Recent research examining collective efficacy beliefs has generated a plethora of promising findings about their impact on group functioning. However, questions regarding the nature of collective efficacy beliefs across diverse educational organizations and theoretical constructs are understudied in this area of research. Therefore, the current study examines the relationship between collective efficacy beliefs and building group capacity. Self-reported data were collected from participants involved in a 10-month collaborative effort to enhance their proficiency in giving more effective presentations in order to strengthen their divisions’ capacity to improve educational achievement in schools. This top-down approach to building capacity is common, yet challenging to develop and evaluate, especially for organizations consisting of multiple infrastructures. Research findings using separate simple linear regression analyses suggest that perceived collective efficacy highly predicts group capacity, as it accounted for nearly 76% of the variance in self-reported group capacity. In addition, vicarious experience was shown to highly predict collective efficacy beliefs and group capacity. Likewise, perceived autonomy support strongly predicted group capacity, however did not significantly predict collective efficacy beliefs, which has been implied in the recent literature (Goddard, Hoy & Woolfolk Hoy, 2004; Brinson & Steiner, 2007). These findings provide a foundation for future collective efficacy belief research and capacity building efforts in the nonprofit education sector. / text

ABSTRACT THE EFFECT OF GROUP BEHAVIOR ON THE PULL-OUT CAPACITY OF SOIL NAILS IN HIGH PLASTIC CLAY Ak&amp / #56256 / &amp / #56533 / &amp / #56256 / &amp / #56570 / , Ebru Ph. D., Department of Civil Engineering Supervisor : Assoc. Prof. Dr. B. Sad&amp / #56256 / &amp / #56533 / k Bak&amp / #56256 / &amp / #56533 / r Co-Supervisor : Asst. Prof. Dr. M. Tolga Y&amp / #56256 / &amp / #56533 / lmaz September 2009, 161 pages Soil nailing technique is widely used in stabilizing roadway and tunnel portal cut excavations. The key parameter in the design of soil nail systems is the pull-out capacity. The pull-out capacity of the soil nails can be estimated from the studies involving similar soil conditions or can be estimated from the empirical formulas. Field verification tests are performed before the construction stage in order to confirm the parameter chosen in the design of soil nailing system. It is reported in the literature that, the pull-out resistance of a soil nail in sand should be reduced for the nails installed closer than a specific minimum distance, whereas no such requirement have been discussed for nail groups in clays. v In this study, the pull-out resistance of nails in high plastic clay are tested to investigate the influence of nail spacing in group applications. The laboratory set-up for the pull-out tests is composed of an aluminum model box (300mm (w) x 300mm (h) x 500 mm (l)), soil sample, reinforcements, pull-out device, overburden pressure applicator and monitoring device. A series of pull-out tests has been carried out on single nails and group of nails with spacings 2 and 6 times the diameter of a nail in order to observe the group effect on the pullout capacity of the nails. The nails are located into their positions during the placement of clay into the box. Within the limitations of this study, it is observed that, there is a reduction in the pull-out capacity of the central nail in 2&Oslash / spaced group. The pull-out capacity of the central nail in nail group with 6&Oslash / spacing, is not affected from the neighboring nails. In all tests, the plots of pull-out load on nail versus nail displacement show that, the peak value of load is followed by a sharp reduction. The peak pull-out load is mobilized at first few millimeters of the nail displacements. A 3D finite element program is used for numerical analyses of the experiments. The measured pull-out capacity of the soil nails are compared by the results of simulated forces obtained from these analyses. By and large, the agreement between the tests and the numerical analyses is observed to be satisfactory. The details of the numerical models are briefly presented in order to give insight into numerical modeling of soil nails in real applications.