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Univ., Diss.--Tübingen, 1992.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of California, San Diego, 2008. / Title from first page of PDF file (viewed June 12, 2008). Available via ProQuest Digital Dissertations. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (MPhil (Journalism))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Most journalists readily acknowledge that they cannot be proud at all of their numeracy. The literature also depicts a rather bleak scenario regarding journalists' use and often misuse of numbers. This matter raises concerns especially in the present century, characterised by a rapid development in the area of science and technology. Numeracy is essential to make sense of those developments that are frequently explained by means of numbers or mathematical and statistical concepts.

Multinational business is in a constant search for opportunities. The present globalizationprocesses that the world is immersed in, supported by technological, social, economic and culturaladvances, is allowing markets to interact in new ways. In that manner, markets with lower previousrelevance for European companies are emerging as promising markets for the upcoming years,as it is the case for Africa. Even though trading and business connections between Europe andAfrica has existed centuries ago, the economical predictions for European business in Africaappear more promising than ever. This new set of business opportunities towards the African markets, come together with a newset of challenges. Africa’s characteristic heterogeneity presents an issue for the replication of thesame techniques of leadership, communication and way of structure used in Europe, or morespecific, in Sweden. This research study places its focus on Swedish companies with employeeson international assignments between Sweden and different African markets. In order to help tounderstand how to improve the performance of the expatriates, the researchers analyzed whatvariables affect cross-cultural adjustment. As a starting point served the Framework ofInternational Adjustment by Black, Mendehall and Oddou (1991). The findings show that the model of International Adjustment of Black, et al., (1991) is still mostlyvalid. Nonetheless, through the data analysis, researchers identified several issues discordantwith the previous mentioned model. Therefore, an updated framework was developed,aggregating the identified differences and improvements to the original framework. In the sameway, researchers formulate a set of recommendations for the companies aiming to improve thecross-cultural adjustment of their expatriates.

Magister Educationis - MEd / South Africa is amongst the lowest performers in numeracy and literacy in the developing countries, according to Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS 2006). Systemic research conducted by the Western Cape Education Department has pointed to the fact that the literacy and numeracy skills of the learners in the Western Cape are far below what is required for them to learn and develop effectively. Many educators blame parents for learners’ poor academic achievement. This study therefore aims to explore challenges to parental involvement in the homework assignments of learners in a historically disadvantaged primary school in Cape Town. This exploratory qualitative case study followed an interpretive paradigm. Data was collected via field notes; and semi – structured interviews from individuals and focus groups. Thematic data analysis was used to determine challenges to parental involvement in homework assignments of the primary school learners. This research study is grounded on Epstein’s model of overlapping spheres of influence of family, school and community on learners’ learning; six typologies of parental involvement; and on Bronfenbrenner’s bio-ecological model of human development. General systems theory was kept in mind during the study. Where parents were not involved in homework assignments, it was not a deliberate act. The findings highlighted challenges such as poverty, unemployment, inequalities; lack of educational resources; lack of structure in the home; single parenting, school and community factors, and a lack of educational stimulation that negatively affected parental involvement in homework assignments. The blame that educators apportioned on parents for learners’ poor academic outcomes was thus found to be inaccurate. True systems thinkers never debate whether the cause or the solution is situated in one single system, but considers the interdependence between all the systems. The whole is therefore more important than the sum of the parts. Despite the many challenges that parents experience in helping the learners with homework, the parents still want their children to excel in academic work. Parents in the historically disadvantaged school however seek assistance in how to help the learners with homework assignments.

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The purpose of this paper was to examine understandings of uses of history in teachers’assignments. Inspired by grounded theory an analysis was made of teachers’ assignments anddifferent concepts, categories and propositions were found. The main finding concerningunderstandings of uses history was that it relied upon the consideration’s teachers had madeduring the process of creating assignments. This one-sidedness was the springboard forsuggestions made for future undertakings in didactical research pertaining to understandingsof uses of history.

Instructors are hard pressed to create new and exciting projects to use in introductory Computer Science courses. These types of assignments not only have to teach students new concepts but also must cater to the various skill levels that are present in introductory courses. One solution that has been suggested is to used game-based assignment where students develop either a game of a AI strategy capable of playing a game. While these assignments have been shown to motivate students who are learning about programming, there are many drawbacks to using them. Most of these drawbacks come from the time commitment needed to create these assignments. To counter these drawbacks we have created the Genava Framework, a tool which helps instructors and students to create games and strategies which are playable by the framework. Further, all games and strategies compatible with the framework can be used in tournaments in which multiple strategies can compete to see which one is most effective. This allows a tournament to be added to any game-based assignment with minimal additional effort. To test the effectiveness of our framework, it was used to develop a tournament-based assignment for an introductory CS course. Students created strategies for the assignment which then competed in a tournament. The framework was able to handle a tournament involving 147 different strategies without error. Students also were surveyed to collect their opinions on tournament-based assignments and a majority indicated they were enjoyable and recommended their continued use. / Master of Science

Denna uppsats undersöker konsekvenserna av den svenska skolans kommunaliseringen under perioden tidigt 1990 - tal till början av 2012. Huvudsyftet med uppsatsen är att undersöka hur arbetsförhållandena har förändrats för lärarna samt ge förslag på hur rådande system kan förbättras. Tre olika områden har undersökts närmre; förändringen av lärarnas lönenivå, lärarnas arbetstid och lärarnas arbetsuppgifter. Den rent konkreta frågeställningen i uppsatsen är: Hur har den kommunala skolan utvecklats när det gäller lönenivå, arbetstid och arbetsuppgifter och vilka konsekvenser har det fått för lärarna under perioden början av 1990-talet fram till början av 2012? Material till detta arbete har hämtats ifrån intervjuer med två rektorer och två lärare som har arbetat i skolan före, under och efter kommunaliseringen, samt de kollektivavtal som slutits mellan den offentliga skolans arbetsgivare och de två största fackförbunden för lärare, Lärarförbundet och Lärarnas Riksförbund, under den undersökta tidsperioden. Fokus på undersökningen av avtalen har varit på de tre tidigare nämnda huvudområdena och resultaten av dessa undersökningar har sedan jämförts med de utsagor som framgått i intervjuerna med lärarna och rektorerna. Uppsatsen avslutas med en diskussion där det framgår att tre tydliga linjer kan skönjas när det gäller den svenska skolans kommunalisering. Till att börja med så har lärare haft en väldigt låg ökning av lönenivån i jämförelse med många andra yrkeskategorier med en likartad längd på utbildningen, vidare har lärarnas självständighet gällande kontroll av den egna arbetstiden minskat i omfattning och slutligen har lärarnas uppdrag ändrats från att handla om att "undervisa elever" till att "planera arbete tillsammans med elever och arbeta som en pedagogisk ledare". Författaren till uppsatsen argumenterar för att en ökning av antalet karriärsteg för lärare, ett förtydligande av hur och till vad arbetstiden ska användas, samt en återgång till det läraruppdrag som handlade om att "undervisa eleverna", skulle leda till högre lönenivåer och status samt en generell ökning av lärarnas arbetsvillkor i Sverige. / This paper examines the consequences of the decentralization of the Swedish school system since the early 1990’s until the beginning of 2012. The main purpose of this paper is to examine how the change influenced the working environment for the teachers. Focus has been on three specific areas regarding the teacher’s wage, working hours and task assignments. The main question for this paper is as follows: How has the decentralization since the early 1990’s to the early 2012 of the Swedish public school system, developed with regard to wages, working hours and task assignments – and what impact has it had on the teachers? Material for this paper has been gathered from interviews from two teachers and two headmasters who has been working in the school before and after it was decentralized and from collective bargaining contracts between the public school employers and the two main trade unions for teachers in Sweden, Lärarförbundet and Lärarnas Riksförbund. Every contract has been examined with regards to the three main areas to be examined and the results from these has been cross-referenced with the answers from the interviews to create what could be described as a chronicle of the decentralization of the Swedish school system. The paper concludes with a discussion that states that since the decentralization three visible trends are shown. First the teachers has had a very low wage increase in comparison with other fields of work with a similar length of education, second they have lost some of their former independence when it comes to the possibility to control their own working hours and third, their main purpose in school has moved from “teaching students” to “planning work together with the students and work as an educational leader”. The author argues that by creating more career steps for teachers, giving the teachers more clear directives on what they should do on their working hours and by changing back the teachers purpose to start teaching students again, would lead to both higher wages and status and a better working environment for the teachers in Sweden.