Since its inception, online continuing education programs have experienced great variation in the degree of participation among students. There is a growing body of literature suggesting that a sense of community is a possible predictor of participation in educational programs. Since online instruction is not conducted face-to-face, direct social interaction is missing. However, there exists a variety of online instructional methods that are designed to create social interaction and thus facilitate and foster a sense of community among participants in these programs.This dissertation sought to identify a model that would suggest what variables related to a sense of community might predict participation among students enrolled in an online continuing education program. This investigation included development of an instrument to measure participants' feeling of a sense of community, and examination of the relationship of the instrument scores with three components of participation (overall participation, interactive participation, and non-interactive participation).This investigation was conducted on a two-year online continuing medical education program at a university located in the southwestern United States. The participants were physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician's assistants representing three different cohorts.Item analysis of the instrument to measure sense of community revealed a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of .89. A principal components analysis using an orthogonal (varimax) rotation produced four factors (subscales) with Cronbach's alpha coefficients ranging from .70 to .86.The overall sense of community and four subscale scores were then compared to participation scores of participants. Preliminary analyses revealed no gender or cohort differences. A significant correlation was found between communicating for understanding subscale scores and interactive participation scores. Significant positive correlation coefficients were also found between the overall sense of community score and overall participation score as well as interactive participation score.This preliminary investigation indicated that the sense of community instrument developed for this study is a reliable measure including four factors which constitute a definition of sense of community. Further, it revealed that interactive participation in the course may be predicted from communicating for understanding and that sense of community is positively correlated to overall participation and interactive participation, but not to non-interactive participation.

En god taluppfattning är grunden till matematisk förståelse som eleven skall bygga sina kunskaper på. Utan en god grund i taluppfattning uppstår svårigheter för den undervisning som lärare vill åstadkomma i skolan. Ett vidare begrepp av taluppfattning är number sense som är en känsla för talens storlek och rimligheten i matematikuppgifter. Syftet är att undersöka hur lärare arbetar med matematiksvårigheter inom området taluppfattning för att utveckla elevens lärande. Undersökningen beskriver hur lärare identifierar elever i matematiksvårigheter med tanke på grundläggande taluppfattning. Detta gjordes genom kvalitativa undersökningar i form av intervjuer samt studier av åtgärdsprogram gällande hur lärare identifierar problemen. Informanterna är sex yrkesverksamma lärare med olika matematiska utbildningar inom grundskolans årskurser. Det framkom att den vanligaste åtgärden enligt åtgärdsprogram var arbete i liten grupp, vilket enligt forskning är en handling som inte gynnar eleven, om undervisningen är oförändrad. Däremot ansåg flesta lärare att den bästa metoden för att både upptäcka och avhjälpa svårigheter med taluppfattning var resonemang i matematik med eleven. Brist på resurser gjorde att detta var svårt att organisera. Lärare angav tidbrist som orsak till att kartläggningar av elevers behov saknades i de flesta underlag till åtgärdsprogram.

This study describes the experiences of belonging of three Grade 6 students with mild disabilities, Jacob, Leah, and Andy, educated in an inclusive classroom. In addition, I gained the perspective of the classroom teacher, Linda, who described her approaches to facilitating belonging in an inclusive environment. Data collection included field observations and interviews with the classroom teacher and with the three focal participants. After completing data collection, analysis of the classroom data and the data of the three individual students was conducted using standard methods of qualitative analysis. Themes that emerged from the classroom data included: developing a trust culture, developing trusting relationships, teaching pro-social behaviours, building competence, and fostering autonomy. The classroom teacher fostered a supportive community environment that encouraged the development of interpersonal relationships, and she actively supported the social-emotional needs and the academic needs of all her students. Each student participant presented a unique case; therefore, the themes for the three student participants varied. Common themes included: sense of belonging, interpersonal relationships, and peer victimization. Themes that varied were sense of academic and social competence and fostering autonomy. For each individual student, belonging was fostered slightly differently and yet to fill this need, relatedness with others and a sense of academic or social competence was necessary. This study emphasizes that a sense of belonging is complex and multidimensional. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2008-12-01 08:35:33.991

The creation of working relationships between First Nations and non-First Nation peoples is the focus of the Common Land, Common Ground movement, which created partnership between the municipality of Kenora, three nearby First Nation reserves and the Grand Council of Treaty #3. This research explored, through the concept of Sense of Place (SOP), connections and visions people have regarding land gifted to this partnership on Tunnel Island (TI) in Kenora. Data were collected through interviews, modified focus groups, and participant observation. Results are organized into three themes, with ‘Connections’ revealing representations of people’s sense of place of TI, ‘Perspectives’ outlining people’s views about TI, and ‘Visions’, establishing people’s thoughts on the future of TI. Recommendations include: using SOP research to authentically engage people in place connections to allow for holistic participation and engagement and recognizing at a institutional level that increased awareness and participation will not result in homogenized agreements.

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The creation of working relationships between First Nations and non-First Nation peoples is the focus of the Common Land, Common Ground movement, which created partnership between the municipality of Kenora, three nearby First Nation reserves and the Grand Council of Treaty #3. This research explored, through the concept of Sense of Place (SOP), connections and visions people have regarding land gifted to this partnership on Tunnel Island (TI) in Kenora. Data were collected through interviews, modified focus groups, and participant observation. Results are organized into three themes, with ‘Connections’ revealing representations of people’s sense of place of TI, ‘Perspectives’ outlining people’s views about TI, and ‘Visions’, establishing people’s thoughts on the future of TI. Recommendations include: using SOP research to authentically engage people in place connections to allow for holistic participation and engagement and recognizing at a institutional level that increased awareness and participation will not result in homogenized agreements.

The intent of this record of study is to examine the effectiveness of the Defense Support of Civil Authorities program through the theoretical lens of adult learning. The study explores the program graduates’ individual and organizational attempts to make sense of their new role of support of civil authority during a national crisis. Using a case study approach, selected aspects of the program were observed, reviewed, and analyzed. This approach included a series of interviews and a focus group discussion that allowed graduates to describe both their program experiences and the potential impact on their understanding of their roles during a national emergency. These experiences were then interpreted through the lens of adult learning theory. The findings suggest graduates must create a new definition of competence based upon their emerging role of supporting others in charge, rather than their previous notion of self-direction. The main conclusions drawn from this study provide preliminary evidence that suggests these adults must construct new meaning for themselves and for their organization in order to make coherent the complex arena of homeland security. Recommendations for further research include a focus on adult knowledge construction and the role of perceived individual and organizational contributions as a means of enhancing perceived adult competence.

This thesis examines the way in which Gilles Deleuze asserts the ontological priority of events over substances in his 1969 publication, The Logic of Sense, with reference to several philosophers and intellectual movements, namely, the Stoics, Leibniz, Albert Lautman, Gilbert Simondon, structuralism and psychoanalysis. Chapter 1 analyzes the problem which The Logic of Sense sets out to resolve, that is, to determine the ???evental??? conditions of the event if everything is to be understood as ontologically dependent on events. It then examines how Deleuze compares events to Stoic lekta, which are both causal effects and the material of Stoic dialectic. The event is seen to be the juncture of an ongoing ???sense-event,??? simultaneously involving: causal analyses of bodies; the construction of concepts characterizing these bodies; and the development of one???s knowledge of these bodies. Chapter 2 examines how Deleuze extends a number of Leibnizian notions in order to re-describe this sense-event in terms of ???static ontological and logical geneses,??? or ???disjunctive syntheses,??? bearing on divergent ???points of view??? with regard to the events characterizing worldly things. These syntheses bring about a three-fold determination of: a world of individuals common to divergent points of view; the beliefs of persons holding these points of view; and families of concepts which these individuals and persons ???exemplify??? insofar as they belong to a common world. Chapters 3 and 4 explore the way in which, with reference to Lautman, Simondon and structuralism, Deleuze argues that static geneses should be thought of in terms of an underlying structure, wherein the events characterizing things are themselves determined only by other events. Within this structure, events of all orders and types determine each other reciprocally, completely and progressively, and without reference to any substance transcending this system. Chapter 5 shows how, in relation to psychoanalysis, Deleuze understands the structure of events to be produced as an event by speaking persons, even as this structure also produces these persons, and their speech, as events. We are thus able to conclude that the structure of events is both the evental-determination of events characterizing things in general, and itself an event.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1938. / Cover title. Vita. Bibliography: p. 33-37.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University, 1938. / Cover title. Vita. Bibliography: p. 33-37.