The purpose of the study was to determine if a prepared serial or sequential line of teacher questioning, immediately following the reading of a narrative selection, is a more effective method of teaching to increase inferential comprehension skills of gifted learners that a random questioning method of teaching. The setting for the study was a magnet elementary school for gifted children in a midwest metropolitan area. Forty-nine gifted, fifth grade students were randomly selected for inclusion in the study to target differences in inferential comprehension mastery resultant to intervening questioning treatment.A norm referenced pre-test and post-test was utilized to determine the degree of effectiveness in assessing inferential comprehension skills in long term mastery learning. The null hypothesis was tested by using Analysis of Covariance. Weekly tests were used to assess short term mastery of inferential comprehension. The null hypothesis was tested by using Multiple Analysis of Variance. The .05 level of significance was established as the critical probability level for the non-acceptance of hypotheses.Findings1. After a six week intervening treatment comparing the effects of a serial and random questioning line with gifted learners measured by pre and post-test instruments of a norm referenced test, non-significant gains were made by the experimental group attributable to the type or line of questioning utilized.2. There existed a difference between the groups over the individual tests measured. Gifted learners were affected in short term mastery of inferential comprehension skills as indicated in scores on three weekly five item tests.Conclusions1. There is no difference in inferential comprehension skill mastery between the control and experimental group after a six week serial questioning treatment as measured on the Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills, Form U, Level G, grade 5.2. There is a difference in inferential comprehension skill mastery between the control and experimental group as assessed during the six week treatment for a serial line of questioning of three day per week measurements.

This study was initiated by the authors in order to evaluate the Twister™ method’s environmental pros and cons in relation to other traditional floor care methods using polish and wax. This has been ascertained through a Life Cycle Assessment which was conducted within the study. The study has been in co-operation with HTC Sweden AB, the developer of the Twister™ method. The results show that the elements of the Twister™ method with the greatest environmental impact are the scrubbing machine that is used and the low energy consumption that the Twister™ method requires. The results also show that the Twister™ method has a significantly lower environmental impact than floor care methods using polish or wax. The parts of the Twister™ pad that have the greatest environmental impact are the industrial diamonds and the material that makes up the pad.

Automotive design is a specialized discipline in which designers are challenged to create emotionally appealing designs. From a practice perspective, this requires that designers apply their hermeneutic as well as reflective design thinking skills. However, due to the increasing demand for new car models, it is not always possible to keep generating new car designs without some form of assistive means. Therefore, it is common practice to use Automated Morphing Systems (AMS) to facilitate and accelerate the design process in the automotive industry. However, AMS, which is an efficient algorithmic driven tool for form generation, lacks the emotional knowledge of human beings, as well as the ability to introduce a “creative” and preferably a “winning” design. The purpose of this research is to study designers' reasoning about product (automotive) form, their form generation activity, and the implications of these. The research objective is to understand how designers generate forms driven by their implicit values, beliefs and attitudes towards designing, and how these are supported by their visualization and representation skills. Four research questions have been formulated in order to get a firm answer posed in this research. Generation of measurable and testable data – which involved both qualitative and quantitative research to gather and analyze implicit and explicit designer’s knowledge – constituted the main empirical effort for this thesis. A design research methodology framework consisting of three different parts was used in this data gathering exercise. These parts are: descriptive study I, prescriptive study, and descriptive study II. They involved methods such as surveys, observation studies and evaluation studies. Master’s students’ evaluations as well as the designers’ own interpretations of their sketches – which represent the sequence of morphed forms – were considered essential aspects of the empirical studies. The findings of this study can be summarized as follows: Approaches in form development among designers vary due to their experiences, which affect their sketching abilities, activities, and implicit thinking patterns. In their sketching and form development activities, designers emphasize the most informative views, such as façade and three quarter front views, compared to other views of the car. Rather than adopt a uniform transformation strategy which includes the entire car, they also select what elements to morph. In manual form generation, designers contribute with their personal and creative input in the development of the forms of the overall car, its selected items, and regions that determine the overall character of the car. Major differences in the morphing approaches applied by designers and automated CAD systems reside in the recognition and interpretation of the meaning of form elements. Considering the inability of AMS to morph selectively and inconsistently, as well as to introduce ambiguity and variance, it is suggested here that AMS may be useful only for convergent transformation, which typically occurs during the later stages of the styling process. Although perceptions vary according to how representations are presented in the morphing process, the Perceptual Product Experience (PPE) framework can still be considered a useful tool for establishing familiarity, for understanding quality characteristics and the nature of the product, and, finally, for determining meanings and assessing the values of form elements. In conclusion, the work presents a descriptive model for practice-based design thinking about form development in automotive design. Manual interpolative morphing has been the focal area of study. The study categorizes meaning with respect to designer perception. Based on the study of manual morphing exercises, a new methodology of analyzing form syntactics, pragmatics and semantics related to design thinking, form development, and automotive design has been developed.

The Relationships of Elementary School Student¡¦s Positive Thinking and Social Behaviors Abstract The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between elementary student's positive thinking and social behaviors. Two hundreds and seventy-nine students were conveniently selected from 5 public elementary schools in Kaohsiung city. All participants completed the ¡§Positive Thinking and Social Skills Scale¡¨ in 2010. Descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA , pearson product-moment correlation and stepwise multiple regression analysis were conducted. In addition,4 students with the highest positive thinking score and the other 4 students with the highest social behavior were rescruited as the target students. Those students were interviewed while they accomplishing the survey. The main findings were as following¡J 1. There were significant differences on positive thinking between different graders. 2. There were gender significant differences on positive thinking total score. 3. There were significant differences on positive thinking and social behavior scores among different father education degrees children. 4. There were significant differences on positive thinking and social behaviors among social economic status fanilies children. 5. There were significant differences on positive thinking and social behaviors among father¡¦s practice styles children. 6. There were significant differences on positive thinking and interpersonal among mother¡¦s practice styles children. 7. "Gender" and " positive thinking" are significant predictors of social skills,which explained 49.6% of the variance . 8. Authoritative parenting practice of elementary children get a higher score in positive thinking and social behaviors. 9. Children with authoritarian or permissive father practice,who got lower scores in positive thinking and social behaviors. 10. Children with authoritarian mother practice,who got lower scores in positive thinking and social behaviors. According to those significantfinding, educational recommendation and suggestions provided toward teachers and researchers be discussed. Keywords¡Gpositive thinking¡Bsocial behaviors¡Belementary school students

The aim of this study is to develop the ¡§integration of creative thinking into the proposal of teaching reading and composition for grade 4 students¡¨ and discuss the impact of this teaching proposal on students¡¦ creative thinking skill, tendency and writing capability. Through case study, a grade-4 dance class from an elementary school in Tainan City was taken as research sample. Among the target students, 20 of them are female. After conducting the teaching proposal for 17 weeks, the teaching strategy was adjusted according to the program implementation, teacher¡¦s introspection and students¡¦ performance in class. In addition, both quantitative and qualitative analyses were used to analyze the program teaching effect. The pre-test and post-test scores of the ¡§creative thinking activity test¡¨, ¡§creative thinking tendency scale¡¨ and ¡§creative writing evaluation scale¡¨ were taken as the standard for evaluation. Besides, the qualitative data were used to analyze the students¡¦ learning results of creative thinking, students¡¦ written works, learning survey-questionnaires and the overall reaction of teachers¡¦ observation and introspection. The result and discussion of research are as following: (1) The integration of creative thinking into the proposal of teaching composition and reading for grade 4 students can improve the elementary students¡¦ creative thinking skill and writing capability. (2) The integration of creative thinking into the proposal of teaching composition and reading for grade 4 students can improve the elementary students¡¦ creative thinking tendency. (3) The design of the integrative teaching composition and writing can improve the elementary students¡¦ expression and the learning quality of creative thinking. (4) The appropriate team work can improve the elementary students¡¦ learning effect. In conclusion, this study proposed the proposal and implementation for future integration of creative thinking into teaching composition and reading and research direction based on the research results.

The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to explore the significant predictors that related to adolescent¡¦s positive thinking and self-identity. Four hundreds and sixty-seven public junior high school participants from 3 different grade levels (i.e., seventh-grade, eighth-grade, and ninth-grade) completed a questionnaire on Adolescent Self-awareness Scale(ASS). The ASS included Background Questionnaire, Positive Thinking Scale, and Self-identity Scale. Moreover 5 junior high school students with the highest total scores on positive thinking and self-identity, and additional 5 with the lowest total scores on positive thinking and self-identity were recruited as target students for individual interviews to find their common background factors. Descriptive statistics, t-tests, analysis of variance, Pearson correlation, and stepwise multiple-regression were conducted on the quantitative data. For the interview data, an inductive analysis was applied. The major findings are as follows: 1.The significant predictors for adolescents¡¦ Positive Thinking are subjective family atmosphere, physical leisure participation frequency, interpersonal relationships, and academic achievement. 2.The significant predictors for adolescents¡¦ Self-identity are subjective family atmosphere, interpersonal relationships, physical leisure participation frequency, and academic achievement. 3.Ninth-grade students¡¦ Positive Thinking and Self-identity scores are significantly lower than seventh-grade and eighth-grade students. 4.Adolescents with more harmonious family atmosphere prescent significantly higher scores on Positive Thinking and Self-identity. 5.Adolescents with better interpersonal relationship obtain significantly higher Positive Thinking and Self-identity scores than their counterparts. 6.Adolescents who often involved in physical leisure participation present significantly higher Positive Thinking and Self-identity scores than these less involved in physical leisure participants. 7.Adolescents with high positive thinking and high self-identity scores present the following characteristics: better academic achievement, harmonious family atmosphere, good interpersonal relationships, and leisure in physical participation. 8.Adolescents with low positive thinking and low self-identity scores present the following characteristics: lower academic achievement, inharmonious family atmosphere, bad interpersonal relationships, and leisure engagements in non-physical participation. 9.There are significant correlations between adolescents¡¦ Positive Thinking and Self-Identity.

The purpose of this qualitative interpretive research study was to explore the perceptions and experiences of seven second- and third-generation U.S.-born Latino parents in a high-poverty urban school district in Texas regarding their role in their children’s schooling. Specifically, this study was organized to understand what the selected Latino parents perceived as parent involvement, what expectations they had of the school and, conversely, what expectations the school personnel had of them, and finally, what perceptions the parents held about their role in school-parent activities. Though parent involvement is considered to be one of the most important factors in a child’s success in school, this study also explored the perceived chasm in the alignment between the school and the home of the U.S.-born Latino family. The interpretative approach and dialogical exchange, through a semi-structured interview process, provided the opportunity to add the voices of second- and third-generation U.S.–born Latino parents to the current discourse about parent involvement. All of the participants met a general description as a second- or third-generation U.S.-born Latino, whose primary language is English, whose children have been involved in the identified school system for at least five years and were academically successful, and who the school considered to be uninvolved in the schooling process. The data analysis process involved a methodical process of breaking down the information presented in in-depth interview transcripts, observation, field notes, documents, and participant and researcher texts. By using a focused coding technique, patterns or concepts that best represented the participants’ voices surfaced. The codes were reviewed and categories or themes were then developed. The parents’ voices also provided information suggesting that the perceived lack of participation in the sanctioned school activities by some U.S.–born Latino parents stems from an apparent failure on the part of school personnel to recognize the cultural capital and richness of the culturally diverse household. Specifically, through the theoretical framework of funds of knowledge, the stories of the seven second- and third-generation U.S.-born Latinos noted that Latino families have assets that contribute to the academic success of their children, yet they are often dismissed by school personnel.

This study examined questions embedded in four high school world geography textbooks to evaluate the degree to which the three components of spatial thinking were incorporated: concepts of space, tools of representation, and processes of reasoning. A three-dimensional taxonomy of spatial thinking to assess the questions was developed and validated via a survey of a group of spatial thinking experts. The spatiality of the concepts featured in 3,010 questions sampled from the textbooks was analyzed. The degree to which spatial representations and stimuli for reasoning were presented was also measured. Every question was compared against the taxonomy and coded. Inter-coder reliability was measured on about one percent of the sample questions. The results indicated that most questions that required knowledge about spatial concepts could be answered by knowing only simple concepts, such as location and place-specific identity, rather than complex concepts that require the identification of spatial patterns and associations. Not many questions asked students to incorporate spatial representations to answer the questions. Few questions did require creating a new representation. Students were asked to recall memorized geographic knowledge and terms rather than to infer, hypothesize, and generalize. Little difference was found among the four textbooks in that they rarely integrated the three components of spatial thinking into the questions. The research found that page-margin questions involved aspects of spatial thinking more than section- and chapter-assessment questions. Relatively simple concepts and lower level cognitive processes, however, were required in most questions that integrated the three components. The development of questions to help students practice complex processes of spatial thinking is necessary. The taxonomy developed in this research can be used as a guide to design curricular, instructional materials, and questions that incorporate aspects of spatial thinking.

Deng Xiao Ping¡¦s military thinking and practice played an important role in upgrading China¡¦s national power. Having the interest of the whole nation and the defensive strategic thinking in mind, first of all, Deng Xiao Ping implemented military reform during the peacetime, which involved many aspects including politics (political party), economic reform, scientific and technical development, etc. and thus should be deliberated from an all-direction angle. Next, enlightened by the collapse of Russia, East Germany and Poland, Deng Xiao Ping promoted economic reform to ease the financial burden incurred from the establishment of self-reliant nuclear military strength in late 1950s¡¦ and early 1960s¡¦. Third, with his understanding toward the modern history of China, Deng Xiao Ping felt that the leader of China must play the roles of a neutral and arbitrator, so as to avoid any internal upheaval and vicious circle of conflict among political party, government and military. In view of this, all measures taken by Deng Xiao Ping during the period when he was in power were aimed to balance the powers among different factions. As a result, the political power shifted peacefully from the hands of soldier to the ones of civil officials. In Deng Xiao Ping¡¦s early life, he was only a member of the political committee in the army and lacked of practical fighting experience. Therefore, his military thinking and practice were primarily from his observation of changes in external environment as well as the internal system reform under the circumstance of war. As to his reform thinking, it came from trials and real practice. He tried to find out the right ways on the one hand and corrected his errors on the other hand: He refrained the economic liberalization from overheat by political interference; controlled the military by the leadership of the party; balanced the military factions and have them curb one another in order to stabilize the military in the process of four major reforms. As a planner and leader of China¡¦s reform and opening up, a leader of seeking truth from facts, and a realist, Deng Xiao Ping paid much attention to the accumulation of materials, development of productivity, and strategic thinking for national defense. In his opinion, China could get rid of poverty only when the materials were accumulated to a certain degree and became a rich country with strong military power only when its building up of national defense reached a certain scale. To view from current international situation, any reform measures brought about by Deng Xiao Ping to cope with the change of international situation in his time had been proven to be in conformity with the trend of the powerful countries in the world if judging from their effects and results. In addition, the build up of China¡¦s national defense supported by his economic reform was closely related to the future development on the two sides of the Taiwan Strait, so notice must be taken to such development from time to time. Maybe, Deng Xiao Ping¡¦s military thinking and practice can be used as a reference for any studies on the future development of China¡¦s national power.

Taiwan PC OEM industry has developed almost 20 years. In these years, Taiwan PC OEM industry made large output volume and had a huge market share during these 20 years but the profit kept falling oppositely. Facing this repeating situation, the research use system thinking approach to construct the system structure which focus on the relationships between OEM firms and brand firms in notebook industry in order to find out the reason why OEM firms' profits squeeze continuously. First of all, this research analyze the interaction between key factors in the systems then depict structure of the issue. Furthermore, according to the system structure of the notebook industry, the research described how the main schemas changed time by time, and analyze the different forces that squeeze OEM firms¡¦ profits. Finally, the research provided some opinions on improving this profits squeezed situation.