Evolution is the central organizing theory of biology. Without evolutionary theory, biology becomes a somewhat tangential assemblage of facts about living organisms, which is precisely how it is viewed by many students. Many teachers teach evolution in a limited capacity or avoid it entirely due to fear of opposition, lack of confidence in their own understanding, or lack of acceptance of the theory themselves. When evolution is not taught, or is not accepted, it cannot be utilized to make sense of the field, and is quickly forgotten by students. While some studies have shown a correlation between instruction about evolution and acceptance of evolution, many have not. Understanding which instructional factors, both pedagogical and conceptual, contribute to increases in evolution acceptance are paramount if we are going to make biology education more cohesive and applicable beyond the context of the course itself. To better understand what these factors may be, I utilized curriculum that I developed previously to teach introductory biology to non-biology majors that incorporated evolution as the organizing structure and appeared to produce considerable increases in acceptance of evolution based on the lack of hostility and pushback from the students in the course. I verified that the curriculum as taught produced increases in acceptance of evolution using the Measure of Acceptance of the Theory of Evolution (MATE) instrument as a measure of acceptance, and by asking students on the final exam what their position had been before instruction and if it had changed as a result of the course. Both measures revealed a considerable increase in evolution acceptance. Using a full factorial experimental design, tested three major pedagogical approaches that have all been hypothesized to contribute to increasing evolution acceptance: Constructivist-inspired vs Behaviorist-inspired, active vs less active instruction, and reflexive journaling vs not journaling. While all possible combinations of treatments showed statistically significant increases in evolution acceptance, there was no statistically significant difference between any of the treatments or combinations of treatments. Also, using Thematic Analysis, we coded and analyzed the responses that students provided as to the concepts from class that played a role in their having changed or not changed their positions on evolution as reported on the final exams, and in their reflexive journals which provided a valuable window into the concepts that we might emphasize or choose to remove or deemphasize in the future to maximize the probability that student acceptance of evolution will increase following instruction.

Title: Semigroups of operators and its orbits Author: Jan Vršovský Department: Institute of Mathematics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic Supervisor: prof. RNDr. Vladimír Müller, DrSc., Institute of Mathematics of the AS CR Abstract: The orbit of a bounded linear operator T on a Banach space is a se- quence T n x, n = 0, 1, 2, . . ., where x is a fixed vector. The orbits are closely connected to the dynamics of operator semigroups and to the invariant sub- spaces and subsets. The thesis studies the relation between the operator and its orbits. The subject of the first part is the relation between sequences T n x and T n , stability and orbits tending to infinity. The second part deals with dense orbits - hypercyclicity and related notions. In the third part, an ana- logue of reflexive algebras of operators, orbit reflexive operators are defined and studied. Apart from "normal" orbits of a single operator, the weak orbits and orbits of C0-semigroups are also touched. Keywords: operator, semigroup, orbit, hypercyclic, orbit reflexive

Stories reveal forces and conditions under which particular experiences are shaped. Drawing on a personal-storied approach, the author examines weight-related communication. More specifically, this presentation explores communication around and stigmatization of eating disorders. Blending reflexivity and secondary research, the author contends that weight-related scripts, arguably, legitimatize eating disorders within certain performing arts communities. A three-part blog series was used to extend the analysis of weight(y) scripts to lay audiences. Resulting from the above procedure are compelling pieces of literature, as weaving relevant excerpts from personal narrative offer an element of relatability which strictly academic writing cannot always accomplish. Capitalizing on the goal of exposing especially damaging narratives within culture, the work done within the context of these blogs is positioned in such a way which enables it to reach the desired audiences.

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International Masters students face daunting challenges in adjusting to a startlingly different UK academic discourse within a short time. Little research has been conducted into these challenges and successful transition strategies. A review of learning development literature identified a set of three models, which has not been related theoretically to international Masters students. The latest, critical model, Academic Literacies, especially offers important insights into these students’ difficulties and potential for integration. This research design explored these learning journeys in depth through interviews in a longitudinal study of MBA and MSc students during the 2009-10 academic year. The rich data were investigated through the qualitative methodology of narrative analysis, with twin aims of recognising similarities but also important differences across the students’ learning experiences. A majority experienced strongly emotional learning journeys. These followed an affective pattern with a downturn early in the academic year influenced by the degree of unfamiliarity in the new culture and academic discourse, mirrored by a corresponding improvement in emotional state during Semester 2 or 3 as these external issues became more familiar and comfortable. Self-efficacy emerged as an especially important factor in achieving academic success, and students’ progression was mapped against this variable using an established, U-shaped transition curve model. The study identifies practical learning development interventions, but also highlights the importance of educational practitioners becoming pedagogically self-reflective to empathise more genuinely with international students’ struggles, and to learn from their diverse experiences in ways that can enrich the process of internationalising western education.

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Digitization has taken on a central role for many organizations, and its progress has opened up opportunities for organizations to increase their efficiency and streamline their everyday operations. Efficiency is an important phenomenon for many organizations as it yields high returns by achieving higher set goals with less effort. The purpose of this qualitative study is to gain an understanding of how digitized work processes shape the middle manager's opportunities for reflexive practice. The study aims to investigate whether organizations in the future may retain innovation and learning within the organization through reflexive practice, despite efficiency requirements leading to increasing standardization of tasks. This study focuses on the middle management role, conducting ten interviews with middle managers in the private sector to gather empirical data. The research targets middle managers in various organizations as well as senior management to understand how to maintain reflexive practice even in a digital environment where many tasks become standardized. In conclusion, the results show that digitization has affected work processes, creating both opportunities and challenges for the middle manager's space to practice reflexivity. Working with reflexive practice has proven necessary in the implementation of digital tools to reduce the risks of errors. At the same time, automation has opened up greater scope for organizations to practice reflexivity, but utilizing that opportunity depends on them and the unique needs of the organization. Furthermore, we can observe that the practice of reflexivity is most common in problematic contexts and rarely in processes that work smoothly. Therefore, the middle manager is in a balancing act in terms of how much is required of them to exercise reflexive practice in their organization and how much they should prioritize questioning the various digitized work processes. / Digitaliseringen har blivit en central roll för många organisationer och dess framfart har öppnat upp för möjligheter för organisationer att öka sin effektivitet och en smidigare vardag. Effektivitet är ett viktigt fenomen för många organisationer då det ger hög vinning i att med mindre prestation, nå de högre uppsatta målen. Syftet med denna kvalitativa studie är att skapa sig en förståelse för hur digitaliserade arbetsprocesser formar mellanchefens möjligheter till en reflexiv praktik. Studien ämnar undersöka huruvida organisationer i framtiden kan komma att behålla innovation samt lärande inom organisationen genom en reflexiv praktik, trots att effektivitetskrav gör att organisationer i allt större grad standardiserar uppgifter. Denna studie tar språng i mellanchefsrollen där 10 intervjuer med mellanchefer i den privata sektorn har genomförts för att samla in det empiriska materialet. Undersökningen riktar sig främst till mellanchefer i olika organisationer men även högre ledning för att skapa sig förståelse i hur man kan behålla en reflexiv praktik även i en digital miljö där många arbetsuppgifter blir standardiserade. Avslutningsvis visar resultatet att digitaliseringen har påverkat arbetsprocesserna, som både skapat möjligheter men även visat sig utmana mellanchefens utrymme för att praktisera reflexivitet. Att arbeta med en reflexiv praktik har visat sig vara nödvändig vid implementering av digitala verktyg för att minska riskerna för felsteg. Samtidigt har automatisering öppnat upp en större marginal för organisationer att praktisera reflexivitet, men att utnyttja den möjligheten är upp till dem och den unika organisationens behov. Vidare kan vi konstatera att praktiserande av reflexivitet är mest förekommande vid problematiska kontexter och sällan vid de processer som fungerar. Mellanchefen står därför mellan en balansgång i hur mycket det krävs av dem att utöva en reflexiv praktik i sin organisation samt hur mycket de ska prioritera sitt ifrågasättande för de olika digitaliserade arbetsprocesserna.

Many researchers seem to think that Construction Grammar posits the existence of only wholly idiosyncratic constructions. However, this misconception betrays a deep misunderstanding of the approach because it glosses over the fact that constructions rarely if ever emerge sui generis. Rather, Construction Grammar aims to balance the fact that some linguistic uses cannot be fully predicted from other well-established uses with the fact that extensions of a construction, while not predictable, are motivated by other senses in the constructional network. This paper illustrates this idea by providing an analysis of the Spanish completive reflexive marker se.

Cette recherche se propose d’étudier, d’un point de vue de la problématique et de la méthodologie relative à l’ergonomie humain-machine, la manière dont les e-portfolios de présentation peuvent s’insérer dans le milieu universitaire. Un e-portfolio est généralement défini comme étant une collection d’informations qui illustre la scolarité, l’apprentissage ou la vie professionnelle d’une personne à travers une sélection de résultats marquants au cours de formations ou d’études, mais aussi qui regroupe les réflexions personnelles de l’apprenant sur son apprentissage, son parcours, la planification d’une carrière ou la construction d’un CV. Tout au long de cette étude nous avons chercher à comprendre à travers une analyse ciblée des besoins comment l’apprenant peut mettre en avant une démarche réflexive tout au long de son parcours. Il s’agit aussi de comprendre comment les e-portfolios de présentation pourraient se démarquer et offrir un véritable outil de placement aux étudiants comme aux recruteurs. Pour tenter de répondre à ces questions, nous avons procédé à des entretiens avec les recruteurs et les étudiants en vue de comprendre leurs attentes. L’ensemble des informations recueillies on permis de créer une maquette fonctionnelle sur laquelle ils ont pu interagir. Les éléments d’analyse issus de ces rencontres et des tests d’utilisabilité de l’outil nous ont permis de mettre sur pied une maquette finale. / Based on the human-machine ergonomics methodology, this study deals with how e-portfolios of presentation could be implemented in the University. An e-portfolio can be defined as a structured amount of information displaying the education, learning and working experience of a person in relation to a selection of outstanding results. It also includes personal reflections on the learner on those accomplishments, on his career plan, on his working experience or simply on his resume. With a focused needs’ analysis, we try to understand how learners could put forward a reflexive thinking throughout their career. Also, we try to figure out how e-portfolios could become an effective investment tool for students as well as for employers. To answer these questions, we have made many interviews with employers and students in order to assess and understand their expectations. The sum of collected information has helped us to design a primary model on which they will be able to interact each other. After that phase, and according to all the usability tests conducted on that model, we developed the final model for an e-portfolio.

Initial teacher education is constantly in the spotlight regarding its quality and its effectiveness. The literature contains many claims from those who believe that it is ineffectual. The notion of the reflective practitioner was introduced and embraced as an antidote to these claims, and as an approach to break the influence of technocratic beliefs and expectations which pre-service teachers bring with them to their initial teacher education. Typically reflection targets the practicum experience. However, this study focuses specifically on the contribution of course work to the development of a reflective beginning teacher. This qualitative study invited pre-service teachers to provide insight into their initial teacher education experience: initially within a Teaching of Science methods paper, and then some 18 months later at the conclusion of their three year Bachelor of Education (Teaching) professional preparation. A critical reflexive interpretive methodology which sought authenticity within its meaning-making process developed from an initial consideration of self-study research methodology. Of particular importance was that the enquiry was authentic, participants' voices were valued and recognition was given to the implications embedded within the context within which the study occurred. Methods of data collection included in phase one were: a pre-course questionnaire, a Gestalt-like activity, and pre-service teachers' email reflections based on Hoban's (2000a) categories of learning influences, and meta-reflections from the Teaching of Science paper. The journal I kept during this phase was also drawn upon as data. Phase two data collection included a vignette, and a three part final questionnaire to which 40 pre-service teachers and nine teacher educators responded. The findings suggest that pre-service teachers' understanding of the nature of education is critical to the way in which they experience the course work within initial teacher education. This understanding shapes their perception and consideration lens through which course work is experienced. On entrance to initial teacher education this lens is described, for many pre-service teachers, as technocratic. Education is seen as a commodity, something to acquire, teaching is telling and initial teacher education is dependent on the teacher educator providing the necessary tools and techniques so the beginning teacher can do the right thing. This study suggests that such a stance toward educational experiences is a hindrance mechanism when teacher educators seek transformative teaching, learning, and reflexivity. However, when that view of education is as a process of growth and transformation toward a valued 'way of being', the perspective and consideration lens is described as professional. Rather than focusing on what a teacher does, the focus is on whom the teacher is and how this influences the teaching and learning process. Teacher educators and the institution which is the context within which course work occurs also demonstrate a mixture of technocratic and professional lenses. Important factors within initial teacher education which contribute to transformation from technocratic to professional lens include relational and pedagogical connectedness. These factors lead to valuing, ownership and justification of learning where assessment tasks are tools for personal development and where critical consideration of multiple perspectives has an important role. Relational connectedness (to self, peers, and teacher educators) is important for developing a safe, but challenging, dialogical space in which paradoxes, challenges and pre-service teachers' vulnerable sense of disorientation may be engaged. Pedagogical connectedness relates to the fit between what the teacher educator says and does. For example, a powerful approach to learning is where the pre-service teachers learn to be reflexive, by being reflexive. The study indicates the importance of institutional congruency so that what is espoused is experienced through language, assessment, teaching approaches and contextual culture. However, pre-service teachers' perception and consideration lens determines the degree to which course work is transformational. Where a technocratic lens is dominant, reflection becomes a task to be completed. Where a professional lens is dominant, reflection becomes an iterative process for improving practice by becoming professionally self aware through identifying assumptions in decisions and responses within the learning/teaching relationship, and judging those assumptions for their appropriateness in the light of a developing and critiqued personally owned educational vision.