Significant changes to the British Columbia's educational system have been caused by new curriculums that are based on a resource-based learning and teaching model. The Ministry of Education evaluates learning resources and allocates funding to support the acquisition of learning resources at the district and school level. Learning resources selected for classroom use are to support the Principles of Learning: • learning requires the active participation of the student; • people learn in a variety of ways and at different rates; • learning is both an individual and a group process. The Ministry recommends that schools have a Learning Resource Committee to develop a school vision for learning resources, evaluate current school resources, establish selection priorities, evaluate resources and make recommendations for purchase, and identify learning resource management systems. A survey of Vancouver elementary and secondary schools indicates that 41% of the schools have Learning Resource Committees, but that their activities rarely include all the recommendations of the Ministry. The survey shows that only 25% of the Committees have an established procedure for selecting learning resources. This study includes an analysis of Learning Resources Committees at two secondary and one elementary school where interviews were done with administrators, teacher-librarians, teachers and staff assistants provide a picture of how learning resources are selected and managed and their impact on resource-based learning and teaching. This study found that systems for selecting and managing learning resources are in the developmental stage as teachers move from primarily print formats to a broad range of print and non-print learning resources. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

The focus of the research reported on in this dissertation is an evaluation of the Language in Learning and Teaching project (LILT), in terms of its ability to facilitate English language development in schools where both educators and learners are second language speakers and where the Language of Learning and Teaching (LoLT) is English. The research involved two main phases. During the first phase I established evaluation criteria from the literature review, from another project the English Language Education Trust, (ELET) and from my own experience and feedback from the end-users (Le. teachers) and the observation of workshops. In the second phase I evaluated the LILT materials against the criteria developed in the literature review, analysed the feedback from end-users in the form of a questionnaire and made recommendations. In this dissertation the following terms will be used interchangeably: teacher, educator, facilitator and tutor because in the quoted passages, the term teacher is largely used. However, in Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) the terms educator, facilitator and tutor are used. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2001.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / To access interactive systems, blind and visually impaired users can leverage their auditory senses by using non-speech sounds. The current structure of non-speech sounds, however, is geared toward conveying user interface operations (e.g., opening a file) rather than large theme-based information (e.g., a history passage) and, thus, is ill-suited to signify the complex meanings of primary learning material (e.g., books and websites). In order to address this problem, this dissertation introduces audemes, a new category of non-speech sounds, whose semiotic structure and flexibility open new horizons for facilitating the education of blind and visually impaired students. An experiment with 21 students from the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired (ISBVI) supports the hypothesis that audemes increase the retention of theme-based information. By acting as memory catalysts, audemes can play an important role in enhancing the aural interaction and navigation in future sound-based user interfaces. For this dissertation, I designed an Acoustic EDutainment INterface (AEDIN) that integrates audemes as a way by which to vividly anticipate text-to-speech theme-based information and, thus, act as innovative aural covers. The results of two iterative usability evaluations with total of 20 blind and visually impaired participants showed that AEDIN is a highly usable and enjoyable acoustic interface. Yet, designing well-formed audemes remains an ad hoc process because audeme creators can only rely on their intuition to generate meaningful and memorable sounds. In order to address this problem, this dissertation presents three experiments, each with 10 blind and visually impaired participants. The goal was to examine the optimal combination of audeme attributes, which can be used to facilitate accurate recognitions of audeme meanings. This work led to the creation of seven basic guidelines that can be used to design well-formed audemes. An interactive application tool (ASCOLTA: Advanced Support and Creation-Oriented Library Tool for Audemes) operationalized these guidelines to support individuals without an audio background in designing well-formed audemes. An informal evaluation conducted with three teachers from the ISBVI, supports the hypothesis that ASCOLTA is a useful tool by which to facilitate the integration of audemes into the teaching environment.