Educators can connect life to learning to transform the classroom experience using contextual teaching and learning strategies and assignments such as open educational resources, service learning projects, active learning labs, practical technological applications, and collaborative assignments.

This research thesis is focused on the question:

This research focused on the question, How do practitioners understand the transfer of competence (that is, what do they know and can do) accross different workplace contexts and how does it influence their practice? The research investigates the experiences and perceptions of 108 workers, who have changed jobs or whose jobs have changed, as to how they were able to adapt what they knew and could do at the time. The research is phenomological, using a methodology designed to collect and analyse data from the participants without decontextualising it. The methodology is customised and contextualised and uses activity theory, Engestrom's theory of expansive learning, grounded theory and discourse analysis to interrogate the research question. The collection of data occurred over a period of five years and was in two stages, with the second stage validating and building on the first stage. Minimally structured interviews and a questionnare were the main data collec tion tools used. Some descriptive statistics have been used but the research is qualitative in intent. The research draws on current theoretical positions of learning, transfer, experimental learning, workplace learning, activity theory, qualitative research and reflection on experience. The thesis has been written to foreground the voices of the participants and the insights their experience brings to the research. The research addresses a current gap in research work, carried out in Australia or overseas, which focuses on the transfer of competence across workplaces. The outcomes provide new perspectives on the ways in which practitioners understand transfer and integrate these interpretations into their generalisation without decontextualisation, and thus makes a contribution to our collective knowledge and understanding. The outcomes of the research are a metaphoric framework to guide the transfer of competence over different work contexts; a record of the application of new understandings of transfer as a sequence of consequential transitions (Beach 1999); generalisations derived from the embedding of contexts (Van Oers 1998); and an innovative research methodology. In addition, the participants have provided their perspectives on the preperation of, and on-going support for, people entering or crossing workplace contexts, and the consequential, necessary changes to institutional learning.

The main purpose of the present study is to investigate whether learning and ways of understanding subject content and structure differ between successful and less successful students—i.e. in terms of their grade point average—in upper secondary school. A second issue is whether different subjects and disciplines—i.e. science on the one hand and humanities/social sciences on the other—make different demands on students. Data were gathered through interviews with a total of 36 students in two classes at two periods of their schooling. Additional data were gathered from interviews with teachers in the two classes and a sample of the tests given to the classes. Both classes receive instruction in science as well as humanities/social sciences but in one class (N) the emphasis is on science whereas in the other (S) the emphasis is on humanities/social sciences. A common characteristic of successful students is that they adjust to the teacher’s way of structuring the subject by means of a deep approach and a pronounced cue-seeking. They also play a dominant role in classroom communication. Less successful students more frequently use a surface or procedural approach to learning, are less sensitive for cues, do not adjust to the structure of subjects as presented by the teachers and do not participate to the same extent in classroom communication. The characteristics for successful students are very stable over time. As for the less successful students, there is a difference between N- and S-students. A majority of the S-students who use a surface approach in the first year change towards a deep approach later in their schooling, whereas the procedural approach of N-students is stable. It is concluded that the stability shown by the successful students can be explained in that their deep approach reflects their understanding that subject structure may vary and cue-seeking for these students signifies an awareness of and subsequent adjustment to the particular structure presented by the teachers. By understanding the structure according to teachers’ intentions, successful students are able to participate in classroom communication, eventually establishing a joint discourse. The differences between a change of learning for S- and N-students could be interpreted in light of differences in subject structure and instruction between subjects. In humanities/social sciences, classroom communication and the presentation of alternative interpretations of subject matter play a prominent role in instruction, and students who initially use a surface approach might get guidance to alternative ways of understanding the subject matter and subject structure. In the science subjects in the N-programme, the presentation of alternative interpretations is not  as common. These subjects also have a hierarchical structure, and understanding the basic fundamentals is a prerequisite for understanding later topics. For the students who initially use a surface approach in these hierarchically ordered subjects, learning becomes a matter of memorising more and more disconnected facts in what might seem to be disjointed courses.

The purpose of this thesis project is to develop a set of interactive digital solutions designed to enhance the interest and knowledge intake of visitors at Skånes Djurpark (Zoo of Scania) in Höör. The project was carried out in collaboration with Skånes Djurpark and representatives from its visitors. Our thesis is based on academic works in the fields of interaction design, exhibit design and contextual learning. Ethnographical field studies have been conducted at Skånes Djurpark with additional field studies at Tropikariet in Helsingborg, Copenhagen Zoo and Regionmuseet Kristianstad. Existing information signs in Skånes Djurpark are primarily image- and textbased, forcing visitors to divert their attention from the different species of Nordic animals that inhabit the zoological park. Our proposed set of designs include interactive signage solutions using audiomedia, which allows visitors to learn by listening to stories while experiencing and physically looking at living animals.

Migration has been increasing in the last years in the European Union, something that challenges social integration because of the language barrier. In the case of Sweden, although the government offers newcomers basic education to teach the language, small communities and local associations had been creating spaces to learn Swedish outside of a classroom environment. From this context, research is needed to find ways to enhance the learning experience environments outside a traditional classroom setting. Embodied interaction, as a subfield of Interaction Design, enriches conventional methods for education and learning by providing ways of integrating the physical body with new knowledge. This can be a possible way to contribute to finding new ways of learning. This project aims to explore collective ways of creating meaningful interactive experiences that can enhance language learning in adults with tertiary education in Malmö, Sweden. In this thesis project, an overview of the process will be presented. Furthermore, the project materializes in an app as a prototype, that presents some insights into the field of embodied learning and interaction design.

Amygdala kindling is commonly used to study the mechanisms involved in epileptogenesis, with long-term amygdala kindling providing a useful model of the behavioural disturbances such as heightened anxiety that can occur between epileptic seizures. The purpose of this thesis was to determine whether increased fear behaviours exhibited by long-term amygdala kindled rats are reflective of previously observed kindling-mediated alterations in the hippocampus. As the hippocampus plays an integral role in contextual learning, the ability of the animals to habituate to a novel environment was evaluated, in order to determine if the rats displayed impairments in this hippocampal-dependent function. In Experiment 1, long-term kindled rats demonstrated consistently elevated exploration and fear over repeated exposure to an initially novel open field, indicating impaired habituation. In Experiment 2, all kindled rats showed elevated exploration and an inability to form a home base in relation to static visual cues, again demonstrating an inability to habituate over repeated exposures to the initially novel environment. Rats that had received 30 or 60 stimulations demonstrated hyperexploratory behaviour and elevated fear, although this behaviour did dissipate to a certain degree by the final day of testing. Long-term kindled rats, having received 99 stimulations, demonstrated extremely heightened fear behaviours that interfered with normal exploration, home base formation and habituation. These fear behaviours included high levels of freezing, disorganized running, and purposive jumping from the open field. Taken together, these results indicate that long-term amygdala kindling does produce deficits in habituation to an initially novel environment. As habituation necessarily involves the hippocampal-dependent roles of contextual learning and memory, the current research suggests that long-term kindling does impair hippocampal function and that this may contribute to kindling-induced fear behaviours. This research may help to understand the mechanisms involved in emotional disturbances experienced by human epileptics.

Amygdala kindling is commonly used to study the mechanisms involved in epileptogenesis, with long-term amygdala kindling providing a useful model of the behavioural disturbances such as heightened anxiety that can occur between epileptic seizures. The purpose of this thesis was to determine whether increased fear behaviours exhibited by long-term amygdala kindled rats are reflective of previously observed kindling-mediated alterations in the hippocampus. As the hippocampus plays an integral role in contextual learning, the ability of the animals to habituate to a novel environment was evaluated, in order to determine if the rats displayed impairments in this hippocampal-dependent function. In Experiment 1, long-term kindled rats demonstrated consistently elevated exploration and fear over repeated exposure to an initially novel open field, indicating impaired habituation. In Experiment 2, all kindled rats showed elevated exploration and an inability to form a home base in relation to static visual cues, again demonstrating an inability to habituate over repeated exposures to the initially novel environment. Rats that had received 30 or 60 stimulations demonstrated hyperexploratory behaviour and elevated fear, although this behaviour did dissipate to a certain degree by the final day of testing. Long-term kindled rats, having received 99 stimulations, demonstrated extremely heightened fear behaviours that interfered with normal exploration, home base formation and habituation. These fear behaviours included high levels of freezing, disorganized running, and purposive jumping from the open field. Taken together, these results indicate that long-term amygdala kindling does produce deficits in habituation to an initially novel environment. As habituation necessarily involves the hippocampal-dependent roles of contextual learning and memory, the current research suggests that long-term kindling does impair hippocampal function and that this may contribute to kindling-induced fear behaviours. This research may help to understand the mechanisms involved in emotional disturbances experienced by human epileptics.

The main purpose of the study was to explore how learning cycle and traditional method as teaching methods contribute to the effect of contextual approach on 11th grade students&rsquo / achievement in &ldquo / impulse and momentum&rdquo / , and attitude towards physics. Therefore, a distinction between teaching approach (contextual vs. non-contextual) and teaching method (learning cycle vs. traditional method) was made and they were used as independent variables. Students&rsquo / gender was also used as an independent variable. Thus, the study was a 2x2x2 factorial design. The sample, drawn through the purposive sampling, included 226 students. Pretests and posttests were used for assessing students&rsquo / achievement in impulse and momentum, and attitude towards physics. Using Multivariate Analysis of Covariance (MANCOVA), the main effects of contextual approach, learning cycle, and student gender as well as the interaction effects among them were investigated. Consequently, (1) contextual approach was more effective in supporting students&rsquo / conceptual understanding of impulse and momentum, (2) learning cycle was as effective as the traditional method, (3) gender related difference in attitude towards physics in favor of males could not be removed through the treatments, (4) contextual approach worked better with the traditional method than the learning cycle for achievement and attitude, (5) males benefitted a little more from learning cycle while females benefitted a little more from traditional method in terms of conceptual and non-conceptual scores.

The Apollo Project investigates the recent establishment of numerous private educational institutions in the inner city of Pretoria. It identifies the need for adequate urban educational facilities and explores the use of existing buildings as schools. An existing educational cluster is identified at the eastern edge of the inner city, defined by Church, Du Toit and Pretorius Streets, and Nelson Mandela Drive. This city block and the ones surrounding it contain numerous primary, secondary and tertiary educational institutions in a predominant industrial/automotive precinct. An urban design framework is proposed for the precinct. It is envisioned that the precinct may be developed as a mixed-use urban educational campus. Within the existing city block and the urban framework proposal, the Apollo Centre, located on the corner of Church-and Du Toit Street, is selected for an adaptive re-use intervention. The proposed use is an urban primary school. The Apollo project investigates current pedagogical trends, which informed a concept that is largely defined by the idea of contextual learning within a vertical structure. Transparency and integration of education with the urban environment is at the core of the proposal. The traditional notion of horizontal education is explored in a vertical manner. The existing structure is analyzed and a position taken regarding the adaptive re-use process that informs the design. Precedent Studies include existing schools within the inner city of Pretoria as well as local and international schools. The process of converting the Apollo Centre into a primary educational facility, that shares its resources on a cross-programming basis, is explored in a series of proposals. The numerous explorations are considered in their various aspects, as well as their relationship to the whole, which then leads to a final design proposal. Key areas of the proposed Apollo Primary School will finally be resolved technically. A conclusion summarizes the author’s thoughts on the result of the project. / Mini Dissertation (MArch(Prof))--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Architecture / unrestricted