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Abstract Caring is the core business of nursing and midwifery, involving a relationship in which the carer is committed to the needs of the one being cared for (Mason-Whitehead, Mcintosh, Bryan & Mason). Caring is the emotion which drives a midwife to care, the motive aimed at assisting someone to grow and self-actualise (Watson). The concern in midwifery is that irrespective of caring being central to the midwifery profession, caring taught in theoretical learning does not always translate into caring behaviour in practice. A qualitative exploratory study examined how midwifery educators impart the skill of caring during theoretical learning and clinical accompaniment, in order to respond to the general complaint made both locally and internationally that midwives are uncaring. The aim was to explore caring during theoretical learning and clinical accompaniment from the perspective of midwifery educators. Participants in the study were midwifery educators teaching midwifery in institutions of learning in Tshwane, South Africa. The naive sketch was used to gather data, wherein one central question was asked and the educators were invited to narrate and respond. Three themes emerged: the meaning of caring; how caring was conveyed during theoretical learning; and how it was conveyed during clinical accompaniment. Although the midwifery educators expressed how they conveyed caring to the learner midwives, it was not evident how caring competencies were assessed in order to ensure caring midwives at the end of training.

This thesis is an investigation of the lived experience of first generation female students in their first year of study at the University of Guelph in Guelph Ontario, Canada. The study highlights the importance of learning about the lived experience of first-generation female students, from their perspectives and in their own words. As previous research focuses most often on the demographics, academic performance, and persistence rates of first-generation students, this study is significant as it approaches the female first-generation student experience from a phenomenological standpoint. The women spoke at length about the effect their parents and siblings had on their academic lives. They talked of their experiences transitioning to university and the issues and challenges associated with their new environments. The participants in this study also shared what advice they would give to other first-generation students entering higher education.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Psychology, 1994. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 290-320).

[pt] Ancorada nos princípios da Prática Exploratória e como membro do grupo da Prática Exploratória do Rio de Janeiro, busco entender no presente estudo a construção de identidades de alguns membros deste grupo nas narrativas de experiências pessoais profissionais com a Prática Exploratória. Esta é uma modalidade de pesquisa do praticante que integra investigação às práticas profissionais cotidianas. Trabalhando em três grupos de três membros, caracterizados como mini-comunidades exploratórias, as professorascolaboradoras que manifestaram interesse e tiveram disponibilidade para participar desta pesquisa colaborativa-inclusiva-participativa e eu tivemos a oportunidade de revisitar nossas práticas pedagógicas exploratórias. Em entrevistas-conversas com potencial exploratório, compartilhamos nossas narrativas. Recriamos, assim, o que acontece, naturalmente nas reuniões do grupo da Prática Exploratória, nas quais encontramos oportunidades para nos envolvermos em processos de formação continuada. Na busca pela inclusão de todos no trabalho para entender, ressignificamos nossa participação na pesquisa, tornando-a inclusiva e híbrida. Realizamos a análise de forma colaborativa – eu transcrevi as narrativas, compartilhei as transcrições por correio eletrônico e nos reunimos novamente para discutir os entendimentos de nossas próprias narrativas e das identidades que nelas construímos. Observamos, em grupo, como as narrativas oferecem possibilidades para entendermos melhor nossas múltiplas identidades pessoais e profissionais, construídas no trabalho investigativo desenvolvido, em sala de aula ou fora dela, a partir dos princípios da Prática Exploratória. / [en] Based on the Exploratory Practice principles and as a member of the Rio de Janeiro Exploratory Practice group, I seek to understand in this study the construction of identities in personal narratives of professional experiences with Exploratory Practice. This is a modality of practitioner research that integrates investigation to daily professional activities. Working in three groups of three members, characterized as exploratory mini-communities, the teachercollaborators who were interested in and available to participate in this collaborative-inclusive-participative research and myself had the opportunity to revisit our pedagogical exploratory practices. In interview-talks with exploratory potential, we share our narratives; thus, recreating what happens naturally in our Exploratory Practice group meetings, where we find opportunities to engage in continuing teacher education processes. In attempting to include everybody in the work for understanding, we re-signify our participation in this research and turn it into an inclusive and hybrid enterprise. We carried out the narrative analysis in a collaborative way – I transcribed and shared electronically the transcriptions of our first meeting and, then, we had another session to discuss our personal understandings of the identities that we had constructed in the narratives. Collaboratively, we observed that our narratives enabled us to gain deeper understandings of the multiple personal and professional identities, which we construct in the investigative work developed in the classroom or in other contexts, oriented by the Exploratory Practice principles.

Saudi Higher Education has started to move with the international trend towards blending face-to-face with online instruction when developing new educational processes. As a contribution to the innovations in Saudi Higher Education, this study explores the perceptions of Saudi female lecturers and undergraduate students towards blended learning from their experience as participants in blended courses. The advantage of blended learning was recognized by the Ministry of Saudi Higher Education as a solution to the challenge of providing college education to the rapidly growing student population. As the move to a blended learning model represents a radical shift in the Saudi educational system, this study shows how Saudi students and lecturers reacted to this change and how it affected the quality of their learning and teaching experience. The objective of the study is to identify Saudi female undergraduate students’ and lecturers’ perceptions of the advantages, challenges and future of blended learning. Consequently, the key factors that influence the lecturers’ and students’ views are discussed, and recommendations for future research, strategy and practice are provided. Qualitative methods were used to obtain rich descriptive data to facilitate the exploration of the phenomena. Based on interpretative philosophy, the data was analysed in the form of explanation and interpretation of the participants’ perceptions of blended learning. The study concludes that blended learning has the potential to offer a successful learning experience in Saudi Arabia. As there are always challenges of adaptation when a new approach is employed, this research provides insight into how the challenges of implementing blended learning in Saudi Higher Education could be addressed. A theoretical blended learning framework is introduced to provide the factors that influence the implementation of blended learning. One of the major conclusions is that a blended learning environment offers Saudi females the flexibility to continue their higher education while maintaining their own cultural values and traditions.

Networks of communicating agents require distributed algorithms for a variety of tasks in the field of network analysis and control. For applications such as swarms of autonomous vehicles, ad hoc and wireless sensor networks, and such military and civilian applications as exploring and patrolling a robust autonomous system that uses a distributed algorithm for self-partitioning can be significantly helpful. A single team of autonomous vehicles in a field may need to self-dissemble into multiple teams, conducive to completing multiple control tasks. Moreover, because communicating agents are subject to changes, namely, addition or failure of an agent or link, a distributed or decentralized algorithm is favorable over having a central agent. A framework to help with the study of self-partitioning of such multi agent systems that have most basic mobility model not only saves our time in conception but also gives us a cost effective prototype without negotiating the physical realization of the proposed idea. In this thesis I present my work on the implementation of a flexible and distributed stochastic partitioning algorithm on the Lego® Mindstorms’ NXT on a graphical programming platform using National Instruments’ LabVIEW™ forming a team of communicating agents via NXT-Bee radio module. We single out mobility, communication and self-partition as the core elements of the work. The goal is to randomly explore a precinct for reference sites. Agents who have discovered the reference sites announce their target acquisition to form a network formed based upon the distance of each agent with the other wherein the self-partitioning begins to find an optimal partition. Further, to illustrate the work, an experimental test-bench of five Lego NXT robots is presented.

Master of Landscape Architecture / Landscape Architecture/Regional and Community Planning / Jon D. Hunt / Design tools (the method of making a designer uses to conceptualize or communicate the assembly of an object) are not simply secondary instruments to communicate designs through, but are the primary media through which designers contemplate and process design problems. Designers should utilize tools, whether digital or analog, with an awareness of each tool’s limitations and advantages and the possibilities they provide to each step of the design process. The intent of this report is to study how site inspired making methods can be used to observe and reveal information about a site, and thus contribute to the site analysis phase of design. Site inspired making methods are developed in this report through an exploratory research process. Exploratory research is a qualitative method used to provide flexibility in developing knowledge about a topic. An exploratory process was chosen to allow my focuses to shift as I make and reflect so my findings arise as I conduct the studies, not just from an initial hypothesis. Through an exploratory research process of making and reflecting this report answers the question: How do various methods of making develop and document my understanding of the site? Exploratory methods of drawing and sculpting are used to observe and reveal site information, and develop site-inspired artistic works. The site is a small, wooded lot and cove of Tuttle Creek Lake located northwest of Manhattan, Kansas. The research process is divided into an investigation phase in which I explored initial drawing and sculpting methods and an application phase in which I created a sculpture and series of drawings inspired by the site. I documented site conditions through observational drawing; revealed patterns and textures by drawing with and on site materials; developed parametric studies of balancing sculptures; discovered crystallization patterns by splattering ink on a frozen lake; designed a balancing sculpture inspired by the motion of ice sheets and driftwood on water; and created frost drawings by applying ink to soaked and frozen watercolor paper. Each method revealed different site qualities and informed my understanding of the site.

Bibliography: leaves 290-320 / xiii, 320 leaves : ill ; 30 cm. / Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Psychology, 1994

Understanding and explaining perception of touch is a non-trivial task. Even seemingly trivial differences in exploration may potentially have a significant impact on perception and levels of discrimination. In this study, we explore different aspects of contact related to stiffness perception and their effects on the just noticeable difference (JND) of stiffness are surveyed. An experiment has been performed on non-deformable, compliant objects in a virtual environment with three different types of contact: Discontinuous pressure, continuous pressure and continuous lateral motion. The result shows a significantly better discrimination performance in the case of continuous pressure (a special case of nonlinearity), which can be explained by the concept of haptic memory. Moreover, it is found that the perception is worse for the changes that occur along the lateral axis than the normal axis.