The thesis deals with the topic of dyscalculia, which is officially recognized as a learning disability. The theoretical part of the thesis is focused on the current status of knowledge about development of mathematical skills and their disorders in the context of dyscalculia. The empiric part of this thesis describes a research which compares the performances of individuals with dyscalculia and control participants on a range number and numerosity processing tasks. The main goal was to describe the image of possible causes of difficulties. Deficits in the processing of symbolic and nonsymbolic numerosities were observed in group of dyscalculic participants. We conclude that dyscalculia is related to specific disabilities in basic numerical and numerosity processing which affects ability to acquire arithmetical skills. KEYWORDS Klíčová slova (anglicky): Dyscalculia, numerosity, arithmetic skills, mathematical skills, specific learning difficulties

Recent trends show that learners’ enrolment and performance in science at secondary school level is dwindling. Some science topics including genetics in biology are said to be difficult for learners to learn and thus they perform poorly in examinations. Teacher knowledge base, particularly topic-specific pedagogical content knowledge (PCK), has been identified by many researchers as an important factor that is linked with learner understanding and achievement in science. This qualitative study was an attempt to explore the PCK of four successful biology teachers and how they developed it in the context of teaching genetics. The purposive sampling technique was employed to select the participating teachers based on their schools’ performance in biology public examinations and recommendations by science specialists and school principals. Pedagogical content knowledge was used as a theoretical framework for the study, which guided the inquiry in data collection, analysis and discussion of the research findings. The study adopted the case study method and various sources of evidence including concept maps, lesson plans, pre-lesson interviews, lesson observations, post-teaching teacher questionnaire, post-lesson interviews and document analysis were used to collect data on teachers’ PCK as well as how PCK was assumed to have developed. The data were analysed in an attempt to determine the individual teachers’ school genetics’ content knowledge, related knowledge of instructional strategies and knowledge of learners’ preconceptions and learning difficulties. The analysis involved an iterative process of coding data into PCK categories of content knowledge, pedagogical knowledge and knowledge of learners’ preconceptions and learning difficulties. The findings of the study indicate that the four successful biology teachers generally have the necessary content knowledge of school genetics, used certain topic-specific instructional strategies, but lacked knowledge of genetics-related learners’ preconceptions and learning difficulties despite having taught the topic for many years. There were some instructional deficits in their approaches and techniques in teaching genetics. The teachers failed to use physical models, teacher demonstration and/or learner experimentation in their lessons (or include them in their lesson plans) to assist learners in visualizing or internalizing the genetics concepts or processes located at the sub-microscopic level. The teachers’ PCK in genetics teaching was assumed to have developed mainly through formal university education programmes, classroom teaching experiences, peer support and participation in in-service workshops. The implications for biology teacher education are also discussed. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / lk2014 / Humanities Education / PhD / Unrestricted

Dans ce travail de recherche qui s’inscrit dans le cadre d’une thèse en sciences du langage, notre intérêt s’est porté sur les problèmes que rencontrent les jordaniens qui apprennent la langue française lors de la réalisation des productions écrites. Nous avons trouvé que l’interférence constitue une difficulté majeure à laquelle se heurtent fréquemment les apprenants ; elle constitue par conséquent un défi pour l’enseignement du français. Dans cette recherche sur l’analyse des erreurs orthographiques grammaticales et lexicales, qui se base sur une enquête effectuée au département de langue et littérature française à l’université de Jordanie à Amman, nous avons tenté de repérer les erreurs commises, de comprendre leurs causes, de connaître de quelle manière la langue maternelle des apprenants (l'arabe jordanien) et la première langue étrangère dans le pays (l'anglais) marquent leurs productions écrites. Nous avons ensuite cherché à y remédier dans une perspective visant le développement des compétences orthographiques des apprenants et également de l’enseignement du français en Jordanie en fonction de leurs besoins et attentes, afin d’introduire une méthodologie efficace pour l’apprentissage du français langue étrangère. / In this research which is part of a thesis in linguistics, our interest was focused on the problems faced by Jordanian students who learn the French language when producing written work. We found that interference is a major difficulty that learners affronted frequently; it is therefore a challenge for the teaching of French. In this research the analysis of grammatical and lexical spelling errors, based on a survey in French language and literature department at the University of Jordan in Amman, we have attempted to identify the mistakes, understand their causes to know how the learners' mother tongue (Jordanian Arabic) and the first foreign language in the country (English) mark their written productions. We then sought to remedy with a view to the development of spelling skills of learners and also the teaching of French in Jordan according to their needs and expectations in order to introduce an effective methodology for learning French language.

In this study the emotional responses of mothers to their children with learning difficulties were identified and explored. A narrative research design was used to capture a chapter in the life stories of eleven mothers whose children were attending a school specialising in ‘remedial’ education, relating their experiences and emotional responses regarding their child’s learning difficulties. Data was collected by means of individual interviews, letters from the mothers, field notes in the form of journal entries written by the researcher, as well as individual feedback and collaboration sessions with the mothers. Data was analysed by means of several phases of theme analysis, after which, through a final analysis, 18 emotional response themes were identified. Three emotional response themes were identified as exception themes. The 18 emotional response themes, along with the three exception themes, were then clustered around joyful, sad, fearful and angry emotional response categories. After feedback and collaboration sessions, the themes were then further interpreted through a final level of analysis to weave a narrative of mothers’ emotional responses to their child with learning difficulties. This study found that mothers experience complex emotions in response to their child with learning difficulties. The strongest emotional response themes that emerged, which were reported by all the mothers were frustration, happiness and love. The more positive emotional responses were mentioned in relation to their child being accepted at the school specialising in ‘remedial’ education, as well as to an increased understanding of their child’s learning difficulties. Mothers mentioned that they experienced frustration and a lack of support as regards being helped to understand their child’s learning difficulties better. It was thus found that an understanding of their child’s learning difficulties appeared to be related to a decrease in negative emotional responses and an increase in more positive emotional responses. All the mothers in the study indicated an emotional response of love towards their child with learning difficulties. / Dissertation (MEd (Educational Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted

Syftet med den här studien är att bidra med en bild av hur enskilda lärare och lärararbetslag förstår extra anpassningar i matematik. Lärararbetslags förståelse av matematiksvårigheter är avgörande för vilka elever som får extra anpassningar och hur dessa utformas.    I studien undersöks och skapas en bild av den förståelse som vuxit fram under de tre år som gått sedan lagändringen/genomförandet 2014. Studien har en hermeneutisk ansats och bygger på en enkät, studier av elevers skriftliga individuella utvecklingsplaner och två fokusgruppsdiskussioner med lärararbetslag för elever i årskurs 3. Empirin är tolkad utifrån det matematikdidaktiska och specialpedagogiska fältet med extra anpassningar som forskningsområde. Resultatet analyseras utifrån Goffmans teori om det främre rummet och med inspiration av analysmetoden Grounded Theory.    I resultatet framgår att lärarna inte uppfattar någon tydlig gräns mellan ledning och stimulans, och extra anpassningar. Lärarna uttrycker att de möter eleven där den är, anpassar och individualiserar och att det sker inom ramen för ordinarie undervisning. Lärarna ser inte extra anpassningar som något nytt efter lagändringen, utan något som har funnits med i undervisningen långt tidigare. Samtidigt beskriver lärarna att undervisning och material anpassas mer idag. I matematik är de extra anpassningarna tydligt målrelaterade, framförallt färdighetsbaserade, samtidigt som arbetssätten och arbetsformerna för anpassningarna inte tydliggörs.   I elevernas individuella skriftliga utvecklingsplaner är det ibland svårt att utläsa, om insatserna är en framåtsyftande planering eller en extra anpassning. Extra anpassningar dokumenteras och hanteras på olika sätt i de olika lärararbetslagen. Lärararbetslagen upplever dokumentationen som problematisk och tidskrävande.   I studien synliggörs styrkan av arbetslagsarbete. Lärarna i arbetslagen visar på en ambition att vilja förstå och följa skolans styrdokument. / The purpose of the study is to investigate and create a vision of how individual teachers and teams of teachers understand the concept of special adjustments in Mathematics. Teachers' understanding of mathematical difficulties is important for which pupils get special adjustments and how they are designed.   The study examines and creates a view of understanding that has been developed since the amendment of the Swedish School Law in 2014. The approach of the study is hermeneutic and is based on a survey, studies of individual development plans and two focus group discussions with teams of teachers for students in the 3rd grade. The empiricism is interpreted from the mathematic didactics and the special pedagogical area, with special adjustments as the research area. The result is analyzed based on Goffman's theory front stage and inspired by the Grounded Theory analysis method.   The result shows that the teachers do not perceive a clear line between management and stimulus, and special adjustments. The teachers express they support the student in its starting-point. The teachers’ education is adjusted and individualized through the frame of ordinary education. The teachers do not see special adjustments as something new after the amendment of the law, rather as something that has been present in the education for a long time. At the same time the teachers need to modify their teaching and material more today. The special adjustments in Mathematics are explicitly target related, especially mathematic skills.  Working methods for the adjustments are not clarified.   In the individual development plans it is sometimes hard to determine if the input is a forward looking plan or a special adjustment. Special adjustments are documented and handled in different ways. The teachers’ experience the documentation as problematic and time consuming.   In the study it is possible to determine the power of working in teams. The teachers show an ambition of understanding and following the regulatory documents of the school.

En 1791, Condorcet place l’autodidaxie au coeur de son projet d’instruction. Il souhaite donner à chaque citoyen, et en particulier à ceux qui n’ont pas la chance de naître dans un milieu aisé, les moyens de s’instruire par soi-même. L’autodidaxie s’inscrit chez Condorcet dans une triple visée : compensatoire, émancipatoire et autonomisante. L’école doit apprendre à apprendre à se former tout au long de la vie. L’autodidaxie nécessite un apprentissage et le maître doit être un accompagnateur de ce processus. Malheureusement, son projet n’aboutit pas.Quelque deux siècles plus tard, l’autodidaxie est remise au goût du jour et invoquée comme nécessité pour s’adapter en permanence à notre société contemporaine où les savoirs sont devenus un enjeu socio-économique important et pour répondre au contexte de crise des institutions éducatives.Cette thèse est le résultat d’une expérience pédagogique menée durant six années, au collège Evire, en Haute-Savoie. Elle se propose d’explorer les effets d’une pédagogie autogestionnaire visant à favoriser une posture autodidacte chez des élèves en grande difficulté et en échec scolaire, orientés au collège en classe de SEGPA. L’autogestion est alors conçue comme un dispositif pédagogique cherchant à concrétiser les orientations de Condorcet. Cette étude de l’autodidaxie en milieu scolaire a permis de mettre en lumière les richesses et les limites d’une telle pédagogie en fonction des dispositifs institués ou instituants et des modalités d’accompagnement.Mots-clés / In 1791, Condorcet set the self-directed learning at the heart of his education project. He wishes to give every citizen, and in particular to those who are not lucky enough to be born in wealthy families, the means to educate by oneself. For Condorcet, self-directed learning has a triple aim: compensatory, emancipatory and empowering. The school must teach to learn how to educate oneself throughout life. Self-directed learning requires a learning process and the schoolmaster has to be a guide to this process. Unfortunately, his project does not succeed.Some two centuries later, the self-directed learning is being brought up to date and cited as a need to constantly adapt to contemporary society in which knowledge has become an important socio-economic issue as well as a need to respond to the crisis of educational institutions.This thesis is the outcome of an educational experiment that has been conducted for six years in Evire middle school, Haute-Savoie. It will explore the effects of self-education to promote self-taught posture among pupils who are struggling and whose counselling is targeted to secondary school SEGPA classes. Self-directed learning is conceived as an educational device embodying the guidance of Condorcet. The study of self-directed learning in schools has helped to highlight the richness and limitations of such a pedagogy depending on established or establishing plans and ways of supporting them.

Syftet med denna undersökning är att jämföra hur lärare i Sverige och Finland arbetar med läsinlärning. Framför allt söker jag svar på hur lärare arbetar med elever som uppvisar lässvårigheter och vilket stödsystem dessa elever har att tillgå. Detta undersöker jag genom kvalitativa intervjuer med lärare i årskurs 1-2. Urvalet består av tre verksamma lärare i Sverige och tre verksamma lärare i Finland. Empirin som samlats in har ställts mot den tidigare forskning som gjorts på ämnet. Även forskares åsikter om bl.a. lässvårigheter från olika synvinklar och vad fördelarna med tidiga insatser innebär belyses tillsammans med intervjumaterialet. Resultatet visar att det finns en tydlig skillnad mellan stödsystemet i de olika länderna och man kan även se en differens i frågor kring lässvårigheter och när insatserna bör sättas in. I frågan om läsinlärning är lärarna i Sverige och Finland ganska eniga i vilka faktorer som är mest betydelsefulla för elevernas utveckling. / The purpose of this survey is to compare how teachers in Sweden and Finland work on reading learning. In particular, I'm looking for answers how teachers work with pupils who have reading difficulties and what support systems they have in school. I study this through qualitative interviews with teachers in grades 1-2. The selection consists of three active teachers in Sweden and three active teachers in Finland. The collected material of the interviews has been compared to previous research done on the subject. Researchers' opinions about reading difficulties from different angles and what the benefits of early action mean are highlighted together with the interview material. The result shows that there is a clear difference between the support system in these countries and one can also see a difference in reading difficulties and when to use the support system. In the question of teaching the pupils how to read, teachers in Sweden and Finland are quite unanimous in what factors that are most important for the students' development.

Behavior problems are quite common in preschool.  Without effective intervention, children with behavior problems are at risk for rejection by teachers, peers and academic failure. But many children in preschool are not diagnosed and are not getting the support they need. At the age of two, children can show both prosocial and aggressive behavior with peers. Researchers stress the importance of positive peer relationships in childhood, because early childhood is the time children learn how to interact with each other. Through peer interactions children develop social, cognitive and language skills. The aim of this systematic literature review is to identify, and critically analyze, special support in preschool which promote peer interaction of children with behavior problems (age of 2-5 years). Five studies, with different interventions have been found through the search procedure. The results show that all the implemented interventions had positive effect on peer interactions and did reduce behavior problems in the classrooms. The results show that the studies focused on different behavior problems, but aggression was found in all the articles.  The studies were focused on different participants in order to influence behavior problems and peer interactions. Four major groups of special support orientations were found: Teacher oriented support, Team-based oriented support, Peer oriented support and Support oriented toward target children. This review presents a good overview on available special support in preschool settings, however more research still needs to be done.

Les adolescents difficiles préoccupent de plus en plus nos politiques et interrogent particulièrement les différents professionnels œuvrant auprès d’eux (travailleurs sociaux, psychologues, etc.). Ces jeunes sont essentiellement repérés par notre société au travers de leurs actes oppositionnels et délinquants, voire violents, mais moins pour leurs souffrances pourtant multiples. Les spécialistes du soin et du travail social cherchent par ailleurs à pouvoir prendre en charge cette jeunesse et leurs familles de façon la plus adaptée possible en fonction des problématique relevées. La Protection de l’Enfance repère les enfants et adolescents en danger dans leur environnement et/ou dans leur famille et propose des placements et des accompagnements médico-sociaux et éducatifs par le biais de l’Aide Sociale à l’Enfance ou de la Protection Judiciaire de la Jeunesse. Notre étude s’intéresse à l’évaluation de la trajectoire des adolescents accueillis au sein de l’association Second Souffle proposant des séjours de rupture à des jeunes en grandes difficultés sociales, scolaires, familiales et personnelles. Ainsi, nous avons étudié l’évolution éducative et psychopathologique de 47 adolescents et adolescentes ayant participé à des séjours courts et longs en France et à l’étranger. / Adolescents with difficulties preoccupy our politicians more and more, and question different professionals working with them (social workers, psychologists, etc.). They essentially call for our society’s attention through oppositional, delinquant, or worse, violent actions, less through the extent of their suffering. With regard to the observed needs, specialists try to provide the best care possible to those youths and their families. Child Protection Services (Protection de l’Enfance) identify children and adolescents at risk in their institutional or family environment and suggest placements and social and medical measures through Child Social Help Services (Aide sociale à l’Enfance) or Judicial Protection Services for Youth (Protection Judiciaire de la Jeunesse).The historical development of outdoor education and/or therapy programs in France and abroad reveals an growing interest with innovating programs intended for children, adolescents and families with severe difficulties. Wether anglo-saxon or originating in the antipsychiatric or judicial context in France, such programs share the objectives of offering a temporary removal from a pathogenetic environement to the adolescent, valuing their individual potential by « looking elwewhere », and remaining part of the youth’s educational trajectory. However, in a social and economical context where the assessment of professional practices is becoming systematic, no scientific evaluation of such experimental placements has been conducted to this day in France. Educational evaluations have been led in Belgium, following a political demand, and in Switzerland, through a university study. However, some methodological difficulties limit the scope of such evaluations and their results; on the one hand, one has to point out the shortage of standardised evaluation tools; on the other hand, one should bear in mind the complexity and uniqueness of such programs as well as of the individual situations of the concerned youth. Our study evaluates the trajectory of adolescents cared for within a specific program (the Second Souffle association) providing outdoor educational/therapeutical experiences to youth with major social, educational, family and personal difficulties. We studied the educational and psychopathological evolution of 47 adolescents that participated in short and long outdoor educationm/therapy programs in France and abroad. Our methodology was adapted to the specific context (Second Souffle program) and to the psychopathological particularities of the reference population, as well as to existing research pertaining to adolescent psychopathology. Our study protocol develops a longitudinal evaluation involving several measurement times : before and after short and long outdoor programs, during long programs, dans two months after all pograms. Results show a global improvement of the adolescents’ trajectories at the end of the programs, as well on educational as on psychopathological asepcts. With regard to the longitudinal evaluation, those positive evolutions tend to be maintained, especially in cases where follow up recommendations are implemented after the adolescents return. Besides, personal and family problems are related to educational and psychopathological outcomes. However, the small size of our study sample has resulted in reduced power for our statistical analyses; however several results showing the efficiency of the program are statistically significant. In conclusion : Our study shows interesting relationships between organisation, functioning, educational objective attainment, and the evolution of adolescents which benefit from the measures. Considered within a given time frame and with this limited sample, the outdoor education/therapy program studied seems to positively impact the adolescents’ educational and psychopathological trajectories.

The study is a qualitative explanation of the emotional responses of children with learning difficulties regarding their social interaction experiences. The primary research question that guided the study is: What are the emotional responses of children with learning difficulties regarding their social interaction experiences? Two learners were selected to participate in the study. Activity sessions, observations and interviews were conducted to determine the participants’ emotional responses regarding their social interaction experiences. Theme analysis was used to analyze the data collected. Seven main themes with sub-themes pertaining to the main themes, emerged from the data. The findings of the study are understood in terms of a Vygotskian social development framework. The study revealed that the participants, identified as having learning challenges, experienced difficulties in their social interaction experiences. Their emotional responses to their social interaction experiences indicated that the participants found peer learning to be emotionally challenging. They further indicated that they were not included in the majority of their peers’ social activities in the playground setting. Both participants have developed methods of resilience to help them cope with the challenges they face in their social interaction experiences with their peers. These methods help to alleviate stress caused due to the challenges they face with social interaction but these forms of resilience do not help the participants to experience learning taking place in Vygotsky’s (1978) Zone of Proximal Development as the coping mechanisms employed by the participants remove the participants from the majority of their peers’ interactions, rather than include them. Learning in Vygotsky’s (1978) Zone of Proximal Development relies on social interaction, supported by more able peers or adults, resulting in learning taking place at a higher level than the individual would be able to achieve on their own. Copyright / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted