Using elements of design experiment research and autoethnography, this action research project investigated how viewing learning as complex participation in a community of practice characterized by mathematical inquiry impacted my teaching practice in a grade 10 Applied Mathematics class in a rural Manitoba high school. This report of the research project describes and analyzes both my attempts to change my teaching practice by drawing on theories of learning mathematics as complex participation in a community of practice and the changes that resulted from these attempts. The analysis focuses on the characteristics of a community of practice characterized by mathematical inquiry, how I attempted to foster such a community, what challenges I faced when I changed my teaching practice in this way, and how insights from this practitioner research project can inform the teaching of mathematics as well as theorizing about the learning of mathematics.

Each year, students who are newly enrolled in the University of Ottawa Cooperative Education Programs prepare for their first co-op work terms. In this period of pre-employment, students ask themselves important questions like, “What do I have to do to get a job?” and “What do I want to be?” As a co-op practitioner I am exposed to students’ experiences and the dilemmas they face but I still wondered what was hidden from my view and outside of my understanding. Thus, during one-on-one interviews that occurred prior to their first co-op work terms, six co-op students shared the photographs and stories of their co-op experiences with me and I shared my photographs and stories with them. Goffman’s (1959) theory of dramaturgy provided the theoretical framework to present, interpret, and understand the words and pictures that emerged from these interviews. What resulted were dramas, narratives, and allegories: six participant descriptions written as mini-biographies, verbatim transcripts prepared as a reader’s theatre script, and a set of five themes composed with vivid symbolism. The five metaphoric themes of co-op student experience are (a) journey, (b) circus, (c) metamorphosing, (d) anglers at sea, and (e) warriors. Taken together, what emerged was a deeper seeing and a richer understanding of what’s “really going on” in the time prior to students’ first co-op work terms (Goffman, 1974, p. 8) particularly with regards to legitimate peripheral participation, reflection, and experiential learning.

Im virtuellen Umfeld von Hochschulen ist in letzter Zeit zunehmend ein Phänomen zu beobachten, das für die Zukunft von Bildungseinrichtungen von maßgeblicher Bedeutung sein könnte. Die Rede ist von selbst gesteuerten Lerngemeinschaften, die das Internet nutzen, um sich gegenseitig bei der Bewältigung des Studiums zu unterstützen. (Auf von Lehrenden didaktisch inszenierte Blended Learning Kurse wird im Rahmen dieses Beitrags nicht eingegangen.)

Månadssamtalet är ett frekvent återkommande samtal mellan medarbetare och chefer inom en organisation. I samtalet diskuteras medarbetarens välmående, resultat som har presterats samt framtida utvecklingsplaner. Syftet med denna uppsats var att utifrån medarbetares och chefers perspektiv undersöka hur månadssamtalet bidrar till medarbetares fortsatta utveckling och lärande. Vårt syfte resulterade i tre frågeställningar: Vad karaktäriserar månadssamtalet, hur medarbetare respektive chefer ser på sina uppgifter i månadssamtalet samt på vilka sätt månadssamtalen bidrar till att utveckla medarbetarna i deras fortsatta vardagliga arbete. Som ett första steg granskades tidigare forskning inom medarbetarsamtalet, detta gjordes för att kunna urskilja olika perspektiv, betydelsefulla aspekter och tidigare intressant problematik runt fenomenet. För att söka svar på frågeställningarna valdes en kvalitativ metod. Vi genomförde sju semistrukturerade telefonintervjuer tillsammans med medarbetare och chefer från ett bemanningsföretag. Det material som redovisades från intervjuerna analyserades sedan med ett sociokulturellt perspektiv i åtanke samt med teorier från Lave och Wenger samt Säljö. Vi kom fram till att månadsamtalet karakteriseras som en social och gemensam aktivitet. Samtalet generar kontinuerlig återkoppling till medarbetaren om deras styrkor och svagheter, vilket görs möjligt genom språket som även ses som en av de mest väsentliga komponenterna i samtalet. Utformning på samtalet påverkas av den existerande kulturen i organisationen. Chefens uppgift är att coacha och vägleda medarbetaren och därmed blir deras primära uppdrag att få medarbetaren att prata genom att engagera och stötta. Medarbetarens uppgift blir följaktligen att vara den engagerade, kommunikativa och ledande parten. Det finns ett fokus på lärande och utveckling som görs möjligt genom att medarbetaren tar ansvar för att delta, vara aktiv samt anpassar sig till den rådande kulturen. Medarbetarna själva anser att samtalet bidrar till en förändring i deras arbetssätt och i hanteringen av olika arbetsmoment till det bättre. En aspekt till att lärandet kan ske hänvisas till de kunskaper och råd som cheferna bidrar med men även till att medarbetarna själva aktivt har deltagit och resonera fram till lösningar. Lärandet i månadssamtalet sker på så sätt i social interaktion mellan medarbetare och chefer, erfarenheter och kunskaper används och utvecklas. / The monthly dialogue is a frequent discussion between employees and managers within an organization. In the conversation they discuss the employee's well being, results that have been achieved and future development plans. The purpose of this study was to examine, from a employees and managers perspective, how the monthly dialogue contributes to the employee's continued development and learning. Our purpose resulted in three questions: What characterizes the monthly dialogue, how do employees and managers view their individual tasks in the monthly dialogue and in which ways does the monthly dialogue contribute to developing employees in their daily work tasks. As a first step we reviewed previous research in performance appraisal, this was done in order to distinguish different perspective, significant aspects and past interesting problems around the phenomenon. In order to answer the questions we choose a qualitative method. We performed seven semi-structured telephone interviews with employees and managers from an employment agency. The material from the interviews were then analysed with a socio-cultural perspective in mind and with theories from Lave and Wenger and Säljö. We concluded that the monthly dialogue can be characterized as a social and communal activity. The dialogue will generate continuous feedback to the employee on their strengths and needs, which are made possible through the language, which is seen as one of the most essential components in the monthly dialogue. The dialogues are affected by the existing culture in the organization. The manager's role is to coach and guide the employees and therefore their primary mission is to get the employee to talk through involvement and support. The employee's task is to be communicative and take the leading role. There is a focus on learning and development and this is made possible if the employee takes responsibility to participate, be active and adapt to the existing culture. The employees themself believe that the dialogue contributes to a change in their approach and in handling different work tasks, for the better. One aspect that learning refers to is the knowledge and advices that managers contribute with and to the employees themselves that have actively participated and reflected to solutions. Learning in the monthly dialogue is made possible through social interaction between employees and managers and when experiences and knowledge are used and developed.

What kind of and how much mathematics should a high school maths teacher know? The experience with a math camp, an innovative form of bringing together high school pupils, university math students and math teacher students as well as university professors in the common aim to teach mathematics sheds new light on this question. Different interests define different positions. The different actors have little common aims since they rarely form a joint community of practice. Over the seven years of its existence the math camp has evolved from a classical lecture-centred activity for gifted pupils to a much more encompassing experience illustrating the importance of a two way communication between advanced mathematics and elementary mathematics in schools.

The overall aim of this thesis was to describe and evaluate interprofessional education on an interprofessional training ward in municipal care for older persons. Interprofessional education has for some years now been proposed as a means to meet the call for effective collaboration, co-ordination and quality in health and social care. On the interprofessional training ward considered in this thesis, stu-dents from nursing, occupational therapy and social work programmes worked together for three weeks to learn with, from and about each other. In the first study (I) students’ perceptions and attitudes concerning the training on the ward were studied. An attitude questionnaire and a retrospective goal-fulfilment questionnaire were distributed to all students. Non-parametric statistics were used for the quantitative analysis, and qualitative content analysis for the qualitative parts. The results showed that the students had positive attitudes to-wards the training ward and in most respects the learning goals set up for the course were considered to have been met. In Studies II and III the focus was on students’ knowledge and understanding of their own and the others’ professions. Sixteen students were interviewed before and after. In the analysis of the interviews a phenomenographic approach was used. The findings showed a variation from simplistic conceptions of the profes-sions in terms of tasks to more complex conceptions in terms of the profession’s knowledge, responsibility and values. Differences in the ways professions were described concerning their professional stance towards the patients were espe-cially accentuated. The comparison between before and after indicated that there were changes in the students’ views. In some areas, however, there remained dis-crepancies between students’ understanding of their own profession and the oth-ers’ understanding of this profession. To promote mutual agreement on each other’s role this needs to be given careful consideration. In the fourth study (IV) the focus was on the students’ participation in the community of practice on the ward, and the findings reveal an ambivalent picture of this participation (and thus of their learning). The students collaborated in the care of the patients. However, they sometimes experienced a gap between expec-tations and reality with regard to both the profession-specific and the interprofes-sional training on the ward: what they had to do was sometimes felt to be be-neath their qualifications and irrelevant to the programme of education they were pursuing. This applied to all three groups, but especially student social workers. Interprofessional training wards can promote interprofessional learning, but it is crucial that setting should be right: it needs to be realistic for all the students involved, offering relevant profession-specific and interprofessional tasks and situations where the students can develop skills in collaborative, patient-centred care.

On-line writing workshops provide educational spaces within which aspiring writers can learn their craft. In order to understand the dialogic mechanisms behind that learning, this thesis examines ways in which one workshop, the Internet Writing Workshop (IWW), functions as a Freireian culture circle. The exegesis identifies several key characteristics that defined Paulo Freire's concept of the culture circle. It compares these characteristics with the structure and practice of interaction within the IWW. It unpacks some of Freire's ideas about dialogue as a means of achieving critical consciousness, and compares them to current learning theory and the ways in which dialogue takes place within the IWW community. The exegesis also examines some of the political axioms behind Freire's pedagogy, and examines ways in which the IWW community might be viewed as emancipatory or liberatory. I examine these areas in light of the development of a novel, Suicide Girls. The second draft of this novel was influenced and informed by my participant-observation of the IWW. This working draft of the novel is provided as a process document to demonstrate findings made in the exegesis and is annotated to reflect relevant process and development issues.

H παρούσα διδακτορική διατριβή αφορά στην ανάπτυξη καινοτόμων λύσεων για σύγχρονα, βασισμένα στη γνώση, Συστήματα Υποστήριξης Συνεργασίας. Η προτεινόμενη προσέγγιση εστιάζει στο μοντέλο αναπαράστασης της συνεργασίας, καθώς και στο μοντέλο επιχειρηματολογίας που υιοθετείται κατά περίπτωση. Σε πρακτικό επίπεδο, αναπτύχθηκε και προτάθηκε ένα σύστημα υποστήριξης συνεργασίας, του οποίου η καινοτομία έγκειται στην ικανότητα δυναμικής προσαρμογής και απεικόνισης μιας συνεργασίας. Το σύστημα αυτό επιτρέπει την ελεύθερη, μηχανικά υποστηριζόμενη μετάβαση και εναλλαγή περιβαλλόντων συνεργασίας, όπου οι οντότητες, οι πράξεις και οι παρεχόμενοι μηχανισμοί προσαρμόζονται στις απαιτήσεις της τρέχουσας αναπαράστασης. Σε θεωρητικό επίπεδο, η επιχειρηματολογία εξετάζεται ως μια συγκεκριμένη λειτουργία συνεργασίας και διεξάγεται μελέτη σχετικά με τα διαφορετικά μοντέλα επιχειρηματολογίας. Στο πλαίσιο της μελέτης αυτής, αναδείχθηκε και προτάθηκε η αξία της σύνθεσης και συσχέτισης μεταξύ επιχειρημάτων ως μια δομή που φέρει συγκεκριμένη σημασία και αποτελεί αντικείμενο αξιοποίησης. Έτσι, η διατριβή επεκτείνει ένα γενικό μοντέλο επιχειρηματολογίας, το οποίο αρχικά ανάγεται και αναλύεται σε ένα γραφοθεωρητικό μοντέλο, ώστε να περιγραφεί ένας αποδοτικός τρόπος αξιοποίησης τέτοιων δομών σε υπολογιστικό επίπεδο. Τέλος, έχοντας αναγνωρίσει την κοινωνική διάσταση της συνεργασίας αλλά και τα κενά στα αντίστοιχα συστήματα, η διατριβή προτείνει ένα πλαίσιο που εκμεταλλεύεται τα χαρακτηριστικά και τις ιδιαιτερότητες των συστημάτων συνεργασίας, προκειμένου να εκμεταλευτεί το σχηματισμό ομάδων χρηστών σε μια κοινότητα. / This thesis concerns the development of innovative solutions for modern, knowledge-based Collaboration Support Systems. The proposed approach focuses on the representation model of collaboration, and the argumentation model adopted for various cases. On a practical level, a collaboration support system was developed and proposed. Its innovation lies in the ability to adapt and visualize a collaborative session; the system allows the arbitrary, machine supported transition and switch between environments, where entities, actions and the provided mechanisms adapt in order to meet the needs of the current representation. On a theoretical level, argumentation is considered as a particular mode of collaboration and a study is conducted on different argumentation models. In this study, the value of the composition and the inter-association between arguments is explored, as a structure that carries specific semantics and constitutes an asset under exploitation. Thus, the thesis extends a general argumentation model, which is initially reduced and analyzed as a graph-theoretic model, in order to describe an effective way of assessing such structures on a computational level. Finally, having recognized the social aspects of collaboration as well as the limitations in respective systems, the thesis proposes a framework that exploits the characteristics of collaboration support systems, in order to take advantage of the formation of user groups in a community.

Dans un marché mondial, de nombreuses sociétés sont passées d’une stratégie d’entreprise centralisée où les produits sont conçus dans un lieu central et fabriqués dans les centres régionaux à une entreprise décentralisée, puis à une organisation répartie sur les régions. Le contexte Industriel de la thèse est GE Renewable Energy – Hydro solutions qui conçoit et fabrique des centrales d’énergie hydraulique. L’organisation GE hydro est dispersée sur 5 régions (Amérique du Nord, Amérique Latine, Europe, Chine et Inde). Chaque région est devenue une partie de cette organisation distribuée où sont conçues et fabriquées des turbines hydrauliques / générateurs. Cependant, de nouveaux défis ont surgis dans ce processus de développement de produits distribués : les besoins spécifiques à un marché, les différentes pratiques de travail, des différentes méthodes de conception, en plus des différences culturelles entre les régions.Afin de rationaliser ces différences, le développement de produits distribués comportait plusieurs objectifs. Par exemple, la standardisation des processus d'ingénierie, le développement des guides de conception commune pour les outils d'ingénierie, l'harmonisation des procédures de qualité et de résolution des problèmes. L’organisation Hydro a confié ces objectifs aux collectifs d'ingénierie virtuels qui sont dispersés dans toutes les régions.Notre recherche vise à étudier et à soutenir les collectifs d'ingénierie virtuels dans la co-création des standards techniques propres à l'entreprise. Les collectifs d'ingénierie virtuels impliquent des concepteurs, des ingénieurs industriels, des techniciens ainsi que les utilisateurs finaux. Ils devaient collaborer à distance afin de co-développer les standards techniques et plus tard de les adopter dans les projets des clients.Les collectifs d'ingénierie virtuels ont été au cœur de notre démarche de standardisation, la thèse a abordé les questions de recherche suivantes :1."Quel processus et plateforme collaboratifs de standardisation pourront permettre aux collectifs d'ingénierie de co-développer leurs standards à distance ?"2."Quelles sont les caractéristiques des différents types de collectifs virtuels qui conviennent respectivement au processus collaboratif de standardisation ?"3."Quel processus opérationnel doit être défini pour faciliter le travail des collectifs d'ingénierie virtuels dans une organisation gérée par projets ?"De la littérature, nous avons défini et différencié les types des collectifs d'ingénierie virtuels en tant que communautés de pratiques ou d'intérêt virtuelles, des équipes virtuelles et des réseaux d'apprentissage. Grâce à des observations et des réflexions autour de la pratique, nous avons développé et testé nos propositions. Les contributions principales de la thèse sont résumées telles que :1.Un modèle de processus collaboratif de standardisation pour co-développer les standards techniques à distance.2.HySPeC - une plateforme collaboratif de standardisation - pour répondre aux différentes exigences du processus collaboratif de standardisation.3.Un modèle dynamique pour caractériser les collectifs virtuels en fonction de leurs phases de développement.4.Un cadre des collectifs virtuels pour sélectionner, différencier et adapter les collectifs virtuels en fonction des objectifs du projet.5.Un processus opérationnel des collectifs virtuels pour faciliter l'adoption et la mise en œuvre des standards d'ingénierie dans les projets.La direction chez GE Hydro a considéré les propositions comme un facteur de succès pour co-développer les standards d'ingénierie à distance. Les différents types des collectifs virtuels peuvent s’adapter au processus de standardisation collaboratif et utiliser intuitivement les fonctionnalités de la plateforme collaborative. L'approche a également fourni un processus opérationnel pour faciliter l'intégration et le travail des collectifs d'ingénierie virtuels au sein de l'organisation hydro. / In a global economy, the conquest of exploring and acquiring new markets has led many companies to expand their business around the globe. Many companies adopted a strategy of shifting from a centralized company where products were designed and manufactured in one region to a decentralized company, and then to a distributed organization over the regions. Our thesis context is GE Renewable Energy – Hydro solutions that designs and manufactures hydraulic power plants. GE hydro organization is scattered over 5 regions (North America, Latin America, Europe, China and India). Each region became part of this distributed organization where they participated in the designing and the manufacturing of the hydraulic turbines/ generators. However, new challenges arose in this distributed product development process: specific market needs, different working practices, various design methods, multitude of design tools in addition to the cultural differences among the regions.In order to rationalize the regional differences, the distributed development of hydraulic turbines and generators entailed several objectives. For example, standardization of engineering processes, development of common design guides for engineering tools, harmonization of quality sheets and troubleshooting procedures. Hydro organization has entrusted these objectives to the virtual engineering collectives who are dispersed in all the regions.Our research aimed at studying and supporting the virtual engineering collectives in the co-creation of corporate engineering standards and guidelines. The virtual engineering collectives involved the designers, industrial engineers, technicians as well as the end-users. They had to remotely collaborate in order to co-develop the engineering standards and later on to adopt them in customer projects.Since the virtual engineering collectives were at the core of our standardization approach, the thesis addressed the following research questions:1- “which collaborative standardization process and platform could enable the engineering collectives to co-develop their standards at distance?”2- “what are the characteristics of the different virtual collectives’ types which suit respectively the collaborative standardization process?”3- “which operational process has to be defined to ease the work of the virtual engineering collectives within a project based management style?”From the literature, we defined and differentiated the virtual engineering collectives’ types as virtual communities of practice and/or interest, virtual teams and networks of learning. Through observations and reflections from the practice, we have developed and tested our propositions. The main thesis’ contributions are summarized as follows:1- The collaborative standardization process to co-develop the engineering standards at distance.2- HySPeC templates – the collaborative standardization platform - to respond to the different requirements of the collaborative standardization process.3- The virtual collectives’ dynamics (VCD) model to characterize the virtual collectives in function of their development phases.4- The virtual collectives’ framework (VCF) to select, differentiate and fit the virtual collectives in function of the project’s objectives.5- The virtual collectives’ operational process to facilitate the adoption and the implementation of the engineering standards in the customers’ projects.The top management at GE Hydro found the proposed collaborative standardization approach able to co-develop the engineering standards at distance. The different virtual collectives’ types can fit and adapt to the collaborative standardization process and intuitively use the collaborative platform’ functionalities. The approach also provided an operational process to facilitate the integration and the work of the virtual engineering collectives within the distributed hydro organization.

Studien handlar om att studera villkor och förutsättningar att implementera psykosociala hälsofrämjande insatser på en kommunal organisation. Syftet var att undersöka chefers organisatoriska förutsättningar att implementera psykosociala hälsofrämjande insatser. Studien baserades på en kvalitativ ansats och empirin samlades in genom sex semistrukturerade enskilda intervjuer, med en intervjuperson från varje utvald förvaltning. Förvaltningarna valdes utifrån våra villkor och deras organisatoriska uppbyggnad. Studiens resultat har analyserats deduktivt genom ett hälsofrämjande perspektiv. Den teoretiska referensramen grundar sig i pedagogiska och hälsofrämjande områden med fokus på arbetsplatslärande, genom erbjudande och engagemang. Den pedagogiska och hälsofrämjande ansatsen innefattar aktörskap, empowerment, praktikgemenskap samt samspelsmodellen. Studien berör lärande i sammanhang och ur individperspektiv, genom till exempel sociala relationer och delaktighet. En slutsats av studien visar att oföränderliga villkor kan hanteras på olika sätt utifrån olika förutsättningar. Förutsättningarna påverkas av kompetenshöjande insatser och kognitiva egenskaper samt erfarenheter. / The study is about studying conditions and implementing psychosocial health promotion efforts in a municipal organization. The purpose was to examine the organizational conditions of managers to implement psychosocial health promotion efforts. The study was based on a qualitative study and the material was collected through six semi-structured individual interviews, with an interviewee from each chosen management. The administrations were chosen based on our terms and their organizational structure. The study results have been analyzed deductively through a health promotion perspective. The theoretical frame of reference is based on educational and health promotion areas with focus on workplace learning, through offer and commitment. The educational and health promotion theories included Agency, Empowerment, Communities of Practice and  an interaction model. The study relates to learning in context and from an individual perspective through, for example, social relations and participation. A conclusion of the study show that unchanging conditions can be handled in different ways based on different conditions. The conditions are influenced by skills enhancing efforts and cognitive properties as well as experiences.