This study explores six English as a foreign language students in an English content-based course of critical thinking delivered via distance at the Bahá'í Institute for Higher Education (BIHE) in Iran. Framed within cultural-historical activity theory, the study seeks to shed light on the complex nature of students' course-related activities with a particular focus on contradictions that underlie any human activity. The construct of contradictions provides a theoretical lens to understand the complex web of relationships among a number of elements in the course taking activity situated in a cultural-historical setting beset with political controversies, technological challenges, and demands of the bilingual curriculum of the university. To capture the complex nature of contradictions, the study employed a naturalistic methodology and relied primarily on in-depth interviews with the participants, observations of their online behaviors, and the artifacts that student participants produced by the end of the semester. The findings indicate that most participants had multiple activity systems within the course environment, some of which were oriented towards academic and others non-academic objects. According to the data and theoretical interpretations, most participants had primary, secondary, and quaternary contradictions. Most primary contradictions had the nature of use and exchange value, which in practical terms indicates the orientation towards genuine learning or earning a grade. Primary and quaternary contradictions led to many secondary contradictions. Furthermore, it transpired that content-based instruction pushed the participants to engage actively in actions oriented towards improving English even for the participants who did not have the object of improving English. Among many other findings are detrimental consequences of contradictions that are traced back to the persecutions of BIHE students, faculty, and staff.

Healthcare centers face increasing revenue risk under the Medicare Access and Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act (MACRA). The purpose of this multiple case study was to explore strategies that successful leaders of healthcare centers use to mitigate the risk of reimbursement penalties under MACRA. The conceptual framework of this study was Generation 3 cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT-III), and the analysis process used was Yin's recursive and iterative phases. Participants of this study were 6 leaders of healthcare centers in the United States identified as having high quality and low cost via the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid public use files. Semistructured interviews were used to explore the identification of strategic opportunity, strategy formation, implementation, and control. Themes for organizational culture that emerged from data analysis included a foundation core with flexibility and iterative process-improvement practice. Themes in the strategy formation process included total employee involvement and a quality-first, cost-benefit strategy structure. Themes in the implementation process included multiple departmental and organizational collaboration, task-based implementation, and data transparency. Localized cadence meetings were a theme in the control process. Improvements to the organization as a result of this study include a series of standards for organizational culture, a toolbox including CHAT-III as a tool for the identification of strategic opportunity and a methodology for strategy formation and implementation, and control to help ensure financial sustainability. Implications for positive social change include the increased probability of continued ready access to healthcare, improved population health, and lower mortality rates for the communities served.

Hoje a tecnologia digital se aplica de forma maior e mais variada em diversos aspectos do cotidiano. Com esteio nisso objetiva-se identificar aspectos projetuais relevantes no sentido da mediação de conteúdo e potencialização do aprendizado de visitantes em museus por meio da interação com artefatos tecnológicos digitais interativos. Busca-se tal entendimento mediante um estudo de ações projetuais nesta natureza associado a observação do usuário em atividade. Contribuições e influxos para o visitante foram estudados partindo, primeiramente, de uma reunião de padrões e classificações realizadas por alguns autores sobre o tema, para, com amparo nisso, realizar as análises, as quais foram divididas em duas fases. A primeira estruturou-se num estudo de reconhecimento de estratégias projetuais relevantes aplicadas em exemplos notáveis de artefatos estudados, pelo qual foi obtida uma visão geral do estado da arte de aplicações, nacionais e internacionais de designs desta natureza, ensejando a identificação de estratégias projetuais de cunho estrutural e conceitual. Tais análises foram articuladas a um aprofundamento na observação do usuário em interação, por meio de dois estudos de caso selecionados dentre os projetos anteriormente elencados. O primeiro foi o projeto A Voz da Arte, fruto da parceria entre Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo e a IBM. Já o segundo se concentra na instalação Relevos da Terra em 3D, situada no Museu Catavento Cultural. A coleta de dados se deu por levantamento de áudio e vídeo da interação de 15 visitantes no primeiro, e 12 no segundo artefato, seguida por entrevistas semiestruturadas com cada usuário, tratando de questões relativas a suas experiências individuais na atividade de interação com interface e conteúdo propostos. Por fim realizou-se uma categorização dos pontos relevantes observados, produzindo um diagrama que sintetiza as estratégias projetuais elencadas em três dimensões de estímulos da interação, divididas em aspectos: materiais; racionais e emocionais. / Today digital technology is applied in a larger and more varied way in different aspects of daily life. Based on this, this research aims to identify relevant design aspects in the sense of content mediation and enhancement of the visitor`s learning in museums through interaction with interactive digital technological artifacts. Such understanding is sought through a study of this nature of designs associated with observation of the user in activity. theoretical contributions and impacts for the visitor were studied, starting from a meeting of standards and classifications carried out by some authors on the subject, in order to carry out the analyzes, which were divided into two phases. The first one was structured in a recognition study of relevant design strategies applied in notable examples of artifacts selected, for which an overview of the state of the art of national and international applications of designs of this nature was obtained, leading to the identification of structural and conceptual design strategies. Such analyzes were articulated to a deepening in the observation of the user in interaction, through two case studies selected among the projects previously listed. The first is the A Voz da Arte project, the result of the partnership between Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo and IBM. The second one focuses on the Relevos da Terra em 3D installation, located in the Catavento Cultural Science Museum. The data collection was done by audio and video survey of the interaction of 15 visitors in the first, and 12 in the second artifact, followed by semi-structured interviews with each user, dealing with questions related to their individual experiences in interaction activity with interface and content proposed. Finally, a categorization of the relevant points was carried out, producing a diagram that synthesizes the projected strategies in three dimensions of stimuli, divided into: material; rational and emotional aspects.

This research thesis is focused on the question:

<p>This work focuses on the socio-technical aspects of artificial intelligence, namely how (specific types of) intelligent systems function in human workplace environments. The goal is first to get a better understanding of human needs and expectations when it comes to interaction with intelligent systems, and then to make use of the understanding gained in the process of designing and implementing such systems.</p><p>The work presented focusses on a specific problem in developing intelligent systems, namely how the artefacts to be developed can fit smoothly into existing socio-cultural settings. To achieve this, we make use of theories from the fields of organisational psychology, sociology, and linguistics. This is in line with approaches commonly found in AI. However, most of the existing work deals with individual aspects, like how to mimic the behaviour or emulate methods of reasoning found in humans, whereas our work centers around the social aspect. Therefore, we base our work on theories that have not yet gained much attention in intelligent systems design. To be able to make them fruitful for intelligent systems research and development, we have to adapt them to the specific settings, and we have to transform them to suit the practical problems at hand.</p><p>The specific theoretical frameworks we draw on are first and foremost activity theory and to a lesser degree semiotics. Activity theory builds on the works of Leont'ev. It is a descriptive tool to help understand the unity of consciousness and activity. Its focus lies on individual and collective work practise. One of its strengths, and the primary reason for its value in AI development, is the ability to identify the role of material artefacts in the work process. Halliday's systemic functional theory of language (SFL) is a social semiotic theory that sets out from the assumption that humans are social beings that are inclined to interact and that this interaction is inherently multimodal. We interact not just with each other, but with our own constructions and with our natural world. These are all different forms of interaction, but they are all sign processes.</p><p>Due to the obvious time and spatial constraints, we cannot address all of the challenges that we face when building intelligent artefacts. In reducing the scope of the thesis, we have focused on the problem of explanation, and here in particular the problem of explanation from a user perspective. By putting social theories to work in the field of artificial intelligence, we show that results from other fields can be beneficial in understanding what explanatory capabilities are needed for a given intelligent system, and to ascertain in which situations an explanation should be delivered. Besides lessons learned in knowledge based system development, the most important input comes from activity theory.</p><p>The second focus is the challenge of contextualisation. Here we show that work in other scientific fields can be put to use in the development of context aware or ambient intelligent systems. Again, we draw on results from activity theory and combine this with insights from semiotics.</p><p>Explanations are themselves contextual, so the third challenge is to explore the space spanned by the two dimensions ability to explain and contextualisation. Again, activity theory is beneficial in resolving this issue.</p><p>The different theoretical considerations have also led to some practical approaches. Working with activity theory helps to better understand what the relevant contextual aspects of a given application are and helps to develop models of context which are both grounded in the tradition of context aware systems design and are plausible from a cognitive point of view.</p><p>Insights from an analysis of research in the knowledge based system area and activity theory have further lead to the amendment of a toolbox for requirements engineering, so called problem frames. New problem frames that target explanation aware ambient intelligent systems are presented. This is supplemented with work looking at the design of an actual system after the requirements have been elicited and specified. Thus, the socio-technical perspective on explanations is coupled with work that addresses knowledge representation issues, namely how to model sufficient knowledge to be able to deliver explanations.</p>

Preparing for segregation. Educational work within the Swedish special school - an activity theoretical approach 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.

This work focuses on the socio-technical aspects of artificial intelligence, namely how (specific types of) intelligent systems function in human workplace environments. The goal is first to get a better understanding of human needs and expectations when it comes to interaction with intelligent systems, and then to make use of the understanding gained in the process of designing and implementing such systems. The work presented focusses on a specific problem in developing intelligent systems, namely how the artefacts to be developed can fit smoothly into existing socio-cultural settings. To achieve this, we make use of theories from the fields of organisational psychology, sociology, and linguistics. This is in line with approaches commonly found in AI. However, most of the existing work deals with individual aspects, like how to mimic the behaviour or emulate methods of reasoning found in humans, whereas our work centers around the social aspect. Therefore, we base our work on theories that have not yet gained much attention in intelligent systems design. To be able to make them fruitful for intelligent systems research and development, we have to adapt them to the specific settings, and we have to transform them to suit the practical problems at hand. The specific theoretical frameworks we draw on are first and foremost activity theory and to a lesser degree semiotics. Activity theory builds on the works of Leont'ev. It is a descriptive tool to help understand the unity of consciousness and activity. Its focus lies on individual and collective work practise. One of its strengths, and the primary reason for its value in AI development, is the ability to identify the role of material artefacts in the work process. Halliday's systemic functional theory of language (SFL) is a social semiotic theory that sets out from the assumption that humans are social beings that are inclined to interact and that this interaction is inherently multimodal. We interact not just with each other, but with our own constructions and with our natural world. These are all different forms of interaction, but they are all sign processes. Due to the obvious time and spatial constraints, we cannot address all of the challenges that we face when building intelligent artefacts. In reducing the scope of the thesis, we have focused on the problem of explanation, and here in particular the problem of explanation from a user perspective. By putting social theories to work in the field of artificial intelligence, we show that results from other fields can be beneficial in understanding what explanatory capabilities are needed for a given intelligent system, and to ascertain in which situations an explanation should be delivered. Besides lessons learned in knowledge based system development, the most important input comes from activity theory. The second focus is the challenge of contextualisation. Here we show that work in other scientific fields can be put to use in the development of context aware or ambient intelligent systems. Again, we draw on results from activity theory and combine this with insights from semiotics. Explanations are themselves contextual, so the third challenge is to explore the space spanned by the two dimensions ability to explain and contextualisation. Again, activity theory is beneficial in resolving this issue. The different theoretical considerations have also led to some practical approaches. Working with activity theory helps to better understand what the relevant contextual aspects of a given application are and helps to develop models of context which are both grounded in the tradition of context aware systems design and are plausible from a cognitive point of view. Insights from an analysis of research in the knowledge based system area and activity theory have further lead to the amendment of a toolbox for requirements engineering, so called problem frames. New problem frames that target explanation aware ambient intelligent systems are presented. This is supplemented with work looking at the design of an actual system after the requirements have been elicited and specified. Thus, the socio-technical perspective on explanations is coupled with work that addresses knowledge representation issues, namely how to model sufficient knowledge to be able to deliver explanations.

In this thesis the relationship between the physical environment of preschool, children and preschool teachers is studied. Children participate in preschool from an early age and thus are expected to find themselves within an institutional framework (Eilard &amp; Tallberg Broman, 2011) early in life. Today preschool as an institution can be seen as a place where childhood to a great extent is spent and created (Halldén, 2007e). The physical environment of preschool can consequently be regarded as a structure within which childhood is institutionalized (Kampmann, 2004). In general the thesis deals with how children are shaped by and shape the physical environment that they spend so much time in during early childhood. The purpose is clarified in the following questions: How does the physical environment of preschool structure and organise the activities of chil-dren? What activities are created in relation to the possibilities and limitations of the physical environment? In what way can the relationship between the invitations of the physical environment, the child’s scope for action, and preschool teachers be seen? To understand the empirical material in the thesis the concept of affordance (J.J.Gibson, 1986) and the activity theory (Leontiev, 1986; Engeström, 1987) has been used. The empirical evidence in the thesis is based on both video observations and interviews. The study was designed as a multiple case study (Stake, 1995), and three preschool classes each formed a case. The study was inspired by ethnography. The significance of seeing the environment as a set of affordances (J.J.Gibson, 1986) is that it, to a greater degree, can lead to children being allowed to discover the invitations to action there are and as a result freedom to act and negotiations can be created in both inside and outside environments. Through this way of thinking a free zone is created in an institutionalised childhood where children through their agency handle and redesign that which was intended to regulate and give structure. As a counterbalance to the institutionalisation of childhood this study contribute to an understanding of children’s individual and collective activities as a free zone in an otherwise controlled and regulated milieu. The contribution of this thesis consists of the study of the physical environment and the importance of the material in forming the child.

Syftet med detta examensarbete var att utifrån forskning på området göra en kunskapsöversikt gällande kvinnor med funktionsnedsättning och riskfaktorer för att utsättas för övergrepp. Våra teman var funktionsnedsättning, övergrepp och riskfaktorer. Vi har tolkat resultaten med hjälp av rutinaktivitetsteori. Vi har utifrån forskningen identifierat olika faktorer som kan vara förknippade med ökad risk för att utsättas för övergrepp. Att vara kvinna, beroende av andra och isolering är exempel på riskfaktorer. Det finns en motsättning inom forskningen om huruvida funktionsnedsättningen i sig är en riskfaktor eller om riskfaktorerna finns i kontexten en kvinna befinner sig i på grund av andra faktorer. Övergreppen ser i stort sett lika ut som för kvinnor utan funktionsnedsättningar. Förövarna är ofta män och tillika kvinnans partner, men kan också vara någon annan i hennes närhet, till exempel en vårdgivare. / The aim of this study was to make a review of the current literature regarding women with disabilities and risk factors of abuse. Our themes were disability, abuse and risk factors. We have analyzed the results by using the routine activity theory. We have identified various factors that may be associated with increased risk of abuse. Being a woman, to be dependent on others and isolation are examples of risk factors. There is a contradiction in the research considering if the disability itself is a risk factor or if  the risk factors are in the context that the woman lives within. The abuse manisfest itself  in similar ways as for women without disabilities. The perpetrators are usually men as well as the woman's partner, but can also be someone else close to her, such as a health care provider.

As teachers modify their instruction to meet English Language Arts (ELA) Common Core State Standards (CCSS), how do these modifications influence literacy instruction and learning opportunities afforded to students? While the CCSS standardized objectives for literacy instruction, the enacted curriculum is uniquely shaped by teachers and their students (Coburn, 2001; Datnow & Castellano, 2000; Smagorinsky, Lakly, & Johnson 2002). This study describes how two elementary school teachers in one school: (a) perceived the ELA CCSS and their influence on instruction and the enacted curriculum; (b) adapted and aligned literacy instruction to respond to implementation of the CCSS; and (c) created instruction and literacy learning opportunities influenced by the ELA CCSS. To investigate the rich, nested levels of context in which teachers used the ELA CCSS to construct literacy instruction and learning opportunities for children, I applied a sociocultural framework and Engeström’s third generation Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) model to create a theory-driven description of how teachers approached CCSS implementation and literacy instruction. I analyzed data from interviews, observations, and documents through constant comparative analysis (Charmaz, 2006) to identify activities for CHAT analysis (Yamagata-Lynch, 2010). Findings from this study provide information about the implementation of the ELA CCSS in literacy instruction and the enacted literacy curricula. Findings suggest that multiple levels of context influenced the ELA CCSS implementation, including teachers’ perceptions (Coburn, 2001; Maloch & Bomer, 2012), and that while teachers may teach from a standardized curriculum, the literacy learning opportunities differ in each class (Pacheco, 2010).