The impact of Internet technology on critical thinking is of growing interest among researchers. However, there still remains much to explore in terms of how critical thinking can be fostered through online environments for higher education. Ten years ago, Garrison, Anderson, and Archer (2000) published an article describing the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework which provided an outline of three core elements that were able to describe and measure a collaborative and positive educational experience in an online learning environment, namely teaching presence (design, facilitation, and direct instruction), social presence (the ability of learners to project themselves socially and emotionally), and cognitive presence (the extent to which learners are able to construct and confirm meaning through sustained reflection and discourse). This dissertation extends the body of research surrounding the CoI framework and also the literature on developing critical thinking in online environments by examining and exploring the extent to which teaching and social presence contribute to cognitive presence. The researcher was able to do this by offering 189 learners enrolled in 10 research methods courses and educational research courses an opportunity to use an innovative online resource (Research Design Learning Resource – RDLR) to assist them in learning about educational research and developing research proposals. By exploring how participants used this resource the researcher was able to gain insight into what factors contributed to a successful online learning experience and fostered cognitive presence. Quantitative and qualitative research approaches (mixed methods) were used in this study. The quantitative results indicated that both social and teaching presence had a strong positive relationship with cognitive presence and that learners generally perceived to have a positive learning experience using the RDLR. The qualitative findings helped elaborate the significant quantitative results and were organised into the following themes: making connections, multiple perspectives, resource design, being a self-directed learner, learning strategies, learning preferences, and barriers to cognitive presence. Future directions for critical thinking in online environments are discussed.

Although interpersonal communication studies have focused on various aspects of interpersonal relationships, research on the player identity and gendered emotional manipulation in romantic relationships has received little attention. This narrative research inquiry was undertaken to explore perceptions of men and women related to the player identity and gendered emotional manipulation. This investigation used social construction as a theoretical perspective to understand three areas of investigation that include: the existence and relevance of the player identity, the player’s relation to emotionally manipulative behaviour, and the connection between socially constructed gender conventions and the player identity. Hesse-Biber’s (2006) feminist interviewing approach guided semi-structured interviews with six male and six female participants. Respondents reported the existence and relevance of the player identity in romantic relationships today, connecting this identity to emotionally manipulative behaviour, as well as relating this identity to traditional gender conventions. Finally, implications for men and women in romantic relationships today and future areas of research are discussed in light of these findings.

In this narrative inquiry, I explore student connections to personal and family history and how those connections, or lack thereof, shape their understandings of Social Socials content – in regard to how the students attend to history and each other. I believe there is a disconnect between the rationale of Social Studies programs, which advocates for the development of active and engaged citizens, and the way many programs are being delivered. To explore an alternative approach to Social Studies, I invited Grade 9 students and their teachers to share their perspectives about their engagement in a Roots Project which was intended to enrich students’ understanding and sense of identity, as individuals, as members of families and communities, and as citizens of the world. Research participants included three grade 9 students in a secondary school in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and three collaborating teachers, who happened to be at various stages of their careers: an experienced semi-retired teacher, a beginning teacher, and an education undergraduate student. In attending to both student and teacher voices, I found that the incorporation of personal and family history into the secondary Social Studies curriculum provided a range of opportunities for student growth in both personal and social realms. It provided students with an opportunity to step back from the formalized, prescribed curriculum and it exposed them to multiple ways of learning and knowing, through personal conversation about subject matter with which they had an organic connection. I found the importance of relationships, and the acknowledgement of family diversity and inclusion of all family forms and perspectives in the classroom, to be central to interweaving personal and family history into Social Studies subject matter.

History education builds the foundation of a common past necessary for the formation of group identity. Evaluating History curricula is important because group identity guides people’s political behavior. This Uganda case study demonstrates how different actors have manipulated History education in order to enhance the saliency of ethnic, national, and regional identities. The expansion of nationalized education and the teaching of Ugandan, East African, and African history have contributed to fostering the rise of national consciousness in Uganda. Greater awareness of national identity has promoted national integration while marginalizing non-school educated people.

This thesis introduces the idea of an interactive web-based visualization tool to support inquiry-based science learning. The problem that occurs when the teachers and students are discussing the collected data is that they are lacking a tool to display such large quantities of data. It is often hard to fully understand such data. This education tool makes use of different visualization approaches in order to support students while getting insights from their collected data. In this thesis I proposed and implemented an interactive web-based visualization tool that was used at a prototype level during the educational activities. The requirements and user needs led the development of this prototype. Requirement elicitations have been done as a part of the research project conducted by CeLeKT.   For the development of this tool, it was necessary for the input of the teachers and students in order to get an understanding of the requirements. The initial inquiry of the teachers and students show the necessity and usefulness of an interactive web-based visualization tool to support learning practices.

Annonseringstjänster på nätet finns idag för alla möjliga ändamål. På grund av detta ökar även bedrägerier och annonser med tvivelaktigt innehåll, för att undvika att sådana annonser publiceras är det viktigt att annonseringsföretagen granskar sina annonser innan dem publiceras. Detta examensarbete har utförts på ett annonseringsföretag som behandlar jobbannonser. Företaget är stationerat någonstans i Europa. Eftersom annonserna granskas av ett externt företag vars tjänster annonseringsföretaget hyr in så är tanken med examensarbetet att skapa en förståelse för hur arbetsprocessen fungerar på granskningsföretaget samt identifiera vad som kan förbättras med det granskningsverktyg som används för att granska annonser idag. Detta har utförts genom kontextuella intervjuer på plats hos granskningsföretaget. Resultatet av dessa har sedan visualiserats i fem olika arbetsmodeller: (flödesmodellen), (sekvensmodellen), (artefaktmodellen), (den kulturella modellen) samt (den fysiska modellen) Beyer och Holtzblatt (1998). Tanken med dessa modeller är att de ska agera som en grund när nya designbeslut fattas och bidra med en förståelse för hur arbetet fungerar hos granskningsföretaget. Rapporten kommer för övrigt presentera en del designförslag som framkommit av de fakta som finns i arbetsmodellerna vilka kan förbättra den nuvarande lösningen. All information i denna rapport är tänkt att fungera som ett stöd för annonseringsföretaget när dem designar nya lösningar som rör granskningen av jobbannonser. / Advertising Services on the Internet today are available for all kinds of purposes. Because of this it also increases fraud and ads with questionable content, to avoid that such advertisements are published, it is important that the advertising companies review their ads before they are published. This thesis has been carried out in an advertising company, dealing with job offers. The company is stationed somewhere in Europe. The ads are scrutinized by an external company whose the services advertising firm hires, the idea of the thesis is to create an understanding of how the work works on the audit firm, and to identify what can be improved with the assessment tools used to examine the ads today. This has been done through contextual interviews on-site at the audit firm. The results of these has then been visualized in five different work models: (flow model), (sequence model), (artifact model), (the cultural model) and (the physical model), Beyer and Holtzblatt (1998). The idea behind these models is that they should act as a basis for new design decisions and contribute to an understanding of how the work of the audit firm is done. The report will also present some design proposals that emerged from the facts found in the work models, which can improve the current solution. All information in this report is intended to act as a support for the advertising company when they are designing new solutions related to the review of job announcements.

Syftet med denna studie är att undersöka hur elever samtalar när de möter en uppgift som syftar till att öva deras förmåga att använda ett naturvetenskapligt arbetssätt. Undersökningen genomfördes genom att fyra grupper om två elever fick en uppgift där de formulerade frågeställningar kring en isballong (en frusen vattenballong). Samtalen spelades in på band. Inspelningarna transkriberades och analyserades med hjälp av en praktisk epistemologisk analys utifrån tre olika kategorier: samtal inom diskursen, samtal om diskursen och samtal utanför diskursen. Resultatet av undersökningen visar att de flesta eleverna har, trots att de har ringa eller ingen erfarenhet av att arbeta med natruvetenskapligt arbetssätt, ganska lätt att ta till sig uppgiften. Resultatet visar även att det inte är samtal som ligger utanför ramen för uppgiften som utgör det största hindret för eleverna att arbeta med uppgiften, utan i stället att det är samtal som rör uppgiftens utformning.

This narrative inquiry explores therapeutic relationships in the practice of recreation therapy. Narratives were generated in Recreation Therapy’s self-reflective case review process at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre—a process developed to support team engagement in reflections on their therapeutic relationships. In total, three self-reflective case reviews were explored, and for each case review, four layers of analysis occurred. The first two layers used narrative analysis to restory reflections of the case review leader (layer one) and then reflections within the recreation therapy team (layer two). The third and fourth layers used analysis of narrative to explore theoretical ideas from person-centred care emerging inductively in the text (layer three), and then to restory the previous narratives using a relational theory lens (layer four). Exploration revealed the self-reflective case review process also strengthens therapeutic relationships within the recreation therapy team. In the recreation therapists’ narratives we hear relational notions of connection, disconnection, reconnection, mutuality, mutual empathy, authenticity, vulnerability, and support. This study engaged recreation therapists in an act of critical pedagogy as they engaged in critical self-reflection by exploring across layers of narrative that story their therapeutic relationships. The self-reflective case review process creates opportunity for the recreation therapy team to recognize, identify and name their experiences within therapeutic relationships, and to find their voices in the medical context of a hospital setting. When engaging in self-reflective processes, recreation therapy moves further away from treating individuals as objects, shifting practice toward connection and mutuality in therapeutic relationships.

“Tell me and I forget, show me and I remember, involve me and I understand.” - Chinese Proverb. Involvement in learning implies possessing skills and attitudes that permit students to seek resolutions to questions and issues while constructing new knowledge. Low enrollment in Plant Biology and Diversity and upper level plant science courses has been noticed at Western Kentucky University. In addition, graduating students performed below the national average on the senior assessment examination in the area of botany content knowledge offered by WKU’s Biology Department. This may be due to the fact that observation-based botany has been taught in a traditional way for biology majors at our university for many years. Traditional teaching methods include viewing prepared slides of plant sections, viewing live and herbarium specimens, and memorization of botanical terminology and illustrations. The goal of this study is to convert these existing traditional laboratories to investigative inquiry exercises without compromising the material covered by bringing observation-based labs into the twenty-first century. Various teaching strategies including inquiry, problem-based, case-based, and hands-on learning methods were implemented. Each exercise was reshaped around a central question or theme. These changes were expected to increase student learning and retention levels. Traditional teaching methods were used with the control group, while contemporary teaching strategies were used with the experimental set of students. Traditional assessments and anonymous surveys were statistically analyzed. The results of my analyses suggest that the experimental students were more challenged, interested, intellectually stimulated and less overwhelmed with contemporary teaching strategies and overall had higher learning retention demonstrated by their performance on assessments. Moreover, I predicted that an investigative approach will encourage larger numbers of students to take this restricted elective sophomore-level course for biology majors and further their study in plant biology.

Children of alcoholics (COAs) are those who grow up in a home where one or more parent is an alcoholic; once adulthood is achieved, they are referred to as adult children of alcoholics (ACOAs). Several risk factors have been identified as a potential result from exposure to an alcoholic environment; however there is a dearth of literature exploring resilience in this population. Descriptive Narrative Inquiry was used to explore the question, Describe the qualities, processes, or internal motivational factors which have facilitated resilience for adult children of alcoholic parents. Two ninety-minute life history interviews were conducted with four participants, including the researcher. The participants were female, middle class, university students who considered themselves to be adult children of alcoholics who are resilient. A composite narrative was used to depict the results of this study, combining the data from each participants life story. The narrative was written in the first-person through the character of Sophie, and the data included is the result of a narrative analysis from the transcripts of the participants data. The narrative depicts the developmental stages of the participants lives, including childhood, adolescence, adulthood, and the present. Their experiences of growing up in an alcoholic home were documented at each stage. A thematic analysis was conducted, extracting the common themes, meaning made, and personal characteristics that were generated within and across participants that contributed to their development of resilience. The results are discussed in four major themes: Being in Relation: Others Create a Difference; Belief Systems: Spirituality, Religion, and Values; The Self: An Evolving Being; and Alcoholism: Meaning in Itself. It is through the dialogue of the participants experiences of resilience that awareness creates opportunity for advocacy for children and adult children of alcoholics. The implications of this research in relation to the experiences of resilience are discussed for children and adult children of alcoholics, educators, and counsellors. Directions for future research are addressed.