This thesis aims to identify the learning styles and strategies of students, to check whether there are significant differences in the learning style and strategy preferences between male and female learners, and investigate whether there is a relationship between students&amp / #8217 / learning style and strategy preferences. A total of 60 students were asked to complete two questionnaires. One was used to identify students&amp / #8217 / perceptual learning style preferences and the other was used to identify students&amp / #8217 / learning strategies. In addition, think aloud protocols were held to determine the cognitive and metacognitive strategies students used while reading. The data analysis of the first questionnaire revealed that students&amp / #8217 / major learning style preferences were auditory learning and individual learning. Furthermore, significant difference was found in the preference of tactile learning between males and females. The analysis of the second questionnaire revealed that cognitive strategies were favoured the most. No significant difference was found in the preferences of learning strategies between males and females. The analysis with respect to the relationship between learning styles and strategies revealed that &amp / #8226 / visual styles had a significant relation with affective strategies / &amp / #8226 / auditory styles had significant relationships with memory, cognitive, affective, and social strategies / &amp / #8226 / there was a significant relationship between the individual learning style and compensation strategies. &amp / #8226 / none of the learning styles had a significant relationship with metacognitive strategies. The think aloud protocols revealed that students used various cognitive and metacognitive strategies.

The study is a qualitative explanation of the emotional responses of children with learning difficulties regarding their social interaction experiences. The primary research question that guided the study is: What are the emotional responses of children with learning difficulties regarding their social interaction experiences? Two learners were selected to participate in the study. Activity sessions, observations and interviews were conducted to determine the participants’ emotional responses regarding their social interaction experiences. Theme analysis was used to analyze the data collected. Seven main themes with sub-themes pertaining to the main themes, emerged from the data. The findings of the study are understood in terms of a Vygotskian social development framework. The study revealed that the participants, identified as having learning challenges, experienced difficulties in their social interaction experiences. Their emotional responses to their social interaction experiences indicated that the participants found peer learning to be emotionally challenging. They further indicated that they were not included in the majority of their peers’ social activities in the playground setting. Both participants have developed methods of resilience to help them cope with the challenges they face in their social interaction experiences with their peers. These methods help to alleviate stress caused due to the challenges they face with social interaction but these forms of resilience do not help the participants to experience learning taking place in Vygotsky’s (1978) Zone of Proximal Development as the coping mechanisms employed by the participants remove the participants from the majority of their peers’ interactions, rather than include them. Learning in Vygotsky’s (1978) Zone of Proximal Development relies on social interaction, supported by more able peers or adults, resulting in learning taking place at a higher level than the individual would be able to achieve on their own. Copyright / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2010. / Educational Psychology / unrestricted

Cooperative learning is a pedagogic approach that is prevalent in all levels of education as it is seen to yield higher learning outcomes than individual learning (Johnson & Johnson, 2009). In the global university, it is believed to have the potential of increasing intercultural contact since students work together in small groups to conduct projects related to their discipline. The assumption is that students will learn the intercultural skills they need for an interconnected world by studying and learning in groups with linguistically and ethnically diverse others (Association of Community Colleges Canada, 2010). Although cooperative learning is based on social interdependence in which group members work together for the mutual benefit of their group, there has been very little research conducted into the relationships that the group members actually have with each other. It is the aim of this study to examine these relationships and find out their impacts on cooperative learning experiences. Drawing upon insights from pragmatism and dialogism, in this thesis, learning is conceptualised as an embodied, socially situated, and relational process. This means that the key to learning is the relationships that learners can construct with others. An integral part of forming relationships is the negotiation of identities in which people see themselves and others as certain kinds of people. In learning in cooperative groups, the ability to negotiate legitimate, competent identities is regarded as essential. For this reason, the study reported in this thesis uses a view of identity as socially constructed as a lens though which to analyse relationships in cooperative learning. The study focuses on the experiences of 12 students participating in group learning projects in first year business courses. Narrative inquiry is the methodology used as it is ideal for highlighting the complexities in human relationships and issues of power. The narratives of four international, four Canadian immigrant, and four Canadian-born students are analysed. A key finding from the analysis is that the relationship students are able to negotiate in cooperative groups and the types of identities they are able to construct with others strongly impacts their learning. There appeared to be a hierarchical order to student identities in groups with Canadian-born students assuming more powerful identities. Frequently these students are results oriented showing only interest in achieving high marks in their group projects. This leads to an absence of emotional connectedness amongst students and a disregard for the process aspect of working together which is core to cooperative learning. The thesis concludes with a discussion of the ways that cooperative learning could be changed to make it more process oriented. Finally, I make recommendations for further research which can build on the findings from this study.

En snabb förändringstakt på arbetsmarknaden sätter högre krav på medarbetarnas kunskap och lärande. Trots detta koncentrerar sig flertalet organisationer idag på de lukrativa vinsterna, vilket skapar sämre förutsättningar för arbetsplatsens grupplärande. Syftet var att utöka kunskapen om medarbetarnas upplevelser av betydelsen arbetsgruppen för lärandeprocesser i relation till organisationsförändring och ett hållbart perspektiv. Studien har en hermeneutisk ansats för att för att kunna tolka och få en djupare förståelse för medarbetarnas upplevelser. Åtta respondenter hittades med hjälp av ett bekvämlighetsurval från respektive åtta olika organisationer. Både strukturerade och semistrukturerade intervjumetoder användes för att besvara frågeställning och syfte. De transkriberade materialet har kodats, analyserats och tolkats med stöd av Illeris (2006) lärandedimensioner i ett successivt samspel där delar och helhet ökat på förståelse för fenomenet. Studien visade på att det upplevs finnas en ambivalent syn bland respondenterna i att lära under förändring i organisationer idag. Detta styrs av individuella erfarenheter, hur medarbetarna upplever relationen och kommunikationen till sina kollegor samt i vilken grad stöd till lärande arbetsplatsen erbjuder. / A quick change in the labor market results in a higher demand on the employee’s knowledge and learning abilities. Despite this fact many organizations today focus on lucrative profits, which in turn create worse group learning conditions in the work places. The purpose of the this study was to expand on the knowledge of the employee´s experiences in regards to the importance of working groups for learning processes in relation to organizational change and sustainable perspective. The eight respondents were chosen through a convenience sampling, who then where interviewed with structural and semi structural interview methods. The transcribed interview material has been processed through categorizing, analyzing and interpretation in a successively manner including both parts and whole. The study shows that amongst the respondents there seem to be ambivalence towards learning within an organization that is changing today. This is driven by; individual experiences, by how the employee´s relationship and communication is towards each other but also by the level of support the working place provides towards learning.

Medical education aims at forming students’ professional identity. This includes skills and attitudes such as communication and teamwork skills. One of the thesis’ aims is to identify students’ typical difficulties with learning communication skills, and to understand how these affect their identity development. Group discussions of student-patient interviews were video-taped, and selected discussions were transcribed and analyzed. Students had difficulties in establishing trustful relationships with their patients, asking about sensitive topics, responding empathetically, and with applying formal structures to the consultation. Students’ professional identity was supported by peer students’ and teachers’ comments, which created a common language and fostered selfmonitoring abilities. Another aim was to study the relationship between students* attitude towards communication training, group learning, and their self-regulatory skills. In a survey study, established instruments were combined with a new questionnaire. Four medical schools participated – two with traditional and two with problem-based curricula – in Sweden and Germany. Statistical analyses revealed that female students were more positive towards learning communication skills than male students were. Good self-regulatory skills were related to a positive attitude towards group learning and clinical experience before academic studies. It was concluded that early clinical experience benefits students’ selfregulated learning, and promotes a positive attitude towards communication training. Awareness of typical difficulties can facilitate the acquisition of coping strategies. / Medicinsk undervisning syftar till att forma studenternas professionella identitet. Den omfattar färdigheter och inställningar, t.ex. kommunikationsfärdigheter och förmågan att arbeta i grupp. Ett av avhandlingens syften är att identifiera studenternas typiska svårigheter med att lära sig färdighet i läkar-patient kommunikation samt att förstå hur den påverkar identitetsutvecklingen. Gruppdiskussioner av student-patient intervjuer videofilmades, utvalda diskussioner transkriberades och analyserades. Studenterna berättade om svårigheter med att etablera förtroliga relationer med patienterna, att prata om känsliga ämnen, att visa empati och att använda intervjumallen. Den professionella identiten stöttas av studenternas och lärarnas kommentarer, vilka bidrar till ett gemensamt språk och förmågan till själviakttagelse. Andra syftet är att undersöka sambandet mellan studenternas inställningar till kommunikationsfärdigheter och grupparbete, samt deras förmåga till självreglerat lärande. I en enkätundersökning kombinerades befintliga instrument med ett nytt frågeformulär. Fyra medicinska fakulteter deltog: två med traditionella och två med problembaserade undervisningsmetoder, en av varje i Sverige och i Tyskland. Statistiska analyser visade att kvinnliga studenter är, jämfört med manliga, mer positiva till att träna upp kommunikativa färdigheter. Förmågan till självreglerat lärande var relaterad till en positiv inställning till gruppinlärande och till klinisk erfarenhet innan studierna påbörjas. Slutsatsen är att tidig klinisk erfarenhet fostrar självstyrt lärande och en positiv inställning till kommunikationsträning. Medvetenhet om typiska svårigheter kan underlätta för studenter att anamma strategier att hantera dessa.

Abstract In the 1980s, academic assessments called for "the ability of individuals and groups to talk, listen judge, and act on issues of common interest" (Morse, 1989, p. 30). More recently, corporate research findings, Are They Ready to Work? Employers' Perspectives on the Basic Knowledge and Applied Skills of New Entrants to the 21st Century U.S. Workforce (The Conference Board, Inc., Partnership for 21st Century Skills, The Corporate Voices for Working Families, & Society for Human Resource Management, 2006), report the workplace is seeking college graduates with skill in collaboration (e.g. build diverse relationships, negotiate, manage conflict). While the interest in collaborative learning has expanded in higher education and business, "sparse application" is reported in the college classroom. In academia, collaborative learning has been dependent on cooperative learning research focused on quantitative student achievement outcomes while faculty perceptions of a nonfoundational social constructivist view of collaborative learning is reported as "hardly begun." Along with an increased ambiguity in the terms collaborative and cooperative learning, a comprehensive understanding of collaborative learning and its potential uniqueness, if any, has been skewed. The purpose of this study was to describe and explain collaborative learning from the perspective of selected classroom practitioners representing multiple academic disciplines at a learning-centered institution. The exploratory questions guiding this qualitative case study were: (a) what elements constituted community college collaborative learning practitioners classroom experience and (b) what variables influenced the elements. The theoretical framework undergirding this dissertation is social constructivism nested in constructivism. A purposeful sampling of four instructional criteria indicative of a nonfoundational socio-constructivist concept of collaborative learning guided the participant selection process. The limited candidate list consisted of 31 faculty (20 females, 11 males) at the field site, a learning-centered community college with an FTE near 30,000 for the 2009 - 2010 school year. From 22 initial responses, seven faculty participants (6 female, 1 male) were selected and participated in two semi-structured in-depth interviews. The data collection included interviews, institutional and practitioner documents, the researcher's reflective journal, and field notes. The male participant was removed from the study because he did not submit all requested documents. Therefore, though unintended, six case studies of female instructors were analyzed over an eight month period and reduced to four when saturation was reached, no new information was elicited. All four participants fulfilled all four specified instructional criteria. The central finding able to help the college classroom is the strong identified practice of the defined collaborative learning concept with the articulated understanding limited and term interchange and confusion profound. Thus, the value of this study is the lack of definitional clarity in the terms collaborative and cooperative learning within academia which may offer one possible explanation for the reported sparse application in the college classroom. Supporting this major finding the single most defining attribute of this sophisticated or challenging concept of collaborative learning is the instructional criteria of distributed authority. Manifesting itself in students teaching students the faculty participants high level of consistent classroom application in concert with intellectual negotiation, consensus building, and student ownership of learning constitutes the collaborative learning skills sought by the work force. This study contributed to all three research attributes reported as minimal in the literature, qualitative research from a faculty perspective on the specified concept of collaborative learning. A comprehensive participant selection process was not conducted. In view of the central finding and the existing gaps in the literature, a priority recommendation for future research would be a more intentional expansion of candidate recruitment to potentially increase identification of classroom instructors practicing the particularized concept of collaborative learning. Other research recommendations would include a more focused study of the defined concept of collaborative learning in relationship to: (a) the learning-centered institution, (b) disciplines with a high density of foundational knowledge, (c) student and faculty resistance, (d) lines of authority, and (e) personality, gender, teaching styles, and learning styles.

No description available.

Organizational scholars have long been interested in organizations which exemplify high reliability. While such organizational studies have provided valuable clues to the ways in which such organizations form and function, this paper argues that a more nuanced study of high reliability processes within team contexts is warranted. This study focuses on organizational teams which are faced with the challenges of maintaining high levels of reliability. Of particular interest is how teams manage adverse events which disrupt the team's process and how they make adaptations immediately to restore their functionality. In my dissertation, I: (1) explore the existing literature surrounding high reliability organization and resilience, (2) present a qualitative analysis of Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) teams to explore and identify factors surrounding adaptation within the critical moment, and (3) discuss the implications of these factors in the theory and research surrounding high-reliability teams. The findings of this study find strong connection with the work of Weick and serve to advance and clarify previous characteristics associated with high reliability organizing; however, by using the small group as the unit of analysis for the study additions to concepts traditionally associated with high reliability organizing can be noted: (1) controlling variability during team function, (2) accepting the value of the unexpected, (3) continuous forward motion, and (4) the role of tacit and explicit knowledge.

The current understanding of students’ group metacognition is limited. The research on metacognition has focused mainly on the individual student. The aim of this study was to address the void by developing a conceptual model to inform the use of scaffolds to facilitate group metacognition during mathematical problem solving in computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments. An initial conceptual framework based on the literature from metacognition, cooperative learning, cooperative group metacognition, and computer supported collaborative learning was used to inform the study. In order to achieve the study aim, a design research methodology incorporating two cycles was used. The first cycle focused on the within-group metacognition for sixteen groups of primary school students working together around the computer; the second cycle included between-group metacognition for six groups of primary school students working together on the Knowledge Forum® CSCL environment. The study found that providing groups with group metacognitive scaffolds resulted in groups planning, monitoring, and evaluating the task and team aspects of their group work. The metacognitive scaffolds allowed students to focus on how their group was completing the problem-solving task and working together as a team. From these findings, a revised conceptual model to inform the use of scaffolds to facilitate group metacognition during mathematical problem solving in computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environments was generated.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-03-15T19:26:31Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Cintia Yuri Takahashi.pdf: 576472 bytes, checksum: 72a6c01f68fe6a3812d3ae924dd62b35 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2007-09-06 / Fundo Mackenzie de Pesquisa / Despite the apparent consensus that group learning integrates the learning process from the individual to the organization (SENGE, 1990; KIM, 1993; ROUSSEAU; HOUSE, 1994; NONAKA; TAKEUCHI, 1997; EDMONDSON, 2002), our understanding about group learning remains limited (EDMONDSON; 1999). The general objective of this study is to identify and analyze the factors involved in group learning process of the participants of the Mediating Team Learning course promoted at Senac São Paulo. A qualitative study interviewing 11 participants and four of their colleagues was conducted in order to achieve the bjective. It was identified that it was easier for the participants to listen and concerning the factors that influenced group learning, three kinds of factors were identified: personal, structural and interpersonal. In the work environment such factors can either enable or be an obstacle to learning and it was found that they occur simultaneously and are interrelated. / Apesar do aparente consenso de que a aprendizagem em grupo integra o processo de aprendizagem do indivíduo ao da organização (SENGE, 1990; KIM, 1993; ROUSSEAU; HOUSE, 1994; NONAKA; TAKEUCHI, 1997; EDMONDSON, 2002), entendese que a aprendizagem nos grupos permanece limitada. (EDMONDSON; 1999). O presente estudo teve como objetivo geral identificar e analisar os fatores envolvidos no processo de aprendizagem em grupo, dos participantes do curso Mediando a Aprendizagem nas Equipes, promovido no Senac São Paulo. Para isso, foi conduzido um estudo qualitativo por meio de entrevistas, com 11 participantes, além de entrevista com quatro colegas dos participantes. Identificou-se que os participantes tiveram mais facilidade para ouvir e, quanto aos fatores que influenciaram a aprendizagem nos grupos, foram identificados três tipos: pessoais, estruturais e interpessoais. No ambiente de trabalho, nota-se que esses fatores ocorrem, simultaneamente, estão relacionados entre si e podem tanto facilitar quanto ser um obstáculo à aprendizagem.