Factors Predictive Of Self-Efficacy In First Year Teachers, Jessica Leigh Hamelin

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Research demonstrates that there are increased teacher burnout rates within the first 5 years of entering the field (Darling-Hammond, 2003; Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2010; Yost, 2006). Consistent with those findings is that teacher preparation matters when conversing about recruitment and retention (Brown, Lee, & Collins, 2014). As more research is conducted in the area of teacher preparation it has become clear that teacher effectiveness is directly related to preparation (Darling-Hammond, 2010). As teachers enter their first-year teaching, philosophical stances can change, inflated beliefs about the teaching profession can be altered, and self-efficacy is influenced. Drawing from Hoy and Spero’s (2005) findings on teacher ...

Inside Collaborative Communities: Teachers' Perceptions Of The Collaborative Process, Pamela Ann Evors

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand teachers’ perceptions of the collaborative process and how it affected their classroom practices. The research question was “What are the perceptions held by experienced public elementary-school teachers in a large urban school district in the southeastern United States regarding the collaborative process in their school settings?”

The research design used semi-structured, in-depth interviews with a specific group of public elementary-school teachers who had extensive professional development and experience with the collaborative process, either in co-teaching settings or in frequent collaboration with colleagues. Using the process of educational criticism (Eisner, 1998 ...

Graduate Students’ Perspectives Of The Benefits And Barriers To Mentoring Preservice Teachers, Melissa Omeechevarria

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Mentoring is an effective tool for the professional development of novice teachers (Eby & Lockwood 2005; Kram, 1985; Stanulis & Ames, 2009). Mentors to preservice teachers have conveyed that they receive benefits and face barriers when mentoring (Ambrosetti, 2014; Burk & Eby, 2010; Hobson, Ashby, Malderez, & Tomlinson, 2009; Iancu-Haddad & Oplatka, 2009). Graduate students who serve as mentors to undergraduates have also reported advantages and drawbacks to being a mentor (Conway, Eros, Pellegrino, Kras, Gale, & Campbell, 2009; Reddick, Griffin, & Cherwitz, 2011). This study examined the perceived benefits and barriers for graduate students serving as mentors to undergraduate, preservice teachers. It also considered the affect that graduate school had on a teacher’s decision to engage in a mentoring relationship. The participants were all PK-12 teachers who were also graduate students in the College of Education and Human Services (COEHS) at the University of North Florida (UNF). The data for this qualitative case study was collected through ...

Black Male Perspectives Of The Role Race Plays With Black Male Leader/Leadership Development In The World Of Work, Rudolph F. Jamison Jr.

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There have been relatively few studies examining the leadership of Black men, and even fewer studies examining the leadership of Black men from the phenomenology of Black men, themselves. The purpose of this Q Methodology study was to examine Black male perspectives of the role race plays with Black male leader/leadership development in the world of work. The study was designed as an exploratory attempt to surface and understand how 40 emerging African American male leaders in a large, urban city in the SE United States viewed their own leadership development. Elements of socio-analytic theory and leader-member exchange theories ...

Unearthing The Seeds Of Oppression And Injustice Within Education: Using Intuition, Care, And Virtue To Guide The Educative Process And Cultivate Morality., Lucas Worsham

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The emphasis of the inquiry is on the domain of education and the relationship present between the teacher and student more specifically. Essentially, the first part of the thesis outlines how the larger social-political system impacts the domain of public education, with the predominant issues of adversity becoming manifest at the level of the relationship that exists between teacher and student. The second part of the work utilizes the problems discovered and their impact on human experience to propose a virtue/care based method for approaching the relationship with the student in a way that both aligns more closely with ...

Secondary-School Department Chairpersons’ Perceptions Of Pedagogical Content Knowledge, Jonathan K. Greene

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The concept of pedagogical content knowledge (PCK) provides a framework for understanding the professional demands of secondary-school teachers in facilitating student learning. Teachers develop their PCK both formally in preservice and inservice education and informally with their colleagues. Teacher leaders, such as the secondary-school department chairs, can work with colleagues to promote professional growth. The purpose of this study was to understand how secondary-school department chairs understood PCK and perceived their role in promoting the PCK growth of their department colleagues. A qualitative research design using in-depth, semi-structured interviews involved 15 participants from one school district in the southeast of ...

Role Tension In The Academy: A Philosophical Inquiry Into Faculty Teaching And Research, Nicholas Michaud

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation seeks to understand the conjunction of faculty roles as teachers and as researchers. This understanding is pursued through philosophical analysis. Discourse ethics, in particular, is used as a framework by which to best understand the roles played by faculty and if the roles of teacher and researcher are, in fact, commensurable. The purpose of the work is two-fold: 1) to develop a construct that may be used by future researchers to better understand the roles played by faculty, and 2) to suggest a best-construct that enables future researchers to propose how actual lived roles should be instantiated in ...

The Perspectives Of Preschool Teachers On Instructional Coaching, Melanie Smith Clough

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine how teachers describe instructional coaching. Instructional coaching has become a leading form of professional development in educational settings, yet there is a lack of empirical evidence that explains and clarifies it. One aspect of instructional coaching that is not known is how teachers perceive it. In order to gain understanding about instructional coaching, the perspectives of the teachers could provide valuable insight to benefit those involved in the practice. Instructional coaching and the schools where coaching takes place are complex in nature. Through the use of one-on-one interviews, an in-depth look at ...

No Teacher Left Behind: An Exploration Of The Current Teacher Performance Evaluation System In Florida, Tara C. Haley

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The use of standardized test scores to hold schools, students, and teachers accountable for their performance has been at the heart of education reform efforts throughout the United States for years. Recent reform efforts have been especially focused on including the standardized testing performance of students into the overall evaluation of teacher effectiveness. In several states throughout the country, including Florida, results from teacher performance evaluations are being used to inform professional development, tenure, retention, termination, and compensation decisions.

The purpose of this study was to explore the teacher performance evaluation system initiated in Florida in 2011 as perceived by ...

The Effects Of An Intervention That Includes In-Class Coaching On Preschool Teachers And Children, Amber K. Oliveira

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The impact of high quality early learning experiences on a child's development is profound. Teacher quality has been deemed an important predictor of classroom quality, but currently teachers in Voluntary Prekindergarten (VPK) in the state of Florida are required to meet minimal training requirements. The purpose of this study was to examine an intervention including in-class coaching as a means of professional development to better prepare preschool teachers. The present study included and examination of the changes in environmental quality, child outcomes, and teacher perceptions after the intervention. Scores obtained were compared before and after the intervention. A two-tailed ...

Nontraditional Graduate Students' Satisfaction With Their Transnational Educational Experience, Christopher Ihesiaba Nnoduechi

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This retrospective, nonexperimental, quantitative study was designed to explore nontraditional students’ perceptions of satisfaction with their graduate education experience in a customized transnational educational context. This study was undergirded by theories and concepts gleaned from multiple disciplines. Disconfirmed expectations theory of consumer satisfaction derived from expectancy theory, which describes the motivations and behaviors of consumers who purchase a service but cannot fully evaluate the service until it has been consumed, provided the overarching conceptual framework for the research.

This research analyzed data from 62 graduates of a customized, transnational Master of Education program in educational leadership. Participants responded to a ...

Classroom Intercultural Competence In Teacher Education Students, Interns, And Alumni, Christine K. Holland

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to explore the impact of a student teaching internship upon the classroom intercultural competence (CIC) of teacher education students and alumni. Phase I employed quantitative methodology to compare the intercultural competence as measured by Ross, Thornson, McDonald, and Arrastia’s (2009) Cross Cultural Competence Inventory (3CI) for three groups. The 3CI is a 63-item survey that uses corresponding questions to assess intercultural competence. Survey items are scored with a 6-point, strongly agree-to-strongly disagree Likert scale (Thornson, 2010). The three groups included teacher education students enrolled in a field observation course, students enrolled ...

Use Of Specific Web-Based Simulations To Support Inquiry-Based High School Science Instruction, Arlene Korr

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The primary goal of this study was to acquire an understanding of those practices that encourage the sustained use of simulations in support of inquiry-based science instruction. With the rapid distribution of Internet-related technologies in the field of education, it is most important to undertand the function of these innovations. Technology, specifically the implementation of simulations to support inquiry-based instruction, provides new educational strategies for science teachers. Technology also influences the field of education by repeatedly making some teachers' best practices obsolete.

The qualitative research design was selected to explore the nature of science leaders' and teachers’ consideration or lack ...

Content Analysis Of Conflict Resolution Curricula, Mary Smith

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Violence in schools in various forms has become recognizable. Awareness of this situation has resulted with proliferation of curricula for conflict education. The purpose of this study was to analyze conflict resolution curricula designed for five to eight year olds. The study examined three issues formulated from the review of related literature: time and space, skill building, and developmentally appropriate practices. The findings included time and physical space requirements for conflict resolution curricula, the suggested skills needed to peacefully resolve conflicts, and an evaluation of the developmentally appropriate activities in the curricula for early childhood ages 5-8.

A View From Within : Instructors' Perspectives Of Their Roles With Adult Learners In Need Of Remediation, Lance J. Baxter

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative research study focused on the perceptions of 12 faculty members teaching courses in adult basic education and described their professional experiences and interactions with adult learners within the context of a two-year, public, postsecondary institution. Participants, ranging in teaching experience from 13 years to 43 years, volunteered to take part in one-to-one, semi-structured interview sessions to offer insight into their professional experiences. The interview sessions yielded the complex, context-specific data for detailed analysis. Data analysis, supported through educational criticism and relevant concepts from the professional literature (Eisner, 1998), was used to develop four themes: how the faculty viewed ...

The Effects Of Using Interactive Word Walls To Teach Vocabulary To Middle School Students, Ledale Southerland

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Teaching vocabulary to middle school students requires that educators find the most effective means of instruction to achieve this goal. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of using an interactive word wall as the tool to combine five effective, research-based teaching strategies with social interaction to teach vocabulary to middle school students. In this study, 124 middle school students participated. The control group consisted of 67 eighth grade English students, and the intervention group was comprised of 57 seventh grade English students. The intervention was for a period of four weeks and included specific activities that ...

Preparation For Teaching In Urban Schools: Perceptions Of The Impact Of Traditional Preparation Programs, Crystal Timmons

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

During 2 decades of debate about teacher preparation education practitioners and policymakers have called for a more skilled professional teaching force (Darling- Hammond, 2010). Of particular concern has been poverty’s impact on education -- specifically in struggling urban schools -- prompting legislation such as the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), which shifted funding formulas in an effort to directly target poor students and struggling schools (Talbert-Johnson, 2006). The major purpose of this study was to explore novice teachers’ (teachers in their second to fourth year of teaching) perceptions of their preparedness to teach in urban schools following completion of a ...

Ethnic Differences In Alcohol Use: A Comparison Of Black And White College Students In A Small Private University Setting, Kristie S. Gover

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

An identified gap in the literature associated with college student alcohol use is the exploration of the problem based on ethnicity, specifically possible differences in use between Black and White college students. The purpose of the present study was to examine differences in alcohol use for Black and White college students at a small private university in the southeast United States. The study was conducted using the Core Alcohol and Drug Survey Long Form, which is designed to collect data related to self reported use of alcohol and perceptions of alcohol use among college students. A quantitative methodology was employed ...

Effects Of A Professional Development Initiative On Technology Innovation In The Elementary School, Delia Raymos Pass

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This non-equivalent group study explored the impact of teacher participation in the development and use of a web-based instructional resource on computer utilization by students. The effects of participation in the technology initiative on teacher attitudes toward computers, technology proficiency, and stages of adoption of technology were also investigated. Teacher volunteers participated in a treatment group that received a professional development intervention and a comparison or web access group (WAG) that received no professional development. The treatment, or Professional Development Group (PDG), received instruction that modeled a constructivist hands-on approach to creating technology-rich lessons based on classroom curricula and Internet ...

Accreditation In Teacher Education: An Analysis Of The Costs And Benefits Associated With Ncate Peer Review, Cindy S. Jacobs

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to examine the costs incurred and the benefits realized by institutions participating in the NCATE accreditation process and to formulate a cost-benefit model to guide teacher training institutions who are assessing the value of peerreview by NCATE. The study utilized quantitative methodology with a descriptive research design. The study featured researcher-designed questionnaires: Accreditation Cost-Benefit Analysis Scale for faculty (ACBAS) and the Costs Inventory Analysis (CIA) for administrators and was administered to a purposive sample of faculty and administrators at 54 colleges of education that had participated in the NCATE accreditation process and sitevisit ...

Perceptions Of A Chilly Climate: Differences In Traditional And Non-Traditional Majors For Women, Ladonna K. Morris

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of the present study was to examine how perceptions of a chilly climate differ between students in traditionally female-dominated majors versus traditionally male-dominated majors, and how these perceptions relate to students' intentions to persist or pursue higher education in their chosen field. Participants were 403 students attending a community college in the southern United States, including students majoring in information technology (IT), engineering, education, and nursing. Participants completed the 28-item Perceived Chilly Climate Scale (PCCS) and other informational items.

The primary research question asked: To what extent can scores on the five subscales of the PCCS be explained ...

Learner Centeredness As A Predictor Of Teachers' Role Stress And Career Commitment, Kathryn Marie Krudwig

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Questions explored in this study were: (a) Is learner centeredness related to teacher role stress and/or career commitment; (b) If so, can learner centeredness explain variance in teachers' role stress and/or career commitment; (c) Is the discrepancy between teacher and student perceptions of teacher practices related to teacher role stress and/or career commitment; and (d) if so, can this discrepancy explain variance in teachers' role stress and/or career commitment? The current need to provide every child with qualified and committed teachers in the face of a growing, national teacher shortage supported the significance of the research ...

Learning Style, Teaching Style, And Attitude Toward Change As Predictors For The Adoption Of Computer Technology By Elementary School Teachers, Bernadette C. Kelley

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study investigated the learning style, teaching style, and attitude toward change of elementary school teachers and the relationship of these variables to the adoption of computer technology into teaching and learning strategies. The researcher used four instruments to gather data about the preferred learning style, teaching style, attitude toward change, and current utilization of computer technology both personally and with students.

Survey forms were delivered to seven selected elementary schools in a Northeast Florida public school district. An educational technology survey was distributed to each of the 200 elementary school teachers in these schools. The return rate of completed ...

Non-Sexist Language Curriculum Guidebook, Maureen Parrella Steiner

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Included is a skills development curriculum unit for secondary English students which encourages the use of non-sexist language with creativity within the content area. The study contains lists of objectives, writing, reading and group activities, an attitude survey for students and an evaluation checklist for teachers. Classroom discussions, films, fairy tales and skills development exercises are used to help students recognize and find alternatives to sexist language. The rationale for the teaching of non-sexist language is based on the theory that how we speak stems from how we think, and visa-versa. If sexism in reading and writing is identified and ...

A Curriculum Design Using Mnemonic-Type Techniques To Aid Recall In Low/Average Achievers In The Fifth Grade, Blanche Floannell Fuqua Mcmath

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Children in the Duval County School System in Jacksonville, Florida, who are low/average achievers have to compete in a multi-graded classroom atmosphere. These students are passed along supported by low minimum-based competency test scores. The purpose of this project was to show teachers how they can present mnemonic procedures to these students in an effort to help these students raise test scores, boost self-esteem, and provide a self-help study device that can aid their progress in subsequent grades, aid morale, and thus avoid potential drop-outs in the system. This curriculum design is offered in the subjects of health and ...

Using Newspapers In The Junior High Classroom To Enhance The Development Of Citizenship, James J. Langen

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this project was to design a curriculum utilizing newspapers as a primary learning resource to establish newspaper reading habits among junior high students. Research suggested a strong correlation between consistent reading of the daily newspaper and political knowledge, voting, and other acts reflecting good citizenship. Use of the newspaper in the classroom helped to establish newspaper reading habits among adolescents. This resulted in students being more aware of the adult world they would enter and more confident. They understood how their society functioned. With increased mastery of newspapers, came increased self-esteem, since newspapers were seen as an ...

Teaching Communication Skills Through Video Tape Productions, Jane R. Fleetwood

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Motivating students to learn and practice effective communication skills has always been a dilemma for teachers of all grade levels. Video cameras and camcorders are now being used as teaching tools in many schools to not only motivate students to use and practice a variety of skills, but to stimulate their creativity, as well. Loretto Elementary School in

Jacksonville, Florida, is developing a program which incorporates student-written video productions into its existing curriculum. Loretta's innovative program is a direct result of a 10-rninute informational video tape production done by graduate student Jane Fleetwood and Continental Cablevision, a local cable ...

Personality Type And Question Preference Of College Level Students, Sheryl L. Mcglamery

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The impact of personality type on question preference is an area of new endeavor. It is the purpose of this study to determine if a relationship exists between the Sensing and Intuiting dimensions of personality as measured by the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) and the questioning preference of students. A Chi Square analysis of the data revealed a trend. Frequency distributions were used to determine the direction of the trend. Both the Sensing and the Intuiting subjects showed a tendency to follow type with regard to question preference. In other words those subjects showing a Sensing preference on the MBTI ...

Literature At The Primary Level Depicting A Positive Image Of The Elderly: A Bibliography, Carolyn M. Baynham

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

It is the purpose of this study to compose a bibliography of primary level books and/or stories that depict a positive image of the elderly. Various procedures were used to gather selections of reading material for primary level children which portray this image. The following were the methods used for this compilation. Numerous reference books which categorize children's books under related topics were examined. Approximately thirty-five letters were submitted to various organizations which deal with the elderly population asking for information or sources regarding this topic. Letters were also sent to thirty-five randomly selected publishing companies requesting suggested ...

Activities In World History For Artistically Talented Students, Brenda Peck Oliver

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The unique characteristics and needs of artistically talented students were explored. World history students at the Douglas Anderson School of the Arts were used as a test group for the utilization of a variety of art forms in teaching world history. Lesson plans using art media for each unit of study in world history were constructed. Students responded to each lesson by completing an attitude survey. The conclusion was that the use of a variety of art in world history increased student interest and motivation. The increased student motivation resulted in a failure rate of approximately 5%, significantly lower than ...