The aim of this study was to investigate how four third grade pupils, who are in need of extra support in their development in writing, and their teacher describe the conditions of the teaching organization when writing factual text. The empirical material consisted of transcripts of interviews with teacher and students, supported by field notes of observations and video observations. Constructively oriented interviews were conducted with an interview guide as support. The choice to carry out observations and video observation also gave an opportunity to study the teaching from different perspectives, and contributed to broader empirical material.   The results of the study show that the scaffolding that existed in the organization in various ways created opportunities for the pupils to write factual texts. Different examples of a varied and successful scaffolding in teaching are presented in the results section. The current teacher used several different artefacts in her teaching as well as collaborative activities like dialogues in full class, or between students, to support knowledge, acquisition on the subject, on subject specific concepts and on factual writing. One obstacle that emerged was that a pupil had difficulty writing the factual text despite the support that existed in the organization of the teaching.   The pupils also describe a varied support in teaching. They used different artefacts as support when they learned the facts on the subject and when writing the factual texts. According to the pupils’ statements more obstacles existed. One pupil had difficulties to write despite the support, one pupil felt that writing by hand was an obstacle, one pupil stressed that the weak interest for the subject as well as the “childish” material (the film) reduced the motivation to learn and two pupils also claimed external influences, like a noisy classroom, to be an obstacle to focusing on the writing task. / Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur fyra elever som är i behov av extra stöd i sin skrivutveckling och en lärare i årskurs 3 beskriver vilka förutsättningar som finns i undervisningen för att skriva en faktatext. Det empiriska materialet utgjordes av utskrifter från lärar- och elevintervjuer med stöd av fältanteckningar från observation och videoobservation. Konstruktivistiskt orienterade intervjuer utfördes med en intervjuguide som stöd. Valet att även genomföra observation och videoobservation gav en möjlighet att studera undervisningen utifrån olika perspektiv och bidrog till ett bredare empiriskt material.   Resultaten från studien visade att den stöttning som fanns i undervisningens organisation på många olika sätt skapade förutsättningar för eleverna att skriva en faktatext. Olika exempel på en varierad framgångsrik stöttning presenteras i resultatet. Läraren i studien använde flera olika artefakter som stöd i undervisningen och kollaborativa aktiviteter som samtal i helklass och mellan elever för att stötta kunskapsinhämtning om ämnet, ämnesbegrepp och skrivande av en faktatext. Ett hinder som framkom var att en elev hade svårt att skriva faktatexten trots stödet som fanns i undervisningens organisation.   Eleverna beskrev också ett varierat stöd i undervisningen. De använde olika artefakter som stöd när de skulle lära sig fakta om ämnet och när de skulle skriva faktatexten. Utifrån elevernas beskrivningar framkom fler hinder. En elev hade svårt att skriva trots stödet, en elev ansåg att skrivandet för hand hindrade honom, en elev tar upp att intresset för ämnet är lågt och densamme menar att materialet (filmen) är för ”barnsligt” vilka båda är faktorer som påverkar motivationen att lära och två elever lyfter även yttre påverkansfaktorer, som prat i klassrummet som ett hinder för att kunna koncentrera sig på skrivuppgiften.

The goal of this study is to analyze a number of IEP: s in order to determine how these are constructed for students with read and write difficulties. In order to do so, I am going to analyze some action programs to determine which special educational theory that is the most common, based on the theories of Claes Nilholm. My questions are as follows: How the needs of the students receiving support are described, from a certain theoretical perspective and finally, is there an overall view that can be derived from this. For this study, I used qualitative content analysis when analyzing the IEP: s. The research showed that the most common theory used, describing both different actions and different needs, was the Categorical Perspective. A Perspective which puts the problem within the pupil itself and not as an environmental or social issue. Overall, the Categorical Perspective was also the most common perspective that could be seen throughout the action programs. Does this mean that the Categorical Perspective is generally used within schools? The study shows that there seems to be a semantic mix-up where the authors of action programs sometimes describe special adaptations, not actions, within the action programs, using a Categorical Perspective. Furthermore, there is The Dilemma Perspective that describes when there is a conflict between The Categorical and it´s counterpart, The Critical Perspective. Although this Dilemma Perspective does not show as much in the analysis, One can argue that there is always a dilemma when conflicts over resources arise.

Syftet med studien har varit att beskriva och förstå socialsekreterares erfarenheter av etiska dilemman som de upplevde i arbetet med ensamkommande barn och unga under 2015/2016 samt hur socialsekreterare hanterade dessa. Studien har haft en kvalitativ forskningsmetod med semi-strukturerade intervjuer. Sammanlagt har sju socialsekreterare från Västmanlands län som arbetade med ensamkommande barn och unga under 2015/2016 deltagit i studien. Studiens resultat har analyserats och tolkats utifrån teorin om coping, normativ etik och även tidigare forskning på området. Studiens resultat visar att socialsekreterare inom socialtjänsten ställdes inför en mängd svårigheter men som inte var renodlade etiska dilemman, utan hade karaktärer i form av etiska svårigheter och problem. Dessa etiska svårigheter har uppstått på flera arenor, i samverkan med Migrationsverket, ur en politiskt styrd organisation med riktlinjer och ekonomiska restriktioner samt i mötet med barn och ungdomar. Resultatet visar även att socialsekreterarna påverkats och berörts både privat som professionellt. Fem av sju socialsekreterare har varit sjukskrivna under perioden och flera har haft svårt att hantera etiska svårigheter. Socialsekreterarna har hanterat dessa etiska svårigheter genom att använda olika copingstrategier. / The purpose of this study has been to describe and understand social workers’ experiences of dealing with ethical dilemmas that arose in the work with unaccompanied children and young people during 2015/2016, and how social workers’ handled these dilemmas. The study has had a qualitative research method with semi-structured interviews. In total, seven social workers from the county of Västmanland, Sweden, who worked with unaccompanied children and young people during 2015/2016, participated in the study. The results of the study have been analysed and interpreted based on the theory of coping, normative ethics and also previous research in the field. The results of the study show that social workers faced a lot of difficulties, but were not purely ethical dilemmas, but had characters in the form of ethical difficulties and problems. These ethical difficulties have arisen in several arenas, in collaboration with the Swedish Migration Board, from a politically-driven organization with guidelines and economic constraints as well as in the meeting with children and young people. The result also shows that the social wokers have been affected both privately and professionally. Five out of seven social workers have been sick-listed during the period, and several have had difficulty coping with ethical difficulties. The social workers have dealt with these ethical difficulties using different coping strategies.

A leitura é um processo complexo, consequência de interações entre fatores ambientais, biológicos e cognitivos. Este estudo visou a investigar a relação entre fatores psicossociais (socioeconômicos e familiares) e cognitivos (memória de trabalho) e o desempenho em leitura de crianças participantes de uma coorte populacional. Foram realizados dois estudos relacionando o desempenho em leitura a: 1) fatores psicossociais e 2) fatores cognitivos. As 65 crianças avaliadas (9-11 anos) eram estudantes de 2ª a 5ª séries de escolas públicas de Porto Alegre-RS. Suas mães participaram de entrevistas sobre dados psicossociais da mãe e de desenvolvimento da criança, feitas aos 4 meses, 2 anos e 5/6 anos de idade das crianças. As crianças foram avaliadas em leitura, QI e memória de trabalho. No estudo 1, correlações significativas negativas foram encontradas entre morbidade psiquiátrica (escore do SRQ-20) da mãe e total de acertos na leitura de palavras irregulares da criança e entre o número de familiares que moravam em casa e o escore total na leitura de palavras da criança. Além disso, a renda familiar correlacionou-se significativa e positivamente com o escore em compreensão de leitura textual da criança. Nas análises de regressão linear apenas o número de familiares que moravam na mesma casa que a criança foi preditor do desempenho em leitura de palavras. Pode-se entender que quanto mais pessoas habitam uma mesma residência, menos recursos são disponibilizados para cada um e os pais podem não ter tempo suficiente para envolverem-se em atividades escolares com seus filhos, o que impacta no desempenho da leitura. No segundo artigo, as medidas de memória de trabalho não se correlacionaram significativamente às tarefas de leitura quando o subteste vocabulário (do WASI) foi controlado. Houve diferenças significativas nas comparações das médias das tarefas de leitura por série – os estudantes de 4ª série apresentaram maiores escores do que as de 3ª. Conclui-se que dos fatores estudados, houve contribuição de variáveis socioeconômicas e familiares para o desempenho em leitura de crianças de uma coorte populacional. A relação entre leitura e memória de trabalho foi intermediada pela linguagem (vocabulário). / Reading is a complex process, a consequence of interactions between environmental, biological and cognitive factors. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between psychosocial factors (socioeconomic and family) and cognitive (working memory) and reading performance of children participating in a population cohort. Two studies were related to reading performance: 1) psychosocial factors and 2) cognitive factors. The 65 evaluated children (9-11 years) were students from 2nd to 5th grade of public schools in Porto Alegre- RS. Their mothers participated in interviews regarding psychosocial data of mother and child development, at 4 months, 2 years and 5 / 6 year old children. Children were tested in reading, IQ and working memory. In one study, negative correlations were found between the psychiatric morbidity (score of SRQ-20) of the mother and the total score in the reading of irregular words between the child and the number of family members who lived in the same house as the child and the total score in words read by the child. Additionally, family income correlated significantly and positively with the reading comprehension text score of the child. In a linear regression analysis only the number of relatives who lived in the same house as the child was a predictor of performance in word reading. One can understand that as more people inhabit a single residence, fewer resources are available for each individual, and parents may not have enough time to get involved in school activities with their children, which impacts the performance of reading. In the second article, the measures of working memory did not correlate significantly with reading assignments when the vocabulary subtest (from the WASI) was controlled. There were significant differences in comparisons of the mean reading task of the series - the fourth grade students had higher scores than the 3rd grade students. We concluded that in the factors studied there was a correlation between the socioeconomic level and the family to the reading performance of children in a population cohort. The relationship between reading and working memory was mediated by language (vocabulary).

As dificuldades de aprendizagem matemática constituem um campo bastante complexo e ainda relativamente pouco explorado. Pesquisas com síndromes associadas ao baixo desempenho matemático indicam que há diferentes perfis cognitivos subjacentes às dificuldades na matemática e nos mostram que nem toda dificuldade de aprendizagem matemática é originada da mesma maneira. Esta dissertação de mestrado apresenta dois estudos de caso: um realizado com estudante com Síndrome do X-Frágil e o outro com estudante com Síndrome de Prader-Willi. O objetivo foi investigar e compreender a aquisição dos princípios e procedimentos de contagem numérica e recuperação de fatos aditivos da memória em cada estudante. Os dados foram obtidos a partir de análise documental, observações em sala de aula e no espaço escolar e aplicação de tarefas para investigação do senso numérico, dos princípios e procedimentos de contagem e da recuperação de fatos aditivos da memória. Os resultados obtidos indicaram que os sujeitos pesquisados apresentam lentidão no processo de aprendizagem, especialmente na construção dos princípios da contagem numérica, falhas no desenvolvimento do senso numérico e não utilizaram recuperação dos fatos aditivos da memória. As implicações educacionais resultantes deste estudo, principalmente no que diz respeito à educação inclusiva, determinam a necessidade de um novo olhar para o processo de inclusão de estudantes com diferentes síndromes em salas de aulas regulares, pois suas características cognitivas e comportamentais indicam que a inclusão por si só não garante o sucesso escolar. / The difficulties in learning mathematics are a very complex field and still relatively unexplored. Researches of syndromes associated with low mathematical performance indicates that different cognitive profiles underlie math learning difficulties and show us that not all of these difficulties have the same origins. This dissertation presents two case studies: one with Fragile X Syndrome (FXS) and another with Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS). The objective was to investigate and understand the acquisition of the principles and procedures of numerical count and recovery additive facts from memory in each student. The data obtained were from documental analysis, observations in the classroom and in the school playground and applying tasks to investigate the number sense, the principles and procedures of numerical count and recovery additive facts from memory. The results indicated that the subjects studied show slow learning process, especially in the construction of the principles of counting, flawed development of number sense and did not recovery additive facts from memory. The educational implications, particularly in inclusive educations, determine a new look at the process of students with different syndromes in regular classrooms because their cognitive behavioral characteristics indicate that the inclusion only does not guarantee school success.

The aim of this study was to investigate reading difficulties as barriers to learning experienced by learners entering the intermediate phase. The researcher conducted an in-depth literature study and by means of a qualitative research approach, empirical data were collected through individual interviews, observations and document studies. The findings revealed a number of common themes on the impact of reading difficulties and the factors that may cause these difficulties. The research findings revealed that in order to prevent reading difficulties as barriers to learning, the essential components for reading development must be acquired effectively, the role of the teacher and the parent are crucial and the early identification and remediation of reading difficulties is paramount. Resulting from the findings in the empirical investigation and in correlation with the findings from literature, the researcher made recommendations regarding strategies to reduce reading difficulties. / Education / M.Ed. (Psychology of Education)

The low grades that students score in some statistical units in Kenyan universities is of great concern and has evoked research interest in the teaching of some of the units and the students’ learning of the statistical content. The aim of the study was to investigate the difficulties undergraduate students experience in the learning of bivariate normal distribution in a Kenyan university. The research also aimed to answer the following research questions on the difficulties undergraduate students encounter in the learning of bivariate normal distribution. The first research question was based on the reasons why students find learning of bivariate normal distribution difficult and the second research question was to find the reasons why students experience such difficulties in learning bivariate normal distribution. The target population for this study included lecturers teaching statistics in the university, and second- and third- year students enrolled or who have previously completed the probability and statistics III unit, where the bivariate normal distribution content is covered. In selecting students for the study, the simple random sampling technique was employed while convenient sampling was used to select lecturers who participated in the study. A mixed methods design was adopted for this study where both quantitative and qualitative data was collected. A total of 175 students and six lecturers participated in this research study. All students who participated in the study did a bivariate normal distribution test (Appendix 1) designed by the researcher and then filled in a questionnaire (Appendix 2). The lecturers who participated in the study filled in an open-ended questionnaire (Appendix 3). The results showed that undergraduate students have difficulties in learning bivariate normal distribution. This is because most of them could neither state the bivariate normal distribution nor solve any of the application questions on the content. The students find it difficult to learn and comprehend the bivariate normal distribution equation with its many parameters and constants of the two random independent variables. The results also showed that students could not state the normal distribution equation nor could they solve questions on the normal distribution, which forms the foundational knowledge required for effective learning of the bivariate normal distribution content. ii Based on the results, the study recommended that emphasis should be placed on the basic and foundational knowledge of the normal distribution content and its applications before teaching bivariate normal distribution in probability and statistics III. In addition, it is recommended that all students should be involved in the learning of basic content to enable them to understand all parameters and constants in the equations and their applications. The study also recommends that lecturers revise the foundational knowledge and content related to the bivariate normal distribution before introducing and teaching the bivariate normal distribution content. This study also recommends that the university should consider a change of curriculum by teaching the bivariate normal distribution, as an introductory course to the unit under the multivariate distributions in statistics, in third year of the students’ studies. ; ; / Mathematics Education / M. Sc. (Mathematics Education)

BIBLIOGRAPHIC IDENTIFICATION Name and surname of the author: Mgr. Pavel Tichý Name of the dissertation: Re-education of children with motor difficulties of primary school age Workplace: FTVS UK, Department of Sport Games Supervisor of the work: Doc. PhDr. Vladimír Süss, Ph.D. Year of presentation: 2016 ABSTRACT Objective: The aim was to find out the possibility of the re-education of motor difficulties in children of primary school age and create a re-education intervention program, the aim of which is to reduce these difficulties. Subsequently, to verify whether the intervention program had an effect on the motor difficulties of the children. Method: The research was designed as a prospective intervention study where there were two combined orientations ofeducational research: quantative and qualitative. To solve the problem a research design was used, called Crossover Design (Wilmore et al., 2008, Thomas et al., 2005), which was conceived as an experiment with an intervention re-education program aimed at improving the motor difficulties of children. The quantative part of the research was focused on the assessment of motor skills and to detect motor problems in children of primary school age. MABC-2 (Henderson et al., 2007) battery of motor tests were used for this purpose. The qualitative part of the...

Actuellement, le développement du travail en mode projet, ainsi que le travail en réseaux, entraînent de profondes modifications dans la manière de concevoir les espaces de travail et les bureaux. Les entreprises qui conçoivent ces espaces associent souvent des architectes et des designers.La thèse a pour objet de répondre à la question suivante : comment les connaissances nouvelles sont elles générées dans les activités de conception relatives au domaine de l'aménagement des espaces de travail ?Le premier chapitre s'articulera autour des différents travaux relatifs aux activités deconception (travaux de Lebahar, Hatchuel et Visser, etc.). Le second s'intéressera aux différentes théories relatives à la génération des connaissances (travaux de Nonaka, Tsoukas et Engeström, etc).Afin de répondre à notre question de recherche, nous avons mis en place un dispositif d'observation de longue durée au sein des entreprises étudiées (approche de nature ethnométhdologique). Il s'agit de deux entreprises parisiennes spécialisées dans l'aménagement des espaces de travail: Génie des Lieux et Workspace CBRE.Nous avons montré que des difficultés d'intercompréhension apparaissent dans les activités de conception. Ces obstacles sont dûs à l'existence des connaissances tacites relationnelles au sens d'Harry Collins. Ces dernières peuvent être rendues explicites par la conception d'objets intermédiaires. Nous avons vu également comment la conception des artefacts en deux dimensions et en trois dimensions permet la génération des connaissances nouvelles et utiles dans un projet d'aménagement d'espaces de travail. / The development of this work is currently carried out in a project mode, since working in the network requires deep modifications in a way of conceiving the workspaces as well as the offices. The enterprises that conceive these spaces often associate both the designers and the architects.The purpose of this present thesis is to answer the flowing question: how are the recent knowledges generated in the conception activities which appear in the field of work space planning?The first chapter focuses on the works related to the conception activities (works of Lebahar, Hatchuel and Visser...etc...). The second deals with the different theories relating to the generation of knowledge (works of Nonaka, Tsoukas and Engeström... etc...).To answer our research question, we have installed a device which requires a long_term intervention inside the enterprises meant for study (ethnomethodological approach). There are two Parisian enterprises that specialize in work space planning: (GENIE DES LIEUX and workspace CBRE).During the work, we have shown some difficulty intercomprehension that emerged in the conception activities. We have concluded, as a result, that these obstacles were due to relational tacit knowledges (RTK) according to Harry Collins theory. However these difficulties can be made explicit by the conception of intermediate objects.We have also noticed that ho when conceiving the artifacts into two and three dimensions, this allows the generation of new and useful knowledges in a project of work space planning.

Text in Afrikaans / In this study quantitative research is employed to determine if cognitive control therapy can successfully be utilized in a group situation to alleviate cognitive deficiency in learners with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Learners with ADHD often do not gain from traditional play- and psychotherapy due to the fact that they do not possess the required cognitive structure necessary to support successful learning. Many of these learners do not receive sufficient assistance and support due to a shortage of government supported educational psychological aid. An empirical investigation of limited scope was performed to establish whether cognitive deficiencies can be alleviated by means of applying cognitive control therapy in a group situation. A one-group pretest-posttest design was utilized where the same group of subjects was studies before and after the experimental treatment. The results indicate that the cognitive control therapy program resulted in a considerable change. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Voorligting)