Given current changes and trends in foreign language (FL) education (National Standards, waning interest in FL study), educators need to develop intellectually stimulating tasks to encourage personal, inter-/intrapersonal and cultural growth. Although many researchers postulate that fictional texts are a superior means to accomplish this goal (Swaffar, 1992; Shanahan, 1997; Einbeck, 2002), only few have experimented with using them as a basis for culture learning (Scott and Huntington, 2002) or measured their overall efficacy for FL learning. This study investigated the effectiveness of fictional media in the German intermediate FL classroom using a multi-faceted research design incorporating different data sets (questionnaires, student journals, and CMC chats), which underwent quantitative and/or qualitative analyses.The pre-posttest format for of three questionnaires assessed changes in learners' responses to FL attitude and motivation for study, course interest, the National Standards, perceptions about the intellectual content of fictional media, motivation, and enjoyment. Results showed that literature provides educational value beyond the level of language acquisition and encourages a multitude of learning dimensions.Students' CMC journals written about fictional media were analyzed using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (Pennebaker, Francis, & Booth, 2001) to ascertain changes of word usage in certain categories over the duration of the semester. A qualitative analysis using Grounded Theory (Glaser & Strauss, 1967; Glaser 1992 & 1998) showed emergent changes and themes relevant for culture and language learning. In addition to the journals, learners' CMC chats were also analyzed qualitatively to investigate the social nature of L2 language use and its pedagogical implications (Vygotsky, 1986). Shifts in categories and the emergence of themes were attributed to the effect of Text content/Genre rather than Time, and learners' chat did not evidence co-constructivist/dialogic learning as first postulated.

Syftet med mitt arbete är att ta del av pedagogers erfarenheter av att arbeta med sinnligt lärande på en gymnasiesärskola. Hur skapar pedagogerna en kreativ lärmiljö för sina elever? Använder de sig av några sinnliga lärmetoder och i så fall hur? Min metod består bl.a. avdeltagande observationer och semistrukturerade intervjuer i en etnografisk studie. Analysen har visat att innebörden av ett framgångsrikt pedagogiskt arbete med dessa ungdomar på gymnasiesärskolan kan ses som en god praktik där fenomen som individuella mål, erfarenhet, intresse, delaktighet, sinnligt lärande, upplevelse, synliggörande samt att lära av varandra är centrala och viktiga delar. Min uppfattning är att pedagogerna försöker variera sina lärmiljöer och använder sig av sinnliga lärmetoder i undervisningen. Hela läsårets löpande arbete läggs upp i olika tema-moduler där undervisningen sker både inne och ute i natur och kulturlandskap. För vidare forskning kan det vara intressant att ta reda på om lärdomar från en lärmiljö kan överföras till en annan lärmiljö, och om ungdomarnas sociala erfarenheter och lärande i sinnliga rum blir överfört till vardagen hemma eller till skolarbetet generellt. / The subject of my paper is to examine the experiences of teachers using a multi-sensory teaching approach when working with pupils with learning disabilities in upper secondary school. How can they create a creative learning environment for their students? Do they use any multisensory teaching methods and, if so, how? My methodology has mainly consisted in participating observation and semi-structured interviews in an ethnographic study. Analysis has shown that the significance of a successful educational effort with these young people at upper secondary school can be seen as a good practice, in which phenomena such as individual objectives, experience, interest, participation, multi-sensory learning, experiential learning, visualization and learning from each other, are central and essential elements. My view is that the teachers try to vary their learning environments and that they are using different multi-sensory teaching methods. All the day-to-day schoolwork is set-up in different theme modules, where teaching takes place both indoors and outdoors in wilderness and cultivated landscapes. For further research, it might be interesting to find out if the lessons learned from one learning environment can be transferred to another, and if the social experiences and lessons learned in multi-sensory environments will be transferred to the young people’s everyday home life or to their schoolwork, in general.

School leaders face the challenge of creating and maintaining learning during rapid and complex conditions. Some of the challenges associated with leadership based on authenticity in intercultural schools will be discussed. The purpose of this essay is to describe and gain an insight into three school leaders´ views on leadership in multicultural schools. The study is based on scientific articles and the survey consists of interviews with head teachers in different multicultural schools. The hermeneutic research approach has been the basis for this study through qualitative interviews and collected data for analysis. To get a better understanding of the issues this essay culminates in, different leadership styles are shortly presented. The characteristics that underpin this study will hopefully be better understood through definitions of key concepts. In an attempt to further define authentic leadership, the concept of authentic followership will be introduced and discussed. Effective leadership in intercultural schools requires genuine understanding and action. In line with this, various strategies are proposed by which leaders can consciously transform and better understand the problems and find solutions in intercultural school contexts.

<p>This study sought to investigate the alleged problem of &lsquo / academic dependency&rsquo / , on the part of South African sociologists, on western scholarship. The stated problem is said to undermine South African sociologists&rsquo / ability to set their own intellectual and epistemological agenda. Sociology in South Africa is characterised by two issues: &lsquo / negations&rsquo / and theoretical &lsquo / extraversion&rsquo / . In the light of the foregoing claim, the study sought to investigate the underlying epistemological features of sociology curriculum in one of the South African universities. In investigating these issues, the thesis relies on the notion of &lsquo / authentic interlocutors&rsquo / put forward by Archie Mafeje. Literature on transformation of the social sciences in (South) Africa was reviewed. Methodologically, the study assumes a qualitative approach. In order comprehensively to understand the problem under investigation, in-depth interviews were conducted along with a review of course outlines of the selected department of sociology / these, in turn, were subjected to content analysis. Interviewees included, respectively, academic members of staff and postgraduate students. The study concludes by highlighting the &lsquo / ontological disconnect&rsquo / , on the part of South African sociologists, not only with their immediate environment but the rest of the African continent. In maintaining this view, it argues that their ontological and epistemological standpoints only succeed in highlighting their cultural affinity with Euro-American perspectives. The said ontological disconnect and cultural affinity, it is argued, lead to extraverted curricula.</p>

<p>This study sought to investigate the alleged problem of &lsquo / academic dependency&rsquo / , on the part of South African sociologists, on western scholarship. The stated problem is said to undermine South African sociologists&rsquo / ability to set their own intellectual and epistemological agenda. Sociology in South Africa is characterised by two issues: &lsquo / negations&rsquo / and theoretical &lsquo / extraversion&rsquo / . In the light of the foregoing claim, the study sought to investigate the underlying epistemological features of sociology curriculum in one of the South African universities. In investigating these issues, the thesis relies on the notion of &lsquo / authentic interlocutors&rsquo / put forward by Archie Mafeje. Literature on transformation of the social sciences in (South) Africa was reviewed. Methodologically, the study assumes a qualitative approach. In order comprehensively to understand the problem under investigation, in-depth interviews were conducted along with a review of course outlines of the selected department of sociology / these, in turn, were subjected to content analysis. Interviewees included, respectively, academic members of staff and postgraduate students. The study concludes by highlighting the &lsquo / ontological disconnect&rsquo / , on the part of South African sociologists, not only with their immediate environment but the rest of the African continent. In maintaining this view, it argues that their ontological and epistemological standpoints only succeed in highlighting their cultural affinity with Euro-American perspectives. The said ontological disconnect and cultural affinity, it is argued, lead to extraverted curricula.</p>

In leadership development, an established literature and a fertile praxis fall short of clarifying how individuals may develop the many and varied capabilities that contribute to leadership processes. Literature promoting personal growth tends to reduce personal development to cognitive development or rely on broadly defined and under-evidenced notions. The adult development literature offers to this research a conceptualization of personal development as systemic qualitative change in individual sensemaking. As sensemaking develops, it progresses toward greater integration (of interdependent cognitive, emotive, purposive, and conative dimensions), sophistication, and self-determination. The research aimed to examine how changes in the sensemaking of individuals may result in developmental outcomes relevant for personal and leadership development. This inquiry moves from a perspective idealist ontology and a social constructivist epistemology, selects philosophical hermeneutics as a research paradigm, and embraces exploratory qualitative longitudinal research. Purposive sampling guided the selection of research context, a leadership program focused on personal growth. Transcripts from 32 semi-structured constructivist-phenomenological interviews, collected from nine participants across fourteen months, were analyzed through constructivist grounded theory. Development was assessed ipsatively according to a literature-based framework. Contributions, in terms of substantive theory, are not generalizable beyond research context and sample. This research advances the differentiation of developmental context, process and outcomes. Context is found to transcend holding environment—to be ideally conducive to a specific type of change in virtue of a distinctive emerging quality. While vector processes facilitate development, core processes (individual sensemaking) are development. In terms of outcomes, the research supports an association between personal development and development of leadership capabilities, but questions whether self-awareness or personality adjustments per se constitute authentic personal or leadership development. This research exposes a pattern of seeking affirmation, associated with disproportionate identity salience of external image, which is potentially capable of hindering personal development by triggering maladaptive rather than adaptive self-reflection.

For many learners the school system works. Skills and knowledge are learned, social relationships are formed, and positive self-esteem and self-image as a learner lead to accomplishments such as a secondary school diplomas, opportunities for further education, and futures filled with a litany of choices. For others diplomas are not forthcoming, nor are futures bright with hope and opportunity. Schools in Ontario have struggled to develop engaging and meaningful programs for these other students; students identified as “at-risk” of not successfully completing secondary school. Making up nearly 30% of the secondary school population (King, 2004), these students struggle or fail to meet curriculum expectations often resulting in missed opportunities for the development of a solid framework for life-long learning. Educators grapple with the question of how to support at-risk students in classrooms and schools. This study provides an often overlooked perspective to the existing literature on pedagogy, curriculum, and programming for at-risk students; that of the learner. It gives a voice to at-risk students and offers educators and policy makers insights into how at-risk students experience learning, how they feel they learn best, what they need from their school setting, and what they identify as meaningful to their lives and their learning. Listening to the voices of at-risk students provides an authentic perspective of how to best serve at-risk students. This thesis tells the story of four at-risk students (key informants) in an alternative educational setting. In addition, one educational assistant, identified by key informants, provided information about the setting and further insights into key informants’ engagement in the curriculum and their learning. This study reveals stories of at-risk learners and what they see as relevant and necessary for active engagement with school and learning. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2009-04-24 18:54:45.539

This interior design practicum explores alternative options for itinerant living in the twenty-first century with concern as to how unoccupied space is used more efficiently through questioning the way an individual identifies, inhabits and transforms unoccupied space into meaningful place. The designed solution emerges through case study research, photographic analysis and supportive space and place related theories as the guerrilla intervention of an adaptable, mobile interior unit. This micro dwelling challenges typical urban lifestyles and demonstrates that for individuals to form genuine connection and dependence on place, place must continuously reflect its occupant. This understanding of place and its subcomponents leads to a greater knowledge of user needs when designing alternative housing options within an increasingly itinerant society. Utilizing mixed methodologies and studying a 1:1 prototype, this practicum reveals an extended understanding of the potential unoccupied urban infrastructure has in providing rich environments to house temporal, versatile places to dwell and call home.

Darbe atskleidžiamas M. Lukšienės lyderystės fenomenas švietimo reformos laikotarpiu. Tyrėjams intriga: kokios aplinkybės kokius asmenis iškelia į lyderius, kaip susiklosto tokia lyderystė ir kokia ji yra šiuo konkrečiu – M. Lukšienės atveju. Mokslinės literatūros analizės, rašytinių dokumentinių šaltinių kokybinė analizės, ekspertų apklausos metodo, teorinių prielaidų ir tyrimų duomenų lyginamosios analizės pagrindu daromos išvados apie lyderystės fenumenalumą M. Lukšienės veikloje. / The project reveals phenomenon of leadership activities of M. Lukšienė during education reform in Lithuania. The researches face the issues: What circumstances do make the leaders rise? How such leadership develop? And what style of leadership is in case of M. Lukšienė? based on analysis of scientific literature; qualitative analysis of written document sources; method of expert survey; comparative analysis of theoretical prerequisites and research data were made conclusions about phenomenon of leadership in activities of Meilė Lukšienė.

Mot bakgrunden att matematikresultaten sjunker i svensk skola är det viktigt att lärare använder metoder som bygger på evidensbaserad forskning. Denna systematiska litteraturstudie syftar till att bilda en djupare förståelse för utomhusmatematik genom att undersöka lärares och elevers attityder till metoden, samt om utomhusmatematik finner vetenskapligt stöd och kan rekommenderas som undervisningsmetod. Studiens resultat visar att både elever och lärare överlag ser positivt på utomhusmatematik då metoden bidrar till ett autentiskt lärande. Många lärares uppfattningar är att utomhusmatematik gynnar de yngre eleverna och att geometri och statistik är de delar av matematiken som är lämpligast att ta med utomhus. Utomhusmatematik motsäger kursmålen i alla länder där forskning på temat genomförts och metoden har svagt vetenskapligt stöd, då för få evidensbaserade studier på området utförts. / Against the background in which mathematics performances in Swedish schools is dropping, it is important that teachers use methods based on evidence-based research. This systematic literature review aims to provide a deeper understanding on outdoor mathematics by examining teachers' and students' attitudes towards this method, as well as on how outdoor mathematics has scientific support and is recommended as a teaching method. The results of this study demonstrate that both students and teachers generally welcome outdoor mathematics as a method that contributes to authentic learning. Many teachers' view was that outdoor mathematics favours the younger students and that geometry and statistics were the parts of mathematics that suited best to bring outside. Outdoor mathematics contradicts course objectives in all countries where research on the topic is conducted and the method has limited scientific support.