No description available.

No description available.

The purpose of the study has been to explore how professionals in the field of social work view professional licensure. Through semi-structured interviews, we have explored their reflections and opinions on the potential of professional licensure, their perceptions of their work, and how they believe licensure could affect their area of work in relation to professional status. The results are presented based on a qualitative content analysis, and the responses indicate that professional licensure is expected to raise the status of social workers in society. The study presents the complexity of the social work profession’s field, where boundaries are often seen as diffuse externally. This is demonstrated from the study's results and previous research around the difficulties of implementing uniform professional licenses. The interviewees also emphasize the importance of social work education for the exclusivity of the profession, where a stronger connection between practice and theory may be suggested to strengthen the profession’s legitimacy.  Another significant finding is the central role of social workers for the welfare and well-being of society. Although the social work profession can sometimes be perceived negatively by the public, partly due to media portrayal, the study points out that there is a need for the public to gain an improved understanding of social workers’ roles and competences. The study's findings indicate that this could strengthen the profession's legitimacy and status. Even though there is strong support for professional licensure for social workers, challenges also emerged regarding its implementation. Some interviewees felt that licensure should be limited to specific work roles and tasks, especially those involving the exercise of authority. Others expressed concern that the introduction of licensure could lead to even more fragmented professional identities. In conclusion, the study shows the collective support for professional licensure for social workers yet emphasizes the challenges that must be addressed in such a process for the implementation of licenses.

The two main purposes of this study were to create a systematic observation instrument in order to obtain clearer and more specific feedback from junior high school teachers about student teachers' teaching performances during their practicum, and to provide a way for junior college, university teachers, student teachers, and practicum supervisors to observe student teachers' teaching and then to communicate their observations more effectively with one another. The participants were 57 student teachers, 19 college teachers, and 28 junior high school teachers. Four instruments were used: a written consent form, a questionnaire about 15 teaching skills (The Teaching Skill Questionnaire), a 60-minute videotape with a checklist (The Japanese COLT), and a 42-item questionnaire (The Student Teachers' Videotaped Instruction). The study produced four major findings. First, by using the Japanese COLT (Communicative Orientation of Language Teaching Observation scheme), the three groups of raters (student teachers, college teachers, practicum supervisor) identified four specific problems with individual student teacher's teaching. They (a) explained new sentence patterns without interacting with the students, (b) asked fewer questions than expected, (c) had the students practice reading for a shorter time than expected, and (d) provided few opportunities for the students to speak in Japanese or English, and spoke Japanese more than necessary. The second finding was that the student teachers differed from the older teacher groups in their views of specific teaching skills because of their limited teaching experience and lower English proficiency. The third finding was that the three groups of raters perceived the student teachers' teaching on the videotape similarly. The fourth finding indicated that there was no statistically significant difference in the three groups' views of the teaching techniques used by the student teachers; however, a statistically significant difference was found for the three groups' evaluations of the student teachers' teaching. The Japanese COLT was a useful instrument for assessing the student teachers' classroom performances, as it provided more specific feedback to the student teachers, and allowed the three groups to share their viewpoints more effectively. / CITE/Language Arts

This study examined the degree of perceived teacher self-efficacy between early childhood preservice teachers and elementary education pre-service teachers. There were 88 participants: 44 elementary education pre-service teachers and 40 early childhood pre-service teachers. Participants were mostly white, female pre-service teachers enrolled at East Tennessee State University. Using Bandura's 30-item "Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale" pre-service teachers rated their perceived self-efficacy on 7 subscales: decision-making, influence on school resources, instructional efficacy, disciplinary efficacy, enlisting parent involvement, enlisting community involvement, and creating a positive school climate. Significant differences were found between groups for 3 of the 7 subscales. Early childhood education pre-service teachers reflected higher levels of efficacy in influencing decision making, t(86)=3.36, p<.001; enlisting parental involvement, t(86)= 2.14, p < .05; and creating a positive school climate, t(86) = 3.01, p < .01. No significant differences between groups were found in overall perceived teacher self-efficacy, t(86)=1.44, n.s.

Background: The proportion of older individuals in the driving population is predicted to increase in the next 50 years. This has important implications for driving safety as abilities which are important for safe driving, such as vision (which accounts for the majority of the sensory input required for driving), processing ability and cognition have been shown to decline with age. The current methods employed for screening older drivers upon re-licensure are also vision based. This study, which investigated social, behavioural and professional aspects involved with older drivers, aimed to determine: (i) if the current visual standards in place for testing upon re-licensure are effective in reducing the older driver fatality rate in Australia; (ii) if the recommended visual standards are actually implemented as part of the testing procedures by Australian optometrists; and (iii) if there are other non-standardised tests which may be better at predicting the on-road incident-risk (including near misses and minor incidents) in older drivers than those tests recommended in the standards. Methods: For the first phase of the study, state-based age- and gender-stratified numbers of older driver fatalities for 2000-2003 were obtained from the Australian Transportation Safety Bureau database. Poisson regression analyses of fatality rates were considered by renewal frequency and jurisdiction (as separate models), adjusting for possible confounding variables of age, gender and year. For the second phase, all practising optometrists in Australia were surveyed on the vision tests they conduct in consultations relating to driving and their knowledge of vision requirements for older drivers. Finally, for the third phase of the study to investigate determinants of on-road incident risk, a stratified random sample of 600 Brisbane residents aged 60 years and were selected and invited to participate using an introductory letter explaining the project requirements. In order to capture the number and type of road incidents which occurred for each participant over 12 months (including near misses and minor incidents), an important component of the prospective research study was the development and validation of a driving diary. The diary was a tool in which incidents that occurred could be logged at that time (or very close in time to which they occurred) and thus, in comparison with relying on participant memory over time, recall bias of incident occurrence was minimised. Association between all visual tests, cognition and scores obtained for non-standard functional tests with retrospective and prospective incident occurrence was investigated. Results: In the first phase,rivers aged 60-69 years had a 33% lower fatality risk (Rate Ratio [RR] = 0.75, 95% CI 0.32-1.77) in states with vision testing upon re-licensure compared with states with no vision testing upon re-licensure, however, because the CIs are wide, crossing 1.00, this result should be regarded with caution. However, overall fatality rates and fatality rates for those aged 70 years and older (RR=1.17, CI 0.64-2.13) did not differ between states with and without license renewal procedures, indicating no apparent benefit in vision testing legislation. For the second phase of the study, nearly all optometrists measured visual acuity (VA) as part of a vision assessment for re-licensing, however, 20% of optometrists did not perform any visual field (VF) testing and only 20% routinely performed automated VF on older drivers, despite the standards for licensing advocating automated VF as part of the vision standard. This demonstrates the need for more effective communication between the policy makers and those responsible for carrying out the standards. It may also indicate that the overall higher driver fatality rate in jurisdictions with vision testing requirements is resultant as the tests recommended by the standards are only partially being conducted by optometrists. Hence a standardised protocol for the screening of older drivers for re-licensure across the nation must be established. The opinions of Australian optometrists with regard to the responsibility of reporting older drivers who fail to meet the licensing standards highlighted the conflict between maintaining patient confidentiality or upholding public safety. Mandatory reporting requirements of those drivers who fail to reach the standards necessary for driving would minimise potential conflict between the patient and their practitioner, and help maintain patient trust and goodwill. The final phase of the PhD program investigated the efficacy of vision, functional and cognitive tests to discriminate between at-risk and safe older drivers. Nearly 80% of the participants experienced an incident of some form over the prospective 12 months, with the total incident rate being 4.65/10 000 km. Sixty-three percent reported having a near miss and 28% had a minor incident. The results from the prospective diary study indicate that the current vision screening tests (VA and VF) used for re-licensure do not accurately predict older drivers who are at increased odds of having an on-road incident. However, the variation in visual measurements of the cohort was narrow, also affecting the results seen with the visual functon questionnaires. Hence a larger cohort with greater variability should be considered for a future study. A slightly lower cognitive level (as measured with the Mini-Mental State Examination [MMSE]) did show an association with incident involvement as did slower reaction time (RT), however the Useful-Field-of-View (UFOV) provided the most compelling results of the study. Cut-off values of UFOV processing (>23.3ms), divided attention (>113ms), selective attention (>258ms) and overall score (moderate/ high/ very high risk) were effective in determining older drivers at increased odds of having any on-road incident and the occurrence of minor incidents. Discussion: The results have shown that for the 60-69 year age-group, there is a potential benefit in testing vision upon licence renewal. However, overall fatality rates and fatality rates for those aged 70 years and older indicated no benefit in vision testing legislation and suggests a need for inclusion of screening tests which better predict on-road incidents. Although VA is routinely performed by Australian optometrists on older drivers renewing their licence, VF is not. Therefore there is a need for a protocol to be developed and administered which would result in standardised methods conducted throughout the nation for the screening of older drivers upon re-licensure. Communication between the community, policy makers and those conducting the protocol should be maximised. By implementing a standardised screening protocol which incorporates a level of mandatory reporting by the practitioner, the ethical dilemma of breaching patient confidentiality would also be resolved. The tests which should be included in this screening protocol, however, cannot solely be ones which have been implemented in the past. In this investigation, RT, MMSE and UFOV were shown to be better determinants of on-road incidents in older drivers than VA and VF, however, as previously mentioned, there was a lack of variability in visual status within the cohort. Nevertheless, it is the recommendation from this investigation, that subject to appropriate sensitivity and specificity being demonstrated in the future using a cohort with wider variation in vision, functional performance and cognition, these tests of cognition and information processing should be added to the current protocol for the screening of older drivers which may be conducted at licensing centres across the nation.

p. 1-176 / Submitted by Santiago Fabio (fabio.ssantiago@hotmail.com) on 2013-03-26T17:02:35Z No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação Milena D´Almeida 1.pdf: 97912 bytes, checksum: 38f74acbd2f79c59b4d8af681c30e9f6 (MD5) Dissertação Milena D´Almeida 2.pdf: 1165726 bytes, checksum: 62a667264de15105d3ffefbf631ef09a (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Tatiana Lima(tatianasl@ufba.br) on 2013-04-12T18:49:00Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação Milena D´Almeida 1.pdf: 97912 bytes, checksum: 38f74acbd2f79c59b4d8af681c30e9f6 (MD5) Dissertação Milena D´Almeida 2.pdf: 1165726 bytes, checksum: 62a667264de15105d3ffefbf631ef09a (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2013-04-12T18:49:00Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Dissertação Milena D´Almeida 1.pdf: 97912 bytes, checksum: 38f74acbd2f79c59b4d8af681c30e9f6 (MD5) Dissertação Milena D´Almeida 2.pdf: 1165726 bytes, checksum: 62a667264de15105d3ffefbf631ef09a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2003 / O Brasil ingressou no novo milênio como uma economia em desenvolvimento, mas detentor de altas taxas de analfabetismo e profundas desigualdades sociais e, embora tenha conseguido na década de 90 a universalização do ensino, esta não significou, necessariamente, um acréscimo na qualidade. Repetindo o cenário nacional, o sistema público de educação do estado da Bahia caracteriza-se pela baixa qualidade e pela pouca relevância para as necessidades dos alunos, daí a necessidade de implementação de programas voltados para a melhoria da qualidade dos serviços educacionais, tal como o Educar para Vencer e, conseqüentemente, o projeto de Certificação Ocupacional de Profissionais da Educação. Através do referencial teórico, capítulo que discorre sobre parte da literatura que trata da certificação ocupacional e das competências, em suas diversas abordagens, e da experiência da Fundação Luís Eduardo Magalhães, este trabalho busca investigar o grau de alinhamento entre a visão que os Professores Alfabetizadores têm do seu desempenho e os escores por eles obtidos no Teste de Conhecimentos Específicos – TCE, do primeiro Exame de Certificação Ocupacional. O Modelo de Análise empregado foi desenvolvido tendo como base as Especificações de Testes, documento criado pelos analistas de cargo do Projeto de Certificação Ocupacional para Profissionais da Educação, juntamente com grupos de especialistas em alfabetização. Desta forma, foi possível estabelecer comparações entre o desempenho dos candidatos à certificação no Teste de Conhecimentos Específicos com as respostas dos mesmos na auto-avaliação e estabelecer um grau de alinhamento entre esses dois instrumentos. A pesquisa exploratória do tipo survey, cuja amostra foi selecionada aleatoriamente entre os candidatos aprovados no TCE do primeiro exame de certificação, foi realizada em 2003. Os resultados do cruzamento de dados entre o desempenho sugerido pelos candidatos na auto-avaliação e o observado no TCE, indicaram um baixo grau de alinhamento entre esses dois instrumentos, uma vez que a quantidade de indicadores negativos de alinhamento superou a quantidade dos positivos. Ou seja, os candidatos que imaginaram alcançar melhor desempenho em avaliações ocupacionais que medem conhecimentos e habilidades relacionados ao cargo de Professor Alfabetizador, não foram os mesmos que obtiveram os escores mais altos no Teste de Conhecimentos específicos do Projeto de Certificação Ocupacional. / Salvador

This research was developed in the context of the Subproject Letters-English of PIBID-UFAL (Institutional Program of Iniciation to Teaching Scholarships at the Federal University of Alagoas). PIBID, a program of the federal government implemented by CAPES, an organ under the Ministry of Education and Culture, integrates the licensure courses offered by institutions of higher education and states and cities educational systems in order to improve teaching quality at basic education schools which display an IDEB (Basic Education Development Indicator) below national average. I have aimed at a comprehension of the relationship between PIBID and the work with the English language in Greater Maceió public schools, so as to realize which interests PIBID serves. In order to do that, I worked under the principles of XXI century Applied Linguistics (MOITA LOPES, 1996 and 2006; RAJAGOPALAN, 2003b, 1998 and 2006; PENNYCOOK 2001 and 2006; FABRÍCIO, 2006), with a concept of Science according to Sousa Santos (2010). I have established three specific objectives. To reach them, I collected, studied and analised the legislation the created and rules PIBID. I also organised meetings with supervisor teachers to collect data based on the typical procedures of narrative and life history in an autobiographical perspective (BRUNER, 2014; MERTOVA E WEBSTER, 2007; MINAYO, 1998). The analysis was carried out considering language as a social activity from a discoursive perspective (BAKHTIN, 2002), identity in post-modernity (HALL, 1992, 1997, 2011 e BHABHA, 1994), and power (FOUCAULT, 1979). My first specific objective was to know the legal contex which rules the subproject PIBID-UFAL Letters-English in order to understand which representations the law has of the professional identity of the supervisor teacher. The analysis showed me that the legal documents have two representations for this teacher: on one side, s/he is someone who has a contribution to offer, and, on the other side, s/he is someone who lacks knowledge to work efficiently and effectively. My second specific objective was to know the representations that the supervisor teachers of PIBID-UFAL Letters-English have of themselves regarding their professional identity as English teachers in the course of their pre-service educational process. The analysis showed me that they represent their professional identity as connected to the perspective of the teachers they were working to become, positioned in both public and private places. My interpretaton also showed me a representation that I called teacher-student due the the focus on their education from the perspective of the student they once were. My third and last specific objective was to know the representations this teacher has of the teaching activity in the context of the English language regarding citizenship and labour, official objectives of education as per the Brazilian Constitution in force. The narratives that I analyzed suggested two themes: the textbook and the school structure, both seen as the basis for the teaching activity. The teacher represents the quality of the activities that s/he creates as inferior to those on the textbook, which is taken as a panacea. S/he represents public schools as an undignified place, as it is unhealthy, underequipped and unsafe. I, then, came to the conclusion that, firstly, PIBID stands among actions that talk in favour of Brazilian society, but, actually, mask the real social problems sources. Secondly, low IDEB is not necessarily a result of bad teacher pre-service education. I believe that the focus on the education quality of teachers as if it were the problem of the low IDEB, as in the case of PIBID, may, actually, mean a way of making people look away from the real causes of the problem: the abandonment to which public education has been left. I hope this reflection will serve the public interests and help strengthen contemporary critical Applied Linguistics, looking to some social change that will make life better for everyone. / Esta pesquisa se desenvolveu no contexto do Subprojeto Letras Inglês do PIBID-UFAL. O PIBID, programa do governo federal promovido pelo MEC por meio da CAPES, pela articulação dos cursos de graduação em licenciatura oferecidos por IES e os sistemas estaduais e municipais de educação, quer melhorar a qualidade do ensino nas escolas públicas de ensino básico que apresentam IDEB abaixo da média nacional. Meu objetivo geral foi a busca de uma compreensão da relação entre o PIBID e o trabalho com língua inglesa na escola pública da Grande Maceió, querendo perceber a quais interesses o PIBID serve. Para atingir meu objetivo geral, filiei-me à Linguística Aplicada do séc. XXI (MOITA LOPES, 1996 e 2006; RAJAGOPALAN, 2003b, 1998 e 2006; PENNYCOOK 2001 e 2006; FABRÍCIO, 2006), pensando Ciência segundo Sousa Santos (2010). Estabeleci três objetivos específicos. Para alcançá-los, realizei duas ações: em primeiro lugar, procedi a um levantamento, estudo e análise da legislação que criou e organiza o PIBID. Em segundo lugar, organizei encontros com os professores supervisores, com base nos procedimentos típicos de trabalhos que se dedicam à pesquisa com narrativa e história de vida numa perspectiva autobiográfica (BRUNER, 2014; MERTOVA E WEBSTER, 2007; MINAYO, 1998), visando à coleta dos dados. Procedi à análise com alguns conceitos base, como língua como atividade social de uma perspectiva discursiva (BAKHTIN, 2002), identidade na pós-modernidade (HALL, 1992, 1997, 2011 e BHABHA, 1994) e poder (FOUCAULT, 1979). Meu primeiro objetivo específico foi o de conhecer o contexto legal que rege o subprojeto PIBID-UFAL Letras-Inglês para sabermos quais representações a legislação a que o PIBID se submete constroi para a identidade profissional do professor supervisor. Pela análise, identifiquei nos documentos legais duas representações fundamentais desse professor: por um lado, alguém que tem uma contribuição expressiva a dar, e, por outro lado, alguém que precisa ser instruído para dar conta de seu trabalho eficientemente e eficazmente. Meu segundo objetivo específico foi o de conhecer as representações que o professor supervisor do PIBID-UFAL Letras-Inglês da Ufal constrói para sua identidade profissional de professor de língua inglesa no processo de sua formação. Cheguei às representações da identidade profissional dos professores supervisores como vinculadas, de um lado, à perspectiva do professor que ele viria a se tornar, portanto do trabalho, com seu posicionamento em dois lugares: o público e o privado. E, de outro lado, cheguei à representação da construção da identidade profissional como o que chamei de professor-aluno, por conta do foco da formação na perspectiva da posição de aluno que ele fora. Meu terceiro e último objetivo específico foi o de conhecer as representações que esse professor constrói para a atividade docente no contexto da língua inglesa com relação à cidadania e ao trabalho, objetivos da educação, como preconizado pela constituição brasileira em vigor. As narrativas analisadas apontaram para dois temas: o material didático e a infraestrutura como pilares da atividade docente. O professor representa as atividades que cria como inferiores ao que é oferecido pelo livro didático, que é visto como uma panaceia. Ele representa a escola pública como lugar indigno, por ser insalubre, desequipado e inseguro. Concluo, então, que, em primeiro lugar, o PIBID se constitui como mais uma dentre várias ações que alardeiam a defesa de interesses da sociedade brasileira, mas, na base, escamoteiam os problemas fundantes das mazelas sociais. Em segundo lugar, o IDEB baixo não resulta necessariamente de formação precária dos professores. Creio que o foco na formação do professor para combater o IDEB baixo, como no caso do PIBID, pode querer, na verdade, significar um modo de se desviar o olhar da população das reais causas do problema: o abandono da educação pública à inanição. Espero que esta reflexão sirva aos interesses públicos e ao fortalecimento da Linguística Aplicada contemporânea, crítica, voltada para uma mudança social que melhore a vida de todos.

An exploratory study was undertaken to develop an organizational profile of forty nursing schools in the midwest and southern regions and to provide useful data for planning decisions. Data were obtained through mailed questionnaires and telephone interviews. The dependent variable is success rate on the licensure examination; the independent variables are ten organizational characteristics of nursing schools. The data were examined by descriptive statistics, Pearson correlations, and multiple regression analysis, using a .05 level of significance.

No description available.