No description available.

Syftet med mitt examensarbete är att undersöka vilken status den muntliga kommunikationen har i klassrummet. För att belysa detta har jag intervjuat sex verksamma lärare inom grundskolans lägre åldrar. Jag är nyfiken på hur de betraktar muntlig kommunikation, hur de ser på sitt arbete med att utveckla och stärka det muntliga språket hos eleverna, och vilken inställning de har till muntlig kommunikation i jämförelse med skriftlig kommunikation. Undersökningen är kvalitativ och ett sociokulturellt perspektiv har använts som teoretisk utgångspunkt, vilket utmärks av att lärande och utveckling tar form i kommunikation med andra individer. Kursplanen för svenska i årskurs 1-3 belägger att arbete med den muntliga förmågan är grundläggande för varje människas identitet, sociala trygghet och lärande, och bör därför vara en stor del av undervisningen. Dock förefaller den ha en underordnad ställning i förhållande till läs- och skrivutvecklingen. Resultatet visar att lärarens kunskapssyn och attityd till det talade språket, är en avgörande faktor för mängden muntlig kommunikation i klassrummet. Lärarna är positivt inställda till kommunikation i undervisningen och arbetar aktivt för att utveckla ett resonerande bland eleverna, genom att förespråka en positiv gruppdynamik och ett gott socialt klassrumsklimat i syfte att stärka alla elever och deras vilja till att våga tala. / The aim of this study is to shed light on the status of oral communication in school. I am interested in examining how teachers define oral communication, how they perceive their work to develop and strengthen the oral language of the pupils, and their attitude to oral communication in comparison to written communication. The study is qualitative and a socio-cultural perspective has been used as a theoretical basis, which is characterized by learning and development in interaction between individuals. The syllabus for Swedish in grades 1-3 stresses oral ability as fundamental to every human identity, social security, and therefore states that it should be a big part of teaching. Contrarily, it appears that the oral ability stands subordinate to writing skills. The results of my investigation shows that a teacher's approach to and knowledge of oral ability is an essential factor in the amount of oral communication in the classroom. The teachers interviewed are in favor of communication in teaching and are actively working to develop a reasoning among students, by advocating a positive group dynamics and a good social climate in order to strengthen all the students and their willingness to dare speak.

This study describes the attempt to understand the quality of mediation between people within a community of practice. An innovative chefs’ apprenticeship in a dedicated restaurant provides a setting in which to explore what happens when a group of young people are learning to become fully accepted members of a community of practice. The setting, the social enterprise of Fifteen London, is founded on a passionate belief in the learning potential of all individuals, regardless of background. Conducted over a period of five years this ethnographic study tells the stories of the apprentices; the story of the community; and the story of conducting the investigation. A pilot study completed in 2005 revealed that beyond the mediation observed between individuals, apprentices’ felt their experience of the culture of the learning environment had a greater impact. The thesis explores the theoretical implications of these findings. Drawn from a sociocultural perspective, two theoretical frameworks are applied: Mediated Learning Experience (Feuerstein, Miller and Tannenbaum, 1994) concerned with the mediation between people and its effect on human development; and Situated Learning (Lave and Wenger, 1991) concerned with participation in a community of practice. These frameworks were felt to be useful to an analysis which demonstrates that a community of practice can be analysed according to the framework for Mediated Learning Experience. The symbiosis of these two approaches creates a coherent framework for discourse in which to analyse the learning process itself. A description of the community highlights the complexities of learning, and the challenges of attempting to change the course of human development by means of cultural transmission and social enterprise. I conclude that this learning environment serves as a good example of what can be achieved when innovation works hand in hand with moral purpose.

The purpose of this qualitative case study was to examine teacher perceptions of the effectiveness of the Response to Intervention (RtI) framework with students who are acquiring English as a second language. Students from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds have been disproportionately represented in special education programs for decades (Artiles & Trent, 1994; Donovan & Cross, 2002; Heller, Holtzman, & Messick, 1982). Legislators responsible for the authorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Improvement Act in 2004 (IDEIA 2004) allowed state education leaders the option to use RtI as an alternative identification method. RtI was believed to be a framework through which the number of inappropriate EL referrals for special education services could be reduced. Ten elementary teachers in a small/medium sized rural school district in East Tennessee participated in semi-structured interviews intended to examine their perceptions of the effectiveness of the RtI framework when implemented with ELs. The researcher analyzed the responses for emergent themes. These themes included knowledge about the purpose of the framework, the impact of leadership upon implementation of the framework, training and professional development around teaching ELs and responding to their unique needs, and understanding differences between challenges arising from language acquisition versus those arising from a learning disability. Findings and recommendations for practice are included.

This dissertation addresses two problems with advanced academic writing pedagogy. First, doctoral students must participate in academic discourse communities, yet they report being underprepared to do so (Boquet et al., 2015; Caplan & Cox, 2016). Second, studies (e.g., Curry & Lillis, 2004; Matsuda & Tardy, 2007; Tardy & Matsuda, 2009) suggest that L1 and L2 voices are not well integrated in the institution and that this lack of integration systemically privileges the dominant culture. The purpose of this research is to investigate the role relationships play in helping culturally and linguistically diverse doctoral students negotiate and acquire advanced academic discourse. I pose the overarching research question: Given a discipline-specific writing center for graduate students in a College of Education, what role does interaction play in helping students to participate in academic conversations? The two papers in this collection employ qualitative classification and discourse analysis to investigate writing-related interactions among peers. Data include audio-recorded writing consultations and interviews, post-session reports, field notes, and artifacts. Taken together, findings from this research highlight the role interaction can play in writing support, development, and research. This research has implications for developing writing pedagogy and support programs to facilitate productive academic socialization. In response, the researcher calls for more robust academic writing support in order to improve access and resources for diverse student populations and decrease attrition and time to degree for all students.

<p><font face="Times New Roman"> <p align="left"><font face="Arial">The study analyses the relationship between experience, participation and learning and seeks to establish how the experience of adult learners can be mobilised through active participation and how situational conditions can either facilitate or inhibit participation and learning amongst the learners. Another dimension of the study seeks to establish what caregivers learn and the processes through which they learn and how such learning contributes to changes in behaviour and relationships. In this study, the nature and dynamics of learning amongst adult learners in the NCTP programme at community level is explored as an example of socio-cultural theory and situated learning which hold that learning results from participation in various socio-cultural situations &ndash / the act of participation is seen as crucial in the learning. The study focused on a group of 10 learners in the National Certificate Training Programme for community health workers who are also caregivers in the Nokuthembeka Home-based Care Programme in New Crossroads in the Cape Town metropole and used a qualitative research design and interpretive approach to understand the situations in which they learn. An interpretive approach allowed for deeper insight into the socio-cultural contexts that influence the social interactions of caregivers with peers as well as their learning. In the study I argue that the experience of caregivers forms a critical resource and the foundational basis for learning.</font></p> <p>&nbsp / </p> </font></p>

<p><font face="Times New Roman"> <p align="left"><font face="Arial">The study analyses the relationship between experience, participation and learning and seeks to establish how the experience of adult learners can be mobilised through active participation and how situational conditions can either facilitate or inhibit participation and learning amongst the learners. Another dimension of the study seeks to establish what caregivers learn and the processes through which they learn and how such learning contributes to changes in behaviour and relationships. In this study, the nature and dynamics of learning amongst adult learners in the NCTP programme at community level is explored as an example of socio-cultural theory and situated learning which hold that learning results from participation in various socio-cultural situations &ndash / the act of participation is seen as crucial in the learning. The study focused on a group of 10 learners in the National Certificate Training Programme for community health workers who are also caregivers in the Nokuthembeka Home-based Care Programme in New Crossroads in the Cape Town metropole and used a qualitative research design and interpretive approach to understand the situations in which they learn. An interpretive approach allowed for deeper insight into the socio-cultural contexts that influence the social interactions of caregivers with peers as well as their learning. In the study I argue that the experience of caregivers forms a critical resource and the foundational basis for learning.</font></p> <p>&nbsp / </p> </font></p>

Magister Educationis - MEd / In this research study I investigate the nature and dynamics of learning amongst learners in a National Certificate Training Programme for community health workers who are caregivers in a home-based care prgoramme. The study analyses the relationship between experience, participation and learning and seeks to establish how the experience of adult learners can be mobilised through active participation and how situational conditions can either facilitate or inhibit participation and learning amongst the learners. Another dimension of the study seeks to establish what caregivers learn and the processes through which they learn and how such learning contributes to changes in behaviour and relationships. In this study, the nature and dynamics of learning amongst adult learners in the NCTP programme at community level is explored as an example of socio-cultural theory and situated learning which hold that learning results from participation in various socio-cultural situations – the act of participation is seen as crucial in the learning. The study focused on a group of 10 learners in the National Certificate Training Programme for community health workers who are also caregivers in the Nokuthembeka Home-based Care Programme in New Crossroads in the Cape Town metropole and used a qualitative research design and interpretive approach to understand the situations in which they learn. An interpretive approach allowed for deeper insight into the socio-cultural contexts that influence the social interactions of caregivers with peers as well as their learning. In the study I argue that the experience of caregivers forms a critical resource and the foundational basis for learning. The research study confirmed that the training programme in which caregivers interact and engage with peers and facilitators creates a learning context and that active participation in the situation facilitates learning. The study further confirmed that the informal settings of the home and community are important sites for learning and gaining experience and that situational conditions such as language, personal attributes and culture of learning/teaching can influence participation and learning.

Given the importance of emotional self-regulation to a child’s ability to develop social competence and prosocial behavior, and the significant role early childhood teachers play in supporting young children’s emotional self-regulation, it is important to explore the concept from the perspective of teachers, or from the socio-cultural context through which they (i.e., teachers) make sense of the world. This study used an exploratory case study methodology to explore the understandings of emotional self-regulation among three Head Start teachers working with varying socio-cultural contexts and to identify the socio-cultural perspectives that influenced their ability to effectively apply their understandings. Findings indicate that while the participants’ definitions of emotional self- regulation were aligned with those that are commonly used in the field, it was their implementation of strategies that diverged, reflecting the influence of learning goals and varying socio-cultural contexts.

No description available.