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Teachers And Language Learning In Primary Schools: The Acquisition Of Additional Languages In The Early Years, Anna Dillon

Doctoral

This study set out to explore teachers’ attitudes towards home language maintenance among children acquiring English and Irish as additional languages in the early years of primary school and to explore the experiences of mainstream teachers who are working with these children. The study includes a consideration of the pedagogical issues involved in teaching young English and Irish language learners and an examination of the support that the whole school community provides for the teachers and the children. Data were gathered using a mixed methods approach, bearing in mind the rights of children to use their home languages and learn …

Teachers And Directors: Artists In Their Own Medium, Kathleen Kristin Ruen

Articles and Other Publications

"Theatrical directors engage in a form of teaching and their insights are often applicable to the classroom."

Notre Dame Academics Lead $150,000 Education Project, Leigh Dawson

Media Release Archive

Three senior School of Education academics at The University of Notre Dame Australia’s Fremantle Campus will facilitate a $150,000 project to assist selected teachers to become mentors in an effort to address longevity in the teaching profession and improve teaching quality in Western Australia.

The project is being funded by the Catholic Education Office of Western Australia which is upskilling teachers who have been identified as potential professional mentors.

The Smarter Schools National Partnership for Improving Teacher Quality, a $550 million Federal Government program over five years, aims to implement a range of nationally sustainable reforms to attract, train, place, …

Thompson, Harry Edgar, 1865-1964 (Sc 165), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid and scan (Click on "additional files" below) for Manuscripts Small Collection 165. Materials related to education and teaching career of Harry Edgar Thompson. Includes commencement invitation and program of Southern Normal School, Bowling Green, Kentucky, 1888; letters of recommendation, 1888-1893; Kentucky and Texas teaching certificates, 1885-1891; clippings; photographs; and autobiographical note, 1958, of Thompson, later a chiropractor in McPherson, Kansas.

Loving The World And Our Children Enough--Nurturing Decidedly Different Scientifc Minds, By Design, Stephanie Pace Marshall

Publications & Research

Wise world-shaping and problem-solving requires that we and our children think in decidedly different, integral and wise ways. This transformation requires a fundamental shift in consciousness and the emergence of global minds that can creatively live into a new worldview of an interconnected planet and a sustainable and interdependent human family. "The fullness of our humanity and the sustainability of our planet rest with the nurturing of decidedly different minds."

Reaching Across Narrative Space: Re-Interpreting One Teacher’S Experience With Technology, Dragana Martinovic, Jelena Magliaro, T. Pugh

Education Publications

In this paper, the authors investigate one teacher’s utilization of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) by drawing context from two of his life-stories: one that he interprets as “ruin” and the other “success.” Methodologically grounded in narrative inquiry, this paper contains excerpts from the teacher’s authentic narratives and their interpretation from the point of information systems research, known as the social process model. The findings emphasize that with the dialogic involvement of educational researchers, it is possible to reach a deeper understanding of the events that influenced the teacher’s experience with technology. Such synergistic alliances amongst educational researchers and teachers …

Elementary School Teachers’ Attitudes Toward Classroom Accommodations: The Effects Of Disability And School Type, Sarah Holland

Psychology Honors Papers

The purpose of this study was to compare the attitudes of elementary school teachers toward the inclusion of a student with either a moderate intellectual, physical, or behavioral disability. Participants were from eight different elementary schools; two magnet schools, one charter school, and five public schools from one school district. Participants were provided with a vignette describing one of three disability types and then rated 25 accommodations made for that student. Teachers’ attitudes toward these accommodations were measured by the three adapted subscales of the Adaptation Evaluation Instrument (AEI; Schumm & Vaughn, 1991), which addressed how desirable teachers believe each …

Understanding The Design Context For Australian University Teachers: Implications For The Future Of Learning Design, Susan Bennett, Lisa Thomas, Shirley Agostinho, Lori Lockyer, Jennifer Jones, Barry Harper

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

Based on the premise that providing support for university teachers in designing for their teaching will ultimately improve the quality of student learning outcomes, recent interest in the development of support tools and strategies has gained momentum. This article reports on a study that examined the context in which Australian university teachers design in order to understand what role design support tools and strategies could play. In-depth interviews were conducted with 30 academics across 16 Australian universities. The findings suggest that most Australian university teachers have a high degree of flexibility in their design decisions suggesting that opportunities exist for …

Turning The Switch On! The Teachers’ Ability To Influence Student Motivation In Physical Education, Dana Perlman, Philip J. Pearson, Kim Mckeen, Gregory J. Forrest

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

Student motivation is an area of importance in physical education due to the association with enhanced levels of effort, participation and aspects of learning (Tjeerdsma-Blankenship, 2008; Chen, 2001). Physical education specialists are routinely challenged by students who demonstrate behaviours indicative of low levels of motivation, such as high rates of absenteeism and severely low levels of active participation within the class setting (Ntoumanis, Peensgaard, Martin & Pipe, 2004). Bryan and Solmon (2007) indicate that the teacher is a primary driver for the development and implementation of experiences that support and/or thwart student motivation. Therefore, the purpose of this study was …

Preservice Teachers' Views Of Inclusive Education: A Content Analysis, Brian Hemmings, Stuart Woodcock

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

Survey-based research was conducted with pre-service teachers, from a large regional Australian university, to explore their views about inclusion and their readiness to teach in inclusive classrooms. Open-ended questions were included in the survey to glean information on the respondents’ feelings and concerns about inclusion and inclusive practices. In addition, questions were framed to allow the respondents to discuss ways that the University could better prepare them as practising teachers. The responses to each of these questions were content analysed to delineate categories, and frequencies were calculated on the most salient categories. The results of this analysis are reported and …

Esl Teachers And Pronunciation Pedagogy: Exploring The Development Of Teachers' Cognitions And Classroom Practices, Amanda A. Baker

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

Over the past few decades, increasing more research has examined the cognitions (knowledge and beliefs) of second language (L2) teachers. Such research has provided insight into what constitutes teachers' beliefs and knowledge about teaching, how these cognitions have developed and how they are reflected in classroom practice (see Borg, 2006). Although numerous studies have been conducted into the curricular areas of grammar and, to a lesser extent, reading and writing, even fewer have examined teachers' cognitions into pronunciation instruction. The purpose of the present study, therefore, is to explore some of the dynamic relationships that exist between L2 teachers‘ cognitions …

Online Practice & Offline Roles: A Cultural View Of Teachers’ Low Engagement In Online Communities, Sarah Howard, Jonathan Mckeown

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

An online community of practice (CoP) can extend teachers’ professional interaction beyond their school, but these practices are often underutilized. Using cultural theory, this paper proposes that teachers’ low engagement in online CoPs is that this “practice” is not part of their role as a teacher, individually or in their school culture. These ideas are examined through teachers’ low engagement in an online CoP as part of a research project. Findings suggest that teachers saw the online community as part of their role in the project, not as part of their “offline” role as a classroom teacher. The discussion conjectures …

Canadian And Australian Pre-Service Teachers' Use, Confidence And Success In Various Behaviour Management Strategies, Andrea Reupert, Stuart Woodcock

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

The purpose of this study was twofold; first, to identify Australian and Canadian pre-service teachers’ use, confidence and success in various behaviour management strategies, and second, to identify significant differences between the two cohorts. Pooled data indicated that pre-service teachers most frequently employ low level corrective strategies, such as nonverbal body language, rather than strategies that serve to prevent student misbehaviour. The strategies pre-service teachers report most frequently employing were also those they felt most confident in. Australian pre-service teachers employ rewards significantly more, whilst Canadian pre-service teachers utilise preventative and differentiation strategies significantly more. Differences might be accounted for …

Using Slowmation For Animated Storytelling To Represent Non-Aboriginal Preservice Teachers' Awareness Of "Relatedness To Country", Anthony D. Mcknight, Garry Hoban, Wendy Nielsen

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

In this study, a group (N=15) of final year non-Aboriginal pre ervice teachers participated in an elective subject that aimed to raise their awarene s ab ut Aboriginal ways of knowing. A vital aspect of the course was developing the preservice teachers' awareness of "relatedness to country" which is a key belief for Aboriginal people. The non-Aboriginal pre service teachers s lected their own special place and then experienced Aboriginal ways of knowing throughout the course and vi ited local Aboriginal sites to hear and listen to stories shared by an Aboriginal Elder. At the end of the subject, the …

Tracing Discourses Of Health And The Body: Exploring Pre-Service Primary Teachers' Constructions Of `Healthy' Bodies, Jan Wright, Rosemary K. Welch

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

Contemporary notions of childhood overweight and obesity have become increasingly influential in curriculum and pedagogy in school-based Health and Physical Education (HPE). Teachers' delivery of HPE subject matter and related school practices are likely to have a considerable impact on the attitudes and beliefs of the children they teach, particularly in the primary school. It thus becomes important to consider the ways of thinking about and doing health (discourse positions on health) that teachers bring to their teaching of HPE. This paper examines pre-service teachers' positions in relation to the health discourses to better understand what teachers, in this case …

Relationships Between Personal Biography And Changes In Preservice Classroom Teachers' Physical Activity Promotion Competence And Attitude, Collin A. Webster

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

Personal biography influences preservice classroom teachers’ (PCT) perceptions and attitudes related to school-based physical activity promotion (SPAP). Using an uncontrolled prepost design, this study investigated associations between biographical variables and changes in PCTs’ SPAP attitudes and perceived competence while enrolled in a 16-week SPAP course. PCTs (N = 201) completed baseline measures assessing biographical variables of year in school, sports participation, coaching/teaching experience, BMI, satisfaction with K-12 physical education (PE) and perceived physical activity (PA) competence, and prepost measures assessing SPAP attitudes and perceived competence. One-way repeated measures analysis of variance procedures showed statistically significant, positive changes in PCTs’ scores …

Exploring K-3 Teachers' Implementation Of Comprehension Strategy Instruction (Csi) Using Expectancy-Value Theory, Laura Slack Foley

Teacher Education and Leadership Faculty Publications

This research investigated factors that influence the implementation levels of evidence-based comprehension strategy instruction (CSI) among K–3 teachers. An explanatory design was chosen to gather and probe the data. Quantitative data were gathered via a mailed survey distributed through a representative sample of the 40 school districts (through a stratified-random selection of teachers) in a state in the Rocky Mountain West. Expectancy-value theory was applied as it affects self-reported levels of teacher implementation of CSI. Both expectancy and value showed significance for predicting self-reported CSI implementation in two multiple regression analyses. Surveys revealed teachers' perceptions of what impedes or supports …

Are We Exacerbating Students' Learning Disabilities? An Investigation Of Preservice Teachers' Attributions Of The Educational Outcomes Of Students With Learning Disabilities, Wilhelmina J. Vialle, Stuart Woodcock

Faculty of Education - Papers (Archive)

While claims of the importance of attribution theory and teachers’ expectations of students for student performance are repeatedly made, there is little comprehensive research identifying the perceptions preservice teachers have of students with learning disabilities (LD). Accordingly, 444 Australian preservice primary school teachers were surveyed using vignettes and Likert-scale questions, to ascertain their responses to students with and without LD. It was found that preservice primary school general education teachers held a negative attribution style towards students with LD. Preservice primary teachers perceived students with LD as lacking ability in comparison to others in the class. Recommendations for research and …

Educational Evaluation Of Cybersmart Detectives: Final Report: Presented To The Australian Communications And Media Authority (Acma), Julian Dooley, Laura Thomas, Sarah Falconer, Donna Cross, Stacey Waters

Research outputs 2011

The aim of the Australian Communications and Media Authority‟s (ACMA) Cybersmart Detectives (CSD) activity is to teach children key Internet safety messages in a safe school environment. The activity brings together a number of agencies with an interest in promoting online safety for young people, including education, State and Federal Police, government and child welfare advocates. The activity has been played by over 28, 000 students in Australia since initial trials in 2004.

Cybersmart Detectives is offered free to schools by the ACMA as part of the Australian Government‟s commitment to cyber-safety. Based on a real-world Internet safety scenario, the …

Developing Strategies At The Pre-Service Level To Address Critical Teacher Attraction And Retention Issues In Australian Rural, Regional And Remote Schools, Sue Trinidad, Elaine Sharplin, Graeme Lock, Sue Ledger, Don Boyd, Emmy Terry

Research outputs 2011

This ALTC project is a collaborative endeavour between the four public universities involved in teacher education in Western Australia (Curtin University, Edith Cowan University, Murdoch University and The University of Western Australia), focussed on improving the quality of preparation of pre-service teachers for rural, regional and remote appointments. The project, building on the work of other recent Australian rural education research projects (conducted through the ARC funded Renewing Rural Teacher Education: Sustaining Schooling for Sustainable Futures [TERRAnova] and the Renewing Rural and Regional Teacher Education ALTC Curriculum projects), will create a nexus between the theory and practice of teaching and …