The capacity for online learning environments to provide quality learning experiences for students has been the focus of much speculation and debate in the higher education sector from the late 1990s to the present day. In this area, 'quality' has become synonymous with engaging students in a learning community. This study reports on a qualitative research project designed to explore the significance of community for students when they study in online learning environments. This project used three case studies to explore tertiary students' thoughts and expectations about community in the online environment. The research was constructed iteratively. Data from the initial case suggested the need to explore the relationship between the constructed online learning environment and the development of learning communities or what I have termed Social Learning Support Networks (SLSN). To explore this issue further, the project was expanded and subsequent cases were chosen that included fundamentally different types of online learning environments. The project had two significant results. Firstly, students not only confirmed popular educational theories on the value of learning communities, but also described how this form of social connection might practically benefit their learning. Secondly, the project found that certain forms of synchronous online environments provided enhanced opportunities for students to form social connections that supported their learning. This project provides new evidence of the benefit of community for students studying online and argues that future online learning environments should be shaped by five key principles designed to foster a sense of social connection between students.

<p>This dissertation discusses how reputation, virginity and honour are made topical in the stories of the lives of Arab and Kurdish women and connected with understandings of culture and religion. The dissertation is composed of five articles, which contain the principal analysis, and five chapters that discuss the project as a whole; the development of the main topics, and choices concerning methodological, ethical and theoretical approaches. </p><p>The empirical material of the dissertation consists of interviews with ten Arab and Kurdish women in Sweden, and seven legal cases of honor related violence. The interview material is analysed as a whole – focusing on the importance of reputation in women’s creation of identity, and how this may be related to cultural conceptions of divided femininity (virgin-whore) and honour (article 4). I also conduct an in-depth analysis of one interview, where meaning is created through a story, in which liberty is contrasted with constraint (article 3). In the analysis of the legal cases, I discuss the arguments of verdicts concerning honour related violence, and criticise the courts’ understanding of crimes as demarcated acts (articles 1 & 5). I also analyse the (violent) stories of the actual lives of women found in the legal cases in their contexts (articles 2 & 5).</p><p>Throughout the dissertation, I aim at a constructivist attempt that sees culture and gender as creative frames of interpretation. This attempt is connected with a hermeneutic perspective, which sees a statement or an act as comprehensible only when interpreted in its context (e.g. in a cultural context of honour). It is also connected with a feminist understanding of men’s violence against women, which relates the meaning of an act of violence to culturally accepted forms of control and cultural conceptions of gender.</p><p>In the analysis of the empirical material, I show how culture is created as contrast in the lives of women. ’Arab/Kurdish’ and ’Swedish’ appear as exclusive categories, and are connected with cultural conceptions of divided femininity and honour. Within these categories, a woman is either a virgin or a whore, and a woman that has been branded as a whore will be stained forever. Men’s honour will not be restored until she is extinguished. When these cultural conceptions are used in the life of a woman who lives with these highly normative demands, they may be crucial and signify experiences of violence. A woman with bad reputation may be defined as a ”Swedish whore” be her male relatives, contrasted with being an ”Arab/Kurdish virgin”. The honour of these men will not be restored until she is excluded from the family or dies: to be a virgin or a whore may be a life-and-death matter.</p>

<p><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"> <p align="left">The aim of the study was to investigate the nature of biology practical work and associated discourses in two Namibian secondary schools. The purposive sample consisted of three biology teachers and 36 grade 11 students who enrolled for NSSC Higher- and Ordinary-level biology in 2004 and 2005. The study adopted a descriptive and an in-depth qualitative design involving the use of interviews and observation schedules (Video Observation Quoting Schedules-VOQS). The quality of VOQS instruments were established through a panel of independent experts who critically assessed the quality of the items and later discussed to reach consensus. Their rating of the items helped in the establishment of interrater reliability.</p> </font></font></p>

This dissertation discusses how reputation, virginity and honour are made topical in the stories of the lives of Arab and Kurdish women and connected with understandings of culture and religion. The dissertation is composed of five articles, which contain the principal analysis, and five chapters that discuss the project as a whole; the development of the main topics, and choices concerning methodological, ethical and theoretical approaches. The empirical material of the dissertation consists of interviews with ten Arab and Kurdish women in Sweden, and seven legal cases of honor related violence. The interview material is analysed as a whole – focusing on the importance of reputation in women’s creation of identity, and how this may be related to cultural conceptions of divided femininity (virgin-whore) and honour (article 4). I also conduct an in-depth analysis of one interview, where meaning is created through a story, in which liberty is contrasted with constraint (article 3). In the analysis of the legal cases, I discuss the arguments of verdicts concerning honour related violence, and criticise the courts’ understanding of crimes as demarcated acts (articles 1 &amp; 5). I also analyse the (violent) stories of the actual lives of women found in the legal cases in their contexts (articles 2 &amp; 5). Throughout the dissertation, I aim at a constructivist attempt that sees culture and gender as creative frames of interpretation. This attempt is connected with a hermeneutic perspective, which sees a statement or an act as comprehensible only when interpreted in its context (e.g. in a cultural context of honour). It is also connected with a feminist understanding of men’s violence against women, which relates the meaning of an act of violence to culturally accepted forms of control and cultural conceptions of gender. In the analysis of the empirical material, I show how culture is created as contrast in the lives of women. ’Arab/Kurdish’ and ’Swedish’ appear as exclusive categories, and are connected with cultural conceptions of divided femininity and honour. Within these categories, a woman is either a virgin or a whore, and a woman that has been branded as a whore will be stained forever. Men’s honour will not be restored until she is extinguished. When these cultural conceptions are used in the life of a woman who lives with these highly normative demands, they may be crucial and signify experiences of violence. A woman with bad reputation may be defined as a ”Swedish whore” be her male relatives, contrasted with being an ”Arab/Kurdish virgin”. The honour of these men will not be restored until she is excluded from the family or dies: to be a virgin or a whore may be a life-and-death matter.

The purpose of this study is to design and development of an online professional development material for science and technology teachers in order to solve their problems related with assessment and evaluation issues of constructivist learning. For this purpose, design and development research method was used in design, development and validation of this instructional tool. Research has been performed in two parts. In the first part, design and development of online professional development material was carried out. In this part, ADDIE model with rapid prototyping procedure was used in three phases. To gather science and technology teachers&rsquo / perceptions and attitudes towards prototypes, semi-structured interview schedule, Internet Tutorial Attitude Questionnaire, and a Checklist for Product Evaluation was conducted to 21 science and technology teachers in total. These data were analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative methods to reveal considerations of science and technology teachers about these prototypes and to make adjustments on these prototypes accordingly. In second part, final version of this material was evaluated. In this phase, researcher used self-efficacy questionnaire about alternative assessment and evaluation methods and a checklist for material validation. These instruments were administered both before and after use of final version of online professional development material. Descriptive data analysis was conducted to reveal differences in participants&rsquo / perceived-knowledge, beliefs, and applications about alternative assessment and evaluation methods after use of online professional development material. Research results disclosed participants&rsquo / beliefs and attitudes towards content, design and usability issues of online professional development material. Besides, validation of online professional development material revealed positive changes in participants&rsquo / perceived-knowledge, their classroom practices, self-efficacy beliefs and their perceptions about appropriateness of alternative assessment methods&rsquo / usage in classroom.

In the 1930s and 1940s, less than one percent of the Swedish population were in higher education. By the beginning of 1990s this proportion had reached 2.4%. During the 1990s, however, a new economic current flowed in Swedish higher education. A period of general economic stringency brought the costs of higher education under scrutiny. Further expansion, therefore, was to be accompanied by a reduction of unit costs. A discourse of expansion was to be joined by discourse of efficiency. By the end of the 1990s, however, an efficiency discourse based on quality assurance was facing difficulties. The educational merits of the efficiency reforms were not easily discerned. A new educational - or pedagogical - emphasis emerged. Quality and effectiveness were to be augmented via ‘quality enhancement processes’ and by ‘mobilising the inner resources’ of each institution. The emphasis of such thinking was on development of institutional practices that ‘best favour the development of activities’ that, in turn, lead to the ‘best long-term outcomes in teaching and research’. For these reasons, the student body had entered a new world by the start of the third millennium. The proportion of traditional students was matched by the proportion of non-traditional students. These changes, demographic and economic, represented a challenge to policy-makers and practitioners in Swedish higher education. Was it possible to ‘mobilise inner resources’ to meet the challenge of this new body of students? This thesis focuses on one of the responses to this challenge – the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) as an integral part of the pedagogics of higher education. Can ICT, therefore, become an add-in rather than an add-on to higher education. In particular, this thesis focuses not on teaching in general but, rather on an add-in issue; that is, can formative assessment be used as an integral support for learning. Five papers provide perspectives on this response; and the introduction sets the scene by identifying the key ideas that hold the studies together, reporting the development projects that were used to clarify these ideas; clarifying the events and ideas which governed the preparation of the five papers; and, finally, summarising the conclusions that arise from my research. The landscape of learning, like the physical landscape, is constantly changing. But are these changes superficial? Are they the result of ideas and tools that merely till the surface of the learning landscape? Or do these tools contribute to shaping the new knowledge that is expected of the learning society? This thesis explores these overarching questions. It concludes that the distinction between ICT as add-on or as an add-in remains central to the organisation of formal education in Sweden.

The purpose of this study was to investigate scientific epistemological beliefs, perceptions of constructivist learning environment, attitude towards science, prior knowledge and gender as determinants of students&rsquo / approaches to learning. This study was carried out in 2005-2006 Spring Semester. One thousand, one hundred and fifty two eighth grade students from seven public schools in &Ccedil / ankaya, a district of Ankara participated in this study. Epistemological Beliefs Questionnaire, Constructivist Learning Environment Scale, Learning Approaches Questionnaire and Attitude towards Science Scale were administered to students in order to determine their scientific epistemological beliefs, their perceptions of constructivist learning environments, approaches to learning and attitudes towards science respectively. Descriptive statistics were used in order to explore the general characteristics of the sample. Paired samples t-test was used in order to evaluate the mean difference iv between the scales of the actual and preferred learning environments. Pearson Correlation Analyses and Multiple Regression Analyses were conducted to see the relationships among the variables and the variables that contribute to students&rsquo / meaningful and rote learning approaches. Results of the paired samples t-test showed that the actual learning environments of the students did not adapt their preferences. In fact, students preferred more constructivist learning environments where they have more opportunity to relate science with the real world, communicate in the classroom, take role in the decision making process of what will go on in the lesson to be more beneficial for them, question what is going on in the lesson freely and experience the formulation of scientific knowledge. Pearson correlation analyses, however, showed that students who had meaningful learning orientations had tentative views of scientific epistemological beliefs, positive attitudes towards science, high prior knowledge and perceived their learning environments as constructivist. On the other hand, students who had rote learning approaches had fixed views of scientific epistemological beliefs, positive attitudes towards science and low prior knowledge. In addition, the rote learners perceived their environments as constructivist in all scales except shared control scale. Multiple Regression Analyses by using actual learning environment showed that attitude towards science is the best predictor of both meaningful and rote learning approaches.

The Ministry of Education of Turkey changed the national education programs in accordance with recent approaches in education as part of the educational reform that covers basic and secondary levels of schooling in 2005-2006 academic year. This educational reform that was proposed to change the formerly traditional, behaviorist, and teacher-centered programs into constructivist and student-centered programs will obviously have effects on millions of students, educators and families. Its long-term influence is expected to be seen on the whole society in coming years. The purpose of this study is to describe how school culture, values on professionalism, perceptions on the new programs, and organizational structure and leadership of schools will ease or impede with the implementation of the new national educational programs. A pure qualitative research design was used to study this problem. Multiple case study was carried out with semi-structured, face-to-face interviews as the method of data collection. The data sources for the interviews were teachers and administrators from four schools of different socio economic regions in Istanbul, one of which was a private school. Some of the official documents of the Ministry of Education were also used as supportive evidence to the data collected through the interviews.

This study aimed at investigating classroom management approaches of primary school teachers and exploring if their management approaches are consistent with the constructivist curriculum. The sample consisted of 265 primary school teachers working in Kastamonu. Data were gathered from the participants via Classroom Management Inventory developed by the researcher. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were utilized to analyze the data. Mixed Design ANOVA (within subjects and between subjects) was employed to investigate the dominant classroom management approach that teachers use and to explore the effect of some variables on classroom management approaches of teachers. Results of the study indicated that primary school teachers prefer to use studentcentered management approach rather than teacher-centered approach. That is teachers&rsquo / management approaches are consistent with the constructivist instruction. Furthermore, some background variables were found to affect the classroom management approaches of teachers. A significant difference was found in classroom management approaches of teachers with respect to teaching experience, branch, type of certification and average number of students teachers have in their classes while no significant difference was found with respect to gender variable.

The purpose of this qualitative case study is threefold: (1) to examine the implementation of current Life Sciences curriculum in a selected primary school from the perspectives of teachers, students and administrators / (2) to investigate the degree to which teachers&rsquo / , students&rsquo / and administrators&rsquo / perceptions were embedded in the classroom practices / and (3) to identify whether the implementation of the curriculum was conducive to principles of constructivist pedagogy. An elementary school was chosen as a single case in an outer district of Ankara. The participants of the study were the school administrator and 2 co-administrators, 4 classroom teachers and 87 students from different 2nd and 3rd grades classrooms. The data were collected through document analysis, observations in the Life Sciences classes, semi-structured interview with administrators, stimulated recall interview with teachers, and creative drama with students. Content analysis was used to analyze the data. The findings indicated that the suggested Life Sciences Curriculum was conducive to the principles of constructivist pedagogy in terms of its content / teaching and learning processes / instructional methods / assessment methods / and teachers&rsquo / and students&rsquo / roles. However, the acquisitions of the LSC were not conducive to the constructivist approach. The findings on the teachers&rsquo / , students&rsquo / and administrators&rsquo / perceptions about the Life Sciences curriculum indicated that in Life Sciences lessons the teachers seemed to have a role of knowledge transmitter to a group of passive students. According to the findings, the most frequently used teaching methods were lecturing, question-answer and demonstration through using textbooks, workbooks, and white boards. In addition, the most frequently used assessment methods were essay and oral exams, classroom observations and self-assessment. Overall it can be concluded from the findings that although the suggested Life Sciences curriculum was prepared in line with the principles of constructivist pedagogy, the way it was implemented had some deficiencies regarding the actualization of goals suggested by a constructivist curriculum.