The theme of the diploma dissertation became a view of a field of alphabets (letters and types) in contexts of communication, history, art and education. The theoretical part is focused on historical, contemporary movements of the phenomenon all at once. Inclusive of reflecting on alphabets in art and also links to a medial communication. The second part of the diploma dissertation reacts to the strongest and the most inspiring moments. It focuses on a practical applications for art lessons. The third part [artistic] takes advantage of media knowledges and art lessons. They are interfaced into an interactive teaching material which challenges students to an active perception of visual culture.

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the Requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Communication Science University of Zululand, 2003. / This thesis entails a literature survey of the forms of communication required for the successful management of primary schools and high schools by principals and their management teams, followed by an empirical survey of the management team communication practices of 367 principals in the northern section of the eThekwini Region (the area that until 2003 was known as the North Durban Region) in the KwaZulu-Natal Province, on the eastern seaboard of South Africa. In brief, my research shows that female principals predominate in primary schools and male principals in high schools. My research further shows a number of significant differences in the way that female and male principals communicate with parents.

Studies have increasingly shown that more parent involvement leads to higher academic achievement for kids. However, studies have also shown a difference in the ability of parents to effectively further their children's interest based on social class. Middle-class parents are described as being able to activate their cultural and social capital in order to further their interests, while working-class and low-income parents have been described as frustrated and marginalized- lacking the ability to activate their capital in a way that benefits themselves and their children. The intent of this study is to explore how parents understand their role in the parent teacher relationship to look for evidence that social class might not be as much of a factor as previous literature suggests when it comes to activation of cultural capital. Building on a study that found some working-class parents were able to activate cultural capital through their conversations with teachers, I wanted to find out if how parents understand and perform their role would offer more insight into how cultural capital is activated. Based on the premise that how parents understand their role in conversation with teachers might be able to affect their ability to activate their cultural capital, I conducted a qualitative interview study to explore how parents of 5th grade elementary students view their role in the parent-teacher relationship. Results of the study show that parents gained confidence in their role through conversations with teachers and that they also gained an increased ability to collaborate and engage in partnership with their childrens' teachers. Confidence in role and collaboration with teachers were seen as indications of activation of cultural capital. In this study, parents were able to activate their cultural capital by having collaborative relationships with teachers 9 out of 10 times, regardless of class background. I draw conclusions that parents in my study developed the ability to activate cultural capital regardless of social class background. Because of this, parents' experience of their relationships with teachers might not be as dichotomous as previous research suggests. My findings suggest that frequency of communication is an important mechanism that contributes to successful parent-teacher relationships. Communication that was particularly helpful included informal conversations and email. The use of email in parent-teacher conversations in particular is an area that deserves further study.

Learning, and potentially thought itself, is an inherently social process, whether directly from other humans, such as teachers, parents, or mentors, or indirectly from the artifacts other humans create. However, the social nature of the learning process doesn't come without its social learning, as opposed to cognitive learning, challenges. Sometimes we disagree with, offend, or otherwise harm one another in the learning process, or simply don't know one another enough to engage with and understand each other. How does social development, and specifically the development of dyadic teacher-student relationships impact individuals' learning processes? Here, I apply a multivariate time-series approach to understand how teacher-student dyads, randomly assigned to partners they know or have never met, differ in their nonverbal communication behavior, and how these differences impact student learning processes. Through a custom-built online portal, open-source computer vision software, and a newly-derived state-of-the-art multivariate time series analysis, I show how teacher-student dyads from an undergraduate institution benefit from familiarity, nonverbal coordination, and their development, and how this development improves students' scientific reasoning performance. I also show how the degree of nonverbal coordination that enables high performance in the reasoning tasks develops over as little as 10—15 minutes of dedicated face-to-face interaction. Three implications of the work are highlighted. First, the results imply that social interaction processes are crucial to individual reasoning in face-to-face online contexts. Second, a potentially necessary route to improving STEM education at the undergraduate level may be more dedicated face-to-face time between students and their instructors. Finally, the step-by-step guide provided by the work to apply multivariate techniques to non-stationary diachronic processes illuminates the value of combining evolutionary correspondence analysis with locally stationary vector autoregression. The combination of methods reduces the complexity of high-dimensional datasets to explanatory latent factors, and then quantifies the linear predictability of each original dimension on all of the others within each explanatory latent factor. In the current analysis, I identify familiarity and affect-attention tradeoff effects as the two most explanatory latent factors, and quantify how both familiarity, and the tradeoff between affective and attentive signalling between the dyads evolves over the course of 20-25 minute teacher-student interactions. Thus, beyond the implications for dyadic reasoning and STEM learning processes, the methodological implications could be applied to any high-dimensional diachronic processes, such as two bodies, or brains, interacting in other teacher-student contexts, as well as parent-child, therapist-client, and manager-employee environments in order to simplify the complexity of social interactions and uncover their impacts on individual change processes.

Thesis (M. Ed. (Education )) - Central University of Technology, Free State, 2014 / This study investigates mediation of learning in Grade 10 Business Studies. Mediation of learning is one of the roles that have to be fulfilled by educators in the teaching and learning situation. Learning theories that focus on teaching and learning provide insight about the study under investigation. Aspects such as teaching, learning, constructivism, mediation of learning, teaching strategies, teaching and learning through different learning theories and assessment for learning are dealt with. A qualitative research design is employed in this study. Data is gathered through observations of Grade 10 Business Studies lessons and questionnaires completed by Grade 10 Business Studies educators. Purposive sampling is used to sample the participants for this study. Ten schools in the Lejweleputswa district and ten Business Studies educators from these schools are sampled. Data is analysed qualitatively and emerging trends are reported on and interpreted. Observations in the study indicated that most Grade 10 Business Studies educators do not implement mediation of learning in their lesson presentations. Learners are mostly passive listeners in the classrooms. Most educators indicated that they implement mediation of learning in their lessons, although observations portrayed the opposite. Educators are in need of training to be successful mediators of learning. Conclusions and recommendations are made regarding mediation of learning in Grade 10 Business Studies classrooms.

Thesis (PhD (Curriculum Studies))--University of Stellenbosch, 2007. / This action research study was aimed at establishing the importance and role of communication, and determining to what extent it impacts on formative assessment in the mathematics classroom with particular reference to feedback. During the first cycle of research it was evident that conditions within the mathematics classroom were preventing this from being realised. If we as researchers were to assess the nature of communication patterns within the classroom situation, then those communication patterns should have existed. Our findings reflect that teachers were generally in control of all aspects of communication of their learners, and that communication was usually a type of monologue, with very limited response from learners to closed questions, (characterised by “yes” and “no” responses), which were frequently posed. The feedback from learners (perhaps inadvertently ignored), was not optimally utilised to enhance learning. Through observation it was determined that teachers’ ability to engage learners meaningfully for longer periods, or to consciously reflect upon their actions, needed to be developed. Praxis as research paradigm, which is based on reflection and appropriate response or action geared towards improving the circumstances or conditions of the people concerned (in this case teachers), underlies this study. This research is furthermore based on the following learning theories: enactivism, constructivism, facilitation theory, action learning, andragogy, reification, and situated learning...

Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2012. / Includes bibliography / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The importance of global and local change and transformation is emphasised through initiatives such as the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (2012) and the Earth Charter Initiatives (2011) for constructing a just, sustainable and peaceful global society. In South Africa, the need for transformation has been underlined by the South African Department of Education in the Education White Paper of 1997 (DOE 1997). At Stellenbosch University, the Pedagogy of Hope (US) project aims to find concrete ways to reflect on historical influences and current SA society. Tremendous progress has been made in transformation regarding legislative policies, but personal transformation within people is proving to be slow. As a response to these realities, a module called Critical Citizenship was introduced for first-­‐ to third-­‐year Visual Communication Design students at the Visual Arts Department at Stellenbosch University. The aim of this research project was to explore the perceptions and attitudes of students, learners and lecturers regarding personal transformation through teaching and learning in the Critical Citizenship module. As a framework for the study, I emphasised the importance of giving consideration to the emotional dimensions of learning (Illeris 2007), meaning considering the learning being (Barnett 2009) as a thinking, feeling and acting person (Jarvis 2006). The objectives of the study were to identify such emotional reactions to the Critical Citizenship module and to establish what the emotional reactions revealed about the immediate and broader context of the teaching and learning context in which students, learners and lecturers learn and teach. I followed an interpretative approach and a case study research design that aimed at exploring and providing an in-­‐depth investigation of the Critical Citizenship module was used. The themes that surfaced from reflections written by students and learners and from group interviews, comprised feeling unprepared for this type of project; feelings of guilt and shame; resistance to this type of project; asymmetry and assimilation, but also feelings of hope. Other responses, suggesting feelings of empathy, privilege, humility, re-­‐ evaluation of priorities and values, sameness and difference, feeling out of a comfort zone and reflecting on blackness and whiteness were also interweaved with the main themes. The results of the research included that taking into consideration the emotional aspects in critical citizenship education is important because we are thinking, feeling and acting beings, but moving beyond emotional reactions toward rational actions is crucial. Critical citizenship cannot be taught in isolation because the context in which it exists plays a vital role and an inclusive critical citizenship curriculum within community interactions for the wider society is suggested. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die belangrikheid van globale en plaaslike verandering en transformasie word beklemtoon deur inisiatiewe soos die Verenigde Nasies se Millennium-­‐ ontwikkelingsdoelwitte (2012) en die Aardemanifes Inisiatiewe (2011) vir die daarstelling van ‘n regverdige, onderhoubare en vreedsame globale gemeenskap. In Suid-­‐Afrika is die behoefte aan transformasie deur die Suid-­‐Afrikaanse Departement van Onderwys deur die Onderwys Witskrif van 1997 (DvO 1997) onderstreep. By die Stellenbosch Universiteit beoog die Pedagogie van Hoop (US) projek om konkrete maniere te verkry om historiese invloede en die huidige SA gemeenskap te oordink. Geweldige vooruitgang in transformasie is reeds ten opsigte van wetgewende beleid bewerkstellig, maar dit blyk dat persoonlike transformasie binne-­‐in mense traag gebeur. ‘n Module genaamd Kritiese Burgerskap is as reaksie tot hierdie realiteit by die Visuele Kunste Departement te Stellenbosch Universiteit ingestel vir eerste-­‐ tot derdejaarstudente in Visuele Kommunikasie Ontwerp. Die doel van die huidige navorsingsprojek was om die persepsies en houdings van studente, leerders en dosente ten opsigte van persoonlike transformasie deur die onderrig en leer van die Kritiese Burgerskap module te ondersoek. As ‘n raamwerk vir die studie het ek beklemtoon dat dit belangrik is om die emotiewe dimensies van leer (Illeris 2007) in ag te neem, wat inagname van die lerende wese (Barnett 2009) as ‘n denkende, voelende en handelende persoon (Jarvis 2006) behels. Die doelwitte van die studie was om emotiewe reaksies op die Kritiese Burgerskap module te identifiseer en vas te stel wat deur sulke emotiewe reaksies ontbloot word ten opsigte van die onmiddellike en breër konteks van die onderrig en leer konteks waarbinne die studente, leerders en dosente leer en onderrig gee. Ek het met ‘n interpretatiewe benadering en lens te werk gegaan en ’n gevallestudie navorsingsontwerp is gebruik. Temas wat na vore gekom het uit refleksies wat deur studente en leerders geskryf is en uit groep onderhoude het die volgende behels: ‘n gevoel van onvoorbereidheid vir dié soort projek; gevoelens van skuld en skaamte; weerstand teen hierdie soort projek; asimmetrie en assimilasie, maar ook gevoelens van hoop. Ander reaksies wat ook met die hooftemas deurvleg was, was verteenwoordigend van gevoelens van empatie, bevoorregting, nederigheid, herevaluering van prioriteite en waardes, eendersheid en verskil, die gevoel van buite die gemaksone te wees en nadenke oor swartheid en witheid. Die resultate van die navorsing het behels dat dit belangrik is om die emotiewe aspekte by die onderrig van kritiese burgerskap in ag te neem omdat ons denkende, voelende en handelende wesens is, maar dat dit van kritieke belang is om verby emosionele reaksies na rasionele handeling te beweeg. Kritiese burgerskap kan nie geïsoleerd onderrig word nie omdat die konteks waarbinne dit bestaan ‘n deurslaggewende rol speel; ‘n inklusiewe kritiese burgerskap kurrikulum binne gemeenskapsinteraksies word vir die breër gemeenskap voorgestel.

Thesis (MEd (Education Policy Studies))--University of Stellenbosch, 2005. / This investigation form part of an international about the facilitative role of school management regarding the emergence of immigrant children at schools The purpose of this study is to determine how selected school communities respond to their role with regards to the management and facilitation of immigrant learners in schools. In order to accomplish this, both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used. Descriptive survey techniques were applied on the basis of their flexibility. Questionaires, informal discourse, formal interviews and the case study were utilised to establish the opinions, attitudes, preferences and perceptions of communities regarding the immigration of learners. This was done against the backdrop of an extensive and comprehensive literature review. Throughout the study an attempt was made to remain as faithful as possible to the facts through empirical research, and to minimise prejudice, stereotyping and preferences through using rational thinking. Internal testing was used to ensure validity and reliability. According to the current research, the responses regarding migration by learners are very diverse. The responses are realised within the following contexts: accessibility or inaccessibility of schools, culture, politics, ideology, ethnicity, religion, language and even racial classification. Although geographical location is not a significant factor, social stratification patterns as well as the status play a role in this regard. The researcher concludes that the targeted school communities still lack the expertise, experience and ability to handle, facilitate and settle issues relating to multi-cultural diversity. Research findings show that this state of affairs is largely due to a lack of undestanding of transformation in the school context as well as regarding the implementation and execution of this transformation.

O presente trabalho trata das referências musicais de alunos da rede pública na cidade de São Paulo. A partir de um levantamento que envolveu 1.482 estudantes de cinco escolas estaduais, buscamos observar se os professores reconhecem estes componentes da cultura jovem, isto é, se sabem o que é, se respeitam e se já utilizaram ou entendem que é possível fazer uso de tais referências no processo de ensino-aprendizagem. O estudo se localiza no campo de convergência entre a Comunicação e a Educação e é pautado pela ideia de que as canções e artistas, como elementos que circulam em dado estrato social, podem ser utilizados na mediação das relações humanas, por meio do posicionamento crítico, que dê condições aos indivíduos de exercer sua autonomia, de construir o conhecimento na negociação de sentidos e na compreensão de que o processo de ensino-aprendizagem se estrutura na reciprocidade. Os instrumentos de pesquisa aplicados aos educandos foram o questionário e a observação direta. As informações obtidas nesta primeira etapa passaram por processo de organização e análise para posterior utilização em grupos de discussão promovidos com os educadores. Também foram realizadas entrevistas individuais e levantamento bibliográfico. Os resultados apontam que a grande maioria dos indivíduos que compõem a amostra mantém relação estreita com a música. O barateamento das tecnologias digitais e a proliferação de smartphones alteraram as formas de interação com os artistas e do consumo das canções, que se tornaram mais individuais, customizadas e móveis. Um dos impactos diretos das transformações é o crescimento da circulação dos conteúdos disponibilizados pelas mídias na escola e, inclusive, na sala de aula. Os professores, por sua vez, revelam um baixo reconhecimento a respeito das práticas de escuta dos estudantes: sabem pouco e demonstram relativo respeito em relação aos hits, aos compositores, grupos, cantores e intérpretes que fazem sucesso nas turmas em que dão aula. Além disso, as experiências de utilização destes produtos culturais como suporte pedagógico são pontuais. Entre os motivos para o fenômeno, está a aceleração social do tempo, que amplia as exigências pelo contínuo lançamento de produtos novos e cada vez mais perecíveis, assim como limita a possibilidade dos docentes de se manterem atualizados, uma vez que eles já têm de lidar com as pressões diárias de sua vida pessoal e profissional. / The work presented herein with the musical references of public school students in the city of São Paulo. We have conducted a survey with 1,482 students, from five \"Estate schools\" (Sao Paulo\'s Estate administered schools), in which we sought to observe if the teachers brought to their attention and cognition, the recognizing of these musical reference components prevalent on the youth culture, that is, whether they know what they are, whether they respect and whether they have already used or understand that it is possible to use such references in the teaching-learning process. The study is located in the field of convergence between Communication and Education and is guided by the idea that songs and artists, as elements circulating in a given social stratum, can be used in the mediation of human relations, with the aid of critical self-positioning to support the conditions necessary for individuals to exert their autonomy, in order to build the knowledge while in the negotiating of the senses, and in the comprehension that the teaching/learning process structures itself in reciprocity. The research instruments applied to the students were a questionnaire and simply the direct observation were the tools used to determine the results of this research. The information obtained in this first stage went through a process of organization and analysis for later use in discussion groups promoted to educators. Individual interviews and bibliographic surveys were also carried out. The results indicate that the great majority of the individuals that have a close relationship with music. The cheapening of digital technologies and the proliferation of smartphones have altered the forms of interaction with the artists and the consumption of the songs, which have become more individual, customized and mobile. A direct impact of these transformations can be seen in the growth of content circulation made available by the media in schools, and classrooms. Teachers, on the other hand, show a low level of recognizing their student\'s listening practices: little they know of it, and the respect they show is relative to how little they know of the hits and personalities which are successful amongst their students. In addition, the experiences of using these elements as a pedagogical tool are timely. Among the reasons for the phenomenon is the social acceleration of time, which expands the demands for the continuous launch of new and increasingly perishable products, and limits the possibilities for teachers to keep up to date, since they already have to deal with the daily pressures of their personal and professional life.

Em uma sociedade fortemente marcada pelos meios de comunicação e pelas transformações impostas pelo fenômeno da globalização, o setor educacional também passa por desafios e mudanças profundas. No Brasil, especialmente nos últimos 15 anos, o ensino superior viveu um período de enorme expansão, com a abertura de instituições de ensino, oferta de cursos em diferentes modalidades e o ingresso de um contingente da população que até então estava excluído das universidades. A maior parte das matrículas está concentrada em cursos noturnos oferecidos por instituições de ensino particulares, muitas delas configuradas como grandes grupos educacionais, com caráter marcadamente mercantil. Este trabalho se propõe a investigar o perfil sócio-econômico e cultural dos alunos de uma dessas instituições, seu universo de representações simbólicas, bem como o consumo e uso que fazem das mídias. Tem como objetivo, ainda, avaliar a correlação entre as mudanças nos padrões sociais dos estudantes e transformações em relação ao consumo de mídia e às formas de acesso à informação e ao conhecimento. O recorte escolhido para fixar essas questões se realiza dentro dos limites da perspectiva comunicação-cultura-educação. O estudo de caso foi realizado no Centro Universitário Radial, pertencente ao grupo Estácio Participações. Além de utilizar números do IBGE, MEC e outros centros de pesquisa, aplicamos uma pesquisa de campo com dois procedimentos: um formulário com questões de múltipla escolha foi respondido por 2.263 alunos e realizamos entrevistas em profundidade, individuais, com dez estudantes. Os resultados apontam que o aluno da UniRadial-Estácio é claramente oriundo das classes populares, reside em áreas periféricas da região metropolitana de São Paulo e reconfigura parte de sua identidade a partir de seu ingresso no ensino superior e do valor simbólico que tal fato tem para ele e sua família, especialmente por pertencer à primeira geração, em seu âmbito familiar, que teve acesso a um curso superior. Ele mantém uma relação paradoxal com a instituição de ensino em questão, que envolve valor de troca e utilitário, mas não se esgota na dimensão do consumo. É também um estudante imerso na sociedade contemporânea, marcada pela forte presença da mídia. Sendo assim, ele consome veículos de comunicação impressa, lê livros, assiste televisão, mas principalmente e, sobretudo, utiliza a internet como meio de comunicação, socialização e veículo de acesso à informação e ao conhecimento. No que tange à instituição de ensino, verificamos que ela incorporou, de algumas formas, o uso da tecnologia e dos meios de comunicação em suas práticas pedagógicas. No entanto, essa incorporação se deu dentro de um contexto meramente operatório, instrumental ou então especificamente quando tratamos das aulas a distância via web dentro de uma lógica mercantil. Tal uso provoca forte rejeição nos estudantes o que demonstra que as relações do uso da tecnologia e/ou meios de comunicação dentro e fora do ambiente escolar não são nada mecânicas ou automáticas. Isto é, não é porque o estudante utiliza com frequência determinada mídia, que sua mera inclusão no contexto educacional se fará eficaz do ponto de vista do ensino-aprendizagem. / In a society strongly marked by the media and the changes wrought by globalization, the education sector is also undergoing profound changes and challenges. In Brazil, especially in the last 15 years, higher education experienced a period of huge expansion with the opening of educational institutions, offering courses in different modalities and the entry of a contingent of people who previously were excluded from universities. Most enrollment is concentrated in evening courses offered by private educational institutions, many of them set to large educational groups, with markedly mercantile character. This work aims to investigate the socio-economic and cultural profile of students of a higher education institution, their universe of symbolic representations, and the consumption and use they make of the media. The research wants also to evaluate the correlation between changes in social patterns of students and changes in relation to consumption of media and forms of access to information and knowledge. The questions are analyzed within the limits of a perspective which involves education-culture-communication. The case study was conducted in the Centro Universitário Radial, belonging to the group Estácio Participações. Besides using figures from the IBGE, MEC and other research centers, we apply a field survey with two procedures: a form with multiple choice questions was answered by 2263 students and we also conducted interviews, individually, with ten students. The results indicate that the students UniRadial-Estácio are clearly coming from the lower classes, living in peripheral areas of metropolitan São Paulo and reconfigure part of their identity from their entry to higher education and the symbolic value that this fact has to them and their families, especially for belonging to the first generation in their family relations, which had access to a university. They maintain a paradoxical relationship with the institution in question, which involves exchange value and utility, but is not limited in the realm of consumption. It is also a student immersed in contemporary society, marked by a strong media presence. Thus, they consume the media printed, read books, watch television, but primarily and above all use the internet as a means of communication, socialization and vehicle access to information and knowledge. Regarding the educational institution, we found that it incorporated in some ways, the use of technology and media in their teaching practice. However, this incorporation took place within a context merely operative, instrumental or so - especially when we deal with distance education via web - in a market logic. Such use leads to strong rejection among students which demonstrates that the relationship of technology or media use inside and outside of school is nothing mechanical or automatic. That is, not because the student often uses certain media, that its mere inclusion in the educational context will make it effective from the point of view of teaching and learning.