Essence and Meaning in Professional Development: The Writing Project Experience

Professional development in education is often a process focused on teachers\u27 limitations. Teachers are rarely offered choices in professional development, nor are they asked to qualify the attributes of their professional development experiences they find most meaningful. This study situates the National Writing Project as a specific professional development program from which to consider teachers\u27 beliefs and perceptions regarding their professional development experiences. The study begins with a broad view of professional development, then directs attention to the Writing Project as a professional development model. Ten teachers participated in individual and focus group interviews for the study. Interview data were collected and analyzed using a qualitative phenomenological approach to discern the features of the Writing Project that teachers value as a professional development experience. Results from this study include five essential elements of the Writing Project experience as reported by participants. Results show that the Writing Project builds teachers\u27 instructional and pedagogical capacity, sponsors teachers\u27 professional voice, breaks down isolationism, connects teachers to the writer within themselves, and attracts leaders while facilitating leadership in its members. The study concludes with a discussion of the implications researchers and educators may draw from the results

Essays on Financial Institutions and Advisors

In my first chapter, I examine how index funds vote their proxies on firms in its index that their family does not hold in its actively managed funds. For a given proxy proposal at a given point in time, I find that an index fund is more likely to oppose management on shares its family does not hold in its active funds than on shares its family does hold in its active funds. I further demonstrate that index fund governance has positive effects on the probability a proposal passes and on shareholder value. In my second chapter coauthored with Will Gerken and Steve Dimmock, we document the prevalence and variety of frauds committed by investment managers. We show that prior legal and regulatory violations, conflicts-of-interest, and monitoring disclosures available via the Security and Exchange Commission’s Form ADV are useful for predicting fraud. Additional tests show that fraud by rogue employees is more predictable than firm-wide fraud, but both types of fraud are significantly predictable. We revisit the fraud prediction model of Dimmock and Gerken (2012) and test its performance out-of-sample (using fraud cases discovered since that article’s publication). We find the model has significant predictive power for the out-of-sample cases. To encourage additional research in this area, we have made the data used in this chapter publicly available at https://doi.org/10.13023/nsjd-rk62. In my third chapter, I find the divergence ratio, the percentage of time funds within a family vote differently from one another on the same proposal at a shareholder meeting, varies significantly across fund families. Funds of families in the highest divergence quintile realize alphas up to 104 basis points higher than funds of families in the lowest quintile. These findings are consistent with the separating equilibrium theory of Evans, Prado, and Zambrana (2017) who find that some families encourage coordination among their funds while others encourage competition

The Perceived Impact of Holotropic Breathwork: An Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis

Holotropic Breathwork (HB) is a method of self-exploration developed by Stanislav and Christina Grof. Research has only just begun to investigate the effects of HB, while the possible influence of the context and other features of HB within the experience and its impact have not been studied in depth. This qualitative study investigated the perceived impact of HB on 6 women and 6 men (ages 25-67) in Chile, using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), an emergent method developed specifically to work with these types of subjective issues. Results revealed 10 major themes involving both intrapsychic and relational features prior, during and after HB. Results provide support for some elements of the existing theory and practice of HB, but, given the influence of preparation, the reasons for seeking HB, and the integration of experiences on the perceived impact of HB, revision of some HB procedures may provide better support for workshop attendees

The Perceived Impact of Holotropic Breathwork: An Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis

Holotropic Breathwork (HB) is a method of self-exploration developed by Stanislav and Christina Grof. Research has only just begun to investigate the effects of HB, while the possible influence of the context and other features of HB within the experience and its impact have not been studied in depth. This qualitative study investigated the perceived impact of HB on 6 women and 6 men (ages 25-67) in Chile, using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA), an emergent method developed specifically to work with these types of subjective issues. Results revealed 10 major themes involving both intrapsychic and relational features prior, during and after HB. Results provide support for some elements of the existing theory and practice of HB, but, given the influence of preparation, the reasons for seeking HB, and the integration of experiences on the perceived impact of HB, revision of some HB procedures may provide better support for workshop attendees

Visual Presentation of MIRR and MNPV Calculations

Project cash flows and modified cash flows are presented in an illustrative graphic within Excel for the live or virtual classroom. Further, the graphic computes and displays the relevant modified internal rate of return (MIRR) and modified net present value (MNPV), with associated formulas. The presentation allows for a discussion of the reinvestment assumption attributed to the internal rate of return (IRR) and the net present value (NPV) calculations

Using Excel to Simulate a Financial Calculator and Excel TVM Formulas

Excel is used to build a simulation of the TI BAII-Plus financial calculator to illustrate the N, I/Y, PV, PMT, and FV inputs. Unlike other financial calculator simulators, this template also displays the corresponding Excel functions to aid in transitioning the student to using Excel for financial analysis