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In response to growing systemic awareness of the need to prepare school students for workplace participation, school-sponsored workplace learning was established as part of the secondary school curriculum in most Western democracies by the 1980s. By the 1990s contracting youth labour markets and qualitative changes in acceptable workforce credentials accompanying economic globalisation, technological change and industry restructuring had highlighted the role of school-sponsored workplace learning in school-based vocational education and training programs. Concurrently, complementary interest has emerged about school-sponsored workplace learnings' influence on school students' affective development, particularly about its potential to motivate students from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds to maintain and extend their education and/or training beyond the compulsory school leaving age. Despite anecdotal evidence supporting claims for positive affective outcomes for students participating in school-sponsored workplace learning, relatively little empirical research has been undertaken to provide substantive evidence supporting those claims. One facet of this study seeks to address this shortfall. Using a pretest-posttest survey form of the non-equivalent control group design, the study's matched pairs analysis describes positive treatment effects for both genders in motivation for school learning at the first three levels of the Affective Domain Taxonomy (Krathwohl, Bloom, & Masia, 1964). Moreover, these positive treatment effects were of sufficient statistical significance and power to accept the hypothesis that socio-economically disadvantaged female high school students will report improved motivation for school learning at Level 3 (Valuing) of the Taxonomy following participation in workplace learning. In so doing, this aspect of the study contributes to closing the descriptive - correlational - experimental research loop for this field of enquiry (Rosenshine & Furst, 1973). Correspondingly, little is known of the affectivity attending workplace mentoring roles for school-sponsored workplace learning. In the second facet of this study affectivity attending host workplace mentoring roles is described by adapted forms of organizational spontaneity (George & Brief, 1992) that are structured on multiple levels of analysis (Cote,1999) based on workplace context layers (O'Connor, 1994b). Data collection of evidence for workplace mentors' affectivity adopted a positivist approach and, through combined quantitative and qualitative analyses, showed that positive affect in the workplace was attended by mentoring activities such as helping co-workers, developing oneself, and spreading goodwill. This positive affect was found to attend workplace mentoring activity at the individual, work teams or groups, work section or department, and enterprise workplace context layers. These findings add to the embryonic literature concerning host workplace mentors' affective responses to hosting school students for workplace learning. The study has implications for future research and consideration by systemic policy makers, school-level personnel, and host workplace enterprises.

Recent educational reform in Thailand has recognised the importance of a student- centred approach to learning. This change of emphasis reflects a global trend to prepare high level graduates who can meet the present and future needs of communities in general and of business in particular. By meeting the challenges presented by globalisation, Thai universities can grow and thrive in a new economic era, which is characterised by constant change and ever-increasing educational demands. Courses which prepare students to meet the practical demands of the workplace are being introduced in universities worldwide. To test whether experiential learning is practicable in a university learning environment, a Business Simulation Course (BSC) at Payap University was evaluated. The course is intended to facilitate business students' learning, by integrating theory with practice, which involves students working in 'real-life' business contexts. The study data were collected from three sample groups of stakeholders. Stakeholders sampled included: BSC students, staff members at Payap University and non-university respondents who included villager leaders, parents of students, suppliers and policy-makers. Eighty respondents were surveyed by questionnaire, and 20 respondents were interviewed. The data were collected during the second semester of the 2003 academic year. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of the data were undertaken, in addition to a review of relevant literature. In this study, a 'grounded theory' approach used the modified 'Constant Comparative Method' as a means of both data collection and data analysis (Strauss & Corbin, 1998b). The findings of the study indicated that the course is an effective means of linking theory with practice by experiential learning. Stakeholders expressed the view that practical courses such as the BSC helped students to develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills and gave them the necessary experience to work co- operatively in a 'real' business world. However, non-university stakeholders were more in agreement with this point than students and staff. The data also indicated that students tended to prefer classroom learning by case study to learning-by-doing in a 'bona fide' business setting. The reasons given for this were that stress levels were higher for students in experiential learning, largely due to the extra demands on their time and the added pressure of teamwork. In addition, increased resourcing of the course was seen as necessary to produce more effective teaching and learning outcomes in the BSC. The data also indicated that stakeholders believed that working in the community context is an important focus of the university because each institution is part of a unique local community. Also, all stakeholders recognised that business ethics are an important aspect of business life, which should be incorporated in the curriculum. However, students, staff and non-university stakeholders all agreed that learning in a simulated business environment is useful for future employment, because it allows students to experience 'real-life' business problems and develop solutions to them. Thus the study provides valuable feedback from stakeholders in the BSC. This is useful as part of the process of improving curriculum design as it closes the loop between purpose - implementation - review of the course. This feedback enables faculty staff at Payap University responsible for curriculum design and implementation to refine their activities in courses such as the BSC. Feedback is also provided in the term of useful practical and theoretical advice to the university sector. Finally, policy-makers senior bureaucrats and high level administrators in government will also benefit from the insights provided by this study.

This study reports on teacher evaluation and professional development practices in Tasmanian high schools. It was conducted within a context of increasing regulation of teachers through legislated registration and directed standards. The thesis in this study is that there is insufficient linkage between teacher evaluation and professional development. The study investigates whether Tasmanian high schools monitor teaching, and verify whether teacher learning leads to explicit pedagogical outcomes. By considering factors such as organisational theory, teacher competence, evaluation objectives and approaches, and the impact of change, a list of ideal objectives and characteristics for the evaluation of teachers is established. By examining organisational support of new pedagogies, the application of stage theory to determine individual needs, and validation of training to ensure that learning has been applied, a similar list of ideal objectives and characteristics is obtained for professional development. A sample of 193 high school teachers was surveyed to determine the extent of teacher evaluation by supervisors, and independent reflective pedagogical practices. It also examined professional development participation, effectiveness, and satisfaction. Teacher perceptions of their ability to affect their performance management were analysed. The state wide survey is complemented by case studies of four high schools to reveal extant evaluation and professional development practices and attitudes. Surveys of documentation and teacher attitudes are supported by student focus group discussions to yield an insight into classroom realities. The state wide survey revealed that formal evaluation and classroom observation were uncommon, and that one third of the sample rarely engaged in scheduled discussions about pedagogy. Teacher attitudes to professional development were positive, but one in four teachers were dissatisfied with its management and outcomes. Surveyed teachers felt collectively strong and individually weak to influence extant evaluation and professional development practices. Only one case study school used evaluation as other than an intermittent selection tool, but half of the teachers in this school felt no ownership of, and lacked trust, in the process. Professional development choices in all case study schools were often based on enjoyment, and outcomes for teaching and learning were rarely validated. The research suggests that the establishment of evaluation or external implementation of teacher standards may be undermined by current professional development practices that are neither based on classroom needs, nor validated to ensure pedagogical outcomes. Collective independent utilisation of established standards methodologies by teachers themselves to establish reflective pedagogy could be the most effective way of enhancing teaching quality.

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This study contributes to the contemporary debate within Western radical sociology of education regarding the relationship between the social order and the processes of schooling. It is theoretically well-established in this field that schooling is central to the maintenance of existing social relations of dominance and subordination. Focusing on the commonsense knowledge and classroom practices of two groups of fifth form adolescent girls in an inner-city all-girls Grammar school in New Zealand, the study sets out to analyse and illustrate in concrete detail some of the ideological and pedagogical processes through which schooling contributes to social reproduction. The data and discussion provide insights into the thoughts and everyday school experiences of some middle class Pakeha (European) and working class Pacific Island girls as they seriously attempt to 'get school knowledge' and, thus, the credentials which they believe the school offers the motivated and able. It also shows how teachers unwittingly recruit the active participation of students from 'race' and class groups in pedagogical interactions which often preclude the working class Pacific Island girls from acquiring the school credentials they seek. This process, and that of the school's 'provision' of the middle class Pakeha girls' academic achievement, is then 'misrecognised' by the students as the natural and fair outcome of differential talent and motivation. The theoretical framework of the thesis centres around the major contemporary questions in social theory regarding the agency-structure relationship and how social and cultural life is to be conceptualised as the dialectical product of human agents producing and produced by the social structure within which they exist.

Cognisant of the critical interplay between beliefs and practice, the current study investigated primary school teachers' beliefs and understandings about feedback, and the use of feedback to enhance student learning. Central to the investigation has been an exploration of teachers' beliefs about the nature and place of feedback in student learning and of their role and that of learners in the feedback process. Of equal importance has been an examination of the strategies and practices that teachers utilised and ascribed importance to within the feedback process, including the opportunities offered to students in relation to the development of evaluative and productive knowledge and expertise (Sadler, 1989). To facilitate this investigation, Sadler's (1989) theory of formative assessment and feedback was used as a framework to inform both the research design and subsequent analyses. Utilising an interpretive, qualitative, case study methodology the current research was conducted in two sequential phases. Phase one consisted of semi-structured interviews with a convenience sample of 20 experienced teachers. In phase two, three of these 20 participants were selected purposively for classroom observations of teachers' feedback practice during the teaching of a written language unit. These teachers also participated in a semi-structured interview following each series of observations. During both phases, additional data were generated through field notes and the collection of relevant artefacts. Together, the multiple forms of evidence provided complementary information and ensured a rich pool of data. Three recognised approaches to data analysis were utilised, namely thematic analysis, the constant comparison method and discourse analysis. The use of Sadler's theoretical framework illuminated both similarities and differences among teachers in regard to the nature, place and role of feedback in learning and teaching. As teachers' feedback discourse was examined in more detail the influence of efficacy beliefs on the uptake and enactment of new ideas and practices associated with formative assessment and feedback became apparent. Teachers' beliefs about teaching and learning were a further mediating influence, particularly in regard to how the feedback process was conceived and with respect to the norms of behaviour that teachers promoted within the feedback process. The complexity of the beliefs/practice nexus was highlighted in regard to the influence of teachers' tacit, at times outmoded beliefs, on practice. Observations revealed that each of the three case study teachers had adopted many of the strategies associated with contemporary notions of good feedback practice. However, the ways in which these strategies were implemented in the classroom was a matter of considerable variation particularly in regard to the nature of student involvement and the amount of control maintained by the teacher. Findings from this phase of the research supported Fang's (1996) consistency/inconsistency thesis. In two of the three cases there was a high degree of consistency between teachers' stated intentions and their actions while in the third the opposite was apparent. Overall, it was concluded that while all teachers had adopted elements of the contemporary feedback 'discourse' none had mastered the 'Discourse' (Gee, 1996). Looking to the future, it is argued that this Discourse cannot be enacted through the mere bolting on of strategies to existing classroom programmes. To enact the contemporary Discourse in the ways imagined three conditions must be met. Firstly, beliefs about teaching, learning and feedback must reflect those embedded in the Discourse. Secondly, there must be a close alignment between those beliefs and practice. Thirdly, teachers must acquire in-depth subject matter knowledge, which will enable them to create the dialogic forms of feedback necessary for students to become self-monitoring and self-regulatory.

This study describes the attributes of a highly accomplished mathematics teacher as reported by the students in their class, and also determines whether high school students can differentiate between highly accomplished mathematics teachers and others. The 51-item instrument, Students Evaluating Accomplished Teaching – Mathematics, was developed to map the construct of highly accomplished teaching as articulated by the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards in their Adolescent and Young Adulthood Mathematics Standards. Two focus groups of New Zealand high school mathematics teachers reviewed these Standards, and found that there were more similarities than differences between the Standards and what they would expect of a highly accomplished teacher in New Zealand. Questionnaire items were drafted relating to each of 470 statements in the Standards. These items were trialled in New Zealand high schools, and analysed using factor analysis and item response theory, to select items that completely mapped the Standards. The questionnaire was then administered to 1611 students in the classes of thirty-two National Board Certified Teachers and twenty-six non-Board colleagues in 13 states of the USA. Multivariate analysis of variance and discriminant function analysis were used to establish that students can record and report the difference between NBCTs and their non-Board certified colleagues, and describe what students believe are the attributes of a good teacher. Highly accomplished teachers build a relationship between their students and the mathematics curriculum, as well as with the language and processes of mathematics, by engaging their minds with challenging material and rich tasks. These results provide further validation of the NBPTS certification process, and indicate that students provide dependable evaluations of their teachers. The student evaluation questionnaire could be used with confidence in both the USA and New Zealand to identify highly accomplished mathematics teachers.