Uncertainty is ubiquitous in life, and learning is an activity particularly likely to be fraught with uncertainty. Previous research suggests that students and teachers struggle in their attempts to manage the psychological experience of uncertainty and that students often fail to experience uncertainty when uncertainty may be warranted. Yet, few educational researchers have explicitly and systematically observed what students do, their behaviors and strategies, as they attempt to manage the uncertainty they experience during academic tasks. In this study I investigated how students in one fifth grade class managed uncertainty they experienced while engaged in collaborative robotics engineering projects, focusing particularly on how uncertainty management was influenced by task structure and students’ interactions with their peer collaborators. The study was initiated at the beginning of instruction related to robotics engineering and preceded through the completion of several long-term collaborative robotics projects, one of which was a design project. I relied primarily on naturalistic observation of group sessions, semi-structured interviews, and collection of artifacts. My data analysis was inductive and interpretive, using qualitative discourse analysis techniques and methods of grounded theory. Three theoretical frameworks influenced the conception and design of this study: community of practice, distributed cognition, and complex adaptive systems theory. Uncertainty was a pervasive experience for the students collaborating in this instructional context. Students experienced uncertainty related to the project activity and uncertainty related to the social system as they collaborated to fulfill the requirements of their robotics engineering projects. They managed their uncertainty through a diverse set of tactics for reducing, ignoring, maintaining, and increasing uncertainty. Students experienced uncertainty from more different sources and used more and different types of uncertainty management strategies in the less structured task setting than in the more structured task setting. Peer interaction was influential because students relied on supportive social response to enact most of their uncertainty management strategies. When students could not garner socially supportive response from their peers, their options for managing uncertainty were greatly reduced. / text

Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T20:02:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 5736.pdf: 2625805 bytes, checksum: 4561c12dbfe262f92a7207b44898afa2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-01-31 / This research has as its context the exploration potential of manipulative materials in mathematics teaching Geoespaço. In order to increase knowledge of the development and implementation of exploratory-investigative tasks and tasks of figural representation involving manipulative materials Geoespaço and having specific objectives the development and use of Geoespaço in different didactic sequences. The theoretical foundation takes the qualitative and quantitative analysis Proceedings of the National Meetings of Mathematics Education (ENEMs) from 2001 to 2010 and the Proceedings of the National Association of Postgraduate Education and Research (Anped) from 2000 to 2013, more specifically, on the use of manipulative materials from of Lorenzato (2006) and Bezerra (1962), on the theory of figural representations of Fischbein (1993) and on the exploratory-investigative tasks Bridge (2009). The relevance of this research is partly because of making clear the importance of making use of manipulative materials in exploratory-investigative tasks in various methodologies of teaching math. / Essa pesquisa tem como contexto a exploração das potencialidades do material manipulativo Geoespaço no ensino de matemática. Com o objetivo de aprofundar conhecimentos sobre a elaboração e aplicação de tarefas exploratório-investigativas e tarefas de representação figural envolvendo material manipulativo Geoespaço e tendo como objetivos específicos o desenvolvimento e a utilização do Geoespaço em diferentes sequências didáticas. A fundamentação teórica toma a analise qualitativa e quantitativa dos Anais dos Encontros Nacionais de Educação Matemática (ENEMs) de 2001 a 2010 e os Anais da Associação Nacional de pós-graduação e Pesquisa em Educação (Anped) de 2000 a 2013, de modo mais específico, sobre o uso de materiais manipulativos a partir de Lorenzato (2006) e Bezerra (1962), sobre a teoria de representações figurais de Fischbein (1993) e sobre as tarefas exploratório-investigativas de Ponte (2009). A relevância dessa pesquisa se dá pelo fato de tornar clara a importância de se valer de material manipulativo em tarefas exploratório-investigativas em diversas metodologias de ensino de matemática.

The main goal of this dissertation was to create and verify own multicomponent tasks of interdisciplinary character based on analysis of types of tasks occured in international research. Newly created multicomponent learning tasks were classified by task type, solution form, cognitive demands and task variety. Tasks of the same form were ordered to pairs, their difficultness, vulnerability and rate of success were verified. Multicomponent learning tasks were assigned verbally or nonverbally (charts, tables or pictures). Closed jobs (ordering items, matching items, multiple choice questions, true/false questions) and open jobs (wide-answer items, short-answer items) were used in complex of tasks. Rate of success of individual tasks was processed by non-parmetric statistical Wilcoxon test based on form, gender and type of study. Research survey was complemented by pupils' self- reflection questionnaires and teachers'questionnaires about testing process. Key words Multicomponent learning task, taxonomy of learning task, scientific literacy, reading literacy, self-reflective questionnaire.

Life in today’s world is characterized by complexity and rapid change. Twenty-first century skills and especially mathematical understanding are supposed to crucially contribute to meeting the demands of our world since mathematics offers strategies to structure or simplify complex problems. An open question is which teaching practices are appropriate to provide all students with such skills and to broaden the participation of underprivileged students. The present article explores these aspects by focusing on complex tasks, a practice that can be considered highly accepted in the context of mathematics education all over the world. We will concentrate on the perspective of the German mathematics education community as the foundation of our considerations. Based on an analytical investigation of mathematical literacy and twenty-first century skills (such as creativity, critical thinking, or problem-solving), we will address central ideas and characteristics of complex mathematical tasks. To complement the analytical approach, we will illustrate their characteristics as well as possible intersections with twenty-first century skills by presenting an elementary school teaching experiment. Finally, we will critically discuss the potentials and pitfalls of complex mathematical tasks from an abstract perspective and conclude by debating practical consequences for organizing mathematical learning-teaching-processes.

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The purpose of this study is to conduct a qualitative analysis of monolingual (Swedish) and bilingual (Swedish and Turkish) children’s production of nouns and verbs in a newly developed vocabulary test (CLTs) and to discuss the results using previous research as a starting point. The different categories and the material which form the basis of this qualitative analysis are taken from an ongoing Swedish research study on vocabulary testing: Cross Linguistic Lexical Tasks (CLTs). This research is an extension of the international project COST Action IS0408. In all, there are responses from 115 children, 72 monolingual and 43 bilingual, of which only the Swedish results are analysed. On the whole, test scores show an age-related improvement of expressive vocabulary for both groups, even though the bilinguals lag behind their monolingual age peers. The bilingual children’s improvement is not as evident, with the five-year-olds’ production of nouns standing out. There is a higher number of wrong answers or no answers (don’t know), as well as a preponderance of gestures and innovations/neologisms in the bilinguals. Gestures make it possible to ascertain whether a child knows the meaning and use of a target word even though he or she is not capable of producing it verbally. Answers in the category of innovation/neologism show that the children know more about a word than an assessment of lexical ability using only right and wrong answers could demonstrate. In the monolingual group there are more instances of perceptual confusion, semantic confusion and hypernyms. The other categories do not show corresponding differences between the two groups. As the bilingual children’s responses are analysed only in terms of Swedish vocabulary, it is not possible to assess their total lexical knowledge. Keywords: CLTs (Cross Linguistic Lexical Tasks), expressive vocabulary, bilingualism, mental lexicon, vocabulary depth, vocabulary test, language exposure, Swedish, Turkish. Syftet med föreliggande studie är att med hjälp av ett nyutvecklat ordförrådstest (CLTs), göra en kvalitativ analys av substantiv- och verbproduktionen hos enspråkiga svenska och flerspråkiga svensk-turkiska 4;0-6;11-åringar och med utgångspunkt i tidigare forskning diskutera resultaten. Analysen görs utifrån ett antal uppställda kategorier som i likhet med det analyserade empiriska materialet hämtats från det pågående svenska forskningsarbetet med ordförrådstestet Cross Linguistic Lexical Tasks (CLTs). Detta arbete är en fortsättning på det internationella projektet COST Action IS0408. Sammanlagt ingår testsvar från 115 barn, 72 enspråkigt svenska och 43 flerspråkigt svensk-turkiska, varav endast resultat från deltesten på svenska analyserats. En förbättring av det expressiva ordförrådet ses med stigande ålder hos både de enspråkiga och flerspråkiga med en påtaglig eftersläpning hos de svensk-turkiska barnen. Hos de sistnämnda är förbättringen med stigande ålder inte heller lika tydlig då 5-åringarna utmärker sig i substantivproduktion. Ett större antal felsvar och inget svar/vet ej ses i den flerspråkiga gruppen liksom en övervikt av antal gester/pekningar och innovationer/nyordbildningar. Gester ger information om att barnet besitter kunskap om målordets innebörd och funktion trots att det inte kan presentera det avsedda målordet verbalt. Svaren i kategorin innovation/nyordbildning visar att barnen vet mer om målordet än vad en bedömning av lexikal förmåga enbart med rätt- och felsvar kan klargöra. I den enspråkiga gruppen förekommer jämförelsevis fler perceptuella förvirringar, semantiska förvirringar och hyperonymer/överordningar. Övriga kategorier uppvisar inte motsvarande lika stora skillnader mellan grupperna. Då endast det svenska ordförrådet hos de flerspråkiga barnen analyserats kan ingen säker tolkning göras av deras fullständiga lexikala kunskap. Nyckelord: CLTs (Cross Linguistic Lexical Tasks), expressivt ordförråd, flerspråkighet, mentalt lexikon, orddjup, ordförrådstest, språkexponering, svenska, turkiska. / Bohnacker, U. (2014-2019). Språkstörning eller typisk språkutveckling? Utveckling av metoder för språklig bedömning av flerspråkiga barn i Sverige. Vetenskapsrådet VR2013-1309.

This essay has investigated the use of Shakespearean texts as well as tasks associated with those texts in upper secondary textbooks. The investigation looked at both which texts of Shakespeare’s are most frequent and how students are supposed to work with the texts. Furthermore the textbooks cover 20 years (1995-2015) and as such the study also analysed whether or not the selection and tasks have changed, i.e. whether they remain the same today as they did 20 years ago. The findings indicated that Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet were the two most frequent texts and that the tasks have gone from being individual to focusing on group work. The analysis also showed that while Shakespeare during the beginning of the 20 year period was the most dominant or sole author mentioned, this role has been reduced during more recent years. The conclusions drawn concerning the findings emphasise the syllabi and how they influence the content and format of the textbooks as well as the importance of canonicity.

Syftet med denna komparativa studie är att få en ökad förståelse för hur ett arbetslag ska utformas och organiseras för att fungera på bästa sätt. Jag vill belysa vilka utvecklingsmöjligheter förskolans personal finner i sin organisation av arbetslaget gällande fördelning av ansvarsområden och arbetsuppgifter, en jämförelse mellan ett arbetslag i en förskola i Norge respektive Sverige. Då förskoleverksamheterna i Sverige och Norge skiljer sig gällande fördelning av arbetsuppgifter och ansvarsområden är det intressant att urskilja vilka utvecklingsmöjligheter som framkommer i respektive organisation. Jag valde att anta en kvalitativ ansats och genomförde totalt sju intervjuer med både förskollärare, barnskötare och förskolechefer på en förskola i Norge respektive Sverige. I min studie har en och samma utvecklingsmöjlighet framkommit i båda arbetslag, bättre förutsättningar för att kunna utnyttja sin fulla kompetens. Jag har funnit att ett arbetslag bör organiseras så att varje individ får möjligheten att utnyttja sin kompetens, genom att synliggöra och utnyttja varandras kompetenser stärks varje individ men också arbetslaget som helhet. / The main aim of this study is to gain a deeper understanding of how a preschool team should be organized to work in the best possible way. A comparative study between a preschool in Norway and in Sweden. The distribution of tasks and responsibilities are different between the countries, to explore improvements the preschool staff´s conceptions of their own organization will be focused. The distribution of tasks and responsibilities are different but the conceptions of improvements may be the same. The empiricial data has been obtained from seven interviews. The participants were preschool teachers, child minders and preschool heads in a Swedish preschool and in a Norwegian preschool. In my study one improvement emerged in both teams, better requirements to make use of their competencies. The conclusion of this study is that a preschool team should be organized in a way that makes it possible to make use of everyone’s competencies.

The aim of this study was to examine if there is a difference in job satisfaction between men and women in a mixed-gender organization. This by comparing men’s and women's job satisfaction based on the work as whole, work tasks and division of labor. Previous research differs in this question, when there is not enough clear relationships that strengthen this and varying results have been demonstrated. Through a crosssectional design, based on a survey, employees in two identical supermarkets were included in the study. Three Mann-Whitney U-tests were then carried out to answer the study questions. The results indicate that there is no significant difference in job satisfaction between men and women. Likewise, there is also no marked differences between men and women in the examined variables, age, length of employment, work environment, motivation and work commitment, which is assumed to be a possible explanation to why gender differences in job satisfaction has not been found. As a result of the low sample in the study the results and conclusions that are presented are not reliable. This study can therefore be seen as a preliminary study for future research that intends to examine gender differences in job satisfaction. / Syftet med denna studie var att undersöka om det föreligger en skillnad i arbetstillfredsställelse mellan män och kvinnor inom en könsblandad organisation. Detta genom att jämföra män och kvinnors arbetstillfredsställelse vad gäller arbetet som helhet, arbetsuppgifter och fördelning av arbetsuppgifter. Tidigare forskning är inte entydiga i denna fråga, då det inte finns tillräckligt klara samband som stärker detta och då varierande resultat har påvisats. Genom en tvärsnittsdesign, baserad på en enkätundersökning, har anställda inom två identiska stormarknader inkluderats i studien. För att besvara studiens frågeställningar har tre Mann-Whitney U-tester utförts. Resultatet från genomförd studie indikerar att det inte föreligger någon signifikant skillnad i arbetstillfredsställelse mellan män och kvinnor. Likaså föreligger det inga markanta skillnader mellan män och kvinnor i de studerande variablerna, ålder, anställningslängd, arbetsmiljö, motivation och engagemang, vilket kan antas vara en rimlig förklaring till varför könsskillnader i arbetstillfredsställelse inte har påträffats. Som en följd av det låga deltagandet i studien är dock inte de resultat och slutsatser som presenteras tillförlitliga. Denna studie kan således ses som en förstudie för framtida forskning som ämnar undersöka könsskillnader i arbetstillfredsställelse.

Classical Stroop stimuli and newly developed face/word Stroop analog stimuli were used to investigate hemispheric interactions in Stroop interference effects (SEs) and corresponding event-related potentials (ERPs). Lateralized stimuli were presented unilaterally and bilaterally as congruent or incongruent color strip-word or face-word pairs (to invoke right hemisphere (RH) and left hemisphere (LH) specialization, respectively, in the latter case). The common finding for such tasks is that responses for the congruent condition are faster and more accurate than for the incongruent condition (i.e., the SE). A primary prediction is that the SE will be maximized when both the distractor and target components, or distractor alone, are presented to the specialized hemisphere (i.e., LH for words and RH for faces). A total of 88 right-handed University of North Texas students participated in one of four experiments. Participants manually responded to one component of the stimuli (i.e., color, face, or word), while ignoring the other. Behaviorally, participants showed a robust SE across all experiments, especially for the face/word task with word targets. Findings from the face/word Stroop analog tasks also indicated that SEs were produced by selective attention to either faces or words, implicating a role for top-down (controlled) processes. Hemispheric asymmetries were observed only for bilateral presentations of the face/word Stroop analog stimuli and did not differ for word versus face targets. The results suggest that the LH is less susceptible to interference from the RH than vice versa. Electrophysiologically, anterior N1 and P1, posterior P1 and N1, N2, and P3 components were identified. A SE was found for P3 amplitudes, but not latencies, across all four experiments such that the congruent condition generated greater amplitudes than the incongruent condition, suggesting that the P3 is an index of task difficulty. Surprisingly, SEs were also observed for the early ERP components, albeit embedded in higher order interactions. Taken together, the ERP evidence suggests that there is no single locus of the SE, and instead, the SE appears to be distributed over several stages of information processing.