This action research study summarizes the investigation of journal writing and cooperative grouping with 8th grade geometry students in the construction of proof. Students written responses to prompts in journals were analyzed over the course of twelve weeks. Case studies of four students were developed from the researchers’ three geometry classes. All four students in the study participated in an academic program called Pre International Baccalaureate Preparation. Standardized test scores and an attitude scale categorized the four students. The ATMAT survey (Appendix A) measured each student’s attitude toward mathematics. Writing prompts focused on the students’ perceptions of the group process in constructing proofs and the development of geometric proof. The results suggested the students were engaged in learning within their cooperative groups but they also desired individual time before coming to a group setting. In addition, students’ written responses to journal prompts may provide an informal assessment and help students convey their own understanding of proof before any formal assessments.

This thesis reviews literature regarding English writing placement assessment and its impact on at-risk (under-prepared) college students.

This thesis reviews literature regarding English writing placement assessment and its impact on at-risk (under-prepared) college students.

For several years specialists in reading have debated on how pupils should learn to read. The debate has focused on two methods of teaching reading, that is, the phonic method and the whole language method. Some researchers have identified five elements of reading instruction that are critical to achievement in reading, namely; that reading instruction should include phonics, phonemic awareness, reading fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. These are the components that make up what is termed a balanced literacy approach. Although there is some debate on what constitutes the balanced literacy approach, this study adopted the understanding of the approach described above. The study investigated whether the use of the balanced literacy approach could improve standard four pupils’ achievement in reading and writing in English. The targeted population consisted of twelve schools located in Zomba rural district. Pupils were tested before and after the intervention. Teachers in the experimental group were trained twice on balanced literacy approaches, first before the intervention and midway of the intervention. Observational measures revealed that teachers generally implemented the treatment. The post intervention data indicated that pupils responded very well to the activities that were presented to them. The reading and writing achievement of pupils that were present for the post-test increased more than those of the control group. The results obtained suggest that the balanced literacy approach improved the reading and writing achievement of standard four pupils in the experimental group. / English Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (English)

Foundation Programme (FP) students at the University of Namibia (UNAM) Oshakati Campus display inadequate academic writing abilities. As their aim is to gain admittance to UNAM main campus science-related courses, it is vital to have effective academic writing skills. This action research (AR) study is a comparison of three writing programmes, the process approach, the modeling approach, and the process genre approach which were implemented separately to three different class groups in 2008 and 2009 to improve the writing skills of students and the teaching practice of the researcher. The effects of the interventions were examined using a combination of the quantitative and qualitative research methods. Data were collected using questionnaires, pre- and post-intervention essays and laboratory reports and interviews. The findings indicate that all three approaches improved the academic writing skills of FP students. The process genre approach had a higher rate of effect than the other two approaches. / English Studies / M. A. (Specialisation TESOL)

published_or_final_version / Linguistics / Master / Master of Arts in Applied Linguistics

For several years specialists in reading have debated on how pupils should learn to read. The debate has focused on two methods of teaching reading, that is, the phonic method and the whole language method. Some researchers have identified five elements of reading instruction that are critical to achievement in reading, namely; that reading instruction should include phonics, phonemic awareness, reading fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. These are the components that make up what is termed a balanced literacy approach. Although there is some debate on what constitutes the balanced literacy approach, this study adopted the understanding of the approach described above. The study investigated whether the use of the balanced literacy approach could improve standard four pupils’ achievement in reading and writing in English. The targeted population consisted of twelve schools located in Zomba rural district. Pupils were tested before and after the intervention. Teachers in the experimental group were trained twice on balanced literacy approaches, first before the intervention and midway of the intervention. Observational measures revealed that teachers generally implemented the treatment. The post intervention data indicated that pupils responded very well to the activities that were presented to them. The reading and writing achievement of pupils that were present for the post-test increased more than those of the control group. The results obtained suggest that the balanced literacy approach improved the reading and writing achievement of standard four pupils in the experimental group. / English Studies / D. Litt. et Phil. (English)

Investigam-se os perfis de interação de crianças, em processo de alfabetização cursando o ensino fundamental I, com o intuito de gerar subsídios para que professores tenham uma visão mais ampla sobre como esses perfis contribuem na condução de atividades de aprendizagem, de natureza colaborativa, dentro da dinâmica escolar. O trabalho consistiu em um estudo de caso de cunho exploratório, sendo a pesquisa predominantemente qualitativa, de caráter interpretativo, com algum tratamento quantitativo. A fundamentação teórica foi estruturada com base em diferentes visões da aprendizagem, na sociometria e também em testes psicológicos de habilidades sociais. Participaram da pesquisa dezesseis crianças matriculadas no terceiro ano e uma professora pedagoga regente da turma. Todos os sujeitos foram submetidos a um teste de estimativa de habilidades sociais denominado SMHSC. Após ampliação da escala de estimativas de habilidades, os indivíduos foram divididos em quatro grupos de acordo com os perfis identificados. Cada grupo participou de uma atividade colaborativa presente em um artefato digital denominado Mesa TOQ, onde foram coletados os dados que serviram de base para a pesquisa. A análise dos elementos de informação foi realizada inicialmente com base no mapeamento de estímulos e reações emitidos pelos sujeitos, sendo posteriormente realizada uma análise específica somente dos estímulos disparadores de interlocuções. Como principal resultado desta análise, foi proposto um Modelo de Perfis Interativos para Atividades Colaborativas composto por dois eixos – omissão/interação e colaboração/egocentrismo – e oito categorias de perfis interativos. Os principais resultados da pesquisa mostram que, para uma análise mais aprofundada de perfis interativos em crianças, os professores devem levar em consideração não somente resultados de testes de estimativa, mas também análises de situações reais. O estudo mostrou que é possível identificar perfis de interação em grupos de crianças, e que este conhecimento possibilita a definição de estratégias para a composição de grupos de alunos para a realização de atividades colaborativas. O trabalho apresentou como principais contribuições um conjunto de categorias de estímulos para auxiliar professores a compreender melhor como alunos interagem e reagem a estímulos dentro de uma atividade em grupo e também um Modelo de Perfis Interativos para Atividades Colaborativas, apresentado como um plano de representação de perfis de interação. Ambas as contribuições são específicas deste estudo, podendo ser ampliadas para outras situações, a condição de serem feitas as considerações e adequações necessárias, possibilitando que a seleção de alunos para atividades em grupo torne-se um ato mais planejado potencializando os benefícios de atividades colaborativas no ambiente escolar. / This research study investigated interactive profiles in children enrolled in elementary school. The main objective of this project was to generate aids so teachers could have a wider view of how those profiles affect the conduction of collaborative activities in the school environment. The research consisted on an exploratory case study, predominantly qualitative with some quantitative interpretation of data. The literature review was structured based on different views of how people learn, the sociometry and also in psychological tests of social skills. Sixteen children and a teacher took part on this research study. All children were enrolled in the third grade of a public elementary school. All subjects were submitted to a psychological social skills test called SMHSC. The Socially Unskilled Reactions scale of the test was amplified and the subjects were placed into four different groups according to their suggested profiles. Each group participated in a collaborative activity integrated on a digital artifact call TOQ Interactive Table, where the data that supported this research was extracted. The analysis of these facts was initially done through the mapping of stimuli and reactions generated by the subjects and transformed, later on, into a specific analysis of stimuli that had triggered interlocutions. As the main product of this analysis a Model of Interactive Profiles for Collaborative Activities was proposed being structured by two main axis - omission/interaction and collaboration/egocentrism - and eight categories of interactive profiles. The main results of the research show that, for a deeper analysis of interactive profiles in children, teachers should take into consideration not only test results but also the evaluation of real situations. The study showed that it is possible to identify interactive profiles in groups of children, and that this knowledge facilitates the definition of classroom strategies to form groups of students in collaborative activities. The research study presented as main contributions: a collection of stimuli categories that can help teachers to better understand how students interact and react to stimuli within a group activity and also a Model of Interactive Profiles for Collaborative Activities presented as a relative map of interactive profiles. Both contributions are specific for this study with the possibility of being amplified for other situations. This transforms the random selection of students for a given group activity into a planned conscious act, raising the benefits of collaborative activities into a new level.

L’exprérience d’enseignement et l’examen des mémoires en français des étudiants en Agroaliemtaire ont montré que nos apprenants produisaient souvent des phrases longues et peu compréhensibles à cause des erreurs morphosyntaxiques. En conséquence, les mémoires sont peu lisibles sur le plan linguistique. <p>De plus, nous remarquons des traces de la langue vietnamienne dans la production en français des étudiants. Or, les apprenants sont obligés de consulter les articles scientifiques en vietnamien de leurs enseignants lors de la préparation du mémoire. De plus, l’étude des articles montre que les auteurs formulent aussi des phrases très longues de plusieurs informations.<p>Ainsi, toutes ces constatations nous orientent vers une analyse contrastive des phrases longues en vietnamien des scientifiques avec celles trouvées dans les mémoires en français des étudiants. <p>Selon notre revue de littérature des recherches précédentes, des auteurs prédécesseurs mesurent la lisibilité d’un texte en se basant statistiquement sur la familiarité du vocabulaire, la longueur des mots, la longueur des phrases, ou la longueur des sous-phrases. <p>Toutefois, la mesure par le comptage du nombre de mots par phrase des auteurs semble inappropriée à notre travail par la différence des objectifs. <p>Nous avons donc essayé de trouver une unité de mesure de la longueur des phrases pertinente à notre propre corpus :« informations enchâssées ».<p>Selon les auteurs prédécesseurs, une phrase sera vue comme longue si elle contient plus de trois sous-phrases. Quant à nous, les phrases seront jugées longues si elles dépassent trois informations enchâssées. <p>Après la collecte des phrases longues, nous avons utilisé l’approche qualitative pour les analyser. Après l’analyse du corpus, nous avons obtenu des résultats suivants :la production des phrases longues ainsi que la présence des erreurs morphosyntaxiques dues à l’interférence du vietnamien constituent des caractéristiques typiques des mémoires des étudiants francophones à Can Tho. Ce sont ces traits représentatifs qui ont compromis la lisibilité des phrases de nos apprenants.<p>Face aux difficultés de nos apprenants, nous essayons de trouver quelques esquisses didactiques adéquates à notre propre public.<p> / Doctorat en Langues et lettres / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

In this thesis, I examine the resistance, privileges, and costs of Chicana textual identity issues in an academic arena that, by design, fragments voice and dictates choice. The scarcity in research of Chicana identity through mixed-language writing in composition depicts an existing chasm between academic demographics and university sentiments. Educational institutions that neglect to investigate, engage, and participate in textual identity perpetuate accepted pensamiento. Therefore, insight to Chicana thought, culture, and educational experiences may assist and inform the teaching dominant culture, not to separate, but to conjoin information with experience for those seeking diversity.