Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this document / Thesis (DPhil (Psychology))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Psychology / unrestricted

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Abstract The development of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) technologies has changed the lives of human being throughout the world. Obviously differences exist on how these developments have impacted on developed and developing countries. E-learning is often viewed as a vehicle that can bridge the digital divide between rural and urban communities in sharing knowledge, enhancing educational qualifications, ensuring life-ling learning, contributing towards alleviating poverty and accompanying social social-economic problems. After assessing three community centres located in developing communities, the authors propose a model for the sustainable implementation of elearning in multi purpose community centres as a means to rural community developments.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Human Performance / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Mobile technologies now afford unprecedented opportunities, resources, and possibilities for learning. Among them, is the opportunity for students to engage in hands-on, out-of-classroom learning activities such as Adventure Learning. Since 2007, Adventure Learning has developed as an educational framework for using information and communication technologies to connect learners with expeditionary teams where video-based communication provides a sense of adventure for learners. The study was conducted in a public high school where an Environmental Science teacher used mobile learning technologies to create Adventure Learning projects where students participated both fin the classroom and as members of an “expeditionary team.” It was also intended to examine both the benefits and challenges in implementing ubiquitous mobile technologies in the field, combined with the use of student-centered pedagogies in their classrooms. The major questions of the study asked how did a teacher leverage mobilized Adventure Learning to design learning activities? And how did active participation in a mobilized Adventure Learning project affect student interest in the subject of Environmental Science? The study involved examining the ways the teacher leveraged the affordances of mobile technologies to create a hands-on, collaborative, and Adventure Learning environments outside of the classroom. The hands-on learning activities were designed to enable students to gather first-hand information related to environmental science. Subjects in the study included a high school Environmental Science teacher along with 104 participating students. Using a mixed methods approach, qualitative data were gathered through observations of learning activities, interviews and focus groups and artifacts. Quantitative data were gathered through surveys administered to the students before and after the treatment. The results indicated that, contrary to the teacher’s expectations, students indicated a preference for learning through book and lecture rather than hands-on discovery of information in both pre and post treatment surveys. Results of the study also demonstrated differences in learning preference relating to percentage of students participating in field-based, hands-on learning activities or in lecture-book classroom learning activities. Recommendations for future research and for educational practice are offered. Limitations of the study include the small sample size and short time duration of the study. / text

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This study was conducted to determine if there are any significant differences among learning style profiles of selected secondary school students from three language groups in three nations: French-speaking Canada, Spanish-speaking Mexico, and English-speaking United States. An approach to the analysis of learning style was developed, based on three instruments: The Group Embedded Figures Test, a measure of cognitive style; The Internal-External I-E Scale, a measure of locus of control; and The Sherman-Kulhavy Laterality Assessment Inventory, a measure of cerebral dominance. The mean scores on these instruments formed a three figure numerical descriptor constituting a learning style profile for each group. To determine if certain demographic characteristics were significantly related to any of the three categories of learning style, a questionnaire was developed. The instruments were translated into French and Spanish, and administered to subjects in Quebec (City), Quebec, Canada; Hermosillo, Sonora, Mexico; and Tucson, Arizona, USA. It was hypothesized that the three groups did not differ significantly in any of the categories of learning style. The hypothesis was tested by three separate one-way analyses of variance applied to the mean scores for the three groups in each of the learning style categories. Correlation studies were done to determine if any demographic characteristics identified by the questionnaire were significantly related to the categories of learning style within and/or across the three groups. Tests were conducted to determine if there were any significant correlations among the categories of learning style. Important findings of the study were: (1) Subjects from Mexico differed significantly from those of Canada and the United States in the cognitive style category of learning style. (2) Age was significantly correlated with locus of control in subjects from Canada and the United States. This was not found with subjects from Mexico. (3) There was a significant correlation between cognitive style and locus of control in subjects from Canada and the United States. None was found in subjects from Mexico. Subjects from Canada and the United States exhibited strikingly similar learning style profiles.

Teaching, Learning, and Diversity Language as an Identification Resource in Secondary English Teacher Preparation: An Analysis of Discourses Frank Blake Tenore Dissertation under the direction of Professors Kevin M. Leander and H. Richard Milner, IV The topic of the research presented here was teacher educators and teacher candidates talk as an identification resource in the coursework of an undergraduate and Masters level secondary English teacher preparation program. Two research questions framed this study: What identity constructions of English teacher are available in the discourses of secondary English teacher preparation? How are the discourses and available identifications transformed through language use in course meetings? Participants in the study were two English teacher educators, twenty teacher candidates enrolled in two secondary English methods courses at a mid-sized, private, urban university, and five teacher candidates who agreed to participate in interviews and one focus group. Qualitative methods for data collection and analysis were used including semi-structured interviews, classroom observations with video- and audio-recording, constant comparative analysis, and discourse analysis. Findings were that participants talk was connected to prominent Discourses in the fields of English education and teacher education. Talk in the courses created specific identification opportunities for teacher candidates. Teacher candidates accepted, rejected, and transformed the available identifications through specific language use and genres of talk. Findings from this study have implications for structures and practices in teacher education and contribute to theory building of how teacher candidates become teachers who identify, or not, with particular conceptions of English teacher. Approved_________________________________________ Date__________ Kevin M. Leander, Ph.D. Approved_________________________________________ Date__________ H. Richard Milner, IV, Ph.D.

The research question underpinning this study is ‘How is learning organised within the context of social work practice in the third sector?’ The research objective is to establish conceptual frameworks that theorise the organisation of learning in this context. Drawing upon literatures from Organisational Behaviour, Management, Social Work, Sociology and Psychology (e.g., Ballew and Mink 1996; Foucault 1995; Mayer and Salovey 1997; Ouchi 1979; Weihrich 1982) and undertaking an ethnographic inquiry in the Old-Five-Old Foundation in Taiwan, which collects documents as secondary data and gathers primary data through participant observations and interviews, this study establishes interdisciplinary frameworks to answer this research question. It argues that practitioners’ learning is organised by five kinds of structuring forces. At the macro level, practitioners’ direction of learning is organised by service purchasers’ demanding (an inter-organisational level structuring force) and the service provider’s planning (an organisational level structuring force). The evaluation of practitioners’ learning is organised by the service provider’s monitoring (an organisational level structuring force). At the micro level, practitioners’ methods of learning are organised by practitioners’ puzzle solving and instructors’ instructing (individual level structuring forces). By looking at the macro and micro structuring forces (cross level analysis) that organise practitioners’ learning, including their direction and methods of learning and the evaluation of their learning (process analysis), this study systematically analyses the organising of learning through both a cross-level analysis and a process analysis, deepening an understanding of the organising of learning and thus making an original contribution to previous studies of learning in the organisational setting (e.g., Argyris and ch n 1978; Nonaka and Takeuchi 1995; Senge 1990; Wenger 1998, 2000).

In this thesis I address challenges related to the design, development anddeployment of web and mobile technologies used to support CollaborativeSeamless Learning (CSL) activities practiced across a variety of learningcontexts. The scientific publications at the core of this thesis offer adescription of the research I have performed over the last five years, andcomprise studies involving several hundred users.My research efforts included the elicitations of the requirements for and thedesign of a number of web and mobile tools to support collaborative seamlesslearning activities. A web-based environment called CeLS was developed tosupport the orchestration of CSL activities. It was then expanded to integratemobile solutions, aimed to extend the ability of CeLS to support educationalinteractions performed inside as well as outside physical classroom. Thesemobile solutions were designed to implement learning activities that supportdata collection, personal response systems and interaction with mobile videos.The main aim of the research was to investigate how best to design tools andsystems to support students during the enactment of collaborative seamlesslearning activities, and to provide teachers with artifacts to design and assessthose. Special emphasis has been given to the exploration of approaches thatenhance the flow, reusability and sharing of learner-generated content acrossdifferent learning activities. Several studies were conducted in order to validateand assess these ideas and concepts. Various data collection methods wereused to gather data from different stakeholders during the deployment of thedifferent CSL activities. The outcomes were processed and analyzed resultingin a set of recommendations concerning the design, development anddeployment of web and mobile applications to support collaborative seamlesslearning. A software architecture including various web and mobile integratedcomponents used to support innovative CSL activities is also proposed.