The purpose of this project was to develop aids and strategies for identifying and assisting adult students with learning disabilities. Using the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association (DSM-IV 1994). The project addresses specific descriptions for identifying traits, behaviors, and characteristics in the recognition of: dyslexia; color blindness, tic disorders, Tourette's syndrome, scotopic sensitivity syndrome, behavior disorders, attention deficit disorder (ADD), attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), aphasic disorders, and autistic disorders.

An exploratory, descriptive design in the phenomenological approach was used to describe and explore how student tutors' experienced the process of evaluation of their clinical teaching in a specific distance-learning programme. The researcher conducted a tape-recorded focus group interview with seven participants who voluntarily agreed to participate. After transcription, the data was analysed using Tesch's (1992:92) method of analysis to code the data into themes in order to identify commonalities. The findings of this study indicated that participants experienced the evaluation process positively and negatively. The negative experiences included difficulty in obtaining access to evaluators, practica facilities, and inconsistencies of evaluators. Recommendations were made for improving evaluation of teaching skills of student tutors in this distance programme. / Health Studies / M. A. (Health Studies)

Although the merits of practical work in physics are often questioned, it remains part of physics curricula world-wide. In distance education the incorporation of practical work into the curriculum is considerably complicated by the unique logistics of the setting and the high cost involved. The research reported in this thesis emanated from the need to improve the practical work module for first year physics at the University of South Africa, one of the largest distance education universities in the world. Specifically, the home-based component which, up to the commencement of the research had been entirely text-based, needed to be addressed. To this end it was necessary to identify a valid and attainable set of objectives and to determine the characteristics, abilities and needs of the students in the target group. A survey polling the viewpoints of South African physics lecturers and students about the objectives of practical work was conducted and an extensive student profile comprising a biographic, cognitive and affective component was compiled. Biographically, the target group is unique in the sense that it consists mainly of adult learners, a large percentage of whom study in a second language. The cognitive component of the profile covered aptitude, proficiency in English, mathematics and the integrated science process skills and level of cognitive development, all of which were investigated for possible influence on performance in practical work. On an affective level, students displayed a very positive attitude towards practical work, seated mainly in their need for concrete exploration of the theory. A practical work module structured around an experiential learning cycle adapted to the distance education environment was subsequently designed. The study material developed for the module comprised an interactive study guide on data processing and experimental procedure, a home experiment kit with accompanying workbook and a laboratory manual. From the pilot study forming part of the development process, it was found that students performed significantly better in an assignment based on home-experimentation than in any of the pen- and paper assignments preceding it. Based on the results of the pilot study, a full home experiment kit was designed, evaluated, refined and implemented. / Physics / D.Phil. (Physics)

published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

The purpose of this study is to investigate the relationship between some of selected affective characteristics of high school students related to physics lesson and their physics achievement in electricity concept. These affective characteristics of the students includes their interest in physics, importance of physics, enjoyment of extra-curricular activities related to physics, physics course anxiety, physics test anxiety, achievement motivation in physics, student motivation in physics, self-efficacy in physics and self-concept in physics. Two causal models explaining the direction of the relationship between these affective characteristics and physics achievement was hypothesized and tested. A questionnaire consisted of 10 sub-dimensions was used in order to determine the affective characteristics of high school students. The achievement scores were obtained by using Ninth Grade Electricity Test developed by the researcher. The Ninth Grade Electricity Test includes 29 items about the electricity concept. The Ninth Grade Electricity Test and the Affective Characteristics Scale were administered to 1457 students in 22 foreign language high schools in Ankara when they start to tenth grade in 2004-2005 academic year. The researcher was the data collector and was present in the class during administration of scale and test. The preliminary analyses were conducted by using Excel and SPSS 10.0 and the confirmatory analysis and testing of the hypothesized structural models were conducted by LISREL 8.30 for Windows. The findings indicated that achievement in physics has a significant effect on high school students&rsquo / affective characteristics. Since, affective characteristics of students are effective on achievement in later years, they should be firmly formed at high school years. Besides, affective characteristics should be improved whether they have an effect on achievement or not, because they have an effect on persistence in from of selection of courses which also may give the chance of being successful in a subject to a student.

在知識急速進步與變動的時代，知識共享與共構是未來的新趨勢。傳統師資培育偏重理論與知識傳遞的教學方式，固然有其優點，但面對未來知識社會的挑戰，師培課程也需要不斷進行反思與改進。為了改善傳統偏重知識傳遞的教學模式，本研究嘗試運用知識翻新(knowledge-building)理論於師資培育課程，並使用知識論壇平台(Knowledge Forum©)作為本課程的線上輔助學習環境。研究目的在讓師培生於課堂中實際進行體驗教學，並利用教室與線上知識論壇的學習環境進行大量教學反思，以期能幫助師培生發展更多元創新的教學信念，並且實踐於教學活動中。 研究對象為修習國民小學自然科教材教法的28位師資培育生，以個案研究法進行資料的蒐集和分析，資料包括：(1)整學期師培生在知識論壇平台上的互動與對話--使用知識論壇分析工具(Analytic Toolkit, ATK)計算學生於知識論壇平台進行知識建構的互動次數，亦使用社會網絡分析軟體(social network analysis)分析閱讀與回文訊息的流通情況，最後透過知識論壇學生的實際貼文內容，呈現師培生在平台上的互動情形；(2)師培生試教結束後在知識論壇的教學回饋內容--透過對教學回饋品質與教學回饋信念的質性編碼和兩階段相依樣本t考驗進行分析；(3)期初與期末的自我檢核表問卷--以質性分析軟體Nvivo進行開放式編碼，依據師培生對於問題的陳述內容進行編碼和兩階段相依樣本t考驗；(4)期初與期末的教學本質問卷--以質性分析軟體Nvivo進行編碼，依據師培生對開放性問題的陳述內容進行編碼和兩階段相依樣本t考驗；(5)期末試教反思問卷--計算師培生在試教活動中，教師中心與學生中心活動所佔時間的百分比，進行兩階段相依樣本t考驗，並根據師培生在教學設計、教法、教材和評量的反思內容，以貼文為分析單位，進行編碼和描述性統計。 研究結果顯示：(1)使用知識論壇平台有助師培生進行線上知識分享與自我反思；(2)透過知識翻新學習可以幫助師培生改進教學的回饋品質；(3)經由知識翻新學習讓師培生進行自我反思，可以幫助教學實務知識的發展；(4)經由知識翻新學習可以幫助師培生建立主動學習的教學信念；(5)讓師培生經由實際體驗教學與省思後，需要有更長的時間進行信念的內化，才能有效幫助師培生教學信念的實踐。 根據本研究結果，提出以下幾點建議供未來師資教育之參考：(1)教師可善用數位學習平台（如知識論壇）以輔助教學，促進學生想法的分享和改進；(2)營造開放自主的師資培育環境，可以建構多元的教學信念；(3)師資培育課程應提供更多實際體驗教學的機會，讓師培生檢視自我如何將教學信念付諸實踐；(4)課程革新應進一步思考如何促進教師教學信念與課程理念間的聯結，以協助教師在教學現場有效的落實課程。 / We are entering into a knowledge age, during which knowledge changes rapidly; accordingly, sustained knowledge sharing and constructing is essential. Although the traditional teacher education--that tends to emphasize more of the learning of educational theory than practical knowledge--has its advantage, teacher educators still need to reflect on and improve teacher preparation approaches continuously in order to face the challenge in the knowledge society. To this end, this study employed knowledge-building theory and Knowledge Forum© technology in a teacher education course. The purpose of this study was to help teacher-education students develop more informed science teaching beliefs by guiding them to effectively practice their teaching in classes, and to discuss and reflect on their teaching both in class and online. Participants were 28 teacher-education students who took a course about science teaching. Data sources (and analysis) mainly came from: (1) Teacher-education students’ interaction and discourse on Knowledge Forum (KF) (using the Analytic Toolkit to calculate the students’ frequency of activities on the KF platform; then, social network analysis was used to analyze the betweenness centrality and network density. Finally, examples of teacher-education students’ notes was analyzed to understand the interaction of teacher-education students in the KF platform); (2) Teacher-education students’ teaching feedback posted in Knowledge Forum (based on students’ answers, quantitative analysis was performed by means of paired-sample t tests); (3) An open-ended questionnaire that surveyed teacher-education students’ practical knowledge at the beginning and the end of semester was coded using key concepts as unit of analysis (quantitative analysis was performed via paired-sample t test); (4) A questionnaire with 6 open-ended questions that surveyed teacher-education students’ teaching beliefs at the beginning and the end of the semester was coded (quantitative analysis was performed via paired-sample t tests); (5) A questionnaire that surveys teacher-education students’ reflection on teaching practices (analysis was done by calculating the percentage of time on teacher-centered and student-centered teaching/learning activities using paired-sample t tests; and in addition, students’ texted answers were analyzed qualitatively). The results showed that: (1) using Knowledge Forum was helpful for teacher-education students’ sharing of their knowledge and reflection on their teaching; (2) Engaging in knowledge building could help improve teacher-education students’ teaching feedback quality; (3) Engaging in knowledge building could help teacher-education students’ development of their practical knowledge; (4) After engaging in knowledge building for a semester, teacher-education students developed more constructivist-oriented learning beliefs; (5) It was time-consuming to help teacher-education students develop more informed teaching beliefs. Building on the results, this study made the following suggestions: (1) Teachers should make good use of online learning platforms (e.g., Knowledge Forum) to facilitate students’ idea sharing and improvement; (2) Teacher education programs should help foster an open learning environment, in order to foster the development of multiple teaching beliefs; (3) Teacher education programs should provide teacher education students with more opportunities for teaching practice and for reflection on their teaching beliefs; and (4) Curriculum reform should try to better relate curriculum development and teachers' beliefs development.

An exploratory, descriptive design in the phenomenological approach was used to describe and explore how student tutors' experienced the process of evaluation of their clinical teaching in a specific distance-learning programme. The researcher conducted a tape-recorded focus group interview with seven participants who voluntarily agreed to participate. After transcription, the data was analysed using Tesch's (1992:92) method of analysis to code the data into themes in order to identify commonalities. The findings of this study indicated that participants experienced the evaluation process positively and negatively. The negative experiences included difficulty in obtaining access to evaluators, practica facilities, and inconsistencies of evaluators. Recommendations were made for improving evaluation of teaching skills of student tutors in this distance programme. / Health Studies / M. A. (Health Studies)

Although the merits of practical work in physics are often questioned, it remains part of physics curricula world-wide. In distance education the incorporation of practical work into the curriculum is considerably complicated by the unique logistics of the setting and the high cost involved. The research reported in this thesis emanated from the need to improve the practical work module for first year physics at the University of South Africa, one of the largest distance education universities in the world. Specifically, the home-based component which, up to the commencement of the research had been entirely text-based, needed to be addressed. To this end it was necessary to identify a valid and attainable set of objectives and to determine the characteristics, abilities and needs of the students in the target group. A survey polling the viewpoints of South African physics lecturers and students about the objectives of practical work was conducted and an extensive student profile comprising a biographic, cognitive and affective component was compiled. Biographically, the target group is unique in the sense that it consists mainly of adult learners, a large percentage of whom study in a second language. The cognitive component of the profile covered aptitude, proficiency in English, mathematics and the integrated science process skills and level of cognitive development, all of which were investigated for possible influence on performance in practical work. On an affective level, students displayed a very positive attitude towards practical work, seated mainly in their need for concrete exploration of the theory. A practical work module structured around an experiential learning cycle adapted to the distance education environment was subsequently designed. The study material developed for the module comprised an interactive study guide on data processing and experimental procedure, a home experiment kit with accompanying workbook and a laboratory manual. From the pilot study forming part of the development process, it was found that students performed significantly better in an assignment based on home-experimentation than in any of the pen- and paper assignments preceding it. Based on the results of the pilot study, a full home experiment kit was designed, evaluated, refined and implemented. / Physics / D.Phil. (Physics)

Made available in DSpace on 2014-12-17T15:07:14Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 MarineideFC_TESE.pdf: 1942362 bytes, checksum: 993690ff54669308765805539353a0e6 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-11-29 / This research deals with textualization issues present in educational forums in distance learning environment. The research aims to analyze textualization regarding communication practices between tutors and distance learning students. Specifically the research aims to verify if the educational forum is considered pertinent for knowledge construction as well as identify subject?s behavior in e-Proinfo environment. The research also aims to understand the dynamics of the teaching and learning techniques related to the forum?s printed material. This is done in order to acknowledge discourse on behalf of subjects through the presented educational assignments. In order to address the issue, the work dealt with the relations present in distance learning forums, the forms in which the assignments are made, the way social actors interact and how this debate happens in the virtual environment. The research emphasized an educational forum used in a higher education institution at Rio Grande do Norte/Brazil. Thus the research corpus is composed by messages that were posted in the forum in the module called computer material . This module is one of the last in a set of six modules that are part of The Basic Cycle for Media Training promoted by the Center for Distance Learning in a public university at Rio Grande do Norte/Brazil. The research deals with a qualitative type approach in the perspectives of Merriam (1988), Cresswell (1994) and Minayo (1996). In order to achieve this analysis, the research dealt with theoretical landmarks related to distance learning present in (Silva, 2008; Brait, 1993; Sperbe and Wilson, 1986; Marquesi and Elias 2008 as well as Xavier, 2005, amongst others. As for aspects related to media and technological perspectives present in the forum, the research dealt with (Baranov, 1989; Neuner, 1981; Kearsley and Moore, 1996). Textualization was dealt according to (Marcuschi, 2008; Costa Val, 2004) and the conceptions and functions regarding tutors was seen according to (Salgado, 2002). In the conclusion and recommendations it was seen that these discussions present relevant contributions to distance learning and go beyond the practical universe present in electronical interaction. In the final considerations it is pointed out that this research is relevant for areas such as applied linguistics and presents guidelines for those involved in continuous education and aim meaningful knowledge that is coherent with distance learning education / Esta pesquisa tem como tema o ambiente de textualiza??o no ensino a dist?ncia, com foco no f?rum educacional utilizado por uma institui??o de ensino superior do Rio Grande do Norte, tendo como objetivo geral analisar a intera??o que se estabelece entre tutor e cursistas e suas implica??es para o processo de ensino e aprendizagem. Outros objetivos, mais espec?ficos, foram tamb?m considerados, tais como: verificar a pertin?ncia do f?rum educacional para a constru??o do conhecimento no ensino a dist?ncia, entender as fun??es dos pap?is desses sujeitos no e-Proinfo e, ainda, identificar na constru??o discursiva dos sujeitos frente ?s tarefas agendadas como ocorre a aprendizagem nesse ambiente. Para explorar o tema, tomamos por base uma problem?tica que interroga, sobretudo, em rela??o aos modos de intera??o no f?rum, como os temas s?o postos na discuss?o, como os atores sociais dialogam entre si e como ocorre o debate no ambiente virtual em fun??o da aprendizagem. O corpus comp?ese de mensagens postadas no f?rum durante o m?dulo Material Inform?tica , ?ltimo dos seis que integram o Ciclo B?sico do Programa de Forma??o M?dias na Educa??o, promovido pelo N?cleo de Educa??o a Dist?ncia (NEAD). A pesquisa caracteriza-se como uma abordagem qualitativa, na perspectiva de Merriam (1988), Cresswell (1994) e Minayo (1996) e situa-se no ?mbito da Lingu?stica Aplicada, tendo em vista que aborda quest?es que dizem respeito ao processo de ensino e aprendizagem em ambientes virtuais. Para a an?lise, recorremos a aspectos te?ricos referentes ao ensino a dist?ncia em autores como Silva (2008), Brait (1993), Sperbe e Wilson (1986), Marquesi e Elias (2008), Xavier (2005), entre outros. Com rela??o ?s m?dias e ?s perspectivas das tecnologias aplicadas ao f?rum, recorremos a Baranov (1989), Neuner (1981), Kearsley e Moore (1996); ao ambiente de textualiza??o Marcuschi, (2008), Costa Val (2004), assim como ?s concep??es e fun??es do tutor encontradas em Salgado (2002). Nos resultados, percebemos que a intera??o tutor-cursista fica comprometida pelo apagamento da tutora, que muitas vezes, se posiciona apenas como propositora do t?pico sem participar das discuss?es para o aprofundamento e fechamento avaliativo do conte?do sugerido, prejudicando assim a aprendizagem. Observamos tamb?m a aus?ncia de uma progress?o t?pica realizada pelos cursistas devido a falta de orienta??o e reorienta??o das quest?es discutidas, bem como pelo distanciamento da postagem de uma mensagem a outra. Desse modo, consideramos pertinente a participa??o dos cursistas e tutores de forma mais efetiva no espa?o interacional com vistas ? constru??o de novos saberes para a aprendizagem em ambientes de EaD

Students with learning difficulties are said by many writers to be prohibited from having a valued learner identity and denied a voice in which to influence their educational circumstances. They are, it is argued, kept submerged in a ‘culture of silence’, where they are homogenised as a deficit category of learners and, therefore, perceived in a one-dimensional way. Such disabling barriers stem from practitioner assumptions and wider sociological influences, which are also part of this same culture. The by-products of this thinking have prevented practitioners from developing more interactive and enabling relationships with their students. Starting with a commitment to listen to student views, and explore accessible, flexible and innovative ways in which to advocate these, the research reported in this thesis sought ways to address this agenda. Set in a further education college, five student co-researchers, four practitioner co-researchers and a facilitator co-researcher embarked on a year long project to learn how the same students could be supported in contributing to their own learning. Being a transparent account, the inquiry was also interested in exploring the difficulties of this endeavour and whether student empowerment would alter the relational dynamics and, therefore, practitioner roles. As the facilitator was instrumental in introducing these ideas, she also examined her own influential role. Data were generated from observations and co-researcher experiences of engaging with roles, body collages, student interviews, photo voice, journals, portfolios and reflective meetings. These exploratory processes and methods were predicated upon the ideological frameworks of the social model of disability and multiple intelligences theory. The study revealed that renegotiated co-researcher roles and body collages were effective processes for enabling reciprocal engagement, causing students to empower themselves and leading practitioners to rethink in ways that had not been anticipated. These processes were also felt to be educationally effective in relation to curriculum aims. Whilst journals and lengthy meetings proved to be impractical and of little use, the reflective journal did prove to be an essential tool for the facilitator, allowing her to draw upon further evidence. The findings indicate that student voice can be raised through collaboration and forging relationships of trust and co-ownership. The thesis concludes by arguing that silences were broken, not least since these collaborative actions are still being used in the particular context in ways that are conducive to everyday practices. Although time and commitment are needed, these are valuable strategies that other marginalised educational communities may benefit from adopting.