Education Commons^™

Inconsistent Conceptions Of Acceleration Contributing To Formative Assessment Limitations, Gregory D. Kranich

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education has become a national priority in light of measures indicating marginal student interest and success in the United States. Just as evidence is integral to policy decisions, so too do teachers depend on evidence to inform instructional choices. Classroom assessment remains a touchstone means of gathering such evidence as indicators of students’ progress, and increasingly, teachers are designing, implementing, and interpreting assessments in collaboration with one another.

In rural Maine, the work of the Maine Physical Sciences Partnership (MainePSP) has enabled science educators to come together as a supportive professional community. We focused …

Understanding Through Narrative Inquiry : Storying A National Writing Project Initiative., Amy Renee Vujaklija

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This narrative inquiry study informed the understanding of a professional development planning process within the National Writing Project Assignments Matter initiative sponsored by the Literacy Design Collaborative. Because little has been written about teacher-leaders in the roles of planning professional development for colleagues, this narrative inquiry used the three dimensions of situation, continuity, and interaction (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000; Dewey, 1938) to explore interviews, large and small group meeting recordings, and email communications among leadership team members during an initiative to plan professional development. Qualitative data analysis included coding of attributes, process, in vivo, and patterns (Saldaña, 2013). Pattern coding …

Teacher Perceptions Of Individual Professional Learning Plans, Jerry W. Ripley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative study was to examine PK-12 teacher perceptions of an individual professional learning plan (PLP). Specifically, the researcher examined the perceived benefits of the PLP as well as the whether the PLP helped focus teacher learning. Additionally, the researcher examined teacher perceptions of learning activities within the context of the PLP, teacher intent to implement new learning, and perceived impact on teaching practice. Participants in this study were teachers from 16 schools in a single eastern Tennessee school district. All data were collected using an online survey distributed to 525 teachers resulting in a 44% return …

Professional Development And The Impact On Teacher Growth And Development, Sherry Kathleen Segura

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study involved examining the beliefs of teachers at one urban elementary school regarding how professional development has helped them meet the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse students. This study included a series of in-depth interviews with three teacher leaders. The goal was to obtain consent from them to participate in this study at their school. With a qualitative approach, this study included a narrative inquiry method to illuminate teachers' perceptions of whether professional development had a positive impact on their instruction. A series of in-depth one-on-one interviews further shed insight on which types of professional development teachers felt …

Veteran Teacher Engagement In Site-Based Professional Development: A Mixed Methods Study, Biaze L. Houston

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This research study examined how teachers self-report their levels of engagement, which factors they believe contribute most to their engagement, and which assumptions of andragogy most heavily influence teacher engagement in site-based professional development. This study employed a convergent parallel mixed methods design to study veteran teachers' perceptions of engagement in site-based professional development using the assumptions of andragogy as the theoretical lens. The study began with both a quantitative and qualitative phase that was conducted simultaneously. The quantitative data was collected to assess teachers' reported engagement and factors influencing engagement in an ideal state. Descriptive statistics were used to …