A comparative case study was used to explored the orientations to teaching of three college teachers. The educational conceptions about teaching and classroom learning environments were investigated to determine how ideal orientations to teaching matched the reality of classroom practice. Each of the teachers was observed for the duration of eight class sessions (introductory level and upper level). Participants were interviewed on four occasions using a semi-structured interview format consisting of open-ended questions that focused on their conceptions of teaching and learning. Teachers' identified influences that affected their orientations to teaching and discussed their academic discipline, design and use of course syllabi, and their conceptions of students. Interpretation of the data revealed that the participants' ideal teaching orientation was based on their experience as a student and conceptions of the requirements of their academic discipline. Ideal teaching orientations were compromised based on a variety of contextual influences. The study builds theory on teaching orientations and forms a foundation for further research to investigate the influences of professional development, academic discipline, and gender on teaching orientation.

In an era where information is created for and acquired from on-line sources, including web pages, computer based instruction, and digital design, developers need to ground constructs of digital pages in proven design principles. Traditional art education provides such basic design principles which, it will be shown, carry over to digital design. Without a base understanding of “why” design decisions are being made, interface designers often create less effective and less readable interfaces. This in turn, could lead to reduced use of an application compared to other better designed applications with perhaps less functionality. This thesis proposes a comprehensive curriculum outlining the fundamental principles of interface design. An intuitive approach is used to hasten the learning process of the curriculum for those who do not have the time or resources for an expanded course curriculum. An evaluation of the curriculum, including surveys and focus group sessions, provides evidence of improved learning and the student's ability to recognize, understand and produce the outlined principles.

This exploratory descriptive case study aimed to identify key issues in the transformation of mathematics teaching in elementary schools. This study told the story of what happened to sixteen elementary teachers who embarked on a quest to improve their mathematics teaching by participating in at least two in-depth professional development experiences over an interval of three years. It traced their ideas about how and why to improve instruction, identified their challenges with prevailing school organizational conditions, and reported perceived changes that were made in their teaching. The research data, comprised of quotations from teachers' writing while they were engaged in professional development experiences at SummerMath for Teachers of Mt. Holyoke College and the researcher's notes from interviews, formed the data for analysis to answer four interrelated research questions: (1) What changes in instruction do selected elementary teachers of mathematics report that they made as a result of participating in professional development for improving the teaching of mathematics? (2) What do selected elementary teachers of mathematics report are the reasons for the changes they made in instruction? (3) What changes in instruction do selected elementary teachers of mathematics report that they regard as most effective for improving student learning? (4) What organizational conditions in their local elementary schools do selected elementary teachers of mathematics report helped or hindered their changes in instruction? The major findings based on the collected data were summarized and presented according to the four research questions that guided this study. The major findings related to changes in instruction fell under five prominent categories: increased emphasis on student thinking and understanding, increase in student-centered activities, changes in classroom discourse, increase in conceptually-based mathematics content, and a shift in the teacher's role from an authoritarian model of instruction to one that is student-centered. Findings from this study suggested some recommendations for educational practice for institutions preparing elementary teachers of mathematics, for in-service teacher professional development programs, and for school policies and organizational structures. One primary recommendation involved engaging pre- and in-service teachers in revisiting the mathematics content that they currently teach or will teach within an inquiry-based teaching and learning environment so that they might draw their own conclusions as to the implications for teaching mathematics.

While the goal of mathematics education reform is to improve the mathematics achievement of all students (NCTM, 2000), at the core of these efforts is the teacher (Garet, Porter, Desimore, Birman, & Yoon, 2001). Educational change ultimately rests on the teachers who directly impact the students. Teacher leaders with expertise in all the dimensions of mathematics education can provide school-based professional development needed to support and maintain the teacher change process. The focus of this self-study is a critical examination of the influences on my development as an elementary mathematics teacher leader and on the strategies I develop as I coach teachers to improve, and change their practice. "Reciprocal Mathematics Coaching" was designed as a process to promote collaborative, job-embedded professional development. This model provided a means to meet each teacher's individual goals along a professional development continuum. Findings from the study indicate that teacher leader coaching interventions ranged along a continuum from the support of surface features of the curriculum, to co-teaching, and then to critical colleagueship in pursuit of a deeper pedagogy. Expected teacher outcomes occurred, but practice of reform-based instruction would require a longer time frame and the establishment of peer coaching support. My teacher leadership evolved from my approach to visualizing mathematics; elementary subject specialization; experience from teaching special education and regular education; beliefs in personalizing learning for students and teachers; self-reflective practice and practitioner research; and professional empowerment through collegial collaboration. Through "Reciprocal Mathematics Coaching", I came to learn how the pervasiveness of the affective domain impacts teachers even as they choose to improve their practice. Negative memories from their own mathematics education continue to influence their teaching. Formal teacher leadership can facilitate steps toward effective teacher growth and change. The strength of teacher leadership emanates from the nexus of teacher knowledge domains (Hill & Ball, 2004; Shulman, 1986;) situated within a learning community of reflective practice (Senge, 1990; Sergiovanni, 2000).

The purpose of this study is to determine middle school teachers' thoughts on ability grouping. Specifically, this study identifies the reasons that teachers retain (R group) or eliminate (E group) ability grouping practices. Data from thirty-one teachers were categorized through the use of qualitative research methodology. This study focuses on three research questions: (1) What do middle school teachers perceive to be the advantages of ability grouping? (2) What do middle school teachers perceive to be the disadvantages of ability grouping? (3) What alternative grouping practices do middle school teachers utilize to replace ability grouping? Teachers who support ability grouping do not believe what they read and hear about ability grouping. For them, ability grouping may not be the best way to work with young adolescents in schools, but it works reasonably well and they do not believe another way of grouping is worth the effort, or works any better. They may not want to change for a variety of other reasons. Their beliefs may limit thinking or they may not want to invest the time, energy, and thought necessary to alter ability grouping practices. These ideas, coupled with the notion that teaching ability grouped classes is easier and change is difficult, form the basis for their perceived advantages of ability grouping. R group teachers state as many disadvantages of ability grouping as they do advantages. E group teachers are more adamant in their perceptions. They state fewer advantages of ability grouping, and many times more disadvantages. They believe that non-ability grouped methods, coupled with other teaching methodologies, are effective ways to teach middle school students. Sixteen of seventeen teachers interested in eliminating ability grouping had taught in both ability grouped and non-ability grouped classrooms. The opposite was true for the teachers who wished to retain ability grouping. Only one of the fourteen R group teachers had taught both ability grouped and non-ability grouped classes. This suggests that to be supportive of eliminating ability grouping in classrooms, teachers must use both types of instruction. Teachers who have chosen to eliminate ability grouping in their schools and classrooms have bridged the gap between acceptance of the status quo and taking action. Their actions are based upon a strong belief that they can be successful and benefit all students, both academically and socially.

The local school is the level at which school improvement occurs. The key leaders of the local schools are the principals and they should be involved in improving the curriculum for school improvement. However, principals encounter difficulties. Their role is unclear. They do not possess the necessary skills. To acquire such skills, staff development programs are needed for principals. In this exploratory study, a staff development program was designed and implemented to assist principals to gain curriculum development competencies. A list of fifty-four activities was mailed to eighty-eight Pennsylvania principals to collect their perceptions on the role of the elementary principal in curriculum development. Seventy returned questionnaires were analyzed and the activity identified as most important to their role in curriculum leadership was evaluating classroom instruction. A review of literature was made to determine premises, competencies, and learning conditions to be included in a staff development program. Eight premises were used to construct eight lessons with twenty-four objectives. Seventeen principals completed a needs assessment and pretest to determine competencies they already had and those needing development. Principals participated in workshop sessions to correct weaknesses. After the sessions, principals completed a posttest to determine if they gained the desired competencies, and which aspects of the staff development program were most helpful. The analysis of the posttest data revealed that principals perceived the staff development program to have assisted them in gaining twenty-one objectives. Two objectives were not accomplished with the principals and, therefore, recommendations have been suggested on how to revise the lesson. One objective was previously obtained by all principals who participated in the lesson. Therefore, this objective needs to be evaluated with other principals to determine if it should be deleted or maintained. It was determined, then, that the staff development program benefitted selected principals in gaining curriculum development skills. A recommendation for future study is that this program be implemented with a larger group of elementary principals to determine if it assists them to gain crucial curriculum development skills in a significant and lasting manner.

The complexity of robotics and automated systems in manufacturing today requires service technicians to have extensive knowledge and skills. Programs offering educational curricula for robotics and automated systems are primarily available in colleges and universities. These programs, however, lack practical application and do not meet industry requirements. Today, technicians require more skills and practice than theory. Since the vocational education students at the secondary level are trained more in skills and practical application than in theory, it is logical to assume that gaps in the work force could be filled by individuals properly trained in high school. To accomplish that, it was necessary to develop a curriculum that could be taught at the secondary vocational education level. Such a curriculum was not in existence at the outset of this study. The approach to the development of an operable curriculum was based on a survey method of research to collect the necessary data. A 50-item survey instrument was developed and sent to 110 contact persons in industry, who use robots and automated systems for manufacturing their product. The mean for the responses was calculated and a t-test was used to make comparisons between present and anticipated future industry needs. Based on the recommendations of a reviewing board, the results of the analysis were used to develop a suggested curriculum for a four-year program for robotics/automated systems service technicians. The findings indicate that industry requires technicians to have extensive backgrounds that provide positive work ethics, excellent communication skills, high quality standards for workmanship and safety, the ability to establish realistic vocational goals, conscientious awareness of safe practices, leadership skills, and functional math and science skills. Technology skills require strong backgrounds in electronics, blueprint reading, basic electricity, machine tool fundamentals, electro-mechanical devices, and robotic applications. In conclusion, industry requires service employees to have extensive backgrounds in general knowledge skills as well as technology skills. More valuable to the industry than any other technical skill, however, is the ability to analyze systems and solve problems. Oral communication is important for service persons because it often reflects company image and helps future sales.

Effective curriculum planning and decision making process is key to the success of educational programs. The problem with centralized educational systems is that, at the curriculum planning level, the system does not have sufficient data about the needs of the learner, teachers, and the expectations of the society at large for effective curriculum planning to take place. At the implementation level, the system does not give teachers the needed flexibility to implement the curriculum. The major purpose of this study was to investigate curriculum decision making process in Malawi. The research procedures used in this study consisted of systematic document analysis and interviews with selected educators. In addition, a survey of opinions of students, parents, teachers, and heads of schools was conducted. The findings of the study confirmed that the curriculum planning and decision making process in Malawi is centralized. It also found that curriculum planning and development process for the secondary school curriculum was not fully systematised. At the school level, heads of schools and teachers had very little say about the curriculum. The implementation of the curriculum was, therefore, not flexible enough to allow the curriculum to be modified to suit local conditions while at the same time meeting the nationally developed objectives. The following were some of the recommendations the study made: (1) Decisions about the curriculum should be broadly based. (2) The responsibility for national curriculum development should be vested in the hands of the Malawi Institute of Education. (3) The Ministry of Education and Culture should gradually institute a school-based management strategy in order to improve the effectiveness of schools. (4) Lines of communication between the school and the Ministry headquarters should be improved. (5) In order to encourage the application of knowledge and skills into practice, there is need to continue refining performance based assessment techniques for appraising student performance and for placement. It is hoped that the decentralization process now taking place within the education sector, will take into consideration the above recommendations in order to improve the quality of secondary education in Malawi.

This study attempted to shed some light on effectiveness of computer-based mathematics instruction by using meta-analysis to integrate findings from varied studies. Seventy-two studies were collected from published studies, ERIC documents, and dissertations. Effectiveness was measured in terms of math achievement, problem-solving skills, and attitudes toward mathematics/instruction and computers. Overall results indicated that CAI/computer programming had a moderate positive effect on achievement, a slight positive effect on problem-solving skills and attitudes toward mathematics/instruction, and a great positive effect on attitudes toward computers for elementary and secondary students. Specific effects found were: (1) junior high students had higher average effect size in achievement than elementary and senior high students; (2) simulation/gaming CAI had higher effect size in achievement for higher grade students; (3) CAI was most effective for low-ability students' mathematics achievement; (4) students from average and high-income families had higher average effect sizes than students from low-income families; (5) male students learned more with computers than female students in terms of achievement; (6) CAI programs developed by experimenters or teachers had higher average effect size than programs which were commercially developed; (7) computers located in laboratories or in classrooms were equally effective in enhancing student achievement; (8) CAI was effective in improving achievement for both normal students and special students, such as remedial and learning-disadvantaged students; (9) CAI in algebra/arithmetic studying had higher average effect sizes than in geometry; (10) published studies yielded the largest effect size in achievement, and dissertations had the largest effect size in problem-solving skills; (11) Logo programming was more effective in enhancing problem-solving skills than BASIC; and (12) attitudes of male and low-ability students were most positive toward mathematics/instruction. In light of above positive findings of this meta-analysis, educators/teachers may be able to make sound decisions about implementation of CAI/computer programming in mathematics instruction.

Historically, throughout the world, Indigenous nations have been subject to colonial policies and practices which deliberately seek to obliterate the way of life of Indigenous societies. The Kanienkehaka nation is but one of the thousands of such nations struggling to survive and resist against state invasions within traditional national territories. This study examines the current conflict-relationship between the Kanienkehaka nation and the State (U.S./Canada) from a historical/cultural/political framework. The Oka crisis of July 11, 1990 will serve as a case study. This study also constructs pedagogy that examines both U.S./Canadian governmental policies towards Indigenous nations, specifically the Kanienkehaka nation. This curriculum is designed to assist teachers place each chapter in an educational context by specifying central themes that revolve around the historical/contemporary relationship existing between the Kanienkehaka nation and the State.