My research explored the knowledge of occupational therapists practising in forensic mental health. There is no ‘gold standard’ evidence in this practice area but other forms of evidence, including experience and “intuition”, are used in practice. My research aimed to identify the knowledge formed from and used in this practice area. My research design used qualitative methodology that was informed by American pragmatist, social constructivist and post-modern theory. In particular, I used grounded theory and situational analysis to generate and to analyse the data. The practitioners were three occupational therapists working in various forensic services in one London based NHS trust. My data was generated longitudinally over eight to twelve months, where the practitioners participated in email and face-to-face interviews. The critical incident technique and the critical decision method enabled practitioners to describe and explain their knowledge about one patient with whom they were working over the interviews. The practitioners also reflected upon participating in the research. My findings demonstrated that the practitioners’ knowledge was created from practice through the interaction of three categories. First, steps of practice were structures through which knowledge was generated about the service user. Second were rules for practice where expectations had to be met. Unpredictable situations and knowledge gaps prevented meeting expectations, so new knowledge was created from practice to meet them. The third category was a blend of the practitioners’ personal and professional experiences and emotions. Practitioners created a connection with service users in order to build a therapeutic relationship, alongside creating a nuanced narrative with their service users, which helped to build empathy. In conclusion, the practitioners in my research used various forms of knowledge in practice. My thesis contributes to existing scholarship by supporting a practice epistemology approach. Thus knowledge for occupational therapy in forensic mental health is created from practice.

This essay begins with an anecdote about a child in school who in my opinion displayed introverted behavior. This child seemed to prefer playing on its own rather than with friends. These children often become less visible due to their extrovert peers who have a greater tendency to actively seek attention from adults. The purpose of this essay is to get a wider understanding about these introvert children. What are their needs and how can we best support them in school?  In this essay I have tried to see my own actions in relation to the school’s rules and regulations concerning introvert children. I have also studied literature, how playing can support extrovert children, what a teacher can do to help and support and what the norm in today’s society is. To reflect and learn I have read books on this topic and my aim is to gain a better understanding and deeper knowledge. / Den här essän börjar med en berättelse som handlar om ett av de barn i skolan och fritidshemmet som av mig som pedagog upplevs som tyst och inåtvänt. Ett barn som verkar föredra ensamlek framför lek med klasskamrater. Ofta hamnar dessa barn i skymundan i förmån till de mer extroverta och utåtagerande barnen som aktivt söker kontakt med oss vuxna. Syftet med denna essä är att få en större förståelse för varför de tysta barnen är tysta och inåtvända. Vilka behov har de och vilket förhållningssätt bör jag som pedagog ha gentemot dem? Jag har granskat mitt agerande i berättelsen utifrån skolans och fritidshemmets styrdokument samt litteratur som tar upp blyghet, lekens betydelse, pedagogens betydelse för de tysta barnen, dagens samhällsideal och ämnet praktisk kunskap. Jag har även använt skönlitteratur för att reflektera över mitt agerande för att på så sätt få en djupare förståelse för vad jag kunde gjort annorlunda.

The use of research evidence to improve the practices of teachers is considered one of the ways of improving the educational outcomes for children. This study was focussed on determining how an online approach could be used to increase knowledge mobilisation in education, by giving teachers better access to research knowledge that they could use to support and develop their practices. This study had two aims. The first aim was to investigate what research knowledge and research practices teachers were using and what value they ascribed to those practices; the second was to explore teachers' views and opinions of a new online approach to the presentation of research knowledge. This was a mixed method study using questionnaires, interviews and focus groups to gather a range of both qualitative and quantitative data. The findings of this study show that practitioners value research practices more than they are able to participate in them, and that there is a consistent valuepractice gap across the range of research practices. Exploratory factor analysis revealed five underlying factors; engagement with research, engagement with the research community, promotes professional discussion of research, promotes teacher knowledge generation, and promotes wider engagement of the school with research and the research community. These factors showed that teachers and their schools want to engage both with research knowledge and with the wider research community so that the use of research knowledge can be enhanced in education. The findings also show that practitioners were receptive to the use of an online approach to the delivery of research knowledge and the piloted approach was accessible and intuitive. Practitioners exhibited interest in using the approach in a range of collaborative interactions with colleagues. Overall this study revealed that online approaches to knowledge mobilisation have potential but that teachers need to be supported in their engagement with research and the wider research community. This thesis is a contribution to the knowledge of how online approaches can be developed and deployed to enhance knowledge mobilisation towards teaching being an evidence informed profession. Equally school leaders and policy-makers need to create environments that are supportive of teachers' use of research, if they want teachers to use research knowledge to inform their practices.

Online Communities of Practices (CoPs) is emerging as a major form for knowledge sharing in this era of information revolution. Due to the advancement of technology and ease of internet access in every part of the world, people began to get more and more involved in online CoPs to share knowledge. The defining characteristic of a Community of Practice is the interaction between members in order to jointly determine and embrace goals, eventually resulting in shared practices. Crucial to the success of a Community of Practice is the engagement between community members. Without engagement, a Community of Practice can not share knowledge and achieve its negotiated goals. To that end, there is a need to examine, why do people engage in an online discussion, what role domain experts play to keep on-line discussion alive and how to develop a ''right intervention'' to maintain and stimulate participants for engagement in on-line community. This thesis studied eight Communities of Practices that are being deliberately formed to facilitate knowledge sharing in the online community and describes an exploratory study of knowledge sharing within Communities of Practices (CoPs) by investigating eight CoPs - Start up Nation, All nurses, Young Enterpener, Teneric, SCM Focus, Systems Dynamics, Mahjoob and Alnj3 CoPs. The CoPs under investigation shared the following characteristics: permanent life span, created by interested members (i.e. bottom-up rather than top-down management creation), have a high level of boundary crossing, have more than 700 members who come from disparate locations and organizations, have voluntary membership enrollment, high membership diversity, high topic's relevance to members, high degree of reliance on technology, and are moderated. Data were gathered on the eight CoPs through online observations and online questionnaire survey. Results show that in each of the case study the most common type of activity performed by members of each CoP was sharing knowledge, followed by socialsing. Regarding the types of knowledge shared, the most common one across all CoPs was practical and general knowledge. The types of practical knowledge, however, varied in each CoP. The study also discovered that storytelling extensively enhances knowledge transfer and participants' interpersonal communications in eight communities under investigation. What were also notable in this study were the stories discussed in a CoP remains in the archive, what are more likely to generate interest and curiosity on the topic among inactive members who ultimately facilitates knowledge transfer. In this study it is also evident that successful topics with successful conclusion (in terms that the original query was answered) will not necessary get high responses and vice versa. An analysis of selected topics in the eight case studies has shown that some successful topics have few replies and vice versa, where many topics ended with open conclusion or they were unsuccessful in terms that the original query was not answered satisfactory. Therefore, it is not necessary that successful topic will get high number of responses as there are some successful topics which have limited number of replies. Overall, it is found that, topic may play a major role in the success of online discussion. It is observed in the study that members normally use short messages rather long messages and usually discusses more than one topic within one thread. Practical implications for knowledge sharing in online communities of practice were discussed, along with some recommendations for future research.

Originally presented as the author's thesis: Universität Genf, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

Cette recherche porte sur l’analyse de l’activité des entraîneurs experts en gymnastique artistique et vise à décrire et comprendre les ressources cognitives sur lesquelles ils s’appuient pour intervenir auprès des gymnastes et transformer leurs habiletés. Une épistémologie de l’agir professionnel en rupture avec le modèle classique de la rationalité technique a offert le cadre de l’étude des connaissances implicites, façonnées par l’expérience de travail.Une démarche compréhensive et située, respectueuse des conditions d’exercice du métier d’entraîneur a été adoptée. L’anthropologie cognitive a servi d’ancrage disciplinaire, dans la mesure où l’intérêt s’est porté sur les processus cognitifs enchâssés dans les activités humaines. L’ancrage épistémologique de la phénoménologie a été choisi comme renforcement de la démarche compréhensive. Le cadre théorique de l’étude est celui de l’action située.Le terrain de l’étude est celui de l’entraînement sportif de haut niveau : un club sportif de niveau national, ainsi que deux Pôles France d’entraînement de la Fédération Française de Gymnastique (FFG). Deux entraîneurs féminins et douze entraîneurs masculins ont été suivis pendant trois ans au cours de leur activité professionnelle auprès de gymnastes de haut niveau âgés de 7 à 23 ans. Deux types de matériaux complémentaires ont été élaborés : i) Des données d’observation du flux de comportements des entraîneurs ; ii) Des verbalisations réflexives produites par l’entraîneur au cours d’entretiens en cours, ou post-entraînements. Une méthodologie d’ « instruction au pair » a été développée, intermédiaire entre la technique de l’instruction au sosie et l’observation participante. Les matériaux recueillis ont fait l’objet d’une analyse qualitative inductive selon la méthode de comparaison continue afin de produire des résultats théoriques intégrés aux matériaux recueillis. L’étude a permis d’avancer en matière de théorisation de la connaissance pragmatique des entraîneurs experts en gymnastique artistique.Les résultats montrent que les entraîneurs experts interviennent auprès des gymnastes sur des éléments discrets des habiletés gymniques. Ce sont des formes de corps spatialement situées qu’ils nomment phases de placement et qu’ils considèrent comme critiques pour la réussite. Ces formes transitoires dynamiques pour les entraîneurs sont des composantes chronologiques ordonnées de formes plus complexes. Elles organisent l’activité perceptive en focalisant l’attention des entraîneurs sur elles ou certains aspects les composant. Les entraîneurs interviennent auprès des gymnastes sur les propriétés physionomiques et intentionnelles qu’ils leur assignent. L’identification de ces phases par les entraîneurs apparaît comme une composante des processus par lesquels ils se rendent intelligible l’activité des gymnastes réalisant les habiletés gymniques. L’étude a permis de mettre en évidence quatre résultats majeurs concernant cette intelligibilité : a) elle repose sur des formes de corps perçues. Ces formes constituent des totalités signifiantes qui condensent un réseau de relations causales entre les propriétés des phases. Elle repose donc sur un ordre causal simplificateur de la complexité ; b) elle est métaphorique. Elle repose sur un modèle d’intelligibilité analogique implicite ; c) elle est située. Elle repose sur une gestalt expérientielle de la causalité qui permet l’énaction de propriétés typiques des phases de placement en fonction de leur pertinence dans l’action située ; d) il s’agit d’une intelligibilité « bricolée », provisoire, reposant en partie sur des hypothèses interprétatives testées en situation. / This study aims to investigate the expert coaches’ activity. More exactly, it attempts to describe and understand the knowledge being used by coaches while teaching and correcting the athletes’ technical skills in high level artistic gymnastics. An epistemology of professional practice, in break with the model of technical rationality, offers an approach to study the implicit knowledge, shaped by the working experience.A comprehensive and situated approach, respectful of the working conditions of the coaches, was chosen. The disciplinary anchor is cognitive anthropology. The theoretical framework for this research is situated action theory.The field of study is high level sport training: an association of national level and two national training structures of high level, managed by the French Federation of Artistic Gymnastics (FFG). Two expert female coaches and twelve expert male coaches were observed for three years during their professional practice with elite gymnasts aged seven to twenty-three years old. Two types of complementary data were elaborated: i) Data regarding the behavior of coaches during their practice; ii) Reflexive verbalizations by the coaches interviewed during or after the training sessions. The research methodology drew on participant observation and the technical "instructions to the double". It is called "instructions to the pair". The research materials collected were analyzed by means of inductive qualitative analysis and with comparison continuous method. The theoretical results appear through creating and conceptualizing categories identified from research data. They offered the possibility to theorize gymnastics expert coaches’ pragmatic knowledge. The results reveal that expert coaches’ interventions concern elements which compose gymnastic skills. These elements are body shapes spatially located, which are described as "placement phases" by coaches. The coaches considerer them as critical to perform the skills. These transitional and dynamic forms for coaches are chronological and ordered components of more complex forms. They organize perceptive activity by focusing the coaches’ attention on them or on certain aspects which compose them. To improve the achievement of skills, the coaches intervene on properties they assign to the phases they consider as critical: physiognomic and intentional properties. The identification of these phases by coaches seems to be a component of the processes by which they make the activity of gymnasts performing skills intelligible.The study indicates four major results for this intelligibility: a) it is based on body shapes seen. These shapes are meaningful wholes that condense a system of causal relationships between the properties of phases. It is based on a causal order that simplifies the complexity; b) it is metaphorical. It is based on an implicit model of analogical intelligibility; c) It is situated. It is based on an experiential gestalt of causation that allows the enaction of typical properties of the phases according to their relevance in situated action; d) it is a tinkered intelligibility, provisional, based in part on interpretative hypotheses tested in situations.

The aim of the study was to investigate the dynamics of two online communities of practice (oCoP) for preservice teachers. The research process encompassed three main phases. Phase 1 was related to the design and development of online environment. By the help of existing literature and a pilot study, a portal which is called as &ldquo / Professional Development Circle (PDC)&rdquo / was developed. In Phase-2, 28 preservice teachers from three different universities participated to an online course as a part of an undergraduate course. During the term, they discussed on different video cases which were recorded in real classroom environments and produced new lesson plans for these lessons in the light of given suggestions. In the third phase, the same preservice teachers got involved in a different online environment without any grading motivation in the Phase 2. They discussed on some hot topics in mathematics teaching with other preservice teachers, academicians and experienced teachers. This research study was mainly a qualitative study. Two cases of the study were two oCoP which included mandatory or voluntary participation of preservice teachers to discussions. The data were collected through written reflection reports, observations and interviews. In addition, private e-mail exchange with participants and discussion list message history were rich data sources. The data were analyzed according to qualitative data analysis techniques. The design principles and findings of this research study were discussed in the frame of Activity Theory. This study revealed outcomes of two online communities of practice environments in preservice teacher education. In addition, motivators and barriers to be active in oCoP environments were discussed. Some of the motivators were getting more responsibility, self confidance, sociable personality, altruism, sincerity in the environment, and quality of materials while some of the barriers were not wanting to enter a fight, lack of time, the idea &ldquo / max benefit minimum effort&rdquo / , feeling availability of others, and Internet access and computer availability.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-01-26T18:49:33Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 JESSIKA_MATOS_22_02_2011 JACK ORTEHA URGENTE quinta noite.pdf: 953148 bytes, checksum: c1b02c75bffd54d3a32ed604083f9ee5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-08-06 / We conducted this research with the aim of obtaining grants to questions about where and when the good teachers of Youth and Adults - EJA acquire their knowledge, develop their skills and professional practice, and how performance assessment can help improve education in this segment. The survey was conducted in CEJA - Study Center for Youths and Adults in Cuiabá / MT., with the participation of students and teachers at different stages of data collection. The Students contributed indicating the qualities of a good teacher and professional skills they should have. For teachers and evaluated, indicating helped develop such qualities as assessed by students through questionnaires and interviews. The theorical base was FREIRE (1997), SOARES (2004), CUNHA (1992), SCHÖN (2000), TARDIF (2002), PERRENOUD (2002), NÓVOA (1995), DIAS SOBRINHO (2003), AFONSO (2002), IMBERNÓN (2006) and LOWMAN (2004). These authors address topics on teaching knowledge,skills and professional evaluation of teaching performance, discuss the educational practice, promote interest in teaching investigative, reflective, politically, and dialogic, and indicate the assessment of teaching practice as one of the basic tools in sustaining the quality of teaching. The research involved a qualitative case study as works of ANDRE (2005) and YIN (2001). The interpretation of data were carried out using content analysis BARDIN (1977). With this study we could demonstrate when, where and how these teachers indicated as good teachers, with the qualities and skills displayed by the students learned to be good teachers of Youth and Adult-adult education- EJA. / Realizamos esta pesquisa com objetivo de obter subsídios aos questionamentos acerca de onde e quando os bons professores da Educação de Jovens e Adultos EJA adquirem seus saberes, desenvolvem suas competências e prática profissionais, e como a avaliação de desempenho pode auxiliar a melhoria de ensino neste segmento. A pesquisa foi realizada no CEJA - Centro de Estudos de Jovens e Adultos em Cuiabá/MT, com a participação de alunos e professores em diferentes momentos da coleta dados. Os alunos contribuiram indicando as qualidades de um bom professor e as competências profissionais que devem possuir. Quanto aos professores bem avaliados, contribuíram indicando como desenvolveram tais qualidades apreciadas pelos alunos através de questionário e entrevistas. O referencial teórico básico foi FREIRE (1996), SOARES (2004), CUNHA (1992), SCHÖN (2000), TARDIF (2002), PERRENOUD (2002), NÓVOA (1995), DIAS SOBRINHO (2003), AFONSO (2002) IMBÉRNÓN ( 2006) e LOWMAN (2004). Estes autores abordam temas sobre saberes docentes, competências e avaliação de desempenho docente profissional, discutem a prática educativa, promovem o interesse pelo docente investigativo, reflexivo, político, e dialógico, bem como indicam a avaliação da prática docente como um dos instrumentos de base na sustentação da qualidade de ensino. A pesquisa envolveu um estudo de caso qualitativo conforme obras de ANDRE (2005) e YIN (2001). A interpretação dos dados foi realizada seguindo análise de conteúdo de BARDIN (1977). Com a realização deste estudo foi possível demonstrar quando, onde e como estes professores indicados como bons professores, com as qualidades e competências indicadas pelos alunos, aprenderam a ser bons professores da Educação de Jovens e Adultos - EJA.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-07-18T17:54:08Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 JESSIKA_MATOS_22_02_2011 JACK ORTEHA URGENTE quinta noite.pdf: 953148 bytes, checksum: c1b02c75bffd54d3a32ed604083f9ee5 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-08-06 / We conducted this research with the aim of obtaining grants to questions about where and when the good teachers of Youth and Adults - EJA acquire their knowledge, develop their skills and professional practice, and how performance assessment can help improve education in this segment. The survey was conducted in CEJA - Study Center for Youths and Adults in Cuiabá / MT., with the participation of students and teachers at different stages of data collection. The Students contributed indicating the qualities of a good teacher and professional skills they should have. For teachers and evaluated, indicating helped develop such qualities as assessed by students through questionnaires and interviews. The theorical base was FREIRE (1997), SOARES (2004), CUNHA (1992), SCHÖN (2000), TARDIF (2002), PERRENOUD (2002), NÓVOA (1995), DIAS SOBRINHO (2003), AFONSO (2002), IMBERNÓN (2006) and LOWMAN (2004). These authors address topics on teaching knowledge,skills and professional evaluation of teaching performance, discuss the educational practice, promote interest in teaching investigative, reflective, politically, and dialogic, and indicate the assessment of teaching practice as one of the basic tools in sustaining the quality of teaching. The research involved a qualitative case study as works of ANDRE (2005) and YIN (2001). The interpretation of data were carried out using content analysis BARDIN (1977). With this study we could demonstrate when, where and how these teachers indicated as good teachers, with the qualities and skills displayed by the students learned to be good teachers of Youth and Adult-adult education- EJA. / Realizamos esta pesquisa com objetivo de obter subsídios aos questionamentos acerca de onde e quando os bons professores da Educação de Jovens e Adultos EJA adquirem seus saberes, desenvolvem suas competências e prática profissionais, e como a avaliação de desempenho pode auxiliar a melhoria de ensino neste segmento. A pesquisa foi realizada no CEJA - Centro de Estudos de Jovens e Adultos em Cuiabá/MT, com a participação de alunos e professores em diferentes momentos da coleta dados. Os alunos contribuiram indicando as qualidades de um bom professor e as competências profissionais que devem possuir. Quanto aos professores bem avaliados, contribuíram indicando como desenvolveram tais qualidades apreciadas pelos alunos através de questionário e entrevistas. O referencial teórico básico foi FREIRE (1996), SOARES (2004), CUNHA (1992), SCHÖN (2000), TARDIF (2002), PERRENOUD (2002), NÓVOA (1995), DIAS SOBRINHO (2003), AFONSO (2002) IMBÉRNÓN ( 2006) e LOWMAN (2004). Estes autores abordam temas sobre saberes docentes, competências e avaliação de desempenho docente profissional, discutem a prática educativa, promovem o interesse pelo docente investigativo, reflexivo, político, e dialógico, bem como indicam a avaliação da prática docente como um dos instrumentos de base na sustentação da qualidade de ensino. A pesquisa envolveu um estudo de caso qualitativo conforme obras de ANDRE (2005) e YIN (2001). A interpretação dos dados foi realizada seguindo análise de conteúdo de BARDIN (1977). Com a realização deste estudo foi possível demonstrar quando, onde e como estes professores indicados como bons professores, com as qualidades e competências indicadas pelos alunos, aprenderam a ser bons professores da Educação de Jovens e Adultos - EJA.

Acknowledging the difficulties of achieving effective strategic management in practice, this thesis investigates how formal strategies quite often succeed in conditioning organisational actions even in firms such as professional service firms, which may lack effective measures for coercing action and which often depend on distributed decision-making. The fundamental question posed in this investigation is: what are the social processes that make strategies work? This thesis addresses that question by contributing to our understanding of strategy realisation as a continuing process of translating formal strategies into ‘strategies-in-practice’, i.e. the situated performance of strategies through choices, actions, and practices pertaining to the selection and accomplishment of concrete assignments. The thesis investigates this translation process in three small professional service firms, in which the responsibility for enacting the strategies lies with autonomous practitioners, making centralised strategy realisation difficult. Searching for integration rather than further fragmentation of different strands of strategy research, the thesis make use of Porterian activity systems theory, Giddens’ structuration theory, Wittgensteinian theory of rule-following, Searlean theory of intentionality, and the strategy-as-practice approach, in order to understand the translation process as the intentional structuration of practice. The thesis reports two main contributions, the first addressing a gap in strategy re-search, the second contradicting prevailing theories. The first contribution is an outline of a theory of strategy translation: how formal strategies are translated into strategies-in-practice, coping with insoluble strategic dilemmas, and achieving maintenance of strategic position and strategies-in-practice under pressure for unwanted change. Good strategies-in-practice are as much about managing dilemmas as about eliminating them. Second, in contrast to prevailing strategic positioning theory and generic strategies, this study documents the potential benefits of straddling strategically distinct services within a single activity system, in terms of: learning opportunities; work variation; better opportunities for attracting, developing, and retaining talented people; the possibilities of capitalising on client relationships; and the dynamics of routinisation of once-novel services.