published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

Considering the characteristics of research questions, The study adopted qualitative approach and case study strategy. Six teachers from two elementary schools in a district of Shanghai were chosen as cases. Data was collected through observations, interviews and documents, and then coded and analyzed them by Nvivc8. / Shanghai launched its curriculum reform since the late 1980s, which was followed by the second round curriculum reform started in 1998. Owing to those constantly wheeling processes of reform, curriculum materials, teaching methods, curriculum evaluation, curriculum organization, accountability and people's conception of curriculum experienced a big change. These changes challenged teachers' traditional understandings of curriculum and teaching as well as their ways of acting. The practice of teaching becomes more and more complicated, and there are a lot of conflicts and uncertainties in it. Rather than choosing between the right and wrong, teachers make their decisions through negotiations with many elements in the dynamic field. Based on these considerartions, this research focuses on the content of decisions teachers make at the level of classroom along with analysis of these processes which are framed in a perspective of negotiation. / The findings of this research indicate that: (1) The content of teachers' curriculum decision-makings at the level of classroom concentrated on teaching goals, content and process, while emphasizing evaluations after classroom instead of instantaneous evaluations in teaching. (2) Thenegotiation with situation factors was the main avenue teachers took to decide teaching goals and contents. When conflicts emerged between teachers' beliefs and situation factors, most of teachers were inclined to step back and make compromise with situation factors. (3) Teachers' negotiation with other people provided accesses for teachers to getting emerging curriculum ideas, learning processes and methods of teaching. People who have authority in experience of teaching, professional knowledge and administrative power were important evidences for teachers' decision-making. (4) Along with accumulation of experience in teaching, teachers' decisions mainly depended on their negotiations with themselves. (5) Teachers' final decisions were co-products of their negotiations with situation, other people and themselves, while each of these three elements played different role in this process. / Through analyzing content and process of decision-makings of teachers in elementary school in Shanghai, this research summed up the characteristics of negotiation embodied in the Chinese teachers' decision-making at the level of classroom. Those findings will shed some light on the improvement of curriculum reform in Chinese basic education as well as on teacher development domain. / 杨兰. / Adviser: Pingkwan Fok. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-03, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 345-362). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Yang Lan.

In the first part of the thesis, the researcher intended to describe the complexity of the educational environments in which how teachers practice organizational learning in schools of Shenzhen, mainland China and to examine the effectiveness of organizational learning in those environments. In the second part, the researcher conducted a quantitative survey of high schools as learning organizations in Shenzhen and attempted to distinguish their capabilities of organizational learning. Two kinds of high schools were included in the survey, state-run schools and privately-run schools. / The key characteristic of learning organizations is organizational learning. Organizational learning is also a process to raise the adaptability and the creativity of an organization through a complex system to cope with the challenges arisen from the unpredictable circumstances. Organizational learning is a result of deep collective conversations and dialogues among staff members and a result of self-reflection in a certain cultural context. It not only brings new arrangements in organizational structures, but also changes the school culture and transformation of behavior patterns. Organizational learning is the pre-requisites of surviving and continuous development of the organization. / There were three phases in this study, namely, a pilot study in which a small scale survey were conducted, a main study which included a large scale survey and a case study of four selected schools from the sample in the large scale survey. In the first stage, a pilot study was conducted in order to trial run an instrument which attempted to assess the characteristics of organizational learning of high schools in Shenzhen. After establishing a preliminary framework of organizational learning in schools and an instrument for the study, an attempt was made to assess the capabilities of organizational learning in a greater sample of high schools in Shenzhen. (Abstract shortened by UMI.) / This study has based upon the existing problems that teachers faced in the process of curriculum reform in basic education within mainland China. Under the complexity of the environments in educational reform and school organizational development, this study aims to examine the characteristics of schools as learning organizations in mainland China, especially in Shenzhen, and their relations to educational reforms and sustainable school development. / 張兆芹. / Advisers: Sun-Keung Pang; Nai-Kwai Lo. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-02, Section: A, page: 0470. / Thesis (doctoral)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2007. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 331-353). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / School code: 1307. / Zhang Zhaoqin.