Proactive classroom management involves teacher use of a range of positive interaction and intervention strategies for managing student behaviour in the classroom. This approach to classroom management has been shown to positively influence student academic achievement, behaviour, and social-emotional well-being, as well as teacher job satisfaction, stress levels, and turnover rate. Unfortunately, teachers often receive minimal training in such strategies, leading them to use more reactive forms of classroom management as a means of controlling problematic student behaviour. Given that reactive procedures can have many unintended negative side effects, there is a need for in-service provision of additional teacher training in proactive approaches, especially in classrooms where student problem behaviours are rampant. The present study was designed to address this need by examining the effectiveness of Errorless Classroom Management (ECM), a proactive classroom management program that builds student tolerance to classroom challenges by teaching them four keystone skills: compliance, social skills, on-task behaviour, and communication. We provided ECM training to two staff members (one teacher and one educational assistant) who were working in a special education classroom for students demonstrating extremely high levels of severe antisocial behaviour. The goal of this in-service training program was to alter staff members’ classroom management practices in order to engender covariant improvements in student behaviour. Using time-series observations, we examined staff and student behaviour before and after ECM training. We also investigated the social validity of treatment effects through the use of staff-report questionnaires. Data revealed that staff members effectively reduced their use of reactive strategies following training but were inconsistent in their application of proactive strategies. In turn, student problem behaviour markedly declined following training; however, improvements on other student outcome measures were not consistently observed. Moreover, variability in staff members’ satisfaction ratings and stress scores suggest a modest overall level of social validity. These findings provide early support for the ECM training program as a socially acceptable form of intervention. These results also suggest that it is possible to effect change in student behaviour by training staff members in positive forms of classroom management.

Proactive classroom management involves teacher use of a range of positive interaction and intervention strategies for managing student behaviour in the classroom. This approach to classroom management has been shown to positively influence student academic achievement, behaviour, and social-emotional well-being, as well as teacher job satisfaction, stress levels, and turnover rate. Unfortunately, teachers often receive minimal training in such strategies, leading them to use more reactive forms of classroom management as a means of controlling problematic student behaviour. Given that reactive procedures can have many unintended negative side effects, there is a need for in-service provision of additional teacher training in proactive approaches, especially in classrooms where student problem behaviours are rampant. The present study was designed to address this need by examining the effectiveness of Errorless Classroom Management (ECM), a proactive classroom management program that builds student tolerance to classroom challenges by teaching them four keystone skills: compliance, social skills, on-task behaviour, and communication. We provided ECM training to two staff members (one teacher and one educational assistant) who were working in a special education classroom for students demonstrating extremely high levels of severe antisocial behaviour. The goal of this in-service training program was to alter staff members’ classroom management practices in order to engender covariant improvements in student behaviour. Using time-series observations, we examined staff and student behaviour before and after ECM training. We also investigated the social validity of treatment effects through the use of staff-report questionnaires. Data revealed that staff members effectively reduced their use of reactive strategies following training but were inconsistent in their application of proactive strategies. In turn, student problem behaviour markedly declined following training; however, improvements on other student outcome measures were not consistently observed. Moreover, variability in staff members’ satisfaction ratings and stress scores suggest a modest overall level of social validity. These findings provide early support for the ECM training program as a socially acceptable form of intervention. These results also suggest that it is possible to effect change in student behaviour by training staff members in positive forms of classroom management.

Optimal control of general dynamic systems under realistic constraints on input signals and state variables is an important problem area in control theory. Many practical control problems can be formulated as optimization tasks, and this leads toa significant demand for efficient numerical solution algorithms. Several such algorithms have been developed, and they are typically derived from a dynamic programming view point. In this thesis a differentapproach is taken. The discretetime dynamic optimization problem is formulated as a static one, with the inputs as free variables. Newton's approach to solving such a problem with constraints, also known as Wilson's method, is then consistently pursued, anda algorithm is developed that isa true Newton algorithm for the problem, at the same time as the inherent structure is utilized for efficient calculations. An advantage with such an approach is that global and local convergence properties can be studied in a familiar framework. The algorithm is tested on several examples and comparisons to other algorithms are carried out. These show that the Newton algorithm performs well and is competitive with other methods. lt handles state variable constraints in a direct and efficient manner, and its practical convergence properties are robust. A general algorithm for !arge scale static problems is also developed in the thesis, and it is tested on a problem with load distribution in an electrical power network.

This thesis concerns the analysis and sensitivity of nonlinear eigenvalue problems for matrices and linear operators. The first part illustrates that lack of normality may result in catastrophic ill-conditioned eigenvalue problem. Linearization of rational eigenvalue problems for both operators over finite and infinite dimensional spaces are considered. The standard approach is to multiply by the least common denominator in the rational term and apply a well known linearization technique to the polynomial eigenvalue problem. However, the symmetry of the original problem is lost, which may result in a more ill-conditioned problem. In this thesis, an alternative linearization method is used and the sensitivity of the two different linearizations are studied. Moreover, this work contains numerically solved rational eigenvalue problems with applications in photonic crystals. For these examples the pseudospectra is used to show how well-conditioned the problems are which indicates whether the solutions are reliable or not.

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In this dissertation, we investigate three different questions that are related to information asymmetry and principal-agent problems. The first question is whether principal-agent conflicts lead executives to influence the design of their own employment contracts to exploit the shareholders; the second is the question whether conflicts of interest hamper the effectiveness of affiliated analysts in detecting and curbing earnings management; and the third is whether small investors are at an informational disadvantage. The three studies provide evidence on the existence of information asymmetry and principal-agent problems in various contexts. In particular, we find that the benchmarking process of executive compensation observed is a remedy of the agency costs incurred; that analysts from independent research firms monitor firms they cover more effectively than analysts affiliated with investment banks; and, strikingly, that small investors actually may have better information regarding firms’ financials even when compared to professional equity analysts. Together, these studies provide new insights into the cornerstone problems of the finance literature. / Thesis (Ph.D, Management) -- Queen's University, 2010-04-29 14:19:56.636