The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the experiences of teachers fulfilling the role of facilitators of the STAR intervention with fellow teachers at two neighbouring schools. The study constituted part of a broader research project that commenced in 2003, at a primary school in the Eastern Cape. At the time of the current study, seven of the ten teachers who participated in the initial study were replicating the initial study’s strategy in two neighbouring schools in an attempt to assist the teachers in providing psychosocial support. In an attempt to explore the experiences of the teacher-facilitators I observed a STAR intervention session (November, 2008), that involved four participants facilitating a STAR intervention session at the neighbouring school. Following my observation of the intervention session, I co-facilitated a focus group, exploring the teacher-facilitators’ experiences in fulfilling the role of peer-facilitators. Two days after the first focus group, I co-facilitated a follow-up focus group for the purpose of member-checking. In addition, I relied on field notes and visual data as data sources. Based on the data analysis that followed, three main themes emerged. Firstly, the teachers seemed to ascribe meaning on a personal level in terms of their experiences as facilitators of STAR. They experienced joy in sharing knowledge and enabling others, feelings of self-worth and self-confidence, personal development and growth, as well as confirmed commitment and motivation. Secondly, they experienced a shared voice in the community, in response to the peer-facilitation of STAR, referring to appreciation and trust that inspired enthusiasm for participation in various school-community systems and a sense of community as outcome of facilitation. Thirdly, participants identified aspects related to being a peer-facilitator, in terms of overcoming feelings of uncertainty and concern, working as a team, relying on creative problem solving when dealing with potential challenges, and extending the scope of facilitation. Based on the findings of the study I concluded that the participating teachers experienced the facilitation of STAR in a positive manner on both a personal and professional level. As a result of their positive experiences, they seemed to become even more committed and motivated than initially, to support their community through the facilitation of STAR. Their positive experiences seemingly influenced their perceived development in terms of self-efficacy beliefs and actualisation, which in turn enhanced their personal and professional growth, thereby forming a cycle of improved positive experiences on various levels. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted

Research shows that use of high fidelity simulation (HFS) as a teaching strategy requires extensive amounts of faculty time and financial resources for faculty development and equipment. This project study addressed the challenges encountered in the integration of HFS into a Midwestern metropolitan baccalaureate nursing program. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore perceptions of nursing faculty about best practice elements for successful integration of HFS into undergraduate nursing programs. Guiding questions were developed using Donabedian's structure-process-outcome model and focused on faculty perceptions related to successful implementation of simulation in their programs. Purposeful sampling was used to select 22 faculty who had integrated HFS into 5 regional baccalaureate nursing programs in metropolitan areas of 2 Midwestern states. Nine participants completed an online interview tool developed by the researcher and designed to elicit responses to open-ended questions about barriers encountered, methods used to overcome those barriers, first impressions about conducting HFS, perceptions of successful integration, and incentives to using HFS. Data were coded and analyzed to identify themes. Emergent themes included the need to identify specific courses for HFS, ensure participation of faculty teaching didactic courses, use nationally recognized principles for HFS implementation, implement consistent methods of debriefing, and use formal written plans. Findings from the study were used to design a staff development initiative to facilitate planning and establishment of HFS in a nursing curriculum. Positive social change may occur when faculty and administrators use project guidelines to develop sound practices for integrating HFS into the nursing curriculum.

Les travaux présentés portent sur l'étude de modèles numériques multi-fidèles, déterministes ou stochastiques. Plus précisément, les modèles considérés disposent d'un paramètre réglant la qualité de la simulation, comme une taille de maille dans un modèle par différences finies, ou un nombre d'échantillons dans un modèle de Monte-Carlo. Dans ce cas, il est possible de lancer des simulations basse fidélité, rapides mais grossières, et des simulations haute fidélité, fiables mais coûteuses. L'intérêt d'une approche multi-fidèle est de combiner les résultats obtenus aux différents niveaux de fidélité afin d'économiser du temps de simulation. La méthode considérée est fondée sur une approche bayésienne. Le simulateur est décrit par un modèle de processus gaussiens multi-niveaux développé dans la littérature que nous adaptons aux cas stochastiques dans une approche complètement bayésienne. Ce méta-modèle du simulateur permet d'obtenir des estimations de quantités d'intérêt, accompagnés d'une mesure de l'incertitude associée. L'objectif est alors de choisir de nouvelles expériences à lancer afin d'améliorer les estimations. En particulier, la planification doit sélectionner le niveau de fidélité réalisant le meilleur compromis entre coût d'observation et gain d'information. Pour cela, nous proposons une stratégie séquentielle adaptée au cas où les coûts d'observation sont variables. Cette stratégie, intitulée "Maximal Rate of Uncertainty Reduction" (MRUR), consiste à choisir le point d'observation maximisant le rapport entre la réduction d'incertitude et le coût. La méthodologie est illustrée en sécurité incendie, où nous cherchons à estimer des probabilités de défaillance d'un système de désenfumage. / The presented works focus on the study of multi-fidelity numerical models, deterministic or stochastic. More precisely, the considered models have a parameter which rules the quality of the simulation, as a mesh size in a finite difference model or a number of samples in a Monte-Carlo model. In that case, the numerical model can run low-fidelity simulations, fast but coarse, or high-fidelity simulations, accurate but expensive. A multi-fidelity approach aims to combine results coming from different levels of fidelity in order to save computational time. The considered method is based on a Bayesian approach. The simulator is described by a state-of-art multilevel Gaussian process model which we adapt to stochastic cases in a fully-Bayesian approach. This meta-model of the simulator allows estimating any quantity of interest with a measure of uncertainty. The goal is to choose new experiments to run in order to improve the estimations. In particular, the design must select the level of fidelity meeting the best trade-off between cost of observation and information gain. To do this, we propose a sequential strategy dedicated to the cases of variable costs, called Maximum Rate of Uncertainty Reduction (MRUR), which consists of choosing the input point maximizing the ratio between the uncertainty reduction and the cost. The methodology is illustrated in fire safety science, where we estimate probabilities of failure of a fire protection system.

No description available.

Defensive cooperation between member states is considered an integral part on the EU agenda. Yet, despite the evident demand for integrative defensive mechanisms at the EU level, there appears to be no consensus on how military personnel should be trained. In order to bridge the national barriers, the field of Professional Military Education offers an internationalized space that lends itself to comparison. While the PME literature on officer education often touts adaptability and quality assurance as critical components – there are no descriptions on which processes facilitate these components. The purpose and aims of this study were to address the lack of information within the field of PME regarding which processes underpin and sustain quality assurance. Subsequently, the field of implementation research was investigated. Special attention was given to the Core Implementation Components Model which was used to analyze the regulatory documents of two institutions, the Swedish Defence University (SEDU) and the Theresian Military Academy (TMA), which handle parts of PME within their respective national contexts. Using a qualitative methodological approach, the case study found that while some operationalized variables can be found, the regulatory documents exhibit different ratios of variables. SEDU documents exhibit less descriptive matches, while TMA yield more. Neither sets of regulatory documents display the variable coaching. The results of the modelling and analysis has 1) shown that the use of the Core Implementation Components Model performs well for analysis of quality assurance processes within the field of PME, and 2) are presented such that they can be used as support for future studies.

No description available.

<p>Practical design problems in engineering and science involve the evaluation of expensive black-box functions, the optimization of multiple—often conflicting—targets, and the integration of data generated by multiple sources of information, e.g., numerical models with different levels of fidelity. If not properly handled, the complexity of these design problems can lead to lengthy and costly development cycles. In the last years, Bayesian optimization has emerged as a powerful alternative to solve optimization problems that involve the evaluation of expensive black-box functions. Bayesian optimization has two main components: a probabilistic surrogate model of the black-box function and an acquisition function that drives the optimization. Its ability to find high-performance designs within a limited number of function evaluations has attracted the attention of many fields including the engineering design community. The practical relevance of strategies with the ability to fuse information emerging from different sources and the need to optimize multiple targets has motivated the development of multi-fidelity modeling techniques and multi-objective Bayesian optimization methods. A key component in the vast majority of these methods is the Gaussian process (GP) due to its flexibility and mathematical properties.</p> <p><br></p> <p>The objective of this dissertation is to develop new approaches in the areas of multi-fidelity modeling and multi-objective Bayesian optimization. To achieve this goal, this study explores the use of linear and non-linear compositions of GPs to build probabilistic models for Bayesian optimization. Additionally, motivated by the rationale behind well-established multi-objective methods, this study presents a novel acquisition function to solve multi-objective optimization problems in a Bayesian framework. This dissertation presents four contributions. First, the auto-regressive model, one of the most prominent multi-fidelity models in engineering design, is extended to include informative mean functions that capture prior knowledge about the global trend of the sources. This additional information enhances the predictive capabilities of the surrogate. Second, the non-linear auto-regressive Gaussian process (NARGP) model, a non-linear multi-fidelity model, is integrated into a multi-objective Bayesian optimization framework. The NARGP model offers the possibility to leverage sources that present non-linear cross-correlations to enhance the performance of the optimization process. Third, GP classifiers, which employ non-linear compositions of GPs, and conditional probabilities are combined to solve multi-objective problems. Finally, a new multi-objective acquisition function is presented. This function employs two terms: a distance-based metric—the expected Pareto distance change—that captures the optimality of a given design, and a diversity index that prevents the evaluation of non-informative designs. The proposed acquisition function generates informative landscapes that produce Pareto front approximations that are both broad and diverse.</p>

Although nearly every secondary school English teacher includes film as part of the English/language arts curriculum, there is, to this point, nothing published about effectively studying the relationship between film adaptations and their print source texts in secondary school. There are several important works that inform film study in secondary English classrooms. These include Alan Teasley and Ann Wilder's Reel Conversations; William Costanzo's Reading the Movies and his updated version, Great Films and How to Teach Them; and John Golden's Reading in the Dark. However, each of these mention adaptation briefly if at all. Rather, they approach film as a text that students need to learn how to “read." While I certainly agree with this position, I argue that students also must learn how to productively investigate the relationship between films and their literary source texts. To make this case, I survey the field of adaptation theory generally, beginning with George Bluestone's seminal Novels into Film and moving towards contemporary theory, like Robert Stam's work, which suggests theoretical paradigms beyond fidelity analysis. I rely, particularly, on Mikhael Bakhtin's dialogism as a theoretical frame for studying adaptations in school. I also suggest four specific areas that act as foundations for successfully approaching adaptations with secondary English students: (1) economic analysis, (2) intertextualities (the matrix of cultural influences on a text), (3) Gérard Genette's notion of transtextuality (the relationship of one text to others), and (4) an expansion of adaptation to include the relationships of print texts to new media adaptations. In order to further develop ways that secondary school English teachers can specifically approach adaptation in their classrooms, I include two case studies. The first focuses on pairing Laurie Halse Anderson's award-winning young adult novel Speak with Jessica Sharzer's film adaptation. The second suggests methods for teaching Mary Shelley's Frankenstein along with James Whale's film adaptation. Because so little has been written about effectively incorporating film adaptations into the secondary school English curriculum, this project seeks not only to analyze the theoretical foundation for adaptation study, but also to suggest specific methodology that can be utilized by teachers.

This study examined winter habitat use and nesting ecology of greater sage grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) in Strawberry Valley (SV), Utah located in the north-central part of the state. We monitored sage grouse with the aid of radio telemetry throughout the year, but specifically used information from the winter and nesting periods for this study. Our study provided evidence that sage grouse show fidelity to nesting areas in subsequent years regardless of nest success. We found only 57% of our nests located within the 3 km distance from an active lek typically used to delineate critical nesting habitat. We suggest a more conservative distance of 10 km for our study area. Whenever possible, we urge consideration of nest-area fidelity in conservation planning across the range of greater sage grouse. We also evaluated winter-habitat selection at multiple spatial scales. Sage grouse in our study area selected gradual slopes with high amounts of sagebrush exposed above the snow. We produced a map that identified suitable winter habitat for sage grouse in our study area. This map highlighted core areas that should be conserved and will provide a basis for management decisions affecting Strawberry Valley, Utah.

Trauma-informed care is a relatively new construct in K-12 education, and districts across the United States are seeking avenues to meet the needs of their students. The COVID-19 pandemic elevated the need for districts to develop appropriate supports to address student and adult trauma. Traumatic events can affect a child’s mental, physical, social-emotional, and/or spiritual well-being (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration, 2011). Furthermore, children with an elevated risk of trauma may not be able to access these supports outside of the school setting (Baweja et al., 2015). Therefore, educational systems need to develop trauma-informed care models for schools that furnish a sense of safety and community so that students receive the necessary support. This evaluation aimed to identify how the moderating factors of district administrators, site administrators, climate and culture, and teacher capacity affect trauma-informed care via a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS) framework. It included a specific focus on Tier 1, universal access, to improve timely support for students. This formative program evaluation explored the impact of the moderating factors through the viewpoint of a newly created conceptual framework. I used qualitative and quantitative data sources to explore the multiple aspects of the phenomenon. The ARTIC-45 provided descriptive statistics about educators’ attitudes toward trauma-informed care. The observational data and analysis of the Panorama Education social-emotional learning (SEL) survey that assessed 3rd-12th students social-emotional well-being provided character to the evaluation. The data analysis yielded inconsistent results. The observational data strongly indicated a trauma-informed environment in which students were given clear expectations and engaged in positive reciprocal interactions with peers and adults. The ARTIC-45 data showed that administrators, teachers, and support staff responded favorably to trauma-informed care approaches. Though statistical significance could not be obtained due to the sample size constraint of being too small, the data provided context to the other data sources. For example, teacher capacity could not be quantified, but the data provided context to the overall staff capacity. The review of the archival and current SEL survey data showed that favorability among domains varied by site and grade level. The variations in students' social-emotional favorability can be related to their lived experiences and it is important to track over time to monitor how experiences, expressions, and feelings change over time. Students' perspectives regarding themselves and their environment differed from the observational data. This indicates that educators should not solely rely on observational data to determine students’ social-emotional well-being. Furthermore, an SEL survey can be used as a tool to understand students’ well-being and thus provide them with timely support. The evaluation determined that district administration, site administration, climate and culture and staff capacity can positively impact a multi-tiered, trauma-informed care environment. In these settings, student behavior and social-emotional well-being is viewed in a healing-centered manner. Districts can create a multi-tiered, trauma-sensitive culture and provide support to enhance teachers’ capacity to implement trauma-informed care, take advantage of administrative influence, develop community partnerships, and create a culture that is open to systematic change.