Education Commons^™

Adoption And Integration Of Best Practice Methods In Secondary English Teaching, Gretchen Rumohr-Voskuil

Dissertations

Commencing with a critical examination of the history and rhetorical force of the term "best practice," this dissertation undertakes a qualitative study of three secondary English teachers, considering their adoption and integration of best practice methods. The subjects, represented by urban, suburban and rural secondary schools, were National Writing Project participants identified as "exemplary teachers" by a NWP site director. "Best practice" methods analyzed included the process model for the teaching of writing and literature, student decision-making, and a low-risk writing environment. Factors that were found to influence the adoption of best practice methods included undergraduate and preservice experiences, intern …

Comparing Indigenous And External Teachers: Beliefs, Origins Of Beliefs, And Expectations, Richard H. Fowler

Dissertations

This phenomenology examines rural economically poor school teachers' beliefs, belief origins, and their expectations of and for their students. Data analysis employed two lenses. The proposed lens examined participants as either indigenous or external utilizing Banks' (2001) cross-cultural teaching experiences. In this study, the indigenous participants experienced childhoods in poor rural towns, while external participants experienced childhoods in urban/suburban areas. A second emergent lens examined participants as experiencing working-class or middle-class childhoods. Findings utilizing lens one were mixed and varied with no definitive pattern. The emergent lens utilizing economic class of participants' childhoods found a number of consistent differences between …

Child Care Centers On Higher Education Campuses: Director Perceptions Of Internal And External Roles And Director Leadership, Kerisa A. Myers

Dissertations

An increasing focus on early childhood education and brain research offers a prime opportunity for higher education institutions to research and formulate thought concerning quality child care. Currently, there is limited research examining the impact and roles of child care centers on university campuses. To add to the base of knowledge, this nationally-focused study examined the following broad question: "what value do campus child care centers offer to a given higher education institution and its surrounding community, especially from a center director's perspective?"

An on-line survey was sent to over 400 campus child care directors at two- and four-year public …

Middle School Teacher And Parent Perceptions Of Parental Involvement, Brandon Graham

Dissertations

The purpose of this case study research was to examine the perceptions of teachers and parents towards current parental involvement factors in a suburban junior high school located in the Midwest United States. Such perceptions were compiled by means of surveys based on Dr. Joyce Epstein's Framework of the Six Dimensions of Parental Involvement: (a) parenting, (b) communication, (c) volunteering, (d) learning at home, (e) decision-making, (f) and collaborating with the community (Epstein, 1995). The subjects were N=36 seventh and eighth grade teachers, and N=344 parents of students. The descriptive statistical analysis did show a difference between teachers and parents …

Exploring The Ultimate Role Of Central Office In The Design, Implementation, And Evaluation Of Professional Development: A Comparative Case Study, Sarah Elizabeth Johnson

Dissertations

Much research has been done on the contributions made by teachers and principals to the field of education (Darling-Hammond, 1998; Glickman, 2001; Hirsch, 1993; Marzano, 2003; Muir, 2001). The role of central office workers in these efforts have, however, been given little recognition or discussion. This study has explored the ways in which central office administrators foster underlying systems that support their districts' professional development processes and structures.

Grove (2002) compares the central office role in professional development to the skeleton of the human body, in which the skeleton is integral to the function of the body and provides the …

A Look At The Beginning: Strengths, Weaknesses, And The Support Structures For New Teachers From The Perspectives Of Elementary School Principals, Scott Merkel

Dissertations

This research examined the perceptions of elementary school principals regarding their beliefs of the strengths and weaknesses of new teachers. The overall research goal was to examine ways that principals evaluate new teachers, their beliefs of strengths and weaknesses related to effective instruction and the effectiveness of structures established to support new teachers. Participants for this study came from 12 different school districts, four from each of the defined and identified categories of rural, urban, and suburban districts. As a secondary focus, a comparison was examined between each of these categories.

A phenomenological approach was used to guide this qualitative …