Education Commons^™

An Examination Of The Instruction Of Religion Clause Issues In Massachusetts Teacher Education Programs, Matthew E. Henry

Educational Studies Dissertations

The prevailing research, as well as reported complaints of academic, civic, personal, and social harm, indicates that public school teachers do not exhibit the professional knowledge, skills, and attitudes grounded in the religion clauses of the U.S. Constitution. This study investigated how TEPs in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts document their instruction of preservice teachers on religion clause issues as they apply to grade 6-12 content area pedagogy, curriculum, and professional ethos. The institutional documents presented to preservice teachers were collected from four teacher education programs in the Commonwealth. An evaluation tool— synthesized from the leading scholarship and research on the …

Exploring Teacher Candidates’ Civic Efficacy Through Civic Engagement And Critical Literacy In A Literacy Methods Course, Dana M. Karraker

Theses and Dissertations

Public school spaces play a large role in developing people’s understandings of civic knowledge and responsibility. Teachers, administrators, and policy-makers design school curriculum to reflect the types of citizens they believe a society needs, and thus, determines approaches to teaching and curriculum development (Labaree, 1997). This action research study examined the civic efficacy and critical literacy understandings of seven elementary education teacher candidates enrolled in a content area literacy course. The course and the study were designed using a critical literacy and civic efficacy framework as literacy practices are closely connected to the ways in which people are able to …

The Effect Of Instructional Strategies On Math Anxiety And Achievement: A Mixed Methods Study Of Preservice Elementary Teachers, Janelle K. Lorenzen

Dissertations

This study addressed how different instructional strategies affected preservice elementary teachers’ levels of math anxiety and their achievement in a math content course while considering descriptions of their experiences in the course in relation to their math anxiety and achievement. The instructional strategies used were traditional teaching methods and inquiry-based learning (IBL). A mixed methods embedded design was used in which the major design of the study is a nonequivalent control group design, where the collection of data occurred before, during, and after the intervention. There were 103 participants who were elementary education preservice teachers with 58 of them being …

Responses Of Education Preparation Program Instructors Toward Mental Health Legislation, Alison Bradford

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In 2013, Texas State legislature passed Senate Bill 460 which implemented a law that requires the inclusion of knowledge relating to students’ mental health status in teacher preparation curriculum. This requirement is explained in Texas Education Code (TEC) §21.044(b). The purpose of this study is to examine the degree of awareness of the new requirement and the attitudes toward mental health among Education Preparation Program (EPP) instructors. In addition, faculty were asked about their implementation plans for the new requirement.

A survey was developed to address these research questions. Thirty-five public and private universities in Texas were targeted, which resulted …

First-Year Teachers’ Perceptions Of Their Readiness For The Classroom, Kathryn Elizabeth Pritchard

Education Dissertations and Projects

This study addresses the impact of teacher preparation programs on novice teachers’ perceived readiness for the classroom. An explanatory sequential mixed-method, three-phase design was used involving two collections of quantitative data and a focus group convened to explore themes that emerged from quantitative data. Data collected suggest whether the type of teacher preparation program completed by a preservice teacher impacts a novice teacher’s perceived sense of readiness for teaching. Butin (2010) discussed “translating research into effective practice has been the weak link” (p. 4) in research studies. Studying a potential connection between teacher sense of readiness for the classroom and …

A Mixed-Methods Study Of A Teacher Preparation Program: Preservice Teachers' Perceived Preparedness To Integrate Technology Effectively, Erin Banks Davis

Education Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this study was to examine the extent to which preservice teachers within a teacher preparation program perceived themselves to be prepared to integrate technology, specifically examining the level of confidence preservice teachers perceive themselves to have towards TPACK-related skills needed to integrate technology into their instruction. Participants in this research study were solicited based on their enrollment in the selected teacher preparation program within the last 5 years; also included were current seniors enrolled in their final semester before degree completion. This research study contains a sample size of 20 participants from a small, private university in …

An Investigation Into The Self-Efficacy Of Jamaican Preservice Teachers For Working In Inclusive Classrooms, Sharon A. Anderson Morgan

Theses and Dissertations

The aim of this applied dissertation was to examine changes in the self-efficacy of preservice teachers on completion of a special needs course and to determine whether there is a correlation between self-efficacy and several demographic variables. Studies conducted in several countries revealed that, despite participation in a special needs course, preservice teachers often expressed low levels of confidence for the inclusion of students with special needs in their general education classrooms. Because there is not much research in the Caribbean on this subject, this study sought to further explore this issue within a different cultural context. The case study, …