταλήγαμε στα εξής: Πρόκειται για μία ιστορική αναδρομή που έχει βασικό της θέμα, αρχικά την παρουσίαση του Ευκλείδειου αιτήματος, έπειτα τις προσπάθειες απόδειξής του και τέλος την ανακάλυψη των Μη Ευκλείδειων Γεωμετριών μέσω της άρνησής του. / --