As citizens of the Arabian Gulf states struggle to maintain identity and heritage in a swarm of economic boom and social modernization and mobilization, they are bombarded with media messages which conflict with the essential tenets of modernization and development: individualism, economic independence, freedom of expression, and elevated social status for women. The largely popular Gulf Arabic television miniseries genre is an important vehicle for those conflicting media messages, presenting stereotypical and simplistic representations of family life, the divide between good and evil, and prescribed gender dichotomies. Those messages which idealize traditionalism and conservative belief systems are crafted and informed by those who dominate the media apparatus in the Arabian Gulf: the ruling, male, Muslim, hegemonic elite. The miniseries genre keeps audiences glued to the television in the month of Ramadan, a time at which Muslims throughout the world are at a heightened sense of religiosity and devotion to family and are thus more susceptible to the persuasion of media messages related to religion, faith, virtues, and morals. This research examines the themes of patriarchy, gender dichotomies, family values, and the omnipresence of Islam in the genre and the relationship of all of these themes to the value and belief systems of the ruling hegemonic elite and audience members alike. The research is based on a data pool which includes 152 episodes, totaling roughly 101.5 televised hours. The data also include the results of a survey about audience interaction and interpretation of the genre. The survey is comprised of 35 questions to which 56 participants responded. It discusses the implications of the messages contained within the genre and communicated through the aforementioned themes, and examines the potential for them to influence audience members’ outlook on society as seen through the lens of relevant media theories. / text

Obesity within the Canadian population is on the rise, as people continue to lead hurried lifestyles there is little time to slow down and prepare a meal for oneself or one’s family. As younger generations grow up in these rushed lifestyles, the opportunities to learn about food and nutrition in the home is quickly disappearing. As a result this practicum project explores promoting healthy lifestyles by reconnecting people with food through the creation of a Culinary Learning Centre located in The Forks Market Building, in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Individuals who are motivated to change the way they view and value food are provided with a comprehensive learning environment that approaches teaching through a holistic and collaborative manner. Informed by an extensive literature review into the Slow Food Movement, and learning theory; research into four case studies; and detailed programming, culminated in an interior design solution promoting positive learning, social interaction, and student well-being. / October 2016

L'Apprentissage Automatique tire ses racines d'un large champ disciplinaire qui inclut l'Intelligence Artificielle, la Reconnaissance de Formes, les Statistiques ou l'Optimisation. Dès les origines de l'Apprentissage, les questions computationelles et les propriétés en généralisation ont toutes deux été identifiées comme centrales pour la discipline. Tandis que les premières concernent les questions de calculabilité ou de complexité (sur un plan fondamental) ou d'efficacité computationelle (d'un point de vue plus pratique) des systèmes d'apprentissage, les secondes visent a comprendre et caractériser comment les solutions qu'elles fournissent vont se comporter sur de nouvelles données non encore vues. Ces dernières années, l'émergence de jeux de données à grande échelle en Apprentissage Automatique a profondément remanié les principes de la Théorie de l'Apprentissage. En prenant en compte de potentielles contraintes sur le temps d'entraînement, il faut faire face à un compromis plus complexe que ceux qui sont classiquement traités par les Statistiques. Une conséquence directe tient en ce que la mise en place d'algorithmes efficaces (autant en théorie qu'en pratique) capables de tourner sur des jeux de données a grande échelle doivent impérativement prendre en compte les aspects statistiques et computationels de l'Apprentissage de façon conjointe. Cette thèse a pour but de mettre à jour, analyser et exploiter certaines des connections qui existent naturellement entre les aspects statistiques et computationels de l'Apprentissage. / Machine Learning is known to have its roots in a broad spectrum of fields including Artificial Intelligence, Pattern Recognition, Statistics or Optimisation. From the earliest stages of Machine Learning, both computational issues and generalisation properties have been identified as central to the field. While the former address the question of computability, complexity (from a fundamental perspective) or computational efficiency (on a more practical standpoint) of learning systems, the latter aim at understanding and characterising how well the solutions they provide perform on new, unseen data. Those last years, the emergence of large-scale datasets in Machine Learning has been deeply reshaping the principles of Learning Theory. Taking into account possible constraints on the training time, one has to deal with more complex trade-offs than the ones classically addressed by Statistics. As a direct consequence, designing new efficient algorithms (both in theory and practice), able to handle large-scale datasets, imposes to jointly deal with the statistical and computational aspects of Learning. The present thesis aims at unravelling, analysing and exploiting some of the connections that naturally exist between the statistical and computational aspects of Learning. More precisely, in a first part, we extend the stability analysis, which relates some algorithmic properties to the generalisation abilities of learning algorithms, to a novel (and fine-grain) performance measure, namely the confusion matrix. In a second part, we present a novel approach to learn a kernel-based regression function, that serves the learning task at hand and exploits the structure of

Recent effort to teach Western science in the Tibetan Buddhist monasteries has drawn interest both within and outside the quarters of these monasteries. This novel and historic move of bringing Western science in a traditional monastic community began around year 2000 at the behest of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism. Despite the novelty of this effort, the literature in science education about learners from non-Western communities suggests various "cognitive conflicts" experienced by these non-Western learners due to fundamental difference in the worldview of the two knowledge traditions. Hence, in this research focuses on how six Tibetan Buddhist monks were situating/reconciling the scientific concepts like the theory of evolution into their traditional Buddhist worldview. The monks who participated in this study were engaged in a further study science at a university in the U.S. for two years. Using case study approach, the participants were interviewed individually and in groups over the two-year period. The findings revealed that although the monks scored highly on their acceptance of evolution on the Measurement of Acceptance of Theory of Evolution (MATE) survey, however in the follow-up individual and focus group interviews, certain conflicts as well as agreement between the theory of evolution and their Buddhist beliefs were revealed. The monks experienced conflicts over concepts within evolution such as common ancestry, human evolution, and origin of life, and in reconciling the Buddhist and scientific notion of life. The conflicts were analyzed using the theory of collateral learning and was found that the monks engaged in different kinds of collateral learning, which is the degree of interaction and resolution of conflicting schemas. The different collateral learning of the monks was correlated to the concepts within evolution and has no correlation to the monks’ years in secular school, science learning or their proficiency of English language. This study has indicted that the Tibetan Buddhist monks also experience certain cognitive conflict when situating Western scientific concepts into their Buddhist worldview as suggested by research of science learners from other non-Western societies. By explicating how the monks make sense of scientific theories like the theory of evolution as an exemplar, I hope to inform the current effort to establish science education in the monastery to develop curricula that would result in meaningful science teaching and learning, and also sensitive to needs and the cultural survival of the monastics.

Thesis advisor: Joseph O'Keefe / Effective instructional leadership is central to principal practice. Thus, the Massachusetts Model System for Educator Evaluation (MMSEE) mandates that all principals demonstrate proficiency in instructional leadership to be considered proficient overall. Given this mandate, it is imperative that central office administrators (COAs) support principals in this regard. Accordingly, this qualitative single case study examined how COAs in one Massachusetts district supported principals’ instructional leadership. Analyses of documents and semi-structured interview data found that COAs supported principals’ instructional leadership through professional development for supervising and evaluating teachers, preparation of school improvement plans, and increased staffing of assistant principals and academic coaches. However, principals reported interim feedback and summative evaluations as not supporting their growth as instructional leaders. To address this gap in support with instructional leadership, recommendations included assigning additional COAs to evaluate principals for consistent and targeted feedback, reviewing MMSEE performance expectations with principals, and including principal voice in the district decision-making process. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Os empreendedores sociais são protagonistas na abordagem de problemas sociais no Brasil. Contudo, mesmo com esse destaque, pouco ainda se sabe sobre as particularidades desses profissionais. A aprendizagem desses indivíduos é um dos assuntos que carecem da atenção dos acadêmicos. Desse modo, uma das teorias que oportuniza análises a respeito da aprendizagem desses indivíduos é a Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) de Kolb (1984), que relata que a aprendizagem é o processo de criação de conhecimentos a partir da transformação das experiências do indivíduo. Um dos subprodutos da ELT é o conceito dos estilos de aprendizagem: traços pessoais que servem como indicadores de como os indivíduos percebem, interagem e respondem aos ambientes de aprendizagem. Para Alonso et al. (1997), existem quatro diferentes tipos de estilos de aprendizagem: o pragmático, o teórico, o ativo e o reflexivo. Assim, os autores elaboraram o instrumento Cuestionario Honey y Alonso sobre Estilos de Aprendizaje (CHAEA) para verificarem os estilos de aprendizagem dos indivíduos e realizarem análises relativas ao assunto. Dessa forma, a presente pesquisa se propôs a analisar a aprendizagem dos empreendedores sociais brasileiros à luz da Experiential Learning Theory, utilizando, para isso, o instrumento CHAEA. Primeiramente, os 90 empreendedores sociais brasileiros pesquisados tiveram seus estilos de aprendizagem verificados e os resultados foram analisados por meio de análises estatísticas univariadas e bivariadas. Assim, foi constatado que o estilo pragmático, o estilo teórico, o estilo ativo e o estilo reflexivo somam, respectivamente, 36,7%, 31,1%, 24,4%, e 7,8% da preferência geral dos pesquisados. Num segundo momento, particularidades e tendências relativas à aprendizagem desses indivíduos foram discutidas, e hipóteses foram produzidas. Essas hipóteses oferecem margem para o desenvolvimento de novos estudos relacionados ao tema. É indicado que as futuras pesquisas procurem trabalhar com amostras mais numerosas e com outros tipos de análises estatísticas. À parte das descobertas em relação à aprendizagem dos pesquisados e das hipóteses desenvolvidas, esta pesquisa também teve outro desdobramento relacionado ao estudo do empreendedorismo social no Brasil: o delineamento do perfil do empreendedor social brasileiro. Foi encontrado que esse indivíduo se caracteriza, majoritariamente, por ser identificado com o gênero masculino, ser jovem, declarar-se da raça ou cor branca, possuir alto grau de escolaridade e estar envolvido há pouco tempo com iniciativas sociais. O perfil constatado corrobora o perfil encontrado por outros autores e traz maior solidez para a discussão do tema. De forma geral, esta pesquisa colaborou para o avanço das pesquisas relativas ao empreendedorismo social e à aprendizagem experiencial no Brasil. Também foi viabilizada para os empreendedores sociais brasileiros participantes a oportunidade de verificarem seus estilos de aprendizagem e, assim, entenderem melhor suas próprias particularidades quanto à aprendizagem. Por último, destaca-se a contribuição para com instituições voltadas à educação, que por meio dos resultados desta pesquisa poderão aprimorar seus cursos direcionados aos empreendedores sociais. / Social entrepreneurs are central figures in addressing societal problems in Brazil. Nevertheless, despite the spotlights being pointed on these individuals, little is known about their particularities. Their learning process, for instance, is a subject lacking academic research. Therefore, one way to analyze their learning process is through the Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) present by Kolb (1984), which says that learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience. One of the ELT's sub-products is the learning styles concept, which suggests that personal traits work as indicators of how someone perceives, interacts and responds to learning environments. Alonso et al. (1997) proposed four different learning styles: pragmatist, theorist, activist and reflector. As a result, the authors created the survey Cuestionario Honey y Alonso sobre Estilos de Aprendizaje (CHAEA) to verify someone's learning style and to carry out analysis about their learning process. Thus, the present research aims to analyze Brazilian social entrepreneurs' learning process in the light of the Experiential Learning Theory, using, to that end, the CHAEA survey. Primarily, the 90 Brazilian social entrepreneurs studied in this research had their learning styles verified and their results analyzed through univariate and bivariate techniques. Thus, it was determined that the pragmatist style, the theorist style, the activist style and the reflector style represented, respectively, 36.7%, 31.1%, 24.4%, and 7.8% of the participant’s general preference. Secondly, particularities and tendencies regarding the Brazilian social entrepreneurs studied were discussed, and hypotheses were produced. This hypotheses offer a clear research path to anyone interested in developing new studies about the subject. It is indicated for future researches to work with larger samples and with other types of statistical analysis. Besides the discoveries regarding the participant's learning process and the hypotheses developed, this research also presented other outcome related to social entrepreneurship studies in Brazil: the establishment of the Brazilian social entrepreneur profile. It was found that these individuals are characterized, mostly, by recognizing themselves as males, by being young, by declaring themselves as white individuals, by possessing a high schooling level and by getting involved recently with social enterprises. The profile formed supports profiles described by other authors in their researches and brings a meaningful consolidation regarding the subject discussion. In general, this research contributed to the advance of researches related to social entrepreneurship and to experiential learning in Brazil. In a practical viewpoint, it was made possible for the Brazilian social entrepreneurs which were part of this research to verify their learning styles and, thus, understand better their own particularities regarding their learning processes. Lastly, the contribution to educational institutions needs to be addressed. Through the results of this research it will be possible for these establishments to improve their courses designed for social entrepreneurs.

This is a qualitative study about the usage of phonetics in the classroom.  The study is based on interviews with two English teachers and two future English teachers. The study also researches a website where teaching material are shared by teachers.   Firstly, the study wants to know what researchers think about phonetics in language teaching as well as in language learning. Secondly, the study researches what teachers think about phonetics and their opinions regarding the use of it in the classroom as well as their knowledge about the subject. Thirdly, the study investigates what future teachers of English said regarding the use of phonetics and if they felt prepared to use it in the classroom.   The study shows that researchers think highly of the use of phonetics in language learning. However, it is not used by the interviewees when teaching language because they find it redundant. Furthermore, the future teachers in this study said that they felt unprepared to use phonetics in the classroom.

Prescription ADHD medication has been shown to be on the rise as a drug of abuse among young people. Unlike other drugs that serve only the purpose of achieving a high, this particular substance can also be perceived as useful and beneficial by those who abuse it. It is these positive attributes given to the illicit use of these drugs that make them so dangerous, especially in the hands of youths. To date extant research has made little effort to contextualize this type of drug use within theories of deviance. This study looks to fill that void as well as bridge the gap between current epidemiological studies on this topic and future etiological studies looking to assess causation within a theoretical context. Examining a national sample of 12th grade students (N=2,384), this study looks at what risk factors and predictors exist for the illicit use of ADHD medication. By testing aspects of social bonding and social learning theories, the goal is to assess which theory can best predict this type of drug use. Due to the low proportion of users, a rare events logistic regression is utilized in the analysis. While social learning items were able to account for the greatest level of variance in use, many of the findings contradict the theory, and therefore no theoretically based conclusions can be made at this time. Overall, more research needed on this topic using better fitting data tailored for theoretical interpretation. Considerations for future studies are also discussed.

The research was conducted in Sydney and Hong Kong using students, from grades 5 to 9, whose first language or teaching medium was English, learning to read Chinese as second language. According to cognitive load theory, the processing of single Chinese characters accompanied by pictures should impose extraneous cognitive load and thus hinders learning. In Experiments 1a and 1b, simple Chinese characters appeared to be processed likes pictures. Reading Chinese characters without pictures produced significantly better learning outcomes than reading them with pictures, suggesting that subjects processed Chinese characters and their English translations according to the Dual Coding model. In Experiment 2, grade 6 students learned to read two-character compound words in word-and-word and picture-and-word conditions. As expected, phonetic compounds were learned more effectively when presented along with the same word written in English than when accompanied by a picture of the object represented. In Experiment 3, grade 6 students were used in an investigation of the differential learning effects of two-character-compound and two-single-characters formats. The two-single-characters format, being of low element interactivity, resulted in better learning outcomes than the compound format, in which the two components were necessarily of higher element interactivity. In Experiment 4, six concrete sentences and six abstract sentences were used to investigate the learning strategies used by grade 9 students in processing second-language Chinese sentences. In a &quotno-picture &quot condition, a Chinese sentence was printed on each learning card underneath the English translation; and in a &quotwith-picture &quot condition, a picture was positioned above the condition pair of sentences. As expected, the mean learning outcomes were greater for the no-picture s than for the with-picture conditions, and the difference between the no-picture and with-picture means was greater for concrete sentences than for abstract sentences. A logographic visual processing strategy was probably employed in reading concrete sentences but an analytic strategy used in reading abstract sentences. A new dual-coding model, based on the bilingual dual coding theory for different patterns in reading Chinese as a second language at various structural levels of processing was proposed.

Self-regulated learning theory explains how it is not only the amount of time musicians spend practising that affects achievement, but also the nature of the strategies employed. Because practice is self-directed, motivational effects on its efficiency are especially salient. One construct that has received little attention in relation to practising is self-determination theory, which interprets motivation as lying along a continuum of perceived autonomy. This mixed-methods study investigated links between motivational beliefs and self-regulated practising behaviour through a two-phase design. In Phase One, 677 music examination candidates aged 8-19 completed a questionnaire consisting of items addressing practising behaviour and perceived musical competence; in addition, the Self-Regulation Questionnaire (SRQ; Ryan & Connell, 1989) was adapted to explore intrinsic-extrinsic motives for learning an instrument. Factor analysis of the SRQ revealed five dimensions with partial correspondence to earlier research: internal, external, social, shame-related, and exam-related motives. Three practice behaviour factors consistent with self-regulated learning theory emerged: effort management, monitoring, and strategy use. Results of structural equation modelling showed that internal motivation accounted best for variance in these three types of practising behaviour, with a small added effect from competence beliefs and exam-related motivation. Phase Two consisted of observational case studies of four of the questionnaire participants preparing for their subsequent annual examination. Adolescent, intermediate-level musicians were recorded while practising at home; immediately afterwards, they watched the videotape and verbalised any recollected thoughts. The procedure concluded with a semi-structured interview and debriefing. The videotapes were analysed with The Observer Video-Pro and combined with verbal data; emerging themes were then compared with issues arising from the interviews. The observational aspect of the case studies largely confirmed the importance of three cyclical self-regulatory processes emerging from Phase One: (a) effort management and motivational self-regulation, (b) the role of self-monitoring of accuracy, and (c) the use of corrective strategies, such as structured repetition, task simplification, and vocalisation. The mixture of quantitative and qualitative methods used in the study has uncovered a rich body of information that begins to clarify the complex motivational and behavioural nature of young people practising a musical instrument.