This study was an experimental design, using twenty-two variables, twelve covariates, and six criterion measures. The purpose of the study was the effect of the use of selected transcription drills in beginning shorthand on the ability of students to produce both typewritten copy and mailable letters from shorthand notes. The bases for comparison were five minute timed transcription tests, three-minute dictation tests, and thirty-minute mailable letter production tests, of both previewed and unpreviewed material.

As alterações legislativas ocorridas no ano de 2015, notadamente a promulgação do Código de Processo Civil e da Lei de Mediação, inseriram uma regulamentação mais detalhada sobre os meios consensuais e os instrumentos processuais de cunho consensual, inclusive no âmbito do processo judicial adjudicatório. Esses parâmetros de atuação profissional diferem da forma atualmente difundida e aplicada, fazendo com que os advogados precisem se adequar à nova realidade. Na presente dissertação, as formas de atuação foram sistematizadas em três categorias, de acordo com as características apresentadas pelo cliente: assessor neutro, conselheiro e cocriador do projeto de sistemas de disputas. Para investigar como essas práticas poderiam ser operacionalizadas, especialmente em relação aos meios e instrumentos consensuais, foram analisados: as possíveis abordagens analíticas de conflito, com enfoque em sua percepção como um fato natural e neutro, positivo ou negativo; a tendência à judicialização de conflitos; e alguns meios e instrumentos consensuais, a título exemplificativo, passíveis de utilização para resolução de controvérsias. Tais temas foram estudados para que pudessem ser feitas proposições, ao final desta pesquisa, sobre capacitação do profissional, formas de atuação e a conveniência de criação de setores específicos nos escritórios de advocacia para que os advogados possam utilizar a consensualidade de forma estratégica, beneficiando sua imagem e favorecendo a resolução adequada e efetiva dos conflitos que lhe são apresentados para análise. Dentre tais propostas, estão uma formação acadêmica e profissional mais voltada à adequação de meios - em substituição à busca automática pelos meios adjudicatórios a serem utilizados, à personalização dos serviços advocatícios oferecidos aos clientes e à análise cuidadosa dos mais diversos aspectos fáticos - em virtude dos possíveis impactos na fidelização do contratante e nos ganhos financeiros auferidos pelo profissional. / Legislative changes of 2015, notably the enactment of the Civil Procedure Code and Mediation Law, inserted more detailed rules about consensual dispute resolution and consensual procedural instruments, including in the context of judicial adjudicatory proceedings. These parameters of professional performance differ from the currently widespread and aplied form, making lawyers need to adadpt to the new reality. In the presente dissertation, the forms of action were systematized into three categories, according to clientes characteristics: neutral adviser, counselor or co-creator of dispute design system. In order to investigate how these practices could be operationalized, especially in relation to consensual procedures and instruments, we assessed: the possible analytical approaches of conflict, focusing on perceiving them as a natural and neutral fact, positive or negative; the tendency towards the judicialization of conflicts; and some consensual procedures and instruments, by way of example, which can be used for the resolution of controversy. These subjects were studied so that proposals could be made, at the end of this research, on professional up-skill, forms of action and the advisability of creating specific sectors in law firms so that lawyers can use consensuality in a strategic way, benefiting their image and favoring the proper and effective resolution of the conflicts presented for their analysis. Among these proposals there are an academic and professional up-skill with more focus on the procedures\' adequacy - replacing the automatic use of adjudicatory procedures, personalizations of the legal services offered to the clients and the careful analysis of the factual aspects - due to to the possible impacts on the loyalty of the contractor and the financial gains earned by the professional.

This thesis examines the jewellery craft in Scotland between 1780 and 1914 with a focus on the relationship between materials, making processes, and the social and cultural meanings of objects. While dominant narratives of craft in this period frame producers as the victims of industrialisation, this thesis considers Scotland’s jewellers as cultural actors who shaped their own worlds during a period of profound economic, social and cultural change. A material culture approach is employed to examine the work of Scotland’s jewellers through the things they made. Fusing object-based research with a wide range of visual and textual sources, the thesis shows how producers applied their skill, knowledge and creativity to manipulate raw matter into meaningful objects that not only reflected, but brought about wider social and cultural shifts. Through a focus on materiality, the thesis builds on new methodological approaches to the history of material culture to show how the mutable meanings of matter and workmanship impacted on the ways in which jewellery was produced, consumed, worn and perceived. Scotland provides a rich area of focus for this study. The country has a long history of quality craft production in jewellery and silverware, with the geological and natural diversity of the region providing jewellers with precious metals, coloured stones and freshwater pearls. The study examines industry dynamics, artisanal education and making processes to show how jewellers fashioned an image of their craft that was rooted in ideas of history, inherited skill and quality. The life cycle of native materials is traced from their raw state through the workshop and on to owners’ bodies to reveal how changes in workshop production were inseparable from shifting aesthetics and cultural ideas relating to nature, landscape and the past. These findings complicate the persistent myth of the decline of craft as a result of industrialisation to show that the desire for Scottish-made jewellery stimulated new and revived skills and trades that cut across urban and rural areas. While the thesis is geographically specific to Scotland, it places luxury producers within the interdisciplinary domain of cultural history to provide new insights into the study of the multifaceted transformations that marked British industry during the long-nineteenth century.

The aim of the present thesis was to investigate the relationship between individuals' allocation of overt visual attention during action observation and their consequent pickup of information. Four interrelated studies were conducted to achieve this. In Study 1 we examined the effects of visual guidance - colour highlighting of relevant aspects of the action - on observational learning of the golf swing. The results showed that the visual guides facilitated novices' intake of information pertaining to the model's posture, which was reflected in faster learning. In the remaining studies, transcranial magnetic stimulation and eye tracking data were acquired concurrently to measure the interaction between gaze behaviour and motor resonance - a neurophysiological index of the motor system's engagement with a viewed action, and thus a correlate of information extraction. In Study 2, we directed observers' gaze to distinct locations of the display while they viewed thumb adduction/abduction movements. The results showed that, by directing gaze to a location that maximised the amount of thumb motion across the fovea, motor resonance was maximised relative to a free viewing condition. In Study 3 we examined the link between gaze and motor resonance during the observation of transitive actions. Participants viewed reach-to-grasp actions with natural gaze, or while looking at a target- or an effector- based visual guide. The results showed that the effector-based guide disrupted natural gaze behaviour, and this was associated with a reversal of the motor resonance response. In Study 4 we showed novice and skilled golfers videos of the golf swing and of a reach-grasp-lift action. The results revealed that, for both actions, the extent of motor resonance was related to the location of participants' fixations. The present work provides the first evidence of a relationship between gaze and motor resonance and highlights the importance of appropriate gaze behaviour for observational learning.

The manager developement process is the anchor theme of the organisations and their HR departments. The quality manager is the key factor for the effective function of employees, teams within and the organisation as a whole, and facilitates the functioning process. This thesis deals with the problematics of manager developement, with a special focus on the training and other developing activities. The empirical part is orientated on three target groups participating on the manager developement. The qualitative part of the research was being realised through semi- structured interviews with lectors and HR managers. The quantitative part captures the interviews with the managers themselves. The manager skills are divided into four areas-Communication Skills, Presentation Skills, Management of People and Self-Management. In the requirement of quantitative research the Questionaire of the Developement of Manager Skills was constructed. The three hypotheses were being tested, first by Pearson correlation coefficient, the following two by dependent t-test for paired samples with a significance level of 0,05. Across the whole spectrum of skills, there is a noticeable contradiction between the opinion of lectors, HR managers and managers. The managers emphasize more the influence of working experience for...

O objetivo desta dissertação foi o de analisar a Proposta de Formação Continuada do Professor em parceria com a equipe interdisciplinar, desenvolvida pela Secretaria de Educação de São Bernardo do Campo no período de 1996-2003. Identificar com professores da rede municipal de ensino desse Município que atuam na Educação Especial e que vivenciaram esse processo: como repercutiu em suas práticas e se modificou a visão que possuíam sobre a deficiência; se conferiu-lhes instrumentos que os auxiliassem a enfrentar as situações do dia-a-dia, no atendimento à diversidade e na compreensão das situações dela decorrentes; se contribuiu para refletir sobre o seu papel profissional na mediação de um projeto pedagógico mais flexível e transformador; se levou a mudanças no âmbito do ser professor, do saber e do fazer pedagógico. Este trabalho está fundamentado nos estudos da psicologia histórico-cultural de Vygotsky e seus seguidores, nas concepções que embasam a formação do professor e nas contribuições dos pressupostos sobre a Interdisciplinaridade. A metodologia adotada foi o da modalidade qualitativa, imprescindível à análise das percepções e significados atribuídos pelos participantes a esse modelo formativo, expressos em entrevistas e com uso de questionários. A análise dos dados das entrevistas foi realizada em três etapas: 1) categorização das respostas das entrevistadas; 2) categorização definida sob o prisma das teorias que fundamentaram a investigação; 3) reflexões sobre as categorizações, estabelecendo uma convergência dos dados analisados na perspectiva dos dois grupos de categorias. Evidenciaram-se: a importância do processo formativo, valorizando o papel do professor e propiciando crescimento profissional; a contribuição da atividade partilhada e dos vários campos teóricos para apropriação de conhecimentos sobre a criança e suas condições de aprendizagem, fortalecendo o professor para a tomada de decisões mais refletidas e autônomas; as dificuldades relativas à formação dos profissionais da equipe que coordenavam o processo; a pouca clareza na definição dos papéis dos diferentes profissionais; o pouco envolvimento de alguns e excesso de demanda de outros; as dificuldades estruturais e de organização das unidades, deflagrando ausência de sintonia entre Secretaria de Educação e Escola. A análise mostrou que a proposta auxiliou os educadores entrevistados a reconhecerem a importância de um projeto pedagógico elaborado em bases teóricas que ampliem a condição de o professor intervir na aprendizagem de seus alunos com mais clareza e decisão. Por outro lado, assinalou a importância de realizar modelos de formação que ofereçam ao professor um referencial de trabalho mais voltado à análise, reflexão e reconstrução da prática. / This dissertation has as an objective the analysis of the Continuous Development Project, in partnership with an interdisciplinary group, developed by the São Bernardo Educational Department between the years of 1996-2003; to identify along with teachers who work with special education in that city and which have had such experience: how it reflected on their teaching and if it modified their point-of-view on the impairments; if it gave them tools to help with everyday occurrences such as the observation of the diversities and the comprehension of situations occurring due to them; if it helped them to ponder about their roles in the conciliation of more flexible and changing academic tasks; if it led to a transformation on their abilities of being teachers, having knowledge and academic skills. It has been based on Vygotsky (and disciples) historical-cultural psychology studies, regarding the concepts that support the development of the teacher and their contributions to interdisciplinary group formation. The implemented methodology considered quality, essential to the examination of the perceptions and meanings the participants assigned to this development standard, through interviews and surveys. The interviews analysis was carried on in three steps: 1st was the classification of the answers; the classification 2, defined under the hood of the theories that sustained the study; pondering on the classifications leading to a convergence of verified data on the points-of-view of both classified groups. The significance of the developing process valuing the role of the teacher and providing with professional growth became evident; the contribution of the shared activities and academic fields for the gathering of knowledge of kids and for the learning processes, stimulating the teacher on more pondered and independent decision making; the difficulties related to the development of the professionals on the group that coordinated the project; the lack of understanding on the definition of roles of the distinct professionals; the lack of commitment of some professionals and the excessive demand of others; the structural and organizational obstacles of the facilities showing the deficient synchronization between the School Board and the School itself. The analysis has shown that the project helped the surveyed educators to recognize the value of an academic project supported on conceptual basis, which broadens the role of the educators on a clearer and more independent teaching method. On the other hand, it has revealed the importance of the creation of a development standard which can provide the teacher with analytic, pondered, and skill remodeled work orientation.

As alterações legislativas ocorridas no ano de 2015, notadamente a promulgação do Código de Processo Civil e da Lei de Mediação, inseriram uma regulamentação mais detalhada sobre os meios consensuais e os instrumentos processuais de cunho consensual, inclusive no âmbito do processo judicial adjudicatório. Esses parâmetros de atuação profissional diferem da forma atualmente difundida e aplicada, fazendo com que os advogados precisem se adequar à nova realidade. Na presente dissertação, as formas de atuação foram sistematizadas em três categorias, de acordo com as características apresentadas pelo cliente: assessor neutro, conselheiro e cocriador do projeto de sistemas de disputas. Para investigar como essas práticas poderiam ser operacionalizadas, especialmente em relação aos meios e instrumentos consensuais, foram analisados: as possíveis abordagens analíticas de conflito, com enfoque em sua percepção como um fato natural e neutro, positivo ou negativo; a tendência à judicialização de conflitos; e alguns meios e instrumentos consensuais, a título exemplificativo, passíveis de utilização para resolução de controvérsias. Tais temas foram estudados para que pudessem ser feitas proposições, ao final desta pesquisa, sobre capacitação do profissional, formas de atuação e a conveniência de criação de setores específicos nos escritórios de advocacia para que os advogados possam utilizar a consensualidade de forma estratégica, beneficiando sua imagem e favorecendo a resolução adequada e efetiva dos conflitos que lhe são apresentados para análise. Dentre tais propostas, estão uma formação acadêmica e profissional mais voltada à adequação de meios - em substituição à busca automática pelos meios adjudicatórios a serem utilizados, à personalização dos serviços advocatícios oferecidos aos clientes e à análise cuidadosa dos mais diversos aspectos fáticos - em virtude dos possíveis impactos na fidelização do contratante e nos ganhos financeiros auferidos pelo profissional. / Legislative changes of 2015, notably the enactment of the Civil Procedure Code and Mediation Law, inserted more detailed rules about consensual dispute resolution and consensual procedural instruments, including in the context of judicial adjudicatory proceedings. These parameters of professional performance differ from the currently widespread and aplied form, making lawyers need to adadpt to the new reality. In the presente dissertation, the forms of action were systematized into three categories, according to clientes characteristics: neutral adviser, counselor or co-creator of dispute design system. In order to investigate how these practices could be operationalized, especially in relation to consensual procedures and instruments, we assessed: the possible analytical approaches of conflict, focusing on perceiving them as a natural and neutral fact, positive or negative; the tendency towards the judicialization of conflicts; and some consensual procedures and instruments, by way of example, which can be used for the resolution of controversy. These subjects were studied so that proposals could be made, at the end of this research, on professional up-skill, forms of action and the advisability of creating specific sectors in law firms so that lawyers can use consensuality in a strategic way, benefiting their image and favoring the proper and effective resolution of the conflicts presented for their analysis. Among these proposals there are an academic and professional up-skill with more focus on the procedures\' adequacy - replacing the automatic use of adjudicatory procedures, personalizations of the legal services offered to the clients and the careful analysis of the factual aspects - due to to the possible impacts on the loyalty of the contractor and the financial gains earned by the professional.

Auditory feedback has been shown to be highly effective at teaching new skills to athletes in a variety of sports. This method consists of targeting a routine, breaking down the specific skills required to complete the routine, and training an individual on those skills using an auditory device to provide feedback on correct responses. This study evaluated the effectiveness of auditory feedback for improving a judo technique. One set of techniques taught in judo are standing throws, which require a partner to receive the technique (uke.) These throws require specific skills to successfully implement the technique. Auditory feedback was evaluated within a multiple baseline across participants design to increase skills for one specific standing throw, ippon seoi nage (one armed shoulder throw.) The skills were scored on a seven item checklist. All participants improved their performance on ippon seoi nage at a quicker pace than what was observed during baseline.

Implementing differentiated instruction in classrooms with students who have mixed skill levels often results in teachers facing many challenges. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore social studies teachers' perceptions of the challenges they faced when implementing differentiated instruction in classrooms with mixed skill levels and what teachers perceived they needed to help overcome these challenges. This project study was guided by the conceptual frameworks of constructivism from Piaget and Bruner along with the theoretical framework of Vygotsky's zone of proximal development. The research questions focused on the viewpoints of teachers on implementing differentiated instruction in their classrooms, what challenges they faced when implementing differentiated instruction in a social studies classroom with mixed skill levels, and what support teachers need to overcome these challenges. Data were gathered using structured interviews of the 10 individual teachers chosen through purposeful sampling from a school in metro-Atlanta, Georgia. Data were transcribed and analyzed using coding by highlighting common words to identify themes to answer the research questions. Data analyses revealed that teachers needed professional development that defined what differentiated instruction is, how to implement it, and how to get to know their students better, as well as time to observe other teachers implementing differentiated instruction. A professional development plan was developed to help meet these needs for teachers. Implications for social change include an improved understanding of differentiated instruction and how to support teachers to overcome the challenges of implementing differentiated instruction. This may lead to better instruction and more academic success for all students which may lead to better assessment scores.

Why some countries are so much richer than others is a question of central interest in economics. Low aggregate income per worker in poor countries is mostly accounted for by low labor productivity and high employment in agriculture. This thesis attempts to understand cross-country income difference through examining productivity differences at the sector level - in agriculture and in non-agriculture. Between rich and poor countries, there is a 45-fold difference in agricultural output per worker and a 34-fold difference in mean farm size. In the first chapter, I argue farmer's skill as a plausible explanation for these differences. The model features heterogeneity in innate agricultural skill, on-the-job skill accumulation, and span-of-control in agricultural production. I show that low total factor productivity (TFP) in poor countries not only induces more individuals with low innate skill to choose farming, but also reduces the incentive to accumulate skill. Between rich and poor countries, the model generates substantial difference in farmer's skill, which translates into differences in agricultural productivity and farm size distribution. Quantitatively, the calibrated model explains half of the cross-country differences in agricultural output per worker, and successfully replicates the size distribution of farms in both rich and poor countries. Cross-country productivity differences are asymmetric across sectors. The labor productivity gap between rich and poor countries in agriculture is twice as large as that in the aggregate, and ten times larger than that in non-agriculture. The second chapter shows that these sectoral productivity differences can arise solely from difference in aggregate TFP. I extend the framework in the first chapter to allow for different skill in non-agricultural production as well. Low TFP distorts the allocation of skills across sectors and discourages skill accumulation on the job. To discipline the initial skill distribution and skill accumulation, the model is calibrated to match earnings distribution and age-earnings profiles in both agriculture and non-agriculture in the U.S. The model's implications are then examined using a sample of 70 countries that covers a wide range of development. Between rich and poor countries, the model accounts for most of the productivity differences at the sector level - productivity difference in agriculture in the model is 1.8 times larger than those in the aggregate and 6 times larger than those in non-agriculture. As in the data, the share of farmer in the labor force in the model declines from 85 percent in the poorest countries to less than 2 percent in the richest countries. These results suggest that policy aiming at improving overall efficiency should be prioritized.