Esta é uma pesquisa quanti-qualitativa de estudo de caso que parte de princípios da teoria sociocultural aplicada à área de Aquisição de Segunda Língua (SL) e Língua Estrangeira (LE) e estudos de Informática na Educação a fim de investigar os efeitos da mediação de um agente pedagógico (AP) com estratégias de mediação específicas na aprendizagem colaborativa de inglês como LE em um ambiente virtual. A partir do aporte teórico desenvolvido, a metodologia desta pesquisa envolveu não só a elaboração e a aplicação de uma sequência de atividades de uso da tecnologia em tarefas colaborativas, mas, principalmente, no desenvolvimento de uma ferramenta AP integrado a uma ferramenta de mineração textual capaz de fazer intervenções nas discussões de textos em língua inglesa em uma sala de bate-papo. O contexto da pesquisa constituiu-se de uma turma de 25 estudantes de graduação em Letras/Inglês de uma universidade federal da região sul do Brasil. Primeiramente, os alunos responderam a um questionário que visou estabelecer o perfil desses aprendizes quanto ao uso da língua e da tecnologia. A coleta de dados se deu durante 6 encontros no laboratório de informática, em que os aprendizes realizaram em grupos 5 tarefas colaborativas de discussão de textos com a mediação do AP. Após as tarefas, os alunos responderam a questionários que buscaram investigar a sua percepção sobre o uso do AP na realização das tarefas e em sua aprendizagem. As interações, o uso das funções do AP e os dados dos questionários foram analisados em busca de indícios da mediação do AP no processo de aprendizagem. Com esses resultados, buscou-se contribuir na área de Informática na Educação para a pesquisa sobre o impacto de agentes pedagógicos na aprendizagem de línguas estrangeiras, sugerindo soluções para melhorar a educação apoiada por computador. Na área de Aquisição de SL/LE, pretendeu-se, ainda, trazer novos dados sobre estudos de tarefas colaborativas através da investigação da interação com o AP como um novo elemento para a comunicação mediada por computador na aprendizagem de línguas. / This is a quanti-litative case study that parts of theory sociocultural principles applied to Second Language (SL) and Foreign Language (FL) Acquisition and studies in Computers in Education in order to investigate the effects of a pedagogical agent's (PA) mediation with specific mediation strategies in English as a foreign language (EFL) collaborative learning in a virtual environment. From the theoretical framework developed, the methodology of this research involved not only the development and application of a sequence of activities using technology in EFL collaborative tasks, but mainly in the development of a PA integrated into a textual mining tool capable of doing interventions in reading discussions in a chat room. The context of the research consisted of a class of 25 graduate students in English Language and Literature in a federal university of southern Brazil. First, students answered a questionnaire that aimed to establish the profile of these learners in the use of language and technology. Data collection took place over 6 classes in the computer lab, where students did reading discussion collaborative tasks in English in a chat tool with the mediation of the PA. After the assignments, students responded to questionnaires that sought to investigate their perceptions of the role and use of the PA in carrying out the tasks and in their learning. The task interactions, the use of the PA's functions and the data from the questionnaires were analyzed in search of the PA's mediation on students' learning and motivation. With these results, the present study was intended to contribute to the field of Computers in Education for the research on the impact of PAs in FL learning, suggesting solutions to improve Computer Supported Education. In the area of SL/FL acquisition, this study aimed to bring new data on studies of collaborative tasks by investigating the interaction with the PA as a new element for computer-mediated communication in language learning.

Os museus são instituições intrinsecamente educativas e, nas últimas décadas, aumentou-se a preocupação sobre como acontece a aprendizagem nesses espaços. Sendo a visita ao museu geralmente realizada junto a outras pessoas, principalmente familiares, o olhar sobre as interações realizadas por estes grupos e os fatores que podem influenciar esse aprendizado pode fornecer informações importantes sobre como os sujeitos aprendem durante essa atividade. Um desses fatores, amplamente estudado no ensino de ciências, é a questão do gênero. Sob a perspectiva sociocultural, essa pesquisa investigou as interações familiares no público aqui chamado de \"espontâneo\" (não escolar) em visita ao Espaço Cultural Catavento (São Paulo), com o foco nas diferenças de gênero de pais e mães que podem surgir nessas relações. No Brasil, ainda são poucas as pesquisas realizadas em museus que tenham buscado conhecer os grupos familiares que visitam essas instituições e não há pesquisas sobre o papel do gênero dos pais nas interações que acontecem na situação de visita. Assim, foram analisadas as conversas e as atitudes de mães e pais com seus filhos em visita ao espaço. Os resultados mostram que mães tendem a utilizar mais falas afetivas e estratégicas, enquanto pais são mais conceituais. Quando apenas um adulto está acompanhando a(s) criança(s), é mais comum que as decisões de movimentação sejam tomadas pela(s) criança(s), ao contrário do que acontece quando pai e mãe estão presentes. Nestes casos, as mães foram mais direcionadoras do que os pais. Em geral, mães participam mais das interações com a(s) criança(s), tanto quando estão sozinhas quanto na companhia do pai. Porém, mães sozinhas participam mais do que mães acompanhadas de pais e pais sozinhos participam menos do que pais acompanhados de mães. Os achados abrem caminho para a discussão dos papéis culturais de homens e mulheres nas estruturas familiares, que diferem para cada contexto histórico-social. / Museums are intrinsically educational institutions and in the recent last decades, we have seen that the concern on how learning happens while in these areas is increased. Since the visit to the museum is typically performed in the company of other people, primarily family members, a look on the interactions of these groups, as well as the factors that can affect such learning, can provide important information on how the individuals do learn during this activity. One of these factors, widely studied in science education, is the matter of gender. Under the sociocultural approach, this research aimed the investigation of family interactions in what we here called \"spontaneous\" audience (non-educational) while in visit to the Espaço Cultural Catavento (museum, São Paulo), focusing on the gender differences of fathers and mothers that can arise in these relationships. In Brazil, we have only few researches made in museums with the purpose of knowing better the family groups that visit these institutions, and there are no written studies on the gender of parents in the interactions occurring in the visiting situation. Therefore, the conversations and attitudes of fathers and mothers with their children during visits to the space were analyzed. The results demonstrate that mothers tend to use more affective and strategic speaking, while fathers are more conceptual. When there is only one adult accompanying the child/children, it is more frequent that the decisions about moving around are taken by the child/children, which is the opposite of what happens when father and mother are present. In these cases, mothers tend to be more \"directional\" than fathers are. In general, mothers participate more in the interactions with the child/children, both when alone and when in the company of the father. However, mothers that are alone participate more than mothers in the company of fathers, and fathers that are alone participate less than fathers that are in the company of mothers. The findings here pave the way for the discussion on the cultural roles of men and women in the family frameworks, which are different for each social-historical context.

Reading and understanding literature does not necessarily have to be an individual act. The aim of this essay is to investigate what happens when six students read a text by Kazuo Ishiguro A Family Supper and then discuss it in a communicative situation. The essay bases its ideas on the sociocultural theory and the reader-response theory. The sociocultural perspective argues that people develop and progress during social interaction, moreover by communicating with other people and by being inspired and subsequently educated through taking part in different social contexts. My idea with this essay is to observe a literary discussion in a group. The observation emphasizes both the individual contribution to the literary discussion and the function of the group. By analyzing the participation of the individual students, I reached the conclusion that the students deal with literature in many different ways. Some focus only on the text and the plot, others discuss social issues in connection to the text and some only respond to the others’ arguments. When studying the group, I looked at the balance in the group, the turn taking between the members and the level of participation. The reader-response theory bases its idea on the reader and the text and the fact that they are connected in a mutual transaction. Every reader brings his or her experiences to the understanding of the text and thereby a text can have multiple alternative interpretations considering the amount of readers. The analysis section in this essay consists of several parts, such as an individual reflection, a group discussion and an individual evaluation.

The aim of this thesis is to investigate the use of literature within the Swedish Upper Secondary EFL-classroom from the students’ perspective. How do the students in the study relate to literature and its use to enhance and enable their communicative competence and cultural understanding? Also, how do their answers compare with their teacher’s and the adult perspectives and findings from previous international research? The empirical data obtained from the study has been analysed from the perspectives of sociocultural and motivational theory, and the findings show that the participating students believe literature to be a good didactic tool to apply in the EFL-classroom, both in order to enhance their communicative competence and their cultural understanding. The students prefer to have a sociocultural approach to their literature-learning, with group-discussions of various sizes. The key for the students in this respect is interesting, relevant and engaging subject-matter, as well as a positive and motivational teacher. The responses given by the students correlate with those given by their teacher as well as previous international research. The students regard literature as a way of gaining new perspectives, as well as experiencing language in use. Where they diverge somewhat from the international research is in regard to literature’s use for enhancing their competence to speak in class, and that some students seem to think that communication and cultural understanding are separable. Future studies within this field might include the conducting of a larger and more in-depth survey regarding the students’ ideas about literature, culture and communication. Why do so many of the student respondents neither agree nor disagree with the statement concerning communication and cultural understanding being inseparable? This can be an important issue to investigate in today’s global climate of cross-cultural and intercultural experiences, especially in view of the political climate of diverse attitudes towards refugees, immigrants and emigration

This study investigated the influence of music-based socialisation groups upon the social functioning of children in early childhood. A qualitative research approach was followed and a case study research design was employed to investigate the phenomenon at hand. Eight children (aged five to six years) from the Thando Westford Community Crèche in Pretoria, South Africa, were purposively selected to participate in ten music-based group sessions over the course of eight weeks. Each session was video recorded and focused observation was employed to collect data on seven social skills according to the model of Schiller (2009), namely confidence, curiosity, intentionality, self-control, relatedness, capacity for communication and cooperativeness. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the participants’ teacher to examine the potential for transfer of skills learned in the group to the classroom and to explore the value and feasibility of facilitating such groups within the community crèche setting. Principles of Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory formed the theoretical foundation for the design and implementation of the music groups and for the interpretation of research findings. The research findings suggested that the music-based socialisation groups were able to promote each of the seven social skills, although the nature and extent of such influence differed among individuals. Music-based activities displayed several strengths as a medium for working with young children, including the cooperative and inclusive nature of activities. Both contextual and individual factors influenced how the participants responded to the groups. Transfer of skills learned in the groups to general classroom behaviour was limited, perhaps due to a lack of follow-up activities aimed at this purpose. / Dissertation (MSW)--University of Pretoria, 2015. / Social Work and Criminology / Unrestricted

Studiens syfte är att bidra med kunskap om vilka arbetssätt förskollärare anger att de använder sig av för att främja barns språkutveckling, samt vilka faktorer de anser kan påverka arbetet. Studien är en kvantitativ studie som genomförs med en webbaserad enkätundersökning och utgår ifrån den sociokulturella teorin. Enkätundersökningen är utformad för att besvara föreliggande studies syfte. En deskriptiv statistisk analys har använts vid framställning av resultatet. Vi har valt att redovisa resultaten i diagramform. Resultatet visar att respondenterna uppfattar att kompetens och högläsning är viktiga faktorer i arbetet med barns språkutveckling. Interaktion, pedagogisk miljö och gruppstorlek är andra faktorer som respondenterna anser påverkar arbetet. Avslutningsvis diskuteras resultat och metod i relation till den sociokulturella teorin samt avsnittet om tidigare forskning. Slutsatsen av vår studie är att förskollärares kompetens är en betydande faktor i arbetet med barns språkutveckling. Vidare dras slutsatsen att högläsning är det arbetssätt som främst används av respondenterna för att stimulera språkutvecklingen.

The purpose of this essay, is to investigate how preschool pedagogues support mother tongue development. The research questions guiding our study were the following: What activities encourage mother tongue development? What approach do pedagogues have towards mother tongue development?  The theoretical framework used to guide the collection and analysis the empirical material is social-cultural theory, and the related concepts of mediation and diversified normality. Data collection was accomplished through and on-line free-text survey of pedagogues one pre-school. Seven of twelve pedagogues participated.   In summary, we found that the pedagogues had a predominantly positive outlook on mother tongue pedagogy. The participants also gave suggestions on how one can work with mother tongue in pre-school, and how these suggestions are encouraging for developing children´s mother tongue. Through our data we also found that the work with the Swedish language happens on a day-to-day basis, but as for the activities with mother tongue they occur more sporadically. A reason for this can be that knowledge for the mother tongue the pre-schoolers have is something that the pedagogues lack knowledge in.

Denna studies syfte är att undersöka hur gitarrelever på gymnasiet upplever sin relation till gitarren och hur den kan influera deras identitet, självbild och framtidsvision – möjlighetshorisont. Fem kvalitativa intervjuer har genomförts med gymnasieelever på estetiska programmet som alla hade gitarr som huvudinstrument. Studien vilar huvudsakligen på en sociokulturell teoretisk grund där stor vikt har lagts på relationen mellan informanterna och deras omvärld i utformningen av intervjuerna och analysarbetet av insamlad data. Den tidigare forskningen som redovisats i arbetet fokuserar på identitet och musikalisk identitet samt möjlighetshorisont då identitetsskapandet och informanternas framtidsvisioner har varit de centrala ämnena i studien. Studien visar att gitarren kan ses som ett verktyg att genom denna förstå och bearbeta sin sinnevärld. Gitarren upplevdes som en stor del av informanternas liv och deras identitetsskapande, både på ett praktiskt plan genom musicerande, övande och utvecklande av teoretisk kunskap men också på ett känslomässigt plan där gitarrutövandet och musiken kunde hjälpa dem att bearbeta och hantera känslor. En viss diskrepans mellan informanternas gitarrundervisning och deras gitarrutövande på fritiden kunde även urskiljas i resultatet – någonting som uppmanade till vidare frågeställningar och reflektioner gällande utformning av vissa aspekter kopplade till gitarrundervisningen. Vidare framgick det att titlar och benämningar på sig själv kunde upplevas ha stor vikt i skapandet av den egna självbilden och projektionen av ens image mot omvärlden. / The purpose of this study is to investigate how guitar students in high school experience their relationship with the guitar and how it can influence their identity, self-image and vision for the future – horizon of opportunity. Five qualitative interviews have been conducted with high school students on the arts program, all of which had guitars as their main instrument. The study is mainly based on a sociocultural theoretical basis where great emphasis has been placed on the relationship between the informants' and their surroundings in the design of the interviews and in the analysis of collected data. The previous research reported in the paper focuses on identity, musical identity and the horizon of opportunity since the developing of identity and informants' vision of the future have been the central subjects in the study. The study shows that the guitar can be seen as a tool for understanding and processing one’s worldview. The guitar was perceived as a large part of the informants' lives and their identity development, not only on a practical level through musicianship, practice and development of theoretical knowledge, but also on an emotional level where the guitar practice and music listening could help to process and manage emotions. A perceived division between the informants' formal and their informal guitar practice could also be identified through the results – something that called for further questions and reflections on the design of certain didactic aspects related to guitar teaching. Furthermore, it became clear that certain titles and labels on oneself could be perceived as having great importance in the creation of one's self- image and the projection of one's image towards the outside world.

The purpose of this study is to examine teachers' thoughts about literature conversations. The study amied to find out what theachers think a succsessful literature conversation look like, what opportunities and challenges the method has and what significance the literature conversation has for students' development of reading comprehension. To collect data for the study, semi-structured interviews were conducted with ten certified and active teachers who teaches in grades 4-6. The study is based on Lev Vygotsky's theories of learning, which means that people learn in interaction with others. The results of the study show that teachers believe that the literature converastion is the method that benefits students the most when it comes to developing reading comprehension. The teachers believe that in a successful literature conversation the students learn from each other. This should be done in small groups as the students get a greater opportunity to exspress their thoughts and opinions about the text. The literature conversation is important for students' development of reading comprehension. In conversations, the studnets can help each other to get further in their cognitive thinking. This can be linked to the zone of proximal development, which is a concept in the sociolultural theory of learning and means that children learn in interaction whit others. / Syftet med denna undersökning är att se vilken uppfattning verksamma lärare har om litteratursamtal. Undersökningen syftar till att ur, ett lärarperspektiv, ta reda på hur lärare anser ett lyckat litteratursamtal ser ut, vilka möjligheter och utmaningar metoden har samt vilken betydelse litteratursamtalet har för elevers utveckling av läsförståelse. Till undersökningens datainsamling genomfördes semistrukturerade intervjuer med tio legitimerade och verksamma lärare i årskurs 4–6. Undersökningen utgår ifrån Lev Vygotskijs teorier om lärande vilket innebär att människor lär i samspel med andra. Undersökningens resultat visar att lärare anser att litteratursamtalet är den metod som gynnar eleverna mest när det kommer till utveckling av läsförståelse. I ett lyckat litteratursamtal får eleverna möjlighet till att lära av varandra. Detta bör ske i grupp då eleverna får en större möjlighet till att utrycka sina tankar och åsikter kring texten de har läst. Littertursamtalet har en stor betydelse för elevers utveckling av läsförståelse. I samtalet kan eleverna hjälpa varandra att nå längre i deras kognitiva tänkande. Detta kan kopplas till den närmaste proximala utvecklingszonen som är ett begrepp inom det sociokulturella perspektivet och innebär att barn lär i samspel med andra.

Föreliggande studies syfte är att undersöka hur verksamma lärare på lågstadiet arbetar med återkoppling för att eleven ska få möjlighet att bearbeta texter. Den teoretiska ramen för studien är den sociokulturella teorin där stöttning (eng. scaffolding) i form av lärarens återkoppling är i fokus för att utveckla elevens textskapande. Metoderna som används i studien är intervjuer med lärare och analys av lärarkommentarer på elevtexter. Resultatet av textanalysen och intervjuerna visar att responsen från läraren utgår från de kunskapskrav som finns i svenska för årskurs 1–3 i läroplanen för grundskolan. Feedbacken till eleven är oftast muntlig, men de lärare som arbetar med digitala verktyg ger oftast skriftlig respons direkt i elevens dokument. Det framgick även att flertalet lärare gärna skulle vilja ge en-till-en-återkoppling oftare för att eleverna ska få en god respons som hjälper dem framåt i bearbetningen, men att tidsbrist och resurser är några hinder som finns för att lärare ska kunna använda det här arbetssättet.