<p> The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate teachers' perceptions about the impact of the McREL Teacher Evaluation System on their professional growth. The sample comprised 15 teachers of students in Kindergarten to Grade 4 in a suburban New Jersey school district who participated in Year 1 implementation of a new standards-based teacher evaluation model. Participants were asked to explore the professional teaching standards in the McREL Teacher Evaluation System. The conceptual framework included adult learning, critical thinking, and reflective practice. The themes that emerged defined a new teacher-driven interpretation of leadership and a collective responsibility to a shared vision of student learning. The study highlighted the expectations of meeting the learning needs of a more diverse population of students; applying content knowledge, specifically the Common Core State Standards; facilitating learning through various instructional strategies and modalities that cultivated critical thinking with colleagues and contemporary students; and engaging in reflection of teacher practice as a significant catalyst for growth. The study also emphasized the need for strategic systems of strong organizational support as essential to a successful implementation process.</p>

There is no abstract available for this dissertation.

<p> The present study was designed to measure differences in elementary school teachers' attitudes toward willingness to teach students with ADHD in their classrooms in Riyadh City in Saudi Arabia through a descriptive non-experimental quantitative research instrument. The study examined relationships among many variables through teachers' level of education, years of teaching experience in the education area, grade level of teaching, class size, previous teaching experience with any kind of disabilities, teachers' positions in schools, special education courses taken in college, teachers' in-service training, and teachers' gender. The last variable examined teachers' overall attitudes toward their willingness to teach students with ADHD in their classrooms. </p><p> The participants in the study, a total of 300 elementary school teachers including 150 males and 150 females, completed the survey. Overall the results found that elementary school teachers have neutral attitudes toward willingness to teach students with ADHD in their classrooms. Moreover, the findings of the study revealed the significance of the relationship between teachers' willingness to teach students with ADHD in their classrooms and their level of education, grade level of teaching, class size, previous teaching experience with any kind of disabilities, positions in schools, special education courses taken in college, and in-service training. Finally, the study found there was no relationship among years of teaching experience in the education area or gender and teachers' attitudes toward willingness to teach students with ADHD in their classrooms.</p>

<p>Play is an important part of a child&rsquo;s development. Play is often defined as an activity done for its own sake, characterized by means rather than end. Pretend play receives a huge focus at the pre-school and kindergarten levels, especially socio-dramatic play. Socio-dramatic play, common from around 3 years of age to six years of age, is a type of pretend play. Socio-dramatic play incorporates sustained role taking and a narrative line. This study intends to examine pretend play in greater detail and to determine if the structuring of pretend play by the teacher can positively affect student social and behavior skills. The two students under study, a 5-year old female with limited social skills and a 6-year old boy who exhibits poor behavior skills. The two students under study were placed in an unstructured and structured dramatic play area center through the course of the study. The researcher used a duration recording form, a partial recording form, and field notes to measure behavior. The results of the study showed that the children improved their behaviors during the structured dramatic play area center time. </p>

<p> Mindfulness practices, used to focus and sustain attention, have been shown to promote school readiness, and to positively impact students' academic success. Yet, incorporating these practices into the normal school day has been difficult due to the curriculum changes and teacher training necessary for implementation and sustainable operation. This study utilized a quasi-randomized controlled trial (RCT) design, to measure the effects of a mindfulness program on student grades, on teaching operations, and on teacher mindfulness and stress. The program consisted of 90 audio-guided tracks, each 10 minutes in length. The automated delivery system, via an MP3 player and docking station, offered both students and teachers the opportunity to consistently participate in mindfulness practices each school day without impacting teaching operations. A total of 337 students in 2 schools participated in this study. There was a significant mindfulness intervention effect on students' grade point average (GPA) changes in School A (<i>N</i> = 131), between the treatment (<i>n</i> = 64, <i>M</i> = 2.7995, <i>SD</i> = 3.13), and control (<i>n</i> = 67, <i>M</i> = .0448, <i> SD</i> = 2.61) groups; <i>t</i>(129) = 5.48, <i>p</i> &lt; .001 (2-tailed), 99% <i>CI</i> [1.76, 3.75], <i>d</i> = .96. In school B, (<i>N</i> = 206), there was a near significant mindfulness intervention effect on GPA changes between the treatment (<i> n</i> = 103, <i>M</i> = .0357, <i>SD</i> = .065) and control (<i>n</i> = 103, <i>M</i> = .0091, <span style="text-decoration:overline"> SD</span> = .126) group; <i>t</i>(204) = 1.91, <i>p</i> = .058 (2-tailed), 95% <i>CI</i> [-.001, .054], <i> d</i> = .27. These results suggest that a daily audio-guided mindfulness practice can positively impact student grades across all subjects with less than 1 hour of teacher training and with no changes to the existing curriculum. </p>

Prior research has shown that negative attitudes toward mathematics are linked to decreased achievement and participation, but it is unclear what factors influence children’s attitudes toward mathematics. Thus, the overarching goal of this study was to understand the relationship between outside sources and children’s views. Specifically, this study investigated elementary students’ experiences with and views of mathematics and mathematicians, and the ways that their views may be influenced by popular media representations, parents’ views, and teachers’ views of mathematics and mathematicians. Additionally, the study examined whether there were differences between girls’ and boys’ views and between younger (Grade 4) and older (Grade 8) elementary students’ views of mathematics and mathematicians. Framed by a social constructivist and feminist epistemological stance, the study employed a multi-method framework comprised of questionnaires (n = 156), drawings of mathematicians (n = 94), and focus group interviews (five interviews, involving 21 participants) with students; an analysis of children's media (43 examples across five media types); interviews with parents (11 interviews, involving 13 participants); and interviews with teachers (nine interviews, involving 10 participants). In terms of their relationships with mathematics, the student, parent, and teacher participants’ views were encouraging, both in terms of perceptions of themselves as learners of mathematics and of the utility of mathematics. However, the manner in which the participants conceptualized mathematics tended to lack breadth, often focusing on arithmetic and financial mathematics. Similar conceptions of mathematics were evident in the media representations. Moreover, media portrayals of mathematicians and mathematically proficient people tended to perpetuate stereotypes. Despite their awareness of these stereotypes, the participants often lacked alternative representations to challenge these views. Indeed, the lack of exposure to a variety of representations of both mathematics and mathematicians contributed to the participants’ reliance on views that were often narrow and stereotypical.

<p> Writing is a well-established content area in the elementary grade levels and computer programming is currently being introduced to the elementary grade levels. Both subject areas utilize similar organizational skills and teaching strategies. However, the students who are motivated to program may not represent the students who are motivated to write. The purpose of this study was to investigate the change in the dimensions of motivation, which are: challenge, choice, enjoyment, and interest of fifth-grade students to engage in an expository writing activity after being taught to develop computer programs with the same teaching strategies used in the writing activity. </p><p> A quasi-experimental control-group design was conducted, with the use of the <i>My Class Activities Instrument,</i> to investigate the change in the dimensions of motivation. Control, treatment groups, and gender were investigated by comparing pretest and iv posttest data. The data were analyzed using a multivariate general linear model (MGLM) for treatment/control groups and gender. </p><p> The results of the MGLM showed no statistical significance for difference in the control, treatment groups, and gender; more analysis was conducted on individual students. Students were categorized into three levels (low, middle, and high) on motivation by the results of their pretest scores. Students were tracked based on who showed a motivational change from the pretest on both the science activity and the posttest. The individual students in the treatment and control groups were then compared by percentage of individual movement. The results of the analysis showed that the low treatment group, on all four dimensions of motivation, moved more positively than the control group that scored in the low group on the pretest. </p><p> The results of this study suggest that the teaching of computer programming was not effective with the intention of motivating the masses of fifth-grade students to write. However, there appears to be supporting evidence that teaching computer programming to fifth-grade students may help some individual students who are not initially motivated to write.</p>

<p> This year-long research investigated fathers' involvement in 1 public elementary school in southern California that served an ethnic diverse and lower socioeconomic population. This case applied Epstein's 6 typologies to analyze the perceptions of 112 fathers and 132 mothers utilizing a 35-item validated questionnaire, followed by long interviews of fathers, school administrators, and teachers in addition to researcher's field notes. </p><p> Compared to prior studies, findings revealed that fathers and mothers reported that fathers' involvement in parenting and home learning was high. Responding to "all the time" and "sometimes," 91% of the fathers indicated they attended extracurricular activities; 87% participated in PTA activities; 86% attended parent-teacher conferences; 82% monitored or assisted with homework; 82% offered study space; 81% regularly purchased supplies; 75% provided computer and technology equipment; and 80% celebrated academic achievement. Utilizing 2 chi-square analyses to survey data, these findings applied to fathers who were employed (71%) or unemployed (29%) as well as to higher-educated fathers (community college degree and above) and fathers with a high school diploma or less (<i>p</i> > .05). </p><p> Applying a chi-square analysis to survey data, fathers' and mothers' perceptions were similar (<i>p</i> > .05) except volunteering, fathers indicating higher involvement. However, 88 to 100% fathers responded to "not at all" or "a few times" on the items in this typology, a low level of involvement. All groups of respondents reported fathers' low involvement in school decision-making and community collaboration activities. </p><p> Regarding communication, fathers indicated that they desired direct communication from the school such as e-mail blasts, text messages, and focused notices related to their child. Since fathers indicated that 32.0% were divorced or separated and almost half of the participating mothers were single, targeted communication to fathers as well mothers is necessary to encourage father involvement. School personnel reported communication is primarily sent to one set of parents as accurate 2-parent information is difficult. </p><p> The study provides recommendations to stimulate father engagement, such as staff should connect with fathers during child pick-up and after-school activities. Also, staff should create a father-friendly school environment and offer focused, task-oriented opportunities to involve fathers as well as social activities that attract mothers. </p><p> <i>Keywords:</i> father involvement, parent-school communication, family involvement, parenting.</p>

<p> Precision teaching (PT) is a measurement system used in multiple settings for all types of behavior, from driving to mathematics. The ultimate goal of PT is to develop fluent, free operant behaviors through analyzing response frequencies on a standard celeration chart. Research has found PT to be effective at improving both the speed and accuracy of academic skills. There is little research, however, in the effects of learning channels, a component of PT, as they relate to the acquisition of academic skills. The present study examined the relationship between single and multiple learning channels on the acquisition of mathematics skills by five 1^st graders in a public school setting. Implications related to universal designs for learning (UDL) utilized in educational environments are also discussed. </p>

<p> Self-efficacy affects the way a person decides to live his or her life. Efficacy can dictate whether a person takes a risk, can influence personal and professional goals, and can determine what a person does when failure arises. Strong self-efficacy includes perseverance, motivation, and courage to try an unfamiliar path. In education, efficacy is imbedded in a school environment. The areas of efficacy that co-exist in an educational setting are teacher efficacy, collective efficacy, and student efficacy. The focus of this study is the influence instructional coaching has on teacher efficacy and how that efficacy affects student achievement. Research indicates that there is a relationship between teacher efficacy and student achievement. The question is whether teacher efficacy is influenced by support from an instructional coach in a school setting. In this mixed methods study there were many indications to support the need for instructional coaching in an efficacious school system. Themes found in the interviews and teacher reflections indicated a strong need for effective school leadership, strong professional learning communities, supportive grade level teams, and instructional support found within an instructional coach. Use of the Teacher Sense of Efficacy Scale along with the Wilcoxon signed-rank test showed the positive effects instructional coaching had on the instructional efficacy of the participants involved in this study. Finally, a paired samples <i>t</i>-test showed evidence of student achievement being affected by the support teachers received from the instructional coach. These topics remain relevant to the challenges facing teachers today who need ongoing instructional support to help them with implementation of state and federal mandates and educational standards.</p>