The present thesis deals with the concept of progress and faith in progress as well as changes of this notion in selected historical periods and philosophies. The topic of progress and perception thereof is extensive and problematic in many cases, e. g. with regards to the existence of this idea in the thought of Antique, or with regards to what might have been perceived as progress through the optics of Christianity. It becomes apparent that the concept of progress is even today fluid in it's interpretation, invested with political and economical connotation and, in somewhat unstable postmodern discourse, allows for many interpretations. At the same time it is becoming clearer and clearer that in the context of the current global situation, any discussion about progress whatsoever would be incomplete, unless it also adequately stressed ecological topics. A true progress for the future seems to be abandoning the set ways of consumerism and of exploitation of natural resources. Key words: progress, regress, procursus, faith in progress, myth

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Ciência e religião são dois importantes fundamentos da sociedade humana. Ambas possuem uma influência, direta ou indireta, na vida das pessoas. No entanto, o que se consolidou no senso comum é que existe um conflito irreconciliável instalado entre razão e fé. Tal antagonismo tem publicidade corriqueira. É notada, por vezes, uma abordagem reducionista do assunto, e, assim, perpetuam-se imagens prejudiciais ao progresso desses campos do saber, portanto um atraso para a civilização como um todo. Ao se estudar o desenvolvimento científico ao longo da história, é inevitável considerar sua relação com o pensamento religioso, ou com os sistemas de crença religiosa, ou ainda com as instituições religiosas. Por isso, esse trabalho vem discutir a relação entre ciência e fé, sob uma perspectiva histórica. Busca-se, também, compreender nesses termos a possibilidade de haver progresso em ambas ciência e religião , numa realidade de relativo equilíbrio e, talvez até, de intercâmbio mais produtivo para ciência e religião. Foram realizadas pesquisas na literatura geral sobre o tema a fim de se conhecer o estado da arte desse debate. A partir da leitura e seleção sistemática dos dados recolhidos, e a classificação e organização das informações coletadas, reuniu-se diversas visões sobre o assunto para contribuir na reflexão do tema e mostrar que a discussão é abrangente. Foi possível concluir que a teoria de conflito não traduz a contento o que historicamente se evidencia. O relacionamento entre ciência e religião é multifacetado e complexo, sendo que elas têm contribuído no desenvolvimento de uma com a outra, conscientemente ou não. Abrem-se possibilidades de interação construtiva entre as áreas do saber. / ABSTRACT Science and religion are two important foundations of human society. They both have a direct or indirect influence on peoples lives. However, in common sense it has been consolidated the idea that there is an irreconcilable conflict installed between reason and faith. Such antagonism has trivial advertising. Sometimes a reductionist approach to the subject is noticed, and thereby harmful images are perpetuated to the progress of these fields of knowledge, and thus a delay for civilization as a whole. When studying the scientific development throughout history, it is inevitable to consider its relationship with religious thought, or systems of religious belief, or even with religious institutions. Therefore, this work has the purpose to discuss the relationship between science and faith, from a historical perspective. Under these terms, this research seeks to understand the possibility of progress in both science and religion , under a reality of relative equilibrium and, perhaps, a more productive exchange between science and religion. The general literature on this subject was researched in order to learn the state of the art of this debate. From reading and systematically selecting the collected data, classifying and organizing it, several views on the subject were gathered to contribute to the reflection of the theme and show how it is a broad discussion. It was possible to conclude that the theory of conflict is not a satisfying explanation for the historical evidence. The relationship between science and religion is complex and multiple-sided, and they have contributed to the development of one another, consciously or not. This study opens up possibilities for a constructive interaction between the areas of knowledge.

In the 18th and 19th centuries the idea of "progress" guided the development of the West's images of its own future. As is well known, progress began to lose its capacity to operate as a metadescription of society in the middle of the 19th century. By the end of World War I the idea of progress was in a deep crisis from which it would never completely recover. This dissertation examines the historical period between the moment when the idea of progress began to decline and the period in which a new kind of image of the future began to take shape. This new type of image of the future takes place in what I call "the age of sustainability." "The age of sustainability" does not indicate a particular mode of imagining the future, but rather a set of cultural conditions that are favorable to the production of ideas like sustainability. Sustainability itself is only the dominant available mode of imagining the future under the conditions of the age of sustainability. The idea of progress began its decline because the descriptive mechanisms that supported it began to erode: revised assumptions about the social roles of technology, a perceived diminishment of the future time available to human societies, the increasing complexity of social relations, and the decreasing availability of metanarratives all contributed to the decline of the idea of progress. During this period of decline, however, new descriptive mechanisms arose that sought to compensate for what had become unavailable in the production of images of the future. These new descriptive mechanisms account for the difference between the "age of progress" and the "age of sustainability." The central question of this dissertation, then, is to ask what social conditions most contribute to the development of the kinds of images of the future that predominate in the age of sustainability. Among these are: 1) the increasing complexity of all social relations and an attendant scarcity of time which generates consciousness of risk; 2) an inertial resistance to change imposed on social systems by the frictional force of risk; 3) a requirement under conditions of increasing complexity that trust is increasingly placed in expert systems, which has the tendency to situate responsibility for crisis amelioration with nonhumans; and 4) the unavailability of unifying descriptions of society that is responsible for a diminished optimism regarding the possibility of normatively guiding social development.

Doctor of Philosophy / Since the 1950s, economic growth has been one of the main topics of economic discipline. In this context, the sources of economic growth have been analysed by different economic theories. These theories can be decomposed into two groups, namely modern neoclassical theory and evolutionary economic theory. In the modern neoclassical economic theory, the technological progress is considered as the main determinant of the long-run economic growth. In this regard, the sources of economic growth differences among countries are analyzed by using various types of models. In the earliest studies, it is assumed that technological progress is exogenous (Solow-Swan model). Constant returns to scale and perfectly competitive market structure assumptions are the main characteristics of these studies. After the developments in the economic theory, technological progress has been taken into account in a different way by a new line of models, namely endogenous growth models. More specifically, technological progress is endogenously determined process in these models. Contrary to the previous models, increasing returns to scale, which stem from externality and the monopolistic market structure, play a significant role in endogenous growth models. We have reached to the conclusion that, although it suffers from some weaknesses, endogenous growth model proposes a more realistic explanation for the economic growth process. In the evolutionary economic theory, technological progress is also considered as the main determinant of economic growth. However, this theory deals with empirical issues by focusing on observed facts instead of constructing theoretical models, and provides both guidance and interpretation regarding technological progress. In this theory, variables and relationships that are considered have many practical implications. In that respect, its structure is very much realistic and it avoids certain logical gaps and inconsistencies. One of the aims of this thesis is to examine developments in economic theory by focusing on technological progress. For this purpose, we compare formal and evolutionary theories. Our theoretical review reveals that both the endogenous growth models in the tradition of modern neoclassical theory, and the important insights of the evolutionary economic theory help to analyze technological progress and/or economic growth. Furthermore, this thesis aims to measure technological progress. The measurement of technological progress is vital for the nations’ development strategies and the firms’ innovation policies. In this regard, we use patent statistics as a proxy of technological progress. The empirical parts of the thesis involve a number of applications of endogenous growth theory by taking into account the propositions of modern neoclassical economic theory. In this regard, the growth rate differences across countries are examined by using the frameworks of both the modern neoclassical and evolutionary theories. The results show that both theories have reasonable power to explain why growth rate differs across countries. In addition, we conclude that patenting activities rather than R&D activities more suitably represent innovative activities. Moreover, this thesis empirically tests the knowledge generation process in the framework of endogenous growth approach. We employ the knowledge production approach for this purpose. It is found that both domestic and international stocks of knowledge as measured by granted patent statistics, R&D activities, human capital and openness measures are significant factors in explaining productivity growth. Furthermore, product variety and quality improvement dimensions of technological progress are empirically analyzed by using patent statistics. It is found that both dimensions of technological progress significantly affect creation of new technologies. Finally, the findings indicate that technological capability of Turkey is far away from other developed countries covered by this study.

This ethnographic study was undertaken in order to examine the problem of many of our E.S.L. students' slowed academic progress in high school. The study found culture shock and culture conflict, low self-esteem and poor motivation, established learning styles and unsuitable teaching techniques, personal and societal identity confusion to be factors preventing such students from achieving their full potential.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Oregon, 2003. / Typescript. Includes vita and abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 278-283). Also available for download via the World Wide Web; free to University of Oregon users.

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This thesis provides an empirical indication of how the objectives of official development assistance (ODA), granted by the top five donors, affects the aid policy in the MENA region during the period 1990-2012, and how these objectives have changed during the period 2005-2012. As a first result, alleviation of poverty, commercial interests and the democratic status of the recipient altogether influence aid policy in the region. Recipients’ need and commercial interest are both important objectives for the donors but they have both lost some of its impact in recent times. Historical ties with France affect the aid policy in the region and strategic interests of the donors appear to have an unexpected effect on aid allocation behavior e.g. oil rich countries receive less aid, ceteris paribus. The democratic status of the recipient has a positive significant effect on received aid for the average recipient and the impact has increased with time in the MENA region. Moreover, donors react differently to recipients’ needs, commercial interest and democracy and there are also several differences among recipients with abundant oil resources and those with insignificant oil resources.

The purpose of the present research was to examine the predictive validity of curriculum-embedded mastery-check measures (CEMs) for kindergarten students in Tier 2 intervention. Two studies examined the predictive validity, parsimony, and changing role of CEMs using a structural equation modeling (SEM) framework. Study 1 examined the ability of CEMs gathered throughout the kindergarten year to predict end-of-kindergarten latent reading outcomes. Study 2 examined the ability of kindergarten CEMs to predict end-of-first and end-of-second grade latent reading outcomes. Study 1 used SEM with two latent outcomes (i.e., phonemic and decoding) composed of diverse measures of early reading skills gathered at the end of kindergarten. Findings indicated moderate to large effects, as measured by variance explained, for CEMs on predicting phonemic and decoding outcomes. For CEMs gathered at four time points throughout the kindergarten year, a parsimonious set of subtests emerged. In addition, the role of CEMs changed throughout the year as predictors reaching statistical significance were increasingly difficult. Findings indicated that an increased amount of variance could be explained on the outcomes measures as the year progressed. Study 2 used one latent reading outcome factor gathered at the end of first and second grades. Findings for the end of first grade indicated that parsimonious sets of predictors from CEMs administered at three times during the kindergarten year predicted end-of-first grade outcomes. Additionally, the role of indicators changed during the year and the amount of variance explained increased from the first to third CEM. Results for the end of second grade indicated the variance explained on the outcome measure increased from the first CEM to the third CEM. When considering near-significant results, a pattern emerged demonstrating parsimonious subsets of indicators that changed during the kindergarten year. Findings from both studies provided support for the predictive validity of CEMs gathered during kindergarten for students in Tier 2 intervention. Results from both studies demonstrated statistically significant subsets of predictors that emerged and changed during the kindergarten year congruent with reading development, which can be useful for informing educational decisions.