This study presents a phenomenological enquiry of two professional music improvisers' perceived mental representations. The notion of perceived 'mental representations' are recognized as having a pedagogical importance in increasing the quality of a musical performance, yet its nature and roles in music learning remain poorly understood. Although they are generally seen as conscious and quasi-perceptual experiential phenomena involving the imagination of events, objects, and settings, music scholars have found 'mental representations' difficult to conceptualize due to the coexistence of its different names and definitions in the literature. Synonymous terms of 'mental representations' also feature in several phenomenological and psychological models of referent-based musical improvisation. These include the concepts of 'tonal imagery' (Pike, 1974), 'representational structures' (Clarke, 1988), and 'analytical representations' (Pressing, 1988). To address this gap, the present study seeks to conceptualize the nature, formation, and roles of mental representations in the context of the musical improvisation process. An overarching research question guided the study: What characterises the nature of improvisers' embodied perceived mental representations before, during, and after a thematic musical improvisation? The study's qualitative methodology is positioned in constructivism and draws on the theoretical thinking of Andreas C. Lehmann and Marc Leman. In particular, this study adopts Lehmann's (1997) theory of three necessary types of mental representations in an expert musical performance (1. the desired performance goal, 2. the production aspects, and 3. the actual performance) as a theoretical lens to understand how the improvisers' mental representations are used. In addition, Leman's (2010) framework of embodied approach to musical semantics is used to access and understand how the improvisers' mental representations are formed. The research design comprised two phenomenologically informed descriptive case studies of two professional improvisers. A central feature of this study's design was having the improvisers learn a given musical stimulus in order to trace the formation and development of their perceived mental representations before, during, and after their improvisations. In addition, a group of four methods was employed: semi-structured interviews, live musical performance, graphic elicitation, and observation. Data comprising interview quotes, thick descriptions, the improvisers' performances, and their drawings were first analysed separately, and then were brought together and interpreted using a framework informed by the theoretical works of Lehmann and Leman. The findings of the study are presented in a narrative across two descriptive case studies, showing how the mental representations from Lehmann's model, and Leman's six types of semantics are evidenced throughout the two improvisers' learning, ideation, improvisation, and reflection phases. In particular, the key findings presented four ways of meaning constructions during the improvisers' formation of their mental representations, and identified twelve types of goal, production, and reflection-based mental representations. Bringing the two cases together, the study concludes that the two professional improvisers' mental representations: (1) are multi-various in nature, (2) undergo progressive and distributive formations, and (3) take on multiple types of roles. In addition to pedagogical recommendations to music education, the study's methodological contribution lies in providing a reference point and common ground for locating and describing the different phenomena taking place during improvisation - 'mental representations' being just one of them.

Thesis (M.A.)--Eastern Illinois University, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 50-53).

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Washington, 1988. / Vita. Bibliography: leaves [121]-139.

Thesis (doctoral)--Göteborgs universitet. / Extra t.p. with thesis statement inserted. Summary in English. Includes bibliographical references (p. 237-247).

Thesis PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (doctoral)--Göteborgs universitet. / Extra t.p. with thesis statement inserted. Summary in English. Includes bibliographical references (p. 237-247).

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Hong Kong, 2000. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 72-76). Also available in print.

No description available.

Social work education is increasingly changing, and instructors are experimenting with new methods to deliver social work curricula to reach a larger population of social work students. Students previously excluded from university education based on their geographic location, financial limitations, family or work demands now have an opportunity to access social work programs in Canada using distance education, and distance education has become an emerging field of research. The current study identified instructor and student characteristics and university supports that were assessed as critical in creating an effective learning environment for delivering an entire undergraduate program of social work via distance education. The exploratory-descriptive study utilized a mixed-methods design to examine the perceptions of social work distance educators from four universities that offer a complete BSW degree accredited by the Canadian Association for Social Work Education (CASWE-ACFTS) through distance education: the University of Calgary, the University of Manitoba, the University of Victoria and Dalhousie University. Thirty-four social work distance educators completed a survey questionnaire, and 24 of these participated in qualitative interviews to identify the critical characteristics and university supports. Study findings suggest that effective performance of five distinct roles by both instructors and students are essential to creating an effective learning environment in social work distance education. The required university supports to maintain those roles are also identified. Based on these results a conceptual model for achieving effectiveness in social work distance education is identified. The study suggests what is needed to establish an effective learning environment in social work distance education and confirms the benefits of distance education in social work undergraduate programs. Suggestions for future research are included along with recommendations for building an effective distance learning environment in social work education. / May 2016

Who am I? I am a factory worker, who became a motor mechanic, an electronics technician, chartered engineer, project manager, university course director, associate dean and more recently a PhD student in education. I have a story to tell about lifelong learning from the perspective of the student, and a perspective on engineering education that is very different from many of my colleagues in academia. As my original research aim was to bring a different perspective to education, I also needed to take a different approach to research, and so I began my PhD with a grounded theory style approach, and a reflexive autoethnography of lifelong learning. Through my attempt to explore and justify my arguments for the autoethnographic method, I entered an epistemological rabbit hole that took me far away from the objective, quantitative world of engineering academia. However, through the autoethnographic process, I started to realise that my earlier experience of actually being a practising engineer was often qualitative and subjective, and seemed at odds with the quantitative, objective and theoretical world of engineering academia. I began to question why there was such an apparent disconnect between engineering education and practice, and this became the focus of part 2 of this thesis. This PhD thesis is in two distinct parts. Part 1 contains the autoethnographic elements described above, that led unexpectedly to the focus on engineering education through a Bourdieusian lens, via a number of other possible themes including motivation, social class, and distance learning. I begin part 2 by connecting my autoethnographic description of the disconnect between engineering education and practice, to similar accounts in academic, industrial and institutional literature. My main contribution to knowledge is the application of Bourdieu's theories of social reproduction to an exploration of how this disconnect has been maintained. As Bourdieu has positioned habitus as embodied history, I explore how the historic development of engineering has led to the separation of education and practice into distinct fields, which have in turn influenced the habitus of the agents within those fields. My main argument is that the habitus of the engineering academic is formed within a field where the valued forms of capital are based on scientific research and academic reputation, and this predisposes the academic to doxic beliefs about the nature of engineering that are not reflective of professional practice. However, I also contend that the engineering profession, in response to perceptions of societal attitudes to occupations and professions, also contributes to social reproduction through the cultural capital associated with academia and science.