ABSTRACT This phenomenological study examines knowledge acquisition and the environmental practices of Shitlhelani community members in relation to the uses and benefits of electricity. Prior to the installation of electricity, the main source of fuel was wood which villagers gathered from the natural vegetation surrounding their village. ESKOM installed electricity to the village in 1985 and 1994, however deforestation of the surrounding area continued. This research study draws primarily on a qualitative research paradigm, using participant observation; semi-structured interviews and document analysis, to investigate the relationship between knowledge and the development of healthy environmental practices. The qualitative research paradigm allows insight into the social context and experiences of the Shitlhelani villagers in order to understand the complexities and diversity of their daily lives. The study’s main findings highlight the need to recognise and value the existence of social networks, and the importance of fostering collaborative learning within communities to achieve collective action. Developing social capital as a framework that supports the process of learning through interaction is necessary if the Shitlhelani villagers wish to develop their community educationally, socially, economically and environmentally.

This study analyzes how civic engagement and collaborative governance can be used to build peace in post-conflict societies. A case study approach is used to examine the presence of civic engagement as a precursor to collaborative governance in the reconstruction of segregated areas in post-conflict Ambon, Indonesia. The study evaluates the effective ways that people were engaged in the multiple processes of reconstruction and assesses the readiness of Ambon to apply collaborative governance in current affairs. It finds that collaborative governance can be applied to public policy processes in segregated societies in post-conflict and can promote inter-society engagement. This study suggests that governments and NGOs in post-conflict areas could use a collaborative governance approach to sustain peace in post-conflict areas. The conclusions recognize that integrating collaborative governance into peace building programs is a crucial element of the peace building process in post-conflict areas, creating a greater likelihood for sustainable peace.

The ability to collaborate has been identified as an essential learning outcome for the 21st century. However, if group members lack the skills, abilities, and attitudes to work in a team, these groups may work inefficiently or fail to achieve what they set out to do. To achieve success, group members need to engage in productive regulatory processes to manage cognitions, behaviors, motivation, and emotions as needed to attain desired outcomes. One area of regulation that has been underemphasized in collaborative contexts is the regulation of emotions. Therefore, the purpose of this multi-paper dissertation was to examine the emotional experiences of undergraduate students working collaboratively on two online time-limited problem-solving tasks. Using a regulation of learning framework, the research unfolded over four studies drawing from a variety of data sources and building upon one another to explore the socio-emotional aspect of online collaboration. Study 1 (Webster & Hadwin, 2018) provides an overview of students’ emotions and plans for emotion regulation, self-reported during two collaborative tasks, offering an in-the-moment picture of how students feel and how they respond to those feelings. Study 2 (Bakhtiar, Webster, & Hadwin, 2018) consisted of a comparative case study to examine differences in regulation and socio-emotional interactions between two groups with contrasting socio-emotional climates. Findings revealed differences between these groups in terms of planning and preparation; therefore, the final two studies examined emotions and emotion regulation strategies reported during groupwork under different levels of planning and preparation at the individual or group level. Study 3 (Webster & Hadwin, 2019) documented the types of strategies students recalled using individually and as a group to regulate a salient emotion during collaboration and compared strategies between groups who were given different types of collaborative planning support. Finally, Study 4 (Webster, Davis, & Hadwin, 2019) compared emotions, emotion regulation strategies, and evaluations of strategy effectiveness for a purposeful sample of students who were well-prepared versus underprepared for the first of two collaborative working sessions. Four overarching factors emerged from this research as important for productive emotion regulation in online collaboration: (a) planning and preparation, (b) regulating both negative and positive emotions, (c) regulating at both individual and group levels, and (d) providing support for selecting and enacting helpful strategies. With further research, tools and interventions can be improved and utilized to support students to productively regulate in collaborative groups. / Graduate

European manufacturing companies are facing challenges of increasing prices of raw material, more customized products and competitiveness from industries outside Europe. Those challenges make the manufacturing require flexible production processes. The remanufacturing industry has the advantages of produce products using less raw material and to a lower cost compared with manufacturing. This makes the remanufacturing industry a way for the European companies to stay competitive. Challenges of the remanufacturing process are the operator exposure of vibrations, monotony tasks and ergonomic issues when disassembling the incoming core. To meet the challenges and stay competitive the Swedish manufacturing industries is currently examine the advantages of collaborative robots and how implementation of collaborative robots can improve production. Implementation of a collaborative robot at a workstation requires risk assessment as human safety is an important aspect to consider. Simulation modelling can advantageously be used to examine future state scenario or investigate how a current system is affected by different variables. To meet the challenges described the aim of this thesis has been to examine how to facilitate the design of a collaborative disassembly workstation by means of simulation. The work with the thesis is based on a case study made at a Swedish remanufacturing company. Following research questions has been formulated to fulfil the purpose:    <li data-leveltext="-" data-font="Arial" data-listid="48" data-aria-posinset="0" data-aria-level="1">What are the challenges of verifying the operators´ safety by using simulation?  <li data-leveltext="-" data-font="Arial" data-listid="48" data-aria-posinset="0" data-aria-level="1">What are the advantages and disadvantages of implementing a cobot in a disassembly station?  <li data-leveltext="-" data-font="Arial" data-listid="48" data-aria-posinset="0" data-aria-level="1">How can simulation be used to facilitate decision making when developing a collaborative workstation?    Results show simulation challenges as human’s movements, robot characteristics and the ability to simulate it, core condition uncertainty, software knowledge and time consuming simulation modeling. Human-robot collaboration enables to combine the characteristics of human flexibility and robot precision and repeatability. The robot can advantageously perform tasks which are detected as monotonous or not ergonomic to a human. Simulation can advantageously be used in an early stage of designing layout of a collaborative workstation for reachability verification.

Thesis advisor: Rebecca Lowenhaupt / Leading discussions in education today center on closing academic achievement gaps and it is widely believed that school districts are responsible for creating the conditions for all students to be successful in school. Recent state and federal policies place demands on central office administrators to help schools improve, which has resulted in a shift in the work of central office administrators. As central office administrators shift work practices to help schools develop their capacity for improving teaching and learning, they need to collaborate to build new and collective knowledge. This qualitative case study describes the collaboration of one central office administrator team when working to support historically marginalized populations. It is one section of a larger research project on how central office administrators organize their work in support of historically marginalized populations. Two research questions guided this study: (1) How do communities of practice emerge within the central office when working to improve outcomes for historically marginalized students? (2) What conditions foster or hinder administrator collaboration? Interviews, a document review, and an observation were used to answer the research questions. Findings suggest that structures in the district existed that both support and hinder collaboration of central office administrators. Time to collaborate and tools used provided structural support for collaboration. The organizational structure of the central office and limited authority to make decisions hindered efforts at collaboration. To better understand how communities of practice emerge, I focused on two specific elements, joint enterprise and learning in practice. The joint enterprise of central office administrators related broadly to improving outcomes for all students, however there were limitations to the extent that joint enterprise existed in the district. Further, there were instances in which learning in practice seemed to occur in the district, however an implementation orientation and overreliance on prior knowledge limited adult learning, at least at the central office level. Collaboration is held up as an improvement strategy for schools and districts, yet there is limited research on central office administrator collaboration. This study contributes to the body of research on central office administrator collaboration, specifically those working in support of historically marginalized populations. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Este trabalho investiga o desenvolvimento profissional do(a) professor(a) de Geografia e a apropriação do conceito de lugar. Entende-se que lugar é o campo das relações de força, onde ocorre a história e que o meio onde os alunos vivem é, para eles, a referência na perspectiva da compreensão do mundo e da sua transformação. A pesquisa foi realizada em duas escolas públicas no município de Santana de Parnaíba que, nas últimas décadas, apresenta um intenso dinamismo relacionado ao processo migratório, sendo área de expansão urbana da Região Metropolitana de São Paulo. A escolha das escolas foi devido a localizarem-se em lugares com diferentes características socioculturais e apresentarem o Índice de Desenvolvimento da Educação Básica (IDEB) bem diverso. Teve base no método dialético segundo Henry Lefebvre (1969), em que o desafio é revelar o sentido das ações humanas, ao questionar todo pensamento, conhecimento, atitude e objetivo. Diante da complexa problemática da realidade em que se encontra a educação pública brasileira, devido, em geral, à péssima qualidade das escolas de Educação Básica, a pesquisa, inicialmente, se desenvolveu no Colégio Municipal Alfazema com a intenção de colaborar no desenvolvimento profissional dos professores. Realizou-se com os profissionais e não sobre eles, tomando-se o cuidado de não sobrepô-los e, assim, possibilitar a transformação da prática docente ao visar a um trabalho em equipe integrado com a comunidade escolar. Na continuidade, a pesquisa foi desenvolvida no Colégio Municipal Tulipa, para se compreender o reconhecimento do conceito de lugar no desenvolvimento profissional dos professores de Geografia. Considerou-se que, ao se estudarem os processos históricos, sociais, culturais e naturais do lugar, permite-se uma compreensão crítica do espaço geográfico, essencial para o conhecimento da realidade em que se localiza a escola e, assim, para a contextualização do conhecimento e o trabalho com a diversidade sociocultural dos alunos. / This study investigates the professional development of Geography teacher and the appropriation of the concept of place. It is understood that place is the field of relations of force, where history happens and the environment where the students live is, for them, the reference in the perspective of understanding the world and its transformation. The research was carried out in two public schools in the district of Santana de Parnaíba which, in the last decades, presented an intense dynamism related to the migratory process due to be an area of urban expansion of the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo City. The choice of the schools was made according to the location, places with different sociocultural characteristics, that presents a very diverse Basic Educational Development Index (IDEB). It was based on the dialectical method according to Henry Lefebvre (1969), which says that the challenge is to reveal the meaning of human actions by questioning every thought, knowledge, attitude and aim. When faced the complex problem of brazilian´s public education, due in general to the poor quality of Basic Education Schools, the research initially was developed in the Alfazema Municipal School aiming to collaborate with the professional development of teachers. It was made with the professionals and not about them, taking care not to override them, so the transformation of the teaching practice became possible, integrating team work and school community. Following up, the research was also developed at Tulipa Municipal School, to understand the perception of the concept of place in the professional development of Geography teacher. It is understood that studying the historical, social, cultural and natural processes of place allows a critical understanding of geographic spot, and it is essential to understand the reality of school´s location, for the contextualization of knowledge and the work of sociocultural diversity of students.

Ces travaux de recherche ont été réalisés dans le cadre du projet régional Com-SLoT (Communauté de Services Logistiques sur l'Internet des Objets) qui s'inscrit dans l'axe des "outils numériques pour la performance industrielle" (2013-2016). Com-SLoT vise à mettre en place une communauté de services pour la gestion des objets logistiques. Il s'agit précisément de récolter et de partager toutes les informations nécessaires à la planification, l'exécution et la coordination des flux. Le problème qui est posé dans cette thèse est la "Modélisation des flux logistiques : vers une plate-forme d'interopérabilité des objets logistiques". Le modèle de flux de marchandises que nous cherchons à modéliser a donc pour objectif et défi principal de faciliter le développement et la mise en place des systèmes de gestion collaboratives de flux de marchandises basés sur l'Internet des objets et les plateformes cloud Computing. Ce défi scientifique et technologique peut se décliner en sous objectifs comme suit : (1) Proposer un modèle générique de flux logistique centré sur l'entité logistique en tant qu'entité autonome et communicante. (2) Passer de l’échange au partage : Collecter les données sur l'entité et le flux logistique, stocker et partager ces données à l'ensemble des acteurs de la supply chain. (3) Gérer l'hétérogénéité des données et les droits d'accès pour l'interopérabilité des flux. (4) Intégrer le flux de marchandises avec les technologies de l'internet des objets et des plateformes Cloud. (5) Réaliser une vrai plateforme collaborative en mode SaaS : dans ce cadre, il est plus question d'architecture et d'intégration / This research project was carried out within the framework of the regional project COM-SLoT (Community of Logistics Services on the Internet of Things). This project is in the field of "Digital tools for industrial performance". COM-SLoT aims to set up a community of services for the management of logistics workflows and related business entities. It is a matter of collecting and sharing all information necessary for the planning, the execution and the coordination of workflows. The problem to solve in this thesis is the "Modeling of logistic flows : towards a platform for business entities interoperability". The workflow model we are going to seek therefore has as main goal and challenges to facilitate the design of collaborative management of workflows, based on Internet of Things and Cloud Computing technologies. This challenge can be broken down into sub-goals as follows : (1) Propose a generic workflow model focused on the logistics entity as an autonomous and communicating entity. (2) Switching from peer to peer (PoP) data exchange to information sharing : collecting data on entities and workflows, storing and sharing to supply chain stakeholders. (3) Manage data heterogeneity and access rights to enable workflow interoperability. (4) Integrate Internet of Things technologies in the business entities. (5) Design a SaaS based collaborative platform to overcome existing architectural failures

University Technical College (UTC) schools are academies for 14-19 year olds. They are distinguished by close links to industrial and university partners to encourage vocational learning, particularly in STEM subjects. Currently 50 are open in England, with more in development. Their expansion is a key strategic objective in the government’s 2016 Educational Excellence Everywhere strategy document. This research analyses data collected through students’ perceptions of their experience of the UTC curriculum model in two detailed case studies. The research questions examine how the approach to the delivery of the curriculum enhances learner motivation. Three main factors are identified as supportive to encouraging learner motivation in the UTC schools studied: a strong focus on developing links with business partners to facilitate career progression goals for learners; an intensive, unique curriculum delivery style; rigorous target-setting in a supportive learning environment. This is a curriculum model which supports independent learning, collaborative learning with peers and vertical -group learning on challenging, employer -led projects.

Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / The purpose of this study was to determine whether a match between a participant's learning style and type of online instruction improved learner performance on tests measuring comprehension and retention. Learning style was measured by the Self-Directed Leamer Readiness Scale (SDLRS) and the Grasha-Riechmann Student Learning Style Scale (GRSLSS) and online instruction varied among online courses, recorded online courses, and computer-based tutorials. The setting for the study was a high tech machine vision company in Massachusetts and online users of its products were the participants. Three groups of learners participated in the study: employees, high school students, and customers. All three groups were comprised of engineers or engineering students. All 106 participants completed a survey that measured their preference for self-directed and collaborative learning style with the standard instruments SDLRS and GRSLSS. Participants completed 323 pre- and post-tests for 46 live online courses, recorded online courses, and computer-based tutorials during the data collection phase of the study. Those participants learning in their preferred learning style had the highest mean improvement from pre- to post-tests. Those participants with average or below average scores for self-directed and collaborative learning style showed the least improvement. The results of this study supported the hypothesis that matching the type of activity, collaborative or self-directed, to the learner's preferred learning style improved performance. The study included ten research questions. / 2031-01-01

This thesis focuses on the design and evaluation of interactive music systems that enable non-experts to experience collaborative music-making in public set- tings, such as museums, galleries and festivals. Although there has been previous research into music systems for non-experts, there is very limited research on how participants engage with collaborative music environments in public set- tings. Informed by a detailed assessment of related research, an interactive, multi-person music system is developed, which serves as a vehicle to conduct practice-based research in real-world settings. A central focus of the design is supporting each player's individual sense of control, in order to examine how this relates to their overall playing experience. Drawing on approaches from Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) and interac- tive art research, a series of user studies is conducted in public settings such as art exhibitions and festivals. Taking into account that the user experience and social dynamics around such new forms of interaction are considerably in u- enced by the context of use, this systematic assessment in real-world contexts contributes to a richer understanding of how people interact and behave in such new creative spaces. This research makes a number of contributions to the elds of HCI, interactive art and New Interfaces for Musical Expression (NIME). It provides a set of de- sign implications to aid designers of future collaborative music systems. These are based on a number of empirical ndings that describe and explain aspects of audience behaviour, engagement and mutual interaction around public, in- teractive multi-person systems. It provides empirical evidence that there is a correlation between participants' perceived level of control and their sense of cre- ative participation and enjoyment. This thesis also develops and demonstrates the application of a mixed-method approach for studying technology-mediated collaborative creativity with live audiences.