Language constitutes the dominant representational mode in science teaching, and lectures are still the most prevalent of the teaching methods in school science. In this dissertation, I investigate lectures from a multimodal and communicative perspective to better understand how teaching as a cultural-historical and social activity unfolds; that is, I am concerned with teaching as a communicative event, where a variety of signs (or semiotic resources), expressed in diverse modalities (or modes of communication) are produced and reproduced while the teacher articulates very specific conceptual meanings for the students. Within a trans-disciplinary approach that merges theoretical and methodical frameworks of social and cultural studies of human activity and interaction, communicative and gestures studies, linguistics, semiotics, pragmatics, and studies on teaching and learning science, I investigate teaching as a communicative, dynamic, multimodal, and social activity. My research questions include: What are the resources produced and reproduced in the classroom when the teacher is lecturing? How do these resources interact with each other? What meanings do they carry and how are these associated to achieve the coherence necessary to accomplish the communication of complex and abstract scientific concepts, not only within one lecture, but also within an entire unit of the curricula encompassing various lectures? My results show that, when lecturing, the communication of scientific concepts occur along trajectories driven by the dialectical relation among the various semiotic resources a lecturer makes available that together constitute a unit—the idea. Speech, gestures, and other nonverbal resources are but one-sided expressions of a higher order communicative meaning unit. The iterable nature of the signs produced and reproduced during science lectures permits, supports, and encourages the repetition, variation, and translation of ideas, themes, and languages and therefore permits, supports, and encourages conceptual development at the boundary between the mundane and discipline-specific cultures that students (have to) traverse in learning. It is only within this multimodal and dialectical communicative meaning unit that we can understand and investigate science teaching and learning as these processes naturally occur.

There is a low percentage of First Nations students participating in senior high school sciences and pursuing the field of science. This thesis describes the development of a cross-cultural science and environmental education program using traditional Kwakwaka'wakw stories as a focus for exploration. Conversational interviews with elders, resource persons and cultural teachers provided invaluable interpretations of time honored stories, their place in Kwakwaka’wakw culture, how they were passed down from generations as teaching stories, and how they tied Aboriginal students to the land and to each other. Lessons were pilot tested in grade 6/7 at the T'lisalagil'akw Band School in Alert Bay, BC. Observations and a range of evaluative techniques all combined to show that the students understood the Traditional Ecological Knowledge of the people, they understood a range of western science concepts, they practiced mayaxala (respect for the people and land), and they understood what it means to be Kwakwaka'wakw.

The purpose of this study was to examine practicing teachers' understandings of the use of misconceptions in building new scientific knowledge as well as their personal understandings of common scientific misconceptions. 91 participants from a non-random sample of teachers who teach science at the grades 5 through 8 levels completed a paper-based questionnaire of which 6 were subsequently interviewed. The data collected included demographic data (gender, age, teaching experience, and educational background), a self-assessment of personal content knowledge, a survey of classroom practices utilized, and a series of science ideas that were evaluated as either true or false by the participants. Various relationships between these data were identified. It was found that age and teaching experience had no effect on participants' abilities to identify misconceptions. In addition, participants with more scientific backgrounds were better able to identify misconceptions. Conclusions include the need for explicit instruction about the role of misconceptions in preservice teacher education and through improved professional development opportunities for science teachers.

A growing body of evidence suggests that some Science teachers use drama-based strategies in order to promote understanding of abstract scientific concepts. These strategies employ action and imagination to simulate systems and processes that are too fast, too slow, too big, too small, too expensive or too dangerous to observe in the classroom. A small group of quantitative and qualitative studies over the past thirty years has suggested that these physical simulations enable learning in secondary students, by promoting discourse and by conveying concept features through a range of sensations. The field is as yet under-theorised, consisting of single case designs and unreplicated methodologies. This multiple case study focused upon an intervention design based on a pedagogical model developed in my Masters research. This study aimed to explore the characteristics of students' interaction and the nature of their resultant conceptions over four months. Each case focussed upon one of eight Key Stage 3 and Key Stage 4 classes across a variety of UK schools. In each, a curriculum-based particle theory topic was taught in a double-period lesson. Data included video, participant observations, and interviews with three students from each class collected at pre, post and delayed intervals. Findings suggested that the pedagogy engendered engagement and self-regulation in group model-making tasks, and supported thought experiment-type visualisations of dynamic processes. Conceptual development was found to continue up to four months after the lessons. A model of learning was developed in which social interaction and multimodal discourse promoted the association of conceptual features with affective, visual and embodied images, which supported recall, discussion and further conceptual development in the longer term.

The thesis defines the term of public diplomacy and describes it by its main actors and dimensions. The second chapter is focused on the concrete concept of public diplomacy in the Czech Republic and Germany. Attention is paid to most important documents and the main actors. Chapter three deals about the actions of public diplomacy in the Czech-German relations.

Teachers for generations have struggled with the challenge of motivating students to learn in their classes. Literature suggests that a positive way to increase student motivation and academic achievement in science is with the laboratory experience. With the lack of adequate laboratory space in our schools, teachers are having to "make do" in science classes with limited space and budget. A need exists for 9th grade Earth Science laboratory activities that meet county course objectives and yet are simple enough to be used in a classroom setting, thereby eliminating the need for extra expenses for the science department. This project has developed a set of laboratory experiences appropriate for 9th grade Earth Science courses in Duval County.

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The assumptions of this project imply that concepts concerning the relationships among living organisms can be assimilated by the child only if his experiences include exploration of his environment and the opportunity to discover these relationships himself. In order to help him progress, an interested, informed teacher who will encourage and help him is of prime importance. Because progress needs to be started as early as possible, kindergarten age children will be the focus of this project. Here the school should use the opportunity to begin developing the environmentally aware citizen. Unfortunately, few texts and guides in environmental education have been developed for teachers working in the kindergarten. A beginning curriculum utilizing the curiosity in the children and the order of the environment is needed. This project will be an example of a way to fulfill this need. Therefore, the purpose of this project is to develop a series of activities into a curriculum guide in environmental education for use by teachers in kindergarten. Specifically, this will be a kindergarten environmental education curriculum guide for approximately sixty students in three classes at Melrose Community School in Melrose, Putnam County, Florida.

Orientador: Claudio Bertoli Filho / Banca: Adair Casaro Nascimento / Banca: Reinaldo Matias Fleuri / Banca: Jandira Liria Biscalquini Talamoni / Resumo: Um dos desafios enfrentados pela escola indígena na atualidade é o da formação de professores para o ensino em uma escola específica, diferenciada, intercultural e bilíngüe. Parte dessa questão refere-se à importância de formar formadores desses professores. Este trabalho teve por objetivo compreender como ocorreu o meu processo de formação para o ensino de ciências naturais no Projeto Ara Verá - curso de formação de professores indígenas kaiowá/guarani de Mato Grosso do Sul. Para tanto, optei por fazer uma narrativa da minha experiência nesse contexto. Essa opção se ancora no movimento que adota a abordagem biográfica como perspectiva epistemológica, pois admite que a formação do professor também se dá na experiência e que esse processo deve ser investigado. A narrativa foi concebida como uma viagem aberta a reflexões e a diferentes teorizações, cada uma recrutada a seu tempo, em função dos desafios apresentados. Para conduzir-me nas reflexões, utilizei como ponto de partida os registros que fiz da minha atuação no Projeto e, por meio deles, transitei por entre três movimentos confluentes e interpenetrantes: o re-conhecimento de mim mesma, dos Kaiowá/Guarani e dos nossos modos de conhecer e interpretar o mundo. Nesse percurso formativo, fui aprendendo a nos conhecer como sujeitos históricos, com visões de mundo distintas e com vontade de tornar as aulas de ciências naturais em contextos de encontro entre culturas, de troca de saberes e de influências recíprocas. / Abstract: One of the challenges faced by the indigenous school in the present time is the teacher's education for teaching in a specific, differentiated, intercultural and bilingual school. Part of this problem concerns the importance to build teachers for these teachers This research aimed to understand how occurred my process of education for teaching natural sciences in the Projeto Ara Verá - education program for indigenous students kaiowa/guarani of Mato Grosso do Sul - Brasil. For in such away I decided to make a narrative of my proper experience in this context. This choose has anchors in the movement that adopts the biographical boarding as epistemologic perspective, because accepts that the teacher's education also is given by experience and that this process must be investigated. This narrative was conceived as an open trip to the reflections and the different theorization each one enlisted opportunely, as the challenge were presented during the journey. To lead me in the reflections, I used as starting point the registers that I made from my performance in the Projeto Ara Vera and I transited among three confluent and interpenetrating movements: the re-cognition of myself, of Kaiowá/Guarani and our ways to know and to interpret the world. In this educative process, I was learning how to know us a historical citizens, with different world perspective, and with desire to become the natural science classes on intercultural context, within knowledge exchange and reciprocal influences. / Doutor

Orientador: Sílvia Regina Quijadas Aro Zuliani / Resumo: A presente pesquisa consiste na investigação e construção de um panorama das dificuldades de aprendizagem de Física apresentadas por um grupo de alunos ingressantes no Ensino Médio, assim como das potencialidades que novas metodologias de ensino, conhecidas como Metodologias Ativas, possuem quando atuam objetivando a superação destas dificuldades e a modificação da percepção do ambiente escolar pelos alunos. Para compreensão das dificuldades dos alunos e da percepção que eles possuem quanto ao ambiente escolar, foi adotada uma investigação ecológica e exploratória que compreende suas ações e seus comportamentos associados à organização social da escola. Com o entendimento de que o ambiente escolar influencia diretamente o comportamento social dos estudantes e, consequentemente, sua aprendizagem, buscou-se compreender como os próprios estudantes explicam as relações sociais existentes no ambiente escolar e suas consequências de cunho psicológico e sociológico. O principal resultado encontrado na pesquisa, por meio da análise fenomenológica de grupos focais realizados com os alunos foi a presença de Estigmas relacionados à escola, nomeados de Estigmas Escolares, os quais podem ser diretamente relacionados à evasão e ao abandono escolar. Na sequência, buscou-se inserir os alunos participantes da pesquisa em uma proposta de ensino, na qual a Metodologia Ativa de Ensino Híbrido foi utilizada como intervenção didática, articulando ações presenciais e não presenciais que objetivaram... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: This study aimed to investigate the reasons of difficulties in learning Physics presented by a group of high school first-year students and the potential of Active Learning methodologies to change the school social environment perception of the students and improving their skills to learn and act in a democratic curriculum perspective. An Ecological, exploratory and qualitative investigation was performed to comprehend learning difficulties and student's perceptions of the school environment. The Ecological approach understands students actions and behaviors related to the social organization of the school. Thereby, understanding that the school environment directly influences students' social behavior and, consequently, their learning, the research sought to recognize how the students themselves explain the social relations existing in the school environment and its psychological and sociological consequences. The main result found in the research, through the phenomenological analysis of focus groups performed with the students, was the presence of school-related stigmas, named School Stigmas, which can be directly related to evasion and school failure. Trying to change this primary results, face-to-face and online learning actions aiming to social integrate students into a learning community were articulated to introduce them into a Blended Learning proposal. Thus, the research concludes that, after six months of activities, the developed actions indicate the reduce manife... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor