Art educators perceive a state of disjuncture in the field when what is persistently practiced in elementary schools as art stands in opposition to basic tenets about the teaching and learning of art. Two reasons are given to explain this sense of disjuncture. First, art education orientations and research associated scholarship are posited to be less than successful in disclosing to teachers what is educationally relevant. Neither a child-centered nor a discipline-centered orientation seems to have considered the adjustive effort teachers make in translating intended purposes into classroom practice. Second, a school art orientation is perceived to be in opposition to art education ideals. Recent studies suggest that features of the classroom setting and the strategies teachers use to make them comprehensible may have an impact on the outcome of instruction in art. Guided by a theoretical stance developed from the literature on commonsense knowledge, I adopted a method of approach to investigate teachers' interpretive accounts of the teaching and learning of art. Observation and interview strategies were used. I discovered two guidelines teachers consulted, and I examined the context in which the guidelines and events mutually elaborate one another. 1. When properly programmed, an art task guides the synchronization of an aggregate of recognizable and approved action, and 2. The use of the art classificatory scheme of structured and experimental art activities in practice is contingent on maintaining this programmatic course of action. Teachers' accounts revealed four features useful in making their work recognizable and approved: pacing and phasing of action, physical conditions, thematic content, and effort. The features elaborated a proper programmatic effect and structured art activities over experimental ones as a way of achieving this effect. This kind of activity was described as school-like and successfully addresses the problem of how to regulate the efforts of an aggregate of children over a specified period of time with due respect for order. The prescription for a preformulated content and stylistic form of art determined acceptable effort. Ideally, experimental art activities were understood to heighten personal awareness by encouraging the child to be more of a task determiner. With less opportunity to rely on stock responses, because the relevance of idiosyncratic action had to be determined anew whenever this kind of activity was undertaken, teachers chose to set this kind of activity aside until conditions became ideal. The difficulty children had in deciding what was intended by the invitation to experiment was not recognized as significant. Choice of structured art activities appears to be attributed to two related factors: a taken-for-granted conception of the requirements for organizational control and an unresolved conception of experimental art activities in the context of this organizational structure. This in-school orientation does not seem to indicate a rejection of formally approved art education orientations, but rather an unquestioning acceptance of the practical necessity of organizational control acquired as a result of teaching experience. These demands determined what is possible in art. Basic tenets of art education intended to have educational consequences have been indefinitely set aside, unwittingly reducing children's involvement in art and teachers' responsibility to assist children in interacting with the discipline. Reified conventions such as freedom of expression and experimentation have made art education remote by creating a chasm between theory and practice, implying that art education can be dealt with at a theoretical level without consideration of how teachers handle everyday experience. Reasonable conclusions to be drawn from evidence provided in this study are that educators need an approach to art education that will not artificially produce the gap that structured art activities have come to fill. It would have to bridge the gap in a manner that recognizes art education orientations (theory) and what teachers do with them (practice) as aspects of the same thing. The present study is a first step toward reflective intervention in the taken-for-granted ways teachers and art educators think about what they do. If it is important for children to interact with the developed structure of the art education discipline, and if teachers are to take responsibility for ensuring that the art education experience takes place, then change would have to be urged by apprising teachers, art educators, and others of the state of disjuncture reported here, and how factors associated with it have come to complement and contradict the interchange between the goals of art education and the school as a workplace. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

This research examines three central questions: What are teachers' conceptions of history education?, What are the constituent components of these conceptions?, and Upon what sources of teacher knowledge are these conceptions based? To elicit data relevant to these questions a phenomenographic research methodology is utilised. In this phenomenographic inquiry, a conception is defined as the broadest possible understanding teachers have of what they teach, why they teach it, and how they teach it. The phenomenon in this inquiry is history education. Of primary interest are the ways in which teachers understand their purpose for history education. This inquiry utilises teachers' descriptions of their agendas and curriculum scripts to examine conceptions of history education. Certain foundational elements are used to analyse the data: a broad understanding of history education in which purpose is a salient feature; a tactical plan or the parts of instruction necessary to accomplish their purpose; reflective rationalisation which explains the knowledge upon which the purpose is predicated; and the extent to which the conception is consistent. Data is analysed from fourteen teachers who represent a cross section of teachers in secondary schools. Teachers have six ways of seeing their purposes. The conceptions include purposes focusing upon historiography, developing social studies methodology, developing a national collective identity, developing a non - national identity, developing an understanding of antecedents of current issues, and developing lessons from the past. Within conceptions representing more than one teacher, individual variations are found in the tactical plan, yet each retains enough similarity to suggest the broad categorisation. Teachers were asked to reflect upon the likely source of this conception. As phenomenography seeks to examine understanding, there is no need nor is there a way to confirm if the results reflect the actual source of their conception. However, it is significant that teachers state they believe they have developed their conception based upon certain sources. University scholarship, educational materials, the wisdom of practice, the role of students and collegial interaction are discussed as prominent in shaping conceptions. This research has important implications for teacher education and educational policy. / Education, Faculty of / Curriculum and Pedagogy (EDCP), Department of / Graduate

What factors—personal, contextual, and professional—contribute to accomplished early career urban teachers’ perceptions of effectiveness and their decisions to stay or leave their classrooms? The finding of this study was that no single factor is responsible for whether a teacher chooses to stay or leave his or her classroom; however, there is a constellation of factors that plays a role in both supporting and frustrating teachers; how the teachers respond to these factors and how these factors interact help to explain their decisions. What differentiates the degree of impact of the institutional or professional factors on the teachers’ morale and, ultimately, on their decisions to stay or leave their classrooms are the other mitigating factors—namely, the personal and contextual factors that either bolster the teachers or diminish their level of commitment. Seven connecting assertions are drawn from an examination of the commonalities and differences between and among cases regarding the factors that contribute to each teacher’s perception of success and influence his or her career decision to stay in or leave the urban classroom. These assertions regarding the factors that contribute to teachers’ perceptions of success and their career decisions include: • the alignment of each teacher’s classroom experience with his or her expectations shaped by earlier events and relationships • the ability of each teacher to cope with and manage the day-to-day challenges by incorporating self-care and cognitive reframing strategies in order to maintain optimism, resilience, and well-being • the establishment of a relationship of mutual and reciprocated trust with the school leader(s) • the teacher’s perceived quality of relationships with colleagues • the teacher’s perceived ability to establish individual, personal, and authentic connections with students • the ability to make decisions regarding curriculum and pedagogical practice • the ability to tolerate and navigate constant and seemingly questionable change

"Since FHA is now an integral part of each home economics class in Florida, the home economics teacher serves an important role by co-ordinating the FHA activities with the learnings of the subject being taught. It is the purpose of this research study to survey the attitudes and opinions home economics teachers have toward this new innovation in the program and to FHA in general. Ways in which teachers are integrating FHA into the total home economics program will also be identified"--Introduction. / "August, 1976." / Typescript. / "Submitted to the Department of Home Economics Education in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science." / Advisor: Violet Moore, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 51-52).

A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE: MASTERS IN EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY IN THE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY AND SPECIAL EDUCATION UNIVERSITY OF ZULULAND, 2007 / The purpose of this study was to investigate teachers' attitudes towards the HIV/AIDS programmes, which the government had supplied to the schools a few years ago. This concern was triggered by the researcher's own experience in dealing with these teachers whom he found to be protective, passionate about the disabled children and often treated them as separate from those of the regular school system. To collect data, a questionnaire was administered to teachers at all the three special schools in the education district. In the questionnaire, items sought to establish whether or not teachers ever received training in HTV7AIDS prevention programmes as well as their knowledge about how HIV was transmitted. Findings showed that these teachers were not trained in HTV/AIDS prevention programmes but there was a strong positive correlation between their knowledge about HIV/AIDS and positive attitude. It was also revealed that they were not involved in any HTV/AIDS prevention programme at their schools. Many of them were not even aware of the material said to have been provided by the Department of Education to be used in raising awareness programmes.

No description available.

No description available.

The purpose of the study was to determine the attitude of eastern region secondary agricultural teachers toward the Future Farmers of America (FFA) and the relationship of selected factors to that attitude. To accomplish this purpose the following factors were examined: (a) years of vocational agriculture teaching experience; (b) number of teachers in the vocational agriculture department; (c) length of the annual teaching contract; (d) area of primary teaching assignment; (e) previous length of active FFA/NFA membership; (f) highest educational level attained; (g) undergraduate college degree major; (h) number of duties performed; and (i) location of the school community (rural or urban/suburban). The population for the study consisted of 2,966 agricultural teachers who were employed in the FFA Eastern Region during the 1978-79 school year. A modified stratified random sampling technique was used to select a sample of 425 teachers for the study. Three hundred and seven (72.23 percent) of the teachers in the sample responded to the survey instrument. The two-section instrument used in the study was developed by the researcher. The first section of the instrument consisted of ten questions designed to obtain personal and departmental information about the respondents. The second part of the instrument consisted of 37 attitudinal statements which were developed from information obtained from vocational agriculture teachers, a review of the literature, and the FFA aims and purposes. Each statement had six Likert-Scale type choices. Respondents were instructed to circle the response which corresponded the closest to their true feelings. The Pearson product-moment correlation and the Chi-square test of independence were used to determine if a relationship existed between the variables selected for the study and the agricultural teachers' attitude toward the FFA. A significant relationship was found between the agricultural teachers' attitude toward the FFA and the number of years of agricultural teaching experience, the location of the school community, the length of agricultural teachers' contract, the previous length of agricultural teachers' active FFA/NFA membership, and the agricultural teachers' undergraduate college degree major. It was concluded that based on the scores obtained on the FFAA attitudinal Scale, the agricultural teachers of the FFA Eastern Region had a positive attitude toward the FFA. / Ed. D.

The primary purpose of this study was to assess the viability of selected subscales of an educational beliefs survey for use in educational planning and decision making. A secondary purpose was to determine if classroom practices of teachers in selected secondary schools were related to their instructional beliefs as measured through self-report instruments. Data collection involved two phases. The Teacher Beliefs Inventory was utilized for gathering data related to instructional beliefs. Demographic data was also gathered in the first phase of data collection. Teachers' instructional practices were assessed in phase two through use of the Instructional Practices Survey. These surveys were administered to secondary school teachers in one public school district in Pima County, Arizona. For each questionnaire, items were separately tabulated. The Teacher Control and Discipline and the Student Participation subscales of the Teacher Beliefs Inventory and the two Teacher-Centered and Student-Centered subscales of the Instructional Practices Survey were further analyzed. The subscales of each instrument were also combined as typologies in order to allow examination of the dimensions as interrelated rather than dichotomous factors. The surveys were analyzed independently and then in relationship to one another. Analysis of variance results indicated significant relationships between belief types and both student-centered (p = .0001) and teacher-centered (p < .0001) practices. Chi-square analysis established a relationship between belief and practice typologies (p = .0003) but did not establish the nature of the relationship. Latent class analysis indicated the data could be explained with a three-class model consisting of two cells which specify high-low relationships between the subscales and one quasi-independence class into which remaining cases would fall. This finding was consistent with positions found in the literature that conditional hierarchies may exist among belief dimensions. The findings support the use of the two subscales of the Teacher Beliefs Inventory which were investigated in this study. Those subscales have been organized and labeled the Instructional Beliefs Survey. The survey has several potential applications for educational planning and decision making. Obtained results can be used in staff development, teacher preservice education, curriculum development and program selection, and instructional supervision.

This descriptive study was undertaken for the purpose of identifying the problems, benefits, and recommendations for improving secondary substitute teaching as perceived by administrators, regular teachers, substitute teachers, and students. Participants in the study included the total populations of administrators, regular teachers, substitute teachers, and students of the four secondary schools in a southwestern school district. The objectives of the study were to identify the perceptions of these groups regarding their views of the problems and benefits associated with substitute teaching and their recommendations for the improvement of substitute teaching in their school district. A two-questionnaire modified Delphi Technique was developed and used to gather the data. The Delphi I questionnaire was open-ended and asked the participants to list five problem areas; five benefits; and five recommendations for improving substitute teaching. Items for the Delphi II questionnaire were developed from the responses gathered on the first questionnaire. The population surveyed consisted of 15 administrators, 293 regular teachers, 93 substitute teachers, and 6,401 students. The participants were asked to respond on a five point Likert-type scale as to the degree of agreement or disagreement with the 27 items identified as problems; the 23 items identified as benefits; and the 25 items identified as recommendations for improvement. The data from the Delphi II questionnaire was analyzed and the means, standard deviations, and modes were determined. An analysis of variance was computed to determine differences among groups. This study is unique in that it is the first study to determine that there are perceived benefits associated with substitute teaching. It is also unique in that it surveys all four groups that are directly involved in the substitute process. The findings of this study validate the previous research in terms of the identified problems and the recommendations suggested. The fact that all groups agreed that there were numerous benefits associated with substitute teaching gives rise to the suggestion that maybe substitute teaching is more than just a babysitting service. It is recommended that, to improve substitute teaching, all four groups must realize that they are both responsible for the existing problems, and the potential solutions as well.