Submitted in partial compliance with the requirements for the Master’s Degree in Technology: Chiropractic, Department of Chiropractic, Durban University of Technology, Durban, South Africa, 2015. / Background: Spinal manipulative therapy (SMT) is a commonly used treatment for many musculoskeletal conditions although the exact mechanism explaining its effectiveness is not well understood. Several studies have investigated the effect of SMT on the paraspinal muscles where neuromuscular effects have been observed, however few studies have assessed whether these changes result in a change in the functioning of the paraspinal muscles. This study aimed to determine the effect of lower thoracic spinal manipulation compared to a placebo intervention on lumbar extensor muscle endurance in asymptomatic participants. Methodology: This was a quantitative, pre-test post-test, placebo controlled trial involving 40 male participants between the ages of 20 and 40 years. The participants were randomly allocated to either the lower thoracic spinal manipulation group or a placebo group. Manipulation was delivered using the Impulse Adjusting Instrument®. Objective measures included lumbar spinal range of motion, a paraspinal muscle endurance test, and surface electromyography readings. Subjective measures were the verbalisation of pain and/or discomfort during the paraspinal muscle endurance test. IBM® SPSS® statistics version 21 and STATA 11 were used to analyse the data. A p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: There were no statistically significant differences between the groups in terms of subjective and objective measurements. A trend of treatment effect was observed for paraspinal muscle endurance where the intervention group showed noticeable improvements in endurance scores. Conclusion: Further studies need to be conducted to determine if the trends observed would occur in a larger study population.

O objetivo deste trabalho foi identificar e analisar como os estudantes compreendem os conceitos de área e perímetro. A escolha do tema se deu durante nossa experiência docente ao observarmos a dificuldade de estudantes ao resolverem problemas em geometria. Para atingir tal objetivo trabalhou-se com uma turma do nono ano do ensino fundamental, durante nove horas-aula, uma sequência de atividades. Estes alunos participantes da pesquisa pertencem a uma escola pública da rede estadual, situada próximo ao centro de Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul. Nossa principal base teórica foi a Teoria dos Campos Conceituais de Gérard Vergnaud e os estágios da aprendizagem de grandezas propostos por Plaza e Gómez. Com o auxílio desta teoria elaboramos as atividades, e procuramos entender como os estudantes compreendem as ideias de área e perímetro. Nestas atividades foram propostos problemas que discutiam o tema, os estudantes eram convidados a medir, visualizar construções geométricas, aplicar os conceitos e executarem cálculos. A partir destes dados foram feitas discussões sobre o porquê dos alunos apresentarem dificuldades e/ou êxitos nos problemas. Por analisarmos as resoluções de cada aluno, podemos afirmar que nossa metodologia foi qualitativa voltada a um estudo de caso. A partir das análises destas resoluções, embasado em Plaza e Gómez, Vergnaud e em outros autores que discutiram o tema, elaboramos uma sequência didática como uma proposta que auxilie os estudantes a compreenderem área e perímetro. Verificamos que muitos dos erros cometidos pelos estudantes estavam ligados a um mau entendimento dos conceitos envolvidos nos problemas, e que a maioria, durante a resolução das atividades, tentava aplicar as definições e fórmulas mesmo em situações que não fazia sentido aplicá-las. Verificamos, também, algumas indicações de que uma reconstrução destes conceitos, através da sequência proposta, é possível. / The aim of this paper has been to identify and analyse how the students understand the concepts of area and perimeter. The choice of this topic happened during our teaching experience while observing the difficulty of the students in solving geometry problems. To reach this aim, we have worked with a ninth year of primary school class, during nine classes, using a sequence of activities. These students, who participated in the study, belong to a state school, located near Porto Alegre downtown, Rio Grande do Sul. Our main theoretical framework was Gérard Vergnaud’s Theory of Conceptual Fields and the stages of quantities of learning proposed by plaza and Gómez. With the help of this theory, we elaborated the activities and tried to comprehend how the students understand the ideas of area and perimeter. In these activities, problems that discussed the topic were proposed, in which the students were invited to measure, visualise geometric constructions, apply the concepts and execute the calculations. From this data, discussions on the reason the students have difficulties and/or success with the problems happened. As we analysed the answers of each student, we can affirm that our methodology was a qualitative study with case study approach. From the analyses of these answers, based on Vergnaud, Plaza e Gómez and other authors who have discussed the topic, we elaborated a didactic sequence with a proposal that helps the students to understand area and perimeter. It was verified that many of the mistakes made by the students were connected to a poor understanding of the concepts involved in the problems, and, most of them, during the solution of the problems, tried to apply the definitions and formulas even when it didn’t make any sense. It was also verified that some indicatives of a reconstruction of these concepts, through the proposed sequence, is possible.

The aim of this essay is to investigate if there exists any relation between what is generally considered Britain’s foremost elite military unit, HM Royal Marines and a manipulative religious sect. With theoretical data defining a manipulative religious sect, and empirical data gathered from interviews with a number of former royal marines, this essay looks at the attributes common to these two very different organisations. Interestingly, even though the experiences of members of such organisations seemed to bare some resemblance; the motivation for any comparability was quite different. This phenomenon seemed to affect the whole study, and the findings did not confirm any substantial relation between the two organisations in accordance with the strict definitions applicable to a manipulative religious sect.

This study compared the effect of the use of physical manipulative with self-metacognitive questioning versus manipulative without self-metacognitive questioning on the knowledge acquisition in polygons. Participants were 220 sixth grade students. A pretest, treatment and posttest two-group design was used. There were two treatment groups: manipulative with self-metacognitive questioning (MAN+META) and manipulative without self-metacognitive questioning (MAN) Three distinct knowledge tests were designed by the researcher: Declarative, conditional and procedural. Declarative knowledge test consisted of 18 multiple-choice questions. The conditional and procedural knowledge tests consisted of six and ten open-ended questions respectively. Mixed design analysis of variance results revealed that there is a significant effect for time but no group-by-time interaction effect suggesting that both groups responded equally well to treatment in the amount of change in their scores on the two outcome measures: pretests and posttests. A follow up analysis (paired t-test) was conducted to evaluate the impact of time on students&rsquo / pretest and posttest scores. The large effect size indicated that there was a statistically significant increase in scores of all three tests.

In recent years, the Internet has increasingly been used to provide significant resources for student to learn mathematics and to learn about mathematics, as well as significant resources for teachers to support these. Effective access to and use of these has been hampered in practice by limited facilities in schools and the limited experience of many mathematics teachers with the Internet for mathematical purposes. This paper offers models for understanding the effective use of Internet resources, based on typologies of resources for learning and teaching mathematics. Six categories of Internet resources for mathematics student use are identified: (i) Interactive resources; (ii) Reading interesting materials; (iii) Reference information; (iv) Communication; (v) Problem solving; and (vi) Webquests. Similarly, five categories of Internet resources for mathematics teacher use are identified: (i) Lesson preparation; (ii) Official advice and support; (iii) Professional engagement; (iv) Commercial activity and support; and (v) Local school web sites. The paper recognises that web resources can be used in a range of ways, including supporting both teaching and learning. The prospects for sound use of the Internet are briefly described in terms of these models of use.

Många elever upplever matematik som ett svårt ämne, detta har fått som följd att elever känner en bristande motivation för matematik. Elevers bristande motivation för ämnet har resulterat i låga resultat. Denna systematiska litteraturstudie vill berika bilden av hur arbetet med laborativt material kan öka motivationen för elever i matematikundervisningen, samt hur lärarens förmåga till arbetssättet påverkar elevers motivation. Litteraturstudien har en kvalitativ forskningsansats och innefattar 19 artiklar. De två huvudteman i denna studie baseras på studiens frågeställningar. Det första huvudtemat, huvudtema 1 är “Undervisning med laborativt material” och det andra huvudtemat, huvudtema 2 “Lärarens förmåga till ett laborativt arbetssätt”. Artiklarna har efter läsning kategoriserats in i fem underkategorier. Resultatet av den här studien har visat att ett laborativt material i matematikundervisningen kan vara motivationshöjande, om det laborativa arbetssättet är väl genomtänkt, används i rätt syfte och uppfyller vissa kriterier. Dessa kriterier representeras i denna studie av underkategorier. Resultatet visar även att lärarens attityd och kunskap till ett laborativt arbetssätt är av stor vikt för om elever kommer bli motiverade eller ej. Lärarens kunskap och attityd är förmågor som har framkommit i denna litteraturstudie och som kan påverka elevers motivation. Avslutningsvis diskuteras konsekvenser för undervisning och framtida forskning. / Many students think of mathematics as a difficult subject, therefor students have a lack of motivation for the subject. The lack of motivation for mathematics has resulted in low results. The purpose of this literature review is to advances understanding of how the use of manipulatives can increase motivation for students in mathematics education, and how teachers´ attitude towards using manipulatives can influence students’ motivation. The literature review examine 19 articles using qualitative research approach. The main themes in this study are based on the questions in the study. The two main themes are “Teaching with manipulatives” theme 1 and “Teachers´ ability towards a manipulative approach” theme 2. After reading all articles, they have been categorized into five subcategories. The results show that the use of manipulatives in mathematics education has the potential to increase motivation, as long as manipulatives are used in a thoughtful way, for the right purpose and fulfills certain criteria. These criteria are in this study represented by subcategories. The result also show that teachers attitude and knowledge towards using manipulatives are of great importance whether students will get motivated or not. The teachers attitude and knowledge are abilities that has been revealed in this study that can influence students motivation. At last implications for teaching and future research are discussed.

O objetivo deste trabalho foi identificar e analisar como os estudantes compreendem os conceitos de área e perímetro. A escolha do tema se deu durante nossa experiência docente ao observarmos a dificuldade de estudantes ao resolverem problemas em geometria. Para atingir tal objetivo trabalhou-se com uma turma do nono ano do ensino fundamental, durante nove horas-aula, uma sequência de atividades. Estes alunos participantes da pesquisa pertencem a uma escola pública da rede estadual, situada próximo ao centro de Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul. Nossa principal base teórica foi a Teoria dos Campos Conceituais de Gérard Vergnaud e os estágios da aprendizagem de grandezas propostos por Plaza e Gómez. Com o auxílio desta teoria elaboramos as atividades, e procuramos entender como os estudantes compreendem as ideias de área e perímetro. Nestas atividades foram propostos problemas que discutiam o tema, os estudantes eram convidados a medir, visualizar construções geométricas, aplicar os conceitos e executarem cálculos. A partir destes dados foram feitas discussões sobre o porquê dos alunos apresentarem dificuldades e/ou êxitos nos problemas. Por analisarmos as resoluções de cada aluno, podemos afirmar que nossa metodologia foi qualitativa voltada a um estudo de caso. A partir das análises destas resoluções, embasado em Plaza e Gómez, Vergnaud e em outros autores que discutiram o tema, elaboramos uma sequência didática como uma proposta que auxilie os estudantes a compreenderem área e perímetro. Verificamos que muitos dos erros cometidos pelos estudantes estavam ligados a um mau entendimento dos conceitos envolvidos nos problemas, e que a maioria, durante a resolução das atividades, tentava aplicar as definições e fórmulas mesmo em situações que não fazia sentido aplicá-las. Verificamos, também, algumas indicações de que uma reconstrução destes conceitos, através da sequência proposta, é possível. / The aim of this paper has been to identify and analyse how the students understand the concepts of area and perimeter. The choice of this topic happened during our teaching experience while observing the difficulty of the students in solving geometry problems. To reach this aim, we have worked with a ninth year of primary school class, during nine classes, using a sequence of activities. These students, who participated in the study, belong to a state school, located near Porto Alegre downtown, Rio Grande do Sul. Our main theoretical framework was Gérard Vergnaud’s Theory of Conceptual Fields and the stages of quantities of learning proposed by plaza and Gómez. With the help of this theory, we elaborated the activities and tried to comprehend how the students understand the ideas of area and perimeter. In these activities, problems that discussed the topic were proposed, in which the students were invited to measure, visualise geometric constructions, apply the concepts and execute the calculations. From this data, discussions on the reason the students have difficulties and/or success with the problems happened. As we analysed the answers of each student, we can affirm that our methodology was a qualitative study with case study approach. From the analyses of these answers, based on Vergnaud, Plaza e Gómez and other authors who have discussed the topic, we elaborated a didactic sequence with a proposal that helps the students to understand area and perimeter. It was verified that many of the mistakes made by the students were connected to a poor understanding of the concepts involved in the problems, and, most of them, during the solution of the problems, tried to apply the definitions and formulas even when it didn’t make any sense. It was also verified that some indicatives of a reconstruction of these concepts, through the proposed sequence, is possible.

O objetivo deste trabalho foi identificar e analisar como os estudantes compreendem os conceitos de área e perímetro. A escolha do tema se deu durante nossa experiência docente ao observarmos a dificuldade de estudantes ao resolverem problemas em geometria. Para atingir tal objetivo trabalhou-se com uma turma do nono ano do ensino fundamental, durante nove horas-aula, uma sequência de atividades. Estes alunos participantes da pesquisa pertencem a uma escola pública da rede estadual, situada próximo ao centro de Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul. Nossa principal base teórica foi a Teoria dos Campos Conceituais de Gérard Vergnaud e os estágios da aprendizagem de grandezas propostos por Plaza e Gómez. Com o auxílio desta teoria elaboramos as atividades, e procuramos entender como os estudantes compreendem as ideias de área e perímetro. Nestas atividades foram propostos problemas que discutiam o tema, os estudantes eram convidados a medir, visualizar construções geométricas, aplicar os conceitos e executarem cálculos. A partir destes dados foram feitas discussões sobre o porquê dos alunos apresentarem dificuldades e/ou êxitos nos problemas. Por analisarmos as resoluções de cada aluno, podemos afirmar que nossa metodologia foi qualitativa voltada a um estudo de caso. A partir das análises destas resoluções, embasado em Plaza e Gómez, Vergnaud e em outros autores que discutiram o tema, elaboramos uma sequência didática como uma proposta que auxilie os estudantes a compreenderem área e perímetro. Verificamos que muitos dos erros cometidos pelos estudantes estavam ligados a um mau entendimento dos conceitos envolvidos nos problemas, e que a maioria, durante a resolução das atividades, tentava aplicar as definições e fórmulas mesmo em situações que não fazia sentido aplicá-las. Verificamos, também, algumas indicações de que uma reconstrução destes conceitos, através da sequência proposta, é possível. / The aim of this paper has been to identify and analyse how the students understand the concepts of area and perimeter. The choice of this topic happened during our teaching experience while observing the difficulty of the students in solving geometry problems. To reach this aim, we have worked with a ninth year of primary school class, during nine classes, using a sequence of activities. These students, who participated in the study, belong to a state school, located near Porto Alegre downtown, Rio Grande do Sul. Our main theoretical framework was Gérard Vergnaud’s Theory of Conceptual Fields and the stages of quantities of learning proposed by plaza and Gómez. With the help of this theory, we elaborated the activities and tried to comprehend how the students understand the ideas of area and perimeter. In these activities, problems that discussed the topic were proposed, in which the students were invited to measure, visualise geometric constructions, apply the concepts and execute the calculations. From this data, discussions on the reason the students have difficulties and/or success with the problems happened. As we analysed the answers of each student, we can affirm that our methodology was a qualitative study with case study approach. From the analyses of these answers, based on Vergnaud, Plaza e Gómez and other authors who have discussed the topic, we elaborated a didactic sequence with a proposal that helps the students to understand area and perimeter. It was verified that many of the mistakes made by the students were connected to a poor understanding of the concepts involved in the problems, and, most of them, during the solution of the problems, tried to apply the definitions and formulas even when it didn’t make any sense. It was also verified that some indicatives of a reconstruction of these concepts, through the proposed sequence, is possible.

Made available in DSpace on 2018-06-27T19:13:05Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 Laura Moreira Bordin.pdf: 2775738 bytes, checksum: 12891239889c50b7d801757bc8d26043 (MD5) Laura Moreira Bordin.pdf.jpg: 3569 bytes, checksum: b503812f643369cda67fcc097918310b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-08-29 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This paper aims at analysing how educational games and manipulative materials contribute to the comprehension of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division operations as well as to the exponentiation of intager numbers. 57 seventh-grade students from a public elementary school of Santa Maria, RS participated in this research. The research followed a qualitative approach, in which the teacher acted as the researcher; thus, experiencing the relations between the students themselves and between the students and the research tools. Data analysis took into consideration the field journal of the teacher and the reports of the 28 students who constitute one of the groups investigated. The introduction to the operations has happened by means of manipulative materials, composed by green small squares, which represent the positive numbers, and orange small squares, which represent the negative numbers. In order to systematize and evaluate the learning process, one has taken into consideration educational games, which were created on the basis of pre-existing games. The results show that the main objective of this research has been achieved, since the participants demonstrated effort and commitment into games. Besides, the evaluation tests revealed that learning has really improved. The students who participated in this research understood all the Math operations without having to memorize rules; rather, they were able to understand them by means of interaction and manipulation of tools that helped them in the conceptualization of such a content, which has been considered one of the most complex by seventh-grade students in the study of Math at Elementary School. / Este trabalho tem como objetivo analisar como o uso de jogos pedagógicos e materiais manipuláveis contribuem para a compreensão das operações de adição, subtração, multiplicação, divisão e potenciação de números inteiros. Os participantes da pesquisa foram os 57 alunos das turmas de sétimo ano do Ensino Fundamental de uma escola da rede pública municipal da cidade de Santa Maria RS. Desenvolveu-se por meio de uma abordagem qualitativa, na qual a professora foi a pesquisadora e, portanto, vivenciou diretamente as relações dos alunos com seus pares e com os instrumentos da pesquisa. A análise dos resultados foi feita a partir do diário de campo da professora e dos relatórios de 28 alunos que compõem uma das turmas pesquisadas. A introdução das operações ocorreu por meio de materiais manipuláveis, compostos por quadradinhos verdes, representando os números positivos e quadradinhos laranjas representando os números negativos. Para a sistematização e avaliação da aprendizagem utilizaram-se jogos pedagógicos, os quais foram criados pela professora a partir de jogos já existentes. Dos resultados obtidos, pode-se inferir que o objetivo foi alcançado, pois os participantes demonstraram empenho e dedicação frente aos jogos e demonstraram, nos testes avaliativos, que houve de fato uma melhoria na aprendizagem. Os alunos, compreenderam as operações sem a necessidade de decorar regras, mas sim, por meio da interação e manipulação de objetos que os auxiliaram na abstração deste conteúdo que é visto como um dos mais complexos na disciplina de Matemática do sétimo ano do Ensino Fundamental

M.Tech. (Chiropractic) / Purpose: The aim of this study was to look at the effectiveness of massage with MYO₂ gel in conjunction with Spinal Manipulative Therapy (SMT) for the treatment of patients with posterior mechanical neck pain, with regards to pain, disability and cervical spine range of motion. The effect of these treatments was evaluated using a questionnaire consisting of Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and a Vernon-Mior Neck Pain and Disability Index Questionnaire, and by measuring cervical spine range of motion using a cervical range of motion (CROM) measuring device. Method: 30 participants with posterior mechanical neck pain were randomly divided into two groups based on the order they start the study in. Group A – control group, received SMT to the cervical spine, followed by massage with ultrasound gel over the upper trapezius muscle and the area of the posterior neck musculature. Group B – experimental group, received SMT of the cervical spine, followed by massage with MYO₂ gel over the upper trapezius muscle and the area of the posterior neck musculature. Participants were treated six times out of a total of seven sessions, over a maximum three week period. Procedure: Subjective data was collected at the beginning of the first and fourth and seventh consultations. This was done by means of a Visual Analogue Scale (VAS) and a Vernon- Mior Neck Pain and Disability Index Questionnaire in order to assess pain and disability levels. Objective data was collected at the beginning of the first, fourth session, and seventh consultation by means of measuring cervical spine range of motion using a cervical range of motion (CROM) measuring device. Analysis of collected data was performed by a statistician from STATKON; a department of the University of Johannesburg. Results: When comparing the VAS of the initial with the final consultation it showed a statistically significant difference in both groups. This indicated that both interventions were effective in decreasing the perceived level of neck pain (VAS score). When comparing the Neck Pain and Disability Index of the initial with the final consultation it showed a statistically significant difference in both groups. This indicated that both interventions were effective in decreasing neck pain and disability of the cervical spine. When comparing the Cervical Range of Motion (CROM) of the initial consultation with the final consultation it showed a statistically significant improvement in both groups in all directions of motion. Both groups resulted in an increase in range of motion over time. Group B had a greater average CROM percentage increase of 28.60% average compared to Group A which had an average percentage increase of 22.25%.