Cartoons beyond clipart: a computer tool for storyboarding and storywriting

The concept of a text in English teaching has become greatly generalised; moving image 'texts' as resources which learners may interpret and produce, in similar ways to traditional print texts, find an increasingly emphasised place in the English curriculum. This thesis seeks to identify how computers currently fit into work which connects moving image media with English teaching, and how they may further contribute to educational practice. After the educational context is established and recent practice described, four stages of research are undertaken. [Continues.

Non-Isochronous Meter: A Study of Cross cultural practice, analytic technique, and implications for jazz pedagogy

This dissertation examines the use of non-isochronous (NI) meters in jazz compositional and performative practices (meters as comprised of cycles of a prime number [e.g., 5, 7, 11] or uneven divisions of non-prime cycles [e.g., 9 divided as 2+2+2+3]). The explorative meter practices of jazz, while constituting a central role in the construction of its own identity, remains curiously absent from jazz scholarship. The conjunct research broadly examines NI meters and the various processes/strategies and systems utilized in historical and current jazz composition and performance practices. While a considerable amount of NI meter composers have advertantly drawn from the metric practices of non-Western music traditions, the potential for utilizing insights gleaned from contemporary music-theoretical discussions of meter have yet to fully emerge as a complimentary and/or organizational schemata within jazz pedagogy and discourse. This paper seeks to address this divide, but not before an accurate picture of historical meter practice is assessed, largely as a means for contextualizing developments within historical and contemporary practice and discourse. The dissertation presents a chronology of explorative meter developments in jazz, firstly, by tracing compositional output, and secondly, by establishing the relevant sources within conjunct periods of development i.e., scholarly works, relative academic developments, and tractable world music sources. Bridging the gap between world music meter sources and theoretical musicology (primarily, the underlying perceptual and cognitive model which represents a topology of the structural premises of meter) the research acts to direct and inform a compositional process which directly accounts for an isomorphic link between structurally similar meters

Aspects of beach sand movement, at Gibraltar Point, Lincolnshire

In this study fluorescent sand tracer techniques were used to investigate sediment movement on the foreshore at two sites on the south Lincolnshire coast. Working over one tidal cycle, low water to low water tracer release at different points across the beach revealed a complexity of sand movement in this strongly tidal environment. It was found that sand moved both at different rates and in contrasting dominant directions on different parts of the beach over the same tidal cycle. At Gibraltar Point there was confirmation from the tracer experiments of the importance of tidal generated currents on sand movements on the lower foreshore. Tests conducted to study the patterns and rates of movement of different grain sizes produced inconclusive results largely due to low recovery rates for the tracer. However, from the evidence available, it appeared that sorting of sediment was taking place only in the sense that finer material was moved away from the release point at a faster rate than coarse material and not because different sized grains were moved in different directions. In a consideration of models for the prediction of longshore sand transport two of the most commonly used models were tested using data collected during the tracer experiments. The results confirmed the success of the two models, one based on the wave power equation and the other on an energetics approach, and coefficients produced were in close agreement with those obtained by Komar (1969) in a previous study. Finally, field measurements of a series of variables such as wave height, wave period and longshore current velocity were combined with measures of sand movement and direction in a linear multiple regression analysis to study the associations present and to produce a simple predictive model of sand movement. Using both stepwise and combinatorial methods of regression it was found that 80% of the variation of amount of longshore sand movement could be accounted for by the 'best' equation. Wave height alone explained 61.3% of the variation but beach slope, water temperature and longshore current velocity were also of importance. 59% of the variation of average distance moved by sand grains normal to the shore was explained by beach slope, whilst wave period was seen to be the major factor in determining the direction of sand movement onshore or offshore. A set of equations was produced which together with longshore current flow direction, could be used to predict the average position of tracer on the beach face after one tidal cycle. At the same time individual equations could be used to model specific aspects of sand movement

The development of the mathematical department of the Educational Times from 1847 to 1862.

Mathematics held an important place in the first twelve of years of the Educational Times (1847-1923), and in November 1848 a department of mathematical questions and solutions was launched. In 1864 this department was reprinted in a daughter journal: Mathematical Questions with Their solutions from The Educational Times (MQ). This thesis concentrates on the development of this department from its inception until 1862, when William John Clarke Miller became its editor; and is considered in terms of the editors, contributors and mathematics. To facilitate this research, a source-oriented database using K L E I O (kleio) software was constructed. It contains data taken from the questions and solutions and also miscellaneous items from the journal. Database analysis was used in conjunction with traditional, archival sources; for example, the respective, previously unknown correspondence of two of the main contributors, Thomas Turner Wilkinson and Miller. The development of the department fell into two main periods: the early 1850s when it was edited by Richard Wilson then James Wharton and had an educational bias; and the late 1850s when it was dominated by Miller and Stephen Watson who contributed moderately complex problems of a reasonably high standard on conic sections, probability and number theory. In 1850 Miller started contributing with a group of pupils and masters, including Robert Harley, from the Dissenters' College, Taunton. Another group of contributors which emerged was one of northern geometers, with whom Wilkinson was connected. He collaborated with Thomas Stephens Davies on geometry and this influenced his contributions to the department. Miller edited the department from 1862 to 1897 and MQ from 1863 to 1897 and made MO an international journal of renown for its original research. It contained contributions from some of the most eminent national and international mathematicians, including Cayley, Sylvester, Hirst and Clifford. The start of this new phase is briefly introduced and reviewed

Inquiry into the nature and causes of individual differences in economics

The thesis contains four chapters on the structure and predictability of individual differences Chapter 1. Re-analyses data from Holt and Laury's (2002) risk aversion experiments. Shows that big-stakes hypothetical payoffs are better than small-stakes real-money payoffs for predicting choices in big-stakes real-money gambles (in spite of the presence of hypothetical bias). Argues that hypothetical bias is a problem for calibration of mean preferences but not for prediction of the rank order of subjects' preferences. Chapter 2. Describes an experiment: Participants were given personality tests and played a series of dictator and response games over a two week period. It was found that social preferences are one-dimensional, stable across a two-week interval and significantly related to the Big Five personality traits. Suggestions are given about ways to modify existing theories of social preference to accommodate these findings. Chapter 3. Applies a novel statistical technique (spectral clustering) to a personality data set for the first time. Finds the HEXACO six-factor structure in an English-language five-factor questionnaire for the first time. Argues that the emphasis placed on weak relationships is critical to settling the dimensionality debate within personality theory, and that spectral clustering provides a more useful perspective on personality data than does traditional factor analysis. Chapter 4. Outlines the relevance of extraversion for economics, and sets up a model to argue that personality differences in extraversion may have evolved through something akin to a war of attrition. This model implies a positive relationship between extraversion and risk aversion, and a U-shaped relationship between extraversion and loss aversion

Creating Educational Experiences through the Objects Children Bring to School

The Scottish Curriculum for Excellence is framed, without visible theory, in language embedding the value of children’s experiences. In association with a policy encouraging practitioners to develop healthy home/school links, early childhood practitioners develop pedagogical practices in support of this curricular language of experience. One aspect coming into focus is children’s experiences in general rather than only those which take place within institutional walls. One way children introduce their out-of-school experiences into classrooms is by voluntarily bringing treasured objects from home to early childhood setting doors. By jointly engaging with John Dewey’s view that worthwhile educational experiences are developed through interactions and continuities, the pedagogic practices of twelve early childhood practitioners and the view that each child-initiated object episode could be viewed as part of a child’s experience this research aims to better understand practitioners’ development of educational experiences through their responses to the objects forty children voluntarily brought to school. In support of this aim three research questions focused on 1) what objects children brought? 2) what practitioners said and did with the objects? and 3) what practice similarities and differences were visible across two consecutive age groups: 3-5 year olds in a nursery (preschool) and 5-7 year olds in a composite Primary 1/2 class (formal schooling)? During an eight month period in 2009 data were collected by classroom observations, collection of photographic images and practitioner interviews in a government-funded, denominational, early childhood setting in a Scottish village school. Data were analysed for the physical and social properties of children’s objects, practitioner’s pedagogic practices when engaging with the brought-in objects and similarities and differences in object-related classroom behaviours as epitomised in the relationships in each classroom. The findings were that practitioners made use of three main pedagogical practices when engaging with children’s brought-in objects: transforming objects into educational resources, shaping in-school object experiences and building a range of relationships around these objects. While the broad patterns of practice used in both classrooms were similar the details of practice showed underlying framings of children and their futures were different in each classroom. It is argued that what Dewey’s views offer, in the context of these findings, is a theoretical framing of experience that opens new possibilities for practitioner’s individual and group reflections on their current practices and collaborative practice development. His is one of the languages of experience available as practitioners and policy makers around the world grapple with educational questions

Generalization in qualitative psychology

"Questions on generalization depend on the context of available data and the goals of generalizing from research findings. Sometimes, generalization is not only of minor interest, but it can be misleading. Of course, science is interested in principles, we want to know the underlying logic of individual and social processes. But how "generally" do we want to apply the "particular" findings - and is there a need for generalization?" (author's abstract). Contents: Leo Gürtler, Günter L. Huber: Should we generalize? Anyway, we do it all the time in everyday life (17-35); Thomas Burkart, Gerhard Kleining: Generalisierung durch qualitative Heuristik (37-52); Rudolf Schmitt: Attempts not to over-generalize the results of metaphor analyses (53-70); Pascal Dey, Julia Nentwich: The identity politics of qualitative research. A discourse analytic inter-text (71-105); M.Concepción Dominguez, Antonio Medina Rivilla: Integrated methodology: From self-observation to debate groups to the design of intercultural educational materials and teacher training (107-128); Tiberio Feliz Murias, M. Carmen Ricoy Lorenzo: From feedback about resources to the improvement of the curricular design of practical training as a generalization process (129-144); M. Carmen Ricoy Lorenzo, Tiberio Feliz Murias: Competencies design as a qualitative process of generalization. Designing the competencies of educators in the technological resources (145-160); Silke Birgitta Gahleitner, Julia Markner: Youth welfare services and problems of borderline personality disorder. Suggestions from the perspective of the client – a single case study (161-176); Inge Herfort, Andreas Weiss, Martin Mühlberger: Intercultural competence for transnational co-operations between small and medium-sized enterprises in Austria and Hungary (177-189); Lorenzo Almazán Moreno, Ana Ortiz Colón: A study of the training needs of adults in 21st-century society: integrated methodological research model involving discussion groups, questionnaires and case studies (191-194); Samuel Gento, M. Concepción Dominguez, Antonio Medina: Problems of discipline and learning in the educational system (195-233); Michaela Gläser-Zikuda: The relation of instructional quality to students' emotions in secondary schools - a qualitative-quantitative study (235-248)

The legal and political philosophy of Ronald Dworkin.

This thesis advances a comprehensive and coherent interpretation of Dworkin's ideas. It considers the main criticisms that have been levelled against them and supplies and considers others, concluding that the interpretation offered here provides, in general, a good defence. The thesis includes a biographical sketch, an evaluation of the context of Dworkinian jurisprudence and an exhaustive bibliography. In addition to the published writings, it draws upon unpublished materials and personal conversations. In particular, it is suggested that standard accounts of Dworkin's work tend to overstress his attacks on positivism. Dworkin is right in his characterisation of the "plain fact" view of law, but Hart's theory can be rescued from the claim that it is a plain fact theory and that it is a "semantic" version of it. Dworkin's claims to objectivity in legal reasoning outside of demonstration are also well-founded and his interpretive analogy with art provides important analytical insights. While the right to be treated with concern and respect is the principle underpinning the ideas of integrity and resources, Dworkin's idea that rights "trump" goals applies only to actual communal practices pursuing such goals. In an ideal World, Dworkin is right to abandon welfare as a metric of distribution, but his use of the alternative metric of resources does not strictly follow from the collapse of equality of welfare. Nevertheless, his resources analysis supports the intuition that economic analysis is relevant to legal argument. Further, given the role of resources, it is natural that Dworkin should assert liberty to be part of the market baseline governing distribution. Finally, Dworkin is right to view communitarian duties as continuous with personal ethics but there are problems in his denial of the idea, implicit in Rawls, that justice is an interpretive concept