Education Commons^™

Research-Based Stem Educator Professional Development Rubrics For The Selection Of High-Quality Professional Development: A Mixed Methods Study Of Teacher Perceptions And Outcomes, Angela Hemingway

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Idahoans failed to recognize approximately $240M in 2016 when over 3,800 STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) jobs, with a median wage of $30 per hour, went unfilled. This further caused Idaho to lose $14M in state income tax receipts from these unclaimed positions (Idaho Department of Labor, 2016). To mitigate these economic losses, the Idaho STEM Action Center (STEM AC) was created to develop the STEM-skilled workforce that Idaho employers demand. High-quality, STEM-educator professional development (PD) is a critical component in ensuring students are equipped with the skills required to successfully thrive in the workforce and fill industry demands. …

Meeting Yourself Without Rose Colored Glasses: An Urban Public School, Shenelle Dubose, Apryll Mendez

Dissertations

The impact of a culturally relevant professional development series on classroom teacher’s cultural lens was determined. Fifty teachers from two different school districts participated in 16 hours of professional development in an attempt to impact their understanding of how culture and instruction are connected.

During the professional development, participants took part in activities, dialogues and reflections designed to impact their cultural competency. The content of the four professional development sessions included (a) videos on culturally relevant teaching; (b) discussion of cultural identity of participants and how it surfaces in the classroom; (c) discussion of the culture, values, and beliefs of …

Exploring Bilingual Teachers' Beliefs About Academic Language Development In Mathematics Teaching: Implications For Bilingual Teachers' Professional Development, Viola Canales-Vela

Theses and Dissertations

The achievement of mathematics within Hispanic youth is of great concern across the nation. In order to improve student achievement in mathematics, the nature of a mathematics teacher’s complex belief system must be understood (McGee &Wang, 2014). The purpose of this exploratory qualitative study is to investigate the K-5 bilingual teachers’ beliefs about how to develop the academic language of mathematics in Spanish and English in the context of dual language programs at the elementary school level and bilingual teachers’ perceptions on the impact of professional development design for bilingual teachers to meet the needs of their students’ academic language …

Escribiendo Para Desahogarme: Release And Resistance In A Middle School Bilingual Writing Workshop, Carla Espana

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines a teacher’s language ideologies, their impact on curriculum modifications and bilingual Latinx middle schoolers’ storytelling, to understand how a bilingual pedagogy builds on their cultural and linguistic resources. This qualitative study was conducted in a sixth grade writing workshop class in New York City as the focus teacher taught the Teachers College Reading and Writing Project Personal Narrative Unit of Study. The first two findings center on the factors that influence a teacher’s stance on language practices and bilingual pedagogy, and how these contributed to curriculum modifications that included using students’ full linguistic and cultural repertoires, integrating …

Exploring Teacher’S Attitudes And Behaviors In Implementing Instructional Technology Into Curriculum, Letitia Walters

Dissertations

This program evaluation explored how effective integration of technology resources and systems with teacher training and curriculum development can occur despite teachers limited technology competencies. Theses competencies increase when teachers have desire and opportunities to become better acquainted with utilizing digital tools. Perceived technology integration skills of teachers solely, cannot predict the effective integration of technology in student products to address new learning (Ertmer, 2005). Technology integrated lesson plans, the relationship between teachers' beliefs and their use of various strategies to integrate technology and a model that teachers can use to guide them through the necessary changes they will need …

Writing Focused Professional Development For Content-Area Teachers: The Effects Of Writing Instruction On Content-Area Student Achievement, Amanda Edwards Whatley

Education Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this study was to analyze the impact of writing on the content areas when coupled with ongoing professional development and support for content-area teachers. Research shows that writing is an essential skill for success in and beyond the school setting. Research further indicates that writing plays an important role in student learning through its development of cognitive processes; however, in general, writing as a mode of learning is not a focus of either pre or in-service teacher training. As such, writing beyond note-taking and fill-in-the-blank activities is not necessarily a strategy utilized in content-area teacher classrooms. This …

Instructional Practices Of Upper Elementary General Education Teachers Of English Learners, Jamie Lynn Cardwell

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

For the past 7 years in a public Midwestern school district, 75% of the English learners (ELs) in 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades have performed below proficiency on the state examination. To address the declining academic achievement, district administration required that K-5 teachers attend professional development (PD) that featured culturally and linguistically responsive (CLR) instructional practices for ELs. Despite district wide PD, school administration did not monitor implementation of these practices and student achievement continued to decline. This qualitative bounded case study was grounded in Vygotsky's constructivism and Krashen's second language acquisition theories. The purpose of this study was to …

Educating Instructional Mentors: A Qualitative Case Study Of Instructional Coaches, Nikkita Davenport Warfield

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

In a rural Title I school district in Georgia, teachers are mandated to implement research-based best practices in their delivery of instructional standards so that K-12 students can master 21st century competencies and meet mandated academic targets. District administrators indicated many teachers lack skills to implement best practices. To address this concern, instructional coaches were hired to support teachers with implementation of instructional practices and address teacher accountability; however, coaches received no training to outline their roles and responsibilities. The purpose of this bounded qualitative single case study was to examine the role of instructional coaches and how they support …

Faculty Perceptions Of Instructional Strategies That Foster Student Engagement In Online Courses, Sharon M. Hope

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Developing online instructional strategies for increasing student engagement and success is significant locally and nationally due to growth in the online field, advances in technology, and the need for colleges to maximize student success. This study stemmed from the desire of administrators at an upstate New York private college to discover additional ways to design and deliver effective online instruction. The purpose of this qualitative instrumental case study was to discover faculty perceptions of and experiences with instructional strategies that they used to foster student engagement in online learning. Kearsley and Shneiderman's engagement theory formed the study's conceptual framework. Ten …