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published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1993.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1993. / Also available in print.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

Historically, disciplines other than education have studied the culture of the classroom. Yet, the group phenomena of education has been ignored. The ways teachers manage groups and lesson activities appear to have important implications for the study of teaching and learning. However, there are no rules to follow. A decision-making base does not exist. Yet, the study of teacher and student behavior is dependent upon the setting within which that behavior occurs. An appropriate choice must be made for an objective method to provide an adequate level of description of the teaching/learning context of the classroom. That is the focus of this study. The subjects were nine classroom teachers, grades 1 or 2, from two separate school districts within a 50-mile radius of Tucson, Arizona. Six teachers served as the control group and three teachers served as the treatment group. Treatment consisted of orientation in the concept of activity structures, videotaping of language arts instruction, coding of such instruction by the researcher and stimulated recall of such instruction by the teacher in a feedback session with the researcher. Instrumentation consisted of a beliefs questionnaire, a teacher information form, a journal, and an interview all developed by the researcher. Instrumentation occurred with both groups, both pre- and posttreatment. Ethnographic techniques were used for both instrumentation and treatment.

Current research in expert/novice differences in problem solving suggests the need to investigate the domain specific knowledge of people with experience in problem solving in a particular field against the domain specific knowledge of those with less experience. Furthermore, research in teacher thinking makes important assumptions concerning the knowledge teachers of different experience levels have about students, but lacks complete support for those assumptions. This qualitative study addressed both of these issues. It investigated the differences in the knowledge of students and classrooms of twelve high school science teachers with three different levels of experience. Through analysis of the protocols of interviews with experienced, first year, and student teachers at key times during a semester, this study examined patterns of knowledge acquisition among the three groups. Analyses of the protocols revealed four major findings: Patterns and themes in the development of teachers' knowledge of students and classrooms, the role of observation and work in teachers' understanding of students, the role of teacher comprehension in teachers' knowledge of students and the teacher/student relationship. The discontinuity in development between more and less experienced teachers in this study had important implications for teacher education and research.

This thesis examines how college professors can improve their communication skills inside the classroom by testing pedagogical issues identified in previous scholarship against current teaching practices. This thesis addresses four main areas related to classroom communication skills that reflect how to build a classroom into a community of equality, open dialogue, and deep learning. The importance of classroom communities and of professors developing engaging deliveries to create compelling oral performances is described as well as issues of active listening and various models and techniques to help facilitate communication better in the classroom. A qualitative study analyzing written interviews completed by 19 college professors in Florida is conducted. Interview responses are then compared to pedagogical issues identified in previous literature to determine if there are similarities or gaps in current research. The interview determined that an interactive classroom with a professor who is consciously aware of their communication skills can help foster deeper learning with students. This research can help to develop best teaching practices for college professors. / by James Van Allan. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Education is a significant element for inclusive growth and sustainable development. In scholarship, understanding education has been fragmented due to conflicts between disciplines and methodologies. This thesis, consisting of three empirical essays, explores the impact of education for women’s employment and empowerment. As a context, this thesis has chosen South Korea as a newly industrialized but a non-Western originating economy during the mid-late twentieth century. All three essays adopt different theoretical frameworks and methodologies. The first essay adopts Capability Approach in order to understand the gendered translation of education into the labour market outcomes. In this essay, confidence is a societal conversion factor that individuals transform their resources into capabilities of labour market participation. Empirically, this essay shows that female public administration students in South Korea are less confident about entering labour market than their male counterparts, resulting in fewer capabilities of labour market participation. The second essay, comparing Korea with Singapore, which is another newly industrialized economy from the same period creates a historical and institutional basis to answer Korea’s much wider gender pay gap than the one of Singapore. This essay tests the hypothesis, previously built in the context of advanced economies, which states the negative association between gender pay gap and centrality of wage negotiation system in this comparative setting. The analysis of government documents and various sources demonstrates that Singapore with a narrow gender pay gap has a very centralized wage negotiation institution whereas Korea with a big gender pay gap has a fragmented negotiation. The third essay on Saemaul Women’s Club, a government-initiated nongovernmental organization, analyses the archival materials of memoirs of female Saemaul leaders in the rural areas for a bottom-up approach to women’s empowerment. Unlike the conventional scholarship dominated by the Western perspectives or a few international organizations, this case study shows the important role of the state in initiating a space for women to empower themselves on themselves. Ultimately, this emphasizes the contextual dependency of empowerment. The purpose of these three essays is to raise context as a way to understand the impact of education, stressing the diversity and dependency of contexts.