This study empirically describes and analyzes the characteristics and functionality of the ―Communities of Practice (CoPs)‖ used within eXtension, a new initiative of the Cooperative Extension (CE) system. It also endeavors to lay the foundation for empirical analysis of CoP processes, which to date have been explained almost exclusively using qualitative case study methods. Land-grant universities were founded on the ideals that higher education should be accessible to all, that the university should teach liberal and practical subjects and should share the college's knowledge with people throughout their states. eXtension is an educational partnership of more than 70 land-grant universities. Its reported purpose is to help Americans improve their lives with access to timely, objective, research-based information and educational opportunities accessed through http://www.extension.org . This Web resource is customized with links to state land-grant university CE Web sites. This mixed-method, action research project applied to the virtual environment describes the extent to which people who became part of an eXtension Communities of Practice (XCoPs) reported that they engaged in purposeful cycles of continuous inquiry in dialog, decision, action, and evaluation (DDAE) and the attainment of eXtension‘s goals. An Internet survey obtained descriptive data of members‘ participation within the eight pioneer XCoPs to assess the extent to which each XCoP engaged in the DDAE cycles of inquiry. Analysis of the survey data resulted in the categorization of low-, medium-, and high-level functioning XCoPs. Members of three pioneer XCoPs representing each category (low, medium, high collaboration) participated in online interviews that revealed how CE‘s reward structure, XCoP membership composition, and leader/member skill sets impact XCoP performance in meeting eXtension goals. Two sets of ―best practices‖ for eXtension initiative staff and XCoPs emerge from the discussion of triangulated data.

A project report submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Masters of Science Resource Conservation Biology. / An understanding of the biogeochemistry of carbon and nitrogen in ecosystems is necessary for the sustainability of system function. Transformations, including different land uses, disrupt the natural input:output of soil organic matter and often result in changes in the cycling of carbon and nitrogen. Consequently it is imperative to know how different land uses are likely to alter the pool sizes, flux rates and turnover of carbon and nitrogen in the soil. The savanna and grassland biomes of South Africa include large areas which have been transformed by man and are the main sites of primary and secondary production. Sites in these biomes along a vegetation and soil type gradient have been investigated. Soil samples from a conserved area, a cultivated area and a livestock area have been sampled. A range of soil properties including the potential rate of nitrogen mineralization, total soil carbon and nitrogen, microbial carbon and nitrogen, soil texture, bulk density. pH and standing dead herbaceous biomass have been quantified. These along with values reported in the literature have been used to validate the CENTURY model, which simulates the turnover of ecosystem attributes on the basis of soil organic matter inputs and outputs. Results show that the soil organic matter pool sizes for the sites and land uses were positively correlated with the percentage fines (silt-plus-clay) and site aridity. Sites which were moist and had a percentage of fines greater than 45% tended to have 3 times more C and N. Land use, especially cultivation, reduced the amount of SOM at sites by 50% mainly because of the effects on the light fraction mass. The potential rate of N mineralization was not significantly different between sites but the cultivated land use led to the immobilization of N. Possible reasons for this included the negative impact that cultivation has on soil macroaggregates, the lower <1.0 glkg) input of light fraction, and the low <10%) percentage fines at these sites. Simulations of the SOM fractions using the CENTURY model for six functional types indicate that similar trends emerged but the model greatly overestimated absolute amounts of SOM. In conclusion, the absolute quantities of soil carbon and nitrogen are influenced by climate, soil texture, and land use; but the proportion of soil organic matter fractions do not appear to differ per biome or per land use indicating similar turnover times. / AC 2018

Thesis advisor: Irwin Blumer / This study was conducted within a small urban high school that exclusively serves English Language Learners in the northeastern United States. The purpose of the study was to determine teachers' perceptions of learning from each other, student learning and school wide collaboration as a result of the implementation of a Professional Learning Community as a means of improving instruction. The body of related literature provided the theoretical rationale for the data collection, analysis, and interpretation. Major sections of the literature review included: the definition and elements that make up a Professional Learning Community, a review of the theoretical and recent research concerning best practices to support English Language Learners and a review of the research regarding teacher collaboration. Data were gathered from six participants through pre and post interviews, journal entries throughout the year of the study, field notes from announced and announced visits and teacher made documents collected throughout the year of the study. Key findings included participants' perceptions that: they learned both practical and adaptive skills from their colleagues, that peer observation aided teachers in improving their practice, that student learning and student motivation increased, that participants felt that they made stronger relationships with students and that collaboration increased as a result of the implementation of the Professional Learning Community. Current research asserts that schools that implement purposeful and well planned Professional Learning Communities that provide time, space and training may foster teacher ownership that can be used as a powerful vehicle for improving teaching and learning and school wide collaboration. The study findings affirmed this. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Administration.

Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

This thesis aims to understand the politics, implications and interpretations associated with the transfer and mobilisation of sustainability concepts from elsewhere into Abu Dhabi. The emirate's pursuit of sustainability encompasses opportunities and also complexities which require trade-offs and creative solutions amidst the demands of globalisation and the existing authoritarian status quo. Exploring the rationale for the transfer of sustainability concepts from elsewhere into Abu Dhabi and its subsequent mobilisation in the local context expands our understanding of the different mechanisms, processes, platforms and change agents that enable sustainability-driven assemblages to thrive. By juxtaposing theoretical constructs from the academic literature on policy mobility, policy transfer and related governance, against empirical data in the areas of housing, transport, energy and urban design, nuanced meanings and experiences associated with the transfer and mobilisation of sustainability emerge. By situating Abu Dhabi's sustainability developments relationally within the context of the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) nations, exploring the historical, social and political factors that have influenced the adaptation and interpretation of foreign sustainability concepts at multiple levels including the institutional level at Masdar and the UPC, this research on Abu Dhabi adds new knowledge to studies on policy mobility. Similarly, solutions that emerge as a result of concepts and actors moving and engaging across time and space expands our understanding of policy transfer processes in an authoritarian context. The nuances of the local context cannot be underestimated, particularly around the assertion of authoritarian power, persisting inequalities, and the forms of knowledge production and governance that emerge.

This thesis investigates the development and implementation of health promotion strategies and methods in remote Aboriginal communities via the Kimberley Aboriginal Health Promotion Project (KAHPP), a project funded under a grant from the Commonwealth Department of Health and Family Services and conducted by the School of Public Health at Curtin University of Technology. The aim of the project was to investigate the effectiveness of health promotion strategies and methods in remote Aboriginal communities and to develop structures for implementing effective Aboriginal health promotion programs.There were three main research components in this study: an assessment of health indicators; an assessment of the intervention impact; and an assessment of the media component of the intervention. The research methodology included the development of a culturally appropriate survey instrument and the conduct of cross-sectional surveys of three remote Aboriginal communities with differing historical circumstances in the Kimberley region. The questionnaire and field study methods were piloted in 1990 and the main study conducted in 1991 1[superscript].A health promotion intervention was conducted based on an approach originally developed in the Northern Territory 2[superscript]. The intervention employed community development and mass media strategies. Community members nominated health issues that they wished to address, from which 'storyboards' were created for health promotion advertisements to appear on remote television on a paid schedule 3[superscript]. Representative random samples of adult males and females from three remote Aboriginal communities were surveyed according to a range of attitudinal and behavioural health indicators. A post-test survey assessed media reach and impact and pre-post surveys assessed relevant changes in the communities.The cross-sectional survey ++ / of health indicators found differences between communities in terms of self-assessed health and risk behaviours. These are discussed in terms of the historical differences between communities and with respect to each community's current situation. Respondents from all communities rated environmental factors as important in their contribution to health, and generally more so than individual lifestyle behaviours.The study demonstrated that television has the potential to reach the vast majority of Aboriginal people in remote communities in the Kimberley. There was some indication that participation in the development of advertisements was associated with higher recognition and more positive assessments of that advertisement. No significant differences in selected indicators of community 'empowerment' were detected following the intervention.The thesis methodology has contributed to the development of a set of guidelines for the conduct of survey research in remote Aboriginal communities, 4[superscript] and has guided the formation of Aboriginal health promotion units in Western Australia and elsewhere.1. Spark R, Binns C, Laughlin D, Spooner C, Donovan RJ. Aboriginal people's perceptions of their own and their community's health: results of a pilot study. Health Promotion Journal of Australia 1992; 2(2):60-61.2. Spark R, Mills P. Promoting Aboriginal health on television in the Northern Territory: a bicultural approach. Drug Education Journal of Australia 1988; 2 (3):191-198.3. Spark R, Donovan RJ, Howat P. Promoting health and preventing injury in remote Aboriginal communities: a case study. Health Promotion Journal of Australia 1991; 1(2):10-16.4. Donovan RJ, Spark. R. Towards guidelines for conducting survey research in remote Aboriginal communities. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health 1997; 21:89-94.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Oregon State University, 1984. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 117-125). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (M.S.)--Oregon State University, 1981. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 13-14). Also available on the World Wide Web.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Delaware, 2006. / Principal faculty advisor: George W. Luther, III., College of Marine and Earth Studies. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Committee on Evolutionary Biology, August 1999. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.