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Full-Text Articles in Education
Collaborative Teacher Action Research: Improvement Science As Professional Development?, Carol L. Munson
Collaborative Teacher Action Research: Improvement Science As Professional Development?, Carol L. Munson
Theses and Dissertations
There is growing consensus in the education world about the need to change the dominant practices in P-12 teacher professional development, which do not respect teacher knowledge and are unconnected to teachers’ daily work, to be more consistent with new and ambitious visions for school reform. This study employed collaborative action research, using improvement science, in which a small cadre of teachers worked through problems of practice to examine the effect on their practice and student learning. In this research project, I implemented a systematic evidence-based process developed by Anthony Bryk, president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of …
Examining Career And Technical Education Practitioner Preparation And Professional Development Needs, Shane Wilson Lange
Examining Career And Technical Education Practitioner Preparation And Professional Development Needs, Shane Wilson Lange
Theses and Dissertations
This quantitative study was used to investigate Illinois automotive educator professional development needs and to identify the demographic landscape of Illinois secondary and post-secondary automotive teachers. The study should bring a greater understanding of what automotive teachers feel they need to learn in order to continue as successful educators. A modified Borich (1980) needs assessment model was used to identify the perceived importance and ability levels for 32 professional competencies. Mean Weighted Discrepancy Scores (MWDS) were calculated using the importance and ability scores in order to report the professional development need. The administered survey was also utilized to examine their …
Supporting Intermediate Teachers' Implementation Of The Ngss Through A Collaboration Based On Mutuality, Elisha Nichole Swanson
Supporting Intermediate Teachers' Implementation Of The Ngss Through A Collaboration Based On Mutuality, Elisha Nichole Swanson
Theses and Dissertations
The Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) are based on a wealth of research on science education and student learning and written by a range of experts from relevant fields. This study is significant and timely, given the recent release of these standards which are designed to build a scientifically literate and productive society. The potential impact on K-12 students rests on the shoulders of educational professionals in the schools. The elementary level presents a unique set of challenges for quality science instruction, implicating a need for classroom support to address limiting factors. The scope of the study is narrow; a …
Changes In Teacher Thinking And Action In Response To The Next Generation Science Standards, Angela R. Bowden
Changes In Teacher Thinking And Action In Response To The Next Generation Science Standards, Angela R. Bowden
Theses and Dissertations
This study examined the role of K-12 science teachers’ understandings and perceptions of the Next Generation Science Standards, implementation of the new standards in the classroom, and potential barriers to implementation as reform stakeholders had envisioned. Grounded in the relevant literature and working from the Teacher-Centered System Reform framework, this study employed a quantitative approach to data collection. The TCSR Model framed this study by linking teachers’ demographic and professional profile, teaching experience, professional development, district-level, school-level, and classroom-level contexts and illuminates the dynamic effect the factors have on teachers’ thinking and their practice. The study recognizes teachers’ knowledge and …
Principals' Perceptions Of Professional Development: Options That Support Effective Leadership, Lisa Lee Geren
Principals' Perceptions Of Professional Development: Options That Support Effective Leadership, Lisa Lee Geren
Theses and Dissertations
This study is designed to investigate the perceptions of elementary school principals in the state of Arkansas regarding what supports they need to be effective instructional leaders. Phase I of this mixed method study uses an online survey of 112 elementary school principals to better understand their descriptions of an effective instructional leader and the professional development supports they need. Phase II consists of personal interviews of 12 elementary school principals. The research revealed four overarching themes: Personal Attributes, Values Relationships, Leadership Skill Sets, and Meaningful Professional Development. Principals described effective leaders as visionaries, hospitable, empowering others, visible, good listeners, …
Executive Coaching As A Model Of Professional Development For School Superintendents, Timothy Brian Arnold Jr.
Executive Coaching As A Model Of Professional Development For School Superintendents, Timothy Brian Arnold Jr.
Theses and Dissertations
This study is a utilization-focused program evaluation that describes the impact of an executive coaching model on the professional learning of superintendents who participated in the IASA School for Advanced Leadership (ISAL). This program evaluation is a knowledge-focused, or lessons learned-oriented, formative evaluation of the ISAL cohort program. A qualitative approach is used to describe the lived experiences of superintendents who participated in the coaching model provided through the ISAL cohort program. The results were intended to inform general practice and to provide recommendations on the use of a coaching model in the professional development of superintendents for the ISAL …
Assessment For Learning: An Evaluation Of A Professional, Aimee Davis Feehery
Assessment For Learning: An Evaluation Of A Professional, Aimee Davis Feehery
Theses and Dissertations
The purpose of this program evaluation was to determine how teachers have come to understand, use, and value formative assessment through their participation in our Assessment for Learning Teams for the past five years. Greeno, Collins, & Resnick's (1996) learning theory serves as the theoretical framework of the evaluation, as this program evaluation serves to determine if, and how, teachers have changed their mental models of assessment from a Behaviorist-Differentiationist model to the Cognitive-Situative model, or from an Assessment of Learning view of assessment, to an Assessment for Learning perspective. In order to determine if teachers have gained the conceptual …
An Examination Of Teachers' Perceptions And Implementation Of Learning Trajectory Based Professional Development, Megan Hope Wickstrom
An Examination Of Teachers' Perceptions And Implementation Of Learning Trajectory Based Professional Development, Megan Hope Wickstrom
Theses and Dissertations
The aims of this study were to investigate how teachers incorporated learning trajectory based research into practice, specifically how they made sense of students' thinking in relation to classroom instruction. To conduct this study, I used an ethno-methodological approach (Garfinkel, 1967) across several months, with three fourth-grade teachers in a diverse, high needs school. Each of the teachers participated in professional development on using learning trajectories (Sarama & Clements, 2009) as a tool to formatively assess individual student's thinking as a means to inform classroom instruction. During the study, the teachers were asked to conduct clinical interviews with students in …
Discursive Tactical Negotiations Within And Across Literacy Coaching Interactions, Carolyn S. Hunt
Discursive Tactical Negotiations Within And Across Literacy Coaching Interactions, Carolyn S. Hunt
Theses and Dissertations
In this dissertation, the researcher employed de Certeau's theoretical insights into cultural production in everyday life to examine how literacy coaches and teachers discursively negotiated issues of identity, power, and positioning during coaching interactions. The study also explored how literacy coaches and teachers enacted emotions within these discursive negotiations of identity, power, and positioning; and how physical, social, and ideological spaces were shaped by and reflected in coaching interactions. Data were generated during a yearlong qualitative study of literacy coaches and teachers interacting within a mid-size, suburban district in the U.S. Midwest. The researcher used a microethnographic approach to discourse …