In Malawi, the new Biology curriculum draws from constructivist approaches. The Biology teaching syllabus emphasises the use of students’ experiences as a resource and the use of active student involvement strategies when teaching the curriculum to enhance conceptual understanding. However, inspection reports show that students are less actively involved in the lessons and the teachers rarely draw from their students’ prior experiences to enhance conceptual understanding. In this study, I investigated some factors affecting four teachers’ use of constructivist approaches when teaching the new biology curriculum in Malawi. Information was collected on the four teachers’ understandings of active student involvement in lessons and students’ experiences, the extent to which the four teachers involved students and built on students’ experiences to enable comprehension of science concepts in the Biology lessons and the factors that promoted/ hindered the use of these practices. Data was collected through lesson observations and interviews with teachers using an observation guide and an interview schedule respectively. Four Biology teachers, two from community secondary schools and two from conventional secondary schools were observed and interviewed. I found that all the four teachers understood students’ experiences as prior knowledge from previous school learning. The teachers understood active student involvement in relation to the type of schools they were teaching. For the teachers in community schools, involving students meant engaging them in group discussion while to the teachers in conventional schools it meant students doing experiments / practical work. Their teaching focused on giving information and little was done to develop students’ metacognitive abilities. According to the four teachers, pressure to cover the syllabus before the national examinations; lack of text books and laboratory equipment; lack of motivation among students; students’ backgrounds; and inadequate students’ fluency in the English language are some of the factors that affect their implementation of the constructivist approaches. Based on the lessons I observed, the teachers’ knowledge of subject matter and teachers’ understandings of the constructivism concept also affect the use of constructivist approaches when teaching Biology in Malawi.

This mixed methods study was designed to compare the effect of using an inquiry teaching methodology and a more traditional teaching methodology on the learning gains of students who were taught a five-week conceptual change unit on density.

Genocides and wars tend to covary yet the link between them is disputed. The definition and the extension of the concept genocide is also a subject of debate. Furthermore, it is disputed if historical cases of genocide are best explained as cases of genocide, or as cases of mass killings or as cases of civilian victimization in war. This paper explores how the definitional issues that surrounds the concept of genocide affect the research that investigates the link between genocide and war. The contribution of the paper is both descriptive and prescriptive. Previous definitions of war, genocide and the link between them is mapped through a systematic review of the most prominent theoretical works in the field. The results of the review is then analyzed with help of the ladder of generality and conceptual mapping. The analysis indicates that total genocide is a relevant concept, when we explore causal links between genocide and war. The conceptual mapping showed that prominent constitutive theories has portrayed war as slaughter and war as conflict. It is concluded that redefinitions of genocide, which highlights war as a form of policing or as an art or a form of self-expression, could contribute to our explanation of how wars enable genocide.

Esta dissertação trata da aeração induzida em vertedores com objetivo de mitigar os efeitos da cavitação sobre os mesmos. A análise bibliográfica do tema está calcada na introdução ao mecanismo da cavitação e no levantamento do estado da arte a partir dos trabalhos pioneiros, nos clássicos e nos recentes. Com base nos princípios da física: Conservação de Massa e Primeira Lei da Termodinâmica, foi desenvolvido um modelo matemático para aeração induzida em vertedores. O modelo proposto, após ser analisado do ponto de vista de sua consistência, foi avaliado em comparações com resultados fornecidos por outros pesquisadores, obtidos através de modelos físicos reduzidos. Os resultados obtidos pelo modelo matemático proposto correspondem a boas estimativas das grandezas envolvidas na aeração induzida em vertedores, o que credencia o modelo proposto como uma ferramenta apropriada para projetos de engenharia hidráulica e futuros desenvolvimentos científicos. / This study adress prompt aeration in spillways reaching to reduce the cavitation effects on them. References were based on introduction to cavitation machanism and, state of art survey, to leave on not only earlier studies, but also on classical and most recent ones. Based on principles of Physics, such as Mass Conservation and the First Law of Thermodynamics, a mathematical model has been developed as an example of prompt aeration in spillways. After extensive consistency analyses the proposed model has been validated by comparing different results furnished by studies on physical reduced models by other researchers. Results obtained from the mathematical model proposed here correspond to good estimates of greatnesses involved in prompt aeration is spillways and that turns the proposed model into an adequate tool for Hydraulic Engineering projects and for future scientifics stydies.

Through a singular case study, this research enquiry seeks to explore teacher perceptions about the development of a concept-based curriculum program (called as the Conceptual Curriculum by the school), in the context of an International Baccalaureate (IB) World school in the Middle East, and the intended and unintended outcomes of the initiative. The study employs Bernstein’s (1975) theories of classification and framing, and curriculum recontextualization, as an analytical framework to interpret findings. The study is informed through methods such as reading and analyzing of curriculum documents, conducting semi-structured interviews, and the distribution of a web-based questionnaire to teachers. Findings in this research inquiry revealed that, though teachers expressed the experience of creating and delivering the Conceptual Curriculum as sometimes being challenging and frustrating, a vast majority of the teachers prefer a flexible curriculum framework versus a prescriptive curriculum. However, findings also revealed that, though teachers seem to enjoy the freedom and flexibility of working with broad curricular frameworks as opposed to prescriptive curricula, there seem to be some fundamental questions pertinent to curriculum recontextualization remaining unanswered, for which perhaps teachers seek answers from qualified curriculum development personnel. Findings reveal that when broad curricular frameworks get recontextualized, the lack of consensus amongst teachers on what counts as essential knowledge is often a matter of concern. Findings reveal that in curriculum recontextualization, when having to negotiate between a “multiplicity of pedagogic fields” (Cambridge, 2011, p. 129) teachers seem to be inherently aligning to something that is a “crystal clear benchmark” such as the International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IB DP), as opposed to something that is more flexible and open-ended such as the International Baccalaureate Primary Years Programme (IB PYP). The disciplinary focus of the Conceptual Curriculum and the tendency of teachers to align more towards the IB DP rather than the IB PYP (even in lower grades such as 7 and 8) has thus resulted in a quick transition from the “weakly classified” (Bernstein 1971, p.49) inter-disciplinary IB PYP curriculum to a “strongly classified” (Bernstein 1971, p.49) Conceptual Curriculum with disciplinary focus. Findings from this study reveal that teachers see the value and purpose in teaching for conceptual understanding, but this, when coupled with having to choose curriculum content and developing a coherent curriculum has made the experience both challenging and burdensome for them. Findings also reveal that practical agendas of the school, such as addressing limited time and staffing issues assume priority over lofty ideals when the curriculum is recontextualized, thereby indicating that school-based curriculum initiatives lose rigor and form, in the cracks of everyday practice. Findings in this study thus suggest that when teachers are offered the possibility of working with flexible curricular frameworks, realities of everyday practice take over. This often leads to teachers self-prescribing the curriculum, thereby making the process self-mandated, which in effect defeats the very purpose of the school-based curriculum development initiative undertaken.

A presente pesquisa tem por objetivo explorar os diferentes esquemas utilizados por estudantes do sétimo ano ao serem confrontados com problemas envolvendo razões e proporções, a fim de identificar e analisar quais são os conceitos relacionados à proporcionalidade mobilizados por alunos que ainda não estudaram este conteúdo em ambiente escolar. Para tanto, foi realizada uma coleta de dados em três turmas de sétimo ano de uma escola de ensino fundamental da rede municipal de Canoas – RS, na qual foi proposto, durante oito horas-aula, um total de quatorze problemas matemáticos envolvendo proporcionalidade, que puderam ser resolvidos em grupos de dois ou três alunos. O conjunto de dados coletados foi composto pelas resoluções escritas dos alunos e um diário de campo contendo anotações sobre a conduta (falas, ações) dos estudantes durante o trabalho com os problemas matemáticos. A análise dos dados foi baseada na Teoria dos Campos Conceituais de Gérard Vergnaud, e permitiu identificar diversos esquemas que utilizaram estruturas aditivas para resolver problemas de proporcionalidade e que, ainda sim, se mostraram suficientes para levar os estudantes à resposta correta do problema. Também foi possível observar esquemas do campo conceitual multiplicativo, contendo indícios significativos da presença da proporcionalidade como um conceito-em-ação. Desta forma, a pesquisa aponta formas de explorar problemas de proporcionalidade diferentes daquelas que estabelecem relação direta deste conteúdo com a linguagem fracionária, como podemos observar em livros didáticos e documentos curriculares norteadores atuais. / The present research aims at exploring the different schemata mobilized by seventh year students when they are confronted with problems involving reasons and proportions to identify and analyze which are the mobilized concepts related to proportionality in students who have not studied this content in the school environment yet. For that, a data collection was carried out in three seventh year classes of a primary school of the municipal network of Canoas - RS, in which a total of fourteen mathematical problems involving proportionality were proposed during eight classroom hours, be solved in groups of two or three students. The set of data collected was composed of student's resolutions and a field diary containing notes about the behavior and the student's speeches during the work with the mathematical problems. Data analysis was based on Gérard Vergnaud's Theory of Conceptual Fields and allowed the identification of several schemata that used additive structures to solve proportionality problems and which, however, were sufficient to lead students to the correct answer to the problem. It was also possible to observe schemata of the multiplicative conceptual field, containing significant evidence of the presence of proportionality as a concept-in-action. In this way, the research points out ways of exploring proportionality problems different from those that establish direct relation of this content with the fractional language, as we can observe in didactic books and current guiding curricular documents.

A natureza humana é fascinante. Do ponto de vista educacional, o movimento humano nasce a partir de relações baseadas em compromisso. Entretanto, o compromisso educacional tem raízes em instituições dotadas de uma rigidez estrutural significativa em seus valores e práticas. Talvez essas raízes sejam parte da explicação quanto à falibilidade elevada destas instituições face às novas formas de se pensar o permanente fluxo humano. Este fluxo, por natureza indomável, atualmente se encontra potencializado pela adoção de artefatos digitais que dão às pessoas múltiplas possibilidades de individuação. Talvez seja um erro persistir na reprodução de modelos educacionais inflexíveis, onde não haja a possibilidade de exercício da liberdade intencional. Nesta tese, buscamos identificar possíveis relações intencionais latentes que regem os compromissos educacionais porventura existentes nos processos de ensino e aprendizagem baseados em e-Learning. Concebemos princípios de Trajetórias Conceituais de Aprendizagem Intencionais (TCAIs), através das quais se torna possível registrar ações e inferir graus de Intencionalidade Pedagógica Docente (IPD) e Intencionalidade de Aprendizagem Discente (IAD). Um Indicador do Grau de Intencionalidade (IGI) e outro, denominado Indicador do Grau de Convergência Discente (IGCD) foram propostos. Através da conjunção de ambos se torna possível avaliar o grau de proximidade entre a IPD e a IAD, estas que são inerentemente subjacentes às estruturas das Trajetória Conceitual de Aprendizagem (TCA) produzidas durante os processos de ensino e de aprendizagem. O IGI mensura o viés intencional de uma Trajetória Conceitual de Aprendizagem, enquanto o IGCD permite avaliar o grau de compromisso normativo do discente em relação à proposta educacional em fluxo. / Human nature is fascinating. We are endowed with intentional capabilities that keep us in constant flux, leaving behind us evident traces of our passage. From an educational point of view, the human movement comes from commitment-based relationships. However, the educational commitment is rooted in institutions with significant structural rigidities in its values and practices. Maybe these roots could be a part of the explanation for the high unreliability of these institutions faced with new ways of thinking about the permanent human flow. This flow, of untamed nature, is currently enhanced by the adoption of digital artifacts that give people multiple possibilities of individuation. It may be an error persist in those inflexible educational models, where there is no the possibility of exercising the intentional freedom. In this thesis, we seek to identify potential latent intentional relationships governing educational commitments that would may exist in the processes of teaching and learning based on e-Learning. We design principles for Intentional Conceptual Learning trajectories (ICLTs), through which it becomes possible to record actions and infer degrees of Teacher’s Pedagogical Intentionality (TPI) and Student's Learning Intentionality (SLI). An Intentionality Degree Indicator (IDI) and the other, called the Student’s Convergence Level Indicator (SCLI) was proposed. Through the conjunction of both is possible assess the degree of proximity between the TPI and the SLI, these that are inherently underpinning to ICLTs structures produced during the learning and teaching processes. The IDI measures the intentionality bias from Conceptual Learning trajectories, while SCLI allows evaluating normative commitment degree of the students for the educational proposal in flux.

This dissertation presents the early work of Martha Rosler, Allan Sekula and Fred Lonidier as an attempt to intertwine political and aesthetic practice that was fundamentally distinct from the dominant, contemporaneous models of politicized avant-garde art. Throughout the first half of the 1970s these artists were in constant, close dialogue with one another, and, for the first time, this dissertation attempts to read their work during this period as a shared project. Considering the initial few years of their careers, it is an effort to understand how their practice emerged, and how it set itself apart from predominant forms of Conceptual art, post-Minimalism and institutional critique. In particular, it will explore how these three artists conceived of a relationship between political and aesthetic practice that was not dependent upon a self-reflexive investigation of their own art work's conditions of possibility. Drawing on realist and documentary traditions from the first half of the 20th century, Sekula, Rosler and Lonidier sought to create art that was always related to something beyond itself, developed in relation to the social world in which it existed. These artists neither assumed dependence on a given institutional, discursive formation, nor held out for an absolute escape from the institutions of the art world. Instead, they moved strategically between various locations, various publics and various discourses in a continual attempt to speak intelligibly within those sites most relevant to the political struggles they addressed. In order to understand this strategic movement, it is necessary to read these artists’ works as utterances within momentary, contested discursive fields. As a result, this dissertation will provide close readings of several works through a detailed consideration of the particular situations in which they were created, displayed and received. Whether as flyers handed out at protests or self-consciously gallery friendly photo-text works, every piece will be read as a precise intervention within a specific location. Following this approach, each chapter focuses on a small number of works and reads them within the social and political events they both instigate and enter into, whether those are, as in the first chapter, a public dispute over the nature of art between two academic departments, or, as in the second chapter, the protests against the Vietnam War. Through each of these analyses this dissertation outlines these artists' shared attempt to produce art that only emerges through the discourses into which it enters, but is never entirely home wherever it might find itself. By describing this fundamental premise of Rosler, Sekula and Lonidier's work, this dissertation both seeks to provide a more adequate accounting of this group’s shared project, and an alternative model for conceiving of the relation between political engagement and the post-war avant-garde.

Este trabalho relata um estudo realizado para medir a eficiência da abordagem conceitual no ensino da saúde, tendo em vista oferecer subsídios para o planejamento do ensino da saúde. A matéria saúde na escola de 1º Grau foi organizada numa hierarquia conceitual e experiências de aprendizagem planejadas visando à consecução de objetivos cognitivos, afetivos e práticos em relação à saúde. O estudo foi desenvolvido em uma escola pública de São Paulo. Foram tomadas três classes para realizar o estudo. Com o grupo experimental foi usada a abordagem conceitual no ensino; no outro grupo, a metodologia foi escolhida pelo professor, que utilizou a abordagem tradicional; com o grupo controle não se desenvolveu nenhuma atividade específica de ensino da saúde. Comparados os resultados, constatou-se que houve uma diferença significante na aprendizagem do grupo experimental, maior que nos outros grupos. O estudo concluiu que a abordagem conceitual no ensino da saúde do primeiro grau e mais eficiente do que a abordagem tradicional para identificar, selecionar, organizar e desenvolver saúde como materia curricular. / This paper describes a study carried out to measure the efficiency of the conceptual approach in health teaching, in order to contribute to the planning health, teaching in elementary schools. Health was organized in a conceptual hierarchy, and learning experiences were planned covering behavioral objectives to achieve health at the levels cognitive, affective and action. The program was developed in a public school of S.Paulo. Theree classes were chosen: at the experimental the conceptual approach was used for teaching; in the second class the methodology was selected by the teacherwho used the traditional approach; at the third, as the control class, planned activities to teach health were carried out. The results showed that there was a significant difference in learning for the experimental group much greater than in the other classes. The study concludes that the conceptual approach to teach health is more efficient than the traditional to identify, select, organize and develop health as a subject of the school curriculum.

Este trabalho analisa algumas das atividades desenvolvidas no âmbito da disciplina Química Integrada III, oferecida no segundo semestre de 2008 a alunos que então cursavam o sexto semestre dos cursos do IQ-USP do período noturno. As atividades desenvolvidas na disciplina tiveram como finalidade promover a reflexão dos alunos a respeito de suas concepções sobre a natureza e a organização da Química como ciência, e da natureza das relações existentes entre os conceitos (conteúdos) aprendidos nas diferentes disciplinas do curso de graduação. Com o intuito de promover tal reflexão, a disciplina em questão utilizou como ferramenta a elaboração em grupos de dois mapas conceituais. O primeiro mapa conceitual tinha como objetivo que os alunos mostrassem explicitamente as principais relações existentes entre os conceitos estudados em seu curso. Já o segundo mapa conceitual tinha como objetivo representar a visão dos estudantes a respeito da organização estrutural da Química. A análise dos conceitos utilizados e da relação expressa entre os mesmos permitiu observar que as disciplinas do curso e as cinco áreas tradicionais da Química estão presentes como elementos estruturantes da mesma. São também consideradas estruturantes as áreas de atuação profissional destes alunos (Química Ambiental e Ensino de Química). A Bioquímica é geralmente vista como dependente de outras áreas. A Química Analítica é considerada como uma \"ferramenta\" a serviço das demais. O mesmo ocorre com outras áreas do conhecimento (Matemática e Física). / This work analyzes some of the activities developed within the subject of Integrated Chemical III, offered in 2008 to sixth semester students of IQ-USP\'s undergraduate courses. The activities developed in the discipline intended to promote reflections of the students about their conceptions about the nature and organization of the chemistry science, and the nature of the relationship between the concepts (content) learned in the many classes of their undergraduate course. With the goal to promote such reflection, the students have used the conceptual maps as a tool to make two kinds it. The objective of the first kind of conceptual map has been showed by the students that exposed the main existing relations among the concepts studied in graduation\'s course. The second objective of the conceptual map intended to represent the concern of students about the structural organization of chemistry. The analysis of the used concepts and of the relationship among them, expressed by conceptual maps, shows that the course subjects and the five traditional areas of Chemistry are present as structural elements of this science. The specialization areas in the professional context (Environmental Chemistry and Teaching Training) are also considered structural elements. Biochemistry is generally seen as dependent of the other areas, like Organic Chemistry. Analytical Chemistry is considered a \"tool\" for the service of other areas. The same situation happens in other areas of knowledge (Mathematics and Physics).