Human relationships

University of Luxembourg
Faculté de Lettres, des Sciences Humaines, des Arts, et des Sciences de l’Éducation

EXPLORING LEARNING PROCESSES WITHIN A COLLABORATIVE STUDY CIRCLE
Cultural-historical activity theory perspective on individual and social transformation

A Thesis Submitted in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Award of Master in Learning and Development in Multilingual and Multicultural Contexts

Master académique - Master of Arts

1. Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Charles MAX
2. Supervisor: Study director Dr. Gudrun ZIEGLER
Presented by Jean-Marie NAU
February 2012
Members of the Jury: Professors Charles Max, Georges Steffgen, Thierry Dubreuilh (external expert), Anola Bracaj (student expert)
 
Abstract (721 words)
The purpose of this study is to explore learning processes within a collaborative study group, engaged on a path of individual and social transformation, with the perspective of cultural-historical activity theory. The topic opens up a window on processes in learning communities beyond school-related education. The objective is to gain insights how learning takes place in the activity, what the tools are that the participants use in the activity, how these tools guide their learning, and how the participants’ multivoicedness influences the learning process,.
Research as a process
Scientific method as a truth seeking endeavour is interpretive, and demands clarity about the basic set of beliefs that guides action, and the interpretive framework that contains the ontological, epistemological, and methodological premises.
The two-fold moral purpose of any human being - to develop their latent potentialities through efforts to contribute to the advancement of civilization, - constitutes the core element of a conceptual framework that governs Bahá’í educational activity.
This research presents a modest contribution to explore a tiny facet and fragment of social reality, and is not a description of the world as it is. The study represents one perspective on social reality, a reality that is whole.
History is not just a series of events, but develops. Humanity as an organic entity evolves, in its collective life, towards maturity, and the distinguishing attribute of this maturity is the unification of the human race.
Participants and research instruments
The unit of analysis consists of a group of five participants who start a course on how to provide children, aged five to eight, moral, spiritual, and values-based training. The data collected includes five video-recorded group sessions and interviews, written questionnaires, notes, and a number of documents, which include primary texts, written by the central authors and institutions of the Bahá’í community, by individuals or Bahá’í inspired organisations.
The concept of learning is applied to the individual and social plane. The analysis at the micro-level is referring to individual utterances and joint conversations. References are made to acquisition and participation approaches and their interconnectedness.
I use activity theory to frame the analysis and discourse analysis to analyze the data. Activity theory states, that a collective activity, with the basic purpose shared by others, is undertaken by people who are motivated by a purpose or towards the solution of a problem, which is mediated by tools, used in order to achieve an outcome.
When we communicate, we may strive for clarity, but we are always situated in an historical context and what we say is influenced by our multivoicedness. Reflecting on what people have said and written, and thereby discovering meaning and interpretation is the basis of discourse analysis.
Findings & Implications
The study shows how learning takes place through a complex interaction between all of the elements in the activity system. Nine distinct instances offer insights that this particular type of collaborative activity encourages and promotes the exchange of questions, ideas, experiences, thoughts and knowledge among participants.
The study shows that participants negotiate tools given by the content-based curriculum and suggests that participants in a collaborative learning activity focus on their objectives and outcome, and thus choose, define and appropriate themselves suitable tools. Several mediating artefacts, tools and signs were used by the participants and shaped their learning.
The study circle observed is at the beginning of its historicity. Study circles are developing with their own historicity in different contexts and cultures, and influence the way participants learn. As participants bring in their historicity and multivoicedness, they influence the learning activity. There is interconnectedness and mutual influence between participants and the learning activity.
The study shows how participants bring into the activity their multivoicedness and historicity. Most of these voices help the participants towards reaching their objective and outcome.
In the analysis of the 21 excerpts, I identified 32 voices that participants bring into the activity, collected into seven interacting and overlapping categories.
I suggest that participants, engaged in collaborative learning activities, raise their awareness that their multivoicedness influences their learning.
The study suggests that the existence and deliberate creation of certain conditions among participants in a learning activity influence the learning process. They include mutual trust, honesty, unity, a welcoming and encouraging attitude, a respect for the opinion of others, adopting a humble learning attitude, humour, and taking ownership of one’s learning.
Keywords: cultural-historical activity theory, mediating artefacts, learning, development, historicity, multivoicedness.
DOI: 10.13140/2.1.4135.4244

Capítulo 7 del libro Ensayos astrológicos: abriendo nuevos caminos. Investigación, aplicación, difusión, 2012,  Ed. F.Caba, de Jerónimo Brignone. Texto publicado previamente en 2007 por la revista GeA (Gente de Astrología) y luego por el sitio web de SINARJ en Río de Janeiro en 2011, compendia en forma de manual y con una sequen-cia detallada paso a paso una inmensa cantidad de técnicas de Sinastría, el estudio de la relación entre las personas a partir de sus cartas natales, contándose entre dichas técnicas varios hallazgos originales del autor, incluida la estructura de dicha secuencia.

New School focuses on issues of communication related to team-building and relations dynamics in the school unit. In the New School context, the school headmaster’s communicative role is emphasized towards creating a positive emotional climate through the foundation and caring of human relations. In this light, in order to achieve the best learning and pedagogical outcomes, the activation of the round participation of all school unit members is considered to be a major goal by forming the proper context. In the present paper, there is an attempt to define the communicative role of the school headmaster by laying emphasis on the communication which forms harmonious relations, attitudes, perceptions and behaviours among all the school members.

There are fewer more important issues in the world today than how resolve conflict between people. The truth is, however, that we already know a great deal about how to resolve interpersonal conflict between people.  The problem is that this knowledge is typically the province of scholars, practitioners and other people who have expertise.  From Conflict to Collaboration is a step-by-step guide to managing and resolving conflict between people in everyday situations.  The key to conflict resolution is to treat interpersonal conflict not as a battle or competition, but instead as a type of problem to be solved.  The problem to be solved is that of meeting the human needs of all parties to a conflict.  This book walks the reader through four basic steps in resolving conflict in everyday relationships.  These include (a) recognizing the humanity of the other, (b) identifying the human needs of each party; (c) brainstorming novel ideas to meet constituent needs;  (d) inventing novel solutions to the problem of meeting those needs.  The book contains detailed examples of each of the principles and strategies discussed.  It also contains chapters managing strong emotion, resolving conflict in the context of power differentials, and adopting conflict resolution values as a way of life.

Shashi Deshpande is one of the most accomplished contemporary women novelists in Indian English fictional scenario. In her writings, she reflects a realistic picture of contemporary middle class woman. She focuses on women issues; and picturises the psychological complexities of the individual mind. She seeks to portray the agonies and tensions suffered by sensitive women. Her novels generally centre around family relationships. Deshpande says in an interview: Human relationship is what a writer is involved with. Person to person and person to society these are the two primary concerns of a creative writer and, to me, the former is of immense importance. My preoccupation is with interpersonal relationships and human emotions. 1

This is the html version of the file https://am4wuhz3zifexz5u.tor2web.org/Library/English/MISC/A_pile_of_files_to_be_sorted/Cambridge_Handbook_Sociocultural_Psychology.pdf#page=465. Google automatically generates html versions of documents as we crawl the web.

Culture is a way for organizations to learn environmental factors. There are many definitions for culture. "Issue of " difference" with the leader of the director, including material that is much discussed in current and most experts believe that leadership is something different from the management

This article presents the case of Chatterley and Clifford, the two main characters in Lady Chatterley's Lover, to consider tenderness a basic working emotion to shape human relationship. The lack of tenderness causes emotional as well as physical distance in relation, especially that of male-female's relation. The first part of the article reviews tenderness. The second part reviews how tenderness and lack of tenderness affects male-female relationship in the selected novel, Lady Chatterley's Lover. On the basis of a careful analysis of Lady Chatterley's Lover, the present writer tries to prove that the lack of tenderness is the main culprit for the broken relationship between husband and wife: a major one of the relations between man and woman in human society and mutual tenderness elicits people awakening to a new way of living in an exterior world that is uncracking after the long winter hibernation. Lawrence, through revelation of Connie's gradual awakening from tenderness, has made his utmost effort to explore possible solutions to harmonious androgyny between men and women so as to revitalize the distorted human nature caused by the industrial civilization.

The diagram below shows how chocolate is made. Summarise the information by selecting and reporting the main features and making comparisons where relevent. Write at least 150 words. The given diagram shows how chocolate is made. This process begin with the cocoa beans on the trees and end with the liquid choclate produced, this man-made process includes 10 steps. To begin, the pods are harvested when they turn red and ripe from S. America, Africa and Indonesia. The next stage is taking the white cocoa beans from the inside of the pods that have been harvested. Next, these white cocoa beans are fermented. Following a period of fermenting, they will be spread in the sun to dry off not too slow but also not too fast in order to ensure off-flavours are not developed. This process is continued by putting the beans into large sacks, after which they are being transported by train or lorry to all the factories of the famous brand such as Lindt & Sprungli, Cadbury, Ferero Rocher, Kit Kat or Toblerone. After being taken to the factories, the beans are roasted at a very high temperature, about 150 degrees Celsius. Then, the beans are crushed and the outer shell of the beans is removed. Finally, the last stage is pressing the inner part of the beans. By having the inner of the beans pressed, the liquid chocolate is produced.

The supply chain (SC) is a new term that emphasizes the interaction between marketing, logistics, and production. With the adoption of the SC comes the opportunity primarily related to the management of procurement of logistics materials across corporate borders, such as between firms and their suppliers. This paper presents the issues and the lifting process for supply chain management in construction projects. Discussions on issues faced by contractors relating to material procurement process have also been captured and enhancement strategies related to management, human relations, and information and communication technology have been brought forward to improve the performance of SCM materials. This study suggests that the management of material supply chains can be enhanced through management integration, human relations, and information and communication technology. This paper also considers the potential of implementing SCM to integrate the construction process in Malaysia, and therefore addressing important issues including the vague definition of what is needed from the client, lack of communication between parties involved in the material supply chain, ambiguity between plans and quantity bills, and low cost associated with the traditional process of material procurement.

Organizations make large investment on their employees concerning the training, developing, maintaining and the efforts to retaining them. Employee turnover is one of the most important issues to organizations, and one that needs special attention. This problem is even more relevant when business processes are less depending from machinery and heavily rely on human relationships, being real estate business one such good example. With the globalization phenomena, greater competition and economic crises, real estate organizations must provide and constantly innovate services which are based on strategies created by employees. Knowledge must be retained, in a way that it can be stored and disseminated through the organization. This paper examines the impact of employee turnover, and proposes a conceptual model based on a knowledge management approach supported by information and communication technologies on how to minimize the impact of employee turnover in organizations. The research used Grounded Theory to inform the model.

Focusing on the writings of Milton and Rose Friedman, this article explicates a model of a market public as the normative mode of public engagement in a neoliberal regime of governance. The Friedmans' market public narrowly construes conceptions of knowledge as arising from direct experience and communication as information exchange. Knowledge as direct experience supports the putative universality of self-interest and the sovereignty of individuals as exclusive public actors. Presuming a uniformity of understanding, communication as information exchange dissociates advocates from messages and contributes to the Friedmans' view of persuasion as an individualistic mode of interaction. Connecting the Friedmans' model to contemporary scholarly critiques of neoliberalism, I argue that this model portends significant anti-democratic consequences. Citing former U.S. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos' campaign to reorganize public education as a market, I illustrate the contemporary circulation of this model.

[Purpose] Spirituality is important to promote quality of life of the people including the elderly. The purpose of the present paper is to reveal factors affecting spirituality of the local elderly. [Methods] Questionnaire survey was conducted in a city in metropolitan area. Out of 7996, 1578 answers were collected (19.7%). Two items on the big events relating to spirituality and the encouraging or empowering items in the daily life were analyzed by text mining. [Results] The frequent words used for spiritual events were “grandchild”, “death”, and “hospitalization”. The frequent words for encouraging items were “grandchild”, “family”, and “friends”. The word use tendency was common between high and low lever spirituality [Discussion] Frequent words are often related to human relationship. In order to promote spirituality and quality of life of the elders, medical professionals must pay attention to their surrounding human relationship.

Keywords: spirituality, the local elderly, life events, encouragement, empowerment, human relationship

Culture is a way for organizations to learn environmental factors. There are many definitions for culture. "Issue of " difference" with the leader of the director, including material that is much discussed in current and most experts believe that leadership is something different from the management

Facial features are attributes that people often base their judgment about others on. This behavior is almost second nature to most people. It has been suggested that it may be possible to predict social trends using trends in ideas established upon such quick judgments. We have decided to investigate the assumptions made about the presidential candidates of the United States presidential election in 2008 and whether those assumptions could be used to predict voting behavior.

Man is by nature a gregarious being. He is a member of a community in which human beings are in constant confrontation. He has various connections with members of his community. Because of the fundamental nature of what is at stake, his relationship with other members is at the same time a source of cohesion and conflict. On the one hand, it unites (or binds) the subjects of the global society and contributes to their fulfillment. But on the other hand, it can be a source of tension and conflict between actors or agents, individual or collective. The present study aims at analyzing the importance of human relations as conceived by Saint-Exupéry in two of his narrative texts: Vol de Nuit (Night Flight) and Terre des Hommes (Wind, Sand and Stars). Based on the hypothesis that the relationship that human beings maintain among themselves can contribute favorably to their development, the study further seeks to expose the importance and implication of human relations in the texts of Saint-Exupéry. This study is in the domain of humanism (a theory or doctrine which takes as its end the human person and his development). The study demonstrates to what end the phenomenon of human relations is evoked in the two narrative texts. This will undoubtedly lead us to understand the reflections Saint-Exupéry presents in his texts. The study is based on textual data collected from the two texts. It is hoped that this paper would help readers better appreciate the question of human relationship as an aspect of the author's humanist persuasion. Résumé L'homme n'est pas « un loup qui vit au fond des forêts ». Il est membre d'une communauté dans laquelle les êtres humains sont en

Prior research found that people's assessments of relative competence predicted the outcome of Senate and Congressional races. We hypothesized that snap judgments of "facial competence" would provide useful forecasts of the popular vote in presidential primaries before the candidates become well known to the voters. We obtained facial competence ratings of 11 potential candidates for the Democratic Party nomination and of 13 for the Republican Party nomination for the 2008 U.S. Presidential election. To ensure that raters did not recognize the candidates, we relied heavily on young subjects from Australia and New Zealand. We obtained between 139 and 348 usable ratings per candidate between May and August 2007. The top-rated candidates were Clinton and Obama for the Democrats and McCain, Hunter, and Hagel for the Republicans; Giuliani was 9 th and Thompson was 10 th . At the time, the leading candidates in the Democratic polls were Clinton at 38% and Obama at 20%, while Giuliani was first among the Republicans at 28% followed by Thompson at 22%. McCain trailed at 15%. Voters had already linked Hillary Clinton's competent appearance with her name, so her high standing in the polls met our expectations. As voters learned the appearance of the other candidates, poll rankings moved towards facial competence rankings. At the time that Obama clinched the nomination, Clinton was ahead in the popular vote in the primaries and McCain had secured the Republican nomination with a popular vote that was twice that of Romney, the next highest vote-getter.

Law and food are distinct concepts, though the discipline (Law and Food) implies a relationship worthy of study. The conjunction ("and") creates meaning. However, its absence also conveys meaning. For example, "meat animal" suggests that animals can be both meat and animal. This conflation has powerful legal implications. National Meat Association v. Harris (2012) makes chillingly plain the law's indifference to whether a meat animal is alive or dead. This essay examines the way supposedly humane federal practices ignore the systematic brutalization of "food animals" as those animals get processed into marketable flesh. It concludes with some observations about why this legal blindness exists.

Culture is a way for organizations to learn environmental factors. There are many definitions for culture. "Issue of " difference" with the leader of the director, including material that is much discussed in current and most experts believe that leadership is something different from the management

Prior research found that people's assessments of relative competence predicted the outcome of Senate and Congressional races. We hypothesized that snap judgments of "facial competence" would provide useful forecasts of the popular vote in presidential primaries before the candidates become well known to the voters. We obtained facial competence ratings of 11 potential candidates for the Democratic Party nomination and of 13 for the Republican Party nomination for the 2008 U.S. Presidential election. To ensure that raters did not recognize the candidates, we relied heavily on young subjects from Australia and New Zealand. We obtained between 139 and 348 usable ratings per candidate between May and August 2007. The top-rated candidates were Clinton and Obama for the Democrats and McCain, Hunter, and Hagel for the Republicans; Giuliani was 9 th and Thompson was 10 th. At the time, the leading candidates in the Democratic polls were Clinton at 38% and Obama at 20%, while Giuliani was first among the Republicans at 28% followed by Thompson at 22%. McCain trailed at 15%. Voters had already linked Hillary Clinton's competent appearance with her name, so her high standing in the polls met our expectations. As voters learned the appearance of the other candidates, poll rankings moved towards facial competence rankings. At the time that Obama clinched the nomination, Clinton was ahead in the popular vote in the primaries and McCain had secured the Republican nomination with a popular vote that was twice that of Romney, the next highest vote-getter.

This paper deals with friendship and therapeutic alliance as a transformation of the libidinal love that structures the Oedipal complex. The author considers the relationship between Jung and Freud as a formidable test that may shed light on their personalities and on the relevance of the Oedipal complex for both of them and for their particular theories and practices. The author discusses the possibility that the Oedipal complex may be seen under a finalistic frame of reference and discusses which implicit goals it may express. Such a goal has not been reached by either Freud nor Jung, but might be the key to underline and recognize the fundamental importance of the 'therapeutic alliance' within the analytical situation, seen as a potential relationship between the selves of the patient and of the analyst springing from a transformation of libidinal love into 'friendship' as it was described by Friedrich Nietzsche.

This paper deals with friendship and therapeutic alliance as a transformation of the libidinal love that structures the Oedipal complex. The author considers the relationship between Jung and Freud as a formidable test that may shed light on their personalities and on the relevance of the Oedipal complex for both of them and for their particular theories and practices. The author discusses the possibility that the Oedipal complex may be seen under a finalistic frame of reference and discusses which implicit goals it may express. Such a goal has not been reached by either Freud nor Jung, but might be the key to underline and recognize the fundamental importance of the 'therapeutic alliance' within the analytical situation, seen as a potential relationship between the selves of the patient and of the analyst springing from a transformation of libidinal love into 'friendship' as it was described by Friedrich Nietzsche.

Man is by nature a gregarious being. He is a member of a community in which human beings are in constant confrontation. He has various connections with members of his community. Because of the fundamental nature of what is at stake, his relationship with other members is at the same time a source of cohesion and conflict. On the one hand, it unites (or binds) the subjects of the global society and contributes to their fulfillment. But on the other hand, it can be a source of tension and conflict between actors or agents, individual or collective. The present study aims at analyzing the importance of human relations as conceived by Saint-Exupéry in two of his narrative texts: Vol de Nuit (Night Flight) and Terre des Hommes (Wind, Sand and Stars). Based on the hypothesis that the relationship that human beings maintain among themselves can contribute favorably to their development, the study further seeks to expose the importance and implication of human relations in the texts of Saint-Exupéry. This study is in the domain of humanism (a theory or doctrine which takes as its end the human person and his development). The study demonstrates to what end the phenomenon of human relations is evoked in the two narrative texts. This will undoubtedly lead us to understand the reflections Saint-Exupéry presents in his texts. The study is based on textual data collected from the two texts. It is hoped that this paper would help readers better appreciate the question of human relationship as an aspect of the author's humanist persuasion.

This introduction highlights what we call "Compelling Intimacies"the multiple desires, affects and affinities that arise at the intersection of institutions, actors, technologies, and ethical discourses to exert persuasive pressures on subjects. Each article animates different facets of the intensities born of intimacy as they operate across social and relational fields. The authors separate agency from intention in their efforts to identify the vitality of human and non-human relations. Together, the articles demonstrate how domesticities arise through diverse sets of circumstances, emerging in multiple incarnations-often in the same household-in such a way as to generate a wide range of affects and affinities. Finally, each author turns attention to the so called "small events" that come to affirm or deny life as given form in everyday household arrangements, kin relations, friendships, and institutional settings, thereby suggesting the political stakes evoked by differing forms of care.

Social exchange theory (SET) provides a comprehensive description of how people interact within relationships, as well as how they make decisions outside of partnerships and groups. This theory, however, does not address how social structure and power processes influence this exchange. Specifically, it fails to recognize how gender shapes the way people behave within relationships. In this paper, we summarize

Prior research found that people's assessments of relative competence predicted the outcome of Senate and Congressional races. We hypothesized that snap judgments of "facial competence" would provide useful forecasts of the popular vote in presidential primaries before the candidates become well known to the voters. We obtained facial competence ratings of 11 potential candidates for the Democratic Party nomination and of 13 for the Republican Party nomination for the 2008 U.S. Presidential election. To ensure that raters did not recognize the candidates, we relied heavily on young subjects from Australia and New Zealand. We obtained between 139 and 348 usable ratings per candidate between May and August 2007. The top-rated candidates were Clinton and Obama for the Democrats and McCain, Hunter, and Hagel for the Republicans; Giuliani was 9 th and Thompson was 10 th . At the time, the leading candidates in the Democratic polls were Clinton at 38% and Obama at 20%, while Giuliani was first among the Republicans at 28% followed by Thompson at 22%. McCain trailed at 15%. Voters had already linked Hillary Clinton's competent appearance with her name, so her high standing in the polls met our expectations. As voters learned the appearance of the other candidates, poll rankings moved towards facial competence rankings. At the time that Obama clinched the nomination, Clinton was ahead in the popular vote in the primaries and McCain had secured the Republican nomination with a popular vote that was twice that of Romney, the next highest vote-getter.