We have not had democratic classrooms since the 1960s. Even then they were a rarity, a few teachers working in isolation. There was a great deal of imaginative exploration, which veered off in different directions. There was legislation such as the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Head Start, Upward Bound, and New Careers. All instigated and encouraged experimentation, yet these never coalesced into a broader, institutional democratic vision for education. Progressive as well as radical educators were interested in access and equity for marginalized populations but did not produce a critical democratic praxis. This dissertation project will specifically document what happens when elementary students have an opportunity to engage with democratic principles through critical understanding of the Bill of Rights. It will demonstrate how a teacher committed to social justice pedagogy interprets the demands of corporate driven reforms to enact rigorously democratic praxis that embraces students from nondominant populations as well as dominant students in the Cultural Linguistics Civics Project. The ultimate goal of the research study is to document students’ knowledge and attitudes about their rights as guaranteed in the United States Constitution.

Esta pesquisa tem como tema o trabalho do professor coordenador pedagógico (PCP) e objetiva contribuir para a compreensão da atuação desse profissional na escola. Para isso, realizou-se um estudo de caso de tipo etnográfico em uma escola estadual paulista. Os procedimentos de pesquisa incluem observação participante, entrevistas, análise de documentos e pesquisa bibliográfica. A pesquisa revela que o PCP participa de uma tendência histórica que atribui aos profissionais de coordenação pedagógica a tarefa de representar um agente de inovações no cotidiano das práticas pedagógicas. Essas inovações provém dos órgãos de planejamento técnico do sistema educacional e encontram, nos procedimentos cristalizados do cotidiano escolar e em suas condições concretas de funcionamento, grandes obstáculos. A função de PCP e as inovações que por seu intermédio se buscam implementar são apropriadas pelos sujeitos que compõem o cotidiano, definindo-as, na prática, como resultantes de uma complexa rede de relações institucionais. Esta rede é marcada por um emaranhado de conflitos, dos quais o PCP participa ativamente e simultaneamente o sujeitam, ocasionando facilmente a indefinição de suas funções em relação à determinação regulamentar de suas atribuições. O desenrolar dos conflitos leva a exercícios instáveis de poder e a estabelecimentos provisórios de aliança, em que freqüentemente a função educacional da escola é relegada. Isso faz com que o professor coordenador pedagógico acabe tendo muito pouco de professor, de coordenador e muito menos de pedagógico. / This research has as theme the work of the pedagogycal coordinator teacher (PCT) and has as object contribute to the comprehension of the action of this professional at school. To do so, there was a study of the etnographic type case in one state school from São Paulo estate. The procedures of this research include participative observation, interviews, documents analyses and bibliographical research. The research shows that PCT participates from one historical tendency that leads to the pedagogycal coordinator professionals the task of representing an agent of day by day inovations at the pedagogycal area. These inovations come from the educational system and they find at the procedures of the day by day, and its concrete conditions of funcioning, great obstacles. The function of the PCT and the inovations that by itself search to find are proper, as well as the principal, the coordinators and the teachers, defining them at the practice as the results of a complex web of institucional relationships. This web is also marked by conflicts, in which the PCT participates actively producing easily the undefine relations among them, according to the regular determination of their atributions. The developing of the conflicts leads to unistable exercises of power and the provisory alliances that frequently occurs at school. This problem makes the PCT to be small as a teacher as well as a coordinator and much smaller as a pedagogycal.

As pesquisas realizadas e os relatos de trabalhos de intervenção em Psicologia Escolar e Educacional demonstram que muito se avançou na direção de um posicionamento crítico que considere as dimensões históricas, sociais e culturais na constituição do fenômeno educativo. Este avanço centra-se em experiências de formação ou de pesquisa advindas do campo acadêmico, pouco se conhecendo como tem se dado a apropriação desse conhecimento por aqueles profissionais que se encontram na rede pública de Educação. Esta pesquisa visa, portanto, identificar e analisar concepções e práticas desenvolvidas pelos psicólogos da rede pública frente às queixas escolares, buscando compreender como comparecem elementos de criticidade, pertinentes às discussões recentes na área de Psicologia Escolar e Educacional em busca de um ensino de qualidade para todos. Realizamos: a) mapeamento dos serviços oferecidos pelos psicólogos nas Secretarias Municipais de Educação do Estado de São Paulo b) levantamento de livros na área pesquisada sobre a atuação do psicólogo no campo da educação; c) levantamento da atuação profissional na área da educação. Utilizamos dois procedimentos no trabalho de campo: questionários e entrevistas. Analisamos os questionários por meio do software Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, permitindo a construção de perfis dos participantes. Analisamos a produção da área de Psicologia Escolar e Educacional, no que se refere à atuação do psicólogo, de 2000 a 2007, e realizamosentrevistas em nove municípios para aprofundar as questões referentes à história dos serviços de atendimento, concepções do trabalho e como tem se dado essa atuação de psicólogos na rede pública de Educação. Analisamos 36 livros, sendo seis textos completos e 30 coletâneas, destacando-se a análise de 131 capítulos. Nesse período foram pesquisados 133 municípios do Estado de São Paulo - em 61 deles atuam psicólogos nas Secretarias Municipais de Educação - e participaram 108 profissionais. Destes, 96,4% são mulheres, na faixa etária de 40 anos, com a média de 8,7 anos no cargo. Encontramos variadas formas de contratação; a maioria é proveniente de universidades privadas e mantêm uma formação continuada, nas modalidades: especialização, cursos de atualização e supervisões. Atuam em todos os níveis de ensino e centram o trabalho com professores e alunos. Apresentam três modalidades de atuação: Clínica (15%), Institucional (30%) e Clínica e Institucional (55%). O acompanhamento das queixas escolares se dá, principalmente, no interior das escolas. As dificuldades enfrentadas para realização do trabalho: a) modalidade de contratação que não define claramente a função do psicólogo na educação; b) níveis salariais baixos; c) mudanças constantes de gestão; d) carga horária não condizente com a demanda da educação; e) representação clínica da profissão pelos educadores e profissionais da saúde. É importante ressaltar que os profissionais destacam que a Educação pode contribuir para odesenvolvimento e a melhoria da situação do país e de que esse seria o foco central de seu trabalho. Avaliamos este trabalho positivamente, pois denotou um movimento de avanço em direção à construção de práticas profissionais no campo da educação que anunciam uma apropriação, por parte dos psicólogos que estão na Educação Pública, dos conhecimentos que vêm sendo produzidos pela academia no que se refere a uma atuação que denominamos crítica em Psicologia Escolar e Educacional. Consideramos que essa pesquisa não esgota as possibilidades de investigação da complexidade do fenômeno em questão, mas contribui para a compreensão da constituição das práticas profissionais da Psicologia no campo da Educação / Studies and reports of intervention work in School and Educational Psychology demonstrate that much progress has been achieved toward a critical position that considers the historical, social and cultural dimension in the constitution of educational phenomenon. This advance is centered on training experiences or research coming from the academic field and little is known about how such knowledge was acquired by those professionals who are in the public education system. This research, therefore, aims at identifying and analyzing the concepts and practices developed by psychologists of public school in face of school complaint, in order to understand how innovative and relevant elements appear in recent discussions in the area of Educational and School Psychology in search for a good education for everybody. We have done: a) a mapping of the services offered by psychologists in the Municipal Educational Offices of the State of São Paulo b) a survey of books, in the area studied, about the role of psychologists in the field of education, c) a survey of professional practice in education. We used two procedures in the field work: questionnaires and interviews. We have analyzed the questionnaires using the software Statistical Package for Social Sciences, allowing the construction of profiles of the participants. We have also analyzed the publications in the area of Educational and School Psychology, in relation to the psychologist´s work, from 2000 to 2007 and conducted interviews in nine cities in order to explore the issues relating to the history of assistance services, conceptions of work and how this psychologist practicing has occurred in public education... We took 36 books, six full texts and 30 collections, highlighting the analysis of 131 chapters. During this period, 133 municipalities of Sao Paulo were surveyed, knowing that in 61 of them there are psychologists working in the Municipal Departments of Education, 108 professionals participated. Of these, 96.4% are women, around 40 years old, with an average of 8.7 years in office. We find several forms of recruitment; the majority is from private universities and maintains a continuous education, in the forms: specialization, updating courses and supervision. They work at all levels of education and focus the work on teachers and students. They present three modes of operation: Clinic (15%), Institutional (30%) and Clinical and Institutional (55%). The monitoring of school complaints takes place mainly inside the schools. The difficulties faced in carrying out the work are: a) type of contract that does not clearly define the role of psychologist in education, b) low salary levels, c) constant change in management, d) workload is not adequate to the demands of education;) clinical representation of the profession by educators and health professionals. It is Important to mention that the professionals point out that education can contribute to the development and improvement of the country situation and that this would be the central focus of their work. We evaluate this work positively, because it revealed a forward movement toward the construction of professional practices in education that announce an appropriation, by the psychologists who are in Public Education, of knowledge that has been published by scholars, relating to a practice which we call ―critical‖ in School and Educational Psychology. We believe that this research does not exhaust the possibilities of investigation of the complexity of the phenomenon in question, but contributes to the understanding of the constitution of professional practices in the field of Educational Psychology

Assessment is integral to teaching and learning and external assessment is a logical sequel to the interaction between teachers and their students because it represents an account of this interaction to the public. External assessments, especially those that have high stakes, such as the end-of-cycle examinations, are known to have an influence on teaching and learning in the years that precede them. The effect of external assessments on teaching and learning has been extensively researched. The test items which transmit the influence have also been thoroughly analysed in terms of the kind of thinking that they demand from students. However, the aspect of external assessment that has not received much attention is the test developers who originate the test items and are therefore ultimately responsible for the type of effect the items have on teaching and learning. External assessment in sub-Saharan African countries especially, demand mainly recall of facts with very little demand on the thinking and problem solving abilities of students. This type of question tends to induce teaching and learning mainly for recall. This research aims to throw light on the intentions of test developers for Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) in Ghana when they write items for this end-of-cycle examination. A broadly qualitative approach was adopted for this research but quantitative data was used in addition. Seven test developers were interviewed extensively on how they perform their test development activities. In order to have a fuller understanding of the external examination, the teachers and students who experience its influence were included in the study. Forty teachers and 120 students completed questionnaires relating to their beliefs about the BECE and eight each of the participating teachers and students were subsequently interviewed. The findings suggest that the test developers were aware that the level of thinking in their questions was low and would prefer questions that demand higher levels of thinking. They were also aware that past questions influence teaching and learning and were of the opinion that the standard of education is low. However, the test developers did not have the intention to change teaching and learning with their tests because they could not see a relation between their test items and the quality of teaching and learning. It was also found that their personal interpretations and concerns about the social impact of the examination are more influential in determining the type of items they write. This is significant because item writing is presumed to be a neutral and objective activity devoid of subjective considerations. The findings further suggest that the examination influences what teachers teach and how they teach it and the teachers' self-worth, prestige and public esteem depend on the performance of their students in the examination. The students believed the BECE prevents them from learning other things and from developing their talents and they saw the examination as the fairest means of competing for selection to senior high school because it is less partial when compared with their teachers' continuous assessment marks. It was also found that past questions serve as an alternative curriculum because they determine the standard of the examination questions and also influence teaching and learning. Through the medium of past questions, the examination is able to influence policy by circumventing it or diverting attention away from it. It was concluded that the influence of social considerations in item writing has created a vicious cycle of low level questions that induce teaching and learning aimed at recall which does not equip students to use knowledge acquired to solve the problems that attract the sympathy of the item writers. It will require awareness creation among stakeholders about the central role of the external assessment in determining the quality of teaching and learning to break the cycle by improving the quality of the test items.

This study concerns the effects of public school redistricting on communities in Atlanta. It is based upon interviews with people in two neighborhoods which are part of the Atlanta Public Schools (APS) system directly affected by redistricting. All schools slated to close are located in low-income, minority areas and serve similar populations. Of the ten schools selected for closing, three were saved during the final APS board meeting in April 2012, and will remain open. I spoke with people who reside in a neighborhood where a local school is slated to close, as well as those in an area where a school was saved from closing. I asked informants why they felt their schools were identified for closure and how they responded to the threat of closing. I learned that both communities organized to save their schools but with different results based on available forms of social and cultural capital.

The purpose of this study was to determine eighth grade students&rsquo / skills of translating among different representations / graphic, table, equation, and verbal sentence / of algebraic concepts. Moreover, it was also aimed to investigate if there is any gender difference regarding the translation skills of students translating multiple representations, and their most common errors in making these translations. For data collection, 18 schools were selected randomly from 103 elementary schools in &Ccedil / ankaya district of Ankara. Then all of the eighth grade students in each school were selected as sample. In total 705 eighth grade students were participated in the study. To assess students&rsquo / translation skills &ldquo / Translation among different representations of algebraic concepts test&rdquo / (TADRACT) was developed by researcher. Descriptive statistics were obtained to understand students&rsquo / achievement in translation process. To compare mean scores of female and male students, the statistical analysis of Independent Samples t-test was used. Every question were examined in detail to determine any misconceptions, and most frequent errors students made in translating among different algebraic representations. The results of test indicated that 8th grade students had poor skill in translations of four different representations / verbal statement, equation, table, graphic / in algebraic concepts. There was no significant difference between mean scores of girls and mean scores of boys. The most problematic translations were from other representations / equation, table, graphic / to verbal statement, and translations from other three representations / verbal statement, equation, graphic / to table were the easiest translations.

This study has aimed to examine effectiveness of the peer instruction on sixth grade students&rsquo / science achievement, attitudes concerning current electricity and retention rates of what has already learnt about current electricity as compared to the conventional instruction. The study was conducted during 2005-2006 spring semester with 121 students from the four classes of two elementary schools in the central Yenimahalle district of Ankara. Current Electricity Achievement Test (CEAT) and Attitude toward Current Electricity Scale (ATCES) were administered as pretest to all groups in order to determine students&rsquo / level of prior knowledge and level of interest toward the subject before the treatment, respectively. Then, treatment started in experimental group. It continued three weeks throughout the current electricity subject. While experimental group implementing the peer instruction, control group continued with their conventional lecturing. Immediately after three weeks, students both in control and experimental groups were post tested with the same test and scale. Moreover, three months after the post tests, delayed post test on the CEAT was also administered to both experimental and control groups. The data obtained from the administration of tests and scales were analyzed by the statistical techniques of MANCOVA / follow up ANCOVA&rsquo / s and repeated measure ANCOVA. Results of the statistical analysis indicated that the peer instruction has significantly greater effect on students&rsquo / science achievement and retention rates as compared to the conventional instruction. However, the statistical analysis failed to show a significant difference between the attitudes of students instructed by the peer instruction and the conventional instruction.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which Constructivist Learning Environment (CLE) aspects exist in primary level 4th and 5th grade Science and Technology Courses in Turkey as perceived by students and their teachers. Secondly, the study aimed at finding out whether perceptions of students on CLE differ according to certain demographic variables. Finally, the study attempted to explore the extent to which the perceptions of teachers on administrative support have a relationship with their perceptions on CLE. Subjects of the study involved 1143 primary level 4th and 5th grade students in Turkey during 2006-2007 school year from 6 socio-economic development groups as determined by State Planning Department and their 264 teachers. Data were collected in 2006-2007 Spring semester through administration of two questionnaires to the students and the teachers. Data analysis was carried out through both quantitative (repeated measures ANOVA, frequencies, means, standard deviations, MANOVA) and qualitative analysis techniques. The results of the study indicated that students and teachers perceived the current learning environment to be often constructivist. In addition, the results revealed that perception of CLE differed according to socio economic status and technology use of students. Lastly, the results revealed that there is a significant but low correlation between teachers&rsquo / perceptions on CLE and their perceptions on administrative support they received. The results revealed that students should be provided with more facilities and teachers be provided with more in-service training opportunities.

This study aimed to provide a general picture of ICT education in primary schools. Through this aim, students&rsquo / perceived ICT competencies, their attitudes towards the ICT course, the characteristics of the teaching-learning process in the ICT course, the deficiencies of the IT classrooms and the effectiveness of the ICT Student Workbook were analyzed. This study was designed as a cross-sectional survey study. In order to collect the data, a self-reported questionnaire consisted of 63 items was developed by the researcher. The sample consisted of 442 Grade 8 students in 11 primary schools located in the metropolitan area of Izmit. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were utilized to analyze the data. Multivariate Analysis of Variances with Pillai&rsquo / s Trace test was employed to investigate whether the significant differences among dependent variables across independent variables existed. Results of the study indicated that primary school students generally perceived themselves competent in ICT tasks and they had favorable attitudes towards the ICT course. Significant differences were found in students&rsquo / perceived ICT competencies and attitudes with respect to gender, educational background of parents, computer ownership and availability of home assistance related to the ICT course. This study also revealed several obstacles which prevent taking full benefits of IT classrooms, and problems with the implementation of the new ICT program.

ABSTRACT THE CONTRIBUTION OF COGNITIVE AND METACOGNITIVE STRATEGY USE TO SEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS&rsquo / SCIENCE ACHIEVEMENT AKYOL, G&uuml / ls&uuml / m M.S., Department of Elementary Science and Mathematics Education Supervisor : Assoc. Prof. Dr. Ceren TEKKAYA Co-Supervisor: Assoc. Prof. Dr. Semra SUNGUR January 2009, 97 pages The purposes of the study were to examine the differences in the level of students&rsquo / cognitive and metacognitive strategy use and to investigate the contribution of cognitive and metacognitive strategy use (rehearsal, elaboration, organization, critical thinking, and metacognitive self-regulation) to 7th grade students&rsquo / science achievement. This study also interested in exploring the relationships between students&rsquo / background characteristics (gender, prior knowledge, socioeconomic status) and the variables including students&rsquo / cognitive and metacognitive strategy use and science achievement. The study was carried out during 2007-2008 spring semester at 15 public elementary schools in Ke&ccedil / i&ouml / ren, district of Ankara. A total of 1517 seventh grade students who were volunteers and had permission from their parents involved in the study. Data were collected through Background Characteristics Survey, Motivated Strategies for Learning Questionnaire and Science Achievement Test and analyzed by using a One-Way Repeated ANOVA, Multiple Linear Regression Analyses and a Canonical Correlation Analysis. The analyses revealed that there were significant differences in the level of students&rsquo / cognitive and metacognitive strategy use scores. Besides, elaboration and metacognitive self-regulation strategy use made a statistically significant contribution to the prediction of students&rsquo / achievement in science (p&lt / .05). Metacognitive self-regulation strategy use was found to be the main predictor of science achievement (beta=.11). The first canonical variate indicated that prior knowledge, mother&rsquo / s educational level, father&rsquo / s educational level, number of reading materials at home, frequency of buying a daily newspaper, presence of a separate study room, presence of a computer with internet connection at home are associated with cognitive and metacognitive strategy use and science achievement.