Peer review is a complex collaborative activity, which may engage English language learners in reading, writing, listening, and speaking and carry many potential benefits for their language learning (Hu, 2005). While many research studies focused on peer review practices of adult language learners in academic settings in the USA or abroad in language classes (Grami, 2010; Zhao, 2010), little attention was paid to adolescent L2 writers participating in peer review in face-to-face K-12 and online contexts. This multiple case study aimed at describing and explaining peer review practices of four adolescent ELLs in face-to-face and online contexts from the ecological perspective. In particular, I aimed at exploring (a) four adolescent ELLs' perceptions of peer review in face-to-face and online contexts, (b) affordances they chose to employ during peer review in face-to-face and online contexts, and (c) revisions the participants chose to make due to peer review in face-to-face and online contexts. The multiple observations, semi-structured interviews, researcher's and participants' e-journals, and written artifacts yielded data for within-case and cross-case analysis. The findings of the study afforded situating adolescent ELLs' peer review practices in the face-to-face and online contexts as a part of L2 literacy, redefining L2 literacy and peer review in L2, and discussing the important role of peer review in adolescent ELLs' literacy development. The implications of the study provided teachers with suggestions on how to enhance adolescent ELLs' peer review practices. Further, I elaborated on the lessons learned about technology use for peer review in K-12 contexts. Finally, I addressed possible future research directions based on the findings of the study.

The purpose of this qualitative study is to describe how child and youth care practitioners experience their engagement in community level interventions. Five child and youth care practitioners, who identified themselves as engaging in community level interventions in their work, were interviewed and data were analysed using a combined narrative and thematic approach. Eight themes emerged from the data that describe participants’ experience with community, community change and community level interventions. Results show how community level interventions have a tendency to target the micro, meso and occasionally exo, rather than macro, levels of communities. Thus, multi-level interventions are recommended as a way to shift child and youth care practice from an emphasis on interventions with individuals, towards greater emphasis on interventions that are aimed at the multiple levels of the child and youth’s ecological system. The study identifies implications for post-secondary curriculum, professional practice, agency mandates and job descriptions. / Graduate

Orientador: Sérgio Tosi Rodrigues / Banca: Maria Eunice Quilici Gonzalez / Banca: Umberto Cesar Corrêa / Resumo: O objetivo deste estudo é analisar o conceito de affordance de James Gibson (1977, 1979/1986) e suas implicações teóricas e filosóficas, principalmente no que se referem às noções de informação e de percepção. Como um organismo visualmente sensitivo, o homem se move para atingir as suas metas e tem grande parte de suas atividades sob controle direto da visão, possibilitando uma interação dinâmica com o meio. Duas perspectivas teóricas para a interação agente-ambiente, baseadas na percepção visual, foram revistas neste estudo - a perspectiva representacionista, que admite que representações mentais são necessárias para a percepção visual, e a perspectiva ecológica, que assume que o ambiente pode ser percebido sem o envolvimento de processos representacionais. De acordo com Gibson, muitas questões sobre como a informação visual é "construída" internamente pelo agente poderiam ser substituídas por questões que tratam das fontes de informação no ambiente, determinantes para o comportamento do agente. O conceito gibsoniano de informação reconcilia dois aspectos da relação agente-ambiente, os inseparáveis conceitos de invariantes e affordances. A noção de invariantes é baseada na idéia de que padrões de energia que estimulam os sentidos contêm informações que especificam o ambiente. O conceito de affordances especificamente faz referência ao agente, expressando as possibilidades de ação oferecidas pelo ambiente. Adicionalmente, o presente estudo discute uma variedade de aspectos relacionados ao conceito de affordances tais como a noção de reciprocidade (animal-ambiente, percepção-propriocepção e percepção-ação), as relações com eventos, sua ontologia e as principais críticas feitas por cientistas cognitivos. / Abstract: The purpose of this study is to analyse the James Gibson's (1979/1986) concept of affordance and its theoretical and philosophical implications, specially those related to the notions of information and perception. As a visually sensitive organism, humans move to reach their goals and have great part of their activities under direct control of the vision, allowing a dynamic interaction with the environment. Two theoretical approaches to the agent-environment interaction based upon visual perception were reviewed in this study - the representationist approach, stating that mental representations are necessary to visual perception, and the ecological approach, assuming that the environment can be perceived without involving representational processes. According to Gibson, many issues regarding to how visual information is internally "built" by agent should be changed to issues regarding to the sources of visual information in the environment, relevant to agent's behavior. The gibsonian concept of information reconciles two aspects of the relation agent-environment, the inseparable concepts of invariants and affordances. The notion of invariants is based on the idea that patterns of energy that stimulate the senses contain information that specifies the environment. The concept of affordances specifically refers to the agent, expressing possibilities of action offered by the environment. Additionally, the present study discusses a variety of aspects related to the concept of affordances, such as the notion of reciprocity (animal-environment, perception-propriception, and perception-action), the relations with events, its ontology, and its main criticisms by cognitive scientists. / Mestre

The impact of school factors on academic achievement has become an important focus for school social work and revealed the need for a comprehensive school social work model that allows for the identification of critical areas to apply social work services. This study was designed to develop and test a more comprehensive school social work model. Specifically, the relationship between cumulative grade point average (GPA) and the cumulative risk index (CRI) and an additive risk index (ARI) were tested and a comparison of the two models was presented. Over 20,000 abstracts were reviewed in order to create a list of factors which have been shown in previous research to impact academic achievement. These factors were divided into the broad domains of personal factors, family factors, peer factors, school factors, and neighborhood or community factors. Factors that were placed under the school domain were tested and those factors which met all three criteria were included in the overall model. Consistent with previous research, both the CRI and ARI were shown to be related to cumulative GPA. As the number of risk factors increased, GPA decreased. After a discussion of the results, a case was made for the use of an additive risk index approach fitting more with the current state of social work. In addition, selecting cutoff points for determining risk and non-risk students was accomplished using an ROC analysis. Finally, implications for school social work practice on the macro-, meso-, and micro- levels were discussed.

This study explores educational leadership within and across two of NZ’s eLearning clusters. Two complementary perspectives of educational leadership are used to frame the investigation: instructional leadership and distributed leadership. The research was conducted approximately nine months after the cessation of a two-year Ministry subsidy for the employment of 12 ePrincipals and at a time when Ultrafast Broadband was imminent for nearly all NZ schools. The literature review explores aspects of two areas related to eLearning leadership: conventional educational leadership in ‘bricks-and-mortar’ schooling contexts and eLearning/eTeaching in virtual schooling contexts. Data was gathered from semistructured interviews with twelve school-based research participants (ePrincipals, eTeachers, Site Supervisors and Principals) across two of NZ’s eLearning clusters and four National Officials with responsibilities for wider forms of eLearning. The findings are presented in a manner that attempts to capture directly the research participants’ voices, while still maintaining confidentiality and anonymity. The findings are discussed using an ecological perspective of eLearning as the unifying framework to explore the leadership across nested and interacting layers, from the micro-level of an eLearning class to the macro-level of NZ’s system for secondary education. The major findings from the study indicate that educational leadership in eLearning clusters is complex, relies heavily on goodwill and collaboration, and occurs in a challenging environment. Within an eLearning cluster the leadership of eLearning/eTeaching is distributed primarily across the ePrincipal, eTeachers and Site Supervisors who each assume complementary leadership roles. A raft of recommendations, across all ecosystem levels of eLearning, is proposed for leaders to consider when initiating change to strengthen their practices and policies with respect to enhancing eLearning and eTeaching.

Fetale alkoholsindroom (FAS) is ‘n voortgaande probleem in Suid–Afrika, veral in die Wes–Kaap. Baie kinders met FAS word in pleegsorg geplaas vanweë hul ouers se drankmisbruik en onvermoë om die kinders te versorg. Daar is reeds baie navorsing gedoen in akademiese en sosiale omgewings oor die voorkoms en simptome van FAS. Minder is bekend oor die hanteringsbehoeftes by pleegouers van pleegkinders met FAS en derhalwe is dit die navorser se doelwit om navorsing te doen in hierdie veld. Die doel van hierdie studie was om die behoeftes wat pleegouers ondervind in die hantering van hul voorskoolse pleegkinders met FAS te verken en te beskryf. Die navorsingsvraag vir die studie lui soos volg: “Wat is pleegouers se hanteringsbehoeftes ten opsigte van hul voorskoolse pleegkinders met FAS?” Hierdie navorsingsvraag is aangespreek deur kwalitatiewe navorsing, en die studie kan geklassifiseer word as verkennende en beskrywende navorsing. Die navorser het vir die doel van hierdie studie gebruik maak van ‘n niewaarskynlikheidsteekproef deur middel van doelbewuste steekproefneming. Die navorser het 17 pleegouers, van twee gesinsorgorganisasies gewerf. Fokusgroeponderhoude binne twee fokusgroepe is benut om die hanteringsbehoeftes by pleegouers van voorskoolse pleegkinders met FAS te identifiseer. Die onderhoude is getranskribeer vir die doeleindes van dataanalisering en aan die hand van Creswell (2007) se stappe ontleed. Sewe temas is geïdentifiseer, naamlik (1) Dissiplinering van voorskoolse pleegkinders met FAS; (2) Hantering van gedrag van die voorskoolse pleegkind met FAS; (3) Ondersteuningsdienste aan pleegouers of pleegkinders; (4) Inligting of ondersteuning rondom FAS; (5) Verwerping van die voorskoolse pleegkind met FAS; (6) Emosionele impak van die voorskoolse pleegkind met FAS op die pleegouer; en laastens (7) Rol van die biologiese ouers van die voorskoolse pleegkind met FAS. Hierdie temas is in subtemas verdeel en aan die hand van toepaslike narratiewe uit die fokusgroepe bespreek en met literatuur gekontroleer. Gevolgtrekkings en aanbevelings is na aanleiding daarvan gemaak. / Thesis (M.A. (MW))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

Fetale alkoholsindroom (FAS) is ‘n voortgaande probleem in Suid–Afrika, veral in die Wes–Kaap. Baie kinders met FAS word in pleegsorg geplaas vanweë hul ouers se drankmisbruik en onvermoë om die kinders te versorg. Daar is reeds baie navorsing gedoen in akademiese en sosiale omgewings oor die voorkoms en simptome van FAS. Minder is bekend oor die hanteringsbehoeftes by pleegouers van pleegkinders met FAS en derhalwe is dit die navorser se doelwit om navorsing te doen in hierdie veld. Die doel van hierdie studie was om die behoeftes wat pleegouers ondervind in die hantering van hul voorskoolse pleegkinders met FAS te verken en te beskryf. Die navorsingsvraag vir die studie lui soos volg: “Wat is pleegouers se hanteringsbehoeftes ten opsigte van hul voorskoolse pleegkinders met FAS?” Hierdie navorsingsvraag is aangespreek deur kwalitatiewe navorsing, en die studie kan geklassifiseer word as verkennende en beskrywende navorsing. Die navorser het vir die doel van hierdie studie gebruik maak van ‘n niewaarskynlikheidsteekproef deur middel van doelbewuste steekproefneming. Die navorser het 17 pleegouers, van twee gesinsorgorganisasies gewerf. Fokusgroeponderhoude binne twee fokusgroepe is benut om die hanteringsbehoeftes by pleegouers van voorskoolse pleegkinders met FAS te identifiseer. Die onderhoude is getranskribeer vir die doeleindes van dataanalisering en aan die hand van Creswell (2007) se stappe ontleed. Sewe temas is geïdentifiseer, naamlik (1) Dissiplinering van voorskoolse pleegkinders met FAS; (2) Hantering van gedrag van die voorskoolse pleegkind met FAS; (3) Ondersteuningsdienste aan pleegouers of pleegkinders; (4) Inligting of ondersteuning rondom FAS; (5) Verwerping van die voorskoolse pleegkind met FAS; (6) Emosionele impak van die voorskoolse pleegkind met FAS op die pleegouer; en laastens (7) Rol van die biologiese ouers van die voorskoolse pleegkind met FAS. Hierdie temas is in subtemas verdeel en aan die hand van toepaslike narratiewe uit die fokusgroepe bespreek en met literatuur gekontroleer. Gevolgtrekkings en aanbevelings is na aanleiding daarvan gemaak. / Thesis (M.A. (MW))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:23:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2005Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:29:09Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 oliveira_fis_me_ma.pdf: 608106 bytes, checksum: 3eb1472ea174652c01e3728d944ab0f5 (MD5) / O objetivo deste estudo é analisar o conceito de affordance de James Gibson (1977, 1979/1986) e suas implicações teóricas e filosóficas, principalmente no que se referem às noções de informação e de percepção. Como um organismo visualmente sensitivo, o homem se move para atingir as suas metas e tem grande parte de suas atividades sob controle direto da visão, possibilitando uma interação dinâmica com o meio. Duas perspectivas teóricas para a interação agente-ambiente, baseadas na percepção visual, foram revistas neste estudo - a perspectiva representacionista, que admite que representações mentais são necessárias para a percepção visual, e a perspectiva ecológica, que assume que o ambiente pode ser percebido sem o envolvimento de processos representacionais. De acordo com Gibson, muitas questões sobre como a informação visual é construída internamente pelo agente poderiam ser substituídas por questões que tratam das fontes de informação no ambiente, determinantes para o comportamento do agente. O conceito gibsoniano de informação reconcilia dois aspectos da relação agente-ambiente, os inseparáveis conceitos de invariantes e affordances. A noção de invariantes é baseada na idéia de que padrões de energia que estimulam os sentidos contêm informações que especificam o ambiente. O conceito de affordances especificamente faz referência ao agente, expressando as possibilidades de ação oferecidas pelo ambiente. Adicionalmente, o presente estudo discute uma variedade de aspectos relacionados ao conceito de affordances tais como a noção de reciprocidade (animal-ambiente, percepção-propriocepção e percepção-ação), as relações com eventos, sua ontologia e as principais críticas feitas por cientistas cognitivos. / The purpose of this study is to analyse the James Gibson's (1979/1986) concept of affordance and its theoretical and philosophical implications, specially those related to the notions of information and perception. As a visually sensitive organism, humans move to reach their goals and have great part of their activities under direct control of the vision, allowing a dynamic interaction with the environment. Two theoretical approaches to the agent-environment interaction based upon visual perception were reviewed in this study - the representationist approach, stating that mental representations are necessary to visual perception, and the ecological approach, assuming that the environment can be perceived without involving representational processes. According to Gibson, many issues regarding to how visual information is internally built by agent should be changed to issues regarding to the sources of visual information in the environment, relevant to agent's behavior. The gibsonian concept of information reconciles two aspects of the relation agent-environment, the inseparable concepts of invariants and affordances. The notion of invariants is based on the idea that patterns of energy that stimulate the senses contain information that specifies the environment. The concept of affordances specifically refers to the agent, expressing possibilities of action offered by the environment. Additionally, the present study discusses a variety of aspects related to the concept of affordances, such as the notion of reciprocity (animal-environment, perception-propriception, and perception-action), the relations with events, its ontology, and its main criticisms by cognitive scientists.

In this study the aim was to describe and understand how meanings emerge from the context in which the food practices of the peoples of Mmotla were construed. South African society is multi-cultural and black South Africans, upon contact with Western-oriented societies, seem to have gradually or partially adopted the Western lifestyle including eating patterns, leading to changing traditional food practices that can be mostly attributed to the effect of acculturation, urbanisation and modernisation processes. The current knowledge base of food practices of the South African population as a whole is fragmentary, with limited information on what some sectors of certain population groups eat. Inadequate attention is paid to the reasons why specific food items are chosen or excluded. To facilitate meaningful consumer education and to recommend sound nutrition interventions, a thorough understanding of why as well as what South Africans eat is urgently needed. Moreover, cognisance should be taken of the factors that contribute to the development of typical food practices within specific communities. As confirmed in various studies in other countries, the reasons for human food choices require an appreciation of the fact that food practices are embedded in the food choice processes which, in turn are guided by numerous interrelated and interdependent factors that are context-specific. A holistic and contextual approach with knowledge of the socio-cultural, psychological, historical and demographic factors that contribute to food practices should be uncovered when attempting to understand and describe these practices and their underlying meanings. The human ecological perspective, as overarching theoretical perspective, is supported by cultural and symbolic interactionism perspectives and other theoretical models, and combined with a qualitative research design to uncover, describe and interpret all the environmental levels, the physical, politico-economic, socio-cultural and the micro-world of the individual, and their embedded factors. Data was obtained from focus group discussions and interviews, supported by participant observation and unobtrusive measures. Purposive sampling was used to select female participants for the focus groups and theoretical sampling for the individual interviews. Gathered data was systematically analysed according to the grounded theory approach throughout the data collection phase. From the findings it became apparent that the food practices of the peoples in Mmotla continue to develop and change. A distinct move towards the modern Western-oriented food practices emerged. Although acculturation of food practices was evident, traditional food practices were not discarded, and both traditional and modern food practices were embraced and regarded as important. Meanings linked to the socio-cultural and socio-psychological environments were used to define the context in which food items were used as symbols, signs or codes to define a specific situation and/or communicate the associated meanings. This resulted in dynamic movement between the two poles, the modern and the traditional, depending on the context. Thus the acculturation response is consequently seen to be fluid, context-specific and driven by various interacting factors from the different environmental levels. This valuable and noteworthy contribution augments existing theories and models on food choice within the South African context. Copyright / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2009. / Consumer Science / unrestricted

This research study took place at the High Performance Centre (hpc) at the University of Pretoria (UP) in South Africa (SA). The sport psychologists/sports counselors at the hpc mainly deliver performance development services to the athletes. The sport psychology services at the hpc are conducted to the athletes via the Psychological Skills Training (PST) approach and Mindfulness-Acceptance-Commitment (MAC) approach. These two approaches are individualistic in nature and the aim of my study was to move away from a more traditional individualistic perspective to an ecological perspective that takes into consideration other role players such as sport scientists. This was achieved by developing a sport science specific MAC programme for the sport scientists, which was facilitated through experiential learning. The goal of the MAC programme was to explore the sport scientists’ experiences with reference to what they discovered and how they applied their learning. Eight in depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with four sport scientists at the hpc after their participation in the programme. Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) was used to analyse the semi-structured interviews. The findings were mainly related to difficulties and advantages that the sport scientists experienced when they applied the MAC principles. / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Psychology / MA / Unrestricted