Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study investigates the development of the classroom communication behaviours of Foundation Phase student teachers over the course of a B Ed degree programme at a South African university. It challenges the premise of conventional wisdom that classroom communication behaviours will develop through regular exposure to situated learning experiences. Whilst acknowledging that learning to teach is a long and challenging process of which the precise nature is seldom clear-cut and distinct, this study claims to make a humble contribution to teacher education curriculum development. Classroom communication from the perspective of this study involves communication at two levels: firstly, interpersonal communication behaviours, which are influenced by nonverbal immediacy, communication apprehension, willingness to communicate and self-perceived communication skills; and secondly, instructional communication behaviours, more specifically clarity and immediacy behaviours. There seems to be a general perception that effective classroom communication will develop naturally by exposure to situated learning experiences, such as teaching practice sessions. Although the relative importance of these specific classroom communication behaviours for quality teaching and learning is acknowledged, whether and how these develop is seldom explicitly monitored. This was the intention of this study. It utilised a longitudinal mixed methods approach to follow Foundation Phase students over the four years of the degree programme in order to answer the following research question: To what extent do perceptions related to the classroom communication behaviours of Foundation Phase student teachers change over the course of a B Ed degree programme? The quantitative phase collected data using various self-report surveys in order to investigate possible changes in the self-perceptions of Foundation Phase student teachers regarding their communication behaviours over the four-year period. The purpose of the qualitative phase was to investigate possible changes in the perceptions of external evaluators regarding the instructional communication behaviours of student teachers over the degree programme. The qualitative data was obtained from the evaluation reports written by external evaluators on various aspects of the observed lessons. Although some changes occurred during the course of the B Ed degree programme, they were not as substantial as anticipated. From an interpersonal communication perspective, there was one particularly noticeable change: the self-perceived communication competence of the Foundation Phase student teachers improved between the first and second years of the programme, however, thereafter no further changes occurred. From an instructional communication perspective, more noticeable changes occurred: Foundation Phase student teachers improved in some aspects related to clarity, however other aspects still remained challenging. However, there was positive development related to immediacy: the fourth year Foundation Phase student teachers displayed higher levels of immediacy behaviours at the end of the four-year degree programme. Bearing in mind that neither interpersonal nor instructional communication theory was explicitly included in this particular B Ed degree programme; these findings are particularly noteworthy. This study advances the argument that if teacher education intends to address the quality of the teacher graduates entering the profession, classroom communication needs to be included in teacher education curricula. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie ondersoek die ontwikkeling van die klaskamer-kommunikasiegedrag van studentonderwysers in die Grondslagfase aan 'n Suid-Afrikaanse universiteit oor die verloop van 'n B Ed-graadprogram. Dit daag die konvensionele opvatting uit dat klaskamer-kommunikasiegedrag sal ontwikkel met gereelde blootstelling aan leerervarings in die praktyk. Alhoewel aanvaar word dat om te leer om te onderrig 'n lang en uitdagende proses is waarvan die presiese aard selde duidelik en onderskeibaar is, word daar met hierdie studie gepoog om 'n beskeie bydrae te lewer tot die ontwikkeling van onderwysersopleidingskurrikulums. Klaskamerkommunikasie behels vanuit die perspektief van hierdie studie twee vlakke: eerstens, interpersoonlike kommunikasiegedrag, wat beïnvloed word deur nie-verbale onmiddellikheid, kommunikasie-angstigheid, gewilligheid om te kommunikeer en self-persepsie van kommunikasievaardighede; en tweedens, onderrigkommunikasie-gedrag, meer spesifiek duidelikheid en onmiddellikheid. Die algemene persepsie bestaan dat doeltreffende klaskamerkommunikasie spontaan sal ontwikkel deur blootstelling aan praktiese ervaring in die klaskamer. Alhoewel die relatiewe belangrikheid van hierdie spesifieke klaskamer-kommunikasiegedrag algemeen erken word, word die ontwikkeling hiervan selde eksplesiet gemoniteer. Juis dít was die doel van hierdie studie. Longitudinale gemengde-metode navorsingsmetodologie is gebruik om Grondslagfase studente se kommunikasie-ontwikkeling oor die verloop van hul graadprogram te volg, met die doel om die volgende navorsingsvraag te beantwoord: Tot watter mate verander persepsies oor die klaskamer-kommunikasiegedrag van studentonderwysers in die Grondslagfase oor die verloop van die B Ed-graadprogram? Tydens die kwantitatiewe fase van die studie is data ingesamel deur die gebruik van 'n aantal self-rapporterende opnames ten einde moontlike veranderinge in die Grondslagfase studentonderwysers se selfpersepsie van hulle kommunikasiegedrag oor die tydperk van vier jaar te ondersoek. Die doel van die kwalitatiewe fase was om ondersoek in te stel na moontlike veranderinge in die persepsies van eksterne evalueerders wat betref die onderrig-kommunikasiegedrag van die studetonderwysers oor die verloop van die vier jaar van die kursus. Die kwalitatiewe data is verkry uit evalueringsverslae wat geskryf is deur eksterne evalueerders oor verskillende aspekte van die lesse wat geëvalueer is. Alhoewel daar sommige veranderinge plaasgevind het oor die verloop van die vier jaar van die B Ed-kursus, was hierdie veranderinge nie so substansieel as wat verwag is nie. Vanuit die oogpunt van interpersoonlike kommunikasie was daar slegs een merkbare verandering: die Grondslagfase-studente se selfpersepsie van hulle kommunikasievaardigheid het van die eerste na die tweede jaar verbeter, maar daarna het geen verdere veranderinge plaasgevind nie. Vanuit die oogpunt van onderrigkommunikasie het meer merkbare veranderinge egter plaasgevind: die Grondslagfase-studentonderwysers het verbeter ten opsigte van sommige aspekte wat betref duidelikheid, maar ander aspekte het steeds 'n uitdaging gebly. Daar was egter positiewe ontwikkeling wat betref onmiddellikheid: die Grondslagfase- studentonderwysers het in hulle vierde jaar hoër vlakke van onmiddellikheid getoon as aan die begin van hulle studies. Hierdie veranderings is veral opmerklik as is ag geneem word dat nie interpersoonlike kommunikasie of onderrigkommunkasie eksplesiet onderrig is in die spesifieke kursus nie. Hierdie studie voer aan dat as onderwysersopleiding 'n verskil wil maak aan die kwaliteit van onderwysgraduandi wat die beroep betree, moet onderrigkommunkasie ingesluit word by onderwysersopleiding-kurrikulums.

Thesis (MPhil)--University of Stellenbosch, 2000. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Technikon Southern Africa defined its role as distance learning institution with the implementation of the Integrated Learner Centred Distance Learning (ILCDE) model. This model implied the establishment of regional offices as well as the implementation of a tutor system. The tutor system implied the appointment of tutors at the different regional offices. In an attempt to take the distance out of distance learning the following functions of tutors were identified: • Telephone tutoring • Conducting contact sessions • Assessing assignments The focal point of this study was tutor development within a flexible learning system as no structured learning programmes for tutors exist at TSA. The purpose was to investigate and analyse the learning needs of tutors in a flexible learning system. Various critical questions stimulated this study. However, the following three questions formed the basis of this study: • What is the role of training and development in the tutor system? • Do tutors have a need for continuing professional learning programmes? If so, what . should the nature of such learning programmes be? • What should the criteria be to evaluate and monitor the development oftutors? A qualitative research approach was followed and the data was obtained by means of interviews and participative observation sessions. The subjects of the study were the tutors of the Subject Group: Management Leadership: Policing appointed for the registration period May 1998 - May 1999. One of the conclusions of the study was that the following processes regarding the tutor system need attention: • Recruitment and selection • Interviewing and appointment • Job descriptions • Orientation, training and development programmes • Evaluation and monitoring programmes • Role clarification • Marketing strategy The following recommendations were formulated: • A guide for the recruitment and appointment processes of its tutors should be compiled. • An assessment of the support needs of learners should be performed. • Establishing a continuing professional learning unit should be considered. • A proposal for learning interventions for continuing professional learning should be developed. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: DIE ROL VAN TUTORONTWIKKELING IN 'N PLOOffiARE LEERSTELSEL Die Technikon Suider-Afrika het sy rol as afstandsonderriginstansie gedefinieer toe die Geïntegreerde Leergesentreerde Afstandsonderrigmodel (lLeD£) geïmplementeer is. Hierdie model het die daarstelling van streekkantore asook die implementering van 'n tutorstelsel veronderstel. Die tutorstelsel het die aanstelling van tutors by die onderskeie streekkantore tot gevolg gehad. Om die afstand uit afstandsonderrig te haal, is die volgende drie funksies van tutors geïdentifiseer: • Telefoonbegeleiding • Fasilitering van kontaksessies • Assessering van werkopdragte Die fokuspunt van hierdie studie was tutorontwikkeling binne 'n plooibare leerstelsel, aangesien geen gestruktureerde leerprogramme vir tutors by TSA bestaan nie. Die doel was om die leerbehoeftes van tutors in so 'n plooibare leerstelsel te ondersoek en te ontleed. Verskeie kritiese vrae het aanvanklik hierdie studie gestimuleer, maar die volgende drie vrae het die basis van die studie gevorm: • Wat is die rol van opleiding en ontwikkeling in die tutorstelsel? • Is daar 'n behoefte aan deurlopende professionele leerprogramme? Indien ja, wat behoort die aard van die programme te wees? • Wat behoort die kriteria te wees om die ontwikkeling van tutors te evalueer en te monitor? 'n Kwalitatiewe navorsingsbenadering IS gevolg en die data IS deur middel van onderhoudvoering en deelnemende waarnemingsessies ingesamel. Die tutors wat aangestel is vir die registrasietydperk Mei 1998 - Mei 1999, van die Vakgroep: Bestuursleierskap: Polisiëring is vir die studie gebruik. Een van die gevolgtrekkings van die studie IS dat die volgende prosesse lil die daarstelling van die tutorstelsel aandag vereis: • Werwing en keuring • Onderhoudvoering en aanstelling • Posbeskrywings • Oriënterings-, opleidings- en ontwikkelingsprogramme • Evaluerings- en moniteringsprogramme • Roluitklaring • Bemarking Die volgende aanbevelings is geformuleer: • 'n Handleiding vir die werwing en keuring van tutors behoort saamgestel te word. • 'n Behoeftebepaling van die ondersteuningsbehoeftes van die leerders behoort gedoen te word. • Die vestiging van 'n deurlopende professionele leereenheid behoort oorweeg te word. • 'n Voorstel vir leerintervensies vir personeelontwikkeling behoort ontwikkel te word.

published_or_final_version / Environmental Management / Master / Master of Science in Environmental Management

published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Education / Doctoral / Doctor of Education

This study employed a longitudinal cross-lagged panel design to evaluate the effect of teachers’ self-efficacy on their motivation to participate in professional development. Data were collected from 43 Hong Kong secondary school teachers at 2 measurement points. The cross-lagged panel analyses revealed teachers’ higher self-efficacy predicted lower motivation to join the professional training programme. However, this negative effect brought by self-efficacy was only significant if the programme was appealing to the teachers at Time 1. Correlation statistics also showed that teachers with higher self-efficacy tended to rate their familiarity of the programmes higher at both measurement points. The meaningfulness of the programmes was also positively correlated with the motivation to join the programmes. / published_or_final_version / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

The investigation of expertise in teaching has followed the lead of research in domains other than education in that it has focused on the cognitive processes that define expertise. This study has shifted the focus to the actual classroom teaching, comparing expert, novice, and postulant (those without pedagogical training) teachers. Each of six teachers (two experts, two novices, and two postulants) taught the same unfamiliar lesson to the same group of students, in the same classroom. These half hour lessons were videotaped. Two aspects make this study unique. First, the teaching situation was controlled to the extent that each teacher taught the same lesson to the same students. This was done to try to separate expertise from the experience gained from teaching a familiar lesson to students known to the teacher. The second aspect pertains to the method of analysis. Instead of viewing these tapes from just one perspective, four perspectives were used. Observers knowledgeable in the areas of subject matter knowledge and delivery, connoisseurship and criticism, nonverbal communication, and teacher evaluation instrumentation viewed each of the six tapes and analyzed what they saw from their individual perspectives. These analyses were then content analyzed by the author. Results and discussion were first analyzed for each perspective separately, comparing the three groups of teachers for similarities and differences. This was followed by a discussion of similarities and differences among the four perspectives, particularly focusing on the interplay of the four perspectives within the three groups of teachers. A key point made was the diversity of information provided by each perspective and the unique insights provided from the use of all four.

Current research on student teaching indicates a need to go beyond student teacher beliefs and expectations and relationships with supervisors to investigate the contexts and contents of student teacher socialization. This study used an interpretive paradigm to examine the influence of the principal on the knowledge about being a teacher that a student teacher acquired. Interviews with 24 student teachers across their student teaching semester were subjected to content analysis procedures in order to identify what student teachers reported about the professional and organizational facets of teaching which occur outside of classrooms and the influence of the principal on the acquisition of that knowledge. Contrasts were drawn between student teachers working in buildings with principals who had been sensitized to their needs and student teachers working in buildings where no special effort was made to influence the student teaching experience. Data were reordered and reanalyzed on the basis of student teachers' reports of their relationships with the principal. Results indicated that the group of student teachers who reported the greatest amount of knowledge was that group which also reported the most positive involvement with the principal. If the principal was actively involved with the student teachers, the student teachers were more knowledgeable about the professional and organizational facets of teaching and the school as a workplace than those student teachers who were placed in schools in which the principals were not actively involved. Merely providing information about student teachers was not enough to change the behavior of the principals; principals must be actively committed to assisting student teachers make the transition from student to teacher.

To describe instructor's pedagogy of using writing and thinking in three discipline-specific classrooms (gunsmithing, nursing, and sociology) at the two-year college level is the purpose of this research project. Over a period of 4 months, from the start of Spring Semester 1992 to its completion, I maintained an ethnographic research stance in each of these 3 classes at a rural community college in northern Arizona. Chapter 1 presents an overview of the contexts of my research; Chapter 2 examines research during the last 30 years in writing and thinking, specifically WAC at the community-college level. In Chapter 3 I explain my methodology and design, which includes not only observations of instructors, but also student interviews and journals. In addition to triangulation, I incorporated questionnaires to check student and instructor responses in areas of writing and thinking activities, instructors' rationales and theories and metacognitive awarenesses, and uses of writing and thinking in classrooms. All four instructors possess varying degrees of metacognition in their rationales; most of their writing assignments incorporate writing to show learning. Chapters 4 through 6 are case studies of four instructors in specific disciplines. Each chapter has five sections: instructor background and history, teaching philosophy and rationale, summary of my observations, my interpretations and commentary, and finally instructors' responses to my interpretation of their classroom practices. Chapter 7 and 8 are analyses and conclusions about the research data, and chapter 9 provides recommendations for administrators of two-year institutions, content-area instructors and composition instructors. Following the precedents of experimental ethnographic writers, such as Clifford Geertz, Mary Ann Pratt, Stephen Tyler, Wendy Bishop, Marcus and Cushman, I have written this text as a collage of points of view, attempting wherever possible to allow student and instructor voices to emerge. Instructors have the last words in their chapters. Although much writing and thinking across the curriculum is occurring at Yavapai College in northern Arizona, which has no formal WAC program, I have many suggestions about ways to foster student thinking and writing. Finally, I conclude with suggestions about possible models for WAC at the two-year college.

The purpose of this quasi-experimental study was to identify the changes which occur for elementary education majors as they proceed through a course in music fundamentals for classroom teachers and a course which presents methods of teaching music. The subjects responded to several measuring instruments on the first day of classes in the music fundamentals course (the pretreatment group, five classes, N = 103) or on the last day of classes in the methods course (the posttreatment group, five classes, N = 93, all of whom had completed the prior fundamentals course). The study addressed one main question: Are there significant differences between the responses of the pretreatment and posttreatment groups to questions which consider intentions, beliefs, and feelings about the teaching of music? The analysis of data first considered several items bearing on the extent to which the two groups were a representative sample of the population of students enrolling in such classes during a three-year period and to what extent the two groups could be considered equivalent. The lack of significant differences in grade-point average, grade in school, and declared major suggested that the two groups could be considered quasi-random samples from the population of students enrolling in such classes. No significant differences were found between the two test groups in terms of GPA, age gender, and several items related to music background. Regarding the research question, the analysis of data identified significant differences between groups in three areas. Subjects in the posttreatment group: (1) intend to use more musical activities more frequently in their classrooms than those in the pretreatment group, (2) have more positive beliefs about their musical skills/knowledge and fewer negative ones than those in the pretreatment group, (3) have more positive feelings about their ability to provide music in the classroom than those in the pretreatment group.