Mandates have been issued for educators to collaborate and improve student achievement, requiring a change in instructional practices through teacher talk. Teachers have struggled to make the transitional conversion from team planning to observed changes in instructional practices with evidence of improvement. The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine how teachers collaborated while following the Ohio Improvement Process. The purpose was then to make data-driven changes regarding instructional practices in the continuous improvement cycle. The conceptual framework was constructed from the teachers' dialogic stances towards talk of instruction, along with the intellectual and emotional attitudes teachers have about making changes. The guiding research question examined the ways teachers have been influenced by each other to make changes in instructional practices. The case study design observed a sample of 10 teachers from two teacher-based teams, with five of those teachers being interviewed. Observational data were examined for dialogic stance toward talk of instructional practices, whereas interview data were analyzed looking for evidence of the cognitive restructuring. Statements were categorized as motivations and influences. The analysis revealed that the teachers are changing their thinking through motivations and influences from collaboration. Literature has supported the findings that teachers could benefit from a gradual implementation process leading to the continuous improvement cycle. By developing a policy recommendation paper with a focus on teacher learning, positive social change may include preparing and empowering teachers for the changes that occur through collaboration.

A case study of FBAs conducted by school-based teams analyzed 26 complete FBAs from rural LEAs trained by a university-based PBIS project staff. Interviews and observations were more often used than instruments/procedures. School teams initiated FBAs quicker but took longer to complete than did independent consultants. Researchers and practitioners will identify essential FBA components; how FBAs can be analyzed per these components; describe study results; and, discuss implications for research and application.

Ghana, like many African countries, is plagued with unemployment, poverty and annual trade deficits. Unemployment and poverty have led to a socio-economic breakdown. They are believed to be among the causes that led to the 1994 Rwanda genocide. Despite the abundance of an unemployed labor force, Ghana continues to depend on imported equipment, costing $174 million annually for its earthmoving and construction activities. In 1986, the Government of Ghana, the World Bank, the International Labor Organization and the United Nations Development Program introduced labor-based road rehabilitation program in Ghana to help create more jobs and reduce the high unemployment and poverty incidence. The program has not been patronized due to the casual labor usage and labor organizational and management problems. This research formulates the Family-Based Labor Management (FBLM) concept (also referred to as the HPWT-FBLM concept) by incorporating High Performance Work Team (HPWT), the Ghana Family System, and Roles and Responsibilities Matrix (RRM) concepts to make the program more attractive to labor and management. The FBLM concept would equip local contractors with the managerial skills to increase average monthly production from 1.33km to between 4km and 6km gaining competitive advantage over the 3.07km monthly production of the equipment-intensive contractor. Since the HPWT-FBLM concept has not been used, the related concepts HPWT and RRM concepts are used to validate the newly formulated recruitment, training, work method, communication and reward strategies. When adopted, the HPWT-FBLM concept would annually invest 10% of the $174 million for five years and yield employment increase of 23,000-34,000 the first year, growing to a total of 116,000-170,000 in five years. This concept will help reduce import deficit, conserve foreign exchange, and develop a pool of skilled workers and managers in Ghana. It has the potential of boosting the Ghanaian manufacturing industry for making hand-tools in lieu of purchasing imported equipment. The HPWT-FBLM concept can be adopted by the agriculture and building construction and other industries in Ghana that use large supplies of unskilled and semi-skilled labor. / Ph. D.

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Database modeling is a complex conceptual topic often taught through the use of project-based teams. One of the problems with the use of project-based teams in university courses is the determination of whether this is the most effective use of instructor and student time involvement and effort level. Therefore, this study investigated the impact of providing team dynamics training prior to the commencement of short-duration project-based team conceptual data modeling projects on individual data modeling task performance (DMTP) outcomes and team cohesiveness. The literature review encompassed conceptual data design modeling, the use of a project-based team approach, team dynamics and cohesion, self-efficacy, gender, and diversity. The research population consisted of 75 university students at a North American University (Canadian) pursuing a business program requiring an information systems course in which database design components are taught. Analysis of the collected data revealed that there was a statistically significant inverse relationship found between the provision of team dynamics training and individual DMTP. However, no statistically significant relationship was found between team dynamics training and team cohesion. Therefore, this study calls into question the value of team dynamics training on learning outcomes in the case of very short duration project-based teams involved in conceptual data modeling tasks. Additional research in this area would need to clarify what about this particular experiment might have contributed to these results.