The effect of case based learning on 10th grade students&rsquo / academic achievement in the unit of human reproductive system and their perceived motivation (Intrinsic Goal Orientation, Extrinsic Goal Orientation and Task Value) was investigated in this study. The study was conducted during 2007-2008 spring semester in a private high school in Ankara, Turkey. A total of 80 (48 males and 32 females) tenth grade students from four biology classes of two teachers were involved in the study. One class of each individual teacher was assigned as control group and the other class of the same teacher was assigned as experimental group to sustain randomization. Two of the classes assigned as experimental group were instructed with case based learning, while two classes of the control group were received traditionally designed biology instruction. In the experimental group, two cases that are divided into several parts were assigned in an interrupted manner. Students learned the human reproductive system via cases in experimental group without any additional method. The cases include incomplete data and students were needed to search for and discuss to answer the questions posed in the cases and by themselves and to complete the data. When the students completed a part of the case, next part was distributed. While dealing with the dilemma presented in cases, students did independent study as well as group work. In the control group, instruction was based on teacher explanations and web based notes prepared by the biology department of the high school. Human Reproductive System Achievement Test, Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire were administered as pre-test and post-test to the students in both groups to measure the students&rsquo / academic achievement in the unit of human reproductive system / and their perceived motivation / specifically, task value, intrinsic goal orientation, and extrinsic goal orientation. Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA) was used to investigate the effect of case based learning on the students&rsquo / academic achievement in the unit of human reproductive system and their perceived motivation. Results revealed that case based learning improved students&rsquo / academic achievement and task value.

The definition of metrics capable of reporting on quality issues is a difficult task in the health care sector. This thesis proposes a goal-driven methodology for the development, collection, and analysis of health care quality metrics that expose in a quantifiable way the progress of measurement goals stated by interested stakeholders. In other words, this methodology produces reports containing metrics that enable the understanding of information out of health care data. The resulting Health Care Goal Question Metric (HC-GQM) methodology is based on the Goal Question Metric (GQM) approach, a methodology originally created for the software development industry and adapted to the context and specificities of the health care sector. HC-GQM benefits from a double loop validation process where the methodology is first implemented, then analysed, and finally improved. The validation process takes place in the context of adverse event management and incident reporting initiatives at a Canadian teaching hospital, where the HC-GQM provides a set of meaningful metrics and reports on the occurrence of adverse events and incidents to the stakeholders involved. The results of a survey suggest that the users of HC-GQM have found it beneficial and would use it again.

Self-paced study involves choosing items for (re)study and determining how much time will be allocated to those items so as to maximize later recall, making it a viable venue for examining whether there are age-related differences in metacognitive control. Two prominent models have been proposed to account for item selection and study time allocation behaviors during self-paced study. The Discrepancy Reduction Model (DRM; Dunlosky & Hertzog, 1998; Nelson & Leonesio, 1988) suggests individuals will always select and allocate the most time to items that have not yet been learned, whereas the Region of Proximal Learning model (RPL; Metcalfe, 2002) predicts individuals will select the easiest unknown items and will only later select and allocate time to the more difficult items if time constraints permit, thus making distinctions among unlearned items graded by difficulty. Two experiments were conducted to examine whether younger and older adults item selection and study time allocation behaviors would be more consistent with DRM or RPL model predictions. Across both experiments younger and older adults initially selected easier items for study, providing the first evidence to date that the RPL model would extend to older adults self-paced study of heterogeneously difficult Spanish-English vocabulary pairs. However, both younger and older adults allocated more time to difficult than easier items. The assignment of point values to items in Experiment 2 affected how likely participants were to pursue each of four experimenter-determined task goals that either stressed the number of words recalled, points earned, or both. Whether point values initially favored recall of easy or difficult items interacted with time constraints to influence the basis (objective versus subjective difficulty) and order of participants item selections (Experiment 2). However, younger adults were better able to effectively allocate their study time to achieve self-determined (Experiment 1) and experimenter-determined goals (Experiment 2), indicating age-related differences in metacognitive control despite younger and older adults having similar memory self-efficacy ratings and encoding strategy use behaviors.

Within the psychological literature two main approaches can be identified as influential factors in the increase of well-being, defined in this thesis as Hedonic (SWB) vs. Eudaimonic Well-Being (PWB). One of the key qualities of the human mind is its ability to think about and act upon the future. The first approach emphasises the role of psychological strengths related to the utilisation of foresight and planning in such a way as to influence the consequences of current actions. The second approach focuses on the function of basic personality traits in the setting of goals and mental functioning. To integrate these approaches, this thesis brings together two lines of research: future-orientation and personality traits. Two longitudinal studies investigate the predictive qualities of future-orientated constructs in relation to personality traits, while also focusing on their contribution to the setting and attainment of goals and the perception of well-being. In the first study two cognitive-motivational scales, Hope and Personal Growth Initiative (PGI), were administered to measure two hundred and sixty four participants’ future-orientation. The first aim of this study was to examine the distinctiveness of these two scales in predicting well-being. Results from factor analyses cast doubt on the uniqueness of Hope and PGI, while regression analyses demonstrate Hope to be the strongest, most significant predictor of PWB and SWB. A further aim of the study was to ascertain if future-orientation could account for additional variance in the prediction of well-being, after the influence of the Eysenck’s Personality traits have been controlled for. It was indicated that individuals’ Hope levels do account for residual variance in PWB and SWB. The last aim of the study was to determine if future-orientation could contribute to long-term goal attainment and well-being. The results indicate that participant’s Hope levels did not significantly contribute to long-term goal attainment, however it had a direct, significant effect on long-term PWB. The second study, utilising 117 participants, replicated prior findings that demonstrate Hope, instead of PGI, to be the strongest, most significant predictor of both PWB and SWB. The study also extents prior research by utilising the Big-Five traits in the prediction of PWB and SWB. Factor analyses results indicate Hope to share an underlying factor structure with Openness and Conscientiousness, while PGI share an underlying factor structure with Agreeableness. It was further indicated that participants’ Hope, but not PGI, accounts for residual variance in the prediction of PWB, after controlling for the Big-Five traits. Conversely, Hope and PGI did not account for any residual variance in the prediction of SWB, instead almost 60% of the variance can be attributed to the Big-Five personality traits. Extending the first study, the aim of the second study was to ascertain attainment through independent verification and not participant self-assessment. The results indicate that participants who demonstrate greater levels of Openness and PGI tend to set higher quantitative goals. Although not predictive of goal attainment, participants with greater Openness showed higher performance on the goals. Overall, the results question the distinctiveness of Hope and PGI in the prediction of well-being. It adds to our knowledge of how psychological strengths such as future-orientation can contribute variance to the prediction of well-being after basic personality traits have been controlled for. Finally the results also add to our understanding of how personality traits, as well as, Hope and PGI independently contribute to the setting of goals.

Requirements Engineering (RE) approaches are widely used in several domains such as telecommunications systems, information systems, and even regulatory compliance. However, they are rarely applied in healthcare beyond requirements elicitation. Healthcare is a multidisciplinary environment in which clinical processes are often performed across multiple units. Introducing a new Information Technology (IT) system or a new process in such an environment is a very challenging task, especially in the absence of recognized RE practices. Currently, many IT systems are not welcomed by caregivers and are considered to be failures because they change what caregivers are familiar with and bring new tasks that often consume additional time. This thesis introduces a new RE-based approach aiming to evaluate and estimate the potential impact of new system integrations on current practices, organizational goals,and user satisfaction using goal modelling and process modelling techniques. This approach is validated with two case studies conducted in real hospitals and a usability study involving healthcare practitioners. The contributions of the thesis are: • Major: a novel Activity-based Process Integration (AbPI) framework that enables the integration of a new process into existing practices incrementally, in a way that permits continuous analysis and evaluation. AbPI also provides several alternatives to a given integration to ensure effective flowing and minimal disturbance to current practices. AbPI has a Goal Integration Method to integrate new goals, an Integration Method to integrate new processes, and an Alternative Evaluation Method exploiting multi-criteria decision-making algorithms to select among strategies. The modelling concepts of AbPI are supported by a profile of the User Requirements Notation augmented with a new distance-based goal-oriented approach to alternative selection and a new data-quality-driven algorithm for the propagation of confidence levels in goal models. • Minor: a usability study of AbPI to investigate the usefulness of the framework in a healthcare context. This usability study is part of the validation and is also a minor contribution due to: 1) the lack of usability studies when proposing requirements engineering frameworks, and 2) an intent to discover the potential usefulness of the framework in a context where recognized RE practices are seldom used.

Issue: Swedish institutions of higher education experiences higher pressure from the surrounding society to follow development and continuously renew themselves. As an example of government owned organisations that are complex, decentralised and professional, organisations such as universities, are working towards unclear and vague goals. Conditions that could worsen the potential of achieving goal congruence, which is considered critical for all organisations, there for prevails. According to previous research internal communication is critical under these conditions. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to provide in-depth knowledge of how Swedish institutions work with internal communication of unclear goals and how the internal communication of unclear goals affects the organization's goal congruence. Conclusion: What was identified as interesting is that in spite of lack of internal communication goal congruence could prevail in the studied organisation. Since management chooses not to clarify goals they give each member of the organisation an opportunity to relate, interpret and work towards the goal in their own way. A viewpoint affected by the organisational structure of universities as decentralised and professional organisations. Through having unclear goals in this type of organisations goal congruence can prevail even without a well functioning internal communication. Knowledge Contributions: The results of this study disprove previous research that of internal communication is critical for goal congruence when having unclear goals. The results can be generalised to other organisations in similar context and conditions as the studied organisation, but first and foremost to other universities as complex, decentralised and professional organizations with unclear goals. / Problemställning: Svenska lärosäten möter allt högre krav från det omgivande samhället att följa samhällsutvecklingen och förnya sig. Som exempel på statliga myndigheter är lärosäten komplexa, decentraliserade och professionella organisationer som arbetar mot otydligt och vagt formulerade mål. Därmed råder förutsättningar som har potential att försämra organisationens målkongruens, något som anses viktigt för att alla organisationer ska nå sina mål. Tidigare forskning visar på intern kommunikation blir kritisk under dessa förhållanden. Syfte: Syftet med studien är att bidra med fördjupad kunskap om hur svenska lärosäten arbetar med intern kommunikationen av otydliga mål och hur den interna kommunikationen av otydliga mål påverkar organisationens målkongruens. Slutsats: Det som identifierades intressant är att trots bristande intern kommunikation så råder målkongruens. Ledningen väljer att inte tydliggöra mål för att ge medarbetare en möjlighet att förhålla sig, tolka och arbeta med målet på sitt sätt. Ett synsätt som påverkas av att lärosäten är decentraliserade och professionella organisationer. Genom att ha just otydliga mål i denna typ av organisationer kan därför målkongruens råda även utan en väl fungerande intern kommunikation av målet. Kunskapsbidrag: De resultat som den här studien visar på motbevisar tidigare forskning om att intern kommunikation är kritisk för målkongruens vid otydliga mål. Resultaten kan generaliseras till andra organisationer med liknande förutsättningar och kontext som den undersökta organisationen. Då i första hand till andra svenska lärosäten som komplexa, decentraliserade och professionella organisationer med otydliga mål.

This thesis describes the architecture of an adaptive goal-oriented AI system that can be used for Real-Time Strategy games. The system is at the end tested against a single opponent on three different maps with different sizes to test the ability of the AI opposed to the 'standard' Finite State Machines and the likes in Real-Time Strategy games. The system consists of a task handler agent that manages all the active and halted tasks. A task is either low-level; used for ordering units, or high-level that can form advanced strategies. The General forms plans that are most beneficial at the moment. For creating effective units against the opponent a priority system is used; where the unit priorities are calculated dynamically. / Den här uppsatsen beskriver en adaptiv målorienterad AI-arkitektur som kan tillämpas på "Real-Time Strategy" spel. Systemet testat mot en annan AI som använder mer traditionella "Finite State Machines" in sin arkitekture. Testet utförs på tre olika banor som är olika stora. Systemet består utav en "Uppgiftshanterare" som har hand om alla aktiva och inaktiva uppgifter. En uppgift kan antingen vara utav låg-nivå, som används för att skicka kommandon till enheterna, eller utav hög-nivå för att göra mer avancerade strategier. Generalen planerar och skapar uppgifter som är mest fördelaktig för tillfället. För att skapa enheter som är effektiva mot fiendens enheter används ett prioritetssystem, där enhetens prioritet kalkyleras ut dynamiskt under spelets gång.

The diploma thesis focuses opening a world of drama education to a group of young learners who are unexperienced at DE. The theoretical part aims to prepare readers to understand a beginner class specifics same as working with aim planning for a particular group of students. In the practical part of the thesis I construct one semester plan of aims for concrete collective of students and assess if the plan was made appropriately, if the goals were achieved and what changes must have been done to adjust the plan to real conditions. Furthermore, the practical part offers tips of lessons and their reflections and it maps development of the study group. Overall aim of the thesis is to bring to a reader theoretical background of working with a DE class of beginners, plan of goals for concrete group and its fulfilling.

The definition of metrics capable of reporting on quality issues is a difficult task in the health care sector. This thesis proposes a goal-driven methodology for the development, collection, and analysis of health care quality metrics that expose in a quantifiable way the progress of measurement goals stated by interested stakeholders. In other words, this methodology produces reports containing metrics that enable the understanding of information out of health care data. The resulting Health Care Goal Question Metric (HC-GQM) methodology is based on the Goal Question Metric (GQM) approach, a methodology originally created for the software development industry and adapted to the context and specificities of the health care sector. HC-GQM benefits from a double loop validation process where the methodology is first implemented, then analysed, and finally improved. The validation process takes place in the context of adverse event management and incident reporting initiatives at a Canadian teaching hospital, where the HC-GQM provides a set of meaningful metrics and reports on the occurrence of adverse events and incidents to the stakeholders involved. The results of a survey suggest that the users of HC-GQM have found it beneficial and would use it again.

Examines goal orientation, ethnicity, gender, and achievement variables of 149 elementary school children (grades 3-5) at a Southern California elementary school. Research was conducted using a 2 x 2 goal orientation matrix that included mastery-approach, mastery-avoid, performance approach, and performance-avoid constructs. California Standards Test (CST) were used to determine achievement. Results supported the hypothesis that there would be no differences based on ethnicity, gender, or grade level. Statistically significant differences were found in the mastery-avoid goal because of class subject. Also, mastery-avoid was found to have a negative correlation to high test scores as measured by CST.