La réglementation européenne a un réel impact sur l’octroi des aides publiques aux entreprises en difficulté. Elle encadre principalement celui-ci dans le but de garantir le respect de la concurrence sur le marché intérieur. Ces aides sont, ensuite, mises en œuvre par les règles d’origine interne qui précisent les modalités d’intervention des autorités publiques locales. Mais d'importants écarts peuvent être observés entre les textes et la pratique.Depuis la légalisation, en 1982, de l'intervention économique de ces collectivités en faveur des entreprises, leur rôle s'est transformé et renforcé. Cette évolution a été facilitée par différentes réformes de la décentralisation ayant affecté leurs interventions. La plus récente date de 2015 (loi NOTRe). Également, en raison des différentes crises économiques successives que connaît la France, l'État a progressivement délégué à ces collectivités un nombre croissant de compétences. Ceci a, sans doute, justifié le nombre d'acteurs qui pouvaient intervenir. Aujourd'hui, la loi NOTRe est venue " verrouiller " la situation en accordant à la région la compétence de plein droit pour accorder des aides aux entreprises en difficulté. Néanmoins, certaines collectivités infrarégionales sont autorisées à participer au financement de l’intervention régionale. / European regulation has a real impact on the granting of public aid to companies in difficulty. It mainly frames this one in the maize but to guarantee the respect of the competition on the internal market. This aid is then implemented by the rules of internal origin, which specify the methods of intervention of the local public authorities. Discrepancies can be observed between texts and practice.Since the legalization, in 1982, of the economic intervention of these communities in favor of the companies, their role has been transformed and strengthened. This evolution has been facilitated by decentralization reforms having their interventions. The most recent date of 2015 (NOTRe law). Also, because of the different successive economic crises that France is experiencing. This, without doubt, justifies the number of actors who question themselves. Today, the law OUR place is "lock" the situation in agreement with the region the right jurisdiction to help companies in difficulties. However, some subregional communities are allowed to participate in the regional intervention.

Denna studie har undersökt hur ett digitalt gränssnitt kan utformas för att hjälpa redaktörer i det dagliga arbetet, med fokus på förutsättningarna för flow i arbetsprocessen. Termen flow refererar till Csikszentmihalyis teori kring ett tillstånd där personen blir helt uppslukad av en aktivitet utan självreflektion och självmedvetenhet, med en känsla av kontroll över situationen. Fokus i denna studie har varit två av flowteorins grundförutsättningar; snabb, otvetydig feedback samt balans mellan svårighetsgrad och kunskapsnivå. En fallstudie på webbredaktörsgränssnittet Writeous genomfördes där informanterna deltog i en semistrukturerad intervju, en observation med metoden think aloud och enkäten System usability scale. Resultaten analyserades, samt jämfördes med tidigare forskning i området. För att konkretisera resultatet togs även designförslag till redaktörsgränssnittet Writeous fram. Resultatet visade att gränssnitten bör upplevas enkla utan för mycket funktioner, men ändå med de funktioner som krävs för att utföra uppgiften på ett önskvärt sätt. Antalet system som behövs för att utföra en uppgift bör vara så få som möjligt, då användarnas krav på kunskap därmed minskas. Systemet ska även ge användarna den information som behövs för att utföra uppgiften utan större förkunskaper. Gränssnitten som designas för att ge bra feedback enligt de designprinciper och standarder som finns gör användarna mindre förvirrade och ökar därmed den hinderfria interaktionen med systemet. En tillämpning av detta anses stödja två av flowteorins grundförutsättningar; snabb och otvetydig feedback samt balans mellan svårighetsgrad och kunskapsnivå, vilket hävdas öka användarnas möjligheter till flow vid interaktion med redaktörsgränssnittet. / This study has investigated how a digital interface can be designed to help editors in their daily work, focusing on the flow preconditions in the work process. The term flow refers to Csikszentmihalyi's theory about a state where the person is completely absorbed by an activity without self-reflection and self-awareness, with a sense of control. The focus of this study has been two of the flow preconditions; fast, unambiguous feedback and a balance of challenge and skill. A case study on Writeous web-based interface was conducted where the informants participated in a semistructured interview, an observation with the method think aloud and the survey System usability scale. The results were analyzed and compared with previous research in the area. In order to concretize the result, design proposals for the Writeous interface were created. The result showed that the interfaces should be perceived as simple without too much functionality, but still with the functions required to perform the task in a desirable way. The number of systems needed to perform a task should be as few as possible, as users' skill requirements are thus reduced. The system should also provide users with the information needed to perform the task without much prior knowledge. The interfaces are designed to provide good feedback in accordance with the design principles and standards available. This makes users less confused, thus increasing the barrier-free interaction with the system. If done right these implementations are considered to support two of the flow preconditions; fast, unambiguous feedback as well as a balance of challenge and skill, which is claimed to increase users' flow possibilities in interaction with the editorial interface.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:46:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2292.pdf: 2599843 bytes, checksum: 0d075bccd32d97eafe170622fd62659f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-02-05 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / School has an important socialization role and social skills contribute to the socio-emotional and academic development and also behavior problems reduction. To maximize this contribution, universal social skills programs should be tested and disseminated in schools, with effective participation of teachers, main mediators of interpersonal relationships in this environment. For this, it is necessary to investigate a set of practicable procedures, techniques, and resources in the classroom, attractive for both teachers and students. This study examined aspects of a universal program effectiveness, conducted by the teacher, using the audiovisual resources RMHSC-Del-Prette, which has already proved its effectiveness in selective programs conducted by a psychologist. The practicability and effectiveness of the program were evaluated in terms of: (a) impact on social skills, academic competence and behavior problems of all students from two classes, (b) impact on the repertoire of three children from each class with low academic performance, also evaluated on an ongoing basis, (c) integrity of the intervention applied by teachers. Two teachers and their students participated in three classes of fourth grade in a private school. The students evaluation was different for each class, in Class 1 only students with low academic performance (n = 3) were evaluated and in Class 2 (n = 13) and Class 3 (n = 14), all the students were evaluated. All children were assessed before and after the intervention, through the Social Skills Rating System (SSRS-BR) in its three versions. Before the intervention, the teachers were given a brief training course. The intervention program consisted of 11 sessions of 60 minutes each focusing on differents social skills and sequenced in complexity, which were previously evaluated by teachers. The results of SSRS-BR showed an improvement in Responsibility/Cooperation and Academic Competence in the overall assessment of students from two classes according to teachers evaluation; in Kindness and Self-Control and a decrease in Internalizing Behaviors (Class 2) according to parents evaluation. In relation to children with low academic performance, teachers evaluated that most children improved Responsibility / Cooperation and Academic Competence; the parents evaluated that children improved Global social skills Score, Cooperation and also decreased at least a score of Problematic behaviors; in self-assessment the children improved Self-Control. Data from continuous assessment of students with low academic performance indicated that most improved the quality of social skills after the intervention program. The intervention was implemented with integrity of 80% for Teacher 1 (Classes 1 and 3) and 75% for Teacher 2 (Class 2). In summary, the data indicated that the universal social skill program using the RMHSC-Del-Prette produced substantial changes, especially in cooperative behaviors in academic performance and behavior problems (parental assessment) when it was applied by the teacher, including children with low academic performance. It was found that, in implementing this program, the integrity equal to or above 75% was able to produce changes in children's behavior, however, the importance of teacher training and the importance of research about characteristics of the agent's intervention during the implementation of a program is discussed. / Pessoas com dificuldades de aprendizagem podem requerer recursos e estratégias educacionais diferenciados no ensino regular, tal como regulamentado pela política de inclusão, uma vez que apresentam desempenho acadêmico abaixo do esperado para a idade cronológica e série escolar em tarefas acadêmicas, influenciando o progresso escolar normal, o rendimento acadêmico geral, o desenvolvimento socioemocional e outros aspectos de ajustamento. Estudos sugerem uma relação entre habilidades sociais e dificuldades de aprendizagem, indicando que o Treinamento em Habilidades Sociais (THS) pode favorecer o desempenho acadêmico. Os programas de THS para escolares constituem uma alternativa relevante de ser investigada, em seus efeitos para o rendimento acadêmico e no desenvolvimento de recursos e estratégias de intervenção. Considerando a relevância de produzir recursos, para utilização no ensino regular, que auxiliem a população com dificuldade de aprendizagem, os indicadores negativos da dificuldade de aprendizagem na qualidade de vida e a relação exposta na literatura entre habilidades sociais e dificuldades de aprendizagem, esta pesquisa envolveu a elaboração de um programa de intervenção em habilidades sociais em contexto escolar e teve como objetivo a identificação dos efeitos de um programa de THS, que teve como base do procedimento a utilização das vinhetas de vídeo do Recurso Multimídia de Habilidades Sociais para Crianças (RMHSC-Del-Prette), sobre o repertório de habilidades sociais e acadêmico de crianças com dificuldade de aprendizagem. A pesquisa envolveu dois estudos que utilizaram os mesmos instrumentos e procedimento, tendo o Estudo I, delineamento experimental, e o Estudo II, séries temporais. O Estudo I teve como participantes 14 crianças com dificuldade de aprendizagem com idade média 9,4 anos, sendo 9 meninas e 5 meninos, que foram alocados aleatoriamente em dois grupos, o Experimental (G1) e o Controle (G2). O Estudo II envolveu 9 crianças, 6 do sexo feminino e 3 do masculino com idade média de 9,5. Antes da intervenção, as crianças foram avaliadas por meio do Critério Brasil, Teste de Desempenho Escolar, Sistema de Avaliação de habilidades sociais (SSRS-BR) nas três versões de avaliação (pais, professores e autoavaliação) e Avaliação com role-play breve (RPB). Após a intervenção, as crianças foram reavaliadas somente com SSRS-BR e Avaliação RPB. Ao longo do programa, as crianças foram avaliadas por meio da Avaliação RPB, a fim de identificar seus progressos. Foram realizadas 22 sessões de intervenção no Estudo I e 20 no Estudo II, todas com duração de 70 minutos. Durante a intervenção utilizou-se o RMHSC-Del-Prette que contém vinhetas de vídeo para a promoção de habilidades sociais, conforme sugestão de uso dos autores. O procedimento de intervenção incluiu a apresentação das vinhetas de vídeo com discussões, atividades lúdicas e utilização de técnicas cognitivo-comportamentais como reforçamento, modelagem, modelação, role-play etc. No Estudo I, análises inferenciais indicaram que G1 apresentou ganhos estatisticamente maiores em habilidades sociais e competência acadêmica quando comparado ao G2, segundo os três informantes. Em relação à avaliação contínua, foi possível verificar que à medida que as habilidades sociais eram ensinadas os participantes as adquiriram e as mantiveram ao longo do THS. Comparando G1 e G2 nas avaliações contínuas pode-se observar que os participantes do G1 apresentaram melhor desempenho em todas as classes após a intervenção. No Estudo II, após a intervenção, G3 apresentou aumento na freqüência de habilidades sociais nas avaliações dos três informantes. Nas avaliações contínuas mostraram que após o ensino de cada classe os participantes adquiriram e/ou aperfeiçoaram as habilidades sociais. Concluiu-se que o procedimento de intervenção com a utilização das vinhetas de vídeo foi capaz de produzir mudanças no repertório de habilidades sociais e competência acadêmica de crianças com dificuldade de aprendizagem e pode ser sugerido como base para intervenções preventivas do tipo universais em salas de aulas.

Submitted by Maike Costa (maiksebas@gmail.com) on 2016-02-05T13:55:35Z No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivo total.pdf: 622326 bytes, checksum: 47560a83c23643aee4dfebdfb60e6978 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-02-05T13:55:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 arquivo total.pdf: 622326 bytes, checksum: 47560a83c23643aee4dfebdfb60e6978 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-05-30 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / This paper discusses about the Therapeutic Itineraries and New Reproductive Technologies conceptive . In this sense, we intend to understand how low-income couples are having access to technical and medical procedures that allow couples somehow unable to have their children. This work aims to understand the therapeutic itineraries that are traversed by couples wishing to have children , that is , the paths taken by women in pursuit of biomedicine to overcome the difficulties in having children . The research was conducted at University Hospital Lauro Wanderley ( HULW ) in João Pessoa ( PB ) through semi-structured interviews applied to women who are seeking family planning services because they can not get pregnant . Research has shown us some interesting points , such as : most women have several difficulties to access the services of HULW . The analysis of therapeutic itineraries of these women revealed that the search for a child is part of the “social pressure " to have children and , further , that the desire for children is a social desire, which was socially constructed , and that women will submit to medicalization to account for the realization of this desire . Or, some of these women said it was not only their dreams , but their husband's dream. It is noteworthy that although the State says that there is a family planning we realized that there is a plan , but that this planning is only focused on the female's body and health, considering that such plan does not include man 's human boby and health . / Este trabalho pretende discutir acerca dos Itinerários Terapêuticos e as Novas Tecnologias Reprodutivas conceptivas. Neste sentido, pretende-se entender como casais de baixa renda vêm tendo o acesso às técnicas e procedimentos médicos que permitem que casais impossibilitados de alguma maneira de ter filhos venham a tê-los. Tem como objetivo entender quais os itinerários terapêuticos que são percorridos pelos casais que desejam ter filhos, ou seja, os caminhos percorridos por mulheres na busca pela biomedicina para contornar as dificuldades para ter filhos. A pesquisa foi realizada no Hospital Universitário Lauro Wanderley (HULW), em João Pessoa (PB) por meio de entrevista semiestruturada aplicadas nas mulheres que estão buscando serviço de Planejamento Familiar porque não conseguem engravidar. A pesquisa nos mostrou alguns pontos interessantes, tais como: a maioria das mulheres encontram dificuldades diversas para acessar os serviços do HULW.A análise dos itinerários terapêuticos dessas mulheres revelou que a busca por um filho faz parte da “pressão social” para ter filhos e, mais ainda, que o desejo por filhos é um desejo social, que foi construído socialmente, e que as mulheres vão se submeter à medicalização para dar conta da realização deste desejo. Ou ainda, algumas dessas mulheres afirmaram que este era não só um sonho dela, mas do marido.Vale ressaltar que embora o Estado diga que há um planejamento familiar, percebemos que há sim um planejamento, mas que é centrado apenas no corpo da mulher, tendo em vista que tal planejamento não abarca a saúde do homem.

This study has the objective of analyse and understand the process of (not) teach and (not) learn Mathematics in the first year of elementary school in a rural school from Uberlândia city. We organized the present work in five parts; in the first on we elaborated a discussion about the rural school to understand a little bit about the history of that institution and we could note that since its beginning, in the first decades of the twentieh century, till nowadays that institution has been coming marginalized. In the second part, we presented our conception around the Mathematics learn and teaching process based in a historic-cultural emphasis, including teachers and students like historic subjects and emphasizing the interaction between those ones in the process of learning and teaching. We also discussed the daily school as fundamental space-time of the educative work. Because of that, we considerate the not learning, hardly ever pointed as a failure of the students, as a complex school phenomenon that requires a deep analyses of the daily school and the class room. The process of construction of the methodological route from this present works is presentend in the third part. We chose for a qualitative approach and developed the following steps: observation in class, rooms with field notes, production and analysis of exercises used by the research participants teachers in the class rooms with their students. In the fourth part, we told a little of the story of Jardim das Flores , school in wich we made the field search during the second half of 2005 and first half of 2006. In that part we presented the 3 teachers and the students with who we worked; with the description of those subjects and their relationships we tried to substantiate the discussion about the process of learning and teaching Mathematics. We noted that there are a lot of variations in the relation of learning and teaching and evidenced that one that took our attention by the most in the school: the not teaching and the not learning. We, although, selected other variations as axis of analysis: the teaching and learning, the not teaching and the learning, the teaching and the not learning, and the not teaching and the not learning. We could note that there is a deep relation between the way used by the teacher to teach and the way of learning of the student and, to teach Mathematics is necessary considerate the students as culture subjects and the daily school as a learning space for the teachers. Finally, we also salient the importance of the collaborative work for the continued formation of teachers. / Este estudo tem como objetivo analisar e compreender o processo de (não) ensinar e (não) aprender Matemática em um 1º ano do ensino fundamental de uma Escola Rural do município de Uberlândia. Organizamos o presente trabalho em cinco partes; na primeira parte elaboramos uma discussão acerca da escola do campo para compreender um pouco sobre a história dessa instituição e constatamos que desde seus primórdios, nas primeiras décadas do século XX, até os dias atuais tal instituição vem sendo marginalizada. Na segunda parte, apresentamos nossa concepção do processo de ensino e aprendizado da Matemática fundamentada num enfoque histórico-cultural, compreendendo professores e alunos como sujeitos históricos e enfatizando a interação entre tais sujeitos no processo de ensinar e aprender. Enfatizamos também o cotidiano escolar como espaço-tempo fundamental do trabalho educativo. Por isso, consideramos o não aprender, quase sempre tido como fracasso dos alunos, como um fenômeno escolar complexo que requer uma profunda análise do cotidiano escolar e da sala de aula. O processo de construção do percurso metodológico da presente pesquisa é apresentado na terceira parte. Optamos por uma abordagem qualitativa e desenvolvemos os seguintes procedimentos: observações em sala de aula com produção de notas de campo e análise de exercícios utilizados pelas professoras participantes da pesquisa em sala de aula com seus alunos. Na quarta parte, contamos um pouco da história da Jardim das Flores, escola em que realizamos a pesquisa de campo durante o segundo semestre de 2005 e primeiro semestre de 2006. Nesta parte apresentamos as 3 professoras e os alunos com os quais trabalhamos; com a descrição desses sujeitos e de suas relações buscamos fundamentar a discussão sobre o processo de ensinar e aprender Matemática. Por fim, na quinta parte, analisamos alguns aspectos de histórias escolares constituídas no dia-a-dia da sala de aula que culminaram no fracasso em aprender Matemática. Constatamos que há muitas variações na relação do ensinar e aprender e ressaltamos aquela que nos chamou mais a atenção em nossa (con)vivência na escola: o não ensinar e o não aprender. No entanto, selecionamos outras variações como eixo de análise quais sejam: o ensinar e o aprender, o não-ensinar e o aprender, o ensinar e o nãoaprender e o não-ensinar e o não-aprender. Constatamos que há uma relação profunda entre o jeito de o professor ensinar e o jeito de aprender do aluno e, que para ensinar Matemática é necessário considerar os alunos como sujeitos de cultura e o cotidiano escolar como um espaço de aprendizado para professores. Enfim, ressaltamos também a importância do trabalho colaborativo para a formação continuada de professores. / Mestre em Educação

Theoretical part of this project mainly concerns the study of moving skills and abilities in the Rhytmic gymnastic. Basic devision of degree of difficulty and technic has been described. Moreover it briefly portrays a history of development of the Rhytmic gymnastics during the decades in the Czech Republic. Next part handle with comparism of the moving skills of contenders in the R.G. (In different clubs obviously approach to the training veried). Testing procedure had been running in clubs for 6 months. In this study there is also a wide photo attachment.

L'intégration des tablettes numériques à écran tactile dans l'éducation de la petite enfance est prometteuse, mais difficile. Les trois principaux acteurs impliqués dans cette intégration sont l'enfant, le parent et l'enseignant. Cette thèse porte sur la manipulation des tablettes par le jeune enfant, les attitudes des parents et l'acceptation de ces dispositifs par l'enseignante ou par l'enseignant, afin de répondre à la question de l'efficacité de l'intégration des tablettes à écran tactile dans l'éducation de la petite enfance. Dans la partie sur l'enfant, deux études ont été menées. La première étude explore les comportements de manipulation numérique des enfants sur des tablettes à écran tactile et a conclu que la difficulté technologique d'une application de jeu dans les tablettes importe plus que la difficulté du contenu. La deuxième étude porte sur l'efficacité de l'ajustement des difficultés d'adaptation dans l'apprentissage basé sur le jeu pour ce qui est de l'acquisition des habiletés cognitives et du plaisir de l'enfant. De plus, les résultats indiquent que la conception du jeu a des répercussions importantes sur la compréhension de l'enfant et la manipulation numérique, et que l'adaptation aux difficultés d'adaptation a eu une influence positive sur le rendement cognitif de l'enfant en littératie, en mathématiques de base et en dessin, alors qu'aucune différence significative n' a été constatée dans l'expérience de plaisir de l'enfant entre le groupe expérimental et le groupe témoin. Dans la partie parents et enseignants, basée sur les résultats de l'enquête et des entretiens, les parents ont une attitude positive à l'égard des tablettes à écran tactile intégrés dans l'éducation de la petite enfance et ils croient fermement que les tablettes peuvent améliorer l'apprentissage des enfants. Pour les enseignants, il a été constaté que l'âge est l'élément clé qui influe sur leur acceptation de l'utilisation des tablettes numériques dans leur pédagogie, et les enseignants s'attendaient à recevoir des instructions plus pratiques sur l'utilisation de ces outils. / Integrating touch screen tablets in early childhood education is promising but challenging. The main three subjects involved in this integration are child, parent and teacher. This dissertation investigated child manipulation, parent attitudes and teacher acceptance respective to answer the question of the effectiveness of integrating touch screen tablets in early childhood education. In the Child part, two studies were conducted. The first study explored child digital manipulation behaviors on a touch screen tablets and made a conclusion that technology difficulty in a game app in the tablets matters more than content difficulty. The second study investigated the effectiveness of the adaptive difficulty adjustment in game-based learning in child cognitive skills achievement and enjoyment experience. And the results indicated that the game design significantly impacts on child comprehension and digital manipulation and the adaptive difficulty adjustment positively influenced child cognitive skills achievement in literacy, basic mathematics and basic drawing while no significant difference was found in child enjoyment experience between the experiment and control group. In the Parent and Teacher part, based on the survey and interview results, parents hold positive attitude towards touch screen tablets integrated in early childhood education and they strongly believed the potential of tablets to improve children learning. For teachers, it was found that the age is the key element impacting their acceptance of using tablets in their pedagogy, and teachers expected more practical instruction of using tablet in their teaching.

Submitted by Renata Lopes (renatasil82@gmail.com) on 2016-04-12T17:18:39Z No. of bitstreams: 1 flaviaguimaraeshenriques.pdf: 667239 bytes, checksum: 5b93224cd56ee8b6710aabff2fcc94a4 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Adriana Oliveira (adriana.oliveira@ufjf.edu.br) on 2016-04-24T03:31:32Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 flaviaguimaraeshenriques.pdf: 667239 bytes, checksum: 5b93224cd56ee8b6710aabff2fcc94a4 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-24T03:31:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 flaviaguimaraeshenriques.pdf: 667239 bytes, checksum: 5b93224cd56ee8b6710aabff2fcc94a4 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-02-23 / CAPES - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / Os objetivos do presente estudo foram: 1) realizar uma revisão da literatura dos estudos que investigaram a precisão com que medidas de consciência fonológica (CF) classificam indivíduos como estando em risco ou não estando em risco de apresentar dificuldade de leitura/escrita; 2) avaliar a dimensionalidade da CF em falantes do português brasileiro; e 3) verificar a precisão de classificação do risco/não risco de dificuldade de leitura/escrita de diferentes medidas de CF. Os resultados da revisão da literatura evidenciaram, de uma forma geral, que as diferentes medidas de CF, quando analisadas isoladamente foram ruins ou razoáveis em classificar as crianças como em risco/sem risco de dificuldade de leitura/escrita. Duzentas e treze crianças foram avaliadas através de diferentes tarefas de CF quando estavam no último ano da Educação Infantil e, aproximadamente, um ano depois, foram avaliadas através de uma medida de leitura e uma medida de escrita. Resultados de Análises Fatoriais evidenciaram que as diferentes medidas de CF avaliam um construto predominantemente unidimensional e análises da curva ROC indicaram que duas medidas compostas de CF mostraram-se razoáveis para classificar as crianças como tendo ou não tendo risco de dificuldade de leitura ou de escrita, apresentando áreas sob a curva em torno de 0,75. / The aims of this study were: 1) to present a literature review of studies about the precision of phonological awareness measures to classify individuals as being or not at risk of presenting difficulties in reading or writing; 2) to evaluate the dimensionality of phonological awareness in Brazilian Portuguese speakers; and 3) to verify the classification accuracy of the risk/no risk of difficulty in reading and writing from different measures of phonological awareness. In general, among the reviewed studies, phonological awareness measures varied from poor to reasonable in reading/writing risk classification accuracy. Two hundred and thirteen Brazilian Portuguese speaking children took part on the present study. They were evaluated through different phonological awareness tasks in the last year of early childhood education. Nine months later, they were evaluated through a reading measure and a writing measure. Factorial Analysis results showed that the different phonological awareness measures index a single construct. Concerning the ROC curve analysis, two composite measures of phonological awareness proved reasonable to discriminate children in the groups with and without difficulty in reading/writing, presenting AUCs around 0,75.

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less. Marie Curie Debates about how best to test people from different contexts and backgrounds continue to hold the spotlight of testing and assessment. In an effort to contribute to the debates, the purpose of the study was to develop and evaluate the viability and utility of nonverbal figural reasoning ability items that were developed based on inspirations from African cultural artefacts such as African material prints, art, decorations, beadwork, paintings, et cetera. The research was conducted in two phases, with phase 1 focused on the development of the new items, while phase 2 was used to evaluate the new items. The aims of the study were to develop items inspired by African art and cultural artefacts in order to measure general nonverbal figural reasoning ability; to evaluate the viability of the items in terms of their appropriateness in representing the African art and cultural artefacts, specifically to determine the face and content validity of the items from a cultural perspective; and to evaluate the utility of the items in terms of their psychometric properties. These elements were investigated using the exploratory sequential mixed method research design with quantitative embedded in phase 2. For sampling purposes, the sequential mixed method sampling design and non-probability sampling strategies were used, specifically the purposive and convenience sampling methods. The data collection methods that were used included interviews with a cultural expert and colour-blind person, open-ended questionnaires completed by school learners and test administration to a group of 946 participants undergoing a sponsored basic career-related training and guidance programme. Content analysis was used for the qualitative data while statistical analysis mainly based on the Rasch model was utilised for quantitative data. The results of phase 1 were positive and provided support for further development of the new items, and based on this feedback, 200 new items were developed. This final pool of items was then used for phase 2 – the evaluation of the new items. The v statistical analysis of the new items indicated acceptable psychometric properties of the general reasoning (“g” or fluid ability) construct. The item difficulty values (pvalues) for the new items were determined using classical test theory (CTT) analysis and ranged from 0.06 (most difficult item) to 0.91 (easiest item). Rasch analysis showed that the new items were unidimensional and that they were adequately targeted to the level of ability of the participants, although there were elements that would need to be improved. The reliability of the new items was determined using the Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient (α) and the person separation index (PSI), and both methods indicated similar indices of internal consistency (α = 0.97; PSI = 0.96). Gender-related differential item functioning (DIF) was investigated, and the majority of the new items did not indicate any significant differences between the gender groups. Construct validity was determined from the relationship between the new items and the Learning Potential Computerised Adaptive Test (LPCAT), which uses traditional item formats to measure fluid ability. The correlation results for the total score of the new items and the pre- and post-tests were 0.616 and 0.712 respectively. The new items were thus confirmed to be measuring fluid ability using nonverbal figural reasoning ability items. Overall, the results were satisfactory in indicating the viability and utility of the new items. The main limitation of the research was that because the sample was not representative of the South African population, there were limited for generalisation. This led to a further limitation, namely that it was not possible to conduct important analysis on DIF for various other subgroups. Further research has been recommended to build on this initiative. / Industrial and Organisational Psychology

This thesis investigates the level of difficulty of puzzles in the adventure games and the implications thereof. The thesis contains an in-depth background, and a brief history about the genre. It brings up the main problem of the genre and looks into both the cause and effect that follows. To support this process, an analysis has been made of design documents and a survey was issued on the subject of adventure game puzzles.