The Department of Basic Education (DBE) has associated the poor pass rate in the National Senior Certificate (NSC) Grade 12 Physical Sciences examinations to the learners’ lack of practical skills and the inability of learners to solve problems by integrating knowledge from the different topics in Physical Sciences. The CAPS (Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement) is central to the planning, organising and teaching of Physical Sciences. Even though more than a third of the learners achieved below 30% in the NSC Grade 12 Physical Sciences: Physics (P1) November 2017 examination, there was a lack of references made to the CAPS, rationalising the poor performance. A disjointed alignment between the CAPS and the P1 is a possible cause for the poor performance. Since there have been no previous studies that investigated the alignment between the CAPS and the P1, this study aims to fill that gap. This study used a positivist research paradigm and a case study research strategy. A purposive sampling procedure selected the CAPS Grades 10 – 12 Physical Sciences document; the Physical Sciences Examination Guidelines Grade 12 documents and the final and supplementary P1 examinations in the period starting November 2014 to March 2018 as the documents for analysis. A summative content analysis research technique was conducted using the Surveys of Enacted Curriculum (SEC) research method. The SEC method employed the use of the four topics of Grade 12 Physics and the four non-hierarchical levels of cognitive demand as described in the modified version of Bloom’s taxonomy. The physics topics included mechanics; waves, sound and light; electricity and magnetism; and optical phenomena. The cognitive demand levels included recall; comprehension; application and analysis; and synthesis and evaluation. This study found a 100 percent categorical coherence, a 67.3 percent balance of representation, a 79.4 percent cognitive complexity and an average Porter’s alignment index of 0.77 between the CAPS and the P1. The overall Cohen’s kappa for all the documents analysed was 0.88. The findings of this study indicate that the mechanics topic was under-emphasised whilst the application and analysis cognitive demand was over-emphasised in the P1. The CAPS and the P1 did not utilise the highest cognitive demand, synthesis and evaluation which may be interpreted as an environment that fosters lower order thinking. To change this environment of lower order thinking and simultaneously increase the alignment between the CAPS and the P1 this study recommends that firstly, the CAPS decreases the recall based content of the mechanics topic. Secondly, the CAPS and the P1 increase the synthesis and evaluation cognitive demand-based content at the expense of the recall cognitive demand-based content. Thirdly, the CAPS must include the content of the school-based physics practical assessments while decreasing the focus on physics definitions. The ultimate aim is an improvement in the pass rates of the NSC Grade 12 Physical Sciences examinations. / Science and Technology Education / M. Sc. (Mathematics, Science and Technology Education (Physics Education))

A wide literature of predominantly behavioural experiments that use Stimulus Response Compatibility (SRC) have suggested that visual action information such as object affordance yields rapid and concurrent activation of visual and motor brain areas, but has rarely provided direct evidence for this proposition. This thesis examines some of the key claims from the affordance literature by applying electrophysiological measures to well established SRC procedures to determine the verities of the behavioural claims of rapid and automatic visuomotor activation evoked by viewing affording objects. The temporal sensitivity offered by the Lateralised Readiness Potential and by visual evoked potentials P1 and N1 made ideal candidates to assess the behavioural claims of rapid visuomotor activation by seen objects by examining the timecourse of neural activation elicited by viewing affording objects under various conditions. The experimental work in this thesis broadly confirms the claims of the behavioural literature however it also found a series of novel results that are not predicted by the behavioural literature due to limitations in reaction time measures. For example, while different classes of affordance have been shown to exert the same behavioural facilitation, electrophysiological measures reveal very different patterns of cortical activation for grip-type and lateralised affordances. These novel findings question the applicability of the label ‘visuomotor’ to grip-type affordance processing and suggest considerable revision to models of affordance. This thesis also offers a series of novel and surprising insights into the ability to dissociate afforded motor activity from behavioural output, into the relationship between affordance and early visual evoked potentials, and into affordance in the absence of the intention to act. Overall, this thesis provides detailed suggestions for considerable changes to current models of the neural activity underpinning object affordance.

Submitted by Johnny Rodrigues (johnnyrodrigues@ufcg.edu.br) on 2018-05-27T14:00:32Z No. of bitstreams: 1 ANNA CATARINA COSTA DE PAIVA - DISSERTAÇÃO PPGSA PROFISSIONAL 2016..pdf: 3717517 bytes, checksum: 510bdae3da7d76cd13869dcd16b24301 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-05-27T14:00:32Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 ANNA CATARINA COSTA DE PAIVA - DISSERTAÇÃO PPGSA PROFISSIONAL 2016..pdf: 3717517 bytes, checksum: 510bdae3da7d76cd13869dcd16b24301 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-08-20 / A realidade dos movimentos sociais é bastante dinâmica, diversa e complexa. Como exemplo disso, foi o que o Brasil viveu em meados dos anos 1970 e 1980, o qual se tratou de um período em que os sujeitos sociais buscavam seus direitos políticos e igualitários, em virtude da resistência ao regime autoritário da época. Com o passar dos anos, ocorreu o surgimento de outras formas de organização popular institucionalizada que tinham como propósito acessar uma democracia humanizada. Com base nessa conjuntura histórica e na luta oscilante do cooperativismo brasileiro, existe atualmente uma legislação específica. A Cooperativa de Assessoria e Serviços Múltiplos ao Desenvolvimento Rural – COOPERVIDA - surgiu de um processo de debate forte e coletivo de uma nova proposta de assessoria técnica voltada para a base agroecológica e camponesa. Pensou-se no nome e na logomarca, para os quais tivessem uma maior representação da proposta a ser trabalhada na agricultura familiar, como sendo Cooper = Cooperativa, Vida = novo, em que a junção desses dois termos surgiu a COOPERVIDA. Já para a logomarca, partiu-se da ideia de terra que brota, mãos que ajuda a semear, transplante. Portanto, em 21 de novembro de 1999 nasceu a organização da referida pesquisa. Este trabalho tem como objetivo realizar o estudo sobre a importância socioeconômica e cultural da COOPERVIDA na agricultura familiar do Rio Grande do Norte. A metodologia utilizada foi o estudo de caso através de duas fases, uma exploratória e outra de análises de dados. Na primeira, houve o resgate no acervo documental, atas, contratos de projetos, registros fotográficos e, para corroborar com essas informações, foram feitas entrevistas com auxílio de questionário norteador. O grupo de perguntas dependia da função exercida de cada sócio ou membro. A segunda fase trouxe os resultados dos projetos executados e foram avaliados os quantitativos numéricos dos mesmos. As ações desenvolvidas pela cooperativa têm importância no fortalecimento da agricultura familiar, na economia solidária e nos processos de empoderamento das famílias, o que vem a contribuir com a geração de oportunidades de trabalho e renda no campo e consequentemente a redução do êxodo rural. Através da análise dos dados, conclui-se que a Cooperativa de Assessoria e Serviços Múltiplos ao Desenvolvimento Rural – COOPERVIDA atendeu a 36.255 agricultores/as, 25 municípios do Rio Grande do Norte, em sete projetos com ações pautadas no campo da agroecologia, agricultura familiar, geração e gênero. Logo pode ser considerada como de suma importância para o setor. Na questão dos desafios, foi constatado que a escassez em capacitação técnicoprofissional e a situação financeira são as dificuldades que requerem maiores cuidados, visto que foi citado por 14 entrevistados. Já a via de acesso às comunidades não é um fator alarmante, que foi citado apenas por um dos entrevistados. / The reality of social movements is quite dynamic, diverse and complex, for instance what Brazil experienced in the mid-1970s and 1980s, that was a period in which the social subjects fought for their political and equal rights, due to the resistance to the authoritarian regime of the time. Over the years, there was the arising of other forms of institutionalized popular organization that were meant to access a humanized democracy. Based on this historical conjuncture and oscillating struggle of Brazilian cooperatives, there is now an specific legislation. The Cooperative Assistance and Multiple Services to Rural Development - Coopervida came from a strong and collective process of debate of a new proposal for technical assistance focused on agroecology and rural based. The name and the logo were thought up to have a better representation of the proposal being worked on the farms of the families, as Cooper=Cooperative = Life = new, where the combination of these two terms became Coopervida. As for the logo, it started from the idea of the land that springs, hands that help to sow, transplantating. So on November 21st, 1999 the organization of the research was born. This paper aims to conduct a study on the socioeconomic and cultural importance of COOPERVIDA in family farming in Rio Grande do Norte. The methodology used was the case study through two phases, exploratory and data analysis. At first, there was the rescue of the document collection, minutes, project contracts, and photographic records to corroborate this information, interviews were made with questionnaire aid. The group of questions depended, according to the functions performed by each partner or member. The second phase brought the results of the projects implemented, and evaluated its numerical quantity. The actions developed by the cooperative are important for the strengthening of family agriculture, economic solidarity and empowerment processes of families, which is to contribute to the generation of employment and income opportunities in the countryside and consequently the reduction of the rural exodus. By analyzing the data it was concluded that the Cooperative Advisory and Multiple Services to Rural Development - COOPERVIDA attended 36.255 farmers, in 25 municipalities of Rio Grande do Norte, in seven projects with actions based on the field of agroecology, family farming, generation and gender. The logo can be considered very important for the sector. Regarding the challenges, it was seen that the shortage in professional technical training and financial condition are the difficulties that encumber greater care, since it was cited by 14 interviewees. On the other hand, the route of access to communities is not an alarming factor, since it was cited by only one of the interviewees.