Accompanist is the old term. Collaborative pianist is the new one. Accompanist implies a mostly subservient role, whereas collaborative pianist gestures toward a more equitable relationship between the soloist and pianist, no longer a mere follower. Degree programs that prepare collaborative piano skills are growing rapidly in higher education since their inception five decades ago, encouraging a wider range of pianists to pursue an intentional career path. Becoming a seasoned collaborative pianist takes time, however. Little empirical research has investigated the preparation process. What is it like for collaborative piano majors to accumulate collaborative skills and practical knowledge? How is collaboration defined and experienced, and how helpful do students find their programs? Without understanding student experiences, the artistic well-being of collaborative pianists is at stake, and so is the field’s own ability to do its work. This qualitative study examines lived experiences of collaborative piano students in conservatory and university degree programs. As researcher, I conducted in-depth semi-structured interviews exploring topics including, but not limited to, professional identity, attitudes and dispositions, competencies and skills, struggles and challenges, power dynamics as well as teamwork with four recent graduates in the United States. It seems that issues of professionalization, an unclear definition of “collaboration,” and a lack of student agency are central to all lived experiences. An examination of these phenomena would contribute to the growth of the field, empowering its ability to do its job more efficiently and sustainably.

This dissertation journeys into the heart of narrative writing, exploring how personal stories shape the practices and identities of both students and instructors within academic writing instruction. At its core, it is an autoethnographic study that employs my own writing life as primary data to investigate the impact of narrative writing on teaching pedagogy. The research interrogates the traditional academic prioritization of objective, linear essay structures, questioning how such practices may obscure other legitimate forms of knowledge representation and identity construction within educational settings. Drawing from personal experiences of struggle within the constrictions of academic writing expectations, this work advocates for a narrative pedagogy. It recognizes storytelling as a rich, inclusive medium through which students can engage with texts and express complex understandings. By weaving in elements of motherhood, ancestry, and lived experience, the study underscores the need for a pedagogical shift towards recognizing the multiplicity of writer identities and the value of diverse narrative expressions.

Poetry often exists as a neglected form within high school English Language Arts classrooms. Whether taught with trepidation or avoided with anxiety, few teachers feel adequately equipped to teach the reading and writing of poetry. This may feel obvious in an era fixed on quantification of one variety or another. How could poetry—that, allegedly, most luxurious of linguistic forms—flourish in the STEM-nutrient-rich soil of contemporary educational priorities? By first charting the historical precedent for today’s poetry pedagogy, then considering why teachers bother to incorporate the form, and, finally, framing the classroom as a site for communal practice and formation, this dissertation works to build a robust sense of poetry’s educational possibilities for student and teacher alike. Relying on qualitative interview conversations with three public high school English Language Arts teachers who lead poetry-rich classrooms, I draw from the fields of English education, practice theory, educational philosophy, and ritual studies to offer a rehabilitated, prismatic conception of the teaching of poetry. Further, this dissertation argues for a definition of poetry teaching as a particular practice that embodies a character of community, quality of inhabitance, and concern with meaning in ways essential for our contemporary educational moment.

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The purpose of this study was to develop a profile of the successful secondary marketing teacher based upon perceptions of teaching award recipients in marketing education. A naturalistic inquiry paradigm using the case study approach was the research design selected for the study. Semistructured, open-ended interviews were conducted with 11 teachers who were recipients of the annually presented, state-level teaching award in marketing education in the states of North Carolina and Virginia. Data collected from the interviews were analyzed according to tenets associated with the constant comparative method. The perceptions of the participants were organized and coded into the following five core categories established by the research questions: (a) teacher preparation, (b) personal motivations and abilities, (c) students, (d) professional roles and practices, and (e) teaching environment. Conceptual categories which emerged within each core category formed the framework for a perceptual profile of the successful secondary marketing teacher presented in the case report. Based on the findings from this study, it can be concluded that the successful secondary marketing teacher: (a) approaches the job with enthusiasm and strives to accomplish more than the minimum job requirements; (b) receives satisfaction from watching students experience success and develop positive self-concepts; (c) is professionally committed and involved; (d) is a very caring, student-centered teacher; (e) is most effective when allowed the freedom to work with minimum supervision; (f) performs teaching and other program duties in a somewhat structured, methodical manner; (g) realizes the success of the marketing education program is dependent on his or her ability to maintain good interpersonal relationships; and (h) receives thorough preparation in both technical content and pedagogy. It is recommended that secondary marketing teachers attempt to improve their performance in teaching, coordination, and other areas of the job through the emulation of the profile produced from this study. Additional recommendations are presented for education policymakers, teacher educators, and future research. / Ed. D.

The play, Madagascar Mayhem, was devised as a means of developing ecological understanding about rain forest preservation and educating and expanding upon the use of drama as it relates to environmental education. By being involved in and learning about issues addressed in the play's content, students learned about how their actions may have a positive impact on rain forest preservation, the biodiversity of Madagascar, its agricultural loss and the movement to protect it.

The purpose of this project is to develop a training manual that will provide a common foundation for all faculty, regardless of their academic field and to take a comprehensive approach to teaching and understanding environmental education within the context of different cultures. It looks at what shapes environmental attitudes and how these attitudes vary between cultures.

This study focussed on teacher training in the context of distance education. It investigated the impact on practice of an English methodology course offered by Unisa’s Department of English Studies at certificate level. The unit of analysis was a group of eight student teachers registered for the module ACEEN26 Teaching English: General Principles offered by Unisa’s Department of English Studies. This module aims to help students to understand the approaches that underpin Outcomes-based Education (OBE) and how these translate into practice in the English First Additional Language (FAL) classrooms. To investigate the participants’ classroom practices, the study adopted an open and inductive approach aimed at gauging their thinking with regard to teaching, learning, assessment and how these understandings reflected OBE practices. The aim was to determine how the eight students made sense of this phenomenon given their own epistemologies within the unique contexts in which they worked. Data collection consisted of a mix of lesson observations, in-depth audio-taped interviews and analysis of documents. The interview was the main data-gathering technique. All these instruments were supplemented by field notes based on informal observations which were entered in a reflective journal. The picture that emerged was of teachers who worked under demanding conditions as they tried to implement complex and sometimes contradictory policies and were constantly under the pressure of policy demands. Their practices were, to a large extent, inconsistent with the OBE approach to teaching and learning. Although they gained some theoretical surface knowledge from the course, the students’ practice remained traditional because of two main reasons emanating from the findings: their inability to internalise the theory to make it an integral part of their mental repertoire and the negative impact of disabling contextual factors.The study constituted an evaluation of the course and therefore fed directly into the whole concept of dialogue and student support which are necessary prerequisites for success in distance education. As a teacher educator, this research was also a way of illuminating my teaching practices through practical research that simultaneously informs the field of teacher education. Based on the training needs identified, a re-contextualised curriculum for the ACE English programme was proposed. This proposed new programme reflects my stance that instead of continuing to focus on pouring resources into dysfunctional schools, we should concentrate on the lowest denominator in the system — the teacher. / Educational Studies / D. Litt. et Phil (English)

The aim of this study is to deal with the theoretical and philosophical aspects of Christian education and to evaluate the realisation thereof in Gazankulu schools. Concepts dealing with the study, such as education, Christian education, learning, teaching, pedagogy, religion and Christianity are firstly discussed. A brief background of the area of study is also given. Secondly a philosophical orientation is given in which an attempt is made to answer the question 'What is philosophy?'. Important aspects of a Christian philosophy is also established and philosophical categories, the nature and aims of Christian education are discussed. Christian schooling are thirdly discussed, especially Christian schooling as it ought to be. Important aspects thereof, such as major learning goals and components of the education situation are dealt with. The position and status of scripture teaching in school, as well as the position of religious education in Gazankulu are outlined. In the fourth place, an empirical study to evaluate the stand of Christian education in Gazankulu schools, are discussed. This study involved principals, parents, pupils and teachers. Finally conclusions are given and certain recommendations regarding Christian education are made. / Die doel van hierdie studie is om die teoretiese en filosofiese aspekte van Christelike onderwys te deurgrond en om die realisering van hierdie aspekte in skole in Gazankulu te evalueer. Begrippe wat met die studie te make het, soos opvoeding, Christelike onderwys, onderrig-leer, pedagogie, geloof, en Christelikheid, word bespreek. 'n Beknopte oorsig van die studiegebied word ook gegee. Daar word tweedens 'n filosofiese orientering gegee, waarin daar gepoog word om vrae soos 'Wat is filosofie?' te beantwoord. Belangrike aspekte van 'n Christelike filosofie word ook bespreek en filosofiese kategoriee, die aard van en doelstellings met Christelike onderwys, word aangespreek. Christelike onderwys, en veral Christelike onderwys soos dit behoort te wees, word derdens bespreek. Belangrike aspekte daarvan, soos die onderrigleerdoelstellings en die komponente van die opvoedingsituasie word aangeraak. Die plek en status van Bybelonderrig in Gazankulu word ook beskryf. In die vierde plek word 'n empiriese ondersoek om die stand van Christelike onderwys in Gazankulu te evalueer, bespreek. Hierdie ondersoek het hoofde, ouers, leerlinge en onderwysers betrek. Laastens word daar tot sekere gevolgtrekkings gekom, en aanbevelings gemaak ten opsigte van Christelike onderwys. / Educational Studies / M. Ed. (Philosophy of Education)

Thesis (MA (Afrikaans and Dutch))--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / When teaching Afrikaans Second Language the educator experiences certain problems. Some of these problems are commonly experienced by all Afrikaans educators. However, when teaching the subject at a LSEN school, a number of other problems occur which stand in direct relation to the disability(ies) of the learner. Formerly LSEN schools used to specialise in a specific disability but now all these schools have to accommodate most disablities, not only because of numbers but also because of the new inclusion policy. At a LSEN school where the same syllabus as all the other mainstream schools is followed, the demands made on both the learner, as well as the educator, are severe because of added problems. The learner’s problems are mostly related to his disability and the educator has to find ways and means to overcome the problem of accommodating and teaching learners with different needs and different disabilities in one class.