The objectives of the present study were: 1) to determine if there is a sex-based difference in lifting technique across increasing load conditions; and, 2) to examine the use of body size-adjusted tasks and back strength-adjusted loads in the analysis of lifting technique. Eleven male and 14 female participants (n=25) with no previous history of low back pain participated in the study. Participants completed freestyle, symmetric lifts of a box with handles from the floor to table height for five trials under three load conditions (10%, 20%, and 30% of their individual maximum isometric back strength). Joint kinematic data for the ankle, knee, hip, and lumbar and thoracic spine were collected using a two-camera Optotrak 3020 system (NDI, Waterloo, ON). Joint angles were calculated using a three-dimensional Euler rotation sequence and PCA was applied to assess differences in lifting technique across the entire waveform. A repeated measures ANOVA with a mixed design revealed no significant effect of sex for any of the PCs. This was contrary to previous research that used discrete points on the lifting curve to analyze sex-based differences but agreed with more recent research using more complex analysis techniques. There was a significant effect of load on lifting technique for six PCs of the lower limb (p<0.005). However, there was no significant difference in lifting technique for the thoracic and lumbar spine. It was concluded that, when load is standardized to individual back strength characteristics, males and females adopted a similar lifting technique. In addition, as load increases participants used more of a semi-squat or squat lifting technique. / Thesis (Master, Kinesiology & Health Studies) -- Queen's University, 2012-10-03 21:10:11.889

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Washington, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 85-90).

Principal surfaces are smooth two-dimensional surfaces that pass through the middle of a p-dimensional data set. They minimise the distance from the data points, and provide a nonlinear summary of the data. The surfaces are nonparametric and their shape is suggested by the data. The formation of a surface is found using an iterative procedure which starts with a linear summary, typically with a principal component plane. Each successive iteration is a local average of the p-dimensional points, where an average is based on a projection of a point onto the nonlinear surface of the previous iteration. Biplots are considered as extensions of the ordinary scatterplot by providing for more than three variables. When the difference between data points are measured using a Euclidean embeddable dissimilarity function, observations and the associated variables can be displayed on a nonlinear biplot. A nonlinear biplot is predictive if information on variables is added in such a way that it allows the values of the variables to be estimated for points in the biplot. Prediction trajectories, which tend to be nonlinear are created on the biplot to allow information about variables to be estimated. The goal is to extend the idea of nonlinear biplot methodology onto principal surfaces. The ultimate emphasis is on high dimensional data where the nonlinear biplot based on a principal surface allows for visualisation of samples, variable trajectories and predictive sets of contour lines. The proposed biplot provides more accurate predictions, with an additional feature of visualising the extent of nonlinearity that exists in the data.

In this dissertation, Essay 1 draws upon agency theory and corporate governance to classify control enhancing corporate governance provisions and to examine the use of these provisions within the context of publicly traded family firms. I argue that publicly traded family firms will differ from publicly traded nonfamily firms in terms of the frequency of the use of different types of control enhancing governance provisions. Specifically, I argue that family ownership will influence the frequency of the use of provisions and family management will moderate the relationships between family ownership and the frequency of the use of governance provisions. I develop and test the hypotheses on a sample of 386 of S&P500 firms. Findings do not support the hypothesized relationships. A rationale for the non-significant relationships is also provided. In Essay 2, drawing upon agency theory and the extant family governance literature, I examine the link between family involvement, the use of governance provisions, and firm performance. I suggest that the frequency of the use of different types of control enhancing governance provisions differentially influence the relationship between family involvement (i.e. family ownership and family management) in the business and firm performance. I develop and test the hypotheses on 386 of the S&P500 firms. Findings support the hypotheses suggesting the moderation effects of (a) the frequency of the use of provisions protecting controlling owners in terms of their sustainability of controlling status on the inverted u-shaped relationship between family ownership and firm performance, (b) the frequency of the use of provisions protecting management legally on the inverted u-shaped relationship between family ownership and firm performance, (c) the frequency of the use of provisions protecting controlling owners in terms of their voting rights on the inverted u-shaped relationship between family management and firm performance, (d) the frequency of the use of provisions protecting noncontrolling owners on the inverted u-shaped relationship between family management and firm performance, and (e) the frequency of the use of provisions protecting management monetarily on the inverted u-shaped relationship between family management and firm performance. Finally, results, future research directions, and implications for practice are discussed.

The purposes of this qualitative multiple case study were to determine the catalysts and pathways that caused principals to move from managers to effective leaders. Data were collected through a series of interviews with 4 principals who were selected through a purposeful sampling procedure. The interviews were audio recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using inductive coding to determine themes. Findings were presented for each theme within the context of reviewed literature. National polls indicate that 6 out of every 10 of the nation’s schools need major changes or an overhaul. Can improving the skills of their leaders make a difference in the performance of these schools? Research repeatedly supports the importance of a principal’s leadership to the overall success of a school. It also tells us that effective leadership is in short supply and that there is a need to initiate leadership development. The underlying task in this study was to determine how to help those who want or need to become better principals or how they can help themselves. Several themes emerged from data analysis, and each is important to consider when working on improving principals’ leadership abilities: the impact of mentors; university administrative certification programs; on the job experience; personal motivation; tacit knowledge; state, local, and private leadership development programs; and pathways to improvement. Specific recommendations for practices to improve principals’ overall effectiveness included incorporating more and lengthier mentoring in the early part of principals’ careers or as part of performance improvement plans; increasing study of cultural and instructional leadership in administrative certification programs; providing more field experiences in administrative certification programs; and developing individualized leadership improvement plans based on needs, interests, and learning styles of principals. The need for additional quantitative and qualitative research was also suggested.

Thesis advisor: Vincent Cho / This individual case study is part of a larger group study examining how principals benefit from and shape professional capital to improve schools. Limited studies consider how the recruiting principal’s individual pathway may impact who they chose to recruit. Accordingly, this qualitative study examined the factors that influence educators to become principals and how these factors influence principals' decisions to recruit other potential candidates into the principalship. This study explored the professional journeys of eight school principals from one large urban school district in Massachusetts and how their principal pathways impacted their recruitment strategies. Findings revealed that building principals often credited their collegial relationship and interactions as playing an important role in their pathway to the principalship. Another finding from this study revealed that principals recruited potential leaders with the same qualifications or characteristics as themselves through the informal recruitment practices of tapping and their narrow definition of fit. Recommendations of this study suggest that districts should develop more formal social networks that ensure all educators have access to the necessary support and pipelines to consider the principal pathway. And, principals must reflect on their own principal pathway and potential bias to disrupt the cycle of recruiting a homophilous leadership workforce. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2022. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

No description available.

The George W. Bush Institute (2016) stated the following: "Across the United States, as many as 700 principal preparation programs are preparing and certifying principals to lead our nation's schools. The methods that preparation programs use to train principals vary nationally and are a source of concern among policymakers, university faculty, and educators (p. 2)." The purpose of this quantitative study was to analyze administrators' perceptions of the program components they perceived prepared them to be effective school leaders, and whether their preparation program components were aligned with the Professional Standards of Educational Leaders (PSEL). The literature review findings indicated that the PSEL, in addition to program components, are necessary for an effective program. A non-experimental quantitative Likert-style scale survey was used to collect data from a snowball sampling of 46 school leaders pursuing or having completed their doctoral degrees. Doctoral students have developed research skills that can be used to apply new knowledge to the education field; therefore, reflecting upon their initial administrative experiences may provide insight into Principal Preparation Programs (PPP). The research findings indicated that school leaders perceived that their program experiences were aligned with the PSEL and they were prepared for administrative assignments after completion of their PPP. The findings also indicated despite being prepared for their assignment, changes were suggested to improve their PPP. Implications for practice for improving their PPP are included in this study, as well as, suggestions for future studies. / Doctor of Education / The purpose of this quantitative study was to analyze administrators' perceptions of the program components they perceived prepared them to be effective school leaders, and whether their preparation program components were aligned with the Professional Standards of Educational Leaders (PSEL). The literature review findings indicated that the PSEL, in addition to program components, are necessary for an effective program. This non-experimental quantitative study used a Likert-style scale to collect data from current and past doctoral students who were administrators. Doctoral students were selected as survey participants because they have developed research skills that can be used to apply new knowledge to the education field; therefore, reflecting upon their administrative experiences may provide insight into Principal Preparation Programs (PPP). The sampling technique of snowballing was used and resulted in 46 survey participants. The research findings indicated that school leaders perceived their program experiences were aligned with the PSEL and they were prepared for administrative assignments after completion of their PPP. The findings also indicated despite being prepared for their assignment, changes were suggested to improve their PPP. Suggested changes to PPPs included curriculum/coursework, practicum/internship, faculty, and method of instructional delivery. Implications for practice for improving PPPs include such considerations as a process to systematically assess graduates to determine what changes should occur to their principal preparation program. Suggestions for future research were also addressed in this study.

In the past, South Africa had a structure that dealt separately with matters relating to curriculum development and the problems of management and control determined from the hierarchical authority. Since 1994, the curriculum reform and the various transformational needs and because of experiences of global change demands as well as the various nationalist priorities, principals have adopted instructional leadership and principalship as leading learners, critical reflection and understanding that circumstances determine leadership or better management. In this context, principals initiated what has proved to be the determinants of the principal‟s role, problematic perspective and orientation. The study was qualitative in nature and interviews were used as the main source of data collection. Ten principals of primary, middle and secondary schools were interviewed using open ended questions. It was important to interact with the interviewees to facilitate a more probing investigation that not only broadened knowledge and fostered understanding, but also provided the interviewees with freedom to talk about anything they felt like, as long as it was within the framework or research questions., secondly, it allowed for critical reflection on the dominant discourse and also gave a voice to the dominated discourse. To arrive at the findings, data was analysed and interpreted using analysis strategies applicable to qualitative designs. These strategies of analysis allowed the researcher to look at the text and interviewees‟ practices. The following findings emerged from the data analysis: The findings from the principals were that there is integrated circumstance which makes it impossible to achieve success and the process of development was always constrained by severe time pressures. Since the principals‟ involvement in curriculum reform is a good sign of positive change in educators and school community‟s thinking, conduct, feelings and behaviour in their daily way of living. Principals have changed their leadership or management of democratic and collaborative participation to include parents, educators, learners and external stakeholders in curriculum reform. The interviews from the principals indicated that undemocratic procedures and social disorder no longer exist within the school, but it is visible within the district and the hierarchy. While this is the case, it is also clear that the primary and secondary respondents view this differently. The primary school principal, generates ample possibilities and opportunities for curriculum reform and the desired nation building. On the other hand, the secondary school principal is pressurized, sometimes undemocratically by the hierarchy to achieve beyond expectation in national examinations. But all are in agreement that they provide useful knowledge to ascertain whether curriculum reform can be a tool driving social cohesion and provide self-renewal in the condition of practice. They also facilitate changes in the lives of community members such as educators, learners‟ parents and all stakeholders by teaching and carrying out actual practice. I have taken care not to generalize from the findings, since this was never the intention of the study. I nevertheless drew the conclusion that problems and challenges faced by the principals determine and define their role. There will never be any absence of external demands. In fact principals in their schools must continue to monitor conceptually complex tasks and accumulate evidence of different levels of complexity of their roles. From the findings the study recommends that principal should control the determinants of their roles, they should standardise and supervise the quality of the learning programme. This is to allow principals to include the needs of the communities which vary from area to area. This way development of learner-centred strategies are encouraged. The control by the hierarchy would extinguish community-initiative in service delivery. Political control seems to be slowly coming back to schools through quality monitoring. Furthermore, suggestions for the Department of Education to understand the different pressure points principal experience imposed by the district and the circuit to principals to follow incompatible activities and forcing schools to pursue incompatible goals. / PhD (Education Management), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014

In the past, South Africa had a structure that dealt separately with matters relating to curriculum development and the problems of management and control determined from the hierarchical authority. Since 1994, the curriculum reform and the various transformational needs and because of experiences of global change demands as well as the various nationalist priorities, principals have adopted instructional leadership and principalship as leading learners, critical reflection and understanding that circumstances determine leadership or better management. In this context, principals initiated what has proved to be the determinants of the principal‟s role, problematic perspective and orientation. The study was qualitative in nature and interviews were used as the main source of data collection. Ten principals of primary, middle and secondary schools were interviewed using open ended questions. It was important to interact with the interviewees to facilitate a more probing investigation that not only broadened knowledge and fostered understanding, but also provided the interviewees with freedom to talk about anything they felt like, as long as it was within the framework or research questions., secondly, it allowed for critical reflection on the dominant discourse and also gave a voice to the dominated discourse. To arrive at the findings, data was analysed and interpreted using analysis strategies applicable to qualitative designs. These strategies of analysis allowed the researcher to look at the text and interviewees‟ practices. The following findings emerged from the data analysis: The findings from the principals were that there is integrated circumstance which makes it impossible to achieve success and the process of development was always constrained by severe time pressures. Since the principals‟ involvement in curriculum reform is a good sign of positive change in educators and school community‟s thinking, conduct, feelings and behaviour in their daily way of living. Principals have changed their leadership or management of democratic and collaborative participation to include parents, educators, learners and external stakeholders in curriculum reform. The interviews from the principals indicated that undemocratic procedures and social disorder no longer exist within the school, but it is visible within the district and the hierarchy. While this is the case, it is also clear that the primary and secondary respondents view this differently. The primary school principal, generates ample possibilities and opportunities for curriculum reform and the desired nation building. On the other hand, the secondary school principal is pressurized, sometimes undemocratically by the hierarchy to achieve beyond expectation in national examinations. But all are in agreement that they provide useful knowledge to ascertain whether curriculum reform can be a tool driving social cohesion and provide self-renewal in the condition of practice. They also facilitate changes in the lives of community members such as educators, learners‟ parents and all stakeholders by teaching and carrying out actual practice. I have taken care not to generalize from the findings, since this was never the intention of the study. I nevertheless drew the conclusion that problems and challenges faced by the principals determine and define their role. There will never be any absence of external demands. In fact principals in their schools must continue to monitor conceptually complex tasks and accumulate evidence of different levels of complexity of their roles. From the findings the study recommends that principal should control the determinants of their roles, they should standardise and supervise the quality of the learning programme. This is to allow principals to include the needs of the communities which vary from area to area. This way development of learner-centred strategies are encouraged. The control by the hierarchy would extinguish community-initiative in service delivery. Political control seems to be slowly coming back to schools through quality monitoring. Furthermore, suggestions for the Department of Education to understand the different pressure points principal experience imposed by the district and the circuit to principals to follow incompatible activities and forcing schools to pursue incompatible goals. / PhD (Education Management), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014