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Mozambique is among the poorest countries in the world in such a way that many schools lack essential resources (electricity, chairs, internet, computers, water, and others). As a result, the traditional model is still the most used one in subjects related to programming in different courses where the teacher presents new content during face-to-face sessions and students take assignments and exercises to complete at home. This subject is still new for many students, so, they find it challenging to complete the tasks at home. Furthermore, programming is taught only at the university level, so, students find it difficult to understand it for the first time, resulting in a motivation decrease as well as the increase of drawbacks in programming subjects. In this way, methods like the cognitive apprenticeship model (Collins, Brown, Newman, 1989), extreme programming (Beck & Fowler, 2001), gamification (Deterding, Dixon, Khaled, & Nacke, 2011), and flipped classroom (Lage, Platt, & Treglia, 2000) could be used or combined to motivate students and overcome these challenges. Since programming consists of a set of sequential steps and procedures, Gamified Flipped Classroom (GFC) seemed to be an appropriate method as it could be easy to demonstrate the “how to” procedures to students, letting them work on them at home (video lectures, links, documents). The teacher would act as a guide and facilitator for both home and in-class sessions, supported by gamification elements. Nevertheless, the thesis aimed to design a GFC learning environment adapted to the Mozambican context, investigate the student’s perception regarding this combination and analyse motivation and learning outcomes regarding day and night shifts. The research was conducted through Design-Based Research (DBR) for the learning environment design as well as student perception analysis and through a quasi-experiment for motivation and learning outcomes processing. The results indicate that The GFC learning environment for the Mozambique context should rely on three core aspects: A low-cost approach, availability of institution facilities and a proper curriculum plan adaptation. Furthermore, student’s perceptions were mostly positive, despite the occurrence of some negative ones related to connectivity problems. Lastly, generic data indicates that GFC did not significantly impact students’ motivation, however, separate analysis indicates that students from the day shift tended to feel more motivated than the day shift ones. Results also indicated that both shifts tended to increase their sense of competence and interest/enjoyment during the GFC learning environment but their sense of pressure was almost the same. Regarding learning outcomes, students scored higher marks during the traditional learning environment than in GFC, nevertheless, day-shift tended to have higher scores than night ones. So, it can be concluded that students from the day-shift felt more motivated and had better outcomes than the night ones.
The present thesis served as a starting point for promoting a change of paradigm in teaching programming, especially in countries with limited access to technology like Mozambique by adapting methods like GFC to its context.
The Kingdom of Bhutan’s development philosophy of Gross National Happiness (GNH) emphasises the need to balance sustainable economic growth with environmental conservation, promotion of cultural heritage, and good governance. In consonance, Bhutan’s Constitution entrusts every citizen with the sacred task of protecting the natural environment and preventing all forms of ecological degradation. Moreover, given the increasing global crisis of degrading the earth, climate change, resource depletion, and species extinction, the urgency of nature conservation in school education cannot be ignored. The need to articulate clearly how nature conservation education should be promoted in Bhutanese primary schools is, therefore, becoming increasingly urgent.
While some elements of nature conservation education are included in the school curriculum, not much is known about educator perceptions, school curricula, teaching and learning processes, and the role of school concerning nature conservation. Hence, this empirical study was necessary and timely to understand how nature conservation was perceived, taught and practised in Bhutanese primary schools. Social constructivism with an ethnographical research design was employed for this study. Relying on participant observation techniques for data collection, perspectives of 15 educators and 105 students of four Bhutanese primary schools were gathered. Three data collection tools, namely, a semi-structured interview, an open-ended questionnaire and field notes were used.
The study brought out a number of significant findings. Although Bhutan’s unique features, such as being heavily forested, traditional farming practices and spiritual practices, are advantageous to nature conservation education, gaps and inconsistencies were seen in the school curriculum and practices. Firstly, the educators and students who participated in the study misunderstood nature conservation as environmental conservation. Secondly, the curriculum textbooks on nature conservation generally represent Western perspectives of nature conservation rather than the Bhutanese spiritual and cultural beliefs that are primarily influenced by Buddhism. Findings also showed that children in the four primary schools had limited opportunities for direct experiences with nature during their lessons on nature. Lastly, the role of schools in nature conservation education lacks clarity.
The findings from this study have direct implications for the Ministry of Education, teacher education colleges, and other primary education stakeholders in the country. Several strategies are suggested to address the gaps identified. These include professional development programmes for teachers to enhance their knowledge about nature conservation education. The next strategy is reviewing the science and social studies curriculum to integrate the Buddhist values of interdependence and harmonious living with nature. The study also flagged the need to create rich natural environments on school campus, including using the community forests for children to play, study and develop connection with nature. Lastly, the study recommends developing reading materials for children on themes of nature.