Science and mathematics education in Australian senior secondary years is experiencing declining enrolments, negative student attitudes, a shortage of qualified teachers and a curriculum that lacks relevance to contemporary life (Masters, 2006, Smith, 2003, Tytler, 2007). Such evidence calls for transformation in secondary science and mathematics education and acknowledges that teachers’ professional learning is central to achieving required transformation. Fulton Senior Secondary School is a purpose built school designed to respond to the perceived crisis in teaching and learning of science and mathematics in the final years of schooling. It is also the site in which this qualitative interpretive case study was conducted. The purpose of the research was to investigate the processes and outcomes of teachers’ professional learning in a setting that was designed to promote innovation and reform. The research, conducted over a period of six years, used grounded theory methods to answer questions about what supported and sustained teachers’ learning, and what were the outcomes of this learning for teachers, students and the school. To achieve an authentic account of the teachers’ lived experiences, I positioned myself as an insider-researcher, working intensely and thoughtfully with staff at Fulton over a period of six years. The study revealed the nature of the interactions between contextual conditions, organisational elements and relationships factors that influenced teachers’ professional learning. An explanatory model of professional learning was developed as an outcome of the theorising process. This identified the importance of alignments between: teachers’ capacities, characteristics and sense of personal agency; and specific contextual conditions, organisational elements and relationship factors. Successful alignments were identified as affordances for teachers’ learning and formed the basis of the explanatory model. In essence, the contextual conditions, organisational elements and relationship factors of Fulton provided the architecture of an explanatory model of professional learning. The teachers acted as explorers of this architecture. The research revealed that teachers brought existing beliefs and practices to Fulton, but through incidental and intentional learning, these beliefs and practices were expanded and often changed. Teachers developed deep understanding of many factors associated with effective pedagogy including: learning and learning processes; new science and mathematics content; effective curriculum design; and authentic assessment processes. The teachers were open to challenges and recognised their roles as learners in achieving the vision of the school. Their outcomes varied, but each teacher’s learning influenced both the students and the school as a learning organisation. There was considerable evidence that the investment in teachers as learners was pivotal to achieving the vision of transforming science and mathematics education in the senior secondary years at this school.

There is considerable concern regarding the adequacy of rural health services in New Zealand, with much attention having been paid to issues of recruitment and retention of rural general practitioners. Rhetoric of 'crisis' is often utilised to raise political awareness of the problematic, but in fact, rural general practitioner recruitment and retention has been documented for about a hundred years. For about the same length of time nurses have been providing primary health care services in rural and remote places, often working alone. Using the notion of nurses as a 'stop-gap' in the provision of rural primary health care until problems with recruitment and retention of rural general practitioners are addressed, is a rhetorical device that facilitates the under analysis of the role nurses play and the contribution that they make. The longstanding practice of rural primary care nursing in its various guises over the last century challenges the notion of nursing as a stop-gap.Any investigation of health care in the contemporary moment needs to take account of the influence of biomedical dominance, an increasingly litigious mentality in relation to health care, a shifting focus towards primary rather than secondary health care, and the positioning and re-positioning of health professionals within the neo-liberal state. The very existence of nurses working as the first point of contact in the health care system, with success over time in so far as they do not provoke undue litigation, and appear to deliver an appropriate service must raise questions about who can claim the right to be a primary health care provider. Based on qualitative research conducted in New Zealand and the Western Isles with rural primary care nurses and Family Health Nurses respectively, this thesis explores the ways that nurses construct flexible generalist professional identities that challenge traditional inter and intra-professional boundaries. In the New Zealand case, rural primary care nurses negotiate the boundaries between nursing and medicine, those within nursing itself, and also those between nursing a paramedic work. Nurses perform this boundary work by negotiating self-governing 'appropriate' and 'safe' professional identities. In the Western Isles case, the introduction of the newly developed role of Family Health Nurse serves to highlight the problematic nature of inserting an ostensibly generalist nursing role beyond the rural.

Diss. (sammanfattning) Umeå : Univ., 2007. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Professional socialisation is a key aspect of social work pre-qualifying training and the final practice placement has long been viewed as one of the most crucial elements of social work training, in enabling students to transfer learning on the course into practice (Parker, 2007). Whilst there has been substantial research into how students develop their skills in social work education, very few studies have focused upon the student’s development of professional identity and the process of professional socialisation (Valutis, Rubin and Bell, 2012). This study explores this gap, particularly the impact of the placement supervisor and agency context upon the student’s development of professional identity. An autobiographical style and social constructionist approach is employed by the author, alongside the use of a theoretical lens which incorporates Bourdieu’s (1993) work, particularly the concept of ‘Habitus’, Jenkins’ (2008) use of three orders concerning ‘Social Identity’, and the work of Lave and Holland (2001) regarding ‘History in Person’. The data was generated from semi-structured interviews with final year postgraduate students and placement supervisors. These narratives were analysed through the use of grounded theory (Charmaz, 2014). The findings of this study contributes four main areas to the understanding of how professional identity is developed. Firstly, the importance of prior and current personal experiences in the development of professional identity, especially first-hand service user experience. Secondly the value of informal reflective spaces to discuss identity, particularly with peers. Thirdly the significance of the student establishing a reciprocal relationship with their placement supervisor. Finally, the impact of the agency/placement environment upon the student and their supervisor in supporting this process of professional socialisation. Further research of a longitudinal nature is proposed by the author, to include a wider range of students and supervisors in order to build upon this understanding of professional identity development and how to best support the professional socialisation process.

The study investigated the motivational factors among Saudi teachers and supervisors in using online professional development OPD in the Makkah School District. The motivational factors are convenience, collaboration, and technology. Quantitative design, which includes descriptive and comparative approaches, was was utilized to address the research questions. The selection of the sample, 421 participants, was also discussed and a description of the sample with respect to the demographic variables, including gender, position, level of degree, and teaching experience were given. After collecting data, descriptive and comparative approaches, themes, and codes were used in order to get the results. The results indicate that convenience, collaboration, and technology highly motivate Saudi teachers and supervisors to use OPD. The results also show other motivational factors, which are administrative support, the quality of OPD programs, and social motivation. The findings show that gender and position have no impact on the participants’ responses. However, teaching experience does make an impact with respect to convenience on teachers and supervisors who have more than 26 years experience in the profession. In addition, the level of education does make an impact regarding technology on teachers and supervisors who hold a master’s degree or above. The results also indicate barriers to OPD, which are technical issues, administrative issues, and personal concerns. Most significantly, results show that most participants prefer OPD over face-to-face PD. Implications were made and suggestions offered in order to enhancing the use of OPD programs in the Saudi context. The study closes with suggestions for future research by those who might be interested in this topic.

abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the experiences and opinions of Arizona music teachers related to interactions with peers in formal online professional development (OPD) courses approved for recertification of their teacher credential. The target population (N = 584) was current music teachers in K-12 schools who are members of the 2014 Arizona Music Educators Association. Ultimately 279 respondents completed a researcher-constructed online survey (response rate = 48%). The survey instrument explored four primary research questions; (1) Do music teachers in Arizona participate in formal OPD related to recertification of their teacher credential? (2) Do music teachers in Arizona who participate in OPD courses interact with their peers during OPD? (3) What is the nature of self-reported peer interactions among Arizona music teachers who participate in OPD courses? (4) What are Arizona music teachers' opinions regarding peer interaction in OPD courses? Almost half of the 279 respondents participated in OPD courses for their recertification. Some participated in music-specific OPD courses such as online music classes, webinars, or online degree programs. Many respondents considered OPD courses to be effective because of convenience, location, time savings, and flexibility. Most who took online classes participated in multiple OPD courses. Of the respondents who took OPD courses, nearly two-thirds indicated that they interacted with peers during those courses. Most of these respondents reported that required interactions were effective. Some benefits were sharing ideas and acquiring information from others. Participants preferred asynchronous interaction with peers to synchronous interaction. Factors that may have prevented these music teachers from interacting in OPD courses were superficial level message content in discussion boards or low participation from peers. Teachers also reported using informal online interactions in social networks not related to recertification hours. Findings from this study may help improve teacher interactions with peers in OPD courses. This study may serve to influence instructors in OPD courses, administrators, policy-makers, and online course developers to improve OPD by integrating peer interactions into online courses for music teachers. Additional research on many aspects of OPD for music teachers is needed to improve educational practice. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Music Education 2015

Orientador: Márcia de Paula Leite / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Educação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-26T08:05:10Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Costa_SuelenKobayashi_M.pdf: 1449086 bytes, checksum: af2a73a9f4fd6ac3f8d8543dd6c561c4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014 / Resumo: Este trabalho tem como objetivo analisar o "modelo de competências" adotado por uma fábrica de papel do município de Três Lagoas - MS, como instrumento de qualificação profissional para seus trabalhadores e também analisar o processo de produção da mesma fábrica, com base nos avanços tecnológicos, na nova organização do trabalho e nas novas técnicas de produção empregadas nos países desenvolvidos nos anos de 1970 e no Brasil a partir dos anos de 1990. Para este estudo, tomou-se como ponto de partida o referencial do materialismo histórico dialético e como aspecto metodológico a perspectiva crítico-dialética. Como estratégia de pesquisa foi utilizada o estudo de caso. O caso investigado foi o processo de produção e os programas de qualificação profissional de uma fábrica de papel do município de Três Lagoas ¿ MS. Os procedimentos de pesquisa adotados foram: a observação do processo de fabricação do papel e entrevistas semi-estruturadas com os gerentes de produção e de recursos humanos e com alguns trabalhadores (as). Depois das referidas análises verificou-se que para todos os trabalhadores da fábrica, sejam os da produção ou os da gerência, são necessárias algumas competências. A habilidade responsabilidade foi uma das mais mencionadas pelos trabalhadores da fábrica de papel quando indagados sobre quais as principais competências necessárias para desempenhar bem sua função. Quanto mais o trabalhador sobe de função, mais a responsabilidade e a pressão aumentam. Constatou-se que os trabalhadores (as) que saíam da sua função para receber treinamentos para uma futura promoção eram aqueles que tinham bons resultados nas avaliações realizadas pelos gestores. A maior exigência de qualificação foi evidenciada na fábrica. Praticamente 100% dos trabalhadores da produção possuem curso técnico na área em que atuam. Um aspecto importantíssimo é que em sua grande maioria as mulheres não estão desempenhando a mesma função que os homens. Na produção, elas estão presentes na área de acabamento, onde o trabalho é totalmente sem conteúdo e nos laboratórios químicos e físicos, onde o trabalho demanda certo cuidado, por conta da manipulação de vidrarias. Também foi observada a presença praticamente massiva de homens ocupando os cargos de liderança. Os representantes sindicais da fábrica investigada são trabalhadores que estão a favor do capital e não do trabalho, visto que, os representantes são designados pela própria gerência da fábrica. Desse modo, concluímos que o "modelo de competência", ferramenta utilizada pela fábrica investigada para qualificar e avaliar seus trabalhadores faz parte de um tipo de gestão empresarial designada por Vincent de Gaulejac como gestão gerencialista. Esse novo modelo de gestão está vinculado ao processo de reestruturação do mundo do trabalho e foi observado primeiramente nas multinacionais / Abstract: This paper aims to analyze the "competency model" adopted by a paper mill in Três Lagoas - MS as a tool for professional training for their employees and also analyze the production process of the same factory, based on technological advances in the new organization of work and new production techniques employed in developed in the 1970s and in Brazil from the 1990s to study this country, we took as starting point the framework of dialectical and historical materialism as an aspect methodological perspective the critical-dialectical. As a research strategy, the case study was used. The case was investigated the production process and professional qualification programs of a paper mill in the municipality of Três Lagoas - MS. The research procedures were adopted: the observation of the paper manufacturing and semi-structured interviews with production managers and human resources and some workers (the) interview process. After these analyzes it was found that for all factory workers, are the production or management, some skills are required. Responsibility ability was one of the most mentioned by the workers of the paper mill when asked about what the core competencies needed to perform its function well. The more the work function rises more responsibility and pressure increase. It was found that the workers (as) that came from his function to receive training for a future promotion were those who had good results in the assessments by managers. The biggest qualification requirement was evidenced in the factory. Virtually 100% of production workers have technical course in the area in which they operate. An important aspect is that mostly women are not performing the same function than men. In production, they are present in the finishing area where the work is totally content and chemical and physical laboratories, where labor demand some caution, due to the manipulation of glassware. Practically massive presence of men occupying leadership positions was also observed. Union representatives are investigated factory workers who are in favor of capital and not of labor, since the representatives are appointed by own factory management. Thus, we conclude that the "competency model", a tool used by the factory investigated to qualify and evaluate your employees is one of a kind business management designated by Vincent Gaulejac as managerialist management. This new management model is linked to the restructuring of the working world and was first observed in multinationals / Mestrado / Ciencias Sociais na Educação / Mestra em Educação

Introduktion: Kompetensutveckling är en grundläggande del i sjuksköterskans yrkesutövning och en ständigt pågående process för sjuksköterskan. Med hänsyn till den pågående personalomsättningen uppstår frågan huruvida sjuksköterskans kompetensutveckling tillgodoses. Syfte: Litteraturstudiens syfte var att undersöka sjuksköterskans aspekter av kompetensutveckling och dess inverkan på frivilliga arbetsplatsbyten inom slutenvården. Metod: Inhämtning och granskning av data har genomförts utifrån Polit och Becks (2017) nio steg i processarbetet. Litteratursökningar i CINAHL och PsycInfo resulterade i 13 artiklar. Kvalitetsgranskningen gjordes enligt Forsberg och Wengströms (2016) granskningsmodell. Resultat: Utifrån den insamlade data utarbetades 3 aspekter av sjuksköterskans kompetensutveckling som innefattar Att växa som sjuksköterska som även inkluderar Olika stadier i karriären och Ålderns betydelse, Att ha förutsättningar som även inkluderar Arbetsförhållanden och Kollegor och chefer samt Att få bekräftelse som även inkluderar Organisationens engagemang och Motivation. Slutsats: Sjuksköterskans kompetensutveckling är en fortlöpande process, något som är anknutet till stadie i karriären, ålder, bekräftelse och förutsättningar i närmiljön. Dessa har betydelse för huruvida sjuksköterskan väljer att byta arbetsplats eller inte.

M.Cur. (Nursing Science (Critical Care)) / Qualified critical care nurses are under internal and external stresses in the workplace, relating to role conflict, role ambiguity, increased workloads, the need for rapid decision making and the speedy delivery of care. However, having inexperienced students in critical care units put responsibility and additional stress on the qualified critical care nurses within the units. This may result in some of these qualified nurses not being willing to help with the education of the students. The purpose of the study was to explore and describe the experiences of QCCNs regarding students working in CCUs in a Gauteng Academic Hospital and to describe the recommendations to support the QCCNs in the critical care units. The research question asked was: What are the experiences of the QCCNs regarding students working in the CCUs? A qualitative, exploratory, descriptive and contextual design was followed to provide an in depth description and understanding of the experiences of QCCNs regarding students in critical care units. The study followed a hermeneutic approach. The accessible population was QCCNs currently working in the CCUs in a Gauteng Academic Hospital. A purposive sampling method was followed. Focus group interviews were conducted to collect data. The participants were asked these questions: ‘How do you experience the students working in your unit?’ The follow up question was: ‘What can be done to help you?’ Data saturation occurred on the fourth (4) focus group interview. Data collection took place on field trips and was transcribed verbatim from a tape recorder. Ethical considerations were upheld at all times during the study. Data was analyzed using Tesch method. The results comprised of a central theme, namely, qualified critical care nurses experience working with students in critical care units as stressful, increasing workload and a burden. The four (4) themes that emerged were: stress and increased workload, emotions about working with students in critical care units, attitude of qualified critical care nurses towards working with students and recommendations for CCUs to handle stress. From the findings and the main themes that emerged, recommendations to support the QCCNs were described. Trustworthiness of the data collected was upheld at all times during the study.

M.Com. (Industrial Psychology) / The study examines the antecedents of job satisfaction, focusing on the influence of co-worker relations (work role fit, co-worker support, supervisor support, norm adherence and self- consciousness), and psychological safety. The primary research objective was to examine the levels of job satisfaction experienced by academics. Respondents from a higher education institution were asked to complete an online survey containing, the Minnesota Job Satisfaction Questionnaire and an extract from the Workplace Characteristics Questionnaire compiled by May, Harter, & Gilson (2004). The results report relatively high levels of job satisfaction for both intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction. Significant differences in perceived job satisfaction were obtained for age, qualification type and staff classification. Psychological safety and co-worker relations reported a predictive relationship with job satisfaction (intrinsic and extrinsic). Work role fit, co-worker support and supervisor support were positively associated with psychological safety; adherence to co-worker norms and self-consciousness were negatively associated. The mediation analysis revealed that psychological safety mediates the relationship between co-worker relations and job satisfaction. Psychological safety mediates the influence of co-worker relations’ variables (co-worker support and self-consciousness) and intrinsic job satisfaction fully. Work role fit had a strong effect on both intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction. Psychological safety partially mediated the relationship for both co-worker support and supervisor support, and extrinsic job satisfaction.