There are convincing arguments for the integration of computer applications into school programmes to support the learning of students. After more than 30 years of increasing investment in educational computing researchers are concerned that there has been very little impact on the experiences of students in schools. In the 1990s, a significant development in computer technology has been the emergence of low-cost, high-powered portable computers which some schools have introduced into classrooms. It is not clear what the impact of this development might be.This study addressed issues concerning the impact of student-owned, portable computers on students, teachers, the curriculum, and the classroom learning environment. It considered the classroom learning environment as the complex set of relationships between students, teachers, the curriculum, and the technology (principally computer hardware and software) within the physical confines of a classroom.The three year study was carried out at one girls' school, which progressively introduced portable computers into its secondary education program-me. The study used an interpretive methodology involving the collection of a range of qualitative and quantitative data. In each year of the study, data were collected about students, teachers and a selection of classrooms using observations of lessons, interviews, questionnaires, and a range of data obtained from the school's administration. As the study progressed, it focussed on those features of the psycho-social environment of the school which emerged as important from interpretation of data collected earlier.The study found that, apart from isolated teacher-class combinations, there was very little change at the classroom level which could be attributed to the presence of the computers. Very few teachers implemented substantial computer use and many of those who did, ++ / supported only a very limited role for the computers. While most students expressed a range of concerns, only a perceived lack of use of the computers appeared to have a consistent negative influence on their attitudes and behaviours.It is argued that the lack of use of the computers is largely related to teachers' preferred pedagogy, their lack of experience and knowledge in using computers in the classroom, and a lack of time to experiment with computer applications. Increasingly, the teachers who chose to facilitate the use of the computers did so to support predominantly student-centred learning environments. The study proposed a model to describe and explain teachers' responses to the portable computer program in terms of their facilitation of computer use by considering sets of forces and obstacles experienced by them.The findings of this study have important implications for educational policy makers, administrators and teachers, and enable a clearer understanding of the factors which determine the successful implementation of computers into school programmes to support student learning.NOTE: Referencing style used throughout this thesis report comes from the American Psychological Association's manual, fourth edition (1994).

No description available.

The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of teachers' error feedback on ESL students' self-correction ability. One hundred and nineteen international students enrolled in ESL composition classes at Brigham Young University's English Language Center participated in this research. The participants were randomly assigned to three treatment groups: (1) a coded feedback group, (2) a non-coded feedback group, and (3) a no-feedback control group. All participants were asked to write an in-class essay and to self-correct their grammatical errors during 20-minute time period. A grammar test and attitudinal survey were administered at the same time.

No description available.

How do teachers talk about the productiveness of teacher's in-the-moment responses to student mathematical thinking? This is a question current research does not fully answer as most research on teacher moves is focused on what teacher moves researchers have noticed teachers do rather than on what teachers think about these teacher moves. To fill the gap in the research and to answer the question, a group of 13 teachers were given ten classroom situations to compare and contrast for productivity. I analyzed (a) the content of the teachers' discussions by drawing on Teacher Response Coding (TRC) language, and (b) the extent to which the teachers' discussions align with theorized productive responses to student mathematical thinking, or building. From the teachers' group conversations, I articulated principles of productivity— articulations of the main ideas and conclusions of the teachers' conversations with regards to productivity. Focusing on the principles of productivity, I highlighted what teacher moves the teachers said were productive or not productive with respect to teacher's in-the-moment responses to student mathematical thinking. In analyzing the list of unique principles of productivity, I noticed three main themes that the principles were focused around: student mathematics, teacher moves, and mathematics, which reflected some of the ideas in research for productive teacher moves. Additionally, I analyzed the principles for alignment with the practice of building, which led to the conclusion that the ideas of orchestrating discussion and making explicit are the most salient of the sub-practices of building to the teachers. These results based on teachers' discussions around the productivity of teacher moves can help inform teacher education and professional development.

In this study, we investigate pupils’ perceptions in Swedish 3 of the allocation of time of the Canons of Rhetoric when working with oral presentations. We also investigate which relations that exist between pupils’ perceptions of the allocation of time of the Canons of Rhetoric and perceptions of knowledge of the Canons of Rhetoric as well as perceptions of their oral presentation. The study was conducted via a questionnaire and carried out among 245 pupils. Raw data has been analysed to determine the descriptive statistics of the allocation of time of the Canons of Rhetoric and tests for statistical significance have been performed to determine the effects that the allocation of time has on pupils’ perceptions of their oral presentation. We have analysed our results by the use of the cognitive and the socio-cultural perspective. Results show that pupils feel that no phase is given sufficient time and that they believe the three first phases to be higher prioritised than the remaning phases. The amount of class hours is of importance to the perceived knowledge of the Canons of Rhetoric, how easy pupils find it creating a presentation, their sense of preparation and the perceived development as a speaker. Regarding response, emendatio, the time for teacher response does not show any significant correlation to pupils’ perceptions of their oral presentation. If peer response is given before presentations, it has a positive effect on pupils’ satisfaction with the presentation, but has otherwise no influence. In addition, teachers’ scaffolding seems to have a larger effect on pupils’ perceptions of their oral presentation than teacher and peer response. Finally, self-assessment occurs to a low extent and is shown to affect the knowledge of the Canons of Rhetoric and how easy it is creating a presentation in a positive manner.

Different types of ambiguous student contributions occur in mathematics classrooms. In this study I identified (1) different types of ambiguous student contributions and (2) the different ways teachers respond to one particular kind of ambiguous contribution, clarifiable ambiguity. Note that clarifiable ambiguity is ambiguity that stems from a student who uses an unclear referent in their contribution and can be clarified in the moment by the particular student. Literature has focused only on ambiguity that has the potential to further the development of mathematical concepts and has only theorized about teacher responses to this specific type of ambiguity. This study identified an additional three types of ambiguous student contributions: Student Appropriation of Teacher Ambiguity, Irrelevant Ambiguity, and General Ambiguity. It was important to identify all the different types of ambiguous student contributions because teacher responses should likely be different to the different types of ambiguity. In addition, through analyzing the teacher responses to the clarifiably ambiguous student contributions, this study found that teachers addressed the clarifiably ambiguous student contributions about half the time. When the teachers did address the clarifiable ambiguity, the majority of the time the teacher clarified the ambiguity themselves with the most common response being the teacher honed in on the clarifiably ambiguity and asked for confirmation from the student on the accuracy of the clarification.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether and how three teachers’ ways of verbally asking questions and following up student’s utterances either create opportunities or hinderances for dialogue about religious related topics for grades 5-6. This study answers these questions: 1. What types of questions does the teacher ask in the classroom? 2. What types of response does the teacher give to the students’ answers? 3. Do the questions create opportunities or hindrances for dialogue in the classroom? The method used for this study is qualitative observations which were done in three different classes. Each class was observed three times. The theories used are Michail Bakhtin’s dialogic theory and Olga Dysthe’s theories about the monologic and dialogic classroom. Dysthe’s dialogic classroom is categorized into authentic questions, follow-up and positive assessment. IRE and IRU communication patterns are also used. The result differs in each class. Teacher A created opportunities for dialogue by asking authentic and closed questions, following up the students’ answers and giving a positive assessment. A reason for this could be that she sat down together with the students while initiating interaction and showing interest in students’ experiences. Teacher B created hinderances for dialogue by only asking closed questions and giving responses that indicated if students’ answers were right or wrong. Teacher C had possibilities to create dialogue by asking open questions. Instead, they hindered dialogue because the teacher gave a response that indicated if the students’ answers were right or wrong.

Abstract In this study, we investigate pupils’ perceptions in Swedish 3 of the allocation of time of the Canons of Rhetoric when working with oral presentations. We also investigate which relations that exist between pupils’ perceptions of the allocation of time of the Canons of Rhetoric and perceptions of knowledge of the Canons of Rhetoric as well as perceptions of their oral presentation. The study was conducted via a questionnaire and carried out among 245 pupils. Raw data has been analysed to determine the descriptive statistics of the allocation of time of the Canons of Rhetoric and tests for statistical significance have been performed to determine the effects that the allocation of time has on pupils’ perceptions of their oral presentation. We have analysed our results by the use of the cognitive and the socio-cultural perspective. Results show that pupils feel that no phase is given sufficient time and that they believe the three first phases to be higher prioritised than the remaning phases. The amount of class hours is of importance to the perceived knowledge of the Canons of Rhetoric, how easy pupils find it creating a presentation, their sense of preparation and the perceived development as a speaker. Regarding response, emendatio, the time for teacher response does not show any significant correlation to pupils’ perceptions of their oral presentation. If peer response is given before presentations, it has a positive effect on pupils’ satisfaction with the presentation, but has otherwise no influence. In addition, teachers’ scaffolding seems to have a larger effect on pupils’ perceptions of their oral presentation than teacher and peer response. Finally, self-assessment occurs to a low extent and is shown to affect the knowledge of the Canons of Rhetoric and how easy it is creating a presentation in a positive manner.

While the use of student thinking to help build mathematical understandings in a classroom has been emphasized in best teaching practices, teachers still struggle with this practice and research still lacks a full understanding of how such learning can and should occur. To help understand this complex practice, I analyzed every instance of student thinking and every teacher response to that thinking during a high school geometry teacher's whole class discussion and used these codes as evidence of alignment or misalignment with principles of effective use of student mathematical thinking. I explored the teacher's practice both in small and large grains by considering each of her responses to student thinking, and then considered the larger practice through multiple teacher responses unified under a single topic or theme in the class discussion. From these codes, I moved to an even larger grain to consider how the teacher's practice in general aligned with the principles. These combined coding schemes proved effective in providing a lens to both view and make sense of the complex practice of teachers responding to student thinking. I found that when responding to student thinking the teacher tended to not allow student thinking to be at the forefront of classroom discussion because of misinterpretation of the student thinking or only using the student thinking in a local sense to help advance the discussion as framed by the teacher's thinking. The results showed that allowing student thinking to be at the forefront of classroom discussion is one way to position students as legitimate mathematical thinkers, though this position can be weakened if the teacher makes a move to correct inaccurate or incorrect student thinking. Furthermore, when teachers respond to student thinking students are only able to be involved in sense making if the teacher turns the ideas back to the students in such a way that positions them to make sense of the mathematics. Finally, in order to allow students to collaborate a teacher must turn the mathematics to the students with time and space for them to meaningfully discuss the mathematics. I conclude that the teacher's practice that I analyzed is somewhat aligned with honoring student mathematical thinking and allowing student thinking to be at the forefront of class discussion. On the other hand, the teacher's practice was strongly misaligned with collaboration and sense making. In this teacher's class, then, students were rarely engaged in sense making or collaborating in their mathematical work.