Objective: To determine the dental treatment needs of Canadians and how they are distributed. Methods: A secondary analysis of data from the Canadian Health Measures Survey was undertaken. Weights were applied to make the data nationally representative. Bivariate and multivariate regressions were used to identify predictors of need. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values were calculated to compare self-reported and clinically determined needs. Results: Of the 34.2% who required dental treatment, most needed restorative (20.4%) and preventive (13.7%) care. The strongest predictors of need were having poor oral health, reporting a self-perceived need for treatment and visiting the dentist infrequently. A discrepancy was found between clinical and self-reported needs. Conclusions: Roughly 12 million Canadians have unmet dental needs. A number of factors are predictive of having unmet dental conditions. Program and policymakers now have information by which to assess if their programs match the dental needs of Canadians.

The consensus is clear: our schools and instructional methods are in desperate need of an update (Carnoy, 1998; Daggett, n.d.; Fullan, 2007; Keigel & Patler, 1991; Schwahn & McGarvey, 2011; and Wagner, 2008). In order for students to be globally competitive, school leaders need to identify what students need to know, what they need to be able to do, and what they need to be like to be successful post-graduation, and then change and adapt school practices to meet global needs with an awareness of the 21st century learner. 21st century skills development is necessary in order for students to compete globally (AMA, 2010; ASCD, 2008; Cookson, 2009; Friedman, 2007; Keigel & Patler, 2009; Levine, 2009; Partnership, 2010; Pink, 2006; and Schwahn & McGarvey, 2011). <br>The purpose of this descriptive case study was to investigate a change process that incorporated the Partnership for 21st Century Skills Framework for 21st Century Learning into curricula. I focused on the leaders' perceptions of the change process that allowed for 21st Century Skills to become embedded into the curricula. I was interested in learning what needed to be changed and how the change occurred. The theoretical lens through which this case was studied and described is Adaptive Leadership Theory (Heifetz, 1994; Heifetz, R.A., Linsky, M., & Grashow, A., 2009; Glover, J., Jones, G., and Friedman, H., 2002a; Jones, Shannon, & Weigel, 2009), which can be defined as leadership that inspires and creates breakthroughs, accomplishes deep change, and develops the capability of the organization to survive, adapt, and thrive in complex, competitive, and challenging environments. Adaptive leadership recognizes that anyone, anywhere within the organization, can be a leader (Heifetz, 1994). Three overarching themes emerged: 1) Motivation for Change, and subsequent Student Needs, 2) Mission, and 3) Collaboration. / School of Education / Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program for Education Leaders (IDPEL) / EdD / Dissertation

The start of school is an important period in life. For some children, it is critical and affects their first time in school. It might have great importance for their learning and well-being. The aim of this thesis is to deepen the understanding of how different children face the school, based on the conditions that have been set for participation and learning, with special regard to literacy. Attention will be given to the start of school as an important transition in life, literacy activities, and special support in preschool-class and first grade. Both children and teacher perspectives are considered. The theoretical framework is a dynamic and interactional perspective.  This ethnographic study is inspired by the hermeneutic tradition. The empirical material has been collected through a case study at two schools, where two different groups of children have been observed from the latter part of preschool-class up until first grade. Furthermore, qualitative interviews have been held with special pedagogues at nine schools. The results show that the strive of teachers in preschool-class to create social security and ensuring close-knit group seem to have an impact on children during their entrance into school. Children appear well-prepared and comfortable in the school environment of first grade. Nevertheless, an organization that requires two transitions is inherently problematic, given the change in activities, roles and relations for children within one year. In terms of didactics, preschool-class and first-year class are weakly linked. There is no clear association between the reading and writing activities in the two forms of school, and there is no arena for teachers to develop a common ground for the didactic effort, a borderland. This can have consequences in terms of halting or interrupting children’s learning process.  A well-developed special-pedagogical work strategy and careful surveying is made of children’s learning processes. But, with the cautious attitude shown, the support of individual children is not put into process until the spring of their first school year or later. The issues of when and how special support should be offered are tied to different dilemmas.

In current times, issues of curriculum relevance are driving a raft of reforms and reviews in higher education. The unmet needs of students in terms of employment outcomes, particularly in the area of the performing arts are increasingly a matter of concern. For tertiary music training institutions, the need to attach greater importance to student needs has forced a more critical reappraisal of curriculum priorities. An effect of this has been ongoing contestation and debate within music institutions about the nature and purposes of music curriculum as a university offering. This thesis examines the implications of the above by undertaking an investigation into the relevance of keyboard curriculum, as it is currently understood in one tertiary institution, a Conservatorium of Music. It examines the contestation over student needs that is apparent within the curriculum of keyboard within such an institution. The aim is to improve the institution's capacity to respond appropriately to 'student needs' by better understanding issues about curriculum relevance. This is done by investigating how needs become articulated within this particular institution and curriculum domain and by investigating the effect these needs articulations have on the practices of those who teach and those who learn within this domain. The study uses the conceptual work of Nancy Fraser (1989) and Elizabeth Ellsworth (1989) and a doctoral study by Erica McWilliam (1992), to focus on needs articulations or needs talk that is related to the needs of keyboard students within this Conservatorium. This talk, which is generated in management, staff and student texts, is examined as produced out of systems of language use that are employed within and outside the Conservatorium. The analysis of the talk treats the contestations and struggle over student needs in the Conservatorium as products of, and productive of, power relations. The analysis reveals discourse communities that are not only fractured from within but which share very little common language. It demonstrates how systems of language use at work within the Conservatorium marginalise students at the same time as they permit the institution to continue its traditional work and practice. The study clearly demonstrates how the institution itself is actively producing 'failing' and 'blaming' students as discursive subjects. The conclusion is drawn that more attention needs to be paid to building shared communities that share a common discourse, rather than trying to wedge more 'relevant' material into the curriculum.

Most information retrieval (IR) systems respond to users' representation of their information needs (queries) with a ranked list of relevant results, usually text documents. XML documents di er from traditional text documents by explicitly separating structure and content. XML-IR systems aim to exploit this separation by searching and retrieving relevant components of documents (called elements) rather than entire documents thereby, better ful lling users' information needs. Despite the potential bene t of XML-IR systems, most research in this area has not been centered on the needs of users. In particular, current XML-IR query formation interfaces, namely keywords-only and formal language, are not able to optimally address the needs of users. Keywords-only interfaces are too unsophisticated to fully capture the users' complex information needs that contain both content and structural requirements. In contrast, while formal languages are able to capture users' content and structural requirements they are too di cult to use, even for experts, and are too closely tied to the physical structure of the collection. This thesis presents a solution to these problems by presenting NLPX, a natural language interface for XML-IR systems. NLPX allows users to enter XML-IR queries in natural language and translates them into a formal language (NEXI) to be processed by existing XML retrieval systems. When evaluated by system testing, NLPX outperformed alternative translation approaches. When tested in a user-based experiment, NLPX performed comparably to a query-by-template interface, the baseline user-oriented interface for formulating structured queries. It is hoped that the outcomes of this thesis will help to refocus the eld of XML-IR around the user. This will lead to the development of more useful XML-IR systems, which will hopefully result in the more widespread use of XML-IR systems.

Individualised needs based approaches are increasingly being utilised to fund disability support services. Frequently, standardised assessments such as adaptive behaviour scales and, more recently, measures of support needs are used for determining level of need. The aim of this thesis is to understand the relationship between adaptive behaviours and support needs and to investigate factors that impact functional capacity and need for supports for individuals with an intellectual disability. Although a conceptually attractive approach to assessment, concern exists regarding the adequacy of the theoretical framework for guiding the development of support needs instruments. Though possessing theoretical similarities, adaptive behaviour and support needs scales are considered to measure different, albeit related constructs, prompting investigation into the nature of the relationship and the structure of the support needs construct. Accordingly, in Study 1 the Supports Intensity Scale (SIS), the Adaptive Behaviour Scale–Residential and Community (ABS-RC:2), and the Inventory for Client and Agency Planning (ICAP) were used to examine this relationship (N = 80). Dimensionality of the SIS (Section 1) was examined in reference to the three areas of conceptual, social, and practical skills, considered as comprising the adaptive behaviour construct. Factor analysis offered support for measurement of a common underlying construct. When considered in terms of the three adaptive behaviour skill areas, the support needs construct related predominantly to conceptual skills. Unlike adaptive behaviour scales, little is reported about the properties of support needs measures or factors that impact on an individual’s need for supports. Study 2 examined factors likely to influence adaptive behaviours and need for supports; in particular, the presence of coexisting disabilities. Using a measure of adaptive behaviour (i.e., ICAP) and two support needs scales (i.e., SIS and the Service Need Assessment Profile, SNAP), the extent to which adaptive and challenging behaviours and support needs (including medical) were impacted by the number and severity of disabilities was examined (N = 83). Results showed adaptive behaviours and support needs (including medical) were meaningfully related to the number and severity of disabilities present, whereas this was not so for challenging behaviours. Profiles for challenging behaviour measures did not support a linear association with number and severity of additional disabilities, raising the possibility that the profiles were influenced more by the nature of the additional disabilities present. Study 3 investigated the impact of the nature of the additional disabilities present on adaptive and challenging behaviours, support and medical needs using the same instruments utilised in Study 2. Each scale discriminated skills and needs associated with the presence of additional physical and speech disabilities. The support needs subscales of SNAP and SIS were more sensitive to the needs of individuals with coexisting neurological and sensory disabilities. SNAP was the only instrument to identify unique needs associated with the presence of a psychiatric disability but SIS was the only instrument to discriminate needs associated with the presence of a vision disability. Underlying this finding may be the importance of the person-environment interaction intrinsic to contemporary models of disability and support approach to assessment. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1349602 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Psychology, 2009

Individualised needs based approaches are increasingly being utilised to fund disability support services. Frequently, standardised assessments such as adaptive behaviour scales and, more recently, measures of support needs are used for determining level of need. The aim of this thesis is to understand the relationship between adaptive behaviours and support needs and to investigate factors that impact functional capacity and need for supports for individuals with an intellectual disability. Although a conceptually attractive approach to assessment, concern exists regarding the adequacy of the theoretical framework for guiding the development of support needs instruments. Though possessing theoretical similarities, adaptive behaviour and support needs scales are considered to measure different, albeit related constructs, prompting investigation into the nature of the relationship and the structure of the support needs construct. Accordingly, in Study 1 the Supports Intensity Scale (SIS), the Adaptive Behaviour Scale–Residential and Community (ABS-RC:2), and the Inventory for Client and Agency Planning (ICAP) were used to examine this relationship (N = 80). Dimensionality of the SIS (Section 1) was examined in reference to the three areas of conceptual, social, and practical skills, considered as comprising the adaptive behaviour construct. Factor analysis offered support for measurement of a common underlying construct. When considered in terms of the three adaptive behaviour skill areas, the support needs construct related predominantly to conceptual skills. Unlike adaptive behaviour scales, little is reported about the properties of support needs measures or factors that impact on an individual’s need for supports. Study 2 examined factors likely to influence adaptive behaviours and need for supports; in particular, the presence of coexisting disabilities. Using a measure of adaptive behaviour (i.e., ICAP) and two support needs scales (i.e., SIS and the Service Need Assessment Profile, SNAP), the extent to which adaptive and challenging behaviours and support needs (including medical) were impacted by the number and severity of disabilities was examined (N = 83). Results showed adaptive behaviours and support needs (including medical) were meaningfully related to the number and severity of disabilities present, whereas this was not so for challenging behaviours. Profiles for challenging behaviour measures did not support a linear association with number and severity of additional disabilities, raising the possibility that the profiles were influenced more by the nature of the additional disabilities present. Study 3 investigated the impact of the nature of the additional disabilities present on adaptive and challenging behaviours, support and medical needs using the same instruments utilised in Study 2. Each scale discriminated skills and needs associated with the presence of additional physical and speech disabilities. The support needs subscales of SNAP and SIS were more sensitive to the needs of individuals with coexisting neurological and sensory disabilities. SNAP was the only instrument to identify unique needs associated with the presence of a psychiatric disability but SIS was the only instrument to discriminate needs associated with the presence of a vision disability. Underlying this finding may be the importance of the person-environment interaction intrinsic to contemporary models of disability and support approach to assessment. / http://proxy.library.adelaide.edu.au/login?url= http://library.adelaide.edu.au/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?BBID=1349602 / Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, School of Psychology, 2009

Diss. (sammanfattning) Lund : Lunds universitet, 2006. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.

Thesis (D.Ed.)--University of Melbourne, Faculty of Education, 2003. / Typescript (photocopy). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 194-200).

Diss. (sammanfattning) Lund : Lunds universitet, 2006. / Härtill 4 uppsatser.