The relationship between the mission of community colleges and the increasing teacher shortage has become more transparent as many community colleges have implemented teacher education programs to address community needs, the shortage of qualified teachers, and the lack of diversity among teachers. As the community college's teacher education role has increased, many community colleges have responded by adding associate of arts degrees and certificate programs specific to teacher education to tackle the shortage of teachers and the lack of diversity among teachers in the nation's classrooms. The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of one community college's pre-service teacher education program in transferring minority students to a university teacher education program and the likelihood of the students graduating with both bachelor's degrees and teacher certification. This longitudinal ex post facto causal-comparative mixed methods case study involved tracking a cohort of minority students over a 6-year period. Data were gathered from existing teacher education program records for native and transfer students at one community college and two four-year institutions. Unstructured interviews were conducted with administrators over the community college's program. For data analysis, ?2 and Phi Coefficients were conducted to compare the minority students' university transfer and graduation rates to native university students' transfer and graduation rates. Results of the study demonstrated that the minority students were graduating at an observably higher rate than both the native to university students and their respective ethnic peers who began college at two-year colleges at the national level. This study's findings might help community college teacher education programs to increase enrollments of minority students and to address the needs of surrounding communities. The findings contributed to the relatively scarce literature regarding minority teacher preparation in community colleges. The study's findings might also be useful to community colleges looking toward or already implementing similar pre-service teacher education programs. Overall, the results indicated that pre-service teacher education programs at the community college level can be effective at producing transfer students who successfully graduate from four-year teacher education programs.

Doctor of Philosophy / Curriculum and Instruction Programs / Michael Perl / The National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) standards adopted in 2000 mandated the assessment of teacher dispositions. However, the lack of specificity of the construct has led to an environment where many institutions struggle to develop high-quality disposition assessments. The result is a hodgepodge of constructs and systems; some that work, some that do not. This quantitative study used a modified version of the Teacher Disposition Index (TDI) to identify the extent to which first-year teachers’ self-reported exhibiting the dispositions and whether they perceived they were taught the dispositions by the teacher education programs from which they graduated. Responses to the TDI were compared based on type of college or university from which they graduated, gender and age. The TDI, a 45 item, Likert-type survey, is aligned with the INTASC standards. Data were analyzed using frequency distributions, analysis of variance, and chi square tests. An aggregate review of all 45 dispositions shows 93.6% of responses were positive for “agree” or “strongly agree” that they exhibit the identified dispositions and 88.51% of responses were positive for perceiving they were taught the dispositions. Overall, there was no significant difference identified between any groups (by school type, gender, or age) except for in exhibited dispositions compared by gender (p< .05). When drilling down to specific dispositions, an occasional significant difference was identified. In general, the respondents in this state report they exhibit the identified dispositions at a high rate and they report the teacher education programs are teaching these dispositions. The following recommendations are made based on the results of this study. First, colleges and universities can teach more interpersonal communications skills as part of the required curriculum. More overt instruction of dispositions, especially at smaller institutions, is needed. Teacher education programs could place more emphasis on the development of dispositions of male teacher education candidates. Novice teachers could benefit from more instruction of informal assessment skills and flexibility in instruction.

Purpose. The problem of this study was to determine the present practices in the selection and preparation of off-campus supervising teachers in accredited elementary education programs in state-supported teacher education institutions in the United States. (Abstract shortened.)

The problem of this study was to determine the relationships among selected predictor variables in order to identify the combination of variables which best predicts scores on the National Teacher Examination-Weighted Common Examination Total Score. The identified variables were sex, teaching level, ACT composite scores, teacher education admission grade-point averages, CAT scores in Reading, Mathematics, and English, and Professional Education sequence grade-point averages. Nine hypotheses comprised the basis of this study. The first eight hypotheses pertained to the bivariate relationship of each predictor variable and the NTE-WCET scores. Hypothesis nine concerned the relationships of the combination of the predictor variables to the NTE-WCET scores. The 99 subjects of this study were drawn from 186 applicants for initial teaching certification in Tennessee during the 1981 calendar year. Selection was dependent upon the subjects having the grade-point averages and scores used as variables recorded and reported to East Tennessee State University. Pearson product-moment/and point-biserial correlations were used to determine the relationship between each predictor and the criterion. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine the combination of variables which correlate significantly with the NTE-WCET scores. The .05 level was considered in determining significance. Analysis of the relationship of predictors with the NTE-WCET scores revealed that sex and teaching level did not correlate significantly. ACT composite scores, CAT Reading scores, CAT Math scores, CAT English scores, teacher education admission grade-point averages, and Professional Education sequence grade-point averages correlated significantly at the .0001 level. ACT composite score and CAT Reading scores shared the greatest common variance with NTE-WCET scores at 74.23 percent and 61.88 percent respectively. Analysis of a significant correlation between the NTE-WCET scores and a combination of all eight predictors showed a significant correlation at the .0001 level. Analysis of the significance of each predictor to the R('2) increase showed that ACT composite scores, CAT Reading scores, and CAT English scores were significant at the .05 level.

Purpose. The problem of this study was to determine the present practices in the selection and preparation of off-campus supervising teachers in accredited elementary education programs in state-supported teacher education institutions in the United States. (Abstract shortened.)

The purpose of this study was to determine the factors of agreement or disagreement between a group of public school principals and a group of teacher educators concerning their perceptions of the relative Importance of specific teaching behaviors to the success of the beginning classroom teacher. (Abstract shortened.)

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to observe, analyze, and compare teacher verbal and non verbal behaviors as they were exhibited toward students in both traditional class rooms and open-space class rooms. Particular emphasis was placed on determining the degree, if any, to which teachers in open-space class rooms were more indirect and encouraging than direct and restricting in their behaviors than teachers in traditional class rooms. (Abstract shortened.)

Purpose. The purpose of this study was to design, implement, and evaluate a pilot training program on teaching skills and determine if such a program could significantly improve the teaching behavior of resident physicians in the East Tennessee State University College of Medicine. (Abstract shortened.)

<p> The quality of teacher education allows first-year teachers to meet mandates at federal and state levels (Darling-Hammond, 2010a). The teaching profession is complex and requires new and innovative quality preparation programs (Wei, Andree, &amp; Darling-Hammond, 2009). This study involved examination of the perceptions of 17 building principals and 16 first-year teachers to determine the effectiveness of teacher preparation. First-year teachers identified essential elements of teacher preparation and weaknesses of programs. The study addressed building principals&rsquo; perceptions of differences, if any, in the effectiveness of first-year teachers graduating from traditional teacher preparation programs and first-year teachers who choose alternative routes to the profession. Perceptions of first-year teachers and building principals were identified in regard to the skills of first-year teachers in the classroom. Building principal perceptions indicated first-year teachers are prepared as effective classroom teachers in the areas of content knowledge, creating positive environments, classroom management, cooperative learning, cooperative partnership, implementing curriculum, use of technology and communication; understanding student learning, growth, and development; and performing roles, responsibilities, and collegial activities. Identified weakness in the effectiveness of first-year teachers were in the areas of instruction and assessment. Building principals indicated first-year teachers from traditional programs were more effective than those who chose alternative programs. First-year teachers indicated essential elements of teacher preparation programs to be organization, classroom structure, positive reinforcement, classroom management, and implementing a variety of instructional strategies. Areas of weakness identified were time-management, parent teacher conference experiences, preparing the classroom environment, and time for realistic opportunities to experience classroom teaching. First-year teachers perceived their preparation to be more positive than building-principal perceptions in the areas of analyzing instructional goals and differentiated instructional strategies, teaching for critical thinking, effects of instruction on individual/class learning, use of student assessment data to analyze and modify instruction, assessment data to improve learning, and self-assessment. </p>

<p> The purpose of this paper is to answer research questions related to this capstone project that evaluates how peer and/or individualized professional development impacts teacher comfort and usage of technology. The analysis, measures and processes utilized to answer these questions are outlined within this paper in order to determine significant factors that affect technology usage within the classroom.</p>