Not available / text

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

The topic of teacher reflection has been gaining greater attention in the education literature. Nevertheless, teachers' reflective processes have not been well understood. This study attempted to describe characteristics and content of professors' post-class reflection. More specifically, it attempted to determine whether professors engage in the reflection process consciously and ways in which this process can be characterized. Eight professors, representing two levels of teaching experience, teaching a lecture or seminar undergraduate class in humanities or engineering, participated in this case study. Interviews, classroom observations, and instructional plans and materials comprised the data sources. Transcripts of the interviews were analyzed thematically, using QSR NUD*IST 4. Findings indicate that professors' post-class reflection became a routine: it happened at different points of time, mostly right after the class, and as a continuous process. Their reflection involved a mixture of having intuitive feelings about the class as well as thinking logically about how the class unfolded. They reflected intentionally and for two major purposes: to get ready for the next class and to improve teaching in general. They were either unable to characterize their way of reflecting on the class or were very clear that their reflection was more an intuitive process than a rational one. They reflected mostly on their teaching performance, on the content covered in class, on the students, and on instructional contexts. Based on the results, a conceptual framework is proposed that describes professors' post-class reflection as interrelated with rational and non-rational information processing. The study contributes to a better understanding of the complex process of teacher thinking and informs the design of faculty development interventions that aim at promoting reflective practice.

Professional development and in-service training are often used as synonymous terms. However, for the purposes of this study it is useful to stipulate differences. From my experience as science consultant, inservice training has been a short term plan the objective of which is to ask teachers to change their practices after information has been presented to them. Inservice training seems to assume that teachers possess forms of professional knowledge that may lead to changes in their classroom practices. In contrast, professional development maybe defined as a long term support for teachers who seek additional knowledge to guide their classroom practices. If teachers do not possess knowledge that will assist them in classroom practices, and they wish to do so, then the opportunity to acquire this knowledge should be provided. Providing professional development opportunities to teachers in remote schools is a challenge. There are few people offering professional development opportunities and remote schools suffer when in competition with their urban counterparts. Even if experienced personnel were available, the cost of getting teachers to a central site or the presenter to remote schools is more costly than most school divisions can afford. This study explored video technology as a tool to overcome professional development problems of distance, cost and shortage of presenters involved in professional development. Central to understanding how video technology may be used to overcome professional development problems is describing how teachers respond to video technology. Video technology has the capability of presenting actual classroom practices demonstrated in vignettes. The vignettes used in this study demonstrated how teachers engage students in manipulating materials to discover scientific principles. A qualitative design was used to collect data on how teachers responded to these vignettes. The data were collected from four teachers in three phases. These phases were initial interview, classroom observation and follow up interview. During the initial interview each teacher viewed the vignettes and was interviewed. Data were also collected during a classroom visit and follow up interview. Once the data were collected and transcribed they were placed on cards and categorized by topic. The data from one teacher were cross referenced by juxtaposition the data with other data collected from that teacher. Data collected from each teacher were then cross referenced with the other teachers' data using triangulation. The data were then reported using a case study format which allowed this researcher to include his interpretations. Three teachers reported that the vignettes were idealistic, and none of the teachers discussed the main message of the vignettes. Instead the teachers used knowledge suggestive of knowledge categories constructed by Shulman (1987) to interpret the videotaped vignettes. Further, teachers framed problems with their classroom practice after viewing the vignettes. Three teachers framed problems with grouping their students for science and explored aspects of their framed problem. The notion that teachers frame problems and explore different aspects of their problem suggests that teachers engage in a complex mental process called reflection-on-action by Schon (1983, 1987). Since vignettes prompt teachers to critically examine their practices and provide information that is useful to them in solving problems with their practice, vignettes maybe used as a professional development tool in remote schools.

This qualitative case study of two primary teachers during their first year of using a new provincial art curriculum was concerned with the effect of a special relationship between the two teachers on their implementation efforts. The relationship was part of an implementation strategy devised by arts consultants in the school board office; one teacher in every school was designated a “Catalyst Teacher” with a loosely defined role of acting as an on-site “cheerleader” (or catalyst) for the implementation activities of colleagues. This use of a non-specialist member of a staff is related to peer-centred improvement and change efforts discussed in recent literature under such terms as “peer coaching,” “cooperative professional development,” and “collaborative consultation.” It has been shown that a collegial approach to change efforts tends to contribute to the successful implementation of change. Through a series of semistructured interviews with the two teachers individually and together, and supplemented by observations of their art teaching and by interviews and informal conversations with Ministry of Education personnel, the local art consultant, and the school principal, a picture was produced of the meanings constructed by the two teachers about the new curriculum, their roles as teachers and colleagues, the place of art in their total programs, and the effect of the Catalyst Teacher Program on their own implementation efforts. At the end of the interview series, the teachers considered their own progress with the help of Hall and associates’ Levels of Use scale (1975). Looking through the lens of a symbolic interactionist approach to studying this working relationship, I was able to focus on the interdependence of all the elements in the cyclical process of data gathering, sorting, coding, reflecting, and analyzing. The qualitative causal network described by Corbett and Rossman (1989) provided a framework within which the case data could be analyzed and compared to Corbett and Rossman’s findings. The progress of the participants in this study showed the positive effect of the implementation strategy in use in their board. These two teachers’ special qualities of collegiality contributed to their early success, suggesting that conditions of teacher empowerment and collegiality need to precede other specific change efforts. Conditions of distancing between grade-level units within the school, that may have contributed to differences in implementation progress, point to a need to reconsider the wide scale of most implementation efforts.

No description available.

No description available.

This thesis is concerned with a study of the use of microteaching in the one year postgraduate teacher training course. It consists of two national surveys using two types of questionnaire, an Organisation and an Attitude Questionnaire. Education tutors and Subject Method tutors in United Kingdom universities, polytechnics and colleges offering one year postgraduate courses were requested to complete questionnaires about their use of microteaching and about their attitudes towards it. Visits were arranged to meet the staff involved and to see the type of facilities available. A similar survey was conducted in Departments of Education in South African universities. A comparative study of the use of microteaching in one year postgraduate teacher training courses was carried out on the data that was accumulated from the two surveys. Some interesting points of comparison can be made both on the types of microteaching organisation that have evolved in the two very different education systems and on the different attitudes of staff towards the use of microteaching. Based on the United Kingdom data, an in-depth study of the factors affecting the use of microteaching, was carried out. This study was related to the changes in teacher training in the United Kingdom during the seventies, following the publication of the James report, leading to a more professional approach to teacher training and the evolution of school-based training courses. Significant differences in the responses to the Organisation and Attitude Questionnaires from the different types of institution were examined using Chi-square. The Attitude data was examined for various groups of teacher training staff, who differed in their approaches to the organisation of microteaching because of, for instance, the different facilities available, the length of time available, the size of the student group or the logistics of the microteaching programme, by the use of Chi-square and significant differences in the responses of the different groups were reported. The results from the surveys were analysed and related to the research findings as published in the literature to see how the practitioners of teacher education differ in their views and approaches to microteaching from those responsible for the research into microteaching. Factor analysis of the responses to the Attitude Questionnaire from the different types of training institution, i.e. United Kingdom universities, polytechnics and colleges and South African universities, was carried out to examine the significant underlying factors which influenced the responses. The findings of the study identify economic, organisational and philosophical factors which affect the way microteaching is used. These factors and the recent developments in postgraduate teacher training courses in the United Kingdom are examined for their possible implications for postgraduate teacher training in South Africa. / Thesis (Ph.D.) - University of Natal, 1985.