Your inner garden: children´s book project on the artificial selection of labels

Este projeto de mestrado visa contribuir para um esforço global de mudança de certos padrões de pensamento, na forma de um objeto de cultura visual que estimule o interesse das crianças e as consciencialize de que todas as ideias que acreditamos serem verdadeiras sobre nós mesmos, podem ser desafiadas. Ao longo da vida, as pessoas colecionam rótulos, e esses rótulos influenciam o modo como uma pessoa pensa sobre si mesma, e se comporta, com base nesse conhecimento. Contudo, a perspectiva que alguém pode ter sobre o outro, nada tem que ver com a sua real identidade. Isto deve-se ao facto de que as ideias de outras pessoas só existem enquanto percepção individual da realidade, que se devem à sua forma de ver o mundo, bem como a outros fatores. É possível repensar rótulos negativos que nos foram atribuídos no passado; parar de os reproduzir nas nossas mentes; ter pensamentos positivos, com gentileza e apreço por nós mesmos e pelos outros. O projeto é, assim, um livro ilustrado que demonstra interativamente o conteúdo baseado em pesquisa, de forma a que uma criança possa entender. Por fazermos parte de uma realidade cada vez mais digital, dentro do livro, é possível ter acesso a uma aplicação móvel, onde o leitor pode colecionar os seus feitos, mesmo os menores, para ir construindo uma autoestima positiva. A escolha do conteúdo a ser apresentado no livro e a forma como ele é tratado partem dessa questão premente, que está presente no dia-a-dia de grande parte das pessoas, sendo a faixa etária a que se destina a dos 7 ou mais anos de idade, o grupo etário considerado mais adequado. Após terminar o livro "Inner Garden", a minha colega Joana Sofia dos Santos Guerreiro utilizou-o para a sua dissertação de mestrado e apresentou-o a crianças do ensino básico português para saber as reacções e opiniões das crianças sobre o livro.This master’s project aims to contribute to a global effort to change certain patterns of thinking, with an object of visual culture that is interesting for children and makes them aware that all the ideas about ourselves that we believe to be true can be challenged. Throughout life, people collect labels, and those labels influence how a person thinks about themselves and behaves based on that knowledge. But the way a person sees another person has nothing to do with who that person actually is. Because other people's ideas only exist in their perception of reality, based on their way of seeing the world and other factors. It is possible to rethink negative labels that have been attached to us in the past; to stop reproducing them in our minds; to think positive thoughts with kindness and appreciation for ourselves and others. The project is an illustrated picture book that interactively demonstrates research-based content in a way that a child can understand. Since we are part of an increasingly digital reality, you can access a mobile app inside the book where you can collect your accomplishments, even the smallest ones, to build positive self-esteem. The choice of content to be presented in the book and the way it is treated came from this pressing issue that is present in the daily lives of most people, with the age group of 7 years and older being the appropriate group. When I finished the book "Inner Garden,'' my colleague Joana Sofia dos Santos Guerreiro used it for her Master's thesis and presented it to children in the Portuguese primary school system to find out the children's reactions and opinions about the book

Critical Thinking Dispositions: The Need for a Balanced Curriculum in Collegiate Critical Thinking Courses

The aim of this synthesis is to argue that students cannot become effective thinkers simply by being taught the analytical skills of critical reading, writing, and thinking. Without learning the necessary dispositions of critical thinking students will not develop into well-rounded, effective thinkers. The study is focused on an already existing course at Mass Bay Community College. The present curriculum is based on the fundamental skills of determining the soundness and validity of an argument. Assisting and encouraging the obtainment of critical thinking dispositions will inspire students to become more aware of the role their listening and communicating skills and behaviors have on their ability to think effectively. As Kirby and Goodpaster assert, We have become what we have thought about and who we will become is limited by how and what we think (5). Dispositions are inclinations and habits of mind that benefit productive thinking (Tishman, Perkins, and Jay 1995, 37). Being open-minded, deferring judgment, listening to multiple perspectives, and having intellectual humility and intellectual curiosity are a few thinking dispositions that are presented in the discussion as well as in the proposed curriculum. Ennis, Paul, Tishman et al, all support the incorporation of thinking dispositions into critical thinking course curriculums. The curriculum presented in this synthesis is designed to engage students in thoughtful exploratory activities to help foster and cultivate dispositions required for effective thinking. The lesson plans are created with the intention of reinforcing students\u27 tendencies to transfer knowledge, utilize metacognitive strategies, and practice applying thinking dispositions in various scenarios and exercises. The curriculum utilizes critical thinking dispositions and incorporates the enhancement of listening, communicating, and behavioral skills. Each lesson includes a description of dispositions to be explored; an activity to encourage the fostering of those dispositions; goals and objectives; and attention to mental management and transfer of skills. The objective of incorporating nineteen dispositions into a pre-existing critical thinking curriculum is to help freshman college students become reasonable, reflective, and focused thinkers and decision-makers

Feeling in Character: Towards an Ethics of Emotion

This dissertation contends that emotions are subject to ethical assessment, not simply as motives or overt expressions, but in their own right. Emotions, I argue, are subject to assessment because they are aspects of a person\u27s character. Specifically, emotions involve voluntary acts of attention, which are due to habituation. These acts show character by manifesting certain stable, deeply-held desires called \u27concerns.\u27 This view, dubbed \u27Attentional Voluntarism,\u27 is opposed to the prevalent view, dubbed \u27Rationalism,\u27 that emotions are subject to assessment because of their propositional content. Rationalism is unable to account for certain kinds of irrational emotion, where one forms an unwarranted emotion to avoid anxiety and secure pleasure. It exaggerates how mature and adaptive these emotions are. Attentional Voluntarism, by contrast, accounts for the childish and even infantile character behind such emotions, because the relevant habits of attention may simply be the residue from previous developmental stages

STORIES FROM THE LTFEWORLD OF PRIMARY PHYSICAL EDUCATION

This thesis attempts to Hnk conceptual analysis with empirical data and shows the interplay between the two. The first part of the thesis considers the work of Whitehead who presents an alternative philosophical framework to re-conceptualise our understanding of the value of Physical Education (PE). She uses the classical philosophical debate about the body and the mind to encourage us to view PE for its own intrinsic worth which she argues, may contribute to the quality of life or well-being of the individual. The dualist and monist theories of the body/mind split are considered and a phenomenological framework for understanding these theories is presented. The notion of the person as an integrated whole is developed as a possible way to re-conceptualise a framework for PE within the primary curriculum. The research methods are developed from the previous debates and use a phenomenological framework to arrive at a final case study where one teacher and her class of 27 Year One/Two children (aged five to six years) were asked to tell their story about PE. Key themes which arose from the data were: PE is different from all the other activities which take place in school. The children experience problems whilst changing for PE. The children direct little attention towards the physical skills in PE. PE can cause the children to experience discomfort. There is a temporal dimension to the PE experience. The children talked about PE requiring them to think. There was a strong imperative dimension to PE although the teacher structured elements of choice and problem solving within the lesson. The children highlighted appropriate behaviour as important. Lastly there was a dominant focus on the emotional dimension of the experience. This study highlights the need to continue and extend the debate within PE: i) to be more creative in the presentation of the PE experience for children by using language which is embodied rather than disembodied; ii) to listen to the stories from children about their experiences in PE to gain a greater understanding of how children receive the PE experience; and iii) to consider how this experience can contribute towards the well-being of the children

Information Disorder Machines

Weaponized narrative is an attack that seeks to undermine an opponent’s civilization, identity, and will. By generating confusion, complexity, and political and social schisms, it confounds response on the part of the defender. A fast-moving information deluge is an ideal environment for this kind of adversarial attack. A firehose of narrative attacks gives the targeted populace little time to process and evaluate. It is cognitively disorienting and confusing – especially if the opponents barely realize what’s occurring. Opportunities abound for emotional manipulation undermining the opponent’s will to resist. The following report captures the goals, subject matter expert inputs, raw data, and findings of Arizona State University’s Threatcasting Lab Workshop exploring the future of Weaponized Narrative. The findings exposed multiple threat areas and the coming of information disorder machines (IDMs) that could harm individuals, organizations, and even the entire United States of America. To empower people and organizations to disrupt, mitigate and recover from these potential threats the findings in this report identify not only specific threats but also provide recommendations through which organizations and individuals can disrupt, mitigate, and recover from the future of effects of IDMs.https://digitalcommons.usmalibrary.org/aci_books/1038/thumbnail.jp