359 research outputs found
Out-of-Field Teaching Practices
No full textSociety perceives the role of school leaders as ‘fixers’. Yet the author poses some confronting questions: can they fix or manage the out-of-field phenomenon without having in-depth knowledge and understanding? Can educators teach the next generation of teachers and school leaders without appreciating the realities of the workplace? Can policymakers develop effective policies without a deeper understanding of the workforce issues that influence quality education beyond the obvious issues?
Many dilemmas face today’s teaching workforce and workplaces. The book takes the reader on a journey as experienced in real life by teachers and school leaders. It aims an extreme global focus on the quality of education and on governments’ achievements in providing opportunities to prepare the next generation of students for their future.
The author’s assessment exposes more concerns than assurances.
Anna du Plessis’ academic career includes more than 25 years of classroom experience across three countries. Her journey in leadership positions started during her fourth year of teaching. Her compassion for teachers, school leaders and students stimulated a search for a deeper understanding of the lifeworld and challenges facing educational practitioners.
The objective in this book is to share information that will improve education systems, strategies, decisions, policies and actions. Readers of this book might be parents, student teachers, prospective school leaders, educational directors, policymakers or teacher educators.
Only knowing and understanding can inform well-directed decisions.No Full Tex
Professional Support Beyond Initial Teacher Education: Pedagogical Discernment and the Influence of Out-of-Field Teaching Practices
No full textThis book investigates the professional learning needs of teachers beyond initial teacher education, focusing on teachers in complex teaching positions, such as out-of-field teaching practices. The information presented here will help to improve professional learning strategies, while also offering an in-depth understanding of teachers’ needs, leaders’ perceptions, and what complex teaching situations mean for teachers’ professional learning and development. Further, Du Plessis shares the perceptions and lived experiences of teachers, parents, leaders and students as key stakeholders in quality teaching and learning environments.No Full Tex
A Handbook for Retaining Early Career Teachers: Research-Informed Approaches for School Leaders
No full textThis book addresses the global concern of teacher attrition rates, particularly those who walk away from the profession within the first five years. The author offers new knowledge about the factors that influence beginning teachers’ career decisions through an in-depth examination of their lived experiences. Using a unique lens that explores the complexities of a beginning teacher’s classroom through its many attendant axiological, structural, interpersonal, and practical contexts, the book presents strategies that address the deep matters of retention in the educational arena. Using its insights, school leaders are enabled to shift the balance of school policy understanding towards beginning teachers’ acute needs for support. Based on an empirical study of more than 2,000 beginning teachers and school leaders, this book reveals perceptions, truths, and lived experiences in order to guide the development of effective retention strategies and policies, which are fundamental to stabilising the teacher workforce
Relation, Was sich auff dem Colloquio zu Fontainebleau zwischen dem Monsieur du Plessis ... und dem Bischoffen von Euvreus in gegenwart deß Königs Henrici IV. in Franckreich verloffen
No full textRELATION, WAS SICH AUFF DEM COLLOQUIO ZU FONTAINEBLEAU ZWISCHEN DEM MONSIEUR DU PLESSIS ... UND DEM BISCHOFFEN VON EUVREUS IN GEGENWART DESS KÖNIGS HENRICI IV. IN FRANCKREICH VERLOFFEN
Relation, Was sich auff dem Colloquio zu Fontainebleau zwischen dem Monsieur du Plessis ... und dem Bischoffen von Euvreus in gegenwart deß Königs Henrici IV. in Franckreich verloffen ([1]r)
Titelseite ([1]r)
Text ([2]r
Challenges for Pedagogical Effectiveness in an Ever-Changing Education Landscape: Conceptualisation of Pedagogical Mobility and Flexibility as a Context-Consciousness
No full textThe challenges to maintaining pedagogical effectiveness in an ever-changing education landscape not only turn focus on the professional development of teachers and their teaching practices but also emphasise the preparation of pre-service teachers and their skill development to practice pedagogical flexibility and mobility while focusing on contextconsciousness [1]. Preparedness for classroom demands involves a sound knowledge foundation built on content knowledge and pedagogical content knowledge, as discussed by Shulman [2,3]
The Lived Experience of Out-of-field STEM Teachers: a Quandary for Strategising Quality Teaching in STEM?
No full textStrategising quality teaching in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) domains turns focus to teachers’ capacity to teach these subjects (UWIRE Text 2017) when they are not suitably qualified in them. Against the backdrop of research that claims that 75% of the fastest growing occupations will require STEM skills, this investigation provides new information about lived experiences of, and those surrounding, out-of-field teaching practices in STEM subject areas, and the implications these experiences have for teaching and learning environments (Office of the Chief Scientist 2014). The out-of-field teaching phenomenon is defined in this paper as occurring when teachers teach subjects or year levels outside their fields of qualification or expertise. The qualitative investigation applies a Gadamerian theoretical philosophy to develop in-depth understanding through the shared perceptions of educational directors, principals, and the lived experiences of teachers and parents from two countries. Leadership perceptions and the complexities involved in out-of-field teaching practices in science and related subject areas are investigated through the lens of multiple interviews, observations, and document analyses. Concluding remarks offer recommendations for educational leaders, reflections on improvement strategies and educational policies. Proposals for further research of the out-of-field teaching phenomenon’s impact on STEM subject areas are offered.No Full Tex
Design and Intervention of an Educational-Leadership Program: Student Voice and Agency, Expectations and Internationalization
No full textThis paper explores the lived experiences of a diverse student cohort enrolled in a master’s degree educational-leadership program. The program’s global focus was on the quality of teacher education, prospective teachers’ workplace preparedness and leaders in the workforce in higher education. Internationalization, real-life experiences and student voice served as an enacted intervention curriculum for an educational leadership course designed to reveal the gap between theory and practice. An epistemological diversity lens stimulated critical reflection on students’ participation in the course design and its connection to realities in the field. Diverse higher-education classrooms pose specific challenges for educational leadership programs in including effective internationalization, workplace relevance and improving the generalizability and content validity of the educational leadership course. This small qualitative exploratory investigation provides an in-depth understanding of the value of student voice in informing course and program design. Interviews, observations, two surveys and a document analysis triangulated the data and provided information on the complexities in higher-education classrooms. The findings focus on teacher-educators and higher-education classroom management as well as on the value of critical inquiry, reflection and intervention for existing course designs and transformation.</jats:p
Barriers to effective management of diversity in classroom contexts: The out-of-field teaching phenomenon
No full textThe expectation that teachers’ professional practice will effectively accommodate diversity in their classrooms has drawn attention to issues that impact teachers’ ability to manage these challenges. This paper reports on the implications out-of-field teaching practices have for the effective management of diversity in classroom contexts. The qualitative investigation involved semi-structured interviews, classroom observations and document analysis from 48 participants and seven schools. A new context-conscious understanding development theory underpins the investigation. The results and key findings demonstrate that the out-of-field phenomenon has significant implications for students’ learning needs. The paper concludes with reflections on strategies for the more effective management of diverse learning environments when the out-of-field phenomenon is in play.No Full Tex
Simulation of pre-biotic formation of metabolic networks with the appearance of heritable catalysts of random specificity
No full textThesis (MSc)--Stellenbosch University, 2025.Du Plessis, A. C. 2025. Simulation of pre-biotic formation of metabolic networks with the appearance of heritable catalysts of random specificity. Unpublished masters thesis. Stellenbosch: Stellenbosch University [online]. Available: https://scholar.sun.ac.za/items/2e781722-c758-408f-8cbd-d5a0f30e29a5ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The origin of life on Earth remains a fundamental scientific question, as recreating early Earth conditions without direct evidence is virtually impossible. A central unresolved question in this field is whether catalysts or replicators emerged first. This study seeks to address this debate by exploring the effects of introducing heritable catalysts of undefined specificity into hypothetical systems and quantifying their resulting "suitability". Building on the premise that energy, information, and a barrier separating a living system from its environment are essential components of life, we hypothesized that systems possessing these features would develop preferentially. These hypothetical systems are simulated on the premise that life could have originated in an alkaline hydrothermal vent system, with the simulated systems conceptualized as pores in such a vent. To investigate this scenario, a Python-based simulation was developed, incorporating reactions from the minimal organism JCVI syn3A into hypothetical systems to observe the evolution of the reaction networks. A novel fitness metric was designed, quantifying the total Shannon Information Entropy of all metabolites within the system while penalizing the total number of metabolites present. This approach assessed the potential for protometabolic networks to emerge under specific conditions, assuming the presence of all required metabolites. The simulations produced reaction networks resembling those in JCVI syn3A. The results demonstrated that the stochastic addition of catalysts, guided by minimal metabolic rules, can lead to the emergence of reaction networks resembling that of JCVI syn3A. While the parameters do not perfectly replicate early Earth conditions, the findings suggest that metabolic networks could form spontaneously under specific conditions following the evolution of replication mechanisms.AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Geen opsomming beskikbaar.Master
- …
