This study investigated the perceptions of school from students of differing ages, genders, ethnic groups, and grade levels in a rural school environment. The ages were divided into four categories: 11–12 years of age, 13–14 years of age, 15–16 years of age, and 17–19 years of age. The ethnic groups in the school population were African Americans and Caucasians. The different grade levels were 7th through 12th. Wilson and Corbett (1999), in the Report for the Philadelphia Education Fund, “No Excuses”: The Eighth Grade Year in Six Philadelphia Middle Schools, discussed students’ views of what they want their teachers to be like. Later in another book, Listening to Urban Kids, School Reform, and the Teachers They Want, Wilson and Corbett (2002) stated that their overall purpose for conducting this study was to document students’ perceptions of their educational experiences and track how those perceptions evolved over the 3-year period. The investigators initially selected five middle schools from the Philadelphia School District. Wilson and Corbett used interview protocols and selected 50 students from each school who participated in the study. In this study, the researcher compared the results to those of Wilson and Corbett focusing on 10 areas. Students were asked to respond to a series of questions from each area on the survey, which included the following: (a) student’s perception on the transition to high school; (b) student’s perception on learning experiences; (c) student’s perception on success; (d) student’s perception on school safety; (e) student’s perception on the school culture and/or environment; (f) student’s perception on peer pressure; (g) student’s perception on getting good grades; (h) student’s perception on instructional differences; (i) student’s perception on challenging work; and (j) the student’s future plans. The students selected their best choice from the answers given. Using interview protocols, the students responded to the same categories. The results produced data that will enable teachers, administrators, parents, and policy makers to implement school reform effectively by better understanding the students’ perceptions from a rural school environment. Recommendations for further research include the following: (a) determine if the results found in this study are the same as those of students in other rural school environments, (b) gain a greater understanding of the perceptions that students have about school, (c) determine if there is a direct correlation between students’ perception of school and student achievement, and (d) determine if school districts will utilize the data to aid in improving instruction, policy, and procedures within the school district.

MA research report - Student Number : 0105436V - School of Human and Community Development - Faculty of Arts / The present research study examines the possible relationship between students’ career decision-making self-efficacy (CDMSE) and their perceptions of their family members’ job satisfaction and job insecurity. The present research uses a quantitative, non-experimental, cross-sectional research design, on a sample of 148 subjects drawn from a sample of first year Psychology students from the University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa. The Career Decision Self-Efficacy scale was used to measure career decision-making self-efficacy (Betz & Taylor, 2001), Warr, Cook and Wall’s (1979) Overall Job Satisfaction scale to measure job satisfaction (Short, 1996) and the Job Insecurity scale developed by Ashford, Lee and Bobko (1989) to measure job insecurity. The statistical procedures used to analyse the data, included correlations to test the first hypothesis, which proposed a relationship between students’ CDSME and their perceptions of their family members’ job satisfaction and the second hypothesis, assumed a relationship between students’ CDMSE and their family members’ job insecurity. A Stepwise Multiple Regression was performed to examine the above hypotheses. The results reported a significant relationship between students’ CDMSE and their perceptions of their family members’ job satisfaction. However, there was insufficient evidence to support the relationship between students’ CDMSE and their perceptions of their family members’ job insecurity.

A profissão professor é aquela com a qual todas as pessoas possuem mais contato, pois todos os que passaram pela educação básica conviveram diariamente com professores por, pelo menos doze anos e, intuitivamente, reconhecem os bons profissionais. No entanto, transformar a intuição numa base de conhecimentos sistematizada que explique o sucesso de uns em detrimento dos problemas enfrentados por outros não é uma tarefa simples. Neste trabalho nossa hipótese se baseia na possibilidade de reconhecimento dos conhecimentos da base de um professor por parte dos seus alunos. Para tanto, nos pautamos no referencial da base de conhecimentos profissionais e, em particular seu conceito mais conhecido, o Conhecimento Pedagógico de Conteúdo (PCK) que representa o conhecimento que os professores utilizam no processo do ensino. Com esse intuito foram investigados três professores de química, a partir das percepções que seus estudantes têm das suas práticas educativas e essas percepções foram confrontadas com a análise do pesquisador. A pesquisa apresenta uma abordagem mista (qualitativa e quantitativa). Os dados coletados incluem os planejamentos de curso, entrevistas, registros audiovisuais e respostas ao instrumento CoRe dos professores por um lado, e por outro, entrevistas com os estudantes e respostas a um instrumento de análise quantitativa reportado na literatura. As análises dos três professores em contextos diferentes indicam que os alunos conseguem, de modo geral, reconhecer os conhecimentos relacionados a algumas categorias de conhecimentos mais vinculadas à prática do professor, enquanto não conseguem julgar algumas categorias relacionadas a conhecimentos extraclasse, que não se apresentam diretamente nas ações do professor em sala de aula. Dentre os conhecimentos reconhecidos pelos estudantes estão o Conhecimento do Conteúdo; Conhecimento das Estratégias de Ensino; Conhecimento dos Procedimentos de Avaliação; e Conhecimento dos Objetivos Educacionais e Contexto. Entretanto, nos três casos estudados, os estudantes não conseguiram perceber o Conhecimento da Compreensão e Conhecimentos Prévios dos Estudantes, o Conhecimento do Currículo e o Processo Reflexivo. Os alunos da Licenciatura em Química foram mais criteriosos em perceber os conhecimentos dos professores do que os alunos do Bacharelado. Em relação à análise quantitativa realizada, é possível interpretar que existem indícios sobre alguns aspectos da prática, mas a simples interpretação dos dados numéricos não poderia apontar para um alto ou baixo grau de conhecimento do professor. Podemos ainda apontar que uma mesma ferramenta de análise quantitativa não pode servir para o reconhecimento de conhecimentos profissionais em ambientes com características tão distintas como aqueles em que se deu a coleta de dados. Entretanto, a mesma pode servir de base complementar ao estudo qualitativo desenvolvido através de uma análise múltipla. / Teacher profession is one with which all people have more affinity. For all who have gone through basic education lived daily with teachers for at least twelve years and intuitively recognize the good teacher. However, transforming intuition on the systematic base of knowledge to explain the success of some teachers at the expense of the problems faced by others is not a simple task. In this work our hypothesis is based on the possibility of recognition of the knowledge base of a teacher by their students. To this end, we base on the professional knowledge base literature and in particular his best-known concept, the Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) that represents the knowledge that teachers use in the educational process. To that end we have been investigated three chemistry teachers from the perceptions that their students have about their educational practices and these perceptions were compared with analysis of the researcher. The research presents a qualitative and quantitative approach. The data collected include course plans, interviews, audiovisual records and responses to CoRe instrument of teachers on the one hand, and on the other, interviews with students and answers to a quantitative analysis instrument reported in the literature. The analysis of the three teachers in different contexts indicate that students can, in general, recognize the knowledge related to certain categories of knowledge more linked to the practice of teacher, while unable to judge some categories related to extracurricular knowledge, which are not presented directly during the actions of the teacher in the classroom. Among the teacher knowledge students recognized are Content Knowledge; Knowledge of teaching strategies; Knowledge of Assessment Procedures; and Knowledge of Context and of Educational Objectives. However, in the three cases studied, the students failed to grasp the Knowledge of Students\' understandings, the Knowledge of Curriculum and the Reflective Process. Student teachers were more discerning in understanding the knowledge of teachers than students of the Bachelor courses. With regard to quantitative analysis, it is possible interpret that there are indications of some aspects of the practice, but the simple interpretation of numerical data could not point to a high or low degree of teacher knowledge. We can also point out that the same quantitative analysis tool cannot serve for the recognition of professional knowledge in environments with such distinctive features as those who gave data collection. However, it can serve as a complementary basis to the qualitative study developed through multiple analysis.

A profissão professor é aquela com a qual todas as pessoas possuem mais contato, pois todos os que passaram pela educação básica conviveram diariamente com professores por, pelo menos doze anos e, intuitivamente, reconhecem os bons profissionais. No entanto, transformar a intuição numa base de conhecimentos sistematizada que explique o sucesso de uns em detrimento dos problemas enfrentados por outros não é uma tarefa simples. Neste trabalho nossa hipótese se baseia na possibilidade de reconhecimento dos conhecimentos da base de um professor por parte dos seus alunos. Para tanto, nos pautamos no referencial da base de conhecimentos profissionais e, em particular seu conceito mais conhecido, o Conhecimento Pedagógico de Conteúdo (PCK) que representa o conhecimento que os professores utilizam no processo do ensino. Com esse intuito foram investigados três professores de química, a partir das percepções que seus estudantes têm das suas práticas educativas e essas percepções foram confrontadas com a análise do pesquisador. A pesquisa apresenta uma abordagem mista (qualitativa e quantitativa). Os dados coletados incluem os planejamentos de curso, entrevistas, registros audiovisuais e respostas ao instrumento CoRe dos professores por um lado, e por outro, entrevistas com os estudantes e respostas a um instrumento de análise quantitativa reportado na literatura. As análises dos três professores em contextos diferentes indicam que os alunos conseguem, de modo geral, reconhecer os conhecimentos relacionados a algumas categorias de conhecimentos mais vinculadas à prática do professor, enquanto não conseguem julgar algumas categorias relacionadas a conhecimentos extraclasse, que não se apresentam diretamente nas ações do professor em sala de aula. Dentre os conhecimentos reconhecidos pelos estudantes estão o Conhecimento do Conteúdo; Conhecimento das Estratégias de Ensino; Conhecimento dos Procedimentos de Avaliação; e Conhecimento dos Objetivos Educacionais e Contexto. Entretanto, nos três casos estudados, os estudantes não conseguiram perceber o Conhecimento da Compreensão e Conhecimentos Prévios dos Estudantes, o Conhecimento do Currículo e o Processo Reflexivo. Os alunos da Licenciatura em Química foram mais criteriosos em perceber os conhecimentos dos professores do que os alunos do Bacharelado. Em relação à análise quantitativa realizada, é possível interpretar que existem indícios sobre alguns aspectos da prática, mas a simples interpretação dos dados numéricos não poderia apontar para um alto ou baixo grau de conhecimento do professor. Podemos ainda apontar que uma mesma ferramenta de análise quantitativa não pode servir para o reconhecimento de conhecimentos profissionais em ambientes com características tão distintas como aqueles em que se deu a coleta de dados. Entretanto, a mesma pode servir de base complementar ao estudo qualitativo desenvolvido através de uma análise múltipla. / Teacher profession is one with which all people have more affinity. For all who have gone through basic education lived daily with teachers for at least twelve years and intuitively recognize the good teacher. However, transforming intuition on the systematic base of knowledge to explain the success of some teachers at the expense of the problems faced by others is not a simple task. In this work our hypothesis is based on the possibility of recognition of the knowledge base of a teacher by their students. To this end, we base on the professional knowledge base literature and in particular his best-known concept, the Pedagogical Content Knowledge (PCK) that represents the knowledge that teachers use in the educational process. To that end we have been investigated three chemistry teachers from the perceptions that their students have about their educational practices and these perceptions were compared with analysis of the researcher. The research presents a qualitative and quantitative approach. The data collected include course plans, interviews, audiovisual records and responses to CoRe instrument of teachers on the one hand, and on the other, interviews with students and answers to a quantitative analysis instrument reported in the literature. The analysis of the three teachers in different contexts indicate that students can, in general, recognize the knowledge related to certain categories of knowledge more linked to the practice of teacher, while unable to judge some categories related to extracurricular knowledge, which are not presented directly during the actions of the teacher in the classroom. Among the teacher knowledge students recognized are Content Knowledge; Knowledge of teaching strategies; Knowledge of Assessment Procedures; and Knowledge of Context and of Educational Objectives. However, in the three cases studied, the students failed to grasp the Knowledge of Students\' understandings, the Knowledge of Curriculum and the Reflective Process. Student teachers were more discerning in understanding the knowledge of teachers than students of the Bachelor courses. With regard to quantitative analysis, it is possible interpret that there are indications of some aspects of the practice, but the simple interpretation of numerical data could not point to a high or low degree of teacher knowledge. We can also point out that the same quantitative analysis tool cannot serve for the recognition of professional knowledge in environments with such distinctive features as those who gave data collection. However, it can serve as a complementary basis to the qualitative study developed through multiple analysis.