Thesis advisor: C. Patrick . Proctor / The demand for talent in the technology sector and the notion of computational thinking as everyday skills propel computing to enter middle school classrooms. The growing popularity of physical computing in educational spaces also infuses computing with elements of creativity and joy. Despite these recent movements, computing remains primarily in informal spaces due to a shortage of computer science teachers and the increasing focus on standardized testing. Arguing that computing and science share practices, this study views computing as problem-solving tools for science and proposes an integrated approach to teaching computing in science classrooms that takes advantage of the affordances of modern physical computing devices. Based on this perspective, a set of physical computing tools was developed to de-emphasize the mechanisms of computer science and shift focus to problem-solving and authentic scientific practices. This study aims to investigate the experiences of two science teachers and 16 students who learned to build self-regulated smart tabletop greenhouses with these tools as complete novices and critically evaluate the principles that undergird the design of the tools. With a qualitative, multiple case study design, this study answers two questions: 1) how did the teachers implement and reflect on their instruction? 2) how did the students engage with computing and science? Data from interviews and observations suggest that although the teachers shared similar instructional practices, their conceptualizations of the interplay between computing and science differed initially. They also had different instructional focuses and followed different trajectories in teaching, which may have produced subtly different understandings of computing-science relationships from their students. Despite these differences, all participants’ understandings of computing-science relationship conformed to a reciprocal pattern, which augmented the shared-practice argument for the integrated approach found in the literature. The challenges that the participants experienced contributed to the revision of the design of the computing tools. Based on these findings, the study recommends future directions in disambiguating the role of computing in middle school classrooms and in working with science teachers who are often simultaneously content experts and computing novices. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

BACKGROUND: Over the past decade, massive open online courses (MOOCs) have been used by healthcare professionals to develop their knowledge and skills. They are an attractive learning option due to their openness, accessibility, and flexibility regarding time and space, but have notably low completion rates. “Fac.Dev” is a platform for faculty development by McMaster’s Office for CPD offering online courses through a Query-based, Ubiquitous Educator and Scholars Training (QUEST) model. QUEST modules use task-based activities and authentic assessment in their instructional design, in contrast to the traditional MCQ assessment methods in MOOCs. PURPOSE: This study aimed to compare learner engagement and experiences of health professionals enrolled in a one-month Twitter skills online course delivered on the Fac.Dev platform through QUEST-format modules versus xMOOC-format modules. METHOD: This study was conducted as a randomized controlled trial. 27 participants were randomized into either learning Twitter skills through a course with QUEST- formatted or xMOOC-formatted modules. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used to analyse the outcome measures, which included completion rates, barriers to completion, self-rated Twitter proficiency, self-perceived achievement of learning outcomes, likelihood of recommending to a peer, and suggestions for module improvement. RESULTS: Quantitative findings revealed that no significant difference in the completion rates of the course delivered through QUEST or xMOOC format. Lack of time was the primary barrier to course completion. Participants in both arms reported an improvement in their Twitter proficiency and were similarly likely to recommend the course to a peer. Thematic analysis of participant feedback revealed incorporating interactivity, increased use of video and media elements, and providing more time for completion would improve their experience. CONCLUSION: Participants’ feedback for improving the modules were consistent with best practices for digital learning for faculty recommended in literature, which can be implemented in future Fac.Dev course offerings to support and improve learner engagement. / Thesis / Master of Science (MSc)

University-level transdisciplinary initiatives have become prevalent as institutions reorient disciplines around complex problems that are relevant to society. Transdisciplinary research initiatives, like those of interdisciplinarity in the previous decade, are reinforced by federal funding agencies because of their potential to yield technological innovation, and in turn, economic growth. However, the sustained development of transdisciplinary or interdisciplinary curriculum design remains limited due to the multiple competing factors that govern the curriculum. This dissertation research focuses on the implementation of the transdisciplinary initiative as it pertains to interdisciplinary curriculum design. I use public institutional documents to trace the transdisciplinary institutional initiative as it is enacted at different university levels and interviews to understand the initiatives in practice, drawing from administrators, faculty, and staff experiences as they develop interdisciplinary courses. Many university-level initiatives that purport transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary education fall short in their implementation because of academic structures that directly or indirectly inhibit sustainable interdisciplinary curricula. Instead, administrative organizations like the Registrar's Office, Office of Integrated General Education, and Transdisciplinary Initiative Office develop networks and artifacts that connect faculty who have experience bypassing academic structures with faculty who seek out these forms of institutional support. These emergent practices are an adaptation to the university system rather than a proactive measure that facilitates the large-scale structural change claimed by university-level transdisciplinary initiatives. This study contributes to the understanding of potential long-term implications through the examination of interrelated university initiatives as they exist through metrics and incentives provided by the upper administration and experiences of faculty and staff in developing interdisciplinary courses. / Doctor of Philosophy / There is a trend in universities across the United States of implementing initiatives that incentivize departments to focus their research and teaching on complex problems that span different disciplines. These initiatives are attractive to potential university donors due to their perceived societal relevance and reinforced by external funding agencies because of their potential to yield technological innovation. These initiatives can be short-lived, however, as they seek to disrupt the traditional university structure. The purpose of this study is to examine how faculty and staff translate and negotiate the complex university structures and initiatives as they design interdisciplinary courses. I use public institutional documents to trace the transdisciplinary institutional initiative as it is enacted at different university levels and interviews to understand the initiatives in practice, drawing from administrators, faculty, and staff experiences as they develop interdisciplinary courses. The findings show that even for faculty and staff working to create interdisciplinary classes in alignment with these initiatives, they are faced with challenges as the initiatives are limited in their structural reorientation. Instead, mid-tier administrative organizations have developed networks and artifacts that connect those who have experience bypassing academic structures with those who express interest in following their lead. This study includes a discussion of broader socio-political and economic factors that contextualizes layers of faculty and staff experiences, administrator perspectives, and the university's public messaging through the historical legacies of academia, the economy, and society at large.

Creativity is increasingly becoming both an important issue in our rapidly changing society, and a popular subject of research. Research findings are beginning to conceptualize creativity as a much more complex process and studies are now focusing on the effects of social interaction and collaborative efforts on creativity as well as the potential impact of technology on collaboration and the creative process itself. This study looks at the influence of both collaboration and technology on the creative process to develop a clearer picture of the way in which they intersect. Due to the complexity of this study, two theoretical frameworks (Communities of Practice and Genex Framework) have been employed to inform the development of the study and to assist in contextualizing the results. To this end, this mixed-methods study collected data both from fashion design students enrolled in the third year of a Bachelor of Fashion Design program, and from their faculty. Data gathering methods included personal semi-structured interviews with both students (n = 13) and faculty (n = 9) and an online questionnaire with a larger group of students (n = 65). The research questions that framed this study focus on developing an initial understanding of the creative process as experienced by these students and then exploring in depth the ways that collaboration and working in community affect the creative process, as well as the impact of technology in supporting both creativity and collaboration. Results suggest that technology was indeed a valuable support in the creative process through its ability to facilitate particular kinds of collaborative practices, including brainstorming, developing and sharing ideas, and giving and receiving feedback. Such practices directly affected the creative process by enhancing the development of more professional sketches as well as facilitating the collaborative efforts of the members of the design community. Finally, the implications of these results for curriculum design and the appropriate choice of pedagogical approaches are discussed. The results presented will help to support curriculum designers and instructors who seek to encourage creative endeavour to focus on effective technological tools as well as strategies that promote collaboration and a sense of community in order to achieve these ends.

Creativity is increasingly becoming both an important issue in our rapidly changing society, and a popular subject of research. Research findings are beginning to conceptualize creativity as a much more complex process and studies are now focusing on the effects of social interaction and collaborative efforts on creativity as well as the potential impact of technology on collaboration and the creative process itself. This study looks at the influence of both collaboration and technology on the creative process to develop a clearer picture of the way in which they intersect. Due to the complexity of this study, two theoretical frameworks (Communities of Practice and Genex Framework) have been employed to inform the development of the study and to assist in contextualizing the results. To this end, this mixed-methods study collected data both from fashion design students enrolled in the third year of a Bachelor of Fashion Design program, and from their faculty. Data gathering methods included personal semi-structured interviews with both students (n = 13) and faculty (n = 9) and an online questionnaire with a larger group of students (n = 65). The research questions that framed this study focus on developing an initial understanding of the creative process as experienced by these students and then exploring in depth the ways that collaboration and working in community affect the creative process, as well as the impact of technology in supporting both creativity and collaboration. Results suggest that technology was indeed a valuable support in the creative process through its ability to facilitate particular kinds of collaborative practices, including brainstorming, developing and sharing ideas, and giving and receiving feedback. Such practices directly affected the creative process by enhancing the development of more professional sketches as well as facilitating the collaborative efforts of the members of the design community. Finally, the implications of these results for curriculum design and the appropriate choice of pedagogical approaches are discussed. The results presented will help to support curriculum designers and instructors who seek to encourage creative endeavour to focus on effective technological tools as well as strategies that promote collaboration and a sense of community in order to achieve these ends.

This research involved two observational studies. It explored the scaffolding processes as part of classroom pedagogy. The research shed light on the way a teacher's instructional methodology took shape in the classroom. The target event for this study was the time in which a novice learner was engaged publically in uttering a sentence in Arabic in response to a task posed by the teacher. The central question was: What does the teacher do to assist and support this interactive sentence production process? It was decided to label this assistance and support as "scaffolding," i.e., temporary support to help a learner accomplish a challenging task slightly beyond his or her current level of proficiency. The research involved detailed descriptions and analysis of videotaped classroom episodes conducted in first-year Arabic language classrooms at a private liberal arts college during a three-month period. A central finding in this study was that oral Arabic sentence production was achieved through several related steps. These steps involved providing the students a pattern to follow, subsequently removing the pattern, and asking the students to produce sentences after explaining the grammatical rules. The teachers differed in the extent to which they launched models and patterns for students to follow.

CoordenaÃÃo de AperfeiÃoamento de Pessoal de NÃvel Superior

This study surveyed 435 commercial fishermen across eight coastal regions of the United States where commercial fishing takes place. The regions of the study included: Northeast Atlantic, Mid-Atlantic, Southeast Atlantic, Gulf of Mexico, Great Lakes, Southern Pacific, Pacific Northwest, and Alaska. Participants were asked to complete the Commercial Fishing Worker Survey (CFWS), which is a survey instrument consisting of an approved, adapted version of the Index of Learning Styles instrument (ILS) combined with a demographic section which included questions designed to obtain data regarding the four variables of the study: age, education level, captain's license status, and method of fishing. The instrument was designed to provide data sufficient to answer the three research questions of the study. 1. What are the learning preferences of commercial fishermen? 2. Are there differences in the learning preferences of commercial fishermen across the eight geographical regions of the study? 3. Are there differences in the learning preferences of commercial fishermen based on the demographical variables? The commercial fishermen showed obvious inclinations toward specific learning preference dimensions. The fishermen indicated that they preferred the active (rather than the reflective) dimension, the sensing (rather than the intuitive) dimension, the visual (rather than the verbal) dimension, and the sequential (rather than the global) dimension. The participant's responses were similar across the eight regions. Where differences existed, they were related to the sensing/intuitive and sequential/global learning preferences dimensions. Region 8 Alaska appeared to have stronger sensing and sequential learning preferences than the other regions. Age did not appear to influence the learning preferences of the fishermen. The majority of the respondents indicated they were high school graduates. However, education did not appear to affect the learning preferences of the fishermen. Captain's license status had no influence on the learning preferences of the commercial fishermen, since the majority of the respondents did not possess a captain's license. Respondents indicated that the largest percentage of commercial fishing used net fishing methods as their primary means of fishing. For the majority of the commercial fishermen, method of fishing did not appear to influence the learning preferences of commercial fishermen. However, net and trap fishermen exhibited significant differences related to the sensing/intuitive and sequential/global learning preference dimensions and reported more preference for the sequential/global learning preference dimensions then fishermen using other methods of fishing. Implications and recommendations for further study are enumerated in the last chapter.

This current research study is an outcome of the global expansion of English into the business world, the vigorous growth of the research in the area of English language acquisition as a second language and a global language, as well as of the researcher's passionate ESP teaching experience to university engineering students, and her pro-active engagement with Thai automotive engineers in the multi-national companies. Through investigating the English language learning and working experience of Thai automotive engineers, pictures about their needs on English language communication in the workplace are sketched; through looking into the perspectives of the university teachers and the international engineering professionals, the factors impacting on the needs of those automotive engineers in English language communication have been demonstrated. As a product of this research study, an ESP working syllabus has been designed to showcase the major findings of this stu dy, and to inform the current and future practices in English language learning and teaching for global engineers from the angles of program design. In light of the principles in second language learning and teaching, and of the theoretical framework in Global English, this research study has been designed with a multi-faceted research strategy, which interweaves qualitative and quantitative research paradigms, and consists of questionnaire survey, in-depth interviews and case studies. The data obtained through this research strategy are analyzed through SPSS statistics, content analysis and triangulation. The research participants were recruited from two settings: automotive engineering workplace and technological educational institutions in Thailand. They include: 1) automotive engineers from an automotive-parts manufacturer, 2) foreign engineering professionals who co-work with the engineers from that manufacturing company, and 3) ESP teachers from the two selected technology universities of Thailand. The results from this study indicate that proficiency in English communication has not only become a global passport for Thai automotive engineers, but also for the engineering organisations. It works as a source of power for both employees and employers, if they own it, in entering global automotive business to effectively function and compete, but as a challenge for those who do not possess this asset. It is believed that enhancing their English language proficiency for engineers is a key toward their generic skills building. On the basis of the findings of this study, a 90-hour sample ESP syllabus spread out over a course of three months is developed. It employs an integrated model of syllabus design, having incorporated and balanced learner-centred approach, communicative approach and task-based approach. It combines classroom-based training sessions, self-directed learning and advisory sessions to introduce and strengthen the knowledge and skills and to mentor the engineers grow through the self-directed English learning process. Thus, the objectives of this sample ESP syllabus are to foster Thai engineers as not only proficient English communicators, but also as autonomous English learners. Through this learning process, they could get themselves better prepared for the challenges posed by this ever-changing world, while sowing seeds for nurturing future global leaders in the engineering profession.

The Field Study was designed to investigate some aspects of content validity of a specially designed Draft Manual for Diagnostic Procedures in Reading. A copy of the Manual is available separately, but relevant sections of it are appended to this Report. The Draft Manual for Diagnostic Procedures in Reading (D.M.D.P.R.) was issued to seventeen students enrolled in the Graduate Diploma in Special Education. These students were completing the unit, Curriculum Design in Language and Reading. The D.M.D.P.R. was compiled as a trial testing instrument which could be used by the students in their course-work on diagnosis of reading difficulties. The manual contains three sections, listed below, which are germane to this study. This Report will focus upon the procedures of testing which were taught and practised in, and the results obtained from, trial testing by the writer and the students within the framework of the Curriculum Design in Language and Reading (C.D.L.R.) unit. The three sections of the D.M.D.P.R. which are the subject of this study are: 1. Diagnostic Procedures in the Assessment of Reading Readiness. 2. A Rationale for the Measurement of Reading Performance. 3. The Principles, Procedures and Application of Miscue Analysis in the Diagnosis of Reading Difficulties. The Report will describe and analyse the findings obtained from Sections 1 and 3. in which information has been obtained from the course participants in their use of the D.M.D.P.R. Section 2, an article on theoretical issues in diagnosis of reading processes, was included in the D.M.D.P.R. to explain to the participants the rationale of miscue analysis techniques. The explanatory and descriptive nature of that section will be referred to in this Report for reference purposes only. Report on Section 1 Section 1 of the D.M.D.P.R. is a series of five tests which were designed to trial a method of assessment of the developmental language and reading status of children aged between 5.6 and 7.5 years of age. The children were rated by their teachers in language and reading development on a five-point scale, which ranged from extremely poor, to below average, average, above average, and excellent. The tests were administered to nearly 200 children and data was obtained from 137 of these. The children comprise a sample who have been exposed to one, two or three years of reading readiness training and reading teaching in a wide variety of programs and systems. The primary purpose of designing the tests was to use criteria of performance which do not commonly appear in standardized, normative tests of reading readiness and reading development. The rationale of the tests was stated in the D.M.D.P.R. The Report reviews this rationale in Chapters I and II and the results obtained from the application of the trial tests in Chapter III. Report on Section 3 Section 3 of the D.M.D.P.R. proposes a system of diagnostic testing in reading, known as Miscue Analysis. The Report attempts to review, in descriptive terms, the patterns of error behaviour in reading which can be illustrated by the miscue analysis technique, and to describe the systems of analysis developed by the writer and unit participants in their investigations of 130 children who were described as low proficiency readers. This review is contained in Chapter IV. Because the miscue analysis technique is diagnostic in purpose, it would be inappropriate to describe the Section 3 program as experimental or empirical. Several insights into the uses of the miscue analysis technique were developed progressively in the C.D.L.R. unit and these procedures and uses will be the subject of the report. In summary, the overall purposes of the study were therefore two-fold: 1. to provide a group of specialist teachers in training with a manual of diagnostic procedures appropriate to the assessment of children's reading progress in early and later stages of reading development; and 2. to assess experimentally the validity of original test materials to be used in early reading stages, and to appraise descriptively the efficacy of a diagnostic procedure in reading in later reading stages.