Many online learning technologies grant students great autonomy and control, which imposes high demands for self-regulated learning (SRL) skills. With the fast development of online learning technologies, helping students acquire SRL skills becomes critical to student learning. Theories of SRL emphasize that making problem selection decisions is a critical SRL skill. Research has shown that appropriate problem selection that fit with students’ knowledge level will lead to effective and efficient learning. However, it has also been found that students are not good at making problem selection decisions, especially young learners. It is critical to help students become skilled in selecting appropriate problems in different learning technologies that offer learner control. I studied this question using, as platform, a technology called Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITSs), a type of advanced learning technology that has proven to be effective in supporting students’ domain level learning. It has also been used to help students learn SRL skills such as help-seeking and self-assessment. However, it is an open question whether ITS can be designed to support students’ learning of problem selection skills that will have lasting effects on their problem selection decisions and future learning when the tutor support is not in effect. ITSs are good at adaptively selecting problems for students based on algorithms like Cognitive Mastery. It is likely, but unproven, that ITS problem selection algorithms could be used to provide tutoring on students’ problem selection skills through features like explicit instructions and instant feedback. Furthermore, theories of SRL emphasize the important role of motivations in facilitating effective SRL processes, but not much prior work in ITS has integrated designs that could foster the motivations (i.e., motivational design) to stimulate and sustain effective problem selection behaviors. Lastly, although students generally appreciate having learner control, prior research has found mixed results concerning the effects of learner control on students’ domain level learning outcomes and motivation. There is need to investigate how learner control over problem selection can be designed in learning technologies to enhance students’ learning and motivation. My dissertation work consists of two parts. The first part focuses on creating and scaffolding shared student/system control over problem selection in ITSs by redesigning an Open Learner Model (OLM, visualizations of learning analytics that show students’ learning progress) and integrating gamification features to enhance students’ domain level learning and enjoyment. I conducted three classroom experiments with a total of 566 7th and 8th grade students to investigate the effectiveness of these new designs. The results of the experiments show that an OLM can be designed to support students’ self-assessment and problem selection, resulting in greater learning gains in an ITS when shared control over problem selection is enabled. The experiments also showed that a combination of gamification features (rewards plus allowing re-practice of completed problems, a common game design pattern) integrated with shared control was detrimental to student learning. In the second part of my dissertation, I apply motivational design and user-centered design techniques to extend an ITS with shared control over problem selection so that it helps students learn problem selection skills, with a lasting effect on their problem selection decisions and future learning. I designed a set iv of tutor features that aim at fostering a mastery-approach orientation and learning of a specific problem selection rule, the Mastery Rule. (I will refer to these features as the mastery-oriented features.) I conducted a fourth classroom experiment with 200 6th – 8th grade students to investigate the effectiveness of shared control with mastery-oriented features on students’ domain level learning outcomes, problem selection skills and enjoyment. This experiment also measured whether there were lasting effects of the mastery-oriented shared control on students’ problem selection decisions and learning in new tutor units. The results of the experiment show that shared control over problem selection accompanied by the mastery-oriented features leads to significantly better learning outcomes, as compared to full system-controlled problem selection in the ITS. Furthermore, the mastery-oriented shared control has lasting effects on students’ declarative knowledge of problem selection skills. Nevertheless, there was no effect on future problem selection and future learning, possibly because the tutor greatly facilitated problem selection (through its OLM and badges). My dissertation contributes to the literatures on the effects of learner control on students’ domain level learning outcomes in learning technologies. Specifically, I have shown that a form of learner control (i.e., shared control over problem selection, with mastery-oriented features) can lead to superior learning outcomes than system-controlled problem selection, whereas most prior work has found results in favor of system control. I have also demonstrated that Open Learner Models can be designed to enhance student learning when shared control over problem selection is provided. Further, I have identified a specific combination of gamification features integrated with shared control that may be detrimental to student learning. A second line of contributions of my dissertation concerns research on supporting SRL in ITSs. My work demonstrates that supporting SRL processes in ITSs can lead to improved domain level learning outcomes. It also shows that the shared control with mastery-oriented features have lasting effects on improving students’ declarative knowledge of problem selection skills. Regarding using ITSs to help students learn problem selection skill, the user-centered motivational design identifies mastery-approach orientation as important design focus plus tutor features that can support problem selection in a mastery-oriented way. Lastly, the dissertation contributes to human-computer interaction by generating design recommendations for how to design learner control over problem selection in learning technologies that can support students’ domain level learning, motivation and SRL.

<p>The study aims to explain the role of external causes in René Descartes’s (1594–1650) and Benedictus de Spinoza’s (1632–1677) accounts of the mastery of the passions. It consists in three parts: the mind-body union, the passions and their classification, and the mastery of the passions. </p><p>In the first part I argue that Descartes’s conception of the mind-body union consists in two elements: mind-body interaction and the experience of being one with the body. Spinoza rejects the first element because there cannot be psychophysical laws. He accepts the second element, but goes beyond Descartes, arguing that the mind and body are identical.</p><p>In the second part I discuss the classifications of the passions in the <i>Passions of the Soul</i> and the <i>Ethics</i> and compare them with the one Spinoza presents in the <i>Short Treatise</i>. I explain that <i>hilaritas</i> is an affect that expresses bodily equilibrium and makes it possible for the mind to be able think in a great many ways. Furthermore, I consider the principles of imagination that along with imitation and the striving to persevere provide a causal explanation for the necessary occurrence of the passions. </p><p>In the last part I argue that in Descartes the external conditions do not have a significant role in the mastery of the passions. For Spinoza, however, they are necessary. Commentators like Jonathan Bennett fail to see this. <i>Hilaritas</i> requires a diversity of sensual pleasures to occur. As Medea’s case shows, reason is not detached from Nature. Spinoza attempts to form a stronger human nature and to enable as many people as possible to think adequately. His recognition of the need for appropriate external conditions and a society in which ideas can be expressed freely allows him to present an ethics with a practical application, instead of another utopia or fiction.</p>

Chronic illness affects nearly half of all American adults, yet this experience is often regarded as socially normative for older adults. In this study, I examined chronic illness onset early in the life course and its effects on mastery, a person’s self-perception as capable of coping with and managing life’s circumstances, and depressive symptoms as informed by the life course perspective and the stress process model. Using multilevel modeling of American Changing Lives Survey (ACLS) data, I examined the following questions: What is the relationship between early onset chronic illness and mastery? Second, what is the relationship between early onset chronic illness and depressive symptoms? Does mastery mediate the relationship between early onset chronic illness and depressive symptoms? Is early onset chronic illness (24-35) more strongly associated with decreased mastery and increased depressive symptoms than illness onset at the more socially normative life stages of mid-life (36-64) and late-life (65 years and older)? Lastly, does mastery mediate or moderate the relationship between timing of illness onset and depressive symptoms? Through this study, I aim to contribute to sociological knowledge of whether and how chronic illness impacts mastery and depression among young adults. I argue that ill-timed chronic illness impacts young adults’ sense of control over their lives, which has enduring psychological and social consequences. Findings support that healthy and chronically ill young adults do not significantly differ on mastery, but ill young adults report significantly higher depressive symptoms than healthy same age peers. Mastery moderates the effects of timing of illness onset on depressive symptoms with older adults reaping greater benefit from mastery against depressive symptoms than young adults with early onset illness. These findings suggest that early onset chronic illness positions people at greater risk for poor mental health outcomes and that the chronic illness experience and its effects are not uniform across the life course. Consequently, work in this area must consider age as an important context in which the life event of chronic illness onset occurs.

Educators who use criterion-referenced measurement to ascertain the current level of performance of an examinee in order that the examinee may be classified as either a master or a nonmaster need to know the accuracy and consistency of their decisions regarding assignment of mastery states. This study examined the sampling distribution characteristics of two reliability indices that use the squared-error agreement function: Livingston's k^2(X,Tx) and Brennan and Kane's M(C). The sampling distribution characteristics of five indices that use the threshold agreement function were also examined: Subkoviak's Pc. Huynh's p and k. and Swaminathan's p and k. These seven methods of calculating reliability were also compared under varying conditions of sample size, test length, and criterion or cutoff score. Computer-generated data provided randomly parallel test forms for N = 2000 cases. From this, 1000 samples were drawn, with replacement, and each of the seven reliability indices was calculated. Descriptive statistics were collected for each sample set and examined for distribution characteristics. In addition, the mean value for each index was compared to the population parameter value of consistent mastery/nonmastery classifications. The results indicated that the sampling distribution characteristics of all seven reliability indices approach normal characteristics with increased sample size. The results also indicated that Huynh's p was the most accurate estimate of the population parameter, with the smallest degree of negative bias. Swaminathan's p was the next best estimate of the population parameter, but it has the disadvantage of requiring two test administrations, while Huynh's p index only requires one administration.

Thesis advisor: Christina Matz / Retirement is a significant transition in an individual’s life course. More and more people are working past traditional retirement ages. Planning before retirement has been shown to relate to a number of positive outcomes and lead to a smoother transition to a retired life, such as more retirement savings, better retirement satisfaction, better social life, health, and mental health. However, most of the studies about retirement to date have focused on the impact of health and wealth in preparing for a successful retirement. This dissertation examines three issues related to retirement planning and expectations: (1) How do work and family relationships relate to having a plan to reduce or stop work and expected retirement timing in late life, and are there gender and occupational differences in these relationships? (2) How do workplace experiences relate to expectations to retire earlier or later than what is normative in different occupations? (3) Does sense of control explain the relationship between involuntary retirement and retirement satisfaction? To answer the three questions, the author adopts the role theory, the age norm theory, and the theory of self-efficacy to explain the background and findings. The data for this dissertation comes from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a nationally representative dataset that captures the information about the health and retirement issues among adults over age 50 in the U.S. This proposed study uses pooled cross-sectional data from waves 2012 and 2014. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression and logistic regression were used to examine the effect of work and family relationships and the plans/retirement timing of pre-retirees. Multinomial logistic regression was used to examine workplace factors that contribute to the non-normative retirement age expectations. Mediation analysis was used to study how personal mastery, perceived constraints, and domain-specific control mediates the relationship between involuntary retirement and retirement satisfaction. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2019. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Social Work. / Discipline: Social Work.

Student Number: 9710860W School of Education Doctor of Philosophy / The study investigates the extent to which primary school teachers understood and implemented the requirements of the continuous assessment programme that has been introduced in primary schools in Swaziland. By focussing on teaching and learning activities that occurred during eight teachers’ lessons within the Salesian-Ekutsimuleni zone in Manzini, and what they expressed as intentions and justifications for these activities, it tries to clarify, in particular, the relationship between their assessment strategies and the broader educational principles promoted by the programme. Classroom observations and stimulated interviews were used to capture, respectively, data on what teachers did and principles that informed their behaviour. Codes abstracted from classroom observations and grounded on the views expressed by teachers indicate that they followed slavishly what was contained in the curriculum support materials with which they had been provided. Even though they used assessment strategies promoted by the Continual Assessment (CA) programme, their assessment strategies prioritized knowledge-retention rather than the cognitive development advocated by the programme and, in a specific sense, implied by lesson objectives they had to fulfil. The conclusion is that teachers could not translate the rhetoric of the CA programme into relevant professional judgement, decisions and practices without exposure to meaningful development programmes. Key Words Swaziland, Continuous Assessment, Criterion - Referenced Assessment, Mastery learning, Fordism, Post-Fordism

Este trabalho apresenta uma observação acurada do universo da cerâmica no povoado de Maragogipinho, Bahia. A pesquisa revela quem são os mestres e mestras do barro, dá a conhecer o seu processo criativo e educativo. Esses homens e mulheres são protagonistas do patrimônio cultural imaterial brasileiro, eles detêm e socializam conhecimentos que perpassam gerações, saberes tecidos em práticas de ensino não sistematizadas e nem legitimadas pelas culturas hegemônicas. A educação artesanal está fundada na ancestralidade, na repetição e na invenção, no constante diálogo entre a tradição e a emergência da modernidade: novas formas de criação e antigos segredos de ofício se misturam, numa tensão permanente entre transformação e conservação. O artesão e a artesã vivem o seu legado cultural e o mantêm vivo, reinventando-o e atualizando-o eternamente. Essa herança conserva a conexão com o passado, mas se reveste de novos símbolos e significados no presente para fortalecer a identidade dos autores e de suas comunidades, e para dar sentido ao futuro. / This work presents an accurate observation of the pottery universe in the village of Maragogipinho, Bahia. The research reveals who are the masters of clay, makes known their creative and educational process. These men and women are protagonists of the brazilian intangible cultural heritage, they preserve and socialize knowledge across generations, originated in unsystematic practices, not legitimized by the hegemonic cultures. Craft Education is established on ancestry, on repetition and invention, in constant dialogue between tradition and the emergence of the modernity: new ways of creating and old trade secrets are mixed on a permanent tension between transformation and conservation. The craftsman lives his cultural legacy and keeps it alive reinventing and updating it forever. This heritage preserves the connection with the past, but acquires new symbols and meanings to strengthen the identity of the authors and their communities, and to make sense of the future.

La corruption au travail est une problématique importante, présente au niveau mondial, qui touche à la fois les organisations privées et publiques. Elle est reconnue comme un phénomène coûteux aux conséquences négatives sur divers aspects du développement économique et humain. Étant donné que les actes et le comportement des individus corrompus au travail est un sujet qui n’est pas facile à appréhender pour les gestionnaires, ce travail de recherche vise à explorer le concept de corruption organisationnelle. Dans ce travail, un certain nombre d’éléments ont été pris en compte pouvant prévenir et de contrôler les actes et les comportements des individus corrompus au travail. Nous nous sommes appuyés sur la théorie de la conservation des ressources (COR) de Hobfoll (1989) pour construire la recherche. La motivation de la corruption est théorisée à travers le modèle COR. Ce cadre propose une corruption au travail appréhendée comme une stratégie de prévention de perte des valeurs de motivation des salariés. Cette recherche étudie l’impact direct de l’impuissance, du sentiment de maîtrise et de justice procédurale et distributive sur la corruption. Dans cette relation est analysé en plus l’effet modérateur de la transparence et du climat d’entraide. Pour cette recherche 575 salariés dans des organisations internationales ont été interrogés. Les résultats démontrent que l'impuissance affecte positivement la corruption et la déviance au travail. Cependant, la justice distributive affecte négativement la corruption au travail. Le sentiment de la maîtrise et la justice procédurale affectent négativement la corruption et la déviance au travail. Cependant, la justice distributive impacte négativement la corruption au travail. Les résultats obtenus valident la plupart de nos principales hypothèses, mais ils suggèrent que l'importance de la nature de la corruption du type de corruption par rapport aux variables de ressources. / Workplace corruption is a global issue for private and public organizations. It has beenrecognized as a costly phenomenon having negative consequences in various aspects ofeconomic and human development. Since corrupt acts and behaviors of individuals atworkplace are a challenging subject for managers, this doctoral dissertation seeks to exploreorganizational corruption and also to emphasize the importance of organizational corruptionstudy from a managerial perspective. This study provides elements to better understand howto prevent and to control corrupt acts and behaviors at work. The research model isconstructed on the basis of conservation of resources (COR) theory of Hobfoll (1989).Corruption motivation is theorized through COR theory and within this framework, itproposes corruption as a strategy to prevent the perceived loss of valued motivationalresources. Specially, this research investigates the direct impact of powerlessness, sense ofmastery, distributive and procedural justice on workplace corruption. Furthermore, it studiesthe moderating effect of transparency and caring climate on the relationship betweenpowerlessness, sense of mastery, procedural justice, distributive justice, and workplacecorruption. Sample consists of 575 employees from international organizations havecontributed to this research. Results highlight that powerlessness positively, sense of masteryand procedural justice negatively impact on workplace corruption and deviance. However,distributive justice only negatively impacts on workplace corruption. Results mostly validateour principal hypotheses but suggest that the nature of corruption relates to the type ofresources felt threatened.

Common goals of Educational Data Mining are to model both student knowledge as well as student affect. While research continues along these lines of gathering data and building models of students' changing knowledge and affect states, little is being done to transform this collected (raw) data into meaningful entities that are more relatable to teachers, parents and other stakeholders, i.e. people who are not researchers. This research has entailed the iterative design and development of Teacher Tools, created with input from teachers and other experts. Teacher Tools is a web application designed as part of the MathSpring.org Intelligent Tutoring system --the component that teachers interact with, to set up classes as well as analyze resulting data from their students. In our study, we redesigned the existing version of MathSpring's Teacher Tools in three iterations, based on feedback gathered during each of those phases. The feedback captured from the first iteration clearly suggested for multiple design level changes with respect to math content organization, the interface, and the complexity level of the existing performance reports. Responses to Prototype I during the second iteration, designed on the basis of responses from the first iteration, were met by teachers with mixed to positive responses regarding usability and understandability. Experts at this point suggested further areas of improvement from a usability standpoint, which resulted in Prototype II of the Teacher Tools. Prototype II was then subjected to a third and final improvement iteration; this one was well received by a new set of 10 math teachers and other experts, who thought that Prototype II was very useful to them, in general. Teachers were able to appreciate the use they could give to these Teacher Tools to understand their students better, as well as guide future action plans that would alter their teaching based on information about their students' behavior, performance and affect of their students. In summary, we have created a software product for teachers that supplements the MathSpring tutoring system, which summarizes rich information from data logs into visualizations and other representations. These Teacher Tools have proved useful to teachers in Middle Schools in Massachusetts, who claim they are ready to use this information to change their teaching plans.

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