The Relationship between Novice and Experienced Teachers' Self-Efficacy for Classroom Management and Students' Perceptions of their Teachers' Classroom Management

This study investigates the effect of teachers’self-efficacy on classroom management and students’ perceptions of their teachers’classroom management. The study involves 18 novice and 18 experienced English teachers teaching at Ilam high schools and their 120 students from March to September of 2014.Data were collected through two questionnaires.Boththe teacher and student questionnaires consist of 36 Likert scale items. To analyze the data, t-tests were applied. The results revealed  that teachers have high efficacy for classroom management. When the two groups werecompared, novice and experienced teachers were found to differ in their self-efficacy forclassroom management, but not in their efficacy for personal teaching and externalinfluences. Students did not distinguish between novice and experienced teachers’classroom management, viewing both positively. In order to improve teachers' efficacy for classroom management, in-servicetraining programs and regular meetings where teachers share their experiences can beheld. Teachers may also spare time for class discussions or administering questionnairesto their students to learn about their students' perceptions of their own teaching andclassroom management practices. Keywords: Self-efficacy, classroom management, misbehavior, novice teachers, experienced teacher

A review of applications of fuzzy sets to safety and reliability engineering

Safety and reliability are rigorously assessed during the design of dependable systems. Probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) processes are comprehensive, structured and logical methods widely used for this purpose. PRA approaches include, but not limited to Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), and Event Tree Analysis (ETA). In conventional PRA, failure data about components is required for the purposes of quantitative analysis. In practice, it is not always possible to fully obtain this data due to unavailability of primary observations and consequent scarcity of statistical data about the failure of components. To handle such situations, fuzzy set theory has been successfully used in novel PRA approaches for safety and reliability evaluation under conditions of uncertainty. This paper presents a review of fuzzy set theory based methodologies applied to safety and reliability engineering, which include fuzzy FTA, fuzzy FMEA, fuzzy ETA, fuzzy Bayesian networks, fuzzy Markov chains, and fuzzy Petri nets. Firstly, we describe relevant fundamentals of fuzzy set theory and then we review applications of fuzzy set theory to system safety and reliability analysis. The review shows the context in which each technique may be more appropriate and highlights the overall potential usefulness of fuzzy set theory in addressing uncertainty in safety and reliability engineering

Integrative risk-based assessment modelling of safety-critical marine and offshore applications

This research has first reviewed the current status and future aspects of marine and offshore safety assessment. The major problems identified in marine and offshore safety assessment in this research are associated with inappropriate treatment of uncertainty in data and human error issues during the modelling process. Following the identification of the research needs, this thesis has developed several analytical models for the safety assessment of marine and offshore systems/units. Such models can be effectively integrated into a risk-based framework using the marine formal safety assessment and offshore safety case concepts. Bayesian network (BN) and fuzzy logic (FL) approaches applicable to marine and offshore safety assessment have been proposed for systematically and effectively addressing uncertainty due to randomness and vagueness in data respectively. BN test cases for both a ship evacuation process and a collision scenario between the shuttle tanker and Floating, Production, Storage and Offloading unit (FPSO) have been produced within a cause-effect domain in which Bayes' theorem is the focal mechanism of inference processing. The proposed FL model incorporating fuzzy set theory and an evidential reasoning synthesis has been demonstrated on the FPSO-shuttle tanker collision scenario. The FL and BN models have been combined via mass assignment theory into a fuzzy-Bayesian network (FBN) in which the advantages of both are incorporated. This FBN model has then been demonstrated by addressing human error issues in a ship evacuation study using performance-shaping factors. It is concluded that the developed FL, BN and FBN models provide a flexible and transparent way of improving safety knowledge, assessments and practices in the marine and offshore applications. The outcomes have the potential to facilitate the decision-making process in a risk-based framework. Finally, the results of the research are summarised and areas where further research is required to improve the developed methodologies are outline

Pratiques d'enseignement et pratiques collectives d'élaboration d'un projet "vie scolaire"

The aim of this thesis is to study the links between teaching practices and collective practices of teachers within the institution when developing a "school life" project. We conducted this work as part of a research-action responding to a social demand, and thus accompanied and led the field actors in the elaboration of the project. In this context, we explain the meeting of social sphere and an academic sphere. For the latter, involving an approach that does not dominate the social structures nor the actors, we propose an interpretative balance between teaching practices and the impact of their contexts. Teaching practices are envisaged in incidents related to the order in class and collective practices during the development of the "school life" project. We propose that teaching practices vary depending on collective project development phases and the participation of teachers in different working groups. For testing, we used on one hand a methodology of "narrative practices" based on the narration of incidents by both the teacher and the researcher and on the other hand a "strategic analysis " of the action of the working groups. The results show that the practices of outcome of pedagogical incident (DIP) vary according to the membership of teachers in project development working groups, but do not depend solely on them. The identifiable differences arise more from other factors, rather than teachers' participation in the development of the project. Furthermore, we update a distribution of the teachers’ power to act between teaching practices and collective practices; a strong investment in one is accompanied by a diminished on the other.La thèse étudie les liens entre les pratiques d’enseignement et les pratiques collectives des enseignants, au sein de l’établissement, lors de l’élaboration d’un projet « vie scolaire ». Elle s’inscrit dans le cadre d’une recherche-intervention, répondant à une demande sociale, incluant un accompagnement des acteurs de terrain lors de l’élaboration du projet. Dans ce contexte, nous explicitons la rencontre entre sphère sociale et sphère académique. Pour cette dernière, mobilisant une approche dans laquelle ne dominent ni les structures sociales ni les acteurs, nous proposons d’étudier les pratiques d’enseignement à partir des incidences de leurs contextes. Les pratiques d’enseignement sont envisagées lors d’incidents relatifs à l’ordre scolaire en classe et les pratiques collectives au cours de l’élaboration du projet « vie scolaire ». Nous défendons que les pratiques d’enseignement varient en fonction des phases d’élaboration collective du projet et de l’appartenance des enseignants aux différents groupes de travail. Pour la mise à l’épreuve, nous avons utilisé d’une part une méthodologie dite des « pratiques en récit », fondée sur la narration des incidents à la fois par l’enseignant et par le chercheur et d’autre part une analyse « stratégique » de l’action des groupes de travail. Les résultats montrent que les pratiques de dénouement d’incident pédagogiques (DIP) varient selon l’appartenance des enseignants aux groupes de travail d’élaboration du projet, mais ne dépendent pas uniquement de ces derniers. Les différences repérables relèveraient davantage d’autres facteurs, plutôt que de la participation des enseignants à l’élaboration du projet. Par ailleurs, nous mettons à jour une distribution du pouvoir d’agir des enseignants selon les périodes, entre les pratiques d’enseignement et les pratiques collectives ; un fort investissement dans les unes s’accompagne d’un retrait dans les autres