Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2001. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The construction of macro-structures. Four reading-improvement courses were offered to grade ten pupils in an attempt to improve their general reading skills and more specifically their ability to abstract the gist (macrostructure - Van Dijk and Kintsch, 1983) of texts as well as their ability to recall detail about texts. The macro-structures that learners constructed and the number of propositions recalled from a specific section of the text during a pre-test were compared to the macrostructures they formulated and the number of propositions that they recalled during a post-test. The courses were presented in Afrikaans to four of the five grade 10 classes in a Western Cape school. (The course was also presented in English to the fifth class but that course was not taken into consideration.) The courses were conducted over eight periods of approximately 40 minutes. The content of the first three periods were the same for all four courses. During the first period the learners did a reading exercise in order to determine their reading speed and reading index. During the second and third periods they were taught skimming and study skills respectively. The first course focused on questioning skills in the last five sessions. The second course was presented in order to improve learners' structuring skills. The third course was a combination of the first two courses. A conventional speed reading course was presented to learners who did the fourth course. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to determine whether (1) the construction of macro-structures and (2) the recall of propositions from the texts could be ascribed to questioning skills, structuring skills or the combination of those skills. This was done after variance in the dependant variables brought about by differences in intelligence was controlled statistically. The results of this study indicate a statistically significant improvement to construct macro-structures for the learners who completed the courses aimed at improving structuring and questioning/structuring abilities. This improvement can be ascribed to the skills that they acquired during the courses. Traditional schema theories regard schemas or schemata as pre-fabricated structures that need only to be activated by readers. In these courses, however the emphasis was placed on the formation of a structure by the reader; on the activity performed by the reader. Hence it was referred to as a structuring course. During the courses the learners were encouraged not only to "chunk" the content of the texts, but to generalize and to construct the structure of the texts. They were encouraged to use their own words or categories. Several studies indicated that an improvement in the ability to structure texts lead to an improvement in text comprehension. There are five other reasons why structuring the content of texts will facilitate the construction of macro-structures. The first is that when subjects are given the task to remember unorganized material they structure the material to be remembered spontaneously. The second is that the semantic organization of material facilitate recall and the third that normal perception is highly structured. The fourth argument is that experts make effective use of schemes. The fifth argument is that the activity of structuring forces the reader to process the text at a deeper level of processmg. Since it was assumed that top achievers are good readers who have mastered the ability to construct macro-structures efficiently, it was argued that they would benefit more from a course that aimed at improving their question-generating skills. Thus, the fact that there was not a statistically significant improvement in their ability to construct macrostructures can be attributed to the fact that they have already mastered that ability sufficiently. It is also possible to attribute the fact that there was not a statistically significant improvement to the fact that they did not master the question-generating activities. The results of this study also indicated that learners who did the structuring, questioning and questioning/structuring courses improved their ability to recall propositions from the texts in a pre-test to a post-test. Their improved ability to recall propositions, can be ascribed to the fact that detail can be inferred from a hierarchical structure since detail facts are subsumed under thematic propositions. Put differently, micro-propositions can be inferred from macro-propositions. The improvement in the ability of subjects who did the questioning course can be ascribed to the fact that questioning helps to focus attention and that the activity of questioning leads to deeper levels of processing. Three assumptions concerning macro-structures were made in this study. It was assumed that the construction of macro-structures is an automatic and integral part of the (normal) reading process. Readers do not construct macro-structures only when they are required to do so. Good readers construct better macro-structures than poor readers. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die konstruksie van makrostrukture. Vier leesverbeteringskursusse is vir graad 10-leerders aangebied ten einde hul leesvaardighede te probeer verbeter; meer spesifiek, hul vermoe om die kern (die makrostrukture - Van Dijk en Kintsch, 1983) van tekste te kan konstrueer en ook om proposisies van die tekste te kan herroep. Die makrostrukture wat leerders gevorrn het en die getal proposisies wat hulle kon herroep oor 'n spesifieke teksgedeelte nadat 'n leeskursus vir hulle aangebied is, is vergelyk met die makrostrukture wat hulle gevorrn het en getal proposisies wat hulle kon herroep, voordat die kursus vir hulle aangebied is. Die kursusse is in Afrikaans aangebied vir vier van die vyf graad 10-klasse van 'n skiereilandse skool. (Die kursus is ook in Engels aangebied vir die vyfde klas, maar hul resultate is nie in berekening gebring nie, aangesien die inhoud van die tekste verskil het.) Die kursusse het bestaan uit agt lesure van 40 minute. Die inhoud van die eerste drie ·lesure was dieselfde vir al vier kursusse. Tydens die eerste lesuur het die leerders 'n leesoefening gedoen en daarna het hulle hul leesspoed en leesindeks uitgewerk. Tydens die tweede en derde lesuur is vlugleesvaardighede vir die leerders aangeleer. In die eerste kursus IS die klem tydens die laaste vyf lesure geplaas op vraagstellingsvaardighede bene wens vlugleesvaardighede en studievaardighede. Leerders is geleer om kemvrae en detailvrae te forrnuleer. Tydens die tweede kursus is struktureringsvaardighede vir leerders aangeleer in die laaste vyf lesure. Die derde kursus was 'n kombinasie van die eerste twee kursusse. Tydens die vierde kursus is 'n konvensionele spoedleeskursus vir die leerders aangebied. Deur middel van meervoudige regressie-ontledings is vasgestel of vraagstelling, strukturering of die interaksie tussen vraagstelling en strukturering variansie in (1) die konstruksie van rnakrostrukture en (2) die herroep van proposisies of feite verklaar. Dit is gedoen nadat daar statisties gekontroleer is vir die variansie in die afhanklike veranderlikes wat opgewek is deur verskille in intelligensie. Uit die resultate het dit geblyk dat daar 'n statisties beduidende verbetering was by die leerders wat die strukturering-kursus gevolg het en ook by die leerders wat die vraagstelling/strukturering-kursus gevolg het om makrostrukture te konstrueer. Hierdie verbetering sou toegeskryf kon word aan die vaardighede wat hulle tydens die kursus aangeleer het. In teenstelling met skema-teoriee wat van die veronderstelling uitgaan dat skemas vaste strukture is wat slegs deur lesers geaktiveer word, is die klem in hierdie ondersoek geplaas op die aktiewe strukturering van teksinhoude. Dit is die rede waarom na die kursus verwys word as die "strukturering' -kursus. Tydens die kursus is die leerders aangemoedig om nie net die afdelings van die tekste te groepeer nie, maar om te veralgemeen; om die teksinhoude self te struktureer deur hul eie woorde te gebruik. Benewens die feit dat dit uit verskeie ander ondersoeke geblyk het dat die strukturering van tekste deur lesers hulle leesbegrip verbeter het en hulle gehelp het om meer proposisies van 'n teks te kon herroep, sou nog vyf ander argumente ook aangevoer word waarom strukturering die vorming van makrostrukture vergemaklik. Die eerste is dat toetslinge ongestruktureerde geheuemateriaal spontaan struktureer; die tweede dat semantiese organisasie die herroep daarvan vergemaklik; die derde dat ("alledaagse") persepsie hoogs gestruktureerd is en die vierde dat deskundiges skemas effektiewer benut as beginners. Die vyfde argument is dat die aktiwiteit van strukturering dieper prosessering van leesinhoude sal meebring as gewoonlees; wanneer lesers tekste struktureer, word hulle verplig om dit uitvoerig te prosesseer. Die vraagstelling-kursus is aangebied vir die leerders in die klas wat die beste presteer het, aangesien daar van die veronderstelling uitgegaan is dat hulle goeie lesers is en dat goeie lesers alreeds daartoe in staat is om goeie makrostrukture te kan konstrueer. Die feit dat diegene wat die vraagstelling-kursus gevolg het, se vermoe om rnakrostrukture te vorm, nie 'n statisties beduidende verbetering getoon het nie, sou dus moontlik daaraan toegeskryf kon word dat hulle die vaardigheid om goeie makrostrukture te vorm, alreeds in 'n groot mate bemeester het. 'n Ander moontlikheid waarom hul vermoe om makrostrukture te konstrueer, nie 'n statisties beduidende verbetering getoon het nie, is dat hulle nie die vraagstelling-aktiwiteite deeglik bemeester het rue. Uit die resultate van hierdie ondersoek het dit ook geblyk -dat daar 'n statisties beduidende verbetering was in die vermoe van leerders wat die vraagstelling-, strukturering-, asook die vraagstellinglstruktureringkursus gevolg het om na afloop van die leeskursusse meer proposisies oor die betrokke tekste te kon herroep. Die rede waarom die strukturering-kursus effektiewer herroepprestasie in die hand gewerk het, sou toegeskryf kon word aan die feit dat iemand wat 'n struktuur gekonstrueer het, detail kan herroep na aanleiding van die gekonstrueerde raarnwerk. Anders gestel, mikroproposisies sou afgelei kon word van makroproposisies. Die rede waarom die vraagstelling-kursus 'n verbetering van leerders se herroepvermoens meegebring het, sou waarskynlik daaraan toegeskryf kon word dat vraagstelling 'n leser se aandag fokus of rig. Daarby verplig die vraagstelling-aktiwiteit lesers om tekste uitvoerig te prosesseer. Hierdie vraagstelling-aktiwiteit verplig dieper prosessering van leesinhoude as die meer oppervlakkige prosessering wat tydens gewoonlees plaasvind. In hierdie ondersoek is van die verondersteIling uitgegaan dat die vorrmng van makrostrukture 'n outomatiese en integrale deel van die leesproses is. Lesers konstrueer nie net makrostrukture wanneer die leestaak dit vereis nie. Hoewel aIle lesers makrostrukture konstrueer, vorrn goeie lesers beter rnakrostrukture as swak lesers.

In an effort to address diverse needs in K-12 education, policymakers have proposed initiatives to increase the leadership opportunities for classroom teachers. Although teachers have undertaken leadership roles in schools throughout history, the notion of teacher leadership spurred by policy is in the emergent stages. As educators and leaders in various roles implement teacher leadership policy, learning must ensue at both an individual and collective level to adapt schools to a new model of leadership. This study examined how district-level teacher leader coordinators in one Iowa region came to understand their role as leaders. A case study approach illuminated the experience of these individuals as Iowa teacher leadership policy was initially implemented. Data were collected through the use of interviews, observations, and document reviews. Participants included district-level teacher leader coordinators and regional leaders supporting teacher leadership to gain insights from multiple levels of policy implementation. The findings of this study identified themes for sensemaking and leading within the teacher leader coordinator’s role. The study revealed that coordinators were guided in learning their new teacher leadership roles through both formal policy guidance and informal interactions with leaders and peers. Coordinators enacted their leadership roles in a bridge building capacity, linking other teacher leaders to resources and modeling leadership processes and actions.

A central goal of theoretical computer science is to characterize the limits of efficient computation in a variety of models. We pursue this research objective in the contexts of communication complexity and computational learning theory. In the former case, one seeks to understand which distributed computations require a significant amount of communication among the parties involved. In the latter case, one aims to rigorously explain why computers cannot master some prediction tasks or learn from past experience. While communication and learning may seem to have little in common, they turn out to be closely related, and much insight into both can be gained by studying them jointly. Such is the approach pursued in this thesis. We answer several fundamental questions in communication complexity and learning theory and in so doing discover new relations between the two topics. A consistent theme in our work is the use of analytic methods to solve the problems at hand, such as approximation theory, Fourier analysis, matrix analysis, and duality. We contribute a novel technique, the pattern matrix method, for proving lower bounds on communication. Using our method, we solve an open problem due to Krause and Pudlák (1997) on the comparative power of two well-studied circuit classes: majority circuits and constant-depth AND/OR/NOT circuits. Next, we prove that the pattern matrix method applies not only to classical communication but also to the more powerful quantum model. In particular, we contribute lower bounds for a new class of quantum communication problems, broadly subsuming the celebrated work by Razborov (2002) who used different techniques. In addition, our method has enabled considerable progress by a number of researchers in the area of multiparty communication. Second, we study unbounded-error communication, a natural model with applications to matrix analysis, circuit complexity, and learning. We obtain essentially optimal lower bounds for all symmetric functions, giving the first strong results for unbounded-error communication in years. Next, we resolve a longstanding open problem due to Babai, Frankl, and Simon (1986) on the comparative power of unbounded-error communication and alternation, showing that [mathematical equation]. The latter result also yields an unconditional, exponential lower bound for learning DNF formulas by a large class of algorithms, which explains why this central problem in computational learning theory remains open after more than 20 years of research. We establish the computational intractability of learning intersections of halfspaces, a major unresolved challenge in computational learning theory. Specifically, we obtain the first exponential, near-optimal lower bounds for the learning complexity of this problem in Kearns’ statistical query model, Valiant’s PAC model (under standard cryptographic assumptions), and various analytic models. We also prove that the intersection of even two halfspaces on {0,1}n cannot be sign-represented by a polynomial of degree less than [Theta](square root of n), which is an exponential improvement on previous lower bounds and solves an open problem due to Klivans (2002). We fully determine the relations and gaps among three key complexity measures of a communication problem: product discrepancy, sign-rank, and discrepancy. As an application, we solve an open problem due to Kushilevitz and Nisan (1997) on distributional complexity under product versus nonproduct distributions, as well as separate the communication classes PPcc and UPPcc due to Babai, Frankl, and Simon (1986). We give interpretations of our results in purely learning-theoretic terms. / text

As citizens of the Arabian Gulf states struggle to maintain identity and heritage in a swarm of economic boom and social modernization and mobilization, they are bombarded with media messages which conflict with the essential tenets of modernization and development: individualism, economic independence, freedom of expression, and elevated social status for women. The largely popular Gulf Arabic television miniseries genre is an important vehicle for those conflicting media messages, presenting stereotypical and simplistic representations of family life, the divide between good and evil, and prescribed gender dichotomies. Those messages which idealize traditionalism and conservative belief systems are crafted and informed by those who dominate the media apparatus in the Arabian Gulf: the ruling, male, Muslim, hegemonic elite. The miniseries genre keeps audiences glued to the television in the month of Ramadan, a time at which Muslims throughout the world are at a heightened sense of religiosity and devotion to family and are thus more susceptible to the persuasion of media messages related to religion, faith, virtues, and morals. This research examines the themes of patriarchy, gender dichotomies, family values, and the omnipresence of Islam in the genre and the relationship of all of these themes to the value and belief systems of the ruling hegemonic elite and audience members alike. The research is based on a data pool which includes 152 episodes, totaling roughly 101.5 televised hours. The data also include the results of a survey about audience interaction and interpretation of the genre. The survey is comprised of 35 questions to which 56 participants responded. It discusses the implications of the messages contained within the genre and communicated through the aforementioned themes, and examines the potential for them to influence audience members’ outlook on society as seen through the lens of relevant media theories. / text

Obesity within the Canadian population is on the rise, as people continue to lead hurried lifestyles there is little time to slow down and prepare a meal for oneself or one’s family. As younger generations grow up in these rushed lifestyles, the opportunities to learn about food and nutrition in the home is quickly disappearing. As a result this practicum project explores promoting healthy lifestyles by reconnecting people with food through the creation of a Culinary Learning Centre located in The Forks Market Building, in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Individuals who are motivated to change the way they view and value food are provided with a comprehensive learning environment that approaches teaching through a holistic and collaborative manner. Informed by an extensive literature review into the Slow Food Movement, and learning theory; research into four case studies; and detailed programming, culminated in an interior design solution promoting positive learning, social interaction, and student well-being. / October 2016

L'Apprentissage Automatique tire ses racines d'un large champ disciplinaire qui inclut l'Intelligence Artificielle, la Reconnaissance de Formes, les Statistiques ou l'Optimisation. Dès les origines de l'Apprentissage, les questions computationelles et les propriétés en généralisation ont toutes deux été identifiées comme centrales pour la discipline. Tandis que les premières concernent les questions de calculabilité ou de complexité (sur un plan fondamental) ou d'efficacité computationelle (d'un point de vue plus pratique) des systèmes d'apprentissage, les secondes visent a comprendre et caractériser comment les solutions qu'elles fournissent vont se comporter sur de nouvelles données non encore vues. Ces dernières années, l'émergence de jeux de données à grande échelle en Apprentissage Automatique a profondément remanié les principes de la Théorie de l'Apprentissage. En prenant en compte de potentielles contraintes sur le temps d'entraînement, il faut faire face à un compromis plus complexe que ceux qui sont classiquement traités par les Statistiques. Une conséquence directe tient en ce que la mise en place d'algorithmes efficaces (autant en théorie qu'en pratique) capables de tourner sur des jeux de données a grande échelle doivent impérativement prendre en compte les aspects statistiques et computationels de l'Apprentissage de façon conjointe. Cette thèse a pour but de mettre à jour, analyser et exploiter certaines des connections qui existent naturellement entre les aspects statistiques et computationels de l'Apprentissage. / Machine Learning is known to have its roots in a broad spectrum of fields including Artificial Intelligence, Pattern Recognition, Statistics or Optimisation. From the earliest stages of Machine Learning, both computational issues and generalisation properties have been identified as central to the field. While the former address the question of computability, complexity (from a fundamental perspective) or computational efficiency (on a more practical standpoint) of learning systems, the latter aim at understanding and characterising how well the solutions they provide perform on new, unseen data. Those last years, the emergence of large-scale datasets in Machine Learning has been deeply reshaping the principles of Learning Theory. Taking into account possible constraints on the training time, one has to deal with more complex trade-offs than the ones classically addressed by Statistics. As a direct consequence, designing new efficient algorithms (both in theory and practice), able to handle large-scale datasets, imposes to jointly deal with the statistical and computational aspects of Learning. The present thesis aims at unravelling, analysing and exploiting some of the connections that naturally exist between the statistical and computational aspects of Learning. More precisely, in a first part, we extend the stability analysis, which relates some algorithmic properties to the generalisation abilities of learning algorithms, to a novel (and fine-grain) performance measure, namely the confusion matrix. In a second part, we present a novel approach to learn a kernel-based regression function, that serves the learning task at hand and exploits the structure of

Recent effort to teach Western science in the Tibetan Buddhist monasteries has drawn interest both within and outside the quarters of these monasteries. This novel and historic move of bringing Western science in a traditional monastic community began around year 2000 at the behest of His Holiness the Dalai Lama, the spiritual head of Tibetan Buddhism. Despite the novelty of this effort, the literature in science education about learners from non-Western communities suggests various "cognitive conflicts" experienced by these non-Western learners due to fundamental difference in the worldview of the two knowledge traditions. Hence, in this research focuses on how six Tibetan Buddhist monks were situating/reconciling the scientific concepts like the theory of evolution into their traditional Buddhist worldview. The monks who participated in this study were engaged in a further study science at a university in the U.S. for two years. Using case study approach, the participants were interviewed individually and in groups over the two-year period. The findings revealed that although the monks scored highly on their acceptance of evolution on the Measurement of Acceptance of Theory of Evolution (MATE) survey, however in the follow-up individual and focus group interviews, certain conflicts as well as agreement between the theory of evolution and their Buddhist beliefs were revealed. The monks experienced conflicts over concepts within evolution such as common ancestry, human evolution, and origin of life, and in reconciling the Buddhist and scientific notion of life. The conflicts were analyzed using the theory of collateral learning and was found that the monks engaged in different kinds of collateral learning, which is the degree of interaction and resolution of conflicting schemas. The different collateral learning of the monks was correlated to the concepts within evolution and has no correlation to the monks’ years in secular school, science learning or their proficiency of English language. This study has indicted that the Tibetan Buddhist monks also experience certain cognitive conflict when situating Western scientific concepts into their Buddhist worldview as suggested by research of science learners from other non-Western societies. By explicating how the monks make sense of scientific theories like the theory of evolution as an exemplar, I hope to inform the current effort to establish science education in the monastery to develop curricula that would result in meaningful science teaching and learning, and also sensitive to needs and the cultural survival of the monastics.

Thesis advisor: Joseph O'Keefe / Effective instructional leadership is central to principal practice. Thus, the Massachusetts Model System for Educator Evaluation (MMSEE) mandates that all principals demonstrate proficiency in instructional leadership to be considered proficient overall. Given this mandate, it is imperative that central office administrators (COAs) support principals in this regard. Accordingly, this qualitative single case study examined how COAs in one Massachusetts district supported principals’ instructional leadership. Analyses of documents and semi-structured interview data found that COAs supported principals’ instructional leadership through professional development for supervising and evaluating teachers, preparation of school improvement plans, and increased staffing of assistant principals and academic coaches. However, principals reported interim feedback and summative evaluations as not supporting their growth as instructional leaders. To address this gap in support with instructional leadership, recommendations included assigning additional COAs to evaluate principals for consistent and targeted feedback, reviewing MMSEE performance expectations with principals, and including principal voice in the district decision-making process. / Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2016. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Leadership and Higher Education.

Os empreendedores sociais são protagonistas na abordagem de problemas sociais no Brasil. Contudo, mesmo com esse destaque, pouco ainda se sabe sobre as particularidades desses profissionais. A aprendizagem desses indivíduos é um dos assuntos que carecem da atenção dos acadêmicos. Desse modo, uma das teorias que oportuniza análises a respeito da aprendizagem desses indivíduos é a Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) de Kolb (1984), que relata que a aprendizagem é o processo de criação de conhecimentos a partir da transformação das experiências do indivíduo. Um dos subprodutos da ELT é o conceito dos estilos de aprendizagem: traços pessoais que servem como indicadores de como os indivíduos percebem, interagem e respondem aos ambientes de aprendizagem. Para Alonso et al. (1997), existem quatro diferentes tipos de estilos de aprendizagem: o pragmático, o teórico, o ativo e o reflexivo. Assim, os autores elaboraram o instrumento Cuestionario Honey y Alonso sobre Estilos de Aprendizaje (CHAEA) para verificarem os estilos de aprendizagem dos indivíduos e realizarem análises relativas ao assunto. Dessa forma, a presente pesquisa se propôs a analisar a aprendizagem dos empreendedores sociais brasileiros à luz da Experiential Learning Theory, utilizando, para isso, o instrumento CHAEA. Primeiramente, os 90 empreendedores sociais brasileiros pesquisados tiveram seus estilos de aprendizagem verificados e os resultados foram analisados por meio de análises estatísticas univariadas e bivariadas. Assim, foi constatado que o estilo pragmático, o estilo teórico, o estilo ativo e o estilo reflexivo somam, respectivamente, 36,7%, 31,1%, 24,4%, e 7,8% da preferência geral dos pesquisados. Num segundo momento, particularidades e tendências relativas à aprendizagem desses indivíduos foram discutidas, e hipóteses foram produzidas. Essas hipóteses oferecem margem para o desenvolvimento de novos estudos relacionados ao tema. É indicado que as futuras pesquisas procurem trabalhar com amostras mais numerosas e com outros tipos de análises estatísticas. À parte das descobertas em relação à aprendizagem dos pesquisados e das hipóteses desenvolvidas, esta pesquisa também teve outro desdobramento relacionado ao estudo do empreendedorismo social no Brasil: o delineamento do perfil do empreendedor social brasileiro. Foi encontrado que esse indivíduo se caracteriza, majoritariamente, por ser identificado com o gênero masculino, ser jovem, declarar-se da raça ou cor branca, possuir alto grau de escolaridade e estar envolvido há pouco tempo com iniciativas sociais. O perfil constatado corrobora o perfil encontrado por outros autores e traz maior solidez para a discussão do tema. De forma geral, esta pesquisa colaborou para o avanço das pesquisas relativas ao empreendedorismo social e à aprendizagem experiencial no Brasil. Também foi viabilizada para os empreendedores sociais brasileiros participantes a oportunidade de verificarem seus estilos de aprendizagem e, assim, entenderem melhor suas próprias particularidades quanto à aprendizagem. Por último, destaca-se a contribuição para com instituições voltadas à educação, que por meio dos resultados desta pesquisa poderão aprimorar seus cursos direcionados aos empreendedores sociais. / Social entrepreneurs are central figures in addressing societal problems in Brazil. Nevertheless, despite the spotlights being pointed on these individuals, little is known about their particularities. Their learning process, for instance, is a subject lacking academic research. Therefore, one way to analyze their learning process is through the Experiential Learning Theory (ELT) present by Kolb (1984), which says that learning is the process whereby knowledge is created through the transformation of experience. One of the ELT's sub-products is the learning styles concept, which suggests that personal traits work as indicators of how someone perceives, interacts and responds to learning environments. Alonso et al. (1997) proposed four different learning styles: pragmatist, theorist, activist and reflector. As a result, the authors created the survey Cuestionario Honey y Alonso sobre Estilos de Aprendizaje (CHAEA) to verify someone's learning style and to carry out analysis about their learning process. Thus, the present research aims to analyze Brazilian social entrepreneurs' learning process in the light of the Experiential Learning Theory, using, to that end, the CHAEA survey. Primarily, the 90 Brazilian social entrepreneurs studied in this research had their learning styles verified and their results analyzed through univariate and bivariate techniques. Thus, it was determined that the pragmatist style, the theorist style, the activist style and the reflector style represented, respectively, 36.7%, 31.1%, 24.4%, and 7.8% of the participant’s general preference. Secondly, particularities and tendencies regarding the Brazilian social entrepreneurs studied were discussed, and hypotheses were produced. This hypotheses offer a clear research path to anyone interested in developing new studies about the subject. It is indicated for future researches to work with larger samples and with other types of statistical analysis. Besides the discoveries regarding the participant's learning process and the hypotheses developed, this research also presented other outcome related to social entrepreneurship studies in Brazil: the establishment of the Brazilian social entrepreneur profile. It was found that these individuals are characterized, mostly, by recognizing themselves as males, by being young, by declaring themselves as white individuals, by possessing a high schooling level and by getting involved recently with social enterprises. The profile formed supports profiles described by other authors in their researches and brings a meaningful consolidation regarding the subject discussion. In general, this research contributed to the advance of researches related to social entrepreneurship and to experiential learning in Brazil. In a practical viewpoint, it was made possible for the Brazilian social entrepreneurs which were part of this research to verify their learning styles and, thus, understand better their own particularities regarding their learning processes. Lastly, the contribution to educational institutions needs to be addressed. Through the results of this research it will be possible for these establishments to improve their courses designed for social entrepreneurs.

This is a qualitative study about the usage of phonetics in the classroom.  The study is based on interviews with two English teachers and two future English teachers. The study also researches a website where teaching material are shared by teachers.   Firstly, the study wants to know what researchers think about phonetics in language teaching as well as in language learning. Secondly, the study researches what teachers think about phonetics and their opinions regarding the use of it in the classroom as well as their knowledge about the subject. Thirdly, the study investigates what future teachers of English said regarding the use of phonetics and if they felt prepared to use it in the classroom.   The study shows that researchers think highly of the use of phonetics in language learning. However, it is not used by the interviewees when teaching language because they find it redundant. Furthermore, the future teachers in this study said that they felt unprepared to use phonetics in the classroom.