The dissertation deals with the issue of guest workers in the home with special regime. The work consists of a theoretical and practical part. The theoretical part deals with human resource management, as described in the literature. The essential question is to link a system of evaluation in the Organization, with the achievement of mission and objectives of the organization. The work focuses on the links between performance management and evaluation of staff. Further focuses on the evaluation criteria, the various forms and the methods of evaluation, and also on the assumptions and the skills of the evaluator, but also the assumptions of investigational agents, their ability to reflect on their work and the ability of self assessment. In the practical part of the thesis I introduce the organization, in which it is carried out of the investigation. In the framework of this investigation is carried out the analysis of the system of evaluation in the organization, whose aim was to find out what is the current status of the system of evaluation of employees in the organization and identify options for further development and to propose possible changes that will lead to the development of both the workers and the entire organization. On the basis of these outputs is designed the new methodology to...

<p>  </p> <p>Clustering, a prevalent class of machine learning (ML) algorithms used in data mining and pattern-finding—has increasingly helped engineering education researchers and educators see and understand assessment patterns at scale. However, a challenge remains to make ML-enabled educational inferences that are useful and reliable for research or instruction, especially if those inferences influence pedagogical decisions or student outcomes. ML offers an opportunity to better personalizing learners’ experiences using those inferences, even within large engineering classrooms. However, neglecting to verify the trustworthiness of ML-derived inferences can have wide-ranging negative impacts on the lives of learners. </p> <p><br></p> <p>This study investigated what student clusters exist within the standard operational data of a large first-year engineering course (>1500 students). This course focuses on computational thinking skills for engineering design. The clustering data set included approximately 500,000 assessment data points using a consistent five-scale criterion-based grading framework. Two clustering techniques—N-TARP profiling and K-means clustering—examined criterion-based assessment data and identified student cluster sets. N-TARP profiling is an expansion of the N-TARP binary clustering method. N-TARP is well suited to this course’s assessment data because of the large and potentially high-dimensional nature of the data set. K-means clustering is one of the oldest and most widely used clustering methods in educational research, making it a good candidate for comparison. After finding clusters, their interpretability and trustworthiness were determined. The following research questions provided the structure for this study: RQ1 – What student clusters do N-TARP profiling and K-means clustering identify when applied to structured assessment data from a large engineering course? RQ2 – What are the characteristics of an average student in each cluster? and How well does the average student in each cluster represent the students of that cluster? And RQ3 – What are the strengths and limitations of using N-TARP and K-means clustering techniques with large, highly structured engineering course assessment data?</p> <p><br></p> <p>Although both K-means clustering and N-TARP profiling did identify potential student clusters, the clusters of neither method were verifiable or replicable. Such dubious results suggest that a better interpretation is that all student performance data from this course exist in a single homogeneous cluster. This study further demonstrated the utility and precision of N-TARP’s warning that the clustering results within this educational data set were not trustworthy (by using its W value). Providing this warning is rare among the thousands of available clustering methods; most clustering methods (including K-means) will return clusters regardless. When a clustering algorithm identifies false clusters that lack meaningful separation or differences, incorrect or harmful educational inferences can result. </p>

<p>Despite an emphasis on oral communication in most foreign language classrooms, the resource-intensive nature (i.e. time and manpower) of speaking tests hinder regular oral assessments. A possible solution is the development of a (semi-) automated scoring system. When it is used in conjunction with human raters, the consistency of computers can complement human raters’ comprehensive judgments and increase efficiency in scoring (e.g., Enright & Quinlan, 2010). In search of objective and quantifiable variables that are strongly correlated with overall oral proficiency, a number of studies have reported that some utterance fluency variables (e.g., speech rate and mean length of run) might be strong predictors for L2 learners’ speaking ability (e.g., Ginther et al., 2010; Hirotani et al., 2017). However, these findings are difficult to generalize due to small sample sizes, narrow ranges of proficiency levels, and/or a lack of data from languages other than English. The current study analyzed spontaneous speech samples collected from 170 Japanese learners at a wide range of proficiency levels determined by a well-established speaking test, the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages’ (ACTFL) Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI). Prior to analysis, 48 <i>Complexity, Accuracy, Fluency</i> (CAF) measures (with a focus on fluency variables) were calculated from the speech samples. First, the study examined the relationships among the CAF measures and learner oral proficiency assessed by the ACTFL OPI. Then, using an empirically-based approach, a feasibility of using a composite measure to predict L2 oral proficiency was investigated. The results revealed that <i>Speech Speed</i> and <i>Complexity</i> variables demonstrated strong correlation to the OPI levels, and moderately strong correlations were found for the variables in the following categories: <i>Speech Quantity, Pause</i>, <i>Pause Location</i> (i.e., Silent pause ratio within AS-unit), <i>Dysfluency</i> (i.e., Repeat ratio), and <i>Accuracy.</i> Then, a series of multiple regression analyses revealed that a combination of five CAF measures (i.e., Effective articulation rate, Silent pause ratio, Repeat ratio, Syntactic complexity, and Error-free AS-unit ratio) can predict 72.3% of the variance of the OPI levels. This regression model includes variables that correspond to Skehan’s (2009) proposed three categories of fluency (speed, breakdown, and repair) and variables that represent CAF, supporting the literature (e.g., Larsen-Freeman, 1978, Skehan, 1996).</p>

The thesis topic seeks to address to what extent early childhood practitioners have adopted teaching methodology and pedagogical practices to embrace the SACSA Framework in the Communication and Language Learning Area.

Darbe remiamasi metodiniais teoriniais G.Allport, B.G.Ananjev‘o, E.Aronson‘o, M.Betensky, L.I.Božovič, U.Džeims‘o, A.Maslow, D.G.Myers, V.V.Stolin‘o savęs vertinimo ir Dž.Allan‘o, R.Buckland, S.Ignatjev‘o, K.G.Jung‘o, M.Kiseliov‘os, A.Kopytin‘o, L.Lebedev‘os, A.Piličiausko, N.O.Sučkov‘os ir A.Vaitkevičienės dailės terapijos pagrindais. Savęs vertinimo mokslinės literatūros analizė parodė, jog dėl paauglystę lydinčių fizinių ir emocinių organizmo pasikeitimų kyla įvairių psichologinių problemų, tarp jų - savęs vertinimo sutrikimų. Savęs vertinimas tuo metu yra ne iki galo suvoktas ir labai prieštaringas. Jį sąlygoja savo, kaip mokinio, veiklos ir rezultatų suvokimas bei aplinkinių vertinimas. Kadangi didžiąją laiko dalį paaugliai praleidžia grupėje, savęs vertinimui daug reikšmės turi ir socialinis statusas klasėje. Dėl šių priežasčių specialiųjų ugdymo(si) poreikių turintys mokiniai, kurie nuolat patiria mokymosi problemų ir socialinę atskirtį klasėje, dažnai vertina save neadekvačiai ar turi žemą savęs vertinimą. Tiriant, kaip dailės terapija veikia 5-6 klasių mokinių, turinčių specialiųjų ugdymo(si) poreikių, savęs vertinimą, buvo atlikti kiekybinis ir kokybinis tyrimai. Kiekybinio tyrimo metu nustatytas 5-6 klasių mokinių globalaus, diferencijuoto bei konkrečių veiksmų lygių požiūrio į save ir savęs vertinimo laipsnių vidurkiai. Po to jie palyginti su atitinkamais dailės terapijos grupės narių požiūrio į save bei savęs vertinimo parametrais. Taikant įvairius... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / The work is based on methodical theoretical ideas of self-appraisal by G.Allporty, B.G.Ananjev, E.Aronson, M.Betensky, L.I.Božovič, U.Džeims, A.Maslow, D.G.Myers, V.V.Stolin and on the art therapy‘s background by Dž.Allan, R.Buckland, S.Ignatjev, K,G.Jung, M.Kiseliov, A.Kopytin, L.Lebedev, A.Piličiausko, N.O.Sučkov, A.Vaitkevičienės. The analysis of the scientific literature of the self-esteem elicited a fact that physical and emotional changes at the age of adolescence cause the variety of psycological problems including the self-appraisal‘s disbalance. The sense of the self-appraisal at that period of life is not completely recognised and is quite controversial. It is conditioned by the self-evaluating his/her success being a student and the evaluation of their results and abilities by their associates.( the assessment made by adults and by children of his/her own age ) Seeing that teenagers spend most time in a group, the social status in the class plays the major role in the self-assesment. For these reasons the students with special needs, that permanently experience learning problems and feel socially isolated, often evaluate themselves unequal or have the low sense of self-esteem. To find how the art therapy affects the self-esteem of the students with special needs in year 5-6 there was carried out the qualitative and quantitative research. During the quantitative research fulfilled with the students in year 5-6 there were measured the averages of a global and... [to full text]

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

<p>The present study investigated technical qualities of the elicited imitation (EI) items used by the Assessment of College English – International (ACE-In), a locally developed English language proficiency test used in the undergraduate English Academic Purpose Program at Purdue University. EI is a controversial language assessment tool that has been utilized and examined for decades. The simplicity of the test format and the ease of rating place EI in an advantageous position to be widely implemented in language assessment. On the other hand, EI has received a series of critiques, primarily questioning its validity. To offer insights into the quality of the EI subsection of the ACE-In and to provide guidance for continued test development and revision, the present study examined the measurement qualities of the items by analyzing the pre- and post-test performance of 100 examines on EI. The analyses consist of an item analysis that reports item difficulty, item discrimination, and total score reliability; an examination of pre-post changes in performance that reports a matched pairs t-test and item instructional sensitivity; and an analysis of the correlation patterns between EI scores and TOEFL iBT total and subsection scores.</p><p>The results of the item analysis indicated that the current EI task was slightly easy for the intended population, but test items functioned satisfactorily in terms of separating examinees of higher proficiency from those of lower proficiency. The EI task was also found to have high internal consistency across forms. As for the pre-post changes, a significant pair-wise difference was found between the pre- and post-performance after a semester of instruction. However, the results also reported that over half of the items were relatively insensitive to instruction. The last stage of the analysis indicated that while EI scores had a significant positive correlation with TOEFL iBT total scores and speaking subsection scores, EI scores were negatively correlated with TOEFL iBT reading subsection scores. </p><p>Findings of the present study provided evidence in favor of the use of EI as a measure of L2 proficiency, especially as a viable alternative to free-response items. EI is also argued to provide additional information regarding examinees’ real-time language processing ability that standardized language tests are not intended to measure. Although the EI task used by the ACE-In is generally suitable for the targeted population and testing purposes, it can be further improved if test developers increase the number of difficult items and control the contents and the structures of sentence stimuli. </p><p>Examining the technical qualities of test items is fundamental but insufficient to build a validity argument for the test. The present EI test can benefit from test validation studies that exceed item analysis. Future research that focuses on improving item instructional sensitivity is also recommended.</p>

Grades serve as one of the primary indicators of student learning, directing subsequent actions for students, instructors, and administrators, alike. Therefore, grade validity—that is, the extent to which grades communicate a meaningful and credible representation of what they purport to measure—is of utmost importance. However, a grade cannot be valid if one cannot trust that it will consistently and reliably result in the same value, regardless of who makes a measure or when they make it. Unfortunately, such reliability becomes increasingly challenging to achieve with larger class sizes, especially when utilizing multiple evaluators, as is often the case with mandatory introductory courses at large universities. Reliability suffers further when evaluating open-ended tasks, as are prevalent in authentic, high-quality engineering coursework.<div><br></div><div>This study explores grading reliability in the context of a large, multi-section engineering course. Recognizing the number of people involved and the plethora of activities that affect grading outcomes, the study adopts a systems approach to conduct a human reliability analysis using the Functional Resonance Analysis Method. Through this method, a collection of data sources, including course materials and observational interviews with undergraduate teaching assistant graders, are synthesized to produce a general model for how actions vary and affect subsequent actions within the system under study. Using a course assignment and student responses, the model shows how differences in contextual variables affect expected actions within the system. Next, the model is applied to each of the observational interviews with undergraduate teaching assistants to demonstrate how these actions occur in practice and to compare graders to one another and with expected behaviors. These results are further related to the agreement in system outcomes, or grades, assigned by each grader to guide analysis of how actions within the system affect its outcome.<br></div><div><br></div><div>The results of this study connect and elaborate upon previous models of grader cognition by analyzing the phenomenon in engineering, a previously unexplored context. The model presented can be easily generalized and adapted to smaller systems with fewer actors to understand sources of variability and potential threats to outcome reliability. The analysis of observed outcome instantiations guides a set of recommendations for minimizing grading variability.<br></div>