Created in 2018, the Climate Fresk workshop aims to raise awareness on climate change issues in an engaging and accessible way. This thesis draws on Social Interactionism, Uses and Gratification and Sociocultural Theory of Learning to conceptualize the workshop’s communicative strategies for conveying the complexities of climate change to the workshop participants. Through a synthetization of insights from various disciplines and exploration of innovative communication strategies, the study bridges the gap between knowledge and action, contributing to the semi-underexplored field of communication roles in game-based learning approaches to climate change education. Key findings reveal that tools such as informational materials, visuals, simplified scientific data, and creative techniques significantly enhance participants' understanding of climate change. The emphasis on group autonomy and collective discussions fosters a deeper understanding of climate change's complexities, highlighting the necessity for collective action. These results underscore the potential of effective communication in educational workshops to inspire individuals and communities to proactively respond to climate change, through collaborative action and by shifting the focus from individual to broader community-based efforts.

Jämställdhet är en central del av skolans värdegrund enligt Skolverket. Trots detta visar resultat från Skolenkäten 2023 att många elever, särskilt flickor, känner sig mindre trygga i skolan och inte kan vara sig själva i samma utsträckning som pojkar. Bemötandet mellan lärare och elever spelar en nyckelroll i att skapa trygghet och meningsfullhet i undervisningen. Skolverkets rekommendationer betonar vikten av ett positivt bemötande, men inte i direkt relation till genus, vilket behöriga lärare bör ha god kännedom av genom sin utbildning. Det är därav intressant att undersöka hur fritidslärare förhåller sig till bemötande utifrån ett genusperspektiv. Denna uppsats undersöker hur fritidslärares personliga erfarenheter av genus och bemötande påverkar deras interaktion med eleverna genom intervjuer med fyra yrkesverksamma fritidslärare. Studien utgår från ett teoretiskt ramverk, som analyserar genus utifrån informanternas individuella syn på genus, strukturella genusnormer som förekommer i fritidsverksamheten samt samspelet emellan dessa. Genom tematisk analys av intervjudata syftar studien till att identifiera faktorer som påverkar fritidslärarnas bemötande och hur deras förståelse för genusperspektivet påverkar deras reaktioner, med huvudsyftet att klargöra deras uppfattningar och betydelse av detta perspektiv. I resultatet framgår det att informanterna huvudsakligen associerar begreppet genus med traditionella könsskillnader, snarare än med bemötande, vilket antyder en bristande koppling mellan deras förståelse av genus och deras praktik i social interaktion med eleverna. Samtidigt observeras en strukturell könsuppdelning både bland personalen och barnen i valet av aktiviteter, vilket kan påverka barnens beteende gentemot varandra och spegla en brist på verktyg och gemensam värdegrund för att hantera genusrelaterade problem i fritidsverksamheten. Resultaten av studiens jämförs med de av tidigare forskning, svagheter och styrkor i valet av metodik diskuteras, samt vidare forskning och bidrag till professionsutvecklingen. / Gender equality is a central part of the school's values according to the Swedish National Agency for Education. Despite this, in the School Survey 2023, many students, especially girls, stated that they feel less secure in the school environment compared to boys and expressed challenges in freely expressing themselvesfreely. The interaction between teachers and students plays a key role in creating a sense of security and meaningfulness in education. The recommendations of the Swedish National Agency for Education emphasize the importance of positive interaction, but not directly related to gender, which qualified teachers should be familiar with through their education. Therefore, it is interesting to examine how leisure-time educators relate to interaction from a gender perspective. This thesis examines how leisure-time educators' personal experiences of gender and interaction affect their interaction with students through interviews with four practicing leisure-time educators. The study is based on a theoretical framework that analyzes gender based on the informants' individual views on gender, structural gender norms that occur in leisure activities, and the interaction between these. Through thematic analysis of interview data, the study aims to identify factors that affect leisure-time educators' interaction and how their understanding of the gender perspective affects their reactions, with the main purpose of clarifying their perceptions and importance of this perspective. The results show that the informants mainly associate the concept of gender with traditional gender differences rather than with interaction, suggesting a lack of connection between their understanding of gender and their practice in social interaction with students. At the same time, a structural gender division is observed both among the staff and the children in the choice of activities, which can affect children's behavior towards each other and reflect a lack of tools and a common value base for addressing gender-related issues in leisure activities. The results are compared with those of prior related research, strengths and weaknesses of the study's methodology are discussed, as well as further research and contributions to professional development.

The measurement of engagement, or the interaction of a person with their environment, is an integral part of assessing the quality of an intervention program for young children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Researchers and practitioners can and do measure engagement in many ways on the individual and group level. The purpose of this methodological study was to compare three commonly used recording systems: individual partial interval, group momentary time sampling, and group partial interval. These recording methods were compared across three classes of engagement: social, instructional, and non-instructional in a clinical setting with children with autism. Results indicate that group measurement systems were not sensitive to individual changes in engagement when child behaviors were variable. The results are discussed in the context of behavior analytic conceptual systems and the relative utility and future research directions for behavior analytic practice and research with young children in group settings.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

The literature demonstrates that children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) often experience peer rejection as a result of their difficulties with interpersonal interactions. The manner in which children with ADHD process social information and the extent to which social difficulties may adversely impact these children has remained unclear. In the first part of the study, the perceptions of social support between boys (ages 7 to 11 years) with and without ADHD were compared. An analysis of variance procedure (ANOVA) was performed and children with ADHD were found to perceive significantly lower levels of social support from their classmates than normal peers at pretreatment. The groups did not differ significantly with regard to perceptions of parent, teacher, and close friend support. In the second part of the study, the role of ADHD parent training and its effectiveness in decreasing problem-behaviors, ameliorating social problems, and enhancing perceptions of social support was examined. Repeated measures MANOVAs revealed a significant rater (mother and teacher) by time (pretreatment and posttreatment) interaction effect for total behavior problems, externalizing behavior problems, internalizing behavior problems, and social problems. On each scale, mothers reported more behavior problems than teachers at pretreatment, but fewer problems than teachers at posttreatment assessment. Main effects were not detected. ANOVAs performed on social support ratings by children with ADHD demonstrated a significant increase in their perceptions of parental support between pretreatment and posttreatment. Children's ratings of teacher, close friend, and classmate support did not differ significantly between pretreatment and posttreatment. The findings suggest that children with ADHD are socially perspicacious and sensitive to subtle changes within their social support systems. The parent training program appeared to help with the amelioration of problem behaviors in the home, but results did not indicate generalization of improvements to the classroom. Implications of the findings were discussed and suggestions were made for providing assistance to children with ADHD.

Thesis (M. Tech.) - Central University of Technology, Free State, 2010 / The aim of this study was to establish factors that contribute to poor learner discipline in the primary school. Although discipline has addressed in many schools, putting it through in the classroom is always another story. To address the issue of discipline, this article examines the factors that influence poor discipline in schools, in the Free State province and sought to suggest strategies that may be implemented to improve poor discipline in schools and sustain positive nation of discipline. Questionnaires were administered to educators and information gathered from responses. Both the literature study and empirical research revealed that there were factors which negatively influenced discipline in schools. Finally, several recommendations were made to rectify the current situation.

This study was directed to explore the practicability of play therapy as a support system to primary schools in order to offer the child an optimal learning opportunity. A need exists to support primary schools, to establish therapeutic services which will be available to all children with emotional, behaviour and social problems. Gestalt play therapy can be used as a source of support within the context of the primary school. It is important that the therapist and teacher have sufficient knowledge around the different developmental phases of the child. In this study the focus was on the general characteristics, cognitive, social- and moral development of the primary school child. A qualitative approach and by utilizing semi-structured interviews, were used in order to collect the data concerning the study. Results from the empirical research indicated that there is a definite necessity for therapeutic services, as support systems at primary schools, in order to assist the child to reach his/her maximum potential. / Social Work / M.Diac. (Spelterapie)

Text in Afrikaans / The aim of this study was to determine the effect of labeling on a person's being from an educational-psychological perspective. The focus was therefore placed mainly on the following: § Labeling as a phenomenon, with specific reference to what labeling is and its effect on a person's being. § The use of the Edu-Psychological Relation Theory as a theoretical basis for determining the effect of labeling on a person's being. § The compilation of a diagnostic questionnaire within the framework of the Edu-Psychological Relation Theory that was used in the empirical study. It was found that the consequences of labeling are generally permanent and irreversible, and that they result in isolation of the individual. A diagnostic questionnaire was operationalised in terms of the Edu-Psychological Relation Theory, and was used to determine the effect of labeling. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Guidance)

Since the inception of AI research, great strides have been made towards achieving the goal of extending natural language conversation as a medium of interaction with machines. Today, we find many Conversational Agents (CAs) situated in various aspects of our everyday life such as information access, education and entertainment. However, most of the existing work on CAs has focused on agents that support only one user in each interactive session. On the other hand, people organize themselves in groups such as teams of co-workers, family and networks of friends. With the mass-adoption of Internet based communication technologies for group interaction, there is an unprecedented opportunity for CAs to support interactive situations involving multiple human participants. Support provided by these CAs can make the functioning of some of these groups more efficient, enjoyable and rewarding to the participants. Through our work on supporting various Multi-Party Interactive Situations (MPIS), we have identified two problems that must be addressed in order to embed effective CAs in such situations. The first problem highlights the technical challenges involving the development of CAs in MPIS. Existing approaches for modeling agent behavior make assumptions that break down in multi-party interaction. As a step towards addressing this problem, this thesis contributes the Basilica software architecture that uses an event-driven approach to model conversation as an orchestration of triggering of conversational behaviors. This architecture alleviates the technical problems by providing a rich representational capability and the flexibility to address complex interaction dynamics. The second problem involves the choice of appropriate agent behaviors. In MPIS, agents must compete with human participants for attention in order to effectively deliver support and interventions. In this work, we follow a model of human group interaction developed by empirical research in small group communication. This model identifies two fundamental processes in human group interaction, i.e., Instrumental (Task-related) and Expressive (Social-Emotional). Behaviors that constitute this expressive process hold the key to managing and regulating user attention and serve other social functions in group interaction. This thesis describes two socially capable conversational agents that support users in collaborative learning and group decision making activities. Their social capabilities are composed of a set of behaviors based on the Social-Emotional interaction categories identified by work in small group communication. These agents demonstrate the generalizability of our methodology for designing and implementing social capabilities across two very different interactive situations. In addition to the implementation of these agents, the thesis presents a series of experiments and analysis conducted to investigate the effectiveness of these social capabilities. First and foremost, these experiments show significant benefits of the use of socially capable agents on task success and agent perception across the two different interactive situations listed above. Second, they investigate issues related to the appropriate use of these social capabilities specifically in terms of the amount and timing of the constituent social behaviors. Finally, these experiments provide an understanding of the underlying mechanism that explains the effects that social capabilities can achieve.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2005. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Despite the abolition of Apartheid in 1994, the entrenched effects of discriminatory policies remain prevalent in terms of socio-economic inequalities between racial groups in South Africa. Nevertheless, throughout the Apartheid era the Indian population of South Africa seems to have maintained a distinct economic advantage when compared to Africans and Coloureds. This dynamic is indeed puzzling as these three racial groups were all subject to discriminatory Apartheid legislation. In an attempt to find an appropriate explanatory variable for this trend, I tum to the notion of social capital (social networks and the norms of reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them). Arriving in South Africa in 1860 as indentured labourers on Natal's sugar plantations, the Indian community in South Africa indeed continues to display distinct dynamics with regards to social organization in the post- Apartheid era. In light of these dynamics, this study aims to assess the relationship between levels of social capital and income generation amongst the African, Coloured and Indian communities in South Africa. It is hypothesized that a distinct set of associational networks within the Indian community, shaped by a specific historical trajectory, are directly related to the heightened income generation capacity of this racial group. The vanous dimensions of social capital assessed in this study include: membership of voluntary organizations, informal social ties, participation in religious organizations and trust. Findings indicate that it is particularly within the realm of informal social ties that Indians derive a distinct economic advantage. The effect remains once the impact of education is taken into consideration. This exploratory study therefore makes a valuable contribution towards the analysis of social capital within South Africa's different race groups, allowing for more valid indicators to be developed in the future. Future studies will need to identify the seeds which need to be planted if social capital is to grow organically, not only within, but more importantly between race groups. This will no doubt make a lasting contribution towards addressing the widespread socio-economic challenges currently faced by South Africa's emerging democracy. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Ten spyte van die afskaffing van Apartheid in 1994, is die gevolge van diskriminerende wetgewing in terme van sosio-ekonomiese ongelykhede tussen bevolkingsgroepe in Suid Afrika nog steeds sigbaar. Nietemin het die Indiër bevolking van Suid Afrika, in vergelyking met Kleurlinge en Swartes, gedurende Apartheid 'n duidelike ekonomiese voorsprong behou. Hierdie dinamika is inderdaad verwarrend aangesien al drie hierdie bevolkingsgroepe aan diskriminerende Apartheidswetgewing onderworpe was. In 'n poging om 'n toepaslike verklarende veranderlike vir hierdie tendens te vind, ondersoek hierdie studie sosiale kapitaal (sosiale netwerke en norme van wederkerigheid en vertroue). Die Indiër bevolking, wat in 1860 as kontrakarbeiders op Natal se suikerplantasies in die land aangekom het, toon inderdaad selfs na die afskaffing van Apartheid nog spesifieke tendense met betrekkeng tot hulle onderlinge sosiale bande. Teen die agtergrond van hierdie dinamika het hierdie studie ten doel om die verband tussen vlakke van sosiale kapitaal en inkomstegenerering onder Swartes, Kleurlinge en Indiërs te ontleed. Die hipotese word gestel dat 'n duidelike stel gemeenskaplike netwerke onder Indiërs, gevorm deur spesifieke historiese gebeure, direk verband hou met hierdie bevolkingsgroep se verhoogde kapasiteit vir inkomstegenerering. Die verskillende dimensies van sosiale kapitaal wat in hierdie studie ontleed word, sluit in: lidmaatskap van vrywillige organisasies, informele sosiale bande, deelname aan Godsdienstige aktiwiteite en vertoue. Die studie bevind dat veral informele sosiale bande aan Indiërs 'n duidelike ekonomiese voorsprong bied. Hierdie bevinding bly onveranderd selfs nadat die invloed van opvoeding in ag geneem word. Hierdie verkennende studie lewer dus 'n waardevolle bydrae tot die ontleding van sosiale kapitaal tussen verskillende bevolkingsgroepe in Suid Afrika en baan sodoende die weg vir die ontwikkeling van meer geldige aanwysers in die toekoms. Sulke studies sal die saad moet identifiseer wat geplant moet word om die organiese groei van sosiale kapitaal te stimuleer, nie net binne nie, maar meer belangrik tussen bevolkingsgroepe. Dit sal sonder twyfel 'n blywende bydrae lewer om die sosio-ekonomiese uitdagings wat Suid Afrika se ontwikkelende demokrasie tans ondervind, volledig aan te spreek.