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This thesis aims to demonstrate how Pope Benedict XVI's Eucharistic theology can be used to fill the gap it identifies in the content within the Religious Education curriculum of Macao Catholic secondary schools and also extend support to the evangelization mission carried out in these schools. The thesis is divided into three parts. The first part focuses on the ideal religious formation of teachers and students in a Catholic school should be according to the teaching and discipline of the Catholic Church and how this is presently performed in three local Catholic secondary schools. This identifies a gap between theory and practice. The gap lies in the absence of formation in the sacramental and, therefore, Eucharistic teaching of the Church. The second part elaborates on the Catholic understanding of the human person and the basic needs for the development of adolescents. It does this to ensure that when the thesis proposes a solution to fill the gap in the curriculum, that solution is appropriate to the needs of the subjects of religious education, that is the adolescents in Macao Catholic secondary schools. In the third part, the Eucharistic theology of Pope Benedict XVI is explored, along with its relevance to the curriculum of the schools under investigation. It examines how it could enhance the experience of the educational mission of these schools and responds to the needs for adolescent development. Finally, suggestions are provided as how to incorporate the Eucharistic theme in the curriculum and create a Eucharistic education program for an enhanced evangelization outcome. This research has significant implications for all those who are involved in Catholic education, particularly in secondary schools

Since early times, the effects of a booming sector in other sectors of a small economy have been of interest to scholars. There is a general perception that the booming Gaming sector has contributed to the overall growth in Macau through the trickle-down effect, passing on the benefits of growth to other sectors. After the liberalization of the gaming industry in 2002, this booming sector experienced several years of exponential growth, becoming the driving industry for Macao’s economy. Several scholars and researchers have dedicated their studies to the effects of the casino gaming industry as a booming sector in such a small economy. However, there is a gap in what concerns measuring the influence of the Gaming sector as a driving industry for several other sectors or following industries of Macau’s economy. The purpose of this research study is to investigate in what measure the Gaming sector in Macao leveraged the other economic sectors and how related or correlated are the different industries of Macao’s Economy. A protocol-driven understanding of the state of the art on the interrelations between economic sectors and different techniques used to study those inter-relations was conducted through a systematic literature review. Given the limited available data on the Gross Value Added (GVA), or Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on the supply side, as a central measure of economic activity in the different sectors, several possible interpolation models using auxiliary high-frequency data (indicators) were compared, to achieve the optimal model for interpolation of each variable. Several forecasts for the future performance of Macau's four major economic sectors were presented based on different regression techniques. Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) models were developed to assess the dependence of the future performance of a sector’s GVA on its past performance. Optimal Vector Autoregressive (VAR) models were created to identify the explanatory power of some sectors of Macau’s economy in others. Based on available auxiliary data in high-frequency (quarterly) it was possible to interpolate the quarterly GVA per economic sector, available only in low-frequency (annually), for the major sectors of Macao’s economy. Some sectors have a considerable explanatory power on the performance of other sectors, however, the proposed regression models did not identify a clear relation between the performance of the Gaming sector and the performance of other major sectors from Macao’s economy

Drama-in-Education (DiE) has been recognised as a valuable teaching pedagogy in the western world for decades, and yet it has not been fully or systematically adopted in the secondary English classes in Asian contexts, including Macau, despite the numerous reported advantages for English language teaching (ELT) in the past studies. This study explores Macau’s secondary school English teachers’ perceptions of utilising DiE in their classes. A mixed-methods research (MMR) approach was adopted in this study, consisting of three phases. First, pre-survey interviews were conducted to understand the potential major concerns about the choices of teaching approaches and the application of DiE of Macau’s secondary school English teachers. Subsequently, a questionnaire survey targeting local secondary school English teachers was administered, the results of which were cross-examined by, and integrated with, the results of two post-survey group interviews. While the results affirm the local secondary school English teachers’ positive view on DiE as an ELT pedagogy and identify their perceived advantages of DiE, the study indicates the over-determination of multi-faceted challenges to its implementation in Macau’s secondary education context. The study identifies and recommends necessary substantial changes to further the application of DiE in Macau’s secondary education milieu

Virtual reality (VR), a computer-generated 3D environment, allows one to navigate and possibly interact, resulting in real-time simulation of one or more of the user’s five senses (M. Gutierrez et al., 2008; Vince, 2004). Despite its history through past decades, this technology has quickly developed recently. Virtual tours and spaces have been widely used in the education, arts, and rehabilitation industries. According to research, it has significant effects on mindfulness (improving mood), cognitive development (better learning ability), and embodiment (relieving pain and medical conditions). This thesis aims to identify the conditions for Macao's single-user experience to achieve mindfulness in virtual reality through immersion and interactivity. With their various definitions, this research uses the two spectrums on the levels of immersion and interactivity, conducts four experiment settings with Macao residents, and collects qualitative questionnaires and quantitative survey data. The four settings differ as they tackle different aspects: spiritual memory, historical memory, aesthetic appreciation, and meditation through concept. The analysed results were then evaluated to seek better conditions for the local community to achieve mindfulness by immersing themselves in virtual reality

Source-based summary writing is an important aspect of academic writing at the undergraduate level; it includes summarizing and paraphrasing when producing texts in essay, report, or thesis formats. For university students whose second language or foreign language is English, source-based writing can be a challenging task as it involves and requires complex cognitive processes as well as reading-and-writing demands. Organized into three phases, this mixed method, small-scale exploratory feasibility case study investigated: (i) challenges and difficulties in online and offline English source-based summary writing of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) university students in Macao, identifying the cognitive and writing processes they experienced in a timed reading-writing task; and (ii) how to design and conduct interventions that could be used to diagnose, assess, and address essay challenges in source-based summary essay writing in everyday classroom sessions. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through a summary online writing essay using Inputlog, a keystroke logging software, and retrospective think-aloud protocol in Phase One, a source-based summary essay writing task in a quasi-experiment in Phase Two, and a survey questionnaire and error analysis of pre-test and post-test essays of the control and experimental groups in Phase Three. The processes of reading and writing in English were found to be challenging and complex for EFL university students to perform in a limited time. As an initial exploratory feasibility, efficacy trial, deliberately small scale to address issues of risk, this study found that the diagnostic assessment tools and interventions had the potential to improve the summary writing processes and proficiency of EFL students, focusing on their cognitive writing skills in everyday class sessions. The thesis recommends scaling up the research in future studies, in terms of sampling and the duration of interventions designed to improve source-based summary essay writing and the cognitive writing processes that are part of this

This study examined the acquisition of higher-order thinking skills in an English as a Second Language (ESL) classroom at a secondary school in Macau. It included an investigation of the way teaching might affect the development of higher-order thinking skills and language proficiency. This study also included an examination of the degree to which existing societal practices or values might have influenced the acquisition of higher-order thinking skills. Research instruments such as a questionnaire, a twelve-week experiment, pre-and post-tests and interview sessions were used for the data collection. The findings suggested that after twelve weeks the experimental groups developed higher synthetical and evaluative skills than the control groups which instead demonstrated better language skills. The results also identified incongruences between the curriculum and the expectations of the parents and employers

The thesis identifies concerns preserving, maintaining, and developing the Catholic identity of Catholic schools in Macao, the largest providers of schooling whilst being a minority religion, and with its teachers, parents, and students coming from Catholic and non-Catholic backgrounds, cultures, and values. To understand the present situation of Catholic identity in Macao’s Catholic schools, manifesting itself in part through the Catholic ethos of schools, and to identify key features, mission, vision, values, and areas for the development of Catholic identity, together with its presence and practices, this thesis reports a study of the perceptions of, and attitudes to, Catholic identity held by three key stakeholder parties in a carefully chosen representative selection of Catholic schools: teachers, parents, and students. The thesis reports their views on what the Catholic schools are currently doing in the areas of Catholic identity, and what they consider that they should be doing in these areas. The areas of focus draw on scholarship and teachings on Catholic identity, with particular emphasis placed on documents on Catholic identity and ethos from the Vatican, Archbishop Miller, and Monsignor Stock. A large-scale empirical survey here found that there was considerable support for Catholic schools in Macao, their identity, ethos, and values from the three parties. Two emergent patterns of findings are reported concerning the steps that Catholic schools were taking to promote their identity: (a) what Catholic schools should be doing concerning Catholic identity received consistently higher scores than what they were currently doing; and (b) consistently higher support for Catholic identity came from the teachers, slightly less so from the parents, and slightly less than that from the students. The study conducted a follow-up, small-scale study to investigate why these might be the case, and it suggested that the combination of Catholic values and Chinese cultural features might explain the findings on Catholic identity in the schools. The study identifies areas for possible development of, and improvements to, the identity of Catholic schools, that take account of the local cultural contexts and the teachings of the Catholic church on identity, and how these might be addressed in practice

This doctoral research delves into the transformative potential of Hyperledger Fabric Blockchain and the Internet of Things (IoT) within business management, specifically in the development and implementation of a Computerised Maintenance Management System (CMMS). It suggests that merging these advanced technologies could revolutionise maintenance management and overall system performance. The study assesses the impact on fundamental business processes within the IoT paradigm, highlighting the role of the Hyperledger Fabric blockchain network in ensuring data integrity and enhancing transparency. The integration of Blockchain protocol with IoT offers efficient data transactions, thereby improving business data management and decision-making. The research further validates the robustness of Fabric release V2.4 for CMMS development. The study concludes by emphasising the need for additional research to understand long-term implications and challenges in different business environments