This dissertation is the documentation of a participative learning project with the purpose of facilitating improvement in farming and agricultural development work in the Hohoe district of Ghana. This study was done in a context in which (a)agricultural production is carried out by small scale farmers who depend on social networking at the village level, for the distribution and management of agricultural resources, and on local knowledge for productive purposes; (b)government efforts at agricultural development is implemented through the activitiesof its agricultural development agencies - Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) and the Ministry of Science and Technology (MIST).Participative learning, based on the logic and concepts of action research, experiential learning and critical systems learning, was used as a methodological framework. The conclusion drawn from this inquiry is that participative learning is a legitimate and an effective way of facilitating the development of food and other agricultual production. The challenge is therefore for individuals and organizations involved in the development of agricultural production to establish suitable processes and relationships to support participative learning. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Following Bourdieu (1977) and alluding to the work of Toren (1990,1993a, 1999) and Lave (1991) this thesis supports the argument that learning, understood as a participative, historical and generative process, is intrinsic to all social practice and furthermore that all social practice substantiates human mind. It follows therefore that mind is a learning phenomenon and that it makes no sense, for example, to isolate didactic practice from the wider social situations in which children learn. The thesis argues that the form participative learning takes is that of an increasingly differentiated competence with respect to complex relations of exchange in objects, bodily actions and language. It is shown how, through particular exchange relations, the value of persons, practices and things is created and transformed as an ongoing and mutually specifying material process. Taking both childhood and the practice of ethnography as examples of legitimate peripheral participation (Lave 1991) the thesis aims towards a phenomenological description of what it means to become working class in Bermondsey, South East London. Responding to a multicultural political climate in which claims are made that the working class no longer exists, the thesis addresses the popular backlash in which white working class people demand that their social values are recognised and protected. What matters in Bermondsey, for example, is that class relations are to be understood ethnographically as the difference between common and posh people and that this distinction is articulated with whether or not a person was born and bred in Bermondsey. This means that specific ideas about kinship relations and place, understood as particular forms of materiality, mediate the development in Bermondsey of the kind of persons people can become. The chapters that follow will describe the social processes through which Bermondsey people reproduce (Narotzky 1997) the idea of themselves as a distinctive community.

This study examines boundaries and synergies between continuing professional learning contexts of academy, workplace and profession, and considers what factors and approaches of learning contribute to common good in societies. In a review of literature, historical trends in professions and professional learning, concerns of managerialism and performativity, and educational theories of socially constructivism, developmental and ethical learning were considered. A constructivist grounded theory approach was used to collect and analyse data from eighty work-based student documents and from twelve semi-structured interviews with practitioners in four Scottish professions. The findings indicated that learning across contexts was disconnected, creating additional demands for professionals. Increased academic study indicated a more knowledgeable and skilled workforce, with a caveat of market-led credentialism in response to demands for higher qualifications. Professional CPD provided benefits of quality assurance and public safety, but was reported as individualised procedural accountability. Interpersonal communicative action was identified as key to workplace learning, although was afforded less significance than accredited learning in professional and academic contexts. Factors of individualism, accountability and credentialism were noted to have effect on participative workplace learning, which, the study argued, impacted on ethical agency in professions. To address these trends, adaptability, reciprocity and dialogical critical thinking were identified as necessary factors for a continuing professional learning that contributes to common good in societies.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T20:02:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2890.pdf: 4349589 bytes, checksum: 9e60306f0f5f18e73d6bd81a88e67122 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-02-27 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / This project is a study that seeks a reflection of author about classroom practices in teaching mathematics, at public schools of State of São Paulo, Brazil, especially with 6th and 7th grades of Basic School System. We adopted the Methodology of Lesson Study, a original Japanese Methodology, that focus the research on investigative activities of a teacher aiming at the improvement of his/her teaching practices. The phases of such investigative activities comprise the planning and the execution of the lessons, followed by the critical reflections after the lesson, that constitute fundamental steps to the search for the improvement of the teaching/learning process. This methodology is being disseminated in Western countries, and this work is one of the first adapted experiences as an attempt to introduce it in Brazil, and it is commented in Chapter 2. In order to secure an effective reflection of this process, we have established the investigative procedure at each stage of teacher´s practice, grounding the work on the concept of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (Schulman, 1986), discussed in Chapter 1. As main product of Master Program for Teachers, we have designed lessons and activities that consider the curriculum proposal of The Secretary of Education of the State of São Paulo and have followed the Methodology of Problem Solving of Polya, as a strategy to yield the analysis of lessons, activities and the following reflections. One main result sought and obtained in this work is the participative learning of students when building their own knowledge through the steps of Problem Solving Methodology, described in Chapter 3. In Chapter 5, we present some proposals for different types of lessons, describing the ways the curriculum recommendations can be worked out with our approach. We show analyses of lesson planning and the expectations of teacher about the executions of the plans at this stage, as well as about many problems come up with students´ difficulties, reactions and participations. Moreover, we comment the didactical perceptions of the author that have allowed conducting the Lesson Study in the stage of improving the learning with active participation of students. The most important achievement of this work is the execution of after class reflections mediated by Lesson Study Methodology, which has implicated a new vision of the assessment of students answers and questions/doubts. The work has permitted a more refined search and comprehension of the errors and the analyses of correct answers, which has brought a quality upgrade to the assessment. The Chapter 6 contains a synthesis of our reflections connected to the activities. The Appendix consists of detachable sheets with the lesson plans and steps of their execution, which can be used by basic school teachers as well as by students of teacher preparation programs who seek ideas and suggestions to improve their classroom practice. / O presente projeto é um estudo que buscou uma reflexão sobre a prática docente do autor no ensino da matemática em escolas públicas do Estado de São Paulo, especialmente sobre o ensino nas séries iniciais do ciclo II do Ensino Fundamental (6º e 7º anos). Apoiamos na Metodologia de Pesquisa de Aula, uma metodologia de origem japonesa, que coloca o foco da pesquisa nas atividades investigativas do profissional docente para o aperfeiçoamento de suas práticas. A investigação passa pelas fases de planejamento e execução de aulas e reflexões pós-aula, que são primordiais para a busca da melhoria do ensino-aprendizagem da matemática. A Metodologia está sendo disseminada no Ocidente, sendo esse trabalho uma das primeiras experiências na tentativa de introduzir essa metodologia no Brasil, e seu conteúdo está explicado no Capítulo 2. Para garantir uma reflexão efetiva desse processo, buscamos estabelecer o olhar investigativo do professor em cada etapa da prática docente, baseando-nos no conceito de Conhecimento Pedagógico de Conteúdo (Schulman, 1986), que foi considerado no Capítulo 1. Como produto da pesquisa em Mestrado Profissional, elaboramos aulas e atividades baseadas na proposta curricular da Secretaria de Estado da Educação do Estado de São Paulo (SEE-SP), que está analisada no Capítulo 4, e seguimos a Metodologia de Resolução de Problemas (Polya, 1995) como uma estratégia para fundamentar a análise das atividades assim como as reflexões realizadas. A Metodologia de Resolução de Problemas foi estudada no Capítulo 3, comparando as fases da resolução dentro das atividades propostas no nosso estudo. Um dos resultados principais buscados e obtidos nesse projeto foi a aprendizagem participativa dos alunos na construção de seu conhecimento por meio das etapas da Metodologia de Resolução de Problemas. No capítulo 5, apresentamos algumas propostas de diferentes aulas, mostrando como os temas curriculares podem ser trabalhados sob tal enfoque. Apresentamos análises do preparo de aulas e expectativas do docente nesta fase, diversos problemas enfrentados com as dificuldades dos alunos, suas reações e participações. Além disso, comentamos as percepções didáticas do docente que permitiram conduzir a Pesquisa de Aula na fase de melhorar a aprendizagem com a participação ativa dos alunos. O resultado mais importante do trabalho foi conseguir executar as reflexões pós-aulas que, mediadas pela Metodologia da Pesquisa de Aula, permitiram um novo olhar nas análises das atividades feitas pelos alunos, implicando uma busca e compreensão mais acurada dos erros e acertos dos mesmos, o que trouxe um salto qualitativo nas avaliações da aprendizagem dos alunos. O Capítulo 6 contém uma síntese do nosso estudo relacionando as reflexões com as atividades executadas. O Apêndice deste trabalho consiste dos planos de aulas e atividades, e descrição das suas execuções, que podem ser destacados e utilizados por professores das escolas básicas ou por licenciandos em busca de sugestões e ideias para aperfeiçoar sua prática docente.