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The role of playful practice for learning in the early years
No full textPlay is viewed as essential to learning and development in early years education and underpins curriculum guidance despite there being limited empirical evidence to support this viewpoint. Play is traditionally defined from an adult perspective which focuses on the observable act of play. However, the research in this thesis draws on children’s perspectives of play which also gives insight into playfulness, the approach or attitude taken to an activity and it is this which is thought to facilitate learning. It has been shown that children use cues to define an activity as play and three of the studies employed experimental methodology to utilise these cues and create different practice conditions for children to carry out a convergent problem solving task. Results from these studies showed that children assigned to playful practice conditions exhibited superior performance when solving a task and behaviours conducive to learning compared to children in formal practice conditions. Furthermore, the cue of adult presence was shown to be critical in facilitating improved performance and learning behaviours although this seemed dependent upon whether individual children used the cue of adult presence in making play and not play distinctions.The final study sought to identify how the cue of adult presence might develop through examining adult-child interactions in the classroom environment. In addition, practitioners were interviewed about their understandings of play and learning to see how this might affect their interactions with children. Findings from this study showed that practitioners who were confident in their understanding of play and learning were more likely to provide children with choice and control in their activities and engage with children as play partners. Overall, the findings from this research contribute to the literature in this field by providing empirical evidence for the benefits of playful practice and have implications for practice in early years settings
Using flowcharts, code and animation for improved comprehension and ability in novice programming
No full textThis thesis documents the research; development methodology and evaluation of „Progranimate‟, a
visual programming environment and associated pedagogy that helps novices overcome their
difficulties in learning programming via an imperatives first (non object oriented) approach. In
particular it focuses on problem solving and its prerequisite skills, these are known to be particularly
troublesome for novice programmers.
Progranimate is a unique, web deliverable, simplified development environment that utilises
dynamic structured flowchart program construction, generated code in several selectable languages
and animated execution. Progranimate uses a structured flowchart visualisation to convey the key
concepts and underlying abstractions of programming, whilst allowing the novice to focus on the
development of problem solving skills. Progranimate utilises an easy to use, uncluttered
development environment and removes the necessity of writing complex code. This allows the user
to focus solely on problem solving and on conceptualising the underlying abstractions and
semantics of programming. In Progranimate, programs are constructed and executed visually via
dynamic flowchart and code based representations. The visual synchronisation between the
flowchart and code representations allow the user to draw an effective correlation between the
flowchart and the logical code structure that it represents. Program animation features provide the
user with an accurate mental model of program execution by emphasising the interaction and
behaviour of the key structures and components used in programming. A variable inspection
feature is also provided, allowing the user to observe the changes in data as a program is executed.
Coupled to Progranimate is a scaffolding pedagogy designed to assist novice programmers in the
development of problem solving skill. The pedagogy is underpinned by the theories of scaffolding
support and the zone of proximal development. This pedagogy has been utilised within a range of
contextual, fun, and gender neutral programming activities designed for use with Progranimate.
This thesis hypothesises that using Progranimate on its own or with the scaffolding pedagogy for
the creation of simple programs, will help novices strengthen their conceptual understanding of
programming and problem solving skills. Evaluations of Progranimate with secondary schoolpupils, their teachers and first year university students support this hypothesis. The evaluations also
show that Progranimate coupled to the scaffolding pedagogy and associated programming
problems is a very motivating way to introduce secondary school pupils to programming
Exploring the identity of an embedded micro-consultant in an organisation change environment
Get PDFMicro-consultants are from small independent consultancy practices; who sometimes
work directly with a single client on embedded assignments. Embedded microconsultants
operate within the ambiguous and fragmented environments of their
client’s. Micro-consultants have to quickly make sense of their client’s working
environments; adapting their operations and identities within these, to ensure
appropriate advice and support is provided.
When embedded, micro-consultants are usually expected to represent their client;
whilst also retaining their independence. Consequently, micro-consultants can
sometimes be unsure who they represent (themselves or their client) and which
identity aspects they should be promoting.
Identity is the sum of, lifestyle, experiences and knowledge of an individual which is
developed over time, and provides awareness and guidance for future activities. To
some extent micro-consultants can choose which aspects of their identity they wish to
promote or suppress. However, some groups can enforce aspects of their identity on
their members which can contradict the micro-consultant’s base awareness and
guidelines which can lead to dilemmas and uncertainties.
This research explores the interactions, changing identities and ensuing tensions of a
micro-consultant during a long term embedded assignment with a single client. The
ethnographic study uses authoethnographic narrative, along with participant
observation techniques and reflective practices, to provide insights on the key
influences and other factors which can affect micro-consultant identities.
This thesis also provides an indication of the complexities and ambiguities faced by a
micro-consultant working on an embedded assignment. The research also highlights
some of the many dilemmas and uncertainties facing a micro-consultant in this
environment; focussing on identity related dilemmas. These lead to a number of
identity related paradoxes for the micro-consultant; including assignment success,
relationships and the provision of knowledge.
There have been many corporate ethnographic studies examining different parts of
organisation behaviour, including consultancy houses and organisation change
environments. However, this is the first study to provide detailed insights into the
world of a micro-consultant change management specialist, his operations interactions
and dilemmas; providing a significant contribution to the world of management
consultancy and organisation behaviour
Development of an autonomous distributed multiagent monitoring system for the automatic classification of end users
Get PDFThe purpose of this study is to investigate the feasibility of constructing a software Multi-Agent based monitoring and classification system and utilizing it to provide an automated and accurate classification for end users developing applications in the spreadsheet domain. Resulting in, is the creation of the Multi-Agent Classification System (MACS).
The Microsoft‘s .NET Windows Service based agents were utilized to develop the Monitoring Agents of MACS. These agents function autonomously to provide continuous and periodic monitoring of spreadsheet workbooks by content. .NET Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) Services technology was used together with the Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) approach for the distribution of the agents over the World Wide Web in order to satisfy the monitoring and classification of the multiple developer aspect. The Prometheus agent oriented design methodology and its accompanying Prometheus Design Tool (PDT) was employed for specifying and designing the agents of MACS, and Visual Studio.NET 2008 for creating the agency using visual C# programming language.
MACS was evaluated against classification criteria from the literature with the support of using real-time data collected from a target group of excel spreadsheet developers over a network. The Monitoring Agents were configured to execute automatically, without any user intervention as windows service processes in the .NET web server application of the system. These distributed agents listen to and read the contents of excel spreadsheets development activities in terms of file and author properties, function and formulas used, and Visual Basic for Application (VBA) macro code constructs. Data gathered by the Monitoring Agents from various resources over a period of time was collected and filtered by a Database Updater Agent residing in the .NET client application of the system. This agent then transfers and stores the data in Oracle server database via Oracle stored procedures for further processing that leads to the classification of the end user developers.
Oracle data mining classification algorithms: Naive Bayes, Adaptive Naive Bayes, Decision Trees, and Support Vector Machine were utilized to analyse the results from the data gathering process in order to automate the classification of excel spreadsheet developers. The accuracy of the predictions achieved by the models was compared. The results of the comparison showed that Naive Bayes classifier achieved the best results with accuracy of 0.978. Therefore, the MACS can be utilized to provide a Multi-Agent based automated classification solution to spreadsheet developers with a high degree of accuracy
A critical evaluation of Libya's urban spatial system between 1970 and 2006
Get PDFIn Libya, rural-urban migration and rapid population growth were intensified by the discovery of oil and brought the polarization by the big cities. This polarization has become a major issue of problems within the urban spatial planning, particularly in the case of Tripoli and Benghazi. In order to resolve these, the Libyan government had since attempted various efforts to alleviate these urban pressures through both indirect national policies and explicit spatial development strategies. The aim of the study is therefore to produce a critical evaluation of Libyan spatial policies by the government between 1970s and 2006 and to offer insights into how Libya could benefit from a balanced urban system. Both secondary and primary data were explored.
This research has identified some merits of a number of spatial policies by the government as well as some major issues and weaknesses of these polices. Although government policies did have some effects in reducing the polarization by the two large cities, the issue of over dominance and the consequent urban problems still largely remained the same
Development of a digital signal processing measurement platform for biomedical magnetic induction tomography and spectroscopy
No full textMagnetic Induction Tomography (MIT) is a non-invasive technique that utilises the
passive electrical properties of a material to produce cross-sectional images. In MIT
system, the signals detected by the sensors must be measured using a phase sensitive
technique. A sub-millidegree phase stability is typically required for biological tissues,
where the objects to be imaged have relatively low conductivity (< 2S/m). The phase
noise and thermal related phase drift in the receiver's signal chain of currently available
MIT systems are the major limiting factors of MIT performance for practical
measurements.
This thesis describes the development of a high precision DSP based signal
measurement platform. It utilises multi-channel high speed digitisers to sample two or
more signals simultaneously and phase differences between the signals are calculated by
using FFT based algorithms. The algorithms are optimised for higher speed performance
using parallel processing on both multi-core PC and graphic card processors. A faster
approach based on a dedicated DSP processor for each MIT channel is later suggested to
reduce data transfer speed limitations between the digitiser and the signal processing
hardware. By formulating a phase noise estimation model to optimise the digitiser's
setting, it is shown that better phase measurement precision and dynamic range can be
achieved. To improve the phase drift for practical MIT measurements, a novel
instrumentation amplifier was designed and it was incorporated into a new 5-channel
annular array MIT prototype. The prototype was fully developed into a 14-channel
Cardiff MIT-MKIIa system and both systems demonstrated sub-millidegree phase noise
performance with a highly stable phase drift characteristic. To further investigate the
MIT system for practical applications, phantom measurements were carried out to
investigate the MIT system precision for detecting cerebral stroke and a single channel
multi-frequency MIT system was built to perform spectroscopy measurements on
biological samples
Female consumption and evaluation of traditionally male orientated products : a self monitoring perspective
Get PDFArticulating an ethic of care: the moral narratives and practices of working lone mothers in South Wales
Get PDFThis thesis explores the experiences of Working Lone Mothers (WLMs) as they attempt to negotiate the complex articulation of public/private spaces whilst caring for their children and themselves. The focus of the research is set on WLMs “understanding and practice of care within their „relational network” of family and friends and against the contextual backdrop of the community in which they live. More specifically, it seeks to ascertain the type and quality of care currently articulated in the private domain against the assumption that changing gender roles may produce a 'care deficit' or caring 'gaps' within the family context of 21st century Britain. With this objective in mind, I have carried out 35 in-depth interviews of WLMs living in the South Wales area between the Rhondda Valley and Cardiff. The research is conceptually placed within the framework of an „ethic of care‟, which, as a moral theory, is only a few decades old and, as such, is still in the process of being formulated. With a relative small number of care ethicists currently publishing in the international and national arena, this thesis seeks to enhance the value and importance of care both as a private and as a public virtue and practice against the cultural and political dominance of an ethic of work. From this particular standpoint, if an ethic of work seems to be increasingly hijacked by consumer capitalism and shaped to respond primarily to “privatised” and “marketised” self-interest, an ethic of care appears to have been relegated to the private concerns and considerations of women in the domestic sphere of life. Against this backdrop, whilst the understanding of the public/private articulation has remained primarily a matter of theoretical discussion, the important dimension of care has not yet been thoroughly investigated within the empirical framework of these conflicting environments. This thesis intends to offer an empirical investigation of these issues by evaluating the inter-dynamic nature of WLMs “paid work in relationship to their caring commitments. In the process, the embedded tensions of both environments will be exposed and analysed. I will argue that whilst “enabling flexible arrangements” at work are conducive to a better management of caring work and promote a better balance between the two domains, “disabling flexible arrangements”are not. Given that the latter have emerged as the most common form of work management, many WLMs do struggle to find the time to care. Yet, under these constraints, WLMs have devised strategies that allow them to carry out their caring responsibilities by ways of maximising their limited resources of time, space and energy whilst minimising their overall investment. This process appears to be so clearly widespread amongst the respondents as to have generated definable patterns. Namely, under apparently normalised and routinised conditions, the cumulative effect of transferring and converting commodified values and practices from the public sphere and the workplace into the world of informal care has been increased and intensified to such an extent as to affect and change the type and quality of care that WLMs are able to experience and practice in relation to their children, to themselves and to some extent, to their "relational networks"
Work of breathing in exercise and disease
Get PDFThis thesis is focussed on developing new methods and outcomes to assess respiratory
function that require little or no volitional effort on behalf of the participants being
tested. Specifically to attempt to detach the behaviour of the patient from the accuracy
of the test of respiratory function, resulting in techniques that are simpler and easier to
administer and undertake for both assessor and participant. It aims to develop methods
that reduce the involvement of the participant during assessment of respiratory
function. The human body’s way of controlling respiration has evolved into a
sophisticated system that optimises breathing pattern to maintain the most efficient
homeostatic action of the respiratory system. Eliciting and assessing this automatic
response is the key to removing the action of participation from respiratory functiontesting. The focus must therefore be on developing non-invasive, sub-maximal
techniques that allow participants to enter into a steady state of respiration and how
this can be assessed.
Two techniques were investigated; Respiratory Endurance (as the inspiratory work of
breathing) and Tidal Breathing Flow Profile, and these were successfully applied in
99 adult participants (68 healthy controls and 31 COPD patients) and 75 children (48
clinical group and 27 healthy controls) who completed 467 respiratory endurance
trials whilst seated and exercising, and 249 relaxed tidal breathing trials.
The difficulties with lung function assessment are well established and have been
described in this thesis. Much recent emphasis has been put on developing existing
devices and protocols rather than developing new techniques and approaching these
difficulties from alternative viewpoints. This thesis has described the development of innovative techniques to assess the function of the respiratory systems that aim to
overcome the issues associated with maximal testing. It was shown that these
techniques are easy to undertake for a range of participants, simple to analyse and are
able to reliably differentiate between health and disease, suggesting that they could
become a useful adjunct to existing methods of respiratory assessment
Ensuring interoperability between network elements in next generation networks
Get PDFNext Generation Networks (NGNs), based on the Internet Protocol (IP), implement
several services such as IP-based telephony and are beginning to replace the classic telephony
systems. Due to the development and implementation of new powerful services
these systems are becoming increasingly complex.
Implementing these new services (typically software-based network elements) is often
accompanied by unexpected and erratic behaviours which can manifest as interoperability
problems. The reason for this caused by insufficient testing at the developing
companies. The testing of such products is by nature a costly and time-consuming
exercise and therefore cut down to what is considered the maximum acceptable level.
Ensuring the interoperability between network elements is a known challenge. However,
there exists no concept of which testing methods should be utilised to achieve an
acceptable level of quality. The objective of this thesis was to improve the interoperability
between network elements in NGNs by creating a testing scheme comprising of
three diverse testing methods: conformance testing, interoperability testing and posthoc
analysis.
In the first project a novel conformance testing methodology for developing sets of conformance
test cases for service specifications in NGNs was proposed. This methodology significantly improves the chance of interoperability and provides a considerable enhancement to the currently used interoperability tests. It was evaluated by successfully
applying it to the Presence Service.
The second report proposed a post-hoc methodology which enables the identification
of the ultimate causes for interoperability problems in a NGN in daily operation. The
new methods were implemented in the tool IMPACT (IP-Based Multi Protocol Posthoc
Analyzer and Conformance Tester), which stores all exchanged messages between
network elements in a database. Using SQL queries, the causes for errors can be found
efficiently.
Overall the presented testing scheme improves significantly the chance that network
elements interoperate successfully by providing new methods. Beyond that, the quality
of the software product is raised by mapping these methods to phases in a process model
and providing well defined steps on which test method is the best suited at a certain
stage