The purpose of this study was to explore the servant-leadership role of selected Catholic high school principals, and to investigate how this leadership ideal is manifest in their daily professional lives. I employed a qualitative case study design, using the constructivist paradigm. The data gathering methods consisted of several interviews with each of the six participants, and extended field observation engagements with two of the principals.<p> For the participants of this study, family background, professional and extra-curricular experiences, and priests, were important sources of their notions of servant-leadership. Participants perceived Faith in Jesus Christ, and the positive outcomes of their Faith-informed professional practice as progenitive of their notions of servant-leadership.<p> The culminating framework from this study identified faith in Jesus Christ as the foundation of participants servant-leadership. According to this framework, respondents childhood experiences, mental models, passions, motivations, and professional convictions, served as antecedents to their identity formation which, in turn, propelled them towards servant-leadership. This framework delineated five aspects of servant-leadership: faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, community-inspired vision, relational credibility, sustained trust, and service. Service was identified as the culminating dimension, with the understanding that servant-leadership is established and strengthened in the very act of rendering service (through the day-to-day characteristics of servant-leadership), without which servant-leadership for Catholic school principals was considered meaningless.<p> According to the findings from study data, servant-leader signifying and inspiring qualities required of the servant-leader, included the following: altruism, patience, compassion, caring for the interests and growth of followers, living by example, and the unselfish desire to serve others. Additional fruits of servant-leadership are empowerment and respect for followers, establishment of healthy relationships, support for one another, collaborative leadership, offering constituents different possibilities for development, community building, self sacrifice of the leader for his/her community, and the servant-leader truly representing the idea of service to members of the school community.<p> Strategies for success in servant-leadership included tenacity of purpose, respect for all in the school community, fostering collaboration, care and trust of followers, and avoidance of needless reprimands in the event of failure. An underlying theme of this study is that servant-leadership provides hope for followers because of its exceptional interest in helping them develop their potentials and grow to become leaders. This study generated several implications for policy, practice, and further research. First, the policy requiring principals of Catholic high schools to be practicing Catholics and to pattern their leadership practices on the servant-leadership model warrants continuance. Second, a policy that superintendents of Catholic school districts make an intentional choice to promote servant-leadership would serve a good purpose. Third, using vivid servant-leadership symbols as a way of making a lasting impression on new principals during the hiring process is a practice worth continuing. Fourth, directors, superintendents, principals, and chaplains need to continue the practice of exemplary servant-leadership as an inspiration to new and other leaders. And, finally, a future researcher on this same topic may wish to include the perceptions of staff members, parents, and students in focus groups to generate in-depth data for analyses.

Institutions of higher education are harnessing the communication ability of the Internet to offer classes and academic degree programs. This study investigated adult students during their first semester in a distance delivered doctoral program. The purpose of the study was to examine the use of web-based communication tools and their ability to establish a community of practice enabling the new students to share solutions related to distance doctoral study. This case study included the entire cohort of a distance delivered Ed.D. in Agricultural Education administered jointly by Texas Tech and Texas A&M Universities. Data collection methods included a semi-structured telephone interview, containing an adapted Sense of Community Index and postings on a Wiki (editable web page). Data analysis produced a participants’ profile and their use of web-based communication tools. This study found that (a) a variety of web-based tools enabled the students to connect with their cohort on a routine basis, (b) it is possible to establish a community of practice using a variety of web-based communication tools, (c) after one semester the cohort is an embryonic community of practice (d) the students were able to assist each other with concerns that helped them acclimate to learning online and their doctoral program, (e) students appreciate the flexibility that distance education offers but some prefer a traditional education, (f) students were frustrated with the technology during the first few weeks of their program, (g) new doctoral students desire instruction in the use of the course management system, the online library, and scholarly writing, (h) the students feel a strong sense of community, (i) use of web-based communication tools are vital as they assist in the student’s learning, (j) students felt isolated from their cohort until they participated in a group project even though they had the use of web-based communication tools at their disposal. The results of this study suggest that opportunities for students to engage socially with their peers should be built into the design of online classes and degree programs. Future research is recommended to examine the sustainability and desirability of virtual communities of practice.

Thesis (M.S. in Information Systems)--Naval Postgraduate School, September 1990. / Thesis Advisor(s): Haga, William J. Second Reader: Bui, Tung X. "September 1990." Description based on title screen as viewed on December 29, 2009. Includes bibliographical references (p. 62-66). Also available in print.

Thesis (M.S.)--Middle East Technical University, 2004. / Keywords: Games, simulations, game-like learning environments, instructional design/development, instructional design/development model, formative research, fuzzy logic.

Inaug.-Diss.--Munich. / Vita. Bibliography: p. xiv-xxviii.

The way in which British community pharmacists work has been much talked about but, until now, not quantified. A review of work study techniques within the field of pharmacy revealed that community pharmacy had been largely neglected. In the light of recommendations to extend the community pharmacists' role to provide non-traditional services it was necessary to examine community pharmacy practice to investigate the feasibility of diversifying pharmacy roles. Utilising the technique of subjective evaluation, pharmacy managers from a national multiple chain were asked to estimate how much time they spent on each of sixteen activity categories that had been devised by the author to represent their work. Three hundred and twenty three managers replied to the study generating 1,084 usable responses. The findings showed that seven categories accounted for almost 80% of their time, of which dispensing [as defined in this thesis] occupied proportionally the greatest amount of time of any category [37%]. However, subjective evaluation relies on estimation and has been previously criticised as being imprecise. A further work study technique, work sampling, was chosen as the most appropriate validation tool to determine the accuracy of the subjective evaluation findings. Five pre-registration pharmacists recorded the work of five pharmacy managers, generating 2,682 observations. The results from the observed data set were compared with those from subjective evaluation. Only two categories were found to be significantly different, lending weight to the assumption that the results obtained from the subjective evaluation study were an accurate record of how community pharmacists spent their time. These results demonstrated that the work patterns of community pharmacists mainly centre on the supply of medicines. The final stage of the research programme attempted to alter pharmacist work patterns via a skill mix programme in an attempt to limit pharmacist involvement in technical tasks such as dispensing. A `pre-test post-test' design was employed to determine the success of the study on three outcome measuresthe change in work patterns after skill mix implementation; non-pharmacist acceptance of altering their way of working; the perceptions held by the pharmacists also on the new way of working. The results showed that pharmacists' work patterns were altered, although changes could not be directly attributable to the intervention. In addition, the principal aim of substantially reducing the time they spent dispensing was not achieved. Non-pharmacist staff, on the whole, accepted or preferred the change to work practice as too did pharmacists. However, barriers to change were identified which needed to be rectified before skill mixing can have a significant impact on freeing pharmacist time away from dispensing

The aim of this study was to examine nurses' perceptions and practice of health education and health promotion in the acute care setting. Ward sisters (n=132) working on acute wards in nine District Health Authorities were interviewed using a semi-stuctured schedule. Data were collected on perceptions of health education and health promotion, nurses' role in these activities, and factors influencing nurses' health education and promotion practice on the ward. Data were analyzed using a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. In the second phase of the study, three wards were selected as case studies of nurses' practice. Data collection methods employed to describe nurses' practice included: non-participant observation, audio-recording of nurse-patient interactions, self-administered questionnaires and reflective field notes. A largely qualitative approach was taken to the analysis of these data. The findings from the interviews indicated that the ward sisters had limited understandings of the meaning of health education and health promotion and nurses' roles in these activities. Findings from the case study wards as a whole suggested that nurses' health education and promotion practice was generally extremely limited, although there were some differences between wards in the extent of this evolution. A number of factors may help explain these findings. These include: nurses' knowledge and skills in health education and health promotion, the philosophy, organization and management of care adopted, and the extent to which these offer opportunities for empowerment in nursing. It is suggested that nurses' perceptions and practice can be conceptualized with reference to a continuum of health promoting nursing practice, and that only limited progress has been made towards nurses' full potential. It is argued that if nurses are to develop their health promoting practice, a philosophical shift in nursing is necessary. Together with the acquisition of appropriate knowledge and skills, this may empower nurses to realise their potential.

The purpose of this master thesis is to reduce the transportation costs and environmental distress by improving the transportation routes needed to supply the sawmills in the county of V¨asterbotten, Sweden, their raw material. It is of particular interest to explore the possible benefits of implementing a so called virtual transshipment hub for this purpose. The outline of the hub is to allow the companies within the system to deduce raw materials from other companies’ contracted harvesting areas. The hub would thus create a pool of the total raw material appointed by each specific company. These companies may deduce the raw material needed but can have it transported from a closer site than their own contracted lumbering area. Sawmill companies rely on the use of harvesting areas to provide the needed raw material and it is of common practice to contract different harvest areas. The thesis is that the permission to use other companies’ harvest areas would create new possible routes resulting in better planning and as an extension more efficient routes. This master thesis will investigate the current situation in the industry and adapt a model suitable for the purpose from the information gathered. This thesis work will also provide a number of cost allocation models which are used in cooperations between different companies in order to determine how to allocate the savings / costs between the companies. It was revealed in an interview that it was desired to include an exploration of the ETT trucks in this paper. The ETT trucks is a new type of truck which is not currently permitted in Sweden. It has a higher loading capacity than the conventional trucks used today. Gathering data proved much more difficult than initially anticipated. As a result, this paper will not provide any actual data testing, but the Results section will show that the model is working as intended by using with trivial data. More on the difficulties associated with the data in the section Discussion. Due to the trivial data it is impossible to express an actual cost saving in using a numerical value or percentage. The results from this survey did however show that there were a signification reduction of the cost associated with the transportation of raw material when the two companies tested cooperated in comparison to when they worked separately. The use of the ETT trucks would reduce the transportation costs and CO2 emissions by 20 % respectively, as presented in a survey conducted by L¨ofroth and Svenson (2012). The conclusion is that regardless if the government allows the use of ETT trucks, it should lie in the best interest to further explore the implementation of a virtual transshipment hub using real data and a thorough investigation of eligible participants through the cost allocation models and a subsequent maintenence of the system using supply chain management.

No description available.

This study investigates the effect of elaborate retrieval, which is a byproduct of spaced practice, on adult cognition. It was hypothesized that elaborate re-conceptualization of new information, within a context that was disparate from the one used during learning, could facilitate learning transfer through the development of a broader conceptual frame of reference. The re-conceptualization task was not expected to degrade rote definitional memory. The two re-conceptualization tasks used in this study were termed model-building and free study. The model building task required the development of a personalized conceptual model using information provided within three spaced narrated information passages. The free study task required the unaided study of all three passages. Transfer of learning and rote memory were evaluated using a general knowledge test and a knowledge extension test. These tests were given at the end of the experiment. The general knowledge test required participants to match concept labels and definitions which were provided during the experiment. The knowledge extension test required participants to transfer knowledge amassed during the experiment to a complex “real world” situation. The results demonstrated that learners, who completed the spaced re-conceptualization task, improved their ability to transfer new information as the spacing intervals lengthened. Participants who were required to study the same information without any instruction did not show learning transfer improvement. Both groups illustrated parallel improvements in rote memorization due to spacing. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2007-12-19 09:35:45.095