The current study investigated teachers’ grading practices on achievement and non-achievement factors in the classroom of Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages (TCSOL). Specifically, this study investigated how teachers assigned grades in relation to students’ achievement and non-achievement factors, and further, whether this relationship between achievement and non-achievement factors and grades was different based on teachers’ past experiences. This study was a quantitative survey study. The participants were 214 TCSOL teacher candidates at Master’s level in two universities in Beijing, China. The study employed a questionnaire made up of two sections. Section One provided 32 grading scenarios that illustrated 32 students with different characteristics (achievement and non-achievement factors). Section Two included four items on teachers’ past experiences. These items were training in classroom assessment and grading, perceptions about grades previously received, teaching experience, and grading experience. Descriptive and multiple linear regression analyses were the two main statistical methods used. Results showed that teachers involved both achievement and non-achievement factors when assigning grades. Generally, sixteen students with low achievement received a mean grade higher than their achievement, and most students with high achievement received a lower grade than their achievement. Further, raw grades assigned by 214 teachers to every student demonstrated large standard deviations, indicating teachers’ decisions on grades were quite different from each other. Paired-sample t-tests found significant differences in grades among four students who presented extreme characteristics. Regression results further showed that while achievement was the main factor teachers considered when assigning grades, all of four non-achievement factors also contributed significantly to grades, with attendance being the most significant contributor, followed by effort, progress and ability. This relationship between the mean grades and all five factors did not change when teachers had different experiences in assessment training, perceptions in the grades they previously received, teaching and grading experiences. This study expands upon the limited research evidence regarding TCSOL teachers’ grading practices. It confirms the hodgepodge nature of grades in this context. It also provides teacher educators with insights and understanding in teachers’ grading practices, and has implications for preparing future teachers to assign grades appropriately. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2013-05-29 12:12:27.415

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This research explores the use of memories of past school experiences to help identify unnamed and unchallenged incidents of oppression that occurred in elementary and high school. What are the implications for educators when past school experiences indicate that racism, classism, sexism, homophobia, and other harmful practices took place, but went unexamined and unclaimed as such? Three inter-related reflective analyses are used to investigate the experiences of teacher candidates, the thesis author, and practicing teachers to fully explore this query. <p>The first section examines teacher candidates reactions to anti-oppressive education. Negative reactions by students are most often defined by scholars as resistance. This section reflects on the strengths and weaknesses of this definition. The memories students shared about their past schooling suggest looking beyond the current scope of theories that define negativity as resistance. The second section includes a retrospective analysis of the authors past school experiences where oppressive practices went unidentified and unchallenged as such. In the third section, Narrative Inquiry is used to gather stories from practicing teachers whose memories also indicate unnamed examples of oppression. Participants identify school memories that helped shape their current teaching practices and enhanced their commitment to addressing racism, classism, sexism and other issues in schools today.

Academic dishonesty has been widely reported to be a prevalent occurrence among university students and yet little research has been done to explore, in depth, the meanings the phenomenon holds for students. In response to this gap in research, the purpose of this study was to discover senior Education students understandings of academic honesty and dishonesty. A naturalistic research design was employed and the data were the verbatim discussions of five groups of senior Education degree program students from two western Canadian universities.<p> Findings were focused on the substantive, structural, and future applicability in students understandings. Essential elements of academic dishonesty appearing in students understandings were existence of rules, intent to break those rules, and resulting unearned grade advantages. These elements were extrapolated to serve as a baseline definition of academic dishonesty and as principles of culpability. Numerous situational considerations were volunteered by students that described enticements, deterrents, and beliefs about likelihoods associated with academic honesty and dishonesty. These considerations served as structures for the contemplation of risk that appeared prevalent in students understandings. Future applicability in students understandings was centred on expectations for teaching and professionalism. As teachers, students expected to need to respond to and prevent academic dishonesty. When working in a professional environment, they expected little need to acknowledge sources and a more collaborative climate overall that, for them, meant concerns for academic dishonesty had less relevance. Students expectations suggested rules for teaching and they contrasted the environments experienced as students with those anticipated as teachers.<p> The findings of this study were integrated to suggest students vision of a system for academic honesty that bears some similarity to a moral system. Also extrapolated were four metaphors for the roles of students in the university related to concerns for academic dishonesty: student as subject, student as moral agent, student as trainee, and student as competitor. Implications for higher education policy development and communication were based on students focus on grades and students sense of subculture for academic honesty and dishonesty. Students deference to the authority of the professor suggested implications for instructional practice. A lack of monitoring of students and professors behaviours related to academic honesty and dishonesty had implications for administrative practice in terms of fostering norms for academic integrity. A model for discernment of the student voice is proposed for student concerns appearing to be most freely and richly explored in a discussion among students. Recommendations for approaches to future research of this nature and for research questions and student populations bring the dissertation to a close.

This research explores the use of memories of past school experiences to help identify unnamed and unchallenged incidents of oppression that occurred in elementary and high school. What are the implications for educators when past school experiences indicate that racism, classism, sexism, homophobia, and other harmful practices took place, but went unexamined and unclaimed as such? Three inter-related reflective analyses are used to investigate the experiences of teacher candidates, the thesis author, and practicing teachers to fully explore this query. <p>The first section examines teacher candidates reactions to anti-oppressive education. Negative reactions by students are most often defined by scholars as resistance. This section reflects on the strengths and weaknesses of this definition. The memories students shared about their past schooling suggest looking beyond the current scope of theories that define negativity as resistance. The second section includes a retrospective analysis of the authors past school experiences where oppressive practices went unidentified and unchallenged as such. In the third section, Narrative Inquiry is used to gather stories from practicing teachers whose memories also indicate unnamed examples of oppression. Participants identify school memories that helped shape their current teaching practices and enhanced their commitment to addressing racism, classism, sexism and other issues in schools today.

Academic dishonesty has been widely reported to be a prevalent occurrence among university students and yet little research has been done to explore, in depth, the meanings the phenomenon holds for students. In response to this gap in research, the purpose of this study was to discover senior Education students understandings of academic honesty and dishonesty. A naturalistic research design was employed and the data were the verbatim discussions of five groups of senior Education degree program students from two western Canadian universities.<p> Findings were focused on the substantive, structural, and future applicability in students understandings. Essential elements of academic dishonesty appearing in students understandings were existence of rules, intent to break those rules, and resulting unearned grade advantages. These elements were extrapolated to serve as a baseline definition of academic dishonesty and as principles of culpability. Numerous situational considerations were volunteered by students that described enticements, deterrents, and beliefs about likelihoods associated with academic honesty and dishonesty. These considerations served as structures for the contemplation of risk that appeared prevalent in students understandings. Future applicability in students understandings was centred on expectations for teaching and professionalism. As teachers, students expected to need to respond to and prevent academic dishonesty. When working in a professional environment, they expected little need to acknowledge sources and a more collaborative climate overall that, for them, meant concerns for academic dishonesty had less relevance. Students expectations suggested rules for teaching and they contrasted the environments experienced as students with those anticipated as teachers.<p> The findings of this study were integrated to suggest students vision of a system for academic honesty that bears some similarity to a moral system. Also extrapolated were four metaphors for the roles of students in the university related to concerns for academic dishonesty: student as subject, student as moral agent, student as trainee, and student as competitor. Implications for higher education policy development and communication were based on students focus on grades and students sense of subculture for academic honesty and dishonesty. Students deference to the authority of the professor suggested implications for instructional practice. A lack of monitoring of students and professors behaviours related to academic honesty and dishonesty had implications for administrative practice in terms of fostering norms for academic integrity. A model for discernment of the student voice is proposed for student concerns appearing to be most freely and richly explored in a discussion among students. Recommendations for approaches to future research of this nature and for research questions and student populations bring the dissertation to a close.

This research is grounded in my observation that we live in a society that is racist, sexist, classist, heterosexist, able-ist, and oppressive in other ways for a variety of groups and individuals outside of the dominant norm. Schools functions as sites of reproduction that work to maintain the status quo through the reproduction of racist, sexist, classist, and heterosexist language and discourse (among others) that maintain the normalcy of oppressive behaviour. However, in as much as schools may reproduce inequalities, they could equally well produce possibilities for equal and just relations in society. In many ways, schools are contradictory places where the dynamics of reproduction and production are simultaneously at work. The question becomes one of how to encourage and nurture the possibility of schools to become sites of struggle over oppressive relations in society. Critical multicultural theory has been proposed as one possible answer to this question. While critical multicultural education understands schooling as a site of social reproduction, it is also believed that schools can work to challenge the inequality engendered by the process of social reproduction by educating students about the dynamics of oppression and privilege. Schools are, thus, understood as sites of possibility, where the normative and common sense understanding of society’s current oppressive relations are deconstructed and critiqued. In this work, I use critical multicultural theory to focus on the role of teacher education in the creation of new possibilities for schooling. The purpose of this research is to examine new possibilities for teacher education by making problematic the normative discourse of a university teacher education program and its implication for critical multicultural teaching. As such, this research will deconstruct the dominant discourse in a Faculty of Education at a mid-size Canadian university through an examination and analysis of the perspectives of current teacher candidates; examine how the discourses in teacher education work to constrain and limit the possibility of critical multicultural education; consider the pedagogical challenges of a critical approach to multicultural education; and provide new possibilities for teacher education and, in particular, critical multicultural teacher education. / Thesis (Master, Education) -- Queen's University, 2007-12-12 09:21:57.648

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The field of teacher education is in tumultuous times. Criticisms and questions about teacher preparation have led to calls for reform, including grounding teacher preparation programs in clinically rich experiences. Responsible for preparing these teachers, university- based supervisors are under added pressure to provide opportunities that connects theoretical knowledge with field experience. Complicating matters, views of supervision continue to evolve and remain divided, creating uncertainty over how to best approach the role. In light of these challenges, I argue in this study that current conceptions of supervision need to be reevaluated and expanded by entertaining new views, namely those from outside of traditional Western perspectives. For instance, scholars (Burns, Jacobs, & Yendol-Hoppey, 2018; Glanz, 1995; Tremmel, 1993) have referenced Eastern philosophies of Taoism and Zen Buddhism as ways to improve supervision practices. To more deeply explore this line of thinking, I studied the enactment of Zen Buddhist constructs within my role of supervising teacher candidates in a clinically rich teacher program. Using a spiritual self-study methodology, I collected data through journaling, field notes, surveying candidates, and candidate artifacts, such as lesson plans and observation reflections. I analyzed data through meditative writings and mindful coding practices. Eight findings, or “awakenings,” emerged from the analysis, including experiencing anxiety as a I became more mindful of my supervision practices, experiencing a flow state during supervision, feeling more connected with triad members, and noticing an enhancement of the observation cycle through deep listening and other mindfulness techniques. Implications from the study include Zen assisting in developing a state of mind that enables supervisors to flow more seamlessly between tasks and functions, manage the stresses of the function and role, and became more mindful of the needs of teacher candidates. I also present a reconceptualizing of supervision, reframing it as a present-moment experience that can transform.

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