Our work is driven by a class of practical problems of sequential decision making in the context of electric power generation under uncertainties. These problems are usually treated as receding horizon deterministic optimization problems, and/or as scenario-based stochastic programs. Stochastic programming allows to compute a first stage decision that is hedged against the possible futures and -- if a possibility of recourse exists -- this decision can then be particularized to possible future scenarios thanks to the information gathered until the recourse opportunity. Although many decomposition techniques exist, stochastic programming is currently not tractable in the context of day-ahead electric power generation and furthermore does not provide an explicit recourse strategy. The latter observation also makes this approach cumbersome when one wants to evaluate its value on independent scenarios. We propose a supervised learning methodology to learn an explicit recourse strategy for a given generation schedule, from optimal adjustments of the system under simulated perturbed conditions. This methodology may thus be complementary to a stochastic programming based approach. With respect to a receding horizon optimization, it has the advantages of transferring the heavy computation offline, while providing the ability to quickly infer decisions during online exploitation of the generation system. Furthermore the learned strategy can be validated offline on an independent set of scenarios. On a realistic instance of the intra-day electricity generation rescheduling problem, we explain how to generate disturbance scenarios, how to compute adjusted schedules, how to formulate the supervised learning problem to obtain a recourse strategy, how to restore feasibility of the predicted adjustments and how to evaluate the recourse strategy on independent scenarios. We analyze different settings, namely either to predict the detailed adjustment of all the generation units, or to predict more qualitative variables that allow to speed up the adjustment computation procedure by facilitating the ``classical' optimization problem. Our approach is intrinsically scalable to large-scale generation management problems, and may in principle handle all kinds of uncertainties and practical constraints. Our results show the feasibility of the approach and are also promising in terms of economic efficiency of the resulting strategies. The solutions of the optimization problem of generation (re)scheduling must satisfy many constraints. However, a classical learning algorithm that is (by nature) unaware of the constraints the data is subject to may indeed successfully capture the sensitivity of the solution to the model parameters. This has nevertheless raised our attention on one particular aspect of the relation between machine learning algorithms and optimization algorithms. When we apply a supervised learning algorithm to search in a hypothesis space based on data that satisfies a known set of constraints, can we guarantee that the hypothesis that we select will make predictions that satisfy the constraints? Can we at least benefit from our knowledge of the constraints to eliminate some hypotheses while learning and thus hope that the selected hypothesis has a better generalization error? In the second part of this thesis, where we try to answer these questions, we propose a generic extension of tree-based ensemble methods that allows incorporating incomplete data but also prior knowledge about the problem. The framework is based on a convex optimization problem allowing to regularize a tree-based ensemble model by adjusting either (or both) the labels attached to the leaves of an ensemble of regression trees or the outputs of the observations of the training sample. It allows to incorporate weak additional information in the form of partial information about output labels (like in censored data or semi-supervised learning) or -- more generally -- to cope with observations of varying degree of precision, or strong priors in the form of structural knowledge about the sought model. In addition to enhancing the precision by exploiting information that cannot be used by classical supervised learning algorithms, the proposed approach may be used to produce models which naturally comply with feasibility constraints that must be satisfied in many practical decision making problems, especially in contexts where the output space is of high-dimension and/or structured by invariances, symmetries and other kinds of constraints.

The purpose of this study was to investigate scientific epistemological beliefs, perceptions of constructivist learning environment, attitude towards science, prior knowledge and gender as determinants of students&rsquo / approaches to learning. This study was carried out in 2005-2006 Spring Semester. One thousand, one hundred and fifty two eighth grade students from seven public schools in &Ccedil / ankaya, a district of Ankara participated in this study. Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire, Constructivist Learning Environment Scale, Learning Approaches Questionnaire and Attitude towards Science Scale were administered to students in order to determine their scientific epistemological beliefs, their perceptions of constructivist learning environments, approaches to learning and attitudes towards science respectively. Descriptive statistics were used in order to explore the general characteristics of the sample. Paired samples t-test was used in order to evaluate the mean difference iv between the scales of the actual and preferred learning environments. Pearson Correlation Analyses and Multiple Regression Analyses were conducted to see the relationships among the variables and the variables that contribute to students&rsquo / meaningful and rote learning approaches. Results of the paired samples t-test showed that the actual learning environments of the students did not adapt their preferences. In fact, students preferred more constructivist learning environments where they have more opportunity to relate science with the real world, communicate in the classroom, take role in the decision making process of what will go on in the lesson to be more beneficial for them, question what is going on in the lesson freely and experience the formulation of scientific knowledge. Pearson correlation analyses, however, showed that students who had meaningful learning orientations had tentative views of scientific epistemological beliefs, positive attitudes towards science, high prior knowledge and perceived their learning environments as constructivist. On the other hand, students who had rote learning approaches had fixed views of scientific epistemological beliefs, positive attitudes towards science and low prior knowledge. In addition, the rote learners perceived their environments as constructivist in all scales except shared control scale. Multiple Regression Analyses by using actual learning environment showed that attitude towards science is the best predictor of both meaningful and rote learning approaches.

International studies have shown the reading competence of Indonesian students to be relatively low compared to other countries. Considering the importance of reading comprehension, the current research has two aims. The first is to provide some insight into the identification of students’ difficulty with reading. The second is to investigate the implementation of innovative methods for teaching reading comprehension in the Indonesian educational context. Both studies were conducted in state upper grade primary schools in Urban Sub District BCL in Bandung, Indonesia. Study One profiled students’ reading performance. Five measurement instruments were developed, written in Indonesian language. The construction of mental models was also introduced. Two hundred and sixty five Grade Five students from eight schools were measured for their competence in decoding, prior knowledge, comprehension monitoring, construction of mental models, reading comprehension specifically related to a particular topic, and their general reading comprehension. The students’ reading performance profiles were very varied. They showed the importance of each component for the achievement of reading comprehension. The profiles also showed the ability for each component of reading comprehension to compensate each other’s function to enable the students to perform well in reading comprehension. The best-fit model for the data accounted for 47% of students’ performance in reading comprehension. Study Two compared instructional interventions, and examined the way each method worked in the Indonesian educational context. The three instructional intervention methods were Reciprocal Teaching (RT), Instruction prompting students to develop Mental Models (IMM), and Instruction in Question Answering (IQA). Participants were one hundred and twelve students in the Sixth Grade from three primary schools. There were three groups in each school. Group 1 received RT followed by IMM (RT-IMM), Group 2 received IMM followed by RT (IMM-RT), and Group 3 received IQA. Group 3 was considered as the control group, since IQA is the traditional method widely adopted in Indonesia. Instruction was separated into 2 phases. Each phase consisted of four sessions of 30 minutes each over a two-week period. The implementation of IMM-RT tended to improve general reading comprehension more than other methods (RT-IMM and IQA). Interestingly, individuals who had a low performance in the pre-test for construction of mental models, improved their performance in the construction of mental models following implementation of RT at the first phase. The results support a conclusion that the IMM-RT combination is potentially effective for the enhancement of students’ reading comprehension. However, further results showed that, in order to implement RT and IMM in a common state school classroom in Indonesia, the teacher’s ability to manage and organise the group becomes crucial. Study Three was designed to validate the IMM-RT instructional intervention for improving performances of students with reading comprehension inadequacies, by addressing the limitations found in Study Two. Result showed that IMM-RT had potential for improving students’ performance in reading comprehension. The findings of the current study provide some understanding of reading comprehension in an Indonesian educational context. Moreover, the findings will add to the repertoire of educators about issues that need to be considered in implementing innovative methods for enhancing Indonesian students’ reading comprehension.

International studies have shown the reading competence of Indonesian students to be relatively low compared to other countries. Considering the importance of reading comprehension, the current research has two aims. The first is to provide some insight into the identification of students’ difficulty with reading. The second is to investigate the implementation of innovative methods for teaching reading comprehension in the Indonesian educational context. Both studies were conducted in state upper grade primary schools in Urban Sub District BCL in Bandung, Indonesia. Study One profiled students’ reading performance. Five measurement instruments were developed, written in Indonesian language. The construction of mental models was also introduced. Two hundred and sixty five Grade Five students from eight schools were measured for their competence in decoding, prior knowledge, comprehension monitoring, construction of mental models, reading comprehension specifically related to a particular topic, and their general reading comprehension. The students’ reading performance profiles were very varied. They showed the importance of each component for the achievement of reading comprehension. The profiles also showed the ability for each component of reading comprehension to compensate each other’s function to enable the students to perform well in reading comprehension. The best-fit model for the data accounted for 47% of students’ performance in reading comprehension. Study Two compared instructional interventions, and examined the way each method worked in the Indonesian educational context. The three instructional intervention methods were Reciprocal Teaching (RT), Instruction prompting students to develop Mental Models (IMM), and Instruction in Question Answering (IQA). Participants were one hundred and twelve students in the Sixth Grade from three primary schools. There were three groups in each school. Group 1 received RT followed by IMM (RT-IMM), Group 2 received IMM followed by RT (IMM-RT), and Group 3 received IQA. Group 3 was considered as the control group, since IQA is the traditional method widely adopted in Indonesia. Instruction was separated into 2 phases. Each phase consisted of four sessions of 30 minutes each over a two-week period. The implementation of IMM-RT tended to improve general reading comprehension more than other methods (RT-IMM and IQA). Interestingly, individuals who had a low performance in the pre-test for construction of mental models, improved their performance in the construction of mental models following implementation of RT at the first phase. The results support a conclusion that the IMM-RT combination is potentially effective for the enhancement of students’ reading comprehension. However, further results showed that, in order to implement RT and IMM in a common state school classroom in Indonesia, the teacher’s ability to manage and organise the group becomes crucial. Study Three was designed to validate the IMM-RT instructional intervention for improving performances of students with reading comprehension inadequacies, by addressing the limitations found in Study Two. Result showed that IMM-RT had potential for improving students’ performance in reading comprehension. The findings of the current study provide some understanding of reading comprehension in an Indonesian educational context. Moreover, the findings will add to the repertoire of educators about issues that need to be considered in implementing innovative methods for enhancing Indonesian students’ reading comprehension.

International studies have shown the reading competence of Indonesian students to be relatively low compared to other countries. Considering the importance of reading comprehension, the current research has two aims. The first is to provide some insight into the identification of students’ difficulty with reading. The second is to investigate the implementation of innovative methods for teaching reading comprehension in the Indonesian educational context. Both studies were conducted in state upper grade primary schools in Urban Sub District BCL in Bandung, Indonesia. Study One profiled students’ reading performance. Five measurement instruments were developed, written in Indonesian language. The construction of mental models was also introduced. Two hundred and sixty five Grade Five students from eight schools were measured for their competence in decoding, prior knowledge, comprehension monitoring, construction of mental models, reading comprehension specifically related to a particular topic, and their general reading comprehension. The students’ reading performance profiles were very varied. They showed the importance of each component for the achievement of reading comprehension. The profiles also showed the ability for each component of reading comprehension to compensate each other’s function to enable the students to perform well in reading comprehension. The best-fit model for the data accounted for 47% of students’ performance in reading comprehension. Study Two compared instructional interventions, and examined the way each method worked in the Indonesian educational context. The three instructional intervention methods were Reciprocal Teaching (RT), Instruction prompting students to develop Mental Models (IMM), and Instruction in Question Answering (IQA). Participants were one hundred and twelve students in the Sixth Grade from three primary schools. There were three groups in each school. Group 1 received RT followed by IMM (RT-IMM), Group 2 received IMM followed by RT (IMM-RT), and Group 3 received IQA. Group 3 was considered as the control group, since IQA is the traditional method widely adopted in Indonesia. Instruction was separated into 2 phases. Each phase consisted of four sessions of 30 minutes each over a two-week period. The implementation of IMM-RT tended to improve general reading comprehension more than other methods (RT-IMM and IQA). Interestingly, individuals who had a low performance in the pre-test for construction of mental models, improved their performance in the construction of mental models following implementation of RT at the first phase. The results support a conclusion that the IMM-RT combination is potentially effective for the enhancement of students’ reading comprehension. However, further results showed that, in order to implement RT and IMM in a common state school classroom in Indonesia, the teacher’s ability to manage and organise the group becomes crucial. Study Three was designed to validate the IMM-RT instructional intervention for improving performances of students with reading comprehension inadequacies, by addressing the limitations found in Study Two. Result showed that IMM-RT had potential for improving students’ performance in reading comprehension. The findings of the current study provide some understanding of reading comprehension in an Indonesian educational context. Moreover, the findings will add to the repertoire of educators about issues that need to be considered in implementing innovative methods for enhancing Indonesian students’ reading comprehension.

O comportamento de busca de informação é conhecido por anteceder decisões não triviais e também por ocorre após a tomada de decisão, entretanto poucos estudos focam na busca por informação nesse estágio do processo. Pesquisadores têm investigado o conhecimento prévio tido pelo indivíduo como um importante preditor da busca por informação antes da tomada de decisão. No entanto, após a decisão, a influência do conhecimento prévio na busca por informação tem sido negligenciada. Considerando que o conhecimento sobre o produto é um importante componente do processo decisório do consumidor, e tal conhecimento permanece na memória do indivíduo mesmo após ele ter feito, por exemplo, uma compra, investigar o efeito do conhecimento prévio, antes da decisão, na quantidade de informação buscada pelo consumidor após a tomada de decisão endereça uma importante lacuna na literatura sobre o comportamento de busca de informação do consumidor. Esse é o principal motivador para o presente trabalho. Adicionalmente, essa pesquisa investiga a tendência à maximização como um possível moderador da relação entre conhecimento prévio e a busca de informação após a tomada de decisão. Assim, três estudos são reportados (um experimento e duas surveys). Ao longo desses estudos, o efeito simples proposto é investigado em dois estágios da experiência pós-decisão: pre- e pós-uso. Em essência, os resultados indicam que o conhecimento do consumidor (antes da tomada de decisão) aumenta a busca de informação após a decisão. Esse efeito é potencializado para consumidores com mais tendência à maximização. O papel da dissonância cognitiva também foi explorado na relação entre conhecimento prévio e busca de informação após a decisão. Por fim, a incerteza com a escolha foi apresentada como uma possível variável supressora do efeito de conhecimento prévio na varável dependente investigada. / Information search behavior is known to antecede non-trivial decisions, but it may also occur in the post-decision timespan. Researchers have studied individuals’ prior knowledge as a predictor of information sought prior to the decision. Only a few studies have focused on post-decision information seeking, and these studies did not explore the influence of prior knowledge (i.e., decision-related knowledge accumulate prior to the event of the final decision). Because product knowledge is an important component in consumers’ decision-processes and it remains within individuals’ long-term memory after they made the purchase decision, investigating the effect of pre-decision product knowledge on post-decision amounts of information sought might fill an important gap in consumer information-search-behavior literature. This was the main motivation for the current research. Additionally, this work proposes that maximizing tendencies may moderate the relationship between knowledge and post-decision information search. The thesis reports three studies varying in their data collection approach (experimental and survey). Across these studies, the proposed effect was investigated as occurring in two stages of consumers’ post-decision experience: pre-use and post-use. In essence, results indicate that the consumers’ knowledge increases information search during the post-purchase timespan. This effect is stronger among consumers with high maximizing tendencies (individuals that feel the need to maximize their decisions). I also explored the role of cognitive dissonance as a bridging factor to the relationship between prior knowledge and information seeking. Lastly, choice-uncertainty was found to suppress effects of prior knowledge.

O comportamento de busca de informação é conhecido por anteceder decisões não triviais e também por ocorre após a tomada de decisão, entretanto poucos estudos focam na busca por informação nesse estágio do processo. Pesquisadores têm investigado o conhecimento prévio tido pelo indivíduo como um importante preditor da busca por informação antes da tomada de decisão. No entanto, após a decisão, a influência do conhecimento prévio na busca por informação tem sido negligenciada. Considerando que o conhecimento sobre o produto é um importante componente do processo decisório do consumidor, e tal conhecimento permanece na memória do indivíduo mesmo após ele ter feito, por exemplo, uma compra, investigar o efeito do conhecimento prévio, antes da decisão, na quantidade de informação buscada pelo consumidor após a tomada de decisão endereça uma importante lacuna na literatura sobre o comportamento de busca de informação do consumidor. Esse é o principal motivador para o presente trabalho. Adicionalmente, essa pesquisa investiga a tendência à maximização como um possível moderador da relação entre conhecimento prévio e a busca de informação após a tomada de decisão. Assim, três estudos são reportados (um experimento e duas surveys). Ao longo desses estudos, o efeito simples proposto é investigado em dois estágios da experiência pós-decisão: pre- e pós-uso. Em essência, os resultados indicam que o conhecimento do consumidor (antes da tomada de decisão) aumenta a busca de informação após a decisão. Esse efeito é potencializado para consumidores com mais tendência à maximização. O papel da dissonância cognitiva também foi explorado na relação entre conhecimento prévio e busca de informação após a decisão. Por fim, a incerteza com a escolha foi apresentada como uma possível variável supressora do efeito de conhecimento prévio na varável dependente investigada. / Information search behavior is known to antecede non-trivial decisions, but it may also occur in the post-decision timespan. Researchers have studied individuals’ prior knowledge as a predictor of information sought prior to the decision. Only a few studies have focused on post-decision information seeking, and these studies did not explore the influence of prior knowledge (i.e., decision-related knowledge accumulate prior to the event of the final decision). Because product knowledge is an important component in consumers’ decision-processes and it remains within individuals’ long-term memory after they made the purchase decision, investigating the effect of pre-decision product knowledge on post-decision amounts of information sought might fill an important gap in consumer information-search-behavior literature. This was the main motivation for the current research. Additionally, this work proposes that maximizing tendencies may moderate the relationship between knowledge and post-decision information search. The thesis reports three studies varying in their data collection approach (experimental and survey). Across these studies, the proposed effect was investigated as occurring in two stages of consumers’ post-decision experience: pre-use and post-use. In essence, results indicate that the consumers’ knowledge increases information search during the post-purchase timespan. This effect is stronger among consumers with high maximizing tendencies (individuals that feel the need to maximize their decisions). I also explored the role of cognitive dissonance as a bridging factor to the relationship between prior knowledge and information seeking. Lastly, choice-uncertainty was found to suppress effects of prior knowledge.

To study whether the curiosity can decline or not for a certain task could help us understand how to keep students both interested and engaged in all the different subjects that the education system has to offer. This study aimed to first find a way to measure curiosity, to then see if it changes over time, and if it shows to be different between low performing people and high performing people. 20 people participated at two different sessions. At the first session uncertainty was measured in form of Shannon’s entropy. At the second session participants got to choose between more or less informative options, and then gain feedback depending on the choice. The entropy proved to be a valid predictor for information choice and was used as curiosity measurement in form of a time cost by expected information gain. Patterns in curiosity change over time was found for the sample, low performing participants and high performing participants, where the sample and high performing people showed a significant effect of curiosity decline. / Att studera huruvida nyfikenhet kan avtaga eller ej för en särskild uppgift kan hjälpa oss förstå hur man kan hålla studenter både intresserade och engagerade i de olika ämnena som utbildningssystemet erbjuder. Den här studien siktade på att först finna ett sätt at mäta nyfikenhet, för att sedan se om förändras över tid, samt om det är någon skillnad för låg och högpresterande personer. 20 studenter deltog vid två separata tillfällen. Vid första tillfället mättes osäkerhet i form av Shannon’s entropi. Vid det andra tillfället fick deltagarna välja mellan mer eller mindre informativa val, och få feedback utifrån detta. Entropin visade sig kunna förutsäga om deltagarna valde feedback, och användes därför som mått på nyfikenhet i form av tidskostnad per förväntad informationsvinst. Mönster för nyfikenhetsförändring över tid kunde ses hos populationen, de lågpresterande samt högpresterande deltagarna, där både urvalsgruppen samt de högpresterande deltagarna visade en signifikant effekt av avtagande nyfikenhet.

Introduction and aim: Culturally and socially conditioned prior knowledge of text content can constitute a significant factor for teaching reading comprehension. This relationship is made visible and has gotten more consideration in education. Therefore, this essay has aimed to investigate how teachers in the subject of teaching Swedish perceive and draw attention to the importance of students 'socio-culturally conditioned prior knowledge, with a focus on students' reading comprehension. Method: When conducting this study, interviews and observation studies have been carried out at two different schools where four interviews have been conducted with primary school teachers teaching pupils participating in grade 4-6. Results: The results show that the teachers notice that the lessons and the students' reading comprehension are positively affected by the fact that they have a certain prior knowledge about the text content. Therefore, teachers choose to work towards supporting students to link the text content to something they recognize. The teachers emphasize that vocabulary and language skills can complement reading comprehension if students don’t have enough prior knowledge, thus stating that a text can be understood by combining the linguistic knowledge they have, to gain a greater understanding of the text. The study results from the observations showed that all teachers review the students need for reading comprehension, which their respective lessons were based on. Conclusion: Teachers perceive socio-culturally conditioned prior knowledge as an important part of teaching reading comprehension. The teachers' working methods showed several support structures such as guidance and modeling of strategies through communication and interaction in teaching. It also showed that they are teaching the application of different strategies for reading and understanding fiction.

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