Thesis advisor: Hosffman Ospino / There is a pressing need to re-awaken in teaching the prophetic call to serve the liberation of children, whose complex humanity remains systemically marginalized. This proposal is grounded in a study of the Lasallian tradition of education, which originates from John Baptist de La Salle (1651-1719), founder of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools in seventeenth century France and the patron saint for Christian teachers of the young. From a Lasallian perspective, the prophetic call to teach for children’s liberation is rooted contemplatively in a Christian mysticism of faith, which energizes an incarnational mission of education in zeal, shaped by a preferential option for children as the poor and marginalized. This preferential option for children is a hermeneutical key that reads the Lasallian mission of education forward into the twenty-first century. I develop this idea of a preferential option for children, locating it in an interpretive study that critically synthesizes a Lasallian theology of child with literature in childhood studies, spirituality, critical pedagogy and participatory action research. Building on the Lasallian imagination, this study contributes to a Christian spirituality of education as it examines how contemporary theological perspectives on children and childhood serve as a lens that deepens the interconnection between Christian mysticism, liberation, and child in teaching as a prophetic vocation. To teach for children’s liberation is to promote their flourishing as full human beings created in the image and likeness of God. It attends to conditions that protect children in their social marginalization while engaging and developing their social participation as responsible agents in our common belonging to God as God’s children and siblings-in-Christ. It demands just presence in teaching, which begins with listening as receptivity to the mystery of the child as graced irruption. The prophetic call to teach for children’s liberation is mystically rooted in contemplative wonder at the Incarnation. Such wonder must also open the teacher to being disturbed by the scandalizing action of God, who steps out of God-self not only to be with the poor, but also in the least as a human child in Jesus Christ. It is this recognition of God’s presence in each child and with children that calls forth the responsibility of teachers, making an ethical claim on them to be courageously present in ways that prioritize the human dignity of children in education. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry.

This qualitative study examined how my practice of using manipulatives to teach multiplying and dividing fractions to 8th grade students facilitated their conceptual understanding of those operations. The students who participated in the study were enrolled in one of my intensive mathematics classes. Before the lessons began, I interviewed the students and gave them a pre-assessment to determine their content knowledge and comfort level with manipulatives. The students engaged in activities that included solving problems using various manipulatives. During the activities, I made observations of their problem solving techniques and how they used the manipulatives. At the conclusion of the unit I gave them a post assessment and conducted post interviews to determine any change in their content knowledge and comfort level with using manipulatives. I concluded through my research that by giving the students a hands-on, minds-on approach to learning they were able to develop an understanding of the concepts and apply that knowledge to multiplying and dividing fractions.

Extant research focusing on rural teacher education programs emphasizes the urgency of teacher preparation investigation and professional development which is needed to successfully work with ELs (e.g. Fry & Anderson, 2011; Hansen Thomas et al., 2014; Manner & Rodriguez, 2012; O’Neal et al., 2008). However, little research has included preservice teachers’ perspectives related to their own preparatory programs. This study fills the gap in previous research by investigating preservice teachers’ perceptions of how their teacher education programs are preparing them to teach ELs in poor rural areas. This study was conducted in Mississippi, a state in which over 50% of schools are located at poor rural areas. At the time of data collection, 3 preservice teacher participants of this study were studying secondary math education at a university in Mississippi and conducting their intern teaching at poor rural schools. Data related to EL teaching and learning in Mississippi were also collected from teacher educators of this university and other stakeholders. The data revealed that preservice teachers who possessed different levels of satisfaction with the preparation received to teach ELs interpreted their coursework and field experiences in diverse ways. The post-secondary teacher educators who participated in the study provided reasons why courses specifically related to EL teaching and learning were not included. Other stakeholders described the sources and development of the EL students in their school districts, indicating a low incidence of ELs in rural schools and providing reasons for why there existed a slim chance for preservice teachers to have EL students in their intern-teaching classrooms. This study extends the previous research by exploring preservice teachers’ perspectives on how their current teacher education programs prepared them for teaching ELs in poor rural areas. Data suggest that preservice teachers possessing greater solid subject knowledge felt more prepared to teach ELs. Other suggestions related to strengthening EL teaching preparation included adding explicit instruction related to teaching ELs within methods courses and offering a course related to SLA as an elective; providing preservice teachers with the opportunities to practice teaching EL students; and affording teacher educators regular professional development sessions related to EL teaching.

This dissertation represents a product of research conducted in 2004-2005 examining the curriculum network of an elementary teacher education program at a large public university in the United States. Using ethnographic data (e.g., interviews with preservice teachers and faculty, observations in and outside of coursework, and other artifacts), I address the questions of how preservice teachers characterized relationships between teacher education program components, how those characterizations varied and changed, and how preservice teachers explained the value or relevance of program components to teaching. I discuss how preservice teachers shaped their understandings of main program emphases. I describe how they tended to experience closer correspondence between program recommendations and the policies and philosophies in certain schools and classrooms in suburban county schools near the university compared to the policies and philosophies in certain schools and classrooms they identified as having, for example, fewer resources (e.g., funds, manipulatives). I make the case that the program-based philosophies developed by and for the preservice teachers helped to coordinate context-specific meanings and relevance for program components and further to construct failures of the kind where either (1) schools interfered with the accomplishment of program objectives or (2) program objectives proved unrealistic for schools. Without intending to, and perhaps even contrary to certain program intentions, program suggestions treating instruction as context-independent tended to favor middle-class White children and to marginalize urban or diverse schools and classrooms, or schools having more limited resources, as viable places to engage in program-recommended practices for good teaching. These results have potential implications for practice in teacher education and mathematics education and also have relevance to discussions of ongoing standards-based teacher education and mathematics education reforms. I offer that these results help to reveal certain limitations of popular ways of defining and researching preservice teachers' learning and teacher education program coursework and fieldwork relationships. I raise the question of whether teacher educators or researchers might benefit from considering how to more substantively integrate curriculum and give greater attention to place and to the broader socio-political goals we aim to accomplish through our work. / Ph. D.

Esta tese estuda atitudes e comportamentos dos alunos de Publicidade e Propaganda da ECA/USP quanto ao seu relacionamento com o curso. Através de pesquisas qualitativas procurou verificar as expectativas e as motivações de vestibulandos e ingressantes no tocante ao aprendizado acadêmico e à carreira, e com a realização de pesquisas quantitativas buscou medir o grau de satisfação com o curso e a escola, bem como as principais razões de satisfação / insatisfação. Verificado que muito da insatisfação e da decepção dos alunos origina-se de uma imagem estereotipada da carreira e do pouco conhecimento do curso, o autor procurou mostrar que é possível minorar estes sentimentos dos alunos e motivá-los às atividades acadêmicas usando os próprios instrumentos que a escola se propõe a ensinar, ou seja, as técnicas de comunicação persuasiva. / This thesis study all attitudes and behaviour from Advertising students of ECA/USP related to their course. By qualitative researches the author tried to verify the expectation and motivation that concern all beginners and students who are starting their academic life and their careers. By quantitative researches he tried also measure the degree of satisfaction from new students related to their course and school. Moreover he found the real purposes of satisfaction and dissatisfaction of these students analysed. The degree of dissatisfaction and deception that showed all students analysed became from the stereotype career and unknown description that they are from their course. The author tried to show that is possible to minimize these feelings and motivate all students towards academic activities by tools who are originally teaching at school as persuasive communication techniques.

Esta tese estuda atitudes e comportamentos dos alunos de Publicidade e Propaganda da ECA/USP quanto ao seu relacionamento com o curso. Através de pesquisas qualitativas procurou verificar as expectativas e as motivações de vestibulandos e ingressantes no tocante ao aprendizado acadêmico e à carreira, e com a realização de pesquisas quantitativas buscou medir o grau de satisfação com o curso e a escola, bem como as principais razões de satisfação / insatisfação. Verificado que muito da insatisfação e da decepção dos alunos origina-se de uma imagem estereotipada da carreira e do pouco conhecimento do curso, o autor procurou mostrar que é possível minorar estes sentimentos dos alunos e motivá-los às atividades acadêmicas usando os próprios instrumentos que a escola se propõe a ensinar, ou seja, as técnicas de comunicação persuasiva. / This thesis study all attitudes and behaviour from Advertising students of ECA/USP related to their course. By qualitative researches the author tried to verify the expectation and motivation that concern all beginners and students who are starting their academic life and their careers. By quantitative researches he tried also measure the degree of satisfaction from new students related to their course and school. Moreover he found the real purposes of satisfaction and dissatisfaction of these students analysed. The degree of dissatisfaction and deception that showed all students analysed became from the stereotype career and unknown description that they are from their course. The author tried to show that is possible to minimize these feelings and motivate all students towards academic activities by tools who are originally teaching at school as persuasive communication techniques.

Bakgrund: Många studier kan påvisa behovet av kommunikation och information mellan vårdare och patient oavsett profession.Tidsbrist och allt mer slimmade organisationer,med en ökande åldrande befolkning ställer ökade krav på förmåga och kunskap om kommunikation. Andra försvårande omständigheter är språkliga barriärer med en befolkning där alla inte har svenska som sitt modersmål. Teach –back är en metod som säger sig underlätta och stödja en kommunikation för att säkerställa informationen mellan patienter och vårdare. Den syftar också till att öka förutsättningarna för egenvård. Eftersom det är ett viktigt område inom omvårdnad syftar litteraturstudienatt ta reda på vad som finns beskrivet avseende Teach –back. Syfte: Att beskriva användningsområden för metoden Teach –back. Metod: Litteraturstudie baserad på åtta vetenskapliga artiklar. Resultat: Resultatet presenteras i följande teman. Det första temat är hälsolitteracitet och förstå given information och det andra är att säkerställa processen mellan vårdgivare och hemmet. Det tredje temat är att sjuksköterskans insikt om patienters kunskap om den egna hälsan. Analysen visar att inga slutsatser kan dras att Teach-back främjar omvårdnad. Däremot finns det resultat som bekräftar att Teach-back skapar förutsättningar för patient medverkan Diskussion: De delvis motstridiga uppgifterna och att de kan vara olika faktorers som styr resultatet gör att det är svårt att påvisa att Teach-back är lösningen för en kvalitetssäkrad kommunikation. / Background: Academic studies tend to demonstrate the need of communication and exchange of information between the health care provider and the patient, this regardless of the profession and socioeconomic background of the caretaker. Lack of time as well as the increased pressure of trimming the economic costs combined with an aging population creates a higher demand on the skills and knowledge of communication. Moreover our modern sociality is presenting some language barriers because of a growing part of the population whom does not have Swedish as their mother tongue. Teach -back is a method that claims to support a method of communication to ensure the quality of information between patients and care givers. Teach-back as a method also aims to enhance the ability of self-care for the patient. Self-care is regarded as an important area of ​​nursing, therefore the review of the literature in this study intends to map out all of the academic literature there is about the method Teach –back. Aim:To describe the uses for the method Teach-back. Method: A literature study based on eight scientific articles. Results: The result is presented in three following themes. The first theme are healthliteracy and understanding given information and the other is to ensure the process between the healthcare provider and the caretaker. The third theme are nurse’s understanding of the patient’s knowledge about their own health status. The analysis shows that no conclusions can be drawn regarding whether the teach-back method furthers the care or not. However, there are results confirming the fact that Teach-back creates a good environment for patient involvement. Discussion: The partly conflicting results that have emerge from the literature which shows that there may be different factors that have an effect on the outcome, making it difficult to conclude that the Teach-back method is the solution for assuring the quality of the communication.

The purpose of this study was to reconsider the five factor structure of the Teach Concern Checklist (TCC) currently being utilized by the teacher Preparation Evaluation Program (TPEP) at Western Kentucky University. The problem was to replicate the three factor solution of the TCC proposed by George (1978) and to further explore the progression of teacher concerns with experience to lend support to the self-task-impact concern theory proposed by Fuller (1969) Two hundred and sixty-five pre-service and in-service teacher participating in TPRP completed the TCC. These teachers represented the different experience levels of student. First, third and fifth year of teaching. Factor analysis technique revealed three concern factors similar to those of Fuller and George. Three additional factors also emerged that remained consistent with Fuller’s concern theory, however, they distinct from those reported by George (1978). Two self concern factor, one representing evaluation by peers and supervisors and the second representing evaluation by pupils, emerged in contrast to the one self concern factor identified by George. Two task factors also emerged, one involving instructional task concerns (similar to George) and one involving classroom discipline. Impact concerns were also represented by two separate factors, one involving academic impact and the second environmental impact concerns. The analysis of variance procedures supported the teacher concerns theory of a progression from most to least concern for self concerns; however, evidence strong enough to support the progression theory was not produced for the task and impact factors. Teachers of all experience levels were found to share a similar magnitude of concern for the task and impact factors.

Thesis advisor: Patrick J. McQuillan / Most would agree that pupil learning is a fundamental purpose of schooling. Differences arise, however, when conceptualizing what form that learning should take and how it should be assessed. In recent years, there has been increased pressure to improve pupil achievement through educational reform initiatives intended to ensure that all pupils meet high academic standards through strict accountability measures. This dissertation seeks to understand how teacher candidates/beginning teachers, working in this era of accountability, focus on pupil learning over time. An interpretive qualitative approach was employed to complete cross-case analyses on 55 interviews conducted with five participants over a 3-year period. Based on a sociocultural framework, and drawing on constructivist assessment theories and prior research on learning to teach, this dissertation argues that the end objective of improving pupil learning led teachers to enhance their teaching practice by holding high expectations for pupil learning, building personal relationships with pupils, maintaining strong classroom management strategies, and utilizing formative assessment practices. However, engaging in these practices was often a result of a complex process of negotiation between aspects of the school context that functioned as obstacles and the teachers' moral sensibilities Overall, contrary to claims made by stage theory, the beginning teachers in this study demonstrated that focusing on pupil learning was possible with perseverance, commitment to social justice, development of an inquiry stance and an understanding that learning to teach is a life-long process that involves continuous reflection and professional development. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

A presente pesquisa tem como objetivo identificar os diferentes significados associados à palavra ecossistema nos posts dos blogs de divulgação científica do site ScienceBlogs Brasil. Para isto, utilizou-se o referencial bakhtiniano de linguagem e a metodologia da análise de conteúdo de Bardin para analisar os posts publicados entre os anos de 2012 e 2014 em todos os blogs do site. Como resultado, identificou-se quatro Categorias de Significado: Conjunto de seres vivos; Interações bióticas, abióticas e evolutivas; Interações Ser humano-Ecossistema e Interações Sociais e Tecnológicas. A categoria \"Interações Ser humano-ecossistema\" é a mais frequente, aparecendo em 50% das publicações. \"Interações bióticas, abióticas e evolutivas\" é a segunda categoria mais frequente, englobando 31% dos posts analisados. Já as categorias \"Conjunto de seres vivos\" e \"Interações Sociais e Tecnológicas\" foram identificadas em 12% dos posts analisados cada uma. Deste modo, os resultados mostram uma diversidade de significados associados à palavra ecossistema. Tendo isto em vista, caso o professor utilize os posts como ferramenta pedagógica no ensino de ecologia, ele deve selecionar aqueles posts que mais se ajustem aos seus objetivos e mais se aproximem do(s) significado(s) que pretende ensinar aos seus alunos. Além disto, o trabalho também sugere que sejam analisados os significados da palavra ecossistema nos livros didáticos, de modo a identificar as possíveis contribuições dos materiais de divulgação científica aqui analisados, frente aos materiais tradicionalmente utilizados nas escolas. / This research aims to identify and categorize the different meanings associated with the word ecosystem in posts of popular science blogs of the site ScienceBlogs Brazil. For this, we used the bakhtinian referential of language and the methodology of content analysis of Bardin to analyze the posts published between the years 2012 and 2014 in all blogs on the site. As a result, we identified four Meaning Categories: Set of living beings; Biotic, Abiotic and Evolutionary Interactions; Interactions Human-Ecosystem and Social and Technological Interactions. The \"Interactions Human-ecosystem\" is the most common, appearing in 50% of the publications. \"Biotic, Abiotic and Evolutionary Interactions\" is the second category most frequent, encompassing 31% of the analyzed posts. The categories \"Set of living beings\" and \"Social and Technology Interactions\" have been identified in 12% of the posts analyzed each. Thus, the results reveals various meanings associated with the word ecosystem. With this in mind, if the teacher uses the posts as a pedagogical tool in ecology education, he should select those posts that best fit their goals and become closest to the meaning(s) that he wants to teach his students. In addition, the work also suggests that the meanings of the word ecosystem be analyzed in textbooks, to identify the possible contributions of science communication materials reviewed here, compared to materials traditionally used in schools