M.Ed. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

The impetus for this study came from the increasing acknowledgement of learning dispositions as a central, yet largely under explored area of numeracy learning, in both international education literature and in the current work conducted by the South African Numeracy Chair, based at Rhodes University. This coupled with my own personal interest in the crucial transitional phase between Grade R (the year before formal schooling) and Grade 1 and the role of developing progressively strengthened learning dispositions, particularly in relation to numeracy learning, to enable this transition. This, together with the lack of research around what constitutes a quality Grade R programme, especially in South Africa, inspired an investigation into the promotion of key productive learning dispositions within current government policy and in teacher assessment practices across Grade R and Grade 1 in six local schools. I designed a qualitative research study underpinned by a socio-cultural theoretical perspective that foregrounds learning. Within this broad theoretical perspective I drew on two key analytic frameworks that cohere with this socio cultural view that prioritises learning dispositions (ways of being, habits of mind). In particular the work of Kilpatrick et al. (2001) and Carr & Claxton (2010), in defining essential elements of key productive learning dispositions, were combined to enable the development of an indicator matrix used for the analysis of current government policy and teacher assessment practices in the Grade R and Grade 1. Additionally empirical data from the study enabled extension and adaptation of the indicator matrix derived from key literature. The research contributes an analysis of various curriculum and policy documents across Grade R and 1 in terms of the inclusion and promotion of learning dispositions. The presences of certain promoted dispositions are compared with international literature and frameworks and certain absences or under represented dispositions are noted. The empirical data derived from Gr R and Gr 1 teacher questionnaires and exemplar reports across 6 schools are analysed and related back to policy. Similarities and differences across teachers in different grades and teachers in different schools are discussed. The findings point towards several avenues of research and also provide an emergent dispositional discourse from empirical data, policy analysis and literature that could enable engagement between various stakeholders around the notion of learning dispositions as a central feature of schooling in the Grade R to Grade 1 transition. It is argued from the data that the inclusion of exemplar reports, in teacher assessment policy guides, which indicate possible ways to communicate dispositional priorities to both parents and learners, would assist teachers in achieving greater coherence between dispositions promoted in the classroom and those assessed and reported on.

M.Ed. (Educational Psychology) / Andragogy presently finds itself in the crossfire of criticism from different directions and angles. Some critics perceive Andragogy • as a discipline founded on assumptions without the necessary empirical base, while others ridicule its lack of theoretical foundation. The underlying reason for the overall dissentment among critics can be ascribed to the absence of a well founded conceptualisation of Andragogy as a scientific construct. Should Andragogy be clarified both theoretically and conceptually, and redefined in terms of its purpose and objectives, much of the criticism would be stifled. In order to provide a frame of reference within which Andragogy could be evaluated, it was found necessary to inquire about and examine the nature and characteristics of such scientific constructs as typologies, models, theories and paradigms. Besides doing that, theories of learning receive attention in order to get a background and overview of the theoretical roots of Andragogy. Another important aspect which needs attention, is a thorough investigation of Andragogy as phenomenon.

The Sustained Investigation is a student-directed body of work completed as a requirement of the AP Studio Art (APSA) course. This work involves three audiences: students themselves, their teachers, and AP readers who evaluate their portfolios. Students must consider not only the personal meaning and relevance of their work, but the extent to which that significance can or should be communicated to these outside viewers. Teachers are faced with a related challenge: to guide students through work that is essentially self-defined. The purpose of this research was to document teacher, student, and reader descriptions of the pursuit of worthwhile ideas as they relate to the perceived goals and purposes of the Sustained Investigation. This research was undertaken as a collective case study involving interviews of APSA teachers and students across four school sites, as well as a selection of readers. Findings indicate that the term idea might describe a range of approaches to organizing a body of work, including themes, concepts, political stances, feelings, and other sources or motivations. Furthermore, this work often reflects multiple concurrent ideas, involving primary and secondary goals for one’s work. The development of ideas was often linked to a nonlinearity of practice; ideas were clarified through the process of making rather than beforehand. Respondents indicated that ideas should be meaningful to the creator, largely relating meaning to personal relevance. Meaning might be pursued by selecting topics of personal significance, developing individual creative processes, or reflecting on this experience as an opportunity to fully embody the role of artist. Meaningful ideas were differentiated from successful ones. Notions of success were defined in terms of the degree of internally and externally imposed challenge involved in this endeavor. Participants agreed that students should be considered the primary audience for their own work. For some students, awareness of readers motivated them to take on challenging work, but this awareness did not influence their choice of central ideas. The findings of this study, particularly the nuance in distinctions between idea, meaningful idea, and successful idea, may be useful in informing pedagogical and creative practice in the AP program and beyond.

The thesis focuses on a knowledge management with the support of a talent management in an international bank and an insurance company. It analyses a talented person, their characteristics and the progress possibilities by a development program created according to an educational plan and a following evaluation. It looks for a connection between the talented person and the knowledge management, which supports their education by assigning the right meaning to the selected information in order to make it easier to share knowledge, create educational materials or offer internal courses with various trends.

For several decades, the institutionalizing of pilot projects has been part of school reform designs in many countries. In the context of developing countries, this reform design accumulated into the establishment of so-called International Standard Schools (ISS). ISS are not traditional private international schools but public institutions drawing on private sector initiatives. ISS are typically national projects based on borrowing educational innovations that have been long-standing practices and ideas in the private education sector and adapting them to the public education sector. The exploratory case study focuses on the design of a scale-up reform wherein national actors involved international service providers in order to adapt and disseminate curricular innovations from the autonomous system of Nazarbayev Intellectual Schools (NIS) to the system of regular public schools. The study applies the notion of international standards as broadly defined international best practices and global education policies (e.g., competency-based education, outcomes-based education, and English as a medium of instruction) that national governments endeavor to adopt in their public school systems. The study seeks to understand the national school system’s attraction to certain international standards and borrowing ideas and policies offered by international education providers in Kazakhstan. The study explores how and why the selection, local adaptation and scale-up of international standards occurred in Kazakhstan’s public school system. The study draws on case study methodology and combines an embedded single case-study approach with mixed methods research design. The application of this methodological strategy is explained by the complex nature of the scale-up phenomenon that requires the researcher to examine perspectives of heterogeneous actors involved in the development and implementation of the scale-up reform. The study found that the design and establishment of NIS occurred due to the long-standing reforms characterized by a protracted policy conflict and the socially constructed modern school system based on the projections of various countries and regions as ‘world-class school’ systems. Avoiding the reduction of the state to one unitary actor, this embedded single case study found country-specific and sociological reasons for the establishment of NIS as a school reform modality in Kazakhstan from the perspectives of various policy actors including schoolteachers. The scale-up of curricular innovations had different meanings for different stakeholders of the same reform.

Evaluating the quality of teaching in higher education institutions frequently relies on student ratings, which are popular and efficient, but biased and ineffective. Peer review of teaching warrants investigation for its usefulness in the tenure and promotion process within higher education institutions. A peer review of teaching study also has potential benefits for other instructors who seek to improve their teaching. This mixed methods study evaluates a proposed approach to peer review that is being considered for adoption across all colleges at Brigham Young University. This proposed approach includes peer observations and a submission of a professional teaching portfolio designed to follow the current research of best teaching practices and sustain ethical and professional standards. Data were gathered from 107 participants in treatment and control groups in the form of pre- and post-surveys and focus group interviews. A 2x2 Split Plot ANOVA was used to analyze continuous variables to determine interaction and main effects between groups (pre/post x experimental/control groups). We used a constant comparative method to identify themes in focus group responses, using open, axial, and selective coding of participants' focus group interviews (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). Global themes identified were the positive and negative impacts of the peer review of teaching process. Most of the positive impact themes were gathered from those who had participated as peer reviewers, whereas much of the negative impact themes were gathered from those who had experienced a peer review of their teaching. Significant interaction effects between the assignment of treatment and time provide corroborating evidence for the themes identified. The results from this study provide better understanding of the peer review of teaching process that can ultimately lead to better evaluation practices as well as improved teaching and learning for higher education institutions.

"This study was conceived, developed and carried out in order to: (1) determine whether or not there was any difference in reasons given for enrolling in adult clothing construction classes by participants who were enrolled in first semester classes and those who were enrolled in second semester classes; (2) identify reasons why women in Pinellas County enrolled in adult clothing construction classes; and (3) relate the reasons for enrolling in adult clothing construction classes to (a) marital status, (b) age of participant, (c) educational level, and (d) annual family income to participation in adult clothing construction classes"--Introduction. / Typescript. / "August, 1975." / "Submitted to the Department of Home Economics Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science." / Advisor: Mary Lee Hurt, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 48-49).

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Law and Management University of Witwatersrand, in 25% fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Management (in the field of Public and Development), 2016 / The National Certificate: Vocational (NCV) qualification was introduced at Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) colleges in 2007 to enable students to acquire necessary skills and knowledge that would prepare them effectively for the world of work. The NCV is an outcomes-based curriculum and its introduction was accompanied by a general shift to outcomes-based teaching and learning approaches, as well as a rigorous assessment and moderation regime, particularly with regards to the internal assessment (ICASS) component. The shift required lecturers to adopt multi-dimensional assessment of skills, knowledge, understanding, attitudes, values and dispositions when assessing students. The report released by Umalusi in 2014 pointed out a number of factors that negatively affect the implementation of ICASS at some TVET colleges. The aim of the study was to explore the factors that constrain or enhance the implementation of the ICASS component of the NCV at TVET colleges. Literature related to the research topic was consulted and, subsequently, document analysis and semi-structured interviews were used to determine ICASS practices applied at Western College (Westcol) for TVET. ICASS requirements as per NCV-related policies and the current ICASS practices at the college were compared to determine the factors that (including those cited by Umalusi) hinder or promote ICASS implementation. The findings reflected that lack of resources (mainly financial and physical resources, as well as under-qualified and unqualified lecturers at the college) hinder the effective implementation of the ICASS component in some subjects at the college. Furthermore, the quality of the assessment elements was of great concern. Most interviewees reported that: some of the ICASS tasks in various subjects were of poor quality; there was lack of or poor moderation of tasks; portfolios were incomplete and there was a lack of structured remedial intervention after tasks were conducted. Interviewees attributed the above situation to increased lecturers’ workloads and students’ poor class attendance. The research recommends that the college build capacity for ICASS implementation through the provision of resources, and the training and development of lecturers, as well as partnerships with industries and other institutions to complement and strengthen the college’s limited resources and to apply knowledge management practices so that the college can leverage and benefit from the knowledge it currently possesses, to improve the implementation of the internal assessment component. / XL2018

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2018-09-27T12:26:39Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Dilean Marques Lopes.pdf: 6208589 bytes, checksum: 1e6525e09ecb41a834e3c70729360889 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2018-09-27T12:26:39Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Dilean Marques Lopes.pdf: 6208589 bytes, checksum: 1e6525e09ecb41a834e3c70729360889 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2018-08-29 / The research aims to analyze the challenges faced by managers in the implementation of the institutional evaluation in a Municipal School of Primary Education of the Municipal Education Network of São Paulo (EMEF). In this work, the institutional evaluation is understood according to the studies of Dias Sobrinho (2000), Afonso (2008), Brandalise (2010), Lück (2012), Freitas et. (2014), Barreto and Novaes (2016) and Bolivar (2016) as a process of self-evaluation of the school, carried out within the institution, involving the school actors in identifying the potentialities and fragilities of the school in different dimensions, aiming at the improvement institution. In this case study, the researcher proposes to investigate an institutional evaluation process started in 2016 but limited to data collection. The researcher is inserted in the school context while supporting the management team in the treatment of data and in the continuity of the institutional evaluation process. For this purpose, the responses of 37 participants to the institutional evaluation questionnaire were analyzed using Alceste software and the content analysis methodology proposed by Franco (2008). The data obtained were organized in a synthesis report from which the focus group meetings involving managers and teachers were initiated, promoting the publication and analysis of the institutional evaluation data for 2016 in the light of the school context of 2017. The discussions collective agreements allowed to point out proposals for intervention in the short, medium and long term, indicating ways for institutional improvement. Throughout the research, it was possible to identify and analyze the challenges faced by managers in their implementation, among which are the elaboration of evaluation tools, time and space assurance, the participation of different school actors, the implementation of decision and the articulation of the evaluation process with the school's Political Pedagogical Project. At the end of the research it is evident the need for training and follow-up actions to the School Unit to promote institutional evaluation as a school culture / A pesquisa tem por objetivo geral analisar os desafios enfrentados pelos gestores na implementação da avaliação institucional em uma Escola Municipal de Ensino Fundamental da Rede Municipal de Ensino de São Paulo (EMEF). Neste trabalho, a avaliação institucional é compreendida a partir dos estudos de Dias Sobrinho (2000), Afonso (2008), Brandalise (2010), Lück (2012), Freitas et al. (2014), Barreto e Novaes (2016) e Bolivar (2016), como um processo de autoavaliação da escola, realizado no âmbito interno da instituição, envolvendo os atores escolares na identificação das potencialidades e fragilidades da escola em diferentes dimensões, visando à melhoria institucional. Neste estudo de caso, a pesquisadora se propõe a investigar um processo de avaliação institucional iniciado em 2016, mas que se limitou à coleta de dados. A pesquisadora insere-se no contexto escolar como apoio à equipe gestora, especialmente no que diz respeito ao tratamento dos dados e à continuidade do processo de avaliação institucional. Para tanto, foram analisadas as respostas de 37 participantes ao questionário de avaliação institucional, utilizando o software Alceste e a metodologia de análise de conteúdo proposta por Franco (2008). Os dados obtidos foram organizados em um relatório-síntese. a partir do qual iniciaram-se os encontros de grupos focais, envolvendo gestores e professores, com vistas ao fomento, à publicização e à análise dos dados da avaliação institucional de 2016, à luz do contexto escolar de 2017. As discussões coletivas permitiram apontar propostas de intervenção a curto, médio e longo prazo, indicando caminhos para a melhoria institucional. Ao longo da pesquisa, foi possível identificar e, também, analisar os desafios enfrentados pelos gestores na sua implementação, entre os quais se destacam: a elaboração dos instrumentos de avaliação, a garantia de tempos e espaços, a participação de diferentes atores escolares, a implementação de tomadas de decisão e a articulação do processo avaliativo com o Projeto Político Pedagógico da escola. Ao término da pesquisa, evidencia-se a necessidade de ações formativas e de acompanhamento à Unidade Escolar para o fomento da avaliação institucional como cultura escolar