Many students have problems learning stoichiometry, a complex mathematical chemistry concept used to determine how much product will be produced or formed from a given quantity of reactants. The problem addressed in this study was teachers' lack of understanding of how to teach stoichiometry in a Midwestern urban school district. The conceptual framework of the study was based upon constructivist theory. A qualitative narrative approach was used to obtain the perceptions of 5 high school chemistry instructors related to their experiences, successful or unsuccessful, in teaching stoichiometry to students in Grades 10 and 11. Data were gathered through face-to-face interviews, which were analyzed via an inductive approach to reveal 6 themes: a difficult subject to teach, presentation of stoichiometry, relevancy, students' reactions, barriers, and gender differences. Findings suggested the need for teachers to be knowledgeable, creative, and resourceful in their subject areas to help their students to learn stoichiometry. Findings also revealed the need for teachers to adapt their instructional strategies and modes of delivery to reflect their students' individual learning styles. Understanding how the participating teachers explained stoichiometry to their students might help other chemistry teachers to examine and adapt their own instructional styles and delivery methods of the concept. This understanding might, in term, help to improve student achievement in stoichiometry in particular and chemistry in general.

Text in English / Telehealth makes healthcare services accessible by underserved and resource-constrained rural communities of developing countries such as Ethiopia. However, the limitation of frameworks on telemedicine-based healthcare inequality reduction is a challenge for developing countries. In Ethiopia there are four telemedicine projects; however, there is no evidence that any of these projects have been evaluated by considering contextual issues. This academic research explored telehealth practices in Ethiopia with the aim of developing a comprehensive telehealth evaluation framework for developing countries. Such a conceptual framework could be used to inform health institutes and governmental policy makers and in so doing create a vehicle for the implementation of improved health practices in Ethiopia. A grounded theory approach is used to qualitatively explore the usefulness of telemedicine practices in Ethiopia, in mitigating healthcare inequality. Grounded theory makes use of emerging insights in order to contribute to new knowledge. From the inductive analysis of the study, themes such as barrier removal, service quality, synergetic effect, localization, technical setup, resource utilization and managerial readiness emerged to formulate a framework for evaluating telemedicine-based healthcare inequality reduction in the context of developing countries like Ethiopia. This study contributes to the understanding of the question of how telemedicine practices can be evaluated, to support the healthcare service and reduce the healthcare inequalities in resource constrained communities in Ethiopia. Moreover, the framework could be used during evaluation of telemedicine-based healthcare inequality reduction in the context of developing countries like Ethiopia. / School of Computing / Ph.D. (Information Systems)

Research in organizational identity as pioneered by Albert and Whetten (1985) provides that organizational identity is central, enduring and distinctive. As Gioia et al. (2013) put it, “what we know about organizational identity, including its dynamic aspects, is based on the study of organizations located within a single and uniform geographic market (U.S./European) and/or stable institutional environment (developed markets)” (p. 180). This study thus carries research in organizational identity forward by locating it at an integrated food manufacturing company, Feed Me Ventures Limited, in the non-western, developing country, Nigeria. As businesses expand globally, it becomes pertinent for global organizations and managers in organizations outside the West to become aware of possibly divergent forms of organizational identity and formation processes that may exist. Nigeria is a community faced with unstable and corrupt leadership, a volatile economy directly impacted by its own created as well as global instabilities as well as a culture that is very different from those of the communities in which organizational identity has traditionally been studied. To accomplish the goals of this study, an inductive analysis is conducted using ethnographic observation, document analysis and grounded theory interviewing. This method is deemed most appropriate as this is an exploratory study to find what organizational identity may look like in Nigeria. Findings provide that while the conceptualization of organizational identity in the literature hold true, the environment greatly affects organizational identity. The founder of Feed Me Ventures Limited had developed organizational identity in direct opposition to societal values thereby emphasizing the distinctiveness dimension of organizational identity more than would normally be expected. Also, there is an adaptational dimension to organizational identity at Feed Me Ventures Limited which allows it to adapt to different needs in the environment in order to survive and retain its core identity. This is similar to adaptive instability which is already established in the literature except that at Feed Me Ventures Limited, when new identity dimensions are adapted in reaction to the environment, these dimensions only serve to help the organization retain its core identity. Furthermore, the relationship between organizational identity claims and organizational identity understanding among organizational members revealed the existence of an organizational identity gap (OI gap). This refers to a situation where claims about “who we are” from senior management does not align with understanding of “who we are” by organizational members. Also interesting is that social constructionist views about organizational identity being developed through the interactions of organizational members is found to be true at Feed Me Ventures Limited where organizational members, in their social interactions, begin to form notions of “who we are” that are not derived from claims about “who we are” from management. This study concludes that it is important for organizational leaders to acknowledge environment variables, engage in organizational diagnosis to find OI gaps and consider further this concept of adaptation and how this might serve organizations in environments similar to Nigeria.

Submitted by Jorge Silva (jorgelmsilva@ufrrj.br) on 2018-11-01T17:34:17Z No. of bitstreams: 1 2013 - Michelle de Andrade Souza Diniz Salles.pdf: 1724285 bytes, checksum: 0c2d93b35fcc3a346de378608aaccdd5 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-11-01T17:34:17Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2013 - Michelle de Andrade Souza Diniz Salles.pdf: 1724285 bytes, checksum: 0c2d93b35fcc3a346de378608aaccdd5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-07-01 / This is an exploratory qualitative research accomplished at a Higher Education Federal Institution (HEFI), situated in Rio de Janeiro State. It aimed at developing a proposal for public managers? capacity building departing from their managerial learning capacity in order to develop their managerial competency to support a Professional Competencies Management System. Therefore, this research answered: How to develop managerial capacity dedicated to the HEFI real context considering managers emergent learning process at work? Five intermediate goals were also attained: (a) Characterizing the management learning activity in public service; (b) Elucidating the managers? perception about the required competencies for practicing their managerial role; (c) Identifying managerial competencies developed by managers in the exercise of managerial activity; (d) Identifying individual and collective learning processes embedded in managers work, (e) Setting up the managerial development activities. Empirical data collected among 19 managers of the HEFI, through semi-structured individual interviews, were qualitatively analyzed by means of hermeneutic interpretive inductive approach. Empirical results indicates that the managers learning process and managerial competency development occurred through: (a) Self-learning, (b) vicarious learning, c) self-experience, and by solving problems in a trial and error mode (d) Social and collective interactions (e) Formal education (f) Working practice deconstruction; g) Managers? life activities off work. To trigger the development of managerial competencies including the emerging managers learning processes at this HEFI, an institutionalized managerial development project is needed grounded in andragogy pedagogy, this is, specific for adult learning process based on public managers awareness enhancement about the importance of the various ways of learning in the working practice. For instance, encouraging vicarious learning through the presentation of other institutions cases and the collective identification of the required managerial competencies. The managerial development project structure should take into account the need to meet individual managers? development requirement as well as the constraints imposed by the collective election process for being a public manager at this HEFI. Developing managerial competencies should have as structure: a) Evaluation b) learning c) Analysis d) Practice e) Application. Managerial competencies development should follow a continuous learning at work approach, taking into account profile differences concerning the academic and technical managerial positions. / Trata-se de uma pesquisa explorat?ria de natureza qualitativa realizada em uma institui??o federal de ensino superior (IFES), situada no Estado do Rio de Janeiro. O objetivo do estudo foi subsidiar uma capacita??o de gestores p?blicos com vistas a desenvolver compet?ncias gerenciais no escopo da Gest?o de Pessoas por Compet?ncias. Para tanto partiu-se da quest?o como capacitar gestores da UFRRJ nas compet?ncias gerenciais tendo como base a aprendizagem dos gestores no escopo de uma Gest?o de Pessoas por Compet?ncias? e cinco objetivos intermedi?rios foram alcan?ados: (a) Caracterizar a aprendizagem gerencial no servi?o p?blico; (b) Levantar as compet?ncias requeridas dos gestores segundo a percep??o dos mesmos para o exerc?cio da fun??o gerencial; (c) Identificar as compet?ncias gerenciais desenvolvidas pelos gestores no exerc?cio da atividade gerencial; (d) Identificar processos de aprendizagem individual e coletiva presentes no trabalho dos gestores; (e) Propor atividades de capacita??o gerencial para desenvolvimento de compet?ncias gerenciais pertinentes aos gestores da IFES examinada. A coleta de dados emp?ricos foi feita junto a 19 gestores, por meio de entrevistas semiestruturadas conduzidas pessoalmente com cada entrevistado. A an?lise qualitativa dos dados se realizou por meio de abordagem indutiva com interpreta??o hermen?utica. Os resultados emp?ricos indicam que o processo de aprendizagem gerencial ocorre por meio de: a) Auto-aprendizagem; b) Aprendizagem vic?ria; c) Experi?ncia pr?pria, resolvendo problemas e por tentativa e erro; d) Intera??es sociais e coletivas; e) Educa??o formal; f) Desconstru??o de pr?ticas de trabalho; g) Atividades na vida dos gestores fora do trabalho. As compet?ncias foram desenvolvidas por meio destes processos de aprendizagem. Para ativar o desenvolvimento de compet?ncias gerenciais por meio de aprendizagem na IFES recomenda-se a institucionaliza??o de um Programa de capacita??o gerencial, com base na andragogia, ou seja especifica para aprendizagem de adultos, pautada em um processo de sensibiliza??o dos quadros gestores, a ser feita propiciando uma aprendizagem vic?ria por meio da apresenta??o de exemplos de outras institui??es e pela identifica??o coletiva das necessidades dos pr?prios gestores da IFES. A estrutura da capacita??o dever? levar em considera??o a necessidade de atender as demandas de desenvolvimento gerencial assim como as restri??es impostas pelo processo de elei??o colegiada de gestores vigente. Recomenda-se uma capacita??o assim estruturada: a) Avalia??o; b) Aprendizagem; c) An?lise; d) Pr?tica; e) Aplica??o. S?o sugeridas capacita??es gerenciais seguindo a abordagem da capacita??o continuada por n?veis, considerando as diferen?as dos respectivos perfis dos cargos t?cnicos e docentes.