Children's Meaning Making In Classroom Role-Play At 4-5 Years: A Systemic Functional Linguistic Investigation

This thesis explores meaning-making in children's peer-led classroom role-play and considers its contribution to learning during the first year of school. The aims of the research are to understand, firstly, how children of 4-5 years through their lexicogrammatical choices enact social roles and construe role-play scenarios that are reminiscent of real life, and secondly, what opportunities in these peer-led collaborative dialogues there may be for learning language, learning through language and learning about language. The methodological and analytical approach draws on Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) and the Vygotskian construct of the zone of proximal development (ZPD). I focus on linguistic and other semiotic data collected from children's interactions in fifteen video- recorded small group classroom role-plays, and ten audio recorded teacher role-play introductions with the whole class. Classroom role-play is reconceptualised theoretically as a genre (as defined within SFL) enabling a deeper understanding of children's meaning-making in this context. The findings show that the construal of the social scenario is based on the children's dialogic interaction and ability to eo-create individual genre stages. Offering insights into these stages, I show evidence of the children's sophisticated and creative linguistic and other semiotic choices. Through an interactional analytic framework, I consider how the children are able to extend their ZPD in six learning areas that have been linked to longer term social and academic learning. Findings show that the teacher introductions prime the children's learning which is then consolidated further in serendipitous opportunities forged by the particular nature of the child-led extended dialogic interaction of classroom role-play. My study emphasises and reinforces the value of considering classroom role-play as a unique pedagogic resource for extending children's meaning-making and learning in their first year at school. As a result, the outcomes of this research have implications for future educational practice in this area

A discussion of selected aspects of privacy, confidentiality, and anonymity in computerized conferencing

This paper presents a discussion of the potential uses of privacy, confidentiality and anonymity in computerized conferencing. Section I begins with definitions of the concepts, their aspects and allied terms; and briefly discusses their use in general communications and problem-solving activities. Section II explores their use in social research, particularly the survey method, a field that may yield useful analogues for computerized conferencing. Section III outlines the various functions of privacy, confidentiality and anonymity that have been proposed for their constructive use in computerized conferencing. Section IV reports various difficulties and compromises that have been encountered to date in striving to achieve true privacy, confidentiality or anonymity in computerized conferencing. Section V gives preliminary estimates of various ways of enhancing the concepts through computerized conferencing

Gaining and Controlling Access to the Arena: Stories of Ties in a Technological Dispute.

This is a study of the stories told about distribution of resources and structural constraints which operate within newspaper arenas that were experienced by reporters and sources involved in coverage of food irradiation between 1987 and 1996 at two regional newspapers (Louisiana and Florida). Using an unstructured interview instrument, I conducted interviews with 40 sources and 12 newspaper reporters, which I used to construct a framework in which to show how cultural, economic and social capital are used for getting and blocking action in the newspaper arenas. These interviews show that while cultural capital was the most prominent type of capital used by reporters and sources, the reliance on this type of capital gives reporters a position of power within the relationship, as they are in position not only to decide which issues will become newsworthy, but how that capital will be framed within the newspaper report. When ties between reporters and sources are embedded in economic or social capital, then sources can gain some power over the interaction, though the value given to the topic in the newspaper still rests heavily with the reporter and/or the news organization. In addition, stories of structural components of these arenas--audiences, boundaries between audience members and arena participants, and prior knowledge between arena participants--are used to highlight the fact that newspapers are not entirely public arenas, but are characterized by private components. Finally, I apply an arena approach to other areas of sociological interest, such as food policy and the sociology of knowledge

Using multimedia microworlds to motivate and engage adult learners

As educational institutions come under increasing pressure from outside forces to restructure the way students learn, efforts are being made by researchers to find ways to assist students to learn through independent thought and to solve problems in a resource-based, self-paced environment. Such an environment needs to be sufficiently interesting and novel to motivate students who begin to use it, and to continue to engage them as they progress through it. This study has sought to identify what such a learning environment needs to encompass in order to motivate and engage adult learners so that they will not only want to use it, but use it extensively. Eight attributes of motivation and engagement were identified from the literature, these being: immersion; reflection; flow; collaboration; learner control; curiosity; fantasy; and challenge. A module in a finance unit traditionally viewed by the students as boring and unengaging was selected, and a review of student and content needs was conducted. An interactive learning environment in the form of a microworld with gaming elements was designed and developed to incorporate the eight learner effects, and this was then trialed with a small group of finance students. The trial forms the basis for this thesis. The study was conducted using a combination of ethnographic action research and grounded theory as these allowed the researcher to focus on a specific problem relevant to the actual situation and allowed patterns in observations to be detected. The study used descriptive methodology to report what actually happened whilst looking for relationships between design elements, with cross-sequential sampling overcoming the problems of mono-operation bias. The results from these data gathering exercises suggested that the eight learner effects did, in fact, contribute to motivation and engagement in varying degrees. The program represented the unit content in a multiplicity of ways, ensuring that the individual learning styles of the students were accommodated. The study showed that students adapted differing navigational methods to progress through the program, but having settled on a path tended not to deviate from that path throughout each phase of the program. The study also highlighted the fact that such an environment is probably more effective in promoting incidences of reflection and higher order thinking among collaborating students, although, with sufficient scaffolding elements built into the program, students working in isolation may achieve some of the same effects from collaboration with the program itself. Another effect of using the microworld was that students could relate their learning back to their everyday lives, as well as place themselves into the environment. These factors, combined with the gaming elements, created an environment that caused an increase in positive attitudes among both the male and the female students. The results of this research have many implications for the future design of interactive learning environments for adults. It is already well documented that adult learners like resource-based, self-paced learning that is available at their convenience, but this research has identified some of the elements necessary to motivate adult learners to use such a program, to maintain their interest in the content during the whole time they are using the program, and to create a desire to continue learning about the topic long after they have completed the program. There are several imperatives driving the development of interactive instructional multimedia in the university environment. Among them are increased numbers of students, a reduction in the available face-to-face teaching time, and a growing. number of students who are demanding a more flexible way of learning. The results of this study show that interactive multimedia is a viable option for this style of teaching and learning, but the design should incorporate certain elements and principles in order for the students to be motivated sufficiently to use it. These design elements are generalisable to the design of multimedia for a wide variety of courses and topics

The Impact of User Interface Design on Idea Integration in Electronic Brainstorming: An Attention-Based View

This paper introduces an attention-based view of idea integration that underscores the importance of IS user interface design. The assumption is that presenting ideas via user interface plays a key role in enabling and motivating idea integration in electronic brainstorming (EBS), and thus advances productivity. Building upon Cognitive Network Model of Creativity and ability-motivation framework, our attention-based theory focuses on two major attributes of user interface: visibility and prioritization. While visibility enables idea integration via directing attention to a limited set of ideas, prioritization enhances the motivation for idea integration by providing individuals with a relevant and legitimate proxy for value of the shared ideas. The theory developed in this paper is distinct from previous research on EBS in at least two ways: (1) this theory exclusively focuses on idea integration as the desired outcome and studies it in the context of IS user interface; and (2) rather than debating whether or not EBS universally outperforms verbal brainstorming, the proposed theory revisits the links between user interface and idea integration as an attention-intensive process that contributes to EBS productivity. Idea integration by individuals within a group is an essential process for organizational creativity and thus for establishing knowledge-based capabilities. Lack of such integration significantly reduces the value of idea sharing, which has been a predominant focus of the EBS literature in the past. The current theory posits that the ability of electronic brain-storming to outperform nominal or verbal brainstorming depends on its ability to leverage information system (IS) artifact capabilities for enhancing idea integration to create a key pattern of productivity. The developed theory provides a foundation for new approaches to EBS research and design, which use visibility and prioritization, and also identify new user interface features for fostering idea integration. By emphasizing idea integration, designers and managers are provided with practical, cognition-based criteria for choosing interface features, which can improve EBS productivity. This theory also has implications for both the practice and research of knowledge management, especially for the attention-based view of the organization.

Including excluded adolescent boys: discursive constructions of identity

The main aim of this thesis is to problematise discourse relating to adolescent boys in order to gain a better understanding of the persistent practice of exclusion and to seek to highlight examples of how discourse can position boys in ways that are more inclusive. In doing so this work is an attempt to theorise my practice as a researcherpractitioner educational psychologist, to be reflexive and to raise my consciousness of the means by which professionals, parents and I can both liberate and limit the ways in which the identity of excluded adolescent boys becomes discursively constructed. Taking a predominantly relativist and post structuralist position I propose a model based on Lacanian theory integrated with methods of analysing discourse, 'a critical discursive psychology' which frames and guides the research process throughout. As the thesis unfolds my initial intention to pursue the research topic from a linguisticdiscursive perspective becomes influenced by a psychoanalytical dimension as the limitations of a purely discursive approach become apparent. My attempt to take a psychoanalytical reading of the discourse data draws attention to unconscious processes that may influence the signifying of some adolescent boys as either pathological or deviant and enables me to speculate as to why such discourses persist whilst others are repressed. However, and most importantly to this study, by exposing through the discourse analysis how discourse constructs the identity of some adolescent boys at both a societal and individual level, I am able to reveal that discursive constructions of the identity of adolescent boys are also open to resistance and change. This in tum provides rich possibilities for future research and practice