This thesis showed an analysis of what happened when global educational reforms were implemented in a local Moroccan culture context. Through analyzing and deconstructing discourses in policy documents, as well as qualitative interviews with teachers and pupils in municipal uppersecondary schools and comparing these to each other, a picture was given of what happened in the meeting between the new policies and the implementation of them locally; how they were implemented, resisted and negotiated by different parties concerned. The educational policy, advocating e.g. Education for All, and acquisition of foreign language skills, reproduced social hierarchies when implemented in the Moroccan context. Post-colonial languages, such as French, worked as a class cursor, creating a rift between the social classes and their access to higher education. Student-centered methods were resisted by the teachers, but negotiated by the pupils.

Background: Communication allows people to gain understanding of themselves and their surroundings, which is a prerequisite for good health. The nurse may in her communication help patients develop a feeling that they are not alone in their situation. If the patients cannot express themselves and make themselves understood, it can lead the patients to feel left out which emphasizes the suffering at having aphasia. Aim: The aim of this study was to identify the components which affect nurse’s communication with patients with aphasia. Analysis method: A literature review was made based on eleven scientific articles in which similarities were pointed out. Results: The result of this study is presented in three main categories: Time, Environment and Strategies. Eighth subcategory emerged: Knowledge and patient under Time; Physical and psychosocial under Environment; and Verbal, Nonverbal, Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) and Individual Care under Strategies. Conclusion: This study reveals how nurses can provide the opportunity for patients to increase self-confidence. The result suggests that a person-centered communication care plan as a basic instrument to facilitate patient and caregiver interaction is needed.

No description available.

No description available.

Författarna till detta arbete fick en förfrågan från den pedagogiska utvecklaren på Storvreta förskoleenhet om att förverkliga ett utav Uppsala kommuns sju rumskoncept. Rumskoncepten är ett led i Uppsala kommuns strävan efter att skapa så likvärdig utbildning som möjligt på alla kommunala förskolor. Denna rapport beskriver den process som författarna genomgick i skapandet av en utforskande sandmiljö inomhus på en förskola. I skapandet av den upplevelseprototyp som placerades på den aktuella förskolan utgick författarna dels ifrån Ett förståelsefördjupande dokument om lärmiljöer, men även från de tankar och idéer som Uppdragsgivare och Användare framförde. Det arbetssätt som författarna valde att använda för att utveckla prototypen var en Human-Centered design. Hela processen mynnade ut i en upplevelseprototyp som bestod av två kubformade byggkonstruktioner med tillhörande stationer, där sand var det centrala materialet. Stationerna syftade till att främja ett utforskande och undersökande arbetssätt. Det sociokulturella perspektivet på lärande samt den konstruktionistiska teoribildningen har genomsyrat hela arbetet. Den upplevelseprototyp som blev resultatet av processen utvärderades med hjälp utav intervjuer med Användarna där det framkom att lärmiljön uppfyllde de syften som var uppsatta för detta arbete. Den lärmiljö som författarna placerade på förskolan är endast ett sätt att lösa den uppgift författarna fick, men den kan förhoppningsvis inspirera andra till att utveckla lärmiljöer som främjar ett utforskade och undersökande arbetssätt.

Social accounts of technological change make the flexibility and openness of interpretations the starting point of an argument against technological determinism. They suggest that technological change unfolds in the semantic domain, but they focus on the social processes around the interpretations of new technologies, and do not address the conceptual processes of change in interpretations. The dissertation presents an empirically grounded case study of the design process of an open-source online software platform based on the framework of distributed cognition to argue that the cognitive perspective is needed for understanding innovation in software, because it allows us to describe the reflexive and expansive contribution of conceptual processes to new software and the significance of professional epistemic practices in framing the direction of innovation. The framework of distributed cognition brings the social and cognitive perspectives together on account of its understanding of conceptual processes as distributed over time, among people, and between humans and artifacts. The dissertation argues that an evolving open-source software landscape became translated into the open-ended local design space of a new software project in a process of infrastructural implosion, and the design space prompted participants to outline and pursue epistemic strategies of sense-making and learning about the contexts of use. The result was a process of conceptual modeling, which resulted in a conceptually novel user interface. Prototyping professional practices of user-centered design lent directionality to this conceptual process in terms of a focus on individual activities with the user interface. Social approaches to software design under the broad umbrella of human-centered computing have been seeking to inform the design on the basis of empirical contributions about a social context. The analysis has shown that empirical engagement with the contexts of use followed from conceptual modeling, and concern about real world contexts was aligned with the user-centered direction that design was taking. I also point out a social-technical gap in the design process in connection with the repeated performance challenges that the platform was facing, and describe the possibility of a social-technical imagination.

Video games, as the fastest growing media, need set usability design standards. In this context, this study was motivated by the following kinds of questions: What makes a standard console game good? What makes it too frustrating to play? Each company has developed its own standards which can vary greatly. Game producers learn from experience what to do and what not to do. However, smaller companies that may have only produced a few games are left to chance. Moreover, startup game companies may fail at a game that would have otherwise succeeded if they had only had a set of standards to follow. Companies like Microsoft, Capcom and Electronic Arts rule the gaming industry mainly due to the fact that they have discovered what works. This study employs usability analysis to identify standards for assessing video game effectiveness, efficiency and player satisfaction. Experienced video game players participated in an online questionnaire. Conclusions about effective, efficient, and satisfying video games are derived from questionnaire results. Of several major findings presented in this analysis, this study reveals that the beginning of the game is an imperative experience that can determine if a player continues the game. / Department of Telecommunications

This thesis explores the design of a website to communicate international activities undertaken by or associated with the University of Victoria. The research was seeded by and undertaken in collaboration with the University of Victoria’s office of Vice-President Academics and Provost, and the Office of International Affairs. The thesis introduces and implements a product design process to create a mapping application for the university to display all of its international connections. The thesis advanced the study of how to incorporate users into the design process of an online map. User-centered design is an established practice of studying users and collecting their feedback during all stages of design. This process has begun to be used for online mapping. A challenge with online mapping is that potential users can be an unwieldy community. In this case study the users could come from anywhere within the UVic community, but also the public. With such a large and diverse group, incorporating all the potential users into the design process is not possible. A challenge therefore is to capture feedback from a meaningful representative sample of potential users. This research describes a process of user-centered design in which a sample of users were surveyed at the beginning of the process to determine their requirements and preferences for a mapping application, and then interviewed to test the usability of the product. The thesis concludes with recommendations for design and layout of an online mapping application, including identification where further study or decisions are required. / Graduate

Bakgrund: Kvinnor som röker kan drabbas av minskad fertilitet och det kan ta längre tid för dem att bli gravida. Forskning visar att rökning i samband med graviditet bland annat kan leda till missfall, låg födelsevikt och plötslig spädbarnsdöd. En stor andel av dessa kvinnor är medvetna om riskerna rökning under graviditet kan medföra men trots det fortsätter de att röka. Om vårdgivaren är medveten om de bakomliggande faktorerna till kvinnornas rökbeteende kan hen erbjuda kvinnan en individanpassad omvårdnad. För att kunna erbjuda rätt vård är personcentrerad omvårdnad viktigt. Syfte: Syftet var att beskriva vad som gör att kvinnor fortsätter röka under graviditeten. Metod: Litteraturöversikt med en beskrivande design av både kvalitativa och kvantitativa studier. Resultat: Nio faktorer som påverkar kvinnans fortsatta rökbeteende under graviditeten har hittats. Faktorerna är: nikotinberoende, relationsrelaterade problem, stress, behov av egentid och avslappning, partnern, brist på kunskap och motivation, sociala nätverk, förträngning samt bristande stöd från vårdgivaren. Slutsats: Det är viktigt att sjuksköterskan förstår varför en kvinna väljer att röka under graviditetsperioden. Förstår sjuksköterskan vad som ligger bakom rökbeteendet hos den gravida kvinnan kan det bli lättare för hen att erbjuda rätt vård. / <p>+</p>

This study examined the relationship between perfectionism and parenting styles among 194 male youth soccer players (M age = 13.64 years). Participants completed the Sport Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale-2 (Sport-MPS-2: Gotwals & Dunn, 2009) and the Parenting Style Inventory-2 (PSI-2: Darling & Toyokawa, 1997). Factor analyses conducted on PSI-2 data resulted in a single factor that represented positive aspects of parenting and was labeled child-centered parenting (cf. Maccoby & Martin, 1983). Correlational results revealed significant and theoretically meaningful relationships between various perfectionism dimensions and child-centered parenting. Cluster analyses supported the existence of three groups of perfectionists: adaptive-, maladaptive-, and non-perfectionists. Significant between-cluster differences on perceptions of child-centered parenting were obtained (ps < .001), with maladaptive perfectionists perceiving their parents as being less child-centered than both adaptive- and non-perfectionists. Results are discussed surrounding the potential impact that parenting styles may have on the development of perfectionism in youth athletes.