Instructors in higher education are being asked to introduce electronic portfolios (ePs) into their teaching without prior knowledge or experience on how to do it effectively. They struggle with conceptualizing how the eP process connects pedagogy, assessment and student engagement within their courses and programs. Research has shown that instructors need to experience the eP process first hand, within meaningful and situated contexts that enable professional learning. This study explores how instructors make meaning of the eP process in relation to their own professional learning, and subsequently how they construe the eP process’s pedagogic purpose and value for their students. In this context, professional learning is defined as a relational engagement between identity, knowledge construction and professional practice that leads to a transformative understanding of learning as embodied and holistic. Based on a review of the literature on the eP process and theories of professional learning, a group of instructors in higher education were engaged in a shared self-study of the eP process within a narrative inquiry methodology. They used images, video, word clouds and other artifacts to explore and build awareness of the values and beliefs that have shaped their teaching practices. Participants concluded that the eP process promotes multiple competencies linked to “readiness,” the ability to assess new situations and move forward in new environments. Intrinsically formed through iterative cycles of reflection and engagement, “readiness” is a dispositional stance or type of knowing-in-action that can help students bridge the gap between conceptual knowledge learned in classrooms and situated, relational knowledge required for professional practice. The study implications are that the eP process can be used as tool for professional educators to examine their own practices, in order to imagine new ways of learning for their students. / Graduate

More than 35% of the U.S. workforce is composed of Baby Boomers who are eligible to retire within the next 5 years. Despite the potential loss of critical expertise, a gap in knowledge retention exists in small consulting businesses. The purpose of this case study was to explore effective strategies for retaining the tacit and explicit knowledge of retiring employees, to avoid operational knowledge drain. Exploration ensued through semistructured interviews at 2 small consulting businesses in the Washington, DC metropolitan area that are adept at innovatively retaining requisite knowledge. The conceptual frameworks of Bass' transformational leadership and Nonaka's knowledge creation led to the identification of strategies to retain tacit and explicit knowledge of retiring Baby Boomers. Seven small business leaders addressed questions on knowledge types, knowledge stimulation and sharing methods, and retention strategies to provide meaningful responses to the knowledge retention phenomenon. Data analysis included the Colaizzi and modified van Kaam methods of mining, categorizing, organizing, and describing participants' statements. Subsequently, the themes that emerged during the analysis identified reward, communication, and motivation as strategies for knowledge-share and transfer. Succession planning, mentoring, documentation, training, and knowledge sharing also emerged as effective methods for knowledge retention. The findings will contribute to social change by illuminating the roles effective leaders practice to influence and foster knowledge management, offering insight to other small businesses having difficulties remaining sustainable as the operational knowledge of Baby Boomers becomes unavailable as they retire.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / In the Critique of the Power of Judgment Kant is concerned with the problem of Beauty s transcendental philosophy, seeking the possibility of a universally valid, a priori and necessary aesthetic judgment. The strategy adopted by the author starts by defining what the Beauty is not (in this case, a judgment of knowledge). Among other things, the complacency in Beauty is distinguished from complacency in Good, being the former disinterested, whereas the latter has an interest in the existence of the judged object. This difference is already made in the opening paragraphs of the first book of the Analytic of the Beauty. Nevertheless, insofar as Kant advances in his analysis of the feeling of the Beauty (and later, the Sublime), the author suggests that the separation between an aesthetic judgment (of the Beauty) and a moral judgment (of the Good) is not necessarily abrupt and sometimes such judgments constitute an ambiguous relationship. The work to be done intend to investigate the sinuosity of the Kantian discourse developed along the third Critique about the problem of the Beauty and the Good, especially the apparent change in Kant s argument at the §§16 and 17, and affirmation of the "Beauty as a Symbol of Morality" [KU, B253] in § 59 of this book. / Na Crítica da Faculdade do Juízo Kant preocupa-se com o problema da filosofia transcendental do Belo, buscando a possibilidade de um juízo estético universalmente válido, a priori e necessário. A estratégia adotada pelo autor inicia por definir o que o Belo não é (no caso, um juízo de conhecimento). Dentre outras coisas, distingue-se o comprazimento no Belo do comprazimento no Bom, sendo aquele desinteressado, ao passo que este contém um interesse na existência do objeto ajuizado. Esta diferença é feita já nos parágrafos iniciais do primeiro livro da Analítica do Belo. Não obstante, na medida em que Kant avança em sua análise sobre o sentimento do Belo (e posteriormente, do Sublime), o autor deixa transparecer que a separação entre um juízo estético (do Belo) e um juízo moral (do Bom) não é necessariamente abrupta e, por vezes, tais juízos constituem uma relação ambígua. No trabalho a ser realizado pretendo investigar a sinuosidade do discurso kantiano desenvolvido ao longo da terceira Crítica acerca da questão do Belo e do Bom, em especial a aparente mudança na argumentação de Kant a partir dos §§16 e 17, e afirmação da Beleza como Símbolo da Moralidade [KU, B253] no § 59 desta obra.

In this work a coherent survey of problems connected with relational knowledge representation and methods for achieving relational knowledge representation were presented. Proposed approach was shown on three applications: economic case, biomedical case and benchmark dataset. All crucial definitions were formulated and three main methods for relation identification problem were shown. Moreover, for specific relational models and observations’ types different identification methods were presented. / Double Diploma Programme, polish supervisor: prof. Jerzy Świątek, Wrocław University of Technology

Issue d'un questionnement initié dans une pratique professionnelle de psychosociologue qui interrogeait la place de l'animal dans des récits de nature autobiographique, cette recherche s'est construite dans le but d'explorer la thématique du rapport à l'animal, dans le cadre des Sciences de l'éducation. Pour construire cet objet de recherche, des références théoriques pluridisciplinaires ont été mobilisées, de même qu'une démarche de recherche inscrite dans un cadre clinique d’orientation psychanalytique, qui met en jeu les élaborations contre-transférentielles du chercheur. Un cheminement exploratoire a été enrichi par l’analyse de deux entretiens cliniques de recherche. Ce premier temps met en évidence l’impact positif du lien d’attachement à l’animal dans la construction psychique d’un être humain. Dans cette recherche, les références théoriques et cliniques sont principalement les concepts d'attachement, de construction du rapport au savoir ainsi que les apports de W. R. Bion et de D. W. Winnicott. C’est sur cette base que s'est effectué le choix des vétérinaires comme corpus de recherche, profession éminemment concernée par la relation à l'animal. Cinq entretiens cliniques semi-directifs ont été effectués auprès de vétérinaires en exercice libéral, puis analysés quant à leurs dynamiques psychiques latentes. Les principaux résultats montrent que, pour ces professionnels, le lien à l’animal développé dans l’enfance est à l’origine de leur choix professionnel. C'est également ce lien, transformé, qui semble mobilisé comme une ressource psychique pour investir et réussir leurs études. Il apparaît aussi que le rapport au savoir construit dans l’interaction de l'enfant à l'animal représente une ressource possible dans la compréhension de la relation du maître avec son animal dans les pratiques de consultation. Un autre résultat de cette recherche démontre que l’intérêt pour l’animal chez l’enfant permet à certains sujets de développer des capacités cognitives qui sont mobilisables dans un savoir relationnel et professionnel ultérieur. / Stemming from a questioning initiated in a professional practice of psychosociolog which questioned the place of the animal in autobiographical stories, this research was carried out with the aim of exploring the relationship with the animal within the framework of the educational sciences. To build this focus of research, multidisciplinary theoretical references were mobilized, together with a research process within the clinical framework of psychoanalytic orientation, taking into account the counter transferential process of the investigator.An exploratory pathway has been enriched through the analysis of two clinical interviews. This first step highlights the positive impact of the human-animal attachment in the construction of the psychic identity of the human being. In this research, the notions of attachment and the construction of the relation to knowledge are the key theoretical and clinical concepts, enriched by contributions of W. R Bion and D. W. Winnicott. It is on this basis that was made the choice of the veterinarians as a corpus of this research, as this profession is highly concerned by the relation to the animal. Five semi-directive clinical interviews were carried out with veterinarians practising in liberal exercise, then analysed on the basis of their latent psychological dynamic. The main results show that for these professionals, the link to the animal developed during childhood is at the origin of their career choice. Also, it is this link, evolved through the time, which seems mobilized as a psychic resource to invest and succeed their studies. It also appears that the approach to the knowledge built during their interaction with animals as a child represents a possible resource to better understand the relationship between the owner and his animal during a veterinary consultation. Another result of this research shows that the interest for the animal as a child allows some subjects to develop cognitive capabilities which are mobilisable in ulterior relational and professional skills.