This collective case study explores the confluence of educational policy and professional praxis by examining the ways art teachers in one public school district make decisions about creating and implementing curricula. Through various interpretations of one district's formal and informal expectations of art teachers, some of the complexities of standards, instruction, and assessment policies in public schools are described. The research shares how art teachers are influenced by local policy expectations by examining how five K-12 art teacher participants negotiate their ideological beliefs and practical knowledge within the professional context of their local setting, and presents an art teacher decision-making framework to conceptualize the influences for praxis and to organize analysis. Case study data include in-depth interview sessions, teaching observations, and district policy artifacts. Themes emerge in the findings through coding processes and constructivist grounded theory analysis methods. The research describes how participants interpret and negotiate expectations, finding curricular freedom and participation in public exhibition as central policy factors. Contributing the perspectives of art teachers to the literature of policy implementation and fine arts education, the study finds that balancing autonomy and mandates are primary sites for negotiating praxis and that informal expectations for student exhibition contribute to a culture of competition and teacher performance evaluations. The study presents implications for policy makers, administrators, and art educators while sharing possibilities for future research about policy expectations. The research describes how participants interpret and negotiate expectations, finding curricular freedom and participation in public exhibition as central policy factors. Contributing the perspectives of art teachers to the literature of policy implementation and fine arts education, the study finds that balancing autonomy and mandates are primary sites for negotiating praxis and that informal expectations for student exhibition contribute to a culture of competition and teacher performance evaluations. The study presents implications for policy makers, administrators, and art educators while sharing possibilities for future research about policy expectations.

Two contrasting forms of advice for decision-makers are to either follow one’s heart (emotions) or one’s head (reason). This is a false dichotomy – but how should decision-makers combine heart and head? Decisions can be fruitfully analysed as a set of components: a decision-problem embedded within an on-going situation, with values-at-stake, possible options-with-consequences, choice, action and review. Structured decision-making models (head theories) approach this multifaceted nature of decisions by a divide-and-conquer strategy with thinking tasks provided to help decision-makers clarify the decision-problem, identify important values-at-stake, find credible options, choose the most credible option, act effectively and fairly review the outcomes of the choice. Emotions are complex and can also fruitfully be analysed as a set of components: an appraisal of a situation’s implication for the actor’s goals and values, bodily and cognitive changes, phenomenological experience and desires. Emotions can both help and hinder decision making, so wise decision-makers should neither ignore nor rely upon emotions, but instead treat emotions as fallible resources. The complex nature of emotions implies that different emotion-enabled tasks might assist decision-makers for different components of the decision. On the basis of this analysis an emotion-enabled, structured, decision-making procedure was developed and investigated by taking ten participants with decision dilemmas through the procedure. This investigation, based on repeated use of the Hermeneutic Single-Case Efficacy Design, provided some initial support for the effectiveness of the model: participants found the procedure generally helpful (p < 0.005), had increased confidence in their final choice (p < 0.005), which at follow-up they were satisfied with (p < 0.005). The use of emotions as fallible resources was also investigated through tracing emotion-enabled changes in participants’ decision making. Suggestions for further development and investigation of integrating emotions into structured approaches are offered.

Much academic literature regarding how judges interpret and apply civil procedure rules is based on speculation about human behaviour and legal practitioners’ personal intuition. I seek to apply cognitive psychology research to a number of procedural arrangements in order to create a more accurate picture of the decision-making processes of judges in our civil justice system. My project investigates the implications of findings derived from empirical behavioural psychology for legal reasoning and practice. The thesis is divided into three main parts. The first two parts address different cognitive effects that influence judicial decision making in the course of civil litigation: cognitive overload in relation to ‘Laundry List’ rules and confirmation bias in relation to interim remedies. Finally, the third part speaks to the general question of judicial intuition and serves as a link between the first two parts of the dissertation.

This thesis explores the influence of traditional institutions on dominant economic institutions and on formal organisational practices. The aim is to provide a cultural, political and economic explanation of management control practices in a rural Egyptian agro-manufacturing setting. It delineates the state of 'institutional complexity' in an organisational field. Exploring inherent political volatility at the macro level, the work also investigates political aspects of economic organisations and the intermediary role of individuals who deal with these institutions. Theoretically, it triangulates institutional logics and labour process theories, linking higher-order institutions with mundane labour practices observed in the case study. It shows how workers use cultural institutions in resisting management, and how various institutional logics interact in shaping the company's management control practices. The institutional logics perspective helps capture the heterogeneity in the organisation, and clarifies how management control practices may carry a range of cultural meanings. Methodologically, the thesis adopts a post-positivistic case study approach. Empirical data were solicited in a village community, where sugar beet farming and processing constitutes the main economic activity underlying its livelihood. This traditional communal setting enabled the researcher to capture the influence of multiple institutional logics on organisational practices. Data were collected through a triangulation of interviews, documents and observations. The thesis concludes that, especially in LDCs agro-manufacturing settings, societal institutions play a central role not only in the design and implementation of management control systems but also in the mobilisation of labour resistance. Control can be effectively practiced, and be resisted, through such social systems. This thesis affirms the influence of individual agency and subjectivity on institutional logics. It contributes to literature by investigating institutional logics in a traditional communal context, in contrast to the highly investigated Western contexts; depicting the state of 'institutional multiplicity' in the field; and providing an inclusive definition of the social in the area of management accounting.

The provision of key text reading lists relies on students to select one they will utilise in undertaking a course. In anatomy and physiology an array of texts exist providing lecturers with the task of deciding the most suitable for inclusion within this list, the final choice for a student to undertake. Little evidence was found to identify the decision-making a student undertook in selecting a text. Based on disparate theoretical concepts an initial development of a conceptual process framework followed to provide a basis from which to identify influences which impacted on the student decision-making process. Using a mixed methods design a survey of students (N=964) undertaking anatomy and physiology courses was conducted whose results, following analysis provided the focus for in depth interviews. These included students (n=15), lecturers (n=3) authors (n=5) and publishers (n=2). Thematic analysis of the transcripts identified four overarching themes these being the Perception of the Textbook, Choice of the Textbook, Mismatch of Perceived Needs and Place of the Textbook. The results suggested two main influences which impacted on the student when choosing a text, those of existing prior knowledge and recommendation. Without prior knowledge, comprehension and cognition of the text was difficult. Recommendation by a lecturer or reading list, a strong influence, saw students selecting a recommended text without considering their own needs leading to an inability to use this. Without knowledge and recommendation students utilised aesthetic preference and heuristics in selecting a text, with many selecting additional texts to assist in using recommended texts. The results led to the development of the conceptual process framework indicating choice was a complex process for the student. Selecting a text is complex and affected by numerous influences. The study highlights a process through which a student traverses as they undertake the selection of their text. The study conclusions have led to the development of the Process Framework for Text Selection providing a novel and coherent linking of established theoretical concepts.

This dissertation argues that: (1) deliberation (bouleusis) is distinguished from theoretical thought, in so far as the former is strictly about the particulars of a given situation, while the latter is about universal concepts; and that (2) deliberation is practical only in so far as it prescribes the best option for action, that is, it prescribes practical truth, but there is no element within the deliberative soul that can initiate an action directly. With these two points in mind, I will show in Chapter One that what lets us consistently cognize the moral ‘end’, the moral first principle, is a character or emotional disposition we acquire as a result of habituation (ethismos). Having explained how the conception of ends can be determined, I provide an argument for the first thesis mentioned above, and claim in Chapter Two that deliberation is not of the ends (ta telê), but is only of the means (ta pros to telos). My argument for the second thesis will lead me to claim in Chapter Three that prohairesis, the conclusion of deliberation, is not an action. I end my argument with an investigation showing that the interpretation of Aristotelian deliberation supported in this thesis secures its justification not only in those discussions that are directly related to the nature of deliberation, but also in the context of other important discussions in Aristotle’s ethics, namely, about the possibility of acrasia (in Chapter Four) and the definition of eudaimonia (in Chapter Five). My argument will provide a better treatment and solution, than existing attempts, of the puzzles surrounding the concepts of acrasia and eudaimonia in Aristotle’s ethics.

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Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / This thesis explores the Bahrain Defense Force (BDF) needs for a decision support system in the area of analyzing, establishing and maintaining the organizational structures of BDF units. It also identifies the BDF measures that must be taken to qualify a certain unit structure. Subsequently, the thesis designs and develops a specific DSS prototype that can aid BDF decision makers and planners perspectives in this area. Creating this prototype has involved three different layers to be investigated: the data, the models and the user interfaces. The data layer consists of a Microsoft Access database application that houses BDF Units, Manpower, Vehicles, Weapons, Salaries, and Jobs information. The model layer consists of two Microsoft Excel spreadsheets that contain Infantry Battalion and enhanced Armor Battalion HR optimization models. The UI layer consists of user controls, input/output forms, queries, reports, and visualization aids (i.e. charts and pivot tables). These interfaces were developed using MS Access capabilities. Consequently, the BDF-DSS is an integration of database and optimization technology using widely available desktop tools. The general benefits of this DSS are reduced costs for data gathering, computation, and data presentation, and added value resulting from investigating more alternatives, doing more sophisticated analyses of alternatives, using better methods of comparing alternatives, and making quicker and better decisions. / Bahrain Defense Force author. / Major, Bahrain Defense Force

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1957 G74 / Master of Science

M.Com. (Business Management) / Please refer to full text to view abstract