The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of a mathematics teaching methods course on pre-service elementary mathematics teachers&rsquo / content knowledge for teaching mathematics (CKTM). In order to accomplish this purpose, pre-service mathematics teachers&rsquo / understanding of basic concepts and procedures in school mathematics, use of mathematical definitions, presentation of mathematical content to students, identification of common errors, misconceptions and solution strategies and evaluation of unusual solution methods were examined with the help of a multiple choice test. The data were collected from 43 senior pre-service mathematics teachers from a teacher education program at a large public university in Ankara. The participants were given an 83-item test to measure their content knowledge for mathematics teaching at the beginning and after the methods course. The purpose of the pre- and post-test assessment was to measure the amount of change in the participants&#039 / knowledge for mathematics teaching. The test was developed and piloted at the University of Michigan in the USA for Learning Mathematics for Teaching (LMT) Project. Quantitative data analysis techniques were used to answer the research questions. The results indicated that there was a significant effect of the mathematics teaching methods course on pre-service teachers&rsquo / content knowledge for teaching mathematics. Moreover, the findings showed that there is no significant mean difference between male and female pre-service teachers, and between the pre-service teachers who have taken at least one mathematics teaching elective course and the ones who have not taken any elective course related to mathematics teaching in terms of their CKTM. Also, the study showed that there is a significant positive relationship between pre-service teachers&rsquo / CKTM and their academic achievement on undergraduate mathematics content courses. The study is expected to make important contributions to the literature by providing information about whether the methods courses significantly contribute to pre-service teachers&rsquo / understanding of knowledge for mathematics teaching. Moreover, the findings of the study is hoped to inform teacher educators and policy makers about the needs and improvements in teacher preparation programs.

This study examined reading programs in 68 Texas elementary schools that were identified as successful by their scores on TAAS assessment results in the 1999-2000 school year. These schools’ student populations had a high proportion of culturally diverse and low-SES students. The purposes of this study were: (1) to determine if and how teaching methods and collaboration (intervention/support teams) were used by effective schools to foster reading success in all students; (2) to identify cohesive patterns (clusters) or models in schools’ use of collaboration and teaching methods; (3) to examine these clusters of similar schools and see if the patterns differed based on the school/community demography (urban, suburban, or rural). The study was conducted in 68 schools in 33 school districts that represented various demographic settings from 12 different Education Service Centers across Texas. From these original 332 variables, 26 variables were selected that were of medium frequency and strongly correlated with high TAAS scores over a 4- year period. These 26 variables were used to examine the 68 high-performing Texas elementary schools for clusters. K-means analysis and HCA were both applied to the 26 response variables, using them as complementary techniques to arrive at a five cluster solution. Results from correlations of individual characteristics and from identifying school clusters suggested that school community type could possibly be moderately predictive of student performance on the TAAS/TAKS over time.

Many universities and colleges have placed increased emphasis on teaching excellence in higher education. Efforts to promote teaching excellence vary from the development of alternative new pedagogies as well as research exploring strategies to improve existing teaching practices. Logically, different disciplines employ different instructional strategies to prepare their graduates with specific skills, knowledge, and attitudes. This study examined the instructional strategies used most frequently in the information systems discipline and was inspired by Shulman's (2005) concept of signature pedagogies - the unique but pervasive ways of teaching within a discipline or profession. This dissertation reports a national survey of instructional strategies used across the information systems discipline. The study employed a web-based survey of all information systems faculty members in the United States listed in the Association of Information Systems membership directory (695 valid responses were obtained from 2,835 eligible participants, 24.4% response rate). The research used an original questionnaire identifying 52 different instructional strategies to create a profile of commonly employed teaching practices and to identify whether there are identifiable signature pedagogies in the discipline of Information Systems (IS). Data analyses included descriptive statistics, factor analysis of the survey items, and multiple regression of eight independent variables to predict frequency of instructional strategy used. This quantitative study is the first systematic investigation profiling the instructional strategies and signature pedagogies used in the IS discipline. The results show domination of lecture-based strategies across the information systems discipline. Over 66% of the participants identified lecture as their most frequently used teaching method. Based on the frequency of responses to "Frequently" and "Almost Always/Always", lecture was identified as the most frequently used strategy. The next most commonly employed strategies were interactive lectures (63%), cooperative learning/team-based learning (53%), problem-based learning (53%), whole group discussions (50%), and demonstrations (49%). Participants were also asked to select their "three most frequently used" strategies to identify potential signature pedagogies. Their responses again identified lectures and interactive lectures as the dominant strategies. Viewing these as generic strategies, the following additional frequently used strategies might point to potential signature pedagogies in the discipline: lab activities, case study, analysis and design project, and whole group discussion. This initial investigation focused exclusively on what Shulman (2005) has identified as the surface structure of the pedagogies. Further studies are recommended to also examine the deep and implicit structures to more definitively identify signature pedagogies in the IS discipline. The exploratory factor analysis revealed patterns of instructional strategies usage in the IS discipline. Six factors were identified: in-class active learning strategies, highly-structured active learning strategies, online learning strategies, project-based strategies, writing-based strategies, and portfolio strategies. The internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's Alpha) of the six factors ranged from .67 to .87 on each of the factors formed. Composite means of the factors showed that highly-structured active learning strategies and project-based strategies were the two most frequently used groups of instructional strategies groups across the IS discipline. This study further found that six of eight demographic and course characteristics (i.e., gender, rank, age, course level, delivery format, and class size) were associated significantly with instructional strategies usage depending on both the group of instructional strategies and the type of instructional strategies. Years of prior teaching experience and availability of student assistants were the two non-significant demographic and course characteristics. This study profiles the teaching practices currently employed in the IS discipline in the United States. Recommendations for future research are described along with suggestions for improving teaching and faculty development initiatives in the IS discipline. Additionally, possibilities for future research both within the IS discipline and across other disciplines are presented.

Professional Learning Communities– A Necessity for Improving Teaching? The aim of this study was to examine what factors are important for teachers in professional learning communities to improve their teaching in order to increase the results of the students. The study was based on a program of development about language improvement that took place in two schools during the autumn of 2014. The authors of this study were also in charge of the improvement program. The data used in the analysis was based on individual questionnaires and group interviews. The theoretical framework of the study was founded on Timperley’s (2011) inquiry and knowledge-building cycle, Hargreaves and Fullan’s (2012) theory about professional capital and Stoll’s (2006) characteristics of effective learning groups. The results obtained in this study indicate that the following factors are of crucial importance for teachers to improve their teaching; leadership, systematic surveys of what students need to develop, a clearly understandable aim within the specific area of development, a clear structure within the learning group and between the meetings, scheduled time for the meetings, teachers’ mindset, a scientific approach, the use of science and initiated moderators of the learning groups. The study showed that professional learning communities working with these factors are going to be successful.

No description available.

Purpose: Our purpose with this study is to compare how the two selected schools in two different areas in Stockholm chooses to introduce and integrate newly arrived children in Sweden. The schools are located in the suburb and downtown in Stockholm. One school has chosen to integrate the child by placing him or her in a preparatory class and the other school is placing the child into a regular class. Investigation questions: We want to find out how the choosen schools are working with a newly arrived child. How is the child integrated and introduced directly into a regular class through teaching methods and teaching material and how a newly arrived child is integrated and introduced into a preparatory class through teaching methods and teaching material. We also want to find out if the community authorities in the City of Stockholm and the Swedish state have guidelines that schools are supposed to follow in the work with newly arrived children and whether our selected schools are working after these guidelines. Method: The study is based on two methods. One method are interviews, we interviewed three active persons from each selected school. We also interviewed a researcher in this subject and a person who works for the municipality with the reception of newly arrived children. The second method is based on textual analysis document issued by the Immigration Department (Migrationsverket) and the Education Department (Skolverket) as well as the Municipalities and Counties of Sweden (Sveriges Kommuner och Landsting). Theories: We have chosen to use two social theories: Mead's interactionist theory and Vygotsky's sociocultural theory. These theories are both based on the importance of social interaction for development. Conclusions: We have concluded that the most important thing is not whether the child is placed in preparatory class or a regular class. The key factor is how the teaching is, what resources are available and what skills the teacher has. We have also concluded that there are guidelines from the Education Department but that the schools in this study did not follow.

The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the teaching practice in grade 12 Biblical Studies in private Christian schools in the Limpopo Province in South Africa during 2003, with the specific objective to make recommendations towards possible improvements. Although but a few private Christian schools in the Limpopo Province participated in the study, while the title implies that all the South African schools were involved, the findings are assumed to be a cross section of the general situation of grade 12 Biblical Studies teaching in South Africa, as teaching is more or less subjected to similar conditions in all the Provinces. This study consists of a theoretical section wherein literature regarding the variables of the study are discussed, as well as an empirical section wherein the results of the research are reported and interpreted with the aim of reaching certain conclusions regarding the typical profile of Biblical Studies teaching practice in the Limpopo Province. The theoretical basis is grounded in the didactical foundations of teaching as discussed in Chapter 2. This is followed by the empirical study (described in Chapter 3) grounded in the results obtained from classroom observations, questionnaires, interviews and the November 1996-2002 Biblical Studies grade 12 final examination of the four participating schools. Chapters 4 and 5 respectively evaluate and consolidate the findings from the classroom observations, the responses from the interviews and questionnaires, and the November 1996-2002 grade 12 Biblical Studies examination results. The main thesis on which this study rests is that the teaching practice of grade 12 Biblical Studies in private Christian schools during 2003 was unsatisfactory because of, inter alia, lack of work ethics, negative attitudes of both teachers and learners, lack of or insufficient application of didactical principles, teaching methods and teaching aids, low morale and insufficient or improper training of Biblical Studies teachers. The study revealed that the teaching of grade 12 Biblical Studies in private Christian schools during 2003 was indeed unsatisfactory because of lack of work ethics, negative attitude of both teachers and learners, lack of and insufficient application of didactical principles and a variety of teaching methods, low morale and improper training of some Biblical Studies teachers. The most aggravating factor was that teachers often did not even show up for Biblical Studies classes. Conclusively, it is therefore recommended that heads of departments and principals regularly monitor and evaluate the quality and quantity of Biblical Studies teaching in schools. The inspectors of schools may also support these forms of control by more regular inspection of schools, and more specifically, of the Biblical Studies classroom. Incentives and recognition of performance by both teachers and learners in the Biblical Studies classroom may be incorporated into these recommendations. / Thesis (M.A.)--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2004.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

A primary goal of education is the acquisition of durable knowledge which challenges the use of efficient pedagogical methods of how to best facilitate learning. Research in cognitive psychology has demonstrated that repeated testing during the learning phase improves performance on later retention tests compared to restudy of material. This empirical phenomenon is called the testing effect. The testing effect has shown to be robust across different kinds of material and when compared to different pedagogical methods. Despite the extensive number of published papers on the testing effect, the majority of the studies have been conducted in the laboratory. More specific, few studies have examined the testing effect in authentic settings when using course material during the progress of a course. Further, few studies have investigated the beneficial effects with test-enhanced learning by the use of neuroimaging methods (e.g. fMRI). The aim with the thesis was to investigate the effects of test-enhanced learning in an authentic educational context and how this is related to individual differences in working memory capacity (Study I and II) as well as changes in brain activity involved in successful repeated testing and long term retention (Study III). In study I, we examined whether repeated testing with feedback benefitted learning compared to rereading of introductory psychology key concepts in a sample of undergraduate students. The results revealed that repeated testing with feedback was superior compared to rereading both immediate after practice and at longer delays. The effect of repeated testing was beneficial for students irrespectively of WMC. In Study II, we investigated test-enhanced learning in relation to the encoding variability hypothesis for the learning of mathematics in a sample of fifth-grade children. Learning was examined in relation to both practiced and transfer tasks. No differences were found for the practiced tasks. Regarding the transfer tasks, the results gave support for the encoding variability hypothesis, but only at the immediate test. In contrast, when we followed up the durability of learning across time, the results showed that taking the same questions over and over again during the intervention resulted in better performance across time compared to variable encoding. Individual differences in WMC predicted performance on the transfer tasks, but only at the immediate test, regardless of group. Together, the results from Study I and Study II clearly indicate that testenhanced learning is effective in authentic settings, across age-groups and also produces transfer. Integrate current findings from cognitive science, in terms of test-enhanced learning, by the use of authentic materials and assessments relevant for educational goals can be rather easily done with vi computer based tasks. The observed influence of individual differences in WMC between the studies warrant further study of its specific contribution to be able to optimize the learning procedure. In Study III, we tested the complementary hypothesis regarding the mechanisms behind memory retrieval. Recurrent retrieval may be efficient because it induces representational consistency or, alternatively, because it induces representational variability - the altering or adding of underlying representations as a function of successful repeated retrieval. A cluster in right superior parietal cortex was identified as important for items successfully repeatedly retrieved Day 1, and also correctly remembered Day 7, compared to those successfully repeatedly retrieved Day 1 but forgotten Day 7. Representational similarity analysis in this region gave support for the theoretical explanations that emphasis semantic elaboration.

Šiuolaikiniame ugdyme akcentuojama, jog matematika yra reikšminga pasaulio kultūros ir veiksminga jo pažinimo dalis. Sudėtinga prisitaikyti prie nuolat kintančios tikrovės, jeigu nėra pakankamai gerai išlavinti problemų sprendimo įgūdžiai, jeigu stinga žinių, noro mokytis ir tobulėti, nepasitikima savo jėgomis. Taigi, šiuolaikinis mokymosi organizavimo procesas neįsivaizduojamas be sėkmingo mokytojo ir mokinio santykio, kuris daro poveikį mokinių mokymosi pasiekimams.Tačiau kaip nuo matematikos pamokos organizavimo būdų priklauso IV klasės mokinių mokymosi pasiekimai nėra pakankamai išnagrinėta. / It is emphasized that mathematics is important world culture and the efficient cognition part in modern education. It is complicated to adapt to the constantly changing reality, if the problem solving skills are not developed well enough, there is a lack of knowledge and desire to learn and improve, distrust to your own forces. Therefore the modern learning organization process is inconceivable without the successful relationship between the teacher and the student which influences students’ learning achievements. However it is not analyzed enough how IV form students’ learning achievements depend on the math lesson organizational methods.