abstract: This dissertation reports three studies about what it means for teachers and students to reason with frames of reference: to conceptualize a reference frame, to coordinate multiple frames of reference, and to combine multiple frames of reference. Each paper expands on the previous one to illustrate and utilize the construct of frame of reference. The first paper is a theory paper that introduces the mental actions involved in reasoning with frames of reference. The concept of frames of reference, though commonly used in mathematics and physics, is not described cognitively in any literature. The paper offers a theoretical model of mental actions involved in conceptualizing a frame of reference. Additionally, it posits mental actions that are necessary for a student to reason with multiple frames of reference. It also extends the theory of quantitative reasoning with the construct of a ‘framed quantity’. The second paper investigates how two introductory calculus students who participated in teaching experiments reasoned about changes (variations). The data was analyzed to see to what extent each student conceptualized the variations within a conceptualized frame of reference as described in the first paper. The study found that the extent to which each student conceptualized, coordinated, and combined reference frames significantly affected his ability to reason productively about variations and to make sense of his own answers. The paper ends by analyzing 123 calculus students’ written responses to one of the tasks to build hypotheses about how calculus students reason about variations within frames of reference. The third paper reports how U.S. and Korean secondary mathematics teachers reason with frame of reference on open-response items. An assessment with five frame of reference tasks was given to 539 teachers in the US and Korea, and the responses were coded with rubrics intended to categorize responses by the extent to which they demonstrated conceptualized and coordinated frames of reference. The results show that the theory in the first study is useful in analyzing teachers’ reasoning with frames of reference, and that the items and rubrics function as useful tools in investigating teachers’ meanings for quantities within a frame of reference. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Mathematics 2019

京都大学 / 0048 / 新制・課程博士 / 博士(経済学) / 甲第21520号 / 経博第588号 / 新制||経||288(附属図書館) / 京都大学大学院経済学研究科経済学専攻 / (主査)教授 久野 秀二, 教授 黒澤 隆文, 講師 久野 愛 / 学位規則第4条第1項該当 / Doctor of Economics / Kyoto University / DFAM

This study aimed to analyse Swedish EFL students' efficiency on connotations. Connotation isa word's implied meaning which brings neutral, positive, or negative associations in aconversation. In this study, connotations were examined in terms of their appropriateness ifused in different contexts. The purpose of this research was to investigate whether Swedishstudents of an intermediate level showed sufficient skills in comprehending a word'sappropriateness when compared to a native speaker. Furthermore, this study also aimed toanalyse in what ways students engaged in English during their spare time show a correlation tohigher test scores. The results indicate that the Swedish students' combined score on theconnotation test showed less than half of the full score. The results also highlight that thestudents who are engaged in English more frequently compared to those who are not showedhigher test scores.

This study explores the role of Sinjar Mountain in the return migration decisions of internally displaced Êzîdîs, who sought refuge in Iraq's camps after a devastating massacre in August 2014. Employing a semiotic approach, data was gathered via semi-structured interviews with NGO representatives and the analysis of visual videos. The findings reveal profound symbolic meanings associated with the mountain and their diverse interpretations within the Êzîdî community. Despite the mountain's ordinary physical appearance, this research reveals its deeper significance and explores the concept of topophilia or the love of a specific place, in the context of return migration. The pivotal role of the sacred Sinjar Mountain in motivating Êzîdîs to return to their homeland is demonstrated. Contributing new insights to the field, this work enhances our understanding of the complex relationship between symbolic landscapes and the decisions made by displaced populations.

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This study was designed to examine the concept of social support from the perspective of 30 African American elders, aged 70 years and above, with an age range of 70 to 99. Guided by the conceptual framework of stress and coping, this research examined the personal beliefs, as well as past experiences that motivate use of social support; when, how, from whom, and under what circumstances support is requested (or offered); and evaluations of the positive and negative outcomes of supportive interactions. The following research questions guided this study: (a) Whom do African American elders name in their most important network of supportive others and what meanings do they attach to the support? (b) What beliefs motivate and define African American elders' involvement in a social support network? and (c) How do African American elders evaluate the consequences of their supportive interactions? Qualitative in-depth interviewing was the method of data collection. Findings from this study showed that the African American elder informants were embedded in supportive networks, deeply devoted to family, friends and other committed partnerships, had strong religious and family ties, and had resiliency relative to the life stage of older adulthood. The foundation of their supportive interactions was based on their belief systems as well as their desire to reciprocate support. These informants were atypical by education and occupation. Varied coping resources emerged from the study including interdependence, spiritual beliefs, family philosophy, concern for others and self-protection. / Ph. D.

This study examines the effects of place meanings and perceived individual preparedness on subjective household resilience and socio-psychological community resilience. Earlier research has shown an active controversy of whether place meanings and individual preparedness could transform into the perception of household resilience and community resilience. Thus, while place meanings, in a transformative norm, perform like place attachment and may support adaptation to change and strengthen the perception of resilience, it can present in forms of place dependence or inflexibility which might be a barrier for household and community resilience. Similarly, individual preparedness is claimed to be essential but insufficient to achieve community resilience to environmental threats. Results from a random sample household survey of 912 coastal Louisiana residents confirm the positive effect of individual preparedness on household and community resilience, especially the perceived ability to plan and adapt to environmental changes. Conversely, the higher level of risk awareness indicates a decreasing perception of household and community resilience, implying that investing in environmental threat-related information and strategies is vital for building a more resilient community.

Lydie Kárníková Ideology in the Language of Media Diploma thesis 2011 Abstract The thesis scrutinizes the ways in which three Czech nationwide print media process the same news topics. Through analysis of three thematic discourses it studies the differences in approaching and presenting reality. The main focus lies in the argumentative and language aspects of the media texts with the aim to find implicit references on sets of values and beliefs typical for the perspective of the particular news media title and for the society in general. Implicit sets of values woven into the media contents have a form of an ideology: These ideological ideas can be very different across the society due to the number of opinion groups present within the whole society. In modern democratic countries with opinion plurality there are different ideological ideas neighbouring within the media market. The news as a genre does not allow expressing one's own opinion or approach explicitly: the news media thus embed their opinions into the structures of language. The core hypothesis of this thesis is the ability of language to create meanings. With the help of methodology that combines argumentative approach with analysis of syntactic and lexical modes of expressions the thesis tries to get into the language structure, looking for...

This thesis presents a contrastive analysis of the English pragmatic markers now and well and their Czech translation equivalents. The overall material is based on 200+12 occurrences that were excerpted from the electronic parallel corpus InterCorp, with all the instances appearing in fictional dialogues. The contrastive study focuses on the role of translation as a means to understand better the nature of the two pragmatic markers. It analyzes specific marker-collocate sequences and the respective Czech translation equivalents. It demonstrates that certain marker-collocate sequences have a tendency to be translated by specific Czech translation equivalents and that the role of other factors, such as position in discourse structure, prosody, and broader context, play in this respect an important role as well. All this and the finding that both now and well share certain Czech translation equivalents add to the multifunctionality of both now and well and prove that a combination of other factors is needed to comprehend the use of the two pragmatic markers in English. The comparison of the Czech translation equivalents in this thesis to the Czech translation equivalents in the Czech-English dictionary Lingea attempted to provide an example of how a contrastive analysis can be useful in Lexicography.