<p> This study was conducted in order to understand the types of music technologies band educators in the state of Arkansas were using, their attitudes towards technology, and the implications training, during undergraduate and through professional development, had on the frequency of use. Arkansas Music Educators (n = 64) completed an online questionnaire containing demographic information, selection of music technologies, agreeability/disagreeability to statements about music technology, frequency of use, descriptions of technologies, and description of how they felt music technology should be used for the purpose of learning. Regarding training in undergraduate professional development for music technology use, there appeared to be no difference between the increase of music technology usage and the increase of more training. Results suggest that participants have an overall &ldquo;good&rdquo; attitude towards technology with the stipulation that it should be considered a tool, students and teachers receive appropriate training, and it should be used efficiently.</p><p>

<p> Elementary mathematics teachers in Maryland are required to teach according to the Maryland College and Career-Ready Standards (MCCRS). Implementation of these standards requires teachers to understand and implement instructional shifts that are unlike the way most of them were taught mathematics in elementary school. Consequently, educator preparation programs in Maryland must ensure candidates are adequately prepared to teach elementary mathematics according to the Maryland standards and the necessary instructional shifts. </p><p> This study describes the preparedness of teacher candidates and first-year teachers from Maryland educator preparation programs to teach according to the elementary mathematics MCCRS. Preparedness is described from the perspective of mentor teachers who work with interns and mathematics instructional leaders (MILs) who work with first year teachers from Maryland preparation programs. The descriptions of the preparedness of these interns and first-year teachers provide multiple perspectives on both the strengths and needs of preservice teachers and recent graduates. </p><p> Mentors from five different school systems in Maryland and MILs from four school systems in Maryland completed a survey with both quantitative and qualitative questions. Nineteen mentors and 22 MILs participated in the survey. Ten of the participants volunteered for and participated in a follow-up interview. The participants reported on the interns or first-year teachers they worked with during the 2016&ndash;2017 school year. </p><p> Mentors and MILs described the teachers they work with as having strengths in implementing technology into instruction and described the teachers as willing to use manipulatives during instruction. Additionally, they perceived educator preparation programs as being well-aligned to their school system goals and priorities. Participants described needs of the teachers they work with, including the following: understanding the standards, understanding mathematics on a conceptual level, differentiating instruction, promoting mathematical discourse, and problem solving into instruction. These recommendations provide a basis for educator preparation programs when examining the preparedness of their candidates and graduates to teach according to the MCCRS for elementary mathematics.</p><p>

<p> This monograph presents the perceptions of Writing Center assistance that three groups at community colleges have: composition students, Writing Center tutors, and English instructors. While the three groups have been highlighted often separately in many studies, this study adds to those that compare how the three groups respond to the same issues about writing and Writing Center assistance. The study examines three questions: (1) What are the writing challenges that English instructors, center tutors, and students served in Writing Centers identify and expect the Writing Center to assist students with? (2) How do Writing Center models (mandatory or voluntary) provide or deliver the assistance that is needed? (3) What are the perceptions of the three groups of the efficacy of Writing Center assistance? </p><p> Four community colleges in southern California participated in the study and the three groups included individuals from developmental, college-transfer, and advanced levels. Matching surveys with the same question sequence were used to gather the responses of the three groups, and comparisons of their responses in the form of frequency counts, means, and standard deviation were made. Results reveal: (1) The three groups have differing priorities of what is important in writing. (2) The three groups have differing perceptions of what Writing Center assistance is focused upon. (3) The three groups have a few overlapping recommendations about improvements that Writing Centers might implement. </p><p> The majority of the differing priorities in writing involve the writing process and mechanical/proofreading issues vs. analytical approaches. While tutors and instructors agree on a few writing features, students exhibit wide discrepancy in their priorities. The differences in perceptions of Writing Center assistance also reveal wide discrepancies in what students express that they need help with, what they actually take to the Writing Center, and what they believe they received help with. Instructors and tutors also have differing perceptions of what the Writing Center assists students with, or should assist students with. Survey results also suggest a slight preference for Writing Center assistance being mandatory (requiring attendance) as opposed to being voluntary (not requiring attendance), and the participants recommend that Writing Centers have more tutors, expanded hours, and an interesting suggestion of &ldquo;other&rdquo; for flexibility in how Writing Centers can assist students. The implications for that recommendation for flexibility indicate that additional studies of Writing Centers can yield valuable insights for the ongoing development of Writing Centers.</p>

<p> Teachers need training to integrate technology into classroom curriculum, activities, and pedagogy. The adoption of the Common Core State Standards and statewide computer based assessments, coupled with technology&rsquo;s rapid rate of innovation and change, has only increased the need to help support teachers&rsquo; development of these necessary skills. The purpose of this project was to create an online-based e-learning professional development training module for teachers to develop their technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK) and skills. The design of the training module incorporated e-learning design principles, adult learning principles, and current research on developing teachers&rsquo; TPACK. To provide feedback on the design, teachers from two middle schools in Southern California were invited to use the training module, and were surveyed regarding their experiences. Results of the survey indicate participants gained knowledge and skills for using their school computer lab, integrating technology into their classroom instruction, and overall, were pleased with the e-learning training module.</p>

<p> Teacher education researchers have argued that teacher candidates must learn to attend to students&rsquo; disciplinary thinking if they are to improve student learning. In history education, such attention must focus on student thinking about evidence because interpretation of evidence is at the heart of historical discourse. This study explores how four teacher candidates who had learned to attend to students&rsquo; historical thinking in a social studies methods course engaged in the practice of eliciting, interpreting, and responding to that thinking during their internships.</p><p> Data collected over a nine-month period included observations of candidates in their methods courses, a pretest administered before the methods course, observation of at least four lessons per candidate in the internship, interviews with teachers after each observed lesson, and analysis of methods coursework. Case study analyses indicated that two of the candidates elicited, interpreted and responded to students&rsquo; historical thinking while another did not, and a fourth did so only under certain conditions. The cross-case analysis showed that although all of the candidates used methods course tools in the internship, some were unable to use these tools to elicit students&rsquo; historical thinking.</p><p> While three of the four candidates noticed historical thinking and considered that thinking in determining an instructional response, what candidates noticed was limited to the scope of their instructional objectives. Only one candidate consistently responded to student thinking in evaluative ways, and all four struggled to deliver responses that maintained a focus on student reasoning. Instead, candidates preferred to demonstrate their own reasoning, either by building on a student idea or simply as a means to make a point not directly related to a student idea.</p><p> This study highlights the interconnected nature of eliciting, interpreting, and responding to student thinking and offers insight into how teacher educators can facilitate attention to student historical thinking. It also points to factors that are important for the development of this ability including candidate disciplinary knowledge and the social contexts of learning. Furthermore, this study provides a framework and analytical tools that can enable future researchers to examine this phenomenon more deeply.</p>

<p> Due to narrowly defined quality measures, teacher preparation in Montessori, Waldorf, Reggio and LifeWays pedagogies is not recognized in many state ECE professional development systems. The problem is compounded by Quality Rating and Improvement System&rsquo;s child care program ratings, which rely on teacher qualifications as a component of program ratings. Limitations, due to philosophical dissimilarities pertaining to the spirit of the child, ill-fitting measurements of quality, and policy exclusion make it difficult for alternative pedagogy communities to meet qualifications or to obtain scores that count. This is exacerbated by narrow definitions regarding national versus regional accreditation in teacher preparation programs. U</p><p> sing a transformative, mixed-methods approach, this study asks, &ldquo;What is the role and relevance of alternative pedagogy teacher preparation to the professional development system, and where does it fit in the current policy landscape nationwide?&rdquo; As a follow up question, the study seeks to answer, &ldquo;What is the process for change?&rdquo; Through the use of surveys, interviews, and a cultural context model, a way forward is mapped. </p><p> Registry policy makers in 28 states and 46 teacher preparation directors, across three types of alternative-pedagogy teacher preparation programs, assisted in data collection, resulting in a recognition baseline. Public sources were used to triangulate a composite snapshot of this national policy situation, demonstrating appropriate policy inclusion in six out of 17 states&rsquo; career pathways and/or data collection in ECE workforce registries. Cumulative data revealed alternative pedagogy teacher recognition levels across the country and revealed how relevant policies evolved to become system inclusive. The study concludes by inviting community representatives to respond and to share their experiences and thoughts. Actionable study outcomes, community-developed recommendations, and an advocacy map were circulated in three of four alternative pedagogy communities. </p><p> Using a cultural equity paradigm, the study elucidates power relationships between alternative pedagogy teacher preparation and national/state efforts towards ECE professional development and quality improvement policy systems, illuminating where federal and state policy/initiatives are shaping, responding to, and limiting the alternative-pedagogy teacher preparation pipeline in the United States. Recommended courses of action encourage policy collaboration and a cultural shift from policy power over, to power with policy.</p>

<p> In order to effectively teach students how to critically consume media it is paramount for teachers to be media literate (Ian &amp; Temur, 2012; Keller-Raber, 1995; Schmidt, 2012). Using Freirean critical literacy as a theoretical framework, this case study investigated how a 60-hour teacher training program in media literacy promoting Catholic Social Teaching and how undergoing this training has influenced teachers&rsquo; perceptions of media literacy, Catholic Social Teaching, and the link between the two. As the researcher, I performed participant-observation as a trainee in the program. Five teachers, alumni of the program, participated in this study: one middle school teacher, three high-school teachers, and one college professor, all of them taught at Christian private schools. I recorded how participants applied the Media Mindfulness&mdash;a faith based media literacy strategy&mdash;in their practice as a response to the Church&rsquo;s call for Catholic teachers to engage in media education (Benedict XVI, 2008; John Paul II, 1987, 1990, 1992, 2005). Findings show how the Media Mindfulness method helped teachers integrate media literacy in their practice, promoting student empowerment and character education. A follow up action research at a Catholic high school where teachers are trained in Media Mindfulness is recommended to find out: a) how the training influenced teachers&rsquo; confidence in integrating media education into their practice? b) to what extent students&rsquo; assimilation of Catholic Social Teaching concepts resulted from the teacher training program? c) and how training teachers in the media mindfulness model influenced the school&rsquo;s culture in addressing social justice issues? </p>

<p> Preschool teachers must overcome the pressure to become more academic in lieu of a whole child development curriculum approach in order to preserve developmentally appropriate practices and shape well-adjusted future citizens of society. In order to achieve this, it is important to give a voice to preschool teachers to better understand their struggle and to find effective resolutions. This is only possible through a qualitative case study that employs observations, interviews, and a focus group with an inductive analysis approach to the data. The development of the whole child will only be attainable through national policies that are supported by sound research and ongoing teacher training that is aligned with that research. When theory and practice are aligned, it provides more opportunities for teachers, parents, and the rest of the community to advocate for the same goals, which ultimately benefits children.</p>

<p>The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore how educators describe their lived experiences with regard to addressing social skills challenges for children with ASD and what meaning can be derived from the experiences of those educators. Digitally recorded semistructured interviews were conducted with twelve educators working in school settings in Southern California. The participants held a variety of titles and all participants had at least six years of experience teaching social skills to children with ASD. Findings from this study resulted in five major thematic groups: (a) defining social skills; (b) how social skills are assessed; (c) program characteristics; (d) instructional and standardization challenges; and (e) critical factors. Study findings primarily indicated a need for a more structured approach to research due to the diversity within the ASD diagnosis and the complexity and broad nature of social skills. Two major recommendations for future research evolved from this study. First, future research should systematically explore the varying characteristics within the ASD population and how intervention strategies or intervention types impact the subpopulations within the ASD diagnosis. Finally, research should explore social motivation as a possible pivotal characteristic for successful social skills development and whether it is possible to cultivate motivation. </p>

<p> This qualitative single case study explored how general education middle school teachers implement the three tiers of the Multi-Tiered Response to Intervention (MTSS/RTI) model while delivering differentiated core curriculum instruction. The conceptual framework included the differentiated strategies of Fleming and Mills&rsquo; (1992) Visual, Aural, Read/Write, Kinesthetic (VARK) model; Vygotsky&rsquo;s (1978) concept of Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD); and Wood, Bruner, and Ross&rsquo; (1976) concept of scaffolding. The sample group consisted of 11 general education middle school teachers in a single Central Florida school district. The data sources included an online questionnaire, interviews, and one focus group session. The macro-level research question that guided this study was: &ldquo;How do general education middle school teachers implement tier one, tier two, and tier three of the MTSS/RTI model while delivering differentiated core curriculum instruction?&rdquo; The analyzed data produced four themes: (1) tiered intervention strategies, (2) tiered progress monitoring measurements and frequency, (3) tiered documentation of responsiveness to interventions, and (4) tiered delivery of differentiated core curriculum instruction. The findings provide insightful perspective to general education middle school teachers, leading to an increase in the successful implementation of the three tiers of the MTSS/RTI model. </p><p> <i>Keywords:</i> Multi-Tiered Response to Intervention (MTSS/RTI) model and differentiated core curriculum instruction</p><p>