Este trabalho relata as estratégias e atividades realizadas em disciplinas semipresenciais desenvolvidas durante os períodos letivos de 2008 a 2012 com alunos dos cursos de Administração e de Ciências Contábeis, no ambiente virtual de aprendizagem Moodle. As disciplinas foram desenvolvidas segundo os princípios das abordagens colaborativas de aprendizagem com o objetivo de examinar as possibilidades de uso dos insólitos como estratégia de leitura e escrita. Buscou-se ainda apontar a aplicabilidade das estratégias didáticas descritas como forma de aprimorar as competências de leitura e escrita em alunos ingressantes no ensino superior e fornecer subsídios para a continuação da pesquisa. O trabalho mantém uma relação interdiscursiva com a obra Se um Viajante numa Noite de Inverno, de ítalo Calvino (1982), o que lhe possibilita não somente a titulação dos capítulos, mas também a construção sutil de uma presença que os perpassa. Do autor, retira também seis propostas ( leveza, rapidez, exatidão, visibilidade, multiplicidade e consistência) capazes de aprimorar a qualidade da comunicação em ambientes informáticos. Busca, ainda, na produção teórica de Michael Serres, um conceito singular de comunicação, algo capaz de transcender a substancialidade e de compreender e estimular a construção da presencialidade por meio de trocas e relações em ambientes virtuais de aprendizagem. Em vista disso, a pesquisa apoia-se na construção -reflexão- reconstrução de oficinas on-line que utilizam o insólito - concebido como algo surpreendente e propiciador de desestabilização - na construção de estratégias propiciadoras de aprimoramento da leitura e da produção textual de estudantes universitários. Recorre também às pesquisas desenvolvidas por Mikhail Bakhtin, Ângela Kleiman, Carla Coscarelli e Vilson Leffa, contribuições decisivas tanto na elaboração das oficinas on-line, quanto na reflexão que se tece ao longo da pesquisa. Por fim, busca apoio nos estudos sobre Estilos de Aprendizagem e na aplicação do Teste de Cloze para o aprimoramento das reflexões construídas / This study reports the strategies and activities performed in semi- attending subjects during the school periods of 2009 to 2012 with students from Business and Accountancy Courses in the Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment-MOODLE. The subjects were developed based on principles of cooperative learning approaches and their purpose was to test the possibilities of using insolits as a reading and writing strategy. The intention was even to show how those strategies described above could be applied as a way to improve reading and writing skills in college students and provide ways to keep the research on. The study keeps a connection with the book Se um Viajante numa Noite de Inverno from Ítalo Calvino (1982), which allows not only giving chapters names but even a subtle building of presence that pervades them. Six proposals are also taken from this writer (light, speed, accuracy, visibility, multiplicity and solidity), which are capable of improving the communication quality in cyber environments. It even searches, in Michael Serres theoretical production, a singular concept of communication, something possible to transcend the substantiality and to understand and stimulate the building of presentiality through exchanging and relation means in virtual learning environment. By that, the research relies on construction-reflexion-reconstruction of online workshops that use the insolits- designed as something surprising and propitiator of destabilization- in the building of strategies that provide reading and writing headway between university students. This study uses some research developed by Mikhail Bakhtin, Ângela Kleiman, Carla Coscarelli and Vilson Leffa, being great contributions not only for the online workshops development but even for the reflection that develops through this study. Lastly, it seeks the support at studies about learning ways and by giving students the Cloze test to the improvement of built reflections

[pt] É a partir da premissa de que em cada obra literária cabem distintas estratégias de escrita que essa dissertação realiza a leitura do romance português Balada da Praia dos Cães. Com a finalidade de identificar como funciona a oficina criativa do autor José Cardoso Pires nesse caso específico, realizou-se um mapeamento que busca entender os diversos procedimentos formais utilizados no âmbito da escrita desse livro. Para tal são analisados aspectos tanto estruturais (sua construção de camadas diegéticas, sua variação nos registros e nas vozes narrativas) quanto do enredo (sua opção por uma temática policialesca e sua aproximação com a lógica do romance histórico). O objetivo, além de aprofundar a leitura e o entendimento do autor e desse romance, é reaproximar, ainda que minimamente, os estudos literários de sua matéria por excelência, as obras de ficção, a partir da relação entre o momento da escrita criadora e sua consumação nas leituras. / [en] It is based on the premise that to every literary work fits different writing strategies that this dissertation takes a reading of the portuguese novel Balada da praia dos cães. With the purpose of identifying how the creative workshop of the author José Cardoso Pires works in this specific case, it has been carried out a mapping that seeks to understand the various formal procedures used in the framework of the writing of this book. For such purpose are analyzed both structural aspects (its construction of narrative layers, its variation in the records and the narrative voices) as much as of the plot (its choice for a police thematic and its rapprochement with the logic of the historical novel). The goal, as well as to deepen the reading and understanding of the author and of this novel, is reconnecting, even minimally, the literary studies of its matter par excellence, the works of fiction, from the relationship between the time of creative writing and its consummation in readings.

Wissenschaftliches Schreiben ist eine sehr komplexe Aufgabe, die eine Vielzahl unterschiedlicher Aktivitäten umfasst. Viele Studierende haben jedoch Schwierigkeiten, die damit verbundenen Anforderungen selbständig zu bewältigen. Im Mittelpunkt des Interesses der vorliegenden Arbeit stand daher die Entwicklung und Evaluation interaktiver computerbasierter Trainingsaufgaben, die Studienanfänger beim Erwerb von Grundkompetenzen des wissenschaftlichen Schreibens unterstützen. Zentrale Anliegen dieser Arbeit waren: (a) die psychologisch begründete Entwicklung einer computerbasierten Schreibumgebung für das wissenschaftliche Schreiben, (b) die theoretisch und methodisch begründete (Weiter-)Entwicklung von Instrumenten zur Untersuchung der Bedingungen und Wirkungen der Schreibumgebung und (c) die empirische Überprüfung der lern- und motivationspsychologischen Wirkungen des Arbeitens mit der Schreibumgebung. Im ersten Teil der Arbeit wird aus theoretischen Überlegungen und Modellen zum Schreibprozess bzw. zum Textverstehen ein integratives Modell des wissenschaftlichen Schreibens abgeleitet. Auf dieser Grundlage wird eine prototypische Trainingsumgebung entwickelt und formativ evaluiert. Anhand der Ergebnisse der formativen Evaluation wird der Prototyp zur Schreibumgebung „escribo“ weiterentwickelt. Diese Schreibumgebung setzt systematisch empirisch bestätigte Schreibstrategien um. Somit werden die Schreibenden in ihrem Schreibprozess kognitiv und metakognitiv unterstützt und angeleitet. Zur Untersuchung individueller Einflussgrößen auf den Schreibprozess werden im zweiten Teil der Arbeit verschiedene Fragebögen, z.B. zu motivationalen Aspekten beim wissenschaftlichen Schreiben entwickelt. Weiterhin wird ein verhaltensorientierter Fragebogen zu Strategien beim akademischen Schreiben (FSAS) konzipiert und hinsichtlich seiner Struktur sowie Reliabilität überprüft. Die Ergebnisse einer empirischen Studie mit zwei Messzeitpunkten zur Wirkung der Schreibumgebung weisen darauf hin, dass das Arbeiten mit der Schreibumgebung einer Übungssituation überlegen ist: Zum Messzeitpunkt 1 z.B. schrieben die Versuchspersonen mit computerbasierter Schreibunterstützung besser verständliche Texte. Daraus lässt sich der Schluss ziehen, dass es unter folgenden Bedingungen möglich ist, wissenschaftliches Schreiben computerbasiert zu fördern: Der komplexe Schreibprozess muss aufgebrochen werden, um die Anforderungen des wissenschaftlichen Schreibens transparent machen zu können. Außerdem sollten empirische und theoretische Erkenntnisse systematisch genutzt werden, um angemessene Strategien gezielt fördern zu können. / Academic writing is a complex task that involves a variety of cognitive and metacognitive activities. However, many university students perceive academic writing as an ill-defined task which, as a consequence, leads to feelings of incompetence and frustration. Thus, the purpose of the research presented here was to develop and evaluate interactive web-based training exercises to support students’ acquisition of basic writing competences. The main concerns include the: (a) development of a psychologically sound computer-based writing environment for academic writing; (b) development and enhancement of theoretically and methodologically sound instruments to study conditions and effects of such a writing environment; and (c) empirical investigation of the effects of working with the writing environment on achievement and motivation. In the first part of the dissertation an integrative model of academic writing is derived from theoretical considerations and models of the writing process as well as text comprehension. On this basis, a prototype of the writing environment is developed and evaluated in a pilot study. The results of the pilot study were used to design the writing environment “escribo”. This writing environment systematically applies empirically proven writing strategies. As a result, students receive cognitive and meta-cognitive support in their writing. To investigate individual influences on the writing process, various questionnaires, e.g. on motivational aspects of writing, were developed in the second part of the research presented here. Furthermore, a behaviour-oriented questionnaire on strategies in academic writing (FSAS) was designed and assessed regarding its structure and reliability. An empirical study using two measuring values was carried out to determine the effects of the writing environment. Its results show that there is some evidence that working with the writing environment is superior to a situation without any support; in session 1, for example, students supported by “escribo” wrote texts with a better readability compared to students working without support. Therefore, it can be concluded that such a computer-based writing environment can foster the acquisition of basic competencies in academic writing. This holds true only, if the following prerequisites are met. Firstly, the complexity of the writing process has to be broken up in order to make the demands of academic writing transparent. Secondly, theoretical and empirical findings should be used systematically to foster adequate writing strategies.

This applied dissertation was designed to determine the impact of direct writing conventions instruction on second grade writing mechanics mastery at an independent school in southeast Florida. The research study utilized a nonexperimental quantitative method. The design was pretest-posttest with a control. The pretest-posttest assessment was the Children’s Progress Academic Assessment. The score utilized in the analysis was the Phonics/Writing subtest. De-identified data were collected and analyzed from two separate second grade classes from two consecutive school years (i.e., 2011-2012, 2012-2013). The control group consisted of 43 second graders who received writing conventions instruction in the context of student writing during individual and small group conferences. The control group received no direct writing conventions instruction. The treatment group consisted of 39 second graders who received direct writing conventions instruction through the use of mini-lessons during the writing workshop. An analysis of the de-identified data revealed that, although the treatment group mean change score had a positive change greater than the control group change score, the change was not statistically significant. The researcher failed to reject the null hypothesis relative to a statistically significant difference between the two groups. Recommendations were made for future research.

In South African universities where the medium of instruction is English, writing and conceptualisation in English Second Language in Life Sciences are problematic for first year learners. This study focused on the extent to which Afrikaans – and Xhosa mother tongue speakers employ strategies in order to cope with the demands of scientific writing and how it affects their academic performance. The Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) and the Cognitive and Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) theories of Cummins as well as the model of Collier provided a theoretical framework for this study. Tests and tutorials were analysed by means of content analysis. Writing strategies such as coherence has an impact on academic performance but there is no set pattern or degree in which different mother tongue speakers employ them. A collaborative approach that sensitises learners to the meaningful use of strategies to enhance their competency in scientific writing is recommended. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Natural Science Education)

When deciding on topics for academic research papers, many students face difficulties that vary from choosing themes whose scope is too extensive to be satisfactorily analyzed in the given task, to selecting topics that are too limited, to not being able to make a decision on a topic at all. Such struggles seem to manifest themselves in both native and non-native speakers of English. Despite extensive research on the writing process and its strategies, be it for academic writing or other genres, and even research focused on writers’ difficulties, previous research has found little about the troubles students must overcome when deciding on a research topic, and how to overcome them. This study employed a qualitative case study design with two graduate students in a master’s program in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, who were enrolled in two sections of a course on research, to investigate these students’ writing processes as they defined a topic for their literature review research paper. Through an in-depth analysis of samples of their writing in combination with their verbal reports, collected during individual semi-structured interviews, this case study examined how two graduate students successfully calibrated their topics, which strategies they employed to that end, and how their instructors’ actions helped them in the process. Consequently, the findings shed light on instructional practices, and their implications for teachers’ training programs.

Teaching mathematics means teaching learners to think – wrote Polya in How to Solve It? 1957. This paper intends to offer mathematics teachers suggestions for incorporating reading, writing, and speaking practices in the teaching of mathematics. Through explicit examples and explanations we intend to share ways of engaging students in deep learning of mathematics, especially using and producing written and oral texts. More specifically, we plan to broaden and deepen teachers’ understanding of strategies for guiding students’ thinking so that they grasp mathematical concepts and processes, and also bridge the divide between mathematical processes, and written and oral communication. This paper presents a core math lessons which provides numerous opportunities for the students to get actively engaged in the lesson and think about the new concepts, algorithms and ways of solving problems/ exercises. The lesson was designed for the 7th graders (13 year-olds). It was chosen to illustrate teaching by using reading and writing for understanding math processes. The teacher’s reflections after the lesson and some samples of the students’ work and feedback are included in the paper. The material in this paper is based on the author’s own extensive teaching experience; and her work in the Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking project in Romania.

In South African universities where the medium of instruction is English, writing and conceptualisation in English Second Language in Life Sciences are problematic for first year learners. This study focused on the extent to which Afrikaans – and Xhosa mother tongue speakers employ strategies in order to cope with the demands of scientific writing and how it affects their academic performance. The Basic Interpersonal Communication Skills (BICS) and the Cognitive and Academic Language Proficiency (CALP) theories of Cummins as well as the model of Collier provided a theoretical framework for this study. Tests and tutorials were analysed by means of content analysis. Writing strategies such as coherence has an impact on academic performance but there is no set pattern or degree in which different mother tongue speakers employ them. A collaborative approach that sensitises learners to the meaningful use of strategies to enhance their competency in scientific writing is recommended. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Natural Science Education)

The purpose of this research was to conduct case studies to explore and describe Thai university students' awareness and application of cognitive and metacognitive strategies when reading and writing in English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL). Four participants, including two high and two low English language proficiency learners, were selected from 14 students enrolled in a five-week course called English for Social Sciences offered at Kasetsart University in Bangkok, Thailand in 2005. The major sources of data for the analyses included the transcripts of the participants' pair discussions, think-aloud protocols, interviews, and daily journal entries. In addition, field work observations, reading and writing strategy checklists, participants' written work, and the comparison of the pretest and posttest results were also instrumental to the analyses. The interpretive approach of content analysis was employed for these four case studies. Findings were initially derived from the single-case analyses, and then from cross-case analyses. Major findings revealed that strategic knowledge enhanced these English-as-a-foreign- language (EFL) learners' proficiency in English reading and writing. However, applying elaborative strategies for higher-level reading was challenging for most of the participants. Two crucial factors that impeded their development were the learners' uncertain procedural and conditional knowledge of strategy uses and their limited English language proficiency due to limited exposure to the second language (L2). The teacher's explanations and modeling of strategies, the participants' opportunities to discuss strategy use with peers, and extensive practice positively enhanced their development. Additionally, the learners' schema and knowledge of text structures played significant roles in their development of the two skills. These English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) learners also developed metacognitive awareness and strategy applications, but not to the level that always enhanced effective regulation and control of their reading and writing behaviors. Combining reading and writing in English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) instruction promoted the learners' awareness of the relationships of certain strategies for the two skills, and developed their literacy skills holistically.

Teaching mathematics means teaching learners to think – wrote Polya in How to Solve It? 1957. This paper intends to offer mathematics teachers suggestions for incorporating reading, writing, and speaking practices in the teaching of mathematics. Through explicit examples and explanations we intend to share ways of engaging students in deep learning of mathematics, especially using and producing written and oral texts. More specifically, we plan to broaden and deepen teachers’ understanding of strategies for guiding students’ thinking so that they grasp mathematical concepts and processes, and also bridge the divide between mathematical processes, and written and oral communication. This paper presents a core math lessons which provides numerous opportunities for the students to get actively engaged in the lesson and think about the new concepts, algorithms and ways of solving problems/ exercises. The lesson was designed for the 7th graders (13 year-olds). It was chosen to illustrate teaching by using reading and writing for understanding math processes. The teacher’s reflections after the lesson and some samples of the students’ work and feedback are included in the paper. The material in this paper is based on the author’s own extensive teaching experience; and her work in the Reading and Writing for Critical Thinking project in Romania.