Promoting student self-determination has been identified as best practice in special education as an effective way to promote goal attainment and successful post school outcomes for students with disabilities. There have been, however, limited evaluations of the effects of interventions to promote self-determination with students who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. This study reports finding from a quasi-experimental switching replication study examining the impact of intervention using the Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction on student self-determination and goal attainment for students who are deaf or hard-of-hearing. Findings within this study using the current research design and limited sample do not support the efficacy of the model for differential goal attainment and goal attainment facilitation by Group assignment but students who are classified as DHH were able to set goals and attain these at a better than expected level of progress. Measures of self-determination used in this study proved to have good internal reliability with students who have various levels of hearing loss and who use various modes of communication.

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Performance management and goal attainment are two subjects over which thousands of books and articles have been written. The manufacturing sector in South Africa is competitive and companies have to continuously strive to better themselves to meet the ever changing requirements of their customers. What is important to the company of today is that the goals and strategies must be reviewed on a regular basis. The question that can now be asked, is the following: How can corporate goals be attained through the management of the company's performance? The purpose of this study is to establish how companies achieve their set goals through the management of their performance. The focus was not only placed on the financial indicators of performance, but also placed on how the companies manage their non-financial performance. In the current competitive environment in which manufacturing companies find themselves, the importance of non-financial performance has increased to the same level as financial performance. Empirical research was performed by means of a questionnaire and interviews in order to determine how companies operate to achieve their set goals and to arrive at conclusions and recommendations based on this research. It was found that companies give the same amount of attention to the financial and non-financial indicators of performance, but that there is room for improvement in the use of non-financial indicators. There was also found that companies achieve their set goals through the use of performance management. / Thesis (M.Com. (Management Accounting))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

Performance management and goal attainment are two subjects over which thousands of books and articles have been written. The manufacturing sector in South Africa is competitive and companies have to continuously strive to better themselves to meet the ever changing requirements of their customers. What is important to the company of today is that the goals and strategies must be reviewed on a regular basis. The question that can now be asked, is the following: How can corporate goals be attained through the management of the company's performance? The purpose of this study is to establish how companies achieve their set goals through the management of their performance. The focus was not only placed on the financial indicators of performance, but also placed on how the companies manage their non-financial performance. In the current competitive environment in which manufacturing companies find themselves, the importance of non-financial performance has increased to the same level as financial performance. Empirical research was performed by means of a questionnaire and interviews in order to determine how companies operate to achieve their set goals and to arrive at conclusions and recommendations based on this research. It was found that companies give the same amount of attention to the financial and non-financial indicators of performance, but that there is room for improvement in the use of non-financial indicators. There was also found that companies achieve their set goals through the use of performance management. / Thesis (M.Com. (Management Accounting))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2007.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / Although the field of coaching psychology has witnessed some theoretical and empirical advances in recent years, this has yet to translate into a commonly accepted theoretical and empirical foundation for coaching practice. Rather, coaching practice has run well ahead of related theory and research, and resulted in the establishment of an industry that lacks firm foundations. This doctoral dissertation reports on a series of reviews and empirical studies designed to further the development of evidence-based coaching practice (EBCP). A review of the relevant literature revealed that the development of solid evidence-based foundations is critical if coaching is to realise its promise and potential. As events surrounding the decline of the human potential movement (HPM) in the 1960s and 1970s indicate, the absence of theoretically-based rationales and solid research support may be a reliable predictor of decline for particular treatment modalities. Whilst the development of EBCP has important implications for the formal preparation of coaches, pedagogical recommendations to industry educators are difficult whilst the characteristics of the coaching industry remain hidden. In order to develop the profile of the Australian coaching industry, a survey was conducted of 148 practicing coaches. The results of this study revealed the presence of a diverse local industry. Despite the existence of a small core of highly experienced practitioners, the majority of coaches appeared to have little coaching experience and greatly varied skills and experience. Interestingly, only 20% of respondents reported any formal training in psychology or the other helping professions. Given recent data that suggests mental health issues may sometimes be encountered in coaching (Green, Oades, & Grant, 2006; Spence & Grant, in press), it is concluded that the majority of coaches lack the skills and knowledge to identify and deal effectively with such eventualities. As the development of an informed strategy for dealing with mental health issues would move the practice of coaching onto a more professional footing, it is recommended that coaches receive basic training in the identification and appropriate referral of such issues. Much of the work presented in this dissertation is based on the presupposition that client outcomes can be optimised through the use of EBCP. However, as this assumption has yet to be empirically tested, a total of 63 participants took part in a 10-week life coaching program. The results showed that when life coaching was conducted by coaches trained in cognitive-behavioural solution-focused (CB-SF) coaching methods (i.e. professional coaching), as opposed to untrained peers (i.e. peer coaching), participants were more engaged in coaching and reported significantly greater goal attainment, goal commitment and environmental mastery. Effective goal-directed self-regulation requires that individuals remain focused on their goals overtime, whilst managing a steady stream of disturbances that can destabilise goal directed effort. In this regard, the construct of mindfulness has much conceptual relevance. Mindfulness reflects the unique human capacity for directing conscious awareness via the controlled deployment of attention. After an extensive review of the scholarly literature, three alternative conceptualisations are presented (i.e. Eastern religious, socio-cognitive and cognitive-attentional perspectives), accompanied by a description of the mindfulness skills training practices associated with each. A total of 72 participants then took part in a study to assess the impact of three mindfulness training (MT) programs on mindfulness, goal-directed self-regulation, mental health and wellbeing. The results revealed that all the MT programs were effective in significantly increasing mindfulness and a variety of mental health and wellbeing indicators. Importantly, MT was also found to significantly increase goal attainment; suggesting that MT may be a valuable addition to EBCP. Goal attainment is a key dependent variable in coaching research. However, the measurement of goal attainment has yet to receive much attention in the coaching literature. As most empirical coaching studies have reported findings based on measures that rely exclusively on subjective measures of performance (measures that are susceptible to several forms of distortion and bias), some key issues relating to the measurement of goal attainment are reviewed and explored in detail. From this review, goal attainment scaling (GAS) is identified as a potentially useful methodology with which both researchers and practitioners can document and evaluate coaching outcomes. The final study pulls together the threads from work presented to that point, and integrates them into a practice framework for coaching. A total of 42 participants took part in this study, which investigated the efficacy of using MT and CB-SF coaching to facilitate the attainment of health goals. The results showed that the delivery of MT prior to (rather than after) CB-SF coaching was more effective in facilitating these outcomes. This suggests MT may be important in coaching for helping people prepare for change.

Therapy decision-making for patients with chronic diseases can be difficult. Such patients usually live with their illness(es) all their life, and therapies can only help them improve their condition by managing symptoms, not curing them. Patient-oriented approaches are common to caring for people with chronic conditions because patients’ priorities become relevant means of prioritizing therapies in the absence of a cure. While such type of approach is shown to be effective, it does not leverage evidence on the success of given therapies to achieve specific similar patient goals in the past. Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM) is a concept that was introduced to the medical field in the early 90s to invalidate previously accepted tests and therapies and replace them with new, more powerful, more accurate, more efficacious, and safer ones. Unfortunately, despite the prevalence of patient-oriented approaches for patients with chronic diseases, data collected on patients is not systematically leveraged to support therapy decisions. Combining evidence-based decision-making and patient-oriented approaches could potentially further improve patient outcomes by leveraging the most up-to-date data to recommend and discuss therapy options for patients with chronic conditions. The development and implementation of Learning Health Systems (LHS) is another solution to improving patient outcomes, one that the US Institute of Medicine strongly recommends. The development and implementation of a LHS to support therapy choice for patients with chronic conditions could improve related decisions by fostering continuous learning regarding which therapy may help better achieve which patient goals. However, a learning process that systematically leverages a relevant basis of evidence to support patient-oriented approaches has yet to be defined. As such, this study aims at articulating a learning process for therapy decision-making in the context of chronic conditions. The result is framework and a demonstration of its application using the Goal Attainment Scale (GAS) and synthetic data.

The objective of this research was to investigate the relationship between self-concept and goal attainment for assertive training groups. To determine if self-concept is related to the extent to which one's goals are attained was of major interest. Another purpose was to determine if self-concept measures increase as a result of participation in group assertive training. Subjects were 67 volunteers, students from Utah State University, and Cache Valley, Utah, community members. Subjects were administered as pretests and posttests the Tennessee Self Concept Scale and the Goal Attainment Scaling procedures including the Behavioral Monitoring Progress Record. Three groups were formed: 1) AT I, a self-directed assertive training group, 2) AT II, a directed, goal-oriented assertive training group, and 3) a no-treatment control group. Four assertive training sessions were conducted and posttesting was completed. Two correlations were computed: 1) the pretest TSCS scores were correlated with the GAS scores, and 2) the posttest TSCS scores were correlated with the GAS scores. A test of significance between correlation coefficients was applied to the two correlation coefficients obtained. The two correlations were not significantly different at the .05 significance level suggesting that the extent to which goals are attained is not related to self-concept for the two assertive training groups. Increases from the TSCS pretest to posttest for each assertive training group were significant as indicated by the analysis of variance for repeated measures. The experience of participating in both assertive training groups was suggested as effecting positive changes in self-concept.

The purpose for this study was to develop guidelines for the implementation of Goal Attainment Sealing (a mental health measurement technique) in the medical care setting. As a graduate student of social work, I have become involved in the delivery of medical care and am interested in the dynamics of psycho-social variables as they affect the structure, delivery, and outcome of medical services.

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