Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of West Florida, 2003. / Title from title page of source document. Includes bibliographical references.

This thesis traces the contested scholarship between the three activity topics of learning and teaching, research and academic and professional development. 11 published articles and 7 others that have been prepared for publication were used as exemplar articles for analysis. This included the history and context of the writing and the way in which the three topics hold together and the patterns or relationships that can be seen between them. Most of the articles aim to bring something new to the public arena and challenge the current status quo in Higher Education. The Learning and Teaching articles show active ways of developing learning and seeing things in a new light rather than absorbing knowledge, constructing or working from educational theory. In particular a curriculum is defined for all stakeholders. There is no necessity for teaching and learning to be the same as research but on occasion it helps for it to be “research like”. Research articles are on collaborative qualitative research and detailed reviews of scientific research in my discipline. In my educational research articles I stand up to the dominance of subject-based research. Development articles articulate the practice and facilitation of individual and group reflection methods. They also further the networking, pan-organisation, pro-person approach of academic developers. The analysis produces a dynamic model for Higher Education scholarship that opens up space for academic development and the neglected area of professional and personal development. In particular, some articles articulate and demonstrate the role of academic developers in evaluating research. There is no evidence for the need of a single nexus to fulfil a magical link specifically between learning and teaching and research because links already exist within academic and professional development and through existing border subjects of curriculum, reflection, professional ethics and evaluation. I am grateful for the guidance I have received to create this analysis of my written work. From this it is possible to position myself academically as a developer.

This study examined the research productivity of a selected group of nurse educators in the United States. Research productivity was defined as: (1) the number of past research studies conducted in relation to degree requirements, (2) the number of past research studies conducted which were not in connection with degree requirements, (3) the number of research studies that have been published, and (4) the number of ongoing research studies. The major findings and conclusions of the study are: 1. Nurse educators holding doctorates and those holding the rank of Professor are the profession's most productive researchers. 2. The majority of the present research studies is being conducted by faculty in graduate rather than undergraduate nursing programs. Many nursing programs are providing support for faculty research. However, as a collective, the research support provided by educational institutions is minimal, and only 50 per cent of the institutions use research productivity as a criterion measure for the evaluation of faculty. 3. The majority of the research has been done in connection with degree requirements. However, 72 per cent of the nurse educators who hold doctorates report that they have conducted additional research studies in the past, and 65 per cent of them report ongoing research studies. 4. Past involvement and present involvement in nursing practice research was reported to a greater degree than the literature findings would indicate. 5. The publication plans of nurse educators show a sharp increase over their previous publication records. 6. Descriptive research is the study type chosen by the majority of nurse educators, both in the past and at the present time. 7. Priority areas listed for future research by nurse educators included clinical research in all areas, studies that will enable better prediction of student success in nursing education, and studies related to the entry into practice issue. 8. Little interest could be found in the development of nursing theories or the application of specific theories to practice.

Artigos científicos constituem-se em uma rica fonte de material para trabalho no ensino superior. Atividades cuidadosamente planejadas com base em informações nele contidas oferecem aos estudantes a oportunidade de desenvolvimento de habilidades necessárias à carreira profissional, assim como o aperfeiçoamento do conhecimento em química. Este trabalho descreve uma proposta de ensino aplicada no primeiro ano de um curso de graduação em química. A atividade, baseada na utilização de artigos científicos, proporcionou aos estudantes o contato com a literatura primária da área de química tendo como principal objetivo o desenvolvimento de habilidades de leitura e interpretação deste tipo de texto. Artigos científicos extraídos das revistas Química Nova e Eclética Química foram selecionados. Foram oferecidas aos estudantes orientações para a leitura e discussão dos artigos científicos e, em seguida, foi solicitada a produção de um texto (gênero livre) sobre o conteúdo do mesmo, que deveria ser direcionado a um leitor com as características de um calouro do curso de química. Os textos produzidos pelos estudantes foram analisados segundo a Análise de Discurso, linha francesa, como vem sendo divulgada por Eni Orlandi. Verificou-se que a estratégia adotada permitiu que a maioria dos estudantes manifestasse o seu entendimento sobre o conteúdo do artigo científico, apresentando em seu texto elementos com uma abordagem própria e desvinculada da forma e organização do artigo original. / Scientific papers are a rich source of material for undergraduate work. Carefully designed assignments based on selected papers offer opportunities for students to develop skills needed by professional chemists and at the same time reinforce their chemical knowledge. This work describes a research journal assignment introduced into a scientific communication course. The assignment provided a method to acquaint students with the current chemical literature and the main goal is to develop students’ reading and interpretation abilities of this kind of material. Papers from the journals Química Nova and Eclética Química were chosen as the main material of this assignment. The students were provided with guidelines to critically read and discuss the research articles and were required to turn-in a written text (free genre) of what they had read, which would then be directed to a reader with the characteristics of a freshman chemistry student. The texts written by the students were analysed by Discourse Analysis, in its French orientation, as divulged by Eni Orlandi. It was concluded that the assignment enabled the majority of the students to express a great amount of personal reflection in the texts, showing their individual understanding in a different format and approach than what was read in the original paper.

M.Ed. (Curriculum Studies) / Dozens of Teaching Science practitioners and educational administrators are asking fundamental questions today about the objectives of teacher education programs, the content of programs, instructional methods and quality of education of teachers. They recognised that current Teaching Science practices must be examined, evaluated, and in some cases, developed. There are obvious limits to the effectiveness of these Teaching Science programs to give prospective teachers skills necessary to be successful in their classrooms. This study investigates the guidelines for the improvement of Teaching Science at Colleges of Education that can ensure prospective teachers with ways of understanding the culture of classrooms and schools. The research was based on the assumption that, for prospective teachers to learn to teach effectively, they should be inculcated with an enriched structure and content of the subject Teaching Science curriculum, and valuable teaching knowledge should be communicated to them during their professional training process. In order to understand this problem in its total context an in depth study of the literature survey on the process of teacher education in the Republic of South Africa and the selected areas in the world was done. Data was collected from the interviews with the Heads of Education Department and beginner teachers and questionnaires were administered with principals of schools, Teaching Science lecturers and second and third year student-teachers. The data corpus includes case observations from prospective teachers on Teaching Practice. Their lesson plans, presentation of the teaching skills and post class reflection notes were analysed. Their subject expositions were also audiotaped to provide contextual descriptions. Findings indicate that there are many areas in which the subject Teaching Science curriculum needs improvement if it is to maintain its high degree of producing school teachers which the community will recognise and respect. The findings corroborated the hypotheses that the subject Teaching Science curriculum helps prospective teachers to be autonomous and active agents in their classrooms. The following are some of the most important findings: With regard to their lecturing, the majority of students claimed that many Teaching Science lecturers are ineffective classroom practitioners. It is revealed that Teaching Science lecturers who are less qualified are unfamiliar with the subject Teaching Science lecturing strategies whereas the highly qualified staff is always satisfied with its lecturing. Many student-teachers regarded Teaching Practice as a stressful time because they were not guided effectively by their Teaching Science supervisors on how to write genuine lesson preparations and schemes of work. Teaching Practice sessions are usually held at the beginning of the professional course. At that time students do not have maturity and knowledge of the theory on which teaching is based. Overall it appeared to show that theory and practice at Colleges of Education are still far apart and student-teachers are not given direct experience with the children they are going to teach. -In all Colleges of Education, Teaching Science facilities such as micro-teaching laboratory. dark room and media centre, are inadequate, -The study also revealed that the subject Teaching Science curriculum at Colleges of Education is more boring, less fun, more repetitious, discouraging, unattractive and less competitive. Students are not equipped with the subject Teaching Science curriculum to present interesting lessons. Beginner teachers are incapable of controlling their classes. marking registers and writing accurately on the chalkboard. It is because of this and other reasons that most student-teachers were always absent for Teaching Science periods. -The survey further revealed that the majority of beginner teachers are shy, self-centred and unable to establish good order in the classroom. -The traditional lecturer/teacher-centred approach in which the educator transfers information to learners is outdated, It was found that new approaches to assist prospective teachers may have important potential which needs to be explored diligently. -Based on the data collected and literature review the researcher provides proposals for the improvement of the subject Teaching Science curriculum at Teachers' Training Colleges. It is the wish of the researcher that this set of recommendations be effective tools in helping preservice teachers become successful teachers

D.Ed. / The aim of this research is to determine teaching for the development of meaningful learning by Educational students at Vista University. determine these teaching strategies, the objectives were formulated: To determine the factors which have an influence on earning strategies. To determine the learning strategies of the first year Education students at Vista University. To identify teaching strategies that would encourage meaningful learning. Firstly a review is given of the research done in the field of learning strategies. The work done in Sweden, the United Kingdom, Australia and the USA is discussed. The learning strategies identified by these researches are then divided into two groups, those encouraging a surface learning strategy and those encouraging a deep learning strategy; The latter resulting in meaningful learning. In the second instance, factors influencing learning strategies are discussed. These factors aredivided into personal factors (cognitive style, previous experience, motivation, conception of learning, background knowledge, intellectual ability, personality, self-concept, age, sex and cerebral hemispherisity) and institutional factors (subject area and departmental context, the nature of the task and task demands, the student's perception of the teaching and learning context, teaching and evaluation). An indication is also given of which factors and which specific aspects of the factors give rise to either a surface learning strategy or a deep learning strategy. Thirdly, one of the factors, namely teaching is discussed by referring to how it influences a student's choice of a learning strategy. Aspects such as teaching styles, teaching methods, media, effective teaching and the student's perception of teaching are discussed. Fourthly, a second factor, evaluation is discussed by looking at evaluation and objectives, ways of evaluating, evaluation techniques, criteria and prerequisites for evaluation, the role of evaluation in the teaching situation and the relationship between evaluation and the student's learning. Throughout the discussion on teaching and evaluation, an attempt is made to give an indication of the status quo concerning these aspects at Vista University. An attempt is also made to identify which aspects of these two factors encourage either a surface or a deep learning strategy. In order to determine the learning strategies of first year Education students at Vista University, an empirical research is undertaken. In the quantitative part of the research the measuring instrument used is the Approaches to Studying Inventory developed by Entwistle and Ramsden. The SOLO Taxonomy as developed by Biggs and Collis is used in the qualitative part of the research. The research group consists of the first year Education students at the Port Elizabeth, Bloemfontein, Welkom, Sebokeng and Soweto campuses of Vista University during 1988. From the research the conclusion can be drawn that the students do have a meaning orientation towards learning but the learning strategy that they apply is reproductive. Lastly, an attempt is made to determine teaching strategies that would encourage meaningful learning. The conclusion is reached that the lecturer's intention with regard to his teaching must be brought in line with the student's perception of the teaching situation. In order to bring this about meta-teaching strategies are proposed as the teaching strategies that would lead to meaningful learning.

M.Ed. (Education) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the conceptions of academics at the NMMU concerning the nature and purpose of teaching portfolios in higher education. The study was guided by the following research question: What are the conceptions of academics concerning the nature and purpose of teaching portfolios in higher education? A case study, involving academics at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU), was used to answer the research question. A sequential explanatory mixed-methods research design was employed to collect data from an electronic questionnaire consisting of Likert-scale type of responses and open-ended questions, followed by two focus group interviews with academics that had prior experience in the development of a teaching portfolio. Forty-five academics responded to the questionnaire sent to all the academics at the NMMU, providing a broad perspective on the conceptions of NMMU academics regarding the nature and purpose of teaching portfolios. The two focus group interviews were conducted with six and eight academics respectively who was purposively chosen for their prior experience with the development of teaching portfolios. The aim of the focus group interviews were to elaborate on the data generated by the questionnaire. The quantitative data gathered by the questionnaire was statistically analysed, generating descriptive statistics of the Likert type response statements. The transcripts of the focus group interviews were thematically analysed. The conceptual framework that initially guided the formulation of the sub-research questions was amended to include the themes that emerged from the thematic analysis of the data, namely: the portfolio development process, the uses of and purposes for developing teaching portfolios, the attitudes of academics towards teaching portfolios, and the benefits gained from the development of teaching portfolios. The findings of the study revealed that of the participants find work overload and additional responsibilities as major constraints and collaboration among peers as the most helpful factor in the development of a teaching portfolio. The findings further revealed that the majority of the participants identified items to be included in a teaching portfolio that would enable them to use the portfolio in the development of their teaching. A mixture of attitudes towards teaching portfolios was identified. Some academics (in particular those who have prior experience in the development of portfolios) displayed a positive attitude towards teaching portfolios, while participants reported a negative attitude towards teaching portfolios by most of their colleagues (mostly those who have not developed a portfolio yet). The negative attitudes do seem to overpower the positive attitudes towards teaching portfolios. The challenge to the NMMU would therefore be to get academics to make use of the initiatives provided by the NMMU to assist them with the teaching portfolio development process. Four recommendations that may serve as guidelines to assist in the successful implementation of teaching portfolios at the NMMU were made, based on the findings of the study. Although the results of this study cannot be generalized to other higher education institutions, they do provide insights in the conception of the academics regarding the nature and purpose of teaching portfolios at the NMMU that can be of benefit to other higher education institutions.

This project concerns instructors' perceived communicator style in the college classroom with African American and European American students.

Graduate students in the College of Education at the University of North Texas, Denton rated 57 teacher attributes on their relative importance in effective teaching. The data was analyzed across six demographic variables of department, sex, degree, nationality, teaching experience, and previous graduate school, using mean scores, one-way ANOVA, and t-tests for two independent samples.