Kindergarten Teachers’ Information Technology Teaching Beliefs: The Critical Path Toward Teaching Effectiveness

AbstractWith the advanced information technology application, in education area, computer-assisted instruction has been transferred to the diverse usage of information technology. The research of kindergarten teachers’ teaching belief in the usage of Information Technology and its impact on teaching effectiveness is the aim of the study. With random sampling to distribute and collect questionnaires, 512 kindergarten teachers in Northern Taiwan are selected as the research subjects. With SPSS, Factor Analysis, Regression Analysis, and Hierarchical Regression Analysis are utilized for data analyses. The research outcomes are concluded as follows. 1. Teaching Belief presents partially significantly positive correlations with Teaching Effectiveness. 2. Information Technology appears partially remarkably positive correlations with Teaching Belief. 3. Information Technology reveals partially notably positive correlations with Teaching Effectiveness. 4. Information Technology shows partially significantly moderating effects between Teaching Belief and Teaching Effectiveness. Based on the research outcomes, it is expected to provide some suggestions and reference for kindergartens with Information Technology integrating early childhood education

The Application of Computational Fluid Dynamics to Comfort Modelling

This thesis studies thermal comfort in heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) scenarios with computational fluid dynamics (CFD) models at domain and occupant levels. Domain level comfort modelling, where the details of the occupant are not modelled, is investigated utilising Fanger’s Predicted Mean Vote (PMV) and Predicted Percentage of Dissatisfied (PPD) comfort models. Occupant level comfort modelling, where the occupant geometry and skin temperature are required, is explored using two different models. The first model termed the thermal manikin model couples the University of California Berkeley (UCB) psychological model to a new physiological model which neglects the thermal regulation of the human body, and consists of a central core at constant temperature surrounded by a layer with thickness and corresponding thermal properties to allow the skin temperature to vary over the modelled human body. The second model based on Gagge’s two-node model, which includes thermal regulation, yet assumes the skin temperature of the occupant to be spatially uniform. The models are validated with the experimental results from the Technical University of Denmark, which provides the data of the air flow, and the Indoor Environmental Quality (IEQ) laboratory at the University of Sydney, which offered the actual votes of human subjects for a range of environmental conditions. To conclude, the prediction of the skin temperature and its spatial variation is the most important parameter to predict occupant comfort correctly. The occupant level comfort modelling approach employing the thermal manikin is found to be the superior method to evaluate thermal comfort as it can still be accurate when the environment is complex. However, the computational cost and model setup time is high. Further work employing multi-node thermal manikin models would be a fruitful area of research if the accuracy of occupant comfort prediction in complex thermal environments is of interest

A new monetary aggregates measurement: Application to Taiwanese data

This paper compares the different dynamics of simple sum monetary aggregates and PLS indexes over the business cycle, which have turning points at economic expansion and recession phases. We also investigates the long run relationship between monetary aggregates and GDP, to utilize the data in the most efficient manner via the nonparametric rank test of cointegration analysis proposed by Breitung (2001), and the impulse response functions to find the response of GDP to innovations in PLS and simple sum aggregates from 1969Q1 to 2010Q3.monetary aggregates, PLS, business cycle, cointegration, impulse response functions