title: Zero Waste Education: An evaluation of an environmental education programme

authors: Jones, Benjamin

subjects: environmental

abstract: The Ministry of Education's Guidelines for Environmental Education in New Zealand Schools (1999) names five aims of what environmental education should achieve in New Zealand. These aims are for students to develop: "awareness and sensitivity to the environment and related issues; knowledge and understanding of the environment and the impact of people on it; attitudes and values that reflect feelings of concern for the environment; skills involved in identifying, investigating, and problem solving associated with environmental issues; and a sense of responsibility through participation and action as individuals, or members of groups whanau, or iwi, in addressing environmental issues" (Ministry of Education, 1999, p. 9).
The research reported in this thesis describes the evaluation of the Zero Waste Education (ZWE) programme against these aims, as well as the goals of the programme itself. The ZWE programme is based in Tauranga and operates in primary schools around New Zealand delivering waste education to students. 
This research was conducted within the interpretivist paradigm. Data was collected using the case study method in one school in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand, through interviews, parent questionnaires, student questionnaires, observations, and a focus group. Participants in this case study were students who had gone through the ZWE programme, their teachers and other members of the school staff, the ZWE educator, and the parents of the students who went through the programme. Data was organised by initially transcribing interview data, entering student questionnaire and parent questionnaire data into MS Excel spreadsheets and typing observational data. The organised data was then coded in a deductive approach based on the desired outcomes of EE and ZWE, and analysed for common themes that emerged in relation to these outcomes. 
The findings of this study indicate that the ZWE programme appears to be meetingits desired goals in general terms, as well as those of environmental education as a whole. The findings appeared to show a raise in student’s knowledge of composting and worms, as well as a raise in attitudes and awareness towards the waste issue. The findings also appeared show a level of intergenerational transfer and action taking occurring, with a few participating households reporting a change in their waste management practices and teachers commenting on observed actions of the students.
One key recommendation to emerge from this study is for ZWE to further tighten its goals and discuss these with educators in order to enhance consistent achievement of the goals. Another recommendation discusses ways to further develop the action taking skills of participating students through the action competence approach and to ensure that these action taking skills have enough of an impact to last in the long term.

text: Zero Waste Education: An evaluation of an environmental education programme The Ministry of Education's Guidelines for Environmental Education in New Zealand Schools (1999) names five aims of what environmental education should achieve in New Zealand. These aims are for students to develop: "awareness and sensitivity to the environment and related issues; knowledge and understanding of the environment and the impact of people on it; attitudes and values that reflect feelings of concern for the environment; skills involved in identifying, investigating, and problem solving associated with environmental issues; and a sense of responsibility through participation and action as individuals, or members of groups whanau, or iwi, in addressing environmental issues" (Ministry of Education, 1999, p. 9).
The research reported in this thesis describes the evaluation of the Zero Waste Education (ZWE) programme against these aims, as well as the goals of the programme itself. The ZWE programme is based in Tauranga and operates in primary schools around New Zealand delivering waste education to students. 
This research was conducted within the interpretivist paradigm. Data was collected using the case study method in one school in the Bay of Plenty, New Zealand, through interviews, parent questionnaires, student questionnaires, observations, and a focus group. Participants in this case study were students who had gone through the ZWE programme, their teachers and other members of the school staff, the ZWE educator, and the parents of the students who went through the programme. Data was organised by initially transcribing interview data, entering student questionnaire and parent questionnaire data into MS Excel spreadsheets and typing observational data. The organised data was then coded in a deductive approach based on the desired outcomes of EE and ZWE, and analysed for common themes that emerged in relation to these outcomes. 
The findings of this study indicate that the ZWE programme appears to be meetingits desired goals in general terms, as well as those of environmental education as a whole. The findings appeared to show a raise in student’s knowledge of composting and worms, as well as a raise in attitudes and awareness towards the waste issue. The findings also appeared show a level of intergenerational transfer and action taking occurring, with a few participating households reporting a change in their waste management practices and teachers commenting on observed actions of the students.
One key recommendation to emerge from this study is for ZWE to further tighten its goals and discuss these with educators in order to enhance consistent achievement of the goals. Another recommendation discusses ways to further develop the action taking skills of participating students through the action competence approach and to ensure that these action taking skills have enough of an impact to last in the long term.

year: 2014

title: Wittrick-Williams algorithm proof of bracketing and convergence theorems for eigenvalues of constrained structures with positive and negative penalty parameters

authors: Ilanko, Sinniah

subjects: Wittrick-Williams algorithm

abstract: The well-established Wittrick-Williams algorithm is used to derive novel and general proofs that show that the eigenvalues of systems with constraints can be bracketed by replacing the constraints by positive and negative pairs of either ordinary or inertial penalty parameters. It is also shown that convergence occurs from both above and below when the numerical values of these parameters are increased towards infinity. The proofs are applicable in many contexts but are derived in that of structural systems, for which the eigenvalues are either buckling load factors or the squares of natural frequencies of vibration; ordinary penalty parameters are stiffnesses of translational and rotational springs; and inertial penalty parameters are either masses or rotary inertias. The penalty parameters can be used to constrain a system or to impose constraints between systems. It is shown that the use of inertial penalty parameters has several advantages compared with using ordinary ones. Then the pth eigenvalue of a system with n constraints is bounded closely from above by the (p+n)th eigenvalue of the system with very large positive inertial penalty parameters and from below by the pth eigenvalue, when large negative values are used instead. This work is expected to enhance the versatility of numerical eigenproblem methods, e.g. the Rayleigh-Ritz method.

text: Wittrick-Williams algorithm proof of bracketing and convergence theorems for eigenvalues of constrained structures with positive and negative penalty parameters The well-established Wittrick-Williams algorithm is used to derive novel and general proofs that show that the eigenvalues of systems with constraints can be bracketed by replacing the constraints by positive and negative pairs of either ordinary or inertial penalty parameters. It is also shown that convergence occurs from both above and below when the numerical values of these parameters are increased towards infinity. The proofs are applicable in many contexts but are derived in that of structural systems, for which the eigenvalues are either buckling load factors or the squares of natural frequencies of vibration; ordinary penalty parameters are stiffnesses of translational and rotational springs; and inertial penalty parameters are either masses or rotary inertias. The penalty parameters can be used to constrain a system or to impose constraints between systems. It is shown that the use of inertial penalty parameters has several advantages compared with using ordinary ones. Then the pth eigenvalue of a system with n constraints is bounded closely from above by the (p+n)th eigenvalue of the system with very large positive inertial penalty parameters and from below by the pth eigenvalue, when large negative values are used instead. This work is expected to enhance the versatility of numerical eigenproblem methods, e.g. the Rayleigh-Ritz method.

year: 2007

title: Verbs in Māori: The problem of definitional criteria

authors: Whaanga, Hēmi

subjects: te reo Māori

abstract: A range of different types of criteria has been applied at different points in the history of the classification of verbs in Māori. These have included syntactic and morphological criteria, semantic criteria and derivational criteria. Unfortunately, these criteria have not always been applied consistently and this has led to considerable disagreement about the classification of verbs in Māori. In this paper, different accounts of verb classification in Māori are critically examined and it is argued that some of the disagreements can be resolved by acknowledging (a) that words in Māori may be assigned to different word classes in different contexts, and (b) that word classes and sub-classes should be determined on the basis of morphological and syntactic criteria with semantic and derivational information playing a role only in so far as they have observable syntactic and/or morphological consequences.

text: Verbs in Māori: The problem of definitional criteria A range of different types of criteria has been applied at different points in the history of the classification of verbs in Māori. These have included syntactic and morphological criteria, semantic criteria and derivational criteria. Unfortunately, these criteria have not always been applied consistently and this has led to considerable disagreement about the classification of verbs in Māori. In this paper, different accounts of verb classification in Māori are critically examined and it is argued that some of the disagreements can be resolved by acknowledging (a) that words in Māori may be assigned to different word classes in different contexts, and (b) that word classes and sub-classes should be determined on the basis of morphological and syntactic criteria with semantic and derivational information playing a role only in so far as they have observable syntactic and/or morphological consequences.

year: 2000-10