This research is a case study of the Stoneleigh Group; a partnership of voluntary youth work organisations that piloted a spiritual development programme for young people aged 18 to 25. The purpose of the research was to examine the claims made by the Stoneleigh Group to have developed a radical approach and outcomes of personal and social transformation within a programme of informal education out of doors. The research was undertaken in the contexts of reviews of research concerning outdoor education, informal education for young people, and youth transition. An ethnographic study of the retreat programme and its impact on the lives of the young people was combined with a critical study of the advocacy work of the Stoneleigh Group within the development of the National Youth Work Curriculum. The analysis was undertaken with the aid of Bernstein’s theoretical framework for curriculum and pedagogic critique. The study of the programme claims that the pedagogic approach was radical in its ideology and practice. However, it is argued that the impact on the young people depended on the ideology of the youth organisation for which they volunteered. A range of claims for a radical outcome are identified and discussed. The research argues that, despite the claim that the outcomes of social transformation were only partially achieved, the practices of the Stoneleigh Group were contested because of their perceived radicalism. The study of the advocacy work suggests that, despite these challenges, the Stoneleigh Group's contributions to the national discussions concerning the spiritual development of young people within the youth work curriculum resulted in proposals that supported a more radical pedagogic approach than currently practised. The research indicates that the Stoneleigh Group influenced statements made in the consultation. It is argued that the Group provided support for the concept of young people as agents of social change. In particular, it is suggested that the pilot was used to support a view of young people as capable of, and valued for, their challenges to the established norms of society.

Submitted by Johnny Rodrigues (johnnyrodrigues@ufcg.edu.br) on 2018-07-26T14:11:07Z No. of bitstreams: 1 BRUNO FONTES DE SOUSA - DISSERTAÇÃO PPGMAT 2011..pdf: 535617 bytes, checksum: 46dc8ee9ec90b36db973cafcc1d3a33e (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-07-26T14:11:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 BRUNO FONTES DE SOUSA - DISSERTAÇÃO PPGMAT 2011..pdf: 535617 bytes, checksum: 46dc8ee9ec90b36db973cafcc1d3a33e (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-07-21 / Capes / Neste trabalho estudamos hipersuperfícies tipo-espaço completas com curvatura média constante em uma região aberta do espaço de Sitter, chamada Steady State Space. Primeiro estabelecemos fórmulas adequadas para o Laplaciano de uma função altura e de uma função suporte naturalmente relacionadas com estas hipersuperfícies. Em seguida, considerando hipóteses apropriadas sobre a curvatura média e o crescimento da função altura, obtemos condições necessárias para a existência de tais hipersuperfícies. No caso bidimensional, estabelecemos e mostramos resultados tipoBernstein. Além disso, mostramos que se a hipersuperfície está entre dois slices então a sua curvatura média é igual a um. Obtemos também outras consequências para hipersuperfícies que estão abaixo de um slice. Por fim, estendemos um de nossos resultados para um certo espaço Robertson-Walker generalizado. / In this work we study complete space-like hypersurfaces with constant mean curvature in the open region of de Sitter space, called the Steady State Space. First established suitable formulas for the Laplacian of a height function and of a suport function related to these hypersurfaces. Then, considering hypotheses appropriate on the mean curvature and growth of height functions we obtain necessary conditions for the existence of such hypersurfaces. In two-dimensional case, we set and show results-Bernstein type. Furthermore, we show that if the hypersurface is between two slices then its mean curvature is equal to one. We also obtain other consequences for hypersurfaces are below a slice. Finally, we extend one of our results to a certain space generalized Robertson-Walker.

The Department of Basic Education (DBE) has associated the poor pass rate in the National Senior Certificate (NSC) Grade 12 Physical Sciences examinations to the learners’ lack of practical skills and the inability of learners to solve problems by integrating knowledge from the different topics in Physical Sciences. The CAPS (Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement) is central to the planning, organising and teaching of Physical Sciences. Even though more than a third of the learners achieved below 30% in the NSC Grade 12 Physical Sciences: Physics (P1) November 2017 examination, there was a lack of references made to the CAPS, rationalising the poor performance. A disjointed alignment between the CAPS and the P1 is a possible cause for the poor performance. Since there have been no previous studies that investigated the alignment between the CAPS and the P1, this study aims to fill that gap. This study used a positivist research paradigm and a case study research strategy. A purposive sampling procedure selected the CAPS Grades 10 – 12 Physical Sciences document; the Physical Sciences Examination Guidelines Grade 12 documents and the final and supplementary P1 examinations in the period starting November 2014 to March 2018 as the documents for analysis. A summative content analysis research technique was conducted using the Surveys of Enacted Curriculum (SEC) research method. The SEC method employed the use of the four topics of Grade 12 Physics and the four non-hierarchical levels of cognitive demand as described in the modified version of Bloom’s taxonomy. The physics topics included mechanics; waves, sound and light; electricity and magnetism; and optical phenomena. The cognitive demand levels included recall; comprehension; application and analysis; and synthesis and evaluation. This study found a 100 percent categorical coherence, a 67.3 percent balance of representation, a 79.4 percent cognitive complexity and an average Porter’s alignment index of 0.77 between the CAPS and the P1. The overall Cohen’s kappa for all the documents analysed was 0.88. The findings of this study indicate that the mechanics topic was under-emphasised whilst the application and analysis cognitive demand was over-emphasised in the P1. The CAPS and the P1 did not utilise the highest cognitive demand, synthesis and evaluation which may be interpreted as an environment that fosters lower order thinking. To change this environment of lower order thinking and simultaneously increase the alignment between the CAPS and the P1 this study recommends that firstly, the CAPS decreases the recall based content of the mechanics topic. Secondly, the CAPS and the P1 increase the synthesis and evaluation cognitive demand-based content at the expense of the recall cognitive demand-based content. Thirdly, the CAPS must include the content of the school-based physics practical assessments while decreasing the focus on physics definitions. The ultimate aim is an improvement in the pass rates of the NSC Grade 12 Physical Sciences examinations. / Science and Technology Education / M. Sc. (Mathematics, Science and Technology Education (Physics Education))