Thesis PlanB (M.S.)--University of Wisconsin--Stout, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2007. / Title from first page of PDF file. Includes bibliographical references (p. 197-207).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2000. / Typescript. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 125-133). Also available on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2008. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

The problem of this study is differences in perceptions of priorities in selected areas of student teaching existing within the governance set, i.e., university directors of student teaching, public school administrators charged with implementing Senate Bill Eight, and presidents of local units of the Texas State Teachers Association. Six areas were chosen as the focal point of the study: selection of student teachers, selection of cooperating teachers, selection of college coordinators, placement of student teachers, evaluation of student teachers, and expenditure of Senate Bill Eight funds designated for the support of student teaching programs. The study concluded that the governance set is in overall agreement concerning the ordering of priorities. However, some significant differences were manifested concerning the implementation of specific priorities. Disagreements were noted in the following areas: selection body for student teachers, selection body for cooperating teachers, selection body for college coordinators, minimum grade point averages in education courses, and minimum grade point averages in major area courses.

D.Ed.

M.Ed. (Psychology of Education) / Education is fundamentally an imaginative act of hope” (Purkey and Novak, 1996, p.1) and this hope is dependent on one’s ability to care enough to develop each child to his or her full potential. The intention of this study is to determine the dispositions of fourth year Foundation Phase students at a local higher education institute, and to establish how these dispositions influence their practice during their scheduled teaching practicals. The findings from this study will be used to propose a strategy for Initial Professional Education and Training (IPET) programmes in order to explicitly develop invitational dispositions in Foundation Phase teachers in training. The study is supported by a theoretical framework which investigates the notion of dispositions and the development of these through the lenses of structuration theory, social cognitive theory and attribution-based theory of motivation, and leading to the application of the Invitational Education approach. Self concept theory and perceptual theory are encompassed within this approach, and form an integral part of the study. From this theoretical framework, an invitational dispositional framework is developed to represent the inter-connected nature of the five invitational dispositions of care, intentionality, trust, respect and optimism. The research design and methodology of the study is located in the interpretivist paradigm, using a case study design within a qualitative approach. A survey is used to collect data relating to fourth year Foundation Phase students’ opinions regarding the essential dispositions required by Foundation Phase teachers in order to establish positive teaching and learning environments. Further data is gathered from two nested cases of fourth year Foundation Phase students during both their first and second teaching practicals, through the means of observations, interviews and document analysis. Each data source is analysed through content analysis in an attempt to identify the common patterns that emerge, followed by the coding of the data according to the invitational dispositions of care, intentionality, trust, respect and optimism. The opinions of the students, as determined from the analysis of the survey, are then compared to their actions as demonstrated through their practice, with a final consideration of the developmental trajectory of these dispositions. From this study, it was found that the dispositional ability to care is of paramount importance in Foundation Phase teaching and that this dispositional ability is determined in three inter- iii connected areas. A reduced ability to care in one of the interactional areas of self, others and the profession results in a decreased ability to care in the other areas as well. Upon analysis of the data, it was discovered that low levels of self confidence and limited care for the learning taking place in classrooms results in inconsistent invitational interactions between the student and the children. Lower levels of care further impacts upon the students’ ability to act with intentionality in each of the three interactional areas. Students would greatly benefit from explicit development in their reflective practice and in their self confidence, as “caring is an ethic that guides action” (Purkey and Novak, 1996, p.9). In this way students would be able to be Intentionally Inviting more consistently, and purposefully engage with children in the teaching and learning process.

This study constitutes a theoretical and qualitative investigation into the meanings and locations of social cohesion in dance education. Theoretical connections between culture, dance education and social cohesion are explored. The empirical investigation is designed as a qualitative case study interrogating pre-service student teachers’ experiences and perceptions of a particular dance education course in a culturally and politically diverse university classroom in post-apartheid South Africa. Open-ended questionnaires, reflective journals and focus group interviews were employed to generate data. Findings indicate that involvement in creative movement and ethno-cultural dances raised awareness of the Self and the Other, engendering perspective and personal transformation, important requisites for social transformation and subsequently social cohesion in a formerly divided society, such as South Africa. In addition, these dance education experiences provided participants with unique encounters with the Other’s culture. These occurred through embodied experiences of the culture of the Other, as well as through bodily negotiations with the Other. These findings lead me to argue that dance education, as pertaining to this particular course, can facilitate spaces conducive to cohesion amongst culturally and politically diverse participants in post-apartheid South Africa.

The student teacher mentoring programme (STMP) has been an important feature of the Zimbabwean teacher education landscape since 1995. However, this programme has not been evaluated and thus the need for this article, which seeks to evaluate the implementation of the STMP in Zimbabwe. Data were collected through responses to checklists and questionnaires by ten lecturers and sixteen mentors; fifteen student teachers responded to questionnaires, and two school heads were interviewed. The main findings are that: (1) the STMP is being implemented through the key elements (mentors, student teachers and the mentoring context); (2) while the key participants are playing their part in the STMP, the latter is not being effectively implemented because of lack of funding. This has negatively impacted on the STMP, resulting in low mentor morale. In the recommendations it is urged that the status of the mentor is recognised, in a bid to boost the STMP.

At the present time there is common agreement among academics and practitioners that the notion of inclusion means more than simply access to education. The mere placement of children in mainstream educational environments does not suffice to foster participation and equal opportunities for success. In Greece, this is particularly the case for children with challenging behaviour, the majority of whom are educated in mainstream classrooms. Personal experience shows that students and experienced kindergarten teachers feel ill prepared to manage these children. This, in most cases, results in the children being isolated from the pedagogical process. This form of internal segregation, in addition to the fact that the teacher’s role, and consequently teacher education, is key in promoting inclusive practices, provides the overall rationale of this study. Initial teacher education is a context in which changes in professional values, knowledge and beliefs can and do occur. Within this frame, the present study examined the initial kindergarten teacher education provided to kindergarten teachers with an aim to shed further light into how they can be better prepared to accommodate the needs of their hard-to-manage pupils within mainstream settings. Using an activity theory perspective, the study was designed in such a way so as to allow student teachers to be followed in their transition between university and school through their school placement. This allowed for a coupling of the university and school contexts and thus provided a means of analysing contrasting practices in order to find possible misalignments and contradictions between these two contexts. The aim was to learn more about how these two systems can be better aligned with implications for improving the initial kindergarten teacher education curricula and pedagogy. A qualitative multiple case study design was employed in order to explore student teachers’ experiences of their teaching practice. The participants in the study were drawn mainly from student teachers on a four-year teacher education programme at one of the universities in Greece. Beginning teachers were also observed and asked to reflect retrospectively on their transition from university learning to actual teaching at school. Inadequate preparation, lack of relevant modules and the gap between theory and practice were a few of the constraints that were pointed by this study. However the interest focused on the way these elements were located in concrete contextual conditions. The constraints students and beginning teachers face in developing inclusive practices for their challenging pupils are located at the level of the contrasting practices and discourses of the school practicum. Within these constraints students and beginning teachers adopt particular student teacher/teacher identities with ramifications on the children who have challenging behaviour.