This thesis answers the question of whether and to what extent the goals of PISA align with the Manitoba Government’s goals and priority action areas, and whether the published results of PISA 2012 provide information that addresses the Manitoba Government’s education goals and priority action areas, within the context of mathematics. This thesis provides a qualitative analysis of three PISA 2012 documents, and explores and compares Manitoba PISA 2012 achievement data to Manitoba grade 9 mathematics credit achievement data for English and Français program students, EAL and Aboriginal students to determine whether and to what extent the goals of PISA align with the goals and priority action areas of Manitoba Education and Training, and whether the published results of PISA 2012 provide information addressing the goals and priority action areas of Manitoba Education and Training, within the context of mathematics. / February 2017

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After emergency department (ED) discharge, Spanish-speaking patients with limited English proficiency are less likely than English-proficient patients to be adherent to medical recommendations and are more likely to be dissatisfied with their visit.

The purpose of this case study with supporting quantitative data was to investigate the influence of paired grouping on student participants' perceived attitudes toward technology, perceived proficiency with technology, and perceived technological knowledge after completing a required educational technology course. Additionally, student participants' perceptions regarding the use of paired grouping on their attitudes, proficiency, and technological knowledge with regard to technology was also investigated. To measure the difference between perceived attitudes toward technology, perceived proficiency with technology, and perceived technological knowledge after completing a required educational technology course, 83 student participants enrolled in a required educational technology course at a suburban midsized Gulf Coast University in the southern United States, completed the Attitude Toward Technology Scale (ATTS), Technology Proficiency Self-Assessment for 21st Century Learning (TPSA C21), and Technological Knowledge Tool (TK). Additionally, 24 student participants participated in semi-structured interviews.

ABSTRACT The passage of Act 77 in June 2013 and the Educational Quality Standards passed in April 2014 are significantly changing the way education is being conceptualized in Vermont. These two policy mandates called for all Vermont high schools to shift to proficiency-based learning (PBL), also known as standards-based, competency-based or mastery-based learning, by 2020. Yet scant research exists on how to implement PBL. This qualitative study addresses this need by examining the perspectives of three exemplary high school social studies teachers who were early adopters of proficiency- based instruction and learning in their classrooms. The research centered on questions about the teachers' perspectives on the curricular, instructional, and assessment shifts accompanying and supporting the implementation of PBL. The theoretical framework that informed this study was constructivist theory and the notion that knowledge is socially constructed through the learner's interaction with the world (Brooks & Brooks, 1999). The study focused on teachers' perspectives on and understandings of these shifts in order to capture innovative tools, strategies, and instructional approaches they developed as they implemented PBL. The findings may inform the thinking of social studies educators, administrators, policy makers, students, and other stakeholders interested in implementing PBL. The major findings that emerged in this study included several key components the teachers identified as vital to PBL implementation in a classroom including the need to: 1) identify key skills and concepts required to meet proficiencies, 2) use targeted and ongoing feedback with learners, 3) enact a curricular design that situates proficiencies in authentic experiences that provide multiple opportunities for practice, 4) support the emergence of new structures in high schools such as larger chunks of time with students, high school teaming, and flexible grouping of students, and 5) teach students explicitly about the learning process. The study also identified several broader policy considerations related to the implementation of PBL including a need for: 1) targeted professional development, 2) restructured school schedules to accommodate collaborative learning conversations among educators, administrators, and students, 3) collaboratively designed (including student voice) learning proficiencies that create a coherent experience from grades 9 to 12 (Fullan, 2016), and 4) redesigned preservice teacher training so that newly credentialed teachers are prepared to teach in proficiency-based centered learning environments.

The influx of international students attending American universities has put the U.S. at the forefront of international education, generating over $14.5 billion yearly. International students often face adjustment issues impacting their level of satisfaction with their experience. These involve oral language proficiency, as well as feelings of anxiety and isolation resulting from language deficiencies, which increase their feelings of marginality. Engaged learning, which is dependent on comprehension, is affected by the anxiety students bring to class. It is believed that coursecasts may alleviate anxiety, thus improving student engagement in learning. A pre-experimental research design investigates whether coursecasting mitigates feelings of marginalization and isolation, deficiencies in language comprehension and proficiency, and anxiety in international students. Research in the value of coursecasting has been anecdotal, and concrete evidence of its educational value is needed before its wide-spread adoption in educational settings (Elliot, King, & Scutter, 2009). Participants completed the Cultural Adjustment Difficulties Checklist (CADC) by Sodowsky and Lai (1997), the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (FLCAS) by Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope (1986), the Self-Reported Fluency of English Scale (SRFES) by Yeh and Inose (2003), and the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), Listening portion. A pretest-posttest approach was chosen to evaluate the influence of podcasting within a naturalistic setting. The implications of the study were categorized into three areas. First, it provided insight into the barriers that negatively impact international student learning due to anxiety. Second, it identified methods of instruction, and issues that may have hindered international students from achieving at their highest level. Finally, it provided an opportunity to explore the educational effectiveness of a technology created for entertainment. Quantitative measures yielded no significance, so the null hypotheses were rejected. It was thought that these results were due to limited exposure to the coursecasting treatment. Their significance was further discussed by providing conclusions and implications. Recommendations for future research suggest replicating the study with a control group or administering the coursecasting treatment for a longer period of time. Suggestions for educators and educational institutions include requesting faculty and staff to identify specific ways to help this vulnerable population with their acculturation instead of waiting for them to ask for help. Although no significant impact could be established between available coursecasts and international students' perceptions of marginality and isolation, anxiety, and English language proficiency and comprehension, the findings regarding the analysis of the dependent variables seem to present interesting implications for education.

This study explores whether and how the deliberate use of multiple languages can support or constrain the development of learners’ mathematics proficiency in a multilingual mathematics classroom. The study is an action research in which I transform my teaching, by exploring a new teaching strategy. In the study, learners’ home languages, in addition to English (LoLT), are used in a planned and proactive manner, where a well-selected high cognitive demand task set in multiple languages is used for teaching and learning. The study is done in a grade 11 multilingual mathematics class, at a school where I teach. Findings of the study indicate that Kilpatrick et al’s (2001) five strands of mathematical proficiency prevail across all lessons, that the use of English by both learners and I dominates, and that utterances are mostly conceptual. It is also shown by the findings of the study that using the learners’ home languages in presentation of the mathematical task, and the nature of the task used, supports the learners in the comprehension of the mathematical task, and encourages them to participate more effectively during lessons.

In 2007, the Student Equity and Talent Management Unit (SETMU) at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) initiated a programme called the Targeting Talent Programme (TTP). One of the objectives of the TTP is to equip students to be successful at university. The first cohort of students consisted of 270 talented Grade 9 students from disadvantaged rural and urban schools. They were identified at the end of 2006, and they attended enrichment sessions at the University during 2007, 2008 and 2009. Thirty seven of the students enrolled for Engineering at Wits in 2010. They were given no further assistance by the TTP. The TTP based the planning of its curriculum on the Competencies identified by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). The primary aim of the PISA assessment is to determine the extent to which young people have acquired the wider knowledge and skills in reading, mathematical and scientific literacy that they will need in adult life, hence the TTP attempted to incorporate the PISA Competencies in their curriculum in order to equip students for tertiary education. Habits of Mind identified by Cuoco and others were also used in planning the TTP curriculum in order to equip students with thinking skills. The TTP was successful in helping students to achieve university entrance, but there is a need to investigate to what extent the three year intervention program enables the students to succeed at university. This report focuses on the 37 students who enrolled for Engineering at Wits in 2010. They are compared to a sample of 37 students from the 2010 cohort who did not attend the TTP. The sample of non-TTP students was chosen by matching the National Senior Certificate Mathematics and Science marks obtained by the ex-TTP students as closely as possible. Thus two samples with an almost identical initial academic profile were created. One of the differences between the samples is that the ex-TTP students had had input which was aimed at equipping them to attain university entrance and to succeed there, whereas the other students had had no such formal assistance. The ex-TTP students were also compared with the cohort as a whole. This report shows that 16 of the 37 students (43%) passed the Mathematics, Mechanics and Physics courses that they were enrolled for. It also shows that the ex-TTP students scored lower on average than the non-TTP students and the cohort, for the Mathematics, Physics and Mechanics courses that they were enrolled for. Interviews with 9 of the ex-TTP students show that they did not consciously transfer study techniques from the TTP to university. The TTP was thus only partially successful in its objective of enabling students to be successful at university.

[pt] As avaliações de proficiência em larga escala vêm exercendo um papel relevante no contexto educacional contemporâneo, pois servem, entre outros propósitos, para retratar mais precisamente o nível de desempenho escolar de uma grande quantidade de alunos avaliados, como também para fornecer subsídios mais sólidos ao aperfeiçoamento das políticas educacionais que vêm sendo implementadas. As escalas de proficiência utilizadas nessas avaliações revestem-se de uma grande importância nesse processo, visto que são utilizadas pelos avaliadores e pelos gestores educacionais como um instrumento capaz de aferir e interpretar a proficiência dos alunos nas diversas habilidades que compõem os domínios de conhecimento investigados. O objeto de estudo da presente tese são precisamente as escalas de proficiência utilizadas nos sistemas de avaliação em larga escala, que são tratadas em três diferentes abordagens: primeiro, há uma avaliação das diferentes abordagens para se obter uma associação entre os itens de um teste e os níveis ou pontos significativos de proficiência de diversas escalas atualmente empregadas. Depois, utilizando uma escala de proficiência em Matemática para a quarta série do Ensino Fundamental, é desenvolvida uma abordagem alternativa para caracterizar os níveis representativos de uma escala de proficiência escolar. Para isso foram utilizados métodos baseados em análise de conglomerados (cluster analysis) para a escolha do subconjunto de itens que caracteriza cada nível de proficiência. Por fim, é realizada uma interpretação pedagógica dos clusters formados, com base nos conhecimentos do ensino e da aprendizagem das habilidades básicas da educação matemática para a primeira etapa do ensino fundamental. A abordagem utilizada será a análise da natureza das operações mentais que caracterizam cada uma das competências e habilidades que compõem os clusters, tendo como pressupostos básicos as referências ao processo de aprendizagem da matemática. / [en] Large-scale evaluations have played a relevant role in the contemporary field of education, not only because of their importance in providing a more precise assessment of the proficiency of large numbers of students, but also because of their use as a means of producing more reliable elements that are used in the improvement of educational policies. The proficiency scales adopted in these evaluation programs are a very important part of this process, for they are employed by educational evaluators and decision-makers as an instrument able to gauge and interpret the students` levels of proficiency in the many different abilities that compose the knowledge domains under investigation. The object of this thesis is precisely the proficiency scales used in large scale evaluation systems, which are treated according to three different approaches: First an investigation is made about the relative merit of different methods of association between the items that make up a test and the significant points or levels of proficiency in several scales that have been employed by different evaluation programs. Then, by using a 4th-grade Mathematics proficiency scale, an alternative approach to characterize levels that are representative of a proficiency scale is developed. This is done by the use of a cluster analysis method aimed at choosing a subset of items that characterize each proficiency level. Finally, a pedagogical interpretation of the clusters formed along the proficiency scale is obtained through the consideration of teaching and learning of Mathematics education basic skills, related to the beginning series of the fundamental level. The methodology used in this process is the analysis of the nature of mental operations that characterize each one of the competencies and skills that are typical of each cluster, by adopting references to Mathematics learning processes as basic assumptions.

Orientador: Douglas Altamiro Consolo / Banca: Ana Mariza Benedetti / Banca: Maria Helena Vieira-Abrahão / Banca: Deise Prina Dutra / Banca: Hélcio de Pádua Lanzoni / Resumo: Este trabalho, de natureza híbrida, insere-se na linha de investigações sobre avaliação de proficiência e estuda a validade dos descritores de gramática na escala do Teste de Proficiência Oral em Língua Inglesa (TEPOLI), especificamente elaborado para professores de inglês como língua estrangeira no Brasil. Justifica-se socialmente pelo resultado de diversas pesquisas em Linguística Aplicada que atestam o baixo nível de proficiência (principalmente oral) de formandos em Letras e professores em serviço no ensino regular, o que tem sido apontado na literatura como uma das razões para o insucesso no ensinoaprendizagem nesses contextos. São revisados na literatura pressupostos teóricos sobre avaliação de proficiência oral e sobre investigação da gramática em produções orais. As perguntas que norteiam esta pesquisa são: (1) como se caracteriza a gramática ao longo das faixas de proficiência no desempenho dos participantes em relação a (a) características da língua falada, (b) precisão e (c) complexidade?; e (2) que relações podem ser estabelecidas entre o desempenho gramatical dos participantes no teste oral e no seminário?. Participam da pesquisa oito alunas formandas de um curso de Letras de uma universidade pública paulista, cujas notas no TEPOLI se distribuem ao longo da escala. Os dados foram coletados por meio de questionários, entrevistas semiestruturadas e gravações de seminários realizados durante o último semestre da graduação e de aplicações do TEPOLI. O foco das análises é dado para a precisão e a complexidade gramatical das estruturas morfossintáticas empregadas na produção oral das participantes durante os eventos de avaliação. Os resultados apontam que há diferenças quantitativas e qualitativas entre as faixas de proficiência para precisão e para complexidade, e que o teste... (Resumo completo, clicar acesso eletrônico abaixo) / Abstract: This research study, of a hybrid nature, is included in the language testing body of research. It aims at investigating the validity of the grammar descriptors of the Test of Oral Language Proficiency in English (TEPOLI), specifically designed for teachers of English as a foreign language in Brazil. The work is socially justified by the results of several studies in Applied Linguistics which attest the low proficiency level (particularly in oral skills) attained by students graduating from teacher education undergraduating courses and in-service teachers working in regular schools, something that has been accounted as one of the reasons for unsuccessful teaching and learning in such settings. It reviews the theoretical principles of oral language testing and grammar in oral production. The research questions that guide this study are: (1) how is grammar characterized along the proficiency bands in the participants' performance in terms of (a) the characteristics of spoken language, (b) accuracy and (c) complexity?; and (2) what interrelations can be established between the participants' grammatical performance in the oral test and in a seminar? Eight students graduating from a teacher education course in a public university in the state of Sao Paulo take part in this study. Data were collected by means of questionnaires, semistructured interviews, recordings of the seminars given in the last term of the students at university, and recordings of the administration of the TEPOLI. The focus of analysis is on grammatical accuracy and complexity of the morphosyntactic structures employed in the participants' oral production at the assessment events. Results point to quantitative and qualitative differences between the proficiency bands for accuracy and complexity, and also indicate that the test has predictive power over... (Complete abstract click electronic access below) / Doutor