Orientador: Cláudia Regina Mosca Giroto / Banca: Fabiana Cristina Frigieri de Vitta / Banca: Rosimar Bortolini Poker / Resumo: O presente trabalho objetivou analisar a proposta do curso de Pedagogia Bilíngue do Instituto Nacional de Educação de Surdos (INES), referência no país. Diante do atual contexto de educação inclusiva a proposta educacional bilíngue precisar ser melhor compreendida. O INES é um instituto referência na educação do aluno surdo e tem um curso de Pedagogia caracterizado por essa instituição como bilíngue. Diante dessa realidade é importante conhecer e analisar o referido curso. Inicialmente, caracterizou-se o estado da arte, no cenário educacional brasileiro, sobre a temática investigada analisando as principais políticas educacionais que tem orientado a formação de professores para atuação com alunos surdos na perspectiva bilíngue e sua materialização no curso Bilíngue de Pedagogia do INES. Em seguida, foi analisado o Plano de Desenvolvimento Institucional (PDI) e o Projeto Pedagógico do Curso (PPC), a matriz curricular e os respectivos planos de ensino, bem como qual a posição do coordenador desse curso, quanto aos aspectos históricos, organizacionais e pedagógicos envolvidos na criação e manutenção do mesmo. Para isto, o percurso metodológico caracterizou-se pelo estudo qualitativo de caráter exploratório e como tratamento dos dados obtidos optou-se pela análise de conteúdo BARDIN (2011). A análise foi organizada em eixos temáticos, quais sejam: I Fundamentação Filosófica e Objetivos; II Perfil do Profissional (formação x área de atuação) e Clientela; III Grade Curricular e Est... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: The present work aimed to analyze the proposal of the Bilingual Pedagogy course of the National Institute of Education of the Deaf (INES), reference in the country. Given the current context of inclusive education, the bilingual educational proposal needs to be better understood. INES is a reference institute in the education of the deaf student and has a course of Pedagogy characterized by this institution as bilingual. Faced with this reality, it is important to know and analyze this course. Initially, the state of the art in the Brazilian educational scene was characterized on the subject investigated analyzing the main educational policies that have oriented the training of teachers to work with deaf students in the bilingual perspective and its materialization in the Bilingual course of Pedagogy of INES. Next, the Institutional Development Plan (PDI) and the Pedagogical Project of the Course (PPC), the curricular matrix and the respective teaching plans were analyzed, as well as the position of the coordinator of this course, regarding the historical, organizational and Pedagogies involved in its creation and maintenance. For this, the methodological course was characterized by the qualitative study of exploratory character and as a treatment of the obtained data we opted for the content analysis BARDIN (2011). The analysis was organized in thematic axes, which are: I Philosophical Rationale and Objectives; II Profile of the Professional (training vs. area of action) and Clientele; III Course Curriculum and Course Structure and IV Methodology and Evaluation. From the analysis it was possible to perceive distortions in the understanding of the bilingual proposal, characterized by this institution as such for having Libras as the language of instruction and Portuguese written as a second language. It was observed that there is no clear idea of the type of training that is ... / Mestre

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Orientador: Eduardo José Manzini / Banca: Elisa Tomoe Moriya Schlünzen / Banca: Vera Lúcia Messias Fialho Capellini / Banca: Lígia Maria Presumido Braccialli / Banca: Rita de Cássia Tibério Araújo / Resumo: Esta pesquisa defende a tese de que uma formação continuada com docentes do Ensino Médio sustentada nos princípios do trabalho colaborativo viabiliza o trabalho educacional e inclusivo dos estudantes do Público-alvo da Educação Especial. Para isso, teve como objetivo analisar os desafios e as possibilidades de um trabalho colaborativo para a formação continuada com docentes do Ensino Médio público, de uma cidade da Região Noroeste do Estado do Paraná. A abordagem teórico-metodológica pautou-se na pesquisa qualitativa, fundamentada nos pressupostos da pesquisa colaborativa. Os participantes foram cinco docentes do Ensino Médio, uma pedagoga da Sala de Recursos Multifuncionais, uma pedagoga de Apoio Educacional Especializado e uma Coordenadora Pedagógica da Educação Especial com formação em geografia. Para responder o objetivo proposto a formação continuada foi realizada em três etapas. Na primeira foi realizada uma entrevista semiestruturada com o objetivo de identificar as dificuldades encontradas no trabalho que envolvia estudantes do Público-alvo da Educação Especial. Na segunda etapa, a formação continuada foi planejada por meio do trabalho colaborativo e os encontros realizados. Na terceira etapa foi realizada uma nova entrevista semiestruturada a fim de analisar os resultados da formação continuada realizada. Para a coleta de dados foram utilizados: entrevista semiestruturada; anotações de campo por meio de observação do contexto de coleta, gravações em áudio das reuniõe... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: This research defends the thesis that a continuous formation with teachers of the Secondary Education sustained in the principles of the collaborative work makes possible the educational and inclusive work of the students of the Audience of the Special Education. For that, the objective was to analyze the challenges and the possibilities of a collaborative work for the continuous formation with professors of Public High School, of a city of the Noroeste Region of the State of Paraná. The theoretical-methodological approach was based on qualitative research, based on the presuppositions of collaborative research. The participants were five high school teachers, a pedagogue from the Multifunctional Resource Room, a Specialized Educational Support teacher and a Special Education Pedagogical Coordinator with training in geography. In order to respond to the proposed objective, continuous training was carried out in three stages. In the first, a semi-structured interview was carried out to identify the difficulties encountered in the work involving students of the Special Education Audience. In the second stage, continued training was planned through collaborative work and meetings. In the third stage a new semi-structured interview was carried out in order to analyze the results of the ongoing training. Data collection was used: semi-structured interview; field notes by observation of the collection context, audio recordings of the meetings and discussions with the group of parti... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor

This study attempted to explore a possible relationship between diagrammatic reasoning and geometric knowledge of pre-service mathematics teachers. Diagrammatic reasoning skills, as a sequence of steps from visualization, to interpretation, to formalisms, are at the core of teachers' content knowledge for teaching. However, there is no course in the mathematics curriculum that systematically develops diagrammatic reasoning skills, except Geometry. In the course of this study, a group of volunteers in the last semester of their teacher preparation program were presented with "visual proofs" of certain theorems from high school mathematics curriculum and asked to prove/explain these theorems by reasoning from the diagrams. The results of the interviews were analyzed with respect to the participants' attained van Hiele levels. The study found that participants who attained higher van Hiele levels were more skilled at recognizing visual theorems and "proving" them. Moreover, the study found a correspondence between participants' diagrammatic reasoning skills and certain behaviors attributed to van Hiele levels. However, the van Hiele levels attained by the participants were consistently higher than their diagrammatic reasoning skills would indicate.

This study attempted to explore a possible relationship between diagrammatic reasoning and geometric knowledge of pre-service mathematics teachers. Diagrammatic reasoning skills, as a sequence of steps from visualization, to interpretation, to formalisms, are at the core of teachers"™ content knowledge for teaching. However, there is no course in the mathematics curriculum that systematically develops diagrammatic reasoning skills, except Geometry. In the course of this study, a group of volunteers in the last semester of their teacher preparation program were presented with "visual proofs" of certain theorems from high school mathematics curriculum and asked to prove/explain these theorems by reasoning from the diagrams. The results of the interviews were analyzed with respect to the participants"™ attained van Hiele levels. The study found that participants who attained higher van Hiele levels were more skilled at recognizing visual theorems and "proving" them. Moreover, the study found a correspondence between participants"™ diagrammatic reasoning skills and certain behaviors attributed to van Hiele levels. However, the van Hiele levels attained by the participants were consistently higher than their diagrammatic reasoning skills would indicate.

This mixed methods study explored how elementary school teachers who use Twitter extensively use it to support their professional learning and development. Four research questions guided this study: 1. How are teachers using Twitter for their professional learning and development? 2. What do teachers report learning from their use of Twitter? 3. What do teachers say they do with the information they have learned from using Twitter? 4. What support do teachers have when they want to implement what they have learned from Twitter? An online survey was distributed via Twitter targeting teachers of elementary grades. A total of 107 participants were included in the final sample. Interviews were conducted with a purposeful sample of 19 teachers. Document analysis of tweets from a subsample of interviewees and from a sample of tweets from the #2ndchat Twitter community served as triangulation. The key findings from this sample illustrated several ways teachers learn from Twitter. In response to the research questions, teachers reported using Twitter as a source of motivation and support, explaining that it provided them with feedback, encouragement and peer accountability. Second, teachers reported learning about many topics, especially technology integration techniques. Third, teachers described using the information they learned to alter some of their teaching practices and to pursue other educational opportunities. Lastly, more than half of teachers reported having administrators who supported their efforts to implement Twitter-based ideas. In addition, teachers appreciated certain affordances of Twitter including immediacy, choice, and access to other educators. These findings have several implications for teachers, school leaders, and policymakers. Teachers reported that they believed they were getting trustworthy information from highly reputable Twitter users. However, it would be important for them to critically review the information and ensure its alignment with evidence-based teaching practices for how students learn. Further, teachers’ responses seemed to indicate that they want input and control over their learning, which has important implications for traditional professional development offerings. As Twitter continues to expand and gain acceptance as a source of learning for teachers, considerations for its use as a 21st century tool must be taken into account.

Educational research has established a positive influence of learning the nature of science (NOS) on teachers’ practice when an explicit reflective approach to instruction is employed (Abd-El-Khalick, 2001; Abd-El-Khalick & Akerson, 2004; Akerson, Abd-El-Khalick, & Lederman, 2000; Duschl & Grandy, 2013; Lederman, 2007; Pintrich, Marx, & Boyle, 1993; Schwartz & Crawford, 2004). Additionally, research focused on the utility of teaching teachers neuroscience has indicated a positive connection between learning neuroscience in professional development settings and effective classroom practice (Dubinsky, Roehrig, & Varma, 2013; Roehrig, Michlin, Schmitt, MacNabb, & Dubinsky, 2012). Therefore, this study hypothesizes that there is an important connection between neuroscience and teachers’ conceptions of NOS, in that neuroscience can be used as a tool to better understand the complex NOS, and that this understanding has connections to classroom practice. This study presents an approach for NOS instruction that utilizes a situated approach for teaching NOS in addition to using “catalytic groups” to push forward the discussions about the potential connections that could be made between neuroscience and NOS. The goal of this study was to explore the potential relationship between neuroscience and NOS as a method for better understanding the complex NOS and define that relationship more clearly. Additionally, the study was designed to measure the effectiveness of the alternative design approach for situated NOS instruction. This novel design approach consisted of the use of ‘catalytic groups’, or small groups that met outside of class time, whose conversations guided the conceptual changes for students in the larger class setting. A mixed-methods analysis was utilized to investigate how the 17 participants in this study interacted over the course of the four weeks, how their understandings of NOS and their attitudes and beliefs toward integrating neuroscience and NOS change over time into one cohesive understanding of NOS. Additionally, a case study was conducted that provided deeper insight into participant interactions during the four-week course. Evidence collected in this study included Likert surveys, open-ended reflection reports, observations, a researcher journal, and transcriptions of catalytic group settings. Using a theoretical framework of conceptual change, a number of findings were realized from the evidence collected. These findings are presented in the form of a manuscript approach to the dissertation, where each Results chapter is presented as a single, separate research paper that is appropriate for formal publication. These two separate manuscripts use conceptual change as the theoretical framework for data analysis. Chapter 4 presents the mixed-methods analysis of all 17 participants in the study and Chapter 5 presents a mixed-methods, case study approach of three participants. Based on the evidence in Chapter 4, three major findings were realized: (1) previous exposure to NOS may help students to apply the abstract tenets of NOS to a scientific context, (2) the use of neuroscience as a situated approach for NOS instruction was particularly effective for areas of neuroscience most closely related to teachers’ practice, and (3) added time for critical reflection and small-group discourse impacted the perceived importance of NOS on daily classroom practice. The three findings provide evidence for a meaningful re-design of the novel instructional approach used in this study for further implementation in NOS instruction, with an emphasis on utilizing small-group discussion settings for students to reflect on their changing understandings of NOS in relation to teacher pedagogy. Based on the evidence in Chapter 5, three main findings are reported: (1) the degree of appropriateness of neuroscience for contextualized NOS instruction may be varied based on students’ perceived intelligibility of neuroscience, (2) when context-specific NOS instruction is utilized, it is imperative that students connect the specific context used for instruction to their own scientific knowledge and experiences, and (3) when students are learning NOS, those learning opportunities must have perceived value and relevance to the professional development of students. The findings from this study provide evidence of the usefulness of integrating neuroscience and NOS in the quest to better understand how students comprehend the nature of the scientific discipline. In this study, neuroscience was particularly useful because of its character as a ‘contemporary science story’, where the tenets of NOS are explicit and easy to see. Areas of future research are also explored, with suggestions on the use of neuroscience to teach the complex NOS. Three common themes describe the findings from each of the Results chapters that comprise this study. First, neuroscience can prove as a useful scientific context for NOS instruction even when students are not necessarily familiar with neuroscience content. However, this usefulness depends on students’ ability to connect neuroscience to classroom practice and/or to their own science disciplinary focus. Second, critical reflection proved to be an important aspect of NOS instruction, as it allowed students to reflect on their own understandings of NOS with a focus on how those understandings have changed over time. Last, the catalytic groups that define the alternative model for NOS instruction that was used in this study positively impacted NOS learning. These groups impacted students’ ability to synthesize neuroscience with NOS into a cohesive understanding of NOS at a general level. These findings leave a variety of implications for future NOS instruction in addition to suggestions for the future use of the instructional approach presented in this study. Those implications include the use of more catalytic groups for NOS instruction, where all students are engaged in small-group discussions that inform future NOS instruction, and more targeted metacognitive strategies for NOS instruction, where specific strategies are employed to allow all learners to develop a ‘deep processing’ orientation toward NOS.

The purpose of this study was to determine the modes of acquisition of Shanghai elementary mathematics teachers’ pedagogical content knowledge within their communities of practice. This study uses the qualitative multiple-case study with a survey research approach with two teachers in two public elementary schools, one each from an urban and a suburban district of Shanghai. In total, forty-four teachers, four teaching research coordinators in the two districts and city, one university professor, and four school administrators were involved in the study. The study shows that Shanghai elementary mathematics teachers acquire and develop their pedagogical content knowledge through positive mentorship; active participation in Teaching Research Group activities in the schools, districts, and city; and informal and formal communications with their colleagues in their school communities. The teaching research coordinators help teachers to better understand the elementary mathematics curriculum, topics, and teaching materials, and students’ learning of mathematics. School policies encourage, support, and ensure that teachers’ professional learning and development occur through their participation within teacher-supported communities of practice. This study has implications for the teachers’ communities of practice, in that policy makers and school administrators should enable teachers to share their teaching practices to improve their mathematics pedagogical content knowledge, and therefore improve students’ learning of mathematics.

Recently there has been a call to disrupt the continuous cycle of (re)production from within university-based programs through the development of transformative approaches rooted in the cultural norms of traditionally marginalized populations. This study aimed to explore how one such approach, critical hip-hop pedagogy (CHHP), manifests within the formal university-based teacher education setting. Focusing on one specific course in a prestigious, Northeastern university, this study explores how the course was conceptualized, enacted, experienced and interpreted by both the professor and twelve enrolled teachers in the Spring 2017 semester. Through qualitative case study methodology the purpose of this study was to: (1) document the ways that one CHHP teacher educator carves out space for his work amidst the politically charged teacher education space; (2) document and analyze the pedagogical moves embedded in the praxis of one teacher educator who teaches a university-based course designed to prepare teachers to utilize hip-hop cultural artifacts and aesthetics to critical educational ends; and (3) document and analyze the ways in which enrolled pre-service teachers experience, conceptualize, and interpret these practices. Four key findings are presented: (1) the professor conceptualized and enacted the course as a means of disrupting dominant narratives about acceptable and effective approaches to teaching and learning; (2) his enactments of CHHP embodied hip-hop cultural practices and aesthetics through his (re)conceptualization of teacher as MC; (3) the course’s structure through the aesthetics and rules of engagement of the hip-hop cypher provided a variety of ways for students to actively participate in the processes of knowledge production; (4) enrolled teachers reported new understandings of hip-hop as culture, resulting in shifts in perspectives on key issues impacting education and their visions for themselves as educators. Given these findings, this study suggests that the professor’s construction and enactment of the course resulted in an immersive experience in which he taught through a CHHP framework rather than about it, as is often seen in courses claiming similar critical multicultural and culturally relevant approaches, creating a dynamic immersive cultural experience for the enrolled teachers.

The embattled profession of teaching is like a sad song on repeat (Goldstein, 2015). For beyond a decade, research has proliferated a deficit narrative of teaching as a “revolving door” (Ingersoll, 2001, p. 514) or “leaky bucket” (Sutcher, Darling-Hammond, & Carver-Thomas, 2016, p. 2), in which at least 50% of teachers quit within the first 5 years (Ingersoll, Merrill, & Stuckey, 2014). In fact, as teacher attrition increases, the teacher-shortage crisis ravages our hardest-to-serve schools (Sutcher et al., 2016). Today, the number of aspiring teachers has dropped to the lowest it has been in 45 years (Flannery, 2016). The curiosity driving my research was and is whether it is possible to disrupt this deficit narrative of teaching as America’s most embattled profession (Goldstein, 2015). To do so, my goals have been to learn how eight teacher-leaders describe and understand their own flourishing in their careers, if they do at all, and what are the encouragers of and obstacles to their flourishing. In other words, rather than turn up the volume on the narrative of teachers who fail, flee, and quit the profession, I wondered how, if at all, stories exist of teachers who live, teach, and lead well. For this study, I derived the term flourishing from Aristotle’s eudemonia or the art of living well and doing well for self and others (Aristotle, 2011, line 1095b). I then crafted the beginnings of a flourishing framework for what it might mean for teacher-leaders to live the good life. Through a cross-disciplinary and integrative literature review (Torraco, 2016), I learned that flourishing most frequently includes experiencing passion, purpose, and practical wisdom in work and life. In response, I sought to examine how, if at all, eight teachers who are also leaders—both formally and informally in their schools and beyond—experience their own flourishing. To clarify, I defined teacher-leaders as teachers who I believe grew into leaders (Drago-Severson, 2016) and are “galvanized by the desire to improve and thus ensure learning for all students” and “driven to experiment, take risks, collaborate, seek feedback, and question their own and others’ practices” (Fairman & Mackenzie, 2015, p. 64). Therefore, the eight teacher-leaders for this study fit Fairman and Mackenzie’s definition. They participated in two programs that I believe are strong holding environments (Drago-Severson, 2013): North Carolina Teaching Fellows, a preservice university program for aspiring teachers, and National Board for Professional Teacher Standards, an in-service development opportunity for experienced teachers with more than 4 years of experience. To be clear, “holding environments” can be relationships and contexts that create developmentally spaces for adults to grow and feel “honored for who they are” (Drago-Severson, 2012, p. 48; Kegan, 1982, p. 115; Winnicott, 1990). The Pillar Practices of teaming, mentorship, collegial inquiry, and inviting teachers to assume leadership are four holding environment (i.e., structures) in which adults can feel well held (supported) and adequately challenged—in order to increase internal capacities (Drago-Severson, 2004, p. 88). I chose to invite teachers who participated in two teacher-development programs (i.e., North Carolina Teaching Fellows and National Board Certification) specifically because these programs seem to provide holding environments. Researchers have shown teachers who participated in these two programs are among the best and brightest or irreplaceable teacher-leaders whom schools want to keep, or retain, in our classrooms (Henry, Bastian, & Smith, 2012; Jacob, Vidyarthi, & Carroll, 2012; Petty, Good, & Handler, 2016). In fact, all eight teacher-leaders who participated in this study stayed in the profession at least ten years despite the last decade of sociopolitical flux and rising complexity of public schools (Drago-Severson, 2016). To facilitate this dissertation study, I conducted three in-depth semi-structured interviews and document analysis with each of the eight teacher-leaders who work in Wake County Public School System of North Carolina (32 hours), the 15th largest district in the nation (Hui, 2016). I asked them how they describe and understand flourishing, if they do, throughout their career, with close attention to three distinct points in the trajectory of their career, that is, in the beginning years (1-3 years), during the National Board Certification Process (during or after 4 years of teaching), and within the last academic year, which was also an election year (2016-2017). I also asked how they describe and understand the encouragers of and obstacles to their own flourishing. For data analysis, I coded verbatim transcripts from these in-depth interviews with Dedoose in two analytic cycles (Maxwell, 2013; Miles, Huberman, & Saldaña, 2014; Seidman, 2013). In the first cycle, I completed open/descriptive and theoretical coding, and, in the second, I looked for categories and broader themes to display the data in narrative summaries and profiles for each participant (n = 8). Throughout, I attended to research bias, reactivity, and validity threats through analytic memos, member checks, discrepant data, and inter-coder reliability with my sponsor. Findings from this qualitative in-depth interview study and document analysis contributed to a framework of understanding flourishing for teacher-leaders. Overall, I learned that to flourish, or to teach, lead, and live well, for the eight teacher-leader participants in my study, the good life meant that they needed to prioritize the purpose of relating with students (n = 8), as I claimed in Chapter V; cultivate connections with colleagues who share common passions (n = 8), as I claimed in Chapter VI; and reflect with their practical wisdom on their priority to teach well in the midst of the push and pull of leadership entangled in flourishing (n = 8), as I claimed in Chapter VII. The implications and recommendations for policy, research, and practice from these claims and findings based on these eight teacher-leader participants are as follows: 1. to re-story excellence in teaching by creating teacher pipelines, development programs, and measurement tools (policy and research) that consider holistic frames of teacher excellence to include flourishing (i.e., do the teachers believe they are committed to teaching, leading, and living well?); 2. to re-center relationships in schools, especially for teachers, by intentionally crafting spaces such as holding environments where teachers, principals, and all educational leaders can grow their internal capacities to deepen relationships with students and colleagues; and 3. to re-frame the tides of teacher-leadership and consider the practical wisdom and time it takes for teachers to discern their own priories, their own balance, and their own flow (i.e., push and pull) of leadership based on their own understanding of their ability to teach and live well. In conclusion, I offer a beginning model and framework for teacher-leader flourishing in order for future research to explore how, if at all, teachers in different districts and states or of different demographics and levels might describe and understand their own good life.