Improving English Reading Abilities in 9 th Graders Through the Use of Authentic Materials and Reading Tasks

91 Páginas.El objetivo de este proyecto de investigación era promover el mejoramiento de habilidades de lectura a través del uso de tareas que apuntaban al desarrollo de estrategias de lectura. Los estudiantes involucrados en este proyecto fueron 10 estudiantes quienes tenían un nivel pre intermedio de Inglés, ellos pertenecían al sub - proyecto “Tecnólogos en guianza turística local” en el colegio Manuel del Socorro Rodríguez un proyecto que permitió promover la educación técnica en estos estudiantes quienes cursaban noveno grado y estaban tomando clases de Inglés con propósitos específicos. La estrategia usada en este trabajo fue planeada, implementada y además evaluada como parte de un modelo de investigación acción participativa. La intervención fue planeada para usar 6 unidades de tareas de lectura elaboradas con materiales auténticos, las cuales fueron subidas a la red social Edmodo. Las tareas auténticas fueron diseñadas por los miembros de un círculo de investigación que estaban trabajando en el mismo tema. Después de la intervención, la información recolectada fue analizada a través de métodos cualitativos y también usando la teoría fundamentada en datos. Las conclusiones mostraron que los estudiantes se hicieron conscientes del uso de estrategias de lectura al igual que sus habilidades para aprender de manera auto-dirigida debido a la implementación de tareas de lectura con materiales auténticos y el uso de la red social Edmodo

Facilitating Requirements Negotiation: Modelling Alternatives and Arguments

Co-development aims to ensure the alignment of business processes and support technical systems. During co-development stakeholders need an early understanding of the potential impact of different requirement choices on the enterprise. An early impact analysis understanding is more likely to actively engage stakeholders, highlight strategic options and deliver useful and sustainable systems. However, when multiple stakeholders are involved with differing backgrounds, experiences and frequently competing goals it is inevitable that conflicts occur during the early phases when requirements tend to be opaque. This paper puts forward a conceptual framework for co-development to support collaborative reasoning and decision-making through the modelling of requirements alternatives and arguments, promoting critical reflection, negotiation and discussion

Facilitating Requirements Negotiating: Modeling Alternatives and Arguments

Co-development aims to ensure the alignment of business processes and support technical systems. During co-development stakeholders need an early understanding of the potential impact of different requirement choices on the enterprise. An early impact analysis understanding is more likely to actively engage stakeholders, highlight strategic options and deliver useful and sustainable systems. However, when multiple stakeholders are involved with differing backgrounds, experiences and frequently competing goals it is inevitable that conflicts occur during the early phases when requirements tend to be opaque. This paper puts forward a conceptual framework for co-development to support collaborative reasoning and decision-making through the modelling of requirements alternatives and arguments, promoting critical reflection, negotiation and discussion

Interpreting a major event organization's efforts to reliably manage information security risks: The case of the Athens 2004 Olympics.

The implementation of mega projects and events is increasingly becoming part of corporate and governmental reality in an effort to create global and frictionless operations and infrastructures that result into a new mobility that has been labelled as 'the most powerful and coveted stratifying factor in contemporary society'. The successful implementation of such mega projects and events usually relies on the highly reliable operations of technological infrastructures and the secure, yet flexible, management of information resources across a number of partnering organizations. However, the past performance of mega projects and events has been greatly criticised for inefficiency, lack of decision-making transparency and an overall lack of diligence with regards to the true nature and extent of associated risks. A need has been identified to investigate more thoroughly the mechanisms employed to manage and communicate risks across a number of vertical and horizontal project and event management dimensions. The objective would be to capture know-how and lessons learned from past experiences in order to support more successful, future mega-project implementations. The aim of this research is to increase understanding of the risk issues and concerns in the management of information systems security (ISS) in a major events context, in an effort to deliver highly reliable IS operations. The study is conducted by reviewing the analysis, design, management and risk communication processes of ISS in the Athens 2004 Olympic Games event. The research methodology adopts an interpretive mode of inquiry, where the management of ISS is longitudinally evaluated in terms of the organizational scope, context and culture, the expectations and motivations of different actors, the meanings assigned to various ISS risk signals and events, and the related patterns of behaviour and organizational actions and controls. The theoretical foundation that informs the collection and analysis of data is that of the Social Amplification of Risk Framework (SARF), which suggests that the experience of risk is determined by the direct physical consequences of a risk/risk event and the interaction of psychological, social, institutional and cultural processes. Findings from the case study under investigation indicate that a major event demonstrates high levels of operational and functional interdependence and complexity, directly or indirectly affecting ISS management efforts, decisions and communications. Principles of high reliability and mindful management can indeed improve overall ISS performance and management of risk, yet the structural and cultural aspects of a major event project will amplify/attenuate risk perceptions and constrain the effectiveness of such controls. Therefore, there is a need to improve understanding of such factors, incorporating this into risk evaluation, management and communication practices. In conclusion, this study shows that the management of IS security and integrity in an environment of great organizational reliability demands requires the appreciation of structural/functional interdependencies and cultural interactions. By sustaining mindful and reflexive processes and structures of risk communication and interpretation, ISS assurance and governance practices will allow organizations to demonstrate that they can reliably anticipate and contain ISS risks

Mitigating Risk: A Delphi Study Identifying Competencies in Sport and Event Security Management

The purpose of this study was to identify core competencies for supervisory-level security management professionals working in the sports and entertainment industry. Qualified and trained sport and event security-management professionals are essential to support the U.S. homeland security objectives outlined in Presidential Policy Directive-21. Providing effective safety and security for sports and entertainment events requires specialized knowledge and skill on the behalf of security-management practitioners who detect, deter, prevent, and respond to potential risks and threats. This qualitative research study employed a Delphi research design to elicit expertise from a purposefully selected panel of experts (N = 36). The expert panel suggested a list of competencies in Delphi round one and rated each competency statement based on level of importance and frequency using a 5-point Likert scale. The expert panel produced 136 core competencies in seven clusters: Risk Management, Emergency Planning, Problem Solving and Decision Making, Leadership, Communication, Building Collaborative Relationships, and Human Resource Management. Twenty-nine panelists successfully completed all three rounds of the Delphi study yielding a 93.5% response rate. Sport and event security management professionals and industry stakeholders can use the validated list of competencies to develop human capital and improve performance though the strategic application of human resource management

Leveraging home-grown sport tourism events for strategic destination branding outcomes

Abstract : Extant research has established that destination branding through sport events is deemed to be a valuable resource for brand development and positioning, as well as for accessing social, economic and environmental benefits for both developed and developing nations. However, the destination branding discourse remains widely contested among academics and practitioners, as there is, as yet, no commonly accepted framework for the destination branding theory. Moreover, the theory underpinning sport event leveraging towards informed branding practices, especially in the developing destination context, is lacking. The current study conceptualises the leveraging of home-grown sport events for destination brands; extending the scope of other known sport event leveraging studies in the developing context. The research critically examines key stakeholders involved in sport and destination branding by detailing their perceptions in relation to the leveraging of home-grown sport using the South African brand as a case study. Both qualitative and quantitative techniques were employed to collect the data. In total, 403 sport event attendee questionnaires were completed across two home-grown sport events, the Comrades Marathon in Durban and the IRONMAN triathlon in Port Elizabeth, using simple random sampling. Purposive sampling was implemented in targeting 24 key industry stakeholders from the relevant public and private organisations in sport, tourism and destination branding. The study reveals the significant effect of home-grown sport on destination branding through competitive brand positioning. A number of similarities and differences were observed between the sport event attendees and the stakeholder groups, in terms of the brand messages that were shown during the hosting of such sport events. Whereas the sport event attendees had indicated their intention to stay beyond the event, they were sceptical about the safety and security of the overall destination. Although the stakeholders agreed on the issue of safety and security, they observed the perception to be unjust to the brand, due to the skewed international media portrayal of social issues in especially the developing countries. Crime and other social issues, like education and health and safety, were, therefore, seen to be key challenges facing the South African destination’s perceived image. The study revealed outstanding opportunities for retaining sustainable tourism, and for attracting new tourism markets through the implementation of effective leveraging practices that are mainly linked to stakeholder commitment to investing in effective public and private partnerships. The key findings of the study conceptualise the role of leveraging strategies and the activities of stakeholders during the hosting of these specific types of sport events, so as to achieve augmented destination branding benefits. Although the above applies to both the developed and the developing contexts, distinguishing socioeconomic factors affecting developing nations have led to the adoption of a sport event leveraging framework in relation to home-grown sport. The study makes a theoretical contribution by developing a conceptual framework that articulates and underlines homegrown events for developing nation brands, by considering a developing country’s perspective by topics investigated largely in the developed Global North context. Further research questions were identified to inform future destination branding studies aimed at deriving additional definitive comparisons across stakeholder perspectives on strategic destination branding, as informed by sport event leveraging.D.Phil. (Tourism and Hospitality

An analysis of elite sport policy change in three sports in Canada and the United Kingdom

This thesis explores the process of elite sport policy change in three sports (swimming, athletics and sailing/yachting) in Canada and the United Kingdom (UK). The nature of policy change is a complex and multi-faceted process and a primary aim of the study is to identify and analyse key sources of policy change in four elements of elite sport programming: i) the development of elite level facilities; ii) the emergence of 'full-time' swimmers, athletes and sailors; iii) the adoption of a more professional and scientific approach to coaching, sports science and sports medicine; and iv) competition opportunities and structures at the elite level. The study focuses on the meso-level of analysis, which centres on the structures and patterns of relationships in respect of three Canadian national sporting organisations (NSOs) and three UK national governing bodies of sport (NGBs) - representing the three sports cited above. The macro-level of analysis is also considered, where the primary concern is to analyse relations of power between governmenta nd quasi-governmentasl porting agenciesa nd the respective NSOs/NGBs. A case study approach is adopted, focusing on the six NSOs/NGBs, wherein a qualitative methodology is utilised in order to elicit data in respect of policy change in the four key elements of elite sport programming set out above. Within the case study approach, the advocacy coalition framework has proved useful in drawing attention to the notion of changing values and belief systems as a key source of policy change, as well as highlighting the need to take into account factors external to the policy subsystem under investigation. In Canada, it is evident that the preoccupation with high performance sport over the past 30 years, at federal government level, has perceptibly altered over the past two to three years. In contrast, in the UK, from the mid-1990s onwards, there has been a noticeable shift towards supporting elite sport objectives from both Conservative and Labour administrations. The study concludes that it is only by exploring specific sports through a comparative-analytic framework that a better understanding of policy change, within the complex and multi-layered sport policy process, might be achieved

Eye quietness and quiet eye in expert and novice golf performance: an electrooculographic analysis

Quiet eye (QE) is the final ocular fixation on the target of an action (e.g., the ball in golf putting). Camerabased eye-tracking studies have consistently found longer QE durations in experts than novices; however, mechanisms underlying QE are not known. To offer a new perspective we examined the feasibility of measuring the QE using electrooculography (EOG) and developed an index to assess ocular activity across time: eye quietness (EQ). Ten expert and ten novice golfers putted 60 balls to a 2.4 m distant hole. Horizontal EOG (2ms resolution) was recorded from two electrodes placed on the outer sides of the eyes. QE duration was measured using a EOG voltage threshold and comprised the sum of the pre-movement and post-movement initiation components. EQ was computed as the standard deviation of the EOG in 0.5 s bins from –4 to +2 s, relative to backswing initiation: lower values indicate less movement of the eyes, hence greater quietness. Finally, we measured club-ball address and swing durations. T-tests showed that total QE did not differ between groups (p = .31); however, experts had marginally shorter pre-movement QE (p = .08) and longer post-movement QE (p < .001) than novices. A group × time ANOVA revealed that experts had less EQ before backswing initiation and greater EQ after backswing initiation (p = .002). QE durations were inversely correlated with EQ from –1.5 to 1 s (rs = –.48 - –.90, ps = .03 - .001). Experts had longer swing durations than novices (p = .01) and, importantly, swing durations correlated positively with post-movement QE (r = .52, p = .02) and negatively with EQ from 0.5 to 1s (r = –.63, p = .003). This study demonstrates the feasibility of measuring ocular activity using EOG and validates EQ as an index of ocular activity. Its findings challenge the dominant perspective on QE and provide new evidence that expert-novice differences in ocular activity may reflect differences in the kinematics of how experts and novices execute skills

0028/2009 - Problemas na Elicitação de Requisitos: Uma visão de pesquisa/literatura

A primeira fase na engenharia de requisitos é a elicitação de requisitos, na qual as informações sobre as necessidades do cliente são adquiridas, sendo crucial e crítica e podendo comprometer todas as etapas subseqüentes do desenvolvimento. O presente relatório apresenta um levantamento dos problemas que ocorrem durante a elicitação de requisitos citados na literatura da área