title: Identification of sustainability’s threshold concept(s) among multi-discipline engineering students

authors: Enteshari, Sina

subjects: Sustainability

abstract: This mixed-methods study investigated and validated the sustainability threshold concept among multi-disciplinary engineering students, taking into account students’ perceptions and the impact of the sustainability threshold concept on student understanding of sustainability in their respective disciplines, while employing the constructivism paradigm. Sustainability education faces numerous obstacles, and under these conditions, some disciplines struggle to connect sustainability to their field. This study utilised threshold concept theory and liminality to develop a new model to help connect students’ perception, liminality, sustainability, and key competencies in sustainability education. Three years of data collection in the midst of pandemic led to the development of a questionnaire for 100 students enrolled in a multidisciplinary sustainability course. In addition, a total of 25 participants were interviewed across a variety of disciplines. Findings indicate that there is a correlation between student perceptions and learning about sustainability; more advanced students (fourthyear) viewed sustainability as less relevant than novice students (first-year). Through the development of a novel model based on the threshold concept, this study contributes to a better understanding of students’ perceptions and experiences of sustainability education. This study sheds light on both the opportunities and challenges of teaching sustainability in engineering education. It also emphasises the importance of students’ perspectives in learning about sustainability.

text: Identification of sustainability’s threshold concept(s) among multi-discipline engineering students This mixed-methods study investigated and validated the sustainability threshold concept among multi-disciplinary engineering students, taking into account students’ perceptions and the impact of the sustainability threshold concept on student understanding of sustainability in their respective disciplines, while employing the constructivism paradigm. Sustainability education faces numerous obstacles, and under these conditions, some disciplines struggle to connect sustainability to their field. This study utilised threshold concept theory and liminality to develop a new model to help connect students’ perception, liminality, sustainability, and key competencies in sustainability education. Three years of data collection in the midst of pandemic led to the development of a questionnaire for 100 students enrolled in a multidisciplinary sustainability course. In addition, a total of 25 participants were interviewed across a variety of disciplines. Findings indicate that there is a correlation between student perceptions and learning about sustainability; more advanced students (fourthyear) viewed sustainability as less relevant than novice students (first-year). Through the development of a novel model based on the threshold concept, this study contributes to a better understanding of students’ perceptions and experiences of sustainability education. This study sheds light on both the opportunities and challenges of teaching sustainability in engineering education. It also emphasises the importance of students’ perspectives in learning about sustainability.

year: 2023

title: Recording and Tracking Design Decisions in Interactive System Development

authors: Yang, Wanying

subjects: Interactive system design

abstract: Experience economy is prompting the innovation of traditional product design. The design concept - "user-centered design" has received wide recognition. In the face of many professional or non-professional users, the priority of interaction design is to ensure the usability of the interactive product, and then a good user experience of the product. The user interface is an intermediary between human and computer. Users exchange information with the computer via the user interface. The user interface is an important part of a computer system. It is a big part of the software development. The quality of the user interface directly affects the performance of the software. For most users, the user interface is all they know from a product. So for these users, a program with a good interior design but a bad user interface design is a bad program. 
	In this project we investigate different ways of recording design decisions in interactive system development which may allow us to think of the different variants and alternatives that are possible (within a design space) in some formal notation, which then allows us to either reason about their suitability or record the decisions made to understand the impact of decisions and how well they support the given criteria. The goal of this project will involve finding out what the influences are which help drive the design process; considering the effects of individual vs. team design; deciding how and when decisions occur; thinking about useful ways to record decisions and their influences; and investigating the usefulness of the approach through the working examples identified as case studies

text: Recording and Tracking Design Decisions in Interactive System Development Experience economy is prompting the innovation of traditional product design. The design concept - "user-centered design" has received wide recognition. In the face of many professional or non-professional users, the priority of interaction design is to ensure the usability of the interactive product, and then a good user experience of the product. The user interface is an intermediary between human and computer. Users exchange information with the computer via the user interface. The user interface is an important part of a computer system. It is a big part of the software development. The quality of the user interface directly affects the performance of the software. For most users, the user interface is all they know from a product. So for these users, a program with a good interior design but a bad user interface design is a bad program. 
	In this project we investigate different ways of recording design decisions in interactive system development which may allow us to think of the different variants and alternatives that are possible (within a design space) in some formal notation, which then allows us to either reason about their suitability or record the decisions made to understand the impact of decisions and how well they support the given criteria. The goal of this project will involve finding out what the influences are which help drive the design process; considering the effects of individual vs. team design; deciding how and when decisions occur; thinking about useful ways to record decisions and their influences; and investigating the usefulness of the approach through the working examples identified as case studies

year: 2016

title: Toitū Te Whānau, Toitū Te Iwi: A Community Approach to English Transition

authors: Berryman, Mere

subjects: Maori

abstract: The research project presented in this thesis documents and describes the outcomes of effective whānau (immediate and extended family), kura (school), student, and researcher collaboration. The researcher became part of a whānau-of-interest (Bishop, 1996b) in 1998 and 1999 when she was invited by this community to help develop a suitable programme to assist highly competent Māori immersion students in their transition to a bi-lingual secondary school (the only option available in their community). The whānau wanted students to begin their secondary schooling with an improved competence in reading and writing in English but without compromising their competency in Maori language. Prior to this programme few of the students had received any formal instruction in the English language.
After a ten-week intervention implemented mainly outside the classroom, the researcher found that whānau tutors had effectively implemented the programmes and that all Year 8 students were able to read stories (in English) and talk about them (in English) at age appropriate reading levels. They also displayed improved rates of writing in English while maintaining their high fluency in reading and writing in Māori. The 10-week programme and results were replicated over a further three terms with the Year 7 and again with the Year 6 students. The study employed a multiple baseline across groups, design. A collaborative story gathered from participants at the end of the programme, together with these process and outcome data, strongly support the successful outcomes of this "participant driven" (Bishop, 1996b) programme.

text: Toitū Te Whānau, Toitū Te Iwi: A Community Approach to English Transition The research project presented in this thesis documents and describes the outcomes of effective whānau (immediate and extended family), kura (school), student, and researcher collaboration. The researcher became part of a whānau-of-interest (Bishop, 1996b) in 1998 and 1999 when she was invited by this community to help develop a suitable programme to assist highly competent Māori immersion students in their transition to a bi-lingual secondary school (the only option available in their community). The whānau wanted students to begin their secondary schooling with an improved competence in reading and writing in English but without compromising their competency in Maori language. Prior to this programme few of the students had received any formal instruction in the English language.
After a ten-week intervention implemented mainly outside the classroom, the researcher found that whānau tutors had effectively implemented the programmes and that all Year 8 students were able to read stories (in English) and talk about them (in English) at age appropriate reading levels. They also displayed improved rates of writing in English while maintaining their high fluency in reading and writing in Māori. The 10-week programme and results were replicated over a further three terms with the Year 7 and again with the Year 6 students. The study employed a multiple baseline across groups, design. A collaborative story gathered from participants at the end of the programme, together with these process and outcome data, strongly support the successful outcomes of this "participant driven" (Bishop, 1996b) programme.

year: 2001