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Gungor, Almer. "Teaching Practices Enhancing Students'." Phd thesis, METU, 2010. http://etd.lib.metu.edu.tr/upload/12612581/index.pdf.
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This study was aimed to provide insight about affective teaching practices that influence students'affective characteristics in physics lessons using mixed methodology. Affective characteristics consisted of attitudes and motivation. For this purpose Keller'
s ARCS (attention, relevance, confidence, satisfaction) model was revised by adding Communication category. The Affective Teaching Practices Questionnaire, including these categories, was administered to 1,138 students and 31 physics teachers in Ankara. Moreover, the Affective Characteristics Questionnaire was administered to students to find out the relationship between students'
affective characteristics and their perceptions about the teaching practices used by teachers. Four physics teachers, who were performing teaching practices frequently, were purposefully selected according to results of quantitative phase. In qualitative phase, observations were conducted in these teachers'
classrooms to find out teaching practices used to enhance affective characteristics and their effects. Besides, interviews were conducted to support observations. The quantitative data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, while qualitative data were analyzed by cross case analysis. Results revealed that affective teaching practices are related to students'
affective characteristics. Assisting comprehension and providing role models to students are effective for enhancing affective characteristics. Similarly, providing students concrete materials
arousing their inquiry
organizing what is taught from simple to difficult
attributing success to effort
relating topic to students'
experience
stating clearly what is expected of students
providing feedback
using positive outcomes
giving enough time to students
using clear, understandable, fluent language in lessons
caring about teaching
being self-confident
caring about students
and providing an atmosphere suitable for learning are also effective.
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Moreira, Shelly Jeanne. "Student perceptions of good teaching practices." Scholarly Commons, 2002. https://scholarlycommons.pacific.edu/uop_etds/2552.
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The purpose of this research was to describe a set of teacher characteristics that are perceived by high school students as good teaching practices. It also determined how both alternative, or at-risk, high school students and traditional high school students ranked those good teaching practices. The research involved a pilot study in which students from an alternative and a traditional high school wrote an essay on what they think ‘makes a good teacher.’ From the list of characteristics, a “Survey of Good Teaching Practices” was developed. This survey was then given to alternative and traditional high school students to determine their rankings of good teaching practices. The findings of the study indicate that students are looking for characteristics in teachers that fall into four categories: instructional skills and strategies, individualized assistance, interpersonal skills and student-teacher relationships. The majority of those top ten characteristics that students look for in a ‘good teacher’ relate to interpersonal skills and student-teacher relationships. Students want to be treated equally, they want their teachers to listen to their opinions and ideas and they want to be known by name. Students want their teachers to try hard to help them be successful and they want learning to be fun. They don't want teachers to put students down; they want respect. They want teachers to make sure every student understands what is being taught and they want them to know the subject matter. They want teachers with a positive attitude. They want teachers to explain things well and make it interesting. They want teachers to believe in all students, no matter what kind of grades they get. They don't want teachers to talk down to students. They want teachers who are honest. The study provides insight into the opinions of the stakeholders in their educational process. Through this study, students have been given a voice in what works best for them. Recommendations for how to use this information to improve services to students are also provided.
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Brown, Beth Lynne. "Improving Teaching Practices through Action Research." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2002. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/26869.
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This study investigated teachersâ perceptions of the influences of action research on their thinking about instructional practices and the impact of this thinking on teaching practices. The four specific areas of investigation were teachersâ perceptions about (a) the overall teacher role, (b) teachersâ knowledge about teaching, (c) teaching practices, and (d) reflective practices. The data were collected from interviews with teacher researchers, informal classroom observations, and collection of teacher and student work and related artifacts. The data revealed that teachers perceived changes in the four areas of investigation. Engaging in the stages of action research provided teachers with a methodical structure for implementing and analyzing the teaching and learning process. This defined structure guided teachers through more systematic and conscious data collection, data analysis, and reflection.Ph. D.
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Samuelowicz, Katherine. "Academics' Educational Beliefs and Teaching Practices." Thesis, Griffith University, 1999. http://hdl.handle.net/10072/365985.
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The research presented in this thesis focuses on two questions—how academics conceptualise teaching and learning and whether their educational beliefs and teaching and assessment practices are ‘thematically related’. The interest in finding answers to these questions lies in their implications for improving teaching and ultimately students’ learning. Although academic staff development as such was not the main focus of the present research, understanding how academics think about teaching, how they teach and what they value as learning outcomes is a prerequisite for effective staff development. Several literatures were relevant to the present research: phenomenographic analysis of conceptions of teaching (eg. Prosser, Trigwell & Taylor 1994); research focused on academics’ educational beliefs (eg. Fox 1983; Gow & Kember 1993); and research exploring the relationship between beliefs and practices of academics (Quinlan 1997; Bain 1998) and of school teachers (eg. Thompson 1984; Wilson & Wineburg 1988). The relevance of the ‘conceptions’ research lies in a shared research focus on how academics perceive teaching and learning. The relevance of the ‘beliefs’ research in the school sector lies in the methods used and the beliefs described thus far. The present research was conceived within the ‘beliefs’ framework and borrowed the research approach from it. The dimensions revealed by both streams of research were used in devising the interview schedules.
Thirteen academics participated in Study 1 and 37 in Study 2, with 20 of the latter also participating in Study 3. Data were obtained through semi-structured interviews which, in Studies 1 and 2, ranged widely over such issues as teaching, learning, understanding, knowledge, knowing, and curriculum design. In Study 3 the questions were closely focused on participants’ assessment tasks and desired learning outcomes. Participants were encouraged to exemplify their perspectives by reference to their teaching practices because the aim was to elicit beliefs grounded in practice rather than espoused beliefs (Argyris & Schön 1974). The method of analysis proceeded from global categorisation of the participants’ orientations to teaching and learning to detailed analysis of the similarities and differences between orientations. The initial categorisation process was based on the constant comparison method (Glaser & Strauss 1967) and proceeded on the working hypothesis that beliefs and practices were ‘internally related’ (Marton & Svensson 1979) in thematically coherent ways. Once the orientation categories were stabilised they were analysed for the qualitative dimensions on which their underlying similarities and differences could be arranged. The resulting framework is a matrix comprising orientations (rows) and qualitative dimensions (columns). This framework enables academics’ ‘typical’ and relatively stable ways of thinking about, and understanding, teaching (Studies 1 and 2) and assessment (Study 3) to be described and compared. The results (Study 2) confirm previous findings that academics conceptualise teaching in qualitatively different ways. Seven orientations to teaching, ranging from imparting knowledge to encouraging knowledge creation, were identified. Broadly, academics think about teaching in two major ways—they either orchestrate situations in which students are encouraged to learn (learning-centred orientations) or they transmit knowledge/information to students (teaching-centred orientations). Within each of these major groupings several distinct orientations to teaching were identified. These seven orientations to teaching are described in terms of nine dimensions that reflect academics’ beliefs about: learning, desired learning outcomes, students’ understandings, the nature of and responsibility for transforming/organising knowledge and the nature of teacher-student interaction. Dimensions (and the coding system developed) also provide a mechanism for ordering the categories from simple (less well developed) to complex. Findings (Study 3) show that assessment practices are not belief-free. What is assessed depends on how knowledge, learning and the role of teachers and students in the getting of knowledge are conceptualised. The six orientations range from assessing students’ ability to recall information presented to them in lectures and study materials, to assessing students’ ability to integrate, transform and use knowledge purposefully. The six orientations can be simplified (in an analogous way to orientations to teaching and learning) into two major orientations expressing the two contrasting beliefs just implied: assessing knowledge as presented by teachers and texts versus assessing knowledge (re)formulated by students and used to understand and interpret the world. The orientations just referred to are composites of beliefs and practice (or beliefs grounded in practice), because the relationship between these domains was emphasised in the method of questioning and in the method of analysis. The force of this claim is demonstrated through narrative descriptions of the perspectives of academics selected to illustrate major orientations to teaching and learning. These narratives provide a strong sense of thematic coherence: academics’ beliefs are closely aligned with their practices; there is a compelling sense in which one constrains the other. For example, academics who set tasks requiring students to transform knowledge or to use knowledge to interpret the world believe that students have to ‘do the learning’ and that their role as teachers is to facilitate the learning process. Conversely, academics who test students’ ability to recall information or emulate a decision process believe that reproduction of knowledge and skill are worthwhile learning outcomes and that their task is to provide the knowledge and skill in an accessible form. Finally, investigation of the congruence between orientations to teaching and assessment practice showed a strong relationship between beliefs and practice. The assessment practices of all but three academics (17 out of 20) were congruent with their orientations to teaching and learning.
The research presented in this thesis makes a considerable contribution to the literature. First, it extends understanding of the ways in which academics conceptualise teaching by describing their typical and stable ways of thinking about teaching indicative of a disposition to teach in a particular way. In contrast, ‘conceptions’-based research, prevalent in higher education and mostly conducted using phenomenographic methods, identifies possible ways in which teaching and learning can be conceptualised (eg. Dall’Alba 1991; Prosser, Trigwell & Taylor 1994), The two features—typicality and disposition to act in a particular way—increase the usefulness of the findings of the present research for staff development activities. Second, the present research confirms previous findings of Samuelowicz and Bain (1992) that academics conceptualise teaching in two broadly distinct ways (teaching-centred versus learning-centred) and provides no empirical support for Kember’s (1997a) ‘transitional’ category which he conjectured may provide a bridge between the two major sets of orientations. Third, the present research adds to a rather modest literature on how assessment is conceptualised and practised. And perhaps most importantly it advances understanding of the relationship between beliefs and practice by detailed mapping of the patterns of this relationship, providing a firmer foundation for conceptualisation of activities aimed at improving teaching and ultimately learning. And finally, the present research provides the first empirical support for studies (eg. Quinlan 1997; Bain 1998) which have reported congruence between beliefs and self-reported teaching practices in higher education.
Further research is needed in several areas. Given the claims (eg. Quinlan 1997) that teaching is framed by beliefs about the nature of academic disciplines, further research is needed into how discipline knowledge is conceptualised and how such knowledge is translated into courses. Efforts to improve teaching are predicated on the assumed link between teaching and learning, but this relationship has to be further investigated since only three articles (Gow & Kember 1993 and Kember & Gow 1994; Sheppard & Gilbert 1991) have been published in this area. The strong alignment of beliefs and practices documented in the research presented in this thesis has implications for how staff development activities are formulated. It suggests that efforts should be directed more at changing beliefs than on altering teaching approaches. Because relatively little is known about effective ways to change educational beliefs further research in this area is needed.Thesis (PhD Doctorate)
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
School of Curriculum, Teaching and Learning
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McMurtry, Kim. "Effective Teaching Practices in Online Higher Education." NSUWorks, 2016. http://nsuworks.nova.edu/gscis_etd/372.
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In the context of continuing growth in online higher education in the United States, students are struggling to succeed, as evidenced by lower course outcomes and lower retention rates in online courses in comparison with face-to-face courses. The problem identified for investigation is how university instructors can ensure that effective teaching and learning is happening in their online courses. The research questions were: What are the best practices of effective online teaching in higher education according to current research? How do exemplary online instructors enact teaching presence in higher education? What are the best practices of effective online teaching in higher education?
The purpose of this descriptive case study was to understand and describe the teaching practices of exemplary online faculty, and “exemplary” was defined as recognized with a national award for effective online teaching form a non-profit organization within the last five years. A purposeful sampling strategy identified four exemplary online instructors, who taught in different disciplines at different institutions in the United States. Data collection included a pre-interview written reflection, a semi-structured telephone interview, examination of a course syllabus and other course materials, and observation of a course. Data analysis included repeated close reading and coding of all data collected and then reducing the codes to a manageable number of themes.
Two key themes emerged in the findings: human connection and organized structure. Exemplary online instructors seek to connect with students so students know and feel the care, support, and respect of the instructor. Exemplary online instructors also maintain a clearly structured environment that is logically organized, delivered in small chunks, and sufficiently repetitive to keep each student focused on the content.
These results contribute to the body of knowledge by allowing online faculty to learn from the best online faculty. First-time online faculty as well as online faculty who seek to improve their online pedagogy may be able to enhance teaching and learning in their courses, which in turn will hopefully yield higher student satisfaction and lower attrition in online education.
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Lindquist, Christopher R. "Wild Practices: Teaching the Value of Wildness." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2004. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc4501/.
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The notion of wildness as a concept that is essentially intractable to definition has profound linguistic and ethical implications for wilderness preservation and environmental education. A survey of the ways in which wilderness value is expressed through language reveals much confusion and repression regarding our understanding of the autonomy of nature. By framing discussions of wilderness through fact-driven language games, the value of the wild autonomy in nature becomes ineffable. In removing wildness from the discourse on wilderness we convert wilderness value from an intrinsic value into a distorted instrumental value. If we want to teach others that wilderness value means something more than a recreational, scientific, or economic opportunity, we need to include other ways of articulating this value in our education programs. Through linking the wildness of natural systems with the wild forms in human language games, I examine the conceptual freedom required for valuing autonomy in nature. The focus on what is required of language in expressing the intrinsic value of wilderness reveals that wilderness preservation and environmental education need complementary approaches to the current science-based frameworks, such as those used by the National Park Service. The disciplines of poetry, literature, ethics, and aesthetics offer alternative language games that allow for a more fluid, imaginative, and open-ended understanding of the autonomy of nature, and a means for articulating the value of this wildness that implies an ethical position of humility.
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Bilgin, Sezen S. "Code switching in ELT teaching practice in Turkey : teacher practices, beliefs and identity." Thesis, University of Warwick, 2015. http://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/67873/.
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Code switching involves the interplay of two languages and as well as serving linguistic functions, it has social and psychological implications. In the context of English language teaching, these psychological implications reveal themselves as teachers’ thought processes. While the nature of code switching in language classrooms has been widely studies, as yet little if any attention has been paid to the relationship between such switching and the beliefs of the teachers involved. This study is designed to respond this gap in current research. In the study, I worked with five student teachers undertaking their teaching practicum at a private school in Turkey, aiming to investigate their thinking in relation to code switching in their classrooms by using the analysis of classroom interactions, individual interviews and stimulated recall interviews. The first step of the research involved video recording lessons taught by the five student teachers within the framework of their university Teaching Practice course. This was followed by individual interviews with the student teachers focusing on their views of code switching during their teaching experience and their general views about language teaching. The last stage involved stimulated recall interviews with the student teachers based on selected extracts from their lessons chosen after an analysis of spoken interaction in their classes. The data were then analysed using thematic analysis. The findings revealed that code switching is more than merely a linguistic matter; it is also indicative of a number of other dimensions including how teachers define themselves professionally, teacher beliefs, teacher identity, affective factors influencing teachers, and their relationships with supervisors. This study suggests that code switching could usefully be included as a topic in teacher education programmes and in supervisor/mentor training.
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Kleemann, Michael. "Insights in Entrepreneurship Education : Integrating Innovative Teaching Practices." Thesis, Internationella Handelshögskolan, Högskolan i Jönköping, IHH, Företagsekonomi, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-21456.
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The purpose of this study is to identify and analyze reoccurring insights in Entrepreneurship Education (EE) literature, fill gaps in the scholarly discussion, and develop innovative teaching tools for entrepreneurship educators. The study is based on an in-depth review of the current EE literature drawing on insights from about 70 studies. The analysis finds a clear need for: EE on the university level; clear goals and objectives; clear program descriptions; a more practical orientation; and true alumni networks. Additionally it finds that EE should be interdisciplinary, student-centered, practical, as well as containing strong elements of reflection, support, and networking. These findings are a valuable resource for educators interested in innovative teaching practices and entrepreneurship program design in a university context. This paper develops three suggestions on the use of innovative teaching practices, namely a course on business models, an adapted form of business simulation with a focus on cross-disciplinary networking, and a comprehensive class in entrepreneurial venturing that takes the student through all steps of establishing and growing a business.
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Gorham, Jennifer Jones. "Examining culturally responsive teaching practices in elementary classrooms." Thesis, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 2013. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3562901.
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This qualitative study examines the enactment of culturally responsive teaching practices (Gay, 2010) within two African American elementary teachers' classrooms. Teacher interviews, classroom observations, and classroom documents were collected and analyzed to examine the supports and barriers these teachers encountered as they attempted to enact culturally responsive teaching practices. The descriptive case study reveals that both teachers engage culturally responsive teaching in similar ways. However, the difference in school context makes this effort more challenging for one teacher than another. Barriers included institutional requirements, classroom disruptions, student issues, and teacher isolation. Additionally, by implementing a collaborative coaching model as part of the study design, I briefly explored the role a teacher educator might play in supporting practicing teachers' engagement of culturally responsive teaching. Based on the findings, school structures are critiqued and suggestions for developing systems to support the enactment of culturally responsive teaching practices are introduced.
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Friedrich-Nel, H. S. "Appraising the quality of teaching and assessment practices." Interim : Interdisciplinary Journal: Vol 9, Issue 1: Central University of Technology Free State Bloemfontein, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/11462/342.
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Published ArticleReflection and reflective practice as a method to inform facilitators' teaching and learning practices has been in use for a long time. It was first introduced by Dewy in 1933. The methodology consisted of a qualitative approach supported by a quantitative analysis and was prompted by a number of questions pertaining to reflective teaching. This article communicates how reflective teaching was embedded in the Radiographic Pathology module for undergraduates in 2007 as well as the outcomes of the process.
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Kelly, Christa D. "Teaching practices that affect student attitudes toward writing." < Digital Thesis and Dissertation Collection > Username and password required for access, SU only, 2004. http://www.su.edu/library/digitalthesis/kellychrista.pdf.
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Brent, Wayne Barry. "Uses of Technology to Support Reflective Teaching Practices." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/195179.
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This dissertation researched and reported on how technology was used to facilitate and inform reflective teaching practices. It also identified the characteristics of benefits and barriers in using technology for teaching and reflection.The study, descriptive in nature, was designed to determine the reflective practices of instructors and how emerging technologies could be used to enhance that reflection. To obtain this information, a Grounded Theory approach was used.Data were gathered and evaluated from a national survey of instructors on their teaching practices, technology used in teaching, how they reflected on their teaching, how they used technology to reflect on their teaching, and barriers to using technology for teaching and reflection.Seventy-three completed survey responses were received and coded into code families. These individual codes and code families were then analyzed to determine themes on how instructors used technology for more effective reflection on their teaching.The findings identified a number of themes related to (a) reflective teaching practices, (b) how instructors used technology to reflect on teaching, (c) the characteristics of learning technologies that supported reflective teaching practices, and (d) the barriers to using these technologies. The themes showed examples of how reflecting with technology supports effective teaching and learning.
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Mason, Denise Ryan. "Teaching Abroad and Implementing Culturally Appropriate Instructional Practices." ScholarWorks, 2017. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/4076.
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The increasingly diverse population of the United States is reflected in classrooms across the country. Teachers often struggle with understanding students' cultural differences in the classroom and therefore also struggle with implementing culturally appropriate instructional strategies. The results of this study provide educational leaders with a viable option to enhance intercultural competence for implementing culturally appropriate instructional practices through the experiences gained in teaching abroad programs like Apufram International. This exploratory case study investigated how teaching experiences abroad contributed to implementing culturally diverse instruction in multicultural classroom settings. The multicultural educational theory of Banks was the theoretical framework used for this study. The research question addressed how a travel abroad experience contributed to the participants' insights into the cultural differences of students and strategies for implementing culturally diverse instruction in the multicultural classroom. The analytic process included a series of semi structured interviews and classroom observations, and a two-step process (thematic followed by open) to identify common themes. Eight teachers who participated in a teaching abroad experience with the Apufram International within the last 5 years provided the data that addressed the research question. The results of this study found that participating in a teaching abroad program increased cultural awareness and understanding of the need for implementation of culturally diverse instructional practices. Providing teachers with a creative means of improving student academic success helps develop students into global leaders for positive social change.
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Shuster, David R. "Teaching Hope| The Influence of College Faculty Teaching Practices on Undergraduate Student Success." Thesis, Frostburg State University, 2018. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=10936358.
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Within the framework of hope defined by Snyder et al. (1991) as being comprised of agency and pathways thinking in the context of goal achievement, this study investigated the potential of faculty hopeful teaching practices to positively influence college student hope and success. Hope functions in student success frameworks as a factor that contributes to improved academic outcomes including test scores, GPA, persistence, and graduation. It has state and trait-like qualities that may be influenced during a student’s time on campus, particularly through interaction with faculty. Hope has been previously shown to correlate with improved outcomes across multiple life-domains relevant for post-graduation and lifelong success, achievement, and happiness.
Using a quantitative, self-report survey methodology, student perceptions of the frequency of hopeful faculty teaching behaviors were collected from a convenience sample of undergraduate students (N=236) via the Hopeful Teaching Practices Inventory (HTPI), an instrument developed specifically for this study. Factor analysis resulted in the HTPI structure consisting of three distinct scales representing faculty caring, hope, and feedback practices as suggested by Snyder (2005), all with α reliability scores > .84.
The frequency of the teaching practices measured by these scales were moderately correlated to student hope, and significantly related when controlling for background characteristics. The HTPI scale scores, and particularly the scale representing Snyder et al.’s (1991) conceptualization of hope, predicted student success when controlling for background characteristics. Student hope was also found to be a significant predictor of student success, confirming prior research on the positive benefits of hope. Several interactions with student and professor background characteristics were also observed, yielding further insight into how student-faculty interactions based in hopeful teaching may individually influence student hope and success outcomes.
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Michael, Maureen K. "Precarious practices : artists, work and knowing-in-practice." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/21879.
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This study presents a new perspective on work practice in conceptual art. Using ethnographic evidence from five visual artists, the study used a combined visual arts and practice orientated perspective to explore the materiality of their everyday work and the sociomaterial practices shaping it. Close scrutiny is given to the forms of expertise embedded in this through concepts of knowing-in-practice and epistemic objects. Emerging from the findings is clearer understanding of how an arts-based methodology might enhance knowledge about artists’ knowing-in-practice. Popular representations of contemporary artists often ignore the realities of precarious work. This is reflected in the professional education of artists with its concentration on studio-based activities and emphasis on the production and products of artmaking. This study reconfigures and reconceptualises the work of artists as assemblages of sociomaterial practices that include, but are not limited to artmaking – so providing a different representation of the work of artists as a continuous collaboration of mundane materials. The study identified seven sociomaterial practices, defined as movement-driven; studio-making; looking; pedagogic; self-promotion; peer support; and pause. As these practices are subject to ever-changing materialities, they are constantly reassembled. Analysis revealed hidden interiors of underemployment and income generation to be significant factors embedded in the mundane materialities of everyday work, revealing resilience and adaptability as key forms of expertise necessary for the assembling of practices. Further, the arts-based methodology of ‘integrated imagework’ created ways of visually analysing the materially-mediated, socially situated nature of knowing in practice, and demonstrated how relational concepts relating to knowing-in-practice might be better analysed. Findings indicate how the professional education of artists – particularly the way the workplace of the studio is understood – could be re-envisioned to support the fluidity of contemporary artistic practices. The studio itself is a form of knowledge – ever changing – forming and being formed by the practices of artists. Adopting this view of studio-based education would be a radical departure from current studio-based pedagogies in contemporary art education. Further, resilience – the capacity to sustain practices that are emergent and constantly unfolding – becomes a form of expertise central to the professional education of artists.
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Salomon, Yves P. "Novice Teachers' Mathematics practices: Do School Demographics and Teaching Pathway Matter?" Thesis, Boston College, 2010. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/3897.
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Thesis advisor: Joseph J. PedullaThere is no question that teachers play an important role in student learning. In the last decade, researchers have shown evidence pointing to the prominence of teachers compared to other factors that are known to influence student achievement (Wright, Horn, and Sanders, 1997). They have empirically demonstrated that teacher effects are large and persist for up to four years (Kain, 1998; Mendor, Jordan, Gomez, Anderson, and Bembry, 1998; Rivers, 1999). Multiple variables are known to influence teacher quality, including teacher preparation. This dissertation explored the relationship between the teacher education pathway and teaching effectiveness. Although multiple measures of teacher effectiveness exist, this study focused on reformed instructional practices as its measure of teaching effectiveness. In teaching mathematics, in particular, constructivist-based, inquiry-oriented approaches have been shown to be more effective than traditional methods (Abbott and Fouts, 2003; Klein, Hamilton, McCaffrey, Stecher, Robyn, and Burroughs, 2000). Using two groups of novice teachers (N=22) from two preparation pathways, this observational comparative study also investigated the relationship between school composition and teaching practices. There is a large body of literature showing that urban schools serving high proportions of non-white, poor, and low performing students (Darling-Hammond, 1995; Kain and Singleton, 1996; Presley White, and Gong, 2005) tend to have higher percentages of less qualified teachers compared to their suburban counterparts. In light of this, the current study also explored the relationship between school composition and teachers' use of reformed teaching practices. The findings of this investigation indicate that the instructional practices of teachers working in the urban school district where this study was conducted were generally reformed, and did not vary based on the student demographics of the schools in which they taught. In addition, no statistically significant relationship was found between teaching pathway and teachers' instructional practices. Many similarities were found in the instructional practices of teachers from the two preparation pathways. The similarities in the teachers' instructional practices were attributed to the significant congruence in the teacher preparation programs' curriculum, requirement of clinical experience, selectivity, and the programs' explicit social justice missions
Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2010
Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education
Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement, and Evaluation
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Mays, Lydia Criss. "Linking Theory to Practice: Understanding How Two Reading Recovery Teachers' Reflections Inform their Teaching Practices." unrestricted, 2009. http://etd.gsu.edu/theses/available/etd-07072009-162305/.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Georgia State University, 2009.Title from file title page. Diane Truscott, committee chair; Joyce Many, Barbara Meyers, Ramona Matthews, Floretta Reid-Thornton, committee members. Description based on contents viewed Oct. 19, 2009. Includes bibliographical references (p. 155-174).
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Lawson, Emily M. "THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN TEACHING BELIEFS AND PRACTICES AS PERCEIVED BY LANGUAGE GRADUATE TEACHING ASSISTANTS." OpenSIUC, 2019. https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/theses/2598.
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In order to equip teachers for the complexity of their job, teacher education programs have shifted away from training teachers in exactly what to do, focusing instead on how to approach the classroom. Teacher educators are working towards programs that develop beliefs that directly and positively affect the actions of teachers in the classrooms (Darling-Hammond, 2006). One particularly interesting case of teachers-in-training are graduate teaching assistants (GTAs), because they are both students and teachers simultaneously. In addition, GTAs are often learning how to teach while organizing, managing, and instructing classes, with varying levels of experience, training, responsibility, and support (Jordan & Howe, 2018; Patel, 2017). Although there is a body of work exploring the roles GTAs play as students and in institutions (Jordan & Howe, 2018; Park, 2004), GTAs have not generally been examined as classroom teachers. This study explores language GTAs’ beliefs about teaching, how their beliefs connect to their practice, and factors that affect their ability to implement their beliefs using data collected through semi-structured interviews and classroom observations. The findings show that GTAs (1) describe, instead of state, their beliefs focusing on classroom atmosphere and communicative language teaching factors; (2) are able to demonstrate their beliefs at least some of the time in their teaching; and (3) report contextual factors, such as time constraints and departmental training, that both hinder and facilitate their ability to implement their beliefs in their practices. Based on these findings, it is suggested that GTAs be provided opportunities to explicitly identify and reflect on their beliefs, make clear and accurate connections between their teaching and their beliefs, and experience an appropriate balance of support and autonomy. These suggestions are made so that GTAs might be more successful in integrating their beliefs and practices in ways that allow them to fulfill their roles as students and teachers well.
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Star, Rachel Padma. "Constructivist teaching practices middle and secondary school science teachers /." Cincinnati, Ohio : University of Cincinnati, 2005. http://www.ohiolink.edu/etd/view.cgi?acc%5Fnum=ucin1123797028.
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Thesis (Dr. of Education)--University of Cincinnati, 2005.Title from electronic thesis title page (viewed Mar. 23, 2006). Includes abstract. Keywords: Constructivist Teaching Practices; Science Teachers. Includes bibliographical references.
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Farmer, Vickie L. "Effective teaching practices in the linguistically diverse university classroom /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/7894.
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Cusano, Janice M. "Music specialists' beliefs and practices in teaching music listening /." Electronic version Electronic version, 2004. http://wwwlib.umi.com/dissertations/fullcit/3209909.
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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Indiana University, 2004.Computer printout. Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-03, Section: A, page: 0878. Adviser: Mary Goetze. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 205-223), abstract, and vita.
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GieSinger, Patricia. "Teaching practices and secondary mathematics students' perceptions about mathematics." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1999. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk1/tape7/PQDD_0023/MQ51346.pdf.
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Hartley, Jessica. "Guided practices in facing danger : experiences of teaching risk." Thesis, Central School of Speech and Drama, 2013. http://crco.cssd.ac.uk/457/.
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The central problem of this thesis is how a teacher may engage with risk. I offer a reconsideration of the term and suggest that risk is individual, perceptual and experientially driven. I use a Heideggerian (1962) frame when I suggest that, when taking a risk, a person is potentially encountering existential death. Using my own practice as a trapeze artist, I reveal how risk is manifested for the students I teach - how it can profoundly challenge and unsettle them- and how I as a teacher am charged with ensuring that they are empowered rather than stultified or domesticated by the risk. I call this enacted skill ‘pedagogic tact’. By combining Jacques Rancière’s notion of Universal Education (1991) with Martin Heidegger’s ontological appreciation of being-towards-death (1962), I propose that what teachers awaken within students is knowledge of the possibility of death and of not-death within certain pedagogic encounters. I cannot know, measure or prove whether this knowledge has been achieved. However, I can document and describe the students’ relationship with the teacher within these moments. This document therefore becomes a description of student-teacher encounters when the teacher attends towards the emancipation of the student. The combination of reflective research methods from David Tripp (1993), Max Van Manen (1990), Della Pollock (Pollock in Phelan and Lane, 1998) and Jonathan Smith et al (2009) provides a means for phenomenological hermeneutic analysis. I have reflected upon my work with five students over the course of five days of trapeze training, extracted what Tripp would call ‘critical incidents’ between teacher and student and considered their meaning (1993:3). This research is a documentation of engaged pedagogy. It is a performative thesis that ruminates upon how I teach aerial work. There are many findings that seem apparent at the time of writing up. I repetitively circulate around the notion of death, failure, rupture, domestication, entrapment, sacrifice, vulnerability, sobriety and pain as significant elements that describe my work with risk. These concepts are balanced with words such as poetry, liberation, love, strength, glory, resolution and joy. There appears to be a second paradox of teaching that sits alongside and dialogues with the Kantian ‘freedom through coercion’ (1960:699); it is summed up by aerialist and teacher Matilda Leyser in her description of aerial work as ‘strength through vulnerability’ (2007). In order to enable the students’ strength to be challenged, witnessed and supported, there needs to be vulnerability from them, from their carers, from the teacher and from the institution. This vulnerability is not imposed, or bestowed, but is ‘owned’ by the student and teacher in their anxiety and in their choice to, in a Heideggerian sense, comport themselves to that which matters most (Heidegger, 1962). In these moments, anxiety reminds the student that they might die; it also reminds them that they can be strong in the face of possible death. This paradox of vulnerability and strength is synthesised or ‘held’ by the teacher’s tact. The new knowledge that I assert, therefore, is a description and mapping of pedagogic tact. Through this new knowledge, I explore the possibility of becoming a better teacher.
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Bolldén, Karin. "Online teaching practices : Sociomaterial matters in higher education settings." Doctoral thesis, Linköpings universitet, Pedagogik och vuxnas lärande, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:liu:diva-117275.
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The aim of this study was to describe and analyse online teaching practices in the Swedish higher education context. The study had an online ethnographic approach and was based on empirical data on the teaching in two university courses. The study rested primarily on observational data but interviews and available documents also formed the basis for analysis. Empirical data were analysed with a perspective of practice theory – a perspective within a sociomaterial account. The results showed that online teaching was characterised by an embodied sociomaterial practice. The teacher’s body could be understood as both multiple and closely interwoven with technology. Furthermore, the teacher’s body was used in the teaching situation to reduce technological complexity but also, along with other forms of materiality, to prefigure what kind of teaching would take place. Teacher interventions in online environments could furthermore be understood as relational to both technology (that is the virtual material arrangement) and teachers’ doings and sayings (that is the teaching practice). Teacher interventions were aimed at making the arrangement intelligible for the students. The study showed that teacher interventions arranged both students and information and communication technology (ICT) in order to make them work as a teaching practice. The teaching practice that emerged was characterised as an interplay between virtual materiality and social practice, where asymmetricrelations between teachers and the ICT prevailed.Syftet med föreliggande studie var att beskriva och analysera undervisningspraktiker online i svensk högre utbildningskontext. Studien har en onlineetnografisk ansats och baseras på empiriska data av undervisningen i två kurser på universitetsnivå. Studien stödjer sig främst på observationsdata men även intervjuer och dokumentstudier ligger som grund för analysen. Empiriska data har analyserats med ett praktikteoretiskt perspektiv – ett perspektiv inom sociomateriell teoribildning. Resultatet visar att undervisning online kännetecknas av en förkroppsligad sociomateriell praktik. Lärarkroppen kan förstås som både multipel och tätt sammanvävd med teknologi. Vidare används lärarkroppen i undervisningssituationen för att reducera komplexitet men även för att, tillsammans med annan materialitet, prefigurera vad det är för typ av undervisning som kommer att utspela sig. Vidare kan lärarinterventioner i onlinemiljöer förstås som relationella till både tekniken (det vill säga det virtuellt materiella arrangemanget) och lärares göranden och säganden (det vill säga undervisningspraktiken). Lärarinterventioner syftar till att göra arrangemanget begripligt för studenterna. Studien visar att lärarinterventionerna arrangerar både studenter och informations- och kommunikationsteknologi (IKT) i syfte att få dem att fungera som en undervisningspraktik. Den undervisningspraktik som uppstår är inte given på förhand utan emergent. Den karaktäriseras av ett samspel mellan virtuell materialitet och social praktik där asymmetriska relationer mellan lärare och IKT råder.
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Larremore, April 1972. "Uncovering Gendered Teaching Practices in the Early Childhood Classroom." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2014. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc700109/.
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For many early childhood teachers, interacting with children about issues concerning gender and sexuality is fraught with feelings of uneasiness and anxiety. For others, familiarity with research on these topics has resulted in rethinking their approaches to sex, gender, and sexuality in their early childhood classrooms. This inquiry examined the tensions associated with the researcher’s attempts to rethink gendered narratives and childhood sexuality in her own classroom. The study took place over the course of 4 months and involved a traditional public kindergarten classroom. Queer theory and feminist poststructuralism, along with a multi-voiced poststructural autoethnography were used to demonstrate the researcher’s shifting identities and the cultural context that shaped the researcher’s behaviors and perspective. Multivocal autoethnographic narratives were written to illustrate the researcher’s journey between trying on, being in, and becoming a feminist poststructural educator who uncovers and troubles gendered teaching practices in her own early childhood classroom. The following insights resulted from this study: young children actively and knowingly talk about gender and sexuality and do have a considerable amount of sexual knowledge; heterosexuality plays an integral part in children’s everyday experiences; and a lack of equity and inclusion associated with family diversity or queer identities exists in the early childhood classroom. Young children’s access to knowledge about gender, relationships, and sexuality has critical implications for their health and well-being, not only in their early years but also throughout their lives. This knowledge can build children’s competencies and resilience, contributing to new cultural norms of non-violence in gendered and sexual relationships. With a growing diversity in the make-up of families, it is now more critical than ever that teacher training programs move away from a single way of knowing and make room for multiple perspectives, which in turn influence innovative kinds of teaching decisions and practices. This research illustrates that it is possible for early childhood teachers to use feminist poststructuralism and queer theory to deepen their understandings and responses to children’s talk, actions, and play regarding sex, gender, and sexuality and to use these understandings to inform their professional practice.
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Cameron, Nancy G. "Best Practices for Online Teaching: Building a Learning Community." Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University, 2018. https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/7043.
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Ko, Bomna. "An Examination of Teaching Practices of Elementary Physical Educators." The Ohio State University, 2008. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=osu1222195545.
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STAR, RACHEL PADMA. "CONSTRUCTIVIST TEACHING PRACTICES: MIDDLE AND SECONDARY SCHOOL SCIENCE TEACHERS." University of Cincinnati / OhioLINK, 2005. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1123797028.
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Ross, Donna Louise. "Influences of block scheduling on secondary science teaching practices /." Thesis, Connect to this title online; UW restricted, 1998. http://hdl.handle.net/1773/7539.
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Nicholson, Rebecca. "Teaching grammar: Australian secondary English teachers’ beliefs and practices." Thesis, Nicholson, Rebecca (2019) Teaching grammar: Australian secondary English teachers’ beliefs and practices. Masters by Research thesis, Murdoch University, 2019. https://researchrepository.murdoch.edu.au/id/eprint/55853/.
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This thesis presents an investigation into English teachers’ beliefs and declared practices in teaching grammar in Western Australian secondary schools. In doing so, this study has produced an up-to-date account of secondary school teachers’ conceptualisation of grammar, the factors they perceive influence their teaching of grammar, and their preparedness and confidence in teaching grammar. This qualitative study will extend knowledge into the beliefs of Australian secondary English teachers towards teaching grammar. Drawing on the literature review, a theoretical framework about English teachers’ beliefs and practices was created which informed data collection and analysis. Data collection was derived from semi-structured in-depth interviews with six secondary English teachers, all female, with experience in teaching Years 7 to 10 in Western Australian schools. A theory-based interview guide elicited participant’s beliefs and practices in teaching grammar. The interview transcripts were coded inductively and deductively according to the theoretical framework and the data itself to generate main themes. The findings suggest that there exists a dichotomy between the secondary teachers’ conceptualisation of grammar as “functional literacy” and their prescriptive approach to teaching grammar. Teachers felt traditional grammar teaching is “boring” and “complex” and valued grammar teaching for its association with Standard Australian English and a student’s future success. Frequent concern was expressed for their student’s limited knowledge of and disinterest in learning grammar and emphasised the importance of grammar teaching in primary school. These findings support previous research that secondary English teachers have not learnt grammar at school and lack training in teaching grammar. These findings may provide policy makers, teacher educators and practitioners with a greater understanding of the current trends in beliefs and practices towards grammar teaching in the secondary English context.
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Appanna, Subhashni. "Understanding student emotion to inform science inquiry teaching practices." Thesis, Queensland University of Technology, 2022. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/236258/1/PhD%2BThesis.SubhashniAppanna.FINAL%21%2B%281%2909112022v2.pdf.
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This study explores student emotions before and after responsive teaching practices during science inquiry within two Australian Year 10 chemistry classes. An interpretive design and multiple data collection methods were used to develop theoretical understandings of students' emotional experiences as they worked on their science inquiry projects. Understanding the unpleasant emotions associated with common challenges experienced by students provided teachers with insights into developing responsive teaching practices to address student needs. Pleasant emotional experiences followed the implementation of responsive teaching practices in subsequent lessons.
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Sullivan-Casey, Jonna Jaye. "Transforming Teaching and Learning Practices in After School Time Focusing on the Teaching of Science." Thesis, Boston College, 2012. http://hdl.handle.net/2345/bc-ir:104029.
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Thesis advisor: Irwin BlumerOver the past decade, demands and expectations placed on after school programming have changed dramatically. In the new standards based culture of accountability, after school time is seen as an opportunity to provide additional time to learn and demonstrate learning to standards. Professional development opportunities offered has not kept pace with demands being placed on after school programs. After school programs must have protocols in place to evaluate and implement professional development plans in the most effective manner possible. This study was conducted to support programs with planning professional development by assessing the impact of prevalent forms of professional development available on teaching practice and perception. The research questions were: What are teachers' perceptions of how involvement in teaching a new science program affected teaching practice in the after school program? How do teachers' perceive the three models of professional development - intervention, self-initiated, and district directed - contributed to teacher learning? Data was collected in the form of journals, interviews and observations utilizing a pool of five teachers who implemented a new set of science classes during after school time. Findings included a positive increase in perceptions of practice and teacher learning. The level of increase was a function of accurately identifying teacher needs and mapping the best forms of professional development while taking into account teacher's learning/working style. The literature review stated clearly the impact of properly aligned professional development. It underscored the need for professional learning to take place in the context of a collaborative environment that supports teacher change. The study indicates that, irrespective of the form, professional development completed in the context of a collaborative learning community has the ability to create sustainable change. It is the collaborative discussion that serves as the basis for the ongoing professional development. Each form has a particular audience for whom the impact will be the most direct, however, professional development in any form will have an impact on teacher perception and practice
Thesis (EdD) — Boston College, 2012
Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education
Discipline: Educational Administration and Higher Education
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Zacharias, Measias John. "A case study of mathematics teaching and learning in a Malaysian school." Thesis, University of Exeter, 2002. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.251172.
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Squires, Monica Lynn. "Is There a Gap between Educational Theory and Exemplary Teaching Practice?: An Examination of the Practices of Nominees for Maine Teacher of the Year." Fogler Library, University of Maine, 2009. http://www.library.umaine.edu/theses/pdf/SquiresML2009.pdf.
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Richmond, Pam, and n/a. "The more things change : enhancing the capacity of teachers to change their classroom practice." University of Canberra. Education, 1997. http://erl.canberra.edu.au./public/adt-AUC20061107.130304.
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The major issue of this thesis is that for effective change in teachers'
classroom practice to occur, multiple actions are required at different
levels of participation, from federal and state education jurisdictions
through to school communities and individual classroom teachers. The
thesis supposition is that practical action factors in schools and the
community can be found which meet the needs of the change.
The history of attempts to achieve educational change through changed
classroom practice is littered with a range of different approaches, usually
one-off events. They have sometimes succeeded. Stakeholders, including
parents, social pressure groups and particularly governments have
increasing expectations of what it is that teachers can achieve in terms of
their students' learning outcomes. The degree to which actual teaching
practices are changed at the classroom level will depend on the degree to
which teachers are able to manage and implement change. However,
studies in the area of curriculum change reveal that the gap between
policy and practice remains an ongoing concern.
This thesis draws upon theory and applied research findings from the
traditions of educational change, health education, models of change,
evaluation and social science research methods. The purpose of this
thesis is to identify and make comparisons in the practical action factors
which enhance the capacity of teachers to change their classroom practice.
These are investigated through a multiple case study consideration of the
school context, the professional development inputs, and the classroom
programs. The patterns of effective practical action in the research study
would support the thesis supposition.
A multiple case study-theory building approach was used to analyse the
data from twelve school sites selected from the School Development in
Health Education (SDHE) Project. Data analysis employed the technique
of matrix displays, with several rounds of analysis in order to generate
some significant factors related to teacher change. The results were
considered for endorsement by an expert panel from the field in order to
enhance confidence in the validity and the reliability of the research
study.
Results from first round of analysis in the multiple case study showed
school team commitment, teachers' attitude to professional development
and community cooperation to be important factors in educational
change. The second round of analysis highlighted the importance of
placing the teacher at the centre of change when planning professional
development. Finally, the third round presents a summary of the factors
emerging from the analyses in five major focus areas: professional
development; principal leadership; school organisation and culture;
school team; and system support. The importance of the relationships
among these factors was recognised in their impact on teachers' abilities to
make educational changes in their classrooms.
The thesis has found that the professional decision-making and practice
of teachers is value added by the actions of other players - professional
development providers, school principals and education systems.
Teachers' capacity to change is enhanced by appropriate school-based
professional development, flexible school organisation, and the
opportunity to work collaboratively in school teams.
From the patterns emerging from the strong and weak clusters of cases
the thesis is able to make conclusions about teachers' professional practice,
professional development approaches, principal leadership, school
organisation, education systems and the nature of change. This thesis
shows that educational change requires multiple actions at different
levels of participation. Finally, the thesis offers recommendations to the
different players in the field: education systems, principals and
professional development providers.
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Davidson, U. S. Baker Paul J. Lomeli Ramona A. "Exemplary teaching practices in high schools utilizing the block schedule." Normal, Ill. Illinois State University, 2001. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/ilstu/fullcit?p3006617.
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Thesis (Ed. D.)--Illinois State University, 2001.Title from title page screen, viewed April 25, 2006. Dissertation Committee: Paul Baker, Ramona Lomeli (co-chairs), Dianne Ashby, Al Azinger. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 154-159) and abstract. Also available in print.
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Uludag, Nazan. "Teaching for understanding exploring preservice science teachers' beliefs and practices /." Related electronic resource: Current Research at SU : database of SU dissertations, recent titles available full text, 2005. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/syr/main.
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Tshuma, Nompilo. "Teaching and learning with technology: reframing traditional understandings and practices." Rhodes University, Centre of Higher Education Research, teaching and Learning (CHERTL), 2016. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/59569.
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This publication is a collection of case studies outlining examples of how lecturers at Rhodes University have carefully considered and selected technologies to address a range of teaching and learning challenges. In each case, the selection of the learning technology has been driven by a particular learning challenge, with student engagement and enhancement of learning as the main goals. The lecturers have utilised technology as one of several tools in the learning process. Each case study emphasises that even with students’ technological abilities and the masses of information readily available online, the teacher is still indispensable (Laurillard, 2013) for planning, facilitating, guiding and scaffolding learning with technology. For the sake of clarity, some of the details in the case studies may have been omitted or slightly changed.
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Belluigi, Dina Zoe. "Evaluation of teaching and courses: reframing traditional understandings and practices." Rhodes University, Centre of Higher Education Research, teaching and Learning (CHERTL), 2015. http://hdl.handle.net/10962/59546.
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This anthology outlines case studies which have emerged from an approach to evaluation which enables individual academics to practice a degree of autonomy in how they determine their own evaluation agendas, methods and approaches. This has enabled individual cases of both rigour and creativity when it comes to the collection of data and generation of feed- back on their teaching and/or courses, particularly in relation to transforming curricula responsively; enabling student voice and increasing student ownership; and creating spaces for practices to be challenged. The purpose of the case studies is pedagogic and to illustrate a range of practices and principles. For the sake of clarity some of the details have been omitted or slightly changed.
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Hui, Wai-keung Joseph, and 許偉強. "The impact of ICT on teaching practices: a case study." Thesis, The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong), 2003. http://hub.hku.hk/bib/B29469788.
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Jones, Christian. "Spoken discourse markers and English language teaching : practices and pedagogies." Thesis, University of Nottingham, 2011. http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/12260/.
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This thesis reports on a mixed methods classroom research study carried out at a British university. The study investigates the effectiveness of two different explicit teaching approaches, Illustration – Interaction – Induction (III) and Present – Practice – Produce (PPP) used to teach the same spoken discourse markers to two different groups of Chinese learners at the same level of language competency. It was hypothesised that one explicit teaching approach would be more effective than the other in terms of both short and longer term acquisition and both would be more effective than no teaching when viewed objectively with test data and subjectively by the learners themselves. Thirty six Chinese learners (fourteen male, twenty two female) at the same level of language proficiency were assigned to three groups, experimental group 1 (III), experimental group 2 (PPP) and group 3 (control). The average age of the learners was twenty two and all were taking a three week pre-sessional in academic English. Each experimental group received ten hours of explicit instruction on the target language. The control group received no instruction on the target language. The III group were taught using activities which presented the language in context and encouraged them to notice features of the target language by sensitising them to differences between spoken and written modes of language and by comparing the target language with their first language. This group were not given any practice of the target language in class. The PPP group were taught using activities which presented the language in context, checked meaning and form and provided them with opportunities to practice in class. The hypothesis was tested through the use of a free response speaking test used as a pre-test, an immediate post-test and a delayed post-test of eight weeks. The tests were analysed for the amount of target DMs used and learners were rated for interactive ability, discourse management and global achievement. In addition, diaries kept by each learner in the experimental group and focus group interviews were analysed to assess the extent to which this qualitative data supported or added to the quantitative data. Raw counts of the target DMs and interactive ability, discourse management and global test scores indicated that both experimental groups outperformed the control group in the immediate post-test in terms of the target DMs used but that this was weaker in the delayed test. Raw interactive ability, discourse management and global scores weakened in the immediate post-test but improved in the delayed test, suggesting that the increase in use of target DMs did not have an impact upon these scores. Univariate analysis of the pre- and post-tests, using one-way ANOVAs, indicated statistically significant differences between the experimental PPP group and the control group in terms of a higher mean usage of the target DMs in the immediate post-test, whilst the III group's score did not indicate a statistically significant difference when compared to the PPP and control groups. The analysis of the interactive ability, discourse management and global scores did not demonstrate statistically significant differences between the groups. The qualitative results were analysed with Computer Assisted Qualitative Data AnalysiS (CAQDAS) software and supported some of the findings from the test results. This data demonstrated that both groups felt that instruction on the target language was of value to them and the PPP group found their method to be generally more useful, which tallied with their better performances on the tests. The III group showed more evidence of having noticed aspects of language, such as the difference between the target language and their first language and how these spoken forms differ from written ones, although both groups displayed some metalinguistic awareness. Both groups were generally in favour of practice within the classroom but also expressed some strong doubts about its usefulness and articulated a desire for a different kind of practice to be used in class, based on rehearsal for real world tasks. This suggested the need to re-conceptualise practice within III, PPP or other teaching frameworks.
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Tarmo, Albert. "Science teachers' beliefs and teaching practices in Tanzanian secondary schools." Thesis, University of Sussex, 2018. http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/74620/.
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Recent attempts to improve science teaching and learning in Tanzania required teachers to adopt a learner-centred pedagogy. Although researchers widely acknowledge a lack of sustained success in science teachers' adoption of learner-centred pedagogy, the reasons for teachers' reluctance to adopt learner-centred pedagogy remain debated. Various contextual constraints, including resource shortages, overcrowded classrooms, ineffective teacher education, and high-stakes exams, render learner-centred pedagogy unsuccessful. However, in the Tanzanian context, teacher educators and researchers seem to overlook the critical role science teachers' beliefs about science knowledge, teaching, and learning play in their teaching practices. Thus, attempts to identify and address Tanzanian science teachers' deeply held beliefs are uncommon. Therefore, I interviewed six secondary school science teachers to explore their beliefs about science knowledge, teaching and learning and to show how these forms. I also observed their lessons to examine how the teachers' beliefs manifest in their classroom practices. The findings showed that teachers largely espoused ‘traditional beliefs' about science knowledge, teaching, and learning. They viewed science as a fixed body of discrete facts that mirrors natural phenomena. They believe the body of science knowledge is absolute and handed down by omniscient authorities, such as textbooks and teachers. The teachers consistently described teaching science as conveying textbook facts for students to accumulate and reproduce during exams. Social and contextual factors, including teachers' childhood, schooling, and training experiences, as well as the bureaucratic demands, paradoxical curriculum, and students' reticence reinforced these beliefs. Teachers' beliefs, though consistent with their teaching practices, were largely antithetical to the principles and practices of learner-centred pedagogy. Therefore, I propose that Tanzanian secondary school teachers consider their beliefs and the social and contextual conditions of the schools in adopting learner-centred pedagogy. They weigh their beliefs against the social and contextual conditions to decide how to teach. These results suggest that teacher educators and policy makers should seek to transform teachers' beliefs about science knowledge, teaching, and learning through learning trajectories that require teachers to articulate and interrogate their beliefs. Such attempts should consider the social, cultural, and material contexts of the schools in which teachers teach.
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Kleiman, Johannes, and Fredrika Hallonsten. "Teaching Grammar in an ESL setting: Teachers’ beliefs and practices." Thesis, Malmö universitet, Fakulteten för lärande och samhälle (LS), 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-32552.
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Grammar constitutes one of the core components of a language. It is thus problematic that a gap can be found between steering documents and teacher practices in Sweden. The steering documents provide minimal guidance for teachers regarding grammar instruction, which leads to teachers instead relying on their own beliefs to determine their practices. This qualitative study uses semi-structured interviews to examine to what degree the beliefs and practices in relation to English grammar instruction of four teachers in the southern part of Sweden align with three theoretical approaches to grammar teaching from the reviewed research: focus on formS (FonFs), focus on meaning and focus on form (FonF). The results are characterized by individuality in both teachers’ beliefs and practices, but can also be seen to be fundamentally similar in that, for each teacher, the steering documents provide minimal guidance, and factors such as context and the centrality of the learner in grammar instruction are important. All teachers show tendencies toward the three theoretical approaches, but their actual alignment shifts and varies depending on context. We conclude that the absence of direction from the steering documents has the potential to result in disparate and fractured grammar instruction that can negatively impact the learner. This is therefore an important area that should be further researched to ensure that teachers receive sufficient guidance for providing English grammar instruction.
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Hanson, Jana Marie. "Understanding graduate school aspirations: The effect of good teaching practices." Diss., University of Iowa, 2013. https://ir.uiowa.edu/etd/2513.
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This study examined the effects of good teaching practices on post-baccalaureate degree aspirations using logistic regression techniques on a multi-institutional, longitudinal sample of students at four-year colleges and universities. Using College Choice and College Outcomes models as a theoretical foundation, I examined whether eight good teaching practices (non-classroom interactions with faculty, prompt feedback, frequency of interactions with faculty, teaching clarity and organization, challenging classes and high faculty expectations, frequency of higher-order exams and assignments, academic challenge and effort, and integrated ideas, information, and experiences) influenced post-baccalaureate degree aspirations at the end of four academic years, while controlling for students' background characteristics and institutional characteristics that are theoretically associated with aspirations. Using pre-test and post-test data from the Wabash National Study of Liberal Arts Education (WNS), the findings suggest that good teaching practices are positively related to undergraduate students' aspirations for graduate education. This study contributes to college outcome models by emphasizing the importance of faculty to the undergraduate experience. Finally, this study has implications for higher education policy, including practical applications for those involved with undergraduate and graduate education, including administrators, faculty, staff, and students.
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Kannenberg, Elisabeth S. "The Impact of Common Core Professional Development on Teaching Practices." ScholarWorks, 2014. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/90.
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The adoption of the Common Core State Standards (CCSS) in Mathematics represents a challenge for public educators due to the broad scope of required instructional change. This case study investigated the implementation of a professional development (PD) series across 11 elementary schools, designed to address the problem of insufficient teacher preparation in CCSS pedagogical shifts. Grounded in Vygotsky's social learning theory and constructivism, the training was intended to enhance teacher skills through collaborative, inquiry-based learning. The research questions included in the study examined math teaching practices before and after the implementation of the district training. Through questionnaires and interviews, perceptions of site administrators (n = 17) and math coaches (n = 5) were analyzed via inductive coding and identification of emergent themes to determine the impact of the PD in transforming teacher actions. Findings indicated the PD was effective in preparing teachers to execute math lessons emphasizing conceptual understanding and problem-solving. The resulting project, a program evaluation, was an analysis of the PD where strengths, weaknesses, and recommended improvements were identified. This project study is significant because educational leaders may benefit from the identification of successes and shortcomings of one district's CCSS launch, and may choose to replicate the effective programmatic elements. The study has the potential to impart positive social change as it offers solutions to minimize the achievement gap in the area of mathematics, enabling all students to be better prepared to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
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Mather, Aksana P. "Best Teaching Practices for Engaging Adult Students' Foreign Language Learning." ScholarWorks, 2019. https://scholarworks.waldenu.edu/dissertations/7407.
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Government initiatives for strengthening the safety of the United States led to increased requirements for military linguists' knowledge of foreign languages. This study explored the development of professional training for instructors at a military language school to address the gap in teaching services. The purpose of this single case study was to explore best teaching practices for engaging adult students' foreign language learning following andragogical principles. Knowles's theory of andragogy provided the conceptual framework. Data were collected using anonymous responses to an online survey from 26 instructors who answered 3 open-ended questions. Data were analyzed by coding answers to the research question and indicated that approximately one third of participants preferred language-centered practices for engaging their students' foreign language learning. Another third of the respondents noted learner-centered approaches, and the remainder listed both language- and learner-centered approaches among best teaching practices. The proposed curriculum might facilitate discussion about the benefits of each approach to promote teaching and learning at the site. Participating in suggested training that is grounded in the theory of andragogy and local data may bring about positive change by advancing instructors' expertise, improving educational services, and resulting in increased students' proficiency.
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Lomas, Gregor. "The relationship between mathematics educators' beliefs and their teaching practices." Thesis, Curtin University, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/340.
Full textAbstract:
This longitudinal study explored the extent to which mathematics education lecturers' constructivist beliefs and aligned practices were communicated to students in a New Zealand primary pre-service teacher education degree programme. An integral part of this exploration was the identification of particular aspects of lecturers' practice that had a significant impact in enhancing the adoption of constructivist ideas on learning and constructivist-aligned teaching practices by student teachers. This goal had a practical focus on more effective course teaching within the chosen philosophical framework of constructivism. At a more theoretical level, there was a focus on the development of a constructivist approach to teacher education for teacher educators through the medium of mathematics education. A potential outcome of the development and widespread adoption of such a constructivist-aligned pedagogy within teacher education could be the significant furthering of a "reform" (or transformative) agenda in school education with its potential for enhanced learning by children. The methodology comprised both quantitative (survey) and qualitative (interview) techniques to collect information which allowed the capture of different but complementary data, so building a "rich" data set. The surveys were conducted using two leaming environment instruments underpinned by particular constructivist perspectives: one focusing on the overall nature of the learning environment at an individual level from a critical constructivist perspective, and the other focusing on the nature of interactions between teacher and student teachers at a classroom level from a socio-cultural constructivist perspective.Surveys were conducted with the lecturers at the beginning and toward the end of the study, while the student teachers in these lecturers' classes were surveyed over a three year period. The interviews were semi-structured following an interpretative (evolving) research approach, with the "results" of ongoing data analysis being fed into later interviews. The interview data were analysed for personal perceptions and understandings rather than for generalisation and prediction with the intention of focusing on the identification of emergent themes. Interviews were conducted with lecturers at the beginning of the study and again toward its conclusion while student teachers were interviewed at the end of the study. The lecturers claimed constructivism as their underlying philosophical belief system and the initial surveys established baseline data on the actual nature of the lecturers' beliefs and how these were perceived by the student teachers. Similarly, the initial interviews explored the espoused beliefs and congruent practices of lecturers and student teachers. These two sets of data were compared to establish their congruence or otherwise. Further interviews with the lecturers focused on the survey data and my reconstruction of what the lecturers had said previously when interviewed. Later survey and interview data were also examined against the baseline data for evidence of change over the four years of the study. The data demonstrated that the student teachers perceived the existence of moderate to strong socio-cultural constructivist-aligned classroom environments when considered at a class (group) level, and a moderate alignment with critical perspectives at the individual (personal) level.There was a high degree of consistency between staff and student teacher views, and the student teachers' views were consistent across the year groups (first, second and third years) and throughout the four years of the study. Lecturer practice(s) congruent with constructivism were the basis for student teacher change toward understanding and their adoption of constructivist ideas and aligned practices. Specific lecturer practices were identified as particularly effective in achieving such change. These effective lecturer practices may assist in establishing the foundations of a constructivist-aligned pedagogy for teacher education. The lecturers' modeling of the practices they were promoting for student teachers' practice was identified as a key element in promoting change. Indeed, the tension between traditional and transfornative approaches was exacerbated in situations where lecturers' promotion of a preferred practice was different from that which they enacted. The continuing existence of such situations and associated tensions has the potential to limit the extent of any change.
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Lomas, Gregor. "The relationship between mathematics educators' beliefs and their teaching practices." Curtin University of Technology, Science and Mathematics Education Centre, 2004. http://espace.library.curtin.edu.au:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=15901.
Full textAbstract:
This longitudinal study explored the extent to which mathematics education lecturers' constructivist beliefs and aligned practices were communicated to students in a New Zealand primary pre-service teacher education degree programme. An integral part of this exploration was the identification of particular aspects of lecturers' practice that had a significant impact in enhancing the adoption of constructivist ideas on learning and constructivist-aligned teaching practices by student teachers. This goal had a practical focus on more effective course teaching within the chosen philosophical framework of constructivism. At a more theoretical level, there was a focus on the development of a constructivist approach to teacher education for teacher educators through the medium of mathematics education. A potential outcome of the development and widespread adoption of such a constructivist-aligned pedagogy within teacher education could be the significant furthering of a "reform" (or transformative) agenda in school education with its potential for enhanced learning by children. The methodology comprised both quantitative (survey) and qualitative (interview) techniques to collect information which allowed the capture of different but complementary data, so building a "rich" data set. The surveys were conducted using two leaming environment instruments underpinned by particular constructivist perspectives: one focusing on the overall nature of the learning environment at an individual level from a critical constructivist perspective, and the other focusing on the nature of interactions between teacher and student teachers at a classroom level from a socio-cultural constructivist perspective.Surveys were conducted with the lecturers at the beginning and toward the end of the study, while the student teachers in these lecturers' classes were surveyed over a three year period. The interviews were semi-structured following an interpretative (evolving) research approach, with the "results" of ongoing data analysis being fed into later interviews. The interview data were analysed for personal perceptions and understandings rather than for generalisation and prediction with the intention of focusing on the identification of emergent themes. Interviews were conducted with lecturers at the beginning of the study and again toward its conclusion while student teachers were interviewed at the end of the study. The lecturers claimed constructivism as their underlying philosophical belief system and the initial surveys established baseline data on the actual nature of the lecturers' beliefs and how these were perceived by the student teachers. Similarly, the initial interviews explored the espoused beliefs and congruent practices of lecturers and student teachers. These two sets of data were compared to establish their congruence or otherwise. Further interviews with the lecturers focused on the survey data and my reconstruction of what the lecturers had said previously when interviewed. Later survey and interview data were also examined against the baseline data for evidence of change over the four years of the study. The data demonstrated that the student teachers perceived the existence of moderate to strong socio-cultural constructivist-aligned classroom environments when considered at a class (group) level, and a moderate alignment with critical perspectives at the individual (personal) level.
There was a high degree of consistency between staff and student teacher views, and the student teachers' views were consistent across the year groups (first, second and third years) and throughout the four years of the study. Lecturer practice(s) congruent with constructivism were the basis for student teacher change toward understanding and their adoption of constructivist ideas and aligned practices. Specific lecturer practices were identified as particularly effective in achieving such change. These effective lecturer practices may assist in establishing the foundations of a constructivist-aligned pedagogy for teacher education. The lecturers' modeling of the practices they were promoting for student teachers' practice was identified as a key element in promoting change. Indeed, the tension between traditional and transfornative approaches was exacerbated in situations where lecturers' promotion of a preferred practice was different from that which they enacted. The continuing existence of such situations and associated tensions has the potential to limit the extent of any change.
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Crockett, D. Elizabeth. "School-based prereferral intervention practices." W&M ScholarWorks, 2005. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1550154046.
Full text
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Hicks, Priscilla Lafond. "Challenges Public School Teachers Face Teaching Military Connected Students." Diss., Virginia Tech, 2020. http://hdl.handle.net/10919/97905.
Full textAbstract:
Many military children face obstacles during their lives, and these obstacles can affect their classroom environment due to their mobility, social-emotional behavior, and academics. The purpose of this study was to identify challenges, if any, that teachers indicate exist while educating military-connected students in public schools and teacher actions to address any challenges. Existing literature on military connected students and teacher perceptions of military-connected challenges was reviewed.
This study examined teacher perceptions of the challenges, responses to challenges and training these teachers experienced while teaching military-connected students.
A Likert-type survey of questions was administered through an online survey tool to elementary school teachers in two public school divisions in Virginia. The survey instrument was developed by Mittleberg (2014). After collecting the data, the researcher examined and analyzed data based on the survey responses. The following research questions were addressed: - What challenges do teachers identify related to educating military-connected students?
- What practices do teachers use to address the perceived challenges?
- What do teachers indicate as their level of training to teach military-connected students?
Doctor of Education
There are many public school divisions in the United States that service military-connected students. Of the 132 school divisions in the Commonwealth of Virginia, there is at least one military-connected student in each school division. According to Wykes (2015), Virginia is one of the top 10 states for military presence with 10% (Wykes, 2015, p. 23). Teachers in these school divisions face perceived challenges that need to be addressed. Some of those challenges include mobility, academics, and the social-emotional well-being of the military- connected student. This quantitative study focused on the perceived challenges public school teachers face when teaching military-connected students. Data were collected using a Likert-type survey with participants from two school divisions who service military-connected students. There were limitations in this study beyond the researcher's control such as the accuracy and honesty by the respondents and response rate. This study produced eight findings and eight implications. Of the eight findings, three were teachers perceived the adjustment to students leaving and arriving at various times, having a routine in place when new military-connected students arrive into the classroom after the start of the school year, and receiving the level of training needed to prepare them to support parents/guardians of military connected students in their classroom were a challenge. A few of the implications included, the need for teacher preparation programs to address the challenges military connected students face, the development of a handbook of team building activities for teachers to use in the classroom as a resource and the need for resources that could focus on meeting the needs of students' knowledge gaps to support those military connected students.