The objective of this research is to present a theoretical framework and to describe a computational representation for the mental models that a manager uses when implementing a strategic plan or when attempting to improve an organization's productivity. A mental model consists of some dynamic internal representation that reflects the essential features and relationships in a corresponding real-world system. An integral part of a mental model includes procedures for examining and manipulating its contents and its structure in order to answer questions about the status of goals or the progress of plans. It is suggested that, for an effective manager, these models incorporate a highly integrated network of concepts and propositional relationships that this manager uses to understand strategies and organizations, to infer relationships among indirectly related concepts, and to initiate communication with other managers. The design for this research includes two case studies which were used to clarify and refine the theoretical concepts about the structure and processing of mental models in strategic management tasks. First, the implementation of a Total Quality Management strategy was studied from the perspective of the Director of Quality Assurance at one division of a large financial services organization. The second study was conducted at a computer manufacturing organization where coordination among functional managers was investigated as they introduced new products to manufacturing. The computational model developed as part of this research, called SPRINT (Strategic Plan and Resource INTegration), is implemented as a frame-based semantic network using a hypertext interface and is programmed in Smalltalk/V286. This model is used to represent some of the knowledge gathered in the case studies as a means to evaluate the adequacy of the representation scheme and to provide insights into the use of a management support system for similar tasks. The contribution of this research consists of: (1) clarifying the notion of mental models as used in managerial decision making; (2) specifying a computational representation which accommodates the theoretical framework and the empirical evidence from these case studies; (3) implementing a computational model which embodies the representation scheme; and (4) suggesting how this computational model would be applicable in a management support system for actual management tasks.

Prior LIFO studies have assumed that a LIFO-use firm will avoid liquidating old low-cost inventory layers due to the resulting tax penalty. However, a LIFO-use firm can actually receive a tax subsidy by liquidating inventory layers in a low marginal tax year, thus avoiding the need to liquidate in future higher tax years. This leads to the prediction that low marginal tax rate LIFO firms account for the majority of LIFO liquidations. Using several measures of a firm's marginal tax rate, and controlling for other potential determinants of LIFO liquidations, this prediction receives strong empirical support. The other potential determinants controlled for which are significantly associated with liquidations include: the probability of violating debt covenants, firm specific sales, industry specific production, investment and financing factors (PIFs) and economy wide factors.

The effects of product category similarity on marketing variables (e.g., success of brand extension or choice strategies) has recently emerged as an important topic in the marketing literature. However, this research stream has rarely specified how consumers perceive similarity between product categories. This paper investigates the factors that influence consumers' similarity judgments. A Two-Process model, which integrates recent views on product category similarity in marketing and theories and findings on similarity in psychology, is developed. The Two-Process Model for product category judgments basically proposes that consumers first look for a comparable attribute and subsequently use that attribute for their similarity judgments. Based on this Two-Process Model, it is hypothesized that distance between product categories and variation among brands influence product category similarity judgments. Interactions between distance and variation are also hypothesized. Study results show that variation among brands as well as distance strongly influence the similarity judgments. Moreover, the effects of variation among brands depends on the distance. In addition, the effects of variation were significant only when considerable change of overlap in perceptual distribution (which was controlled by interpoint distance) could be noticed by subjects. Comparisons of the results of the two studies (Study 1 and Study 2) lead us to conclude that subjects look for a comparable attribute and use it for their similarity judgments. Supplemental measures such as similarity judgments between brands offer further support for the Two-Process Model.

This study contributes to the contemporary debate within Western radical sociology of education regarding the relationship between the social order and the processes of schooling. It is theoretically well-established in this field that schooling is central to the maintenance of existing social relations of dominance and subordination. Focusing on the commonsense knowledge and classroom practices of two groups of fifth form adolescent girls in an inner-city all-girls Grammar school in New Zealand, the study sets out to analyse and illustrate in concrete detail some of the ideological and pedagogical processes through which schooling contributes to social reproduction. The data and discussion provide insights into the thoughts and everyday school experiences of some middle class Pakeha (European) and working class Pacific Island girls as they seriously attempt to 'get school knowledge' and, thus, the credentials which they believe the school offers the motivated and able. It also shows how teachers unwittingly recruit the active participation of students from 'race' and class groups in pedagogical interactions which often preclude the working class Pacific Island girls from acquiring the school credentials they seek. This process, and that of the school's 'provision' of the middle class Pakeha girls' academic achievement, is then 'misrecognised' by the students as the natural and fair outcome of differential talent and motivation. The theoretical framework of the thesis centres around the major contemporary questions in social theory regarding the agency-structure relationship and how social and cultural life is to be conceptualised as the dialectical product of human agents producing and produced by the social structure within which they exist.

Cognisant of the critical interplay between beliefs and practice, the current study investigated primary school teachers' beliefs and understandings about feedback, and the use of feedback to enhance student learning. Central to the investigation has been an exploration of teachers' beliefs about the nature and place of feedback in student learning and of their role and that of learners in the feedback process. Of equal importance has been an examination of the strategies and practices that teachers utilised and ascribed importance to within the feedback process, including the opportunities offered to students in relation to the development of evaluative and productive knowledge and expertise (Sadler, 1989). To facilitate this investigation, Sadler's (1989) theory of formative assessment and feedback was used as a framework to inform both the research design and subsequent analyses. Utilising an interpretive, qualitative, case study methodology the current research was conducted in two sequential phases. Phase one consisted of semi-structured interviews with a convenience sample of 20 experienced teachers. In phase two, three of these 20 participants were selected purposively for classroom observations of teachers' feedback practice during the teaching of a written language unit. These teachers also participated in a semi-structured interview following each series of observations. During both phases, additional data were generated through field notes and the collection of relevant artefacts. Together, the multiple forms of evidence provided complementary information and ensured a rich pool of data. Three recognised approaches to data analysis were utilised, namely thematic analysis, the constant comparison method and discourse analysis. The use of Sadler's theoretical framework illuminated both similarities and differences among teachers in regard to the nature, place and role of feedback in learning and teaching. As teachers' feedback discourse was examined in more detail the influence of efficacy beliefs on the uptake and enactment of new ideas and practices associated with formative assessment and feedback became apparent. Teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning were a further mediating influence, particularly in regard to how the feedback process was conceived and with respect to the norms of behaviour that teachers promoted within the feedback process. The complexity of the beliefs/practice nexus was highlighted in regard to the influence of teachers' tacit, at times outmoded beliefs, on practice. Observations revealed that each of the three case study teachers had adopted many of the strategies associated with contemporary notions of good feedback practice. However, the ways in which these strategies were implemented in the classroom was a matter of considerable variation particularly in regard to the nature of student involvement and the amount of control maintained by the teacher. Findings from this phase of the research supported Fang's (1996) consistency/inconsistency thesis. In two of the three cases there was a high degree of consistency between teachers' stated intentions and their actions while in the third the opposite was apparent. Overall, it was concluded that while all teachers had adopted elements of the contemporary feedback 'discourse' none had mastered the 'Discourse' (Gee, 1996). Looking to the future, it is argued that this Discourse cannot be enacted through the mere bolting on of strategies to existing classroom programmes. To enact the contemporary Discourse in the ways imagined three conditions must be met. Firstly, beliefs about teaching, learning and feedback must reflect those embedded in the Discourse. Secondly, there must be a close alignment between those beliefs and practice. Thirdly, teachers must acquire in-depth subject matter knowledge, which will enable them to create the dialogic forms of feedback necessary for students to become self-monitoring and self-regulatory.

This study describes the attributes of a highly accomplished mathematics teacher as reported by the students in their class, and also determines whether high school students can differentiate between highly accomplished mathematics teachers and others. The 51-item instrument, Students Evaluating Accomplished Teaching – Mathematics, was developed to map the construct of highly accomplished teaching as articulated by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards in their Adolescent and Young Adulthood Mathematics Standards. Two focus groups of New Zealand high school mathematics teachers reviewed these Standards, and found that there were more similarities than differences between the Standards and what they would expect of a highly accomplished teacher in New Zealand. Questionnaire items were drafted relating to each of 470 statements in the Standards. These items were trialled in New Zealand high schools, and analysed using factor analysis and item response theory, to select items that completely mapped the Standards. The questionnaire was then administered to 1611 students in the classes of thirty-two National Board Certified Teachers and twenty-six non-Board colleagues in 13 states of the USA. Multivariate analysis of variance and discriminant function analysis were used to establish that students can record and report the difference between NBCTs and their non-Board certified colleagues, and describe what students believe are the attributes of a good teacher. Highly accomplished teachers build a relationship between their students and the mathematics curriculum, as well as with the language and processes of mathematics, by engaging their minds with challenging material and rich tasks. These results provide further validation of the NBPTS certification process, and indicate that students provide dependable evaluations of their teachers. The student evaluation questionnaire could be used with confidence in both the USA and New Zealand to identify highly accomplished mathematics teachers.

This thesis explores reasons for New Zealand���s problematic tail of literacy underachievement and suggests one way to address the problem, is for schools to operate as learning organizations. A qualitative research design was used to identify elements of organizational learning in the practices of three very different schools identified as improving the students��� learning outcomes. The research methods included semi-structured interviews, team meeting observations, an anonymous questionnaire and document analysis. An analytical framework identifying five elements of organizational learning, developed from a review of the organizational learning literature, was used to evaluate each school���s ability to learn about their teaching and learning programmes as a result of reviewing students��� achievement information. The research findings identified elements of the organizational learning framework in the practices of all three schools. It was found that whilst the elements of the framework were necessary, the entirety of the framework was most significant in facilitating organizational learning. In order for the schools to learn to improve the learning of their students, they needed to have a well defined infrastructure for the collection, collation, analysis and use of student achievement information. The occurrence of the infrastructure alone did not, however, facilitate organizational learning. The school leaders and teachers needed to apply the appropriate curriculum content, pedagogical and assessment literacy knowledge to the assessment data in order to make sense of it and to use the information to review and refine their teaching and learning programmes. The acquisition of appropriate levels of professional knowledge appeared to be facilitated within a culture where teachers felt safe and confident to challenge and be challenged in their collegial discussions about students��� learning. Rigorous collegial discussions appeared to foster team learning and to be leader driven. When the appropriate professional knowledge was not available within the organization, learning only appeared to occur when the necessary expertise was accessed from the external environment.

In this thesis I portray through a history of music and art education in New Zealand the forms knowledge production took in these subject and the discourses within which they were embedded. This enables a more comprehensive understanding of curriculum and unearths connections with what Lyotard (1984) described as 'grand narrative' used to legitimate knowledge claims and practices at certain historical moments. Through such histories we may chart the progress of European civilization within the local context and provide the historical raison d'être for the present state of affairs in music and arts areas of the New Zealand curriculum. Curriculum and its 'reform' representing in part the distribution of public goods and services, has been embroiled in a market project. I seek to expose the politics of knowledge involved in the construction of the notion of The Arts within a neo-liberal policy environment. This environment has involved the deliberate construction of a 'culture of enterprise and competition' (Peters, 1995: 52) and, in the nurturing of conditions for trans-national capital's freedom of movement, a withdrawal from Keynesian economic and social policy, an assault on the welfare state. The thesis delves beyond the public face of policy-making. It follows and scrutinizes critically the birth of The Arts in the New Zealand Curriculum to the production of the first draft of the proposed policy presented by the Ministry of Education in 1999. I examine it as a site of the 'accumulation of meaning' (Derrida, 1981: 57) through a discussion of the history of meaning of 'art' and 'art' education. There is much of value in the Draft document. In particular, the arts have been invested with a new intellectual weight and the professionalism, passion and dedication of those involved in its writing shines through in each of the subject areas within the arts. However, through a process of analysis, I will show that there has been, in fact, a fashioning of a new container for the isolation of artistic knowledge. This is despite official sentiments mentioning possibilities within the document for flourishing separate Music, Art, Dance, and Drama education that implies increased curriculum space. The Draft Arts (1999) document both disguises and rehashes the 'master narrative' of universal rationality and artistic canons and is unlikely to work towards revitalising or protecting local cultural identities though not through lack of intention. I use Lyotard's notion of 'performativity' to critique notions of 'skills' and their 'development' which are implicitly and explicitly stated within the 'levels' of development articulated in the Draft Arts (1999) document. It is argued that this conflation works to enforce cultural homogeneity. There are clear dangers that the Draft Arts' (1999) conception of 'Arts Literacies' might operate as mere functional literacy in the service of the dominant culture's discourse of power and knowledge-one which celebrates the art-as-commodity ideal. It is argued that the Education Ministry's theoretical and epistemological construction of The Arts as one area of learning is unsound, and in fact represents a tightening of modernism's hierarchical notion of culture. New Zealand, now post-colonial or post-imperialist, both bi-cultural and multi-cultural, is situated on the south-western edge of the Pacific Rim. Culturally, it now includes Pacific Island, Asian, and new immigrants, as well as Maori and people of European descent. This therefore necessitates aesthetic practices which, far from promoting a set of universal principles for the appreciation of art - one canonical rule or 'standard' - recognise and reflect cultural difference. Merely admitting cultural difference is inadequate. By working away critically at the deeply held ethno-centric assumptions of modernism, its selective traditions concerned with 'practices, meanings, gender, "races", classes' (Pollock, 1999: 10), its universalising aesthetics of beauty, formal relations, individuality, authenticity or originality, and self-expression, of 'negativity and alienation, and abstraction' (Huyssens, 1986: 209), it is possible to begin to understand the theoretical task of articulating difference with regard to aesthetics. The development of the arts curriculum in New Zealand is placed within the modernism/postmodernism and modernity/postmodernity debates. These debates have generated a number of questions which are forcing us to re-examine the assumptions of modernism. The need for the culture of modernism to become self-critical of its own determining assumptions in order to come to understand its cultural practices, is becoming an urgent theoretical task, especially in disciplines and fields concerned with the transmission of acquired learning and the production of new knowledge. The culture of modernism is often taken as the historical succession of twentieth century avant-gardes (B. Smith, 1998) yet the culture of modernity, philosophically speaking, strictly begins with René Descartes several hundred years earlier, with a pre-history in the Florentine renaissance and the re-discovery of Graeco-Roman artistic and literary forms going back to the thirteenth century. Aesthetic modernism identifies with consumer capitalism and its major assumptions are rationalist, individualist and focus upon the autonomy of both the 'work of art' and the artist at the expense of the artwork, its reception and audience within its localised cultural context. The ideological features of humanism/liberalism - its privileging of the individual subject, the moral, epistemological and aesthetic privileging of the author/artist - are examined as forces contributing to modernism's major values (or aesthetic). Such approaches, it is argued, were limited for dealing with difference. The security and reproductive nature of modernistic approaches to curriculum in the arts areas are destabilized by thinking within the postmodern turn, and the effects of the changes questioning the basic epistemological and metaphysical assumptions in disciplinary fields including art/literature, artchitecture, philosophy and political theory, are registered here, within the field of the education in and through the arts. In a seminal description or report on knowledge, Jean-François Lyotard defines postmodernism as 'incredulity towards metanarratives' (1984: xxiv). Postmodernism, he argues, is 'undoubtedly part of the modern', 'not modernism at its end but in its nascent state and that state is constant (1984: 79). After Lyotard, postmodernism might be seen, therefore, not just as a mode or manner or attitude towards the past, but also as a materializing discourse comprising a dynamic reassessment and re-examination of modernism and modernity's culture. The thinking subject (the cogito) seen as the fount of all knowledge, its autonomy, and transparency, its consideration as the centre of artistic and aesthetic virtuosity and moral action, is subjected to intellectual scrutiny and suspicion. The need for an aesthetics of difference is contextualised through an examination of western hierarchies of art and the aesthetics of marginalized groups. I use the theories of poststructuralist, Jacques Derrida and Jean-François Lyotard, to examine the concept of difference. These theoretical inspirations are used as methodological tools for offsetting the privileging of the liberal individual and individualism. Rather than the mere consideration of difference in curricula, I seek to insert and establish the principle of an aesthetics of difference into relations of pedagogy and curricula. The implications for professional practice resulting from a recognition of a politics of representation are examined and a politics of difference. I argue that art education in all its manifestations can no longer avoid the deeper implications of involvement with representation, including forms of gender, ethnicity and class representation as well as colonial representation. The Western canon's notion of 'artists' and their 'art', often based upon white bourgeois male representations and used in many primary school classrooms, are part and parcel of 'social and political investments in canonicity', a powerful 'element in the hegemony of dominant social groups and interests' (Pollock, 1999: 9). Difference is not appreciated in this context. School art, music, and drama classrooms can become sites for the postmodern questioning of representation of 'the other'. In this context, an aesthetics of difference insists upon too, the questioning of images supporting hegemonic discourses, images which have filled the spaces in the 'chinks and cracks of the power/knowledge-apparati' (Teresa de Lauretis, 1987 cited in Pollock, 1999: 7-8). What would an 'eccentric rereading', a rediscovery of what the canon's vicarly cloak disguises and reveals, mean for music, and for the individual arts areas of the curriculum? I hope to reveal the entanglements of the cultural dynamics of power through an examination of the traditions of Truth and Beauty in imagery which are to be disrupted by inserting into the canon the principle of the aesthetics of difference. Art education as a politics of representation embraces art's constitutive role in ideology. This is to be exposed as we seek to unravel and acknowledge which kinds of knowledges are legitimised and privileged by which kinds of representations. Which kinds of narratives, historical or otherwise, have resulted in which kinds of depictions through image? A recognition of the increasing specification of the subject demands also the careful investigation of colonial representation, the construction of dubious narratives about our history created through visual imaging and its provision of complex historical references. How have art, music, dance, drama been used in the service of particular political and economic narratives? Through revisioning the curriculum from a postmodern perspective, suggestions are made for an alternative pedagogy, which offsets the ideological features of humanism/liberalism, one in which an aesthetics of difference might pervade cultural practices - 'systems of signification', 'practices of representation' (Rizvi, 1994). I draw upon Lyotard's notion of 'small narratives' (1984), and present an investigation of what the democratic manifestation of 'the differend', and multiple meaning systems, might indicate in terms of 'differencing' music education as a site in which heterogenous value systems and expression may find form. / Whole document restricted, but available by request, use the feedback form to request access.

Thesis (EdD)--Open University. BLDSC no. DX227620.

Thesis (MEd)--University of South Australia, 1999