The challenges of teaching include classroom management issues, lack of time, stress, and the constraints of core standards. In response to these challenges, I determined to change my attitude about being a teacher, become more reflective about my teaching practice and curriculum, and try to connect my artistic self to my teaching self. This thesis is an autoethnographic research of my own teaching practice designed to counter the challenges I was facing as a teacher. I wanted to become less reactive and more reflective about the challenges and rewards of being an artist teacher. This thesis is a reflection on my journey to find my own path toward professional growth and satisfaction through a careful study of my experiences teaching in a junior high school art room. In the end, this self-study has helped me become more flexible, understanding, and forgiving of myself as an artist and a teacher. I learned to allow myself to be flexible enough to let the research lead me in unforeseen directions and not fall into the trap of best practices. My attempt to apply some of my own artistic practices, such as in the use of materials, artists, and time constraints, to student projects was successful. I began by attempting to turn my teaching into my art practice; what I ended up doing was becoming a more reflective teacher.

It is important for elementary teachers to provide quality mathematics instruction for English Learner (EL) students to close achievement gaps. Elementary mathematics teachers in the Keystone School District were struggling to implement instructional practices for EL students in mathematics as evidenced by communications with teachers, administrators, and documents from the state-required action plan. The purpose of this study was to explore the instructional practices and the challenges encountered by teachers related to providing mathematics instruction for ELs. The Sheltered Instruction Observation Protocol Model served as the conceptual framework. The research questions focused on the instructional practices that teachers were implementing related to building background knowledge, student interactions, application, and teacher challenges. This study used a qualitative case study design with data being collected through interviews and observations of 8 teachers in 1st through 5th grades. Data analysis was conducted by coding and thematic analysis. The results showed a gap in practice related to supporting ELs during mathematics interactions and measures of accountability. Teachers reported challenges related to the lack of accurate assessments and appropriate instructional resources for ELs in mathematics. Based on the findings of this project study, a professional development program was developed to provide teachers with the knowledge, skills, and resources to support EL students in mathematics. This study has implications for positive social change by preparing teachers to provide effective mathematics instruction for EL students through the professional development program as well as informing future district decisions related to EL students in mathematics.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-29T14:23:35Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Laurentino Lucio Filho.pdf: 408816 bytes, checksum: d5b57ed0c6687dfe9b13b3ec1b5d0384 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-03-17 / This research deals with the proposal of the incorporation of new information and communication technologies - NICTs - in higher education, is based on the improvement of teaching quality by simplifying complex tasks, reducing the distance and hence the time, thus improving work efficiency. At first glance, the contact of the actors with the NTICs in this process often reveals itself without the existence of an inclusive methodology because the action of these technologies by higher education institutions seems to result only on attempts to adapt to social demands and marketing in new contexts produced by the digital revolution, making this very misshapen inclusive process, and in turn, limiting the positive effect on the results. This paper discusses the process of incorporating technologies in higher education, seeking to evaluate the reconciliation of traditional methodologies and aspects of their current transformations, hoping to offer subsidies for understanding which are currently the challenges experienced in higher education and how the IES have sought to address them, outlining roughly the current profiles of its actors. To develop this work we chose to use the theories and methodologies of researches carried out by Manuel Castells (2013), Pierre Levy (2010), John B. Thompson (2014). These were accompanied by researches in the areas of philosophy education, especially Edgar Morin (2013) and Maurice Tardif (2011), supplemented by extensive bibliography with ancillary issues. The extensive bibliography that we used helped us to develop a critical reflection on the challenges that are present in high education, particularly in Brazil, and from that reflection, brought up proposals formulated by authors who are researching on the same line of this work, proposals which are healthy and able to respond to the main current challenges. The research's results before of the higher education challenges has been identified that the crisis experienced by the institutions have as factors: the transition between institutional and emerging models. Furthermore, technological training or specialization of education professionals have been occurring through fragmented and diffuse modules, which makes the application of computer-mediated communication decontextualized with learning object. Finally, it presents as a diagnostic to overcome these challenges, the need to define the teach model, based on education reforms that combine linear thought with complex thought, making possible the identification of the new profiles that the institution and teacher may to have in the society / Esta pesquisa trata da proposta da incorporação das novas tecnologias de Informação e Comunicação NTICs no ensino superior, tem por base a melhoria da qualidade pedagógica ao simplificar tarefas complexas, reduzir a distância e consequentemente o tempo, melhorando assim a eficiência do trabalho. A primeira vista, o contato dos atores com as NTICs nesse processo, revela-se muitas vezes sem a existência de uma metodologia inclusiva, pois a ação incorporadora dessas tecnologias pelas instituições de ensino superior parece decorrer apenas de tentativas para adaptar-se às exigências sociais e mercadológicas nos novos contextos produzidos pela revolução digital, tornando esse processo inclusivo muito disforme, e, por sua vez, limitando os efeitos positivos nos resultados. O presente trabalho pretende analisar os processos de incorporação das tecnologias no ensino superior, buscando avaliar a conciliação das metodologias tradicionais e os aspectos de suas transformações atuais, esperando oferecer subsídios para a compreensão de quais os desafios vivenciados atualmente no ensino superior e de que forma as IES têm buscado enfrentá-los, esboçando grosso modo, os perfis atuais de seus atores. Para o desenvolvimento deste trabalho optamos por utilizar como metodologia a pesquisa bibliográfica, aproveitando os estudos e pesquisas realizados por Manuel Castells (2013), Pierre Lévy (2010), John B. Thompson (2014), analisados conjuntamente com as pesquisas nas áreas da filosofia da educação, em especial Edgar Morin (2013) e Maurice Tardif (2011), complementados por ampla bibliografia com temas auxiliares. A extensa bibliografia de que fizemos uso nos auxiliou a desenvolver uma reflexão crítica sobre os desafios que hoje se apresentam ao ensino superior, particularmente no Brasil, e, a partir dessa reflexão, trazer à baila propostas formuladas por autores que estão pesquisando na mesma linha deste trabalho, propostas estas saudáveis e capazes de responder aos principais desafios vigentes. Os resultados da pesquisa diante dos desafios do ensino superior, identificaram que a crise vivenciada pelas instituições de ensino têm como fatores: a transição entre os modelos institucionais e emergentes. Além disso, a formação tecnológica ou especializações dos profissionais da educação ocorrem através de módulos fragmentados e difusos, o que torna a aplicação da comunicação mediada por computador descontextualizada com o objeto de aprendizagem. Por fim, apresenta como como diagnóstico para superar esses desafios, a necessidade de se definir o modelo de ensino, baseando-se nas reformas da educação que articulem o pensamento linear com o pensamento complexo, possibilitando com isso a identificação dos novos perfis que a instituição e o professor devem ocupar na sociedade

Formative assessment is an educational approach that challenges the traditional summative ways of teaching. Although formative assessment has been found to stimulate learning development, it also involves difficulties for teachers to implement. Moreover, a tendency of blending summative and formative assessment has caused complications among both teachers and students. Furthermore, students require support, clear instruction, and training of self-regulation in order for formative assessment to be efficient. The present study aims to explore what research say about the challenges and needs of teachers and students concerning formative assessment as well as find connection points between the perspectives of teachers and students. The study is a research overview conducted through a thematic analysis of ten empirical studies. The data is collected by database research using specific delimitations with means to analyze studies significant to the aim and target demography of research, which is secondary education English as a foreign language (EFL) teachers and students. The findings suggest four themes: Teachers’ lack of time, support, or knowledge; Students’ need for clear instruction and thorough guidance; Difficulties in interactions and expectations; and Clashes with summative habits and a grade-oriented mindset. The discussion aligns these themes with theory on formative assessment and examines its alignment with policy documents as well as a Swedish secondary education EFL context. The present study offers an insight into problematic areas regarding challenges and needs of formative assessment.

The education of youth in the United States has become a highly contested subject over the past decades. This thesis argues that one of the earliest institutions American citizens encounter – the public school system – organizes the work of many teachers in ways that reproduce inequality of opportunity for students. Drawing on qualitative data from fourteen in-depth interviews with experienced elementary school teachers in Los Angeles, this thesis illustrates how teachers experience and navigate specific structural barriers to the pursuit of equity in the classroom. Applying social reproductive theory to teacher interviews, this research discovered how, despite rhetorical commitment to equality of opportunity in education student outcomes continue to vary according to the socioeconomic status of the student population. This will help us understand systemic barriers built into the structure of the education system. These barriers operate as obstacles that teachers and students must navigate, in order to achieve success. This thesis argues that teachers should begivenmore flexibility to assess the needs of each specific class and adapt their curriculum and strategies to meet those needs. Unfortunately, in the current test-score driven system, schools with the lowest performing students are the ones whose administrations are under the most pressure to improve the low scores rather than fix the problems associated with low scores. As such, the teachers that need this flexibility the most, are the ones whose administrations keep them on the tightest rein, further reducing their ability to utilize their knowledge and implement effective strategies in the classroom. The result is the self-perpetuating cycle of inequality reproduction that we can see across North America today. / Graduate / 2019-08-13