Magister Philosophiae - MPhil / The thesis examines the patterns of school attendance across the nine Provinces of South Africa. With reference to individuals of eligible age, school attendance is conceived of three statuses: effective attendance (those who are presently attending an educational institution), definitive non-attendance (those with no intentions of going back to school), and temporary non-attendance (possibility of going back to the educational system within a specified time frame). The focus of the study is on the primary and secondary levels of schooling. A household based approach is pursued to profile the extent to which young people aged 20 years and below either who attend/do not attend schooling institutions in each of the nine Provinces. Differentials in school attendance are examined along the lines of some socio-demographic and spatial variables drawn from the 2004 general household survey conducted by Statistics South Africa. The core hypothesis is that school attendance is subjected to the influence of both individual attributes and household characteristics. The study also attempts to profile the causes of non-attendance (definitive and temporary) through a set of instrumental variables. To complement this subjective profiling,appropriate statistical methods are used to assess the significance of contributing factors to non-school attendance at the household level.

Antiplatelet agents in the perioperative period of non-cardiac surgeries and the decision making between maintaining or suspending.Juliana Maria Dantas Mendonça Borges.2018 INTRODUCTION: In daily clinical practice there is the dilemma between maintaining or suspending antiplatelet agents in the perioperative period of non-cardiac surgeries. OBJECTIVES: To describe the prescribing pattern of antiplatelet agents in the perioperative period of noncardiac surgeries. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was carried out from October 2014 to October 2016 in a hospital. The study-dependent variable was the divergent therapy recommendations of the guidelines of the Brazilian Society of Cardiology (SBC). The independent variables included some characteristics, those responsible for the management and the causes of non adherence to the guidelines. Variables were included in the multivariate model. The analysis was based on the odds ratio (OR) and its respective 95% confidence interval (CI), estimated by logistic regression with a significance level of 5%. RESULTS: The sample consisted of adult patients undergoing non-cardiac surgeries using aspirin or clopidogrel (n = 161). The prescription of these drugs was in disagreement with that recommended by the guidelines in 80.75% of the sample. Surgeons performed the largest number (n = 63) of disagreeing guidelines. After the multivariate analysis, it was observed that patients with a higher level of education (OR = 0.24; 95% CI 0.07-0.78) and those with a previous episode of acute myocardial infarction (MI) (OR = 0,18; 95% CI 0.04-0.95), are more likely to use the therapy in agreement. CONCLUSION: Positive association between the educational level of the patients or previous history of AMI with the use of ASA and clopidogrel in the perioperative period of noncardiac surgeries. However, the divergences in the conduct reinforce the need to define internal protocols. / INTRODUÇÃO: Na prática clínica diária há o dilema entre manter ou suspender os antiagregantes plaquetários em perioperatório de cirurgias não cardíacas. OBJETIVOS: Descrever o padrão de prescrição de antiagregantes plaquetários em periopetaratório de cirurgias não cardíacas. MÉTODOS: Estudo transversal, realizado de outubro de 2014 a outubro de 2016 em hospital. A variável dependente do estudo foi a terapia divergente das recomendações das diretrizes da Sociedade Brasileira de Cardiologia (SBC). As variáveis independentes incluíram algumas características, os responsáveis pelo manejo e as causas de não adesão às diretrizes. As variáveis foram incluídas no modelo multivariado. A análise baseou-se no valor de oddsratio (OR) e seu respectivo intervalo de confiança (IC) de 95%, estimados por regressão logística com um nível de significância de 5%. RESULTADOS: A amostra foi composta de pacientes adultos submetidos a cirurgias não cardíacas e que faziam uso de ácido acetilsalicílico (AAS) ou clopidogrel (n= 161). A prescrição destes medicamentos esteve em desacordo com o preconizado pelas diretrizes em 80,75% da amostra. Os cirurgiões realizaram o maior número (n=63) de orientações em desacordo. Após a análise multivariada, observou-se que os pacientes com nível de escolaridade superior (OR=0,24; IC95% 0,07-0,78) e aqueles com episódio prévio de infarto agudo do miocárdio (IAM) (OR=0,18; IC95% 0,04-0,95), possuem maior chance de utilizar a terapia em concordância. CONCLUSÃO: Associação positiva entre o nível de escolaridade dos pacientes ou história prévia de IAM com o manejo do uso de AAS e clopidogrel em perioperatório de cirurgias não cardíacas. Porém, as divergências nas condutas reforçam a necessidade de definição de protocolos internos. / Aracaju

Although much educational research has investigated the relative effectiveness of different educational interventions and policies, little is known about the absolute net benefits of K-12 schooling independent of growth due to chronological age and out-of-school experience. The nearly universal policy of age tracking in schools makes this a difficult topic to investigate. However, a quasi-experimental regression discontinuity design can be used to separate observed test score differences between grades into independent age and schooling components, yielding an estimate of the net effects of school exposure at each grade level. In this study, a multilevel version of this design was applied to scores on 22 common ability and achievement tests from two major standardized test batteries. The ability battery contained 9 measures of Verbal, Quantitative, and Figural reasoning. The achievement battery contained 13 measures in the areas of Language, Mathematics, Reading, Social Studies, Science, and Sources of Information. The analysis was based on sample of over 20,000 students selected from a longitudinal database collected by a large U.S. parochial school system. The theory of fluid (Gf) and crystallized (Gc) intelligence predicts that these tests will show systematically different levels of sensitivity to schooling. Indeed, the achievement (Gc) tests were found to be three times more sensitive to schooling than they were to aging (one-year effect sizes of .41 versus .15), whereas the ability (Gf) tests were equally influenced by age (.18) and schooling (.19). Nonetheless, the schooling effect on most Gf tests was substantial, especially when the compounding over a typical school career is considered. This replicates the results of previous investigations of age and schooling using regression discontinuity methods and once again contradicts common interpretations of fluid ability. Different measures of a construct often exhibited varying levels of school sensitivity. Those tests that were less sensitive to schooling generally required reading, reasoning, transfer, synthesis, or translation; posed a wider range of questions; and/or presented problems in an unfamiliar format. Quantitative reasoning tests showed more sensitivity to schooling than figural reasoning tests, while verbal reasoning tests occupied a middle ground between the two. Schooling had the most impact on basic arithmetic skills and mathematical concepts, and a significantly weaker impact on the solution of math word problems. School-related gains on isolated language skills were much larger than gains on solving grammar problems in context. The weakest schooling impact overall was on reading comprehension where effects were no larger than those on verbal ability measures. An interesting dichotomy was found between spelling and paper folding (a measure of figural and spatial reasoning). Spelling skills showed robust schooling effects but a consistently negative age slope, a puzzling result which indicates that younger students in each group outperformed older students. Paper folding showed the opposite pattern, a large age effect and a small but consistently negative schooling effect. Results serve to rebut skepticism about both the impact of schooling on test scores and the validity of distinctions between ability and achievement. It is argued that the regression discontinuity design has great potential in the measurement of school effectiveness, while also offering a source of validity evidence for test developers and test users. Implications for theories of cognitive ability and future research on schooling effects are discussed.

This dissertation (by publication) is concerned with the introduction of the haiku form of poetry to elementary schooling. Four publications examine a variety of phenomena regarding learning and becoming with haiku practice from multiple angles, drawing on various analytical methods from discourse analysis to conversational analysis, and beyond (towards transaction analysis). The first study examines the discourses of haiku and mindfulness through texts available online and articulates the potential integration of teaching these two practices in education. The second takes a more critical look at the teaching and learning haiku materials to understand the discursive resources of doing haiku. The third study moves to understanding the nature of learning to read haiku by looking at communication between teachers, students, and researchers in a haiku reading event. The fourth study examines emptiness embodied in the practice of writing haiku through examples of Basho’s life and poetry and articulates my personal experience as a teacher of reading and writing haiku. The research and understanding involved in these papers and this dissertation have been for me a journey, which I present here as a haibun. Haibun is a term first used by the Japanese haiku poet, Matsuo Basho, to refer to a poetic literary form combining prose and haiku and which recounts the various journeys of a haiku practitioner. As the title, A Haibun of Learning and Becoming with Haiku Practice, indicates, the following text describes a journey of learning and becoming with haiku practice, holding together and surrounding the four studies as a necklace holds precious stones. This dissertation links these four studies through a narrative of the flux of my research journey with haiku practice from text to life. Drawing on transactional perspectives underlining all four studies, I propose an alternative way of theorizing and understanding the experience of learning and becoming with the practice of haiku as event. The four studies function as four main events (steps) on my research trail and the dissertation presents itself as a lively story in a continuous conversation about researching, teaching, and learning with haiku practice. Finally, and as a last step recorded here, but far from a final step, I offer a haiga (haiku painting) and some haiku lyrics (songs I sing and poems I have written) as an invitation to look back along the path we have walked together to celebrate, and to continue our walk towards a spring of new beginnings in research and haiku reading and writing. / Graduate

No description available.

Doctor Educationis / The Department of Education of the South Mrican Government of National Unity has accepted democratic governance as one of the principles of its education and training programme. At school level, especially at historically black schools, there is also an increasing demand for meaningful involvement in the decision-making that affects school policy. Unfortunately educational leaders have generally not been empowered to make a meaningful contribution to the transformation of the schools into democratic teaching and learning organizations. This motivated the decision to undertake this thesis. The focus on the democratization of instructional leadership is meant to serve as an example and catalyst for the democratization of all other aspects of the school. In order to contextualize the investigation the main approaches to schooling in South Africa were interrogated against the background of the conservative, liberal and radical theories of democracy in western capitalist societies. The main finding is that, in spite of obvious differences, South African schooling is essentially another form of mass education used as the legitimating apparatus of state ideology. Within this framework Christian-National Education and liberalism form the dominant educational discourse in South Africa while the aspirations of the majority of blacks find manifestation in People's Education which embodies radical/nco-Marxist theories. In spite of the claims of it being basically neutral and value free, educational leadership in South Africa has generally been used to legitimate and reproduce the existing hegemony. An investigation of the positivistic, interpretive and critical research paradigms indicated that, given the South African context, critical action research with its emphasis on, amongst others, collaborative participation, empowerment and emancipation is the most appropriate means to effect the democratization of instructional leadership. Relevant theories and research findings from the literature on action research were then explicated and made applicable to instructional leadership. Special emphasis was furthermore placed on practicalities like the preparation of instructional leaders for action research, the role of facilitators, and the transformation of the instructional mission, and the structures and interaction patterns of the school. The relatively radical nature of the practical suggestions necessitated the identification of the various personal, professional, societal and political constraints which might impede the envisaged consensual and facilitative leadership. Without depreciating the substantiality and magnitude of the constraints, possible solutions are proffered to overcome these constraints. In the true spirit of action research, an effort is made to avoid prescriptiveness due to the uniqueness of each situation. The successful implementation of action research will eventually depend on the commitment and willingness of all the main role players and stakeholders to collaborate fully in the pursuit of democratic instructional leadership. It thus becomes imperative that what is legitimated as privileged school experience should not be an endorsement of a particular culture or ideology. Instead instructional leadership should aim at developing emancipatory forms of consciousness so that teachers and pupils can not only be consumers but also producers of knowledge, who can reject and/or mediate knowledge which serves to reproduce the existing social order.

The Alice Project investigates the problem behind the lack of provision for children in developing areas. The project recognises the potential in formal educational facilities as being the most important designed children’s space in townships [as developed transit camps]. The study will aim to address school environments in an extroverted or interactive manner. This will be done in order to transform the school grounds into a community children’s ‘city of learning’ [H.Hertzberger.2008:127]. The study questions the one dimensional identity of current educational environments, while focusing on Olievenhoutbosch as the main research area [Olievenhoutbocsh Ministerial Housing Estate: July 2005] The study identifies the problem behind the dystopian institutional character of current educational facilities as; introverted layouts, isolation, mono function and functionally dominant and intimidating spaces [H.Zeither.1996:16; H.Hertzberger.2008:71]. In order to address dissertation elements of spatial alienation, the dissertation will investigate counter theories of contextual inclusion and humane places of interaction, using contextual informants of community use of spaces to assist in program allocation and determinants of spatial hierarchy, supported with theories by Jane Jacobs [1961] and Jan Gehl [2010 and 2011] on qualities of a humane compact city space. These theories will then be combined with educational design theories of learning spaces implemented as a city in miniature, ultimately allowing the educational environment to socially extrovert to include community life and achieve a social academic atmosphere through an interactive educational environment . / Dissertation MArch(Prof)--University of Pretoria, 2012. / Architecture / MArch(Prof) / Unrestricted

About 20 percent of school-aged children, 18 years and younger, struggle with mental health issues in America today. Mental health issues lead to greater rates of suicide, depression, loneliness, anxiety, and bullying that takes place in and out of schools. This exploratory multiple case study looks at how 10 fourth graders, five male and five female, use a weekly entry in a dialogue journal letter to their teacher to share their emotional lives. I explore how a dialogue journal can open up a space between students and teachers for emotional aspects of life and learning to be included in schools. This study specifically explores what children say about their lives and feelings in a dialogue journal across a period of a school year. I also inquire into changes in a period of crisis teaching when a worldwide pandemic closes down school and children are forced into distance learning in their homes. We find that 1) students can share feelings, ideas and parts of themselves with me in a dialogue journal that they don't share in class, 2) the journal provides a space for them to elaborate upon and become more aware of their feelings, 3) students seek to have a personal connection with their teacher, 4) students have comments and feedback about what is happening in the classroom, and 5) the student's entries affected my immediate practices as a teacher and added insights and ideas for future practices on how I could have been even more supportive to the students.

Acsract Syftet med denna studie har varit att undersöka hur förskollärare arbetar för att tillgodose det enskilda barnets behov vid inskolning. Studiens syfte mynnar ut i frågeställningar om hur förskollärare går tillväga och hur förutsättningarna ser ut för att nå en väl genomförd inskolning. Undersökningen handlar om att bredda kunskapen om hur förskollärare arbetar med inskolningen för att se det enskilda barnet i inskolningsprocessen. Studien knyter an till tidigare forskning och lyfter det som i resultatet är relevant. I läroplanen för förskolan (2018) står det att förskolan har i uppdrag att bemöta och ta till vara på alla barns individuella behov samt att de ska göra verksamheten meningsfull för alla barn. I denna studie lyfts förskollärarens förhållningssätt och förmåga att förstå hur de förhåller sig i mötet med barn och barns behov. Förskollärare behöver ha en medvetenhet kring sin egen syn på bemötande, då det hänger ihop med förmågan till samspel. Resultatet i undersökningen pekar på att bland annat kvalitet har stor betydelse för en väl genomförd inskolning.

About 20 percent of school-aged children, 18 years and younger, struggle with mental health issues in America today. Mental health issues lead to greater rates of suicide, depression, loneliness, anxiety, and bullying that takes place in and out of schools. This exploratory multiple case study looks at how 10 fourth graders, five male and five female, use a weekly entry in a dialogue journal letter to their teacher to share their emotional lives. I explore how a dialogue journal can open up a space between students and teachers for emotional aspects of life and learning to be included in schools. This study specifically explores what children say about their lives and feelings in a dialogue journal across a period of a school year. I also inquire into changes in a period of crisis teaching when a worldwide pandemic closes down school and children are forced into distance learning in their homes. We find that 1) students can share feelings, ideas and parts of themselves with me in a dialogue journal that they don't share in class, 2) the journal provides a space for them to elaborate upon and become more aware of their feelings, 3) students seek to have a personal connection with their teacher, 4) students have comments and feedback about what is happening in the classroom, and 5) the student's entries affected my immediate practices as a teacher and added insights and ideas for future practices on how I could have been even more supportive to the students.