Adults working as teachers and doctors can find it difficult to communicate well with young people about the issues that affect their wellbeing and learning and thus miss opportunities to contribute when their clients experience adversity. Drama is often used as a pedagogical tool to assist people to develop their communication skills. Dramatic portrayals however, can reinforce rather than challenge limiting stereotypes, and there is the potential for learning through drama to contribute to a patronising world-view and lead to the assumption that a set of formulaic approaches can bridge the communication divide. There is thus a need for research that engages both theoretically and technically with the use of drama as a tool for applied learning. In this thesis, a reflective practitioner methodology is used to explore the use of drama as a method in participatory enquiry and as a tool in the professional education of teachers and doctors. Use of the practitioner perspective permits analysis of the alignment between theory and practice. The Learning Partnerships project provides the context within which to conduct this enquiry. In this project the researcher leads drama workshops that bring together classes of school students and tertiary students completing their studies in medicine or education. The adolescents work as co-investigators with the teachers and doctors, exploring how to communicate effectively in the institutional contexts of schools and clinics.

Over the course of the 2007/2008 school year, I visited three classrooms to investigate the effectiveness of Augusto Boal’s drama method, Image Theatre, with elementary-aged students. In Image Theatre, the practitioners and students use their bodies to create frozen images, which in turn become the focus of collaborative meaning- making. I applied the reflective practitioner methodology in my work as it allowed me to adapt to the rapidly altering situations that arise in elementary classrooms. Through reflecting on my interactions with students, I refined a set of teaching techniques that worked best to integrate Image Theatre into the classroom and ultimately into the curriculum. My research provides a qualitative analysis of the power of Image Theatre to foster student dialogue, develop empathic learning, and introduce conflict awareness techniques. My thesis highlights some specific exercises and theoretical frameworks that guided my work and produced the most effective results. The effects of applying Image Theatre to elementary-aged classrooms has not been extensively studied in the past and my research attempts to address this academic gap. It is my hope that future researchers will adapt my activities and further demonstrate the capacities of this theatre technique. Ultimately, I hope that Image Theatre methods can find a place in standard curricula. / Education, Faculty of / Language and Literacy Education (LLED), Department of / Graduate

This thesis examines the implementation of an actor-training programme in the context of Spanish drama schools during 2004-2005. Reflecting through the student's practice as well as my own practice as a teacher, actor and director, I investigate how a bodymind training based on martial arts disciplines and designed by Phillip Zarrilli may contribute to understand the theory and the practice of an actor's use of the imagination as Michael Chekhov proposes it. Core questions arise from the evaluation of what is the professional knowledge that the integration of both systems of training brings to the students. The action of research is placed in how the process of learning such competencies take place and become informative of both the research and the acting practice. The concept of acting is being analysed by looking at the significance of the actor's imagination from a phenomenological rather than a psychological perspective. The discussion includes the challenge that developing a new pedagogy in a drama school brings up to a better understanding of contemporary paradigms of theatre practice and education.'Interpretación Gestual' is since 1992 an established branch in the Real Escuela Superior de Arte Dramático de Madrid (RESAD). Acting in physical (gestural) theatre conveys some problematic issues concerning its theory and practice within both professional and pedagogical contexts. Implementing a new and specific teaching programme for the preparation of professional actors in the context of the RESAD urges me to clarify inpractice certain issues about these two different approaches to actor training, as well as their presence in today's education within the curriculum of official drama schools in Spain.

Le jeu casual est un phénomène majeur de l’industrie vidéoludique, pourtant il reste peu étudié et mal considéré. Les quelques définitions scientifiques recensées présentent des divergences importantes, ainsi qu’un décalage par rapport aux jeux produits. Les modèles théoriques en design de jeu, centrés sur le gameplay, semblent inadéquats face à ce phénomène. En utilisant le modèle du praticien réflexif de Donald Schön, l’objectif de notre recherche est d’apporter un nouvel éclairage sur le jeu casual grâce au savoir professionnel des designers de jeux. Notre approche est qualitative, d’inspiration phénoménologique : nous avons recueilli l’expérience de huit designers de jeux par l’intermédiaire d’entretiens semi-dirigés proches du récit de pratique. Nos résultats montrent que les concepts utilisés dans les modèles vidéoludiques traditionnels restent pertinents pour définir le jeu casual, mais demandent à être retravaillés afin de rendre compte des mutations de l’expérience de jeu. Ainsi, un challenge dans un jeu casual n’est pas un obstacle mais une opportunité d’action pour le joueur. De plus, la progression se fait par la variation des challenges plutôt que par l’augmentation de la difficulté. Ensuite, certains concepts qui semblaient pertinents pour définir les jeux casual, tels que la fiction positive, ont été rejetés par nos participants. Enfin, notre étude a permis de rassembler des informations sur le rôle du designer de jeu casual et le contexte dans lequel il exerce, ce qui permet d’expliquer certaines causes de la vision péjorative du jeu casual. / Casual games are one of the main phenomena in the video game industry, but remain under-explored and are not highly regarded. Scientific definitions are scarce, inconsistent, and often disconnected from actual games. Further, theoretical models for game design, centered on gameplay, often fall short in defining casual games. The objective of this study is to use Donald Schön's model of the reflective practitioner to shed a new light on casual games through the collection of professional knowledge of game designers. This study follows a qualitative approach with phenomenological inspiration. Eight one-on-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with casual game designers who were asked to provide a narrative of their professional practice. Results show that traditional game design concepts remain relevant for understanding and defining casual games, but need to be reworked in the light of new experiences and contexts in gaming. Namely, challenge is no longer synonymous with obstacle, but should be considered as an opportunity of a player’s action. Progression should be based on the variation of challenges instead of increasing difficulty. In addition, participants rejected some concepts that were previously considered appropriate for defining casual games, like positive fiction. Finally, this study provides insight into the role of casual game designers and the context of their work, which can help explain the often negative perception of casual games.

<p>Syftet var att undersöka fyra hälsovägledares uppfattningar och strategier för att motivera individer till viktminskning. Avsikten var även att utreda vad de bygger sina uppfattningar och strategier på, samt att jämföra deras strategier med befintliga teorier om beteendeförändring såsom Motiverande samtal, Stages of change, Social learning theory och Health belief model. Teorierna valdes då de belyser hur en beteendeförändring kan gå till samt att de varit fram­gångsrika i tidigare forskning. Studien är kvalitativ och genomfördes med ostrukturerade intervjuer där respondenterna valdes genom ett bekvämlighetsurval. De fyra hälsovägledarna arbetade med att motivera individer till viktnedgång, alla hade utbildning inom hälso­främjande arbete som varierade mellan en vecka till flera år. Resultatet visade på att hälso­vägledarna använder sig av befintliga teorier samt av strategier som bygger på deras utbildning och egna erfarenheter. De förändrar sin arbetsmetod efterhand som de får ny kunskap samt då de reflekterar över sitt arbetssätt, vilket tyder på att de är reflekterande praktiker.</p>

Syftet var att undersöka fyra hälsovägledares uppfattningar och strategier för att motivera individer till viktminskning. Avsikten var även att utreda vad de bygger sina uppfattningar och strategier på, samt att jämföra deras strategier med befintliga teorier om beteendeförändring såsom Motiverande samtal, Stages of change, Social learning theory och Health belief model. Teorierna valdes då de belyser hur en beteendeförändring kan gå till samt att de varit fram­gångsrika i tidigare forskning. Studien är kvalitativ och genomfördes med ostrukturerade intervjuer där respondenterna valdes genom ett bekvämlighetsurval. De fyra hälsovägledarna arbetade med att motivera individer till viktnedgång, alla hade utbildning inom hälso­främjande arbete som varierade mellan en vecka till flera år. Resultatet visade på att hälso­vägledarna använder sig av befintliga teorier samt av strategier som bygger på deras utbildning och egna erfarenheter. De förändrar sin arbetsmetod efterhand som de får ny kunskap samt då de reflekterar över sitt arbetssätt, vilket tyder på att de är reflekterande praktiker.

This thesis describes the researcher’s journey as an online facilitator and reflective organization development (OD) practitioner as she explores how to nurture and cultivate space for learning and collaboration in an online community of practice. The research setting is a small group of mostly volunteers in a national health charity. The researcher adopts a reflective practitioner research approach engaging in a continuous process of story-telling throughout the thesis. She struggles with questions such as her own dynamic role as an outside facilitator, the role of technology, dilemmas of emergence versus design and discovery of purpose. Rather than arriving at a to-do-list for potential online facilitators, she discovers that hosting café style conversations, setting the online tables and enabling space for learning, collaboration and aliveness is more a matter of the facilitator’s capacity to listen, to be authentically present and to relinquish control.

This thesis describes the researcher’s journey as an online facilitator and reflective organization development (OD) practitioner as she explores how to nurture and cultivate space for learning and collaboration in an online community of practice. The research setting is a small group of mostly volunteers in a national health charity. The researcher adopts a reflective practitioner research approach engaging in a continuous process of story-telling throughout the thesis. She struggles with questions such as her own dynamic role as an outside facilitator, the role of technology, dilemmas of emergence versus design and discovery of purpose. Rather than arriving at a to-do-list for potential online facilitators, she discovers that hosting café style conversations, setting the online tables and enabling space for learning, collaboration and aliveness is more a matter of the facilitator’s capacity to listen, to be authentically present and to relinquish control.

This thesis document presents a case study of a professional development playbuilding process at a public elementary school located in Austin, Texas. The study argues that playbuilding is a form of participatory action arts-based research particularly when positioned within the professional development setting. This qualitative study uses a narrative thematic analysis of the playbuilding process and workshop performance to examine how reflective and reflexive practice is situated within playbuilding as professional development. The document concludes with a discussion of the limitations and transformative potential of playbuilding and argues for the creation of critical pedagogical professional learning communities for teachers in school settings. / text

Le jeu casual est un phénomène majeur de l’industrie vidéoludique, pourtant il reste peu étudié et mal considéré. Les quelques définitions scientifiques recensées présentent des divergences importantes, ainsi qu’un décalage par rapport aux jeux produits. Les modèles théoriques en design de jeu, centrés sur le gameplay, semblent inadéquats face à ce phénomène. En utilisant le modèle du praticien réflexif de Donald Schön, l’objectif de notre recherche est d’apporter un nouvel éclairage sur le jeu casual grâce au savoir professionnel des designers de jeux. Notre approche est qualitative, d’inspiration phénoménologique : nous avons recueilli l’expérience de huit designers de jeux par l’intermédiaire d’entretiens semi-dirigés proches du récit de pratique. Nos résultats montrent que les concepts utilisés dans les modèles vidéoludiques traditionnels restent pertinents pour définir le jeu casual, mais demandent à être retravaillés afin de rendre compte des mutations de l’expérience de jeu. Ainsi, un challenge dans un jeu casual n’est pas un obstacle mais une opportunité d’action pour le joueur. De plus, la progression se fait par la variation des challenges plutôt que par l’augmentation de la difficulté. Ensuite, certains concepts qui semblaient pertinents pour définir les jeux casual, tels que la fiction positive, ont été rejetés par nos participants. Enfin, notre étude a permis de rassembler des informations sur le rôle du designer de jeu casual et le contexte dans lequel il exerce, ce qui permet d’expliquer certaines causes de la vision péjorative du jeu casual. / Casual games are one of the main phenomena in the video game industry, but remain under-explored and are not highly regarded. Scientific definitions are scarce, inconsistent, and often disconnected from actual games. Further, theoretical models for game design, centered on gameplay, often fall short in defining casual games. The objective of this study is to use Donald Schön's model of the reflective practitioner to shed a new light on casual games through the collection of professional knowledge of game designers. This study follows a qualitative approach with phenomenological inspiration. Eight one-on-one semi-structured interviews were conducted with casual game designers who were asked to provide a narrative of their professional practice. Results show that traditional game design concepts remain relevant for understanding and defining casual games, but need to be reworked in the light of new experiences and contexts in gaming. Namely, challenge is no longer synonymous with obstacle, but should be considered as an opportunity of a player’s action. Progression should be based on the variation of challenges instead of increasing difficulty. In addition, participants rejected some concepts that were previously considered appropriate for defining casual games, like positive fiction. Finally, this study provides insight into the role of casual game designers and the context of their work, which can help explain the often negative perception of casual games.