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In response to concerns about using only standardized multiple-choice assessments, some school districts have moved to using alternative ratings of student achievement with authentic assessments. However, such assessments are often limited in terms of the psychometric validity data supporting their use. The present study mixed quantitative and qualitative methods to examine the validity, development, and refinement of an authentic rating approach currently in use in middle school mathematics classes from a large suburban school district in the Southwest United States. A sample of teachers (n = 14), rated students (n = 110) using a pilot rubric of 187 items. Analyses resulted in a 32-item rubric with 20 themes and 9 factors. Results from a G-study revealed the facet that best explained variance in student scores was the interaction between raters and assessment units, as well as students and assessment units. As part of the development of the assessment, a content validity exercise revealed 18% of the rubric items as below average quality. Findings highlight the need to enhance contextualization of rubrics, use a strategy of assessment that includes contextualized and decontextualized assessment, and to investigate the role of utilization deficiency in explaining low student scores.

Since 2003 the Swedish Armed Forces uses Developmental Leadership as their formal leadership model. The model is characterised by the leader acting as a role model and providing inspiration, motivation and personal consideration. The model stresses the importance authenticity plays in achieving the motivational aspects of leadership. The current literature on authenticity shows almost solely positive effects of the application of authenticity. However, there are organizational factors that seem to impede the non-commissioned officers’ ability to freely express their authentic self. Therefore, this study has aimed to deeper investigate the possible discrepancy between the application of authenticity in theory in relation to practice. To achieve this, we strive to answer the question as to how non-commissioned officers experience the practical application of authenticity in military contexts. A qualitative semistructured interview guide was chosen as the research method. The participants consisted of six non-commissioned officers in troop leading positions within the Swedish Armed Forces. Through a thematic analysis the data resulted in three main themes with a total of eleven subcategories. The study concludes that the results support the Developmental Leadership model´s claim that environmental factors affect the way leaders can exert Developmental Leadership. In addition, the study also contribute to a clearer picture of how these factors specifically affect leaders ability to act authentically. / Försvarsmaktens formella ledarskapsmodell Utvecklande Ledarskap förordar autenticitet hos ledare inom myndigheten. Teorier inom autenticitet visar på närmast enkom positiva effekter. Dock finns det organisatoriska faktorer som inverkar och begränsar specialistofficerares möjligheter till autentiskt handlande. Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur specialistofficerare upplever tillämpningen av autenticitet i sin yrkesroll. Som undersökningsmetod valdes kvalitativa semistrukturerade intervjuer och urvalet bestod av sex aktivt tjänstgörande specialistofficerare i truppförande positioner inom Försvarsmakten. Den data som framkom analyserades genom en tematisk analys och resulterade i tre teman med elva underliggande kategorier. Resultaten stödjer teorin om hur omgivningskarakteristika påverkar ledares möjlighet att utöva utvecklande ledarskap men tillför en tydligare bild av hur dessa faktorer specifikt påverkar ledares autenticitet.

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Authenticity is a philosophical and psychological concept with origin in Greek philosophy that means being true to oneself. The twenty-first-century corporations' increased complexity and multiple cooperate scandals have created a demand for application of the concept of authenticity into leadership – resulting in the concept of authentic leadership. Authentic leadership is something leaders should strive for since it shows to have a significant impact on work engagement, team effectiveness, financial performance, and work satisfaction, to name a few. Due to the many advantages of authentic leadership, multiple measurement tools have been created to identify and measure the authenticity in leaders. The idea of authentic leadership to be a measurable concept has received criticism and acknowledgment within the research field. Even though research states that authentic leadership is gendered, there is no consideration of gender in the existing measurement tools for authentic leadership. Men and women meet different conditions in life, careers, and as leaders, and due to the long history of male leaders, the norm of leadership builds on the male gender. The purpose of this study is three folded: Firstly, the study aims to understand how authenticity in leaders can be identified. Secondly, the circumstances that affect authentic leadership development will be explored. And lastly, the relationship between gender and authentic leadership development will be investigated. To fulfill the purpose, mixed methods have been applied. Six qualitative interviews chosen with theoretical and snowball sampling have been performed. Based on the learnings from the literature review and interviews, a quantitative questionnaire has been sent out to 327 persons. The study's findings show that identifying authenticity can be accomplished by different approaches: Questionnaire, in-depth interviews, and through a feeling. The circumstances that affect authentic leadership development are dependent on the formations of the factors and a person's level of self-awareness. Lastly, authentic leadership is challenging for both men and women since the male prototype of leaders can hinder both genders.

The writing education in primary schools’ lower years is the starting point for pupils’ future writing development. Teachers for pupils in primary school, in preschool class and grades 1-3, therefore have an important role to generate motivation to write for pupils in their writing development, as this lays the foundation for their motivation to write further on in their future education and lives. Problems have been identified by researchers that poor motivation in writing teaching can lead to consequences where pupils do not develop their writing further on in their upcoming education and lives. Previous research has also found that there is a close connection between motivation and learning as well as motivation and writing development. This declaration is supported by theories about motivation, pupils’ self-confidence in writing, explicit writing teaching as well as didactic and sociocultural theories. The purpose of this study is therefore to discuss how teachers in preschool class and the grades 1-3 work to generate pupils’ motivation in the teachers’ writing teaching. The purpose of this study is also to discuss how the teachers use of authentic writing tasks influence on their pupils' writing development. The outcoming results of this study have emerged through qualitative interviews where the interview answers have been analyzed in association to the presented theories above. The analyzed results have been discussed in relation to previous research which led us to a suitable conclusion that shows that the teachers in this study work in various ways, using different teaching methods where using authentic activities is one of those, to stimulate the pupils’ motivation in their writing development. The results of this study also show that the teachers’ use of authentic writing tasks have a positive influence on their pupils’ writing development.

The aim of this essay has been to gain knowledge about how authentic experiences affect students' motivation for their learning of Spanish and to compare how their motivation is influenced by different kinds of authentic experiences. According to Bryman (2006) the most common methods when doing investigations about motivation are questionnaires combined with structured interviews, within a mixed method, with both quantitative and qualitative instruments. The research has therefore been carried out at a Swedish high school, applying questionnaires at 122 students and structured interviews with 8 students. The results were analyzed with the motivational theories; Eccles and Wigfield's expectancy-value theory och Deci och Ryan's self-determination theory. The results show a tendency of a positive attitude towards authentic experiences during lessons. These seem to be used by the teachers, especially in the form of authentic music and film, and students also consider those activities to positively influence motivation and most of them believe that different authentic experiences could increase motivation, increase the posibility to integrate to internal motivation towards Spanish as a subject, but most consider that real and virtual meetings with Spanishspeaking probably will not do so, since the ability to integrate them rather seem that it might inhibit the students' psychosocial needs.

Tragic, life-changing, and fatal incidents are a reality on large-scale, civil construction projects. Despite a decline following the enforcement of the 1971 Occupational Safety and Health Act, serious and fatal incidents on heavy construction projects remain higher than that of the active military and have not declined in any notable way in the past decade. Industrial-organizational literature suggested a lack of applied testing for the well-developed theory of authentic leadership (AL) to impact safety outcomes. This quasi-experiment combined the constructs of authentic leadership with safety climate perception as quantifiable measurement of potential safety outcomes in the workplace. The research question focused on whether AL would impact safety climate, thus, reducing injury and fatalities on the job. The researcher examined 1 of the 4 segments that comprised a $1 billion freeway improvement project. Perceptions of 108 field craft personnel were collected on a Likert-type instrument before and after their supervisors attended a brief AL workshop. Utilizing an ordinal scale, statistical significance was calculated pre- and postintervention by computing a Mann-Whitney U for independent samples. Significant improvement was found following the supervisor workshop. The reduction in incidents, when compared to the jobsite's history and the other 3 jobsite segments associated with the highway improvement project, suggests a potential for this framework to support positive social change, that is, to reduce the human cost and suffering associated with industrial accidents.

In southern California school districts, 8th grade students in history-social science (H-SS) classes did not perform well on the California Standards Test (CST). To improve student performance, middle school H-SS teachers in some districts received staff development in the use of authentic assessment, the understanding and application of multiple intelligences theory, and the application of a student centered focus in lesson design and instruction. The purpose of this comparative pretest/posttest study was to determine if there was significant achievement difference between 2 8th-grade U.S. H-SS classes taught in 2 districts. The research question addressed a significant difference in CST H-SS achievement scores between 8th-grade students taught using multiple intelligences strategies and authentic assessments (n = 28) and those who were taught using traditional strategies and curriculum assessments (n = 31). The theoretical foundation for this study was constructivism. Post-data from archived student scores on the CST H-SS test were collected and analyzed using an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), controlling for varying differences in CST pre-test H-SS scores. There was a statistically significant difference in posttest CST H-SS scores between the 2 groups (F = 10.491, p < .002), with the nontraditional group scoring higher. Based on the findings, it is recommended that district leaders provide professional development opportunities for teachers in nontraditional constructivist instructional strategies that support student-centered instruction. These endeavors may lead to positive social change if H-SS teachers change instruction and assessment methods to improve student achievement, thus, meeting graduation requirements and enhancing citizenship development.

Abstract This qualitative research explores creative movement processes such as dance/movement therapy (DMT), authentic movement (AM), and creative dance (CD) as possible tools for transforming sexual trauma for women. Eleven movement professionals were interviewed in a semi-structured research format. My direct experience and knowledge of sexual abuse, sexual trauma, and creative movement processes are interwoven with the research question: do creative dance/movement therapy processes contribute to the dynamic of healing for women transforming sexual trauma? These findings are inconclusive for the greater population of survivors of sexual abuse and sexual trauma. However, there are indications that DMT, AM, and CD may be potential tools for recovery. This research contributes to a dialogue about sexual abuse and recovery from sexual trauma.