The Influence of School Leadership Practices on Classroom Management, School Environment, and Academic Underperformance

The Influence of School Leadership Practices on Classroom Management, School Environment, and Academic Underperformance by Lorna Novlette Wilson Morgan MSc, Florida International University, 2006 BSc, University of Technology, 2000 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Walden University April 2015 School leadership requires the collaborative efforts of principals, teachers, parents, students, and other community members to achieve academic success. The purpose of this correlational study was to examine the influence of school leadership practices on classroom management, school environment, and academic underperformance in Jamaica. The research was based upon distributive leadership theory. The School Leadership, Environment, Classroom Management Assessment Questionnaire (SLECMAQ) was developed for this study and was used to collect the data. Prior to data collection, a pilot study was conducted with 12 experts to evaluate the reliability and validity of the SLECMAQ. A total of 148 complete responses were collected from principals, vice principals, grade coordinators, classroom teachers, special education teachers, and others. Pearson\u27s correlation coefficient and linear regressions were used to determine possible correlations between the influence of school leadership practices on classroom management, school environment, and academic underperformance. The results indicated significant, positive relationships between the independent variable perceived school leadership practices of principals and teachers and the dependent variables perceived classroom management and perceived academic performance. A significant, positive relationship was also found between perceived school leadership practices and perceived school environment. The findings will contribute to a positive social change by supporting policies to implement leadership frameworks at underperforming primary schools and thus improving the quality of education in Jamaic

Rurality, islandness and public policy in Scotland

Open Access via the JISC Open Select agreement The authors extend their thanks to fellow participants at the ESRS 2022 satellite event ‘Transitioning Rural Futures’ for their supportive conversations and feedback on an early version of this work. Insightful comments from two anonymous reviewers, the special section editor Mags Currie and SGJ Editor-in-Chief Chris Philo have been exceedingly helpful in guiding revisions to the manuscript.Peer reviewe

Periodicity in the autocorrelation function as a mechanism for regularly occurring zero crossings or extreme values of a Gaussian process

The problem of zero crossings is of great historical prevalence and promises extensive application. The challenge is to establish precisely how the autocorrelation function or power spectrum of a one-dimensional continuous random process determines the density function of the intervals between the zero crossings of that process. This paper investigates the case where periodicities are incorporated into the autocorrelation function of a smooth process. Numerical simulations, and statistics about the number of crossings in a fixed interval, reveal that in this case the zero crossings segue between a random and deterministic point process depending on the relative time scales of the periodic and nonperiodic components of the autocorrelation function. By considering the Laplace transform of the density function, we show that incorporating correlation between successive intervals is essential to obtaining accurate results for the interval variance. The same method enables prediction of the density function tail in some regions, and we suggest approaches for extending this to cover all regions. In an ever-more complex world, the potential applications for this scale of regularity in a random process are far reaching and powerful

Periodicity in the autocorrelation function as a mechanism for regularly occurring zero crossings or extreme values of a Gaussian process

The problem of zero crossings is of great historical prevalence and promises extensive application. The challenge is to establish precisely how the autocorrelation function or power spectrum of a one-dimensional continuous random process determines the density function of the intervals between the zero crossings of that process. This paper investigates the case where periodicities are incorporated into the autocorrelation function of a smooth process. Numerical simulations, and statistics about the number of crossings in a fixed interval, reveal that in this case the zero crossings segue between a random and deterministic point process depending on the relative time scales of the periodic and nonperiodic components of the autocorrelation function. By considering the Laplace transform of the density function, we show that incorporating correlation between successive intervals is essential to obtaining accurate results for the interval variance. The same method enables prediction of the density function tail in some regions, and we suggest approaches for extending this to cover all regions. In an ever-more complex world, the potential applications for this scale of regularity in a random process are far reaching and powerful

Open Education and OER - A guide and call to action for policy makers

Executive Summary ALT has produced this call to action to highlight to education policy makers and professionals how Open Education and OER can expand inclusive and equitable access to education and lifelong learning, widen participation, and create new opportunities for the next generation of teachers and learners, preparing them to become fully engaged digital citizens. Open Education can also promote knowledge transfer while enhancing quality and sustainability, supporting social inclusion and creating a culture of inter-institutional collaboration and sharing. One of ALT’s three strategic aims is to increase the impact of Learning Technology for the wider community and we are issuing this call to action for policy makers to mandate that publicly funded educational resources are released under open licence to ensure that they reside in the public domain and are freely and openly available to all. This will be of wide benefit, but in particular will enable education providers and learning technology professionals to: Keep up to date with the rapid pace of technological innovation Develop critical, informed approaches to the implementation of Learning Technology and the impact on learners Scale up knowledge sharing and its benefits across sectors

Rural transformations, rural futures : introduction to theme section

Open Access via the T&F Agreement Acknowledgements The co-editors of the theme section wish to thank all those who contributed work to this collection of papers, many of whom contributed as peer reviewers, providing supportive and constructive feedback. We also record our thanks to the Scottish Geographical Journal’s editor in chief, Chris Philo, for his support for this project and meticulous editorial oversight of all contributions to the theme sectionPeer reviewe

The Influence of Oscillatory Correlation on the Zero Crossings of Gaussian Processes

The problem of zero-crossings is of great historical prevalence and promises extensive application. The challenge is to identify the Probability Density Function (PDF) for the times between successive zero-crossings of a stochastic process. In this paper, we address the zero-crossing problem for a Gaussian process and investigate the effect of introducing oscillations into the prescribed auto-correlation function. Statistics for the number of zero-crossings occurring within a set time period are calculated and verified by simulations of the process. We find that highly oscillatory auto-correlation functions cause realizations of the stochastic process to become increasingly 'regular' or 'deterministic'. Zeros occur at more regular intervals, implying that the inter-event PDF has an exponential tail with large persistence exponent. The persistence exponent exhibits a complex phenomenology that is strongly influenced by the oscillatory nature of the auto-correlation function. Comparison is made between the theoretical predictions and numerical simulation results.</p

Simulation of the effect of rainfall on farm-level cocoa yield using a delayed differential equation model

Cocoa (Theobroma cacao) is an economically important crop grown by approximately six million of smallholder farmers throughout the tropics and sub-tropics. However, farm level yields are often very low, and sustainable intensification is urgently required. Assessing the impact of on-farm interventions of farm productivity and profitability requires an understanding of the contribution of inter-annual climate variability to cocoa yields. A Delayed Differential Equation model (DDE) was used to simulate the effect of rainfall on cocoa yields. A DDE model is an ordinary differential equation model that incorporates time lags, and is therefore able to incorporate the delay in yield response to rainfall due interactions with the cocoa flowering and the pod development processes. The DDE was constructed and based on regional rainfall and farm-level cocoa yield data from 96 farms across the main cocoa growing regions in Ghana. Model outputs indicate that a good likeness of seasonality in crop production was achieved. The potential to conduct a detailed parameterisation and extend this model to include other parameters such as agrochemical inputs and farm management practices are discussed. By further developing this model into a useful tool to predict and understand variability in cocoa yield, the sustainable intensification of small holder cocoa farming is supported.</p

Age, growth and productivity of juvenile sockeye salmon in two high latitude lakes, Alaska

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2009"The growth of Seward Peninsula sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) from Salmon and Glacial lakes is related to their physical environment. Dermal scales collected over many years were measured to document the annual age specific growth of smolts and adults. The effect of fertilization on fry growth was examined using the first year of growth. The growth histories of Salmon Lake sockeye salmon were compared to Glacial Lake sockeye salmon through smolting and in the marine environment. Annual age specific fry growth had no direct relationship to fertilization; however, there were interactions between biomass of salmon prey and fertilization, and between prey biomass and age of smolting. Glacial Lake age-1 smolts are the same size as Salmon Lake age-1 smolts, but age-1.3 Salmon Lake juveniles after their first year in the ocean are smaller than age-1.3 Glacial Lake juveniles suggesting lower size based mortality. The differences in growth histories show each population's response to lake production and mortality experienced by smolt between the rearing lake and the ocean"--Leaf iiiArctic Yukon Kuskokwim Sustainable Salmon InitiativeGeneral introduction -- Sockeye salmon ecology -- Lake fertilization -- Seward Peninsula sockeye salmon -- Objectives -- 1. Lower trophic relationships and the effect of fertilization on the growth of sockeye salmon fry in a high latitude lake -- 2. Juvenile sockeye salmon (Oncorhynchus nerka) growth histories on the Seward Peninsula, Alaska -- General discussion

Uncovering attributes of an internal Islands Diaspora : Connections and Aspirations to Return

This research was conducted as part of a PhD research project funded by Macaulay Development TrustPeer reviewe