Thesis (MPA.) --University of Limpopo / Parental involvement is a significant element that can have an impact or enhancement in the child’s education. Parental involvement implicates the active and significant involvement of the parent in all aspects, where a parent is interacting with the child for guidance and support. However, research in Okeke (2014:1) shows that poor parental involvement is the biggest challenge facing public schools in South Africa, especially schools situated in rural areas. This study aims at investigating factors that affect parental involvement in education of their children at primary school level, in Bahananwa circuit, Blouberg Municipality, Limpopo Province. In this study, the researcher employed mixed research approach and used purposive sampling to identify respondents who have adequate of parental involvement at schools. Accordingly, the researcher targeted all 28 School Governing Body (SGB) members which includes 3 principals, 15 parents and 10 educators in selected three primary schools within the circuit of Bahananwa. The researcher personally delivered the semi-structured questionnaires to the SGB members from the sampled schools and collected them after completion. Additionally, the researcher used observation sheet to collect more information on parental involvement. According to the findings, the primary schools are doing more through consultative meetings, among others, to ensure that parents are involved in the education of their children, both at school and at home. The schools use meetings as a major tool for parental involvement practice, but participation in the meetings was passive. The schools involve parents mostly on governance and administrative matters meaning that there is less parental involvement in curricular and extra-curricular activities. Another key finding in the study is that schools are performing inadequately with regard to learners’ performance. It is also found that the major challenges affecting parental involvement in the schools among others include parents who do not have time due to their working schedules and some due to illiteracy. The findings show that meeting areas are inconvenient for parental consultative meetings. While majority of parents have supportive attitude towards their children education, the significant proportion of parents still do not have supportive attitude. It is recommended that parental involvement in the decision making process needs to be enhanced through contact sessions to improve learners’ performance. It is also suggested that parental involvement needs to be improved in extracurricular and voluntary activities. It is further recommended that parents’ engagement at home needs to be enhanced to enhance learners’ performance.

La thèse étudie la manière dont des écoles primaires confessionnelles irlandaises, majoritairement catholiques, accueillent des enfants appartenant à des groupes minoritaires, notamment immigrés, et l’influence des directives interculturelles officielles sur cet accueil et sur l’enseignement du programme. Elle se fonde pour ce faire sur quatre études de cas d’écoles primaires irlandaises, trois catholiques et une anglicane d’Irlande. / The thesis focuses on the way that Irish denominational primary schools, mostly Catholic, deal with minority children, particularly immigrants, and on the influence that official intercultural guidelines have had on the way these schools deal with minority children and the way the curriculum is taught. It is based on case studies of four primary schools, three Catholic and one Church of Ireland.

Thesis (M.Ed. (Curriculum Studies)) --University of Limpopo, 2013 / This dissertation investigated the the practice of self-reflection by primary school teachers in the Mankweng Circuit, Capricorn District. The aim of the research was to investigate the practice of self-reflection by primary school teachers, in order to suggest and encourage them to use reflective models that will help them improve their practice. The literature revealed that the use reflective models can help teachers to realize their mistakes and improve their practice. Furthermore, the literature revealed that if teachers are exposed to multiple reflective models, they will be able to choose the best model that is appropriate to their practice. The study also focused on the theory of Henderson‟s Ethical Model on Enquiry on Reflective Practice. The theory discusses what characterizes reflective practitioner. This theory explains that reflective teachers are experts who know their subject matter and are able to teach it well. This study was conducted in order to gain a greater insight and comprehensive understanding of the research problem, that is, Self-reflection is expected to all teachers but is seldom enforced. In policy documents, self-reflection is stipulated but there are no formalised templates that guide, monitor and evaluate how teachers reflect on their own practice. This may also result in teachers not reflecting on their work at all and not regarding self-reflection as part of the teaching process; and treat it as a separate issue. The methodology used in this study was qualitative approach. Phenomenological research design was adopted; and in terms of data collection tools, open-ended questionnaires and interviews were used. The findings of this study revealed that teachers in primary schools of Mankweng Circuit do not reflect on their practice because of the heavy work-load that they have. The study further revealed that teachers must be trained to use reflective models to improve their practice. Lastly, the study has recommended a new reflective model for a rural primary school context. The model is titled Big four reflective model: critical thinker; resource allocator, problem solver and practice developer. The model is recommended to be used in teaching in primary schools. iii

There has been much debate over many years in the Australian Federal Parliament on the implementation of a national curriculum in mathematics. In 2004, the Government, under the direction of the then Minister for Education Brendon Nelson, initiated a national mathematics program for students in lower secondary high schools and primary schools. The Australian International Centre for Excellence was commissioned to implement a pilot program and called for expressions of interest to participate from high schools across the nation. At that time I was working as the Acting Head of the Mathematics Department at a senior high school in a large Western Australian country centre. I was concerned with the content and level of difficulty in many of the textbooks that were available for our students and also the processes used in these textbooks (or by teachers) to assist students to gain mastery of the basic mathematical concepts in the Outcome Number. I decided to apply to participate in the pilot program on behalf of my school, and my application was accepted. In the first stage of the program two classes of both Year 8 and Year 9 students were selected. One of my cooperative colleagues and I found out very early that the Year 8 ICE-EM textbook was too difficult for many of these students as they lacked the skills to do much of the work in the Outcome Number. These students had very different learning experiences in their primary school mathematics, with schools and teachers placing different emphases on each of the Outcomes in mathematics. The opportunity to modify our school's Year 8 program and to implement change in the high schools' feeder primary schools occurred with the second stage of the pilot program's Transition Phases 1 and 2, due for implementation in 2007. / Twelve teachers and 329 students from the high school and feeder primary schools became involved at the second state of the pilot program. All students were provided with a textbook, and teachers were free to choose how or when these books would be used with their students. Surveys were administered to teachers and students at the beginning of the year and end of the first semester. Tests were designed and administered throughout the study and comparisons were made with the student's WAMSE (Western Australian Monitoring Standards in Education) score. WALNA (Western Australian Literacy and Numeracy Assessment) and the Department of Education and the University of Western Australia's WAMSE scores were used to investigate changes in students' achievement and progress. Interviews with teachers and students were conducted to review the pilot program and investigate anomalies in students' results. The study found differences in students' Achievement and Progress based on WAMSE scores. Most teachers who adopted the program believed that it led to improved student learning and understanding of Number concepts in mathematics. All teachers at the high school and its feeder primary schools have continued to use the ICE-EM textbooks as part of their teaching and learning program. Increased uniformity among the primary schools was beneficial for the high school's Year 8 mathematics program. The results also indicated the need for caution when using State and National testing to report on student progress and achievement.

This thesis seeks to gain greater knowledge of the process of transition and development that beginning primary teachers undergo over their first year of teaching. The research focus is on investigating and understanding this process from the standpoint of the beginning teacher. Of particular interest is an examination of how the teacher preparation programme, contextual features of the school, and participants' own beliefs and biographies influence and impact on their transition to teaching and their professional and identity development as first year teachers. This longitudinal study takes an interpretive approach to investigate the first year teaching experiences of 12 beginning teachers in 11 primary schools. The qualitative methodology used in this thesis shares characteristics with a case study approach and utilizes procedures associated with grounded theory. Data were gathered systematically over a year by way of 48 semi-structured, individual interviews, two focus group interviews, and 48 questionnaires, supplemented by field notes. The collected data were analyzed, coded, and categorized, and explanations and theory that emerged from this process were grounded in the data. The findings of this study have three broad sets of implications for the education and induction of beginning teachers. Firstly, they question the role that practicum plays in the transition from student to teacher. The findings suggest that the practicum component of teacher preparation programmes should be re-conceptualized and redesigned to provide authentic opportunities for student teachers to be exposed to the full range of work demands and complexity that they will encounter as beginning teachers. Secondly, becoming a successful teacher appears to depend on the quality of the school's professional and social relationships, particularly in terms of the frequency and type of formal and informal interactions that ii beginning teachers have with colleagues. While the major source of satisfaction and self-esteem came from seeing the children whom they taught achieving socially and academically, the beginning teachers also had a strong need for affiliation, which was enabled through positive, structured interactions and relationships with colleagues. The study also indicates that employment status influences the way that the beginning teachers view their work and themselves as teachers, with those in relieving positions displaying greater variability in terms of emotional reactions and a sense of professional confidence than those employed in permanent positions. The third set of implications relate to beginning teacher induction. The study points to variability in the quality of induction experiences and challenges policy makers and principals to ensure that all beginning teachers are provided with sound and systematic advice and guidance programmes which are necessary for their learning and development. While the study confirms the critical role played by tutor teachers in beginning teacher induction, it suggests that the focus is on emotional and practical support rather than on educative mentoring to enhance new teachers' thinking and practice. This thesis provides a comprehensive and nuanced view of how beginning to teach is experienced and interpreted. It paints a complex picture of the relationship between biography, beliefs, preparation, and context in the process of learning to teach. The study contributes to the literature on the education of beginning teachers. It highlights the need for developing a shared understanding amongst policy makers, teacher educators, and schools regarding the multiplicity and complexity of factors that influence the transition and development of beginning teachers.

Within Brisbane Catholic Education (BCE) the 1999 HPE syllabus was implemented between 1999 and 2001. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the implementation of the 1999 Queensland HPE syllabus in three BCE primary schools of varying enrolment numbers. The research problem is:.How developed is the implementation of the new HPE syllabus in BCE schools?. The data collection was guided by the following research questions:- How are teachers in these BCE schools implementing the HPE curriculum documents? What readily accessible resources do schools have to assist with the implementation of Health and Physical Education?. What are teachers. perceptions with regard to the HPE Key Learning Area? What are the children.s perceptions of the HPE Key Learning Area? What implementation strategies are required to optimize HPE practices in BCE schools? This study is significant for the feedback it may provide to BCE of the HPE syllabus implementation process and in informing BCE of the current status of the HPE key learning area within a sample of systemic Catholic primary schools. The findings have the potential to contribute to the BCE Strategic Renewal Framework currently occurring within BCE schools for all curriculum areas and planned for completion by the end of 2006. This research has been designed within a constructionist paradigm. An interpretivist study was conducted employing symbolic interactionism. This qualitative, interpretive study is most appropriate as meanings were constructed. The case study methodology was chosen to construct meaning through capturing the context of each school. The sites for the three case studies involved: one small sized BCE primary school (less than 200 students); one medium sized BCE primary school (200 - 400 students); and one large sized BCE primary school (over 400 students). The participants included teachers and students from the respective schools. The data gathering strategies used were; semi-structured and focus group interviews, reflective journal note taking, observations, questionnaire and document analysis. The research concluded that factors which led to the decline in Australian HPE during the 1980s and early 1990s may have contributed to impeding the implementation challenges formulated by BCE. This was evidenced within the three BCE primary schools by unequal allocation of teaching resources, equipment, facilities, HPE teachers and HPE teacher release time for sports coordination. It appears that the implementation process ceased prematurely before all schools had had sufficient time and preparation to design whole school HPE programs. Teachers lacked understandings of practical ways to implement the social justice underpinnings of the syllabus and some school principals were unaware of the necessity of employing qualified HPE specialist teachers. The research revealed that school principals play a significant role in the implementation of the 1999 HPE syllabus, a role made more imperative by the absence of BCE HPE Curriculum Officers and systemic HPE professional development. Therefore, the HPE key learning area requires further system level support and attention so that the 1999 HPE syllabus can be implemented successfully in all BCE primary schools, enabling curriculum change to occur.

This thesis describes changes in the spatial thinking of Year 2 and Year 4 students who participated in a six-week long spatio-mathematical program. The main investigation, which contained quantitative and qualitative components, was designed to answer questions which were identified in a comprehensive review of pertinent literatures dealing with (a) young children's development of spatial concepts and skills, (b) how students solve problems and learn in different types of classrooms, and (c) the special roles of visual imagery, equipment, and classroom discourse in spatial problem solving. The quantitative investigation into the effects of a two-dimensional spatial program used a matched-group experimental design. Parallel forms of a specially developed spatio-mathematical group test were administered on three occasions—before, immediately after, and six to eight weeks after the spatial program. The test contained items requiring spatial thinking about two-dimensional space and other items requiring transfer to thinking about three-dimensional space. The results of the experimental group were compared with those of a ‘control’ group who were involved in number problem-solving activities. The investigation took into account gender and year at school. In addition, the effects of different classroom organisations on spatial thinking were investigated~one group worked mainly individually and the other group in small cooperative groups. The study found that improvements in scores on the delayed posttest of two-dimensional spatial thinking by students who were engaged in the spatial learning experiences were statistically significantly greater than those of the control group when pretest scores were used as covariates. Gender was the only variable to show an effect on the three-dimensional delayed posttest. The study also attempted to explain how improvements in, spatial thinking occurred. The qualitative component of the study involved students in different contexts. Students were video-taped as they worked, and much observational and interview data were obtained and analysed to develop categories which were described and inter-related in a model of children's responsiveness to spatial problem-solving experiences. The model and the details of children's thinking were related to literatures on visual imagery, selective attention, representation, and concept construction.

This thesis examines the question of what kind of guidance curriculum is suitable for primary schools in Hong Kong. The call for the development of guidance curriculum for primary school children in Hong Kong arises from the needs of students: their need for enhancement of their self-concept, and has been translated into guidance and educational policy documents, and structural and administrative changes in schools which allow more time for the development of guidance in primary schools. Given that the educational context of Hong Kong is "East meets West," the researcher posits that, in studying guidance in Hong Kong, both Eastern and Western traditions in guidance must be taken into consideration. The researcher further argues that a guidance curriculum that is suitable for the primary school children in Hong Kong should start by looking at the particular experiences, expectations and tensions that educators, guidance professionals, teachers, parents and children are facing in the competing and changing contexts of the Hong Kong society. These expectations and tensions are very much related to the colossal changes in Hong Kong and are reflections of various degrees of overlaps between "East" and "West", as well as "past" and "present". The researcher has drawn on literature concerning globalization as hybridization, the Chinese concept of yin-yang and the psychological processes at work when Western modernization meet with indigenous Chinese culture, to explain the dynamics of change in the Hong Kong context. This thesis develops a hybrid framework for studying such changes. The framework consists of open-ended questions designed by the researcher from the literature, an adaptation of Confucian's cardinal relationships and Lawton's model for curriculum development A qualitative case study method is used for this study. Data are drawn from the author's own experience in a two-week teaching attachment in a primary school, and interviews with guidance professionals, primary school principals, teachers and students in three selected primary schools in Hong Kong. A qualitative study is chosen so that the multiple realities of teaching guidance in schools can be understood in their naturalistic settings. The boundary of the case is Hong Kong with its implementation of Hong Kong versions of Radd's (1993) Grow with guidance system. Three out of the eight Grow with guidance system pilot schools are studied. The chosen schools differ in student composition, school type, and methods of implementation of the guidance curriculum. Data are obtained by individual interviews, the in-depth study of one case study school by the researcher as participant observer, and content analysis of guidance materials in the case study schools. Data by these three methods and from different stakeholders are triangulated, as information obtained is checked against each other. This study uses multiple forms of evidences and they persuade by reason. Being a qualitative case study, its purpose is to illuminate but not to generalize. The criteria for judging the success of this study depend on the richness and accuracy of data, as well as the coherence, insight and instrumental utility in presenting and reading the data. The researcher argues for a hybrid guidance curriculum for the primary schools in Hong Kong to suit the hybrid contexts in Hong Kong. Data obtained from content analysis and the case study schools show that the philosophical, sociological and psychological factors as well as the content, pedagogies, organization for teaching and practical arrangements of the guidance curricula are hybrid in the Hong Kong implementation of Radd's Grow with guidance system. The researcher concludes that a useful guidance curriculum for Hong Kong primary schools must first listen to the different voices of all stakeholders about the guidance curricula and their "self-other relationships", for those voices reflect their tensions and reality. Much of their voices are presented as stories following the Chinese storying traditions. Methods to help children to deal with tensions and conflicts at personal, school, home and societal levels include giving up self to follow others [chinese characters omitted, knowing self and others [chinese characters omitted], awareness of and accommodation of differences [chinese characters omitted]context analysis, communication using culturally and contextually appropriate ways and emotional management. This thesis contributes to knowledge by inventing the concept of "hybrid guidance curriculum" to suit the hybrid context of Hong Kong. A new hybrid research methodology is also developed in this thesis which enables the forming of new categories of "self-other relationships" and new hybrid key concepts for the guidance curriculum. As such, this study allows for the re-reading of new ideas and practices of traditions in a modern hybrid society. Moreover, it also highlights the importance of the development of a reflexive self in which one negotiates one's own positions and one's relationships with others. In a special case, this study examines the fundamental issue of adapting and integrating western traditions in a country with different culture and contexts. Research frontiers, home school co-operation and implications to teacher educators, practitioners and policy makers in the guidance fields are discussed. Although this research is basically about Hong Kong, the findings may also be relevant to other places in the world where modernization has taken place in the indigenous culture.

The case studies carried out in four non-government primary schools in the ACT aimed to look at the way teachers were using computers in classrooms in order to shed light on the factors which may determine how teachers chose to use computers to enhance learning. The case study method allowed the researcher to use triangulation to provide in-depth information about the processes involved in the delivery of a lesson using a computer. The findings were positive in that more than half of the teachers were found to be using computers at a high level of adoption, predominantly running simulation programs. In most schools, this was in spite of either hardware or software constraints, inadequate professional development opportunities or administrative obstacles. Whether the teachers taught in a laboratory or had one computer in the classroom did not seem to retard their enthusiasm for finding the best strategies to effectively integrate computer use. Cooperative learning strategies had been adopted by most of the teachers so their transition to computer use was made easier since their students had already been 'routinised'.The data also pointed to formal Computer Education as a possible determinant of a high level computer user. However, research on a wider scale would be needed to validate the result. Differences in the way classes were managed in a onecomputer classroom and a laboratory were evident. Teachers spent most time with those students working away from the computer in the one-computer classroom and most time with those working at the computer in the laboratory setting. Methods of evaluation were shown to be necessarily different depending on whether work was carried out in a laboratory or a one-computer classroom. Finally, the study pointed to the need for non-government schools and system managers to begin long-term planning for hardware and software purchase and resource management in order to provide teachers with the tools needed to integrate computer use effectively. Such planning would need to include provision for professional development.

It is a well documented fact that primary teachers as a group are quite lacking in their enthusiasm for science, a subject of constant concern for those committed to its role as a component of the primary school curriculum. In order to test the effects of various treatments on groups of teachers and pre-service trainees, a 21 item questionnaire was developed to measure attitudes towards science in the primary school curriculum, towards improving expertise in the area, and in the traditional &quotescientific attitudes and values&quote. A new group of pre-service students provided one group and the pilot population, students in their final semester of a Diploma in Teaching programme another group, and teachers attending residential schools for UG2 conversion and PGl teacher education courses provided several other groups based on teaching location. Items were selected from the pilot instrument on their ability to discriminate between high scoring and low scoring groups measured with the Mann-Whitney U test. Analyses in the main survey between groups, were carried out using Mann-Whitney U test and Kruskal-Wallis one way analysis of variance, and between items, using Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-ranks test. All manipulation and analysis of data was carried out with the assistance of two computer programs, written in PASCAL by the author specifically for this study � one for item analysis, the other, a statistical package for analysing the main survey data. Findings include 'support for prediction in the literature that change in education is a slow process, demanding ongoing support by the system and teacher education institutions, for teachers committed to the change. Also, the value of computer support, and advantages of tailoring a statistical package to the study, rather than the study to analyses readily accessible, are clearly demonstrated.