This thesis reports a longitudinal study that investigated the factors affecting at-risk students' use of an online curriculum delivery mode for some Year 11 subjects. The study examined the skills and attitudes of the students during their online learning experience, and followed the teachers while they developed suitable teaching methods to be able to deliver their subject via online learning. Importantly, the students in the study were at risk of not completing subjects in the South Australian Certificate of Education (SALE) if some kind of curriculum intervention was not applied. Access to the school curriculum can be problematic for some young people for a variety of reasons, including a limited subject choice, an inability to attend programmed classes and exhibiting behaviour that is deemed to be inappropriate by school authorities. Students in this study were not able to study the subjects they wished because of timetable clashes, were not able to attend school regularly for personal reasons or had exhibited negative behaviour to their teachers and peers preventing them from attending certain classes. At the time of the study, all the students wished to complete their SALE, but limited access to the curriculum was likely to prevent this from occurring. The study used qualitative methods of data collection including interviews with students and teachers, analysis of students' work, electronic communications and other documents, and records of meetings. These were used to prepare case studies for each of the seven students involved. While the student sample was small, the varied personal experiences of the students in the study enabled the examination of many of the characteristics documented in the literature as those being associated with at-risk youth. / All the students involved in the study completed the NetLearning Project (NLP) unit(s) they had enrolled in, but each encountered different challenges. The case studies provided data that enabled identification of the characteristics students required to be successful online learners. Three clusters of factors relating to personal situations (reason for entry to the program, access to a home computer and continuity of schooling), skill factors (level of ICT and English literacy skills), and attitude to learning (willingness to persist and level of self-directedness) were identified as major contributors to students' ability to complete their units. The teacher case studies revealed that the characteristics required for teachers to operate effectively within the online learning environment include an ability to promote positive teacher-student relationships, a high level of ICT skills, good subject knowledge and curriculum understanding. In addition, teachers required initiative, persistence and collaborative skills. The findings of the study highlight the importance of attitudinal factors in determining the students and teachers success in the online environment and suggest that teacher-student relationships have a major impact on student learning outcomes, just as they do in the traditional classroom.

The purpose of this research was to investigate first-year tertiary programming students' perceptions of their learning environment, based on the subgroups of gender and "new arrivals" (immigrant and international students of diverse nationalities, culture and educational backgrounds). The literature provides strong evidence that the nature of the learning environment for females studying computing can be uninviting and may be influential in the low rates of female enrolments and retention compared with males. Studies indicate that the cultural norms and artefacts of computing, the minority status of women in computing courses, attitudes, language, experience and institutional context all contribute to a learning environment that proves unattractive and can be detrimental for some women. In recent years, there has been an increased enrolment by New Zealand educational institutions of new arrival students. Research suggests that new arrival students, who leave their home country to live and study in a foreign land, experience difficulties in their learning environment and often have problems adjusting to living and studying in their host country. This research used a mixed-method design to investigate first-year computer programming students' perceptions of their learning environment at three tertiary institutions in Wellington, New Zealand. A survey, the College and University Classroom Environment Inventory (CUCEI), was completed by 239 students, yielding quantitative data about students' perceptions of their Actual and Preferred learning environment. In addition, 28 students, selected to represent gender and new arrival subgroups, participated in interviews and 11 hours of observation were conducted in programming classrooms. / The findings from the survey indicated that students perceived their learning environment with some satisfaction but they suggested improvements relating to the innovation and individualisation dimensions of their learning environment. The perceptions of the student subgroups, defined by gender and as new arrivals were investigated. Although the findings from multivariate analysis of variance of the CUCEI results did not identify differences between the subgroups the interviews revealed wider equity issues and concerns that highlighted differences amongst students of the sex and origin subgroups. Recommendations, based on the study's findings, include suggestions to improve institutional policy relating to the organisation of teaching practice and some cautions about the further use of the survey. The findings have important implications for creating a more equitable and positive learning environment for all students.

This paper describes processes and subsequent conclusions after working collaboratively in the broad area of language learning. The inquiry process considered factors in the learning environment which might benefit the learners, with music and drawing in the classroom being trialled and discussed with teachers and adult migrant English learners in different contexts. The responses of some primary aged students with learning problems and their parents and/or teachers were also studied. The inquiry process indicated that the term 'environments' must be understood to include personal environment, involving the Life energy fields, considered here to be the physical field, and the field of thought and memory, as well as the cultural, family, educational and other significant environments, within the context of the evolving Australian society. The term the author has chosen to describe the interaction of these experiential fields with the will of the individual, is an etheric. Membership of, or exclusion from, an etheric, may be subtle but can be discerned when considering a migrant attempting to enter the Australian workforce or, any person trying to enter a new field of endeavour. The author suggests that this concept explores the phenomenon of acceptance of a language or entry into a group / Master of Science (Hons)

This study is an investigation of the relationship between assessment and learning in education, and specifically, in the context of Australian secondary students studying English. The purpose of this research is to contribute to change in the way assessment of learning is conducted in view of the shift of educational values from content based towards a more goal-orientated process. Therefore, we begin this study with the premise that educational values should not only inform assessment in terms of outcomes and accountability as specified in national guidelines. They should also support a pedagogic process which helps to develop in students a heightened sense of the value of their own contributions to the community, academic and otherwise. The intellectual context of this study begins with an overview of most prominent educational theories. We illustrate John Dewey’s view that education should not only prepare one for life, but should also be an integral part of life itself. Dewey insisted that education was based in experience and that educational institutions should therefore honour and build on students� experiences. Piaget believed that children are quite sophisticated, active thinkers and theorists. Vygotsky saw all learning, knowledge, and experience had a social basis. Together these three theorists emphasize the active role of students as individuals (Dewey and Piaget) or a group (Vygotsky). Further, as society’s values shift from the Industrial Age to an Information Age, there is a growing expectation for individuals to be active and informed citizens, with the ability to exercise judgment and the capacity to make sense of their world. In response to these issues, we conclude that the teaching and assessment processes must support these kinds of requirements. We examine literature related to learning theories and assessment with the objective of ascertaining and illustrating aspects which they share and which, in our view, hamper the development of learning environments enabling exploratory and critical learning. We argue that when assessment criteria predetermine the learning outcomes, this results in teaching models where students’ learning needs are also predetermined. This process alienates students from their sociocultural context which shapes them and from which they derive their identify and the sense of their own value. Consequently, students become an object of pedagogic tools, rather than rightful participants in the lives of their various communities. Against the background of these reflections, we set out in this study to investigate how learning and assessment can be linked together. To this end, we develop the concept of an Exploratory Learning Environment. In order to articulate the framework of such an environment, we draw on a number of principals generally associated with humanist/constructivist/postmodern approaches to learning and assessment. In the course of this work we argue that students’ ways of knowing, and how they learn, cannot be divorced from their individual, and yet socially (interactively) constructed (negotiated), cultural experiences (terms of reference). The philosophy of the Exploratory Learning Environment can be described as promoting engagement and construction, thus supporting learning through experience, inquiry,experimentation and critical reflection. Consequently, in the Exploratory Learning Environment we seek to integrate pedagogic task construction and students’ expectations. To this end, we concentrate our research on strategies, or tools, enhancing students’ critical forms of engagement in their community. We aim for the academic knowledge, which they construct as a result, not to serve arbitrarily constructed performance indicators, but the students themselves and the community which they engage. Regarding assessment, our objective is to ascertain the diversity of conflict-generating concerns which students take into account in order to motivate the kinds of socially responsible solutions that they create and, as a result, the kinds of relationships which they want to establish. This approach to assessment allows us to focus students’ learning on developing critical thinking skills whose validation comes from students’ own evaluation, rather than from an abstract source of authority. This arrangement of creating learning environments rich in tools enhancing students’ critical forms of engagement we carry out using two classes of Year 10 and one class of Year 8 students in two secondary schools. Results from the study demonstrate significant advantages that can be gained when assessment is not limited to the measure of a ‘product’, but is based in pedagogy enabling critical negotiation. For example, students developed a sense of ownership of their learning task, felt motivated to explore conflicting issues, and, interestingly, valued the assessment process and looked forward to learning about the quality of their performance. In summary, the theoretical reflections conducted in this study and the experiment conducted within the Exploratory Learning Environment model, together, provide valuable and reliable evidence supporting the need for a critical evaluation of the currently existing relationship between teaching and assessment. Further, this thesis offers examples of solutions in which this link can be fostered. It demonstrates that, when students are empowered to learn by critically linking academic and other forms of knowledge residing in their community, the assessment process become a meaningful tool to them and they become involved in their assessment. At the same time, teachers learn to reduce the grip they hold on the learning and assessment processes. They do so by adopting the role of a facilitator of the students’ negotiation process. This is very different from the traditional teaching practices where the learning process is restricted, rather than enhanced, by assessment.

<p>The Squares Family is a game developed as a learning aid in mathematics. With its graphical representation of the decimal system, the four basic arithmetic operations and positive and negative numbers together with a learning agent as pedagogical approach, the game’s primary purpose is to motivate students in their learning of mathematics. Although the game is strictly based on mathematical rules it attempts to encourage students to play and work with math without experiencing it as mathematics as this is initially not obvious. The game being internationally tested on normal performing students, this project introduced the game to six Swedish students who experience low motivation for and/or difficulties in mathematics. The students from fifth up to seventh grade participated therefore in a three weeks’ study. The ultimate goal of this project is to make suggestions on the integration of the game in the students’ learning environment and on the adaptation of it to fit their needs. In order to be able to make such recommendations, following question was raised: How does the learning situation look like for students experiencing difficulties in mathematics? An attempt to understand the complexity of their learning situation was made through several tests in students’ attitude, self-efficacy and understanding of mathematics, through observations of their game playing, interview with their pedagogue and through a questionnaire on their attitude towards the game and their special education in mathematics and in their understanding of traditionally vs. graphically represented mathematical problems. Despite the time limited study it is obvious that the students’ difficulties in mathematics are not independent of other factors, as the majority of these students display a negative attitude, a low self-efficacy and a sensibility for disturbances and reactions from their social network.</p> / <p>Räkna med Rutiga Familjen är ett spel utvecklat som läromedel i matematik. Spelets huvudmål är att motivera elever i sitt lärande genom sin grafiska representation av decimalsystemet, de fyra räknesätten, positiva och negativa tal samt genom sin pedagogiska ansats av en lärande agent. För att motivera elever att spela och arbeta med matematik utan att initialt vara medveten om det, är matematiken i spelet trots sin matematiska grund, nedtonad. Spelet som testas internationellt mot normaltpresterande elever, introducerades i detta projekt till sex svenska elever med låg motivation för och/eller svårigheter i matematik. Eleverna som är från femte till sjunde klass deltog i denna undersökning under en tre veckors period. Projektets huvudmål är att föreslå rekommendationer för matematikspelets integration i undervisningen av elever med matematiksvårigheter och för anpassning av spelet till deras behov. Som utgångspunkt för framtagning av rekommendationerna ställdes följande fråga: Hur ser lärsituationen ut för elever som upplever svårigheter i matematik? I ett försök att förstå komplexiteten av elevernas lärsituation genomfördes flera tester i deras attityd, självvärdering och matematikförståelse, observationer av deras spelande, intervju med specialpedagogen samt enkät kring deras attityd gentemot spelet och specialundervisningen och kring deras förståelse för traditionellt vs grafiskt representerade matematikuppgifter. Trots studiens tidsbegränsning är det uppenbart att elevernas svårigheter i matematik hänger samman med andra faktorer, då majoriteten av eleverna uppvisar en negativ inställning, en låg självvärdering samt känslighet för störningar och reaktioner från sitt sociala nätverk.</p>

Syftet med detta arbete är att hela tiden ha ett barnperspektiv och på så sätt ta reda på hur barn med diagnosen autism kan tänka om och uppleva sin undervisningssituation. För att vidga perspektivet undersöker vi hur lärare och assistenter beskriver inlärningssituationen för de barn som är med i vår undersökning.Litteraturavsnittet ger en översikt av tidigare forskning om autism och vilka svårigheter och möjligheter som diagnosen autism kan innebära för barn i skolan. Vidare beskriver vi olika pedagogiska metoder och strategier som lärare kan använda.Genom en studie i form av intervjuer och observationer tar vi reda på vilka tankar barn med autism har om sin inlärningssituation. De teoretiska utgångspunkterna i denna studie baseras på det sociokulturella perspektivet, det salutogena perspektivet och det variationsteoretiska perspektivet.Sammanfattningsvis pekar resultaten av våra undersökningar på att barn med autism kan berätta om sin inlärningssituation i skolan. De beskriver vad de har lätt för, vad de har svårt för och vilken hjälp de behöver av lärare och assistenter. Några av resultaten är att en del barn får för mycket hjälp, andra får inte den hjälp de behöver och att flera barn inte tillräckligt mycket tränas till att bli självständiga individer. Det flera barn tycker är svårt är: Att skriva texter, när de inte vet vad de ska göra och att sitta med i samlingar och lyssna på andra. Det alla barn tycker är lätt är saker som de tycker om att göra och som de själva bestämt. Vi tror oss se att barn med autism som har egna strategier för att hantera vardagen fungerar bättre. Alla barnen behöver visuellt bildstöd för att få struktur. I vår uppsats jämför vi barnens upplevelser om sin egen inlärningssituation med lärares och assistenters och vi ser att de är ganska lika. Barnen kan berätta för oss att de behöver hjälp men har inte alltid förmågan att be om hjälp när de behöver.

The aim of the thesis was to create knowledge about factors influencing acceptance of virtual learning environments among academic staff and students in blended learning environments. The aim was operationalised by four research questions. To answer the research questions, several studies were performed applying the methods of survey study, conceptual-analytical research, a qualitative meta-analysis combined with a single case study and a comparative, explanatory case study. The empirical studies were performed at five universities in Sweden, Norway and Lithuania. In the thesis, a technology acceptance perspective extended with the perspectives of organisational learning and diffusion of innovations was used. The findings indicated that the contextual factor of culture was powerful in influencing acceptance of virtual learning environments, positively as well as negatively. High degrees of performance expectancy, results demonstrability and social influence affected acceptance of virtual learning environments positively. The degree of social influence was hypothesised to be mediated by the contextual factor of culture. The organisational culture of universities, expressed as shared values of what is good quality teaching and learning, were found to partly oppose values inherent in the virtual learning environments. The factor of students’ learning styles did not have any impact on acceptance of virtual learning environments. The original version of the technology acceptance model was found to be insufficient in explaining differences in acceptance of virtual learning environments. In the conclusions of the thesis, a descriptive and explanatory model of virtual learning environments acceptance among academic staff and students in blended learning environments is presented applying the combined perspectives of organisational learning, technology acceptance and diffusion of innovations. Implications for practice are put forward, emphasizing culture as an important factor to consider in the implementation of virtual learning environments.

The thesis aims to understand how learning processes are affected when an organization split into two separate organizations. The study is designed as a single case, covering a new government agency’s takeover of a core activity from another agency and the use of a purchase-provider split between the agencies, providing the new agency with IT-services. The findings revealed a difference in productive system and knowledge types between core- and IT-activities. The core activity was found to be dominated by explicit knowledge while the IT-activity seemed to be dominated by a mix of explicit and tacit knowledge. In order to bridge the gap between these two contexts needs, the organization of service management played a crucial part in boosting knowledge sharing and organizational learning within and between the two agencies, using a middle-up-down management style. Furthermore, the learning environment for managers in the core activities became restricted, using instrumental management strategies and focusing mainly on explicit knowledge, resulting in a lack of trust towards the providing agency.  However, the skill to perform on the operational level was maintained due to preserved relationships. Finally, the competence to order software requirement was found to be a collective competence evolving in the interaction between users and software developers. In order to be successful, a purchase-provider split needs to consider learning processes to a larger extent and the fact that requirement competence is a shared knowledge between purchaser and provider. Moreover, to make a purchaser-provider split successful over long term, new management strategies seem to be required based, on communicative rationality and not merely strategic rationality.

The aim of our case study is to illustrate what teaching methods the teachers in an elementary school in southern Thailand use and if they motivate the students and in that case, how they do it. In the background we briefly report about Thailand, their school system and their development. The following presentation processes previous research that has been made within our chosen subjects. The theories are linked to our research questions, such as teaching methods, learning environments and approaches to motivate the students. Through a qualitative method ten observations have been conducted and the result of our observations have been analyzed and discussed. The result shows that the teachers in our case study use very personal and different teaching methods. The Ministry of education (2006) describes that the educational reform that took place in Thailand should develop teachers’ education methods to be more student-centered. The result of our observation shows that the teachers are in different stages in this development. Some of the teachers have much to develop before they reach this goal. The teachers also motivate the students differently. Some teachers motivated the students through external motivation where the goal was to pass the examiner’s tests, while others used the students’ internal motivation. The results cannot be generalized for all schools in Thailand. Since the study is relatively small, it only shows how a part of the teachers implemented their teaching at the school where the study was conducted.

Syftet med detta examensarbete är att undersöka förskollärares uppfattningar om hur den fysiska inomhusmiljön bör utformas för att stimulera till barns utveckling och lärande. Studiens teoretiska utgångspunkt hämtas från det sociokulturella perspektivet, där människan ses som oskiljbar från den kultur och det sociala sammanhang hon ingår i. Miljön ges ur detta perspektiv en stor betydelse, då människans ömsesidiga samspel med omgivningen och miljön påverkar möjligheterna till utveckling och lärande. Genom kvalitativa intervjuer har det i resultatet framkommit att förskollärare anser att den fysiska inomhusmiljön, för att stimulera till barns utveckling och lärande, bör utformas så att den är upptäckande, utmanande och utvecklande. Vidare framhålls att tillgänglighet är en viktig aspekt som förskollärare tar hänsyn till och att den påverkas av en rad faktorer. Vidare framkom att arbetslag, byggnad, ekonomi samt tid och rutiner, kan utgöra såväl möjligheter som begränsningar vid utformning av förskolans fysiska inomhusmiljö. Ett komplext dilemma har framträtt då förskollärare uttrycker att de strävar efter att utgå ifrån barnens intresse och behov, samtidigt som resultatet har visat på en stark förankring till läroplanen vid utformning av miljön. / The purpose of this study is to investigate preschool teachers' perceptions of how the physical indoor environment should be designed to stimulate children's development and learning. The theoretical basis derived from the socio-cultural perspective, where the human being is seen as inseparable from the culture and the social context he or she lives in. The environment, from this perspective, is given one of great importance, since man's mutual interactions with the surrounding and the environment, affects the opportunities for development and learning. To investigate preschool teachers' perceptions, qualitative interviews have been done. The results revealed that preschool teachers believe that the physical indoor environment, to stimulate children's development and learning, should be designed so that it is discovering, challenging and stimulating. Furthermore appeared “accessibility”, which seems to be affected by a number of factors, as an important aspect that preschool teachers take into account according the design the physical indoor environment. It also emerged that the team, building, finance, time and routines, can provide both opportunities and constraints in the design of the physical indoor environment in preschool. A complex dilemma has appeared: The preschool teachers expressed that they strive to build the physical environment upon the children's interests and needs, when the result of this study at the same time a strong anchor to the curriculum in the design of the environment.