This dissertation consists of three essays. The first essay studies how health risk affects individuals' economic decisions due to changes in productivity, required medical expenditures, available time and survival probabilities implied by changes in health status. It assesses the role of these four channels in determining labour supply, asset accumulation and welfare using a life-cycle model calibrated to the U.S. economy. I find that all channels and the interactions between them have large implications for the macroeconomic variables studied. Health has larger effects for the non-college than college educated, explaining a significant fraction of the difference in labour supply, degree of reliance on government transfers and asset accumulation across education groups. Improving non-college health outcomes to approach those of college graduates results in large welfare gains, higher labour supply, and significantly lower reliance on government welfare programs. The second essay studies the evolution of wage inequality in the United States between 1980 and 2002 in a framework that accounts for changes in the employment of physical and cognitive skills and their returns. I find that within education-gender groups, average employed cognitive skills have remained constant, while average physical skills have declined. The returns to high levels of cognitive skills have increased dramatically, while returns to low levels of cognitive skills and physical skills have remained approximately constant. Skills account for approximately half of the increase in the college wage premium, and for a small but growing fraction of residual wage inequality. The final essay studies the sorting decisions of students with different levels of analytical and verbal skills into college fields of study. I build a model where each field tests and perfectly reveals to potential future employers only the students' skill that is intensively required in that field. Students' expected wages after graduation are a function of their revealed skill levels and firms' expectations of the unrevealed skills given the chosen field. I show how the size of each field and the average talent it attracts depend on the average skill levels, on skill dispersion and on the degree of correlation between skills in the student population.

<p>The great amount of METH abuse all over the world causes enormous social and criminal justice problems. In the human brain the abuse of METH causes implications on both structures and functions given rise to acute as well as long term symptoms. In this essay the effects of METH abuse is described in the manner of the drug mechanism such as the impact on neurotransmitters, structural deficits with decreased and increased volumes and the implication on attention, memory, decision  making and emotions. Results from studies showing brain structural and cognitive impairments in METH abusers and in prenatal METH exposed children.</p>

Do men and women receive different pay-offs, in terms of wage, from cognitive skills in the Swedish labor market? To answer this, the classical Mincer equation is expanded with a variable for cognitive skills (literacy and numeracy) and an interaction term between being a male and cognitive skills to be able to distinguish the actual difference in pay-off. I use data from OECD’s PIAAC survey of adult skills, which provides a unique opportunity to examine gender pay-off differences concerning cognitive skills. The results show that men have a larger pay-off than women once occupation is sufficiently controlled for

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy / There were two major aims in the current study. The first was to investigate the psychometric properties of the Thai Social and Emotional Skill Rating Scale (TSESRS) developed by the author. The measurement model of this material is a three factor model containing social skills, emotional skills, and social-cognitive skills. These factors were measured from eight indicators. Data were collected from 685 lower secondary school students who were studying in schools under the jurisdiction of the Phatthalung Educational Area Office, Thailand. Materials used in this phase were the trial version of the TSESRS, the Thai Emotional Skill Scale (TESS) and the Thai Social Skill Scale (TSSS). The evidence suggested that the following psychometric properties of the TSESRS are within the acceptable cut-off levels: item-validity, item-reliability, item-discrimination, test-reliability, construct validity, criterion related validity, and factorial validity. It was also found that a three factor model was the best fitting model. These results suggest that the TSESRS measures three distinct latent constructs, that is, social skills, emotional skills, and social-cognitive skills. The second aim was to examine the structural relationship of three exogenous variables, that is, social skills, emotional skills, and social-cognitive skills with two types of behaviour problems, that is, internalizing and externalizing problems. Data for this phase were collected from 951 students drawn from the same population as the first phase. Materials used for data collection were the TSESRS and the Thai version of the Youth Self-Report (YSR). The results revealed that among the three exogenous variables, social-cognitive skills was the only significant predictor of both internalizing and externalizing problems. The relationship between social-cognitive skills and two types of behaviour problems was negative. This means that the higher a students’ social-cognitive skills, the lower their level of internalizing and externalizing problems. The indicators of social cognitive skills were emotion control, problem solving, and decision making skills. This finding has important implications for dealing with behaviour problems in Thai students. Thai teachers or educators may use these findings for selecting from available programs or for developing new programs.

Research Doctorate - Doctor of Philosophy / There were two major aims in the current study. The first was to investigate the psychometric properties of the Thai Social and Emotional Skill Rating Scale (TSESRS) developed by the author. The measurement model of this material is a three factor model containing social skills, emotional skills, and social-cognitive skills. These factors were measured from eight indicators. Data were collected from 685 lower secondary school students who were studying in schools under the jurisdiction of the Phatthalung Educational Area Office, Thailand. Materials used in this phase were the trial version of the TSESRS, the Thai Emotional Skill Scale (TESS) and the Thai Social Skill Scale (TSSS). The evidence suggested that the following psychometric properties of the TSESRS are within the acceptable cut-off levels: item-validity, item-reliability, item-discrimination, test-reliability, construct validity, criterion related validity, and factorial validity. It was also found that a three factor model was the best fitting model. These results suggest that the TSESRS measures three distinct latent constructs, that is, social skills, emotional skills, and social-cognitive skills. The second aim was to examine the structural relationship of three exogenous variables, that is, social skills, emotional skills, and social-cognitive skills with two types of behaviour problems, that is, internalizing and externalizing problems. Data for this phase were collected from 951 students drawn from the same population as the first phase. Materials used for data collection were the TSESRS and the Thai version of the Youth Self-Report (YSR). The results revealed that among the three exogenous variables, social-cognitive skills was the only significant predictor of both internalizing and externalizing problems. The relationship between social-cognitive skills and two types of behaviour problems was negative. This means that the higher a students’ social-cognitive skills, the lower their level of internalizing and externalizing problems. The indicators of social cognitive skills were emotion control, problem solving, and decision making skills. This finding has important implications for dealing with behaviour problems in Thai students. Thai teachers or educators may use these findings for selecting from available programs or for developing new programs.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:24:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2009-02-13Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:21:19Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 labarce_ec_me_bauru.pdf: 943475 bytes, checksum: 7d9c1105cb0122b6fc9acb34564d20ef (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / A educação sempre será motivo de preocupação em nossa sociedade. Com relação à Educação em Ciências, a preocupação engloba a necessidade de, por meio desse ensino, promover habilidades cognitivas que permitam aprendizagens mais duradouras. A nossa investigação faz parte de um projeto mais amplo, que tem como meta a melhoria da qualidade do ensino oferecida por uma escola estadual de ensino médio e, consequentement, uma mais significativa e integral formação de seus alunos. Durante a pesquisa, propusemos e conduzimos uma sequencia didática para a aplicação do tema Energia na disciplina de biologia em um grupo de 21 alunos do 1º ano do ensino médio. O nosso objetivo foi, a partir dessa sequencia didática, baseada em atividades práticas e contextualizadas, verificar quais habilidades cognitivas, ou do pensamento, foram desenvolvidas pelos alunos durante o processo de ensino aprendizagem. Diante dos resultados obtidos, podemos concluir que as atividades práticas e contextualizadas contribuíram para a melhoria das habilidades cognitivas dos alunos, assim como para o desenvolvimento de novas linguagens e formalização de conceitos. Partindo das potencialidades dessas atividades e dos obstáculos que o professor enfrenta para realizá-las, em busca por melhores condições para os trabalhos práticos e contextualizados, este deve ultrapassar várias barreiras, que vão desde a organização física de um laboratório e a compra de material necessário à realização das atividades, até o envolvimento de colegas de outras áreas e a luta por conquistas políticas que lhe permitam trabalhar melhor. / Education is always a concern in our society. Regarding Science education, concern includes the need to promote Science cognitive skills that allow more durable learnings. Our research is part is part of a larger project, which aims to improve the quality of education offered by a Brazilian public high school and consequently a more significant and integral formation of students. During research, we propose and conduct a didactic sequence for implementing the Energy theme in the discipline of Biology in a group of 21 students from 1st year of high school. From that didactic sequence, based on practical and contextualized activities, our goal was to verify which cognitive or thought skills the students developed during the processes of teaching/learning. According to the research results, we can conclude that the practice and contextualized activities contributed to the improvement of cognitive skills of students as well as for developing new languages and formalization of concepts. Using the potential of these activities and the obstacles faced to teach them, teacher must in his search for better conditions for the practical and contextualized work to overcome several obstacles, rangig from the physical organization of a laboratory, the purchase of equipment necessary to perform activities, until the involvement of colleagues from other areas and the struggle for political victories, enabling him to work better.

A formação continuada de professores de Química, bem como as práticas pedagógicas por eles desenvolvidas, tem sido objeto de estudos por parte de muitos pesquisadores, os quais têm apontado preocupações com os rumos que essa formação vem tomando. Algumas pesquisas em Ensino de Química têm destacado a importância do uso de atividades experimentais investigativas para o desenvolvimento de habilidades cognitivas nos alunos e para sua maior participação no processo de aprendizagem. Assim, entende-se que são muitas as necessidades formativas do professor de química, tendo em vista que a elaboração de planos de aula, que favorecem a exploração pelos estudantes da atividade experimental e propicia o desenvolvimento de habilidades cognitivas de ordens mais altas. Para tanto, é imprescindível que estes planos tenham características de atividades investigativas, sendo acompanhados de questões que possibilitem o desenvolvimento de tais habilidades. A presente pesquisa investigou como os professores de química preparam planos de aula priorizando a elaboração de questões para que os alunos possam desenvolver habilidades cognitivas em atividades experimentais investigativas. Foi proposto um curso de formação continuada para professores de Química da Rede Pública do Estado de São Paulo na região de Diadema. Tal curso ocorreu em oito encontros de quatro horas, gravados em áudio e vídeo. Foram apresentados e discutidos alguns subsídios sobre atividades experimentais investigativas e os professores elaboraram planos de ensino. Esses planos foram analisados de acordo com algumas características que esse tipo de atividade apresenta: situação problema, atividade pré e pós-laboratório, coleta, registro e analise dos dados e apresentação de conclusões. As questões apresentadas pelos professores foram analisadas de acordo com as ideias apresentadas por Zoller sobre habilidades cognitivas de ordens mais baixas e mais altas. Ao confrontar os planos iniciais com os finais, verificou-se, que os professores apresentaram progressão crescente nos seguintes aspectos: inicialmente não apresentavam um problema a ser investigado, e os resultados não eram discutidos com os alunos; no plano final, a metodologia se aproximava da investigativa, a partir de um problema a ser pesquisado pelo aluno. No laboratório, inicialmente os alunos apenas comprovavam o que foi verificado no livro, no plano final, os alunos elaboravam conclusões sobre conhecimentos novos para eles. No plano inicial não foram apresentadas questões aos alunos; no plano final, todos os professores elaboraram questões com diferentes demandas cognitivas que visavam à exploração da atividade experimental. Consideramos que os professores avançaram na elaboração de atividades experimentais de cunho investigativo, apesar de constatar que os planos de aula não alcançaram um nível mais elevado de construção do conhecimento, pois não apresentaram ao aluno um novo problema a ser resolvido, a partir de seu conhecimento. / The purpose of this study was to investigate how chemistry teachers plan inquiry-based activities and pose questions to the students aiming to promote higher order thinking skills. An in-service course was offered to chemistry teachers of some public schools of Diadema, São Paulo. Eight meetings between this researcher and the teachers occurred; the teachers got background in developing inquiry laboratory activities, and planned tree activities. These plans were analyzed according some characteristics of inquiry lab activities, such as problem situation, pre-lab activities, pos-lab activities, collecting, recording and analysis of data. The questions posed by the teachers were analyzed considering Zollers\" classification of cognitive skills. By comparing the initial plans with the last ones, some improvements could be verified. The first plan did not present a problem to be investigated by the students, the experimental results were not proposed to be discussed by the class; the experiment aimed to prove theories already taught. The final plan revealed an inquiry based approach, a problem is proposed to be investigated by students, and they were asked to make conclusions achieving new knowledge. While the initial plans presented no questions to explore the collected data, in the final plans the teachers posed questions of different levels of cognitive demand. Although the lesson plans have not reached a higher level of inquiry elaboration, we consider that some of the teachers made remarkable progress in their proposals.

Esta pesquisa apresenta uma análise multifacetada para a classificação das representações visuais presentes em questões de química de exames vestibulares de cinco grandes universidades públicas paulistas: USP, UNICAMP, UFSCAR, UNESP e UNIFESP no período de 2007 a 2011. Os vestibulares da UFSCAR e UNIFESP utilizaram o exame do ENEM a partir de 2009 como processo de seleção, assim o exame também foi analisado. Foram encontradas 252 questões contendo representações visuais em provas de conhecimentos gerais e conhecimentos específicos. Alguns exemplos dessas representações incluem gráficos, fluxogramas, diagramas, tabelas, e equações químicas. As representações visuais foram analisadas quanto a suas relações com o texto, sua funcionalidade, conteúdos químicos envolvidos na questão e as habilidades cognitivas requisitadas. Os resultados indicam, de modo geral, que as representações visuais mais frequentes são as equações químicas e as representações bidimensionais da estrutura molecular, com predominância de conteúdos de química orgânica e físico-química. Quanto a relação texto e imagem, destaca-se a grande ocorrência de casos nos quais a integração texto e imagem é necessária para a resolução da questão. No tocante à funcionalidade das representações visuais, salienta-se que: i - as provas envolvem em suas questões ilustrações que necessitam do conhecimento químico para suas interpretações; ii - há predominância de imagens menos realistas e mais interpretativas; iii - a grande ocorrência de etiquetas verbais nominativas. A ênfase em questões de memorização contendo representações visuais também foi investigada adotando-se o referencial de Zoller (1993, 1997, 1999, 2001) para classificar as questões quanto às habilidades cognitivas requisitadas: de alta ou baixa ordem. Os resultados indicam que questões que demandam habilidades cognitivas de baixa ordem são predominantes nas provas de conhecimentos gerais, e questões que demandam habilidades cognitivas de alta ordem em provas de conhecimentos específicos. / This research presents a multifaceted analysis for the classification of visual representations present in chemical questions of entrance examinations of five biggest São Paulo public universities: USP, UNICAMP, UFSCAR, UNESP and UNIFESP from 2007 to 2011. Entrance examinations of UFSCAR and UNIFESP used the exam ENEM from 2009 as a selection process, so the test was analyzed too. 252 questions were found with visual representations in general knowledge and specific knowledge test. Some examples of these representations include graphics, flow charts, diagrams, tables, and chemical equations. The visual representations were analyzed for their relation with the text, its functionality, chemical content involved in the question and the required cognitive skills. The results indicate, generally, that the most frequent visual representations are the chemical equations and the two-dimensional representations of molecular structure with content predominance of organic chemistry and physicochemical. About the relation of text-image, there is a high occurrence of cases in which text and image integration is necessary for the resolution of the matter. Regarding the functionality of visual representations, it is noted that: i - the test involve in his questions, illustrations that requires chemical knowledge for their interpretations; ii - there is predominance of less realistic and more interpretive images; iii - the high occurrence of nominative verbal labels. The emphasis on memorization questions containing visual representations was also investigated adopting the Zoller (1993, 1997, 1999, 2001) reference to classify the questions about the cognitive skills required: high or low order. The results indicate that questions that require lower order cognitive skills are prevalent in the tests of general knowledge, and questions that require higher order cognitive skills of specific evidence.

In Sweden 13% of the general adult population (16-84 years), with or without hearing aids (HAs), report that they have difficulties following a conversation when more than two people are involved. This means that more than one million people in Sweden (9 500 000 inhabitants in total) report subjective hearing difficulties. Observations further indicate that that people with hearing impairment (HI) have an unfavorable position in the labor market. Individuals with HI report poorer health more frequently and estimate their own health to be worse than their normally-hearing peers. Increased unemployment, early health-related retirement and sick leaves are also more common for people with hearing loss compared to the population at large. The focus of the present thesis is employees with mild-moderate aided HI in the labor market. The research project had three general aims: 1) to develop knowledge about how HI interacts with cognitive abilities, and different types of work-related sound environments and workrelated tasks, 2) develop tests and assessment methods that allow for the analysis and assessment of perceived problems in clinical settings and 3) to develop knowledge that enables the possibility to provide recommendations of room acoustics and work-related tasks for employees with HI. Four studies were carried out. The studies presented in papers I-III are quantitative laboratory studies focusing on health related quality of life, cognition and effort and disturbance perceived in different types of occupational noise (daycare, office and traffic). Paper IV is a qualitative interview study aiming at exploring the conceptions of working life among employees with mild-moderate aided HI. The results from papers I-IV clearly demonstrate that noise has negative effects on employees with mild-moderate aided HI. In addition to generating significantly greater effort and disturbance, it is further reported from the participants that noise at work in combination with a HI has an impact on daily life. This includes a sense of exposure during work hours, physical and mental fatigue after work, and withdrawal from social situations in the work environment and leisure activities. None of the participants with HI performed significantly worse on the visual working tasks employed in this project compared to their normallyhearing peers. This thesis shows that employees with HI objectively perform the employed  working tasks at a level similar to a well-matched normally-hearing control group. Instead, the findings of this thesis indicates that working in a noisy environment with a HI occurs at the expense of this group reporting significantly worse results on subjective measurements, including greater effort and disturbance, and lower physical health status. Interviews with these participants further confirm that these effects are indeed mostly due to noise at the workplace which could have a negative impact both physically, mentally and socially during and after work hours. The main findings of this thesis demonstrate that there is a need for extensive services for employees with HI even after a HA fitting. This thesis therefore emphasizes the importance of identifying the need for assistive listening devices, examining the room acoustics of the individual’s work setting and providing the workplace with information about the consequences of having a HI in order to facilitate communication at work. The latter is especially important as colleagues showing support and employers making adjustments at the workplace (technically or acoustically) are facilitating factors that would benefit both employees with HI and those with normal hearing. Additional research should focus on including and comparing other types of cognitive tests, work-related noises and working tasks. More research is also needed to unravel the complex area of research between factors such as cognitive processes, hearing and effort. / Tidigare forskning har visat att yrkesverksamma hörselskadade oftast har en mindre gynnsam position på arbetsmarknaden. Statistik visar att gruppen upplever en högre grad av trötthet och en lägre grad av arbetstillfredställelse. Avhandlingen har tre övergripande syften: 1) att utveckla ny teoretisk kunskap om hur hörselnedsättning samspelar med kognitiva förmågor, arbetsrelaterad ljudmiljö och typ av arbetsuppgifter, och 2) utveckla test- och utredningsmetoder ger möjlighet till analys och diagnos av upplevda problem samt 3) utveckla kunskap som ger möjlighet till åtgärd och anpassning av ljudmiljöer och arbetsuppgifter på arbetsplatser för hörselskadade. Projektets resultat visar på att yrkesverksamma med hörselnedsättning rapporterar en lägre fysisk hälsostatus och att en högre grad av upplevd ansträngning samt störning kan upplevas när de utför olika arbetsuppgifter i buller. Detta beror bland annat på att de kognitiva förmågorna blir mer belastade i en bullrig miljö och att hörselskadade är mer känsliga för höga bullernivåer. Djupintervjuer med gruppen visar även på att fysisk trötthet upplevs även efter jobbet som i sin tur kan leda till psykosociala konsekvenser för individen. Denna avhandling visar att de negativa effekterna av buller redan ses vid en lätt-måttlig hörselnedsättning hos en grupp som redan använder hörapparater. Från ett kliniskt perspektiv innebär det att dagens rehabiliteringsåtgärder bör vara mer omfattande än endast hörapparaturprovning för denna grupp. Tekniska hjälpmedel (FM-system, streamers, hörslinga, etc.) är viktiga för yrkesverksamma med hörselskada och information om konsekvenserna av att leva med en hörselnedsättning bör nås ut till arbetsgivare och kollegor för att underlätta kommunikation på jobbet.

Thesis advisor: Mary E. Walsh / Poverty has many deleterious effects on child development, including negative impacts on social-emotional health, a developmental domain schools refer to as non-cognitive skills (Dearing, 2008). Unfortunately, children growing up poor often have underdeveloped non-cognitive skills, which significantly predict academic success and well-being (Farrington et al., 2012). Integrated Student Support (ISS) is one emerging approach that holistically supports cognitive and non-cognitive student development (Moore & Emig, 2014). While ISS has been found to improve academic outcomes, limited research examines its impact on social-emotional outcomes. This study focused on one ISS intervention, City Connects, which provides tailored student support plans to every child in a school via school and community-based services (Walsh et al., 2014). The study had three aims. The first was to examine the percentage of City Connects students with and without a social-emotional-behavioral (SEB) Need across levels of risk and service characteristics (i.e., domains, intensity levels, types) in second grade (N=896). The second was to examine improvement in three teacher-rated non-cognitive student outcomes (Prosocial Behavior, Self-Regulated Learning, Academic Effort) from second-fifth grade for City Connects students with and without a SEB Need (N=896). The third was to compare improvement in the same three non-cognitive student outcomes from second-fifth grade for students with a SEB Need in City Connects schools and comparable schools without the intervention (N=1,778). Multilevel modeling assessed aims 2 and 3. Significantly more students with a SEB Need were deemed higher risk and received more health, early intervention, and SEB/counseling services compared to students without a SEB Need in City Connects schools. Further, significant improvements from second-fifth grade were found in Self-Regulated Learning and Academic Effort for City Connects students with a SEB Need compared to those without a SEB Need. Significant improvements were also found over time in Academic Effort for students with a SEB Need in City Connects schools compared to those in comparison schools. Findings support that ISS improves non-cognitive functioning for students attending high-poverty schools. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology.