Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:24:55Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2009-09-29Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:32:06Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 souza_sp_me_mar.pdf: 1100725 bytes, checksum: 9a0c592824efc22741c8b6f1dff36732 (MD5) / A presente pesquisa teórica e prática, tendo como sujeitos crianças de uma quarta série do ensino fundamental da rede municipal de ensino do interior paulista, objetivou estudar a influência do entorno, aí inclusa a organização das ações pedagógicas, no desenvolvimento humano, com ênfase na análise das capacidades discursivas na infância. Apresenta uma discussão sobre a necessidade de se repensarem os elementos que compõem as atividades pedagógicas, identificando os processos centrais da sua organização. A hipótese é a de que as relações ocorridas em situações pedagógicas, organizadas intencionalmente, podem ser propulsoras de aprendizagens humanizadoras. São consideradas, nesse sentido, a atividade da criança e sua capacidade de aprendizado; a escola como espaço de vivências, de escolhas, de mediações; e a ação do professor mediador como criador de elos mediadores para a apropriação da linguagem escrita. Com o intuito de que as discussões recorressem a suportes teóricos que coadunassem entre si, a Teoria histórico-cultural foi eleita como o sustentáculo para as demais proposições que tratam da sala de aula como espaço mediador de ensino e de aprendizagem colaborativos (via metodologia de projetos) e a garantia para a coparticipação do sujeito aprendiz em sua própria formação como leitor e produtor de texto. A aplicação das técnicas da pesquisa-ação, por sua vez, respaldou-se no enfoque materialista-histórico-dialético, fundamento filosófico da Teoria histórico-cultural. Assim, a análise dos dados coletados coerentemente com a teoria eleita e norteada por seus conceitos gerou considerações acerca do ensino e da aprendizagem mediada pela linguagem escrita em contextos significativos e as contribuições destes instrumentos mediadores ao desenvolvimento humano. Ao concluir este trabalho foi possível afirmar que ter o homem... / This theoretical and practice research, that have as participants children of a fourth grade education in municipal basic education from a small city in the state of São Paulo, aimed to study the influence of the environment, in which there is included the organization of pedagogical practices in human development with emphasis on discursive analysis capacity in childhood. It presents a discussion about the need to rethink the elements of the educational activities, identifying the central part processes of their organization. The hypothesis is that the relation occurred in organized intentionally pedagogical situations may be drivers of humanizing learning. About this respect, the child‟s activity and its learning ability; the school as a mediation, choice and experience place; and the mediator teacher‟s action as a creator of mediator links to the written language appropriation are considered. In order that, the discussions appeal to theoretical supporters which adequate among them, the cultural-historical Theory was chosen as the cornerstone for all other proposals that deal with the classroom as mediator teaching and collaborative learning space (via project methodology ) and the guarantee for the schoolchild‟s co-participation in his own formation as a reader and producer‟s text. The techniques application of action research, in turn, was supported on the historical materialist dialectical focus, the historical cultural theory philosophical foundation. Thus, the analysis of collected data in a consistent way with the chosen theory and guided by its concepts generated some discussion concerning to the teaching and learning mediated by the written language in meaningful contexts and the contributions of these mediator instruments to the human development. In conclusion of this study, we can say that having the man as a parameter so that the educational task provides ...(Complete abstract click electronic address below)

The continued underperformance of many L2 students at primary, secondary and tertiary level is a cause for grave concern in South Africa. In an attempt to better understand the cognitivelinguistic conditions and processes that underlie academic performance and underperformance, this study looks at the problem of differential academic performance by focussing on the inferential ability of undergraduate L2 students during the reading of expository texts. The study works within a constructivist theory of reading, where the successful understanding of a text is seen to involve the construction of a mental representation of what the text is about. Inferencing plays an important role in constructing meaning during reading because it enables the reader to link incoming information with already given information, and it enables the reader to construct a mental representation of the meaning of a text by converting the linear input into a hierarchical mental representation of interrelated information. The main finding showed that the ability to make inferences during the reading of expository texts was strongly related to academic performance: the more inferences students made during the reading of expository texts, the better they performed academically. This relationship held across the making of various inferences, such as anaphoric inferences, vocabulary inferences, inferences about various semantic relations, and thematic inferences. In particular, the ability to make anaphoric, contrastive and causal inferences emerged as the strongest predictors of academic performance. The study provides strong empirical evidence that the ability to make inferences during reading enables a reader to construct meaning and thereby also to acquire new knowledge. Reading is not only a tool for independently accessing information in an information-driven society, it is fundamentally a tool for constructing meaning. Reading and inferencing are not additional tools that students need to master in the learning context- they constitute the very process whereby learning occurs. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / D.Litt. et Phil. (Linguistics)

Full-Service Schools are new institutions in South Africa which have been established in terms of the Education White Paper 6, Special Needs Education and Training System (Department of Education, 2001: 22-23; 2014: 9) as pilot schools for the rolling out of the Inclusion Policy in South Africa. A full-service school is a school that encourages learners who experience barriers to learning and learners without barriers to learning to learn and live together (Department of Education, 2001, 2014). For this reason, all learners must have opportunities to learn and play together and participate in educational activities in full-service schools. These inclusion practices, which promote acceptance, equity and collaboration, are responsive to individual needs, and embrace diversity (The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, Act No. 108 of 1996). The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences of educators in management of inclusive classrooms. This study focused on how the educators perform the three of the seven educators roles as expected in the Minimum Requirements for Teacher Education Qualifications (MRTEQ) (Department of Education, 2011).The educators, over and above these roles, are expected also to participate in extra-curricular programmes, such as sports, cultural and artistic activities, and thus taking more of their time, most probably to the detriment of not fulfilling their Minimum Requirements for Teacher Education Qualifications as expected. The three selected educators roles are ‘the educator as a learning mediator’, ‘the educator as assessor’ and ‘the educator as support provider’, viz. the community, citizenship and pastoral roles of educators for the learners who experience barriers to learning in English First Additional Language (FAL) in the Grade Six inclusive classrooms. A qualitative research method was employed in this study, to explore the way in which individuals make sense of their world in the naturalistic setting of the classroom, without predetermining the research outcomes (Patton 2002, MacMillan & Schumacher 2010, Denzin & Lincoln 2011, Creswell, 2013). Data analysed was gathered through in-depth interviews, non-participatory observation, and document analysis. Data was analysed through content analysis. / Inclusive Education / D. Ed. (Inclusive Education)

The continued underperformance of many L2 students at primary, secondary and tertiary level is a cause for grave concern in South Africa. In an attempt to better understand the cognitivelinguistic conditions and processes that underlie academic performance and underperformance, this study looks at the problem of differential academic performance by focussing on the inferential ability of undergraduate L2 students during the reading of expository texts. The study works within a constructivist theory of reading, where the successful understanding of a text is seen to involve the construction of a mental representation of what the text is about. Inferencing plays an important role in constructing meaning during reading because it enables the reader to link incoming information with already given information, and it enables the reader to construct a mental representation of the meaning of a text by converting the linear input into a hierarchical mental representation of interrelated information. The main finding showed that the ability to make inferences during the reading of expository texts was strongly related to academic performance: the more inferences students made during the reading of expository texts, the better they performed academically. This relationship held across the making of various inferences, such as anaphoric inferences, vocabulary inferences, inferences about various semantic relations, and thematic inferences. In particular, the ability to make anaphoric, contrastive and causal inferences emerged as the strongest predictors of academic performance. The study provides strong empirical evidence that the ability to make inferences during reading enables a reader to construct meaning and thereby also to acquire new knowledge. Reading is not only a tool for independently accessing information in an information-driven society, it is fundamentally a tool for constructing meaning. Reading and inferencing are not additional tools that students need to master in the learning context- they constitute the very process whereby learning occurs. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / D.Litt. et Phil. (Linguistics)

With the aim of designing tools, processes and means to support secondary school teachers in maintaining a sense of presence, closeness and immediacy when interacting with their pupils remotely in rapidly appropriated digital learning environments due to Covid-19, this thesis examined the meaning, importance and possibilities of creating a sense of presence, closeness and immediacy in remote digital teaching.The process was based on research for design, encompassing literature study, field research and methods of interaction design to reach conclusions on meaningful tools, processes and means of supporting secondary-school teachers in remote digital teaching.Main findings unveiled a sense of presence as a prerequisite for closeness and immediacy and real-time video lessons as the main approach to remote digital teaching, potentially creating an illusion of presence, closeness and immediacy due to pupils’ choice of black screens and muted microphones.Potentially meaningful approaches to achieving a sense of presence, closeness and immediacy identified in this thesis include the use of digital representations, representational correspondence and the concept of testimony in designing for a sense of presence, closeness and immediacy in remote digital environments.