Doctor Educationis / The study aims to investigate the fundamental validity issues that can affect the DR Congo English state examination, a national exit test administered to high school final year students for certification. The study aspires to generate an understanding of the potential issues that affect the construct validity of a test within the epistemological stance that supports a strong relationship between test construct and test context. The study draws its theoretical underpinning from three theories: the validity theory that provides a theoretical ground necessary for understanding the quality of tests needed for assessing students’ reading abilities; the construction-integration theory that provides an understanding of how texts used in reading assessments are processed and understood by the examinees; and the strategic competence theory that explains how examinees deploy strategies to complete test tasks, and the extent to which these strategies tap into the reading construct. Furthermore, the study proposes a reading model that signposts the social context of testing; therefore, conceptualizing reading as both a cognitive and a social process. As research design, the study adopts an exploratory design using both qualitative and quantitative data. Besides, the study uses protocol analysis and content analysis methodologies. While the former provides an understanding of the cognitive processes that mediate the reading construct and test performance so as to explore the different strategies examinees use to answer the English state examination (henceforth termed ESE) test questions, the latter examines the content of the different ESE papers so as to identify the different textual and item features that potentially impact on examinees’ performance on the ESE tasks. As instruments, the study uses a concurrent strategies questionnaire administered to 496 student-participants, a contextual questionnaire administered to 26 student-participants, a contextual questionnaire administered to 27 teacher-participants, and eight tests administered to 496 student-participants. The findings indicate that, the ESE appears to be less appropriate to the ESE context as the majority of ESE test items target careful reading than expeditious reading; on the one hand, and reading at global level than to reading at local level; on the other hand. The findings also indicate that the ESE tasks hardly take account of the text structure and the underlined cognitive demands appropriate to the text types. Besides, the ESE fails to include other critical aspects of the reading construct. Finally, the findings also indicate that the ESE constructors may not be capable to construct an ESE with five functioning distractors as expected. Moreover, the inclusion of the implicit option 6 overlaps with the conceptual meaning of this option. The entire process of the present study has generated some insights that can advance our understanding of the construct validity of reading tests. These insights are: (a) the concept of validity is an evolving and context-dependent concept, (b) reading construct cannot be examined outside the actual context of reading activity, (c) elimination of distractors can sometimes be a construct-relevant strategy, (d) construct underrepresentation is a context-dependent concept, and (e) a reading test cannot be valid in all contexts. The suggested proposal for the improvement of the ESE requires the Congolese government through its Department of Education to (a) always conduct validation studies to justify the use of the ESE, (b) always consider the actual context of reading activity while developing the ESE, (c) revisit the meanings and interpretations of the ESE scores, (d) ensure the appropriateness of tasks to be included in the ESE, (e) ensure the construct representativeness of the ESE tasks, (f) revisit the number of questions to be included in the ESE, (g) avoid bias in the ESE texts in order to ensure fairness, (h) diversify the genres of ESE texts, (i) ensure the coherence of ESE texts through the use of transitions and cohesive devices, (j) ensure that the order of test questions is in alignment with the order of text information, (k) revisit the structure and length of the texts to be included in the ESE, (l) revisit the number of alternatives to be included in the ESE, and (m) reconsider the use of the implicit alternative 6.

This diploma thesis focuses on design of the web application for project management. The final product is more process-oriented compared to most of other widely spread project management tools. It builds on the visual representation of tasks' progress. One of the main features is its simplicity and user friendliness as it also aims at the users who are not willing to invest their time to discover more complex applications but are willing to use some project management tool. The application is developped in the Symfony framework.

La présente recherche se propose de décrire, d’analyser et de comprendre les problèmes des étudiants en phase d’apprentissage de l’interprétation consécutive avec le turc et le français comme paire de langues de travail et d’étudier leur évolution. Il porte sur la possibilité ou non d’enseigner les principes et les techniques de base de l’interprétation consécutive à des étudiants qui ne sont qu’en licence et qui n’ont pas nécessairement une maîtrise de la langue étrangère suffisante pour être admis à un programme de formation d’interprètes de haut niveau. Le corpus, constitué de transcriptions des prestations des étudiants, de notes prises en consécutive et de témoignages rétrospectifs, a été exploité dans le cadre conceptuel des Modèles d’Efforts de Daniel Gile, de manière à essayer de remonter à l’origine des faiblesses des étudiants. Les résultats présentés font apparaitre une nette progression chez les étudiants entre deux étapes dans la formation, qui s’observe sur des éléments décrits dans la littérature comme faisant partie du savoir-faire de l’interprète professionnel. Ils suggèrent que les étudiants ont effectivement appris les principes et les techniques de base de l’interprétation bien qu’ils ne soient pas dans une école spécialisée en interprétation, ni dans un programme de Master, ce qui constitue une réponse positive à la question de recherche. En outre, la présente recherche discute de la spécificité linguistique de la paire de langues concernée, et de l’intérêt méthodologique de démarche triangulaire adoptée. Des pistes de recherche sont enfin proposées. / This research aims to describe, analyze and understand problems that students encounter while learning consecutive interpreting in Turkish and French as a working language pair, and students' progress in coping with the problems. It focuses on the question whether it is possible to teach the basic principles and techniques of consecutive interpretingto undergraduate students who do not necessarily master their foreign working language well enough to be admitted to a high level interpreter training program.The corpus consists of transcriptions of the students' consecutive interpreting performances, notes taken in consecutive interpreting class and retrospective interviews with students. The analysis seeks to trace back the origin of the students’ observed weaknesses within the framework of Gile's Effort Models.Findings show clear progress in the students' consecutive interpreting performance over the two semesters under consideration. It is also observed that students' progress is mainly found in elements which are described as part of the know-how of a professional interpreter in the literature on interpreting. The findings also show that students have learned basic principles and techniques of consecutive interpreting, although they are not enrolled in a Master's program or in a program specialized in interpreting. They therefore suggest apositive answer to the research question.The linguistic specificity of the language pair involved and the methodological benefits of the triangular approach implemented in the study are discussed, and potential avenues for future research are suggested.

Service Learning ist ein didaktisches Konzept, welches problemorientiertes Lernen mit der Zivilgesellschaft verbindet. Studierende bearbeiten reale Probleme, welche eine Verbindung zu ihrem Curriculum (z. B. Modulziele) haben und Herausforderungen in der Zivilgesellschaft aufnehmen. Zielstellung ist u. a. eine ‚zivile Verantwortungsfähigkeit’ bei den Studierenden zu fördern. Konzeptionelle wie empirische Studien modellieren das Konstrukt ‚zivile Verantwortungsfähigkeit’ unterschiedlich und in der Regel auf der Grundlage von retrospektiven Forschungsdesigns. Im vorliegenden Aufsatz werden demgegenüber Ergebnisse einer prozessnahen, empirischen Untersuchung in der Lehrer_innenbildung vorgestellt. U. a. zeigt sich, dass die wissenschaftliche Beschäftigung mit einem Service-Projekt einen Einfluss auf die Positionsbildung zum zivilgesellschaftlichen Engagement hat.

Im Beitrag werden die Erfahrungen mit dem Forschungstagebuch als Prüfungsleistung im Rahmen eines kultursoziologischen Seminars dargestellt. Es wird gezeigt, wie und warum sich diese Lern- und Prüfungsform für die Vermittlung von qualitativen Methoden in der Sozialforschung besonders eignet und welche Potenziale sich damit verbinden. Zudem wird ein Vorschlag für die Gestaltung eines Forschungstagebuches gemacht. Schließlich wird darauf eingegangen, wie das Forschungstagebuch als „dramaturgische Klammer“ den Seminarablauf mitgestaltet und wie es das gemeinsame Arbeiten mit den Studierenden beeinflusst.

The purpose of this study is to explore the processes of individuation and connection in mother-daughter relationships, and describe how these relationships may or may not be facilitated by the intervention of reflections and joint narratives. This study used social constructionism as the epistemological framework and involved in-depth interviews with three mother-daughter pairs. Hermeneutics was used to analyse the data. The participants' experiences were recounted through the researcher's lens in the form of themes that characterised their relationships as well as interactional patterns. Participant's experiences of the research process, and what the researcher believed were helpful and unhelpful behaviours in her interaction with each mother-daughter pair, were discussed. A comparative analysis was also undertaken between the common themes identified in the stories of the mother-daughter pairs and the literature. The information gained could assist women as well as professionals in understanding and respecting mother-daughter relationships in their specific contexts. / Psychology / M. A. (Psychology)

This study aimed to determine whether the current African language translation facilitation course (ALTFC) held at the Directorate Language Services (D Lang) is in tune with contemporary trends in translator training, as well as the needs of the South African Department of Defence (DOD) and ALTFC candidates. In order to accomplish these aims, the research methodology was divided into a theoretical component in the form of a literature survey and an empirical component by means of questionnaire research. While the literature survey revealed that with the exception of using corpora of parallel texts, the ALTFC largely follows contemporary trends in translator training, the questionnaire research identified four problem areas, i.e. feedback on practical work, the time factor, the candidates' English proficiency and teacher enthusiasm. Based on the theoretical and empirical findings, four new ALTFC models were developed. / Linguistics / MA (Linguistics)

The study investigated the influence of Process Oriented Guided Inquiry Learning Approach (POGIL) on Science Foundation students’ achievements in stoichiometry versus traditional lecture centered pedagogy. Two intact science foundation class groups at the University of Namibia were used as a case study. A quasi-experimental non-randomized pre and posttests control group design was used to investigate the achievement in stoichiometry. Data on student achievements were collected and analyzed using descriptive statistics and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The ANCOVA results showed that there was a significant statistical difference in achievements when comparing the adjusted mean score (54.5%) obtained by the control group and the adjusted mean score (60.5%) obtained by students in the POGIL group; (F (1,75) = 17.990, p < 0.05). The POGIL group also showed the highest average improvement (65%) on questions related to reaction stoichiometry and limiting reagents, whereas the control group recorded improvements of about 53% in the same section. The results from the analysis of student’s test solutions revealed that the POGIL group students were able to give concrete reasons for their answers that they had obtained through numerical calculations or multiple choices and demonstrated enhanced understanding of linking various stoichiometry concepts. / Science and Technology Education / M. Sc. (Chemistry Education)

This study aimed to determine whether the current African language translation facilitation course (ALTFC) held at the Directorate Language Services (D Lang) is in tune with contemporary trends in translator training, as well as the needs of the South African Department of Defence (DOD) and ALTFC candidates. In order to accomplish these aims, the research methodology was divided into a theoretical component in the form of a literature survey and an empirical component by means of questionnaire research. While the literature survey revealed that with the exception of using corpora of parallel texts, the ALTFC largely follows contemporary trends in translator training, the questionnaire research identified four problem areas, i.e. feedback on practical work, the time factor, the candidates' English proficiency and teacher enthusiasm. Based on the theoretical and empirical findings, four new ALTFC models were developed. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / MA (Linguistics)

The purpose of this study is to explore the processes of individuation and connection in mother-daughter relationships, and describe how these relationships may or may not be facilitated by the intervention of reflections and joint narratives. This study used social constructionism as the epistemological framework and involved in-depth interviews with three mother-daughter pairs. Hermeneutics was used to analyse the data. The participants' experiences were recounted through the researcher's lens in the form of themes that characterised their relationships as well as interactional patterns. Participant's experiences of the research process, and what the researcher believed were helpful and unhelpful behaviours in her interaction with each mother-daughter pair, were discussed. A comparative analysis was also undertaken between the common themes identified in the stories of the mother-daughter pairs and the literature. The information gained could assist women as well as professionals in understanding and respecting mother-daughter relationships in their specific contexts. / Psychology / M. A. (Psychology)