Thesis (Ed.D.)--Boston University

This thesis explores how university teachers' ways of experiencing teaching change from teacher focused to student focused and why some teachers experience this change while others do not. The exploration adopts the theoretical perspective of variation, learning and awareness (Marton and Booth, 1997) and is based on a two-year longitudinal interview study of 27 university teachers. Classical and new phenomenographies were used to constitute teachers' ways of experiencing teaching and teachers' ways of experiencing change in teaching. Changes in individual teachers' ways of experiencing were described and interpreted through focusing on teachers' awareness of critical aspects and related dimensions of variation, creating individual vignettes, and constituting themes in the critical experiences and orientations related to change. The outcomes included six ways of experiencing teaching and their complementary patterns of critical aspects, a set of themes related to change in ways of experiencing and five ways of experiencing change in teaching. Combining these outcomes resulted in four patterns which illuminated why some teachers' ways of experiencing teaching became student focused while others remained teacher focused. Teachers who became capable of experiencing teaching in student-focused ways focused on understanding teaching in relation to students' learning. They experienced change in teaching as becoming more student-focused or as relating teaching to development or change in student understandings, and were oriented towards putting teaching into focus and reflecting in ways informed by formal learning. These teachers experienced relevance structures which brought the critical aspects of student-focused ways of experiencing teaching to the foreground of their awareness so that they experienced corresponding dimensions of variation. Their awareness of teaching expanded and this corresponded to a shift in the focus and meaning of teaching.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Stanford University, 1984. / Photocopy. Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 129-134).

Several recent theoretical frameworks describe the process of learning how to teach in higher education in terms of change over time (Shulman, 1986, 1987; Sherman, Arminstead, Flower, Barksdale, & Reif, 1997; Ramsden, 1992; Sprague and Nyquist, 1989). The existing research on changes in teacher thinking, feeling, and practice focuses almost exclusively on teachers at the elementary and secondary levels; research concerning these concepts in higher education is rather scant Researchers have studied a complex array of issues from various perspectives using a variety of methodologies. This study followed a pre-structured case methodology (Miles, 1990) and describes in rich detail the process involved in learning to teach in higher education. The two participants in this study were graduate students in Linguistics in their final year of doctoral studies. They were followed for one semester while each taught an undergraduate course in linguistics. Data sources included-five semi-structured interviews, course documents, field notes, and videotapes of classroom activities. The trustworthiness of data and subsequent interpretations were established through attention to Lincoln and Guba's (1985) elements of trustworthiness. The learning process they incurred while learning how to teach was documented for each using pattern coding techniques (Miles & Huberman, 1984). A change process network was created for each participant to display the findings. Findings were then compared with theoretical frameworks and research approaches in the current literature. The findings of this study demonstrate the complexity of the process of learning to teach and the usefulness of the proposed frameworks and research approaches in describing and explaining the process. Furthermore, by being able to characterize this learning process, faculty developers can be more informed as to how best to intervene to maximally facilitate this process.

Research on academics' conceptions of teaching hopes to enhance understanding of how and why the process of teaching in higher education looks and works the way it does. The following work critically examines this body of literature and identifies problems associated with terminology use, construct definition and methodological procedures. As a way of providing an explanation for the insufficiently elaborated methodologies used in the empirical literature, it uses a data set similar to those used in other studies. Academics' responses to questions eliciting teaching conceptions are examined and categorized via qualitative thematic analysis. The resulting framework identifies statements of belief and knowledge that are embedded in conceptual responses.

This thesis explores how university teachers' ways of experiencing teaching change from teacher focused to student focused and why some teachers experience this change while others do not. The exploration adopts the theoretical perspective of variation, learning and awareness (Marton and Booth, 1997) and is based on a two-year longitudinal interview study of 27 university teachers. Classical and new phenomenographies were used to constitute teachers' ways of experiencing teaching and teachers' ways of experiencing change in teaching. Changes in individual teachers' ways of experiencing were described and interpreted through focusing on teachers' awareness of critical aspects and related dimensions of variation, creating individual vignettes, and constituting themes in the critical experiences and orientations related to change. The outcomes included six ways of experiencing teaching and their complementary patterns of critical aspects, a set of themes related to change in ways of experiencing and five ways of experiencing change in teaching. Combining these outcomes resulted in four patterns which illuminated why some teachers' ways of experiencing teaching became student focused while others remained teacher focused. Teachers who became capable of experiencing teaching in student-focused ways focused on understanding teaching in relation to students' learning. They experienced change in teaching as becoming more student-focused or as relating teaching to development or change in student understandings, and were oriented towards putting teaching into focus and reflecting in ways informed by formal learning. These teachers experienced relevance structures which brought the critical aspects of student-focused ways of experiencing teaching to the foreground of their awareness so that they experienced corresponding dimensions of variation. Their awareness of teaching expanded and this corresponded to a shift in the focus and meaning of teaching.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Technology, Sydney, 2003.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Florida State University, 2004. / Advisor: Dr. Elizabeth Jakubowski, Florida State University, College of Education, Dept. of Middle and Secondary Education. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Sept. 30, 2004). Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--Rowan University, 2007. / Typescript.

Thesis (M.A.)--Rowan University, 2007. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references.