Thesis advisor: Joseph J. Pedulla / There is no question that teachers play an important role in student learning. In the last decade, researchers have shown evidence pointing to the prominence of teachers compared to other factors that are known to influence student achievement (Wright, Horn, and Sanders, 1997). They have empirically demonstrated that teacher effects are large and persist for up to four years (Kain, 1998; Mendor, Jordan, Gomez, Anderson, and Bembry, 1998; Rivers, 1999). Multiple variables are known to influence teacher quality, including teacher preparation. This dissertation explored the relationship between the teacher education pathway and teaching effectiveness. Although multiple measures of teacher effectiveness exist, this study focused on reformed instructional practices as its measure of teaching effectiveness. In teaching mathematics, in particular, constructivist-based, inquiry-oriented approaches have been shown to be more effective than traditional methods (Abbott and Fouts, 2003; Klein, Hamilton, McCaffrey, Stecher, Robyn, and Burroughs, 2000). Using two groups of novice teachers (N=22) from two preparation pathways, this observational comparative study also investigated the relationship between school composition and teaching practices. There is a large body of literature showing that urban schools serving high proportions of non-white, poor, and low performing students (Darling-Hammond, 1995; Kain and Singleton, 1996; Presley White, and Gong, 2005) tend to have higher percentages of less qualified teachers compared to their suburban counterparts. In light of this, the current study also explored the relationship between school composition and teachers' use of reformed teaching practices. The findings of this investigation indicate that the instructional practices of teachers working in the urban school district where this study was conducted were generally reformed, and did not vary based on the student demographics of the schools in which they taught. In addition, no statistically significant relationship was found between teaching pathway and teachers' instructional practices. Many similarities were found in the instructional practices of teachers from the two preparation pathways. The similarities in the teachers' instructional practices were attributed to the significant congruence in the teacher preparation programs' curriculum, requirement of clinical experience, selectivity, and the programs' explicit social justice missions. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2010. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Educational Research, Measurement, and Evaluation.

Abstract In this paper we document the advantages of utilising technology to enhance teachers’ instructional activities. In particular we showcase the potential and impact that the use of Geometer’s Sketchpad may have on the teaching and learning of geometry at school. A series of five, two-hour teacher development workshops in which Geometer’s Sketchpad was used were attended by 12 Grade 11 and 12 teachers. The findings revealed that teachers had a better understanding of the same geometry that they initially disliked. This finding was supported by a quantitative analysis which showed a positive change in the understanding of and beliefs about geometry from when the teachers started to the end of the workshops.

No description available.

Reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in 1997 set higher standards for the education of students with disabilities. In addition, to the original purposes of the law that ensured a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) for students with disabilities in the least restrictive environment (LRE), amendments mandated that students with disabilities be included in state accountability and assessment systems, moving educators from an age of accessibility to an age of accountability. This legislation also ensured that students with disabilities have access to the general curriculum to the maximum extent appropriate, which has influenced educators toward including more students with disabilities in the general education environment. With the increasing numbers of students with learning disabilities (LD) educated in the general education environment, educators face the challenge of providing these students opportunities to access the general curriculum, while ensuring that they receive FAPE. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to explore the teaching practices of special and general educators in the planning, instruction, classroom management, progress monitoring, clinical assistance, and caring of students with LD in inclusive instructional settings to examine how they are aligning their practices to ensure FAPE for these students. Data were collected through a qualitative design, using focus group methodology. A total of 3 special educator and 3 general educator focus groups were conducted for data collection. Major findings that emerged included (a) the absence of common planning time, (b) the use of whole group instruction rather specialized instruction, (c) the unshared responsibility of classroom management, (d) the limited time dedicated to monitoring the learning and academic progress of students with LD, (e) the controversy surrounding adjusting instruction for students with LD, and (f) the importance of teachers showing students with LD that they care about them and their success. Data revealed that the practices of special and general educators align only in the areas of classroom management, particularly in providing classroom routines, and caring. In all other areas, not only do their practices not align, emphasis placed on each area varies within and between special and general educator focus groups. / Ed. D.

Instructors in higher education are typically hired for teaching positions based on their research expertise in a particular area, understanding that subject matter expertise is necessary for teaching and instruction. What is sometimes overlooked and not given enough importance is that teaching is also a relational activity, and because of this, care can be considered to be a fundamental component of effective instruction. Research has shown that some faculty are hesitant in showing care to their students since this might suggest a lack of academic rigor and lessening expectations for students. It might also be that faculty view care as a concept that does not belong in higher education and is something that is more appropriate for younger children. Yet there is research in higher education which shows that implementing care to students motivates them to perform well in class, meet and exceed the goals set for them by the instructors, make constructive improvements and create overall ideal conditions for learning. Along with this, prior research on care in teaching has focused mostly on primary and secondary education levels, with far less attention given to care in teaching in higher education specifically, and little in the context of Engineering Education. To advance our understanding of the potential value of care in teaching in higher education, this study presents an empirical case study of how care can be enacted in teaching in an Engineering Education classroom. The study draws on Tronto's political ethics of care framework, originally developed in the context of feminist theory and methodology, and operationalizes it in the teaching and learning setting by situating the context of the study in a first-year general engineering classroom in the department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech. Since the purpose of the study is to understand what teaching behaviors can act as evidence of care, this context was selected as a likely scenario where these teaching approaches might be present. Virginia Tech is an R1 institution, the Department of Engineering Education values student-centered teaching, and the foundations of engineering course: ENGE 1216, is a project-based course where it may be more likely to see care being implemented in the teaching. Along with this, the three instructor participants that were chosen to bring light to this phenomenon have been recognized for their teaching expertise by being given teaching awards in the past, and also have experience in teaching this specific course, having taught it at least twice before. This study used a case study approach and included two interviews with the instructor participants to understand their general beliefs about care as well as how they intended to implement care in relation to Tronto's ethic of care framework. It also included three observations of their classrooms, one for each phase of the semester, and looked at three years' worth of students' SPOT comments. Tronto's framework includes four ethical elements: attentiveness, responsibility, competence, and responsiveness. Findings suggest that instructors' intentions with implementing care, their enactment of care in the classroom, and students' perception of what instructor behaviors they found to be most valuable to their learning, all have strategies and approaches that relate to each of the four ethical elements. The responsibility element iii was seen to have the most approaches and strategies. Findings also showed that despite different instructor backgrounds, beliefs and personalities, each instructor had relatively similar approaches to implementing care in relation to each of the four ethical elements, with some unique features for each instructor. There also seems to exist, a reasonable degree of alignment between instructors' intention with implementing care, their enactment of the care in the classroom, and what students commented was helpful. This study took a framework developed in accordance with another discipline and operationalized it in a teaching setting. It has shown what teacher behaviors can act as evidence of care in the context of Engineering Education. The study has also disaggregated common instructor actions that usually tend to be conflated, to more specific behaviors to understand the impact each behavior can have in relation to care. It has also grouped common approaches and strategies together that instructors use, to show how when this is combined, is also a way of implementing care. There are a list of specific teacher approaches and strategies that instructors should be using that can satisfy each element in the care framework and can thus implement care in the classroom. / Doctor of Philosophy / With the idea that subject matter expertise is required for teaching and training, instructors in higher education are frequently chosen for teaching roles based on their research competence in a particular field. Care can be regarded as a vital element of good instruction because teaching is also a relational activity, which is sometimes disregarded and not given enough priority. According to research, some professors are reluctant to show their students that they care because doing so would imply lowering standards for students. Another possibility is that faculty believe that the concept of care is inappropriate for higher education and is more suitable for young children. However, studies in higher education demonstrate that providing care to students inspires them to perform well in class, fulfil and exceed the objectives set for them by the instructors, offer helpful adjustments, and generally foster the best learning environments. Additionally, earlier studies on care in teaching have mostly concentrated on the primary and secondary education levels, paying little to no attention to care in teaching, specifically in higher education or in the context of Engineering Education. To better understand the value that care in teaching in higher education can have, this study chose a context where care being shown in teaching would be likely to be seen. Since the purpose of the study is to understand what teaching behaviors can act as evidence of care, a first-year general engineering classroom in the department of Engineering Education at Virginia Tech was chosen. This is because Virginia Tech is an R1 institution, the Department of Engineering Education values student-centered teaching, and the foundations of engineering course: ENGE 1216, is a project-based course where it may be more likely to see care being implemented in the teaching. Along with this, the three instructor participants that were chosen to bring light to this phenomenon have been recognized for their teaching expertise by being given teaching awards in the past, and also have experience in teaching this specific course, having taught it at least twice before. This study included two interviews with the instructor participants to understand their general beliefs about care as well as how they intended to implement care, ore specifically in relation to Tronto's ethic of care framework which was the theory that guided this study. It also included three observations of their classrooms so it could be seen how care was enacted, and looked at three years' worth of students' SPOT comments to understand what students described the instructors doing, that was most helpful for their learning. The theory used for this study had four main elements to it: attentiveness, responsibility, competence, and responsiveness. The findings suggest that instructors' intentions with implementing care, their enactment of care in the classroom, and students' perception of what instructor behaviors they found to be most valuable to their learning, all have strategies and approaches that relate to each of these four elements. The responsibility element was seen to have the most approaches and strategies. An example of a strategy to be attentive is to be signal availability and emphasize proximity with the students, as well as checking in on them. Examples of approaches to satisfy these strategies would be to walk around the classroom as well as to ask students questions to see how they are doing. Findings also v showed that despite different instructor backgrounds, beliefs and personalities, each instructor had relatively similar approaches to implementing care in relation to each of the four elements, with some unique features for each instructor. This study took a theoretical framework that was used in another discipline and was able to use this and show how the four elements that made up this framework could look like in a teaching setting. It has shown what teacher behaviors can act as evidence of care in the context of Engineering Education. The study has also broken down some instructor actions that usually tend to be grouped together, to more specific behaviorsto understand the impact each behavior can have in relation to care. It has also grouped common approaches and strategies together that instructors use, to show how when this is combined, is also a way of implementing care. There are a list of specific teacher approaches and strategies that instructors should be using that can satisfy each element in the care framework and can thus implement care in the classroom.

Relatively few studies have specifically compared L2 teacher's perceptions of effective FL teaching with their own students (Beaudrie, Brown, Thompson, 2004; Brosh, 1996, Kern, 1995a). The current study explores FL teachers' and students' perceptions of FL teaching by analyzing matches between each group's perceptions. The principal objectives of this study were threefold: 1) the identification and comparison of post-secondary L2 students' and L2 teachers' perceptions of effective teaching behaviors on a Likert-scale questionnaire; 2) the comparison of students' and teachers' perceptions of how often specific teaching behaviors are performed; 3) the comparison of students' evaluations of teaching to their instructors' self-evaluations on a similar questionnaire. A secondary objective of the study was to compare students' responses on selected items from the university's TCE form with their responses on the discipline-specific questionnaires used in this study.Forty-nine teachers and their 83 intact beginning-level language classes (101-202) across nine languages at the University of Arizona voluntarily participated in the study during Spring semester, 2005. Participating students and teachers filled out questionnaires regarding perceptions of 1) what effective FL teachers should be doing in the classroom, 2) how often certain target behaviors are performed, and 3) how effective teachers perform them. An additional component of the study involved the comparison of the students' ratings on the language-teaching questionnaire with selected questions relative to teaching taken from the standard TCE form used university wide. Statistical analyses demonstrated that teachers and students, overall and by teacher, do have very different perceptions regarding FL teaching. Issues such as immediate error correction, task-based teaching, students' use of FL early on, use of pair and small-group work, and grammar teaching all reflected differing opinions between groups. Participants' responses to the use of English in testing, the importance of native-like command of the target language by the teacher, the simplification of the FL by the teacher, and the necessity of situating grammar into real-world contexts were similar. In summary, students and teachers seem to have dissimilar views on grammar teaching and communicative language teaching strategies with students favoring a grammar-based approach and teachers favoring a communicative FL classroom.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:24:19Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2011-08-11Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:20:36Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 guilherme_frvo_me_rcla.pdf: 1169337 bytes, checksum: 988a0e67a14372a43b884e65c588c3a3 (MD5) / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) / Esta pesquisa focaliza as interações das crianças e seus professores com a leitura e a escrita nas aulas. Verificar o que acontece nas aulas de alfabetização implica também observar os encaminhamentos dados ao ensino, segundo abordagens pedagógicas diversas, às quais se vinculam as solicitações de diferentes modalidades de interação dos alunos com esse objeto de conhecimento. Para descrever as dinâmicas das situações didáticas no processo de alfabetização, que compõem o trabalho de professores alfabetizadores e de seus alunos com vistas à apropriação do saber, e para identificar as concepções didáticas, de leitura e escrita desses docentes e as que estão sendo formadas pelas crianças, foram feitas observações no cotidiano da sala de aula e entrevistas com esses protagonistas. Participam da pesquisa doze turmas de 1º ano do Ensino Fundamental, de nove escolas públicas municipais de cidade do interior paulista. As turmas foram escolhidas aleatoriamente pela tabela de Fisher e Yates. Os procedimentos metodológicos envolvem observações diretas das aulas e entrevistas semiestruturadas. As observações diretas foram registradas em diário de campo e realizadas em quatro dias consecutivos em cada turma, totalizando cento e noventa horas. As entrevistas abrangeram doze professores e sessenta crianças sorteadas, sendo cinco alunos de cada turma. Os depoimentos dos docentes entrevistados permitem identificar suas concepções de ensino e aprendizagem, do que seja ler e escrever. Os dados obtidos em entrevistas com crianças permitem refletir sobre o que dizem a respeito de suas aulas, da leitura e da escrita. Esses dados, analisados por análise de conteúdo, conforme Bardin, revelam que a diferença entre os encaminhamentos didáticos dados ao ensino reflete nas interações das crianças... / This research focuses on the interactions of children and their teachers with reading and writing classes. Checking what happens in the literacy class also involves observing the referrals given to education, according to different pedagogical approaches, which bind upon the requests of different types of students' interaction with the object of knowledge. To describe the dynamics of teaching situations in the literacy process, which follows up the work of literacy teachers and their students in order to appropriation of knowledge, and to identify the conceptions of teaching, the reading and writing of these teachers and those being formed by children, observations were made in the daily classroom and interviews with these players. Twelve groups of 1st year of elementary school are participating in the research, from nine public schools in the city of São Paulo. The classes were chosen by Fisher and Yates table. The methodological procedures involve direct observations of lessons and semi-structured interviews. Direct observations were recorded in daily field and held on four consecutive days in each class, totaling one hundred ninety hours. The interviews covered twelve randomly selected teachers and sixty children, five students from each class. The testimonials of the teachers interviewed allow us to identify their conceptions of teaching and learning, which is read and write. Data from interviews with children allows us to reflect about their classes, of the reading and writing. These datas, analyzed by content analysis, according to Bardin, reveal that the difference in the teaching data referrals to education reflects the interactions of children with writing and that the current literacy classes, the practice of some teachers present interactive actions in teaching how to write. Referrals tend to more... (Complete abstract click electronic access below)

Orientador: Maria Cecilia de Oliveira Micotti / Banca: Maria Antonia Ramos de Azevedo / Banca: Silvia de Mattos Gasparin Colello / Resumo: Esta pesquisa focaliza as interações das crianças e seus professores com a leitura e a escrita nas aulas. Verificar o que acontece nas aulas de alfabetização implica também observar os encaminhamentos dados ao ensino, segundo abordagens pedagógicas diversas, às quais se vinculam as solicitações de diferentes modalidades de interação dos alunos com esse objeto de conhecimento. Para descrever as dinâmicas das situações didáticas no processo de alfabetização, que compõem o trabalho de professores alfabetizadores e de seus alunos com vistas à apropriação do saber, e para identificar as concepções didáticas, de leitura e escrita desses docentes e as que estão sendo formadas pelas crianças, foram feitas observações no cotidiano da sala de aula e entrevistas com esses protagonistas. Participam da pesquisa doze turmas de 1º ano do Ensino Fundamental, de nove escolas públicas municipais de cidade do interior paulista. As turmas foram escolhidas aleatoriamente pela tabela de Fisher e Yates. Os procedimentos metodológicos envolvem observações diretas das aulas e entrevistas semiestruturadas. As observações diretas foram registradas em diário de campo e realizadas em quatro dias consecutivos em cada turma, totalizando cento e noventa horas. As entrevistas abrangeram doze professores e sessenta crianças sorteadas, sendo cinco alunos de cada turma. Os depoimentos dos docentes entrevistados permitem identificar suas concepções de ensino e aprendizagem, do que seja ler e escrever. Os dados obtidos em entrevistas com crianças permitem refletir sobre o que dizem a respeito de suas aulas, da leitura e da escrita. Esses dados, analisados por análise de conteúdo, conforme Bardin, revelam que a diferença entre os encaminhamentos didáticos dados ao ensino reflete nas interações das crianças... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: This research focuses on the interactions of children and their teachers with reading and writing classes. Checking what happens in the literacy class also involves observing the referrals given to education, according to different pedagogical approaches, which bind upon the requests of different types of students' interaction with the object of knowledge. To describe the dynamics of teaching situations in the literacy process, which follows up the work of literacy teachers and their students in order to appropriation of knowledge, and to identify the conceptions of teaching, the reading and writing of these teachers and those being formed by children, observations were made in the daily classroom and interviews with these players. Twelve groups of 1st year of elementary school are participating in the research, from nine public schools in the city of São Paulo. The classes were chosen by Fisher and Yates table. The methodological procedures involve direct observations of lessons and semi-structured interviews. Direct observations were recorded in daily field and held on four consecutive days in each class, totaling one hundred ninety hours. The interviews covered twelve randomly selected teachers and sixty children, five students from each class. The testimonials of the teachers interviewed allow us to identify their conceptions of teaching and learning, which is read and write. Data from interviews with children allows us to reflect about their classes, of the reading and writing. These datas, analyzed by content analysis, according to Bardin, reveal that the difference in the teaching data referrals to education reflects the interactions of children with writing and that the current literacy classes, the practice of some teachers present interactive actions in teaching how to write. Referrals tend to more... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Mestre

Change in educational settings is a complex and multifaceted process that commonly implies change in teaching practices. Different initiatives have shown the significance of teachers and their perceptions when change in teaching practices is intended. Additionally, various factors may influence change in teaching practices at three different moments: before it happens, during, and after its implementation. Considering teachers' perceptions, I studied different factors that may be related to positive change in teaching practices. I studied the relationship between three groups of factors and positive change in teaching practices: motivational factors, including teachers' self-efficacy and autonomy; learning opportunities that include professional development, feedback, and leadership; and the academic and community domains as part of the school climate factor. In particular, I answered the following research question: To what extent do learning opportunities, teacher motivational factors, and school climate predict positive change in teaching practices? In this study I posited that teacher factors such as self-efficacy and school factors such as leadership influence positive change in teaching practices. I also posited that school factors influence the relationship between teacher factors and positive change in teaching practices. To study these relationships, I analyzed data from the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS). This survey provides clustered data: teachers are clustered by schools and schools by countries. I used multilevel modeling statistical methods (i.e., a two-level hierarchical linear model) to examine the Colombian and United Stated datasets. Before estimating the hierarchical linear models, I conducted an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to identify the teacher-level variables. One follow-up EFA focused on teacher self-efficacy yielded three variables that allowed me to focus on three specific teaching tasks: managing student behavior, motivating students, and varying instructional strategies. I found that learning opportunities, motivational factors, and school climate predict positive change in teaching practices. Learning opportunities, such as feedback from the principal has a stronger effect than feedback from colleagues. The impact of feedback from the principal has significant unnoticeable variability across schools, and it is negatively influenced by the feedback received by the teachers at the same school. Additionally, teachers' self-efficacy in different teaching tasks predicts positive change, however, these relationships differ by country. Finally, distributed leadership as part of school climate is a significant predictor of positive change that also affects it by influencing teacher interactions positively. Implications of these findings are also discussed as it relates to the existing literature and the educational system in each of the two countries. / Doctor of Philosophy / Over many decades there have been different initiatives in education to improve teaching. Unfortunately, many of those efforts have had unsuccessful results, although they are solid proposals. Thus, change itself has become a focus of study. My study focuses on factors that may influence positive change in teaching practices. I focus on three groups of factors: learning opportunities, motivational factors, and school climate. For learning opportunities, I studied the participation of teachers in professional development, feedback to teachers from different educational community members, and interactions between teachers. For motivational factors, I focused on teachers' autonomy and self-efficacy. Finally, for school climate, I studied factors associated with leadership, interactions between teachers at the same school, and participation of teachers from the same school in professional development. I analyzed data from the Teaching and Learning International Survey (TALIS). TALIS is an international survey administered to teachers and principals worldwide. I considered TALIS data from Colombia and the US. Within each country, teachers are grouped by schools, that is, teacher are nested within schools. In this study, teachers are considered the level-one unit, and schools, the level-two units. Therefore, I analyzed the data using a statistical method known as Hierarchical Linear Modelling. This method allowed me to identify different relationships: between teacher-level factors and positive change, between school-level factors and positive change, and between school-level factors and the relationship between teacher factors and positive change. I was also able to partition the variance associated with these relationships between teachers and between schools. I found that learning opportunities, motivational factors, and school climate are predictors of positive change in teaching practices. This means that teachers are more likely to implement changes in their teaching practices if they: participate in professional development, interact with their colleagues, receive feedback from the principal and their colleagues, have a high level of self-efficacy for different teaching tasks, and belong to a school where leadership is well distributed among different stakeholders. In particular, feedback could have a stronger impact if it is based on different sources of information. Finally, I discuss the implications of these findings and conclusions that lead to a better understanding of these relationships.

The Swedish government has authorised the teaching of mathematics in English to Swedish speaking students. Much of that teaching is performed by foreign trained native English speaking teachers lacking training in second language learners. This systematic review summarises international studies from the last ten years that deal with the teaching of mathematics to second language learners. The review shows that second language students working in a bilingual environment achieve higher rates of content and language knowledge than learners in a monolingual environment. This study also summarises some of the teacher practices that are effective for teaching mathematics in English to second language learners.