ETDs

This collection includes most of the ASU Theses and Dissertations from 2011 to present. ASU Theses and Dissertations are available in downloadable PDF format; however, a small percentage of items are under embargo. Information about the dissertations/theses includes degree information, committee members, an abstract, supporting data or media.

In addition to the electronic theses found in the ASU Digital Repository, ASU Theses and Dissertations can be found in the ASU Library Catalog.

Dissertations and Theses granted by Arizona State University are archived and made available through a joint effort of the ASU Graduate College and the ASU Libraries. For more information or questions about this collection contact or visit the Digital Repository ETD Library Guide or contact the ASU Graduate College at gradformat@asu.edu.

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Sensation, Experience, and Being Alive: Foundations of Cognition, Learning, and Flourishing

Description
A great deal of contemporary research argues that humans learn from experience. This research, however, rarely explicates what constitutes an experience for humans, let alone experiences that lead to deep learning for human flourishing. Experience is constituted of inner and out sensations processed in certain ways. Thus, a biologically realistic…

A great deal of contemporary research argues that humans learn from experience. This research, however, rarely explicates what constitutes an experience for humans, let alone experiences that lead to deep learning for human flourishing. Experience is constituted of inner and out sensations processed in certain ways. Thus, a biologically realistic theory of learning must be based on a theory of sensation and how sense making derives from sensation. This dissertation seeks such a theory in the emerging literature on what kinds of creatures humans are and what this implies about how they learn and flourish. This literature ranges across several different disciplines, including neuroscience, evolutionary biology, and work on how affect guides cognition and action. Humans are as able to learn from experiences they have had in media as they are from experiences they have had in the real world. In either case, however, humans do not learn deeply from random experiences. They learn best from experiences that have been designed to recruit affect, help them manage their attention, and give them ways to assess the success of actions they take toward goals. Thus, teaching in the sense of experience design—a task for teachers in schools, as well as media designers and artists of all different sorts—is fundamental to human learning and flourishing. The dissertation defines flourishing in terms of the state of a human being’s allostatic load, a variable which can be measured. Since I am interested how experience designers design sensation to create sense making and sense making that can enhance human flourishing, I am interest in experience design in the arts, a domain that has traditionally been seen as an important source of insight built on sensation. I use examples from traditional and contemporary art in the dissertation. The last chapter is an extended study of the anime Attack on Titan I show how the design of Attack on Titan uses sensation to engender deep contemplation and discussion of complex political, historical, and philosophical issues. The way it achieves this goal has important implications for teaching and learning in and out of school.
ContributorsZhang, Qing (Author) / Gee, James P (Thesis advisor) / Gee, Elisabeth R (Thesis advisor) / Glenberg, Arthur M (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2022
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Small groups and figured worlds: an analysis of identities and literacy practices in small-group literacy sessions

Description
Small-group literacy instruction is frequently used in schools in order to engage students in discussions around texts. Instructional settings vary and produce a range of results. They are complex social spaces in which students position one another and themselves as they enact different identities. These identities are associated with sets…

Small-group literacy instruction is frequently used in schools in order to engage students in discussions around texts. Instructional settings vary and produce a range of results. They are complex social spaces in which students position one another and themselves as they enact different identities. These identities are associated with sets of literacy practices. This paper describes the results of a study examining the ways in which 3rd and 4th grade students and their teachers positioned themselves and one another in three different small-group literacy settings and the literacy practices that they used as they performed their identities. Using a multimodal discourse analysis (Kress, 2012) and D/discourse analysis (Gee, 2005, 2011), the form and function of language and gestures were used to look at the kinds of identities that the participants enacted and the literacy practices that the students engaged in the different settings. The results of the analysis suggested that the identities that the participants performed were related to the context in which interactions around texts took place. The identities themselves were connected to the use certain literacy practices. The literacy practices used by the participants were also related to the classroom context. The findings suggest that it is important for teachers to consider the figured worlds active in small-group settings, the identities performed within those worlds, and the literacy practices in which students engage.
ContributorsKrauter, David (Author) / Marsh, Josephine P (Thesis advisor) / Gee, James P (Committee member) / Serafini, Frank (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015