This study provides a critical interrogation of the perceptions held by the undergraduate Philosophy of Education students at an open and distance learning institution, towards African philosophy. The study is premised on famed Kenyan philosopher, Odera Henry Oruka‟s classification of African philosophy into four trends: ethno-philosophy, philosophic sagacity, nationalist-ideological philosophy and professional philosophy. These trends confirm that African philosophy is more than traditions, culture or ubuntu, and more complex than the students make it to be. The study makes a link between the students‟ flawed perceptions of African philosophy with their lack of critical thinking skills. The study has attempted to answer questions such as why students have flawed perceptions of African philosophy; how critical thinking assists in changing their perceptions of African philosophy, and what role can the education system play in equipping students with critical thinking skills. The study‟s findings show that undergraduate Philosophy of Education students conflate African philosophy with African people‟s traditions and cultures, and with ubuntu. Students perceive that African philosophy lacks reason and rationality - key elements of critical thinking. The study‟s findings show that students lack critical thinking skills. The study notes that the way students are taught makes a large contribution to their perceptions and lack of critical thinking skills. The study makes the following recommendations. Firstly, to deal with the problem of students‟ conflations, the study recommends the introduction of the principles of African philosophy, namely, ubuntu, communalism and indigenous knowledge systems (IKS) in the school curriculum, and to emphasise these principles in the curricula of higher education institutions. Secondly, the study recommends the introduction of philosophy for children (P4C) in schools. It is envisaged that P4C will assist learners to acquire critical thinking skills at an early stage of learning. Thirdly, the study recommends the teaching of critical thinking skills at universities. Finally, the study recommends that in- service training be made an integral part of teachers‟ and lecturers‟ professional training, to bring them up-to-date with new ideas and methods of teaching. / Educational Studies / D. Ed. (Philosophy of Education)

This philosophical, anthropological study within a fundamental agogic perspective, employed an existential phenomenological approach to find out what adulthood is, fundamentally. Adulthood as being-ethical, is a more adequate description than chronological, biological, psychological and sociological descriptions of adulthood. Finding out what being-ethical is, required investigating what it means to be human. Only humans exist, and must participate effectively in agogic-dialogic relationships to alleviate existential yearning and experience dignifiedness. A code of effective agogy is presented. This code is the basis for a universal, fundamental code of ethics which transcends particular moral codes and professional codes of ethics. The words "ethicals", "ethicalness" and "ethicality" are employed to name, respectively, individual requirements in the code; acting according to the code; and the inescapable interrelatedness of experiencing dignifiedness and adhering to ethicals. Detailed explanations are given of what it means to respond fundamentally ethically. Adultness, humanness and ethicalness are different perceptions of the same continuum. All humans, whether aware of it or not, have an unattainable ideal of perfect humanness, to which they must perennially progress in order to experience dignifiedness, and humanness entails perennially becoming more human. Since no human can become perfectly human, the ideal of perfect humanness can be called "God". This means that the code of humanness is also the code of Godliness and the word "spiritual" is used to distinguish fundamental God from religious Gods. Spiritual responsibility is the interrelatedness of being-questioning and being-questioned. Ultimately, a person's humanness is assessed against the ideal of perfect humanness, by his or her own spiritual conscience. Humanity is the interrelatedness of the realities of existentiality, agogicality, ethicality, and spirituality and humanness is the inseparability of the continua of existentialness, ethicalness, agogicalness and spiritualness. A detailed existential-ethical description of education is given. The thesis ends with a post-scientific view of what essentially agogic orientated (educative) teaching is, and four recommendations are offered to enhance the effectiveness of agogy in teaching and learning institutions. Despite an extensive and radical study, it is acknowledged that the mystery that is humanity, can never be totally revealed. / Educational Studies / D. Ed. (Philosophy of Education)

This thesis tries to give a critically considered view of what New Age thought is about, where it came from, and where it takes education and the scientific quest for truth. The interest of this study lies in exposing the underlying New Age beliefs and premises so that the implications that New Age thought has for truly meaningful human development and the educational and scientific quest for truth can be determined. A historical investigation which proceeds from the assumption that New Age thought is a phenomenon with philosophical underpinnings that lie in Western historical dynamics is utilised in order to extract and give context to the beliefs and premises in which New Age thought is anchored. Firstly, the movements in the West's alternative mystical and magical spiritual tradition from which current New Age spiritual approaches issue are scrutinized. This is followed by an exploration of mainstream Western history. Foundational premises and central ideas concerning New Age anthropology, morality, cosmology, and epistemology which issue forth from theories in Western philosophy, psychology, and science are identified and critically analysed. From these analyses, the meaning and direction that New Age thought circumscribes for human development and learning are fully explored and evaluated. It is found that New Age thought upholds a magical worldview in which the objective existence of truth is denied. Because New Age thought does not create educational space in which the quest for truth as obedience to truth can be learnt and practised, emotional, moral, and cognitive development is arrested and the real, educational value in scientific inquiry is defeated. This study is concluded with suggestions that are personal yet grounded in the findings of this research as to the defense and upholdment of the idea of objective truth in moral and intellectual education. / Educational Studies / D. Ed. (History of Education)

This thesis explores the Predicament of the Learner in an age during which an emergent Participatory Culture supported by networked computers is converging or colliding with a top-down Culture Industry model of education associated with centralised control and traditional learning media. Two case studies explore attempts to use advanced E-learning tools, the Learning Activity Management System (LAMS) and Revolution (a multiplayer role-playing game) to mediate learning activities in the digital classroom. Both reveal the shifting locus of agency for managing and regulating learning and identify a need to understand how learners are creatively appropriating a range of digital media to advance self-directed learning agendas. The main study, The Agency of the Learner in the Networked University, develops these insights through a cognitive anthropology, informed by post-Vygotskian theory, focussed on the digitally mediated practices of 16 post-graduate students who enjoyed unrestricted access to the Internet from their study rooms. The findings chapters explore i) learners designing personalised learning environments to support advanced knowledge work; ii) learners creatively appropriating web-based digital tools and resources for course related study and self education; iii) learners cultivating, nurturing and mobilising globally distributed funds of living knowledge; iv) learners breaking away from lifeworld communities and learning with others in online affinity spaces; and v) learners seeking out opportunities to bootstrap themselves towards the actualisation of a projective identity through serious play in virtually figured worlds. In each case, an attempt is made to innovate conceptual tools that can help us to identify and conceptualise the New Media Literacies (conceived of as expert-like digitally mediated practices) required to exploit the full potential of new media as a resource for course related study, independent learning and self-education.

L’objectif de cette recherche est d’expliciter et de comprendre les mécanismes sous-jacents à certains aspects de l’adaptation scolaire des enfants de 5-6 ans en lien avec le soutien parental scolaire en conditions de vie défavorisée. Pour y arriver, nous avons soumis, à l’épreuve des faits, notre modèle de soutien scolaire parental qui articule pauvreté, perceptions des difficultés d’adaptation scolaire, soutien socio-familial, modèles de socialisation familiale et engagement parental scolaire. La première étape a consisté à l’évaluation de l’adaptation scolaire de 146 enfants du Cours d’Initiation (CI) à l’aide d’un questionnaire rempli par les enseignants (Florin, Guimard et Nocus, 2002). La seconde étape a été consacrée au recueil d’informations par entretien directif auprès de 48 parents (24 parents d’enfants ayant une adaptation scolaire adéquate et 24 parents d’enfants présentant des difficultés d’adaptation scolaire) sur les dimensions du soutien scolaire parental. Les résultats obtenus mettent en évidence d’importants liens entre la plupart des variables de notre modèle et l’adaptation scolaire des enfants. Sur la base de ces liens, trois profils types de parents qui favorisent ou, au contraire, rendent problématique l’adaptation scolaire des enfants ont été établis :(i) Profil de parents qui favorise moyennement l’adaptation scolaire chez les enfants ;(ii) Profil de parents qui favorise fortement l’adaptation scolaire chez les enfants ;(iii) Profil de parents qui produit les difficultés d’adaptation scolaire chez les enfants.Ces profils types varient, notamment, en fonction des perceptions et représentations que les parents ont des difficultés scolaires de leurs enfants, du soutien familial et social qu’ils reçoivent ou non, du modèle de socialisation familial qu’ils promeuvent et de leur engagement scolaire. Les résultats de la présente recherche gagneraient à être vulgarisés auprès des parents et des enseignants. Mieux, leur prise en compte dans les stratégies de prévention précoce des difficultés d’adaptation scolaire des jeunes enfants à travers des actions des professionnels de l’éducation avec les familles sont autant de pistes de travail que nous poursuivrons comme suite à notre présent travail de recherche. / The main purpose of this research work is to make explicit, and understand the mechanisms underlying aspects of the relation between children of 5 to 6 years adaption to school and parental support in unprivileged life conditions. To succeed in doing this, we submitted to the facts proof our model of parental school support which deals with poverty and/or insecurity, perceptions and representations of difficulties related to adaptation to school, socio-family support, models of family socialization and parental commitment in school. The first step dealt with evaluation of how 146 children in Primary One adapt to school through a questionnaire filled by teachers (Florin, Guimard & Nocus, 2002). The second step is devoted to collection of information through directed talk with 48 parents (24 parents whose children adaptation to school is suitable and 24 parents whose children have difficulties in adaptation to school) upon dimensions of parental support in school. The results obtained give proof of important links between most of the variables of our model of parents’ support and children adaptation to school. On the basis of those links, three types of parents’ profiles who either promote or make problematic children adaptation to school are established:(i) Parents who promote on some average children adaptation to school(ii) Parents who strongly promote children adaptation to school(iii) Parents who produce difficulties to children adaptation to schoolThose type profiles vary in particular according to the perceptions and representations parents have of their life conditions, their children difficulties at school, of family and social support they have or not, of the family socialization model they promote and of their commitment in school. The result of this research work will be better off being popularized to parents and teachers. Better, their being taken into account in strategies of early prevention of children’ difficulties in adaptation to school through professionals of education’s actions with families are so much paths of work that we will carry on with as a continuation of this research work.

Cette thèse de socio-histoire, basée sur l'exploitation d'archives nationales du Mexique, cherche à comprendre la production de justice sociale à travers l'éducation mexicaine dans la période postrévolutionnaire, de 1921 à 1940. Elle montre que la politique éducative, conçue sur la base de l'ambition démocratique d'unité nationale et d'intégration citoyenne, a conduit à la réduction des inégalités scolaires en dépit d'une cristallisation des inégalités sociales. / This socio-historical dissertation, based on the use of national archives in Mexico, seeks to understand the production of social justice through the education in Mexico during the post- revolutionary period from 1921 to 1940. It shows that the education policy, designed on the basis of the democratic ambitions, national unity and civic integration, led to the reduction of educational inequalities despite a crystallization of social inequalities. / Esta tesis en socio-historia, se basa en un análisis archivístico del Archivos General de la Nación, y busca comprender la construcción de la justicia social a través la educación mexicana en el periodo post-revolucionario de 1921-1940. Expone que la política educativa, concebida bajo la ambición democrática y de unidad nacional así como de integración ciudadana, condujo a la reducción de desigualdades escolares a pesar de la cristalización de las desigualdades sociales.

Nous nous proposons d’étudier, dans cette thèse, une question essentielle et relativement peu traitée dans les recherches françaises en sciences de l’éducation, elle concerne la genèse des acquisitions des élèves et leur évolution au cours de la scolarité. En nous appuierons sur la mobilisation des données longitudinales (panel 1997) ainsi que sur la mise en œuvre d'une expérimentation musicale à l'école maternelle, nous chercherons à répondre à ces questions : Comment se structurent et évoluent les premiers apprentissages des élèves dans le contexte scolaire et socioéconomique ? En quoi les capacités cognitives des élèves ont un impact sur leurs performances scolaires ? Est-ce que des activités spécifiques peuvent avoir un effet positif sur les compétences scolaires, via un accroissement des capacités cognitives ? Des analyses implicatives menées sur les données du panel ont mis en évidence la hiérarchisation des compétences des élèves et l’importance des capacités cognitives sur leur rendement scolaire. La revue de littérature regorge d’exemples probants qui attestent qu’il est possible d’accroitre les performances scolaires des élèves en développant certaines de ces capacités cognitives, et que la musique est un outil particulièrement efficace en ce sens. Nous avons donc cherché à tester empiriquement l’impact de la musique sur les capacités cognitives et sur les performances scolaires des élèves en effectuant une recherche expérimentale. Elle repose sur une méthodologie robuste qui garanti la validité des résultats qui en sont issus. Si les résultats des analyses de différence de différences, confirmés par les modèles de réponse à l’item, sont peu concluants quant à l’impact de la musique sur les progressions des capacités cognitives, nous avons montré et vérifié via le modèle d’Heckman que le traitement expérimental a un effet sur les performances scolaires des élèves. / We propose to study in this thesis, a key issue and relatively little discussed in the French research in educational sciences, it concerns the genesis of pupil learning and their evolution during the tuition. We mobilize a longitudinal data (Panel 1997) and the results of a musical experimentation in kindergarten to answer to these questions: How are structured the first acquisitions of pupils and how is it linked to the school context and socio-economic variables? How the cognitive abilities of students affect their academic performance? Are specific activities can improve academic skills through an increase in cognitive abilities? Implicative analysis conducted on panel data has revealed a hierarchical structure of students' skills and the importance of cognitive skills on academic performance. The review of the literature demonstrates that it is possible to increase the academic performance of students by developing some of these cognitive abilities, and that music is a particularly effective tool in this sense. Therefore, we sought to empirically test the impact of music on cognitive ability and academic performance of students by our experimental research. It relies on a robust methodology which guarantees the validity of results derived from it. The result of difference in differences analyzes, confirmed by item response theory, is inconclusive for the impact of music on the progression of cognitive abilities. However, we have shown and verified via Heckman model that the experimental treatment has an effect on the academic performance of pupils.

Notre travail porte sur le thème des connaissances professionnelles mobilisées par les enseignants pendant la préparation et lors de la mise en œuvre de leur enseignement. Notre étude se déroule dans le contexte de l’enseignement des sciences expérimentales. Nous y étudions les connaissances des enseignants et leurs évolutions. Notre approche théorique articule la didactique des sciences et la didactique professionnelle avec comme cadre d’analyse des connaissances des enseignants, le concept de PCK (Pedagogical Content Knowledge), les connaissances pédagogiques liées au contenu. Nous avons élaboré une méthodologie spécifique, associant le chercheur et des binômes de professeurs, afin notamment de saisir l’écart entre la préparation des enseignements et leur mise en œuvre. A partir de cet écart nous définissons des incidents critiques qui sont la base du corpus que nous analysons. Nous identifions les connaissances en jeu, et indiquons comment le concept de PCK s’articule avec celui de schème. Lorsque les enseignants traitent d’un sujet au moyen des démarches d’investigation, ils mobilisent des types de connaissances spécifiques, et mettent en place des pratiques différentes, selon qu'ils travaillent au premier ou second degré. Nous montrons qu’il y a une relation entre ces connaissances et la régulation rétroactive de l’activité qui permet à l’enseignant d’ajuster sa préparation. Nous modélisons une forme d’acquisition d’expérience. / Our work focuses on the theme of professional knowledge mobilized by teachers in their lesson preparations and implementation in class. Our study takes place in the context of the teaching of experimental sciences. We study the knowledge of teachers and the evolutions of this knowledge. Our theoretical approach articulates science education and professional didactics; it also retains, for the analysis of teachers' knowledge, the concept of PCK (Pedagogical Content Knowledge). We have developed a specific methodology, involving the researcher and teachers organized in pairs, to observe the gap between the preparation of lessons and their implementation. From this gap, we define critical incidents: they are the basis of the corpus that we analyzed. We identify the knowledge involved, and we indicate how the concept of PCK articulates with the concept of scheme. When teachers use inquiry-based science teaching (IBST), they mobilize specific knowledge and they implement different practices, depending on their work at primary or secondary school. We show that there is a relationship between knowledge and retroactive control that allows the teacher to adjust his/her preparation. We propose a theoretical model, for a form of acquisition of professional experience.

« Ça se fait pas ! ». La norme à l’école est marquée par des nuances et des ambivalences, sources d’incompréhensions et de concurrences, participant à sa fluctuation. L’élève joue un rôle premier devant l’enseignant, acteur, créateur et agent de la norme. La norme en classe présente un caractère inégal, binaire, ambigu, indéterminé et implicite, avec le reflet illusoire d’être partagée par l’élève et l’enseignant. La norme devient homogène pour eux face à une infraction identifiée, majoritairement comme abstention. Dans l’interdépendance entre norme, déviance et acceptation, les limites de l’acceptable en classe se tracent avant tout par rapport à la transgression. L’intrusion de l’affect accentue les fluctuations de la norme et influence les limites du conforme. La norme en classe se décline en situation au sein de l’interaction, dans la dialectique entre conscience et pratique de la norme, qui participe au processus de normalisation. Le registre comportemental est organisateur de la norme et facteur de fluctuations, modulant l’acceptation ou engageant vers la transgression. Les perspectives déontique et pragmatique se concurrencent. Dans la rivalité entre perspectives individuelle et sociale, les besoins sont des facteurs de l’acceptation de la norme, pour chercher à les satisfaire. L’interdépendance entre norme et besoins contribue au processus de normalisation et perturbe l’élève et l’enseignant dans leur rapport à la norme. Les normes en classe se conjuguent ou rivalisent au sein d’un système dynamique et enchevêtré, troublé par les besoins, dont la (l’in)cohérence module le rapport au conforme et engage les acteurs de l’école vers la transgression ou l’acceptation. / “It’s just not done !”. The norm at school is marked by nuances and ambivalences, it is the source of incomprehension and competitions participating in its fluctuation. The student plays the first role in front of the teacher, actor, creator and agent of the norm. The norm provides for an uneven, binary, ambiguous, indefinite and implicit character, offering the imaginary reflection to be shared by the students and teachers. The norm becomes homogeneous for them when confronted with an identified breach, mainly as abstention. In the interdependence animating normality, abnormality and acceptance, the limits of what is considered acceptable at school trace above all with regard to transgression. The intrusion of the affect stresses the fluctuations in the norm and influences the limits of the standard-compliant. The norm is articulated around the situation within the interaction, in the dialectic between consciousness and practice of the norm, which participates in the process of normalization. The behavioral register is the organizer of the norm itself, modulating the acceptance or committing towards the transgression. The deontic and pragmatic perspectives compete amongst themselves. Requirements are factors of the norm’s acceptance, to try to satisfy them. The interdependence between the norm and the requirements participates in the process of normalization and disrupts both students and teachers in their relationship with the norm. The norms at school combine or compete within a system both dynamic and muddled, disturbed by the requirements of coherence which modulate the relationship in compliance and commits school’s actors towards either transgression or acceptance.

Dans cette thèse nous nous intéressons à la prédiction de la réussite à l’issue de la formation (réussite à l’examen à l’université, insertion de demandeurs d’emplois accueillis en formation) sur la base de mesures subjectives « à chaud » (satisfaction ou apprentissages subjectifs) et de variables dispositionnelles (sentiment d’efficacité personnelle, locus de contrôle, estime de soi, optimisme et évaluation centrale de soi). Les résultats montrent en rapport avec les modèles d’évaluation de la formation que les mesures subjectives « à chaud » ne sont pas de bons prédicteurs de la réussite à l’issue de la formation ou de l’insertion professionnelle. Par ailleurs, la réussite à l’issue de la formation peut parfois être prédite par les variables dispositionnelles dans la mesure où ces dernières ont des valeurs élevées, dans le cas d’obtention au préalable de bonnes notes de la part des étudiants. En effet, l’effet de prédiction disparait lorsqu’est neutralisé l’impact du niveau académique antérieur de l’étudiant. En accord avec les travaux sur la norme d’internalité, ces variables semblent des indicateurs de situations sociales de réussite préexistantes et non des déterminants directs de la réussite sociale (Dubois, 1987, 2003). Dans la seconde partie de notre thèse, nous proposons par le biais de la théorie de l’engagement d’agir sur le contexte au moyen d’une déclaration de liberté ayant pour objet la présence au cours. Des effets positifs de la déclaration de liberté, par opposition à une déclaration de contrainte, sont observés sur plusieurs résultats collectés en fin de formation (satisfaction, apprentissage subjectif). Au niveau théorique, il semble que les retours d’évaluation fournis par les formateurs pourraient affecter les variables dispositionnelles, dont font état les personnes formées, et ainsi les rendre prédictives de la réussite. Les interactions évaluatives réifieraient ainsi le lien entre variables dispositionnelles et situation de réussite. Par ailleurs le contexte de liberté induit pourrait favoriser une élévation des mesures dispositionnelles et initier les processus d’apprentissage. / This research work adresses the prediction of success after a training scheme (success in university examination, integration of job seekers after a training session) on the basis of 1/ subjective indicators at the end of training: satisfaction or subjective learning and 2/ individuals' variables (self-efficacy, locus of control, self-esteem, optimism and core self-evaluation). Our results show that, compared to training evaluation models, subjective indicators at the end of training do not appear to be good predictors of success. In addition, if individuals' variables are sometimes predictable of success, this seems to be related to the mere fact that they represent high values in students with past good results (the effect of prediction disappears when the effect of the student's past academic level is neutralized). In agreement with studies carried out on Internality Norm, such variables appear to be no more than indicators of previous social success situations, but not direct determinants of social success (Dubois, 1987, 2003). In the second part of our thesis, we propose – via the theory of commitment – to impact on participants' commitment, thanks to a statement of freedom (of choice) as to the attendance to classes. Favorable effects derived from such freedom of choice – as opposed to compulsory attendance - are observed on several results collected at the end of the training (satisfaction, subjective learning). At theoretical level, It seems that trainers' evaluation assessments could affect declared trainees' individual variables, thus making them predictive of success. Evaluation interactions are thus thought to reify the link usually considered between individuals' variables and situations of success. In addition, the context of freedom thus induced might contribute to enhanced individuals' variables as well as promote the mechanisms of learning.