This is a study about English teachers’ use of audiobooks when working with literature in upper secondary school. This study investigates to what extent and in what ways teachers use audiobooks as well as their attitudes toward them as a teaching tool. This research study also investigates whether teachers believe that audiobooks have a positive effect on students’ reading motivation. The study was conducted through a mixed-method questionnaire, which 24 participating teachers in Sweden answered. The study shows that most teachers are using audiobooks in their literature teaching, hence having an overall positive attitude towards them. However, the reasons for using them vary among the participants. The findings reveal that participating teachers find audiobooks helpful for improving students’ reading and listening comprehension, pronunciation, and reading accuracy. Further, teachers believe that audiobooks help students to show more engagement with the literature, but that they do not have much effect on increasing students’ motivation to read. The results of this study provide insight into some English teachers’ opinions and attitudes toward the audiobook as a teaching tool and this may help other English teachers make better informed choices when they want to incorporate the audiobook into their literature teaching.

Each music teacher steps into their classroom as an educator shaped by their unique life experiences. Former music teachers, ensemble participation, culture, media, teacher education, and family dynamics are just a few of the influences that make each music teacher unique. Acknowledged or not, these factors shape the verbal messages of music teachers in the classroom. This study explored how elementary music teachers explicitly share what they believe about the potential of their students’ musical ability through verbal messages during instruction. Symbolic interactionism was used as the theoretical framework for this study because it helps explain how people attach meaning to language through social interactions. Carol Dwek’s growth mindset research was the lens for the theoretical framework. The growth mindset framework of Dweck was adapted for music in this study to help teachers identify and reflect on their mindset and explore how applicable it might be as a framework for music educators to foster growth in developing musicians. This intervention study recruited four elementary music teachers. Interviews, classroom observations, a Likert scale survey, open-ended questions, and reflection prompts were used to collect data. Each instrument's design was built on Dweck’s research regarding mindset identification but adapted for musical ability. The four research questions sought to capture the experiences of participants from their existing knowledge of growth mindset practices to observable changes after the growth mindset intervention. The data were analyzed and coded to find evidence of fixed and growth mindsets explicitly in elementary music instruction before and after the growth mindset was used as an intervention. This study showed that a growth mindset framework can only be observed through verbal messages when opportunities for skill development are authentically facilitated. The bulk of verbal examples presented in this study indicate that a growth mindset is embedded in the scaffolding of effective teaching strategies. Triggers of a fixed mindset with verbal examples are presented with implications for practice and suggestions for future research.

A focus on early literacy that became heightened in the early 21st century has had the unintended consequence of restricting our ideas about what children should be doing in classrooms, creating a preoccupation not only with literacy in general but also with a specific subset of early literacy skills that often reflect Eurocentric cultural norms and values. This can result in a proliferation of assessments, prescriptive curricula, and skills-based activities that allow little flexibility for teachers. A narrowing of curriculum and expectations, of behaviors that “count” as literacy, limits the potential for teachers to create literacy experiences that build upon the rich funds of knowledge that all children possess. Our understanding of how teachers have been impacted by this and the ways in which contextual variables mitigate expectations and requirements has not been sufficiently developed. In the face of such concerns, this study sought to include preschool teachers’ own descriptions of their literacy practices and their beliefs about early literacy development. Using a mixed-methods approach that included in-depth interviews as well as a questionnaire, narrative portraits were developed for eight pre-k teachers in Texas who worked in various program settings: Head Start, public prekindergarten, “braided” programs, as well as privately funded. A comparative analysis was also conducted, including the application of Bronfenbrenner’s Ecological Theory to disentangle the influence of different contextual factors. Teachers navigated a host of different influences on their early literacy practice from local stakeholders and colleagues to policies, cultural values and expectations, as well as shifting expectations for the early literacy skills pre-k children should have in order to be ready for kindergarten. Regardless of their settings or beliefs about teaching, teachers experienced barriers that at times impeded their ability to teach the ways they wanted to. They described a variety of activities and approaches to supporting emerging literacy skills, and they balanced requirements and expectations with a desire to tailor their instruction and learning opportunities in individually appropriate ways. Survey responses mirrored those of previous studies that utilized the same questionnaires in order to develop an understanding of preschool teachers’ literacy beliefs and practices. What emerged was a picture of eight different teachers who believe in the potential of all children and are committed to providing a strong education foundation for the children in their classes. The field of early childhood is notoriously fragmented due to an incoherent system of governance, funding streams, and settings, resulting in a host of complications including expectations that might contradict one another and a redundancy within requirements that means teachers’ time is frequently consumed with paperwork, competing curricula, and duplicate assessments. Future studies should continue to explore how teachers are impacted by the social and political contexts that surround education and literacy, and including teachers’ perspectives is a critical aspect toward the continual improvement of early childhood education.

Abstract: The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes of six elementary school teachers towards formative assessment strategies and how they employ them. The study employed a qualitative approach, utilizing semi-structured interviews to explore the teachers´understanding formative assessment, its application in their teaching practices, and the perceived advantages and disadvantages associated with its use. The interviewed teachers were from three different schools in Sweden, with varying levels of experience. The findings indicated that teachers generally hold positive views toward formative assessment and actively integrate it into their teaching as a method to support students´academic development. The results showed that the teachers use oral formative assessment in the classroom, and they usually employ formative assessment with speaking and writing. Moreover, the findings show that they use formative assessment strategies to help their students learn more and to foster greater study motivation. However, the teachers expressed a desire for more time dedicated to formative assessment, citing challenges such as large class sizes and additional administrative responsibilities. / Abstract: syftet med denna studie var att undersöka attityder av sex lärare som undervisar i ämnet engelska på högstadienivå gentemot formativa bedömningsstrategier och hur de tillämpar dem i undervisningen. Studien använde en kvalitativ metod genom att göra semistrukturerade intervjuer för att utforska lärarnas förståelse av formativ bedömning, dess tillämpning i undervisning samt upplevda fördelar och nackdelar med dess användning. De intervjuade lärare jobbar på tre olika skolor i Sverige och hade varierande erfarenhetsnivåer. Resultaten visade att lärarna hade positiva åsikter om formativ bedömning och aktivt integrerar det i sin undervisning som en metod för att stödja elevernas utveckling. Resultaten visade också att lärarna använder muntlig formativ bedömning mest i klassrummet och de tillämpar vanligtvis formativ bedömning med skriv- och talförmåga. Dessutom visar resultaten att de använder formativa bedömningsstrategier i undervisning för att hjälpa sina elever utvecklas samt för att öka studiemotivation. Dock uttryckte lärarna en önskan om mer tid avsatt för formativ bedömning och nämnde några utmaningar med användning av formativ bedömning som till exempel stora klassar och ytterligare administrativa arbete.

This dissertation offers an intimate view into the emotional life of a queer teacher while she lived and taught middle school in a conservative rural Northern Californian community during the years 2020 to 2022. Acknowledging the emotional weight felt by many educators as they confront challenges in and outside of their academic curricula, this study offers a framework for recording, examining, and analyzing the wobble moments (emotionally difficult events) experienced by teachers in ways that may relieve some of their associated tension and stress. Through reflections on teacher journal entries, this autoethnographic study demonstrates how emotion, dialogic, and queer theories may be used to rethink and reconfigure the narratives of our emotional experiences. The author argues that by engaging in emotional dialogue, teachers may gain new insight on and deepen their relationships to their practice and profession, as well as to their students and colleagues. Ultimately, it is in her analysis of these relationships that the author finds solace and lightens some the emotional weight of teaching.

No description available.

Listening comprehension is considered one of the more difficult language skills to teach, which has caused a debate regarding what impact English varieties have on the learners of English. Previous research is divided, with researchers stating that English varieties influence intelligibility and comprehensibility of speech in listening comprehension, while others claim it has no effect. This study aims to investigate Swedish teachers’ attitudes to English varieties in listening comprehension and what affects their choice of teaching material used in listening comprehension contexts. A survey was conducted alongside semi-structured interviews with teachers from upper secondary schools in Sweden. Four counties in Sweden were randomly selected, and all the teachers from each county were contacted with requests to participate in the study. In total, 35 teachers answered the survey, and six participated in the interviews. The results show that teachers are united in that learners of English should be exposed to different English varieties in listening comprehension. However, they are divided on its importance in other contexts, such as if the content of the teaching material used in listening comprehension is more important than the English variety used. They are also divided on if the English varieties affected their choice of teaching material to use in listening comprehension at all.

The usage of technology is increasing in our society, and the schools are adapting ICT into education, and the use of mobile devises is increasing in the classrooms. However, there are no clear guidelines for the schools on how these devices should be used nor when and why. Therefore, the aim of this study is to ascertain if mobile devices are being used in the English language classroom to develop the pupils’ different language skills, such as writing, reading, speaking and listening. In the background, the study compares previous research with interviews. The method that was chosen are two semi- structured interviews, the first one was with a teacher in primary school, and the second one was with a former primary teacher who now works in a university to teach future teachers. The results of comparing previous research with interviews showed that mobile device can be used as a tool to develop the different language skills in K-3. The implication that were found are that the mobile devices should be used to an extent in the different lessons because they exist in the pupils’ everyday life, and the educators should take advantage of it to motivate the pupils’, still, these devices should be used for the right purpose; they are tools that the teachers should use to take learning forward.

No description available.

The purpose of this study was to determine if significant variances exist among the attitudes of educational leaders in West Virginia toward collective bargaining and what influences certain demographic variables might have as predictors of attitudes. Eight categories of educational leaders were included in this study, with membership determined by employment or organizational position held. Twenty-one items concerning demographic information were included to gather pertinent background material. Data were collected by mail survey using a Likert Scale. The data were analyzed as follows: differences across categories of leaders were tested using the one-way analysis of variance, and predictors of attitudes were sought with a multiple regression and a Scheffe test. The results indicated that there were significant differences between groups in relation to attitudes toward collective bargaining and certain demographic variables at the .05 level of significance. / Ed. D. / incomplete_metadata