Syftet med vårt examensarbete är att få en djupare förståelse för hur concept cartoons påverkar elevers gruppdiskussioner och bidrar till deras lärande i NO-undervisningen. Eftersom vår utbildning inriktar sig mot elever i årskurs F-3, har vi valt att återspegla detta i vår studie. Det teoretiska perspektiv som legat till grund för studien är det sociokulturella lärandeperspektivet, där Mercers (1996) tre språkliga kategorier disputational talk, cumulative talk och exploratory talk har använts för att få djupare förståelse för hur elevernas olika sätt att diskutera påverkar deras lärande. Concept cartoons är ett område som är relativt outforskat och studier som inriktar sig mot vår åldersgrupp finns endast i begränsad omfattning. Utöver detta ligger studiens relevans i att concept cartoons är ett koncept som skapats utifrån ett konstruktivistiskt perspektiv och det sociokulturella perspektivet som ska genomsyra vår framtida yrkesverksamhet har till följd lyst med sin frånvaro i tidigare forskning som inriktat sig mot de lägre åren. Genom observation av två klasser i årskurs 3 samlades materialet in och analyserades. Resultatet visade att endast ett fåtal av de deltagande eleverna hade drag av disputational talk och exploratory talk i diskussionerna. Majoriteten av eleverna bekräftade och byggde okritiskt vidare på det som sagts och elevernas sätt att diskutera dominerades därför av cumulative talk. Concept cartoons stödjer elever i att föra en diskussion, men har även sina begränsningar. Vi ser att concept cartoons kan användas i undervisningen men som lärare bör man vara medveten om hur det används av eleverna, för att därigenom förstå vilken typ av lärande som sker.

No description available.

This thesis investigates the effectiveness of third-person self-talk (TPST) as a strategy for managing work-related stress using imaginary scenarios. Employing an experimental design, the impact of TPST on stress was compared to first-person self-talk and control conditions. Six subscales (Upset, Afraid, Nervous, Irritated, Distressed, and Alert) of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) were used to measure negative affect, while trait anxiety was controlled using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI) to control for its effect on the relationship between TPST and stress responses. Contrary to expectations, the findings did not support TPST's effectiveness in significantly reducing stress levels. Furthermore, trait anxiety appeared as a strong predictor influencing situational stress responses, indicating that TPST's effectiveness was limited compared to individual differences. Further research can explore TPST's applicability across cultures, using longitudinal or diary designs or distinguishing between self-talk of different natures (e.g., spontaneous and induced).

This dissertation consists of three research papers on cheap talk game and satisficing behaviour. The first chapter examines the potential for communication via cheap talk between an expert and a decision maker whose type (preferences) is uncertain. The expert privately observes states for each type of the decision maker and wants to persuade the decision maker to choose an action in his favour by informing her of the states. The decision maker privately observes her type and chooses an action. An optimal action for the decision maker depends upon both her type and type-specific states. In equilibrium the expert can always inform the decision maker in the form of comparative statements and the decision maker also can partially reveal her type to the expert or public. The second and third chapters build a dynamic model of satisficing behaviour in which an agent’s “expected” payoff is explicitly introduced, where this expectation is adaptively formed. If the agent receives a payoff above her satisficing level she continues with the current action, updating her valuation of the action. If she receives a payoff below her satisficing level and her valuation falls below her satisficing level she updates both her action and satisficing level. In the second chapter, we find that in the long run, all players satisfice. In individual decision problems, satisficing behaviour results in cautious, maximin choice and in normal form games like the Prisoner’s Dilemma and Stag Hunt, they in the long run play either cooperative or defective outcomes conditional on past plays. In coordination games like the Battle of the Sexes, Choosing Sides and Common Interest, they in the long run coordinate on Pareto optimal outcomes. In the third chapter, we find that satisficing players in the long run play subgame dominant paths, which is a refinement of subgame perfection, and identify conditions with which they ‘always cooperate’ or ‘fairly coordinate’ in repeated Prisoner’s Dilemma and Battle of the Sexes games, respectively, and truthfully communicate in sender-receiver games. Proofs and simulations are provided in appendices.

A major challenge to contemporary education is to meet the Government’s directive, depicted in OFSTED guidelines and the Department for Education’s Teacher Standards that all our learners make progress, are autonomous and are able to engage in independent learning. However they offer no guidance as to how this can be achieved. The research has built on earlier theories to close the gap between Government measurements of the quality of teaching and twenty-first century educational theories, with particular focus on learning talk. The primary intention of this research was to determine the impact that dynamically dialogic learning conversations, that is learning talk, have on deepening learning, and how they may be used to enable teachers to meet OFSTED’s requirement for all students to make progress. The data for this case study was collected through a process of lesson observations, interviews and focus-group discussions over a period of one year. Sixteen lessons were video-recorded for a variety of topics and the recordings were analysed in depth against established theories of learning and the complex patterns and relationships between the different types of student and teacher learning talk observed in the classroom. The outcome of the analysis is a set of observable characteristics of learning talk which form an Observation Database. The findings support the premise that learning talk in the classroom leads to deeper learning. The Observation Database contains of a set of tools for observing, evaluating and enabling learning talk in the classroom and therefore offers teachers the opportunity to demonstrate OFSTED criteria. The process of developing the Observation Database and the tools developed have been shared both locally and nationally to heighten awareness of learning talk in the classroom and its link to deeper learning.

Conversational prosody or tone of voice (e.g. intonation, pauses, speech rate etc.) plays an essential role in our daily communication. Research studies in various contexts have shown that prosody can function as an interactional device for the management of our social interaction (Hellermann, 2003, Wennerstrom, 2001, Wells and Macfarlane, 1998, Couper-Kuhlen, 1996). However, not much research focus has been given to the pedagogical implications of conversational prosody in classroom teaching and learning. Informed by Community of Practice theory (Lave and Wenger, 1991) and Academic Task and Social Participation Structure (Erickson, 1982), which place participation at the core of the learning development, the current research employs an exploratory case study to examine the function of speech prosody during the co-construction of classroom talk-in-interaction in and between different classroom activities (e.g. whole class instruction, group discussion, group presentation, etc.). Audio–video data of classroom lessons were collected over a two-month period. Transcribing conventions described by Atkinson and Heritage (1984) were adopted to note the prosodic features in the recordings. Prosodic features such as pauses, volume, intonation, and speech rate were set as the main criteria for analysing the classroom talk. Analysis of the transcripts showed that speech prosody can function as a coordination tool for language learners to organise their social participation roles in collaborative learning activities (e.g. forming alignment, managing turn-taking, signalling repair sequences, etc.). The research also showed that prosody can function as a pedagogical tool for language teachers to manage classroom interactional ground (e.g. provide scaffolding, align academic task structure and social participation structure, frame classroom environment, etc.). Moreover, the research showed that prosodic analysis can be an effective tool in unfolding the pedagogical importance of classroom interaction (e.g. IRE/F sequences) in classroom teaching and learning.

Serotoninergic type 3 receptors (5HT3Rs) are members of the Cys-loop family of ligand-gated ion channels (LGIC), which includes nicotinic ACh, glycine, GABA-A and GABA-C receptors. All members of this family are widely expressed in the central and peripheral nervous systems, where they mostly participate in fast synaptic transmission. Activation of 5HT3Rs on vagal sensory nerve endings affect respiration, circulation, emesis and nociception; and in the central nervous system they are implicated in anxiety, depression, and drug dependence. In contrast, the function of 5HT3Rs in sympathetic neurons has not been fully determined. We discovered that 5HT3Rs interact with nicotinic acetylcholine receptors (nAChRs), the main drivers of the fast cholinergic autonomic synapse, through cross-talk mechanisms. We examined cross-talk by the patch-clamp technique on cultured mouse superior cervical ganglia (SCG) neurons. Co-stimulation of 5HT3Rs and nAChRs resulted in the generation of a combined current that was smaller than arithmetically predicted if the receptors did not interact with one another. This interaction, which we quantified as mean peak amplitude and mean ionic charge, was dependent on activation of 5HT3Rs and nAChRs, and independent of metabotropic receptors, Ca2+ entry and Ca2+ second messenger pathways, and of the direct action of 5HT on nAChRs. Preliminary data using an antibody targeted to the M3-M4 linker region of the 5HT3A subunit revealed that 5HT3Rs and nAChRs possibly cross-talk through physical interactions. These results revealed a potential role of the 5HT3R in the regulation of sympathetic synaptic transmission through cross-talk inhibition of nAChRs.

The objectives of this study were: (1) to examine the effects of instructional and motivational self-talk on self-efficacy in elite golf players; and (2) to examine the effects of instructional and motivational self-talk on performance in elite golf players. Participants involved were 9 elite golf players with a mean age of 20.4 years (SD = ± 1.1). A repeated measure design was implemented, and the putting experiment was completed in three sessions. Multiple one-way repeated measure analyses of variance revealed no significant differences across tries regarding self-efficacy and that instructional self-talk significantly improved performance compared to the baseline measure. Qualitative content analysis of after experiment debriefings revealed that participants found the task challenging, thought their self-talk affected their performance, and had issues with the absence of a hole. The results are discussed in relation to theory, previous research, and methodological issues. A revised version of the self-talk framework is suggested. Future research and practical applications of the results are suggested. / Syftet med föreliggande studie var: (1) att undersöka effekterna av instruerande och motiverande self-talk på self-efficacy hos elit golfspelare; samt (2) att undersöka effekterna av instruerande och motiverande self-talk på prestation hos elit golfspelare. 9 elit golfspelare deltog med en medelålder på 20.4 år (SD = ± 1.1). En inomgruppsdesign med upprepade mätningar implementerades och puttningsexperimentet genomfördes i tre sessioner. Multipla envägs beroende variansanalyser avslöjade inga signifikanta skillnader mellan mätningar vad gäller self-efficacy och att instruerande self-talk signifikant ökade prestationen jämfört med baslinjemätningen. Kvalitativ innehållsanalys av den efter experimentella debriefingen visade att deltagarna upplevde uppgiften som utmanande, ansåg att deras self-talk påverkade deras prestation, och att frånvaron av ett hål var problematiskt. Resultaten diskuteras i relation till teoretiska ramverk, tidigare forskning, och metodiken i studien. En reviderad version av a framework of self-talk presenteras. Förslag på framtida forskning och praktiska implikationer ges.

In recent years, the Taiwan¡¦s TV talk shows about the political topic have a bias in favour of party. In Taiwan, there are two property of party, one is called Blue property of party, the other is called Green property of party. In order to get more audience rating, theTV stations make the program by the means of antagonism. In this background, it becomes more important that audience how to response the genus of TV program. In order to investigate the phenomenon, we use two main directions. One way is stimulus response, it assumes the audience is influnced by TV progarm. In this way, we apply the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotion. The other way is audience¡¦s subjectivity, it assumes that audience can reflex what TV program want to talk to them. In this way, we apply the political philosopher-Hannah Arendt¡¦s doctrine. We found that audience¡¦s emotion be influenced by TV talk show, and no matter what party identification they belong to, most emotions are negative. But, when the TV talk show has a bias in favour of party which is the same with their party identification, they have moer higher positive emotion than which is no the same. And when the TV talk show has a bias in favour of party which is not the same with their party identification, they have moer higher positive emotion than which is no the same. But we can¡¦t justify the the broaden-and-build theory of positive emotion. No mater what party indentification they are and no matter what TV talk show of property of party they watch, we can¡¦t found obvious subjectivity of audience. It¡¦s a crisis of public sphere.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2003. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references. Available also from UMI Company.