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School Improvement: Supporting School-Based Teacher Professional Development
Breníková, Jana ; Tomková, Anna (advisor) ; Krčmářová, Tereza (referee) ; Vítečková, Miluše (referee)
The dissertation explores teacher professional development as a strategy for improving school performance. The theoretical part defines school quality, teacher quality, and instruction quality. It further talks about teacher professional development, specifically strategies that involve teacher's reflective practices and teacher collaboration. The practical part of the dissertation examines the characteristics and impact of a five year support model of school based teacher professional development. The process was closely observed through case studies of four subjects in a particular school. The findings reveal that the implemented model contributed to the changes in the principal's leadership style, school culture and climate the most. KEYWORDS Teacher professional development, school quality, teacher quality, instruction quality, teacher collaboration, teacher coach, team teaching.
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How does the school management assign teachers to classrooms at selective elementary schools?
Kadrnožková, Monika
The dissertation deals with the topic of how the school management of Czech primary schools assign teachers to classrooms. The aim of the thesis was to define the system of assigning teachers to classrooms at schools applying pupils' differentiation and to clarify which criteria the school management follows in the assignment of teachers to the classrooms. The theoretical part was based on both domestic and foreign sources dealing with the concept of differentiation of pupils in primary education and with the choice of assignment of teachers to classrooms. Differentiation of pupils was presented in terms of the positive effects of effective education of similarly competent pupils and in terms of the view that differentiation supports the unequal distribution of pupils in classes and the subsequent recruitment of teachers applying different demands and curriculum. In addition, a model of pupils' differentiation and models of assignment of teachers to classrooms were presented, and also the theoretical model of teacher's knowledge was introduced, which was further used in the empirical part for the determination of the criteria for assigning teachers to classrooms. The aim of the empirical part was to describe the real way of assigning teachers to classrooms by the school management in five...
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Transition from pre-primary to primary education of children with low attendance in kindergarten
Picková, Helena ; Straková, Jana (advisor) ; Tomková, Anna (referee) ; Majerčíková, Jana (referee)
The dissertation focuses on the parental attitudes about education of their children during transition from pre-primary to primary education. The study focused on families without identified socio-economic disadvantage whose children were not enrolled in kindergarten. The research design was a longitudinal multiple case study of seven families located in the Liberec region. Data was gathered at multiple points during the children's transition from the kindergarten to primary school. The study focused on the reasons that led parents gave for deciding that their children would either participate in non-regular pre-primary education within nursery schools or not attend the pre-primary classes at all. The study inquired about: parents' general attitudes about pre-primary education; their views on the right educational path for their children; and their self-reported approach to their children's overall development. The study also examined the parents' feelings about the introduction of an obligatory pre-school year and their process of making the enrollment decisions. The results showed that although these families did have some common characteristics, the reasons given for opting not let their children attend preschool, were diverse. Mothers of these children were passionate about doing what's best...
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How does the school management assign teachers to classrooms at selective elementary schools?
Kadrnožková, Monika ; Greger, David (advisor) ; Starý, Karel (referee) ; Kasíková, Hana (referee)
The dissertation deals with the topic of how the school management of Czech primary schools assign teachers to classrooms. The aim of the thesis was to define the system of assigning teachers to classrooms at schools applying pupils' differentiation and to clarify which criteria the school management follows in the assignment of teachers to the classrooms. The theoretical part was based on both domestic and foreign sources dealing with the concept of differentiation of pupils in primary education and with the choice of assignment of teachers to classrooms. Differentiation of pupils was presented in terms of the positive effects of effective education of similarly competent pupils and in terms of the view that differentiation supports the unequal distribution of pupils in classes and the subsequent recruitment of teachers applying different demands and curriculum. In addition, a model of pupils' differentiation and models of assignment of teachers to classrooms were presented, and also the theoretical model of teacher's knowledge was introduced, which was further used in the empirical part for the determination of the criteria for assigning teachers to classrooms. The aim of the empirical part was to describe the real way of assigning teachers to classrooms by the school management in five...
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Approaches to Biology Teaching in Alternative Upper Secondary Schools
Svobodová, Renata ; Pavlasová, Lenka (advisor) ; Skýbová, Jana (referee)
This master's thesis is concerned with biology teaching in alternative schools providing upper secondary education in the Czech Republic. Its aim is to describe and compare the teaching of biology at selected alternative secondary schools based on three case studies. The selected schools are Gymnázium Na Zatlance with alternative programme ALT, Gymnázium Přírodní škola and Waldorfské lyceum Praha. The chosen strategy of the performed qualitative research was a cross-case study, data were obtained by direct observation of the lessons, individual interviews with teachers, group interviews with pupils and document analysis. The concept of biology teaching in selected schools is elaborately analysed, including the description of specific lessons. In addition, the ideological basis, the organisation and evaluation in each school is analysed too. Comparison of selected schools identified common characteristic features such as emphasis on personal development of pupils, non-traditional teaching organisation, evaluation without school grades, frequent excursions, respecting approach towards pupils and deviation from systematics in biology teaching. The thesis provides a deep insight into biology teaching in alternative secondary schools, which is an under-represented area of the Czech education system....
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Corrective Feedback in ESL Writing
Novotná, Kateřina ; Starý, Karel (advisor) ; Urbánek, Petr (referee) ; Chalupský, Petr (referee)
The dissertation thesis is focused on feedback on writing in English lessons, and describes its character and pupil's perception of its comprehensibility. The theoretical part defines feedback as a tool of pedagogical communication, which informs the pupil about the possibilities of improvement and progress and thus shapes pupil's development within the learning process as well as pupil's personality development. The topic of feedback is presented in the context of school assessment and teaching of writing, the issue of error is mentioned as the basis for corrective feedback and an incentive for learning. Also, writing and the specifics of its assessment are discussed. The empirical part, using the qualitative design of the multi-case study, builds on the data obtained by the interviews and the content analysis of the documents. The four case studies of teachers and their pupils illustrate how teachers and pupils perceive (corrective) feedback as a tool of pedagogical communication providing information on the possibilities of improvement and progress. The feedback on writing takes the form of grading (analytical rubrics), corrective feedback in the form of marking mistakes and problematic places in the work, written comments and oral comments when teachers hand the papers over. Pupils see feedback...
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The teacher's personality in relation to the stress situations coping strategies and its influence on education
KRNINSKÝ, Luboš
The dissertation deals with the topic of managing and experiencing stressful (extraordi-nary) situations in teaching in connection with selected teachers' personality traits. The thesis has a theoretical-empirical character. Its theoretical part presents some basic know?ledge related to the topics relevant to the processed issues (teacher's profession, persona?lity, motivation, emotion, workload and stress in the teaching profession context, selected teaching methods and organizational forms, recommendations for effective teaching and learning difficulties solutions, basics of artefacts symbolic interpretation). The aim of the research described in the empirical part of the thesis is to obtain the detailed information about the experience of difficult situations in teaching and the possibilities of their man?agement in connection with the personality structure of the selected teachers. The re?search was carried out in the mixed methods design. His qualitative part contains a multiple? case study (semi-structured interviews were conducted with six lower se?condary school teachers, their teaching was observed, an interview about their thematic collage on the theme Me as a teacher in all its positions and roles was conducted, and the same questionnaires were applied as for the quantitative part of the survey) and some open coded interviews about the thematic collages. In the quantitative research section, the data from four questionnaires were evaluated the orientation questionnaire for detecting stress in teachers by Henning and Keller (1996), the Stress Management Stra?tegies SVF 78 (Janke & Erdmann, 2003), the Freiburg Personality Inventory (Kollárik, Poliaková, & Ritomsky, 1984) and a questionnaire of our own design contains open questions. Most of the participants in the research study experience extraordinary situa?tions in their teaching, which usually cause unpleasant emotions and affect their teaching negatively. Particular relationships between personality characteristics and the teaching of the participants have been found. Respondents did not show a higher level of psychoso?matic disturbance, emotional lability, depressivity or neuroticity compared to the com?mon population. Neither between the level of stress feelings and the age or length of practice, no statistically significant relationship has been found. On the contrary, the male self-description and the adaptive burden management showed a mutually significant con?nection. Also, a higher level of stress impact in physical aspect of women compared to men proved to be statistically significant.
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Formative Assessment
Laufková, Veronika ; Starý, Karel (advisor) ; Šalamounová, Zuzana (referee) ; Kratochvílová, Jana (referee)
This dissertation thesis is focused on the theme of formative assessment on a secondary level of education. The aim of this thesis is to define formative assessment and to show how it is implemented to the teaching process of the Czech language and literature on a secondary level of education. The theoretical part presents a review based on major international and national sources. Formative assessment is defined as an evaluation which brings valuable information concerning the knowledge and skills of the given pupil during the process of education. The typology and function of formative assessment, questions linked to its successful implementation are elaborated together with this methods: goals, criteria, feedback, self-assessment and peer assessment. The aim of the empirical part is to define the real form of the implementation of formative assessment in six targeted Czech schools. This thesis also presents the attitude of students towards the implementation of this method. A qualitative research method was chosen and a multiple case study was used as a form of research strategy. The data collection consisted of observation, document analysis and interviews with teachers and pupils. The formative assessment methods were best implemented under the supervision of a skilled mentor. Contrary to...
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Initial Education Of Early Years Teachers And The Profession's Needs
Podpera, Milan ; Uhlířová, Jana (advisor) ; Opravilová, Eva (referee) ; Syslová, Zora (referee)
The thesis deals with undergraduate training of kindergarten teachers. The aim is to compare the issue of preparation for the profession of kindergarten teacher from different perspectives in historical and international comparisons and reflect and analyze the needs of the profession towards initial training kindergarten teachers on the basis of theoretical concepts and statements from practice. The reaserch aims to analyze the curriculum of initial training kindergarten teachers at selected faculties of education in the Czech Republic, analyze and reflect on meeting the needs of the profession in these faculties and learn how to evaluate their students' level of development of their professional competence at the beginning of undergraduate training and at the end. Research design is a multi-case study. Working with reaserch respondents has a longitudinal character. Methods were used quantitative and qualitative methodology - questionnaire, rating scales, content analysis of documents, interview and focus group. The thesis analyzes the curriculum of undergraduate training at Faculty of Education Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Education University of West Bohemia in Pilsen and Faculty of Education University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice in the context of the model of the...
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