With creative thinking we can identify general methods of problem solving, look at real life from another point of view. The method of 6 Thinking Hats is one of the creative ways to do so. The aim of this thesis is a complex review of using this method when solving a problem in a group. It tries to show creative thinking by which the group should get a certain outcome in solving the problem. The thesis analyses thoroughly all the parts of the 6 Hats method, and at the same time, it tries to view other perspectives on the workings of the method. A significant part of the thesis is aimed at the instructor, who decides to use this particular method, and his work. It should be an instrument to use for application of the 6 Thinking Hats method on a specific company problem.

D.Ed.

D.Phil. (Mathematics Education) / In tertiary education, a statement like ‘Low graduation rates prevail around the world’ is common knowledge since the 1940s, and therefore one does not need any longer to mention references. The factors that contribute to it though, are innumerable. One of those factors is the ability of a student to solve problems. Problem solving has been accepted as a prerequisite for lifelong learning by many governments and it is enshrined in their educational policies. However, problem solving can be associated with academic performance (mastery of content knowledge being a main contributor) as well as application/transfer of content knowledge. Critical thinking on the other hand is embedded in problem solving, acquisition of knowledge and application. Then an investigation into the relationships between all these constructs is warranted. This research aimed at shedding some or more light into this proverbial problem. Problem solving is equated by some authors to learning. Learning while solving problems and solving problems result in learning. Almost all theorists see problem solving as a process and be one of the products of learning. This research concluded that problem solving is a product of its own as a result of a number of complex cognitive processes. The simple argument is: If a problem solver cannot solve a problem successfully then no product is produced by those cognitive processes. In actual fact, the possibility of the existence of misconceptions could be one of the reasons for the failure of solving the problem. If that is true, then the statement: ‘we should be diagnosing rather than teaching’ could be valid. Furthermore, teaching problem solving as a process gives rise for it to be treated as an ‘algorithm’ by students which they try to memorise without having a conceptual understanding of the problem. However if it is treated as a product the students will be encouraged to think of the various cognitive processes that are necessary to solve the problem. This research concluded that cognitive processes such as critical thinking, acquisition of (mathematical) knowledge and application thereof, can lead to a product which was guided by ‘quality control processes’. Therefore problem solving in this research is not explicitly expressed but implicitly. As a result ‘successful problem solving’, the product, is closely associated with academic achievement.

This study aims to explore GET learners’ mathematical (algebraic) reasoning when generalizing from number patterns. Data was collected in a former model C school in greater Johannesburg area by means of a questionnaire based task involving number patterns. The mathematical reasoning of the grade 9 participants when generalizing from number patterns was examined within a commognitive framework. According to this perspective, thinking is a special activity of communication in which a participant of a discourse engages. The participants’ responses to questions in the questionnaire based task were classified according to particular aspects of the discourse they used, specifically routines (strategies) and visual mediators. The participants’ generalization routines were further classified into one of the three main categories; numeric, figural and pragmatic generalizations. The analysis focused on how the learners’ derived rules for the nth term and their justifications for their responses. The results of this study strongly support the notion that students’ algebraic reasoning when generalizing in number patterns is intertwined with their choices of routines and mediators. Most learners used recursive routines while a few used explicit routines (classified and categorized as numeric routines) and number-mediators. Also, most participants found it easier to informally verbalize their generalizations. However participants’ spoken justifications of their written and spoken responses often did not match their use of routines and visual mediators. As such, an awareness and appreciation (by teachers) of students’ diverse use of routines and mediators when generalizing from number patterns could have direct pedagogical implications in the mathematics classrooms.

MEd, Faculty of Education, University of the Witwatersrand, 1990

In sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century England, portrayals of the Turk reflected aspects of Christian thinking. More specifically, these views varied according to ideological outlook, place and time. To complicate matters further, while there are a variety of images of the Turk responding to a range of Christian concerns, the nexus of images of the Turk - the imago Turci – is essentially contradictory. English portrayals and responses to the Turks are not uniform, but vary, while the Turk operates at once both from within and at a distance from English culture in the sixteenth and early seventeenth century. In other words, the Turk is both real and imagined. This project is a response to these issues. It examines the ways in which Turks - both real and imagined - not only figure in early modem English prose texts as a site of their cultural production, perpetuation, and negotiation, but also the ways in which these images relate to and participate in current political and cultural debates that also informed these prose texts. As a consequence of the diversity of the imago Turci in a wide range of available, printed prose works, I adopt five categorical distinctions representing five groups of overlapping genres, or modes for my analysis: history, religion, travel, mercantile writings and romance. Reading the material in their historical contexts, one of the arguments to arise from this is that the use of the Turk in these English texts reflects the wider cultural and political developments in Western Christendom and England, and between Christendom and the Ottoman Empire. The central argument of this project is that the imago Turci in early modem English prose emerges as a complex discursive site in which a variety of competing interests are negotiated.

有關在台階形的公共物品兩難(step-level public good dilemma)中集體失敗的心理影響的研究一直很少。本研究探討在集體失敗後反事實思維 (counterfactual thinking) 對群體成員情緒和隨後合作行為的影響。研究1確定了兩種會顯著增加失敗後合作行為的反事實思維：關注(1)個人的成果 或 (2) 群體的成果，並以自我為中心的向上反事實思維 (self-focused upward counterfactual thinking)。此外，內疚 (guilt)中介了反事實思維對合作行為的影響。我們在研究2中發現以自我為中心的向上反事實思維是否會增加或減少，取決於反事實思維中的結果導向(outcome orientation) 及其結構是否為加法式 (additive)，還是減法式(subtractive)。另外，內疚，不行動引起的後悔 (regret of inaction)和行動引起的後悔 (regret of action) 中介了這些反事實思維對合作行為的影響。我們的研究結果指出反事實思維和個別情緒在研究社會困境的重要性。 / Research on the psychological consequences of collective failure in step-level public good dilemmas has remained scant. The present research addressed how counterfactual thinking influenced group members’ emotions and subsequent cooperation after collective failure. In study 1, we identified two types of counterfactuals which significantly increased post-failure cooperation: self-focused upward counterfactuals that concerned about (1) personal outcome and (2) group outcome. Furthermore, guilt mediated the effects of counterfactual thinking on cooperation. In study 2, we demonstrated that self-focused counterfactuals predicted increase or decrease in cooperation, depending on its outcome orientation and structure (additive vs. subtractive). Guilt, regret of inaction and regret of action mediated these effects. Our findings pointed to the need of studying counterfactual thinking and specific emotions in social dilemma. / Detailed summary in vernacular field only. / Yam, Pak Chun. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2012. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 41-49). / Abstracts also in Chinese. / Abstract --- p.4 / Chinese Abstract (摘要) --- p.5 / Introduction --- p.6 / Counterfactual thinking in social dilemma --- p.9 / Counterfactual thinking and emotion --- p.11 / “Feeling-is-for-doing“ approach of emotions in social dilemma --- p.13 / Counterfactual thinking, emotions and cooperation --- p.14 / Overview --- p.17 / Study 1 --- p.17 / Method --- p.18 / Results --- p.21 / Discussion --- p.25 / Study 2 --- p.26 / Method --- p.29 / Results --- p.30 / Discussion --- p.34 / Chapter General Discussion --- p.35 / Implications and Contributions --- p.37 / Limitations and future directions --- p.39 / Conclusion --- p.40 / References --- p.41 / Appendix1 --- p.50 / Measure of regret --- p.50 / Measure of guilt --- p.50 / Measure of anger --- p.50 / Appendix 2 --- p.51 / Counterfactual manipulations used in Study 2 --- p.51

Orientador: Milton Lahuerta / Banca: Arthur Oliveira Bueno / Banca: Luís Fernandes dos Santos Nascimento / Resumo: Investiga-se o meio em que se dá o desenvolvimento das ideias dos pensadores escoceses do século XVIII por meio da identificação de linguagens políticas comuns, reconstituição histórica, estudo do pensamento político e sociabilidade, sobretudo, em relação os clubes intelectuais nos quais participavam. Trabalhamos os conceitos de "intelectual" e de "sociabilidade". Utilizamos técnica de pesquisa histórica conhecida como 'contextualismo linguístico de Cambridge', cujos grandes expoentes são Quentin Skinner e John G. A. Pocock; também está contida a "história dos conceitos" trabalhada por Reinhart Koselleck. Por meio de pesquisa qualitativa e estudo bibliográfico, analisamos textos que abordam a temática "Iluminismo Escocês" tais como coletâneas de artigos, diários de observações, revistas da época, correspondências dos membros do clube, bem como algumas obras de relevo sobre o pensamento político escocês do século XVIII. / Abstract: We investigate the development of the ideas of Scottish thinkers of the eighteenth century through the identification of common political languages, historical reconstitution, study of political thought and sociability, especially in relation to the intellectual clubs in which they participated. We work on the concepts of "intellectual" and "sociability". We use historical research technique known as 'Cambridge linguistic contextualism', whose great exponents are Quentin Skinner and John G. A. Pocock; is also contained the "history of concepts" worked by Reinhart Koselleck .Through qualitative research and bibliographical study, we analyze texts that deal with the theme of "Scottish Enlightenment" such as collections of articles, journals of remarks, periodicals, correspondence of the members of the club, as well as some important works on Scottish political thought of the eighteenth century / Mestre

Abstract is available to download.

archives@tulane.edu / My dissertation applies diffusion of innovations and post-development theories to an actor-oriented analysis of design thinking uptake at the frontlines of international development. Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) working directly with the poor face challenges in delivering interventions. Their operating conditions stimulate demand for new approaches like “design thinking,” which is promoted as a human-centered innovation tool to address problems like energy poverty or infant mortality. Through a multi-year case study of a rural Kenyan NGO undergoing training, I explore the interactions and responses of organizational actors as they adopt, reject and remake design thinking. Qualitative methods include in-depth interviews and group discussions with 66 informants, plus document review and participant observation. My findings reveal how uptake is dynamic and socially-embedded. Participants encountered design thinking through workshops, applications and conversations. Training messages, work-life conditions, and institutional locations and relationships informed how intended adopters trialed design thinking. The social interactions and perceived outcomes of encounters fed back into assessment and learning so that over time, partial changes to individuals and the organization emerged along with novel interpretations of design thinking. Staff adopters developed new problem-solving mindsets and adapted design thinking to everyday challenges. They saw it as a tool for enhancing agency and participation rather than a technical innovation process to design solutions for beneficiaries. Others did not perceive design thinking’s compatibility or relative advantage and rejected it. The organization exhibited new language and groupwork practices but not structural and cultural shifts to support design. The contradictory institutional workings of the “developmental configuration,” the assembly of actors, institutions and resources that produce development action, shaped these diverse uptake logics. The configuration simultaneously practices top-down management while demanding bottom-up empowerment. These pressures spurred felt-need for design thinking, constrained adoption, encouraged reinvention and led to internal power struggles. My research has theoretical and practical implications. I add to theories on the diffusion of knowledge innovations in organizational settings and contribute to socio-anthropological understanding of how development actors make sense of design thinking. I challenge assumptions about design thinking for aid effectiveness by offering insights into its actual value and fitness in frontline NGO settings. / 1 / Maille Faughnan