Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Teaching To The Technological Demands Of The 21st-Century Classroom, Michelle Trainor

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Learners of the 21st century are met with the need to collaborate, problem solve, critically think, and synthesize various sources of information. Simultaneously, teachers and learners are expected to utilize rapidly evolving digital technologies as tools to make teaching and learning more effective. As digital technologies become increasingly prominent in K-12 classrooms, the question becomes: in what ways are preservice teachers learning to teach to the technological demands of the 21^st-century classroom? Dr. Punya Mishra and Dr. Matthew J Koehler of Michigan State University propose the Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework as a means for effective technology …

Calculator Usage In Secondary Level Classrooms: The Ongoing Debate, Nicole Plummer

Honors College Theses

With technology becoming more prevalent every day, it is imperative that students gain enough experience with different technological tools in order to be successful in the “real-world”. This thesis will discuss the debate and overall support for an increased usage of calculators as tools in the secondary level classroom. When the idea of calculators in the classroom first came to life, many educators were very apprehensive and quite hesitant of this change. Unfortunately, more than 40 years later, there is still hesitation for their usage; and rightfully so. While there are plenty of advantages of calculator use in the classroom, …

Connecting With Families Of Poverty Handbook, Rebecca Christine Oren

All Graduate Projects

The purpose of this project is to create a handbook describing services available in the Sumner School District and researched based practices for elementary administrators and teachers to use when working with students and families of poverty. The McKinney-Vento Act in the United States protects families to ensure that all students have immediate access to school-linked services, including free breakfast and lunch, as well as transportation needs for getting to and from school. This handbook includes descriptions and contact information for local support organizations that administrators and teachers can additionally partner with to create supportive learning environments within their school …

Naspa’S New Professionals Institute: Exploring The Personal And Professional Impact Of A Two-Day, Intensive Professional Development Experience, Ashley Stone

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Professional development experiences, like professional development literature, are vast. While existing professional development literature discussed the needs for and barriers toward professional development as well as the benefits and types of professional development experiences, no research existed about NASPA Student Affairs Administrators in Higher Education’s (NASPA) New Professionals Institute (NPI), an intensive, two-day leading professional development experience for student affairs professionals who have been in the field for less than five years. Therefore, I conducted a phenomenological qualitative study, which explored the meanings NASPA’s Region IV-West NPI participants made of their two-day professional development experience as well as the personal …

Examining The Role Of Motivation In The Relationship Between Perceived Academic Stress And Coping Among Freshmen, Ying Dong

Theses and Dissertations

First-year college students commonly face academic stress that is negatively associated with academic achievement and persistence. It has been found that problem-focused coping (PFC) effectively decreases stress, but emotion-focused coping (EFC) exacerbates stressful situations in the long term (Carver & Scheier, 1994; Kim & Duda, 2003). Lazarus and Folkman’s (1984) Transactional Model of Stress and Coping (TMSC) posits that cognitive appraisals determine the selection of stress coping. In the current study, two motivation indicators, causal attributions for academic stress and value of college education, were recognized as cognitive appraisals that were respectively placed into the TMSC to test their role …

Planning Professional Learning, Thomas R. Guskey

Educational, School, and Counseling Psychology Faculty Publications

With backward planning, schools can ensure that they choose professional development activities aligned with their most important goals.

An Investigation Of Western Australian Pre-Service Primary Teachers' Experiences And Self-Efficacy In The Arts, Geoff W. Lummis, Julia Morris, Annamaria Paolino

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

The arts are crucial in developing our multi-sensory interpretation of culture. With the introduction of the Australian National Curriculum in the arts, there is cause to reflect on teacher education courses, and pre-service teachers’ ability to deliver the new curriculum. Reflection on students’ experiences in the arts may provide insight into improving teacher education. A mixed methods study was conducted with first and fourth-year Bachelor of Education primary students at a Western Australian university, to determine students’ arts experiences prior to and during the course. Fourth-year graduating students were also asked to reflect on their self-efficacy to teach the arts …

Autoethnography And Teacher Education: Snapshot Stories Of Cultural Encounter, Maureen F. Legge

Australian Journal of Teacher Education

In this paper I discuss how I framed and wrote an autoethnographic personal narrative of my lived experience as a New Zealand physical education teacher educator in the presence of two cultures, Māori and Pākehā. Central to my qualitative study was writing as a method of inquiry. Using this method I wrote a series of descriptive ‘snapshot stories’ derived from field experiences, over an 11 year period, that involved close and prolonged encounters with physical education teacher education (PETE) students in tertiary classrooms and 4 day marae stays. The storied accounts served as data for self-reflexivity about my role as …

Effect Of Direct Instruction Programs On Teaching Reading Comprehension To Students With Learning Disabilities, Jennifer Parker

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this quasi experimental research study was to examine the effects of two direct instruction programs, SRA Reading Mastery Signature and SRA Reading Success on reading comprehension skill acquisition of middle school students who qualify as a student with a specific learning disability. Furthermore, the study was used to compare the reading comprehension achievement of students who participated in SRA Reading Mastery Signature and students who participated in SRA Reading Success using the reading portion of the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) assessment. The treatment groups were located in a moderate size school district in the Upstate region …

International Undergraduate English Language Learners' Perception Of Language And Academic Acquisition Through Online Learning: A Qualitative Phenomenological Study, Olga Dejesus

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

Many institutional programs are changing to incorporate more online opportunities as a way to meet the needs of their students. Therefore, international English language learners are being encouraged to take online courses in order to complete their programs of study at United States colleges or universities (Tan, Lee, & Steven, 2010). In this qualitative phenomenological study, the researcher sought to investigate international undergraduate English language learners' perception of and experiences with language and academic acquisition through online learning. This study was conducted with a selected group of 10 undergraduate international students enrolled in the Liberal Arts program at a private …

The Effects Of Dating On Developmental Adjustment For Adolescents, Taylor L. Smith

Senior Honors Theses

This research study examined the course and effects of romantic relationships on the psychology and development of adolescents between the age of 15 and 18. Because existing literature demonstrates a high level of developmental significance to the relationships between adolescents and platonic peers, the introduction of the romantic element to teens’ social lives carries additional importance to their maturation process. There are also certain individuals and relationships that have greater likelihood of resulting in negative outcomes such as dating abuse and depression. Of eight participants, four were male and four were female, and all participants were currently 18-19 years of …

Fidelity Of Implementation, Teacher Perspectives And Child Outcomes Of A Literacy Intervention In A Head Start Program: A Mixed Methods Study, Dawn Davis

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The success of early childhood interventions have been influenced by the degree to which they were implemented with fidelity (e.g., Davidson, Fields & Yang, 2009; Dusenbury, Brannigan, Falco, & Hansen, 2003; Elliot & Mihalic, 2004), meaning “the degree to which teachers and other program providers implement programs as intended by the program developers” (Mellard & Johnson, 2008, p. 240). This study examines relations among implementation fidelity, teacher characteristics, their perceptions, and child literacy outcomes within a preschool literacy intervention using a mixed methods design.

This study examines child literacy outcome data from 247 preschool children and fidelity, perceptions and demographic …

Editorial: A Middle Ground, Jeff Sommers

English Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

An Exploration Of Gender Impacts Through The Portrayal Of Teachers In Best Selling Picturebooks, 2008-2012, Alicia Martinez

HIM 1990-2015

The purpose of this study is to examine if a difference exists in the quantity and/or quality, in terms of effectiveness in the portrayal of teachers, and according to gender, in New York Times best selling picturebooks, 2008 to 2012. This study examines the depiction of a teacher in terms of their effectiveness, as defined by Robert Walker’s 12 Characteristics of an effective teacher. Examining each of the portrayed teachers for both the 12 effective characteristics, as well as their direct antithesis, presents a clear image of the teachers presented to young audiences through picturebooks. In addition to comparing the …

Distributed Leadership In Schools: Conditions For Success, Daniel Noble

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

Teacher leadership has always been a necessary part of school dynamics. Through committees, union/administrative negotiations, formal and informal leadership roles, teachers play an important role in the growth and change of an educational institution. The purpose of this study is to examine teacher leadership through the perspective of distributed leadership theory; identify the conditions and components of both schools and administrators that support distributed leadership and identify essential steps to transform leadership practice to a distributed model.

This is a qualitative text analysis of current theoretical papers and relevant research on the subject of distributed leadership. The information was used …

Elementary Teachers' Expectations And Perceptions Of School Counselors, Kelly Stapleton

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This qualitative study explored the expectations and perceptions elementary teachers have of school counselors. Participants were current or past students in an elementary education graduate program at a southeastern university. The participants responded to an open-ended online survey that consisted of questions that focused on the demographics of their schools and the expectations and perceptions they had of the school counselor’s roles and responsibilities pertaining to both academic achievement and student behavior. Although responses varied, the data suggests that there was substantial concern regarding the time and availability of the school counselor, implications of the use of counselors as school …

When Assessment And Accountability Intersect, Good Things Can Happen, Connie Schaffer

Teacher Education Faculty Publications

A process implemented in a large teacher preparation program simultaneously addressed demands related to improving pre-service teacher assessment practices and program accountability. The process, called Assessment Presentations, led to (a) more systematic incorporation of assessment instruction into the program's curriculum, and (b) the refinement of a program accountability measure. As part of the Assessment Presentations, pre-service teachers gave oral presentations during which they demonstrated assessment practices and offered evidence for program accountability by including data related to P-12 student learning. The Assessment Presentations also provided program-specific data that led to individual program revisions and a stronger overall teacher education program. …

Enhancing Teaching And Learning Through Ipad Integration In A Clinic-~Based Literacy Course, Kyle F. Kaalberg

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

A re-conceptualized clinic-based literacy methods course offered the opportunity to engage participants with digital media, i.e., iPads, as a part of reading and writing instruction. This multiple case study highlights the experiences of those involved with the course: two instructors, 18 teacher candidates, and the 18 elementary tutees who received literacy tutoring. Framed through a new literacies perspective and TPACK framework, the study focused on teacher candidates' use of iPads with their literacy instruction of elementary tutees, tutees' learning experiences, and the ways in which course instructors' TPACK was influenced.

Data collection involved multiple case study methodology (Merriam, 1998; Yin, …

A Case Study Of Preservice Teachers In An Associate Of Science Degree Early Childhood Teacher Education Program: Perceptions Of Professional Preparation, Tracy E. Sermon

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The purpose of this study was to examine the perceptions of preservice students completing their associate’s degree (AS) in early childhood education (ECE). My intent was to discover, from the preservice teacher’s perspective, what skills and knowledge preservice students consider necessary to teach young children. I was also interested in how they viewed their professional preparation at the completion of their AS program.

The methods included participant interviews, documents and assignments completed by students, and program contextual data (faculty focus group and program documents). Seven themes were identified that represented the student’s perceptions of the skills and knowledge needed for …

Auditory Versus Cursive Writing Drills In Learning New Vocabulary In 4th Grade Children, Rachel S. Tyrone

Honors Theses

Vocabulary acquisition is fundamental in order for children to succeed not only academically, but also socially. Throughout the years, many scholars have researched various techniques to aid children in learning new vocabulary. Two of the techniques to aid vocabulary can be seen by utilizing an auditory and a writing technique. A teacher will present the students with several vocabulary words multiple times throughout a regular school year. These words are vital to the success of the child. Consequently, there is a need to discover a technique that will aid the students in learning the new vocabulary words. In order to …