Reading from paper-based materials has been a major way for people to acquire knowledge. However, paper-based materials are constricted in presenting abstract and complex knowledge or concepts. Recent development of smartphone makes it a device not only for interpersonal communication, but also for accessing rich digital resources over the Internet. Because both paper-based materials and smartphone are mobile and portable, we can make use of the networking capability of smartphone to access digital materials from the Internet to enrich conventional paper-based reading activities such that students¡¦ reading comprehension can be enhanced. The present study came up with an innovative paper-based reading system integrated with digital materials delivered from the smartphone. QR codes were employed to automatically link the content of the print material with relevant digital resources. Also, questions were given to students along the reading process to scaffold the reading activity in order to help students comprehend the essence of the reading pieces. A quasi-experimental design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the learning system in improving students¡¦ reading comprehension. The results suggested that whether or not using QR code to automate linking digital and print materials does not significantly influence student reading comprehension; however, using questions to scaffold the reading process significantly improves students¡¦ reading comprehension. The survey conducted in the experiment suggested that most of the students agreed that the integrated learning system benefits English reading comprehension. The implication of the results and suggestions to system design and future studies were then addressed.

The Effect of Comparative Tests Between Self-questioning Strategy And Cooperative Learning (Group Discussion) on Junior High School Students' Chinese Reading Comprehension Abstract The main purpose of this study was to discuss the effect of comparative tests between self-questioning strategy and cooperative learning (group discussion) on junior high school students' Chinese reading comprehension. The questions explored here were: 1. How did self-questioning strategy influence reading comprehension ability? 2. How did self-questioning strategy and the group discussion of cooperative learning improve and influence reading comprehension ability? 3. How did self-questioning strategy and the group discussion of cooperative learning affect the levels of question types? The study used experimental research method. The subjects were 50 second grade students of junior high. According to the scores of the prior test on "reading comprehension ability," students were divided into an experimental group and a control group, and each one was composed of 25 students. The instrument was "test of reading comprehension ability," and the information acquired was dealt with statistical testing on the basis of t-test. The results were as followings: 1. After receiving the teaching of "self-questioning strategy," students' reading comprehension abilities were improved. 2. After the students in the experimental group received the co-teaching of self-questioning strategy and the group discussion of cooperative learning, their scores of the posttest on "reading comprehension ability" were superior to the scores of the students in the control group. 3. After the students in the experimental group accepted the co-teaching of self-questioning strategy and the group discussion of cooperative learning, their scores of the posttest on "high-level question type" were superior to the scores of the students in the control group. Finally the study discussed the above results in more detail, and provided suggestions and references of further research concerning teaching of the reading comprehension.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of North Texas, Aug., 2009. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

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Access to the textual world of academia requires that learners are familiar with the critical open-ended questioning stance demanded by textuality. Questioning is one of the most important learning-teaching tools available to both learner and educator. Due to the crucial role questioning plays in knowledge construction in the university, this study focuses on questioning strategies used by tutors and learners during tutorial interactions. This focus on questioning aims to: 1) Identify common learner question and response strategies across tutorials, ascertaining what kinds of questions learners ask in help-sessions and what kind of responses tutors' questions elicit from learners, 2) identify common question and response strategies employed by tutors, ascertaining which strategies facilitate active learning, with a particular focus on the kinds of questions used to provoke (open) or inhibit (close) learning and 3) compare the questioning strategies of tutors and learners, uncovering different epistemic bases informing their engagement with text. This study adopts a developmental-process approach to research. Two basic premises informing this research follow from this particular developmental approach: 1) an awareness of learning as a process of change and 2) an appreciation of the socio-historical and discursively constructed nature of cognitive processes. It was found that learners and tutors appear to ask the same types of questions regarding the content of the course with both groups primarily asking closed questions. Qualitative analysis, however, indicated that tutors and learners use these types of questions in very different ways. While tutors' ask open questions in order to provoke enquiry, indicating their reliance on a critical questioning epistemology, learners' borrow open questions from various sources, indicating only that they can imitate the kinds of questions that characterise academia, without evidencing a questioning stance to knowledge construction. Similarly, while tutors' ask closed questions in order to initiate a narrative line of enquiry, learners' asked closed questions in order to elicit a closed response. Further, learners' made no use of process type questions and responses, such as metacognitive and group cohesion questions and responses. Consequently, one may conclude that tutors' use of these types of questions and responses indicated that they control the tutorial process. Further this finding indicated that learners need this kind of structured guidance. The study concludes that tutors and learners use ostensibly similar questioning strategies in very different ways, indicating different epistemic bases informing their engagement with the textual task of academic study. / Thesis (M.Sc.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2000.

Socialinė reklama – tai nemokama arba iš dalies apmokama, sukrečianti arba humoristinio pobūdžio komunikacijos forma, kuria stengiamasi pakeisti visuomenės požiūrį ar elgesį pozityvesne linkme, tiesiogiai nesiekiant pelno. Atlikta apklausa Socialinės reklamos poveikis visuomenei parodė, kad dauguma apklaustųjų žino, kas yra socialinė reklama. Ši reklamos rūšis padeda spręsti socialines problemas, o paveikiausia ji rodoma per televiziją. Lietuvoje vis dar trūksta kokybiškai sukurtų socialinių reklamų. Dažniausiai socialinės reklamos kuriamos direktyvais, kiek rečiau reprezentatyvais. Komisyvų rasta tik „Sveikatos apsaugos“ grupėje. Esama ir mišraus tipo reklamų. Socialinėse reklamose dažniausiai raginama liepiamosios nuosakos antruoju asmeniu. Taip pat nevengiama retorinių klausimų. Išskirtas gąsdinimo mikroaktas. Šis aktas pasireiškia ne tik žodinėje, bet ir vaizdinėje informacijoje. Šiurpūs vaizdai tampa išskirtiniu socialinės reklamos elementu. Socialinė reklama kuriama pagal tris kompozicijos modelius: klasikinį / uždarąjį; nepilną klasikinį / atvirąjį ir vieno dėmens. Būdingas atvirasis kompozicijos tipas. Vyrauja publicistinis funkcinis stilius, bet esama reklamų, kai susipina keli stiliai, daugiausiai publicistinis ir šnekamasis. Siekiant įtaigumo, naudojami įvairūs kalbos aktualizacijos būdai. Dažnesnė sintaksės aktualizacija. Daugiausiai retorinių sušukimų, elipsės, retorinių klausimų. Aktualizuojant leksiką, naudojamasi epitetais, nevengiama ironijos. Ypatingas... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Social advertising – is a form of communication, which is of shocking or comic nature. It tries to change the attitude or behaviour of society towards a more positive direction, not using direct account. It may be free, paid or partially paid. Questioning Social advertising effect of community revealed that most respondents know social advertising and it helps to solve social problems. This advertisement has the biggest influence on TV. In Lithuania social advertising still are not high quality. Social advertising mostly created by directives. Not so many advertisements created by constatives. Commissives used only in Health service group. Generally, social advertising used second person imperatives. Also used rhetoric questions. Commination act was taken a part. This speech act used not only in the text also in visual information. Horrific views become exceptional element of social advertising. Social advertising is created according to three composition models: classical / closed; not fully classical / open and having one element. Open composition type is characteristic. Publicist functional style is prevailing, though the most of advertisements are created using some styles – publicistic and spoken for the most part. In order to avoid conventionality, seeking for suggestibility, more effect, different ways of actualization are used. Syntax actualization is more frequent. There are rhetoric exclamations, ellipsis, rhetoric questions. Actualizing lexis, epithets are used... [to full text]

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The aim of the present study is to investigate the role of questioning in the learning-teaching process, with particular reference to English second-language students studying the disciplines of the Human Sciences. The broad context for the study is the imperative for higher education institutions in South Africa to meet the learning needs of those students previously disadvantaged by the Apartheid schooling system. The focus of the research is on how particular kinds of questioning may serve to mediate between the historically constituted disciplines of textual knowledge characteristic of the Human Sciences and the worlds of knowledge and understanding of new, underprepared learners. The study was conducted in two phases. In the first phase, the subjects were students (n=117) admitted to the University of Natal through an alternative selection process, the Teach-Test-Teach Programme. The selection procedure was designed to reveal the academic potential of students who did not meet the standard academic criteria for admission. In order to develop and consolidate their identified potential, selected students were required to participate in a foundation course. The data for this first phase were drawn from aspects of students' performance on the foundation course, in particular, their responses to tasks designed to elicit different kinds of questioning engagement. The second phase of the investigation was situated in a context of curriculum development in the Department of Psychology, necessitated by the changing learning needs of substantial numbers of underprepared students. The primary subjects in this phase of the study were the second-language students of the first-year psychology class (n=274). The study explores the nature of their engagement with the task demands of different kinds of examination questions. In addition, the task engagement of these students was compared with that of a group of failing first-language students (n=88) in order to establish whether the academic difficulties of the two groups could be explained in the same way. The framework of analysis incorporated a combination of quantitative and qualitative elements. However, given the textual nature of the tasks in the Human Sciences , the usual relation of the quantitative and qualitative modes of analysis was reversed , with established general quantitative trends providing the context for more detailed qualitative analysis . Categories for analysis were derived from the data drawing on theoretical analyses of the mediated nature of both tasks and cognitive functioning. Tasks conducted in the first phase of the study were of three kinds: questioning text; modeling appropriate questioning of text; and analysis of academic questions. Contrary to the received view that students are passive or inactive, analysis of their responses to these tasks reveals a highly active process of cognitive engagement. The data show that because underprepared students do not understand the implicit questioning epistemology of text, the question posed by a textual task is transformed and reconstructed . This reformulated question then provides an inappropriate framework for the construction of a possible answer. In the second phase of the study, the investigation focuses on students' engagement with conventional academic assessment questions. The transformation of given questions was again evident; inadequate answers could be interpreted as very effective responses to entirely different questions than those posed. The analysis of engagement with different kinds of academic questions (factual, relational or conceptual) reveals that the particular formulation of the question provokes varying kinds of inappropriate engagement. This finding provides a strong indication of the mutually constitutive nature of tasks and cognitive processes. Finally, a comparative analysis of students from different educational backgrounds reveals that the phenomenon of underpreparedness can be distinguished from other sources of failure. The study concludes that the nature of academic tasks, the process of instruction, and the cognitive engagement of students are all implicated in the problem of underpreparedness and must, therefore, be addressed in the design and implementation of effective intervention strategies. / Thesis (Ph.D.)-University of Natal, 2000.

This study presents a systematic analysis of motifs, literary devices, and language in the Fourth Gospel that resemble similar motifs, literary devices, and language in Socratic tradition. The persistent recurrence of words and patterns of thought in the Fourth Gospel which are common to Platonic philosophy, Socratic progymnasmata, and well-known descriptions of Socrates’ moral heroism and martyr’s death lead me to conclude that the Johannine authors imagined Socrates’ life as a “pagan prophetic theme” which Jesus fulfilled; their use of Socratic tradition in the Fourth Gospel is subtle but obvious, and was used to appeal to a pagan or highly hellenized audience intimately familiar with Socratic tradition as the embodiment and articulation of social and religious values in the Hellenistic period. Much of the study is devoted to literary analysis of the Fourth Gospel, and draws upon the rhetorical criticism models developed by George Kennedy. Through rhetorical criticism the educational background of the Johannine writers becomes clear, as do their evangelical motives in appropriating Socratic tradition for their invention of Jesus’ speeches and martyrdom. / Department of Modern Languages and Classics

The nurturing of critical thinking skills is one of the cornerstones of Outcomes Based Education (OBE). This study investigated to what extent teachers create classroom climates that nurture the development of critical thinking abilities. A literature study was undertaken to highlight the importance and nature of the development of critical thinking skills, and to establish the relationship between classroom climate and the development of critical thinking abilities. The use of teaching methods and strategies, learning activities, questioning techniques, the role of the teacher and the role of the learner during teaching and learning in the classroom were explored. The literature review provided the conceptual framework for the study, as well as the framework for designing a questionnaire that was utilized to obtain the perceptions of teachers and learners regarding the opportunities provided by teachers for the development of critical thinking abilities in the classroom. By means of quantitative, non-experimental descriptive survey research, a self-constructed questionnaire was administrated to a convenient sample of a purposively selected group of Grade 9 and Grade 11 teachers (n=241) and learners (n=403) in the Sedibeng West District of the Gauteng Department of Education. The triangulation of learner and teacher data revealed differences and similarities in opinion related to the classroom climates that teachers create for nurturing critical thinking. In essence, the data revealed that teachers are, to some extent, creating classroom climates that nurture critical thinking through their choice of teaching methods and strategies, questioning techniques and the learning activities that they choose. However, the responses did not convincingly indicate to the researcher that the nurturing of critical thinking skills takes place on a regular and frequent basis. According to the learner responses, it appeared that teaching and learning methods and strategies that promote interactive learning, are underutilized by the teachers. This study is concluded with recommendations to teachers on how to create classroom climates that promote the development of critical thinking skills. Key words: cognition, cognitive development, critical thinking, classroom climate, teaching methods and strategies, learning activities, questioning techniques. / M.Ed., North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2010