South African mathematical teachers are being introduced to the pedagogical tool, Meaning Equivalence Reusable Learning Objects (MERLO) as formative assessment (FA) practised in the senior phase (Grade 8 and 9), to promote and support teachers’ professional growth in using FA practices in the classroom. Cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) and meta-didactical transposition (MDT) was used to frame the evolution process of teachers’ praxeologies. This study used qualitative participatory action research that encompassed three phases: pre-MERLO participation, MERLO participation and post-MERLO participation phase. The study was conducted in the northeast of Pretoria in Tshwane district in the province of Gauteng. Twelve senior phase mathematics teachers were purposively sampled in six public schools before workshop training. During workshop training, only five teachers participated due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The data collection instrument in my study used pre-and post-interviews, classroom observations, field notes, teachers’ reflective journals, teachers’ lesson plans learners’ workbooks and learners’ worksheets. From the subsequent MERLO participation, the findings revealed that the participating teachers acquired adequate knowledge and skills of meta-didactical praxeologies that allowed them to structure and integrate the lesson plan of teachers’ didactical praxeologies as FA activities into their mathematics classrooms. Furthermore, the teachers revealed that the learners showed more interest and motivation in the lesson. The learners were also actively involved in the lesson, developed a deeper understanding of mathematics content, and showed increased autonomy in learning. This study contributes to introducing the dynamic evolution of teachers’ praxeology of meta-didactical praxeologies and didactical praxeologies to South African mathematics teachers in the senior phase (Grade 8 and 9), in which the teachers used the pedagogical tool MERLO to support FA activities in the mathematics classroom. However, it is important to note that the effectiveness of MERLO participation training processes used in my study is ongoing research with a current focus on teachers’ professional development, with a future view on implementing the pedagogical tool MERLO in South African schools. In addition, the effectiveness of the training could also be used to empower other teachers globally. / Thesis (PhD (Assessment and Quality Assurance))--University of Pretoria, 2021. / UP doctoral research bursary / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / PhD (Assessment and Quality Assurance) / Restricted

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This dissertation project centers on student engagement inside the composition classroom. Through an in-depth synthesis on engagement in three major fields of engagement research—Rhetoric and Composition, Education, and Psychology (the three disciplines with the most database hits on engagement)—I discovered that engagement is used disparately in its literature, resulting in difficulty in its application inside the classroom. Due to this difficulty in applying engagement to the classroom, especially to the writing classroom, I conducted a discourse analysis—through using artifacts, an initial coding scheme, and a category provided from the synthesis—to further understand engagement and to find a more beneficial characterization of engagement for writing instructors to foster inside their classrooms. The findings of this dissertation study resulted in the creation of a model of how the engagement process manifests inside a classroom environment. Within the classroom, the instructor guides students between procedural and substantive engagement, using action terms found from the discourse analysis. While instructors seek substantive engagement, I argue that procedural engagement can be beneficial if instructors and students learn to be metacognitive about the engagement process, willing to work together and to try new actions to foster engagement in the classroom (instructors) and in themselves (students).

Drawing on the elements and processes in language teacher cognition (Borg, 2006), this study was an investigation of how four senior high school teachers perceived the policy of conducting English classes in English, the degree to which they conducted English classes that reflect the policy, and how their educational backgrounds, professional coursework, internal factors in the class, internal factors in the school, and external factors affected their cognition and classroom practice.To investigate the above issues, an instrumental, explanatory multiple case-study was employed. The data were collected from interviews with the four English teachers, the four head teachers of the English departments, members of Tokyo Metropolitan Board of Education (TMBE), and two members of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MEXT). In addition, two Communication English classes and two English Expression classes the four teachers were in charge of were observed and a questionnaire was administered to the students in each class. The findings indicated that the four teachers had favorable opinions about the policy of conducting English classes in English; however, their opinions were not reflected to a large degree in two of the teachers’ classes and were reflected to a moderate degree in the other two teachers’ classes. The discrepancy between their positive opinions of the policy and their classroom practice was attributed to the influence of their educational background, professional coursework, internal factors in the class, internal factors in the school, and external factors. Major factors that prevented them from reflecting the policy were a lack of appropriate teacher training, the presence of university entrance examinations, and the grammar-focused MEXT-approved textbooks. Major factors that helped their teachers reflect the policy were their positive experiences learning English in English communicatively, study abroad experiences, the measures taken by TMBE, the presence of ALTs and their students’ positive attitudes toward learning English in English. The findings of this study suggest that improvements in pre- and in-service training to teach English in English for communicative purposes, reforms of university entrance examinations, and improvements of MEXT-approved textbooks are essential to the implementing of the policy of teaching English in English. / Teaching & Learning

Two of every three students in the classroom today are affected by at least one adverse childhood experience (ACE; Perfect et al., 2016). Recently, researchers have used a neurodevelopmental approach to try to categorize and describe the connection between the neurological, cognitive, and academic success of children with ACEs and may have discovered a unique connection to math (Blodgett & Lanigan, 2018). The culmination of this research suggests that children who experience ACEs develop a stress physiology (as evidenced by differences in brain volume and cortisol levels) and this affects executive functioning. Because executive functioning, which is undergirded by the structural development of the brain (De Bellis et al., 2016), is related to mathematical academic achievement (Clark et al., 2010), children who have structural differences due to ACEs are hypothesized to have unique challenges in math. This study examined children drawn from an academic (rather than clinical) setting using behavioral measures of executive functioning as well as math grades obtained from their schools. Results suggest that for children drawn from a traditional academic setting, having been exposed to ACEs does not predict significant differences in EF skills or in school performance in math. Though the sample demonstrated a typical prevalence of exposure to ACEs, the maternal education of the children in the sample (a proxy for SES) was distinctly high. The interaction of these two aspects of this sample and their implications for the findings is discussed. / Educational Psychology

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The focus of this project is on the use of the reader-response orientation in the development of a poetry unit for grade seven. The reader-response orientation is a literary theory which suggests that the meaning of any literary work is the result of the interaction between the text and the reader. In this project, the emphasis is on providing a bridge between this theory and the practice of teaching poetry. To implement the reader-response orientation into teaching practices, it is important for teachers to understand how theory affects classroom activities. If the theory behind the reader-response orientation is understood, then teachers may be better able to change their teaching approaches. In the classroom, reader-response activities involve students in ways that encourage interest and personal response to poetry. Understanding the reader-response critical theory can help teachers plan their poetry lessons and develop more effective teaching practices. This project begins with a survey of the literature of the reader-response criticism and provides a summary of the theory. The link between theory and practice is demonstrated with a review of a current curriculum project that uses the reader-response orientation. Chapter Five is a poetry unit, for grade seven, designed to embody the reader-response theory in actual classroom practices. In my conclusion I briefly highlight some concerns and give suggestions for further research direction. / Thesis / Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT)

Students’ perceptions of normative support for positive intergroup relations from teachers and school staff have been linked to a number of positive intergroup outcomes (Green, Adams, & Turner, 1988; Jugert, Noack, & Rutland, 2011). Additional studies testing the effects of ethnic proportions in classrooms show evidence for positive and negative intergroup outcomes between ethnic majority and ethnic minority students (e.g., Durkin et al., 2011; Vervoort, Scholte, & Scheepers, 2011). Still, research has yet to test simultaneously the effects of ethnic proportions in a classroom in conjunction with students’ subjective perceptions of normative support for positive intergroup relations. With a sample of Latino and White students from 44 classrooms in two public middle schools the current research tests (1) how two sets of perceived school norms (promoting positive intergroup relations and promoting fairness) predict levels of comfort with outgroup members and greater interest in cross-ethnic friendship, and (2) whether proportions of outgroup members in the classroom moderates the relationships between each set of perceived norms and the outcomes.

Engaging students in class when first-hand experience is not available is challenging. Three teaching strategies, flipped classroom, a guest speaker, and technology, engaged students during a global health class. Students were given a graded preclass assignment, which was used to guide the class session when an expert physician from Zambia joined us using technology. On the day of class, students were engaged and asked questions of the physician related to global health and culture. Combining the three strategies was an innovative and effective way to engage students, with many sharing with faculty that this was their favorite class day.