Implementação de um sistema de gestão da qualidade nas organizações escolares

A Qualidade é um dos fatores dinâmicos de competitividade e é, incontestavelmente, um dos pilares fundamentais para a construção do sucesso das organizações. O conceito de Qualidade não é de fácil definição, dado que é algo complexo e de difícil consenso. E muitas são as noções de Qualidade existentes na literatura, mas todas elas convergem num sentido único da busca da melhoria contínua e da excelência. Por outro lado, a implementação da Contabilidade de Gestão (designadamente o Custeio Baseado em Atividades - ABC) numa organização, sobretudo numa instituição de ensino, fornece recursos suficientes para a identificação dos melhores indutores de custo. Assim, toma-se inevitável observar as atividades, inquirir os colaboradores internos e externos, desenvolver e aplicar métodos quantitativos que monitorizem os processos e os procedimentos e, especialmente, que exista o empenho da gestão de topo, de modo a que a estratégia e a qualidade organizacional se inter-relacionem. Este trabalho apresenta diversos aspetos referentes à temática dos custos da qualidade (ou da não qualidade), a própria técnica contemporânea ABC e os principais resultados obtidos através da aplicação de listas de verificação e de um inquérito por questionário, junto dos alunos, colaboradores docentes e não docentes, com o objetivo de analisar a situação dos custos da qualidade baseados na contabilidade e avaliar o grau de satisfação/motivação com a qualidade do serviço prestado na sede do Agrupamento de Escolas do concelho de Estremoz. Os resultados do presente estudo evidenciaram alguns benefícios e dificuldades da aplicabilidade da Gestão da Qualidade numa instituição de ensino. A cultura organizacional deste tipo de instituições será um dos aspetos a ter em consideração, de modo a que os princípios da Gestão da Qualidade sejam implementados de forma harmoniosa e que poderá encaminhar essas organizações num verdadeiro percurso de qualidade, numa filosofia de melhoria contínua até à excelência. ABSTRACT: As a crucial factor for competitiveness, quality is undoubtedly one of the foundations on which a successful organization rests. The complexity surrounding the notion of quality makes it hard to reach a consensus about its meaning, and that is why it has so many different definitions. However, all of them have one thing in common - that it involves a continuous search for improvement and excellence. Nowadays, an organization that uses accounting methods to support management (namely the Activity-based Costing method) has the necessary means to identify where the main costs are originating from, particularly if the organization is somehow related to teaching. It is therefore inevitable to study activities, inquire everyone involved in the organization's activities, as well as develop and apply quantitative methods to monitor processes and procedures. Moreover, it is especially important that top management is fully committed to quality in order to reflect it on its strategy. This work focuses on several aspects pertaining costs associated with quality- and lack of quality­ and shows the Activity-based Costing method in particular, as well as the main results gathered from the verification lists and questionnaires made to students, teachers and staff, with the purpose of analyzing - based on accounting - the amount of costs derived from quality, and evaluating the degree of satisfaction and/or motivation as regards the quality of service provided at a group of schools in Portuguese region of Estremoz. The results of this study show that there are some benefits in applying quality management to teaching institutions, but there are also some difficulties. The organizational culture of these institutions is one aspect that should be taken into consideration, so that quality management principles can be implemented harmoniously. This may direct these organizations to the true path of quality, so they can continuously seek improvement and achieve excellence.

An Artificial Intelligence Approach to Dyscalculia

Dyscalculia stands for a brain-based condition that makes it hard to make sense of numbers and mathematical concepts. Some adolescents with dyscalculia cannot grasp basic number concepts. They work hard to learn and memorize basic number facts. They may know what to do in mathematical classes but do not understand why they are doing it. In other words, they miss the logic behind it. However, it may be worked out in order to decrease its degree of severity. For example, disMAT, an app developed for android may help children to apply mathematical concepts, without much effort, that is turning in itself, a promising tool to dyscalculia treatment. Thus, this work focuses on the development of an Intelligent System to estimate children evidences of dyscalculia, based on data obtained on-the-fly with disMAT. The computational framework is built on top of a Logic Programming framework to Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, complemented with a Case-Based problem solving approach to computing, that allows for the handling of incomplete, unknown, or even contradictory information.

G7 Stock Markets: Who is The First to Defeat The DCCA Correlation?

Following the methodology of Ferreira and Dionísio (2016), the objective of this paper is to analyze the behavior stock markets in the G7 countries and find which of those countries is the first to reach levels of long-range correlations that are not significant. We carry out this analysis using detrended cross-correlation analysis and its correlation coefficient, to check for the existence of long-range dependence in time series. The existence of long-range dependence could be understood as a possibility of EMH violation. This analysis remains interesting because studies are not conclusive about the existence or not of long memory in stock return rates.