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Full-Text Articles in Social and Behavioral Sciences
From The Sacred Canopy To The Civic Canopy: Social Transformation Through Dialogue, Collaboration, And Civil Society, William K. Fulton
From The Sacred Canopy To The Civic Canopy: Social Transformation Through Dialogue, Collaboration, And Civil Society, William K. Fulton
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
The American creed of e pluribus unum--out of many, one--has proven to be an elusive aspiration for societies throughout history. Research suggests that as the diversity of a community increases, its stores of social capital decline. Yet, there exists a growing body of evidence that suggests under certain conditions, patterns of inclusion and collaboration are not only possible but predictable. This project explores theory on effective communication practices, grounded in Habermas's Theory of Communicative Action, as well as research on effective group interaction to suggest that certain communicative capacities and collaborative processes that successfully face the challenge of e …
Environmental Management Reform Through The Watershed Approach: A Multi-Case Study Of State Agency Implementation, Julie H. Mawhorter
Environmental Management Reform Through The Watershed Approach: A Multi-Case Study Of State Agency Implementation, Julie H. Mawhorter
Doctoral Dissertations
In the past two decades, there has been a growing consensus regarding the inadequacies of the existing environmental policy regime and the need for reform to address complex, cross-jurisdictional sustainability challenges, such as nonpoint source pollution. Reform theory has focused on the need for more integrated, collaborative, adaptive, and results-oriented environmental management, while empirical studies have highlighted the wide implementation gap due to an array of institutional obstacles. Key principles and challenges of these four reform dimensions were synthesized in this study and used to assess implementation of the watershed approach by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and states since …
An Evaluation Of The Process And Outcomes Of Teacher Collaboration In Vocabulary Instruction, Joanne Morgan
An Evaluation Of The Process And Outcomes Of Teacher Collaboration In Vocabulary Instruction, Joanne Morgan
Open Access Dissertations
The current case study evaluates a program of professional development aimed at engaging two groups of elementary teachers in communities of practice (CoPs) focused on improving teachers' vocabulary instruction and students' vocabulary learning. The professional development program took place over five months in the 2008-2009 school year. The purpose of the evaluation was to evaluate the merit and worth of the professional development program and identify changes that could be implemented by the primary evaluator in future efforts to develop and refine an effective method for teaching teachers about vocabulary instruction. An explanatory case study design was used to achieve …
Strategic Planning: Contextual Factors That Facilitated And/Or Challenged The Implementation Of Strategic Planning In Two Nonprofit Organizations, Devadhasan Masilamony Phd
Strategic Planning: Contextual Factors That Facilitated And/Or Challenged The Implementation Of Strategic Planning In Two Nonprofit Organizations, Devadhasan Masilamony Phd
Dissertations
As the nonprofit sector continues to grow in size and importance in American society, successful organizations proactively initiate strategic planning so they can be more responsive to changing circumstances, underlying trends, and shifting demands. At times, however, organizations develop elaborate plans that are never implemented. Unfortunately, there is less systematic research about strategic planning in the nonprofit sector than in the for-profit sector and even less research documenting whether or not the plans that get developed in nonprofit organizations actually get implemented. The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand how strategic planning improves the effectiveness of two nonprofit …
Historical Geocollaboration: The Implementation Of A Scoring System To Account For Uncertainty In Geographic Data Created In A Collaborative Environment, Anthony D. Contreras
Historical Geocollaboration: The Implementation Of A Scoring System To Account For Uncertainty In Geographic Data Created In A Collaborative Environment, Anthony D. Contreras
Theses and Dissertations
A Geographic Information System (GIS) is an existing tool to create, manage, analyze and visualize data with a spatial component, and is used by many types of organizations in many fields. For most of the tasks and projects within these fields, a GIS provides highly accurate results. Under certain circumstances (Massive Scope, Widespread Expertise and Multivalency), a GIS fails to provide adequate results in the field of historical geography, for example. Crowdsourcing tools like Wikipedia and Open Street Map (OSM) address some of these issues, but not all, and introduce new problems. This project focuses on geographic data dealing with …
The Effects Of Ethnic Diversity, Perceived Similarity, And Trust On Collaborative Behavior And Performance, Jessica Wildman
The Effects Of Ethnic Diversity, Perceived Similarity, And Trust On Collaborative Behavior And Performance, Jessica Wildman
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Recent issues such as global economic crises, terrorism, and conservation efforts are making international collaboration a critical topic. While cultural diversity often brings with it new perspectives and innovative solutions, diversity in collaborative settings can also lead to misunderstandings and interaction problems. Therefore, there is a pressing need to understand the processes and influences of intercultural collaboration and how to manage the collaborative process to result in the most effective outcomes possible. In order to address this need, the current study examines the effect of ethnic diversity, perceived deep-level similarity, trust, and distrust on collaborative behavior and performance in decision-making …
Perceptions Of Web 2.0 Tools As Catalysts For Teacher And Librarian Collaboration: A Case Study, Peggy Milam Creighton
Perceptions Of Web 2.0 Tools As Catalysts For Teacher And Librarian Collaboration: A Case Study, Peggy Milam Creighton
Presidential Alumni Research Dissemination Award
Scheduling collaborative planning sessions with classroom teachers is a substantial challenge for school librarians. Research indicates that lack of time is a major barrier to collaboration. The purpose of this study was to explore perceptions of Web 2.0 tools as a potential means of overcoming the time barrier to collaboration. Participants were school librarians and classroom teachers from a large suburban school district. Loertscher's taxonomy and school library 2.0 provided a conceptual framework for the design of this case study. Research questions focused on (a) ways Web 2.0 tools can be used to collaborate and (b) which tools are most …
Collaborative Problem Solving: The Role Of Team Knowledge Building Processes And External Representations, Michael Rosen
Collaborative Problem Solving: The Role Of Team Knowledge Building Processes And External Representations, Michael Rosen
Electronic Theses and Dissertations
This dissertation evaluates the relationship between five team knowledge building processes (i.e., information exchange, knowledge sharing, option generation, evaluation of alternatives, and regulation), the external representations constructed by a team during a performance episode, and performance outcomes in a problem solving task. In a broad range of domains such as the military, and healthcare, team-based work structures used to solve complex problems; however, the bulk of research on teamwork to date has dealt with behavioral coordination in routine tasks. This leaves a gap in the theory available for developing interventions to support collaborative problem solving, or knowledge-based performance, in teams. …
The Art Of Collaboration: Interlocal Collaboration In The Provision Of Fire Services In The Metropolitan Detroit Area, William David Hatley
The Art Of Collaboration: Interlocal Collaboration In The Provision Of Fire Services In The Metropolitan Detroit Area, William David Hatley
Wayne State University Dissertations
Metropolitan regions have emerged in the United States as important economic units with numerous small local governments each providing various public services. The movement toward city-county consolidation has frequently been defeated at the polls. Frederickson (1999) argues that metropolitan areas have become so fragmented in their approach to service delivery that they constitute what he describes as a "disarticulated state", characterized by the declining salience of jurisdiction, the fuzziness of borders and an erosion of the capacity of the local jurisdiction to contain and, thereby, manage complex social, economic and political issues. Feiock (2009) contends that much of the urban …
Regionalization Of Selected Police Services Through A Law Enforcement Council : Is It Worth The Cost?, Julie Schnobrich-Davis
Regionalization Of Selected Police Services Through A Law Enforcement Council : Is It Worth The Cost?, Julie Schnobrich-Davis
Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)
This research study presents results from an evaluation and cost effectiveness analysis of a regionalization of selected police services into a Law Enforcement Council approach, as practiced by the Metropolitan Law Enforcement Council (Metro-LEC). The Metro-LEC is a non-profit organization comprising forty three law enforcement agencies in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The results from wave two surveys administered to officers in the organization as well as a survey distributed to the Chief Executive Officers of the participating law enforcement agencies illustrate the overall effectiveness of the organization. Additionally, a cost effectiveness analysis presents data from the costs of operating regionalized …