International regulations target a global reduction of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions through the allocation of national reduction targets and the definition of mechanisms to achieve these targets. One of these mechanisms is international emissions trading, these trading programs have been the targets of widespread criticism since they were introduced into the policy-making arena. The point of departure in this study has been that the trading raises questions about morality, since it implies signals, which legitimates pollution. The main purpose with this study has been to find out if emissions trading systems can be morally justified with the method of wide reflective equilibrium. From the study it was found that the moral intuition; it is wrong to pollute the environment, and perform activities, which legitimates pollution, finds support from the different theories within environmental ethics and Kantian ethics. But, it was also found that there are a number of background theories, such as neo-classical economic thinking, liberalism, and utilitarianism, that supports the notion of emissions trading. The paper argues that even though the concept of CO2-emissions trading raises moral questions it can be morally defended on the basis of rationality. When the theory about specification is applied to the concept of emissions trading it is possible to reach a situation were a wide reflective equilibrium is achieved.

Reading practices in high school English language arts should lead students to write richer, more developed responses to literature. Teacher-led, reflective, and performance-based instructional modes were combined with either talk or writing to produce six activities for enhancing response. A repeated measures design varied the order of the six learning activities for three classes (n=44) in a Midwest suburban high school. Later written responses were scored for interpretation, response, and appreciation. Pearson correlations revealed the task and criteria were reliable. Analyses of variance (ANOVA) found that for interpretation and response, talking led to higher achievement. Conversely, writing was nearly superior to talk for appreciation. Practice and feedback may be more significant than instructional condition for raising the quality of response. / February 2007

This dissertation describes a qualitative case study that investigated novice teachers’ video-aided reflection on their own teaching. To date, most studies that have investigated novice teachers’ video-aided reflective practice have focused on examining novice teachers’ levels of reflective writing rather than the cognitive processes involved during their reflection. Few studies have probed how novice teachers schematize and theorize their newly acquired and/or existing knowledge during video-aided reflection. The purpose of this study was to explore novice teachers’ cognitive processes, particularly video-aided schematization and theorization (VAST), which is a set of cognitive processes that help novice teachers construct, restructure and reconstruct their professional knowledge and pedagogical thinking while reflecting on videos of their own teaching. The researcher measured novice teachers’ VAST by examining their schema construction and automation in terms of schema accretion, schema tuning and schema restructuring. The study attempted to answer the following questions: a) What is the focus of novice teachers’ video-aided reflection? and b) How do novice teachers connect the focus of their reflections to their prior knowledge and future actions? The findings indicate that video-aided reflection could help novice teachers (1) notice what was needed to improve in their teaching practice, (2) realize how various elements in teaching were interrelated, and (3) construct, restructure, or reconstruct their professional knowledge – in other words, develop their schemata about teaching and learning through VAST. With a more developed and mature schemata, novice teachers could be able to better understand the various elements involved in teaching and learning, and handle the situations they encounter in their teaching. This may be because people’s schemata can provide the link between concepts and patterns of what they do (Rumelhart, 1980). This research has provided a new way to look at novice teachers’ video-aided reflection: how the cognitive processes they experience during their reflection can help them develop the knowledge about teaching and learning, and how their cognitive development can help them grow toward becoming teaching experts. The research findings add to the knowledge base about the use of video technology in teachers’ self-reflection and professional development in teacher education.

Global illumination is an important factor when striving for photo realism in computergraphics. This thesis describes why this is the case, and why global illumination is considered acomplex problem to solve. The problem becomes even more demanding when considering realtime purposes. Resent research has proven it possible to produce global illumination in realtime. Therefore the subject of this thesis is to compare and evaluate a number of those methods. An implementation is presented based on the Imperfect shadow maps method, which per se isbased on instant radiosity and reflective shadow maps. The implementation is able to renderplausible global illumination effects in real time, for fully dynamic scenes. With conclusions that while it demonstrably is possible to provide believable global illum-ination in real time, it is not without shortcomings. In every case approximations or restrictionshas to be done to some extent, sometimes leading to wrong results. Though in most cases, notvisually unpleasing by a great deal. The final conclusion is that global illumination is possible on current hardware, with believablequality and good speed. Showing great potential for future implementations on next generationof hardware.

In this essay I examine if socio cultural theory is present for teachers when pupils and students are using computers in class, especially when using blogs as a tool for learning. The aim of the essay is also to examine if blogs among pupils in class can promote peer support, co-operation and reflective dialogue, and in that case in what way. The essay consists of two studies, one small interview study and one literature study.  The interview study is made with the qualitative method phenomenographic analysis, presenting four Swedish teachers who have much experience using blogs in education. The aim of the literature study where some national and international research studies of relevance are presented, is to broaden the perspective. The result of the interview study shows that a socio cultural theory is highly present among the teachers who already use blogs in education. In addition, those teachers experience that the blog in the classroom supports dialogue and co-operation among the pupils.  In contrast, the literature study shows that most teachers in Sweden who made their pupils work with computers in classroom seem to let their student work alone, without guiding them and without creating co-operation or dialogue in the classroom. Furthermore the literature study shows that there are many things teachers can do to improve their student to co-operate and reflect critically on a blog. One example is teachers in Taiwan who used themselves as role models by reflecting on their own teaching when blogging openly in front of their students. This encouraged their students to reflect critically concerning their own development.

This narrative inquiry explores therapeutic relationships in the practice of recreation therapy. Narratives were generated in Recreation Therapy’s self-reflective case review process at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre—a process developed to support team engagement in reflections on their therapeutic relationships. In total, three self-reflective case reviews were explored, and for each case review, four layers of analysis occurred. The first two layers used narrative analysis to restory reflections of the case review leader (layer one) and then reflections within the recreation therapy team (layer two). The third and fourth layers used analysis of narrative to explore theoretical ideas from person-centred care emerging inductively in the text (layer three), and then to restory the previous narratives using a relational theory lens (layer four). Exploration revealed the self-reflective case review process also strengthens therapeutic relationships within the recreation therapy team. In the recreation therapists’ narratives we hear relational notions of connection, disconnection, reconnection, mutuality, mutual empathy, authenticity, vulnerability, and support. This study engaged recreation therapists in an act of critical pedagogy as they engaged in critical self-reflection by exploring across layers of narrative that story their therapeutic relationships. The self-reflective case review process creates opportunity for the recreation therapy team to recognize, identify and name their experiences within therapeutic relationships, and to find their voices in the medical context of a hospital setting. When engaging in self-reflective processes, recreation therapy moves further away from treating individuals as objects, shifting practice toward connection and mutuality in therapeutic relationships.

Sammanfattning För att dagens elever ska kunna möta de krav som samhället ställer på läskunnighet behöver de kunna ta till sig innehållet i det de läser med god läshastighet och förståelse och de behöver kunna reflektera kring det lästa. Syftet med detta examensarbete är att ta reda på hur ett antal elever upplever hur deras reflektionsförmåga och läsförståelse påverkas av att arbeta med skönlitterära texter och textsamtal utifrån en metod som kan kallas reflekterande läsning och skrivning. Anledningen till detta är att jag vill ta reda på om arbetssättet passar att implementera över lag i den skola jag arbetar för närvarande.                       Genom en litteraturgenomgång av språkets betydelse för människans utveckling, läs- och skrivutveckling, några olika didaktiska metoder och kvalitativa intervjuer med sex elever i år 9 redogör jag i detta examensarbete för hur man didaktiskt kan arbeta för att utveckla elevernas reflektionsförmåga och läsförståelse. Jag tar också upp svårigheter och kritik som framförts om den didaktiska metoden. Resultatet visar att fem av de sex eleverna upplever att de blivit bättre på att reflektera kring skönlitterära texter och att dessa reflektioner kan leda till en bättre förståelse för det lästa. Utifrån det resultat jag fått fram och den litteratur jag läst, anser jag att metoden, med några små justeringar, går att implementera från förskoleklass och uppåt.   Nyckelord: reflekterande läsning och skrivning, läsförståelse, reflektionsförmåga / Abstract In order to meet the requirements on reading acquisition of today’s society, students must know how to understand what they read and keep up their reading speed. They also need to know how to reflect upon what they are reading. The purpose with this examination is to find out how a number of students experience their ability to reflect upon fiction and how their reading comprehension is being improved by reading fiction and working with book talks through a didactic method called reflective reading and writing. The reason for doing this is that I would like to find out whether this method is suitable to implement at the school where I am working at the present.                       By studying literature about the importance of language to man’s development, reading and writing acquisition, some different didactic methods and interviewing six students in year 9, I report in this examination on how you can work didactically to develop the students’ ability to reflect and their reading comprehension. I also report on difficulties with and critique on the method. The result shows that five of the six students experience a better ability to reflect upon fiction and that these reflections can lead to a better reading comprehension of the texts they have read. From the gained result and the literature I have studied, I am of the opinion that this method, with some adjustments, can be implemented as early as from pre-school class.   Keywords: reflective reading and writing, reading comprehension, ability to reflect

Abstract Compared with the other micro acoustic wave devices, the flexural plate-wave (FPW) device is more suitable for being used in liquid-sensing applications due to its higher mass sensitivity, lower phase velocity and lower operation frequency. However, conventional FPW devices usually present a high insertion loss and low fabrication yield. To reduce the insertion loss and enhance the fabrication yield of FPW device, a 1.5 £gm-thick silicon-trench reflective grating structure (RGS), a high electromechanical coupling coefficient ZnO thin-film and a 5 £gm-thick silicon oxide membrane substrate are adopted in this research. The influences of the amount of silicon trench and the distance between inter-digital transducer (IDT) and RGS on the insertion loss and quality factor of FPW device are investigated. The main fabrication technology adopted in the study is bulk micromachining technology and the main fabrication steps include six thin-film deposition and five photolithography processes. Under the optimized conditions of the sputtering deposition processes (200¢J substrate temperature, 200 W radio-frequency power and 75% gas flow ratio), a high C-axis (002) orientation ZnO piezoelectric thin-film with 31.33% electromechanical coupling coefficient can be demonstrated. The peak of XRD intensity of the standard ZnO film occurs at diffraction angle 2£c = 34.422¢X, which matches well with our results (2£c = 34.282¢X). By controlling the thickness of ZnO/Au/Cr/SiO2/Si3N4 sensing membrane less than 6.5 £gm-thick, the fabrication yield of FPW device can be improved and a low operation frequency (6.286 MHz) and high mass sensitivity (-113.63 cm2 / g) can be achieved. In addition, as the implemented FPW device with four silicon trenches RGS and 37.5 £gm distance between IDT and RGS, a low insertion loss (-40.854 dB) and very high quality factor (Q=206) can be obtained. Keywords¡Gflexural plate-wave; silicon-trench reflective grating structure; electromechanical coupling coefficient; ZnO; bulk micromachining technology

This thesis aims to explore the role and significance of the aesthetic experience in Kant&rsquo / s philosophy. To accomplish this aim / firstly, the role of aesthetic power of judgment is discovered in subject&rsquo / s production of truths about the sensible world which is attributed to the cognitive power of understanding. Secondly, the role of aesthetic power of judgment in subject&rsquo / s representation of the good and in formation of moral judgments is demonstrated. Aesthetic power of judgment which enables both the reception and production of the beauty as a necessary harmony and unity brings an aesthetic and intuitive determinability to the acknowledged transcendent field for knowledge. The thesis is concluded by the affirmation that aesthetic power of judgment as an orienting interpretative power is a necessary condition for the subject, who is limited in knowledge and sensibly conditioned in the realization of moral purposes, in order to know and to have a moral life.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the role of electronic portfolio building in development of self-directed learning by fostering reflective thinking through electronic journals and by compelling individual to take responsibility and control of one&rsquo / s own learning in a practicum course among pre-service teachers from the Department of Foreign Language Education, Middle East Technical University. A qualitative case study research method was applied to analyze the data gathered from pre- and post-ICT surveys, pre- and post Self-Directed Learning Readiness Scales, interviews, and the electronic journals and artifacts demonstrated in pre-service teachers&rsquo / web-based electronic portfolios. The data were collected from eight 4th grade undergraduate pre-service teachers enrolled in School Experience course of the English Language Teaching program at METU during 2008-2009 Fall Term. Electronic portfolios, having the opportunity to provide multimedia displays, allow the pre-service teachers to monitor the outcomes of their learning goals and strategies regularly and by monitoring their studies and reflections they review their own work and have a chance to evaluate their learning and teaching process. Essentially, portfolios transfer the responsibility of learning and decision making to the student with its dynamic process / when students are required to reflect on the information they acquire and on how they acquire this information, they begin to accept their learning practice as a process under their control. This study recognizes the notion that information and communication technologies are crucial to teacher education for both learning and teaching / and takes the constructivist stance that using ICTs tools, mainly electronic portfolios in this case, enhances reflective thinking, authentic self-assessment, self-management, and ownership over learning process and facilitates technological competence which all in all foster self-direction in learning.