DTheses (Athabasca University)
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ENHANCING THE DIGITAL LEARNING POTENTIAL FOR YOUNGER LEARNERS
Full text linkThis Doctoral research project began in an era of discordant debate. Education Consultant Marc Prensky had published two short papers on the cusp of this new century (2001a; 2001b). In the first paper (2001a), Prensky outlined the learning preferences and proclivities of a young cohort yet to enter the education system – but who would enter said system with an engrained proclivity for, and skillset in, the uses of digital media. This cohort he labelled ‘Digital Natives’. In the second paper (2001b), Prensky outlined the preferences and proclivities of some educators extant in the system – who were less interested and adept at uses for digital media. This cohort he labelled ‘Digital Immigrants’: arguing the challenge in this new education culture would the Digital Immigrants. Digital Immigrants responded harshly, often with vitriol, to Prensky’s description of education’s future. As a teacher at a secondary school in Canada, this researcher was in the right place-time to watch the transition to digital media in hallways and classrooms. This research project resulted, starting in 2013: seeking the adaptations needed to achieve success for schools, teachers, and students. The research questions for this study were: (1) What characteristics, preferences, and/or proclivities make Generation Z different from earlier generations? And (2) What changes to the education systems should be considered, given the technology proclivities of this “Generation” Z? The research method was exclusively Qualitative, to ensure data collected were the unrestricted thoughts of participants rather than the selected, restricted ‘multiple choice’ responses engrained in Quantitative research. The findings of the research potentially enhance our understanding, and process, for education in this century and beyond: a time when both students and instructors are likely to be ‘digitally native’. Those findings include but are not limited to strong inferences: that ‘digitally native’ learners now inhabit our education system in significant proportions, both as students and soon as instructors; that these learners are the ‘Digital Natives’ projected by Prensky; and, that the education system must adapt to this phenomenon in progress quickly and comprehensively in order to meet the needs of students, the education system and our culture overall.2023-0
Anishnaabek Nanadagin: Examining the role of traditional healing within diabetes management
Full text linkThe Indigenous peoples of Canada have suffered a precarious history of colonization leading to trauma from residential school experiences, health inequities resulting in poorer health outcomes and an increased burden of disease as compared to the non-Indigenous peoples. The goal of this research was to examine the role of traditional healing within diabetes management. Using Indigenous research methodology and grounding the research process in Indigenous ways of knowing, culturally safe spaces were created for participants to share. Traditional Healers and the people living with type 2 diabetes emphasize the importance of integrated care of traditional, western medical, and self-care for attaining overall wellness. Understanding the relational influence between themselves, their family, community, and ancestors was of utmost importance. Balance was achieved when mental, emotional, physical, and Spiritual aspects of self were interconnected. A conceptual model of Indigenous diabetes wellness is presented and incorporates all the representative themes of this research.2023-0
CLIMATE CHANGE EMOTIONS AND FUTURE PLANNING AMONG CANADIAN ADOLESCENTS: EXPLORING CONNECTIONS TO EXISTENTIAL ANXIETY
No full textThe purpose of this thesis is to explore the emotional reactions and future-oriented thinking of children and adolescents in the context of climate change. Climate change is often referenced as an existential threat, yet this is under researched. 24 Canadian adolescents, aged 15 – 18 years, participated in online focus groups were conducted around the following discussion points: 1) the emotions Canadian adolescents are feeling in response to climate change; and 2) how or if climate change is impacting how Canadian adolescents think about their futures. An inductive (explorative) to deductive (theory-driven) thematic analysis methodology was used. 25 emotional responses and 11 themes surrounding how climate change is or is not impacting future-oriented thinking were identified. Existential themes appear to be an applicable framework to understand these experiences. Implications for mental health professionals who work with children and adolescents are discussed as well as recommendations for future research.2023-1
DEVELOPMENT OF A HEALTH LITERACY TOOL TO SUPPORT CERTIFIED DIABETES EDUCATORS DURING VIRTUAL VISITS
Full text linkUsing a Quality Improvement (QI) approach, this qualitative study intended to develop a health literacy assessment tool or to modify existing tools that can assess the health literacy of individuals diagnosed with diabetes during their virtual consultations with Certified Diabetes Educators (CDEs). Accurately assessing the health literacy levels of individual clients will ultimately enable CDEs to customize education for their clients that will better support the self-management of their diabetes. While self-management leads to improvement in clinical outcomes, this study is focused on helping CDEs to better understand the diabetes health literacy level of their clients. Due to accessibility issues for the elderly and other clients, the study focused on the telephone visit as a preferred type of virtual visit. Virtual consultations reduce barriers for the elderly and other clients, including those with disabilities, who find travelling difficult and cannot physically access a clinic. Accessing technology exposes inequity issues; the telephone is accessible to most people, whereas in-person consultations at a clinical facility or consultations using audio-visual technology are not.
In this qualitative research study, existing health literacy tools were assessed and in virtual consultations between Certified Diabetes Educators (CDEs), a new diabetes health literacy tool was developed. Using an interpretive quality improvement approach, the participants' (CDEs) perspectives on the effectiveness and practicality of the existing diabetes health literacy tools were assessed. CDEs’ views on the tools' application in practice were assessed through a focus group session. Based upon feedback from CDEs, a new diabetes health literacy tool was developed, and finally, the participants assessed the new tool in their virtual practice. CDEs selected telephone visits along with newly developed health literacy tools for their initial assessments of clients' health literacy. The study was conducted over several phases, and the data was collected using focus groups and open-ended surveys. Overall, CDEs found that having a diabetes health literacy tool is beneficial in their practice setting and allowed them to better understand their clients’ needs; however, the tool needs to be further improved to adapt to the specific variety of conditions including type 1 and 2 diabetes and prediabetes.July 26, 202
"DOING IT UTTERLY AND COMPLETELY WRONG": CRITICALLY ANALYZING PERSPECTIVES OF FAT BODIES
Full text linkWeight stigma is a set of negative assumptions and beliefs around people living in larger bodies (Meadows & Calogero, 2018). The variables contributing to weight stigma in counseling are incredibly complex. Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any mental illness (van Hoeken & Hoek, 2020). According to The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), one of the criteria for eating disorders is an intense fear of weight gain. Few studies investigate the impact of weight stigma in counselling interventions. De-stigmatizing the pathological view of fatness could be a key component in effectively treating eating disorders. Using a critical discourse analysis (CDA) and an inductive thematic analysis, the purpose of this study is to examine the societal context and use of language to answer the research question: “What are the responses of an opinion piece article of accepting a fatter body as part of healing from an eating disorder?”2023-1
What are you having?: The Lived Experiences of Gender Creative Parenting
Full text linkFrom birth onward, children are sorted and guided based on binary gender/sex expectations. The vast landscape of gender socialization research indicates that most children, transgender and cisgender alike, are socialized in ways that uphold the gender/sex binary, inhibiting their gender health. A movement known as gender creative parenting aims to disrupt the harms done through binary gender/sex socialization by refraining from assigning their child a gender/sex at birth. Through semi-structured interviews, this narrative inquiry explores the personal, practical, and social knowledge of eight gender creative parents navigating the tension of honouring their child’s authentic sense of gender within a world where the gender/sex binary is ubiquitous. Three overarching and interrelated themes fundamental to the gender creative parenting experience are explored: (1) perspectives (2) practices (3) supports and barriers. This research stands to advance both counselling and transdisciplinary conversations around how best to promote children’s gender health.2024-0
THE EFFECT OF COGNITIVE STYLE ON REINVESTING GAINS IN PERSONAL FINANCE DECISION-MAKING
Full text linkConsumer behaviour research has demonstrated that an individual’s cognitive style can affect their mental accounting in consumer purchases. The goal of this dissertation is to investigate whether this effect can explain investor behaviour in portfolio formulation, specifically in relation to diversification strategies. To investigate this problem, I use a quasi-experiment to test the effect of cognitive style on the reinvestment of gains in personal finance decision making and, examines whether the effect will differ between analytic and holistic thinkers. Additionally, consumer behaviour research suggests that the effect may be moderated in utilitarian consumption when compared to hedonic instances. Since the nature of investment has rarely been studied as utilitarian or hedonic and empirical testing has not been conducted, the Hedonic and Utilitarian Dimensions of Consumer Attitude (HED/UT) scale is used to assess the hedonic and utilitarian nature of investments against six real world investments. The results of this experiment provide empirical evidence that analytic thinkers are more likely to reinvest gains from one investment into similar investments, especially in instances where the nature of the investment is utilitarian. The effect is more prominent in Caucasians and risk-averse investors. This work provides far ranging implications for theoretical insight and practical matters in decision making, customer service, and protecting consumers. These theoretical advances include empirical evidence of investor behaviour under uncertainty and a proposed platform for comparing investments to purchases in the consumer behaviour context. In practice, this information can be used in the financial services sector by individual investors and money managers to help develop training tools that support portfolio diversification. Highlighting this unconscious bias will help strengthen the average investor’s portfolio by optimizing returns and reducing volatility from market risk.2023-0
VIRTUAL TRAINING LAB (TLAB): TELEPRESENCE EMPOWERED REMOTE LAB
Full text linkRapid growth of telepresence technology led to the creation of Telepresence Robot Empowered Smart Lab (TRESL) to overcome the challenges in distance education, lab and field work. This research created a similar setup (virtual and physical laboratory) over the broadband internet, tested numerous scenarios including dispersed and centralized system and discovered logistical challenges with performance, network connectivity and user training for controlling the equipment. Collected data showed the potential downsides of broadband connection, last mile problem occurred due the shared bandwidth among local consumers also, it was observed that user training is required to manipulate controls from a remote location. This research highlights the question of operational reliability of internet connection for telepresence technology specifically for laboratories which often requires machine-like point to point accuracy. It is recommended to explore technologies like Direct Internet Access (DIA) and suggested optimization of virtual device (digital twin) for increasing the performance and reliability.2023-0
Prepulse inhibition and call alerting in emergency medical services
Full text linkThe present study determined if the current AHS EMS call alert was startling to paramedics and if a prepulse moderated the magnitude of the startle response. Fifty paramedics were exposed to four call alerts (two with and two without a prepulse) in counterbalanced order. Participants’ responses were measured using EMG blink magnitude, heart rate, perceived signal intensity, and perceived dislike. Paramedics responded to the call alert with a significant magnitude startle reflex blink and an increase in heart rate. Adding a prepulse caused a significant reduction in the magnitude of the startle blink, perceived sound intensity, and perception of dislike of the call alert. This study demonstrates that the call alert is startling to paramedics and that adding a prepulse can moderate the response.2023-0
ATTENDING TO SOCIAL AND INSTITUTIONAL ORGANIZATION OF “CULTURE” IN CANADIAN COUNSELLOR EDUCATION
Full text linkThe current mental health needs of Black populations are significantly heightened, as more public occurrences of racial discrimination, systematic oppression, and violence have shed light on the adversities Black people experience in their everyday life. Despite this, many Canadian Black people are underutilizing these resources. This is not a new conversation in the context of Canadian counselling psychology. However, the dominant approaches to research and practice have historically focused on identifying and addressing barriers to clients seeking care, rather than on accessibility and appropriateness of the services offered. There is currently a dearth of information considering how the current focus impacts racialized students in their counselling programs, and consequently their work as student therapists. In this institutional ethnography, I extend the invitation to further consider, from the standpoint of a racialized student, an example of how culture is both taught and performed in the fields.2023-0