Many crisis intervention programs have been developed for child abuse but very few primary prevention programs exist. Teaching prospective parents to cope with aversive child behaviors might prevent the occurrence of child abuse later. The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of using peer (high school students) and college students as trainers in a preventative approach to child abuse for high school students. It was proposed that peers would be better trainers because the trainees would be more likely to model their behavior and more at ease when asking the trainers questions. One hundred and thirty-four high school seniors were randomly assigned to one of three groups: control, college trained, or peer trained. These students rated their responses to potentially aversive child behavior situations and also role played their responses in these situations. Results indicated that there were no significant effects of training or types of trainers but the author concluded that more work should be done on the type of peer trainers used.

The classroom as a messenger of learning and awareness is an honored institution. Education promotes the spirit of inquiry. Concurrently, inquiry spearheads research. As students who have spent many hours in a classroom, we have wondered, inquired, into the spirit of the classroom. Our research is devoted to gaining and establishing a series of perspectives as to what occurs in the classroom. Our research is concerned with specific characteristics of the teacher-learner relationship and outcomes of that relationship. Specific characteristics of the student-teacher relationship such as effective communication, clarity of course objectives, or the quality of class lectures, have been explored by the use of an evaluative tool. Outcomes of the teacher-learner relationship such as the achievement of course objectives, and their relevance to Direct Services were also explored. As students in the School of Social Work, we saw dearth of communication between students and their respective professors. By assessing the relative successes of Direct Service Methods classes, and by the processes that are necessary for assessment, we hope to serve students and those who teach them.

A dissertation submitted to the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfilment of the degree Master of Arts in History by dissertation, 2018 / Why has South Africa failed to institute a teacher evaluation system that produces meaningful results? I aim to contribute to an understanding of why and how various South African post-1994 teacher evaluation policies have failed to become institutionalised and have failed to ensure either robust teacher accountability or professional development. In this dissertation, I examine the history of teacher evaluation in South Africa, in order to understand the evolution of these policies and systems over time. After discussing the legacy of apartheid-era evaluation, I assess three post-1994 policy phases: the 1998 Developmental Appraisal System (DAS), the 2001 Whole School Evaluation (WSE) policies and the 2003 Integrated Quality Management System (IQMS). This historical approach allows me to analyse the successes and failures of these policies in depth and context. Each of these policies has been shaped by, has tried to respond to, and has ultimately failed to confront the challenges of the past. They must also be understood to be a part of a continuous policymaking process, each one building upon and responding to the last. This dissertation contributes to an understanding of why these evaluation policies, despite massive investments of time, energy and resources, and complex and tough negotiations, have repeatedly failed. I argue that a flawed policy process consistently reiterates the same tensions and false assumptions in each new policy, and does not address these fundamental weaknesses. These appraisal policies reflect negotiations and contestations between teacher unions and the state, while the policies themselves and their outcomes further complicate those union-state relationships. The tensions and contradictions within these policies are the product of a policymaking process that tries to cater to mutually exclusive interests. The history of these institutions – teacher unions, the state, collective bargaining bodies – and the relationships between them must be understood in order to grapple with the policymaking environment fully. Further, even as these policies have been renegotiated and redeveloped, they have all failed to engage with the actual realities of teachers and classrooms in the majority of schools in South Africa. The legacy of apartheid education is still manifest in the abilities, attitudes and politics of teachers, and policymakers on all sides of the process have consistently failed to confront that history and propose real strategies for change. / XL2019

The problem of this study was to determine the relationship between the effectiveness of student teachers as measured by student ratings and situation-specific anxiety toward the act of teaching. Data for the study were obtained by the use of the Teacher Anxiety Scale and the Student Evaluation of Teaching Scale. The statistical evidence does not justify a conclusion that there is a relationship between the effectiveness of student teachers as measured by student ratings and situation-specific anxiety of student teachers toward the act of teaching. The statistical evidence does not support the conclusion that pupil ratings of student teachers are significantly affected by the student teacher's level of anxiety, sex, or teaching level. Furthermore, there is no statistical evidence given by the study that there is a significant difference in situation-specific anxiety among student teacher groups (Elementary or Secondary) according to sex or level of student teaching.

The purpose of the study was to determine the validity and reliability of a revised observation and evaluation instrument of middle and secondary pre-service clinical teaching to be used as part of the clinical supervision cycle and for formative purposes. The North Texas Appraisal of Classroom Teaching (NTACT) serves as a performance assessment tool utilized by a south-central university-based educator preparation program for the evaluation and supervision of pre-service teachers during their last semester of their program. The researcher piloted and field-tested a redesigned observation and evaluation instrument (NTACT-V2) on observer participants with varying educational experiences in the south-central region. To accumulate evidence of validity and reliability, this study employed methods of factor analysis and generalizability study for developing a valid and reliable instrument to guide the refinement process of the NTACT observation and evaluation instrument. Some of the significant conclusions reached in this study were (a) the NTACT-V2 is a practical, user-friendly classroom observation and evaluation instrument; (b) the instrument refined and developed in this study exhibits appropriate content, face, and criterion validity as determined by a panel of experts and an extensive review of the literature; and, (c) a variety of observers can use the evaluation instrument with relative ease while achieving a high degree of reliability.

No description available.

Declining enrollments and continuing tuition increases are having major impact on all universities. It is a commonly accepted fact that the quality of a university can be directly related to the quality of its faculty. With this assumption in mind, a university must then determine the best method for evaluating the teaching effectiveness of its faculty members. The study is an examination of certain student characteristics that might affect the attitudes of students when evaluating instructors. Seven individual student characteristics (sex, age, academic level, major, nationality, teaching preference and leadership experience) were examined to determine if there was any relationship between these characteristics and the student's attitude toward the instructor evaluation process. In addition, the responses obtained in the study were compared to those in similar studies previously conducted at Kansas State University and the University of Southern California. The research population consisted of 567 students enrolled at Florida Institute of Technology, Melbourne, Florida. Students who participated in the research were enrolled in courses offered by the Management Department and they were requested to evaluate their instructor at the completion of each course. The data for the study were obtained from a 27-item questionnaire titled Student Attitude of Evaluation Questionnaire. Ten of the items related to demographic data and 17 items related to student attitudes toward different aspects of the evaluation process. Information from the returned questionnaires was evaluated and tabulated utilizing the SPSS/PC program Analysis of Variance: Procedure ANOVA. An analysis of variance at the .05 level of significance was employed to examine the research questions. On an overall basis, there was no significant difference in students' attitudes toward the evaluation system based on individual student characteristics. However, the research did reveal some significant differences on individual items, i.e., one group feeling much stronger about a particular issue than another group. It was concluded from the research that students are strongly in favor of student evaluation of instructors, especially female students and lower-level undergraduate students.

No description available.

School boards are interested in school effectiveness and see a correlation between the quality of classroom teachers and school effectiveness. Superintendents, eager to please the school board, seek to show increased school effectiveness year after year. This necessitates dealing with areas which impact on student achievement with perhaps the most critical area being that of teacher effectiveness. The purpose of this study was to identify those factors which assisted marginal high school teachers in improving their classroom performance. Knowing to what or whom these teachers who showed improvement attributed this improvement may assist in modifying existing practices to increase the likelihood that such improvement will occur for a greater number of teachers. A survey was used to initially identify the teachers. A follow-up interview was conducted with fourteen teachers with the analysis of the transcribed interviews focusing on the following questions: 1. Did intervention/assistance efforts influence improvement? In what context were the intervention/ assistance efforts made? Who were the primary actors in the intervention/assistance efforts? What activities were influential in the intervention/assistance efforts? 2. Did external personal factors influence improvement? 3. Are there overarching characteristics, beliefs, and/or motives in the group of teachers who made substantial improvement in teaching performance? 4. What actor(s) provided to the teachers: (a) an awareness of the need for change and (b) support for change? 5. What were the teachers' perceived gains and losses in this improvement effort? Major findings revealed that teachers actively seek their peers' advice and desire to see one another in practice through peer observations. Sharing of ideas is important to teachers; yet, little opportunity exists within the school day for such sharing. Most staff development activities were seen as a waste of time and teachers resented activities which purported to "teach teachers how to teach." The most valuable activities to teachers were those things which they could take back and use in their classroom. As research has indicated, professional growth and development was primarily motivated by the teacher seeing results in the classroom and the resulting increase in teacher efficacy. / Ed. D.

The study addressed three basic problems. First, the effectiveness of incumbent special education administrators in Virginia had not been assessed. Second, the qualifications of incumbent special education administrators in Virginia had not been determined. Third, requirements for special education administrators in Virginia had not been developed, despite the recommendation of Berquist, et al., (1987) following their evaluation study of special education programming across the state. The study was designed to assess effectiveness by gathering perceptions of the quality of the knowledge and skills demonstrated by special education administrators. The study was designed to gather information on special education administrator's status in regard to two standard qualifications for positions in educational agencies, i.e., endorsement(s) held and amount of position-specific coursework taken. The study was designed to generate recommendations regarding requirements for special education administrators based upon the results of an analysis of effectiveness (demonstrated knowledge or demonstrated skill) by qualifications (endorsement and coursework [in administration and supervision of special education]). / Ed. D.