Education Commons^™

An Analysis Of Practicum Student Attitudes In Urban Professional Development School And Urban Traditional School Programs, Ira Carroll Starling

Theses and Dissertations in Urban Services - Urban Education

This study compares practicum student attitudes (N = 46) in urban Mature PDS, urban Newly Established PDS, and urban Traditional Schools on five professional attributes: diversity, collaboration, reflection, theory-to-practice, and motivation/efficacy. The researcher also compared practicum expectations of students, principals and clinical faculty to identify differences in attitudes among the three practicum environments.

With regard to the five professional attributes, the Mature PDS environment was most successful in encouraging positive professional attitudes, the Traditional School environment was moderately successful, and the Newly Established PDS was least successful. Qualitative findings showed that the clinical faculty in the Mature PDS environment were …

Attitudes Of Oregon Agricultural Science And Technology Teachers Toward Integrating Science, Gregory W. Thompson, Mark A. Balschweid

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Faculty Publications

The purpose of this study was to determine the attitudes of Oregon Agricultural Science and Technology (AST) teachers toward integrating science into their agricultural education programs. Results of the study indicated that almost one fourth of Oregon 's AST teachers have a teaching credential with a science endorsement, while almost half the teachers indicated students receive science credit for agriculture classes in their high school. Teachers felt prepared to teach biological and physical science concepts and that integrating science into agriculture classes has increased their ability to teach students to solve problems. Teachers believed that administrator and parental support for …

Attaining Professional Goals Using The Expertise Of Colleagues, Esme Pashley

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This study examines one method of providing professional development, which addresses the individual needs of experienced successful classroom teachers. It is a qualitative investigation into how teachers attain their professional goals using the expertise of their colleagues through a collaborative and collegial process Data were collected from regular meetings by the participants and their personal journal entries related to the project The data were then compiled in a context chart and a descriptive matrix, to enable case studies to be compiled. The findings contribute to enhanced understanding of how professional development may be provided to experienced classroom teachers.

The Good Language Class: Teacher Perceptions, Rosemary Senior

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

This is a qualitative, descriptive study of group processes in classes of adult language learners, viewed from the perspective of practising teachers. The study has an internal narrative which takes the reader through the process of the research, from the initial question raised by a casual classroom conversation to the discussion chapter which questions a number of assumptions underlying current English language teaching practices within western educational contexts. The study falls into two distinct phases. The first phase uses the constant comparative method of data collection and analysis to integrate the perceptions of 28 experienced language teachers into the following …

Teaching And Learning In Higher Education : Nurturing Critical Reflection For Bridging Theory/Practice Links : A Case Study In Social Work Education, Gary Keith Ovington

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The 1990s has witnessed two 'institutions' in 'crisis': higher education and social work. In higher education. government has brandished its quality sword and the long-neglected area of teaching is prominent in the war cry. In social work, major stakeholders have constructed the crisis as the 'theory/practice problematic' and the systemic intervention has been the prima facie increasing power of non-academic bodies to shape social work curriculum. This study is set within this context of quality teaching and theory/practice issues. It is an action research study of the teaching and learning dynamic of a first year social work subject which seeks …

Lnservice Educational Activity Needs And Preferred Delivery Methods Of Bement Community Unit School District #5 Teachers, Nyle G. Waters

Masters Theses

A study of the Bement Community Unit School District #5 faculty was conducted in the spring of 1999. The purposes were to determine the inservice educational activity needs of the faculty and to determine which inservice educational activity delivery methods the faculty considers most effective. Bement C.U.S.D. #5 is a small rural district in central Illinois with 38 prekindergarten through 12th grade teachers. A needs assessment questionnaire was constructed and administered to all district teachers. Each item on the questionnaire was designed to collect data on the following questions:

1. What are the perceived inservice educational activity needs of the …

After The Rain, Genan Anderson

Genan Anderson

Descriptive examples of building preschool curriculum on the children's environment by exploring children's questions and guiding their discovery of ways to find answers to them.

Institutional Context And The Development Of Critical Thinking: A Research Note, Linda Serra Hagedorn, Ernest T. Pascarella, Marcia Edison, John Braxton, Amaury Nora, Patrick T. Terenzini

Linda Serra Hagedorn

It has long been a central aim of American postsecondary education to foster students' critical thinking skills. There are various definitions of critical thinking, but there seems to be a consensus that a constituent set of cognitive skills involves some or all of the following: making correct inferences from data, identifying central issues or assumptions in an argument, deducing conclusions from information or data provided, interpreting whether [End Page 265] conclusions are warranted on the basis of data given, and evaluating the validity of an argument (Brabeck & Wood, 1990; Furedy & Furedy, 1985; McMillan, 1987; Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991). …