Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Rural Appalachian Teachers' Use Of Social Media To Find And Engage In Professional Development, Kristy Johnson

Ed.D. Dissertations

Rural elementary teachers faced challenges to professional development which differed from their urban or suburban peers. With the increasing popularity of social media at the time of this study, rural elementary teachers had the opportunity to use social media to find and engage in professional development which might otherwise be unavailable to them. By engaging in professional development teachers found via social media, rural elementary teachers could overcome some of the challenges faced as a rural educator. The purpose of this study was to determine how rural elementary teachers perceived and used social media to find and engage in professional …

School-Based Agricultural Education Teachers: Self-Efficacy With Face-To-Face, Remote, And Hybrid Instruction And Perceptions Of Professional Development Regarding Technology Integration, Gayle Clark

Theses and Dissertations

This three-article dissertation examined the perceptions of school-based agricultural education teachers in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Alabama on self-efficacy and professional development activities since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. The first article was an examination of teacher self-efficacy in delivering instruction in three classroom settings: face-to-face, remote, and hybrid, which is a combination of face-to-face and remote simultaneous instruction. The second was a descriptive study of teacher experiences and perceptions of professional development activities related to instructional technology over the past two years. The third article examines the correlation between each of the teacher self-efficacy instructional setting constructs and perceptions …

An Autoethnograpy Of A Baby Boomer In Higher Education: Challenges And Catalysts For Change, Deborra Finlan

Theses & Dissertations

Higher education as a baby boomer brings mental, physical, and economic adjustments, concerns, and insecurities. Additionally, life delivers unexpected challenges and barriers which can cause hardships requiring various types of motivation. Fortunately, there are also catalysts which can contribute toward successes. Literature from four major elements were the focus in this study: motivation, adult learning, challenges, barriers, and catalysts. Theorists and theories included Vroom’s expectancy theory of motivation with the added factor of cost, and Ryan and Deci’s theory on self-determination; Mezirow’s transformative learning and Knowles’s self-directed learning; Cross’s theory on educational barriers—situational, dispositional, and institutional; and Cobb’s social support …

The Role Of Self-Efficacy And Emotional Exhaustion In Teacher Considerations Of Job-Related Stressors And Attrition: A Mixed-Methods Study, Raymond Nance

Teacher Education, Educational Leadership & Policy ETDs

Teacher attrition is a problem currently afflicting classrooms around the world. Emotional exhaustion and teacher self-efficacy have been demonstrated to be factors in attrition. This study assesses the efficacy of potential tools for use in evaluating emotional exhaustion and self-efficacy before problems arise and to guide professional development in efficacious directions.

This parallel-convergent mixed-methods study performed quantitative regression analyses on the joined effects of emotional exhaustion and self-efficacy to assess their potential mediating role between teachers’ job stressors and considerations of leaving the job. The existence of mediation was demonstrated. Qualitative thematic analysis of transcripts from six interviews with current …

Teacher Experiences In A Community-Based Rural Partnership: Recognizing Community Assets, Tawni Paradise, Malle R. Schilling, Jake Grohs, Jordan L. Laney

Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER)

The purpose of this research study is to understand teacher experiences throughout their second year of engagement in the Virginia Tech Partnering with Educators and Engineers in Rural Schools partnership. This partnership is an assets-based community partnership in a rural environment between middle school teachers, regional industry, and university affiliates that is focused on implementing recurrent, hands-on, culturally relevant engineering activities for middle school students. This qualitative study uses constant comparative methodology informed by grounded theory on teacher interviews to capture both teacher experiences in the partnership as well as teacher-identified assets in their classrooms and school communities. Using the …

The Path To Self-Authorship: The Pre-Service Teacher-Writer, Shari L. Daniels Dr., Pamela Beck

Literacy Practice and Research

This literature review examined the relationship between the development of a teacher who writes (teacher-writer) and the phases of self-authorship, “the internal capacity to define one's beliefs, identity and social relations” (Baxter Magolda, 2001, p. 269). The narratives of three teacher-writer-authors show a correlation to Magolda’s self-authorship phases. The purpose of this examination was to explore the question: How might a writing support teachers in personally and professionally? Research suggests new teachers are unprepared for today’s classrooms. Could this unpreparedness may be related to a lack of self-authorship? Might a consistent writing practice propel teachers through the phases of self-authorship …

Perceived Levels Of Teaching Self-Efficacy Among Advanced Ces Doctoral Students Engaging In External Pedagogical Experiences, Erika Williams

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This quantitative study examined factors of internal preparation practices (i.e., coursework in college teaching, fieldwork in college teaching, and frequency of supervision) and external pedagogical experiences (i.e., holding a bachelor’s or master’s degree in teaching and adjunct faculty experiences in higher education) and their potential effects on teaching self-efficacy among counselor education and supervision doctoral students. This study identified both significant and non-significant relationships between the stated variables. Contrary to previous research (Suddeath et al., 2020), internal preparation practices did not significantly predict scores of teaching self-efficacy among this population. However, the findings suggest that participants holding a bachelor’s or …

The Effects Of An Undergraduate Research On Pre-Service Teachers’ Notions Of Stem Education And Educational Research, Erin Pearce, Jesse Brock, Phillis Bunch

Journal of Educational Research and Practice

Pre-service teachers (PSTs) often lack the self-efficacy necessary to effectively implement STEM education into their classrooms. Undergraduate research experiences (URE) can help fill this void by providing opportunities for PSTs to engage with STEM content and K–12 students in a field-based research context. This case study details the impact a URE had on PSTs’ STEM self-efficacy and views on research. The URE consisted of STEM curriculum development, teaching the curriculum at a local middle school, gathering research data, and presenting results at academic conferences. Participation in the URE positively influenced the PSTs’ self-efficacy in STEM and changed their perceptions regarding …

Elementary Preservice Teachers Self-Efficacy And Confidence Teaching Engineering, Andrea Perrin

Theses and Dissertations--Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) Education

Engineering has become a popular topic within science standards in recent years. However, many teachers do not have experience teaching or doing engineering. With the possibility of engineering becoming a major part of the science curriculum, it is important that teachers are prepared and well equipped to teach and instruct engineering activities, lessons, and support. This quantitative study studied elementary preservice teachers’ self-efficacy and confidence with teaching engineering in the classroom after experiencing and teaching engineering activities. Overall, the implementation of the engineering activities had both positive and negative impacts on preservice teachers’ perceptions of themselves and teaching engineering in …

Teacher Efficacy In High Performing Teachers: Barriers And Enablers For New Graduates, Dianne M. Toe, Lynette Longaretti

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Teachers with a high sense of self-efficacy are more resilient to difficulties, experience greater job satisfaction and have higher expectations of their students. This study investigated teacher self-efficacy in high performing teachers at two points in their development: 1) as preservice teachers, halfway through their undergraduate degree using the Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale (TSES) (Tschannen-Moran & Woolfolk Hoy, 2001) 2) as new graduates through a qualitative interview focused on efficacy. These 24 teachers participated in the National Exceptional Teaching for Disadvantaged Schools program (NETDS) at Deakin University during their BEd (Primary) degree. They demonstrated lower self-efficacy than their peers in Efficacy …

Preservice Teachers’ Self-Efficacy Through Covid-19: A Large Scale Survey Of Students At A Regional University In Australia, Tania Leach, Anh Hai Le, Georgina M. Barton Dr

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

Throughout 2020, the world was significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the context of higher education, the pandemic critically affected professional experience, a core component of teacher education. This paper shares data from a large-scale survey about teachers’ sense of self-efficacy and the impact of COVID-19 on professional experience. Findings showed that the disrupted context had a moderate effect of pre-service teachers’ self-efficacy in relation to their classroom management, instructional strategies, and student engagement. Qualitative results illuminated that the modes of learning, changing classroom contexts and communication between the pre-service teachers, school and their university were the underlying contextual …

The Impact Of A Year-Long Professional Development On Teacher Self-Efficacy In Personal Writing And The Teaching Of Writing, Guang-Lea Lee, Terri Brodeur, Cherng-Jyh Yen, Tian Luo, Pauline Salim Muljana

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

Long-term professional development (PD) initiatives are scant in the extant literature. This study examines the impact of a year-long, face-to-face teacher PD provided for teachers from a high-need elementary school to improve their personal writing and writing instruction. A mixed-methods approach was used to collect and analyze data primarily from pre- and post-surveys and interviews. Statistical analyses suggest that teachers’ self-efficacy toward writing instruction was improved, but not self-efficacy toward their personal writing. Various means of how the year-long teacher PD influenced their self-efficacy were demonstrated through qualitative analysis. Implications of conducting teacher PD on writing instruction were discussed.

No Cap: Unlocking The Self-Concepts Of Students To Promote Limitless Identities, Walter Lee

South Carolina Association for Middle Level Education Journal

If students do not perceive themselves as capable, they will likely decline opportunities that threaten their self-beliefs. This requires educators to create redefining moments for students to experience struggle in a safe environment that ultimately encourages students to remove personal limitations. When teachers are critical about ways to respond to negative, limiting self-concepts, students may conquer breakthroughs in learning. In this article, I suggest that a change in self-concept represents a change in mindset, producing significant learning outcomes. To accomplish this, I will discuss self- concept, self-efficacy, and implications on teaching, using the CARE theory of self-concept development.