No description available.

Skills such as identifying evidence, evaluating the credibility of information sources, analyzing complex historical and geopolitical issues from multiple perspectives, asking good questions, and forming and articulating a point of view are useful for succeeding in school and in life. Speech and debate training can help students learn and practice these skills and is widely available in many independent elementary and middle schools, yet it is generally not available in public elementary and middle schools. There has been virtually no research on this topic. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to explore the perceptions of speech and debate professionals with respect to benefits, curriculum and pedagogy, feasibility, and acceptability concerning speech and debate programs in public primary schools. Using the snowball sampling technique, 25 speech and debate professionals in different parts of the speech and debate ecosystem and in different parts of the United States were identified and interviewed using a semi-structured qualitative approach. The findings indicated that speech and debate training supports health literacy and social-emotional development in students as early as elementary school by contributing to multiple aspects of “whole child” wellness, including through the promotion of identity development, mental health, psychological strengths, and life skills at essential periods of development. The findings underscored the importance of a culturally relevant pedagogical approach wherein students critically respond to, analyze, and interrogate larger social structural issues through the lens of their own cultural experiences and identities. Despite the consensus that nearly any educator can facilitate speech and debate instruction with limited training, there are several impediments to adoption and implementation, including time and school-community support. Speech and debate training requires many hours across multiple days to implement effectively. Gaining support across the curriculum from teachers and administrators was facilitated by these stakeholders having first-hand experience and observing positive outcomes for students. Policy and practice implications are proposed along with recommendations for future research relevant to increasing speech and debate programming in public elementary schools.

During middle childhood, help seeking and avoidance are two ways children deal with academic problems. For this study, the dominant view of help seeking as a strategy of self-regulated learning was elaborated to consider it a way of coping framed within the Self-System Model of Motivational Development. This framework allows for the consideration of (1) the opposite of help seeking (help avoidance) as a motivated way of coping, (2) the central role of teachers, and (3) the operation of multiple self-system processes in shaping students' coping behaviors. Self-report, teacher-report, and school record data from 765 3rd through 61 h grade students and their teachers were analyzed to determine the structure of help seeking and avoidance, the antecedents and consequences of these ways of coping, and developmental differences that may account for age-related changes in coping. Data were available from two time points, the fall and spring of one academic year, allowing for concurrent and change over time analyses.

Based on these research findings, policy implications for education bureau, school leaders and teachers, and suggestions for further research were addressed. / Textbooks have played an important role in teachers' work. Most of the teachers in mainland China used textbooks adopted by the local district authority, but there has been a huge research gap in empirical study on textbook use in mainland China. This study was guided by three major research questions: How do teachers use textbooks? How do teachers use textbooks in planning and making decisions about classroom teaching? How do different factors influence the use of textbooks? Adopting a qualitative approach of inquiry, this study involved seventeen teachers from three primary schools. Data was generated from participant observation, in-depth interview, and document analysis. / The discussion chapter uses theories of teachers' habitus. Teachers followed a certain set of routines when using textbook, gradually these routines had become a kind of habitus. Habitus became part of school context where primary education was characterized by exam-oriented tradition, trivialization of work, low status of teachers and conservatism. / The research findings suggested that teachers could be grouped into three different categories: dependent-type, adaptive-type and flexible-type. Teachers of different subjects exhibit different levels of dependence on textbooks, with the highest level of dependence among Chinese language teachers who follow closely an instruction routine of recitation. Mathematics teachers came next and then moral education teachers whose flexible teaching style was attributed to the fact that moral education was not an examination subject on a district wide level. Teachers of different age cohorts exhibit different levels of dependence on textbooks. Novice teachers depended on textbooks, while experienced teachers did not fall into a single category of dependence or adaptation. Those Chinese and Mathematics teachers who demonstrated the highest level of flexibility in using textbooks belonged to the intermediate stage between novice teacher and experienced teacher. / Why did teachers use textbooks in this manner? First, examination was a major factor which shaped the pattern of using textbooks. It was a deeply rooted factor because it was internalized as part of teachers' beliefs. Teachers of dependent-type and adaptive-type thought highly of examination, while teachers of flexible-type regarded examination merely as baseline of instruction. The latter had built their teaching styles on what they learned from educational research. School principals played the role of a "gate-keeper" during the process of teacher development and educational research. Another major factor that affected all teachers was the pre-existing condition and emergent behavior of their students. Comparatively speaking, teachers of flexible-type were more responsive to students' needs, and were more concerned about emergent behavior of their students. / 王世偉. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 70-06, Section: A, page: 1912. / Thesis (doctoral)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 278-297). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [200-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstracts in Chinese and English. / School code: 1307. / Wang Shiwei.

Submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Technology: Education, Durban University of Technology, 2013. / This study investigated the management of inclusive education in the four selected junior primary schools in the Empangeni District, KwaZulu-Natal. Despite the fact that the White Paper 6 on Special Needs Education and Training: Building Inclusive Education and Training System was released in 2001, aiming at providing quality education for all learners, the implementation and management of inclusive education in schools still remain a challenge. This research, therefore, investigated possible challenges and suggested solutions that could be used for the effective implementation and management of inclusive education in schools. This study was conducted to answer the following questions: i. What are the challenges at school level that delay the implementation of inclusive education? ii. What skills do teachers and principals have or acquired in order to identify and support learners who experience barriers to learning and development? iii. What are the teachers’ perceptions regarding the inclusion of learners who experience barriers to learning and development? iv. Does our education system provide teachers with relevant training to meet the challenges that come with inclusive education? An ethnographic research was conducted in four junior primary schools at the Empangeni District, KwaZulu- Natal to find out what happens in their school setting. Fifteen foundation phase teachers from four junior primary schools, four principals and six final year university student teachers participated in the study. The findings of data collected from teachers, principals and student teachers regarding their views on inclusion of learners who experience barriers to learning were used to make recommendations. The findings from the study revealed the need for schools to effectively implement the White Paper 6 on Special Needs Education and Training: Building Inclusive Education and Training System (2001). Inclusion of learners who experience barriers to learning and development is an international initiative, which aims to provide quality education for all learners. The success of inclusion is based on the adoption and implementation of the international, national and provincial inclusive education policies, declarations and guidelines. In this study, it became evident that there is a shortage of teachers who have specialization in Special Education: Barriers to Learning. In- service teacher training and special education element should be included in all courses of initial teacher training. Ongoing professional development of teachers on inclusive education issues is also crucial. Teachers need to be provided with necessary skills to identify developmental delays and barriers to learning early. This study highlighted the importance of the establishment of the functional support structures, Institutional Level Support Team and District Based Support Team so that inclusive education is effectively managed in the education system. Provision of skills that will assist teachers to provide relevant support to learners who experience barriers to learning, lies on the existence of the support structures. The findings also revealed that schools or any other stakeholder cannot address barriers to learning in isolation. Linkages with Tertiary Institutions, Department of Health, Department of Social Development, Non-Governmental Organizations, parents/ caregivers and teacher unions need to be prioritized, in order to ensure that diverse needs of learners are met and barriers to learning and development are addressed. The positive response from the National Department of Education to the international initiatives for promoting single inclusive education system that is responsive to the diverse needs of all learners, resulted to the release of the White Paper 6 on Special Needs Education and Training: Building Inclusive Education and Training System in 2001. The need to close the gap between theory outlined in all the policies and guidelines that promote inclusive education and practice becomes evident in this study. The management of inclusive education in schools, therefore requires the School Management Team to facilitate, amongst other things, human resource development and establishment of the Institutional Level Support Team.

This study investigated the beliefs of teachers at a particular elementary campus in North Texas during its first year of implementation of a social emotional curriculum regarding teaching social emotional skills and the influence of those beliefs on their classroom practices. The study drew from the works of Dewey and Bandura in the development of a framework for teacher decision making. A case study design incorporating multiple cases within the case study utilized a mixed-methods approach for data collection and analysis. Ten teachers volunteered and participated in the quantitative data collection, and four of those ten participated in the qualitative data collection through interviews and classroom observations. Data collection methods also included a demographic survey, a questionnaire on teacher beliefs about social emotional learning, and a self-ranking scale of practices related to teaching social emotional skills. Results indicated that although all participants believed social emotional skills instruction was part of their duties as teachers, their practices in teaching social emotional skills varied. Additionally, there was a mismatch between participants’ self-identified practices and the practices that were observed during the study. Administrative support for program implementation was high, but did not necessarily translate to effective practices during the first year of implementation of a particular program. While not significant in this study, variation in teacher characteristics may be important.

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Education / Master / Master of Science in Information Technology in Education

This qualitative, interpretive research inquiry presents a multiple case study design that aims to describe, understand, and explain two primary teachers' pedagogical strategies for teaching social studies and their implementation of literacy events, in a Montreal French school (L1) and in a French immersion school (L2). Two teachers and their students were observed during all the 1992--1993 school year, as they taught social studies lessons. The contexts for the study are one grade 3--4 French classroom and one grade 3 French immersion classroom. We used ethnographic tools of inquiry such as participant observation, fieldnotes, audiotaped lessons, official documents, formal and informal interviews during our data collection phases. A qualitative analysis of the teaching strategies and the literacy events relates to the role and importance of writing in French in social studies within the context French as L1 and French as L2. Findings show that in their practice, both teachers are generally more preoccupied with the content of teaching than aspects related to the language of instruction. The analysis also reveals that writing in the social studies consists of simulated tasks in which students are asked to regularly fill out worksheets. / Implications of this study could be used to increase teachers' awareness of the language of instruction, the role of the writing process in learning a L2 through the social studies. This study allowed us: (1) to describe the characteristics of teaching French in L1 and L2 social studies; (2) to identify and explain the similarities and the differences related to integration of the language and content within two learning contexts; to determine the importance and the role of writing in the teaching-learning of social studies content within two learning contexts.

Thesis (M.S.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 2009. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 55).

The thesis is divided into theoretical and research part practical. The theoretical part focuses on the description and presentation of teaching methods and current trends used in teaching. A special chapter introduces the innovative methods that are currently used in teaching the Czech language at upper primary schools and the possibility of their practical application. The main aim of the research is to identify the attitude of the Czech language teachers at second level of elementary school to innovative teaching methods. The practical part consists of a research using quantitative research methodologies, implemented as the questionnaire survey.