Using corpus methods to investigate classroom interaction and teacher discourse in special educational needs (SEN) classrooms: an investigation of methodological possibilities

This thesis uses corpus methods to investigate classroom interaction in SEN classrooms. Typically research in the field of teacher talk takes a pedagogic or psychological perspective and has therefore utilised experimental or observational data on a much smaller scale than this corpus-based analysis. The advantages of such a corpus analysis is considered, including the benefits of a larger and empirical data set and automated analyses. The SEN Classrooms Corpus created for purpose of this study amounts to 52,813 words of spoken teacher-pupil interaction. Data comes from 16 lessons from two classes with two different teachers in a single SEN school over a two-year period. All interactions involve at least one teacher and groups of between three and nine pupils engaging in literacy classes with a focus upon shared reading. As features of teacher discourse were often only vaguely defined by function in the relevant literature, a methodological process was adapted to translate these into automatic corpus queries. First, definitions were combined with definitions from contemporary English grammars in order to provide a linguistic form for each teacher discourse feature. These forms were then translated into CQP advanced syntax queries, allowing us to retrieval examples of each feature from the SEN Classrooms Corpus. Analyses in this thesis focuses upon the four most common features of teacher discourse as identified in the literature and based upon the pilot study (Smith, 2015): questions, directives, augmentative and alternative communication and feedback. Following the creation of queries, corpus methods including frequency, distribution and concordancing were used in order to assess both how often and in what contexts individual features were used within the SEN Classrooms Corpus. This, in turn, allows us to investigate exactly how teacher discourse occurs within these classrooms. This thesis provides three major conclusions regarding the use of corpus methods to assess teacher scaffolding in SEN classrooms. First, it demonstrates how a corpus of such interactive data might be created, including important methodological considerations. Second, it provides a framework by which we might move from ill-defined features in literature to complete corpus queries that aid automated corpus analyses. Finally, the use of this unique corpus and this set of methods and queries allows us to investigate how different features of teacher discourse are used by teachers within the SEN Classrooms Corpus, including whether these uses confirm or challenge the findings of previous empirical research

Pattern Research Project: An Investigation of The Pattern And Printing Process - ICA Elevator

The Pattern Research Project involves research and analysis of contemporary patterns found in the textiles and wallcoverings of the built interior environment. Patterns use motif, repetition, color, geometry, craft, technology, and space to communicate place, time, and concept. Through this research and analysis, built environments - their designers, occupants, construction, and context - can be better understood. Gillian Smith, VCU Interior Design BFA 2022, selected the ICA Elevator pattern for the 2019 Pattern Research Project. The text below is excerpted from the student’s work: Due to the ICA’s geometric, eccentric, and unique character, it’s only appropriate that every feature of the building carries at least a little of this idea. The pattern plays with light, shape, and size, as do most features of the museum. Founding Director Lisa Frieman considers light one of the main characters of the building and explains how there is a play between the geometric and the organic when considering shape (Institute for Contemporary Art). The pattern of the ICA’s elevator embodies this intention wholeheartedly, creating a space that can envelop its passenger in a world of light and line .https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/prp/1028/thumbnail.jp

Keynote Address: Meaningful Inclusion Creates Opportunity

There is no city in North America that has a greater opportunity to create economic prosperity for many in the way Toronto does. If we don’t keep our eye on how to take advantage of the benefits, we risk squandering that opportunity. Let’s take stock of Toronto. We’re booming. Toronto is one of the top cities in North America in the number of construction projects on the go. People are choosing to move to our city in staggering numbers—roughly 120,000 people per year make Toronto their home. We have a financial sector that is one of the most sophisticated in the world, a tech sector whose market growth is second only to Silicon Valley, and the potential to have the fifth largest human health sciences cluster on the planet within the next ten years. The challenge that Canada has, and Toronto has most acutely, is that opportunity is not shared as well as it could be. This is particularly true for our city’s underrepresented communities—particularly youth and newcomers to Canada. Toronto has an overall unemployment rate of 6.7 per cent. Unemployment rates for youth and newcomers, however, stand at an unacceptably high 18 per cent and 20 per cent respectively. At the Toronto Region Board of Trade, I work with 12,000 different business leaders, many of whom tell me they are desperate because they simply cannot fill all the positions they have available

El oficio del diseño de interacción

El objetivo de las dos jornadas del congreso Innovation Forum Interaction Design era centrarse en todos los aspectos del diseño de interfaces y de interacción: teléfonos móviles e interfaces de medios digitales, resolución de problemas y visión de nuevos productos, páginas web y mundos virtuales, arte y comercio, negocio y ciencia. A través de proyectos concretos y conceptos visionarios, distintos expertos internacionales de los sectores del diseño, la investigación y los negocios presentaron y trataron las tendencias actuales en el diseño de interacción

The craft of interaction design

The aim of the two-day conference Innovation Forum Interaction Design was to focus on all aspects of interface and interaction design: mobile telephine amb media interfaces, problem solutions and product visions, web pages and virtual worlds, art and commerce, business and science. Using both concrete projects and visionary concepts, current developments in interaction design were presented and discussed by regional and international experts from the design, research and business worlds

L'ofici del disseny d'interacció

L'objectiu del congrés Innovation Forum Interaction Design, girava entorn dels aspectes del disseny d'interfícies i d'interacció: telèfons mòbils i interfícies de mitjans digitals, solució de problemes i visió de nous productes, pàgines web i mons virtuals, art i comerç, negocis i ciència. Mitjançant projectes concrets i conceptes visionaris, diversos experts internacionals dels sectors del disseny, la recerca i els negocis van presentar i debatre les tendències actuals en el disseny d'interacció