THE DIFFERENCE A COACH CAN MAKE: Supporting New Teachers in the Classroom

The purpose of this study is to contribute to the body of literature around supporting new teachers, instructional coaching, and teacher self-efficacy. The study consists of a survey to determine the overall self-efficacy of both new and veteran teachers as well as teachers who have worked with an instructional coach twenty (20) hours or more and those that have not. Teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs were measured using a survey. The survey itself is based on a larger self-efficacy scale for teachers created by Bandura (2006). Teachers’ self-efficacy was also measured in three subcategories: instruction, discipline, and the ability to create a positive climate/culture. The study is of significant interest to schools or districts planning to implement or currently implementing an instructional coaching model and any district interested in retaining new teachers. The aim of this research is to determine why new teachers are leaving the profession at such alarming rates and what we can do to help them succeed and remain in the teaching profession. By measuring a new teacher’s self-efficacy some predictive value regarding his/her success and retention may be gained. New teachers need assistance, support, and encouragement. Approximately 50% of new teachers leave the teaching profession within the first five years. Instructional coaches can assist new teachers develop a strong sense of self-efficacy. With increased self-efficacy, maybe the retention rate will go up. Student achievement is also impacted negatively by high teacher turnover. Additionally, research on the use and helpfulness of instructional coaches is sorely needed. While the use of instructional coaching has gained acceptance, the way in which instructional coaches are used varies widely. This study will help target the use of instructional coaches to where they can make the greatest impact

From the Top-Down: Transformational Leadership Considerations for Health Care Organizations

Nurse leaders can positively influence critical issues in healthcare by engaging in transformational leadership (TL) practices. High in humility, extraversion, self-efficacy, and emotional intelligence, transformational leaders focus on followers as individuals and inspire high goal attainment. Organizations can increase TL behaviors through top-down training strategies. This paper evaluates salient TL characteristics and considerations for organizations wishing to create positive organization-wide change

From speculation to substantiation : Empirically-testing societal changes in impact of fit on job satisfaction from 1989, 1998, 2006, and 2016

Against the backdrop of large-scale changes in work over the past few decades, both business leaders and academics have speculated that employees’ job satisfaction is increasingly tied to the extent to which their jobs meet their desires for meaning and other reinforcers. However, empirical evidence has not yet been brought to bear on these arguments. In order to provide insights into potential socio-temporal changes in how employees derive job satisfaction from job characteristics, we analyzed repeated large-scale population surveys in the United States to examine the impact of fit between desiring and receiving job characteristics on job satisfaction across four time points (1989, 1998, 2006, and 2016). Moderated polynomial regression analyses indicated that employees in more recent years experience greater dissatisfaction by deficiencies in intrinsically-rewarding job characteristics. We interpret these findings against broader discussions of the changing employment narrative theorized to have occurred in the United States over the past several decades

Nonlinear instability and chaos in plasma wave-wave interactions. II. Numerical methods and results

In Part I of this work and Physics of Plasmas, June 1995, the behavior of linearly stable, integrable systems of waves in a simple plasma model was described using a Hamiltonian formulation. It was shown that explosive instability arises from nonlinear coupling between modes of positive and negative energy, with well-defined threshold amplitudes depending on the physical parameters. In this concluding paper, the nonintegrable case is treated numerically. Several sets of waves are considered, comprising systems of two and three degrees of freedom. The time evolution is modelled with an explicit symplectic integration algorithm derived using Lie algebraic methods. When initial wave amplitudes are large enough to support two-wave decay interactions, strongly chaotic motion destroys the separatrix bounding the stable region for explosive triplets. Phase space orbits then experience diffusive growth to amplitudes that are sufficient for explosive instability, thus effectively reducing the threshold amplitude. For initial amplitudes too small to drive decay instability, small perturbations might still grow to arbitrary size via Arnold diffusion. Numerical experiments do not show diffusion in this case, although the actual diffusion rate is probably underestimated due to the simplicity of the model

Numerical Analysis of Flow Phenomena Related to the Unstable Energy-Discharge Characteristic of a Pump-Turbine in Pump Mode

Regions of positive slope in the pressure-discharge characteristics are one of the major concerns in design and operation of centrifugal pumps, as they are limiting the admissible operating range to values above the critical discharge. The industrial pump turbine of specific speed ν=0.42 (nq=66 min-1) proposed as QNET-CFD test case TA6-04 shows a marked saddle in the energy-discharge characteristic associated to a sudden drop of efficiency versus discharge at part load. The pump-turbine consists of a shrouded impeller with five blades, a diffuser with 22 guide and stay vanes and a spiral casing. CFD flow simulations on a reduced model were carried out with a finite volume Navier-Stokes code (CFX-5.7) using block- tructured hexahedral meshes and the Menter-SST Turbulence model. Control of numerical quality has been performed. Reduced models with relatively low computational effort (mixing plane interface) already permit to capture the drop in efficiency and energy coefficient to analyze the flow phenomena inducing the drop of the energy coefficient Ψ that occurs at partial discharge. Analysis of local flow patterns and energy and velocity distributions at the rotor-stator interface that are related to the onset of recirculation are presented

Flow Simulation in an Elbow Diffuser : Verification and Validation

Numerical simulation of the unsteady turbulent flow in a three-dimensional draft tube geometry is performed. The investigation is carried out with a commercial finite volume solver implementing the Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes equations. The modeling of most practically relevant turbulent flows continues to be based on this equation system. For this reason it is important to evaluate the limitations of this approach. Verification and validation are presented; detailed measurements are compared with computations over a wide range of operating conditions

Numerical investigations of fluid structure coupling: oscillating hydrofoil

This paper presents an investigation of the hydro elastic behavior of vibrating blades in hydraulic machines, which is of strong interest for turbo machinery applications. As a representative case study for vibrating blade in hydraulic machines, a NACA 0009 oscillating hydrofoil is considered. The aim is to model the hydrodynamic moment acting on the oscillating hydrofoil. Two types of oscillation are investigated: forced and free motions. The fluid torque acting on the hydrofoil is modeled introducing an added moment of inertia, a fluid damping and a fluid stiffness coefficient. The model coefficients are identified through an investigation in the frequency domain of the forced motion. The influence of the frequency and the upstream velocity are investigated. The model is then validated in case of the free motion: numerical simulation and model prediction show good agreements in terms of frequency and dimensionless damping

Pump-Turbine Rotor-Stator Interactions in Generating Mode: Pressure Fluctuation in Distributor Channel

Investigation of the rotor-stator interactions of a reduced-scale model 0.19 ν= pump-turbine in generating mode is presented for the maximum discharge operating condition. This operating point is chosen in order to have the most important rotor-stator interactions. The numerical simulation of the unsteady flow is performed with CFX 5.7™ for a computing domain which is extended to the full pump-turbine from the spiral casing to the draft tube. A computing domain embracing the full geometry enables to minimize the errors, streaming focus the boundary conditions, the periodic interface or the pitch ratio of rotor-stator interface. It also allows considering the fully non uniformity of the in coming flow field from the spiral casing. The pressure measurements are performed with piezoresitive miniature pressure sensors located in the distributor channels. The pressure fluctuations for one distributor channel obtained from the numerical simulation present a very good agreement with experimental data. The numerical result analysis shows, how the pressure fluctuations at blade passage frequency (BPF) and its harmonics vary along a distributor channel of the pumpturbine. The maximum pressure amplitude of BPF occurs in the rotor-stator zone, but it decreases very fast backward to the stay vane. However, the pressure amplitude of the first harmonic corresponding to 2 times the blade passage frequency spreads to the spiral casing highlighting the -2 precessing diametrical mode resulting from the modulation of the interacting stationary and rotating flow field