This study addresses questions of gender and genre in early writing by drawing on systemic linguistic theory, It is a longitudinal case study that compares the writing development of two children, a boy and a girl/ who learned to write in classrooms that adopted an approach to writing known in Australia as 'process writing1, The children's written texts were analysed using the systemic functional grammar as developed by MAK, Hallidey and the models of genre and register as proposed by J,R, Martin. The children were followed for the first two and a half years of their schooling, from the first day of kindergarten to the middle of grade two. They were observed weekly during the daily ‘writing time’ and all texts were collected. Although the children were ostensibly 'free’ to determine both the writing topics and text types they produced, systemic analysis revealed that: 1) the majority of texts written were of one genre, the Observation genre, in which the children reconstructed their personal experience with family and friends and offered an evaluation of it. 2) a significant pattern of gender differences occurred within this genre, such that the boy reconstructed experience in terms of the male cultural stereotype of being an active participant in the world, while the girl reconstructed experience in terms of the female stereotype of being a more passive observer of experience. It is the strength of systemic linguistic analysis that it revealed how the choices the children made in language were constrained by a number of social and cultural contexts, including: a) the teacher's theoretical orientation to literacy; b) the models of spoken and written language available to the children; and c) the ideology of gender in the culture. In particular, the analysis made visible how children appropriate the meanings of their culture and socialise themselves into gender roles by constructing the ideology of gender in their writing. The study contributes to an understanding of genres by offering a revised description of the Observation genre, which derives from the Observation Comment genre originally identified by Martin and Rothery (1981). It also raises a number of implications for teacher training and classroom practice, including the need for: 1) increased teacher consciousness about gender and genre, especially an understanding that choices in language are socially constructed 2) a critical reassessment of the notion of 'free topic choice’ promoted by 'process writing' pedagogy, a practice which may limit choice and tacitly support the gender status quo.

“The point is that you should be able to know your speech”. A study of the teaching practice of prepared speech, in upper-secondary school Swedish. Cristina Jarl This licentiate study explores the discursive construction of the classroom practice of teachers and students preparing a formal speech, within the Swedish language teaching. The explicit focus is on the teaching situation prior to the students’ prepared speech, and the actions per-formed by the actors within the language teaching context. The overall aim of the thesis is to increase the knowledge of teaching prepared speech as a social practice, by specifically describ-ing, analyzing, and problematizing the students’ opportunities to develop knowledge, connected to prepared speech in the language teaching classroom. By focusing on the instructional pro-cesses that lead to the delivery of the prepared speech this thesis contributes to new insights about the desired knowledge in the students’ prepared speech in school. The research questions guiding the investigation deal with aspects such as social actions, circulating discourses and the students’ subject positions as speakers in the teaching of prepared speech. A focused ethnography method was used, defined by short and intense periods of fieldwork engaging in a specific group activity in a social environment. The data production took place in two teaching groups, in two different upper secondary schools in Sweden. The empirical data consist of observations, sound and video recordings, field notes and texts produced by both teachers and students. During data production, the teaching alternated between on-site and online teaching due to the Corona pandemic. The classroom practice is explored as a social practice and as a discursive arena, where different perceptions exist. Social actors use discourse to mediate action, in which discourse impacts their ways of doing and being. By applying me-diated discourse analysis it is possible to study the complex relations between social action and discourse. The main findings suggest that teachers and students tend to focus more on the form and the production of the speech, and less on the specific subject content of the speech. The results display prominent and sometimes contradictory dichotomies in the teaching of speech: aspects of the prepared speech involve on one hand the practical, the spoken and the corporeal, and on the other hand the theoretical, the written and the visual. Additionally, the study illustrates the fixed and mobile dimensions of Swedish as a school subject. The importance of a speaker’s credibility shows a dynamic tension between students’ strategic, institutional and social posi-tions as a speaker. A concluding remark in the present study is that it seems important for the students to speak and having something to say, in a certain form and packaging, rather than what they have to say and why. Therefore the key instructional questions of what, why and who in terms of teaching prepared speech open up for further discussion.

The purpose of this study is to determine if teachers perceive evaluation as providing the motivation and feedback to change classroom practices in a context where teacher evaluation carries varied stakes for tenured versus untenured teachers. This mixed methods case study of four high schools in a single district in North Carolina uses survey and interview data collected from teachers in the 2016–2017 school year to explore teacher perceptions and examine differences between career (tenured) and probationary (untenured) teachers. A conceptual framework is developed utilizing research on how teachers changed practice based on other accountability initiatives. The overall sample of teachers did not perceive the evaluation policy to be high stakes or impacting their practice; however, there were statistically significant differences between the perceptions of tenured teachers and untenured teachers on the survey. Interview statements supported the quantitative findings. The results highlight a need for a better understanding of how evaluation policies may influence teacher practice, particularly among those who have limited career protections, including beginning teachers who lack tenure.

This study was an investigation of Japanese high school teachers' (N=139) beliefs and practices regarding communicative language teaching (CLT). Four research questions were posited concerning the beliefs that Japanese high school teachers hold regarding CLT, how Japanese high school teachers use CLT in the classroom, how Japanese teachers' beliefs and practices differ between academic and vocational high schools, and how the beliefs of Japanese high school teachers, their classroom practices, their learning experience, pre- and in-service training, perceived teaching efficacy, and contextual factors relate to and influence each other regarding the use of CLT. In order to provide answers to these questions, a survey, classroom observations, and interviews were conducted. Before conducting the quantitative analyses, the questionnaire data were analyzed using the Rasch rating-scale model to confirm the validity and reliability of the questionnaire and to transform the raw scores into equal interval measures. Regarding the first and second research questions, the descriptive statistics showed that despite holding positive beliefs about CLT, the respondents to the survey did not frequently use communicative activities. With respect to the third research question, a MANOVA indicated that the types of schools (academic and vocational) did not significantly influence the survey respondents' beliefs and practices regarding CLT. Concerning the fourth research question, the Pearson correlation coefficients showed relatively strong correlations between (a) Classroom Practices and Student-related Communicative Conditions (r = .56) and (b) L2 Self-confidence and CLT Self-efficacy (r = .55). Also, the best fitting path model indicated that (a) Student-related Communicative Conditions impacted Classroom Practices, (b) Positive CLT Beliefs indirectly influenced Classroom Practices via CLT Self-efficacy, and (c) Exam-related Expectations affected most of the indicator variables and Classroom Practices. Related to this, qualitative results indicated that the respondents' learning experience, in-service training, and contextual factors influenced their beliefs and practices. / CITE/Language Arts

The purpose of this study was to investigate the challenges affecting teachers’ classroom assessment practices and to explore how these challenges influence effective teaching and learning. The study was qualitative in nature and employed an instrumental case study approach. Semi-structured interviews, observations, and document analyses were used in the investigation. The study utilized the conceptual framework based on the model suggested by Hargreaves, Earl and Schmidt (2002). The model comprised four perspectives – technological, cultural, political and postmodern, with the intention of accounting for teachers’ assessment practices. Teachers from four different schools in North West Province were interviewed and observed. The data collected through the observations and interviews allowed me to map out the different challenges encountered by teachers in their classroom assessment practices. I also analysed documents that teachers used in conducting assessment. Document analysis was used to triangulate the information collected through observations and interviews. Textual data was analysed using content analysis. The teachers’ narratives varied according to their teaching experience and background within the diverse contexts of their particular school environments. Major challenges that emanated from this study were policy interpretation, overcrowding, support, parental involvement, moderation mechanisms (internal and external), assessment planning, implementation and communication as well as lack of resources. In order to address these challenges, teachers relied on cluster meetings, their colleagues and mostly their personal experiences. The study also revealed that teachers’ understanding and practices of classroom assessment are influenced by their social and educational context. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / D. Ed. (Curriculum Studies)

教師的專業發展是提昇教師品質的關鍵,它包含職前的師資教育以及在職的教師進修。在臺灣,為了倡導英文教師的終身學習,在職英語教學碩士專班在民國八十八年成立。 本研究旨在探討在職英語教學碩士班對高中英文老師的影響。研究方法包含問卷,訪談及教室觀察。問卷調查部分,所使用的問卷是研究者根據文獻及三所在職英語教學碩士專班課程內容所編製的,目的在於瞭解進修教師對於在職英語教學碩士專班對他們的專業態度,專業知能及教室實務影響的自我認知。問卷調查採全國普查,有九十八所學校回函,有效問卷為一百零九份。教室觀察的部分則對兩組教師的教學進行觀察、錄影、分析及比較。這兩組教師來自同一所高中,第一組的兩位教師有在職英語教學碩士班進修的經驗,另一組的兩位教師則無。 本研究的重要發現為： 1. 在專業態度方面,在職英語教學碩士班增強了進修教師嚐試新教學法的動機, 　提高了他們的專業自信及教學熱忱,並增強了他們參與進修活動的動機。 2. 在專業知能方面,進修教師在本身的讀寫能力及語法、構詞及言談分析等語言 　知識獲益最多。 3. 在教室實務方面,專業知能的充實非常有助於進修教師應用新的教學技巧於字 　彙、語法、閱讀和寫作的教學，並有助於他們採用更多樣的教學資源及材料。 4. 運用進修所得知識於教學中讓具有在職英語教學碩士班進修經驗的教師在教 學上和不具此經驗的教師有所不同。 此研究結果對進修在職英語教學碩士班與改進英文教學方式之間的關係具有豐富啟示,是值得投注更多關注與研究的領域。 關鍵字: 在職進修　　研究所　　高中英文老師　　專業態度　　專業知能 　　　　教室實務 / Teachers’ professional development is the key to teacher quality. It encompasses pre-service teacher education and in-service teacher training. In Taiwan, in an effort to promote English teachers’ continual learning, in-service English teaching graduate programs were started in 1999 in place of what was called "Forty-Credit Program". This study aims to investigate the influence of the in-service English teaching graduate programs on senior high school English teachers. Three methods, questionnaire survey, interview, and classroom observation, were used. In the part of questionnaire survey, a questionnaire was designed to elicit participants’ self-perceptions of the influence the in-service English teaching graduate programs have on their professional attitudes, professional knowledge and classroom practice. Then, a general survey was conducted island-wide. Ninety-eight schools responded with 109 valid questionnaires. Follow-up phone interviews were conducted with seven willing respondents to further explore how they apply their new knowledge to their teaching. Regarding the classroom observation, two groups of English teachers from the same school participated in this part of study. In the first group were two teachers with the in-service English teaching graduate program experience while in the second group were two teachers without the experience. The teaching of one lesson conducted by the four teachers were observed, video-taped, analyzed, and compared. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with each teacher after the observational data were collected. The purpose of the interview was to know the reasons why they adopted current ways of teaching. This study has the following important findings. Firstly, in terms of professional attitudes, the in-service programs affect participants most in their motivation to try out new teaching methods, professional confidence, enthusiasm for English teaching and motivation to partake in in-service training activities. Secondly, in the aspect of knowledge about the English language, participants benefit from the programs the most in their own reading and writing ability as well as in knowledge of syntax, morphology, and discourse analysis. Thirdly, with regard to classroom practice, the enrichment of professional knowledge helps a lot in participants' application of new techniques to their instruction of vocabulary, grammatical structure, reading and writing. It also contributes to participants’ use of varieties of learning resources and materials. Lastly, the application of the new knowledge leads to the differences between teachers who have the in-service English teaching graduate program experience and those who do not. These findings have rich implications for the relationship between in-service English teaching graduate programs and the improvement of English teaching practice of senior high school English teachers, an area well worth more attention and research. Key words: in-service graduate programs senior high school English teachers professional attitudes professional knowledge classroom practice

The purpose of this study was to investigate the challenges affecting teachers’ classroom assessment practices and to explore how these challenges influence effective teaching and learning. The study was qualitative in nature and employed an instrumental case study approach. Semi-structured interviews, observations, and document analyses were used in the investigation. The study utilized the conceptual framework based on the model suggested by Hargreaves, Earl and Schmidt (2002). The model comprised four perspectives – technological, cultural, political and postmodern, with the intention of accounting for teachers’ assessment practices. Teachers from four different schools in North West Province were interviewed and observed. The data collected through the observations and interviews allowed me to map out the different challenges encountered by teachers in their classroom assessment practices. I also analysed documents that teachers used in conducting assessment. Document analysis was used to triangulate the information collected through observations and interviews. Textual data was analysed using content analysis. The teachers’ narratives varied according to their teaching experience and background within the diverse contexts of their particular school environments. Major challenges that emanated from this study were policy interpretation, overcrowding, support, parental involvement, moderation mechanisms (internal and external), assessment planning, implementation and communication as well as lack of resources. In order to address these challenges, teachers relied on cluster meetings, their colleagues and mostly their personal experiences. The study also revealed that teachers’ understanding and practices of classroom assessment are influenced by their social and educational context. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / D. Ed. (Curriculum Studies)

No description available.

The National Professional Diploma in Education is an in-service programme for classroom-based educators who have less than three years of professional training. The programme seeks to create a pathway to qualified teacher status in ways that will impact positively on classroom practice, prepare teacher-learners for the implementation of the new curriculum and provide a sufficiently rigorous foundation for further study. This evaluation adopted a fourth generation evaluation approach characterised by extensive engagement with programme stakeholders. Chapter 2 outlines an epistemological and philosophical framework of reference whilst Chapters 3 and 4 explore learning and teaching strategies and management and costing issues. The findings of these investigations lead to the recommendations made in Chapter 5. It is felt that the Unisa NPDE meets many of the goals of the programme, but further research is needed into the impact on classroom practice and into the management of the decentralised learner support. / Educational Studies / M.Ed. (Didactics)

The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions of administrators, guidance counselors, and classroom teachers in the high schools of Northeast Tennessee regarding their schools’ academics, climate, culture, parent engagement, and their English Language Learners’ school experiences. The researcher sought to ascertain if significant differences exist between the perceptions of different groups of educational professionals in the school, with those groups to include school administrators, guidance counselors, and classroom teachers. Data were analyzed from 50 survey questions with 42 of those questions measured on a 5-point Likert scale, 5 questions as multiple choice, and 3 questions as open-ended. Data were collected through an online survey program, Survey Monkey. The survey was distributed to 12 school districts consisting of 39 high schools. There was a 23% response rate among administrators, a 29% response rate among counselors, and a nearly 10% response rate among teachers. There were no significant variations of the participants’ perceptions of their schools’ conduciveness to ELLs’ success with regard to classroom practice, student resilience, school climate, school culture, and the strength of home and school partnership.