Praise Under Pressure: How to Cultivate a Worship-Filled Lifestyle Amidst Anxiety

Rates of anxiety are at its highest point in the late Millennial and early Gen-Z population, prompting a rise in mental health awareness. For those practicing the Christian faith, it can be difficult to follow Apostle Paul’s simple command to “not be anxious” (Philippians 4:6). This thesis will conduct a targeted literature review of music and group-counseling-based therapy, as both have proven to positively affect anxiety and stress symptoms. Combining these two methodologies with worship lifestyle principles and counseling exercises, a church-modeled devotional study will be created to encourage believers to cling to faith in God despite rising anxiety. The objective is to provide local churches with materials that can guide individuals through practical steps to worship God amidst anxiety

Teachers' capacity to realize educational change through inquiry-based working and distributed leadership

Teachers face many challenges in their daily teaching practices. On the one hand, they must be able to improve their teaching and learning strategies by navigating changing goals in order to meet the variety in students’ educational needs. On the other hand, governmental and school board projects aimed at educational development focus increasingly on data. These issues require teachers to develop their capacity to realize educational change. Herein, working inquiry-based can be helpful for teachers to investigate their daily practices. In developing and maintaining an inquiry-based working environment, leadership that encourage teachers to take ownership of the change process may be essential. Limited studies focus on how distributed leadership or inquiry-based working may be related to teachers’ capacity to realize educational change, Also, knowledge about whether school leaders’ perceptions of distributed leadership are relevant in enhancing teachers’ capacity to change is scarce. This dissertation examines these issues through four studies. The results show that inquiry-based working illustrates for teachers which educational changes need to be made when adapting teaching strategies. Also, working inquiry-based encourages them to take leadership roles. Their sense of self-efficacy seems to be stronger as well as the extent to which they support one another and share experiences. Although school leaders differ in their interpretations of distributed leadership, distributing leadership may still be worthwhile. Teachers seem to be more likely to collaborate, internalize school goals into personal aims and show a higher level of self-efficacy than in schools without such leadership distribution

A kinetic and theoretical study of the borate catalysed reactions of hydrogen peroxide: the role of dioxaborirane as the catalytic intermediate for a wide range of substrates

Our recent work has provided new insights into the equilibria and species that exist in aqueous solution at different pHs for the boric acid – hydrogen peroxide system, and the role of these species in oxidation reactions. Most recently, (M. C. Durrant, D. M. Davies and M. E. Deary, Org. Biomol. Chem., 2011, 9,7249–7254), we have produced strong theoretical and experimental evidence for the existence of a previously unreported monocyclic three membered peroxide species, dioxaborirane, that is the likely catalytic species in borate mediated electrophilic reactions of hydrogen peroxide in alkaline solution. In the present paper, we extend our study of the borate–peroxide system to look at a wide range of substrates that include substituted dimethyl anilines, methyl-p-tolyl sulfoxide, halides, hydrogen sulfide anion, thiosulfate ,thiocyanate, and hydrazine. The unusual selectivity–reactivity pattern of borate catalysed reactions compared with hydrogen peroxide and inorganic or organic peracids previously observed for theorganic sulfides (D. M. Davies, M. E. Deary, K. Quill and R. A. Smith, Chem.–Eur. J., 2005, 11, 3552–3558) is also seen with substituted dimethyl aniline nucleophiles. This provides evidence that the pattern is not due to any latent electrophilic tendency of the organic sulfides and further supports dioxaborirane being the likely reactive intermediate, thus broadening the applicability of this catalytic system. Moreover, density functional theory calculations on our proposed mechanism involving dioxaborirane are consistent with the experimental results for these substrates. Results obtained at high concentrations of both borate and hydrogen peroxide require the inclusion the diperoxodiborate dianion in the kinetic analysis .A scheme detailing our current understanding of the borate–peroxide system is presented

Relationships in distributed leadership, inquiry-based working, and realizing educational change in Dutch primary education:teachers’ and their school leader’s perceptions

Although distributed leadership and inquiry-based working are relevant topics to primary education, there has been little discussion about how team members perceive these practices as meaningful in their day-to-day work. Following on from prior quantitative studies, the present study conducted a case study in which semi-structured interviews were employed to collect data. The findings suggested that teachers and their principal perceive distributed leadership and inquiry-based working as crucial to realizing educational change. More specifically, the case study showed how inquiry-based working could support distributed leadership and teachers’ ability to take the initiative to create educational change. Specifying the relationships could help teachers and school leaders to consciously leverage distributed leadership and inquiry-based working techniques to fully meet students’ needs.</p

The relationship between primary school leaders' utilization of distributed leadership and teachers' capacity to change

Although it is generally known that distributed leadership is relevant for reinforcing teachers' capacity to change, how leadership roles are distributed among teachers largely depends on how principals perceive distributed leadership. Specifying principals' perceptions and how these are related to teachers' capacity to change leads to theories about the knowledge and beliefs of leaders with regard to distributed leadership that are crucial for achieving educational change as a team. Combining questionnaire data from 787 Dutch primary school teachers and interview data from 58 principals in a parallel mixed methods design, this study shows differences in how school leaders distribute leadership roles. In addition, the results indicate that several aspects of teachers' capacity to change, namely, joint work, collegial support, knowledge sharing, self-efficacy and their internalization of school goals, are more present in schools in which school leaders distribute leadership among teachers than in schools in which they do not

Leidraad Werken aan Onderwijsverbetering:Evidence-informed naar een lerende organisatie in het primair onderwijs - weten wat werkt en waarom

De leidraad ondersteunt scholen in het primair onderwijs om zich tot lerende organisaties te ontwikkelen. In een school als lerende organisatie verbeteren leerkrachten en schoolleiders hun onderwijs op een onderbouwde en duurzame manier. Door zich te verdiepen in bestaande kennis, ervaringen te delen, van elkaar te leren en samen te werken.Het doel van deze leidraad is om leerkrachten en schoolleiders kennis en handvatten te bieden om zich tot een lerende organisatie te ontwikkelen. We verbinden kennis uit onderzoek aan kennis en ervaringen van leerkrachten. Ook bieden we handvatten om de manier van duurzaam werken aan kwaliteitsverbetering te kunnen verankeren in de schoolcultuur.Aan de hand van de zes aanbevelingen in deze leidraad, werk je toe naar een lerende organisatie. In aanbeveling 1 en 2 focus je op het onderzoeksmatig en cyclisch werken aan onderwijsverbetering en in aanbeveling 3 t/m 6 werk je aan het creëren van een onderzoekscultuur:Kom tot een onderbouwd en gedragen verbeterplanZorg voor een proces van uitvoeren, monitoren, bijstellen en borgenStimuleer een onderzoekende houdingStimuleer samen leren in het teamBenut kennis en expertiseCreëer een schoolklimaat waarin leiderschap wordt gesprei

Leidraad Werken aan Onderwijsverbetering:Evidence-informed naar een lerende organisatie in het primair onderwijs - weten wat werkt en waarom

De leidraad ondersteunt scholen in het primair onderwijs om zich tot lerende organisaties te ontwikkelen. In een school als lerende organisatie verbeteren leerkrachten en schoolleiders hun onderwijs op een onderbouwde en duurzame manier. Door zich te verdiepen in bestaande kennis, ervaringen te delen, van elkaar te leren en samen te werken.Het doel van deze leidraad is om leerkrachten en schoolleiders kennis en handvatten te bieden om zich tot een lerende organisatie te ontwikkelen. We verbinden kennis uit onderzoek aan kennis en ervaringen van leerkrachten. Ook bieden we handvatten om de manier van duurzaam werken aan kwaliteitsverbetering te kunnen verankeren in de schoolcultuur.Aan de hand van de zes aanbevelingen in deze leidraad, werk je toe naar een lerende organisatie. In aanbeveling 1 en 2 focus je op het onderzoeksmatig en cyclisch werken aan onderwijsverbetering en in aanbeveling 3 t/m 6 werk je aan het creëren van een onderzoekscultuur:Kom tot een onderbouwd en gedragen verbeterplanZorg voor een proces van uitvoeren, monitoren, bijstellen en borgenStimuleer een onderzoekende houdingStimuleer samen leren in het teamBenut kennis en expertiseCreëer een schoolklimaat waarin leiderschap wordt gesprei