This study was based on the assumption that classroom teachers were in an advantageous position to judge their principal's role behavior and their principal's administrative performance. The problem of this study was to determine whether or not significant differences existed between teachers' perceptions of their principal's role behavior; whether or not significant differences existed between teachers' perceptions of their principal's administrative performance; and whether or not there was any relationship between teachers' perceptions of their principal's role behavior and his administrative performance. The findings in this study led to the following conclusions: Factors such as sex, education level, teaching experience, school level, school size, and school district do not effect principal’s behavior or administrative performance. However, differences were found in teacher perceptions for teachers with 5 years or less of teaching experience, rural/urban school setting, principal’s sex don’t differ in their role behavior; differing instead in educational leadership ability. It is concluded that principals are least effective in the area of educational leadership when comparing the four areas of administrative decision-making, communications, general administrative behavior, and educational leadership. They are most effective in general administrative behavior. Principals, in general, tend to exhibit transactional behavior. The majority of teachers do not indicate that their principal's role behavior has any relationship to their administrative performance as school principals.

This is a conceptual dissertation which addresses itself to the criticism that the social systems framework is highly abstract and theoretical, and as such relevant only to academics and specialists. The primary purpose of this paper is to operationalise the social system framework, to illustrate its application and to highlight its unique potential. It represents an attempt to enlarge, even redefine, the frameworks used for studying and transforming organisations. In order to best highlight the differences between the social systems framework and other models implicit in traditional approaches, a specific component of organisation reality is focused on, namely the performance appraisal. After discussing and illustrating the models behind most research on the topic, an alternative holistic framework for performance appraisal is sketched. Following this, an actual performance improvement intervention is described in a case study. This provides a practical illustration of the points made in the paper. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology / M. Com. (Industrial Psychology)

This study reports on an investigation of the effects of two methods of teacher evaluation on the attitudes of teachers and principals concerning the method of teacher evaluation in which each subject participated. The data indicate several broad implications. Teachers who were evaluated by the CT method had a significantly more positive feeling that teacher evaluation is more likely to be used for the improvement of instruction than teachers who were evaluated by the ADT method. CT teachers also had a more positive attitude toward their evaluation as a professional process. CT teachers had a generally more positive attitude toward evaluation, Department Chairpersons/Lead Teachers, and the principal as an instructional leader than did the ADT teachers. However, these latter differences were not significant and represented only a general attitude. Principals showed no significant difference in their attitudes as affected by the two methods of teacher evaluation. Principals who had used both methods felt that the CT method provided them more opportunity to provide instructional leadership for their teachers. The findings indicate that, although the method of teacher evaluation may have no major impact on teacher attitudes, administrators who believe that teacher evaluation should be used to improve instruction need to consider using a team approach to the establishing of instructional goals for the purpose of evaluating teachers. Administrators who want their teachers to feel that teacher evaluation is a professional process would be better served by the Collegial Technique.

La inversión en avisaje y la forma en que se estructura la competencia entre los canales de televisión usualmente se basan en el rating promedio que alcanzan los programas y el perfil de audiencia que tiene cada uno, no obstante, actualmente existe un gran cuestionamiento sobre qué tan efectivo es el uso de dicha información, debido a su dificultad para determinar el nivel de compromiso de las audiencias. La gran mayoría de los estudios académicos realizados en Chile hasta el momento sobre audiencias y su comportamiento, se enfocan en explicar qué tipos de audiencia existen y qué tan atractivas son, excluyendo la incorporación de enfoques que permitan identificar el grado de compromiso con que las personas consumen televisión, pese a la particular importancia que tiene esta información para la industria televisiva y los avisadores. El presente estudio se basó en la evidencia empírica, en términos de consumo televisivo, para los cuatro principales canales de TV abierta en Chile, es decir, TVN, Mega, Chilevisión y Canal 13, durante el horario prime, particularmente entre las 22:30 y las 23:59 horas, buscando encontrar diferencias significativas entre los distintos tipos de programas emitidos en este horario, debido al gran crecimiento que este horario ha tenido y que concentra gran parte de la inversión publicitaria. Para lo anterior, se han empleado medidas de fidelidad, las que se basan en cuánto tiempo permanece cada espectador mirando un programa específico, mediante los datos entregados por el People Meter para cada uno de estos. La unidad de análisis fueron los programas emitidos por los canales antes mencionados, durante el periodo de estudio comprendido entre Noviembre del 2008 y Octubre de 2009. Los programas seleccionados fueron clasificados en base a su género, duración, canal y día de emisión. Se realizaron contrastes de medias de todas variables dependientes para determinar si existían diferencias significativas entre los distintos géneros, los distintos días de emisión, los distintos canales y las distintas duraciones de los programas. El análisis anterior, se realizó de forma agregada y por separado para cada segmento demográfico. Dentro de los hallazgos se encontró que mientras mayor es la duración de los programas se reduce la fidelidad. Adicionalmente, los géneros con mayores niveles de fidelidad corresponden a “Informativos y Reportajes”, “Series y Telenovelas” y a los “Realities y Docu-Realities”, pero mediante la clasificación por género no existen diferencias entre los niveles de audiencia o rating que tiene cada grupo de programas. También se pudo determinar que existen diferencias de fidelidad relacionadas a los contenidos y días de la semana, siendo particularmente el que los primeros días de la semana que poseen un mayor nivel de fidelidad, llegando a su punto más bajo de los días hábiles el día Viernes. En términos generales, se identificó que existe una relación positiva entre el rating y la fidelidad para los cuatro canales analizados, donde las variables son lideradas por TVN en todos los segmentos analizados, seguido por Canal 13 y posteriormente se encuentran Chilevisión y MEGA que compiten fuertemente a nivel de grupos etarios. Finalmente, se encontró que hay diferencias significativas en la fidelidad de hombres y mujeres, donde los primeros aparecen con menores índices de fidelidad y si es que se buscara el televidente tipo que muestra un mayor compromiso, éste sería una mujer, mayor de 50 años y perteneciente a un segmento socioeconómico bajo. Todos los hallazgos antes mencionados pueden en cierta forma facilitar la toma de decisiones de los avisadores sobre en qué programas y canales invertir con el fin de llegar a su target, ya que hace posible el reducir la incertidumbre del retorno de la inversión publicitaria en televisión al poseer ciertos lineamientos generales del comportamiento de las audiencias basándose en el rating y la fidelidad.

Master of Science / Civil Engineering / Hayder Rasheed / Reverse diagonal shear cracking at the supports of many reinforced concrete girders is a phenomenon affecting a number of KDOT’s low-volume bridges built in the early-to-mid 1900’s. This phenomenon is not addressed in the AASHTO Bridge Design Manual (2002) or ACI specifications. This study investigates the causes of this cracking and creates BRIDGE (Bridge Rating of Inclined Damage at Girder Ends), an Excel-based software to determine the load rating of a user specified bridge exhibiting reverse diagonal shear cracking at the girder supports. A user-interface is created which allows a user to create a grillage model of an existing bridge and to place various rating trucks on the bridge. Equivalent flexibility analysis is used to distribute the truck live loads from within the deck panels to the surrounding girders and diaphragms. Stiffness matrices are utilized to find the nodal displacements then the reactions at the girder supports caused by the truck live loads and bridge dead load. These reactions are checked against RISA software models to test the accuracy of the stiffness matrix application. ABAQUS FE models and Mohr’s circle stress distribution is used to find the driving and clamping forces on the crack. These forces are caused by resolving the dead and live load reactions and the friction force generated between the concrete girder and the rusty steel bearing pad along the shear crack orientation. These clamping and driving forces are used, along with the simplified modified compression field theory to determine the shear capacity of each girder at the reverse cracks. A modified version of Equation 6B.4.1 from the Manual for Bridge Evaluation (2011) is used to find the operating and inventory rating factors for the bridge.

M.Ed. / This study focuses on the performance of women principals in managing secondary schools. It emphasizes the styles of management and how it impacts on school effectiveness. Furthermore, the study highlights the barriers that hinder women performances especially, gender discrimination against women with regard to filling of senior post in secondary schools. One of the central themes that permeate studies on gender discrimination is the move towards eroding all forms of discrimination against women. Hitherto, women remain a minority gender in terms of management positions in education generally, and in secondary schools in particular. Attempts are made, through the implementation of policy documents to enforce the principle of gender equity. However, certain subtle discriminatory practices remain a barrier between the present state of affairs and a desired situation. This could be due to, inter alia, prejudice, stereotyping, cultural beliefs or even religious injunctions perpetuating women submissiveness. The amplified awareness of gender politics combined with challenges about gender equity in organizations such as schools remain a thorny concern in educational cycles. Today, women are becoming increasingly aware of the important role they can play in transforming of schools into institutions of excellence. This study has argued that although women may be discriminated against, they do possess essential tools to transform their schools into highly performing institutions. In an attempt to cross-examine the issue of gender discrimination, a qualitative research approach was employed to elicit the perceptions of women principals with regard to their management styles and how it impact on their performance. The research was conducted at different secondary schools in Johannesburg South district (D 11) of Gauteng. Purposive sampling was used for selection of the participants and the sites. Data was collected by means of individual interviews, supported by relevant research literature. The findings reveal that women principals in secondary schools are competent and do possess the necessary skills to manage secondary school effectively. With the necessary support to develop and enhance their management and leadership styles, women can become successful partners in transforming schools in institutions of learning.

The main part of this work has been a literature survey, reviewing scientifical reports forinformation on how steel cleanness is evaluated today, and also how the steel cleanness is related tothe fatigue performance of clean steels.

M.Ed. / Since the inception of education, assessment has Formed an integral part of the education system. Assessment in education implies the standard of applicability of assignments. Educational assessment serves to assess, grade and group teachers into categories by means of standardized guidelines. Schools where educational assessment is implemented, show clearly the constructive effect on pupils of this policy. Furthermore, it is abundantly clear that in these schools positive behavioural patterns are noted with teachers. Being subjected to continual assessment should result in enhanced professionalism in teachers. By being stimulated to assess themselves professionally, teachers will be motivated towards improving their own achievement with regard to work performance, professional development and towards fostering meaningful personal relationships with other members of the staff. In the past decades headmasters have become increasingly involved in identifying and training prospective leaders with promotion in mind. Selfassessment is imperative to the teacher who seeks promotion. The motivation and support eminating from the headmaster with regard to professional excellence, creativity and innovation will decide the extend to which his staff will respond to the inservice training opportunities provided for them. The movement towards instituting selfassessment facilities for the teacher manifests a new approach whereby the teacher can meaningfully come to terms with his own aspirations and realize his aspirations. Furthermore, the real leaders on the staff will be identified and future promotions can be realistically made. The character of a school is defined by the integrity of its training staff. The professional development of a teacher is what the managerial leader in a school is concerned about. A headmaster should be sensitive to the need in his staff to develop professionally: effective, meaningful and objective assessment on the part of the headmaster can stimulate professional growth in his staff. It follows therefore that self assessment, viewed objectively and maturely by all parties concerned, plays an important role towards establishing an accepted and effective method of teacher assessment.

M.Ed. (Educational Management) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Cur. (Professional Nursing) / The selection of student nurses is a major factor determining the standard of nursing education, of the nursing profession and the quality of health care provided to the community in which the nurse serves. Student nurses gain entry into the nursing profession through a selection system. These systems vary from country to country and even among universities and nursing colleges within the country. According to available research literature the most common criteria identified involve biographical, psychological and academic variables which most universities and nursing college utilise to select students. A survey was undertaken to identify these variables and subsequently criteria were drafted for the selection of students at a college in the Transvaal. From this survey certain biographical variables were identified that could not be utilised as selection criteria, since it could be seen as being biased and constituting a violation of the rights of the individual. The psychological variables identified could also not be utilised as this aspect was beyond the scope of this study. The only usable discriminant was the academic variable where certain subjects and grades were highlighted in selecting students. The Swedish rating scale was used to draft a formula as follows: • A candidate has to possess a matriculation/standard ten certificate with six subjects; • A mark is allocated to each subject and symbol; • These marks are added together. Extra weighting of the same mark would be added to the subject discriminants, namely English higher grade; Biology higher grade; Mathematics standard and higher grades; Physical Science standard and higher grades. These marks would be added together and a candidate would be selected if he/she had a mark of 35 or above.