Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Using Heideggerian interpretive phenomenology, this study illuminates the lived experience of an adapted dance program for individuals with Down syndrome and their family members. The overall pattern from both dancers and family members was adapted dance: connecting mind, body and soul. The primary theme from dancer interpretations was expressing a mosaic of positive experiences, and the primary theme from family member interpretations was experiencing pride in their loved ones. The dance program provided dancers an opportunity to express their authentic self while experiencing moments of full embodiment in the connection of their mind, body and soul. While dancers experienced the connection of mind-body-soul, family members recognized the importance of this connection in their loved one. This research is instrumental in advocating for opportunities for individuals with Down syndrome to experience dance as a social, physical and intellectual activity that results in learning and increasing social interactions. The research findings from this study can support future initiatives for dance programs that may influence a population that has limited access to physical activity and dance. The study’s teaching strategies, dance activities, class procedures and sequences, and feedback techniques can be used by other professionals who teach individuals with intellectual disabilities.

Aim: During the last decades research has reported seemingly unjustified differences between how women and men are perceived as patients, medical students and physicians. Most studies have been performed outside Scandinavia. The overall aim of this thesis is to illustrate, analyse and discuss aspects of gender bias and gender awareness in clinical medicine, medical research and medical education, all in a Swedish setting. Material and methods: Physicians’ ways of reasoning and reflecting on different professional arenas were investigated from a gender perspective in three cross-sectional studies: A. Written answers from a national examination for 289 Swedish interns where the examinees were allocated to suggest management of a common health problem - irritable bowel syndrome - in either a male or a female paper-patient with identical case descriptions. B. Assessments from 682 physicians, in structured assessment forms, of the scientific quality of two fictive research abstracts - one with a quantitative and one with a qualitative design – where authorship was assigned to either a woman or a man. C. Answers from 303 physician teachers to a questionnaire where they, on scales, assessed the importance of gender in different professional relationships and also gave open-ended comments. Most analyses were quantitative, using chi2-tests and multivariate logistic regression as statistical methods. Differences were discussed in relation to gender theory. Qualitative method, by way of open and selective coding, was used to explore the open-ended answers in the questionnaire and to create codes from the written answers in the national exam. Results: A. There were differences in outcome for male and female cases in history taking and in proposed diagnoses, investigations and treatment, e.g. more questions about and tests for alcohol were suggested for men and more tests for thyroid function for women. Both men and women physicians contributed to the gender bias but showed different patterns. B. The quantitative abstract was judged the same regardless of the gender of the assessor or author. The qualitative abstract was not ranked as scientific as the quantitative, but as more accurate, trustworthy, relevant and interesting with a female author especially by women assessors. C. Men physicians, especially in the surgical group, expressed low awareness of gender compared to women physicians. The qualitative analysis rendered a picture of how the physicians perceive ‘gender’, problems they connect with gender and their attitudes to gender issues. Some important concepts identified were ‘inequity’, ‘difference’, ‘delicate situations’, and ‘resistance’. To get an overview and better understanding of various expressions of gender bias, a theoretical model was developed, on the basis of the findings in the qualitative analysis. The main findings of the thesis are discussed in relation to this model where equity/inequity and sameness/difference are important points of departure. Conclusions: The findings of gendered outcome in the national exam call attention to ‘knowledge-mediated gender bias’, a phenomenon implying that once knowledge of gender differences in a condition has been established this might cause gender biased assessments of individual patients in the clinical situation. Gender appears to affect scientific evaluations. This has implications for situations where research is assessed and interpreted: in medical tutoring, research guidance, peer reviewing, and in forming evaluation committees for research funding. Physician teachers seem little aware of gender as an area of competence and knowledge and tend to connect gender issues with women. Depending on how ‘difference’ and ‘equity’ are apprehended various forms of resistance to gender emerge, each with plausible bias risks. Educational programmes for faculty members, encouraging continuous reflections on gender attitudes and supporting male participation, are suggested. Besides providing a more comprehensive understanding of patients and their health problems, increased gender awareness among physicians might improve the working climate and help reduce the gendered division of labour in the medical profession.

This thesis aims to assess impacts of European Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (FP) on Turkish participants, focusing on Sixth Framework Programme (FP6) Information Society Technologies (IST) priority. A two-sided approach was employed while assessing impacts. First, DELPHI method was used to quantify and prioritise expectations of the decision makers in key stakeholders / second, a survey was designed to measure additionalities and the level of achievements of program participants. Scientific and technological impacts, economic impacts, institutional impacts and impacts on collaboration and sectoral knowledge were questioned as four main impact criteria. It is demonstrated in survey results that, significantly high levels of impacts were achieved in scientific and technological impacts and impacts on collaborations and development of sectoral knowledge. Nonetheless, economic impacts were noted to be lowest among all impact factors. Level of impacts were tested for different control factors including project instrument, organization type, project activity, project role and received grant. Project role was proved to be the most important control factor affecting the level of impact. It is presented in comparison of decision makers&rsquo / expectations and participants&rsquo / achievements that, decision makers&rsquo / expectations were mostly satisfied by participants except for economic impacts. Turkish participants in FP6 IST field had significant impacts in three out of four main impact factors. Moreover, decision makers expectations were highly satisfied except for economic impact factors. The results of this study, relying on the assessed impacts of FP6 IST field, support Turkey&rsquo / s participation in forthcoming FPs.

Background and Objectives Self - report data is known to be unrel iable and susceptible to factors such as social desirability bias. Methods used for collecting self - report data has thus far been unsuccessful in ameliorating known obstacles to honest self - disclosure. Considering the current HIV/AIDS pandemic and relate d health crises, it is imperative that self - report data is an accurate depiction of reality, since it informs research requirements and designs as well as intervention designs and the evaluation of the efficacy of the interventions. Aim To evaluate and co mpare the efficacy of the Informal Confidential Voting Interview (ICVI) to the FTFI (Face - to - Face Interview) and the SAQ (Self - Administered Questionnaire) in enhancing self - disclosure and minimizing social desirability bias on sensitive topics of sexual ex perience and sexual activity. Study Design A sample of 110 undergraduate and post - graduate students at various tertiary education institutions in Pietermaritzburg were randomly allocated to the ICVI, the SAQ or the FTFI. The ICVI combined a face - to - face interview with a voting box method devised to enhance response anonymity. The FTFI and the SAQ were administered according to a standardized procedure to maximize confidentiality and self - disclosure. Results The self - disclosure scores were significant ly higher for the ICVI in comparison to the FTFI and the SAQ, with a p = 0.005. Post - hoc tests revealed that the ICVI performed significantly better in self - disclosure scores than the FTFI with p = 0.022 and the SAQ with p = 0.015. There was no significa nt difference in self - disclosure scores between the SAQ and the FTFI. Using the Marlowe - Crowne scale of social desirability bias, a significant difference in social desirability bias scores were achieved with p = 0.043. However, the post - hoc analysis ind icated no affirmative significant mean difference in social desirability score among any of the methods. Males displayed greater self - disclosure than females with p = 0.013, but for both sexes the ICVI group achieved the highest mean self - disclosure score s than the FTFI - and the SAQ group. Conclusion The results of this study concluded that the employment of ICVI fundamentally resulted in better quality data than the SAQ and the FTFI on topics of sensitivity and controversial behaviours. The findings ar e suggestive of the successful implementation of the ICVI method across potentially diverse research contexts that rely on self - report data, as the method is adaptable to the target population and its characteristics. Further research is warranted to buil d on its current design and facilitate the implementation of the ICVI across the wide disciplines of self - report data. / Thesis (M.Sc.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, [2009]

In recent years, the UK higher education sector has seen notable policy changes with regard to how research is funded, disseminated and evaluated. Important amongst these changes is the emphasis that policy makers have placed on disseminating peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles via Open Access (OA) publishing routes e.g. OA journals or OA repositories. Through the Open Science agenda there have also been a number of initiatives to promote the dissemination of other types of output that have not traditionally been made publicly available via the scholarly communication system, such as data, workflows and methodologies. The UK Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2014 introduced social/economic impact of research as an evaluation measure. This has been a significant policy shift away from academic impact being the sole measure of impact and has arguably raised the profile of public engagement activities (although it should be noted that public engagement is not equivalent to social/economic impact, but is an important pathway to realising such impact). This exploratory study sought to investigate the extent to which these recent policy changes are aligned with researchers publication, dissemination and public engagement practices across different disciplines. Furthermore, it sought to identify the perceptions and attitudes of researchers towards the concept of social/economic impact. The study adopted a mixed-methods approach consisting of a questionnaire- based survey and semi-structured interviews with researchers from a broad range of disciplines across the physical, health, engineering, social sciences, and arts and humanities across fifteen UK universities. The work of Becher (1987) and Becher & Trowler (2001) on disciplinary classification was used as an explanatory framework to understand disciplinary differences. The study found evidence of a lack of awareness of the principle of OA by some researchers across all disciplines; and that researchers, in the main, are not sharing their research data, therefore only the few who are doing so are realising the benefits that have been championed in research funders policies. Moreover, the study uncovered that due to the increased emphasis of impact in research evaluation, conflicting goals between researchers and academic leaders exist. The study found that researchers, particularly from Applied and Interdisciplinary (as opposed to Pure) disciplinary groups felt that research outputs such as articles published in practitioner journals were most appropriate in targeting and making research more accessible to practitioners, than prestigious peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles. The thesis argues that there is still more to learn about what impact means to researchers and how it might be measured. The thesis makes an overall contribution to knowledge on a general level by providing greater understanding of how researchers have responded to the impact agenda . On a more specific level, the thesis identifies the effect of the impact agenda on academic autonomy, and situates this in different disciplinary contexts. It identifies that it is not only researchers from Pure disciplines who feel disadvantaged by the impact agenda , but also those from Interdisciplinary and Applied groups who feel an encroachment on their academic autonomy, particularly in selecting channels to disseminate their research and in selecting the relevant audiences they wish to engage with. Implications of the study s findings on researchers, higher education institutions and research funders are highlighted and recommendations to researchers, academic leaders and research funders are given.

Made available in DSpace on 2015-05-14T13:16:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1447589 bytes, checksum: d17c1a95da11ba516c760e37d3bb5b2c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-12-16 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / From the decree 648/06 the Family Health Strategy (ESF) becomes seen as a structuring strategy of Basic Care. In this scenario, the evaluation researches of ESF work as a fundamental tool to help, through feedback, the decisions of its managers. Systematic information that can be used in the improvement of governmental actions. Professionals, who are the implementers of these actions, become valuable source of information, because in addition to knowing the reality of everyday ESF, they are also subjects that have the power to change it. This way, this study aimed to evaluate the Family Health Strategy (ESF) in João Pessoa, Paraíba, from the beliefs of professionals in the Health Team Family (EqSF), in order to understand the factors that influence the effective performance of work of these teams in the ESF, enabling its success or failure. It has been done a descriptive correlational applied research, in which the antecedent variables relate to working conditions in the Unities of the Family Health (USF) and professionals profile, and consequent variables are the beliefs that professionals of EqSFs have on the strategy. It has been used probability sample composed by 337 professionals of EqSF. For data collection, it was created and validated the Evaluation Scale of ESF by Professionals with 24 items and four points in response. Investigates the following factors: 1) Material resources (α = 0.86), with 10 items, 2) Efficiency in assistance (α= 0.80), with 8 items, 3) Physical Infrastructure (α = 0.73 ), with 6 items, which was answered by an individual configuration in the 101 USFs where professionals sorted to the samples work. Data analysis took place in five phases: in the first, it has been done exploratory analysis, aiming to clear the bank, and identify possible digitation errors. Next, it has been done a factor analysis of the Scale for the Evaluation of the Family Health Strategy (ESF), to verify the adequacy of items to factors. In the third stage it has been used descriptive statistics (frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation) in Bio-demographic data to provide information about the sample. Subsequently, it has been made means and standard deviations of the items of the scales to check the scores of the factors. It has even been made frequencies and percentages for each item of factors. Finally, comparisons were made between professionals by education (high school and technical versus higher), by T Student test and chi-square, and by professional category, by ANOVA. Overall, the results showed distinctions in types of employment contracts for professionals. It was found that the average stay of these professionals in USFs, is 3.9 years (SD = 2.60). And each EqSF is responsible for an average of 946.49 families (SD = 200). The monthly rents range from 400 reais to 7,000 reais and 13.1% of professionals say they have another job. With regard to the evaluation that the professionals do to the ESF, the availability of material resources obtained a positive evaluation by 76.68% of the professionals. The efficiency of care was rated negatively by 53.4% of participants. And the infrastructure of USF was evaluated positively by 71.17% of the professionals. Observing, however, some caveats to camouflage the positive evaluations. It was even verified that the material resources and infrastructure of USFs were better rated by professionals of superior level. And the efficiency in assistance was better rated by professionals of medium/technical level. It was concluded that, despite limitations, the ESF in Joao Pessoa was evaluated positively by their professionals, presenting significant advances in the reality of operation. / A partir da portaria 648/06 a Estratégia Saúde da Família (ESF) passa a ser vista como estratégia estruturante da Atenção Básica. Neste cenário, as pesquisas de avaliação da ESF funcionam como ferramenta fundamental para auxiliar, através de feedback, nas decisões de seus gestores. Informações sistemáticas que podem ser utilizadas no aprimoramento das ações governamentais. Os profissionais, que são os implementadores dessas ações, tornam-se fonte preciosa de informação, pois, além de conhecerem a realidade do cotidiano da ESF, são sujeitos que também possuem o poder de modificá-la. Desta forma, o presente estudo objetivou avaliar a Estratégia Saúde da Família (ESF) em João Pessoa, Paraíba, a partir das crenças dos profissionais da Equipe de Saúde da Família (EqSF), com o intuito de compreender os fatores que influenciam o desempenho efetivo do trabalho destas equipes na ESF, possibilitando seu êxito ou fracasso. Foi realizada uma pesquisa descritiva correlacional aplicada, na qual as variáveis antecedentes referem-se às condições de trabalho nas Unidades de Saúde da Família (USF) e o perfil dos profissionais, e as variáveis conseqüentes são as crenças que os profissionais das EqSFs têm sobre a estratégia. Foi utilizada uma amostragem probabilística composta por 337 profissionais das EqSF. Para coleta de dados, foi criada e validada a Escala de Avaliação da ESF pelos Profissionais com 24 itens e quatro pontos de resposta. Investiga os seguintes fatores: 1)Recursos materiais (α = 0,86), com 10 itens; 2) Eficiência no atendimento (α = 0,80), com 8 itens; 3) Infra-estrutura física (α = 0,73), com 6 itens, que foi respondido de forma individual dentro das 101 USFs em que trabalham os profissionais sorteados para a amostras. A análise de dados aconteceu em cinco etapas: na primeira, foram realizadas análises exploratórias, objetivando limpar o banco, e identificar possíveis erros de digitação. Em seguida, foi realizada uma análise fatorial da Escala de Avaliação da Estratégia Saúde da Família (ESF), para verificar a adequação dos itens aos fatores. Na terceira etapa foram utilizadas estatísticas descritivas (freqüência, porcentagem, média, desvio padrão) nos dados biodemográficos para fornecer informações acerca da amostra. Em seqüência, foram realizadas médias e desvios padrões dos itens das escalas, para verificar a pontuação dos fatores. Foram feitas ainda as freqüências e porcentagens de cada item dos fatores. Por fim, foram realizadas comparações entre os profissionais por escolaridade (nível médio e técnico versus superior), através do teste T Student e quiquadrado, e por categoria profissional, através da ANOVA. De forma geral, os resultados apresentaram distinções nos tipos de vínculos empregatícios dos profissionais. Verificou-se que a permanência média destes nas USFs, é de 3,9 anos (DP=2,60). Sendo cada EqSF responsável, em média, por 946,49 famílias (DP=200). As rendas mensais variam entre 400 reais a 7000 reais, e 13,1% dos profissionais afirmam ter outro trabalho. No que se refere à avaliação que os profissionais fazem da ESF, a disponibilidade dos recursos materiais obteve avaliação positiva por 76,68% dos profissionais. A eficiência do atendimento foi avaliada negativamente por 53,4% dos participantes. E a infra-estrutura da USF foi avaliada positivamente por 71,17% dos profissionais. Contemplando, entretanto, algumas ressalvas às camuflagens das avaliações positivas. Constatou-se ainda que os recursos materiais e a infra-estrutura das USFs foram melhor avaliados pelos profissionais de nível superior. E a eficiência no atendimento foi melhor avaliada pelos profissionais de nível médio/técnico. Concluindo-se que, apesar das limitações, a ESF em João Pessoa foi avaliada positivamente por seus profissionais, apresentado avanços significativos na realidade de funcionamento.

This thesis deals with the topic of formative assessment embedding. The goal of the theoretical part is to map the school assessment in general, mention its functions, types, forms and language. The purpose of this work is also to describe the process of formative assesment embeding, which is the topic of this thesis, where at first the formative assesment will be characterised and then divided into several sub-parts, which characterise suitable strategies for its embedding. Next goal is to summarize the characterstics of a lower age pupil, where the focus will be on his/her cognitive, emotional and social developement. The theoretical part is concluded by a chapter dealing with the specifics of a beggining teacher. The goal of this chapter is to describe his/her features and skills, which he she should have. All the above mentioned topics will be defined on the base of the professional literature. The methodology used in this thesis will be defined in the empirical part. The aim of the empirical part is gradual embedding of the formative assessment elements, which will be led in the 4th year of primary school, where I have been currently working as a teacher for the first year. The active teacher research, where the elements of the formative assessment are being embedded, will run for the period...

Cette thèse a pour objectif d'analyser l'efficacité de la mise en place de nouvelles politiques de recherche visant à modifier le mode d'allocation des financements aux chercheurs académiques en France. Avec la création de l'Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) en 2005, l'orientation donnée concède un poids plus important à l'allocation des financements de manière compétitive entre les chercheurs, approche basée sur le modèle compétitif Anglo-saxon, en complément du système traditionnel d'attribution de financements récurrents aux laboratoires de recherche. De plus, en 2010 a été initié par le gouvernement le Programme d'Investissement d'Avenir (PIA), pour soutenir la recherche en France. Par ce biais, certains centres de recherche en compétition ont été sélectionnés, après évaluation de leur projet, pour obtenir des subventions substantielles afin d'améliorer leur visibilité au niveau mondial. Le premier chapitre porte sur l'étude de l'influence de l'originalité et de la nouveauté de la recherche menée sur la décision des chercheurs de soumettre un projet à un programme de l'ANR, et sur la sélection du projet et son financement par l'agence. Le second chapitre étudie les effets de l'obtention d'un financement sur projet de l'ANR sur divers indicateurs relatifs à la production scientifique ex-post des chercheurs sélectionnés. Le troisième chapitre est consacré à l'analyse de programmes d'attribution compétitive de subventions supplémentaires à des universités (IDEX) et des laboratoires de recherche français (LABEX), de manière à faire émerger des centres d'excellence. Nous étudions l'impact de cette politique sur les performances scientifiques ex-post des chercheurs et enseignants-chercheurs concernés, avec une application à l'Université de Bordeaux. / The objective of this thesis is to analyze the efficiency of the implementation of new research policies, which change the rationale of funding allocation to academic researchers in France. The creation of the French funding agency 'Agence Nationale de la Recherche' (ANR) in 2005 gives a higher weight to grants allocated in a competitive way, in addition to the traditional block funds allocated to laboratories. This approach is based on the rationale of introducing some competition between researchers and to award only those who prepare the best proposals. Furthermore the program 'Investissement d'Avenir' (PIA), initiated by the French government in 2010, has been implemented to foster research excellence. Thus some competing universities obtain high level of funding in order to improve their international visibility. The first chapter of the thesis studies to what extent do funding agencies support novel research. We investigate the influence of the originality of conducted research over the decision of the researchers to apply and over the evaluation of the projects by the agency. In the second chapter, we assess and quantify the impact of receiving a competitive grant from the ANR on several indicators measuring the ex-post research performances of grantees. Our study is based on a database covering all the applications to the ANR between 2005 and 2009. The third chapter studies the implementation of a policy based on the allocation of a substantial competitive subvention to some selected universities and research laboratories. We investigate how this policy impacts the ex-post research performances of the researchers and faculty members with an application to the University of Bordeaux.

Many academic decision makers rely on quantified ranking measures to estimate the quality of journal publications. The aim of this study was to map journals in Information Systems (IS) with regard to their topic and their rank and determine whether there is a relationship between the scope of a journal and its rank. The study used content analysis, applying both qualitative and quantitative methods. The results of the analysis show the existence of relationships between the journal rank, the research area, and the type as well as significant differences in ranking on the three lists. The findings illustrate that ranking measures, as indicators for the quality of research published in a journal ought to be considered only in the context of a particular research area and scientific community.

This thesis is concerned with the topic of research evaluation by bibliometric methods at European level. European level is defined in two perspectives: first as a set of countries grouped in EU (and its historic predecessors), second the Framework Programmes were appointed as a representative of pan-European research. It is investigated how bibliometric methods are used in a research development and evaluation on both political and academic level. The thesis maps the history of use of bibliometric methods and indicators in great detail and it analyzes the aim and impact of such use. The rationale of use of those methods as well as the enablers such as availability of data are investigated. An experiment of constructing and analyzing the set of relevant data is pursued to assess the relevancy and feasibility of such analysis. Based on the findings the thesis summarizes the options and opportunities of bibliometrics as a method for formation and evaluation of European research.