Actuarial Science is a sought after profession in South Africa with high attrition rates at university. The profession is small and dominated by white males. Slow transformation of the profession to reflect a more representative sample of the population is exacerbated by the long route to qualification. This study is an analysis of the first module of the redesigned course reader for the course 'Introduction to Actuarial Science' at the University Cape Town. It was prompted by the change in student engagement with and sentiment about the course in 2013. Data is concurrently analysed from two interviews with the course convenor exploring (a) the nature and description of the profession as well as what knowledge is valued in the field of practice and the discipline and (b) the reasons for the redesign of the course reader and the process itself. The first module of the course reader is analysed in tandem with the second interview data. The research aims to reveal the complexity of the knowledge of actuarial science which makes mastery of its content, methods and ways of thinking (summed up in the term epistemic access ) challenging. Thus careful curriculum design is important in orientating first year students to the discipline and profession. Educational theorists from the school of social realism provide conceptual frameworks through which one can identify knowledge structures and elements thereof in data. Basil Bernstein's Pedagogic Device is used in locating the course reader data in the field of recontextualisation, relying on recontextualising rules which 'regulate the formation of specific pedagogic discourse' (Bernstein, 2000, p.28) to examine the ways in which access to the discipline is facilitated in the course reader. In addition, Bernstein's pedagogic codes analysed by means of his concepts classification and framing are employed to analyse (a) the nature and description of the profession and (b) the knowledge valued in the discipline and in the field of practice. Karl Maton's Legitimation Code Theory and in particular the identification of specialisation codes on the basis of epistemic and social relation s affords the potential of understanding the key principles by which this knowledge form is legitimated. The writings of Young (2008) and Muller (2009 and Young and Muller (201 4 ) assist in delineating a few crucial issues on professional knowledge and the curriculum. This project seeks to analyse the curriculum knowledge and the pedagogic codes employed in the course reader of a newly designed introductory course to ascertain the nature of actuarial science and to suggest what forms of pedagogy might enable students to access that knowledge. Regarding the nature of actuarial science, the study found that it is a complex region that combines highly specialized techno-theoretical knowledge with specific forms of inferential reasoning and professional judgment required to address knotty problems in the business world. Regarding an effective pedagogy, the analysis of the course reader provides clues as to what an explicit, visible pedagogic discourse capable of providing access to this complex field to first generation students might entail.

Abstract The purposes of this research were¡G(1) to uncover the implementation of school-based curriculum evaluation and the current state of teacher¡¦s self-understanding on professional curriculum knowledge and skills of public elementary schools of Kaohsiung City; (2) to analyze the differences of dimensions of school-based curriculum evaluation on different background variables; (3) to realize the differences on professional curriculum knowledge and skills of teachers on different background variables; (4) to explore the relationship between the current outcomes of school-based curriculum evaluation and professional curriculum knowledge and skills of teachers; (5) to offer feasible suggestions according to the results for schools which can implement school-based curriculum evaluation and teachers who might improve their curriculum knowledge and skills. This research adopted questionnaire method to collect information about the current state of the implementation of school-based curriculum and self-understanding of professional knowledge and skills of teachers in public elementary schools of Kaohsiung City. Questionnaires were given to 552 teachers of 45 classes and 438 of which were valid. Two major instruments, i.e. The outcomes of School-Based Curriculum Questionnaire and Teacher¡¦s Self-understanding of Professional Curriculum Knowledge and Skills Questionnaire, were designed to collect data, which were later analyzed by means of percentage frequently distribution, t-test, one-way ANOVA, and so on. The major results were summarized as follows¡G 1. Most teachers affirm the fine achievements of the current state of school-based curriculum evaluation in public elementary schools of Kaohsiung City. There are high performances in self-understanding of professional curriculum knowledge and skills of teachers in public elementary schools of Kaohsiung City. Therefore, Schools in Kaohsiung have put into effects of the implementation of school-based curriculum evaluation. 2. Age, educational background and teaching seniority of teachers have no influence on school-based curriculum evaluation; teachers who hold executive positions ranked high on ¡§evaluation use¡¨ by levels, and approve the implementation of it. High school-based curriculum evaluation participation ranked high in ¡§evaluation plan¡¨ by levels, and approve the measures of it. There were significant differences on school scales, history of school-based curriculum evaluation by levels. 3. There were significant differences on teacher curriculum professional knowledge and skills based on diverse educational background, position and the participation. Teachers who have a graduate school diploma, hold the executive positions or have high degree of participation in school-based curriculum evaluation show better curriculum professional knowledge and skills¡FThere is no influence on age and seniority of teachers. School scales and history show significant differences on teacher curriculum professional knowledge and skills, and medium schools or schools which have the history more than 61 years ranked high on teacher curriculum professional knowledge and skills. 4. Separating high from low performance on school-based curriculum evaluation has significant differences on self-understanding of teacher curriculum professional knowledge and skills. Teachers who have high performance are equipped with better professional knowledge and skills, vice versa. In accordance with the results of this research, suggestions concerning aspects of the authorities, schools, educational executive units were put forward. Further studies were also proposed. Key words: the implementation of school-based curriculum evaluation, professional curriculum knowledge and skills

Thesis advisor: Lillie Richardson Albert / The purpose of this research is to identify the categories of South Korean elementary teachers' knowledge for teaching mathematics. Operating under the assumption that elementary teachers' knowledge for teaching affects students' learning, eleven South Korean elementary teachers volunteered to participate in this study. Emerging from the data collected and the subsequent analysis are five categories of South Korean elementary teachers' knowledge for teaching mathematics: Mathematics Curriculum Knowledge, Mathematics Learner Knowledge, Fundamental Mathematics Conceptual Knowledge, Mathematics Pedagogical Content Knowledge, and Mathematics Pedagogical Procedural Knowledge. The first three categories of knowledge play a significant role in mathematics instruction as an integrated form within Mathematics Pedagogical Content Knowledge. A notable conclusion of this study is that Pedagogical Content Knowledge might not be the sum of the other categories of knowledge for teaching mathematics. These findings may be connected to results from relevant studies in terms of the significant role of teachers' knowledge in their mathematics instruction. This study contributes to the existing literature in that it provides empirical bases for understanding teachers' knowledge for teaching mathematics and reveals the relationship among categories of knowledge for teaching mathematics. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2014. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

This thesis focuses on four different aspects of history teachers’ comprehensive understanding of the school subject history. More specifically, the aim is to study the comprehension of the subject as perceived by individual history teachers. Special emphasis is placed on identifying the concepts of the field of history that are central to the teachers’ understanding of the school subject history.           The first aspect studied is the teachers’ biographical changes. In a life history perspective it seems as if the teachers’ subject conception changes from an unproblematic and tentative approach to a more complex and confident understanding of the subject. The second aspect treated is the rationale behind their grasp of the purpose and content of the subject. Three major positions are identified, namely educational (bildung) orientation, critical orientation, and identity orientation.           The third aspect studied is the teachers’ interpretation of a curriculum new to them. The teachers placed the curriculum in the field of tension between an education policy position, emphasizing more precise knowledge, on the one hand, and a history science position, emphasizing concepts of historical consciousness. The fourth aspect studied is five different conceptual tools displayed in the teachers’ remarks on having completed the teaching of a new course. These are termed ‘history as narrative’, ‘history as time-space’, ‘history as explanation’, ‘history as perspective taking’, and ‘history as skills’           At the general level the study shows not only that subject conception is of importance to the teachers’ understanding of their obligation as teachers of history but also how it is formed and constantly transformed by many different factors. In this process it is clear that the concepts used by the teachers, although variously defined, can be seen as specific to the school subject history and essential to the construction of history as a school subject. / Baksidestex: Vad är syftet med skolämnet historia? Vad ska skolämnet historia innehålla? Det här är en doktorsavhandling där fokus sätts på lärares förståelse av skolämnet historia. Mer precist avgränsas syftet till att undersöka ämnesförståelsen hos nu verksamma historielärare. Särskild vikt läggs vid att identifiera centrala begrepp i lärarnas ämnesförståelse. Undersökningen bygger både på enkäter och intervjuer och tar sin utgångspunkt i fyra olika aspekter av historielärarnas ämnesförståelse som redovisas i separata studier. Den första aspekten är ämnesbiografisk och tar fasta på de faktorer lärarna menar har påverkat utvecklingen av deras ämnesförståelse. Den andra aspekten har sitt fokus på lärarnas förståelse av historieämnets övergripande syfte och innehåll. Den tredje aspekten handlar om hur lärarna tolkar inriktningen och innehållet i den nya ämnesplan som infördes i gymnasieskolan 2011. Den avslutande aspekten fokuserar på de ämnesredskap som blir synliga i de utsagor lärarna gör om innehållet i gymnasieskolans kurs Historia 1b.