From beliefs to practice: An examination of students' and teachers' views about effective classroom management

The purpose of this study is to examine the views of teachers and students about effective classroom management. In studying the convergences between teachers’ and students’ beliefs, the study clarifies extant research on effective classroom management and broadens the perspective with which it is viewed. Within a mixed-methods design, the research comprised four complimentary sequences of data collection and analysis. Through surveys and focus groups, students explained they were more likely to behave well for teachers they respect and believe show genuine concern for student welfare and learning. In contrast, students tended to misbehave for teachers who tried to dominate, or who did not seem to care about students or their learning. Further, students appreciated teachers who held them accountable and yet offered them responsibility with support and structure. Students enjoyed and benefited from learning experiences that were varied, engaging and clearly articulated. Through surveys and interviews, teachers suggested that responsibility and care were fundamental to building effective learning contexts. Both teachers and students indicated that trust and encouragement were fundamental aspects of developing productive teaching and learning relationships, in addition to high expectations. Moreover, this research revealed that both students and the teachers have well articulated views on what constitutes effective classroom management. It shows quite clearly that whilst students’ actions and interactions are quite purposeful, they can also be productively managed by caring, commanding and compelling teachers. These findings are discussed in the context of current approaches to classroom management for prospective teachers, and national professional standards of practice for graduate and experienced teachers

Optimal Design of Validation Experiments for Calibration and Validation of Complex Numerical Models

As prediction of the performance and behavior of complex engineering systems shifts from a primarily empirical-based approach to the use of complex physics-based numerical models, the role of experimentation is evolving to calibrate, validate, and quantify uncertainty of the numerical models. Oftentimes, these experiments are expensive, placing importance on selecting experimental settings to efficiently calibrate the numerical model with a limited number of experiments. The aim of this thesis is to reduce the experimental resources required to reach predictive maturity in complex numerical models by (i) aiding experimenters in determining the optimal settings for experiments, and (ii) aiding the model developers in assessing the predictive maturity of numerical models through a new, more refined coverage metric. Numerical model predictions entail uncertainties, primarily caused by imprecisely known input parameter values and biases, primarily caused by simplifications and idealizations in the model. Hence, calibration of numerical models involves not only updating of parameter values but also inferring the discrepancy bias, or empirically trained error model. Training of this error model throughout the domain of applicability becomes possible when experiments conducted at varying settings are available. Of course, for the trained discrepancy bias to be meaningful and a numerical model to be predictively mature, the validation experiments must sufficiently cover the operational domain. Otherwise, poor training of the discrepancy bias and overconfidence in model predictions may result. Thus, coverage metrics are used to quantify the ability of a set of validation experiments to represent an entire operation domain. This thesis is composed of two peer-reviewed journal articles. The first article focuses on the optimal design of validation experiments. The ability to improve the predictive maturity of a plasticity material model is assessed for several index-based and distance-based batch sequential design selection criteria through a detailed analysis of discrepancy bias and coverage. Furthermore, the effect of experimental uncertainty, complexity of discrepancy bias, and initial experimental settings on the performance of each criterion is evaluated. Lastly, a technique that integrates index-based and distance-based selection criteria to both exploit the available knowledge regarding the discrepancy bias and explore the operational domain is evaluated. This article is published in Structural and Multidisciplinary Optimization in 2013. The second article is focused on developing a coverage metric. Four characteristics of an exemplar coverage metric are identified and the ability of coverage metrics from the literature to satisfy the four criteria is evaluated. No existing coverage metric is determined to satisfy all four criteria. As a solution, a new coverage metric is proposed which exhibits satisfactory performance in all four criteria. The performance of the proposed coverage metric is compared to the existing coverage metrics using an application to the plasticity material model as well as a high-dimensional Rosenbrock function. This article is published in Mechanical Systems and Signal Processing in 2014

Effekt av surt aluminiumsrikt vann på atferd hos karuss og laks

Sammendrag Jeg ønsket med mine forsøk å rette søkelyset på fisks atferd når det ble utsatt stabil og ustabil Al-kjemi. Høye Al-konsentrasjoner i vannet forårsakes av sur nedbør, og er en viktig årsak til fiskedød. Aluminium er mest toksisk for fisk ved relativt høy pH (5-6), særlig dersom vannkjemien er ustabil med en høy grad av Al-polymerisering. Jeg ville derfor se på om fisk kunne oppdage forskjeller i Al-toksistet og endre atferd basert på dette. Jeg utførte 3 forsøk med karuss (Carassius carassius) og et forsøk med laks (Salmo salaris). I hvert forsøk ble det satt ut 10 fisk i hver av tre forskjellig renner. En med stabil Al-kjemi, en med ustabil Al-kjemi og en kontrollrenne. Jeg observerte deretter atferdsendringer ved plassering under forsøket, samt aktivitet. Ved observasjon av karuss viste det seg at de endret oppholdssted under Al-eksponering i forhold til før og etter eksponering. De visste også en forhøyet aktivitet som et resultat av Al-eksponering. Laksen viste ingen endring av oppholdssted som et resultat av Al-eksponering. Aktiviteten for laks var høyere før og etter Al-eksponering og sank under Al-eksponeringen. Det fremkom ingen statistisk signifikante sammenhenger mellom Al-kjemi og atferd i mine studier

A Probability Sampling Design for the City of Brookings, South Dakota

The purpose of this thesis is to design an efficient sample of families in Brookings which can be used in analyzing the consumption pattern of the families in this city. The particular design which will be recommended is one which may be applied to other cities such as Madison, Watertown, and Aberdeen. The design will provide for a probability sample with a predetermined probability of selection of the individual family. The reasons for the selection of a probability rather than a non-probability sample are discussed in the following paragraphs

Why Strong Coordination at One Level of Government is Incompatible with Strong Coordination Across Levels: The case of the European Union

Introduction: ‘Better coordination’, meaning creating more consistency among decisions horizontally as well as vertically, is usually a stated goal in modern political-administrative systems. Recent administrative doctrines have shared a near universal agreement on the desirability of ‘better coordination’. What is often not realized, however, is the impossibility of combining strong coordination of implementation processes at one level of government with strong coordination across levels. In order to illustrate our argument, we use the multilevel European Union (EU) polity as our case in this paper. The EU inherited ‘indirect administration’ from classical international organizations: policies adopted by the international organization are to be implemented nationally by member states themselves, and not by bodies owned by the international organization (Hofmann 2008). Such an arrangement, characterized by relatively weak coordination across levels, allows for corresponding strong coordination at the national level. However, at the same time, this has often led to legislation being incorporated and applied rather differently across countries (Treib 2014)

Framing 'men in and out of feminism'

This article addresses some aspects of the “Man Question” in feminism, by way of the analysis of men’s diverse gender-conscious positionings in relation to gender, gender equality and feminism. It builds on earlier work, making use of theoretical models in feminist literature combined with the micro-sociological concept of passing. Consideration is also given to men’s non-gender-conscious positionings. The article is primarily concerned with the theoretical and empirical complexities, contradictions and ambiguities of men’s positionings, as when they are self-defined as “feminists” (or similar identifications) in radical or deconstructive ways. In this, a Swedish interview data is used. Sweden is considered particularly interesting, with a qualified societal consensus on gender equality and a broadly positive place accorded to men’s relations with feminism. The authors argue in the final section that there is a need to further dialogue between analyses of men/masculinities and the multidimensionality of feminisms, as well as a need for more empirical studies of men’s different (pro)feminist positionings in order to elaborate the theoretical implications of different social contexts. The framing presented seeks to provide greater possibilities for such complex, nuanced and situated understandings of men’s relation to feminism, theoretically, analytically and politically

European Parliament staff: who are they and do their backgrounds influence decision-making?

The European Parliament and the political groups within it employ a number of staff members to help co-ordinate various aspects of the Parliament’s legislative work. But who are these staff members and do their individual backgrounds influence their decisions? Morten Egeberg, Åse Gornitzka and Jarle Trondal present the results of a survey of European Parliament officials. They write that while staff come from a variety of different backgrounds, factors such as their nationality and previous experiences have only a modest effect on their decision-making behaviour. Nevertheless, these factors may have a more symbolic impact, for instance in terms of the trust placed in the Parliament by citizens

Teachers’ views on effective classroom management: a mixed-methods investigation in Western Australian high schools

© 2020, The Author(s). Teachers’ views about teaching, learning and school experiences are important considerations in education. As the central participants in classroom interactions, students and teachers naturally have strong views about what it takes to manage learning and surrounding behaviours effectively. With this in mind and because we believe that ignoring the thinking of either of these stakeholders would be to the detriment of teaching and teacher education, we focused on hearing and understanding teachers’ voices about teaching, learning and classroom management. Our aim was to further clarify teachers’ perspectives on how educators create quality learning environments as well as gathering their views of various disciplinary interventions, their perceptions of challenging students and their sense of efficacy for classroom management in order to inform both policy and practice in teacher education. A survey was conducted with 50 secondary school teachers to capture their views on their classroom experiences. Follow up interviews with teachers identified by students as effective in their classroom management provided consistent reports that effective classroom managers build positive relationships with their students, manage their classrooms by establishing clear boundaries and high expectations, and engage students in their learning