Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Green skills'

The aim of the study was to investigate the role of the South African National Skills Fund (NSF) in responding to green skills training for the sake of better integration and optimal effectiveness in relation to the green economy in South Africa. The NSF is a multi-billion rand fund for skills development, with the responsibility to respond effectively to the country’s skills development needs. Part of the NSF’s mandate is to ensure the development of green skills in South Africa, with special reference to the allocation of grants, as a key mechanism in ensuring adherence to properly governed skills development funding requirements. This study considers the identification of green skills funding as a skills planning and implementation challenge within the post-school education and training context, the NSF, the green economy and related skills debates, both locally and globally. The study contributes to a growing body of research in South Africa that seeks a wider systemic perspective on green skills concerns. The NSF and its functioning is a critical dimension of the wider skills system and is a significant system element influencing further emergence of a coherent national system for green skills development. Providing further rationale for this study is the 2011 finding of the International Labour Organisation, that the green skills development system in South Africa is re-active and poorly systematised, a finding that was also noted in the first ever Environmental Sector Skills Plan for South Africa undertaken by the Department of Environmental Affairs in 2010. As the study is mainly focused on one aspect of the policy system, namely the NSF’s role in green skills funding, the bulk of the data used in this study is documentary. Research information was obtained from NSF documentary sources to describe the NSF organisationally. Information was also obtained from green skills documentary sources to obtain a better understanding of the nature and purpose of the development of green skills in South Africa. The study has also drawn on references related to grant management as a mechanism for seeding meaningful transformations and skills development research in South Africa to understand the skills development landscape, with special reference to the Department of Higher Education and Training’s (DHET) post-school education and training system. Documentary data was supplemented by selected key respondent interviews from the skills sector and from the green skills research community to provide further perspective on the research focus. Critical realism (CR) is utilised as a meta-theoretical framework that seeks to inform the overall academic reflection and interpretation process. The work of Danermark, Ekström, Jakobsen and Karlsson (2002), which describes the process of data analysis in critical realism, was adapted into a four-phased research approach for this particular policy study, which I framed as a Quadrilateral Policy Analysis Framework (QPAF). This provided a data analysis framework which allowed for taking account of the mechanisms shaping the NSF as an important systemic funding agency within South Africa’s emerging post-school education and training context, as this relates to green skills. However, to further analyse this research question and context, I needed to work with substantive policy theory. Given the nature of the policy object that I was investigating, I found Feiock’s (2013) Institutional Collective Action Framework to be a helpful substantive policy theory as it has adequate nuance with which I could describe the NSF’s core function, namely that of grant-making for the post-schooling policy context. Based on the critical realist meta-theoretical framework and the substantive policy theoretical frameworks, I developed four phases of analysis, namely a) descriptive analysis which is divided into Part A (describing the green skills landscape and its funding demands ) and Part B (describing the NSF as it relates to green skills); b) component analysis which further analyses key components of the above; c) abductive policy analysis which identifies critical mechanisms and how they operate; and d) generative mechanism analysis which identifies the underlying generative mechanisms shaping the NSF’s engagement with green skills (or lack thereof). The following main findings are identified: • It emerged that the responsiveness of the NSF to green skills is emergent, essential and yet multifaceted due to competing stakeholder interests, expectations and claims; • Key strategic relations with critical role players within South Africa’s skills levy funding matrix emerged as a fundamental requirement towards the achievement of the NSF’s organisational mandate to respond effectively to national green skills needs and expectations; • Contracting is the central mechanism driving the NSF grant-making process. Related to this is the finding that partnerships emerged as the most versatile and underutilised mechanism that cuts across all four of the NSF grant-making phases; • The NSF’s current method of making sense of funding policy indications as per national policy documents is too reductionist because the method betrays an alignment-mirroring form of sense-making awareness that uncritically endorses substratum philosophical assumptions like Human Capital Theory (HCT) and associated neoclassical economic theories embedded in the policy frameworks. These assumptions contradict and potentially limit engagement with wider theories and policy frameworks for guiding skills development that are oriented towards the wider common good as argued by non-anthropocentric orientations in critical realism and the green skills sector. In summary, an argument is put forward that the NSF is a key funding mechanism towards green skills delivery in South Africa, but that this funding mechanism is under-utilised and inadequately mobilised for transitioning towards sustainability in South Africa. The study recommends that, in pursuit of better integration and optimal effectiveness thereof and in line with the fund’s legislative, organisational and public mandate, a consensual negotiation skills planning mechanism be considered from an institutional collective action response platform. In terms of recommendations for further research, it is proposed that a comparative analysis study could be considered between the NSF and other leading global funding agencies or other national skills funding mechanisms that are also concerned with the inclusion of green skills development. Comparative studies of this nature could potentially enhance the fund’s policy-making process and assist in the development of more appropriate institutional arrangements towards optimal funding responsiveness. Lastly, in the light of the NSF’s current contribution to green skills in the country, an impact evaluation study on the return on green skills investment presents an additional intriguing research endeavour which would contribute further perspective on the arguments presented in this study.

[ES] Los resultados previsibles de la transición hacia economías con bajas emisiones de carbono son múltiples y afectan de diferentes maneras a los responsables del diseño y la gestión de las políticas públicas, las regiones del mundo, las empresas y los consumidores. Se ha reconocido que en el centro de esta transición están las innovaciones medioambientales que se desarrollan para mejorar la sostenibilidad a largo plazo del crecimiento económico. Los principales pilares de esta tesis son dos. En primer lugar, los desafíos ambientales son diversos, al igual que las respuestas que se necesitan para afrontarlos. La consecuencia principal de esto es que el enfoque actual en la tecnología verde como un bloque homogéneo de entidades indiferenciadas es engañoso. En segundo lugar, el trabajo humano es lo que en última instancia lleva a cabo la adaptación de los sistemas de producción y distribución. En consecuencia, analizar la transición hacia sociedades sostenibles desde un punto de vista medioambiental exige una comprensión profunda de cómo se diseñan, implementan y cambian las actividades laborales para acomodarse a nuevos imperativos políticos y / o nuevas oportunidades tecnológicas. Las evidencias empíricas sobre uno o ambos pilares son escasas o fragmentadas. La presente tesis trata de llenar estas lagunas desarrollando una base de datos global sobre ``patentes verdes'', una medida del ciclo de vida de las tecnologías y las consiguientes investigaciones para analizar la relación entre la producción de tecnologías verdes, las características del territorio y la base de competencias de la mano de obra en el tiempo y el espacio. El primer paso es la identificación de patentes verdes en PATSTAT 2016a utilizando la clasificación ENV-TECH (OECD, 2016) y geolocalizando sus inventores. El resultado es una base de datos que cubre la innovación mundial desde el siglo XIX hasta 2015, aunque el periodo estudiado es menor: 1970-2010. Este conjunto de datos permite una primera aproximación a la evolución de las tecnologías verdes en el tiempo y el espacio, donde podemos apreciar diferencias en la evolución de los países y entre las tecnologías desde el punto de vista de la complejidad, quizás relacionadas con la presencia de un cuerpo heterogéneo de tecnologías emergentes y maduras. Para entrar más a fondo en esta hipótesis, desarrollamos una metodología para medir las etapas del ciclo de vida de las tecnologías, y la utilizamos para entender los patrones de producción de tecnologías verdes a nivel de países. Encontramos que las capacidades son más importantes que la riqueza para diversificarse en innovación verde, y que las tecnologías maduras están positivamente asociadas con la especialización en estas tecnologías. Continuamos la exploración de la relación entre las capacidades locales, el ciclo de vida y la producción de patentes en los estados federales de Estados Unidos dónde descubrimos que la innovación verde esta más asociada con la recombinación de conocimientos distantes, en particular al principio del ciclo de vida. Finalmente, investigamos los efectos de las compras públicas sobre la innovación verde al nivel de las ``commuting zones'' (áreas urbanas funcionales) de Estados Unidos, tomando en cuenta de nuevo las capacidades locales, pero esta vez utilizando las competencias del mercado laboral en lugar de la variedad de la recombinación del conocimiento. Descubrimos que la compra pública verde tiene un efecto positivo y significativo, en particular en territorios con una parte importante de competencias abstractas en la población activa.
[CAT] Els resultats previsibles de la transició cap a economies baixes en emissions de carboni són múltiples i afecten de diferents maneres als responsables del disseny i la gestió de les polítiques públiques, les regions del món, les empreses i els consumidors. S'ha reconegut que en el centre d'aquesta transició estan les innovacions mediambientals que es desenvolupen per a millorar la sostenibilitat a llarg termini del creixement econòmic. Els principals pilars d'aquesta tesi són dos. En primer lloc, els desafiaments ambientals són diversos, igual que les respostes que es necessiten per a afrontar-los. La conseqüència principal d'això és que l'enfocament actual en la tecnologia verda com un bloc homogeni d'entitats indiferenciades és enganyós. En segon lloc, el treball humà és el que en última instància porta a terme l'adaptació dels sistemes de producció i distribució. En conseqüència, analitzar la transició cap a societats sostenibles des d'un punt de vista mediambiental exigeix una comprensió profunda de com es dissenyen, implementen i canvien les activitats laborals per a acomodar-se a nous imperatius polítics i / o noves oportunitats tecnològiques. Les evidències empíriques sobre un o ambdós pilars són escasses o fragmentades. La present tesi tracta d'omplir aquests buits desenvolupant una base de dades global sobre ``patents verdes'', una mesura del cicle de vida de les tecnologies i les consegüents investigacions per a analitzar la relació entre la producció de tecnologies verdes, les característiques del territori i la base de competències de la mà d'obra en el temps i l'espai. El primer pas és la identificació de patents verdes en PATSTAT 2016a utilitzant la classificació ENV-TECH (OECD, 2016) i la geolocalització dels seus inventors. El resultat és una base de dades que cobreix la innovació mundial des del segle XIX fins a 2015, encara que el període estudiat és menor: 1970-2010. Aquest conjunt de dades permet una primera aproximació a l'evolució de les tecnologies verdes en el temps i l'espai, on podem apreciar diferències en l'evolució dels països i entre les tecnologies des del punt de vista de la complexitat, probablement relacionades amb la presència d'un cos heterogeni de tecnologies emergents i madures. Per a entrar més a fons en aquesta hipòtesi, desenvolupem una metodologia per a mesurar les etapes del cicle de vida de les tecnologies, i la utilitzem per a entendre els patrons de producció de tecnologies verdes a nivell de països. Trobem que les capacitats són més importants que la riquesa per a diversificar-se en innovació verda, i que les tecnologies madures estan positivament associades amb l'especialització en aquestes tecnologies. També explorem la relació entre les capacitats locals, el cicle de vida i la producció de patents en els estats federals dels Estats Units on descobrim que la innovació verda està més associada amb la recombinació de coneixements distants, en particular al principi del cicle de vida. Finalment, investiguem els efectes de les compres públiques sobre la innovació verda al nivell de les ``commuting zones'' (àrees urbanes funcionals) dels Estats Units, prenent en compte de nou les capacitats locals, però aquesta vegada utilitzant les competències del mercat laboral en lloc de la varietat de la recombinació del coneixement. Descobrim que la compra pública verda té un efecte positiu i significatiu, en particular en territoris amb una part important de competències abstractes en la població laboral.
[EN] The foreseeable outcomes of the transition towards low-carbon economies are multiple and affect in different ways policy-makers, world regions, firms and consumers. It has long been acknowledged that at the core of this transition stand environmental innovations which are developed to enhance the long-term sustainability of economic growth. The main pillars of this study are two. First, environmental challenges are different, and so are the responses that are needed to tackle them. The main consequence of this is that the current focus on green technology as a homogeneous block of undifferentiated entities is misleading. Second, the adaptation of production and distribution systems is ultimately carried through by human labour and analysing the transition to environmentally sustainable societies requires a thorough understanding of how work activities are designed, implemented and changed to accommodate new policy imperatives and/or new technological opportunities. Empirical evidence on either of these two pillars is scant or fragmented. The present thesis seeks to fill these gaps through the development of a database on green innovations, of a measure of the life cycle of green technologies, and of the corresponding explorations to scrutinize the relation between green technology production, the territories' characteristics and skills' base of labour market over time and space. The dataset is created identifying green patent in PATSTAT 2016a database using ENV-TECH classification (OECD, 2016) and geolocalizing their inventors. The result is a database covering green innovation worldwide from the 19$^{th}$ century to 2015, even if the period studied is smaller: 1970-2010. This dataset permits a first overview of green technologies evolution over time and space, where we can see differences in terms of country evolution and among technologies in terms of complexity, maybe related with the presence of an heteregeneous body of emerging and mature technologies. To explore further this hypothesis, we develop a methodology to measure technology life cycle stages, and we apply it to understand the patterns of evolution of green technology production at country level. We find that capabilities are more important than wealth to diversify in green innovation, and mature green technologies are positively associated with specialization. We continue the exploration of the relation between local capabilities, life cycle and patent activity in US federal states where we discover that green innovation is more associated than innovation in general with the recombination of distant knowledge, especially in early phases of the life cycle. Finally, we investigate at US commuting zones level the effects of public procurement on green innovation, taking into account local capabilities again, but using labour market skills instead of knowledge recombination variety. We find that green public procurement has a positive and significant effect, in particular in territories with an important share of abstract skills in labour population.
Perruchas, F. (2019). Green Innovation: an empirical analysis of technology, skills and policy [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/119965
TESIS

Cette thèse fournit une illustration numérique de la façon dont une taxe carbone pourrait affecter le PIB, l’emploi, les émissions de CO2 et les inégalités socio-économiques en Afrique du Sud. Elle utilise un modèle d’équilibre général calculable « hybride » en économie ouverte par projection en un seul pas de temps de 2005 à 2035. Le modèle représente des économies de second rang, notamment des rigidités sur le marché du travail liées aux niveaux de qualification et dans la production électrique. Sept scénarios basés sur des modalités différentes de recyclage de la taxe carbone sont analysés, plus une option d’investir une partie des revenus de la taxe dans l’amélioration des qualifications de la force de travail.L’analyse montre que sous hypothèse standard de changement technique, une taxe carbone de 100 ZAR par tonne de CO2 environ a peu d’impact négatif sur le PIB et l’emploi lorsqu’elle est associée à un mode de recyclage des revenus approprié : subventionner le facteur travail et réduire les taxes sur les profits des entreprises pourrait conduire aux meilleurs résultats macroéconomiques, mais ne réduit pas les inégalités. Des mesures supplémentaires sont nécessaires pour réduire la « pauvreté énergétique ». Pour atteindre le NDC d’Afrique du Sud au titre de l’Accord de Paris, un taux de taxe d’environ 300 ZAR ou 55$ par tonne de CO2 serait nécessaire. Toutefois, un tel taux pourrait avoir un impact significatif sur la croissance du PIB. En même temps, sans changement de la tendance de croissance de la productivité du travail, ce PIB plus faible conduirait à un chômage plus élevé que dans le cas de référence. Une politique d’investissement de 7.5 milliards de ZAR de revenus carbone dans les qualifications de la main d’œuvre, avec l’objectif d’augmenter l’accès à la formation de haut niveau et de réduire le manque de salariés très qualifiés, pourrait avoir un effet très positif sur la croissance du PIB.Le progrès technologique, les préférences des consommateurs et le contexte international, limitent la capacité de l’économie à se restructurer et se décarboner et incidemment à réduire les impacts négatifs de la taxe carbone sur la croissance du PIB. Une véritable évaluation du changement technologique futur serait pertinente pour tous les secteurs et facteurs de production. Ces résultats impliquent aussi que la politique climatique internationale doit traiter la question des transferts de technologie et celles des potentiels différents de décarbonation sérieuse à l’échelle nationale
This PhD thesis gives a numerical illustration of how a carbon tax affects South African GDP, employment, CO2 emissions and socio-economic inequality. It uses a “hybrid” computable general equilibrium model of an open economy in a one-step projection from 2005 to 2035. It models second-best economies, notably skill-related rigidities in the labour market and in production of electricity. Seven scenarios for recycling of carbon tax revenue are analysed, plus an option to invest a part of tax revenue in improvement of skills of labour.The analysis shows that under conventional assumptions about technological change, a carbon tax of around 100 ZAR2005 (18 USD2013) per tonne of CO2 will have little negative consequences for GDP and employment, when combined with the right type of tax revenue recycling: Labour subsidies and company profit tax reduction likely lead to the best macro-economic outcomes, though do not reduce inequality. Additional measures are needed to reduce “energy poverty”. To achieve South Africa’s NDC of the Paris Agreement, a carbon tax rate of around 300 ZAR2005 or 55 USD2013 per tonne of CO2 is necessary. However, this could have serious impacts on GDP growth. Also, without a change in the trend of increasing labour productivity, such lower GDP will lead to higher unemployment than in the reference case. An investment in skills of 7.5 billion ZAR2005 of annual Ctax revenue, with the objective of increasing access to high quality education and reducing the high skill labour shortage, if fond to have a very positive impact on GDP growth. However better calibration data is required.The findings of this PhD thesis furthermore call for thorough examination of what type of technological change could be expected for South Africa. Technological progress, consumer preferences and international circumstances limit the economy’s capacity to restructure and decarbonise and therefore to reduce negative consequences of carbon taxation for GDP growth. Proper assessment of future technological change is relevant for all sectors and inputs. Examples are given which show that energy and materials efficiency have an important role for future GDP growth under carbon constraints, because they determine the economy’s flexibility to reduce energy consumption and to substitute it, e.g. by labour. This finding normally holds not only for South Africa, but also for the rest of the world. These results also imply that international climate policy has to address technology transfer and the different potentials of national economies to decarbonise seriously

This case study is guided by a social realist research approach. It is an investigation into if and how the Environmental Literacy Skills Programme (ESLP) responds to Working for Water learners' capabilities and the enabling and constraining factors that shape these, and to the demands of the WfW training setting in an emerging Green Economy. The context for the study is that of the Working for Water programme, an Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) run under the auspices of the Department of Environmental Affairs in South Africa. The study took place while piloting the newly created ELSP materials with a group of beneficiaries and contractors in Uitenhage, a town in South Africa's Eastern Cape Province. The study provides insights into the application of accredited training in an EPWP training environment, and critically considers the academic and practical suitability of the ELSP in the WfW context. It achieves this by considering how the ELSP seeks to respond to the education levels and experiences of contractors and beneficiaries, and the demands of the WfW training setting. To understand what underpins learner capabilities and experiences, it was necessary to investigate the conversion factors and enabling and constraining factors that influence WfW contractor and beneficiary capabilities and involvement in the ELSP training in the context of an emerging Green Economy. To develop these insights, data was gathered through participant observation, questionnaires, structured and semi-structured interviews, as well as document analysis. The theoretical framework of Amartya Sen's (1999) Capability Approach supports the study, which provides an alternative way of understanding the freedoms that people enjoy, or the lack of freedom they experience, in being able to live the kind of life they have reason to value. The Capability Approach provides the key concept of resource conversion, which is used in the study to discern the social, personal and environmental constraints and enablers that people experience in their lives. These either assist or dis-enable a person in converting a resource such as education, into a functioning such as desired employment. Through a social realist causal analysis model, key structures are identified that underpin the actions of beneficiaries and contractors in relation to their learning and career pathways. The study shows that while the ELSP does support the development of green skills and in part responds to learner capabilities (and enabling and constraining conversion factors), there is a lack of information as to where those skills can be applied in elementary green occupations, in part due to South Africa's focus on high-skills development linked to Green Economy objectives. The study makes recommendations for aligning environmental education with career guidance, as well as a recommendation for further detailed research into identifying elementary green occupations and associated learning pathways.

This thesis looks at how Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) be carried out to help society move towards sustainability. It starts by introducing the reader into the essential concepts about Strategic Sustainable Development (SSD), Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), TVET, and the barriers to integrating ESD into TVET. It also provides information about the case study conducted in a TVET organization in Ireland which is integrating ESD into TVET. The thesis presents the key aspects that TVET organization need to have in order to successfully support SSD and it also provides a definition of success which is developing a workforce skilled for sustainability where sustainability is defined by the four sustainability principles. After presenting the key aspects, it looks at the strengths and weaknesses, in the lens of the key aspects, of the case study and three other TVET organizations. It later provides with recommendations based on the challenges found integrating ESD into TVET and the presented key aspects in order for TVET organizations to reach the vision of success.

Telma Gomes - phone: 0736280415 - tegomes@uol.com.br Victor Samuel Brizuela - samworks@gmail.com Chen Chen Gu -guchenchen880309@163.com,

This thesis addresses the problem of facilitating learning by the use of information skills in Greek schools. It examines the interrelationship between the teaching of information skills and the need for a re-orientation of educational priorities and objectives for Greek education.

The thesis critiques the current practice of green facades in terms of a broader range of opportunities they might realize. It analyses the current practice of green facades as to the different types, construction systems, and relationship with the immediate context. It also identifies a series opportunities related to six areas: human comfort; expressive capacity; air & water quality; indoor outdoor relationship; urban biodiversity; and carbon neutral architecture. This thesis develops a green facades framework that enables the critique and evaluation of the different existing types of green facades in terms of the extent to which they accomplish such opportunities, facilitating a determination of their appropriateness to different conditions, solar orientations, and user needs. This same framework also intends to improve the current practice of green facades by assisting designers to define a particular green facades.
Applied Science, Faculty of
Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of
Graduate

The aim of this thesis is to explore the response of Greek Higher Education (HE) Institutes to the rapidly-changing global evolutions that lead to the introduction of skills and competences (professional skills) within accounting courses. The introduction of professional skills in HE accounting courses constitutes a "paradigm shift" and signifies the transformation of future accountants (especially management accountants) from "bean counters to business advisors and successful management team members" who will be capable of supporting their employers to overcome global challenges and take informed decisions. The European Union and the Bologna Process have devoted considerable resources and efforts, through the establishment of European Higher Education Area (EHEA) and the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS), to promote professional skills and competences and, through them, the employability prospects of HE graduates. The thesis employs the New Institutional Sociology (NIS; DiMaggio and Powell, 1983, 1991) combined with the typology of Oliver (1991) with regard to the increasing privatisation of HE (Meyer and Rowan, 2006) and specifically institutional isomorphism (coercive, mimetic, normative) as a tool to analyse the pressures and barriers to skills introduction in HE accounting courses. The study employs a Mixed Methods Methodology and a 3-Phase Sequential Exploratory Design (Creswell and Plano Clark, 2007) to investigate the views of three groups of stakeholders: accounting teachers, business administration and accounting students and accountants, via interviews, questionnaires, documentary analysis, web-based research, and informal discussions. The main findings are: Professional skills are considered important by all stakeholders in Greece, but a gap exists between the importance assigned to skills and their delivery by the educational process. The skill in most need of attention is "the ability for students to identify and solve unstructured problems". There are convergent and divergent isomorphic pressures regarding the introduction of professional skills in H.E accounting courses, both internal and external. The internal divergent isomorphic pressures come from three groups: the educational system (i.e. lack of communication, support and motivation), the teachers (i.e. non-reflective practices, lack of training), and the students (i.e. absenteeism, cultural and educational background). The external divergent isomorphic pressures come from the market (i.e. structure and attitude), the state (i.e. tax system) and the employers (i.e. ignorance). The convergent isomorphic pressures are exerted on an individual, organisational and national level and are identified as institutional (coercive, normative, mimetic, normative-mimetic and mimetic-coercive) as well as competitive pressures. Greek HE Institutions have so far adopted strategies of defiance, manipulation, avoidance and compromise in response to skills introduction.

This thesis investigates the performance of Greek preschool children with SLI on morphosyntactic and phonological short-term memory measures. The aims were twofold: (A) to identify areas of exceptional difficulty that could contribute to the diagnosis of SLI in Greek, and (B) to shed light on theoretical issues pertaining to the nature of SLI, and specifically: 1) whether language development in SLI can be characterised as delayed or deviant, and 2) whether the deficits observed can be better accounted for within a domain-specific (linguistic) or a domain-general (processing) account.

Thesis advisor: Frank Gollop
Can an emissions tax reduce the carbon footprint of U.S. domestic air travel without hurting the vitality of the industry? This empirical analysis models the U.S. domestic airline industry using a structural equations system and simulates the effects of a hypothetical carbon emissions tax on the market for U.S. air travel. The price elasticity of demand for air travel in the long-haul U.S. domestic passenger market substantiates that a low level environmental policy would not cause unmanageable harm to the airlines or consumers. This thesis is a practical, quantitative analysis of the feasibility of an environmental policy for U.S. aviation
Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2011
Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences
Discipline: Economics Honors Program
Discipline: Economics

This thesis examines the current trends in skilled immigration to the U.S.: who is coming, why, and what are they doing here? The current competitive environment for attracting these skilled workers among competitor nations like Australia and Canada is assessed, and possibilities for reform that enable the U.S. to attract the right talent, minimize costs to domestic workers, and maintain dominance in international research and development are explored.

Assignment of lexical stress to the appropriate syllable is an integral part of reading polysyllabic words. The attention of reading research and computational modelling of reading has recently shifted from the monosyllabic to the polysyllabic domain, hence making more apparent the need to understand the stress assignment process. The great amount of cross-linguistic variability regarding the type and the amount of information that each language provides to its readers about stress position indicates that the stress assignment mechanism is not a uniform process among different languages. Research on the stress assignment mechanism investigates how diverse sources of information on stress position in each language interact with and shape the process of assigning stress to polysyllabic words. The main focus of this thesis was to enhance theoretical knowledge regarding stress assignment by collecting and analysing data in two languages with quite distinct linguistic characteristics regarding stress, namely, Greek and English. The sources of information on stress position can be generally summarised in lexical contributions by access to the stored position of stress for each word in the mental representations, the explicit indication of stress position by orthographic stress marks, and language-dependent statistical regularities between orthography and/or phonology and stress position. In Greek, stress position is explicitly and consistently marked orthographically by means of a diacritic over the vowel of the stressed syllable but only in lower and not uppercase words. Hence, it provides an ideal platform for investigations with naturalistic manipulations of the availability of this information through manipulation of case. A default metrical bias to stress a specific syllable, the prefinal, has also been observed. With the utilisation of reading aloud and lexical decision experiments, it was investigated: 1) how the different sources of information interact with each other; 2) how the shift in reading strategies has an impact on this mechanism; and 3) within the framework of a computationally implemented theory of reading, what levels of representation stress is encoded at. Experiments with Greek skilled readers in reading aloud showed that the stress assignment mechanism is directly dependent upon shifts of processing strategies in reading with lexical processing encouraging the extraction of stress position information directly from the lexicon. The default bias was also found to be active and dominant in the absence of other sources but also of relatively limited contributions when the other sources are present. Effects of case type of presentation were also disentangled from any potential effects from the availability of the diacritics. Case type was found to have an independent role in reading regardless whether this coincides with the presence of stress marks (in lowercase) or not (in uppercase). Experiments with skilled readers in visual word recognition showed evidence that stress is a multifaceted feature encoded in several levels of representation in the reading system, including as an independent unit processed at the letter level, stored in the phonological representations, and embedded in the orthographic representations of known words. Additionally, statistical analyses of the statistical characteristics of Greek orthography, which eventually led to the development of a new psycholinguistic database (Kyparissiadis, van Heuven, Pitchford & Ledgeway, 2017), showed that, in similarity with other languages such as English, the orthographic patterns in the endings of Greek words can be associated with specific stress positions. It remains to be investigated whether such regularities have a behavioural dimension and inform the stress mechanism as an additional source of information on stress assignment. This has been shown in other languages that present similar regularities. Furthermore, it was shown that the default metrical bias, which has universally been accounted as the result of a statistical preponderance of stress on a specific syllable, does not present a uniform statistical dominance in Greek. The process of adding part-of-speech information to the database elucidated that not all grammatical categories are predominantly stressed on the default position. In contrast to other languages, in which readers have been shown to be sensitive to the shift of statistical regularities within different subsets of the language’s battery, a lexical decision experiment in Greek showed uniform conformance of readers to the default bias even in a subset or words that does not present this statistical dominance. This raises questions regarding the origins of the default bias and warrants further investigations. In English, in conjunction to lexical retrieval, stress assignment is argued to be heavily affected by associations between orthography and the stressed syllable. Investigations on the default metrical bias in English have given rise to inconsistent results. Direct comparison of the contributions of the default mechanism against lexical activations in stress assignment showed no evidence for a default pattern being active in English reading in the presence of lexical information. However, the shifting of stressing strategies induced by a subsequent implicit priming experiment suggests that stress assignment through lexical access can be still affected by sublexical processes. Computational simulations with a leading computational model of reading showed a heavier reliance of the model on lexical contributions rather than orthographic information when these two sources where contrasted against each other. However, the model showed sub-optimal performance when simulating the behavioural results of the first experiment in English reported above. The reasons behind this inefficiency of a model that is able to simulate a wide range of behavioural patterns are considered and discussed. Finally, results of simulations from a preliminary word recognition model in Greek are presented and future directions for these modelling investigations are discussed. Overall, the results of this body of research indicate the stress assignment mechanism is multi-facetted and language-dependent. This has implications for universal models of written word recognition and reading aloud that future research will need to address.

A developed seamless extreme heat validation approach (Ford et al. 2018) is applied to three Subseasonl Experiment’s (SubX’s) medium-range forecast models, which arethe U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Earth System Research Laboratory FIM-iHYCOM (ESRL), the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Earth System Research Laboratory’s Goddard Earth Observing System Atmosphere-Ocean General Circulation Model, Version 5 (GMAO), and the U.S. National Centers for Environmental Prediction’s Global Ensemble Forecast System, version 11 (GEFS), for evaluating their heat wave predictability. Moreover, two land surface initializations, green vegetation fraction (GVF) and heat fluxes (LE/H), of each model are evaluated for understanding the interaction between heat wave predictability and the inconsistencies in the terrestrial segment of land-atmosphere feedbacks. The validation approach shows the overestimated autocorrelation of maximum temperature heat waves causing (1) the lowest reliability and overestimation of heat waves hindcasts, (2) lower heat wave hindcast skill of ensemble mean, and (3) higher discrimination between heat wave hindcast and observations of each ensemble member over lead times for all three models. Both ESRL and GEFS present the relationship between GVF and heat wave hindcast is positive, but negative relationship is shown on the GMAO. In addition, both ESRL and GEFS modelsunderestimate latent heat flux, but overestimate sensible heat flux in the Midwest. Therefore, for both ESRL and GEFS models, the relationship between heat wave and sensible heat fluxes (or GVF) is positive, and negative for the relationship between heat wave and latent heat flux (or evapotranspiration). In contrast, the GMAO model overestimates both latent and sensible heat fluxes in the Midwest. Therefore, for the GMAO model, the relationship between heat wave and latent/sensible heat fluxes (or GVF) is positive, and negative for the relationship between heat wave and evapotranspiration.

Background: Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) describes children with a difficulty to acquire age-specific motor skills. Although there is a significant body of literature addressing developmental and cognitive issues in children with DCD, few studies have actually examined the associations between DCD, physical activity and physical fitness. Therefore, the aim of the present research work was to assess these associations in a series of four successive studies which were set: a) (study 1) to estimate DCD prevalence rates in Greek children and investigate whether these children exhibit different obesity and cardiorespiratory fitness levels than an overseas sample, b) (study 2) to provide evidence on the association between DCD and physical fitness levels, c) (study 3) examine whether a motor skills and exercise training intervention programme affects motor proficiency in a cohort of elementary school children with and without DCD, and d) (study 4) to test the hypothesis that DCD is associated with CVD risk, identify modes of physical activity that mediate such an association and to evaluate the CSAPPA scale as a potential tool for identifying Greek children for DCD. Methods: The total of 574 Greek (Age: 11.46 ± 1.54 years; BMI: 19.96 ± 3.53) children were assessed for anthropometry, physical fitness (flexibility, hand strength, leg explosive power, speed and cardiorespiratory fitness), motor competence (i.e., short form of the Bruininks-Oseretsky Test of Motor Profiency- BOTMP-sf) and subjected to two self assessments for: i) perception of adequacy for physical activity (CSAPPA scale), and ii) children’s participation in physical activity (Participation Questionnaire - PQ). Results: Study 1: Greek children demonstrated significantly higher DCD prevalence rates (p<0.05), higher body fat (p<0.05) and were inferior in both cardiorespiratory fitness (p<0.05) and motor competence (p<0.05) compared to an overseas sample. Study 2: Greek children with DCD demonstrated significantly higher BMI values (p<0.01) and lower leg explosive power (p<0.01), speed (p<0.01) and hand strength (p<0.01) than those without DCD. Study 3: Results showed a significant main effect of time [F(14, 115) = 3.79, p< 0.001; η2 = 0.32] for motor competence (p<0.001) between children with and without DCD. Significant main effects of group (i.e intervention and control groups) [F(42, 351) = 4.01, p< 0.001; η2 = 0.33] were observed for BMI (p<0.01), motor competence (p<0.01), cardiorespiratory fitness (p<0.01), hand strength (p<0.05), leg explosive power (p<0.05), speed (p<0.01), and free time play activities (p<0.05). Study 4: Chi-square comparisons and ANOVA, revealed significantly increased body mass (p<0.05), BMI (p<0.05) and inactivity (p<0.05), as well as significantly decreased cardiorespiratory fitness (p<0.05), motor competence (p<0.05), CSAPPA indices, and participation in free play (p<0.05) in children with DCD. Furthermore, BMI and cardiorespiratory fitness were significantly associated with motor competence (p<0.05) with inactivity as the mediating factor (p<0.05). ROC curve analyses for CSAPPA indicated an optimal cut-off at 62 points. Conclusions: 1) the relatively high DCD and obesity prevalence rates together with the low cardiorespiratory fitness suggest greater health risk for Greek children with the studied condition, 2) children with DCD tend to perform worse in selected physical fitness parameters compared to their normal peers, 3) motor skills and exercise training interventions for children with DCD may improve health and skills related fitness, and 4) inactivity mediates the relationship between DCD and CVD risk in children with DCD. Finally, the CSAPPA scale may serve as a practical and a cost-effective proxy assessment for identifying Greek children with DCD, however as this is not a standardised test for use with children, its use should be treated with caution until further validation work.

The aim of this thesis was three-fold: firstly, to examine the development of reading and spelling abilities in the Greek language; secondly, to identify the cognitive predictors of reading and spelling skills; and finally, to establish how developmental dyslexia is manifested in the regular Greek orthography. An extensive battery of cognitive, linguistic, and literacy tasks was administered to 132 children: 66 Grade-2 and 66 Grade-4 Greek-speaking children attending four different schools in Athens, Greece. The battery included: tests of reading, spelling, and mathematical attainment; a nonword reading task, various phonological awareness & other phonological processing tests; a non-verbal intelligence test and various syntactic awareness tasks. Evidence on the manifestation of developmental dyslexia in Greek was based on a chronological-age and a reading-level matched-pairs comparison between poor and average readers. Despite a large number of difficult polysyllabic word stimuli, reading accuracy was at ceiling for most subjects. Reading speed proved a more effective measure of individual differences. A high degree of accuracy was also observed on many phonological awareness tests. Rapid naming, phonological awareness and speech rate proved the most important predictors of reading ability in the regular Greek language. The predictive value of many variables/tests, however, appeared to differ between English and Greek. Phonological awareness - the most powerful and stable predictor in English - appeared to be a reliable predictor of reading ability only at the initial stages of literacy development (Grade-2). The most significant predictor at Grade-4 was rapid naming. Speech rate consistently predicted reading skill in all our analyses. Syntactic awareness proved not a reliable predictor. Its contribution was significant only for spelling ability at Grade-4. The matched-pair comparisons supported the above results. Results are discussed in relation to the existing differences in the orthographic structure of the English and Greek languages. It is suggested that the examination of linguistic differences is important, both, from a theoretical and clinical point of view.

College students engage in high levels of excessive drinking and certain subpopulations of college students, such as members of Greek Letter Organizations (GLOs) report higher levels of excessive alcohol consumptions. Those who report less excessive drinking also report counting their drinks and setting drink limits. However, the effectiveness of these strategies may be improved by the ability to accurately identify and pour standard servings of alcohol, an area in which college students’ knowledge is generally quite poor. Although individual behavioral skills training (BST) has been used to teach college students to accurately pour beer (Hankla et al., 2017), little is known about the effectiveness of BST when taught in a group setting, the setting most commonly used to teach college students accurate pouring, or when used with other alcohol types. Using a nonconcurrent multiple baseline across GLO design, we evaluated the effects of BST on the accuracy of college students’ (n = 10) free-pours into an 18-oz red plastic cup of standard servings of (a) beer when taught in a group setting and (b) liquor when taught in an individual setting. Results indicate that following group BST, all participants provided accurate free-pours of beer, but fewer did so with the untrained generalization cup that differs in shape. Following individual BST, participants free-pours of liquor were variable and most required at least two BST sessions. These results suggest BST can be used to teach pairs of college students to pour standard serving of beer. Future research should further examine the variability observed in individual BST for liquor and further examine generality across vessel shape.

Children with altered body images due to chronic illnesses, surgery, genetic diseases or disabilities are living longer (Newacheck et al., 1998) which requires nurses to undertake their basic nursing role of providing psychological support though offering information, counselling and nursing rehabilitation (Johnson, 2000 Maguire and Parkes, 1998). The parents of these children face a drastic change in their lifestyle which requires them to adapt by using personal, family and community resources, according to Hentinen and Kyngas (1998). The aim of this study was to explore the perceptions of Greek nurses and parents of children with chronic health problems (CHP) in relation to the nurse's role of offering psychological support. This study used a data and methodological triangulation approach which included two levels of persons, parents and nurses, and a combination of qualitative and quantitative paradigms. A survey was given to 103 parents and 83 community or hospital nurses, from these samples 30 parents and 30 nurses were chosen to be interviewed. King's Conceptual Framework of Goal Attainment (CFGA) guided the study and provided a framework in which to present the findings. The main findings from the descriptive analysis, chi-square and Fisher's exact tests, along with the qualitative findings, concluded that many nurses and parents both felt that nurses were not well enough informed, many nurses had offered information but parents refused to accept it and that many parents and nurses were unaware of the nurse's role in nursing rehabilitation. A disagreement was found between the samples as to whether or not it was the nurse's role to evaluate the adaptation of the child and his parents, an important part of nursing rehabilitation according to Gibbons et al. (1995). Additional findings were that a few parents had the fear of surgery for their child, there was great disagreement concerning the importance of whether or not these children should attend public school and that many health conditions could have been prevented. Although religion had not been included in the questionnaire, during the qualitative portion of the study the parents emphasised the importance of their Greek Orthodox religion as a source of strength. Comparisons of the perceptions of both sample groups provided information which may assist in developing future approaches in nursing practice, nursing research and nursing education.

Thesis (Ph.D)--Industrial and Systems Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2009.
Committee Chair: Lu, Jye-Chyi; Committee Co-Chair: Kvam, Paul; Committee Member: Mei, Yajun; Committee Member: Serban, Nicoleta; Committee Member: Vidakovic, Brani. Part of the SMARTech Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Collection.

The problem I investigated in this research is the extent to which participation in a secondary school musical production contributes curricularly and pedagogically towards equipping learners for meaningful and successful living in a rapidly changing and transforming society within a life skills education programme. The importance of creating a dialogic space where secondary school learners may practise life skills within the Life Orientation curriculum has been my main focus. My aim was to investigate and discuss the Life Orientation potential of the secondary school musical production as dialogic educative space for life skills attainment. I specifically employed a hybrid epistemology, namely constructivist hermeneutic phenomenology. In this qualitative study a small number of participants were interviewed individually and in focus groups because of their particular knowledge and lived experience regarding the research topic and the musical The Green Crystal as the chosen case study. This enabled me to construct and interpret their subjective reality and construct meaning within the particular social context of the secondary school musical production. The data I generated, coded and interpreted validate the notion that the secondary school musical production is a hybrid genre which is essentially a practise ground for life skills attainment through the media of music, movement and drama. It also emerged from the data that the secondary school musical production provides a dialogic and educative space to and for all participants to practise life skills within the subject Life Orientation. The participants indicated that their participation in the productions have been life-changing events. A notable contribution from the data was the confirmation that life skills learnt and practised during the musical production are transported into adult life. The life skills learnt through participation in a secondary school musical production are embedded in the memory of the participants and the lessons learnt purify over time. These individual and psychosocial life skills gained, honed and practised by participants assisted them in adapting to a changing and transforming society as functional and contributing adults (self-in-society).
MEd (Learning and Teaching), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012

碩士
國立成功大學
外國語文學系
104
Context-aware ubiquitous language learning (CAULL), which is an emerging e-learning field, enables students to learn the target language anytime and anywhere with the help of sensors and QR codes using mobile applications. In this study, the Green Building English Learning APP (GBELA) is designed and proposed to develop students’ English listening and reading comprehension skills using smartphones in a green building context. The current study aims at investigating the effects of perceived usability, usefulness, learner attitude, learner behavior, CAULL self-efficacy, and contextual factors on high-achievement (HA) and low-achievement (LA) groups. For this purpose, 40 university participants were recruited to utilize GBELA at the Magical School of Green Technology in Taiwan. Mixed research methods were conducted via pre-and-post tests, questionnaires, and semi-structured interviews focused on green building English receptive skills. Results display that learners’ listening and reading abilities improved dramatically. Moreover, significant differences existed among HA and LA learners in terms of attitudes, behavior patterns, and self-efficacy factors. According to Lin and Tsai’s (2016) framework, this study divided high and low achievers based on mean = 53.72. 1. Major research findings indicate how and why the LA group cared more about perceived usability and smartphone self-efficacy as well as contextual difficulty, while the HA group cared more about perceived usefulness and language learning self-efficacy in Green Building-based English (GBbE). First, the current study discusses LA students showed positive attitudes as the system was easy to use and they performed better when English learning materials were designed with authentic conversations. This is in line with Hung, Yang, Fang, Hwang, and Chen (2014) that context-aware videos can enhance low achievers’ smartphone self-efficacy and increase active behaviors in CAULL. Consequently, low achievers aim at enhancing receptive skills for real-life communicative purposes. 2. Second, HA students showed positive attitudes regarding perceived usefulness and GBbE language learning self-efficacy; thus they were concerned whether the u-learning system can enhance their English listening and reading comprehension abilities. As a result, they aim at developing their receptive proficiency for academic purposes. 3. Third, human-computer interaction (HCI) in mobile language learning affects self-efficacy (Bandura, 1993; Lai ＆ Hwang, 2016) and learning behaviors (Azar ＆ Nasiri, 2014), and therefore can have an impact on receptive achievements (Barrett ＆ Liu, 2016; Carle, Jaffee, ＆ Miller, 2009). This study argued that LA learners could advance their attitudes and behaviors to high-achievement with GBELA. Significant findings in post-test revealed some LA learners outperformed the HA group in green building receptive abilities. The analysis indicated that these low achievers showed more risk-taking behaviors and utilized the English dictionary as well as audio-visual materials with high frequency. This is consistent with Vanlaar et al. (2016) that LA learners needed visual scaffolding and highlighted key words to compensate their lack of background knowledge in green building topics. As for HA learners, they considered videos and audio-scripts were highly useful for occupational purposes, such as working as a tour guide (Wach, Karbach, Ruffing, Brünken, ＆ Spinath, 2016), and they frequently practiced lesson quizzes as they liked to be informed of corrective feedbacks. 4. Finally, this study concludes with a discussion of the significant correlations among GBbE receptive achievements, learner attitudes, self-efficacy and learner behaviors factors. To sum up, the present findings reveal that content usefulness and GBbE self-efficacy fostered high achievers’ receptive proficiency for their academic language learning purposes; function usability and smartphone self-efficacy facilitated low achievers’ receptive skills for real-life communicative purposes. Based on the findings, the major contributions are concluded for language teachers, tour guides, users, designers, and system developers. For language teachers, it is worth integrating HCI principles to encourage learners’ interaction with context-aware technology as usability and usefulness of GBELA are highly perceived. Moreover, besides online feedback from the mobile APP, both HA and LA students mentioned the necessity of receiving corrective facilitations from English teachers. Thus, future EFL instructors are suggested to get involve in u-learning contexts (Lai ＆ Hwang, 2016). For guides in tourism industry, they are expected to broaden green building knowledge by making good use of GBbE materials and the GBELA system. For EFL users and material designers, audio-visual materials combining native speakers’ conversations can raise learner attitudes and receptive achievements. Both HA and LA students expressed their positive opinions for learning useful sentences by watching the videos using a smartphone. Furthermore, low achievers were fond of using the English dictionary to check new vocabularies. Consequently, some LA learners exceeded HA learners after using GBELA as their risk-taking behaviors and positive self-efficacy were triggered. As for system developers, they are suggested to be aware of the stability of u-learning systems, so users’ learning motivation can be sustained. To sum up, the designing phases and instructional approach in this study may provide an appropriate model for EFL teachers, tour guides, users, future material designers and system developers for green building English learning purposes.

Abstracts in English, Afrikaans and Xhosa
Green information and communication technology (ICT) is viewed as a pioneering initiative that plays a key role in reducing the negative impact of ICT on the environment. The research problem of the study was the low green ICT adoption rate in South African small and medium enterprises (SMEs). The primary objective was to identify the most prominent barriers resulting in this low adoption rate. The first secondary objective was to determine the barrier with the strongest underlying correlation resulting in the low adoption rate of green ICT in South African SMEs. The second secondary objective was to recommend strategies on how to improve the adoption rate of green ICT. A self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data through electronic and paper-based surveys. A census study was conducted among owners and managers of high-technology-based SMEs located in Gauteng. An exploratory factor analysis was employed to identify the barriers resulting in the low adoption rate of green ICT. These barriers were found to be a lack of funding, awareness, legislation, skills, and knowledge based on complexity and uncertainty. A lack of funding was identified as the most prominent barrier to adopting low green ICT. Although five constructs were discussed in the literature, the overall results presented six components, with the construct of knowledge being made up of two parts – complexity and uncertainty. This study recommends that SMEs align green ICT initiatives with their strategic goals and that government consider more adequate support structures for SMEs. The study confirmed a low green ICT adoption rate in South African SMEs, and more research is required to explore the impact of each of the factors above on the environment.
Met groen inligting-en-kommunikasietegnologie (IKT) word baanbrekerswerk gedoen om die nadelige uitwerking wat IKT op die omgewing het, te verklein. Die trae tempo waarteen Suid-Afrikaanse klein en medium ondernemings (KMO’s) groen IKT aanneem was die navorsingsprobleem van hierdie studie. Die primêre oogmerk was om die grootste struikelblokke vir die aanneem van groen IKT aan te toon. Die eerste sekondêre oogmerk was om die struikelblok met die sterkste onderliggende korrelasie met die trae tempo waarteen Suid-Afrikaanse KMO’s groen IKT aanneem, te bepaal. Die tweede was om met strategieë te kom om die tempo te versnel waarteen groen ITK aangeneem word. Data is met ʼn selfvraelys deur elektroniese en papieropnames versamel. ʼn Sensusstudie is onder die eienaars en bestuurders van hoëtegnologie-KMO’s in Gauteng gedoen. Struikelblokke wat vir die trae aanneming van groen ITK verantwoordelik is, is met ʼn verkennende faktoranalise aangetoon. Daar is bevind dat gebrekkige befondsing en bewustheid, wetgewing, ʼn gebrek aan vaardighede en kennis weens die kompleksiteit en onsekerheid struikelblokke is. ʼn Gebrek aan befondsing was die grootste struikelblok vir die aanneem van groen IKT. Hoewel vyf konstrukte in die literatuur bespreek is, het die uitslag aangedui daar is ses. Die konstruk kennis is uit twee dele saamgestel: kompleksiteit en onsekerheid. Hierdie studie beveel aan dat KMO’s hulle groen IKT-inisiatiewe met hulle strategiese doelwitte in ooreenstemming bring, en dat die regering KMO’s beter ondersteun. Die studie bevestig die trae tempo waarteen Suid-Afrikaanse KMO’s groen ITK aanneem. Die invloed van elk van die bogenoemde faktore op die omgewing moet in verdere navorsing verken word.
Ulwazi lwezeMvelo kanye nobuchwepheshe bezokuxhumana (ICT) kuphawuleka njengemizamo yamaqhinga amasha adlala indima esemqoka ekunciphiseni umthelela omubi we-ICT kwezemvelo. Inkinga exazululwayo kucwaningo kwabe kuyizinga eliphansi lomthintela we-ICT kwezemvelo kumabhizinisi amancane nalawo asafufusa (SMEs) eNingizimu Afrika. Inhloso yokuqala kwabe kuwukuthola izikhinyabezo ezigqamile eziholela ekutheni kube nezinga eliphansi lokwamukela ezemvelo. Inhloso yokuqala esesigabeni sesibili kwabe kuwukuthola isikhinyabezo esinezimpawu ezihambisanayo kakhulu esidala izinga eliphansi lokwamukela ezemvelo kwi-ICT. Inhloso yesibili yesigaba sesibili kwabe kuwukuncoma amasu angasetshenziswa ukuthuthukisa izinga lokwamukelwa kwezemvelo kwi-ICT. Umbhalo wemibuzo ehlelwe wumcwaningi ngokwakhe wasetshenziswa ukuqoqa idatha ngohlelo lwesaveyi eyaqhutshwa ngekhomphyutha nangephepha. Ucwaningo lohlelo lokubalwa kwabantu/lwesensasi lwenziwa phakathi kwabanikazi kanye nabaphathi bamabhizinisi amancane nasafufusa esifundazweni saseGauteng, amabhizinisi encike kubuchwepheshe beqophelo eliphezulu. Uhlelo lokuhlaziya oluhlolayo lwasetshenziswa ngesizathu sokuthola izihibhe ezidala izinga eliphansi lokulandelwa kwezemvelo ku-ICT. Lezi zihibhe zatholakala ukuthi ukuswela uxhaso lwezimali, ukwexwayiswa, umthetho, izakhono zomsebenzi kanye nolwazi olwencike phezu kwesimo esixubene kanye nokungabi nesiqinisekiso. Ukuswela ukuxhaswa ngezimali kwabonakala njengesikhinyabezo esikhulu mayelana nokwamukelwa kwezinga eliphansi lwe-ICT yezemvelo. Yize kuye kwaxoxwa ngezakhiwo ezinhlanu kumbhalo wobuciko, yonke imiphumela iveze izigaba eziyisithupha, ngesakhiwo solwazi esahlukene izingcezu ezimbili – isimo esixubene kanye kanye nokungabi nasiqinisekiso. Ucwaningo luncoma ukuthi amabhizinisi amancane nasafufusa (SMEs) ahambisana nemizamo yohlelo lwe-ICT olulandela ezemvelo kanye nezimpokophelo zamasu kanye nokuthi uhulumeni ubhekelele ukuthi kube nezakhiwo eziningi nezanele zokuxhasa amabhizinisi amancane nasafufusa (SMEs). Ucwaningo luqinisekisile ukuthi kunezinga eliphansi lokubhekelelwa amabhizinisi amancane nasafufusa mayelana nezemvelo kwi-ICT eNingizimu Afrika, kanti kudingeka ucwaningo oluningi ukuhlola umthintela wazo zonke izinto ezingenhla mayelana nezemvelo.
Business Management
M. Com. (Business Management)

yes
Employers are increasingly requiring a range of “soft” skills from chemistry graduates, including the ability to search for and critically evaluate information. This paper discusses the issues around encouraging chemistry students to engage with information skills and suggests curricular changes which may help to “drip-feed” information skills into degree programmes.

With the proliferation of 21st century educational technologies, science teaching and learning with digitally acclimatized learners in secondary science education can be realized through an online Science-Technology-Society-Environment (STSE)-based issues approach. STSE-based programs can be interpreted as the exploration of socially-embedded initiatives in science (e.g., use of genetically modified foods) to promote the development of critical cognitive processes and to empower learners with responsible decision-making skills. This dissertation presents a case study examining the online environment of a grade 11 physics class in an all-girls’ school, and the outcomes from those online discursive opportunities with STSE materials. The limited in-class discussion opportunities are often perceived as low-quality discussions in traditional classrooms because they originate from an inadequate introduction and facilitation of socially relevant issues in science programs. Hence, this research suggests that the science curriculum should be inclusive of STSE-based issue discussions. This study also examines the nature of students’ online discourse and, their perceived benefits and challenges of learning about STSE-based issues through an online environment. Analysis of interviews, offline classroom events and online threaded discussion transcripts draws from the theoretical foundations of critical reflective thinking delineated in the Practical Inquiry (P.I.) Model. The PI model of Cognitive Presence is situated within the Community of Inquiry framework,encompassing two other core elements, Teacher Presence and Social Presence. In studying Cognitive Presence, the online STSE-based discourses were examined according to the four phases of the P.I. Model. The online discussions were measured at macro-levels to reveal patterns in student STSE-based discussions and content analysis of threaded discussions. These analyses indicated that 87% of the students participated in higher quality STSE-based discussions via an online forum as compared to in-class. The micro-level analysis revealed students to attain higher cognitive interactions with STSE issues. Sixteen percent of the students’ threaded postings were identified in the Resolution Phase 4 when the teacher intervened with a focused teaching strategy. This research provides a significant theoretical and pedagogical contribution to blended approach to STSE-based secondary science education. It presents a framework for teachers to facilitate students’ online discussions and to support learners in exploring STSE-based topics.