Thesis (M. A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2006. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

<p>This study examines how families judge and choose high schools. The review of literature relating to school choice provides a theoretical framework for the study. The review includes an international perspective including both developed countries such as United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Denmark, England and Wales, the Netherlands, Scotland and Sweden, and developing countries including India, Chile, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Mauritania, Senegal, Cote d'Ivoire and South Africa. The context within which school choice occurs in South Africa is examined. This context includes continued influence of Apartheid policies and current legislation including the South African Schools Act, The Admission Policy for Ordinary Schools Act and the Norms and Standards for Schools Funding. The literature review includes a critical analysis of the research, both Local and International, which addresses questions as to which factors are considered when judging and choosing schools, who makes the choice school, when the choice of school is made and which sources of information inform the choice of school. The empirical study examines the process of high school choice in urban Cape Town. The group areas Act and other Apartheid policies have created a situation where the respondents have a large number of high schools from which to chose. The selected area reflects diversity in Socio-Economic status, including both privately owned homes and council rental flats and houses. The study is limited to English medium or dual medium schools in the area. It includes both co-ed and single gender schools.</p>

President Ma Ying-jeou proclaimed the 12-year compulsory education plan on January 1st, 2011 (the 100th Year of Republic of China). From 2014 onward, both senior high and vocational schools will require no tuition, and most of them can be attended without the requirement of students passing an entrance exam. This policy marks a milestone in Taiwan¡¦s high school admission system. In the future, students graduating from junior high schools may choose a school they favor, rather than having no choice but to attend the one according to their exam results, as was the practice in the past. Purposive sampling was adopted with the freshmen in eight public senior high schools in Kaohsiung as the subjects; two classes in each school were sampled with the questionnaire based on four dimensions: ¡§background of the senior high schools¡¨, ¡§influencing factors occurring during the process of choosing a school¡¨, ¡§main information channels to better understand the senior high schools¡¨, and ¡§related consultations on how to choose a senior high school.¡¨ The aim was to compare the behaviors in choosing a senior high school among the students who do not follow the conventional school ranking as determined by the entrance exam and those who do, in order to explore the factors that affect the process of choosing a senior high school by those who do not follow the practice. The study results show that: 1. Both the students who follow the practice and those who do not, value the dimensions: ¡§background of the senior high schools¡¨ the most, such as ¡§ratio of students entering a university¡¨, ¡§school image (reputation)¡¨, and ¡§school ranking in accordance with the entrance exam result¡¨, etc. 2. Those who do and do not follow the practice differ in choosing a school in terms of four aspects: ¡§whether there is a classmate attending the same senior high school¡¨, ¡§whether background information on the senior high school is available¡¨, ¡§whether the senior high schools hold recruitment activities on the students¡¦ campus¡¨, and ¡§whether related consultation data is issued by the junior high schools they are attending.¡¨ Through a logistic regression analysis, it was found that the three aspects ¡§classmate¡¨, ¡§background information¡¨, and ¡§consultation data¡¨ are significantly predictive regarding the behavior of choosing a senior high school by both groups of students. According to the study results, suggestions are proposed regarding senior high and vocational schools¡¦ planning of future marketing strategies and junior high schools¡¦ provision of consultations about choosing a senior high school. In addition, suggestions are advanced to education administrative organizations for the implementation of the 12-year compulsory education. Finally, suggestions for follow-up studies are also listed.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 68-70).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2002. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.

This study focused on Latino undergraduate students majoring in science, and their decisions to access academic support programs. The purposes were to understand (1) factors that influence Latino students' career-related choices; choosing a science major and accessing resources in support of their academic careers; and (2) what role socializers play in those decisions. The informants were four Latino college students who chose science majors when admitted to a research university. Using a case-study interview approach, they were interviewed longitudinally over two years to understand the influences on their decisions. Data codes and themes were generated through interpretive analysis of interview transcripts, and results were evaluated against the Eccles' et al. (1983) expectancy-value model of career choices. Three categories were identified: decisions made prior to matriculation, decisions made in adjusting to the university environment, and continuing decisions to persist in the sciences. First, initial decisions as high school students were made within a web environment, through self-dialogue. Participants relied on web information in a non-interactive way to make decisions on their own. Parents, teachers, and peers merely validated decisions. Second, the process by which these students adjusted in their first year of college revealed differences among the participating students. Unlike the two male computer science majors, two female biology majors had a more difficult time participating in classes, being active about seeking help and contacting socializers, and managing their personal lives. This contrast continued on to their second year. Finally, the study yielded an iterative notion of decision-making about persistence in science. The two female biology majors having a hard time in their classes constantly revisited their initial choice of a science major. They accessed the web to get information necessary to find a solution and relay that to new socializers, such as advisers, mentoring program staff, and peers in college. Drawing from these findings, this study yielded a framework for discussing Latino science students' academic decision making. The importance of the web in initial decisions has digital equity implications, and indicates the importance of Internet outreach. Further, differences in the decision process imply a need for personalized support structures. / text

The governance of the commons is an elusive task. For one thing, the overexploitation of natural resources and the deterioration of environment have posed severe threats to human society. For another, most of the threats result from social dilemmas such as problems of cooperation, coordination and trust. These collective action problems all entail |a| paradox in which rational individual behavior leads to irrational collective outcomes. In previous literature, answers for coping with “the tragedy of the commons” range from the imposition of government to the establishment of market and endogenous rules. However, this institutional perspective has overlooked the social and ecological characteristics embedded in common-pool resources(CPR) systems. Furthermore, few studies have taken a formal game theoretic approach to examine how embeddedness might affect collective action problems in complex social-ecological systems. This thesis uses formal game theoretic models to investigate the dynamics of collective action problems in water sharing interactions. Three types of innovative game theoretic models are developed; namely, the asymmetric N-person Prisoner’s Dilemma game, the asymmetric N-person Stag-hunt game and the two-level Trust game. Various elements of social and ecological embeddedness, including but not limited to direct and indirect reciprocity, heterogeneous utilities, varied utility functions for public good production and multi-level interactions, are incorporated into models to examine conditions under which collective action problems are more likely to be alleviated. Moreover, this study associates implications of the formal models with practice of water governance in contemporary China and provides insights into the strengths and weaknesses of several empirical cases including decision-making processes, water allocation schemes, payments for ecosystem services programs and multi-level governance. Major findings of this study are: 1) Collective cooperation between different upstream and downstream actors is subject to joint effects of reciprocity and asymmetric payoff mechanisms. Downstream actors require a strong prospect of long-term interactions whereas upstream actors are more sensitive to the level asymmetries. 2) The problem of coordination can be addressed through settings of asymmetric cost-benefit ratios and varied total utility functions. Actors’ heterogeneous contribution to public good may alter the number of cooperators and the production of public good. 3) The imposition of an overarching authority can be a “double-edged sword” in terms of its impacts on trust construction. A trustworthy authority may relax conditions for placing and honoring trust. The conditions become more restrictive when the authority is untrustworthy. 4) Information transparency and availability, “the shadow of the future,” regional heterogeneities, institutional fit and trustworthiness of overarching authorities are critical factors that affect the performance of water governance in China. This study contributes to the existing literature in three main aspects. Firstly, it introduces the effects of embeddedness into CPR studies which conventionally focus on the institutional aspect of CPR governance. Secondly, it brings the perspective of collective action into water resources management studies which traditionally concentrate on hydrological processes and policies designs. Lastly, it enriches formal game theoretic modeling by including various social-ecological characteristics which play a significant role in water sharing interactions and yet have not been adequately examined. / published_or_final_version / Geography / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Seals-of-approval have been employed as one of the information sources at the time of purchase. However, little is known about how seals’ sponsoring organizations affect consumers’ decision making and how consumers use seals in different food categories such as healthy-seeming vs. unhealthy-seeming products. Applying Consumers’ Decision Making Model and Signaling Theory to the above inquiry, I propose that people who are exposed to healthy-seeming food products are using seals-of-approval to evaluate brand quality and credible third-party seals may significantly affect their brand attitude and buying decision. In contrast, the seals-of-approval on unhealthy-seeming food products may not affect significantly consumers’ brand attitude or buying intention because consumers rely more on their previous experience such as taste when choosing unhealthy foods. After this theoretical proposition, next step will be an experimental survey to test suggested hypotheses. / text

Contemporary public education is viewed by many to be in turmoil, in part due to a changing population: increases in the number of students of poverty, handicapped individuals, teen parents, and students for whom English is not a first language. These and other issues have changed the face of our expectations for American education, and a "one size fits all" mentality will no longer suffice. The resulting school reform often appears in the guise of school choice. School choice can take many forms, including the voucher system, tuition tax credits, magnet schools, and charter schools, among others. This study examines the perceived differences, as viewed by parents, between charter schools and traditional public schools, and the ambient or intangible reasons that parents are making the choice for charter schools. A charter school on the Texas-Mexico border, which had been in existence for at least two years was selected for the study. Participants in the study were parents, all mothers, who completed a pre-survey of basic demographic information. Two extensive interviews were completed for each. Three focus groups, also consisting of charter school parents, were convened and interviewed in an effort to triangulate the data. Chapter Four of the study provides thick descriptions of the participants, while Chapter Five organizes the findings into common, emerging themes. Chapter Six provides the conclusions of the study which indicate that there are some commonalities and some differences perceived by parents between charter and public schools. The ambient or intangible factors involved in choice decision were not found to be any different than those found in other literature on school choice. Implications for the practitioner and future researchers are included in the final chapter. / text

No description available.