The purpose of this study was to examine time on tasks and priority setting for Maryland community college continuing education administrators. The Delphi technique was used to compile a list of 75 tasks. A combination of survey research, card sort, face-to-face interviews, and on-site data collection was used to gather the data. Data were collected on the performance or delegation of the tasks and amount of time spent on them. The subjects reported spending the most time (456.44 hours per year) on supervising and providing leadership to all continuing education staff. The least amount of time (1.13 hours per year) was reported on guiding instructors' orders of textbooks. The researcher concluded from the data that most of the subjects did not have to concern themselves with routine tasks as they had sufficient staff to delegate those tasks to. The investigator developed a demographic survey and found the average continuing education administrator in Maryland to be Caucasian, 43 years old, and holding a master's degree. Fifty percent of the sample were female. The variables from the demographic survey were crosstabulated and correlated with time on tasks. A correlation coefficient of .59, t = 2.733, p. < .01, was found between time on tasks and the number of noncredit FTEs produced by the institution. The correlation coefficient for time on tasks and size of college was .62, t = 2.956, p. < .01. The generation of FTEs at the possible expense of quality was an issue of great concern to the Maryland continuing education administrators. Study findings showed that in setting priorities, small- and medium-sized institutions considered the same factors influential, but that large colleges perceived a different set of factors as being significant. / Ed. D.

寇志晖 / Thesis (Ed.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2011. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 322-331) / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / Kou Zhihui.

This action research explores ways of adapting Task-based language teaching for teaching grammar to Primary six Hong Kong students while maintaining the structural Presentation-Practice-Production approach. It integrates two kinds of focused tasks into the intervention. They are Consciousness-raising tasks and Practice-based tasks. It investigates learners‘perceptions of those two tasks on English grammar learning by collecting questionnaires and conducting interviews. After the first cycle of the intervention, the researcher analyzed the data, students‘performance and works in order to make adjustments for the second cycle. Qualitative and quantitative techniques were employed to collect data from high, average and low-achieving students. It was found that students were positive towards Consciousness-raising tasks, Practice-based tasks and the intervention. They were generally satisfied with the chances provided for individual and group learning, teacher‘s PowerPoint presentation, teacher support and task sequencing. Implications for future research encompass investigation on the intervention‘s emphasis on a sequence of focused tasks to learn the form, meaning and use of target structures for leading learners to attain accuracy, fluency and complexity in second language acquisition. Most importantly, it suggests that teachers have to be flexible and design suitable tasks according to the target structures, students‘ability and learning style as well as available resources. / published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Education / Master / Master of Education

This study compared a task analytic versus a traditional approach to teaching a musical instrument to emotionally disturbed children. Students' musical performance and attitude toward the instruction were compared between conditions. Six severely emotionally disturbed boys, 8-11 years of age, participated in the study. Each student learned to play a one, two, and three chord song accompaniment on an omnichord under the two experimental conditions. At the end of each condition and two weeks following the termination of the study, each student was asked to perform the three-chord songs. Their performances were videotaped for future analyses by two independent observers. In addition to the performance ratings, the students completed a questionnaire concerning their attitudes toward the instruction. This questionnaire also served as a dependent measure. No statistically significant differences were found among the performance ratings and student attitudes between conditions. Implications for music therapy practice and future research are given.

University of Macau / Faculty of Education

Task-based language teaching has a high profile within contemporary ELT. There are, however, few empirical studies of how teachers actually implement tasks in Chinese primary school contexts. This study aims to fill this gap by exploring how four teachers in two primary schools in Nanhai, Guangdong implement communicative activities in a top-down national innovation. This study involves three areas of investigation. The first area describes classroom practice. A particular focus is on activity types and the degree of communicativeness of activities. The second area analyzes how the practice reflects the general understanding of task-based pedagogy: the extent to which classroom activities are congruent with features of task? The third area concerns factors influencing communicativeness of lessons. Extensive data are drawn over a period of an academic year with four selected teachers (Betty, Rose, Paul and Jane). A total of 55 observations were conducted. Methods of documenting classroom data include a quantitative instrument based on COLT observation scheme (Communicative Orientation of Language Teaching) and qualitative field notes. The tool used to analyze the degree of communicativeness is derived from a well-recognized framework proposed by Littlewood. 64 semi-structured interviews were conducted to gauge participants’ perception of task-based teaching. Teachers, school principals and focused-group students were interviewed. The main findings are as follows. It is found that Betty and Rose use mainly focus-on-forms activities, Paul uses meaning-form-focused and Jane meaning-focused activities, suggesting, respectively, a low, medium and medium-high degree of communicativeness. Further analysis of activity features indicates that Betty and Rose’s teaching are teacher-centered, decontextualized and without a clear communicative goal and outcome, and thus not congruent with task features. Paul’s activities share features of non-communicative teaching and TBLT. Paul tried to integrate some communicative elements in his approach, although the majority of Paul’s activities still focus on the practice of language form. Jane’s activities, message-focused, student-centered and contextualized, reflect general features of tasks. Three sets of contextual and participant factors are found to influence TBLT implementation in the two case schools: 1) contextual, 2) teacher factors and 3) those related to pedagogical practice, including planning and instructional factors. The significance of this study is threefold. Firstly, I propose an adapted version of Littlewood’s communicative framework. This version contributes to the existing literature as it is a useful tool to analyze communicativeness of classroom activities in school context. Secondly, this study extends our knowledge of the kind of factors that influence TBLT implementation. Lastly, this study adds insights into character teachers cope with changes in the new English curriculum and the kind of classroom activities in Nanhai primary schools. It is hoped that these findings carry some resonances in other EFL contexts in East Asian Region. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Education / Master / Master of Education