It is a truism in contemporary understandings of semantics that there is no simple one-to-one correspondence between a word and its referent. As Wittgenstein has suggested, we can only know the meaning of a word by understanding the way it is used, and these uses are known often to be variable and highly context-dependent. / The issue of the variable meanings of terms is especially important when the term in question has assumed some centrality within a particular social domain, when its meanings are contested, and when the way the term is interpreted has a major bearing on subsequent social and institutional practices. In contemporary debates about the aims and purposes of higher education one such term is ‘critical thinking’. Whilst there is general unanimity in the higher education literature about the importance of ‘critical thinking’ as an educational ideal, there is surprisingly little agreement about what the term means exactly, as well as what exactly students should be taught in order to be appropriately critical in their field. / This thesis reports an empirical study which investigated conceptions of critical thinking as they are held by academics from a range of humanities disciplines: History, Philosophy, and Literary/Cultural Studies. The broad method used was a ‘textographic’ one, focusing both on how the concept of critical thinking was talked about by informants in interview, and also how it was constructed in a range of texts used by them in their teaching on undergraduate programs. / The study found a good deal of variation in the meaning of the term ‘critical’, not only between the three disciplines, but also within them. This variation was located in a number of areas: in the epistemic entities to which students needed to direct their thinking (e.g. textual vs. phenomenal entities), and in the various analytical modes they were required to adopt (e.g. evaluative vs. interpretative modes). The broad principle to be drawn from these findings is that the nature of one's thinking is indivisible from the object to which that thinking is directed. / The varieties of critical thinking found in the study provide some challenge to certain generic understandings of critical thinking, ones that have assumed increasing influence in higher education debates in recent years. The study concludes by suggesting that the teaching of critical thinking is likely to be more effective if handled within the context of students’ study in the disciplines, as opposed to a generic extra-disciplinary approach. It is also suggested that an important part of becoming a critical thinker in the academy is being able to recognise and to negotiate this variety of critical modes.

Submitted by BÁRBARA COSSETTIN COSTA BEBER BRUNINI null (barbrunini@unipar.br) on 2016-01-29T21:06:52Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dissertação novíssima versão final.pdf: 1239312 bytes, checksum: a54532126d15ba066b4cb0c72a192cdc (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Sandra Manzano de Almeida (smanzano@marilia.unesp.br) on 2016-02-01T17:16:49Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 brunini_bccb_me_assis.pdf: 1239312 bytes, checksum: a54532126d15ba066b4cb0c72a192cdc (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-02-01T17:16:49Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 brunini_bccb_me_assis.pdf: 1239312 bytes, checksum: a54532126d15ba066b4cb0c72a192cdc (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-01-14 / Problematizamos nesta pesquisa o processo de constituição da Psicologia Jurídica no contexto institucional do Sistema de Justiça. A partir da genealogia de Michel Foucault, investigamos como se articulam os complexos binômios Psicologia-Direito, Psicologia-Judiciário, produzindo uma análise sobre a emergência dessa nova área de atuação dos profissionais da Psicologia, que manejam o campo da subjetividade em confronto com a lei, os Tribunais e a Justiça, atentos aos planos das práticas discursivas e das práticas não discursivas. Foi realizado um trabalho de levantamento bibliográfico e também documental, colecionando e resenhando livros, artigos, teses, dissertações e documentos pertinentes, tais como legislações e coletâneas oficiais dos respectivos órgãos de classe profissional, para analisar os discursos sobre a Psicologia Jurídica. Num segundo momento, entrevistamos psicólogos que atuam na área de Psicologia Jurídica bem como aqueles que pela Justiça são intimados a responder a sua demanda mesmo atuando em diferentes estabelecimentos os quais, além dos Tribunais de Justiça, podem estar exercendo suas atividades em Centros de Socioeducação, Casas Abrigo, Unidades de Saúde, Centros de Assistência Social e na função de peritos autônomos. Pensando na entrevista, propomos tópicos disparadores para dialogar com nossos entrevistados sobre suas práticas institucionais na atualidade, bem como mapear quais são seus impasses e suas possibilidades nessa atuação. Enquanto sujeito de saber-poder o profissional psi é inserido no sistema judicial e convidado a responder a ele por meio de suas teorias, técnicas, práticas e instrumentos diversos, os quais também podem ser considerados tecnologias políticas do corpo, principalmente quando agem sobre o corpo de quem deverá ser seu alvo de intervenção, em resposta aos pré-requisitos da lei. A Psicologia Jurídica se constitui e produz seus efeitos no contexto da Psicologia como ciência disciplinar, podendo ser compreendida por meio dos estudos de Michel Foucault quanto à emergência do poder disciplinar e do tipo de sociedade que esse poder constrói: sociedade eminentemente judicializante das práticas sociais em geral. Esta pesquisa nos auxiliou a encontrar nos escritos de Foucault, um referencial importante para o desenvolvimento de análises implicadas sobre a prática profissional do psicólogo e, particularmente, do psicólogo jurídico, apontando para a necessidade de repensar teorias, técnicas, políticas e éticas, tanto na formação do psicólogo em geral quanto como especialista atuante no Sistema Judiciário. / We problematize this research the process of setting up the Legal Psychology in the institutional context of the Justice System. From the genealogy of Michel Foucault, we investigate how to articulate the binomial complex Psychology-Law, Psychology, judiciary, producing an analysis of the emergence of this new area of expertise of the professionals of psychology, that handle the field of confrontation in subjectivity with the law the Courts and Justice, aware of the plans of the discursive practices and non-discursive practices. It conducted a literature review of work as well as documentary, collecting, reviewing and analyzing articles, theses, dissertations and relevant documents such as official legislation and compilations of their professional class organizations, to analyze the discourses on Legal Psychology. Secondly, we interviewed psychologists who work in Forensic Psychology area as well as those by the courts are enjoined to respond to their demand even working in different establishments which, in addition to the Courts of Justice, may be exerting its activities in socio-educational centers, Shelters, health units, social assistance centers and the role of independent experts. Thinking about the interview, we trigger propose topics for dialogue with our respondents about their institutional practices today and map out what their impasses and possibilities in this action. As a subject of knowledge-power professional psi is inserted into the judicial system and asked to respond to it through his theories, techniques, various practices and tools, which can also be considered body of political technologies, especially when they act on the body who should be its intervention target in response to the prerequisites of the law. The Forensic Psychology is constituted and produces its effects in the context of psychology as a discipline science, can be understood through Michel Foucault's studies of the emergence of disciplinary power and the type of society that this power builds: eminently judicializante society of social practices general. This research allowed us to find in the writings of Foucault, a short referential importance for the development involved analyzes of the psychologist care and, particularly, the legal psychologist, pointing to the need for theoretical reforms, technical, political and ethical, both the training of psychologists in general and as an expert active in the Judiciary.

abstract: This study explores the relationships and implications of Foucault's genealogical analytic, his most recently published course, The Punitive Society and its connections to Discipline and Punish through an analysis of productive power, and the potential offerings for educational research. The purpose of this study is to clarify Foucault's genealogical approach in making it more accessible to educational researchers, to investigate the applications and significance of Foucault's most recently available lectures to education, and to analyze Foucault's reimagining of the notion of power as it is developed throughout the lectures and fully realized in Discipline and Punish to better develop an analytic lens from which to interrogate relations of power in pedagogical practices. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Educational Leadership and Policy Studies 2016

abstract: The use of restrictive housing in prisons is at the forefront of national discussions on crime and punishment. Civil and human rights activists have argued that its use should be limited due to harmful effects on the physical and psychological health of inmates as well as its limited ability to reduce subsequent offending. Stacked against this is the need for correctional administrators to respond to institutional violence in a manner that ideally curtails future violence while doing no further harm to the well-being of those housed in these environments. The current project explores the effectiveness of a Restrictive Status Housing Program (RSHP) designed for inmates who commit violent assaults within the Arizona Department of Corrections. The program, as designed, moves beyond exclusively punitive approaches to segregation by encouraging behavior modification that is influenced by cognitive behavioral training. This study advances the literature and informs correctional policy by: 1) examining the effects of program participation on future behavioral outcomes, and 2) exploring mechanisms through which the program works (or does not work) by interviewing former RSHP participants and staff. The current research uses a mixed-method research design and was carried out in two phases. For Phase 1, quantitative data on behavioral outcomes of program participants (N = 240), as well as a carefully constructed comparison group (N = 1,687), will be collected and analyzed using official records over a one-year follow-up. Phase 2 will examine qualitative data derived from semi-structured interviews with former RSHP participants (n = 25) and correctional staff who oversee the day-to-day management of the program (n = 10). Results from the current study suggest that placement in the RSHP has null, and at times, an adverse effect on subsequent levels of institutional misconduct. Policy implications and recommendations based on these findings are discussed. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Criminology and Criminal Justice 2018

Strong parallels exist between the formation of subjectivity through the disciplinary/bio-power technologies of the 18th/19th centuries – which Michel Foucault identified in his books Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, and The History of Sexuality Volume 1: The Will to Knowledge – and the 20th/21st century formation of subjectivity effected through Apple. Inc and Google. Inc operating systems and products. These systems and products similarly serve to canalize and ‗discipline‘ the pursuit and exchange of information, in a way that is constitutive of a new cyber-variant of disciplinary/bio-power subjectivity.

No abstract available / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Centre for Human Rights / unrestricted

Background and problem: The audit profession have developed through the history as the auditor’s associations has becoming rule-making bodies. Auditors has become an even more important function, which leads to greater responsibility and more obligations. Auditors are seen as a profession, and in exchange for them to perform their work they need to be seen to act in the public interest, being independent, act with integrity, having knowledge and competence and being dedicated to their work. It has also been seen in previous research that the professional appearance and behavior matters in the audit profession. Due to the scandals in the audit profession over time, the need for supervisory boards has increased. It is the Swedish Inspectorate of Auditors (SIA) that perform the supervision of the auditors in Sweden and ensure that existing rules and standards are being followed. In previous research of disciplinary cases issued by the SIA, it is seen that professional wrongdoings made by auditors was of importance. However, no previous research has investigated what types of professional wrongdoings auditors commits. Aim: The aim of this study is to explore what manifests unprofessionalism in the audit profession. Disciplinary cases concerning professional wrongdoings will be analyzed in order to understand how the Swedish audit profession’s supervisory body, the SIA, assesses cases that relates to unprofessional behavior. Methodology: Disciplinary cases concerning professional wrongdoings between 2006-2019 has been analyzed through a qualitative content analysis. The disciplinary cases have been sorted into categories concerning professional aspects that have emerged from previous research and auditor’s code of conduct. The result has been analyzed and compared to previous research and the frame of reference. Result and conclusions: The types of professional wrongdoings the auditors commit are Lack of independence, Shortcomings in the auditor’s own business, Lack of dedication, Not fulfilled requirements, Personal shortcomings, Not act in public interest and Lack of integrity. The types of professional wrongdoings occurred most frequently was Lack of independence, Shortcomings the auditor’s own business and Lack of dedication. Lack of independence had the highest share of the total disciplinary cases issued, while Shortcomings in the auditor’s own business seem to be the most severe one as it had the largest share of withdrawal of the auditor’s authorization or approval. Future studies: As this study only take the perspective of the SIA, it would be further interesting to see how the auditor’s perceive professionalism and what aspects they find important in order to obtain a professional role. Hence, conducting a study from the perspective of the professionals would give a more nuanced picture of what it means being a professional. In addition, it would also be interesting to investigate how the audited client’s perceive professionalism in the audit, and what aspects of professionalism they find important in order to obtain trust for the auditor.

In this study, I examine the ways in which undergraduate students acquire the discourses of their chosen major. In particular, I focus on the complementary contributions of faculty members and academic librarians in students' acquisition of disciplinary discourses. Grounded in genre theory and Gee's (1996) notion of primary and secondary discourses, the study highlights the complex processes that students undergo to acquire and internalize the discourse of an academic discipline. Using a qualitative case-study approach, I consider the interrelated experiences of five undergraduate students, three faculty members, and two librarians at a small liberal arts college in the Midwest. Data sources include students' written assignments gathered from their major coursework throughout their college careers; interviews with student participants, faculty members, and librarians; observational notes and transcripts of lectures in courses taught by professors from four courses; and course artifacts, including course syllabi and assignment sheets from the four courses. Data from this study highlight the complex matrix of influences undergraduate students experience as they acquire the specialized language of an academic discipline. My data provide insight into the ways in which some students are positioned to take up disciplinary discourses with ease while other students struggle to develop the same level of acquisition and academic fluency. I bring to light the instructional and institutional practices that facilitate student learning and document those instances where instructional opportunities were missed and where unwarranted assumptions compromised student learning. I conclude this study with series of recommendations, most notably, a greater participation by academic librarians in order to enhance the acquisition of disciplinary discourses for undergraduate students. Further, my data suggest that collaborative opportunities between and among faculty members and academic librarians are likely to enhance the effective teaching of disciplinary discourses. Because of librarians' role as simultaneous insiders and outsiders to the academic disciplines, they are uniquely well-positioned to assist students in acquiring the disciplinary discourses. This dissertation suggests that by making visible the cultural expectations and practices of academia, faculty members and librarians can collaborate to assist undergraduate students gain entry into the academic discourse community.

The main objective of this research is to develop an innovative multi-fidelity multi-disciplinary design, analysis and optimization suite that integrates certain solution generation codes and newly developed innovative tools to improve the overall optimization process. The research performed herein is divided into two parts: (1) the development of an MDAO framework by integration of variable fidelity physics-based computational codes, and (2) enhancements to such a framework by incorporating innovative features extending its robustness. The first part of this dissertation describes the development of a conceptual Multi-Fidelity Multi-Strategy and Multi-Disciplinary Design Optimization Environment (M3 DOE), in context of aircraft wing optimization. M3 DOE provides the user a capability to optimize configurations with a choice of (i) the level of fidelity desired, (ii) the use of a single-step or multi-step optimization strategy, and (iii) combination of a series of structural and aerodynamic analyses. The modularity of M3 DOE allows it to be a part of other inclusive optimization frameworks. The M3 DOE is demonstrated within the context of shape and sizing optimization of the wing of a Generic Business Jet aircraft. Two different optimization objectives, viz. dry weight minimization, and cruise range maximization are studied by conducting one low-fidelity and two high-fidelity optimization runs to demonstrate the application scope of M3 DOE. The second part of this dissertation describes the development of an innovative hybrid optimization framework that extends the robustness of M3 DOE by employing a proper orthogonal decomposition-based design-space order reduction scheme combined with the evolutionary algorithm technique. The POD method of extracting dominant modes from an ensemble of candidate configurations is used for the design-space order reduction. The snapshot of candidate population is updated iteratively using evolutionary algorithm technique of fitness-driven retention. This strategy capitalizes on the advantages of evolutionary algorithm as well as POD-based reduced order modeling, while overcoming the shortcomings inherent with these techniques. When linked with M3 DOE, this strategy offers a computationally efficient methodology for problems with high level of complexity and a challenging design-space. This newly developed framework is demonstrated for its robustness on a non-conventional supersonic tailless air vehicle wing shape optimization problem. / Ph. D.

This study addresses the question of whether or not pre-service teachers are ready and prepared to use and teach the highly-specialized language of each discipline. The disciplinary languages present teaching and learning challenges due to their lack of parallels in the daily language (Shanahan & Shanahan, 2008). Additionally, the languages of the disciplines are rarely taught and are commonly acquired through an isolated representation of words without a situated meaning within the theory (Gee, 2002). The knowledge of the particular ways of reading, writing, listening to, and talking in the content areas provides opportunities for students’ apprenticeship within the disciplines required for success in higher education contexts (Dobbs, Ippolito, and Charner, 2017). Moreover, this study addresses the question of how future teachers develop disciplinary knowledge and skills. The purpose of this case study was to investigate how mathematical literacy is shaped and defined by the experiences, language, and disciplinary practices of pre-service teachers and experts in mathematics. This overall aim was unfolded by three guiding research questions: 1) What do the Experiences of Pre-Service Teachers and Experts in Mathematics Reveal about their Understanding of Mathematical Literacy? 2) RQ 2. How do pre-service teachers and experts in mathematics use language when solving mathematical problems? and 3) What literacy practices do pre-service teachers and experts in mathematics utilize when presented with modules that require mathematics problem-solving? To structure the elements of analysis for the participants’ responses, I adopted the theoretical support from the emerging disciplinary literacy framework, the novice-expert paradigm, and the tenets of M. K. Halliday’s functional linguistic theory (i.e., Systemic Functional Linguistics; [SFL]). Four faculty in the Department of Mathematics and four pre-service teachers in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at a large Midwest university agreed to participate in this case study. For the data collection, I asked the participants to participate in two sessions. In the first sessions, the participants responded to a semi-structured interview. Afterward, in a second session, the participants solved modules of mathematical problems following three protocols: a think-aloud, a silent-solving, and an oral-explanatory. The results of the participants’ responses to the semi-structured interview and the three protocols indicated that their experiences as learners and teachers of mathematics are tied to their definitions of literacy and disciplinary literacy. The SFL analysis showed that for the experts of mathematics, mathematical problem-solving is a more abstract and cognitive practice. The pre-service teachers’ registers indicated that mathematical problem-solving is experienced as more concrete and real practice. The unique literacy practices that these participants displayed showed the strong connection between language, literacy, and mathematical thought.The implications of this study are discussed in terms of the importance of language and disciplinary literacy in preparation for future teachers as they progress in their course of study within their teaching education programs.