Evaluation of the Effectiveness of the Childhood Development Initiative's Mate-Tricks Pro-Social Behaviour After-School Programme

Mate-Tricks is an after-school programme designed to promote pro-social behaviour in Tallaght West (Dublin). Tallaght West has been designated as an area of particular social and economic disadvantage with high levels of unemployment. Mate-Tricks is a bespoke intervention that combines elements of two pro-social behaviour programmes: the Strengthening Families Program (SFP) and Coping Power Program (CPP). The programme is a one-year multi-session after-school programme comprising 59 children-only sessions, 6 parent-only sessions and 3 family sessions, with each session lasting 1½ hours.The intended outcomes of this programme are stated as follows in the Mate-Tricks manual: enhance children's pro-social development; reduce children's anti-social behaviour; develop children's confidence and self-esteem; improve children's problem-solving skills; improve child-peer interactions; develop reasoning and empathy skills; improve parenting skills; improve parent/child interaction. This evaluation reports on the pilot of this programme. Of the 21 outcomes investigated, 19 showed no significant differences between the children who attended Mate-Tricks and the control group. However, there were 2 statistically significant effects of the Mate-Tricks programme and 3 other effects that approached significance. The lack of effects and the few negative effects found in this study replicates findings in several recent studies of after-school behaviour programmes

What is all the fuzz about? A FMCG brand portfolio case study of formalisation in the front end of innovation

Title: What is all the fuzz about? A FMCG brand portfolio case study of formalisation in the Front End of Innovation. Date of the seminar: 23 May 2017 Course: ENTN39 Master ́s Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation Internship and degree project (Master ́s thesis 15 ECTS) Authors: Mink Kempen and My Magnusson Supervisor: Joakim Winborg Examiner: Ass. Professor Sotaro Shibayama Keywords: Decision Making, Formalisation, Front End of Innovation, Funnelling, New Product Development, Project Portfolio Management, Project Portfolio Objectives. Research question-/s: How does formalisation affect the FEI of a large brand portfolio company and how does formalisation in the FEI affect the project portfolio objectives? Methodology: This paper present a qualitative single case study within the Marketing Department of a large FMCG company in Sweden. Data from eight semi-structured interviews form the foundation of the primary data. The research is conducted with an abductive approach and analysed with the Gioia et al. (2012) method. Theoretical perspectives: The primary theoretical focus is on formalisation in the front end of innovation as there is no consensus on this topic. However, to contribute to a new theory field, a connection between formalisation in the front end is made regarding the three project portfolio objectives (strategic alignment, portfolio value maximisation and portfolio balance). Conclusions: Within the case company, we found that the front end of innovation is mostly formalised. This both positively and negatively affects the front end operationally. Moreover, front end formalisation was found to have a positive effect on the strategic alignment and portfolio value maximisation and a negative effect on the portfolio balance. Additionally, we found a conflict between the objectives, rooted in formalisation

Users' trust in information resources in the Web environment: a status report

This study has three aims; to provide an overview of the ways in which trust is either assessed or asserted in relation to the use and provision of resources in the Web environment for research and learning; to assess what solutions might be worth further investigation and whether establishing ways to assert trust in academic information resources could assist the development of information literacy; to help increase understanding of how perceptions of trust influence the behaviour of information users

Market Structure and Energy Efficiency: The Case of New Commercial Buildings

This is a report on why commercial office buildings aren’t more energy efficient. Several decades of energy efficiency programs have resulted in some gains, but overall increases in the energy efficiency of buildings have fallen far short of the 30 to 50 percent improvement that many efficiency advocates believe is possible. The purpose of this study is to consider the “why” question by empirically examining the dynamics of new commercial building markets. To do so, the authors used multiple research techniques, including qualitative field observation and interview methods that allow for a more in-depth understanding of complicated market processes. Their research focused primarily on new office buildings and centered in four regional markets: Sacramento, San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland. The authors identify key dynamics of commercial office building markets, describe how change and innovation occurs in commercial development, discuss the implications for energy efficiency, and suggest next steps

Informing Intentional Use of Prototyping in Engineering Design: Context-Specific Novice Approaches and Stakeholder Feedback

Prototypes are essential tools that can be used strategically throughout the design process to increase the likelihood that a product achieves stakeholder needs. Prototyping allows physical or visual form to be given to an idea, and research has shown that prototypes have the potential to support communication and improve product requirements elicitation and design input by enabling stakeholders and designers to engage around a “shared space” – the prototype. Despite the numerous benefits of using prototypes throughout a design process, novice designers often limit their use of prototypes to test and verify a chosen concept during the later phases of their processes. Limited studies to date have investigated novice uses of prototypes during the front-end phases of design and the effects of context, stakeholder type, and prototype type on stakeholder feedback. This research leverages approaches from multiple disciplines to characterize 1) novice designers’ uses of prototypes and 2) the effects of various factors on stakeholder design input during engagement with prototypes. We conducted interviews with engineering design students in different contexts to investigate their use of prototypes. We also developed a prototyping best practice framework to evaluate the intentionality in novice designers’ use of prototypes during design. To deepen our understanding of how prototype type can influence stakeholder feedback, we presented various prototypes of a medical device concept to diverse stakeholders, including medical doctors, medical students and nurses and asked questions to elicit feedback on the design. Research findings indicated that novice designers lacked intentionality when using prototypes. Their prototyping behaviors often occurred unintentionally to satisfy course requirements or as a response to failure or setbacks. Novice designers from different contexts favored different prototype types, and all participants underutilized prototypes, particularly during the front-end phases of design and when engaging with stakeholders. Our results further showed that nuances like prototype type, stakeholder group, and question type influenced the quality of stakeholder feedback. Since variation in prototype type, stakeholder group, and question type had a significant effect on the quality of stakeholder feedback, and since most novice designers did not use prototypes intentionally, our findings point to missed opportunities that likely impact several areas: what novice designers learn about using prototypes, the prototyping practices with which they begin professional practice, and ultimately the human-centered design solutions they create. This research leveraged, and has implications for, engineering design, design education, industrial design, design science, and design research methods. We expect that some of our findings, specifically that 1) novice designers lacked intentionality and underutilized prototypes, and 2) the types of prototypes, stakeholders, and questions influenced stakeholder feedback, are transferable to, and can have a broader impact on, other contexts in which prototypes are used. The fact that novice designers lacked intentionality in prototype use suggests that repeated and reflective practice is needed and informs pedagogical and industrial approaches throughout the engineering education and practice spectrum. We recommend that educators encourage a broader, more frequent use of prototypes during engineering design processes. By doing so, novice designers can develop the knowledge structures necessary to use prototypes intentionally, and intentionally with stakeholders, during design.PHDDesign ScienceUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/144132/1/midei_1.pd

Teachers\u27 Perceptions of How the Teacher Evaluation Process Impacts Classroom Instruction in Three High Poverty School Districts

Abstract Improving the educational system for students and teachers is of the upmost importance. Educational leaders have realized that the best way to improve student success is by improving teachers’ instructional practices and measuring their effectiveness (Mathers, Oliva, & Laine, 2008). Because of this awareness, educators have realized the importance of connecting student achievement with instructional practices and instructional practices with teacher effectiveness. Evaluation tools are used to measure how effective teachers are in their classrooms. Evaluations are crucial in assisting our teachers in their professional growth. When evaluations are utilized as supportive tools, they help teachers and administrators identify strengths and weakness, but more importantly they prescribe strategies to assist teachers in improvement. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore teachers’ perceptions of the evaluation systems and understand if and how they influence classroom instructional practices. The participants consisted of twelve teachers in the state of Louisiana. Data was extracted through semi-structured interviews and coded for common themes. Through these themes, the researcher formed a narrative format to voice the participants’ experiences. The study concludes that teacher evaluation has minimal influence on instructional practice. Data suggested issues with the design of evaluation systems, the implementation of such systems, and the basic challenge of using a single system to evaluate all teachers regardless of personal or workplace characteristics

Screening and assessment tools for gaming disorder: A comprehensive systematic review

The inclusion of gaming disorder (GD) as an official diagnosis in the ICD-11 was a significant milestone for the field. However, the optimal measurement approaches for GD are currently unclear. This comprehensive systematic review aimed to identify and evaluate all available English-language GD tools and their corresponding evidence. A search of PsychINFO, PsychArticles, ScienceDirect, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar identified 32 tools employed in 320 studies (N = 462,249 participants). The evaluation framework examined tools in relation to: (1) conceptual and practical considerations; (2) alignment with DSM-5 and ICD-11 criteria; (3) type and quantity of studies and samples; and (4) psychometric properties. The evaluation showed that GD instrumentation has proliferated, with 2.5 tools, on average, published annually since 2013. Coverage of DSM-5 and ICD-11 criteria was inconsistent, especially for the criterion of continued use despite harm. Tools converge on the importance of screening for impaired control over gaming and functional impairment. Overall, no single tool was found to be clearly superior, but the AICA-Sgaming, GAS-7, IGDT-10, IGDS9-SF, and Lemmens IGD-9 scales had greater evidential support for their psychometric properties. The GD field would benefit from a standard international tool to identify gaming-related harms across the spectrum of maladaptive gaming behaviors.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Teachers\u27 Perceptions of How the Teacher Evaluation Process Impacts Classroom Instruction in Three High Poverty School Districts

Abstract Improving the educational system for students and teachers is of the upmost importance. Educational leaders have realized that the best way to improve student success is by improving teachers’ instructional practices and measuring their effectiveness (Mathers, Oliva, & Laine, 2008). Because of this awareness, educators have realized the importance of connecting student achievement with instructional practices and instructional practices with teacher effectiveness. Evaluation tools are used to measure how effective teachers are in their classrooms. Evaluations are crucial in assisting our teachers in their professional growth. When evaluations are utilized as supportive tools, they help teachers and administrators identify strengths and weakness, but more importantly they prescribe strategies to assist teachers in improvement. The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study was to explore teachers’ perceptions of the evaluation systems and understand if and how they influence classroom instructional practices. The participants consisted of twelve teachers in the state of Louisiana. Data was extracted through semi-structured interviews and coded for common themes. Through these themes, the researcher formed a narrative format to voice the participants’ experiences. The study concludes that teacher evaluation has minimal influence on instructional practice. Data suggested issues with the design of evaluation systems, the implementation of such systems, and the basic challenge of using a single system to evaluate all teachers regardless of personal or workplace characteristics