Lessons from Albania : professional development that transforms educators, schools and communities

Programs of staff development for in-service teachers often focus on the introduction of specific skills and technologies. Seldom do staff development programs take on more broad goals of professional and personal growth. In this article the authors describe one program, the Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking project, a literacy-based project developed and implemented by the International Reading Association. The project began as a training program with rather modest goals of instructional skills development, but resulted in a surprising number of unexpected outcomes. These outcomes clearly distinguished this program as a professional rather than a technical development activity. The project, a three-year training of trainers model, introduced innovative literacy based techniques in Albania (and 29 other countries in Europe and Asia) from 1997-2001. The authors, both members of the International Reading Association, participated in the project’s implementation and dissemination in Albania. In this article, after reviewing the project, the authors summarize their investigation of the project’s impact on individual participants through data collected in survey and case study. In doing so, they differentiate between technical and professional development and offer suggestions, based on this study, regarding how other in service programs might be shaped to lead to opportunities for in-service teachers to truly develop as individuals and professional educators.peer-reviewe

Fatigue safety monitoring and assessment of short and medium span concrete girder bridges

Concrete bridge is widely used in highway infrastructure in China, especially in short and medium span bridges. Concrete bridges are prone to fatigue failure under the coupled actions of repeated vehicles loads, environment and material degradation. In recent years, the traffic volume and vehicle weights of highway bridges have been continuously increasing, so concrete bridge fatigue problem becomes more serious. This paper introduces advanced fatigue safety monitoring techniques and fatigue performance assessment methods for short and medium span concrete girder bridges. Weigh-in-motion (WIM) system was used to record the real traffic volume, and then the acquired load spectrum was applied on typical concrete bridges through Matlab to analyze the fatigue performance of different bridge types. From the analysis results, several typical short and medium span concrete girder bridges are selected to conduct long-term service monitoring. The cross section types include hollow slab girder, T-girder and short box girder, and the structure types contain simple supported bridge and continuous girder bridge. WIM technique, dynamic strain monitoring technique and acoustic emission technique are used to monitor the key details. Fatigue performance is assessed and analyzed based on monitoring data, considering traffic increase, overload and corrosion factors

The relationship between personality traits, ethnicity and the tendency for social dissimulation in persons involved and uninvolved in politics

The purpose of the research was to examine the relationship between personality traits of individuals involved and uninvolved in politics with ethnicity and the tendency for social dissimulation. In assessing the personality traits of individuals involved and uninvolved in politics, the Big Five personality traits model was applied. The study included 525 respondents from RNM, of whom 35 later included in politics (of whom 8 were female) aged 24 to 61 years. The Hexaco Questionnaire was used to assess the features of individuals involved and uninvolved in politics, and the EPQ subscale was used to assess the tendency of social dissimulation. In the data analysis, links were observed between personality traits and ethnicity and social dissimulation. The results show that in the sample tested, Honesty, Social dissimulation and Agreeableness are the most present traits in individuals involved in politics compared to individuals who are not involved in politics. Those involved in politics have a dominant presence of traits such as honesty, modesty, unconventionality and prudence. When it comes to the tendency for social dissimulation, the results state that there are significant differences between individuals involved and not involved in politics. Individuals involved in politics are more likely to display dissimulation. Regression analyzes have shown that Flexibility, Social Boldness, Liveliness, Openness to experiences are considered as the best predictors (out of a total of 26 personality traits) of involving in politics

The Causality between Capital Formation and Economic Growth in MENA Region

This paper investigates the causal relationship between gross domestic investment (INV) and GDP for Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region countries by using panel unit root tests and panel cointegration analysis for the period 1970-2010. The results show a strong causality from economic growth to investment in these countries. Yet, investment does not have any significant effects on GDP in short- and long-run. It means that it is the GDP that drives investment in mentioned countries, not vice versa. So the findings of this paper support the point of view that it is higher economic growth that leads to higher investment. According to the results, decision makings should be employed to achieve sustainable growth through higher productivity and substantially enlarging the economic base diversification in the futur

The Relationship between Economic Growth and Human Capital in Developing Countries

This paper investigates the causal relationship between education and GDP in developing countries by using panel unit root tests and panel cointegration analysis for the period 1970-2010. A three-variable model is formulated with capital formation as the third variable. The results show a strong causality from investment and economic growth to education in these countries. Yet, education does not have any significant effects on GDP and investment in short- and long-run. It means that it is the capital formation and GDP that drives education in mentioned countries, not vice versa. So the findings of this paper support the point of view that it is higher economic growth that leads to higher education proxy. It seems that as the number of enrollments raise, the quality of the education declines. Moreover, the formal education systems are not market oriented in these countries. This may be the reason why huge educational investments in these developing countries fail to generate higher growth. By promoting practice-oriented training for students particularly in technical disciplines and matching education system to the needs of the labor market, it will help create long-term jobs and improve the country’s future prospects

Evaluating the performance of GCC banks using camel framework

The economic importance of banks to developing countries may be viewed as promoting capital formation, monetization, influencing economic activity, encouraging innovation and facilitator of monetary policy. Banking sector performance evaluation is an effective measure and indicator to check the soundness of economic activities of an economy. This study attempts to evaluate bank's performance of the GCC region using CAMEL framework. The study examines 12 conventional banks in six GCC countries where year-end financial data from the years 2008 until 2012 were gathered from the banks' annual reports and Thomson Reuters, Data stream in the library of Universiti Utara Malaysia. The study finds that capital adequacy parameters of GCC banks are above the minimum requirement, while asset quality in the GCC countries affected the bank's performance except in Saudi Arabian banks. Management quality affects banks performance in all GCC countries except in Saudi Arabian banks. Earning ability is efficient with the banks performing well during the five years under investigation. Liquidity stood in the top position for all the 12 banks in GCC countries. The GCC countries could further improve the performance of their asset quality and management quality, using CAMEL framework as it is the best model and useful in evaluating banks performance

Evaluating of social sustainability indicators in district 15 of Tehran

Objective: Social sustainability is considered as an essential element of sustainable development and social issues are the integral part of urban projects. Therefore, the dimensions of social sustainability are one of the most important and the key tools used inurban planning and policy. The aim of this study is to evaluate and analyze the levels of social indicators in District 15 (Tehrn) and its subdistricts and the ranking of these elements in this area. Methods: The present paper is applied in terms of purpose avd descriptive- analytical in terms of metod .First, the data were collected using questionnaire tools for indexing and then was used to weight to analyze the data and to rank the district 15 and its subdistricts, the ANP network analysis method and the Typsis method were used, respectively. Results:The findings indicate that among the social sustainability, social justice with a weight of 0.988 is the first, satisfaction with a weight of 0.977 is ranked the second due to the little access to the city services, and personal confidence with a weight of 0.884 is ranked as the thirdAccording to Typsis method, Moshiria, Abazar and Khavarshahr subdistricts are ranked the first, second, and third, respectively. Conclusion: In this study, to achieve social sustainability, three major elements -Security, Participation and Quality of Life- were introduced. These three components were considered in the form of six criteria and fifteen sub-criteria. Among them, social justice has the highest weight