Thesis PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references.

Executive function (EF) comprises a series of interrelated cognitive and self-regulatory skills which are required in nearly every facet of everyday life, particularly in novel circumstances. EF skills begin developing from birth and continue to grow well into adulthood but are most crucial for children as they are associated with academic and life success as well as mental and physical health. There is now strong evidence that these skills can be trained through targeted intervention in a diverse range of approaches, such as computer games, physical activity, and social play settings. This thesis presents the process of the design and evaluation of an active EF-training game (BrainQuest) for smart-phones, in participation with end-users: a group of 11-12-year-old children from a local Primary School. The design process placed emphasis on creating an engaging user experience, a phenomenon which has eluded many serious games, by building upon motivational game design theory and satisfying end-user requirements. However, in the pursuit of promoting particular executive functions: working memory; inhibitory control; planning and strategizing, the design integrated aspects of a cognitive assessment while also utilizing a range of alternative approaches for training EF, including physical activity and social play. Following an iterative design process which included many single session prototype evaluations, a mixed methods evaluation was undertaken during a 5-week study with twenty-eight 11-12-year-old school children. The study gathered exploratory qualitative and quantitative evidence regarding the game’s potential benefits which was evaluated by triangulating a range of data sources: multi-observer observations notes, interviews with children and teachers, game performance data and logs, and cognitive assessment outcomes. The analysis describes the statistical relationships between game and executive function ability, before exploring user experiences and evidence of cognitive challenge during gameplay through a series of triangulated case studies and general whole-class observations. The analysis presents the game to be engaging and enjoyable throughout the study and, for most children, able to generate a sustainable challenge. Though there were initial difficulties in understanding the complex game rules and technology, the game became increasingly usable and learnable for the target user group and created opportunities for goal setting. It also encouraged feelings of pride and self-confidence as well as facilitating positive social interactions and requiring regulation of emotion, which are considered to be pathways to developing executive functions (Diamond, 2012). There was also promising initial evidence that the game’s variable difficulty level system was able to challenge executive functions: planning and strategizing, working memory, and inhibitory control. Most notably, the game appeared to support improvements in strategizing ability by demanding increasing strategic complexity in response to evolving and increasingly difficult task demands. Supporting BrainQuest’s cognitive challenge, several statistical relationships emerged between executive function ability and game performance measures. However, the game’s ability to significantly improve cognitive outcomes could not yet be concluded. Nevertheless, these findings have implications for both the future design and evaluation practices undertaken by cognitive training researchers. From a design perspective, less credence should be paid to simply gamifying cognitive assessments while greater emphasis should be placed on integration of formal game design and motivational theories. With regards to evaluation, researchers should understand the importance of establishing first whether CTGs can remain engaging over time as well as the feasibility of their challenge to cognitive functions.

No description available.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2006. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 307-339).

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1992. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 203-214). Also available via the Internet.

Thesis (M.S.)--Eastern Connecticut State University, 2004. / Website for materials: http://www.geocities.com/bobbyn18/Thesis.html?1074876403923 (viewed 12-29-2005). Bibliography: leaves 93-97. Thesis also available via the World Wide Web.

Research has shown that widespread misperceptions prevail regarding the use and sustainability of America's forest resources. Elementary school students receive only a general foundation in the area of wood science and many elementary school resources have shown to be inadequate. Virginia Tech and a few other universities have adopted Wood Magic (originated at Mississippi State University) which presents active, hands-on, and engaging science-based education to third, fourth, and fifth graders, allowing them the opportunity to obtain both a theoretical and practical knowledge in these areas of study. A distance education version of the Wood Magic Program, utilizing interactive videoconferencing, is the focus of this thesis. An instructional design model has been developed to meet the needs of designers or instructors looking to expand into the distance education environment. This model describes all steps necessary to develop and implement a distance course or program. A survey was conducted of all randomly selected third, fourth, and fifth grade elementary school science teachers in Virginia. The intentions of the survey were to discover the barriers to implementing the Wood Magic Distance Education Program into their current curriculum. The three largest barriers to implementation were cost of materials, time, and travel resources. / Master of Science

Denna studie syftar till att se på hur barn tar sig an konstruktionsritningar i jämförelse med fritt byggande i en lekfull gruppmiljö. Tidigare forskning visar skillnad mellan mängden män och kvinnor i tekniska yrken och även män och kvinnors inställning till de tekniska ämnena. Vissa forskare visar också på åldersskillnader mellan hur barn lär sig tekniska ämnen. Tar fyra- och femåringar frivilligt sig an konstruktionsritningar, följer dem och färdigställer de konstruktionen? Studien har särskilt tittat på om det fanns skillnader mellan flickorna och pojkarna när de byggde? Hur påverkar barnens eget intresse hur de bygger? Om barn, fyra och fem år gamla kan följa bygginstruktioner? Resultatet av denna studie, i viss mån, stödjer tidigare forskning om att det finns en genus aspekt redan i förskoleåldern, pojkarna var mer försekomna och hade lättare för att följa lego instruktioner än flickorna, men frågan kvarstår; varför finns denna skillnad? Förutom genusaspekten fanns det också ett tydligt resultat som visade på skillnad i byggkunskap mellan fyraåringar och femåringar. Fyraåringarna utforskade främst byggmaterialet, medan många av femåringarna kunde följa en Legobygginstruktion näst intill perfekt. / This study aims to look at how children approach building instructions compared to free building in a playful group environment. Researchers have found age differences, between how young children learn technical subjects. Other studies show that there are differences between the number of men and women in technical professions and also between men and women’s approach to the technical subjects. This study seeks discover if and how four and five year olds voluntarily use, follow, and complete a building exercise using instructional drawings. The study paid close attention to if girls and boys had different approaches to building; how does the children’s own interests affect the process of building? If children aged four and five years are capable of following building instructions. The results of this study to some extent support earlier research that there is a gender difference already at four to five years of age, but the question still remains why this difference exists. As well as the gender difference, there was also a strong result showing a difference in building knowledge between the four year olds and the five year olds. The four year olds mainly explored the building material whereas many of the five year olds could successfully follow the building instructions.

This two phase study explored perspectives of play according to children and parents of Somali heritage and primary school practitioners, in a city in South West England. In an addition to the considerable research base concerning play, this study investigated the frequently overlooked cultural dimension of play and how this affects the education of Somali heritage children in England. The broader contentious concern of play’s role in Early Years and Primary education was also explored. A mixed methods pragmatic approach was employed in this study. In Phase One, a photograph sorting activity based on the Activity Apperception Story Procedure by Howard (2002), was used to enable the participation of young children and participants for whom English is not their first language. Established via this activity were definitions of play and work according to children and parents of Somali heritage and primary school practitioners. Exploratory Data Analysis was applied to examine this data. In Phase Two, a focus group design was used, with discussions drawing on cross-cultural conceptions of play (Gaskins, Haight & Lancy, 2007; Göncü, Tuermer, Jain & Johnson, 1999). This enabled the exploration of how parents of Somali heritage and primary school practitioners perceive play’s relationship to children’s development and learning, with consideration for their own experiences of childhood. Focus group data was analysed using thematic analysis, supported by the Cultural Historical Activity Theory framework. The findings of this study highlight shared and individual definitions of play, competing benefits of play and the cross-cultural importance of play being intrinsically motivated. Implications for practice centre on the need to recognise play as part of unique cultural milieus at a practitioner, school, educational psychology service and policy level.