No description available.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Education in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master in Educational Psychology in the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2015. / This dissertation aims to use Appreciative Inquiry to evaluate a grief programme offered in primary schools. A qualitative technique was used to gain information from three groups of stakeholders within the grief programme, namely educators, facilitators and children. Three open-ended questions were asked to ascertain the value and benefits the grief programme held in the participants’ opinions. Participants were also asked to consider improvements which the programme co-ordinators should contemplate for future development. The results of the research will be circulated to all relevant stakeholders in the form of a written report and at a consultation. The final analysis indicated that the grief programme is held in high regard by all the participants. The following nine key themes were identified: healing, insight, relationships, growth, skills, support, enjoyment, collaboration, and value of the programme and enhanced efficacy of the grief programme. All three groups of stakeholders noted the positive outcomes that resulted from participation, both during and after, in the grief programme. Recommendations were also noted so that the programme could be propelled positively into the future as there is a dire need for programmes of this nature to be implemented in schools throughout South Africa.

At both the theoretical and applied levels of analysis, the field of physical education is all too often completely incoherent. There appears to be little agreement as to how school-based programs ought to be implemented or what the goals of such programs really are. No two physical educators run their programs exactly the same and, chances are, those physical educators likely have wildly different understandings of their field and its proper place within the education of our youth. Borrowing from the title of moral philosopher Alasdair MacIntyre’s (1990) book, Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry, I’ve chosen to describe the current predicament as the three rival versions of physical education. By no means is it being asserted that there are only three ways in which physical education is taught or that there are only three different curricula being administered in our schools. The disagreements and differences among the three rival versions of physical education are not simply a matter of curriculum design or pedagogy, but rather a matter of the nature and scope of physical education. This is a problem of identity. It is a problem which is both metaphysical and ethical in nature. The field simply lacks any kind of coherent answer to the question, “what is the nature and purpose of physical education?” MacIntyre identified his three versions of moral enquiry by the titles Encyclopaedia, Genealogy, and Craft Tradition; the corresponding versions of contemporary physical education that I wish to articulate are Health-PE, Therapeutic-PE, and Liberal Arts-PE. I firmly believe that every school-based program is a reflection of one of these three conceptions. Until an exhaustive philosophical analysis on the merits and demerits of each is completed, physical education will remain in its current state of incoherence, lacking a philosophically sound understanding of itself. Utilizing the work of Alasdair MacIntyre, I will articulate these three rival versions of physical education and argue that 1) the field must embrace a liberal arts paradigm, 2) that elements of the health-centered version can be integrated into this liberal arts conception, and 3) that the therapeutic model ought to be outright rejected.

No description available.

This paper presents an optimal method and a heuristic approach which aims at maximizing the profit when responding to a set of customer enquiries under limited capacity. The model takes into consideration the quantity of available-to-promise (ATP) which measures the capability to fill customer orders, along with enquiry quantity and product price. The optimal method and the heuristic approach are tested using ATP, product price and enquiry quantity each at their different levels. From the example conducted, it is found that (1) the optimal model can help to make appropriate decision for selecting a subset of enquiries, and (2) the heuristic approach can produce a result within 5% from the optimum achieved by optimal method for most parameter settings. / Singapore-MIT Alliance (SMA)

In order for construction projects to be completed within the specified time limit while at the same time be financially sustainable it requires thorough preparation and an extensive planning. Most essential is the groundwork and the design that determines the project's progress. There are many aspects to consider in order to avoid inconveniences such as delay, litigation, unexpected cost etcetera. If mistakes are made in an early stage it is very likely that the error will follow the process and become an expensive correction cost towards the later part of the project. In other words, it is expensive to rectify defects later on. Many times more expensive than if the deficiencies can be found before the construction phase begins. It is up to the client to define what they want to have built. When the idea for a project has been brought to the client he/she must describe and explain the construction in detail. It is from these documents that contractors will base their tender in the hope of performing the contract. This basis is called for enquiry documents and includes specifications, blueprints and descriptions of the project. Inadequate enquiry documents may lead to major consequences. Consequences that often is easy to avoid through a detailed and thorough groundwork. That is unfortunately not the case in the construction industry today. This bachelor thesis is intended to analyse and identify the development of enquiry documents and investigate the common shortcomings. The work has been carried out for eleven weeks in collaboration with Skanska Sweden and creates an awareness and understanding of the enquiry documents value to the reader in the industry. The study also deals with procurement process, which is the stage where the enquiry documents plays its part. Common deficiencies in the enquiry documents will be presented as a conclusion combined with the flaws impact on project time and project cost. Finally, there are also suggestions on how common deficiencies can be avoided.

This qualitative study explores how knowledge and concepts of knowledge are experienced in an undergraduate teacher education course that employs a community of enquiry pedagogy. As designer and facilitator of the course I engaged students in enquiries and enquiry-based activities to learn about art. Using an action-research approach I made changes to the course design in response to how it played out. The art of the Constitutional Court of South Africa was the focus of our study and students developed structured and logical ‘frameworks’ for analysing artworks as well as playing with laterally extending concepts such as art, justice, equality and humanity. The findings suggest that the dialogical and embodied practice of a community of enquiry pedagogy strongly influenced my students’ and my own awareness of knowledge as a creative and experiential opening up and as a companion to the equally valuable experience of not knowing. Teaching within this epistemological framework demands democratic and reflexive pedagogies such as the community of enquiry.

Em 1921, o Conselho Nacional de Educação da Argentina aprovou a realização de um inquérito para compilar as tradições identificadas ao folclore nacional. A tarefa foi confiada a professores de milhares de escolas subordinadas ao órgão e localizadas, sobretudo, nas áreas rurais do país. Esse projeto relacionava-se às concepções de intelectuais identificados ao nacionalismo da chamada Geração do Centenário da Independência de 1910, preocupados em reafirmar a identidade nacional diante de um contexto de instabilidade social e de uma sociedade heterogênea, conformada por indígenas, imigrantes etc. Por meio da análise da documentação coletada no Território Nacional do Río Negro, antiga região de fronteira recém-incorporada como unidade político-administrativa do Estado, serão discutidos os alcances e limites desse projeto, tendo em vista os ideais nacionalistas, o contexto histórico nacional e local e as particularidades inerentes ao conceito de cultura popular, como as dinâmicas de circularidade. Desse modo, serão demonstradas as maneiras pelas quais os professores, enquanto intermediários culturais, atuaram nos espaços de negociação possíveis entre a proposta formal e a aplicação do inquérito, bem como a inserção da Encuesta na consolidação simbólica do Estado-nacional argentino. / In March 1921, the Argentinian National Education Council approved the realization of an enquiry that would collect national folklore traditions. That work was given to the teachers of the thousands schools under Council administration and located, substantially, at rural areas. The project was related to intellectuals conceptions aligned with so-called Independence Centenary Generation nationalism, dedicated to affirm national identity attributes in contrast to a context characterized by social instability and heterogeneous society, composed of native population, immigrants, etc. By means of analyzing documents collected on Río Negro National Territory, boundary region newly added as a federal unity, they will be discussed ranges and limits of the project, considering nationalistic ideals, national and regional historical contexts and particularities concerned to popular culture concept, like interrelationship dynamics for example. Thus it will be demonstrated how teachers, as passeurs culturels, acted on the negotiation margins between formal proposal and real enquiry application, as well as Encuesta insertion in symbolic consolidation of Argentinian nation state.

Em 1921, o Conselho Nacional de Educação da Argentina aprovou a realização de um inquérito para compilar as tradições identificadas ao folclore nacional. A tarefa foi confiada a professores de milhares de escolas subordinadas ao órgão e localizadas, sobretudo, nas áreas rurais do país. Esse projeto relacionava-se às concepções de intelectuais identificados ao nacionalismo da chamada Geração do Centenário da Independência de 1910, preocupados em reafirmar a identidade nacional diante de um contexto de instabilidade social e de uma sociedade heterogênea, conformada por indígenas, imigrantes etc. Por meio da análise da documentação coletada no Território Nacional do Río Negro, antiga região de fronteira recém-incorporada como unidade político-administrativa do Estado, serão discutidos os alcances e limites desse projeto, tendo em vista os ideais nacionalistas, o contexto histórico nacional e local e as particularidades inerentes ao conceito de cultura popular, como as dinâmicas de circularidade. Desse modo, serão demonstradas as maneiras pelas quais os professores, enquanto intermediários culturais, atuaram nos espaços de negociação possíveis entre a proposta formal e a aplicação do inquérito, bem como a inserção da Encuesta na consolidação simbólica do Estado-nacional argentino. / In March 1921, the Argentinian National Education Council approved the realization of an enquiry that would collect national folklore traditions. That work was given to the teachers of the thousands schools under Council administration and located, substantially, at rural areas. The project was related to intellectuals conceptions aligned with so-called Independence Centenary Generation nationalism, dedicated to affirm national identity attributes in contrast to a context characterized by social instability and heterogeneous society, composed of native population, immigrants, etc. By means of analyzing documents collected on Río Negro National Territory, boundary region newly added as a federal unity, they will be discussed ranges and limits of the project, considering nationalistic ideals, national and regional historical contexts and particularities concerned to popular culture concept, like interrelationship dynamics for example. Thus it will be demonstrated how teachers, as passeurs culturels, acted on the negotiation margins between formal proposal and real enquiry application, as well as Encuesta insertion in symbolic consolidation of Argentinian nation state.

At my workplace, a metropolitan, Catholic primary school, I made the observation that, when Inquiry Learning was offered to children, Creative Drama was rarely utilized as part of the program. Based on my experience as a drama teacher, I thought that students might benefit from, and would enjoy learning in this way. I sought to investigate the relationship between Creative Drama and Inquiry Learning, to explore how these two education methods might work together, and then to identify what the benefits of a program combining Creative Drama and Inquiry Learning might be to most students. Though there have been many studies on using drama for the purpose of inquiry, few studies have looked specifically at the relationship and characteristics of the two constructs and how they work together in a classroom setting. / The main question for research was: What is and could be the relationship between Creative Drama and Inquiry Learning? / My chosen methodology, Action Research, suited my study because I am a drama teacher. Its problem-solving nature, intention to bring change, and make improvement to practice, were all reasons for that choice. I employed Burns seven stages of Action Research (2000) and through this implemented a program where students inquired into a concept through Drama and presented their own devised performance to an audience. / The use of Creative Drama as a vehicle in Inquiry Learning was enjoyable, motivating and engaging for students. Both methods are collaborative and encourage students to wonder and discover. Together the two methods facilitate the development of students’ social, interpersonal and problem solving skills. There was evidence of enhanced higher order learning skills, as they were able to explore attitudes, perceptions, creativity and deep understandings. Immersion into a pretend world with imagined possibilities linked well and became interrelated with the factual information collected through inquiry. / This investigation supports the notion that Inquiry Learning and Creative Drama have much in common and the relationship between the two, when worked together, provides a valuable learning opportunity for most students. Students made improvements to their performance and social skills, enjoyed the learning experience and were rewarded with a tremendous feeling of success following their final performances.