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The classroom learning environment has increasingly been recognised as an important factor in education. However, over recent years the increasing research in this area has focussed on humanities or science classrooms. Virtually no investigations have been reported into the learning environment of the secondary mathematics classroom.The study reported in this thesis focusses on the perceptions of 490 grade 9 mathematics students in 23 classrooms in 14 schools in Adelaide, South Australia. Students' perceptions of their mathematics learning environment were measured using a new classroom environment instrument which has been developed in both a Personal Form (which focusses on students' perceptions of their personal interaction with the learning environment) and a Class Form (which focusses on students' perceptions of the class's interactions with the learning environment).This study confirmed the reliability and validity of both forms of the new instrument in its use with this sample of students, and examined the differences between the Personal and the Class Forms of the instrument. The sub-populations of male and female students were also profiled and differences between their perceptions of the classroom learning environment were examined. Differences between students' perceptions of their teacher's interpersonal behaviour in the classroom were also explored.The study identified associations between students' perceptions of their mathematics classroom learning environment, their perceptions of their teacher's interpersonal behaviour, and student outcomes. The association between students' perceptions of their mathematics classroom environment and attitudinal outcomes was stronger than the association with cognitive outcomes.Finally, the commonality and uniqueness of the two instruments measuring classroom learning environment and teacher's interpersonal behaviour ++ / in terms of predicting outcome variance were established, as were associations between the perceptions of students in these two areas.

Missing pages were blank, therefore omitted. / Practice improves sensory perception, a phenomenon known as perceptual learning. Perceptual learning is interesting because it reflects plasticity in the brain where none was imagined, and because of its enormous applied potential. In vision, learning of simple discriminations is well-described. Here, I study the learning of two complex visual tasks, texture-and face identification, using a ten-alternative forced-choice procedure. The data are clear: learning of complex patterns is much like learning of simple patterns in its specificity, stability and time-course. Therefore, learning obeys similar rules at several levels in visual processing. The characteristics of learning, in particular the specificity and stability of learning, affect inherent aspects of object recognition. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

The purposes of this study were to explore students&rsquo / perceptions of the extent to which constructivist approaches are present in chemistry classes at high school level in Turkey, to assess students&rsquo / perceptions of their chemistry teachers&rsquo / communication behaviours in their classroom learning environments and to investigate the learning strategies of students in chemistry classes considering school type, gender, and grade level differences. In this study, the Constructivist Learning Environment Questionnaire (CLES), the Teacher Communication Behaviour v Questionnaire (TCBQ) and the Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire (MSLQ) were used as measuring instruments. In addition, the questionnaires included some questions for demographic characteristics of participants. The study was conducted in conveniently selected two schools (private and public) in Ankara with a total of 994 ninth and tenth grade students in the second term of 2006-2007 semesters. Data obtained from the administration of measuring instruments by using the analysis of multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) The results of the study indicated that school type, gender and grade level of the students had significant effect on perception of classroom learning environment, teacher&rsquo / communication behaviour and perceived use of learning strategies. For instance, students in private schools perceived their classroom-learning environment more constructivist than student in public school. In addition girls rated that, their learning environment and teachers&rsquo / communication behaviours more favourably than did boys. The study also showed that students use rehearsal-learning strategy mostly in their chemistry classrooms.

Le vieillissement rapide de la population implique une évolution du système de soins pour prendre en charge les personnes dépendantes dont la proportion ne cesse de croître. Une option possible est de développer et de mettre en œuvre une technologie d’assistance à domicile. Ce travail de thèse consiste à concevoir et à expérimenter des solutions de « surveillance » multicapteurs : déploiement de capteurs dans l’environnement réel du patient, fusion multisensorielle et algorithmes de diagnostics automatiques, afin d’assurer la sécurité des personnes mais également d’aider les professionnels de santé à maintenir la qualité du suivi et des soins. Ce manuscrit présente à travers une étude bibliographique, un état des connaissances et des pratiques sur les systèmes d’analyse des activités des personnes âgées. Ensuite, il détaille l’étape de conception du système de surveillance retenu et selon une approche fonctionnelle présente l’architecture matérielle et logicielle mise en œuvre pour répondre aux spécifications établies. Deux projets sont issus de ce travail : 1) Le projet Homecare qui vise à expérimenter et à qualifier, au niveau opérationnel, un système complet de Télésurveillance pour les personnes âgées atteintes de la maladie d'Alzheimer. 2) Le projet BéA qui est plutôt orienté sur la surveillance « outdoor » pour des personnes valides mais fragiles : Notre contribution a concerné la mise en place d’une architecture système qui intègre un algorithme auto-adaptatif de détection et de modélisation des déambulations par tranche horaire. Enfin, les pistes d’un modèle économique qui définit les options offertes, aujourd’hui, au déploiement de ce type de systèmes sont discutées. / The aging of the population implies an evolution of the healthcare systems, in order to take over dependent people whose proportion is growing. A possible solution is to develop and implement a home care technology. In this context, this PhD work consist to design and test a multisensory monitoring system: deployment of sensors in patient environment, sensory data fusion and automatic diagnostic algorithms, in order allowing patients to live in better safety conditions and helping health professionals to give better care quality. This manuscript presents, in the beginning, the problematic of elderly care and the state of knowledge and practices of activity analysis systems for elderly, through a literature review. Then, it describes the design step of monitoring system according to a functional approach. This approach presents the implemented hardware and software architecture in order to satisfy established specifications. We worked on two projects: 1) Homecare System aims to experiment and validate the good working of a remote monitoring system for elderly (or disabled) suffering from Alzheimer's disease. 2) BéA System (Bracelet Electronique d’Autonomie) is oriented to outdoor monitoring of able-bodied people but frail: Our contribution is to implement a system architecture which integrates a self-adaptive algorithm for detecting and modelling wandering by day-part. For these two projects, we present the results and make a first experience feedback. Finally, we propose a potential economic model that defines the available options that allow, today, the deployment these types of system.