Made available in DSpace on 2016-06-02T20:02:47Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 2890.pdf: 4349589 bytes, checksum: 9e60306f0f5f18e73d6bd81a88e67122 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2010-02-27 / Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos / This project is a study that seeks a reflection of author about classroom practices in teaching mathematics, at public schools of State of São Paulo, Brazil, especially with 6th and 7th grades of Basic School System. We adopted the Methodology of Lesson Study, a original Japanese Methodology, that focus the research on investigative activities of a teacher aiming at the improvement of his/her teaching practices. The phases of such investigative activities comprise the planning and the execution of the lessons, followed by the critical reflections after the lesson, that constitute fundamental steps to the search for the improvement of the teaching/learning process. This methodology is being disseminated in Western countries, and this work is one of the first adapted experiences as an attempt to introduce it in Brazil, and it is commented in Chapter 2. In order to secure an effective reflection of this process, we have established the investigative procedure at each stage of teacher´s practice, grounding the work on the concept of Pedagogical Content Knowledge (Schulman, 1986), discussed in Chapter 1. As main product of Master Program for Teachers, we have designed lessons and activities that consider the curriculum proposal of The Secretary of Education of the State of São Paulo and have followed the Methodology of Problem Solving of Polya, as a strategy to yield the analysis of lessons, activities and the following reflections. One main result sought and obtained in this work is the participative learning of students when building their own knowledge through the steps of Problem Solving Methodology, described in Chapter 3. In Chapter 5, we present some proposals for different types of lessons, describing the ways the curriculum recommendations can be worked out with our approach. We show analyses of lesson planning and the expectations of teacher about the executions of the plans at this stage, as well as about many problems come up with students´ difficulties, reactions and participations. Moreover, we comment the didactical perceptions of the author that have allowed conducting the Lesson Study in the stage of improving the learning with active participation of students. The most important achievement of this work is the execution of after class reflections mediated by Lesson Study Methodology, which has implicated a new vision of the assessment of students answers and questions/doubts. The work has permitted a more refined search and comprehension of the errors and the analyses of correct answers, which has brought a quality upgrade to the assessment. The Chapter 6 contains a synthesis of our reflections connected to the activities. The Appendix consists of detachable sheets with the lesson plans and steps of their execution, which can be used by basic school teachers as well as by students of teacher preparation programs who seek ideas and suggestions to improve their classroom practice. / O presente projeto é um estudo que buscou uma reflexão sobre a prática docente do autor no ensino da matemática em escolas públicas do Estado de São Paulo, especialmente sobre o ensino nas séries iniciais do ciclo II do Ensino Fundamental (6º e 7º anos). Apoiamos na Metodologia de Pesquisa de Aula, uma metodologia de origem japonesa, que coloca o foco da pesquisa nas atividades investigativas do profissional docente para o aperfeiçoamento de suas práticas. A investigação passa pelas fases de planejamento e execução de aulas e reflexões pós-aula, que são primordiais para a busca da melhoria do ensino-aprendizagem da matemática. A Metodologia está sendo disseminada no Ocidente, sendo esse trabalho uma das primeiras experiências na tentativa de introduzir essa metodologia no Brasil, e seu conteúdo está explicado no Capítulo 2. Para garantir uma reflexão efetiva desse processo, buscamos estabelecer o olhar investigativo do professor em cada etapa da prática docente, baseando-nos no conceito de Conhecimento Pedagógico de Conteúdo (Schulman, 1986), que foi considerado no Capítulo 1. Como produto da pesquisa em Mestrado Profissional, elaboramos aulas e atividades baseadas na proposta curricular da Secretaria de Estado da Educação do Estado de São Paulo (SEE-SP), que está analisada no Capítulo 4, e seguimos a Metodologia de Resolução de Problemas (Polya, 1995) como uma estratégia para fundamentar a análise das atividades assim como as reflexões realizadas. A Metodologia de Resolução de Problemas foi estudada no Capítulo 3, comparando as fases da resolução dentro das atividades propostas no nosso estudo. Um dos resultados principais buscados e obtidos nesse projeto foi a aprendizagem participativa dos alunos na construção de seu conhecimento por meio das etapas da Metodologia de Resolução de Problemas. No capítulo 5, apresentamos algumas propostas de diferentes aulas, mostrando como os temas curriculares podem ser trabalhados sob tal enfoque. Apresentamos análises do preparo de aulas e expectativas do docente nesta fase, diversos problemas enfrentados com as dificuldades dos alunos, suas reações e participações. Além disso, comentamos as percepções didáticas do docente que permitiram conduzir a Pesquisa de Aula na fase de melhorar a aprendizagem com a participação ativa dos alunos. O resultado mais importante do trabalho foi conseguir executar as reflexões pós-aulas que, mediadas pela Metodologia da Pesquisa de Aula, permitiram um novo olhar nas análises das atividades feitas pelos alunos, implicando uma busca e compreensão mais acurada dos erros e acertos dos mesmos, o que trouxe um salto qualitativo nas avaliações da aprendizagem dos alunos. O Capítulo 6 contém uma síntese do nosso estudo relacionando as reflexões com as atividades executadas. O Apêndice deste trabalho consiste dos planos de aulas e atividades, e descrição das suas execuções, que podem ser destacados e utilizados por professores das escolas básicas ou por licenciandos em busca de sugestões e ideias para aperfeiçoar sua prática docente.

Das Erstellen von Unterrichtsentwürfen wird als Voraussetzung für effektiven, zielgerichteten Unterricht gesehen. Dies gilt insbesondere für angehende Lehrpersonen. Da viele Aspekte, wie z.B. Methoden, Fachinhalte, Standards und die Charakteristik der Lerngruppe, zur gleichen Zeit berücksichtigt und sinnvoll aufeinander abgestimmt werden müssen, handelt es sich um eine kreative und zugleich anspruchsvolle Aufgabe. Es liegt nahe, diesen aufwändigen Prozess der Planung durch spezialisierte Softwaresysteme zu unterstützen, die nicht nur Routineaufgaben erleichtern, sondern auch zur Reflexion anregen. Basierend auf einem Literatur-Review und Interviews mit Dozierenden, die Lehrpersonen ausbilden, werden Anforderungen an Unterrichtsentwürfe analysiert und diskutiert. Es werden dabei nicht nur die relevanten theoretischen Grundlagen betrachtet, sondern ebenfalls das Vorgehen bei der Planung, genutzte Hilfsmittel und besonders unterstützenswerte Aspekte aus der Praxis. Darauf aufbauend werden Anwendungsfälle und Anforderungen an ein Planungsunterstützungssystem systematisch abgeleitet. Existierende Planungssysteme werden vorgestellt und untersucht, wobei viele bereits elementare Anforderungen nicht erfüllen. Insbesondere gibt es kein System, das adaptives Feedback bereitstellt. Um diese Lücke zu schließen, wird eine graphische, zeitbasierte Notation zur Unterrichtsplanung vorgeschlagen. Weiterhin sind ein Ressourcen-Management, Analyse-Möglichkeiten und automatisches Feedback zentrale Bestandteile des Ansatzes. Der entwickelte Prototyp wurde mit über 100 Personen in mehreren Studien systematisch empirisch evaluiert. Im Fokus stand dabei nicht nur die Untersuchung der Gebrauchstauglichkeit des Ansatzes und des Prototyps, sondern auch wie sich die Nutzung des Prototyps auf die Qualität der Unterrichtsentwürfe auswirkt. Es wird aufgezeigt, dass der beschriebene Ansatz für die Planung von Unterricht geeignet ist und angehende Lehrpersonen auch zur Reflexion angeregt hat. / Developing a lesson plan is considered as a prerequisite for effective, targeted instruction. This is particularly true for prospective teachers. Since many aspects such as methods, subject content, standards, and the characteristics of the learner group have to be taken into account and reasonably compiled, it is a creative as well as a demanding task. It stands to reason that this complex process of planning can be supported by specialized software systems that do not only facilitate routine tasks, but also stimulate reflection. Based on a literature-review and interviews with instructors of prospective teachers, requirements for lesson plans are analyzed and discussed. Not only relevant theoretical principles of lesson planning are considered, but also individual planning steps, tools used and practical aspects that would benefit particularly from further support. Building upon this, use cases and requirements for a lesson planning support system are derived systematically. Existing planning systems are presented and analyzed. It is argued that many systems do not meet even basic requirements. Especially there is no system that offers adaptive feedback. In order to fill this gap, a graphical time-based representation is proposed for lesson planning. Further central aspects of this approach are resource management, analysis capabilities and automatic feedback. A software architecture for a planning support system is presented that implements the aforementioned approach and meets the requirements. The developed prototype was empirically evaluated in several systematic studies involving over 100 participants. The focus to study was the usability of the approach and the prototype on the one hand, and how the use of the prototype affects the quality of the lesson plans on the other hand. In this thesis it is shown that the described approach for lesson planning is adequate and suitable to promote reflective thinking about one''s own planning activities.

This study followed three elementary-school teachers as they engaged in online discussions about inquiry-based mathematics teaching, and wrote and tested inquiry lessons for their own classrooms. In an inquiry lesson, students bring their own knowledge to open-ended problem situations, and build on that knowledge as they try out solutions and share their ideas with others. Evidence from the study suggests that teachers may turn to inquiry as an antidote to the way they learned about mathematics as schoolchildren, and that participating in an online community is a way for teachers to gain new mathematical and pedagogical knowledge and to change their conceptual understanding of inquiry-based teaching. The study results indicate that online professional development can help teachers improve their practice, but that care must be taken to build social ties within the group, and to structure tasks in a way that encourages collaboration and constructive criticism.

This study followed three elementary-school teachers as they engaged in online discussions about inquiry-based mathematics teaching, and wrote and tested inquiry lessons for their own classrooms. In an inquiry lesson, students bring their own knowledge to open-ended problem situations, and build on that knowledge as they try out solutions and share their ideas with others. Evidence from the study suggests that teachers may turn to inquiry as an antidote to the way they learned about mathematics as schoolchildren, and that participating in an online community is a way for teachers to gain new mathematical and pedagogical knowledge and to change their conceptual understanding of inquiry-based teaching. The study results indicate that online professional development can help teachers improve their practice, but that care must be taken to build social ties within the group, and to structure tasks in a way that encourages collaboration and constructive criticism.

This project is about electronic learning (e-learning). The first part of this document explains the meaning of the term e-learning, where it is used and what advantages and disadvantages has this type of learning compared to the other methods of learning. The user gets familiar with tools that create the electronic lesson and how to design the lesson. In the second part there are described different techniques and tools to create application interface, to display 3D graphic and to play audio records in different operating systems. In this part, there are described tools in more detail for the operating system Microsoft Windows. The goal of this project is to design and to realize the multimedia system for language education. With the use of 3D graphic and audio records the educational system was created with sophisticated appearance and comfortable control.

This research seeks to investigate the influence of lesson study on preservice secondary mathematics teachers' view of self as mathematics expert. The study acknowledges the commonly held belief that prospective mathematics teachers have that they know and understand secondary mathematics. The purpose in engaging the preservice teachers in lesson study is to dislodge this belief. In particular, this research report focuses on one preservice teacher and her experiences during lesson study. Using the data collected, the researcher reports on the baseline beliefs that the preservice teacher held toward her knowledge of secondary mathematics, her mathematical experiences during the actual lesson study phase of the research and the final status of her beliefs in relation to her secondary mathematics understanding. After assessing the preservice teacher's beliefs, the report focuses on the moves the preservice teacher makes to protect her identity as a knower of mathematics. The report details how the researcher probed the subject's views through a follow-up interview. The researcher discovered during the follow-up interview that the subject was finally able to admit her lack of mathematical knowledge and her desire to not be seen as 'dumb' in front of the interviewer. The implications of the study suggest that teacher educators should be sensitive to preservice secondary teachers' perceptions of their mathematical knowledge and teacher educators should watch for the moves preservice teachers make to shift conversation away from mathematics topics.

Published Aticle / This article reports on the experiences of Mathematics educators during the implementation of the National Curriculum Statement (NCS) in Grades 10 - 12. The study is contained in five different, but educationally related constructs addressing training, problem areas which challenge or appeal to Mathematics educators, lesson planning, assessment strategies and the effective integration of OBE in the teaching of Mathematics. A mixed methods design was used, with data being collected and collated using questionnaires and semi-structured interviews. The quantitative data employed descriptive data analysis, while the qualitative data was analysed by identifying differences and similarities. The study revealed that educators differed in terms of the problems they encountered with implementing the NCS in Mathematics. They agreed, however, that the implementation was successful and that it contributed to better teaching.

This paper is a curriculum proposal for students from grades 2 – 5 at the Elementary level in a bilingual-immersion school in Brasilia, Brazil, who are enrolled in the English Adaptation (EA) program. The curriculum is based on the SIOP Model, an approach to teaching language through content in strategic ways to enhance students’ development in both content and language. The paper also provides detailed lesson plans as an example and assessment processes that can be carried throughout the school year. / text

Two projects are documented within this MEM Report: I. The first project examined what was learnt involving the critical infrastructure in the aftermath of natural disasters in the Canterbury region of New Zealand – the most prominent being the series of earthquakes between 2010 and 2011. The project identified several learning gaps, leading to recommendations for further investigations that could add significant value for the lifeline infrastructure community. II. Following the Lifeline Lesson Learnt Project, the Disaster Mitigation Guideline series was initiated with two booklets, one on Emergency Potable Water and a second on Emergency Sanitation. The key message from both projects is that we can and must learn from disasters. The projects described are part of the emergency management, and critical infrastructure learning cycles – presenting knowledge captured by others in a digestible format, enabling the lessons to be reapplied. Without these kinds of projects, there will be fewer opportunities to learn from other’s successes and failures when it comes to preparing for natural disasters.

According to the Constitution of South Africa (1996), as well as the Schools Act of South Africa (1996), everyone has the right to education in the language of their choice. The advantage of being educated in one’s home language is a well-known and accepted as a demonstrated fact (Oosthuizen, Rossouw & De Wet, 2004:22). Unfortunately, Oosthuizen et al. (2004:22) remark that the biggest problem in education today, is that home language education cannot be given to everyone in South Africa. As a result many parents choose English as the Language of Learning and Teaching (LOLT) for their children, since they believe English is the language of empowerment. Although English Second Language (ESL) learners pose a challenge to educators in the class, they still have a right to quality education. Therefore, thorough planning is essential to ensure that these learners are taught according to their needs. The primary aim of this research study was to determine if primary school educators designed their lesson planning to accommodate ESL learners with a limited English proficiency. The primary aim could only be determined if the following sub-aims were successfully analysed: *To determine through a literature investigation which specific language barriers ESL learners, with limited English language proficiency, experience during a lesson. *To determine through a literature investigation why lesson planning is important; *To determine to what extent educators accommodate language barriers to learning of ESL learners, with a limited English language proficiency, in their lesson plans. *To determine how educators reflect on their lesson plan, in order to determine whether ESL learners, with limited English language proficiency, coped with the lesson. *To establish which modifications, if any, educators make after reflection to accommodate ESL learners with limited English language proficiency in the follow lesson planning? A Qualitative research method was followed during the study. Data was collected for the research study by doing a document analysis and semi-structured interviews with primary school educators who are currently in the teaching profession and have ESL learners in their class. A convenience sample was used, where the nearest parallel medium school was chosen with participants readily available. The following findings emerged from the study: According to the literature study, the most common specific language barriers which ESL learners with limited English proficiency experience in the classroom are: *Experience it difficult to express themselves in English; *Educators disparity in language between learners and educators; *a limited English vocabulary; and *struggling with comprehension of English. Findings of the empirical study showed that the participants do not plan for accommodations for ESL learners who may experience barriers to learning. They indicated that since English is the LOLT of the school and because they feel that the learners should be proficient in the language they do not need to plan for possible misunderstandings or communication problems that could occur because of a language barrier. However, they did acknowledge that a limited vocabulary and ways of expression can cause communication problems. / MEd, Learner Support, North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2012