The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between instructional environment and student engagement during reading instruction. Environment is composed of three key elements: teacher attributes, instructional methods, and the physical classroom setting (Blair, Rupley, & Nichols, 2007; De Naeghel, Van Keer, Vansteenkiste, & Rosseel, 2012; Guthrie, Hoa, Wigfield, Tonks, & Perencevich, 2006; Housand & Reis, 2008). This study examined a first, second, and third grade classroom in one East Tennessee school. Qualitative data was collected using a combination of instructional observation and teacher interviews in order to examine existing practices for successfully engaging young readers. Teachers for each of the classrooms were interviewed; following the interview, each teacher’s classroom was observed three times to examine the teacher’s attributes and most frequently used instructional methods, the physical classroom setting, and the expressed level of engagement of the student body in the classroom. The findings indicate that environment in terms of teacher attributes, instructional methods, and physical classroom setting affects student reading engagement; classrooms with high levels of organization, novel reading areas, and opportunity for students to select reading material were found particularly effective for reading engagement.

According to a dominant discourse in contemporary writings and research, we are living in a Knowledge Economy where knowledge is seen as the pre-eminent resource and the key to success for individuals as well as organizations and nations. Consequently, much effort in management research has been dedicated to devising new concepts and theories such as the knowledge-based theory of the firm and the intellectual capital perspective, all premised on the assumption that knowledge work is somehow different from other forms of work. But what, actually, is knowledge work? And what is it that makes it so different? This dissertation represents an attempt to make some sense of this discourse. Research themes investigate the role of tangible and intangible dimensions of knowledge work and organizations. Particular attention is paid to organizational identity and the physical work environment. The notion of identity is central to the Knowledge Economy Rhetoric, while the physical setting is a neglected, but potentially important, aspect of knowledge work and identity construction. Various theoretical and methodological perspectives were applied throughout the research process to illuminate these themes. The thesis covers two empirical case studies; one of a small high-tech firm in the telecommunications sector as it developed a knowledge based strategy. The other study explored the relationship between the design of the office and identity construction in a large IT/management consulting firm. In addition, a study of the literature on the organizational category of knowledge-intensive firms was conducted to explore the dominant constructions of knowledge work within the research community. The results from these studies are presented in five papers. While addressing different questions, the papers all deal with some aspect of sensemaking of, or in, knowledge work. The first paper describes how the management team in the case company went through a process to make sense of the intangible dimensions of their organization. The second paper is a conceptual treatise outlining an alternative conceptualization of strategy for knowledge-intensive firms that emphasizes the importance of identity. Paper three provides an analysis of how the category of knowledge-intensive firms is used in the research literature and the consequences thereof. In paper four branding is analyzed as a management practice. The last paper discusses the role of emotion, ambivalence and embodied experience of the physical environment in identity construction. The exposition reflects further on the insights from this journey and what they entail for making sense of knowledge work. It is argued that a better understanding of knowledge work has to take the knowledge worker – the individual – as the starting point for theorizing. Taking this position requires us to scrutinize the theoretical perspectives that guide our conceptualizations of the knowledge worker. Theoretical perspectives are constructions that allow us to see certain things and not others. Current conceptualizations are, by necessity, extensions of earlier dominant perspectives or worldviews. Based on the findings from the empirical studies, an alternative perspective is proposed that takes the embodied experience of the knowledge worker as a point of departure. Implications of this perspective for conceptualizing and studying knowledge work are then discussed. / QC 20100917

When human constructs the physical surrounding, a psychological environment of meanings is being created, accompanying the world of shapes and masses. Interventions into built environment affect the meanings extracted from the composition of the physical setting and the response of people to design strategies reveals the importance of them. The entrance spine of a city is important in creating an image of the city in the minds of the observers, and the protocol highway of Ankara introduces the city to other countries&amp / #8217 / leaders and visitors. So any intervention into this highway will affect the symbolic image formed. As such, attaching claddings onto visible fa&ccedil / ades of buildings in terms of beautification changes the appearance of the streetscape, and Municipality&amp / #8217 / s approach to fa&ccedil / ade improvement does not heed the prestige of this corridor / being an application rather than a well-advised project. This thesis aims to study the quality of the streetscape under the principles of design in terms of objective and subjective dimensions with respect to the physical characteristics of the setting and people&amp / #8217 / s interpretations from it, and the objective of this study is to question the success of this intervention with regard to solutions to improve the quality of the streetscape. To this end evaluative analyses are studied in the second chapter and the third chapter introduces a matrix of design principles. According to these evaluations, most design concerns are being underestimated, resulting in the monotony of the streetscape but the streetscape appears to be visually more ordered compared to the past.

In this thesis I focus on the preventive strategy called Crime prevention through environmental design (CPTED). The aim of this strategy is to act preventively against crime and to reduce fear of crime by means of modification of the physical setting in public spaces. CPTED is theoretically based mainly on findings of crime geography, environmental criminology and architecture. After presenting this concept at the theoretical level I focus on six concrete locations in Prague. On the basis of my field research I investigate if the principles of CPTED are applied in these locations. I also refer to differences between locations, where the preventive principles were applied and locations without use of the CPTED standards. Through the use of questionnaires I try to verify if people really feel safer in places where the principles of CPTED were used. Then I observe the types of activites and the structure of people in those six examined locations. Semistructured interviews with the employees of the Prague municipal police were realised to complete the characteristics of these places. In the last part of the thesis I consider the possibilities of design adjustments in the unsuitable locations according to the CPTED principles.