This dissertation offers an intimate view into the emotional life of a queer teacher while she lived and taught middle school in a conservative rural Northern Californian community during the years 2020 to 2022. Acknowledging the emotional weight felt by many educators as they confront challenges in and outside of their academic curricula, this study offers a framework for recording, examining, and analyzing the wobble moments (emotionally difficult events) experienced by teachers in ways that may relieve some of their associated tension and stress. Through reflections on teacher journal entries, this autoethnographic study demonstrates how emotion, dialogic, and queer theories may be used to rethink and reconfigure the narratives of our emotional experiences. The author argues that by engaging in emotional dialogue, teachers may gain new insight on and deepen their relationships to their practice and profession, as well as to their students and colleagues. Ultimately, it is in her analysis of these relationships that the author finds solace and lightens some the emotional weight of teaching.

School boards are interested in school effectiveness and see a correlation between the quality of classroom teachers and school effectiveness. Superintendents, eager to please the school board, seek to show increased school effectiveness year after year. This necessitates dealing with areas which impact on student achievement with perhaps the most critical area being that of teacher effectiveness. The purpose of this study was to identify those factors which assisted marginal high school teachers in improving their classroom performance. Knowing to what or whom these teachers who showed improvement attributed this improvement may assist in modifying existing practices to increase the likelihood that such improvement will occur for a greater number of teachers. A survey was used to initially identify the teachers. A follow-up interview was conducted with fourteen teachers with the analysis of the transcribed interviews focusing on the following questions: 1. Did intervention/assistance efforts influence improvement? In what context were the intervention/ assistance efforts made? Who were the primary actors in the intervention/assistance efforts? What activities were influential in the intervention/assistance efforts? 2. Did external personal factors influence improvement? 3. Are there overarching characteristics, beliefs, and/or motives in the group of teachers who made substantial improvement in teaching performance? 4. What actor(s) provided to the teachers: (a) an awareness of the need for change and (b) support for change? 5. What were the teachers' perceived gains and losses in this improvement effort? Major findings revealed that teachers actively seek their peers' advice and desire to see one another in practice through peer observations. Sharing of ideas is important to teachers; yet, little opportunity exists within the school day for such sharing. Most staff development activities were seen as a waste of time and teachers resented activities which purported to "teach teachers how to teach." The most valuable activities to teachers were those things which they could take back and use in their classroom. As research has indicated, professional growth and development was primarily motivated by the teacher seeing results in the classroom and the resulting increase in teacher efficacy. / Ed. D.

No description available.

Based on these research findings, policy implications for education bureau, school leaders and teachers, and suggestions for further research were addressed. / Textbooks have played an important role in teachers' work. Most of the teachers in mainland China used textbooks adopted by the local district authority, but there has been a huge research gap in empirical study on textbook use in mainland China. This study was guided by three major research questions: How do teachers use textbooks? How do teachers use textbooks in planning and making decisions about classroom teaching? How do different factors influence the use of textbooks? Adopting a qualitative approach of inquiry, this study involved seventeen teachers from three primary schools. Data was generated from participant observation, in-depth interview, and document analysis. / The discussion chapter uses theories of teachers' habitus. Teachers followed a certain set of routines when using textbook, gradually these routines had become a kind of habitus. Habitus became part of school context where primary education was characterized by exam-oriented tradition, trivialization of work, low status of teachers and conservatism. / The research findings suggested that teachers could be grouped into three different categories: dependent-type, adaptive-type and flexible-type. Teachers of different subjects exhibit different levels of dependence on textbooks, with the highest level of dependence among Chinese language teachers who follow closely an instruction routine of recitation. Mathematics teachers came next and then moral education teachers whose flexible teaching style was attributed to the fact that moral education was not an examination subject on a district wide level. Teachers of different age cohorts exhibit different levels of dependence on textbooks. Novice teachers depended on textbooks, while experienced teachers did not fall into a single category of dependence or adaptation. Those Chinese and Mathematics teachers who demonstrated the highest level of flexibility in using textbooks belonged to the intermediate stage between novice teacher and experienced teacher. / Why did teachers use textbooks in this manner? First, examination was a major factor which shaped the pattern of using textbooks. It was a deeply rooted factor because it was internalized as part of teachers' beliefs. Teachers of dependent-type and adaptive-type thought highly of examination, while teachers of flexible-type regarded examination merely as baseline of instruction. The latter had built their teaching styles on what they learned from educational research. School principals played the role of a "gate-keeper" during the process of teacher development and educational research. Another major factor that affected all teachers was the pre-existing condition and emergent behavior of their students. Comparatively speaking, teachers of flexible-type were more responsive to students' needs, and were more concerned about emergent behavior of their students. / 王世偉. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: A, page: 1912. / Thesis (doctoral)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 278-297). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / School code: 1307. / Wang Shiwei.

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

Since its introduction in the 1980's, student engagement has been a popular topic in educational research. In the beginning, engagement was thought of as a simple construct; however, it is now believed that student engagement involves four separate, but equally important components (Appleton, 2012; Christenson, Reschly, Appleton, Berman, Spanjers, & Varro, 2008). The components of academic, behavioral, affective and cognitive engagement are each vital to the ongoing educational success of students, and ideally, these would remain high throughout all of the years that students are in school. Unfortunately, research shows that most students' engagement levels continuously decrease from elementary school until high school graduation (or dropout), with the biggest drops occurring when students transition to middle school and high school (Alexander, Entwisle, & Horsey, 1997; Dunleavy & Milton, 2008; Finn, Pannozzo, & Voelkl, 1995; Lopez, 2011; Roeser, Strobel, & Quihuis, 2002; Skinner et al., 2009). Much of the research is currently being done at the middle and high school level to try and re-engage students in their learning (Appleton, 2012; Appleton, Christenson, Kim & Reschley, 2006; Fredricks, Blumenfeld, & Paris, 2004). This research study, however, looked at the implications of engagement data collection with fourth grade students. This mixed-methods study had two main goals. The first goal of the study was to determine the benefits of providing teachers with a systematic approach to collecting and following data on students' affective and cognitive engagement levels over time. The second goal of the study was to begin to explore interventions that appeared to increase fourth grade students' affective and cognitive engagement levels. The data analysis showed that students consistently reported lower engagement scores in the areas of teacher and peer relationships at school. It was also found that teachers did not report using student engagement data to make whole class interventions, but teachers did report the desire to track individual student's engagement scores in order to implement individualized interventions, when needed. Three additional findings, as well as suggestions for future research, are also presented. In the end, the study concludes with a more broad view on how this research can be used to impact the field of education. The ideas of teacher awareness, power in schools, and the need to create safe and caring classrooms that include students in the decision making process are all discussed as important components needed to engage students. Final suggestions have also been given for both teachers and administrators on how best to increase student engagement in the school or school district where they are working.

稿本(據電腦打印本複印) / Thesis (M.A.)--香港中文大學. / Gao ben (ju dian nao da yin ben fu yin) / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 53-61) / Thesis (M.A.)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue. / Chapter 第一章： --- 引言 / Chapter 第一節 --- 問題的背景 --- p.1 / Chapter 第二節 --- 研究目的 --- p.3 / Chapter 第三節 --- 研究的意義 --- p.4 / Chapter 第二章： --- 文獻探討 / Chapter 第一節 --- 有關組織投入的各派學說 --- p.5 / Chapter 第二節 --- 影響組織投入的因素 --- p.7 / Chapter 第三節 --- 教師的組織投入對其出席行為的影響 --- p.8 / Chapter 第四節 --- 教師的組織投入對準時到校及自願留校的影響 --- p.10 / Chapter 第五節 --- 教師的組織投入對其留任意願及留任行為的影響 --- p.11 / Chapter 第六節 --- 教師的工作滿足感及組織投入 --- p.13 / Chapter 第三章： --- 研究方法 / Chapter 第一節 --- 假設與定義 --- p.14 / Chapter 第二節 --- 研究工具 --- p.17 / Chapter 第三節 --- 取樣、資料捜集及分析 --- p.19 / Chapter 第四節 --- 研究的限制 --- p.20 / Chapter 第四章： --- 研究結果分析 / Chapter 第一節 --- 辦學園體的背景及屬下中學資料 --- p.21 / Chapter 第二節 --- 教師的背景 --- p.28 / Chapter 第三節 --- 教師對學校及工作的態度 --- p.36 / Chapter 第四節 --- 教師的行為和意向 --- p.40 / Chapter 第五節 --- 各统計假設的檢驗 --- p.43 / Chapter 第五章： --- 討論、總結及建議 / Chapter 第一節 --- 討論 --- p.45 / Chapter 第二節 --- 總結 --- p.48 / Chapter 第三節 --- 建議 --- p.51 / 參考書目錄 / Chapter 一. --- 中文參考書目 --- p.53 / Chapter 二. --- 英文參考書目 --- p.54 / 附錄 / Chapter 一. --- 中學教師對學校的觀感及工作意向問卷 --- p.62 / Chapter 甲部： --- 教師個人資料 / Chapter 乙部： --- 教師對學校的觀感及工意向 / Chapter 二. --- 硏究生致各位回答問卷教師函件 --- p.65 / Chapter 三. --- 訪問校長問卷 --- p.66 / Chapter 四. --- 教職申請表 --- p.67 / Chapter 五. --- 遴選教師評分表 --- p.69 / Chapter 六. --- 出席離校紀錄簽到表 --- p.70 / Chapter 七. --- 教師評核表（初稿） --- p.71 / Chapter 八. --- 教師升级申請辦法 --- p.73 / 撮要 / 英譯本 --- p.74

Quality physical education is important to adolescent health and physical well-being. For urban schools, contextual and environmental constraints often make school-based physical education challenging. A good fitness testing program has the potential to promote physical activity and fitness. Attitude theory posits that attitude influences how teachers do their work. The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes of urban middle school physical education teachers toward physical fitness tests and their relationship with student performance on fitness tests. Middle school teachers (N = 124) were recruited from urban school districts on the east and west coasts of the United States. They completed the Physical Education Teacher Attitudes toward Fitness Tests instrument (Keating & Silverman, 2004) whose scores have been validated and also provided demographic information. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics for overall teacher attitude and teacher attitude subdomains and correlational statistics to examine the relationship between each component of teacher attitude (overall, affective, and cognitive) and the percentage of students in the Healthy Fitness Zone (HFZ) on various components of the FITNESSGRAM. Correlations also were examined by various teacher demographic variables and for boys and girls. Univariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to examine the differences in fitness tests performance variables by demographic and profession-related variables. Teachers’ overall attitudes toward fitness testing were just higher than neutral, signaling positive attitudes. Among the findings, the affective subdomain of teachers’ attitude on the enjoyment of using fitness tests results was found to have a significant positive relationship with the percentage of students in the HFZ for the push-up test. Additional significant positive relationships between the percentage of students in the HFZ on the tests and various components of attitude were also found for girls. The findings suggest that teachers’ affective attitude may have a relationship with students’ performance on fitness tests and that relationships may be different for boys and girls. The relationships for teachers’ attitude toward enjoyment of using fitness tests results suggests teachers may use them to design activities and lessons that lead students to engage in more physical activity and thus improve their levels of fitness.