Teaching mathematics using the internet

This paper examines teachers\u27 use of the Internet in the teaching and learning of Mathematics. The study draws upon data collected via an online survey and interviews with six teachers. It reports on their beliefs, strategies for use and their perceptions on how it impacts on students and their learning of mathematics. Some comparisons are made between the ways teachers used the Internet.<br /

Organisationstheorie, ihre gesellschaftliche Relevanz und "gesellschaftstheoretische Herausforderung"

Die Autoren diskutieren anhand jüngerer Publikationen den Stand der organisationstheoretischen Forschung. Auf der Basis der theoretischen Entwicklungslinien in Deutschland, England und den USA, arbeitet der Text die Problematik der fehlenden gesellschaftstheoretischen Einbettung etablierter Ansätze heraus. Die Autoren geben schließlich Hinweise in welche Richtung die Theorie-Debatte fortgesetzt werden könnte. Dabei stehen der Bezug der Organisationstheorie auf Sozialstrukturanalyse, Industriesoziologie und Kapitalismustheorie im Mittelpunkt der Diskussion

THE EFFECTS OF AN AQUATIC INTERVENTION PROGRAM ON THE DISCOMFORTS OF PREGNANCY

Approximately 50% to 80% of pregnant women complain of low back pain, edema, and other discomforts. Although exercise programs have been recommended to decrease the discomforts of pregnancy and improve body image. There is a paucity of research in this area. There is very little research on exercise in water, despite theoretical and empirical advantages of such activity. This study’s aims were to determine the impact of an aquatic exercise intervention program on pregnant women’s body image, self-efficacy, perception of barriers to health-promoting behaviors, health-promoting behaviors, mobility, and discomforts. Pender’s Health Promotion Model (1996) served as the framework for the study. A two group quasi-experimental, pretest/post-test design was used. A convenience sample of 40 pregnant women who were at least 19 weeks gestation without medical complications as defined by the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists comprised the sample. The experimental group (n = 20) participated in a six-week aquatic exercise program involving three 60-minute sessions per week. The exercises were designed to strengthen the pregnant woman’s abdominal muscles and flexibility. The control group received no intervention. Data were analyzed using analysis of covariance. The discomfort and mobility pretest scores were entered into the ANCOVA equation as covariates on all hypothesis tests. The participants in the exercise intervention group had a statistically significant improved level of body image (F = 3.44, p = 0.05, increased participation in health promoting behaviors (F = 3.58, p = 0.05), less discomfort (F = 33.07, p = \u3c0.001), and improved mobility (F = 40.61, p = \u3c0.001) than pregnant women who do not participate in the aquatic exercise. There was no statistically significant difference between the groups in the areas of perceived self-efficacy and barriers to health promoting behaviors

Learning The ABC\u27s: Family Involvement in Kindergarten Literacy

The present study investigated home literacy environments established through reading with children, engaging in literacy activities, and having literacy materials provided, along with families\u27 participation in literacy-related school events. One hundred one kindergarten children and their families from five classrooms in two inner-city urban elementary schools were invited to participate in the Learning the ABCs project. A total of 68 families gave consent. Participation in the project included receiving 15 weeks of Home Literacy Bags. The 68 participating children were randomly assigned into two intervention groups using cluster sampling of the five classes. Group One received weekly bags with four activities while Group Two received weekly bags with four activities, a variety of materials, and one book. The primary purpose of this study was to determine the strength of four family involvement variables (reading with children, engaging in literacy activities, having literacy materials provided, and participating in literacy-related events at school) in predicting kindergarten students\u27 gain scores on three literacy assessments (ALRI, TERA-3, and DIBELS). The primary research question was: To what extent can kindergarten students\u27 ALRI, TERA-3, and DIBELS gain scores be explained by participation in family involvement activities? A secondary purpose of the study was to determine which of the family involvement activities was the strongest predictor of kindergarten students\u27 literacy achievement as measured by the literacy assessments. The secondary research question was: Which family involvement activity is the strongest predictor of gains in kindergarten students\u27 letter and sound knowledge and phonological awareness? Literacy assessments were implemented using a pre/post test design. The literacy gain scores served as the dependent variables and the family involvement activities served as the independent variables. Each variable set was included in a regression analysis, which was followed up with an analysis of regression structure coefficients (rs) to determine the individual variable contributions

Sense-making and authorising in the organisation of mental health care

This study narrates the organisation of mental health care via an ethnographic case study of a NHS Trust mental health directorate in England in the 1990s, during implementation of the Care Programme Approach (CPA). It seeks to understand how things are organised such that someone gets treated, by someone; in some way, and how far this mode of organisation commits people to courses of action and makes them accountable. Various stories are told - in different ways, using different theoretical frameworks, and pitched at different levels of analysis. The thesis deploys two 'ontological themes' to do this: sense-making and authorising. Sense-making refers to the processes of how people understand and act; authorising refers to the limits and stabilisation of sense-making, the fixing and legitimation of versions of the truth. The systems story of organisation narrates a gap between what was anticipated by government policy by introducing the CPA, and what happened, with regard to systems of care and forms of responsibility and accountability. 'The teamwork story narrates organising as accomplished through daily work practice. A ceremonial order in team meetings of primus inter pares results in different kinds of responsibility and accountability to that indicated in the CPA. The patienthood story narrates how people are transformed into objects of mental health work. Becoming a psychiatric patient is more diffuse than much labelling theory presumes. and is the product of specific forms of organisation. The thesis concludes by discussing the kind of organisation that allows for more or less authorised versions of what has been, and what should be, done. It suggests two ideal-typical forms of organisation, different kinds of 'structural context' within which organising may take place. The thesis produces two 'grand narratives' with regard to organisation: one, about the structure-process distinction; the other, about the evaluative nature of tales

Homo- und heteronukleare Bindungen bei schweren Elementen der 15. und 16. Gruppe

Binuclear molecules R 2 E-ER 2 or R-Y-Y-R, formed by the heavier pnicogen (E) or chalkogen atoms (Y), respectively, tend to align in homonuclear linear chains in the solid state, if steric requirements introduced by the substituents R do not prevent this association. Going from the third period elements phosphorus or sulfur to their higher homologues, the longer intermolecular distances within these chains gradually change in nature from normal van der Waals contacts to secondary bonds. For distibanes and dibismuthanes the differing bonding situations between the solid and liquid states are reflected in a bathochromic colour shift upon crystallization. Mononuclear halogenostibanes and -bismuthanes with aromatic groups are subject to intermolecular association, too, if there are enough electronegative substituents to invoke a sufficient Lewis acidity at the pnicogen atom. Non-classical pnicogen-arene interactions are found together with asymmetrie halogeno bridges for aryl-substituted stibanes. Only one of the corresponding bismuthanes has been investigated up to now; it shows symmetrie halogeno bridges, but no bismuth-arene coordination

A case study of the relationship between rhetoric and practice in a locked institution for children

This is essentially a study of social control processes as they relate to juveniles. It takes the form of a case study which focuses on one institution for children under the age of 16 years. The institution in question is part of a wider system which defines itself as welfare oriented and seeking to act only in `the best interests of the child'. It is distinguished from the majority of other institutions in the system in that its remit is to hold children securely, and to that end it has a prison-like physical design. But within the official rhetoric which describes and rationalises the juvenile justice system, the prison aspects of this particular institution are denied; deprivation of liberty is defined as part of an overall caring process and is justified in terms of the child's need for treatment. This particular use of incarceration and its construction in treatment terms provide a stark example of what is seen in this study as a central conflict within the juvenlile justice system. In the course of the study the conflict emerges at an empirical level as a gap between the system's rhetoric and its practice. The sudy is set within a particular historical and conceptual framework which forms the wider theoretical background to describing and understanding the role of official rhetoric which does not describe or reflect practice within the system. Committal and treatment practices associated with the institution are examined using both qualitative and quantitative techniques. The resultant demonstrable gap between rhetoric and practice is considered in the light of relevant historical, conceptual and empirical studies