Middle childhood is a dynamic period in children’s lives marked by a host of dramatic and concomitant physical, cognitive, and social changes. Typically, during this time, fundamental motor skills improve and children develop sport-specific forms of those skills as they participate in active physical recreation. This participation occurs in expanding social worlds, and changes in children’s cognitive development heightens their ability to reflect on their successes and failures in those contexts. This dissertation examined some of these concomitant changes and interactions longitudinally in three related studies among approximately 450 children from grade 2 to grade 5. In Study 1, “Perceptions matter! Accuracy of perceived physical competence in middle childhood and the impact on active physical recreation participation,” I found that children’s self-perceptions of their physical abilities became more accurate by grade 3, and that children with both positive perceptions and high motor skills participated in the most active physical recreation. Contrastingly, children with less positive self-perceptions, whether they had relatively high or low motor skills, participated in less active physical recreation. The expanding social worlds of children were explored in Study 2, “Social contexts and participation in recreational activities across middle childhood.” Supporting what had been theorized for children, I found significant expansion in with whom and where children participated across the grades, including a significant increase in children’s participation by themselves and with friends, and a concomitant decrease in activities with their family. Overall, however, children still spent the largest proportion of their recreational time with their family in each grade. Lastly, in Study 3, “Latent profile analysis of children’s active physical recreation patterns in middle childhood,” I identified unique profiles of children from grade 2 to grade 5 based on combinations of motor skills, perceptions of physical competence, social contexts, and active physical recreation. Two consistent profiles of children persisted across the grades: one of children on a path toward active physical recreation engagement, and one seemingly at risk of disengagement. Ultimately, however, I discovered that with each subsequent grade came increasing diversity in children’s profiles, highlighting the need for tailored programs that can accommodate children’s individual differences. The findings from these three studies confirm that middle childhood is a dynamic time where children experience a multitude of changes. Overall, I found that children are developing cognitively as evidenced by improvements in accuracy, and socially, as evidenced by expanding social networks. Physically, in terms of motor skill development, children were not optimally developing, which is concerning. Three concrete recommendations arising from this work relate to (a) children who underestimate their abilities; (b) the early engagement of many children in organized sports; and (c) how perceptions of physical competence are used in physical activity research during middle childhood. Approximately one-quarter of children underestimated their physical abilities, and of great concern was their lack of motor skill improvement from grade 2 to grade 5. Along with opportunities to develop their motor proficiency, children who underestimate their abilities, need instructors in active recreation contexts to point out, affirm, and confirm their actual abilities. The second recommendation relates to the early participation of a majority of children in organized sports in the community. As such, children were participating in formal physical activities, such as team sports, during a turbulent time in the development of their self-appraisals. Leaders and family members need to ensure that the expectations they convey to children are realistic. Further, children will benefit from activities and learning opportunities that are meaningful and provide choices that are suited to their current skill and confidence levels. Finally, when examining children’s physical self-perceptions during middle childhood, researchers should consider the expected developmental trajectory of the accuracy of those self-perceptions. A drop in perceptions of physical competence levels among children with inflated self-perceptions at the beginning of middle childhood is expected as these perceptions become more accurate. Overlooking this expected developmental trajectory may confound research findings, particularly if self-perceptions are an outcome measure. / Graduate

This article outlines a process for developing standardized patient cases. The initial step in the process is to define the educational goals of the exercise. Following this step the patient characteristics, setting for the interaction and clinical information are developed. Clinical information, in addition to history, may include elements of nonverbal communication, actual or simulated abnormal physical findings, and laboratory results. Guidelines for the standardized patient regarding disclosure of information to the student and providing feedback to the student enhance the value of the case. If the case is to be used as part of an examination, a grading system must be developed. Issues of cost, validity, and reliability are briefly addressed. .

Flerspråkig didaktisk kompetens är ett ämne som diskuteras i forskning för förskolor och grundskolor på grund av att flerspråkiga barn har ökats i Sverige. Resultat från tidigare forskning visar exempelvis att lärare upplever att de inte har den nödvändiga kompetensen för att undervisa flerspråkiga barn. Av denna anledning undersöker vi i denna kvalitativa studie hur förskollärare upplever sitt arbete med flerspråkiga barn och vad förskollärare upplever som kompetens med flerspråkiga barn i förskolan. Studien behandlar frågorna: Hur upplever förskollärare sitt arbete med flerspråkiga barn i förskolan och vilka kompetenser upplever förskollärare i flerspråkigt arbete? För att besvara frågorna genomfördes semistrukturerade intervjuer med fem förskollärare som arbetar eller har arbetat aktivt med flerspråkiga barn. Studien utgår från en fenomenologisk och hermeneutisk ansats för att analysera förskollärares flerspråkiga didaktiska kompetens. Resultatet visar att förskollärares upplevelser av sitt arbete med flerspråkiga barn och vad som anses vara kompetens grundar sig i två former av erfarenheter: 1) Erfarenheten som förskollärare: hur länge en förskollärare har arbetat med flerspråkig undervisning, 2) Erfarenhet som människa: vilka upplevelser individen har av sin egen historia av språkutveckling som kan användas i lärarprofessionen. Resultat visar även att deras upplevelser är nära förknippade med vilka krav på kompetenser samhället ställer i relation till lärarprofession. / Previous scientific research has discussed the topic of multilingual didacticcompetence for preschools and primary schools, due to the fact that thenumber of multilingual children has increased in Sweden. For example,results from previous research shows that teachers feel that they do not havethe necessary competence to teach multilingual children. Because of this, inthis qualitative study we investigate how preschool teachers experience theirwork with multilingual children and what preschool teachers experience ascompetence in working with multilingual children in the preschool. Thestudy addresses the questions: How do preschool teachers experience theirwork with multilingual children in preschool and what competencies dopreschool teachers experience in multilingual work? To answer thequestions, semi-structured interviews were conducted with five preschoolteachers who were working or have been working actively with multilingualchildren. The study takes a phenomenological and hermeneutical approachto analyze preschool teachers' multilingual didactic competence. The resultsshow that preschool teachers' experiences of their work with multilingualchildren and what is considered competence in the work are based on twoforms of experience: 1) Experience as a preschool teacher: how long apreschool teacher has worked with multilingual education, 2) Experience asa human being: what experiences the individual has of their own history oflanguage development that can be used in the teaching profession. Theresults also show that preschool teachers' experiences are linked to thedemands from the society on competence in relation to the teachingprofession.

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The aim of this study is to provide knowledge about how students with an ADHD diagnosis can experience their everyday life in school. The study is based on the assumption that teachers’ ability of developing professional pedagogical relationships are critical for how students experience themselves and their social- and pedagogical ability.The main question of the study is: •What appears to be particularly important in the students' narratives?-What, of the particularly important, seems to be of primary relevance for the student as an individual?The empirical part of the study consists two narratives, one from Charlie and one from Kim. Kim and Charlie are two secondary school students both diagnosed with ADHD. According to Cousin (2009) a narrative inquiry is especially useful if the researcher wants to know how individuals “make sense of their lives through the selective stories they tell about noteworthy episodes” (Cousin, 2009, s. 93). By gathering and exploring narratives, the researcher gives the opportunity to get an insight in the complex ways that individuals act on bases of their experiences. The student narratives were filmed in purpose to facilitate transcription. Before the researcher started to analyze the transcribed narratives, she had them sent to guardians for reading and approval. The theoretical framework bases mainly on Schütz (2002) lived experience theory The phenomenology of the social world. Schütz focus on the everyday world matches the purpose of this study since school may course as an everyday world for the students. Schütz (2002) theory completes with thoughts of Bengtsson and Berntsson (2015), Asplund (2010) and von Wright (2000). The choice bases on their shared focus on phenomenology and relationships.Based on the result, two things appear to be particularly important in the students’ narratives:•The experience of belonging. To be a part of the social life with friends in the everyday life in school.•The importance of trustworthy, caring and mutual relationships with teachers in school.The main thing that seems to be of primary relevance for both Charlie and Kim were the quality of the teacher student relationship. A trustworthy relation may be as a key factor not only for students’ self-esteem but also for how they develop their learning identity.The study implies that how students with ADHD experience their school day depends on the relationships with both teachers and peers in the regional world that consists the students’ everyday world. Inadequate relationships with teachers and peers seems, based on the results of this study, lead to lack of self-esteem. Self-esteem is a critical factor in the development of social both as educational learning. Teachers' ability to develop trustful relationships is therefore a key factor in how the learner develops his or her learning identity. A learning identity that not only has consequences for the student's schooling but also in the long run affects further developing as well as work and social life.

Managers have to consider different methods of keeping customers loyal to their specific company in order to secure revenue. Traditionally, pricing and pricing strategies have been good ways of acquiring and keeping customers. The purpose of this thesis is to provide a better understanding of how managers view this phenomenon today. In a sense, to analyze which importance managers place on pricing as a method of achieving customer loyalty. In order to obtain a greater understanding of the subject, semi-structured interviews with non-standardized questions took place. The thesis used a thematic approach to analyze the collected data. The findings and conclusions suggested that managers view price as an important factor but there are several other factors such as flexibility, customer satisfaction and competence that should be given an equal amount of attention if a company is to achieve customer loyalty.

The gap between increased diversity of students and the level of multicultural competence of preservice teachers at a local university was investigated in this qualitative case study. The purpose of this study was to describe preservice teachers' experiences with multicultural competence in teaching diverse students. The study's conceptual framework was based on Dewey's theory of experience, Knowles's theory of adult learning, Kolb's theory of experiential learning, and Gay's culturally responsive teaching. Two models incorporating cultural competence by Mason, Benjamin, and Lewis and Pedersen were used to frame professional practice and develop understanding, acceptance, and skills in working with diverse students. Inquiry into how preservice teachers characterized their multicultural competence in relation to their experiences teaching diverse students formed the guiding research question. Data collection included semistructured, individual interviews with 10 preservice teachers selected by purposeful sampling. Lesson plans, class profiles from participants, and handwritten notes of participants' nonverbal expressions during interviews were also analyzed. Inductive data analysis results indicated that preservice teachers perceived a need for additional multicultural competence including increased awareness, knowledge, and skills in working with diverse students. A 3-day professional development workshop training project was developed to address cultural awareness, knowledge, and skills among preservice teachers in grades K-12. Preservice teachers' experiences revealed the need to build and strengthen multicultural competence in order to bring about social change by improving educational outcomes for minority culture students.

Despite American College of Radiology guidelines for breast cancer screening, the Appalachian Kentucky population has an increasing number of advanced stage breast cancer diagnoses related to a delay in mammogram screening initiation. A potential contributing factor for the delay in screenings is a lack of culturally competent care to support the need for early detection of breast cancer in the identified population. The purpose of this staff education project was to improve the knowledge base and skill set of health care employees concerning the most advantageous practice to increase cultural competence in the health care setting. A practice-focused question related to cultural competence through staff education as well as current research served as the foundation for this evidence-based project. Leininger's cultural care theory, Knowles's adult learning theory, and Kirkpatrick's 4 levels of training evaluation provided guidance for the project. Using the cultural competency checklist of 20 questions, the pre- and posttest responses of participants (n = 14) in the employee orientation setting were assessed to determine the outcomes of the staff education project. Statistical analyses were performed using a 2-sample proportion hypothesis test for each result, positive and negative responses, and a mean hypothesis test on weighted responses. In each statistical analysis, a significance level of .05 (5%) was reported. As a result of the statistical outcomes, permanent implementation of a staff education program to increase cultural competence, create social change through cultural awareness, and aid in decreasing advanced stage breast cancer diagnoses in the Appalachian Kentucky population was recommended.

Eye tracking is the process of measuring where people are looking at with an eye tracker device. Eye tracking has been used in many scientific fields, such as education, usability research, sports, psychology, and marketing. Eye tracking data are often obtained from a static eye tracker or are manually extracted from a mobile eye tracker. Visualization usually plays an important role in the analysis of eye tracking data. So far, there existed no software package that contains a whole collection of eye tracking data processing and visualization tools. In this dissertation, we review the eye tracking technology, the eye tracking techniques, the existing software related to eye tracking, and the research on eye tracking for posters and related media. We then discuss the three main goals we have achieved in this dissertation: (i) development of a Matlab toolbox for automatically extracting mobile eye tracking data; (ii) development of the linked microposter plots family as new means for the visualization of eye tracking data; (iii) development of an R package for automatically extracting and visualizing data from mobile and static eye trackers.

This study investigated the links between the family and peer systems by examining whether mothers ' beliefs about social skills and management practices of peer interactions were related to their children ' s social relations with peers . The sample was comprised of 185 mothers of preschool children , ranging in age from 44 to 81 months , who resided in Seoul , Korea. Children of the participating mothers were enrolled in center- based preschool programs. Mothers were asked to complete the Maternal Beliefs Scale, the Mothers ' Management Strategies Scale, and demographic measures. Using the Child Behavior Scale, teachers rated the social competence of each child whose mother returned a set of questionnaires. The findings suggested that most Korean mothers in this sample highly rated the importance of preschoolers' social development. They believed that social skills were amenable to modification , rather than innate. Whereas mothers in this study were frequently involved in direct or indirect monitoring of children ' s social activities, they infrequently engaged in direct management of peer relationships. The results also showed that mothers who assigned greater importance to social skills and believed that the social skills of their children could be obtained by direct parental teaching were more likely to manage their children ' s social activities. In addition , mothers who made more efforts to enhance their children ' s social skills were more likely to have socially competent children with peers. Additionally , younger mothers attached greater importance to social skills than older mothers and were more likely to attribute the experience factor to these skills. Employed mothers , as compared to nonemployed mothers , also made more external attributions for the development of social skills.