The Professional Learning Community Model of Continuous School Improvement and the Effect on Job Satisfaction, Professional Collaboration, and Implementation of Best Practices

The purpose of this study was to determine whether a greater number of years of participation in the Professional Learning Communities Project positively impacts professional staff perceptions of job satisfaction, professional collaboration, and implementation of best practices as defined by the ¿Critical Issues for Team Consideration¿ (DuFour et al., 2006, pp. 100-101). A total of 223 participants completed the self-reporting survey out of a total 481 eligible teachers, school administrators and other staff members. Participants were divided into groups based on the number of years their respective schools had been involved in the PLC Project for a between-groups approach to the design. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted to determine any significant differences between groups with varying years of participation in the PLC Project for survey questions in each of the following areas: job satisfaction, professional collaboration, and implementation of best practices. Additionally, multivariate analysis (MANOVA) was conducted to analyze the questions as categories. After conducting the MANOVA, univariate analyses were conducted for each question in the clusters that were noted as significant (p\u3c.05) on the MANOVA to identify the distinguishing variables that were individually affected by the years of experience in Professional Learning Communities. Finally, post hoc testing was conducted on the distinguishing variables that were deemed significant (p\u3c.05) to identify the specific areas of significance between the different groups. While there were significant findings in this study, the findings for this study did not consistently support the hypotheses that schools with a greater number of years of participation in the project would report higher levels of job satisfaction, professional collaboration, and implementation of best practices than schools with fewer years of experience in the PLC Project

The effect of regulatory depletion on attitude certainty

This research explores how regulatory depletion affects consumers' responses to advertising. Initial forays into this area suggest that the depletion of self-regulatory resources is irrelevant when advertisement arguments are strong or consumers are highly motivated to process. In contrast to these conclusions, the authors contend that depletion has important but previously hidden effects in such contexts. That is, although attitudes are equivalent in valence and extremity, consumers are more certain of their attitudes when they form them under conditions of depletion than nondepletion. The authors propose that this effect occurs because feeling depleted induces the perception of having engaged in thorough information processing. As a consequence of greater attitude certainty, depleted consumers' attitudes exert greater influence on their purchase behavior. Three experiments, using different products and ad exposure times, confirm these hypotheses. Experiment 3 demonstrates the potential to vary consumers' naive beliefs about the relationship between depletion and thoroughness of processing, and this variation moderates the effect of depletion on attitude certainty. The authors discuss the theoretical contributions and implications for marketing. © 2010, American Marketing Association.published_or_final_versio

The Preference for Potential

When people seek to impress others, they often do so by highlighting individual achievements. Despite the intuitive appeal of this strategy, we demonstrate that people often prefer potential rather than achievement when evaluating others. Indeed, compared with references to achievement (e.g., this person has won an award for his work ), references to potential (e.g., this person could win an award for his work ) appear to stimulate greater interest and processing, which can translate into more favorable reactions. This tendency creates a phenomenon whereby the potential to be good at something can be preferred over actually being good at that very same thing. We document this preference for potential in laboratory and field experiments, using targets ranging from athletes to comedians to graduate school applicants and measures ranging from salary allocations to online ad clicks to admission decisions

Thought Calibration: How Thinking Just the Right Amount Increases One’s Influence and Appeal

Previous research suggests that people draw inferences about their attitudes and preferences based on their own thoughtfulness. The current research explores how observing other individuals make decisions more or less thoughtfully can shape perceptions of those individuals and their decisions, and ultimately impact observers’ willingness to be influenced by them. Three studies suggest that observing others make more (versus less) thoughtful decisions generates more positive reactions when a choice is difficult, but more negative reactions when a choice is easy. In essence, people perceive the quality of others’ decisions to be greater when other individuals engage in the right amount of thinking for the situation. These assessments then affect observers’ own decisions and openness to influence

Consumer conviction and commitment: An appraisal-based framework for attitude certainty

This paper explores consumers' commitment to and conviction about their beliefs in the form of attitude certainty. Based on a review of past research, we present a new framework for understanding attitude certainty and how consumers' attitude certainty is shaped by their resisting or yielding to persuasive messages, or even by their reflections on the evidence supporting their attitudes. We propose that attitude certainty is formed and changed largely through an attribution-based reasoning process linked to a finite set of distinct appraisals. Our framework is used to both organize past research and offer guidance for future research endeavors. In addition, we distinguish our framework of appraisal-based attitude certainty from past models in attitudes and persuasion research that have referenced or taken note of the attitude certainty construct. Implications and future directions for the study of consumer behavior are discussed

An Amplification Perspective on Attitude Certainty

Past research suggests that becoming more certain of an attitude strengthens that attitude, making it more resistant to persuasion and more predictive of behavior. The current research challenges this view of attitude certainty, suggesting that certainty can strengthen or weaken attitudes depending on their underlying ambivalence. In several experiments, we demonstrate that increasing attitude certainty strengthens attitudes (makes them more resistant and more predictive of behavior) when attitudes are univalent, but weakens attitudes (makes them less resistant and less predictive of behavior) when attitudes are ambivalent. [to cite]

Postwar Journeys: American and Vietnamese Transnational Peace Efforts since 1975

This dissertation explores U.S.-Vietnam postwar relations through the transnational peace endeavors of American and Vietnamese ordinary citizens. The subjects of the study included Vietnamese refugees, children of American personnel and Vietnamese women, American and Vietnamese veterans and their families, relatives of fallen soldiers on both sides, and other civilians who experienced the impacts of war one way or another. The dissertation also highlights the roles of nongovernmental organizations and individuals who strove for peace and mutual understanding through transnational humanitarian and cultural activities. The study’s major argument is three-fold. First, American and Vietnamese ordinary citizens were active historical actors in their changing environments. Second, it was ordinary citizens of both countries who laid the groundwork for U.S.-Vietnam diplomatic normalization. Third, the “universal human aspirations and emotions” (to borrow historian Akira Iriye’s words) played a significant role in U.S.-Vietnam postwar relations. This research reveals a plethora of boundary-crossing interactions between American and Vietnamese citizens, even during the times of extremely restricted diplomatic relations between the two nation-states. Bringing to center stage American and Vietnamese citizens’ efforts to solve postwar individual and social problems, this dissertation aims to bridge a gap in the scholarship on the U.S.-Vietnam relations

Studies of P(L/D)LA 96/4 non-woven scaffolds and fibres; properties, wettability and cell spreading before and after intrusive treatment methods

Poly(L/D)lactide 96/4 fibres with diameters of 50 and 80 microm were produced. The smaller diameter fibres were carded and needle punched to form a non-woven mat. Fibres and non-woven mats were hydrolysed for a period of 20 weeks. Fibres and pressed non-woven discs were treated with low-temperature oxygen plasma and alkaline KOH hydrolysis and ethanol washing was used as a reference treatment. The non-wovens lost 50% of their tear strength after 8 weeks in vitro while the fibres still retained 65% tensile strength after 20 weeks. Hydrolysation time in KOH, treatment time and power settings of the oxygen plasma were all directly proportional to the mechanical properties of the fibres. Increasing time (and power) resulted in lower tensile properties. Rapid wetting of the scaffolds was achieved by oxygen plasma, KOH hydrolysation and ethanol washing. Cell culturing using fibroblast cell line was carried out for the treated and non-treated non-woven scaffolds. In terms of adhesion and the spreading of the cells into the scaffold, best results after 3-day culturing were obtained for the oxygen plasma treated scaffolds

Suction sampling of grassland invertebrates using the G-vac: Quantifying and avoiding peripheral suction effects

Suction sampling with modified garden leaf-blowers (G-vacs) is a widely used method for research on invertebrates in agricultural and grassland habitats. Approaches vary from sweeping the collecting nozzle across the surface of the vegetation within a known area, applying the nozzle firmly to the ground to delimit a sample area equal to nozzle crosssection, or applying the nozzle repeatedly within a larger open-ended cylinder placed on the ground. These approaches vary in potential for the inadvertent capture of specimens from outside of the sample area as a result of air being drawn into the nozzle from adjacent vegetation. This has never been\ud studied adequately and is defined here for the first time as the Peripheral Suction Effect (PSE). Invertebrate species are likely to differ in susceptibility to PSE and so both sample size and composition could be impacted. This study compares two series of samples of Auchenorrhyncha taken using the same G-vac suction sampler (nozzle area, 0.01 m2) from areas enclosed and unenclosed by an openended cylindrical enclosure (area 0.17 m2) intended to prevent PSE. The unenclosed samples contained greater numbers of leafhoppers including Arthaldeus pascuellus, Javesella pellucida and immature Deltocephalinae. Numbers of immature Delphacinae did not differ between enclosed and unenclosed samples. The species composition of the two series of samples was similar, but the proportional representation of immature Delphacinae in unenclosed samples was diluted by the inflated numbers of other taxa that were drawn from the surrounding area. Peripheral suction effects are taxa-specific and therefore have the potential to bias measures of invertebrate community composition. Use of an open-ended cylinder to delimit the sample area is recommended as a simple, inexpensive and effective method of avoiding problems associated with PSE when using a G-vac. The potential for PSE with other models of suction samplers is discussed and questions for further research are identified

Nanometer Scale Dielectric Fluctuations at the Glass Transition

Using non-contact scanning probe microscopy (SPM) techniques, dielectric properties were studied on 50 nanometer length scales in poly-vinyl-acetate (PVAc) films in the vicinity of the glass transition. Low frequency (1/f) noise observed in the measurements, was shown to arise from thermal fluctuations of the electric polarization. Anomalous variations observed in the noise spectrum provide direct evidence for cooperative nano-regions with heterogeneous kinetics. The cooperative length scale was determined. Heterogeneity was long-lived only well below the glass transition for faster than average processes.Comment: 4 pages, 4 embedded PS figures, RevTeX - To appear in Phys. Rev. Let