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).

Designing GSS that can be used effectively by co-located groups presents a number of specific problems that do not exist with other group configurations. In particular, any GSS in a co-located setting has an overhead of use that must be recouped by its benefits, or it reduces the overall group effectiveness. In distributed groups the same basic payback is necessary, but usually the GSS is also used as a communication medium; in co-located groups, members communicate directly so this immediate payback is not available to them and the benefit must come from the decision support strand of GSS.

This thesis consists of four essays in collaboration and discrimination. The first essay examines the role of collaboration as a determinant of publication productivity in the field of economics, measured by means of citations, journal rank, and journal impact factor. The analysis employs cross-sectional data of 1,512 journal publications published in 2012 in 16 economics journals. The findings show a positive effect of team size on publication productivity, whereas research teams consisting of only one gender perform better in terms of research quality than gender-mixed teams. The analysis also indicates a negative relationship between female-dominated teams and research productivity. The second essay examines the impact of physical attractiveness on productivity. As literature found a strong impact on wages and career progression, it can be either due to discrimination in favour of good-looking people or can reflect an association between attractiveness and productivity. We utilise a context of academic publishing where there is no or limited face-to-face interaction. Using data on 2,800 authors, the results suggest that physical attractiveness has significantly important benefits. The third essay also considers the effect of physical attractiveness, as assessed based on pictures of top scientists, on their probability of winning the Nobel Prize. In contrast, the results show that attractiveness is negatively correlated with the probability of being awarded the Nobel, with the magnitude of this effect being not negligible. The fourth essay analyses the subsequent publication success (i.e., the probability to publish in top journals, the publication productivity) of the contenders in a best paper prize awarded at an academic conference to see whether the winners' papers fare better than those that failed to get the prize, measured by rank and impact factor of the journal, and citations. We employ the data of nominees for the Distinguished CESifo Affiliate prize between 2008 and 2015. The findings indicate that winning has a positive effect on the quality of journals they published as well as the publication productivity, suggesting that scholars who succeed in their early stage of academia tend to success later compared to those who are not outstanding. This thesis contributes to the literature on publication productivity and discrimination in academia by extending the existing literature on these issues. In this context, we explore the determinants of research productivity in economics (e.g., gender, nationality, seniority and others) and how those characteristics impact on productivity. We also investigate the role of beauty, and the presence of appearance-based discrimination, in determining research productivity among mainstream academics. We then re-examine the role of physical attractiveness at the top of the distribution of productivity, among Nobel Prize candidates/winners. Finally, we examine inequality in scientific research outcomes and the role of the so-called Matthew Effect. The findings shed light on the issues of collaboration, discrimination and inequality in academia.

This thesis is structured around three key phases in the process of collaborative music-making - composition, preparation, and performance - examining the function of indeterminacy at each stage, and the way in which musical factors are determined. At what point in the creative process a musical decision is made, the path chosen, and critically, by whom the decision is taken, are all explored in the context of a portfolio of pieces performed and recorded as part of this practice-led research. The portfolio comprises recordings of projects undertaken with composers, as well as pre-existing repertoire, and the written commentary explores my creative role as a performer in relation to that of the composers and the other performers I have worked with. Practical issues faced in collaboration, practice, and performance are dealt with, as are questions of musicality, and the notion of success in musical performance.

This research examines the characteristics of successful university - industry relationships. By integrating the research areas of relationship marketing and technology transfer, it attempts to provide a unique contribution to both streams and the emerging literature on university - industry relationships. This thesis argues that conceptualising relationships beyond those between private sector organisations, the current central focus of relationship marketing theory development, is needed in order to mature the discipline. In particular, university - industry relationships offer research opportunities due to their incorporation of fundamentally different organisational cultures. The aim of this research is to identify key drivers of university - industry relationships by taking into account the impact of organisational culture difference and other relevant antecedents, such as individuals engaged in the relationship process. Based on a literature review and initial qualitative research, two conceptual models were developed and subsequently tested using Structural Equation Modelling methods. The first generic model identified the key drivers of satisfaction and intention to renew and examined the influence of organisational compatibility and personal experience on university - industry relationships. The second dyadic model focused on identifying the impact of individual dimensions of organisational culture difference on relationship characteristics and success. Comprising the perspectives of both relationship parties, the dyadic data enabled an advanced reflection of cultural differences and relationship dynamics. Four dimensions were analysed, namely differences in time orientation, market orientation, employee empowerment and corporate flexibility. Both models were analysed in three steps, including path analysis and hypotheses testing, model re - specification and multigroup analysis. Consistent with the literature, trust, commitment and integration were found to positively influence the primary outcome variable, satisfaction, and were thus confirmed as key drivers of successful university - industry relationships. While trust was identified as the strongest driver for satisfaction, commitment emerged as the strongest predictor of intention to renew. Also confirming relationship marketing theory, the results showed interrelationships between these relationship factors : Trust positively affected commitment and integration and commitment strongly and positively influenced integration. The findings further demonstrated that organisational compatibility positively influenced all relationship characteristics. However, only two significant paths were confirmed between the individual dimensions of organisational culture difference and relationship characteristics : Differences in time orientation and corporate flexibility both impacted commitment negatively. Furthermore, market orientation difference directly and negatively affected the relationship outcome measure intention to renew. The results only showed a weak influence of personal experience, the variable measuring the relevance of individuals for university - industry relationships, on commitment. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--School of Commerce, 2006.

Effective collaboration is essential for engineers at geographically dispersed locations to accomplish good design with less iteration. Over the last several years, more and more efforts have been put into such research as many industries have distributed their product development to locations with knowledge force. This paper presents a collaborative engine to facilitate collaborations among distributed mechanical designs. Using component-based software technology, collaboration functionality is developed into a set of groupware that makes the collaborative engine applicable to develop new collaborative applications or integrate legacy applications into collaborative environments. An XML-based information representation is developed to streamline the information transmission within the distributed environment. A case study is carried out to show how this engine facilitates designers to collaboratively create a 3D solid model of a same part in real time. / Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA)

Introduction The aim of the research is to understand collaboration between marketing and logistics, increasing knowledge about perceived barriers in organizations, in order to addressing functional silos in organizations by inter-functional collaboration as a solution. The author questions the advantages of inter-functional collaboration in the scope of organizational performance. The significance of this research is that collaboration is one of the remaining cost cutting advantages that are impeccable for organizations in the following decade. Purpose The purpose of the study is to understand collaboration between marketing and logistics department, focusing on the instruments that facilitate improved collaboration. Method The question of how collaboration in organizations takes place, the author used an inductive, qualitative approach to come up with a theoretical framework to improve collaboration. The author reflected on the history of both marketing and logistics functions in organizations and discussed the common responsibilities of the two. Then, the framework was set to study organizational performance in theory, and to aggregate and review possible methods - so called instruments - to improve collaboration within organizations. To accomplish this, the author listed the key instruments for collaboration purpose and defines the important instruments to perform the implementation of collaboration in organizations. Empirical information acquired with interview sessions with the CEO of Nivea Seoul ltd. Contributed to the validity of the concepts and extended the knowledge about instruments. Conclusion The outcome of theoretical research is that collaboration between marketing and logistics, 'logistics leverage' - positive result by planning, coordination and integration responsibility, and marketing intelligence seem to have positive relationship on organization performance. This implication increases the relevance of the study, the author argues that performance gains might also be observed with the key instruments for inter-functional collaboration facilitation, almost 20 were selected and placed in three categories The instruments under the categories can be used for future research or managers to understand collaboration better and could also provide a basis for empirical research in the future.

Lacome is a multi-user cross-platform system that supports collaboration in a shared large screen display environment. Lacome allows users to share their desktops or application windows using any standard VNC server. It supports multi-user concurrent interaction on the public shared display as well as input redirection so users can control each other's applications. La-come supports separate types of interaction through a Lacome client for window management tasks on the shared display(move, resize, iconify, de-iconify) and for application interactions through the VNC servers. The system architecture provides for Publishers that share information and Navigators that access information. A Lacome client can have either or both, and can initiate additional Publishers on other VNC servers that may not be Lacome clients. Explicit access control policies on both the server side the client side provide a flexible framework for sharing. The architecture builds on standard cross-platform components such as VNC and JRE. Interaction techniques used in the window manager ensure simple and transparent multi-user interactions for managing the shared display space. We illustrate the design and implementation of Lacome and provide insights from initial user experience with the system.

Governance is a response to a recognition that traditional forms of decision-making have become inadequate to address complex societal and health problems generated by significant social and global changes (Chhotray & Stoker, 2009). The contributions of scientific and technical knowledge towards solving these complex problems have also been recognized as insufficient (Jasanoff, 2007). Community-based research (CBR) is an approach to research which is designed to make use of the knowledge of community and university members and their participation and collaboration ―in all phases of the research process, with a shared goal of producing knowledge that will be translated into action or positive change for the community‖ (Lantz, Israel, Schulz & Reyes, 2006, p. 239). However, although the contributions of lay knowledge have been acknowledged, how governance or collaborative decision-making is arranged in the context of community-based research is not well described in the literature. In order to address this knowledge gap, a study was undertaken in which in-depth interviews were conducted with community and university members of Canadian CBR collaborations to determine their governing experiences. Results are reported in a thesis by research papers. The first paper focuses on describing the governance structures that CBR collaborations used. In the second paper, the nature and content of problems which occurred in governing CBR collaborations, point to the importance of theory for conceptualizing and solving governance problems. To develop a theory of participation in governance of community-based research, the third paper uses Arnstein‘s theory of participation to propose a grounded theoretical basis for implementing participation in governance of CBR collaborations (Arnstein, 1969). Governance is a means of organizing, shaping and steering a course of decision-making. Governance is a critical component in the organization of knowledge production. Study and theory of governance in community-based research may help in improving understanding and implementation of a critical population health practice.

Rationale: Interprofessional collaboration (IPC) occurs when “multiple health workers from different professional backgrounds work together with patients, families, careers and communities to deliver the highest quality of care” (WHO, 2010, p. 13). Successful discharge planning for patients from hospitals is dependent upon IPC (Shepperd et al., 2004). The purpose of this study is to identify and examine barriers or facilitators to IPC as they pertain to discharge planning on a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). Methods: Case study design using an online survey, participant observation and semi-structured interviews for data collection. Healthcare workers on a NICU at a large Canadian teaching hospital were surveyed to determine their views on the discharge planning process, leadership and IPC. Participant observations took place during the weekly IPC rounds to observe the healthcare workers when discussing discharge plans and to identify key informants for interviews. Based on these observations, 10 health care workers were selected to interview to gain a more in depth understanding of IPC in the discharge planning. Data collection occurred from December 2010 to February 2011. Results: Survey results (n=66) indicate that the majority of healthcare workers on the NICU support IPC. However, the interview data demonstrated that problems arose during an emergency discharge. An emergency discharge occurs when an existing patient on the NICU needs to be discharged to another unit in order to provide a bed for a new admission. The lack of effective communication, role clarity issues, and a need for mutual respect act as barriers to the full participation of all members of the interprofessional team in an emergency discharge. Conclusions: Defining the context is important; IPC works well in a non-emergency situation on the NICU. The level of involvement of the healthcare workers in IPC varies due to previous experience working on interprofessional teams (IPT). The medical lead is responsible for making the decision about a discharge. However, what has been identified as important is an IPC leader who is responsible for ensuring that all information from the IPT members is accessible to inform the medical lead. / UOIT