Teachers often tell anecdotes about children or classroom events. Such accounts are regarded as oral narratives of personal experience which are a natural part of teacher-to-teacher talk in occupational culture. In this thesis, models of narrative analysis are reviewed from the disciplines of sociology and sociolinguistics, psychology, literature and anthropology. In the empirical work, nearly one thousand narratives told by primary teachers were elicited in interviews or recorded in teachers' meetings. These are analysed in terms of their content and tellers' perspectives, both of which are considered elements of teachers' culture. Through narrative analysis a picture of primary teaching is built up, as portrayed by teachers. Particular narrative themes focussed upon include children who stand out, breakthroughs in learning, teachers' planning and teachers' experiences of disaster, humour and 'awkward' parents. Based on the analysis of these themes a number of models of teachers' cultural perspectives are suggested. The study proposes that narrative analysis can be used to study the cultural perspectives of occupational groups, in this case of teachers.

It is vital for online educators to know whether the strategies they use help students gain 21st-century skills. One skill that has been identified as important in the 21st century is creativity; however, a gap existed in the literature concerning whether online courses could help students to develop creativity. Thus, the purpose of this study was to determine whether participation in online courses can help students develop creativity using asynchronous online discussions, textbooks, and teacher developed materials. Amabile's componential model of creativity formed the study's conceptual framework. A case-study approach was used to examine the question of whether asynchronous online discussions and other materials used in online courses could help students develop creativity. One professor, recognized by her peers for her expertise in online education, and three of her online graduate students who volunteered for the study, were interviewed using Zoom. Twenty-nine transcripts of asynchronous online discussions were analyzed using a sequential process of building an explanation, checking the explanation against the data, and repeating the process. Key results from the study indicated that project-based prompts, problem-based prompts, and heuristics used in asynchronous online discussions can help promote creativity. Recommendations for future research include conducting a similar case study with a more diverse group of participants and with a course in a different specialty. These findings may promote social change by helping online instructors use appropriate prompts for asynchronous online discussions that will help students refine their creative skills to ultimately use them in the 21st-century workplace.

According to researchers, face is an important possession carried by individuals into interactions with others. Face has been studied in diverse areas such as: politeness, compliance gaining, emotional discourse, negotiations, face-negotiation theory, and conflict. Perhaps because of its value, face can be vulnerable during conflict situations. Facework behaviors are the communicative strategies that people use during conflicts to protect face (theirs or others), threaten others' face, and to avoid or resolve conflicts. So far, studies about facework behaviors have focused on face-to-face interactions. Preliminary studies have shown: a. facework behaviors may affect the outcomes of online discussion teams, b. sex may play a role in the relationship between facework behaviors and online discussion outcomes, and c. conflicts among online discussion team members may influence discussion outcomes. This research explores more completely the role that facework behaviors play during conflicts, their influence on online discussion outcomes, and the role that sex plays in these matters. Data gathered from surveys and transcripts of participants' online discussion postings show that facework behaviors: a. influence conflict levels, b. influence the outcomes of the online discussion teams, and c. play a moderating role on the relationship between conflicts and online discussion outcomes. They also indicate that sex plays a moderating role in these relationships. Moreover, this study shows that the typology of facework behaviors, originally developed to describe face-related aspects of face-to-face interactions, has value in understanding online discussions.

Thèse (M.Sc.) - Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières, 2006. / Essai présenté à l'Université du Québec à Trois-Rivières comme exigence partielle du programme de maîtrise en sciences infirmières. CaQQUQ Comprend des réf. bibliogr. (f. [44]-46).

This six-week qualitative exploratory case study examined the affordances of the iPad for students and teachers when used to video record discussions about literature. The 13 Grade 6 and Grade 7 participants self-selected their literature circle groups and their novels. Preparation for engaging in student-led literature discussions included specific teaching about participation in a literature circle discussion and a pilot study. Data included six 20-minute student literature discussion videos, students’ individual reflective videos made on the iPads, and individual participant interviews with the researcher audio recorded on the iPad. The student reflective videos were partly transcribed and the participant interviews were transcribed. The data analysis involved open coding of the videos and transcripts using a system of screenshots and written codes. The three codes that emerged most often and that were most relevant to my research questions focused on the concept of audience. The students’ behaviours, when videoing their discussions with the iPad, fluctuated through a continuum from acknowledgement of the teacher as audience to behaviours that suggested the teacher had been forgotten. The concept of audience also included the students themselves as mirrored in the screen, and an ‘other’ audience, which seemed to be YouTube. The findings suggested that the students’ shifting perspective of audience around the iPad screen, which also acted sometimes as a participant and a co-regulatory more knowledgeable ‘other’, seemed to contribute to their self-regulatory behaviours and to their observed and professed engagement. Overall, the analysis of the data revealed the use of the iPad for discussions about literature afforded students with opportunities to self-regulate their behaviours and discourse in ways they seemed to find engaging, and afforded me an unobtrusive window into their discussions, which provided an additional perspective on the students and their work. / Graduate

Students often struggle with collaboration. Successful collaboration requires planning which is often neglected by individuals and groups. Research about whether technological interventions impact online collaborative processes and how these interventions take effect is limited. During the COVID-19 pandemic research about how to support effective online collaborative learning has never been as important for guiding best practices in post-secondary learning contexts. The aim of this qualitative case study was to explore how the quality of planning discussions contribute to group performance and planning challenge perceptions, under the three different planning support conditions. Specifically, the study compared the planning interactions among groups who (a) reported different planning challenge experiences, (b) received different kinds of planning support, and (c) achieved different learning outcomes (group performance). Participants were drawn from 180 undergraduate students enrolled in a first-year course in a university in Canada. Students used an online chat tool to complete a collaborative task and reflect on the process. Extreme case sampling was used to identify groups who perceived planning as problematic (6 groups) and groups who did not (6 groups). Chat transcripts were analyzed for quality and characteristics of groups’ planning discussions. Findings indicate (a) planning was largely neglected by groups, (b) the overall quality of groups’ planning discussions were not calibrated with groups’ perceptions of planning challenges encountered by the group, (c) groups who received the planning support in the form of nominal visualizations engaged in more powerful planning processes during collaboration, and (d) group performance on the task differed between groups who perceived planning problematic and groups who did not. This study contributes to the field by recognizing the deficiency of groups’ planning process in collaboration and providing evidence of the effectiveness of a planning support tool. Recommendations for incorporating collaboration into online learning and instruction during COVID-19 are presented in the conclusion. / Graduate

Background: Patients with mental illness often experience stigma and marginalization, which affects the quality of their healthcare. In most settings, end of life decisions, including goals of care, must be discussed with all patients upon hospital admission. This includes determining cardiopulmonary resuscitation preferences, in the event of a medical emergency. Despite this requirement, category status conversations do not routinely occur in psychiatry. It is common for psychiatric inpatients, including those at high risk for cardiac or respiratory arrest, to be admitted, cared for, and discharged without their category status known or documented. By default, patients become a ‘full code status’, which mandates life-sustaining interventions, including CPR. Unwanted interventions are often unsuccessful and inappropriate. They might also cause harm through increased pain and suffering or have no medical benefit. Aim: To explore how and why category status conversations occur, or do not occur, for patients admitted to psychiatry. Methods: This was a descriptive qualitative study, with data collected through two semi-structured focus groups. Nine nurses working in psychiatry, representing two campuses of a larger tertiary care academic hospital in Ottawa, Ontario participated. Elo and Kyngäs’s approach to inductive content analysis was used to analyze the verbatim transcripts of the focus group discussions. Findings: Findings reveal the shared experiences of nurses initiating and engaging in category status conversations with patients admitted to psychiatry. Four overarching categories were identified: ‘The Psychiatric Culture’, ‘Being a Psychiatric Patient’, ‘Physical Health Status’, and ‘Suggestions and Recommendations’. Participants spoke about important considerations for the advancement of knowledge regarding category status conversations in psychiatry, including the nurse’s role in category status determination, the challenges of implementing a ‘one-size fits all’ approach to category status policies, and the ways in which HCPs perceptions of patients who are receiving care for depression or suicidal ideation influence these conversations in psychiatry. Conclusion: Nurses working in psychiatry care for patients with complex medical and psychiatric comorbidities, who are also sometimes older and frail. Category status determination for these patients is complicated and often the documented status is based on clinician presumption rather than consultation with the patient. Although the importance of completing category status conversations with patients admitted to psychiatry is known, they seldomly occur, and there is ambiguity about the nursing role within the psychiatric context. Efforts are needed to improve nurses’ contributions to category status determination for patients admitted to psychiatry, to ensure that patients’ preferences are known and upheld. Further, there are illness-related factors that complicate typical processes used to discuss and identify patient preferences, such as suicidal ideation and minimal family support. These considerations must be accounted for in hospital policy if meaningful practice change is expected.

No description available.

Conscientious Discourse is an engagement where participants express their ideas truthfully, but also simultaneously focus on listening and responding to others. Facilitating and participating in conscientious classroom discourse is challenging. We present an approach — reinfrastructuring classroom discourse — by offering students and instructors more information in the initial moments of discourse through a system we developed, ThoughtSwap. This approach emphasizes focused, punctuated moments of attention to one's own and other people's ideas. 49%-100% of students participated in the initial entry of ideas over the course of the semester in 25 classes with nine instructors. The study showed that ThoughtSwap had operational success in that, on the average, instructors used ThoughtSwap once every other week during the semester. Furthermore, student participation rate ranged from 49% to 100%. This work further presents 1) the ways instructors adapted and adopted ThoughtSwap, and 2) the pedagogical goals and challenges they report using the tool. / Doctor of Philosophy / Facilitating and participating in classroom discourse is difficult. The process becomes even more challenging with the goal of inviting what we call Conscientious Discourse, where the participants not only share their ideas but also engage in both self-examination and reflection of other people's ideas. We present an approach — reinfrastructuring classroom discourse — by offering students and instructors more information in the initial moments of discourse through using a system we developed, ThoughtSwap. ThoughtSwap is not the mechanism by which discussion takes place, but instead changes the informational conditions under which synchronous discussions are held. In response to an instructor prompt, students contribute initial written thoughts under conditions of ``contained anonymity". Additionally, instructors may ask students to represent and respond to ``swapped" thoughts, contributed by other people present in the class. These actions created moments of focused encounter in which class members can contemplate their own ideas in relationship to other peoples' ideas as they begin actual discussion. ThoughtSwap use was studied in the context of university instruction by 9 instructors in 25 classes over the course of 6 semesters, to further their teaching goals. The study showed that ThoughtSwap seemed to have operational success in that, on the average, instructors used ThoughtSwap once every other week during the semester that did not contain guest speakers, tests, or holidays. Furthermore, student participation rate ranged from 49% to 100%. Instructors participated in focus groups and articulated their plans, goals, concerns and experiences. In this work I further present and discuss 1) the ways instructors adapted and adopted ThoughtSwap, and 2) the pedagogical goals and challenges they report using the tool. Secondary kinds of results that may also inform future work relate to student-level demographic and attitudinal data, and the design and creation of a system variant that attempted to respond to Covid. Most importantly, ThoughtSwap offers instructors and students an opportunity to deepen the chances for learning in the instructional environment.

No description available.