Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1996. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [72]-79). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 1996. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [72]-79). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 1973. / Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 44-47). Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center.

The early childhood curriculum is too-often based on narrowed/ing conceptualizations of “literacy” and “language,” which negatively position nonacademic (read: nondominant) literacy and language practices and result in schools failing and further marginalizing working-class children and families across racial identifications. It is therefore pertinent to (re)conceptualize language and literacy by interrogating dominantly-positioned academic practices. Exploring early childhood teachers’ sense- making and enactment of the curriculum elucidates how nonacademic practices are (under)valued in and through the mandated curriculum. With this aim, through a critical ethnographic case study, I engaged in observations of classroom interactions and teacher team meetings, artifact collection, and interviews with four White female public kindergarten teachers in a predominantly-White working-class North Carolina mountain community. I found that the four teachers’ language ideologies had been constructed, understood, and developed from early childhood, through schooling experiences, and in teacher learning. These ideologies, while not always recognized, influenced how they were making sense of and enacting the curriculum. Their own childhood literacy experiences impacted approaches to teaching literacy; these White female teachers talked about what they had needed as students and how this influenced their approaches to teaching young children. Talk around students’ language and literacy practices illustrated a desire to prepare children for school and to support student success; although, this talk was underpinned with some deficit perspectives (pervasive in the mandated curriculum) concerning nonacademic language and literacy practices. The teachers were negotiating the mandated curriculum on a daily basis, as they strived to do what they deemed best for students, most of whom were being introduced to formal schooling in kindergarten. They were confident about what their students needed and sought greater trust in their own knowledge and capabilities as teachers, and they often discussed validating children’s language and literacy practices. Concurrently, teachers often talked about moving from or fixing children’s home practices, or modeling correct (academic) practices. Informed by the findings of this study, early childhood teachers can work to reconstruct definitions of language and literacy as we engage working-class children’s multiple, purposeful, and sophisticated ways of making and assigning meaning and of communicating (i.e., their literacy and language practices).

This two-year case study investigated the effects of a peer observation process in a high school on the six selected areas listed below. Peer observation is a process to improve instruction by having teachers observe and critique other teacher's videotapes of classroom teaching. 1. Changes in norms and expectations for sharing instructional ideas among teachers. 2. The perceived value of self-evaluation of videotapes and related peer discussions about teaching. 3. The perceived value of peer feedback exchanges for instructional improvement. 4. The use of other teachers as models for effective teaching. 5. The perceived value of peer exchanges in stimulating a desire to improve. 6. The effect of peer interaction on the school climate for teacher improvement. The case study design was effective for investigating subjects in their natural setting which was a faculty of approximately 65 veteran teachers who had participated in one or more activities of the peer observation process. Research methods included the use of multiple sources of data from observations, questionnaires, surveys, peer discussion reports, and interviews. Lines of inquiry were triangulated across methods to strengthen the results and to search for divergent findings. Descriptive analyses were used to present and discuss the findings. Seventy-three percent of the staff participated the first year, 43% participated in the second year. Results from the findings indicated that peer observation had the following effects in this setting: 1. Standards of behavior among teachers changed from closed to open after experience with the process. Teachers exchanged ideas on teaching beyond that requested and in situations outside the process activities. 2. Videotape replay of classroom teaching and peer group discussions were perceived as valuable for both observed and observing teachers. 3. Teachers preferred feedback from peers because of the varied ideas from credible sources, the time to exchange teaching strategies, and the nonthreatening environment. 4. Teachers used other teachers as models for generating effective methods for immediate classroom use. S. Teachers perceived exchanges to have stimulated a desire to improve on three levels; awareness, effort, and implementation. 6. A climate for instructional improvement evolved where teachers perceived a need to share information and generate ideas in a non-threatening manner. The peer observation process was found to be an effective program for teacher improvement of instruction in this setting.

Thesis (M.A.(Translation and Linguistics)) -- University of Limpopo, 2014 / This research was a case study of teachers’ conceptualizations and theories that underpin their classroom practices in a primary school in the Mankweng Township, Limpopo Province. The study sought to explore what these conceptualizations are, and what theoretical paradigms (or mix of paradigms) underpin them. However, rather than attempt to get teachers to articulate their conceptions (which may be too abstract and difficult an undertaking), teachers were required to engage with classroom practices different from their own and in the context of this engagement, confront their own beliefs about literacy and literacy development. The study also aimed to explore whether encounters by teachers with classroom practices based on sets of principles different to their own will lead them to revise their theories or principles underpinning their teaching practices. The empirical data was in the form of seven lessons by the regular teachers alongside six intervention lessons taught by the academic researchers. Key to the research design was to get teachers to critically and reflectively engage with their teaching and the teaching of others. Through the use of actual transcripts of teachers’ classroom practices and responses to the two sets of lessons as evidence, teachers’ classroom practices, actions and beliefs were made visible in this research. The data from regular lessons show a consistent yet disconcerting pattern in teachers’ classroom practices as learners were found to be writing far too little, and much of learning and teaching was predominantly oral. Teachers also seemed to lack theories of literacy teaching, and thus could not meaningfully engage their learners in academic discourse enabling them to cross the bridge between everyday knowledge and academic knowledge. Overall, the study suggests that pedagogic and content knowledge are key, in order to empower teachers with both knowledge of their disciplinary content and meaningful strategies of communicating the knowledge they have to their learners. Further current models of teacher professionalization through short training workshop do not seem to be very effective and alternative approaches need to be developed.

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the Teacher Performance Appraisal Training Program in North Carolina by analyzing the skills and techniques used by three observers in performing an "appraisal cycle" of five video-taped classroom teachers. Four research questions were addressed: What impact does training have upon observer perceptions of the prescribed functions of teaching and the appraisal process? How consistent are observer's processes of data collection and analysis? How consistent are observer ratings of teacher performance? Does the system discriminate among teachers? The findings in this case study revealed that the impact of training varied substantially across observers, indicating the need for remedial training for two of three observers. Data collection and analyses across observers were frequently inconsistent and contradictory. Within the recommended range of tolerance, observer ratings of performance were similar, although perceptions of behavior differed. While the appraisal system did tend to discriminate among teachers, the accuracy of such discrimination was contaminated by evidence of subjectivity and bias. / Ed. D.

published_or_final_version / abstract / Education / Master / Master of Education

I tested the effects of an observational intervention on observing responses, denial responses, and audience appropriate behaviors in 9 preschool children with developmental and language delays. The participants were 8 males and 1 female aged 3-5 years, who were selected from a preschool program that implemented a behavior analytic approach to all instruction. All participants had fluent listener and speaker repertoires and emitted mands, tacts, and sequelics with adults. The children were selected to participate because they displayed little to no awareness of, or interactions with their peers during free play and social settings. I conducted probes for a) peer observing responses, b) responses to denial of non-preferred stimuli being delivered to peers, c) social initiations to peers, d) responses to peers’ social initiations, and e) other socially appropriate behaviors. Pre-intervention probes showed that all participants emitted low peer observing responses in free play settings, and did not consistently initiate or reciprocate peer interactions across different social settings. Five out of nine participants emitted responses to denial prior to the intervention. The independent variable was an observational intervention using non-preferred stimuli and a denial condition that was used in prior studies to establish conditioned reinforcement by observation. The participant and peer confederate sat side-by-side at a table, and were separated by an opaque partition. They were both presented with a performance task. The participant observed the peer confederate receive the non-preferred stimuli but could not observe the peer’s responses to the task. The intervention continued until the participants emitted responses to denial of the non-preferred stimuli across two sessions. Post-intervention data suggest that peer observing responses in free play settings, as well as audience appropriate behaviors in social settings increased as a function of the observational intervention in 8 out of 9 participants. Responses to the denial of non-preferred stimuli delivered to a peer increased in 4 out of 4 participants who did not respond during pre-intervention probes.