The Benefits and Challenges for Cambodian Teachers Implementing Peer Coaching

<p>In Cambodia, the professional development of teachers is a priority. Although many training programmes and workshops are provided for teachers to learn new skills and improve practice, the rate of their transferring these learned skills into the classroom is still low. According to the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports (2005) one explanation for this low rate of skills transfer is the lack of collaboration between peers. To address this issue, this thesis explores the benefits and challenges for Cambodian teachers implementing coaching as a way to improve peer collaboration. It seeks to discover their perceptions and experiences in undertaking peer coaching and to find out the strategies that could work for Cambodian teachers when they engage in peer coaching. To address the study’s research questions, action research and a qualitative, interpretive design were used. Six Cambodian teachers teaching English in one school volunteered to participate in this study. Data were collected through reflective notes, seminars, individual interviews, and a focus group. The interview data were transcribed and coded using the inductive content analysis in order to categorise them and draw conclusions. The findings indicate that the implementation of peer coaching was influential in shaping participants’ understanding of current practice and improving their teaching, such as teaching methods, reflections and collaborations. This study found that administrative support, constructive feedback and a change in the peer coaching process could inspire Cambodian teachers to collaborate. It also found that there are some major challenges impacting on peer coaching, including lack of time for undertaking peer observations, lack of teaching resources, big class size, and nervousness of the teachers and students. The study, however, suggests that the success of undertaking peer coaching requires both administrative support and individual teachers’ self-efficacy. Further research into the effectiveness of providing feedback on teachers’ practice needs to occur to see if this phenomenon is widespread.</p>

The Benefits and Challenges for Cambodian Teachers Implementing Peer Coaching

<p>In Cambodia, the professional development of teachers is a priority. Although many training programmes and workshops are provided for teachers to learn new skills and improve practice, the rate of their transferring these learned skills into the classroom is still low. According to the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports (2005) one explanation for this low rate of skills transfer is the lack of collaboration between peers. To address this issue, this thesis explores the benefits and challenges for Cambodian teachers implementing coaching as a way to improve peer collaboration. It seeks to discover their perceptions and experiences in undertaking peer coaching and to find out the strategies that could work for Cambodian teachers when they engage in peer coaching. To address the study’s research questions, action research and a qualitative, interpretive design were used. Six Cambodian teachers teaching English in one school volunteered to participate in this study. Data were collected through reflective notes, seminars, individual interviews, and a focus group. The interview data were transcribed and coded using the inductive content analysis in order to categorise them and draw conclusions. The findings indicate that the implementation of peer coaching was influential in shaping participants’ understanding of current practice and improving their teaching, such as teaching methods, reflections and collaborations. This study found that administrative support, constructive feedback and a change in the peer coaching process could inspire Cambodian teachers to collaborate. It also found that there are some major challenges impacting on peer coaching, including lack of time for undertaking peer observations, lack of teaching resources, big class size, and nervousness of the teachers and students. The study, however, suggests that the success of undertaking peer coaching requires both administrative support and individual teachers’ self-efficacy. Further research into the effectiveness of providing feedback on teachers’ practice needs to occur to see if this phenomenon is widespread.</p>

How Does Teacher Professional Development Support and Improve Technology Teacher Practice?

<p>The development and implementation of the New Zealand Curriculum in 2007 and the introduction of standards-based assessment, in the form of achievement standards, has necessitated a raft of changes for technology teachers. Professional development is widely considered to be of value in developing teacher knowledge which can positively impact on student knowledge and achievement. While there is a considerable body of research on professional development, there is a limited amount specific to technology education professional development in a New Zealand context. This thesis is based on an examination of the nature and characteristics of effective professional development for technology teachers. It used a qualitative, interpretive design and gathered data by interviewing a group of ten technology teachers and heads of technology departments from different schools in one region. The interview data were transcribed and sorted using inductive content analysis in order to categorise them and draw conclusions. The findings indicate that there is a wide range of characteristics which may be considered effective for technology teachers in this study, and foremost, the opportunity for teachers to work collaboratively in examining programmes, student work, resources and exemplars, such that teachers can build on their existing knowledge and skills, is most effective for them. The development of pedagogical content knowledge and subject content knowledge enabled the teachers to construct new understandings of teaching and student learning processes in technology education. The implications of this study are that facilitators, teachers, and others working within this curriculum area may be informed by its findings and as a result, professional development may be more effective in supporting teacher learning.</p>

How Does Teacher Professional Development Support and Improve Technology Teacher Practice?

<p>The development and implementation of the New Zealand Curriculum in 2007 and the introduction of standards-based assessment, in the form of achievement standards, has necessitated a raft of changes for technology teachers. Professional development is widely considered to be of value in developing teacher knowledge which can positively impact on student knowledge and achievement. While there is a considerable body of research on professional development, there is a limited amount specific to technology education professional development in a New Zealand context. This thesis is based on an examination of the nature and characteristics of effective professional development for technology teachers. It used a qualitative, interpretive design and gathered data by interviewing a group of ten technology teachers and heads of technology departments from different schools in one region. The interview data were transcribed and sorted using inductive content analysis in order to categorise them and draw conclusions. The findings indicate that there is a wide range of characteristics which may be considered effective for technology teachers in this study, and foremost, the opportunity for teachers to work collaboratively in examining programmes, student work, resources and exemplars, such that teachers can build on their existing knowledge and skills, is most effective for them. The development of pedagogical content knowledge and subject content knowledge enabled the teachers to construct new understandings of teaching and student learning processes in technology education. The implications of this study are that facilitators, teachers, and others working within this curriculum area may be informed by its findings and as a result, professional development may be more effective in supporting teacher learning.</p>

"It's Beyond Water": Stories of Women’s Experience of Using Water for Labour and Birth

<p><b>This study looks at stories of women’s experience of using water for labour and birth and has explored them to reveal the meaning women make of the experience.</b></p> <p>Randomised controlled trials report that there are no statistically significant differences in the outcomes for women who use water when compared to those who do not. It has also established that there are no adverse effects on the mother and baby. However, most of the research to date largely ignores what women have to say about the use of water for labour and birth. This study employed an interpretive design using audio-taped conversations with women as the method of data collection, and a thematic analysis of the stories, to identify the meaning women make of their experiences. The research is informed by a feminist perspective, which honours the women’s voices and knowledge.</p> <p>The women's stories reveal that the all-encompassing warmth associated with being enveloped in warm water cradles, supports, relaxes, comforts, soothes, shelters and protects the woman, creates a barrier and offers her a sense of privacy. Water can be used in any form, even the act of thinking about, preparing for and anticipating the water opens possibilities for women. Women use water to reduce their fear of pain and of childbirth itself. Women use water to cope with pain, not necessarily to remove or diminish pain and to maintain control over the process of birth. It is not necessary to actually give birth in the water to achieve these benefits.</p> <p>Recommendations for midwifery practice include the need for midwives to reflect on their role as guardians of normal birth by examining their personal philosophy of birth, critically examining their outcomes and honouring women's knowledge.</p>

"It's Beyond Water": Stories of Women’s Experience of Using Water for Labour and Birth

<p><b>This study looks at stories of women’s experience of using water for labour and birth and has explored them to reveal the meaning women make of the experience.</b></p> <p>Randomised controlled trials report that there are no statistically significant differences in the outcomes for women who use water when compared to those who do not. It has also established that there are no adverse effects on the mother and baby. However, most of the research to date largely ignores what women have to say about the use of water for labour and birth. This study employed an interpretive design using audio-taped conversations with women as the method of data collection, and a thematic analysis of the stories, to identify the meaning women make of their experiences. The research is informed by a feminist perspective, which honours the women’s voices and knowledge.</p> <p>The women's stories reveal that the all-encompassing warmth associated with being enveloped in warm water cradles, supports, relaxes, comforts, soothes, shelters and protects the woman, creates a barrier and offers her a sense of privacy. Water can be used in any form, even the act of thinking about, preparing for and anticipating the water opens possibilities for women. Women use water to reduce their fear of pain and of childbirth itself. Women use water to cope with pain, not necessarily to remove or diminish pain and to maintain control over the process of birth. It is not necessary to actually give birth in the water to achieve these benefits.</p> <p>Recommendations for midwifery practice include the need for midwives to reflect on their role as guardians of normal birth by examining their personal philosophy of birth, critically examining their outcomes and honouring women's knowledge.</p>

Cultural Dynamics and Sustainable Consumption: a Perception of Brazilian Students in Germany

The present study analyzed the influence of cultural determinants on the sustainable consumption behavior of individuals temporarily immersed in a foreign culture. Based on the framework proposed by Ceglia et al. (2015) for cross-cultural research on sustainable consumption, the study investigated the influence of material culture and communication and language systems on the sustainable consumption behavior of Brazilian exchange students living in Germany. The research adopted a qualitative interpretive design through an exploratory and descriptive approach. Data were collected through participant and non-participant observations and in-depth interviews with ten business students (six women) aged between 22 and 26. Students had to have studied at German universities for at least one semester to participate in the study. The results show that participants perceive the influence of cultural differences on their consumption behavior. In addition, both material culture (e.g., objects, institutions, and organizations) and language and communication systems (e.g., verbal and non-verbal communication) influence their sustainable consumption practices. Ultimately, this configures a dynamic process of adaptation to the new cultural context in which they live. The study innovates by bringing an empirical analysis of yet ill-understood cultural components. Such efforts complement current research and try to consolidate a broader cross-cultural research agenda on sustainable consumption.

Exploring Animal-Assisted Therapy for Creating Rich Communicative Environments and Targeting Communication Goals in Subacute Rehabilitation

Purpose This study continues our research examining the use of animal-assisted therapy (AAT) for patients with acquired neurogenic communication disorders. AAT pairs an animal/handler team with a licensed therapist during sessions to target discipline-specific goals. Our original study focused on dog/handler teams paired with occupational and physical therapists during inpatient rehabilitation sessions. We documented multiple ways that AAT enriched the communicative environment, increasing the amount, complexity, and voluntariness of patient participation. This study focuses on speech-language pathology sessions, comparing communicative environments during AAT and traditional sessions. We also examined the speech-language pathologists' (SLPs') experiences in learning to plan for and target communication goals for patients during AAT sessions. Method This interpretive design combines ethnographic methods with participatory action research. We recruited 10 patients from an inpatient rehabilitation unit and two SLPs. We video-recorded 20 speech-language pathology sessions (one AAT and one traditional for each patient) and conducted 26 interviews. We consulted with SLPs on how to incorporate AAT into their treatment during their preparation time and used self-report measures to track changes in their planning time and confidence across the 6-week study. Findings Across participants, AAT sessions provided richer communicative environments than traditional speech-language pathology sessions as measured by participant talk time, mean length of turns, and use of interactional discourse resources such as narrative use and playful language. The SLPs were rapidly able to adapt their clinical practice to incorporate AAT and displayed rapid and marked decreases in their initial planning time and increases in confidence. Conclusion AAT sessions created meaningful, rich, and complex communicative environments in a clinical space for participants to align with others around a shared interest.

Exploring Edmodo: assisted writing formative assessment in English language classroom

This study aims to explore the use of Edmodo in formative assessment and students' perceptions on the use of Edmodo writing. This study uses a basic interpretive design. An English teacher and seven students participated in this research. It used observations, interviews, and documentation to collect data to answer these two research questions. The findings showed that the Edmodo-assisted writing formative assessment builds teacher technological pedagogy, and content knowledge. The students’ responses are viewed from cognitive aspect. Furthermore, the students can improve and explore the ability to writing skills. From the emotional perspective, the students feel more enjoyable and enthusiastic when doing a formative test. Whereas in the affective perspective, the students seemed more interested in assessment manually by the teacher through individual correction analysis.

School Inquiry in Secondary Education: The Experience of the Fiesta de la Historia Youth Congress in Seville

In secondary education, the focus of history teaching must be on the development of global citizenship. The present research was a study contextualized in the Fiesta de la Historia Youth Congress in Seville (Spain). A documentary analysis with a descriptive and interpretive design was made of 63 projects of inquiry that pupils carried out. The main objectives were to assess the incidence of the proposal in terms of participation, and to determine whether the pupils’ projects followed a logic of inquiry about socially relevant problems which favors the construction of global citizenship. The results point to a low incidence of schools participating in this initiative. The projects of inquiry analyzed present, for the most part, themes related to the historical and social heritage of the locality. The proposals are approached as problems of a specific discipline and are worked on through a method based on a pseudoscientific research process. The findings indicate the need to continue implementing initiatives based on school inquiry that allow the teaching of history to be articulated around relevant social problems, with the objective being to develop citizenship skills.