Search results

This chapter will provide an overview of the types of concerns that are evident in the research literature regarding how well teachers are prepared to teach in inclusive classrooms citing both preservice education and in-service professional development/learning. It will present an overview of the measurements that have been used to measure teachers’ perceptions of preparedness for inclusive environments and the use of surveys to assess attitudes, beliefs, and values. The chapter will conclude with a discussion regarding measuring teachers’ perceptions to inform/improve teacher preparation efforts/policies/practices and what needs to be done to improve teacher preparation for inclusive education.

It is common practice to classify film forming systems into chemical and physical drying types. The drying of a film former by chemical means results in a film that is either largely or completely insoluble in the original solvent in which it was dissolved. Physical drying of a film former produces a film which may be re‐dissolved in the original solvent. Emulsion polymers do not fit precisely into this scheme, for although physical processes are involved in the film formation, the final film is not soluble in the original medium, i.e. water.

The term dispersion is used to refer to the process of incorporating a powder into a liquid medium so that the final product consists of fine particles distributed throughout the medium. The dispersion is termed ‘colloidal’ if at least one dimension of the particles is <1µ>1mµ. The term ‘sol’ is used for any colloidal system in which the dispersion medium is a liquid.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a systematic approach to measuring, tracking, monitoring and continuously improving efficiency, availability and quality in healthcare operational settings.

The proposed measure of healthcare operational effectiveness (HOE) consists of three indicators. They include an availability indicator, an quality indicator, and an efficiency indicator. The proposed approach tends to facilitate the systematic improvement at the different facets of operational effectiveness.

The proposed operational performance approach based on the HOE is consistent with the themes of performance measures and measurement reported in the literature.

The proposed healthcare operational effectiveness approach represents a serious attempt at quantifying the key facets of service effectiveness in healthcare operational settings. The validation of this performance assessment and measurement approach is worthy of future research.

The approach advocated by the HOE has operational and strategic relevance to decision makers of healthcare organizations.

This paper presents a practical, systematic approach toward enhancing operational effectiveness in healthcare organizations. Relevant implementation issues associated with the proposed approach are also addressed.

The aim of this article is to introduce business wargaming as a tool for ex ante strategy evaluation. Reviewing criticism of other approaches, such as scenarios and computer‐based simulations, this article explores whether business wargaming is a suitable response to this criticism.

This article reviews and discusses the literature on strategy testing and business wargaming.

Business wargaming is capable of responding to criticism of scenarios and computer‐based simulations when applied to the ex ante evaluation of strategy. Business wargaming, which arose from military wargaming, is a strategic simulation that is dynamic and participative, allowing managers to experience how their strategy will compete and endure in their business environment.

Additional research is needed to explore the application of business wargaming in practice as a tool for the testing of strategy.

The article suggests that business wargaming is a valuable tool for testing strategies in a simulation, which is participative and dynamic.

This article fills the research gap on strategy testing and points to a tool – business wargaming – that has been applied intensively in the military field.

This paper aims to explore the applicability and strengths of proposing the three-paradigm hybrid simulation (HS) approach to developing and analysing strategies. The objective of the modelling effort is to conceptually illustrate its use in strategic planning by combining with the threat-opportunity-weakness-strength (TOWS) matrix, which builds a bridge between strategic management with the operations research community. The authors also aim to introduce a modelling framework to help model designers to apply HS to their own business issues.

The paper presents a process to develop a HS model associated with the development of strategies using the TOWS matrix.

After developing the model and testing four strategies, the best option for the supermarket to increase market share and sales is implementing the strength–opportunity strategy, which involves online shopping to adapt to the digital world.

First, some modelling assumptions are used to simplify the development process, but they need further validation. Second, the real data collection is limited. Third, the personal learning edition of the simulation software is not a comprehensive version and has some limitations.

The hybrid model and the scenario planning introduced, in this study, could allow decision makers to rehearse the potential strategy before actual implementation. The framework is easy to implement to other business and industry.

This study links HS with strategic management, which has not been performed previously and evaluates the capability of HS in strategic planning. The functionality of the modelling platform has been tested for simulating a completely dynamic system.

Using the numerical situation analysis (NSA) technique in the development of corporate strategy provides senior managers with a suitable methodology for the creation of alternative strategic options. Subsequently, it may be used to evaluate those options for possible selection and implementation by the company concerned. In addition, the technique provides a graphic temporal point description of an organisation's strategic situation. Consequently, the aim of this paper is to outline the technique of NSA via a hypothetical example and thereby illustrate its use in practice.

By using a paradigm approach, the paper indicates the correct application of the NSA technique as a means of defining and evaluating alternative strategic options within a manufacturing company. As proposed, the methodology also permits several graphic illustrations of the strategic situation to be drawn, along with a scheme for monitoring the effectiveness of an adopted strategy.

The evolution of the suggested NSA technique and its application to the formulation of strategic options for a manufacturing company are outlined in the paper. In practice, its application in four differing industries has resulted in some caveats regarding its use, and to some provisional conclusions being drawn in respect of its usefulness to senior management. These are recorded in the concluding section of the paper.

The design, development and application of NSA proposed in this paper together with the experience of its implementation and use, in practice, highlight a potentially useful extension to existing methods of strategy formulation. The methodology offers senior management a technique, whereby alternative strategic options may be defined and evaluated for possible adoption along with diagrammatic illustrations of an organisation's strategic situation. In addition, the approach allows a selected strategy to be monitored over time for effectiveness, thus providing an early warning mechanism in respect of strategic inutility.

The paper contributes to the existing knowledge based on strategy development, evaluation and selection. It also provides a mechanism for monitoring a selected strategy for effectiveness over time and a structured framework for senior management to undertake the strategic planning process. It may when used in practice achieve an improved level of strategic understanding on the part of senior management and thereby stimulate improved corporate performance.

This article aims to analyze the impact that the inclusion of students with disabilities has on the achievement of their schoolmates and to analyze the impact that this inclusion has on the achievement of the students with disabilities themselves.

The author begins investigating how the inclusion of students with disabilities in regular schools affects achievement of schoolmates. To answer this research question, the author explores the natural variation in time in the number of students with disabilities and use data from National Exam of Upper Secondary Education (Enem). Then, the author investigates how the inclusion affects achievement of the students with disabilities themselves and uses propensity score matching methodologies and, again, data from Enem.

The results show that an additional percentage point in the proportion of students with disabilities would reduce schoolmates' writing scores by a 0.0031 standard deviation. In other subjects, the author finds weak or none evidence of a significant peer effect. In addition, using Propensity Score Matching methodologies, the results show that the mean scores are up to 44% of a standard deviation, which is higher among students with disabilities enrolled in regular schools compared to those who are enrolled in special schools. In summary, the evaluation is that inclusion policies achieve the goal of improving the performance of students with disabilities but such policies have a small and adverse side effect.

For this reason, the present study proposes to fill this gap in the literature by analyzing the impact of the inclusion of students with disabilities on both groups. In addition, this paper contributes to the empirical literature of peer effect with an analysis of the peer effect of students with disabilities per competency. Finally, the article is important given the existence of few articles in Brazil on the topic of education and people with disabilities.

Epoxy resin emulsions are used in water‐based coatings for surface protection of concrete and metal. An unfortunate drawback for most emulsions is their poor freeze‐thaw stability. Epoxy emulsions are indeed unstable below 0°C, ‐5°C or ‐10°C, depending on the type of resin. In this study, other factors capable of influencing the freeze‐thaw behaviour were investigated: e.g. solids content, amount and type of emulsifiers, solvents, protective colloids. Discusses methods for testing the quality of thawed emulsions as well as the physics involved in their destabilization. Freeze‐thaw performance can be improved by different means but mostly not without sacrificing resistance properties of the coating. Therefore, avoiding temperatures below 0°C is still the best advice.