abstract: Proponents of current educational reform initiatives emphasize strict accountability, the standardization of curriculum and pedagogy and the use of standardized tests to measure student learning and indicate teacher, administrator and school performance. As a result, professional learning communities have emerged as a platform for teachers to collaborate with one another in order to improve their teaching practices, increase student achievement and promote continuous school improvement. The primary purpose of this inquiry was to investigate how teachers respond to working in professional learning communities in which the discourses privilege the practice of regularly comparing evidence of students' learning and results. A second purpose was to raise questions about how the current focus on standardization, assessment and accountability impacts teachers, their interactions and relationships with one another, their teaching practices, and school culture. Participants in this qualitative, ethnographic inquiry included fifteen teachers working within Green School District (a pseudonym). Initial interviews were conducted with all teachers, and responses were categorized in a typology borrowed from Barone (2008). Data analysis involved attending to the behaviors and experiences of these teachers, and the meanings these teachers associated with those behaviors and events. Teachers of GSD responded differently to the various layers of expectations and pressures inherent in the policies and practices in education today. The experiences of the teachers from GSD confirm the body of research that illuminates the challenges and complexity of working in collaborative forms of professional development, situated within the present era of accountability. Looking through lenses privileged by critical theorists, this study examined important intended and unintended consequences inherent in the educational practices of standardization and accountability. The inquiry revealed that a focus on certain "results" and the demand to achieve short terms gains may impede the creation of successful, collaborative, professional learning communities. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Curriculum and Instruction 2011

This purpose of this single case study was to describe the discursive practices of an ELL teacher and a general education teaching in a co-teaching PLC setting. With the increased use of co-teaching as an approach to English language development supports, it is vital to gain a better understanding of how teachers plan to support the academic learning of English learners, and what language they use in these interactions. This study implemented a qualitative research design based in grounded theory and positioning theory. The results of this study found that the discursive practices of co-teachers were based in the content of topics, the method of discursive interactions, and their previous experiences in co-teaching that formed their interactions.

A portion of teachers in the United States educational system don'€™t use data to inform and improve their instruction resulting in actionable change. A gap exists between teachers having and interpreting data and making meaning in such a way that leads to actionable change in instruction. The purpose of this case study was to investigate how teachers used data to alter instruction and identify factors that inhibited or supported teachers in using data to drive instructional practice. This study was guided by Ackoff'€™s theory of action cycle, which included interaction, dialogue, data discoveries, and team response to data. The research questions asked how teams used data and what factors inhibited and supported the use of data. Three teams were observed. Eleven classroom teachers, the building principal and the district professional development director were interviewed. The teacher team criteria included that teachers met weekly and used, at a minimum, common formative assessments. The school and district mission, vision and value statements were collected as artifacts to see how these documents supported the use of data. Open and axial coding exposed themes and patterns. Results indicated that teachers commonly omitted one or more phases in a data cycle; however, when teachers worked through all phases of a data cycle, actionable change in instruction resulted, and factors that both inhibited and supported teacher use of data to guide instruction were evident throughout all aspects of the study. The project, a white paper, summarized the study and provided research-based recommendations based on the study. These recommendations focus on building teacher capacity and relationships. This study may generate social change through educational equity. Equity is achieved when teachers use data to inform instruction so that learners of all abilities may have access to learning.

Smart manufacturing – smart factories creating smart products – is a topic which has arisen in the academic as well as business community. This thesis covers smart manufacturing in the context of lifecycle management. The thesis investigated how the standard Product Life Cycle Support (PLCS) could be used to support smart manufacturing and mainly how to develop the underlying system and information infrastructure. Standards, reports and specifications for smart manufacturing were investigated. Several information models were created from these publications which could be used for implementing a proposed solution for the infrastructure.The implementation concerned a use case in the ongoing research project DigIn, and used the developed models to implement a proposed solution in the product lifecycle management software ShareAspace. This was done in order to evaluate how to use the functionality of PLCS and ShareAspace to utilize the solution to support smart manufacturing and update the digital twin. In parallel to this thesis, a sub-project part of the DigIn project was conducted which connected the database to other software in the system as well as to the factory shop floor. The solution used the plant service bus Kafka and REST APIs in order to establish the connection. The functionality of the system regarding the specified required functionality in the publications was then investigated.The solution was found to meet most of the requirements of the publications regarding, among others, lifecycle management, service oriented architecture, non-hierarchical structures and communication capabilities. / Smart tillverkning – smarta fabriker som skapar smarta produkter – är ett ämne som inom det akademiska och affärsmässiga området förekommer alltmer frekvent. Denna uppsats behandlar smart tillverkning i kontexten av Product Life Cycle Support (PLCS). Uppsatsen undersökte hur PLCS kunde utnyttjas för att möjliggöra smart tillverkning, med huvudsakligt fokus på möjliggörandet av den bakomliggande system- och informationsinfrastrukturen för smart tillverkning. Standarder, rapporter och specifikationer för smart tillverkning undersöktes. Flertalet informationsmodeller skapades utifrån dessa publikationer vilka kunde användas för att implementera ett förslag för infrastrukturen.Implementationen hade sin bas i det pågående forskningsprojektet DigIn, och använde de utvecklade modellerna för att implementera en föreslagen lösning i produktlivscykel-mjukvaran ShareAspace. Detta gjordes för att utvärdera hur funktionaliteten i ShareAspace och PLCS skulle kunna användas för att stödja smart tillverkning och uppdatera den digitala tvillingen. Parallellt med denna implementation genomfördes i DigIn ett projekt vilka kopplade samman databasen med annan mjukvara i systemet samt fabriksgolvet. Lösningen använde en Plant Service Bus (Kafka) och REST APIer för att koppla samman dessa. Funktionaliteten av systemet rörande specificerade krav som återfanns i publikationerna undersöktes sedan.Lösningen fanns möta de flesta av de krav som lades fram i de undersökta publikationerna rörande, bland annat, livscykelshantering, tjänsteorienterad arkitektur, icke-hierarkiska strukturer samt kommunikationsmöjligheter.

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This non-experimental, census survey included the elementary, middle, and high school principals at the comprehensive schools within a large, suburban school division in Virginia. The focus of this study was the factors that influence building administrators in using data to make instructional decisions. The purpose was to discover if there is a difference in the perceptions of elementary, middle, and high school principals of data use to make instructional decisions within their buildings. McLeod’s (2006) Statewide Data-Driven Readiness Study: Principal Survey was used to assess the principals’ beliefs about the data-driven readiness of their individual schools. Each principal indicated the degree to which they agreed or disagreed with statements about acting upon data, data support systems, and the data school culture. Twenty-two items aligned with four constructs identified by White (2008) in her study of elementary school principals in Florida. These four constructs or factors were used to determine if there was a significant difference in principal beliefs concerning teacher use of data to improve student achievement, principal beliefs regarding a data-driven culture within their building, the existence of systems for supporting data-driven decision-making, and collaboration among teachers to make data-driven decisions. For each of the survey items a majority of the responses (≥62%) were in agreement with the statements, indicating the principals agreed slightly, agreed moderately, or agreed strongly that data-driven decision-making by teachers to improve student achievement was occurring within the building, a data-driven culture and data supporting systems exists, and teachers are collaborating and using data to make decisions. Multiple analyses of variance showed significant differences in the means. Some of these differences in means were based on the principals’ assignment levels. While both groups responded positively to the statement that collaboration among teachers to make data-driven decisions, the elementary principals agreed more strongly than the high school principals. When mediating variables were examined, significance was found in principals’ beliefs concerning teacher use of data to improve student achievement depending on the years of experience as a principal. Principals with six or more years of experience had a mean response for Construct 1 of 4.84 while those with five or less years of experience had a mean of 4.38, suggesting that on average those principals with more experience had a stronger belief that teachers are using data to improve student achievement. There is significance between the means of principals with three or fewer years versus those with more than three years in their current assignment on two of the constructs – a data-driven culture and collaboration among teachers. Principals with less time in their current position report a slightly higher agreement than their less experienced colleagues with statements about the data-driven culture within their school. Significant difference was also found between principals’ beliefs about teacher collaboration to improve student achievement and their beliefs regarding collaboration among teachers using data-driven decision-making and the school’s AYP status for 2008-2009. Principals assigned to schools that had made AYP for 2008-2009 moderately agreed that teachers were collaborating to make data-driven decisions. In comparison, principals assigned to schools that had not made AYP only slightly agreed that this level of collaboration was occurring in their schools.

The problem addressed in the study was the ineffectiveness of professional learning community (PLC) implementation at some secondary campuses in an urban school district despite extensive professional development (PD) provided for principals. The purpose was to investigate perceptions of principals and teachers regarding principal leadership behaviors that contributed to implementing and leading effective PLCs. Researchers have established that effectively managed PLCs positively affect student achievement. The guiding research questions examined the leadership styles, behaviors, and characteristics of principals leading effective PLCs. The conceptual framework was Hord's 5 characteristics of an effective PLC. Using an exploratory case study design, perceptions of 9 teachers and 2 principals were investigated through open-ended surveys and interviews, respectively. Participant inclusion criteria were membership in and presence during the implementation of 2 secondary PLCs which were selected based on evidence of Hord's 5 characteristics. Emergent coding was used to analyze the data and find themes relevant to leading effective PLCs, including participating in and developing PLC expectations and structures, effective 2-way communication with teachers, and teacher empowerment. All themes emerging from the results were components of a transformational leadership style found to be effective in leading PLCs. The resulting project was a PD program for principals to develop implementation plans and intentional behaviors for themselves that will enable them to implement and sustain effective PLCs. This study has the potential to promote positive social change by providing structures for principals to promote teacher growth through PLCs that enhance the quality of education for students which minimizes the effects of cultural and circumstantial differences.

This thesis deals with information modelling within the scope of the manufacturing system life cycle, i.e. the development phase and the operation phase. Information modelling defines and structures information that needs to be managed, and is thereby an important step towards realising efficient information management throughout the manufacturing system life cycle. The research goal of this work was to find a modelling approach that simplifies management and integration of manufacturing system information, both within and between the development and operation phases. The starting point was an assumption that information integration requires a common information model for the manufacturing system life cycle. The approach was to evaluate the usefulness of the STEP standards AP214 and AP239 (PLCS) regarding how they meet the information requirements. Case studies within the automotive industry were carried out for gathering test data. Modelling experience showed that PLCS has the most suitable scope since it can represent the manufacturing system from a life cycle perspective. However, the generic character of PLCS introduced other issues, such as how to ensure consistent instantiation. Further guidance is needed regarding how to use PLCS for representing domain-specific objects such as machining centres. As a response to the inconsistency issue, a concept model of a machining centre was developed to guide the instantiation of PLCS. However, it was found that there are multiple ways to translate the concept model to PLCS depending on viewpoint. Moreover, the characteristics of information management within the operation phase were found to be notably different compared to characteristics of the development phase. For these reasons, it is discussed whether or not a common modelling format for the whole manufacturing system life cycle is appropriate or even realisable. From a practical viewpoint, it is concluded to be both inevitable and necessary to find appropriate delimitations and interfaces between complementary information models. A promising step towards information integration is to classify the information concepts of different models according to terms defined in concept models. / QC 20100921

<p>The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of school principals on the impact of professional learning communities (PLCs) on collective teacher efficacy in two Indiana schools.</p> <p>This study’s design is grounded in the frameworks of DuFour & Eaker’s (1998) six elements of PLCs and Donohoo’s (2017a) six enabling factors of collective teacher efficacy. </p> Using the methodology of grounded theory, this exploratory, multiple-case study aimed to understand the experiences of principals who have implemented PLCs, and their perceptions of the impact of PLC implementation on collective teacher efficacy. By examining elements of PLCs to determine any perceived impact on six enabling factors of collective teacher efficacy through structured interview responses, the research findings revealed that principals perceived PLCs to impact specific enabling factors of collective teacher efficacy. This study adds to existing research on developing collective teacher efficacy through specific professional development opportunities. The researcher recommends that educators continue educating themselves on PLC implementation and improving their PLC practices.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T14:08:34Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 FelipeCAC.pdf: 1359871 bytes, checksum: 241fcfb66da39be9d48445bc9f6d11de (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-06-30 / This work proposes an environment for programming programmable logic controllers applied to oil wells with BCP type method of artificially lifting. The environment will have an editor based in the diagram of sequential functions for programming of PLCs. This language was chosen due to the fact of being high-level and accepted by the international standard IEC 61131-3. The use of these control programs in real PLC will be possible with the use of an intermediate level of language based on XML specification PLCopen T6 XML. For the testing and validation of the control programs, an area should be available for viewing variables obtained through communication with a real PLC. Thus, the main contribution of this work is to develop a computational environment that allows: modeling, testing and validating the controls represented in SFC and applied in oil wells with BCP type method of artificially lifting / Este trabalho prop?e um ambiente computacional para programa??o de controladores l?gicos program?veis aplicados aos po?os de petr?leo com m?todo de eleva??o artificial do tipo BCP. O ambiente ter? um editor para programa??o de PLCs baseado principalmente no diagrama de fun??es sequenciais (SFC). Esta linguagem foi escolhida por ser considerada de alto n?vel e por ser aceita pelo padr?o internacional IEC 61131-3. O uso destes programas de controle em PLCs reais ser? poss?vel com a utiliza??o de uma linguagem de n?vel intermedi?rio baseada na especifica??o TC6 XML pela organiza??o PLCopen. Para os testes e a valida??o dos programas de controle, dever? ser disponibilizada uma ?rea para visualiza??o das vari?veis obtidas atrav?s da comunica??o com um PLC real. Desta forma, a principal contribui??o deste trabalho ? desenvolver um ambiente computacional que permita: modelar, testar e validar os controles representados em SFC e aplicados nos po?os petrol?feros com m?todo de eleva??o artificial do tipo BCP