Highways building and expressways in general has been taking place all over the world for tens of years. As one of the major advantages of this building up is almost automatically, except an improvement of traffic situation, mentioned the benefit to the regional development in concerned areas. However, there are a few executed studies of highways impact on the regional development and most of them are from abroad. The studies show that presence of highway has a different impact on each region. But, they also warn on the adverse effects of highways on the regional development, especially in the peripheral regions. In those regions highways rather further deepen the disparities between the core and the periphery. The town of Rokycany acts as a relatively strong centre for its hinterland and thanks to D5 highway as a suburban area of the nearby and ten times larger city of Pilsen. The traffic diverting out of the town centre was necessary even if the local shopkeepers can experience a drop of incomes. The local authorities and the major firms welcome the presence of highway.

Highways building and expressways in general has been taking place all over the world for tens of years. As one of the major advantages of this building up is almost automatically, except an improvement of traffic situation, mentioned the benefit to the regional development in concerned areas. However, there are a few executed studies of highways impact on the regional development and most of them are from abroad. The studies show that presence of highway has a different impact on each region. In peripheral regions highways rather further deepen the disparities between the core and the periphery. The town of Rokycany acts as a relatively strong centre for its hinterland and thanks to D5 highway as a suburban area of the nearby and ten times larger city of Pilsen. The traffic diverting out of the Rokycany centre was necessary even if the local shopkeepers can experience a drop of incomes. The local authorities and the major firms welcome the presence of highway. But we can't ratify development of Rokycany caused by highway D5. Key words: highway, regional development, Rokycany, questionnaire enquiry

The aim of the research is to explore the first year experiences of two groups of undergraduate student nurses. The research takes a holistic approach to the investigation of the first year experience. In part, a curriculum change is used as a way to find out about the first year experience, with the research looking at how the introduction of enquirybased learning (EBL) into a curriculum impacted on the first year. The curriculum change is described in detail in chapter 1. The objectives of the thesis were to: 1. Examine the first year experience of nursing students. 2. Describe the curriculum change, the rationale for the change and the context within which this occurred. 3. Compare the demographic profiles of two groups of students one following a ‘traditional’ curriculum and the other using ‘EBL’; to compare students who chose to leave the courses with those who successfully completed first year. 4. Compare experiences with expectations of first year between nursing students undertaking a ‘traditional’ and an ‘EBL’ curriculum. 5. Propose strategies to enhance the student experience and rates of retention in first year undergraduate nursing students. The context for the research is described in chapter 1 – the literature review. This chapter explores the literature on the first year experience from both national and international perspectives. Inevitably, it reviews issues relating to student retention, which is the focus for much of the first year experience literature. The literature review argues that the contemporary context of nursing education requires nurse educators to consider the whole first year student experience when developing curricula that are fit for purpose. While the content of a course is important, the approaches to teaching need to facilitate learning within a diverse student population and need to prepare students to continue to learn in an increasingly dynamic healthcare environment. The chapter goes on to 2 argue that the issues that impact on the students’ first year experiences (e.g. relationships with peers and with academic staff, external domestic and personal circumstances) can be mitigated through curriculum development and other means (such as the availability and effectiveness of student support). The context of the particular nursing course along with the curriculum change and the rationale for the change are described. It can be argued that the retention literature takes a deficit approach to the improvement of the first year experience. Such an approach can be viewed as one that emphasises the factors that cause people to leave (or puts them ‘at risk’), and attempts to address these. On the other hand, a positive approach to the improvement of the first year is one in which measures and interventions aim to enhance the overall experience for all students, not just those who are seen as ‘at risk’. That said, the policy drivers for improving retention cannot be ignored and are discussed within the context of HE and nursing education. Finally, it is contended that the first year experience has not been widely explored within nursing literature and merits attention for a number of reasons, including the policy context and the need to determine whether student nurses have differing needs from students within other specialities. In chapter 2 the research methodology and research methods are described. An overview of case study research is provided and the approach taken within this thesis is described, along with a rationale for its use. The philosophical perspective is discussed with particular emphasis on the relationships between the methodology and the methods used to investigate the first year experience of students. It is argued that case study research is an appropriate methodology to investigate a complex area and provides an opportunity to utilise a number of methods so as to get to a ‘thick’ description of the phenomenon (the first year experience). All students in the two groups under investigation were asked to complete an expectations questionnaire, and an experiences questionnaire. Everyone who chose to leave the courses was asked to undertake an in-depth focused interview, although not all agreed. A sample of students who successfully completed first year was also asked to undertake an in-depth 3 focused interview. Finally, a sample of students was asked to complete a diary for the duration of the first year. The use of multiple methods is fitting, given the case study approach and the aim to create a ‘thick’ description, and an in-depth understanding of the first year experience. The use of the same research methods across the different groups of students allows for some comparisons to be made between the ‘traditional’ and ‘EBL’ curriculum students, and between leavers and stayers. The chapter also describes the approaches to data analysis. Chapter 3 presents the findings from the two questionnaires. Relevant demographic variables are reported, and the quality of the educational experience is measured in relation to the ways in which experiences meet expectations. This chapter shows that the two groups (‘traditional’ and ‘EBL’) are similar in terms of demographic variables. It also shows that the participants appeared to expect a ‘connected’ curriculum experience, but that the experience did not always match expectations. In chapter 4 the findings from the interviews and diaries are presented. Four themes are identified, with a number of categories in each. The themes (and categories) are: relationships with people (broadening horizons, knowing self and others, being supported and valued); the classroom experience (feeling inspired, becoming empowered, engaging with the learning experience); the practice experience (feeling inspired, becoming empowered, engaging with the learning experience); and professional education (motivation, preparedness, making adjustments). The chapter demonstrates the differences and similarities between the groups of students, before introducing the links to the quantitative findings, and to relevant research findings from the literature. Chapter 5 – the Discussion - brings together the findings from the qualitative and quantitative data as the case study. A conceptual framework is presented as a way in which the findings can be framed and through which future research can be organised. The assertion is made that the better the relationships, and the closer that experiences meet 4 expectations, the more likely it is that the student will have a ‘good’ experience and therefore be successful. The first year is seen as the foundation for future experiences on a course. While there are some areas that are particularly relevant to nursing students, it seems that the first year experience of student nurses is similar to that seen in other disciplines. Similar issues are identified within the thesis as within the wider literature, although nursing students’ issues may manifest themselves in slightly different ways (e.g. issues with practice placements/learning). In chapter 6, a number of conclusions are drawn that may enable future curriculum development to take a more holistic view of the student experience. Recommendations for practice are made and a focus for future systematic research is proposed. It is asserted that the conceptual framework that has been developed from the findings has allowed for a contribution to be made to the theoretical debate that relates to enhancing the first year experience and, in particular, to propose policy changes within the HE sector that may improve retention rates. This opening section has provided the reader with the context from which the ideas and focus for the thesis have developed, and has provided an overview of the aim and objectives of the research. It provided signposts for the full thesis and its component parts.

Les curriculums de sciences donnent aujourd’hui une place croissante aux démarches d’investigation, impliquant des professeurs de différentes disciplines scientifiques. La mise en œuvre de telles démarches suppose que les professeurs conçoivent des situations d’enseignement engageant les élèves dans l’élaboration d’hypothèses ou de conjectures.Nous articulons des approches épistémologique, didactique et ergonomique pour étudier les connaissances qui permettent à ces professeurs de concevoir de telles situations. Pour cette étude, nous faisons deux choix critiques : le choix du moment de la conception, en privilégiant celui de la préparation des situations ; le choix du contexte de conception, en privilégiant le cadre d’un collectif de professeurs de mathématiques, de sciences physiques et de sciences de la vie et de la Terre.Nous étudions les interactions à l’intérieur du collectif et leurs effets sur des évolutions des connaissances qui permettent la préparation des situations d’enseignement. Les interactions étudiées sont les interactions sociales entre les professeurs et les interactions entre les professeurs et les ressources partagées par le collectif.L’analyse de ces interactions met en évidence l’influence de deux leviers sur les évolutions des connaissances étudiées. Le premier est la conception de ressources spécifiques que nous appelons métaressources : les métaressources sont des ressources suscitant une posture réflexive sur l’activité à conduire ou sur ses effets. Le deuxième est la codisciplinarité comme forme de travail collectif. La codisciplinarité privilégie la coopération entre les disciplines, en respectant et en articulant les épistémologies de chacune d’entre elles / Sciences curricula give nowadays an increasing place to enquiry based learning methods involving teachers of different disciplines. The implementation of such approaches supposes that teachers develop teaching situations that engage students in a process of elaborating hypotheses and conjectures. We articulate epistemological, didactical and ergonomic approaches in order to study the knowledge that allows teachers to design such learning situations. We make two crucial choices in this study : the choice of the design period, focusing on the time of learning situations design; the choice of the design context, focusing on a collective of teachers in mathematics, physics and sciences of life and Earth.We study within this group the interactions between teachers and their consequences, in term of evolution of knowledge, that allows teaching situations to develop. The interactions that the study focuses on are social interactions between teachers and interactions between teachers and shared resources within the group. The analysis of these interactions show evidence about the influence of two levers that concern the evolution of studied knowledge. The first is the conception of specific resources that we call metaresources: metaresources are resources that lean to a reflexive position regarding the activity itself or its effects. The second is the concept of co-disciplinarity as a form of collective work. Co-disciplinarity favours cooperation between disciplines, keeping and articulating each particular epistemology

Den svenske lagstiftaren har under de senaste decennierna ökat polisens och åklagarens möjligheter till förundersökningsbegränsning som innebär att alla brott inte behöver utredas i enlighet med 23 kap. 4 a § RB. Samtidigt har Europadomstolen tolkat Europakonventionen om mänskliga rättigheter i en allt mer brottsoffervänlig riktning. Det betyder att reglerna om förundersökningsbegränsning rört sig ännu mera i riktningen mot mera av samhällelig effektivitetshänsyn medan konventionen gått mer åt att stärka brottsoffrens roll. I en rad rättsfall har Europadomstolen slagit fast att staterna har positiva förpliktelser gentemot brottsoffer, att se till att deras grundläggande rättigheter respekteras. Det betyder att de anslutna staterna måste skydda brottsoffren. Det gäller i synnerhet mot grova brott men domstolen har också öppnat för att offer för mindre allvarlig brottslighet måste få en chans till upprättelse. Samtidigt förundersökningsbegränsas, nedlägges, brottsutredningar av den typen med stöd av 23 kap. 4 a § RB dagligen i Sverige. / The Swedish legislator has during the three last decades extended the possibility for the police and the prosecutors to use preliminary enquiry limitation. That means that according to chapter 23, paragraph 4 a of the code of judicial procedure, the police and prosecutors does not always have to investigate crimes.   In the meantime, the European court of human rights has eventually interpreted the European convention on human rights, the ECHR, in a more crime victim friendly way. This study shows that the convention states need to consider positive obligations of the ECHR towards crime victims. The main aim of the convention is to protect individuals from violations of their rights committed by representatives of the states. But although it is not clearly written in the convention, the court of human rights has several times interpreted that article 8 of the convention includes positive obligations that demands the convention states to take measures in order to protect individuals and guarantee them their rights to personal and family life.

This study consolidates a long tradition of research involving the development/adaptation and validation of instruments assessing students' perceptions of psychosocial aspects of their classroom learning environments, and their use in investigating both the effects of classroom environment on student outcomes and determinants of classroom environment. The present study is distinctive, however, in that it is one of the few such studies conducted in Nigeria and the first classroom environment study conduced specificallly in agricultural science classrooms.The sample consisted of 1 175 students in 50 classes in 20 schools in eight states and the Federal Capital Territory. Both the individual student and the class mean were used as units of statistical analysis. The classroom environment instrument assessed negotiation, autonomy, student centredness, investigation and differentiation, and the student outcomes were attitudes, enquiry skills and practical performance.Each classroom environment scale was found to have satisfactory internal consistency reliability and discriminant validity and to differentiate between the perceptions of students in different classrooms. Satistically significant associations were found between classroom environment and the two student outcomes of attitudes and enquiry skills, but not for practical performance. When classroom environment dimensions were used as dependant variables, significant differences were found between schools with different school-level environments and between schools in forest and savanna regions.

In many Western societies grandparents take on the role of occasional or short-term care providers of their grandchildren. However, recent years have witnessed a significant increase, both in Australia and overseas, in the number of children being raised by their grandparents due to the inability of the children’s parents to effectively meet their parenting responsibilities.This study is an interpretive inquiry that seeks to understand the meanings grandparents attach to their experiences of the grandparent-as-parent role, rather than the traditional grandparent role. The study also investigates how assuming the non-traditional grandparent role has influenced the identity of grandparent caregivers. A narrative inquiry approach was employed to ‘hear the voices’ of 34 grandparents who were raising their grandchildren in NSW, Australia. In-depth interviews were conducted with each of the participants and their narratives were subsequently analysed through the lens of identity theory.Findings from the study reveal that grandparents experience a significant degree of roleidentity conflict in their grandparent-as-parent role. The loss of their traditional grandparent role, together with the shift in commitment to the grandparent-as-parent role, has resulted in a ‘space of difference’ between the ‘ideal’ and the ‘real’ of being a grandparent. This ‘space of difference’ is made up of a series of binary experiences described as myth/reality, visible/invisible, deserving/undeserving, voice/silenced, included/excluded, which appear to have consequentially impacted grandparents’ selfesteem and self-verification processes. The study posits that grandparents lack adequate support, or doulia, resulting in a prevailing belief that their commitment to the grandparentas- parent role is not publicly acknowledged nor afforded the justice it deserves.The study concludes that both policy and practice in NSW have failed to recognise and address the complexity of experience, or the ‘space of difference’ occupied by grandparents who are raising their grandchildren, and provides a number of recommendations in response to the grandparent experiences narrated through this research.

Architektur und Städtebau des Sozialismus haben nach der politischen Wende der Jahre 1989-1991 einen erheblichen Wertungswandel erfahren. Insbesondere die in industrieller Bauweise errichteten Quartiere des komplexen Wohnungsbaus, die einstmals privilegierte Wohngegenden waren, haben heute oftmals den Ruf von „Ghettos“. Die vorliegende Arbeit möchte einen Beitrag dazu leisten, dieses Bild zu korrigieren und das öffentliche Image von Plattenbausiedlungen zu verbessern. Dazu wurde anhand des ostdeutschen Plattenbaugebietes Strausberg-Hegermühle untersucht, welche Faktoren die positive Identifikation der Bewohner mit ihrem Viertel begünstigen. Ziel der Arbeit ist, damit Anregungen für die Praxis lokal engagierter Bürger, Kommunalpolitiker, Wohnungsgesellschaften und Verwaltungen zu geben. Das Wohngebiet „Hegermühle“ in der brandenburgischen Mittelstadt Strausberg wurde in den 1980er Jahren gebaut. Die Bevölkerung Hegermühles war bis 1990 stark durch Mitarbeiter des Ministeriums für Nationale Verteidigung der Deutschen Demokratischen Republik geprägt. Die Wohnungen im Viertel waren wegen ihres hohen technischen Standards begehrt. Nach dem Ende der DDR erfuhr das Viertel einen starken Wandel seiner Sozialstruktur und bekam ein Image, das zwischen den Polen „graue Schlafstadt“ und „sozialer Brennpunkt“ angesiedelt ist. In diesem Wohngebiet wurde im zweiten Halbjahr 2009 eine qualitative Untersuchung durchgeführt. Neben mehreren in Bild- und Textform dokumentierten Feldexplorationen wurde eine Reihe von Interviews mit Personen geführt, die aktuell in Hegermühle wohnen oder früher dort wohnten. Die Auswahl der Interviewpartner erfolgte nach der Methode des Theoretical Sampling (Glaser/Strauss), wobei eine möglichst große Differenzierung des Samples nach Alter, Herkunft, Geschlecht und Beruf angestrebt wurde. Die Interviews wurden nach der Methode des Problemzentrierten Interviews (Witzel) geführt und auf Grundlage des Konzepts der Grounded Theory (Glaser/Strauss) ausgewertet. Für die Arbeit wurden acht Interviews ausgewählt, in denen die Interviewten Auskunft geben über die folgenden Themen: die Umstände ihres Zuzugs nach Hegermühle, die Entwicklung des Wohngebiets seitdem, das Image Hegermühles, ihr eigenes Verhältnis zum Viertel und die Perspektiven des Wohngebiets. Als Ergebnis der Arbeit lässt sich festhalten, dass die positive Identifikation mit dem Wohngebiet am stärksten durch die problematische Sozialstruktur behindert wird, die in hohem Maße von Arbeitslosigkeit und sozialen Desintegrationserscheinungen geprägt ist. Davon abgesehen überwiegen pragmatische Kriterien bei der Bewertung des Wohngebiets. Die gute infrastrukturelle Ausstattung Hegermühles mit Einkaufs-, Betreuungs- und Erholungsmöglichkeiten wurde von allen Befragten positiv hervorgehoben. Diese Faktoren sind jedoch genau so auch in anderen Orten zu finden und damit nicht geeignet, eine Identifikation mit einem spezifischen Ort zu befördern. Von den Befragten wurde daher auch mehrfach auf das Fehlen von Merkmalen hingewiesen, die Hegermühle auszeichnen und es von anderen Vierteln abheben. Dagegen war die Lokalidentität bei den Interviewpartnern am stärksten, die den Aufbau Hegermühles in den 1980er Jahren persönlich miterlebt haben. Die Arbeit schließt darum mit Überlegungen, wie diese Erfahrung einer Ortsgeschichte, die Bedeutung für die eigene Biografie hat, anderen Einwohnern vermittelt werden kann. Zwei mögliche Konzepte werden vorgeschlagen: a) die Erforschung und Vermittlung der Wohngebietsgeschichte, sowie b) die Schaffung und Pflege räumlicher Identifikationspunkte, die die lokale Geschichte, Landschaft und andere Besonderheiten des Viertels im Alltag erfahrbar machen. Beispielsweise können Kunstwerke im öffentlichen Raum oder Gedenktafeln als Anknüpfungspunkte einer ortsbezogenen Identität dienen und ein Gefühl persönlicher Verbundenheit mit dem Wohnort bestärken. Damit könnte unabhängig von pragmatischen Faktoren eine Bindung an den Ort begünstigt und die Bereitschaft der Einwohner erhöht werden, sich für die Verbesserung der Verhältnisse im Wohngebiet einzusetzen. / The judgment on socialism’s architecture and urban design has undergone a large change since the political turn of the years 1989-1991. This is especially true for the industrially built housing estates of the complex housing program, which were once privileged residential areas, but which now have a reputation as “ghettos”. This paper is meant to contribute to the correction of this perception and to the improvement of the public image of “Plattenbau” housing estates. In order to achieve this, research was done in the East German housing estate Strausberg-Hegermühle to find factors which promote positive identification of residents with their neighbourhood. The paper aims at giving suggestions for the work of locally committed citizens, community politicians, residential housing companies and local administrations. The housing estate “Hegermühle” in the medium-sized Brandenburg town Strausberg was built in the 1980s. Until 1990, Hegermühle’s population was dominated by employees of the German Democratic Republic’s Ministry of National Defence. Apartments in the neighbourhood were sought after because of their high technical standard. After the GDR’s demise, the neighbourhood’s social structure changed profoundly. Today, its public image is located between the extremes “boring dormitory town” and “deprived area”. In the second half of 2009, a qualitative enquiry was conducted in this housing estate. Apart from field explorations, which were documented in text and image, a number of interviews was conducted with persons who were living or had formerly been living in Hegermühle. Interviewees were selected according to the method of theoretical sampling (Glaser/Strauss) with the goal of achieving a high differentiation of the sample in terms of age, descent, gender and profession. The interviews were conducted according to Witzel’s method of problem-centered interviews, and they were interpreted on the basis of Glaser’s & Strauss’ grounded theory concept. For this paper, eight interviews were selected, in which the interviewees speak about the following topics: the circumstances of their moving to Hegermühle, the neighbourhood’s development since then, the public image of Hegermühle, their own relationship with the neighbourhood and the housing estate’s future perspective. The results of the conducted research show that the largest obstacle for positive identification with the housing estate is its problematic social structure, which is highly dominated by unemployment and social disintegration. Apart from that, the housing estate is mostly judged by pragmatic criteria. The good infrastructure of Hegermühle, which includes facilities for shopping, child care and recreation, was emphasized by all interviewees. These factors though can be found in the same form in other places. Thus they are not able to serve as a base for identification with any specific place. That is why it was remarked by the interviewees that Hegermühle lacked distinguishing features which separate it from other neighbourhoods. In contrast, those interviewees who had personally witnessed the creation of Hegermühle in the 1980s showed the highest level of local identity. Because of this, the paper ends with reflections on how this experience of a local history of significance to one’s own biography can be shared by other residents. Two possible concepts are proposed: a) exploration and presentation of the housing estate’s history, and b) creation and preservation of spatial points of identification, which make the local history, landscape and other distinguishing features of the neighbourhood perceivable in everyday life. Public works of art or commemorative plaques for example could serve as links for a local identity and could strengthen a feeling of personal connection with the place of living. This could promote a local connection independent from pragmatic factors and increase the residents’ willingness to get involved in the improvement of their housing estate.

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