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An Investigation Of The Relationships Of Teacher Professional Development, Teacher Job Satisfaction, And Teacher Working Conditions, Thomas Meagher

Dissertations

Demands to changes of instruction for mathematics classrooms are presented in

standards promoted by the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, Illinois State

Board of Education and other government reports creates a demand for teacher

professional development to support teachers to adapt to these changes of instruction.

The overall purpose of this study investigated characteristics of effective professional

development and how those characteristics are associated with teacher job satisfaction

and teacher working conditions. With the completion of this dissertation, this study adds

to the literature relevant to teacher professional development by demonstrating an

association between teacher professional development and teacher …

Implementation Of Document Based Question Essays In Regular Education History Classes, Christine R. Berrong

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to investigate what strategies high school teachers are using to teach Document Based Question essays (DBQs) in non-Advanced Placement (AP) history classes. DBQs are essays in which students are given a question and a set of primary and secondary source documents that they must use to support an argument in answering the question. They must write a well-developed five-paragraph essay that includes a thesis statement in the introduction and must analyze the documents, not simply mention them in the essay. In the researcher's experience, many students in non-AP history classes have difficulty with this …

The Strawberry Grows Under The Nettle: How An Integrated Performance-Based Approach To The Teaching Of Shakespeare At The Secondary Level Affects Critical Thinking Skills As Measured By The California Critical Thinking Skills Test, Brent T. Strom

Dissertations

Though Shakespeare remains the most taught author in American secondary school curriculum, and though there is growing evidence to suggest that the best practice for teaching the Bard is through a performance-based approach, there has been no empirical evidence to support one methodology over another.

This study utilized the California Critical Thinking Skills Test to measure the growth in critical thinking skills that students obtained through a traditional `seat-bound' versus a `performance-based' approach to the teaching of Shakespeare at the secondary level. Its purpose was to determine whether there would be a statistically significant difference between the two.

Subjects were …