This work deals with communication in multiagent systems. The protocols for negotiation and argumentation are shown, and model example of their usage is described. We describe hierarchical model of trust in contexts, that is used for representation of agent's believes. The argumentation protocol for those agents is designed, and is used for solving conflicts.

This study explores how a dialogic approach toward professional development could be used to improve early literacy teaching in multilingual pre-primary contexts. Consequently, the purposes of the research were a) to develop an effective professional development (PD) model for pre-primary teachers that exposes them to research based early literacy texts and dialogic teaching practices for diverse language populations, b) to engage teachers in face-to-face and online dialogic learning, and c) to create on-going networks of teachers engaged in reflective practices for improving early literacy teaching. The theoretical framework, based on Vygotsky’s (1978) and Bakhtin’s (1986) theories, was used as an analytical lens to highlight the centrality of situated language learning and use within a socio-cultural context. The main question of the study is, “How might professional development, using a dialogic approach, transform teaching beliefs and practices for pre-primary teachers from diverse language backgrounds?” The study used a mixed methods research design to document participants’ reflections during focus group discussions, interviews, classroom observations, and in online forum discussions. Purposive sampling techniques were used to select a sample of 33 participating pre-primary teachers. The DeFord (1985) Theoretical Orientation toward Reading Profile (TORP) was administrated to pre-primary teachers selected from two education regions of Namibia before and after the PD. The qualitative data analysis, using Grounded Theory (GT) coding and Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) yielded emergent themes that include: a) English second language (ESL) knowledge, b) pedagogical approaches (PA) for teaching and learning, and c) authoritarian discourse (AD). The quantitative pre/post-test results revealed no significant difference in overall TORP scores, but some significant changes on key pre/post-test individual items were noted. The overall results support the hypothesis that targeted PD can modify/change teacher’s beliefs about the relative value of teaching isolated phonics and reading skills versus a focus on opportunities for rich talk, interaction, and having an impact in a cultural moment. The study’s contributions toward knowledge are captured in how to engage pre-primary teachers in dialogic training that may transform held didactic beliefs to acquire ESL knowledge and skills to overcome early literacy teaching challenges in multilingual contexts. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Early Childhood Education / PhD / Unrestricted

Over the last several decades, a growing awareness of the benefits of regular screening for common health conditions, such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases, has paved the way for preventative screenings to become routine in medical settings. Given that cognitive impairment is frequently reported as the number one worry of older adults, home-based cognitive monitoring may be an innovative solution that allows middle aged and older adults to take an active role in monitoring an important aspect of their health. Although several home-based cognitive monitoring programs have been validated for use in clinical and home-based settings, the Cogstate Brief Battery (CBB) may be the leading candidate based on its brevity, reliability, and lack of practice effects. Although home-based monitoring via the CBB tends to be well-received by participants, it remains unclear how participant characteristics such as personality traits may affect their performance over time. In addition, the factors related to participants’ adherence and satisfaction with regular cognitive monitoring have yet to be examined. Addressing these unknowns are important, as they can help determine what to expect in terms of participant performance, adherence, and satisfaction, if home-based cognitive monitoring was implemented on a population-wide level in the future. This study examined how personality traits influenced cognitive performance over time on the CBB and explored participant adherence and satisfaction with regular cognitive monitoring over 60 months, using quantitative and qualitative data from a sample of cognitively healthy older adults recruited from communities in central Florida (N=158). Statistical analyses of the quantitative data using mixed effects models showed that personality traits were associated with performance on the CBB; in particular, higher conscientiousness was related to more accurate performance at baseline and improvements in speed over time. In addition, higher openness was associated with less accurate performance at baseline and slower, yet more accurate performance over time. In general, participants’ performance was relatively stable over time and fluctuations in performance occurred mostly in the first year of the study. Intraindividual variability also decreased over time, with significant decreases in variability occurring in participants who were higher in conscientiousness and openness. Mixed methods analyses of the data also suggested that participants liked their overall experience with the CBB, exhibited good study adherence over time, and were able to complete their monthly assessments with a high degree of independence. The themes that emerged from the qualitative analysis of participants’ study feedback suggest that most participants liked that CBB was easy, convenient to use, and provided them with a way to challenge themselves. However, some participants disliked one task in particular and felt that the CBB eventually became repetitive. The findings from both studies are useful for future applications of cognitive monitoring programs, as they would help improve the accuracy of conclusions drawn from participants’ performance and could also lead to the development of strategies that encourage long-term participation among individuals whom low study adherence and satisfaction is likely.

Auf dem Gebiet der Klinischen Studien sind präzise Begriffsdefinitionen äußerst wichtig, um eine objektive Datenerfassung und -auswertung zu gewährleisten. Zudem ermöglichen sie externen Experten die Forschungsergebnisse korrekt zu interpretieren und anzuwenden. Allerdings weisen viele Klinische Studien Defizite in diesem Punkt auf: Definitionen sind oft ungenau oder werden implizit verwendet. Außerdem sind Begriffe oft uneinheitlich definiert, obwohl standardisierte Definitionen im Hinblick auf einen weitreichenderen Austausch von Ergebnissen wünschenswert sind. Vor diesem Hintergrund entstand die Idee des Data Dictionary, dessen Ziel zunächst darin besteht, die Definitionsalternativen von Begriffen zu sammeln und Klinischen Studien zur Verfügung zu stellen. Zusätzlich soll die Analyse der Definitionen in Bezug auf ihre Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede sowie deren Harmonisierung unterstützt werden. Standardisierte Begriffsdefinitionen werden jedoch nicht erzwungen, da die Unterschiede in Definitionen inhaltlich gerechtfertigt sein können, z.B. aufgrund der Verwendung in unterschiedlichen Fachgebieten, durch studienspezifische Bedingungen oder verschiedene Expertensichten. In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird ein Modell für das Data Dictionary entwickelt. Das entwickelte Modell folgt dem aus der Terminologie bekannten konzept-basierten Ansatz und erweitert diesen um die Möglichkeit der Repräsentation alternativer Definitionen. Insbesondere wird hierbei angestrebt, die Unterschiede in den Definitionen möglichst genau zu explizieren, um zwischen inhaltlich verschiedenen Definitionsalternativen (z.B. sich wider-sprechenden Expertenmeinungen) und konsistenten Varianten einer inhaltlichen Definition (z.B. verschiedene Sichten, Übersetzungen in verschiedene Sprachen) unterscheiden zu können. Mehrere Modellelemente widmen sich zudem der Explizierung von kontextuellen Informationen (z.B. der Gültigkeit innerhalb von Organisationen oder der Domäne zu der ein Konzept gehört), um die Auswahl und Wiederverwendung von Definitionen zu unterstützen. Diese Informationen erlauben verschiedene Sichten auf die Inhalte des Data Dictionary. Sichten werden dabei als kohärente Teilmengen des Data Dictionary betrachtet, die nur diejenigen Inhalte umfassen, die als relevant im ausgewählten Kontext spezifiziert sind.

This paper assessed the redundancy of the construct of grit (Crede, Tynan, Harms, 2017) compared to other similar constructs using structural equation modeling to remove the effect of measurement error. A series of models regressed grit and its subdomains (passion and perseverance of effort) on self-control, conscientiousness, achievement striving, and resilience. The R-squared values for these models ranged from 0.62 to 0.89. It is concluded that the concept of grit is mostly redundant with other constructs and is therefore an example of a Jangle fallacy (Kelley, 1927). The unique aspect of grit is mostly related to its passion subdomain. The latent correlation between the passion and perseverance of effort subdomains was r = 0.19. Further, it was found that several popular measures failed to conform to their intended factor structure.

Risky behaviors are behaviors which lead to insufficient decision, such as unprotected sexual behavior and drug use. Environmental factors around college students who are mostly late adolescent and young emerging adults could lead them to risky behaviors. Those factors can include movies they watch, radio stations they listen to, social media, and their peers who introduce social norms among peers. College students’ risky behaviors can be affected by those social norms of peers, often through peer pressure. In the current study, the dynamics among peer pressure, social media, and risky behaviors among college students will be studied by interviewing undergraduate students at one of main universities in southern region in the U.S.

Magister Educationis - MEd / The twenty-first century society demands a high level of mathematical literacy. This drove Korean educators to evaluate their students using international mathematics tests such as TIMSS, PISA and IMO. In these tests, Korean students ranked highly among the participating countries. Korean students, however, had done poorly in the application of mathematics in daily life situations as well as in their interest in mathematics in co~parison to those of other countries. Based on these observations, the present study is an investigation on the contexts which Korean grade 8 to 10 students would prefer to deal with mathematics, in order to improve these weak points and thus increase their mathematical power. The aim of this study was thus to investigate mathematical literacy in connection with the relevance of mathematics and mathematical modelling. The study pays more attention to mathematics education 111 real life situations. Data was collected using the ROSME questionnaire that deals with contexts preferred by students for mathematics education. A sample made up of over 1600 learners in grades 8 to 10 were randomly selected from 21 schools. Data collected from these learners was analysed using Kendall's W mean rank method in the SPSS 12.0 program since the data for this study were ordinal. The most important finding of this study was that, "Mathematics that entertains and surprises us" came up the highest ranked item. This indicates that mathematics education must be directed towards raising learners' interests. The lowest ranked item was, "Mathematics used to calculate the number of seats for parliament given to political parties after elections," and this might indicate among other things that political activity does not attract students' interest in a society where the concept of well-being is dominant. In general, Korean learners appear to favour learning mathematics in technological contexts and show less interest in political and agricultural contexts. In conclusion, this study suggests that teachers should use contexts that increase learners' interest in classroom activities. Korea has today become one of the strongest Information Technology countries. Therefore mathematics curricula and textbooks which are appropriate to this context must be provided for more efficient mathematics education. Thus, it becomes imperative that the Korean school system must develop a particular program for nurturing learners' mathematical power. Furthermore, mathematics education policy makers must reconsider whether the current education system, Pyungjunhwa Kyoyuk system, should be used or not.

Intellectual giftedness can affect students in a variety of ways. Research often examines some of these potential effects, such as how giftedness impacts performance in school or attitude regarding academics. However, little research has been done on whether gifted students are more driven by internal pressures to succeed that they place on themselves or by external pressures to succeed that are placed on them by others. The present study examined how perfectionism (an internal pressure) and parental expectations (an external pressure) might affect a student’s self-esteem and achievement. Participants were 250 undergraduate students (M age = 20.35 years old, M GPA = 3.53) who completed an online survey. Different aspects of perfectionism had unique associations with self-esteem, whereas parental expectations were not associated with self-esteem. Perfectionism, parental expectations, and self-esteem were not associated with academic achievement. Taken together, it appears that internal pressure, specifically concern over mistakes, corresponds to lower self-esteem, whereas having high personal standards may be adaptive. Implications and future research are discussed.

Compromised social cognition, psychosis, and antisocial traits are associated with violence in individuals with schizophrenia. Facial emotional perception (FEP) has been used to measure social cognition in schizophrenia, but its relationships to psychosis, antisocial behavior, and violence have not been explored. Archival data from a sample of 38 participants ages 18-55 with schizophrenia were analyzed in a quasi-experimental design using a 2-way analysis of variance to determine the relationship of psychosis, antisocial traits, and FEP. The main factors of the analysis were psychosis, classified as either high or low, and antisocial traits, classified as high or low. The dependent variable was FEP. Additionally, logistic regression was used to determine if the recent violent behavior was related to FEP, psychosis, and antisocial traits. Results showed significant main effects for psychosis and antisocial traits and interaction between psychotic state and antisocial traits. Logistic regression identified antisocial traits as a predictor of violence. The results are consistent with previous studies showing that a deficit in social cognition is a risk factor in violence. This study shows that antisocial traits are a predictor of a recent history of violence. These findings are consistent with the theory of the mind, perceptual organization theory, and integrative emotional system theory and provide additional information about how social cognition is manifested in some adults with schizophrenia. The study contributes to positive social change by providing a basis for treatment options with schizophrenia which distinguish social cognition, psychosis and antisocial behavior and violence.

While there is a significant body of research on the topic of gender identity and gender attitudes, the existing literature contains a number of competing theories and leaves several gaps open for exploration. Namely, there is a lack of research on adult subjects, a lack of research into the benefits of using implicit measures of gender attitudes, and more room for exploration of the potentially complex interactions between gender identity variables, gender attitudes, and adjustment. This study investigated the relationships between a number of variables that have been suggested to make up a multidimensional model of gender identity, as well as an implicit measure of gender attitudes, an explicit stereotype endorsement measure, and a measure of well-being. The study took place online and participation was open to any U.S. resident over the age of 18. The expected relationships between gender identity and gender attitude variables were not found, but a number of intriguing correlations in the data are discussed.