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This hermeneutic phenomenological study emerged from concerns about the ways teachers’ pedagogical practices are affected by growing diversity in their classrooms and continuous education reform. Drawing on the perspectives of critical pedagogy and postcolonial literary theory, this study also explored the tension that exists between what students ought to learn in schools and what they actually learn. Data was gathered through two interviews and a classroom observation with each of eight high school language arts teachers in South Florida to gain an understanding of how they use their pedagogical practices to navigate changes that occur in the practice field and create spaces to utilize culturally responsive pedagogy in their implementation of the current secondary school English/Language Arts curriculum. Teachers’ reflections on their experiences, descriptions of the climate of their practice and how teachers create spaces for culturally responsive pedagogy were analyzed to consider how their pedagogical practices conform to or challenge the structural and normative assumptions of the practice field. Findings revealed that despite the constraints imposed on their pedagogy by education reform, including standardization of their practice, all teachers used culturally responsive pedagogy in their classrooms to achieve state mandated goals, albeit at a foundational level. While teachers unencumbered by standardized testing expressed higher levels of freedom to make pedagogical choices in their classrooms, all participants suggested that prescribed curriculum and resources could do more to represent students’ needs and growing diversity in schools rather than standardized assessments. Furthermore in their implementations of culturally responsive pedagogy, teachers continue to use students’ voices to represent standardized curriculum and universal literary themes rather than establishing them as curriculum in their own right. As such, this study’s findings extend discussions by educational and postcolonial literary theorists regarding whose knowledge has legitimacy as a part of curriculum especially in a practice field that emphasizes student performance at state mandated levels above all else. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2018. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

本項次級研究(secondary study)係以台灣地區1990年359個鄉鎮市區人口普查資料進行分析，旨在探討鄉鎮市區社會地位對中小學數理學業成就的影響。主要發現如下： 1.子研究一：鄉鎮市區社會地位對五年級國小學童數學成績之解釋變異量為30%。此平均數差異在社會地位第一組（第一組鄉鎮市區社會地位最高，以下各組亦由高到低排序）、第二組鄉鎮市區與第四、五、六組之間，以及第三組和第六組鄉鎮市區之間均達顯著，其餘各組並未達顯著。但是在都會地區與非都會地區社會地位對男女學童的數學成績並無顯著影響。 2.子研究二：鄉鎮市區社會地位對國際教育學習調查委員會國小數理學業成就之解釋變異量為12%。在數學成績方面，只有第一組鄉鎮市區之平均數學成績與第五組達顯著差異。但是各組科學成績平均數並無顯著差異的結果拒絕了對立假設。 3.子研究三：鄉鎮市區社會地位對國際教育學習成就調查委員會國中數理學業成就之解釋變異量為22%。此外，第一組鄉鎮市區與第五組、第六組，第二組與第六組平均數學成績均達顯著差異。第一組與第五、六組科學成績平均數達著差異。 本次研究結果支持生態系統理論，亦即外部生態系統--居住地區對兒童與青少年發展結果確有程度不同的影響。最後本研究並對未來教育研究與聚合型資料的使用提出若干建議作為參考。 / This secondary study based on 1990 census data of 359 districts in Taiwan to analzye the neighborhood effects of social status on elementary and junior school students' math and science achievement. Important findings are th following: 1. Study one: The variance in math scores of five grade students explained by social status of districts is 30%. And there are significant differences between some groups of social status. But no different effect of social status of districts on math scores between gender in metropolitan areas and other areas is found. 2. Study two: The variance in IEA (The International Association for Evaluation of Educational Achievement) math and science scores of five grade students explained by social status of districts is 12%. In math, there are significant differences among some groups of social status. But in science, no difference between groups of social status exits, rejecting the alternative bypothesis. 3. Study three: The variance in IEA math and science scores of nine grade students explained by social status of districts is 22%. And there are significant differences between some groups of social status in math and science scores. The theoretical implication of this study focuses on the support of ecological system theory. The exo-system -- neighborhoods do put different degree influence on the development of children and adolescent. Finally, the researcher proposes some suggestions regarding the topic of educational research and the use with aggregate data.

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The accountability measures implemented by the states as a result of federal government mandates required by the No Child Left Behind Act (2001 [NCLB]) have created the need for states to develop standardized benchmark assessments as part of the compliance requirements set by the federally mandated act. State and local standardized tests have become an everyday part of public school life. A quantitative study was conducted to assess the correlation of students' scores on the reading portion of the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test (FCAT) and students' reading percent scale-scores on one Florida county's benchmark reading assessment (CBAT) with students' teacher-assigned grades (TAG) for 10th-grade, English Language Arts courses. The study also assessed the predictive values of the 3 criterion variables and the moderating effects of 6 categorical variables: Race (White, Black, and Hispanic), Socioeconomic status (SES), English Language Learner status (ELL), and Students with Disabilities status (SWD), which contribute to Florida's Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) ranking of school grading policy. The study found that there was a moderate and positive correlation among the 3 criterion variables and that the combination of students' scores on the reading portions of both the CBAT and the FCAT showed a significant predictive value in predicting students' TAG. The study showed an even higher predictive value of the combination of students' scores on the CBAT and students' TAG in predicting students' scores on the FCAT. The study showed there was a moderating effect of the categorical variable Race on the correlation between students' CBAT reading scores and students' TAG; however, Race did not moderate the correlation between students' scores on FCAT and students' TAG. / The study found a moderating effect of the categorical variable SES on the correlation between students' scores on CBAT and students' scores on FCAT and students' TAG. The study showed a moderating effect of the categorical variable ELL between students' scores on FCAT and students' TAG and between students' scores on CBAT and students' TAG. The categorical variable SWD did not show any moderating effect between students' scores on CBAT and students' TAG, or between students' scores on FCAT and students' TAG. / by Christopher A. Beaulieu. / Thesis (Ed.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2009. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2009. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

This study deals with the problems of external examining, the inflexible demands of which dominate and dictate to literature teaching in South African schools today. The aims of teaching literature are discussed, and it is suggested that the negative attitudes among pupils resulting from the present examining system defeat many of these aims. The opportunities for the enjoyment of literature are minimised by the process of preparation for external examinations. Creative teaching methods are abandoned in favour of coaching for specific types of questions, which are determined and limited by the practical constraints of a mass external examination. In catering to the demands for admininstrative reliability and efficiency, the educational validity and efficiency of the examinations are sacrificed. In Britain the Newbolt and Bullock Reports, among others, have made forceful recommendations for alternative approaches to external examining. Subsequently, much experimentation with internal examining, course-work and open-book examining has followed, aspects of which are discussed in this study. There has been limited experimentation in these areas in South Africa. The TED conducted a successful internal examining experiment in English literature, the results of which are considered in this thesis. The national English Olympiad open-book examination is a further example of the success of an alternative approach. By contrast, a comparison of examination papers set by the JMB and CED over the last ten years, shows clearly that the stated syllabus aims of teaching literature and the aims of examining the subject were wholly incompatible. Recommendations are made for the adoption of alternative examining strategies in order to address the shortcomings identified

The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of physical manipulatives in the teaching and learning of measurement in Grade 8. The study focuses on how the use of physical manipulatives promotes learners' mathematical proficiency in relation to the five strands of Kilpatrick, Swafford and Findell (2001). The basis of the research is a case study in the interpretive paradigm involving 18 out of a cohort of 270 Grade 8 learners in the school where I teach. The data was collected using a range of methods including: (i) baseline assessment tasks, first piloted using 7 Grade 8 learners and then given to the target group; (ii) an intervention programme with intervention tasks; (iii) a post-intervention task; (iv) observations during the intervention; and (v) individual interviews. The results of the baseline assessment and the post-intervention tasks were analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively. My research findings indicate an overall improvement of the performance after learners engaged in using physical manipulatives. The average mark of the learners in the baseline assessment task was 23% and after the intervention programme the average mark was 31 %. The responses from the learners interviewed showed that they were motivated and that the use of physical manipulatives assisted them in understanding the concepts of measurement, in particular surface area and volume. The results of my study thus reveal that the use of physical manipulatives in teaching and learning mathematics has a positive role to play in learners' understanding of surface area and volume at the Grade 8 level. The fmdings of this case study support other research regarding the importance of using physical manipulatives in teaching and learning mathematics. They align with other findings that assert that manipulatives are essential mediating tools in the development of the conceptual and procedural understanding of mathematical concepts, clarifying and helping learners to visualize abstract mathematical concepts.