The global population is ageing, and with it has been a growth of mature aged participation in sport. Following this trend, swimming amongst the adult population in South Africa, whether it is for recreation or competitive purposes, has increased. This research reports on the coaching strategies used by one coach who is training Masters swimmers in Johannesburg. It examines whether or not andragogical principles and teaching methods could be applied to an informal swimming coaching context. Qualitative methods were used for data collection, including an interview with the coach, focus group discussions with the swimmers, pool deck observations and video recordings of the training sessions. Results indicated that adult education principles could be applied to an informal swimming coaching context through flexible and accommodating coaching practices, ensuring effective communication between the swimmer and the coach and utilising the community of practice between the swimmers and coaches to ensure effective adult learning.

Magister Educationis (Adult Learning and Global Change) - MEd(AL) / This study investigates “why adults participate in learning activities” and “what barriers deter adults from participating in learning activities.” Learning activities can include informal learning initiatives and formal education programmes. According to Larson and Milana (2006) “the question of why some people participates in adult education and training while others don’t thus” (p. 2) is as relevant and urgent as ever as we want to make lifelong learning accessible for everybody. While working at a Community College in the Western Cape (South Africa), for the period October 2007 until June 2010, I have observed and noticed that many of the learners who entered the different programmes were all of a certain age. Many of them experienced an excess of barriers deterring them from participation in learning. For the purpose of this study, I am going to use the Chain-of-Response (COR) Model by Cross (1981a) to investigate specifically the situational barriers affecting those learners. Cross (1981a) developed the COR model. The rationale behind it was to better understand what urges people to participate in higher education or learning institutions. This model can be seen as cyclic, and involves seven steps developed by Cross (1981a) which have different impacts on the decision-making process of whether to enter or participate and persist in an adult learning course. Cross (1981a) argues that “an adult’s participation in a learning activity is not an isolated act but is the result of a complex chain of responses based on the evaluation of the position of the individual in their environment” (p. 36). Responses leading to participation tend to originate within the individual, as opposed to outside forces; it can either encourage or discourage participation in learning.

The aim of this study is to find out the pupils’ thoughts and experiences about speakingEnglish for second language acquisition in upper secondary school. We want to establish thatoral communication is an important factor towards fulfilling the criteria to strive for indeveloping the pupils’ knowledge and skills in language learning according to the Curriculumfor Compulsory School System (Skolverket, 2006) and the Syllabus for the English Subject(Skolverket, 2001).The background presents theoretical approaches in second language acquisition, such asVygostskij’s, Piaget’s and Krashen’s theories of language acquisition. Communicativecompetence, affective factors, strategies and speech-codes used in the learning process havealso been briefly described in this study.The methods used for collecting data were observations and interviews, with a qualitativesurvey and hermeneutic approach in focus. The research took place in three different schoolsin a municipality in southwest of Sweden. For the observations, there were 71 pupilsparticipating in this study and 37 pupils wanted to collaborate for the interviews. No teacheror school workers were involved or participated in the observations or interviews. We wantedto keep the pupils’ point of view about how they use verbal language skills in English to gainknowledge about the target language. / Uppsatsnivå: C

abstract: One of the ideals underpinning public education in the United has been that of educating young people to become engaged democratic citizens. Civics courses have been the main, and sometimes only, sign of public schools attending to their civic mission. An opportunity to offer citizenship education through the experience of democratic governance manifests itself through the implementation of school participatory budgeting. Though promising, the use of school participatory budgeting in the United States is relatively new. The literature is sparse and issues of process design as well as research methodology remain unexplored. School participatory budgeting has the potential, at least, to offer students an opportunity to experience deliberative democratic decision-making and thus enhance those capabilities critical for effective citizenship. More ambitiously, school participatory budgeting presents an opportunity to delicately and steadily transform school governance to give real decision-making power to students. The four stand-alone articles that make up this dissertation are four facets of a single case study on the first large-scale instance of school participatory budgeting in the United States. They began with the question: What were the accomplishments and challenges of school participatory budgeting in a large secondary school district in the Southwestern United States in its initial implementation? This question was interpreted and answered differently in each article. The first article examines aspects of process design and how participatory budgeting might contribute not only to citizenship learning but also the expansion of student voice. The experiences of students, in the second article, and those of teachers and administrators, in the third article, are explored through analysis of interview data. The final article addresses this question by drawing on my own experience of implementing school participatory budgeting using analytic autoethnography. This dissertation presents school participatory budgeting from multiple perspectives and recommends more empirical research on the structure of the process before, during, and after implementation. This dissertation examines this approach to citizenship learning dynamically by using various methodologies and bringing together the literature on student voice, citizenship learning, participatory budgeting, and curriculum studies in order to enrich the discussions and provide actionable knowledge for advocates and practitioners. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Curriculum and Instruction 2018

In the current fast paced and competitive environment organizations are existing in, it is crucial so be innovative and creative. This empirical research addresses how organizations can stimulate creativity and innovation by understanding underlying factors and mechanisms. The research sample consisted of seven open interviews from seven different firms which could be described as creative. In analysis of the empirical material a model called meaning concentration have been used. Results have been analysed with support of sociocultural theory. The findings suggest that time, a structured process, gaining new perspectives and experiences by constant input and an open communication are keys to support innovation. The study also indicates that creative organizations uses informal learning systematically as a strategy in projects and developing the co-workers craftsmanship. Informal learning is used to gain knowledge about customers, social arenas and the surrounding world. New perspectives are considered to be crucial in creating innovation. The underlying factors of creative processes found in the empirical material are being discussed and how it connects to a social context and group dynamics. / I en föränderlig och konkurrensutsatt värld är det essentiellt att organisationer utvecklas. Den här studien syftade till att utforska hur organisationer kan stimulera kreativa processer och innovation, genom att förstå dess underliggande faktorer. Det insamlade materialet bestod av sju öppna intervjuer från sju olika kreativa organisationer. Empirin analyserades med hjälp av meningskoncentrering och ur ett sociokulturellt perspektiv. Resultatet visade att kreativa organisationer använder sig av informellt lärande som en medveten strategi i syfte att tillägna sig nya kunskaper. De nya kunskaperna om kunder, sociala arenor och omvärlden anses av organisationerna avgörande för att lyckas skapa kreativa produkter. Organisationerna skapade avsiktligt situationer och möten där delandet av nya perspektiv och associationer ledde till ny kunskap genom diskussioner och intryck. Organisationer är enligt resultatet beroende av att inhämta nya perspektiv och kunskaper för att lyckas med innovationsprocesser. De underliggande faktorerna i de kreativa processerna diskuteras med koppling till den sociala kontext organisationerna verkar inom.

This Grounded Theory study explores how the use of social media influenced the dynamics of interaction in a free-choice religious education experience between a world religious leader and young adult learners. Results indicate that social media (a) enhanced proxy group interaction due to the increased visibility of leader-learner interactions to the entire group and the ability of learners to comment on, like, mention other learners, and share leader-learner interactions; (b) enabled active non-verbal interaction which allowed for social curation, peer validation, community reaction, and the non-verbal pushing of posts into the social media streams of those not participating in the event; (c) greatly enhanced dialogic interaction between learners and allowed for a safe hashtag-bound space for religious expression to occur online; and (d) enabled a theoretically infinite amount of learner-learner interactions on single comment nodes, referred to as multilogic interactions. Grounded Theory was also used to derive patterns from the data generated in this experience which were then abstracted and reconstituted into an explanatory and predictive theoretical framework referred to as Orbital Interaction Theory (OIT). OIT, as a design theory, predicts that three types or tiers of interaction will occur when three essential pedagogical design elements are used together—namely, a question and answer session with a highly respected and sought-after leader within a social media-bound context. Furthermore, I posit that three essential learner conditions are required for the success of OIT—namely, learner trust in the leader, a high degree of learner homogeneity, and high levels of civility. The preexistent nature of these learner conditions in religious education experiences makes them the most natural contexts for an OIT approach to be successful. It is precisely because of the challenge of achieving these three factors at comparable levels in non-religious free-choice learning contexts that makes the transferability of OIT into these contexts difficult. Finally, I posit that when the essential pedagogical design elements of OIT are combined with the essential learner conditions of OIT, the Optimum Conditions for Interaction (OCI) in OIT will be achieved with highly predictable results.

Informal learning experiences have become increasingly effective in enhancing self-efficacy and interest in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).This study investigated the impact of access to informal STEM learning experiences on student self-efficacy and interest in STEM before and after participating in the 2018 See Blue See STEM Summer Experience. Pre-survey results indicated that middle school students who had previous access to informal STEM learning experiences are 3.21 times as likely to demonstrate high self-efficacy in STEM as those who had no previous access. After engaging in the 2018 summer experience, post-survey results showed a statistically significant increase in student self-efficacy in STEM and indicated that students who had previous access to informal STEM learning experiences are 4.13 times as likely to manifest interest in STEM as those who had no previous access. These results suggest that increasing exposure to informal STEM learning experiences enhances both self-efficacy and interest in STEM.

Past research into defining and measuring the characteristics of learning environments in Science Education Centres and Science Museums (SECSMs) has been based upon low-inference measures, such as observations and interviews. Many searchers feel that the diversity of informal education settings in SECSMs makes it difficult to develop high-inference measures for informal learning environments. This study used the semiformal environment of the CSIRO Science Education Centres as a stepping-stone between formal and informal learning environments. A review of learning environment research identified a possible procedure for the development of, and a format for, a suitable instrument. Research in SECSMs was reviewed to identify learning environment factors that defined the CSIROSEC learning environment. A pilot study was conducted to determine the feasibility of developing a learning environment instrument for CSIROSECs. This led to the more formal process of developing a learning environment instrument for CSIROSECs based upon the five scales of Affect, Social Interaction, Novelty, Independence and Involvement. / A number of cycles of testing of the instrument, statistical analyses, and subsequent refinements resulted in the Learning Environment Instrument for CSIRO Science Education Centres (LEI for CSIROSECs). The instrument measures distinct, if somewhat overlapping, aspects of the learning environment. The LEI for CSIROSECs displays comparable measures for internal consistency (alpha reliability) and discriminant validity to existing learning environment instruments. The sensitivity of the instrument has been demonstrated for the comparison of different classes, comparison of teacher-student perceptions, comparison of primary and secondary classes, and the comparison of CSIROSEC programs. Suggestions have been made for applications of the LEI for CSIROSECs and its further development,as well as its potential use in research.

Australia hosts thousands of English language learners every year and one of the reasons learners give for this is their belief that living in the target language community naturally avails them of more language learning opportunities than are available in their homelands. In fact, learners actually learn faster and more effectively compared to the limited gains in their respective countries. Believing that the target language community has a strong role in language learning, this research focuses on the factors and opportunities which enable students to develop their language skills in informal settings outside the school. Due to the vast scope of the research area, six different types of data collection methods have been used so that a wider spectrum in SLA could be investigated. These include an exploration of learner beliefs about their language learning experiences and a study of authentic social activities and linguistic engagements within those activities. The outcome of this research suggests that language learning is not first initiated “in the head”, but starts with the social activities in which learners participate and the qualities of the linguistic challenges and opportunities within these activities. The research draws on sociocultural theory (Vygotsky 1962, 1978), ecological approach to learning (van Lier 1999) and register theory (Halliday and Hasan 1985), and also on a range of research within second language acquisition studies. The study illustrates that language learning occurs in the context of activitybased communication experiences in authentic contexts, and the more the constant challenge and varied linguistic opportunities exist in the learner’s ecology, the more and better the chances to learn language. An overall approach to understanding independent language learning and a conceptual framework for examining informal language learning opportunities, have been developed. The study concludes with some implications for pedagogical practice in English language classrooms.

Australia hosts thousands of English language learners every year and one of the reasons learners give for this is their belief that living in the target language community naturally avails them of more language learning opportunities than are available in their homelands. In fact, learners actually learn faster and more effectively compared to the limited gains in their respective countries. Believing that the target language community has a strong role in language learning, this research focuses on the factors and opportunities which enable students to develop their language skills in informal settings outside the school. Due to the vast scope of the research area, six different types of data collection methods have been used so that a wider spectrum in SLA could be investigated. These include an exploration of learner beliefs about their language learning experiences and a study of authentic social activities and linguistic engagements within those activities. The outcome of this research suggests that language learning is not first initiated “in the head”, but starts with the social activities in which learners participate and the qualities of the linguistic challenges and opportunities within these activities. The research draws on sociocultural theory (Vygotsky 1962, 1978), ecological approach to learning (van Lier 1999) and register theory (Halliday and Hasan 1985), and also on a range of research within second language acquisition studies. The study illustrates that language learning occurs in the context of activitybased communication experiences in authentic contexts, and the more the constant challenge and varied linguistic opportunities exist in the learner’s ecology, the more and better the chances to learn language. An overall approach to understanding independent language learning and a conceptual framework for examining informal language learning opportunities, have been developed. The study concludes with some implications for pedagogical practice in English language classrooms.