The major purpose of the study was to analyze the role of the normal universities in China in the field of teacher professional development. In order to achieve this purpose, the following two questions guided this research: 1) What efforts are normal universities in China making in continuing teacher education? 2) What are the factors that support or inhibit normal universities in these endeavors? The research includes case studies of four Chinese normal universities as well as a comparison to the work of universities in Ontario, Canada. In-depth interviews were utilized as the major data collecting method, and document review was used as a supplementary method. The participants included university administrators, university teacher educators and government administrators. The study outlined the current state of normal universities’ work in the field of in-service teacher education by reviewing the larger policy context around teacher development in China and how it contributes to the development of this work. In addition, the study identified key issues and major challenges normal universities face in taking part in in-service teacher education system. The study found that government policy on in-service teacher education in China is currently dominating the work of provincial governments and normal universities. The training programs delivered by normal universities are often university-based, intensive teacher learning and result from contracts between universities and either central or provincial governments. Normal universities often feel poorly prepared in terms of institutional structure, promotion standards, and the number of well-qualified teacher training experts. Although willing to take an important position in the overall in-service teacher training system, normal universities lack confidence that they will be given consistent policy and financial support and are unclear about the direction of in-service teacher education reform in the future. Key findings of this study can be used to inform the role that Chinese Normal Universities might play in in-service teacher education that could lead to higher quality teaching and learning both at the university and school levels.

The purpose of this research is to describe the relative factors among motivation, professional ability and the sense of achievement for clinical nurses. The research method is the purposive sampling. The target sample is the 160 clinical nurses in a teaching hospital in Hsinchu County. The recycling effective questionnaire 145, the effective questionnaire recycling rate is 90.63%, the questionnaire information has confirmed after the return analytic method, descriptive statistics, independent-samples t-tests , ANOVA (analysis of variance)¡APearson Correlation and regression analyses, obtains the following conclusion the clinical nurses care about the inside motivation most. Among the items, educational training and communication ability are placed importance to, the research ability is the lowest. The sense of achievement is the highest and the enough authorization from the supervisors is the lowest. It appeared obvious differences among age, education level, seniority, status and departments. Inside and outside motivation affect the clinical nurses¡¦ sense of achievement. The suggestion of this research is that the supervisors should pay more attention to the design of the motivation, develop the standard scale to match the clinical nurses¡¦ motivation, the promotion system, and the educational training to increase their the sense of achievement, the caring quality and lower about turnover rate.

In this dissertation the relationships among teachers' classroom contexts, teaching practices, personal practice theories and their learning from reform-based professional development were examined. This study is based on the cases of three high school science teachers whose participation in the Information Technology in Science (ITS) Center's professional development experience (PDE) resulted in different perceptions and interpretations. Qualitative and quantitative data, including classroom observations, in-depth interviews, teacher-generated written work from the PDE, and student classroom perceptions were analyzed and compared. The within-case analyses revealed that each teacher's thoughts, actions and perceptions were highly congruent. The cross-case analysis illuminated variations among the cases. Bandura's (1999) model of triadic reciprocal causation was applied as an interpretive frame. This frame was used to connect five indicators used in the study to coherently compare and evaluate the alignment of each teacher's thoughts, actions, and perceptions with the vision of reformbased teaching promoted by the ITS Center's PDE. Results of this interpretation show that the differences among the cases stemmed from the different problems the teachers believed reform-based teaching methods addressed. Recommendations for the design of PDEs include the importance of (a) focusing on flexible learning goals that can be meaningful and appropriate for all teachers, (b) understanding and engaging teachers' prior knowledge, (c) making changes in teachers' thinking visible and (d) keeping in mind the challenges involved in changing practice to reflect the recommendations of reform. Recommendations for future research include the development of learning trajectories for teachers with different orientations toward reform and deepening our current understandings of teacher educator expertise.

A Study on the Relationship between the Professional Leadership of Principal and the School Effectiveness in Primary School Abstract The purpose of this study is to understand the current status of professional leadership of primary school principal as well as analyze their impact on the school effectiveness.So that educational entity, primary school principals and teachers can enhance the school performance and effectiveness.First of all, based on theoretical literature and empirical research on related subjects, an assessment tool is developed:Questionnaire-¡§The relationships between professional leadership of principals and school effectiveness in primary school¡¨ and content validity is constructed by professionals. Pilot test is conducted at Stage 2 to construct the reliability and validity of questionnaire via statistical measurements such as item analysis and factor analysis. In the questionnaire, regarding the Item ¡§Leadership of principal¡¨, the overall Cronbach £\ value obtained is .9655, the total explained variances are 70.549%¡Fregarding the Item ¡§School Effectiveness¡¨, the overall Cronbach £\ value is .9584, the total explained variances are 70.549%. Then, formal test is proceeded on education staff members at Stage 3.Among a total of 705 copies of questionnaire being issued, 668 copies are collected, the usability is 94.8%.Descriptive statistics,variances analysis, product-moment correlation, Stepwise regression analysis are applied for statistics and analysis of assumptions proposed in this study. We come to the following conclusions based on the results of statistics and analysis: 1. The results of overall sampling has a positive recognition on the relationship of professional leadership of principal and effectiveness of school management. 2. The higher the professional leadership principal exerts, the higher the school effectiveness would be achieved.The effectiveness of school administration can be promoted and enhanced through the professional leadership of the principal in primary school. 3. Educators, who are aged and appointed principal, have a more positive viewpoint towards the ¡§Professional development¡¨ and ¡§Administrative leadership¡¨ of principal. 4. Educators, who are aged, graduated from graduate school and assumed the principal of a school sized from 25 to 48 classes, have a better recognition on the ¡§Learning performance¡¨ of school effectiveness. 5. There are close relationships between the professional leadership of principal and the school effectiveness, i.e. the better the principal exercises the professional leadership, the better the school effectiveness is. 6. The school effectiveness can be effectively predicted through the professional leadership of principal.Among them, the teaching leadership is most predicable. Based on the above conclusions, the writer would propose concrete recommendations on administrative entity of education, primary principal, school and follow-up researches to be referred as a basis to promote the school effectiveness.

Abstract This study seeks to identify the recognition of self-orientation and self-merit. While many papers in this area have been published by a number of scholars, the impact of the same factors on the military officers remains relatively unclear because of their specialized field, unique characteristics, and self-contained. We believe that this research issue raises a number of important questions regarding the sociology and psychology and a systematic empirical examination will go a long way in filling the theoretical and empirical gap that remains in this field. Furthermore, we hope this study can make a giant help to the future work and organizational reformation. Qualitative researching method was used in this study. Based on the cognitive psychology, I seek to determine the military officers¡¦ personal valuations under a chaos, disorder, and indistinct society from four aspects ¡V turbulence, recognition, learning, and surpass, and how can they survive under a bureaucratic system which leads to autoanalysis oscillation. This study seeks to certify practical experience is a necessary course of life from I myself¡¦s past experiences. I introspected military officers¡¦ personal valuation and identified their professional position in a state of chaos. A new view of life, therefore, was re-established from a chaotic external environment. By using scientific analysis, I test and verify personal conducts to understand the patent of human behaviour, and the physical reaction when people was attacked by the outside world. The approach we advocated not only provided a general picture including sociology, psychology, cognitive science, situated cognition, cognitive psychology, comparative psychology, and social psychology, but also endowed a strong conceptual and empirical base for future work. Key word: Identify the recognition, values, professional officer.

La investigació s'inclou en el camp de la formació inicial del professorat en didàctica de les ciències socials i estudia una realitat educativa concreta: l'assignatura de Ciències Socials i la seva Didàctica de la titulació d'Educació Primària de la UAB. Aquesta assignatura pretén formar uns professionals reflexius, crítics i autònoms, entenent la formació com un procés dinàmic en el qual l'alumne es converteix en protagonista de la seva formació i no en un receptor passiu del coneixement professional. El plantejament de l'assignatura comporta que al llarg del curs hi hagi una continua i estreta relació entre la teoria i la pràctica, entre la teoria explicada a la universitat i la pràctica a l'escola i un treball coordinat entre els professors formadors de la universitat i els mestres tutors de les escoles. La part pràctica de l'assignatura consisteix en l'aplicació i contextualització dels continguts treballats a Ciències Socials i la seva Didàctica a la preparació, experimentació, anàlisi i avaluació d'una unitat didàctica de l'Àrea de Coneixement del Medi Social i Cultural en una aula de primària. A més, en el procès de preparació d'aquesta unitat didàctica intervé també l'assignatura de Psicologia Evolutiva i de l'Educació.Els principals objectius de la investigació es poden sintetitzar en tres: 1. Analitzar i valorar les concepcions prèvies dels estudiants de formació inicial del professorat, que majoritàriament han estat formats en el model positivista, i comprovar si durant el curs mostren disposició al canvi conceptual cap el model crític.2. Analitzar la relació entre la teoria treballada a la universitat i la pràctica educativa a l'escola.3. Analitzar i valorar els paper dels mestres tutors de les escoles en la preparació, experimentació i avaluació de la pràctica educativa dels futurs ensenyants.Per assolir aquests objectius vaig optar per la utilització d'una metodologia qualitativa i interpretativa. Les persones, en aquest cas els mestres tutors de les escoles, els estudiants de formació inicial del professorat i jo mateixa com a professora de Ciències Socials i la seva Didàctica, han estat les principals fonts d'informació per a la recollida de dades.Els resultats de la recerca es poden considerar positius. La majoria dels estudiants de formació inicial, que han participat en la recerca, han estat molt motivats i predisposats per aprendre nous coneixements i noves maneres d'ensenyar les ciencies socials. Han sabut aplicar i contextualitzar gran part dels continguts teòrics treballats a les assignatures de Psicologia Evolutiva i de l'Educació i Ciències Socials i la seva Didàctica en la seva pràctica a l'aula.Entre les causes que poden explicar els resultats positius de la investigació podria citar, entre altres: el paper protagonista dels futurs mestres en la seva propia formació; la constant i estreta articulació existent durant tot el curs entre la teoria i la pràctica; l'existència d'un mateix discurs entre els mestres de les escoles i els professors de la universitat; i el fet de que la pràctica sempre ha anat acompanyada d'un treball de reflexió i d'anàlisi.Les conclusions més rellevants de la recerca mostren la necessitat de trobar una bona relació entre la teoria i la pràctica i el paper fonamental que tenen els mestres en actiu en la formació inicial dels futurs ensenyants. / The research can be included in the field of initial education of teachers in Social Studies. It analyses a specific context: the subject of Socials Sciences Didactics from Faculty of Education Sciences from UAB. This subject wants to train reflective, critical and autonomous professionals. It understands the education as a dynamic process. In this system the eleven becomes the protagonist of his education and non a passive receiver of professional knowledge.The formulation of the subject demands a continuous and a close relation between theory from university and the practice at the school and a coordinate work between the teachers of university and the teachers of schools along of the course. The practicum's part of the subject consists in the application and contextualation of the studied contents from Socials Sciences Didactics to the preparation, experimentation, analysis and evaluation of lesson sequences of Social and Cultural Knowledge Environment at the Primary School. In the process of preparation participates the subject of Evaluative and Educative Psychology, also.The principal objectives of the research are three:1. Analyse and value the previous experience of the students of initial formation of teacher. The majority of them have been educated in the Positivistic model and I want to know if they show dispositions to change to critical model.2. Analyse and study the relation between the theory worked at the university and the educative practice at the school.3. Analyse and value the role of the teachers of the schools in the preparation and evaluation the educative practical of future teachers.I choose a qualitative and interpretative methodology for my research. The persons, the teachers of schools, the students of university and me, as a teacher of Social Sciences Didactics, are the most important sources for the information's collection.The results of the research are successful. The majority of students, who have participated in the research, have been very motivated and prepared to learn the new knowledge and the news methodologies to teach Socials Sciences at Primary schools. In their practices at the schools they have applicated and contextualizated a lot of the contents what they have learnt at the university.I think there are some reasons what can explain the good results of my research: the protagonist role of the futures teachers in their formation; the constant and close articulation existing between the theory and the practice along of the course; the existence of the same discourse between the teachers of the schools and the teachers of university; and the event of the practice has been always accompanied of reflexive and analytic work at the school and at the university.The most important conclusions of this research show the need to find a good relation between the theory and the practice and the important role of the working teachers in the initial formation of futures teachers.

Aquesta tesi fa una anàlisi dels canvis que ha significat l’implantació al nostre entorn de la Societat de l’Informació, en especial a les seves implicacions en el treball i en l’ensenyament, a partir de les teories més imfluents de les ciències socials i educatives, a banda de les teories d’aprenentatge que influeixen, d’alguna manera, en l’ensenyament a l’edat adulta. També s’estudien els sistemes d’educació, de formació laboral i d’acreditació de les habilitats i les competències, tots ells adreçats a les persones adultes, així com les seves limitacions i les seves possibilitats a travès dels seus models i les seves políticas. La tesi presenta exemples de pràctiques i d’estudis que superen les limitacions dels sistemes actuals, que poden contribuir a la millora de la formació dels adults. Per últim, la tesi aporta unes orientacions metodològiques per a avançar en la línia de la superació de l’exclusió dels adults amb uns nivells de formació acadèmica baixos, pel que fa a l’anàlisi i avaluació de les seves habilitats i competències, de manera que sigui profitós per a la formación laboral i la millora de les formes d’accés a la Societat de l’Informació. Finalment, aporta unes orientacions metodològiques per poder superar l’exclusió de les persones adultes amb nivells baixos de formación acad’emica per a l’anàlisi i l’avaluació de les habilitats i les competències de les persones per a l’aprofitament de la formació laboral i la millora de les formes d’accés. / Esta tesis realiza un análisis de los cambios que ha supuesto la implantación en nuestro entorno de la sociedad de la información, atendiendo en particular a sus implicaciones en el trabajo y la educación a partir de las teorías más influyentes de las ciencias sociales y educativas, así como de las teorías de aprendizaje que de alguna forma influyen en la educación en la adultez. También analiza los sistemas de educación, de formación laboral y de acreditación de habilidades y competencias dirigidos a las personas adultas, así como sus limitaciones y posibilidades a través de sus modelos y sus políticas. Presenta prácticas y estudios que superan las limitaciones de los sistemas actuales que pueden contribuir a la mejora de la formación de las personas adultas. Finalmente, aporta unas orientaciones metodológicas para avanzar en la línea de la superación de la exclusión de las personas adultas con bajos niveles de formación académica para el análisis y evaluación de las habilidades y competencias de las personas para el provecho de la formación laboral y la mejora de las formas de acceso a la Sociedad de la Información

At present there are approximately 13,000 registered speech and language therapists, the majority of these are female. The current ratio of male to female professionals in the United Kingdom stands at 3:100. A decade ago, the figure stood at 1.9% (Sheridan 1999), indicating that in recent years, the number of male professionals has been gradually rising, however, this figure remains low in comparison to other professions within the health and education sectors. Previous research has offered explanations for the lack of diversity in the profession (Greenwood et al 2006, McAllister and Neve 2005), citing poor remuneration, employment opportunities and knowledge base of the profession; this has resulted in few men choosing to enter the profession. In addition, it means that male students are likely to find themselves as the sole male in a cohort of students. The minority status that such a position entails is thought to lead to negative consequences, reduced motivation and feelings of isolation (Boyd and Hewlett 2001). This research examined the everyday lived experiences of being a male student speech and language therapist in order to develop an understanding of how they constructed their professional identity and to ascertain whether their gender identity influences this journey. Twelve male speech and language therapy students and early career professionals were interviewed with a semi-structured format through a variety of mediums. The participants shared their stories and experiences of being a speech and language therapy student in both the university and clinical settings. The participants shared their experiences of isolation and of dealing with the assumptions that other professionals made about their position within the speech and language therapy profession and these experiences were reported to have had an effect on both their training and their positioning within the wider profession.

Throughout the post-modern or post-professional age (2000-present), high stakes testing and accountability of public schools forced educational organizations to improve their professional practices to work collaboratively (Little, 2003). As a result, professional learning communities (PLCs) have been found to improve student learning among educational organizations (DuFour, 2007; Hord, 2004). During the past 20 years, a significant amount of research has been conducted, which describes PLCs in the educational settings (Vescio, Ross, & Adams, 2008) Researchers note a lack of empirical research which focuses on teacher and principal perceptions of PLCs (Hord & Sommers, 2008). The central focus of this study is to better understand teacher and principal perceptions of the five dimensions of professional learning communities (PLCs) as identified by Hord through reporting data collected using the Professional Learning Community Assessment- Revised (PLCA-R). This study seeks to report teacher and principal perceptions of PLCs to identify specific practices that are most common in Kentucky schools. Findings suggest teacher and principal perceptions differ regarding the five dimensions of PLCs as described by Hord. Findings also suggest that both teachers and principals agree that all five dimensions exist including: Shared and Supportive Leadership, Shared Values and Vision, Collective Learning and Application, Shared Personal Practice, Supportive Conditions – Relationships, and Supportive Conditions- Structures. However, principal perceptions reflect that PLC practices were more common than teachers reported.

Aquesta tesi estudia la implementació de les tecnologies i els entorns virtuals d’aprenentatge en la formació dels alumnes de Formació Professional del Campus Docent Sant Joan de Déu, tant des de la perspectiva de l’alumnat com des de la dels docents, per tal de poder incorporar més virtualitat als ensenyaments a partir del coneixement extret dels resultats. En aquesta recerca hem utilitzat metodologia quantitativa i qualitativa i, com a mètode per a obtenir informació, hem utilitzat el lingüístic (entrevistes semi-estructurades i qüestionaris). Les tècniques d’entrevistes individuals i grupals, ens han proporcionat dos tipus de dades: d’una banda hem obtingut conceptes globals que fan referència a una investigació qualitativa pròpiament dita i, de l’altra, la utilització d’aquests conceptes ens ha servit per a dissenyar un qüestionari autoadministrat. Les tècniques d'anàlisi de resultats han estat univariants i bivariants per a caracteritzar als alumnes, i tècniques estadístiques multivariants per a esbrinar nuclis representacionals dels alumnes i professors en referència a professors en un entorn presencial i professors en un entorn virtual. de la mostra escollida. Un cop administrats els qüestionaris, s’ha procedit a la seva tabulació informàtica en dos suports: DTM-VIC 5.6 per a les respostes treballades amb la tècnica d’Associació Lliure de Paraules (ALP) i, de l'altra, el programa SPSS per a les preguntes de tipus numèric del qüestionari. Dels resultats obtinguts es desprèn que si potenciem eines i suports tecnològics per a fomentar l’aprenentatge, la utilització de qualsevol dispositiu ens pot permetre canviar modus de representació i utilitat tant de la presencialitat com la virtualitat, ja que d’aquesta manera es disminueix la distància entre aquests dos entorns. Tanmateix, s’haurien d’introduir millores tecnològiques, ja que això, crearà un element de canvi en tot l’aspecte de pensament i per tant en la visió que es té sobre la virtualitat. Aquest fet també, pot contribuir a afavorir les relacions entre alumnes i professors gràcies a aquests avenços tecnològics. A més, si considerem la millora de la percepció que tenen sobre els entorns virtuals, haurem de considerar l’assessorament i la formació constant tant d’alumnes com de professors per tal de fer el canvi representacional de que la virtualitat comporta un increment de feina. Els diferents procediments d’investigació utilitzats en aquest estudi fins arribar a confeccionar una sèrie de pautes per a la implementació de les tecnologies i els entorns virtuals d’aprenentatge en els alumnes de Formació Professional. Així com donar elements per a una millora en la docència presencial, virtual o mixta en el Campus Sant Joan de Déu. Finalment, gràcies a les aportacions obtingudes dels resultats ja està en procés el desenvolupament d’un curs de formació professional reglada de manera totalment virtual. / This thesis studies the implementation of the technologies and virtual learning environments in the education of Professional Formation students from Sant Joan de Déu’s Educational Campus, taking both students and teachers point’s of view to be able to add more virtuality in the teaching process with the knowledge of the new results. Quantitative, qualitative and mixed methodologies have been used to get information, with group interviews to students and individual for teachers, which allowed us to make a questionnaire for teachers and students. These have been processed by different statistics technics in order to get the information. From the conclusions, we can say that we need to enforce technological advances in order to promote learning, improve students and teachers relationship and develop a better way they can see virtual environments. Different research processes used in this study, allow us to make patterns for the implementation of technologies and virtual environments in students and teachers of Professional Formation, as well as to give some tools to improve presently classes, virtual classes or mixed in Sant Joan de Déu’s Educational Campus. Finally and thanks to our conclusions there is already in process the development of a totally virtual class in Professional Formation.