The English subject in Swedish upper-secondary school aims to develop students’ holistic communicative ability, giving students opportunities to produce meaningful texts with confidence. The syllabus further proposes that this ability includes knowledge of the language’s grammatical structures since being aware of grammatical structures and options helps students to write in varied and effective ways. This prompts teachers to consider how to teach grammar to help improve students’ writing. Research, presented in this essay, shows that traditional grammar teaching with focus on rules and errors is ineffective and could rather make students shy away from grammar and writing. Instead, this essay suggests a playful and contextualised view of grammar instruction, developed by Constance Weaver, in which grammatical features are taught in conjunction with writing, enhancing texts and making them rhetorically efficient. Weaver’s approach to grammar includes presenting opportunities in which students can experiment with and explore ways to express themselves. This inspired the research question: what exercises can promote a playful attitude toward grammar to improve students’ writing? In order to investigate this question, three grammar and writing exercises were analysed with a criteria-based materials analysis. The criteria are based on research in the fields of English language learning, grammar instruction theory, rhetorical grammar theory and theory of playfulness. Results of the analysis suggest that the three exercises have the potential to promote playfulness toward grammar as well as improve students’ writing, as they could reduce anxiety and encourage risk-taking. However, teaching grammar with playful exercises may not be enough to benefit students: the overall course design and contingent teaching should promote a playful attitude.

This thesis aims at exploring the potential of playful annotations in interactive textbooks, to engage the teacher and the learner in an active learning process. This research focus was taken after a Field study consisting of a range of semi-structured interviews, surveys, and discussions with teachers and students from a pilot school provided with an interactive textbook platform called Gleerups. This latter is a Swedish publisher which spreads a large offer of educational textbooks across Sweden. The thesis topic was chosen in order to find and suggest ways to approach the learning and reading phase in an active way while also focusing on the teacher-learner relationship.The design contributions include proposals for improvements taking the shape of scenarios and sketches using field research and qualitative studies. It is based on an analysis of related examples and cross disciplinary literature, grounding the research in education and learning theories. Finally, a prototype encompassing the main features raised from the research is presented.The thesis ends with outcomes and reflections from findings, as well as discussions with stakeholders and teachers that initiated the research.

This research brings together two concepts that are often depicted as polar opposites. Sutton-Smith (2001) however suggests that the opposite of play is not work, but depression, and moreover echoes other scholars in reclaiming play as an essential human expression, even for adults. This study, therefore, argues that, given the precarious wellness territory our workplaces are in, something about work is not working. It is furthermore proposed that, given all the evidence of the therapeutic potential inherent to play, there is indeed something nutritious at play in play. Despite these well-supported arguments, play remains hidden away in the academic shadows of more serious industrial psychological preoccupations. Surprisingly, the same conspicuous absence is even mirrored in Positive Psychology, a bustling field that claims to celebrate glee, fun, and happiness (Seligman, 2002a). Entitled “An autoethnographic exploration of play at work,” this dissertation leans on the metaphor of “exploration”, or more specifically, exploratory play. This results in two distinct yet interwoven dimensions to the research study. Firstly, the research approaches the phenomenon of play and play-based methods in workshop contexts through the lived experience of the researcher. Secondly, the research project in itself is conceptualised as work, and the methodology of autoethnography is conceptualised as a playful approach to this work of conducting research. Aside from widening the research scope, this also appropriately matches research methodology to the research domain. Aside from being about play at work, this research also is play at work. Autoethnography, as a recent development in qualitative research, remains unconventional and somewhat controversial in the South African social sciences. Autoethnography, as an offspring of ethnography, offers a method to reflexively incorporate the researcher’s own lived experience in the study of culture as a primary source of rich phenomenological data. Instead of minimising the emotive and subjective, this research amplifies and celebrates it. Given a fair degree of unfamiliarity in terms of autoethnography as well the accusation of being overly self-centred, the experience of the researcher is then complemented by the views of a number of co-creators to the culture being studied. This is done through external data-gathering in the forms of a focus group as well as number of semistructured, dyadic interviews. While therefore leaning more toward postmodern themes, this research also incorporates what has been termed analytical autoethnography (Anderson, 2006), wherein the researcher is a full-member of the setting being studied, is portrayed as such and is committed to theoretical analysis. This study can therefore be summarised as an autoethnographic case study that balances evocative and analytical styles (Vryan, 2006) while emanating from the philosophical assumptions of interpretivism and subjectivism. Internal realities and meaning-creation are thus emphasised rather than the received views of positivism. The central research question being explored is how play and play-based methods promote work-related well-being. To answer this question, firstly, play and play-based methods are explored, both from a theoretical and practical point of view. From within workshop (pedagogical) contexts, the play-based methods considered throughout this study include metaphor and story, creative-arts-based play, physical-body play and also the uncelebrated yet essential methods of icebreakers and games. A preliminary taxonomy is proposed for play-based methods to offer description and to facilitate reflection and learning. Descriptive elements in this taxonomy include interactive vs. solitary, competitive vs. cooperative, motor-sensory vs. cognitive-mind, participative vs. vicarious and rule-bound vs. improvisational. Building on this exploration of play-based methods, the second aspect explored in more detail has to do with the more internal and subjective experiences of participants, or players, if you like. These experiences are then related to prominent concepts encountered in Positive Psychology to, by proxy, understand how they relate to work-related well-being. Significant themes that emerge from this include play as fun, play as mind-body integration, play as authenticity, play as community, and play as stress-relief and resilience. This is then woven into a creative non-fiction, in accord with a trend in qualitative research called creative analytical practices (CAP) (Richardson, 2000). This creative non-fiction, detailed in Chapter 4, forms a key autoethnographic output that animates all these themes in a way that is accessible, evocative and playful. Chapter 5 complements this chapter with an in-depth exploration of the research journey as a confessional tale. While adopting the metaphor of hiking in mountains (exploring nature), this confessional tale clarifies the research process and incorporates an in-depth analysis of the themes, both in terms of research data as well as literature. This is supported by a number of separate appendixes, including interview transcripts, depictions of the interview analysis as well as a number of photos from the field. In terms of its uniqueness and unconventionality, this research joins in the choir of related work to incorporate more contemporary research genres into the social sciences in South Africa. By doing so, it opens up doors to phenomena that simply resist being studied with the ontological and epistemological assumptions of conventional modern science. Furthermore, the effect and impact of this research is that it provides accessible and practical ideas as to how a synthesis of play and work can help us renew and rejuvenate our work and workplaces. That is, how we can come alive in the work contexts that risk becoming sterile, clinical and inhuman in the wake of Taylorist reductionism and efficiency. Given that state of work and workplace, and the productive and therapeutic potential in play, indeed, we are too busy not to play. / Thesis (MCom (Industrial Psychology))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012

This dissertation provides an analysis of, and critical commentary on, the practice of playfulness as persistent phenomenon in the arts, technology and theory. Its aim is to introduce political reflections on agency through the study of playful technological artefacts, which were largely ignored in the recent discussions on game and play. Following the critical analysis of historic discourses and actual studies of play under differing auspices, and in order to understand play as inherently political agency, this thesis’ research question addresses the immersive effects of playful agency in symbolic exchange systems and in the material consciousness of the player. This thesis conducts an analysis of material cultures, in order to categorise play as technique of an inherent critique of technological culture. It traces the development of contemporary technological objects and their materiality in relation to the application of the concept of affordance in design theory. The author consequently proposes a new category of ‘play affordances’ in order to describe these new requirements of play found in consumer technologies. The structure of the analysis in the distinct chapters is informed by a stringent historic, theoretical and arts analysis and an alternating arts practice. The convergence of these elements leads to insights on further uses, options and perspectives of the research problems discussed, in particular in relation to the requirements of playful interaction in contemporary technologies, which increasingly radicalises the importance of play. The thesis’ hypothesis states that playful practices in arts and technologies provide models for political agency, like the strategic use of Con-Dividualities (Jahrmann 2000). This term describes the concept of shared identities in society or social media consumer technologies, as discussed in historic case studies and the author’s own arts practice, related to the modification of technologies as methodology of arts research. In this way the arts practice and theory of playfulness informs the emergence of a new methodology of research, intervention and participation in society through the arts of play, which is coined as Ludics, as an original outcome of this thesis.

Orientador: Geraldo de Freitas Maciel / Resumo: Esta pesquisa visa a investigação da funcionalidade pedagógica de revistas em quadrinhos e de jogos educativos como ferramenta educacional ensejadora da compreensão do nível de cultura dos desastres, com ênfase em deslizamento e inundação dada à sua recorrência no Brasil; a verificação da mesma eficácia pedagógica destas formas de linguagem é buscada no sentido de divulgar o direito dos desastres aqui vislumbrados por meio de políticas públicas capazes de minorar os efeitos gerados por desastres junto à população. Tendo como público alvo as crianças do ensino fundamental de escolas da rede de ensino pública e privada; a forma de aplicação da pesquisa se deu por meio do desenvolvimento de sequência didática que compreendeu a sensibilização para o assunto, a verificação de conhecimentos prévios, o oferecimento de novas informações e conceitos a partir dos saberes trazidos pelas crianças, a realização de atividades de fixação de conteúdo, o feedback, e a recompensa pela participação nas atividades e pelos resultados atingidos; e, apresentou conceitos, por meio de história em quadrinhos, e atividades, por meio de passatempos que foram elaborados de acordo com as teorias da Aprendizagem Mediada por Instrumentos e dde Desenvolvimento Proximal com o objetivo de verificar se tais atividades promoveriam, junto às crianças, aprendizagem significativa. Para resposta a este questionamento foram elencados três critérios sobre o do material: 1) Pertinência das Informações apresentadas no c... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: This research aims to investigate the pedagogical functionality of comic books and educational games as an educational tool that promotes the understanding of the level of culture of disasters, with emphasis on sliding and flooding due to its recurrence in Brazil; the verification of the same pedagogical effectiveness of these forms of language is sought in the sense of divulging the right of the disasters here glimpsed through public policies able to reduce the effects generated by these with the population. Targeting the primary school children of public and private schools; the research was applied through the development of a didactic sequence that included awareness of the subject, the verification of previous knowledge, the provision of new information and concepts based on the knowledge brought by the children, the performance of attachment activities content, feedback, and reward for participation in activities and results achieved; and presented concepts through comics and activities through hobbies that were elaborated according to the theories of Instrumental Mediated Learning and the Zone of Proximal Development with the objective of verifying if such activities would promote, together with the children, meaningful learning. In response to this questioning, three criteria were listed about the material: 1) Relevance of the information presented in the content; 2) Adequacy of writing style; and 3) Ability to promote the association of ideas through illustrations. A... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-28T19:33:52Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Maria de Lourdes e Silva Pereira.pdf: 85231981 bytes, checksum: feac74efde9ba2bea5ad7689a1b72778 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-09-16 / The theme of this work the rhetoric, the passions and the playful on the textual production originated from the experience, while Portuguese language professor, with students of the College. The research aimed to verify why some college students feel displeasure in the activities of reading and writing and what are the possible ways to reverse this feeling. It began with a diagnostic questionnaire about their habits, tastes and feelings of students in relation to the acts of reading and writing. The answers to this questionnaire have shown that the reason for the resistance to these activities is the fear or misgiving passion linked to dysphoric sadness - that affects people who have been through unpleasant situations that caused them grief. The passions, in general, have their contraries. The affections contrary to fear or misgiving are the hope, the courage and the confidence elated passions linked to joy. A passion, if considered indomitable, requires action. On this finding, the best way to act to curb the sad feelings and awaken the joy, was to introduce the playfulness in the textual production activities. These activities have been developed in the form of educational workshops, democratic spaces that provide reflection, Exchange and creation process. Four workshops were offered for three different groups in different colleges outside the regular schedule of classes; with the exception of a class, whose workload was from Monday to Saturday, so the students have developed activities in the regular lessons of Portuguese language. The rhetoric, has always presented in the practices of human life, was informed theoretically by Perelman and Olbrechts-Tyteca (1999), Reboul (1998) and Meyer (2007). The passions were studied on the basis of some philosophers, such as Aristotle (2000), Hobbes (1999, 2009), Descartes (1999) and Espinosa (2012, 2013). Huizinga (2012), Kishimoto (2011, 2012) and Bachelard (1988) guided the reflections about the playful. Studies on the writing were guided by Barthes (1971, 1975, 1977, 1980, 2012), Serafini (2000), Koch and Elias (2007, 2009) and Passarelli (2004). The self-evaluations made by students, after the workshops, has confirmed the postulates of the authors studied: that a good passion can combat a bad passion and playfulness is essential in human life and awaken creativity which falls asleep in every person / O tema deste trabalho a retórica, as paixões e o lúdico na produção textual originou-se da experiência, enquanto professora de Língua Portuguesa, com alunos do curso superior. A pesquisa teve como objetivos verificar por que alguns alunos universitários sentem desprazer nas atividades de leitura e escrita e quais os caminhos possíveis para reverter esse sentimento. Iniciou-se com um questionário diagnóstico sobre os hábitos, gostos e sentimentos dos estudantes em relação aos atos de ler e escrever. As respostas a esse questionário demonstraram que o motivo da resistência a essas atividades é o medo ou temor paixão disfórica ligada à tristeza que acomete as pessoas que já passaram por situações desagradáveis que lhes causaram sofrimento. As paixões, em geral, têm seus contrários. Os afetos contrários ao medo ou temor são a esperança, a coragem e a confiança paixões eufóricas ligadas à alegria. Uma paixão, se considerada indomável, exige ação. Diante dessa constatação, o melhor modo de agir para frear os sentimentos tristes e despertar os alegres, foi introduzir a ludicidade nas atividades de produção textual. Essas atividades foram desenvolvidas em forma de oficinas pedagógicas, espaços democráticos que propiciam reflexão, troca e processo de criação. Foram oferecidas quatro oficinas para três turmas de faculdades diferentes fora do horário regular das aulas; com exceção de uma turma, cuja carga horária era de segunda-feira a sábado, portanto desenvolveram as atividades nas aulas regulares de Língua Portuguesa. Os estudos sobre a Retórica, sempre presente nas práticas da vida humana, foram embasados teoricamente por Perelman e Olbrechts-Tyteca (1999), Reboul (1998) e Meyer (2007). As paixões foram estudadas com base em alguns filósofos, como Aristóteles (2000), Hobbes (1999, 2009), Descartes (1999) e Espinosa (2012, 2013). Huizinga (2012), Kishimoto (2011, 2012) e Bachelard (1988) orientaram as reflexões sobre o lúdico. Os estudos sobre a escrita foram norteados por Barthes (1971, 1975, 1977, 1980, 2012), Serafini (2000), Koch e Elias (2007, 2009) e Passarelli (2004). As autoavaliações feitas pelos alunos, após as oficinas, confirmam os postulados dos autores estudados: que uma paixão boa pode combater uma má paixão, e que o lúdico é essencial na vida humana e desperta a criatividade que adormece em cada pessoa

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T14:31:29Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Adelaide Joia.pdf: 4440554 bytes, checksum: dce485f7ab1064626c5acee9510708c2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-12-03 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This Research discusses the public policies of early childhood education regarding concepts of care and pedagogical practices in public daycare centers. The Research subject is the municipality of Caieiras, in the State of São Paulo, whose curriculum proposal has undergone changes since 2008, moving from a traditional form of care, in which the dichotomy between care and education was evidenced in the routine with schedules for care activities and educational activities for a proposal focusing on playing and apparently integrating care and education. The guiding question of this Research is: What is the place that playfulness occupies today in early childhood education institutions, attending children from zero to three years old, and what are the possible relations and contradictions established between theories pointing towards a comprehensive early childhood education and the current practices? The aim is to understand if, in the new configuration, the children who attend these places are really playing more and how the playing occurs. The methodological procedures used to conduct this case study Research were participant observation, semistructured interviews with educators, trainee, pedagogical coordinator, director and supervisor. The data systematization was based on three categories of analysis: 1) the relationship between the educators and the children of the daycare center; 2) educators views about playing; and 3) the professional development of the educators. The data analysis points towards a complex educational context with authoritarian dichotomized practices in an apparently playful scenario / A presente pesquisa discute a política pública de educação infantil no que se refere às concepções de atendimento e às práticas pedagógicas presentes nas creches públicas. O município estudado é Caieiras/SP, cuja proposta curricular sofreu mudança a partir de 2008, passando da tradicional forma de atendimento, na qual a dicotomia entre o cuidar e o educar estava evidenciada na rotina com horários determinados para atividades de cuidado e horários determinados para atividades educacionais para uma proposta que privilegia o brincar e, aparentemente, integra o cuidar e o educar. A questão norteadora do trabalho foi: Qual o lugar que a ludicidade ocupa hoje nas instituições de educação infantil, de zero a três anos, e as possíveis relações e contradições estabelecidas entre as teorias que apontam para uma educação infantil integral e as práticas vigentes? O objetivo foi o de compreender se, na nova configuração, as crianças, de fato, estão brincando mais e como ocorrem as brincadeiras. Os procedimentos técnicos utilizados para a realização da pesquisa, que se revela como um estudo de caso, foram observação participante, entrevista semiestruturada com educadoras, estagiária, coordenador pedagógico, diretora e supervisora. A sistematização dos dados pautou-se em três categorias de análise: 1) a relação entre as profissionais e as crianças; 2) a visão das educadoras sobre o brincar; e 3) a formação profissional das educadoras. A análise do material coletado aponta para um contexto educacional complexo, com práticas autoritárias e dicotomizadas, envoltas em um cenário aparentemente lúdico

Nesta dissertação, foram investigadas as estratégias pragmáticas que crianças empregam para recuperar a atenção da mãe numa cena de interação denominada EAC (Espaço de Atenção Conjunta). Por meio de vídeos doados por mães em momentos de interação lúdica com seus filhos em ambiente doméstico, identificamos e categorizamos algumas estratégias evidenciadas por conhecimentos pragmáticos e culturais na linguagem infantil de crianças de 2 a 6 anos. Concluímos que, além da atuação de aspectos físicos (por exemplo, do aparelho fonador), de aspectos processuais (por exemplo, os contextos interativos) e aspectos psíquicos (por exemplo, a vontade), são fatores socioculturais que, em paralelo, atuam para que a criança alcance a atenção da mãe, condição precípua para que restabeleça o EAC. Identificamos que as estratégias pragmáticas variariam em grau de complexidade a depender da maturidade das crianças. As crianças de mais tenra idade e de menor maturidade tendem a mobilizar mais o corpo como ferramenta manipulatória, e as mais maduras tendem a evidenciar seu background cultural, além das estratégias remanescentes da protolíngua (conceito inspirado em Damásio para remeter aos estágios mais incipientes de interação durante o processo de aquisição de linguagem). Constatamos, durante as análises, que as ideias de gradação e de complexidade legitimam-se como traços definidores de atitudes pragmáticas, adotadas por crianças, hoje concebidas como parte de um grande grupo heterogêneo chamado primeira infância, mas que podem ser realocadas em dois grupos etários: de 2 a 4 anos; e de 5 a 6 anos. Esse rearranjo reflete a descoberta de que as estratégias para retomada de EAC distinguem-se nesses dois grupos, fazendo cair por terra a referência generalizante primeira infância. / In this dissertation, we investigated the pragmatic strategies that children use to recover their mother\'s attention, in an interaction scene called JAE (Joint Attention Environment) EAC, in Portuguese. Using videos donated by mothers, in moments of playful interaction with their children, in a domestic environment, we identify and categorize some strategies evidenced by pragmatic and cultural knowledge in the language of children from 2 to 6 years. We conclude that, in addition to the physical aspects (e.g.: speech articulators), processual aspects (e.g.: interactive contexts) and psychic aspects (e.g.: willingness), there are sociocultural factors that, in parallel, act for a child to reach the attention of the mother, an essential condition for restoring the JAE. We also identified that the pragmatic strategies vary in degree of complexity, depending on the maturity of the children. Children from an early age and less mature tend to mobilize more the body, as a manipulative tool, and the ones more mature tend to evidence their cultural background, in addition to the remaining strategies of the protolanguage (a concept inspired by Damásios works to refer to the most incipient stages of interaction throughout the language acquisition process). During analysis, we noticed that the ideas of gradation and complexity are legitimized as defining traits of pragmatic attitudes adopted by children, which have been conceived as part of a larger heterogeneous group called \"early childhood\". We understand that those defining traits can be reallocated in two age groups: from 2 to 4 years; and from 5 to 6 years. These rearrangements reflect the findings that approaches for retaking JAE differ in these two groups, bringing down this \"early childhood\" generalizing reference.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:43:03Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ana Carolina Moliterno Furtado Felix.pdf: 6775448 bytes, checksum: 1323c7e70bb7ed013f8d5f06557f7c9a (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-06-17 / Building upon the issues on cultural mediation, the game and the pursuit of building knowledge about art and heritage, as well as on the course and experience as a teacher of art, this research expanded reflections on the playfulness in art class, connected with cultural heritage. the paper presents a survey of board game at school and at cultural institutions and develops a game with the carapicuíba village focused. the game in its versions has also been transformed with the participation of elementary school students ii state school prof. manoel da conceição santos, in the municipality of carapicuíba. the survey revealed as the game, the playful and cultural heritage can mediate content in art classes and how students interacted with the specially crafted game, experiencing it as an interdisciplinary instrument of knowledge. / Fundamentando-se nas questões sobre a mediação cultural, o jogo e a busca da construção de conhecimento sobre arte e patrimônio, como também no percurso e experiência como professora de arte, a presente pesquisa ampliou reflexões sobre a ludicidade na aula de arte, conectada com o patrimônio cultural. o trabalho apresenta uma pesquisa sobre jogo de percurso na escola e em instituições culturais e desenvolve um jogo tendo a aldeia de carapicuíba como foco. o jogo em suas versões foi transformado também com a participação dos alunos do ensino fundamental ii da escola estadual prof. manoel da conceição santos, no município de carapicuíba. a pesquisa revelou como o jogo, o lúdico e o patrimônio cultural podem mediar conteúdos nas aulas de arte e como os alunos interagiram com o jogo especialmente criado, vivenciando-o como instrumento de conhecimento interdisciplinar.

This study investigates whether the social facilitation effect takes place when a person performs a computerized task that includes an animated intelligent agent (IA). The moderating effects of two individual differences, locus of control (LOC) and microcomputer playfulness (MCP), are tested for. It was proposed that an IA's presence would cause participants to exhibit this effect and that LOC and MCP would moderate a participant's arousal, measured as state anxiety, such that those possessing an internal LOC and those exhibiting high MCP would experience less arousal when performing computerized tasks with an IA present. Data was analyzed using a 2 (task difficulty) x 4 (intelligent agent) repeated measures MANCOVA. Most hypotheses are not supported, however MCP does appear to moderate arousal depending on the behavior of the IA.