This study reports on technical program students’ approaches to solving open-ended problems during an introductory physics course in a Swedish upper secondary school. The study used case study methodology to investigate students’ activities in outdoor context. The findings come from observations and audio recordings of students solving three different open-ended problems. The results showed that the students had difficulties to formulate ‘solvable’ problems and to perform necessary ‘at home’ preparations to be able to solve the problems. Furthermore, students preferred to use a single solution method even though different solution methods were possible. This behavior can be attributed to their previous experience of solving practical problems in physics education. The result also indicated need of different levels of guidance to help the students in their problem solving process. A tentative conclusion can be made that open-ended problems have an educational potential for developing students’ understanding of scientific inquiry and problem solving strategies in the process of performing practical outdoor activities.

Institutions of higher education have long been regarded as centers of knowledge creation and dissemination. Although, more recently, colleges and universities are facing greater accountability for student learning as a result of crippling student loan debt projections and staggering retention rates. Critical thinking is in the company of many skills found to be deficient in college graduates. Simultaneously, critical thinking is among the most sought-after qualities among employers (National Association of Colleges & Employers, 2017). This problematic dichotomy presents a need to better understand how critical thinking is being taught in college. Much of the literature focuses on critical thinking as an outcome of classroom instruction while the impact of out-of-class experiences is largely neglected. This survey-based study employed the California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI) to identify which out-of-classroom experiences have a singular and collective effect on critical thinking dispositions among graduating seniors at a public 4-year institution. Participation in internships, study abroad, service-learning, living-learning communities, club leadership, club membership, and employment was studied. The study offers promising data that suggest seniors are, in fact, disposed to critical thinking upon graduation. Correlation and multiple regression analyses revealed that several out-of-classroom activities had a positive effect on at least one critical thinking disposition. Among them were research with faculty, club membership, and employment. Interestingly, studying abroad was found to have a negative effect on students’ disposition toward intellectual curiosity. Only two out-of-classroom experiences were found to have a combined effect on critical thinking disposition—conducting research with faculty and holding employment for more than 20 hours per week. Findings of this study have implications for faculty, staff, and administrators alike. Looking ahead, institutions are encouraged to enhance students’ learning opportunities by leveraging student employment, incentivizing faculty-student research, and partnering with local employers. / Educational Leadership

Esta dissertação tem como objetivo investigar a aprendizagem de estudantes universitários de japonês como língua estrangeira (JLE) e sua autonomia fora da sala de aula no contexto da cidade de São Paulo. Levando em consideração que a aprendizagem de língua tem o caráter contínuo ao longo da vida, o aprendiz precisa desenvolver a capacidade de dirigir seu estudo por conta própria, ou seja, autonomia. Enquanto essa concepção indica um atributo do aprendiz, sua prática pode ser restrita por fatores externos como o ambiente e a relação com outras pessoas. A fim de pôr qualquer ação em prática que visa à promoção da autonomia do aprendiz, faz-se necessário reconhecer formas e ambientes reais em que a aprendizagem se concretiza. No geral, o aprendiz tende a realizar atividades com sua língua-alvo fora da sala de aula por sua iniciativa, e para desenvolver sua proficiência nesse contexto, ele precisa gerenciar seu estudo. Partindo-se dessa perspectiva, fora da sala de aula é uma situação em que permite observar a autonomia do aprendiz uma vez que há certo grau de liberdade de dirigir sua aprendizagem. A pesquisa teve a natureza qualitativa com dados qualitativos e quantitativos, e configurou-se como estudo de caso. Os participantes foram trinta estudantes no total, de uma disciplina da língua japonesa (LJ) de nível básico do curso de habilitação na língua de uma instituição de ensino superior, localizada na cidade de São Paulo. Para a coleta de dados, foram utilizados instrumentos; observação de aulas, questionário para todos os estudantes, entrevista para sete estudantes e diário de estudo para três estudantes. Para a análise, os dados foram identificados, descritos e interpretados. Os resultados apontam que os estudantes desenvolviam várias atividades utilizando a LJ além da sala de aula por sua iniciativa, principalmente as receptivas no domínio pessoal. Na maioria das atividades de interação, amigos e colegas de estudo foram interlocutores. Apesar da ampla disponibilidade de recursos para a aprendizagem da LJ na cidade graças à imigração japonesa e ao intercâmbio econômico e comercial com o Japão, os estudantes tenderam a utilizar recursos e meios digitais como sites da internet, redes sociais e chat. Embora muitas atividades fossem realizadas principalmente pelo interesse cultural, alguns alunos tentaram compreender o conhecimento obtido durante aulas, aplicando-o nas atividades fora do contexto da instituição educacional intencionalmente. Verificou-se também o esforço de uma estudante para procurar oportunidades de interagir com falantes da LJ no domínio público e profissional. / This thesis aims at investigating the learning of undergraduate students of Japanese as foreign language and their autonomy beyond the classroom in the city of São Paulo. Considering that language learning is a lifelong activity, a learner needs to develop the capacity to direct your study on your own, namely, autonomy. While this concept indicates an learner\'s attribute, its practice can be restricted by external factors such as his environment and relationship with other people. In order to put into practice any action in pursuit of this capacity, it is essential to comprehend real forms and environments in which learning occurs. Generally speaking, the learner tends to realize activities using his target language outside the classroom taking his initiative, and so as to develop his proficiency in this context, he needs to administrate his study under his own direction. From this perspective, it can be said that it is a situation in which allows us to observe the learner autonomy because there is a certain degree of freedom to direct his own study. This research was qualitative treating both qualitative and quantitative data, and its approach was case study. The participants were thirty undergraduate students in total of a Japanese language basic level subject of the language course in the city of São Paulo. For the data collection, the instruments such as classroom observation, questionnaire for thirty students, interview for seven students and learning diary for three students were employed, and for the analysis, the data was identified, described and interpreted. The results point out that the students developed various activities using Japanese beyond the classroom, especially that of reception in the personal domain. In many cases of interaction, friends and classmates were their interlocutors. Regardless of wide range of variety of resources available to Japanese language learning in the city due to the Japanese immigration to Brazil and economic relationship with Japan, these students tended to use digital resources and medias such as internet sites, social networking services and chat. Although most activities were held primarily because of their interest in Japanese culture, some participants sought to comprehend the linguistic knowledge acquired in the classroom, using it in those out-of-classroom activities. Among the student\'s attempts to use the language, it was observed that a student looked for opportunities to interact with Japanese speakers even in the public and professional domains.

International negotiation competitions are not a new phenomenon. These competitionshave been growing in popularity worldwide and have several pedagogic benefits forthe participants. Unfortunately, so far have been targeted only to students from the lawor business fields excluding students from other fields, including the humanitarianstudents. These students are likely to follow a career where negotiations play a keyrole, nevertheless, they are not well prepared for it. The purpose of this thesis is toexplore these benefits and the transferability of these competition models to thehumanitarian sector. This thesis, therefore, seeks to answer the research question“What benefits can international negotiation competitions have for participants?” and“Could students in the humanitarian sector benefit from negotiation competitionsadapted to the challenges they are likely to face?”. The study comprises of bothquantitative and qualitative methodological approaches. An analysis of existingliterature was undertaken alongside a pre-study survey to humanitarian students, 15expert interviews and an online survey to participants to negotiation competitions.The thesis presents the opinions of a variety of experts and participants in negotiationcompetitions and reveals several benefits of participation in such events. Thesebenefits include: skill development, multicultural environment, simulation of realemotions, feedback from judges, networking opportunities and promotion of the field.The findings also suggest that the transferability of this model to humanitarian studentscould be not only possible but beneficial, yet some barriers could arise. Explanation ofpossible barriers to this implementation and possible solutions to mitigate them aredisclosed.

Esta dissertação tem como objetivo investigar a aprendizagem de estudantes universitários de japonês como língua estrangeira (JLE) e sua autonomia fora da sala de aula no contexto da cidade de São Paulo. Levando em consideração que a aprendizagem de língua tem o caráter contínuo ao longo da vida, o aprendiz precisa desenvolver a capacidade de dirigir seu estudo por conta própria, ou seja, autonomia. Enquanto essa concepção indica um atributo do aprendiz, sua prática pode ser restrita por fatores externos como o ambiente e a relação com outras pessoas. A fim de pôr qualquer ação em prática que visa à promoção da autonomia do aprendiz, faz-se necessário reconhecer formas e ambientes reais em que a aprendizagem se concretiza. No geral, o aprendiz tende a realizar atividades com sua língua-alvo fora da sala de aula por sua iniciativa, e para desenvolver sua proficiência nesse contexto, ele precisa gerenciar seu estudo. Partindo-se dessa perspectiva, fora da sala de aula é uma situação em que permite observar a autonomia do aprendiz uma vez que há certo grau de liberdade de dirigir sua aprendizagem. A pesquisa teve a natureza qualitativa com dados qualitativos e quantitativos, e configurou-se como estudo de caso. Os participantes foram trinta estudantes no total, de uma disciplina da língua japonesa (LJ) de nível básico do curso de habilitação na língua de uma instituição de ensino superior, localizada na cidade de São Paulo. Para a coleta de dados, foram utilizados instrumentos; observação de aulas, questionário para todos os estudantes, entrevista para sete estudantes e diário de estudo para três estudantes. Para a análise, os dados foram identificados, descritos e interpretados. Os resultados apontam que os estudantes desenvolviam várias atividades utilizando a LJ além da sala de aula por sua iniciativa, principalmente as receptivas no domínio pessoal. Na maioria das atividades de interação, amigos e colegas de estudo foram interlocutores. Apesar da ampla disponibilidade de recursos para a aprendizagem da LJ na cidade graças à imigração japonesa e ao intercâmbio econômico e comercial com o Japão, os estudantes tenderam a utilizar recursos e meios digitais como sites da internet, redes sociais e chat. Embora muitas atividades fossem realizadas principalmente pelo interesse cultural, alguns alunos tentaram compreender o conhecimento obtido durante aulas, aplicando-o nas atividades fora do contexto da instituição educacional intencionalmente. Verificou-se também o esforço de uma estudante para procurar oportunidades de interagir com falantes da LJ no domínio público e profissional. / This thesis aims at investigating the learning of undergraduate students of Japanese as foreign language and their autonomy beyond the classroom in the city of São Paulo. Considering that language learning is a lifelong activity, a learner needs to develop the capacity to direct your study on your own, namely, autonomy. While this concept indicates an learner\'s attribute, its practice can be restricted by external factors such as his environment and relationship with other people. In order to put into practice any action in pursuit of this capacity, it is essential to comprehend real forms and environments in which learning occurs. Generally speaking, the learner tends to realize activities using his target language outside the classroom taking his initiative, and so as to develop his proficiency in this context, he needs to administrate his study under his own direction. From this perspective, it can be said that it is a situation in which allows us to observe the learner autonomy because there is a certain degree of freedom to direct his own study. This research was qualitative treating both qualitative and quantitative data, and its approach was case study. The participants were thirty undergraduate students in total of a Japanese language basic level subject of the language course in the city of São Paulo. For the data collection, the instruments such as classroom observation, questionnaire for thirty students, interview for seven students and learning diary for three students were employed, and for the analysis, the data was identified, described and interpreted. The results point out that the students developed various activities using Japanese beyond the classroom, especially that of reception in the personal domain. In many cases of interaction, friends and classmates were their interlocutors. Regardless of wide range of variety of resources available to Japanese language learning in the city due to the Japanese immigration to Brazil and economic relationship with Japan, these students tended to use digital resources and medias such as internet sites, social networking services and chat. Although most activities were held primarily because of their interest in Japanese culture, some participants sought to comprehend the linguistic knowledge acquired in the classroom, using it in those out-of-classroom activities. Among the student\'s attempts to use the language, it was observed that a student looked for opportunities to interact with Japanese speakers even in the public and professional domains.