<p> This qualitative study examines the identities of three secondary special education teachers in self-contained classrooms. Nationally, there is a serious shortage of special educators interested in and successful working with students exhibiting emotional and behavioral disorders. An understanding of teacher identity and the personal and professional contexts that contribute to it is critical to the retention of these teachers in the field and the preparation of future special educators. Interviews, observations, and the use of image elicitation provided data to examine each participant&rsquo;s identity in relation to the students they taught, the school setting, and their sense of self. Analysis of collected data emphasized their historical past, present relationships (e.g., family, colleagues), professional development, and lives within the school. </p><p> Cross-case analysis findings illuminate each teacher&rsquo;s reasons for working with students who exhibit challenging behaviors and how their personal experiences shaped their identity and approach to teaching. Findings demonstrate how teacher-participants addressed student autonomy through empowerment or control via an instituted behavioral model. Social and relational aspects of teaching effected collaboration within the classroom and school setting. </p><p> Findings from this study indicate several implications. Due to the stressful and emotional work environment, the field has both a quantity and a quality shortage. Preparation programs must offer prospective teachers the chance to observe and participate in daily work within restricted settings while cultivating and recognizing a network of supports. Well-planned mentor and field-based programs offer on-the-job resources that help incoming teachers with classroom practice and the stimulation of identity development. Schools should implement strategies to improve the consistency of instructional aide support for special education teachers. </p><p> It is important to recognize the systemic structures that shape teacher identity. Institutional settings rarely challenge the status quo; so it is important that teachers resist, otherwise practices appear fixed and unalterable. While working with students who are emotional, aggressive, combative, and traumatized, teachers should detach from maladaptive conduct and not associate the student with their behavior. It is essential for special educators experiencing the effects of a school system and the challenges brought by students to practice a method of self-care.</p>

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 2005. / Title proper from title frame. Also available in printed format.

Education reform in the U.S. promotes the teaching of inquiry in science to help students understand how science is done and to increase constructivist, student centered instruction. This qualitative study investigated changes in teachers' understandings about scientific inquiry and nature of science as well as science teaching as a result of participation in one of three summer science research programs. This study also explored what teachers reported valuing about their experiences as they progressed through the program and returned to their classrooms.Data were collected through open-ended surveys, semi-structured interviews, program observation and artifact analysis before, during, and after the research programs as well as follow-up surveys and semi-structured interviews six to nine months after the research programs had ended. In addition to overall findings, six cases are presented to highlight changes and growth that occurred.Participation in these programs did not always lead to the outcomes intended by facilitators, such as strong changes in teachers' understandings about scientific inquiry and full implementation of research with their students; yet there were significant positiveoutcomes from participants' perspectives.Teachers' understandings of scientific inquiry and nature of science changed in small ways as measured by a modified Views of Scientific Inquiry/Views of Nature of Science Survey; however, participants changed their descriptions of science teaching after the programs. These descriptions included more affective goals for their students, the use of more student centered activities, and the importance of engaging students in research. On their post surveys, participants reported their intentions to implement more classroom inquiry, including science research. In follow-up surveys and interviews teachers reported engaging students in more active roles in their classrooms. In addition,teachers reported valuing a number of other outcomes from their participation in these programs. These included increased knowledge and skills in science, insider information about professional science, increased credibility, professional and personal growth, and improvements in students' knowledge and engagement in science and research. An emergent finding of the study was that participating in these research programs had an influence on some participants' identities related to doing science, being a scientist, and teaching science.

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Communicative approaches, such as communicative language teaching (CLT) and task-based language teaching (TBLT), have been promoted in second language education around the world for over four decades. This continued mainstream status may be due to their convincing theoretical bases in principles of second language acquisition, which are believed to be beneficial to language learners. However, they are not widely accepted by teachers in many English as a Foreign Language (EFL) contexts. A number of studies in a variety of contexts have aimed to identify factors which impede their implementation, but few of these have further built on the implications of these investigations. The current investigation, instead, studied classroom practice in a Taiwanese EFL secondary school, in order to identify and solve any problems arising. Based on the assumption that teacher learning is a complex process, it was necessary to set up a teacher development programme (TD) and use action research to explore how it could help teachers develop their practitioner knowledge of communicative approaches. Drawing on the data from questionnaires, interviews and classroom observations, the main finding was that the teachers’ limited understanding of these approaches seemed to be a more dominant factor than the teachers’ beliefs. This resulted in perceptions of learners, syllabus/textbooks and time becoming barriers to the implementation of the approaches, as often pointed out in past studies. This study also found effective ways to encourage teachers to learn to implement this new pedagogy. First, supplying examples of a theory’s practical application equipped practitioners to develop practical knowledge of that theory. Second, collaborative learning between the teachers, as well as the assistance of an expert, helped make the teacher education programme work. This led to the conclusion that communicative approaches motivated teachers in their professional practice. The findings of this research could shed light on these aspects of L2 teaching in a variety of other similar contexts and could be useful for educational policymakers, practitioners, and teacher educators in implementing innovative approaches.

The purpose of this study is to design and development of an online professional development material for science and technology teachers in order to solve their problems related with assessment and evaluation issues of constructivist learning. For this purpose, design and development research method was used in design, development and validation of this instructional tool. Research has been performed in two parts. In the first part, design and development of online professional development material was carried out. In this part, ADDIE model with rapid prototyping procedure was used in three phases. To gather science and technology teachers&rsquo / perceptions and attitudes towards prototypes, semi-structured interview schedule, Internet Tutorial Attitude Questionnaire, and a Checklist for Product Evaluation was conducted to 21 science and technology teachers in total. These data were analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative methods to reveal considerations of science and technology teachers about these prototypes and to make adjustments on these prototypes accordingly. In second part, final version of this material was evaluated. In this phase, researcher used self-efficacy questionnaire about alternative assessment and evaluation methods and a checklist for material validation. These instruments were administered both before and after use of final version of online professional development material. Descriptive data analysis was conducted to reveal differences in participants&rsquo / perceived-knowledge, beliefs, and applications about alternative assessment and evaluation methods after use of online professional development material. Research results disclosed participants&rsquo / beliefs and attitudes towards content, design and usability issues of online professional development material. Besides, validation of online professional development material revealed positive changes in participants&rsquo / perceived-knowledge, their classroom practices, self-efficacy beliefs and their perceptions about appropriateness of alternative assessment methods&rsquo / usage in classroom.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-27T16:57:07Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ivete Cevallos.pdf: 1596296 bytes, checksum: bd8f651b4e8dc996b41e472f50d8bbd8 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011-06-17 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This study aims to investigate and analyze the contributions of the Professional Masters in Teaching of Mathematics, PUC / SP for the professional development of teachers of Basic Education.To this end, we resort to theoretical references grounded, especially, by studying the following authors: Marcelo (2009); Ibernon (2007); Day (2001); Ponte (1998) e Gonçalves (2009); Schön (2000); Perrenoud (2004); Zeichner (2004); Beillerot (2004) e Lüdke (2005-2007-2009), that allows us to analyze the professional development of the egress teacher, taking into account a training supported in practice and in producing a search for understanding the learning and teaching process of mathematics. These readings allowed the clarification of concepts as well as indicated the starting point of this work. Besides, they brought valuable contributions to discussions on data analysis Another direction of study was to highlight the policies of the Graduate courses in professional mode in Brazil bringing what has been discussed about the regulation of Ordinances. The methodological research process unfolds within a qualitative investigation course that uses a case study.The research was developed in two phases. In the first phase, 46 egresses of the Professional Masters participated as research subjects, when the questionnaires were applied and, second, interviews were conducted with six egresses and two teachers of the Graduate Program. As a result of this process of reflection, the data showed that the contributions of the course for the professional performance of the graduates are strongly supported in the relationship shared with peers, with trainers from the discussions and readings of the theorists, and research and reflect that triggers a systematic thinking about the teacher's work culminating in this way in changing attitudes of the egresses face to their performances, when they became more inquisitive and more aware of their practices developed in the context of the classroom. It is expected to collaborate with further discussion on the training of teachers, since they improve the quality of teaching is a flag defended today by governments, educators and education experts / O presente estudo tem por objetivo investigar e analisar contribuições do Mestrado Profissional em Ensino de Matemática para o desenvolvimento profissional do professor da Educação Básica. Para tanto, recorre-se aos referenciais teóricos sustentados, em especial, pelos estudos dos seguintes autores: Marcelo (2009); Day (2001); Ponte (1998) e Gonçalves (2009); Schön (2000); Zeichner (2004); Beillerot (2004) e Lüdke (2005-2007- 2009), que permitiram analisar o desenvolvimento profissional do professor egresso, levando-se em consideração uma formação apoiada na prática e na produção de pesquisa para a compreensão do processo de ensino e aprendizagem da Matemática. Outro direcionamento do estudo foi o de analisar as políticas de cursos de Pós- Graduação na modalidade profissional no Brasil, trazendo o que se tem discutido sobre as Portarias de regulamentação. Optou-se, também, pela elaboração de um mapeamento dos trabalhos produzidos no período analisado, identificando-se, assim, as tendências temáticas e sua relação com as propostas do curso. O processo metodológico da pesquisa desenvolve-se num percurso investigativo de cunho qualitativo que faz uso de um estudo de caso. A pesquisa desenvolveu-se em duas fases. Na primeira, participaram como sujeitos, 46 egressos do Mestrado Profissional, quando foram aplicados os questionários; na segunda, foram realizadas entrevistas com seis egressos e duas professoras do Programa de Pós-Graduação que participaram do processo de implantação do curso. Também fez parte da metodologia a análise de documentos oficiais como as Portarias e regulamentações que versam sobre Mestrado Profissional, além da análise do currículo do curso investigado. Como resultados desse processo de reflexão, os dados mostraram que as contribuições do curso para a atuação profissional dos egressos estão fortemente apoiadas nas relações partilhadas com os pares, com os formadores, a partir das discussões e leituras dos teóricos, e a pesquisa que desencadeia um refletir e um pensar sistemáticos sobre o trabalho do professor, culminando, dessa forma, em mudanças na postura dos egressos frente às suas atuações ao se tornarem mais questionadores e mais atentos às práticas desenvolvidas no contexto da sala de aula. Espera-se, assim, colaborar com o aprofundamento da discussão relativa à formação de professores, uma vez que melhorar a qualidade do ensino é bandeira defendida, hoje, por governantes, educadores e especialistas em educação

This chapter presents the application of the method of the Analytical Short Film in teacher education seminars and the main results of an accompanying research. Central findings indicate that the usage of the method increases the students’ abilities of reasoning on a scientific basis and improves their levels of reflection (Roters 2012).

Evidence-based educational policymaking has become a global phenomenon (Wiseman, 2010). According to the Institute of Education Sciences, evidence-based education is "an integration of the professional wisdom and the best available empirical evidence on making decision about how to deliver instructions" (IES, US Department of Education, 2012). This suggests that best practice requires teachers to ensure that instructional strategies and programs implemented in their classroom have been studied in scientific experiments to determine their effectiveness. The general public, as well as practicing teachers, holds an assumption that educators have knowledge as to what is evidence-based education. However, this is not always the case. The objective of this these include: to document how pre-service teachers access research findings and what types of findings they use in their practice, to identify the purposes of its utilization, to identify the factors that influence research utilization, and to ensure the accessibility of the findings of this study. The population for this study will be pre-service teachers at a large public higher education institution and one state college. In order to meet these objectives I conducted a survey, a pre-service teacher focus group, and an interview with faculty. Research findings will impact pre-service teacher preparation programs and increase our understanding of the link between the researchers and educators.