The purpose of the study was to examine the pilot year of the TOTES (Take Out Teaching Experiences for Students) Program to determine if student performance had improved as evidenced by a decrease of retention rate from the previous year, to ascertain whether parent involvement had occurred, and to identify areas for program improvement. The program was critiqued through current research and theory, interviews and observations, and through monitoring factors related to student achievement and parent involvement activities. / The research design was the embedded single case study. Decision Oriented Educational Research was the quantitative procedure used. Techniques were employed to help insure researcher impartiality and credibility of findings. / It was found that children whose parents were involved in TOTES were more successful academically and attendance was higher than students from the previous year. Both findings corresponded with current literature. Data concerning conduct and identification of special needs of children were slightly different from anticipated. Parents were active participants in the educational process and modeled the importance of education for children. Parents perceived educators as caring, knowledgeable teachers. Some components of the program facilitated parental involvement and were slated to be continued. Others were modified slightly or eliminated. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-11, Section: A, page: 4226. / Major Professor: Hollie Thomas. / Thesis (Ed.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

The implication of situated cognition theory is that learning can be promoted by providing meaningful contexts and relating instruction to real-life experience. Although there have been many discussions about the effect of situated learning, there have been few empirical studies to demonstrate how situations promote learning. The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of contextualization and complexity of situation on achievement, transfer, and attitude toward mathematical problem-solving. / A total of 101 fifth grade students from an elementary school participated in the study. Due to incomplete data, 46 students were included in the final analysis. Students were randomly assigned to four treatment groups: simple/contextualized problems, complex/contextualized problems, simple/decontextualized problems, and complex/decontextualized problems. Students studied self-directed lesson materials during two class periods. After the lesson, students were given an attitude questionnaire, a posttest which included four types of questions (context-rich/one-step, context-rich/multi-step, context-poor/one-step, and context-poor/multi-step), and a performance test. / The results revealed a significant overall interaction related to differences in subscales, F(4, 29) = 3.533, p $<$.05. In general, students who studied complex, contextualized problems performed the best and students who studied complex, decontextualized problems performed the worst. An interaction was also found between complexity of treatment and complexity of questions. Students who studied complex problems solved roughly the same number of multi-step questions as those who studied simple problems, while students who studied simple problems in the lesson solved more one-step questions than those who studied complex problems. Also, students who studied simple problems in decontextualized situations performed best on one-step questions (both context-rich and context-poor), while students who studied complex problems in contextualized situations performed best on multi-step questions (both context-rich and context-poor). / For the attitude questions, students who studied simple problems in decontextualized situations reported the most positive attitudes, and students who studied complex problems in decontextualized situations reported the most negative attitudes, toward the lesson. Also, students who studied simple problems perceived the lesson as easier and math as more relevant to their experiences than students who studied complex problems. / For the performance assessment, no significant effects were found. However the relationship between contextualization of treatment and complexity of treatment revealed the similar pattern as the posttest and attitude results. While students who studied complex, contextualized problems performed the best, students who studied simple and decontextualized problems performed the worst. / Generally, these results supported situated learning theory. Students who studied complex, contextualized problems performed the best--especially on context-rich, multi-step questions and the performance assessment. This result indicates that situated instruction can promote learning and the transfer of knowledge by providing meaningful and complex problems rather than highly decontextualized, simplified problems which are often used in formal educational settings. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 56-10, Section: A, page: 3884. / Major Professor: Michael Hannafin. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1995.

<p> The purpose of this study was to contribute to the understanding of teacher retention by researching factors that influence veteran teachers to remain in Missouri&rsquo;s K-8 school districts. School districts all across the nation face the daunting task of improving student achievement in the face of teacher shortages, especially in rural areas and in hard-to-staff content fields such as math and science (Carver-Thomas &amp; Darling-Hammond, 2017; Harrington, 2017). Utilizing a mixed-methods approach, the researcher sought to articulate the core perceptions of superintendents and veteran teachers that lead to longevity and retention in the K-8 school environment and to identify the factors that influence retention of teachers in Missouri K-8 districts. Research participants included Missouri K-8 superintendents and veteran teachers. Through interviews and surveys, perceptions regarding factors that influence teacher retention in K-8 districts were identified and analyzed for statistical differences. Interviews were conducted, responses summarized and categorized using open and axial coding, and similarities and commonalities identified. Survey data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics to provide summaries to test the null hypothesis and report comparative data. The survey data analysis included use of the Mann-Whitney U test to determine whether two uncorrelated groups differed significantly. Survey data findings indicated no significant differences between K-8 superintendent and veteran teacher perceptions regarding retention factors. Interview and survey data conclusions revealed common retention factors such as culture/climate; administrative and community support and recognition; salary; working conditions (small class sizes/autonomy); and making a difference, or the work itself. </p><p>

<p> This study investigated the perceptions of teachers of grades three, four, and five regarding differentiated instruction in conjunction with Standards-Based Report Card as aligned to the Common Core State Standards. The purpose of this study was specifically seeking teacher perceptions on how these phenomenon interact, as well as teacher to parent communication, student awareness of standards, and reassessment practices. </p><p> The sample (n = 140) consisted of regular education teachers, grades three, four, and five from districts in both Illinois and Missouri. These districts used a Standards-Based Report Card at one or more of these intermediate grade levels. The participants completed a survey designed to determine teacher perceptions of the effect of differentiated instruction on the Standards-Based Report Card in conjunction with the Common Core State Standards. This survey was developed to answer the six research questions. </p><p> The researcher analyzed the data descriptively and inferentially. The researcher concluded that districts need more training and need to promote teacher buy-in. The descriptive results demonstrated teacher perceptions about communication, student awareness, and reassessment. Overall, teachers do not perceive that they are communicating more due to the Standards-Based Report Card. Teachers tend to agree that students are aware of their progress as a result of the Standards-Based Report Card and that they are reassessing in math and ELA. The researcher concluded the study by suggesting recommendations for further research in the area of Standards-Based Report Cards at the intermediate level.</p><p>

To develop a scientifically literate populace, students must acquire the motivation and foundational skills for success in science beginning at an early age. Unfortunately, science instruction is often marginalized in elementary schools for reasons including teachers' lack of confidence in teaching science and an overemphasis on literacy and mathematics. This study employed a case study design to examine the impact of teachers' dilemmas, career stage, coaching, and other forms of support on elementary teachers' abilities to teach science more often and in more reform-based ways. The conceptual lenses used to guide this dissertation include the theory related to teacher change, dilemmas, reform-oriented science teaching, and the professional learning continuum. Findings suggest that teachers' dilemmas must be addressed in order for them to move toward more reform-based science teaching practices. It was found that how teachers reconcile their dilemmas is due in part to their career stage, level of readiness, and access to a more knowledgeable other who can assist them in learning and enacting reform-based instruction. Moreover, the likelihood and extent of teacher change appears to be related to teachers recognizing a need to change their practice, developing the capacity to change, feeling accountable to change, and possessing the motivation to change. Implications for teacher educators, professional development providers, and curriculum developers are presented. It is argued that teachers require support the length of their career and, to be effective, this support must be personalized to their diverse and changing needs and responsive to the context in which they teach.

Responding to current concerns about the quality of public education, in this dissertation I look at teacher development. Specifically, I take up the question: how do we promote teacher flourishing? Though the "we" refers to anyone with a vested interest in education, my primary audience is teachers, administrators, and teacher educators. From this lens I investigate questions of how the teaching life can connect the teacher to the good life. I address this from two perspectives. More broadly, I ask: How can we support the teacher in a manner that contributes to his or her achievement of the good life? Focusing on more specific practices: How can we support the teacher to achieve success in the role of teacher? I assert that teaching is complex work that requires a professional who knows the content taught, has a deep understanding of individual students, and utilizes a host of methods for conveying information and creating community within a classroom. I will argue that the successful teacher depends on what has been defined as practical wisdom--knowing what knowledge to apply to a given situation and how best to apply it. Having argued the relevance of practical wisdom in teaching, the remaining chapters will look more closely at how those concerned with teacher education might help teachers develop it. Specifically, I will first explore: * How can practical wisdom be cultivated in teachers? (Chapter 2) * How does narrative promote practical wisdom? (Chapter 3) * How do narratives about teaching referred to as Reflective Teacher Narratives in particular promote practical wisdom? (Chapter 4) Reflective Teacher Narratives are first person narratives written by teachers about their classrooms. The texts focus on individual students, follow a plot, and highlight the teacher's strengths and areas of difficulty. Ultimately, I will conclude that reading Reflective Teacher Narratives support teacher flourishing by providing a means of looking closely at both teachers' practices and thinking. Reflective Teacher Narratives also provide the scaffolding for a means of talking with teachers that supports development and affirms the teacher.

The purpose of this study was to confirm and extend previous findings on the direct instruction of expository text structure using social studies content for second-grade students. A total of 16 classrooms (N = 258) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: Text Structure (TS) Program, Content-Only (CO) Program, or No Treatment (Control) group. The TS Program consisted of five units, with each unit focusing on one text structure (sequence, compare-contrast, cause-effect, description, and problem-solution) and on one historical community (Native Americans, Colonists, Pioneers, Immigrants, modern urban residents). Students in TS learned strategies for reading and closely analyzing well-structured text: clue words, strategy questions, and graphic organizers. Other activities included trade book reading and summary writing. Students in the CO Program studied the same five historical communities, read the same trade books, closely read the same well-structured texts, and also wrote summaries, but did not explicitly learn about the text structure or its related strategies. Results from two-level hierarchical linear modeling analyses indicated that students in TS significantly outperformed the other two groups in Comprehension Written Summary measures (main idea, structure statements) in both the end-of-unit tests given immediately after each unit and in the posttest given at the very end of the year-long program. Students in TS also significantly outperformed the other two groups in some Comprehension Transfer measures (sentence completion, main idea questions and paragraph structure identification questions). Students in TS also showed some transfer to comprehending authentic text. TS outperformed the control group in structure-related comprehension questions, but did not outperform the CO group, although the overall pattern of results across the three conditions was the same as that of the other measures. Additional analyses showed some potential benefits of the program for students with initially low reading comprehension skills. Results also suggest that text structure lessons can be simultaneously taught within social studies without reducing acquisition of content knowledge, since there were no significant differences between TS and CO on content outcome measures, and both groups outperformed the control group.

<p> In an age of <i>adultism</i> in which children have been perceived as mere drains on society, schooling often has been viewed as a means to an end. Due to the fact that a capitalistic society requires future workers, children have been socialized in the necessary skills and knowledge required to fulfill their future job requirements. Consequently, schooling often has taken place in the form of the banking model in which students are treated as empty vessels to be filled up by the knowledgeable teachers, and then to regurgitate said knowledge on assessments to prove their understanding. I challenge this antiquated vision of education, especially in relation to what it has meant for young children in preschool through first grade. </p><p> Using critical pedagogy and the Reggio Emilia approach as theoretical frameworks, I conducted a critical narrative study of eight early educators who have had experience working with students in early grades in emancipatory ways. I found that educators&rsquo; own experiences and consciousness greatly affected their beliefs about young children as well as the <i>liberatory </i> practices they engaged. I present a proposal for a shift in thinking about the education of young children, a relational model of education that highlights the intersections of critical pedagogy and the Reggio Emilia approach in grounding the work of teaching in armed love, belief in the capabilities of children, and opportunities for students to work with educators as revolutionary partners and transformative change agents who have an active role in their education and their world.</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>

This study examines teachers’ beliefs in the nature and malleability of intelligence, how these beliefs may vary in different academic domains, and whether those beliefs have any significant relationships with teachers’ self-efficacy beliefs, epistemological beliefs, and proposed interventions for struggling students. Findings showed that teachers exhibited a more fixed view of the nature of intelligence when survey items were framed in terms of math, not language arts or domain-general items. There was also evidence suggesting that teachers’ beliefs in the fixed entity nature of intelligence are significantly correlated with holding a traditional unidimensional conception of intelligence. However, little evidence was found indicating a relationship between teachers’ various beliefs and their proposed strategies for struggling students. The results have implications for research on lay conceptions of intelligence, and for teacher education curricula.