The reading comprehension scores of students in secondary education have been stagnant since the collection of national statistics on reading comprehension began (National Assessment on Educational Progress [NAEP], 2015, 2017, 2019). This study explored the effect of providing dialogic and thematic support on reading comprehension and intertextuality. The theories of dialogic pedagogy (Fecho, 2011; Stewart, 2019) and cognitive flexibility in reading (Spiro et al., 1987), along with the construction-integration model of reading comprehension (Kinstch, 2004) formed the foundation for this study. The study focused on the reading comprehension and ability to make connections across texts of 184 participants enrolled in 9th or 10th grade English classes in a high school in the Appalachian region of the southeastern United States. Methods included an experimental study which required participants to participate in two rounds of testing: the Nelson Denny Reading Test to provide reading levels and the Thematically Connected Dialogic Pedagogy (TCDP) testing which introduced dialogic and thematic support for reading comprehension and intertextuality. For the TCDP testing, participants were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: Thematically Connected Texts (TC), Thematically Connected Texts with Dialogic Support (TCDS), or a Control. Results from testing were analyzed to compare performance on outcome measures for reading comprehension and ability to make connections between texts. These comparisons suggest that the interventions do not affect either outcome measure significantly, though the data highlight the need for a nuanced approach to reading intervention and the development of adolescents' ability to use textual evidence. The findings drawn from the data point to implications for English educators, teacher educators, and administrators in the areas of assisting adolescents in making meaning from texts at a level that facilitates applying that knowledge in effective ways in order for them to fully participate in social, civic, and economic matters. / Doctor of Philosophy / This quantitative study focused on the effect of reading support for adolescents centered on a dialogic pedagogy in an effort to improve reading comprehension outcomes and the ability of adolescents to make connections across texts. The study involved an experimental research design in which participants enrolled in 9th and 10th grade English classes in the southeastern United States were randomly assigned to one of three test conditions. Performance on outcome measures for reading comprehension and participant ability to make connections between texts were compared between conditions. These comparisons suggest the interventions do not affect either outcome measure significantly, though the data highlight the need for further support for adolescent readers with implications for English educators, teacher educators, and administrators in supporting adolescent reading comprehension and intertextuality to promote full social, civic, and economic participation for future generations.

The purpose of this study is to identify how parents perceive dialogic book reading workshops that they participate in, and how cultural backgrounds affect these perspectives. Four native English-speaking mothers, and one Spanish-speaking mother with preschool-age children participated in this study. After two dialogic book reading workshops, parents participated in focus groups to discuss their perceptions. Participants noted three positive themes including motivators like incentives and childcare, positive influences, and effective adaptations in their reading routines with their children, and how the workshops were structured with helpful facilitators, supplemental materials, and content. Participants suggested various ideas for improvement. The Spanish-speaking participant mentioned more familial benefits, while the English-speaking participants focused on individual benefits. Overall, parents perceive dialogic book reading workshops as positive experiences that positively impact their families across cultures.

The problem I investigated in this research is the extent to which participation in a secondary school musical production contributes curricularly and pedagogically towards equipping learners for meaningful and successful living in a rapidly changing and transforming society within a life skills education programme. The importance of creating a dialogic space where secondary school learners may practise life skills within the Life Orientation curriculum has been my main focus. My aim was to investigate and discuss the Life Orientation potential of the secondary school musical production as dialogic educative space for life skills attainment. I specifically employed a hybrid epistemology, namely constructivist hermeneutic phenomenology. In this qualitative study a small number of participants were interviewed individually and in focus groups because of their particular knowledge and lived experience regarding the research topic and the musical The Green Crystal as the chosen case study. This enabled me to construct and interpret their subjective reality and construct meaning within the particular social context of the secondary school musical production. The data I generated, coded and interpreted validate the notion that the secondary school musical production is a hybrid genre which is essentially a practise ground for life skills attainment through the media of music, movement and drama. It also emerged from the data that the secondary school musical production provides a dialogic and educative space to and for all participants to practise life skills within the subject Life Orientation. The participants indicated that their participation in the productions have been life-changing events. A notable contribution from the data was the confirmation that life skills learnt and practised during the musical production are transported into adult life. The life skills learnt through participation in a secondary school musical production are embedded in the memory of the participants and the lessons learnt purify over time. These individual and psychosocial life skills gained, honed and practised by participants assisted them in adapting to a changing and transforming society as functional and contributing adults (self-in-society). / MEd (Learning and Teaching), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012

The problem I investigated in this research is the extent to which participation in a secondary school musical production contributes curricularly and pedagogically towards equipping learners for meaningful and successful living in a rapidly changing and transforming society within a life skills education programme. The importance of creating a dialogic space where secondary school learners may practise life skills within the Life Orientation curriculum has been my main focus. My aim was to investigate and discuss the Life Orientation potential of the secondary school musical production as dialogic educative space for life skills attainment. I specifically employed a hybrid epistemology, namely constructivist hermeneutic phenomenology. In this qualitative study a small number of participants were interviewed individually and in focus groups because of their particular knowledge and lived experience regarding the research topic and the musical The Green Crystal as the chosen case study. This enabled me to construct and interpret their subjective reality and construct meaning within the particular social context of the secondary school musical production. The data I generated, coded and interpreted validate the notion that the secondary school musical production is a hybrid genre which is essentially a practise ground for life skills attainment through the media of music, movement and drama. It also emerged from the data that the secondary school musical production provides a dialogic and educative space to and for all participants to practise life skills within the subject Life Orientation. The participants indicated that their participation in the productions have been life-changing events. A notable contribution from the data was the confirmation that life skills learnt and practised during the musical production are transported into adult life. The life skills learnt through participation in a secondary school musical production are embedded in the memory of the participants and the lessons learnt purify over time. These individual and psychosocial life skills gained, honed and practised by participants assisted them in adapting to a changing and transforming society as functional and contributing adults (self-in-society). / MEd (Learning and Teaching), North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2012

Submitted by Igor Matos (igoryure.rm@gmail.com) on 2017-02-03T16:00:01Z No. of bitstreams: 1 DISS_2014_Diego Pinto de Sousa.pdf: 1398181 bytes, checksum: 28479138d2d6b1cba40e43d80ff4d994 (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Igor Matos (igoryure.rm@gmail.com) on 2017-02-06T10:35:07Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 DISS_2014_Diego Pinto de Sousa.pdf: 1398181 bytes, checksum: 28479138d2d6b1cba40e43d80ff4d994 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-02-06T10:35:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 DISS_2014_Diego Pinto de Sousa.pdf: 1398181 bytes, checksum: 28479138d2d6b1cba40e43d80ff4d994 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-09-30 / CNPq / O fenômeno da linguagem verbal configura-se como uma das mais inquietantes estâncias do conhecimento. Percebe-se, nos estudos de linguagem, desde as primeiras produções, direta ou indiretamente, a pretensão de instaurar conceituações acerca de sua definição, natureza, unidade, bem como os seus processos de aquisição e desenvolvimento. Os últimos exercem papel de vanguarda nessa pesquisa que – sob o prisma ofertado pela filosofia bakhtiniana da linguagem – pretende promover uma justificativa dialógica sobre o processo de aquisição da linguagem verbal. A área de Aquisição de Linguagem está engendrada nas ciências da cognição (SCARPA, 2006) e, portanto, constrói sua autonomia em múltiplas relações com ciências que focam e compartilham semelhantes questões, como é o caso da neurolinguística, psicolinguística e biolinguística. De fato, Bakhtin e o Círculo não versam, abertamente, acerca do processo de aquisição da linguagem verbal. Suas reflexões sobre um fenômeno da linguagem sócio-historicamente constituído, inclusive em seu viés literário, permitem, no entanto, erigir a possibilidade de tangenciar sua palavra com outras palavras, palavras alheias, contrárias, camaradas. De sorte que são as brechas teóricas (como, por exemplo, a nosso ver, a identidade do semiótico e a discussão entre o inato e o adquirido) e possíveis parolas com algumas vertentes e pensadores como Chomsky – Skinner – Piaget – Vygotsky, os lugares de encontro que nós, em nosso processo reflexivo, encontramos entre o filósofo russo e a área de Aquisição de Linguagem. Inferimos que, para além de coadunar-se e/ou contrapor-se frente às bases epistemológicas da psicogênese (Empirismo – Racionalismo – Construtivismo – Interacionismo), a palavra bakhtiniana interventivamente adentra o Interacionismo, subvertendo-o com seus conceitos de dialogismo, enunciado-concreto, exotopia, ideologia. Da mesma maneira, consideramos após reflexão e análise, suas premissas acerca do sujeito, identidade linguagem e natureza do sentido, projetam a possibilidade de uma nova ótica sob o processo de aquisição: uma Aquisição dialógica da linguagem, sedimentada em uma base teórica específica, o Interacionismo dialógico / The phenomenon of verbal language takes shape as one of the most disturbing instances of knowledge. One could see, in language studies, from the earliest productions, directly or indirectly, the pretense of establishing conceptualizations about its definition, nature, unity, and its acquisition and development processes. The last ones exercise vanguard role in this research which - through the prism offered by Bakhtin's philosophy of language - aims to promote a dialogical justification for the process of acquisition of verbal language. The area of Language Acquisition is engendered in the sciences of cognition (SCARPA, 2006) and, therefore, builds its autonomy in multiple relations with sciences which share similar issues, such as Neurolinguistics, Psycholinguistics and Biolinguistics. In fact, Bakhtin and the Circle do not deal, openly, with the acquisition of verbal language.Their reflections on a phenomenon of the socio-historically constituted language, including their literary bias, allow, however, erecting the possibility of tangencing their word with other words, extraneous words, opposing words, fellow words. Lucky that the theoretical gaps (e.g., in our view, the identity of the semiotic and the discussion between the innate and acquired) and potential paroles with some strands and thinkers such as Chomsky - Skinner - Piaget - Vygotsky, are the mutual places which we, in our reflective process, find among the Russian philosopher and the area of Language Acquisition. We infer that, in addition to adjust itself to and/or counteract in the face of the epistemological foundations of psychogenesis (Empiricism - Rationalism - Constructivism - Interactionism), the bakhtinian word interventionally enters Interactionism, subverting it with its concepts of dialogism, concrete-enunciate, exotopy, ideology. Likewise, we consider that, after reflection and analysis, its assumptions about the subject, language identity and nature of meaning, project the possibility of a new light on the process of acquiring: a Dialogical language acquisition, established in a specific theoretical basis, Dialogic interactionism

Submitted by Alison Vanceto (alison-vanceto@hotmail.com) on 2017-01-16T10:33:53Z No. of bitstreams: 1 TeseSMAC.pdf: 5914208 bytes, checksum: 5826e14f7cac74ec7164cb7f06dfaa6d (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marina Freitas (marinapf@ufscar.br) on 2017-01-17T12:53:30Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 TeseSMAC.pdf: 5914208 bytes, checksum: 5826e14f7cac74ec7164cb7f06dfaa6d (MD5) / Approved for entry into archive by Marina Freitas (marinapf@ufscar.br) on 2017-01-17T12:53:38Z (GMT) No. of bitstreams: 1 TeseSMAC.pdf: 5914208 bytes, checksum: 5826e14f7cac74ec7164cb7f06dfaa6d (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-01-17T12:54:24Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 TeseSMAC.pdf: 5914208 bytes, checksum: 5826e14f7cac74ec7164cb7f06dfaa6d (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-11-08 / Não recebi financiamento / Our objectives for this work are: 1) demonstrate, from Mikhail Bakhtin's theory, how an educational activity that promotes dialogic reading provides critical formation coordinated between orality and writing, the author authorship and the readers authorship in shared reading and 2) evidence how the reading of world and reading of word are given at the same time in an educational activity of success, such as Dialogic Literary Gatherings. It is a qualitative research and procedures are: a) participation in Dialogic Literary Gatherings; b) interviews about important moments in the life of the research subjects and with the teacher who performs the Dialogic Literary Gatherings in their classes; c) identification of meanings that emerge from the meeting between word and ideologies that are present during the reading. So as to do that, our references were the studies of Mikhail Bakhtin to compare and analyze the data, we discuss a new conception of reading, we reflect on the needs of the subjects of Youth and Adult Education (YAE) in school context and present the Dialogic Literary Gatherings as an educational activity of success that provides knowledge of quality to all participants involved through dialogic learning. As a result, we show the potential of the dialogic reading for the production of knowledge, for the constitution of innovative ways to mean text, more connected to the reality of the reader, we emphasize the need to discuss the educational practices of success that happen in YAE and reveal as the reader expands its own understanding of the world when it expands your reading comprehension. / Nossos objetivos para este trabalho são: 1) demonstrar, a partir da teoria de Mikhail Bakhtin, como uma atuação educativa que promova a leitura dialógica proporciona formação crítica coordenada entre oralidade e escrita, autoria do autor e autoria dos leitores em leitura compartilhada e 2) evidenciar como leitura de mundo e leitura da palavra se dão ao mesmo tempo em uma atuação educativa de êxito, como a Tertúlia Literária Dialógica. Trata-se de uma investigação de natureza qualitativa, cujos procedimentos envolvem: a) a participação em atividades de Tertúlia Literária Dialógica; b) entrevistas sobre momentos importantes na vida dos sujeitos da pesquisa e com o professor que realiza as Tertúlias em suas aulas; c) a identificação dos sentidos que emergem do encontro entre palavra e ideologias que circulam durante a leitura. Para isso, amparamo-nos nos estudos de Mikhail Bakhtin para entrecruzarmos e analisarmos os dados, discutimos uma nova concepção de leitura, refletimos sobre as necessidades dos sujeitos da EJA em âmbito escolar e apresentamos a Tertúlia Literária Dialógica como uma atividade educativa de êxito que proporciona conhecimento instrumental de qualidade a todos os participantes envolvidos via aprendizagem dialógica. Como resultados, mostramos o potencial da leitura dialógica para a produção de conhecimentos, para a constituição de formas inovadoras de significar o texto, mais conectadas com a realidade do leitor, salientamos a necessidade de discutir as práticas educativas de êxito que acontecem na EJA e revelamos como o leitor amplia a sua própria compreensão de mundo quando amplia a sua compreensão leitora.

Orientador: Djanira Soares de Oliveira e Almeida / Banca: Alfredo Argus / Banca: Martha Maria dos Santos / Banca: Mário José Filho / Banca: Ubaldo Silveira / Resumo: O presente estudo propôs-se a compreender e interpretar as percepções e significados das experiências vividas por jovens e adultos alfabetizandos. Com esta pesquisa, queremos possibilitar aos profissionais que trabalham com Educação Popular, entre outros, os Assistentes Sociais, para que possam recolocar em suas práticas novos ou renovados paradigmas, enfoques e perspectivas na abordagem dos processos de socialização implicados em trabalhos populares, particularmente no que se refere à Educação de Jovens e Adultos. O Brasil ainda é um dos países mais atrasados em matéria de educação, ostentando a cifra vergonhosa de cerca de 15% de analfabetos entre a população adulta acima de 15 anos, onde o analfabeto não convive com a civilização e não progride no trabalho nem evolui socialmente. Com o objetivo de compreender e interpretar a dialogicidade freireana na educação de jovens e adultos, buscamos na fenomenologia hermenêutica um modo de pesquisa que atendesse à especificidade do tema. Foram ouvidos na primeira entrevista vinte discursos de alfabetizandos proferidos na inscrição do Curso e, na segunda entrevista, dezenove discursos no término do Curso, a partir da questão orientadora: o que significa ser alfabetizado? Esses discursos, uma vez submetidos à análise fenomenológica, desvelaram as seguintes categorias: primeira entrevista - "vivenciar situações de exclusão", "aprender a ler e escrever a partir da realidade vivida", "superar as atuais condições de vida"; segunda entrevista - "participar no processo de construção do conhecimento", "ser reconhecido como sujeito e não como objeto de uma prática social", "tomar consciência da realidade e de suas possibilidades". Em seguida, enfocamos cada dimensão da relação realidade-homem-sociedade, percorrendo um caminho fenomenológico-hermenêutico...(Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The present study was aimed at understanding and interpreting the perceptions and meanings of the experiences lived by youngsters and adults in the process of learning how to read and write. With this study we wish to enable the professionals who work with Popular Education, among others the Social Workers, to reinsert new or renewed paradigms, focuses and perspectives in the approach of the socialization processes implied in popular work, especially in what concerns the Education of Youngsters and Adults. Brazil is still one of the most backward countries in matter of education, boasting the shameful figure of about 15% of illiterates among the adult population over 15, where the illiterate does not live along the civilization and cannot progress at work or evolve socially. Aimed at understanding and interpreting Paulo Freire's dialogic in the education of youngsters and adults, we sought in the hermeneutical phenomenology a research design which fulfilled the specificity of our subject. In the first interview, twenty accounts of students learning how to read and write delivered at the registration in the Course were listened to and, in the second interview, nineteen accounts made at the end of the course triggered by the leading question: what is it to be literate? These accounts, once submitted to phenomenological analysis, yielded the following categories: first interview - "experiencing exclusion situations", "learning how to read and write from the reality experienced", "overcoming the current life conditions"; second interview - "participating in the knowledge building process", "being recognized as a subject and not an object of a social practice", "becoming aware of the reality and its possibilities". Afterwards, we approached each dimension of the reality-man-society relation along a phenomenological-hermeneutical...(Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

This thesis is the outcome of a PhD CASE Studentship funded by the ESRC and British Telecom. It presents an exploration into the teaching of collaborative talk. The study was conducted in three phases: exploratory, development and implementation. During the exploratory phase, observations and interviews were conducted in authentic workplace settings to gain an understanding of workplace collaboration and collaborative talk. During the development phase, a teaching unit for the teaching of collaborative talk at GCSE was devised, informed by understandings gleaned during the preceding phase. During the implementation phase, the teaching unit was taught by two teachers in their secondary English classrooms. Both participating classes were arranged into groups of 4: 8 groups in School 1 and 7 in School 2. For the duration of the 3 week teaching unit, groups were recorded via camera and audio recorder, and the data later synchronised. Both teachers wore an audio recorder to capture interactions with groups and the whole class. To complement the core data set, students were interviewed for their views on their learning. Student booklets provided a means of collecting both group and individual reflections and evaluative comments. The data was analysed to explore the development of students’ collaborative talk. The role of the teacher in implementing the teaching unit and supporting students’ development was also examined. The findings provide an insight into the realities of implementing successful collaborative talk in the ‘real’ secondary classroom. It contributes to conceptualisations of collaborative talk and its development. It makes links between the role of emotional engagement and dialogic interactions in supporting that development. It proposes teaching strategies which challenge perceived notions of ‘good’ talk and encourages the development of meta-language to support self-evaluation and the development of collaborative talk.

Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2013. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In this thesis I examine the extent to which interpretations of African material culture play a role in the creation and visualisation of an ‘African aesthetic style’ in South African contemporary jewellery practices. My investigation of an ‘African aesthetic style’ in this thesis is informed by the production, display and writings on African cultural objects. I demonstrate contemporary jewellery design to derive from a critical methodology, particularly as it facilitates a renegotiation of the relationship and dialogue between the producer and viewer of contemporary jewellery objects. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: In hierdie tesis ondersoek ek die wyse waarop interpretasies van Afrika materiële kultuur 'n rol speel in die skepping en die visualisering van 'n 'Afrika estetiese styl' in Suid- Afrikaanse kontemporêre juwelierspraktyke. My ondersoek van so 'n styl is ingelig deur die produksie en uitstalling van, sowel as diskoerse rondom Afrika kulturele objekte. Ek ondersoek kontemporêre juweliersontwerp as 'n kritiese metodologie, veral ten opsigte van die wyse waarop dit 'n nuwe verhouding tussen die vervaardiger en toeskouer van kontemporêre juweliersobjekte fasiliteer.

This thesis argues that a Bakhtinian dialogic approach holds possibilities for reconceptualising and re-enacting teacher–child dialogue interactions in early years education. It accepts education as open-ended, with children as active participants and frames teacher–child dialogues as unique encounters, which can go beyond children’s neoliberal enculturation in the world. Neoliberal discourses have exerted an important influence on early years education, emphasising universal “best evidence” strategies and narrowly defined learning “outcomes” which can lead to technicist approaches to teaching and learning. The study explores the dialogic interactions between children aged from 3½ to 5 years and their teachers in two early childhood settings. In a dialogic methodological approach, two of the teachers and myself as a researcher critically engaged in collaborative discussions of selected video recordings of the teacher–child interactions. A Bakhtinian concept of moral answerability applies to the collaborative dialogic approach between teachers and researcher. It goes beyond teaching as a technical approach with universal strategies, to provide guidance for teachers in the unique lived experiences with their students. A dialogic reflexivity, which is employed both pedagogically and as a methodological approach in the study, is aligned with Bakhtin’s philosophy of praxis in everyday life experiences. A second Bakhtinian notion of polyphony explains how each person accesses multiple voices in response, which are shaped simultaneously by unique previous experiences and the encounter itself. In educational dialogue, polyphony can open up a view of dialogue as open-ended and providing different possibilities; it can allow for more meaningful responses by students and more respectful listening from teachers. Furthermore, young children’s carnivalesque utterances are viewed as challenging authoritative, monologic discourses when analysed through a Bakhtinian lens. For Bakhtin, subjectivity is not only shaped in and through dialogue; it also in turn shapes present and future dialogue. Dialogue is therefore inevitably intertwined with subjectivity. Findings show that teaching in early childhood settings involves a complex mix of both monologic and dialogic acts. Dialogic processes can provide alternative understandings of children and teachers as agentic and unfinalised. At times, children were engaged in carnivalesque acts, resisting authoritative teaching through their play, chanting and non-verbal communication, thereby making visible the institutionalisation of children and teachers in early childhood settings. It is suggested that children who are active participants in their education need to be given opportunities for carnivalesque responses. Furthermore, when early childhood teachers have opportunities to critically reflect on children’s utterances in a collaborative dialogue with colleagues, they can gain a more complex understanding of teacher–child dialogue, enabling them to answer morally to the children in their care. Ongoing dialogic encounters with the teachers provided multiple perspectives of the data, resulting in changes to their teaching practices and routines. The findings of the study hold important implications for teaching and for in-service and pre-service teacher education. I suggest that respectful dialogic approaches between teachers and researchers hold pedagogical and methodological potential and, when used thoughtfully, can counteract neoliberal, technicist interventions. In relation to both pre-service and in-service teacher education, the study speaks to the importance of teachers being equipped to engage in open-ended dialogue with children and collaborative dialogues with peers. Drawing on Bakhtin’s concept of moral answerability, this thesis is an utterance asking for an active response not only in everyday teacher-child dialogues, but also in the ongoing, open-ended dialogue about early childhood education and, in particular, teacher–child dialogue. It leaves unfinalised not only children and adults, but also the subject of teacher- child dialogue. There is no first utterance and no last word; Bakhtinian dialogue views both children and adults as becoming.