Thesis (M.S.)--University of Texas at El Paso, 2008. / Title from title screen. Vita. CD-ROM. Includes bibliographical references. Also available online.

This study explored how primary school educators expect to be supported and how they experience support from internal and external sources in a South African school district. Support for educators is vital in order to improve basic education in terms of South Africa’s long-term development goals and particularly in light of the poor performance of primary school learners in universal benchmark tests. Furthermore, the myriad of curricular changes introduced by the Department of Basic Education have increased the need for educator support in South Africa. A qualitative approach, located in an interpretive paradigm was adopted and a case study research design was employed. The requisite data were gathered by means of interviews, document sourcing and non-participant observation in three public primary schools. The main finding of the study was that there is limited amount of technical support, aimed at improving the quality of education, while affective aspects, i.e., meeting the socio-emotional needs of educators appear to be neglected. A broad theme that emerged was participants feeling like they are under surveillance; perceiving district officials to be on fault-finding missions when they conduct school visits and classroom observations; and feeling like they are on their own once they return to school from attending offsite workshops. In addition, the participants who served as heads of departments (HODs) reported that their workload prevented them from providing adequate internal support. A key recommendation of this study is that more curriculum instructors and HODs be employed and that they receive adequate preparation in order to provide appropriate support to primary school educators. In addition, it is recommended that the provincial and district officials increase the frequency of their school and classroom visits in order to spend more time supporting primary school educators. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2018. / Education Management and Policy Studies / PhD / Unrestricted

This is a qualitative study that investigated the experience of school inspectors in ensuring quality teaching and learning in primary schools in Northern Uganda, using hermeneutics phenomenological design. The study was underpinned by relative ontology, personal epistemology and accountability theory. In-depth interviews and document analysis were used to explore the understanding of the school inspectors on quality teaching and learning, techniques they use to ensure quality teaching and learning, their effectiveness and challenges. The study revealed that the inspectors understand quality teaching and learning as a multidimensional reality that entails attaining of literacy and numeracy; life skills; holistic development of learners; teachers’ competencies and professionalism; measure of learning achievement; broadness without ambiguity; collaborative; innovate; dynamic and contextual issue. The main techniques that the inspectors used to ensure quality teaching and learning in the primary schools are: assessment of quality of inputs into educational programs; assessment of educational processes; assessment of learning outcomes;psychosocial support; ensuring compliance with educational standards, laws and regulations; creating awareness on educational standards, laws and regulations; administration of rewards and sanctions. The study showed that the inspectors believe that they have been effective in supporting teachers; improving learning, learning environment and professional development of teachers; fighting corruption and malpractices among teachers. They however experienced insubordination of teachers; negative attitude of teachers towards the teaching profession; inadequate training of teachers; failure of teachers to adhere to educational laws; policies and regulations; excess work overload to the school inspectors; negative perception of some teachers on school inspection; corruption; lack of resources for school inspection; ineffectiveness of the head teachers; and difficulties in enforcing educational standards, rules, regulations and laws. They mainly use laws, policies and regulations and peer to peer support as the strategies to solve problems which they encounter in ensuring quality teaching and learning in the primary schools. The unique contribution of the study is that quality teaching and learning as understood by primary school inspectors is a multidimensional reality that can best be achieved using a logical, psychosocial legal approach. Policies, practices and future studies need to examine critically the dynamics and characteristics of these approaches to quality teaching and learning in primary schools. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / pt2021 / Education Management and Policy Studies / PhD / Unrestricted

Chinese higher education (HE) has been through a process of profound restructuring, decentralisation, introduction of market incentives, university mergers, internationalisation, and enlarging student enrolment in the past two decades. Along with the expansion of Chinese HE, the issue of quality has become a concern and has attracted a lot of attention in the Chinese HE sector. Developing quality assurance (QA) systems has been given priority in the agenda of most Chinese higher education institutions (HEIs). The nationwide implementation of quality evaluation since 2002 is the main means used by the Chinese government to address the potential quality decline and to realise a macro level control of quality over Chinese HEIs. This study is conducted against the background of the prevailing quality culture, and focuses on student learning rather than the widely adopted top-down scrutiny of teaching as the main component of QA schemes. The purpose of this study is to explore how student learning experiences can be integrated into the QA systems in Chinese HEIs for continuous quality improvement. A qualitative case study approach is adopted in this study. Document analysis, focus groups, and in-depth interviews are used to achieve a comprehensive qualitative inquiry into student learning experiences, HEIs’ QA practice, and the integration of student learning experiences into QA system. Through this study, we find that Chinese universities generally use regulations, teaching inspection/evaluation, and student feedback as the main approaches to manage their QA practice. There is great emphasis on the institutional management and teaching management, but little attention given to what students are actually doing. The analysis of the key issues in student learning experiences, the concept of quality learning, and the analysis of the objectives, control, areas, procedures and uses in the current Chinese QA systems suggest a discrepancy between student quality learning and what the current Chinese QA assures. The findings of this study imply that the current top-down QA has great limitations in addressing key issues in student learning and accordingly plays a limited role in generating educational quality. As the conclusion of this study, a learning-focused QA is proposed to offer insights into integrating student learning generically into the QA process for the purpose of the continuous improvement of HE quality.

nÃo hà / AEducaÃÃo a DistÃncia(EaD)à cada vez mais presente no cenÃrio da educaÃÃo superior brasileira, fomentando aoferta de cursos superioresao longo dos anos. à nesse contexto que esta pesquisa investigoua EaD, considerando que o carÃterexpansionista dessa modalidade nÃo deve ser priorizado em detrimento da qualidade da educaÃÃo ofertada.Nesse sentido, buscou-se compreender o desenvolvimento da EaD, traÃando umpercurso histÃricono Ãmbito mundial e nacional,refletindo tambÃmsobre aconstruÃÃo da imagem da EaD no territÃrio brasileiro a partir dosdocumentos legais que a instituÃram como modalidade de ensino. Debateu-se a relevÃncia de se manter a qualidade do ensino a distÃncia, referindo-se à avaliaÃÃo do ensino e aprendizagem como uma das alternativas para garantira qualidade dessa modalidade. Esta pesquisaobjetivouavaliar a qualidade dos cursos de graduaÃÃo EaDda Universidade Federal do Cearà sob a perspectiva dos discentes. Para isso, foi realizada umapesquisa de campo, de carÃterdescritivo e natureza quantitativa, utilizando-se o estudo de caso como mÃtodo, aplicando-se questionÃrio estruturado, o qual se constituiu de uma reaplicaÃÃo do QEOn, Instrumento de avaliaÃÃo da Qualidade do Ensino Online, desenvolvido por Silva et al (2017).Os resultados apontaram queos cursos de graduaÃÃo emEaD daUFCobtiveramavaliaÃÃo satisfatÃrianas cinco dimensÃes propostas nesta pesquisa, apresentando uma mÃdia de respostas positivas de73,73% para a dimensÃoâPerfil Tutor onlineâ, 80,15% para âRelaÃÃo Tutor Presencial/Cursistaâ, 83,85%para âInteraÃÃo Tutor Online/Cursistaâ, 78,29% para âProcessos Avaliativosâ e 85,84% paraâAprendizagemâ. A partir de tais resultados, verificou-se que os cursos em EaD da UFC possuem considerÃvel grau de qualidade na visÃo dos discentes. / E-learningis increasingly present in the scenario of Brazilian higher education, fostering the provision of higher education courses over the years. It is in this context that this research investigated the e-learning, considering that the expansionist character of this modality should not be prioritized to the detriment of the quality of the offered education. In this sense, it was sought to understand the development of the e-learning, tracing a historical course in the world and national scope, also reflecting on the construction of the image of e-learningin the Brazilian territory from the legal documents that instituted it as a teaching modality. The relevance of maintaining the quality of e-learningwas discussed, referring to the evaluation of teaching and learning as one of the alternatives to guarantee the quality of this modality. This research aimed to evaluate the quality of the undergraduate courses of the Federal University of Cearà under the perspective of the students. For this, a field research was carried out, with descriptive character and quantitative nature, using the case study as a method, applying a structured questionnaire, which was a reapplication of the QEOn, Instrument of evaluation of Quality of Teaching Online, developed by Silva et al (2017). The results showed that the undergraduate courses in the e-learning of the UFC obtained a satisfactory evaluation in the five dimensions proposed in this research, presenting a mean of positive responses of 73.73% for the dimension "Online Tutor Profile", 80.15% for "Relation Tutor Attendance / Cursist ", 83.85% for" Online Tutor Interaction", 78.29% for" Assessment Processes "and 85.84% for" Learning ". From these results, it was verified that e-learningcourses in the UFC have a considerable degree of quality in the view of the students.

DEd (Curriculum Studies) / Department of Curriculum Studies and Education Management

Additional information available on a CD stored at the Merensky Library.The purpose of this study was to explore the concept of quality in early learning centres which could serve as the groundwork for the development of an early learning quality assurance framework in South Africa. The data used reflects different beneficiaries‘ experiences of quality in early learning centres. The unique contexts of, and situations at early learning centres were considered. A theoretical framework, based on Woodhead‘s model on quality development, informed the study. The framework consists of input (structural), process and outcome quality indicators. In this explanatory instrumental case study framed within social constructionism, the researcher partnered with 235 teachers, 235 mothers and 235 teacher students from a middle income group, to generate mixed method data using surveys, as well as interviews and reflective journals in a statistical and thematical analysis. Beneficiaries‘ conceptualisations of quality mirrored accepted norms of quality in early learning centres. Beneficiaries indicated the following as indicative of quality: children‘s social-emotional well-being and holistic development, a normative foundation for values and respect, effective infrastructure and accountable learning. Aspects regarded as quality indicators by beneficiaries were available at early learning centres. In this regard early learning centres provided more indoor than outdoor facilities. The latter were mostly static outdoor structures which could negatively impact on sensory- and motor development. The promovenda developed a draft quality assurance framework based on the following criteria: school climate, infrastructure, curriculum, communication, teacher competence, learning environment, and support services. The findings show that aspects perceived by beneficiaries as quality indicators in an early learning centre are predominantly process indicators and hard to ‗measure‘ in a quantitative way. A quality school climate enables emotional and social well-being. In this regard, the findings suggest that for the beneficiaries quality concerns were not about that which early learning centres have provided in terms of facilities (input indicators), but rather about centres that promote children‘s holistic well-being. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted

For an economically sustainable fuel cell commercialization, robust manufacturing processes are essential. As current quality control is time-consuming and costly for manufacturers, standardized solutions are required that reduce cycle times needed to determine cell quality. With existing studies examining durability in field use, little is known about end-of-line detection of cell malfunctions. Applying machine learning algorithms to analyse performance measures of 3600 PEM fuel cells, this work presents a concept to automatically classify produced fuel cells according to cell performance indicators. Using a deep learning autoencoder and the extreme gradient boosting algorithm for anomaly detection and cell classification, models are created that detect cells associated with potential cell malfunctions. The work shows that the models developed predict key performance features in an early stage of the quality control phase and contributes to the overall goal of achieving cycle time reduction for manufacturers quality control procedures. / Für eine wirtschaftlich nachhaltige Kommerzialisierung von Brennstoffzellen sind robuste Herstellungsprozesse unerlässlich. Da die derzeitige Qualitätskontrolle zeitaufwändig und kostenintensiv ist, sind standardisierte Lösungen erforderlich. Während bisherige Arbeiten vorwiegend Lebensdaueruntersuchungen durchführen, ist nur wenig über die Erkennung von Zellfehlfunktionen am Ende der Produktionslinie bekannt. Durch die Anwendung von Algorithmen des maschinellen Lernens zur Analyse der Leistungsdaten von 3600 PEM-Brennstoffzellen wird in dieser Arbeit ein Konzept zur automatischen Klassifizierung produzierter Brennstoffzellen anhand von Leistungsindikatoren der Zellen vorgestellt. Unter Verwendung eines Deep-Learning-Autoencoders und des Extreme-Gradient-Boosting-Algorithmus zur Erkennung von Anomalien und zur Klassifizierung von Zellen werden Modelle erstellt, die Zellen erkennen, die mit potenziellen Zellfehlfunktionen in Verbindung stehen. Die Arbeit zeigt, dass die entwickelten Modelle wichtige Leistungsmerkmale in einem frühen Stadium der Qualitätskontrollphase vorhersagen und zum Gesamtziel der Reduzierung der Zykluszeit für die Qualitätskontrollverfahren der Hersteller beitragen.

MEd (Educational Management) / Department of Educational Management / The aim of the study was to investigate challenges confronting SMT members in the implementation of school-based moderation of Mathematics assessment tasks. An in-depth study of literature was undertaken, taking into consideration the following research question: What are the challenges confronting SMT members in the implementation of school-based moderation of Mathematics assessment tasks in the Thohoyandou cluster of the Limpopo Province? The study used the qualitative and quantitative approaches. Purposive sampling was used in the selection of participants for the qualitative data and simple random sampling was used in the selection of participants for the quatitative data. Qualitative data was collected through the interviews and quantitative data was collected through questionnaires. The interview schedule was employed to collect qualitative data and 12 participants (8 SMT members and 4 curriculum advisors for Mathematics in the Thohoyandou cluster) were interviewed. Questionnaires were used to collect quantitative data and were completed by 75 Mathematics teachers. Qualitative data was analysed thematically and quantitative data was analysed through SPSS version 23. The study revealed that: Lack of understanding and knowledge of the process of school-based moderation of mathematics is a serious worm that needs to be addressed soon. Moderation of school-based assessment was not monitored appropriately. The study recommended that the Department of Basic Education should conduct workshops and train SMT members on the importance of school-based moderation to ensure quality teaching and learning of Mathematics.