published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

The aim of this thesis is to examine computer technology as an educative tool in primary education and to discover how it's affecting instruction and learning. The writer of this thesis believes that the integration of literacy and computer technology can be successful, provide that government, administration, faculty, parents and students work together.

Public Administration / (M. A.( Public Administration))

D. Tech. Education / The aim of the study is to explore the extent to which a University of Technology prepares pre-service teachers to teach the school Mathematics and Technology curriculum in South Africa. The study employed a combination of a qualitative method and case study approach. Participants were ten (10) Mathematics and nine (9) Technology pre-service teachers, totaling nineteen (19) participants. Data collection were done through an exploratory approach of document analyses, semi-structured interviews, and non-participant observations. The study was guided by two (2) conceptual frameworks, that is, Knowledge-Based for Teaching (Shulman, 1987) and the 7E instructional model from Eisenkraft (2003). This study found that Mathematics and Technology teacher training were not comprehensive enough to prepare pre-service teachers to teach the South African school curriculum.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Science in Information Technology in Education

A tese investiga a aprendizagem tecnológica do arquiteto, considerando que este seja um tema relevante frente ao quadro de desprestígio vivenciado pela profissão, contemporaneamente, e dada a perspectiva de uma solicitação candente pela contribuição técnica da categoria, em função das críticas demandas por ambientes construídos e modificados, na atualidade e para o futuro. Realizam-se análises históricas que demonstram a existência de relações intrínsecas entre o ideário sobre a profissão e o padrão de formação, as quais definiram, e ainda mantêm, uma desvalorização da formação tecnológica frente à formação teórica e projetual. São desenvolvidas considerações sobre as formulações tradicionais do currículo tecnológico em Arquitetura e Urbanismo e, a partir, principalmente, de experiências didáticas realizadas e da exploração de referências da prática profissional exemplar, são propostos conceitos norteadores para práticas didáticas voltadas à inovação curricular na formação tecnológica do arquiteto. RESUMO / The thesis explores the technological learning in architecture considering this is a relevant subject to be discussed face to the lack of prestige of this profession suffers presently, and also aiming to deal with the perspective of effective demands for architecture contribution, now and in the future, due to the critical needs of built and open environments for human life. Historical analysis are developed demonstrating the existence of deep relations between the idealization of the profession and the education standards in architecture, which have defined and kept alive a lack of value of the technological education compared to the theoretical and design education. Some comments about the traditional improvement of the technological curriculum in architecture are explored, and mainly based on practical educational experiences and also on references of best professional practices; some concepts and practices related to curriculum innovation on the technological education of the architect are proposed.

M. Tech. Busines Administration / While the use of computers and information technology (IT) is becoming ubiquitous in everyday life, IT is also an integral part of a successful economy. The South African government, in its National Policy Framework for Women's Empowerment and Gender Equality, stipulates that science and technology are fundamental components of development, and that the government must devise mechanisms to engage women with these skills. The objective of this study was to evaluate, using the theory of planned behaviour, the difference between female and male students' perceptions about this important field. It aims to explore how prevalent the gender imbalance is in terms of students already studying IT at university with regard to their attitudes towards IT courses.

This monograph documents my effort as well as examines the process of developing sustainable support in the use of instructional technology in a consulting project over a ten month period. It is written in a narrative recording the occurrences and my interventions during this ten-month period, along wdth my reflections in italics in light of the review of the literature and the analysis of the narrative. This results in a deeper understanding and insights in the field of instructional technology, and leads to the elaboration of a mission statement, which represents my present thinking about instructional design and consultation.

In science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education, problem solving tends to be highly procedural, and these procedures are typically taught with general instructional text and specific worked examples. Instructional text broadly defines procedures for problem solving, and worked examples demonstrate how to apply procedures to problems. Subgoal labels have been used to help students understand the structure of worked examples, and this feature has increased problem solving performance. The present study explored using subgoal labels in instructional text to further improve learners’ problem solving performance. A factorial design examined the efficacy of subgoal labeled instructional text and worked examples for programming education. The results of the present study suggest that subgoal labels in instructional text can help learners in a different way than subgoal labels in worked examples. Subgoal labels in text helped the learner articulate the general procedure better, and subgoal labels in the example helped the learner apply those procedures better. When solving novel problems, learners who received subgoal labels in both the text and example performed better than those who received subgoal labels in only the example. Learners who received subgoal labels in only the example performed better than those who received subgoal labels in only the text and those who did not receive subgoal labels at all. The present study indicates that subgoal labeled instructional text can improve novices’ problem solving performance in programming, but subgoal labels must appear in both the text and example.

This study was pursued to determine the essential characteristics of a fifth-grade technology education unit of study utilizing an expert system for bridge design. A panel of artificial intelligence experts was consulted to determine the feasibility of using expert system software to model bridge design, and a panel of education experts was consulted to determine the critical components for the study of bridge design in the fifth grade.It was determined that the most important components of such a study were integration with other curricular areas, most notably mathematics and social studies, and the incorporation of cooperative and group work among students. It was also determined that bridge design is a suitable knowledge domain for expert system consultation.Finally, recommendations for further study were stated. / Department of Industry & Technology