scholarly journals Supervision as a Kind of Qualitative Evaluation

Author(s):  
Maria Grazia Riva ◽  
Nikoleta Ratsika

<p><em>The contribution presents a reflection on supervision as one of the possible forms of qualitative evaluation, in the field of work with adult educators. Supervision structures a context where theory and practice, emotions and cognitions, values, representations and fears, anxieties and conflicts can be made to dialogue in continuation. The supervisor continuously offers feedback and interpretations to the educators, thanks to attentive listening and decodes what they express. The constructivist approach to Evaluation, on the one hand, gives full value to the subjectivity of the actors involved in the evaluation process and aims to interpret and understand. So, we can call it hermeneutic evaluation (Perla, 2004). Hermeneutic evaluation sets the problem of finding the meaning of the points of view of the participants. This is where the meeting point with the supervision activity, which consists precisely of a practice guided by a leader who helps the educators to better understand their theoretical frameworks of reference and their basic educational models, lies. Supervision and Evaluation therefore represent two important tools for developing the professionalism of the operators, as shown by the case-study analyzed. The practice of supervision is part of a path of  lifelong learning and education (Oggionni, 2013; Zannini, 2005), which passes through experimentation, evaluation and redesigning, in the face of constant monitoring of the needs and learning of the individual and of the team.</em></p><p> </p>

Diversity ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 6
Author(s):  
Kamila Reczyńska ◽  
Krzysztof Świerkosz

In the face of a rapidly changing global environment, detailed research into the actual role of protected areas (PAs) in preventing the destruction of ecosystems and the loss of biodiversity became particularly important. Using 304 phytosociological relevés of oak forests from SW Poland, we monitored their state of preservation reflected by the share of synanthropes (Ws-c index) in relation to (i) duration of protection, (ii) status of protected area, (iii) main topographic factors, and (iv) bedrock type. We show that the Ws-c index of studied forests depends primarily on the habitat conditions, especially bedrock type, while both the duration and status of protection are not relevant. The most disturbed are forests developing on serpentine substrates regardless of whether they are protected or not. Within the rest of the investigated sites, the Ws-c index is significantly lower and does not meaningfully differ between protected and unprotected areas. On the one hand, our results suggest that the fact of establishing protection does not ensure a favourable state of conservation of forest communities. On the other hand, well-preserved forest communities can also be expected outside PAs what makes them an important target for nature protection in the future.


2020 ◽  
pp. 105268462097206
Author(s):  
Jeff Walls

Schools are expected to be sites of caring, but there is evidence that both students and adults often experience them as uncaring places. One reason is that a sustained and heavy policy emphasis on accountability and demonstrations of effectiveness has placed pressure on educators to perform in certain ways, and to care about things other than caring. This case study explores how leaders and teachers at two schools balance their efforts to care for students, on the one hand, with the performative pressures they feel, on the other hand. Teachers who were able to prioritize a balance of care used collaborative relationships with colleagues to manage the pressure they felt, and took a longer term, more emotionally attuned, and more inquiry-based approach to meeting student needs. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.


2017 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 64-75
Author(s):  
Zehavit Gross

This paper aims to explore how Palestinian Arab and Jewish university students in Israel, attending a course on conflict resolution, deal with their stereotypical views of the Other and their prejudices, as well as their complex emotions of fear, hate, anxiety, and love during a period of tension and violence. On the one hand, they have a natural desire for professional partnership and friendship with their fellow students. On the other hand, they are attending this class in a Jewish university, in the heart of the Middle East, where acts of terrorism occur almost daily. This violence changes the power structure and the dynamics of their mutual relationships. Through an analysis of a specific case study the paper aims to shed light on how bridging theory and practice can generate a better understanding of complex situations, enabling reflection and developing signposts to improve coping mechanisms within peace education frameworks in times of terror.


2011 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 169 ◽  
Author(s):  
Parviz Birjandi ◽  
Marzieh Bagherkazemi

The pressing need for English oral communication skills in multifarious contexts today is compelling impetus behind the large number of studies done on oral proficiency interviewing. Moreover, given the recently articulated concerns with the fairness and social dimension of such interviews, parallel concerns have been raised as to how most fairly to assess the oral communication skills of examinees, and what factors contribute to more skilled performance. This article sketches theory and practice on two rather competing formats of oral proficiency interviewing: face-to-face and paired. In the first place, it reviews the related literature on the alleged disadvantages of the individual format. Then, the pros and cons of the paired format are enumerated. It is discussed that the paired format has indeed met some of the criticisms leveled at individual oral proficiency interviewing. However, exploitation of the paired format as an undisputable alternative to the face-to-face format begs the question.


2004 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 307-333 ◽  
Author(s):  
Astrid Ensslin

In this article I endeavour to connect two major achievements of postmodernism which, at first glance, may appear incompatible: deconstruction in literature and literary criticism on the one hand and constructivism in educational theory and practice on the other. Subverting traditional literary values such as authorial integrity and power, linearity and logic of plot, consistency of character, the distance between the reader and printed text as well as, above all, the death of the author, poststructuralism has long been recognized as a rather embattled concept. This is due to its evasiveness and hence relative inapplicability to literary criticism and pedagogy. Venturing to overcome this dilemma, the article will investigate the implications of educational constructivism. The chief aim is to link some of its concepts with postmodern literature in such a way as to facilitate didactic methodology in the field of poststructuralist literature. Literary hypertext- the so-called incarnation of postmodern literary theory - will be used as a stereotypical example of poststructuralist evasiveness. The article proposes that literary hypertext has considerable educational potential. Not only does the genre invite subjectcentred pedagogy, which allows students to learn according to their own interests and prior knowledge, but, paradoxically, it also defies the unviability of poststructuralist literature by resurrecting the dead author in collectiveness. The proposal will be illustrated by a case study report, describing the implementation of literary hypertext in an undergraduate German creative writing classroom.


2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 49-58
Author(s):  
Zhi-yuan Li ◽  
Jacob Bender

AbstractWith the increasing economic development and gradual opening of China’s aviation market, the Chinese aviation industry is experiencing rapid growth and is facing some problems at the same time. Many scholars have assessed the profitability of the Chinese aviation industry using a single assessment approach. Both theory and methods in assessing the profitability of the airlines need to be developed and improved. This article presents a new integrated approach – a combination of factor analysis, principal component analysis, and gray relational analysis. Based on the theory of decision making and data mining, this more reasonable and effective model overcomes the one-sidedness and limitations of the individual methods and has significant impact in theory and practice.


2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (10) ◽  
pp. 2263-2275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michal Zaretsky ◽  
Avi Mendelsohn ◽  
Matti Mintz ◽  
Talma Hendler

Interpretation of emotional context is a pivotal aspect of understanding social situations. A critical component of this process is assessment of danger levels in the surrounding, which may have a direct effect on the organism's survival. The limbic system has been implicated in mediating this assessment. In situations of uncertainty, the evaluation process may also call for greater involvement of prefrontal cortex for decision-making and planning of an appropriate behavioral response. In the following study, morphed face images depicting emotional expressions were used to examine brain correlates of subjective uncertainty and perceptual ambiguity regarding danger. Fear and neutral expressions of 20 faces were morphed, and each of the face videos was divided into three sequences of equal length representing three levels of objective certainty regarding the expressions neutral, fear, and ambiguous. Sixteen subjects were scanned in a 1.5-T scanner while viewing 60 × 6-sec video sequences and were asked to report their subjective certainty regarding the level of danger surrounding the face on a four-level scale combining definite/maybe and danger/no-danger values. The individual responses were recorded and used as the basis for a “subjective protocol” versus an “objective protocol.” Significant activations of the amygdala, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex were observed under the subjective protocol of internally driven uncertainty, but not under objective stimuli-based ambiguity. We suggest that this brain network is involved in generating subjective assessment of social affective cues. This study provides further support to the “relevance detector” theory of the amygdala and implicates its importance to behavior relying heavily on subjective assessment of danger, such as in the security domain context.


2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Zwelihle Wiseman Nzuza

The Stores Division reportedly found it very difficult to control inventories as well as executing roles and responsibilities allocated in the section. The aims of this study were to identify factors affecting the success of inventory control and to assess strategies used by the Stores Division of the eThekwini Municipality in Durban to control inventory stocks. In order to arrive at the deep structure underpinning inventory control, three theoretical frameworks were used, i.e., stock diffusion theory, application control theory and inventory control in theory and practice. This case study was census, descriptive, cross-sectional and predominantly quantitative in nature with only two open-ended questions. The 57 questionnaires were administered by members of staff at the Stores and Procurement Divisions of the eThekwini Municipality in Durban. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics and categorised according to themes. The IBM Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 21.0 was used to determine statistical results. The findings of the study revealed that employees lack proper training and education and that there is poor inventory control planning, lack of staff communication and lack of procurement time management when processing inventory orders. Respondents also indicated that there are no common strategies in place to control inventories. The study recommends that the Stores Division should consider the levels of staff qualifications, provide more staff training, and improve inventory control planning; communication; time management, and instigate innovative strategies in order to eradicate growing costs of inventory stocks. Moreover, the internal control processes need to be mapped according to the various roles identified.


2019 ◽  
Vol 30 (6) ◽  
pp. 1663-1670
Author(s):  
Kristina Kilova ◽  
Desislava Bakova ◽  
Nonka Mateva ◽  
Zhivko Peychev ◽  
Antoniya Yaneva

The creation of a University Press is a prerequisite for raising the reputation of the Medical University - Plovdiv. With its significant scientific output and the large number of students, it will represent the face of the University in front of the scientific communities and will be an important element of the national and international interuniversity communication. By documenting the individual qualities of the teachers, knowledge is preserved and its development is assisted, thus meeting the public demands. Without a developed publishing activity, it is difficult to evolve the creative potential of teachers and students. The University Press, on the one hand, is a real participant in the learning process, as it facilitates students' access to books as well as novelties in science. On the other hand, it is also a natural center of university life.


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