School Leaders Who Coach: Exploring the Effect of Coaching on Their Leadership, Learning, Self-Efficacy and Professional Agency

ABSTRACT This interpretive, mixed-methods research explores the experiences of school leaders who coach. Located within International and UK Schools, it uncovers the effect that being a coach has on school leaders’ leadership, learning, self-efficacy and professional agency. The topic is approached through a framework of Bandura’s self-efficacy and agency theory, critically exploring the coaching experiences of school leaders and a small sample of leaders working in adult learning settings. Fieldwork includes a two-part online survey blended with twenty-one semi-structured, in-depth interviews. Findings reveal that along with elevated levels of self-awareness, school leaders who coach experience the benefits of generativity, coupled with increased knowledge, understanding and skills in coaching and leadership. Furthermore, leaders develop increasingly patient listening, more profound reflexivity, increased abilities in posing resonant and relevant questions, enhanced attentiveness to others’ needs, greater empathy in building rapport and trust, and the capacity to develop emotionally safe environments in which colleagues can develop. Coaching appears to contribute to the leaders increased levels of self-efficacy belief, which acts as both a catalyst and a reinforcing mechanism for their agency. The thesis addresses a gap in research by exploring coaching in schools from the perspective of the coach, noting that there is little or no difference between the experiences of school leaders who coach and the sample of leaders who work in adult learning environments. The research advances the argument for school leaders to develop and use coaching skills in their work with colleagues. Using coaching as a tool to support the development of others, appears to sustain leaders who coach in their leadership and mitigates the pressures and challenges of their professional work. The thesis concludes with suggestions for an increase in knowledge, understanding and skill development of coaching and a wider uptake by school leaders

Some topics in the analytic number theory of polynomials over a finite field

There are striking similarities between the ring of integers and the ring of polynomials in one variable over a finite field. This thesis explores some of these similarities from an analytic number theoretic perspective. It develops a polynomial analogue of techniques for extracting number theoretic information from analytic functions known as the Selberg--Delange method. A motivating problem for the original development of this theory was the problem of counting integers with a prescribed number of prime factors. After presenting the theory in the context of counting polynomials with a prescribed number of prime factors in arithmetic progressions and short intervals, a refined version of the method is presented to study some related quantities in more detail. This work has applications to the study of so-called prime number races questions for polynomials with a prescribed number of prime factors. As a prelude to this work on the Selberg--Delange method, an application from the integer version is given. It concerns the distribution of the values of $\omega(n)$, the number of prime divisors of $n$, in different residue classes. We also prove some results concerning the existence and number of prime polynomials whose coefficients satisfy certain conditions. These can be compared with results about the existence and number of prime numbers whose digits satisfy certain conditions. In particular, we study prime polynomials whose coefficients are restricted to a given subset of the underlying finite field and those whose coefficients satisfy a given linear equation. These results make use of additive characters and as prelude to them, a result concerning the correlation of the polynomial analogue of the exponential function with the multiplicative M\"{o}bius function is presented

A discursive analysis of contemporary literature examining qualitative research findings in evidence-based health care.

The systematic review has become the ‘gold standard’ of evidence. Historically the systematic review has focused on effectiveness and as such the aggregation of results from randomised controlled trials. However health care questions are often complex requiring different research approaches to yield appropriate answers. It is acknowledged that not all research questions are amenable to the results of RCTS and as such there is now a shift towards understanding the need to incorporate research findings that acknowledge social and cultural concerns. This shift has resulted in an increased use of qualitative research findings as evidence and more specifically the systematic review of qualitative research findings. While still a relatively new area of research, the methods surrounding qualitative systematic review are fast developing. To date there are many views and debates on how this type of research should be performed. In order to gain a deeper level of understanding of these positions a discursive analysis informed by Foucault was undertaken on contemporary literature. Incorporating Foucault’s archaeological and genealogical aspects to analysis three distinct discursive formations related to the incorporation of qualitative systematic review into evidence-based practice is revealed. History of the present: a voice silenced examines the discourses surrounding the evidence-based revolution lack of reference to incorporating qualitative research findings. Rise of the silenced voice examines the discourses around positioning qualitative research findings into evidence-based practice. The final formation, Building Blocks to systematic review examines all the discourses surrounding the elements of conducting a qualitative systematic review. Finally the researcher concludes that all approaches to synthesising qualitative research are useful and have a place within health care but only reviews that follow the Five Stages of Systematic Review can be given the label of being a ‘systematic review’. Only those methods that detail an explicit, well defined question, perform a comprehensive search for research, critically assess the quality of research papers, extract and aggregate the findings of the included research papers can be given the label of being a qualitative systematic review.Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, The Joanna Briggs Institute, 201

Crop Agronomy.

Seeding machinery for stubble retention in lupin cereal rotations, 85LG21, and 85LG22. Dynamic Lifter (cereal mix) fertiliser evaluation, 86LG2. Cultural systems for lupin: wheat rotations on water repellent soils, 87ES2. Stubble retention and Rovral for brownspot control in lupins, 87M66. Straw length Effects on wheat growth on red-brown earths, 87M70. Row spacing and stubble retention effects on wheat growth on red-brown earths, 87M71. Nitrogen fertiliser for wheat production after volunteer pasture or sub clover-based pasture, 87ME73 and 87ME74. Effect of seeding rate and sowing depth on lupin establishment, 87ME75. Time of seeding various wheat varieties, 87WE76

Focus catchments : a new approach to salinity research : National Dryland Salinity Program

Dry/and salinity is a major threat to the resource base of many rural industries around Australia. More than 1.8 million hectares of once productive land are affected by salinity, with a further 1.6 million hectares at risk in the next 15 to 25 years in Western Australia alone. Much of the past Commonwealth and State expenditure on salinity programs and activities has been poorly targeted and coordinated. In view of this, a national dry/and salinity program that supports specific State salinity management programs has been established jointly between the Commonwealth and State government agencies. The Upper Kent River Catchment is one of five national focus catchments in the National Dry/and Salinity Research Development and Extension Program being sponsored by the Land and Water Resources Research and Development Corporation, Murray Darling Basin Commission and the National Landcare Program. Steve Porritt, Project Manager for the Kent River focus catchment, reports on progress to date