The purpose of this study was to describe the various assessment techniques used by supervisors of physical education student teachers. A survey instrument was sent to physical education supervisors at colleges and universities listed in the 38th Annual Guide to Accredited Education Programs/Units. A total of 177 Surveys were sent out; 109 were returned for an overall response rate of 61.5%. The study generated demographic information about supervisors of physical education student teachers as well as information about the assessment practices of the supervisors. The frequency with which certain assessment techniques (ie. intuitive assessment, eyeballing, rating scales, checklists, systematic observation, anecdotal notes, reflection and conferencing) and assessment modes (live observation, videotape and audiotape) were used was also collected. Factors that supervisors assess with the particular assessment techniques (ie. time, management, lesson content) were also analyzed. The data from this study indicate that all assessment techniques and modes are used to some degree by supervisors of physical education student teachers. However, some techniques are used more frequently than others and some only when certain modes are used. The assessment technique most frequently used by supervisors was conferencing (97%) and least frequently was eyeballing (42%). Overall, live observation was utilized most often (97%) and audiotape least often (5%). The data also indicate that supervisors use many different techniques of assessment to gather information about such factors as discipline, organization, Management and time. It was concluded that some factors were assessed through a variety of techniques, perhaps indicating that supervisors combine the information from different assessment techniques in order to more accurately assess their student teachers. / Ed. D.

Teacher education through open and distance learning (ODL) and internships is not only crucial to addressing current and future needs of learners in South Africa, and Africa as a whole, it also encapsulates the possibilities of several much-needed new perspectives on these two fields. This research is a qualitative case study drawing from the subjective views of both the mentor teachers and the student-teacher interns already immersed in the ethos and everyday workings of a functioning local private school, PS. A case study was deemed to be an appropriate research design as the researcher is based on site and was able to spend extended time investigating, exploring and observing the student-teacher interns and their mentor teachers going about their daily routine. The sample of participants chosen comprised of the student teachers already based at PS and studying through ODL together with their assigned mentor teachers. The findings of this study reveal an expansion of the student-teacher intern’s field of involvement and participation in the school and all school related activities. The mentor teachers, as the data revealed, also benefitted in various ways and most importantly were provided with an opportunity to reflect on their personal teaching practice and philosophy. The study examined factors that facilitated or impeded the development and professional growth of the student-teacher intern and these factors had a direct bearing on the relationship that existed between the student teacher and their class mentor teacher. The data was collated from the open-ended questionnaires, the informal discussions held and the daily observation of the intern programme in action. The principle recommendations resulting from this study is based on the reported range of benefits to both the student teacher and the mentor teacher. The intern programme can be recognised and valued as a relevant contribution to the South African educational system as it would seem that the student teachers coming through this system feel confident, well informed and professionally ready to take on their own class of learners. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / M. Ed. (Didactics)

This study investigates how school advisors, in a secondary-school science context, conceive of and enact their roles in working with student teachers. It describes the interactions between school advisors and student teachers in relation to their personal conceptions of teaching, learning, and the process of learning to teach. The study provides a better understanding of the practicum setting with particular attention to the school advisor's perspective. Detail-rich cases highlight a range of issues for school advisors as they enact their responsibilities in attending to the student teachers' learning. These cases poignantly depict the complexities of the school advisor/student teacher dynamic and the various tensions that arise when conflicts emerge as the practicum unfolds. There are three questions that guide this study: (1) How do teachers perceive their roles as school advisors?; (2) How do teachers enact their roles as school advisors, and what are the foci of the school advisors' work with student teachers?; and (3) How do student teachers perceive the role of the school advisors? The practicum is a context in which one person assists the other in learning (to teach) and for this reason the conceptual framework used for data analysis is a curriculum perspective. Two levels of curriculum are discussed; level one of the curriculum framework is meeting the needs of the students while level two is meeting the needs of the student teacher. Both levels must be attended to throughout the teaching practicum. Five thematic areas were identified: (a) the student teachers' learning, (b) the working relationship, (c) experiences outside of the classroom, (d) lesson planning, and (e) classroom management. This study makes a significant contribution to the research literature on teacher education. First, it focuses upon the school advisor's role within the practicum. Second, one of the two case studies that deteriorated to the point where a change of venues was in order, serves as a rare example of a less-than-ideal practicum experience. Third, the conceptual framework of regarding the practicum as curriculum provides a new perspective for gaining insights into the complexities of learning to teach.

Teacher education through open and distance learning (ODL) and internships is not only crucial to addressing current and future needs of learners in South Africa, and Africa as a whole, it also encapsulates the possibilities of several much-needed new perspectives on these two fields. This research is a qualitative case study drawing from the subjective views of both the mentor teachers and the student-teacher interns already immersed in the ethos and everyday workings of a functioning local private school, PS. A case study was deemed to be an appropriate research design as the researcher is based on site and was able to spend extended time investigating, exploring and observing the student-teacher interns and their mentor teachers going about their daily routine. The sample of participants chosen comprised of the student teachers already based at PS and studying through ODL together with their assigned mentor teachers. The findings of this study reveal an expansion of the student-teacher intern’s field of involvement and participation in the school and all school related activities. The mentor teachers, as the data revealed, also benefitted in various ways and most importantly were provided with an opportunity to reflect on their personal teaching practice and philosophy. The study examined factors that facilitated or impeded the development and professional growth of the student-teacher intern and these factors had a direct bearing on the relationship that existed between the student teacher and their class mentor teacher. The data was collated from the open-ended questionnaires, the informal discussions held and the daily observation of the intern programme in action. The principle recommendations resulting from this study is based on the reported range of benefits to both the student teacher and the mentor teacher. The intern programme can be recognised and valued as a relevant contribution to the South African educational system as it would seem that the student teachers coming through this system feel confident, well informed and professionally ready to take on their own class of learners. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / M. Ed. (Didactics)

Effective mentoring is essential for the development of student-teachers. A sequential explanatory mixed method study was conducted in order to analyse the perspectives of Post Graduate Certificate of Education (PGCE) students on the effectiveness of school based mentoring. Thirty-six (36) PGCE students from a higher education institution in the Eastern Cape participated in this study. Firstly, quantitative questionnaires were used to gather data from all the participants followed by qualitative semi–structured interviews from a purposive sample of five (5) participants in order to enrich the study. This study analysed PGCE students’ perspectives of mentor teacher practices. In doing so the study evoked Hudson and Peards’ Five Factor Mentoring Model. This model includes Personal Attributes, Systems Requirements, Pedagogical Knowledge, Modelling and Feedback. From the findings, PGCE students reported that Teaching Practice (TP) is a stressful period full of anxieties, excitement and fears, hence they need to be guided and supported by knowledgeable and specialist teachers (mentors). Mentors play a significant role in supporting and guiding student-teachers during TP. From the analysis of PGCE students’ perspectives, the research suggested that those who were supported and guided by their mentors experienced positive mentoring during TP. Those who experienced negative mentoring reported limited time for mentoring and unavailability of the mentors as the causes. They further expressed that they wished mentors were understanding, good models who treated them as teacher candidates not as students and gave them constructive feedback. Finally, they indicated that the partnership between host schools and the university needs to be improved.

This study investigates how school advisors, in a secondary-school science context, conceive of and enact their roles in working with student teachers. It describes the interactions between school advisors and student teachers in relation to their personal conceptions of teaching, learning, and the process of learning to teach. The study provides a better understanding of the practicum setting with particular attention to the school advisor's perspective. Detail-rich cases highlight a range of issues for school advisors as they enact their responsibilities in attending to the student teachers' learning. These cases poignantly depict the complexities of the school advisor/student teacher dynamic and the various tensions that arise when conflicts emerge as the practicum unfolds. There are three questions that guide this study: (1) How do teachers perceive their roles as school advisors?; (2) How do teachers enact their roles as school advisors, and what are the foci of the school advisors' work with student teachers?; and (3) How do student teachers perceive the role of the school advisors? The practicum is a context in which one person assists the other in learning (to teach) and for this reason the conceptual framework used for data analysis is a curriculum perspective. Two levels of curriculum are discussed; level one of the curriculum framework is meeting the needs of the students while level two is meeting the needs of the student teacher. Both levels must be attended to throughout the teaching practicum. Five thematic areas were identified: (a) the student teachers' learning, (b) the working relationship, (c) experiences outside of the classroom, (d) lesson planning, and (e) classroom management. This study makes a significant contribution to the research literature on teacher education. First, it focuses upon the school advisor's role within the practicum. Second, one of the two case studies that deteriorated to the point where a change of venues was in order, serves as a rare example of a less-than-ideal practicum experience. Third, the conceptual framework of regarding the practicum as curriculum provides a new perspective for gaining insights into the complexities of learning to teach. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, School of Education, 1994. / Includes bibliography. / Introduction ; The research question and the professional context of the inquiry -- Literature review: substantive survey -- Literature review: methodological survey -- Research method -- The prgamatics of feedback -- An ethnographic portrait of supervision -- Perceptions of mitigation -- Conclusion. / This research project investigates the language of supervisory conferences. A grounded theory approach is taken to the analysis of data drawn from teacher educators in TESOL (Teaching of English to Speakers of Other Languages) in their feedback discussions with teachers following observed lessons.--Supervisory talk is investigated within a linguistic framework of politeness theory: while the supervisory role includes the obligation of criticism, the act of criticism is constrained by the face-to-face encounter of the supervisory conference. A central construct is the notion of fragility: the supervisory conference-an event which is equated with the talk that achieves it - is considered to be inherently fragile. The aim of the project is to investigate the language so as to uncover the source of the fragility.--Findings suggest that the perceived tension derives from a tug-of-war of essential elements: while the supervisory position affords discoursal power (the right to raise and pursue topics, take long turns, drive the discourse etc), the fa-threatening nature of the event obliges supervisors to resort to social/strategic skills to protect the teacher's face, as well as their own. The textualisation of this restraint takes the form of linguistic mitigation - devices rooted in syntax and semantics that allow supervisors to undercut the force of their own assertions. Mitigation is posited as the means by which supervisors resolve the clash-of-goals that is central to their role. However, mitigation is risky because it may interfere with message clarity.-- The product of the grounded study is a typology of utterance-level mitigation. The typology has three macro-categories (syntactic, semantic and indirectness) and fourteen sub-categories.-- The study was triangulated through an ethnographic investigation of supervisory concerns about feedback; and through an experiment designed to gauge teachers' perceptions of variously mitigated supervisory language. Findings from both studies corroborate the central tenet by contributing images of supervision that support the clash-of-goals thesis.--The projected applied outcome is in supervisor training where, it is suggested, strategic training delivered in a framework of politeness theory would reduce the unwitting dependence on mitigation and hence the risk of message distortion.--Suggestions for further research conclude the study. / Mode of access: World Wide Web. / 413 leaves

This study examined the varying roles of individual members of the teaching practicum triad, comprising the university supervisor, the student teacher and the school support teacher, during the practicum component of primary teacher education at the University of Namibia’s Katima Mulilo Campus. The research sought to establish the perceptions of the school support-teachers, university students and university lecturers about the effectiveness of pre-deployment preparedness of trainee teachers before their attachment to schools for teaching practice and to establish the facets of the school participation within the triad which are most effective in supporting trainee teachers throughout their school based practicum. The practicum partnership matrix, as well the pre-teaching campus-based studies and pre-deployment preparations by the university, were closely examined. Suggestions from practicum schools, trainee teachers and the University of Namibia’s Faculty of Education were collated in efforts to develop effective partnership models. This study thus posits a view that school-based teaching practica should provide the pre-service trainee teachers with opportunities to be exposed to the realities of teaching and other related professional activities through the development of sustainable norms and a continuum of realistic practicum partnerships which should take on board all stakeholders. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / D. Ed. (Curriculum Studies)

This study examined the varying roles of individual members of the teaching practicum triad, comprising the university supervisor, the student teacher and the school support teacher, during the practicum component of primary teacher education at the University of Namibia’s Katima Mulilo Campus. The research sought to establish the perceptions of the school support-teachers, university students and university lecturers about the effectiveness of pre-deployment preparedness of trainee teachers before their attachment to schools for teaching practice and to establish the facets of the school participation within the triad which are most effective in supporting trainee teachers throughout their school based practicum. The practicum partnership matrix, as well the pre-teaching campus-based studies and pre-deployment preparations by the university, were closely examined. Suggestions from practicum schools, trainee teachers and the University of Namibia’s Faculty of Education were collated in efforts to develop effective partnership models. This study thus posits a view that school-based teaching practica should provide the pre-service trainee teachers with opportunities to be exposed to the realities of teaching and other related professional activities through the development of sustainable norms and a continuum of realistic practicum partnerships which should take on board all stakeholders. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / D. Ed. (Curriculum Studies)