O presente trabalho apresenta o estudo que visou a caracterização do processo de significação de conceitos químicos como domínio e apropriação de ferramentas culturais. O registro dos dados aconteceu durante a aplicação de um ambiente virtual de aprendizagem que tinha a solubilidade dos materiais, como conceito central. Os sujeitos da investigação foram alunos do Ensino Médio da Rede Estadual de Ensino do Estado de São Paulo, que participavam do Programa de Pré-Iniciação Científica da USP. Todo o projeto foi planejado tomando como referenciais teóricos a teoria do desenvolvimento humano de Lev Vigotski, a teoria da linguagem de Mikhail Bakhtin, a teoria da ação mediada de James Wertsch e o modelo de organização do ensino de Marcelo Giordan. Este estudo buscou resposta para a seguinte questão de pesquisa: Compreender o processo de significação como domínio e apropriação de ferramentas culturais, permitirá que caracterizemos a aprendizagem como um processo de produção de significados? Para que pudéssemos responder a esta questão e alcançar nosso objeto, desenvolvemos uma sequência didática problematizadora, acompanhamos o processo de resolução do problema e reconstruímos este processo em busca dos conceitos utilizado para resolver o problema. Depois reconstruímos o processo histórico da significação dos conceitos químicos, analisamos os significados produzidos pelos alunos e caracterizamos esses significados como domínio e apropriação de ferramentas culturais. Verificamos que os alunos dominaram e se apropriaram dos conceitos químicos, da forma de organização dos enunciados própria da esfera científica e do uso de modelos como ferramentas capazes de realizar atividades concretas. / This paper presents a study that aimed to characterize the process of meaning of chemical concepts such as mastery and appropriation of cultural tools. Data registration occurred during the implementation of a virtual learning environment which had the solubility of the materials as a main concept. The subject of the investigation was a group of high school students from a State School in the State of São Paulo, who attended the Program of Pre-Scientific Initiation at USP. The entire project was designed taking as a theoretical framework to human development theory of Lev Vygotsky, the language theory of Mikhail Bakhtin, the mediated action theory of James Wertsch and the organizational model for teaching of Marcelo Giordan. This study sought answer for the following research question: To understand the process of meaning as mastery and appropriation of cultural tools, will we characterize learning as a process of producing meanings? So, in order to be able to answer this question and reach our goal, we developed a didactic problematical sequence, we follow the problem solving process and reconstruct this process in search of the concepts used to solve the problem. Then we reconstructed the historical process of chemical concept meanings, analyze the meanings produced by the students and we characterized these meanings as mastery and appropriation of cultural tools. We found that students have mastered and appropriated themselves of the chemical concepts, the organizational form of the statements used on its own scientific sphere and the use of models as tools capable of performing concret activities.

Previous research in environmental education and learning has mainly concerned students’ understanding of natural scientific knowledge, whereas research on the influence of other knowledge in learning environmental issues is marginal. Also, the interest in most studies investigating students’ natural scientific knowledge has been to capture constraints in students’ understanding, hence investigations of students’ meaning making are rare. The main objective of this thesis was to explore individual students’ reasoning regarding climate change, and the influence of knowledge on their reasoning. In Study I, students’ conceptions of the enhanced greenhouse effect (EGHE) were investigated. The results showed that students incorporated different pieces of information from different problem areas into the conceptualization of the EGHE. Setting up causal links between diversely different pieces of information seems to be a way to make meaning, and thus a necessary step in the learning process. Study II is an investigation of students’ solutions to climate change. The results indicated that students contextualized problems and solutions by addressing the individual(s), where the individual(s) was either “myself” or “someone else”. The different notions of the individual(s) became crucial as the students’ views of the environment, as well as society, changed according to the different contexts.  To further study students’ conceptions of “me” and “others”, Study III examined students’ conceptualized solutions to the dilemma between economic development and mitigating climate change. The findings suggested that students’ conceptualized nature as a “box” of resources, and that economic development would sustain and improve nature. Therefore, the dilemma between economic development and mitigating climate change or dealing with environmental problems did not exist. Results from all three studies were discussed with respect to theoretical implications. / At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: Manuscript. Paper 3: Manuscript.

The overall aim of this thesis was to describe patients’ experience and reconstruction regarding the onset of, and events surrounding being struck by a Subarachnoid Haemorrhage (SAH), and to describe patients’ and relatives’ views of patients’ memory ability, emotional status and activities of living, in a long-term perspective. Methods: Both inductive and deductive approaches were used. Nine open interviews were carried out in home settings, in average 1 year and 7 seven months after the patients’ onset, and discourse analysis was used to interpret the data. Eleven relatives and 11 patients, 11 years after the onset, and 15 relatives and 15 patients, 6 years after the onset, participated in two studies. Interviews using a questionnaire with structured questions and memory tests were used to collect data. Fischer’s exact test and Z-scores were used for the statistical analysis. Results: Patients with experience of a SAH were able to judge their own memory for what happened when they became ill. The reconstruction of the illness event may be interpreted as an identity creating process. The process of meaning-making is both a matter of understanding SAH as a pathological event and a social and communicative matter, where the SAH is construed into a meaningful life history, in order to make life complete (I). Memory problems, changes in emotional status and problems with activities of living were common (II-IV). There was correspondence between relatives’ and patients’ statements regarding the patients’ memory in general and long-term memory. Patients judged their own memory ability better than relatives, compared with results on memory tests. Relatives stated that some patients had meta-memory problems (II). The episodic memory seemed to be well  reserved, both concerning the onset and in the long-term perspective (I, II). There were more problems with social life than with P- and I-ADL (III), and social company habits had changed due to concentration difficulties, mental fatigue, and  patients’ sensitivity to noisy environments and uncertainty (IV). Relatives rated the patients’ ability concerning activities of living and emotional status, and in a similar manner to patients’ statements (III-IV). Conclusions: The reconstruction of the illness event can be used as a tool in nursing for understanding the patient’s identity-construction. Relatives and patients stated the patients’ memory, emotional status and activities of living in a similar manner, and therefore both patients’ and relatives’ statements can be used as a tool in nursing care, in order to support the patient. However, the results showed: meta-memory problems (relatives’ statements) and that the patients’ judged their own memory ability better than relatives in comparison with results on memory tests. Nevertheless, there was a high degree of concordance between relatives’ and patients’ evaluations concerning patients´ memory ability, emotional status, emotional problems, social company habits and activities of living. Therefore both relatives’ and patients’ statements can be considered to be reliable. However, sometimes the patients and the relatives judge the patients’ memory differently. Consequently, memory tests and formalized dialogues between the patient, the relative and a professional might be required, in order to improve the mutual family relationship in a positive way. Professionals however, must first assume that patients can judge their own memory, emotional status and ability in daily life.

This is a study of students’ meaning making in web-based higher education courses. Conditions for students meaning-making change when interaction technology is used to support educational practices. Widened Participation policy activities often use web-based programs to attract “new” groups of more experienced students. The study used a communicative approach and focused on how previous experiences influenced actions and meaning making when students encountered challenges related to course objectives. Mediated Discourse Analysis was used to analyse asynchronous communication in 10 groups during 18 weeks of a 4-year part-time distance education program, training childminders for a Bachelor of Education, specialising in early childhood.  Appearances of meaning-making were traced to changes and breaks in student communication and presented as themes of orientations of actions namely:  • participation, the manifestation of presence, engagement in course work and the creation of space for engagement  • positioning, the creation of a student identity, the organisation of work, and the construction of a group culture  • reference, the orientation actions took in a nexus of practices. Where did students go for examples and to challenge theoretical concepts? • changing experience is a collection of moments of reification, when students came to make realisations of relevance to subject and task.  This study tells an alternative story to research on web-based education stating difficulties to achieve in-depth communication. The mediated environment offered strength for meaning-making and knowledge building as time, in the opportunity to develop new perspective through thinking and in encountering concepts again and again. As numbers, in the necessary impact of other’s experiences. And as distance, provided by the shift of actions in asynchronous communication, forcing thoughts into written language and making them accessible for reflection and criticism. If we are serious about widening participation we should regard students not only as numbers but instead as a valuable resource that may contribute to change in education. In this context, the combination of new groups of students and web-based scenarios provides future avenues for an informed pedagogical approach to higher education.

This PhD project by publication begins to explore how Scottish adult support and protection (ASP) policy and practice carves out its role and remit. It examines the ways that concepts like “abuse”, “vulnerability” and “protection” have been constructed, both by individual practitioners and at a policy level. The submission comprises five papers published in peer-reviewed journals and this contextualising document, which knits together the work and draws out overall conclusions and implications. The papers themselves report on a literature review, a further analysis of case study research into ASP practice and a critical policy comparison. The case study research was conducted immediately prior to legislative changes in Scotland with respect to ASP, and the policy comparison was conducted subsequently to these changes. Overall, the findings highlight the ways that a social constructionist approach can usefully deepen our understandings of ASP. That is, they show how understanding concepts like “protection”, “vulnerability” and “abuse” to be actively constructed in unique and complex contexts can promote criticality in policy-making, practice and research.

This thesis studies designs for learning in the extended digital interface in the Social Science classroom. The aim is to describe and analyse how pupils interact, make meaning and learn while deploying digital learning resources. Together with the thesis a multimodal design theoretical perspective on learning has developed: Designs for Learning. Here learning is understood as multimodal transformative processes of sign-making activities where teachers and pupils are viewed as didactic designers. A model called Learning Design Sequence has been developed and serves as a tool for data collection and analysis. Video observation material from five ICT-advanced schools with pupils aged 6-17 was multimodally transcribed and analysed. In conclusion the thesis, among other things, indicates that: - Social Science acquires informal features and pupils are independently designing their own digital Social Science material. - Pupils’ interactions are significantly multimodal and the digital learning resource becomes a third element in interaction. Pupils are constantly active and very responsive to each others’ representations. They cooperate as if learning in the extended interface is a collective responsibility. - Pupils’ learning is also significantly multimodal. Being digital natives, they engage in colours, sounds and images to represent some of their learning. - Learning represented in modes other than text and speech becomes invisible and disappears in the digital divide. - Pupils are simultaneously designing parallel paths of learning. One path represents the formalised education which is the path initiated, promoted and assessed by the teacher. The other path is guided by pupils’ interests and by affordances in the digital interface. This represents the extended learning that goes on below the surface.           The thesis ends with a discussion about didactic complexities in The Online Learning Paradigm. / At the time of the doctoral defense, the following papers were unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 1: Accepted. Paper 5: Submitted.

This thesis considers the role of aesthetic meaning-making in elementary school science learning. Children’s aesthetic experiences are traced through their use of aesthetic judgements, spontaneous metaphors and art activities. The thesis is based on four empirical studies: the first two examining children’s language use, i.e. the role of aesthetic judgements and the significance of spontaneous metaphors while learning science and the latter two dealing with how art activities mediate what elementary school children learn in science and what a variety of art activities with different purposes afford elementary school children to learn in science. The theoretical stance emanates from pragmatist theories and includes Dewey’s definition of an aesthetic experience, Wittgenstein’s later work on language-games, and socio-cultural perspectives. The analytic approach used is a practical epistemology analysis developed by Wickman and Östman. The empirical data consists of audio- and video recordings of elementary school children’s (aged 6–10 years) discussions in pairs or small groups during science lessons and photographs of children’s pictures, sculptures and poems from a total of 14 different elementary school classes. The main findings of the empirical studies show how aesthetic meaning-making is continuous with elementary school children’s scientific learning. The thesis shows how elementary school children’s aesthetic experiences are related to whole activities and are crucial for the direction that learning takes. Aesthetic experience is important in terms of how and what elementary school children learn aesthetically and normatively in science class, which has consequences for cognitive learning, the possibility of participating in science class and learning the genre of science. Moreover, it can be seen how children’s prior experiences are recurrently reconstructed and transformed through imaginative processes.

In the school subject of the natural sciences it is imperative that the students are given opportunities to ”talk science”, since the dialogues that occur in the classroom have a significant importance for the students’ abilities to engage in meaning-making in their learning process. Hence, the student and teacher interaction in the classroom and the feedback given there play a significant role in the students’ learning process. The aim of this study is to contribute to the development of formative assessment tools that can mediate the students’ meaning-making in natural sciences subjects in upper-secondary school. I have designed and tested a method of oral peer-assessment that enables dialogue-interaction in the natural science-classroom where the students, under supervision of the teacher, get to use each other as learning-resources in groups. The oral formative peer-assessment has been conducted in form of a design-based study in two upper-secondary school classes where each teacher taught natural sciences. The data collected include conversations in small groups, between groups and with the teacher. Data was analysed based on different types of talk (exploratory, cumulative and disputational talk) and type and level of feedback that was given in the classroom. The results showed that the students were given different opportunities for meaning-making, where the lack of subject-knowledge, difficulties with peer-assessment and physical artefacts were seen to significantly affect the learning process. The analyses of the interaction in the classroom showed that the teachers, in both studies, gave a direct feedback, where the students got the opportunity to compare and support their results in a dialogue with each other and the teacher. This type of feedback is considered highly efficient for learning. This study shows that the oral formative peer-assessment is a tool that teachers can use, and adapt to their practices, in order to create interactions in the classroom that can increase the students’ meaning-making. / I de naturvetenskapliga ämnena är det viktigt att eleverna ges förutsättningar att ”prata naturvetenskap” eftersom talet som sker i klassrummet har en mycket stor betydelse för elevernas möjligheter att skapa mening i det naturvetenskapliga lärandet. Interaktionen i klassrummet och den återkoppling som ges har därför stor betydelse för elevernas inlärning. Med syfte att bidra till utveckling av redskap för formativ bedömning som kan mediera elevernas meningsskapande i naturvetenskaplig undervisning på gymnasiet, har jag designat och testat en metod som möjliggör dialogisk interaktion i det naturvetenskapliga klassrummet där eleverna under ledning av läraren gruppvis får använda varandra som läroresurser i en muntlig kamratbedömningsövning. Den muntliga formativa kamratbedömningen har genomförts i form av en designbaserad studie i två gymnasieklasser där ämnesområden i naturkunskap behandlades av lärarna. Datainsamlingen inkluderar samtal som har förts inom grupper, mellan grupper och med läraren. Data analyserades utifrån olika typer av samtal (exploratory, cumulative och disputational talk) och typ samt nivå på den återkoppling som gavs i klassrummet. Elevsamtalen inom grupperna visade att delaktigheten var stor men att typen av kommunikation gav eleverna olika förutsättningar till meningsskapande där bristen på ämneskunskaper, ovana vid kamratbedömning och fysiska artefakter kan anses vara av stor betydelse för läroprocessen. Analysen av interaktionen i klassrummet visade att läraren i de båda studierna använde direkt återkoppling som gav eleverna möjlighet att jämföra och motivera sina resultat i en dialog med varandra och läraren, vilken anses vara en typ av återkoppling som är mycket effektfull för inlärningen. Studien visar att den muntliga formativa kamratbedömningsövningen i sin ursprungliga form är ett redskap som lärare kan använda och anpassa till sina praktiker för att skapa interaktioner i klassrummet som kan öka elevernas meningsskapande.

O presente trabalho apresenta o estudo que visou a caracterização do processo de significação de conceitos químicos como domínio e apropriação de ferramentas culturais. O registro dos dados aconteceu durante a aplicação de um ambiente virtual de aprendizagem que tinha a solubilidade dos materiais, como conceito central. Os sujeitos da investigação foram alunos do Ensino Médio da Rede Estadual de Ensino do Estado de São Paulo, que participavam do Programa de Pré-Iniciação Científica da USP. Todo o projeto foi planejado tomando como referenciais teóricos a teoria do desenvolvimento humano de Lev Vigotski, a teoria da linguagem de Mikhail Bakhtin, a teoria da ação mediada de James Wertsch e o modelo de organização do ensino de Marcelo Giordan. Este estudo buscou resposta para a seguinte questão de pesquisa: Compreender o processo de significação como domínio e apropriação de ferramentas culturais, permitirá que caracterizemos a aprendizagem como um processo de produção de significados? Para que pudéssemos responder a esta questão e alcançar nosso objeto, desenvolvemos uma sequência didática problematizadora, acompanhamos o processo de resolução do problema e reconstruímos este processo em busca dos conceitos utilizado para resolver o problema. Depois reconstruímos o processo histórico da significação dos conceitos químicos, analisamos os significados produzidos pelos alunos e caracterizamos esses significados como domínio e apropriação de ferramentas culturais. Verificamos que os alunos dominaram e se apropriaram dos conceitos químicos, da forma de organização dos enunciados própria da esfera científica e do uso de modelos como ferramentas capazes de realizar atividades concretas. / This paper presents a study that aimed to characterize the process of meaning of chemical concepts such as mastery and appropriation of cultural tools. Data registration occurred during the implementation of a virtual learning environment which had the solubility of the materials as a main concept. The subject of the investigation was a group of high school students from a State School in the State of São Paulo, who attended the Program of Pre-Scientific Initiation at USP. The entire project was designed taking as a theoretical framework to human development theory of Lev Vygotsky, the language theory of Mikhail Bakhtin, the mediated action theory of James Wertsch and the organizational model for teaching of Marcelo Giordan. This study sought answer for the following research question: To understand the process of meaning as mastery and appropriation of cultural tools, will we characterize learning as a process of producing meanings? So, in order to be able to answer this question and reach our goal, we developed a didactic problematical sequence, we follow the problem solving process and reconstruct this process in search of the concepts used to solve the problem. Then we reconstructed the historical process of chemical concept meanings, analyze the meanings produced by the students and we characterized these meanings as mastery and appropriation of cultural tools. We found that students have mastered and appropriated themselves of the chemical concepts, the organizational form of the statements used on its own scientific sphere and the use of models as tools capable of performing concret activities.

Syftet med studien är att bidra med ökad kunskap om attraktiva lekmiljöer i förskolan, utifrån barns perspektiv. Studien utgår från ett urval enskilda barns berättelser om förskolans lekmiljöer. Som metod för att samla in empiri har kvalitativa intervjuer använts. De har bandats och transkriberats för att ligga till grund för analysen som utgått från Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis IPA. Det är en metod som försöker ta reda på individers meningsskapande och upplevelser av ett fenomen genom ett hermeneutiskt tolkande och ett fenomenologiskt perspektiv. Resultatet i den här studien visar att barnen helst valde rum i periferin och att genomgångsrum valdes bort. I de attraktiva lekmiljöerna lockade främst konstruktionsmaterial och material som möjliggjorde rolltagning. Studien visade också att kamratrelationer utgjorde en del av den attraktiva lekmiljön. Utifrån de valen synliggjordes att barnen fann mening och lockelse i det föränderliga och möjligheten att själv påverka utformandet av sin miljö. De attraktiva rummens placering gav i sin tur möjlighet till ostörd fördjupning av lek, vilket upplevdes meningsfullt av barnen. Samspelet och relationen till nära vänner var i sin tur ytterligare en del av meningsskapandet i den attraktiva lekmiljön. / The purpose of this paper is to contribute with increased knowledge concerning attractive play-environments in the preschool from the perspective of children.  The study is based on a selection of individual children’s stories about play-environments in the preschool. Qualitative interviews have been used as a method of collecting empirical evidence.  They have been recorded and transcribed to form the basis for the analysis based on Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis IPA. It is a method that is trying to find out the individual’s perception and experience of a phenomenon through a hermeneutic interpretation and a phenomenological perspective. The result of this study shows that the children preferred rooms located in the periphery and avoided the passage rooms. What enticed most in the attractive playgrounds were construction materials and materials that enabled taking on roles. The result furthermore showed that companion relations were part of the attractive environment.  Based on the choices it was made clear that the children found meaning and enticement in the fluctuating and the ability to influence the design of their environment. The location of the attractive rooms in turn gave the opportunity for undisturbed immersion of play which was perceived as meaningful by the children.  The interaction and relationship with close friends were in turn another part of what created meaning in the attractive play-environment.