Thesis (Ph.D.)--James Madison University, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references.

This study investigated the use of interactive information technology in teaching at the University of British Columbia in early 1997, the factors influencing it, and the changes in the University associated with it. The use of interactive information technology in on- campus and distance education at UBC is largely limited to E-mail, World Wide Web, and to a lesser extent, CD-ROM. It seems to be a relatively recent development, the number of users of technology in teaching increasing only since 1994. Four factors in the broader external context are driving the use of interactive information technology in teaching at the University. These are: (1) demands on higher education for greater and more flexible access, as well as for technologically literate graduates, (2) the tight fiscal context in which the University operates, (3) the culture of information technology in Canadian and British Columbian society, (4) government policies on access, funding, and the use of technology in teaching. Within the University itself are two kinds of influence: actions by the university leadership and the changing attitudes of faculty. The leadership has put in place enabling initiatives in six areas: (1) infrastructure, (2) equipment, (3) internet access, (4) funding, (5) faculty development, (6) university publications. The attitude of faculty members towards the use of the technology in teaching is generally positive. This is different from what was found in earlier studies (Black, 1992). Given strong external pressures for the adoption of interactive information technology in teaching, given the existence of enabling structures and mechanisms from the university leadership, and given a marked increase in the favourableness of faculty attitudes, the question arises, why so little use seems to be made of the technology? A number of hindering factors emerge: (1) perceived or experienced pedagogical limitations of technology, (2) lack of time needed to learn or use the technology, (3) lack of professional reward for teaching by means of the technology, (4) lack of appropriate skills, and (5) lack of resources and equipment. There seem also to be three key organizational weaknesses in the technology-integration approach of the University. These are, (a) lack of coordination of the various initiatives, (b) a neglect of the motivational needs of faculty members, and (c) the assigning of technology responsibility to units that do not have academic policy-making authority. Despite the modest use of interactive technology, there are indications that the prospects for the use of interactive information technology at the University for both on-campus and distance teaching are strong. The study shows that the University of British Columbia generally manifests features and tendencies typical of trends in the development of contemporary universities, such as increasing acceptance of interactive information technology in teaching, increasing responsiveness to societal imperatives, growing government influence, and institutional restructuring. A number of implications for policy and for research arising from the study are discussed.

This study investigates how lecturers at the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal construct pedagogy to socially include and/ or exclude students. The focus is particularly on two disciplines: English literary studies in the Faculty of Human Development and Social Sciences and English education in the Faculty of Education. The research question for the study is: how does the construction and practice of teaching in English literary studies and English education disciplines serve to include and/or exclude students? This question draws attention to how disciplinary knowledge structures inform pedagogic practice and how the disciplinary identity of these disciplines impact on pedagogic practice to include and/ or exclude. Since this study is grounded in a critical interpretive paradigm, it used social realist (Archer, 1995, 1996) and critical realist (Bhaskar, 1979) theories to conceptualise and to engage critically with the phenomenon of social inclusion and exclusion in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). The substantive theories of Maton (2000), Bourdieu (1988) and Bernstein (1990) were used to understand how disciplinary knowledge and identities are constructed in the respective disciplines to include and/ or exclude. Classroom observation, documentary evidence and interviews were used as research instruments. Phenomenology was chosen as a research design. Research findings suggest that, irrespective of the discourses of equity and open access to HEIs, among other things, students from poor educational and socio-economic backgrounds are still excluded. Data suggests that the ways in which lecturers construct pedagogy heavily impact on the way inclusivity is achieved. Given the fact that not all students are able to acquire epistemological access equally, this study found that the system favours only those students who acquire the necessary linguistic and cultural capital prior to entering HEIs (Bourdieu, 1988). / Thesis (M.Ed.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Edgewood, 2011.

The employment of International Teaching Assistants in U.S. universities has caused concern with regards to the communicative competence of nonnative speaker TAs in undergraduate classrooms. Researchers such as Rounds (1985), Bryd (1986), Constantino (1986), Tyler (1990), Shaw (1994), and Hoekje and Williams (1994), among others have suggested that more research is needed on the performance of nonnative speaker TAs in specific disciplines.This study is an-attempt to describe the discourse skills of nonnative speaker TAs in Computer Science. The speech event of twelve nonnative speaker TAs was observed and video and audiotaped in teaching lecture and laboratory (programming session) classes. Three native speaker TAs of the same profession were also studied as a comparison group. A profile of each of the TAs was made based on field notes, interviews and student evaluations, to determine TA typologies along Bailey's (1982,1984) classification. The profiles also contributed to grouping the TAs into more skillful and less skillful TAs.The classroom observations were analyzed to determine whether NNSTAs encountered difficulty speaking comprehensibly and explaining the computer science concepts clearly. The other questions investigated included: the apparent degree and ease of student comprehension of the teachers; the amount of student participation allowed and encouraged; the degree of interaction in the classes; and the amount of rapport between the NNSTAs and their students.The rhetorical analysis of the discourse structure of the computer science classrooms revealed two genres. Descriptive discourse was predominant in the lecture sessions and procedural discourse was predominant in the programming sessions. Linguists have shown that there are interesting connections between discourse type and the interlocutor's choice of particular syntactic structures. The investigations in this study showed that the successful NNSTAs complied with these connections and the less successful NNSTAs did not. The discourse problems of nonnative speaker TAs stemmed mainly from their inability to use various cohesive ties and deictic markers appropriately.Finally, the study showed that despite pronunciation and grammatical deficiencies, NNSTAs' success in their classes was determined by their speech acts. The moreinteractive TAs who employed various illocutionary acts to transact disciplinary information were the more skillful TAs. / Department of English

Mémoire (M.A.)-- Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, 1993. / Document électronique également accessible en format PDF. CaQCU

Thèse (M.A.) -- Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, 2003. / Bibliogr.: f. 78-82. Document électronique également accessible en format PDF. CaQCU

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:28:59Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2010-04-26Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T19:16:58Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 polonio_dm_me_bauru.pdf: 752692 bytes, checksum: 095a7c51d8a349cb377a5116237c7dee (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Apesar das universidades no Brasil serem responsáveis pela formação de profissionais de nível superior, pelo desenvolvimento de pesquisas e pela realização de atividades de extensão, os docentes universitários muitas vezes não recebem preparação para ensinar. E uma das dificuldades encontradas por este professor está em identificar procedimentos de ensino que favoreçam a aprendizagem de seus alunos. Na visão da análise do comportamento o sucesso ou fracasso do ensino está nas relações entre as respostas dos indivíduos envolvidos no processo e as condições nas quais ele ocorre. Neste sentido, o professor tem um papel de destaque por ser quem escolhe o método a ser utilizado. Neste trabalho foram analisados dois procedimentos de ensino comumente utilizados por professores, a apresentação de perguntas e de instruções. Instruções e perguntas são comportamentos verbais, e ambos podem funciona como regra especificando o reforço que modelou a topografia da resposta e colocou-a sob o controle do estímulo e são úteis para resolver a questão da primeira ocorrência da resposta. O presente trabalho apresenta um modelo de investigação de variáveis possivelmente relacionadas ao comportamento de Instruir e Perguntar de uma professora universitária do curso de matemática. Para isto, foram feitas filmagens e análises de seis aulas, procurando observar o que a professora fazia, em que momento, e como os alunos se comportavam diante do fazer da professora, e também qual a ação dela após as respostas dos alunos. As instruções e perguntas foram identificadas. Em seguida, as instruções foram classificadas como: instruções mínimas, instruções que descreviam o antecedente e a resposta e a consequencia e instruções completas. Foram identificados as situações em que as instruções e as perguntas ocorreram e analisadas possíveis relações entre a situação... / Although Brazilian universities are responsible for top-level professionals' education, research development and for carrying out extension activities, professors are rarely prepared to teach. And one of the difficulties faced by professors is to identify teaching procedures that promote learning of their students. At the behavior analysis poitnof view the success or failure of education is on relations between the responses of people involved in the process and the on conditions under which it occurs. So, teachers have a important role because they choose the teaching method that will be used. In this paper two procedures commonly used by teachers in the classroom were examined, the presentation of questions and instructions. Both are verbal behaviors, and can function as a rule by specify the reinforcement that modeled the response topography and placed it under stimulus control. Both are efficient in promoting the first occurrence of the response. This paper presents an investigation model of variables possibly related to Instruct and Ask Question behaviors of a college professor of a mathematics course. To this aim, six classes were filmed and analyzed; trying to see what the professor did, when she did, and how students behave as a consequence, and also how she acts after the students' responses. After Instructions and questions were identified, the instruction were classified as minimal instructions, instructions that described the antecedent and the response, instructions that described the response and consequence or complete instructions. The situation in which the instructions and questions were presented and possibly relations between the antecedent situations and the events subsequent to these instructions or questions were analyzed. It was identified the frequency of students' behaviors subsequent to the asking question ant instructing behaviors of the professor. These ... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

Orientador: Maria Regina Cavalcante / Banca: Maria Stella Coutinho de Alcantara Gil / Banca: Alessandra de Andrade Lopes / Resumo: Apesar das universidades no Brasil serem responsáveis pela formação de profissionais de nível superior, pelo desenvolvimento de pesquisas e pela realização de atividades de extensão, os docentes universitários muitas vezes não recebem preparação para ensinar. E uma das dificuldades encontradas por este professor está em identificar procedimentos de ensino que favoreçam a aprendizagem de seus alunos. Na visão da análise do comportamento o sucesso ou fracasso do ensino está nas relações entre as respostas dos indivíduos envolvidos no processo e as condições nas quais ele ocorre. Neste sentido, o professor tem um papel de destaque por ser quem escolhe o método a ser utilizado. Neste trabalho foram analisados dois procedimentos de ensino comumente utilizados por professores, a apresentação de perguntas e de instruções. Instruções e perguntas são comportamentos verbais, e ambos podem funciona como regra especificando o reforço que modelou a topografia da resposta e colocou-a sob o controle do estímulo e são úteis para resolver a questão da primeira ocorrência da resposta. O presente trabalho apresenta um modelo de investigação de variáveis possivelmente relacionadas ao comportamento de Instruir e Perguntar de uma professora universitária do curso de matemática. Para isto, foram feitas filmagens e análises de seis aulas, procurando observar o que a professora fazia, em que momento, e como os alunos se comportavam diante do fazer da professora, e também qual a ação dela após as respostas dos alunos. As instruções e perguntas foram identificadas. Em seguida, as instruções foram classificadas como: instruções mínimas, instruções que descreviam o antecedente e a resposta e a consequencia e instruções completas. Foram identificados as situações em que as instruções e as perguntas ocorreram e analisadas possíveis relações entre a situação ... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: Although Brazilian universities are responsible for top-level professionals' education, research development and for carrying out extension activities, professors are rarely prepared to teach. And one of the difficulties faced by professors is to identify teaching procedures that promote learning of their students. At the behavior analysis poitnof view the success or failure of education is on relations between the responses of people involved in the process and the on conditions under which it occurs. So, teachers have a important role because they choose the teaching method that will be used. In this paper two procedures commonly used by teachers in the classroom were examined, the presentation of questions and instructions. Both are verbal behaviors, and can function as a rule by specify the reinforcement that modeled the response topography and placed it under stimulus control. Both are efficient in promoting the first occurrence of the response. This paper presents an investigation model of variables possibly related to Instruct and Ask Question behaviors of a college professor of a mathematics course. To this aim, six classes were filmed and analyzed; trying to see what the professor did, when she did, and how students behave as a consequence, and also how she acts after the students' responses. After Instructions and questions were identified, the instruction were classified as minimal instructions, instructions that described the antecedent and the response, instructions that described the response and consequence or complete instructions. The situation in which the instructions and questions were presented and possibly relations between the antecedent situations and the events subsequent to these instructions or questions were analyzed. It was identified the frequency of students' behaviors subsequent to the asking question ant instructing behaviors of the professor. These ... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

abstract: To address the need of scientists and engineers in the United States workforce and ensure that students in higher education become scientifically literate, research and policy has called for improvements in undergraduate education in the sciences. One particular pathway for improving undergraduate education in the science fields is to reform undergraduate teaching. Only a limited number of studies have explored the pedagogical content knowledge of postsecondary level teachers. This study was conducted to characterize the PCK of biology faculty and explore the factors influencing their PCK. Data included semi-structured interviews, classroom observations, documents, and instructional artifacts. A qualitative inquiry was designed to conduct an in-depth investigation focusing on the PCK of six biology instructors, particularly the types of knowledge they used for teaching biology, their perceptions of teaching, and the social interactions and experiences that influenced their PCK. The findings of this study reveal that the PCK of the biology faculty included eight domains of knowledge: (1) content, (2) context, (3) learners and learning, (4) curriculum, (5) instructional strategies, (6) representations of biology, (7) assessment, and (8) building rapport with students. Three categories of faculty PCK emerged: (1) PCK as an expert explainer, (2) PCK as an instructional architect, and (3) a transitional PCK, which fell between the two prior categories. Based on the interpretations of the data, four social interactions and experiences were found to influence biology faculty PCK: (1) teaching experience, (2) models and mentors, (3) collaborations about teaching, and (4) science education research. The varying teaching perspectives of the faculty also influenced their PCK. This study shows that the PCK of biology faculty for teaching large introductory courses at large research institutions is heavily influenced by factors beyond simply years of teaching experience and expert content knowledge. Social interactions and experiences created by the institution play a significant role in developing the PCK of biology faculty. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Curriculum and Instruction 2013

M.Ed. / Distance students are deprived from amongst others: non academic activities, informal learning opportunies, sharing critical ideas, the establishment of social relationships and competition with the peergroup and lecturer, leadership opportunities in student groups and periodic conversation with 'experts' in their field of study. The lowering of state subsidies in higher education, compels residential educational institutions to add components of distance education to their contact teaching component, so that they are able to handle the increasing number of students on a cost-effective basis. It is so that the change from a purely contact teaching institution to a combined contact and distance teaching approach (a mixed mode approach), will not take place without problems during the implementation phase. With reference to a purely distance teaching educational institution, Fraser (1993:30) has the following to say: "Their teaching policy is modelled on that of traditional contact teaching, to some extent resulting from the fact that most of the tutors employed by these institutions are themselves products of contact teaching." Distance teaching expertise in a contact teaching milieu should not be taken for granted by lecturers - it neccesitates intensive lecturer-development and the exposure to this field for the distance teaching lecturer. Greyling (1993:181) accentuates the different roles of the distance lecturer as that of learning facilitator, "... (wat) as gevolg van hierdie afstand in die onderrig-leergebeure, 'n veel moeiliker opgaaf (het) om 'n positiewe verhouding met hulle studente te stilt en te handhaaf, doeltreffend te kommunikeer en 'n positiewe leeromgewing te skep." The latter suggests that the distance lecturer has a facilitative instead of a didactive role to play, by putting more emphasis on the learner than on the learning content. According to Ljosa and Sandvold: (1988:315) " The evaluation of fixed assignments is no longer the (lecturer's) most important task. He/she functions to a larger degree as study guide and partner in a dialogue between him/her and the student. This asks more of his/her imagination and understanding." The role that the lecturer has to play in a teaching environment where distance teaching and contact teaching is presented in a combination, still has to be that of facilitator, in order to create a positive learning environment. This area still needs a lot of research. It presupposes that the lecturer will strive to create a context which will promote learning and which has an interwoven didactic and facilitative touch. According to Siaciwena (1990:70-73) distance teaching is taught in many African countries in a combination with contact teaching as a cost-effective alternative, for the extension of the educational system and as a means of national development. In South Africa it has also become a popular option and therefore the importance of undertaking this study, should not be underestimated. The aim of this study is to research guidelines which will assist the higher education lecturer involved in the combination of contact /distance teaching (mixed mode approach) so that his/her facilitative role can be described. The most important conclusions drawn at the completion of this study were were as follows: *University/tertiary lecturers are not trained sufficiently for the demands of heterogeneous students in a combined contact/distance teaching milieu. *Invitational teaching/learning contracts can assist to facilitate the learning of heterogeneous learners in a combined contact/distance teaching mode. *There are positive implications for the use of proposed guidelines to facilitate learning in a mixed mode teaching environment, provided that the lecturer has an invitational personality (approach) and can act spontaneously in his/her teaching. Lecturers will experience that their students learn easier, and that they become more creative. Personal relationships with students will develop more easily, because students had an imput in the planning of the content and the evaluation procedures. Important aspects of the study which will need further research include the following: *The design of criteria for a (combined) mixed mode university/tertiary educational programme, keeping in mind the guidelines as set out in this study. *The design of a teaching development programme to develop specific teaching strategies of lecturers in a mixed mode teaching programme. *The development of a programme to screen/test students who aspire to become teachers/lectures in higher education, keeping in mind the guidelines for the development of teaching/lecturing abilities.