Online courses of distance learning programmes at universities are designed considering the characteristics and needs of their adult learners. Basically, there are two types of learners in an online course: individual learners and collaborative learners. Designing for learner satisfaction and learning effectiveness for both types of learners is challenging. In fact, previous research has noted that many online courses fail due to poor design. As a solution, researchers have identified instructional design principles that can guide the design of successful online courses. However, these principles lack detailed information to apply them in contexts different from where they had been identified. This consideration raises a question: how does one adapt the existing design principles to design online courses that promote both individual and collaborative learning, particularly in contexts where online courses are supposed to be conducted with minimal teacher support? In the present research, this question is addressed via two sub-research questions: (1) which course components and their design features can promote learners’ satisfaction, perceived learning, and learning effectiveness, and (2) which course components and their design features can stimulate inquiry-based learning and peer-teaching? The research was carried out in the field of educational design research with sets of students and instructional designers of a virtual learning environment prepared for a university-level degree programme in Sri Lanka. Referring to the findings of this research, the thesis discusses how to design online courses that promote both individual and collaborative learning. Further, based on the findings, the thesis presents a set of design principles and guidelines to promote both individual and collaborative learning in online courses that are on information technology related subjects and prepared for distance learning programmes. / SIDA Funded National e-Learning Centre Project at the University of Colombo School of Computing, Sri Lanka

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:41:21Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Carmen Silvia de Souza Nogueira.pdf: 8637337 bytes, checksum: 138deae09a8e7a0e9889882438a0f1cf (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-02-11 / This qualitative study analyzes the modality of learning among the families who received complaints from the school. This is done by identifying the modality of learning of the parents in order to understand their subjective position as teachers in nurturing the bond established with their children in relation to education. We assume that learning does not begin in school, but in the environment in which the child is born and raised, and many of children s attitudes outside the family environment reproduce their parents learning patterns, which in turn reveal the models they had in their relationships with their own parents. To that end, the theoretical axis focuses on authors who consider learning to be a result of not only cognitive potentiality, but also of the relationships established with a significant other, in this case with the parents as teaching figures. Our conception of learning, therefore, is that it is a binding process, shaped by the family legacy that underlies the construction of subjectivity, with each member having peculiarities in their development, albeit belonging to the same biological universe. The instruments for data collection were semi-structured interviews and graphic production of Peer Teaching and Family Teaching projection drawings from Visca (2009), amplified to measure the overlap between the current family and the parental family, thereby creating a joint assessment for the household. The data revealed the similarities and differences of parents in relation to their own and their child s learning, as well as the models brought from their own family backgrounds. The customized analysis of each family, the understanding of the place given to learning in these nuclei, the parental roles and functions associated with the children s needs, as well as the projections of the previous generation on the children, all converged with the identification of a learning model. The knowledge of family models shed light on the scope available to parents as they assist the child s achievements. By identifying parents concepts and modes of learning and the way they contribute to how children meet the challenge of school, we enable a future collaborative intervention process which takes into account points of ease and difficulty to guide the child through its education. / Esta pesquisa qualitativa buscou analisar a modalidade de aprendizagem familiar de crianças com queixa escolar, identificando a modalidade de aprendizagem dos pais e filhos para conhecer o posicionamento subjetivo dos mesmos enquanto ensinantes a nortear o vínculo estabelecido com o filho em relação ao aprender. Partimos do pressuposto de que a aprendizagem não se inicia na escola, e sim no ambiente em que a criança nasce e se desenvolve, sendo que muitas de suas atitudes no ambiente exterior ao familiar reproduzem padrões de aprendizagem dos próprios pais que, por sua vez, também revelam os modelos que tiveram em suas relações com os genitores. Para tanto o eixo teórico concentrou-se nos autores que consideram a aprendizagem como fruto não somente de potencialidades cognitivas, mas também decorrente das relações que se estabelecem com um outro significativo, neste caso com os pais, enquanto figuras ensinantes. Nossa concepção de aprendizagem, portanto, é a de que a mesma é um processo vincular, é-se herdeiro de legados familiares que perpassam a construção da subjetividade, e cada um possui peculiaridades em seu desenvolvimento, embora pertencente ao mesmo universo biológico. Os instrumentos para coleta dos dados foram entrevistas semidirigidas e a produção gráfica de desenhos projetivos Par Educativo e Família Educativa de Visca (2009), ampliando, porém, sua abrangência, ao imbricar a família atual e a de origem dos pais, fechando uma avaliação conjunta para o núcleo familiar. Os resultados encontrados permitiram verificar as semelhanças e diferenças dos pais em relação à aprendizagem deles e do filho como também os modelos trazidos de suas famílias de origem. A análise singularizada de cada família, o entendimento do lugar do saber nestes núcleos, os papéis e funções parentais associados com as demandas dos filhos bem como as projeções da geração precedente sobre as crianças confluíram na identificação de um modelo de aprendizagem. O conhecimento dos modelos familiares lançou luz quanto ao alcance que os pais têm para auxiliar nas novas conquistas do filho. Ao identificarmos as concepções e modalidades de aprendizagem dos pais e como contribuem para os enfrentamentos escolares do filho possibilitamos que um processo interventivo futuro junto a eles contemple os pontos de facilidade e dificuldade para lidar com o filho em seu processo de escolarização.

Conservatoires all over the world are re-examining their educational roles and practices in a changing cultural and economic context, including re-evaluating their function as sites of relevant learning. This dissertation by publication contributes to this re-examination by investigating understandings of assessment, evaluative reflection, the relationship between know-how and knowledge, autonomous learning, community of practice and the student experience of these pedagogies in one Queensland conservatorium. The study is presented in the form of a synopsis and five publications, with additional data that will form the basis of further post-doctoral publication. It is focused on non-traditional pedagogical processes operating within a bachelor of popular music program, processes that have been intuited by the academic teacher who is also the author of this dissertation. What these processes have in common is the philosophical rejection of teacher-led pedagogy and an insistence upon, and scaffolding of, self-directed student action and reflection. The aim of the dissertation, in keeping with the rationale for a professional doctorate, is to subject this approach to systematic theoretical and empirical scrutiny, and thereby to further refine and strengthen the practices in terms of their capacity to engage young people in self-directed approaches to quality music making. John Biggs's presage/process/product learning model (1999) provides a structure for this systematic evaluation of the pedagogical work. The study understands the learning characteristics that students bring to the program, combined with the structures and pedagogical approaches in place in the program, to be the key presage elements; the learning activities (including assessment as learning) that occur within the program are the key process elements; the key products are the learning outcomes for the students and the ongoing development of the program and pedagogical approaches informed by reflection on empirical data including data collected as part of this research. The study demonstrates the significance of recognising and valuing presage and process elements that enable students to perform from the basis of their intuitive know how while being recorded, and then apply their knowledge-based critical reflection skills to an appraisal of their own work and the work of their peers while hearing the recording played back. While not displacing the teacher as mentor and critical friend, this moves responsibility for learning to the student as a self-monitoring, strategic decision-maker about the nature and quality of their learning products. The program requirement that students write meaningfully about the process appears to encourage the embracing of both conscious and unconscious ways of knowing and doing. As a documentation of this type of teaching, the study presents an argument for a broader incorporation of student-led pedagogy into higher education in general and conservatoria in particular. It concludes that aspects of education that enhance students' abilities to learn, including self- and peer assessment, self-directed learning, reflective practice, and both independent and collaborative work that incorporates program-wide learning, are likely to enhance integrated creative practice. This project has made it possible to disseminate a scholarly engagement with such processes through publication in academic and professional contexts.

Syftet med denna uppsats är att undersöka före detta elevers uppfattning om att få undervisning i DRACON. DRACON är ett konflikthanteringsprogram med drama som metod. För min undersökning har metoden varit enskilda intervjuer samt fokussamtal med elever som 2003-2004 deltog i undervisning i DRACON i skolan och i en filminspelning om DRACON-programmet. Mina resultat visar att drama i trygg miljö upplevs positivt av eleverna framför allt för att det kan hjälpa blyga elever att träda fram. Studien visar också att flera av eleverna som intervjuades fick med sig nya redskap i konflikthantering. Eleverna är positiva till kamratundervisning för att öka kunskapen om konflikthantering på skolor, vilket sammanfaller med forskning av Burton i Australien och är i linje med Skolverkets förespråkande av förebyggande insatser på skolor för att förebygga mobbning. Eleverna ser fördelar med att undervisas av en särskild pedagog i dramaundervisningen. Utvecklingen i klassen efter arbetet med DRACON i skolan och filmen om DRACON-programmet visar en effekt som också beskrivs av DRACON International (2005). Eleverna lär känna varandra på nya sätt, utvecklar känslor av kamratskap, empati och respekt, ökar sin lyssnade förmåga, förstår vikten av samarbete och förmågor, som att lyssna till andra. / The purpose of this thesis is to investigate previous students opinions about education in DRACON. DRACON is a program in conflict mangement with drama as a method. In spring 2013 interviews and focus discussions were made with students who 2003-2004 participated in education in DRACON and in filming the methods in the DRACON. My results shows that drama as a method get positive response, the most important reason is that it can be a help for shy pupils to step forward. Several of the pupils interviewed did get new tools for handling conflicts. The pupils are positive to peer-teaching for increasing the knowledge about conflict management in schools. The same thing is found in research by Burton (Australia) and is in the line with School department of Sweden that recommend preventive work in schools to prevent bullying. The students sees advantages in being educated by a pedagogue specialized in drama methods. The development in the school class after participating in DRACON and filming the methods in DRACON shows an effect among the students that also are described in DRACON International (2005). They get to know each other in new ways, develop feelings of friendship, empathy and respect, increase the listening capacity, understand the importance of collaboration and capacities, as listening to others.

According to former brain surgeon, Nils Simonson, Swedish schools are wasting their students’ time by using teaching methods that lead to poor memorization, namely reading and listening as separate activities. He instead suggests that the students use methods that lead to better memorization. The study described in this rendering focuses on two of Simonson’s suggestions – discussion and peer teaching. This work accounts for a study, in which Swedish 8 thgrade English students were working in asymmetrical pairs, i.e. pairs composed by students on different levels of achievement. The study was aimed at finding an answer to the thesis question of whether working in asymmetrical pairs led to a larger or smaller improvement, on a final grammar test, than the improvement of the rest of the students in the class, who were working individually, and thus formed a control group for the study. The result was that the students in three out of four asymmetrical pairs improved their results more than the control group. Since one of the students in the fourth asymmetrical pair had been absent, they had only been working together during half the period of the study. This probably explains why their improvement was only on the same level as the improvement of the students in the control group. The answer to the thesis question is therefore that working in asymmetrical pairs led to better results on the final grammar test, than working individually. If the results of the participating students are divided into different groups, we also find that the students with the lowest results on the initial grammar test were those who improved their results the most, which could possibly be explained by a better room for improvement. Due to the short time range of the study, it was limited to one class, and the generalizability of the study is hence very low. However, it could potentially serve as a pilot study for larger research projects. My main idea of future research is thus to expand the study to a larger number of students. It would also be interesting to incorporate students on all levels of achievement into a similar research project. This work incorporates predominant teaching science theory, such as socio-cultural theories, and influential second language acquisition theory, such as the input hypothesis, the output hypothesis and focus on form instruction.

The aim of this study was to explore how peer education is enhancing social-emotional learning in four secondary schools in Fort Beaufort Education District. An empirical investigation using the qualitative approach examined the situation of the peer education clubs at the four schools. Data was gathered using interviews, focus groups, observations and document analysis. The purpose of the study was to examine the role of peer education programmes in enhancing social and emotional learning in schools. In this research study specifically the qualitative research approach was used. The study also adopted a purposive sampling procedure which is acceptable for special sampling situations where the researcher applied her own experience to select cases which form part of the participants. Four schools were selected, four principals, four teachers who work with peer education clubs, four focus groups, one HIV/AIDS district coordinator, and one peer group trainer. It emerged from the analysis of the collected data that peer education clubs in Fort Beaufort have a number of challenges facing them, resulting in them making insignificant contributions towards the enhancing of social-emotional learning. The clubs’ efforts have resulted in little positive behavioural change among the youth. Among the challenges revealed are: lack of proper structures and support from school administrators, poor selection of peer educators, lack of time and facilities in which to carry out their work, lack of adequate training for both teachers and peer educators. Teacher interference was also cited regularly at all four schools, thereby defeating the whole idea of peer education. The study also revealed that peer educators in Fort Beaufort are not receiving adequate support from other stakeholders like, the police, the justice department and social welfare. Another critical observation made during the study was that peer education clubs are lacking clear standards of practice, rigour and sustainability, all which should be addressed in order to enhance social-emotional learning in schools. Data was analysed using a thematic content analysis. The analysis was carried out in a manner that related to the research questions and objectives in the study. A transcript was made from the respondents’ answers. Reflection and coding was done and data was categorised as an important learning tool in schools, and to recognise its contribution to social emotional learning. The study concluded that peer education clubs in schools, despite their huge potential to improve both behaviour and academic results, are not being given a conducive environment to operate in or the necessary support. This effectively means that learners with some behavioural problems and who have the potential to reform are also being denied the opportunity to lead better lives. The Department is advised to increase the number of both peer education trainers and trained peer educators. Furthermore the training period of peer educators should be increased from the current five days. There is need for the Department of Education to formalise peer education clubs in schools and craft laws that makes it mandatory for schools to provide the clubs with decent facilities like confidential rooms to conduct their activities. More so the study recommends that there is need to train all teachers in schools in social skills and not only LO teachers to ease supervisory burden on the LO teachers.

Thesis (M.Ed. (Language Education)) -- University of Limpopo, 2022 / This study investigates challenges grade 12 learners experience in essay writing in English first additional language (EFAL). Nine Grade 12 learners and 3 EFAL educators at Mothimako high school participated in the study. The method used in this study is qualitative method and it is used to get both teachers and learners experiences in depth detail regarding the challenges faced by learners in essay writing. Furthermore, the tools used to collect data are documents analysis, questionnaires, and observation. The study is underpinned by the Social Constructivism Learning theory. The researcher presented profiles of the school and EFAL teachers. The findings suggest that learners face a number of challenges with essay writing. The major challenges identified include the lack of resources, overcrowded classrooms, poor teaching methods and poor foundation skills of EFAL which led to poor grammatical competence. The study recommends that scaffolding be practiced when teaching the skill, conducive learning environments be created so learners learn the writing skill in a free, comfortable environment, support be provided in terms of writing materials, regular workshops be conducted to equip teachers with the writing skill, conducting workshops for parents so they could be aware how they could be involved in their children's education and lastly, encourage learners to work in groups if they are to learn the skill.

During the past thirty years several models for lifelong education after retirement have been developed worldwide, one of them being the University of the Third Age (U3A). This study explored the contributions of the U3A to the educational needs of older adults and evaluated the benefits they perceived from their participation in U3A by means of a literature study and an empirical investigation. The latter used a survey to explore the experiences of U3A members of two U 3As and presidents of 68 U3As in Victoria, Australia by means of two different questionnaires. As only 1.47 percent of the over-55 population of Victoria are U3A members, the survey also investigated barriers to U3A participation in general and with special reference to the male population. The findings indicated that member respondents were very satisfied with their U3A experiences which had made substantial differences in their lives. Both male and female respondents saw personal, mental, social, and physical improvement as a result of U3A participation. The majority indicated that participation had improved their intellectual development. Significant differences in the perceptions of male and female participants emerged: female members outnumbered males by three to one. Both the presidents and the members expressed some programmatic concerns, primarily obtaining tutors and classroom availability. The subject areas covered by courses presented were extensive. There was a difference in the subjects desired by males and female respondents; very few courses are offered in science and economics. Some barriers to participation identified are a lack of awareness of U3A, the stereotypical attitudinal barrier of `I am too old' and negative past educational experiences. Moreover, U3As should increase marketing endeavours. Although most U3As advertise, almost a third of the respondents indicated that they would have joined earlier if aware of U3As. A contributing factor appears to be a virtual lack of research and information provided in educational academic journals and other media about lifelong education after retirement. Based on the findings, recommendations were made for future research and for improved practice in the U3A environment as a means to enhance the quality of life for older adults. / Educational Studies / D.Ed. (Comparative Education)

Text in English / The primary aim of this study is to explore and describe experiences of peer helpers at an Open Distance Learning institution since the start of their joining the Unisa Peer Help Volunteer Programme. This study was conducted with the intention of granting the peer helpers an opportunity to reflect on their individual experiences and in so doing in laying the foundation for future studies, intended to steer the Unisa peer help volunteer programme to new frontiers, while simultaneously highlighting the contribution that has been made by the Unisa Peer Help Voluntary Programme. An intrinsic case study design has been utilised in order to gain comprehensive insight into peer helpers’ experiences. A sample of seven peer helpers were interviewed using the semi-structured interview technique. The main findings from this study can be categorised into four distinctive themes namely: (a) the peer helpers’ goals for joining the Unisa Peer Help Volunteer Programme; (b) construction of roles as peer helpers at an open distance learning institution; (c) positive experiences of participating in the Unisa peer help volunteer programme; and (d) the negative experiences of participating in the Unisa Peer Help Volunteer Programme. The findings have painted a positive picture of how the Unisa peer help volunteer programme has contributed in shaping the lives of the peer helpers. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology (Research Consultation))

Economics as a subject is one of the sciences that is required for any nation's development, but its teaching and learning has not being easy, which has resulted in poor student achievement. In search of solutions, this study has considered the reflective-reciprocal teaching technique and investigates its effectiveness on student teachers' academic achievement and attitude in the subject. Four Null hypotheses were formulated to guide this study. The study adopted the quantitative method of inquiry, using specifically a pre-test, post-test quasi-experimental design. Three Colleges of Education out of 22 federal Colleges of Education in Nigeria were purposively selected based on certain criteria to be the sites for the study. The sample for the study consisted of 178 second year Economics student teachers; the participants were randomly assigned to an experimental group or a control group. The pre-test scores of the participants was obtained using achievement test, numerical ability test questionnaire. Participants in the experimental group were exposed to six weeks of teaching using the reflective-reciprocal teaching strategy while participants in the control group were exposed to the traditional method of teaching. The quantitative data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics in the form of proportions, frequencies, means and standard deviations, independent t- tests and paired t-tests to compare differences between two groups, Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) and ANOVA for repeated measures. The Multiple Classification Analysis (MCA) aspect of ANCOVA was used to determine the magnitude of the performance of the groups. The findings of the study show that there exists a significant difference in the achievement of student-teachers in Economics when taught using reflective-reciprocal teaching strategies compared to the conventional method. Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that Economics student teachers should make effective use of reflective-reciprocal teaching strategies in the classroom in order to further enhance the achievement of their students in the subject. In addition, the Federal and States Ministries of Education should encourage the use of the reflective-reciprocal teaching strategies by organizing workshops for educational trainers and teachers to better equip them in the use of the reflective-reciprocal teaching strategy. The use of reflective-reciprocal teaching strategies should be encouraged in other teaching subjects as well. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / M. Ed. (Didactics)