Thesis (M.A.)--West Virginia University, 2007. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains v, 52 p. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 45-49).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2009. / Open access. Includes bibliographical references (p. 69-73). Print copy also available.

This study aimed to explore teachers’ and students’ perceptions of metacognition in relation to mathematics teaching and learning in secondary schools in Saudi Arabia. This research adopted an interpretive paradigm. This meant that a socio-cultural perspective was central to examining perceptions of metacognition in relation to mathematics among secondary students and their teachers in Saudi Arabia. The use of case studies was a methodical means to achieve elaborate data and to shed light on issues facing the study. The instruments used for data collection were semi-structured interviews, group discussions and classroom observation. The participants consisted of two case study classes from secondary schools in Saudi Arabia. There were three stages of the study’s fieldwork: the pilot study and the two subsequent stages which comprise the main body of fieldwork. These last two stages were carried out in order to enable the formulation of a clearer and more complete picture of mathematics teaching and learning through metacognition in Saudi Arabia, before and after the implementation of the IMPROVE programme, regardless of improvements in specific strategy or any boost to students’ achievement. Several findings were drawn from the data, the first of these being that the traditional method can hinder mathematics teaching and learning through metacognition. Secondly, although metacognitive mathematics instruction should be planned, the strategy that is introduced should be directly targeted at improving the monitoring and regulation of students’ thought when dealing with mathematics problems. Thirdly, metacognition should be given priority to improve students’ consciousness of the learning processes. This is because conscious reflection enables students to develop an ability to choose the most appropriate strategies for learning concepts and solving mathematics problems. The findings underlined the importance of the student’s role in learning through metacognition. The study presented a perspective for dealing with metacognition along with a practice-based model of metacognitive mathematics teaching and learning. These are in the educational context of Saudi Arabia and are set out after the implementation of the IMPROVE programme. In addition, this study asserts that metacognition can be enhanced through the creation of a suitable socio-cultural context that encourages the social interaction represented through cooperative learning.

While research has touted the educational benefits of music composition in the classroom, studies have also revealed the numerous difficulties teachers encounter in its inclusion. From lack of time and materials to lack of training and confidence, teachers have struggled to incorporate composition in their lessons. At the same time, a body of research also has suggested that what teachers believe about a subject can have significant bearing on what they teach and how they teach it. This multi-case study looked at three teachers to investigate what they believed about music composition, where those beliefs originated and how those beliefs may be expressed in their classrooms and use of composition. The results revealed the significance of early music influences with family and church music directors, a strong connection to identity through music, and the importance of the sharing and peer teaching of music. There was a distinct bias for European forms and standard notation that eclipsed other ways of knowing, understanding, and expressing music. Other than jazz, forms of improvisation were often viewed as childish or primitive. The teachers most likely to find success in the use of composition in the classroom were flexible, and able to align their beliefs about music education, the efficacy of their students and themselves, with their beliefs about composition and what it can offer.

The study reported in this dissertation investigated the relationships between thinking style, participation in classroom dialogue and learning outcomes. Classroom dialogue is a commonly used method for teaching and learning, and ways/strategies of taking advantage of classroom dialogue to optimise learning need to be specified. The study addresses this issue. Talking has traditionally been viewed as the main way of participation in classroom dialogue, and there is evidence for its learning benefit. However, silent participants have largely been overlooked and little is known about the function of listening with regard to learning. There is arguably a need to investigate the effects of both talking and listening on learning outcome. At an individual level, talking and listening do not serve all students equally well and individual characteristics should be considered when studying how students benefit from diverse participation behaviours. Thinking style, one aspect of individuality, is rarely related to participation in classroom dialogue nor has the corresponding learning outcomes been investigated previously: this will be addressed in the study. The study focuses particularly on high school students in mainland China, a group of people about whom there is relatively little material. A mixed-method research design was adopted, with the quantitative approach dominating. The Thinking Style Inventory - Revised II (Sternberg, Wagner & Zhang, 2007) was used to measure thinking styles. Talking and listening were considered as two forms of participation in classroom dialogue, with systematic observation being employed to collect data on talk and a newly designed questionnaire used to measure listening. Learning outcomes were illustrated through academic achievement and cognitive ability, with the former being measured by final-examination scores and the latter by the Sternberg Triarchic Ability Test (Sternberg, 1993). A series of statistical analyses were conducted and the results can be summarized as follows. Both talking and listening in classroom dialogue were found to be likely to facilitate academic achievement. Thinking style was significantly associated with participation in classroom dialogue. No relationship was found between thinking style and learning outcomes. Students’ thinking styles affected how they benefited from talking and listening, especially in mathematics. This study provides new perspectives on making use of classroom dialogue at both classroom and individual levels.

This study weighs the importance of assessment in the K-8 classroom against the preparation of teachers to create and administer assessments that are effective and meaningful. Despite the enormous pressure teachers are put under to assess and evaluate, Teacher Education Programs (TEP) are remiss in providing students with the necessary skills for this task. Teachers feel that their training has been deficient and rely on pot-job placement Professional Development (PD) to acquire a degree of proficiency. Survey questions and assessment samples were analyzed in order to gain a frame of reference on teacher attitudes toward assessment and the quality of assessment products. Higher order thinking (HOT) was an important factor in examining the samples. Analyzation was also done by experts in the field and these supported the work of the researcher. The results of the study show that there is insufficient training in assessment during TEP. Data from assessment sample analysis prove that, to a large degree, teachers are not able to identify or construct HOT. Assessment has taken a major place in our schools. If it is to remain such an important piece in the mosaic of both effective teaching and successful learning, TEPs must adapt their curriculum to ensure assessment mastery in their students.

The purpose of this study was threefold: (a) to explore teachers’ knowledge and beliefs about inquiry within an inclusive classroom, (b) to determine teachers’ perceptions of the influence of inquiry within their practice, (c) to examine teachers’ challenges and barriers to implementing inquiry within an inclusive classroom. This in-depth case study employed interviews, observations, and focus group discussions to gather qualitative data concerning this phenomenon. The participants included three science teachers (two elementary, one middle school) and one middle school Social Studies and English Language Arts (ELA) teacher. This study took place at a private school in a suburban area in a Midwestern city in the United States. The study findings showed the complexity of understanding teachers’ perceptions and how teachers’ beliefs conflicted with their practice. Teachers held different views about the meaning of inquiry and most lacked a solid understanding of the process of inquiry; this could be attributed to a lack of relevant professional development during their preparation program or education. Some teachers believed that having students with different abilities and skill levels was more challenging than implementing inquiry. However, most of the teachers were unsure about what inquiry was. The science teachers expressed more sustentative substantive challenges with implementing inquiry, standards, and literacy. The results of this study suggest that educators clarify the meaning of inquiry and simplify the process of implementing it with the assistance of definitive professional development. Teacher educators need to provide a course for teaching methods that implement inquiry in conjunction with inclusive education to especially improve science education. When implementing inquiry, teachers need to recognize the importance of challenging students to think by providing critical-thinking questions in a non-threatening way.

Schools across the country are dedicating significant resources to the selection, adoption, and durable implementation of evidence-based practices (EBPs); however, the research-to-practice gap remains a significant challenge facing education today (DuFour & Mattos, 2013). Coaching is one of the implementation variables most consistently cited for improving the high-fidelity adoption of new practices. This study used two concurrent multiple baseline, single-case designs across participants with counterbalanced intervention phases to examine the effects of coaching on teachers’ use of evidence-based, class-wide behavior management practices. Specifically, the study examined the extent to which a functional relation exists between (a) coach-delivered prompting, (b) coach-delivered performance feedback, and (c) the interaction effects of coach-delivered prompting with performance feedback and an increase in teachers’ use of evidence-based classroom management practices and a decrease in class-wide disruptive behavior. Results indicate that coach-delivered prompting and performance feedback is functionally related to an increase in teacher use of evidence-based classroom management practices and a reduction in classroom disruption; however, no additional effects were observed when prompting and performance feedback were delivered together. Potential contributions of the study are discussed in terms of establishing a more nuanced understanding of the active ingredients of effective coaching to support the selection, training, evaluation, and ongoing support of coaches in K-12 educational settings.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:32:09Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2003-12-08Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T20:42:49Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 stadler_rcl_dr_assis.pdf: 515463 bytes, checksum: 36832cd7bdd9d4cdd2139337b3b3f28d (MD5) / Esta pesquisa objetivou investigar o processo de produção, leitura e compreensão do texto Sala-de-aula. Para sua efetivação, acompanhamos, durante um ano letivo, uma turma de alunos de 2ª série do Centro Federal de Educação Tecnológica (CEFET-PR). Esse acompanhamento nos permitiu coletar dados para a organização do material documentário - relato de narrativas de vida dos participantes, registro das observações realizadas em sala de aula, diário de campo do pesquisador - o qual desencadeou o processo de reflexão. Desenvolvemos nossa reflexão tendo como suporte a teoria lingüística de Mikhail Bakhtin e as opções metodológicas - Estudo de caso, Paradigma indiciário e Pesquisa narrativa. Esse suporte teórico nos possibilitou reconhecer o Sala-de-aula como um texto polifônico, ou seja, no qual vozes se encontram, entrecruzam-se, chocam-se, demonstrando a relevância da interação dialógica que ocorre em cada aula. Para compreender o texto Sala-de-aula foi necessário ouvir estórias singulares, por serem elas reveladoras das ações atuais. A sala de aula é local de desvelamento de estórias, nele está presente o ser humano que é, por sua natureza social e histórica, ser narrativo. Sendo assim, todas as ações humanas são resultados de experiências partilhadas em nossos atos dialógicos. Essas ações, essas experiências não se efetivam sem a presença da linguagem. Ela esteve ali, a cada encontro, a cada contato humano, gesto ou olhar. Sendo o texto Sala-de-aula resultado de atos dialógicos, ou seja, atos entremeados de estórias, está recheado de linguagem, diríamos que é a linguagem a se materializar nessa produção. Esses atos dialógicos, todavia, representam apenas uma fração de uma corrente comunicativa, como se fora um elo, uma extensão de atos dialógicos anteriores... / This research aimed at investigating the creation process, reading and comprehension of the text Sala de Aula (Classroom). To accomplish this objective, a class of junior high school students ( 2 grade) at the Federal Center of Technological Education (CEFET-PR) was observed during one academic year. Data to organize documentary material was collected from : life accounts of the participants, records of the notes taken in the classroom and evidences obtained during fieldwork. The linguistic theory developed by Mikhail Bakhtin provided the theoretical underpinnings upon which this research was carried out as well as the following methodological procedures: case study, evidential paradigm and narrative research. Such theory enabled us to see the text Sala de aula as polyphonic, that is, a text where different voices meet, intersect, clash, demonstrating thus how important and relevant interaction between students in each class is. A deep insight into the text in question was obtained by hearing singular stories that shed a great deal of light upon students' current attitudes. It is in human's nature, from a social and historical point of view, to be given to narrating stories which explains the fact that the classroom is the place where stories are told. Therefore, all human actions are the result of experiences shared in our interactions by means of language that makes itself present in each encounter, contact, action and look. The fact that the text Sala de aula is the product of interactions interspersed with stories entitles us to say that language materializes in this creative process. Such interactions, however, reveal only a small fraction of a communicative process, as if it were a link, an extension of past interactions and, consequently ...(Complete abstract, click electronic access below)

Since 1998 there has been a dramatic increase in the numbers of paid, additional, support staff, employed in Scottish primary schools as successive Scottish governments have attempted to raise standards by freeing teachers from administrative and ‘housekeeping’ duties and allowing them to teach. Of these additional staff, currently just over 4000 are classroom assistants, with a remit to provide general class learning and teaching support, including social inclusion and pupil discipline, under the direction of a fully registered teacher. Classroom assistants in Scotland are almost exclusively White women, typically aged 31-50, but concentrated in the 41-50 age range, partnered and with children of school age. These women exist on the margins of school hierarchies as witnessed by short-term contracts, low pay, limited access to formal training and low status. Nevertheless, many classroom assistants seem willing to accept poor working conditions as a trade off for family friendly working hours. Given these working conditions the study sought to consider several key questions: • Why are classroom assistants willing to undertake work that has low status, low pay and insecurity? • How do classroom assistants create and maintain a sense of integrity and commitment to their work? • How do classroom assistants create and sustain positive social and professional identities in this context? • Why do classroom assistants appear to be complicit, to some extent, in their own oppression? To achieve this the study used a critical ethnographic methods to explore the lived experiences of 13 classroom assistants as they supported pupils in two Scottish primary schools. The key insights were firstly that a Bourdieuian account of class, combined with an understanding of patriarchy, provided an explanation of these women’s labour market decisions. In addition, ‘preference theory’, was rejected in favour of a range of constraints, particularly having children and the associated childcare costs, that were considered much more important factors. Secondly, classroom assistants performed versions of ‘emphasised femininity’ as part of their identity as ‘classroom assistants’. Thirdly, the notion of ‘respectability’ was a crucial analytical tool in explaining not only these women’s constant struggle for recognition, but also their continuing oppression. And finally, classroom assistants told a particular type of talk, the ‘atrocity story’, which contributed to the social production of occupational boundaries. The study concluded that from their position of insecure and poorly paid employment, classroom assistants justified and reconciled their position by drawing on talk of moral superiority associated with mothering and caring to construct and perform identities that created the spaces and boundaries from which they positioned themselves as superior to both parents and teachers. As a result they were able to negotiate their roles within the micro-political world of the school.