Tidigare studier visar att det finns skillnader mellan flickor och pojkar avseende hur de upplever ämnet matematik, vilket återspeglas i utbildnings- och yrkesval. Tidigare studier visar även att det finns skillnader mellan flickor och pojkar avseende hur de lär och tänker när de löser matematiska problem och attlärare inte alltidtar hänsyn till dessa skillnader. Denna studie syftar till att undersöka hur flickor och pojkar löser aritmetiska uppgifter genom kognitiva, kroppsliga och externa strategier samt likheter och skillnader mellan flickor och pojkar. Totalt har 23 barn (11 flickor och 12 pojkar) i grundskolans årskurs ett löst nio aritmetiska och fyra andra matematiska uppgifter. Barnen instruerades att tänka högt och blev videofilmade. Resultaten visar att pojkarna oftare använder kognitiva strategier (75% av uppgifterna) än flickorna gör (66%). Särskilt ofta använder pojkarna de kognitiva strategier som kallas härledning och talfakta (62%) medan flickorna använder dessa strategier mindre ofta (40%). Flickorna använder oftare kognitiva och kroppsliga strategier där de räknar upp eller ned (49%) än pojkarna gör (20%). Flickorna använder även oftare kroppsliga strategier (30%) än pojkarna gör (13%). Dessa skillnader pekar på att lärare bör kartlägga vilka strategier eleverna använder för att därigenom kunna anpassa sin undervisning. / Previous research show there are differences between girls and boys as it comes to how they experience school mathematics, which has consequences for educational and professional career choices. Previous studies also show there are differences between girls and boys concerning how they learn and think when solving mathemtical problems and that teachers do not always take these differences into consideration. This study aims at describing and anaysing how girls and boys solve arithemtic tasks by using cognitive, bodily and external strategies and similarities and differences betweeen girls and boys. In total, 23 children (11 girls and 12 boys) first graders in elementary school solved nine arithmetic and four other mathematical tasks. The children were instructed to think aloud and they were video recorded. The results show that boys more often used cognitive strategies (in 75% of tasks) than girls did (66%). In particular, the boys tended to use the cognitive strategies that are called decomposition and direct retrieval of artithmetic facts (62%) while the girls used these strategies less often (40%). The girls more often used cognitive and bodily strategies involving counting up or down (49%) than the boys did (20%). The girls more often used bodily strategies (30%) than the boys did (13%). These differences indicate that teachers should be provided tools for mapping strategies that pupils use in order to be able to adapt their teaching to individual differences.

Think-aloud protocol is a usability testing method whereby the participant running the usability test on an interface, thinks aloud as a way of giving feedback of the task he/she is performing on the given interface. It is one of the most researched on usability testing methods. It has attracted both praises and criticisms based on the effects it has on the participants or the tests at hand. A recently done study that used simple tasks, aimed at finding out the difference between using think-aloud protocol and not using think-aloud protocol. The study concluded that no notable differences were evident on the number of fixations and the amount of screen areas viewed when using think-aloud protocol and when not using think-aloud protocol.As an extension and follow-up of the recently done study, this study focused on finding the type of tasks that the concurrent think-aloud protocol has effects on. The tasks were chosen based on the information scent concept and eye-tracking methodology was used in collecting the necessary results.The study that involved twenty participants, resulted to some effects of the concurrent think-aloud protocol being noted on the low-scent tasks but not on high-scent tasks. It therefore goes ahead to conclude the tasks onto which concurrent think-aloud protocol would be more effective and the tasks that would be executed more effectively through other usability testing methods other than concurrent think-aloud protocol.

The purpose of my study was to describe the manner in which Grade 9 technology learners typically accessed and used information sources during the early phases of their design processes. I did this by using an Extended Cognition framework to study the internal and external information sources that learners typically accessed and used in a technology learning environment. Theoretically, my study aimed to develop the application of the Extended Cognition Theory in an educational context. In this manner, my study adds to the scarce literature on design cognition in technology education. The methodological purpose of this study was to adapt conventional Think Aloud Protocol methods (TAPS) to investigate groups of learners in their natural technology learning environment. This methodology enabled me to understand the link between theoretical and empirical approaches of design cognition. As such, I was able to conceptualise practical guidelines that could be used by technology lecturers and teachers for the effective facilitation of the early phases of design processes. The conceptual framework of my study was adapted from empirical studies of expert designers, and is underpinned by the Information Processing and Embodiment theories. I followed a concurrent mixed methods approach and employed a case study design applying pragmatic assumptions. The target population for this study comprised Grade 9 learners based in a low socio-economic region. Eight female participants were purposefully selected and conveniently clustered into three groups: two groups of three participants, and one group of two participants. Data collection therefore consisted of three separately video recorded protocol studies. I was able to elicit the information access and usage activities of the participants by providing them with a design task that I adapted from a prescribed textbook, as suggested for technology by the Department of Basic Education. During the video recordings of the participants’ design processes, I was able to collect concurrent verbal, visual and temporal data types. I analysed the data according to a five-level framework, also adapted from the empirical investigations of expert designers. During my quantitative data analysis, I identified the occurrences of each group of participants’ cognitive phases, as well as the occurrences of their information access and use activities during each cognitive phase. On the one hand, problem structuring did not occur regularly. However, during their problem structuring activities, the participants mainly accessed and used instructions contained in the design task and pictures. On the other hand, the participants predominantly exhibited problem solving cognitive phases in which they mainly accessed and used external information sources including pictures and sketches. During my qualitative data analysis, I traced how the participants transformed their understanding of the design problem and possible design solutions. During problem structuring, the participants accessed information about the users’ needs, the design context and design objectives by perceiving and recognising useful information in their design task instructions and pictures. Information use during problem structuring was evidenced when the participants transformed information that they accessed to propose design objectives, constraints and requirements. Accessed information was typically transformed when the participants: (1) Read/evaluated information from the design task; (2) Evaluated the problem/context; (3) Evaluated/Elaborated information about the design objective; (4) Justified a design requirement; (5) Proposed/justified a design constraint; (6) Evaluated/Elaborated available resources in the environment; (7) Elaborated on the design context. During problem solving, the participants accessed information about the function, behaviour and structure of possible design solutions by perceiving and recognising useful information, primarily in their sketches, 3D models and pictures. Information use during problem solving was evidenced when the participants transformed accessed information to propose design specifications and limitations. Accessed information was typically transformed when the participants: (1) Evaluated existing solutions; (2) Proposed design limitations; (3) Modified existing solutions; (4) Proposed/evaluated a design idea; (5) Elaborated on a design idea; (6) Justified ideas; (7) Qualified ideas; (8) Modified previous design ideas. From the findings of my study, I could develop practical guidelines for current and future technology teachers. These guidelines should help technology teachers to effectively facilitate information rich design thinking during the early phases of learners’ design processes. I conclude this study by reiterating that the participants’ design cognition was enhanced by the availability of various information sources. This implies that technology teachers play a central role as information providers and mediators. Failure to provide adequate information sources during design tasks might inhibit learners’ development of the proficient design skills intended by the technology Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) document. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2015. / National Research Foundation (NRF) / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / MEd / Unrestricted

Arbetet syftar till att undersöka vilken av de två bildstilarna ikoner och genomarbetade illustrationer som förmedlar en starkare begriplighet i ett seriellt bildberättande och på så sätt skulle kunna visa hur man på bästa sätt förmedlar viktig hälsoinformation.  Detta för att ta fram tydliga riktlinjer som underlättar skapandet av seriellt bildberättande instruktioner för att förmedla viktig information. Syftet utforskades genom en gestaltningsprocess som ledde fram till två prototyper i två bildstilar. Dessa prototyper har sedan provats ut på målgruppen genom metoderna Think-aloud protocol och intervju.  Resultatet visar att instruktioner som använder genomarbetade mer realistiska illustrationer tillsammans med rörelsepilar kan ge en starkare begriplighet i ett seriellt bildberättande. Ur resultatet framkom också att en instruktions bildstil kan ha en stor påverkan på hur seriös instruktionen upplevs i sin helhet, då instruktionerna som endast innehåller genomarbetade illustrationer upplevdes mer som en färdig produkt och drog till sig mer uppmärksamhet vilket medförde ett större intresse av att titta närmare på illustrationerna, än instruktionerna med enbart ikoner, vilket kan vara av värde när det kommer till att skapa informationsmaterial som förmedlar viktig hälsoinformation såsom instruktioner om handtvätt, för att på så sätt minska smittspridning. This thesis aims to investigate which of the two image styles icons versus elaborate illustrations conveys a stronger comprehensibility in serial image-telling and in this way could show how best to convey important health information. This is to develop clear guidelines that facilitate the creation of serial image-telling instructions to convey important information. The purpose was explored through a design process that led to two prototypes in two image styles. These prototypes have then been tested on the target group through the methods Think-aloud protocol and interview. The results show that instructions that use elaborate more realistic illustrations together with movement arrows can provide a stronger comprehensibility in a serial image-telling. The results also showed that an instruction's image style can have a great impact on how serious the instruction is experienced in its entirety, as the instructions that only contain elaborate illustrations were perceived more as a finished product and attracted more attention. This led to a greater interest in looking more closely at the illustrations, than the instructions with only icons. This can be of value when it comes to creating information materials that convey important health information such as instructions on hand washing in order to reduce the spread of infection.

Many academic institutions are tasked with trying to improve the usability of their online educational support technologies such as ePortfolios, intelligent websites, and other interface technology to make them as efficient as possible to meet the requirements of their end users. This is particularly important for the academic institutions during times and situations when they may not have a live human presence available to respond to various inquiries from their end users about the technology. The challenges of an academic institution in making its ePortfolios viable can cost itself, its end users, as well as its other stakeholders, money, time, and confidence in the technology. This study is about usability testing for improving the user-interface for ePortfolios. This is a qualitative study using the think-aloud protocol (TAP) for data collection and failure modes and effects analysis (FMEA) for data analysis.

La traduction n’est pas une pratique linéaire qui part d’un texte-source (Ts) pour arriver à un texte-cible (Tc). La traduction est un exercice de compréhension et de ré-expression d'un discours qui suppose la mobilisation de connaissances linguistiques et thématiques. Les étapes du processus de traduction (compréhension du texte de départ, médiation culturelle et linguistique, mise en forme du texte d'arrivée) ne sont plus considérées comme une simple séquence de décodage et de recodage des messages. La progression des sciences cognitives au cours des vingt dernières années a permis de nourrir une réflexion multidisciplinaire aux frontières des neurosciences, de la psychologie, de la philosophie, de la linguistique et de l'intelligence artificielle. L’essentiel dans notre thèse consiste à découvrir la phase de « déverbalisation » lors de l’acte traduisante, un processus mentale qui ne peut être compris sans les apports des sciences cognitives. Parmi les nombreuses méthodes expérimentales sur le processus de la traduction on distingue entre la méthode de collection de données in vivo, c'est-à-dire prises sur le vif pendant l’opération traduisante, et la méthode de collection de données in vitro, c’est à dire après que le traducteur a eu fini de traduire. Dans cette recherche, en appliquant deux méthodologies TAPs(Think-aloud-protocols) et le logiciel Translog, on va étudier les problèmes rencontrés dans l’acte de traduction français-persan par nos participants ainsi que les stratégies utilisées par eux pour résoudre les problèmes linguistique et culturelles. / The translation is not a linear act starting from a text source to reach the final text. The steps of the translation process (comprehension of the original text, cultural and linguistic mediation, shaping the target text) aren’t considered as a simple sequence of decoding and recoding messages. The progress of cognitive science in the last twenty years has helped feed a multidisciplinary study at the frontiers of neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, linguistics and artificial intelligence. The essential point of our thesis is to find the phase of " deverbalization " during the translation process. This is a mental process that couldn’t be understood without the contributions of cognitive science. Among the many experimental methods in the process of translation distinguishes between the method of data collection in vivo, that is to say, taken on the spot during the translation process, and the method of collection of in vitro data, is once the translator has finished translating. In this research, using a combination of the two process- oriented Approaches to study professional translation online: verbal reporting, better known as TAPs (think- aloud protocols), and Translog program for logging keyboard activity, we will examine the problems encountered in the act of translation French -Persian by our participants and the strategies used by them to solve linguistic and cultural problems.

Il est aujourd’hui reconnu que la réussite des étudiants à l’université repose sur leurs capacités à autoréguler leur apprentissage, c’est-à-dire à 1) fixer des objectifs adaptés à la tâche, 2) déployer des stratégies d’apprentissage efficaces et 3) vérifier régulièrement si ces objectifs ont été atteints. Or, lorsqu’ils apprennent des documents complexes, ceux-ci ont tendance à traiter passivement l’information et à surestimer la qualité de leur apprentissage. Cette thèse vise à déterminer si le fait d’insérer des tests d’entraînement au sein d’un document multimédia amène les étudiants à traiter plus activement les informations. Pour ce faire, nous avons réalisé quatre expériences au cours desquelles des étudiants recevaient ou non des tests d’entraînement pendant qu’ils apprenaient un cours de neurosciences. Afin d’évaluer les effets des tests sur l’activité cognitive et métacognitive des participants, nous avons combiné un questionnaire d’estimation de l’apprentissage à un protocole de verbalisation. Nos résultats montrent que les participants qui bénéficient de tests estiment plus précisément la qualité de leur apprentissage et obtiennent de meilleures performances que les participants non testés. Par ailleurs, ces meilleures performances s’expliquent par un déploiement de stratégies d’apprentissage plus adaptées à l’exigence de la tâche. Enfin, ces effets bénéfiques disparaissent lorsque l’exigence des tests d’entraînement diffère de celles de l’évaluation finale. L’ensemble de nos résultats permet de mieux comprendre les mécanismes sous-tendant l’effet des tests sur l’apprentissage ainsi que d’identifier les conditions qui favorisent leur efficacité. / It is generally accepted that students need to effectively self-regulate their learning to succeed in university, that is to 1) establish appropriate goals, 2) use effective learning strategies and 3) frequently monitor if their goals have been met. Unfortunately, when students learn complex document, they tend to process the information in a passive way and be overconfident regarding the quality of their learning. The purpose of this thesis is to study if inserting regular practice tests in a multimedia document can promote a more active learning. To pursue this thesis’ aim, four experiments were conducted whereby students were exposed to a neuroscience course and were provided with or not, different types of practice tests. We used a judgment of learning questionnaire and a think aloud protocol to assess the impact of practices tests on cognitive and metacognitive processes. Results showed that, compared with control groups, participants in the practice testing groups were significantly less overconfident in their ability to recall recently learned information and performed better on a post-test questionnaire. Furthermore, enhanced learning performance was explained by the use of more efficient learning strategies. However, when test requirement mismatched those of the final test, practice tests brought none of these beneficial effects and was therefore unhelpful for students learning. Overall, the studies’ results gave us a better insight into the psychological mechanism underlying the testing effect on learning and identify the conditions that favor it.

In today’s world of rapid technological development one cannot deny the importance of collaborative writing systems. Besides many advantages of a collaborative writing system the major one is to allow its end users to work in collaboration with each other without having to physically meet. In the past various researches has been carried out for the usability evaluation of collaborative writing systems using the think aloud protocol method however there is no study conducted on the comparison of different usability evaluation methods in the context of collaborative writing systems. In this thesis work the authors have tried to find the limitations and capabilities of think aloud protocol and co-discovery learning methods in the context of a collaborative writing system called ZOHO, as well as the usability evaluation of ZOHO using think aloud protocol and co-discovery learning methods. The authors found various usability errors in ZOHO. Apart from this the authors also observed the two usability evaluation methods when they were used for usability evaluation of ZOHO. The authors found that both the methods have its’ own benefits and drawbacks. While the co-discovery learning method was fast enough, it was expensive in terms of human resource. On the other hand think aloud protocol method was slow to perform but there was less human resource used. Both the usability methods found almost the same usability errors. / In this thesis work the primary objective was to figure out the limitations and capabilities of think aloud protocol and co-discovery learning methods in the context of ZOHO; a collaborative writing system. Apart from this the secondary objective of this thesis was to conduct the usability evaluation of ZOHO and to find out what makes ZOHO ineffective, inefficient and unsatisfactory. The authors carried out usability tests on ZOHO using the think aloud protocol and co-discovery learning methods. After the tests results’ analysis the effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction level of ZOHO was figured in section 7.2.1, 7.2.2 and 7.2.3 while the usability problems that make ZOHO ineffective, inefficient and unsatisfactory are discussed in section 7.2.4 of this thesis. Apart from the usability of ZOHO, the authors were also able to identify strong and weak points of the think aloud protocol and co-discovery learning methods when used for the usability evaluation of a collaborative writing system. They found that think aloud protocol testing is better if the evaluator is cost cautious or if he is looking for a detailed usability problems but does not cares about the time taken by the test. However if the evaluator cares about the test time and he cares less about the cost in terms of participants required for the test then he should use the co-discovery method for testing a collaborative writing system.

abstract: Since the 1980s, interest in the cognitive and affective influences on teaching has initiated studies on teacher beliefs and practices. Studies of teacher beliefs in academic areas such as reading, math, social studies, and science are prolific. However, studies about the teacher beliefs and practices of music teachers are scarce. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to explore the teacher beliefs of middle school orchestra teachers and to examine how their self-reported and observed teaching practices reflect these beliefs. Based on the work of foreign language education researcher Simon Borg (2003) a conceptual framework was developed that shows the various sources of teacher beliefs and practices, including formative preservice musical experiences, inservice contextual factors, and inservice professional development. Employing a qualitative multiple case study method, six purposely-selected middle school orchestra teachers, representing a variety of experience levels and program characteristics, shared their teacher beliefs and practices. Data generation included observations, interviews, stimulated recall (think aloud teacher commentary of videotaped teaching episodes), and written reflection surveys. During analysis, six core teacher beliefs about middle school string students and how they learn were identified. These beliefs guided the teachers’ observed practices. Findings from this study illustrated that preservice formative musical experiences influenced the middle school orchestra teachers’ beliefs about the value and importance of music teaching as a career. Data from the participants revealed a wide variety of instructional practices emanating from largely similar core pedagogical beliefs. Analysis suggested that experienced teachers held more developed teacher beliefs, and they selected instructional practices carefully, where inexperienced teachers were still formulating their own beliefs and experimenting with instructional practices. Data from the study point out that contextual constraints sometimes prevent teachers from enacting their closely held beliefs. This incongruence influenced three of the six participants to change teaching positions or retire early from the education profession. The study of music teacher beliefs and practices may be of interest to preservice and inservice music teachers and music teacher educators. Future studies may explore the relationship between teacher beliefs and practices and student achievement, and contribute to string music education research. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Music Education 2019

Data-driven learning is a sub-discipline of corpus linguistics that makes use of the analyses and tools of corpus linguistics in foreign and second language classroom (Johns, 1991; Johns & King, 1991). With this approach, learners become researchers rather than passive recipients of language rules (Johns, 1991). This study was an investigation of the impact of this approach as a form of written corrective feedback for in-service teachers of English participating in an online writing course at a teacher training institute in Japan. Data-driven learning is commonly utilized in conventional, face-to-face classrooms, or computer lab settings in which there is close direction from the instructor on how to interpret the output of a corpus query. The purpose of this study was to investigate how data-driven learning can be implemented in a blended online environment by providing training to develop the participants’ corpus competence (Charles, 2011; Flowerdew, 2010), which is defined as the ability to interpret data obtained from querying a corpus. This competence has been associated with becoming familiar with corpus methods, which include interpreting concordances, and in turn can aid in accurately repairing writing errors. This training, while initially presented in a face-to-face session at the beginning of the course, was sustained with support from resources on the course’s Moodle website and my comments in Microsoft Word documents. In addition, I applied a fine-grained approach to the analysis of the to examine the quality of participants’ interpretation of concordances. The mixed method triangulation convergence design (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2007, 2011) used in this study was based on data from four sources to examine the effectiveness of data-driven learning in an online environment as well as to observe how the participants interpreted concordances. One data set involved an analysis of the participants’ responses in drafts of their own writing to concordance-based feedback. The participants were given a prefabricated concordance, which was a concordance I generated. That concordance was attached to an error in the participants’ document and the participants used the information provided by the concordance to repair their writing error. The resulting data set, which contains the concordance, along with before and after comparisons of the writers’ repairs, shows how the participants’ interpretations of concordances aided the repairs. With the evidence of several trials over the course of four writing assignments, it was possible to see how the participants used the supplied concordance to repair their writing errors and in turn revealed their degree of corpus competence. A second data set obtained from think-aloud protocols from select participants was utilized to reveal how they interpreted the concordance during an error-repair task. This data revealed what kind of thought processes or noticing that occurred in this task. A third piece of evidence was derived from data obtained from the Moodle website via log files and other resources such as online documents and training quizzes. The purpose was to document which resources the participants accessed relating to data-driven learning training to investigate if those resources aided in their development of corpus competence. The fourth piece of evidence was a quiz developed online to compare the participants with a standard set of items. The quiz was used to investigate which participants successfully or unsuccessfully interpreted the concordances. This instrument, which was analyzed with the Rasch model, allowed for further comparison between the participants’ skill of interpreting concordances. These four data sources were triangulated and in the final analysis cross-referenced to examine how data-driven learning can be successfully applied in a blended online learning environment and how the training of corpus competence aided the learners in interpreting the concordances. / Teaching & Learning