This thesis proposes a holistic and hierarchical architecture to Multi-agent System design, in order to resolve the collaboration problem in diabetic healthcare system. A diabetic healthcare system is a complex and social system in the case that it involves many actors and interrelations. Collaborations among various healthcare actors are vital to the quality of diabetic healthcare. The collaboration problem is manifested by the problems of accessibility and interoperability. To support the collaboration in diabetic healthcare as such a complex and social system, the MAS must have corresponding social entities and relationships. Therefore, it is assumed that theories explaining social activity can be applied to design of MAS. Activity Theory, specifically its holistic triangle model from Engström and hierarchy thinking, provides theoretical supports to the design of individual agent architecture and MAS coordination mechanism. It is argued that the holistic and hierarchical aspects should be designed in a MAS when applied to the healthcare setting. The diabetic healthcare system is analyzed on three levels based on the hierarchy thinking. The collaboration problem is analyzed and resolved via MAS coordination. Based on the holistic activity model in Activity Theory, Müller’s Vertical Layered Architecture is re-conceptualized in the Control Unit and Knowledge Base design. It is also argued that autonomy, adaptivity and persona should be especially focused when designing the interaction between an agent system and human users. This study has firstly identified some important social aspects and the technical feasibility of embedding those identified social aspects in agent architecture design. Secondly, a MAS was developed to illustrate how to apply the proposed architecture to design a MAS to resolve the collaboration problem in diabetic healthcare system. We have designed and implemented an agent system – IMAS (Integrated Multi-agent System) to validate the research questions and contributions. IMAS system provides real time monitoring, diabetic healthcare management and decision supports to the diabetic healthcare actors. A user assessment has been conducted to validate that the quality of the current diabetic healthcare system can be improved with the introduction of IMAS.

<p>Preparing for segregation. Educational work within the Swedish special school - an activity theoretical approach</p><p>This study aims at illuminating what is special about Särskolan’s pedagogical work. In Sweden schooling for children who are regarded intellectually disabled is organised in a special school, Särskolan, established during the late 1800s. Today Särskolan is organised in two forms, a training school and a compulsory särskola. The pedagogical work in Särskolan is commonly referred to as special and unique. However, what this special is has not previously been explored.</p><p>The study is conducted within the tradition of cultural-historical activity theory. According to this tradition, personality, development and change is understood and explained in relation to various activity systems in which the individual is involved. Each activity is regarded as a historically developed, complex system of motive-driven, goal-orientated human actions that aim at finding solutions to a societal need. These theoretical assumptions have informed the design of the study of Särskolan as a historically developed activity.</p><p>The study was carried out during the school year 2002–2003 in one training school classroom (grade 2–5) and one compulsory särskola classroom (K–4). Class-room observations and staff interviews were used for data production. The core of the analyses concerned what the teachers were trying to achieve. According to the theoretical assumption, the motive is expected to appear in the object of the activity, therefore the overall analysis focused on the object of the activity of teaching.</p><p>One major result was that the teachers in the training school pursued preparations for daily life while in the compulsory särskola the pupils were prepared for teaching. With an activity theoretical approach to learning, the study further shows that the possibilities for pupils to learn – e.g. sign language in the training school or literacy in the compulsory särskola – were limited.</p><p>The overall conclusion is that the special with the Särskola is that up-bringing and preparation dominate the activity. The emphasis on preparation seem to be related to the teachers’ conceptions of the pupils as being in need of a special kind of knowledge before they can be taught the knowledge referred to in the syllabuses.</p>

Youth experiences with digital technologies demonstrate untapped potential for informing school-based learning responsive to adolescent identity and socialization practices (Ito et al., 2008). This study presents the formation of a collaborative model for appropriating youth and digital practices for developing new literacies with high school students in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands (New London Group, 1996). The research incorporates diversity in technology access and participation of predominately Latino students in English classrooms as a resource to engage literacy development across multiple discursive domains and challenge deficit discourses for Latino youth.The participatory approach combines interventionist research, in the cultural historical tradition of expansive learning (Engeström, 1987) with ethnographic methods for informing curricular practice (González, Moll,&Amanti, 2005; Lee, 2007) and new literacies pedagogy stressing collaborative, critical, and multimodal semiosis infused with Freirian praxis (Coiro et al., 2008; Freire, 1999; Lemke, 2003). Research involved co-developing, co-teaching and daily participant observation within the multiple online and offline spaces of a high school writing course, a weekly after school club begun with students from the class and several additional classrooms. A variety of data illustrates tensions and synergies of migrating practices across systems of activity represented by teacher, researcher and student standpoints. The research maps how socio-spatial relationships among academic and youth discourses, modalities, and participants' classroom positions were reconfigured through the use of digital tools joined with pedagogies responsive to adolescents' social and digital practices.An afterschool group's wiki participation extended students' oral and visual literacies into written expression and gave other participants a model of collaborative practice to guide classroom interaction. Engaging familiar and new tools for inquiries based on youth interests and complementary analytical concepts emphasized the primacy of the social and pedagogical aspects of technology. Students' agency in theorizing identity and developing representational spaces (Lefebvre, 1991) emerged as a key mediator for expanding their literacies across personal and academic contexts. In the collaborative process, participants forged new, hybrid genres, audiences and identities for distributing and developing their literacy practices across false dichotomies of home/school and online/offline spaces, and for reconfiguring normative school literacy regimes.

Uppsatsen behandlar musiklärares användning av, eller delaktighet i, ämnesövergripande arbeten i år 6–9 i grundskolan. Studien utfördes under läsåret 2012/2013. Syftet med studien var att undersöka vad det är som påverkar en musiklärare att arbeta ämnesövergripande eller inte. Metoden som tillämpades var kvalitativa halvstrukturerade intervjuer. I studien har åtta musiklärare intervjuats. Informationen från musiklärarna sammanställdes i Engeströms verksamhetsteoretiska modeller. En jämförelse genomfördes mellan en analys av de delar inom verksamheten där musiklärarna upplevde att det inte fanns några ämnesövergripande arbeten alls, eller mycket få sådana, med en där de upplevde att det fanns ämnesövergripande arbeten. Ytterligare en jämförelse skapades genom en analys av hur två av musiklärarna hanterat sitt ämnes delaktighet i ämnesövergripande samarbeten när det gått från en fungerande ämnesövergripande verksamhet till en mindre väl fungerande ämnesövergripande verksamhet. Genom dessa jämförelser framkom att det är främst de skrivna och de oskrivna reglerna på skolan som påverkar om en musiklärare är delaktig eller inte i ämnesövergripande arbeten. Det visas i studien att det oftast inte är den enskilde musiklärarens övertygelse om ämnesövergripande arbeten som är den mest tongivande faktorn ifall de blir av eller inte. / ”Kaleidoscope – a research of music teachers interdisciplinary studies in year 6 – 9” is an independent study at the Master´s level (15 credits) at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm. This study explores music teachers’ involvement in, or usage of, interdisciplinary studies in year 6–9 in Swedish compulsory schools. The research was done during the school year 2012/2013. The purpose of the research was to understand what it is that affect a music teacher to arrange interdisciplinary studies for their students or not. The method used was qualitative semi structured interviews. In the research, eight music teachers have been interviewed. The information from them was put together in Engeströms activity system. A comparison of an analysis, between a system that explains an activity where their does not exist any, or rarely exist any, interdisciplinary studies for the students, and a system where there does exist interdisciplinary studies, was done. Also a comparison of the analysis between two of the music teachers when they move from a system that is arranging interdisciplinary work to one that does not, was done. Thru this comparison reveals that it is mainly the written and non-written rules of the school that affect the presence of interdisciplinary studies or not. The research shows that it is not the individual music teacher’s engagement in the interdisciplinary work, which is the main factor if interdisciplinary studies are done, or not.

This research claims that transformative as opposed to informative learning cultures in higher education are capable of promoting student identity development alongside subject development. It makes a significant pedagogical, conceptual, methodological and contextual contribution to contemporary discussions regarding the nature and purpose of higher education in the 21st century. Transformative learning cultures, based on the pedagogical values of the teachers involved, create an identity workspace where student development is encouraged. This workspace reflects the active demonstration of empathy on the part of the teachers and is represented by an integrated pedagogical pattern consisting of four elements; the development of trust, (ii) the creation of collaborative and supportive communities where students have the opportunities to play different roles, (iii) active confrontation and challenge and (iv) the effective use of pedagogical time and space. A naturalistic, ethnographic methodology and case study approach was used to answer the question ‘what is going on here?’ with teachers of Foundation Degrees in two colleges across several subject disciplines in order to explore the nature and purpose of the learning cultures created. A conceptual framework was developed through the active integration of empirical research and scholarship resulting in a socio- cultural approach to understanding the learning contexts. This was supported by the collection of rich and varied data including photographs, observations and interviews with both teachers and students. Visualisation also supported the interpretation and representation of data in an accessible format. An activity theory approach was adopted to support an integrated analysis of the data, enabling the isolation and identification of the influence of teacher intentions, student dispositions, roles and relationships and how development was influenced by time, space and context.

Internships are an increasingly popular activity for university students wishing to learn about the world of work, and the term can encompass many types of opportunities for learning about industries, occupations, or simply the experience of a professional workplace. The present study examines students following full-time degree courses across a range of subjects, in internships that are not integrated into course requirements. Internships of this kind are often located within the ‘employability agenda’ for higher education, developing students’ transferable skills to enable them to make smooth transitions to knowledge work outside the university. University careers advisors therefore encourage these internships as a form of experiential learning, and the notion of student employability is implicitly accepted by policymakers and universities. Yet, little is known about how or what students learn in internships. This study, which took place over three summers, examines how six students from one university made sense of their ten-week summer internships in an investment bank. The students were interviewed prior to their internships, three times during the banking internship, and again on return to the university. Using conceptual tools from sociocultural theory, the study starts from an understanding of movement between university and workplace as a matter of transition, rather than transfer and application, of knowledge and skills from university to the workplace. Adopting the idea of the ‘figured world’ (Holland et al., 1998) permits examination of how the students engaged with the cultural world of the workplace setting, interpreting and engaging with the practices there, and experiencing identity struggles that were of significance to them. The findings reveal the lack of support for the students’ engagement both before and during their placements, and have implications for the careers advising given to students undertaking internships. The study therefore concludes with a presentation of the principles that underpin student experience of internships. Universities can assist this by providing more resources for guidance to students undertaking internships, by assisting them with developing an awareness of the motives that are inherent in the workplace, as well as their own motives and those of employers providing internships.

Much has been written about the way in which e-learning has changed learning in higher education without transforming it to meet the changing needs and expectations of stakeholders in the sector. The beliefs and practices of teachers in the sector have remained largely unchanged despite the widespread adoption of e-learning tools. This study used a phenomenographic approach to identify the conceptual frameworks of practitioners. Among the indicators used to define these frameworks were practitioners’ levels of engagement with e-learning tools and the broader concept of technology-enhanced learning. The study identified limited evidence of the transformation of beliefs and practices in the sector to a more student-centred paradigm, despite the adoption of the language associated with such a change by the majority of practitioners interviewed. It showed how many e-learning initiatives had led to the internalization of such change with the adoption of exemplars and best practice. Examples of externalization (where exemplars were adapted to context and the modifications passed to others) were much more limited. Cases were identified where practitioners had used e-learning as a means of reinforcing the existing, teacher-centred paradigm. The majority of practitioners, however, were identified as being in a ‘transitionary’ state, adopting the language and some of the practices of a ‘transformed’ state. This study, therefore, considered factors influencing the adoption of a more student-centred paradigm through the use of e-learning. Using Activity Theory, the barriers to such change were explained and lessons for future approaches to professional development derived. Through an exploration of collaborative technology-enhanced learning initiatives, the nature of learning communities that should be at the heart of such transformation were identified. This study should, therefore, be of value to practitioners wishing to innovate, those who design and deliver the professional development programmes to support them and those managing such change in HE.

This study used Activity Theory (AT) as a lens to explore how administrative and academic activity systems worked in a university, in schools and in the university-school partnership to support Initial Teacher Education (ITE) in Saudi Arabia. It examined the perspectives of partnership coordinators, university tutors, head teachers, cooperating teachers and student teachers involved in the ITE partnership programme at Umm Alqura University. The study was conducted under the umbrella of the interpretive paradigm. Case study was used as the methodology of the study. The study employed multiple methods of data collection: questionnaire, interviews and documentary evidence. Maximum variation sampling was used to select the participants to take part in the current study. The total number of the whole sample with all sub-groups was 187. Ten in-depth interviews were conducted with volunteer interviewees. The study yielded various findings. Participants’ expectations were influenced by their history and background. In addition, student teachers were supported in learning about teaching in the university, school and through the partnership between school and university. However, different kinds of challenges were identified. These included: extreme centralisation in running the partnership activity system, lack of awareness of the importance of the partnership and of the need to address contradictory points of view about teaching and learning to teach in a constructive way. These challenges were symptoms of unresolved contradictions inherent in the partnership activity system. Despite these contradictions, many opportunities for professional development were highlighted by all partners. Using AT as an analytical tool, several implications for all partners were identified. The study concluded with the idea that for effective teacher education, not only is it important to understand the interaction between university and school but also how, within each, administrative and academic activity sub-systems operate and interact. This is because clear understanding of all aspects of the academic and administrative elements of the partnership, and of their relationship, is essential for a successful teacher education.

Digital safety concerns, socio-economic status, pedagogical beliefs, and religious beliefs can all impact technology decisions within a school. Despite the unique contextual factors that influence school technology decision-making, teachers and students are still charged with using technology for teaching and learning in order to be 21st century learners. The purpose of this study was to explore how one Bais Yaakov school community, an all-girls private Jewish school, navigated the tensions of context and technology innovation through their adoption of 1:1 Chromebooks. Grounded theory ethnographic methods and activity theory were employed for data collection and analysis. Technology use was limited, and participants explained that lack of time, fear, frustration, and pedagogical beliefs were reasons that some teachers did not use technology. Practical recommendations from this research include the importance of developing a technology plan designed by all stakeholders and targeted professional development for content areas. Theoretical recommendations include the discussion of culturally competent Internet use in schools and “media refusal” as a term to describe communities who chose not to integrate technology into educational curriculum.

The thesis presents a qualitative study which examines teachers’ and pupils’ experiences of drama tasks in secondary school subject lessons other than Drama, where the tasks are incorporated in pursuit of curriculum-defined teaching and learning goals. I take a cultural-historical perspective in my analysis, interrogating the possibilities for meaningful appropriations of drama as a pedagogical toolkit by examining social interaction and communication within the cultural context of the classroom and how these practices may have developed over time. Set in four secondary school classrooms in the UK, the study focused on the experiences of teachers, (who are not trained drama specialists), and their pupils as they undertook drama tasks as part of curriculum lessons. I carried out a series of lesson observations, supplemented by interviews with participants. Using Cultural Historical Activity Theory (Cole 1996, Engeström 1987, Engeström 1999) as a heuristic tool, I created an analytical framework that explored the tensions between communicative tools, rules of the classroom space, and teacher-pupil and peer relations. This theoretical stance appreciates both the dynamic nature of classrooms and the possibilities for pedagogies of choice. The emphasis on tool-mediated action offers a fresh perspective in that it creates a structured and detailed framework for exploring the subtle and complex process of empathetic thought. This study reveals some of the ways in which tensions occur and existing and historically-embedded cultural practices are brought to the surface, and reinforced or challenged. I provide extracts from the data to illustrate a concern for an assessment-driven acquisition of curriculum content is a particular constraint, along with varying opportunities for both teacher and pupils to construct a framework for spontaneous in-role action within the dramatic form. The appropriation of communicative tools, although influential in achieving goals, does not always preclude emotional investment in the tasks. Although there are shifts from teacher authority to increased pupil decision-making, the way in which the teacher and pupils operate in these drama tasks reveals as much about the established and reinforced learning and social practices of the classroom, as the way these practices are changed. The research considers how drama as a pedagogical toolkit has developed historically, and it reveals implications for future study and practice relating to the understanding of drama-as-toolkit within formal educational settings.