Atmospheric Flight Mechanics (AFM) is one of the cornerstones of aeronautical engineering and includes subjects like aerodynamic prediction, stability and control, dynamics, and vehicle design. These topics are critical to the success of aircraft development, so AFM is considered one of the most important foundational knowledge areas for aerospace engineering. Unfortunately, students graduating from aerospace engineering programs are often underprepared to perform in AFM jobs. This ongoing research focuses on developing a blueprint for assessing conceptual understanding of AFM concepts. Since existing literature suggests that novices and experts organize knowledge differently, comparing students' and experts' mental models can shine a light on the alternative conceptions that students retain post-instruction. As such, framing the study around synthetic mental models can be advantageous. To explore these mental models, three types of data have been collected and analyzed. Document analysis was done on course documents to identify what concept relationships were being presented to the students. Class observations were conducted to analyze how concepts are introduced to students and what relationships are highlighted by the instructor. Finally, a concept mapping activity was facilitated to study the mental models that the students built after instruction. The results show a lack of synthetization between the knowledge introduced in the classroom and students' prior knowledge which translated into student mental models that do not meet some of the expectations of the course. Moreover, this study highlights the importance of the instructor's awareness of their own expectations for learning and knowledge synthetization in the design of an AFM course. / Doctor of Philosophy / Conceptual understanding research has often focused on how students develop their understanding of scientific concepts that are difficult to grasp. Through this research, many assessment techniques have been developed and implemented in the design of STEM courses. However, many of these techniques and implementations have been limited to K-12 or introductory engineering courses. Atmospheric Flight Mechanics (AFM) is an important part of the aerospace curriculum that has yet to be studied under the conceptual understanding lens. The goal of this study was to investigate how students develop AFM conceptual understanding using a synthetic mental model framework. This study focused on answering three questions, how are students being introduced to AFM concepts?, how do students' mental models develop throughout the semester?, and how do the students' and instructor's mental models compare?. Through the exploration of class documents, class observations, and concept mapping activities, this research found that students are having a hard time making sense of new knowledge based on their previous understanding of similar topics. By trying to integrate this new knowledge with their previous mental models, students are developing synthetic mental models that do not align with the scientific explanations of the topic. This study also found that instructors are often unaware of their own knowledge and expectations for learning which makes knowledge synthetization harder for the students. Therefore, addressing these issues during course design could make an AFM course easier to understand for students.

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Mémoire numérisé par la Direction des bibliothèques de l'Université de Montréal.

Chalmers (2007) has argued that any version of the phenomenal concept strategy will fail, given that phenomenal concepts will either fail to explain our epistemic situation, or fail to be physically explicable themselves. Carruthers and Veillet (2007) have offered a response, arguing that zombies do share our epistemic situation. In the following paper I aim to show that philosophical-zombies do not share our epistemic situation concerning phenomenal consciousness. I will begin with some background material regarding the general dialectic I am addressing in section (I) before outlining the debate between Chalmers (2007) and Carruthers and Veillet (2007) in more detail and its relevance for mind-body considerations in section (II). Next, in section (III) I will suggest a worry related to Carruthers and Veillet’s position: that phenomenal concepts fail to refer in zombie worlds in the first place. Finally, in section (IV) I will argue that even if a zombie’s phenomenal concepts successfully refer, there is still good reason to think that zombies will fail to share our epistemic situation. I will defend this claim by explaining three asymmetries between me and my zombie twin’s corresponding epistemic situations. / Master of Arts / In the following paper I defend the position that philosophical zombies don’t share our epistemic situation. Philosophical zombies are hypothetical creatures that are identical to humans concerning all physical and functional properties, yet lack any phenomenal experiences. While zombies have identical brain states compared to non-zombies, they lack any felt, private, and subjective experiences. Next, I understand epistemic situation in this paper as the justificatory status of one’s beliefs. So, I am arguing that the beliefs of a physical duplicate of me who lacked experiences would not be equally justified as mine. Specifically, I am responding to Carruthers and Veillet (2007) who argue that philosophical zombies do share our epistemic situation, so long as we allow the zombies’ beliefs to differ in content. That is to say, if we understand zombie beliefs to be about different states (other than phenomenal states), then there is an available physical referent for the zombie belief that will ensure all his beliefs are as equally justified as their non-zombie twin. I suggest a difficulty for the existence of such a referent, and point to a collection of asymmetries in justificatory status between the beliefs of zombies and non-zombies to argue that the Carruthers and Veillet (2007) strategy is unavailable.

Critical thinking ability is imperative for nurse practitioners in the multidimensional unfolding health care arena. Consensus as to what critical thinking entails has yet to be articulated. This non-empirical study thus set out to clarify the concept "critical thinking. Walker and Avant's (1995) proposal for conducting a concept analysis was used within the qualitative research paradigm. Literature selected from the fields of education, philosophy, nursing and psychology was consulted as the main source of data. Thematic and theoretical sampling of literature were also embarked upon during the later stage of the research to add density to emergent categories and themes. Categories were organised according to the Strauss and Corbin (1995) paradigmatic model; indicating the antecedents, disposition of the thinker, attributes and critical attributes, and outcomes of critical thinking. The findings indicate that critical thinking is a complex, multidimensional, dynamic, existential and context dependent mental operation. The essence of critical thinking is further illuminated by the construction of a model case and additional cases. The concept critical thinking is finally succinctly defined. The implications that critical thinking holds for nursing education and practice are spelled out. / Health Studies / M.A. (Health Studies)

ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Number properties, amongst others the commutative, associative and distributive properties and general rearrangement principles, form the building blocks of manipulative algebra. Research and observation have shown that sec~mdary school pupils do not sufficiently master manipulative algebra, i.e. they do not possess sufficient mastery towards the nature, meaning, functionality and logic of algebraic manipulations. They are hence not aware that algebraic manipulations are based on the number properties, on the one hand because they were not given sufficient opportunity to experience algebra as generalised arithmetic when they were introduced to algebra, and on the other hand because the number properties, about which young children possess intuitive knowledge, were never explicated for them. This study investigates the level of awareness of several number properties present in senior primary (especially standard 3) pupils, and utilises a few activities to attempt to lead pupils towards a higher level of awareness. In addition this study attempts to determine whether pupils who follow the experimental primary mathematics curriculum (project pupils) possess a higher level of awareness than pupils who follow the traditional curriculum (nonproject pupils). As part of the latter effort, two investigation methods are utilised with regards to specifically the distributive property, i.e. clinical interviews and questionnaires. This also serves as part of a wider effort to design a measuring instrument with which possible differences between the learning outcomes of project and non-project pupils can be measured .. From the results of this study, it seems to appear that the large majority of pupils are explicitly aware of the commutative properties of addition and multiplication and the general rearrangement principles, to a lesser extent with regards to a minus sign before brackets, and that there does not exist a significant difference about the level of awareness towards these properties between project and non-project pupils. With regards to the distributive property, there appears to exist a considerable amount of difference in the level of awareness between project and non-project pupils, the first mentioned being the higher. However, the opinion is expressed that the level of awareness among project pupils is not high enough, and that project pupils must be given sufficient opportunity in (at least standards 4 and 5) to explicate this property for themselves. Finally, a model of the levels of awareness, based on results of this study, is proposed. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Getaleienskappe, waaronder die kommutatiewe, assosiatiewe en distributiewe eienskappe en algemene herrangskikkingsbeginsels, vorm die boustene van manipulatiewe algebra. Navorsing en waarneming het aan die lig gebring dat hoerskoolleerlinge manipulatiewe algebra nie na behore beheers nie, dit wil se hulle beskik nie oor voldoende beheersing ten opsigte van die aard, betekenis, funksionalteit en logika van algebraise manipulasies nie. Hulle is dus nie daarvan bewus dat algebraiese manipulasies op die getaleienskappe berus nie, enersyds omdat hulle nie tydens die kennismaking met manipulatiewe algebra genoegsaam in die geleentheid gestel is om algebra as veralgemeende rekenkunde te ervaar nie, en andersyds omdat die getaleienskappe, waaroor jong kinders intuitiewe kennis besit, nooit vir hulle geeksplisiteer is nie. Hierdie studie stel ondersoek in na senior primere (hoofsaaklik standerd 3) leerlinge se vlak van bewustheid van enkele getaleienskappe, en benut enkele aktiwiteite om leerlinge na 'n hoer vlak van bewustheid daarvan te probeer lei. Hierbenewens word probeer om vas te stel of daar by leerlinge wat die eksperimentele primere wiskunde-kurrikulum volg (projekleerlinge) 'n hoer vlak van bewustheid aanwesig is as by leerlinge wat die tradisionele kurrikulum volg (nie-projekleerlinge). As· deel van laasgenoemde poging, word twee ondersoekmetod~s gevolg ten opsigte van spesifiek die distributiewe eienskap, naamlik kliniese onderhoude en vraelyste. Dit dien ook as deel van 'n breer poging om 'n meetinstrument te ontwerp waarmee moontlike verskille tussen die leeruitkomste van projek- en nie-projekleerlinge gemeet kan word. Dit wil uit die bevindinge van hierdie studie voorkom asof die oorgrote meerderheid leertinge eksplisiet bewus is van die kommutatiewe eienskappe ten opsigte van optelling en vermenigvuldiging en die algemene herrangskikkingsbeginsels, in 'n mindere mate ten opsigte van die minusteken voor hakies, en dat daar nie 'n noemenswaardige verskil in die vlak van bewustheid oor hierdie eienskappe by projek- en nie-projekleerlinge bestaan nie. Sover dit die distributiewe eienskap betref, lyk dit asof daar 'n redelike verskil in die vlak van bewustheid by projek- en nie-projekleerlinge is met eersgenoemde die hoogste. Tog word die mening uitgespreek dat die vlak van bewustheid by projekleerlinge nie hoog genoeg is nie, en dat hulle in minstens standerd 4 en 5 in die geleentheid gestel moet word om hierdie getaleienskap vir hulself te eksplisiteer.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Concept drift refers to a problem that is caused by a change in the data distribution in data mining. This leads to reduction in the accuracy of the current model that is used to examine the underlying data distribution of the concept to be discovered. A number of techniques have been introduced to address this issue, in a supervised learning (or classification) setting. In a classification setting, the target concept (or class) to be learned is known. One of these techniques is called “Ensemble learning”, which refers to using multiple trained classifiers in order to get better predictions by using some voting scheme. In a traditional ensemble, the underlying base classifiers are all of the same type. Recent research extends the idea of ensemble learning to the idea of using committees, where a committee consists of diverse classifiers. This is the main difference between the regular ensemble classifiers and the committee learning algorithms. Committees are able to use diverse learning methods simultaneously and dynamically take advantage of the most accurate classifiers as the data change. In addition, some committees are able to replace their members when they perform poorly. This thesis presents two new algorithms that address concept drifts. The first algorithm has been designed to systematically introduce gradual and sudden concept drift scenarios into datasets. In order to save time and avoid memory consumption, the Concept Drift Introducer (CDI) algorithm divides the number of drift scenarios into phases. The main advantage of using phases is that it allows us to produce a highly scalable concept drift detector that evaluates each phase, instead of evaluating each individual drift scenario. We further designed a novel algorithm to handle concept drift. Our Dynamic Committee for Concept Drift (DCCD) algorithm uses a voted committee of hypotheses that vote on the best base classifier, based on its predictive accuracy. The novelty of DCCD lies in the fact that we employ diverse heterogeneous classifiers in one committee in an attempt to maximize diversity. DCCD detects concept drifts by using the accuracy and by weighing the committee members by adding one point to the most accurate member. The total loss in accuracy for each member is calculated at the end of each point of measurement, or phase. The performance of the committee members are evaluated to decide whether a member needs to be replaced or not. Moreover, DCCD detects the worst member in the committee and then eliminates this member by using a weighting mechanism. Our experimental evaluation centers on evaluating the performance of DCCD on various datasets of different sizes, with different levels of gradual and sudden concept drift. We further compare our algorithm to another state-of-the-art algorithm, namely the MultiScheme approach. The experiments indicate the effectiveness of our DCCD method under a number of diverse circumstances. The DCCD algorithm generally generates high performance results, especially when the number of concept drifts is large in a dataset. For the size of the datasets used, our results showed that DCCD produced a steady improvement in performance when applied to small datasets. Further, in large and medium datasets, our DCCD method has a comparable, and often slightly higher, performance than the MultiScheme technique. The experimental results also show that the DCCD algorithm limits the loss in accuracy over time, regardless of the size of the dataset.

La section 1 présente les changements de l'agriculture québécoise au cours des 50 dernières années. Les productions animales (porc, volaille) en croissance au Québec ont généré une augmentation des volumes des lisiers et des fumiers dans les régions à forte densité animale (ex. : Montérégie-Est, Beauce). Par ailleurs, les producteurs de grandes cultures ont utilisé des engrais minéraux (azote, phosphore, potassium) pour fertiliser notamment le maïs-grain dans le but d'atteindre de bons rendements. D'autres recherches ont également établi un lien entre l'augmentation des superficies de cultures à grand interligne (ex.: maïs-grain, soya) et des concentrations en phosphore dépassant le critère d'eutrophisation des rivières fixé à 0,03 mg/1 au Québec. La section 2 présente le matériel, la méthodologie et le cadre théorique de l'étude. Le Groupe de travail sur l'écoconditionnalité dans le secteur agricole du Québec est l'objet de l'étude. La théorie de gouvernance de Stoker (1998) sert de modèle d'analyse de l'objet, vu par l'entremise de documents de référence et des résultats de trois entrevues semi-dirigées. La section 3 présente le cadre réglementaire des activités agricoles pour résoudre progressivement la pollution diffuse d'origine agricole. Les missions, les rôles et les responsabilités des ministères et des organismes concernés par la problématique environnementale et l'écoconditionnalité seront présentés pour mieux comprendre les applications du concept d'écoconditionnalité. Les lois, les règlements et les politiques seront également analysés en lien avec les mesures d'écoconditionnalité et la gouvernance des territoires ruraux. La section 4 présente le concept, les mesures d'écoconditionnalité retenues au Québec, les programmes d'aide financière concernés et les moyens de contrôle des mesures d'écoconditionnalité. L'écoconditionnalité peut se traduire par des mesures et des approches différentes d'un modèle à l'autre. En effet, les mesures d'écoconditionnalité peuvent se limiter seulement à des pratiques agroenvironnementales, alors que d'autres modèles intègrent des mesures liées à des pratiques de bien-être des animaux, de santé animale, de biens et services environnementaux (ex. : implantation de haies brise-vent, couvertures végétales). La section 5 présente le concept de gouvernance, son évolution et certaines définitions proposées par les chercheurs en ce domaine. Nous analysons l'application du concept de gouvernance en lien avec le développement des territoires ruraux au Québec et la protection de l'environnement, plus spécifiquement la ressource eau. La section 6 présente la théorie de gouvernance de Stoker (1998) basée sur les cinq propositions. Chacune des propositions est expliquée et décrite dans le contexte de notre sujet. La section 7 présente l'analyse des documents de référence. Ils concernent des rapports, des études et des communiqués de presse produits par certains membres du Groupe de travail sur l'écoconditionnalité dans le secteur agricole au Québec. Cette section permet de comparer les recommandations de l'Union québécoise de la conservation de la nature, les recommandations du Groupe de travail sur l'écoconditionnalité et les mesures d'écoconditionnalité retenues par le gouvernement. La section 8 présente l'analyse des résultats en faisant ressortir les points convergents et divergents de chacune des propositions de la théorie de gouvernance de Stoker (1998). Nous proposons une piste de solutions pour bonifier le concept de gouvernance de l'écoconditionnalité et de la multifonctionnalité de l'agriculture visant à moduler les programmes d'aide financière en fonction de deux types d'agriculture. Finalement, à la section 9 nous terminons avec une conclusion sur les résultats observés en regard des cinq propositions de la théorie de gouvernance de Stoker (1998). Les résultats font ressortir quelques dilemmes relevés par la théorie de Stoker, à savoir qu'un acteur ou un regroupement d'acteurs a utilisé un pouvoir non partagé avec les autres parties prenantes pour influencer les décisions collectives sur les mesures d'écoconditionnalité."--Résumé abrégé par UMI.

This meta-analysis investigated the efficacy of counseling to favorably change self-concept; the effectiveness of the Tennessee Self Concept Scale (TSCS) in measuring self-concept change; and whether the TSCS is consistent with other self-concept instruments in measuring self-concept change when used in the same research study. The meta-analysis inclusion criteria were: one or more psychotherapy or counseling treatments administered to the subjects; comparison of two groups, including an alternate treatment or control condition; investigated self-concept change; pre-post-test measurements of self-concept dependent variable were reported; sample was randomized and/or matched for equivalence; and sufficient information was reported to calculate or reconstruct an effect size.