O objetivo geral desta tese é analisar a relação entre a educação e a violência através de dois ensaios. Embora estes ensaios sejam independentes quanto à abordagem teórica e à metodologia empregada, são complementares ao responder o problema desta pesquisa que é analisar se a educação e a escola podem contribuir para reduzir o crime e a violência. No primeiro ensaio buscam-se evidências de que a atuação pública na área da educação pode contribuir para reduzir o crime no médio e longo prazo, uma vez que a educação é uma variável que compõe o modelo tradicional do crime e que pode ser afetada por políticas públicas. Dessa forma, para mensurar o impacto do gasto público em educação na redução da taxa de homicídios, foi estimado um modelo utilizando dados em painel dos estados brasileiros, nos anos de 2001 a 2009 e empregando a metodologia GMM-SYS, que permite introduzir defasagens aos regressores. Os resultados das estimativas mostraram uma elasticidade negativa de aproximadamente 0,1 entre o crime e os gastos públicos em educação, na primeira defasagem, indicando que políticas públicas educacionais podem contribuir para reduzir a criminalidade, porém é necessário um período para que os resultados sejam observados. Já no segundo ensaio, são analisados alguns fatores do ambiente escolar e do seu entorno que podem contribuir para a manifestação do comportamento violento dos alunos, com base na teoria da interação social que estabelece que as ações dos indivíduos são influenciadas tanto pelas redes sociais que eles formam quanto pelas ações de seus antecessores. Para isso, foi estimado um modelo logit de efeito fixo, utilizando dados da Prova Brasil, nos anos de 2007 e 2009. Os resultados mostraram que a possibilidade de observar um ato agressivo de um aluno é maior em ambientes escolares com traços da violência, onde foi observada uma ação violenta de um professor ou ocorreram crimes contra patrimônio, contra a pessoa, tráfico de drogas ou atuação de gangues. De forma geral, os resultados desta tese indicaram que políticas públicas na área de educação podem ser usadas como forma de combater a violência no médio e longo prazo e, para isso, é necessário que a escola funcione como um espaço para desenvolver conhecimento, habilidades e noções de moralidade e civilidade. / The main objective of this thesis is to analyze the relation between education and violence in two papers. Although these papers are independent concerning their theoretical approach and methodology, they are complementary to answer the research problem, which is to examine whether school education can contribute to reduce crime and violence. In the first paper we searched evidence that public action towards education can help reduce crime in the medium and long term, since education is a variable of the traditional crime model which may be affected by public policy. Thus, to measure the impact of public spending on education in reducing homicide rate, we estimated a Brazilian states panel data, from 2001 to 2009, using the GMM-SYS methodology, which allows introducing lags for regressors. The estimation results showed a negative elasticity of approximately 0.1 between crime and public spending on education in the first lag, indicating that educational policies can contribute to crime reduction, but a period is needed so that results can be observed. In the second paper we analyze some factors of the school environment and its surroundings that may contribute to student violent behavior, based on the social interaction theory which establishes that the actions of individuals are influenced by their social networks and the actions of their predecessors. For this, we estimated a fixed effect logit model, using Prova Brasil data, of 2007 and 2009. The results showed that the possibility of observing an aggressive student act is higher in school with traces of violence, where one could witness a teacher\'s violent action, crime against property, against a person, drug dealing or gang activity. Generally, the results of this thesis indicate that public policies in education can be used as a way to fight violence in the medium and long term and, thus, it is necessary that school works as a space to develop knowledge, skills and notions of morality and civility.

In recent years substantial investment has been made to replace or refurbish state schools in England and Wales and, although research has unsuccessfully sought to prove its contribution, the discipline of Design continues to be identified as a facilitator of educational transformation. Results to date, however, are mixed and there is an evident failing at the design briefing stage to understand how children interact with their educational settings and, notably, an avoidance of direct challenge to the primary school classroom and its practice. In response, this thesis asks how the social and cultural study of children’s relationships with their physical school can suggest a meaningful approach to primary school architecture and furniture design. A model of well-being is developed to clarify misused terminology and to present a realistic expectation of design in which the contradictory goals of inclusion and the development of the individual are appraised. Sitting within a diverse grounded methodology, the concept of belonging is then explored as a basis for evaluating the contribution of different aspects of the physical school to children’s well-being. The primary school environments studied were found to limit the possibilities of a child’s well-being. School architecture through to classroom wall displays were complicit in restricting physical and social expression in favour of school organisation and, furthermore, the central child-teacher relationship was found to be unnecessarily devalued by behavioural concerns derived from the setting. By ethically interpreting the rich variety of children’s voices, priorities for what is coined here as child-teacher centred design are established and a clear relationship between architecture and furniture is offered. The thesis recommends that architecture continues to perform a protective classroom role to support objectives of inclusion whilst school furniture supports more affective, individualistic goals through less prescriptive and more varied settings for learning.

Thesis (M.Dev) --University of Limpopo, 2009. / The purpose of this study was to investigate factors contributing towards the poor performance of Grade 12 learners at two selected high schools, which fall within low quintiles in Limpopo Province. Specifically, the study focused on low Grade 12 outputs in relation to access to university. Due to the exploratory nature of the study and the holistic approach that was undertaken both the home and school environments were targeted as points of investigation. Multiple methods of data collection were used. First, data were collected through individual interviews with learners, educators, principals, and parents. Second, an observation method was used to collect data, such as, time management by learners, their behavioral patterns inside and outside the classroom and in the schoolyard. Finally, document analysis was used to analyse the attendance and performance of learners on attendance registers, quarterly and half yearly schedules, and mark sheets. Key findings of this research suggest that the home environment of learners is not educationally supportive due to poverty, which includes factors such as parents’ low-level of education, high unemployment rate, child-headed families, unpredictable home environment, emotional problems and issues relating to gender roles. In the school environment, the study showed the following causative factors: lack of facilities, unavailable learner support materials, lack of discipline, English as a medium of instruction, heavy workload due to rationalisation and redeployment of educators, and confusion with regard to the application of the new curriculum (National Curriculum Statement). As a result, the study concluded that both home and school environment factors collaborate in producing poor Grade 12 results in the schools. Recommendations are made for attention to be given to these factors by all educational stakeholders. Directions are suggested for future research on poor performance and university access. / Not listed

<p>Två studier undersökte hur self-efficacy, individens tro på sin förmåga, inverkar på prosocialt beteende i skolmiljö. I Studie 1 besvarade 121 gymnasieelever en enkät, som mätte akademisk och emotionell self-efficacy samt prosocialt beteende. I Studie 2 besvarade 48 gymnasieelever en enkät, som mätte emotionell self-efficacy och prosocialt beteende. Studie 1 visade att akademisk men inte emotionell self-efficacy korrelerade positivt med prosocialt beteende. I begreppet emotionell self-efficacy finns två känsloreaktioner: själv- och andraorienterade. Studie 1 tog hänsyn enbart till självorienterade reaktioner. Eftersom andraorienterade reaktioner saknades, kan det förklara bristen på samband. I Studie 2 korrelerade emotionell self-efficacy positivt med prosocialt beteende, och andraorienterade känsloreaktioner visade sig ha störst betydelse. Andraorienterad emotionell self-efficacy kan antas vara en kraftfull källa till prosocialt beteende i skolmiljö.</p>

Objectives.The general objectives of this dissertationwere to examine the effects of acute exposure to meaningfulirrelevant speech and road traffic noise on memory performance,and to explore annoyance responses to noise exposure in theschool environment for pupils and teachers in different agegroups. Methods. The thesis comprises seven papers, representingdifferent methodological approaches: experiments, surveystudies and interviews. In the experiments, reported in PapersI-V, 288 pupils and teachers participated in the age groups,13-14 years (n=96), 18-20 years (n=96), 35-45 years (n=48) and55-65 years (n=48). The subjects were randomly assigned to oneof three conditions: (a) meaningful irrelevant speech, (b) roadtraffic noise, and (c) silence. The equivalent sound level inthe noise conditions was set to 66 dB(A). A test batteryreflecting episodic and semantic memory were used. The surveystudies, reported in Paper VI and VII, included 207 pupils(M=13.5) and 166 teachers (M=45.9). Two separate questionnairesmainly comprising items about annoyance, noise sensitivity andstress symptoms were administered. Paper VI presents results offocus group interviews (n=16) treating the main topics:disturbing sounds, emotions, ongoing activity, and suggestionsconcerning future changes. Results. The overall findings showedthat both noise sources affected episodic and semantic memoryto the same degree for all age groups. The results indicatedthat the similarity of semantic content between noise and thetask at hand was not the only suitable explanation model, sincea non-speech noise impaired memory as much as speech. Resultsalso indicated that attention effects did notmediate the obtained noise effects and that the noise effectsdid not differ between age groups. Therefore, it seemedunlikely that different memory and attentional capacities stoodout as explanatory factors of the memory effects. Sinceperformances of both episodic and semantic memory tasks wereimpaired, the explanation based on level of access to long-termmemory was also ruled out. However, the episodic memory task,reading comprehension, stood out to be most impaired by noise,suggesting that complexity of the task to perform was ofimportance. For reading comprehension there was also adifferent noise pattern obtained. Participants performance wasin this task, more impaired by meaningful irrelevant speechthan by road traffic noise. This effect indicated thatmeaningful irrelevant speech might reduce the availablecognitive resources necessary for learning the text. Theannoyance models derived from the survey studies indicated thatsensitivity acted as a mediator between hearing status andannoyance, with stress symptoms as an outcome. Whetherannoyance arises or not was also determined by control andpredictability of the noise. In the interviews a differentannoyance pattern was found, in that stress symptoms appearedto be a determinant of annoyance. To be involved, respected,take own responsibility and respect others were suggestions onhow to change the environment to become more silent. Conclusions.For both pupils and teachers acute exposureto meaningful irrelevant speech and road traffic noiseinfluenced both the achieving and providing of knowledge. Acommon annoyance pattern was also found for pupils andteachers, where individual and situational factors were ofimportance. To achieve a more silent school environment in thefuture, the pupils pointed out that the interaction betweenthemselves and their teachers was of importance. Key words:Noise, meaningful irrelevant speech, roadtraffic noise, memory, age groups, school environment, pupils,teachers

Objectives.The general objectives of this dissertationwere to examine the effects of acute exposure to meaningfulirrelevant speech and road traffic noise on memory performance,and to explore annoyance responses to noise exposure in theschool environment for pupils and teachers in different agegroups. Methods. The thesis comprises seven papers, representingdifferent methodological approaches: experiments, surveystudies and interviews. In the experiments, reported in PapersI-V, 288 pupils and teachers participated in the age groups,13-14 years (n=96), 18-20 years (n=96), 35-45 years (n=48) and55-65 years (n=48). The subjects were randomly assigned to oneof three conditions: (a) meaningful irrelevant speech, (b) roadtraffic noise, and (c) silence. The equivalent sound level inthe noise conditions was set to 66 dB(A). A test batteryreflecting episodic and semantic memory were used. The surveystudies, reported in Paper VI and VII, included 207 pupils(M=13.5) and 166 teachers (M=45.9). Two separate questionnairesmainly comprising items about annoyance, noise sensitivity andstress symptoms were administered. Paper VI presents results offocus group interviews (n=16) treating the main topics:disturbing sounds, emotions, ongoing activity, and suggestionsconcerning future changes. Results. The overall findings showedthat both noise sources affected episodic and semantic memoryto the same degree for all age groups. The results indicatedthat the similarity of semantic content between noise and thetask at hand was not the only suitable explanation model, sincea non-speech noise impaired memory as much as speech. Resultsalso indicated that attention effects did notmediate the obtained noise effects and that the noise effectsdid not differ between age groups. Therefore, it seemedunlikely that different memory and attentional capacities stoodout as explanatory factors of the memory effects. Sinceperformances of both episodic and semantic memory tasks wereimpaired, the explanation based on level of access to long-termmemory was also ruled out. However, the episodic memory task,reading comprehension, stood out to be most impaired by noise,suggesting that complexity of the task to perform was ofimportance. For reading comprehension there was also adifferent noise pattern obtained. Participants performance wasin this task, more impaired by meaningful irrelevant speechthan by road traffic noise. This effect indicated thatmeaningful irrelevant speech might reduce the availablecognitive resources necessary for learning the text. Theannoyance models derived from the survey studies indicated thatsensitivity acted as a mediator between hearing status andannoyance, with stress symptoms as an outcome. Whetherannoyance arises or not was also determined by control andpredictability of the noise. In the interviews a differentannoyance pattern was found, in that stress symptoms appearedto be a determinant of annoyance. To be involved, respected,take own responsibility and respect others were suggestions onhow to change the environment to become more silent. Conclusions.For both pupils and teachers acute exposureto meaningful irrelevant speech and road traffic noiseinfluenced both the achieving and providing of knowledge. Acommon annoyance pattern was also found for pupils andteachers, where individual and situational factors were ofimportance. To achieve a more silent school environment in thefuture, the pupils pointed out that the interaction betweenthemselves and their teachers was of importance. Key words:Noise, meaningful irrelevant speech, roadtraffic noise, memory, age groups, school environment, pupils,teachers

The current study investigated the factors that have a positive impact on reading development by examining the influence of the home and school environment on students who started school already able to read (early readers). The reading proficiency of the students in the study was determined by a variety of reading tests conducted at the beginning of the school year and students were identified as “early readers”, “average readers”, or “non readers”. The intent was to provide a comprehensive picture of early readers with an emphasis on historical, cultural, and social factors. Many factors influence the development of reading, but this study concentrated on the learning environment at home and in the school. Several methods were used to facilitate a broad description of the reading development of early readers, including observations, interviews, questionnaires, and reading tests. The theoretical concepts were derived from a social constructivist perspective and build on Vygotsky’s theories of learning and development. Among the factors considered were formal reading instruction and literacy. The results demonstrated that the early readers’ reading ability greatly exceeded that of their classmates at the start of the formal school experience. The early readers maintained this advantage through the first three years of school, but the gap was reduced over time. A comparison of the timing of the reading development showed that the early readers developed primarily before the start of school, while the average readers developed during school years one and two, and the non readers, during school year two. A comparison of the learning environments in home and school showed considerable differences. Learning in the home came about as a result of the child’s interests and occurred in the zone of proximal development. Parents gave support without controlling the activities and, along with older siblings, served as good models for reading. In the school setting, the national curriculum and the goals set in the syllabus determined the content of the instruction. The child’s interest did not guide the learning and early readers often worked on concepts they had already mastered. Early readers also worked independently more often, facilitated by their ability to read instructions. As a result, the individualization that occurred was often simply that children accomplished the same tasks in different amounts of time. This study concluded that the stimulation and support that parents provide can have a significant impact on reading learning and development. It is important that teachers take into account the prior knowledge and experiences that children have, since this can greatly impact their motivation to learn. Reading development does not occur at any one specific age, but can be influenced by a number of factors including the child’s development in other areas, and historical, social, or cultural influences.

Två studier undersökte hur self-efficacy, individens tro på sin förmåga, inverkar på prosocialt beteende i skolmiljö. I Studie 1 besvarade 121 gymnasieelever en enkät, som mätte akademisk och emotionell self-efficacy samt prosocialt beteende. I Studie 2 besvarade 48 gymnasieelever en enkät, som mätte emotionell self-efficacy och prosocialt beteende. Studie 1 visade att akademisk men inte emotionell self-efficacy korrelerade positivt med prosocialt beteende. I begreppet emotionell self-efficacy finns två känsloreaktioner: själv- och andraorienterade. Studie 1 tog hänsyn enbart till självorienterade reaktioner. Eftersom andraorienterade reaktioner saknades, kan det förklara bristen på samband. I Studie 2 korrelerade emotionell self-efficacy positivt med prosocialt beteende, och andraorienterade känsloreaktioner visade sig ha störst betydelse. Andraorienterad emotionell self-efficacy kan antas vara en kraftfull källa till prosocialt beteende i skolmiljö.

Vårt mål med denna studie var att belysa den fysiska klassrumsmiljön och dess inverkan på elevernas lärande ur ett lärarperspektiv. Vi har gjort intervjuer med lärare på olika skolor, både moderna och äldre skolor som är i behov av renovering för att få en bredd och se om lärares tankar och uppfattningar varierar. Med fysisk klassrumsmiljö så har vi inriktat oss på möbleringen, design och funktion. Där det bästa utifrån aspekter på trivsel och inlärningsklimat finns för barnen. Vi har valt att göra intervjuer med lärare för barn i de tidiga åldrarna, skolår 1-3, för att lyssna och få ett värde till varje enskild lärares uppfattningar. Syftet med vår undersökning var att få reda på lärares olika uppfattningar hur de tänker kring den fysiska klassrumsmiljön. Om tanke och handling hänger ihop då lärare planerar så barnen får den bästa lärande miljön i klassrummet. Frågeställningar som vi har arbetat med är: • Vilken betydelse anser lärarna att den fysiska klassrumsmiljön har för elevernas lärande? • Hur anser lärarna att den fysiska klassrumsmiljön möter barns olika förutsättningar för att lära? • Vad i den fysiska klassrumsmiljön anser lärarna bidrar till en kreativ lärandemiljö? / The purpose of our study was to look at the physical classroom environment and how it influences the children’s learning from a teacher’s point of view. We choose to look at classroom environment on the physic aspect and how it influences pedagogic and the teachers’ vision for the students’ best learning. We have done interviews with teachers on different schools, both modern and older schools that need a make-over. This in hope of that it will give us a broad view and see if thoughts in different schools vary. With physic classroom environment as our subject, we have looked on furniture placement, design and function. There you can find the best learning for the children. We have chosen interviews with teachers as work with children in earlier classes’ year 1-3 as method. This we did because we wanted to listen and understand every teacher’s own apprehension. The purpose of our examination was to find the variation of thoughts from teachers about the classroom environment and if there thoughts influence the classrooms furnishing and organization. We wanted to know if thought and action act together when teacher plan for the children’s best learning in the classroom. Our questions that we have worked with are: • What meaning says the teachers the physical classroom environments have for the children’s learning? • How can teachers make the classroom tribute to different children will learn from different learning styles? • What parts in the classroom say the teachers will tribute to a creative learning environment?

The current study explored the association between sexual minorities’ experiences in schools and relationships. Socio-political-psychological theory provided a framework for the exploration of how retrospective reports of sexual orientation violence in school (SOVS) and school environment predicted the experience and perpetration of sexual minority intimate partner violence (SMIPV). Because of its relation to both school and interpersonal violence, alcohol was also hypothesized to predict rates of experiencing and perpetrating SMIPV. Group differences for all scales were explored on the basis of sexual orientation, gender, race/ethnicity, and education. Chi-square and analysis of variance analyses revealed several significant differences. Logistic regressions revealed that the experience of SOVS was not found to significantly affect the risk of experiencing or perpetrating SMIPV. However, a negative school environment was found to affect the risk of experiencing and perpetrating SMIPV differentially by gender and race, respectively. Results also revealed that alcohol significantly predicted the perpetration of SMIPV.