1,136 research outputs found
Against the Odds: Insights from a Statistician with Dyscalculia
No full textStudents with dyscalculia are typically thought of by both researchers and educators as having deficits. The deficit language permeates studies of dyscalculia as well as assessments and documentation of students in schools. In this paper, we offer an alternative to the dominant narrative. We understand disabilities, and dyscalculia specifically, as resulting from cognitive differences—not deficits—which lead to issues of access. We provide a case study of Dylan (second author), an individual with dyscalculia who decided to major in statistics at University of California, Berkeley and become a statistician. Although she experienced significant issues of access—both in the standard tools used to do mathematics, and in navigating the structures at the university—she developed systems to enable her to compensate. She collaborated in this research enterprise in order to share with researchers, teachers, parents, and students her experiences with dyscalculia and how she was able to succeed in higher level mathematics. Informed by previous empirical work, we collected video recordings of Dylan’s deliberate efforts to share insights and strategies with another student with dyscalculia. In this work, Dylan challenges dominant and problematic myths about ability and mathematics
Database legislation in the digital age: balancing the public good and owners' rights
No full textThis dissertation is a study of the impact of federal legislative proposals considered between 1997 and 2004 that offer protection to databases. It investigates the effect that the proposals had on the balance between the economic interests of owners and the right of the public to unfettered access to information. This identified legislation included proposed amendments to copyright law and laws that were proposed to specifically protect databases via misappropriation or unfair trade practices. The legislative proposals originated in the U.S House of Representatives, Committee on the Judiciary and Commerce Committee. The study identifies approaches to protection proposed by different constituent groups. For this work, witnesses testifying at Congressional hearings are categorized and associations are made between these categories and positions on the bills, views of the issue, and potential solutions are presented. The testimonies are analyzed by extracting the witnesses’ descriptions of the issue, the source of the issue and recommended policy solutions. In addition, descriptions of the public good are also identified and presented. The study concludes that the legislative proposals introduced by the Judiciary Committees, if passed into law, may have influenced the balance by increasing the protection provided by law to the commercial database industry. The legislative proposals introduced by the Commerce Committees were less restrictive and less likely to impact the balance. The witnesses were found to represent a variety of interests, including commerce, education and research, professionals, and Congress. An alignment of views among the commercial organizations that re-compile databases and education and research organizations was identified. Producers of databases were consistently in favor of strong protection legislation. The education and research organization, as well as the database re-compilers, consistently opposed strong protection. Evidence did not support the conventional wisdom that legislative modifications protecting databases was the purview of the information industry, and consequently, protected the interests of these organizations. Those arguing for strong protection claimed that society benefits from a strong database market, both economically and socially. Those opposing strong protection argued for the benefits of unfettered access to information. Both claimed their position benefited the public good.Ph. D.Includes bibliographical referencesIncludes vitaby Lynn M. Kenned
\u27Letters Full of Love\u27: Wayne Booth\u27s Theories of the Implied Author and Reader in Brad Marsh\u27s WWII Correspondence
No full textThis project consists of a qualitative study of the WWII correspondence of Captain Brad Marsh from the collection of letters donated by his daughter on April 26, 2013. I draw from the narrative theory and works of Wayne Booth to examine Marsh’s construction of self as an implied author by examining how he presents his experiences and portrays his emotions. I also examine how Marsh constructs his implied self by paying attention to details such as the information he shares with Lynn and how he presents it. I explore the nature of the implied author and reader in the correspondence and also how the relationship between the implied writer and reader influences the understanding of an unintended audience
Am I doing the right thing? Plunket nurses' experience in making decisions to report suspected child abuse and neglect
No full textSuspected child abuse and neglect is not a new phenomenon in community nursing. Child abuse and/or neglect is prevalent globally and is a major community concern. Plunket Nurses have a primary responsibility to protect the health and well being of the women and children with whom they come into contact. Detecting suspected child abuse and/or neglect and making decisions to report to Child, Youth and Family, New Zealand’s Statutory Agency, is difficult. There are professional, legal, ethical and moral complexities in this work. Boyne (2003) states that there has not been enough research about what it is like to work with and manage risks in child protection work. This study set out to report these experiences in view of understanding them and finding possible gaps in literature, policy, and education.
Hermeneutic phenomenology was the methodology thought most appropriate to study the experiences of Plunket Nurses making decisions to report suspected child abuse and/or neglect in uncertain situations. A purposeful sample was selected to ensure participants were able to provide rich data that was captured in semi-structured, face to face and telephone recorded interviews. Data analysis was guided by the framework developed by van Manen (1990) to formulate meaning from participant experiences. Four major themes developed.
Ethical considerations were extensively explored due to the sensitive nature of the study. Management of possible ethical situation have been described, with a planned approach to an ongoing consent process throughout the data collection. The results have identified gaps in the literature, Plunket policy and the educational needs of Plunket Nurses. Opportunities for future research are suggested
"The dynamic side of life": the emergence of Mary Coffin Ware Dennett as a radical sex educator
No full textIn 1915, Mary Ware Dennett wrote a significant yet little known sex education manual for her two sons entitled The Sex Side of Life, an Explanation for Young People.
In it, she defied convention by expressing her radical views about sexuality, first to her own two sons and later to the public. Dennett offered forthright and specific information about the physiological, scientific, moral and emotional aspects of sexuality at a time when sex education and sex educators, if they existed at all, typically attempted to repress or control sexuality, and education about it, rather than to inform.1 Many people
considered Dennett’s book radical because she challenged prevailing Victorian attitudes about sexuality, women and the transfer of culture. Additionally, she dared to express the view that sex was not just for procreation but was pleasurable. Dennett’s manual for her sons was copied and passed along to her son’s friends and to the children of her friends and colleagues. It was published in The Medical Review
of Reviews in 1918 and thousands of copies were distributed to institutions and individuals worldwide before she was arrested for sending obscenity through the mail in 1929. Fourteen years after publication, her arrest became a cause célèbre. Through narrative inquiry, the study researched Dennett’s transition from the private to the public side of life by looking at her cultural and intellectual heritage, personal life and the historical context of industrial capitalism. Dennett’s unequivocal conviction that all members of a truly democratic society have the right to know was
quite radical in its time. It is still radical today because implicit in that outlook is the belief that with knowledge, ordinary people have the ability and the responsibility to
chart their own course in life without control from those on top of the social hierarchy. Freire said, “A real humanist can be identified more by his trust in people, which engages him in their struggle, than by a thousand actions in their favor without that
trust.” Dennett was a true humanist, trusting in the ability of ordinary people. Nearly a century after publication, the lessons that surfaced from Dennett’s
transition from the private to the public side of life are still valid. The ability to actively engage with the world is critical for empowerment and active engagement can only occur with complete access to knowledge and information. Sexuality is part of the knowledge and comprehensive information that is necessary to experience The Dynamic Side of LifeEd.D.Includes bibliographical referencesby Lynn Ledere
Storytelling, women's authority and the 'Old-Wife's Tale': 'The Story of the Bottle of Medicine'
No full textThe focus of this article is a single personal narrative – a Shetland woman’s telling of a story about two girls on a journey to fetch a cure for a sick relative from a wise woman. The story is treated as a cultural document which offers the historian a conduit to a past that is respectful of indigenous woman-centred interpretations of how that past was experienced and understood. The ‘story of the bottle of medicine’ is more than a skilful telling of a local tale; it is a memory practice that provides a path to a deeper and more nuanced understanding of a culture. Applying perspectives from anthropology, oral history and narrative analysis, three sets of questions are addressed: the issue of authenticity; the significance of the narrative structure and storytelling strategies employed; and the nature of the female performance. Ultimately the article asks what this story can tell us about women’s interpretation of their own history
The Rincon Astrolabe Shipwreck
No full textOn 30 December 1986, a local fisherman incidentally discovered the remains of a
seventeenth-century merchantman off the coast of Rincon, a small municipality on
Puerto Rico's west coast. Some days later, he and some acquaintances extracted objects
from the site and stored them in a nearby restaurant. The assemblage of artifacts
recovered included, among other items, pins, scissors, ordnance, pewter ware,
woodworking tools, a myriad of concretions and a nautical astrolabe. It is from the last
that the wreck site took its name. The operation continued for months until local
authorities, alerted by a member of the salvage group, issued a cease and desist order.
At that point, the whole affair entered a legal process that on the summer of 2005 had
not reached its conclusion.
The purpose of this thesis is twofold. First, the author presents the story of the
shipwreck from the moment it was found until the court ruled regarding ownership of
the artifacts. Since this was the first time ownership of a shipwreck was debated in
Puerto Rican courts in recent history, this gives the reader an idea of how legal
precedence was established concerning the island's submerged cultural resources.
Second, based on what was popularly perceived to be the site's most remarkable find, a
study was developed on the sea or mariner's astrolabe, a navigation instrument that played a fundamental role in the process of European maritime expansion during the late
fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
The reader of this text will learn that, during the fifteenth century, Portuguese
navigators saw the need to gradually depart from the traditional Mediterranean
navigation technique known as "dead reckoning." As their explorations along the West
African coast forced them to sail far into the Atlantic Ocean for prolonged periods, a
new method was developed that consisted of measuring the angle of certain heavenly
bodies above the horizon in order to determine the latitude of the observer with
reasonable precision. For this purpose, instruments that traditionally belonged to the
field of astronomy were adapted to be used by seamen. Among them was the astrolabe,
which became the most popular by the turn of the sixteenth century. After discussing
the instrument's origin and development, the author analyzes how a renewed interest on
the nautical astrolabe, which emerged in Portugal in the early twentieth century,
introduced the instrument to the field of modern scholarly research. This work also
presents a catalogue of sixteen sea astrolabes, some of which have never been published.
The catalogue shows statistics and other relevant information, while placing the artifacts
in the context of the previously existing data
Communication and its effects on perceptions of agriculture in agricultural education courses versus non agricultural education courses
No full textDue to the character of the original source materials and the nature of batch digitization, quality control issues may be present in this document. Please report any quality issues you encounter to [email protected], referencing the URI of the item.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 49-50).Issued also on microfiche from Lange Micrographics.The relationship between communication and agriculture is long standing and continues to expand. By understanding the relationship between the two variables we can nurture the relationship so that agriculture may be a positive entity for future generations. The purpose of the study was to determine if a relationship existed between students' perceptions of agriculture and the communication they receive in their daily lives. The researcher also determined if the perceptions of participants enrolled in agricultural related courses is different than those enrolled in non-agricultural related courses. The author used a sample of two classes that occurred at Texas A&M University during summer session 1, 2004. The courses were AGED 440, Principles of Technological Change and EHRD 489, Special Topics in Introduction to Distance Learning. The total sample for the study was 43; 25 respondents were from the AGED 440 course and 18 came from the EHRD 489 course. The instrument used was a questionnaire which included four sections of questions including: personal characteristics, current perceptions about agriculture, influences of communication in daily life and the role of communication in perception forming. The survey instrument consisted of thirty-five questions. The first section consisted of nine questions which dealt with background information and demographics. The remaining twenty-six questions were based upon a Likert scale model and the participants chose an answer from the following: Strongly Agree (SA), Mildly Agree (MA), Undecided (U), Mildly Disagree (MD), and Strongly Disagree (SD). Frequencies, t-tests, Cohen's d and Pearson's Correlation tests were performed on the data to analyze the relationship between the various variables. The findings concluded that all participants have an awareness of agriculture and realize its importance on some level. The data also showed that there is no direct link between perceptions and formal communication; however, many other factors such as culture, beliefs, values, family and demographics play a large role in the student's perceptions of agriculture. The researcher recommended a needs-based approach combined with innovative methods of communication to bridge the gap from agricultural awareness to agricultural literacy
Completion plans, cultural identities, and sustainability
No full textYou are a part of a collegewide effort to increase access to education and empower students through "open pedagogy." Open pedagogy is a "free access" educational practice that places you - the student - at the center of your own learning process in a more engaging, collaborative learning environment. The ultimate purpose of this effort is to achieve greater social justice in our community in which the work can be freely shared with the broader community. This is a renewable assignment that is designed to enable you to become an agent of change in your community through the framework of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). For this work, you will integrate the disciplines of Counseling and Business to achieve SDG #4: Quality Education with a focus on 4.4 and 4.7.Assignment Guideline
Virtual Judgment Proofing: A Rejoinder
No full textThis is a rejoinder by the author of The Death of Liability, 106 Yale L.J. 1 (1996). The rejoinder is to a reply by Professor James J. White to the original article. Corporate Judgment Proofing: A Response to Lynn LoPucki\u27s The Death of Liability, 107 Yale L.J. 1363 (1998). In response to specific points made by White, LoPucki argues that the judgment proofing of large companies would not be visible in Compustat data because it is not accomplished through secured debt or leasing and because Compustat data is aggregated by corporate group. Contracting parties will permit debtors to judgment proof themselves because by doing so the contracting parties and debtors can externalize liability and split the profits between them. LoPucki also responds to arguments that corporate veil piercing, fraudulent conveyance law, government and consumer reaction, and mandatory insurance will prevent judgment proofing by large companies. The rejoinder concludes that computerization will lead to the proliferation of virtual companies that are born judgment proof
- …
