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The research which forms the basis of this thesis focuses on the developing practice of two local authority support services working in primary schools with the aim of changing the nature of provision for children with special educational needs. In the first case study, four support teachers work, half a week each, for one year in a junior school which appeared to have a high number of children with learning and behavioural difficulties. These support teachers were attempting to change the practice of the classroom teachers in this school. In the second case study, the work of four support teachers is observed, as they begin a change of role, moving from centre-based work with children to supporting the children in class, and trying to change the nature of provision for these children in school. Each case study was conducted over one year. The methodological approach was located within a constructivist paradigm. The methods were interview, observation, questionnaire and documentary analysis. The review of the literature, after examining the background to change within special educational needs provision, and within primary schools, goes on to consider issues particularly pertinent to this research, such as consultant and collaborative teaching skills, personal change and interpersonal skills needed for effective instigation of change. These issues support both the implementation and the analysis of the research. The final part of the thesis addresses the issues arising from the research, such as the training needs of the support teachers and class teachers regarding knowledge of the change process and an awareness of theoretical issues surrounding special educational needs, and dichotomies within the approach of the support teachers towards the process of change. The conclusion examines themes which have emerged from the research and which are applicable to current changes in special educational needs provision.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Boston University / This study investigated the early lives of certain mystics from a psychologist standpoint, assuming that mysticism is subject to the same type of forces and factors as any other human behavior. (For the purposes of the dissertation, a mystic is defined as one who centers his life on God and strives for "union" with him.) Questions of theology and philosophy were excluded from the study, and focus was made on the experience of the mystics. Biographies and, where available, autobiographies of the mystics were analyzed and rated using the categories developed by Henry A. Murray et al., known as the "need-press" theory. Only those elements susceptible to analysis using extant psychological methods and techniques were considered. The mystics were limited to those from Western Christendom. Because of the subjectivity involved in the classification of the biographical material, a second rater independently rated the same material. The two raters agreed on more than three-fourths of the classifications; Pearson correlations ranged from .86 to .97 [TRUNCATED]

There is an increasing interest in developing existing Special Educational Needs (SEN) teaching methods due to recent concerns regarding the number of SEN pupils in schools. Communication is difficult for students when they have little or no clear speech. Consequently, a range of communication systems are used as an alternative to speech, including symbols, pictures or gestures. Importantly, helping students to better communicate also improves their education, friendships and independence. However, it is acknowledged that creating these educational resources is time consuming and expensive, and the learning results are not recognised as being as effective as required. Semantic Web technology has had an impact in the educational field and offers the required linkages for more engagement with Web content. There is, however, a considerable gap in Semantic Web research between the contributions in the mainstream educational field and research undertaken into special educational needs (SEN) students. This thesis presents an augmented World Wide Web (WWW) vision utilising annotation to more effectively support diverse special educational needs students. Students are supported in part by a SEN Teaching Platform (SENTP), one artefact from this design science research. Poetry is used as a website teaching material because of its significant impact on special needs students as it is a difficult topic to understand. The first stage of the research is to select the appropriate tools for testing annotation techniques in a real SEN environment. Later, a design of the proposed SEN teaching platform is built based on a Semantic Web annotation tool (Amaya) coordinated with a web application. Design is evaluated by conducting a pilot study in schools caring for special needs students (SEN). Evaluations were carried out at two schools, interviewing nine participants (Teachers, Teaching Assistant) in the UK. SENTP is tested for using Semantic Web technology to benefit the education of SEN students by utilizing Semantic Web annotation tools. This research further improves the SENTP with additional support for cognitive load using specific annotation formats within the Amaya annotation tool. Field testing is carried out at six UK schools with twenty-two participants being interviewed. Cognitive load principles are shown to improve both learning and class behaviour, also supporting teachers in the production of educational content. The pilot study and field testing results reveal that the proposed approach is effective. Following this, designed artefacts are synthesised within a wider design blueprint that articulates how this new world of annotated digital media is designed, deployed and consumed. Finally, SENTP ontology is created using OWL language and Protégé 5. The main goal of this ontology is to produce a wider design SENTP ontology that can be adapted to wider teaching purposes.

One of the fastest growing areas of law enforcement in the state of Texas today is school district policing, with many of the Independent School District (ISD) departments having been formed within the past 10-12 years. Without a formal structured plan of its own, training programs for the school district police officer have often followed the template of other local and state policing organizations to determine their own in-service training curriculum. Unfortunately, following the guidelines and programs set up by these outside policing organizations has led to training that is not indicative of the school district police officers bona fide training needs. This research first focused on identifying the internal and external constraints that are operating from within the school district, along with influences from outside the organization that are hindering ISD police officer training. The results found budgetary issues, time issues, perceived lack of training support from the school district administration, a lack of a training needs analysis to identify training needs, and other outside constraints (such as legislative training mandates), were hindering ISD police in-service training. Recommendations were made to seek outside assistance (grants), combined regional training efforts, organizing to seek changes in required state training mandates, educating administration in ISD policing needs, and performing a training needs analysis to identify training needs. The second focus identified the unique tasks of the school district police officer in order to provide the school district policing organizations with specific task information regarding the daily tasks of the school district police officer. Twenty eight unique police officer tasks were then identified through group sessions held with several ISD policing organizations. The tasks were then listed in order of criticality and frequency, and two lists were made from the returns. One related to overall task importance and the second list was ordered by agency size, as it was believed that the agencies may differ in focus and responsibilities by departmental size. This combination of an organizational analysis and a task analysis is expected to provide the ISD policing organizations with the information from which a sound training program may be designed.

The harmonious meshing of employee career development needs and corporate missions, goals, and objectives is a necessity for the growth and maintenance of both the individual and the organization. This study was designed to investigate Taiwan Power Company (TPC) white-collar employees?? perceptions of career development program needs. The purposes of the study were (a) to identify the perceptions of career development program needs; (b) to explore the underlying constructs among current and future positions in regard to the employee??s perceptions of career development program needs; (c) to investigate the differences among perceptions of career development needs; (d) to determine whether or not differences among perceptions of career development program needs exist among respondents who differ in terms of gender, age, and education; and (e) to discover if individuals who differ in terms of job functions and job roles have different opinions on whether the selected career development programs were already provided or should be provided by the company.This study was conducted using a questionnaire. The data were collected from a stratified random sample of 1,636 white-collar employees in the TPC. A response rate of 82.5% resulted in a final sample of 1,351 respondents. The content validity of the questionnaire was established via expert opinion and the internal consistency of the instrument was calculated using Cronbach??s ??. Frequency counts, central tendencies and standard deviations were used in the descriptive analysis of the current and future position data. Principle factor analysis with Varimax rotation revealed six constructs for the current position data. Similar factor analytical results were obtained for the future position data. Two-way MANOVAs with Descriptive Discriminant Analysis and univariate ANOVAs, with REGWF when appropriate, were used to probe significant main effects. Chi-square tests were employed to answer the research questions regarding the perceptions of whether the 33 career development programs were already provided or should be provided by the company. Differences in terms of current and future positions were obtained for individuals who were classified by job function, job role, gender, age, and education. Twelve conclusions were generated and specific career development practices were suggested.