Increasing diversity among community college students and the rising demand for a culturally competent workforce necessitate community college faculty across all disciplines to adjust their pedagogical choices to effectively serve diverse students while preparing all students for the new global era. The purpose of this narrative study was to explore what culturally competent pedagogies effective community college instructors use and reasons behind their choices. The study was conducted at a large community college in the Pacific Northwest. Data was collected through in-depth interviews with ten instructors teaching in different disciplines. In addition, the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) was used to measure participants' intercultural competency. The findings revealed that the participants were cognizant of the growing diversity in their classes and made a number of pedagogical choices to accommodate their students' needs. The findings also revealed that the participants' teaching in the Humanities and the Adult Basic Skills departments had more latitude in engaging diversity and choosing materials to fit the needs of their students compared to science and vocational field instructors.

The state of Oregon has adopted the Next Generation Science Standards as well as the English Language Proficiency standards, both of which affect elementary school teachers. These standards adoptions challenge teachers and professional developers to rethink how they approach science conceptual understanding and language acquisition. The Math Science Partnership K-6 Instructional Specialist Grant made the decision to incorporate a Task Analysis process, which asks the participant to analyze the demands of a content-based task in the domains of content knowledge, analytical skills and language, into six eight-week summer courses focused on the Next Generation Science Standards. A pre and post-assessment was created to determine if any growth in teacher understanding of the demands of a science task could be observed as a result of engaging in the Task Analysis process. A four point rubric was created to score participant responses. Two research questions were developed: 1. How well does the ELPA21 Task Analysis tool help participants understand the language demands of a science task when used as part of an NGSS summer professional development course? 2. How effective is a work sample and scoring rubric protocol for measuring the impact of the Task Analysis process? Participants showed statistically significant growth in their analysis of a science task from pre to post-assessment responses, with particularly strong growth demonstrated in the domains of content and language. Further coding of responses revealed that participants frequently discussed vocabulary as both a language and content knowledge demand of a science task.

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

This study explored the role of School Management Teams (SMTs) in leading and managing school-based teacher professional development. This was a case study of three schools from Mafukuzela-Gandhi circuit in Pinetown district. Participants comprised twelve Principals, Deputy Principal, HODs and teachers who were involved in one-toone interviews (for principals) and focus group interviews (for deputy principals, HODs and teachers). Data were also collected through observations and document analysis. According to the information from participants, school-based teacher professional development is necessary because in schools there are unqualified teachers, inexperienced teachers and teachers who qualified a long time ago. All these categories of educators need to be trained and equipped with skills and knowledge that would enable them to teach effectively and efficiently. Findings show that SMTs hold meetings to identify specific problems facing teachers in schools with the intention to assist teachers to overcome the problems they face, SMTs organise school-based training workshops. The challenges that face SMTs in executing school-based teacher professional development include: non-involvement of teachers in decision-making; incompetence of some SMTs in running the workshops; lack of cooperation from teachers and negative attitudes of some teachers who do not want to change. The study concludes by suggesting a modified model of a professional development design framework that can be utilised to minimise SMTs' challenges in school-based teachers‟ professional development. / Thesis (M. Ed.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2012.

The focus of the research reported on in this dissertation is an evaluation of the Language in Learning and Teaching project (LILT), in terms of its ability to facilitate English language development in schools where both educators and learners are second language speakers and where the Language of Learning and Teaching (LoLT) is English. The research involved two main phases. During the first phase I established evaluation criteria from the literature review, from another project the English Language Education Trust, (ELET) and from my own experience and feedback from the end-users (Le. teachers) and the observation of workshops. In the second phase I evaluated the LILT materials against the criteria developed in the literature review, analysed the feedback from end-users in the form of a questionnaire and made recommendations. In this dissertation the following terms will be used interchangeably: teacher, educator, facilitator and tutor because in the quoted passages, the term teacher is largely used. However, in Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) the terms educator, facilitator and tutor are used. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2001.

The study collected information about training practices in local churches of the United Brethren in Christ. A mailed questionnaire was used to collect data from 230 churches nationwide. The instrument contained 22 questions, divided into three sections: (a) teacher involvement in religious education, (b) teacher training, and (c) demographic information. The return rate was 65.7% (151 surveys). Frequency counts and percentages were obtained. Data were summarized in table and narrative form. Cross-tabulations were completed between selected demographic variables and the provision for teacher training.Selected findings included: (a) among 15 possible religious education activities, at least two-thirds of the churches reported using teachers in five of them; (b) over half of the churches (51%) provided some form of training; (c) among those providing some form of training the scope was limited; (d) difficulty in scheduling and lack of fiscal resources were identified as the greatest obstacles to training; (e) training was more common in churches with larger attendance figures for worship and Sunday school.The following conclusions were formulated: (a) the extent to which teachers were used in religious education activities was affected by the scope of programs offered; (b) in the absence of a mandate for training, scheduling and scarce resources were negative factors; (c) even in churches conducting training, the activity was not a high priority; (d) reliance on consultants and conferences reflected the fact that churches did not conduct theirfor pastors to require training; and, (f) training occurred more often in larger churches where adequate resources and formal approaches to programming were common.Six recommendations were presented: (a) the denomination should develop and disseminate a position on teacher training; (b) pastors should be exposed to educational programs stressing the importance of training teachers; (c) the denomination should formulate and make available more programs and materials to support training; (d) the issue of effectiveness of training programs should be examined; (e) research on the selection, supervision, retention, and evaluation of teachers should be conducted.own training; (e) using volunteers made it more difficult / Department of Educational Leadership

As tecnologias e a sociedade atual demandam novas competências dos professores. Portanto, a formação inicial desses profissionais é fundamental para que os futuros professores possam integrar as Tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação (TIC), de maneira criativa e inovadora, às suas práticas pedagógicas para potencializar o processo ensino-aprendizagem. Em consequência, as maneiras como os professores formadores se apropriam das TIC para essa formação são de grande importância. O objetivo geral do estudo foi analisar como os professores formadores do Conselho de Formação em Educação (CFE) no Uruguai se apropriam das TIC para a formação de futuros professores. A revisão da literatura aborda conceitos e questões inerentes à apropriação das tecnologias pelos professores: mudanças necessárias na formação de professores; o conceito de apropriação da tecnologia pelos professores, que abrange como os professores adquirem conhecimentos para utilizar as TIC como recursos pedagógicos; os significados que eles constroem sobre a sua importância no processo de ensino-aprendizagem e os usos que eles dão a elas; os aspectos que favorecem ou dificultam os processos de transformação para a inovação com as tecnologias; as discussões sobre a formação inicial para a utilização das TIC como recurso pedagógico; o contexto da formação de professores no Uruguai e as políticas relacionadas às tecnologias. A pesquisa foi qualitativa de natureza interpretativa. O estudo foi realizado em um centro de formação de professores no Uruguai. A técnica de coleta de dados foi a entrevista individual semiestruturada. Os participantes do estudo foram 16 professores que ministram as disciplinas de didática nos diferentes cursos de formação de professores. A amostra foi intencional por critérios. Os principais resultados do estudo foram: a utilização das TIC mantendo metodologias tradicionais com novas ferramentas e a dificuldade de aproveitar as vantagens que as TIC proporcionam para transformar as metodologias de ensino. Entre as dificuldades estão: a falta de conhecimentos sobre como utilizar as TIC como recurso pedagógico; a predominância da individualidade na busca de conhecimentos sobre como integrar as TIC nas aulas e atividades e a necessidade de preparar os formadores em relação às TIC para que possam formar os futuros professores mediante o exemplo. / Technologies and today's society require new competences from teachers. Therefore, teacher training is essential for future teachers to be able to integrate Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) creatively and innovatively into their pedagogical practices to enhance the teaching-learning process. As a consequence, the ways in which teacher trainers appropriate ICT for this training is of great importance. The general objective of this study was to analyze how training teachers of the Education Training Council (CFE) in Uruguay appropriate ICT for the training processes of future teachers. The literature review contemplates concepts and issues inherent to teachers' appropriation of technologies: changes in technological competences needed for teaching, the concept of technology appropriation by teachers, which includes how teachers acquire knowledge to use ICT as pedagogical resources, the meanings they construct about their importance in the teaching-learning process and the uses they give to them; aspects that promote or make it difficult to innovate with technologies; discussions on teacher training for the use of ICT as a pedagogical resource; the context of teacher education and technology education policies in Uruguay. The methodological approach was qualitative. The study was conducted with sixteen teachers at a teacher training center in Uruguay. The technique of data collection was the semi-structured interview. The sample was intentional by criteria. The main results of the study were: the use of ICT maintaining traditional methodologies with new tools; the difficulty of taking advantage of the benefits of ICT to transform teaching methodologies. Among the difficulties were: the lack of knowledge on how to use ICT as pedagogical resources; the predominance of individuality in the search for knowledge on how to integrate ICT; the need to prepare teachers to use ICT to train future teachers by example.

Studies have shown that most teachers in South Africa have no background in Environmental Education (EE), have not received pre-service training in EE and very little teacher education has taken place in EE. The Revised National Curriculum Statements emphasise the infusion of EE in all learning areas. There is, however, a problem whether there is a need for professional development of teachers for effective EE. The main aim of this study is to enable teachers to acquire knowledge and skills to infuse EE in all learning areas. The study gathered data through literature review from primary and secondary sources. The questionnaire was developed as a research tool and was sampled to 216 Tshwane North District Office teachers. The collected data are analysed by using the frequency tables indicating percentage of respondents in each category. The study recommends the professional development of teachers for effective implementation of EE in schools. / Educational Studies / M.Ed.