This research aims to explore the attempted implementation of mixed ability grouping in junior high schools in Taiwan and the challenges generated by individuals and groups to this policy. The mixed-ability grouping policy in Taiwan has been disputed for nearly thirty years, but the disputes have never been examined from a wider perspective that considers the evolution of the policy and the contexts the policy process resides in. This study thus attempts to understand the process of the mixed-ability grouping policy from a contextualised, politicised, long-term perspective within which not only the ideological and practical debates, but the contexts that shape the conflicts over time, are taken into consideration. The study is grounded in an analytical framework that allows for the exploration of the politically-driven mainstream educational ideologies, the power relationships between policy actors, and the cyclical policy process. The research methods adopted consider the timeframe, the contexts, the multiple policy actors and the interactions among policy actors and between contexts and policy actors within the policy. Documentary analysis is adopted to trace the policy process, the conflicts within, and the political, cultural, economic and societal contexts of the policy from its inception to today whilst a questionnaire survey and in-depth interviews are utilized to understand the attitudes and actions of educational authorities and school educators. Case studies are conducted in two junior high schools in order to learn about the dynamics, the conflicts, and the considerations of grouping practice within individual schools. The key findings of this thesis are as follows. First, the mixed-ability grouping policy in Taiwan has existed through two different political regimes, within which the different mainstream educational ideologies and power distribution among policy actors contribute to the distinctive policy process, interpretations of disputes and patterns of conflicts. Second, although the first-line educators recognise the advantages of mixed-ability grouping regarding discipline and resource distribution, their perceptions of pupils’ ability and teaching are in line with the assumptions of streaming, which contribute to educators’ conflicting attitudes and actions towards the mixed-ability grouping policy. Third, the senior high school entry system and the actions of parents and junior high schools together shape a hidden educational market within which the ‘disguised forms’ of streaming, such as the establishment of special classes, are valued by market players. The senior high school entry examination also profoundly influences educators who internalise the values embodied in the examination and perceive pupils’ ability and their own teaching mainly in terms of examination results.

No description available.

Purpose – The purpose is to: Improve the efficiency of warehouses operations as well as reduce its workload imbalances by altering the warehouse layout and work zones at a storage area. This was done by answering the following research questions: What is the current state of the sites efficiency and workload imbalances? How can the warehouse layout be designed to increase the efficiency? How can warehouse work zones be altered to reduce workload imbalances? Method – The purpose was achieved through a case study at a vehicle manufacturing facility. By studying established methods of efficiency, layout designs and workload imbalances, ways of improving the operations was discovered. The effects of these methods were then tested through the case.   Findings –There are two categories improving efficiency, namely increasing output or decreasing input. The study also provides examples of ways to do both, and verifies them at the case company. The focus of both methods is a decrease in travel distance which proved to be a reliable way of increasing efficiency. Workload imbalances can be decreased by sharing workload between the resources. The case shows the result of two different resources with unequal workload and discusses the trade-off between efficiency and workload equality. Implications – The practical implications of the study is guidelines for how efficiency can be increased and how workload imbalances can be decreased. The academic implications are verifications of the used theories. Limitations – This study focuses on a restricted part of the storage process, namely traveling. There are more processes which could be included to further benefit the overall efficiency, these have however been excluded to limit the scope. The study also uses a heuristic approach based on prior research which means that the optimal solution might still be unknown. Keywords – Efficiency, workload imbalances, storage management, family grouping

At the national, state, district, and building levels, girls outperform boys in writing. The purpose of this study was to examine the achievement gap between 5th grade girls and boys in the content area of writing. The research questions explored the perceptions of 5th grade teachers and building administrators and examined the instructional strategies that were used to teach writing to 5th grade students. Attribution theory was used as the theoretical framework to address the achievement gap. Using a qualitative instrumental case study design, data were collected from a building administrator and a 5th grade writing teacher in the form of semi structured interviews, an observation of the 5th grade writing teacher, and the examination of writing instructional resources used to teach writing. Data from these sources were transcribed, coded, and analyzed to find emerging themes. The findings revealed that gender-specific instructional strategies and a progress monitoring assessment tool were needed to help close the achievement gap. Based on the findings, a white paper report was created and shared with the building administrator and 5th grade writing teacher. The white paper report included gender-specific instructional strategies and a progress monitoring assessment tool as recommendations to help close the achievement gap. Examining the achievement gap between 5th grade girls and boys in the content area of writing could promote positive social change by encouraging administrators as instructional leaders to become leading learners and by providing 5th grade teachers gender-specific instructional strategies to help students become proficient writers who are college and career ready.

The loading problem in a Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) lies in the allocation of operations and associated cutting tools to machines for a given set of parts subject to capacity constraints. This dissertation proposes a hierarchical approach to the machine loading problem when the workload and tool magazine capacity of each machine are restrained. This hierarchical approach reduces the maximum workload of the machines by partially grouping them. This research deals with situations where different groups of machines performing the same operation require different processing times and this problem is formulated as an integer linear problem. This work proposes a solution that is comprised of two phases. In the first phase (Phase I), demand is divided into batches and then operations are allocated to groups of machines by using a heuristic constrained by the workload and tool magazine capacity of each group. The processing time of the operation is different for each machine group, which is composed of the same identical machines; however, these machines can perform different sets of operations if tooled differently. Each machine and each group of machines has a limited time for completing an operation. Operations are allocated to groups based on their respective workload limits. In the second phase (Phase II), demand is divided into batches again and operations are assigned to machines based on their workload and tool magazine capacity defined by Longest Processing Time (LPT) and Multifit algorithms. In Phase II, like Phase I, partial grouping is more effective in balancing the workload than total grouping. In partial grouping, each machine is tooled differently, but they can assist one another in processing each individual operation. Phase I demonstrates the efficiency of allocating operations to each group. Phase II demonstrates the efficiency of allocating operations to each machine within each group. This two-phase solution enhances routing flexibility with the same or a smaller number of machines through partial grouping rather than through total grouping. This partial grouping provides a balanced solution for problems involving a large number of machines. Performance of the suggested loading heuristics is tested by means of randomly generated tests.

Friend lists allow Facebook users to group their friends and may be used to share certain information only with those in a specific list. This function has been around for several years, but has never gained any particular popularity among users, most of whom probably did not know it even existed a couple of years ago. In the fall of 2011, however, the function was updated and made more visible on the site. There are several possible uses of friend lists, such as privacy control, filtering of the news feed, self-presentation and targeted information sharing. This paper aims to investigate the extent to which friend lists are used by students today, as well as why students actually use their lists, i.e. for what purposes. Judging from the results of this study in comparison with earlier research, there seems to have been a somewhat recent increase in the awareness of the fact that friend lists actually do exist, but still most users tend not to utilize them. Moreover, the results indicate that friend lists quite rarely are used for privacy control, or anything else for that matter, probably due to a number of drawbacks that they possess as of today.

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Lehigh University, 2000. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 94-104).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Notre Dame, 2003. / Thesis directed by Cindy Bergeman for the Department of Psychology. "July 2003." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 103-106).

No description available.

The loading problem in a Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS) lies in the allocation of operations and associated cutting tools to machines for a given set of parts subject to capacity constraints. This dissertation proposes a hierarchical approach to the machine loading problem when the workload and tool magazine capacity of each machine are restrained. This hierarchical approach reduces the maximum workload of the machines by partially grouping them. This research deals with situations where different groups of machines performing the same operation require different processing times and this problem is formulated as an integer linear problem. This work proposes a solution that is comprised of two phases. In the first phase (Phase I), demand is divided into batches and then operations are allocated to groups of machines by using a heuristic constrained by the workload and tool magazine capacity of each group. The processing time of the operation is different for each machine group, which is composed of the same identical machines; however, these machines can perform different sets of operations if tooled differently. Each machine and each group of machines has a limited time for completing an operation. Operations are allocated to groups based on their respective workload limits. In the second phase (Phase II), demand is divided into batches again and operations are assigned to machines based on their workload and tool magazine capacity defined by Longest Processing Time (LPT) and Multifit algorithms. In Phase II, like Phase I, partial grouping is more effective in balancing the workload than total grouping. In partial grouping, each machine is tooled differently, but they can assist one another in processing each individual operation. Phase I demonstrates the efficiency of allocating operations to each group. Phase II demonstrates the efficiency of allocating operations to each machine within each group. This two-phase solution enhances routing flexibility with the same or a smaller number of machines through partial grouping rather than through total grouping. This partial grouping provides a balanced solution for problems involving a large number of machines. Performance of the suggested loading heuristics is tested by means of randomly generated tests.