Through an exploratory qualitative, interpretive frame that employed an ethnographic methodological approach, this research focuses on teaching assistants (TAs) teaching in a lab, tutorial, or discussion group. Nine TAs share their learning journey as they begin teaching in higher education. The theoretical lens that frames this research is workplace learning. Interviews, observations, video-recordings, field notes, and learning diaries were subjected to thematic analysis, looking for dominant themes associated to TAs’ characteristics, their learning process related to teaching, and the knowledge they developed about teaching and student learning. Key findings include the recognition that TAs bring robust conceptions and dispositions to their first teaching position that is approached from a student subject position as they are becoming teachers. As TAs are being teachers, they control their self-directed learning process as they make decisions on-the-fly within a diverse learning environment that ranges from expansive to strategic to restrictive affordances. Coupled with a discretionary reflective practice, TAs’ knowledge development about teaching and student learning is solely dependent upon their experience, making forthcoming development of knowledge about teaching and student learning relegated to chance. This focus on TAs’ learning in the workplace illuminates the need for a deep learning approach to learning about teaching and student learning that needs to begin with graduate students’ first appointment as a TA. In addition, this deep learning approach needs to be encased in an expansive learning environment that provides opportunities for continuous support through various forms of mentorship, instruction, and development of reflective practice. / Graduate

Syftet med denna rapport är att redogöra för de olika arbetssätt och arbetsformer som används under matematikundervisningen på en grundskola i Barbados. Vi har undersökt om det fokuseras på abstrakt eller konkret matematik samt hur de använder sig av det matematiska språket i sin matematikundervisning, då vi anser att språket har en stor roll i inlärningen. Vi har observerat matematiklektionerna samt intervjuat utvalda pedagoger på skolan, utifrån dessa undersökningsmetoder har vi fått fram ett resultat som analyseras och diskuteras i slutet av rapporten. Resultatet av undersökning visar att den abstrakta matematiken, individuellt arbete med matematikboken, är den undervisningsmetod som används mest på skolan.

Thesis advisor: Hosffman Ospino / There is a pressing need to re-awaken in teaching the prophetic call to serve the liberation of children, whose complex humanity remains systemically marginalized. This proposal is grounded in a study of the Lasallian tradition of education, which originates from John Baptist de La Salle (1651-1719), founder of the Institute of the Brothers of the Christian Schools in seventeenth century France and the patron saint for Christian teachers of the young. From a Lasallian perspective, the prophetic call to teach for children’s liberation is rooted contemplatively in a Christian mysticism of faith, which energizes an incarnational mission of education in zeal, shaped by a preferential option for children as the poor and marginalized. This preferential option for children is a hermeneutical key that reads the Lasallian mission of education forward into the twenty-first century. I develop this idea of a preferential option for children, locating it in an interpretive study that critically synthesizes a Lasallian theology of child with literature in childhood studies, spirituality, critical pedagogy and participatory action research. Building on the Lasallian imagination, this study contributes to a Christian spirituality of education as it examines how contemporary theological perspectives on children and childhood serve as a lens that deepens the interconnection between Christian mysticism, liberation, and child in teaching as a prophetic vocation. To teach for children’s liberation is to promote their flourishing as full human beings created in the image and likeness of God. It attends to conditions that protect children in their social marginalization while engaging and developing their social participation as responsible agents in our common belonging to God as God’s children and siblings-in-Christ. It demands just presence in teaching, which begins with listening as receptivity to the mystery of the child as graced irruption. The prophetic call to teach for children’s liberation is mystically rooted in contemplative wonder at the Incarnation. Such wonder must also open the teacher to being disturbed by the scandalizing action of God, who steps out of God-self not only to be with the poor, but also in the least as a human child in Jesus Christ. It is this recognition of God’s presence in each child and with children that calls forth the responsibility of teachers, making an ethical claim on them to be courageously present in ways that prioritize the human dignity of children in education. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2020. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Religious Education and Pastoral Ministry.

This qualitative study examined how my practice of using manipulatives to teach multiplying and dividing fractions to 8th grade students facilitated their conceptual understanding of those operations. The students who participated in the study were enrolled in one of my intensive mathematics classes. Before the lessons began, I interviewed the students and gave them a pre-assessment to determine their content knowledge and comfort level with manipulatives. The students engaged in activities that included solving problems using various manipulatives. During the activities, I made observations of their problem solving techniques and how they used the manipulatives. At the conclusion of the unit I gave them a post assessment and conducted post interviews to determine any change in their content knowledge and comfort level with using manipulatives. I concluded through my research that by giving the students a hands-on, minds-on approach to learning they were able to develop an understanding of the concepts and apply that knowledge to multiplying and dividing fractions.

This dissertation represents a product of research conducted in 2004-2005 examining the curriculum network of an elementary teacher education program at a large public university in the United States. Using ethnographic data (e.g., interviews with preservice teachers and faculty, observations in and outside of coursework, and other artifacts), I address the questions of how preservice teachers characterized relationships between teacher education program components, how those characterizations varied and changed, and how preservice teachers explained the value or relevance of program components to teaching. I discuss how preservice teachers shaped their understandings of main program emphases. I describe how they tended to experience closer correspondence between program recommendations and the policies and philosophies in certain schools and classrooms in suburban county schools near the university compared to the policies and philosophies in certain schools and classrooms they identified as having, for example, fewer resources (e.g., funds, manipulatives). I make the case that the program-based philosophies developed by and for the preservice teachers helped to coordinate context-specific meanings and relevance for program components and further to construct failures of the kind where either (1) schools interfered with the accomplishment of program objectives or (2) program objectives proved unrealistic for schools. Without intending to, and perhaps even contrary to certain program intentions, program suggestions treating instruction as context-independent tended to favor middle-class White children and to marginalize urban or diverse schools and classrooms, or schools having more limited resources, as viable places to engage in program-recommended practices for good teaching. These results have potential implications for practice in teacher education and mathematics education and also have relevance to discussions of ongoing standards-based teacher education and mathematics education reforms. I offer that these results help to reveal certain limitations of popular ways of defining and researching preservice teachers' learning and teacher education program coursework and fieldwork relationships. I raise the question of whether teacher educators or researchers might benefit from considering how to more substantively integrate curriculum and give greater attention to place and to the broader socio-political goals we aim to accomplish through our work. / Ph. D.

Thesis advisor: Patrick J. McQuillan / Most would agree that pupil learning is a fundamental purpose of schooling. Differences arise, however, when conceptualizing what form that learning should take and how it should be assessed. In recent years, there has been increased pressure to improve pupil achievement through educational reform initiatives intended to ensure that all pupils meet high academic standards through strict accountability measures. This dissertation seeks to understand how teacher candidates/beginning teachers, working in this era of accountability, focus on pupil learning over time. An interpretive qualitative approach was employed to complete cross-case analyses on 55 interviews conducted with five participants over a 3-year period. Based on a sociocultural framework, and drawing on constructivist assessment theories and prior research on learning to teach, this dissertation argues that the end objective of improving pupil learning led teachers to enhance their teaching practice by holding high expectations for pupil learning, building personal relationships with pupils, maintaining strong classroom management strategies, and utilizing formative assessment practices. However, engaging in these practices was often a result of a complex process of negotiation between aspects of the school context that functioned as obstacles and the teachers' moral sensibilities Overall, contrary to claims made by stage theory, the beginning teachers in this study demonstrated that focusing on pupil learning was possible with perseverance, commitment to social justice, development of an inquiry stance and an understanding that learning to teach is a life-long process that involves continuous reflection and professional development. / Thesis (PhD) — Boston College, 2009. / Submitted to: Boston College. Lynch School of Education. / Discipline: Teacher Education, Special Education, Curriculum and Instruction.

A tese analisa como a Pedagogia de Projetos interfere na aprendizagem dos alunos e da professora e nas práticas pedagógicas de Geografia. Nesse trabalho, utilizo a metáfora da organização de um projeto para construir a pesquisa. Inicio construindo a mobilização em um capítulo em que explico o sentido de escolher o portfólio como instrumento para coleta de dados e encaminho a discussão dos referenciais teóricos a partir dos quais fundamentei o estudo − as ideias de Hernandez, Levy, Maturana, Villas Boas, Callai e Cavalcanti. Em seguida, examino a prática do trabalho com Pedagogia de Projetos e as desestabilizações que esse trabalho produziu em minhas certezas, destacando a leitura e escrita como inibidores do ensinar Geografia, as fragilidades pedagógicas camufladas pela indisciplina e os questionamentos sobre ensinar ou aprender a Geografia. Ainda nesse capítulo, destaco a Pedagogia de Projetos e suas articulações com a Geografia, bem como as aprendizagens produzidas no movimento das interações com os portfólios dos alunos e os bilhetes da professora. No capítulo final, estabeleço uma conversa com os pensamentos que me produziram, para examinar os deslocamentos pedagógicos gerados pelos projetos de pesquisa, às vezes impulsionando, outras vezes inibindo as ações do professor. O caminho dessa investigação não se constituiu de forma linear. Como na lógica dos projetos de pesquisa, foram construídas redes, exibidas no emaranhado de idas e vindas que articularam os achados coletados nos diferentes instrumentos: portfólios dos alunos e da professora pesquisadora, cadernos informais de registro de conversas com colegas e outros professores, relatórios de pesquisa dos alunos e os planejamentos, tanto da proposta, quanto das aulas. A execução da Pedagogia de Projetos gerou deslocamentos em dois sentidos: aqueles que pontuaram sua validade e alcance em relação à contemporaneidade e os que criaram desestabilizações à efetivação da proposta, imobilizando algumas ações. Esses deslocamentos produziram três eixos que merecem ser destacados como aprendizagens emanadas da pesquisa: a formação, o ensinar e aprender Geografia e as práticas contemporâneas. Os escritos no portfólio produziram um processo reflexivo importante para reorganizar as ações pedagógicas, compreender as atitudes dos alunos, repensar minhas certezas em relação à Pedagogia de Projetos e estabelecer estratégias de atuação na escola, definindo avanços e recuos. / This thesis analyzes the way that Project Pedagogy interferes in both students‟ and a teacher‟s learning as well as in the pedagogical practices in Geography. In this work, I used the metaphor of the organization of a project to construct the research. I started constructing mobilization, in a chapter that explains the meaning of choosing the portfolio as an instrument for data collection, and discusses the theoretical references on which I grounded this study, i.e. ideas by Hernandez, Levy, Maturana, Villas Boas, Callai and Cavalcanti. Next, I examined the practice of working with Project Pedagogy and the destabilizations it caused in my certainties. I highlighted both reading and writing as inhibitors of Geography teaching, the pedagogical fragilities camouflaged by indiscipline, and questionings about teaching or learning Geography. Still in this chapter, I highlighted the work with projects and its articulations with Geography, as well as learning produced through the interactions with the students‟ portfolios and the teacher‟s notes. In the final chapter, I established a conversation with the thoughts that produced me, in order to examine the pedagogical displacements generated by the projects, sometimes stimulating, sometimes inhibiting the teacher‟s actions. The path of this investigation was not linearly traced. As with the project logic, networks were built, exhibited in a web of movements forward and backward that articulated the findings obtained through different instruments: students‟ and researcher-teacher‟s portfolios, informal notebooks where conversations with classmates and other teachers were recorded, students‟ research reports, and plans of both the proposal and classes. The practice of project pedagogy caused displacements in two senses: those that claimed its validity and reach in relation to contemporaneity, and those that generated destabilizations in the proposal, thus immobilizing some actions. These displacements produced three axes that are worth mentioning as learning stemming from the research: education; teaching and learning geography; and contemporary practices. The portfolio writings produced an important reflexive process to reorganize pedagogical actions, understand students‟ attitudes, rethink my certainties in relation to the project pedagogy, and establish strategies for action at school, by defining advances and drawbacks.

<p>The purpose with this essay was to study the knowledge of children today between six and eight years old about the human body and its function. A second purpose was to study how junior-level educationalist were carrying through there tuition about the human body. I wanted to investigate if the children today hade another knowledge about the human body than children that participated in previous similar investigations. I wanted to investigate this because today we live in another society than before with  more access to information. My first question was to find out what children thought that we humans looked like inside the body and how its works. My second question was how junior-level educationalist do carry out  their tuition. Ten children and tree junior-level educationalist participated in qualitative interviews, interviewed one by one. During the interviews the children were given a picture with a contour of the human body where they could fill in different organ. The most common organs that the children painted on their pictures of the human body where brain, heart, stomach, skeleton and lungs. The children also had some knowledge about the different organs like the skeletons function was to make the body hard, the hearts function was to pump the blood around in our body, the brain control the whole body and the stomach purpose was to take care of the food we eat. The educationalist replied that they used a lot of concrete material and they tried to have miscellaneous tuition. The result of this study is that the children today don’t have so much more knowledge of the human body than children that have been interview in older days. The result also showed that the way the educationalist were teaching hade a positive influents on the students learning.</p> / <p>Syftet med undersökningen var att se vad barn mellan sex och åtta års ålder idag hade för tankar om hur vi människor ser ut inuti vår kropp och hur det fungerar inuti oss men också att undersöka hur lågstadiepedagoger går tillväga vid undervisningen om människokroppen. Jag ville undersöka om barnen idag hade mer kunskap om människokroppen än de barn som ingått i liknande studier tidigare, eftersom vi idag lever i ett informationssamhälle. Min första frågeställning blev att ta reda på barnens tankar om människokroppens inre och hur det fungerar inuti oss. Min andra frågeställning blev hur lågstadiepedagoger gick tillväga med sin undervisning om människokroppen. Tio barn och tre lågstadiepedagoger har medverkat i kvalitativa intervjuer där de intervjuades en och en. Under intervjutillfällena fick barnen en bild med människokroppens kontur för att fylla i olika organ. De vanligaste organen som barnen ritade var hjärna, hjärta, magsäck, skelett och lungorna. Barnen berättade också bl.a. att skelettets funktion var att göra kroppen hård, hjärtat pumpade runt blod i kroppen, hjärnan styrde kroppen, magen tog hand om vår mat. Pedagogerna svarade att de använde mycket konkret material och att de försökte ha en så varierad undervisning som möjligt. Resultatet från denna studie visade att barnen idag inte har så mycket mer kunskap än de barn som ingått i liknande studier från förr. Resultatet visade också att det sätt pedagogerna undervisade på hade en positiv inverkan på elevernas lärande.</p>

The purpose with this essay was to study the knowledge of children today between six and eight years old about the human body and its function. A second purpose was to study how junior-level educationalist were carrying through there tuition about the human body. I wanted to investigate if the children today hade another knowledge about the human body than children that participated in previous similar investigations. I wanted to investigate this because today we live in another society than before with  more access to information. My first question was to find out what children thought that we humans looked like inside the body and how its works. My second question was how junior-level educationalist do carry out  their tuition. Ten children and tree junior-level educationalist participated in qualitative interviews, interviewed one by one. During the interviews the children were given a picture with a contour of the human body where they could fill in different organ. The most common organs that the children painted on their pictures of the human body where brain, heart, stomach, skeleton and lungs. The children also had some knowledge about the different organs like the skeletons function was to make the body hard, the hearts function was to pump the blood around in our body, the brain control the whole body and the stomach purpose was to take care of the food we eat. The educationalist replied that they used a lot of concrete material and they tried to have miscellaneous tuition. The result of this study is that the children today don’t have so much more knowledge of the human body than children that have been interview in older days. The result also showed that the way the educationalist were teaching hade a positive influents on the students learning. / Syftet med undersökningen var att se vad barn mellan sex och åtta års ålder idag hade för tankar om hur vi människor ser ut inuti vår kropp och hur det fungerar inuti oss men också att undersöka hur lågstadiepedagoger går tillväga vid undervisningen om människokroppen. Jag ville undersöka om barnen idag hade mer kunskap om människokroppen än de barn som ingått i liknande studier tidigare, eftersom vi idag lever i ett informationssamhälle. Min första frågeställning blev att ta reda på barnens tankar om människokroppens inre och hur det fungerar inuti oss. Min andra frågeställning blev hur lågstadiepedagoger gick tillväga med sin undervisning om människokroppen. Tio barn och tre lågstadiepedagoger har medverkat i kvalitativa intervjuer där de intervjuades en och en. Under intervjutillfällena fick barnen en bild med människokroppens kontur för att fylla i olika organ. De vanligaste organen som barnen ritade var hjärna, hjärta, magsäck, skelett och lungorna. Barnen berättade också bl.a. att skelettets funktion var att göra kroppen hård, hjärtat pumpade runt blod i kroppen, hjärnan styrde kroppen, magen tog hand om vår mat. Pedagogerna svarade att de använde mycket konkret material och att de försökte ha en så varierad undervisning som möjligt. Resultatet från denna studie visade att barnen idag inte har så mycket mer kunskap än de barn som ingått i liknande studier från förr. Resultatet visade också att det sätt pedagogerna undervisade på hade en positiv inverkan på elevernas lärande.

This longitudinal case study followed a beginning teacher from the first semester of her teacher education program into her fifth year of teaching. Using situated learning theory, this dissertation reports the influences on her journey in becoming a literacy teacher before, during, and after her teacher education program. Data sources included interviews, classroom observations, and documents that were collected over six and a half years and across multiple contexts (e.g., tutoring, student teaching, community-based learning, coursework, two elementary schools). Using constant comparative (Glaser & Strauss, 2009) and longitudinal coding methods (Saldaña, 2009), the analysis suggests that the participant developed the following understandings over time and across contexts: she intends to be a lifelong learner; she values and validates students’ interests, histories, and contributions; she is committed to teaching for social justice; and she believes a safe, trusting, and flexible community is essential to learning. Findings indicated that her ability to enact these understandings in practice, even in difficult school contexts, was made possible by her reflective stance and her commitment to surrounding herself with communities of like-minded people to support her in similar ways as had been the case in her teacher education program. The results of this study provide evidence that over time the understandings developed in a teacher education program have the potential to fully emerge in practice inside teachers’ classrooms. This study has implications for how we prepare teachers, how teacher education programs can continue to support their graduates, the types of school communities that seem to support beginning teachers, and how policy makers might direct future funding towards responsible teacher education. / text