published_or_final_version / Education / Master / Master of Education

published_or_final_version / Language Studies / Master / Master of Arts

The overall aim of this thesis is to investigate experiences, perceptions and experiences of "a school for all" in one municipality by means of a case study. The municipality is medium-sized and, for many years, has had a clearly expressed intention of providing "a school for all". This means that all pupils are included in regular comprehensive school classes, where no separate schools or groups are available for pupils with intellectual disabilities. The empirical material consists of three studies. The pilot study is a licentiate thesis published in 2007, with a societal bias and is based on web-based documentation and interviews with politicians and civil servants (n=5). This study describes regional administrators’ initiatives to promote the implementation of ”a school for all” within the entire municipality. A major finding was the importance of committed and engaged leadership.  Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) model for ecological systems constitutes the theoretical starting point. The respondents in sub-studies I and II, which are the focus in this section of the thesis, are parents (n=14) and teachers (n=8). The common denominator is children/pupils who have an intellectual disability, and study according to the curriculum for special schooling but are taught in regular comprehensive school classes. Previous research into inclusion and national policy documents are of central concern to this thesis. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis is employed as an interpretative tool for the interviews. Parents discuss the benefits of "a school for all"; good role models, social relationships and opportunities for the child to develop both socially and intellectually. They also describe how they must always be prepared to fight for their child, "keeping a watchful eye" on the school, and they imply that it is never possible to "become complacent". Teachers' attitudes and knowledge are described as crucial. A few parents wanted to have the opportunity to choose a special school for children with intellectual disabilities (ID). Their arguments are presented. In the teacher interviews, a conviction emerges about the importance of "a school for all" for the pupils' self-image, social and academic development. Organizational support, in-service training and skills’ development are seen as the prerequisites for successful inclusion, as well as educational strategies such as family groups and model learning. Respondents indicate that inclusion works most satisfactorily between years 1 and 6 in the comprehensive school and is viewed more detrimentally between years 7 and 9, in order to be better viewed again in the upper secondary school (senior high school) and the reasons for this are discussed. The case study contributes to a broader understanding of  the processes of implementation and change regarding inclusion of pupils with special school status and the importance of understanding the connections and relationships between the levels within Bronfenbrenner’s ecological systems theory which directly or indirectly affect the child’s/pupil’s development and well-being.

The purpose of this study was to determine attitude and attitude change toward,student teaching as expressed by students who were pursuing certification to teach speech and/or drama courses in the public school at the secondary level.

This study examines pre-service teachers' attitudes toward language diversity and linguistically diverse students. Two hundred seventy-one teacher education students were surveyed to determine relative effects of demographic, mediating variables and psychosocial variables on language attitude as measured by the Language Attitudes of Teachers Scale (LATS). Independent variables include gender, age, race/ethnicity, teacher certification sought, region, psychological insecurity, cognitive sophistication, and helpfulness viewpoint. Research questions are established and methodology is outlined. A review of related literature places the study in the context of research with a broad interdisciplinary perspective and then links the study to other research relevant to the field of education. The findings of the study indicate that gender, race/ethnicity, teacher certification sought, political ideology, psychological insecurity, and cognitive sophistication contribute significantly to the variation found in attitude toward language diversity. The paper concludes with analyses and discussions of the significant variables and suggestions for application in teacher preparation.

Since its introduction in the 1980's, student engagement has been a popular topic in educational research. In the beginning, engagement was thought of as a simple construct; however, it is now believed that student engagement involves four separate, but equally important components (Appleton, 2012; Christenson, Reschly, Appleton, Berman, Spanjers, & Varro, 2008). The components of academic, behavioral, affective and cognitive engagement are each vital to the ongoing educational success of students, and ideally, these would remain high throughout all of the years that students are in school. Unfortunately, research shows that most students' engagement levels continuously decrease from elementary school until high school graduation (or dropout), with the biggest drops occurring when students transition to middle school and high school (Alexander, Entwisle, & Horsey, 1997; Dunleavy & Milton, 2008; Finn, Pannozzo, & Voelkl, 1995; Lopez, 2011; Roeser, Strobel, & Quihuis, 2002; Skinner et al., 2009). Much of the research is currently being done at the middle and high school level to try and re-engage students in their learning (Appleton, 2012; Appleton, Christenson, Kim & Reschley, 2006; Fredricks, Blumenfeld, & Paris, 2004). This research study, however, looked at the implications of engagement data collection with fourth grade students. This mixed-methods study had two main goals. The first goal of the study was to determine the benefits of providing teachers with a systematic approach to collecting and following data on students' affective and cognitive engagement levels over time. The second goal of the study was to begin to explore interventions that appeared to increase fourth grade students' affective and cognitive engagement levels. The data analysis showed that students consistently reported lower engagement scores in the areas of teacher and peer relationships at school. It was also found that teachers did not report using student engagement data to make whole class interventions, but teachers did report the desire to track individual student's engagement scores in order to implement individualized interventions, when needed. Three additional findings, as well as suggestions for future research, are also presented. In the end, the study concludes with a more broad view on how this research can be used to impact the field of education. The ideas of teacher awareness, power in schools, and the need to create safe and caring classrooms that include students in the decision making process are all discussed as important components needed to engage students. Final suggestions have also been given for both teachers and administrators on how best to increase student engagement in the school or school district where they are working.

Teachers play an important role in teaching English as a second language. Since many studies of students’ attitudes towards leaning English already exist this study aims to compensate the lack of studies examining teachers’ attitudes towards methods of teaching English as a foreign language. The main focus of the study is on Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). The definition and effects of CLIL are presented and discussed as well as pedagogical implications about teaching English as a foreign language. Via an online survey questionnaire, this study examines the attitude towards CLIL of ninety-seven teachers in the Swedish primary school’s preschool class to grade three. Findings of this study implicate that teachers in general have a positive attitude towards a content integrated approach to teaching English as a foreign language. Finally, suggestions for future research are presented.

稿本(據電腦打印本複印) / Thesis (M.A.)--香港中文大學. / Gao ben (ju dian nao da yin ben fu yin) / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 53-61) / Thesis (M.A.)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue. / Chapter 第一章： --- 引言 / Chapter 第一節 --- 問題的背景 --- p.1 / Chapter 第二節 --- 研究目的 --- p.3 / Chapter 第三節 --- 研究的意義 --- p.4 / Chapter 第二章： --- 文獻探討 / Chapter 第一節 --- 有關組織投入的各派學說 --- p.5 / Chapter 第二節 --- 影響組織投入的因素 --- p.7 / Chapter 第三節 --- 教師的組織投入對其出席行為的影響 --- p.8 / Chapter 第四節 --- 教師的組織投入對準時到校及自願留校的影響 --- p.10 / Chapter 第五節 --- 教師的組織投入對其留任意願及留任行為的影響 --- p.11 / Chapter 第六節 --- 教師的工作滿足感及組織投入 --- p.13 / Chapter 第三章： --- 研究方法 / Chapter 第一節 --- 假設與定義 --- p.14 / Chapter 第二節 --- 研究工具 --- p.17 / Chapter 第三節 --- 取樣、資料捜集及分析 --- p.19 / Chapter 第四節 --- 研究的限制 --- p.20 / Chapter 第四章： --- 研究結果分析 / Chapter 第一節 --- 辦學園體的背景及屬下中學資料 --- p.21 / Chapter 第二節 --- 教師的背景 --- p.28 / Chapter 第三節 --- 教師對學校及工作的態度 --- p.36 / Chapter 第四節 --- 教師的行為和意向 --- p.40 / Chapter 第五節 --- 各统計假設的檢驗 --- p.43 / Chapter 第五章： --- 討論、總結及建議 / Chapter 第一節 --- 討論 --- p.45 / Chapter 第二節 --- 總結 --- p.48 / Chapter 第三節 --- 建議 --- p.51 / 參考書目錄 / Chapter 一. --- 中文參考書目 --- p.53 / Chapter 二. --- 英文參考書目 --- p.54 / 附錄 / Chapter 一. --- 中學教師對學校的觀感及工作意向問卷 --- p.62 / Chapter 甲部： --- 教師個人資料 / Chapter 乙部： --- 教師對學校的觀感及工意向 / Chapter 二. --- 硏究生致各位回答問卷教師函件 --- p.65 / Chapter 三. --- 訪問校長問卷 --- p.66 / Chapter 四. --- 教職申請表 --- p.67 / Chapter 五. --- 遴選教師評分表 --- p.69 / Chapter 六. --- 出席離校紀錄簽到表 --- p.70 / Chapter 七. --- 教師評核表（初稿） --- p.71 / Chapter 八. --- 教師升级申請辦法 --- p.73 / 撮要 / 英譯本 --- p.74

For data collection, the researcher was attached to three Hong Kong secondary schools with average academic and extra-curricular activity performances for three months each during the past two years. Having got familiarized with the teachers and students through joining various formal and informal school activities, in the last month of his attachment, the researcher invited each teacher to be interviewed on the topic of extra-curricular activities and to be tape-recorded. In the end, 122 teachers agreed to be the participants in the interviews. The interview was conducted in a semi-structured way, in which the teacher first recounted and commented on his/her experience and impression of extra-curricular activities. The researcher then asked for clarifications and further exploration of his/her own conception, with the help of some "situation cards". In the whole interview process, the researcher adopted a "non judgmental" attitude towards the definition of "extra-curricular activities", only asking the interviewee questions on the clarity and consistency of his/her conception. Each interview lasted for about an hour. After the interviews, the recordings were converted into written scripts. Based on the interview process and scripts, the researcher sorted out various main themes and key words and proceeded with data analysis. After three stages of back-and-forth collation and with the number of cases reduced to forty, finally seven conceptions of extra-curricular activities have been constructed: Accountability, Attachment, Mould, Experience, Personal growth, Liberation, and Balance. The researcher has depicted the specific horizon, concepts and the relationship among concepts, and also compared and contrasted the distinctive features of each conception. / There are multifarious extra-curricular activities in Hong Kong secondary schools. Nearly every teacher participates in the activities. Different teachers infuse extra-curricular activities with diverse meanings, and actualize different modes of school education. This study aims at exploring Hong Kong secondary school teachers' conceptions of extra-curricular activities. It collates individual cases into different collective clusters, depicting each conception of extra-curricular activities, and the relationship between the concepts. / This thesis attempts to relate and contrast the features of the seven conceptions of extra-curricular activities and the four main questions generated from the theories about valuation in curriculum, thus showing that the conceptions of Accountability, Attachment and Mould are based on "group" values, which set an instrumental field for "learning". Conceptions of Personal growth, Experience and Liberation refer to "individual", tending to adopt "individual as a unit" and "intrinsic values" as the learning field. The conception Balance is in-between the two. It tries to balance the tension between individual and social instruments, as well as intrinsic and extrinsic values. Taking a step further, this thesis also argues that to improve the quality of school education, each teacher has to decide on a definition and orientation of the curriculum which is in line with his/her own extra-curricular activity conception. Merely claiming that "Extra-curricular activity is part of the curriculum" is not necessarily conducive to improving education quality. Finally, the findings also point to the need to explore how we can provide teachers with a cultivating environment and quality facilitators for helping them clarify, improve and transform their conceptions of extra-curricular activities in the course of learning. This will be a key concern for the further development of teacher education. / 周昭和. / 呈交日期: 2006年4月. / 論文(哲學博士)--香港中文大學, 2006. / 參考文獻(p. 324-344). / Cheng jiao ri qi: 2006 nian 4 yue. / Adviser: Ngai-ying Wong. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-11, Section: A, page: 4078. / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. Ann Arbor, MI : ProQuest Information and Learning Company, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / School code: 1307. / Lun wen (zhe xue bo shi)--Xianggang Zhong wen da xue, 2006. / Can kao wen xian (p. 324-344). / Zhou Zhaohe.

Diversity across U.S. classrooms is on the rise which is leading to renewed calls for teachers to meet individual learning needs. Studies indicate the failure to address individual learning needs can lead to higher rates of student disengagement, off-task behaviors, and diminished learning outcomes. Differentiated instruction is an approach to teaching that meets the growing diversity of individual learning needs by considering students' readiness, interest, and learning styles. Differentiated instructional approaches help teachers meet individual learning needs by allowing them to modify instruction as needed. However, despite the apparent benefits of differentiated instruction, teachers are hesitant to abandon other educational models. Research has shown beliefs about student learning influence teachers classroom practices. If teachers do not possess beliefs supporting differentiated classroom practices, then calls for additional implementation may go unheeded. Thus it is important to examine teacher beliefs that may help or hinder implementation of differentiated instructional practices. The purpose of this study was to explore teacher beliefs connected to teaching, learning, and differentiated instruction in diverse classrooms. This study used qualitative case study methodologies to interview, survey, and observe the beliefs and practices of four white, female, veteran middle level educators operating in diverse classroom settings. Data analysis revealed the following themes: (a) differentiated instruction is considered essential, (b) teachers' diversity definitions influenced their differentiated instructional strategies, (c) the classroom environment influences teachers self-efficacy, and (d) professional development sessions support differentiated instructional practices. Conclusions drawn from this study may be used to help improve teacher practices--and ultimately learner outcomes--by informing teacher preparation and professional development, state and local educational policies, and curricular reform efforts.