Tässä pro gradu -tutkielmassa tarkastellaan suomalaisten perusopetuksen opettajien valmiuksia opettaa ohjelmointia sekä asenteita ohjelmoinnin opettamista kohtaan. Lähtökohtana tutkielmalle on uusi Perusopetuksen opetussuunnitelman perusteet ja sen mukanaan tuoma ohjelmoinnin opetuksen sisällyttäminen opetukseen. Pro gradun teoreettinen osa ja sen pohjalta laadittu mittaristo perustuu kahteen pääteoriaan. Tutkielmassa kerätty aineisto on avointa ja se on kaikkien käytettävissä Aalto-yliopiston kautta. Aineistonkeruun instrumentissa opettajien teknologia-asenteen taustalla ovat Davisin (1989) teknologian hyväksymismalli (Technology Acceptance Model, TAM) sekä Venkatesh et al. (2003) Yhdistetty teoria teknologian hyväksymisestä ja käytöstä (Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, UTAUT). Tutkielmassa on tarkoituksena tarkastella suomalaisen perusopetuksen opettajan valmiuksia opettaa ohjelmointia sekä asenteita niin ohjelmoinnin asemasta perusopetuksessa, kuin ohjelmoinnin opetuksesta yleisesti. Työn tuloksien avulla pyritään kehittämään suomalaisten peruskoulun opettajien koulutusta ohjelmoinnin opetuksessa. Pro gradu tutkielman aineisto on kerätty yhteistyössä koodiaapinen.fi-sivuston ohjelmointikurssin kanssa. Tutkimuskysely järjestettiin kurssin osallistujille. Tutkielma perustuu 317 suomalaisen opettajan web-kyselylomakkeeseen. Tutkielman päätulokset: Noin yksi kymmenestä vastaajasta ilmoitti pystyvänsä opettamaan joitakin seuraavista kielistä: Scratch, Scratch Jr., Code.org, ja HTML/CSS. Muiden ohjelmointikielten ja -ympäristöjen osaajia oli merkittävästi vähemmän. Uskoa ohjelmoinnin opettamisen osaamiseen vas-taajien keskuudessa kuitenkin on, sillä lähes puolet vastaajista ilmoitti pystyvänsä ratkaisemaan ohjelmoinnin opetuksen ongelmia, vaikka paikalla ei olisi ketään ohjeistamassa ja yli 70 % vastaajasta ilmoitti pystyvänsä ratkaisemaan ohjelmoinnin opetuksen ongelmia, jos käytettävissä on runsaasti (riittävästi) aikaa. Ohjelmoinnin opettaminen peruskoulussa nähdään tarpeellisena vastaajien keskuudessa. 74,1 % on osittain samaa mieltä tai täysin samaa mieltä väittämän ”Ohjelmoinnin opettamista tarvitaan perus-koulussa”. Suomalaisten opettajien suhtautuminen ohjelmoinnin opettamiseen on hieman neutraalia positiivisempi tai opettajat eivät tiedä miten he asennoituvat ohjelmointia kohtaan. Yleinen suhtautuminen ja ahdistuksen vähyys kertovat kuitenkin opettajien ottavan ohjelmoinnin opettamisen ennakkoluulottomasti käyttöönsä. / The main objective of this Master’s thesis is to explore Finnish primary school teachers’ readiness to teach programming and their attitudes towards teaching of programming. The new National Curriculum of Finland requires teachers to be able to teach programming commencing from autumn 2016. Koodiaapinen.fi has designed a massive open online course to educate Finnish teachers on teaching of programming to tackle this requirement. The research questionnaire was offered to the teachers who participated in the course. The results of this thesis are intended to be used on developing of the Finnish primary school teacher training on the area of teaching of programming. Research method of this thesis was web-based questionnaire (n=317). Instrument of the research is based on TAM (Technology Acceptance Model) (Davis, 1989.) and UTAUT (Unified Theory of Ac-ceptance and Use of Technology) (Venkatesh et al., 2003.). Those models were translated and modi-fied to match the research problem and the language of this thesis. One great contributor to the in-strument was the questionnaire developed by the researchers of ”The programming studio: investigating teachers’ readiness for teaching programming in the Island of Ireland”. The questionnaire used in this thesis is partially similar to the one used in Ireland to allow direct comparison of the results between these studies. Main results of the thesis: About one in ten of the respondents declared to be able to teach some of the following programming languages: Scratch, Scratch Jr., Code.org and HTML/CSS. The respondents were significantly less familiar with other programming languages. However, almost half of the respondents indicated ability to solve problems of the teaching of programming even if there were no help available and over 70 % of the respondents declared they would solve those problems if they had enough time to work on the problem. Teaching of programming was seen necessary among the respondents as 74,1 % partially agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “the teaching of programming is needed in primary school”. The attitude towards teaching of programming is somewhat more positive than neutral among the respondents or the respondents were not yet able to state their attitudes. The general attitude and lack of anxiety among the respondents denotes that Finnish teachers are open-mindedly welcoming programming into primary school’s curriculum.

<p> <b>Purpose:</b> The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine, understand, and describe the effective strategies secondary AVID teachers in Region 3 of California employ to build positive relationships with students.</p><p> <b>Methodology:</b> This qualitative study focused on how AVID teachers build positive relationships with their students, and data were collected through one-on-one interviews and classroom observations. The researcher interviewed eight AVID teachers, who were recommended by the regional AVID coordinator as having strong relational skills with students. From those teachers interviewed, the researcher conducted observations of four AVID teachers to gain a better understanding of the strategies they used to build positive relationships with students. Using both of these data collection instruments allowed the researcher to discover common patterns and themes regarding the effective strategies secondary AVID teachers use to build positive relationships with their students.</p><p> <b>Findings:</b> Based on the perceptions of AVID teachers, the implementation of AVID curriculum to support student success, establishing clear academic and behavioral expectations for students, showing a genuine interest in students, nurturing characteristics of the teacher, teacher involvement, and the impact of AVID program characteristics were findings from this study. </p><p> <b>Conclusions:</b> Three conclusions can be drawn from this study regarding the strategies AVID teachers use to build positive relationships with their students. First, teachers need to use a relevant curriculum that engages students. Second, teachers who show a genuine interest in students are able to connect to students in a meaningful way. Lastly, teachers need to exhibit characteristics that nurture their students.</p><p> <b>Recommendations:</b> Further research is advised. A study could be conducted on teacher preparation programs and their effectiveness in preparing teachers to build positive teacher&ndash;student relationships. Another study could examine the impact positive teacher&ndash;student relationships have on teachers and students. A study could examine gender imbalance with teachers, specific to the AVID program. A future study could look at the differences in building positive teacher&ndash;student relationships between male and female teachers. Another study could examine the implications AVID program characteristics have in relationship building. And lastly, one could replicate this study using non-AVID teachers as the population.</p>

The purpose of this study was to examine the leadership perceptions of a Black female first year principal in a predominantly White private Christian school. For years, educational research and leadership models for school principals were theorized and constructed based on White men or those in the dominant group. This study is significant in that it sought to explore the perception of the leadership behaviors and dispositions of a Black female to determine if there was a correlation between the Transformational Leadership Theory and the emergent leadership style. In the qualitative tradition, this autoethnographic study used narrative inquiry to explore the phenomenon of my first year as a principal and examine the intersections of my race and gender that affect my leadership perceptions. The findings from the narrative data introduced a leadership model based on the emergence of the Neo-Stereotypic Black female leader and described the four dimensions; Neo-Mammy, Neo-Jezebel, Neo-Sapphire, and Neo-Matriarch. These dimensions were compared to the four dimensions of the Transformational Leadership Theory. This study identified a strong correlation between the perceived leadership behaviors of a Black female principal with that of the Transformational Leadership Theory.

No description available.

No description available.

Purpose of the Study The most tangible and significant interpretation of a public school system's educational goals and objectives is the curriculum which embraces and transmits the identified educational ideologies. Curriculum development and its attendant processes mirror the philosophies, beliefs, and attitudes of a school system's perceptions of and projections for those who are to be served educationally. The purpose of the study was to investigate the theoretical constructs in the development of upper elementary Social Studies Curriculum in twenty-five (25) selected urban school districts. The study was guided by four (A) research questions which asked: 1. What are the basic and essential elements which guide the development of the Social Studies Curriculum? 2. How and by whom are these basic and essential elements selected and incorporated into the Social Studies Curriculum? 3. Is there evidence that Social Studies Curriculum development has been influenced by the educational and social changes of the 1960's and 1970's?, and 4. What is the role of the local school district's curriculum administrator(s) in developing the Social Studies Curriculum? Methodology Utilizing the Stratified Random Sampling Procedure, twenty-five (25) school districts were selected from an eligible sampling population of thirty-five (35) urban school districts. The investigator constructed a twenty-five (25) item Curriculum Development Inventory which was used to survey curriculum administrators in the selected urban school districts. The Inventory results treated statistically showed the frequency and percentage distributions by items, and the comparison of observed and expected frequency of response by means of chi-square one-sample test. The Curriculum Guides and Bulletins submitted by participating school districts were examined against a defined framework of theoretical positions and the "language" of the Guides and Bulletins was used as the associative indicator to define the theoretical constructs. Conclusions Based on the analysis of the data for this study and the inferences that were drawn from that data, the following conclusions were made: 1. The basic and essential elements which guide the development of Social Studies Curriculum are more clearly definable and generally articulated as goals and objectives. 2. There are few consistent or well-defined procedures for selecting and incorporating the basic and essential elements into the development of the Social Studies Curriculum. As goals and objectives ultimately emerge they represent a variety of procedures, rationales, and dictates. 3. The development of upper elementary Social Studies Curriculum evidences some influence by the educational and social changes of the 1960fs and 1970's. 4. The theories of Learning, Education, and Curriculum are evident in the over-all goals and objectives in Social Studies Curriculum development in the upper elementary levels of the school districts surveyed. 5. The findings suggest the existence of disproportionately low staffing patterns for the Social Studies by comparison to staffing patterns for the other content areas. 6. There is a significant lag in the revision of the Social Studies programs in the school districts surveyed, by reference to curriculum revisions in the other content areas. 7. The extent to which the Boards of Education and the superintendents of schools focus consistently on the status of the Social Studies in their school districts is limited and indirect. Implications for Leadership Behavior 1. The continuing impact of social and political forces along with the redefining of priorities in education require committed and aggressive leadership to develop, implement, and maintain strong programs in the Social Studies while skillfully and deliberately orchestrating the elements of that educational milieu for the explicit purpose of delivering fully equitable educational experiences. 2. It would appear that an essential "skill" needed by educational leaders is the ability to "lobby" in behalf of strong, forward and equitable Social Studies programs, from a posture of valid commitment to the learners to be served, an in-depth knowledge of the theoretical constructs necessary to a substantive program, and a well-defined overview of the significant thrust an effective Social Studies program can bring to the overall curricula. This is an essential reality in promoting the Social Studies and validating it in the light of its tremendous potential for making education more responsibly responsive. Recommendations 1. That the local policy making Board of Education or Board of School Trustees and the Superintendents of Schools take early action to reassess and re-evaluate the status of the Social Studies Curriculum in their school districts. It is the concern and impetus at this level that is needed now to keep Social Studies Education in the "mainstream" of educational experiences under the full endorsement of these boards and superintendents. 2. That the selection, appointment and retention of Social Studies administrators take into account: the level of awareness on the part of present and prospective administrators regarding the implications of social and political forces in direct relationship to curriculum development, their demonstrated abilities to plan and implement equitable educational programs, their beliefs in the learners for whom they will plan and manage programs, their astute sensitivities to the dynamic and far-reaching potentials in strong programs of Social Studies.

The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship and differences of hardiness stress, burnout, social support, and demographics such as age, years of service, and education with 196 pre-kindergarten and kindergarten teachers from public, private, for-profit, and non-profit schools and to determine if hardy teachers are less vulnerable to burnout. A survey design method was chosen to produce statistics that indicated a numerical description of the relationship between these variables and the pre-kindergarten and kindergarten teacher. Four surveys were used: Burnout Inventory (MBI) (Maslach, Jackson, and Schwab, 1986) Teacher Concerns Inventory (Firmian, 1985), Dispositional Resilience Scale (DRS-15) (Bartone, 2007), and the Social Support Questionnaire (SSQ6) (Sarason, et. al., 1987). A Pearsons product-moment correlation was used to determine the relationship between hardiness, stress, burnout, social support, and the demographic characteristics of age, education, and experience. An Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to determine the differences in the relationship between each of the dependent variables; hardiness, stress, burnout, and social support with the independent variables of age, education, and experience.

No description available.

No description available.

Problem The inherent problem in this study was that of assessing and analyzing adult criminal offenders' perceptions of the effectiveness of analytically-derived, passive-reflective and advice-giving techniques of counseling. Purpose Investigating the three counseling techniques, analytically-derived, advice-giving, and passive-reflective, with regard to their perceived effectiveness by adult criminal offenders was the primary goal of this study. Procedure Sixty people, fifteen white males, fifteen black males, fifteen white females and fifteen black females, on probation with the Fulton County Adult Probation Department were the subjects used in this study. The instrument used to obtain the necessary data was designed by the writer and included twenty-five problem statements, reflective of those experienced by adult criminal offenders, and three counselor responses to each of the problems. Each subject ranked the counselor responses in terms of most effective to least effective. Analysis of data was achieved by computing individual and group total rank scores and by comparing the mean rank scores of each group and technique. The t test of significance was used to determine statistical significance. Findings The results showed the following: 1. That adult criminal offenders perceived, at the .01 level of confidence, advice-giving as being more effective than the analytically-derived or passive-reflective responses in terms of effectiveness. 2. That there was not a statistically significant difference, at the .05 level of confidence, between the adult criminal offenders' perceptions of the analytically-derived and passive-reflective counseling responses in terms of effectiveness. Conclusions 1. The advice-giving technique was perceived to be more helpful than the passive-reflective and analytically-derived modes of counseling. 2. Passive-reflective and analytically-derived techniques were perceived by the subjects as equally effective. 3. Adult criminals' sex or race had no significant effect on the perceived effectiveness of the three techniques. Implications 1. Adult criminal offenders respond more favorably to advice-giving because they probably expect to be told what to do. 2. Advice-giving is effective for all racial and ethnic groups. Recommendations 1. Counselor training programs provide a variety of counseling techniques to enable the trainee to become competent in adapting techniques to situational needs. 2. Researching the correlation between perceived helpfulness and actual change is also needed.