The diploma thesis is focusing on the contemporary movement called "early start" in the education of the English language. Almost all nursery schools offer today the extra lessons for children. The diploma thesis presents not only the actual negative and positive arguments for the early start lessons but also the theoretical resource for the development of language and communicative competences of children. Also the topic of learning a foreign language and its influences as well as the politics of educating foreign languages in the world and in the Czech Republic are included. The practical part of the thesis will try to enrich the debate about the early start by individual experience and findings of six children who were interviewed. Their information was completed by the acquaintances of their parents that filled the questionnaire.

Researchers have shown rural elementary and middle-grade science teachers' inability to integrate STEM career-related lessons into their curricula despite engagement in professional development linked to the teachers' intent-driven beliefs. Researchers, however, have not investigated the influence of intentions on teachers' abilities to integrate STEM career-related lessons into science instruction. The purpose of this transcendental phenomenological study was to understand how intentions impacted rural elementary and middle-grade teachers' ability to integrate STEM career-related lessons during science instruction. Guided by Ajzen's (1988) theory of planned behavior, this study was designed to examine teachers' intentions to integrate STEM career-related lessons during science instruction and the underlying causes of such intentions. In this transcendental phenomenological study, reflective journal entries and interview data were collected through purposeful sampling of 10 rural elementary and middle-grade science teachers. Data were analyzed using a modification of the Van Kaam method of analysis. Findings showed that teachers intended to regularly integrate STEM career-related lessons, but needed more support from their administrators, colleagues, and community partners in fulfilling their intents to integrate STEM career-related lessons. Additional studies are needed for an increased understanding of how teachers in rural areas intend to integrate STEM career-related lessons amid challenges rural teachers face. This study may be of benefit to administrators and teachers who want to unite efforts in constructing a positive climate of integrating STEM career-related lessons during science instruction.

Effective practice determines the quality of a performance and it is essential to improving a musician's overall level of playing. Studies show that experts in the field of music display superior metacognitive skills, or the ability to think about one's thinking. Metacognition is an important skill that needs to be developed in order for a student to become a self-regulated, or independent learner. Effective practice can be improved by learning and developing metacognitive and self-regulated learning skills. An important component of self-regulated learning is reflective thinking. Reflective thinking is a mental process that contributes to deeper learning experiences, improves problem solving skills, and enhances creativity. Reflective thinking can be stimulated with writing activities. Research and theories of reflective practices informed the creation of the Reflective Writing Prompts. The Reflective Writing Prompts stimulate reflective thinking as they teach and develop metacognitive and self-regulated learning skills to make practice more effective. Each exercise prompts the student to think and write a response to questions focused on a specific skill. These prompts are based on research in music psychology and reflective thinking, with special focus on metacognition, self-regulated learning, practice habits, and reflective journaling. The pertinent studies and theories in these areas will be examined and explained in relation to each other. With this foundational knowledge in place, the Reflective Writing Prompts will be presented. The prompts are designed to support first or second year music students in their development as independent learners who practice effectively.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a series of perceptual training and drawing lessons on the drawing behaviour of children of eight years of age, in year three classes in some South Australian middle income schools. A literature search revealed that the drawing behaviour of children is responsive to perceptual training and drawing classes, and furthermore that an improvement in drawing ability has resulted from such programmes. Children of eight years of age were selected for two reasons. Their drawing development has generally become schematic, which means that a certain degree of stereotyping is used in their drawing. And in addition the perceptual development of eight year olds is considered by many perceptual theorists to be sufficiently advanced for a series of training lessons. Also as a result of perceptual development children of eight years of age are able to participate in a drawing test which involves the drawing of objects or models based on the observation of such objects or models. A pretest-posttest with control group design was used in this study. The experimental and control groups were selected from a sufficiently large sample of schools. The groups selected were randomly assigned to be experimental or control groups in the study. A Salome modified drawing test was administered to each experimental and control group in the study. This drawing test which consisted in the subjects being required to draw three objects, was administered as a pretest and a posttest to all groups by the researcher. The experimental groups received a treatment which consisted of six weekly sessions involving perceptual training and drawing exercises. The control group continued with their normal art lessons with their class teacher. The test drawings were scored by three judges on a Salome modified rating scale. A scoring procedure was devised so that the judges were unaware whether the drawings to be scored were pretest, or posttest, control group or experimental group. The following statistical tests were conducted on the drawing scores using an SPSS computer programme: a t-test for age a t-test to determine whether there was a significant difference between the mean scores of the experimental and the control groups. an analysis of variance to determine whether there was a significant difference between the gain scores of the experimental and control groups. - and Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficients for rater inter-reliability. All statistical tests demonstrated that the experimental groups gained significantly higher posttest drawing scores. All statistical tests produced results as the 0.05 level of significance. The implications for curriculum design, and the practice of teaching drawing in primary schools, are that interventionist drawing programmes of the kind used in this study do aid drawing development. Drawing is a basic skill in art, thus a perceptual training and drawing programme which aids drawing development will also improve other modes of artistic expression.

Due to its high-risk nature, international construction projects are more vulnerable to adverse changes in project environment and company objectives. To achieve successful project outcomes, early provision of risks has a vital place in managing construction projects. Within the literature, several risk assessment methodologies have been offered to simulate probable consequences of risks. The majority of the proposed methodologies are limited in reflection of real project conditions as they require probabilistic measures or rely on solely intuition and experience of decision makers. In this study, it is argued that an additional assistance is needed for decision-makers when they are assessing magnitudes of risks under different project and country conditions. The purpose of this study is to develop a knowledge-based risk mapping tool for international construction projects using an ontology that relates risk and vulnerability to cost overrun and a novel risk-vulnerability assessment methodology. The tool incorporates a &lsquo / lessons learned database&rsquo / that utilizes learning from previous projects in order to assist decision-makers when quantifying the risk-related variables. The database is expected to aid decision-makers by retrieving and making use of the knowledge of previous projects that have been captured, codified, and stored within the database previously. In addition, to guide decision-makers by giving better understanding of the risk variables, attributes of the risk-related variables are identified that lists probable triggering events for the occurrence of the relevant variables. The tool has also been tested on a real construction project as well as its usability has been ensured by conducting some usability tests.

The purpose of thesis was to investigate and compare how two companies within pharmaceutical industry and nuclear power industry are currently working with quality development regarding continuous improvement and Lessons Learned in business processes. In addition, a simple comparison was made with the automotiveindustry. McNeil AB are improving their processes continuously and are according to the findings of this report performing well in their pursuit of world-class pharmaceutical production. They have a well functioning process regarding improvements proposed in weekly improvement meetings engaging all employees. However, during interviews it was made clear that the functionality of the process which administer improvement proposals generated in addition to, or beside the weekly improvement meetings, were inadequate. McNeil AB is proposed to administer this through an IT solution instead of by paper and e-mail, that simplifies the process of adding, implementing and follow up an improvement proposal. The nuclear power plant Ringhals AB recently made major improvements in their business processes as well as the plant itself. In a short period of time, several major modernization projects have been carried out and the project department have been put to the test. In order to drive changes in the plant, a plant modification process is used which is highly appreciated by the employees. However, when compared to McNeil AB and the automotive industry’s processes the plant modification process was found to lack in Lessons Learned. Ringhals AB is therefore proposed to implement Lessons Learned methodologies in check points throughout the projects lifecycle.

The capability to know what knowledge there is and where it resides within an organization is becoming increasingly important in the new knowledge-based economy. This paper takes on a practise-based view of knowledge in order to decide on a course of action for how to successfully implement knowledge management within a knowledge-based company. By considering all knowledge as more or less contextual and socially constructed, knowledge is divided into three dimensions depending on the degree to which it is tacit, namely: information, knowledge and skills. The paper then discusses inhibitors and enablers for transferring knowledge via these three dimensions respectively.  The empirical findings are based upon a case study of Faveo. It is shown that Faveo, like most organizations, has til now focused on the collection of codified knowledge, i.e. documentation of information. Faveo has the technology established to potentiallymanage information transfer to an adequate degree. Still, the company fails to do so due to its incapability to enable use of its groupware. To surmount this problem, Faveo needs to address the attitudes of its employees towards its groupware and train them in how to use it. To improve Faveo’s knowledge management and thus pursue world class project management, the company also needs to step up its game within the two areas of knowledge and skills transfer. There are some but not sufficient plans for handling knowledge transfer at Faveo and, again, Faveo fails to enable these processes to turn from plans into action. There is an overall need for more formal as well as informal interaction between individual and groups of employees at Faveo. In addition, Faveo needs to acknowledge skills transfer as a vital part of knowledge management. This report finally suggests that Faveo needs to motivate knowledge management, create goals for knowledge management, train its employees in how to carry out knowledge management and evaluate its knowledge management.

International contracting services of the Turkish construction companies started at the beginning of 1970s have great importance on Turkish construction sector and Turkish economy. With increasing and decreasing annual amounts from 1970s to the present date due to several economic, political and social factors / international contracting services showed a tremendous increase compared to the 1972 level. In the 38-years period between 1972 and 2010, Turkish contractors completed a lot of projects in different countries with a great success. The success achieved in the past and today led the Turkish construction sector to expand its goals and to set quite ambitious figures as its future targets. Within this period from past to the present, in addition to the opportunities, Turkish companies also faced a lot of difficulties and problems / and gained a considerable experience from the lessons learnt from them. This study aims to investigate the lessons learnt as a result of opportunities and problems faced by the Turkish construction sector -that has serious and ambitious targets for the future. In the light of these lessons learnt, it is targeted to define what has to be done for retaining the current successful position of the sector and achieving its future goals.

This research deals mainly with the impact of a family on an ineffectual studying of children. Unwillingness to study has become one of the most serious problems of general education. It is a very important reason for being absent from school, not attending lessons, repeating studies, and elimination from school. Students, who have to repeat their studies, quite often break them. Such kind of students and teenagers usually join the groups of unskilled labor force, unemployed people or even go with criminal gangs. From the social perspective the group of students who do not want to study and who are absent from school quite often is also problematic. They hate school and teachers, tramp in the streets, quite often use hard drink and drugs, smoke, and behave not socially. The aim of the research is to reveal the peculiarities of the families in which children study ineffectually. The goals of the research are: to analyze pedagogical and psychological literature researching the impact of a family on effective/ineffective studying; to interpret effective/ineffective studying in the context of new social changes and the process of education reform; to do the empirical research and to analyze the results from the perspective of social reasons (family) of ineffective studying. A survey has been carried out where questionnaires were given to the ineffectively studying students and their mentors, and the following conclusions could be proposed. Family atmosphere influences the... [to full text]

Mano darbe, pirmą kartą Lietuvoje, 3 testų – korektūrinių lentelių, Vestono ir Šultės skaičių suradimo pagalba , norėta patikrinti kaip kinta abiturientų darbingumas ir nuovargis savaitės bėgyje, semestro pradžioje ir pabaigoje. Tyrimo tikslas – įvertinti abiturientų protinį nuovargį ir susieti jį su mokslo krūviu ir sveikatos nusiskundimais. Tyrimo metodika. Anketinėje apklausoje dalyvavo 86 dvyliktokai : 66 besimokantys gimnazijoje ir 20 vidurinėje mokykloje. Testavimo metu buvo atrinkti 39 gimnazistai ir 15 vidurinės mokyklos abiturientai pagal lankomumo kriterijų. Anketų atsako dažnis 100 proc., testų - 94,45 proc. Anketa buvo sudaryta iš 13 klausimų, kuriuose buvo klausiama apie mokslo krūvį, sveikatą įtakojančius veiksnius bei sveikatos nusiskundimus. Testai buvo 3 : korektūrinės lentelės ��� dėmesio funkcijai, Vestono testas – informacijos perdirbimo kiekiui, Šultės skaičių suradimo testas – dėmesio apimčiai ir paskirstymui nustatyti. Statistinė empirinių duomenų analizė atlikta naudojant SPSS 11,0. Statistinei analizei panaudoti : Chi kvadrato testas, pasikliautinas intervalas, patikimumo lygmuo, kai p < 0,05, šansų santykis, laisvės laipsnių skaičius, vidurkis. Rezultatai. Atlikto tyrimo duomenys parodė, kad protinis darbingumas savaitės bėgyje kinta ( pirmadieniais ir trečiadieniais - aukščiausiais, antradieniais ir ketvirtadieniais - žemiausias ). Semestro pabaigoje padidėjus kontrolinių darbų, atsiskaitymų skaičiui , abiturientų protinis nuovargis žymiai... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The first time in Lithuania, in my research, I used three tests-proof sheets, employed method of finding Weston and Schulte numbers. I wanted to find out, how working capacity and tiredness changes during the week, in the beginning and the end of term. Aim of the study- estimate graduates’ mental tiredness and relate it with the work load and health problems. Methods. 86 students took part in the questionnaire survey: 66 learning in a high school and 20 learning in a secondary school. 39 high school students and 15 secondary school students were chosen during the testing, according the attendance criteria. Questionnaire response rate -100 percent, tests -94,45 percent. There were 13 questions in the questionnaire, with the questions about study load, factors influencing health and health problems. We had 3 tests: proofing sheets-for attention function, Weston test-for processing the quantity of information, Schulte numbers’ finding test-to estimate attention volume and distribution. Statistical empirical data analysis was made using SPSS 11,0. We used Chi square test, relying upon interval, reliability level, when p<0, 05, relationship of chances, freedom degrees number, average. Results. Data from the research proved, that mental working capacity changes in the course of the week (it is highest on Mondays and Wednesdays, lowest on Tuesdays and Thursdays). Mental tiredness increases in the end of semester, when students have more tests. All tests showed that high school... [to full text]