Teacher Education and Professional Development Commons^™

The Impact Of The Five Focal Areas Of Research Based Instruction On Student Achievement, John T. Schilawski

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this quantitative inquiry was to determine whether a statistically significant amount of variance existed in the linear combination of collaboration, data use, differentiated instruction, engagement, and feedback and their ability to predict standardized assessment scores. Schools were separated into those of affluence and poverty based on a division using Title I criteria for free-and-reduced lunch rates. This study examined the existence of the linear combination and the impact on student achievement on ISTEP+ English language arts (ELA) and mathematics scores. The link between the five focal areas of research-based instruction and the institutionalization of such practices in …

Teachers' Perceptions Of Students' Creativity Characteristics, Serap Gurak-Ozdemir

Creative Studies Graduate Student Master's Theses

Teachers’ perceptions of an ideal student were investigated in terms of their FourSight preferences (i.e. Ideator, Clarifier, Developer, and Implementer). Based on these preferences, 275 teachers who were currently working in Western New York region described their “ideal” student with 66 adjectives of Torrance Ideal Child Checklist. Results showed that for each of FourSight preferences, teachers have a tendency to support characteristics associated with their own preference. More specifically, teachers with a stronger Ideator tendency encouraged the students’ Ideator characteristics more compared to Developer and Implementer styles. Teachers with a Clarifier tendency do not seem to favor students’ Ideator characteristics …

Teacher Stories, Parent Stories, Stories Of School: Educator/Parents Navigating School Landscapes, Jennifer C. Nelson

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

Situated within this narrative inquiry are four parents, who are also educators, negotiating their teacher/parent identities while examining their praxis within their classrooms. Educators, who are also parents, have a unique position within education. They have a personal, practical, professional knowledge of schools—and a personal, practical knowledge of their children. In the process of juxtaposing these parent stories of teaching and learning with their own child(ren) alongside their teacher stories of teaching and learning with their students, various curricular practices are called into question. It is the personalized stories that often bring silenced voices to the forefront; thus, the researcher …

Negotiating A Mentor Practice In An Age Of Reform, Linda Whalen Abrams

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

This dissertation builds on a theory of situated social practice, which holds that social practices, such as mentoring, can be transformed in and through relationships among people who are engaged in activities in the socially and politically structured world (Arnseth, 2008; Kemmis & Smith, 2008; Freire, 1970). A participatory action research study grounds this work and adds to a nascent line of empirical research on mentoring in urban teaching residency programs (UTRs) by asking how inquiry supported mentors and teacher educators in recognizing, negotiating, and naming a mentor practice for their hybrid, practice-based, district- and university-sponsored, teacher preparation program.

I …

Tone Deaf-I: A Practical Application For Amusia And A Reflection On The App-Development Process, Trina Coleen Dayley

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Defense Agenda

• From Concept to Application
• 7 Guidelines for Application Design
• Changes and New Version Demo
• Opportunities for Improvement
• Final Thoughts
• Questions

Program Monitoring Practices For Teachers Of The Deaf And Hard Of Hearing In Early Intervention, Anne E. Thomas, Christine Marvin

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

Program monitoring is an important and necessary assessment practice within the field of early childhood deaf education. Effective program monitoring requires a focus on both the consistent implementation of intervention strategies (fidelity) and the assessment of children’s ongoing progress in response to interventions (progress monitoring). Teachers of the deaf and hard of hearing (TODs) who provide early intervention services need to conduct regular program monitoring to evaluate the merit of their efforts. However, progress monitoring is a practice often overlooked by practitioners within the field of early intervention. It is recommended that TODs monitor children’s progress “regularly,” but evidence of …

The Importance Of Linguistic Diversity Instruction Within Teacher Education Programs, Rhiannon L. Finney

Honors College Theses

The United States is continuously growing, and as it grows it has become more and more diverse. As diversity increases, awareness of culture becomes a more pressing and important manner. So, while schools have often worked to include and encourage multiculturalism and diversity within their boundaries, one major section has been left out of the equation. The importance of linguistic diversity is vastly misunderstood and left out of teacher education programs, negatively impacting young students, particularly those of traditionally marginalized groups. In order to better prepare prospective teachers and to help provide a real social change in an inherently racialized …

Tripl - Living, Learning, Leading: A Program For Ongoing Cultural Training For House Leaders At Mossgate Preparatory School, Stephanie Munson

Capstone Collection

This paper is a program proposal for an ongoing intercultural training program for boarding house leaders at Mossgate Preparatory School (MPS). High turnover rates for house leaders at MPS have been linked to conflict and frustration related to living and working in a multicultural environment. A Multicultural Competency questionnaire was distributed to 2014-15 MPS house leaders, and the results showed that approximately half of all house leaders had never received any sort of intercultural training. In order to address this need, the TripL Program was conceived.

Through initial and ongoing trainings conducted for all house leaders at MPS, the TripL …

Examining The Relationship Between Academic Integrity And Moral Reasoning Among Physical Therapy Students, Gary Dean Schindler

Theses and Dissertations

According to research conducted from 2002-1012 by the International Center for Academic Integrity, 43% of graduate and 68% of undergraduate students admitted to cheating on written assignments or tests. However, minimal research exists on physical therapy (PT) students’ perceptions of academic dishonesty. Moral reasoning has been investigated throughout medical programs with PT students having displayed lower levels than other professional students. However, no studies investigating the relationship between academic integrity and moral reasoning in PT students exist. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate moral reasoning and academic integrity among PT students.

Data from seven Midwest PT programs …

Development Of A Professional Learning Framework To Improve Teacher Practice In Technology Integration, Donna Marie Ledford

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

Technology is now considered a critical component and an integral part of a high-quality education (Ertmer & Ottenbreit-Leftwich, 2010). Teachers must be equipped to handle the transactional relationship and dynamics of integrating technology in the classroom (Mishra & Koehler, 2006). Professional development should be designed and implemented to improve instruction and ensure all students are afforded the opportunity to learn effectively using technology. The problem is that current staff development models designed to help teachers integrate technology into their instruction have not resulted in the effective transformation of instructional practices to utilize technology as part of the teaching and learning …

Middle School Teachers’ Perspectives On Promoting Effective Technology Integration, Yona Andrew Rose

All Theses And Dissertations

Technology integration reforms in education have increased in number and expectation throughout schools across the United States. Some instructors have experienced barriers with skill sets, attitudes, professional development opportunities, and collaboration time which have impacted their ability to model good practices. Pictures of qualified, confident teachers integrating technology into their classrooms with regularity and fidelity are unclear. Existing literature was reviewed regarding methods of increasing teacher comfort and knowledge related to technology integration so that the 21st Century Skills of critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and communication can be addressed in public schools. This research study explored what middle school teachers …

Nota Bene: News From The Yale Library, Spring 2016, Amanda Patrick

Nota Bene

Nota Bene is published during the academic year to acquaint the Yale community and others with the resources of the Yale Library.

Guiding Sixth Grade Language Development In Mathematical Content Acquisition Through Student Centered Siop Instruction, Leah Callister

Dissertations, Masters Theses, Capstones, and Culminating Projects

Mathematics is considered a universal language for students. However, now common core standards require students to explain their conceptual understanding through words, numbers, and verbal explanations. Student proficiency in the universal language is impeded when they do not speak the primary language. It is difficult for the teacher to teach both the academic language and mathematical concepts, when the vocabulary is not accessible to all students. Conversely it is difficult for students to follow the pacing of the class while having to translate and gain a conceptual understanding of the subject. The purpose of this study is to increase student …

Virtual Communities Of Practice For Non-Native K-12 Spanish Educators As Professional Development, Javier Gerardo Gómez

Dissertations

Many world language and culture educators are non-native speakers of the language they teach. Although the current face-to-face professional development sessions do a good job in helping educators acquire technology tools to implement in their world language classrooms, professional development lacks in target language enrichment and providing ongoing collaboration among world language educators who are geographically dispersed. Additionally, the cost of attending state-wide, regional, and national world language professional development is very expensive and thus many world language educators cannot take part in these trainings. Consequently, many world language educators do not have the professional training they need to improve …

Encouraging Teachers To Design Their Own Professional Learning Through Inquiry : An Elementary Principal Conducts Practitioner Action Research, Michael G. Ryan

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

Imagine school-based meetings that encourage faculty to design and direct their own professional learning during the course of a school year. This is the type of structure I implemented at Lakeside Elementary School during the 2013-2014 school year. With this practitioner action research study, I seek to add to the research related to the ways inquiry is presented and used as a professional learning structure within schools. I examine the way I, an elementary school principal, established a series of faculty meetings called “Design Your Own Learning” in which teachers were responsible for planning and carrying out professional learning based …

Negotiating For Release Time And Leave, Maura Mast, Nathan L. Tintle

Faculty Work Comprehensive List

Many large-scale research projects require a course release or a complete reduction in teaching responsibilities for a semester, year or more. This article suggests some ways to get them.

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 …

The Creative Entrepreneur Leading Innovation, Karina Loera Barcenas

Creativity and Change Leadership Graduate Student Master's Projects

The Creative Entrepreneur Leading Innovation is a course designed for undergraduate students. Students will learn the entrepreneurial mindset through the creative process triggering innovation and leading transformation to face and adapt in the current constant and fastest changing era. This course also has a skill development component through which students will be able to experience personal transformation towards positive change.

Teachers' Awareness Of Cultural Diversity And Academic Achievement In Ninth Grade Academies And Senior High Schools, Jamellah Whipps-Johnson

Dissertations

High school graduation rates are higher than they have ever been in 40 years, but disparities continue to exist for students of color and students from poverty when compared to their counterparts. High school reform efforts like creating small learning communities are promising, but small schools alone do not improve student outcomes. Personalization and responsive learning environments are essential to improving academic achievement in high schools, and particularly for ninth graders.

A monocultural teaching force paired with a racially and culturally diverse student population necessitates an examination of teachers’ awareness of cultural diversity particularly in the high school setting where …

Behavioral And Environmental Analysis Of Self-Reported Dysphonic And Non-Dysphonic High School Music Teachers, Emily Pence Brown

Dissertations

Vocal fatigue and dysphonia are considered to be common hazards associated with occupational voice users. Teachers, due to the consistent communication demands of the profession, represent the highest percentage of clinical voice disorder patients (Verdolini & Ramig, 2001). Voice related injuries in teachers could result in lost wages due to missed work, additional costs for medications, therapy, and surgeries, and teacher attrition (Verdolini & Ramig, 2001).

The purpose of this study was to observe specific teacher behaviors and classroom environmental factors among and between three self-reported dysphonic and three self-reported non-dysphonic music teachers. The researcher observed each participant daily during …

An Assessment Comparing Community College Students’ Computer Self-Efficacy And Task Based Computer Knowledge, Amy Nicholson Stewart

Dissertations

This quantitative research study explored the relationship between students perceived computer self-efficacy and actual knowledge of computer related skills in computer hardware/technology, windows, Word, Excel, and PowerPoint and whether gender, race, and education level affected the research findings.

The participants in this study were students enrolled in an introductory computer concepts course at a community college located in the southeastern region of the United States. The computer course was a required for all students to receive an Associate of Arts and Associate of Applied Science degree. Data was collected in traditional face-to-face class sections and consisted of a pre- and …

A Study Of Latina Superintendents In New Jersey: “Cumpliendo Metas”, Nurka Liz Nieves

Seton Hall University Dissertations and Theses (ETDs)

Latinas¹ have been known for certain leadership roles throughout the history of the United States. They have impacted the country’s government as having the reputation of being strong, resilient women capable of great ingenuity and creating paradigm shifts for the welfare of Americans. These endeavors are a demonstration to other Latinas in the United States that they too are capable of attaining any profession they prepare themselves to embrace. It is that si se puede² attitude that such role models express by their examples in positions of power that with perseverance cumpliendo metas³ is possible.

The focus of …

Toddlers And Technology: An Examination Of How The Digital Surround May Be Related To Prototypic Vocabulary Development And Social Interactions During Play, Hannah Biarnesen Hutcheson

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study sought to examine how the digital technology that surrounds young children may be related to prototypic vocabulary development and Social interactions during play. Twenty-six families in the Northwest Arkansas region with children between 15-36 months of age participated in the study. Thirteen children attended a campus preschool, six children attended a grant-funded local preschool, and seven children, all from the Northwest Arkansas area, were part of an earlier home-based study. The materials for the study included a developmental-technology use questionnaire and the MacArthur-Bates Communicative Development Inventories. Archival videotaped play sessions with the seven home-based children utilized a “Little …

Parental Involvement: Perceptions And Participation At Critical Moments Throughout The Middle School Transition, Rachel R. Heaton

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to compare the perception scores and the frequency of parental involvement for parents of students who have most recently completed elementary school (entering 6^th grade) with parents of students who have most recently completed middle school (entering 9^th grade) in a northeast Tennessee public school district.

Data were collected by surveys containing a short demographic section, a perceptions section, and a participation section. The population consisted of the parents of 544 sixth grade students from the district’s 2 middle schools and the parents of 578 ninth grade students from 1 district high …

An Examination Of Teacher Understandings Of Technology Integration At The Classroom Level, Shawn M. Carlson Phd

All Student Scholarship

The purpose of this dissertation is to describe and understand how teachers describe the changes in their practices as a result of ten years participation in a one-to-one environment. This research study focuses on one successful middle school’s adoption of laptops to support teaching and learning. A qualitative study using interviews of key participants was undertaken with teachers and administrators. The Technological, Pedagogical and Content Knowledge (TPACK) framework was used in conjunction with Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovation framework to understand from the participants’ perspective changes to their practice. The results indicate teachers underwent changes in their use of technology to …

A Comparison Of The Effects Of Peer Networks And Peer Video Modeling On Positive Social Interactions Performed By Young Children With Developmental Disabilities, Conrad Oh-Young

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

A concern that parents of children with disabilities have is whether or not their offspring are able to interact and be accepted by children who do not have disabilities. Unfortunately children with developmental disabilities (DD) may experience difficulties when interacting with typically developing peers. One method of addressing this issue has been to ensure that children with DD receive instruction in the same school setting as their peers. However, simply attending the same school as children who are typically developing may not be enough. Hence the need for interventions such as peer network (PN) and peer video modeling (PVM), that …

Changes In Teachers' Constructivist Beliefs And Practices From Preservice To Inservice Teaching: A Mixed Methods Approach, Christina Joan Santoyo

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Teacher candidates’ development into novice teachers is a social process that depends on their teaching context as well as the mentors who help them through the process. Viewed through the lens of social identity development theory and mentoring theory, this study used an embedded, mixed methods design to understand how and to what extent six Alternative Route to Licensure teacher candidates’ beliefs and practices differed from preservice to inservice teaching. Mixed-methods data were collected using observation, semi-structured interviews, and partial interval recording. The six participants included secondary math, English, science, and social studies preservice-turned-novice teachers. In order to understand the …

Discursive Negotiation And (Re)Construction Of Professional Identities For Mathematics, Angela Rae Crawford

Boise State University Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative study explores how discourse communicates professional identities for mathematics in a context of pedagogical reform. The central research question is: In a case of mandatory mathematics professional development, what professional identities for mathematics are expressed, (re)constructed, and negotiated through discourse? This study takes a poststructuralist approach to discourse analysis. The purpose is to describe ways discourse communicates professional identities, or understandings about what it means to be a good mathematics teacher, in a context that may ask teachers to change their pedagogical practice. Data were collected by recording a mandatory, full-day professional development meeting for mathematics teachers of …

Community: Collaboration For Leadership And Professional Learning In Rural Northern New England, Leigh Reagan Alley

All Theses And Dissertations

Through instrumental case study, this research sought to better understand a potentially effective model for rural principals’ professional development, illustrated by one bounded case--here a self-convened professional learning community. Research questions included inquiry into the needs or interests that compel these area principals to participate in the PLC; the benefits and challenges of their participation in the professional learning community; how the participating principals would characterize their professional growth associated with participation in the PLC; and the recommendations participants would offer to other rural principals interested in convening a professional learning community. Though the case may or may not be …

Teacher Leaders’ Perceptions Of Their Influence On The Distributed Leadership Process At A Middle School, Katherine Susan Garand

All Theses And Dissertations

This interpretive, qualitative study explores the perspectives of teacher leaders within the middle school setting as to how they perceive their role influences the distributed leadership process. Five significant themes, with subthemes emerged from the data as a result of the analysis process. These themes were identified as Leadership style, Empowerment, Social Influence, Commitment and Job Role Confusion. This data allowed the researcher to develop several conclusions, including the need to clarify the specific responsibilities associated with the team leader role and the importance of developing more appropriate professional development opportunities for team leaders, specifically in the areas of …