For many years, the assessment practices of band directors in North America have come under scrutiny. As funding for public education shrinks, the call for greater accountability in schools has focused attention on the assessment procedures of all teachers. This is especially true for arts teachers, including band directors, due to the public’s perception of highly subjective assessment practices in arts-based courses. This sequential, explanatory mixed method study sought to investigate the current assessment practices of high school band directors in British Columbia, including the purposes and uses of classroom assessment methods, and potential implications for teacher education with respect to the use of classroom assessment. The study also sought to discover any underlying assumptions, beliefs, and attitudes of band directors in designing and implementing those assessment procedures. Using a stratified random sample of band directors from 12 districts across four regions of British Columbia, this sequential, explanatory mixed methods study allowed a dialectical research structure that connected the empirical evidence of the quantitative survey instrument with the qualitative interview that drew upon the subjects’ personal beliefs. This study found that band directors do assess their students and hold strong beliefs that assessment is fundamental to the teaching/learning process. Despite this, they often use structures in their assessment practice that account for non-achievement, behavioural factors (i.e., effort, attendance, attitude, and participation) rather than musical outcomes. It also became apparent that band directors lacked sufficient pedagogical content knowledge in the early stages of their career that supports broad-based assessment within a comprehensive musicianship context. Why? Band directors noted that their pre-service education in assessment was deficient. Therefore, in addition to other recommendations, this study suggests a tripartite model for undergraduate music education that is more inclusive of assessment instruction and procedures. In other words, music teacher education programs should balance educatorship, musicianship, and assessorship. / Graduate / 0522 / 0727 / mkeddy@uvic.ca

This study examines how upper secondary school teachers in Västerbotten and Österbotten plan to teach about the Finnish War 1808-09. The study includes written interviews with nine teachers in Västerbotten and eight teachers in Österbotten, who have answered questions concerning school policy documents, content and didactic methods. The purpose has been to examine whether there is a difference in historical culture in how the war is treated in the two regions. Historical culture is here meant within the prospective history lesson, where the pupils encounter history within certain boundaries.The result of the interview study shows that there are differences in structure concerning the school policy documents, but that these differences on the whole are compensated by the widespread interest in the Finnish War by the teachers in both regions. The differences in historical culture can be found within the construction of the content when it comes to the aftermaths of the war as well as the purpose of the teaching. A distinct common feature is that the perspective on local history has a strong position in education.Concerning the didactic methods there are differences working with source criticism as well as the forms of examination. Everything included, structurally, there are two different historical cultures. However, if we take into account the answers given by the teachers it is more reasonable to look at it as two nuances of one historical culture. Key words: Historical culture, history didactics, the Finnish War 1808-09, upper secondary school, Västerbotten and Österbotten.

This thesis explores two aspects of mathematical reasoning: affect and gender. I started by looking at the reasoning of upper secondary students when solving tasks. This work revealed that when not guided by an interviewer, algorithmic reasoning, based on memorising algorithms which may or may not be appropriate for the task, was predominant in the students reasoning. Given this lack of mathematical grounding in students reasoning I looked in a second study at what grounds they had for different strategy choices and conclusions. This qualitative study suggested that beliefs about safety, expectation and motivation were important in the central decisions made during task solving.  But are reasoning and beliefs gendered? The third study explored upper secondary school teachers conceptions about gender and students mathematical reasoning. In this study I found that upper secondary school teachers attributed gender symbols including insecurity, use of standard methods and imitative reasoning to girls and symbols such as multiple strategies especially on the calculator, guessing and chance-taking were assigned to boys. In the fourth and final study I found that students, both male and female, shared their teachers view of rather traditional feminities and masculinities. Remarkably however, this result did not repeat itself when students were asked to reflect on their own behaviour: there were some discrepancies between the traits the students ascribed as gender different and the traits they ascribed to themselves. Taken together the thesis suggests that, contrary to conceptions, girls and boys share many of the same core beliefs about mathematics, but much work is still needed if we should create learning environments that provide better opportunities for students to develop beliefs that guide them towards well-grounded mathematical reasoning.

Problems that face teachers, especially those in secondary schools, are discussed. How they have developed over the years to what is now considered to be a crisis level, the increase in absenteeism and illness of the teaching force are also reviewed. A review of existing material explains the nature of stress. The psychobiological aspects are reviewed paying particular attention to the many coping mechanisms that the person will employ and explains how perceptions of situations can play a vital role. Factors that create stress for the teacher are discussed and categorised into familiar sections including pupils, working conditions, working in an organisation, the effects of management, the self concept and role conflict. Selection, training, assessment, pay and promotion are dealt with together in an additional category. Results from a Questionnaire completed by teachers from four local education authorities provides additional material to be considered and reinforces many of the previous claims and observations. After the findings are discussed, conclusions and recommendations are made for the improvement of morale and the reduction of stress in the teaching profession. Many of the conclusions made are linked closely to the self concept of the teacher. This self concept appears to be the focal point at which the problems besetting the teacher meet and are dealt with in either a positive or negative manner. Many of the recommendations made have the effect on the self concept of the teacher as a prominent feature. The stress provoking situations experienced by teachers seem to be reaching unacceptable levels. The physical and mental welfare of teachers is called upon to be monitored in order to reduce the harmful effects that poorly motivated teachers may have on pupils and in order to reduce the physical and mental difficulties apparently being suffered by the teaching profession.

The purpose of this study was to identify any changes in attainment, self-esteem, self-motivation and attitudes to physical education between the end of year 6 and the beginning of year 8 (during the transfer from primary to secondary school), and to establish the extent of any differences between gender, age of transfer and school attended. Consideration was also given to the ways in which continuity and promotion was promoted between schools involved in the study. Data was collected on four occasions over a 20-month period. Data pertaining to attainment was collected using observation techniques and teacher assessment, whilst self-esteem and self-motivation was collected using questionnaires. Attitudinal data, information relating to physical education, and continuity and progression data were collected using questionnaires and interviews. Results showed significant increases in attainment, self-esteem and self-motivation between the end of year 6 and the beginning of year 8. Significant differences were evident in relation to gender, age of transfer and secondary school attended. Significant positive relationships were found between attainment and self-esteem, attainment and self-motivation, and self-esteem and self-motivation, allowing a tentative relationship model to be proposed. Changes in attitudes towards physical education were also found. Whilst teachers acknowledged the importance of continuity and progression, links between schools focused on social / pastoral rather than curricular issues. Time, staffing issues and finance were identified as the main constraints to the establishment of links. What emerges is a complicated picture of inter-related factors, with no universal solution. Each teacher must consider this broad range of factors within the context they teach. In order to do this there is perhaps a need to raise awareness amongst teachers of the impact of the transfer between primary and secondary phases of education on pupils across curriculum subjects, and that this should be explicitly considered and planned for.

The thesis is concerned to explore whether and how ‘value added’ data analyses can contribute to school improvement, and to identify some of the conditions under which this might be so. In the course of conducting the study, the author experienced a tension between the ‘research’ and the ‘development’ dimensions of her work, and this is used to inform the outcomes of the thesis. The thesis is underpinned by three related aims: first, to provide a historical and evaluative overview of how the idea of ‘value added’ came to enter and influence the debate on educational quality in England. The study of the literature demonstrates that the main principles of ‘value added’ were already well developed before the term was in common use; it also reveals that the ambiguities in the term are not merely reflective of disagreements about how best to calculate value added but actually central to how the idea has been made to function within a particular political agenda for education having to do with ‘raising standards’. Because of the relentlessness of that agenda, ‘value added’ measures of attainment have undergone considerable methodological development over the past ten years, to the point where sophisticated statistical data on pupils’ and schools’ performance is being generated and used by government agencies, LEAs and schools themselves to an extent virtually unknown elsewhere. However, this thesis indicates that the technical and conceptual issues involved in putting such data to practical use in schools are likely to test the interpretative and organisational skills of users. The literature search confirms that not much investigation has been done into how data is actually used, but that what there is suggests some important lines of inquiry. The second aim of the thesis is accordingly to explore, through a small-scale empirical study, the use by secondary school staff of value-added data as exemplified by the NFER’s value added service QUASE. The study was conducted in nine schools, with staff at senior and middle management levels, and focused on mathematics, English and science departments. The third aim of the thesis is to assess how far the case-study findings might shed further light on the issues entailed in using such data for school improvement. The evidence suggested that value added data are seen as complex and often ‘high stakes’ and that – at the time of this study – the uses of value added data were rather more limited than expected; furthermore, the meanings of value added would seem to be socially constructed by the political and institutional environment, and to be closely related to individual teachers’ values and attitudes. This in turn suggests that better insights into, and management of, ‘the psychology and sociology’ of how value added data are perceived and used are necessary. Nonetheless, the study concludes that there is potential for value added analyses to contribute to school improvement under certain conditions; crucially, the study indicated that these included a culture which emphasised self-evaluation – rather than external accountability – within the school or subject department, combined with input from a ‘champion’ or facilitator who understood the technicalities and significance of the data. Value added analyses seemed to be used most actively by,staff who were able to use them ‘heuristically’, that is, to pose informed questions about teaching and learning (rather than as literal truths or statistical fictions). The study argues that ‘value added’ measures of performance are accordingly better understood as a technology than a science – that is, a practical application of knowledge which interacts dynamically with its social and cultural environment.

Every person has his rights and must follow his duties. We should help a child to understand that he as a unique person having his rights and that he lives between people, having the same rights. This perception connects child’s rights with his duties and responsibility. Family is the first and the most important institution, having influence on child’s development. A child beings to school already formed point of view what is good and bad. Child’s experience at the school is added trying to maintain strict behaviour and morals for a child, that’s why family and the school should be such institution, where a child could feel safe, respected and loved. It was madder questioning, wishing to investigate school children opinion about their rights and duties importance and united expression at the school and at home. The knowledge of rights and duties starts in the family, in this place children start to perceive their first and main rights and duties. This perception is added, made deeper at the school. When the questioning was finished, it was found out, that some children do not know that their rights and duties are based by acts of law. The results show that rights for children are more important than duties. But in children opinion that their rights are better assured at home, that’s why they make their duties more often. Children often feel not safe, not enjoying full rights and respected at the school, that’s why in their opinion it’s not so important to realize their... [to full text]

This paper aims to study upper secondary school seniors’ relationship to poetry. The researchers seek to discover the students’ conceptualization of the subject of poetry. Fur-thermore, this paper will present a case study, in which sixteen students participate. The chosen research approach is Glaserian Grounded Theory, which in itself has a con-siderably comprehensive methodology. However, working with Grounded Theory enables an objective approach to the field of study, requested by the researchers. In course of this study, the researchers found that the lack of experi-ence in working with poetry was the students’ main con-cern. The theory, which was generated, therefore evolved from the previously mentioned main concern.

The aim of this thesis is to look for signs of students’ understanding of algebra by studying how they make the transition from arithmetic to algebra. Students in an Upper Secondary class on the Natural Science program and Science and Technology program were given a questionnaire with a number of algebraic problems of different levels of difficulty. Especially important for the study was that students leave comments and explanations of how they solved the problems. According to earlier research, transitions are the most critical steps in problem solving. The Algebraic Cycle is a theoretical tool that can be used to make different phases in problem solving visible. To formulate and communicate how the solution was made may lead to students becoming more aware of their thought processes. This may contribute to students gaining more understanding of the different phases involved in mathematical problem solving, and to students becoming more successful in mathematics in general.The study showed that the students could solve mathematical problems correctly, but that they in just over 50% of the cases, did not give any explanations to their solutions. / Uppsatsens syfte är att söka indikationer på elevers förståelse i algebra genom att studera hur de gör övergången från aritmetik till algebra. Elever i en gymnasieklass, på naturvetenskapliga och tekniska programmen, fick en enkät med ett antal algebraiska uppgifter av skiftande karaktär och svårighetsgrad. Speciellt viktigt för studien var elevernas kommentarer och förklaringar till hur de löst dessa uppgifter. Enligt tidigare forskning är övergångarna mellan olika faser i problemlösning de mest kritiska stegen. Den algebraiska cykeln är ett teoretiskt verktyg som kan användas för att synliggöra de olika faserna vid lösandet av algebraiska problem. Att formulera och kommunicera hur lösningen går till, kan leda till att eleven blir medveten om sina egna tankegångar. Detta kan bidra till att elever får mer förståelse för olika moment som ingår i lösandet av matematiska uppgifter och bidra till att de blir mer framgångsrika i ämnet matematik. Studien visade att eleverna kunde lösa matematiska uppgifter korrekt, men att eleverna i drygt 50% av fallen inte lämnade någon förklarande text till sina lösningar.

Students today need to be taught not only the real life context of their mathematics lessons but also the historical context of the theory behind their mathematics lessons. Using history to teach mathematics, makes your lessons not only interesting but more meaningful to a large percentage of your students as they are interested in knowing the who, how and why about certain rules, theorems, formulas that they use everyday in class. Students are captivated by learning the history behind mathematicians, rules, etc. and therefore can link the lesson to something in history and a concept. Even learning the mathematics behind historical events motivates and interests them. They cannot get enough!