In the nineteen years of South Africa’s democracy, its education system, as a vehicle for political, economic and social reform, has been characterised by transformation and change. Educators, as policy implementers, have been integral to that process. For the educators at the school selected for this study, changes have included, among others, frequent curriculum revision; a different approach to assessment; changes in school management as well as making a transition from a mainstream to a full service school, focused on the inclusion of learners who experience mild to moderate barriers to learning. Against this background the purpose of this study was to explore the subjective experience of educators in this particular school, and the subsequent impact that aspects of curriculum change and educational reform may have had on them; then secondly to put practices in place that would enable them to positively embrace new ideas, create knowledge and share ideas as educators. The study was conducted with 21 educators at a full service school. The research findings show them to be overloaded with administrative tasks as pressure is put on them to present evidence of their competence and functionality; many of them were tired, confused or angry. They felt rushed and obligated to implement a curriculum that they perceive to compromise effective teaching and learning; and ultimately, the learners. / Psychology of Education / M. Ed. (Guidance and Counselling)

The study involves an in-depth case study on the leadership task of the grade heads at a private secondary school in Gauteng with the main research problem arising as: After defining the leadership task of grade heads at a private secondary school in Gauteng, how important do the learners in the grade view the individual grade head tasks to be? From the mixed-method research conducted, it stems that the leadership tasks of the grade head (and also the grade head system as a whole) have a positive impact on the learners and the holistic school environment. Therefore, it is recommended that the particular school under study continue with the structure of grade seven roles of the teacher as this provides a clear background for an organised educative approach to leadership within a grade head system.heads and that the leadership roles of the grade head continue to function within the seven roles of the teacher as this provides a clear background for an organised educative approach to leadership within a grade head system. / Educational Management and Leadership / M.A. (Education Management)

Background: Psychological perfectionism, from a clinical perspective, started to be a topic of interest for cognitive behavioural clinicians at the beginning of the 1950s. Whilst many studies have identified perfectionism as a pivotal motivator in different conditions of neurosis, the exact nature of its interactions remains unclear. In the research community there is still a debate as to whether there is such a thing as good perfectionism, and there remains no consensual theory of psychopathological perfectionism. Aims: The aim of the study was to investigate why the nature of the phenomena remains a contentious issue, and to develop a robust theory of psychopathological perfectionism, within a cognitive behavioural framework, which will find general acceptance. From the literature review this appears to be the first qualitative study to develop such a theory. Method: Substantive grounded theory was developed within a framework of methodical hermeneutics which, it is argued, is capable of generating formative theory. 20 volunteers who came forward in response to advertisements became participants in semi-structured interviews using a post classic qualitative methodology, from which emerging data became the basis of categories leading to the development of the theory, and functions of the phenomena. Results and Conclusions: The study sets out reasons why there remains an impasse amongst researchers and clinicians about the condition of psychopathological perfectionism. A parsimonious theory of pathological perfectionism has been developed, the constructs of which are just necessary and sufficient to describe the condition. The developed theory makes a contribution to theories proposed prior to 1990 and to contemporary research. However as with all theories it is necessarily provisional, so that its usefulness is in need of further research and development. Psychopathological perfectionism has only two constructs, namely a demand to achieve perfectionism in at least one idiosyncratic sphere, which is in response to a core schema of conditional worth. A number of symptoms or functions of psychopathological perfectionism have also been identified, and there are suggestions as to how the condition develops and is maintained to the detriment of the sufferer. The study synthesizes over fifty years of theory and research into the phenomena. The developed theory and its symptoms or functions have important implications for clinical interventions, training, and for further psychological and psychosocial research. These implications are discussed.

To make mathematics more significant for the beneficiaries, the problem studied in this thesis is to investigate how to connect mathematical daily practices with educational contexts. The overarching aim is to investigate how to contextualise school mathematics within Rwandan cultural mathematics practices. The content of the thesis reports on the characteristics of mathematical organisations in three workplace settings (taxi driving, house construction and restaurant management) which in turn serve as source for the design of contextualised mathematical activities for student teachers in a teacher education programme. Three levels of mathematical practices are described: (1) mathematical practices that are performed by workers within their respective workplaces, (2) mathematical practices that are performed by student teachers while solving and posing contextualised mathematical tasks for secondary school students, (3) mathematical practices that are carried out by secondary school students. Data gathered from individual and group interviews, transcripts of group discussions and students’ written reports of mathematical work were analysed from the perspective of both activity theory and anthropological theory of didactics. Findings from workplace settings revealed that mathematical organisations performed by workers are characterised by techniques which are functional to the problem at hand, the cultural constraints and the educational background of the workers. As long as they are pragmatic towards the goals of the activity no further justification of the techniques used is needed, resulting in a mathematical organisation with undeveloped know-why (logos). On the contrary, at university and secondary school settings, students justified the used techniques throughout the related taught content of the subject mathematics. Also from each category of mathematical practice, it is shown that while connecting workplaces and educational settings the didactic transposition process was much influenced by the institutional conditions and constraints. / För att göra matematiken betydelsefull för avnämarna är problemområdet som studeras i denna avhandling hur den matematik som finns i samhället kan överbryggas till en undervisningskontext. Syftet med avhandlingen är att undersöka hur man kan kontextualisera skolmatematik i kulturella praktiker i Rwanda. I avhandlingen belyses först matematisk organisation på tre arbetsplatser – i en taxiverksamhet, hos en byggmästare och hos en restaurangägare. Matematik i dessa verksamheter utgör underlag för att konstruera uppgifter för lärarstudenter inom ämnet matematik som först löser uppgifterna och sedan i sin tur konstruerar uppgifter för elever motsvarande årskurs nio i grundskolan. Uppgifterna konstrueras med utgångspunkt i den information studenterna fått om de tre verksamheterna. Datainsamlingen skedde med hjälp av individuella intervjuer, gruppintervjuer och bandinspelade gruppdiskussioner samt studenters och elevers nedtecknade lösningar på respektive uppgifter. Data analyserades med hjälp av aktivitetsteori och antropologisk didaktisk teori. Resultaten från arbetsplatserna visade att matematisk organisation kännetecknades av tekniker som är funktionella för de problem som behövde lösas, de kulturella villkor som förelåg och deltagarnas utbildningsbakgrund. Så länge som teknikerna ledde till önskade mål för verksamheten fanns inga behov att utveckla tekniken som kännetecknades av en matematisk organisation med outvecklad logos. I kontrast till denna strategi sågs studenter och elever i respektive miljöer redovisa de tekniker som användes och motivera dem i enlighet med vad som krävs inom matematikämnet. Den matematiska transpositionsprocessen som utfördes av deltagarna i de olika miljöerna influerades i hög grad av rådande institutionella villkor och begränsningar.

The possible approach towards the teaching of literature at the 9th grade level of primary education is the central topic of this thesis. The main idea is to base literature teaching on a system of working sheets, which relate to extracts from 4 selected books. These books have a common theme; real-life situations relevant to students of the 9th grade. Such theme has been preselected on the author's perception that students are becoming less in contact with the literary world, thus seeking a path to bring students closer to it. The goal is to show pupils the relevance and practical use of literature, with the use of diverse tasks and assignments and to convince them that reading may be entertaining as well as educating. A specific characteristic of the thesis is the fact that the research has been carried out in a given classroom at one of Prague's primary schools, where the author teaches Czech Language and Literature. Therefore, a key element of the thesis is the discussion of first hand findings and lessons-learned during these lessons. On the basis of the working sheet system trial results in class, this method proves to be efficient. Students reacted positively to the learning system and the text excerpts allowed them to complete literary tasks and also to discuss the described real-life situations...

Les architectures de calcul haute performance les plus récentes intègrent de plus en plus de nœuds de calcul qui contiennent eux-mêmes plus de cœurs. Les bus mémoires et les réseaux de communication sont soumis à un niveau d'utilisation critique. La programmation parallèle sur ces nouvelles machines nécessite de porter une attention particulière à ces problématiques pour l'écriture de nouveaux algorithmes. Nous analysons dans cette thèse un code de simulation de turbulences de plasma et proposons une refonte de la parallélisation de l'opérateur de gyromoyenne plus adapté en termes de distribution de données et bénéficiant d'un schéma de recouvrement calcul -- communication efficace. Les optimisations permettent un gain vis-à-vis des coûts de communication et de l’empreinte mémoire. Nous étudions également les possibilités d'évolution de ce code à travers la conception d'un prototype utilisant un modèle programmation par tâche et un schéma de communication asynchrone adapté. Cela permet d'atteindre un meilleur équilibrage de charge afin de maximiser le temps de calcul et de minimiser les communications entre processus. Un maillage réduit adaptatif en espace est proposé, diminuant le nombre de points sans pour autant perdre en précision, mais ajoutant de fait une couche supplémentaire de complexité. Ce prototype explore également une distribution de données différente ainsi qu'un maillage en géométrie complexe adapté aux nouvelles configurations des tokamaks. Les performances de différentes optimisations sont étudiées et comparées avec le code préexistant et un cas dimensionnant sur un grand nombre de cœurs est présenté. / Recent high performance computing architectures come with more and more cores on a greater number of computational nodes. Memory buses and communication networks are facing critical levels of use. Programming parallel codes for those architectures requires to put the emphasize on those matters while writing tailored algorithms. In this thesis, a plasma turbulence simulation code is analyzed and its parallelization is overhauled. The gyroaverage operator benefits from a new algorithm that is better suited with regard to its data distribution and that uses a computation -- communication overlapping scheme. Those optimizations lead to an improvement by reducing both execution times and memory footprint. We also study new designs for the code by developing a prototype based on task programming model and an asynchronous communication scheme. It allows us to reach a better load balancing and thus to achieve better execution times by minimizing communication overheads. A new reduced mesh is introduced, shrinking the overall mesh size while keeping the same numerical accuracy but at the expense of more complex operators. This prototype also uses a new data distribution and twists the mesh to adapt to the complex geometries of modern tokamak reactors. Performance of the different optimizations is studied and compared to that of the current code. A case scaling on a large number of cores is given.

Cette thèse se propose d'étudier les conditions d'avancée des savoirs dans la classe à partir de situations de classe en cycle 3 de l'école élémentaire française. Ces situations concernent la compréhension des phases de la Lune. Les analyses de pratiques effectives visent à inférer les déterminants de l'action professorale et leur rôle. Trois déterminants ont été retenus, à savoir l'action adressée du professeur, son épistémologie pratique ainsi que les savoirs en jeu. Afin d'identifier ces déterminants dans l'action in situ, leurs caractéristiques ont préalablement été établies à travers une analyse a priori des savoirs en jeu, des instructions officielles et de l'épistémologie pratique des enseignants. Une enquête, diffusée à l'échelle nationale, a permis de mettre en évidence les représentations des enseignants vis-à-vis des sciences et de leur enseignement. L'élaboration des items de cette enquête repose sur une étude épistémologique des démarches scientifiques et du statut des savoirs. Cette étude a également été mobilisée pour l'analyse des instructions officielles. Les analyses de l'action professorale s'appuient sur la théorie de l'action conjointe en didactique (TACD). Les notions de tâches épistémiques et de niveaux de modélisation ont été convoquées pour la description de l'avancée des savoirs dans la classe. Ces notions permettent une analyse fine de l'action didactique en documentant notamment le triplet des genèses et en particulier la chronogénèse. Cette recherche précise le rôle des tâches épistémiques et des niveaux de modélisation sollicités dans l'avancée des savoirs et montre que le poids des déterminants varie d'une part selon la phase de travail du professeur et d'autre part selon l'anticipation de l'action enseignante en réaction / This PhD analyses the conditions to advance knowledge in class during a science lesson in higher level of primary school (5th grade,10-year-old pupils) of the French elementary school. The teaching situations concern the phases of the moon. From the analysis of effective practices, this research deduce the determiners of teacher’s action and their role.The determiners analysed are : the knowledge, official instructions and teachers’ representations towards science and science teaching. In order to identify these determiners through effective pratices, their characteristics have been established: an a priori analysis of knowledge, official instructions and practical epistemology of teachers is proposed. A questionnaire aiming at collecting data on teachers’ views of science and sciences teaching have been disseminated at the national leevl. An epistemological study of science approach and knowledge guided the elaboration of items and underlies the analysis the official instructions.. The analysis the teachers’ activities is based on the Joint Action Theory in Didactics (JATD). Additional theoretical tools have been integrated to describe the way knowledge progresses in the classroom : epistemic tasks and modeling levels. These additional concepts allow a detailed analysis of the didactic action including the triple genesis, especially chronogenesis. Our research precises the role of epistemic tasks and modeling levels requested in order to advance knowledge and shows that some determinants act primarily to other, depending on the teachers’ tasks concerning the lesson and the anticipation of students’ actions

L’objectif principal de cette thèse est l’étude de propriétés dynamiques et de méthodes de conception et synthèse des algorithmes de contrôle-commande des systèmes dans le cas où les fonctions de mesures, actionnements et contrôles sont distribuées sur des organes de calcul pouvant être partagés avec d’autres applications et connectés sur un réseau de communication numérique. En conséquence, les boucles de contrôle sont en compétition avec d’autres applications pour accéder aux ressources de calcul et de communication de capacité limitée et gérées par des politiques spécifiques. Ceci provoque l’apparition de délais et de perte d’informations transmises entre les différents nœuds qui peuvent dégrader les performances des systèmes et conduire à leur instabilité.Dans une première partie de la thèse, nous avons étudié l’analyse des performances de certains systèmes ainsi que la conception de contrôleurs robustes en fonction de la qualité de service fournie par le réseau. Cette étude a permis de spécifier les règles de conception de contrôleurs.Dans la deuxième partie, nous avons présenté une approche de conception conjointe intégrant les résultats obtenus dans les deux domaines: la synthèse et la conception des algorithmes de contrôle et l’ordonnancement de tâches temps réel qui partagent des ressources limitées. La technique proposée repose sur le changement de la période d’activation de l’algorithme de contrôle, et en conséquence le modèle du système devient un modèle échantillonné à taux variable. Les résultats proposés, en considérant l’algèbre de Lie des matrices d’évolution, permettent de calculer des contrôleurs adaptifs aux périodes qui stabilisent tous le système / The main contributions of this thesis are related to the analysis, synthesis and design of control systems sharing communication and computational resources. The research focuses on control systems where the feedback loops are closed over communication networks which transmit the information provided to its nodes by sensors, actuators and controllers. The shared resource in this scenario is the network. Some of the results are valid when the resource is a processor locally placed respect to several controller executing their algorithms on it. In any of the preceding scenarios, the control loops must contend for the shared resource. The limited capacity of the resource can cause delays and packet losses when information is transmitted. These effects can degrade the control system performance and even destabilize it.The first part of this thesis contributes to the performance analysis of specific classes of systems and to the design of robust controllers for network characteristics modeled by Quality of Service parameters. A series of methods to assist the control systems engineer are provided.In the second part, a contribution to the CoDesign approach is made via the integration of control system synthesis and design techniques with rules allowing to define the communication policy to manage real-time tasks sharing a limited resource. Putting in correspondence a scheduling of instances of the controller tasks with their sampling periods, the proposed policy results in discrete-time varying systems. The stabilization problem of these systems is solved with methods based on the solvability of Lie-algebras. Specifically, the proposed methodology provides adaptive controllers

Les systèmes adaptatifs basés sur les architectures FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Arrays) peuvent bénéficier grandement de la grande flexibilité offerte par la reconfiguration partielle dynamique (DPR). Grâce au DPR, les tâches matérielles composant un système adaptatif peuvent être allouées et re-allouées à la demande ou en fonction de l'environnement dynamique. Les flots de conceptions disponibles et les outils commerciaux ont évolué pour répondre aux exigences des architectures reconfigurables qui sont toutefois limitées dans leurs fonctionnalités. Ces outils ne permettent pas un placement et une relocation efficaces de tâches matérielles de tailles variables. L'objectif principal de ces travaux de thèse consiste à proposer des nouvelles méthodologies et de nouvelles approches pour faciliter au concepteur la phase de conception d'un système adaptatif reconfigurable opérationnelle, valide, optimisé et adapté aux changements dynamiques de l'environnement. La première contribution de cette thèse porte sur la problématique de la relocation des tâches matérielles de tailles différentes. Une méthodologie de conception est proposée pour répondre à un problème majeur des mécanismes de relogement : le stockage d'une unique bitstream de configuration pour réduire les besoins de la mémoire et pour accroître la réutilisable des modules matériels générés. Une technique de partitionnement de la région reconfigurable est appliquée dans la méthodologie de relogement proposée pour augmenter l'efficacité d'utilisation des ressources matérielles dans le cas des tâches reconfigurables de tailles variables. Cette méthodologie prend en compte aussi la communication entre différentes régions reconfigurables et la région statique. Pour valider la méthode, plusieurs études de cas sont implémentées. Cette validation montre une utilisation efficace des ressources matérielles ainsi une réduction importante du temps de reconfiguration. La deuxième partie de cette thèse présente et détaille une formulation mathématique afin d'automatiser le floorplanning des zones reconfigurables dans les FPGAs. Les algorithmes de recherche présentés dans cette thèse sont basés sur la technique d'optimisation PLMNE (programmation linéaire mixte en nombres entiers). Ces algorithmes permettent de définir automatiquement l'emplacement, la taille et la forme de la zone reconfigurable dynamique. Nous nous intéressons principalement dans cette recherche à la satisfaction des contraintes de placement des zones reconfigurables et celles liées à la relocation. De plus, nous considérons l’optimisation des ressources matérielles dans le FPGA en tenant compte des tâches de tailles variables. Finalement, une évaluation de l'approche proposée est présentée / Adaptive systems based on Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGA) architectures can benefit greatly from the high degree of flexibility offered by dynamic partial reconfiguration (DPR). Thanks to DPR, hardware tasks composing an adaptive system can be allocated and relocated on demand or depending on the dynamically changing environment. Existing design flows and commercial tools have evolved to meet the requirements of reconfigurables architectures, but that are limited in functionality. These tools do not allow an efficient placement and relocation of variable-sized hardware tasks. The main objective of this thesis is to propose a new methodology and a new approaches to facilitate to the designers the design phase of an adaptive and reconfigurable system and to make it operational, valid, optimized and adapted to dynamic changes in the environment. The first contribution of this thesis deals with the issues of relocation of variable-sized hardware tasks. A design methodology is proposed to address a major problem of relocation mechanisms: storing a single configuration bitstream to reduce memory requirements and increasing the reusability of generating hardware modules. A reconfigurable region partitioning technique is applied in this proposed relocation methodology to increase the efficiency of use of hardware resources in the case of reconfigurable tasks of variable sizes. This methodology also takes into account communication between different reconfigurable regions and the static region. To validate the design method, several cases studies are implemented. This validation shows an efficient use of hardware resources and a significant reduction in reconfiguration time. The second part of this thesis presents and details a mathematical formulations in order to automate the floorplanning of the reconfigurable regions in the FPGAs. The algorithms presented in this thesis are based on the optimization technique MILP (mixed integer linear programming). These algorithms allow to define automatically the location, the size and the shape of the dynamic reconfigurable region. We are mainly interested in this research to satisfy the constraints of placement of the reconfigurable zones and those related to the relocation. In addition, we consider the optimization of the hardware resources in the FPGA taking into account the tasks of variable sizes. Finally, an evaluation of the proposed approach is presented

Mit der vorliegenden Arbeit wurde ein Konzept zur differenzierten Beurteilung und Rückmeldung mathematischer Kompetenzen entwickelt und exemplarisch erprobt. Damit liegt ein Beurteilungskonzept vor, dass fachdidaktischen Anforderungen an einen kompetenzorientierten Mathematikunterricht genügt aber auch alltagstauglich ist. Es erlaubt dem Lehrer seinen Schülern ihre Stärken und Schwächen bei der Bearbeitung mathematischer Aufgaben differenziert und konkret aufzuzeigen und Hinweise zum selbständigen Lernen zu geben. Die Differenzierung in die vier Kompetenzbereiche darstellend-interpretativ, heuristisch-experimentell, formal-operativ und kritisch-argumentativ spiegelt fachdidaktische Zielsetzungen an den Mathematikunterricht wider. Das mathematische Grundwissen bildet als Grundlage der Ausprägung von Kompetenzen die fünfte Beurteilungskomponente. Für den spezifischen Zweck der differenzierten Beurteilung wurde ein Aufgabenanalyseinstrument entwickelt. Dieses vereint Kriterien an Aufgaben zum Leisten, allgemeine Kriterien der Aufgabenqualität und Kriterien verbunden mit der Anregung vielseitiger mathematischer Kompetenzen. Darüber hinaus werden kompetenzspezifische Anforderungen beschrieben. Die Beurteilung der bei der Aufgabenbearbeitung dargelegten Kompetenzen erfolgt durch kompetenz- und aufgabenspezifische Beurteilungskriterien. Individuelle Rückmeldungsbögen enthalten für die erfassten Kompetenzen kriterienorientierte Beurteilungen und lernfördernde Hinweise. Bei der exemplarischen Erprobung des Konzeptes in drei mathematisch profilierten Klassen zeigten sich unterschiedliche Leistungsverteilungen für die einzelnen Kompetenzbereiche. Es wurden zum einen Stärken und Schwächen der Schüler deutlich. Zum anderen zeigten aufgabenabhängige Unterschiede innerhalb der Kompetenzbereiche, dass die Kompetenzdarlegungen von der Art der Aufgabe oder vom speziellen angesprochenen Inhalt abhängen. In einer weiteren Untersuchung wurden die mit einer Aufgabe intendierten Aktivitäten den tatsächlich ausgeführten gegenübergestellt. Aus der Umsetzung verschiedener Aufgaben wurden Hinweise zur Aufgabengestaltung für die differenzierte Beurteilung im Mathematikunterricht abgeleitet. / With the presented paper a concept of differentiated assessment and feedback of mathematical competencies was developed and exemplary tested. It allows the teacher to show his students in a differentiated and task-bounded way their strong and weak points connected with recommendations for independent learning. The differentiation in descriptive, heuristic, formal and argumentative competencies reflects didactically goals for mathematical lessons. Any development and demonstration of competencies is only possible if the necessary knowledge is available. For this reason the mathematical knowledge is another important element of competence-orientated assessment. To choose and construct tasks for the differentiated assessment an analysis instrument was developed. It includes criterions on tasks for testing, general criterions on task quality and the claim to stimulate various mathematical activities. In addition the analysis instrument describes properties of competence specific claims. For a transparent and objective assessment of ambitious competencies like arguing or problem solving competence and task specific criterions of assessment were prepared. Individual feedback-sheets include for the competencies related to the task a quantitative criterion-orientated assessment, verbal interpretations and learning-supporting recommendations. The concept was exemplary tested in three mathematical profiled classes. Differentiated performance distributions were observed for the different areas of competencies. Strong and weak points of the student could be shown in nearly constant levels, but also task-depending variations. The clearly task-depending variations within an area of competencies indicates that the shown competencies are depending on the kind of the task or on there special mathematical topic. This speaks for a concrete task-related feedback. In a further investigation the potential of the task to induce activities was confronted with the activities really carried out by the students. From the realization of different tasks recommendations to design tasks for the differentiated assessment of mathematical competencies were deduced.