It is imperative that learners leave school with a certain set of core skills, none as important as communication and technology literacy, a key driver for future workplace employment. The critical question is how to motivate pupils to participate in an interesting, challenging and creative project to improve essential communication techniques and capabilities? The rationale of the study is to enable future editors of school newspapers to create a similar environment in which the learners that are members of the editorial team will be involved in the construction of a school newspaper. The rationale of the study relating to the learners, who are part of the editorial team, is to develop 21st Century Skills and therefore enable them to overcome complicated demands that they are exposed to in the Knowledge Age. This dissertation presents a real-life, initiative to encourage active participation in the construction of a school newspaper that will develop learners’ skills and confidence and improve their oral, written and multi-media communication. The findings of this dissertation aim to prove that the group production of a school newspaper can enhance learners’ ability to participate and communicate in a group environment and equip them with essential 21st Century skills. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Education Management and Policy Studies / unrestricted

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Critical thinking has long been recognized as a valuable skill, both in education in general and within the world language teaching field specifically. In recent years, critical thinking has been identified as one of the 21st century skills that students need to succeed in modern society (Partnership, 2009). However, there is no clear, unifying definition of the term itself (Paul, 2004), and the definition of critical thinking is debated in many different fields without support from empirical data (Kuhn, 1999). Similarly, critical thinking has been often discussed in the literature as having great potential to facilitate language learning, and particularly to develop language proficiency (Gaskaree, Mashhady & Dousti, 2010; Heining-Boynton & Heining-Boynton, 1992; Hoch & Hart, 1991; Rojas, 2001; Williams, Lively & Harper, 1994). However, this discussion has not been centered around a single, clear definition or been supported by empirical research. This study attempts to fill these gaps by exploring how currently practicing world language teachers define the term critical thinking. Definitions were gathered through a survey of K-16 world language teachers from across the United States and through interviews with individual beginning level German instructors at a large, private university in the western United States. Findings revealed three primary ways in which teachers define critical thinking: first, by identifying characteristics of critical thinking; second, by discussing the thought processes and skills used in the action of critical thinking; and third, by describing the topics about which critical thinking takes place, either on the micro-level, dealing with language itself, or on the macro-level, dealing with real-world issues and themes. Based on these three areas of definition, several pedagogical implications were identified. As critical thinking is integrated as a 21st century skill into the world language classroom, the traditional roles of the teacher may need to transform, the content used in the classroom may need to change, and the activities in which students are asked to engage may likewise need to shift. The integration of these pedagogical implications into the world language classroom as a means to facilitate the development of advanced levels of language proficiency is also discussed.

The World-Readiness Standards for Learning Languages (ACTFL, 2014) encourage teachers to help their students use the target language to “investigate, explain, and reflect” on the relationships between cultural products, practices, and perspectives. However, while most language instructors agree that language and culture should be connected, many fail to teach culture explicitly because they are so focused on the language components of their courses. Of those who do teach culture explicitly, many either teach only about the cultural products and not the perspectives, or they teach the culture in English because of its complexity. This project explores the use of e-portfolios for explicitly teaching culture in the target language across all three communicative modes. The project was implemented in a 4th semester university Spanish course in the fall of 2013. Students were required to view and interpret culturally authentic materials such as newspapers, proverbs, documentaries, news reports, and videos about pop culture. In addition, students interacted with native speakers both within and outside the United States using technology. Students were also asked to produce business plans, commentaries, community projects, ethnographic interviews, stories, and videos in the target language. The project evaluation revealed that when culture is explicitly taught in the target language, the following changes may occur: a positive attitudinal shift towards the target culture, a desire for learning the language beyond the classroom, an increase in autonomous learning, and an improvement in linguistic skills. Pedagogical implications and principles that might be applicable in foreign language instruction include the fact that technology appears to be one promising way to provide increased access to culture. In addition, scaffolding is found to be important to both students' experiences with culture and their interaction with technology. Also students may find the exploration of current social issues and problems very motivating and engaging. This has the potential to give students increased opportunities to think critically.

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Denna undersökning har syftat till att undersöka hur AI anses kunna påverka undervisningen i skolan och samhällskunskapsämnet. Studien baseras på den diskurs som råder inom ämnet. Undersökningen baseras på material i form av tidningsartiklar, en intervju med en forskare och en fokusgruppsintervju. Materialet har analyserats genom en kvantitativ respektive kvalitativ innehållsanalys. Undersökningen utgår från uppfattningen att samhällskunskapsundervisningen bör sträva efter att utveckla så kallad AI-literacy hos eleverna. Resultatet bekräftade inte att detta genomförs i undervisningen. Områden som undervisning, fusk, examination och bedömning behandlades i större utsträckning än AI-literacy, AIED (AI in education) och AI&ED (AI and education).  Resultatet antyder att AI-utvecklingen kommer leda till nya examinationsformer och möjligen AI-assistenter som kompletterar lärare. Samhällskunskap som undervisningsämne omnämndes knappt i materialet även om vissa områden som kan relateras till samhällskunskap förekom som källkritik och demokrati. AI-literacy relaterat till samhällskunskap förekom några enstaka gånger. Detta resultat påvisar viken av att utveckla AI:s roll i samhällskunskapsundervinsingen för att möjliggöra säkra studier av ämnet i skolan, samt vikten av att fortsätta forska om AI och utbildning och AI och samhällskunskap. / This survey aims to investigate how AI is considered to influence teaching in school and the social studies subject. The survey is based on the discourse on the subject of AI and education. The survey is based on material from online news articles, an interview with a researcher and a focus group interview. The material has been analyzed through quantitative and qualitative content analysis methods. The survey is based on a theory that claims that social studies teaching should strive to develop students so-called AI-literacy. The survey results did not confirm this theory. Categories such as teaching, cheating, examination and assessment were covered in the material to a greater extent than AI literacy, AIED (AI in education) and AI&ED (AI and education). The results suggests that the development in AI may lead to new forms of examination and possibly AI assistants as a supplement to teachers. Social studies as a teaching subject was barely mentioned in the material, although certain areas that can be related to social studies appeared such as source criticism and democracy. AI literacy related to social studies appeared a few times. This result demonstrates the importance of further research about AI and social studies education to and to enable safe methods to study the subject in schools. It also emphasizes the importance of continued research on AI and education as well as AI and social studies.

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