No description available.

No description available.

This thesis deals with approaches to the evaluation of multimedia computer assisted learning in higher education. The thesis is presented in two parts. The first part consists mainly of a literature based review of the rationale and methods employed in the development of multimedia CAL systems focusing on the ability of such systems to deliver a variety of pedagogic aims and objectives which the literature on the subject generally attributes to them. This was done in order to identify and examine the important features which should be incorporated in the effective evaluation of such systems. • the pedagogical basis of multimedia learning environments with particular reference to the mechanism by which they claim to encourage an approach to learning which facilitates 'deep' rather than 'shallow' learning' (Chapters 3 and 4); • the basis on which multimedia CAL systems claim to provide interactive learning environments which allow the teaching materials to be tailored by learners to accommodate their own individual preferences for adopting particular learning strategies. In particular this focused on the importance of individual learning styles and learners' degree of computer confidence (Chapter 5) • the institutional/delivery factors which must be understood to explain fully the context in which evaluations are carried out and which may have important effects on the outcomes of evaluation (Chapter 6) This literature review, together with a practical survey of a range of existing CAL courseware and an e-mail survey of CAL developers provides the basis for presenting an approach to evaluation which differentiates systems on the basis of the pedagogic approach they adopt and the context in which they are implemented. Finally, a critical review of existing evaluation methods was undertaken and important elements within these methods were incorporated into a new framework for evaluation. The framework provides a tool for determining an evaluation strategy that encompasses all stages of development, formative and summative evaluation of CAL courseware. Evaluation is based on the explicit aims and objectives of the courseware being provided and is moderated by contextual factors that define the pedagogical approach being taken, any individual learner differences that must be taken into account, and the institutional/delivery context within which the courseware is used. An analysis of the implications of the framework when formulating an evaluation strategy demonstrates weaknesses in the assessment instruments currently being used in evaluation studies - particularly for providing reliable measures of 'learning effect' as part of summative evaluation and also with respect to accurate quantification of costs associated with development and use of CAL courseware. The second part of the thesis tests the framework. The approach taken was to develop and formatively and summatively assess a multimedia CAL system used to teach parts of a course on bibliographic classification to students at the Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen. Qualitative and quantitative tests to accomplish this are described and the result of statistical analyses of learner performance when using the system are presented. This empirical study provides further insights into the practical problems involved in developing and evaluating a multimedia CAL system and in particular highlights: • the influence which individual learning style (as measured by the Gregorc Style Delineator) has on student performance in a context in which postgraduate students were required to use the CAL courseware rather than attend lectures. Results indicate that CAL does not serve all learners equally, and; • the importance of the delivery context in a study in which undergraduate students were provided with CAL materials to supplement the delivery of their course. The evaluation framework was found to be a robust framework for developing and testing didactic teaching packages which were developed in the context of improving the quality of the teaching and learning of bibliographic classification to both undergraduate and postgraduate students. Recommendations are provided for future research based on using the framework to explore other contexts in which courseware is developed and implemented.

The study tested Fiedler's contingency model of leadership effectiveness in primary schools in Cyprus by examining the relationship between principal-teacher interaction and school effectiveness as indicated by student achievement and teacher satisfaction. Sex, leadership style, and situational control were the independent variables and student achievement and teacher satisfaction were the dependent variables. The contingency model postulates that if the leader's style and situational control are adequately matched, then organizational effectiveness is attained. In particular, the model postulates that high-LPC (relationship-oriented) leaders perform better in situations of moderate control, while low-LPC (taskoriented) leaders perform better in situations of high or low control. On the basis of the theory, the following hypotheses of the study were predicted: 1. The nature of the performance of teachers is generally contingent upon the appropriate matching of the principal'b leadership style and the situational control.2. Student~' achievement is generally contingent upon the appropriate matching of the principal's leadership style and the degree to which the situation provides the principal the necessary influence over his or her work group members. 3. High-LPC principals perform better than low-LPC principals in moderate situations. 4. Low-LPC principals perform better than high-LPC principal~ in highly favorable situations. 5. Low-LPC principals perform better than high-LPC principals in relatively unfavorable situations. 6. The directions of the correlational signs between principals' leadership style (LPC scores) and group effectiveness (students' achievement scores) in the situational octants agree with Fiedler's. A II!ultiple interactive instrument, consisting of the Principal Questionnaire and the Teacher Questionnaire, was utilized to assess respectively (1) the principals' style and their perceptions of their leadermember relations, the task structure, and their position power, and (2) tllC teachers' sati sfaction wi th their job by determining their perceptions of work, pay, promotions, supervision, and coworkers. ~chool outcomes were measured by (1) a ~pecial achievement test in Mathematics taken in Cyprus during the school year 1984-1985 and (2) the teachers's level of cohesion and satisfaction. The sample of the study consistec of thirty-five primary school principals in the Limassol District, Cyprus, ninety-two teachers of the third and fourth grades in these schools, and 910 third and fourth grade students taught by the se teachers. The study was conducted in three phases: in the first phase, leadership style and data relative to leadermember relations, task structure, and position power was obtained from participating principals; in the second phase, data relative to satisfaction of teachers with the job was obtained frn1l1 participating teachers; and in the third phase, data relative to achievement in Mathematics was obtained from students of third and fourth grades. The data collected was analysed by four statistical designs: (1) the two-way analysis of variance, (2) the stepwise multiple regression, (3) the t test, and (4) the simple correlation. The findin~s of tne study were as follows: 1. Teachers tend to perform better under high-LPC principals who have a moderate situational control rather than high situational control, or under low-LPC principals who have a high ~ituational control rather than moderate situat ional control. 2. Students tend to achieve better results under high-LPC principals who possess moderate situational control rather than high situational control, or under low-LPC principals who possess high situational control rather than moderate situational control. 3. High-LPC principal s perform better in school situations with moderate control. 4. Low-LPC principal s perform be st in school si tuations with high control. 5. The directions of the correlational signs between principals' leadership style and group performance in the situational octants agree with Fiedler's. Thus, there is a curvilinear relationship between the dependent and independent variables of the study. The findings provide support for Fiedler's contingency model of leadership effectiveness. However, the study failed to test all the cells of the model due to lack of pertinent data. In particular, the four poor leCA<ief/ YlemLJe.r- Te~o_tion cells were not investigated. These need to be tested in future research if conclusive results are to be obtained. Specific recommendations are made by which the presen~ practice of school management in Cypriot primary schools could be improved by the application of Fiedler's theory. Trlese recommendations include (1) reexamination of the policies on selection, placement, and transfers so that an appropriate matching of the principal's leadership style and the school situation will be facilitated; and (2) planning for and implementing appropriate pre-service and in- service programs, through which the principal swill be trained to engineer the school situation so as to fit their leadership style.

This thesis undertakes the collection, analysis and evaluation of information concerning the development of vocational and technical education in Zambia and Zimbabwe. Tracing the history of vocational education from 1900, the work emphasises the separate racial provision of education, including vocational, until both countries approached their respective Independence periods. Six years after Independence, vocational and technical education in Zambia occupied a focal point in the country's attempt to firstly achieve an economic transformation and secondly, absorb the growing number of unemployed school leavers from the system of general education. After abolishing the system of apprenticeship, government vocational institutions became the major point of training for formal sector employment skills. Yet this inner reform has been diluted largely by an economy unable to sustain the high recurrent costs reqUired by institutional training. The most striking feature of vocational and technical education in Zimbabwe is how little the structure has changed from the preindependence period. Whilst the racial balance of trainees has moved in favour of Africans, early political rhetoric in favour of changing the approach to skill training has failed to materialise. Conservat i ve forces in both countries have managed with assistance from external aid programmes to retain a formal system of vocational and technical education very similar to that which existed before independence. Educat ional provision for those who have dropped out of school or are unemployed is grossly deficient. In conclusion, the thesis proposes three act ion ar ea s: emphasising a closer partnership of public and private sector training institutions which will tackle the issue of making better use of existing institutional capacity and expanding more directed opportunities for skill training. linking national development goals with wellresearched and developed national vocational curricula rather than the perceptions or overseas examination syst ems: ensuring better coordination between the education/training system and the ongoing requirements of the employment system and making training more sensitive to sectorial needs, particularly towards the majority of people who live and work in rural areas.

No description available.

This study argues that there have been three waves of modern Catholic education, with two major ships in the last thirty years. The first wave, which I call the Tildentinel institutional', was the product of the Council of Trent, and rcflcctcd the narrow defensive priorities of a Church which felt itself besiegedb y encn-deso n all sides, and was inherently hostile to the intellectual force of modernity. The fir-st ship look place in the mid-I 960s, and masks the arrival of the second wave, which I have called the 'experiential Vexpaimentall. It emerges as an immediate response to the reforms of the Second Vatican Council and essentially totally reversed the Church's previous isolationist policy as regards the modem world, a fact which clearly had profound policy implications for Catholic education The second a,v ew as therefore grounded in this new policy of openness and dialogue with the modem world, consequentliy twas more open to the then current rescarch insights in educatione, specially child-centred experientiaal pproachets en in favour.I t is also associated in educationatl erms with the crisis, which gripped the Catholic Church in the wake of Vatican U. Ile next shijl to the third 'restorationistIntegrationtst' mnw, coulda t first glanceb e dismisseda st he inevitablec onservativree actiont o the reformso f the 1960s%, whicinh part it is, but I believei t to be more than merer eaction.C onsequentlyI , have arguedt hat it representsa more sophisticatedcr itical analysisi n both theologicaal nd educationatle rmso f the modernw orld in the postV atican1 1p eriod.E achm aveI, maintain, correspondms ith a pcriod-specificC hurchs trategya s regardsm odernity.F roni this perspectiveth ef irst Kvver epresentsa strategyb asedo n absoluter esistanceto modernity,t hesecondw avea ccommodationw,h ile the third wavei s in a sensea n amalgamo f the two previousw aves,a nd representsa n ambivalentt ms-modem strategyo f selectiveT Csistmccto the modemworld. The third wavec oincides% %itthhe pontificateo f PopeJ ohnP aul U and representsa n attemptt o find a postmoderns olutiont o the problemsa risingf rom modernity,a nd so dcmandsa morec onfidenta ssertiono f Catholici dentity and culture, and a readinessto return to a more systematicp resentationo f the Catholicf aith. This policy is underpinnedb y a radical assertioni,n terms of uitness,o f the sociald emandso f the Gospel,m tdchi s useda s a meansm bcrcbyt he Church,a s it seesi t, ran confront false moderni deologiesa nd values.T his approachis also supportedb y a strongf eeling running throught he CatholicC hurcht hat duringt he crisis that followcdt he CouncilC atholicismto ok a too deepq uaff of 'secularism' which has donem ucht o destroyt he sacred1jeculabr alancem ithin the Church.I le third wave.t hen, I am suggestingi,s an attemptb y the Churcht o restoret his balanceT. be main bulk of thcwork is context.T he thesisi s divided into threes ections. The first dealsw ith definiitionsa nd looks at Catholic educationfr om the macrop erspectiveT. he seconds ectionf ocuseso n the local Catholic community in England and Wales and its engagement witeh education issues, from the particular perspective of the development of the Catholic schools system in this country. The third sectiond eals% %itmh y o%n; case study,w lich at 'Corei!s concerned% ithd iscoveringth e ideas, and attitudeso f Catholicp riestst o Catholic education ; with a specific focus upon Ctholic shools , wich I hope wll throw some lght on my central tesis.My cases tudy i very much a study wthin a study,and wuld have lttle value i it did not address the current issues n modemC atholice ducationI. will analyseth e continuingd ebatew ithin the Catholicc ommunityo n the role andp laceo f the schoolsi,n a changeda ndc hanging environmentf,r om the perspectiveo f the wavesth esis.

Further Education (F.E) has undergone some dramatic changes in the last decade. Many colleges began by swinging away from a narrow correspondence with the needs of industry, took on the mantle of the 'new F.E', and now find themselves obsessed with Total Quality Management (T.Q.M). Changes have taken place both in organisational structures within colleges and in their relationships with local authorities, employers and the community in general. An important concern of the thesis is to understand the effect that all of this has had on Education for a Multicultural Society (E.M.S) and how the developments have affected equal opportunity outcomes. The research then is a case study of organisational change, conducted via an in depth study of a Birmingham F.E college, the researcher's own place of work. It uses a variety of research methodologies including participant observation and action research. As a contribution to knowledge the research attempts to analyse a college applying innovatory organisational arrangements as a response to changed demand. For this reason it is seen as a step on the way to developing a more complete understanding of the impact of current and future college involvement in T.Q.M with particular reference to E.M.S.

This study has investigated the reader function in drama in education and its potential role in assessment procedures. An overview of how assessment has been approached by drama teachers and theorists in the last two decades has shown that a strong emphasis In experiencing has brought about a concomitant gap in considering the reader dimension in assessment. The claim that the focus on the reader, from the productive role of the audience to the reader stance of the actor, allows for assessing the students' actions and responses without disrupting the on-going drama, is developed alongside the investigation of the literature on production and reception and the philosophical clarification of the main concepts underlying the making and communication of meanings in drama. A reader-oriented model for assessment is developed and illustrated through a diagram of the reader functioning in drama, which represents a guide for teachers' assessment and is the basis of a field experience carried out in a primary and a secondary school. Most of the implications of assessing the reader were made clear when they were observed during the field experience which allowed for re-shaping and expanding the previous chapters. Therefore the field experience represents an illustration of the implications of a readeroriented assessment rather than an empirical trial of it

Compared with research in classrooms, the teaching of physical education has not proved to be a popular research topic. The reasons for this apparent neglect can be seen in the lack of suitable research instruments to describe the teaching of physical education and the complex technical problems of recording lessons which take place out of doors in large, open spaces. This study set out to design an instrument which could be used to describe the teaching of physical education in any setting (indoors and outdoors). The investigation consisted of three studies. The first was the production of an instrument (BOS 1) with 42 categories which recorded every item of teacher behaviour in a lesson. The system was difficult to learn, required a great deal of time to analyse and was found to be unsuitable for live coding.