Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Specialist products'

O presente trabalho mostra a utilização de métodos computacionais e os resultados obtidos na determinação estrutural de produtos naturais, neste caso sesquiterpenos lactonizados. Nosso grupo de pesquisa tem desenvolvido nos últimos anos o projeto denominado SISTEMAT para a determinação estrutural de produtos naturais. Este sistema é composto de programas utilizados para a construção de bancos de dados capazes de armazenar qualquer tipo de informação referente a substâncias orgânicas, e programas que permitem a recuperação e análise das informações contidas nos bancos de dados (programas aplicativos). Foi também construído um programa para a previsão de espectros de RMN 13C utilizando modelos tridimensionais para a representação das moléculas. O programa considera cada carbono e sua vizinhança química em três dimensões como uma subestrutura. Para encontrar o deslocamento químico equivalente a uma nova subestrutura, ele procura no banco de dados um carbono com uma vizinhança equivalente. O banco de dados criado para o SISTEMAT contém 1300 espectros de RMN 13C de sesquiterpenos lactonizados, enquanto que o utilizado para o programa simulador de espectros de RMN 13C possui 1600 substâncias codificadas.
This work shows the use of computational methods and the results obtained in the structure determination of sesquiterpene lactones. Our research group have developed in the last years the expert system named SISTEMAT, to structure determination of natural products. This system have programs used to construct a database able to store any kind of information about the compounds and programs used to retrieve and analyse informations obtained in the database. It was also planned a program to make predictions of 13C NMR spectra of sesquiterpene lactones. It uses a codification working with tridimensional substructures. The program treats each carbon atom and its neighbouring as a substructure. It can scan all the database for other equal or similar chemical shift values that can be used to predict the 13C NMR spectrum for a new compound. The current database contains about 1300 13C NMR spectra of sesquiterpene lactones. The other database used in the program for 13C NMR prediction has 1600 compounds.

Business Administration/Marketing
Ph.D.
Companies in the twenty first century are exposed to a variety of pressures to respond to environmental issues and responding to these pressures affects several aspects of business such as purchasing, marketing and logistics. Conventional wisdom regarding the incorporation of sustainability posits sustainability as a tradeoff with other corporate goals; however, during the last decade, this paradigm has been challenged by a view that proposes this incorporation as a complementary strategy, or even as an opportunity. Understanding how firms integrate environmental issues into their corporate agendas and how these integration strategies affect performance has become very important. The process of sustainable new product development (SNPD) is one of the core areas that these strategies focus on in order to achieve economic and environmental sustainability. This thesis investigates the integration of environmental specialists into SNPD teams and the relative influence of motivational factors of environmental strategy development and the structural relationship of how they affect the performance of SNPD. It relies on two main research streams: work on sustainable management and conventional new product development. The first essay examines the integration of environmental specialists into new product development teams that are composed of several other functional specialists such as marketing, manufacturing, and R&D personnel, and its impact on SNPD performance across three stages: (1) concept development (CD) (e.g., the generation and refinement of new product ideas, market analysis, preparation of product concepts), (2) product development (PD) (e.g., actual technical product development, execution of prototype tests, test marketing), and (3) product commercialization (PC) (e.g., market launches, training, after-sales support). In this paper, we draw upon resource dependency theory as our theoretical background. We present evidence that, integrating an environmental specialist into a new product team has a positive influence on SNPD project performance beyond what the traditional members of such a team would accomplish. Through analyzing this relationship across the stages of SNPD, we gained a clearer picture of the effectiveness of this integration. In particular, the integration of the environmental specialist was more effective on SNPD project performance in the final stage of the SNPD process when the product was being launched. This effect is even greater for high-innovative projects. The second essay investigates the different motivations that drive firms to adopt environmental marketing strategies and their relative impact on new product advantage and SNPD performance. Theoretically grounded in Stakeholder Theory and the Resource - Based View of the Firm Theory, a conceptual framework was developed that portrays the antecedents and consequences of environmental marketing strategy. In regard to the antecedents of environmental marketing strategy, we examined the drivers of environmental marketing strategy development: public concern, regulatory pressures and market opportunity. The results showed that developing environmental strategies that exceed regulations (proactive strategies) leads to better new product performance than only adhering to regulations (reactive strategies). In addition, the results showed that commitment from top management becomes critical only for proactive strategies, not for reactive strategies. Finally, in regard to the consequences, we found that environmental marketing strategies lead to new product advantage and in turn, better sustainable new product performance. This thesis fills a gap in the literature with respect to the lack of conceptual and empirical contributions on the integration of sustainability issues into the new product development process, by aiming to provide new insights into how firms are integrating environmental specialists into their new product development teams and by extending our knowledge of how firms develop environmental marketing strategies and how these strategies affect new product performance.
Temple University--Theses

This masters thesis tackles the issue of process management in a financial institution, spe-cifically the analysis and optimization of the creation of a certain management report. The first part of this masters thesis is dedicated towards explaining basic theoretical concepts, which will help the reader correctly understand the rest of the paper. There you can find explained the principles of reporting and process management, which will introduce the reader to the issues of processes, their analysis and subsequent optimization. The practical portion first introduces the reader to the particular financial institution, then it describes the organization structure and the activities of data governance, thorough analysis of the particular process, the identification of and a suggestion of optimization which should lead to a more effectively working employees as well as the elimination of narrow places of the process. The conclusion of the masters thesis introduces steps of real implementation of the suggested solutions.

La didactisation de videogrammes en provenance des televisions satellitales avait fourni, des 1987, les premieres bases des experimentations dans les classes d'asp des sections de techniciens superieurs (conception de produits industriels). Le programme olympus, initie par l'ase en 1989, a permis les liaisons en vti, puis le recours a un pluri-media de communication, faisant une large part a la telematique. En etroite collaboration avec nos collegues d'outre-manche, diverses fad ont ete suivies et analysees en grandeur reelle. L'apparition de materiels multimedia particulierement souples et puissants a conduit a la realisation d'un espace de teletravail, specialement adapte a des pratiques interactives, mises au point avec les antennes montantes britanniques. La specificite des besoins exprimes par les apprenants de ces sections a egalement entraine l'exploration de ressources documentaires offertes par les cd-rom ainsi que la recherche d'assistance (bdd en ligne et messagerie) disponible sur les reseaux telematiques, en particulier internet. L'emergence de nouvelles technologies de communication (visiophonie, partage d'ecrans et de fichiers) sur le rnis rend tout a la fois plus accessibles et plus efficaces de nouvelles strategies didactiques permettant un apprentissage de l'asp authentique, en prise directe au niveau mondial avec les entreprises et la recherche
The tailoring of off-the-shelf satellite tv recordings had supplied, as early as 1987, the first material for classroom applications in esp classes (french would-be skilled technicians in cadraught design). The esa-sponsored olympus programme provided the first dbs link-ups, soon followed by the extensive use of mixed media communication packages, through computer networking. In cooperation with british colleagues, various distance education programmes have been devised, received and assessed to optimise their impact on students. The introduction of multimedia it equipment, adaptable and efficient, had led to the design and installation of a "virtual classroom", suited for the interactive feedback with british uplinks and on-site tutoring. The specific needs of esp students have also featured the tapping of hyper- and multimedia resources, such as cd-roms, a home-made computerised database, and the assistance and information available on the www. It and international teamwork (through videoconferencing, whiteboard or file sharing and transfer via isdn) make challenging teaching strategies altogether appealing and easy to implement, thus genuinely setting esp learners and trainees on-line with the leading edge

Ce mémoire de thèse propose une synthèse sur la place et l’évolution des industries lithiques du nord de la France, entre le IIIe millénaire et la première moitié du IIe millénaire avant notre ère. Il s’appuie sur les recherches menées depuis vingt-cinq années dans le Nord-Pas-de-Calais et la Somme et repose sur une trentaine de séries rassemblant plus de 70000 objets en matériaux siliceux issus de sites attribués au Deûle-Escaut, au Campaniforme et à l’Âge du Bronze ancien. Au-delà de la caractérisation techno-fonctionnelle des industries lithiques, ce travail aborde la place et le rôle – utilitaire et symbolique – de ce sous-système technique et son évolution, dans un contexte marqué par le développement de la métallurgie. Les tendances évolutives sont définies à partir des composantes propres à chaque série lithique et de l’analyse des traits communs et des caractères discriminants. La lecture dynamique des modalités d’acquisition, de fabrication et de consommation des outillages est rendue possible en abordant les processus opératoires (techniques et fonctionnels) d’un point de vue global et en variant les échelles. Un changement de statut de l’industrie lithique marque le passage vers une nouvelle tradition dès le début de l’Âge du Bronze. Cette démarche de technologie culturelle vise, au-delà de l’objet étudié, à révéler la société qui l’a produit en tentant d’établir des relations entre les phénomènes techniques et les phénomènes socio-culturels. Les conditions de changement, de continuité et de rupture sont interrogées ; des hypothèses et des interprétations sont proposées en cherchant des éclairages au-delà des limites propres à la documentation matérielle
This thesis dissertation provides a summary of the place and evolution of lithic industries in northern France, between the 3rd millennium and the first half of the 2nd millennium BC. This work is based on research carried out for twenty-five years in the Nord, Pas-de-Calais and Somme and is based on some thirty series bringing together more than 70,000 objects in siliceous materials from sites attributed to the Deûle-Escaut, the Bell Beaker and the Early Bronze Age. Beyond the techno-functional characterization of the stone industries from the Late Neolithic and the beginning of the Bronze Age, this work addresses the place and the role - utilitarian as well as symbolic - occupied by this technical subsystem and its evolution, in a context marked by the development of metallurgy. Evolutionary trends are defined from the components specific to each lithic series and from the analysis of common features and discriminating traits. The dynamic reading of the methods of acquisition, manufacture and consumption of stone tools is made possible by approaching the operating processes (technical and functional) from a global point of view and by varying the scales. A change in the status of the lithic industry marks the transition to a new tradition from the onset of the Bronze Age. This cultural technology approach aims, beyond the study of the object per se, to reveal the society that produced it by attempting to establish relationships between technical phenomena and socio-cultural phenomena. The conditions for change, continuity and rupture are questioned; hypotheses and interpretations are proposed by seeking insights beyond the limits specific to material documentation

碩士
實踐大學
企業創新發展研究所
93
ABSTRACT The high service quality in finance is apparently consequent upon the strong competition in Bancassurance market day by day. Banker besides to provide suitable insurance products and perfect sales service, improving service quality is more important. Based on the principles of improving service quality , how to reinforce the quality of manpower are the most important targets for finance service industry. Job satisfaction was viewed as alert indicator, so as to find the defects of the policy and inappropriately distributed the work. This article is about the research of effects of work stress, sales determinant of insurances products, character of insurances products, effectiveness of employee training program on job satisfactions. Secondly research of effects of effectiveness of employee training program on the self-degree of professionalism of insurances products and degree of professionalism of insurances products. In order to understand the difference between banking specialist and life insurance underwriters , this research tested the effectiveness of employee training program and degree of professionalism of insurances products of life insurance underwriters. By way of comparing the results, and we will see which is better. This research takes the 38 members of life insurance brokers and agencies as the subjects of the study to discuss, and adopts the method of investigation through questionnaires 950 questionnaires were sent and 277 effective ones were returned. SPSS version 10.0 (Statistical software) were utilized to conduct Descriptive statistical analysis, factor analysis, correlation analysis, regression analysis and t-test, for testing the hypotheses of this research. It follows from statistical analysis that the study has shown the importance of features. Work stress, performance pay, character of insurances products, effectiveness of employee training program affects job satisfaction, work stress is negative to job satisfaction, performance pay, character of insurances products, effectiveness of employee training program are positive to job satisfaction. Though company policy derives partial support from statistical analysis, and it is negative to job satisfaction. In addition, Higher effects of effectiveness of employee training program results in higher self-degree of professionalism of insurances products and degree of professionalism of insurances products. In correlation analysis, company policy, performance pay and effectiveness of employee training program has remarkable correlativity with work stress. In t-test analysis, banking specialist and life insurance underwriters have remarkable differences in effectiveness of employee training program and degree of professionalism of insurances products, life insurance underwriters better than banking specialist. According to the results of research, banker enable to promote job performance and competition by offering suitable training program for their staff, increasing job satisfaction of employee. I hope the conclusions and suggestions coming out from the research can apply to the banker to make human resource plan.

碩士
銘傳大學
企業管理學系碩士在職專班
104
After the financial tsunamis, many banks have started to change their passive style of clients’ management into an active one. With diversified markets and currencies, the concept has been moved toward the assistance of the allocation of clients’ assets. Clients walk into banks not only for withdrawing and depositing but also for organizing their own financial planning. A comprehensive financial planning should therefore be tailored according to the investor’s personal requirements. Among clients’ financial appeals, education funds for next generation, program for retired lives, and building up more wealth are the mostly mentioned. To the banks, the purpose of a wealth management is to achieve fair performance and risk control while selling various financial products. Improper financial products being sold to clients, unnecessary disputes, and unnecessary risks taken by clients should all be avoided. After so many economic crises, investors are now more careful with investments and seek to further realize different financial products. To satisfy clients’ need and avoid losing clients, this essay analyses data of clients’ purchases of funds, insurances, and colonial bonds respectively referring to clients’ investment attributes, bearable risks, degrees of wealth, education levels, ages, genders, and marital statuses. The factors influencing investors’ investment behaviors are expected to be revealed. The result shows that products of funds have significance on clients aged 41-60, clients with aggressive/steady risk attributes while no significance on factors; products of insurances have significance on clients with aggressive / steady risk attributes while no significance on others; products of colonial bonds have significance on clients aged 41-60 and clients with aggressive risk attribute while no significance on others.

碩士
國立高雄第一科技大學
風險管理與保險所
92
Along with the establishment of the financial holding companies and the banks’ pursuit to “raise the proportion of the procedure fee income in total revenue”, the VIPs’ banking center has been the sales focus of banking & insurance. It has been a trend that the banking specialist sells insurance. For understanding the current general marketing situation of the banking specialist in selling life insurance products, this research has the bank’s banking specialist as the research subject. The research theme is to discuss the relationship of adaptive selling, selling attitude and sales orientation while the banking specialist sells the life insurance product and to examine the correspondence of the demographic variable, job effort level and sales orientation. This research has used the questionnaire survey to get primary data, and then applied the statistic package software, SAS (Statistical Analysis System), to do data analysis. The information analysis methods used are reliability, descriptive statistics, cross-table, and one-way ANOVA analysis. Results of this research include the followings: Adaptive selling, selling attitude and sales orientation of the banking specialist are significantly linked. Job effort level significantly corresponds to sales orientation. The seniority since being a banking specialist is relevant to sales orientation, but education degree, age and gender do not.

Consumer behaviour and spending habits have changed drastically post-recession. This has affected how retailers conduct their business, driving retailers’ focus towards providing customers with the value they require. One way in which retailers can offer such value is through the implementation of advanced product assortment. Product assortments influence consumers’ purchasing decisions and their preferences for particular retailers, thereby making it an important factor in retailers’ strategy to maintain their success. Retailers’ product assortments which focus on male apparel consumers, such as speciality stores, are of particular importance as men represent a lucrative segment of the apparel industry. Speciality stores specialise in specific merchandise such as menswear and develop their apparel assortment to concentrate on certain customers such as male consumers. Although men are becoming more prevalent in retail venues and have taken responsibility for their own apparel shopping, research regarding male apparel consumers and their purchasing behaviour, particularly within the context of South Africa, is scarce. The purpose of this study was to explore and describe the product attributes used by male consumers when evaluating apparel product assortment of South African speciality stores. The evaluation stage of the decision making process formed the basis of this study. Therefore, it was decided that the consumer decision making framework would be best suited as the theoretical framework. Namely, the consumer behaviour model of Hawkins and Mothersbaugh (2013) was used to guide the study. During the evaluation stage of the consumer decision making process, male consumers will use product attributes they consider important when evaluating the product assortment of speciality stores. Product attributes include intrinsic and extrinsic product attributes and male apparel consumers will employ the use of compensatory decision rules, allowing them to make trade-offs among these attributes. The study employed an exploratory survey research design which was quantitative in nature. Non-probability sampling methods were used to collect the necessary data for the study. This included convenience and snowball sampling. Respondents completed a structured questionnaire which was developed according to the constructs implemented in the study and administered in a paper based and online electronic form. The sample included 204 male consumers, located in the greater Tshwane area, Gauteng. The majority of the sample were between the ages of 20-29, representing a relatively young sample. Conjoint analysis and exploratory factor analysis was applied to gain insight regarding the product attributes South African male apparel consumers apply when evaluating speciality stores’ product assortment. The conjoint analysis technique allows consumers to make trade-offs among attributes as they compare one attribute to another while evaluating assortments, thereby providing an indication of their actual preference structure. Cluster analysis was also performed on the conjoint data to provide additional information regarding male consumers’ preferences when evaluating speciality stores’ product assortment. By combining conjoint analysis with cluster analyses, the findings provided valuable information regarding the segmentation and socio-economic factors that may affect consumers’ preferences. The results of the study indicated that South African male consumers employed both intrinsic and extrinsic product attributes when evaluating speciality stores’ product assortment. During the conjoint analysis, brand (extrinsic attribute) was the most important attribute among male consumers when making trade-offs between intrinsic and extrinsic product attributes. Male consumers’ preference for brand is an indication of brand consciousness. Style (intrinsic attribute) was the second most preferred attribute, followed by store image (extrinsic attribute). The exploratory factor analysis rendered three factors, labelled “Prestige sensitivity”, “Added value” and “Importance of fit”. These factors were a further indication of the evaluative criteria male consumers consider important when evaluating and selecting speciality stores’ product assortment. The results from the cluster analysis identified a four cluster solution, namely: style guys, cluster origin guys, brand loyalist and colour guys. This demonstrates that different consumer groups have distinct preferences when evaluating speciality stores’ product assortment. The study adds value and insight to current literature regarding male consumer behaviour and their preferences for certain intrinsic and extrinsic product attributes when evaluating speciality stores’ product assortment. This research can be beneficial to manufacturers, retailers and marketers who seek to enhance their merchandise mix by offering customised product assortments, improve advertising campaigns and ensure well trained sales staff.
Dissertation (MConsumer Science)--University of Pretoria, 2016.
Consumer Science
MConsumer Science
Unrestricted

碩士
實踐大學
企業管理研究所
95
The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between product knowledge competence, customer knowledge competence and work performance. Also this study investigates the moderating effects between them. This study is using snowball sampling to select 286 employees from different banks as analytical sample. The results show that financial specialist's customer knowledge competence influence work performance. Morals judgment positively doesn’t have moderating effect between financial specialist's product knowledge competence and work performance. But the morals judgment weakens the relationship between financial specialist's competence of the customer knowledge and work performance.

碩士
輔仁大學
應用美術學系碩士班
94
Feminity depiction in advetising have been increasingly created as career-women since 1990, which could imply the changing and pgrading of women social status. The research concenrated on humorous feminity depicion in print ads, realized a joke-making to asculinity presented a brand new female role performance of independence and autonomy in the modern era. The research adopted quantitative analysis to proceed 500 copies of feminity humorous depictions ads which data was collected from over 10 different magazine subscribes. The purpose of the research was to explore the inter-relationship and usage between humorous appeals and products categorization.The results showed as following: 1. The hostile or aggressive humorous ads would depict female as career-women ocelebritiesd. On the other hand, female would be depicted as wife or girl-friend when it was sexual ads. The significant diferenct characters of protagonists in ads have their appropriate performance to transmit and deliver products’nformation. 2. The humorous advertisement presented an impression of bantering, joke in the past, thata should rarely apply to「high risk」and「high function」in products classification. The research outcome figured out that the humorous advertisement applied more to the products of high function, high risk and high practical value. This showed credibility to people of humorous advertisement improves greatly. 2. The humorous advertisement presented an intelligent and skillful feminity depiction. The funny or silliness fmale role portrayals were replaced by liberated and confident feminism in the recent decade.

碩士
國立清華大學
工業工程與工程管理學系
91
Taiwanese economic advancement from previous OEM type progress to ODM type, afterwards to have the OBM(ordnance Branch Mark) type, among which experience of the processes, create many amazing satisfactions of Taiwan miracle. However, among of undertaking operation movement, with regards to permanent business operation that specialist of research and management is still scarcity. Thus, my investigate is started from gather relate documents, then confer with the examples in myself business industry research and management, also interview with dissimilar type company from the same industrial, anticipate to generalize the train of research management specialists whether or not the difference from OEM, ODM and OBM typical. Furthermore, the influence level from the background of top conductor, wondering if it will cause the research management specialist has distinct expand direction? And go for one step further to sort a recommend of work environments what helps to construct research management specialist, expecting to keep appropriate talent, and increase company’s competition ability to approach the goal of ongoing forward business operation.

碩士
國立中興大學
生物產業管理研究所
105
In this study, the Chinese group tourists in Taiwan were targeted to explore the influential factors toward the purchase of agricultural speciality souvenir. The factors affecting purchase behavior are classified into "product attributes", "product knowledge" and "purchase situation". The product attributes encompasses convenience, practicality and uniqueness; product knowledge was divided into familiarity and professional degree ; whereas purchase situation includes physical situation and social situation. The differences caused by backgrounds of the Chinese groups tourists was examined as well. This study employed cluster sampling method to recruit 370 Chinese groups tourists in Taoyuan Airport. A regression analysis was conducted to obtain the main results as follows: 1. In terms of product quantity, the number one sale of the agricultural products for the Chinese groups tourists is "pineapple cakes" .The second and third preference is "sun cake", and "dried fruit and quare cookies". 2. With regard to the purchase amount, "pineapple cakes" accounts for the most average purchase quantity, while the "sun cake" takes the second position. 3."Dimensions of convenience, and practicability of product attributes", "social situations dimension of purchase situation" , occupation as teachers, employees , and residences in North China, East China present significant influences on purchase of agricultural speciality souvenir behavior.

碩士
國立中山大學
企業管理學系研究所
107
According to The Global Risk Report 2018 published by the World Economic Forum, the water crisis has been one of the major risks of global influence. Under the impact, industrial users invested in water treatment equipment and increased the recovery rate of water. Water treatment speciality chemicals are used to improve water quality and maintain process equipment, which is indispensable in the industry. The purpose of this study is to explore the relevant variables affecting the “customer satisfaction” of the speciality chemicals industry for water treatment. Use the facet of service quality and product quality as the dimensions and take a domestic water treatment speciality chemicals company as an example. From 2016 to 2018, 147 valid questionnaires were collected, and the response rates was 81.6%. The SPSS 24.0 statistical software was used for data analysis. The analysis methods included reliability analysis, narrative statistical analysis, variance analysis, correlation analysis and regression analysis. The results show that the reliability, responsiveness, empathy and tangibles of service quality, as well as product function and product value of product quality, have positive effect to customer satisfaction in water treatment speciality chemicals. The results of the study can be provided to the relevant companies to develop business strategies and improve operational performance.

The promotion of physical activity. is a public health priority, and school Physical Education (PE) has been highlighted as an influential setting that can engage young people in physical activity. PE has a number of aims which include striving to produce physically educated and active youth (i. e., the 'PE product'), which can be described in terms of young people who engage in recommended levels of habitual physical activity, and who have competent levels of physical activity ability, knowledge, and understanding. The overall aim of this thesis was therefore to establish how PE influences the outcomes representing the `PE product. ' Key objectives were to: a) develop and test a scale to assess students' Perceived PE Worth and Perceived PE Ability, to explore how these two constructs are related, and to investigate age and sex differences (Study 1); b) investigate which secondary school PE factors most strongly correlate with outcomes representing the 'PE product, ' (Study 2) and; c) qualitatively explore the views of PE students to help understand the development of physically educated and active young people, and clarify the results from the second study (Study 3). Study 1 developed and tested the Physical Education Predisposition Scale (PEPS). Predisposing items including perceptions of competence, self-efficacy, enjoyment and attitude in relation to PE were incorporated into the PEPS. Initially Year 8 and 9 students from four schools in the North West of England were invited to participate. Three hundred and fifteen completed PEPS were returned, students then completed the PEPS 14 days later to enable the assessment of test-retest reliability. The PEPS included 11 of the original items,six Perceived PE Worth items and five Perceived PE Ability items and demonstrated an acceptable level of internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Consequently, the PEPS has potential as a concise and straightforward measurement tool for teachers and researchers to use in the PE setting. Results demonstrated that there was a strong positive association between Perceived PE Worth and Perceived PE Ability (r = 0.69). Furthermore, boys reported significantly higher values on both variables, than girls, and Year 8 students scored significantly higher than their Year 9 counterparts. Within Study 2,146 schools were initially invited to participate in the study and the Heads of each PE department were sent a PE environment audit. The response rate was 27.4%, with 17 schools demonstrating a willingness to take further part in the research. The main outcome variables from the PE environment audit were then used as the basis of school selection, with-three schools being chosen. All Year 8 and 9 students from these schools were invited to participate in the research; the response rate was 28.9% (90 boys, 209 girls). Predictor variables representing predisposing (e. g., Perceived PE Worth and PE Ability), enabling (school PE environment), and personal demographic factors (e. g., socio-economic status), as described in Welk's (1999) Youth Physical Activity Promotion Model (YPAPM) were measured. Outcome variables involved physical activity (assessed by accelerometry and the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Older Children), knowledge and understanding of health-related exercise, and PE ability (teachers' ratings). A number of factors including, sex, year group, BMI, deprivation score, Perceived PE Ability, Perceived PE Worth, number of students on roll, and number of indoor spaces, most strongly correlated with outcomes relating to the 'PE product. ' The final study involved a sub-sample of students from Study 2. These were selected to take part in focus group interviews based on their teachers' normative ratings of their PE ability. Focus groups topics were developed based on Welk's (1999) YPAPM and results from Study 2. The detailed focus group data suggest that girls' negative perception's of PE Worth and PE Ability, learned helplessness beliefs, sex issues in PE, and perceived barriers to physical activity, may partly explain the observed sex differences in physical activity. The students highlighted numerous sources of Perceived PE Ability and PE Worth that could also potentially clarify the relationship between perceptions of competence, enjoyment and physical activity. The enhanced Health Related Exercise (HRE) messages from female PE teachers may account for girls' superior knowledge and understanding of HRE and students who perceive PE to be fun and enjoyable may be positively engaged and more motivated to learn and exert effort. Finally, both students' perceptions of progression in PE over time and PE teachers' positive feedback clarifies why teachers' rating of their students improves with increasing year group. The overall findings of this thesis suggest that PE teachers should provide students with enjoyable, successful experiences, positive feedback, choice and as much variety as is feasible. In addition, a classroom climate that fosters learning and improvement, rather than competition and winning is required. This study highlighted the need for interventions targeting girls and their perceptions of barriers to physical activity. Finally, a number of physical activity issues and themes were raised in this study, and reinforcing variables of parents, family and peers were highlighted as central to the students' physical activity interests and participation (Welk, 1999). Therefore, future work is needed to unravel the complex interrelationships of reinforcing factors on students' thoughts and feelings on school PE.

Music Education as part of the learning area Arts and Culture is far from satisfactory in South African schools. Reasons for this include a highly sophisticated and complex curriculum (the revised National Curriculum Statement, 2002); the integration of four discrete arts forms into one learning area; and teacher training which is not always reflective of the teaching profession’s demands. The study was based on a mixed method design, investigating how teachers in best scenario schools implement music as part of the integrated learning area Arts and Culture. Interviews were held with various stakeholders in Music Education, including teachers currently involved with the presentation of the Arts and Culture learning area, lecturers at universities training students for Music Education, and policy makers such as subject advisors in the Arts and Culture learning area. Data was also collected by analysing commercially available resources for this learning area. Analysis of the data obtained revealed that few teachers in the Arts and Culture learning area are qualified in more than one art form. A major concern is that music is often omitted from regular classroom activities in the Foundation Phase due to teachers feeling pressurised by multiple assessment standards in learning areas such as Literacy and Numeracy. Another finding in all primary school phases was that the time spent on Music Education was far less than that spent on Visual Arts. Learners are often involved in projects collecting knowledge about music, but seldom involved in active music making experiences. Aspects such as different ways to integrate the arts into one learning area, generalist/specialist teacher training, as well as issues concerning product, process and performance during the delivery of the arts, were also investigated. The researcher drew from all the data to design a course for teacher training in Music Education as part of the learning area Arts and Culture. Recommendations include regular in-service teacher training courses; nationwide co-ordination of teacher training programmes and the establishment of a national council for Music Education. An urgent need for appropriate lesson material in Arts and Culture was also identified, including CDs with songs and backtracks.
Thesis (DMus)--University of Pretoria, 2009.
Music
unrestricted