This dissertation explores the types of professional communities that are built when teachers work in initiatives that, in various forms, link them to teachers from other countries. In doing so it explores the types of knowledge that may be exchanged by the building of these communities and the value that teachers put upon these different forms of knowledge. Therefore, this study is situated in the broad theoretical context of discussions related to the building of professional communities but explores this within a specifically international context. The most significant findings that this dissertation identifies are: that the teachers involved built the professional communities that are most important to them in more exploratory ways and with more agency than is suggested by other related research, and in connection to this that those professional communities that the participants attached most significance to were consistently alternative to the immediate workplace. It was also found that whilst the teachers involved in this study problematised the possibility of directly transferring specific classroom strategies, stories about teaching were seen by all to be useful vehicles for exchanging other forms of knowledge, for enabling affirmation and for co-constructing moral purpose. These findings have potential implications for policy and practice as they indicate that structures that focus exclusively on developing communities within schools may need to be enriched by those that provide teachers with the flexibility to discover and build communities in alternative ways too. The primary data collection method used when conducting this research was interview. The participants who were interviewed came from two countries, namely England and Macedonia. This entirely qualitative approach is positioned within an interpretivist paradigm. However, it is argued that contributions to theoretical debates regarding the nature of professional communities can still be made.

This study was motivated by a desire to address the challenges of introductory programming courses. Ethiopian universities teach such courses in large classes (80+ students) and students complain about the difficulty of the courses and teaching variation of instructors. The study was set to explore optimum course and learning environment design approaches. The research question raised was: how can a blended learning approach be used to improve large class teaching of programming? In an action design research approach, the study was initiated with redesigning two consecutive courses and a supportive blended learning environment on the basis of existing learning theories and educational design frameworks. Two cycles of action research were conducted for a dual goal of refinement and evaluation of the intervention. The action research was conducted during the 2012/13 academic year with 240 students at the beginning. A predominantly quantitative first cycle of action research produced a mixed outcome. The students’ marks from assessment activities were fairly close to results from two other international universities. A pre- and post-implementation survey of students’ approach to learning showed a slight class level change towards the deep learning approach. Conversely, some students were found at-risk (not progressing well) and certain technologies, particularly program visualisation tools, were found underutilised. The second action research cycle aimed to explain the result from the first round. A grounded action research evaluation of data from focus group discussions, interviews and participants’ memos identified plausible factors for meaningful programming learning in a large class. These factors were use of collaborative and pair programming; alignment of learning and assignment activities; integrated use of e-learning; and use of large class strategies like student mentors and team teaching. A critical realist interpretation of the result of the action research suggested that students can learn programming in large classes, 200+ in this study, with a course and learning environment design that keeps them engaged in learning and assessment activities. The study concludes that improved learning of programming can be possible with the use of students as mentors and changed role-dynamics of instructors, which presupposes adaptation of suitable pedagogical approaches and use of technologies. / School of Computing / D. Litt. et Phil. (Information Systems)

In 2009, of the 68,129 learners who wrote Matric, only 34,731 learners passed. In 2010, there was an increase in the provincial pass rate causing much excitement across the board. The reality was that of the 64,090 learners who wrote, only 37,345 learners passed. In 2010, a result below 50% was recorded for Mathematics and Physical Science nationally (DBE; 2011). Despite efforts by the Education Department to support MSTE; establishing Mathematics and Science schools, NGOs and HEIs giving extra Mathematics and Science support to students and teachers, the offering of Saturday classes and incubation camps, we still get minimal return on investment. This thesis analyses these results against the backdrop of language planning theory, particularly language-in-education policies, pre and post-apartheid. The correlation between language medium and academic performance in language (LoLT) and Mathematics of Grade 12 learners is explored. Worldwide the issue of low achievement in Mathematics by ESL students is of great concern (Cuevas, 1984). The 2004 Systemic Evaluation sample of learners was in Grade 6 then; in 2010 they wrote Grade 12. The purpose of the systemic evaluation was to provide an insight into the levels of learner performance in Maths, Natural Science and LoLT in Grade 6 (IPSER, 2006). A major finding of the IPSER was that language was an important factor related to learner achievement. A major disparity was observed in this research, that although the Eastern Cape performed below the national average in the three subjects evaluated, the learners for whom LoLT was the same as their home language obtained scores that were significantly higher than those whose home language was different from the LoLT. The provincial average for Mathematics was 23.40% compared to the national average of 27.80%. For LoLT the province scored 30.16 against the national score of 38.03%. Of interest in this study is a juxtaposition of the Matric results of this same group of learners in 2010 and see whether issues that came up then are still significant in mitigating achievement in Mathematics and Language (LoLT). Some research studies have been conducted in South Africa (Adler, 1998; Setati, 1996-2002; Moloi, 2006) identifying the vital role language plays in learning Mathematics, especially for English L2 learners. Building on research and findings of academics such as the late Alexander, Ramani, Joseph, Hendricks, Heugh, Dalvit, Webb and Murray, this thesis suggests that a mother-tongue-based-bilingual approach to education should be adopted as a matter of urgency

Diversos estudos realizados na área econômica têm mostrado a importância da escolaridade para a melhoria da qualidade de vida das pessoas. Apesar disso, o nível médio de escolaridade no Brasil é de 6,4 anos na população adulta, considerado baixo, se comparado a outros países da América Latina. Em vista disso, na década de 1990, foram instituídas diversas mudanças na forma de gestão do ensino público brasileiro, com objetivo de melhorar sua qualidade e motivar o interesse da criança pela escola. O presente trabalho inseriu-se nessa discussão ao propor uma avaliação da influência que a infra-estrutura escolar e as características familiares exercem sobre a freqüência e o atraso no ensino fundamental. Dadas as diferenças regionais existentes no Brasil, fez-se uma comparação entre os estados de São Paulo e Pernambuco. Para tanto, foram feitas análises de regressões, utilizando-se do modelo próbite, e as bases de dados foram o censo demográfico, o censo escolar e as transferências do Fundo Nacional de Desenvolvimento da Escola (FNDE), do ano 2000. Tais análises concentraram-se nas escolas públicas, da área urbana, dos dois estados. Além disso, foram realizadas interações entre variáveis das características familiares e variáveis da infra-estrutura escolar, a fim de verificar as formas mais eficientes de se colocar e manter a criança na escola, garantindo-lhe o avanço nos estudos. Questionou-se, portanto, se é mais interessante para o governo investir na melhoria da qualidade das escolas, ou em iniciativas que melhoram as condições socioeconômicas da família. Foram, também, realizadas simulações para avaliar os impactos de uma melhoria na qualidade das escolas, versus uma melhoria das condições socioeconômicas das famílias, na freqüência e no atraso escolar do estudante. Os resultados mostraram que políticas públicas voltadas para um aumento do salário, ou da escolaridade do professores, assim como para uma melhoria dos equipamentos disponíveis na escola, beneficiarão mais as crianças pertencentes a famílias com chefes pouco escolarizados e/ou com uma baixa renda familiar per capita. Além disso, percebeu-se que em Pernambuco, a política pública de maior impacto sobre a freqüência escolar foi o aumento do salário do professor e sobre o atraso escolar foi o aumento da escolaridade do chefe de família. Para São Paulo, a melhor opção seria aumentar a renda familiar per capita, tanto no caso da freqüência, quanto no caso do atraso escolar. Conclui-se, então, que a adoção de políticas públicas deve levar em consideração o lugar onde as mesmas serão adotadas, bem como os objetivos a serem atingidos na área da educação. Acredita-se, no entanto, que políticas voltadas para melhorar as características familiares geram resultados somente no longoprazo. Por isso, sugere-se que no curto-prazo sejam priorizadas as políticas capazes de melhorar a qualidade das escolas públicas que oferecem o ensino fundamental, na área urbana, dos dois estados. Sugere-se, também, que os investimentos públicos na área da educação priorizem Pernambuco, em função das diferenças socioeconômicas existentes entre os dois estados. / Many studies in the economic field have showed the importance of education to increase the wellbeing of the society. However, the adult population in Brazil has, on average, 6.4 years of education, which is considered low when compared to other Latin American countries. Trying to improve the educational indicators, in the 90’s, many changes were implemented in the Brazilian public school system. The objective of the present study is to evaluate school infrastructure and family characteristics affecting children’s decision to study or to drop out from school (frequency and school delay in primary and secondary levels). The analyses were concentrated in public schools located in the urban areas of Pernambuco and São Paulo states. Demographic census, school census and government spending data from 2000 were used to run a Probit model, whether a child was in school or not and whether a child was in lower grade for his age or not. Interactions between family’s characteristics and school infrastructure, as well as some simulations, were done to verify what would be the best possible resource allocation to improve children’s education. The results showed that public policies that increased teacher’s schooling or teacher’s salaries, and policies that improved the school’s equipments would benefit more children from low income families and/or with low educated parents. Moreover, in Pernambuco, the teacher’s salary caused the greater impact in the children’s frequency to school, while the teacher’s schooling had the larger impact in the children’s school delay. On the other hand, in São Paulo, the best option would be to increase per capita family income, either to increase frequency or decrease delay in school. It is known that policies to improve families’ characteristics will produce results more in the long run. Therefore, policies that would improve the schools’ infrastructure and consequently the quality of the schools are suggested in the short run. Moreover, the investment should focus Pernambuco due to the lower socio-economic indicators compared to São Paulo.

Les micromondes de programmation sont des environnements restreints et interactifs, dans lesquels l’apprenant apprend en interagissant avec des entités visuelles ou tangibles, sémantiquement liées à des concepts de programmation formels. Ils favorisent l’assimilation de connaissances et la compréhension de concepts abstraits de programmation au moyen de métaphores visuelles et d’expériences ludiques. Cette thèse tente d’apporter des avancées théoriques et méthodologiques sur la conception et l’évaluation de tels environnements, qui sont connus pour avoir un grand potentiel sur l’apprentissage sans que cela ne soit démontré. Les micromondes étant des environnements d’apprentissage par le jeu, nous avons tout d’abord examiné la question du jeu et son lien à l’apprentissage. En nous appuyant sur une revue de la littérature, nous avons souligné au même titre que certains auteurs, la nécessité de distinguer le jeu-game (l’artefact informatique) du jeu-play (la situation qui découle des interactions avec le jeu-game). Le but étant de situer l’apprentissage et d’aboutir à des éléments de conception et d’évaluation de l’apprentissage. Nous nous sommes ensuite intéressés aux recherches en didactique de l’Informatique, afin d’identifier les approches d’enseignement les plus répandues visant à palier les difficultés d’apprentissage de la Programmation Orientée-Objet ( POO ) rencontrées par des débutants. Nous avons défini une nouvelle approche didactique pour l’introduction de la POO . Suite à cela, nous avons défini les dimensions de conception d’un micromonde, que nous désignons comme un système de représentation transitionnel, dans lequel l’apprenant développe des connaissances sur les concepts formels et abstraits de la programmation, suite à ses interactions avec l’interface du micromonde. Les avancées théoriques et méthodologiques apportées ont été mises en œuvre dans un nouveau micromonde de POO fondé sur un jeu de construction et d’animation 3D appelé PrOgO. PrOgO implémente un système de représentation transitionnel, dans lequel les concepts fondamentaux de la POO sont représentés par des graphiques 3D visuels et interactifs. Il crée un jeu-play qui découle des interactions de l’apprenant avec son interface. Jouer avec PrOgO consiste à imaginer, créer et animer des constructions 3D significatives. PrOgO peut également être déployé dans une classe multi-dispositifs, grâce au framework Tactileo conçu à cet effet. Dans l’évaluation de l’apprentissage, nous utilisons des méthodes relevant de l’analyse de l’apprentissage, par la collecte et l’analyse de traces d’interaction pour la classification et la caractérisation des apprenants. En complément à cela, nous examinons l’état des connaissances d’apprenants, au travers de tests de vérification de connaissances. Nous tentons également d’identifier par l’analyse statistique, les actions et les comportements d’apprenants qui déterminent leur progression dans l’évaluation pré/post de l’acquisition des connaissances. / Programming microworlds are small and interactive environments, in which the learner learns from his interactions with visual or tangible entities having a strong semantic link with formal programming concepts. They promote knowledge assimilation and abstract programming concepts understanding by the use of visual metaphors and play. This thesis attempts to contribute to theoretical and methodological advances regarding the design and the assessment of such environments, which are known to have a great potential on learning without any evidence on that. As microworlds are game based learning environments, we first examined the gaming issue and its relation to learning. Based on a literature review, we emphasized as some authors, the need to distinguish between the game (the computing artefact) and the play (the situation that is triggered by the interactions with the game). The purpose is to analyze learning and establish concepts that will guide the design and the evaluation of learning. Then we reviewed some research on Computer Science Education, with the view to identify some widespread teaching approaches that address beginners’ difficulties in learning Object-Oriented Programming (OOP). We defined a new didactic approach for OOP introduction. We then defined the design dimensions of a microworld, we refer to as a transitional representation system, in which the learner develops knowledge on programming abstract and formal concepts, as a result to his interactions with the microworld interface. We have implemented the theoretical and methodological advances we provided, in a new OOP microworld based on a 3D constructive and animation game called PrOgO. PrOgO implements a transitional representation system, in which basic OOP concepts are depicted with visual and interactive 3D graphics. It enables play that arises from the learner’s interactions with its interface. Playing with PrOgO involves to imagining, creating and animating significant 3D constructions. PrOgO can be also deployed within a multi-device classroom through the Tactileo framework, we designed for that purpose. In the evaluation of learning, we use methods belonging to learning analytics by the collection and the analysis of digital interaction logs, with the view to classify and characterize learners. In addition to this, we examine the state of learners’ knowledge through test knowledge verifications. We also attempt to examine through statistical analysis, the learners’ actions and behaviours that affect their progress in pre/post evaluations of gained knowledge.

DEd (Curriculum Studies) / Department of Curriculum Studies / The study examined challenges that confront lecturers and student teachers at colleges of primary teacher education in Zimbabwe in the use of action research as a teaching and learning strategy. The study focused on lecturer competency, personal dispositions of students towards mastery of action research skills and institutional challenges. The mixed methods research design was used in this study. A combination of the two research approaches exhibits complementary strengths and non-overlapping weaknesses of the techniques, methods and processes involved. Purposive sampling technique was employed to choose one principal and 9 heads of departments while simple random sampling was used to select 140 student teachers. Qualitative data was generated through interviews, observation and documentary analysis. A survey was administered to obtain quantitative data. Thematic analysis was employed to analyse narrative data. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 24 was used for statistical information. It was established that student teachers have limited practical experience in action research prior to proceeding on teaching practice as well as weak communication skills to support its conduct. The study recommends that lecturers should cater for the characteristics and experiences of student teachers when planning and delivering lectures in order to improve their acquisition of action research skills.

No description available.

No description available.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / Grounded theory analysis, informed by a socio-cultural lens, was applied to the narratives of eighteen motorcycle riders in order to understand, from the rider’s perspective, receptivity to warning messages regarding motorcycle helmet use. This study relied upon narrative analysis to identify patterns in communication that surround motorcycle riders’ experiences. Socio-cultural cues identified importance in the process of interest development in motorcycle riding, search for information regarding motorcycle riding, response to danger within the motorcycle riding experience, and attitude toward protection messages. Narratives specific to danger, or experiences of motorcycle accidents were analyzed for comparison with fear appeal theory. Special focus was applied to Terror Management Theory (TMT) and applied to the communication surrounding the real experiences of motorcycle accident and the perceived threat of danger while motorcycle riding. Communication evidencing relational influence was examined for examples of socially constructed interpretation of social identity and an individual rider's perspective of their lifeworld. The analysis revealed evidence of the TMT concept of burying or denying thoughts of danger. The TMT concept of lifeworld influence on behavior was evidenced in riders who did not accept warning messages involving helmet use. Examples of attitude and behavior change where present in two study participants’ narratives that described experience of severe injury and also the death of a friend. The riders cited these occurrences as experiences that inhibited their previous behavior of placing thoughts of motorcycle injury and death in the back of mind. Although small in number, this participant group offered multiple categorizations of rider descriptions. The narratives offered distinction in time of life when riding interest developed. As well, motorcycle training facilities were often noted as a source of communication from which riders obtained influence on their future behaviors. From this information insight was gained to offer suggestions for future research on time of message delivery. Riders who develop interest in riding as adults represent a category on which to focus preliminary educational messages. Individuals who have not yet developed an interest in motorcycle riding may benefit from societal cues that demonstrate safe riding behavior. Future research in mass media appeals focused on motorcycle riders are suggested, as is development of educational programs for delivery to high school audiences.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / The purpose of the current study was to investigate the impact of emotionality on the memory of children with an autism spectrum disorder. Although emotional events enhance memory in adults and children without an autism spectrum disorder, there are different memory patterns among individuals on the autism spectrum. Specifically, individuals with autism may show a decreased advantage in memory for emotional content and may have deficits in memory for information that is not presented visually. Currently, however, there are no studies that look at how emotional content affects memory specifically in children with autism. In the current study, children with and without autism were presented with stimuli contrasting emotional and neutral content using one of two modalities, auditory and visual, and then completed memory recognition tasks for the stimuli. Results indicate that children with an autism spectrum disorder did not demonstrate enhanced memory for emotional information. Rather, they were equally able to remember emotional and neutral stimuli. Additionally, individuals on the spectrum demonstrated better memory for visual stimuli compared to their neurotypical peers. These results support the notion that individuals with an autism spectrum disorder may learn and remember material differently than those without the disorder and that educators need to acknowledge these differences as children with autism spectrum disorders continue to be integrated into classroom settings.