D.Ed. (Educational Psychology) / This research was done in response to the need of educational psychologists to intervene on a sensory integration level as it affects learning and behaviour, which falls within the scope of practice of educational psychologists in South Africa. The research study aimed to explore the research question: how sociodrama could be used as a therapeutic intervention to address the sensory integration of adolescents who present with mild intellectual impairment. The study is situated in the interpretivist-constructivist paradigm, using sociocultural theory as theoretical framework. I therefore commenced with the research with the assumption that the six participants each had their own cultural stories and background within which they functioned, and that they could learn from one another in the sociodramatic group setting. The sociodrama sessions were conducted at a school for learners who presented with mild learning impairments. The participants of the research study attended the bridging class of the school, where the focus is on basic literacy and mathematical skills. Thirteen sociodrama sessions were conducted, where the focus was on the development of sensory integration skills. A qualitative research approach was followed and a case study design was chosen for the inquiry. Data collection included the use of sensory profiles, a background questionnaire, context observation, participant observation, visual journals, reflections, video-recordings and an interview with the educator. I utilised the steps suggested by Braun and Clarke (2006) to thematically analyse the qualitative data and to identify themes. The aim of the research study was to firstly be of benefit to the research participants, creating sociodramatic opportunities through which their sensory integration skills could be developed. The research inquiry furthermore aimed to contribute to the field of educational psychology as it allowed for the development of knowledge on sensory integration and provides a unique therapeutic approach to develop sensory integration skills in adolescents who present with mild intellectual impairment.

This mixed-method study investigated the impact of graphing calculator use on high school calculus students' reasoning skills through calculus problems when applying to concepts of the definite integral and its applications. The study provides an investigation of the effects on reasoning when graphing calculators are used, since it is proposed that, through reasoning, conceptual understanding can be achieved. Three research questions were used to guide the study: (1) Does the use of the graphing calculator improve high school calculus students' reasoning ability in calculus problems applying the definite integral? (2) In what specific areas of reasoning does use of the graphing calculator seem to be most and least effective? and (3) To what extent can students who have used the graphing calculator demonstrate ability to solve problems using pencil and paper methods? The study included a quantitative, quasi-experimental component and a qualitative component. Results of the quantitative and qualitative analysis indicate that (1) graphing calculators had a positive impact upon students' reasoning skills (2) graphing calculators were most effective in the areas of initiating a strategy and monitoring progress (3) students' reasoning skills were most improved when graphing calculators were used together with the analytic approach during both instruction and testing and (4) students who used the graphing calculator performed equally as well in all elements of reasoning as those who used pencil and paper to solve problems.

The aim of this study is to examineindividuals talk about their experience of being exposed to hate crimes, how their exposure has influenced their everyday lives, how the individuals experience the policeinteraction, what affects the choice to report or not, but also to see if there is any difference between theexposure for females and males. Themain results that individuals feel because of the exposure, are a great concern and a limitation on everyday life. Individuals experience a positive first impression of the police, which turns to negativity when the investigation is not completed. This is often given as reason not to file a report. A view also develops that shows that females are both more concerned and exposed. One of the most important conclusionsare that social constructs in society have an impact on how the surrounding society, and the victim in person view their exposure. / Syftet är att studeraindividers berättelser om sina upplevelser av att utsättas för hatbrott. Hur utsattheten påverkat individer i deras vardag, hur individerna upplever bemötandet av polisen, vad som har betydelse för om man väljer att inte anmäla en händelse men också om man upplever skillnader mellan kvinnor och mäns utsatthet. Huvudresultaten visar att individer till följd av utsattheten känner en stark oro samt begränsning i vardagen. Individer upplever ofta första intrycket med polisen positivt vilket förändras till negativt då utredningen inte fullföljs. Detta anges ofta som förklaring till varför man inte anmäler. Framkommer gör också uppfattningen om att kvinnor både är mer rädda och utsatta. En av de viktigaste slutsatser som gjorts är att sociala konstruktioner i samhället har betydelse för hur omgivningen och offret själv ser på sin utsatthet

Syftet med studien har varit att undersöka hur kvinnliga våldsbrottslingar porträtteras i media med en vetenskapsteoretisk utgångspunkt i socialkonstruktionismen. Studien har sin utgångspunkt i olika stereotyper som kan användas i medias framställning av kvinnliga gärningspersoner. För att undersöka detta har en kvalitativ innehållsanalys använts. Uppsatsen utgår ifrån en socialkonstruktivistisk ansats vilket innebär att kvinnligt och manligt ses som något som är socialt konstruerat. De teoretiska utgångspunkterna ligger i olika konstruktioner som förekommer i medias framställning av den kvinnliga brottslingen samt i genusteori. Media kan använda olika stereotypa beskrivningar av kvinnliga våldsbrottslingar och kan därför också reproducera uppfattningen om den kvinnliga brottslingen som en avvikande kvinna. Slutsatsen som dragits är att media bidrar till en ensidig bild av den kvinnliga brottslingen och att det krävs ytterligare forskning kring kvinnor och brottslighet i media då detta forskningsfält idag är förhållandevis litet. / The aim of this study was to investigate how the female criminals are portrayed in media, with a scientific theoretical basis of social constructionism. The study is based on various stereotypes that can be used in media's representation of female offenders. To investigate this, a qualitative content analysis was used. The essay is based on a social constructivist approach, which means that female and male is seen as something socially constructed. The theoretical bases are located in gender theory and the various designs which exist in Media’s image of the female offender. Media can use various stereotypical descriptions of violent female offenders and can also reproduce the perception of the female offender as a abnormal woman. The conclusion drawn is thatmedia contributes to a one-sided picture of female offenders and that further research on women and crime in media is needed as this field of research is relatively small.

M.A. / This study looks at how our identities are communally formed and shaped within various contexts. It considers how such interaction can create a sense of self that could potentially shift, remain the same or become "stuck" in our experiences of connectiondisconnection. Modernism and postmodernism as two of the main ways of understanding our world/s are considered in positioning this research instance. Furthermore, the field of community psychology and some community psychological models are discussed along with the underlying principles of each. This study looks at identity-formation from a post-modern perspective and assumptions are based on ideas from the field of social constructionism. Such assumptions include the following notions: That our sense of self are manifestations of relationships; that we have multiple possible selves relative to the context; that our identities are evolving products of history and that our sense of belonging and of being separate are elements of identity. Ideas around "mental illness", the treatment system and the labelling of the "mentally ill" are also considered in the processes of identity formation. The aim of this study is to look at all the abovementioned elements in the process of coconstructing a healing community with chronic psychiatric patients, so that, the ways in which we look at ourselves as well as others in the world, could include wider healing self-definitions.

The objective of the thesis Reflection of the Predicate Preconception in Studying Process in 6th Grade of Elementary School is to ascertain how the 6th year pupils (aged 12-13 years) think about the predicate. The thesis is grounded in constructivism which actively works with preconcepts, and is related to Czech language teaching. Predicate is described from the linguistic perspective as well as its didactical notion in the Framework Educational Program and in existing textbooks. 37 pupils from 4 schools in Prague completed a series of individual tasks specifically designed for the purpose of this study, and semi-structured interviews with these pupils were recorded, transcribed and analysed. The study shows that the pupils strongly prefer verbal predicate to its verb-noun variety, while they are still capable of suggesting a communication situation for either type of predicate. The study further investigates whether the pupils actively use nouns and adjectives as a non-verb part of a predicate. While adjectives were used frequently, using nouns proved to be challenging. The analysis proves that the pupils do not identify the predicate as a part of sentence important for the meaning of the sentence. The results of the study confirm that pupils consider the meaning of individual words rather than...

[pt] A dissertação analisa o processo de criação do primeiro tratado de saúde pública internacional, a Convenção-Quadro para o Controle do Tabaco (CQCT), assinada em 2003, e em vigência desde 2005. A hipótese defendida é a de que as décadas anteriores à criação da CQCT coincidem com o estágio de emergência da norma internacional de controle do tabaco – uma denominação avançada pelo presente trabalho na tentativa de sintetizar sob um único conceito analítico uma miríade de ideias, entendimentos, e prescrições internacionais relativas ao controle do tabaco desenvolvidas ao longo das últimas cinco décadas. Nesta perspectiva, a criação da CQCT corresponderia à institucionalização da norma de controle do tabaco a nível internacional. Ainda, tal institucionalização representaria um ponto de ruptura no processo mais amplo de evolução da norma internacional de controle do tabaco, delimitando o início de uma nova fase, caracterizada pela dinâmica de socialização da norma, bem como pela ocorrência de um efeito cascata, em que mais países passam a adotá-la, e de maneira mais rápida. No intuito de analisar o processo de internalização da norma internacional em questão, o trabalho seleciona o caso brasileiro, atentando para como as particularidades domésticas dos países tanto ditam o passo da evolução desta norma, como determinam suas futuras possibilidades. / [en] The scope of this study is to analyze the creation process of the first international public health treaty, the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC); which was signed in 2003 and came into force in 2005. The hypothesis is that the previous decades, before the creation of FCTC, overlap with the stage of emergence of an international norm on tobacco control – a denomination used in this present analysis as an attempt to synthesize, under a single analytical concept, the myriad of ideas, understandings, and international prescriptions about tobacco control; which has been developed during the last five decades. In this perspective, the creation of FCTC would correspond to the institutionalization of tobacco control norms at the international level. Furthermore, this institutionalization would represent a tipping point in the whole evolution process of the international norm on tobacco control. This would set the limits of the beginning of a new stage, characterized by the dynamic of socialization of the norm; as well by the occurrence of a cascade effect, where more countries start to adopt the norm and do it in a faster way. With the purpose of analyzing the internalization process of the international norm in question, the present study selects the Brazilian case; emphasizing how domestic particularities of different countries dictate the speed in which this norm evolves, and also determine future possibilities.

Orientador: Newton Duarte / Banca: Dermeval Saviani / Banca: Ana Maria Lombardi Daibem / Banca: Juliana Campregher Pasqualini / Banca: Lígia Márcia Martins / Banca: Nadia Mara Edit / Resumo: O Estado de São Paulo é o principal centro mercantil, corporativo e financeiro brasileiro. A Secretaria de Estado da Educação de São Paulo (SEE) administra mais de 200 mil professores, quatro milhões de alunos e cinco mil escolas. Diante desses números, verifica-se a importância de se desvelar a política educacional na rede estadual de ensino de São Paulo. Nossa tese central é que o construtivismo, implantado pela Secretaria de Estado da Educação de São Paulo em 1983, é elemento estratégico de sua política educacional e tem implicações decisivas para a baixa qualidade da educação destinada aos estudantes da rede de ensino paulista. O objeto da pesquisa é, portanto, a concepção pedagógica construtivista e sua tradução nos documentos oficiais da Secretaria de Estado da Educação de São Paulo. O objetivo deste trabalho é examinar, à luz da pedagogia histórico-crítica, a relação entre o construtivismo como referencial pedagógico e a política educacional do Estado de São Paulo dos governos de André Franco Montoro, Orestes Quércia, Luiz Antônio Fleury Filho, Mário Covas Júnior, Geraldo José Rodrigues Alckmin Filho e José Serra, situando o contexto de produção e implantação dos programas e documentos da SEE, em especial aqueles publicados pela Coordenadoria de Estudos e Normas Pedagógicas (CENP) e Fundação para o Desenvolvimento da Educação (FDE), relativos ao Ciclo I do ensino fundamental no período de 1983 a 2008. O método de coleta e análise dos dados desse trabalho é o método materialista histórico-dialético, que se fundamenta nos pilares da contraditoriedade, totalidade e historicidade. Nossas conclusões remetem à constatação de que o construtivismo, como filiado ao neoliberalismo e ao pós-modernismo, tem sido adotado hegemonicamente por se adequar aos interesses da classe dominante em ofuscar uma verdadeira formação... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The state of São Paulo is the main trading, corporate and financial center of Brazil. The Ministry of Education of São Paulo (SEE) manages more than 200 000 teachers, four million students and five thousand schools. Given these numbers, it appears to reveal the importance of political education in state schools of São Paulo. Our central thesis is that constructivism, implemented by the Ministry of Education of São Paulo in 1983, is a strategical element of its educational policy and has decisive implications for the low quality of education for students of São Paulo. The object of this research is therefore the constructivist pedagogical concept and its conversion in the official documents of the Ministry of Education of São Paulo. The aim of this work is to examine, in the light of historical-critical pedagogy, the relation between constructivism as a pedagogical framework and the educational policy of the state governments of Sao Paulo namely André Franco Montoro, Orestes Quercia, Luiz Antonio Fleury Filho, Mário Covas Júnior Geraldo Jose Rodrigues Alckmin Filho and Jose Serra, setting in the context of production and implementation of programs and documents from the SEE, especially those published by the Department of Studies and Pedagogical Standards (CENP) and Foundation for the Development of Education (FDE) for the first cycle of basic education in the period 1983 to 2008. The method of data collection and analysis of this work is the historical dialectical materialism method, which relies on the concepts of contradiction, totality and historicity. Our conclusions refer to the fact that constructivism as affiliated to neoliberalism and postmodernism has been adopted for the adjustment to the hegemonic interests of the dominant class obscuring true emancipator education by highlighting assumptions which undermine the possibilities of schooling as an actual contributor to overcome the capitalist society / Doutor

The aim of this paper was to elucidate representations of how homelessness and interventions against homelessness is perceived in a Swedish municipality from socialconstructivistic perspective. The questions it aimed to answer were: How is homelessness represented in the municipality by participants of the local housing market and public and non-profit sectors? How can representations of homelessness from the participants be deconstructed and understood? Homelessness has been considered a social problem since the middle of the 18th century. The ways to explain why homelessness exists and how to rectify and define homelessness has been in continuously transformation in different extensions since then. Even so, some of these explanations, definitions and actions has returned or possess similarities across time. The used method of this paper was case study in order to concentrate on the municipality specifically. The analyzed material consisted of qualitative, semistructured interviews with seven participants. Public documents were also reviewed from the social service center in the municipality and reports from the county administrative board to understand the representations in its context. The participants that attended on interviews was one participant from a non-profit- organisation, one from the local housing market and five municipalityworkers. We found that some of the participants had both similarities and discrepancies in their representations but all of the participants had tendency to construct additional categories to deal with homeless persons divergent needs.

This research report describes the learning histories of computer assistants and expert assessment practice. This takes place in a workplace where computer training, specifically the fixing of hardware (CPU) occurs. It is hoped that the evidence collected might contribute towards the recognition and understanding of tacit assessment on the National Qualifications Framework, (NQF). In uncovering these learning histories and expert assessment practices, a component of ethnography which involves case history interviews and discussions was used. The theoretical framework used was situated learning theory and the legitimate peripheral participation of the computer assistants. This framework is itself embedded in the theory of constructivism. Case histories used as a component of ethnography is part of a bigger ethnographic project developed by the South African Qualifications Authority (SAQA). This particular study will contribute along with other projects in the University of Witwatersrand research group, to make up a full ethnographic account of learning and assessment in the workplace.