Thesis (Ph.D.)--Duquesne University, 2005. / Title from document title page. Abstract included in electronic submission form. Includes bibliographical references (p. 196-204) and index.

The prescribing rights of non-medical healthcare professionals in the United Kingdom (UK) are some of the most extensive in western medical practice. Nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists, optometrists, chiropodists, podiatrists, therapeutic and diagnostic radiographers and dieticians, with appropriate training have the authority to prescribe. They are often referred to as non-medical prescribers (NMPs). These non-medical healthcare professionals should have a specified number of years of post-registration experience in order to undertake specific training in prescribing. There has been a limited amount of research exploring how non-medical healthcare professionals acquire their expertise during the prescribing programme. In addition, there is a gap in the literature on how NMPs apply their acquired expertise during the process of making clinical prescribing decisions. A programme of research was conducted to explore the learning processes and decision-making skills of pharmacist and nurse independent prescribers working in secondary care. The research used current literature on pharmacist and nurse independent prescribing by conducting a systematic review to assess how their expertise development is reported in the literature. In addition, the learning experiences of secondary care pharmacists and nurses undertaking the independent prescribing programme was explored by employing a novel audio-diary technique followed by semi-structured interviews on 7 nurses and 6 pharmacists. Students were mainly recruited via their non-medical prescribing programme leaders at a number of accredited universities across the UK. There was little opportunity in this study to explore the clinical reasoning processes of students as they were learning to prescribe. Therefore, the final study aimed to explore how secondary care pharmacist and nurse independent prescribers make clinical prescribing decisions. A total of 21 independent prescribers working in secondary care took part in this study, mainly recruited via their non-medical prescribing lead and social media. This study employed a think-aloud protocol method using validated clinical vignettes followed by semi-structured interviews. Students and NMPs occupied a wide range of roles. Ethical approval from the University of Manchester Research Ethics Committee (UREC) and governance approvals from a number of National Health Service (NHS) hospitals were obtained before conducting the research. NMPs were influenced by a number of intrinsic and extrinsic factors during the process of learning to prescribe and when making prescribing decisions. Students also experienced an affective phase of transition in which students became highly metacognitive as they began to form their identities as prescribers and reflect on their confidence and competence. There were notable differences between how pharmacists and nurses learned to prescribe, which were also seen during the process of clinical decision-making as independent prescribers. Despite this, pharmacists and nurses revealed a similar pattern in their decision-making processes as prescribers. Findings from this programme of research provide further insight into the specific training and support requirements of these healthcare professionals. Additional research with NMPs would be beneficial to contribute to the currently limited understanding of the learning and clinical reasoning processes of NMPs.

Equational reasoning with string diagrams provides an intuitive method for proving equations between morphisms in various forms of monoidal category. !-Graphs were introduced with the intention of reasoning with infinite families of string diagrams by allowing repetition of sub-diagrams. However, their combinatoric nature only allows commutative nodes. The aim of this thesis is to extend the !-graph formalism to remove the restriction of commutativity and replace the notion of equational reasoning with a natural deduction system based on first order logic. The first major contribution is the syntactic !-tensor formalism, which enriches Penrose's abstract tensor notation to allow repeated structure via !-boxes. This will allow us to work with many noncommutative theories such as bialgebras, Frobenius algebras, and Hopf algebras, which have applications in quantum information theory. A more subtle consequence of switching to !-tensors is the ability to definitionally extend a theory. We will demonstrate how noncommutativity allows us to define nodes which encapsulate entire diagrams, without inherently assuming the diagram is commutative. This is particularly useful for recursively defining arbitrary arity nodes from fixed arity nodes. For example, we can construct a !-tensor node representing the family of left associated trees of multiplications in a monoid. The ability to recursively define nodes goes hand in hand with proof by induction. This leads to the second major contribution of this thesis, which is !-Logic (!L). We extend previous attempts at equational reasoning to a fully fledged natural deduction system based on positive intuitionistic first order logic, with conjunction, implication, and universal quantification over !-boxes. The key component of !L is the principle of !-box induction. We demonstrate its application by proving how we can transition from fixed to arbitrary arity theories for monoids, antihomomorphisms, bialgebras, and various forms of Frobenius algebras. We also define a semantics for !L, which we use to prove its soundness. Finally, we reintroduce commutativity as an optional property of a morphism, along with another property called symmetry, which describes morphisms which are not affected by cyclic permutations of their edges. Implementing these notions in the !-tensor language allows us to more easily describe theories involving symmetric or commutative morphisms, which we then demonstrate for recursively defined Frobenius algebra nodes.

Orientador: Washington Luiz Pacheco de Carvalho / Banca: Antonio Fernando Gouveia da Silva / Banca: Luciana Maria Lunardi Campos / Banca: Ana Maria Bellini / Banca: Ana Mariade Andrade Caldeira / Resumo: O objetivo desta pesquisa foi o de verificar em que extensão Licenciados em Ciências Biológicas eram capazes de criar argumentos para defender suas posições em relação as pesquisas com células-tronco humanas e também investiguei suas concepções a respeito do início da vida humana, digna de proteção e respeito. Para isso utilizei o grupo focal como estratégia para constituição dos dados que foram analisados tendo como referência o layout argumentativo de Toulmin. Como resultado verifique que, de maneira geral os estudantes são capazes de construir argumentos, entendidos como uma alegação e sua justificativa e que a vida do embrião congelado é diferente da vida do embrião implantado no útero: o primeiro, por ainda não ter sistema nervoso, pode ser usado como matéria-prima para pesquisa, enquanto o segundo é digno de respeito desde a concepção. Portanto, a vida se inicia quando o embrião alcança o útero. Sob o referencial da teoria da Atividade e da Aprendizagem Situada, constatei que a atividade coletiva foi um fator determinante para o desenvolvimento da argumentação. Concluo argumentando que a Aprendizagem Situada pode ser um importante referencial para a formação de professores de ciências e de sua identidade / Abstract: In this research intended to understand the ways preservice science teacher conceptulize the begining of human life, in the sense that it is worthy of respect and protection, and if they are able to develop arguments to support their claims. To reach this aim i used group as a method of data collection. The data was analyzed from a framework adapted from Toulmin's argumentation layout. As a result I found that the preservice teachers are able to develop arguments to support their conclusions and that they differentiate the life of the frozen embryo in a test tube from the life of the embryo in a womb. The former is merely a raw material for biomedical research while the later is a ife worthy of respect from conception. So the life begins when the embryo reaches the womb. Under the framework of Activity Theory and Situated Learning. I noticed that the interaction in a collective activity was decisive one to promote the argumentation. I conclude arguing that Situated Learning can be a significant framework for teacher education and construction of identity / Doutor

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:31:42Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2011-02-28Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:42:13Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 guimaraes_ma_dr_bauru.pdf: 784486 bytes, checksum: 39d2cfb7dc1d5f5c58613bd8954f992c (MD5) / O objetivo desta pesquisa foi o de verificar em que extensão Licenciados em Ciências Biológicas eram capazes de criar argumentos para defender suas posições em relação as pesquisas com células-tronco humanas e também investiguei suas concepções a respeito do início da vida humana, digna de proteção e respeito. Para isso utilizei o grupo focal como estratégia para constituição dos dados que foram analisados tendo como referência o layout argumentativo de Toulmin. Como resultado verifique que, de maneira geral os estudantes são capazes de construir argumentos, entendidos como uma alegação e sua justificativa e que a vida do embrião congelado é diferente da vida do embrião implantado no útero: o primeiro, por ainda não ter sistema nervoso, pode ser usado como matéria-prima para pesquisa, enquanto o segundo é digno de respeito desde a concepção. Portanto, a vida se inicia quando o embrião alcança o útero. Sob o referencial da teoria da Atividade e da Aprendizagem Situada, constatei que a atividade coletiva foi um fator determinante para o desenvolvimento da argumentação. Concluo argumentando que a Aprendizagem Situada pode ser um importante referencial para a formação de professores de ciências e de sua identidade / In this research intended to understand the ways preservice science teacher conceptulize the begining of human life, in the sense that it is worthy of respect and protection, and if they are able to develop arguments to support their claims. To reach this aim i used group as a method of data collection. The data was analyzed from a framework adapted from Toulmin's argumentation layout. As a result I found that the preservice teachers are able to develop arguments to support their conclusions and that they differentiate the life of the frozen embryo in a test tube from the life of the embryo in a womb. The former is merely a raw material for biomedical research while the later is a ife worthy of respect from conception. So the life begins when the embryo reaches the womb. Under the framework of Activity Theory and Situated Learning. I noticed that the interaction in a collective activity was decisive one to promote the argumentation. I conclude arguing that Situated Learning can be a significant framework for teacher education and construction of identity

This study concerns students' ideas about the existence or otherwise of forces in several dynamical situations involving moving objects and objects at rest. It aims to contribute to a better understanding of students' ideas about dynamics. It differs from previous research (a) in covering a wider-range among students and larger variation in taught Physics background. (b) in attempting to tap less verbal forms of evidence and (c) in attempting to avoid 'scientifism' in terms of the way to approach students and in terms of interpreting results. The empirical part of the study involved 338 students from seven different groups. Data was collected from the above sample. using a questionnaire to which responses were simply graphic indications of the directions of expected forces. and. if possible. the giving of names to these forces. in eight situations presented diagrammatically. In addition. data was collected from a sub-sample. by means of computer games using a screen 'object' obeying Newtonian Mechanics. in a frictional and a non-frictional 'environment'. under the control of the subject. Difficulties in interpreting the last kind of data led to the main study being focussed on the results of the questionnaire. Some results from the computer games are however presented. They are mainly concerned with students' performance when playing in a frictional versus non-frictional 'environment'. Results suggest a better students' performance when playing in a frictional 'environment'. Results obtained with the questionnaire concern: (a) differences between situations in patterns of expected directions. among students of the same group and between groups. Generally the results suggest the existence of common patterns among the students of the same group and systematic differences between patterns of groups with an increase in exposure to physics teaching. namely the attribution of new force directions [e.g. vertical and downwards. opposite to motion). despite the persistence of primitive ideas (e.g. a force along the motion); (b) names given to the different kinds of forces in various directions. Results include a difficulty found in naming forces which existed before teaching. They also give information about how scientific terms are assimilated. Interpretations of the results. mainly taken from a theory of Common Sense Reasoning about motions proposed by Ogborn (1985). seem to give them a reasonable explanation. Although requiring further investigation. this gives some support to claim that students' intuitive ideas about dynamics should be regarded [i] as deriving from a rather general and coherent set of ideas, [ii] as less formalized in terms of the scientific world view and [iii] as having their origin mainly in actions on the world.

Studies of metaphors in teaching and learning have underlined the important role of metaphors in reasoning, but have sometimes failed to show the effect of metaphor on how scientific concepts are represented, and have sometimes overlooked hidden metaphors in their attempts to be explicit about how metaphor functions. This study investigates metaphor in the context of teaching environmental science. It does not assume any simple correlation between surface linguistic cues and the presence or kind of metaphor. Two theoretical approaches have been chosen, Systemic Functional Linguistics (M. Halliday) which sees language as a social construction of meaning, and Image Schema (M Johnson and G Lakoff) which has developed in cognitive science and cognitive linguistics. These two approaches are used to discuss examples of metaphors from a number of lessons which have been observed and video-recorded, and in a variety of textbooks used as resource materials in teaching environmental science. The choice of environmental science as the subject matter arises from two of its distinct characteristics. One is the fact that ideology triggers and shapes the interests, decisions and choices of materials, issues, arguments, reasons, etc. But there is nothing like one unique ideology, on the contrary conflicts of different ideologies raise differences about what will be selected and how it will be represented. At this point there is a special role taken on by metaphor. Metaphors provide the means for creating differences and similarities, thus bringing together or keeping apart ideologies. Second, the teaching of environmental science does not appear as the teaching of science only, bounded from anything else, but is a blend of accounts of scientific and commonsense knowledge. Metaphors appear at the overlapping points where this blending takes place. It is not the purpose of the thesis to question, or to contribute to, the theoretical perspectives adopted. Rather, its interest is in how these perspectives provide, each in their own way, insights into the nature of the discourse of teaching environmental science, and thus to raise questions about its effectiveness.

What makes a good common law argument? Ronald Dworkin’s answer commands much respect within legal practice. To him, the correctness of a legal conclusion rests upon its capacity to fit within a narrative of normative progress that judges deliberately impose for the sake of (i) rendering overt the shared membership of discretely decided cases within a single determinate category (ii) depictive of moral attractiveness at its best. Yet, the inherent plausibility of Dworkin’s presentation of judicial reasoning has ironically resulted in the erosion of respect for the common law. If judicial narratives are imposed for aesthetic considerations, then legal conclusions must – per Kant – be mere idiosyncratic judicial desires that have the added quality of being objectively intelligible to other individuals who could nonetheless – owing to the absence of any criteria of norm correctness – justifiably disagree. If accurate, this characterization of legal decision-making would be anemic with modernity’s conviction that law is an entity inherently distinguishable from power because of the rationality – and therefore non-dogmatic nature – of its dictates. This thesis demonstrates – contra Dworkin – that judicial narratives go hand-in-hand with rationality. Judicial reasoning is thus of great importance to the aspirational goal of governance through law. As will be seen, only a constructed narrative renders possible the objective demonstrability (i) of the membership of discrete judicial decisions within the classificatory ambit of a specific norm and (ii) the legitimacy of that specific norm’s selection – from a set of countless other possibilities - via its evidential capacity to order those same discrete decisions tentatively asserted to be under its ambit into a coherent whole. Thus, because (i) the narrative is the methodological process by which a norm comes into agreement with its observed applications and (ii) truth is exactly this just-mentioned correspondence between intellect and reality, narrative construction is – quite properly – logic.

This research adopts a sociocultural framework (Vygotsky, 1978) to investigate how multilingual children express their mathematical reasoning during collaborative problem solving. The topic is important because North America is becoming increasingly multicultural, and according to mathematics teachers this has complicated the challenges of teaching and learning mathematics. Many educators assume that children should be competent in the language of instruction before they engage with mathematical content (Civil, 2008; Gorgorió & Planas, 2001). A review of recent research in this area challenges the idea that multilingual students need to have mastered the official language of instruction prior to learning mathematics (Barwell, 2005; Civil, 2008; Moschkovich, 2007). These researchers demonstrate that the knowledge of the language of instruction is only one aspect of becoming competent in mathematics. My research was designed to build on the findings of the current research on multilingual children’s reasoning in order to more fully understand how multilingual children express their mathematical understanding and reasoning. For this study, two multilingual families, each with 3 children between the ages of 8 and 12, participated in a mathematical problem-solving activity. Findings show the children’s mathematical reasoning was evidence-based drawing on mathematical knowledge and world knowledge.

We investigate the Principle of Predicate Exchangeability in the framework of Pure Inductive Logic. While this principle was known to Rudolf Carnap, who started research in Inductive Logic, the principle has been somewhat neglected in the past. After providing the framework of Pure Inductive Logic, we will show Representation Theorems for probability functions satisfying Predicate Exchangeability, filling the gap in the list of Representation Theorems for functions satisfying certain rational principles. We then introduce a new principle, called the Principle of Strong Predicate Exchangeability, which is weaker than the well-known Principle of Atom Exchangeability, but stronger than Predicate Exchangeability and give examples of functions that satisfy this principle. Finally, we extend the framework of Inductive Logic to Second Order languages, which allows for increasing a rational agent’s expressive strength. We introduce Wilmers’ Principle, a rational principle that rational agents might want to adopt in this extended framework, and give a representation theorem for this principle.