This study was conducted to investigate the extent to which the Life Sciences curriculum integrates green economy content, as functional green economy knowledge amongst South African citizens could address socio-economic challenges in South Africa. Primarily, document analysis of the Grade 10-12 Life Sciences Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) was conducted to determine whether green economy content was prescribed in the CAPS document and to what degree. Secondly, Grade 10 Life Sciences teachers completed questionnaires and participated in interviews to reveal their opinions on the integration of green economy content in the Life Sciences curriculum, their understanding of green economy and its implementation, as well as their opinions on the relevance of the current Life Sciences curriculum’s content for afterschool use. The research findings revealed that the Life Sciences curriculum can serve the purpose of introducing students to green economy aspects, however changes must be made to the curriculum so that functional green economy content is integrated. Currently, the curriculum does not provide guidelines for teachers on how to educate learners in such a manner that they will be able to participate in a green economy. Much of the content related to green economy topics is prescribed as extra content without the inclusion of student investigations or skill development activities. Furthermore, content on plants and human anatomy are prescribed and assessed in much greater detail than the environmental studies strand, resulting in the exclusion of much green economy related content. Findings indicate that socioscientific issues such as green economy are not linked to the environmental studies subject content, which means that daily-life application of content remains unclear to students. In addition to this, teachers revealed that they have knowledge of environmentally green practices but are unsure of how these relate to the economy. The researcher proposes that curriculum designers completely integrate green economy content into the Life Sciences CAPS document, including not only content for discussion purposes but also investigations and activities which will lead to skills development, compelling learners to modify their behaviour and seek solutions to the urgent problems faced by humanity in terms of environmental degradation and economic collapse. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2015. / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / Unrestricted

Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education concepts are naturally contextualized in the study of food and nutrition. In 2014 a pilot group of Utah high school Career and Technical Education Family and Consumer Sciences teachers rewrote the Food and Nutrition Sciences curriculum to add and enhance the STEM-related content. This study is an online needs assessment by Utah Food and Nutrition 1 teachers on the implementation of the STEM-enhanced curriculum after its first year of use in 2015-2016. A Borich needs assessment model was used to create mean weighted discrepancy scores between teacher-perceived levels of importance and teacher-perceived competence for each objective in the new curriculum in order to prioritize professional development needs felt by the teachers. The survey also gathered data on educational backgrounds, teaching experience, demographics, and recommendations from the teachers about barriers and aids to implementation. While it was found that teachers felt moderately competent to teach the new curriculum, the most needed areas of professional development were in the objectives with the highest concentration of STEM-related concepts. In order bring teacher feelings of competence up to the levels of teacher perceptions of the importance of these STEM-related objectives, teachers need to deepen their own knowledge of STEM education concepts through substantive, on-going professional development. Focused webinars and facilitated online collaborations for the teachers would call attention to new and previously missed resources and help the teachers apply them in the classroom.

The purpose of this qualitative case study is threefold: (1) to examine the implementation of current Life Sciences curriculum in a selected primary school from the perspectives of teachers, students and administrators / (2) to investigate the degree to which teachers&rsquo / , students&rsquo / and administrators&rsquo / perceptions were embedded in the classroom practices / and (3) to identify whether the implementation of the curriculum was conducive to principles of constructivist pedagogy. An elementary school was chosen as a single case in an outer district of Ankara. The participants of the study were the school administrator and 2 co-administrators, 4 classroom teachers and 87 students from different 2nd and 3rd grades classrooms. The data were collected through document analysis, observations in the Life Sciences classes, semi-structured interview with administrators, stimulated recall interview with teachers, and creative drama with students. Content analysis was used to analyze the data. The findings indicated that the suggested Life Sciences Curriculum was conducive to the principles of constructivist pedagogy in terms of its content / teaching and learning processes / instructional methods / assessment methods / and teachers&rsquo / and students&rsquo / roles. However, the acquisitions of the LSC were not conducive to the constructivist approach. The findings on the teachers&rsquo / , students&rsquo / and administrators&rsquo / perceptions about the Life Sciences curriculum indicated that in Life Sciences lessons the teachers seemed to have a role of knowledge transmitter to a group of passive students. According to the findings, the most frequently used teaching methods were lecturing, question-answer and demonstration through using textbooks, workbooks, and white boards. In addition, the most frequently used assessment methods were essay and oral exams, classroom observations and self-assessment. Overall it can be concluded from the findings that although the suggested Life Sciences curriculum was prepared in line with the principles of constructivist pedagogy, the way it was implemented had some deficiencies regarding the actualization of goals suggested by a constructivist curriculum.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Auburn University, 2008. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 262-279).

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 232-243).

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 232-243). Also available in print.

Orientador: Angelo Luiz Cortelazzo / Tese (doutorado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Biologia / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-18T10:22:58Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Ribeiro_ViktoriaKovesdy_D.pdf: 3915831 bytes, checksum: eb522259530bd74a3ad33a255ab2d23f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2011 / Resumo: As políticas públicas ligadas à expansão do Ensino Superior brasileiro têm levado à implantação de sistemas de avaliação da qualidade do ensino, processo que vem evoluindo para uma concepção sistematizada de forma construtiva e que leva em conta a participação dos diferentes segmentos relacionados às instituições. Há, entretanto, componentes desse processo implantados de forma mais polêmica, destacando-se os instrumentos nacionais de avaliação aplicados a iniciantes e concluintes das graduações, ainda pouco estudada, exceto por análises superficiais dos meios de comunicação, mais interessados no ranqueamento das escolas do que na avaliação dessas práticas. Nesse contexto, os cursos de Biologia passaram a ter seus estudantes avaliados no ano de 2000 e até 2003, por meio do Exame Nacional de Cursos, seguindo-se, em 2005, avaliação amostral, nos termos propostos pela legislação federal que implantou o Sistema Nacional de Avaliação do Ensino Superior (SINAES). Como nesses exames foram preenchidos questionários socioeconômicos por parte dos estudantes, além de dados sobre as condições de oferta de tais cursos, há farto material para análise, ainda pouco explorado por pesquisadores nacionais e internacionais. O presente trabalho analisou os conteúdos de Biologia Celular dos exames nacionais realizados a partir do ano de 2000, o desempenho dos estudantes dos Cursos de Ciências Biológicas, e a influência dos exames na estrutura curricular desses cursos no Estado de São Paulo. Também foi verificada a influência da natureza jurídica das escolas, infra-estrutura, formação e atividades docentes a partir do desempenho dos egressos nos exames nacionais realizados, a fim de detectar a existência de eventual correlação positiva entre tais dados / Abstract: The public policies related to the expansion of Brazilian higher education have led to the establishment of evaluation systems for the quality of education, a process that has evolved into a systematic conception in a constructive way and which takes into account the participation of different segments related to the institutions. There are, however, components of this process implemented in a more controvertial way, especially the national instruments of evaluation applied to freshmen and graduates. These are still very little studied, except for superficial analysis of the media, which is more interested in the ranking of schools rather than in the evaluation of these practices. In this context, the courses of Biology had their students evaluated in the year of 2000 until 2003, through the National Course Examination, followed, in 2005 by the assessment sample, under the terms proposed by the federal legislation that established the National Assessment System of Higher Education (SINAES). As at such exams, questionnaires regarding Socioeconomic surveys were filled in by the students, as well as data on the conditions of availability of such courses, there is a huge amount of material for analysis, still little explored by national and international researchers. This study examined the contents of Cell Biology of the national examinations conducted from the year 2000 on, the performance of students in Biological Sciences courses and the influence of examinations in the curricular structure of these courses in the State of São Paulo. The influence of the legal nature of schools, infrastructure, graduation and activities of the professors where also observed by the performance of the graduates in national examinations, in order to detect the existence of any positive correlation between these data / Doutorado / Biologia Celular / Doutor em Biologia Celular e Estrutural

No description available.

The study explored factors that affect learner academic achievement in Physical Sciences in Limpopo rural secondary schools. The motivation for the research was based on the high failure in Physical Sciences in South African schools. The new Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) has brought changes in the teaching and learning of Physical Sciences such as assessment processes, methodology and new content. It was worth pointing out that the achievement of Physical Sciences learners gives an indication of the effectiveness and efficiency of Physical Sciences teaching and learning. Therefore, identifying the factors entails important issues which are of great relevance to the way Physical Sciences should be taught in schools to improve learner academic achievement. The primary question was “Which factors impact on learners’ academic achievement in Physical Sciences in Limpopo rural secondary schools?” In order to answer this question a qualitative approach and qualitative survey design were used and individual interviews were carried out with Physical Sciences teachers, principals, parents and curriculum advisors. Data was further collected through focus group interviews with Physical Sciences learners. Purposeful sampling was used to identify the participants. Data analysis in this research was aimed at giving appropriate meaning to the views of the Physical Sciences teachers, Physical Sciences learners, principals, curriculum advisors and parents on factors affecting learner academic achievement in Physical Sciences. The data was audio-recorded, transcribed and printed. The interview transcriptions were organised into themes by coding. The coded data was used to form the true analysis of the activity system by identifying the purpose of the activity in order to get clarifications. This included the context of the Physical Sciences teaching and learning and learner academic achievement. The results according to the perceptions of Physical Sciences teachers, Physical Sciences learners, principals, curriculum advisors and parents showed that the main issues of high failure rate are lack of adequate resources, teacher effectiveness, lack of motivation, high teacher-learner ratio, workload, discipline of learners, supervision of teachers, parental involvement, management and leadership skills, and appropriate teaching methods. Recommendations for practice and policy are suggested and the indication was that provision of common tasks to teachers and formation of subject committees decreases the workload. The availability of resources allows learners to do practical work and improve performance. The goal was to engage learners in challenging and stimulating tasks with appropriate help from the teachers to improve achievement. In order for the teacher to provide assistance to the learners there must be maximum teacher-learner ratio. Effective supervision ensures that teachers and learners are punctual, which will ensure maximum use of available teaching time and timely completion of the work schedules or pace setters. A smaller number of learners per class could result in improved performance in Physical Sciences. It is important for principals to instil discipline in learners. The support and value of NGOs to assist in sharing workload by carrying out experiments in secondary schools was acknowledged. / Curriculum and Instructional Studies / D. Ed. (Curriculum Studies)

<p dir="ltr">Historically, teaching first-year composition has been integral to graduate education in English and writing studies (Latterell, 1996). However, as best practices for teaching writing evolve, so do practices for training graduate students to teach it. Graduate instructor training (GIT) now encompasses not only writing pedagogy education (WPE), but also professional development and mentoring for careers both in and outside of academia. To date, research has focused on GIT programs sited at institutions that house doctoral programs, leaving out most master’s-granting institutions, even though they are far more numerous and serve many students. These institutions serve student populations with varied career goals, especially now as the purpose of a master’s degree in English and writing studies is evolving (Strain & Potter, 2016). </p><p dir="ltr">I conducted a three-phase study designed to highlight graduate instructor training programs for first-year composition at master’s-granting institutions in the United States. In my first phase, I developed a database of all master’s-granting institutions with English and writing studies programs (476 institutions) utilizing NCES, Carnegie Classification, and publicly available website data. I then surveyed writing program administrators (WPAs) and other faculty in the programs (n=41) that employed graduate student instructors (GSIs), focusing on program conditions, the first-year composition course, and the responsibilities of GSIs. In phase three, I conducted interviews with faculty (n=13) to gain more insight on curricular and administrative choices within their institutional contexts. My results show that faculty design curricula, training, and mentoring prioritizing students’ needs. WPE serves as pedagogical preparation and as a site of disciplinary enculturation. Participants share a desire for more resources that focus on designing curricula and programs within limited institutional resources. Additionally, as a discipline we need more comprehensive methods for documenting programmatic practices.</p>