Quality Teaching (QT) is a sought-after professional goal for educators and schools alike. It is easy to observe, harder to define, and hardest to understand how to achieve. This study attempted to identify QT amongst a select group (N = 6) of Boston-area award-winning high school chemistry teachers. Participants were selected based on having received at least two American Chemical Society-sponsored awards within the past ten years. Data were collected through survey, personal interview, classroom observations, post-observation debriefs, anecdotal information provided by teacher colleagues, supervisors, and past students, student success on externally administered chemistry examinations, and a capstone focus group interview with the teacher- participants. These data were then coded and cohered with two measures of exemplary teaching: The Massachusetts Department of Elementary & Secondary Education Educator Evaluation Rubric and the American Chemical Society Guidelines for Middle- and-High School Chemistry Teaching. Definitions for QT in general and high school chemistry teaching in particular are detailed from references in the Literature Review. Surveys and interviews were conducted via email and Zoom chats, and vii observations during COVID were conducted also by online Face-timing. Colleague, administrator, and past student anecdotes were obtained through these award-winning teachers’ award nomination letters that I had access to in my role as a member of the Northeastern Section American Chemical Society’s (NESACS) High School Awards Committee and as Chairperson for the HS Education Committee. I also had access to student results on externally administered local and national chemistry exams in my role as co-administer of the Ashdown Exam and Section Coordinator for the US National Chemistry Olympiad (USNCO). The findings of this study showed that these award-winning teachers (AWTs) took varied pathways and educational backgrounds to arrive at their profession. Participants all agreed that there is no one best way to teach, but many right ways to get to award- winning teaching. These teachers all possessed “It,” that elusive, mystical, some say innate, art of teaching born of passion, charisma, and love of working with children alongside a continual drive to improve pedagogical practices. This study identified that drive as “relentless expectations,” both for themselves as constant lifelong learners and their students for whom they set high standards. Though recognized by these awards, all of these teachers expressed humility and claimed that other colleagues were equally qualified to be award-winners. Colleagues shared that this study’s participants were “teachers’ teachers” and selfless collaborators. Supervisors related that these great teachers made great schools, and past students exclaimed that these teachers transformed students’ lives and career pathways. The data suggest that award-winning status as a secondary high school chemistry teacher must incorporate a variety of factors, including a love of science learning, a mastery of the study of chemistry with an on-going interest to forward this learning, a passion for teaching and seeing teenagers succeed in learning chemistry, the ability to create a classroom of caring and trust to allow students to take academic risks, self- motivation to collaborate with colleagues through meeting, programing, and publication, self-confidence with a strong voice, and empathy. This study identified two overlooked factors that maintain award-winning teachers: relationships and reflection (the “R & R” of AWT). Other factors that contribute to AWT include supportive school and community with resources available to both teacher and student, freedom and professional trust to be able to innovate and create curriculum, and teachers’ creation and participation in collaborative venues such as collaboration time, workshops, presentations, and conferences. Participants in this study came to chemistry teaching as a second career and state that they acquired their award-winning pedagogy through a combination of most of these factors. Though each of their voices, classrooms, and school buildings looked different, these factors in total provided a common set of criteria to produce the award- winning teaching portrayed in this study.

This study explored how primary school educators expect to be supported and how they experience support from internal and external sources in a South African school district. Support for educators is vital in order to improve basic education in terms of South Africa’s long-term development goals and particularly in light of the poor performance of primary school learners in universal benchmark tests. Furthermore, the myriad of curricular changes introduced by the Department of Basic Education have increased the need for educator support in South Africa. A qualitative approach, located in an interpretive paradigm was adopted and a case study research design was employed. The requisite data were gathered by means of interviews, document sourcing and non-participant observation in three public primary schools. The main finding of the study was that there is limited amount of technical support, aimed at improving the quality of education, while affective aspects, i.e., meeting the socio-emotional needs of educators appear to be neglected. A broad theme that emerged was participants feeling like they are under surveillance; perceiving district officials to be on fault-finding missions when they conduct school visits and classroom observations; and feeling like they are on their own once they return to school from attending offsite workshops. In addition, the participants who served as heads of departments (HODs) reported that their workload prevented them from providing adequate internal support. A key recommendation of this study is that more curriculum instructors and HODs be employed and that they receive adequate preparation in order to provide appropriate support to primary school educators. In addition, it is recommended that the provincial and district officials increase the frequency of their school and classroom visits in order to spend more time supporting primary school educators. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2018. / Education Management and Policy Studies / PhD / Unrestricted

This is a qualitative study that investigated the experience of school inspectors in ensuring quality teaching and learning in primary schools in Northern Uganda, using hermeneutics phenomenological design. The study was underpinned by relative ontology, personal epistemology and accountability theory. In-depth interviews and document analysis were used to explore the understanding of the school inspectors on quality teaching and learning, techniques they use to ensure quality teaching and learning, their effectiveness and challenges. The study revealed that the inspectors understand quality teaching and learning as a multidimensional reality that entails attaining of literacy and numeracy; life skills; holistic development of learners; teachers’ competencies and professionalism; measure of learning achievement; broadness without ambiguity; collaborative; innovate; dynamic and contextual issue. The main techniques that the inspectors used to ensure quality teaching and learning in the primary schools are: assessment of quality of inputs into educational programs; assessment of educational processes; assessment of learning outcomes;psychosocial support; ensuring compliance with educational standards, laws and regulations; creating awareness on educational standards, laws and regulations; administration of rewards and sanctions. The study showed that the inspectors believe that they have been effective in supporting teachers; improving learning, learning environment and professional development of teachers; fighting corruption and malpractices among teachers. They however experienced insubordination of teachers; negative attitude of teachers towards the teaching profession; inadequate training of teachers; failure of teachers to adhere to educational laws; policies and regulations; excess work overload to the school inspectors; negative perception of some teachers on school inspection; corruption; lack of resources for school inspection; ineffectiveness of the head teachers; and difficulties in enforcing educational standards, rules, regulations and laws. They mainly use laws, policies and regulations and peer to peer support as the strategies to solve problems which they encounter in ensuring quality teaching and learning in the primary schools. The unique contribution of the study is that quality teaching and learning as understood by primary school inspectors is a multidimensional reality that can best be achieved using a logical, psychosocial legal approach. Policies, practices and future studies need to examine critically the dynamics and characteristics of these approaches to quality teaching and learning in primary schools. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / pt2021 / Education Management and Policy Studies / PhD / Unrestricted

The quality of education in especially the Further Education and Training phase (FET) is recognised as one of the most significant challenges facing the South African government. Low teacher morale, lack of parental involvement, learners' ignorance in taking responsibility for their own learning and other educational problems are all identified as contributing factors. This study was undertaken to investigate how critical thinking skills can contribute to promoting quality teaching and learning in secondary schools with specific reference to the FET phase. The study also sought to make recommendations that will assist teachers to integrate critical thinking skills into the teaching and learning experiences in the FET phase. The nature of quality teaching and learning, the nature of critical thinking skills and the correlation between the concepts to improve the quality of education were researched by means of a literature study. A quantitative research design followed, using questionnaires as research instrument. From the research conducted it was found that learners in the FET phase do not take responsibility for their learning and therefore many of these learners still do not perceive learning as important. However, effective learning could take place if learners are confident, independent, active participants and explore a variety of learning strategies. Teachers, on the other hand, should adopt particular forms of behaviour to foster certain types of learning. The ability to teach critical thinking skills to learners poses a great challenge as many teachers are not trained to do so. This has a great influence on the exposure of an integrated constructivist method of teaching and learning and therefore inflicts on the delivery of quality teaching and learning in the FET phase of secondary schools in South Africa. / MEd, North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2011

The quality of education in especially the Further Education and Training phase (FET) is recognised as one of the most significant challenges facing the South African government. Low teacher morale, lack of parental involvement, learners' ignorance in taking responsibility for their own learning and other educational problems are all identified as contributing factors. This study was undertaken to investigate how critical thinking skills can contribute to promoting quality teaching and learning in secondary schools with specific reference to the FET phase. The study also sought to make recommendations that will assist teachers to integrate critical thinking skills into the teaching and learning experiences in the FET phase. The nature of quality teaching and learning, the nature of critical thinking skills and the correlation between the concepts to improve the quality of education were researched by means of a literature study. A quantitative research design followed, using questionnaires as research instrument. From the research conducted it was found that learners in the FET phase do not take responsibility for their learning and therefore many of these learners still do not perceive learning as important. However, effective learning could take place if learners are confident, independent, active participants and explore a variety of learning strategies. Teachers, on the other hand, should adopt particular forms of behaviour to foster certain types of learning. The ability to teach critical thinking skills to learners poses a great challenge as many teachers are not trained to do so. This has a great influence on the exposure of an integrated constructivist method of teaching and learning and therefore inflicts on the delivery of quality teaching and learning in the FET phase of secondary schools in South Africa. / MEd, North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2011

In recent years EFL education within Saudi Arabia has come under increased scrutiny, due to government efforts to reform the broader education system within the country, and the perceived importance of English as a global language of commerce and enterprise. EFL education within Saudi Arabia suffers from a number of problems, including low standards and a tendency within the Saudi education system to rely upon prescriptive and authoritarian teaching paradigms. In addition to this, there is no cohesive national strategy for EFL teacher training and education, and little emphasis on professional development opportunities for teachers within the EFL field. This study focuses attention on EFL teacher quality within Saudi Arabia as a critical component in improving English language education across the country. The study presents a case study of Umm al-Qura University, in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, in which the perspectives of students, teachers and managers were explored in depth in order to shed light on the current mechanisms for ensuring teaching quality in EFL. Adopting a mixed-methods approach, the study engaged in an in-depth case study of the English Language Centre (ELC) at the Umm al-Qura University. A quantitative questionnaire was distributed to students within the ELC, and semi-structured interviews were undertaken with teachers and academic managers, in addition to classroom observations conducted by the researcher. The findings corroborated recent research on educational paradigms within Saudi Arabia, and highlighted a number of cultural factors that impacted upon teacher quality within the ELC. The findings of the study form the basis of a series of recommendations for improving English language teaching quality within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Philosophiae Doctor - PhD / I address the relevance of quality learning and teaching in South African high schools’ as it relates to the strategic direction provided by high school leadership for the benefit of knowledge economies and higher learning institutions. The main research question is: “How does educational leadership influence the quality of learning and teaching of high school mathematics?” The research was framed within a confirmatory study viewing quality learning and teaching from a doing mathematics perspective, within the context of a community of practice acknowledging that school leadership can also be situated within the same practice, i.e. doing mathematics. The research was qualitatively designed to employ unstructured, semi-structured and focus group discussion interviews with the school leaders, teachers and students respectively. These enquiries were conducted within six high schools’ representatives of all previously South African demographical perspectives. The analysis was conducted through interpretive phenomenological analysis for sensemaking of situational leadership within a mathematical practice. The findings of the research lacked “doing mathematical” depth, beyond students and teachers. Explanatory findings of a grounded theoretical analysis yielded a school leadership’s silence on quality learning and teaching of mathematics contrary to the literature review’s expectation. The significance of the study lies in the possibilities associated with an under-research stakeholder to the development of quality learning and teaching of mathematics and meeting the expectations of knowledge economies and higher educational institutions.

A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Education in partial fulfillment of the Degree of Master of Education in the Department Educational Planning & Administration at the University of Zululand, 2017 / This investigation studied the challenges faced by the School Management Teams in promoting quality teaching and learning. The outcry of unsatisfied and demotivated educators and the poor academic performance of learners that is experienced as a result of challenges faced by SMTs in their daily function of school management, administration and leadership prompted me to conduct this investigation. Most South African schools, particularly the state schools perform poorly. It is believed that this study will alert the stakeholders in the education fraternity about challenges encountered and contributions each stakeholder has to make to help remedy the situation. The interpretive paradigm was used and the research design was qualitative. I generated data by means of literature reviewed and empirical research. The multi-case or multiple collective case study method was used for data collection. Data gathering techniques used were the semi-structured interviews for both individuals (school principals) and Focus Groups (all other SMTs excluding the principal), observation, documents and artefacts. Three data gathering techniques were used in order to ascertain credibility and trustworthiness of the results. The tools used were the Interview Schedule, Observation Checklist, Field Notes Pads, and the Voice Recorder. The research covers areas which include problems encountered by SMTs that result in poor academic performance, the role of the SMTs in promoting quality teaching and learning, and measures to employ in solving problems encountered. The findings indicated that some practices and policies of the department of education, uncommitted employees and the lack of full involvement of stakeholders, particularly parents and learners, affect academic results. Urban, township and rural schools are all challenged, but the complexity of problems encountered varied, as did the performance standard. Recommendations made include reviewing departmental policies and practices, giving incentives to hardworking employees, and the need for stakeholders to join hands in supporting teaching and learning in South Africa.

Submitted by Jakeline Ortega (jakortega@unoeste.br) on 2017-06-05T21:19:53Z No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Eliane Nascimento Silva.pdf: 296226 bytes, checksum: 0b1f3548cb1b9ee6574516c4042bdb79 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-06-05T21:19:53Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2 license_rdf: 0 bytes, checksum: d41d8cd98f00b204e9800998ecf8427e (MD5) Eliane Nascimento Silva.pdf: 296226 bytes, checksum: 0b1f3548cb1b9ee6574516c4042bdb79 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2016-03-23 / New constructs in education have been investigated in order to increase the theoretical knowledge and enable the demonstration of new perspectives of interventions. Thus, research on topics related to subjective aspects in the educational processes has proven to be relevant. For this dissertation, the main interest is on the subjective well-being, and self-efficacy of teachers. The work is structured in three studies, where the first presents a survey of scientific production indexed in national periodicals from 2005 to 2015, which contemplated the self-efficacy teaching theme. For the collection of material, the electronic databases of Journal of Higher Education Personnel Improvement Coordination (CAPES) and Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) were used. The literature search allowed six articles, a dissertation and two theses to be retrieved. The contents were analysed and organized into three categories of analysis: evaluation of self-efficacy through psychometric instruments, associations between job satisfaction and self-efficacy and the importance of understanding the self-efficacy beliefs. Overall, the analysis of the publications has highlighted that the interferences of self-efficacy in teaching practices and professional development of the teacher are very significant. The goal of the second study was to evaluate the self-efficacy levels and subjective well-being in ten teachers, from 5th to 9th grades, of elementary education at a public school located in the West of Sao Paulo state. The instruments used were scales of teaching self-efficacy and the scale of positive and negative effects of Zanon (EAZ). The results showed that regarding the self-efficacy the indices have proved to be significant in relation to the intention of teaching activity (M = 53.8) and to the classroom management (M = 36.9) Regarding the EAZ indexes the teachers showed to present more positive effect (M = 37.2) than negative effect (M = 28.0). From the Tukey test, it was found that the positive effect and class management were grouped, suggesting indications of correlations between these variables. However, teaching intentionality and negatives effects did not correlate with any other factor. In the third study from the fundamentals of cognitive social theory, self-efficacy was described as a condition for the teachers to put effort, seek new teaching strategies and to persevere in the face of daily difficulties on their professional activity. Therefore this study aimed to identify the teachers’ perception of self-efficacy in elementary school. In this study ten teachers participated from a public school located in the west of Sao Paulo State. A collection of data was performed using a semi-structured interview that was analysed using the content analysis technique. From the findings, two categories of analyses was elaborated: classroom management and intentionality of teaching activities that include the following items: indiscipline control in the classroom, organizing the classroom, the ability to motivate and value education, the perception of a student’s progress, developing strategies to develop abilities to answer questions from the students. The perception of teaching self-efficacy beliefs was equally positive for the classroom management as for and in relation to intentionality of action. Despite the positive perception of the teacher, it is important to continue research on the discussion of the teaching self-efficacy to develop a better understanding on this subject. / Novos construtos vêm sendo investigados na educação no intuito de ampliar o conhecimento teórico e possibilitar a visualização de novas perspectivas de intervenções. Investigações sobre temas relacionados a aspectos subjetivos nos processos educativos têm se mostrado pertinentes. Para essa dissertação, interessou a discussão sobre o bem-estar subjetivo, e a autoeficácia do professor. O trabalho está estruturado em três estudos em forma de artigos completos que dialogam entre si. No primeiro, é apresentado um levantamento da produção científica que contemplou a temática da autoeficácia docente indexada em periódicos nacionais no período de 2005 a 2015. Para a recolha dos materiais, foram consultadas as bases de dados eletrônicas Periódicos da Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) e Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO). Foram recuperados seis artigos, uma dissertação e duas teses cujos conteúdos foram analisados e organizados em três categorias de análise: avaliação da autoeficácia por meio de instrumentos psicométricos, associações entre satisfação profissional e autoeficácia, e a importância da compreensão das crenças de autoeficácia. A análise das publicações permitiu constatar que são expressivas as interferências da autoeficácia nas práticas docentes e no desenvolvimento profissional do professor. O estudo dois objetivou avaliar os níveis de autoeficácia e bem-estar subjetivo de dez professores do 5º ao 9º ano do ensino fundamental de uma escola pública do oeste paulista. Os instrumentos utilizados foram a Escala de Autoeficácia Docente e a Escala de Afetos Positivos e Negativos de Zanon (EAZ). Em relação à autoeficácia, os resultados se revelaram expressivos em relação à intencionalidade da ação docente (M=53.8) e quanto ao manejo de sala (M=36.9). No que concerne aos índices da EAZ, os professores apresentaram mais afetos positivos (M=37.2) que afetos negativos (M=28,0). A partir do Teste de Tukey, verificou-se que Afetos Positivos e Manejo de Classe agruparam-se, sugerindo indicações de correlações entre essas variáveis, porém Intencionalidade Docente e Afetos Negativos não se correlacionaram com nenhum outro fator. No estudo três, a partir dos fundamentos da Teoria Social Cognitiva, a autoeficácia é descrita como uma condição para que os professores invistam esforços, busquem novas estratégias de ensino e tenham perseverança diante de dificuldades do cotidiano de sua atividade profissional. Este estudo, portanto, teve como objetivo identificar a percepção de autoeficácia de professores do ensino fundamental. Participaram 10 professores de uma escola pública de uma cidade do oeste paulista. Foi realizada uma entrevista semiestruturada que foi analisada, utilizando a técnica de Análise de Conteúdo. A partir dos achados, foram elaboradas duas categorias de análise - manejo de sala de aula e intencionalidade da ação docente - as quais contemplam os itens: controle de indisciplina em sala de aula, organização da sala de aula, capacidade para motivar e valorizar a educação, percepção do progresso dos alunos, elaboração de estratégias para favorecer o aprendizado e habilidade para responder às perguntas dos alunos. A percepção das crenças de autoeficácia docente mostrou-se positiva quanto ao manejo de sala quanto à intencionalidade da ação. Apesar da percepção positiva do professor, nota-se a importância da continuidade de pesquisas que visem discutir a autoeficácia docente para seu maior entendimento e intervenções para elevar a crença de autoeficácia do professor e, portanto, melhorar a qualidade do ensino.

DEd (Curriculum Studies) / Department of Curriculum Studies and Education Management