This thesis investigates the importance of the work community and its social organisation and the role it has for the participants' ability to learn and to form a professional identity as pedagogical leaders. Furthermore, the thesis wants to investigate if it matters to the directors’ learning how the principal (municipality or private company) organises for learning. The empirical material for the study comes mainly from semi-structured interviews with participants in the directors’ programme and close colleagues. An expression for the working community in a workplace is a community of practice. Learning and social interaction are about negotiation of meaning, making sense in everyday life. All four interviewed participants have contexts with features of communities of practice. In a few cases, it is clear that the context is about educational leadership, in a practice that is designed in collaboration with colleagues. Although there are significant differences in both the scope and the structure of supporting structures between the two investigated private contexts, it becomes clear that their structure leads to learning. The lack of structure in municipal schools leaves their directors with little access to guidance for their learning and identity development.

Ante el vertiginoso crecimiento de la población universitaria en el país, es necesario reflexionar sobre la gestión de los cursos masivos1 de los primeros ciclos. Esta no implica solo orientar, formar e insertar adecuadamente a un elevado número de estudiantes a la vida universitaria. También se necesita coordinar con un número importante de docentes que se encarguen de la elaboración de materiales y documentos académicos necesarios para el buen desarrollo del sistema de enseñanza - aprendizaje, siguiendo el modelo pedagógico de la UPC. Una gestión que prioriza el cumplimiento de los plazos establecidos por el coordinador de turno, en desmedro de la generación y transmisión de conocimiento, está destinada al fracaso. En este artículo, se propone que la gestión de los cursos masivos, en un contexto como el señalado en las primeras líneas, debe basarse en la generación y gestión del conocimiento. Esta invita a todos los docentes a participar activa y creativamente en el diseño de cursos y en la elaboración de los materiales y documentos. Según el autor, esta forma de gestión puede concretarse a través de los círculos y helicoides de conocimiento.

This study proposes a model for effective teaching based on the development of an affiliative culture for both students and staff. Characteristics such as respect, helpfulness, and approachability are combined with specific teaching skills that are perceived by staff and students to be effective both for displaying these traits and also to enhance teaching. Although the literature shows that qualitative attributes are not new, from the data gathered, it appears that they are not always recognised by staff as significant for students’ learning. The literature also indicates that there is a disjuncture in the perceptions of effective teaching from executive management, staff and students. The context of the research is in a post-1992 university and current trends indicate there has been a shift in higher education towards a more bureaucratic approach to accountability in terms of student numbers and financial aspects that have resulted in larger teaching groups especially for post1992 universities. Additionally, the student funding system has changed so that students are now responsible for paying all their tuition fees, albeit via student loans. The literature proposes that this means that students may consider themselves as customers which indicate a different kind of relationship with a university. The research literature posits that these reforms have led to increased pressures on teaching staff so that they do not have time to develop a climate of affiliation which encompasses openness, trust and a sense of belonging for the students which, in turn, leads to creating a positive learning environment and student success. The literature review considers the perceptions of effective teaching from academic teaching staff, students and executive managers. This research uses a case study approach with the research design set within an interpretivist paradigm whereby the opinions and perceptions of the respondents are explored. Data were gathered through multiple data collection tools, such as internal student surveys, a student focus group interview, and filmed teaching observations, stimulated recall discussions with staff and conversational interviews with executive managers. In addition, secondary data were used from the narrative comments in the National Student Survey, (NSS) (2012) to complement the internal survey. The research questions focus on the perceptions and strategies that are viewed as part of effective teaching from the three groups of participants. 4 From the findings, I have developed a model to promote effective teaching which proposes an alignment of affiliation with specific teaching skills that encourages participation from both staff and students so that learning is jointly constructed. The model presents a way that combines the personal qualities and values gathered from the data, with students’ preferred teaching strategies which are perceived to enable effective teaching to take place. The inter-relationship between specific teaching skills and personal characteristics, identified in the model, is unique because it is the only approach that combines teaching methods with a values base that encourages a culture of affiliation for both staff and students.

Research has established a close link between talk and cognition; that talk is central to the meaning-making process and thus to learning science. However, the challenge is shifting teacher pedagogical practices to those that promote meaningful learner talk and mediate substantive engagement with science concepts. Research suggests that long-term school based teacher support programmes do bring about changes in teacher beliefs and classroom practices. My study was part of a five year project to investigate teaching strategies for the implementation of South Africa’s new science curriculum in Soweto high schools. Taking a socio-cultural perspective I sought to understand the use of science talk as a tool for teachers to mediate meaningful engagement with and understanding of high school science. I investigated teacher-learner interactions in three experienced teachers’ classrooms following their participation in the intervention programme. I wanted to understand how they used talk to create dialogic discourse and how meaning making was negotiated within this discourse. Taking a collaborative research approach I used case study methodology to collect and analyse observational data from each teachers’ lessons. Data analysis was informed by Mortimer and Scott’s model for analysing classroom interactions and Toulmin’s Argument Pattern (TAP). My findings indicated that classrooms had become interactive. Although teachers took up a largely authoritative stance there was tendency to a dialogic communicative approach. That is, while traditional IRE discourse persisted, there was significant evidence that teachers created dialogic discourse (eliciting and taking up learners’ ideas). Teachers both opened up and shut down talk, through evaluative and elaborative feedback, respectively. I observed the emergence of spontaneous argumentation in two teachers’ lessons. Argumentation differed from forms reported in literature in two significant ways. First, arguments were co-constructed by the teacher and learners and secondly, an unusual form of argumentation to make sense of conventional science concepts as opposed to the usual argumentation on socio-scientific issues as observed in local South African studies so far. Whereas most argumentation research has focused on the structure of arguments constructed by individual participants, I observed arguments co-constructed collaboratively by several participants. These findings have been published in a peer reviewed journal. A further, unrecorded finding for South Africa was engagement in talk within hybrid spaces, which are combinations of formal scientific ways of talking with context-based and culturally informed forms of talk. Lastly, science talk was enriched in these classrooms by linking it to other forms of engagement, such as reading, writing, practical activities and computer technology. This too has not been reported in South Africa. Some methodological findings emanating from my study included the positive effects of the model adopted by the Project on Implementation of Curriculum Change (ICC Project). The project employed a model of sustained on-site teacher support, systematic teacher-researcher collaboration, co-teaching and modelling of teaching strategies. I also discuss the implications of my findings for teacher professional development as well as for science teacher education in South Africa and further afield.

International and local guidelines for designing distance education materials advise designers to use feedback from students in the redesign of their materials. This study is a response to the researcher’s failed attempt to elicit critical feedback from some of her students. It therefore sets out to devise a framework for a critical pedagogic analysis of distance learning materials designed for South African teacher education programmes. It draws on theorisations of pedagogy, principally from the work of the sociologist of education Basil Bernstein and the applied linguist Suresh Canagarajah, theorisations of mediation, originating in the work of Lev Vygotsky, and theorisations of subjectivity. It also draws on international and local conceptualisations of a knowledge base for teacher education. In the analysis of the selection and organisation of knowledge on the page, the study draws on Halliday’s systemic functional linguistics and the field of social semiotics to uncover the positions constructed for readers as students and as teachers in each multimodal design. A pedagogic analysis of distance education materials for pre-service or in-service teachers responds to a series of questions: What elements of a knowledge base for teacher education do designers foreground and background? What is the orientation of the materials to the relationship between knowledge and practice? How is knowledge mediated through in-text activities, pedagogic episodes and scaffolded readings? What roles do linguistic and visual design choices play in the mediation of knowledge? A critical pedagogic analysis interrogates the subject positions that the multimodal designs constitute for ideal readers as students and as teachers. In the study, all of these questions frame a detailed analysis of three sets of materials designed for South African teacher education programmes and, finally, a critical reflection on materials for which the researcher was the principal designer. The study concludes that a critical pedagogic analysis affords designers and evaluators the critical distance needed for evaluating the mediation of knowledge(s) and the constitution of readers’ subjectivities in teacher education materials. As an alternative (or in some circumstances, as an addition) to reader feedback it has the potential to inform redesigning for the original local context(s) of use or reversioning for use in broader regional or global contexts.

Student Number: 0306365F Masters in Education School of Education / An attempt to improve the quality of education in Botswana included an emphasis on alternative forms of assessment. This attempt however, has produced inconclusive results and the censure has often been on technical issues such as; lack of resources and overlooking the teachers’ understanding of the proposed innovation. A naturalistic research approach was undertaken by this study to investigate whether or not teachers at junior secondary schools in Botswana were using formative assessment when teaching mathematics as advocated in the RNPE. By employing the notion of currere, the study subjected three purposively sampled mathematics teachers drawn from three purposively sampled public junior secondary schools to an autobiographical process to reflect on their practices. The research methods comprised classroom observations and interviews. In the light of Bernstein’s theory of pedagogic device, data was analyzed and interpreted. The findings of this study indicated that mathematics teachers’ assessment strategies are still traditional. Their practices are influenced by many factors more especially by the need to make sure that students do well in the public examinations. Their understanding of these factors determines their receptivity to the proposed change. These teachers need to put themselves on the spot, and question their taken-for-granted aspects of their work. Only this way, would they become aware of alternative cause of action they need to take and can regard themselves as “critical public intellectuals.”

ABSTRACT This study investigates what and how mathematics (for teaching) is constituted in classroom practice. Specifically mathematical knowledge for teaching fractions in Grade 7. One teacher was studied to gain insight into the mathematical problemsolving the teacher does and the dilemmas he faces as he goes about his work. The analysis of the data show that the mathematical problem-solving that this particular teacher engaged in can be classified as demonstrating, encouraging and working with learner ideas. He appealed to mathematics (rules & empirical), experience (everyday) and the curriculum (tests and exams) to fix meaning. The mathematical problem solving and appeals he made threw up dilemmas of representing the content, competing goals and student thinking. This aided in providing a description of what mathematics for teaching is in this practice. The report concludes with a discussion of what teachers need to know or study in order to become better mathematics teachers and where do they find these courses to accommodate their need to improve as mathematics teachers.

O presente trabalho consiste no estudo histórico-descritivo (pesquisa teórica e de campo) sobre o trabalho da Companhia da Arte Andanças (Fortaleza-Ceará), apresentando algumas metodologias utilizadas em processos de aula e criação cênica, com o intuito de contribuir para a discussão e ressignificação de modos de fazer e conceber a práxis do ator-bailarino-performer. Proponho um olhar sobre o processo de criação do espetáculo O Tempo da Paixão ou o Desejo é um Lago Azul, livremente inspirado na obra do artista plástico cearense José Leonilson (1957-1993). Num primeiro momento descrevo o percurso e as atividades da Cia., bem como alguns de seus modos operacionais; na segunda parte exponho princípios e métodos de trabalho; no terceiro capítulo adentro no processo de montagem do supracitado espetáculo, pontuando aspectos de sua singularidade; e, por fim, teço uma breve reflexão sobre a relação entre técnica, criação e pessoalidade, cujos entrelaçamentos, suponho, tensionam uma composição dramatúrgico-afetiva. / This work consists of a historic-descriptive study, based on theoretical and field research, of the work of Companhia da Arte Andanças, in Fortaleza, Brazil, presenting some methodologies employed throughout processes in class of scenic creation in order to contribute to the discussion and the \"resignification\" of different ways of making and understanding the praxis of the actor/dancer/performer. I propose a new look at the creation process of the play \"O Tempo da Paixão ou O Desejo é um Lago Azul\", which was liberally inspired by the work of the visual artist, José Leonilson (1957-1993), from Ceará, Brazil. In the first part, I describe the trajectory and the activities of the company, along with some of its modes of operation. In the second part, I focus the discussion on the principles and methods of its work. In the third part, I immerse myself in the process of assemblage of the afore mentioned play, sampling aspects of its uniqueness. Finally, I present a brief reflection of the relation between technique, creation, and personality, whose connections are supposed to tense a dramaturgical-affective composition.

O presente trabalho teve como objetivo investigar, a partir da linha de pesquisa “Pensamento do Professor", as crenças e representações dos professores do ensino fundamental a respeito do construtivismo, dos parâmetros curriculares nacionais e das inovações pedagógicas decorrentes da nova LDB. Foi realizada entrevista de profundidade, semi-estruturada, com quarenta professores do ensino fundamental, em duas Escolas da Rede Pública de Ensino de uma cidade do interior de São Paulo, em duas sessões. A primeira buscava a contextualização da formação, história e prática profissional dos professores e teve, ainda, como objetivo, o estabelecimento de um vínculo mais favorável que facilitasse a participação dos entrevistados. A segunda sessão investigou as crenças e representações em relação ao construtivismo, aos PCN e as inovações do ensino atual. Os resultados das entrevistas gravadas e transcritas literalmente foram submetidos à Análise de Conteúdo. Revelaram que a maioria dos professores não é desfavorável às mudanças no cotidiano escolar, pois acreditam que estas são necessárias e importantes. O que não concordam é a maneira como estas transformações são implantadas e conduzidas. A grande maioria dos professores revelou ter uma noção imprecisa e, às vezes, até equivocada sobre o construtivismo. Para muitos deles, este é um método de ensino, cuja característica essencial é a criança construir seu próprio conhecimento. Quanto aos PCN, a grande maioria demonstrou uma visão superficial, e que se sentem obrigados a inseri-los nos seus planejamentos e na sua prática, embora não tenham conhecimento de que a fundamentação teórica dos PCN, seja a perspectiva construtivista. Os poucos que falaram desse assunto, também, não têm muito clareza sobre esta relação. Quanto às inovações pedagógicas, a maior parte deles declarou que estas não estão orientando, devidamente, o trabalho docente e se sentem despreparados e desrespeitados pelas políticas educacionais. Não se mostraram favoráveis à progressão continuada, pois declararam que ela trouxe muito desconforto e insegurança na realização das atividades escolares. A grande maioria se considera despreparada para trabalhar com o construtivismo, com os PCN e com a progressão continuada, por falta de estudos, de orientações e de apoio da escola. Percebeu-se que, para os professores, as reformas estão sendo feitas de forma imposta, tendo que assimilá-las muito rapidamente. Eles acreditam que, se as mudanças no ensino fossem bem trabalhadas, trariam bons resultados. Os dados encontrados confirmam a literatura consultada. Destaca-se, entre as implicações educacionais enunciadas, maior investimento e empenho na formação inicial e continuada dos professores. O conhecimento, as experiências dos professores e o contexto educacional precisam ser levados em conta, quando se pretendem fazer as mudanças, no ensino, serem bem sucedidas. O processo de reforma educacional precisa oferecer espaços de reflexão para o professor e estes deveriam estar, em algum grau mínimo, pelo menos, envolvidos no processo de elaboração das propostas de mudanças no ensino, bem como terem o devido respaldo depois da sua implantação, podendo assim contribuir para o sucesso destas / The objective of the present study was to investigate, based on the Teacher\'s Thought research line, the beliefs and representations of basic education teachers concerning constructivism, the national curricular parameters and the pedagogic innovations derived from the new LDB. In-depth, semi-structured interviews were held with forty basic education teachers at two schools of the Public Education Network in a city in the interior of the state of São Paulo, in two sessions. The objective of the first was to determine the context of the training, history and professional practice of the teachers and also to establish a more favorable tie that would facilitate the participation of the interviewees. The second interview investigated the beliefs and representations concerning the constructivism, the national curricular parameters and the innovations of current teaching. The results of the interviews, which were taped and transcribed literally, were submitted to content analysis and revealed that most of the teachers are not unfavorable to changes in daily school activity since they believe that such changes are necessary and important. What they do not agree about is the way these transformations are implanted and conducted. Most of the teachers were found to have an imprecise and, at times, even equivocal notion of constructivism. According to many of them, this is a teaching method whose essential characteristic is that the child constructs his/her own knowledge. With respect to the national curricular parameters, most teachers showed a superficial vision and feel obliged to insert them into their planning and practice although they are not aware of the fact that the theoretical foundation of the national curricular parameters is the constructivist perspective. The few who talked about this topic were also unclear about this relation. As to the pedagogic innovations, most of the teachers declared that these innovations are not duly orienting the teaching task and that they feel unprepared for, and disrespected by, the educational policies. They were not favorable to continued progression, which they consider to bring a lot of discomfort and insecurity in the execution of school activities. Most of them feel unprepared to work with constructivism, with the national curricular parameters or with continued progression because of lack of study, of guidelines and of support from the school. It could be seen that the teachers feel that the reforms are being imposed and must be assimilated very rapidly. They believe that, if the changes in teaching were properly treated they would bring good results. The data obtained confirm literature reports. Among the educational implications stated, we emphasize a greater investment and engagement in the initial and continued training of teachers. The knowledge, experience and educational context of the teachers should be taken into account if successful changes in teaching are desired. The process of educational reform must offer space for reflexion to the teachers, who should be involved, at least at a minimal level, in the process of elaboration of the proposals of changes in education and should then receive the proper support after their implantation, so as to be able to contribute to their success

Nesta pesquisa, realizou-se um estudo das trajetórias escolares e profissionais de pesquisadores em educação e das condições de produção dos trabalhos tomados como estudos em sala de aulas. Por meio de entrevistas com foco nas histórias de vida escolar de dez (10) pesquisadores, entre eles, seis (6) pesquisadores da Faculdade de Educação da Universidade de São Paulo (FE-USP) e quatro (4) da Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC-SP), optou-se por pesquisadores que defenderam teses ou dissertações cujo lócus de investigação recaia sobre a sala de aula das séries inicias na década de 1989-99. Este recorte pesquisadores que defendera pesquisas sobre a sala de aula obedeceu, de certo modo, ao princípio de continuar pesquisado o mesmo objeto de estudo do mestrado, principalmente no que tange as questões que não foram possíveis de serem tratadas naquele momento como: a destinação dada às pesquisas, seu impacto na sala de aula e no próprio campo pedagógico e, sobretudo, as condições em que essas pesquisas foram produzidas. Tendo como referencial teórico os trabalhos de autores como Jean Paul Sartre, Pierre Bourdieu, Roland Barthes, Paul Thompson, António Nóvoa, Franco Ferrarotti, Bernard Charlot, Jose Mario Azanha, entre outros, buscou-se levantar aspectos do campo pedagógico e do campo científico por um viés até então intocado: as condições de produção da pesquisa educacional do ponto de vista do próprio pesquisador. Observou-se neste estudo que a pesquisa e o ensino podem ser campos dialeticamente complementares, já que ambos fazem parte do processo de construção do conhecimento, pois se a atividade de ensino carece de pesquisa, boa parte da pesquisa em educação baseia-se na experiência educativa. Com isso, a articulação pesquisa e ensino inserida em projetos de parcerias entre Escolas Básicas e Universidades possibilitam a troca de saberes entre as duas dimensões. Do mesmo modo, entende-se que um trabalho de reorganização do campo de pesquisa educacional com o objetivo de pouco a pouco construir uma identidade nesse campo, seja capaz de conduzir a educação a tornar-se uma área de produção de conhecimentos de fato mais autônoma, sem, contudo, abandonar as dimensões práticas e políticas sobre as quais diferentes ciências humanas e sociais produzem conhecimentos. Certamente os efeitos desse movimento incidirão sobre as práticas escolares, contribuindo para aperfeiçoá-las. / This search accomplish a study of the scholar and professional way of educational researchers as well the conditions in which classroom studies has been produced, though life history interviews of ten (10) researches, among then, six (6) form the Faculdade de Educação da Universidade de São Paulo (FE-USP) and four (4) from the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de f São Paulo. We selected researchers who has defended a thesis or dissertations between 1989 and 1999 and for whom the investigation place was the classroom of the initial grades. This frame researchers who has defended searches about the classroom has obeyed, in a certain way, the purpose to continue researching the same object of my Mastership, specially, concerning questions which could not be handled on that moment, such as the searches destinations, its impact on the classroom so as on the pedagogic field and, above all, the conditions in which theses searches has been produced. Having as a theoretical reference the work of authors as such Jean Paul Sartre, Pierre Bourdieu, Roland Barthes, Paul Thompson, António Nóvoa, Franco Ferrarotti, Bernard Charlot, Jose Mario Azanha, among others, we sought bring up aspects on the pedagogic and scientific field through a path which has been released untouched: the conditions of the production of educational search by the researchers own point of view. We have observed on this study that research and teaching can be dialectical complementary fields, since both are part of the knowledge construction process, therefore, if teaching requires search, a good part of the searches are based on the teaching experience. Herewith the research and teaching articulation introduced in Elementary School and University partnership projects enable the exchange of knowledge between theses two dimension. As well as, an educational field reorganization with the purpose of construct little by little an identity on this field which is capable to conduce the education to become a knowledge area really more independent, without, however, abandon the practice and politic dimension about different human and social science produce knowledge. Surely this movement effects will fall upon the school practices, cooperating for its improvement.