M.Phil. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Hemos leído con interés el artículo titulado: “Estrategia de uno en uno para mejorar la técnica correcta de higiene de manos” de Orozco Hernández y colaboradores, publicado en el volumen 38, número 5.1 Aunque consideramos que el estudio puede ser importante en la búsqueda de estrategias para mejorar la técnica de lavado de manos en personal de salud, nos gustaría expresarle algunas dudas que surgen y que requieren clarificación.

Preface: Concept analysis utilising Piaget and Gagne's theories is an expanding area of research in the 'exact' sciences such as physics and chemistry. It is, however, new to the concepts in geography which are 'non-exact'. The thesis, then, is an exploratory study; and concept analysis is considered a possible methodology for examining the students' understanding of non-exact geography concepts. The thesis is divided into two parts. The first contains an examination of the theory of concept analysis and a critical review of empirical studies, with a view to applying concept analysis to the discipline of geography. The second part involves what has been termed a case study, where concepts are selected for analysis, and students were tested for their understanding of the concepts.

D.Ed. (Didactics) / The inability to work in groups effectively and difficulties with discussion and decision-making were observed amongst pupils. This led the researcher to question whether pupils in South African schools are presented with opportunities to share in and take responsibility for their own learning. The literature pertaining to the nature, phenomenon and process of negotiation is briefly examined and fundamentals are identified. Negotiation is contextualized as a component of the educational phenomenon. An observation study of three std 7 classrooms in three different schools is undertaken in order to identify and describe all forms and modes of negotiation. Interviews with teachers and with pupils serve as cross-validation of these results. The results reveal that little negotiation of any nature takes place in the classroom; that teachers and pupils possess few skills and little knowledge in this regard; and that teachers perform the central role in the classroom whilst pupil contributions are not encouraged. As a qualitative study the final results indicate trends that may be generalized to similar classrooms. The concept of negotiation as a didactic phenomenon is now examined in depth by means of a literature research, with back reference to the findings of the field study. Key elements are identified and a conceptual presentation of classroom negotiation is made. The necessity of negotiation as an innovative, democratic and relevant perspective on the classroom is argued and a model for negotiated learning is presented...

M.Ed. (Curriculum Studies) / The aim of this dissertation is focused on the composition of funded guideliness for effective teacher evaluation. A literature study is undertaken in this dissertation to gain background on the problematic nature of teacher evaluation. Emphasis is placed on: * the essential aspects of teacher evaluation * the negative symptoms of teacher evaluation * the difficulties (bottle-neck) in teacher evaluation, and * the characteristics of unsuccessful teacher evaluation. The aim of this research is not to focus on the global aspects of teacher evaluation, but to focus on the problematic nature that surrounds teacher evaluation. The literature study is of great importance for this study, because it creates the basis for the empirical study. The empirical study focuses on the meaningfulness of evaluation for the teacher as currently implemented in the school, and also to identify the difficulties in the evaluation practice. Both aspects are integrated in the guidelines for teacher evaluation, contribute to a positive attitude and teacher evaluation.

The central aim of this study was to contribute to the understanding of the process of interpretation as it occurs in the context of a dialogue in insight-oriented psychotherapy. The literature review consisted of two parts. Firstly, the philosophical literature on the theory of interpretation was reviewed. A set of central philosophical issues was identified, which pertain to the psychotherapeutic project of interpreting the meaning of a person's experience in the context of a dialogue with that person. Secondly, the psychotherapeutic literature was reviewed. Previous attempts to conceptualise and prescribe processes of interpretation were described. The issues which appeared to be in need of further clarification were identified. A clinical study was conducted to further explore the questions raised in the literature reviews. A methodology was developed which gave access to the direct experience of both clients and therapists during the events of psychotherapeutic interpretation. The methodology yielded a description of the interpretative structure of the psychotherapeutic dialogue for each therapist-client pair. These were then consolidated into a description of general structural features of the psychotherapeutic dialogue. The results consisted of a description of processes and structural features which are intrinsic to the psychotherapeutic interpretation of the meaning of a person's experience in the context of a dialogue. The results were elaborated in an extensive discussion from which the following findings emerged: (l)It is important to distinguish between communicative and interpretative forms of dialogue. (2)Thematisation activity is mediated by a number of dialectically related operations which are intrinsic to the interpretative project of psychotherapy. (3)Insight-oriented psychotherapy relies on the presence of the therapist as a dialogical partner and the therapist is not merely a facilitator of introspection on the part of the client. (4)The character of interpretation in psychotherapy may be understood in certain respects to be an elaboration of functions of the imagination. (5)The process of interpretation can be understood in relational terms and the variations of interpretative experience may be understood as variations of 'an inter-subjective interpretative ideal. (6)Understanding of certain forms of psychopathology is deepened when they are considered as variations of an ideal capacity to engage in interpretative dialogue. (7)It is possible to describe certain ideal conditions which are facilitative of interpretative dialogue and hence of the psychotherapeutic development of self-insight. In conclusion suggestions for further research were made. It was suggested that the perspective of hermeneutic phenomenology provides an appropriate philosophical and methodological foundation for understanding the unique dialogical interpretative situation which is psychotherapy. The study emphasized, both in its content and in the manner of its execution, the need for interpretative efforts to be accompanied by methodological reflection and especially an awareness of how interpretative strategies partially constitute the realities they set out to describe.

The present study examined types of practical models evident in the reported practice of counsellors at the every-day clinical level. It was found that there was one dominant model. The practical model reported by graduate counselling students was similar to the predominant model indicated by professors. The model found tends to agree with the relationship aspect of counselling as described by Egan (1982) in Stage 1 and Stage 2. However, goal setting and problem-solving techniques found in Stage 2 and 3, respectively; were not apparent. Twenty-seven individuals, twelve faculty members and fifteen graduate students in the Department of Counselling Psychology at the University of British Columbia participated in the study. Using sixty statements selected from Egan's (1982) developmental model of counselling, each participant was asked to Q-sort the statements according to what was most characteristic of oneself as a practising counsellor or as characteristic of oneself as the practising counsellor one hoped to be. Participant's results were intercorrelated. The matrix of intercorrelations was submitted to principal components analysis and then to a varimax rotation. The clearest data reduction was achieved by the first principal component without rotation. The results indicated one dominant, hypothetical model of counselling used by this sample. Also, the similarities of the hypothetical counselling model and Egan's (1982) model were within Stages 1 and 2. They differed in setting goals and problem-solving techniques. / Education, Faculty of / Educational and Counselling Psychology, and Special Education (ECPS), Department of / Graduate

in the wind clothes dance on a line is the conceptualization and articulation of performative inquiry as a research methodology within the field of education. Performative inquiry invites innovative and non-linear investigations, playing upon the multiple realities and interpretations of co-evolving worlds realized and recognized through creative action and interaction between researcher/teacher and participants/students within individual and shared, existing and imagined environments through motivating (im)pulse(s) of inquiry. Performative inquiry is elusively and momentarily balanced on the "edge of chaos" within the interstices of enactivism, complexity, interpretation, and performance. In articulating an ecological-cognitive reading of performance, I am in company with curricular theorists who envision curriculum as a journey and expression of students' and teachers' shared investigations within co-evolving landscapes of action and interaction., in the wind clothes dance on a line is a playfull response to current conversations among researchers seeking recognition and articulation of arts-based processes as legitimate site(s) and praxis of research. Performative inquiry offers researchers —- in drama education, in particular, and in education, in general, — a theoretical and practical venue to investigate their fields of inquiry through an integrated vehicle of body, mind and imagination. This dissertation is informed by a three year science education research project (1995- 1997) conducted with science educator, Karen Meyer. Our research investigated the teaching and learning of science education through drama and storytelling, culminating in a performance piece, Light Sound Movin' Around: What Are Monsters Made Of? Follow-up interviews with pre-service teachers speak eloquently to the possibility and power of performative inquiry as a research tool and learning vehicle in science education, in the wind clothes dance on a line has been imagined "in the air" through moments realized and recognized during the science education research project and through my work as a performing arts educator. And it is these moments that set the clothes dancing in the wind. in the wind clothes dance on a line is a conceptual piece, a performative work through which the reader will hopefully realize and recognize his or her own imaginings and interstandings of possible universes within education. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate

D.Cur. / Science practice in nursing is a meta-practical activity which aims in the first place at a specific aspect of reality.The science practitioner in nursing reaches a better understanding of the nursing practice through description and explanation. From a contextual-functional approach it is the aim of science practice in nursing to provide the nursing practice with action-orientated prescriptions. Secondly, specific values and assumptions form an integral part of science practice. A definite connection exists between the empirical reality and the assumptions (transcendental aspect). The process of science practice requires a conceptual framework or model. The aim of the research is to describe a model for science practice for nursing from a transcendental-empirical point of view. In order to reach this aim nursing was explored on first (reality), second (science methodology) and third (philosophy) order, with a description of the relationship between these three orders. The conditions for science practice in nursing were set in accordance with this relationship, and a model for science practice was consequently described. Science practice cannot be generalised since the object of study comprises characteristics which make specific demands on science practice. The inter-personal relations consistency, the purposefuland intentional character, context and value consistency, as well as the dynamic multi- dimentional character of nursing interaction are basic characteristics of the nursing practice and they have to be acknowledqed in science practice. in nursing. The nursing practitioner constitutes the nursing practice. The practitioner forms so-called pre-scientific interpretations about the nursing practice which the science practitioner must keep in mind. The research methodologist focuses primarily on the decisions relating to the research design. With the steps of decision-making in the research process the science practitioner has to justify himself regarding the so-called determinants of research. The assumptions which are selected from the third order for science practice form one of the so-called determinants of research and has to be in line with the basic characteristics of the nursing practice. These assumptions, to a greater or lesser extent, influence the decision-making steps. Research can focus on first order phenomena (nursing reality) or second order phenomena (constructs of research).

M.Sc. / The global tuberculosis (TB) epidemic has resulted in the development of numerous methods for the enumeration and viability assessment of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb), as these methods play a key role in TB management and research. In this study the methods of quantitative culture (CFU), the microplate alamar blue assay (MABA), flow cytometry, the green fluorescent protein microplate assay (GFPMA) and quantitative PCR were investigated and compared for the enumeration and viability assessment of mycobacteria in culture. The MABA and the GFPMA were applied to the enumeration and viability assessment of mycobacteria post-infection. Quantitative culture was found to be simple and low in cost but was lengthy. The MABA, an economic and quick assay, was more sensitive for high mycobacterial concentrations. The flow cytometric enumeration of fluorescent mycobacteria was rapid and sensitive, but was dependent on access to a flow cytometer and therefore was costly. Flow cytometry facilitated enumeration but was limited concerning viability assessment. The GFPMA was a simple, rapid and cost effective assay. However, decreased sensitivity was observed for low mycobacterial concentrations. Quantitative PCR, although high in cost, was sensitive and rapid. The MABA and the GFPMA were useful for the enumeration of mycobacteria post-infection, with the former being the more sensitive method. This study serves as a reference of the methods available for the enumeration and viability assessment of M.tb. The advantages and disadvantages established for each of the methods investigated in this study enables an informed selection of the most appropriate method for a specific objective and research environment.