Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Educational Sorting'

Student-teacher relationships have been studied by numerous researchers from a variety of perspectives. Evidence consistently suggests that the quality of student-teacher relationships can have a profound impact on children’s social and cognitive development. Although researchers seem to agree on this point, their theoretical conceptualizations of the relationships and how they measure them are often quite different. This study provides empirical insights for both measurement integration and theory integration regarding students’ internal relationship representations. Items from 14 different student-teacher relationship instruments were systematically combined and administered as a composite instrument to 628 college students. The participants responded to all items in reference to a single, recent relationship with a high school instructor. This allowed comparative examination of the original 14 scales independently for internal consistency and predictive validity. The study also examined a hypothesized multidimensional structural model of students’ internal representation of their relationship with a teacher based off relational schema theory. An alternative, more parsimonious model was examined as well. The hypothesized model was not supported by the data. The study demonstrated that multiple measurement models of various items could produce acceptable fit. The study provided evidence as to which of the 170 items from the 14 original scales most closely measure the core of student-teacher relationship quality. The study exemplified the method effect dangers of negative item wording. Finally, the study provided strong evidence for conceptualizing student-teacher relationships as a single, global relationship quality construct.

This thesis examines the interactions between marital patterns, inequality, and fertility. In the first chapter I analyze the impact of search frictions on marital assortative matching. I exploit a temporary interruption of the “London Season” — a central marriage market where the nineteenth-century British aristocracy courted. I find that the reduction of search frictions associated with this institution explains between 70 and 80 percent of sorting in social status and land-holdings, generating a huge concentration of landed wealth. In the second chapter I examine the relationship between land inequality and the introduction of public education in late-Victorian England and Wales. I show that counties where landownership was more concentrated systematically under-invested in public schooling. In the final chapter I estimate the effects of cousin marriage on fertility in the British peerage. I find that consanguinity initially increases the number of births, but constraints reproductive success in the long-run.
En aquesta tesis s’examina la interacció entre els patrons matrimonials, la desigualtat i la fertilitat. En el primer capítol s’analitza l’impacte de les friccions en el procés de cerca sobre l’emparellament selectiu. L’anàlisi es centra en una interrupció de la “London Season” — un mercat de matrimonis centralitzat on els nobles Britànics buscaven esposa. S’estableix que la reducció en les friccions de cerca associades a aquesta institució explica entre un 70 i un 80 per cent de l’emparellament selectiu en termes d’estatus social i de terratinença, afavorint la concentració de terres en poques mans. Al segon capítol s’examina la relació entre la desigualtat en la distribució de la terra i la introducció de l’educació pública a l’Anglaterra victoriana. Els resultats indiquen que els comptats més desiguals varen patir un dèficit sistemàtic en educació pública. Al capítol final s’estimen els efectes de l’endogàmia sobre la fertilitat a la noblesa Britànica. L’endogàmia sembla augmentar el nombre de naixements, però alhora limita l’èxit reproductiu en el llarg termini.

This two phase study explored perspectives of play according to children and parents of Somali heritage and primary school practitioners, in a city in South West England. In an addition to the considerable research base concerning play, this study investigated the frequently overlooked cultural dimension of play and how this affects the education of Somali heritage children in England. The broader contentious concern of play’s role in Early Years and Primary education was also explored. A mixed methods pragmatic approach was employed in this study. In Phase One, a photograph sorting activity based on the Activity Apperception Story Procedure by Howard (2002), was used to enable the participation of young children and participants for whom English is not their first language. Established via this activity were definitions of play and work according to children and parents of Somali heritage and primary school practitioners. Exploratory Data Analysis was applied to examine this data. In Phase Two, a focus group design was used, with discussions drawing on cross-cultural conceptions of play (Gaskins, Haight & Lancy, 2007; Göncü, Tuermer, Jain & Johnson, 1999). This enabled the exploration of how parents of Somali heritage and primary school practitioners perceive play’s relationship to children’s development and learning, with consideration for their own experiences of childhood. Focus group data was analysed using thematic analysis, supported by the Cultural Historical Activity Theory framework. The findings of this study highlight shared and individual definitions of play, competing benefits of play and the cross-cultural importance of play being intrinsically motivated. Implications for practice centre on the need to recognise play as part of unique cultural milieus at a practitioner, school, educational psychology service and policy level.

Rural America contributes greatly to the American Community, yet this population is often overlooked and underrepresented in most types of education literature. Choices about residence shape America’s public school system through the formation of school districts and schools associated with these local jurisdictions. Communities with different population densities may have different overall population composition and, therefore, may sort differently into schools. This paper examines the effect that population density, local jurisdictional sorting, homogeneity, peer characteristics, and community social capital may have on student achievement. The first part of this dissertation outlines the importance of rural research and the impact of rural education on all of America. These areas have different economies, opportunities, and peer composition than their non-rural counterparts. The statistically average person is different in rural and urban America. The second part discusses the theoretical implications of locale influence on educational attainment. This theory explains the possible causes of peer effect strength and provides a better predictive model of both rural and urban peer effects. I argue that some level of heterogeneity and high social capital foster strong peer effects, and there is a tradeoff between diverse student body composition and social capital. In the final portion of this dissertation, I explore student achievement using empirical analysis. Based on the analysis in Chapter 4, it appears that student achievement is impacted by peers with and without controlling for teacher effects and social capital (or type) of a locale without controlling for teacher effects. Chapter 5 examines peer effect differences by locale and finds differences in peer effect strength. Suburbs have significantly stronger classroom mean peer effects in elementary school than towns. Skewness influences appear to be the same across grades and locale, and social capital has a positive impact on student achievement in elementary school and a negative impact on student achievement in middle school. The analyses in Chapter 6 conclude that student achievement is impacted by both the average and the percentage of high and low achievers but not similarly by locale. The final chapter discusses the results and their implications for future research and for policy makers.

This PhD thesis focuses on determinants of labour market outcomes in development economics with a special interest in South Africa and China. After an introduction in chapter 1, the key chapter 2, Ethnic Diversity and Labour Market Outcomes: Evidence from Post-Apartheid South Africa joint with Sara Tonini, investigates how ethnic diversity amongst black South Africans affects their employment opportunities in the post-Apartheid era. We find that ethnic diversity has a positive impact on the employment rate of the black South Africans, and it only affects ethnic groups with relatively large population size. To address the endogeneity of ethnic composition, we explore the location of historical “black homelands” and argue that districts more equally distant to multiple homelands are more ethnically diverse. In our instrumental variable regressions, a one standard deviation increase in ethnic diversity index increases employment rate by 3 (5) percentage point in 1996 (2001), which is around 8% (13%) of the average employment rate. We then propose a model of a coordination game to explain these findings. A more ethnically diverse place requires a higher rate of inter-ethnic communication to maintain social connection. As inter-ethnic communication requires more skills than intra-ethnic connection, people in ethnically diverse districts are motivated to invest more in social skills to be able to communicate with those outside their own group. The acquisition of these social skills makes them better equipped for the labour market. The remaining two chapters look into the intergenerational transmission of socio-economic status in South Africa and China. Chapter 3, Returns to Education, Marital Sorting and Family Background in South Africa joint with Patrizio Piraino, applies the model of Lam (1993, JPE) which combines intergenerational transmission of ability and assortative mating to investigate the relative explanatory power of father-in-law’s and father’s background for male wages. In the empirical analysis, after correcting for potential measurement errors in earnings and education, we find that father-in-law’s schooling is more correlated with male workers’ labour market earnings, employment rate and labour force participation than own father’s schooling in contemporary South Africa. This difference is more obvious when parental educational levels are higher. Chapter 4, Higher Education Expansion and Intergenerational Mobility in Contemporary China, studies how higher education affects the upward mobility of people from relatively disadvantaged families. Intergenerational occupational mobility is stimulated when children from different social classes end up in similar occupations. Whether or not they have similar occupational status depends not only on their level of education but also the occupational returns to education. Given there is already a convergence in educational achievements between children from different social classes in contemporary China, in this paper, I focus on their occupational returns to education. Occupational status is measured by the widely-accepted ISEI scaling system ranging from 16 to 90 points with large number indicating higher occupational status. I take advantage of an exogenous college expansion policy in 1999 as a natural experiment and find that one additional year of education increases the occupational status of their first job by 2.243 (2.774) points on average along the ISEI scale in OLS (IV) regressions. And children from upper-class families do not necessarily have higher returns to education than children from other social classes. The average occupational returns to education are higher for the most recent job than the first job, but the difference among social classes is still not significant.

Atliekų problema šiuo metu yra pripažinta svarbiausia ir sudėtingiausia aplinkos apsaugos sritimi. Atliekų surinkimas ir pirminis rūšiavimas daugiausia priklauso nuo visuomenės narių geranoriškumo ir sąmoningumo, todėl čia ypač svarbus visuomenės švietimas ir mokymas. Atsižvelgiant į tai, kad sėkmingo atliekų rūšiavimo prielaida yra aplinkosauginis švietimas, galima teigti, jog viena iš priemonių jam įgyvendinti yra mokyklų vykdomos iniciatyvos. Tačiau išryškėja problema, jog dėmesys jų įgyvendinimui nėra pakankamas, nes mokyklų atliekų rūšiavimo iniciatyvos nėra vertinamos ir analizuojamos, siekiant nustatyti jų veiksmingumą. Darbe remiantis mokslinės literatūros analize ir empirinio tyrimo duomenimis ši problema išspręsta. Nustatytas darbo tiklas – išanalizuoti ir įvertinti Lietuvos mokyklų atliekų rūšiavimo iniciatyvas. Darbo pirmame skyriuje aptartas aplinkosauginio švietimo vaidmuo, siekiant ugdyti asmenį sąmoningai suvokiantį atliekų rūšiavimo svarbą. Išanalizuoti Lietuvos ir užsienio autorių mokslo darbai. Panaudoti lyginimo ir apibendrinimo metodai bendroms tendencijoms ir įžvalgoms pateikti. Antrame skyriuje, reminatis Tarptautinių, Europos Sąjungos ir Lietuvos teisės aktų analize, išanalizuotas aplinkosauginio švietimo teisinis reglamentavimas ir nustatytas teisinis pagrindas atliekų rūšiavimo iniciatyvų vykdymui Lietuvos mokyklose. Trečiame skyriuje naudojant duomenų analizės metodą nustatytos ir išanalizuotos Lietuvos mokyklose vykdomos atliekų rūšiavimo... [toliau žr. visą tekstą]
The waste problem is now recognized as the most important and difficult area of environmental protection. Waste collection and initial sorting depends largely on the goodwill and awareness of society, so education and training of society are very important. In respect that the environmental education is an assumption for a success of waste sorting, it can be argued that one of the tools to implement it is schools’ initiatives. However, there is a problem that the focus on the implementation of these initiatives is not sufficient because the schools’ waste sorting initiatives are not evaluated and analyzed in order to determine their effectiveness. In this paper this problem is solved on the basis of scientific literature and data of empirical study. In the first section of paper it is discussed the role of environmental education on a purpose to educate a person consciously understanding the importance of waste sorting. Scientific works of Lithuanian and foreign authors’ were analyzed. The comparison and summary methods were used in order to submit the common trends and providences. In the second section on the basis of International, European Union and Lithuanian legislation analysis, legal regulation of environmental education was analyzed, and a legal basis to implement waste sorting initiatives at schools of Lithuania was identified. In the third section using the method of data analysis the waste sorting initiatives implemented by Lithuanian schools were identified... [to full text]

Si la loi Guizot du 28 juin 1833 a officiellement créé l'enseignement primaire en France, étonnament, l'historiographie de l'école y a porté peu d'intérêt. Notre thèse ambitionne de combler modestement ce vide en s'intéressant au positionnement de la législation scolaire par rapport à l'Ancien Régime scolaire, sous un angle pédagogique, l'organisation des classes, et structurel, à travers les écoles primaires supérieures.Dans un premier temps, les rares études consacrées à la loi nous conduisent à proposer une nouvelle lecture de la genèse du texte à partir d'une triple approche : politique, historique, et philosophique. La seconde partie est consacrée au lien pédagogique entretenu par la législation avec l'Ancien Régime scolaire. Indéniablement, certaines formes de modernité éducative émergent, même si elles resteront encore à un niveau théorique pendant de longues années durant. La troisième partie est réservée à la double influence européenne à l'oeuvre dans la loi : suisse et prussienne. Nous montrerons que François Guizot s'est appuyé sur le projet de 1798 du ministre suisse Stapfer et que Victor Cousin a importé les Bürgerschulen sur le sol français dans le but de protéger l'enseignement secondaire. À la suite, notre thèse s'attache à l'étude des écoles primaires supérieures fondées par la loi. Plutôt que de répondre à des besoins économiques nouveaux, la place qu'elles occuperont au sein de l'instruction intermédiaire permettra de réserver l'enseignement secondaire à une minorité d'élèves. Pour terminer, notre recherche se poursuit jusqu'à l'enseignement spécial de Victor Duruy, qui aurait prolongé les écoles primaires supérieures de Guizot. En conclusion, nous soulignons l'importance de la loi Guizot dans la construction de l'école moderne, mais aussi la fermeture de l'enseignement secondaire qu'elle a suscitée
If the Guizot law of 28 june 1833 established officially the primary education in France, surprisingly, the historiography of the school had little interest in it. Our tesis aspires to fill modestly that void and is interested in the positioning of the legislation with the school of Ancien Régime, under an pedagogical angle, the organization ot the classes, and structural, through the écoles primaires supérieures.Firstly, the few studies dedicated to the law lead us to propose a new reading of the genesis of the text from a three approaches: political, historical and philosophical.The second part is devoted to the link pedagogical of the legislation with the old school system. Obviously, a certain educational modernity appear, even if they will stay at a theoretical level during many years still. The third part is dedicated to the double european influence to the law: Swiss and Prussian. We will show that Guizot relied on the school project of 1798 of the Swiss Minister Stapfer and that Victor Cousin imported the Bürgerschulen in the French ground with the aim of protecting the secondary education.Then, our tesis attemps to the study of écoles primaires supérieures funded by the law. Rather than to answer economic new needs, the place that they will occupy in the intermediate education will allow to reserve the secondary education for pupils' minority. Finally, our research goes on until the enseignement secondaire spécial of Victor Duruy, which would have extended les écoles primaires supérieures of Guizot. In conclusion, we stress the importance of the Guizot Law in the construction of the modern school, but also the closure of the secondary education it has generated

La recherche présentée s'intéresse au devenir d'enfants accueillis avec leur mère en centre d'hébergement mère-enfant, sept à huit ans après leur sortie. Ce travail s'inscrit dans la perspective écologique du développement humain et s'appuie sur les acquis théoriques et méthodologiques des recherches concernant le devenir des bénéficiaires d'interventions socio-éducatives, et des recherches sur le bien-être de l'enfant. La démarche visait à observer les trajectoires après la sortie, à comprendre les processus de construction de ces parcours, et à appréhender la qualité de vie des enfants au moment de l'enquête. La démarche empirique comprend trois étapes (analyse séquentielle de deux cents trajectoires, entretiens avec quarante-neuf mères et questionnaires de qualité de vie et entretiens avec trente-trois enfants). Les résultats mettent en évidence l'interaction entre le parcours conjugal de la mère, l'évolution de la situation résidentielle et les mesures de protection de l'enfance. Ils soulignent également les effets de la centration du dispositif sur le lien mère-enfant. Enfin, la qualité de vie des enfants semble davantage liée à leur situation au moment de l'enquête qu'à leur parcours antérieur. L'analyse des entretiens permet de proposer des pistes pour comprendre la contribution des conditions matérielles de vie et des dimensions relationnelles à la qualité de vie des enfants.

Syftet med denna kvalitativa studie är att genom fokusgruppintervjuer undersöka vad elever i årskurserna 5-6 kan och  resonerar om begreppen källsortering, nedskräpning och miljöförstöring Studien tar upp hur hållbar utveckling är upplagt i läroplanens inledande delar och kursplaner, hur de tre dimensionerna av hållbarhet definieras samt tidigare forskning inom ämnet. I det resultat som visualiseras framkom det hur 20 elever på en Grön Flaggskola och en icke Grön Flaggskola ser på nedskräpning och källsortering. Undersökningens resultat indikerar att eleverna är väl insatta i dagens miljöproblem och de vet hur de ska motverka dessa. Anmärkningsvärt visade eleverna på Grön Flaggskolan inte mer kunskap om till exempel hållbarhet. Dock påvisas det att majoriteten av eleverna på båda skolorna innehar en nonchalant inställning till problemen, lägger dessa på andra individer och skjuter problemen framför sig. I studien framförs slutligen en diskussion om införandet av ett nytt ämne i läroplanen, vem som bär ansvaret och hur lärarna kan engagera sina elever att arbeta för en bättre planet.
The purpose of this qualitative study is, through focus group interviews investigate what pupils in grades 5-6 can and reason about waste sorting, littering and pollutions. The study examines how sustainable development is presented in the curriculum's introductory parts and curricula, how the three dimensions of sustainability are defined and previous research within the subject. The result that emerged visualizes how 20 pupils at an Eco-School and a non-Eco-school look at littering and sorting waste. The results of the survey indicate that the pupils are well acquainted with today's environmental problems, and they know how to counteract with these. The pupils on the Eco School did remarkably not show more knowledge about for example sustainability. However, it is demonstrated that the majority of the pupils at both schools hold a nonchalant approach to the problems, place these on other individuals and postpone the problems before them. Finally, the study discusses the introduction of a new topic in the curriculum, who carries the responsibility and how the teachers can engage their students to work for a better planet.

Syfte och frågeställningar Syftet med uppsatsen är att få en förståelse för vad det är elever som söker till gymnasieskolan kan tänkas möta då de läser recensionstexter. Syftet är således att kartlägga recensionssystemets omfattning och innehåll kvantitativt; vad som tas upp i recensionstexterna, samt att undersöka hur recensionstexterna är konstruerade. Avslutningsvis syftar uppsatsen till att diskutera recensionssystemet i en större samhällskontext - som ett resultat av och en del i vår samtid. Vilka ämnen och teman förekommer i recensionstexter av gymnasieskolor samt hur frekvent är förekomsten?  Hur värderas (positivt, negativt eller neutralt) de olika temana i recensionerna?  På vilket sätt är recensionstexterna konstruerade och hur kan det tolkas? På vilket sätt framträder en skolmarknadsdiskurs i recensionstexterna? Metod De kvantitativa frågorna undersöks genom en innehållsanalys av slumpmässigt utvalda recensioner på gymnasieskolor i Stockholms län. De förekomna orden kvantifieras och delas in i teman, kategorieroch subkategorier. En bedömning görs även utifrån om de förekomna orden lyfts i en positiv, negativ eller neutral kontext. Den kvalitativa delen utgörs av en textanalys inspirerad av diskursanalysen. Av ett antal utvalda recensioner, baserat på dess innehållsliga relevans, analyseras dessa semantiskt med diskursanalytiska verktyg. I diskussions- och analysdelen behandlas resultatet utifrån det teoretiska ramverket och tidigare forskning.  Resultat Av innehållsanalysen framgår att de vanligast förekommande temana var allmänna värdeomdömen om skolan, att kommentera lärare samt skolans upplägg och utbildningens kvalité. Det är även vanligt att sociala aspekter så som atmosfär och gemenskap lyfts fram i recensionerna. Av den kvalitativa delen framgår det att recensenterna uttrycker sig på ett sätt som speglar skolmarknadsdiskursen. I somliga fall framgår tydligt hur recensenten anammat skolmarknadsdiskursen. Slutsats Resultatet indikerar att recensionssystemet riskerar att generera segregerande effekter. Framförallt utifrån den asymmetriska tillgången av information och att skola och identitet knyts allt närmare varandra. Detta förtydligas och ställs på sin spets i hur recensionerna är konstruerade och kan, i vissa fall, tänkas vara svårare att bearbeta då gemene elev tenderar att se recensenter som objektiva (till skillnad från övrig tillgänglig information).
Aim The aim with this study is to explore what kind of information pupils, searching for upper secondary school, might get from reading reviews of schools. The purpose is thus to quantify the scope and content of the review system quantitatively; what is mentioned in the review texts, and to examine how the review are textually constructed. Finally, the paper aims to discuss the review system in a larger social context - as a result of and a part of our time. What topics occur in reviews of upper secondary schools and how frequent is the occurrence? How are the different themes in the reviews valued (positive, negative or neutral)? In what way are the review texts constructed and how can it be interpreted? In what way does a school market discourse appear in the reviews? Method The quantitative questions are examined through a content analysis on randomly selected reviews of upper secondary schools in Stockholm County. The words in question are quantified and divided into themes, categories and subcategories. An assessment is also made based on whether the existing words are lifted in a positive, negative or neutral context. The qualitative part consists of a text analysis inspired by the discourse analysis. From a number of selected reviews, based on its substantive relevance, these are semantically analyzed with discourse analytics tools. In a merged discussion and analysis section, the result is treated on the basis of the theoretical framework and previous research. Results The content analysis shows that the most common themes were general value reviews of the school, commenting on teachers and the school's structure and the quality of the education. It is also common to mention social aspects such as atmosphere and cohesion. From the qualitative part it appears that the reviewers express themselves in a way that reflects the school market discourse. In some cases, it is clear that the reviewer has adopted the school market discourse.  Conclusion The result indicates that the review system risks generating segregating effects. Especially based on the asymmetric availability of information and the fact that school and identity are getting more connected. This is clarified and put on its tip in how the reviews are constructed and, in some cases, may be more difficult to process when the common student tends to see reviewers as objective (in contrast to other available sources of information).

Doctor of Philosophy
This thesis reports two tests of information-based theories of the returns to education, in the labour market for young Australians. The first is a test of whether these returns increase discontinuously with credentials such as high school graduation and university degrees. The second is a test of employer learning based upon how the returns to education, and to measures of ability not initially observed by employers, evolve with experience. These tests are conducted using a new data source which tracks individuals during the years in which they are entering and establishing themselves in the labour market, the period during which such credential and learning effects are most likely to be important. It is found that there are large and highly significant credential returns to completion of bachelor’s degrees, of 14% for males and 10% for females. For males, around 39% of the returns to 15 years of education (relative to 9 or fewer years) are attributable to credential effects, while the corresponding figure for females is 36%. These effects are stronger among workers who were recruited through hiring channels that convey less initial information to employers. There is also evidence that post-secondary admission or attendance without completion of a credential may itself have a sorting effect in the labour market. In the employer learning estimates, when parental education is used as a measure of ability observed by the researcher but not initially by employers, it is found to become increasingly correlated with wages as experience accumulates. However, no such result is found when a standardised test score is used as the ability variable – apparently because the information captured by this score is already observed by employers at the time of labour market entry. When the model is estimated separately by occupational class, the finding of employer learning holds only among white-collar workers. This may be due to the types of attributes that are reflected in parental education as a measure of initially unobserved ability.

Στη διπλωματική αυτή, παρουσιάζεται μια ρομποτική κατασκευή για την επίδειξη αλγορίθμων ταξινόμησης, με χρήση του εκπαιδευτικού ρομπότ της Lego, το LEGO Mindstorm NXT. Σκοπός αυτής τη επίδειξης είναι να βοηθήσει τους φοιτητές που την παρακολουθούν να κατανοήσουν καλύτερα τους τρόπους εκτέλεσης των αλγορίθμων ταξινόμησης. Το εκπαιδευτικό ρομπότ αυτό αποτελεί εμπορικό προϊόν, μη έχοντας όμως συγκεκριμένη μορφή. Αποτελείται από πολλά πλαστικά μέρη, τα οποία θυμίζουν τα κλασικά τουβλάκια της LEGO αλλά και πολλά άλλα όπως αισθητήρες, κινητήρες, γρανάζια και ρόδες. Με τη χρήση αυτών, κατασκευάστηκε ένα όχημα, το οποίο μπορεί να κινείται μόνο αριστερά-δεξιά, στο οποίο και προσαρτάται ένας αισθητήρας φωτεινότητας. Διαθέτει ακόμη έναν βραχίονα που μπορεί να κινηθεί πάνω-κάτω και στον οποίο προσαρτάται ένας αισθητήρας χρώματος. Οι αριθμοί που καλείται το ρομπότ να ταξινομήσει είναι στην ουσία κύβοι. Οι κύβοι αυτοί, είναι χρωματισμένοι στο επάνω μέρος τους με κάποιο χρώμα ενώ στην πρόσοψή τους έχει εκτυπωθεί ένας αριθμός. Το ρομπότ αναλαμβάνει να αναγνωρίσει με τον αισθητήρα χρώματος το χρώμα του κάθε κύβου και να το ταυτοποιήσει με τον αριθμό στο οποίο αντιστοιχίζεται το χρώμα αυτό. Τον αριθμό δηλαδή που είναι εκτυπωμένος στη πρόσοψη. Για την πλοήγηση του οχήματος εφαρμόζεται μια παραλλαγή της τοπολογικής πλοήγησης. Για την αντιστοίχιση των χρωμάτων με τους αριθμούς χρησιμοποιείται δειγματοληψία χρώματος και στη συνέχεια χρησιμοποιείται 1-προς-1 αντιστοίχιση χρώματος και κατάλληλου αριθμού. Τέλος, οι αλγόριθμοι ταξινόμησης που υλοποιήθηκαν ήταν οι Bubble Sort, Insertion Sort, Heap Sort, Quick Sort. Η επίδειξη των αλγορίθμων γίνεται χρησιμοποιώντας φυσικά τον βραχίονα ο οποίος μετακινεί κατάλληλα τους κύβους. Όμως για την καλλίτερη κατανόηση και για να βοηθηθούν όσοι παρακολουθούν την επίδειξη, παράλληλα της ταξινόμησης με τον βραχίονα, γίνεται χρήση κατάλληλων ηχητικών αλλά και γραπτών μηνυμάτων τα οποία προβάλλονται στην οθόνη που διαθέτει το ΝΧΤ. Τα όσα προβάλλονται στην οθόνη, χρησιμοποιώντας το προγραμματιστικό περιβάλλον Bricx, είναι δυνατόν να προβληθούν σε οθόνη υπολογιστή ή ακόμα και μέσω προβολέα εφόσον ο τελευταίος συνδέεται με υπολογιστή. Τέλος, θεωρούμε ότι το σύστημα που αναπτύχθηκε αποτελεί ένα πολύ καλό εργαλείο που μπορεί να βοηθήσει τον διδάσκοντα στη διδασκαλία των αλγορίθμων ταξινόμησης. Οι φοιτητές μπορούν μέσω της οπτικοποίησης να κατανοήσουν ευκολότερα και γρηγορότερα τους αλγορίθμους. Μελλοντικά ίσως προστεθούν και άλλοι αλγόριθμοι ταξινόμησης, να αναπτυχθεί μια γραφική διεπαφή που θα είναι ανεξάρτητη του Bricx για να προβάλλονται σε κάποια οθόνη τα όσα προβάλλονται χρησιμοποιώντας το Bricx, να χρησιμοποιηθούν διαφορετικοί τρόποι αναγνώρισης αριθμών όπως χρήση αλγορίθμων μορφολογικής επεξεργασίας και τέλος η βηματική ταξινόμηση των αλγορίθμων από κάποιον χειριστή.
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This dissertation analyzes the effect of smaller classes on student performance using student-level test score data from the state of Texas, focusing on three specific issues: heterogeneity in the returns to smaller classes across a score distribution of students, the relationship between class size and students' moving decisions, and the connection between smaller classes and schools' class division procedures. I first examine evidence of heterogeneity in the returns to class size reductions across a score distribution of students. I divide students into decile groups based on their previous year test scores, and I estimate the returns to smaller classes for each of the deciles. The empirical evidence supports the hypothesis that there are significant differences in students' responses to class size, based on their previous test scores. I then model the class size effect simultaneously with students' decisions to switch schools, which is important because movers compose a substantial fraction of the dataset, and because class size effects vary between movers and nonmovers. Recognizing that students move for different reasons, only some of which are school-related, I present a two-type moving model in which students are categorized as endogenous movers or exogenous movers. I estimate the model estimated using maximum likelihood. The results reveal key biases in traditional estimates of the moving effect and suggest significant differences in the class size effect across mover types. I also explore the class size effect in conjunction with schools' decisions to sort students into different classes. Using student-level data in which students are linked to specific classes, I disentangle the class size effect from the sorting effect. Including a variable indicating the sorting index of a school decreases the magnitude and significance of the class size effect. I also examine different types of sorting. The findings suggest that sorting students into more homogeneous groups is beneficial for both high and low scoring students.