The first purpose of this study is to determine whether significant differences exist among the perceptions of principals, librarians, and teachers with respect to the following categorical practices or conditions relative to the learning-center concept in open-space elementary schools: (1) teacher preparation for use of the learning center; (2) student preparation for use of the learning center; (3) learning center personnel and their role; (4) operation of the learning center; (5) facilities, materials, and equipment in the learning center; (6) use of the learning center for individualizing learning; and (7) use of the learning center for developing independent learning skills. The second purpose of this study is to determine whether a significant correlation exists among specific categories. The third purpose of this study is to establish the degree of emphasis placed upon various practices or conditions relative to the learning-center concept in open-space elementary schools of Texas.

The purpose of this study was to determine the various values that can be found in teachers of an open school system and how those values differed among various teacher groups within the school. The value systems (Tribalistic, Egocentric, Conformist, Manipulative, Sociocentric, and Existential) were based on the "Levels of Psychological Existence" developed by Clare W. Graves. A values test was utilized in order to collect data. The "Values for Teaching Test" was administered to 492 teachers and staff members of the school district. Specific hypotheses regarding value differences in selective teachers and staff groups were tested. The results were significant on the following levels-- existential, sociocentric, and conformist with relation to grade level taught, educational job profile, and sex of the respondent.

The aim of the pilot study is to measure changes of attitudes over a period of six months. It is claimed that parents new to a school have only hearsay as a basis for their opinions about the school's functioning and that this is often detrimental to the school. It is hypothesized that these opinions will change and reflect positive attitudes towards the school in relation to the amount of contact experienced. The recording of the survey begins by referring to the paucity of research material on the subject; it continues by describing the method of collecting data on initial opinions by means of interviews, questionnaires and a statements of opinions check sheet; it then analyses changes of opinion by comparing the data of the later August statements of opinions return with the earlier February one; and finally suggests reasons for change by analysing correlations of parental contact and increased positive attitude. The paper concludes with recommendations for further studies and parent education programmes.

This study examines the friendship patterns of students in a year 7 to 10 A.C.T. high school using Vertical Integration as a grouping policy. The origins of this study can be found in the school's policy developed in 1976 and favouring vertical integration on the basis of perceived social benefits. In the development of teaching strategies at Melba High, Vertical Integration has been used with all year groups in all subject areas. Over the last three years teachers have questioned the validity of this policy. This study arose out of the demand by staff for more detailed understanding of group formation processes generally and of the link between group formation and school grouping policies at Melba High in particular. The approach used to generate data was an action research design that could feed information to the school decision-making processes. The key findings of the study were that; (a) whatever form of Vertical Integration was used, students still worked in age and sex groups by choice. (b) students tended to form friendships on a subschool basis. Recommendations resulting from these findings have been implemented in the present planning of Melba High School. The format for Vertical Integration (the method of combining years 7,8,9 and 10 in classes) has been modified to combine adjacent year groups only. (viz. years 7 and 8 as one group and years 9 and 10 as another).

Den här studien grundar sig på skillnader mellan återgivning av ord, sorterade efter semantiska kategorier, i förhållanden med rent tal och maskerat tal. 32 personer deltog i studien där de först blev visuellt presenterade för en lista med 15 semantiska ord som skulle memoreras och sedan återges i fri ordning i två olika betingelser av bakgrundsljud, tal och maskerat tal. Utifrån tidigare studier utformades studiens hypoteser; vid återgivningen ökar antalet visuellt presenterade ord när bakgrundstalet maskeras av ett brus jämfört med när bakgrundstalet spelas upp utan maskering. Antalet auditivt presenterade ord som återges minskar när bakgrundstalet maskeras av ett brus jämfört med när bakgrundstalet spelas upp utan maskering. Resultaten gav stöd åt hypotesen att försökspersonerna återgav fler visuellt presenterade ord när bakgrundstalet maskerades av ett brus. Resultatet gav stöd åt hypotesen att försökspersonen återgav färre auditivt presenterade ord när bakgrundstalet maskerades av ett brus. / This study examined free recall performance in two acoustic conditions, speech and masked speech. Thirty-two students participated in the study. They were visually presented to word lists that were constructed by semantic similarity. After presentation the participants were instructed to recall as many words as possible in free order. The recall session occurred in the two different speech conditions. Based on earlier studies two hypotheses were stated; when the background speech were mixed with masking noise, recall performance of correct words would increase compared to the speech condition. It was also assumed that the masking noise would decrease the number of intrusions from the speech, compare with the number of intrusions made in the unmasked speech condition. The result gave support to the hypothesis that number of correct words increases in masked speech and the number of intrusions decreases in masked speech.

Denna experimentella studie undersökte om maskerande brusljud på ovidkommande tal påverkar inlärning av visuell information. Experimentet genomfördes i ett laboratorium med 32 försöksdeltagare. Visuella ord presenterades för försöksdeltagarna samtidigt som auditivt tal från samma semantiska kategori, med eller utan maskerande brusljud, presenterades. De visuella orden skulle återges i valfri ordning. Resultatet av studien visar att ett maskerande brusljud på ovidkommande tal har positiv effekt på inlärningsförmågan. Detta visades av att försökspersonerna mindes fler visuellt presenterade ord samt att de lyckades ignorera det ovidkommande talet bättre då talet maskerades av ett brusljud jämfört med om talet inte maskerades av ett brusljud. Resultaten av studien kan med fördel tillämpas i öppna kontorslandskap. Detta då medarbetare i öppna kontorslandskap ofta utför kognitivt krävande uppgifter i en bullrig miljö innehållande bland annat bakgrundstal. Ett maskerande brusljud kan minska störningen av ovidkommande kontorsljud och ovidkommande tal och på så sätt positivt påverka arbetsprestationen. / This study examined if a masking white noise on irrelevant speech affects the encoding of visual information. An experiment was carried out in a laboratory with 32 participants. The participants were presented to a series of written words and were prompted to recall these words in any order. While the participants studied the written words, irrelevant speech from the same semantic category was presented with or without a masking noise. The participants were told to ignore the irrelevant speech. The results of this study showed that the number of intrusions from the irrelevant speech decreases and the number of recalled written words increases when the irrelevant speech is masked by a white noise compared to irrelevant speech without a masking noise. The findings of this study could be applied in the acoustic design of open-plan offices where cognitive tasks, such as reading comprehension and proofreading, are performed in a noisy environment. A white noise can reduce the intelligibility of office noise and irrelevant speech, which have positive effect on work performance.

No description available.

As China's economy continues to grow, the problem of meeting urban residents' diverse housing requirements has become more and more important for government, housing developers, and architects. In western countries, especially in European countries and Japan, the "open building" concept is increasingly recognized as an alternative to the conventional approach in the housing sector, and many projects have been built. This thesis asks whether changing the housing process in the market-based urban housing production system in China can provide new and profitable opportunities for those business types which already set the stage for open building implementation in selected parts of the Chinese urban housing market.The thesis first studies China's urban housing development history and the current housing market. The changing roles of housing consumers and the characteristics of the market-based urban housing production system indicate that the open building process might be useful at least in some parts of the Chinese housing market.The second focus of this thesis is a study of a townhouse, one of four popular housing types in China. A townhouse in the market is chosen as a reference to demonstrate the principles of the open building process, showing the design and technical possibilities for this method in that context.The third focus is the study of an existing decoration company with successful experience in residential projects and an attempt to show that the open building approach is a possible outgrowth of an already operating process.In conclusion, the thesis seeks to demonstrate that open building will not only benefit companies and housing consumers in China's urban housing sector, but also promote the development of sustainability in the residential sector. / Department of Architecture

This thesis focuses on the development of design constraints for use in analyzing the capacity of the residential units' floor areas in Open Building projects. Two cases are used to demonstrate the use of these constraints: a vacant office building (Kales Building) being converted to residential occupancy; a new multi-story building the lower floors of which are hotel rooms and the upper floors are residential condominium units.The thesis suggests that these constraints and the capacity analysis of residential floor areas associated with them can assist design teams, at the beginning of similar projects; provide important "added value" to clients, and contribute to the long term "sustainability" or adaptability of buildings.The first part of the thesis addresses the question of how to design a residential base building which can accommodate an optimal number and variety of fit-out unit layouts. The answer to the question links to the need for design constraints and points to their use in capacity analysis.The second part of the thesis focuses on the deduction of "constraint-designing" for Open Building residential layout. Plumbing systems, which are one of the most significant barriers to the application of Open Building, are specifically and more deeply studied in this part. A series of constraints are developed, which can generally assist in designing and analyzing floor plate capacity. . It is akin to learning to know the rules before starting a game.The third part of the thesis focuses on the demonstration of the uses of constraints in the design process of the conversion of an abandoned office building to residential uses.The last part of the thesis demonstrates the use of constraints and capacity analysis in a new multi-story condo project.In short, the paper is initially concerned with both the design concept and its application into detail levels in one of the many issues. It is a study of methods and technical rules of designing floor plan layouts when capacity analysis is the aim. / Department of Architecture

Backgroud: This master thesis is about discovering the concept of ‘Activity- Based Working (ABW)’ and its application to the specific case of IKEA. ABW is a phenomenon in office design and management. From a physical perspective, it discards private offices, desks and desktop computers assigned for individual’s permanent use (Parker, 2016). Instead, the office space is rearranged with various areas tailored for different work tasks, such as hubs for teamwork, meeting areas, cubicles, phone booths, workshop areas and more (Parker, 2016; Ditchburn, 2014). The application of ABW involves in the behavioral environment in addition to the physical one. The behavioral environment is aimed to encourage collaboration, creativity, team work and flexible working (Koetsveld & Kamperman, 2011). The concept of ABW is yet under-researched. The existing literature presents the driving factors of open-plan and partially activity-based workspaces from an organizational perspective. The driving factors and expected outcomes of ABW are steered by the work-related needs by the practitioners and scholars. The needs identified by scholars, which are leading companies to take an action towards ABW are mainly organizational needs. The empirical studies reveal positive and negative outcomes of activity- based way of working, affecting physical and behavioral environments of employees, without building a relationship between the work-related needs and the outcome. In addition, these studies are very limited and they do not cover the reflections of driving factors on employees. Addressing this gap, I want to add to the literature on office space by presenting an empirical case of IKEA, which combines the rationales and experiences of employees shortly after their workspace has been transformed to ABW. My purpose is not to point out the positive or negative experience, but to reveal employees’ interpretation of the new workspace and how they experience it. Research question: How do employees interpret the rationales around the transformation of their office space into ABW and how do they experience the ABW environment? Purpose: To investigate the lived experience of IKEA employees in a physically and behaviorally changing workspace and to problematize the relationship of the rationales and experiences of employees. Method: This research is an explorative case study. The data presented in findings is collected through semi-structured interviews. Thirteen interviews conducted in three different locations of IKEA. Conclusion: The study concluded as the lived experience of employees is not mainly parallel to the rationales of organization towards changing to an activity-based environment. The findings revealed a tension between the driving factors and the lived experience. Driving factors reflect what is planned by the organization; whereas the lived experience do not directly show the impact of driving factors on the outcome. The lived experience brings the attention to the social needs of employees to be considered in workspace.