In Experiment I, I tested whether training teacher trainers to conduct TPRA observations to a calibrated standard by teaching them to 1) measure the accuracy of other individuals presenting learn unit instruction, then 2) measure their own accuracy in presenting learn unit instruction, would influence the accuracy of the teacher trainer’s own subsequent learn unit instruction, the accuracy of the teacher trainees’ learn unit instruction (after being trained via TPRA observations), or the numbers of objectives achieved by students, given instruction from their respective teacher trainees. The dependent variables included the accuracy of both the teacher trainers and the teacher trainees in presenting learn unit instruction, along with numbers of instructional objectives achieved by students. The independent variables included two successive treatment phases, in which the teacher trainers conducted TPRA’s on others presenting learn units, followed by TPRA’s on their own learn unit instruction. Following each intervention, the teacher trainers conducted in-situ TPRA’s with feedback on each of their respective teacher trainees. Following the in-situ TPRA’s with feedback conducted by the teacher trainers, I measured the dependent variables by conducting TPRA observations without feedback. The results indicated that both teacher trainers and teacher trainees demonstrated increased accuracy in Learn Unit presentations as a function of the treatment package. The rates of student learning also increased following the interventions. In Experiment II, I tested the effects of time, practice, and experience on the accuracy of teacher learn unit instruction. I measured teacher learn unit accuracy prior to and following a period of time that did not include any formal intervention. Additionally, I measured the numbers of in-situ TPRA’s required by each teacher to achieve mastery criteria for presenting learn units. The results showed that while each teacher demonstrated slight improvements in their learn unit delivery following practice alone, their accuracy was far from mastery criteria level. Additionally, all teachers required in-situ TPRA’s with feedback in order to achieve mastery criteria for delivering learn unit instruction. In Experiment III, I tested the effects of learning by observing others on teacher learn unit accuracy. Specifically, I measured teacher learn unit accuracy prior to and following a classroom training where the teachers were required to measure the accuracy of other individual’s learn unit instruction, by conducting TPRA observations on a set of standardized training videos. Additionally, I measured the numbers of post-intervention in-situ TPRA’s with feedback required by each teacher to achieve mastery criteria for presenting learn units. The results showed that two of the three teachers demonstrated improvements in their learn unit delivery following the training videos, however, their accuracy was far from mastery criteria level. Therefore, all teachers required in-situ TPRA’s with feedback in order to achieve mastery criteria for delivering learn units. In Experiment IV, I tested the effects of learning by observing videos of oneself on teacher learn unit accuracy. Specifically, I measured teacher learn unit accuracy prior to and following a classroom training where the teachers were required to measure the accuracy of their own learn unit instruction, by conducting TPRA observations on a set of pre-recorded videos of themselves delivering learn units. Additionally, I measured the numbers of post-intervention in-situ TPRA’s with feedback required by each teacher to achieve mastery criteria for presenting learn units. The results showed that all three teachers demonstrated mastery criteria for delivering learn units following the self-observation intervention. Therefore, none of the teachers required in-situ TPRA’s with feedback, as the skill was already in repertoire.

The aim of my research was to introduce drama, in the form of theatre for development processes, to local Grahamstown Primary School teachers, and to work closely with one teacher to explore theatre for development in the classroom, as a means of introducing both environmental education and learner-centred, constructivist teaching methodologies. I started my research by interviewing Primary School principals as well as sending out questionnaires to teachers, to survey their understanding and practice of drama and environmental education in the school curriculum and to invite them to participate in the research project. In collaboration with Educational Drama and Theatre students, I developed two workshops to introduce theatre for development processes such as image theatre and role-play to the teachers. Nine teachers attended this workshop which was video-taped. After the workshop I gave two lessons at a local school, in partnership with a teacher. Throughout this process I kept a research journal. All action components of the research were followed up with individual interviews, group discussions and a focus group. Although the study gave rise to multiple themes, I chose to highlight two: Firstly, Curriculum 2005 advocates a move towards more learner-centred,constructivist and process-orientated pedagogies. All of the participants in this study, including myself, had intentions of adopting a new approach tq education and teaching but found that we often reverted back to earlier learnt roles of product-orientated, text-based, authoritarian approaches to education which we originally had rejected. Secondly, I reflect on how we set out viewing environmental education, education, drama and research as a process and yet all the participants, including myself, continually tried to 'put on' the perfect performance in the form of a drama, a learning experience and research. This project was a participatory research project. The textwork of the research reflects a post-structural orientation. It has been written in the form of a drama to represent the many voices of the participants, but also to question the role of research in society and make research more accessible to non-academic readers. I also intend to perform the research process at a later stage.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the initial on-site supervision experience of school counseling interns. Current counseling supervision research has failed to address dynamics specific to the context of school counselor training and professional development. This gap in the research suggest that examining the phenomenological experience of what constitutes school counselor trainee growth in the context of on-site counseling supervision was worthwhile. An emergent qualitative research design was utilized to clarify and elaborate on data while pursuing lines of inquiry grounded in the experience of three school counseling supervisory dyads (supervisee-supervisor), a university internship supervisor, two additional supervisees, and three additional supervisors. During the course of an academic school counseling internship experience, data was collected through multiple taped on-site school counseling supervision process observations, participant semi-structured interviews, and reflective participant and researcher journals. Utilizing a constant comparative method of data analysis, results indicated an emerging model of on-site school counseling supervision which, (a) progressed sequentially through a series of four developmental phases (contextual orientation, establishing trust, conceptual development, and clinical independence), (b) focused on twelve dimensions of supervises learning specific to each phase of development (contextual urgency, site disparity, ethical awareness, accessibility, support, collegiality, thematic observations, reflective modeling, illustrative examples, self assessment, self generation, and professional risk taking), and (c) illustrated a reflective cycle of supervisor-supervisee interaction focused on the supervisee transforming dissonant internship counseling experiences into professional schemas. Presented as an emergent model and specific to the investigated context, the results suggest that developmental principles of counseling supervision are applicable to school counseling, and that the supervision relationship illustrated pedagogical interventions and processes congruent with reflective learning theory. It is recommended that counselor education programs provide preliminary exposure to the school counseling context and relevant counseling models while maintaining ongoing follow-up and support with on-site school counseling supervisors. Furthermore, research is needed to more fully examine instructional strategies in the context of school counselor preparation and on-site supervision. / Graduation date: 1998

Graduation date: 1950

“Career-related Experiences (CRE)” is one of the components of Other Learning Experiences (OLE) within the New Senior Secondary (NSS) curriculum system. This research is a multiple case study to investigate the impacts of CRE on career education and guidance practices at NSS level. Semi-structured interviews are conducted with the career masters, class teachers, subject teachers and Secondary 5 students from three aided schools of varying academic levels. The results of interviews reveal that school management and teachers are in general positive towards the implementation of CRE. Correspondingly, changes are brought to the preexisting practices of career education and guidance, which include the adoption of developmental approach, and increased diversity of activities and allocation of resources. However in terms of students’ career development, the impacts on self-understanding and perception of future career are relatively shallow, when compared to the effort made by the career team. It is suggested that higher concerns should be placed on the depth of programmes so as to help students internalise their learning through career education. While the value of CRE is to a certain extent confirmed in this study, practical suggestions for implementing of CRE are made. Topics for further research are also proposed with regard to the limitations of this research. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

In Hong Kong, environmental education is not regarded as a compulsory learning subject in secondary schools and it is also not assessed as an independent subject in any public examination. As there is no specific and formal role for environmental education in secondary schools, educators tend to make use of various subjects such as Geography, Social Studies, Physics, Chemistry and Liberal Studies etc. to deliver contents, themes and issues related to environmental education. Also, in some secondary schools, the organization of some extra-curricular activities through Geography Society and Environmental Education Clubs etc. supplement the work of subject departments in delivering environmental education. Beside these efforts other schools may have other inputs for environmental education, however, from a macro perspective, is such context of environmental education delivery represents a holistic and high-quality environmental education delivery in secondary schools of Hong Kong? Because of the lack of formal position of environmental education in the education system, schools have great autonomy to decide on the ways in delivering environmental education. It is therefore worthwhile to understand in reality, how secondary schools in Hong Kong carry out environmental education in their own ways? Schools may have different practices of environmental education in their own context, but are there any similarities of their practices? The attempt to generalize several patterns of the selected school in practicing environmental education would be helpful to provide an angle for understanding environmental education in a more structural and holistic way. More importantly, it is significant to understand to what extent are the current practices of the examined schools effective in delivering environmental education. After the evaluation of school’s effectiveness in environmental education, it is certainly a good news if any examined school is performing well and they should continue to strive for improvement, otherwise, for schools that are weaker in environmental education, educators should reflect upon and rethink more how can they do better in environmental education for cultivating more environmentally-literate citizens of Hong Kong in future. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

This study explores the role and meaning of general education in Chinese higher education in the face of ongoing social changes in China, using Fudan University (FU) as a case study. General education has been heatedly discussed and greatly promoted in Chinese higher education since the last decade of the 20th century. Since existing theories and conceptions of general education mainly focus on Western, especially American, higher education, there has been little exploration of the meaning and role of general education in China, which has very different sociopolitical and cultural traditions from those of many Western nations, especially in the context of economic globalization. Therefore, an exploration of the meaning and role of general education in Chinese higher education could help to provide either challenges or supplements to existing theories and conceptions of general education. This study adopted the qualitative case study with FU as the case to explore the research problem. It used three data collection methods – document collection and review, interviews and observation – to gain an in-depth understanding of the development and tasks of general education at FU during periods of social transformation of China from 1905 to 2004, and during the latest reforms to general education at FU, between 2005 and 2012. Data collected from historical documents identified that general education at FU had mainly assumed two persistent tasks during periods of social transformation of China between 1905 and 2004. The first task was to facilitate the transmission of core cultural values, as defined mainly by the leaders of the state in different periods, to help the state to preserve its national identity. The second task was to equip students with knowledge, capacities and values, mainly Western in origin, to facilitate the state’s economic modernization. Further analysis of documentary, interview and observation data also identified continuities in and changes to the sociopolitical/cultural and economic tasks of general education at FU between 2005 and 2012; specifically, that general education still transmitted state-promoted core cultural values and still equipped students with a wider range of knowledge and capacities, but the contents of those values and the nature of those knowledge and capacities had changed due to the further development of China’s market economy and the effects of economic globalization. Based on these findings, this study proposed a concept to understand the meaning and role of general education at FU in the context of ongoing social changes in China. This thesis argues that, at FU, general education can be interpreted as a curricular instrument for nation-building that helps China promote its sociopolitical/cultural and economic tasks by facilitating (a) the inheritance of selected Chinese and non-Chinese cultural values, and (b) the equipment of students with a broader range of knowledge and capacities to cope with China’s changing economy. This study identified that, to facilitate China’s nation building ambitions, general education transmitted to students (a) Chinese and non-Chinese (particularly Western) cultural values, and (b) both traditional cultural values and contemporary cultural values prescribed by different national leaders (and/or scholars) in different historical periods. Further, this study identified two tensions in general education for nation-building: (a) the tension between traditional and contemporary Chinese cultures, and (b) the tension between selected Chinese and non-Chinese cultures. This study shows the ebb and flow of traditional Chinese cultural values in the sociopolitical/cultural task of general education, and how it has been shaped by China’s nation building since the early 20th century under the economic and military challenges of foreign nations. The concept of general education proposed by this study helps to explain the persistence of the economic and the sociopolitical/cultural task of general education at FU during the periods of social changes of China from 1905 to 2012. The study also identified that the economic task of general education mandated the import of elements of Western culture and values and therefore created tension with the Chinese cultural values transmitted in general education’s sociopolitical/cultural task. The concept of general education proposed by this study has implications for existed theories and conceptions of general education (mainly Western in context) which do not show (a) the coexistence of and the tensions between traditional and contemporary national cultures in the tasks of general education, and (b) the coexistence of and tensions between the economic and sociopolitical/cultural tasks of general education. Further research is suggested into the complex relationships among and tensions between different cultures as general education facilitates nation-building. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

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