The Effects Of A Responsibility-based Character Education Program On Middle School Academic Achievement And School Climate At An International School In East Africa

The purpose of this research was to determine the effectiveness of a character education program on middle school student academic performance, effort and attitude about their school located in an international setting. Middle school students at the participating international school were assigned to either an experimental or control group. Those students in the experimental group classes received a series of 12 lessons focusing on the character trait of responsibility. Those students in the control group classes did not receive these lessons. Twelve responsibility-based lessons were presented to students in the experimental group. Student academic grades in six different academic subjects, effort scores in six different academic courses, and student attitude concerning school climate constituted the dependent variable. The literature review and the general results of this study indicate that there are many factors that may influence student academic performance, effort or attitude. Various character education programs which have been designed to be integrated into school curricula as part of pre-existing courses or as stand alone programs have had varying levels of success. There is limited quantitative data available to support the claims that many existing programs make related to their effectiveness. The data collected from this study were also inconclusive making it difficult to generalize the findings beyond the scope of this study. While certain middle school grade levels showed statistically significant improvement in some academic disciplines or effort improvement in some subjects it would not be appropriate to generalize the findings based on this investigation. Implications of this study and suggestions for future investigations are discussed

Strategies for Entrepreneurs with Disabilities to Sustain a Successful Small Business

In 2006, Congress appropriated $5 million to create a research-based policy and give technical assistance to agencies that achieved self-employment outcomes for entrepreneurs with disabilities (EWDs). A lack of information exists within the extant body of research on EWDs and the strategies they employ to develop successful businesses. The research design was a multiple case study format engaging 3 Michigan EWDs whose firms were profitable after at least 3 years of successful business operations. Tipu\u27s conceptual framework of entrepreneurship was useful in understanding the basis for successful EWDs\u27 strategies. Face-to-face interviews with EWDs and onsite observations of their business operations were the primary data collection methods used in the study. The data analysis procedure began with interview transcriptions and summaries of activities. Data coding led to the identification of recurring concepts and integration of topics from across sources to create a complete picture. The decision-making choices successful EWDs made depended on a solid product and market knowledge, the creation of financial and marketing relationships, and adherence to cost-based operational leadership. The findings may contribute to social change by empowering persons with disabilities to become entrepreneurs. Insights into the business strategies can lead to new programs that motivate individuals to become entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurship benefits EWDs, their families, and their communities by facilitating independence and economic and social contributions

Think about graduate school

The office of Career services hosted an information session about graduate educationOffice of career service

NCR366

Sponsored by the Extension services of Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, South Dakota and Wisconsin, in cooperation with Extension Service, USDA, Washington, D.C.Randy D. Shaver & W. Terry Howard, Feeding dairy cows for efficient reproductive performance, University of Wisconsin-Madison, August 1998

Transforming Business And Society: The Impact Of IT

Business operations and processes are revolutionizing at a rapid speed and as we continue to dive into this digital age, it is of great importance to understand the impact Information Systems and Technology has on a society as a whole, the world of business, and Main Street. With this in mind, it’s clear to see that technology solutions must conform, attribute to, and honor the triple bottom line - people, planet, and profit

The Changing Workforce And Marketplace

The makeup of the labor force has changed dramatically in the last 25 years and will continue to change at an even faster pace. Businesses and/or organizations will achieve many benefits from including the ageing population and people with disabilities in both the workforce and marketplace.  Viewing the ageing population and people with disabilities as strategic business partners will achieve a strong, competitive advantage

Trapped-ion quantum error-correcting protocols using only global operations

Quantum error-correcting codes are many-body entangled states that are prepared and measured using complex sequences of entangling operations. Each element of such an entangling sequence introduces noise to delicate quantum information during the encoding or reading out of the code. It is important therefore to find efficient entangling protocols to avoid the loss of information. Here we propose an experiment that uses only global entangling operations to encode an arbitrary logical qubit to either the five-qubit repetition code or the five-qubit code, with a six-ion Coulomb crystal architecture in a Penning trap. We show that the use of global operations enables us to prepare and read out these codes using only six and ten global entangling pulses, respectively. The proposed experiment also allows the acquisition of syndrome information during readout. We provide a noise analysis for the presented protocols, estimating that we can achieve a six-fold improvement in coherence time with noise as high as $\sim 1\%$ on each entangling operation.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, published version, comments are welcom

Mental health: future challenges

The aim of the Foresight Project on Mental Capital and Wellbeing(www.foresight.gov.uk) is to advise the Government on how to achieve the best possible mental development and mental wellbeing for everyone in the UK in the future. The starting point of the Project was to generate an understanding of the science of mental capital and wellbeing (MCW) and to develop a vision for how the size and nature of the challenges exposed by the Project could evolve over the next 20 years. To make this analysis tractable, the work was divided into five broad areas: ● Mental capital through life ● Learning through life ● Mental health ● Wellbeing and work, and ● Learning difficulties. This report presents the findings for “Mental health” and draws upon a comprehensive assessment of the scientific state-of-the art: overall, around 80 reviews have been commissioned across the five areas. Mental health is a term which is used in a number of different ways and which has unfortunately acquired a substantial stigma in all layers of society. While the main focus of this report is on mental ill-health, positive mental health is also vitally important and is also discussed. However, a more comprehensive consideration of positive mental health has been performed in other parts of the Project (as commissioned reviews and in the context of the future of work. This report starts by looking at the situation today, examining the prevalence of important categories of mental disorder. It then considers the risk and protective factors which influence mental ill health, and determines how its prevalence and impact could change in the future, if existing policies and expenditure remain broadly unchanged. An assessment of strategic choices and interventions to meet the future challenges of mental health (and the challenges associated with the other four areas listed above) will be documented in the final Project report which is due for publication in the autumn of 2008

The Retirement Adjustment Process: Changes in the Well-being of Male Retirees Across Time

The purpose of this prospective study was to (1) evaluate the impact of retirement, (2) monitor the change in adjustment across time, and (3) identify the resources predictive of short- and long-term adjustment in retirement. A sample of 117 male retirees was assessed on indices of physical and psychological health, perceived control, retirement satisfaction, and life satisfaction at 2-4 months preretirement, 1 year post-, and 6-7 years postretirement. The results provided support for a positive impact of retirement, as retirees evidenced increases in well-being during the first year. There was also evidence of a retirement adjustment process, in that aspects of well-being (i.e., psychological health) changed from short- to long-term retirement. Finally, physical health, income, and voluntary retirement status predicted short-term adjustment, while internal locus of control was an additional resource for long-term adjustment. Changes in resources over time also differentially predicted short- and long-term adjustment (e.g., an increase in internal locus of control predicted an increase in activity satisfaction at 1 year but not at 6-7 years postretirement

Leadership Styles of Small Business Owners: Linking Theory to Application

To understand small business owners' management and leadership styles, an analytical examination of the different elements of the organization is useful. Although each owner manages a company differently, some fundamental principles are more successful, and yield higher opportunities for achievement, growth, and enhanced productivity over the long term. Business planning is vital. One essential step in planning is to develop a vision for the organization that conveys meaning. Effective management and leadership styles that promote an optimistic vision shared with all members of the organization, especially customers and the general community, yield a higher point of accomplishment for business owners