The relation between temperament and happiness in children aged 8-12 was examined. Participants included 311 students in Grades 4-6 and their parents, recruited from public and private schools in the Central Okanagan. Parents rated their children’s temperament using the Emotionality, Activity, and Sociability (EAS) Temperament Survey (Buss & Plomin, 1984) and rated their children’s happiness using a single-item measure. Children rated their own temperament using the EAS Temperament Survey and the Piers- Harris Self Concept Scale for Children, Second Edition (Piers-Harris 2) (Piers & Herzberg, 2002). Children also rated their own happiness using a single-item measure, the Oxford Happiness Scale, Short Form (Hills & Arygle, 2002), and the Subjective Happiness Scale (Lyubomirsky & Lepper, 1999). Confirmatory factor analyses established that parent and child ratings on the EAS Temperament Survey conformed to the four-factor structure proposed by Buss and Plomin (1984). Multiple regression analyses revealed that temperament accounted for between 9-29% of the variance in children’s happiness depending on the rater (i.e., parents vs. children) and the measure of happiness. Individual temperament variables that predicted a unique amount of the variance of children’s happiness over and above the combined effect of all temperament variables varied with the rater of children’s temperament (i.e., parents vs. children) and with the measure of happiness. Children who were more social, less shy, less emotional, and more free from anxiety rated themselves, and were rated by others, as happier. Children who scored higher on the activity temperament rated themselves, and were rated by others, as happier. The results of the current study parallel results of research investigating the relation between happiness and personality in adults. It establishes a strong relation between temperament and happiness, and iii supports the use of self-reports with children. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed. / Graduate Studies, College of (Okanagan) / Graduate

The essay treats how a process of implementation was executed and the teachers’ relation to two curricula, Lpo94 and Lgr11, with two different grading systems, which have functioned as models for one and the same year. The purpose is to investigate the ways in which a change in curricula and syllabus affects teachers in their teaching and assessment practice in the subject of Swedish at secondary school. The investigation had a phenomenological approach and was executed by means of in-depth interviews, questionnaires and one observation. The results are based on a methodological triangulation with qualitative and quantitative data where visible similarities and differences are brought out. The study was executed at two secondary schools in an average-sized municipality. The interviewed teachers teach Swedish in two different subject teams.The result shows that the teachers of the Swedish language in the study believe that the inception of a new curriculum and syllabus has been successful and that they have had enough time to familiarize themselves with new documentation. They are worried by the vague value words of the new knowledge requirements and are afraid that fair and equal assessment will not be ensured, which was one of the reasons for the change in syllabus and grading system. / Uppsatsen behandlar hur en implementeringsprocess genomförts samt lärares förhållning till två läroplaner, Lpo94 och Lgr11, med två olika betygssystem, som fungerat som styr-dokument under ett och samma läsår. Syftet är att undersöka på vilka sätt ett läroplansbyte påverkar lärare i deras undervisning och bedömningspraktik i ämnet svenska på högstadiet. Undersökningen har en fenomenologisk ansats och är genomförd med djupintervjuer, enkätfrågor och en observation. Resultaten bygger på en metodtriangulering med kvalitativ och kvantitativ data där synliga likheter och skillnader lyfts fram. Studien är genomförd i en mellanstor kommun på två högstadieskolor. Lärarna som intervjuats undervisar i svenska i två olika ämneslag. Resultatet visar att svensklärarna i studien anser att införandet av en ny läroplan fungerat relativt väl och att de fått tillräckligt med tid för att sätta sig in i en ny dokumentation. De oroas av de nya kunskapskravens vaga värdeord och befarar att en rättvis och likvärdig bedömning inte kommer att kunna säkerställas vilket var en av anledningarna till bytet av läroplan och betygssystem.

This study deals with the democracy mission of school, in which democratic working methods are a central part. The aim is to contribute with knowledge about how teachers as professional actors construct meaning of and shape to the democracy mission of school. Six teachers working in grades 4-6, have been interviewed on two occasions each, and one social science lesson by each teacher has been observed. The study is based on a social constructionist basis. The teachers are regarded as actors in the construction of the democratic mission of school. The results show different democracy theoretical influences operating in the teachers' constructions, and that the didactic dimensions are complex. The teachers value the democracy mission as important and always present in their everyday practice, but at the same time, it appears to be invisible and implicit. The results can be read as a story that begins in a perceived problem where teachers talk about the democracy mission as diffuse, in competition with other obligations, and associated with different dilemmas. However, when the teachers continue their stories, they start to fill the democracy mission with legitimacy, meaning and content. Examples of possible meanings that emerge are to promote respectful interaction between all persons in school, to offer students influence and choices, to encourage students to develop a willingness to participate in and influence the society and an everyday school practice permeated with democratic values. When the teachers describe the meanings of democratic working methods they talk about establishing formal student participation, non-formalized student participation, methods of work which involve cooperation between the students and the learning processes in which the students gradually develop the ability to exercise influence on their learning. The teachers regard the democratic mission as a matter of concern for all school subjects, but the social sciences are given a particular position in relation to both working methods and content. / ”Skolväsendet vilar på demokratins grund”, så inleds nuvarande läroplan (Lgr11). Skolan har sedan tiden efter andra världskriget haft ett dubbelt uppdrag som innefattar både fostran och kunskapsförmedling. Demokratiområdet innefattar två delar. Dels det övergripande demokratiuppdraget med en fostrande, etisk och ideologisk ambition som greppar över hela skolverksamheten. Dels demokrati som kunskapsstoff som handlar om att via undervisning om demokrati och demokratiska principer förbereda eleverna för deltagande i samhället. Studiens fokus riktas mot lärarnas erfarenhet och professionella överväganden så som de gestaltas i deras tal och i deras SO‑undervisningspraktik. Studien handlar om hur några lärare förhåller sig till och konstruerar skolans demokratiuppdrag, inom ramen för SO‑undervisningen. Resultatet kan läsas som en berättelse som börjar i en upplevd problembild där lärare talar om demokratiuppdraget som diffust, i konkurrens med annat och förknippat med olika dilemman. Berättelsen övergår sedan till att handla om hur de uppfattar och fyller demokratiuppdraget med legitimitet, mening och innehåll. Slutligen mynnar berättelsen ut i reflektioner kring SO-ämnenas roll i relation till demokratiska arbetsformer och demokratiuppdragets innebörder, där SO-ämnena ges en central roll.

This personal narrative autoethnography of my lived experiences as a middle-school service-learning course teacher has helped me solve a personal mystery and present an important perspective for the K-12 service-learning field. With an eye on revealing a unique service-learning classroom concept to educational leaders, enhancing middle level teacher education, and hopes of providing greater opportunities for advancing research on service learning in K-12 education, this study has also aided me in understanding my professional self and my subjective educational theory through a personal interpretive framework (Kelchtermans, 1993, 1999, 2009). Using autoethnography (Ellis, 2004; Ellis & Bochner, 2006) as a method to explore my own experiences as a middle school service-learning teacher and the perceptions of critical friends— colleagues, family members, and friends—who have been significant in my experiences, I am able to present an evocative personal narrative on what it means to be a service-learning teacher. Overarching findings from this study reveal that a middle grades service-learning teacher is a self-authored individual (Baxter Magolda, 1999, 2009; Kegan, 1994) who is committed to community-engaged education (Dewey, 1900, 1933), possesses a strong “I must” (Noddings, 2002b, p. 20) perspective on relational care, and are for development in servant leadership (Greenleaf, 1977; Sergiovanni, 1992; Bowman, 2005)

Early adolescence is a critical time for examining academic motivation, specifically motivation to read (Hervey, 2013). In order to support self-determined motivation to read, students’ needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness must be met within the classroom context (Miller & Faircloth, 2014). Since classroom instructional practices are a key component of adolescents’ daily experiences in the classroom, research which investigates the influence of these practices on students’ self-determined motivation to read is needed. In addition, the perceptions of students and teachers regarding the degree to which classroom instructional practices meet students’ needs as well as the influence of classroom instructional practices on students’ self-determined motivation to read must be considered as the perceptions of these two groups of classroom stakeholders rarely fully converge (Delaney et al., 2014; Wang & Eccles, 2014). However, the field is lacking an established measure of both groups’ perceptions of classroom instructional practices and the degree to which they support students’ needs (i.e., competence, autonomy, relatedness) and self-determined (intrinsic) motivation to read. Therefore, this study sought to address this gap in the literature by developing and validating a measure with parallel teacher and student forms called the Language Arts Reading Practices Survey (LARPS). This measure assessed student and teacher perceptions of the degree to which classroom instructional practices in the language arts classroom support students’ needs for competence, autonomy, relatedness, and students’ self-determined motivation to read. The results of this study provide preliminary support for the validity of the student form of the LARPS, with less support for the teacher form of the measure. By assessing both student and teacher perceptions, the LARPS adds to the general understanding of specific instructional practices and how stakeholder groups view these practices regarding their ability to support students’ needs and motivation.

The main aim of my final thesis is to familiar reader with different ways of measuring credit risk by means of particular structural models of credit risk. This issue has been already described by foreign authors. Though, neither Czech nor Slovak economists have been deeply involved in this topic so far. For this reason, I have decided to focus on those models and both describe them as well as put them into the practice. My final thesis gradually focus on individual detailed model description in each chapter in following sequence: Credit Metrics, Black-School model, Merton model, KMV, Credit Grades. Moreover, it also targets model's construction as well as practical application. Regarding practical model's application, Black-School model is applied on IBM and KMV on Kraft Foods Company. Admittedly, that proves the fact that structural models are not only theoretical models, but also practical models applyable on real companies. Finally, I will compare all above mentioned models in selected parameters.

The Mathematics´ Teaching and Learning process is still, no doubt, a complex and problematic issue in the Brazilian Education context. Discipline with a lowest accomplishment and a higher failure level, as the results of educational evaluations have shown, it has been a source for discussions as well as academic and educational policy studies. Talking about Art, another focus in this study, there is a kind of devaluation of it as a part of the knowledge constitution, being this duality one of the possible barriers to the interdisciplinary use of these knowledge fields in teaching. Similarly, motivated by the possibilities of the use of art as an aid to the Mathematics´ teaching and learning process during the initial grades of Elementary School, we define as an objective of this study to investigate the knowledge and the teacher´s practices concerning the relation of Art and Mathematics during the initial grades of Elementary School. The mentioned research was developed in a Local School at Aracaju (a city in Sergipe - Brazil), designated to the five first grades of Elementary School. The main subjects of this research are two teachers of the second and fourth grades of Elementary School. For the understanding of the study´s target, we appealed to theorists who develop connected researches, directly or indirectly, to the investigation pivot such as Nacarato, Lorenzato, Brizuela, Ferreira, Barbosa, Pereira, Read Fazenda, Silva, Tardif, Japiassú, Freire, D´Ambrosio, Fusari, Fiorentini, Pimenta, among others. The research, with a qualitative approach, it has been characterized as an ethnographic study in the perspective told by André (1995) it had a fieldwork fulfilled between June and July in 2014, with questionnaire appliance, interviews and the observation with a solid description as the procedures. The research aroused a greater reflection about the relevance of the relation between Art and Mathematics in the classroom. It was possible to realize the effort of the teachers in making the Mathematics class stimulator, making use of specific tools offered by Art. We found out that the imposition of the methodological accomplishment from some educational institutions have made it difficult to apply an interdisciplinary methodology. We also found out that the greater difficulty of the relation between Arts and Mathematics in teaching it might has been caused by the lack of a specific education training, as well as a continued education to teachers of the initial grades of Elementary School. Consequently, we realize a constant fight from these teachers to overcome the lack of time to find ways of planning in a stimulator manner to their educational practice, equally to adapt themselves to the several disciplinary possibilities in this practice. / O processo de ensino e aprendizagem em Matemática ainda é, sem dúvida, uma questão complexa e problemática no contexto da Educação Brasileira. Disciplina com mais baixo desempenho e maior índice de reprovação, como apontam os resultados das avalições educacionais, tem sido cada vez mais fonte de debates e estudos acadêmicos e político-educacionais. Em relação à arte, o outro foco deste estudo, há certa desvalorização desta como campo de constituição de conhecimento, sendo essa dualidade uma das possíveis barreiras à prática da interdisciplinaridade entre esses campos do conhecimento no ensino. Neste sentido, motivados pelas possibilidades do uso da arte como subsídio para o ensino e a aprendizagem da Matemática nos anos iniciais do Ensino Fundamental, definimos como objetivo deste estudo investigar saberes e práticas de docentes acerca da relação da Arte com a Matemática dos Anos Iniciais do Ensino Fundamental. A referida pesquisa foi desenvolvida em uma Escola Municipal de Aracaju (Sergipe/Brasil), que atende do 1º ao 5º ano do Ensino Fundamental. Os sujeitos centrais da pesquisa são duas professoras dos 2º e 4º anos do Ensino Fundamental. Para compreensão do objeto de estudo, recorremos a teóricos que desenvolvem pesquisas vinculadas, direta ou indiretamente, aos eixos da investigação em tela, tais como: Nacarato, Lorenzato, Brizuela, Ferreira, Barbosa, Pereira, Read Fazenda, Silva, Tardif, Japiassú, Freire, D Ambrósio, Fusari, Fiorentini, Pimenta, dentre outros. A pesquisa, de abordagem qualitativa, caracterizada como um estudo do tipo etnográfico na perspectiva descrita por André (1995), teve o trabalho de campo realizado no período de Junho a Dezembro de 2014, com aplicação de questionários, realização de entrevistas e observação com descrição densa como procedimentos. A pesquisa provocou uma maior reflexão sobre a relevância da relação da Arte com a Matemática em sala de aula. Foi possível perceber o esforço das professoras em tornar a aula de Matemática motivadora, utilizando-se inclusive e especificamente ferramentas oferecidas pela Arte. Constatamos que a imposição do cumprimento metodológico de alguns pacotes educacionais institucionais tem dificultado a aplicabilidade de metodologias relacionais, multi ou interdisciplinares. Constatamos também, que a maior dificuldade de se relacionar Artes com Matemática no ensino tem entre suas prováveis causas a incipiência de formação acadêmica específica, bem como da formação continuada de professores/professoras dos anos iniciais do Ensino Fundamental. Por conseguinte, percebemos uma luta constante desses professores em driblar a falta de tempo para buscar formas de planejar, de maneira motivadora, a sua prática pedagógica assim como se adaptar às mais diversas possibilidades disciplinares nessa prática.

As pesquisas em Educação Matemática têm nos mostrado, nas últimas duas décadas, a importância da comunicação e da interação na sala de aula. Apontam para a criação de um ambiente onde os alunos têm a possibilidade de trocar pontos de vista, confrontar resoluções, apresentar argumentações como uma estratégia favorecedora do processo de aprendizagem. Analisar os componentes presentes nas relações interativas da sala de aula entre professor e aluno e entre os próprios alunos e suas possíveis implicações na aprendizagem da Matemática foi o objetivo central deste trabalho de mestrado, caracterizado nos moldes da pesquisa qualitativa de abordagem interpretativa. Inicialmente foi feito um levantamento bibliográfico sobre os temas linguagem, comunicação e interação, relacionado às áreas da Lingüística e da Educação Matemática e, posteriormente, ocorreu uma intervenção em alunos de 3º ano do Ensino Fundamental de uma escola municipal do município de São Paulo, que apresentavam um desempenho escolar insatisfatório em Matemática. Por meio da análise da transcrição das falas dos momentos de interação, gravadas em áudio ao longo de um projeto de dez aulas-oficinas de Matemática, ministradas pela pesquisadora, foi possível identificar nas manifestações orais, além dos conteúdos diretamente relacionados ao conhecimento matemático, componentes afetivos, sociais e culturais. O silêncio, embora não seja considerado uma manifestação oral, também foi analisado como forma de expressão no contexto da sala de aula. Ainda que a pesquisa tenha sido desenvolvida com alunos previamente selecionados a partir da aplicação de um instrumento diagnóstico para comporem um grupo mais homogeneizado do ponto de vista pedagógico, verificou-se uma diversidade de situações em que o processo interativo influenciou ou não a aprendizagem dos alunos. Concluiu-se que expressar-se oralmente nas aulas de Matemática nem sempre está relacionado ao desenvolvimento direto do raciocínio sobre os conceitos e as idéias da área, uma vez que a expressão é composta por fatores de natureza emocional, social e cultural que, muitas vezes, antecedem a discussão matemática propriamente dita ou se sobrepõem a ela. Ainda assim, a expressão dos conteúdos não matemáticos merece seu devido valor na sala de aula na medida em que pode significar uma preparação para a discussão sobre as idéias matemáticas. / Research over the last two decades on Mathematical Education has demonstrated the importance of communication and interaction inside classrooms. Such research points to the creation of an environment where students are able to exchange points of view, confront resolutions, and present arguments as a favorable strategy in the learning process. Analyzing the components present in interactive relationships inside classrooms, between teacher and student and among students themselves and its possible implications in learning Mathematics, was the main objective of this research paper. Such analysis was reached through qualitative research of the interpretative approach. Initially a bibliographic research was made on the following themes: language, communication and interaction related to the areas of Linguistic and Mathematical Education. Subsequently, an intervention was carried out on third graders in a municipal school in the city of São Paulo who presented an insufficient Mathematical performance. Through the analysis of the transcripts of the talks during the moments of interactions, recorded in audio throughout a project of ten mathematics workshop classes and which was lectured by the researcher, the following conclusion was reached. It was actually possible to identify in the oral manifestations, beyond the content directly related to the Mathematical knowledge, affectionate, social and cultural components. Silence, although not considered an oral manifestation was also analyzed as a form of expression in the classroom context. Even though the research was developed with previously screened students, from the application of a diagnostic instrument so that the group was educationally homogeneous, it was verified that the diversity of situations in the interactive process may influence or not the learning process of students. It was concluded that the oral expression in Mathematics classes is not always related to the direct development of the logic reasoning over the concepts and ideas of Mathematics, since the expression is composed of an emotional, social and cultural nature and that it often foregoes the mathematical discussion in and of itself or overlaps it. Nevertheless, the expression of non-Mathematical contents shall be valued in classrooms as it may stand for a preparation of a discussion of Mathematical ideas.

Grades computacionais oportunistas utilizam recursos ociosos de máquinas compartilhadas para executar aplicações que necessitam de um alto poder computacional e/ou trabalham com grandes quantidades de dados. Mas a execução de aplicações paralelas computacionalmente intensivas em ambientes dinâmicos e heterogêneos, como grades computacionais oportunistas, é uma tarefa difícil. Máquinas podem falhar, ficar inacessíveis ou passar de ociosas para ocupadas inesperadamente, comprometendo a execução de aplicações. Um mecanismo de tolerância a falhas que dê suporte a arquiteturas heterogêneas é um importante requisito para estes sistemas. Neste trabalho, analisamos, implementamos e avaliamos um mecanismo de tolerância a falhas baseado em checkpointing para aplicações paralelas em grades computacionais oportunistas. Este mecanismo permite o monitoramento de execuções e a migração de aplicações entre nós heterogêneos da grade. Mas além da execução, é preciso gerenciar e armazenar os dados gerados e utilizados por estas aplicações. Desejamos uma infra-estrutura de armazenamento de dados de baixo custo e que utilize o espaço livre em disco de máquinas compartilhadas da grade. Devemos utilizar somente os ciclos ociosos destas máquinas para armazenar e recuperar dados, de modo que um sistema de armazenamento distribuído que as utilize deve ser redundante e tolerante a falhas. Para resolver o problema do armazenamento de dados em grades oportunistas, projetamos, implementamos e avaliamos o middleware OppStore. Este middleware provê armazenamento distribuído e confiável de dados, que podem ser acessados de qualquer máquina da grade. As máquinas são organizadas em aglomerados, que são conectados por uma rede peer-to-peer auto-organizável e tolerante a falhas. Dados são codificados em fragmentos redundantes antes de serem armazenados, de modo que arquivos podem ser reconstruídos utilizando apenas um subconjunto destes fragmentos. Finalmente, para lidar com a heterogeneidade dos recursos, desenvolvemos uma extensão ao protocolo de roteamento em redes peer-to-peer Pastry. Esta extensão adiciona balanceamento de carga e suporte à heterogeneidade de máquinas ao protocolo Pastry. / Opportunistic computational grids use idle resources from shared machines to execute applications that need large amounts of computational power and/or deal with large amounts of data. But executing computationally intensive parallel applications in dynamic and heterogeneous environments, such as opportunistic grids, is a daunting task. Machines may fail, become inaccessible, or change from idle to occupied unexpectedly, compromising the application execution. A fault tolerance mechanism that supports heterogeneous architectures is an important requisite for such systems. In this work, we analyze, implement and evaluate a checkpointing-based fault tolerance mechanism for parallel applications running on opportunistic grids. The mechanism monitors application execution and allows the migration of applications between heterogeneous nodes of the grid. But besides application execution, it is necessary to manage data generated and used by those applications. We want a low cost data storage infrastructure that utilizes the unused disk space of grid shared machines. The system should use the machines to store and recover data only during their idle periods, requiring the system to be redundant and fault-tolerant. To solve the data storage problem in opportunistic grids, we designed, implemented and evaluated the OppStore middleware. This middleware provides reliable distributed storage for application data, which can be accessed from any machine in the grid. The machines are organized in clusters, connected by a self-organizing and fault-tolerant peer-to-peer network. During storage, data is codified into redundant fragments, allowing the reconstruction of the original file using only a subset of those fragments. Finally, to deal with resource heterogeneity, we developed an extension to the Pastry peer-to-peer routing substrate, enabling heterogeneity-aware load-balancing message routing.

School leaders face increasing demands related to student achievement. These demands involve annual data reporting related to overall student, school, and district success. In Florida, this accountability and transparency requirement is addressed through an annual school grading system. It is essential that leaders utilize successful programs that directly influence positive student outcomes and demonstrate high quality education. The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of a youth leadership development program, specifically The Leader in Me (TLIM) program, on school grades. Based on data obtained from 16 public elementary schools across Florida, a repeated measures ANCOVA analysis revealed that no statistically significant differences in the mean school grade percentages were observed between schools that implemented TLIM and schools that did not utilize the program. In addition, no significant differences were noted in the mean school-wide achievement scores on state mandated assessments in the areas of English/Language arts, mathematics, and science. Furthermore,regression analysis revealed that the percentage of students identified as minority, the percentage of students qualifying for free and reduced lunch, and the percentage of students reported as chronically absent significantly influence school grades. A review of the existing literature related to The Leader in Me, staff and student leadership, and the study variables follows, as well as a discussion of the findings and implications for future practice and research.