Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:40:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Millena de Cassia Ormenese Gomes.pdf: 356819 bytes, checksum: ab8cad21d9f374ea8716d1daee04645b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2008-12-18 / Fundo Mackenzie de Pesquisa / This research aimed at understanding the educational path of a student with Tourette Syndrome, attending a regular public school. It also aimed at understanding the difficulties this student had to face, as well as those caused by his behavior. Emphasis was given to the possibility of prejudice and stigmatization in the school environment. The research had a qualitative focus and a case study methodology was adopted. The student, his family, and academic and administrative professionals from his school were interviewed. The data collected from these semi-structured interviews were analyzed and classified in thirteen categories. Data shows that this student faces social relations problems; he was even misunderstood by his own family and was always a victim of prejudice from his classmates, and sometimes, his teachers. The school staff tries to make his inclusion possible by adopting simple resources, consistent with the ones available in the specialized literature. The student was observed to have an inclination towards identifying with and helping other children with special educational needs. The family, specially the mother, has an important role in helping her child at school. She always provides necessary clarifications, support in difficult situations and is always acting as an intermediator with the care staff. / Esta pesquisa teve como objetivo compreender o percurso de escolarização de um aluno com Síndrome de Tourette, estudante de uma classe regular do ensino público. Procurou compreender as dificuldades por ele experimentadas, assim como aquelas provocadas por seus comportamentos, focalizando as possibilidades de expressão de preconceito e estigmatização presentes no ambiente escolar. A pesquisa foi desenvolvida no enfoque qualitativo e a opção metodológica adotada foi o estudo de caso, sendo que o aluno, seus familiares e profissionais da equipe escolar e de atendimento foram entrevistados. Os dados obtidos através dessas entrevistas semi-estruturadas foram submetidos à análise de conteúdo, resultando em treze categorias. Sinalizam que este aluno enfrenta dificuldades nas relações sociais, já tendo sido incompreendido até no ambiente familiar, permanecendo alvo de atitudes preconceituosas por parte de seus colegas e, eventualmente, até de professores. A equipe escolar busca favorecer sua inclusão, adotando alguns recursos simples, coerentes aos sugeridos na literatura especializada. Foi observada uma tendência do aluno a identificar-se e a servir de apoio a outras crianças com necessidades educacionais especiais. A família, particularmente a mãe, desempenha um papel fundamental no acolhimento do jovem na escola, fornecendo esclarecimentos constantes, suporte às situações de crise e promovendo o intercâmbio entre a equipe de atendimento.

A temática do Ambiente Escolar para a Infância vem recentemente ganhando mais espaço e tendo reconhecida sua importância na discussão sobre o desenvolvimento infantil. No entanto, as características físicas destes ambientes continuam sendo geralmente negligenciadas no planejamento de espaços infantis coletivos. Atendidas as necessidades mínimas e cumpridas as exigências de segurança, acessibilidade, manutenção, etc., faz-se necessário projetar além da funcionalidade, da praticidade e da usabilidade, concebendo o ambiente não apenas como pano de fundo ou cenário para a interação, mas como estrutura de oportunidades para a aprendizagem. Questiona-se aqui a usual primazia do espaço em detrimento do ambiente, feita tanto por parte de arquitetos como de educadores, entendendo a complexidade como um aspecto fundamental no desenvolvimento de projetos ambientais escolares. / Although the discussion on the significance of School Environment for the child development has gained importance, the physical aspects of these environments are still neglected when they are planned. Once basic needs are supplied and security, accessibility and maintenance demands are fulfilled, environments should be developed not as merely backdrops to children interaction, but as structures of opportunities for the process of learning (taking into account more than functional and practical issues). In this work, the usual supremacy of space over environment (commonly granted by architects as much as by educators) is called in question, while the concept of complexity is presented as an essential aspect on the development of school environment projects.

Este trabalho investiga o papel do diretor escolar na formação de uma cultura escolar inclusiva tendo como base teórica a psicologia sócio-histórica de Vigotski. Investigaram-se os conceitos de cultura escolar, educação inclusiva e ambiente inclusivo, de forma a estabelecer a importância do contexto da escola na inclusão escolar de alunos com deficiência, bem como o conceito de gestão escolar, com foco na atuação do diretor. Como hipótese de pesquisa, considerou-se que a opinião pessoal, aspirações, atitudes, concepção de educação, compromisso ético-profissional, enfim, os aspectos idiossincráticos do diretor influenciam de maneira decisiva a forma como se constitui a cultura escolar e facilitam ou dificultam a implantação da inclusão escolar de alunos com necessidades educacionais especiais. Propõe-se que isso se deva em grande parte à liderança e autoridades conectadas ao papel central que o diretor exerce na instituição escolar, bem como se relaciona com as dificuldades que a democratização dos processos de gestão escolar encontra para uma atuação efetiva. O papel do diretor enquanto um articulador do projeto pedagógico sobre o qual deve estar apoiado o projeto da escola tornar-se inclusiva seria então fundamental. A pesquisa busca estabelecer uma relação entre a democratização da escola e a implantação de uma cultura escolar inclusiva, através da atuação do diretor escolar. O trabalho apresenta-se como um estudo de caso, tendo sido utilizados como procedimentos de pesquisa o relato de experiência, a análise documental e a entrevista com uma diretora escolar. Como resultados, concluiu-se que a democratização da gestão e a educação inclusiva se relacionam de forma importante, sugerindo-se que uma escola inclusiva é, antes de tudo, uma escola democrática. Propõe-se investir na produção de contextos escolares que favoreçam a construção de práticas democráticas, bem como que os sistemas educacionais assumam sua importante cota de responsabilidade nesta tarefa. / The present work investigates the school principal´s role into the formation of an inclusive schooling culture. The approach is theoretically based on Vigotski´s social-historical psychology. The research includes the concepts of school culture, inclusive education and inclusive environment, as a way of establishing school´s context relevance to school inclusion of students with special needs, and the concept of school management focusing the principal´s action towards inclusion. It was taken as research hypothesis that the principal´s idiosyncratic qualities, such as personal opinions, aspirations, education concept, ethical and professional commitment exert decisive influence on how the school culture is constituted, which facilitates or not school inclusion of students with educational special needs. It is proposed that this might be largely due to leadership and authority, connected to the central role of the principal at the school institution, as well as to difficulties to accomplish an effective democratization of the school management processes. The principal´s role as an articulator of the pedagogical project, on which the school project of being inclusive must be supported would be then fundamental. The research aims to establish relationships between the school democratization process and the implantation of an inclusive school culture, through school principal´s action. The research was conducted as a case study, applying as its procedures the researcher´s report, the documental analysis and an interview with the principal of the school. Results favored the conclusion that the management democratization process and the inclusive education are related in a very important way, suggesting that an inclusive school is, above all, a democratic school. It is proposed that it is important to invest into the production of school contexts that promote the construction of democratic actions, as well as it is relevant that the educational systems take responsibility of its role in this task.

The goal of this research study was to provide psycho-educational guidelines that will facilitate synergy between the stakeholders involved with the teaching and learning of mathematics at a school. The stakeholders in this research study are members of the management team, the educators and the learners. Synergy simply defined means that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Covey (in Moore, 2003:1) states that synergy is the fruit of mutual respect, of understanding and valuing the differences in one another as well as different approaches to problem solving. I believe that when one creates an environment that is more open, more trusting, less judgemental, more loving and more caring in the classroom synergy will occur. This environment will produce learning outcomes beyond expectation. In other words, when the members of the groups of stakeholders at a school participate synergistically the results that are produced and outcomes that are achieved will be much higher then the total results of the inputs of their individual efforts. It is evident from the description, evaluation and interpretation of the collected data that learners and educators do not experience their interactions as situations where their potential is acknowledged and improved. Once again: if there is no effective interaction and appreciative understanding between the different stakeholders, successful integration cannot take place. There is almost no indication of any collaboration between the participants in the teaching and learning situation. In fact, the analysis of the data show that educators and learners experience the teaching and learning process as a process of disempowerment, which is Theme One of the analysed data. Almost all the sub-categories under Theme One provide evidence that the input of the different role players in the teaching and learning environment is not considered. These categories are: • learners experience that they have to do activities without the necessary pre-knowledge; • learners experience the teaching and learning of Mathematics as a process of victimization; • learners experience that educators ignore their learning needs; • learners experience inadequate communication and inappropriate guidance in the classroom; • educators portray an uncaring attitude; • learners do not portray a positive attitude towards the teaching and learning of mathematics; • educators do not experience job satisfaction; and • educators do not experience support from the parents. However, all the stakeholders that participated in this research study made recommendations that could contribute to a constructive teaching and learning climate. These recommendations were: • educators should play a supportive role; • learners and educators must be motivated; • learners should participate in the teaching and learning situation; o educators should implement new teaching strategies; o educators and learners should value co-operative learning and group work; and • team work between educators and learners should be enhanced; These recommendations indicate that the stakeholders would like the teaching and learning situation to become more constructive and meaningful through active participation. These are essential ingredients for synergy to take place. Educators and learners also indicated that they experience frustrations due to the socio-economic situation of the learners that impact negatively on the teaching and learning of mathematics and contribute to disempowerment of these stakeholders. It seems therefore that the community as well as the parents of these learners are stakeholders that should be considered when the guidelines are formulated. I experienced this research study as an eye-opener with regard to the development of the teaching and learning process into a constructive and meaningful activity. I realised that for sustainable development it is essential to develop all the stakeholders and not only the educators. / Prof. C.P.H. Myburgh

The study proposed to determine the relationship of the teachers' perception of the organizational climate of the school as measured by the Organizational Climate Description Questionnaire (Halpin) and leader behavior as measures by the Leader Behavior Description Questionnaire (Halpin) with teacher job satisfaction as measured by the Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire.

M.Ed. / Research teams from the Department of Educational Sciences of the Rand Afrikaans University (RSA) and the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Social Ecology of the Ben Gurion University (Israel) have joined hands in a research project. Knowledge, experience and expertise were pooled in an endeavour to expose the causes leading to the dropout phenomenon amongst adolescents worldwide, and more specifically within their own countries. The development of prevention programmes to address the problem will be introduced in follow-up studies with a goal of reducing the number of school dropouts. The aim of this study is to compare disadvantaged standard seven at-risk and not at-risk pupils in order to determine whether or not school climate could be considered an influencing factor in early school leaving. The method of the research is twofold. A literature study constitutes the first part in which terminology, concepts, definitions, causes and consequences of dropout are discussed. The emphasis is placed on school climate in general and the relation between school climate and academic achievement in particular. This was followed by an empirical investigation to determine whether there are significant differences between at-risk and not at-risk standard seven pupils with regard to their perception of school climate. These pupils were identified by their teachers and their replies measured in a questionnaire. The empirical investigation involved standard seven pupils affiliated to five high schools in the Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vereeniging area. In total, 734 pupils answered the questionnaire. The information was processed at the Statistical Consultation Service of the Rand Afrikaans University.

M.Ed. (Psychology of Education) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

There is an ongoing debate about how to serve the number of students that are affected by mental health problems. Some schools have moved toward implementing whole school programs. The purpose of these programs is to teach adults who directly interact with school age children, such as parents, family members, caregivers, teachers, school staff, and caring citizens how to respond to an adolescent that is facing a crisis or a mental health challenge. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the perceived effectiveness of such a program. The goals of this study are to (a) determine the short-term outcomes of this initiative from school staff perspective, and (b) determine new directions for improving the program based on school staff’s recommendations. Survey questionnaires will be used to collect data from staff members. Descriptive statistics will be used to inform recommendations for the next steps in the development of the program. Staff surveyed endorsed the satisfaction of the implementation of the mental health program in their schools.

The primary intent of this thesis is to demonstrate how the schoolyard, through physical diversification focusing on a three-fold paradigmatic framework, can become a significant educational environment able to support the physical, cognitive and developmental skills in children. Research is used as a tool to inform and support the designs. Discussed in the first two sections are the history and evolution of school grounds, play and the environment, the effects of place-identity on self-identity, as well as the power of place in pedagogy. The design framework is supported by precedent studies, intending to reflect the design principles, programs, ideas and values of the ecological, curriculum-based and narrative landscape design layers. The final master plan design is an amalgamation of these three layers, representing an educational setting that will foster a dynamic interchange between children and their milieu. / Applied Science, Faculty of / Architecture and Landscape Architecture (SALA), School of / Graduate

M.Ed. / Please refer to full text to view abstract