Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University / PLEASE NOTE: Boston University Libraries did not receive an Authorization To Manage form for this thesis or dissertation. It is therefore not openly accessible, though it may be available by request. If you are the author or principal advisor of this work and would like to request open access for it, please contact us at open-help@bu.edu. Thank you. / 2031-01-01

The study observed five introductory classes at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana, to find out what academic literacy practices are being engendered and how criticality is being fostered through those practices. The results are intended to help both myself, as a teacher researcher, and the university to identify how students make the difficult transition from expectations of literacy at secondary school to those at university. I observed lecturers and students in their classroom environment for a semester (16 weeks); interviewed lecturers who taught the courses observed and conducted five focus groups, made up of eight students each, with volunteers from each of the classes observed. These interviews were replicated in two other public universities: the Universities of Ghana and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology where two and five lecturers respectively participated in individual interviews, and eight students each participated in focus groups. Finally, I triangulated the data in order to identify emergent patterns of lecturers' and students' experiences with teaching and learning. The data indicates that students need more explicit teaching of the basic literacy skills they are assumed to have. Most students in the study had difficulty comprehending academic texts. Additionally, students rarely attempted to read their assigned texts beforehand since they had little experience in anticipating what to look for or connect with in the text. Student writing is poor, as they have no opportunity to practice continuous writing. In order to address the literacy difficulties of these students, there is the need to pay attention to institutional and faculty engagement practices which promote student learning. A major area for improvement is in encouraging lecturers to teach using more explicit methods so that students can move from where they are in their literacy competence to where lecturers expect them to be. The place to explain to students what is expected in a discipline is within that discipline (Skillen et al., 2001), rather than assume that students will automatically see the shift in expectations for each field of study. Although there was substantial consensus about the importance of criticality in lecturers' aims for student learning, this was not adequately translated into literacy practices. Massification has led to a preference for multiple-choice testing which has removed the need to read and write for assessment, inviting students out of the intellectual dialogue that characterizes the various disciplines as they engage critically and thoughtfully with course readings (Svinicki, 2005; Carroll, 2002). The findings of this study indicate that lecturers have only adapted to the changed circumstances of massification in ways that mean that the critical acquisition of academic literacies is diminished. The impact of massification on teaching and learning has resulted in lecturers feeling under pressure to teach in ways that conflict with their personal ideologies. To foster criticality in students lecturers will have to learn new skills as what may happen with a group of 20 cannot be translated into a group of hundred or more. There are policies in place to enhance teaching and learning but few mechanisms to implement them. In the most important sense that the university in its policy statements and course outlines values critical thinking and deep engagement with ideas and concepts, the practices described by students and lecturers are completely in tension. In order to address the literacy difficulties of students, universities will need to actively support lecturers in teaching reform efforts so as to respond to pressures on them to increase their output while maintaining quality. Significant progress is likely to come about only if universities are willing to invest in resources that are needed to experiment with institution-wide changes.

Pre-literate children experience written text as a meaningless material object, the word-object, but the compulsory and institutional aspects of reading pedagogy make this an experience from which they cannot escape. Some children begin to associate their own negative experiental sense with the word-object before they are able to learn to read. As reading pedagogy continues, these children begin to read back experiental sense which prevents them from converting the word-object to meaningful text. Experiental sense is repressed because it is psychically painful. It retains qualities of phenomena repressed from childhood: it is active and intractable to reason. The result is an intractable illiteracy which may be interpreted as biologically based �dyslexia.� Further attempts at reading pedagogy in childhood and adulthood generally result in reproduction of the inability because this pedagogy requires learners to attempt to read linguistically which elicits experiental sense. As these children become adults, their avoidance of reading sometimes structures their social relations to accommodate and compound their problems. The method to overcome the problem replaces experiental sense with positive feelings about written language. The power of language to denote emotions of pleasure and affirmation from learners� lives is used. These emotions are enhanced through a technique of affirmative intersubjectivity. Short spoken affirmative texts are made by learners, tape recorded and reproduced as written texts by the literacy worker. Through allowing learners control and autonomy over their spoken and written texts, the positive emotions in them are associated by learners with the written texts. Exercises on the affirmative written texts are used to demonstrate regularities about written language. Learners then progress to reading suitable independent texts and other activities. There are suggestions about how to enhance learners� feelings as competent readers and writers. The thesis uses a methodology of action research and includes five case studies of adults with literacy problems. Concepts from social theory, psychoanalysis and object relations theory are used and adapted to understand written language, schooling and illiteracy.

Pre-literate children experience written text as a meaningless material object, the word-object, but the compulsory and institutional aspects of reading pedagogy make this an experience from which they cannot escape. Some children begin to associate their own negative experiental sense with the word-object before they are able to learn to read. As reading pedagogy continues, these children begin to read back experiental sense which prevents them from converting the word-object to meaningful text. Experiental sense is repressed because it is psychically painful. It retains qualities of phenomena repressed from childhood: it is active and intractable to reason. The result is an intractable illiteracy which may be interpreted as biologically based �dyslexia.� Further attempts at reading pedagogy in childhood and adulthood generally result in reproduction of the inability because this pedagogy requires learners to attempt to read linguistically which elicits experiental sense. As these children become adults, their avoidance of reading sometimes structures their social relations to accommodate and compound their problems. The method to overcome the problem replaces experiental sense with positive feelings about written language. The power of language to denote emotions of pleasure and affirmation from learners� lives is used. These emotions are enhanced through a technique of affirmative intersubjectivity. Short spoken affirmative texts are made by learners, tape recorded and reproduced as written texts by the literacy worker. Through allowing learners control and autonomy over their spoken and written texts, the positive emotions in them are associated by learners with the written texts. Exercises on the affirmative written texts are used to demonstrate regularities about written language. Learners then progress to reading suitable independent texts and other activities. There are suggestions about how to enhance learners� feelings as competent readers and writers. The thesis uses a methodology of action research and includes five case studies of adults with literacy problems. Concepts from social theory, psychoanalysis and object relations theory are used and adapted to understand written language, schooling and illiteracy.

Orientador: Orly Zucatto Mantovani de Assis / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Educação / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-09T12:49:15Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Santarosa_Adriane_M.pdf: 1454513 bytes, checksum: 8af98af324d27d3a8917154cd2d16d06 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007 / Resumo: O objetivo desse estudo consistiu em verificar se professores que realizaram um curso de formação continuada de alfabetização entre os anos de 2003 a 2006, demonstram um desempenho satisfatório em situações que se referem à teoria da psicogênese da língua escrita também o tem na escolha de atividades que são propostas às crianças que estão aprendendo a ler e escrever. Participaram dessa pesquisa 30 professores que trabalham como docentes nos níveis de ensino Infantil e Fundamental de 1ª a 4ª séries na cidade de Americana e que participaram de formação continuada em alfabetização. Foi utilizado como instrumento de coleta de dados um questionário, elaborado pela própria pesquisadora, que se referia a teoria da psicogênese da língua escrita e a procedimentos didáticos dos professores. A análise dos dados foi realizada por um instrumento semelhante à escala Likert para os participantes mensurarem num contínuo de 1 a 5 a opinião que possuem sobre afirmações sobre a psicogênese da escrita na perspectiva de Emilia Ferreiro e situações de sala de aula envolvendo o processo de alfabetização. O estudo teve como fundamentação teórica a psicogênese da língua escrita defendida por Emilia Ferreiro e Ana Teberosky no ano de 1979. Para os dados foi utilizada uma análise estatística descritiva com apresentação de tabelas de freqüências para variáveis categóricas e medidas de posição e dispersão para variáveis contínuas. Para verificação de associação linear entre duas variáveis foi utilizado o coeficiente estatístico de Spearm. Os resultados apontaram que não há uma relação entre nível de desempenho favorável nas questões que se referem à teoria e nas questões que se referem a procedimentos práticos / Abstract: The objective of this study consisted in verifying whether teachers who show a satisfactory performance in situations which refer to written language psychogenesis theory also they have it on the choice of activities that are given to children who are learning to read and write. Teachers of kindergarden and elementary school from 1st to 4th grades from Americana city participated in this research and also took part in reading and writing courses in the last years. The data collector instrument that was used was a questionary which referred to the written language psychogenesis and to the teachers' teaching procedures. The study had as theoretical basis the written language psychogenesis defined by Emilia Ferreiro and Ana Teberosky in 1979.The data analisys was accomplished by an instrument similar to Likert scale where the subjects set from 1 to 5 their opinion about statements on the written language psychogenesis from Emilia Ferreiro' perspective and classroom situations involving the alphabetization process. For the data it was used a descriptive statistical analisys with tables of frequencies for categorical variables and measures of position and dispersion for continuum variables. It was used the statistical coefficient of Spearm for verification of linear association between two variables. The results showed that there is no relationship of favorable performance between the questions that refer to theory and the questions that refer to practical procedures / Mestrado / Psicologia, Desenvolvimento Humano e Educação / Mestre em Educação

Magister Commercii - MCom / Economists have confidently agreed that the progression of human capital has an important effect on a state's productivity and growth. Moreover, current research proves the importance of educational outcomes throughout history. Therefore, measuring the quality of education throughout periods can test whether or not human literacy rates directly impact the long-run economic growth of a society. South Africa’s current educational system stems from deeply rooted practices instilled in a previously colonised state. A new branch of economics in South Africa's context is economic history, which allows researchers to analyse previous historical events and make inferences regarding practices, laws, and phenomena occurring in the current era.

Submitted to the Faculty of Education in fulfillment of the requirements for the Master of Education in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 1999. / In essence The study revolved around the following: • The level of illiteracy of black Natal Parks Board employees. • . actors which contribute to the level of illiteracy of Natal Parks Board employees. • To determine in the light of the findings obtained, certain guidelines towards the route to be followed by illiterates and semi-illiterates, in attaining a state of literacy. The research was specifically directed at the problems confronting adult illiterates and semi-illiterates in their striving for literacy. Both the factors influencing educational progress and the best route to be taken to attain to literacy were studied. For the purpose of the empirical investigation a self-structured questionnaire was utilised. The respondents were selected at random from rural areas throughout KZN, from the learners from seven classes who have graduated from the basic Zulu, advanced Zulu and basic English classes and from people who are still awaiting incorporation into the adult literacy programme. A summary was presented and based on the findings of this study, the following recommendations were made: • Although there is already an ABET system and a bursary scheme currently operating in the NPB, it is nevertheless recommended that the NPB and other like-organisations should: reprioritise their goals from conservation of species to the development of staff, draw up clear education policies, identify current educational levels, all skills training courses should comply with the National Qualification Framework and that the individual's current knowledge, skills and experience should be recognised and certificated. • In order to fully update staff on educational and training possibilities in the NPB and other similar organisations it is recommended that employees should have a say in educational and skills training and courses should be regularly advertised throughout the organisation and education and training needs should be discussed with individual staff members. In a climate where the employer realises and accepts his obligations, the organisation's budget should reflect that education and skills training have a very high priority rating.

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to identify factors that contribute to women delaying seeking treatment for obstetric fistula. A stratified random sampling technique was used to select 384 study participants. A cross sectional analytical research design was used; data was collected by structured, closed ended questionnaires. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression models were applied. Results show a significant correlation between traditional treatment and delay in seeking treatment (P-Value = 0.012). The presence of parents has a significant correlation in reaching treatment centres (p-value = 0.013), those women who are speaking about their fistula have less chance of delay in seeking treatment (p-value = 0.008), having no income significantly associated with delay in seeking treatment (AOR = 0.28) and women living closer to the treatment centres have less chance of delay (p-value = 0.008). Therefore, there are a number of factors that significantly influence women from early seeking of treatment for their fistulae. / Health Studies / M.A. (Public Health)

This written thesis accompanies three television public service announcement spots. Two of the spots are 60 seconds and one of the spots is 45 seconds in length. I produced this public service television advertising campaign to highlight the issue of child illiteracy in Pakistan and to encourage expatriate and resident Pakistani's to donate to educational charities. A Website created by the filmmaker is promoted in the campaign. This Website provides information about various charities that educate children in Pakistan. Detailed accounts of pre-production, production and post-production of the campaign allow the viewer to comprehend the challenges in producing television campaigns for social causes. Theoretical issues are also discussed, including the causes of illiteracy, the importance and role of social campaigns, the history and uses of propaganda as well as the aesthetic concerns of a public service campaign producer. I discuss the importance of creating the culture of public service campaigns in a third world country like Pakistan, and states that the Pakistani community needs to look inwards to overcome the challenge of illiteracy.