VictorJuiz/thesis huggingface dataset:
The Development of Deceptive Behaviours in 8- to 16-year-olds

While the majority of developmental deception research has examined the truth- and lie-telling behaviours of younger children (3 to 8 years of age), the development of deceptive behaviours in older children and adolescents has mainly been ignored, despite the fact that this age group appears more frequently in forensic settings. The general goal of this dissertation was to examine deceptive behaviours in 8- to 16-year-olds including the development of lie-telling behaviours and the ability to detect their lies. The investigation began by examining the influence of promising to tell the truth and moral competency tests on the veracity of 8- to 16-year-olds statements. Consistent with previous findings with younger children (Lyon et al., 2008; Talwar et al., 2002), 8- to 16-year-olds were significantly more likely to tell the truth after promising. Additionally, asking children to complete a competency test did not influence the veracity of children’s statements alone. Next, building on previous findings with 3- to 7-year-olds (Talwar & Lee, 2008) the relation between concealing a transgression through verbal deception and cognitive development was examined in 8- to 16-year-olds. Consistent with previous findings with younger children (Talwar & Lee, 2008), these results indicate that both working memory and inhibitory control are related to the sophistication of lies. In addition, the present study demonstrates that 8- to 16-year-olds planning ability is also related to the sophistication of their lies. Finally, the ability to detect 8- to 16-year-olds lies was examined. Overall, detection rates were around chance levels for both parents and 8- to 17-year-olds. However, consistent with findings with younger children (Leach et al., 2004), parents’ rates were significantly above chance for detecting lies after the speaker had promised to tell the truth. Overall, these results demonstrate that while 8- to 16-year-olds show similar patterns of deception as younger children, developments during this period resulted in additional findings calling for the examination of this older population.

Advisor: Lee, Kang
Without Intention: Rural Responses to Uncovering the Hidden Aspects of Homelessness in Ontario 2000 to 2007

This thesis analyzes the impact of the political decision to broaden the scope of the Government of Canada's 3-year National Homelessness Initiative (Human Resource Development Canada, NHI, 2002) from an urban focus to one that includes smaller communities. This change provided the opportunity to study the phenomenon of homelessness and how rural responses are formed. This author postulates that this focus of attention on an almost invisible phenomenon—rural homelessness—and the accompanying community planning processes funded by the Supportive Community Partnership Initiative (SCPI) will impact local social policy development. A multi-dimensional analytical approach was adopted and considered three components: first, a policy review, a broad look at the policy agenda framework in Canada; then, a case study to illustrate implementation issues related to the National Homelessness Initiative; and, finally, a reflection on current practice in order to realize a holistic critique of public policy. The influence of socio-economic, political, and cultural factors on local planning and capacity building will be highlighted. Various models of governance were adopted across the country and guided the collaborative processes. This thesis presents an in-depth look at the community action plans and activities of the Simcoe County Alliance to End Homelessness (SCATEH) in both the rural and urban settings of Simcoe County. The processes adopted, capacity building components identified, and outcomes over the 7 years covered by the SCPI agreement are examined. The limitations of using participatory local action planning to respond to complex issues such as homelessness are detailed along with a modified community-based policy development model recommended as a learning tool to be used by those volunteers acting as agents of change. It is widely recognized that safe, affordable social housing is a fundamental need, and one that is extremely difficult to meet. The contribution this research makes is to reveal how effective government-community partnerships can be in a rural setting.

Keywords: rural homelessness
social housing
community capacity building
intentionality
hidden homeless
governance
Simcoe County Alliance to end Homelessness
policy development
community action plans
Advisor: Quarter, Jack
Vygotsky Circle during the Decade of 1931-1941: Toward an Integrative Science of Mind, Brain, and Education

This dissertation presents a study of the scientific practices of the circle of Vygotsky’s closest collaborators and students during the decade of the 1930s-and including the early 1940s (until Germany’s invasion of the Soviet Union and the beginning of the Great Patriotic War in 1941). The notion of Vygotsky Circle is introduced in this work and is explicitly distinguished from a traditional—yet frequently criticised—notion of “the school of Vygotsky-Leontiev-Luria”. The scientific practices of the Vygotsky Circle are discussed here as the unity of a) social and interpersonal relations, b) the practices of empirical scientific research, and c) discursive practices of the Soviet science—more specifically, the “Stalinist Science” of the 1930s. Thus, this study analyzes the social and interpersonal relations between the members of the Vygotsky Circle and the evolution of this circle in the social context of Soviet science during the decade of 1930s; various practices of empirical scientific research conducted by the members of the Vygotsky Circle were also overviewed. Finally, discursive practices of the Soviet scientific “doublespeak” were discussed and illustrated with several examples borrowed from publications of the time.

Keywords: Vygotsky
Luria
Scientific circle
history of psychology
cultural-historical psychology
Vygotskian studies
scientific practices
doublespeak
scientific discourse
Stalinist science
Soviet Union
psychoneurological sciences
Galperin
Zaporozhets
Zinchenko
Bozhovich
Zeigarnik
Lebedinsky
Bassin
Leontiev
activity theory
Soviet psychology
Advisor: Ferrari, Michel
Caring, Sharing, Coping and Control: Academic Dishonesty and the Nursing Student

Academic dishonesty within postsecondary institutions is a significant issue. As such, academic dishonesty has been the subject of more than 100 studies over the last 30 years. Yet, the data provided by previous research have done little to curb the academic dishonesty problem. The purpose of the study was to describe the meaning of academic dishonesty as perceived by the nursing students at an Ontario university. Using the method of hermeneutic phenomenology, 11 students were interviewed to determine their perceptions regarding academic dishonesty within the nursing program. The interview data provided rich details of how and why students were cheating as well as descriptions of their lifeworlds. These data were reduced to determine the commonalities, themes and the overall essence of the phenomenon. This study suggested that situational factors found within their learning culture played a significant role in both why and how students in this nursing program were committing acts of academic dishonesty. The lifeworlds of the participating students had been described as being very stressful. Caring was interwoven into their learning. As such, for these students some acts of academic dishonesty were not considered cheating, but sharing. Most of the cheating was accomplished through the use of technology. They tried to manipulate, or control, their environment to ensure they could communicate and share with each other. As is found in many collectivist cultures, the students in this program demonstrated high levels of loyalty to each other, particularly within their academic groups. Cheating to benefit the individual was frowned upon, but cheating to assist others in the program was considered normal. As such, the meaning of academic dishonesty as part of the lifeworlds of these nursing students was: caring, sharing, coping and control.

Keywords: Education
Health
Advisor: Brett, Clare
Visual and Verbal Narratives of Older Women Who Identify Themselves as Lifelong Learners

Abstract: My inquiry, involving participant-observation and self-study, explores the stories of four older women through verbal and visual narratives. Showing how two specific types of visual narratives—sandpictures and collages—stimulate experiential story-telling and promote understanding about life experiences, I also illustrate how engagement with images extends learning and meaning-making. Effective in carrying life stories and integrating experience, the visual narratives also reveal archetypal imagery that is sustained and sustaining. Considering how visual narratives may be understood independently, I describe multiple strategies that worked for me for entering deeply into the images. I also elaborate on the relationship of visual narratives to accompanying verbal narratives, describing how tacit knowing may evolve. Through this process, I offer a framework for a curricular approach to visual narratives that involves feeling and seeing aesthetically and associatively and that provides a space for learners to express their individual stories and make meaning of significant life events. Salient narrative themes include confrontation with life-death issues, the experience of “creating a new life,” an avid early interest in books and learning, and a vital connection to the natural world. New professions after mid-life, creative expression, and volunteerism provide fulfillment and challenge as life changes promote attempts to marry relationships with self and others to work and service. My therapy practice room was the setting for five sessions, including an introduction, three experiential sandplay sessions, and a conclusion. Data derive from transcripts from free-flowing conversations, written narratives, photographs of sandpictures, and field notes written throughout the various phases of my doctoral process. This study of older women, with its emphasis on lifelong learning, visual narratives, and development of tacit knowing, will contribute to the field of narrative inquiry already strongly grounded in verbal narrative and teacher education/development. It may also promote in-depth investigations of male learners at a life stage of making meaning of, and integrating, their life experiences. New inquirers may note what I did and how it worked for me, and find their unique ways of extending the study of visual narratives while venturing into the broad field of diverse narrative forms.

Keywords: lifelong learning
narrative inquiry
Advisor: Conle, Carola
Content and Context: Professional Learning Communities in Mathematics

Abstract: This is a case study of a mathematics professional learning community. It illustrates the experience of eight Grade 2 teachers as they collaborate to improve their students'understanding of mathematics. In this inquiry, I worked as a participant-observer with the teachers over the course of five months as a witness to their expanding understanding of mathematics and learning. The case study describes two manifestations: the experiences of the teachers as they develop their knowledge of the mathematical learning of young children; and secondly, the teachers' growth as a professional learning community committed to improving the mathematical understanding of their students and of themselves. Collectively, the findings from this study extend other conversations on both professional learning communities and the development of teachers' knowledge about mathematical learning (often called pedagogical content knowledge). This work shows that opportunities for professional learning that are self-directed, context and content specific, within a milieu that is collegial and supportive, enable teachers to bridge the elusive gap between theory and practice. The specific questions addressed are as follows: 1. How does participation in a professional learning community affect teachers‘ iii pedagogical content knowledge and their understanding of students‘ learning of mathematics? 2. How do primary teachers develop an effective mathematics professional learning community? In mathematics, professional development often focuses on the creation of effective lesson design. This study differed in some key ways. Although good lesson design was valued and employed, the stimulus for teacher learning was the observation of the students as they struggled with new complex concepts. From these observations, the teachers became astute at recognizing particular consistencies and inconsistencies in the mathematical learning of the one hundred plus students they each observed within this project. Together, as a professional learning community, the teachers became adept at using external resources such as research and other resource materials to search the reasons and solutions for students‘ difficulty with mathematical concepts. Teachers' cognitive dissonance as they tried new instructional approaches and shared successes and failures with their colleagues provided the foundation for their growth in pedagogical content knowledge.

Keywords: mathematics
elementary
professional development
professional learning communities
Advisor: Cameron, Linda
Leadership Practices in Diverse Elementary School Communities: Reflections of Ten Principals Regarding the Literacy Learning of English Language Learning Students

This thesis examined what means a group of elementary school principals in multicultural communities used to support and imporve the language learning of English Language Learning (ELL)students. In this thesis, multicultural communities are defined as urban schools which have a majority of students whose mother tongue is not English. Although they are challenged to value and honour the diversity of their school communities, these principals must also ensure that their teachers meet the mandated rigors of the Ontario curriculum, and that the students attain desired levels of achievement as defined by the Ontario Ministry of Education. In an increasing number of schools in the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) ELL students form a majority of the student population; yet this reality is barely acknowledged in provincial educational policy or in the professional education of Ontario's school principals. Nor has the educational research adequately addressed the challenges of educating ELL students over the past thirty-five years. The research literature on the characteristics, activities, and behaviour of effective school principals rarely mention their knowledge of other cultures and languages or their expertise related to ethnic and racial diversity. Semi-structured interviews were used to capture the responses of ten elementary school principals of multicultural school communities. The findings indicate that principals who were successful in leading multicultural school communities and improving the literacy achievement of ELL students had a deep understanding of literacy development; cultural needs of the community; and ESL issues. Although much of the leadership framework is similar to principalship in non-multicultural school communities, principals identified a number of leadership competencies that are particular to a diverse community. The findings have implications for the courses which prepare principals for these schools; the professional development of senior administrators; and the choice of personnel suitable for leadership roles in multicultural communities.

Keywords: elementary school leadership
English language learners
diversity
multicultural communities
Advisor: Cummins, James
Potential for Knowledge Building in Large Size Pharmacy Classrooms

This thesis investigates the potential for Knowledge Building in large size Pharmacy classrooms. Knowledge Building is the social creation and continual improvement of ideas (Scardamalia & Bereiter, 2003). The pedagogy and technology that underlie it are based on a complex system involving 12 interdependent principles. This research examines principle-based classroom designs, targeting two Knowledge Building principles--epistemic agency and collective responsibility for community knowledge. Successive design changes were implemented to a self-care course for undergraduate Pharmacy students (n = 182), using case study methodology. The goal underlying design changes was to develop a more dynamic classroom environment involving all students and empowering them to take charge of knowledge advancement at high cognitive levels, through assuming greater agency and collective responsibility for their knowledge advances. Design features that were incorporated into class procedures included class panels to discuss cases, student-generated self-assessment examination questions, and online discussion views in a virtual learning community, Knowledge Forum. Surveys, student comments, self-assessments, field notes, online discourse and course exam scores were used to determine effects of principle-based design changes. Results, taken as a whole, indicate that each new design feature contributed to advances with no negative effects uncovered. Raters blind to authorship of student- versus instructor-generated exam questions could not distinguish between them. Analysis of student commentary indicated advances in line with the broad network of Knowledge Building principles, as well as those specifically targeted in design improvements. Advances in performance on exams, surveys, and in student discourse further contributed to the overall picture of positive effects. Design strategies appropriate for large classroom implementation are shown to facilitate a shift from learning as an exclusively individual enterprise, to the creation of a Knowledge Building Community with students assuming levels of responsibility and agency normally assumed by the teacher.

Keywords: knowledge building
large size classroom
pharmacy
epistemic agency
community knowledge, collective responsibility
assessment
self-regulation
design methodology
learner control
technological support
social support
undergraduate
Advisor: Scardamalia, Marlene
“Gireogi Gajok”: Transnationalism and Language Learning

This dissertation examines effects of globalization on language, identity, and education through the case of four Korean jogi yuhak (early study abroad) students attending Toronto high schools. Resulting from a 2.4-year sociolinguistic ethnography on the language learning experiences of these students, the thesis explores how globalization--and the commodification of language and corporatization of education in the new economy, in particular--has transformed ideas of language, bilingualism, and language learning with respect to the transnational circulation of linguistic and symbolic resources in today‘s world. This thesis incorporates insights from critical social theories, linguistic anthropology, globalization studies, and sociolinguistics, and aims to propose a "globalization sensitive" Second Language Acquisition (SLA) theory. To better grasp the ways in which language learning is socially and politically embedded in new conditions generated by globalization, this new SLA theory conceives of language as a set of resources and bilingualism as a social construct, and examines language learning as an economic activity, shaped through encounters with the transnational language education industry. The analysis examines new transnational subjectivities of yuhaksaeng (visa students), which index hybrid identities that are simultaneously global and Korean. In their construction of themselves as "Cools" who are wealthy and cosmopolitan, yuhaksaeng deployed newly-valued varieties of Korean language and culture as resources in the globalized new economy. This practice, however, resulted in limits to their acquisition of forms of English capital valued in the Canadian market. As a Korean middle class strategy for acquiring valuable forms of English capital, jogi yuhak is caught in tension: while the ideology of language as a skill and capital to help an individual‘s social mobility drives the jogi yuhak movement, the essentialist ideology of "authentic" English makes it impossible for Koreans to work it to their advantage. The thesis argues that in multilingual societies, ethnic/racial/linguistic minorities‘ limited access to the acquisition of linguistic competence is produced by existing inequality, rather than their limited linguistic proficiency contributing to their marginal position. To counter naturalized social inequality seemingly linguistic in nature, language education in globalization should move away from essentialism toward process- and practice-oriented approaches to language, community, and identity.

Keywords: second language education
Second language acquisition
sociolinguistics
Globalization
ethnography
transnationalism
South Korea
ESL
international students
new economy
applied linguistics
English
language
identity
education
bilingualism
education industry
migration
linguistic anthropology
capital
language ideology
English language teaching
geese families
early study abroad
sociology of education
resources
language learning
hybridity
essentialism
political economy
educational linguistics
TESOL
Advisor: Cummins, James
Heller, Monica
Preservice Mathematics Teacher Efficacy: Its Nature and the Contributing Factors of the Preservice Program

In a mixed method study, teacher efficacy and contributing theoretical constructs of teacher concerns and teacher orientation with preservice teacher candidates were examined. Intermediate/Senior mathematics preservice teacher candidates from two major Ontario Universities’ Faculties of Education participated in this study. Data sources included a web-based survey containing two teacher efficacy scales and short answer questions, interviews with the preservice teacher candidates, and Intermediate/Senior mathematics course and program information collected from course instructors. Complexity theory provides support for the mixed methods methodology and the integrated and complex nature of teacher efficacy and its contributing factors. The literature on teacher efficacy rarely ventures into the secondary school mathematics preservice teacher level of teacher professional development. The study more clearly identifies teacher efficacy with preservice mathematics teachers and how teacher efficacy relates to teacher concerns and teacher orientation. The findings deepen the understanding of the connections between the constructs of teacher efficacy, teacher concern, and teacher orientation. Following from these findings, changes and considerations for preservice teacher preparation programs in order to more fully prepare secondary school mathematics teachers are described.

Keywords: Preservice
Mathematics
Teacher efficacy
Secondary
Advisor: McDougall, Douglas Emerson