Action video games have been shown to improve the visual cognitive abilities of those who played them for as little as ten hours when compared to those who played a control non-action video game for the same period (Green & Bavelier, 2003). The purpose of the current study was to examine which specific traits of action video games are responsible for which specific changes in visual cognition occurring while playing action video games. To test this, the visual cognitive abilities of participants were measured using a battery of five tasks before and after ten hours of practice with one of four versions of a simplified action video game. The battery was chosen to measure different aspects of the visual cognitive system. The Useful Field of View task measures the amount of visual angle the participant can actively attend to at any given time, the spatial limit of visual attention. The Attentional Blink task measures the ability to monitor one location over time, the temporal flexibility of visual attention. The Flanker task measures interference of a task-irrelevant object on a primary task, and is thought to provide an indirect measure of attentional capacity. The Visual Reaction Time task was intended to be a measure of visual apprehension speed and response generation. The Visual Search task was intended to measure the ability to find and identify a target amongst distractors. Participants were randomly assigned to one of four training conditions in a 2X2 factorial design manipulating the rate at which targets appeared and the maximum eccentricity at which the targets appeared during training. The paradigm provided evidence that faster target training rates caused a marginal improvement over the slow rates in the Useful Field of View task from pre-training to post-training. Training with the fast target rate caused greater improvement than the slow rate on the Attentional Blink at only lag 2 and and a reversed effect at lag 6. All groups improved from pre-training to post-training on the Useful Field of View, Attentional Blink and Visual Search tasks. However, there was no differential effect for the narrow and wide training eccentricities. / Thesis (Master, Psychology) -- Queen's University, 2010-09-24 11:52:47.173

CHASM: the spaces between is a live performance that exposes physical, visual, and aural intersections of liminality. My solo dance, alongside the work of acoustic collaborators Shawn Pinchbeck and Ian Crutchley, projectionist Patrick Arès-Pilon, and scenographer Guido Tondino, delves within the spaces between sight and sound, silence and stillness, performance and life, and embodiment and technology. In the process, I improvise within a scored structure, attempting to unravel, through practice, current theories of reception, including somaesthetics, meditative states, kinaesthesia, and Japanese theories of mind-body and ma. The piece was presented at Timms‘ Second Playing Space at the University of Alberta on April 27th and 28th, 2012. The purpose of this thesis is to reveal the process, intentions, and discoveries that I made as a dance practitioner, while demonstrating how CHASM: the spaces between relates to the larger art world and to cross-disciplinary literature that addresses the problem of the boundaries of knowledge. Chasm is the term I use for these edges, boundaries, and intersections, and I wish to show how important chasms are not only for creativity in contemporary performance, but also for thought in a non-linear, globalized world.

The Constitutional Assembly accepted a new democratic constitution for the Republic of South Africa on 8 May 1996. The Constitution makes provision for a fair amount of clauses regarding language issues. Among other it makes provision for eleven official languages that reflect the multicultural nature of our society. The National Government presents their position on language in education in the 1996 South African Bill of Rights. It seems clear that the Department of Education emphasises the development of multilingualism within the framework of additive bilingual education. Schools are strongly recommended to offer at least two languages of instruction as from Grade 1, one of which should be the home language of the learner. Aside from these positive goals, the opposite seems to happen in practice. Even more complaints arise, especially from the ranks of minority languages (Afrikaans and African languages) that their languages are marginalised as languages of instruction. A positive development is that more voices are heard in support of language teaching, especially in communities that have traditionally been seen as being in favour of English teaching. This re-evaluation of the role of mother tongue teaching could be contributed to certain language activist initiatives since 1994. This study investigates the role of language activism in the movement back to mother tongue education in South Africa after the establishment of a democratic language dispensation in the country. The perception is investigated that communities are apathetic towards language rights issues in education brought about by political and other pressure groups that want to retain the status quo regarding the promotion of English as medium of instruction at the expense of minority languages. This is done by determining: (a) how widespread the phenomenon of language activism in South Africa occurs, (b) the forms (if any) of language activism among the different language communities, (c) whether there is indeed a re-evaluation of mother tongue teaching and (d) what role (if any) language activism plays in the restoration of mother tongue education. Chapter 2 provides an outline of the theoretical background of the study. It provides an overview of the literature on language activism as phenomenon (and its role within the field of language planning) and how it manifests in mother tongue struggles around the world, especially with regard to education. Various definitions of language planning as an inclusive process, and not only as a top-down action, are investigated. The role that communities play in influencing language policy is investigated on the basis of various definitions in the literature regarding language rights activism. Employing the tools of language activism, as developed by Martel and later Lubbe and Du Plessis are investigated. At the end of the chapter the conclusion is reached that interaction between governments and community organisations plays a vital role in preserving and developing the cultural and linguistic heritage of any community. Chapter 3 provides an overview of the qualitative research design and methodology used in the study. For the purposes of this study a literature, documents and empirical study was done which involved analysing the press clippings. This provides an outline of the methods followed to obtain information from the literature (both nationally and internationally), relevant documents and media records selected for the purpose of the study. It also outlines the strategies followed in order to ensure the validity and reliability. The study is done on the basis of the typology of the instruments of language activism introduced by Martel (1999) and further developed by Lubbe et al. (2004) and Du Plessis (2006). The typology distinguishes between the main instruments of language activism used by language activists and presents an appreciation of which tools would be more successful. The analysis was done on the basis of the definitions of language activism and the social movement theory as discussed in Chapter 2. Chapter 4 provides an historical background to language planning and language policy development in South Africa. The chapter highlights the main moments within the political context of language policy development. An attempt is made to present the role of language activism in South Africa by studying the relevant literature. Studies on language activism and mother tongue education as well as official documents on language in education are used. The period 1652 (the beginning of the Colonial period) until 1994 (the democratisation period) is covered. In Chapter 5 the findings regarding the media analysis for the period 1994 to 2005 are discussed. This is followed by a critical analysis and interpretation of the findings in order to determine the role language activism played in the re-evaluation of mother tongue education in South Africa. The conclusion is reached that language activism did take place within the South African community. Also that the two main traditions of language activism still figure, but there are signs from both sides of the spectrum that there is a willingness to cooperate inclusively to a greater democratic education system. In the last chapter a summary is presented of the findings in the various chapters. A synthesis of the findings is presented with regard to the problem statements outlined in Chapter 3. Conclusions are made based on the findings and recommendations are then made regarding further investigations into problem areas and possible solutions.

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In 2004, with only one fully registered teacher in the early childhood centre where this investigation is set, a question arose as to how five non-registered teachers could be guided through individual programmes of registration advice and guidance. This investigation explores a group approach to early childhood teacher registration, where five registering teachers engaged in written reflections and discussion with their registration tutor, who was also the researcher. The teachers used practitioner inquiry as they explored their own practice and the practice of the team. The researcher used practitioner research to build on the teacher's inquiries. Individual written reflections and group discussions began to highlight differences in the ways teacher's interpreted practice. As part of its communication processes the group regularly compared and categorised individual reflections. These general themes were made public and shared with the group, using a process that this research refers to as the common anonymous voice'. The key findings from this investigation concern the role practitioner action research played in the communication of the group. Discussion and written reflections were shown to provide the group with alternative forms of communication. As tensions and challenges regarding group practice emerged in the discussions, teachers began to rely more on the reflective writing process to articulate their own professional philosophies. Shifts in group dynamics were highlighted as the group moved from the need to agree, through to an acceptance of diversity. Individual teaching beliefs and practices were seen as contributing to the collective process of teaching and learning. The reflexive action research framework developed in this study aligns itself with sociocultural notions of learning and development. Links are made with the professional development of the individual teacher and the collective process of the registration group.

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Due to the importance of higher education to jobs and economic growth, integration between research, education, and innovation has been paid more and more attention recently. Therefore, practice-involved programs and courses are being offered by many universities in Europe. In this thesis, a case study was conducted in order to explore the challenges and opportunities when involving practice in IT education. Different perspectives have been taken into account from different stakeholders towards the practice-involved program explored in this study. Examining the knowledge boundaries between stakeholders, several challenges among stakeholders were identified. These boundaries prevent the communication between the theoretical world and the practical world, as well as the communication between the stakeholders. Moreover, several opportunities have emerged from involving practice in IT education.

This dissertation advances a reading of knowledge translation and the effects of such a discourse on nursing practice in one setting. Knowledge translation is often put forth as a solution to the ‘problems’ of contemporary Canadian healthcare. Yet to adopt the practices of knowledge translation does not necessarily reflect the inevitable progress of nursing professionalism or legitimacy but instead, is a process that is both engineered and unpredictable. In order to understand nursing practice in a different way, particularly in the era of ‘knowledge translation,’ an ethnographic methodology guided by a feminist poststructural perspective was chosen. Within the discursive frame of knowledge translation, accounts of nursing practice are narrowly described and often represented as a linear process of delivering particular knowledge (‘evidence’) from experts to users. This contradicts the knowledge translation practices observed in this study as such nursing practice requires a wide and varied knowledge base derived from multiple sources. Thus, it seems the work of successful knowledge translation is the capacity to “move within and between discourses” (Davies, 2000, p. 60) through contextualizing practices. Articulating these contextualizing practices provides an avenue to explain and understand aspects of nursing practice that are essential to sustain the discourse of knowledge translation yet are mostly unaccounted. The discourse of knowledge translation seems to focus on ‘outcomes’ and the creation of a particular kind of quantifiable evidence by the nurses themselves. Such outcomes not only become evidence of ‘good practice,’ the nurse is also positioned to ‘manage’ the subjective experiences of the patient (i.e. pain) by converting such experiences into quantifiable accounts. The production of such outcomes (evidence) also serves to bring nurses and patients into alignment with (made ‘subjects’ of) the discourse of knowledge translation. In this way, the discourse of knowledge translation does not seem to be just about the production of evidence (or knowledge); it is about the reorganization of knowledges. This ‘re-ordering’ is accomplished through (re)education and the concurrent use of chart audits that evaluate ‘good practice’ through the documented use of knowledge translation activities. It is self-referential: documentation of the outcomes of sanctioned knowledge translation activities becomes the evidence that these activities are effective. That is, the evidence is the evidence. While the effects of the discourse of knowledge translation seem to undermine professional judgment and position nurses as the vehicle for organizational surveillance in terms of patient safety (risk) and economic demands, it also serves as a point of resistance. The taken-for-granted contextualizing practices required to enact the discourse of knowledge translation positions the nurse to be influential in expanding the notions of both evidence and knowledge translation. It is the articulation of the multi-dimensional recursive contextualizing practices in concert with the nurses’ ability to move between discursive frames that simultaneously allows for and creates knowledge to be translated. In this way, nurses are also being responsive to a new kind of patient who, while rarely discussed in the knowledge translation process, also has an unaccounted for potential to influence and reshape the discursive field of healthcare. / Graduate

This thesis examines narrative practice in relation to identities of male youth (12-18) who have engaged in sexually abusive behaviours. To answer the following research question: How do male youth who have engaged in sexually abusive behaviours and participated in a treatment program narrate their experience of changes in their identity? I conducted semi-structured interviews, with male youth who have engaged in sexually abusive behaviours and are residing at Counterpoint House. I employ a narrative analysis and draw from White’s re-authoring map for categories of analysis. Results are examined through a Foucauldian lens and demonstrate that the participants experienced a shift in their identity. / Graduate / narrative practice / narrative therapy / jenniferflower@shaw.ca