Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Literacy Instruction In Three Preschool Programs: A Multiple Case Study, Cherrie Lovejoy

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many preschool students enter kindergarten without the oral language and phonetic awareness skills necessary for academic success. Qualitative research is also limited about the instructional practices preschool teachers use to improve the literacy skills of their students. The purpose of this study was to explore how teachers used developmentally appropriate instructional practices to improve the literacy skills of preschool students. The conceptual framework was based on the theories of Piaget and Vygotsky in relation to language development. A multiple case study research design was used. Participants included 6 teachers from 3 different preschool programs in an urban school district in …

Gender Differences In Student Engagement Among Emerging Adults Attending A Small Faith-Based University, Melvin P. Shuster

Growth: The Journal of the Association for Christians in Student Development

The single best predictor of the success of university sponsored student development activities is the degree to which the students are engaged in these activities (Kuh, 2007). Sax (2008) observes though that much of our understanding of the impact of the college experience is based on the study of students in the aggregate, with relatively little work done on how the college environment differentially influences men and women. The present work investigated gender differences among Emerging Adults (ages 18- 29) (Arnett, 2000) in their engagement of university sponsored activities at a small faith based university located in Northern California. The …

"Consider With Whom You Are Working": Discourse Models Of School Librarianship In Collaboration, Sue C. Kimmel

Teaching & Learning Faculty Publications

The question of why school librarians still struggle to fully enact the roles defined in "Information Power" and "Empowering Learners" may be viewed as a struggle to gain recognition from others that this is what a "real school librarian" does. Discourse Analysis offers school library research a new theoretical and analytical tool to explore how these roles or identities are created or contested in interactions with others by examining the moment-to-moment talk for the presence of larger meanings, or "discourses." Applying a discourse analysis to an exchange that occurred near the end of an ethnographic study of collaborative discourse between …

Coastal Watershed Connections; Student Impact, Stewardship, And Reflections, Sherry S. Herron, Shelia A. Brown

Faculty Publications

The project provided students and teachers in six coastal and noncoastal Title 1 secondary schools in Mississippi with experiential learning activities to emphasize connections between their local watershed an coastal habitats of the Gulf of Mexico using GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment) protocols, OBIS (Outdoor Biology Instruction Strategies) Science and service-learning projects.

An Exploration Of Worldview And Conceptions Of Nature Of Science Among Science Teachers At A Private Christian High School, Kara M. Kits

Dissertations

Both worldview and conceptions of nature of science (NOS) are important components in teaching and learning science. However, few empirical studies have examined the interplay between both of these components for teachers or students. Therefore, this study examines the possible relationship between worldview and conceptions of nature of science for secondary science teachers who currently teach at a Christian school.

Qualitative methodologies developed a rich description of the worldview beliefs and conceptions of NOS for teachers in this study. Eight secondary science teachers employed at a private Christian school participated in the study. A Views of Nature of Science (VNOS) …

Building A Learning Community Within The Constraints Of Open Enrollment, Megan Pugh

MA TESOL Collection

            This paper introduces the ways in which the challenges of open enrollment ESL programs affect both students and teachers and the importance of group cohesion in adult learning.  The effects caused by open enrollment can be abated by building a strong community of learners through involving new students to build a sense of belonging to the class, meeting the needs of individuals within the group, having a supportive learning environment, and using selected best teaching practices to build community.  With the solutions proposed in this paper, teachers can meet student needs and the negative effects of open enrollment will be …

Professional Learning Communities And First-Year Composition Instructors., Erinn Bentley

Dissertations

This study is situated within the field of writing teacher education and investigates the professional development of first-year composition instructors. The purpose of this study is to examine the flexibility of one K-12 teacher professionalization model, the professional learning community (PLC), for offering first-year composition instructors ongoing support and for promoting instructors' pedagogical content knowledge growth.

This study builds upon scholarship within the field of rhetoric and composition to examine current trends in training graduate teaching assistants (GTAs) who teach first-year composition courses (Dobrin, 2005; Latterell, 1996; Pytlik & Liggett, 2002; Tremmel & Broz, 2002; Yancey, 2002). Such research indicates …

The Impact Of The Head Start Parent Teacher Partnership On Home Based Mathematical Interventions Provided By Single Rural Head Start Mothers, Curtiss J. Babcock

Dissertations

Increased research in the area of early childhood education has expanded knowledge in the area of educating young children and improving school readiness. In Head Start, as well as other preschool programs, attention has recently focused on the pre-mathematics component of early education and school readiness.

The purpose of this study is to gain insight into the home-based mathematic activities and experiences single rural Head Start mothers use to provide math-related instruction to their children prior to Head Start entry. Also examined was the preschool teacher's influence on parent initiated in-home mathematics practices.

This study looked for relationships between the …

African American Male Teachers In K-12 Education: A Limited Quantity, Kelley A. Peatross

Dissertations

This study examined the underrepresentation of African American (A/A) male teachers in three Midwestern school districts. The study sought to determine: (1) the perception of A/A teachers concerning their K-12 teaching experiences when disaggregated by the number of years of teaching, (2) their perception of why they went into teaching when disaggregated by the number of years of teaching, (3) their perception of the need for A/A male teachers, and (4) their perception of value and accomplishments as A/A male teachers in the classroom.

This study utilized a qualitative phenomenological design and was based upon Maslow’s (1970) hierarchy of needs …

Developing Strategies At The Pre-Service Level To Address Critical Teacher Attraction And Retention Issues In Australian Rural, Regional And Remote Schools, Sue Trinidad, Elaine Sharplin, Graeme Lock, Sue Ledger, Don Boyd, Emmy Terry

Research outputs 2011

This ALTC project is a collaborative endeavour between the four public universities involved in teacher education in Western Australia (Curtin University, Edith Cowan University, Murdoch University and The University of Western Australia), focussed on improving the quality of preparation of pre-service teachers for rural, regional and remote appointments. The project, building on the work of other recent Australian rural education research projects (conducted through the ARC funded Renewing Rural Teacher Education: Sustaining Schooling for Sustainable Futures [TERRAnova] and the Renewing Rural and Regional Teacher Education ALTC Curriculum projects), will create a nexus between the theory and practice of teaching and …

Investing In Sustainable And Resilient Rural Social Space: Lessons For Teacher Education, Simone White, Graeme Lock, Wendy Hastings, Maxine Cooper, Jo-Anne Reid, Bill Green

Research outputs 2011

An opinion is presented that the relationship between teacher education and the sustainability of rural communities is reciprocal. Such a reciprocal relationship is explored using research findings of an Australian Research Council funded project (2008-2010) of schools and communities that identified sustainable practices concerning staff recruitment and retention. The paper discusses the context of the study, its method and conceptual framework as well as emerging themes from twenty case studies across Australia. The implications of these themes in terms of better preparing a future rural teacher workforce are examined.

Jumping Through 'Loops': A Reflective Study On Preparing Generalist Pre-Service Teachers To Teach Music, John Heyworth

Research outputs 2011

Generalist classroom teachers are being given more responsibility for music education in their schools. How confident and competent are they to do this? I find myself in a position where I am expected to train pre-service generalist teachers to be able to facilitate music in their future classrooms within one unit of music study over a four year general bachelor of education course. This paper is a self study on how I reflect on and describe the methods and the tools that I have used to try to both encourage and empower pre-service teachers to facilitate musical activities in their …

Cssc Program [2011], Cssc

Curriculum Studies Summer Collaborative (2011-2025)

N/A

La Producción De Investigación En Las Universidades Privadas: Estudio De Un Caso, Gus Gregorutti

Faculty Publications

This case study describes how Tecnológico de Monterrey, in northern Mexico, has experienced a qualitative and quantitative increase in its intellectual productivity. In less than ten years, this university has moved from generating few ideas to being one of most distinguished Mexican private universities in the production of knowledge, patents and several research-derived businesses. This work explores how the re-elaboration of the institutional mission and the implementation of a model of research classes, among others, were decisive factors to increase the production of ideas. In this way, the university has increased its visibility and international ranking, attracting qualified re-searchers, developing …

A Study On Becoming An Alternatively Certified Career And Technical Educator, Kymberli Cotton-Flanagan

Dissertations

This mixed method study examined the perspectives of twelve practicing high school CTE teachers engaged in a newly approved university model for alternative certification.

Using Creswell's (2008) Sequential Exploratory Design and the lens of adult learning theory as established in Knowles' (1970) Theory of Andragogy, this study examines how participants in this CTE alternative certification program, describe their experiences as related to the assumptions of adult learning. Relationships between participant's adult learning preferences and the extent to which they experienced their program were also examined.

While literature on alternative certification theories and implications is available, specific research on the use …

Differentiated Instruction In The Secondary Classroom: Analysis Of The Level Of Implementation And Factors That Influence Practice, Duane Kiley

Dissertations

Differentiated instruction is designing and implementing instruction to meet the needs of every student. Differentiated classrooms adjust to individual student’s needs through a combination of practices proven effective in teaching at the student’s point of learning acquisition.

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which secondary teachers differentiate instruction and whether selected independent variables influence teachers’ use of differentiated instruction. Academic teachers were surveyed to determine the extent to which they utilized differentiated instructional strategies. Focus group meetings were conducted to delve deeper into understanding the information received from the teacher survey. Statistical analysis of the …

A Case Study Of How Students Enrolled In Cte Programs And Faculty Understand And Assess The Implications Of Globalization On Career Preparation, Mohammad A. Moradi

Dissertations

Globalization reflects a shift in the workforce development paradigm. This descriptive qualitative case study was conducted at a Midwestern university with 12 student participants and three faculty members from three engineering programs. The purpose of this body of work was to explore the participants‘ perceptions of globalization, and to understand the implications of globalization on career and technical education (CTE) programs, program selection, and career choices, the training of the students enrolled in CTE programs, and the role of teaching faculty and the college in this process.

How CTE programs aligned many diverse programs to meet a growing demand for …

Highly Qualified Public School Teacher: Its Status, Distribution, Determinants, And Relationship With Job Commitment And Job Satisfaction, Samuel Striker

Dissertations

Highly qualified teacher (HQT) has been promoted as a policy instrument to improve our public education. In this study, I investigated the quality of public school teachers by examining the distribution pattern of highly qualified teachers across school level, urbanicity, minority student population, and core academic fields. I also investigated what teacher characteristics (age, gender, ethnicity, total years of teaching, certification, bachelor's degree in mathematics and sciences vs. in other areas, teaching level) predict highly qualified teacher status after controlling for school characteristics (% of minority students, % of free and reduced-price lunch, school size, and school location). Finally, I …

Turning Pages Together: Supporting Literacy And Social Engagement, Cynthia R. Chambers

ETSU Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Pop Arts Enhances Skills, Creates Community, Cynthia R. Chambers

ETSU Faculty Works

No abstract provided.