The development of a preventive peer mentoring program for students: Grounded theory at work

In this thesis, I describe the beginning stages of a process for improving the well-being of students in a secondary school community. In the first section I describe the social context of the PTOJCCI. Next, I outline the values and principles that served to inform the research and action. I then review the relevant literature on consultation in educational settings and examine various prevention programs that have been introduced into schools, focusing primarily on those programs/changes that increase social support. Following the review I present the research and action goals of the present project which were to examine change as it occurs at Galt Collegiate Institute (GCI) and to provide recommendations for proceeding with the development, implementation, and evaluation of a peer mentoring program for all students in the school community. To accomplish my objectives I organized one in-person interview and five focus groups to afford the GCI community an opportunity to relate their experiences with, and opinions about, change at GCI. Using a framework derived from the relevant literature on change in schools, I conducted a qualitative comparative analysis on the data collected from the various stakeholder groups. The findings and discussion are presented in the form of a grounded theory and a set of recommendations. The grounded theory is intended to inform change within schools in general, and GCI in particular. Typically, for new programs or changes to be successful, the school community must take ownership of the process and content of a change, and attention must be given to human issues (e. g., recognition for one\u27s efforts) and proper implementation. The recommendations for proceeding with the mentorship program at GCI are organized according to six phases; design, planning, commencement/implementation, interim/implementation, closure/implementation, and planning anew. Prior to concluding, I identify some limitations of the study and relate some of my experiences .15 4 consultant in .1 school setting. Finally, I end by summarizing the main contributions of this work

Training and Establishment Survival

We investigate the relationship between training and the likelihood of commercial survival over a 7-year period, using a survey of British establishments. We find that in stablishments of 200 or more employees, increased training of those in Professional, Sales, and Clerical and Secretarial occupations is associated with a greater chance of survival. In smaller establishments of less than 200 employees, increased training for Operatives and Assembly workers, Personal and Protective Service workers, and Craft and Technical workers is associated with better chances of survival. We interpret these findings as suggesting that training for these groups generated above-normal returns and indicates under-investment in training by such firms. There is no evidence to suggest under-investment in management training.training, survival, economic performance

Distributed parameter RC network analysis

Methods of analyzing uniform and tapered distribute [sic] parameter RC networks are reviewed and correlated in this dissertation. Multilayer networks and simple three layer networks are considered. Analogies between two-wire transmission line theory and multilayer distributed network theory are developed, i.e., standing wave and traveling wave concepts. An accurate computer-aided steady state analysis procedure is presented which has a solution accuracy that can be determined prior to actual analysis computations. The impulsive response of the uniform RC network is investigated with the goal of measuring the network\u27s parameters. Procedures to determine the parameters R and C of a uniform RC microcircuit from transient measurements are included --Abstract, page ii

Quantitative Perspectives on Fifty Years of the Journal of the History of Biology

Journal of the History of Biology provides a fifty-year long record for examining the evolution of the history of biology as a scholarly discipline. In this paper, we present a new dataset and preliminary quantitative analysis of the thematic content of JHB from the perspectives of geography, organisms, and thematic fields. The geographic diversity of authors whose work appears in JHB has increased steadily since 1968, but the geographic coverage of the content of JHB articles remains strongly lopsided toward the United States, United Kingdom, and western Europe and has diversified much less dramatically over time. The taxonomic diversity of organisms discussed in JHB increased steadily between 1968 and the late 1990s but declined in later years, mirroring broader patterns of diversification previously reported in the biomedical research literature. Finally, we used a combination of topic modeling and nonlinear dimensionality reduction techniques to develop a model of multi-article fields within JHB. We found evidence for directional changes in the representation of fields on multiple scales. The diversity of JHB with regard to the representation of thematic fields has increased overall, with most of that diversification occurring in recent years. Drawing on the dataset generated in the course of this analysis, as well as web services in the emerging digital history and philosophy of science ecosystem, we have developed an interactive web platform for exploring the content of JHB, and we provide a brief overview of the platform in this article. As a whole, the data and analyses presented here provide a starting-place for further critical reflection on the evolution of the history of biology over the past half-century.Comment: 45 pages, 14 figures, 4 table

International Standards for Protection of Religious Freedom

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, inspired by the “four freedoms” articulated by Franklin D. Roosevelt, proclaims but does not define the religious liberty that is the birthright of all people. Four centuries ago, when few people were free, religious ideas fostered the development of some of the fundamental principles of the law of nations. As international law has matured, increasingly it has recognized the right of individuals and groups to pursue their own religions and beliefs. The United Nations system has generated an array of international conventions, covenants, and resolutions which today articulate the rights of adherents to all sects and no sect. Religious freedom – sometimes used as shorthand for freedom of religion, belief, and conscience, is spelled out in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the 1981 Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief, and other progeny of the U.N. Charter. Regional level agreements have addressed religious rights, but regional tribunals such as the European Court of Human Rights have not been as discerning as they should be in dealing with cases involving headscarves, missionaries and other issues. The United States, despite its strong constitutional tradition and generally good enforcement of First Amendment rights, has not consistently interpreted freedom of religion in a manner conformance with international standards. For decades the Supreme Court and Congress went back and forth on trying to arrive at a formula on protection of religious minorities adversely affected by facially neutral laws. President Trump’s actions against immigrants and visitors from Muslim countries are a tragic departure from the values that were espoused by the American leaders since the founding of the Republic

Online Group Supervision as Pedagogy: A Qualitative Inquiry of Student Mental Health Nurses' Discourses and Participation

This study explored online group clinical supervision participation, as a component of pre-registration education following mental health nursing students’ clinical placements. Clinical supervision has historically been valued as a supportive strategy by healthcare professionals to develop practice and competence and prevent burnout. As many student nurses do not have access to clinical supervision via practice areas as a standardised process, their experiences of engaging in or benefitting from clinical supervision are wide-ranging. In view of this, we are identifying a theory-practice gap between theoretical knowledge and practice experience. This study incorporated a qualitative inquiry using reflexive thematic analysis and applying poststructural theoretical perspectives. Online group clinical supervision was delivered to student mental health nurses whereby focus groups followed to discuss their views, understandings and experiences of online group clinical supervision. This was against a back drop of Covid-19 lockdown restrictions. Thematic synthesis identified two main areas for improving participation and pedagogy comprising; Improving Confidence and Trust in (Online) Participation and The Need for Familiarity in CS Participation and Understanding. Thematic and poststructural analysis demonstrated participants’ positive outlooks on the values of clinical supervision, whilst also identifying the finer nuances of the differences in accessing group clinical supervision through an online format. This study adds to the literature on using group clinical supervision within the student mental health nurse population by identifying the benefits of group clinical supervision for student nurses. It has additionally found that the silences and inhibitions surrounding online participation are important areas for further research