In spite of a multi-decade mandate to enact inquiry in science, research reports that a large gap continues to exist in Ontario between the vision of science education presented in curriculum documents and what is enacted in the classroom. A three-staged, mixed methods design was chosen to examine teachers’ beliefs and practices that contribute to an understanding of this longstanding gap in teaching practice related to inquiry. The participants in this study were secondary school science teachers currently employed by one medium-sized, urban & rural district public school board. Quantitative data was first collected through a self-reporting survey designed to explore teachers’ beliefs related to teaching and learning in inquiry. Completed questionnaires were submitted by 80 % (n = 83) of the population of science teachers. Qualitative data, collected through semi-structured interviews (n = 17), were used to confirm and expand the quantitative findings. Quantitative analysis resulted in the development of an empirical framework to illustrate the dimensionality of teachers’ beliefs and practices related to inquiry. Four types of science teachers were identified during qualitative analysis, each associated with a preferred type of inquiry and each identifiable by a cluster of beliefs. A stance was determined for each of these types of teachers representing their generalized view of teaching and learning related to inquiry including: utilitarian science, content-based science, authentic contextual science, and citizenship science. Additionally, each group of teachers could be associated with one of the four quadrants in my framework. Lastly, a beliefs profile was produced to represent each quadrant in this framework based on integration of the quantitative and qualitative findings. Challenges to enactment and types of program support to foster enactment of open-ended inquiry were identified by science teachers associated with each stance. A few of these challenges and types of program support represent newer areas for research that can inform educational leaders and teacher-educators and support decision-making so as to meet the diverse needs of both pre-service and in-service science teachers, thereby, fostering the enactment of open-ended inquiry as practical science.

In spite of a multi-decade mandate to enact inquiry in science, research reports that a large gap continues to exist in Ontario between the vision of science education presented in curriculum documents and what is enacted in the classroom. A three-staged, mixed methods design was chosen to examine teachers’ beliefs and practices that contribute to an understanding of this longstanding gap in teaching practice related to inquiry. The participants in this study were secondary school science teachers currently employed by one medium-sized, urban & rural district public school board. Quantitative data was first collected through a self-reporting survey designed to explore teachers’ beliefs related to teaching and learning in inquiry. Completed questionnaires were submitted by 80 % (n = 83) of the population of science teachers. Qualitative data, collected through semi-structured interviews (n = 17), were used to confirm and expand the quantitative findings. Quantitative analysis resulted in the development of an empirical framework to illustrate the dimensionality of teachers’ beliefs and practices related to inquiry. Four types of science teachers were identified during qualitative analysis, each associated with a preferred type of inquiry and each identifiable by a cluster of beliefs. A stance was determined for each of these types of teachers representing their generalized view of teaching and learning related to inquiry including: utilitarian science, content-based science, authentic contextual science, and citizenship science. Additionally, each group of teachers could be associated with one of the four quadrants in my framework. Lastly, a beliefs profile was produced to represent each quadrant in this framework based on integration of the quantitative and qualitative findings. Challenges to enactment and types of program support to foster enactment of open-ended inquiry were identified by science teachers associated with each stance. A few of these challenges and types of program support represent newer areas for research that can inform educational leaders and teacher-educators and support decision-making so as to meet the diverse needs of both pre-service and in-service science teachers, thereby, fostering the enactment of open-ended inquiry as practical science.

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The article discusses the concept of families, who get income support, and child’s, growing in such a family, learning motivation. People are considered to be in poverty if they lack sufficient material, cultural and social resources to ensure the minimum standard of living that has been formed in their country. Family microclimate makes very large influence on the growing up children. Cordiality in relationship among family members, psychological and pedagogical harmony creates favorable conditions for personality development. The disorder and dissonance in family microclimate becomes especially serious reason in development of negative personality of the child. The negative development manifests itself in the character peculiarities, behavior and learning motivation. The analysis of family status enables us to make a statement that the family is one of the factors, which influences child’s learning motivation. The poor families usually are distinguished in conflicts mostly arising because of shortage of money. The object of the article: children’s, who are not attending school, rarely attending school and having low learning motivation, and living in family, who gets public assistance, attitude towards learning. The problem: influence of the family, who gets income support, to child’s learning motivation The article objective: discusses the concept of families, who get public assistance, and child’s, growing in such a family, learning motivation.

This study sought to further our understanding of the antecedents of employee perceptions of organisational justice in the context of organisational restructuring. As such, this study focussed on the previously under-researched change management practices of support for downsizing victims and organisational communication quality, and the similarly under-researched organisational justice dimensions of interpersonal and informational justice, while also hypothesising a moderating effect of perceived supervisor support between these two sets of variables. Using an online survey, a total of 234 employees from a large New Zealand organisation in the Education sector were invited to participate in the study, with 71 volunteering to complete the online survey. The results showed no moderating effects of perceived supervisor support, but did show strong, significant main effects of victim support and communication quality on both interpersonal and informational justice. These findings highlight the importance of change management practices in maximising positive outcomes post-restructuring for the organisation and its employees.

Populations in developed and developing countries are becoming increasingly sedentary and the adverse health effects of relatively sedentary lifestyles, the so called lifestyle diseases, are now obvious. However, moderately vigorous physical activity is positively linked via a cause-and-effect relationship with a range of improved health outcomes. Broadly, current physical activity recommendations suggest that adults should achieve a total of at least 30 minutes a day of at least moderate intensity physical activity on five or more days of the week; however, estimates suggest that the majority of adults in the Western World do not meet these recommendations. Many of the factors involved in the initiation and long-term maintenance of physical activity are not fully understood. Considering the rapid pace of technological development and the general move away from labour-based economies, it does appear that the required level of physical activity necessary for optimal health needs to come from leisure-time activity– specifically, planned, regular, moderately vigorous exercise and/or sport. Unfortunately, many people experience great difficulty in engaging with and maintaining a physically active lifestyle and typically there is a rather large gap between what people know to be healthy and what they actually do. The general aim of this project was to design, implement and evaluate the clinical, social and behavioural effectiveness of a buddy-Motivational Interviewing intervention (buddy-MI) in assisting relatively sedentary adults to adopt and maintain regular physical activity for the purpose of improving their cardio-respiratory fitness, health, and quality of life. Specific aims of the intervention included formally involving social support (via the self-selected motivational-buddy) and strengthening individuals’ motivation for and movement toward their physical activity goals. The experimental intervention specifically aimed to extend the MI treatment effect by enhancing participants’ commitment to physical activity over time via intra-treatment social support (support provided within treatment sessions) as well as extra-treatment social support (day-to-day support) provided by the motivational-buddy. A fundamental was to deliver the intervention in a format that could realistically be implemented within typical primary care settings, workplaces, schools or other similar setting: to work towards healthier more active communities and to potentially reduce health system resource utilisation. Using a repeated-measures pragmatic parallel group randomised controlled trial (RCT) design, relatively sedentary adolescents and adults, in stable health, recruited from a university campus population were allocated to one of two interventions. In the experimental intervention, participants were supported by a self-selected motivational-buddy and they received 2-4 sessions of buddy-MI over a period of 12-months (participant determined schedule) as well as pro-active follow-up emails. The control intervention was standard care MI, and the same email follow-up as in the experimental group but without the additional support of a motivational-buddy. The main outcomes were self-reported physical activity, cardio-respiratory fitness and health related quality of life. These primary outcomes were measured at four time-points over the 12-months intervention and follow-up period and quantitative methods were used to analyse the data. Qualitative data were also analysed and presented in relation to the motivational-buddy component of the intervention. The study evaluated the feasibility and incremental effectiveness of motivational-buddy support compared to one-on-one MI in people who had expressed an interest in becoming more physically active. It used a novel intervention design incorporating self-selected motivational-buddies in an effort to mitigate the twin problems of poor adherence and behavioural regression that are commonly associated with physical activity promotion programmes. The intervention was found to have merit and the potential implications for the health-care system, and the wider community, are discussed.

In the two years 1994 and 2013 the focus of the Swedish media in the school debate has been on segregation, freedom of choice, and support for weak students. In 2013 while the media was still united on the above issues the overall emphasis is on profitability. In 1994 the focus was more on weak students who in 2013 are considered unprofitable. The purpose of this essay is to study the Swedish media and their debate on Swedish schools and witch concepts related to "one school that fits all" in the year 1994 and also in 2013. We have analysed related articles and their concepts, norms, and values to see if there are any differences between their focus on the said issues in the two years. We have also studied the ideas and concepts that came under scrutiny and discussion in these two years, and shall investigate if there are differences in the debates conducted in 1994 and those conducted in 2013.

Trots att många menar att Human Resources har en allt viktigare roll i förändringsprocesser råder det brist på studier som undersöker på vilket sätt de i sitt dagliga arbete är involverade i förändringsprocesser och hur de interagerar med andra aktörer inom organisationen under processen. Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka vad HR bidrar med kopplat till processen vid planerade organisationsförändringar. Undersökningens frågeställning inriktades på vilka olika roller HR kan ta vid planerade organisationsförändringar samt vilka faktorer som påverkar HR´s delaktighet i dessa. Studien har en kvalitativ hermeneutisk ansats och baseras på sex semistrukturerade intervjuer med HR-medarbetare på två olika organisationer inom privat sektor. Resultatet visar på att HR framförallt tar två olika typer av roller som vi har benämnt supportrollen och den självständiga rollen. Dessa kopplar vi i analysen sedan till två övergripande roller som HR kan utgå ifrån i sitt agerande. De faktorer vi har sett i vår studie som påverkar HR´s delaktighet i förändringsprocesser är brist på tid, stort avstånd till kärnverksamheten och medarbetarna, vilken relation de har till cheferna samt vilken typ av förändring det handlar om.

The thesis examines the adaptive responses of North and South Korea to change in the international system and analyzes the effects on their international standing. The framework of analysis is constructed from a selective review of the literature on hegemony and its relationship to international order and change. Special attention is given to the position of peripheral states, and how they are conditioned by and respond to the international order. The framework of analysis includes concepts such as the structure of opportunities, emulation of forms, imposition of forms, and regime rigidities. It is posited that to the degree to which a regime achieves congruence between domestic and foreign policies and the main trends in the international system, it will be more successful in enhancing its standing. In order to do so, a regime must manage its own adjustment to overcome regime rigidities and exploit opportunities for ascendance in the international system. The thesis examines the competition for international support between North and South Korea between 1948 and 1994. It analyzes the fluctuations in the level of international support for each regime, with reference to key changes in the international system. It produces an explanation for the pattern of international support for each regime, according to the policies they pursued during each distinct period of recent international history. It is shown that North Korea did comparatively well in the first two decades after the Korean War, and that South Korea did comparatively better in the subsequent two decades. This was due to the nature of changes in the international system and the divergent adaptive responses by the two Koreas. Regime rigidities increased in North Korea, while South Korea demonstrated pragmatic flexibility, accompanying its economic diplomacy.

This thesis examines, on the basis of gender, the issues surrounding the occurrence of conflict as it is experienced by ministers of the Church of Scotland working as the only person, ordained to Word and Sacrament, in their parish. The investigation used both quantitative and qualitative instruments to gather data from a sample of 123 females and 770 males out of a population of 123 females and 1042 males. The instruments were posted together in a single mailing in order to preserve the anonymity of the respondents. The survey data identified in particular the high percentage of respondents who claimed some experience of conflict in their present or immediate past Charge; the level of that conflict as assessed by the respondents using the range developed by Leas and Kittlaus, and the time in the parish before conflict occurred. The research also highlighted a general lack of any formal training in conflict management. The qualitative data served to highlight the wide range of issues, which have been identified as conflict generators within congregations of the Church of Scotland. The data indicates the range of conflict encounters experienced by both males and females based on the Leas and Kittlaus' theory of five levels of conflict intensity. Nine case studies have also been examined in-depth. They include one male and one female for Leas and Kittlaus' levels one to four. There is also one male at level five but no female equivalent as no respondent identified herself as being in this category. The data from the two instruments has allowed ten conclusions with accompanying recommendations, which are to be made to the Church of Scotland. Of these conclusions and recommendations, one of the most significant is the proposal to appoint a Ministry Adviser to every minister entering a new parish, irrespective of age and seniority, as a mechanism to assist with conflict avoidance. In addition, a number of areas of possible future research have been identified on this and related topics.