The diploma thesis deals with teachers' approach to pupils suffering from epilepsy, i.e. in what manner and to what extent the teachers' behaviour towards such pupils is affected by their knowledge, attitudes and self-confidence. The thesis aims to explore and describe teachers' theoretical knowledge about pupils suffering from epilepsy and their ability to implement this knowledge in the class. The thesis also finds out about the extent of teachers' confidence about the issue and their views on the disease. The thesis has been divided into two parts, theoretical and research. The theoretical part includes theory relating to epilepsy, as well as studies on teachers' knowledge and attitudes towards pupils suffering from epilepsy both in the Czech Republic and abroad, including the teacher's approach to a pupil suffering from epilepsy. The research part provides assessment of how much the teachers teaching pupils with epilepsy know about the disease, using psychometric evaluated instruments. The research part also presents results on teachers' attitudes towards epilepsy measured by the ATPE questionnaire, which is a psychometric evaluated instrument. The conclusion discusses and compares the acquired results with foreign literature.

Ko Chi-Chung Andre. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 257-266). / Abstracts in English and Chinese. / Abstract --- p.ii / Acknowledgements --- p.v / Table of contents --- p.vii / List of figures --- p.x / List of tables --- p.x / List of abbreviations --- p.xii / Chapter Chapter 1 --- Introduction / Chapter 1.1 --- Background of the study --- p.1 / Chapter 1.2 --- Statement of the problem situation --- p.2 / Chapter 1.3 --- Purpose and significance of study --- p.4 / Chapter 1.4 --- Research questions --- p.5 / Chapter 1.5 --- Delimitation of the study --- p.6 / Chapter 1.6 --- Definition of key concepts --- p.7 / Chapter 1.7 --- Outline of the remainder of the thesis --- p.17 / Chapter Chapter 2 --- Literature review I: Environmental education and science education / Chapter 2.1 --- Overview of the literature review --- p.19 / Chapter 2.2 --- Understanding environmental education --- p.19 / Chapter 2.3 --- Present status of environmental education in Hong Kong schools --- p.28 / Chapter 2.4 --- Environmental education and science education --- p.30 / Chapter 2.5 --- Summary --- p.37 / Chapter Chapter 3 --- Literature review II: Research issues relevant to teaching environmental education / Chapter 3.1 --- Environmental education as a field of study and its paradigm of research --- p.39 / Chapter 3.2 --- The study of teachers' perceptions and practices --- p.42 / Chapter 3.3 --- Framework of analysis --- p.53 / Chapter 3.4 --- Research related to teachers' perceptions and practices --- p.58 / Chapter 3.5 --- Summary --- p.66 / Chapter Chapter 4 --- Research design / Chapter 4.1 --- Overview of the research design --- p.68 / Chapter 4.2 --- Research questions and associated research methods --- p.70 / Chapter 4.3 --- Questionnaire survey --- p.71 / Chapter 4.4 --- In-depth interview --- p.79 / Chapter Chapter 5 --- Curriculum analysis / Chapter 5.1 --- Overview of curriculum analysis --- p.86 / Chapter 5.2 --- Background the curriculum --- p.86 / Chapter 5.3 --- Characteristics of the curriculum --- p.91 / Chapter 5.4 --- Evaluation of the curriculum --- p.112 / Chapter 5.5 --- Summary and conclusion --- p.121 / Chapter Chapter 6 --- Questionnaire survey results / Chapter 6.1 --- Overview of the chapter --- p.123 / Chapter 6.2 --- Descriptive analysis of questionnaire survey data --- p.123 / Chapter 6.3 --- Inferential analysis of the questionnaire survey data --- p.142 / Chapter 6.4 --- Summary --- p.1525 / Chapter Chapter 7 --- Interview findings / Chapter 7.1 --- Overview of the chapter --- p.155 / Chapter 7.2 --- Interview findings --- p.157 / Chapter 7.3 --- Analysis of interview findings --- p.178 / Chapter 7.4 --- Summary --- p.197 / Chapter Chapter 8 --- Discussion / Chapter 8.1 --- Overview of the chapter --- p.200 / Chapter 8.2 --- Self-reported practices of teaching environmental education --- p.200 / Chapter 8.3 --- Teachers' perceptions of EE and their relation to practices of teaching EE --- p.209 / Chapter 8.4 --- Synthesis of research findings --- p.218 / Chapter 8.5 --- Further discussion of research findings --- p.220 / Chapter 8.6 --- Summary --- p.238 / Chapter Chapter 9 --- Conclusion and recommendation / Chapter 9.1 --- Summing up: Hong Kong secondary school science teachers' perception of environmental education --- p.239 / Chapter 9.2 --- Implications of research findings --- p.243 / Chapter 9.3 --- Limitation of the research and recommendation for further study --- p.248 / Appendix A A sample of cover letter and survey questionnaire --- p.251 / Appendix B Relevant EE topics of the IS Syllabus recommended in the CDC Guidelines --- p.256 / References --- p.257

Background:The curriculum for English underlines the importance of speaking. Pupils and teachers should speak English in the classroom. The study’s theoretical frame is based on Dysthe socio cultural perspective. Pupils need to use the language in order to gain knowledge. We have used Krashen’s five hypotheses and Kugel’s five stages in our study. Other literature that has been used is previous curriculums for English, Backlund, Tholin and Hedge. These writers use theories about learning and the importance of developing language. The study took place at three different schools in western Sweden.Aim:The purpose of the study is to investigate teachers’ attitudes towards speaking English in the language classroom in relation to writing, listening and reading.Procedure:The procedure used is qualitative interviews. By using qualitative interviews the respondents had the ability to ask questions and underline and clarify their answers when needed. The interviews were recorded on mp-3 players. They were later transcribed and analyzed in order to find a valid resultResults:The result that emerges is that teachers consider speaking the most important tool in the classroom. They feel that it is important for students to be able to communicate in English. Even though they think that speaking is the most important aspect they are aware that it is not easy to live up to. The teachers believe that speaking anxieties are one of the reasons of why children in school do not speak English. / Uppsatsnivå: C

Research from the fields of psychology and education suggests that a student’s mindset (beliefs about their intelligence or ability) has a tremendous impact on their setting of goals, reactions to setbacks and failures, and academic performance (Aronson, Fried, & Good, 2002; Blackwell, Trzensiewski, & Dweck, 2007; Dweck, 2000; Dweck, 2006; Good, Aronson, & Inzlicht, 2003; Good, Rattan, & Dweck, 2012; Hong, Chiu, Dweck, Lin, & Wan, 1999). It has also been found that teachers’ mindsets do not necessarily predict their students’ mindsets, namely because teachers do not always teach in ways that align with their mindset. Instead, their beliefs about the nature of mathematics have been found to predict student mindset (Sun, 2015). This may be because if teachers believe that mathematics is a subject of creativity and sense making (a multidimensional belief), they are more likely to teach in ways that emphasize conceptual development and reasoning (practices that convey a growth mindset to students), no matter their personal mindset. Whereas if teachers believe mathematics is more about the rote learning of facts and procedures (a one dimensional belief), they will present it as such (practices that convey a fixed mindset to students). The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between pre-service mathematics teachers’ beliefs and the mindset messages conveyed through their assessment practices. The study focuses on two beliefs: (1) beliefs about mathematics and (2) beliefs about ability (mindset); and three assessment practices: (1) the assessments pre-service teachers create, (2) the feedback they provide students on those assessments, and (3) the next steps they propose after analyzing student performance on the assessment. Using a mixed-methods approach, this study combines a beliefs survey with an in-depth examination of assessments, and accompanying commentaries, submitted by six pre-service mathematics teachers. Assessments and commentaries were evaluated to determine the degree to which the described (and displayed) practices conveyed growth mindset messages, accomplished through the use of pre-existing rubrics created for the educative Teacher Preparation Assessment (edTPA), along with principles of grounded theory and the research on teaching practices that promote growth mindsets in students. Results suggested that having a growth mindset had some relation to pre-service teachers’ (1) planning of growth mindset assessments, (2) use of multiple representations in assessments, and (3) providing of feedback related to students’ efforts. Whereas pre-service teachers with fixed mindsets appeared to leave (1) more technical feedback and (2) more feedback overall. Additionally, stronger multidimensional views appeared more related to the pre-service teachers’ (1) planning of growth mindset assessments, (2) use of multiple representations in assessments, (3) praising a student’s use of a solution method or property, (4) attempting a “strengths-needs” feedback structure, and (5) allowing students to resubmit work. Weaker multidimensional views appeared related to teachers leaving feedback that praised a students’ grade. Findings of this study suggest that interventions aiming to change teacher mindsets may be insufficient for ensuring teachers engage in growth mindset practices. Instead, interventions should focus on changing teacher beliefs and practice concurrently (Philipp, 2007). Providing pre-service teachers with more specific training in the types of assessment practices that convey growth mindset messages to students, as well as requiring them to routinely reflect on their beliefs and practice, may help to accomplish these goals.

How do teachers use online student assessment data? School districts invest increasing resources in online systems for reporting and analyzing student assessment data, yet few studies describe the direct use of such applications or explore how these systems relate to teachers’ professional roles, data use attitudes, or data use efficacies. This dissertation applies learning analytics methods for log file analysis and visual data analytics to explore the extensive variation in teachers’ online data use behaviors and attitudes over six months in one urban secondary school. Descriptive statistics and visualizations of online usage over time demonstrate strong connections between teachers’ online behavior and common organizational factors, such as school level (middle vs. high school), content area, and required training. Correlational evidence suggests that data use self-efficacies have stronger relationships to online use than general data use attitudes. Hierarchical cluster analysis heatmaps are used to identify novel subgroups of teacher online data use behaviors and attitudes. These exploratory findings are used to generate data use dashboards for school-based leadership and an expanded determinant framework for the adoption of online assessment systems. Combining data-intensive methods with theoretical frameworks for self-efficacy, technology acceptance, and use diffusion, this dissertation aims to describe the rich variation in teachers’ online data use and attitudes, as well as productively inform the practice and study of data-based decision making in schools.

This study sought to determine the importance community college instructional stakeholders--teachers, administrators, and support staff--ascribe to 23 student outcome goals and to examine the relationships between biographical variables and stakeholders' perceptions. The study addressed the following research questions: (a) Which of the 23 student outcomes do instructional stakeholders as a whole perceive to be most important?; (b) Can these outcomes be factored into a set underlying constructs?; (c) Does the perceived importance of student outcomes vary in relationship to the type of student the stakeholder serves?; (d) Which outcomes do stakeholders serving different types of students value most highly?; (e) Does the perceived importance of student outcomes vary in relationship to: professional role, number of years worked in a community college, number of years worked at the community college surveyed, campus assignment, and gender? Data were collected from 241 subjects employed by a large, urban community college. Subjects rated the importance of 23 student outcomes on a Likert-like scale. The Student Outcome Goals Inventory, a survey instrument developed by the researcher, was used to collect data. Data were analyzed using one or more of the following statistical tests where appropriate: ANOVA, t Test, Factor Analysis, and Discriminant Function Analysis. The major conclusions drawn from this study were: (a) Instructional stakeholders as a group perceived outcomes related to affective constructs, basic skills development, and goal setting to be most important; (b) six constructs represent the outcomes (Personal/Social, Transfer, Credentialing, Employment, Traditional College, and Developmental); (c) Type of student served has a significant relationship to the perceived importance of 12 of the 23 outcomes with most differences occurring between stakeholders serving lower division transfer students and those serving professional/technical students; (d) Few significant relationships exist between the remaining biographical variables and the 23 outcome variables; (e) The type of students stakeholders served can be predicted with 69% accuracy. The outcomes rated most highly by stakeholders are those that represent a foundation of skills that students are typically expected to gain in their secondary education.

Research has demonstrated that academic engagement is an important resource for students, promoting their learning and achievement. Less well documented is the possibility that students' classroom engagement may also be a valuable resource for their teachers, capable of influencing how teachers treat their students over time. The current study sought to examine the relationship between student motivation and teacher behavior to better understand how teachers perceive and respond to their students' classroom motivation and whether these motivational states contain diagnostic information about the types of supports students may need in order to be engaged, enthusiastic learners. The observable manifestations of motivation, engagement and disaffection, may contain valuable information about students' inner experiences that educators can use to optimize their teaching. Thus, the goal of the current study was to examine the reciprocal effects of student motivation on teachers' provision of support by using a longitudinal design, a more comprehensive assessment of behavioral and emotional engagement and disaffection, and a person-centered approach to investigate whether potential factors influencing the quality of students' classroom engagement can help inform more targeted intervention efforts. Data from 1018 3rd through 6th grade students and their teachers were used to create two sets of teacher-reported student motivation profiles, namely, a theory-driven and an empirically-derived set of profiles. Using both sets of profiles, the current study failed to provide evidence that student engagement and disaffection profiles influenced changes in the quality of support students' received from their teachers over the school year. The current study also examined whether knowledge of the motivation profile into which a student falls can tell us something meaningful about their unobservable, inner experiences or self-system processes (SSP's) such that we can use their profile to "diagnose" motivational issues stemming from these student inner experiences. Results indicated that, with one exception, students in different profiles did not report differential levels of the three SSP's; rather, if students in a given profile had low levels of one self-system process, they had low levels of all three. Finally, for two of the ten student motivation profiles, (At Risk and Checked-out) students in the high teacher support subgroup and the low teacher support subgroup experienced differential changes in their self-reported engagement from fall to spring such that the students who received the "treatment" (high levels of teacher support) started and ended higher than those who received low levels of teacher support, but also showed steeper declines over the year, because students with low teacher support started low and remained low (but did not lose any more ground) across the year. Discussion focuses on the utility and potential drawbacks of using person-centered approaches to examining student motivation and potential causes for the lack of supported hypotheses. Implications discuss the need for further research and how we can help teachers gain a more nuanced and differential view of their students' motivated actions and emotions in the classroom.

This dissertation is a case study of a school district in the Pacific Northwest that developed three-year high school science curricula using a Physics First course sequence (Physics, Chemistry, Biology), with the crosscutting concept Patterns as the central theme of the courses. The purpose of the study was to examine the impact of the implementation of the 9th grade course, Patterns Physics, on teacher practice and beliefs about science teaching and determine whether this new approach facilitated teacher classroom practices and beliefs congruent with those expressed in A Framework for K-12 Science Education (NRC, 2012) and the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS Lead States, 2013). Results from this study indicate that the implementation of Patterns Physics positively impacted teacher confidence in teaching the NGSS science and engineering practices. Professional development that provided teachers multiple opportunities to engage with the curriculum--in the role of a student, in professional discussions with colleagues, and over several years were critical to support a change in practice consistent with three-dimensional (3D) teaching called for by the Framework and NGSS. Teacher participants viewed the Patterns PCB (Physics, Chemistry, and Biology) sequence as an appropriate course sequence, with strong agreement that a 9th grade physics course needs to be tailored to the needs of students, such as added support for students with minimal mathematics skills. The NGSS, with an emphasis on 3D learning (science content knowledge, crosscutting concepts, and science and engineering practices), had a significant positive impact on instructional practice.

The Salamanca Accord advocating the implementation of inclusive education for learners with special needs was signed in 1994, as well as the Convention of the Right of Person's with Disabilities in 2006. Yet, Sierra Leone faces challenges to implement fully inclusive education in schools. The purpose of this mixed-method study was to examine teachers' attitudes towards inclusion in mainstream classrooms. The conceptual framework for this study was premised on Azden's theory of planned-behavior, which maintains that attitude and behaviors are products of experiences acquired. Using a Spearman rho correlations and descriptive statistics to analyze the data, gender, age, educational background, and teaching experience were examined to determine if they had any significant relationship with attitudes of teachers towards inclusion in Sierra Leone. In this mixed-method study, 100 primary and secondary teachers in Sierra Leone completed the Attitudes toward Inclusion in Africa Scale, and 10 teachers took part in a one-on-one interview. The results showed no significant relationship between the independent variables (gender, age, educational background, and teaching experience) and the dependent variables (attitudes towards inclusion). Despite the absence of a statistically significant relationship, the participants' interview data analyzed using Nvivo revealed an in-depth understanding of the negative attitude of teachers toward inclusive education in Sierra Leone. Findings may encourage positive social change by providing information that may be used by the Ministry of Education to develop a comprehensive inclusion model with the help of teachers. This study could be used to help create a platform for teachers' training that will ensure a positive attitude towards inclusive education in the country.

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