Under the current policy of medium of instruction, schools in Hong Kong may use either Cantonese or Putonghua to teach Chinese Language subject. In this research, different media of instruction have been designed based on literature review and were imposed in five classes of primary one student studied in the same school. This study aims to examine the impact on using Putonghua, Cantonese or diglossia as the medium of instruction in Chinese language learning and teaching as well as the development of students’ general Chinese competence. Data were collected from multiple sources, validated and checked for consistency using triangulation. Quantitative analyses were conducted via quasi-experimental study and questionnaire surveys to examine the impact on the development of students’ general Chinese competence as well as students’ learning. Qualitative analyses were executed via multiple case studies, classroom observation, teacher-student interviews and text analysis of transcripts of interview protocols to examine the impact on teaching and learning. The research results show that, using different media of instruction have no negative impact on teaching and learning. Among those media of instruction, Cantonese, the mother tongue, is the preference of teachers and students. Nevertheless, qualified and experienced teachers and well-planned lessons and curriculum are the prerequisites for using Putonghua, Cantonese and Diglossia as the medium of instruction of Chinese language learning. The research results show that there are positive impacts on the Chinese language development of students. However, students have different performances in the mastery of mental lexicons, writing and reading abilities among the five classes. These results reflect that the teaching goals, strategies and the allocation of teaching time are affected by the different media of instruction. In brief, this study is a basic research that provides information for future studies on the media of instruction of Chinese language learning and teaching. Moreover, the result of this study can also serve as a reference to policy makers and teachers in making their decision in selecting the medium of instruction of Chinese language learning. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Education

In the domain of second language reading instruction, the teaching of inferencing to young L2 students seems to be a less explored area. The present study aims to investigate the extent to which the explicit instruction approach could enhance my ESL students' inferencing skills in English reading comprehension. It explores the relevance of teaching inferencing to my students, how they drew inferences in English before intervention and how they benefited from the intervention. I used an action research approach to study the effectiveness of my teaching of inferencing to my Primary Six ESL students in Hong Kong over a one-year period. I conducted this project following a two-cycle action research pattern within a seven-step framework. I implemented the project in three phases: Pre-intervention Phase, Intervention Phase One and Intervention Phase Two. Pre-intervention Phase involved baseline studies and think-aloud studies, whilst the intervention phases involved two cycles of teaching and a post-intervention think-aloud study. I used the data from the Pre-intervention Phase for designing the teaching content of the intervention phases. Data sources of this project included the students’ think-aloud protocols, the students’ work, lesson recordings, entries in my reflective journal, and my colleagues’ lesson observation feedback. I focused on the growth of the students’ learning and the effectiveness of the explicit instruction approach when analyzing the data. Findings from the Pre-intervention Phase suggested that the participants needed improvements in L2 inferencing and they were particularly weaker in the awareness of textual cohesion and coherence in informational texts. This had the immediate pedagogical implications that for initiating a reading programme in my school context, I should consider placing inferencing at a higher position; I should adopt different text types when teaching inferencing; and I should design and adopt higher-order thinking tasks more frequently when teaching reading to my students. Findings from Intervention Phase One and Two showed the students’ gradual growth in their inferencing abilities and their understanding of this reading skill. They became more confident in producing inferences while reading in English and showed an understanding of the importance of this skill to reading. Results from the post-intervention think-aloud study showed an increase in terms of the participants’ production of inferencing instances, the variety of inferencing applied by them, and their sense of textual cohesion and coherence. I estimated that the use of the explicit instruction approach had benefited the participants in general despite the fact that their internalization of inferencing was not evident. This study is significant in that it examines how inferencing could be explicitly taught to young ESL students to enhance their English reading competence. It also contributes to the theoretical understanding of inferencing in the teaching and learning of reading in L2. Based on the findings of this action research project, I derived and proposed a set of pedagogical principles for ESL inferencing instructions, pointing to the importance of explicitness in lessons, clarity of lesson outline, using students’ responses, text choice, and curriculum planning. I suggest that front-line L2 teachers make inferencing and other reading skills an important component in their language programmes. Future researchers should explore further on the use of the explicit instruction approach to teach other reading skills to young L2 learners and a wider range of materials to teach inferencing should be used. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Education

This research mainly aims to design a Wiki-based Collaborative Process Writing Pedagogy (WCPWP) to help Mainland Chinese upper primary school students with their writing. A wiki-based learning environment (www.joyouswriting.com) named Joyous Writing Club (JWC) was designed and developed by the researcher using MediaWiki software. This study was conducted in a primary school in Shenzhen, Mainland China. This research applied Design-based Research (DBR) methodology, and included three iterative research phases which lasted for over one and a half years (three semesters). Through the cyclical process of design-based research, the design for WCPWP was modified and refined during the three phases. Quantitative and qualitative methods as well as methodological triangulation were used for data collection (Hussein, 2009). Instrumentations included online wiki documents (group writing); course feedback questionnaire; writing ability (composition) pre- and posttest; writing attitude pre- and posttest; observations; interviews; open-ended questions for teacher’s questionnaire. At the beginning of the study, a rudimentary conceptual framework of WCPWP was put forward to guide the initial teaching and learning of writing in the first research phase. The WCPWP framework is proposed based on Constructivist Learning Theory (Piaget, 1967; Vygotsky, 1978; Hewett, 2009), and Social View of Writing Process Theory (Faigley, 1986; Tompkins, 2008). The initial design of WCPWP was guided by principles for exploring virtual collaborative writing (Hewett, Robidoux, & Remley, 2010) which provides a broad framework for the research design and links the general learning theory to the specific domain of learning in this study. Besides, the Systems Approach Model of Dick and Carey (1996) is used to support the instructional design in this study. Furthermore, the Alessi and Trollip's (2001) model for software design and development was used to design a wiki-based virtual learning environment. The first and second research phases involved the same Chinese language teacher participant and student participants in the same class. Both of the two phases mainly aimed to improve the design of WCPWP by investigating students’ collaborative writing processes, students’ and teacher’s perceptions and attitudes towards WCPWP, the change on students’ writing attitudes. The results in each phase showed both effective and ineffective aspects of WCPWP, which became the starting points of pedagogical (WCPWP) improvement in the next research phase. The third research phase mainly aimed to investigate the effects of improved WCPWP on students’ personal writing ability and attitudes towards writing compared that of Traditional Individual Product-oriented Writing Pedagogy (TIPWP). Besides, students’ writing process on wiki, students’ and teacher’s perception and attitudes towards WCPWP were also explored. Based on the results in this research phase, an elaborate conceptual framework of WCPWP was put forward. The results showed that the Chinese language teachers and most students had positive attitudes and perceptions towards WCPWP. They perceived that WCPWP had positive influence on improving students’ writing ability, writing attitudes, collaboration, reading and oral expression. They were also interested in using WCPWP in their future Chinese writing activities. The results further revealed that WCPWP had significant positive effects on students’ writing attitudes compared with TIPWP. Furthermore, interview results and students’ writing performance on wiki suggested that WCPWP had positive effects on students’ writing ability. However, the statistic results did not show that WCPWP had significant positive effects on students’ personal writing ability compared with TIPWP. This study also discussed the possible reasons causing the results based on theories and related literatures. This study provides an example of capitalizing on computer and wiki technology to support the collaborative writing among Mainland Chinese upper primary school students. The results of this study have theoretical implications for applying the design principles for implementing wiki-based collaborative process writing in Chinese Context. It also has great theoretical value to the field of collaborative writing in Chinese by adopting more precise characteristics of wiki-based collaborative process writing. This study may also deepen primary educators’ understanding of the links among technology, pedagogy and content. Finally, it guides educators in the integration of social media (wikis, Google Docs) as well as the design of effective matching pedagogic strategies in their teaching of writing. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / abstract / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Education / Master / Master of Science in Information Technology in Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Philosophy

No description available.

The research conducted in this study is inextricably linked to a larger study of teacher quality and student performance in KwaZulu-Natal. The aim of the larger study was to explore and establish the relationship between teachers’ mathematical content knowledge, teachers’ practice and learner outcomes in grade 6 mathematics classrooms. This meant ascertaining teachers’ mathematical content knowledge, teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge and teachers’ practice in mathematics classrooms. Videos of lessons were analysed for the following aspects: content coverage, mathematical proficiencies facilitated by the teacher, cognitive demand on learners and teachers’ content knowledge. The analyses of all aspects were initiated at the same time, with different researchers/post-graduate students coding for separate aspects. In this study, the notion of mathematical proficiency as originally developed by Kilpatrick and colleagues (Kilpatrick, Swafford, & Findell, 2001) was used to ascertain the promotion of the strands in the district of Umgungundlovu of KwaZulu-Natal. Essentially the larger study hoped to establish the prevalence and quality of these strands by viewing video recordings of lessons obtained from schools. This in turn would present a view on mathematics learning in the district. The larger study used random stratified sampling to identify schools after which the necessary ethical approval and clearance was obtained. Mathematics lessons of the identified schools were then video-taped and questionnaires and both teacher and learner tests were conducted. I have not included examples of test questions due to agreements about not reproducing these. However, analysis of the recordings, in my view required the formulation of a construct that would interrogate the extent to which the strands of mathematical proficiency are promoted. This was necessary since the five strands in the original formulation represent ‘goals of mathematical understanding. ’In order to achieve these goals, tangible evidence of teacher classroom practice must be observable. Using opportunities as a vehicle of identification of such practice, the notion was formulated. The analytical framework entrenches the notion of ‘opportunity to develop mathematical proficiency’ as a construct with its corresponding descriptor table and is the main feature of this study. This in turn informed the design of the instrument which reflected the notion introduced and allowed ease of use. The research was not simply finding instances of what the instrument describes, but also trailing the applicability and strength of the instrument and the underlying notion of ‘opportunities to develop mathematical proficiency’. The findings reflect the current state of the promotion of mathematical proficiency. Not only is the quality of the promotion weak it is also irregular. An important off spin of the results is the alignment of these results to many studies including the recent ‘Report on the Annual National Assessments 2011’ issued by the Department of Basic Education. The notion introduced in this study with its corresponding analytic scoring method indeed proved to be a useful key to unravelling the answers to the questions posed. The results and findings give a detailed description to the aspect of mathematical proficiencies facilitated by the teacher, one of the aspects the larger study aimed to explore and establish. In this respect, it also shows the applicability and relevance of the developed theoretical notion and the related instrument. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2011.

The purpose of this study is to ascertain, from a review and analysis of the literature, if any key messages emerge within which curriculum reconstruction of primary science education in South Africa can be undertaken. Firstly, three paradigms in education are equated with three philosophies of science and the compatibility of modes of inquiry are highlighted. It is argued that paradigms can be used as a form of analysis to locate particular approaches to the teaching and learning of science. Thereafter, an overview of major trends in science education is provided. The various views of and approaches to science education are analysed and located within particular paradigms. In order to assist in such analyses, a conceptual framework is developed. This draws on key determinants of curriculum development and locates these within each of the three paradigms. The framework is applied to a review and analysis of international emphases in primary science education, within which five different perspectives are identified. These are located within different paradigms. Science education in developing countries is considered thereafter and some recent trends in primary science curriculum development in South Africa are examined. It is shown that the recent syllabus revision process and the revised syllabuses in South Africa are still located in a technical approach to curriculum development. In seeking an alternative approach, the weaknesses of imported ready made solutions from more developed contexts are highlighted, and an exploration of alternative approaches that are more responsive to local contexts is then undertaken. Some innovative examples of curriculum development in other parts of Africa and South Africa are examined. From the review and analysis a set of key messages emerge for curriculum development in primary science education. In selecting appropriate programmes, it is vital that attention is given to children's' existing abilities and ideas, to the expected role for science in society, and to a particular society's values and norms. Material provision, of itself, does not bring about meaningful change, and teachers can and should be involved in the production of teaching materials. Another key message is that it is crucial for teachers to be involved in curriculum decision making, although they may need inservice support to make this possible. Approaches to inservice education must therefore give due consideration to this, and to developing classroom based teaching competencies. Finally, attention is given to some of the factors which may contribute to systemic change in science education. / Thesis (M.Ed.)-University of Natal, 1996.

The purpose of this study was to discover whether the expanded educational goals for primary level Music and Art in British Columbia's Year 2000 Curriculum are met when the curriculum is integrated and teaching is done through themes. The sample population selected for this study was the lower mainland of British Columbia. 12 school districts participated in this study. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 17 administrators of Fine Arts Programmes, District Principals or Consultants. The results indicate that educational goals for Music and Art can be achieved when thematic units are used to integrate the curriculum but only when the classroom teacher can be described as a specialist in primary Music and Art, having a personal background in Art and Music, or having a degree as a Fine Arts Major. The curriculum-as-practiced differs considerably from the curriculum-as-planned due to lack of resources, in-service education and program scheduling.