Many learners find the study of introductory computer programming difficult. This is also true of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and we need an improved understanding of how they learn programming. After reviewing the constructivist approach to teaching and learning and investigating ADHD, this study explored strategies for constructive learning of introductory programming. The aim was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Karplus learning cycle to teach introductory programming. This was done through qualitative research from an interpretive perspective. Action research techniques were employed and data analysed using grounded theory methods. Four major constructivist teaching categories emerged, all of which support the use of the Karplus cycle. It is concluded that the three-phase Karplus cycle can be used to assist these learners learn introductory programming. However, it needs to be understood more broadly and the middle phase broken into two subphases to ensure effective learning. / Mathematical Sciences / M. Sc. (Mathematical Sciences)

Research indicates that the number of individuals diagnosed with neurological, learning and psychiatric disorders has shown a sharp increase in recent years. An increasing acknowledgement of the importance of narratives and discourses in constructing social reality has stimulated much debate on the consequences of diagnosing individuals with such diagnostic labels. The aim of this study was to explore the ways in which such individuals construct meaning from their experiences of adapting to their diagnostic labels by reframing them as interpersonal metaphors. In service of this aim, a social constructionist epistemology was adopted and discourse analysis was used to analyse the results from three participants’ interview data. The results indicate that participants managed to construct meaning from their experiences with their diagnostic labels through a reframing process that serve to promote positive perceptions of self in relation to others. Furthermore, this meaning-construction process appears to be a reflective and interactional one, in that it relies on a negotiation of meanings between people in a retrospective fashion. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

In a globally interdependent world, teachers are charged with preparing learners for a complex, interactive world. This educational challenge requires teachers to develop learners with critical, creative and conceptual minds, while still teaching the required content. Therefore developing the individual learner's ability to construct personalised meaning for new concepts is a prerequisite for the classroom. So is the development of the learner's ability to solve increasingly complex problems in the learning area as well as in daily life. This revivefies the question of how to plan, structure and assess in order to accommodate these requirements while enhancing learner abilities and achiement. / Teacher Education / D.Ed. (Didactics)

Text in English / The purpose of this study is to tell the story around the roles of relationships in the world of depressed women. The epistemological framework of this study is constructivism. This study involved a series of in-depth interviews with three depressed women who had young children. Hermeneutics was the method used to analyse the data. The stories of the participants were recounted through the researcher's lens in the form of themes that emerged. The specific ways each participant tried to cope, and the emerging processes from the researcher's perspective as to what she believed was helpful or unhelpful to the participants, in addition to what the participants themselves regarded as helpful, was discussed. Recurring themes evident in the stories of all three participants were elucidated in the story of the stories. The information gained could serve as guidelines to those working with depressed people from a Western and an African context. / Psychology / M.A. (Psychology)

Text in Afrikaans / In this study a description of the development of meaningful alternative constructions has been provided. The development of meaningful alternative descriptions of a painful situation within which people find themselves could create the possibility of movement taking place. · The development of alternative descriptions was discussed by means of the following components of a therapeutic conversation: The therapist uses the different punctuations of the family in their description of the problem and takes complementary descriptions into consideration. (Punctuation/complementation.) In the description of alternative realities the therapist uses a language that creates hope for change. (Reframing.) The therapist listens to the family with respect and endeavours to hear the family's themes, to understand and to use them. (Language.) The therapist, by asking questions of which the answers facilitate further questions, accepts the responsibility to facilitate discussions that encourage participation in the therapeutic process. (Participation/questions leading to further questions.) The discussion was based on a constructivist approach. A case history was described to illustrate how meaningful alternative descriptions were developed in a therapeutic conversation. / In hierdie studie is 'n beskrywing van die ontwikkeling van betekenisvolle alternatiewe konstruksies gegee. Die ontwikkeling van alternatiewe beskrywings vir 'n pynlike situasie waarin mense hulle bevind kan die moontlikheid skep dat beweging plaasvind. Die ontwikkeling van alternatiewe beskrywings word bespreek aan die hand van die volgende vier komponente van 'n terapeutiese gesprek: Die terapeut gebruik die verskillende punktuasies van die gesin in hulle beskrywing van die probleem en neem komplementerende beskrywings in ag. (Punktuasielkomplementering.) In die beskrywing van alternatiewe realiteite gebruik die terapeut 'n taal wat die hoop op verandering skep. (Herformulering.) Die terapeut luister met respek na die gesin, en poog om die gesin se temas aan te hoor, te verstaan en te gebruik. (Taal.) Die terapeut neem, deur vrae te vra waarvan die antwoorde tot verdere vrae aanleiding gee, die verantwoordelikheid op hom om gesprekvoering te fasiliteer wat deelname aan die terapeutiese proses aanmoedig. (Deelname/vrae wat aanleiding gee tot verdere vrae.) Die bespreking is gebaseer op 'n konstruktivistiese benadering. 'n Gevallestudie word beskryf om te illustreer hoe betekenisvolle alternatiewe beskrywings in 'n terapeutiese gesprek ontwikkel is. / M.A. (Social Work)

This thesis constitutes a narrative description of the evolution of my therapeutic self during my training as a clinical psychologist. During the telling of this story, I review the ways in which I was perturbed by the mix between the various theories and the various contexts visited during the years of my post-graduate training. I have described and critically compared my responses to the following models: psychoanalytic, psychodynamic, first-order cybernetic, and secondorder cybernetic (covering the first, second and third movements). Throughout, I have attempted to track the development of a congruent, personal therapeutic self while simultaneously assuming that this self is constantly coming-into-being. / Psychology / M.A. (Clinical Psychology)

Made available in DSpace on 2014-08-20T13:17:40Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ataualpa_Godolphim_Feijo_Dissertacao.pdf: 1157658 bytes, checksum: 39418b95a73eb9413821bfe66409f3e2 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-05-09 / Contemporaries democratic societies are deeply distinguished by the diverseness of ethical, phylosophical and religious doctrines so that the principles that govern the basic structure of society must be established in a way this pluralism be respected. John Rawls, in this context, shows his theory of justice as fairness, which proposes a political constructivism for constructing and justify the Equal Liberty and the Fair Equality of Opportunity/Difference principles. So, such principles are not introduced as more fitness for the basic structure because they allude to a prior normative order foregoing the conceptions of person and society, but because they express shared political values that constitute moral facts which, for them part, doesn t need be epistemologically proved in order to be utilized as ground points for the more general principles. Thus, arouse the concept of reasonable as opposed to true, because the idea of reasonableness alludes to an account of justification that doesn t appeal to an autonomous or heteronomous foundational authority. In this manner, this idea becomes an substitute for the idea of truth, which inevitably implies a notion of absolute and foudationalist justification that, according to Rawls, isn t suitable for a theory of justice which intends itself tolerant and freestanding. We must therefore, in order to expose this constructivism in a didactic way, analyse the three procedures which compose it, namely, original position, reflective equilibrium and overlapping consensus. It has evidenced that these procedures work in narrow syntony, so that them propitiate a normative account of objectivity for the principles of justice which can perfectly leave aside the notions of truth and absolute growndwork / As sociedades democráticas contemporâneas são profundamente marcadas pela diversidade de doutrinas éticas, filosóficas e religiosas, de modo que os princípios que regem a estrutura básica da sociedade precisam ser estabelecidos para que este pluralismo seja respeitado. Nesse ínterim, John Rawls apresenta sua teoria da justiça como equidade, a qual propõe um construtivismo político que visa a construção e a justificação dos princípios de Igual Liberdade e Igualdade Equitativa de Oportunidade/Diferença. Assim, tais princípios não são apresentados como sendo os mais adequados - para a estrutura básica social - em vista de remeterem a uma ordem normativa anterior às concepções de pessoa e sociedade, mas, sim, por expressarem valores políticos compartilhados que constituem fatos morais, os quais, por sua vez, não necessitam ser epistemologicamente comprovados a fim de poderem ser utilizados como pontos de ancoramento para os princípios mais gerais. Surge, desta forma, o conceito de razoável (reasonable) como sendo contraposto ao conceito de verdadeiro (true), uma vez que a ideia de razoabilidade remete a uma concepção de justificação que não apela para uma autoridade fundacional de cunho autônomo ou heterônomo. Logo, esta ideia vem a substituir a de verdade, a qual acarreta, inevitavelmente, uma noção de justificação absoluta e fundacionalista, justificação esta que, conforme Rawls, não é adequada para uma teoria da justiça que se pretenda tolerante e autossustentada (freestanding). Desta maneira, a fim de expormos didaticamente este construtivismo, precisamos analisar os três procedimentos que o compõem, a saber, a posição original (original position), o equilíbrio reflexivo (reflective equilibrium) e o consenso sobreposto (overlapping consensus). Constatou-se que esses procedimentos operam em estreita sintonia, de modo que propiciam uma concepção de objetividade normativa para os princípios políticos de justiça - que pode, perfeitamente, prescindir das noções de verdade e de fundamentação absoluta

The diploma thesis deals with the mathematical environments Mazes and Cycle Paths. The first part is concerned with the definition of two opposite educational styles, transmissive and constructivistic. Within the constructivistic educational style it is also focused on schema-oriented education and on defining its principles for teaching mathematics by Hejný's method. It also introduces a new term genetic constructivism - its author proves that Hejný's mathematics and its didactic environments are embedded in ancient history. This diploma thesis gives an answer to the question of why the environments Mazes and Cycle Paths belong to the teaching of mathematics, and therefore, on what mathematical basis it stands. It is for this reason that it provides insight into the fundamentals of graph theory. It is focused on the historical aspect of terms maze and cycle path and charts exercises in Hejný's textbooks of mathematics from environments Mazes and Cycle Paths. The aim of research is to expand the collection of exercises from these two environments, to chart pupils' solving strategies and identify effective teaching methods in accordance with the schema-oriented education, which has been studied in seven experiments. The last part of this diploma thesis presents a didactic game, which is focused on...

Explores the implementation of inquiry into the science classroom and presents a model for incrementally changing the traditional (behavioralist) instruction found in the science class to inquiry-based (constructivist) instructional strategies.

South African schools are learning environments that are defined by heterogenity, which means the relating and interaction of teachers and learners from different cultural, language and religious backgrounds. Viewed in terms of a social constructivist theoretical framework, teachers’ perceptions of their interaction with their learners are defined by their personal experiences, as well as their observations of concrete learner behaviour in class which are mostly shaped by the learners’ perceptions. ,. Broad cultural influences, including the unique school culture and climate where the teachers are operating, also contribute to teachers’ perception of the teacher-learnerinteraction. The nature and quality of teacher-learner interactions must be viewed as a contextual feature of school culture and climate as these relations shape the classroom experience. This study sought to generate broad themes on how teachers perceive teacher-learner interactions within diverse school cultures and climates. The research was conducted within a social constructivist, interpretive paradigm and it utilised Kenny’s PERSON Model of Interpersonal Perception. The PERSON Model of Interpersonal Perception is a model used to explore the formation of perceptions during interpersonal interaction and it is in line with the social constructivist position as it takes into account the dynamic and socially embedded nature of the interaction process. A research study of this nature was needed because teachers’ perceptions of their regular contact and connecting with learners influence teacher-learner relations. This in turn serves to shape learners’ perceptions of the learning environment as well as mediate the learners’ behaviour and relationship with scholastic learning (Luckner & Pianta, 2011:257). Qualitative research was used as this method lends itself to revealing the authenticity of human experience (Silverman, 2013:6) and it is particularly useful in the study of social relations (Flick, 2009:12). The participants consisted of twenty teachers from four high schools in Johannesburg, Gauteng. Three teachers from each of the four schools participated in semistructured interviews, while two other teachers from each of the four schools participated in a single focus group activity that included a collage-making exercise. Thematic analysis was used to identify themes that articulate the teachers’ perceptions of the teacher-learner interaction. Key themes that were identified through the research study included teaching to be a vocation; teachers’ interactions with their learners as character building that serve to shape the personalities of their learners; the influence of the length of time that teachers are active in the teaching profession and teacher-learner interactions; how classroom management strategies influences teachers perceptions of teacher-learner interactions. It was found that several factors influence the teachers’ perceptions of their interactions with their learners. Teachers who considered teaching to be a “vocation” tended to report that they experience enjoyable teacher-learner interactions. The teachers whose narratives did not include references to teaching as a vocation were inclined to report more conflictual and less enjoyable interaction experiences with their learners. The findings further reveal that the teachers perceive a decrease in negative teacher-learner interactions the longer they teach. Both groups of teachers viewed the interactions with their learners as character-building exercises that served to shape the personalities of their learners. Classroom climate factors and management strategies were found to influence teachers’ perceptions of their interactions with their learners. The teachers’ narratives did not emphasise race or culture as factors (qualitative research) that moderated their interactions with the learners in a significant manner. Overall, the findings indicated that the participants showed an awareness that firstly, personal factors, secondly, the external social factors or environmental events, and, lastly that individual behaviour contributed much to the quality of the interactions. An in-depth study investigating rural teachers’ perceptions of their interactions with their learners is recommended. A wider study that compares and contrasts the perceptions of teachers from the various provinces of South Africa would provide valuable insight into whether or not teachers’ perceptions of teacher-learner interaction vary from province to province. / MA (Psychology), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015