Coarse and fine aggregates form the skeleton of any type of pavement and influence the performance of the pavement structure. Characterization of the physical characteristics (shape, angularity, and texture) of coarse and fine aggregates is the first step towards the development of valid specifications for these characteristics. Current test methods used in practice have several limitations in quantifying the shape and texture properties. An imaging based test method ??Aggregate Imaging System (AIMS)?? has been recently developed and shown to be capable of directly measuring the characteristics of coarse and fine aggregates. In this thesis, the quality of AIMS measurements is evaluated through the analysis of repeatability, reproducibility, and sensitivity. The analysis results are also compared to the results from other available test methods. AIMS provides the distribution of shape characteristics in an aggregate sample. Statistical analysis is conducted in order to determine the distribution function that best describes the distribution of shape characteristics. The parameters of the distribution function can be related to the performance of pavement layers. A new method based on the ??Categorical Units?? isdeveloped to test differences between aggregate samples in terms of shape characteristics. It is demonstrated that this method is capable of quantifying the differences between aggregates and can be used to capture the influence of change in aggregate source or production techniques on aggregate characteristics.

What are the proper aims and methods of philosophy? What is philosophy trying to accomplish, and how does it go about accomplishing it? A survey of the history of philosophy and current discussions regarding its aims and methods shows that philosophers radically disagree about the nature of philosophical inquiry. Part of the reason for this observation is that the aims and methods of philosophy are themselves philosophical topics. My task in meta-philosophy is to understand the nature of philosophy given that there is no distinct subject matter, and its aims and methods are subject to philosophical dispute; philosophy is an essentially divided discipline. Philosophers today and throughout history have supposed that philosophy is a scientific discipline; however, if my thesis is correct, philosophy cannot be a science. The first step is to appreciate the diversity of philosophical aims and methods; some aims and methods in philosophy directly contradict each other. Unlike science, which proceeds on the basis of a general universal methodology, philosophy is incapable of making scientific progress due to a radical methodological controversy at the very heart of the discipline. I recommend that, instead of attempting to merge with the aims and methods of science, philosophy should distinguish itself from science, and be understood as a different kind of discipline altogether. Once we reject the scientific meta-philosophical conception of philosophy, we can begin speculating and reconstructing the identity of philosophy from within philosophy itself.

No description available.

No description available.

The purpose of this study is to make a survey of the aims of education and the ways in which they have been achieved. Special attention is given to the influences which have been influential in producing changes in these aims, and to the modifications which have been made.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

The study involved the development and administration of an opinionnaire designed to determine task priorities for public schools. The location for the study was a suburban area; Mount Pleasant Township, Delaware County, Indiana, and the town of Yorktown. The community is served by the Mount Pleasant Township Community School Corporation.Seven identifiable sub-publics within the community were involved in the investigation. They were: adult lay citizens, middle school students in grades six through eight, high school students in grades nine through twelve, middle school teachers, high school teachers, middle and high school administrators, and school board members.The respondents were asked to place fifteen educational task items in priority order. A total of 1,391 individuals took part in the study as follows: 161 adult lay citizens, 573 middle school students, 593 high school students, 23 middle school teachers, 33 high school teachers, 5 administrators and 3 school board members.The fifteen task items were grouped into four major classifications: Intellectual - ability to employ the basic tools of knowledge, ability to make decisions after considering all aspects of a problem, desire for further education and the ability to continue learning in the future, and creativity. Social - ability to get along with others, sense of civic responsibility and understanding of governmental processes, patriotism and loyalty to the United States, and understanding of the need for a clean environment. Personal - understanding of personal hygiene, good mental health, development of moral behavior, and participation in cultural activities. Productive - specialized vocational training and job preparation, and management and financial abilities for living.The analysis of data involved multiplying the number of responses favoring an item by the number of that rank, thus obtaining a weighted value. The weighted totals were ranked in descending order, thereby establishing a rank order according to priority.Respondents ranked their choices within three major categories: Most Important, Important, and Least Important.Findings of the study were as follows:Adult Lay Citizens.-- Ranked Intellectual Elements Most Important. The Personal Elements were considered to be Important while Social Elements were considered as Least Important tasks of public education.Middle School Students.-- Placed Intellectual Elements in the Most Important group. Personal Elements were ranked high in the Important classification. Little interest in the Social Elements was indicated.High School Students.-- The most Important category included Social, Personal, and Intellectual items. ProductiveElements were divided between Important and Least Important. The Personal Elements were ranked as Least Important.Middle School Teachers.-- Ranked Intellectual Elements Most Important. Social Elements were Important, and the Personal Elements were ranked as Least Important.Hiqh School Teachers.-- Social Elements ranked as Most Important and Important. Intellectual Elements were scattered throughout the ranking. Personal Elements were ranked low.School Administrators.-- Ranked Social and Personal Elements as Most Important or Important. Productive Elements were Important to this group. Intellectual Elements were ranked in all three major classifications.School Board.-- Ranked Social and Personal Elements in the Most Important group. Intellectual Elements were in the Important classification, and productive Elements ranked low.The respondents displayed a high level of agreement concerning public school tasks. It was concluded from the study that Intellectual Elements were the most important tasks of the public schools even though the total pattern was comprehensive. Administrators differed in their perceptions concerning educational priorities from other groups. Vocational tasks were not considered important to the respondents. Tasks dealing with aesthetic values and creativity were ranked very low in the priorities.

The question which animates this thesis is the extent to which study of extant leadership theory and research is relevant to the fostering of educational leadership. Because this question cannot be answered without an adequate account of leadership in education, the thesis develops a conception of educational leadership and assesses the relevance of the leadership literature in light of that conception. The foundations upon which this conception of educational leadership is built are as follows: (1) the ordinary language meaning of "leadership," (2) the ideals fundamental to a liberal, democratic society, and (3) our ideal of the educated person. Conceptual analysis of "leadership" reveals that it is used both descriptively (to denote positions) and normatively (to rate something positively). The normative use spans a continuum of standards from weak to strong. Weak-normative leadership is ascribed according to the extent to which a leader has been able to influence others to pursue a goal. Strong-normative leadership is ascribed according to the extent to which the leader's ends and means are worthwhile. It is argued that, in general, people who want educational administrators to exercise leadership want strong-normative leadership, i.e., they want administrators to envision worthwhile goals and to use morally appropriate means to influence their colleagues to pursue these goals. Thus, the sense of leadership upon which the conception of educational leadership is based is the strong-normative sense. The ideals taken to be fundamental to a liberal democracy are: (1) equal respect for persons, (2) use of intelligence in problem solving and promoting change, (3) cooperation and pooled experience in setting values and solving problems, and (4) respect for individual rights. The ideal of the educated person is characterized in terms of the acquisition of worthwhile knowledge through means which respect rational autonomy. A conception of educational leadership compatible with these ideals is explicated and defended. Rival conceptions of educational leadership are examined. It is argued that the conception of educational leadership developed here is preferable to its rivals in that it incorporates their strengths and avoids many of their weaknesses. Leadership theory and research are examined and shown to be generally incompatible with the conception of educational leadership explicated and defended in this thesis, and with the ordinary language concept of leadership. The thesis concludes that it is probably not appropriate to make such theory and research the central component of courses which aim to foster or improve the exercise of educational leadership; rather, study of works which attempt to clarify and justify educational goals and means would seem to be more promising. / Education, Faculty of / Educational Studies (EDST), Department of / Graduate