The purpose of the dissertation was to evaluate the Russell High School library collection in meeting the curricula needs of learners. A study population consisting of 150 learners, 13 teachers, the librarian and Principal was surveyed by means of questionnaire and interview. Three types of questionnaires were used, one each for the learners, the teachers and the librarian. The Principal's interview was based on a checklist. Results were discussed in terms of frequencies and cross-tabulations of responses were made. Results are graphically displayed in the form of tables, pie charts and bar charts. The present situation of the library and its problems are discussed with regard to resources, the availability and suitability of the present collection, types of materials used, and satisfaction with the library by users as well as encouragement from teachers and the librarian to learners in the use of the library. The discussion was situated within the current requirements of Outcomes-Based Education as guided by Curriculum 2005 and 21. The study findings indicated that learners and teachers were satisfied with the library stock although a need for books, especially new titles, was identified. Learners and teachers felt that more books and better infrastructure for example, computers, television sets, and more space were needed. It was also revealed, however, that the budget was severely limited. These findings are discussed within the framework provided by a review of international, African and local school libraries. Recommendations for possible future services are made in the light of this discussion. / Thesis (M.I.S.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2001.

The study focused on the evaluation of the psychology book collection at UNITRA library. In particular, the study investigated the adequacy of the psychology book collection in terms of accessibility, availability, and pertinence. A sample of 264 respondents was selected from a population of 1123 students. A proportionate random sampling was used to select respondents from each stratum. The survey method was used, and questionnaires were administered to the sample of 1995 registered psychology students at UNITRA from Year 1 to Honours level. The questionnaire focused on the research questions, relating to accessibility , availability, and pertinence of the psychology collection. The data was analysed by means of a statistical package, SAS. The results were interpreted in relation to the variables. The findings revealed that accessibility and availability were affected by: the attendance of the first library orientation programme which is usually offered at the beginning of the year; the availability of library services at high school; the number of copies of the same title in the library; library opening hours; attitude of the librarians; procedure for locating books; number of borrower cards; and the age of books in the library. The identification of entries representing books on the catalogue, and the location of books on the shelves were found to be easier for those users who had attended library orientation and those who had libraries at their high school. It was recommended that lecturers and librarians should encourage students to also use the subject catalogue in order to get more books on the same subject. A number of other recommendations were suggested taken from the findings and other authorities on the subject to improve the accessibility, availability and pertinence of the psychology collection. The development of a written collection development policy would make the implementation of the above recommendations easier. / Thesis (M.I.S.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 1997.

This thesis was inspired by the difficulties of artificial evolutionary systems in finding elegant and well structured, regular solutions. That is that the solutions found are usually highly disorganized, poorly structured and exhibit limited re-use, resulting in bloat and other problems. This is also true of previous developmental evolutionary systems, where structural regularity emerges only by chance. We hypothesise that these problems might be ameliorated by incorporating repeated evaluations on increasingly difficult problems in the course of a developmental process. This thesis introduces a new technique for learning complex problems from a family of structured increasingly difficult problems, Evolutionary Developmental Evaluation (EDE). This approach appears to give more structured, scalable and regular solutions to such families of problems than previous methods. In addition, the thesis proposes some bio-inspired components that are required by developmental evolutionary systems to take full advantage of this approach. The key part of this is the developmental process, in combination with a varying fitness function evaluated at multiple stages of development, generates selective pressure toward generalisation. This also means that parsimony in structure is selected for without any direct parsimony pressure. As a result, the system encourages the emergence of modularity and structural regularity in solutions. In this thesis, a new genetic developmental system called Developmental Tree Adjoining Grammar Guided Genetic Programming (DTAG3P), is implemented, embodying the requirements above. It is tested on a range of benchmark problems. The results indicate that the method generates more regularly-structured solutions than the competing methods. As a result, the system is able to scale, at least on the problem classes tested, to very complex instances the system encourages the emergence of modularity and structural regularity in solutions. In this thesis, a new genetic developmental system called Developmental Tree Adjoining Grammar Guided Genetic Programming (DTAG3P), is implemented, embodying the requirements above. It is tested on a range of benchmark problems. The results indicate that the method generates more regularly-structured solutions than competing methods. As a result, the system is able to scale, at least on the problem classes tested, to very complex problem instances.

No description available.

<p>The research reported here is a meta-evaluative case study of project evaluation in the context of Official Development Cooperation (ODC) in the education sector in Tanzania, where the particular focus is on capturing the relative values attached to evaluation by various stakeholder groups.</p><p>Perspectives from the constructivist paradigm are adopted, implying relativist ontology, subjectivist epistemology, and naturalistic interpretive methodology. Based on these perspectives, a review is provided of development theories and evaluation theories, including the actor-oriented approach to development, participatory monitoring & evaluation, utilization-focused evaluation, and responsive-constructivist evaluation. An exploratory qualitative case study strategy is taken, combining several complementary methods e.g. in-depth interviews, questionnaires, document analysis, and observations.</p><p>Evaluation is considered as an applied social research, implying a managerial and political purpose. It is a reflective interactive process, where the relevance, effectiveness and impact of an intervention in pursuit of certain objectives are assessed, adding value in order to construct knowledge for the enhancement of decision-making. In order to facilitate understanding of the cases under study, their structural contexts are investigated: 1) ODC evaluation systems and strategies (international/ macro context); and 2) ODC in the education sector in Tanzania (national/meso context). Each case (at local/micro level) is located within these contexts and analyzed applying a meta-evaluative framework.</p><p>Integrating the perspectives of the stakeholders, the study demonstrates the strengths of, and constraints on, each case, factors which are to some extent determined by their respective time-frames. A number of significant discrepancies between theory and practice in ODC evaluation are reported. Findings indicate the significance of constructing consensus values that are based on a synthesis of multiple stakeholders’ values and perspectives complementing each others. The study also find that evaluation ought to be used as a powerful tool in which the values, needs and aspirations of various stakeholder groups can be reflected, especially those of local communities, who are now too often powerless in ODC projects in the education sector.</p>

本研究旨在瞭解國民小學教師專業發展評鑑與教師專業成長關係之研究，目的在了解國民小學教師專業發展評鑑與教師專業成長之現況、內涵，並利用線性模式探討影響模式。首先，進行廣泛地文獻搜及與探討，厚實研究之理論基礎與研究結構；其次，將編制專家效度問卷寄送給7位相關領域之專家學者，進行問卷內容修訂。接著，以分層隨機抽樣方式從台北市、新北市、桃園市、基隆市四縣市抽取500位國民小學教師抽取作為問卷調查對象，回收情形為390份問卷，有效問卷384份，問卷有效率為78%，並利用統計套裝軟體分析兩變項現況與影響關係，本研究發現如下: 一、國民小學教師專業發展評鑑與教師專業成長關係之內涵與現況 （一）國民小學教師專業發展評鑑包括六個向度，包括「教師專業發展評鑑目的」、「教師專業發展評鑑規準和工具」、「教師專業發展評鑑方式」、「教師專業發展評鑑資料蒐集」、「教師專業發展評鑑結果應用」、「教師專業發展評鑑相關配套措施」，整體得分情形為高程度，以「教師專業發展評鑑目的」得分最高。 （二）國民小學教師專業成長包括四個向度，包括「課程設計與教學」、「班級經營與輔導」、「研究發展與進修」、「敬業精神與態度」，整體得分情形為高程度、其中以「課程設計與教學」的得分最得分最高。 二、不同背景變項在國民小學教師參加在職進修課程與教師效能關係之差異情形 （一）不同背景變項在國民小學教師專業發展評鑑的得分方面：研究發現除了性別、學歷、學校規模未達顯著，在年齡、服務年資、現任職務、是否參與教師專業發展評鑑達顯著差異。 （二）不同背景變項在教師專業成長的得分方面：研究發現除了性別、學歷、學校規模未達顯著，在年齡、服務年資、現任職務、是否參與教師專業發展評鑑達顯著差異。 三、國民小學教師專業發展評鑑各向度與教師專業成長之影響情形 國民小學教師專業發展評鑑之分向度對國民小學教師專業成長皆具有顯著影響力，各向度之影響情形如下：在教師專業發展評鑑目的向度中以「提升教師教學品質」最有影響；在教師專業發展評鑑規準和工具向度中以「評鑑指標重點的說明具體清晰」最有影響；在教師專業發展評鑑方式向度中以「成立校內評鑑小組評鑑的方式」最有影響；在教師專業發展評鑑資料蒐集向度中以「透過檔案製作與評量」最有影響；在專業發展評鑑結果應用向度中以「協助受評教師規劃專業成長計畫」最有影響；在教育發展評鑑相關配套措施向度中以「發展教師專業成長支持系統」最有影響。 四、國民小學教師專業發展評鑑與教師專業成長整體之影響情形 上游潛在變項「國民小學教師專業發展評鑑」對下游潛在變項「國民小學教師專業成長」具有顯著影響力，其中以「教師專業發展評鑑結果應用」對「教師專業成長」影響力最為顯著。 最後，依據研究結果與研究發現進行討論並提出建議，俾提供為國民小學教師、教育行政機關與後續研究為參考。 / The study aims to explore the elementary school teacher evaluation for professional and the current of teachers’ professional growth. Thus, this study represents an attempt to understand the relationship between elementary school teachers’ attitudes toward teacher professional development evaluation and teachers’ professional growth. The main purposes of the study are as follows: 1. To understand teachers’ attitudes toward teacher professional development evaluation. 2. To appreciate the current of teachers’ professional growth. 3. To explore the relationship between teacher professional development evaluation and teachers’ professional growth. Mainly, this study proceeds with literature analysis, and interview. The subjects were Keelung City, Taipei City, the New Taipei City, and Taoyuan City was involved and not involved in evaluation of teacher professional development. Descriptive statistics containing percentages, mean and standard deviation as well as t-test, one-way ANOVA and Structural Equation Models were also used to show the results. Based on the findings of this study, some conclusions and suggestions are provided for Education Administration Authority, elementary schools, teachers and future research. The findings of the study are summarized as follows: 1. Elementary school teachers with elder and seniority of employee background had better attitude of teacher evaluation for professional and teacher professional growth. 2. Duties of teacher and administrative and subject teacher background had better attitude of teacher evaluation for professional and teacher professional growth. 3. Participate in the teacher evaluation for professional had better attitude of teacher evaluation for professional and teacher professional growth. 4. Teacher evaluation for professional for teachersof all dimensions of fit index is good.

The research reported here is a meta-evaluative case study of project evaluation in the context of Official Development Cooperation (ODC) in the education sector in Tanzania, where the particular focus is on capturing the relative values attached to evaluation by various stakeholder groups. Perspectives from the constructivist paradigm are adopted, implying relativist ontology, subjectivist epistemology, and naturalistic interpretive methodology. Based on these perspectives, a review is provided of development theories and evaluation theories, including the actor-oriented approach to development, participatory monitoring &amp; evaluation, utilization-focused evaluation, and responsive-constructivist evaluation. An exploratory qualitative case study strategy is taken, combining several complementary methods e.g. in-depth interviews, questionnaires, document analysis, and observations. Evaluation is considered as an applied social research, implying a managerial and political purpose. It is a reflective interactive process, where the relevance, effectiveness and impact of an intervention in pursuit of certain objectives are assessed, adding value in order to construct knowledge for the enhancement of decision-making. In order to facilitate understanding of the cases under study, their structural contexts are investigated: 1) ODC evaluation systems and strategies (international/ macro context); and 2) ODC in the education sector in Tanzania (national/meso context). Each case (at local/micro level) is located within these contexts and analyzed applying a meta-evaluative framework. Integrating the perspectives of the stakeholders, the study demonstrates the strengths of, and constraints on, each case, factors which are to some extent determined by their respective time-frames. A number of significant discrepancies between theory and practice in ODC evaluation are reported. Findings indicate the significance of constructing consensus values that are based on a synthesis of multiple stakeholders’ values and perspectives complementing each others. The study also find that evaluation ought to be used as a powerful tool in which the values, needs and aspirations of various stakeholder groups can be reflected, especially those of local communities, who are now too often powerless in ODC projects in the education sector.

This study considers a Grade 9 Integrated Environmental Research Project which was implemented as a vehicle to induce knowledge-based change in learners. It was noted that change did not occur as hoped, and this study was undertaken to review the Grade 9 Project in order to improve it and to probe the apparent gap between knowledge and action. The study generated evidence on the learning processes within the project. This revealed a number of contradictions and tensions which limit change initiatives within the local environment. Notable here was a contradictory mandate between undertaking a research-based change project and responding to the rubric of assessment which was not linked to the research done. It was found that faced with this dual mandate, learners chose to focus on the assessment-laden mandate as this was the ultimate agenda that would reap the reward within the traditional school environment. The study examines the gap between knowledge and practice to probe ways in which to close this gap in the context of an environmental research assignment. The outcome is a recommendation that we as the project designers review the evidence of tensions and contradictions revealed in the study to reflect on the underlying purpose of the project and reshape it in light of recent literature on the challenges of social learning and change.

The thesis focuses on the evaluation of Research and Development in the Czech Republic. The introductory part of thesis highlights the recency of the topic and describes the quantitative and qualitative methods of assessing outlets of science. The second part of the thesis discusses in detail the evaluation of science in the Czech Republic; the legislative framework and the evaluation of Research and Development are mentioned. The third chapter shows the evaluation of institutional Research and Development and uses the 1st Faculty of Medicine of Charles University in Prague as an example. The core of the thesis is the fourth chapter with an analysis of selected primary scientometric data. The final part summarizes the entire topic and highlights some problem areas [Author's abstract].

Through the evolution and proliferation of the Internet, distance and online education have become more prevalent in modern society. Synchronous web-based professional development continues to gain popularity. Although online education has grown in popularity and breadth, there has been a lack of research about the impact of synchronous web-based professional development. By using Kirkpatrick and Kirkpatrick's (2006) Four Levels of Evaluation, this study examined the impact of webinar professional development at a National Science Foundation Advanced Technology Center. Findings indicate that although the factors that contribute to learning in a web-based environment were present, there was a lack of evidence about the actual outcomes of participation in a synchronous web-based professional development. To address the lack of evidence, a new model of Comprehensive Synchronous Web-based Professional Development evaluation and implementation is proposed in the discussion.