The South African education is undergoing transformation. The introduction of Curriculum 2005 and Outcome Based Education (OBE) are important aspects of this transformation process. The implementation of the new curriculum however, has not been smooth. A lack of adequately qualified and trained teachers and effective learning support materials have been identified as some of the major problems facing the implementation of OBE at school level. Even though the colleges of education in the country were not brought on board in the planning and implementation levels of the new curriculum, they could have played an important role in training of educators and developing learning materials for the successful take off of the new curriculum. In the first research project I look into the preparedness of the Mathematics Department of a college of education in the Eastern Cape towards the implementation of Outcome Based Education. The first part of the research project consists of a literature review on Curriculum 2005, Outcome Based Education and the expectations of teachers in the new curriculum and the research methodologies used. The findings revealed that the department, as a whole, was not adequately prepared for the implementation of outcome-based education even though there were some indications that the department effected some modifications in its curriculum and practice teaching. As an OBE facilitator and a college lecturer, I developed some learning materials in Linear Programming. These activity-oriented materials were based on constructivist principles and were used by my first year Secondary Teachers Diploma students. In the second research project, I reflect on the results of using these learning materials by my students. In the first chapter of the project, the context and background of the research and the reasons for selecting Linear Programming as the topic for preparing the learning material are described. This is followed by a brief overview of constructivism together with a brief explanation of the reasons for considering the material to be constructivist. The research paradigm followed in the project, the research techniques employed in evaluating the learning material and the strengths and weaknesses of the evaluation techniques are given in the next chapter. In the following chapter, the findings from the various data gathering methods and the results of the implementation of the material are described. The concluding chapter presents a critical reflection on the whole process involved in the material development. The post 1994 government in South Africa seems to attach much importance to mathematics, science and technology education. The majority of the population who were previously denied access to these subjects is given more opportunities to learn them. The international Mathematics Union declared 2000 as the World Mathematical Year. One of the aims of the activities organized as part of the celebrations was improving the public image of mathematics to realize the vision of "Mathematics For All". The South African government shows keen interest to improve mathematics education in the country in an attempt to realize the vision of Mathematics For All. Even though the accessibility rate to mathematics has increased, the success rate has not yet increased as anticipated. In this context I, as a post-graduate student in Mathematics Education, thought of /reviewing the concept of Mathematics For All in the South African context. In the third research project, which is a literature review, initially an attempt is made to unpack the concept of Mathematics for ALL. In analyzing the concept, answers are sought for questions like: What is mathematics and why should it be taught? It is followed by a brief review of some goals of mathematics education. Then the current situation of mathematics education in South Africa and the efforts to improve it are also looked at. This is followed by an analysis pf the reasons for the general unpopularity of mathematics. In the concluding part some suggestions for improving mathematics education in the country are given.

This study is a contextual analysis and evaluation of the Arts-in-Culture curriculum at Ongwediva College of Education. Arts-in-Culture is one of the core subjects in the Basic Education Teacher Diploma (BETD)’s Broad Curriculum. At colleges such as Ongwediva, Caprivi and Rundu, student teachers study Arts as a core subject, while at Windhoek College of Education it can be studied as either a major or a core subject. In this study, I have raised some questions: Why is it that at Ongwediva College, the status of Arts-in-Culture is still low in comparison to other curriculum subjects like sciences and languages? Do student teachers and teacher educators fully understand how to assess the subject? Is the syllabus open for everyone? Is the learning environment conducive to offering the subject? Do the syllabus; learning environment, teacher educators and student teachers promote the goals of education for all? This study first gives the historical background of the subject. The background is of a diverse nature, namely African Indigenous Arts education, Black Arts education under the missionaries, Black Arts education under the South Africa Regime and Arts Education in the current Namibian reform dispensation. Second, the data collecting methodologies of this study are discussed. This includes how I collected information, who I contacted to collect this information, the tools I used to collect data, when and where I used them, why they were used and how they were used, the difficulties or problems I encountered and what I have learned about myself during the process. The third part of this study is the analysis of my findings from the participants interviewed and the fourth is how I have tried to link these different sections together. The last part of the paper is my conclusion.

Esta tese de doutorado aborda o processo de formação e a prática profissional dos educadores da rede pública municipal e estadual da cidade de Igrejinha, RS. Este é um estudo de caso que segue a teoria materialista e utiliza as categorias filosóficas do Materialismo Dialético, as categorias sociológicas do Materialismo Histórico e também as categorias da Economia Política de Marx. A partir do Materialismo Dialético, analisamos os princípios, as leis e as categorias que estão imbricadas no processo de formação dos professores e também envolvidas em sua prática profissional. Esta tese é caracterizada como um estudo de caso que procura analisar as contradições existentes entre a formação e a prática profissional dos professores da rede pública municipal e estadual de ensino dentro de uma visão de totalidade. Com esta tese procuramos conhecer e compreender as contradições existentes entre a formação e a prática profissional e, num segundo momento, sugerimos ações concretas e viáveis no sentido de melhorar a prática dos educadores em sala de aula e, conseqüentemente, contribuir para a melhoria do nível de qualidade da educação pública na cidade de Igrejinha, RS. Nesta tese, afirmo que as contradições existentes entre a formação e a prática profissional dos educadores estão relacionadas com o baixo nível de qualidade da educação igrejinhense e também contribuem para que haja um clima de desânimo e desmotivação entre os professores, alunos e os diferentes profissionais que estão envolvidos com a educação. Os dados que expusemos nesta tese são provenientes de pesquisas em fontes bibliográficas e documentais e, como técnicas de coletas de dados, utilizamos a entrevista semi-estruturada e a observação semi-dirigida das aulas de dez professores. A partir desta tese, podemos afirmar que é urgente a viabilização de projetos destinados a organização de ações concretas voltadas à formação continuada/permanente dos professores para que estes consigam harmonizar mais a dimensão teórica com a dimensão prática presentes no processo pedagógico. O aumento dos investimentos em educação para a concretização de uma política salarial justa, bem como o aumento dos salários, são soluções que se impõem em regime de urgência como saída para estimular os professores que lutam em diferentes salas de aula em diversas turmas de alunos. Preconizamos que a educação e a formação são fenômenos políticos capazes de contribuir no processo de emancipação dos seres humanos e, a partir disto, preparar os jovens para o exercício consciente da cidadania e, desta forma, estaremos criando condições para aperfeiçoar a democracia e transformar a sociedade. / This doctoral thesis addresses the educators’ professional training and practice process of the municipal and state public network of the city of Igrejinha, RS. This is a case study that follows the materialist theory and uses the philosophical categories of the Dialectical Materialism, the Historical Materialism sociological categories and also Marx's Political Economy categories. From the Dialectical Materialism we discuss the principles, laws and categories that are interlinked in the training process of the teachers and also involved in their professional practices. This thesis is characterized as a case study that tries to analyze the existing contradictions between the municipal and state public network education teachers’ training and practice within a vision of totality. With this thesis we try know and understand the contradictions between the professional training and practice, and at a second time, we suggest concrete and viable actions in the sense of improving the educators’ practice in the classroom and thus contribute to improving the level of quality of public education in Igrejinha, RS. In this thesis I state that the existing contradictions between the educators’ professional training and practice are linked to the low quality level of Igrejinha’s education and they also contribute to a discouragement atmosphere and demotivation among the teachers, students and various professionals who are involved with education. The data that we outlined in this thesis come from research in bibliographic and documentary sources, and as data collection techniques, we used the semistructured interview and the semi-directed observation of ten teachers’ lessons. From this thesis we can claim that the viability of projects for the organization of concrete actions focusing on teachers’ continuing/permanent education is urgent so that they can harmonize more the theoretical dimension together with the practice dimension present in the pedagogical process. The education investment raise to the achievement of a fair wage policy, as well as the wage raise, are solutions that are required under the emergency regime as a way out to stimulate teachers who struggle in different classrooms in various students’ groups. We advocate that education and training are political phenomena able to contribute in the process of emancipation of human beings and from that prepare young people to the conscious exercise of citizenship and thus we are creating conditions for enhancing democracy and transform the society.

The process of teacher training aims to prepare the professional for the exercise of the teaching job in the various levels of teaching, either in the basic school or in the high school. Therefore, this works investigates the dilemmas, challenges and perspectives which shows the north to the teacher training process as well as the graduates pedagogical practice from the Programa Especial para Graduação de Professores (PGP), Pedagogy course, held by Universidade Estadual de Alagoas (UNEAL), whose objective is to graduate the in-service teachers from various cities in Alagoas, considering the impacts that cause changes in the context of the basic education, in which the practice of these in-service teachers develops, as well as the impacts in the society of Alagoas. This work also discusses on the set of political issues on the teacher training, through a historical study and some approaches, from the Normal Schools, the first ones in the business of teacher training, until the basic principles which support this teacher training in the contemporary. Therefore, sets the profile of the graduate, bringing some reflections and analysis at the action of this graduate teacher, considering his teaching job from the beginning of his profession, from the beginning of the program and after the program, which are three different moments. It also remarks the graduate student as the subject of the investigation. This way, the type of research is the qualitative one, whose approach is a case study. This work highlights that the instrument used in this research was an open questionnaire and a semi-structured interview. The results show that the graduate s pedagogical practice is centred in theoretical approaches which come from literatures presented during the terms of the program and that it implies innovations and the changes of paradigms before the diversity of actions which were learned by the graduate students. / O processo de formação do professor visa preparar o profissional para o exercício da docência nos níveis de ensino, quer seja nas modalidades da Educação Infantil, Ensino Fundamental ou Ensino Médio. Nesse sentido, esse trabalho investiga os dilemas, desafios e perspectivas que norteiam a formação docente e a prática pedagógica dos egressos do Programa Especial para Graduação de Professores (PGP), curso de pedagogia, instituído pela Universidade Estadual de Alagoas (UNEAL), objetivando atender a demanda dos professores em exercício da rede municipal de ensino, considerando os impactos causadores de mudanças no contexto da Educação Básica, na qual, a prática desses egressos se desenvolve, bem como, na sociedade alagoana. Discute a conjuntura das políticas de formação docente, fazendo um resgate histórico, através de breves abordagens, a partir das Escolas Normais, pioneiras na formação do professor, até os princípios básicos que sustentam essa formação na contemporaneidade. Assim, traça o perfil do egresso trazendo como reflexão e análise a ação desse egresso, considerando seu fazer docente no início da profissionalização, início do programa e após o programa, portanto, três momentos distintos. Outrossim, sinaliza o egresso enquanto sujeito dessa investigação. Dessa forma, o tipo de pesquisa utilizada é a qualitativa, cuja abordagem centra-se no estudo de caso. Vale salientar que o instrumento utilizado na coleta de dados foi um questionário aberto e um roteiro de entrevista semi-estruturada. Os resultados alcançados mostram a prática pedagógica do egresso centrada em abordagens teóricas advindas das literaturas trabalhadas durante o programa e vislumbram inovações e mudanças de paradigmas diante de uma diversidade de ações que foram aprendidas e apreendidas pelos egressos.

Este trabalho realiza uma análise de projetos de docência de língua portuguesa e literatura desenvolvidos no âmbito da formação inicial de professores. O corpus para análise foi constituído de trinta e oito (38) projetos elaborados nas disciplinas Ensino de Literatura Brasileira e Estágio Docente de Português no Ensino Fundamental, oferecidas, respectivamente, na sexta e na sétima etapas do curso de Licenciatura em Letras em uma Instituição de Ensino Superior do estado do Rio Grande do Sul. Partese das concepções de linguagem e literatura presentes na obra do círculo de Bakhtin, dos estudos sociológicos de Candido (2000, 2006), Bourdieu (1992) e Escarpit (1970, 1978) sobre a esfera literária e do panorama de discussões sobre educação linguística e letramento, (BAGNO; RANGEL, 2005; BRITTO, 2007), letramento literário (PAULINO; COSSON, 2009; COSSON, 2011) e projetos educacionais (HERNÁNDEZ, 1998; SIMÕES et al., 2012) para a elaboração de princípios considerados importantes no planejamento e na execução da docência em língua portuguesa e literatura. A análise dos projetos busca compreender de que modo os projetos de professores em formação respondem a essas discussões, que se fazem presentes na bibliografia comum das disciplinas, com a leitura dos Referenciais Curriculares da Secretaria da Educação do Rio Grande do Sul (2009). / This research analyzes Portuguese and Literature teaching projects, developed in the context of teachers initial training. The data corpus analyzed was constituted by thirty eight (38) projects elaborated in the university courses of Brazilian Literature Teaching and Portuguese Teaching Internship. The courses have been offered in the sixth and seventh phases of Letras degree, respectively, in a University in Rio Grande do Sul (Brazil). The research is based on the conceptions of language and literature found in Bakhtin's circle work; Candido (2000, 2006), Bourdieu (1992) and Escarpit's (1970, 1978) sociological studies on the literary sphere and the landscape of discussions regarding linguistic education and literacy (BAGNO; RANGEL, 2005; BRITTO, 2007), literary literacy (PAULINO; COSSON, 2009; COSSON, 2011) and educational projects (HERNÁNDEZ, 1998; SIMÕES et al., 2012) for elaborating the principles considered important in planning and executing Portuguese and Literature teaching. The projects analysis are aimed at understanding how projects elaborated by teachers in training respond to these discussions, which are present in the two courses common bibliography, through the reading of Rio Grande do Sul curriculum referential (2009).

This study investigated the oral proficiency of ESL teacher trainees in different discourse domains. The sample for the study consisted of twenty ESL teacher trainees in their final year at a College of Education. Different methods were used to measure the teacher trainees' oral proficiency in the English Communication Skills class while engaging in less formal conversations and in more formal teaching of content subjects during Practice Teaching. Three categories of constructs for oral proficiency were measured: Accuracy and fluency, classroom language and non-verbal communication. The findings supported the hypothesis: The oral proficiency of ESL teacher trainees is more satisfactory in some discourse domains,e.g. casual conversation, than in others, e.g. formal teaching. Although these findings cannot be regarded as conclusive they raise awareness of the problem. Recommendations were made on how to address the problem of poor oral performance of ESL teachers and teacher trainees teaching content subjects. / Linguistics and Modern Languages / M.A. (Specialisation in Applied Linguistics)

Science and Technology Education / M.Sc. (Chemical Education)

xii, 91 p. / Increasing diversity in education necessitates the incorporation of diversity-related curricula to assure student learning and development. Responding to the diverse needs of students improves learning and development for all students, which in turn fosters inclusive environments in education. Avoidance of conflicts sparked by differences encountered in diverse classrooms may prevent the incorporation of diversity-related curricula. The literature suggests that the predominance of conflict-avoidance among educational professionals may be related to previous exposure to diversity-related issues and content in their educational training. However, empirical evidence of conflict-avoidance among educational professionals in response to this type of exposure has yet to be established. This study surveys students enrolled in a diversity-related education course in an effort to estimate the effects of diversity-related training on conflict-avoidant behaviors. / Committee in charge: Dr. Paul Yovanoff, Chairperson; Dr. Gerald Tindal, Member; Dr. Roland Good, Member; Dr. Cheyney Ryan, Outside Member

xiv, 218 p. : ill. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / The current study evaluated whether a manualized training in functional behavioral assessment (FBA) would result in typical school professionals being able to conduct a procedurally adequate FBA with a technically accurate summary statement for student behavior. Additionally, the study examined whether summary statements obtained by trained school staff were validated by formal functional analyses. The efficiency and social validity of the FBA training process was also investigated through use of an acceptability rating questionnaire and a log to document time expended by each participant. Twelve school professionals participated in Practical FBA trainings that consisted of four 1-hour training sessions guided by a training manual. A post-test analysis of FBA knowledge content indicated that the trainees ended training with the knowledge and skill needed to conduct FBAs. Ten of the 12 professionals completed formal FBAs that were then submitted to validation via functional analysis. Results of the 10 functional analyses confirmed that all 10 school professionals accurately identified the antecedents and maintaining function of student behavior. All FBAs conducted by trained school professionals were considered procedurally adequate. The average time expended by participants in completing an FBA was under 2 hours. Participants also indicated high acceptability of the Practical FBA tools and procedures. This research study presented preliminary findings supporting the efficacy of an FBA training program for school personnel. Further implications, limitations, and directions for future research are presented. / Committee in charge: Robert Horner, Chairperson, Special Education and Clinical Sciences; K Brigid Flannery, Member, Special Education and Clinical Sciences; Richard Albin, Member, Special Education and Clinical Sciences; Renee VanNorman, Member, Special Education and Clinical Sciences; Jean Stockard, Outside Member, Planning Public Policy & Mgmt

The fundamental aim of undertaking the study was to develop a teaching practice curriculum for teachers colleges in Zimbabwe. In order to accomplish this, basic questions on curriculum development were first investigated These were on curriculum intent, structure and content. In chapter two a conceptual framework for the proposed teaching practice curriculum was investigated. This involved an analysis of the influence of aims of education on curriculum theory and development, issues of curriculum foundations and models of curriculum development. The analysis culminated in the adoption of a cyclical model for the development of the proposed teaching practice curriculum. The cognitive framework of the study was further illuminated through the conceptualisation of the teaching practice curriculum, where philosophical foundations of teaching practice as well as its theoretical contexts were examined. Critical in this was the theory-practice relationship. In chapter four, the prevailing teaching practice situation in Zimbabwe was examined and views of lecturers and students on it analysed. This was accomplished in order to further identify flaws in the current approach to teaching practice which could be improved by means of the proposed teaching practice curriculum. The teaching practice curriculum being proposed was synthesised and developed in chapter five. This curriculum is founded on the philosophical foundations discussed in chapters two and three. It has theoretical components and is implemented in teachers' colleges and schools. It brings to the fore the importance of partnership between the practising schools and colleges as well as reflective teacher education. The development of the proposed teaching practice curriculum resulted in the following outcomes: • An investigation into how theory and practice in teacher education could be integrated. • Suggestions for improving the college-school relationship through the development of partnership in teacher education. • The extrication of theory p-orn practice. • An emphasis on the importance of reflective practice and reflective teacher education. In recommending the adoption and implementation of the curriculum the researcher identified a number of meaningful consequences: • The improvement of teaching practice programmes in colleges. • The development of expertise in the practice of education. • The active involvement of experienced teachers in teacher education and training. • The resurgence of research in the practical aspect of teacher education. / Teacher Education / D. Ed. (Didactics)