Thesis (M. Soc. Sc.)--University of Hong Kong, 1981.

This essay examines upper secondary school pupils as well as the Swedish National Agency for Educations views on the education in subject of religion. How they describe its purpose, what content the topic should address, how the education should be implemented and what influence the pupils should have over their own studies. This to examine how the views of pupils and the Swedish National Agency of Education correlate and to analyze how it possibly can affect the pupil’s motivation. The survey is conducted by semi-forging tured interviews and text analysis in order to ascertain the pupils and the Swedish National Agency of Educations opinions on the issues. The results are then analyzed by various motivational theories that have played a vital role in the Swedish school and that have been found relevant to the study. The survey shows that the pupils and the Swedish National Agency of Education are relatively unanimous about how they regard studies on the subject of religion but that there are differences. It appears that the education the pupils have receive, despite the unity of these pupils and the Swedish National Agency of Education, not always seem to comply with the requirements of the Agency's governing documents. It also appears that the pupil’s motivation is affected by how the National Agency and the pupils' objectives, goals and beliefs correlate. When those are alignment or when the school takes account of pupils' expectations and their own goals the education seems more adequate to the pupils.

This dissertation aims to examine some aspects of special education in Swedish upper secondary schools. The availability of special education resources, the occurrence of ability grouping and the organisational modalities of special education support are investigated. The further aim of the thesis is to discuss how these phenomena can be understood on the basis of democratic educational theories and theories of social educational justice. The study describes how special education support was organised in 764 upper secondary schools in Sweden in the academic school year 2010/2011, with a response rate of 80.4% (n=764). The design of the study is a cross-sectional total population survey, where data have been collected by way of questionnaires and supplemented with public statistics. The results of the study show that about 37.5% of upper secondary schools lack special education resources in terms of special educators or special education teachers. Special education support is not provided in 68% of the independent schools compared with 10% of the public schools. This uneven balance between public and independent schools can be interpreted to be a threat to an equivalent and democratic school, since students in need of special support do not have the same opportunities to receive such support in all schools. Furthermore, schools with a higher average parental educational background have shown higher availability of special education resources. It seems that students with parents who have higher educational backgrounds have to a greater extent access to special education resources. Ability grouping is used in about 43% of the schools. It is most commonly used within foundation subjects, particularly in Mathematics. The schools that use ability grouping to a very large extent have lower and more varied merit rating values and greater availability of special education resources. Special education support is primarily provided outside the students’ regular teaching groups. This is also the case with support provided by other school staff: indeed, 87% of the schools report that the majority of special education support is provided outside the students’ regular teaching groups. This can be understood as a way to organise special support in which heterogeneity and pluralism are not considered important. Based on democratic theories, the support provided outside the regular teaching group might be a risk to the creation of a democratic school where all students are given opportunities to meet and interact.    Overall, the results from this thesis show that special education resources are unevenly distributed among independent and public schools; that 43% of the schools use ability grouping; and that special support is primarily provided outside the students’ regular teaching groups. / <p>At the time of the doctoral defense, the following paper was unpublished and had a status as follows: Paper 3: In press.</p><p> </p>

This Report presents a variety of grammar teaching options for secondary school foreign language teachers in the U.S. Grammar teaching forms a large, and, in my opinion, important part of the foreign language curriculum in U.S. secondary schools. This Report presents grammar teaching methods in the form of a “grammar teaching toolbox” to encourage a variety-based teaching approach and allow teachers to enrich their pedagogical repertoires. All methods discussed in this Report involve explicit discussion of form and take place at the presentation or input/intake stage of grammar teaching. Sample lesson plans and helpful references for each methodology are presented. The first chapters of the Report present a discussion of the intended context, a brief history of grammar teaching, an analysis of the central issues in the debate over form-focused instruction and an outline for incorporating grammar into the contemporary communicative classroom. / text

This study aimed at finding out junior secondary student’s attitude towards school science in a co-educational school in Hong Kong. Eleven items from the survey instrument Attitude towards School Science (AtSS) were used to collect both descriptive and explanatory data on student’s attitude towards school science. The sample consisted of 393 Form 1 to Form 3 students. Their positive AtSS were found to decline with grade level (i.e. declining from Form 1 to Form 3). The decrease in positive attitude was sharpest between Form 2 and Form 3. A remarkable decrease in positive attitude towards their science teachers was also noticed between Form 2 and Form 3 mainly due to the decrease in variety of activities during the lessons. In general, female students were less positive to school science but they were trying harder than the male students because they wanted to do well even though they were not as interested as male students in the subject. In terms of interest, female students were more favorably inclined towards biological science and male students towards physical sciences. Based on the findings, it is suggested that the curriculum and time allocation for junior secondary science, especially for Form 3, should be revised so as to help cultivate student’s interest in science. Also, peer observations can be arranged more frequently to let teachers learn from each other. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

This paper aims at investigating the attitude of junior and senior students of Hong Kong secondary school toward the medium of instruction. This study involved 37 senior students and 34 junior students of the same CMI secondary school. The research is quantitative in nature and data is analyzed statistically. The major findings are, firstly, both groups of students affirm with the benefits of CMI in enhancing effective learning of content subjects. However, they do not agree that CMI can effectively enhance their English ability. Second, students choose between CMI and EMI according to the status of Chinese and English in their mind, which varies with the changes of needs and challenges they face with. The results suggest that the status of Chinese is higher with the junior students. They are both strongly integratively and instrumentally orientated toward Chinese. The benefits of CMI outweigh the disadvantages it has on English learning. Therefore, junior students show a more positive attitude toward CMI. On the other hand, senior students are aware of the high demand in English at university and at work. Their needs to face the society after graduation cause them to be more instrumentally orientated toward English. Therefore, the status of English is relatively higher than Chinese among the senior students, which results in a more positive attitude toward EMI learning. / published_or_final_version / English Studies / Master / Master of Arts

The purpose of this study was to conduct an investigation of the meanings novice high school assistant principals have constructed from their experiences to comply with Texas Administrative Code, Title 19 Part 7 Chapter 241.20, which requires an induction period for all new campus administrators. This study focused only on the mentoring aspect of the induction program. This study was not designed as an evaluation tool for the purpose of assessing any particular district’s mentoring plan for its new principals, nor was it designed to evaluate the state statute. This study was about how a state statute on mentoring has been experienced by novice high school assistant principals and the resulting apparent effects of different strategies on the personal growth and learning of the novice high school assistant principals. This is a qualitative study with a sample selection that was nonrandom, purposeful, and small. Grounded theory anchored the data analysis process as the researcher examined emergent themes. This careful inspection and analysis of the mentoring component of the induction year for novice high school assistant principals will pave the way for further studies in the new wave of mentoring. / text

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education