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Yes

There is ample research (Bova & Phillips, 1994; Cordeiro & Smith-Sloan, 1995; Daresh, 2002; Ginty & Gaskill, 1993; Playko, 1995; Riche, 1979) to demonstrate the need for and benefits of mentoring both in the business world and with first year teachers. Mentoring allows a more experienced person to work directly with a less experienced person. Some benefits of such a relationship can include knowledge transfer, increased learning, creation of a support network, a decrease in job stress and anxiety, and an opportunity for the prot&#233;g&#233; to learn the big picture. School administrators face an increasing number of challenges in a job where new responsibilities are created almost on a daily basis. Many states will experience a shortage of qualified administrative applicants for open positions. This shortage is due to the retirement in the next several years of many existing administrators in addition to a larger number of positions accompanying increased school enrollment. Many states are exploring ways to address this concern. The first is through a reevaluation of certification criteria (training). The second is through the development of mentoring programs for new administrators (keeping the administrators we have). However, there is little research available on the mentoring of new administrators. This study identified the existing opinions, beliefs, and attitudes, including perceived value that administrators have towards mentoring for their job assignment. Statistical significance was determined at alpha < .01 for each analysis of variance between the groups. There was one item on the survey where a statistically significant difference was found between gender; assessment and grading (p(F) = .007). There was one item on the survey where a statistically significant difference was found between principals and assistant principals; school management (p(F) = .008). There was one item on the survey where a statistically significant difference was found between administrators who have and have not served as a formal mentor; time for discussion together (p(F) = .003). There was one item on the survey where a statistically significant difference was found between administrators who have and have not served as an informal mentor; mentor at same school level (p(F) = .005). However, the final two items of statistical significance are from Section B of the survey. Section B had a reliability of Cronbach's alpha = .50 (see Table 1). Therefore, results of these items must be viewed with caution. It is important to note that 400 out of 414 (96.7%) individual item analyses found no statistically significant differences between the various groups. / Ed. D.

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Verbal information plays a pivot role in human daily communication. Recent research has pointed out that the performance of human cognition in processing verbal information has no significant difference from that in processing numerical information. However, no proper model is available to describe human cognition in processing of verbal information. Therefore, this dissertation explores the difference between human cognition and normative models in processing verbal terms, and further analyzes the decision rules employed by decision-makers to illustrate the proper form of a descriptive model. The explored verbal operations include the following statistics: representation, mean, and variance. In the study of verbal representation, the differences among numerical representation, fuzzy representation, and cognitive representation of Likert verbal evaluations are revealed. This cognitive representation is obtained by the proposed interval estimation method. The proposed method can simultaneously construct the verbal categories in a Likert scale. The result shows that the cognitive representation is inconsistent with the assumption of equal interval in numerical representation, and those of symmetry and equal space in fuzzy representation. In the study of verbal mean operation, the research first investigated the differences among numerical, fuzzy, and cognitive methods in aggregating verbal terms by conducting three experiments. The results reveal that the numerical operation deviates much from actually decision making. The performances of fuzzy aggregations are also poor. This fact shows that fuzzy aggregations are still not qualified as descriptive operators. However, using cognitive representation to conduct fuzzy number operations can obtain a higher match-rate with the human decision (from 0.62 to 0.77). To understand the decision rules underlying human cognition, the research conduct a Multi-Dimensional Scaling (MDS) analysis. The results show that, other than numerical mean, subjects use two intuitive rules to aggregate opinions, namely, extreme-value and polarity. In the study of verbal variance operation, the research obtained the subjective judgments by a paired-comparison procedure. Furthermore, a factorial experiment is conducted to investigate the factors that might influence subjects¡¦ verbal consensus judgment. The results show that subjects¡¦ verbal consensus judgment is related to numerical variance, entropy, polarity, the interaction between numerical variance and polarity, the interaction between entropy and polarity, and the interaction among numerical variance, entropy, and polarity. Above all, entropy is a more significant descriptive operator than numerical variance. The results of the dissertation could complement the current numerical methods in processing qualitative data. Possible applications of the research findings are also discussed. Keywords: verbal information, cognitive operation, verbal representation, aggregation of verbal opinions, and consensus judgment of verbal opinions.

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A consistent use of the target language during English lessons is beneficial for pupils’ linguistic development, but also challenging for both teachers and pupils. The main purpose for pupils to learn English is to be able to use it in communication, which requires that they develop the ability to comprehend input, produce output and use language strategies. Several researchers claim that a consistent use of the target language is necessary in order to develop these abilities. Therefore, the aim of this study is to examine the target language use during English lessons in Swedish grades 4-6, and what pupils’ opinions regarding target language use are. The methods used to collect data consisted of a pupil questionnaire with 42 respondents and an observation of two teachers’ English lessons during a week’s time. The results from the observations show that the teachers use plenty of target language during lessons, but the first language as well to explain things that pupils might experience difficult to understand otherwise. The results from the questionnaire mainly show that the pupils seem to enjoy English and like to both speak and hear the target language during lessons. The main input comes from listening to a CD with dialogues and exercises in the textbook and the workbook, and from the teacher speaking. The results also show that a majority of the pupils use the target language in their spare time. A conclusion that can be drawn from this study is that the TL should be used to a large extent in order to support pupils’ linguistic development. However, teachers may sometimes need to use L1 in order to facilitate understanding of the things that many pupils find difficult, for example grammar. Suggestions for further research in this area include similar studies conducted on a larger scale. / <p>Engelska</p>

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Problem definition and purpose: In 2015, the newspapers sports columns is filled with opinions and analyzes of the events foretold by self-proclaimed experts, sports journalists at the newspapers, This is done to market themselves and their employer, create a relationship with their readers and stand out from the competition. In this thesis we researched two Swedish tabloids, to try to establish whether there has been a notable change in opinions on the sports sections during the last twenty years. Method and material: Quantative content analysis of sport pages of Swedish tabloids Aftonbladet and Expressen during 4-10 November 1995, 2005 and 2015. By identifying how many of the published articles that can be categorized as opinions, and by measuring those articles in square centimeter, we are using graphs and tables to show how the opinion-based material has changed fron 1995 until 2015. Main result: The thesis shows an increasing in opinions and opinion based journalism in Swedish tabloids sport pages over the course of a twenty-year period.

Forskning kring våld i nära relationer handlar ofta om fysiskt våld. Fysiskt våld uppfattas som mer allvarligt än psykiskt våld. Psykiskt våld har visats vara mer vanligt och skadorna går inte att upptäcka med blotta ögat. Studiens syfte var att undersöka uppfattningar om psykiskt våld i nära relationer. Etthundrasextionio högskolestudenter, varav 88 kvinnor läste en av två fiktiva vinjetter om psykiskt våld i en nära relation där förövaren var antingen man eller kvinna. Därefter svarade de på en enkät relaterat till vinjetten med frågor från mätinstrumentet Opinions on Domestic Violence Scale (ODVS). Tvåvägs variansanalyser för oberoende mätningar visade att kvinnorna uppfattade situationerna mer allvarligt än männen. När en kvinna blev utsatt för våld uppfattades det mer allvarligt. Resultaten var i linje med tidigare forskning om fysiskt våld. Det är av värde att fortsätta undersöka psykiskt våld i nära relationer för att våldet ska upphöra.