This thesis reports on a qualitative study of student interactions in one grade seven mathematics classroom as the students worked through a series of tasks exploring multiple uses of variables. Student tasks were planned out by me, as the teacher and the researcher, and they were executed in my classroom, where I had worked to create a constructivist classroom environment. This study posed two research questions: (1) In what ways do student interactions during group activities promote the development of individual and collective understanding of the concept of variable? and (2) In what ways do student interactions during whole-class discussions promote the development of individual and collective understanding of the concept of variable? I used research methods in which I was a participant. Data was collected in the form of audio taped discussions for the participants (working in three groups of four). Audio files of class discussions were accumulated and stored for later review. Written student work and reflections were collected for all class members at the time of the study. From these data sources, the relevant data set emerged. Analysis came in the form of thick description of eight episodes of importance in which the multiple data sources came together to highlight how student interactions in the form of negotiations may have promoted a shift in understanding of variable. The data showed the complex nature of student interactions along with the potential benefits to student learning. The data showing these benefits were outlined as three patterns of negotiations. These were: negotiations with other students, negotiations with self, and negotiations with the teacher. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2008-04-07 19:10:42.808

<p> Discrimination in employment still exists in Canada despite legislative attempts to minimize the disparity in treatment of minorities in the workplace. This dissertation examines the possibility of whether deep-level characteristics, such as differences in behaviour, are culturally influenced.</p> <p> Organizational citizenship behaviours (OCB) in the workplace have been a popular area of study for nearly twenty years in the industrial/organizational psychology literature. Research has demonstrated that OCBs can explain variance in job performance over and above that of task performance. While much of the OCB research has focused on the antecedents of OCBs (particularly individual attributes), a handful of cross-cultural and intercultural studies have been conducted with respect to OCBs; however, the type of studies and the findings from these studies have varied widely. Cross-cultural studies have evaluated OCBs in a single non-Western culture, collectivism and individualism as within-culture individual differences and their effects on OCBs, demographic dissimilarity in teams and OCBs, the role of perceptions and the exhibition of OCBs, and the presence and structure of OCB in different countries. From these studies, one can draw few conclusions about the status of national culture as an antecedent of OCB.</p> <p> The main objectives of this study were to investigate whether OCBs are culturally determined (using Vygotsky's sociocultural theory as an underlying basis for this hypothesis and using Hofstede's cultural framework), and whether individual acculturation and gender orientation moderate this relationship. Findings reveal overall that these three variables explain little of the variance in OCBs. None of the moderation hypotheses were supported for individual-level OCBs (OCB-I) or for team-oriented OCBs (OCB-T). Power distance was the only one of Hofstede's cultural dimensions that had relationships (both negative) with OCB-I and OCB-T. Gender orientation and acculturation played more prominent roles as independent variables instead of moderators, though the coefficients were weak. The study also revealed that individual levels of acculturation to Canadian culture may be more of an influencing factor on organizational citizenship behaviours than individual scores on national dimensions. The overall findings show that cultural differences do not have much influence on the exhibition of OCBs within work teams; however, further research must be done to assess the underlying mechanisms of discrimination in the workplace.</p> / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction Programs / Michael C. Holen / There is a call for education, including teacher education, to transform from solely transmitting knowledge to creating dynamic learning opportunities for students to experience real-world situations so they can develop the skills and competencies necessary to navigate a changing and unpredictable world. Service-learning is proposed as one strategy to facilitate this transformation. Therefore, the purpose of this qualitative case study was to describe how individual or group service-learning experiences might impact the attitudes and beliefs of pre-service teachers in a teacher education course. This study was guided by two research questions: How do pre-service teacher participants describe their individual or group service-learning experiences within the context of a required teacher education course? In what ways do participants' attitudes and beliefs towards service-learning vary, based on individual or group service-learning experiences? The service-learning experiences for this study were designed using experiential educational theory and a blended framework from service-learning common goals (academic enhancement, personal/professional growth, and civic learning) and common components (academic material, critical reflection and relevant service) (Ash, Clayton, & Moses, 2009). Fourteen pre-service students agreed to participate in the study. Two sources of data were identified, (a) individual semi-structured, face-to-face interviews and (b) critical reflective journals written by participants. Findings suggest that service-learning experiences reinforce academic content including experiential education. Personal and professional growth and an understanding of diversity can result from service-learning experiences. Teacher involvement in the local community was viewed by participants as important for student-teacher relationships and to improve connections between the school and the community. Participants of the study viewed critical reflection as a fundamental component in service-learning. Self-identified personality type can impact how each participant described their individual or group service-learning experiences, including benefits of social interaction and collaboration. Individual and group service-learning present different challenges in implementing effective experiences. Participants’ beliefs and attitudes did not vary based upon individual or group service-learning experiences. In conclusion, incorporating the experiential pedagogy of service-learning in teacher education programs can better prepare pre-service teachers for the very unpredictable nature of teaching.

Title of the thesis: Interaction between a teacher and a student compared group and individual teaching skiing. Objectives: The aim of this work was to find, what differences are in the didactic interaction in comparison of group and individual ski lessons. Methods: In this work we used the method of observation, data collection was realized using a video camera and the subsequent recording was evaluated using the MADI method (modified analysis of didactic interaction). Results: From the results we found that the greatest difference was in the expression factual purportwhich in individual lessons grow avarage by 20%. Furthermore, in the individual lesson form grow education activity above organizational by on avarage10% and in the type of attitude activity integration has increased on avrage 7%. The results also showed that in the individual form of teaching did not appear activity without direct control. Key words: Individual and group skiing lessons, ski school, analysis of didactic interaction, ADI, MADI

New and experienced leaders sometimes underestimate the importance of the follower and context in their ability to be effective and successful in the long term. During an organization crisis or in a conflict situation, a leaders’ verbal and nonverbal communication behaviors and an awareness of the contextual factors and followers’ feelings involved may contribute more to long-term effectiveness and success more generally than certain characteristics or type of leadership, even if that style is the prevalent model of leadership within the organization. In theory, every leader should benefit from a greater understanding of the evolving study and theory of leadership psychology, but to put the knowledge into practice is a completely different story. This case study depicts some of the new and existing challenges facing leaders today, in hopes that the way in which the information is presented through a story will better help in illustrating the mistakes that all leaders can and do make, so the events and people in the story serve to prevent these mistakes from being made.

L’assurance-vie est le placement préféré des français. A cette activité de masse se pose un problème fondamental, celui de la comptabilité des règles juridiques, techniques et fiscaux applicables au contrat d’assurance-vie avec les besoins de protection des consommateurs d’assurance. Par contre au Maroc, nombreux sont les marocains qui ne peuvent pas s’offrir ce contrat, pour diverses raisons: économiques, sociales ou religieuses. Cette étude ambitionne de transcender le simple champ du droit, et tenir compte des aspects sociaux, techniques, économiques et fiscaux liés au contrat d’assurance-vie en France et au Maroc. L’objectif visé étant d’observer les lacunes et partant réfléchir sur les pistes d’amélioration à introduire au droit marocain. / Life insurance is the preferred placement of French. At that mass activity is a fundamental problem, the accounting of legal rules, technical and tax applicable to life insurance contracts with the insurance needs of consumer protection. By cons in Morocco, many Moroccans who can not afford this contract, for various reasons: economic, social or religious. This study aims to transcend the mere field of law, and take into account social, technical, economic and tax-related life insurance contract in France and Morocco. The objective is to observe the gaps and hence reflect on ways of improving the introduction to Moroccan law.

This Master’s thesis is concentrating on the creation of a Development Center for the well-established firm TRANSPED-SOC, Ltd., which has branches in different places of the Czech Republic with a view on dispose agent. In this work we can find a written education system in the firm TRANSPED-SOC, Ltd., which is meant to help with the examination of the education of the employees. The main point is the creation of a competent model for a group of dispose agents, individual and group model-situations derived from the model, design and description other methods, a timing schedule for the Development Center and data sheets. The created Development Center is evaluated and written contributions are the results for the firm TRANSPED-SOC, Ltd.

The aim of this study is to gain understanding of students’ experiences of assessment and the study strategies they adopt in the context of Higher Education in Rwanda. The study is governed by questions on how students conceive their experiences with assessment in their courses, how they determine study strategies, and how they reflect on alternative ways of assessment. The theoretical framework is based on socio-cultural approaches and on earlier research on assessment and theories of learning. The participants were drawn from third year and former geography students in two tertiary institutions. A four panel-wave design guided the data collection: a survey, focus groups, a follow-up questionnaire and individual interviews. The findings show that the majority of the students conceived assessment as course lecturers’ ways of collecting evidence from students to be used as benchmarks for grading, ranking and promotion at course level and for monitoring and controlling both students and teachers. Assessment was usually summative and could be both course-oriented in line with the curriculum and teacher-oriented in line with teachers’ course-notes. Moreover, the findings reveal that students rely heavily on senior students’ information about teachers’ styles of assessing, as a source for adopting study strategies. The participants experienced that learning took place under contextual pressure, which created fear for repetition or even expulsion. However, the students responded to this by adopting a combination of individual work and group work strategies. In contrast to the experienced modes of summative assessment, the participants had visions about formative assessment such as authentic and problem-solving assessment, and self- and peer- assessment, which they suggest could be employed as integral parts of the teaching and learning process. This is discussed in terms of assessment for learning as a cycle of events or as assessment of learning at the end of a course. / Syftet med denna avhandling är att söka förståelse för studenters erfarenheter av bedömning och vilka studiestrategier de använder sig av inom högre utbildning i Rwanda. Studien vägleds av frågor om hur studenter upplever sina erfarenheter av bedömning i sina kurser, hur de bestämmer studie strategier och hur de reflekterar över alternativa bedömningssätt. Det teoretiska ramverket har sin grund i sociokulturell teori och tidigare forskning om bedömning och lärande. I datainsamlingen deltog studenter från två olika institutioner för högre utbildning inom ämnesområdet geografi, dels under deras tredje studieår, dels en tid efter det att de var nyexaminerade. Insamlingen pågick under fyra perioder och började med en enkät. Därpå följde samtal i fokusgrupper och en uppföljningsenkät med öppna frågor. Studien avslutades med intervjuer med en mindre grupp efter deras examen. Resultaten visar att majoriteten av studenterna uppfattade bedömningen som lektorernas sätt att samla bevis att användas som underlag för systematisk mätning av studenternas resultat och för att kunna rangordna dem. De användes även som underlag för uppflyttning till nästa kursnivå och för att kontrollera att kursen genomförts. Bedömningen var oftast summativ och kunde vara både kursorienterad och följa målen i kursplanen och lärarorienterad där målen var de som angavs i lärarens kurskompendier. Resultaten visar att när studenterna ska välja studiestrategi förlitar de sig i hög grad på information från tidigare studenters uppfattningar om lärares sätt att ställa frågor. Deltagarna uppfattade att lärandet skedde under press från omgivningen vilket skapade rädsla för att de skulle behöva repetera kursen eller bli relegerade om de inte blev godkända. Studenterna hanterade sin oro genom att använda sig av en kombination av individuellt arbete och grupparbete. När de redovisade sina visioner om bedömning föreslog de att formativa bedömningssätt skulle användas som integrerade delar av lärandeprocessen och gav exempel som autentisk bedömning, självvärdering och bedömning av en kamrat. Detta diskuteras i termer av bedömning för lärande under en pågående kurs eller bedömning av lärande i slutet av en kurs.

This thesis deals with thermoregulation in red wood ants, in Formica rufa group. Our aim was to better understand the mechanisms by which red wood ants maintain thermal homeostasis in their nests. Red wood ants are known to keep high and stable temperatures in their nests from spring to autumn. Most emphasis is placed on the role of the nest mound as a solar collector or on a heat production by microbial community present in the nest material. However, some researchers believe that wood ants are able of active nest thermoregulation in which they can affect the nest temperature by behavioural reactions, mainly by sun basking, increased metabolic heat production or heat transport. The thesis consists of three research articles. The first one is focused on the timing of thermoregulation in red wood ants, the second one investigates in more detail one specific aspect of red wood ant thermoregulation - a sun basking behaviour. These two papers provide data from long-term field observations and experiments. The last paper is based on laboratory experiments where we tested a hypothesis resulting from field observations. Thanks to the field research we found out that ant activity (traffic on ant trails) significantly correlates with nest temperature; once the activity decreased the thermal homeostasis...

Group relations events are intended to enable transformation through learning, but such collective experiential events are not explicitly focused on enabling individual group members to derive meaning from them. This research aims to explicate individual learning from the experiences of a group relations event, in order to formulate a process for meaning-making post an intensive experiential event. Literature reviewed provides construct definitions of systems psychodynamic aspects, as well as insight, meaning-making, coaching methods and other approaches to facilitating meaning-making. Systems psychodynamics is the theoretical paradigm that informs a qualitative phenomenological research approach. Data analysis adopted hermeneutic phenomenology to allow for the interpretation of the rich data collected. Multiple case studies were adopted using multi-pronged data collection methods, including semi-structured interviews conducted before the event, as well as both a focus group and Free Association Narrative Interviews (FANI) conducted after the event. The results are reported by case, and this is followed with an interpretation of results by various systems psychodynamic themes. Furthermore, the relationship between personality types and defences mechanisms, with the associative techniques to use for each, have been set forth as additional findings in the thesis. The research hypothesis produced by the study is a meaning-making model to facilitate post-group relations event reflections and debriefing, with the aim of enabling insight formation, learning and adaption by individuals who have participated in such events. / Psychology / Ph. D. (Psychology)