Considering the context of large city schools, this study explores what variables in a kindergarten classroom may impact the process of children’s engagement with nature. In particular I examine the central role of children and teacher in co-constructing their own unique understanding, knowledge, and attitude towards the natural world. In this study, I examine nature-child’s connection considering the complexity of nature beyond a pre-packaged concept (Louv, 2007) and avoiding a linear identification of a cause and effect relationship between children’s learning experiences and nature, (Kellert, 2005). This qualitative case study is based on extensive classroom observations, in which 20 kindergarten children and their teacher participate. The children’s direct, indirect, and vicarious experiences with nature are documented using digital photography, video-audio recording, and collection of artifacts. I interview the classroom teacher two times and invite the parents to fill up a questionnaire about their children’s experiences with nature outside the school time. I use the techniques and procedure of the grounded theory to analyze the data. A comparative analysis of the five learning episodes demonstrates four major factors that when all woven together encourage and sustain the children’s engagement with nature. These factors are: investigating children’s meaningful and autotelic questions, encountering and experiencing nature in familiar contexts, developing emotional bonding, and having sufficient time. The findings show the crucial role of the classroom teacher in creating five main conditions to engage the children in the process of each inquiry. She offers the children many opportunities to use their prior skills and knowledge, take responsibility of their own learning, and experiment with learning as a process. She often responds positively to the children’s learning endeavours and communicates her high confidence and expectations for them. This study makes an important contribution to the field of early childhood education and environmental education by demonstrating the possibilities and challenges in actively and holistically engaging children with nature in school settings. The findings shed light on our understanding of children and teacher’s sense of ownership and motivation as two driving forces of learning.

在台灣的英文學習環境中， 閱讀能力ㄧ向被視為學習中最重要的ㄧ環 ， 然而， 閱讀所帶來的沉重負擔， 讓許多學生在有限的教學時數之下往往成為了犧牲品，特別是低成就者。班上參差不齊的英文程度,也對老師造成了教學上極大的困擾。 本研究旨在探討 ，以合作式學習法來縮短學習者程度上的差異，進而提升整體的閱讀能力。此外, 互動式閱讀技巧也分別在實驗組與控制組中教授， 以檢視其對閱讀能力的影響。 參與本研究的學生為 79名台北某公立高中的兩班九十四學年度高一新生， 實驗組施以合作式學習法，控制組則為傳統老師講授的方式， 兩組在同一時間內閱讀同一本教科書， 並分別施以前測， 後測。 最後， 並再針對所有研究對象施以問卷調查， 以期了解研究對象對合作式學習法及互動式閱讀技巧之回應。此外, 老師上課的觀察紀錄及小組的檢視表也一併在本研究中被採用。 本研究的結果摘要如下: 1. 在學生閱讀成就方面，實驗組以漸進的方式，最後超越控制組。 2. 在一學期互動式閱讀技巧實施之後， 研究對象之閱讀能力明顯提升。 3. 在實驗組中 ，高、中、 低成就者對合作式學習法展現許多雷同與少許差異的反應，但整體而言，皆傾向於正面的肯定。 4. 閱讀技巧在實驗組與控制組中似有明顯之差異， 顯見研究對象會依教學活動採取不同的閱讀技巧。 根據研究結果， 本論文擬提出對現行高中閱讀教學之建議，俾為教師及未來研究者提供參考。 / In an EFL environment in Taiwan, reading is regarded as the most essential skill. However, for most students, abundance in reading material makes them feel stressful--especially the weaker ones who tend to be sacrificed due to limited instruction time. For teachers, how to deal with a big mixed-level class has therefore become the most important task. An aim of this study was to examine the effectiveness of cooperative language learning (CLL) skills in bridging gap among students with differing academic abilities and in enhancing students' overall reading comprehension. In addition, the interactive reading approach was adopted in both the experimental and the control groups to examine its effect upon them. Participants of this study included 79 tenth-graders from two intact classes in one public senior high school in Taipei in the fall semester of 2005. The experimental group was engaged in three CLL activities and the control group was instructed in the traditional teacher-centered methods. Both groups were taught by the researcher with the interactive reading approach. During the span of this study, the participants in both groups were assigned to read nine lessons from the textbook. In the meantime, they were instructed under the CLL methods and the traditional teacher-centered methods respectively. Besides, they were given a pretest and four posttests during and after the study. In time, two questionnaires were adopted: one for investigating the reading strategies used by the participants in both groups and the other for measuring the CLL group participants' attitudes and responses of the CLL group toward CLL teaching. Besides, the teacher's classroom observation and the group processing checklists were also employed in this study. After four months of experiment, the main results of this study can now be summarized as follows: 1. The experimental group gradually outscored the control group on the reading comprehension test during the experiment. 2. The participants’ reading comprehension ability improved significantly after the implementation of interactive reading approach. 3. The results showed some similarities and differences among the high/low achievers and the average students in their perceptions toward the CLL. However, the participants' attitudes toward and responses to CLL may be described as being supportive and positive. 4. The adoption of reading strategies seemed diverse between the two groups. On the whole, when exposed to different teaching activities, the participants adopted different reading strategies accordingly. This study concludes that the effects of CLL might be better than those of individual learning in a big class on senior high school students' reading proficiency. It also suggests that the interactive reading approach can be used to enhance senior high school students' reading ability.

This study investigates awareness and use of communicative language teaching methodology (CLT) in a foundation programme at an institution of higher learning in the Sultanate of Oman, where rapid expansion and a reliance on expatriate skills has resulted in the employment of predominantly native English teachers, many with inadequate formal teacher training. The qualitative research methodology employed involved a core of five teachers using three data-gathering instruments and ten additional English language teachers who responded to a questionnaire. The study finds that the majority of teachers have inadequate knowledge of the CLT approach and do not use it in the classroom. The findings suggest that an adapted version of CLT which embraces local contextual and sociocultural conditions may be pedagogically viable. The study draws comparisons between the idea of a hypothetical, “adapted” version of CLT and the notions of “particularity, practicality and possibility” as suggested by Kumaravadivelu (2006). / English Studies / M.A. (Specialisation in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, TESOL)

This thesis reports a collective case study of the school educational experiences of five severely and profoundly deaf students who were enrolled in regular schools in rural areas of New South Wales. The students ranged in age from 6 to 18 years. Three issues were examined: (1) The impact of the philosophy of inclusive education and the question of why students with high degrees of deafness and high support needs were enrolled in regular schools in rural areas; (2) The specific linguistic an educational support needs of deaf students; and (3) The ability of the regular schools and teachers to cater for the educational needs of the deaf students in those settings. The case studies revealed that to considerably varying extents in different situations, the students were afforded inclusive educational opportunities. The extent of inclusiveness of students’ educational experiences was shown to vary according to a number of variables. The variables identified included: the type and quality of communication with the deaf student, teaching style, accessibility of content, particular lesson type, and the type and extent of curriculum adaptations employed. As a result of the analysis of the data from the five cases, a number of generalistions were possible. These generalisations were that (a) students with the ability to access spoken communication auditorily were more easily included than students using manual communication; (b) reduction of linguistic and academic input occurred as a response to student inability to access class programs because of reduced linguistic capabilities, resulting in the deaf students receiving different and reduced information to the hearing students; (c) communication between a deaf student and his or her class teacher needed to be direct for the most successful inclusion to occur; (d) teaching style needed to be interactive or experiential for successful language learning and literacy development to occur; (e) curriculum adaptations needed to involve provision of visual support for lesson material to be highly effective; (f) lessons/subjects easily supported by visual means, such as mathematics or practical subjects, when taught hierarchically, going from the known to unknown in achievable steps, meant teaching style could be either transmission or interactive, for lesson activities to be considered inclusive; (g) students with poor literacy skills were unable to successfully access an intact (i.e., unaltered and complete) high school curriculum; (h) the teaching style of the class teacher impacted on the support model possible for the itinerant teacher; (i) an interactive class teaching style allowed for cooperative teaching between class teacher and itinerant teacher who could then assist the class teacher with both the linguistic and academic needs of the deaf student; (j) a transmission style of teaching resulted in various levels of withdrawal for the deaf student unless the subject matter could be represented visually; (k) when curriculum content or expected outcomes were reduced, the deaf students did not have the same access to information as their hearing counterparts and consequently could not develop concepts or understandings in the same manner; and (l) language and literacy development were most facilitated when interactive teaching opportunities were established proactively for the deaf students rather than through the reduction of content as a response to their failure to successfully engage with the complete curriculum. The conclusions suggest an alternative support proposal for deaf students in rural environments. The model of support proposed involves the targeting of specific preschools and primary schools with the provision of teachers identified to teach collaboratively and interactively. Under the proposed model several students with impaired hearing would be located within the one school with the itinerant teacher position becoming a full-time appointment in that school. Such a model would enable coenrolment, co-teaching, co-programming, creative grouping, and the provision of demonstration opportunities and support for other teachers within the school and district that had deaf students enrolled. Finally, interactive teaching, based on a clearly defined theoretical model of language acquisition, development, and learning, is recommended for students with impaired hearing in such environments. It is argued that the support of linguistic development and academic learning could be facilitated concurrently, thus ensuring that by the time students had reached high school they would possess sufficient literacy skills to access a regular high school program successfully. / PhD Doctorate

Es una tesis analítico-descriptiva, con finalidad diagnóstica, en la que se describe el enfoque didáctico que debe aplicarse en la enseñanza de la lengua inglesa, según las directrices curriculares: el enfoque comunicativo. Se describe la metodología empleada para la investigación: observación en el aula. Por otro lado, se describe y analiza un corpus de actividades recopilado a partir de la observación de clases de inglés, presentando los datos en tablas en aras de mayor objetividad y para facilitar su sistematización, y también en formato descriptivo. Finalmente, tras la descripción y el análisis de los datos, se presentan las conclusiones, en las cuales se comprueba que la metodología empleada no es la comunicativa. Además, se ponen de manifiesto aspectos de la realidad del aula que contribuyen a explicar por qué no se aplica esa metodología y por qué el aprendizaje de la lengua extranjera no es tan fructífero como cabría esperar. / This is an analytico-descriptive thesis, written for diagnosis purposes, which investigates the relationship between the curricular guidelines for the teaching of English at the secondary level in the Spanish education system (communicative approach) and the actual application of those guidelines in real language classrooms. The methodology used for the the investigation is the so-called classroom observation. Also, a corpus of 1º Bachillerato English language lessons is described and analyzed, in two main formats: in tables (for the sake of objectivity and to facilitate data systematization) and in written analysis (descriptions). Next, conclusions are drawn where it clearly shows that the methodology employed in those lessons is not communicative. Finally, aspects of the day-to-day in language classrooms come out that contribute to explain why the communicative methodology is not used in the lessons observed and why foreign language learning in our country is not as fruitful as it would be desirable.

The present study aimed to explore the culture specificity of student self-regulation and its supporting motivational attitudes. Specifically, it enquired about similarities and differences between Chilean and English 8 to 9 year-old students in terms of their expression of self-regulatory behaviours, the psychological factors underlying these behaviours, and the functionality of these behaviours for task performance. It also compared student adoption of achievement motivational attitudes as well as the functionality of these attitudes for investment of effort and self-regulatory activity between cultures. Finally, the role of classroom cultures for self-regulation was studied. In particular, it examined the effects of classrooms and the quality of teacher talk (teacher-to-student communicative interactions/demands), such as teacher ‘regulatory talk’ and ‘socio-motivational talk’, on student self-regulation. A quantitative approach to the analysis of qualitative data (i.e. videos of student behaviour engaged in 11 to 13 experimental tasks, semi-structured interviews, videoed literacy lessons) was adopted. Eight classrooms situated in different schools from Chile and England were part of the study. In total, 8 teachers and 49 students – one teacher and six to seven students per classroom – took active part in the study. Qualitative data was primarily analysed using observational scales (for student behaviour), thematic analysis (for interview data), as well as socio-cultural discourse analysis (for videoed lessons). Statistical techniques, such as Mann Whitney U test, Factor Analysis, Multinomial logistic regressions, and Multilevel regressions were then applied on numerical transformations of the data. Overall, results suggest that self-regulation and achievement motivational attitudes vary to important extents according to culture. Most interestingly, these varied between cultures not so much in terms of the degree to which children used or adopted them, but rather in terms of their functionality. Some key findings supporting this conclusion were: i) Strong similarities between English and Chilean children’s levels of self-regulatory behaviours; ii) substantial differences across country samples in relation to the psychological factors underlying the expression of specific self-regulatory behaviours; iii) the finding of evaluative actions being self-regulatory in England but not in Chile; iv) a higher variety of self-regulatory behaviours being predictive of task performance in England than in Chile; v) the fact that learned self-regulatory behaviours accounted for effects of effective metacognitive control on task performance in England but not Chile; vi) some important differences in the achievement motivational attitudes expressed by Chilean and English students; and vii) culture-specific functionalities of various achievement motivational attitudes with respect to student effort and self-regulatory behaviours. Moreover, results suggest that some aspects of children’s self-regulation and motivational attitudes develop as tools to adapt to classroom cultures, specifically to the learning interactions/demands socially afforded by teacher talk. Among key findings supporting this conclusion were: i) effects of classrooms on children’s cognitive, social, and motivational self-regulation behavioural strategies, and ii) clear effects of teacher ‘regulatory talk’ (e.g., teacher ‘self-regulatory talk’ predicting more planning and asking for clarifications in students) and ‘socio-motivational talk’ (e.g., teacher ‘talk against self-efficacy’ predicting higher dependency-oriented help-seeking in students) on those behaviours with respect to which classrooms were found to matter. Thus a theory about the culturally adaptive functionality (CAF) of self-regulation and motivational attitudes supporting self-regulation is developed throughout the thesis.

This study investigates awareness and use of communicative language teaching methodology (CLT) in a foundation programme at an institution of higher learning in the Sultanate of Oman, where rapid expansion and a reliance on expatriate skills has resulted in the employment of predominantly native English teachers, many with inadequate formal teacher training. The qualitative research methodology employed involved a core of five teachers using three data-gathering instruments and ten additional English language teachers who responded to a questionnaire. The study finds that the majority of teachers have inadequate knowledge of the CLT approach and do not use it in the classroom. The findings suggest that an adapted version of CLT which embraces local contextual and sociocultural conditions may be pedagogically viable. The study draws comparisons between the idea of a hypothetical, “adapted” version of CLT and the notions of “particularity, practicality and possibility” as suggested by Kumaravadivelu (2006). / English Studies / M.A. (Specialisation in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages, TESOL)

This study was carried out to investigate the effect of using animated computer 3-D figures illustration (ACTDFI) in the learning of polyhedron in geometry. By random sampling, intact group of four grade 9 classes in four different schools from a cluster of four educational district schools of Limpopo province in South Africa were selected. The study involved quasi-experimental and inquiry research approaches, the quasi-experimental approach involved pre and posttest design while the inquiry research approach involve classroom observation. There were three experimental groups and a control group with a total of 174 study participants. ACTDFI was used as an intervention for two weeks in the three experimental groups while in the control group, chalk-talk traditional teaching approach was used. Pre-test and post-test was used to collect quantitative data while classroom observation was used to collect qualitative data. This study was carried out to investigate the effect of using animated computer 3-D figures illustration (ACTDFI) in the learning of polyhedron in geometry. By random sampling, intact group of four grade 9 classes in four different schools from a cluster of four educational district schools of Limpopo province in South Africa were selected. The study involved quasi-experimental and inquiry research approaches, the quasi-experimental approach involved pre and posttest design while the inquiry research approach involve classroom observation. There were three experimental groups and a control group with a total of 174 study participants. ACTDFI was used as an intervention for two weeks in the three experimental groups while in the control group, chalk-talk traditional teaching approach was used. Pre-test and post-test was used to collect quantitative data while classroom observation was used to collect qualitative data. The findings from the quantitative Classroom observations were carried out to collect relevant data on how the study participants were taught stationary points in differential calculus, especially with the use of the constructivist pedagogical approach. A suitable observation checklist was developed for this purpose (Appendix 6 refers). Classroom observation checklist is a list of factors to be considered while observing a class. It gives a structure and framework for the observation. suggested that the use of ACTDFI might have improved academic achievement in learning of polyhedron during the intervention, while the qualitative data analysis indicated that the use of ACTDFI in the experimental groups might have facilitated the learning of the concepts of polyhedron. It is therefore recommended that further research is necessary on the application of ACTDFI in the teaching of 3-dimensional shapes at the primary schools / Mathematics Education / M. Sc. (Mathematics Education)