The purpose of this study was to examine the financial portfolios of near-retiree women and compare their assets to near-retiree men. This study also investigated how economic and demographic factors were associated with the probability of holding aggressive assets and the level of savings. Socioeconomic variables were used to create a profile of the investment behaviors and to examine the level of savings among near-retiree women and men. Specific variables key to the study included household income, age, marital status, education, race, and self-reported health of near-retiree women and men. The descriptive statistics indicated that overall, average levels of all asset categories for the female group were much lower than they were for the male group among near-retirees. According to the findings of this study, women tended to invest in safer assets such as CDs, savings bonds, and T-bills rather than in more aggressive assets such as stocks, business assets, and real estate assets. The results from both the logistic regression and Ordinary least squares regression analyses indicated that gender had no statistically significant impact on the investment and savings behavior among near-retirees aged 51 - 64. However, household income, age, marital status, education, race, and the self-reported health status of near-retirees were all significant determinants of the investment and saving behavior among near-retirees aged 51 - 64. For example, near-retirees, with higher income, older, married, higher education, Whites, and in good health, were more likely to own aggressive assets and reported higher level of savings as compared to other near-retirees. This study also explored socioeconomic factors associated with the level of savings among near-retiree women aged 51 - 64. The findings of this study indicated that household income, age, education, and race were significant determinants of the level of savings among near-retiree women aged 51 - 64. The results of the OLS regression analysis showed that women with lower income, younger, less education, and non-Whites reported lower levels of savings than did other women. Implications of the findings, limitations of the current study, and suggestions for future study were presented in the final section. (88 pages)

The advent of positive psychology has increased awareness of factors that lead individuals to thrive in life, allowing for a more comprehensive model of mental health service delivery. However, while measurement and understanding of character strengths and well-being have improved over the last decade, the interaction of these factors with social risk factors is not entirely understood. The current study analyzed an archival dataset consisting of self-report data from 425 high school students, to examine the extent to which high school students' specific character strengths (i.e., social competence, self-regulation, responsibility, and empathy) are associated with positive psychological outcomes (i.e., gratitude, life satisfaction, and hope), and moderate the relationships between positive psychological outcomes and relational and overt peer victimization. All measured character strengths were positively associated with life satisfaction and hope except for empathy, which was negatively associated with both in multivariate analyses. Social competence and self-regulation were positively associated with gratitude. Relational victimization (but not overt victimization) was inversely associated with life satisfaction and gratitude, and indirectly predicted hope as mediated by gratitude. Gratitude and hope predicted life satisfaction in both models, and served as partial mediators of character strengths and relational victimization. For overt victimization, social competence served as a protective factor and self-regulation served as a risk factor to gratitude. For relational victimization, self-regulation served as a protective factor to gratitude. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

I decided to write this thesis many years ago and in the process of ‘becoming’ a Palawa man I finally understood the global agenda between black and white Australians and the direct actions required to attain a traditional form of Aboriginal democracy. I share in this understanding in this thesis. Mind you I share with trepidation because the options are very existential to the prevailing discourse. However a doctoral thesis will add to the body of knowledge not simply to confirm existing theoretical discourse or to leave this discourse un-challenged. Therefore this thesis is about the critical mass of cultural variables pertaining to teaching of Australian Indigenous peoples and the conduct of meaningful research. Its primary intent is to offer an alternative to the inappropriate methodologies that currently apply in the generic areas of pedagogy and research (in their broadest sense). In my opinion at present both these areas are pathologically dominated by Western thought. The idea of change and alternative paradigms is addressed in the introduction and this thesis is not intended to achieve anything more than a hearing of these options. This is why the discourse of this knowledge terrain in this thesis is so diverse and so demanding of the reader. The core notion of this discourse is the Japanangka Teaching and Research Paradigm.The Japanangka Teaching and Research Paradigm has as its core the articulation of eight dimensions or sub-paradigms. These are the quality of life dimensions: Cultural, Spiritual, Secular, and the other five: Intellectual, Political, Practical, Personal and Public dimensions. These eight constitute the sum of human experience relevant to the daily lives of Aborigines and as such are key categories to the unravelling of the seemingly imponderable mystery of “learning journey paths” so critical to the success of our students in formal Western education activities.

I decided to write this thesis many years ago and in the process of ‘becoming’ a Palawa man I finally understood the global agenda between black and white Australians and the direct actions required to attain a traditional form of Aboriginal democracy. I share in this understanding in this thesis. Mind you I share with trepidation because the options are very existential to the prevailing discourse. However a doctoral thesis will add to the body of knowledge not simply to confirm existing theoretical discourse or to leave this discourse un-challenged. Therefore this thesis is about the critical mass of cultural variables pertaining to teaching of Australian Indigenous peoples and the conduct of meaningful research. Its primary intent is to offer an alternative to the inappropriate methodologies that currently apply in the generic areas of pedagogy and research (in their broadest sense). In my opinion at present both these areas are pathologically dominated by Western thought. The idea of change and alternative paradigms is addressed in the introduction and this thesis is not intended to achieve anything more than a hearing of these options. This is why the discourse of this knowledge terrain in this thesis is so diverse and so demanding of the reader. The core notion of this discourse is the Japanangka Teaching and Research Paradigm.The Japanangka Teaching and Research Paradigm has as its core the articulation of eight dimensions or sub-paradigms. These are the quality of life dimensions: Cultural, Spiritual, Secular, and the other five: Intellectual, Political, Practical, Personal and Public dimensions. These eight constitute the sum of human experience relevant to the daily lives of Aborigines and as such are key categories to the unravelling of the seemingly imponderable mystery of “learning journey paths” so critical to the success of our students in formal Western education activities.

I decided to write this thesis many years ago and in the process of ‘becoming’ a Palawa man I finally understood the global agenda between black and white Australians and the direct actions required to attain a traditional form of Aboriginal democracy. I share in this understanding in this thesis. Mind you I share with trepidation because the options are very existential to the prevailing discourse. However a doctoral thesis will add to the body of knowledge not simply to confirm existing theoretical discourse or to leave this discourse un-challenged. Therefore this thesis is about the critical mass of cultural variables pertaining to teaching of Australian Indigenous peoples and the conduct of meaningful research. Its primary intent is to offer an alternative to the inappropriate methodologies that currently apply in the generic areas of pedagogy and research (in their broadest sense). In my opinion at present both these areas are pathologically dominated by Western thought. The idea of change and alternative paradigms is addressed in the introduction and this thesis is not intended to achieve anything more than a hearing of these options. This is why the discourse of this knowledge terrain in this thesis is so diverse and so demanding of the reader. The core notion of this discourse is the Japanangka Teaching and Research Paradigm.The Japanangka Teaching and Research Paradigm has as its core the articulation of eight dimensions or sub-paradigms. These are the quality of life dimensions: Cultural, Spiritual, Secular, and the other five: Intellectual, Political, Practical, Personal and Public dimensions. These eight constitute the sum of human experience relevant to the daily lives of Aborigines and as such are key categories to the unravelling of the seemingly imponderable mystery of “learning journey paths” so critical to the success of our students in formal Western education activities.

This thesis explores educational pluralism in the context of the American public school system and analyzes the charter school movement as a mechanism for education reform. Because charter schools have only existed for 26 years, scholars have yet to understand the effect that they have on our public school system, as well as how they compare with traditional public schools. Rather than trying to determine whether charter schools are better than traditional public schools, I introduce the philosophy behind educational pluralism, examine the evolution of the charter school movement, and analyze states as laboratories for testing new educational practices through charter schools.

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The purpose of this study was to investigate the utility of a structural-developmental approach as a basis for a philosophy of education for the public community college of the Midwestern United States. The structural developmental approach was explored within the broader cognitive studies of the Piagetian tradition in America. The method of research employed was a combination of analysis of relevant literature and empirical investigation at a community college. This combination was explored in order to determine the possible abstraction of a structural-developmental pattern as a potential base for theory building. A research instrument was used to assess the cognitive stage of development of critical groups of students. The drop, course withdrawal. Grade point average, and cognitive stage data of lower ability vocational-technical, lower ability transfer, and upper ability students were compared and analyzed, with a .05 level of significance as the criterion for differences. Regarding the relationships of vocational-technical courses and transfer courses, the following observations seemed justified concerning the abstraction level required: (1) no evidence was gained to support the action of a true difference in abstraction level required (2) limited data from other literature offered no substantial support for a true difference, and (3) an argument from silence suggested no true difference. Regarding supportive evidence for the utility of a cognitive-developmental-structural approach to the rural community college educational task, the following summary of findings seemed justified: (l) course withdrawal, grade point average, and cognitive stage data of upper ability and lower ability student’s appeared to indicate a utility for the approach (2) consistency theory offered the possibility of a favorable climate for an interactional (naturalistic and environmental) approach such as was investigated (3) the literature within the community college framework suggested the need for a more comprehensive philosophy than had crystalized; and (4) the literature which had explored the ramifications of the Piagetian tradition in America provided a rationale for a cognitive-developmental-structural approach. From the findings and the results of the analyzed information in this study, the following conclusions seemed justified: (l) evidence from liter3ture and empirical investigations demonstrated the need for a broadly based psychology of education not presently apparent in the community college movement (2) vocational-technical programs presented no unique solution to the breadth of the educational task: (3) diversity in student capability demanded a more universal basis for a philosophy of education: (4) evidence from the literature and empirical inquiry destroyed the myth that the Piagetian tradition was age-bound at a level below community college functions: (5) Piagetian tradition provided a universal kind of basis for a philosophy of education: (6) natural diversity of the college setting studied was conducive to a broadly based psychology of the individual student; (7) cognitive stages were abstracted from the mental functions of students involved in the study and found to be relevant to the educational processes of the community college: and (8) implementation of a definitive cognitive-developmental approach to the educational task of grades thirteen and fourteen would have the advantage of providing a continuity with the educational modes of grades one through twelve. Recommendations that seemed warranted were (1) recognition of the utility of a structural-developmental approach (2) acceptance of qualitative differences in stages of mental development (3) an incremental approach to the developmental tasks, (4) instructional design accommodating invariant stages of thought development: (5) involvement of instructors in affective and motivational teaching (6) exploration of new techniques and approaches and (7) replication of notions and techniques of the structural-developmental approach to the educational task of the rural community college.

Educational policymakers have used tracking to instruct students in a variety of subjects, including mathematics. Tracking, which has also been called ability grouping, is a process by which students in the same grade are placed into different classes based on academic ability. Few educators and sociologists have looked at the process by which students are placed in different mathematics tracks. The research design of this study focused on accumulating, evaluating, and reporting the understanding and observations of 12 teachers and 4 counselors as they discussed their knowledge and involvement in the mathematics placement procedures from the intermediate and middle school levels in northern Utah. The data revealed that in addition to the official placement policies there were other factors that influenced the math placement. Those factors were teacher input, parental participation, and student involvement in the educational process. Educational administration, counselors, and teachers can use the results of this study to create more equitable placement policies and procedures for all students.

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