Thesis (Ph.D.)--Bowling Green State University, 2008. / Document formatted into pages; contains xii, 270 p. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.S. in Education ) -- Shenandoah University, 2004. / Includes bibliographical references.

The aim of this study was to investigate the way in newspapers are used for the teaching andlearning of English. In particular, the way teachers say they use newspapers in the Englishclassroom and the way newspapers are perceived by their students. The information wasobtained through semi-structured interviews with both students and teachers at an uppersecondary school in a city in the south of Sweden. From the results of the interview and fromthe study of the related literature, two detailed lesson plans were constructed; one to suit agroup following a vocational programme and one following a social science programme, (auniversity preparatory programme). One of the most interesting findings from the interviewswas that students were more interested in working with older, print newspapers rather thanonline ones. This was taken into consideration when the lesson plans were constructed. Thestudy concluded that newspapers can be an effective tool for the teaching/ learning of English,particularly for those willing to take the time to collect and prepare the necessary material.

While many universities have implemented various initiatives and teaching and learning methods to embed the most indemand skills into their degree programmes, there is little evidence in the literature of students’ opinions and awareness of these skills. The purpose of this article is to assess, through an empirical study, students’ perceptions of the skills commonly identified in the literature as important for the field of accounting and finance. A total of 462 surveys were collected and analysed using the SAS statistical analysis tool. According to the findings, the most important graduate skills are communication skills, followed by analytical skills and self-management. The findings also reveal that the language of instruction is statistically significant for a few graduate skills, including interpersonal, planning and organization, communication, self-management and analytical skills. Age is statistically significant for critical thinking skills and gender is statistically significant for leadership, technological and communication skills. / NPRP under grant 7-1534-5-231 from the Qatar National Research Fund (a member of the Qatar Foundation)

Thesis (Ed. D.)--University of Washington, 2007. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-105).

The purpose of this study is to compare the opinions concerning faculty teaching behaviors among groups of faculty members and senior teacher training students in six teachers colleges in Bangkok, Thailand. Five research hypotheses guided the data analysis for this study; the variables used were sex, age, teaching experience, and college of employment. A published, validated survey instrument, which lists sixty-one behavioral items and incorporates a Likert-type response scale, was used to collect the data. Random sampling of the population corresponded to existing male-female ratios for each group at each schools, with the exception of one school that has only female students. From the sample of 480, the total response was 85.6 percent. In order to test for significant differences of opinion among the variables and between the groups at the .05 level, t and F tests were applied. The data indicate that 70.5 percent of the 190 responding faculty are females who have taught for more than ten years; females also constitute 72.4 percent of the 221 senior teacher training students. In regard to opinions of appropriate faculty teaching behaviors, significant differences were found between faculty and students (faculty members had higher mean scores) and between male and female faculty members (female faculty had higher mean scores). Conclusions drawn from these and other findings for this sample population include that (1) faculty and students do not agree upon what constitutes appropriate faculty teaching behaviors; (2) faculty members have stronger opinions than students about the appropriateness of such behaviors; and (3) there is more agreement among students than among faculty regarding the items that constitute appropriate faculty teaching behavior. The data findings are also discussed in the context of cultural differences that could have affected findings which were different from those discussed in the literature on evaluation of faculty teaching behavior.

This arts-based, qualitative investigation focused on high school English teachers of students with learning dis/abilities (Baglieri & Knopf, 2004) who used visual arts integration (Eisner, 2002) to find out how teachers experience using visual arts in English and what their experiences mean (Zoss & White, 2011) in order to understand why certain experiences stood out for the teachers as being important. I framed the study theoretically with complexity theories of teaching and learning (Davis, Sumara, & Luce-Kapler, 2008), while combining aspects of sociocultural theory (Smagorinsky, 2001; Vygotsky, 1978; Wertsch, 1991), cognitive pluralism (John-Steiner, 1997) and Dewey’s notion of experience (1934/1980). The teacher participants were three high school English teachers employed at an independent school for students with learning dis/abilities. A/r/tography (Irwin & Springgay, 2008; Springgay, Irwin, & Kind, 2005, 2008) influenced my methodology in that I created visual art to theorize the data and my experiences conducting the study. I collected data during spring and summer 2011. Data sources included participant observation and field notes (Dewalt & Dewalt, 2002), photography (Coover, 2004; Harper 2000, 2002), teachers’ visual texts (La Jevic & Springgay, 2008), artifacts (Prior, 2003), and interviews (Smagorinsky, 2008; Smagorinsky & Coppock, 1994). I used qualitative methods of coding analysis (Charmaz, 2006; Ezzy, 2002; Saldaña, 2009) and visual analysis (Riessman, 2008; Rose, 2001), as well as arts-based methods for educational research (Cahnmann-Taylor & Siegesmund, 2008). This study fills a gap in empirical research in both English education and special education by examining English teachers integrating art in classes for students with dis/abilities. Furthermore, understanding how teachers experience visual arts integration can inform methods courses for teaching secondary English educators.