Understanding nature of science (NOS) is an important learning objective of the science curricula in many countries. However, research shows that there is a large gap between the curriculum emphasis and classroom practice. There have been calls for more studies on how teachers can be better prepared for teaching NOS. This study examines what teachers have learned, how they have learned it and the factors affecting their learning in a teacher professional development (TPD) programme to prepare them to teach NOS. The study was conducted in 2008-10, when the new Hong Kong Senior Secondary Biology curriculum, with its emphasis on NOS, was introduced. Three of the 18 teachers participating in the programme were chosen for in-depth case studies to illuminate their process of learning to teach NOS. Over a 20-month period, the teachers worked collaboratively to learn how to teach NOS in study group settings. Initially, the teachers were given curriculum materials designed for the explicit and reflective teaching of NOS. They selected, adapted and refined the curriculum materials to suit their own students. They then taught NOS to their students using the modified curriculum materials in their classroom, and the lessons were videotaped. These videos were later shared and analyzed collaboratively in study group meetings and workshops. To monitor their learning, the teachers were asked to complete reflection tasks and follow-up interviews after participating in each of the TPD activities, including the trial teaching of NOS in their own classroom, reflecting on the lesson, reflecting on the lesson video, and discussing the lesson video with their peers. Using an interpretive approach, other data sources, including field notes from classroom observations, transcripts of teacher discussions in meetings and workshops, and interviews with individual teachers before and after the programme on their confidence and concerns about NOS teaching, were also collected for triangulation purposes, and for the production of individual case reports for each teacher. It was found that the teachers had improved their NOS knowledge, NOS teaching skills, confidence as well as intention to teach NOS after participating in the programme. The process of learning to teach NOS can be characterized as lengthy, recursive and closely embedded in authentic classroom practices. Four major factors related to the TPD programme were identified as contributory to teachers’ learning to teach NOS. They are: (1) the formation of a community of practice with a shared goal to improve NOS teaching, (2) the provision of educative curriculum resources for explicit and reflective teaching of NOS, (3) first-hand experience of teaching NOS in authentic classroom settings, and (4) video-based discussions on NOS teaching in meetings and workshops. Based on the findings, an emergent model of effective use of video for learning to teach NOS was also proposed. The implications of the findings on the design of effective TPD programmes for learning to teach NOS were discussed. / published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

No description available.

In this study, the researcher explores the factors that influence preservice teachers’ acceptance of information and communication technology (ICT) integration in the classroom. A mixed methods design is used, where the qualitative results from two focus groups are used to help explain the initial findings of the quantitative survey. The survey is based on the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), which was developed by Venkatesh et al. in 2003 and shown to outperform eight preceding models, explaining 70% of the variance in user intentions. The role of the UTAUT variables (performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions) are examined in this study and the resulting regression model accounts for 27% of the variance in user intentions to use ICT, with effort expectancy surfacing as the only significant predictor of behaviour intention. Results and recommendations for future research in the application of the UTAUT model are discussed to better understand the factors that influence preservice teachers’ acceptance of the effective integration of ICT into the classroom.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print.

This piece of research is an attempt to evaluate the assessments made by secondary teachers in training of an introductory orientation course offered during the first seven weeks of the 1984 H.D. E. course in the Department of Education of Rhodes University. This course, the About To Teach (ATT) course, was introduced in an attempt to obviate some of the perceived problems that students experience in the initial months of their H.D.E. year. The course was first offered in 1982 and in both 1982 and 1983 it was assessed by the students. The evaluation of the assessments offered in those two years provided much of the background for this in-depth look at student assessments of the 1984 ATT course. Briefly, the course attempts to offer the students a stimulating, meaningful, interesting and enjoyable learning experience which will help them to orientate; prepare them adequately for their first teaching practice and the reception later of the offerings of the core theory discipline of Philosophy, Sociology and Psychology. The course itself is a piece of action research and its underlying assumptions are essentially humanistic in nature. Its planners have attempted to bracket as many assumptions as possible and to espouse only those assumptions which are basically positive in nature. It does not attempt to prescribe or offer any dogma which can or must be assessed in any formal sense; it attempts to meet the students from whatever stages in their development they are at when they arrive to commence their H.D.E. year; and it does not attempt to compel the students in any way whatsoever. It is a course which must stand or fall on its own merits. Since the researcher is himself an involved participant in the process, he felt that the completion of a detailed questionnaire and interviews with a sample of the students would be the most economical and the best means of obtaining data for as objective an analysis as possible. To further obviate the possibility of researcher bias all the responses collected have been included in the appendices so that the reader may satisfy him/herself that the interpretations made and conclusions drawn are reasonable. Briefly, the chief conclusion of this researcher is that the overwhelming majority of the students perceived the course as offering them a meaningful learning experience. In addition, it can be argued that the course is, in effect, a guidance course in that it appears to be preparing students for experiences which they still have to come across . Most are generally critical of other courses offered during the H.D . E. year and many make an appeal for, or suggest, a much more integrated approach along the lines of the ATT course . There is a definite appeal for a coherent H.D.E. experience which is meaningful and 'peoplecentred'. By no stretch of the imagination can the findings of this particular piece of research be generalised to any other context since it is very definitely specific in both context and setting. However the researcher is quietly confident that his conclusions and recommendations make a great deal of sense within the specific context of this study.