The aim of this conceptual investigation is to reclaim the ethics of teaching through a critical examination of some recent accounts of good practice in teaching and by advancing an alternative account. Many recent accounts of good practice focus on concepts such as professionalism, competence and reflective practice. In some of these accounts, the ethical dimension of teaching is central and explicit; in others, it is only implicit; in yet others, it is distorted or even ignored. This inattention to ethics in theoretical accounts is paralleled in practice by teachers' failure to understand teaching as a moral enterprise, as is exemplified by responses of teachers to some of the teaching problems that they encounter. This research gives an alternative account of teaching as a practice through using Alasdair MacIntyre's conception of a practice. Key term in MacIntyre's conception are internal and external goods, standards of excellence and virtue. It is shown that the acquisition of the goods internal rather than the goods external to teaching is necessary but not sufficient for a flourishing practice of teaching. The conception of teaching as a practice is also used in this investigation to reflect on the roles of teachers as specified by the new Norms and Standards Teacher Education in South Africa. If well understood, the roles of teachers are not made up of mere lists of tasks and competences. The notion of teachers' roles opens the way for reclaiming an ethics of teaching.

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

D.Ed. (Didactics) / The inability to work in groups effectively and difficulties with discussion and decision-making were observed amongst pupils. This led the researcher to question whether pupils in South African schools are presented with opportunities to share in and take responsibility for their own learning. The literature pertaining to the nature, phenomenon and process of negotiation is briefly examined and fundamentals are identified. Negotiation is contextualized as a component of the educational phenomenon. An observation study of three std 7 classrooms in three different schools is undertaken in order to identify and describe all forms and modes of negotiation. Interviews with teachers and with pupils serve as cross-validation of these results. The results reveal that little negotiation of any nature takes place in the classroom; that teachers and pupils possess few skills and little knowledge in this regard; and that teachers perform the central role in the classroom whilst pupil contributions are not encouraged. As a qualitative study the final results indicate trends that may be generalized to similar classrooms. The concept of negotiation as a didactic phenomenon is now examined in depth by means of a literature research, with back reference to the findings of the field study. Key elements are identified and a conceptual presentation of classroom negotiation is made. The necessity of negotiation as an innovative, democratic and relevant perspective on the classroom is argued and a model for negotiated learning is presented...

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Educational Psychology / Master / Master of Social Sciences

Next Generation Science Standards and the Framework for K-12 Science Education encourage teachers to not only change the content of their teaching, but also the way that they deliver it. In order to promote these modern teaching practices, professional development (PD) experiences for teachers need to develop new approaches that enhance the transfer of the PD context into the teachers’ classroom practice. In this research study, professional learning communities (PLCs), defined as collaborative groups of teachers who make their practice visible within their professional learning, are analyzed in a formally instituted series of teacher professional education offerings. Moreover, the setting included a professional learning community composed of teacher-facilitators who were actively engaged as facilitators of other PLCs. The goal of this design experiment was to both explore PLCs as PD models within science education as well as to begin to develop tools for PD that allow teachers to work from within the context of their own classroom. The sources of evidence used in this study included teacher and student produced artifacts and interviews, and written transcripts of the sessions were also examined. All data were primarily explored using methodology taken from grounded theory. This approach facilitated identification of emergent themes that particularly addressed some of the ways that researchers and teacher leaders can work together in the future to make certain that PD and the teachers’ classroom practices are more coherently connected. The following themes were identified: refining the focus of professional learning communities to allow for investigations of student learning in the classroom, especially with an eye towards supporting transparency of practice through artifacts, and the usefulness of cycles of inquiry as a construct for planning professional learning communities. Furthermore, it became clear that there is a need for explicit norms to frame the classroom around what constitutes acceptable explanations and justifications for productive classroom experiences. Among other findings, it is recommended that borrowing from and adapting the work of scholars in sociomathematical norms around the use of explanations can be the basis for a possible framework for improving future studies of teacher professional practice.

No description available.

M.Ed. / In this study it is shown that two dynamic forces exist in the day to day practice of teaching and learning: (a) The instructional effect of teaching and learning The first dynamic force is the instructional effect of teaching and learning. It is expressed as an action where the teacher conveys to the learner crystallized knowledge, norms and techniques which for centuries have developed in a particular society. (b) The nurturant effect of teaching and learning The second dynamic force originates in the learner and his budding potential. It is expressed as the will of the learner to learn through his own effort and ability. This implies that the learner will need opportunities to discover SUbject-matter for himself and will require sufficient room for own initiative without too much control from the teacher. The dilemma the teacher now finds himself in is how to instruct knowledge in a meaningful way without dampening the joy and flow of individual discovery, inspiration and creativity. Should he guide the learner towards a clearly formulated educational goal or should the learner discover meaning for himself without much interference from the teacher? In the study it was shown that a lack of balance between these two forces will result in verbalism, a superficial type of knowledge where pupils have memorized knowledge without comprehension.

This dissertation describes two studies that empirically test instructional methods designed to promote learning, transfer, and curiosity in the context of real-world science classrooms. In the first study, I compared an inherently uncertain form of instruction to an inherently certain one, and in the second study, I compared different levels of uncertainty within the same inherently uncertain instruction type. The first study demonstrates that, compared to an inherently certain form of instruction (tell-then-practice), the inherently uncertain form of instruction (Invention) produced greater curiosity and transfer, which may reflect deeper learning. While this study showed promising results, it revealed additional questions, which were answered by the second study. Specifically, because there were differences other than uncertainty between conditions, I could not fully conclude that uncertainty is what caused group differences in curiosity or transfer. To confirm that it is, in fact, uncertainty influencing curiosity and transfer, the second study examined learning activities that were more similar to one another, but still differed in uncertainty. Specifically, I compared two Invention conditions, in which one group of students was given more information prior to invention than the other. This manipulation also showed that higher uncertainty led to greater curiosity and transfer. The research in this dissertation also examines how uncertainty influences affect and whether state-level curiosity influences learning and transfer. Further, it shows how curiosity changes over time and demonstrates a new way to behaviorally and qualitatively measure curiosity.

No description available.

It is the purpose of this thesis to show that the pragmatic philosophy is basically responsible for present-day developments in various teaching techniques.