Current research in expert/novice differences in problem solving suggests the need to investigate the domain specific knowledge of people with experience in problem solving in a particular field against the domain specific knowledge of those with less experience. Furthermore, research in teacher thinking makes important assumptions concerning the knowledge teachers of different experience levels have about students, but lacks complete support for those assumptions. This qualitative study addressed both of these issues. It investigated the differences in the knowledge of students and classrooms of twelve high school science teachers with three different levels of experience. Through analysis of the protocols of interviews with experienced, first year, and student teachers at key times during a semester, this study examined patterns of knowledge acquisition among the three groups. Analyses of the protocols revealed four major findings: Patterns and themes in the development of teachers' knowledge of students and classrooms, the role of observation and work in teachers' understanding of students, the role of teacher comprehension in teachers' knowledge of students and the teacher/student relationship. The discontinuity in development between more and less experienced teachers in this study had important implications for teacher education and research.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of a teacher/advisor program on early adolescents' perception of self image. A review of the literature revealed much which proclaims the virtues of the teacher/advisor program but at the same time demonstrated an absence of any significant research which verifies that such programs, in fact, accomplish what their proponents claim. Because a notable amount of research supports the inclusion of educational experiences which heighten self image, determining specifically what effects a teacher/advisor program has would satisfy the need to validate the credibility of this concept and aid middle level educators in assessing its value. A pretest-posttest control group design with multiple measures of self image was employed. The sample consisted of 145 seventh grade students from two middle level schools. The experimental group came from a 6-7 school with a total of 73 students participating, 37 male and 36 female. The control group came from a 7-8 school with 72 students participating; both males and females numbered 36. Subjects were administered a questionnaire, which was composed of seven self image or transition research, at the beginning of the fall semester and again nine weeks later. Subjects in the experimental group received a thirty minute per day teacher/advisor program during this time interval. The findings of this study revealed significant group effects for the measures of victimization and perceived self image. For the measures of anonymity, self-consciousness, and the three self-esteem measures, however, group effects were not observable. Furthermore, examination of the results using gender as a variable showed no significant difference in any of the seven self image constructs. The data indicate that participation in a teacher/advisor program tended to suppress perceptions of victimization, which can be construed as a positive effect, and to lower perceived self image, which can also be viewed as beneficial if construed as a more realistic occurrence.

<p class="Abstract">This thesis has examined the phenomenon of pupil disaffection in State Schools in Scotland from a Christian perspective.&nbsp; From an overview of literature concerned with pupil disaffection, I noted the absence of theological studies concerned with the phenomenon in the UK.&nbsp; Therefore, I located the study within the discipline of practical theology, developing a critical correlative practical theology model as the framework to guide the research. <p class="Abstract">I undertook research into the retrospectively reported lived experience of six young people who experienced disaffection at school, and who, after a ten year gap from leaving school, re-engaged with education.&nbsp; Having selected hermeneutic phenomenology as both methodology and method, but within my theological framework, I interviewed the young people and utilised Hans Georg Gadamer’s principles of prejudice, horizons of understanding and the hermeneutic circle to gain a deeper understanding of the stories told to me.&nbsp; Having given voice to those so disaffected as a first step I compared and contrasted the themes that emerged from their firsthand accounts with educational literature. To deepen my understanding of the meaning of pupil disaffection, I similarly compared and contrasted the research themes through a theological lens. <p class="Abstract">Using Martin Luther’s theology of the cross, I reconstructed the lived experiences of my research participants within a framework where power and authority turn out to have quite a different meaning to understandings within State Education. I noted that a great deal of educational thought can be viewed as a theology of glory in a world where little significance is given to the vulnerable God of the cross. <p class="Abstract">Having urged Christian teachers to become educators of the cross, I introduced the concept of “bearing witness” to explore how they might begin to address the education system to find new ways of responding to disaffection. Central to my understanding of what it means to “bear witness” as a Christian teacher, is the practice of Christian hospitality.

The need to empower student teachers with positive teacher-student relationships (TSRs) competencies resonates with the fact that students are not merely cognitive but also emotional and social beings. Indeed, the interactions of the cognitive, emotional and social dimensions work to impact on their learning and performance. The benefits for positive teacher-student relationships within and outside class contexts cannot be overemphasised. Students are hard-wired with the need to connect in relationships with their teachers. Teacher-student relationships determine students’ school engagement, their adaptation to developmental changes and their motivation to learn. Also, TSRs influence students’ discipline, stability to social adjustments, value orientation and their identity formation and development. Undeniably, the building of positive TSRs and teaching and learning processes are essentially mutually inclusive. To be able to form and sustain positive TSRs, student teachers need well-developed knowledge, beliefs, and self efficacy attributes. This comparative study of Tanzania and Germany argues that positive teacher student relationships form a critical requirement for effective teaching, learning, and holistic development of students in schools. To this end, the initial teacher education has a duty to nurture the TSRs attributes alongside other teacher competencies. Despite the acknowledgement of the necessity for positive TSRs by researchers, educators, and administrative authorities, literature provides no evidence of the contribution of the initial teacher education to the positive TSRs abilities. The existing studies on TSRs have focused mainly on TSRs in schools and on the problems related to unhealthy TSRs (Giles, 2008; Jones, 2009; Knoell, 2012; Raufelder et al., 2013; Sands, 2011; Wubbel et al., 1993) and others. This disjuncture between the reported problems faced by teachers in forming and sustaining positive TSRs and the opportunity for initial teacher education to empower student teachers for positive relational exchange frames this study. The study employed a combination of the conceptual change, self-efficacy, and goal contents theories. The utilisation of the theories was justified by the study assumptions that in order to produce teachers who are capable of handling positive TSRs in schools, the initial teacher education has to transform, orient, and reorient student teachers on the relational exchange knowledge. Secondly, apart from the pro-relational knowledge, student teachers ought to demonstrate improved self-efficacy as a yardstick of their preparedness and commitment to positive TSRs. Lastly, the study examined the implication of student teachers’ motivational reasons for joining teaching on their TSRs self efficacy. Motivational dynamics have been proven to influence teachers’ occupational satisfaction and their behaviours (Weiss & Kiel, 2013; Vansteenkiste & Ryan, 2013). Hence, the motivational reasons held by student teachers to join the teaching profession were viewed as an important construct which also may influence the student teachers’ self-efficacy for positive TSRs. This study sought to answer the following question: Does the university¬¬ based initial teacher education contribute to positive TSRs (competencies) among student teachers? To ascertain for this role, the study investigated and compared student teachers’ knowledge, beliefs, perceived self efficacy, as well as the approaches employed in this regard. The study was anchored on the Pragmatism epistemology and ontology. The study used qualitative and quantitative techniques to study two typical cases, namely; the Universities of Leipzig and Dar es Salaam, in Germany and Tanzania respectively. The study deployed both probabilistic and non-probabilistic sampling techniques to arrive at the sample size N=721 for student teachers; both final-year (n=548) and beginners (n=173) and eight (8) university teacher educators. Findings of the study show the presence of significant changes in the student teachers\' knowledge, beliefs, and perceived self-efficacy for positive TSRs. Comparatively, student teachers in Germany revealed higher levels of the TSRs knowledge and perceived self-efficacy than their Tanzanian counterparts. However, the qualitative findings revealed inadequacies in TSRs knowledge among the final-year student teachers in both countries. The beginner student teachers in Germany demonstrated higher command in positive TSRs knowledge and self efficacy than their Tanzanian counterparts. It was further unveiled that the student teachers’ knowledge had a significant association with their self-efficacy for positive TSRs. The approaches employed in promoting positive TSRs competencies include the teaching practice, educational courses and role modelling. However, these approaches were constrained by the strict focus given on academic performance, lack of clear orientation on the nature of positive TSRs, and overlook of important and potential aspects of initial teacher education. Despite having approaches to promoting positive TSRs abilities, teacher educators demonstrated varied and contradicting perspectives of what constitutes the nature and character of positive TSRs. The study considered contradicting perspectives among the hurdles to the effective orientation of the positive TSRs. Moreover, findings indicated that student teachers in Germany and Tanzania joined the teaching profession as a result of intrinsic and extrinsic motivational reasons. It was found out that the intrinsic motivation reasons were more important among German student teachers. Conversely, extrinsic motivational reasons were relatively more important among student teachers in Tanzania. The analysis of motivational reasons indicated a strong positive association (Cramer’s V .175) between intrinsic motivational reasons and perceived self-efficacy for positive TSRs. The study concludes that although positive TSRs feature in the initial teacher education, its implementation has suffered inconsistency, underrepresentation, and misinterpretation by teacher educators and student teachers. The study recommends for an integration of a compulsory positive TSRs content or module to address for depth, breadth and evaluative treatment of the competencies (the proposed framework of integration has been suggested). Moreover, the study recommends for the redefinition and reaffirmation of the positive TSRs phenomenon in the theoretical and practical aspects of the university based initial teacher education.

The problem of this study was to determine and analyze the relationships between teacher morale as determined by the Group Dimensions Descriptions Questionnaire and the ability to establish rapport with pupils as determined by the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory. The purpose of this study was to discover possible implications from the relationships between teacher morale and the ability to establish rapport with pupils and other selected personal and professional characteristics.

The central problem of this study was to determine the effects of feedback of observations recorded by an elementary college supervisor for the verbal and nonverbal classroom behavior of elementary student teachers.

M.Ed. (Educational Psychology) / Please refer to full text to view abstract

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Science Johannesburg, 22 February 2013 / Research suggests that effective teaching and learning of physical sciences for conceptual understanding involves link-making. Learners make connections between prior knowledge and new ideas and/or between ideas and experiences. Meanwhile the teacher mediates the process of meaning making for learners. My study examined how I mediated learner link-making between what they experienced during practical work and the concepts learnt in theory lessons. I wanted to understand how I help learners make links and explore ways of improving my mediation of link-making for my learners. The self-study research design was used for data collection and Scott, Mortimer & Ametller’s (2011) concept of pedagogical link-making to support knowledge building was used to analyse the data. My findings show that I drew on the full range of pedagogical link-making approaches to promote knowledge building. However, I did not draw equally on all the approaches. There are six approaches to pedagogical link-making to support knowledge building: making links between every-day and scientific ways of explaining ; making links between scientific concepts ; making links between scientific explanations and real world phenomena ; making links between modes of representation ; moving between different scales and levels of explanations and analogical link-making. In all the lessons I used two of the approaches, making links between every-day and scientific ways of explaining and making links between scientific concepts while the other four were used less often. I drew some insights from my practice which could be shared with other science teachers. For instance, in planning their lessons, science teachers should think about how they will make links for their learners between their practical activities and the science concepts covered in theory lessons. They need to think about the most appropriate analogies and examples that can help learners make successful links between observations and science content knowledge. Teachers should be aware of specific concepts to target for the link-making so as to promote deeper understanding of the concepts.

Thesis advisor: Belle Liang / While a large body of research has established high prevalence rates of discrimination (i.e., unfair treatment because of perceived or claimed membership in a particular identity group) in youth and its negative impact on both mental health and academic outcomes (Fisher, Wallace, & Fenton, 2000; Russel et al., 2012), less is known about the effects of identity-based bullying (i.e., verbal or physical assaults targeting identity(ies)). In addition, very few studies examine both everyday forms of discrimination and identity-based bullying, and even fewer assess the differing experiences of youth with intersectional identities (i.e., multiple oppressed identities; Garnett et al., 2014). Finally, no studies to date have examined the potentially protective role of teacher-student relationships for youth facing identity-based victimization.  The current study sought to examine the impact of identity-based victimization (i.e., discrimination and identity-based bullying) on mental health and academic achievement in a large and diverse sample of youth who were assessed longitudinally. To capture the complexity of the outcomes associated with identity-based victimization for youth with an oppressed gender identity, sexual orientation, and/or race, an intersectional framework was used. Finally, the present dissertation examined the role of teacher-student relationships as a potential source of protection for students facing identity-based victimization.   Results from the present study indicated that identity-based victimization is a pervasive problem that is negatively associated with mental health and academic achievement in adolescents. Findings suggested that intersectional students face a higher risk of experiencing identity-based victimization, and mental health challenges when confronted with above average discrimination. Autonomy-enhancing and positive teacher student relationships had a moderating effect on the association between identity based victimization and mental health for some youth, but not others. Implications of these findings for research, assessment, and intervention are discussed. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2018. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Counseling, Developmental and Educational Psychology.

This thesis examines how college professors can improve their communication skills inside the classroom by testing pedagogical issues identified in previous scholarship against current teaching practices. This thesis addresses four main areas related to classroom communication skills that reflect how to build a classroom into a community of equality, open dialogue, and deep learning. The importance of classroom communities and of professors developing engaging deliveries to create compelling oral performances is described as well as issues of active listening and various models and techniques to help facilitate communication better in the classroom. A qualitative study analyzing written interviews completed by 19 college professors in Florida is conducted. Interview responses are then compared to pedagogical issues identified in previous literature to determine if there are similarities or gaps in current research. The interview determined that an interactive classroom with a professor who is consciously aware of their communication skills can help foster deeper learning with students. This research can help to develop best teaching practices for college professors. / by James Van Allan. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2011. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2011. Mode of access: World Wide Web.