Social interaction is key to students' learning in blending learning discussions. Although there is research on interactions in online courses and traditional classes, there is little on whether blended learning discussions are meeting students' social interaction and educational development needs. The purpose of this multicase study was to examine attitudes of first-year and final-year business and technology students and faculty members for patterns of interaction and knowledge construction. The study was conducted in the northeastern United States. Piaget's cognitive constructivism, Vygotsky's social constructivism, and Knowles's andragogy constituted the conceptual framework. Using maximum variation sampling, participants were 8 students and 4 faculty for 2 first-year and 2 final-year classes. Data sources were interviews and discussion responses coded using Straus and Corbin's open, axial, and selective coding procedures. Coded data were analyzed using Merriam's cross-case analysis method. The business students displayed the first three phases of knowledge construction: (a) sharing and comparing (b) discovery and exploration, and (c) negotiation of meaning; the technical students progressed to the fourth phase: testing and modification of proposed synthesis. Knowledge construction often occurred in a positive, challenging form of interaction. The professors expressed that gender, VoiceThread media, and discussion content influenced students' learning. These findings contribute to positive social change by informing stronger learning processes that students and teachers can use in their blended learning classes to facilitate collective knowledge construction.

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This focused ethnography of Appalachian Trail (AT) long-distance hikers explored the situated and informal nature of individual knowledge construction as mediated through a community of practice. Unlike place-based or cyber-bound communities, the ever-changing membership and location dynamics of AT hikers offered a unique and researchable community for study. The complex and understudied sensemaking trajectories of individuals moving through this mobile community were investigated over three years through in-depth interviews and participant observations. Inductive analysis of expert and novice stories illuminated experiential patterns and collective traditions that comprise the AT learning culture. In contrast to traditional approaches to knowledge and skill acquisition, this study found socio-reflective exchanges, nested in hiking pods, to be critical sites for cognitive modeling and informal scaffolding between experts and novices. The situated encounters and developmental support of these nomadic pods were found to facilitate individuals' construction of community-based knowledge. / Ph. D.

This dissertation entitled, Exploring Design Thinking for Instructional Practice, is situated in the cognitive rigor of design thinking instructional practice and engineering design-based capstone courses. The content of the instructional practice connects with educators employing a wide range of intellectual activities or cognitive tasks in formulating their curriculum. Key attributes of design thinking were identified through a focused literature review with an emphasis on theoretical propositions applicable to instructional practice. This dissertation contains two manuscripts: (a) an exploration of the theoretical literature related to design thinking explicating implications for instructional practice, and (b) a case study involving a small, purposive, sample of undergraduate faculty members teaching engineering design-based courses with findings broadly applicable to design processes in college curricula. The faculty participants in the case study were educators at a large, public, research-intensive university in the southeastern region of the United States. The data analyses involved triangulation of semi-structured interviews conducted with faculty participants and their design-based course materials, including syllabi and lesson plan materials. The study's thematic findings were not tied to engineering but rather course design, design process, and course management. The findings show the utility of artifact creation for learning with understanding for everyone, not just engineers and other traditional designers. Overall, the dissertation contributes to pedagogy that promotes student-centered engagement for learning with understanding. It recommends design thinking instructional practice for inclusion in designing and making artifacts of constructed knowledge for learning with understanding engagements across the academy. / Doctor of Philosophy / This dissertation entitled, Exploring Design Thinking for Instructional Practice, integrates a wide range of intellectual activities also referred to as cognitive tasks of student-centered design thinking activities. In this dissertation, these tasks are useful for tackling problems that are not well-defined, such as, open-ended, real-world problems. Examples of this pedagogy are useful for educators considering and/or implementing design thinking in their curricula. This dissertation contains two manuscripts: (a) an exploration of the theoretical literature related to design thinking from theory to artifact making, and (b) a case study involving undergraduate faculty members teaching design thinking in design-based courses. The study's faculty participants were educators teaching engineering capstone courses at a large, public, research university in the southeastern region of the United States. Their students design and make solutions for open-ended, real-world problems that are not in textbooks and do not have "right" answers. The study's data collection phase involved interviews with the faculty participants and course materials (syllabi, lesson plan materials, handouts, and course websites). Data analysis produced three robust themes: course design, design process, and course management. These themes suggest that a design thinking instructional practice belies perceptions that design thinking is tied exclusively to engineering and other traditional design disciplines. The findings suggest that design thinking pedagogy engages students in creation of artifacts, learning with understanding, hands-on experiential learning in iterations, use of productivity tools, teamwork, and new starting points when outcomes do not meet expectations. Overall, the findings suggest design thinking pedagogy promotes student-centered design thinking activities.

While the education sector keeps embracing and propagating AI-chatbot integration and usage in their pedagogical practices. This study aimed at investigating the impact of AI-chatbots on the knowledge construction process and critical reasoning of university students, using a mixed method approach to sample the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) students’ performances and teachers’ observation. The purpose is to Investigate the extent of the impacts of AI-chatbots usage on the knowledge construction and critical reasoning abilities and to provide some proven approaches to engaging educational AI-chatbot in a manner that does not hamper the natural knowledge construction process according to constructivism theoretical paradigm. Three research questions were poised to harvest the teachers’ observations, which were matched against the principles and assumptions of constructivism learning theory and the result showed that AI-chatbot usage has some positive impact on the students’ knowledge construction and critical reasoning abilities which include learning efficiency enhancement, gendering plethora of perspectives and furnishing the students cognitively. Paradoxically, it also makes the students boycott knowledge construction process, leading to a dearth of experience, irrationality, passive learning, groupthink, academic dishonesty, and a diminished propensity for critical thinking. Recommendations were drawn from the success stories of the teachers which are to orient the students properly on the ethical usage of AI-chatbots, while integrating critical thinking education and praxis approaches in their pedagogical practice.

Na tentativa de compreender o processo de ensino-aprendizagem no curso de graduação em Física buscaram-se elementos que fossem significativos para a elaboração de uma síntese que estabelecesse, com alguma abrangência, as principais características desse processo. Dentre várias alternativas, optou-se por uma análise do conteúdo que é estudado no curso de graduação. Para isso, foram consideradas as interações físicas, pois as investigações relativas aos vários modelos construídos pela Física para interpretá-las são muito frequentes nas diversas atividades desenvolvidas no curso de graduação. Os pressupostos teóricos, que condicionaram a escolha dos elementos para as análises do processo de ensino-aprendizagem, baseiam-se na concepção de que o conhecimento físico corresponde a construções intelectuais elaboradas por seres humanos em vários momentos históricos. Estas construções estão inscritas numa cultura, numa sociedade e numa história. A elas estão associadas diferentes visões de mundo. Os modelos para a interpretação das interações físicas foram apresentados segundo diferentes visões de mundo. A investigação das várias imagens relativas a eles fornece elementos significativos para um distanciamento de várias teorias estudadas durante o curso de graduação, possibilitando a percepção de suas totalidades e, também, da complexidade existente no conhecimento construído pela Física. Durante o curso de graduação os estudantes entram em contato com diferentes concepções sobre a natureza física através de conteúdos estudados nas várias disciplinas e estes conteúdos são reconstruídos por eles. As investigações sobre os modelos de interação construídos pelos estudantes indicaram a existência de diversas concepções que contêm os elementos estudados no curso de graduação, mas são articuladas de formas peculiares, através de composições híbridas dos conceitos aprendidos. Estes resultados indicam que, no curso de graduação em Física, faltam discussões que explicitem as significações dos conceitos e, também, as articulações existentes nas diferentes teorias. / Intending to understand the process of teaching and learning in the graduation course of Physics, we have searched for significant elements to elaborate an abstract in order to establish the principals characters at this process with some enlargement. These were many alternatives so we chose to analysis the content in the graduation course. So, we have considered the physics interactions because the investigations about many models constructed by Physics to interpret they are very frequent on the several activities that are developed in the graduation course. The elements that stipulated our choice to analysis the process of teaching and learning have its theoreticians presuppositions based in the consider that physics knowledge correspond to intellectuals constructions elaborated by human beings in many historic moments. And associated with them, there are different visions of world. The models in order to make an interpretation of the physics interactions were presented by different visions of world and the investigation about many images related with these models give us significant elements in order to keep on distance from many theories that were studied during the graduation course which make possible the perception of its totalities and also the complexity that exists in the knowledge that was constructed by Physics. During the graduation course, the students become in touch with different conceptions about the nature of Physics through contents that were studied in many subjects and they reconstruct these contents. The investigations about the interaction models constructed by students the existence of several conceptions, which content the studied elements on the graduation course, but they are articulated in peculiars forms through hybrids compositions of the learned concepts. These results indicate that in the graduation course of Physics, discussions that show the signification of concepts and also the articulations existing in different theories, are lacked.

A psicologia é uma atividade cultural humana de construção do conhecimento (Simão, 2004) e, assim sendo, sabemos da importância de estudar os aspectos históricos e filosóficos que envolvem sua construção. Acompanhamos, portanto, o seu fazer-se ciência, nos colocando diante de uma psicologia que se contextualiza em uma teia de teorias ora conexas ora desconexas, segundo critérios de cientificidade. Esse espaço psicológico se sustenta em dinâmicas tanto de rupturas - devido à diversidade teórica que pode resultar em um campo de dispersão, conforme propõe Figueiredo (2012) - como de unificação da psicologia. Ciente da pluralidade teórica e metodológica existente na psicologia, vejo, portanto, a necessidade de refletir sobre as escolhas do psicólogo por certas correntes, que, como veremos nesta pesquisa, estão intimamente relacionadas às suas experiências cognitiva-emocionais. A proposta neste trabalho foi analisar as bases do pensamento do filósofo Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), - criador de uma proposta filosófica, a antroposofia, que trata de temas centrais abordados pela psicologia. Para isso, buscou-se a interlocução entre alguns aspectos histórico-culturais da própria construção de conhecimento desse pensador e o fazer da psicologia, procurando situar o espaço ocupado por Steiner dentro daquilo que se compreende como espaço psicológico, segundo Figueiredo (2007). Foram analisados os relatos autobiográficos de Steiner, chamados nesta pesquisa de experiências cognitivo-emocionais, e como tais aspectos podem ter modulado o percurso do seu pensamento. Entre essas experiências está seu diálogo muito próximo com as ideias do poeta e romancista J.W. Goethe, que também recebeu destaque nesta pesquisa, visto que há um interesse na retomada ao pensamento goethiano na atualidade, principalmente no que toca a importância da intuição no desenvolvimento do ser humano. O processo desta pesquisa requereu movimentos de aproximação e distanciamento em especial em relação ao envolvimento da autora com seu objeto de pesquisa (os pensamentos de Steiner), para que se atingisse uma melhor compreensão dos aspectos envolvidos tanto na configuração do psicológico (no sentido de Figueiredo, 2007) como no percurso de Steiner. Tal análise proporcionou à pesquisadora um aprofundamento a respeito de alguns aspectos relativos à escolha por certas correntes de pensamento em psicologia - neste caso, às matrizes compreensivas de inspiração românticas e pós-românticas - e, que são reflexos das experiências histórico-culturais do profissional, orientando-o no espaço contemporâneo tanto para sua prática em consultório como em pesquisa / Psychology is a human activity of knowledge construction (Simão, 2004) and saying that we become aware of how important it is to study the historical and philosophical aspects which permeate its construction. We follow thus, its self-making process, putting ourselves before a psychology which contains a variety of theories either connected or disconnected to it regarding to scientific criteria This psychological dimension holds itself in a dynamic of ruptures which Figueiredo (2012) calls as dispersion field or sometimes even into the idea of the unifying psychology. Knowing that theoretical and methodological plurality I see the necessity for a deeper thinking regarding the psychologist´s choice or empathy towards a certain theory or stream. I believe that such choices are intrinsically connected to his or her cognitive-emotional experiences through life. The proposal of this work was to analyze the fundamental thoughts of Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), who was the founder of anthroposophy philosophy which deals with some core themes of psychology. A dialogue was sought between some historical-cultural aspects which involved his own path of knowledge construction and the psychology-making. The proposal of this work was to make an attempt to place Steiner´s thoughts into the so called psychology space according to Figueiredo (2007). Steiner´s self- reported episodes were analyzed from his autobiography which I referred here as cognitive-emotional experiences and how those aspects may have shaped his way of thinking. One of those aspects is his very close dialogue with J. W. Goethe´s ideas which also deserved prominence in this research. Nowadays there is a new light upon Goethe´s thinking, mainly in regards to his conception of intuition, so, that is why psychology is also interested and concerned with how intuition can influence human development. Perhaps this will be the contemporaneity of this paper. It was required approximation and distancing movements from the researcher in special to her previous knowledge about Steiner, and in doing so, it has given her a better comprehension about both: psychology construction and Steiner path. As a result, there was a better understanding on how the process of making choice takes place when a psychologist decides on one or the other stream to conduct his professional approach, noticing that there are historical-cultural aspects which lead the psychologists to choose, guiding them either to counseling practice or in the research field

A psicologia é uma atividade cultural humana de construção do conhecimento (Simão, 2004) e, assim sendo, sabemos da importância de estudar os aspectos históricos e filosóficos que envolvem sua construção. Acompanhamos, portanto, o seu fazer-se ciência, nos colocando diante de uma psicologia que se contextualiza em uma teia de teorias ora conexas ora desconexas, segundo critérios de cientificidade. Esse espaço psicológico se sustenta em dinâmicas tanto de rupturas - devido à diversidade teórica que pode resultar em um campo de dispersão, conforme propõe Figueiredo (2012) - como de unificação da psicologia. Ciente da pluralidade teórica e metodológica existente na psicologia, vejo, portanto, a necessidade de refletir sobre as escolhas do psicólogo por certas correntes, que, como veremos nesta pesquisa, estão intimamente relacionadas às suas experiências cognitiva-emocionais. A proposta neste trabalho foi analisar as bases do pensamento do filósofo Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), - criador de uma proposta filosófica, a antroposofia, que trata de temas centrais abordados pela psicologia. Para isso, buscou-se a interlocução entre alguns aspectos histórico-culturais da própria construção de conhecimento desse pensador e o fazer da psicologia, procurando situar o espaço ocupado por Steiner dentro daquilo que se compreende como espaço psicológico, segundo Figueiredo (2007). Foram analisados os relatos autobiográficos de Steiner, chamados nesta pesquisa de experiências cognitivo-emocionais, e como tais aspectos podem ter modulado o percurso do seu pensamento. Entre essas experiências está seu diálogo muito próximo com as ideias do poeta e romancista J.W. Goethe, que também recebeu destaque nesta pesquisa, visto que há um interesse na retomada ao pensamento goethiano na atualidade, principalmente no que toca a importância da intuição no desenvolvimento do ser humano. O processo desta pesquisa requereu movimentos de aproximação e distanciamento em especial em relação ao envolvimento da autora com seu objeto de pesquisa (os pensamentos de Steiner), para que se atingisse uma melhor compreensão dos aspectos envolvidos tanto na configuração do psicológico (no sentido de Figueiredo, 2007) como no percurso de Steiner. Tal análise proporcionou à pesquisadora um aprofundamento a respeito de alguns aspectos relativos à escolha por certas correntes de pensamento em psicologia - neste caso, às matrizes compreensivas de inspiração românticas e pós-românticas - e, que são reflexos das experiências histórico-culturais do profissional, orientando-o no espaço contemporâneo tanto para sua prática em consultório como em pesquisa / Psychology is a human activity of knowledge construction (Simão, 2004) and saying that we become aware of how important it is to study the historical and philosophical aspects which permeate its construction. We follow thus, its self-making process, putting ourselves before a psychology which contains a variety of theories either connected or disconnected to it regarding to scientific criteria This psychological dimension holds itself in a dynamic of ruptures which Figueiredo (2012) calls as dispersion field or sometimes even into the idea of the unifying psychology. Knowing that theoretical and methodological plurality I see the necessity for a deeper thinking regarding the psychologist´s choice or empathy towards a certain theory or stream. I believe that such choices are intrinsically connected to his or her cognitive-emotional experiences through life. The proposal of this work was to analyze the fundamental thoughts of Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925), who was the founder of anthroposophy philosophy which deals with some core themes of psychology. A dialogue was sought between some historical-cultural aspects which involved his own path of knowledge construction and the psychology-making. The proposal of this work was to make an attempt to place Steiner´s thoughts into the so called psychology space according to Figueiredo (2007). Steiner´s self- reported episodes were analyzed from his autobiography which I referred here as cognitive-emotional experiences and how those aspects may have shaped his way of thinking. One of those aspects is his very close dialogue with J. W. Goethe´s ideas which also deserved prominence in this research. Nowadays there is a new light upon Goethe´s thinking, mainly in regards to his conception of intuition, so, that is why psychology is also interested and concerned with how intuition can influence human development. Perhaps this will be the contemporaneity of this paper. It was required approximation and distancing movements from the researcher in special to her previous knowledge about Steiner, and in doing so, it has given her a better comprehension about both: psychology construction and Steiner path. As a result, there was a better understanding on how the process of making choice takes place when a psychologist decides on one or the other stream to conduct his professional approach, noticing that there are historical-cultural aspects which lead the psychologists to choose, guiding them either to counseling practice or in the research field

Jogos e situações-problema podem ser utilizados para desafiar e estimular os alunos, podendo ser recursos úteis para uma aprendizagem diferenciada e significativa. Assim, a presente pesquisa teve como objetivo proporcionar a prática de dois jogos - o Kenken e o Feche a Caixa - em 10 oficinas para alunos da Escola Fundamental II. Nessas oficinas a pesquisadora observou como os alunos utilizavam seu raciocínio lógico-matemático para solucionar jogos e situações-problema, argumentavam suas respostas e lidavam com erros e acertos. A pesquisadora buscou compreender o que era jogo e o que era raciocínio lógico-matemático a partir do referencial teórico piagetiano. A análise dos dados foi feita com base no desempenho de cada participante nas diferentes atividades propostas, focando principalmente nas estratégias utilizadas, nos erros cometidos e no comportamento dos alunos frente aos desafios. Os resultados apontaram que os alunos aprenderam a jogar de acordo com as regras e objetivos e também desenvolveram algumas boas estratégias, mas não conseguiram dominar um dos jogos de forma lógica. Entretanto, foi possível inferir que esses jogos se mostraram bons instrumentos para fortalecer os processos de aprendizagem, pois envolviam conhecimentos matemáticos, aritméticos, geométricos e lógicos, além de serem bastante motivadores / Games and problem-situations can be used to challenge and stimulate students, being considered useful resources for a meaningful learning. Thus, the present study aimed to provide the practice of two games - Kenken and Shut the Box for Middle School students during 10 workshops. In these workshops the researcher observed how students used their logical-mathematical skills to play games and solve problem situations, and also how they argued their answers and dealt with their mistakes. The Piagetian theory was used by the researcher to understand what game and logical-mathematical thinking mean. Data analysis was based on the performance of each participant in all activities proposed, focusing mainly on the strategies used, the mistakes and the behavior of students facing the challenges. The results showed that students learned the rules and objectives and also developed some good strategies in both games but failed to logically dominate one of the games. However, it was possible to infer that these games are good tools to improve the learning processes because they involve mathematical, arithmetical, geometrical and logical knowledge, besides being quite motivating

Made available in DSpace on 2017-07-21T20:32:06Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Nivia Martins Berti.pdf: 550086 bytes, checksum: b5d697f1e8e9926ca505b5878d539991 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-06-15 / This research investigates the fifth degree students’error in the math learning-teaching context. The research tried to answer th question: “What are the contributions to this process that the work of the teacher, inside the classroom, with the student’s error may bring? The main targets in this work were: to investigate the comprehension that the students have about their own errors and the relationship of it with the learning-teaching process, and, also, to identificate and to describe passages of class and ways of pedagogical treatment given to these errors and strategies of students that may contribute to the development of operation and autonomy in the teaching-learning process by co-operation. The participants of the research were from one only class of fifth degree, from a statual public school, in Parana State, in the school year 2006. This is a qualitative research and a study of case with ethnographic characteristics. In the investigation, we considered the student’s perspective about his own error and the operation observed from the resolution of a test and the discussion about the kind of answers were presented to the questions. This work brings us to the conclusion that: we may give attention to the answers of the students, promotin the Math learning, the operation, the co-operation and the autonomy of thinking; the difficulties found by students in solving the questions derive, the most of times, from the math teaching conditions that do not favor a critical analysis of results, and the exploration of operation strategies for the construction of concepts and mathematical algorithms; the socialization, among the students, of the results from a specific question with the further discussion in different perspectives, with their active participation, about their “own errors” has increased a reflection about the actions of thinking and acception of others opinion. / Esta pesquisa teve como objeto de estudo o erro dos alunos de 5ª série no contexto do ensinoaprendizagem de Matemática e buscou respostas ao problema: Que contribuições o trabalho pedagógico com os erros dos alunos, em sala de aula, pode trazer para o processo de ensino aprendizagem da Matemática? Os objetivos da presente investigação foram: investigar a compreensão que os alunos possuem sobre seus próprios erros e as relações destes com o processo de ensino-aprendizagem e, também, identificar e descrever passagens de aula e formas de tratamento pedagógico dado aos erros e estratégias dos alunos que contribuam para o desenvolvimento da operatividade e da autonomia no processo ensino-aprendizagem, por meio da co-operação. Os participantes da pesquisa pertencia à 5a série de uma escola estadual paranaense no ano de 2006. Trata-se de uma pesquisa qualitativa e um estudo de caso com características etnográficas. Utilizamos como instrumento de pesquisa para a coleta de informações um questionário exploratório sobre as opiniões dos alunos a respeito de seus erros e o processo de ensino-aprendizagem; um teste com questões matemáticas; observações livres em sala de aula e a socialização e discussão sobre as estratégias apresentadas às situações-problema. A pesquisa nos permitiu concluir que: é possível, em sala de aula, darmos atenção às respostas dos alunos promovendo o aprendizado da Matemática,a operatividade, a co-operação e o pensamento autônomo; as dificuldades encontradas pelos alunos derivam, em grande parte, das condições do ensino da Matemática que não favorecem a análise crítica de resultados e a exploração de estratégias operativas para a construção de conceitos e algoritmos matemáticos; a socialização entre os alunos, dos resultados obtidos, numa determinada situação-problema com a discussão de diferentes perspectivas, tendo o aluno participação ativa, sobre os seus "próprios erros", favorece a reflexão sobre as ações e a descentração do pensamento.