This study investigated the influence of music-based socialisation groups upon the social functioning of children in early childhood. A qualitative research approach was followed and a case study research design was employed to investigate the phenomenon at hand. Eight children (aged five to six years) from the Thando Westford Community Crèche in Pretoria, South Africa, were purposively selected to participate in ten music-based group sessions over the course of eight weeks. Each session was video recorded and focused observation was employed to collect data on seven social skills according to the model of Schiller (2009), namely confidence, curiosity, intentionality, self-control, relatedness, capacity for communication and cooperativeness. In addition, semi-structured interviews were conducted with the participants’ teacher to examine the potential for transfer of skills learned in the group to the classroom and to explore the value and feasibility of facilitating such groups within the community crèche setting. Principles of Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory formed the theoretical foundation for the design and implementation of the music groups and for the interpretation of research findings. The research findings suggested that the music-based socialisation groups were able to promote each of the seven social skills, although the nature and extent of such influence differed among individuals. Music-based activities displayed several strengths as a medium for working with young children, including the cooperative and inclusive nature of activities. Both contextual and individual factors influenced how the participants responded to the groups. Transfer of skills learned in the groups to general classroom behaviour was limited, perhaps due to a lack of follow-up activities aimed at this purpose. / Dissertation (MSW)--University of Pretoria, 2015. / Social Work and Criminology / Unrestricted

The importance of family involvement is highlighted by findings that parents’ behaviours, beliefs and attitudes affect children’s behaviour in a major way. The Family Maths programme, which is the focus of this study, provides support for the transformative education practices targeted by the South African Department of Education by offering an intervention which includes teachers, learners and their families in an affirming learning community. In this study participating parents were interviewed to investigate their perceptions of the Family Maths programme mainly in terms of their engagement, enjoyment and confidence levels. The major themes and ideas that were generated in this study include the development of positive attitudes, parents and children working and talking together, and the skills exhibited by Family Maths facilitators. These findings are analysed within the parameters of complexity science and the pre-requisite conditions for developing a complex learning community, viz. internal diversity, redundancy, decentralized control, organised randomness and neighbour interactions.

Master's thesis consists of introduction, three chapters, conclusion, bibliography, appendices. In the theoretical part presents the basic concepts, learning theories, learning problems. In the practical part describes the General characteristics of the studied organizations, the study of the system of personnel training. Based on the data developed recommendations for the creation of a system of personnel training, the proposed training program. In conclusion, the results in line with objectives. / Магистерская диссертация состоит из введения, трех глав, заключения, библиографического списка, приложений. В теоретической части представлены основные понятия, теории обучения, проблемы обучения. В практической части описывается общая характеристика исследуемой организации, проведено исследование системы обучения персонала. На основе полученных данных разработаны рекомендации по созданию системы обучения персонала, предложена программа обучения персонала. В заключении подведены итоги в соответствии с поставленными задачами.

The aim of the present study is to examine how schools organize the work with and for pupils with language disorder.  Further, it aims to find which role the Special Educational Needs Coordinator (SENCO) and principal, respectively may have in the work with the pupils and give an insight into what knowledge about Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) personnel in schools have. The background of the study is that knowledge about DLD begins to diffuse at schools in Sweden today, but there is still a great deal of ignorance about what the diagnosis entails and how to work inclusive with these students in the classroom. The study was conducted with a qualitative method, semi-structured interviews with six special needs coordinators and five principals. The theoretical framework consist of Etienne Wenger’s Social theory of learning and the analysis was performed through a thematic content analysis. The results of the study indicate that none of the schools in the study have a particular organization for pupils with DLD. Half of the informants argue that they would like increased collaboration with speech therapists. The collaboration with guardians is another area that needs to improve in the schools. Enterprise in relation to engagement is most prominent in the schools, according to the analysis based on Wenger’s social theory of learning. All informants recognize gaps of knowledge regarding the definition of DLD, and how to work with pupils with the disability. Further education on the subject was requested by all informants.

This thesis is an investigation of how subjects behave in an individual binary choice decision task with the option to purchase or observe for free additional information before reaching a decision. In part 1 of this thesis, an investigative study is conducted with the intent to sharpen the view to literature concerning corresponding psychology and economics experiments designed to test decision tasks that involve purchasing and observing information from an imperfect message prior to taking a terminal action choice. This investigative study identifies areas of research that warrant further investigation as well as provides enhancements for execution in the subsequent experiment conducted in Part 2 & 3 of this thesis. In Part 2 & 3, I conduct an experiment to test how subjects behave in an individual binary choice decision task with the option to purchase or observe for free additional information before reaching a final decision. I find that subjects’ behaviour over time converges toward optimal decisions prior to observing an imperfect information signal. However, when subjects observe an imperfect information signal prior to their terminal choice there is greater deviation from optimal behaviour. I find in addition to behaviour that is reflective of a risk-neutral BEU maximizer, status quo bias, over-weighing the informational value of the message received and past statistically independent outcomes influencing future choices. The subjects’ willingness to pay (WTP) to use the additional information gathered from an imperfect message service when making a final decision was on average less than the risk neutral BEU willingness to pay benchmark. Moreover, as the informative value of the message increased, causing the BEU valuation to increase, subjects under-estimated the value of the message signal to a greater degree. Although risk attitudes may have influenced the subjects’ WTP decisions, it does not account for the increased conservative WTP behaviour when information became more valuable. Additionally, the findings from this study suggest that individuals adopt different decision rules depending on both personal attributes (i.e. skillset, gender, experience) and on the context and environment in which the decision task is conducted. / SSHRC grant: Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council via Dr. Bram Cadsby Professor Department of Economics, University of Guelph

This thesis examines meaning-making in three different areas of undergraduate physics: the refraction of light; electric circuits; and, electric potential and electric potential energy. In order to do this, a social semiotic perspective was constituted for the thesis to facilitate the analysis of meaning-making in terms of the semiotic resources that are typically used in the teaching and learning of physics. These semiotic resources include, for example, spoken and written language, diagrams, graphs, mathematical equations, gestures, simulations, laboratory equipment and working practices. The empirical context of the thesis is introductory undergraduate physics where interactive engagement was part of the educational setting. This setting presents a rich data source, which is made up of video- and audio recordings and field notes for examining how semiotic resources affect physics teaching and learning. Theory building is an integral part of the analysis in the thesis, which led to the constitution of a new analytical tool – patterns of disciplinary-relevant aspects. Part of this process then resulted in the development of a new construct, disciplinary affordance, which for a discipline such as physics, refers to the inherent potential of a semiotic resource to provide access to disciplinary knowledge. These two aspects, in turn, led to an exploration of new empirical and theoretical links to the Variation Theory of Learning. The implications of this work for the teaching and learning of physics means that new focus is brought to the physics content (object of learning), the semiotic resources that are used to deal with that content, and how the semiotic resources are used to create patterns of variation within and across the disciplinary-relevant aspects. As such, the thesis provides physics teachers with new and powerful ways to analyze the semiotic resources that get used in efforts to optimize the teaching and learning of physics.

This thesis reports on the development of a generic online system to support learning and teaching at the University of Melbourne. New online technologies, the fostering of innovation at national and university levels and my position within a central educational unit provided the opportunity in 1996 to adapt a previous software package for online use. My observations of the problematic nature of computer-facilitated learning (CFL) production led me to take an open approach to the development, seeking both a practical product and enhanced understanding. A series of formative questions defined the scope and goals of the study, which were to: *produce a generic online learning system; *increase understanding of the workplace experience of that development; and *develop an organisational model for the further development of generic CFL systems. Given this multi-disciplinary focus, many paradigms in the literature could potentially have guided the study. A number of these aligning with the research purposes, context and constructivist philosophy of the study, were reviewed from the perspectives of learning, CFL development and the organisation.

Zugl.: Bern, Univ., Diss., 2005

This diploma thesis is about design and implementation of an e-learning system to help the students in daily course of Circuits Theory. This system works with different requirements based on special rights for appropriate user-groups. Implementation of the system requires support the specific mathematical formulas, creation of study materials and functions for testing knowledges in Circuits Theory and in Safety work on electrical devices. The system is implemented using XHTML and PHP, the design using cascade style sheets CSS. The educational material is created in XML, MathML and XSL languages and tests are saved in a database. The database is designed using the UML language and implemented in MySQL database system. This system is a part of diploma thesis.

This master's thesis deals with Local Action Groups (LAGs), based on the EU approach LEADER for local development, in the Czech Republic during the programming period 2014- 2020. It focuses on the ability of LAGs to acquire and pass on knowledge and to learn, as well as on their networks. Within this work, the character of acquired knowledge, means of transfer of the knowledge and forms of learning are examined. Furthermore, research focuses on LEADER networks and their internal relations as well as level of communication and trust, in order to determine the efficiency of these networks. Lastly, the institutional thickness of the environment of Czech LAGs is examined that constitutes of non-scientific institutions and technological infrastructure. Cooperation with these two types of institutions leads to creation and implementation of innovations and more effective development of the territory. The theoretical grounding and criteria of this work are based on the Theory of Learning Regions. To obtain the data, a mixed research method was used. A combination of quantitative and qualitative research was carried out in the form of a questionnaire survey, semi-structured interviews and analysis of primary documents.