The purpose of this research was to examine teacher perspectives and attitudes on inclusive education for children with disabilities in Fiji. Teachers' perspectives and attitudes are crucial in providing insights that could help improve education and services for children with disabilities in regular schools in Fiji. A qualitative approach using semi structured interviews was selected as the methodology for this research. Nine teachers from nine different schools in Suva, the capital city of Fiji, participated in this research. The nine participants were selected from three different school settings. Three of the participants were from special schools, three were from primary schools and three were from secondary schools. Data collected showed that teachers support inclusive education, however, they had reservations on the inclusion of students with severe disabilities. Several factors were identified to influence teachers' attitudes towards inclusion. The most common factors were severity of disability that the students had, inadequate training of teachers on teaching students with disabilities, inadequate government funding, lack of specialised resource personnel and lack of appropriate equipment and resources to support students and teachers in the teaching learning process. Limited commitment from the Ministry of Education and limited participation and consultation of teachers on policy and curriculum design were also identified as contributing factors for non inclusion of students with disabilities in regular schools. Teachers need to change their perspectives and attitudes and schools need to be welcoming and prepared to accept all students with disabilities into the general education system in Fiji.

This qualitative research study explored perceptions of parents who believe their child was bullied by a teacher. The definition used for this study was from McEvoy (2005),a pattern of conduct, rooted in a power differential that threatens, harms, humiliates, induces fear, or causes emotional distress(p. 1).<p>Three individual parent or parent partners were asked to share their stories about their perceived experiences with a bullying teacher. A number of questions guided this research: How do parents come to believe their child is being bullied by a teacher? What are the specific behaviours of the teacher that are perceived by parents as bullying? How do parents respond to their belief their child is being bullied by a teacher? What is the result of the parental response? What are the implications for teacher practice and education?<p>Themes and patterns were derived from the interview data using reflective analysis techniques. The data revealed parent participants came to the belief their child was being bullied by a teacher through their childrens stories, first impressions of the teacher, validation from others regarding their perceptions and their childs physical and behavioural changes. Teacher bullying behaviours identified by the participants paralleled those discussed in the literature. Parents responded to their belief their children were being bullied by following understood school protocol and meeting with the teacher. When parents felt the teacher had employed power tactics, they were motivated to take further action. The participants past experience with schools, and power and authority perceptions also affected parental responses. Parents expressed feelings of guilt for not acting more quickly to safeguard their child. Parents reported the school communities did not directly address the teacher bullying issue. <p>Implications emerged for all stakeholders in the school community. For professional associations, school division administrators and board members the focus for change rests with a re-examination of bullying policy and professional codes of ethics. For school principals, symptoms of teacher bullying behaviours and teacher stress and may need more attention. For teachers, building relationships and presenting a professional and caring demeanor are significant considerations influencing parental perceptions. For parents, validation to action comes from listening to their childrens stories and recognizing the symptoms of teacher bullying. Validation and getting involved in their school community may prompt intervention.

Full-time employed and unemployed adults' life level of analysis future time perspective (FTP) and work level of analysis occupational future time perspective (OFTP) were evaluated to measure differences between FTP conceptualizations and the validity of OFTP in the work domain. A final sample of 304 full-time employed and 98 unemployed job seeking adults completed a self-report online battery including demographic, work history, FTP, work-related attitudes, and personality measures. Results found the three FTP conceptualizations [Carstensen and Lang Future Time Perspective Scale (CL-FTP); Zimbardo and Boyd Future Factor (ZBF); and Consideration for Future Consequences Scale (CFC] were differentially related to achievement striving and planfulness. The CL-FTP scale was weakly, significantly and not significantly related to the CFC and ZBF scales, respectively. In addition, results indicated OFTP had a significantly stronger relationship with chronological age than CL-FTP and OFTP added incremental validity beyond general CL-FTP in predicting work-related attitudes. Lastly, mean differences in CL-FTP and OFTP scores by employment status were obtained, indicating that OFTP may be susceptible to change via work characteristics. Further exploratory analyses and theoretical and practical implications of the current findings are discussed.

This qualitative research study explored perceptions of parents who believe their child was bullied by a teacher. The definition used for this study was from McEvoy (2005),a pattern of conduct, rooted in a power differential that threatens, harms, humiliates, induces fear, or causes emotional distress(p. 1).<p>Three individual parent or parent partners were asked to share their stories about their perceived experiences with a bullying teacher. A number of questions guided this research: How do parents come to believe their child is being bullied by a teacher? What are the specific behaviours of the teacher that are perceived by parents as bullying? How do parents respond to their belief their child is being bullied by a teacher? What is the result of the parental response? What are the implications for teacher practice and education?<p>Themes and patterns were derived from the interview data using reflective analysis techniques. The data revealed parent participants came to the belief their child was being bullied by a teacher through their childrens stories, first impressions of the teacher, validation from others regarding their perceptions and their childs physical and behavioural changes. Teacher bullying behaviours identified by the participants paralleled those discussed in the literature. Parents responded to their belief their children were being bullied by following understood school protocol and meeting with the teacher. When parents felt the teacher had employed power tactics, they were motivated to take further action. The participants past experience with schools, and power and authority perceptions also affected parental responses. Parents expressed feelings of guilt for not acting more quickly to safeguard their child. Parents reported the school communities did not directly address the teacher bullying issue. <p>Implications emerged for all stakeholders in the school community. For professional associations, school division administrators and board members the focus for change rests with a re-examination of bullying policy and professional codes of ethics. For school principals, symptoms of teacher bullying behaviours and teacher stress and may need more attention. For teachers, building relationships and presenting a professional and caring demeanor are significant considerations influencing parental perceptions. For parents, validation to action comes from listening to their childrens stories and recognizing the symptoms of teacher bullying. Validation and getting involved in their school community may prompt intervention.

As the population of the United States becomes more diverse, it is important that research be done to inform the implementation of psychological services that meet the needs of a wide variety of ethnic and socioeconomic groups. Research suggests that minority and low-SES clients with mental health disorders are underserved and receive inferior care when they do receive treatment. Although a large body of theory on multicultural counseling competence (MCC) has been developed over the last 30 years, little empirical research has been done in this area. This research proposal reviews the current research and theory and proposes the development and norming of a consumer measure of MCC. / text

The purpose of this study was to investigate the meaning of music education to middle school students in general music classrooms.Specifically, this study addresses the following questions:1. What meaning do middle school general music students derive from their musical education?2. Do underlying dimensions exist in this meaning? If these dimensions do exist, what are they and what relationships exist among them?To answer these questions, a two-part study was proposed. In part one, a survey instrument was created by gathering middle school students' responses to an open-ended question. The 178 participants generated 670 responses. These responses were analyzed and then reduced to 147 relatively distinct statements of meaning. Responses were analyzed qualitatively by grouping the items with others that appeared similar. In the second part of the study, student responses were used to construct a survey, called the Music Meaning Survey (MMS). The survey was first piloted in Tucson, Arizona with a sample of students (N = 96), in order to test the clarity and usability of the MMS. The results of the pilot survey were factor analyzed using principal components analysis and a varimax rotation. The factor analysis confirmed the existence of five factor categories: Psychological, Future Music Goals, Academic-Musical, Performing/Music Making and Integrative (social).A total of 50 statements of meaning were used for the final version of the Music Meaning Survey. The MMS was then administered during the spring of 2005. According to the MMS, subjects did ascribe particular meaning to music education. In particular, it was found that the meaning students derived from their music education experience could be assimilated into four categories: Vocational (career-oriented outcomes for learning about music), Academic (academic aspects of music class such as reading music, learning about composers, and musical styles), Belongingness (social interactions between individual students and groups of students), and Agency (related to students' self-esteem, motivation, and emotional development). The primary conclusion that can be drawn from this study is that for middle school students, music class can be a meaningful and multi-faceted experience.

In this dissertation we identify two problems with current integrated development environments (IDEs) and present JQuery as a tool to address these issues. The first problem is that IDE views answer low level questions and do not provide a mechanism to combine results to answer complex higher level questions. Even relatively simple questions force the developers to mentally combine results from different views. The second problem is that IDEs do not provide an easy way to create perspectives on project specific concerns such as naming conventions or annotations. Most IDEs do offer support for creating custom perspectives but the effort required to create a perspective is considerably more than the benefit a custom perspective provides. JQuery is an Eclipse plugin which generates code views using an expressive query language. We have redesigned JQuery to support a number of new user interface (UI) features and add a more flexible architecture with better support for extending the UI. To address the first problem, we have added multiple views to JQuery where each view supports drag and drop of results, selection linking, and regular expression search. These features enable a user to combine results from different views to answer more complex higher level questions. To address the second problem, we can leverage the fact that JQuery is built on an expressive query language. Through this query language we are able to define project specific concerns such as naming conventions or annotations and then create views and perspectives for these concerns through the JQuery UI.

Magistro darbe yra suformuluotos komercinio banko kreditų portfelio formavimo problemos. Remiantis Lietuvos ir užsienio autorių moksline literatūra, pateikti banko kreditų portfelio valdymo metodai ir jų taikymo galimybės. Atlikta AB „Šiaulių bankas“ kreditų portfelio kitimo analizė. Pasiūlyta paskolų apimties didinimo perspektyva bei jos ekonominė nauda bankui. Pirmoji – konceptualioji baigiamojo magistro darbo dalis skirta teoriniams klausimams nagrinėti, remiantis moksline literatūra. Analizuojama Lietuvos mokslininkų F. Jasevičienės, V. Vaškelaičio, D. Ivaškevičiaus, G. Kancerevyčiaus, taip pat užsienio mokslininkų J. Bessis, E. I. Altman ekonominė literatūra, nagrinėjami ir analizuojami paskolų vertinimo, grupavimo ir pelningumo principai. Antroje dalyje analizuojamos AB “Šiaulių bankas“ kreditų kitimo tendencijos. Taikant statistinius metodus atlikta paskolų portfelio apimties kitimo ir struktūros analizė. Taip pat taikant statistinius metodus nustatyta, kas labiausiai veikė visą paskolų portfelio didėjimą. Konstruktyviojoje dalyje analizuojant AB “Šiaulių bankas“ paskolų portfelio kitimo tendencijas, pritaikius statistinius metodus atlikta prognozė 2007 – 2008 metams. Atlikus įvairių autorių nuomonių įvertinimą bei apžvelgus kreditų kitimo tendencijas AB „Šiaulių banke“ pateikiami pasiūlymai kredito portfelio apimčiai didinti. / In the master’s paper portfolio formation problems are formulated for commercial bank credits. Basing upon the Lithuanian and foreign scientific literature, bank credit portfolio control methods and application opportunities are given. AB Siauliu bankas credit portfolio change analysis is done. Loan volume increase perspective and its economic benefit for the bank are suggested. The first, the conceptual part of the master’s paper is dedicated to analyse theoretical questions basing upon scientific literature. Economic literature of Lithuanian scientists F.Jaseviciene, V.Vaskelaitis, D.Ivaskevicius, G.Kancerevycius as well as foreign authors J.Bessis, E.I.Altman is analysed, loan assessment, grouping and profitability principles are analysed. In the second part I analyse AB Siauliu bankas credit change trends. Applying statistical methods, loan portfolio volume change and structure analysis is performed. Also, applying statistical methods, the factors which influenced increase of the loan portfolio are established. In the constructive pat, by analysing AB Siauliu bankas loan portfolio change trends, applying statistical methods, forecast for 2007-2008 is done. After having assessed opinions of various authors and reviewed credit change trends in AB Siauliu bankas, suggestions for increase of credit portfolio volume are given.

Health research and services are dominated by a biomedical model which understands health as the absence of disease in the physical body. The dominance of this approach has resulted in the absence, silence and refutation of lay perspectives on health, particularly those of visible minority groups. Using qualitative interview methods, this study provides an avenue to hear the voices and stories of church-going, low-income Black women who live in Toronto, Canada. Analysis of the data shows that for this group of women, the meanings of health and the way it is experienced can be seen as an amalgamation of spiritual principles which holistically touches the various domains of their lives. The women in this study experience health as emotional, social, communal, personal, physical, material and above all in spiritual dimensions. These findings would be useful in guiding the development of meaningful and effective health care services that are sensitive to the diverse experiences of health. / Thesis (Master, Kinesiology & Health Studies) -- Queen's University, 2007-11-12 20:58:32.724

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