Education Commons^™

Perceptions Of Preservice Teachers Of Students With Autism And Intellectual Disabilities In Their Teacher Preparation Programs In Saudi Arabia, Salman Almughyiri

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study explored the male preservice special education teachers’ perceptions in regard to the preservice special education teacher preparation courses, practicum, and evidence-based practices that they have recently completed. The participants of the study included five preservice special education teachers from two universities, Shaqra University and King Saud University, in Riyadh (the capital city of Saudi Arabia). Qualitative interview designs were employed to gather the data, which included conducting fifteen interviews. Each participant was interviewed three times with 45-90 minutes of length for each interview. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data. Thematic analysis is a method for identifying, …

The Sustainability Of Career And Technical Education Teacher Preparation Programs In Florida, Lisa Martino

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There is a historical trend of decline in available Career and Technical Education (CTE) Teacher Preparation programs and an increase in CTE course and program enrollments in Florida’s secondary school system. This contradiction in CTE teacher supply and demand raises an important question. What is going on? More specifically, what sustains the remaining programs in the face of this decline?

The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore sustainability factors from past and present CTE teacher preparation program educators and administrators to gain a better understanding of this issue. The participant selection for this study was identified from four …

Teachers’ Third Eye: Using Video Elicitation Interviews To Facilitate Kuwaiti Early Childhood Preservice Teachers’ Reflections, Hessa Alsuhail

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative descriptive study explored the experiences of three Kuwaiti pre-service teachers with guided reflection and the extent to which video technology facilitates reflection. The data sources were semi-structured and video-elicited interviews, field notes, and researcher reflective journals. The study was guided by two research questions: In what ways does video elicitation facilitate Kuwaiti pre-service teachers’ reflections? What do Kuwaiti pre-service teachers reflect about? I used Rogoff’s Sociocultural Theory (2003; 1995) as my conceptual lens for this study which stresses the importance of cultural contexts in all areas of education. I developed a concept I call “third-eye” thinking to define …

A Case Study Of Teachers' In Professional Learning Communities In A Campus Preschool, Victoria Jacqueline Damjanovic

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this multi-case study was to describe and explain teacher learning within school contexts by exploring the nature of teachers' experiences in learning communities. This study explored the ways in which teachers participated in professional development sessions using the project approach as a framework for facilitating and engaging in professional learning communities by answering: What is the nature of teachers' experiences in inquiry-based professional learning communities? In what ways and under what conditions does documentation play a role in teacher learning? For data collection I used semi-structured interviews, audio recordings of professional development sessions, teacher documentation, teacher daily …

Preparing Teachers To Apply Research To Mathematics Teaching: Using Design-Based Research To Define And Assess The Process Of Evidence-Based Practice, Sarah Van Ingen

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Persistent lack of mathematics achievement and disparity in achievement has led to the publication of research findings related to equitable teaching practices. Although the publication of such research provides insights about approaches for potentially increasing equity in mathematics education, teachers must be able to apply what has been learned from these studies to their classroom teaching practices. Despite the widespread expectation that teachers use research-supported teaching strategies to meet the needs of their diverse classrooms, the research to practice gap persists. Little research is currently available to guide mathematics teacher educators in how to prepare future teachers to apply research …

Team-Teaching Experiences Of A Mathematician And A Mathematics Teacher Educator: An Interpretative Phenomenological Case Study, Sarah K. Bleiler

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In recent years, experts and organizations involved in mathematics education have emphasized the importance of collaboration between mathematicians and mathematics teacher educators as a means of improving the professional preparation of mathematics teachers. While several such collaborative endeavors have been documented in the extant literature, most research reports have focused on the products, rather than the process, of collaboration. The purpose of this interpretative phenomenological case study is to gain an understanding of the lived experiences of a mathematician and a mathematics teacher educator as they engaged in a team-teaching collaboration within the context of prospective secondary mathematics teacher preparation. …

Making Meaning With "Readers" And "Texts": A Narrative Inquiry Into Two Beginning English Teachers' Meaning Making From Classroom Events, Christi Underwood Edge

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Situated in a transactional paradigm, connections between the constructs of meaning and experience in both teacher education and reading in English education guided my construction of a theoretical framework called Classroom Literacy. This framework extends Rosenblatt's Transactional Theory of Reading (1978, 1994, 2005), broadens the concept of text to include the verbal and non-verbal communicative signs related to the context of the classroom, and positions teachers as "readers" of their classrooms as texts. The Classroom Literacy theoretical framework guided my thinking as I re-conceptualized three persistent problems in learning to teach (Hammerness, Darling-Hammond, Bransford, Berliner, Cochran-Smith, McDonald, & Zeichner, 2005)--an …