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    How teachers incorporate the Incredible Years Teacher classroom management programme into practice : an interpretive description : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Master of Educational Psychology at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2017) Garland, Katherine Emily
    Children’s challenging behaviour in the classroom can have negative effects on students and teachers. The Ministry of Education is funding the Incredible Years Teacher (IYT) programme to provide teachers with positive classroom management skills to manage young children’s challenging behaviour. This research focused on exploring how teachers incorporated IYT into their practice, and the factors supporting or hindering sustained implementation. The qualitative approach of interpretive description was used to guide in-depth interviews with 12 teachers and other education professionals. The thematic analysis illuminated the variation in how teachers implemented IYT, and conceptualised this according to evangelical, pragmatic, unrelated, and no implementation types. Overall, the study found teachers with more support deeply embedded IYT and sustained its incorporation in their practice. Supports included schools with leadership that prioritised IYT, school-wide behavioural strategies, coaching and modelling to support teacher development, and IYT review processes. The study also recommended supporting IYT group leaders to undertake more coaching visits, IYT courses for principals and teachers aides, and a symposium for teachers. In line with the interpretive description approach, the study also provides a practical resource for teachers and schools. Keywords: Incredible Years Teacher, classroom management, challenging behaviour, professional development
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    The registered nurse's experience of online professional development : an action research study : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Philosophy in Nursing at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2013) Green, Jennifer Kay
    This action research project enabled nine registered nurses (RNs), with varying computer skills, ages and clinical specialties, to explore the reality of designing online learning activities for professional development. The aim of this research was to establish which educational strategies would assist a multi-generational, digitally-differentiated nursing workforce to flourish in an online environment for their professional development. Through a process of six action research spirals, the research participants examined the potential benefits of, and barriers to, transitioning to an online environment for continuing professional development. E-learning is becoming increasingly prevalent as an option for maintaining competence in a clinical environment. With the latest developments in web-based technology there is the potential to capitalise on both andragogical and heutagogical learning. Benefits and barriers to online professional development are explored, with online learning activities developed for each of the three clinical areas of surgical ward, operating rooms (OR) and post-anaesthesia recovery unit (PACU). Suggestions for enhancing success of transitioning to web-based learning for clinical settings are discussed. At any point in time, the current body of clinical knowledge is rapidly changing so that content learnt will, within five to ten years, be revised. In addition, maintaining professional competence is now a requirement of professional bodies. Therefore, a focus on life-long learning and the development of skills to enable access to relevant contemporary information is essential. If an organisation is going to offer online professional development, they must be deliberate in their planning, implementation and ongoing support in order to provide learner driven (heutagogical) content that capitalises on the full extent of Web 2.0 capabilities. Rather than imposing online learning for PD, this action research project increased the participants’ familiarity with the online environment, enabling them to engage with the development of learning activities. The use of web 2.0 capability in this action research project enabled participants and the researcher, involved as a learning designer, to collaboratively construct learning activities specific to each of the clinical contexts. As a result recommendations are made for learner driven PD activities that benefit the RN, the organisation and most significantly, have the potential to positively influence patient care.
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    Exploring constraints on and support for quality teaching at a higher education institution in Malaysia : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Education at Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2013) Hilaluddin, Thaharah
    This thesis is an exploratory case study of one institution of higher learning in Malaysia. Teachers’ active involvement in a wide variety of quality activities raised concerns about their teaching quality. The literature review suggested that there was no universally accepted definition of quality teaching. There was also lack of a definition in Malaysian research studies and government reports. The aim of this study was to explore teachers’ perceptions of quality teaching at the case institution in order to better support the institution’s quality assurance efforts. The research questions investigated the teachers’ perceptions of quality teaching, the kinds of existing support they found helpful or needed enhancement, and the kinds of existing constraints that needed rectifying. A mixed methods approach was employed comprising teacher and manager interviews, document analysis and a teacher survey to elicit themes relevant to the research questions. The key findings were that many teachers held transmission-based teaching perceptions although some student-centred perceptions were also evident. A major constraint on quality teaching was quality assurance activities that were drawing teachers’ focus away from teaching. Other impediments included class size, poor student quality and inadequate resources. A major support for quality teaching was teaching-related courses that needed to be made more relevant for teachers of various levels of experience and provided in a more structured manner. Other kinds of support that needed enhancement included mechanisms to evaluate teaching, outcomes based education (OBE) curriculum transformation and a quality assurance framework related to OBE. Recommendations were made for institution managers and professional developers including developing and promoting a systems framework that promotes and values quality teaching as of equal importance to quality research, developing a clear articulation of the institution’s teaching philosophy, improving material resources, aligning all systems to support the shift to OBE, and providing professional development support that could expand teachers’ conceptions of teaching. Findings from the case study were discussed against the backdrop of Malaysia’s efforts to cope with global trends in higher education. Critical adaptation of Western concepts and the need to develop the nation’s own idea of quality teaching were also discussed.
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    The role of the external consultant in facilitating enterprise development : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Ph. D. in Human Resource Management at Massey University
    (Massey University, 1999) Massey, Claire
    Today's organisations are faced with increasingly difficult choices about appropriate development strategies and structures. At the same time they are supported by a growing literature on management and organisational performance. Judging by the recent average growth in the revenues of the major international consulting firms (which was 34% in the period between 1998 and 1999 according to Kennedy Information, 1999), it appears that it is increasingly likely for organisations to call in external consultants to assist the organisation's managers to select appropriate development strategies from the range of available choices. It may be argued that this situation means that consultants are caught in the grip of two opposing forces: There is the possibility of providing clients with a better outcome than ever before, based on the advances of management thinking that have occurred over the course of this century. At the same time, clients' beliefs that continual advancements in organisational success are possible are putting pressure on the consulting industry to achieve "quick fixes". Whilst striving to perform effectively, consultants are being driven towards providing formulaic responses to complex organisational problems. One of the possible consequences is that they may not be making full use of the available knowledge about organisations, management and the practice of consulting. A further difficulty is that although the literature on the practice of consulting is rich, the theoretical knowledge base for consultants is still regarded as being incomplete. This situation provided the context for the study, in which the researcher sought to describe the roles that can be taken by a consultant during an assignment, and to explore the relationship between roles and subsequent organisational outcomes. Against this background the researcher identified an initial point of interest: the organisation that is engaged upon a search for organisational improvement. The term used to describe this was enterprise development (ED), which was defined as a situation in which an organisation's managers employ a consultant to undertake a set of activities with the objective of achieving a positive organisational outcome of some kind. The implicit research question was whether external consultants have a role to play in ED, and if so, whether there are ways to maximise the positive outcomes of their involvement. The researcher selected action research as the most appropriate methodology for working on client assignments, which also provided an opportunity for those participating in the study to gain from the process. As a starting point the researcher and the consultant "research partners" developed an initial proposition; "that it is possible to identify the factors that influence consultancy outcomes by engaging in participatory research with individual consultants". This proposition was developed over the course of three research cycles, and a diagrammatic presentation of these cycles in relationship to the research question can be found in Chapter 1 (page 31). In the first research cycle, the researcher worked alongside each of the three research partners on a single client assignment. They developed the "intervention profile" (IP) as a way of assessing the assignment's potential for an effective outcome. At the end of the research cycle the researcher and the research partners concluded "that assessing a particular client assignment with the help of the IP will assist a consultant to make choices about appropriate intervention strategies". In the second research cycle the researcher and the research partners developed the IP further, formulating a list of intervention "conditions" that may exist for each of the intervention profiles, and applying this extended framework to a client assignment. They concluded that applying the framework effectively is limited by the consultant's capability. At this point they developed the second proposition; "that a tool for assessing consultants' strengths and weaknesses will assist them to plan a programme of professional development that will improve their practice of organisational consulting". In the third research cycle the researcher and the research partners focused on the consultant's capability. Working through the "consulting approaches assessment" (CAA), a tool designed specifically for this study, the research partners identified their own approach to the practice of consulting. They concluded with a final proposition: "given that the way consultants approach the consulting process is one of the critical success factors, a consulting development programme that assists consultants to develop an intervention profile, assess intervention conditions and develop intervention strategies in the context of their own consulting approach will improve their practice of organisational consulting". The evidence of the six cases undertaken in this study suggests that there is more than one role that consultants can take with a client organisation that can contribute to ED. It is also clear that there are ways of maximising the positive outcomes of consultancy interventions. Here the study makes two specific contributions to the knowledge on organisational consulting that currently exists. Firstly, the IP and the CAA are additions to the literature, which allow practising consultants to apply the extensive literature on management and organisation to client assignments. Secondly, the researcher presents a model for organisational consulting which explicitly identifies the three different levels that consultants need to consider when undertaking client interventions (conceptualisation, strategy and practice), and categorises the existing body of knowledge on consultancy in terms of these levels. These contributions have fundamental implications for the training and development of organisational consultants, and their application has the potential to improve their value to the organisations that employ them.
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    The impact of the mathematical identity of school leaders on professional development in mathematics education in NZ primary schools : a case study of two New Zealand primary sector schools : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Education at Massey University, Albany, New Zealand
    (Massey University, 2010) Kendall-Jones, Stephen; Kendall-Jones, Stephen
    This study draws on psychoanalytical theory and research data to explore the experiences and impacts of different educational leadership approaches to improving teacher practice in primary sector mathematics education. Under consideration are the behaviours exhibited by Principals in response to their personal relationship with mathematics. Specifically, it examines how the mathematical identity of a Principal may influence their educational leadership of mathematics, how that may affect the provision of professional development for teachers who teach mathematics, and how that, in turn, affects the mathematical identity of those teachers. A review of the research literature reveals the importance of considering both the social and intrapersonal nature of mathematical identity and the interpersonal relationships of leadership and has led to this study being placed in the constructive philosophical approach from a Lacanian psychoanalytic context. The study also acknowledges the indeterminate nature of what the future holds, including the aim of school achievement, and defines this study as embedded in the postmodern system of ideas as a means of viewing social and cultural phenomena. The study is a comparison between two contrasting school environments. Consistent with an interpretive approach, data collection and analysis have complementary roles with each activity informing the other. Data collection instruments used for this study were the questionnaire, personal interviews, focus group interviews, and the researcher. The investigation revealed that a Principal who consistently addresses their mathematical identity, through direct participation in professional development, is more likely to correctly identify strategic development needs and to provide appropriate professional development in mathematics. This provision addresses the mathematical identity of teachers by improving mathematical content and pedagogical knowledge. The study found that many Principals were educated through a behaviourist pedagogy and that participation in current professional development allowed them to better understand the constructivist approach of contemporary mathematics education and best practice in classroom practice. The Principal!s personal participation also builds relational trust with the teaching team, enabling the conditions for a learning culture within their school. From these findings, recommendations are made for Principals to reflect upon the effective provision of professional development in mathematics whilst considering how psychological influences might affect their educational leadership of mathematics and teacher practice.
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    Online professional development for digitally differentiated nurses: An action research perspective
    (Elsevier, 2017-01) Green JK; Huntington AD
    Professional development opportunities for nurses are increasingly being offered in the online environment and therefore it is imperative that learning designers, nurse educators and healthcare organisations consider how best to support staff to enable Registered Nurses to capitalise on the resources available. Research participants explored educational strategies to support digitally differentiated nurses' engagement with professional development activities in an online environment through a participatory action research project that collected data over a 16 month period through six focus groups before being analysed thematically. The reality of work-based, e-learning while managing clinical workloads can be problematic however specific measures, such as having a quiet space and computer away from the clinical floor, access to professional development resources from anywhere and at any time, can be effective. A 'one-size-fits-all' approach to resources offered will not meet the needs of diverse staffing groups whereas heutagogical learning offers tangible benefits to Registered Nurses seeking professional development opportunities in this context. Apparent proficiency with technological skills may not reflect a Registered Nurse's actual ability in this environment and face-to-face support offered regularly, rather than remedially, can be beneficial for some staff. Implementing specific strategies can result in successful transition to the online environment.