While foreign language immersion programs have been increasing in number and popularity throughout the United States, their growth in the state of Utah has been particularly dramatic. Utah contains more foreign language immersion programs than any other state and is home to one-fourth of the nation's elementary school Chinese immersion programs. This descriptive study explored the reasons why parents of children enrolled in Utah's Long Hill Elementary School Chinese Immersion program chose to enroll their child. Long Hill Elementary's Chinese Immersion program is 4 years old, with over 200 children enrolled across 4 grade levels. A household survey was developed, distributed, and collected to gather data on parents' demographic and background characteristics, reasons for enrollment, and attitudes towards several statements about language learning. The survey had a 45% return rate, and more mothers than fathers filled out the survey. Survey responses revealed that the parents of children in Long Hill's Chinese program are pre-dominantly Caucasian, bilingual, holders of undergraduate or advanced university degrees, and have high incomes. When asked to explain their reasons for enrollment, parents listed factors that were Chinese-specific, including future career and educational opportunities, the growing importance of China, and the desire to preserve a heritage language. They also expressed many non-Chinese specific factors, such as the cognitive benefits of learning a second language, the desire for a challenging academic experience, as well as the belief that learning a second language would make their child more multicultural. A closer look at the differences between parents of different ethnicities, income levels, and language backgrounds suggests that this Chinese immersion program serves different purposes to different subgroups of parents. It acts as a magnet to parents outside of the school boundaries who have a specific interest in the Chinese language. However, parents inside the school boundaries more frequently (p ≤ .05) cited non-Chinese specific factors, viewing immersion as providing a more rigorous academic experience and cognitive benefits that would transfer to other school subjects. Findings from this study can inform efforts to establish successful immersion programs around the country.

As teaching is a highly complex activity, so too is learning to teach. One pedagogy which has been shown to promote teacher learning is the use of small group discussion. This thesis examines the experiences of seven preservice secondary teachers at a New Zealand university who met weekly during their second practicum to discuss their experiences at their placement schools. Individual interviews conducted with five of the participants revealed that students felt positively about the weekly meetings. The preservice teachers appreciated 1) being able to hear about the experiences of other preservice teachers 2) tell others about their teaching 3) being able to seek advice and potential solutions to problems 4) the sense of personal connection and emotional support they gained during the weekly sessions. The students reported that the weekly meetings allowed them to think about their teaching from the perspective of others, and gave them time to reflect about their experiences while on practicum. This study situates these findings within the literature on initial teacher education and offers suggestions for future research using this pedagogy.

The thesis of this research paper is clarifying the relationship between educational change, teacher education and management at the tertiary level in a local university immediately after the handover of Hong Kong to the People?s Republic of China. The purpose is to describe the research process, to present data, and to draw conclusions. Chapter 1 describes the structure of the paper and introduces two theoretical issues which arise in the data and are referred to in the literature (commodification and collectionism) but are not the focus of this study. Nevertheless, they seem to explain some important relationships between these three themes and are referred to in the conclusion. Chapter 2 presents recent references to literature from around the world related to the three themes. The review highlights the weakness that few references describe the practical implementation of a theoretical management approach to effecting educational change through teacher education. Chapter 3 describes in detail the successful application of the management approach of the learning organisation, the practical implementation of an educational change, and the resultant teacher education within the alternative programme section of the university department studied. Chapter 4 covers the methodological process of the data collection for this research. The data collection is comprised of: 1) a questionnaire about teacher education activities; 2) a lengthy interview with each of thirty academic staff, the Head of Department, and a Vice-President; 3) supporting documents; and, 4) my observations as participant-observer. Chapter 5 presents the findings and discussion. They are analysed in an overall manner and then re-analysed between two groups of staff. One group is part of the teacher education described in Chapter 3; the other group is the remainder of the staff who had not been part of that teacher education. The findings of the questionnaires, the interviews, and the supporting documents indicate that differences in attitude toward teacher education exist between staff who has been exposed to different teacher education management approaches. These findings also show that staff who have been affected and staff who have been unaffected by the learning organisation approach to staff development note differences in management approach. Both staff and appraisers evaluate the learning organisation management approach used in the alternative programme section of the department very positively. Chapter 6 ends with conclusions, links back to the literature, and suggestions. The conclusions show that the educational change found in this research is similar to the change listed in the literature. The shortcomings and issues of teacher education in this research are similar to those revealed in the literature. The conclusions also support the importance of management approach and its relationship to effective teacher education. It ends with a summary of the positive results of using a learning organisation management approach in teacher education at this site. The final chapter also refers back to commodification and collectionism noted in the introduction and suggests that they should also be considered by teachers, managers and researchers in further work on teacher education. / thesis (PhDBusinessandManagement)--University of South Australia, 2003.

<p>This essay investigates the work situation for teacher educators at a university with focus on the subject areas education, research and administration. The research questions contain the work situation the teacher educators have, how they apprehend it, and how they find their position within the work organisation. Six interviews have been executed at the teacher education at a university. Some of the results from the investigation indicate that the teacher educators find education to be very a very demanding work and that the split of work during the academic year is uneven. The work with administration before and after the education, for example work with syllabuses and descriptions for courses, are activities demanding much time. In the work situation the teacher educators find themselves to be in a hard situation of work with few possibilities to get help from other teacher educators. A possible solution could be to work more in teams. Team learning in a learning organisation could reduce the time pressure in the teacher education, and possibly be a source of inspiration for the students in their future profession.</p>

<p>Domfors, Lars-Åke (2000): Döfstumlärare – specialpedagog – lärare för döva och hörselskadade. En lärarutbildnings innehåll och rationalitetsförskjutningar</p><p> (Teacher of the Deaf-Mute – Teacher of Special Education – Teacher of the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. The Content and Rationality Changes of a Teacher Education Program).</p><p>Örebro Studies in Education 1, 304 pp. Örebro ISBN 91-7668-252-8.</p><p>This dissertation is a study of some aspects of Teachers of the Deaf (ToD) education programs using the theoretical perspectives of symbolic interactionism and concepts of rationalitites. Changes in Swedish ToD teacher education from 1873 to the 1990s are examined through the text analysis of documents such as government regulations and syllabi and other texts such as education journals. It is argued that, parallel with the dominant rationality of the period, strands of other rationalities are to be found. In an ongoing struggle for power, one dominant rationality is challenged and gradually replaced by another. The research indicates the dominance of a patriarchal values-rationality in the decades following 1873, an instrumentaltechnical rationality during the 1930s to the 1960s and a communicative rationality from the 1970s.</p><p>Research was carried out at the National Upper Secondary School for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing in order to understand what characterizes Deaf education and the ToDs’ work, and what kind of professional skills are therefore required. The research was based on teacher interviews, student questionnaires and teaching observations in classes. Learning processes within a ToD teacher education course, as perceived by ToD students, are analysed by a study of written reflections, seminar observations and transcipts from tape-recorded seminars. ToD teacher education programs at universities in Washington D.C. and Edinburgh are also analysed.</p><p>A model for ToD education is discussed. It is argued that even if the dimension of essentialism stressing ToD basic skills and knowledge is important, the main theories for understanding the ToD education process are communicative rationality and interactionism. </p><p>It is further argued that, at societal level, the dominance of different rationalities implies different meanings of the ToD socialisation process, mediated through different historical and cultural contexts.</p><p><i>Keywords:</i> Teacher of the Deaf, educational history, research on teacher education, rationalities, symbolic interactionism.</p><p><i>Lars-Åke Domfors, Department of Education, Örebro University,</i></p><p><i>SE-701 82 Örebro, Sweden</i></p>

<p>Denna uppsats syftar till att öka förståelsen för hur ämneslärare uppfattar och använder sig av begreppet forskningsanknytning. Undersökningen har gjorts utifrån en fallstudie där fem ämneslärare i svenska har intervjuats genom semistrukturerade intervjuer. Resultatet visar att de intervjuade lärarna har uppfattat forskningsanknytning dels via kursinnehåll, dels som ett arbetssätt, och att de främst har upplevt forskningsanknytningen som punktvisa nedslag vid vissa kursavsnitt, framförallt vid uppsatsskrivande. Lärarna använder sig av forskningsanknytning i sin lärarverksamhet genom val av metoder och material, och genom att tillämpa delar av forskningsprocessen när de planerar och genomför undervisning. Studien visar också att de intervjuade lärarna förefaller dels kunna mer om, dels använda sig av forskningsanknytning i större utsträckning än vad de själva ger uttryck för.</p>

The purpose of this study was to compare the employment retention and mobility patterns of the University of Tennessee, Knoxville’s fifth year post-baccalaureate intern program completers with those of the alternative C licensure program participants employed between 2001 and 2005 in Tennessee public schools. A comparison of program groups was conducted from the perspective of attrition, as well as mobility, and how this related to teacher preparation variables including grade point average, Praxis scores, and program type. Attrition was measured for each year as the number and percentage of each group or cohort not returning the following year to teach in a Tennessee public school and was disaggregated by and program type. A multi-year attrition rate for each program type group was also calculated for three and five year periods. The Socio Economic Status (SES) of initial and final school placements was analyzed and compared to determine the number and percentage of each cohort working in low socio-economic schools (as defined by the Title I participation/designation). Data related to school placement were also utilized to determine the number and percentage of those who transferred to or away from low socio-economic schools.

Due to the pervasiveness of technology, the role and preparation of teachers as they strategically use technology for teaching mathematics needs to be examined. Technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK) is a framework for knowledge as teachers develop meaningful learning experiences for their students while integrating strategic use of technology (Mishra & Koehler, 2006). The purpose of this study was to develop a survey for measuring mathematics teachers’ Mathematical Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (M-TPACK). The survey measures the domains of mathematics content, pedagogy and technology. This mixed methods study first examined middle school mathematics teachers’ TPACK through the use of an existing survey (Schmidt et al., 2009). Interviews were conducted to determine the availability and use of technology in middle school mathematics classrooms, and teachers’ strategic use of available technology for mathematics instruction. Finally, a survey measuring M-TPACK was developed to specifically measure teachers’ mathematical TPACK. Grandegenett (2008) asks for more concentration on helping teachers to imagine “possibilities” for using various approaches and strategies for integrating technology in mathematics instruction. This study presents important findings and supports the need for mathematics teachers’ professional development to reconceptualize the role of technology in mathematics instruction. By using the developed M-TPACK Survey, teacher educators and administers can use information about teachers’ knowledge and beliefs concerning technology to enhance teacher education programs and plan professional development. The survey developed from this study can be used for stakeholders as they determine the needs of mathematics teachers, move the concept of TPACK beyond theory and toward practice, and move toward offering appropriate technology experiences to enhance strategic mathematics instruction.

Representations of mathematical ideas serve as a foundation for understanding mathematical concepts. Using and translating among a variety of representations promotes deep conceptual understanding and connections between mathematics topics, in addition to providing contexts for more advanced mathematics concepts. The importance placed on mathematical representations led to an examination of sixth grade middle school mathematics textbooks’ representation of fraction concepts. The chapters included in this thesis represent a portion of the work completed during the examination and an example of how representations of fractions can impact topics in secondary mathematics.

Literacy is an important phenomenon in all societies today. Nations around the world put in a great deal of effort and allocate a lot of funding for educational purposes to improve literacy rates of children and to help them to become literate citizens so that they can function better in society. Studies of teacher education in the United States have shown that many of the in-service teachers lack the basic foundation of linguistic constructs needed to improve literacy skills in elementary classrooms. Further, it has been shown that students who were taught by teachers with a linguistic background performed better on reading, writing, and spelling skills than those children who were taught by teachers without such a linguistic background. These studies have recommended better teacher training programs that incorporate classes to specifically teach linguistic constructs. However, there are various factors that may affect literacy development in school children, such as family background and number of books available at home. The majority of these studies have been conducted in the United States and what is true for the U.S. may not be true for other countries. The purpose of this study is to examine the linguistic knowledge of elementary classroom teachers and how it impacts children’s achievement in literacy skills in the North West region of Cameroon where English is the predominant language of instruction in schools. Data were collected from 100 primary school teachers and 200 third grade children from the rural and urban regions, then analyzed using independent t-tests at a 0.05 level of significance. Overall the teachers exemplified a lack of linguistic knowledge; however, when comparing rural to urban, the urban teacher’s linguistic knowledge was significantly higher. Similarly, the children’s results also revealed a higher performance rate from the urban children. Based on the results it is recommended that teacher preparatory programs should foster content and pedagogic expertise and include essential features in literacy instruction. The quality of teachers teaching in the primary schools is important and the Ministry of National Education in Cameroon should ensure a better teacher education program that can prepare confident and knowledgeable teachers.