M.Ed. / This research project forms part of a group project that involves three factors of effective management: • normative management; • open democratic management; and • accountable co-operative management. This mini-dissertation deals with normative management as a factor of effective school management. Chapter one explains the aims and objective of the research. The main objective is to determine the role normative management plays in the effective management of schools with diverse academic results in the 1999 senior certificate exam. This chapter further explains the research method, quantitative research, used for this research. Finally the researcher makes important assumptions in this chapter that should be taken into consideration for the mini- dissertation. Chapter two is in the form of a detailed literature study of the topic. The concepts, effective management and normative management as a factor of effective management, are explained in full. This chapter also deals with concepts from the questionnaire. Chapter three discusses the research instrument, the questionnaire. This chapter also explains the items of the questionnaire that forms part of normative management and the research group. Chapter four deals with the empirical study of the data from the questionnaires. In chapter five the researcher comes to certain conclusions from the study. Firstly the moral of educators influences school effectiveness. Secondly a common vision and mission will improve school effectiveness. The importance of the role of the principal is thirdly explained. Fourthly it is stated that parents should be involve to improve school effectiveness. Fifthly the curriculum in schools is dealt with. Curriculum 2005 is also discussed. Finally the importance of providing in the basic needs of children to improve school effectiveness is explained. In conclusion the researcher states that the educator should ask him/herself the following question when doing or saying something involving the learners: "Will this benefit the learner?" If the answer to this question is 'yes', the action will improve school effectiveness.

The study used a survey design to ascertain the levels of knowledge and attitudes of special education and non-special education preservice and inservice teachers towards students with different sexual orientations. The results of this study are based on 408 responses from preservice and inservice teachers enrolled at seven institutions of higher education within North Carolina, Virginia, and the District of Columbia offering teacher training programs in regular and/or special education. Two previously developed instruments were used to measure dependent variables in this study. Koch's modified version of The Knowledge about Homosexuality Questionnaire developep by Harris, Nightengale & Owen was used to measure the dependent variable of the preservice and inservice teacher's knowledge about homosexuality. Herek's Attitudes Toward Lesbians and Gay Men (ATLG) measured the dependent variable of attitudes towards homosexuals. The study found no significant differences reported mean scores for knowledge or attitude of homosexuality among the teacher groups surveyed: (a) special education preservice teachers, (b) non-special education preservice teachers, (c) special education inservice teachers, and (d) non-special education inservice teachers. Neither gender nor age were found to be factors in measures of knowledge or attitude of preservice or inservice teachers. Receiving prior instruction in serving the needs of GLBT students, or with a focus GLBT issues, contributed to higher levels of knowledge and more positive attitudes. This research identified current levels of knowledge and attitudes of preservice and inservice teachers towards GLBT youth, and this information may help outline areas of possible changes necessary in teacher preparation programs, research, and policy.

The questions posed by this study were: (1) To determine the relationship between authoritarianism and ressentience among high school coaches employed within San Joaquin County, California.; and (2) To compare authoritarianism and ressentience among high school coaches within San Joaquin County, California, a sample of college students majoring in physical education, and a sample of college students majoring in a subject area other than physical education attending the University of the Pacific, Stockton, California.

Reading English literature can help learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) to develop their reading ability as well as other language skills. Reading can also have other benefits for EFL students such as learning about the target language’s culture or learn about an English variety in written form. This present study investigates what types of literature are used in Swedish upper secondary school, the EFL teachers’ attitudes towards short stories compared to simplified novels/graded readers and their preferred assessment methods associated with literature teaching. The majority of the teachers that took part in this survey have a positive attitude towards short stories and use them in their EFL classes. The results also show that after the students have completed reading a short story, most of the teachers that participated in this survey preferred to combine examination methods such as a group discussion with a written test. The title of this paper comes from one of the informants’ comments when asked if she would rather use a short story or a graded reader in her English class. This informant had used graded readers in her English language classroom, but she and everyone that took part in this survey chose short stories over graded readers.

The problem of this study was to determine whether teachers' attitudes as revealed by responses to an attitude instrument reflect teachers' classroom behaviors as implied by a behavior record of verbal comments to pupils. This research, in effect, was a check on the predictive validity of the attitude instrument used in the study, the Minnesota Teacher Attitude Inventory.

Standardized tests are being administered to young children in greater numbers in recent years than ever before. Many more important educational decisions about children are being based on the results of these tests. This practice continues to escalate despite early childhood professional organizations' calls for a ban of standardized testing for children eight years of age and younger. Many early childhood educators have become dissatisfied with multiple-choice testing as a measure of student learning and are increasingly using various forms of alternative assessment to replace the more traditional testing formats. Teachers seem to be caught in the middle of the controversy between standardized testing and alternative assessment. This research examined what early childhood educators in one north Texas school district believe about assessment of young children and what assessment methods they report using in their classrooms, as well as factors which influence those beliefs and practices. The sample for this study was 84 teachers who taught prekindergarten through third grade. An eight-page questionnaire provided quantitative data and interviews and the researcher's journal provided qualitative data.

The attitudes of preservice teachers towards individuals who are nonvocal and using either a high technology augmentative communication (HAC) device or a low technology communication board were investigated. A rating scale was devised, consisting of three sub-scales. The three sub-scales measured preservice teachers' estimates of intelligence, academic potential, and social acceptance in the regular education setting. Reliability and validity were established through a pilot study. Preservice teachers viewed videotapes of children using either high technology or low technology augmentative communication devices and subsequently completed the rating scale based on the videotapes. Results indicated that preservice teachers perceived the same child as having greater academic and social acceptance potential when using high technology augmentative communication.

This study examined the attitudes of regular education teachers at the elementary school level, toward mainstreaming students with emotional/behavioral disorders (E/BD) and identified variables which were correlated with those attitudes.

Many explanations for why students leave engineering programs fail to look more closely at unique help-seeking cultural norms of first-generation (“first-gen”) students that tend to conflict with help-seeking cultural norms of undergraduate engineering programs. “First-gen” in this study applies to students with neither parent nor guardian holding a four-year bachelor’s degree, while “continuing-gen” applies to continuing-generation students with at least one parent holding a bachelor’s degree. Although statistical odds are stacked against many first-gens, some of these individuals persevere through rigorous engineering programs using effective help-seeking strategies. This mixed methods study explores what patterns in help-seeking beliefs and behaviors may be specific to Black first-gen undergraduates relative to other first-gen and continuing-gen peers. This study also seeks to understand the help-seeking experiences of Black first-gen engineering undergraduates that contribute to the observed pattern differences among demographics. Additionally, this study aims to understand how successful help-seeking strategies and experiences of Black first-gens allow them to persevere in engineering. Likert scale questionnaire responses revealed that the Black first-gens in this study were less comfortable seeking academic help from faculty relative to other first-gen and continuing-gen peers. Qualitative interviews revealed that a primary reason for this discomfort stemmed from faculty behaviors that discouraged help-seeking attempts such as making demeaning comments, singling out Black students in class, impatience during office hours, no regard for class comprehension, and a lack of personal connection. The Black first-gens in this study managed to persevere in engineering by turning to religious faith and community for support, having fictive kin relationships with personable faculty, and adopting a mix of independent and interdependent norms within their study groups. These findings help inform institutions about improving the help-seeking experiences of Black first-gen engineering undergraduates. Additionally, this research provides useful guidance to other Black first-gen students about effective help-seeking strategies in engineering.

Different opinions exist about the use of phonetic alphabet symbols in teaching English pronunciation to second language learners. Some authors and researchers believe phonetic symbols can benefit students in many ways; others consider this tool hardly recommendable. However, little empirical research has been done to find out what ESL teachers think about the use of this linguistic tool. Thus, via an online survey this study sought to identify ESL teachers' attitudes towards the use of phonetic symbols in teaching ESL pronunciation. A total of 120 teachers took the survey and most of them were experienced in teaching pronunciation to adult ESL students. The analyses of qualitative data identified a contradiction between experienced teachers' opinions and what they practiced in class. On the one side, the teachers had predominantly positive attitudes towards the use of phonetic symbols, and about 80% of them agreed that it was a valuable use of class time. Despite this, many teachers (n=40) did not report using phonetic symbols in their teaching. In addition, though the teachers pointed out enabling student independent learning as the main reason to teach phonetic symbols, only three participants reported that they used phonetic symbols for this purpose. The results of the study suggest that ESL teachers' lack of training in teaching phonetic symbols to ESL students can be one of the main factors causing this contradiction.