MSc Nursing, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, 2009 / PURPOSE: The purpose of this two-phased study was to determine the performance of undergraduate nursing students in problem-based learning (PBL) tutorials using a validated evaluation instrument. RELEVANCE: to determine the effectiveness of the PBL learning approach relative to the South African student. Phase 1 led to the validation of an instrument and Phase 2 evaluated the performance of nursing students in PBL tutorials using the validated instrument. PARTICIPANTS: Phase 1 participants included academic experts (n=8) selected by means of purposive, maximum variation sampling. Phase 2 participants included the total population of undergraduate nursing students (n=53) and facilitators (n=6). METHODS: A quantitative research approach was used to inform the overarching design that was descriptive and comparative in Phase 2 of the study. Phase 1 employed statistical techniques for instrument validation and refinement. Phase 1 data were collected in three round of a Delphi survey. After completion of the first two rounds a rating instrument with a 4-point (0-3) rating scale was developed referred to as the Tutorial Performance Rating Instrument. During the third and final round of the Delphi survey ‘weighting’ of each main-item, sub-items and the rating scale took place, incorporating the Subjective Judgement Model using pair-wise comparisons on linear visual analogue scales. ANALYSIS: Relative weights were determined and following statistical analysis ratio scales were developed creating a unique ‘weight’ to each item and the rating scale. This ‘weight’ was represented in a percentage allowing each main-item construct and each sub-item to be placed in a hierarchy from highest to lowest percentage. Calculation on a student assessment would become time consuming and subject to error if done manually. A computer-based program referred to as the Tutorial Performance Evaluator was developed to carry out all the calculations of the percentages allocated to the items and rating scale. A replica of the Tutorial Performance Rating Instrument was built into the programme. In Phase 2 of the study a self-assessment and facilitator-assessment on each student’s tutorial performance first-to fourth-year was carried out using the Tutorial Performance Rating Instrument. Following a one on one meeting between the student and the facilitator consensus agreement was reached on an acceptable rating against each item on the evaluation instrument. The latter was entered into the computer and a percentage for each main-item construct and a total percentage was calculated efficiently and accurately in 20 seconds. RESULTS: The results showed that first-year students struggled in all aspects of the PBL tutorial. Furthermore they did not possess the skills required for self-assessment. A small group of the second-year students struggled in the tutorials but were better able to carry out a self-assessment. The third-year students showed a slight drop in score when compared with the second-year students and this could be attributed to the new subjects introduced in the third-year of study. There was a substantial improvement in the results achieved by the fourth-year students in all the aspects of the PBL tutorial and showed a good correlation in carrying out a self-assessment when compared with the facilitator assessment. iv RECOMMENDATIONS: This was a cross-sectional study and a longitudinal study should be carried out in future research to assess the individual’s progress from first-to fourth-year in the PBL approach to learning. Greater academic support should be given to first-year students or alternatively the ‘at risk’ students should be given a foundation course to assist them with communication skills and learning skills.

Magister Educationis - MEd / Problem-solving in Mathematics is an important skill. The poor performance of South African learners in international tests such as the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and in schools in general indicates that emphasis should be placed on problem-solving in the teaching and learning of Mathematics. The new national senior certificate curriculum in South Africa encourages group work amongst learners. The thesis proposes that learning is enhanced in a small-group setting, since learners actively engage with the problems. Furthermore, Euclidean Geometry is perceived by learners to be a „difficult‟ section of Mathematics. However, Geometry is important since the skills acquired while doing Geometry can be applied to various fields of study. This research focused on Geometry problem-solving in collaborative small-group settings. An inductive approach was taken that focused on what learners were doing while they were doing problem-solving in geometry in collaborative groups. Problem-solving is viewed as a situated and contextually-determined activity. The research focused on how learners appropriated tools (physical as well as intellectual) and how they interacted with one other and the subject matter. The socio-cultural perspective was the theoretical framework underpinning the study. In this perspective, learning is seen as a social process in which learners actively participate and contribute with ideas and arguments. In addition, learning is seen as a situated activity. The research was carried out in the form of a case study that focused on three groups of three learners each, from a secondary school in Khayelitsha, a township approximately 30 km outside Cape Town, South Africa. The small groups were monitored and observed in a school setting and special attention was given to their interaction within their group, given their social and cultural context. The ethnographic approach to data gathering, which allows for the routine, everyday, taken-for-granted aspects of school and classroom life, was used. Data were collected by means of audio and video recordings, interviews with learners and teacher observations. The data analysis included analysis of field notes, audio and video transcripts and learners‟ written work. The data were analysed in terms of Pickering‟s theory that all scientific practice is a “dialectic of resistance and accommodation” and that this constitutes a “mangle of practice” (Pickering, 1995).

"The purpose of this study was to investigate the conjecture that instruction in the strategies of Pattern Discovery, Trial and Error, Working Backward, Contradiction, Substitution, and Use of Diagrams would result in the development of problem-solving ability and that students under this instruction are likely to exhibit better achievement than students who do not receive explicit instruction in problem-solving strategies"--Introduction. / Typescript. / "August, 1985." / "Submitted to the Department of Curriculum and Instruction in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy." / Advisor: Eugene D. Nichols, Professor Directing Dissertation. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 78-85).

by Anthony Yiu-Cheung Tang. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 145-152). / ACKNOWLEDGMENTS --- p.i / ABSTRACT --- p.ii / LIST OF FIGURES --- p.vii / LIST OF TABLES --- p.ix / Chapter 1. --- INTRODUCTION --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Introducing evolutionary computation --- p.2 / Chapter 1.2 --- Adaptation and learning --- p.7 / Chapter 1.3 --- Comparing the efficency of evolutionary computation and sequential computation --- p.8 / Chapter 1.4 --- The place of evolutionary computation in computer science --- p.9 / Chapter 1.4.1 --- Mathematical foundation --- p.9 / Chapter 1.4.2 --- Scalability --- p.10 / Chapter 1.4.3 --- Parallelism --- p.11 / Chapter 1.5 --- Enhancing genetic search by local search --- p.11 / Chapter 1.6 --- Thesis Overview --- p.12 / Chapter 2. --- A REVIEW OF GENETIC ALGORITHMS --- p.14 / Chapter 2.1 --- Introduction --- p.14 / Chapter 2.2 --- The canonical genetic algorithm --- p.14 / Chapter 2.3 --- Optimal allocation of trials and schemata analysis --- p.17 / Chapter 2.4 --- Applications --- p.23 / Chapter 2.4.1 --- Function optimizations --- p.23 / Chapter 2.4.2 --- Machine Learning --- p.24 / Chapter 2.4.3 --- Combinatorial optimizations --- p.25 / Chapter 2.5 --- Criticisms --- p.25 / Chapter 2.5.1 --- Parameter settings --- p.25 / Chapter 2.5.2 --- Convergence and divergence --- p.26 / Chapter 2.5.3 --- Genetic algorithms for function optimizations --- p.27 / Chapter 2.5.4 --- The role of crossover and build blocks --- p.28 / Chapter 2.6 --- Future directions --- p.29 / Chapter 2.6.1 --- Is the schemata theorem wrong ？ --- p.29 / Chapter 2.6.2 --- Artificial life --- p.29 / Chapter 2.6.3 --- Parallel genetic algorithms --- p.31 / Chapter 2.6.4 --- Non-binary alphabets --- p.31 / Chapter 2.6.5 --- Investigations on problems that are hard for GA --- p.33 / Chapter 3. --- THE GENERAL STRUCTURE OF TOLKIEN --- p.34 / Chapter 3.1 --- Introduction --- p.34 / Chapter 3.2 --- Class Description --- p.39 / Chapter 3.2.1 --- Collection classes --- p.39 / Chapter 3.2.2 --- Vector classes --- p.39 / Chapter 3.2.3 --- GA-related classes --- p.40 / Chapter 3.2.4 --- Utility classes --- p.42 / Chapter 3.3 --- The TOLKIEN Genetic Algorithm --- p.43 / Chapter 3.3.1 --- Binary and Gray Code Representations --- p.44 / Chapter 3.3.2 --- Crossover Operators --- p.44 / Chapter 3.3.3 --- Haploids and Diploids --- p.47 / Chapter 3.3.4 --- Population --- p.50 / Chapter 3.3.5 --- Selection scheme --- p.50 / Chapter 3.3.6 --- Scaling scheme...: --- p.51 / Chapter 3.4 --- The TOLKIEN Classifier System --- p.52 / Chapter 3.4.1 --- Classifiers --- p.52 / Chapter 3.4.2 --- Messages and Message Lists --- p.53 / Chapter 3.4.3 --- Producing New Messages --- p.55 / Chapter 3.4.4 --- The Bucket Brigade Algorithm --- p.55 / Chapter 3.5 --- Where to obtain TOLKIEN --- p.56 / Chapter 4. --- ILLUSTRATING THE CAPABILITIES OF TOLKIEN --- p.57 / Chapter 4.1 --- de Jong's Test Bed : Function Optimization using GA --- p.57 / Chapter 4.2 --- Royal road function experiments --- p.63 / Chapter 4.2.1 --- RRMF --- p.64 / Chapter 4.2.2 --- RRJH --- p.65 / Chapter 4.2.3 --- Testing royal road functions using TOLKIEN --- p.68 / Chapter 4.2.4 --- Results --- p.71 / Chapter 4.2.5 --- Adding hillclimbing algorithm to solve royal road functions --- p.72 / Chapter 4.2.6 --- Discussions --- p.73 / Chapter 4.3 --- A classifier system to learn a multiplexer --- p.74 / Chapter 4.4 --- A classifier system maze traveller --- p.83 / Chapter 4.4.1 --- Framework of the Animat --- p.84 / Chapter 4.4.2 --- Constructing the maze navigation classifier system --- p.85 / Chapter 4.4.3 --- Results --- p.86 / Chapter 4.5 --- Future Enhancements on TOLKIEN --- p.88 / Chapter 4.6 --- Chapter Summary --- p.88 / Chapter 5. --- SOLVING TSP USING GENETIC ALGORITHMS --- p.89 / Chapter 5.1 --- Introduction --- p.89 / Chapter 5.2 --- Recombination operators for TSP --- p.91 / Chapter 5.2.1 --- PMX Crossover --- p.91 / Chapter 5.2.2 --- Order Crossover --- p.92 / Chapter 5.2.3 --- Edge Recombination operator --- p.93 / Chapter 5.3 --- Simulated Annealing --- p.95 / Chapter 5.4 --- Simulation Comparisons --- p.96 / Chapter 5.4.1 --- The Test Bed --- p.96 / Chapter 5.4.2 --- The Experimental Setup --- p.97 / Chapter 5.4.3 --- Results --- p.97 / Chapter 5.4.4 --- Discussions --- p.100 / Chapter 6. --- AN IMPROVED EDGE RECOMBINATION OPERATOR FOR TSP --- p.101 / Chapter 6.1 --- EDGENN ： a new edge recombination operator --- p.102 / Chapter 6.2 --- Experimental results --- p.104 / Chapter 6.2.1 --- Comparing EdgeNN and Edge-2 --- p.104 / Chapter 6.2.2 --- Comparing EdgeNN and Edge-3 --- p.106 / Chapter 6.3 --- Further improvement : a heuristic genetic algorithm using EdgeNN --- p.106 / Chapter 6.4 --- Discussion --- p.108 / Chapter 7. --- CONCLUSIONS --- p.111 / Chapter 7.1 --- Evaluation on TOLKIEN --- p.111 / Chapter 7.2 --- EdgeNN as a useful recombination operator for solving TSP --- p.112 / Chapter 7.3 --- Genetic algorithm and hillclimbing --- p.112 / EPILOGUE --- p.113 / APPENDIX : PROGRAM LISTINGS --- p.114 / Function optimizations --- p.114 / Maze Navigator --- p.122 / Multiplexer --- p.135 / Royal road functions --- p.141 / BIBLIOGRAPHY --- p.145 / INDEX --- p.153

by Lee, Ka-wai. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 61-67). / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.6 / Chapter 1.1 --- Traveling Salesman Problem --- p.6 / Chapter 1.2 --- Genetic Algorithms --- p.8 / Chapter 1.3 --- Solving TSP using Genetic Algorithms --- p.10 / Chapter 1.4 --- Outline of Work --- p.12 / Chapter Part I --- Algorithm Development --- p.14 / Chapter 2 --- A Local DP Crossover Operator 一 LDPX --- p.15 / Chapter 2.1 --- Review of DP for Solving TSP --- p.15 / Chapter 2.2 --- On the Original LDPX --- p.18 / Chapter 2.2.1 --- Gene Representation --- p.18 / Chapter 2.2.2 --- The Original Crossover Procedure --- p.19 / Chapter 2.3 --- Analysis --- p.21 / Chapter 2.3.1 --- Ring TSP --- p.21 / Chapter 2.3.2 --- Computational Results of Solving Ring TSP and Other TSP using LDPX --- p.22 / Chapter 2.4 --- Augmentation of the Gene Set Representation --- p.24 / Chapter 2.5 --- Enhancement of Crossover Procedure --- p.25 / Chapter 2.6 --- Computational Comparison of the new proposed LDPX with the orig- inal LDPX --- p.26 / Chapter 2.7 --- SPIR ´ؤ An Operator for Single Parent Improved Reproduction --- p.26 / Chapter 3 --- A New TSP Solver --- p.29 / Chapter 4 --- Performance Analysis of the TSP Solver --- p.33 / Chapter 4.1 --- Computational results --- p.34 / Chapter 4.2 --- "Comparison between SPIR/LDPX, PMX and ER" --- p.35 / Chapter 4.3 --- Convergence Test of SPIR/LDPX --- p.37 / Chapter Part II --- Application --- p.43 / Chapter 5 --- Flowshop Scheduling Problem --- p.44 / Chapter 5.1 --- Brief Review of the Flowshop Scheduling Problem --- p.44 / Chapter 5.2 --- Flowshop Scheduling with travel times between machines --- p.45 / Chapter 6 --- A New Approach to Solve FSTTBM --- p.47 / Chapter 7 --- Computational Results of the New Algorithm for CPFSTTBM --- p.53 / Chapter 7.1 --- Comparison with Global Optimum --- p.54 / Chapter 7.2 --- The Algorithm of SPIRIT --- p.55 / Chapter 7.3 --- Comparison with SPIRIT --- p.57 / Chapter 8 --- Conclusion --- p.59 / Bibliography --- p.61 / Chapter A --- Random CPFSTTBM problem Generation Algorithm --- p.68

by Wong Sai Yiu. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 94-97). / Introduction --- p.iii / Chapter 1 --- Invariants on ideals of holomorphic function germs --- p.1 / Chapter 1.1 --- Preliminaries --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Ideals of holomorphic function germs --- p.3 / Chapter 1.3 --- The order of contact of an ideal --- p.7 / Chapter 1.4 --- Higher order invariants --- p.11 / Chapter 2 --- Geometry on real hypersurfaces of Cn --- p.14 / Chapter 2.1 --- CR geometry --- p.14 / Chapter 2.2 --- The associated family of holomorphic ideals on real subvaxiety of Cn --- p.18 / Chapter 2.3 --- Relationships between points of finite type and complex varieties --- p.25 / Chapter 2.4 --- The case of pseudoconvex real hypersurfaces --- p.33 / Chapter 2.5 --- Other finite type conditions --- p.35 / Chapter 3 --- Point of finite type and the d-Neumann problem --- p.44 / Chapter 3.1 --- Introduction --- p.44 / Chapter 3.2 --- Subellipticity and subelliptic multipliers --- p.47 / Chapter 3.3 --- Geometry on Kohn's ideals of subelliptic multipliers --- p.60 / Chapter 3.4 --- The Diederich - Fornaess theorem --- p.66 / Chapter 3.5 --- Catlin's necessary condition on subellipticity --- p.69 / Chapter 4 --- Analysis on finite type domains --- p.78 / Chapter 4.1 --- The Bergman projection --- p.78 / Chapter 4.2 --- Boundary regularity of proper holomorphic mappings --- p.83 / Chapter 4.3 --- Local regularity and extension of CR mappings --- p.88 / Bibliography --- p.94

No description available.

Yeung Wai Kong. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 51-55). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.5 / Chapter 2 --- Some Preliminaries --- p.13 / Chapter 3 --- "Approximate Function we,p" --- p.17 / Chapter 4 --- "The Computation Of Je[we,p]" --- p.21 / Chapter 5 --- The Signs of c1 And c3 --- p.30 / Chapter 6 --- The Asymptotic Behavior of ue and Je[ue] --- p.35 / Chapter 7 --- "The Proofs Of Theorem 1.1, Theorem 1.2 And Corol- lary 11" --- p.40 / Appendix --- p.43 / Bibliography --- p.51

Ng, Chit Yu. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 89-90). / Abstracts in English and Chinese.

Ao, Weiwei. / "August 2010." / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 92-97). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.ii / Acknowledgement --- p.v / Chapter 1 --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter 2 --- Spikes on Single Line-Segments --- p.12 / Chapter 2.1 --- Ansatz and sketch of the proof --- p.12 / Chapter 2.2 --- Linear theory --- p.15 / Chapter 2.3 --- The non linear projected problem --- p.20 / Chapter 2.4 --- Projection of the error and proof of Theorem 1.0.1 --- p.24 / Chapter 3 --- The triple junction solutions --- p.33 / Chapter 3.1 --- Approximate solutions --- p.33 / Chapter 3.2 --- linear and nonlinear projected problem --- p.35 / Chapter 3.3 --- Error estimates and the proof of theorem 1.0.2 --- p.35 / Chapter 4 --- Layer concentrations in three-dimensional domain --- p.45 / Chapter 4.1 --- Preliminaries and setting up the problem --- p.45 / Chapter 4.1.1 --- A linear model problem --- p.45 / Chapter 4.1.2 --- Setting up the problem in suitable coordinates --- p.53 / Chapter 4.2 --- The gluing procedure --- p.62 / Chapter 4.3 --- The invertibility of L2 --- p.65 / Chapter 4.4 --- Solving the nonlinear projected problem --- p.67 / Chapter 4.5 --- Estimates of the projection against ∇w and Z --- p.72 / Chapter 4.5.1 --- estimates for the projection of the error --- p.73 / Chapter 4.5.2 --- projection of terms involving φ --- p.78 / Chapter 4.5.3 --- projection of errors on the boundary --- p.80 / Chapter 4.6 --- "The system for (f1, f2, e):proof of the theorem" --- p.81