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This thesis reports on a longitudinal, mixed-methods study of the relationships between informal (i.e. out-of-class) second language (L2) contact, vocabulary-related strategic behaviour and vocabulary gain in a study abroad context. The study addressed three main gaps in knowledge that arose from analysis of the literature: (1) the evidence of informal L2 contact was largely unreliable, ungeneralisable, or both; (2) the evidence of vocabulary-related strategic behaviour in informal L2 contact was neither context nor task specific; and (3) there was no evidence of the interplay between informal L2 contact, vocabulary-related strategic behaviour and vocabulary gain in a study abroad context. The sample (n=241) were adults undertaking a study abroad experience (SAE) in England, who comprised a range of nationalities and first language backgrounds and for whom the majority of the SAE was spent outside of the classroom. A vocabulary test was administered at the beginning and end of the SAE. A questionnaire was administered during the SAE to determine the most highly identified with informal L2 contact scenarios and out-of-class vocabulary-related strategies. Subsequently, an innovative research tool comprising computer-based simulations of the most identified with scenarios was developed and used as the stimulus in semi-structured interviews to capture task and/or context-specific vocabulary-related strategic behaviour. Analysis grouped participants by length of stay and location. The most highly identified with informal L2 contact scenarios involved participants seeking information from external sources, such as interlocutors, posters or websites. The vocabulary-related strategies most highly identified with by the sample pertained to the use of a newly encountered lexical item; that is, they were strategies in which the learner used or prepared to use a lexical item that they had decided to engage with strategically. The strategic behaviour manifested in response to the simulation tool (the 'OWLS') provided strong evidence in support of the fundamental considerations of task, context and intention in strategy-based research. Regression analysis revealed that informal L2 contact scenarios that were less strategically prohibitive and strategies that were less context-dependent were predictors of vocabulary gain. The pedagogical implications of these findings are far- reaching in terms of preparing L2 learners for informal contact on a SAE and guiding their manipulation of that contact for maximum linguistic gain.

The study was an investigation into the teaching decisions that mathematics teachers make over time. I view a mathematics classroom as a didactical system of teacher, learners and content within an educational institution, where content is the material that brings teachers and learners together. Within such a system I view the teacher's role as making content available to learners. Prior research has often investigated the teacher's role by comparing teaching practices nationally or internationally, but these comparisons have tended to use the lesson as the unit of analysis. I propose that how teachers make content available can change over the course of a series of lessons and so my study used the lesson series as the unit of analysis. I purposefully designed the study so that it involved four cases, which allowed me to explore the role of the teacher and the topic in how content was made available. To investigate how teachers made content available to learners in each case, I developed an analytical approach from which I could study the modes of teacher interaction that featured across the lesson series, the forms of mathematical content made available and the sequencing of these forms. Attending to forms of content - rather than content itself - allowed for comparison of teaching of different topics. This original analytical approach represents a contribution to both mathematics education and mixed methods research. Within this small sample of cases, quantifiable differences were identified in how content was made available between classwork and seatwork, from lesson to lesson and between cases. Between-case differences in the nature of teaching 'between-the-desks' during seatwork were also identified. These differences illuminated teaching decisions to which teachers and classroom researchers may not routinely attend. The findings therefore contribute - and identify additional lines of enquiry that might contribute further - to a more extensive understanding of teaching practices.

As altas exigências que impõe o mercado globalizado, a complexidade dos sistemas produtivos de manufatura atuais e os avanços na Tecnologia da Informação são fatos que resgatam a importância da Programação Detalhada da Produção para as empresas. A pesar de bastante consolidada e difundida, a abordagem clássica MRP / ERP não atende plenamente as necessidades em ambientes de produção intermitente. A Programação Detalhada da Produção com capacidade finita dos recursos, atualmente contemplada nos sistemas APS (Advanced Planning & Scheduling), constitui uma alternativa interessante para melhor cumprir prazos de entrega em ambientes com roteiros de produção complexos e produção make-to-order (MTO). O problema de pesquisa ora estudado contempla o ensino de modelos de Planejamento e Controle da Produção (PCP) em um ambiente de produção intermitente, com foco na Programação Detalhada da Produção e nos sistemas MRP e APS. Propõe-se um plano de ensino que busca apresentar e diferenciar essas abordagens. O plano contempla o uso de um caso didático A Fábrica de Skates. De uma forma lúdica, porém realista, o caso apresenta, nas suas cinco etapas, duas situações hipotéticas de uso de sistemas de programação. O primeiro, um MRP para planejamento da fábrica de skates e, no segundo, um APS utilizado pelo fornecedor de eixos. O plano foi aplicado pela primeira vez em uma turma de graduação do curso de Engenharia de Produção. Nesta dissertação, é apresentada uma descrição detalhada do caso didático, junto ao plano de ensino. A pesquisa verificou, mediante análise das atividades do caso e de um questionário de avaliação, a utilidade dos recursos elaborados, como também que as estratégias aplicadas ajudaram na aprendizagem. Nesta primeira aplicação, constatou-se também que a alta carga de trabalho dos alunos no semestre e o pouco peso dado à nota final do caso didático foram fatores que inibiram melhores resultados. Para futuras aplicações, o caso didático pode ser aprimorado: novas etapas contemplando outros assuntos importantes para a disciplina PCP e análise de alternativas para substituição dos softwares empregados são exemplos de melhorias. / The high standard of competition in global market, the complexity of current manufacturing systems and the advances in Information Technology highlight the importance of the detailed production scheduling. Although classical approaches such as MRP perform this function quite well in different situations, these systems do not perform well in make-to-order (MTO) production systems. The finite capacity scheduling currently embedded within the software called APS (Advanced Planning & Scheduling) is a more interesting approach to achieve better performance in meeting due dates in production environments with complex routings and MTO strategy. Thus, the problem addressed in this study concerns the teaching of Production Planning and Control (PPC) models for intermittent production, with focus on the detailed production scheduling using MRP and APS approaches. In order to that, a teaching plan is proposed to present and differentiate these approaches. It includes the use of an educational case study named \"The Skateboard Factory\". In a playful but realistic way, the case presents, in its five stages, two hypothetical situations of use of scheduling systems. First, an MRP approach for planning in the skateboard factory, and second, one APS approach used by the truck supplier. The teaching plan was first applied to an undergraduate degree Production Engineering program. In this dissertation, a detailed description of the educational case study, along with the teaching plan, is provided. The results achieved in the case study and the students evaluation attest to the usefulness of the resources designed, and also that the strategies applied really improved the learning process. In this first application, it was also observed that high workload and the little weight in the final grade of the case study inhibit better results. In future applications, the case can be enhanced to include new stages on other important issues of the PPC discipline and the replacement of the software used.

This research explores the multifaceted benefits that accrue from learning within an international, experiential context. It uses a qualitative, case study approach employing pre and post surveys, in-situ observations, and semi-structured photo-elicitation interviews to analyze the Center for Geography Education in Oregon’s (C-GEO) 2013 Overseas Teacher Institute--a professional development program that took 11 teachers to Russia, Mongolia, and China for a total of 17 days (plus two additional travel days) to learn about the cultural and physical geography of each place. The focus of the research is two-fold and examines processes involved in gaining, synthesizing and applying 1) a sense of place (the emotional ties between people and place), and 2) geo-literacy. The results of this study provide evidence that intensive professional development programs can increase teachers personal and professional knowledge, change their instructional practices, and may lead to improved student learning outcomes.

Thesis (MEd) -- Stellenbosch University, 2012. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study explored the views of thirteen youth at Victoria High School about what they regarded as achievement and how this influenced their lives and what they thought about their futures. The starting premise of the study was that all learners think about achievement. The goal of the study was thus to show how different learners connect this understanding of achievement with their respective aspirations and the kinds of social and schooling worlds they inhabit. The key contribution of the study is the ways it links the social, cultural, and economic worlds of each of the thirteen learners to what they say about what they do and what they want to do, who they are and who they want to be, and what they think they do and what they think they want to do. The study shows that the life-worlds of each of the learners are significantly different yet the ways they go about making sense of that world are fairly similar. In that regard it is shown that the school, and what learners, parents and educators think it is and does, plays a crucial role in the sense-making process. As Berkhout (2008) notes, the different contexts that shape the lives of individuals are not simply external forces but rather are integral parts of their identity-making process. The study used the work of Pierre Bourdieu and Arjun Appadurai to bring together a framework by which to understand what learners said about their worlds and their aspirations, as well to develop a narrative that showed the rich and complex ways in which learners engaged with their realities. The study followed an interpretive qualitative approach to explore the issue of achievement and based its arguments on interviews conducted with thirteen youth between the ages of fifteen and seventeen years old. In this regard, a key finding was that learners approached the notion of achievement in developmental, cumulative, and progressive ways. These views included wanting to be popular, gaining new knowledge, preparing for future material acquisition, developing skills to lead decent lives, acquiring happiness, developing the ability to overcome their challenges and circumstances, and gaining skills and recognition that set up their futures. Five staff members at Victoria High school were also interviewed for their views of the schooling context and the kinds of cultures and legacies that framed their practice. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die tesis is gefokus op die denke van dertien studente van Victoria Hoërskool aangaande die nosie van prestasie, en hoe hierdie denke hul lewens beïnvloed sowel as wat hulle dink van hul toekoms. Die vertrekpunt van die verbande studie was dat alle leerders oor prestasie dink. Die doel van die tesis (daaruitvoortspruitend) was dus om aan te toon hoe verskillende leerders ʼn verband aanlê tussen hul beskouing van prestasie, hul aspirasies en die maatskaplike- en skoolwêrelde wat hul beleef. Die kern bydrae van die tesis is die verbande wat gemaak is in die verbande studie tussen die sosiale, kulturele en ekonomiese wêrelde van elkeen van die dertien leerders ten opsigte van hul beskouing aangaande wat hulle doen en wil doen, wat hulle is en wil wees, en wat hulle dink hulle doen en wil doen. Die tesis toon aan dat die leefwêreld van elk van die leerders merkbaar verskillend is, maar dat die wyse waarop hulle betekenis gee aan hul leefwêreld tog redelik ooreenstem. In hierdie verband is dit getoon dat die skool, en wat leerders, ouers en onderwysers daaromtrent dink, ʼn kardinale rol speel in hul betekenisvormingsproses. Berkhout (2008) voer in hierdie verband aan dat die verskillende kontekste wat die lewens van individue vorm nie slegs eksterne magte is nie, maar eerder integrale dele van hul identiteitsvormings proses is. Die studie maak gebruik van die werk van Pierre Bourdieu en Arjun Appadurai om ʼn raamwerk te ontwikkel om leerders se beskouinge van hul wêrelde en aspirasies te verstaan, sowel as om ‘n narratief te ontwikkel wat die ryk en komplekse wyses waarop leerders met hul realiteite omgaan, aan te toon. Die tesis, en verbande studie, het ʼn interpretatiewe, kwalitatiewe benadering gevolg om die idee van prestasie te verken en het die tesis argumente baser op onderhoude met dertien leerders tussen vyftien tot sewentienjaar oud. ʼn Kernbevinding in hierdie verband was dat leerders die idée van prestasie op ontwikkelings-, kumulatiewe- en progressiewe wyses benader. Beskouinge van leerders in die verband sluit onder andere in, die behoefte om populêr te wees, die verkryging van nuwe kennis, voorbereiding om materiële goedere in die toekoms te bekom, die ontwikkeling van vaardighede noodsaaklik vir ʼn ordentlike lewe, die strewe na geluk, die ontwikkeling van die vermoë om hul uitdagings en omstandighede te oorkom, en die ontwikkeling vaardighede en erkenning noodsaaklik vir hul toekoms. Onderhoude is ook gevoer met vyf personeellede van Victoria hoërskool om hul beskouinge ten opsigte van die skoolkonteks en die soort kulture en erfenisse wat hul praktyk informeer te bepaal.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

The strategic goal of the research is to contribute to the search for connections between the teaching quality and other factors, and to deepen the understanding of the context of the teaching quality. The research question is posed as follows: Which parameters of the quality of physics teaching are typical for beginning teachers? To answer the question a mixed method research design was used and a case study was chosen as the basic research plan. An ex-post-facto research was chosen as the design of the quantitative part of the research, and the data was collected using the method of pedagogical observation. Regarding the qualitative part, the data was collected using semi-structured interviews. The research sample consisted of four physics teachers, teaching in grammar schools, who have recently graduated from the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics of Charles University. This research shows that there are parameters of the quality of physics teaching which the teachers have in common (e.g. high level of physics expertise, lecturing, mathematics, abstraction, knowledge structure). Besides common features of the teaching quality of the selected teachers there are certain differences (e.g. teaching aids, experiments, work with text, student's activity, demands placed on students).