Thesis (MTech (Design))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2015. / Mathematical literacy among the citizenry of a nation is considered indispensable to the economic welfare and global competitiveness of that nation (World Economic Forum, 2013a). In a world governed by technology, quantitative literacy is crucial (Colwell cited by Steen, 2002:8) and becomes a “most important professional and life skill” (Maloney et al., 2012:380). It is also seen as an individual’s ability to “manage situations or solve problems in practice” (Frith & Prince, 2006). Lastly, Jansen (2012) believes that sound mathematical literacy leads to an understanding of cause and effect and would guide citizens in their choices of actions. Yet, the belief that mathematical competence (or even just quantitative literacy) is the privilege of a small group of intellectually predisposed individuals is widely accepted in society, further entrenched by erroneous stereotyping (Eccles et al., 1990; Bonnot & Croizet, 2007; Mangels et al., 2011), as well as inadequate teaching methods in the Mathematics classroom/lecture theatre (Artigue, 1999; NSTF, 2009, 2010; Department of Basic Education, 2014). The consequences of this skewed view of Mathematics, and the emotional stress caused by regular failure at the subject, have resulted in wide-spread maths anxiety and maths avoidance among scholars and students. This dissertation examines an intervention programme which was designed to alter students’ negative perceptions of their intellectual ability to grasp mathematical concepts. Instead of attributing their past failures to internal, stable and uncontrollable causes, such as cognitive inability (Weiner, 1985), they were asked to consider factors which were internal or external, but certainly unstable and controllable, and which played a major role in their disappointing history in Mathematics. The interventions were aimed at bringing about a paradigm shift from a fixed mindset (entity theory) to a growth mindset (increment theory) as researched by Dweck since the 1980s. The intervention programme was implemented in the Foundation Course of a South African university of technology. It involved four interventions spread over roughly four months of the first semester and was comprised of the following lecture units and activities: a session of free-writing (Elbow, 1973), lectures on the plasticity of the brain (Hebb, 1949; Diamond 2001, Zull, 2002), the three memory systems (Eysenck & Calvo, 1992), a very basic version of Kolb’s experiential and reflective learning cycle (Atherton, 2009), and the notion of threshold concepts (Meyer & Land, 2003)

South Africa‟s racialised history dates back to a colonial period where South Africans were separated by race, language and laws which prevented people of colour from mixing with those who were termed White. 22 years after the end of apartheid, race and language remain a painful part of history and a topic which is always visible in our private and public discourses. Students, as of recent, have pointed to the challenges and legacies of apartheid they face in higher education and broader society. The lack of broader transformation and racial prejudice leave a great divide amongst different groups of students. Given this background, this study sought to examine how students were making sense of themselves and others. The participants of this study included 50 second year students from the Department of Language Studies at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University in Port Elizabeth. This research study focused on the identity development of students and how these factors impacted their identities taking into account aspects of race, language, sense of agency and those impacting their sense of agency and sense of self. This study used a qualitative research method which involves an interpretive approach to research as this method was best suited for this study‟s analysis of student narratives. This study is a case study of the single case of second year students. The research, furthermore, used a Poststructuralist approach as theoretical underpinning and Critical Discourse Analysis for analysis of the data. Relevant literature were read and reviewed to determine what studies were saying about factors impacting on youth identity. Student narratives were analysed in order to determine which factors impacted on their identity formation, as well as the perceptions of their own identities and those of others. The results of the findings showed that students‟ identity development was affected by factors such as cultural background, parents, death of loved ones, aesthetic interest, race and language. Socio-economic inequalities in South Africa, race and language strongly defined student identities. Identities were found to be multiple and dynamic. The impact on student agency was as a result of the influences of their parents but also because of the inequalities in society. The only commonality students identified as having with other students was study. Students revealed that they did not cross racial or language boundaries to socialise with other students. There were students who indicated that they resisted racial categorisations and spoke of the celebration of diversity in South Africa but these were in the minority. Unlike previous studies that showed students wanting to move on to a new unified South Africa while simultaneously using old apartheid discourses, this study showed that students remained rooted in these discourses but reverted to these discourses because of societal inequalities. They did not foresee any moves to a new unified South Africa if inequalities not addressed. They were more radical about what a new future looks like with the battle against privilege won. Language was identified as a barrier and the fallacies of English being linked to superior intelligence was pointed out. The divides between White and Black students were apparent in the data. The study therefore recommended that curriculation of modules be undertaken with teaching of fluidity of identities and providing of critical tools for students to deconstruct race and language. The South African context should be foregrounded in all faculty study areas so that students work to a public good that seeks to eradicate inequalities. Safe spaces need to be provided for debating of these issues as well as social spaces for interaction across racial divides.

Orientador: Irineu Aliprando Tuim Viotto Filho / Resumo: A pesquisa aqui relatada é vinculada à Linha de Pesquisa 3 “Processos formativos, infância e juventude”, do Programa de Pós Graduação em Educação da Faculdade de Ciências e Tecnologia UNESP/Presidente Prudente e sob as bases teóricas e epistemológicas da teoria histórico-cultural teve como objetivo geral identificar e analisar o quanto a organização do ensino da atividade da dança, em um processo de intervenção formativo ludo-pedagógico, contribuiu para a aprendizagem sobre a linguagem da dança e a criação de imagens artísticas, carregadas de significados sociais através de ações corporais, tendo em vista o desenvolvimento das funções psicológicas superiores, como a imaginação e a criatividade dos estudantes. Para tanto, realizamos um processo de intervenção junto a uma sala de 3º ano do Ensino Fundamental, com cerca de 36 estudantes na faixa etária entre oito e nove anos, em uma escola pública municipal, da cidade de Presidente Prudente. Em um total de 24 encontros buscamos construir possibilidades interventivas formativas para os estudantes e, nesse movimento, compreender as possibilidades de ensino da dança e sua relação com o desenvolvimento da imaginação e criatividade dos sujeitos participantes. Com as reflexões teóricas expostas em nossa seção de análise dos dados, observamos o avanço dos sujeitos no que se refere à compreensão do conceito da dança e os elementos que a compõe e como essas apropriações os fizeram avançar no processo de composição de uma imagem artística... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The research reported here is linked to Research Line 3 “Formative processes, childhood and youth”, from the Postgraduate Program in Education at FCT- UNESP / Presidente Prudente and under the theoretical and epistemological bases of historical-cultural theory, its general objective was to investigate how much the organization of the teaching of dance activity, in a ludo-pedagogical formative intervention process, contributed to learning about the language of dance and the creation of artistic images, charged with social meanings through bodily actions, with a view to the development of superior psychological functions, such as students' imagination and creativity. To this end, we carried out an intervention process in a 3rd year elementary school room, with about 36 students aged between 8 and 9 years old, in a municipal public school in the city of Presidente Prudente; in a total of 24 meetings, we seek to build interventional training possibilities for students and, in this movement, understand the possibilities of teaching dance and its relationship with the development of the imagination and creativity of the participating subjects. With the theoretical reflections exposed in our chapter of data analysis, we observe the progress of the subjects in terms of understanding the concept of dance and the elements that compose it and how these appropriations made them advance in the process of composing an artistic image with communicative purposes at the end of the interventio... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

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Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T19:39:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 4971.pdf: 613878 bytes, checksum: 5fa2620c8e44058eef384e958aa6e149 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013-02-08 / This study addresses the development of Higher Psychological Functions of children aged zero to three years, specifically regarding attention and memory, and its relationship with education in daycare centers. The research question was: What concepts of the Historical- Cultural Theory underlie the need to potentialize the development of Higher Psychological Functions regarding attention and memory in children aged zero to three years in daycare centers? The objective of the study is: to identify Historical-Cultural Theory concepts that can support teaching activities for children aged zero to three years for developing higher psychological functions regarding attention and memory. The research was founded on dialectical and historical materialism and historical-cultural methods. The study methodology was based on bibliographic research, considered important to classify the study subject that was dispersed in several bibliographies. The methodological procedures were based on bibliographic reading recognition; key information localization; choosing bibliographies closer to the research object; and the final reading to achieve the proposed objectives. The result analysis shows concepts that can support teaching activities for developing Higher Psychological Functions in children aged zero to three years, such as cultural development, the main activity, mediation and the zone of proximal development. The results confirm that the development of infants is not universal and does not solely depend on the biological basis of human development. Social relationships are crucial to human development. School education is fundamentally responsible for the success of learning processes and child development nowadays, therefore, such learning must be intentional and planned, taking into account the specificities of child development, and also provide safe environmental conditions and varied cultural and intellectual experiences to promote mental development of children aged zero to three years in order to stimulate them. Higher Psychological Functions regarding Attention and Memory do not develop fully in the first year of life, however, intentional learning is required for significant psychological development. Introducing learning activities at an early age are the basis for subsequent complex psychological developments. / O presente estudo trata do desenvolvimento das funções psíquicas superiores das crianças de zero a três anos, especificamente à atenção e à memória e a sua relação com a educação em creches. A questão de pesquisa foi: Quais conceitos da Teoria Histórico-Cultural propiciam a potencialização do desenvolvimento das Funções Psíquicas Superiores da atenção e da memória de crianças de zero a três anos em creches? Estabelecemos como objetivo do estudo identificar conceitos da Teoria Histórico-Cultural que possam auxiliar na atividade docente com crianças de zero a três anos, para o desenvolvimento das funções psíquicas superiores da atenção e da memória. Fundamentamos a pesquisa nos métodos materialista histórico dialético e histórico-cultural. A metodologia do estudo pautou-se na pesquisa bibliográfica, que se mostrou importante para o agrupamento do objeto de estudo que estava disperso em diversas bibliografias. Os procedimentos metodológicos basearam-se na leitura de reconhecimento das bibliografias, localização das informações mais importantes, escolha de bibliografias mais próximas ao objeto de pesquisa e na última leitura, com o intuito de atender os objetivos propostos. Na análise dos resultados, apresentamos indicações de conceitos que possam subsidiar a atividade docente para o desenvolvimento das Funções Psíquicas Superiores das crianças de zero a três anos, tais como: o desenvolvimento cultural, a atividade principal, a mediação e a zona de desenvolvimento proximal. Os resultados ratificam que o desenvolvimento infantil dos bebês não é universal e não depende apenas das bases biológicas humanas. As relações sociais são cruciais para o desenvolvimento humano. A educação escolar é principal responsável pelo êxito dos processos de aprendizagem e desenvolvimentos infantis nos dias atuais. Portanto, este ensino deve ser intencional e planejado, levando em conta as especificidades do desenvolvimento infantil e, ainda, proporcionando condições ambientais seguras e com variedade de experiências culturais e intelectuais que promovam o desenvolvimento psíquico de crianças de zero a três anos, de forma a desafiá-lo. As Funções Psíquicas Superiores da Atenção e da Memória não se desenvolvem completamente no primeiro ano de vida. Porém, exigem o ensino intencional para um significativo desenvolvimento psíquico. As aprendizagens promovidas desde a mais tenra idade são base para posteriores desenvolvimentos psíquicos mais complexos.

It is common for students to make mistakes while solving mathematical problems. Some of these mistakes might be caused by the false ideas, or misconceptions, that students developed during their learning or from their practice. Calculus courses at the undergraduate level are mandatory for several majors. The introductory course of calculus—Calculus I—requires fundamental skills. Such skills can prepare a student for higher-level calculus courses, additional higher-division mathematics courses, and/or related disciplines that require comprehensive understanding of calculus concepts. Nevertheless, conceptual misunderstandings of undergraduate students exist universally in learning calculus. Understanding the nature of and reasons for how and why students developed their conceptual misunderstandings—misconceptions—can assist a calculus educator in implementing effective strategies to help students recognize or correct their misconceptions. For this purpose, the current study was designed to examine students’ misconceptions in order to explore the nature of and reasons for how and why they developed their misconceptions through their thought process. The study instrument—Calculus Problem-Solving Tasks (CPSTs)—was originally created for understanding the issues that students had in learning calculus concepts; it features a set of 17 open-ended, non-routine calculus problem-solving tasks that check students’ conceptual understanding. The content focus of these tasks was pertinent to the issues undergraduate students encounter in learning the function concept and the concepts of limit, tangent, and differentiation that scholars have subsequently addressed. Semi-structured interviews with 13 mathematics college faculty were conducted to verify content validity of CPSTs and to identify misconceptions a student might exhibit when solving these tasks. The interview results were analyzed using a standard qualitative coding methodology. The instrument was finalized and developed based on faculty’s perspectives about misconceptions for each problem presented in the CPSTs. The researcher used a qualitative methodology to design the research and a purposive sampling technique to select participants for the study. The qualitative means were helpful in collecting three sets of data: one from the semi-structured college faculty interviews; one from students’ explanations to their solutions; and the other one from semi-structured student interviews. In addition, the researcher administered two surveys (Faculty Demographic Survey for college faculty participants and Student Demographic Survey for student participants) to learn about participants’ background information and used that as evidence of the qualitative data’s reliability. The semantic analysis techniques allowed the researcher to analyze descriptions of faculty’s and students’ explanations for their solutions. Bar graphs and frequency distribution tables were presented to identify students who incorrectly solved each problem in the CPSTs. Seventeen undergraduate students from one northeastern university who had taken the first course of calculus at the undergraduate level solved the CPSTs. Students’ solutions were labeled according to three categories: CA (correct answer), ICA (incorrect answer), and NA (no answer); the researcher organized these categories using bar graphs and frequency distribution tables. The explanations students provided in their solutions were analyzed to isolate misconceptions from mistakes; then the analysis results were used to develop student interview questions and to justify selection of students for interviews. All participants exhibited some misconceptions and substantial mistakes other than misconceptions in their solutions and were invited to be interviewed. Five out of the 17 participants who majored in mathematics participated in individual semi-structured interviews. The analysis of the interview data served to confirm their misconceptions and identify their thought process in problem solving. Coding analysis was used to develop theories associated with the results from both college faculty and student interviews as well as the explanations students gave in solving problems. The coding was done in three stages: the first, or initial coding, identified the mistakes; the second, or focused coding, separated misconceptions from mistakes; and the third elucidated students’ thought processes to trace their cognitive obstacles in problem solving. Regarding analysis of student interviews, common patterns from students’ cognitive conflicts in problem solving were derived semantically from their thought process to explain how and why students developed the misconceptions that underlay their mistakes. The nature of how students solved problems and the reasons for their misconceptions were self-directed and controlled by their memories of concept images and algorithmic procedures. Students seemed to lack conceptual understanding of the calculus concepts discussed in the current study in that they solved conceptual problems as they would solve procedural problems by relying on fallacious memorization and familiarity. Meanwhile, students have not mastered the basic capacity to generalize and abstract; a majority of them failed to translate the semantics and transliterate mathematical notations within the problem context and were unable to synthesize the information appropriately to solve problems.

A Avaliação Psicológica é um dos temas de debate atual na Psicologia e, em virtude de sua complexidade, tem sido considerado ponto nevrálgico na área. Encontram-se na história da Psicologia, enquanto ciência, influências e diversas formas de avaliação, pautadas em diferentes concepções teórico-metodológicas. Nesta tese, a Avaliação Psicológica é tomada como objeto de estudo fundamentada nos pressupostos da Psicologia Histórico-Cultural cujas bases se ancoram no Materialismo Histórico e Dialético. Assim, o objetivo geral desta pesquisa se configura em formular uma proposta de Avaliação Psicológica, pautada nos pressupostos da Psicologia Histórico-Cultural, tomando como elementos constitutivos o processo de escolarização de crianças com queixas escolares e o desenvolvimento das Funções Psicológicas Superiores. Destaco como foco de pesquisa o processo de escolarização das crianças e como é possível que, ao se apropriarem da condição de produção das dificuldades escolares, desenvolvam suas Funções Psicológicas Superiores, e constituam formas de aprendizagem que se estabelecem na apropriação do conhecimento. Trata-se de pesquisa qualitativa, de caráter interventivo, cuja convivência em campo deu-se durante nove meses em uma escola pública. Foram desenvolvidos os seguintes procedimentos metodológicos: acompanhamento da sala de aula no seu dia-a-dia; conversas com as professoras de séries iniciais, com pais, coordenadora pedagógica e diretora; encontros com os estudantes individualmente e em grupo, tendo a participação ativa da pesquisadora. A análise do tema destaca aspectos da influência da medicina e da psicometria na história da Avaliação Psicológica na Psicologia, assim como críticas à psicometria e às formas tradicionais de avaliação. Além disso, com base nos pressupostos da Psicologia Histórico-Cultural na compreensão do desenvolvimento do psiquismo humano, esta tese apresenta propostas de intervenção que caminhem em prol do processo de humanização, entendendo o homem como síntese das relações sociais. Dentre os resultados da pesquisa, apresento: a) o caminho percorrido para a construção de um processo de Avaliação Psicológica na perspectiva teórica adotada, contendo: o levantamento histórico da realidade escolar, as análises das dimensões implícitas no contexto e o desenvolvimento das Funções Psicológicas Superiores, visto sua importância no processo de escolarização das crianças; b) a proposta metodológica para um processo de Avaliação Psicológica na perspectiva Histórico-Cultural, constituída pelos pressupostos teóricos, pelas formas concretas e pelos instrumentos utilizados para compor o processo investigativo e interventivo no âmbito da escolarização. Para finalizar, provoco algumas reflexões, considerando aspectos envoltos em um processo de avaliação numa sociedade capitalista e suas implicações, com vistas à novas pesquisas / Psychological Assessment is a topic of current debate in psychology and, due to its complexity; it is considered a critical point in this field. Various forms of assessment and influences, guided by different theoretical and methodological concepts lie in the history of psychology as a science. Psychological Assessment is the object of study in this thesis based on the assumptions of the Historical-Cultural Psychology - whose foundations rest on the Historical and Dialectical Materialism. Thus, the general objective of this research is to formulate a proposal of Psychological Assessment, based on the premises of the Historical-Cultural Psychology, taking as building components the educational process of children with learning disorders and the development of Higher Psychological Functions. The focus of this research is the educational process in children and how it is possible for them to develop Higher Psychological Functions and build means of acquiring established knowledge, although they may face learning disabilities. This is a qualitative, interventionist research, carried out during the period of nine months in a public school. The following methodological procedures were developed: tracking classroom activities on a day- to-day basis; conversations with teachers, parents, educational coordinator and principal from early grades; private and group meetings with students, having the active participation of the researcher. The analysis of the current debate highlights aspects of medicine and psychometrics influence on the history of psychological assessment in psychology, as well as criticism to psychometrics and to the traditional means of assessment. Furthermore, based on the assumptions of Historical-Cultural Psychology in the understanding of the human psyche development, this debate presents proposals for intervention towards the humanization process, understanding the man as a synthesis of social relations. Among the results found in this research the following are presented the path to build a process of psychological evaluation in accordance with the adopted theoretical perspective, including the historical survey of school reality; the analysis of the dimensions in this context and the development of Higher Psychological Functions due to its importance in childrens educational process; and the methodological proposal for a process of Psychological Assessment grounded on the Historic-Cultural perspective, made up from the theoretical assumptions, by the concrete forms and tools used to frame the investigative and interventional process within the school. Finally, some reflections are left to be considered regarding aspects wrapped in an evaluation process within a capitalist society and its implications, with a view to further research

A presente pesquisa teve como objeto de estudo o desenvolvimento humano em seu aspecto psicológico, mais especificamente a passagem das funções psicológicas de sua condição primitiva ou reflexa para voluntária ou culturalmente organizada e a reorganização que sofre o córtex cerebral nesta passagem. O objetivo principal consistiu em estudar o desenvolvimento das funções psicologias superiores na sua interfuncionalidade, enfatizando os aspectos do desenvolvimento da atenção no movimento de passagem de sua condição reflexa à voluntária. Como objetivos secundários, pretendeu-se a conhecer como a atenção e seu desenvolvimento são compreendidos no âmbito científico; destacar a importância de um referencial teórico explicativo do desenvolvimento humano que se ancore na discussão das apropriações culturais em detrimento das explicações exclusivamente biológicas; destacar a necessidade dos processos educativos para o desenvolvimento humano, inclusive da atenção voluntária. Para tal, foi desenvolvida uma pesquisa de caráter conceitual, alicerçada no referencial teórico interpretativo da Psicologia Histórico-Cultural, que tem entre seus fundadores os autores russos L.S Vigotski (1896-1934), A.R. Luria (1902-1979) e A.N. Leontiev (1903-1977), os quais são nossas fontes primárias. Como fontes secundárias, a pesquisa se embasou em autores continuadores desta teoria como D.B. Elkonin (19804-1984), V.V. Davídov (1930-1998), A. V. Zaporózhets (1905-1981), P. Ya. Galperin (1902-1988) e outros. Por intermédio da leitura e sistematização dos escritos dos autores mencionados, especialmente da proposta de periodização do desenvolvimento organizada por Vigotski, foi delineado um percurso explicativo com os principais estágios do desenvolvimento humano, tendo como aspecto central a relação da criança com o meio, denominada de situação social de desenvolvimento. Neste percurso, evidenciou-se como se constituem e se reorganizam os sistemas funcionais em cada etapa, seguindo a proposta de Luria que, ao longo de sua obra, destaca que também nossa organização cerebral está intrinsecamente relacionada com as apropriações culturais possibilitadas ao indivíduo. Como resultados alcançados, compreende-se que este trabalho oferece subsídios para evidenciar que o comportamento humano tem um substrato orgânico expresso pelo cérebro e seu funcionamento, porém este funcionamento se dá de forma mais ou menos organizada em decorrência das apropriações culturais que são possibilitadas à criança por meio da educação tanto informal quanto formal. Acredita-se que esta proposta de estudo pode trazer contribuições para o entendimento dos casos de crianças que se encontram em dificuldade de focar a atenção e regular o próprio comportamento e que, atualmente, têm recebido o diagnóstico de portadoras de Transtorno de Déficit de Atenção e Hiperatividade (TDAH). A chave para a reversão de tais casos, conforme evidenciado, não está na administração de medicamentos, como frequentemente tem sido a principal escolha, mas na organização e sistematização do ensino para promover o desenvolvimento da criança / This research had as study object the human development in its psychological aspect, specifically the passage from the psychological functions of its primitive or reflex condition to voluntary or culturally organized and the reorganization that the cerebral cortex suffers in this passage. The main objective was to study the development of the higher psychological functions in their interoperability, emphasizing the aspects of the attention development in the passage movement from their reflex to voluntary condition. As secondary objectives, it was intended to know how the attention and its development are understood in the scientific framework; to highlight the importance of an explanatory theoretical framework of the human development that anchors itself in the discussion of the cultural appropriations over the purely biological explanations; to point out the need of educational processes for the human development, including the voluntary attention. To this end, a conceptual research study was developed, based on the interpretative theoretical foundation of the Historical-Cultural Psychology, which has among its founders the Russian authors L.S. Vygotsky (1896-1934), A.R. Luria (1902-1979) and A.N. Leontiev (1903-1977), who are our primary sources. As secondary sources, the research was also based on the followers authors of this theory as D.B. Elkonin (1904-1984), V.V. Davídov (1930-1998), A.V. Zaporózhets (1905-1981), P. Ya. Galperin (1902-1988) and others. Through the reading and systematization of the writings of these mentioned authors, especially from the periodization proposal of the development organized by Vygotsky, an explanatory route has been outlined with the main stages of the human development, taking the child\'s relationship with the environment as a central role, which is called as social situation of development. In this way, it was shown how to make up and to reorganize the functional systems at each stage, following the Luria proposal that, throughout his work, points out that also our brain organization is closely linked to the cultural appropriations made possible to the individual. As achieved results, it is understood that this paper provides background information to show that the human behavior has an organic substrate expressed by the brain and its functioning, but this operation takes place on a more or less organized way due to the cultural appropriations that are made possible to the child through both informal and formal education. It is believed that this proposed study may help to understand the cases of children who are in difficulty to focus attention and regulate their own behavior and that currently have been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The key to the reversal of such cases, as stresses, is not in medication administration, as has often been the main choice, but in the organization and in the systematization of education in order to promote the child development

Research in the field of second language acquisition in the past five to ten years has focused on individual variation in language learning, and has examined such learner variables as learning styles, personality characteristics, learning strategies, and learner beliefs about the nature of language learning. Recently, research on individual learners has broadened to include a greater focus on the contexts of language learning and to explore the interactions between individual learners and the socio-cultural environment in investigations of these learner variables.This study has two purposes. The first is to investigate the language learning of novice level second language learners in a language and culture immersion program. The six college-age learners of Spanish who participated in an eight-week language and culture immersion program in Mexico are the focus of the case studies. The research focuses on five areas of learner variation: learner beliefs and philosophies about the nature of language learning, approaches to vocabulary learning, classroom behaviors, speaking for communication, and cultural adjustment.The second purpose of the study is to explore the use of multiple approaches to research on individual variation. The research framework for the study is ethnographic and the study employs a multi-methodological approach to data collection over an extended period of time in several language learning contexts. The research procedures used in the studyinclude participant observation, interviews, language learning journals, questionnaires, retrospective analysis of videotaped clips, and standardized instruments such as the Modern Language Aptitude Test, the Strategy Inventory for Language Learning, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, and the ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview. / Department of English

A presente pesquisa teve como objeto de estudo o desenvolvimento humano em seu aspecto psicológico, mais especificamente a passagem das funções psicológicas de sua condição primitiva ou reflexa para voluntária ou culturalmente organizada e a reorganização que sofre o córtex cerebral nesta passagem. O objetivo principal consistiu em estudar o desenvolvimento das funções psicologias superiores na sua interfuncionalidade, enfatizando os aspectos do desenvolvimento da atenção no movimento de passagem de sua condição reflexa à voluntária. Como objetivos secundários, pretendeu-se a conhecer como a atenção e seu desenvolvimento são compreendidos no âmbito científico; destacar a importância de um referencial teórico explicativo do desenvolvimento humano que se ancore na discussão das apropriações culturais em detrimento das explicações exclusivamente biológicas; destacar a necessidade dos processos educativos para o desenvolvimento humano, inclusive da atenção voluntária. Para tal, foi desenvolvida uma pesquisa de caráter conceitual, alicerçada no referencial teórico interpretativo da Psicologia Histórico-Cultural, que tem entre seus fundadores os autores russos L.S Vigotski (1896-1934), A.R. Luria (1902-1979) e A.N. Leontiev (1903-1977), os quais são nossas fontes primárias. Como fontes secundárias, a pesquisa se embasou em autores continuadores desta teoria como D.B. Elkonin (19804-1984), V.V. Davídov (1930-1998), A. V. Zaporózhets (1905-1981), P. Ya. Galperin (1902-1988) e outros. Por intermédio da leitura e sistematização dos escritos dos autores mencionados, especialmente da proposta de periodização do desenvolvimento organizada por Vigotski, foi delineado um percurso explicativo com os principais estágios do desenvolvimento humano, tendo como aspecto central a relação da criança com o meio, denominada de situação social de desenvolvimento. Neste percurso, evidenciou-se como se constituem e se reorganizam os sistemas funcionais em cada etapa, seguindo a proposta de Luria que, ao longo de sua obra, destaca que também nossa organização cerebral está intrinsecamente relacionada com as apropriações culturais possibilitadas ao indivíduo. Como resultados alcançados, compreende-se que este trabalho oferece subsídios para evidenciar que o comportamento humano tem um substrato orgânico expresso pelo cérebro e seu funcionamento, porém este funcionamento se dá de forma mais ou menos organizada em decorrência das apropriações culturais que são possibilitadas à criança por meio da educação tanto informal quanto formal. Acredita-se que esta proposta de estudo pode trazer contribuições para o entendimento dos casos de crianças que se encontram em dificuldade de focar a atenção e regular o próprio comportamento e que, atualmente, têm recebido o diagnóstico de portadoras de Transtorno de Déficit de Atenção e Hiperatividade (TDAH). A chave para a reversão de tais casos, conforme evidenciado, não está na administração de medicamentos, como frequentemente tem sido a principal escolha, mas na organização e sistematização do ensino para promover o desenvolvimento da criança / This research had as study object the human development in its psychological aspect, specifically the passage from the psychological functions of its primitive or reflex condition to voluntary or culturally organized and the reorganization that the cerebral cortex suffers in this passage. The main objective was to study the development of the higher psychological functions in their interoperability, emphasizing the aspects of the attention development in the passage movement from their reflex to voluntary condition. As secondary objectives, it was intended to know how the attention and its development are understood in the scientific framework; to highlight the importance of an explanatory theoretical framework of the human development that anchors itself in the discussion of the cultural appropriations over the purely biological explanations; to point out the need of educational processes for the human development, including the voluntary attention. To this end, a conceptual research study was developed, based on the interpretative theoretical foundation of the Historical-Cultural Psychology, which has among its founders the Russian authors L.S. Vygotsky (1896-1934), A.R. Luria (1902-1979) and A.N. Leontiev (1903-1977), who are our primary sources. As secondary sources, the research was also based on the followers authors of this theory as D.B. Elkonin (1904-1984), V.V. Davídov (1930-1998), A.V. Zaporózhets (1905-1981), P. Ya. Galperin (1902-1988) and others. Through the reading and systematization of the writings of these mentioned authors, especially from the periodization proposal of the development organized by Vygotsky, an explanatory route has been outlined with the main stages of the human development, taking the child\'s relationship with the environment as a central role, which is called as social situation of development. In this way, it was shown how to make up and to reorganize the functional systems at each stage, following the Luria proposal that, throughout his work, points out that also our brain organization is closely linked to the cultural appropriations made possible to the individual. As achieved results, it is understood that this paper provides background information to show that the human behavior has an organic substrate expressed by the brain and its functioning, but this operation takes place on a more or less organized way due to the cultural appropriations that are made possible to the child through both informal and formal education. It is believed that this proposed study may help to understand the cases of children who are in difficulty to focus attention and regulate their own behavior and that currently have been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The key to the reversal of such cases, as stresses, is not in medication administration, as has often been the main choice, but in the organization and in the systematization of education in order to promote the child development