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The Swedish government decided in 2017 that Sweden should be the best country in theworld to use the benefits of digitalization, and concluded that education plays a hugerole in reaching their vision. From autumn semester 2022 text-based programming willbe a mandatory part (in mathematics, grade 7-9) in Sweden. Previous research showsthat many teachers feel uncomfortable teaching programming and that text-basedprogramming has a steep learning curve. This leads us to check if there are gaps to fillin the software provided for educational purposes available today. To get an overview ofthe current situation a survey using questionnaires was conducted. To what extent hadthe teachers used the tools and resources recommended by the Swedish NationalAgency for Education, to develop their skills within text-based programming? How didthe view differ for teachers on using complements to the tools and resources providedby the Swedish National Agency for education today, based on their characteristics?Very few teachers had used the available material and tools, or had the time needed todevelop their skills to feel comfortable teaching text-based programming. Most of theteachers within the survey would find complements to the material provided by theSwedish National Agency for Education useful.

This study explored the feasibility and practicability of designing and developing a Knowledge Assessment System (KAS) for assessing different types of knowledge as defined in the revision of Bloom's Taxonomy (Anderson et al., 2001). The KAS created as a result of this study is based on concept maps and employs two differential weighting approaches. It is a developmental study, which includes the design phase, development phase and evaluation phase. The general software system design model (Sommerville, 2009) was adopted to guide the design of the Knowledge Assessment System based on its procedures, including system requirements analysis, architecture design, component design, interface design, and database design. The assessment criteria in this system are designed to be proposition-based and consist of either a non-weighting approach or a weighting approach, which can help provide instructors with flexible assessing methods as well as help them obtain a whole picture of what kinds of knowledge their students have grasped and to what extent the students have mastered that knowledge, based on the student-created concept maps. The two differential weighting approaches initially compare student-created concept maps with expert maps stored in the system. Because some correct propositions in student concept maps may be not included in the initial expert concept maps, the system is designed to continually refine the assessment criterion by inspecting and evaluating the correctness of the propositions in the student-created concept maps and adding the results to the system's database. The current system is able to assess three types of knowledge: factual, conceptual, and procedural, all of which are defined in the revision of Bloom's Taxonomy (Anderson et al., 2001). The assessment process begins with the assignment of different types of concept map tasks entered and stored in the Knowledge Assessment System. Following by student completion of the tasks and submission of a concept map, the submitted concept map is compared to the criteria stored in the system and a performance report is generated. The research results show that the Knowledge Assessment System based on concept maps and two differential weighting approaches can act as a useful tool for assessing students' factual, conceptual and procedural knowledge based on their concept maps. / Ph. D.

This thesis presents the design of an educational tool that enhances student engagement and interaction during group presentations in large classroom settings. Specifically, the study aimed to create a tool that streamlines the management of questions and participation, making the process more efficient and equitable for students and instructors. The research explored three primary questions: (1) How can educational software be designed to increase engagement and participation during student presentations? (2) How can AI be used to assist in tasks traditionally performed by professors, such as managing Q&A sessions? (3) How does the application of design thinking, particularly the empathy stage, influence the development of effective educational tools? Students provided ample feedback on improving the course and detailed explanations for their preferences. Qualitative methods including reflexive thematic analysis were used to process this volume of feedback. Descriptive statistics, confusion matrices, and Kappa scores were used to ensure the integrity of the analysis. An open-source large language model, Meta’s LLaMA, was implemented to automate the selection and clustering of questions during student-led Q&A sessions, with these results compared against instructor-selected questions. AI-driven question selection matched the effectiveness of instructor selections and enhanced efficiency, significantly reducing the logistical burden on educators while sustaining student engagement. Additionally, the research gathered extensive data on students’ experiences within the university classroom, with particular attention to issues such as anxiety, group dynamics, and disengagement. A paper prototype was developed to address these challenges, leveraging AI to foster interaction and improve peer-to-peer communication. These results have broader implications for educational technology, showing how AI could foster deeper student involvement and provide instructors with tools to manage participation effortlessly at scale, improving the overall learning experience. / Thesis / Master of Computer Science (MCS)

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T20:57:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Nelma Maria Felix Capi Villaca de Souza Barros.pdf: 11216905 bytes, checksum: 8e2496321e49f65e67405bbde825da02 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2009-05-06 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The increasing number of students with special educational needs in regular education demands for new methodologies which can help the teacher in his professional activities. Reading is the basis for acquiring further academic repertoires, as well as for the individual s participation in society. Unfortunately difficulty in reading has been identified in different grades of the academic period of Brazilian s students. Reading has been an object of study in different approaches, including the Behavior Analysis, which presents studies based on the stimulus-equivalence paradigm, with good results in teaching basic reading repertoires (words and phrases). A part of the studies was carried out using the Mestre® software; however, there are very few studies in which the participants are only individuals with Down s Syndrome. The objectives of this study are evaluating the reading repertoire of individuals with Down s Syndrome and implementing a program to teach reading using the Mestre® educational software. The participants were four students with Down s Syndrome, with ages between nine and twenty-five. The study was developed in three stages: 1) Evaluation of the participants previous reading repertoire. 2) Implementation of a teaching procedure with 15 words composed by simple syllables, focusing on the relations between stimulus of different modalities: spoken word (A), picture (B), printed word (C). The CC, AB, AC, CE and AE relations were taught and the emergence of the BC, CB, CD and BE relations was tested. 3) Application of Generalized Reading Test with news words and phrases composed by simple syllables. The repertoire of four participants was evaluated and three of them were submitted to teaching procedure. It was verified that two participants showed satisfactory performances in the trained relations as well as in the tested relations, reaching 100% correct results in expressive reading (CD relation); on the other hand, the levels in the word and phrase in the Generalized Reading Test were low, leading to assume that they were not under the control of minimal units (syllables). The participant that did not complete the teaching procedure showed positive performance changes, compared to the previously evaluated repertoire. Taking into account the short training period (a maximum of 13 hours and 35 minutes) and the number of sessions (a maximum of 21 sessions) and also the extremely small initial reading repertoire, the conclusions are that it is possible to teach reading based on the stimulus equivalence and that the Mestre® software is a valuable tool to improve reading to students with Down s Syndrome / Diante do crescente número de inclusões na rede regular de ensino em nosso país, fazem-se necessárias pesquisas em novas metodologias que auxiliem o professor no processo de ensino de pessoas com necessidades educacionais especiais, principalmente na leitura, que é base para a aquisição dos demais repertórios acadêmicos e atuação do indivíduo na sociedade. É fato também que a dificuldade na aprendizagem de leitura tem sido identificada em diferentes anos no período acadêmico. A leitura tem sido objeto de estudo em diferentes abordagens, entre elas a Análise do Comportamento, a qual tem estudos pautados no paradigma da equivalência de estímulos, com resultados promissores para a aquisição e aperfeiçoamento de repertórios básicos de leitura, envolvendo o ensino de palavras e de um segmento mais amplo como frases. Parte dos estudos foi realizada com o software Mestre®, no entanto são escassos os estudos tendo como participantes apenas indivíduos com Síndrome de Down. O presente estudo teve por objetivo, avaliar o repertório de leitura de indivíduos com Síndrome de Down e implementar uma proposta de ensino de leitura, utilizando o software educativo Mestre®. Participaram da pesquisa quatro indivíduos, tendo entre nove e vinte e cinco anos, todos com diagnóstico de Síndrome de Down. O estudo foi desenvolvido em três etapas: 1) Avaliação do repertório prévio dos participantes em leitura. 2) Implementação de um procedimento para o ensino de 15 palavras compostas por sílabas simples, focalizando as relações entre estímulos de diferentes modalidades: palavra falada (A), figura (B), palavra impressa (C), sendo ensinadas as relações: CC, AB, AC, CE e AE e testada a emergência das relações BC, CB, CD e BE. 3) Teste de Leitura Generalizada de palavras e frases formadas por sílabas simples. Dos quatro participantes, três passaram pelo procedimento de ensino. Verificou-se que os dois participantes que concluíram o procedimento obtiveram desempenhos satisfatórios tanto nas relações treinadas, quanto nas relações testadas, atingindo 100% de acertos na leitura expressiva (relação CD); porém nos testes de generalização de leitura de palavras e frases os patamares foram baixos, levando a pressupor que eles não ficaram sob controle de unidades mínimas (sílabas). O participante que não concluiu o procedimento de ensino teve alterações positivas no desempenho, comparativamente ao repertório prévio avaliado. Considerando o pequeno tempo de treino (máximo de 13 horas e 35 minutos) e de sessões (máximo de 21 sessões) a que os participantes se submeteram durante o procedimento de ensino e os desempenhos apresentados e levando em conta o baixíssimo repertório inicial de leitura, conclui-se que é possível pautar-se na equivalência de estímulos para o ensino de leitura e que a utilização do software Mestre® mostrou-se uma ferramenta valiosa para o ensino e aperfeiçoamento da leitura em pessoas com Síndrome de Down