The purpose of this study was to develop and test a model which addresses special education program evaluation needs. As such, the focus was on development. Often development and research are seen as one (e.g., Department of R & D; Director of R & D). They are, however distinctively different in process and product. The model developed provides general and special education leaders responsible for providing special education services with high quality data and procedures for decision making related to special education. Providing special education services is a complex responsibility. Not only are critical lifelong decisions related to students and their parents made, but there are stringent federal laws, complex state agency policies, detailed financial and programmatic reporting requirements, and often linkages to a variety of outside professionals and service provider agencies and organizations. There is a need for an effective program evaluation model useful to the uniqueness of special education. A variety of program evaluation models have been used in education and other organizational environments (e.g., Mabry, 2002; Patton, 2002; Posavac & Carey, 2003; Renger & Titcomb, 2002; Warburton, 2003). But, their application to special education has been limited and often ineffective or inefficient to address the evaluation needs of special education. This evaluation model development utilized the best of knowledge and procedures of existent evaluation models and adapted them to the uniqueness of special education. The special education evaluation model developed named Program Effectiveness in Special Education (PEiSE) identified espoused and in-use actions in a school district. This information with analysis, discussions, and data provided powerful special education information. To form the structure of the model, PEiSE utilized aspects of the CIPP Evaluation Model developed by Stufflebeam (2002), Logic Framework Model (Suchman, 1967), and the Utilization-Focused Evaluation Model (Patton, 1978). The process brought a number of within the district (Brunner & Guzman, 1989) and outside the district stakeholders into the development process which provided an expertise enhancing model effectiveness (Eisner, 1983). Information gathered from all stakeholders came in various forms and contained data acquired with little or no bias in the instruments or process used (Scriven, 1974; Provus, 1971; Cronbach, 1981; Stake, 1973). These processes not only had potential to improve the special education programs but also to improve the evaluation process itself (Eraut, 1984). The model also considered the limitations of resources of special education services (Stufflebeam, 1971; Tripodi, Pellin, & Epstein, 1971; Gold, 1988). Finally the process proved instrumental in bringing the primary discipline of general education and the complementary discipline of special education physically, philosophically and practically together for the benefit and improvement of services to all students. In conceptualizing the process, a flowchart of events was developed utilizing the form and philosophy of existing best practices in evaluation models and the foundational theory of organizational and program improvement and effectiveness (Argyris & Schon, 1974) PEiSE required the development of plans to reduce or eliminate discrepancies between what practices are espoused and what are actually in-use by practitioners. The PEiSE process included twelve phases: Point of Contact; Scope of Evaluation; Identify Formal Decision Makers; Structured Interviews with Formal Decision Makers; Compose List of Best Practices with Definitions; Formal Decision Makers Meeting/Approval of Best Practices List; Compose Espoused/In-Use Questionnaire; Collect/Analyze Questionnaire/Supportive Data; Recommendations for Action; Generate Action Plans Designed to Reduce or Eliminate Discrepancies; Execute Action Plans; and Measure Progress. An emphasis throughout PEiSE was that change is a necessary and welcomed part of organizational effectiveness as well as an integral part of organizational learning (Argyris & Schon, 1974). PEiSE guided administrators through the process of clearly articulating the change needed with development and implementation of action plans for change. PEiSE facilitated bringing together general and special education in a mutually beneficial manner to improve the quality and success of services to students with special needs. Specific differences in community and school district approaches to responding to compliance and intent of local, state, and federal regulations and initiatives are managed in the model developed. PEiSE was tested in a large, suburban school district. The testing indicated the model’s potential to: 1) advance evaluation of special education; 2) suggest new collaborative models for general and special education; 3) identify needed areas of research on evaluation, organization, issues of responsibilities, and professional expertise; 4) identify needed areas of pre-service and continuing professional preparation and development; 5) promote researched based programs related to student success. It was recommended that PEiSE include an additional phase of practitioner input on concerns and complaints of existing espoused best practices with suggestions or recommendations for different practices the district should consider. / text

Made available in DSpace on 2015-04-16T14:48:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivototal.pdf: 1682746 bytes, checksum: 58ab688285508a47f84907e2d4e8ca04 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-03-30 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Given the idea of rethinking the way society consumes, which is characterized by the abundance of consumer goods and at the same time begins to feel the close possibility of suffering with the impacts caused by the nature of consumerism, made the interest of investigating consumer habits related to environmental preservation to appear. It was noticed that the society has valued the sustainable practices even more, but how those people act as consumers before their apparent ethical stance they present? The consumers profess a concern on environmental questions but researches indicate that their consumer habits continue to be the same, the old ones. Thus, this study aimed to analyse the convergences and divergences between the environmentally responsible discourse and the consumers behaviour according to the theory of action of Argyris et al. (1985). From a qualitative approach, this research used in-depth interviews and a self-report through notes in a board diary to collect data about the environmentally responsible discourses and the consumers behaviours of 15 participants. To analyse data, the research used the dimensions related to the environmentally responsible research presented in Stern (1999, 2000): personal domain, behavioural domain, contextual domain, personal capabilities and habits and routines. The four first dimensions were investigated to identify the environmentally responsible discourses through interviews, and the last dimension habits and routines was investigated to identify the consumers behaviour effected by means of the registration of purchase experiences, consume and discard of goods in a board diary. The research suggests that the environmentally responsible behaviour is not always coherent with its discourse by the existence of motivational (impotence, lack of interest, sacrifice, convenience) and contextual elements (financial condition, absence of public policies, constraints of time and culture). It was noticed that environmentally responsible behaviour appear in some aspects of the participants daily lives, because it is understood that having quite favourable good consumer habits to the environment, under current conditions that the society lives, it would be impractical. / Diante do imperativo de repensar a maneira como a sociedade consome, a qual se caracteriza pela abundância de bens de consumo e ao mesmo tempo começa a sentir a possibilidade próxima de sofrer com os impactos causados à natureza pelo consumismo desenfreado, surgiu o interesse em investigar os hábitos de consumo relacionados à preservação ambiental. Percebeu-se que cada vez mais a sociedade tem valorizado as práticas sustentáveis, mas como essas pessoas atuam como consumidores diante da aparente postura ética que apresentam? Os consumidores professam uma preocupação com as questões ambientais, mas pesquisas indicam que seus hábitos de consumo continuam a ser os antigos. Deste modo, este estudo objetivou analisar as convergências e divergências entre o discurso ambientalmente responsável e o comportamento de consumo à luz das teorias da ação de Argyris et al. (1985). A partir de uma abordagem qualitativa, a pesquisa utilizou entrevistas em profundidade e o auto-relato por meio de um diário de bordo para coletar informações sobre os discursos ambientalmente responsáveis e os comportamentos de consumo de 15 participantes. Para fazer a análise, a pesquisadora se baseou nas dimensões relacionadas ao comportamento ambientalmente responsável tratadas em Stern (1999, 2000): Domínio Pessoal, Domínio Comportamental, Domínio Contextual, Capacidades Pessoais e Hábitos e Rotinas. As quatro primeiras dimensões foram investigadas para identificar os discursos ambientalmente responsáveis por meio de entrevistas, e a última dimensão, Hábitos e Rotinas, foi investigada para identificar o comportamento de consumo efetivado por meio do registro das experiências de compra, consumo e descarte de bens em um diário de bordo. A pesquisa sugere que o comportamento ambientalmente responsável nem sempre é coerente com o discurso ambientalmente responsável, pela existência de elementos motivacionais (impotência, falta de interesse, sacrifício, comodidade) e contextuais (condição financeira, ausência de políticas públicas, restrições de tempo e cultura). Percebeu-se que os comportamentos ambientalmente responsáveis aparecem em alguns aspectos do dia-dia dos participantes do estudo, pois se entende que ter hábitos de consumo completamente favoráveis ao meio-ambiente, nas condições atuais que a sociedade vive, seria impraticável.

During the last two decades, there has been great interest in integrating computers and technology in higher education. Currently web tool services for learning have attracted researchers in the field of education technology to integrate eLearning within the learning environment. In particular, the Internet has become an increasingly important and novel feature of the modern learning environment. Amongst the innovations, a certain tool has become extremely popular worldwide. It is known as web 2.0. It is a read/write web. Blogs (web logs) are one its fastest growing features. The researcher investigated the exciting prospect of developing an eLearning environment by utilizing and applying effective blogs. To date there has been little use of blogs as online tools in higher education, especially in Saudi Arabia. This study concerned the disclosure of more understanding of the use of web 2.0 applications in higher education in Saudi universities. The first purpose of this study was to develop an eLearning model for web 2.0. Its second purpose was to examine learners' perceptions and attitudes toward web 2.0 applications, i.e. blog tools by exploring the relationship between learners' attitudes toward blog tool instructions and factors identified as potentially influencing these attitudes. This research adopted an approach based on an interpretive philosophical paradigm accompanied by a qualitative methodology coupled with action research methods. Learning theories were considered as a theoretical framework. The learning theories considered was Behaviorism, Cognitive and Constructivism with Bloom's Taxonomy and Boud's Model. Data was collected qualitatively and analyzed thematically. Triangulation was conducted upon the outcomes of the questionnaires, interviews, observations and blog content analysis. This research made four main contributions. First, it identified the factors that influenced learner acceptance for the use of blog tools in higher education. Second, it investigated the relationship between learners' attitudes and their acceptance of the utilization of blog tools within their learning environment. Third, it responded to calls from the literature review to investigate blog utilization by conducting an in-depth investigation that utilized qualitative methodology with action research. Lastly, it provided further insight and a better understanding of blog usage with respect to structured/ unstructured learning environments.

BAKGRUND: Det ideella arbetet har en stor betydelse i dagens idrottsverksamheter runt om i Sverige, där individer frivilligt ställer upp vid olika arbetsuppgifter. Det finns idag över 600 000 ideella ledare och arbetare som ständigt engagerar sig och bidra till idrottsverksamheter runt om i Sverige från sin egen tid. Vi anser då att vår studie ökar en bättre förståelse för vad som påverkar en ideellt arbetande till att engagera sig mer, vilket kan vara problematiskt när ideella arbetare inte får betalt eller har tidsbrist. Denna studie riktas till verksamheter som arbetar för barn och ungdomar i vårt mångkulturella samhälle. Styrelsen i Andersberg IK är gruppen som ligger i fokus i studien. SYFTE: Syftet med studien är att studera styrelsemedlemmarnas erfarenheter och upplevelser av den sociala interaktionen inom styrelsen samt vilken betydelse dessa erfarenheter har på styrelsemedlemmarnas engagemang i en idrottslig ideell verksamhet med olika etniska bakgrunder. METOD: Studien inspireras av en fenomenologisk vetenskapsteoretisk ansats.  Fyra intervjuer och en observation genomfördes på samtliga styrelsemedlemmar. Observationen genomfördes på ett av styrelsens månadsmöte. RESULTAT: Resultatet av studien visar att de finns en koppling mellan den bristande interaktionen och tidsbristen för att reflektera i styrelsearbetet som utförs, vilket resulterar till att det hämmar engagemanget. Utifrån styrelsemedlemmarna upplevelser finns ett övergripande mål i verksamheten som är grunden till att den ser ut som den gör idag, vilket är att hjälpa ungdomarna i området och förse dem med andra alternativ än att spendera tid på gatan. Dock upplever styrelsemedlemmarna att det brister när samtliga medlemmar inte har en klarhet om delmålen som finns i styrelsearbetet. Styrelsen upplevde även när delegering av arbetet inträffade så inkluderades inte samtliga i styrelsen, detta bidrog till att flera medlemmar inte blev engagerade på samma sätt. Resultatet visar att samtliga styrelsemedlemmarnas erfarenheter och etnicitet har berikat den ideella verksamheten. Utifrån resultatet kan vi konstatera att styrelsen bör arbeta och sträva mot samma mål för att få ett gemensamt engagemang. FORTSATT FORSKNING: I vår studie har vi baserat allt på individers upplevelser samt erfarenheter kopplat till etnicitet. Vi anser att det finns andra faktorer som kan studeras som exempelvis ekonomins påverkan på engagemanget.

The purpose of this study was to explore how social institutions in South Africa and Zimbabwe respond to the mainstreaming of pregnant learners in formal education. A case study was used as the strategy of inquiry. Utilising a phenomenological, social constructivist and interpretivist lens and guided by a theoretical framework of action science theory, this exploratory qualitative study set out to investigate and compare how various stakeholders in South Africa and Zimbabwe respond to the policy of mainstreaming pregnant learners in schools. Data collection methods took the form of focus group and key participant semi-structured interviews, document analysis and a researcher observation and reflective journal. Two research sites comprised the case study. The sample at each of the identified sites consisted of 12 pregnant and former pregnant learners; 12 mainstream learners; 6 parents/legal guardians; 6 teachers; 6 community representatives on the school governing body. Data analysis consisted of a mix of hermeneutic, content and discourse analysis. Three findings emanated from this study. First, the socio-cultural beliefs, norms, practices and expectations of the community about pregnancy and ideal motherhood were more influential governing variables to educational access and participation of pregnant teenagers than the official school policy. Second, educators at both sites were found to have inadequate capacity to assist pregnant learners with schooling. Third, the South African school was found to provide more access to pregnant learners because of the more liberal and open response to teenage pregnancy. In contrast the conservative tendency to conceal the problem was observed at the Zimbabwean site. This study revealed that institutional policies that do not take into consideration the social, cultural and lived experiences of the relevant stakeholders are difficult to implement. The proposition is that there is usually a split between policy and practice, and that policy can be nothing more than political symbolism. An all-inclusive and consultative approach to policy formulation processes is recommended as an intervention strategy that could be used to counteract the problem. / Thesis (DPhil)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted