Masters of Art / A child friendly city (CFC) is the embodiment of the rights of the child manifested in the policies, programs, and laws of a city. A critical aspect in the creation of a CFC is the consideration of the natural environment (NE). Premised upon a child participatory perspective, this study explored the manner in which adolescents perceive and attach meaning to the NE, as there is limited research concerning this. The primary aim of the study was to investigate children’s perceptions of the NE, and within this process to elucidate the meanings that children attach to environmental issues, and how these meanings contribute toward the creation of CFC’s. This study employed the broad epistemological position of social constructionism, and the theoretical framework of the Person-environment (P-E) fit theory. Methodologically, a qualitative research design was adopted, employing focus group interviews as the method of data collection. The study was conducted in an impoverished community on the Cape Flats in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. Four focus group interviews were conducted with two groups of 8 children between the ages of 13 and 14 in grade 9. Thematic Analysis was utilised to analyse and interpret the findings. The findings indicate that the participants perceive the NE through the lens of safety as natural areas in the community are characterised by crime, violence, pollution, and a haven for gangsters. The participants’ worldviews appear to be permeated with this milieu of danger which is pervasive in their community. Although the participants express the need to engage in the NE, their mobility is greatly restricted due to their own, parental, or guardians fears of threat. There is evidently incongruence between the participants’ expectations for the NE, and the reality of the unsafe nature of the NE. The participants thus fall outside the prevailing categories of the social and cultural construction of childhood, as they undergo an immense burden of adversity and suffering which breaches what childhood is supposed to signify.Along with many children in South Africa, the participants are exposed to an escalating level of crime and community violence which has a negative impact upon their sense of wellbeing,their ability to negotiate their mobility and to freely explore NE’s, and engage in childled initiatives to counteract impending safety and security concerns within their communities.It was also found that the participants consider the natural world as crucial in the creation of a CFC. Ultimately, the participants revealed that their community is not child friendly, and thereby suggest the requirement for a child and environmentally friendly city. The participants therefore proposed that environmental education (EE) be incorporated into the school curriculum to instil a greater awareness of environmental issues among their peers.

Syfte Syftet med studien är att undersöka och analysera rektorers syn på gymnasieelevers möjlighet till att vistas i natur- och utemiljöer. Samt att använda naturen som en källa till välbefinnande under tiden i gymnasieskolan. Frågeställningar Vad anser rektorer om att gymnasieskolan ska erbjuda utemiljöer till elever under skoldagen? Vilka utemiljöer erbjuder skolan till sina gymnasieelever under deras tid där? Hur uttalar sig rektorer om utemiljöers och naturens effekter på gymnasieelevers välbefinnande? Metod Den kvalitativa ansatsen som faller in under “ett hermeneutiskt vetenskapsideal” har tillämpats (Hassmén & Hassmén, 2008, s. 104). Kvalitativa intervjuer har använts för att få svar på studiens frågeställningar och de är således studiens datainsamlingsmetod. Detta skedde genom semistrukturerade intervjuer med stöd av en intervjuguide. Urvalet för studien bestod av fyra rektorer från gymnasieskolor i Stockholms storstadsområde. Analys av resultatet har skett med utgångspunkt i ramfaktorteorin. Resultat Rektorerna kan inte uppge en exakt tid på hur mycket en gymnasieelev i en stockholmsskola ges möjlighet att vistas i natur- och utemiljöer. Dock kan slutsatsen dras att elever ges möjligheter mellan 10–75 min per dag. Denna tid är då främst på raster, eller tillfällen för förflyttning mellan lektioner. Årstider och väder har också stor påverkan då våren ses som den stora möjligheten till utevistelse. Möjlighet ges också via schemabrytande aktiviteter som friluftsdagar, temaveckor eller förlängd tid i idrott och hälsa. Ämnet som ger störst möjlighet och mest tid är idrott och hälsa, följt av biologi eller naturkunskap. Platsen som är den viktigaste utemiljön är skolgården. Andra platser som nämns är naturreservat, gräsytor och skogsdungar. Informationsspridningen om utemiljöers och naturens effekter sker via ämnena och kurserna. Slutsats Studiens viktigaste resultat är att ramfaktorn tid påverkar möjligheterna. Tiden som spenderas i uteoch naturmiljöer sker främst via skolgården. / Aim The purpose of the study is to investigate and analyze the principal's views on the possibility of high school students to live in outdoor environments. At the same time, use nature as a source of well-being while in high school Issues What do the principals think about that the school should offer outdoor environments to students during the school day? What outdoor environments does the school offer to its high school students during their time there? What do the principals say about the effects of outdoor environments and nature on the wellbeing of high school students? Method The qualitative approach that falls under “a hermeneutic ideal of science” has been applied (Hassmén & Hassmén, 2008, p. 104). Qualitative interviews have been used to answer the study's questions and are thus the study's data collection method. This was done through semi-structured interviews with the support of an interview guide. The study sample consisted of four principals from upper secondary schools in the Stockholm metropolitan area. Analysis of the results has been based on the framework factor theory and the issues on which the study is based. Results The principals cannot state an exact time on how much a high school student in a Stockholm school is given the opportunity to be in outdoor and natural environments. However, it can be concluded that students are given opportunities between 10–75 minutes per day. This time is then mainly via breaks, or occasions for moving between lessons. The seasons and weather also have a big impact as spring is seen as the great opportunity to be outdoors. Opportunity is then given through schedule-breaking activities such as outdoor days, theme weeks or extended time in sports and health. The subject that provides the greatest opportunity and most time is sports and health, followed by biology or science. The place that is the most important outdoor environment is the school yard. Other places mentioned are nature reserves, grasslands and woodlands. The dissemination of information about the effects of outdoor environments and nature takes place via the subjects and courses. Conclusion The most important result of the study is that the framework factor time affects the possibilities. The time spent outdoor and natural environments mainly takes place in the school yard.

Concept "value-action gap" is most often mentioned in frame of behavioral studies of individial approach to ecological issues. Its meaning lies in description of a gap that opens between values claimed by respondents and their consequent actions (people act in accordance with values which are different than those pro-environmental values that they originally signed up to). There also is a concept of "knowing-doing gap" which stems from a different context and describes different situations. Its authors demonstrate how many corporations/firms/organizations employ disfunctional/ineffective management practices and ways of work organization - and all that in a situation when responsible employees and managers know about better practices. Furthermore, those employees are being continually educated about those more effective practices; corporation/firm also has plans of implementation of those done by hired consultants and all those plans would have had better results, should they be implemented. But despite this knowledge and good experiences of other organizations - managers keep on working using old inefective means. In this text I examined whether it is possible to identify a combination of those two concepts/phenomena in a frame of discourse related to expert knowledge about a state of natural...

The thesis Temelín Nuclear Power Station and Czech-Austrian Relations deals with the Temelín Nuclear Power Station and nuclear industry and its influence to the Czech-Austrian relations. The study aims to analyse the relations between the Czech Republic and Austria in the context of the power station from 1993 to 2013. Initially, the thesis introduces the theory of constructivism in the International Relations. Afterwards, it aims to explain the differences between the relations to the nuclear energy by Czechs and by Austrians on the basis of the theory of constructivism. Moreover, the thesis introduces the historical, legal and technical circumstances of the Czech-Austrian dispute. The main objective of the thesis is to ascertain, what effect on the Czech-Austrian relations have mediums, which publish articles about the Temelín Nuclear Power Station. There are four Czech relevant newspapers (Blesk, MF DNES, Právo and Lidové noviny) and four Austrian relevant newspapers (Kronen Zeitung, Kurier, Der Standard and Die Presse) inquired in the thesis. Particular articles are evaluated by the stances on the issue (pronuclear, antinuclear or impartial). The thesis identifies, which of the mediums have impact on deterioration/improvement of the Czech-Austrian relations. The study also deals with the process of...

The purpose of this study is to better understand how the natural environment influences who we have become as adults. Recognizing the importance of childhood experiences, with and within nature, the intent of this study is to interpret the essential meanings associated with these experiences and how these, in turn, are situated in our beliefs and relationship with nature. The targeted respondents for the study were all K-12 educators teaching in schools in Central California. The driving research question is stated as In what ways do childhood experiences with and within the natural environment impact who we are as adults? Three sub-questions were also explored: What personal meanings are associated with childhood memories and experiences of being with and within the natural environment? In what ways do individuals assimilate childhood experiences of the natural environment into their adult beliefs about their relationship with nature? In what ways does the exploration of early childhood nature experiences affect the decision to become environmental advocates? Moustakas' (1990) six-stage heuristic inquiry process was adhered to. The initial data collection began within myself, the researcher. Aspects of the experience, which became the collected data by means of conversations with co-researchers, journal writing, and other personal documents, were filtered by way of my own self-inquiry, sense of eco-literacy and experience with my childhood experiences with and within the natural environment. From the organization and analysis I have derived the essential elements of the experience. Nature as the common denominator, Nature awakens inner passions, Nature as lived through a relational awareness, Nature experiences support and guide our every day lives, and Nature stimulates a child's potential were the key thematic elements that embraced my own experience and that of my co-researchers.

Titel: Oändliga möjligheter i naturen - En intervjustudie om förskollärares uppfattning om lek och lärandet i naturen Syftet med studien är att bidra med kunskap om förskollärarens syn på utomhuspedagogiken i naturen för att främja barns lek och lärande i förskolan. För att ge svar på syftet intervjuades fyra förskollärare om deras uppfattning av utomhuspedagogiken i naturen.Resultatet visar att utomhuspedagogiken är viktig för barns lek och lärande och att det finns oändligt med möjligheter i naturen och att läroplanens mål går lätt att göra utomhus. Det är bara förskollärarna själva som sätter gränserna. Förskollärarna tycker dock att det är viktigt att planera upp en aktivitet, så att det inte bara blir fri lek. De upplever också att de inte fått mycket undervisning om ämnet, vilket kan göra att de inte vet hur de ska ha utomhuspedagogik med barnen. Leken är grunden i förskolans verksamhet. Alla barn leker och genom leken så lär barnen sig och genom leken får barnen också ett lustfyllt lärande. Barnen lär sig lättare om de har roligt under leken. För att främja barnens lek och lärande utgår förskollärarna ifrån barnens intresse, för att komma åt det lustfyllda lärandet och ett lärande kan bli möjligt. / Title: Endless possibilities in nature - An interview study of preschool teachers' perceptions of play and learning in nature The purpose of the study is to contribute with knowledge about the preschool teacher's view of outdoor pedagogy in nature to promote children's play and learning in preschool. To provide an answer to the purpose, four preschool teachers were interviewed about their perception of outdoor pedagogy in nature. The results show that outdoor pedagogy is important for children's play and learning and that there are endless opportunities in nature and that the curriculum's goals are easy to do outdoors. Only the preschool teachers themselves set the boundaries. However, preschool teachers think that it is important to plan an activity, so that it does not just be free play. They also experience that they have not received much teaching on the subject, which may mean that they do not know how to have outdoor pedagogy with the children. Play is the basis of preschool activities. All children play and through play the children learn and through play the children also get a fun-filled learning. Children learn more easily if they have fun during play. To promote the children's play and learning, the preschool teachers start from the children's interest, to access the fun-filled learning and a learning can be possible.

Arkeologins långtidsperspektiv på relationen mellan människan och naturen har en lovande potential att bidra till kampen mot klimatförändringarna. Flertalet studier har visat på arkeologins spännande potential som ett ämne vilket kan hjälpa till att överbrygga det dualistiska perspektivet mellan natur och kultur. Fram till nyligen har mycket av miljöforskningen i andra ämnen än arkeologi fokuserat på biologiska mångfald. Genom att inkludera kulturell mångfald som en faktor för samhällens motståndskraft kan nya insikter ges. Flertalet författare påpekat att arkeologin inte har haft den genomslagskraft som behövs när det kommer till att omsätta denna kunskap i handling. Därför kommer denna uppsats att analysera arkeologins roll i det svenska miljökvalitetsmålet’’ett rikt odlingslandskap’’. Genom att göra en tematisk innehållsanalys av rapportmaterial och djupintervjuer med aktörer inom målet vill undersökningen spegla det dualistiska förhållningsättet mellan natur och kultur påverkar forskningens möjliga kunskapsspridning, syftar denna studie till att ge arkeologi ett visst erkännande för dess potentiella användning och att peka ut olika perspektiv som kan hjälpa arkeologin att bättre inkluderas i frågor om klimatanpassning. / Archaeology with its long durée perspective on human-nature interrelationships have a promising potential to contribute to the fight against climate change. Many recent studies have shown its intriguing potential as a subject that could help overcome the dualistic perspective of nature vs culture. Until recently a lot of environmental research has focused on biological diversity alone. By including cultural diversity as a factor for societies resilience we can enrich our understanding.  However, as pointed out by many authors, it has not had the recognition needed when it comes to bringing the archaeological knowledge into action. Therefore, this thesis will analyze how archaeology is represented in the Swedish environmental quality goal towards a more rich and diverse agricultural landscape. Through reports and deep interviews this thesis will point out how this dualistic concept of nature vs culture affects the use of archaeological knowledge; this study aims to give archaeology some recognition for its potential use and to point out different perspectives that might help archaeological knowledge be better included in questions regarding climate adaptation.

This thesis deals with the security system care services and other related services, including informal care for seniors in the Czech Republic. The aim of the work is to evaluate, describe and offer a closer understanding of nursing as a basic social care service in connection with the principle of shared care in a natural home environment for seniors as the ideal form of care for the elderly at present and due to the demographic development in the future. The thesis is divided into a theoretical and a practical part. The theoretical part covers three main topics: day care service system in the Czech Republic, seniors as a target group of caring and sharing and municipalities and their role in caring for the elderly. The practical part is devoted to the research, which focuses on the relationship of care services and communities from the perspective of potential service users, ie. the elderly. A combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods is used in the research and interprets the results of the survey conducted among the elderly in three senior clubs in Prague 17. The research complements the findings mentioned in the theoretical part.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T13:17:44Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ana Carolina Ceneviva Macchione.pdf: 574461 bytes, checksum: baab3de17acd1d0c877ec805b1b1e4c3 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2012-05-04 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / The expression correspondence between verbal and nonverbal behavior has been used to refer to the accuracy with which the individual reports what he did. Several studies have been conducted in this area, observing precisely the discriminative stimulus that should control the verbal response to later compare it with the verbal report. The present research aimed to investigate whether the manipulation of contingencies can affect the correspondence between doing and saying in a natural situation involving academic tasks; whether there is a relationship between the correction of the task made by the child and his or her history of success or error; and if the fact that the reporting behavior of the children occurs in a group affects the correspondence. To meet this objective, the children did exercises in the classroom given by the teacher and then, in another room, did the correction with the experimenter, who wrote the correct answers on the board where each child had to correct (mark right or wrong) their own exercise. After this correction, the child reported to the experimenter if he or she made the exercises correctly or not. Depending on the phase of the study, the child received tokens exchangeable for adhesives. In the Individual Baseline and Group Baseline phases, no contingency was planned for the reports; in the Group Reinforcement of the Correspondence and Individual Reinforcement of Correspondence, all correspondent reports were reinforced. Besides those, there was a Non-contingent Reinforcement session, in which the children won all the tokens and exchanged for the stickers before they started the report. During Individual Baseline sessions, it was observed that, in general, the number of correspondent reports was much greater than the non-correspondent reports, despite the significant number of the latter. Comparing this result to the group sessions, it can be observed that the number of error reports diminished substantially, increasing the number of non-correspondent reports of being right. For most participants, it was not possible to reverse the number of non-correspondent reports in the Reinforcement of Correspondence phases. The data from this research indicate that, in general, the different arrangements of reinforcement contingencies presented by the researcher were less effective in controlling the report than the contingencies involved in the groups in which the reports were made. Only a few participants seem to have been less affected by the presence of colleagues and more by the contingencies arranged by the experimenter. Moreover, when the participants were exposed to different experimental conditions, they had not only their report about academic tasks affected but also the corrections made by them / A expressão correspondência entre comportamento verbal e não verbal tem sido utilizada para se referir à acurácia com que o indivíduo relata o que fez. Diversos estudos nessa área têm sido realizados, observando-se precisamente o estímulo discriminativo que deveria controlar a resposta verbal para, posteriormente, compará-lo com o relato verbal. A presente pesquisa teve como objetivo investigar se a manipulação de contingências pode afetar a correspondência fazer-dizer em uma situação natural, envolvendo tarefas acadêmicas; se há relação entre a correção da tarefa, feita pela criança, e seu relato de acerto ou de erro; e se o fato de o comportamento de relatar das crianças ocorrer em grupo afeta a correspondência. Para atender a tal objetivo, as crianças realizavam exercícios em sala de aula, passados pela professora, e, em seguida, numa outra sala, faziam a correção dos mesmos com a experimentadora esta escrevia na lousa as respostas corretas e cada criança corrigia (marcava certo ou errado) seu próprio exercício. Terminada a correção, a criança relatava à experimentadora se havia acertado ou errado cada um dos exercícios. Dependendo da fase do estudo, a criança recebia fichas trocáveis por adesivos, segundo diferentes critérios. Foram realizadas fases de Linha de Base Individual e de Linha de Base em Grupo, em que nenhuma contingência foi planejada para os relatos; fases de Reforçamento da Correspondência em Grupo e de Reforçamento da Correspondência Individual, em que todos os relatos emitidos de forma correspondente foram reforçados; e uma sessão de Reforçamento Não Contingente, na qual as crianças ganharam todas as fichas e as trocaram por adesivos antes de iniciar o relato. Durante as sessões de linha de base individual, foi possível observar que, de maneira geral, o número de relatos correspondentes foi muito maior que o de relatos não correspondentes, apesar do número expressivo destes últimos. Se comparado esse resultado ao das sessões de grupo, observa-se que o número de relatos de erro diminui substancialmente, aumentando o número de relatos de acerto não correspondentes. Para grande parte dos participantes, não foi possível reverter o número de relatos não correspondentes nas fases de Reforçamento da Correspondência. Os dados obtidos neste estudo apontam que, de modo geral, os diferentes arranjos de contingências de reforçamento dispostos pela experimentadora foram menos efetivos no controle do comportamento de relatar das crianças do que as contingências dispostas pelos grupos em que os relatos foram feitos. Apenas alguns poucos participantes parecem ter sido menos afetados pela presença dos colegas e mais pelas contingências programadas pela experimentadora. Além disso, quando os participantes foram expostos a diferentes condições experimentais tiveram não só o seu relato sobre tarefas acadêmicas afetado, como também as correções feitas por eles mesmos

The aim of this thesis is to describe and evaluate the education of an autistic pupil in the mainstream school according to the principles of applied behavioural analysis. The default method is the Pennsylvania Verbal Behavior Project, which was implemented at a Czech primary school. The thesis presents a theoretical description of this educational method and its particular techniques. Their practical application is illustrated by the research case study report of a pupil, who was observed in my research. In this research case analysis, I have analysed the input skills of the observed pupil and his progress in particular areas and evaluated status not only according to the VB-MAPP diagnostic material. Description of the development of verbal behaviour is the core objective systematically developed by this educational method and it is an integral part of the pupil's active participation in joint learning. The thesis comes with a new perspective on the education of pupils with autism in the framework of common education at primary school. Pupils involved in this type of education can enter the school even though they are not yet adequately equipped with verbal skills and would not benefit from frontal teaching and common learning process. They are integrated into the ordinary class with respect to...