La tesi s'estructura en dos grans apartats: per un costat, el Marc Teòric en el que realitzem els estudis que ens permeten delimitar la problemàtica de les persones amb disminució psíquica i fonamentar teòricament els criteris orientadors d'estratègies dirigides a potenciar la seva transició a l'edat adulta i vida activa. A partir de l'anàlisi realitzada al Marc Teòric de la tesi s'elabora una proposta d'intervenció consistent en el disseny d'un programa destinat a potenciar les habilitats perceptivo-motrius. / The thesis is structured in two big sections: the first is the Theoretical Frame, where we obtain information that allow us to delimit the problems that are carried out of the mentally handicapped people and to found out the guiding criteria of strategies directed to promote their transition to the adult age and active life.From the analysis carried out in the Theoretical Frame, we have elaborated a proposal of intervention consisting in the design of a program destined to promote the perceptive-motor abilities.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:46:13Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 3373.pdf: 3039078 bytes, checksum: 59337a0af791dccfbb2978c212d1bea2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-09-27 / Universidade Federal de Sao Carlos / Few people with High Abilities/Giftedness are identified in Brazil, and fewer are those that receive satisfactory service to develop their full potential. The field needs more production of knowledge, mainly focusing on local realities, and a greater dialogue between the different theoretical lines. This research represents a small step in that direction. The overall objective of the study was to identify, register and analyze quantitatively the number of students with indicators of High Abilities/Giftedness identified by their teachers on a representative sample of the population of Jaboticabal city, São Paulo State, Brasil. Teachers of second, third and fourth grades from elementary education were invited to participate in the research. The study had characteristics of an exploratory study, in terms of a quantitative survey study, to provide an overview of a specific event or phenomenon. Data analysis aimed to identify variables in the natural environment. Seventy six teachers of public schools participated in the survey and this number represented 81% of the participants. Three instruments were used to collect data: an identification form, a characterization form and an indicator form for High Abilities/Giftedness indentification. The results indicated the presence of children with indicators of High Abilities/Giftedness in the surveyed classrooms, 38% of the children had one or more indicators. The number of children with indicators of High Abilities/Giftedness was 809 children among 2148 observed by teachers. The number of indicators observed (2760) were consistent with the reviewed literature about the topic and the teachers proved to be able to identify it. / Poucas pessoas com Altas Habilidades/Superdotação no Brasil são identificadas, menos ainda são aquelas atendidas de forma satisfatória para atingir seu pleno desenvolvimento. A área necessita maior produção de conhecimento, principalmente com foco na realidade local, e maior diálogo entre as diferentes linhas de pensamento. O presente trabalho representou um pequeno passo nesse sentido. O objetivo geral foi levantar, registrar e analisar quantitativamente o número de alunos com indicadores de Altas Habilidades/Superdotação identificados por seus professores em uma amostra representativa da população do município de Jaboticabal, estado de São Paulo. Foram convidados a participar os professores de segunda, terceira e quarta séries das escolas que ofereciam o Ensino Fundamental de Ciclo I. O estudo caracterizou-se como exploratório, uma pesquisa quantitativa do tipo survey , para proporcionar uma visão geral sobre um fato ou fenômeno específico. A análise de dados teve como objetivo a identificação de variáveis em ambiente natural. Participaram do trabalho de pesquisa setenta e seis professores da rede regular de ensino, número que representou 81% dos convidados. Para a coleta de dados foram utilizados três instrumentos: uma ficha de identificação, uma ficha de caracterização e um formulário de identificação de indicadores de Altas Habilidades/Superdotação. Os resultados indicaram a presença de crianças com indicadores de Altas Habilidades/Superdotação nas salas de aula pesquisadas, 38% das crianças apresentaram um ou mais indicadores. A quantidade de crianças com indicadores (809 crianças entre 2148 observadas pelos professores) e a quantidade de indicadores observados (2760) foram compatíveis com a literatura consultada sobre o tema e os professores se mostraram capazes de identificá-los.

This study was carried out in the Banco Popular de Ahorro, in Santiago de Cuba. Duringthree years, different Profiles of Directive Competitions were made as well as a Unique or Generic Profile, adaptable to any executive of this or other organizations. Different con- ceptions of competitions were obtained and confirmed, such as simple, compound, basic, secondary, generic and specific competitions. Various experiences were confirmed, such as the importance of establishing their dimensions, contradictions and similarities between competitions and values, their possibility to focus on different organizational tasks, such as the improvement of the environment, the quality in the performance of top and intermediate management, technicians and workers, with the objective of improving the performance of the employees and the organization. / La investigación se desarrolló en el Banco Popular de Ahorro, en Santiago de Cuba, donde durante tres años se trabajó en la conformación de diversos Perfiles de Competencias Directivos y un Perfil Único o Genérico, adaptable a cualquier directivo de esta institución y otras organizaciones. Se obtuvieron y confirmaron diversas concepciones de competencias como las simples, compuestas, básicas, secundarias, genéricas y especificas, importantes y claves, y diversas experiencias como la importancia de establecer sus dimensiones, las contradicciones y similitudes entre competencias y valores, su posibilidad de enfocarse hacia diversas tareas organizacionales, como el mejoramiento del medio ambiente, la calidad del trabajo de mandos superiores, intermedios, técnicos y obreros, con el objetivo de perfeccionar la gestión del desempeño de los trabajadores y la organización.

Cette thèse par articles étudie les origines de la sophistication politique. Les chapitres un, deux et trois étudient l'impact d'une série de variables sur les connaissances politiques tandis que le chapitre quatre examine l'impact des connaissances politiques sur la façon dont les individus mettent à jour leurs opinions. Le premier article explore les effets de l'éducation collégiale, l'intérêt politique et les capacités cognitives sur le développement des connaissances politiques. Nous montrons que l'enseignement collégial général a un impact relativement petit sur le développement des connaissances politiques, mais l'enseignement collégial en sciences sociales et humaines a un impact positif sur la connaissance politique, mettant en évidence un effet substantiel de l'éducation. De plus, nous démontrons que les habiletés cognitives déterminent le niveau de connaissances générales, tandis que l'intérêt politique et l'éducation affectent également la variation des connaissances politiques au fil du temps. Le deuxième article étudie l'impact des aptitudes verbales à l'âge de cinq ans sur trois indicateurs importants de la sophistication politique: les connaissances politiques à 16 ans, ainsi que l'intérêt politique et la participation à 30 ans. Il est démontré que les aptitudes verbales à l'âge de 5 ans ont un impact fort et non linéaire sur les connaissances politiques à 16 ans, et l'intérêt politique à 30 ans, tandis que leur impact sur la participation future est fort et linéaire. Enfin, l'impact des variables parentales sur les connaissances politiques est considérablement réduit lorsque les compétences verbales précoces sont prises en compte. Le troisième article examine l'impact de l'ouverture aux expériences sur la sophistication politique. Il est soutenu que c'est l'intellectualisme qui explique la relation trouvée entre l'ouverture et l'information politique dans les recherches passées et que les nouvelles recherches utilisant le Ten Item Personality Inventory (TIPI) ne devraient pas reproduire ce résultat. L'article soutient que c'est parce que l'échelle TIPI évalue l'aspect esthétique de l'ouverture et est mal adapté pour capturer sa composante intellectuelle. Il est également démontré que l'impact de l'intellectualisme en tant que trait de personnalité tient aussi lorsque les habiletés cognitives sont prises en compte. Le dernier article a deux objectifs. Le premier est de considérer l'impact des connaissances politiques sur les perceptions du biais médiatique. Le second est d'étendre la recherche sur les perceptions des biais médiatiques à un électorat non américain. Nous constatons que, comme c'est le cas aux États-Unis, les conservateurs sont plus enclins à croire en l'existence de biais médiatiques. Il est également démontré que les citoyens les plus informés sont plus susceptibles de penser que les médias sont biaisés, mais ils ne sont pas plus susceptibles de percevoir ces biais lorsqu'ils ne sont pas d'accord avec un journaliste. Par conséquent, il appert que les citoyens plus informés ne sont pas plus susceptibles de faire montre de raisonnement motivé. / This thesis by articles investigates the origins of political sophistication. Chapters one, two, and three investigate the impact of a series of variables on political knowledge, while Chapter four looks at the impact of political knowledge on how individuals update their opinions. The first paper explores the effects of college education, political interest, and cognitive abilities on the development of political knowledge. It is shown that general college education has a minimal impact on political knowledge development, but college education in social sciences and humanities has a positive impact on political knowledge, highlighting a substantive effect of education. Moreover, it is shown that cognitive skills determine one's general knowledge level, while political interest and education also affect political knowledge variation over time. The second paper looks at the impact of early verbal skills on political sophistication. This paper investigates the impact of verbal skills at five years of age on three important indicators of political sophistication: political knowledge at 16, as well as political interest and turnout at 30. It is shown that verbal skills at 5 years of age have a strong and non-linear impact on political knowledge at 16, and political interest at 30, while their impact on future turnout is strong and linear. Finally, the impact of parental variables on political knowledge is significantly reduced when early verbal skills are accounted for. The third article looks at the impact of openness to experience on political sophistication. This paper seeks to investigate this relation by distinguishing two different aspects of openness to experience that are sometimes overlooked: the aesthetic and the intellectual components of openness. It is argued that the latter explains the relation found between openness and political knowledge in past research, and that new research using the Ten-Item Personality Inventory (TIPI) should not be expected to replicate this finding. The paper argues that this is because the TIPI scale assesses the aesthetic aspect of openness and is ill suited to capture its intellectual component. It is also shown that the impact of intellectualism as a personality trait also holds when cognitive skills are taken into account. The last paper has two goals. The first is to consider the impact of political knowledge on perceptions of media bias. The second is to extend research on media bias perceptions to a non-American electorate. It is shown that, as found in the US, Conservatives are more prone to believe in the existence of media bias. It is also shown that the most knowledgeable citizens are more likely to think that the media are biased, but they are not more likely to perceive bias when they disagree with a journalist. These results hold true even when a variety of potential confounding factors such as personality traits are taken into account.

Poultry provide affordable animal protein products compared to other animal products in agricultural industry. The demand of organic food by world health organisation and call for discard of conventional laying cage production method led to this research study. The aim of the study was to determine how (4 x 4) full diallel crossbreeding of the Potchefstroom Koekoek (PK), Naked neck (NN), Lohmann Brown (LB) and White Leghorn (WL) had an effect on production performance, egg parameters, genetic and phenotypic characteristics of F1 crossbreed offspring. The study was conducted at the Agricultural Research Council (ARC), Livestock Production Improvement at the Irene Campus, which is situated about 25 km south of Pretoria. The (4 x 4) full diallel crossbreeding design used on four chicken breeds to produce four pure breeds, six crossbreeds and six reciprocal crosses. The total number of 352 chickens with16 treatments (2 cocks and 20 hens) used in phase 1 and 384 chickens 16 F1-treatments (3 cocks + 21 hens) used in phase 2. Data was analysed by full factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA), General Linear Model procedures and Scheffe post-hoc for multiple comparison of the means of different variable data. The outcome had shown that crossbreeding had an effect on the production performance, genetic and phenotypic characteristics. The performed F1 crossbreeds emerge from crossbreeding between the local dual-purpose PK and commercial LB chicken breeds. PKLB dominated on growth and production performance traits compared to other crossbreeds. All set null hypothesis differ significantly at (p < 0.05), the outcome of all five hypothesis of this study were rejected. In conclusion PKLB was the best performing F1 crossbreed, based on its best performance on growth, FCR, cost of rearing, productive, high quality safe eggshell, economic efficiency and consumer preference (brown eggshell and yolk colour). / Dikgogo di neelana ka dikumo tsa poroteine ya diphologolo go tshwantshanngwa le dikumo tsa diphologolo tse dingwe mo intasetering ya temo. Tlhokego ya dijo tse di bolang mo mekgatlhong ya boitekanelo ya lefatshe le pitso ya go latlha mekgwa ya kumo ya dikgetshe tsa go beela tsa tlwaelo di ne tsa isa kwa thutong ya patlisiso eno. Maikaelelo a thuto eno ke go tlhomamisa gore tsadiso ya kgabaganyo ya dilo tse pedi kgotsa go feta go tshwantshanya kgolagano ya mofuta wa dijene le tikologo tse di tletseng tsa (4 x 4) tsa Potchefstroom Koekoek (PK), Naked Neck (NN), Lohmann Brown (LB) le White Leghorn (WL) di na le ponalo mo tiragatsong ya kumo, diparametera tsa mae, le dijene le diponagalo tsa kgolagano ya mofuta wa dijene le tikologo tsa ditsadiso tsa kgabaganyo tsa ngwana wa F1. Thuto e ne ya diragadiwa kwa Agricultural Research Council (ARC) le Tokafatso ya Kumo ya Diruiwa kwa khempaseng ya Irene, e e agilweng bokana ka 25 km jwa borwa jwa Pretoria. Ditsadiso tsa kgabaganyo tsa dilo tse pedi kgotsa go feta go tshwantshanya kgolagano ya mofuta wa dijene le tikologo tse di tletseng tsa (4 x 4) di ne tsa dirisiwa mo mefuteng ya ditsadiso tsa dikgogo go ntsha mefuta ya ditsadiso e e tletseng e mene, ditsadiso tsa kgabaganyo tse thataro le dikgabaganyo tse di tshwanang tse thataro. Palo e e tletseng ya dikgogo tse di 352 ka ditiragatso di le 16 (mekoko e le 2 le dithole di le 20) di ne tsa dirisiwa mo letlhakoreng la 1 le dikgogo di le 384 ka ditiragatso tsa F1 di le 16 (mekoko e le 3 + dithole di le 21) di ne tsa dirisiwa mo letlhakoreng la 2. Data e ne ya tshetshereganngwa ka tshetshereganyo ya dintlha tse di tletseng tsa pharologantsho (ANOVA), dikgato tsa General Linear Model le tshwantshanyo ya bontsintsi ya morago (ANOVA), dikgato tsa General Linear Model le tshwantshanyo ya bontsintsi ya morago ga tiragalo ya Scheffe ka mekgwa ya data ya pharologantsho e e farologaneng. Ditlamorago di ne tsa bontsha gore ditsadiso tsa kgabaganyo di na le ponalo mo tiragatsong ya kumo, ga mmogo le diponagalo tsa dijene le setlhopha sa kgolagano ya mofuta wa dijene le tikologo. Go ne ga diriswa mefuta ya ditsadiso tsa kgabaganyo ya F1 tse di tlhagelelang go tswa mo ditsadisong tsa kgabaganyo magareng ga mefuta ya ditsadiso tsa dikgogo tsa PK tsa lebaka la gabedi la selegae le LB ya kgwebo. PKLB e ne ya fekeetsa metlhala ya tiragatso ya kgolo le kumo go tshwantshanngwa le mefuta ya ditsadiso tsa kgabaganyo tse dingwe. Setlhopha sotlhe sa dikakanyo tsa lefela se x farologana mo go bonagalang ka (p < 0.05) le ditlamorago tsa dikakanyo tse tlhano tse tsotlhe tsa thuto eno di ne tsa kganediwa. Kwa bokhutlong, PKLB e ne ya nna mofuta wa ditsadiso tsa F1 o o diragatsang go gaisa, go ikaegilwe ka tiragatso mabapi le kgolo, FCR, tshenyegelo ya go tsadisa, kumo, boleng jo bo kwa godimo jwa dikgapetla tsa mae tse di babalesegileng, bokgoni jwa ikonomi le boikgethelo jwa modirisi (dikgapetla tsa mae tse di tshetlha le mmala wa tlhae). / Agriculture and  Animal Health / Ph. D. (Agriculture)

This study investigated the effects of Augmented Reality (AR) on learning, cognitive load and spatial abilities. More specifically, it measured learning gains, perceived cognitive load, and the role spatial abilities play with students engaged in an astronomy lesson about lunar phases. Research participants were 182 students from a public university in southeastern United States, and were recruited from psychology research pool. Participants were randomly assigned to two groups: (a) Augmented Reality and Text Astronomy Treatment (ARTAT); and (b) Images and Text Astronomy Treatment (ITAT). Upon entering the experimental classroom, participants were given (a) Paper Folding Test to measure their spatial abilities; (b) the Lunar Phases Concept Inventory (LPCI) pre-test; (c) lesson on Lunar Phases; (d) NASA-TLX to measure participants’ cognitive load; and (e) LPCI post-test. Statistical analysis found (a) no statistical difference for learning gains between the ARTAT and ITAT groups; (b) statistically significant difference for cognitive load; and (c) no significant difference for spatial abilities scores.

The study aims to describe variation in the expression of students’ mathematical ability and the various ways in which their mathematical aptitude is acknowledged and supported by their teachers, parents and peers in a Swedish context. Ability is defined as a complex of various abilities each of which may be more or less pronounced in a given individual. The study is based on ten case studies of highly able students (ages 6-19). Six of the studies are longitudinal, ranging from three to six years. In order to validate the results of the case studies, two survey studies were carried out involving 180 teachers (preschool to Grade 9 in Swedish compulsory school) and 284 mathematics developers from 229 Swedish municipalities. The survey studies raised questions concerning the teachers’ personal experience of identifying and supporting highly able students, the nature of their everyday teaching, and the support given to able students. The results show that mathematical abilities can take many different forms and there is great need for pedagogical support for this group of students. Since extra resources are rarely available for the benefit of nurturing talent and since there are, as yet, no Swedish national or local policy documents that specifically address the support of talent in students, teachers are on their own in figuring out how to best help able students develop mathematically. The study points to the importance of the social norms that influence the interaction between teacher and student(s): everyday social norms as well as socio-mathematical norms, i.e. norms specific to the subject of mathematics. The latter place considerable demands on the teachers’ mathematical knowledge and competence. The benefits of early interventions, of supportive teaching environments, and of providing the students with challenging tasks and questions are also discussed.

I denna studie undersöks hur svensklärares uppgiftskonstruktioner möter elevers olika förmågor. Med utgångspunkt i Gardners teori om multipla intelligenser definierade jag olika kategorier av förmågor som motsvarade de olika intelligenserna i tretton olika uppgiftskonstruktioner för svenskämnet i gymnasieskolan. Studien visar att den lingvistiska förmågan är absolut vanligast i det undersökta materialet, vilket också var väntat. Men de personliga förmågorna är också vanligt förkommande, vilket visar att lärarna begär att eleverna ska dela sina egna tankar, minnen och upplevelser. Den lingvistiska förmågan fungerar i uppgifterna vanligen som metod, men i det stoff eleverna skriver om är de personliga förmågorna långt vanligare än den lingvistiska. / This study examines how the tasks constructed by teachers of Swedish meet the pupils’ differing abilities. Based on Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligences, I defined different categories of abilities corresponding to the different intelligences in thirteen different tasks constructed for the subject of Swedish in upper secondary school. The study shows that linguistic ability is by far the most common in the studied material, as expected. But personal abilities are also commonly found, which shows that the teachers ask the pupils to share of their own thoughts, memories and experiences. The linguistic ability usually functions in the tasks as a method, but in the material that the pupils write, the personal abilities are far more common than the linguistic ability.

Selon plusieurs auteurs, l’intelligence générale et les traits de personnalité sont des construits fondamentaux nécessaires à l’adaptation psychosociale des individus. Bien que plusieurs études menées à partir d’échantillons d’adultes aient démontré des liens significatifs entre ces deux construits, peu d’entre elles ont tenté de vérifier si ces relations pouvaient être observées aussi chez les adolescents. De plus, un nombre très restreint d’études ont étudié la question de savoir si les relations entre l’intelligence générale et les traits de personnalité étaient significatives de façon prospective avec un intervalle de temps entre les évaluations. Enfin, les études disponibles ne permettent pas de déterminer si les relations entre l’intelligence générale et les traits de personnalité sont différentes selon le sexe. La présente étude visait à combler ces vides. Les objectifs étaient, d’une part, de déterminer s’il existe des relations prédictives concurrentes et prospectives entre l’intelligence générale et les traits de personnalité chez les adolescents et, d’autre part, de vérifier si ces relations sont différentes entre les garçons et les filles. Les données utilisées proviennent de l’étude longitudinale de la Stratégie d’intervention agir autrement (SIAA). Un large échantillon d’adolescents évalués une première fois en secondaire un et réévalués à nouveau quatre ans plus tard en secondaire cinq a été employé. À la première vague de collecte de données, seule l’intelligence générale a été évaluée, tandis qu’à la deuxième vague, autant l’intelligence générale que les traits de personnalité l’ont été. La modélisation par équations structurales sur des variables latentes a été utilisée pour tester les différentes hypothèses de recherche. Les résultats ont démontré que, sur le plan concurrent, l’intelligence générale et tous les traits de personnalité considérés sont reliés significativement de façon positive, ce qui va partiellement à l’encontre des données obtenues à partir des échantillons d’adultes. Sur le plan prospectif, les résultats ont confirmé que les corrélations diminuent avec le temps, et ce, pour presque tous les traits étudiés. Finalement, les modèles d’équations structurales multi-groupes ont confirmé la présence de différences significatives entre les garçons et les filles pour certains traits de personnalité. Dans l’ensemble, bien que plusieurs résultats de la présente étude obtenus à partir d’un échantillon d’adolescents soient conformes à ceux observés auprès d’échantillons d’adultes, certaines différences intéressantes sont observées. / According to several scholars, general intelligence and personality traits are fundamental constructs that are necessary for individuals’ psychosocial adjustment. Even though several studies showed significant relations between these constructs in adults’ samples, very few attempted to demonstrate if these relations can be observed in adolescents’ samples. Moreover, very few studies verified if these relations between general intelligence and personality traits were also significant prospectively with a time interval between assessments. Furthermore, the available studies do not allow determining if the relations between general intelligence and personality traits are different across gender. This study aimed at filling these gaps. The objectives were to determine if there were concurrent and prospective relations between general intelligence and personality traits in adolescents, as well as to determine if these relations were different across boys and girls. Data were drawn from the New Approaches New Solutions (NANS) longitudinal study. A large sample of adolescents first assessed in grade one, and re-assessed four years later in grade 5 was used. At the first wave of data collection, only general intelligence was assessed, while at the fifth wave, both general intelligence and personality were assessed. Structural equation modeling on latent variables was used to test the different research hypotheses. The results demonstrated that concurrently, general intelligence and all personality traits considered are significantly positively related, which partially contradict data from adults’ samples. Prospectively, the results confirmed that correlations decreased over time for almost all personality traits. Finally, multiple-group structural equations models confirmed there are significant differences between boys and girls for some personality traits. Overall, despite several results converge with those observed with adults’ samples, some interesting differences can be observed when adolescents are studied.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether or not individual scores derived by the Illinois Test of Psycholinguistic Abilities can be used as predictors of performance on visual motor tasks of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children and the Frostig Developmental Test of Visual Perception for a child who has learning problems.