NUI Maynooth Eprint Archive
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Slow has become Urgent. How can I Foster a Slow Pedagogy in a Preschool for Children with Special Needs?
No full textThe purpose of this research was to investigate how I could foster a slow pedagogy with young children with special needs in a preschool. ‘Slow is about connecting to self, others and place.’ (Tanti, 2019). Nutbrown (2012: 3) calls for teachers of early years children ‘to become effective pedagogical leaders who understand the learning and development needs of children and can enhance and extend learning opportunities.’ I would like to include in this, children with special needs, who, when given a voice and an opportunity, have the power to effect change. Fostering a slow pedagogy gave me the opportunity.
The research was conducted in a preschool for children with physical disabilities. Their primary disability is physical, and some had additional medical, sensory, and/or social needs. Six pupils were engaged in the study. All children had a different physical disability and required various forms of additional support to access curricular and play resources. The research participants were in the researcher’s class. Three Special Needs Assistants took on the role of critical friends throughout the study.
A self-study action research methodology allowed me to explore my own teaching practice with the aim of improving it. The study was qualitative in nature. It consisted of two research cycles; each cycle was four weeks. Cycle One explored the introduction of daily movement activities based on themes. The movements were to promote body awareness and exploration of the children’s physicality through fun, creative themes. Cycle Two extended these themes through the lens of a slow pedagogy. My values of care, inclusion and positive relationships became more visible, more explicit as this second cycle progressed.
Data was collected using a variety of tools through questionnaires, observation field notes, notes from meetings with critical friends and validation group, reflective journal, photographs and documentation to build a valid source of evidence. The key findings revealed that a slow pedagogy allows children’s curiosity to be seen and extended by adults. Time allowed learning activities to flow naturally, in tune with each child’s internal rhythms of themselves. The children could exercise choice and control at their level of ability, over aspects such as duration and pace of activity and area of exploration. The connectedness within the group created opportunities to work with others and learn from them, thus ‘Slow’ became about connecting to themselves, with each other and to their classroom environment.
Throughout the research I have questioned my personal epistemology and I can now conclude that I have improved my teaching practice and developed deeper connections with the children while fostering a slow pedagogy, I have created my own epistemology, I have lived closer to my values and progressed my claim to knowledge
Responding to educational inequality in Ireland; Harnessing teachers’ perspectives to develop a framework for professional conversations
No full textAspirations to combat educational inequality and disadvantage in
Ireland feature strongly in policy documents of recent decades.
Teachers and their concerns are not always to the forefront in
such publications or, indeed, in associated research. For this
study, 20 teachers and school principals who work in schools
located in communities with limited levels of economic, cultural
and social capital were interviewed. The interviews were openended,
allowing participants to articulate freely their thoughts
and feelings about their work. Transcript analysis led to the identification
of eight key themes: context; tensions and contradictions;
attendance; the ugliness of poverty; lack of continuity; parents’
expectations; teachers’ expectations; school
leadership. Furthermore, we propose that “relationships” is a crucially
persistent thread linking the eight themes. We conclude that
these themes offer a promising framework for schools to evaluate
their practices and to structure a programme of staff development
and to their understandings of educational disadvantage
QCD analysis of pion fragmentation functions in the xFitter framework
No full textWe present the first open-source analysis of fragmentation functions (FFs) of charged pions (entitled IPM-xFitter) computed at next-to-leading order (NLO) and next-to-next-to-leading order (NNLO) accuracy in perturbative QCD using the xFitter framework. This study incorporates a comprehensive and up-to-date set of pion production data from single-inclusive annihilation (SIA) processes, as well as the most recent measurements of inclusive cross-sections of single pion by the BELLE collaboration. The determination of pion FFs along with their theoretical uncertainties is performed in the Zero-Mass Variable-Flavor Number Scheme (ZM-VFNS). We also present comparisons of our FFs set with recent fits from the literature. The resulting NLO and NNLO pion FFs provide valuable insights for applications in present and future high-energy analysis of pion final state processes
Political Disengagement and Spaces of Neglect in the Current Political System
No full textVoter turnout measures the legitimacy of functioning democratic processes within States. Areas of low or declining voter turnout highlight spaces of disengagement from formal political processes and are a legitimate cause for concern. Political disengagement has the potential to create spaces of inequality in terms of the level of political representation a given area or group in society receives, and as such, can create spaces of neglect in the political system. This thesis examines General Elections 2007-2016, Local Elections 2014-19 and the 2019 By-Election to identify trends across a range of election types, account for context-specific influences, and highlight areas of concern.
This thesis utilises both marked electoral register and census data to examine registered and voting-age population voter turnout levels. These figures allow detailed examination of voter engagement, while taking account of electoral register accuracy concerns.
Spatial statistical models provide an examination of socio-economic, demographic, and geographical influences which shape voter turnout trends. The thesis associates areas of low or declining turnout with areas that have high levels of social deprivation, unemployment, and younger and transient populations, as well as low education levels. It also identifies low levels of engagement across election types in areas that have significant foreign-born and Traveller communities, highlighting the potential under-representation of vulnerable groups in society.
This thesis investigates the traditional urban/rural divide in turnout levels for General Election 2016, demonstrating that this effect exists independently of an area’s socio-economic and demographic profile. The impact of other geographical factors is noted in all case studies. Candidate location and recent boundary changes impact directly on turnout levels; factors which call into question the boundary revision process.
This thesis utilises a range of advanced spatial statistical methods, as well as expert interviews, to identify the outlined trends and suggest potential mechanisms to address areas of concern
Improving Authentication for Users via Better Understanding Password Use and Abuse
No full textPasswords are our primary form of authentication. Yet passwords are a major
vulnerability for computer systems due to their predictable nature, in fact Florêncio
et al., conclude that human limitations makes what is often considered to be
“proper password use” impossible [52]. It is vital we improve authentication with
respect to both security and usability. The aim of this research is to investigate
password use and abuse in order to improve authentication for users.
We investigate circulated password advice that claims to help in this security fight.
We find that it is contradictory, often at odds with best practice and research
findings, and can be ambiguous and taxing on users. We complete a user study
investigating user and administrator perceptions of the password advice collected.
We leverage knowledge of security benefits, usability and organisation costs to
investigate the trade-offs that exist when security advice is enforced.
To improve password systems, effective and accurate information is needed regarding
the prevalence of security vulnerabilities. We develop a guessability metric
which produces guessing success results that are independent of the underlying distribution
of the data. We use this to prove that small password breaches can lead
to major vulnerabilities to entire cohorts of other users. We also demonstrate that
a tailored learning algorithm can actively learn characteristics of the passwords
it is guessing, and that it can leverage this information to improve its guessing.
We demonstrate that characteristics such as nationality can be derived from data
and used to improve guessing, this reduces security in an online environment and
potentially leaks private information about cohorts of users.
Finally, we design models to quantify the effectiveness of security policies. We
demonstrate the value of the NIST 2017 guidelines. We find that if an organisation
is willing to bear costs on themselves, they can significantly improve usability for
their end-users, and simultaneously increase their security
A methodology for the structural design of LiftWEC: A wave-bladed cyclorotor
No full textNovel wave energy convertors (WECs) need to
be designed to ensure both longevity and hydrodynamic
efficiency. Hence there is a need to develop methodologies
that tackle both the hydrodynamic and structural require-
ments of WECs. Here we demonstrate an integral method-
ology for the design of LiftWEC: a two-foil wave bladed
cyclorotor. The hydrofoils follow the orbital motion of the
wave particles and rotate around a central axis. The span of
the hydrofoils is aligned to the crest of the wave, making
the device a wave terminator, i.e. a device that cancels the
incoming wave. The phase of the rotation is different to
that of the incoming wave. This phase difference generates
lift and sustains the rotation of the hydrofoils. In this paper,
a low-order two-dimensional hydrodynamic model and a
structural model based on beam theory are weakly coupled
to assess power production and structural stresses on the
device. We estimate the forces on the hydrofoils due to
regular waves under design conditions. By studying two
rotor configurations and two typical loading cases on the
hydrofoils, we demonstrate that LiftWEC is structurally
resilient to design conditions. We show that, for the
selected wave design conditions, the optimum radius to
span ratio is about 0.8, which ensures maximum mean
power output, but also, a reduced structural penalty. We
therefore demonstrate a powerful design tool and pave the
way for future frequency analysis studies for this type of
devices
Audio Encryption With Computational Chaotic System Error
No full textThis paper proposes a novel method of chaos-based encryption for audio. Our method outperformed the minimal requirement of speed for real time audio transfers while maintaining its high security features. The paper exploits finite errors derived from the computation of chaotic systems. The cipher is built on the lower bound error, which is computed by means of two interval extensions of a chaotic system. It was found that the method was effective, and required little computational power in order to be completed, proving to be faster and still reliable compared to other works
Technological Explorations in the Move to Online Mathematics Support
No full textDue to Covid-19, mathematics support at Maynooth University transitioned from in-person to online over a very short period in March 2020. This paper provides a brief description of the technologies used by six tutors to facilitate this move. We outline why the tutors picked these technologies and how they used them. We also consider the issues tutors wanted to resolve and reflect on the outcomes of their experience
Delay discounting and under-valuing of recent information predict poorer adherence to social distancing measures during the COVID-19 pandemic
No full textThe COVID-19 pandemic has brought about unprecedented global changes in individual and collective behaviour. To reduce the spread of the virus, public health bodies have promoted social distancing measures while attempting to mitigate their mental health consequences. The current study aimed to identify cognitive predictors of social distancing adherence and mental health symptoms, using computational models derived from delay discounting (the preference for smaller, immediate rewards over larger, delayed rewards) and patch foraging (the ability to trade-off between exploiting a known resource and exploring an unknown one). In a representative sample of the UK population (N = 442), we find that steeper delay discounting predicted poorer adherence to social distancing measures and greater sensitivity to reward magnitude during delay discounting predicted higher levels of anxiety symptoms. Furthermore, under-valuing recently sampled information during foraging independently predicted greater violation of lockdown guidance. Our results suggest that those who show greater discounting of delayed rewards struggle to maintain social distancing. Further, those who adapt faster to new information are better equipped to change their behaviour in response to public health measures. These findings can inform interventions that seek to increase compliance with social distancing measures whilst minimising negative repercussions for mental health
Building City Dashboards for Different Types of Users
No full textCity dashboard websites are a common modality for bringing open-government philosophies into the public domain. Yet, there has been little research concerning the optimum design for city dashboards that takes account of users’ expectations and skills. Indeed, there has been minimal exploration of user-centered design (UCD) to improve the usability and utility of smart city technologies in general. This study sought to conduct a user evaluation analysis to inform a UCD approach to city dashboards. Interviews with different types of users were conducted that applied a protocol analysis to gain insight into user perspectives and experiences of city dashboards. Along with critical incident technique procedures, interaction data of critical significance to the user was collected and a content analysis was conducted. These qualitative data were used to determine representations of users, as identified through observed behaviors, attitudes, needs, and goals. Targeted-scope user experience personas for the design process were then constructed to represent and build empathy towards three potential users of city dashboard systems: novices, end-users, and advanced users. The collected user requirements and the personas formulated are underpinning the re-design of an existing city dashboard