The portrayal of Russia in Western popular culture has served various purposes, particularly between 1945 and 1991. With a few exceptions, Soviet citizens, particularly Russians, have been shown as, alternatingly, backwards peasants and cunning enemies. In the post-1991 period, this tradition of showing Russia as the enemy continued in film and television, but tapered off in favor of more seemingly relevant foes on the world stage. While film analyses focusing on the portrayal of Russia and Russians have been done, the renewal of focus on Cold War imagery in reference to Russia and the West has not been commented on. Because of the so-called Illegals Program uncovered in 2010, the attempted "reset" between the United States and the Russian Federation, increased Western media coverage of human rights issues in Russia, and many other types of exposure, including the annexation of Crimea and the conflict with Russia-backed anti-Kiev militias in eastern Ukraine, Russia has taken center-stage and is subject not only to international scrutiny, but also to rehashed prejudices and outdated knowledge of the country that stems from old antagonisms. The television programs The Americans, Archer, and Doctor Who all look at Russia and the relationship of Russia with the West through a Cold War lens. I argue that this resurgence is in response to both Cold War nostalgia and a renewal of Russia's relevance on the world stage. By analyzing these programs, it will be shown that the types of information and impressions that are being promoted by popular culture of late at once serve to provide nuance to an ordinarily one-sided and limited portrayal of Russia and its people, and at the same time reinforce old, stale images of the "Evil Empire" that only serve to prevent understanding and cooperation between the citizens of the West and of Russia. / A Thesis submitted to the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts. / Spring Semester, 2015. / April 16, 2015. / Archer, Cold War, Doctor Who, Television, The Americans / Includes bibliographical references. / Lisa Wakamiya, Professor Directing Thesis; Robert Romanchuk, Committee Member; Leigh Edwards, Committee Member.

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The purpose of this study is to develop a teaching program of instructional aids which will enrich the teaching of elementary electricity in the junior and senior high schools. It is hoped that the information and materials developed and presented will be of practical value to the teachers engaged in the teaching of electricity.

To obtain information regarding the effects of two divergent thought processes used in a college mathematics course for prospective elementary school teachers, this study compared the effectiveness of an adaptation of the traditional, deductive teaching method with that of an inductive method reflecting the recommendations of the Committee on the Undergraduate Program in Mathematics. In the spring semester of 1973, two sections of Mathematics for Elementary Teachers I, at Cameron College, Lawton, Oklahoma, served as experimental groups to test the two adaptations. The course followed the Committee on the Undergraduate Program in Mathematics recommendations for a first course in mathematics for prospective elementary teachers.

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One of the most controversial topics in Applied Linguistics is the role of learners' metalinguistic knowledge (MK) in second language (L2) learning and teaching. There seems to be no agreement between those who propose that MK is essential for L2 learning and those who believe that it can even be detrimental for L2 acquisition.Additionally, the subjunctive has been reported to be one of the most difficult structures to master for L2 learners of Spanish. It has been suggested that the subjunctive is acquired fairly late in an acquisition hierarchy of Spanish grammar and that, as a consequence, learners must reach a stage where they can produce syntactically sophisticated utterances in order to be "ready" for acquisition.Taking an Information Processing (IP) approach to language learning as a framework, this dissertation investigates the relationship between MK and grammatical accuracy by learners of Spanish at beginning, intermediate, and advanced levels of proficiency. Their MK is assessed through a set of terminology and grammaticality judgment tasks. Their mastery of the Spanish subjunctive is evaluated through a set of receptive and productive tests involving different subordinate clauses.The three groups of participants are compared with respect to their MK and their mastery of the subjunctive, and it is examined whether MK correlates with mastery of the subjunctive. Findings include: 1) an improvement on both subjunctive accuracy and terminology knowledge across levels; 2) a positive correlation between English MK and Spanish MK; 3) a positive correlation between MK and accuracy in the use of the subjunctive; and 4) agreement between the learners' acquisition hierarchy within the subjunctive and teaching order of subjunctive substructures.The findings show that MK has a positive impact on the mastery of this "difficult" structure. They are also consistent with other experimental studies that suggest that explicit instruction has a positive impact on L2 learning. The late and uneven acquisition of the subjunctive demonstrated by the subjects in this study also suports the hypothesis that there are "many subjunctives" to learn and that learners will not acquire this structure until they are developmentally ready (third year of instruction).

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Science, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science, University of the Witwatersrand. Johannesburg, October 2016. / This research study makes an attempt at intervening in the Grade6learners’ use of models and strategies in solving addition and subtraction word problems based on Realistic Mathematics Education (RME) theory. RME theory advocates for the provision of understandable contexts that learners can relate with to support them in developing models and strategies, with specific reference to the empty number line model in assisting learners to develop an understanding of the structure of number and to work flexibly in solving addition and subtraction word problems. It is in understanding the models and strategies learners are using that we can begin to understand how the learners need to be supported in order to operate at the appropriate mathematics levels for their grade. Participants in this research study, forty boys and girls doing grade six, all with a weaker mathematical background, wrote the same tests in the form of pre test, post test and the delayed post test. After writing the pre test, the learners attended a series of six intervention lessons before writing the post tests. The intervention lessons encouraged learner engagement with word problems and the development of models as representations of problem situations and strategies which represent learner’s manipulation of models in an RME-advocated approach. Learner responses were analysed aiming at the identification of models and strategies they employed, as well as the correctness and success in solving the problems. The analysis found out that mainly there have been some improvements in the repeat sittings from predominantly using the column model with a lot of incorrect answers to using the empty number line with more correct answers. I would therefore encourage the maximum participation of teamwork amongst teachers for identifying and using efficient models and strategies in order to promote performance levels in mathematics through developing an understanding of the structure of number and working flexibly in solving addition and subtraction word problems. / LG2017

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which the modeling of deductive reasoning and proof-type thinking occurs in a mathematics course in which students are not explicitly preparing to write formal mathematical proofs. Algebra was chosen because it is the course that typically directly precedes a student's first formal introduction to proof in geometry in the United States. The lens through which this study aimed to examine the intended curriculum was by identifying and reviewing the modeling of proof and deductive reasoning in the most popular and widely circulated algebra textbooks throughout the United States. Textbooks have a major impact on mathematics classrooms, playing a significant role in determining a teacher's classroom practices as well as student activities. A rubric was developed to analyze the presence of reasoning and proof in algebra textbooks, and an analysis of the coverage of various topics was performed. The findings indicate that, roughly speaking, students are only exposed to justification of mathematical claims and proof-type thinking in 38% of all sections analyzed. Furthermore, only 6% of coded sections contained an actual proof or justification that offered the same ideas or reasoning as a proof. It was found that when there was some justification or proof present, the most prevalent means of convincing the reader of the truth of a concept, theorem, or procedure was through the use of specific examples. Textbooks attempting to give a series of examples to justify or convince the reader of the truth of a concept, theorem, or procedure often fell short of offering a mathematical proof because they lacked generality and/or, in some cases, the inductive step. While many textbooks stated a general rule at some point, most only used deductive reasoning within a specific example if at all. Textbooks rarely expose students to the kinds of reasoning required by mathematical proof in that they rarely expose students to reasoning about mathematics with generality. This study found a lack of sufficient evidence of instruction or modeling of proof and reasoning in secondary school algebra textbooks. This could indicate that, overall, algebra textbooks may not fulfill the proof and reasoning guidelines set forth by the NCTM Principles and Standards and the Common Core State Standards. Thus, the enacted curriculum in mathematics classrooms may also fail to address the recommendations of these influential and policy defining organizations.

Thesis (M.A. (Translation and Linguistics Studies)) -- University of Limpopo, 2013 / This research looks at the perceptions of parents and teachers about the learning and teaching of Setswana. It looks at Setswana not only as a subject but also as a first language that learners speak at home. It is said that learners have a negative attitude about learning their mother tongue, so this study aims at looking whether parents and teachers are indeed aware of this attitude o if there is an attitude at all. It also intend to indicate whether parents and teacher have a way of discouraging these learners about learning their mother tongues. Since English is seen as the most prestigious language parents may feel that their learners have to be competent in English or they will not achieve much or anything. As teachers teach the language that learners do not appreciate, how do they deal with discouraged learners? Most of all it plans to demonstrate and/or advice learners, parents and teachers about the importance of learning mother tongue in school especially now that they are in high school where by they are capable of making decision about what future path do they want to take. The research tools that are used are questionnaires and interviews. There is a selected number of parents and teachers that will participate. The teachers will answer questionnaires while parents will be interviewed. The data will be analyzed textually also with the help of the SPSS software. The data will be analyzed and interpreted as what they mean for the research and how they have helped that study as a whole and also how they can help further studies if there are any. This study aims to reach the department of education so that maybe they can be able to revise the curriculum of Setswana or maybe change the content. Most importantly it intends to show learners that mother tongue is not a dead end as they make it out to be. They may be as successful with language as they can be with other professions.