The purpose of this paper is to set forth some problems in education that give rise to the need for teachers to learn and grow in professional service. Involved in this task is the development of the concept that the maximum growth and development of professional educators is best facilitated through the democratic processes of group work. Some selected activities of supervision that contribute to the development of training programs are discussed. / Typescript. / "July, 1951." / "Submitted to the Graduate Council of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts." / Advisor: Dora Skipper, Major Professor. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 35-37).

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

M.Cur. / Various internal and external factors exist which have an influence on effective in-house training. Nurses' perceptions of in-house training is important. These perceptions can be positive of negative and can consequently be regarded as facilitating aspects or obstacles. Nurses' internal environmental needs (physical, psychological and religious) should be addressed in the planning and execution of an in-house training program. It is also the responsibility of the education accompainent to create an external environment (physical, psychological and social) that improves education. In this study guidelines for facilitating effective in-house training was explained, after the nurses' perceptions of in-house training was explored and explained and related to literature control. The most common findings regarding perceptions is that facilitating aspects exist which have a positive influence on in-house training as well as obstacles which are negative. Methods for the meaningful presentation of in-house training was also suggested. Recommendations for further research regarding nursing practice, education and research was also made.

No description available.

Traditional professional development approaches to assist teachers to implement the new curriculum in South Africa have come under criticism. This is because these do not provide the ongoing, context sensitive support that teachers need to improve their practice. This has raised the importance of situating teacher learning within the school context. This study explored how a group of teachers gave meaning to and expressed their understanding of themselves and their experience of school-based professional development. The purpose of the study was to understand the nature of school-based professional development at an FET school. In attempting to address the research questions, this study adopted a qualitative, interpretive approach. Since human interaction and context are important in the qualitative interpretative study, the tenets of symbolic interactionism were drawn on to guide this research study. This study also drew on the concepts of situated learning theory, which stresses the importance of context and therefore supports, the notion that learning opportunities should be grounded in environments where problems arise. This was a case study of a secondary peri-urban school in KwaZulu-Natal. lt involved three teachers who were purposefully selected. Data was gathered through three qualitative methods i.e. observation, interviews and a reflective journal. A process of open coding was used to analyse and interpret data. Findings reveal that the school did recognise the importance of schools as places where teachers can learn. However, the contextual factors such as inside politics, staff relations within the school, as well as the way management handled their role in managing professional development in the school made it a challenge to organise and promote collective teacher learning. lt further reveals that as a result of the difficulties and inconsistency of the official professional development programme, teacher learning was in fact taking place in various other ways. These included department meetings';-infQr:mal-teacher collaboration and mentoring. The study also reveals that various contextual factors affected curriculum development implementation. These included a lack of resources, large classes and learners' backgrounds. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2007.

There is no abstract available for this dissertation.

There exists a consensus about the importance, but little else, of the ongoing professional education of teachers. The professional development of teachers is often seen by teachers to be a purely private matter serving self-improvement and/or career advancement. Equally often it is assumed to be essentially collegial concerned with improved school responses to redefined social expectations. Little is known about how, at the intersection of personal interactions and social necessities, truth is constructed by teachers about the significance of professional development exercises. This ontological research investigated the influence of the community of practice in signifying professional development of teachers' professional identity formation. It is a proximal influence that has been largely neglected in the literature on professional development. The case studies conducted here of science teachers in a rural secondary school initially assumed that certain types of autonomy and collegiality, together with differing workplace conditions have a more positive influence on teachers' professional development than others. The use of teacher portfolios in professional development reporting was investigated as institutional scaffolding for facilitating the sharing of insights from often remote professional development experiences, and as a means of improving communication within the science department.Positioning theory, as a tool in discursive psychology, was used to analyse professional development experiences as narrated by four colleagues in conversations with the author.

M.Ed. (Media Studies) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

M.Ed. / After the introduction of the new approach of teaching and other new policies, all educators needed training on the new system of education. Even though training has been provided for educators, this training was not sufficient to equip educators with new knowledge and skills required by educators. The school management teams lack the skills and knowledge of the implementation of the revised national curriculum statement (RNCS) and as a result they do not create opportunities for staff development at school level. There is lack of staff development programmes in Delmas Secondary Schools. The key research question for this study is: “How can staff development programmes (SDPs) contribute towards improving the performance of educators in Delmas Secondary School?” The aims of the current study are therefore to develop an in-depth understanding of SDPs, provide participants with the reasons for conducting SDPs, equip participants with the procedures that need to be followed when designing and implementing SDPs and to provide guidelines in policy formulation of the SDPs. The objectives are to determine whether participants are knowledgeable about staff development and to what degree there is a need for SDPs in Delmas secondary schools. This study is based on qualitative research. All the data will be collected in the form of words, unlike quantitative research in which the data is largely statistical. Participants in this study were selected through random sampling since purposeful sampling lacks generalization and there is no assumption that all members of the population are equivalent data sources, but those selected are believed to be information-rich cases. Therefore the number of participants is very small in purposeful sampling. Random sampling was therefore viewed as an unbiased since all members of the population have the same chance of being included in participating in the study and this would allow generalization of the research findings. From the literature review it is evident that SDPs could equip educators with new knowledge and skills. However, findings from the empirical study indicate that SDPs are not conducted in Delmas secondary schools. These developmental programmes are needed since educators in Delmas secondary schools significantly need to expand their skills and knowledge in order to keep abreast with the new demands in the education system. Continued training should be provided for educators in Delmas Secondary Schools. / Mr. T.S. Hlongwane