For data collection, the researcher was attached to three Hong Kong secondary schools with average academic and extra-curricular activity performances for three months each during the past two years. Having got familiarized with the teachers and students through joining various formal and informal school activities, in the last month of his attachment, the researcher invited each teacher to be interviewed on the topic of extra-curricular activities and to be tape-recorded. In the end, 122 teachers agreed to be the participants in the interviews. The interview was conducted in a semi-structured way, in which the teacher first recounted and commented on his/her experience and impression of extra-curricular activities. The researcher then asked for clarifications and further exploration of his/her own conception, with the help of some "situation cards". In the whole interview process, the researcher adopted a "non judgmental" attitude towards the definition of "extra-curricular activities", only asking the interviewee questions on the clarity and consistency of his/her conception. Each interview lasted for about an hour. After the interviews, the recordings were converted into written scripts. Based on the interview process and scripts, the researcher sorted out various main themes and key words and proceeded with data analysis. After three stages of back-and-forth collation and with the number of cases reduced to forty, finally seven conceptions of extra-curricular activities have been constructed: Accountability, Attachment, Mould, Experience, Personal growth, Liberation, and Balance. The researcher has depicted the specific horizon, concepts and the relationship among concepts, and also compared and contrasted the distinctive features of each conception. / There are multifarious extra-curricular activities in Hong Kong secondary schools. Nearly every teacher participates in the activities. Different teachers infuse extra-curricular activities with diverse meanings, and actualize different modes of school education. This study aims at exploring Hong Kong secondary school teachers' conceptions of extra-curricular activities. It collates individual cases into different collective clusters, depicting each conception of extra-curricular activities, and the relationship between the concepts. / This thesis attempts to relate and contrast the features of the seven conceptions of extra-curricular activities and the four main questions generated from the theories about valuation in curriculum, thus showing that the conceptions of Accountability, Attachment and Mould are based on "group" values, which set an instrumental field for "learning". Conceptions of Personal growth, Experience and Liberation refer to "individual", tending to adopt "individual as a unit" and "intrinsic values" as the learning field. The conception Balance is in-between the two. It tries to balance the tension between individual and social instruments, as well as intrinsic and extrinsic values. Taking a step further, this thesis also argues that to improve the quality of school education, each teacher has to decide on a definition and orientation of the curriculum which is in line with his/her own extra-curricular activity conception. Merely claiming that "Extra-curricular activity is part of the curriculum" is not necessarily conducive to improving education quality. Finally, the findings also point to the need to explore how we can provide teachers with a cultivating environment and quality facilitators for helping them clarify, improve and transform their conceptions of extra-curricular activities in the course of learning. This will be a key concern for the further development of teacher education. / 周昭和. / 呈交日期: 2006年4月. / 論文(哲學博士)--香港中文大學, 2006. / 參考文獻(p. 324-344). / Cheng jiao ri qi: 2006 nian 4 yue. / Adviser: Ngai-ying Wong. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-11, Section: A, page: 4078. / 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. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / School code: 1307. / Lun wen (zhe xue bo shi)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 2006. / Can kao wen xian (p. 324-344). / Zhou Zhaohe.

Diversity across U.S. classrooms is on the rise which is leading to renewed calls for teachers to meet individual learning needs. Studies indicate the failure to address individual learning needs can lead to higher rates of student disengagement, off-task behaviors, and diminished learning outcomes. Differentiated instruction is an approach to teaching that meets the growing diversity of individual learning needs by considering students' readiness, interest, and learning styles. Differentiated instructional approaches help teachers meet individual learning needs by allowing them to modify instruction as needed. However, despite the apparent benefits of differentiated instruction, teachers are hesitant to abandon other educational models. Research has shown beliefs about student learning influence teachers classroom practices. If teachers do not possess beliefs supporting differentiated classroom practices, then calls for additional implementation may go unheeded. Thus it is important to examine teacher beliefs that may help or hinder implementation of differentiated instructional practices. The purpose of this study was to explore teacher beliefs connected to teaching, learning, and differentiated instruction in diverse classrooms. This study used qualitative case study methodologies to interview, survey, and observe the beliefs and practices of four white, female, veteran middle level educators operating in diverse classroom settings. Data analysis revealed the following themes: (a) differentiated instruction is considered essential, (b) teachers' diversity definitions influenced their differentiated instructional strategies, (c) the classroom environment influences teachers self-efficacy, and (d) professional development sessions support differentiated instructional practices. Conclusions drawn from this study may be used to help improve teacher practices--and ultimately learner outcomes--by informing teacher preparation and professional development, state and local educational policies, and curricular reform efforts.

Awareness, use and attitude by Indiana secondary school vocational agriculture/agribusiness and social science educators toward soil survey reports were determined using a mailed questionnaire. Results were analyzed based on teaching discipline and geographic location (urban and rural). In general, social science respondents were not aware of and did not use soil survey reports as a teaching aid whereas vocational agriculture/ agribusiness respondents did. The majority of educators responded positively to statements regarding usefulness of soil surveys. No significant differences were found between urban and rural areas. Results indicated that teaching discipline was the critical factor in educator use of soil surveys.Ball State UniversityMuncie, IN 47306

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published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

This study was undertaken in an effort to determine the effects of piano instruction on attitudes and piano skills of elementary education majors enrolled in a music methods class. A class of nineteen elementary education majors at a private mid-western university served as subjects for the case study. They were given both written and oral pre and posttests, and extensive anecdotal data were recorded.As a result of the study, general conclusions and recommendations were as follows:1. Subjects' initial perceptions of their probable success in the piano laboratory were high. In addition, seventy-nine percent of the subjects accurately predicted their probable success (or failure) in the piano laboratory. It is recommended that instructors take time at the outset of the course to reassure and encouage the students in an effort to increase confidence and thereby the probability of success in the piano laboratory.2. Subjects' attitudes and skill development were negatively affected by perceived inadequacies when comparing themselves to other subjects in the class. As the more advanced students tested out of the piano laboratory, skills and attitudes of the slower subjects improved appreciably. This suggests that ability grouping in methods classes may improve students' perceptions and also performances in these lasses.3. Subjects' confidence in their ability to teach music increased, as indicated by pretest and posttest rankings. Since the sample size was adequately large, the Wilcoxin T value of 7.5 was standardized to a Z value = 2.66 (p <.01). Interpretation of a Z-value = 2.66 strongly suggests the posttest score has significantly increased over the pretest score.4. Subjects' perceptions of their ability to read and write music, their ability to sing songs with their students, and their piano playing ability significantly increased as shown by a series of paired comparisons t-test analyses on the pretest/ posttest data.It is recommended that additional case studies be conducted in the methods class in an effort to isolate and identify additional aspects of the class which influence the students' growth and/ or lack of growth in self confidence and musical skills. / School of Music

The primary purposes of this study were to assess the understanding and attitudes of teachers, to determine the interaction effects of certain variables, and to determine if there is a correlation between understanding of economic concepts and attitude toward economic education. The problem of the study was an assessment of the attitudes toward and understanding of economic concepts held by secondary school teachers in Arkansas who taught economics or economics-related subjects.

There is a gap in educational research regarding teachers’ narratives of teaching in diverse classrooms, especially in East Africa. It is essential to investigate teachers’ beliefs and perspectives because these are strong indicators of their planning, instructional decisions, and classroom practices and can also frame their perception of classroom transactions. In this study, I asked a group of Kenyan primary teachers at an informal settlement school about their perspectives on Kenya’s diversity; how they teach curricula reform objectives such as citizenship for all in their classrooms; and how experiences from their personal lives have shaped their stances on matters related to identity, nationhood, citizenship, and other related concepts. These teachers’ localized meaning-making revealed their citizenship consciousness and their considerations of history, power, and politics, which in turn impelled agency, action, and increased accountability in this place-specific project of citizenship education. I considered the school itself both as a liminal space, forgotten within Kenya’s urban planning and governance policies, and also as a relational, pluralistic, and intellectual space that merited scholarly research on pedagogy and practice. This study’s findings created space for new and different frameworks for conceptualizing teachers’ knowledge. Specifically, this study helped make teachers’ narratives of their experiences teaching in this context more visible and valuable, underscoring the importance of teacher education research as an area of onto-epistemological inquiry. Learning how teachers understand, think, and teach in complex urban borderlands can contribute to an emergence of shared understandings about belonging and identity in multiethnic spaces, particularly in postcolonial sites. This critical narrative case study collected responses to interviews and focus group discussions and also included classroom visits to observe how teachers made meaning of curricular objectives and understood concepts of sociocultural plurality, identities, citizenship, and belonging. The narratives that teachers held contained the potential to reimagine constructions of difference; invited a reconceptualization of ideologies related to language and inclusive spaces; and highlighted the need to consider inter-epistemic synergetic approaches within the fields of teacher education and curriculum studies in order to design pedagogies of pluralism to facilitate teaching and learning in diverse classrooms.

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education