<p> The current recommendation by The American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) is that communication in the target language should comprise at least 90% of instructional time in the second language classroom (ACTFL, 2012). This constructivist mixedmethod study contributes to the literature on the oral skills of practicing high school teachers and the oral skills training they receive in teacher preparation programs. Data for the study were collected in two phases, from nine face-to-face interviews, and from electronic survey respondents. Surveys were sent out to two hundred four teachers and responses were received from sixty-eight. </p><p> Identified themes that emerged from interview participants&rsquo; experiences were: 1) use of target language vs. English in class, 2) challenges target language teaching presented for teachers, and 3) teachers&rsquo; responses to these challenges. A twenty-one question electronic survey was created based upon these themes and sent out state-wide to high school Spanish teachers. </p><p> In a significant finding, while participants indicated an overall feeling of being sufficiently proficient in their own oral skills and supporting use of the target language as much as possible in classroom activities, slightly more than one-half of teachers surveyed reported they were not adequately prepared to teach in a Standards-based curriculum which emphasizes the use of target language. Findings also indicated that consideration should be given to providing additional professional development opportunities regarding knowledge of and implementation of the Standards, as well as creation of further opportunities for target language maintenance for currently practicing teachers and additional opportunities for pre-service teachers in their university programs to improve their oral proficiency. In addition, this study revealed that, in this state, the taking and passing of the Oral Proficiency Interview or not needing to do so did not significantly impact the amount of target language used in class by teachers or student. Regarding length of teaching career and use of Spanish in class, this study showed a higher use of the target language by both teachers newer to the profession and those more senior teachers with less Spanish use in class reported by teachers who had been teaching between six and ten years. </p><p> Suggestions for future research were offered such as expanding studies to include middle school and elementary school levels, conducting similar studies with teachers of other languages than Spanish, and investigating other state&rsquo;s teachers&rsquo; perspectives. Further data could provide more in-depth insights if the amounts of target language spoken for the various purposes were broken out into percentages by each level of language taught by instructors.</p><p>

<p> The purpose of this quantitative study was to compare the perception of teacher self-efficacy of traditionally and alternatively certified teachers in a suburban school district with a graduation rate of 99%. A school district with a graduation rate of 99% is worthy of further study to see if there is a statistical difference in the self-efficacy of its professional staff who are traditionally and alternatively certified. Through a study on licensure and worker quality comparing alternative routes to traditional teacher routes, alternatively certified teachers have stronger pre-service qualifications than do traditionally prepared teachers with the least restrictive alternative pathway attracting the most qualified teachers (Sass, 2014). Teacher quality and effectiveness have been studied to determine their relationship to and impact on student achievement. The researcher surveyed 82 teachers who were certified through traditional teacher preparation programs and through alternative preparation programs. The results of the this study did not show a significant difference in the teacher self-efficacy of traditionally and alternatively certified teachers nor did it show a statistical difference in the Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale (TSES) score of those with three or more years of experience and who had previous work experience with children and adolescents. The researcher used two surveys to gather data&mdash;a demographic survey created by Thompson (2003) and the TSES, a Likert-type scale, created by Schwarzer, Schmidtz, and Daytner in 1999. The TSES identifies jobs skills and groups in four major areas: (a) job accomplishment, (b) skill development on the job, (c) social interaction with students, parents, and colleagues, and (d) coping with job stress (Schwarzer, 1998; Schwarzer et al., 1999).</p><p> Keywords: self-efficacy, traditionally certified, alternatively certified. </p>

<p> The purpose of this research was to determine the effectiveness of a teacher training program in distance education (EAD) offered in a private institution of a higher education system located south of Puerto Rico. In order to achieve the objectives, the research was carried out with the application of Stufflebeam CIPP Model for program evaluation, specially focused on process and product phases.</p><p> The sample was composed of professors who participated in the Training Program. These participants were given a questionnaire designed for this research and related to the two stages: process, product and effectiveness of the program, as well as their satisfaction on aspects related to the training received. A Likert scale was used to identify the responses.</p><p> The research was framed in a quantitative and non-experimental methodology that was based around three research questions. The data obtained with the administration of the questionnaire were analyzed through the program SPSS 21. These data were analyzed and calculated through the descriptive statistics with the calculation of the frequency measurements.</p><p> After analyzing the data obtained and based on the results obtained and reported the highest percentages in the scale of "Totally agree" and "Agreed" it was shown that in the opinion of the participants, the training program for the teacher training in DE is effective with respect to the purpose of their design and participants are satisfied with the training received. The data collected in this study may support educational institutions to design training programs for professional development.</p>

<p> This qualitative descriptive study explored the experiences of three Kuwaiti pre-service teachers with guided reflection and the extent to which video technology facilitates reflection. The data sources were semi-structured and video-elicited interviews, field notes, and researcher reflective journals. The study was guided by two research questions: In what ways does video elicitation facilitate Kuwaiti pre-service teachers&rsquo; reflections? What do Kuwaiti pre-service teachers reflect about? I used Rogoff&rsquo;s Sociocultural Theory (2003; 1995) as my conceptual lens for this study which stresses the importance of cultural contexts in all areas of education. I developed a concept I call &ldquo;third-eye&rdquo; thinking to define a multifaceted approach to education and reflection. I also developed a concept I call &ldquo;cultural spheres of influence&rdquo; to describe the multitude of cultural influences that shape individuals and groups in unique ways. This study also depended on guided reflection to complement the process of video elicitation. The findings of my study indicated that video elicitation provided concrete material as a basis for reflection. My findings showed that Kuwaiti early childhood pre-service teachers reflected on various topics including: teaching tools and materials, strategies and techniques, everyday problems and challenges, classroom dynamics and management, and evaluators and the evaluation process. This research contributes to the existing body of literature by giving reflection a new culturally-rooted definition based on its application by Kuwaiti pre-service teachers and through a careful consideration of the cultural spheres of influences that shaped who the participants were and what they brought to the reflective process. </p>

<p> The purpose of this phenomenological study was to examine the experiences of teachers who effectively promoted student creativity and maintained high levels of work engagement. Creativity is considered a skill crucial for future success but is often misunderstood. High-stakes accountability in modern education has increased focus on test scores, reduced emphasis on creativity development at the school level, and negatively affected teacher work engagement. </p><p> In-depth interviews and written responses were used to generate an understanding of how teachers who foster student creativity and maintain high levels of work engagement experience modern education. Fifteen participants from 14 schools in three school districts across northern Georgia shared their experiences. </p><p> Findings indicated that teachers can foster student creativity in the current high-stakes accountability environment when they focus on establishing meaningful relationships with students and colleagues, exhibit adaptability in the classroom, and maintain confidence in their educational identity. The participants in the study also were driven toward self-improvement, found intrinsic value in their approach to curriculum and instruction, were supported by administration, focused on social and emotional aspects of education, provided students with ownership in the learning process, made learning relevant, and established structure and safety for students within a flexible approach to learning. Future implications for practice include placing an increased focus on creativity development in schools because this focus has the potential to increase student learning in addition to boosting creativity.</p><p>

<p> Educational reform movements set ambitious goals for student learning. Numerous factors contribute to students achieving these goals. It has been widely understood that &ldquo;the increasing emphasis on quality of teaching and learning has placed new demands on staff development, and the search for models and methodologies which are promising for professional development of academic staff has become an important agenda in itself&rdquo; (Ho, A.,2001 P.35). Effective changes in practice require a great deal of learning on the part of teachers and an even greater amount of support and guidance from administrators (Borko, 2004, Putnam &amp; Borko, 2000).</p><p> Problematic practices in hiring and staffing make it difficult, albeit impossible, to provide an equal distribution of qualified teachers in high poverty districts and schools serving minorities. Contributing to the problem of teacher inequality and underqualified teachers is the phenomenon of out-of-field teaching- a term in reference to certified or qualified teachers who were teaching a subject in which they had no formal qualification or training (Hobbs, 2013). These teachers often receive little training and support and therefore find it difficult to experience success.</p><p> Through qualitative interviewing this study seeks to explore the perceptions of out-of-field teachers and mentors and understand how they make meaning of their experiences. Five themes emerged from the study: ineffective training and professional development, desire for success, buy in, time, and support. </p><p> Teachers and mentors want professional development that is meaningful to the work they do in the classroom. Educators, especially those teaching out-of-field, need training that is intense, focused and content oriented. Buy in is vital to any professional training. Out-of-field teachers want to be included in the decision-making as to what professional development they receive.</p><p> From this study, it was learned that it is a teacher&rsquo;s priority to make sure they are teaching content standards from day-to-day. The participants identified a lack of support as an inhibitor to that implementation. This concern for the lack of professional support among the participants bares out much of the research (Borko, 2014. Hobbs, 2015, Darling-Hammond, 2002, Ingersoll, 1999). Out-of-field teachers are highly committed to the students and communities they serve. With focused and intense training, close monitoring, time to observe skilled content area teachers, and strong support from building and district administrators, out-of-field teachers can become effective educators when teaching outside their area of expertise.</p><p>

The study investigated two main questions: the first focused on the factors that enabled and constrained student teachers' engagement of a socially critical pedagogy in physical education teacher education (PETE); the second centered on gaining insight into the usefulness of knowledgeability as a concept for analysing student teachers engagement of a socially critical pedagogy. At the time of writing this thesis empirical analyses of socially critical pedagogies in physical education were rare in the educational literature. The study provided an alternative way of analysing student teachers’ engagement of a socially critical pedagogy in PETE. Alternative in that it avoided recycling and reproducing the dualism between agency and structure (Aronowitz and Giroux, 1985) that is prevalent in much of the physical education literature. Conversational interviews were conducted with four student teachers and their teacher educators throughout the duration of a one-semester PETE unit in an Australian university. Observations were made of the lecture and practical sessions and a document analysis was conducted of all unit learning resources. The analytical frame used in the study was structuration theory (Giddens, 1979, 1984). This framework was useful because it gave primacy to the duality of structure which recognised ‘the structural properties of social systems are both the medium and outcome of practices that constitute those systems’ (Giddens, 1979, p.69). The pedagogical intentions of the teacher educator co-ordinating the PETE unit were to change the orientations of the student teachers towards primary school physical education by encouraging them to adopt different ‘lenses’ through which to examine pedagogical practices. These ‘lenses’ highlighted the questions central to those with socio-critical intentions, eg. power, social injustice and diversity. Data generated from conversations with, and observations of, the student teachers, indicated that the actualisation of the teacher educator's intentions were somewhat limited. Despite this, adopting structuration theory as the explanatory framework for the study proved generative at a number of levels. Broadly, structuration theory was useful because it highlighted the way that student teachers' engagement with a socially critical pedagogy is contingent upon particular (idiosyncratic) dialectics of agency and structure. Using the duality of structure as an analytical tool illustrated the way student teachers' were influenced by structural factors as well as the way these structural factors were in turn constituted by the action of the student teachers. Also, by utilising structuration theory as an explanatory framework, the concept of knowledgeability was identified as a useful concept for analysing student teachers' engagement with a socially critical pedagogy in PETE. What is more, the study highlighted the reflexivity of the self and social knowledge, both characteristics of late modernity, as being integral to the way the student teachers engaged with the socially critical pedagogy of EAE400. Not only did the study highlight the reflexivity of the self but it also provided insight into the reflexivity of social knowledge. Much of the socially critical work in physical education implicitly adopts a linear approach to change. Given the findings of the study it might be useful for future developments to consider change as circular. The thesis concludes by suggesting that given the reflexivity of social knowledge, socially critical perspectives might be more readily engaged if the PETE content was incorporated into student teachers existing knowledge frameworks rather than viewed as a replacement for such frameworks.

<p> ABSTRACT TEACHING AND LEARNING IN THE CO-TEACHING MODEL: ANALYZING THE COOPERATING TEACHER/TEACHER CANDIDATE CO-PLANNING DIALOGUES by Jennifer Brownson The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2018 Under the Supervision of Drs. Hope Longwell-Grice and Linda Post Planning is a central component of the teaching experience in which the teacher draws on curriculum and pedagogy as well as learners and their context. Planning is also a teacher standard at both the state and national level (WI DPI Teacher Standards, InTASC, 2013). For teacher candidates (TCs), an opportunity to learn to plan occurs during the student teaching experience, and the planning session can reveal how the TC and cooperating teacher (CT) choose to meet the academic, social and emotional needs of their students (John, 2006). The power in the planning session has traditionally rested in the hands of CTs (Anderson, 2007); they make the decisions about what to teach and how to teach it, which may not provide the TC with enough opportunities to learn how to plan. </p><p> The co-teaching for student teaching model has shown promise in terms of increased agency for TC&rsquo;s when making decisions in the classroom, including opportunities to share reasons for choices of pedagogy and curriculum, and identify problems and solve them together. While in the co-teaching model for student teaching the CT and TC have been found to have more shared power, (Bacharach, Heck &amp; Dahlberg, 2010; Gallo-Fox &amp; Scantlebury, 2015), there is little research about how CTs and TCs plan for lessons in the co-teaching model, much less on how power is distributed between CTs and TCs during the co-planning session. The dilemma of the distribution of power for the CT and TC in the planning session, and how they participate in the planning session, was explored in this study. The purpose of this collective case study was to reveal and investigate the discourses CTs and TCs create in a co-planning session within the co-teaching model to explore the potential for engaging both participants to use their imaginations and create together, challenging the TC and CT to rethink and/or expand on ideas for planning; and talking about/creating/questioning/challenging each other when planning lessons that provide an equitable education for students.</p><p>

<p> Emotional labor refers to the efforts workers engage in to manage the expression of their feelings in order to meet organizational goals or norms. Although education researchers have established emotional labor among classroom teachers, the nuances and effects of emotional labor in classroom settings still requires more study and understanding. In particular, as researchers have identified the connections between emotional labor and stress among educators, they have posited that providing instruction on the constructs of emotional labor may help to decrease those feelings of stress. Researchers have not yet studied this idea. The aim of this study was to fill that gap by creating and evaluating an in-service training program for educators that teaches about the constructs of emotional labor.</p><p> The study design incorporated both qualitative and quantitative measures to determine not only if teachers can increase their understanding of emotional labor constructs through in-service training, but also how they apply these new understandings in their daily practice. The participants included 22 K-5 classroom teachers from an elementary school in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Over the course of 10 weeks, the teachers participated in five 30-minute long training sessions that were delivered via direct instruction, whole group discussion, and small group discussion. They completed a pre-test and post-test around the first direct instruction training session to determine if their understanding of emotional labor increased after the training. As the training program continued over the course of four more sessions, the participants completed journal entries, which were analyzed to determine how the teachers were recognizing and understanding emotional labor in their practice. The analysis of the journal entries and post-test results serve to extend the field of emotional labor research, because it established that this group of teachers increased their understanding of emotional labor and applied their new learning to their practice. The findings from this study may also be interpreted as a call to action for further research, because the participants requested additional training during which they could talk with colleagues about how to manage the stress they feel related to emotional labor.</p><p>

<p>The purpose of this study was to examine teachers? perceptions of the use of AVID in the math classroom in regards to future implementation of AVID in mathematics. To fully examine these perceptions, teachers identified the perceived benefits and drawbacks of AVID as well as the AVID WICOR strategies. This was done in two phases. The first phase was a survey that gathered basic demographic information as well as information that pertained to their initial thoughts on the use of the AVID WICOR strategies. From the survey data, five participants were chosen to be interviewed in phase two of the study to explore their perceptions further. The results from this phase were analyzed and coded to help further identify commonalities amongst interviewees. The data showed that all of the AVID WICOR strategies aligned with effective math teaching practices and offered benefits to students and student achievement if implemented.