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Teacher Preference In Professional Development, Cheri L. Keyes

ATU Theses and Dissertations 2021 - Present

Teacher Preference in Professional Development

Teacher professional development (PD) is seen as best ways to ensure teacher quality and guarantee positive student achievement outcomes; however, there is a lack of appropriate and effective PD. This quantitative study examined teachers’ preferences in PD content and delivery. Teachers from a K-12 public school district in Northwest Arkansas were invited to participate in a cross-sectional survey, and 292 teachers responded. The measured variables were the professional development preferences of the teachers, the teachers' years of experience, the grade level at which teachers teach, gender, the content of preferred PD, and the delivery or …

Exploring Taiwanese Creative Arts Therapists' Professional Identity After Returning Home From Studying Abroad, Rhona Jung Jung Chang

Expressive Therapies Dissertations

This study aimed to document Taiwanese creative arts therapists' career experiences after studying abroad and returning home, and how they perceive their professional identity as creative arts therapists in Taiwan. This qualitative study explores the experience of eight female professional Taiwanese creative arts therapists, including two art therapists, two dance/movement therapists, two drama therapists, and two music therapists. Interviews were conducted, and the participants were asked about their personal experience of art-making, the practice of creative arts therapies in Taiwan, and the understanding and awareness of their professional identity.

Data from this study was gathered by the interviews' transcripts and …

Mainstream Teachers Learning To Teach English Language Learners : Uncovering The Systems Of Teacher Professional Learning, Alma Morel

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

In this qualitative study, I followed three teachers as they participated in a sheltered English instruction professional learning initiative planned and implemented by their school district for purposes of preparing middle school science and social studies teachers to teach English language learners (ELLs). I explored the professional learning process of these teachers and how the ideas to which they were exposed in the professional learning initiative moved into their classroom practices, if at all. The study was guided by a complexity perspective, from which teacher professional learning was conceptualized as emerging from nested systems. In general, the study sought to …

The Equal Right To Sing: The American Zeitgeist And Its Implications For Music Education, Youngeun Kim

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

According to music educators and proponents of arts education, music education in U.S. public schools seems to be in jeopardy. This thesis brings attention to several issues in current music education. It is a case study of music education in New York City public elementary schools. First, it shows that music education is not equally distributed to all students in the public-school system and is especially unequal among elementary schools. Next, it investigates possible causes for this inequality, from the current system’s limitations to more fundamental causes including the cultural perception of music among the U.S. public. The consequences of …

Epistemic Beliefs And The Innovation-Decision Process: A Mixed Methods Analysis Of Faculty Classroom Assessment Practice, Sharon G. Peterson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This study focuses on epistemic belief change and the innovation-decision processes of 193 faculty who participated in a professional development workshop series on classroom assessment. From this study population, focus groups were conducted with a criterion-based research sample of 30 workshop participants (i.e., spring workshop completers n = eight, spring workshop non-completers n =eight, fall workshop completers n = seven, and fall workshop non-completers n = seven). Very little attention in higher education research is devoted to how faculty conceptualize new knowledge during professional development, and how decisions about new knowledge affect existing knowledge. This study addresses this gap by …

"We're Not Going To Talk About That:" A Qualitative Case Study Of Three Elementary Teachers' Experiences Integrating Literacy And Social Studies, Rebecca L. Powell

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this interpretive, qualitative multi-case study (Merriam, 2001; Stake, 1995) was to describe the experiences of three elementary classroom teachers as they integrated literacy and social studies during their literacy instruction. This study was grounded in an interpretivist paradigm and a theoretical lens of symbolic interactionism. The guiding questions were: What are the experiences of three elementary teachers when integrating literacy and social studies instruction? What information do teachers use when making decisions about integrated instruction? How do teachers’ beliefs align with their practices? How do teachers organize, plan for, and provide integrated instruction, including how they use …

Perceptions And Experiences Of Teachers And Literacy Coaches' Literacy Instruction, April Jessup Giddens

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The literacy rate in Louisiana remains lower than the national average. This is especially true at Rosewood Elementary School (pseudonym), a D-rated school on a scale of A-F. The problem is that teachers are unsuccessful in trying to improve students' literacy test scores, despite several targeted efforts to give them tools to make these improvements. The purpose of this study is to explore the literacy practices, beliefs, and professional development of teachers at Rosewood Elementary. The conceptual framework of this study included Clark and Peterson's cognitive process teacher model, which focuses on teachers' thought processes and their behaviors in the …

Intermediate Teachers' Perceptions Of Reading Instruction Strategies And Professional Development Needs, Barbara Jean Joyner

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In 1 urban Tennessee school, students in Grades 3 through 5 had not met adequate yearly progress in reading for the past 5 years. The purpose of this case study was to explore teachers' perceptions of current district-recommended teaching practice in reading. The research questions related to current instructional strategies, teaching practices, challenges, and perceptions of current instructional strategies and changes needed to improve students' reading achievement. This study was grounded in the constructivist theoretical framework of Vygotsky. Twelve educators from Grades 3 through 5 and a reading specialist participated in this study. The data were collected from interviews, minutes …

Breaking The Binary: Negotiating Space And Power In Course-Embedded Consulting, Courtnie Jude Morin

Online Theses and Dissertations

Course-Embedded (writing) Consultants (CECs) disrupt the common classroom power binary between the teacher and the student. Therefore, CECs must constantly negotiate authority and power in relation to their workspaces. Based on a Foucaultian analysis of power ideologies and spatial rhetoric, I propose a training series for instructors, CECs, and their students. This series allows participants on all three sides (teacher, CEC, and student) to recognize, analyze, and work within these dynamics of institutional structures of authority, pedagogy, and space.

Designing Place-Sensitive Professional Development: A Critical Ethnography Of Teaching And Learning Argumentative Writing, Sarah N. Holland

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation was to investigate the experiences of teachers participating in a two-year professional development program designed by the National Writing Project and funded by a U.S. Department of Education Investing in Innovation (i3) grant. Informed by New Literacy Studies’ ideological model of literacy as a Social practice and rural literacies’ notion of pedagogies of sustainability, this study employs critical ethnography and discourse analysis to analyze the discourse of teachers participating in the College-Ready Writers Program (CRWP) in order to understand how professional development might be adjusted to re-empower teachers. Data sources included field notes, interviews, lesson …

Virtual Communities Of Practice For Non-Native K-12 Spanish Educators As Professional Development, Javier Gerardo Gómez

Dissertations

Many world language and culture educators are non-native speakers of the language they teach. Although the current face-to-face professional development sessions do a good job in helping educators acquire technology tools to implement in their world language classrooms, professional development lacks in target language enrichment and providing ongoing collaboration among world language educators who are geographically dispersed. Additionally, the cost of attending state-wide, regional, and national world language professional development is very expensive and thus many world language educators cannot take part in these trainings. Consequently, many world language educators do not have the professional training they need to improve …

Afterschool Program Effects On English Learners' Reading And Teachers' Reading Curriculum Perceptions, Helen Marie Mayfield

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

This project study addressed the problem of 3rd grade English language learners (ELLs) not passing the state mandated reading test at the same rate as other students between 2009 and 2013 in Georgia. The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of an elementary school's afterschool program (ASP) on ELLs' reading achievements and to investigate 3rd grade afterschool teachers' perceptions of the reading curriculum using a mixed methods explanatory sequential design. Schema theory, the framework used to guide this study, indicated prior knowledge and experiences are necessary to comprehend new ideas or concepts. Prior knowledge and experiences can …

Internet Technology As A Means Of Delivering Reading Instruction In The Content Areas, Kimberly Rose Pintok

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Due to students not meeting minimum proficiency levels in reading, a central Florida middle school that was rated an A school for 4 years consecutively dropped to a B rating during the 2012-2013 school year and was 10 points away from dropping to a C rating in the 2013-2014 school year. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to describe classroom implementation of Internet technology in a middle school classroom in an attempt to address the steady decline in reading scores. Guided by Piaget, Dewey, and Vygotsky's social constructivist view of education, this study explored if and how teachers used …

Faculty And Student Perceptions Of Reading And Language Arts Preparation And Preparedness For The State Subject Area Test, Ingrid Ahrens Massey

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Since changes to the reading/language arts State Subject Area Test (SSAT) in late 2010, elementary education teacher candidates at a teacher training college in the Southern United States have experienced declining scores resulting in test failure and delaying student teaching and graduation. The purpose of this case study was to identify factors that students and faculty perceived as most beneficial in preparing students to pass the SSAT. Constructivism served as the conceptual framework for this study addressing the effects of collaboration, hands-on learning, and application of knowledge. Purposeful sampling was used to recruit 6 elementary education students who had taken …

Long-Term Impact Of Teacher Training For Mexican English-Language Teachers, Rochelle Keogh

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the long-term impact of the Summer Workshop for English Teachers. Moving beyond participant satisfaction surveys and even measures of participant learning outcomes, this project sought to describe the ways that teachers implemented their program training after returning to Mexico and what affect that had in their classrooms, their schools, and the wider English-teaching community. I surveyed 203 former Summer Workshop participants and conducted focus group interviews with 18 more who attended the professional development training at a U.S. host institution between 2002 and 2013. The data showed that the participants were using …

Teachers' Perceptions Of The Reading Achievement Gap Between High-Achieving Students And Below-Basic Students, Helen Anne Iaconelli

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Atlantic Avenue Elementary School (AAES) experienced reading achievement gaps between high-performing students and below-basic students within the school reading curriculum and balanced literacy framework. Vygotsky's theories of scaffolding and zone of proximal development served as the framework guiding this project, which used a qualitative case study design to explore reading teachers' perceptions of the ways in which they were addressing this reading achievement gap. Individual interviews, classroom observations, and lesson plans were the sources of the qualitative data collected from 6 reading teachers. The data were coded manually using emerging and constant-comparative strategies to identify common themes. The themes that …

The Impact Of The Sra Corrective Reading Program On Standardized Testing, Tony Oyola

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The implementation of effective reading programs for special education students is paramount for school success due to the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (NCLB) and the reauthorization of Individual with Disabilities Education Act. One local school implemented the Science Research Associates Corrective Reading Program (SRACRP) because their special education students did not meet the required proficient or advanced reading scores on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment (PSSA). The purpose of this quantitative within-group study was to determine if special and regular education students demonstrated growth in reading comprehension after the implementation of the SRACRP. The theoretical foundation …

Teachers' Expectations And Reading Achievement Of African American Middle School Students, Gloria Denise King Lewis

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A local and national concern in education is the persistent achievement gap between African American and Caucasian middle school students. Despite numerous reforms, the gap continues to show African American middle school students performing lower in reading. The purpose of this mixed methods study, framed in the theoretical perspective of Culturally Responsive Pedagogy, was to examine teachers' expectations and the relationship between those expectations and the educational outcomes of African American middle school children. Data were collected to identify pedagogical practices, examine teacher expectations, and determine the relationship between those expectations and student Criterion Referenced Competency Test (CRCT) scores. Nineteen …

Exploring Three Fifth-Grade Teachers' Understanding Of Historical Thinking: A Case Study, Deanne Rigby Murray

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Deanne R. Murray at Utah State University conducted a qualitative case study aimed at examining the understanding and practice of historical thinking of three fifth-grade teachers. These three teachers had each been a participant for 3 years in a federally funded Teach American History (TAH) grant project aimed at increasing teachers' historical knowledge and classroom practices. This TAH project in Utah was particularly focused on teachers learning to use cultural tools in socially mediated settings with the ultimate goal of improving their students' performance in history.

This study sought to understand the development of these three teachers' historical thinking through …

Member Perceptions Of Informal Science Institutions Graduate Certificate Program: Case Study Of A Community Of Practice, Lois A. Ball

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

This research attempted to understand the experiences of a cohort of informal and formal science educators and informal science institution (ISI) community representatives during and after completion of a pilot graduate certificate program. Informal science educators (ISEs) find limited opportunities for professional development and support which influence their contributions to America's science literacy and school science education. This emergent design nested case study described how an innovative program provided professional development and enabled growth in participants' abilities to contribute to science literacy. Data were collected through interviews, participant observations, and class artifacts. The program by design and constituency was …

Culturally Responsive Professional Development For Latinas In Family Child Care: A Dissertation, Jody Figuerido

Educational Studies Dissertations

Latina Family Child Care (FCC) Educators provide early education and care (EEC) for children in their homes. High quality EEC programs, including the FCC setting, help children form a firm foundation for future learning, resulting in positive outcomes. In order to provide this level of programming, educators must participate in specialized training related to early childhood education. Unfortunately, the literature provides limited guidance regarding professional development that meets the needs of the diverse adult learner in the field of early childhood education. The focus of this qualitative study is to articulate the elements of culturally responsive professional development for the …

Using Multi-Paradigmatic Interventions: Gauging The Possibilities Of Using Culturally Responsive Pedagogy Within A Response To Intervention Framework, Vanessa Hein

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There exists a highly charged debate about whether or not the Problem Solving/Response to Intervention (PS/RtI) model works alone in lowering the rate of special education referrals for students in an inclusive learning environment. This study seeks to explore the incorporation of a culturally responsive pedagogy (CRP) into the PS/RtI framework, with the assumption that it would assist teachers with PS/RtI implementation as well as enhance their classroom learning environment. Interviews with PS/RtI coaches and elementary school teachers implementing PS/RtI are coded using inductive and deductive strategies, using salient factors of both CRP and PS/RtI as indicators for a comparative …

The Relationship Between Systems-Change Coaching And Levels Of Implementation And Fidelity Of Problem-Solving/Response To Intervention (Ps/Rti), Amanda March

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study examined the extent to which coaching facilitates the successful implementation of the Problem-Solving/Response to Intervention (PS/RtI) model in schools, as well as the extent to which coaching enhances the fidelity of implementation of PS/RtI practices in those schools. Data from 34 schools in seven districts participating in three years of a statewide initiative to implement PS/RtI practices with assistance of a PS/RtI coach were used to evaluate the relationship between coaching activities and levels of implementation and integrity outcomes. Data on various coaching-related factors (i.e., perceived coaching quality, coach continuity, frequency and duration of training and technical assistance), …