Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

Building A Learning Community Within The Constraints Of Open Enrollment, Megan Pugh

MA TESOL Collection

            This paper introduces the ways in which the challenges of open enrollment ESL programs affect both students and teachers and the importance of group cohesion in adult learning.  The effects caused by open enrollment can be abated by building a strong community of learners through involving new students to build a sense of belonging to the class, meeting the needs of individuals within the group, having a supportive learning environment, and using selected best teaching practices to build community.  With the solutions proposed in this paper, teachers can meet student needs and the negative effects of open enrollment will be …

The Impact Of The Head Start Parent Teacher Partnership On Home Based Mathematical Interventions Provided By Single Rural Head Start Mothers, Curtiss J. Babcock

Dissertations

Increased research in the area of early childhood education has expanded knowledge in the area of educating young children and improving school readiness. In Head Start, as well as other preschool programs, attention has recently focused on the pre-mathematics component of early education and school readiness.

The purpose of this study is to gain insight into the home-based mathematic activities and experiences single rural Head Start mothers use to provide math-related instruction to their children prior to Head Start entry. Also examined was the preschool teacher's influence on parent initiated in-home mathematics practices.

This study looked for relationships between the …

Differentiated Instruction In The Secondary Classroom: Analysis Of The Level Of Implementation And Factors That Influence Practice, Duane Kiley

Dissertations

Differentiated instruction is designing and implementing instruction to meet the needs of every student. Differentiated classrooms adjust to individual student’s needs through a combination of practices proven effective in teaching at the student’s point of learning acquisition.

The purpose of this study was to determine the extent to which secondary teachers differentiate instruction and whether selected independent variables influence teachers’ use of differentiated instruction. Academic teachers were surveyed to determine the extent to which they utilized differentiated instructional strategies. Focus group meetings were conducted to delve deeper into understanding the information received from the teacher survey. Statistical analysis of the …

General Educators Perceptions Of Preparedness To Teach In Mixed-Ability Classrooms, Kristen Sparks Kantor

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The increasing populations of students with special academic needs included in general education classrooms in American public schools are providing a growing teacher preparation challenge. The purpose of this study was to analyze both strengths and weaknesses in how general education teachers perceived their pre-service preparation for teaching in mixed-ability classrooms. A constructivist learning theory paradigm was used to interpret shared experiences of general education teachers working in mixed-ability public elementary schools. The research question was centered in how this group of teachers assessed preparation to provide instruction for Autism Spectrum Disorder, English Language Learners (ELL), general education, gifted, and …

The Effect Of Reading Test Mode Interchangeability And Student Assessment Preferences On Achievement, Tania M. Sterling

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Computer-based testing (CBT) in education is on the rise; however, researchers question the interchangeability of CBT and pencil-based testing (PBT). Educators and leaders need to consider test mode interchangeability and student assessment preference prior to adopting CBT in K-8 schools. Following the new literacies theory, this mixed methods study examined test mode preference, the effect on achievement, and factors that influenced student preferences. Research questions investigated participants' computer attitudes and use to determine test mode preference, the impact of test mode and test mode preference on achievement, and factors that influence testing preferences. This sequential explanatory within-group design included 2 …

The Perceptions Of High School Graduates Of Career And Technology Education Courses, Darryl Terrence Middleton

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Career and technology education (CATE) courses were offered to high school students as an alternative form of education. The research problem at the study site, which is a high school located in southeastern United States was the lack of research-based findings on high school graduates' perceptions of CATE courses. The purpose of this study was to understand the participants' perceptions of the impact of CATE courses on career goals. The research question that guided this study was: What are the perceptions of high school graduates of a CATE program? The conceptual framework was based upon multiple intelligences, differentiated instruction, and …

Program Evaluation Of A High School Science Professional Learning Community, Rebecca Mclelland-Crawley

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Teachers may benefit more from a professional learning community (PLC) than from professional development initiatives presented in single day workshops. The purpose of this program evaluation study was to identify characteristics of an effective PLC and to determine how the members of the PLC have benefitted from the program. Fullan's educational change theory provided the framework for the study, which refers to learning experiences of teachers when collaborating with peers. The sample consisted of 9 biology teachers during the 2012-2013 school year. Data were collected through online surveys and face-to-face interviews regarding effective PLCs. The online survey questions were asked …

The Influence Of Student And School Variables On Student Performance On The New Jersey Assessment Of Skills And Knowledge In Grade 8, Maria A. Periera

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

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Teaching Reading In The Secondary Content Area Classroom:Teacher Attitudes And Predictors, Sara L. Norton-Ejnik

Dissertations

Strategic teaching of reading occurs at the elementary level, and students are expected to "read to learn" once they enter high school. The majority of the nation's secondary students do not have all the requisite skills to read and learn from high school texts and materials, and even drop-out rates have been attributed to students' inability to keep pace with the literacy skills demanded by the secondary curriculum. No Child Left Behind legislation now mandates secondary school reading initiatives, from high stakes testing to remediation. Despite the national focus on secondary reading, teachers in America's secondary schools are not teaching …

Essential Elements Of Effective Practices For English Learners, Karen Cadiero Kaplan, Ph.D., Magaly Lavadenz, Ph.D., Elvira G. Armas, Ed.D.

Education and Policy Briefs

One of the most powerful variables for English Learner success is the quality of their teachers. This policy brief published by Californians Together (1) provides a synthesis of effective practices for instructing ELs; (2) presents four research-based essential elements critical for EL program implementation, teacher reflection, and monitoring of teacher effectiveness; and (3) concludes with program and policy recommendations. Three key areas for policy action are prioritized: (1) District and state level policies must require that local and state leadership support the implementation of these essential elements; (2) Alignment of fiscal and human resources must be targeted to ensure that …

A Phenomenological Study Of Social Science Instructors' Assessment Practices For Online Learning, Cynthia S. Dietrich

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Online learning has revolutionized higher education in the United States. In 2007, there were 3.9 million students taking at least 1 online course. Assessment in online instruction is a new experience for teachers because of the recent advent of online course delivery. Current research on online learning does not address instructor experiences with learning assessments. This gap may contribute to online instructors being inadequately prepared to teach online. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore online instructors' experiences with assessments in their undergraduate social science courses. The study was guided by constructivism as well as theories associated with …

The Relationship Between Statistics Self-Efficacy, Statistics Anxiety, And Performance In An Introductory Graduate Statistics Course, William Ray Schneider

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between statistics self-efficacy, statistics anxiety, and performance in introductory graduate statistics courses. The study design compared two statistics self-efficacy measures developed by Finney and Schraw (2003), a statistics anxiety measure developed by Cruise and Wilkins (1980), and a course performance measure. To view self-efficacy from two perspectives, the Current Statistics Self-Efficacy (CSSE) assessed student confidence in their ability to complete specific statistics tasks in the present, whereas Self-Efficacy to Learn Statistics (SELS) assessed student confidence in their ability to learn statistics in the future. The performance measure was the combined …

Parent Involvement In Children's Schooling: An Investigation Of Measurement Equivalence Across Ethnic Groups, Heather Marie Scott

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Epstein et al.'s Theory of Overlapping Spheres of Influence focuses on the interaction and communication, or partnerships, among families, schools, and the community to bring the three closer together. The theory works in conjunction with Epstein's typology of parental involvement, which focuses on six types of involvement that are instrumental to a child's development and his/her school and educational success. These serve as the framework for the study and support the construct of parent's involvement in children's schooling.

The purpose of the current study was to conduct further validation analyses of an inventory designed to measure the construct of parent …

A Mixed Methods Study Of How The Transition Process Impacts The Autonomy Of Pre-Service Secondary Mathematics Teachers, Linda Kasal Fusco

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This mixed methods study sought to identify the impact that transition into the practice of teaching had on the autonomy of pre-service secondary teachers of Mathematics.  It was based on the belief that a Mathematics teacher’s autonomy depended on: beliefs about Mathematics and how it was learned, reflections on the teaching practice, and social constraints of a secondary school culture. Data was collected between January 2009 and March 2010.  In Phase I (Quantitative) the participants (N = 30), selected from ten State University of New York teacher preparation colleges and universities, completed five instruments to quantify the three factors of …

An Investigation Into The Feasibility Of Using Digital Representations Of Students’ Work For Authentic And Reliable Performance Assessment In Applied Information Technology, David G. Miller

Theses: Doctorates and Masters

The assessment of student performance in areas such as drama, physical education, art and Information Technology (IT), does not lend itself to traditional, paper-based testing methods. In these domains, much emphasis is placed on the acquisition and demonstration of practical skills and these may be difficult, if not impossible, to measure by scores on theoretical, written assessments. Alternative forms of assessment, which are both valid and reliable, need to be devised for the practical aspects of these subject areas. The capture, in digital form, of students’ work, may allow the development of authentic forms of summative, high-stakes assessment with high …

An Exploration Into How Physical Activity Data-Recording Devices Could Be Used In Computer-Supported Data Investigations, Victor R. Lee, Maneksha Dumont

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

There is a great potential opportunity to use portable physical activity monitoring devices as data collection tools for educational purposes. Using one such device, we designed and implemented a weeklong workshop with high school students to test the utility of such technology. During that intervention, students performed data investigations of physical activity that culminated in the design and implementation of their own studies. In this paper, we explore some of the mathematical thinking that took place through a series of vignettes of a pair of students engaged in analyzing some of their own activity data. A personal connection to the …

Motivation For Vocabulary Learning Of College Students, Qizhen Deng

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Theses and Other Student Research

The purpose of this study is to construct and validate an instrument to measure motivation for vocabulary learning, opening the door to more studies on motivation for vocabulary learning in reading and listening. In the new 34-item questionnaire: Motivation for Vocabulary Learning Questionnaire (MVLQ), eleven subscales were examined within two motivational constructs, namely, self-efficacy and attitude. Participants in this study were 121traditional undergraduate students from a Midwestern research university. Students responded to two self-report questionnaires: the Motivation for Vocabulary Learning Questionnaire (MVLQ), and the Motivation for Reading Questionnaire (MRQ) (Wigfield & Guthrie,1997). The results suggested that MVLQ had good reliability …

Educators' Attitudes Toward Outdoor Classrooms And The Cognitive Benefits In Children, Carlie Speedlin

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

A case study was organized at a K-5 elementary school in Lincoln, Nebraksa. This school is Saratoga Elementary School and is a United States Title I Distinguished School1 under No Child Left Behind. It has a population of 266 students, with 47% being minority, 1% gifted, and 28% special education (LPS School Profile Brochure). 80% of the student population is eligible for free/reduced meals, implying that it’s a school with a lower socioeconomic status. At this school a garden space was constructed and an after school garden club was implemented for this case study. The club had been running since …

Moving From A Predominantly Teaching Oriented Culture To A Research Productivity Mission: The Case Of Mexico And The United States, Gus Gregorutti

Faculty Publications

This study qualitatively analyzes the culture conflicts professors in the United States and Mexico are experiencing with the increasing pressures to produce more research about higher education. The first dataset was collected from 36 faculty members from 12 small and medium sized private, doctorate-granting universities. These universities are located in 11 states across the United States. The remaining data came from 44 faculty members employed at four small and medium sized private, doctoral granting universities in four states across Mexico. Results showed that universities in the US are transitioning from a predominantly teaching college culture to a more research orientation. …

A Pilot Study Examining High School Physical Education Teachers' Understanding And Use Of Mosston's Style(S) Of Teaching, Greg L. Pierce

Master's Theses

The purpose of this project was to develop a questionnaire that could lend insight to physical educations teachers’ perceptions and use of Mosston's Teaching Styles. The researcher designed a pilot study in which he distributed the questionnaire to six teachers from three Santa Barbara District High Schools. Results show that the six teachers were familiar with all Mosston’s Styles. However, citing circumstances such as class time and class sizes, the participants in this study did not use all of Mosston’s Styles. These results may be useful for physical education teacher educators to help them understand teachers’ knowledge of Mosston’s Styles, …

Environmental And Developmental Indicators In Early Childhood: Relations To Second-Grade Reading Comprehension, Gina A. Cook

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Reading success has been linked to high school completion, future job success, and future generations of children who can read. Unfortunately, children who are unable to read on grade level by the end of first grade are at a great disadvantage and unlikely to catch up later. Without the ability to read and comprehend text, all aspects of schooling become progressively more difficult and the challenge of poor reading ability can be so difficult to overcome that many poor readers will not complete high school. For these reasons, it is important to identify early experiences in a child's family environment …

The Relationship Of Personality Traits To Satisfaction With The Team: A Study Of Interdisciplinary Teacher Teams In Rhode Island Middle Schools, Michele D. Humbyrd, Robert K. Gable

Teacher Education

Shared practice in schools has emerged; teachers are moving from isolation to team collaboration where personality traits could be related to quality interactions. Team personality traits and team satisfaction were examined. A survey and interview approach was used for N = 244 full-time teachers from N = 49 interdisciplinary teams at N = 7 middle schools. Descriptive, correlational, multiple regression analyses and coded themes about team members’ personalities and interactions were employed. No significant relationships were found between the BFI traits and Satisfaction with the Team. Team-level analysis indicated a significant negative correlation between Satisfaction with theTeam and Extraversion and …

Teacher Professional Development Models: Inquiry Into Concurrent Versus Separate Technology And Pedagogical Knowledge And Use, Brooke Robertshaw, Jeffery Olsen, Andrew Walker

The Instructional Architect Research Group

Examining two iterations of a teacher professional development workshop series, a qualitative inquiry into the extent to which teacher espoused knowledge and in-use teacher knowledge was affected by teaching technology skills concurrently and separately with the problem-based learning model was examined. Using data collected from pre-post surveys and journals, a stratified purposeful selection of three participants from both workshop iterations were selected based on overall PBL and self-reported technology knowledge scores.

A Demonstration Of ‘Regression Toward The Mean’, Edward B. Reeves

Faculty Research at Morehead State University

This paper provides a brief discussion and demonstration of regression toward the mean, a subtle statistical artifact that appears in the effort to measure change. Regression toward the mean frequently arises in educational assessment when repeated testing is used to determine achievement growth among students or schools at the extremes of the achievement distribution. This statistical artifact is important because it can lead to erroneous inferences about what is causing the observed changes in test scores. The demonstration makes use of Kentucky Core Content Test data.

Nefdc Exchange, Volume 21, Number 1, Fall 2010, New England Faculty Development Consortium

New England Faculty Development Consortium Exchange

Contents

Message from the President - Tom Thibodeau, New England Institute of Technology

From the editors - Jeanne Albert, Donna Qualters, Naomi Migliacci, Gouri Banerjee, and Deborah Hirsch

Fall 2010 Conference; Friday, November 19, 2010, College of the Holy Cross, Worcester, Massachusetts, United States; theme: Better Teaching – Better Learning: Reflective Practices for Faculty and Students; keynote speaker: Dan Willingham, University of Virginia

An excerpt from, Why Don’t Students Like School? - Dan Willingham, University of Virginia

NEFDC Fall 2010 Conference Agenda

Connecting with others

The Benefits of Formal and Informal Reflective Practices - Art McGovern, Nichols College

Seven Ways …

Teach For Australia Pathway : Evaluation Report Phase 1 Of 3 (April-July 2010), Catherine Scott, Paul R. Weldon, Stephen Dinham

Initial Teacher education

This Report (Part 1) is designed to provide a summary of data gathered on the operation of the Teach for Australia Pathway to date.

Data were collected via site visits with schools and phone interviews with the program partners, the Associates, their mentors, principals and other school personnel, and the Educational Advisers over April through July 2010.

The information gathered to date aims to provide early feedback on how the program is being implemented – to synthesise emerging themes in the delivery of the program and to inform future development and implementation.

Unfair Way To Evaluate Teachers: Test Scores About More Than Classroom, Aaron W. Hughey

Counseling & Student Affairs Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Assessing The Relationship Between Student Involvement And Academic Performance In Higher Education, Azurdee M. Garland

Masters Theses & Specialist Projects

The study examined the relationship between the degree of involvement in co-curricular activities and academic performance, as measured by Grade Point Average (GPA) among college students enrolled at Western Kentucky University (WKU). Three hundred thirty-six sophomores were surveyed via TOPNET, an electronic registration management system, regarding their level of involvement in campus organizations and other factors, including employment status and gender. The cumulative GPAs and the number of credit hours in which the survey participants were enrolled during Fall Semester 2005 were obtained through a survey using TOPNET. Pearson product-moment correlations revealed statistically significant relationships between GPA and the number …

How Do Doctoral Research Academics Perceive Their Research Activities To Be Of Benefit To Undergraduate Students, James Mccauley

Theses

The principal aim of my research is to investigate the perceptions of Doctoral research academics regarding the benefit of their research activities to undergraduate students. Through in-depth interviews, the research aims to establish the level of communication that Doctoral researchers initiate with their undergraduate students about their research activities as well as the extent to which they know if these students perceive these activities as positive or negative. The extent to which students proactively queried such academics about their research activities is also examined. Two main types of activities were identified as having a positive impact: topic specific ‘cutting-edge’ knowledge …

Perceptions Of Virginia Community College System Faculty And Administrators On The Purposes For And Composition Of A Comprehensive Evaluation System For Teaching Faculty Members, William H. Hightower Jr.

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Theses & Dissertations

A survey instrument was developed to measure community college faculty and administrator views on the faculty evaluation process. Responses were then compared based on demographic characteristics such as primary area of instruction, supervisory responsibility, years of experience, and gender. Open-ended survey questions asked respondents to identify the strengths, limitations and changes needed for their current faculty evaluation plans.

A total of 404 faculty members and 67 administrators completed the survey. Significant differences were found between faculty and administrator responses with respect to the reasons for conducting faculty evaluations, the relative importance of including certain elements in the evaluation process, and …