The aim of this diploma thesis is to facilitate better knowledge both in a written form and by an instructional video record to those who have not become familiar with this popular winter sport with a long tradition yet. The thesis includes a brief history introduction and explains equipment and safety rules. It provides general ski exercises for beginners and thus prepares them for learning of basic ski skills. Games are included as a mean of better acquirements and enjoyment. They are followed by parallel turns which are primarily defined by technique and biomechanics perspectives. Most frequent mistakes and selected preparatory exercises together with turns are presented as well. The DVD is supposed to introduce a beginner skier into commonly practised and well-proven parallel turns.

My study brings to the fore the individualistic and contextual nature of values and values education. The variance, as is largely argued in this study, is embedded in deep-rooted beliefs and experiences, and the environment that the respective teachers find themselves in. Values and values education has been a sticky issue since time immemorial. The challenge continues to surround the questions of definition, whose values, which values, and how best to promote them. This study specifically investigates the seemingly sensitive political/religious, but critical question of how teachers, in the midst of a complex and non-homogenous society, respond to values. The study, through a retrospective analysis of the development curve of values education in Kenya, unearths the dilemma that teachers and policy makers experience as they attempt to get to grips with the concept of values and appropriate pedagogical methods to apply in the promotion of such values. Through a broad based literature review combined with primary data collected in Kenya, I attempt to explain the intricacies of the stark and stubborn disparity that exists between policy stated aims and actual practice. This disparity, I argue, is largely because issues that affect teachers’ personal lives have not featured adequately in the policy arena. The findings suggest that such issues are considered “messy” and inappropriate for scientific analysis. Secondly, they are delicate convictions, belonging to the private realm, and thus a challenge to unravel as scholars fear intruding on the personal lives of teachers. In order to unearth the intricacies of teacher beliefs and practices, I adopted a participatory approach in this study. The direct contact and discussions with teachers enabled me to untangle the web surrounding the meanings teachers attach to values as a concept. Through observation sessions, I began to appreciate how teachers negotiate these meanings simultaneously with their hectic classroom practice. This study contributes to the discourse on values education by confirming a subtle framework used by teachers. Previous studies have identified two mindsets that teachers use in their professional practice; i.e. rational and emotional. In this study, I add that there is a subtle consideration that teachers constantly refer too, which I call the “survival framework”. I found that teachers, due to the loss in the paternalistic pattern of home, school and church with regards to values, have less confidence in deciding what values to promote. Due to the volatile emotions that values can elucidate, teachers have devised individual ways of interpreting values whilst ensuring that their professional assignment is not jeopardised. It is due to this individualistic approach, that experiences in values education were manifold. I conclude the study by stating that the “survival” interpretive framework confirms three basic principals. Firstly, values will constantly be in a state of construction and reconstruction. Secondly, there is no direct correlation between holding a value and acting upon it; and lastly, values education efforts can only hope to reduce the gap in interpretation and implementation, but will never accomplish a standardised democratic system across the board. / Thesis (PhD (Education Policy Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Education Management and Policy Studies / PhD / unrestricted

Please contact the author directly for a DVD that accompanies the thesis In this thesis we consider how one may use the arts in narrative practise. The use of the word narrative practise as oppose to narrative therapy extends the grounding metaphor’s reach beyond its use in therapy to facilitation and all other disciplines that adopts the use of this metaphor. The arts in a contemporary perspective include dance, drama, fine arts, music and multimedia. The choice for the arts is found in the research gap, which emphasise that most conventional psychological therapies including narrative therapy has a conversational/ verbal approach. In contrast an exploration into the arts acknowledge the importance of being physically and creatively involved in the construction of meaningful realities. The exploration of the arts in light of possible interaction with narrative practise is not confined to professional voices but is inclusive of recreational skills in the arts and crafts. The risk involved in extending the scope of the narrative metaphor beyond therapy, which may render an unmanageable amount of data, is minimized by a positioning in a pastoral perspective; pastoral in this sense, the discipline of practical theology is situated in a (one) faith community. Chapter one considers questions of positioning relating to the arts and theology. These are informed by a certain epistemology. While methodological concerns and a positioning therein is all ready found in chapter one, chapter two is reserved for method and practical methodological concerns. Our research participants will be introduced here. Everything that this study says about the arts and its consideration in narrative practise is found in chapters three and four. Chapter three refers to all exposure from conferences attended to numerous individual conversations based on the highly reflective research design found in chapter two. In chapter three all the arts that this study was confronted with are included. Chapter four focuses in on story as art. I regard the differentiation between arts as therapy as opposed to arts in therapy as the most profound consideration. A distinction is advocated, drawing on narrative social constructionist epistemology, between story as tool versus story as grounding metaphor; telling narratives versus performing narratives, human story telling versus narrative identity. It is important to notice that this thesis is not presented according to themes. It is my intention that through the way in which this thesis is presented (especially so chapter three) fragments of the story of the research process will be evident. For this reason chapter five is included, giving the reader a better understanding of the ways in which the arts were found to function. Chapter six entails a personal and critical reflection on the research; it has the purpose of sayingwell, I don’t assume that this study is at the pinnacle of academic achievement nor is it the ultimate truth. I have myself wondered about the numerous addenda and I’m not sure that it is in an explorative study something one can too easily do without. Some addenda fit its conventional use while others contain highly relevant information. Since I did not want to force these into arguments I present them in addenda. What I hope the reader finds is a truthful reflection on what has to me been a meaningful research journey on the use of the arts in narrative practise; a journey accounted for in academic yet participant informed language; language about ways of being with people that at times can transcend the boundaries of the spoken word. / Thesis (PhD (Pastoral Family Therapy))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Practical Theology / unrestricted

A case study of a start-up company was performed. The study analysed the New Product Development Process at the start-up. The start-up under investigation was Zyray Wireless, a start-up in San Diego California. Zyray makes processors for the next generation of mobile phones. The research done with the particular start-up company will identify what the differences are between generally accepted best practise methods and the best practise methods implemented by a particular start-up company. The study will therefore aim to answer the following questions. How does the product development process change over the life cycle of the company? How do the best practise processes implemented in the industry differ from those implemented during the life cycle of the company under investigation. Why does the company implement best practise processes at a specific time in its life cycle and not during other times? What percentage of best practise processes are accepted and implemented by the company, why were they chosen and why were others not. Multiple types of evidence were used including participant observations, documentation and surveys. The survey taken at Zyray was compared with the industry averages. Results were also obtained at three different points in time (Concept/Seed, Product Development and Market phases). By comparing these results with the industry results it was possible to gauge the differences between the industry and Zyray Wireless in general. Zyray Wireless scored above the industry average in the following categories: continuous quality improvement, product success, project success, cycle time improvement, customer involvement questions, project selection, product strategy questions, technological leadership and product goal questions. The best practises for metrics, human resource development, documentation and change control implemented by Zyray Wireless scored at or below the industry average. The best practise results showed that the start-up focused more on strategy and engineering and less on process control. The study revealed the following important points: 1. In the initial phases the start-up’s customers were the venture funds. 2. The project selection process was informal but driven by economic criteria. 3. The company discovered that it had to choose a product strategy early on and then develop the product according to this strategy. 4. Marketing created the design concept but it also influenced the future of the company because it dictated the company’s product strategy. 5. The company followed a technology follower strategy. The technological competency was of such a high standard that a product was developed after very few iterations. 6. The start-up showed that internal documentation was limited but that external documentation to clients and manufacturers had to be of a high standard. 7. The company showed that change control was limited to the engineering function. 8. The start-up showed that over-achieving on goals set by itself and investors was of critical importance. 9. The start-up showed that process control was kept to a minimum and that it could react very quickly to changing situations. 10. The start-up showed that the establishment of a strong team is of critical importance to the success of the company. / Dissertation (MSc Technology Management)--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Graduate School of Technology Management (GSTM) / unrestricted

No description available.

Yes / Whilst there is increasing demand on radiology services in the UK, pressures are restricting the expansion of the multi-professional workforce. A pilot academy for radiography reporting was established to augment the traditional university and clinical education in a simulated environment using focussed teaching and real image worklists in a dedicated environment away from departments. Methods: Located at a facility to replicate the clinical reporting environment, the emphasis of the nine-month pilot was to provide extensive ‘hands-on’ training to eight trainees. Evaluation of the academy was undertaken through focus groups, telephone interviews, and online surveys to consider the experiences of the trainees and their managers and mentors. Results: There was overwhelming support for the academy from trainees, mentors, and managers. Key benefits included relieving pressures on department and mentors; providing an intense, structured, and safe environment to learn; and, perhaps most importantly, an extensive and cohesive peer-support network. Issues identified included conflict within departments due to differences in reporting style and the need for greater collaboration between the university, academy, and departments. Conclusion: The use of simulation in education is widely researched, however, there are a number of key factors that need to be considered when implementing it into practise. Peer-support and reflection is seen as essential for its success. Extensive dedicated time to focus on reporting alongside peers can support the development of these skills away from the clinical environment and as such can reduce pressure on service delivery and positively influence learner outcomes. / The pilot academy received funding from the NHS Vanguard scheme (Working Together NHS Vanguard) for purchase of equipment and the salaries of the clinical educator (pro-rata). The university fees and backfill payments were funded by Health Education England.

No / Regulatory bodies governing health professions and professional education set clear expectations regarding fitness to practise. Within the UK, the Equality Act, 2010, poses a challenge to regulators, educators and employers to ensure that people are not excluded on the basis of disability and to facilitate inclusion. This research took a mixed methods approach to exploring the tensions between Higher Education providers and placement providers in the health sector. Disabled and nondisabled students and health professionals engaged in semistructured interviews and a survey in order to explore their beliefs and experiences. The findings suggest that applying equality legislation within health settings may be particularly difficult and that ¿disability¿ is an ambiguous and multifaceted concept. Whilst small in scale, the findings have given a voice to a professional group who are underrepresented in research and have raised a number of important issues that merit discussion and further scrutiny.

The project investigates mathematics, informatics, statistical analysis and their histories, the history of human engagement with machines, and illustrates some uses of artificial intelligence and robotic technologies as media. It is concerned with, amongst other issues, the sentient and not sentient binaries offered in discourses on machine intelligence. The term intelligence is used to distinguish between human and not human. However, a non-human, the intelligent machine, has become incorporated into the processes by which our culture defines intelligence. Those processes were explored in phases of the project that focused upon various kinds of interactions between people and machines, particularly the ways in which those interactions are mediated by knowledge. The discourses that underpin the field of mechanical intelligence spring from the same sources as the rhetoric that delineates human beings from all other things. We make intelligent machines because we have something to prove regarding our own intelligence. The devices expose attributes considered in our culture to be intelligent. The size and technical sophistication of modern robots result from the expenditure of considerable funds across several disciplines. Such machines signify wealth, power and excess, despite any other significance their makers intend.

<p>This licentiate thesis builds on the assumption that there is a shift in professional perspective when a police officer takes on the task of a police teacher in the Police Basic Education Training Programme. This shift of perspective is described as a professional process as well as a learning process, and the investigation focuses the reshaping of one’s professional identity.</p><p>The investigation is based on focus group interviews with four different groups of police teachers in Växjö, Stockholm, and Umeå, where they were asked to talk about their task as police teachers. The analysis is built on theories from George Herbert Mead, Moira von Wright, and Ludwik Fleck about the importance of in-tersubjective interaction in the interpersonal or social perspective of construction knowledge about oneself as a subject and the surrounding world. Professional identity is defined as the way, consciously or unconsciously, an individual under-stands oneself as a professional; it is seen as an ongoing process shaped by con-tinuous intersubjective meetings with others in a changeable world. Professional, personal and possibly tacit knowledge is in that aspect developed and may be pos-sible to articulate in the right environment, for example within focus groups.</p><p>The findings indicate that the change of professional task of the police teachers affects their understanding of themselves as professionals, i.e., their professional identity. The development of new professional and personal knowledge is due to the ability to reflect on the outcome of the intersubjective meetings with students and other teachers. This change of professional identity of the police teachers complicates their mission in two aspects. First, the denial of the relationship with the students as colleagues could be in conflict with the expectation from the stu-dent police officers. Secondly, the gap in knowledge about police work between the reflected personal knowledge of the police teachers and the student police offi-cers’ knowledge built on movies and books makes it difficult to meet the students at their level. This situation demands opportunities for police teachers to discuss their tasks with other teachers on campus, in the context of intersubjective meet-ings.</p>

<p>The purpose of this study is to investigate teachers’ efforts to teach students with dyslexia in Swedish. The intention with this study is to get the right tools to work with these kinds of students in a more improved and giving way in the future. My questions of issue are:</p><p>- How can teachers facilitate the learning process for students with dyslexia?</p><p>- Are pupils with dyslexia included in the teachers’ education in the classroom?</p><p>- How do the other pupils integrate with the dyslexia pupils in the classroom?</p><p>- How does the teacher manage the situation to teach the whole class at the same time as he/she helps the pupils with dyslexia?</p><p>- How do you practice when to assess and rate the students with dyslexia?</p><p>The method used in this paper is a combination of participant observation and interviews with two teachers and their classes. To be able to construe my results in this paper, I will be using Peder Haugs theory including integration and segregate integration but also a theory based on including or excluding way of working.</p><p>The main conclusion of this paper is that teachers can work in many different ways with dyslectic pupils. The teachers must try to find a way that is right for themself and their pupils, there is no right and wrong in this work. But what’s most important is to help the dyslectic cope with school.</p>