Esta pesquisa tem como objetivo analisar práticas de diferenciação pedagógica em escolas da rede municipal de educação de São Paulo. O conceito de diferenciação pedagógica emerge com a problemática do fracasso escolar, decorrente da universalização do ensino público. Neste trabalho, a partir da delimitação e discussão do conceito de diferenciação pedagógica, busca-se identificar a presença de ações diferenciadas de ensino em instituições da rede municipal de São Paulo, procurando-se responder às seguintes questões: qual é a característica das ações desenvolvidas e qual é o entendimento que os docentes têm acerca do conceito de diferenciação pedagógica? De que forma este entendimento se reflete nas práticas em sala de aula? Para responder a estas questões, procedeu-se à revisão de literatura sobre a temática da diferenciação pedagógica, bem como coletaram-se informações sobre a realidade empírica por meio da aplicação de 102 questionários, 4 entrevistas e observações in loco em 12 salas de aula de uma escola da Zona Leste de São Paulo. O estudo focalizou o trabalho dos professores do ciclo de alfabetização composto pelos 1ºs, 2ºs e 3ºs anos do Ensino Fundamental no componente de Língua Portuguesa. Os resultados obtidos mostraram que os docentes afirmam realizar práticas de diferenciação pedagógica com seus alunos; porém, os dados empíricos mostraram que as práticas, relatadas e observadas, não se coadunam com os princípios preconizados por autores que discutem a temática, como Perrenoud, Roldão, Tomlinsom, Pacheco entre outros. Além disso, observou-se que, ainda que documentos curriculares oficiais, produzidos nos âmbitos federal, estadual e municipal, remetam a princípios de diferenciação pedagógica, não são encontradas referências diretas a esse conceito. / This research aims to analyze practices of pedagogical differentiation in schools of the municipal education network of São Paulo. The concept of pedagogical differentiation emerges with the problem of school failure, resulting from the universalization of public education. In this work, from the delimitation and discussion of the concept of pedagogical differentiation, we seek to identify the presence of differentiated teaching actions in institutions of the municipal network of São Paulo, seeking to answer the following questions: what is the characteristic of the actions developed and what is the understanding that teachers have about the concept of pedagogical differentiation? How is this understanding reflected in classroom practices? In order to answer these questions, a literature review on the subject of pedagogical differentiation was carried out, as well as information on the empirical reality through the application of 102 questionnaires, 4 interviews and on-site observations in 12 classrooms of one school in the East Zone of São Paulo. The study focused on the work of the teachers of the literacy cycle - composed of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd years of elementary education - in the Portuguese Language component. The results showed that the teachers affirm the practice of pedagogical differentiation with their students; however, the empirical data showed that the practices, reported and observed, are not in line with the principles advocated by authors who discuss the subject, such as Perrenoud, Roldão, Tomlinsom, Pacheco and others. In addition, it was observed that, although official curricular documents produced at the federal, state and municipal levels refer to principles of pedagogical differentiation, no direct references to this concept are found.

This diploma thesis deals with computer networks which play a key role in present society. More and more demands are placed on these networks (especially on quality of services and throughput) because of fast-growing developement of services such as voice and video real-time transmissions. All the packets in typical Ethernet networks are equal. Therefore it is sometimes impossible for the application to maintain required throughput speed of a network. For this case it is useful to take some mechanisms into the consideration. These mechanisms (sometimes called QoS) are able to distinguish different types of transmissions and traffic, analyze them and then prioritize them according to some pre-defined set of rules. The most famous mechanisms are Integrated Services and Differentiated Services. The implementation of Differentiated Services is the goal of this thesis.

Optimization of materials supply and inbound logistic operations has become increasingly important as firms have continued to pursue outsourcing options. Further, the proliferation of products and advances in information technology have greatly impacted retailers’ marketing strategies in the past decade. In this dissertation, we address how to optimally develop integrated sourcing and delivery planning, and how to optimally offer vertically differentiated products and bundles. In the first essay, we address a combined sourcing and delivery planning optimization problem, which is motivated by a practical problem facing materials and supply planners for construction projects in a leading corporation. We develop a decision support model and an effective solution approach for integrated sourcing and delivery planning for bulk materials. This approach, implemented and currently in use at the company to support material delivery planning for track maintenance projects, has yielded significant savings of millions of dollars annually. In the second essay, we study the problem of a retailer managing a category of vertically differentiated products. We consider two settings: the exogenous prices case and the endogenous prices case. In the former case, the selling prices are exogenously determined and the retailer’s only decision is to determine the set of products to offer. In the latter case, the retailer also determines the selling prices. We develop efficient methods to identify the optimal solutions for both cases and provide valuable insights and guidelines for practitioners. In the third essay, we study how to choose the optimal bundling strategy for a retailer offering vertically differentiated information goods. We characterize conditions under which pure bundling and mixed bundling strategies are optimal respectively. We provide efficient methods to identify which individual components to offer, whether or not to offer a bundle containing all the components and how to price the offered individual components and the bundle in order to maximize the retailer’s profit. / text

Aim: The purpose of this study is to investigate the evaluation and conceptualization of service quality and its interactive impacts for customer satisfaction. This study provides some positive and constructive proposal to make up the service gap ,and provides preliminary results supported by SERVQUAL model to measure the mutual interactions between service quality and customer satisfaction. Service quality and customer satisfaction have been studied by the help of quality dimensions and some suggestions are offered for improving service quality. Methods: The primary data have been collected through interviews and questionnaires. The secondary data has been collected through literature review. Case study approach is used to identify the current relationship between service quality and consumer satisfaction. Result and Conclusions: We used five service quality dimensions to measure service quality and customer satisfaction. After survey is conducted, it has been clear that there are two dimensions (Empathy and Responsiveness) made a significant service gap between our target company and the key customer groups. The gap is the Differentiated service and the Service promptness. We also give our suggestions to make up the gap.             Providing differentiated services. Scheduling to the workload rather than to workers’ traditional schedules Empowering as many staffs as possible to deal with the problems and providing initial training on how to solve most common problems Customer segmentation, providing the characteristic services to customers. Providing characteristic services to customers Contributions of the thesis / Value: We believe that this thesis will help Xingya Technical Communication Company (XTCC) to become more aware of service quality and constantly updated the service to overcome the customer complaints. And after the study, we find that the service quality dimensions (Empathy and Responsiveness) are the controversial issues. We think this study can provide some useful information for this research area. Implications: This survey contributes to the topic both at practical and theoretical levels. We also put forward our suggestions for the target service provider in order to help them improve service quality in the future.

In this thesis, a retail market mechanism that provides differentiated reliability services is proposed. The differentiated reliability services beyond the standard level utilize advanced metering infrastructure, automated distribution reconfiguration and distributed generation (DG). The service quality at the standard level is regulated, while high reliability services are offered through a market mechanism. This proposed market mechanism is designed in two different models of managing the distribution networks. The first model assumes that an independent distribution system operator (DSO) as an administrative firm provides operational support for delivery and reliability services in a retail market, while the second model does not have a DSO. Main reliability market participants are distribution utilities, retail electricity providers (REPs), non-utility-owned DG units, and end users. The REPs, as end users’ representatives and aggregators, purchase delivery service with high reliability level and backup power from the utilities and DG units, respectively. The prices for these services are based on bidding by all market participants. Bids are created by each market participant optimizing its objective with respect to its own interests; therefore, the market participant can assess the investment costs and manage its own risk in setting the service charge. Notably, the proposed market mechanism, which is based on knowing customers’ willingness to pay, and preferences for reliability, aims to give long-term investment signals to service providers for planning investments in new technologies at value. In addition, the provision of high reliability services can be considered a means that enables the service providers to improve system resilience. The modified IEEE Roy Billinton Test System Bus 2 is simulated to demonstrate proof-of-concept for the proposed retail market by showing the iii process of settling the service prices and utilities’ expected compensation design. By comparing the settled service prices between the two market models, we show that the service prices are quite similar, but the number of end users obtaining backup power is different.

Master of Arts / Department of Economics / Yang-Ming Chang / This report examines merger incentives of cost asymmetric firms under product differentiation and their welfare implications. Considering a simple contract under which merger profit is distributed according to the proportions of differential marginal costs between duopolistic firms, we show in a stylized model that for almost all parameter ranges (in terms of market competition intensity and marginal cost differential), a low-cost firm may have no incentive to merge with a high-cost firm whereas the high-cost firm always finds merger to be profitable. Only when marginal cost differential is sufficiently low and the degree of product similarity is sufficiently high will both the low-cost firm and the high-cost firm share the common interest in merger. On the other hand, the merger equilibrium is not welfare-improving, regardless of whether the firms initially compete in quantities or prices. Viewed from the perspective of production efficiency, mergers with differentiated products thus create a fundamental conflict between the maximization of consumer and social welfare and the maximization of firm profits. We also examine the scenario that merger takes place when merger profit exceeds the sum of firm profits under duopoly, without considering how merger profit is distributed between the firms. We discuss the conditions under which mergers may or may not be welfare-improving.

If human beings are believed to be individually unique, why are students evaluated with standardized tests? Differentiated instruction, honoring individual differences of each learner, provides an alternative answer to the question by employing tiered performance tasks to address personal needs in assessment situations. To explore the applicability of differentiated instruction in an English as a Foreign Language (EFL) environment, this case study explored Taiwanese college students’ perspectives on tiered performance tasks and educational implications of the perspectives with regard to EFL learning and teaching at the tertiary level. Grounded in the humanistic stance of education and sociocultural view of learning, the study’s premise is that culturally responsive learner-centered instruction will promote English learning experience in a Chinese context. Data gathering techniques employed included observations, interviews, videotaping, and artifact collection, while data analysis procedures followed a three-step process: data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing and verification. A total of 12 participants demonstrated generally positive responses to tiered performance tasks offered in a final examination for a freshmen English listening and speaking class. An overall acceptance of the assessment strategy was generated through recognition and appreciation of choices of leveled tasks, heightened motivation, increased efforts, improved English skills, and greater confidence. Concerns caused by the challenging tasks included complexity level, time required to complete the task, partnership, and score. Affirmative results were particularly evident in low-ranking students. The acceptance of tiered performance tasks indicated that differentiated instruction is promising in supporting English language learning of college EFL learners in Taiwan. Implications pointed to the needs of an authentic assessment to link teaching and learning, as well as an equitable relationship between the educator and the learner. Suggestions for future research were offered.

Este trabalho está inserido no campo da educação escolar indígena e se propõe a verificar em quais aspectos a experiência escolar yanomami praticada na calha do rio Marauiá, Santa Isabel do Rio Negro, Amazonas, especificamente aquela promovida pela ONG Secoya, atuante na região desde os anos 1990, supera a educação com finalidade colonialista à qual muitos grupos indígenas foram e são submetidos. Parte da hipótese de que a experiência escolar dos Yanomami que vivem nas aldeias onde há escolas diferenciadas superam, ainda que não totalmente, a educação colonialista. Essa hipótese foi comprovada em pelo menos quatro aspectos: a) as escolas não possuem vinculação a nenhuma ordem religiosa; b) a língua materna é a principal forma de transmissão e comunicação; c) as escolas têm somente professores yanomami escolhidos pela comunidade; d) têm calendário diferenciado e adaptam-se às atividades laborais e ritualísticas das aldeias. / This work is part of the field of indigenous school education and intends to verify in which aspects the Yanomami school experience practiced in the Marauiá river channel, Santa Isabel do Rio Negro, Amazonas, specifically the one promoted by the NGO Secoya, which has been active in the region since the 1990s, surpasses education with a colonialist purpose, which many indigenous groups have been and are being subjected to. It is based on the hypothesis that the Yanomami school experience in villages where there are differentiated schools surpasses, although not totally, colonial education. This hypothesis has been proven in at least four aspects: a) schools are not linked to any religious order; b) the mother tongue is the main form of transmission and communication; c) schools have only Yanomami teachers chosen by the community; d) schools have a differentiated schedule and adapt to the work and ritual activities of the villages.

Thesis advisor: Robert J. Starratt / This case study examined teacher collaboration and teacher change while in the process of differentiating instruction in the area of mathematics in an elementary school. The project included a two-tier professional development opportunity for the staff. Professional development sessions focusing on specific mathematics skills were offered in lieu of traditional faculty meetings and thirteen, teacher volunteers in grades K-3 participated in bi-monthly study groups. The study describes the journey of the thirteen teachers as they identified successful strategies for differentiating instruction to meet the needs of all learners. The study explored how job-embedded professional development offered teachers the resources and support to meet together during the school day to engage in dialogue about their students' progress, difficulties encountered when teaching specific concepts and skills, and proactively planning in order to differentiate instruction effectively. The study focused on collaboration as a method for learning together in an adult learning environment and improving current teacher practices. The research was qualitative with the school principal as both researcher and participant-observer of the study. Data instruments used for the participants involved in this study were pre- and post-implementation surveys of the entire staff, semi-structured interviews of the thirteen teacher volunteers, observations of meetings, teachers' reflective journals, and field notes. Findings indicated that there was an increase in the teachers' use of differentiated instruction in the area of math. While teachers most often differentiated lessons by ability, teachers experimented with differentiating by interest as well as addressing the students' varying learning styles. In addition, teachers found that the embedded study groups were valuable in helping them to collaborate with their peers and improve their practice in teaching mathematics to all learners. In a profession where continual renewal is necessary, it is essential for educators to be provided with adequate time to review current practices, reflect on the strategies that are most successful, and refine their craft in order to provide opportunities that will maximize student thinking and learning. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Administration and Higher Education.

Backbone networks are responsible for long-haul data transport serving many clients with a large volume of data. Since long-haul data transport service must rely on a robust high capacity network the current technology broadly adopted by the industry is Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM). WDM networks enable one single ber to operate with multiple high capacity channels, drastically increasing the ber capacity. In WDM networks each channel is associated with an individual wavelength. Therefore a whole wavelength capacity is assigned to a connection, causing waste of bandwidth in case the connection bandwidth requirement is less than the channel total capacity. In the last half decade, Elastic Optical Networks (EON) have been proposed and developed based on the fexible use of the optical spectrum known as the exigrid. EONs are adaptable to clients requirements and may enhance optical networks performance. For these reasons, research community and data transport providers have been demonstrating increasingly high interest in EONs which are likely to replace WDM as the universally adopted technology in backbone networks in the near future. EONs have two characteristics that may limit its ecient resources use. The spectrum fragmentation, inherent to the dynamic EON operation, decrease the network capacity to assign resources to connection requests increasing network blocking probability. The spectrum fragmentation also intensifides the denial of service to higher rate request inducing service unfairness. Due to the fact EONs were just recently developed and proposed, the aforementioned issues were not yet extensively studied and solutions are still being proposed. Furthermore, EONs do not yet provide specific features as differentiated service mechanisms. Differentiated service strategies are important in backbone networks to guarantee client\'s diverse requirements in case of a network failure or the natural congestion and resources contention that may occur at some periods of time in a network. Impelled by the foregoing facts, this thesis objective is three-fold. By means of developing and proposing a mechanism for routing and resources assignment in EONs, we intend to provide differentiated service while decreasing fragmentation level and increasing service fairness. The mechanism proposed and explained in this thesis was tested in a EON simulation environment and performance results indicated that it promotes beneficial performance enhancements when compared to benchmark algorithms. / Redes backbone s~ao responsáveis pelo transporte de dados à longa distância que atendem a uma grande quantidade de clientes com um grande volume de dados. Como redes backbone devem basear-se em uma rede robusta e de alta capacidade, a tecnologia atual amplamente adotada pela indústria é Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM). Redes WDM permitem que uma única fibra opere com múltiplos canais de alta largura de banda, aumentando drasticamente a capacidade da fibra. Em redes WDMcada canal está associado a um comprimento de onda particular. Por conseguinte, toda capacidade do comprimento de onda é atribuída a uma única conexão, fazendo com que parte da largura de banda seja desperdiçada no caso em que a requisição de largura de banda da conexão seja menor do que a capacidade total do canal. A partir da metade da última década, as Redes Ópticas Elásticas (Elastic Optical Networks - EON) têm sido propostas e desenvolvidas com base no uso flexível do espectro óptico conhecido como flexigrid. EONs s~ao adaptáveis às requisições por banda dos clientes e podem, portanto, melhorar o desempenho das redes ópticas. Por estas razões, EONs têm recebido cada vez mais interesse dos meios de pesquisa e provedores de serviço e provavelmente substituirão WDM como a tecnologia universalmente adotada pela indústria em redes backbone. EONs têm duas características que podem limitar a utilização eficiente de recursos. A fragmentação do espectro, inerente à operação dinâmica das EONs, pode diminuir a capacidade da rede em distribuir recursos ao atender às solicitações por conexões aumentando a probabilidade de bloqueio na rede. A fragmentação do espectro também intensifica a negação de serviço a solicitações por taxa de transmissão mais elevada, gerando injustiça no serviço prestado. Como EONs foram desenvolvidas recentemente, respostas às questões acima mencionadas ainda estão sob estudo e soluções continuam sendo propostas na literatura. Além disso, EONs ainda não fornecem funções específicas como um mecanismo que proveja diferenciação de serviço. Estratégias de diferenciação de serviço são importantes em redes backbone para garantir os diversos requisitos dos clientes em caso de uma falha na rede ou do congestionamento e disputa por recursos que podem ocorrer em alguns períodos em uma rede. Impulsionada pelos fatos anteriormente mencionados, esta tese possui três objetivos. Através do desenvolvimento e proposta de um mecanismo de roteamento e atribuição de recursos para EONs, temos a intenção de disponibilizar diferenciação de serviço, diminuir o nível de fragmentação de espectro e aumentar a justiça na distribuição de serviços. O mecanismo proposto nesta tese foi testado em simulações de EONs. Resultados indicaram que o mecanismo proposto promove benefícios através do aprimoramento da performance de uma rede EON quando comparado com algoritmos de referência.