An analysis of muscle mechanics with application to flows from muscle-walled tubes

Thesis (M.Sc.) -- University of Adelaide, Dept. of Applied Mathematics, 1976

Context and the leadership experience and perceptions of professionals: a review of the nursing profession

Purpose: Leadership studies which focus on categorising leadership styles have been critiqued for failure to consider the lived experience of leadership. The purpose of this paper is to use the framework of Jepson’s model of contextual dynamics to explore whether this framework assists understanding of the “how and why” of lived leadership experience within the nursing profession. Design/methodology/approach: Themes for a purposeful literature search and review, having regard to the Jepson model, are drawn from the contemporary and dynamic context of nursing. Government reports, coupled with preliminary interviews with a nurse leadership team, guided selection of contextual issues. Findings: The contextual interactions arising from managerialism, existing hierarchical models of leadership and increasing knowledge work provided insights into leadership experience in nursing, in the contexts of professional identity and changing educational and generational profiles of nurses. The authors conclude that employing a contextual frame provides insights in studying leadership experience. The author propose additions to the cultural and institutional dimensions of Jepson’s model.Practical implications: The findings have implications for structuring and communicating key roles and policies relevant to nursing leadership. These include the need to: address perceptions around the legitimacy of current nursing leaders to provide clinical leadership; modify hierarchical models of nursing leadership; address implications of the role of the knowledge workers. Originality/value: Observing nursing leadership through the lens of Jepson’s model of contextual dynamics confirms that this is an important way of exploring how leadership is enacted. The authors found, however, the model also provided a useful frame for considering the experience and understanding of leadership by those to be led

Context of Leadership: Nursing and Midwifery in the Western Australian Public Health System

The paper reports on Stage One of a three stage research project undertaken for the Nursing and Midwifery Office, Western Australian Department of Health. It was designed to contribute an understanding of perceptions of the practice of leadership in nursing and midwifery through interviews and focus groups with key stakeholders we found that nurses recognised that in their changing environment there was a need for adaptive leadership supported by leadership which was open, encouraged and nurtured nurses. The importance of administrative leadership to manage the ongoing operation of the system was also remarked on. We found that organisational context and the values framework of a professional workforce can have a significant impact, in practice, on the influencing capacities of leaders

Using assessment of student learning outcomes to measure university performance: towards a viable model

© 2016 Dr. Linley Margaret MartinThis study investigates the possibility of developing a suite of performance indicators which could measure differences in universities’ performance in attainment by their students of specified institutional or course-based learning outcomes. The measurement of learning outcomes has been the subject of active interest in higher education for over 20 years but to date there is no approach which has led to a sustainable generalised solution to this problem. A four staged measurement model is proposed which explores the learning outcomes specified by universities, establishes a set of standards against which such outcomes could be assessed, and examines local assessment of students’ learning for these outcomes to identify what graduates have learned and can do by the end of their study. Data on the grades achieved by individual students in local assessment tasks are then considered for use in a suite of institutional indicators which are designed to differentiate between universities in terms of the knowledge and skills demonstrated by their students. The focus of the study was to investigate whether the model could be applied to measure learning outcomes and institutional performance for Australian university undergraduate degrees. The study showed that it was possible to derive a generalisable set of learning outcomes relevant to Australian universities and also a set of standards relating to each of these outcomes which could be used to grade assessments in a quantitative way for individual learning outcomes measurement. It was also possible to define a suite of quantitative performance indicators which appear to be valid for measuring differences in achievement for a subset of the specified learning outcomes. However it was discovered that Australian universities’ current practice in describing and testing learning outcomes for subjects rather than courses or for the institution is different to the approaches commonly used internationally, requiring an adjustment to the model. Universities’ practice in this is also different to the approach they espouse on their websites and in their assessment policies. The Australian approach requires a bottom-up model for measurement rather than the top-down model originally identified from international practice. Various options are presented for types of local achievement assessment that are likely to produce the greatest consistency of learning outcome results between different universities. The favoured option is a set of newly devised signature assessments to test achievement of cognitive learning outcomes which could be framed in a discipline context, but this is a contentious solution. The bottom-up model has face validity based on detailed analysis of the expected outputs from each of its stages, but it could not be fully tested because assessment data held in universities’ repositories is not held at the level required. Implementation of such a model, while appearing feasible, would have implications for policy, pedagogy, scholarship and practice within universities, and it would require a strong commitment from government and the sector for implementation to be successful. The benefits to students, staff, employers and the government would be substantial and appear to outweigh the costs associated with implementation