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This inquiry lesson uses a variety of practical situations to help students construct their knowledge of combustion, including a fire accident and a candle burning in a sealed jar experiment.

This study used a cross-age design to investigate Taiwanese students' understanding of combustion and how they apply their knowledge in a variety of practical situations. The study used nine content and six application questions to investigate 631 students' understanding of combustion ranging from 6th grade to university students. For example, three application questions were used to investigate the students' knowledge application in closed systems, including how/why should people act when a fire accident occurs in a room (Q13), why does a lighted candle extinguish in a bottle (Q14), and how/why do two lighted candles of different lengths burn in a bottle (Q15)? Students' conceptions about how combustion occurs in semi-closed and closed systems, which have very important real world consequences have not been studied in detail and science instruction rarely mentions the situation. There are two main findings. First, the older students, in general, had better understanding of content knowledge than the younger students. For example, the younger students could not recognize water as one of the products in a combustion reaction (19% vs. 91% in the older students). Second, the students' performance on the application questions, though requiring similar knowledge to solve, varied considerably. For example, most of the answers about the fire accident (Q 13) were correct regardless of their ages. On the question about a single candle experiment (Q 14), the students' performances were uniformly low regardless of age. As students had problems with the conceptions of combustion, the study has implications for science teachers and science teacher educators. Specifically, teachers can utilize the findings to develop different instructional strategies to overcome the alternative conceptions. The findings can benefit teachers giving similar instruction to students and curriculum developers modifying current curriculum materials.

Combustion is an everyday phenomenon familiar to people in all walks of life. The science is complex enough to be interesting, while still being understandable by young learners. There are, however, some alternative conceptions that emerge when people are asked to explain combustion in a closed system. This inquiry activity, developed as part of an inquiry program for 8th grade students in Taiwan, uses a variety of practical situations to help students improve their understanding of combustion. For example, Question 1 (Figure 1) uses a fire accident, question 2 uses the candle burning in a sealed jar experiment, and question 3 involves a scenario with two lighted candles of different lengths and asks students to predict and explain which candle would go out first. This presentation will discuss the development, implementation, and evaluation of the inquiry materials.

The applications of robotics are changing. Just as computers evolved from the realm of research and extreme novelty tools to now becoming essential components of modern life, robotics is also making a similar transition. With the changes in applications come changes in the user base of robotics. These users will span a broad range of society, but there are some key properties that can be used to characterize them. First they, more often than not, will not be the designers of the robots. Second, they will not have robot control as their primary task while operating the robot. Third, they will not have the resources or the desire to provide all the training that the robot will require, yet they will have the need to fine tune robot performance to their specific needs. Fourth, they will want to use multiple modes of interaction to make the robot accomplish the primary task. Fifth, they will expect and demand that the robot remain safe at all times (safe to humans, pets, or personal property) and expect the robot to be a readily replaceable appliance (cheap). Sixth, they will expect that the robot will be intelligent, at least in the confines of the task at hand. These are some of the key properties that will exist for the new user base. To address some of the needs that will arise because of these properties, we propose work that enables behavior transfer from teacher to robotic student that is facilitated through observation and interaction. Many users in the projected user base will not have exposure to the technologies that enable robotic operation. These users will however have some degree of understanding of how they would like the robot to provide assistance in accomplishing the task. The goal of this work is specifically to enable the user to transfer this understanding to the robot, and have the robot acquire this understanding via interactive learning. To make interactive learning possible via interaction we believe that the robot will have to be able to perform some degree of self regulation. Further, since it is assumed that the user will not have access to the robot's internal machinations, the robot will also have to be able to properly manage the knowledge it acquires over time and to verify and validate its understanding periodically. Scaffolding, a method in which teachers provide support while the student learns to master portions of a task, is likely to be the primary method to facilitate this process. This research will undertake study of coherence and its relevance to learning by observation. It will also implement the components that would enable a robot to learn to perform a small set of tasks and demonstrate them in various settings. For this work a robot will be defined as a hardware platform upon which a software agent operates. It is our desire that this software agent will be equipped to operate on any platform and learn any task that a human could perform with the same resources.

A construção de material didático é bastante difícil, mas avaliá-lo é ainda mais complexo. Saber como o aluno absorveu o conteúdo, como reagiu a ele e quanto tempo foi gasto durante o uso de cada objeto de aprendizagem pode ajudar a refletir se o conteúdo está adequado às necessidades deste aluno. Além disso, considerar as diferentes características cognitivas de aprendizado e, conseqüentemente, possibilitar adaptações através de ajustes no conteúdo didático digital auxiliaria a avaliação do professor em um curso disponível através da web. Este trabalho propõe um sistema de acompanhamento (MSys) que, através do monitoramento do nível de utilização das atividades desenvolvidas pelos alunos, deverá apresentar para o professor, assim como para o próprio aluno, resultados resumidos e comparativos do acompanhamento. Apesar de diversos ambientes do tipo LMS (Learning Management System) em uso atualmente estarem bastante difundidos, não tem sido dado a importância devida para este tipo de ferramenta capaz de oferecer um acompanhamento detalhado de atividades dos alunos. Este trabalho discute como a ferramenta aqui proposta foi concebida, desde sua arquitetura, que utiliza padrões atuais de construção de conteúdo digital, definindo requisitos funcionais para o seu desenvolvimento e exibindo resultados de uma simulação que comprova esta concepção. Além disso, é apresentado um protótipo da ferramenta, validando as interfaces de captura e exibição dos resultados e mostrando que é possível integrá-la a sistemas de aprendizado eletrônico, trazendo benefícios à avaliação do professor. / E-learning content creation is not an easy task, but its evaluation is even more complex. In order to evaluate if the content is adequate to the students needs, it would be helpful to know how the student assimilated the learning content, how he reacted to it and the period of time spent on the learning object. Besides, considering the different cognitive features of learning and the possibility of adjustment of the didactic content, it could help teacher\'s evaluation in an available online course. This work describes a monitoring system (Msys) that tracks the level of utilization of student\'s activities, and presents summarized and comparative results to the teacher and the student. Even though the widespread use of several LMS (Learning Management System) environments today, the importance of tools capable of offering a detailed monitoring of student\'s activities has not been recognized. This work focus on how the tool was created using current standards on digital content construction, defining functional requirements to its development and presenting simulation results that is a proof-ofconcept. Also, it is presented a prototype of the tool, validating the interfaces of capture and results presentation, showing that is possible to integrate it to online learning systems, bringing benefits to the teacher evaluation.

A construção de material didático é bastante difícil, mas avaliá-lo é ainda mais complexo. Saber como o aluno absorveu o conteúdo, como reagiu a ele e quanto tempo foi gasto durante o uso de cada objeto de aprendizagem pode ajudar a refletir se o conteúdo está adequado às necessidades deste aluno. Além disso, considerar as diferentes características cognitivas de aprendizado e, conseqüentemente, possibilitar adaptações através de ajustes no conteúdo didático digital auxiliaria a avaliação do professor em um curso disponível através da web. Este trabalho propõe um sistema de acompanhamento (MSys) que, através do monitoramento do nível de utilização das atividades desenvolvidas pelos alunos, deverá apresentar para o professor, assim como para o próprio aluno, resultados resumidos e comparativos do acompanhamento. Apesar de diversos ambientes do tipo LMS (Learning Management System) em uso atualmente estarem bastante difundidos, não tem sido dado a importância devida para este tipo de ferramenta capaz de oferecer um acompanhamento detalhado de atividades dos alunos. Este trabalho discute como a ferramenta aqui proposta foi concebida, desde sua arquitetura, que utiliza padrões atuais de construção de conteúdo digital, definindo requisitos funcionais para o seu desenvolvimento e exibindo resultados de uma simulação que comprova esta concepção. Além disso, é apresentado um protótipo da ferramenta, validando as interfaces de captura e exibição dos resultados e mostrando que é possível integrá-la a sistemas de aprendizado eletrônico, trazendo benefícios à avaliação do professor. / E-learning content creation is not an easy task, but its evaluation is even more complex. In order to evaluate if the content is adequate to the students needs, it would be helpful to know how the student assimilated the learning content, how he reacted to it and the period of time spent on the learning object. Besides, considering the different cognitive features of learning and the possibility of adjustment of the didactic content, it could help teacher\'s evaluation in an available online course. This work describes a monitoring system (Msys) that tracks the level of utilization of student\'s activities, and presents summarized and comparative results to the teacher and the student. Even though the widespread use of several LMS (Learning Management System) environments today, the importance of tools capable of offering a detailed monitoring of student\'s activities has not been recognized. This work focus on how the tool was created using current standards on digital content construction, defining functional requirements to its development and presenting simulation results that is a proof-ofconcept. Also, it is presented a prototype of the tool, validating the interfaces of capture and results presentation, showing that is possible to integrate it to online learning systems, bringing benefits to the teacher evaluation.

Die Evaluation von Lernmanagementsystem (LMS) unter didaktischen Gesichtspunkten hat ergeben, dass es den meisten gängigen LMS an einer brauchbaren Lernfortschrittsanzeige mangelt. Dies ist, wie auch Nutzerbefragungen zeigen, insbesondere in Individuallernszenarien ein gravierendes Problem mit starken Auswirkungen auf die Motivation der Lernenden. Ausgehend von dieser Situation wurde in der Arbeit eine didaktisch begründete Lernfortschrittsanzeige entworfen, implementiert und getestet. Im ersten Teil der Arbeit ist die Bedeutung der Lernfortschrittsanzeige in eLearning-Szenarien unter psychologischen und didaktischen Gesichtspunkten untersucht worden. Dabei wurde zum einen begründet, warum das Fehlen einer solchen Anzeige zu Problemen führt, zum anderen sind aus diesen Untersuchungen heraus Anforderungen an eine sinnvolle Gestaltung einer solchen Anzeige abgeleitet worden. Im zweiten Teil der Arbeit ist den ermittelten Anforderungen der IST-Zustand dieses Features in gängigen LMS gegenüber gestellt worden. Dafür wurden acht LMS ausgewählt, die in dieser Hinsicht unterschiedliche Ansätze verfolgen. Anschließend wurde unter Berücksichtigung der vorhergehenden Analysen ein eigener Ansatz entwickelt, prototypisch implementiert und evaluiert.

Die Evaluation von Lernmanagementsystem (LMS) unter didaktischen Gesichtspunkten hat ergeben, dass es den meisten gängigen LMS an einer brauchbaren Lernfortschrittsanzeige mangelt. Dies ist, wie auch Nutzerbefragungen zeigen, insbesondere in Individuallernszenarien ein gravierendes Problem mit starken Auswirkungen auf die Motivation der Lernenden. Ausgehend von dieser Situation wurde in der Arbeit eine didaktisch begründete Lernfortschrittsanzeige entworfen, implementiert und getestet. Im ersten Teil der Arbeit ist die Bedeutung der Lernfortschrittsanzeige in eLearning-Szenarien unter psychologischen und didaktischen Gesichtspunkten untersucht worden. Dabei wurde zum einen begründet, warum das Fehlen einer solchen Anzeige zu Problemen führt, zum anderen sind aus diesen Untersuchungen heraus Anforderungen an eine sinnvolle Gestaltung einer solchen Anzeige abgeleitet worden. Im zweiten Teil der Arbeit ist den ermittelten Anforderungen der IST-Zustand dieses Features in gängigen LMS gegenüber gestellt worden. Dafür wurden acht LMS ausgewählt, die in dieser Hinsicht unterschiedliche Ansätze verfolgen. Anschließend wurde unter Berücksichtigung der vorhergehenden Analysen ein eigener Ansatz entwickelt, prototypisch implementiert und evaluiert.

L’éducation a connu des progrès remarquables au Vietnam au cours des deux dernières décennies. Cependant, l'inégalité des chances en matière d'éducation aggrave les disparités chez les enfants et menace les progrès en termes de productivité du travail. Pourtant, les mécanismes de transmission des inégalités et le rôle des compétences dans ce processus restent encore largement méconnus. L’objectif de cette thèse est d’apporter un nouvel éclairage sur ces questions. Plus précisément, elle vise à étudier comment les compétences interagissent avec les facteurs environnementaux dans l’atteinte des résultats scolaires et l’insertion sur le marché du travail au Vietnam. Le premier chapitre de cette thèse examine dans quelle mesure les compétences prédisent l'abandon scolaire. Le chapitre 2 analyse l’effet du passage au temps complet d’enseignement au primaire sur les inégalités scolaires. Enfin, le chapitre 3 étudie l'importance relative des compétences dans l’insertion des jeunes sur le marché du travail. À cette fin, diverses approches quantitatives sont menées à partir des données de Young Lives. Les contributions de la thèse à la littérature existante sont de prendre en compte les compétences non cognitives dans l’analyse, de considérer l'interaction entre le milieu social et l'environnement scolaire et enfin de traiter les erreurs de mesures des compétences au Vietnam. La thèse montre que les efforts en vue de plus d’égalité d’opportunités scolaires doivent être poursuivis. Elle montre également l’importance d'améliorer les compétences non cognitives pour améliorer le bien-être individuel et la croissance économique. / Vietnam has attained outstanding performance in education during the past two decades. However, inequality in educational opportunities aggravates disparities among children and threaten the improvement of labour productivity. The underlying mechanism for transmitting inequality and role of skills in the process remaining unclear motivates this thesis. It aims to study how skills interact with environmental factors to determine outcomes on education and livelihoods in Vietnam. Firstly, Chapter 1 examines how skills predict dropping out Then Chapter 2 inspects whether full-day schooling reduces educational inequality. Finally, Chapter 3 investigates the relative importance of skills in determining labour market outcomes. To this end, the research applies diversified quantitative approaches using data from the Young Lives in Vietnam. The contributions of the thesis are threefold, namely taking into consideration the non-cognitive skill in the analysis, addressing the interaction between social background and school environment, and the measurement errors accompanied poor proxies for skills in Vietnam. The thesis hints at further levelling educational opportunities of children and enhancement of non-cognitive skills for greater outcomes in life and economic growth